Simply Media is GOING BERSERK (Review)

SCTV's John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy reunite in this bizarre early eighties Canadian/American comedy.  John runs a limo service with his buddy Chick and is about to marry into the family of a wealthy senator and presidential candidate.  When the senator goes after a scam religion, its maniacal head brainwashes John in order to kill him at the wedding.  Ernie Hudson and Dixie Carter also star.

REVIEW LINK: Simply Media (US) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

GOING BERSERK DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo

Drafthouse Films hunts down DANGEROUS MEN (review)

More bizarre than THE ROOM is DANGEROUS MEN, the American debut of enigmatic Iranian filmmaker/architect John S. Rad.  Started in the eighties and completed nearly twenty years later, DANGEROUS MEN came out of nowhere with promos on MTV and a four-walled theatrical release in 2005.  Since then, this utterly disjointed action flick has been sought out by the seven or eight people who actually paid to see it.  Drafthouse Films' Blu-ray/DVD combo finally makes the film available to a whole new audience.

REVIEW LINK: Drafthouse Films (US) Region ALL Blu-ray/Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

DANGEROUS MEN Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:

• Blu-ray:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
• DVD:
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
• Audio Commentary by DESTROY ALL MOVIES' authors Zack Carlson & Bryan Connolly
• "That's So John Rad" documentary
• Interview with cinematographer Peter Pallan
• Local Access TV show with John S. Rad (48 minutes)
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer
• Teaser
• Previews
• Reversible Cover
• Interview Booklet
• Digital Copy Code

LionsGate gets CASUAL: SEASON 1 (review)

From the director of JUNO comes the Hulu series CASUAL.  Divorced Valerie moves her daughter Laura and herself in with her single brother Alex.  As the two siblings navigate the dating scene anew, they are confronted with differing expectations of love and relationships and deal with family drama as their narcissistic parents reappear in their lives and Laura tries to substitute her unfaithful father with an inappropriate new love.

REVIEW LINK: LionsGate (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDCompare)

CASUAL: SEASON ONE DVD specs:

• Ten episodes on two DVDs
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• English SDH and Spanish subtitles
• "Creating CASUAL" featurette
• Previews
• Digital Copy Code

MVD VIsual liberates HELGA: SHE-WOLF OF STILBERG (review)

In this obscure Eurocine women-in-prison film, Helga overseas the punishment of political dissidents in a gothic fortress of a South American dictatorship.  Malisa Longo, Olivier Mathot, and Patrizia Gori star.

REVIEW LINK: MVD Visual (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

HELGA: SHE-WOLF OF STILBERG DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.66:1 widescreen
• English and French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Alternate Covered Outtakes
• Opening and Closing Credits

Five Door Films experiences the ROMANCE OF THE FAR FUR COUNTRY (Review)

A year before Robert Flaherty painted a romantic picture of Eskimo culture in NANOOK OF THE NORTH, New York filmmaker Harold Wyckoff was commissioned by Canada's Hudson's Bay Company to make a film about Canada's fur trade for the company's 250th anniversary in 1920.  Following the company's trade routes, Wyckoff charted the company's interaction with the Eskimo and First Nations peoples and the arduous and unforgiving terrain of the unknown north.  The film was never shown in its complete form in the United States and in a reedited form in the UK.  It disappeared from circulation when all of the materials were transferred to the company's Londo arm and then to the British Film Institute for safekeeping and archiving.  In 2009, the materials were returned to the Hudson's Bay archives in Winnipeg.  The subsequent restoration and reconstruction sheds light not only on Canada's history but also its cultural and colonial interactions.

REVIEW LINK: Five Door Films (Canada) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

THE ROMANCE OF THE FAR FUR COUNTRY DVD specs:

• Disc One:
• 16:9 pillarboxed 1.33:1 fullscreen
• Music LPCM 2.0 stereo
• Audio Commentary by historian Peter Geller & curatorial editor Kevin Nikkel
• "Explore the 1919 Expedition"
• Map of the 1919 Journey
• Excerpt from Wyckoff's Letters & Diary
• Wyckoff's Photo Expedition Album
• "Trials and Tribulations of a Cameraman" short
• "Treasures of the Far Fur Country" short
• "Rediscovering the Far Fur Country" restoration demo
• Disc Two:
• Shortened UK Version "The Heritage of Adventure" 
• "Scenes from the Far Fur Country" regional short films from the period:
• "Baffin Region" 
• "James Bay & Abitibi Region" 
• "Prairie Region" 
• "Athabasca Region" 
• "BC Region" 
• Additional Unedited Silent Films from the 1919 Expedition and 1920 Release:
• "H.B. Pageant" 
• "It's A Great Life --If" 
• HBC Comics 
• Trailer for "On The Trail of the Far Fur Country" 
• 24-page Collector's Booklet

The two-disc set is available directly from The Winnipeg Film Group separately or in a combo with the documentary ON THE TRAIL OF THE FAR FUR COUNTRY.

Well Go USA witnesses the RISE OF THE LEGEND (review)

Eddie Peng brings grandmaster folk hero Wong Fei-hung back to the screen in RISE OF THE LEGEND.  Previously the subject of Jackie Chan's DRUNKEN MASTER series, Tsui Hark's ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA series, and a long running series of films from 1948 to 1970, the character gets an origin story as he infiltrates a gang who brutally dominates a Silk Road pier to dismantle them from the inside.  Sammo Hung and Tony Leung also star.

REVIEW LINK: Well Go USA (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

RISE OF THE LEGEND Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.40:1 widescreen
• Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles
• Making-of featurette (5 parts)
• Trailer
• Previews

Vinegar Syndrome gets caught up in THE HUMAN TORNADO (review)

Rudy Ray Moore is back as Dolemite in THE HUMAN TORNADO.  Escaping a racist Alabama sheriff for Los Angeles, Dolemite and his buddies discover that club owner Queen Bee and her girls are being force to work for the mob.

REVIEW LINK: Vinegar Syndrome (US) Region ALL Blu-ray/Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

THE HUMAN TORNADO Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:

• Blu-ray:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono
• DVD:
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Audio Commentary by Rudy Ray Moore biographer Mark Jason Murray and actor Jimmy Lynch
• Alternate German-dubbed version DER BASTARD
• "I, Dolemite Part II" featurette with Rudy Ray Moore, director Cliff Roquemore's sons, actor Jimmy Lynch, writer Jerry Jones, and cameraman Nicholas Joseph Von Sternberg
• Audio Interview with Cliff Roquemore and martial arts choreographer Howard Jackson
• Full soundtrack with alternate cues and single versions (103 minutes)
• Still Gallery
• Radio Spot
• Theatrical Trailer
• Reversible Cover