For a movie that would like to think of itself as the future of the action / espionage picture, xXx uses a surprising number of jokes and stunts lifted directly from the Roger Moore Bond era while the actual premise resembles a sex-change for Nikita. Vin Diesel's Xander Cage--an extreme sports daredevil recruited by spymaster Samuel L Jackson for a covert mission in Prague--may be Blofeld-bald, pumped-up with testosterone, tattooed like a graffiti-covered wall and given to driving sports cars off bridges for fun, but he turns out to be a disappointingly square goodie-goodie when the quips and bullets are flying. Even the slinky heroine (Asia Argento), a double agent within a mad ex-Soviet gang called Anarchy 99, laughs at the idea that a walking cue ball with three Xs tattooed on his neck could ever be a secret agent. There's one stunt scene that will be remembered as a classic, as xXx triggers an avalanche and snowboards ahead of the fall. But there's too much of the falling-out-of-planes, straddling-and-defusing-jet-propelled-germ-bombs, blasting-every-baddie-in-the-place business that makes it too familiar. Enough material for several great trailers, but next time they'll need a script. --Kim Newman On the DVD: xXx comes loud and proud to DVD, with Dolby 5.1 sound and the kind of sharp screen transfer you'd expect for a movie of this magnitude. From beautiful scrolling menus based on the tattoo artwork to the brash music, this disc epitomises everything an extreme sports release should be: special features are offered in the "Zander Zone" and include a whole host of behind-the-scenes action and commentaries, made all the more interesting by Rob Cohen's reluctance to use CGI and Vin Diesel's willingness to be thrown in at the deep end. If there's one thing you should avoid, though, it's the Gavin Rossdale music video--unless of course you want to see a grown man's vanity on screen. --Nikki Disney
The classic science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury was a curious choice for one of the leading directors of the French New Wave, François Truffaut. But from the opening credits onward (spoken, not written on screen), Truffaut takes Bradbury's fascinating premise and makes it his own. The futuristic society depicted in Fahrenheit 451 is a culture without books. Firemen still race around in red trucks and wear helmets, but their job is to start fires: they ferret out forbidden stashes of books, douse them with petrol and make public bonfires. Oskar Werner, the star of Truffaut's Jules and Jim, plays a fireman named Montag, whose exposure to David Copperfield wakens an instinct towards reading and individual thought. (That's why books are banned--they give people too many ideas.) In an intriguing casting flourish, Julie Christie plays two roles: Montag's bored, drugged-up wife and the woman who helps kindle the spark of rebellion. The great Bernard Herrmann wrote the hard-driving music; Nicolas Roeg provided the cinematography. Fahrenheit 451 received a cool critical reception and has never quite been accepted by Truffaut fans or sci-fi buffs. Its deliberately listless manner has always been a problem, although that is part of its point; the lack of reading has made people dry and empty. If the movie is a bit stiff (Truffaut did not speak English well and never tried another project in English), it nevertheless is full of intriguing touches, and the ending is lyrical and haunting. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
The acclaimed, best-selling novel by John le Carré, about a Cold War spy on one final dangerous mission in East Germany, is transmuted by director Martin Ritt (Hud, Norma Rae) into a film every bit as precise and ruthless as the book. Academy Award-nominated Richard Burton (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Becket,1984) is superb as Alec Leamas, whose relationship with the beautiful librarian Nan, played by Claire Bloom (Hamlet, A Streetcar Named Desire), puts his assignment in jeopardy. Winner of 4 BAFTA Awards (including Best British Film) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a hard-edged and tragic thriller, suffused with the political and social consciousness that defined Ritt's career. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. Special Features Limited Edition Exclusive O-Card slipcase with new artwork by artist Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a restored high-definition digital transfer Uncompressed LPCM Stereo audio Optional English SDH Brand new audio commentary with film scholar Adrian Martin Brand new video essay by critic and filmmaker David Cairns PLUS: A 48 PAGE collector's booklet featuring a new essay by Richard Combs; and a number of archival pieces and imagery
Oscar nominee Richard Burton is a burnt-out British agent who refuses to ""come in from the cold"" to take a desk job-but instead launches into the most dangerous assignment of his career stalking East German agent Oskar Werner. John Le Carre's best-selling novel provides the basis for this breathtaking thriller of espionage intrigue crosses and double crosses. First-rate performances from the entire cast are matched by a tension-packed and brilliantly plotted screenplay with masterful direction from Martin Ritt.
