Hi, Bryan Here….

A tad late bringing this past week’s cool blu-ray picks to you, but it’s here and this coming week’s releases should be on time.    Not a ton of stuff this week, except for tons of double feature re-releases which we won’t mention.  Next week looks amazing though.  Anywho, let’s jump right in and get to all the goodies.  As usual in this article, you will get some info about the disc and the extras that come with the movie as well as a personal opinion about the movie and a link to purchase the film over at AMAZON where you can save quite a bit of money, and it will give a small percentage kick back to this site so we can continue bringing you excellent stories and bizarre tales. So click on the pictures and start saving.

Enjoy and Here We Go!!

ATM (BLURAY)

I have not seen this film yet, but it seems to have a good premise.  I’m sure it will be a lot of fun, but full of cheese.  This might just be a great addition to a midnight movie marathon with beer and friends.  After leaving their company Christmas Party together, David Hargrove and Emily Brandt’s impromptu first date takes an unexpected turn when their coworker, Corey, asks them to make a late-night stop at an ATM. What should be a routine transaction turns into a desperate struggle for survival when an unknown man appears outside the vestibule. With the wintry temperatures dipping below freezing, and the morning sunrise still hours away, they have no choice but to play the man’s deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

BODY AND SOUL (BLURAY)

This riveting 1947 drama, regarded by many as the greatest boxing movie of all time, centers on a former pugilist who looks back on his life in and out of the ring and realizes that self-respect is a more important prize than winning. John Garfield is Charlie Davis, a former boxing champion who began fighting in order to save himself and his mother from poverty after his father was killed in a mob-related bombing. William Conrad plays Quinn, a veteran boxer-turned-trainer who discovers that Davis has the potential to be a professional fighter. Eager to take on all contenders, Davis eventually defeats the world champion, but winning has cost him more than he bargained for. He falls in with the mob and takes to a life of easy women and plentiful booze, winning easy bouts with second-rate opponents. In the end, Davis realizes the error of his ways — but is it too late? With all the odds against him, and knowing that the fight has already been fixed, Davis is forced to make the choice between what’s expected of him and what he expects of himself. The fight sequences were filmed on roller skates with a hand-held camera, adding a realism that strengthens the film’s verisimilitude.  Must own.

THE FACULTY (BLURAY)

This is a re-release by Echo Bridge, but is such a good movie, I had to include it.  Miramax Films darlings Robert Rodriguez and screenwriter Kevin Williamson teamed up for a high-school alien-horror film that they described as The Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Dilapidated Herrington High is the location for a story about a school faculty taken over by outer-space creatures, forcing the students to take charge and kick some alien butt. School faculty members (Robert Patrick, Bebe Neuwirth, Salma Hayek, and Jon Stewart) are infested with rapidly reproducing space worms that take over their minds and bodies. But never fear, because at this school, between hazing the student body and having sex in the locker room, a Scooby-Doo-ish group of high school students is ready to fight back. The up-and-coming acting talent includes R&B singer Usher Raymond, Elijah Wood, Clea DuVall, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Laura Harris, and Jordanna Brewster. The story is nearly irrelevant, as the real stars are the action and lots of special effects.

FIRE WITH FIRE (BLURAY)

Great cast in this film.  A tough, street-smart kid (Craig Sheffer) serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful Catholic girl (Virgina Madsen) studying in a near by convent. The two are immediately drawn to each other and against all odd, a forbidden love blossoms. Eventually their relationship is discovered and with trouble all around them, the young lovers decide to flee. Will they be able to evade the law and other authorities long enough to find happiness? This modern day Romeo and Juliet boast a strong supporting that includes Jean Smart, D.B. Sweeney, Kari Wuhrer, Kate Reid and Jon Polito. Directed by Duncan Gibbins (Eve of Destruction).

