DVD Review: Can't Stop The Music (1980)

I've viewed some weird Euro horrors, mad Asian flicks and creepy Brit cult classics in my time, but I have to say that America has come up trumps with something that just might out-bizarre them all - Can't Stop The Music.

Name ring a bell? Yes, it's a Village People tune and this is the fictionalised account of how said group came into being. Of course, it's all a load of nonsense with absolutely no basis of fact, but who cares? This a film, not Wikipedia.

Coming to DVD and Blu-ray: The Doors: When You’re Strange (2010)

Make a note of this date - 30th August 2010 - that's the date for the DVD and Blu-ray release of The Doors: When You’re Strange.
 
Offering up only original footage from between 1966 and 1971 - unreleased, rarely seen and classic clips - Tom DiCillo's documentary captures the band at their height, with Johnny Depp taking up the narration duties, talking through the band's fame, as well as the drug and alcohol excesses. But that's just the sideshow to the main act - classic sounds Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore created in that brief period.

Available to pre-order now, priced from £13.49.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Severin to reissue Psychomania as Special Edition DVD

I could wax lyrical about this movie all night - and some people who know me know I have done just that. From the dodgy locations to the cool soundtrack, silly plot and unconvincing acting, Psychomania somehow manages to be both brilliant and terrible at the same. Making this Special Edition DVD from Severin a must-buy.

Yes, we're in the world of zombie bikers and black magic, Beryl Reed and George Sanders having the power to bring back the dead. But that power is abused by Tommy and his biker gang, The Living Dead, willingly killing themselves in return for immortality in England's suburbs.

Brian Clemens retrospective at the BFI

Brian Clemens is the man behind some of the finest British cult and classic TV drama. not to mention a good few movies too over a 50-year period. With this in mind, the BFI is running a retrospective of his work in July, throwing in some Q&A nights with the man himself too.

His work is too numerous to mention, but let's just say Danger Man, The Avengers, The Champions, Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), the Thriller series, The Professionals and Hammer movies including Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter for starters. You get the idea.
 
Check out over the page for the full programme, tickets are on sale now.

La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) released on Blu-ray

One of the most trippy animations ever to make it to the big screen is back - with La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) set to be even more trippy when it lands in high definition on Blu-ray disc.

René Laloux's mesmerising psychedelic sci-fi feature is a landmark animation, especially when couple with the much-sampled soundtrack by Alain Goraguer. What's it about? Well...

DVD Review: The Statue (1970)

I think it's fair to say that Britain's censorship laws up 'til the 1980s (and some would argue beyond) have been significantly tighter than the rest of Europe. Which meant, for many years, we had films that were suggestive and saucy, but never overstepped the legal line. Films like The Statue.

It's a film about a man's manhood. Not unusual, at the time (Percy trod similar ground in the same year). But in 2010? Well, it just seems a bit childish. Anyway, the 'Percy' in question here belongs to Professor Alex Bolt (David Niven). He's created a universal language and for his troubles, got himself a Nobel Prize. Not only that, a large nude statue of him is going up in Grosvenor Square, organised by an ambitious US diplomat called Ray (Robert Vaughn) and paid for by the US government. What could go wrong?

DVD Review: A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)

A film that's notorious for one particular scene, but if mad dreams, mad hippies, a psych-inspired Ennio Morricone soundtrack, a late 60s London setting and a good old whodunnit story appeal to you, you'll find much to enjoy in the remastered DVD version of A Lizard in a Woman's Skin.

Mad dreams? That's where we come in. The daughter of a respected politician by the name of Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan) is having some, involving walking through a train of nude hippies in a fur coat and a romantic tangle with her female next door neighbour Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg), a hellraiser who loves to throw a psych-soundtracked party for the local hippy community. She's so disturbed by the vivid dreams, she's been seeing a local shrink to talk them through, as well as writing them down. All of that will come in useful soon.

Paranoiac (1962) heads to DVD and Blu-ray

I've never heard of it, so it must be rare. Which is reason enough to get excited about the DVD and Blu-ray reissue of early 60s Hammer flick Paranoiac.

Sounding not unlike The Innocents in tone, the story is set three weeks before the Ashby siblings Simon (Oliver Reed), a brutish alcoholic, and Eleanor (Janette Scott), a nervous wreck, are to come into their late parents' inheritance. While Simon plans to have his sister certified insane and locked away, Eleanor keeps seeing the lurking figure of their long-dead brother Tony around the estate. Who or what is this apparition, and does he threaten to reveal skeletons in the closet (and elsewhere)?

Sounds like a winner, with a script by Jimmy Sangster and direction by Freddie Francis. Plenty of extras too, including an optional music & effects track, long-unseen original trailer and a Blu-ray-only exclusive of a high-definition stills gallery of rare materials. Available via Eureka from 26th July 2010, you can pre-order at Amazon now for £11.99.

