Saturday, November 12, 2011

Casshern Sins: Part 1

  • Salvation is the ruin of man and machine.Casshern a cybernetic assassin with no memory of his past awakens in a corrosive wasteland where nothing survives for long. A plague known as the Ruin sweeps across this once-vibrant world, reducing everything in its path to rubble and scattering any chance for salvation. Robots and humans alike or what little remains of them seek vengeance against Casshern
After 50 years of bitter warfare in the late 21st century, a new crisis looms. A threat to the future and the overall existence of mankind. But, there is hope a savior will emerge… Casshern. Casshern is an action-packed, sci-fi thriller that blends Japanamation and manga-inspired live action to create a new hybrid form of filmmaking that is both visually stunning and thought provoking.Kiriya Kazuaki’s spectacular Casshern is an impressive marriage of live action drama and animated effe! cts that, taken together, look like something both very old and very new in cinema. A wild, science fiction tale with an echo or two of Bladerunner, Casshern is set in a dystopian future following a 50-year-long war between Europe and Asia. The latter wins, calling the resulting Eurasia the "Eastern Federation," but the high-tech weapons used in the battle have affected the whole of mankind through widespread devastation and illness. A geneticist whose son, Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya), has gone off to fight terrorists, promises the military his work on "neo cells" will result in the cultivation of spare human parts for the wounded and afflicted. But two unexpected results occur: a small band of superhuman mutants rise up out of the scientist’s chemical muck, and Tetsuya--killed in battle--is brought back to life with his own superpowers. While the mutants rise up against the human race, Tetsuya, now known as "Casshern," takes them on against a fascinating psychol! ogical backdrop with Oedipal overtones. The film’s look of h! yperreal , pop culture pastiche (in which action often evokes the look of 1930s movie serials blended with a whirl of dreamy, free-associating images) is reaching for the same thing as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. But it is much grander in its effort. --Tom KeoghCasshern â€" a cybernetic assassin with no memory of his past â€" awakens in a corrosive wasteland where nothing survives for long. A plague known as the Ruin sweeps across this once-vibrant world, reducing everything in its path to rubble and scattering any chance for salvation. Robots and humans alike â€" or what little remains of them â€" seek vengeance against Casshern for the life he took and the role he played in their Ruin. A machine built to kill, Casshern murdered the last hope for this world, but now, lost in a future he does not recognize, he will fight to save the dying.Based on the classic Manga. Casshern is Anime meets the matrix in style.Casshern â€" a cybernetic assassin with no memory ! of his past â€" awakens in a corrosive wasteland where nothing survives for long. A plague known as the Ruin sweeps across this once-vibrant world, reducing everything in its path to rubble and scattering any chance for salvation. Robots and humans alike â€" or what little remains of them â€" seek vengeance against Casshern for the life he took and the role he played in their Ruin. A machine built to kill, Casshern murdered the last hope for this world, but now, lost in a future he does not recognize, he will fight to save the dying.Casshern Sins (2008) is a reboot of Tatsuo Yoshida's Casshan Robot Hunter (1973), which was adapted to an OAV in 1993 and a live-action feature in 2004. Sins contains almost nothing of the original story, in which cybernetic hero Casshan fought the robot-soldiers of the evil Braiking Boss in a postapocalyptic landscape. Casshern isn't sure if he's a robot, a human, or a cyber-combination. He has no memories of who he is or w! hat he's done, but everyone he meets insists he killed Luna, "! the Sun Named Moon." As a result, Earth is staggering to its end. All that remains are a few people and three types of robots: human-looking ones who express emotions; puppetlike semi-humans; and big, nasty warrior-bots. In every episode, Casshern performs gymnastic flips and spins as he pounds the evil robots into so much scrap metal. But all the robots are succumbing to "the Ruin," a sort of mechanical plague that causes them to crumble into rusty flakes. As Casshern roams the wastelands and ruined cities with his robot-dog Friender, he hears rumors that Luna may still exist---and any otaku worth their salt can guess which supporting character she'll turn out to be. Director Shigeyasu Yamauchi choreographs the fights scenes skillfully, using a combination of CG and drawn animation to present the acrobatic battles. But Casshern's amnesia means other characters deliver endless expository speeches, trying to untangle the needlessly complicated plot. (Rated TV MA: violence, vio! lence against women, grotesque imagery) --Charles Solomon