FIRST BORN (BLURAY)

Anything with Teri Garr is amazing, plus you get an 80’s Robert Downey Jr. film.  A teenager (Christopher Collet, The Manhattan Project) and his kid brother (Corey Haim, in his film debut) spar with their mother’s shady new boyfriend (Peter Weller, Robocop) in this dramatic thriller from veteran British director Michael Apted (Gorky Park). Teri Garr (Mr. Mom) stars as the young divorced mother, trying to balance her relationship with her kids and her drifter boyfriend. The boys think they see the man for what he is and need to somehow save their mother from his clutches.

FORCE OF EVIL (BLURAY)

A great 1948 film to be added to the HD arena.  This gritty Film Noir is drenched in greed, cynicism and corruption of the soul, as embodied by John Garfield (The Postman Always Rings Twice) in one his most memorable roles. Garfield is perfectly cast as Joe Morse, a lawyer whose connection to a ruthless racketeer has nearly destroyed his sense of morality. His participation in a rigged numbers racket could prove disastrous for his high-strung brother (superbly played by Thomas Gomez), whose small-time policy bank stands to go broke when the rigged numbers pay off. Writer and director Abraham Polonsky (In his directorial debut) was later victimized by the Hollywood blacklist, curtailing a promising career for decades until he directed Robert Redford in 1969’s Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here. The great supporting cast includes Paul Fix, Beatrice Pearson and Noir goddess, Marie Windsor (The Killing).

FOREVER MARILYN: THE BLU-RAY COLLECTION (BLURAY)

In this collection you get seen of the starlet’s films, which include ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,’ ‘How to Marry a Millionaire,’ ‘River of No Return,’ ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business,’ ‘The Seven Year Itch,’ ‘Some Like It Hot,’ and ‘The Misfits.’  This is a must for any fan of Marilyn.

HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS (BLURAY)

Man, was this an awesome mini series.  Stellar cast and it seems like a pretty sizable budget.  The Hatfield-McCoy saga centers on “Devil” Anse Hatfield and Randall McCoy. Close friends and comrades during the Civil War, they returned to their neighboring homes – Hatfield in West Virginia, McCoy just across the Tug River border in Kentucky – to increasing tensions, misunderstandings and resentments that soon exploded into all-out warfare between the families. As hostilities grew, friends, neighbors and outside forces joined the fight, bringing the two states to the brink of another Civil War. I loved this.

EXTRAS

• Featurette
• Music Video
• Trailers

LA GRANDE ILLUSION (BLURAY)

This is not the criterion collection.  I’m not sure when it will be released, if ever, on Criterion, but this is the new print.  This is a must own in any collection.  For its 75th Anniversary, Rialto Pictures presents a stunning 4K restoration of GRAND ILLUSION, Jean Renoir’s powerful and eloquent anti-war film set during World War I. Aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu and his mechanic, Lieutenant Maréchal are shot down by Captain von Rauffenstein, who treats them with customary officers’ hospitality. The two downed pilots are then sent to a German POW camp, where they quickly join a group of prisoners who have concocted an elaborate escape plan. Their plot is foiled, however, as they are transferred to a new camp, the formidable Wintersborn fortress, run by Rauffenstein, who is now grounded due to battle wounds. Rauffenstein, lamenting the end of an aristocratic era, tries to befriend de Boeldieu, but the French captain is already hatching a new escape plan – one in which he puts himself in danger to allow the others to escape. GRAND ILLUSION was the first foreign film to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination.

EXTRAS

• Two all-new critical retrospectives (La Grande Illusion: Success and Controversy by cinema expert and Jean Renoir specialist Olivier Curchod & The original negative of La Grande Illusion by la Cinémathèque de Toulouse’s Natacha Laurent)
• Restoring La Grande Illusion featurette
• La Grande Illusion appreciation by cinema professor and film critic Ginette Vincendeau
• John Truby film presentation
• Trailers from 1937 and 1958 – Presentation of the movie by Jean Renoir