Dogwoof presents Manakamana on DVD and VOD 9 February 2015

"One of 2014's best films...how easy and instantly enriching the film is" ★★★★★

Little White Lies

MANAKAMANA

On DVD and VOD 9 February 2015

"You could hardly ask for a more beautiful vision of souls in transit" ★★★★★

Time Out

"The must-see cinematic experience of the year" ★★★★★

Indiewire

Lauded by critics as film of the year, Manakamana is a stunningly original and breathtaking cinematic experience. The film follows pilgrims as they make an ancient journey by cable car to worship high above a jungle in Nepal and makes its home entertainment debut on DVD and VOD courtesy of Dogwoof on 9 February 2015.

The Hindu Manakamana Temple is almost a mile above sea level, instead of a lengthy journey on foot, worshippers can now take a 10-minute cable car journey up in to the mountains to pray at this sacred place. Using a 16mm camera co-directors Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez  join a varied mix of subjects on their pilgrimage.

The scenery is mesmerising, as are the characters - a diverse mix of commuters - from a group of old women discussing how much things have changed, a group of young men taking selfies, an elderly man and his grandson, a mother and daughter eating ice-creams, a married couple and their chicken and a herd of goats. Every shot follows a different set of passengers as we learn about them and their lives.

http://dogwoof.com/

In Order Of Disappearance - 2nd February Home Entertainment Release

IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE

“A Norwegian TAKEN”

SHORTLIST

‘A Spurting bloodfest of dark humour’

Kate Muir, THE TIMES

‘’a blackly hilarious rampage of revenge’

INDIE WIRE

A hugely enjoyable, gruesome, ingenious, brilliantly-cast, pitch-black comedy set against the hugely cinematic white landscape of a rural Norwegian winter. Like Death Wish set in Fargo, but funnier … and bloodier!

THE LIST

A FILM BY HANS PETTER MOLAND (A SOMEWHAT GENTLE MAN)

STARRING STELLAN SKARSGARD (NYMPHOMANIAC, THE AVENGERS), BRUNO GANZ (DOWNFALL), KRISTOFFER HIVJU (GAME OF THRONES) & BIRGITTE HJORT SORENSEN (BORGEN)

Introverted and hard-working snow plow driver Nils (Stellan Skarsgard) has just been named citizen of the year, when he receives news that his son has died of a heroin overdose.

Disbelieving the official report, Nils soon uncovers evidence of the young man’s murder—a victim in a turf war between the local crime boss, known as “The Count,” and his Serbian rivals.  Armed with heavy machinery and a good dose of beginner’s luck, Nils embarks upon a quest for revenge that soon escalates into a full-blown underworld gang war, with the body count spiraling ever higher and higher.

Release date 2nd February 2015

Certificate TBC & Running time 115 Minutes

DVD RRP / £14.99

ZOMBIE 4 -AFTER DEATH - REVIEWED

A woman goes back to the island where her parents were killed. They had been working on a cure for cancer and accidentally raised the dead by angering a voodoo priest. With the woman is a group of mercenaries and they meet up with some other researchers. They raise the dead again and all hell breaks loose.

Director: Claudio Fragasso (as Clyde Anderson)
Writers: Rossella Drudi (screenplay), Rossella Drudi (story)
Stars: Jeff Stryker, Candice Daly, Massimo Vanni

You know what it's like when you randomly buy a film and it sits on your shelf for well over a year then one day you notice it and think to yourself I'll watch that,That was the case with me and Zombie 4:After Death. So i stuck it on not knowing anything about it apart from the fact that it was one of those cheap and cheesy 80's Zombie movies.I knew it wouldn't be a masterpiece but bloody Nora!
Film opens up with the usual scenario of people on a remote island on the hunt for the voodoo witch doctor.They eventually find him after we see him condemning his wife to hell to return to kill the living.She dances around like Flowella Benjamin on acid followed by her spitting out mouthfuls of green Tiswas style muck before being sucked in to hell just as the search party arrives.There is a stand off where the witch doctor blames them for causing his daughter to die and them explain they were only there to cure cancer,They don't believe him,He don't believe them so they shoot him.Up from the bowels of hell pops up Flowella now looking like a cheap version of a demon from Demons,Starts again spewing green gunk and proceeds to rip off faces,Pull out eyeballs and all round random flesh tearing until they are all dead.Nice!