(1. At the End of the World, 2. A World Replete with Death Throes, 3. To the Ends of Agony, 4. The Angel of Ruin, 5. The Man Who Killed the Sun Named Moon, 6. Reunited with Fate, 7. The Woman of the Tall Tower, 8. A Hymn of Hope, 9. The Flower That Blooms in the Valley of Ruin, 10. The Man Entrapped by the Past, 11. By One's Calling, 12. Turn the Time Lived to Color)

Friday, November 11, 2011

Central Station

  • Portuguese with English subtitles
  • Interactive Menus
  • Audio Commentary by Walter Salles, Arthur Cohn, and Fernanda Montenegro
  • Talent and Filmographies
  • Widescreen format
Two very unlikely souls, a motherless young boy and a lonely retired school teacher become inextricably linked and form an uncommon bond as they venture from the bustling city to Brazil's remote northeast region in search of the boy's father.
Genre: Foreign Film - Portugese
Rating: R
Release Date: 13-JUL-1999
Media Type: DVDIn the opening scenes of Central Station, colorful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little boy's sear! ch for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. When we first meet Dora (Fernanda Montenegro), this frozen-hearted, sour-faced woman is the epitome of immobility: day after day, she sits in the train station selling her letter-writing skills to all comers, but often doesn't bother to mail these precious messages. When a woman who's paid Dora to write a pleading note to her son's long-missing dad gets run over by a bus, the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), is up for grabs. (The summary execution of a thieving street kid--in longshot--underscores the seriousness of this waif's plight.) After an abortive attempt to sell Josue for a new TV, the aspiring couch potato finds herself reluctantly propelled into an occasionally Fellini-esque odyssey through the hinterlands of Brazil's sertäo, where Dora and her sidekick find unexpected faith and family. Former documentary filmmaker Walter Salles (Foreign Land) mixes magic with realism in ! his appreciation of striking faces and places, but Central! Station is primarily fueled by the tough/tender performances of Montenegro, Brazil's Judy Dench, and de Oliveira, an airport shoeshine boy Salles cast over 1,500 other hopefuls. (Montenegro was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, and Central Station was in the running for Best Foreign Language Film.) No cloyingly cute child-star, de Oliveira plays Josue as a bracingly idiosyncratic brat. And watching Dora's face and soul slowly, unwillingly unclench as she gets back in motion--and emotion--is potent pleasure, even if Salles's trip does dead-end in soap opera as his Brazilian pilgrim's progress winds down. --Kathleen Murphy

Deadly Sweet (Col Cuore in Gola)

