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Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Classic Films on Blu-ray: February 21, 2017

classic-films-on-blu-ray-21-february-2017

The oldies but goldies released on Blu-ray on the week of February 21, 2017 include the 2001 anime "Metropolis", the 1995 Sandra Bullock thriller "The Net", the Jean-Claude Van Damme martial arts film "No Retreat, No Surrender", Pedro Almodovar's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and the 1945 noir drama "Mildred Pierce" starring Joan Crawford.

Check out all the new movies and TV shows released on DVD and Blu-ray after the jump.





METROPOLIS (2001)


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Product Description: Brace yourself for a totally new experience in cutting-edge animation. Based on the classic comic created by Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy), written by Japanese anime legend Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and directed by Rintaro (Galaxy Express 999), Metropolis is a spectacular film featuring stunning imagery and unforgettable characters. In the industrial, tri-level world of Metropolis, Duke Red is a powerful leader with plans to unveil a highly advanced robot named Tima. But Duke Red's violent son Rock distrusts robots, and intends to find and destroy Tima. Lost in the confusing labyrinth beneath Metropolis, Tima is beginning a friendship with the young nephew of a Japanese detective. But when Duke Red separates the two innocents, Tima's life - and the fate of the universe - is dangerously at stake.

Purchasing Links: Blu-ray

Director: Rintaro

Starring: Scott Weinger, Jamieson Price, Michael Reisz

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 108 min

Rating: PG-13 for violence and images of destruction

Language: English

Studio: Sony

Special Features:
  • None




THE NET (1995)


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Product Description: Sandra Bullock, Dennis Miller and Jeremy Northam star in this hit thriller about a computer expert whose life is "erased" by a computer conspiracy. A freelance software analyst, Angela Bennett, is inadvertently drawn into a dangerous conspiracy when a client asks her to de-bug a CD-ROM game. Soon the client turns up dead and Angela is next on the hit-list. After the assassins obliterate her official identity, Angela realizes hers is not the only life being destroyed on the Net. Like the best Hitchcock, THE NET builds tension to unbearable heights until "this edge of your seat nail-biter explodes with suspense. Sandra Bullock is sensational." (Jeanne Wolf, Jeanne Wolf's Hollywood)

Purchasing Links: Blu-ray

Director: Irwin Winkler

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, Dennis Miller

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Runtime: 114 min

Rating: PG-13 for violence, some sexuality and brief strong language

Language: English

Studio: Sony

Special Features:
  • None




NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER (1986)


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Product Description: Ivan The Russian Butcher Kraschinsky (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Hard Target, Double Impact) faces off with Jason Kid Karate Stillwell (Kurt McKinney, Sworn to Justice) in a do-or-die battle between good and evil. Jason is an avid admirer of Bruce Lee, but has suffered countless defeats. At his lowest emotional ebb Jason is visited by Bruce Lee s spirit (Kim Tai Chong, Game of Death) offering to teach him all his closely guarded secrets. Jason s training is quickly put to its ultimate test when a crime syndicate threatens to take over Seattle as the fate of Jason s karate school hangs in the balance. Jason is forced to submit to a trial by combat against the syndicate champion, Ivan, an unstoppable butcher who has made mincemeat out of all the black belts he s faced before and there s no retreat and no surrender. Directed by action-great Corey Yuen (The Transporter and Jet Li s The Legend and The Legend II). This release includes both the international cut and U.S. theatrical cut, available for the first time in HD.

Purchasing Links: Blu-ray

Director: Corey Yuen

Starring: Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme, J.W. Fails

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Runtime: 85 min

Rating: PG

Language: English

Studio: Kino Lorber

Special Features:
  • Interview with Star Kurt McKinney
  • Audio Commentary by Screenwriter Keith W. Strandberg
  • Reverse Blu-ray Art
  • Original Theatrical Trailers




WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988)


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Product Description: Pedro Almodóvar makes telephones, a mambo taxi, and a burning mattress into delirious plot points and indelible images in his international breakthrough, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Melding melodrama with screwball farce, this Academy Award–nominated black comedy secured the auteur’s place at the vanguard of modern Spanish cinema. Continuing Almodóvar’s exploration of the female psyche, the film tells the story of Pepa, an actor—played by the director’s frequent collaborator Carmen Maura—who resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a string of visitors, setting in motion a deliciously chaotic series of events. The filmmaker channeled inspiration by the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk into his own unique vision, arriving at the irreverent sense of humor and vibrant visual sense that define his work today. With a sensational ensemble cast of early Almodóvar regulars that also includes Antonio Banderas and Rossy de Palma, this film shows an artist in total control of his craft.