Lola Montès is a visually ravishing, narratively daring dramatization of the life of the notorious courtesan and showgirl, played by Martine Carol. With his customary cinematographic flourish and, for the first time, vibrant colour, Max Ophuls charts Montès's scandalous past through the bombastic ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) of the American circus where she ends up performing. Ophuls's final film, Lola Montès is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a meticulous, one-of-a-kind movie spectacle. Special Features: New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition Audio commentary featuring Max Ophuls scholar Susan White Max Ophuls ou le plaisir de tourner, a 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps, featuring interviews with many of Ophuls's collaborators Max by Marcel, a new documentary by Marcel Ophuls about his father and the making of Lola Montès Silent footage of actress Martine Carol demonstrating the various glamorous hairstyles in Lola Montès Theatrical rerelease trailer from Rialto Pictures New and improved English subtitle translation PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Gary Giddins
Acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and executive producers Martin Scorsese (The Departed) and Steven Zaillian (Moneyball) present Life Itself a documentary film that recounts the inspiring and entertaining life of world-renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert - a story that is by turns personal funny painful and transcendent. Based on his bestselling memoir of the same name Life Itself explores the legacy of Roger Ebert's life from his Pulitzer Prize-winning film criticism at the Chicago Sun-Times to becoming one of the most influential cultural voices in America.
Join the master adventurer and iconic director Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn) in this extraordinary 3D blu-ray, as he ventures on a new epic journey.Overcoming considerable challenges, Herzog captures the stunning majesty of the Chauvet Cave in southern France, where the world's oldest cave paintings have been discovered. Herzog reveals a breathtaking subterranean world including the 32,000-year-old artworks. With his humorous and engaging narration Herzog refelcts on our primal desire to communicate and represent the world around us, evolution and our place within it, and ultimately what it means to be human.
Features SHOOT THE PIANIST, JULES ET JIM, THE SOFT SKIN, ANNE & MURIEL, A GORGEOUS GIRL LIKE ME, THE LAST METRO, THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, FINALLY SUNDAY.
From acclaimed director Arthur Penn Target is an intense spy-thriller starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon as a father and son who attempt to rescue their estranged wife/mother who has been kidnapped in Paris. Chris Lloyd does not get along with his father. He is too cautious and never tries anything new and Chris had to live by the same standards when he was growing up. But when his mother is kidnapped Walter turns into a man of action. Suddenly Chris discovers something he nev
Waxworks [Das Wachsfigurenkabinett] was the final film Paul Leni directed in Germany before striking out for Hollywood and making such classic works of genre filmmaking as The Cat and the Canary, The Man Who Laughs, and The Last Warning. Its sophisticated melding of genres was in fact what inspired Universal's Carl Laemmle to invite Leni to come to Hollywood in the first place, as Laemmle was hoping to capitalise on the emerging comedy-horror craze of the 1920s. Yet Waxworks is, at heart, a pure example of German expressionism. Its stylised sets (designed by Leni), fantastical costumes, chiaroscuro lighting, and startlingly bold performances are paragons of the cinematic movement, and contribute heavily to the film's lasting appeal. The three separate episodes of Waxworks are united by the character of a young poet (William Dieterle), who is hired by the owner of a wax museum to create backstories for a trio of the museum's figures: Caliph Harun al-Rashid (Emil Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt), and Jack the Ripper (Werner Krauss). The stories are depicted in succession (one per episode), the poet casting himselfas well as the daughter of the wax museum's ownerat the centre of each tale. Though the poet and the daughter play different characters in the corresponding plots, they are always lovers whose relationship is threatened by the personages of the wax figures. As there is no surviving original negative of Waxworks, this newly restored editiona joint effort by the Deutsche Kinemathek and Cineteca di Bologna, L'Immagine Ritrovata (with funding from the German Commission for Culture and the Media)is composed of contemporary prints and additional film materials from archives around the world. The elements, including English intertitles, were scanned in 4K resolution and then restored in 2K. Presented by The Masters of Cinema Series and Flicker Alley in a special Blu-ray edition, there is an option of two new scores to accompany the film: one by the Ensemble Musikfabrik (commissioned by ZDF/ARTE), and the second by composer Richard Siedhoff. Features: Limited Edition O-Card slipcase [First Print Run of 2000 copies ONLY] 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a new 2K restoration Option of two newly created scores, by Ensemble Musikfabrik; and composer Richard Siedhoff Audio commentary with Australian film and arts critic Adrian Martin Paul Leni's Rebus-Film Nr. 1-8 Courtesy of Kino Lorber, these Leni-helmed cinematic crossword puzzles were originally screened in 1920s German cinemas as featurettes accompanying the main film. Each of these animated shorts was split into two partsa clue and an answerand presented before and after the visual presentation In search of the original version of Paul Leni's Das Wachsfigurenkabinett' An interview with Julia Wallmüller (Deutsche Kinemathek) based on her presentation after the premiere of the restored film at Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna 2020 Kim Newman on Waxworks An in-depth, on-camera interview with journalist, film critic, and fiction writer Kim Newman about the legacy of Waxworks PLUS: A collector's booklet featuring new essays by Philip Kemp and Richard Combs on the film's history and significance; notes on the restoration process by the Deutsche Kinemathek; and rarely seen production photographs and promotional material
Werner Herzog ("Grizzly Man", "Rescue Dawn") confirms his standing as poet laureate of men in extreme situations with "Encounters at The End of The World"
Francois Truffaut's classic tale of a love triangle which takes place over 20 years both before and after World War I. Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine the beautiful and unpredictable woman who maintains a delicate relationship with two friends the quiet German Jules (Oskar Werner) and the romantic Parisian Jim (Henri Serre). The War intervenes and drives the men to the opposing fronts; afterwards the two quickly resume their friendship but the balance of their relationship with Catherine is now upset by more adult concerns.
