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

DVD Review: Awaydays (2009)

Awaydays was one of those books that became a huge cult hit in the late 90s, primarily via word of mouth and through people who don't usually read (if you know what I mean). The movie version (by all accounts) has been in the offing more or less since the book launched, but didn't really get the go-ahead until Control made its mark at the box office. So was it worth the wait? Well, yes it was, with one or two reservations.

if you haven't read the book (why not?), Awaydays isn't the 'footie thug fiction' you might be expecting. Yes, football violence is at the centre of Awaydays' universe, but it's about much more than that. Set in the pivotal year of 1979 (the year of the Conservatives return to power, the tail-end of punk, the dawn of post punk, the arrival of the mod revival, the arrival of the casual etc etc), it covers football, gang culture, music, relationships and quite simply, growing up in a working class town, specifically on Merseyside - and specifically focusing on a young lad called (Paul) Carty.

60s exploitation parody Viva hits DVD

Remember Viva? We reviewed it some time back when it was doing the rounds of the arthouse circuit, but now the movie has finally made it to DVD in the UK.

Check out our full review or let us tell you that Viva is a take on the Russ Meyer/Herschell Gordon Lewis-style exploitation flick of the late 60s and early 70s (think Beyond The Valley of the Dolls), with director Anna Biller heading up the cast as a bored housewife looking for kicks in 1972 LA - model work, call girl, stage star etc etc. It's very good, but don't take our word for it, check out the review and numerous others that give the movie the thumbs up.

You can pick it up from 6th July 2009 for just under £10 from Amazon via the Cine Excess label. Not heard of that? Well, you soon will do - a collaboration between Brunel University's Cult Film Archive and film director Roger Corman, it promises to offer some never-before-seen movies from the cult movie man's archive for the first time in the UK. We don't now what as yet - but we're already seriously excited about the prospect.

Find out more about Viva at the Amazon website

Clubbed (2008)

Some time back, someone threatened to send me a copy of Clubbed. It never appeared and to be honest, I wasn't that bothered. But with so little available to rent right now, I decided to pick it up. Well, if nothing else it has a decent soundtrack.

I would review it properly, but if the PR firm don't seem bothered, why should I? So instead, I'll give you the brief highlights and a general opinion. Which is Liverpool, early 80s, a divorced bloke has self-esteem issues, not least because he's had a kicking in the local in front of his kids by the muscle of the local gangster. He falls into boxing, joins a small gym which is run by a bouncing firm, gets in with them and gets involved in the fallout from their fall out with said gangster.

Review: Viva (2008)

The length I have to go to "sell" a film to my girlfriend is an acid test of how much I'm prepared to like the film for the wrong reasons. It wasn't easy explaining what Viva was about when booking tickets for the Curzon Soho Q&A screening last week without using the terms soft-core "Carry On", spoof 60s schlock, or Russ Meyers style titty-fest.

Writing about the film now I can describe Viva as a funny, lovingly veracious, modern day celebration of 60s and 70s sexploitation films. The film colourfully grandstands a carnival of characters, kitsch sets, period garb, and party catering!

Viva is the masterwork of feminist Anna Biller, who is obviously as talented as she is endowed and can not only claim credits for starring role, writer and director, but she also had a hand in the set design too.