We then see a couple and small child trying to escape the undead on foot running through endless forest.Zombies appear from the woods killing the father just leaving the mother and young daughter to fend for themselves.The mother makes the decision to give her daughter a necklace and tells her to run as fast as she can leaving the mother to seal her fate at the rotting teeth of hoodie type zombies.Flash forward to 20 years where the girl and some friends have hitched a ride on a speedboat with some mercenaries that just happen to be passing the remote island where then run out of petrol and have to go ashore.I know its sounds ludicrous and it is!
The film goes along at a decent pace with terrible dubbing, lots of gore and a synth filled 80's soundtrack. It basically ends up Night of the living dead style where the are trapped in a house.The zombies are odd to day the least,All seemed to have been to the same back hoodie shop,All spew green gunk endlessly and there is even a Mr vampire style way of stopping them in their tracks by lighting a circle of candles for Satan and placing the girls necklace in the centre.Non of it sounds like it makes much sense and it didn't!Cant really say if i loved it or hated it,All i can say it was definitely worth a one time watch but not sure I'd ever return to it!
Jonny T.

Here is the trailer, You have been warned!

The Cat (2011) - Reviewed.

So-yeun gets stuck with a Persian cat when its owner dies. From then on, she is haunted by a girl with green cat-like eyes.

Director: Seung-wook Byeon
Writer: Seung-wook Byeon
Stars: Min-Young Park, Dong-wook Kim, Ye-ron Kim


The cat from 2011 is a film I have been trying get for a while now and it finally turned up as an Xmas present for Emma,How did that happen??
It tells the story of a lonely Japanese lady that takes in a cat and weird things start happening.The 1st of these happens when the cat disappears under the bed then when she finally retrieves it she notices in the dark behind the cat a pair of green eyes staring back at her,Another cat?Nope its your usual J-horror creepy kid!A small girl that looks like she's slowly decomposing and it's a great look.The basic premise of the story is that through her cat and other cats it seems that she is trying to be told something by them and the dead girl.It's pretty much your standard J-horror/Mystery film but with some great scares and unexpected twists.One thing as well,The ending is very grim and sad to say the very least!
Well worth checking out.Short,Scary and a great story.
7.5/10

GREATFUL DEAD on DVD/BLU-RAY January 26th

Is pleased to announce the DVD & BLU-RAY release of

GREATFUL DEAD

A film by Eiji Uchida (Dead Banging, The Last Days of the World)

Happy New Year folks!

And what better way to start the year than news of a slice of insanity from Japan!

Greatful Dead is coming to DVD/BLU-RAY on January 26th and it looks insane.I can't really say what it's about I think I'll just let the synopsis below do that! 

Third Window films released some great titles last year one of my personal favourites was Takashi Miike's Lesson Of Evil and it certainly looks like they are starting the year with more great titles, I've put all the details below and watch his space for a review coming very soon,

Jonny T.

http://thirdwindowfilms.com/

Synopsis 

Nami (Kumi Takiuchi) is a young woman with numerous hangups sprouting from a dysfunctional childhood. She inherits a small fortune that allows her to pursue various interests, many of which are highly abnormal. For example, Nami loves to spy on people who, not unlike herself, have gone crazy from loneliness. She calls these people "solitarians.” Perhaps due to a father fixation, her favourite spying targets are old men with stiff boners. One fateful day, Nami spies on an elderly gentleman (Takashi Sasano) watching porn DVDs at home. She soon transitions from a peeping tom into a full-fledged stalker.

Director, Eiji Uchida Biography

Eiji Uchida was born in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil which has continued to be an influence even after going back to Japan. In his twenties he worked as a journalist for Playboy magazine. After leaving that job he started working as a scriptwriter.

Statement

There are many works dealing with religion. The idea to start creating "GREATFUL DEAD" was difficult as movies with the theme of a religion are unpopular in Japan. However, Takashi Sasano, who is a very famous actor representing Japan in many internationally acclaimed films such as ‘Departures’ was happy with the script and chose to be in the film which allowed the film to progress to what it is today.

[Selected Filmography]

■2004 GACHAPON

■2005 SHIAWASE NARA TE WO TATAKOU

■2008 TOPLESS

■2008 SISTERHOOD

■2011 BLACK ANGELS

■2011 THE LAST DAYS OF THE WORLD

■2013 DEAD BANGING

  

Staff

Director - Eiji Uchida

Screenwriter - Etsuro Hiratani, Eiji Uchida

DoP - Shinya Kimura

Lighting - Koji Tanimoto

Sound - Tetsuya Kaida

Sound Effects - Mizuki Ito

Editor - Eiji Uchida

Assistant Director - Kentaro Shimazaki

Producer - Tomoharu Kusunoki, Houka Kinoshita

Production Company - Ark Entertainment

The Hobbit:The Battle of the five armies - Reviewed.

