Paul Simon: Live From Philadelphia
EAGLE ROCK Street: Nov. 25 Prebook: now > Paul Simon tracks through 11 hits in a 1980 Philly show. Live From Philadelphia finds singer/songwriter Paul Simon and his band offering a set of 11 songs at Philadelphia’s Tower Theater in 1980. Touring to support the soundtrack of his biographical film One Trick Pony and still more than five years out from his Graceland rebirth, Simon and co...
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White Dog
CRITERION/IMAGE Street: Dec. 2 Prebook: now > Sam Fuller’s 1982 drama gets its first U.S. release. Sam Fuller’s fascinating 1982 film White Dog receives its first official release in the U.S. in this Criterion Collection edition. A Hollywood starlet (Kristy McNichol) takes in a stray German shepherd and soon learns that it has been trained to attack black people.
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Great Directors, Vol. 1
KINO Street: Dec. 9 Prebook: Nov. 11 > Five good films from five great international filmmakers. Kino International boxes five of its finest foreign-language catalog titles for this collection.
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JFK Blu-ray
WARNER Street: Nov. 11 Prebook: now > Oliver Stone’s study of the JFK assassination glows in high-definition. The first and finest selection in Oliver Stone’s Presidential trilogy, JFK debuts on high-definition a week after the country’s national election. Politics aside, JFK is undeniably a great-looking, fine-sounding movie, and this Blu-ray edition does it justice—...
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Two Tigers
LIONSGATE Street: Nov. 25 Prebook: now > Disappointing Asian-styled action flick delivers lovely leading ladies—and not much else. The lives of a high-class call girl from China (Selena Khoo) and a professional killer from Hungary (Andrea Osvárt) intertwine in Shanghai in this surprisingly low-octane thriller.
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Journey to the Center of the Earth Blu-ray
WARNER Street: Oct. 28 Prebook: now > Family adventure offers 3D gimmick. The summer hit comes to Blu-ray in both 2D and 3D versions, along with a bunch of extras. Journey is the first live-action film to be shot in digital 3D, and though the overall results are acceptable, the striking colors and general vibrancy we expect from Blu-ray releases were lacking.
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Quo Vadis
WARNER Street: Nov. 11 Prebook: now > Gorgeous rendering of the original Technicolor biblical epic. The granddaddy of modern-day Hollywood’s big-budget, ultra-lavish biblical epics, 1951’s Quo Vadis finally arrives on DVD looking and sounding unbelievably gorgeous.
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Blu-ray
Paramount Street: Oct. 21 Prebook: now > Fine-looking Blu-ray edition of gothic musical adds a lush audio option. The Broadway musical tale of a 19th century London barber who makes mince meat of his clients (literally!) received a fine cinematic adaptation by director Tim Burton. It pleased critics but didn’t make a substantial a splash at the box office.
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George Carlin: It’s Bad For Ya
MPI Street: Nov. 25 Prebook: Nov. 4 > Legendary late comic’s final HBO stand-up show joins his formidable canon. Comedy legend George Carlin’s 14th and final HBO special from March 2008 makes its DVD debut five months after the comic’s passing.
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The Ultimate Matrix Collection Blu-ray
WARNER Street: Oct. 14 Prebook: now > Like its HD DVD predecessor, this Blu-ray edition of the sci-fi trilogy is simply outstanding. One of the late HD DVD format’s most popular catalog titles, The Ultimate Matrix Collection makes its Blu-ray debut with the same gorgeous clarity, color and sound.
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Room 205
GHOST HOUSE UNDERGROUND/LIONSGATE Street: Oct. 14 Prebook: now > Danish fright flick about a haunted dorm has atmosphere but lacks originality. This 2007 Danish shocker concerns a sweet co-ed (Neel Rønholt) in a Copenhagen dormitory who comes up against a murderous ghost knocking off fellow students.
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Zombie Strippers
SONY Street: Oct. 28 Prebook: now > Above-average cult entry starring former porn queen Jenna Jameson. Retired porn queen Jenna Jameson (retired until her inevitable comeback film, that is) leads the catfight-filled show in this midnight movie-ish tale.
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Hell Ride
DIMENSION EXTREME/GENIUS Street: Oct. 28 Prebook: now > Tougher and more tawdry update of grindhouse biker flicks. Hell Ride is described in its press materials as a “blood-and-sex-soaked motorcycle vengeance flick” … and ain’t that the truth. Concerning bad-ass bikers with names such as Pistolero (Larry Bishop), The Gent (Michael Madsen), Comanche (Eric Balfour) and...
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Legends: Live at Montreux 1997 Blu-ray
EAGLE VISION Street: Sept. 30 Prebook: now > One-night-only quartet led by Eric Clapton delivers a crisp set of jazz, blues and rock. This 1997 concert features a one-night-only live collaboration between guitarist Eric Clapton, drummer Steve Gadd, bassist Marcus Miller, keyboardist Joe Sample and tenor saxman David Sanborn.
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National Lampoon Presents: Robodoc
ARTS ALLIANCE AMERICA Street: Oct. 21 Prebook: Sept. 16 > Weak hospital comedy sports the National Lampoon brand … and not much else. Robodoc is not quite Robocop meets Young Doctors in Love , but the title is cute.
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Scenic National Parks Blu-ray
QUESTAR Street: Sept. 16 Prebook: now > Collection of gorgeous, high-def tableaus and vistas from our nation’s grandest parks. Originally issued in June on standard DVD as part of Treasure of America’s National Parks, this three-disc Blu-ray release surveys national parks and makes for some sweet geographic eye candy.
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Aki Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy
CRITERION/IMAGE Street: Sept. 23 Prebook: now > Trio of inimitably dark comedies from icy Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki. The coolest of recent cinema's deadpan humorists, Finland's Aki Kaurismäki is known for his disarming—and hard-drinking—tragi-comedies about working-class outcasts, such as sanitation men, assembly line jockeys and longshoremen.
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The Earrings of Madame de…
CRITERION/IMAGE Street: Sept. 16 Prebook: now > Max Ophuls’ classic of love, lies and despair. Max Ophuls’ 1953 masterwork follows an aristocratic French woman (Danielle Darrieux) who pawns a pair of earrings, triggering the chain-reaction downfall of her life. A gorgeously photographed and stylized movie, filled with silky-smooth tracking shots, Madame de… has never look...
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The Fall
SONY Street: Sept. 9 Prebook: now > Slow-moving period fantasy that more than delivers with its visual sumptuousness. Filled with colors, images and compositions that are reminiscent of the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Terry Gilliam, Michelangelo Antonioni, David Lean and Guillermo del Toro, The Fall is indeed a breathtakingly beautiful movie.
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Television Under the Swastika
FIRST RUN Available now > Fascinating compilation and analysis of rarely-seen Nazi TV broadcasts. Nazi leaders began the world’s first TV broadcast network, Greater German Television, in March 1935.
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