  • Starring 17-year-old beauty-contest winner Ewa Aulin (CANDY), and Jean-Louis Trintignant (A MAN AND A WOMAN), Deadly Sweet is a most unusual crime story. In the film, a French actor finds his business contact lying murdered on the floor. Rather than call the police, he decides to protect the young woman at the scene and nail down the true killers, which puts him on a collision course with the Lond
IN ITALY, A WOMAN FEARS HER SISTER MAY HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED. INSPECTOR ENZO AVOLFI FEARS IT'S WORSE. THEY TEAM UP TO RESCUE HER FROM A SADISTIC KILLER KNOWN ONLY AS 'YELLOW'."Giallo" films are characterized by extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camera work and unusual musical arrangements. The literary whodunit element is retained, but combined with modern slasher horror, while being filtered through Italy's longstanding tradition of opera and staged grand guignol! drama. The genre had its heyday in the 1970's, with dozens of Italian giallo films released. This collector's set has a trio of Giallo's that fit that genre perfectly - Blood and Black Lace, Bird With a Crystal Plumage and Watch Me When I Kill. All three movies will be individually wrapped and sold together in this all new collector's slip case. Bonus Features: Blood and Black Lace: Photo Galleries, Bios, Commentary by Tim Lucas (Editor of the Video Watchdog), Interviews with Mary Dawne Arden and Cameron Mitchell, Bonus Music Track by composer Carlo Rustichelli| Original theatrical trailer. Bird With a Crystal Plumage: Interactive Menus, Bios, Theatrical Trailer, New Dolby Stereo Surround Track, Enhanced 16x9 Transfer, Bonus: Contains the complete original music sound track. Watch Me When I Kill: Original :30 second and :60 second radio spots, Antonio Bido Biography, Scene Selection. Specs; 3-DVD9s; Dolby Digital; 281 minutes! ; Color; 16x9 Widescreen Aspecat Ratio; MPAA - NR; Year - 1964! , 1970 & 1981; SRP - $29.99.Starring 17-year-old beauty-contest winner Ewa Aulin (CANDY), and Jean-Louis Trintignant (A MAN AND A WOMAN), Deadly Sweet is a most unusual crime story. In the film, a French actor finds his business contact lying murdered on the floor. Rather than call the police, he decides to protect the young woman at the scene and nail down the true killers, which puts him on a collision course with the London underworld. Deadly Sweet leads us through a mind-bending series of pop-art visuals by renowned erotic cartoonist GUIDO CREPAX, split screens, triple split screens, and the seductive rock score by Armando Trovajoli. Bestselling filmmaker, Tinto Brass, who later gained fame for his soft-core erotica, wrote the screenplay in 1967, loosely adapted from a novel by Sergio Donati, as an outrageous attempt to turn the crime genre on its head. It can be said that with this film, Cinema Fumetti (comic-book movies) was invented prior to the more known DANGER: DIABOLIK a! nd BARBARELLA.



Cult Epics is proud to present Deadly Sweet (aka Heart in his Mouth), a rare giallo thriller unseen since its initial theatrical release (1967), whose lead actors went on to star in DEAD LAID AN EGG, a year after.

SPECIAL FEATURES
- Widescreen version (16X9 Enhanced)
- Restored, uncensored Director's Cut
- Exclusive English audio commentary
by Tinto Brass
- Lobby Card Gallery
- Trailer

The Best Laid Plans: A Novel

  • ISBN13: 9780345491190
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Selected as the 2011 CBC Canada Reads Winner!

This book beat out work by Douglas Coupland and Will Ferguson because it is very, very good â€" a terrific Canadian political satire.

Here’s the set up: A burnt-out politcal aide quits just before an election â€" but is forced to run a hopeless campaign on the way out. He makes a deal with a crusty old Scot, Angus McLintock â€" an engineering professor who will do anything, anything, to avoid teaching English to engineers â€" to let his name stand in the election. No need to campaign, certain to lose, and so on.

Then a great scandal blows away his opponent, and to their horror, Angus is elected. He decides to see what go! od an honest M.P. who doesn’t care about being re-elected can do in Parliament. The results are hilarious â€" and with chess, a hovercraft, and the love of a good woman thrown in, this very funny book has something for everyone.Selected as the 2011 CBC Canada Reads Winner!

This book beat out work by Douglas Coupland and Will Ferguson because it is very, very good â€" a terrific Canadian political satire.

Here’s the set up: A burnt-out politcal aide quits just before an election â€" but is forced to run a hopeless campaign on the way out. He makes a deal with a crusty old Scot, Angus McLintock â€" an engineering professor who will do anything, anything, to avoid teaching English to engineers â€" to let his name stand in the election. No need to campaign, certain to lose, and so on.

Then a great scandal blows away his opponent, and to their horror, Angus is elected. He decides to see what good an honest M.P. who doesn’t car! e about being re-elected can do in Parliament. The results are! hilario us â€" and with chess, a hovercraft, and the love of a good woman thrown in, this very funny book has something for everyone.


From the Trade Paperback edition.Selected as the 2011 CBC Canada Reads Winner!

This book beat out work by Douglas Coupland and Will Ferguson because it is very, very good â€" a terrific Canadian political satire.