So finally the final Hobbit film from the Hobbit book prequels to lord of the rings type things, Well it was said with the announcement  of the first Hobbit movie how will they stretch such a short book out into three movies? And unfortunately this movie proved that The Hobbit : The battle of the five armies was a Hobbit movie too far, In my opinion.Frustrating is a word I would use at the end of last film when you finally got to see Smaug awaken and fly full in fiery effect towards the town to destroy it and all who lived there only after 2hrs 45min and that climax building it finished! 

So having to wait a whole year was a little bit of a piss take but was it worth it?

Well for me it really wasn't, Probably the best part of the film for me comes within the 1st 15 minutes with Smaug attacking the town, but of course he gets defeated and all is supposedly return to normal or is it? No, Greedy Dwarves that's the problem, Mostly Thorin the Dwarf king who with Smaug out of the way wants to take back the mountain of gold (or whatever it's called) Get the heart of the mountain back that is a jewel that lays somewhere amongst the treasure and place it back above the throne and he will rule all kingdoms and be rich you know how it goes. But he like his father is blinded by greed and wants everything and not to share one coin with anyone else, So obviously after all fighting together to defeat Smaug this pisses of the Elves and all others, We also have approaching a massive army of Orcs who don't get on with anyone so when the arrive there will definately be no sharing! 

The whole of the 1st half of the film builds up to the huge battle between all the five armies as well as little nod's to The Lord Of The Rings Films with a great scene with Christopher Lee and Cate Blanchet helping Gandalf and setting up the 1st of those movies, But although it was a great scene it happens way too much for my liking, although on one hand yes of course it needs to be in there but on the other hand it kind of left me feeling a bit flat because by this stage you obviously know what will ultimately happen, Bilbo the main Hobbit is in many life threatening situations but you know he isn't going to die, Gandalf seems to play second fiddle to whatever is happening and unfortunately for me it just didn't work. I think in any franchise although there are not that many with 6 to it's name its difficult to maintain a great standard throughout. Now what I am saying is not that it looks poor, Badly made, Badly directed and badly acted, Not by any means, It looks incredible as all the films do I think the thing for me was that we have seen all the Giants, Orcs, Eagles and pretty much everything else on screen so many times before that for me personally the wow factor had long gone. 

So in summing up it is worth seeing and I did purely go based  on the fact that I had seen all previous 5 films at the cinema so I couldn't not see the final one, For me at least it left a flat feeling to a great franchise.

6/10

Jonny T.

OFFICIAL TRAILER.

Coherence - Theatrical and DVD release, Hell Yeah!

Hello Folks,

Jonny here with some news that I for one was waiting for the release is cinemas and DVD for the brilliant Coherence. I was fortunate enough to catch this at this years MAYHEM festival and believe me it a cracker(no xmas pun intended!) Set on he night of a comet passing closely over earth, A group of friends gather for a dinner party and when he electricity goes out all is not what it seems....

I shan't say much more until I review it but it's a very high recommend from me! All details below and watch this space for a review coming soon.

Jonny T.

“Not only is this unmissable, but you may well want to see it several times” *****

GROLSCH FILM WORKS / 5 STARS

“As debut features go, this is nothing short of tremendous” ****

DAILY RECORD / 4 STARS

“One of the best science fiction movies in years”

MOVIES.COM

“You walk away from it with your head on fire”

NEW YORK MAGAZINE

A FILM BY JAMES WARD BYRKIT

STARRING EMILY FOXLER, NICHOLAS BRENDON, MAURY STERLING, LORENE SCAFARIA

Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.  As unexplained events begin to bend reality in frightening ways, the couples realize that visitors from a strange house down the road may be trying to prevent them from surviving the night.

As the night unfolds, people experience terrifying revelations about themselves, forcing each one to question their own reality. Relationships strain under the pressure and, for at least one woman, the prospect of continuing on in the house becomes even more unbearable than whatever unknown fate lies down the road.

Theatrical Release date / 13th February 2015

DVD Release date / 16th February 2015

Certificate TBC & Running time 89 Minutes

DVD RRP / £14.99