Master filmmaker, auteur, poet, truth seeker, explorer, brand, meme, actor, lauded voice artiste, doomsayer, legend that is Werner Herzog. This is the man, now 81, who had a 320-ton steamboat hauled over a steep hill in Peru, who hypnotises his actors, climbs down into volcanoes, talks to murderers on death row, cooks and eats his own shoe and was once shot at. Its these moments along with other stories as well as his appearances in everything from The Simpsons to The Mandalorian that have made Herzog a cult figure the world over. With exclusive behind-the-scenes access into Herzogs everyday life, rare archive material and in-depth interviews with the man himself and celebrated collaborators including Christian Bale, Nicole Kidman, and his wife Lena Herzog we are given an exciting glimpse into his work process and personal life. Also appearing in the film are Joshua Oppenheimer, Robert Pattinson, Patti Smith, Carl Weathers, Wim Wenders and Chloe Zhao. Product Features Presented in High Definition Trailer **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet with new writing on the film and full credits
Set just before the outbreak of World War One, François Truffaut's hugely popular classic sees Jeanne Moreau at her most ebullient as Catherine, a Parisian beauty caught up in a complex ménage à trois. Fast, funny and stylish, this romantic rollercoaster presented in a new 2K restoration is deeply affecting and engaging, and confirmed Truffaut's status as a key director of the French New Wave. Featuring ground-breaking artistic innovations and iconic imagery galore, Jules et Jim remains a highly influential landmark of world cinema.
Featuring both the big-budget high-octane action-thrillers in the XXX series. XXX(Triple X): A new brand of secret agent: this 'Xtreme' edition features an addtional 8 minutes of new content not seen in theatrical version! This amped action drama stars Vin Diesel as Xander (aka Triple X) a rebellious extreme sports star with a mission to defy authority and create anarchy. In the dramatic opening scene of the movie Xander pulls an outrageous series of stunts with the help
Vin Diesel stars as an extreme sports athlete called Triple X hired by a government agency who turn him into a secret agent and send him on a covert mission to destroy a dangerous terrorist cell.
Presiding over the courtroom in which twenty one members of the Nazi High Command are accused of crimes against humanity is a small-town American judge who is determined to uphold justice and truth in the explosive conflict between freedom and tyranny...
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema, wrote, directed, produced and starred in over 40 films in his short but prolific life, before passing away of a drugs overdose in 1982 aged just 37. Rainer Werner Fassbinder vol. 2 brings together a collection of his key works from the mid-section of his career in high definition digital restorations prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. Among Fassbinder's best-loved works, Fear Eats the Soul sees the director paying homage to the classic melodramas of Douglas Sirk in its poignant portrayal of a relationship between a widowed cleaning lady in her sixties and a Moroccan immigrant in his thirties that causes an outrage with her family, friends and neighbours. Fassbinder's long-gestating adaptation of Theodor Fontane's classic German novel Effi Briest, his most expensive production to date as well as one of his most ambitious, tells the tale of a seventeen-year-old girl who is married off by her parents to a wealthy Baron more than twice her age. Fassbinder himself plays the protagonist of Fox and His Friends, a sweet working class soul whose relationship with wealthy industrialist Eugen, he discovers, is based almost wholly on his unexpected lottery win. Chinese Roulette is a tense psychodrama set in an isolated house during a weekend break in which infidelities are revealed and families break down. Fassbinder's international breakthrough film, The Marriage of Maria Braun charts the rise to prosperity of its tenacious and pragmatic central character across the post-war years as she holds out hope for the return of the young soldier she was married to for less than 24-hours before he was dispatched to the Russian front and later reported dead. Limited Edition Contents High definition digital transfers of all films prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation High Definition (1080p) Blu-rayTM presentations of all films Original uncompressed PCM mono 1.0 sound for all films Optional English subtitles for all films Exclusive 140-page collectors booklet containing archive articles and new writing by Deborah Allison, Geoff Andrew, Margaret Deriaz and Travis Miles. Disc One Fear Eats The Soul Audio commentary by critic and lecturer Mark Freeman My Name is Not Ali, Viola Shafik's 2011 feature-length documentary on the life and death of El Hedi ben Salem, star of Fear Eats the Soul Interview with director of photography Jürgen Jürges Theatrical trailer Disc Two Effi Briest Audio commentary by Ken Moulden Interview with actor Ulli Lommel Interview with director of photography Jürgen Jürges Theatrical trailer Disc Three Fox And His Friends & Chinese Roulette Audio commentary by Hamish Ford on Fox and His Friends Interview with actor Ulli Lommel on Chinese Roulette Original theatrical trailers for both films Disc Four The Marriage Of Maria Braun Life, Love & Celluloid, a 1998 feature-length documentary on Fassbinder, written and directed by his regular editor, Juliane Lorenz Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977, a candid 30-minute interview with the director The Fassbinder Family, featurette detailing the actors who worked with Fassbinder time and again throughout his career
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