Here’s the set up: A burnt-out politcal aide quits just before an election â€" but is forced to run a hopeless campaign on the way out. He makes a deal with a crusty old Scot, Angus McLintock â€" an engineering professor who will do anything, anything, to avoid teaching English to engineers â€" to let his name stand in the election. No need to campaign, certain to lose, and so on.

Then a great scandal blows away his opponent, and to their horror, Angus is elected. He decides to see what good an honest M.P. who doesn’t care about being re-elected can do in Parliament. The results a! re hilarious â€" and with chess, a hovercraft, and the love of a good woman thrown in, this very funny book has something for everyone.


From the Trade Paperback edition.From Lynn Schnurnberger, bestselling co-author of Mine Are Spectacular! and The Botox Diaries, comes a novel of big secrets, family ties, and a reminder that sometimes The Best Laid Plans can lead to delightful surprises.

Tru Newman is one of the Upper East Side “M&Ms”â€"the wealthy stay-at-home moms who are into personal Maintenance and Mothering. Having been raised by a beauty queen mother who constantly picked on her, Tru loves looking after her investment banker husband, Peter, and their twin teen daughters. But her perfect world spins off its axis the night Tru throws a charity benefit and discovers that Peter’s been out of work for three months. Even worse, the family’s been living on a house of cardsâ€"specifically, Visa and Amexâ€"that’s about t! o collapse.

Suze Orman tells Tru to “Get a job!” B! ut doing what? When Tru’s best friend, Sienna Post, loses her position as an anchor on the local nightly news, the two hatch a profitable if illegal plan: They’ll open an escort service with “working girls” all over the age of forty. Modeling themselves on Carla Bruni (“after she married the president of France, not before, when she was dating Mick Jagger”), their smart, sexy, seasoned escorts become a big hit with a roster of thirty-year-old clients.

If only Tru’s legit life could fall so easily into place: Her husband’s new job has him working side by side with a flirtatious neighbor, her fourteen-year-old twins are competing over a two-timing, Clearasil-using Casanova, and after suffering a heart attack in her bodybuilding class, Tru’s hypercritical mother moves in with her. Not to mention that the gossip columns get wind that Tru and Sienna’s “temp agency” isn’t on the up-and-upâ€"and the DA is on their case. 

But for the savvy and spir! ited Tru, these new obstacles bring unexpected benefitsâ€"from Geisha facials, to massage toys that are “better than chocolate,” to the realization that at midlife, she’s more comfortable than ever before in her own skin and more grateful for all that she has. By turns touching and laugh-out-loud funny, this is a must-read for every woman who knows it’s never too late to make a fresh start.

Freaky Friday

  • In the tradition of THE PRINCESS DIARIES, Disney's FREAKY FRIDAY is the extremely funny and heartwarming comedy everyone will love. Dr. Tess Coleman (the hilarious Jamie Lee Curtis) and her teenage daughter Anna (rockin' Lindsay Lohan) have one thing in common -- they don't relate to each other on anything. Not clothes or men or Anna's passion to be in a rock band. Nothing. Then on


Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 97 minutes

Code Name - The Cleaner

  • The laughs fly like bullets in this action comedy about a man with amnesia who can't remember whether he's a super spy.or a janitor.Jake Rogers (Cedric the Entertainer) just woke up in a hotel room next to a dead CIA agent and a briefcase full of money. Things go from bad to worse when his blonde bombshell wife (Nicollette Sheridan) arrives to inform him that he's a Special Forces Operative entan
A man with amnesia cant remember whether hes a super spy .. Or a janitor. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 09/30/2008 Starring: Cedric The Entertainer Nicollette Sheridan Rating: Pg13