Find out more at the Amazon website

DVD/Blu-ray review: The Pleasure Girls (1965)

A 60s teen flick featuring the man who became Lovejoy, a man who became Alan Bradley in Coronation Street and most bizarrely of all, Klaus Kinski? It has to be The Pleasure Girls, newly reissued on DVD/Blu-ray by the Flipside arm of the BFI.

In a London that's yet to fully 'swing' Gerry O'Hara's flick is in one way similar to other movies of the day, whilst at the same time being very different, not least because everything happens over the course of a weekend as relationships crumble when the darker sides of the male characters come to the fore.

DVD and Blu-ray review: The Party's Over (1963)

If one film was crying out for a release by the BFI's Flipside arm, it was surely Guy Hamilton's <b>The Party's Over</b>. Why? Well, this obscure cult gem has pretty much been out of circulation since its mid-60s debut and is well deserving of a wider audience. But also, because the original film was hacked apart by the censor - which means a reissue would require some loving care by sympathetic experts. Experts like the BFI's team of movie obsessives.

Guy Hamilton went onto bigger things, involving himself in everything from Bond classics to the original Superman flick, but The Party's Over remains his most controversial work. At least at the time, this tale of a beatnik gang and the myseterious disappearance of an American heiress wouldn't qualify as an '18' these days, but back in the 60s, it was cut severely by the British Board of Censors and packed off to the 'adult' circuit with an 'X' certificate. But it's hard to tell you why without giving away the 'twist' in the movie. So you'll just have to take my word on it.

DVD Review: Take An Easy Ride (1974)

When a DVD pops up claiming to be the most notorious British exploitaiton film ever, well you just know we're going to chasing up a copy. So here we are with a review of Kenneth Rowles' Take An Easy Ride.

Its controversial nature isn't particularly its content, but in the movie's history and execution. Let me explain. Originally, Take An Easy Ride was going to be a public information film. Motorways were big business in the UK, as was hitchhiking, so Mr Rowles decided to pitch the idea of a public safery film about the perils of hitchhiking in light of newspaper reports of girls being raped and murdered on the open road. Makes sense - and one commercial station had shown an interest in it. But so had someone else.

9th Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford - it really is fantastic

Ok, where can you see 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Birdemic, eXistenZ, Faust, Full Employment, Horror Express, In The Market, Island, Killer Display, Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Mark of The Devil, Matthew Hopkins Witchfinder General, Patrick, Plague Town, Psycho, Robocop, Salvage, Screamtime, Secret Rites, Shadow, The Cicerones, The Giant Spider Invasion, The Image, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, The Sorcerers, Three Cases Of Murder, Videodrome and Zone of the Dead: Director's Cut in one place over a single weekend? Simple - at the 9th Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford.

The weekend is the 4th - 6th June 2010, with the movies supported by the usual special events and guest appearances, including British directors Stanley Long (Screamtime and cinematographer of The Sorcerers) and Michael Armstrong (The Image starring David Bowie and Mark of the Devil). This year, the weekend also includes a special guest appearance by English screenwriter and FFW patron Jeremy Dyson. Stanley will also be signing copies of his autobiography X-Rated: Adventures of an Exploitation Filmmaker.

All the details on the website.

DVD Review: Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue - remastered edition (1974)

Some years ago, a friend of mine said there was a zombie movie set in Manchester. Oh how I laughed at his nonsense. Then some time after that, I encountered Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue. Yes, I was the foolish one. Although the 'set in Manchester' line is still tenuous.

Optimum has reissued this Jorge Grau-directed cult classic in the UK with a nice digital restoration, which looks far superior to any previous versions I've seen on video or shiny disc. Sharp, clean, bright and colourful it could almost pass for a modern-day effort. Lovely job Optimum. But what about the movie? Well...

DVD Review: Goodbye Gemini (1970)

If you mention Goodbye Gemini, chances are the person you are talking to has never heard of it. Or if they have, they've only heard the (rather cool) soundtrack, recently reissued by Harkit. Perhaps that's because the movie itself hasn't been available to buy in the UK - until now.

Yes, out as a special edition DVD in the UK via Odeon, this rather unusual swinging London-style chiller is ripe for reappraisal, even if the end product doesn't quite live up to the early part of the movie.

DVD Review: Four Idle Hands (1976)

Network seems to be on a Phil Daniels kick right now, releasing the slightly odd Raven next week (more on that later), but this week issuing one of his earlier works on DVD for the first time - Four Idle Hands.

Daniels is joined in the show by Ray Burdis (both of whom teamed up once more in Scum not long after), the pair playing school leavers Mike Dudds and Pete Sutton in mid-70s, recession-hit Britain. No qualifications, but plenty of mouth and enthusiasm - which sets the scene for a serious of six adventures, all of which were originally aimed at a tea time teen audience, many of whom were no doubt in the same boat.