Purchasing Links: Criterion Collection Blu-ray

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Starring: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, María Barranco

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Runtime: 88 min

Rating: R

Language: English

Studio: Criterion Collection

Special Features:
  • New interviews with director Pedro Almodóvar, actor Carmen Maura, and producer Agustín Almodóvar
  • New discussion by film scholar Richard Peña of the film’s impact in Spain and abroad
  • Trailer
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Elvira Lindo




PSYCHOMANIA (1973)


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Product Description: The United States gave motorcycle-mad cinemagoers Easy Rider, The Wild One and The Wild Angels. The United Kingdom gave them Psychomania, the tale of zombie bikers run amok is southern England. The Living Dead are a delinquent biker gang, fond of causing havoc on British roadways and making out in graveyards. Gang leader Tom (Nicky Henson) also has a Satanist for a mother, and when he discovers the secret of immortality, the name of his motley crew takes on a more literal meaning... Directed by Hammer veteran Don Sharp (The Kiss of the Vampire, The Devil-Ship Pirates) and co-starring Beryl Reid (Dr. Phibes Rises Again) and George Sanders (Village of the Damned), Psychomania is a wonderfully offbeat gem, outlandish and eccentric in equal measure.

Purchasing Links: Blu-ray + DVD

Director: Don Sharp

Starring: Nicky Henson, Beryl Reid, George Sanders

Genre: Horror

Runtime: 85 min

Rating: PG

Language: English

Studio: Arrow Video

Special Features:
  • Brand-new interview with star Nicky Henson
  • Return of the Living Dead, an archive featurette containing interviews actors Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, Roy Holder and Rocky Taylor
  • Sound of Psychomania, an archive interview with composer John Cameron
  • Riding Free, an archive interview with 'Riding Free' singer Harvey Andrews
  • Hell for Leather, a brand-new featurette on the company who supplied the film's costumes
  • Remastering Psychomania, a look at the film's restoration from the original 35mm black and white
  • separation masters
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by the Twins of Evil
  • First Pressing Only: Collector's booklet containing writing by Vic Pratt, William Fowler and Andrew Roberts




THE BOY FRIEND (1971)


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Product Description: The star has injured an ankle, but the show – and inexperienced stage assistant Polly Browne – must go on. Break a leg, kid. And don't let the presence of Hollywood director and talent scout Mr. De Thrill add any pressure. And so begins this colorful tale of theater hopefuls with stars in their eyes and greasepaint in their veins, a work that, under the guidance of director Ken Russell, is not just an affectionate filmization of Sandy Wilson's London/Broadway stage hit but also an homage to the movie stagings of Busby Berkeley – complete with imaginative use of kaleidoscopic top shots and rows of leggy chorines. Fashion icon Twiggy makes her screen debut as sweet-natured Polly, a role played earlier by Julie Andrews in her Broadway debut. Curtain up. Maybe someone will be discovered tonight.

Purchasing Links: Blu-ray

Director: Ken Russell

Starring: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian

Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance

Runtime: 137 min

Rating: G

Language: English

Studio: Warner Archive Collection

Special Features:
  • Vintage Featurette: All Talking…All Singing…All Dancing
  • Theatrical Trailer




MILDRED PIERCE (1945)


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Product Description: Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from the Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Its iconic performance by Joan Crawford as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford’s career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent’s tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain’s rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional.

Purchasing Links: Blu-ray

Director: Michael Curtiz

Starring: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott

Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Runtime: 111 min

Rating: Not Rated

Language: English

Studio: Criterion Collection

Special Features:
  • New conversation about 'Mildred Pierce' with critics Molly Haskell and Robert Polito
  • Excerpt from a 1970 episode of 'The David Frost Show' featuring actor Joan Crawford
  • 'Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star,' a 2002 feature-length documentary on Crawford’s life and career
  • Q&A with actor Ann Blyth from 2002, conducted by film historian Eddie Muller
  • Segment from a 1969 episode of 'Today' featuring novelist James M. Cain
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith








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