Hell Ride

  • The story deals with the characters Pistolero, the Gent and Comanche and the deadly, unfinished business among them. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R Age: 796019810876 UPC: 796019810876 Manufacturer No: 81087
Actor Larry Bishop, who made his name in the '60s as the star of biker pictures like The Savage Seven, revives the genre with Hell Ride, a rough and raunchy action-drama produced by indie director and cult film aficionado Quentin Tarantino. Bishop, who wrote, produced and directed the film, is also top-billed as Pistolero, chief of the outlaw Victors, who cruise the sunbaked Southwest to avenge a fallen mama. Their target is Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones), head man for the Six-Six-Sixes, and Michael Madsen, David Carradine and Dennis Hopper (himself no stranger to biker flicks) are along to make sure that the job is completed. As pure exploitation,! Hell Ride delivers the goods: the cast overacts with relish, and the on-screen excitement is divided equally between chopper action, fistfights and shootouts and plentiful female nudity, all set to a soundtrack of new and vintage fuzztone rock. However, those expecting the complexity and sheer cheek of Tarantino's own features may find the picture a little too retro-minded for their own tastes, and Bishop's pulpy dialogue is more overcooked than Tarantino at his most self-indulgent. Still, those craving old-school cycle movie satisfaction are likely to find that action with Hell Ride. Bishop is front and center for the DVD commentary, in which he explains in the most passionate of terms how he conceived and executed the project with Tarantino's help; featurettes on the cast (split between male and female) are brief and flashy, with "The Guys of Hell Ride" providing the most juice by focusing on the veteran actors. There's also a look at the film! 's custom made bikes, but the most "special" of the Special Fe! atures i s Michael Madsen's video diary, which gives amusing insight into his distinctly offbeat perspective. -- Paul Gaita

Stills from Hell Ride (Click for larger image)

 

Actor Larry Bishop, who made his name in the '60s as the star of biker pictures like The Savage Seven, revives the genre with Hell Ride, a rough and raunchy action-drama produced by indie director and cult film aficionado Quentin Tarantino. Bishop, who wrote, produced and directed the film, is also top-billed as Pistolero, chief of the outlaw Victors, who cruise the sunbaked Southwest to avenge a fallen mama. Their target is Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones), head man for the Six-Six-Sixes, and Michael Madsen, David Carradine and Dennis Hopper (himself no stranger to biker flicks) are along to make sure that ! the job is completed. As pure exploitation, Hell Ride! deliver s the goods: the cast overacts with relish, and the on-screen excitement is divided equally between chopper action, fistfights and shootouts and plentiful female nudity, all set to a soundtrack of new and vintage fuzztone rock. However, those expecting the complexity and sheer cheek of Tarantino's own features may find the picture a little too retro-minded for their own tastes, and Bishop's pulpy dialogue is more overcooked than Tarantino at his most self-indulgent. Still, those craving old-school cycle movie satisfaction are likely to find that action with Hell Ride. Bishop is front and center for the DVD commentary, in which he explains in the most passionate of terms how he conceived and executed the project with Tarantino's help; featurettes on the cast (split between male and female) are brief and flashy, with "The Guys of Hell Ride" providing the most juice by focusing on the veteran actors. There's also a look at the film's custom made bikes, but the! most "special" of the Special Features is Michael Madsen's video diary, which gives amusing insight into his distinctly offbeat perspective. -- Paul Gaita

Stills from Hell Ride (Click for larger image)

 

!

Maximum Risk / Double Team

  • English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish
  • Subtitles English French Spanish
  • Full Screen
No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-MAR-2005
Media Type: DVDLook ma, no script! As expected from a movie by Hong Kong action director Hark Tsui, there are many explosive, fast-paced sequences in this Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle. Some are thrilling, others inconsequential. There is also another mumbling, overdone performance by Mickey Rourke, who looks as if he performed his own plastic surgery. Except for an unintentionally humorous ending, the only surprise is Dennis Rodman as Van Damme's partner in exploitation. Rodman has plenty of charisma, but needs someone to weed out those inferior scripts. He plays an eccentric arms dealer coerced by an avenging Van Damme into tracking down the evil and sadistic! ally weird character played by a well-muscled Rourke. It says little for the production that the best sequence of the movie occurs a quarter of the way into the action. It concerns an escape by Van Damme from an island think tank for forcibly retired covert agents. After that, everyone should have gone home. --Rochelle O'Gorman Double Disc Set

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