DVDs, Movies

Return to the Black Hills Forest for a bewitching primal scream (or two) in “Witch Project”

A group of college students venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of their friend’s sister, who many believe is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch.

At first the group is hopeful, especially when a pair of locals offer to act as guides through the dark and winding woods, but as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. Slowly, they begin to realize the legend is all too real and more sinister than they could have imagined.

Nearly two decades after documentary filmmakers vanished in the groundbreaking film The Blair Witch Project, an investigative team searches for them and the truth behind their disappearance in Blair Witch. The flick has landed on Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital HD), DVD, Digital HD and On Demand from Lionsgate. From acclaimed filmmakers Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, Blair Witch stars James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Brandon Scott, Valorie Curry, Corbin Reid and Wes Robinson. An official selection of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, this much-buzzed-about film will haunt viewers far beyond the closing credits.

Also get buzzed with more than three hours of bonus features on the Blair Witch Blu-ray and Digital HD, including an audio commentary with director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett; the House of Horrors: Exploring the Set featurette; and a six-part making-of documentary, “Never Ending Night: The Making of Blair Witch”. The DVD release includes the audio commentary and the “House of Horrors: Exploring the Set” featurette. The Blu-ray Disc of Blair Witch will feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room.

Quite bewitching, eh?

 

Celebrity Chatter, DVDs, TV

Time Life celebrates Johnny Carson, his late-night gem and his friends in a new DVD series

Before the Seinfeld sitcom success, it started with Johnny’s couch.
Revisit that time with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Johnny and Friends featuring Jerry Seinfeld. This DVD includes three classic ’80s episodes, complete with commercials! Jerry Seinfeld is on Carson chum; other shows include Arnold Schwarzenegger, an 18-year-old named Andre Agassi and Oprah’s first Tonight Show appearance. Save the date: The recollections begin on January 10.
Featuring the best episodes from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, the Johnny and Friends series will include some of the best loved guests from The Tonight Show. Each DVD features full episodes-including original commercials-that showcase an amazing talent and true American icon who, across 30 years and 4,000 shows, paved the way for a late night TV revolution in memorable fashion.
The inaugural release stars Jerry Seinfeld before his eponymous sitcom rewrote TV history.  After his first appearance (May 6, 1981), Carson was impressed and Seinfeld became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In 1989, Seinfeld debuted on NBC, and by its fourth season, it had become the most popular and successful sitcom on American television.  This Johnny and Friends release features  pre-Seinfeld episodes, allowing home audiences to watch the evolution of the iconic comedian.
Episodes include: 
  • Show 1 (June 27, 1985) A true classic is now released from The Tonight Show Vaults!  Not only does this show feature an appearance by Jerry Seinfeld early in his career, but it also includes one of Johnny’s most famous sketches by The Mighty Carson Art Players: Mr. Rambo’s Neighborhood.
  • Show 2 (February 21, 1986) In this historic show from 1986, Seinfeld is joined by drag racer Shirley Muldowney, and that’s not all, watch as the future “Queen of all Media” meets the “King of Late Night” during the first appearance of Oprah Winfrey on The Tonight Show.
  • Show 3 (June 9, 1988) A star studded evening closes this DVD as Johnny’s guests include Seinfeld, Schwarzenegger and Agassi. 
Celebrity Chatter, DVDs, Movies

“Roseanne for President!” takes a spin on the funny lady’s 2012 run for The White House

Nearly 30 years after Roseanne Barr’s groundbreaking sitcom Roseanne became the No. 1 show on television, Roseanne for President! (IFC) brings you the story of the Emmy-winning actress and trailblazing comedian’s 2012 gonzo campaign for President of the United States.

Money was one of Barr’s signature talking points when she ran for president, first as a Green Party candidate and ultimately as the Peace and Freedom Party’s nominee.
And now, the movie. The flick was  directed by Michael Moore collaborator Eric Weinrib. Barr and Moore are also friends. He’s the person who encouraged her to film her campaign endeavor.
Having created a sitcom that changed the cultural landscape by revolutionizing what Americans think of family, class, race, gender and gay rights, Roseanne is uniquely qualified to fix well, everything.
Through the warped lens of the Barr Campaign, this surreal dark comedy examines the impact Roseanne’s work has had on society and who she is as a person. Her motivations for seeking office? They were the same motivations she’s had since her boundary-breaking eponymous sitcom: Never stop fighting for the less-privileged class.
Movies, TV

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds are still in “Bright Lights”; the highly-acclaimed HBO documentary airs this month

Carrie is dead. So is Debbie. The mother-daughter duo died just 24 hours apart. What better why for HBO to cash in than by airing the documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds? It  debuts Saturday, January 7 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).

https://youtu.be/E1EnDqhFU6I

HBO calls Bright Lights “an intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty, in all its eccentricity.” Carrie and her mother, Debbi, lived in the same Beverly Hills compound. The 83-year-old grand dame still has a Las Vegas act, but performing was taking its toll.

Carrie’s response is both hilarious and heart-rending. “Mother and I live next door to each other, separated by one daunting hill,” Carrie explains. “I usually come to her. I always come to her.” Featuring vintage family films that bring iconic old-world Hollywood to life, as well as extensive vérité footage, the film has been directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens.

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds has already received audience and critical acclaim at many prestigious film festivals, including the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. The documentary holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes; The Hollywood Reporter called it “warmly engaging” and a “tender tribute to two iconic women”, and compared it favorably to the Maysles Bros classic 1975 mother-daughter portrait, Grey Gardens.

The film was reportedly Fisher’s idea, who wanted to document Reynolds’ final live performances in Las Vegas two years ago, aged 82.

Not enough?

HBO’s 2010 special Wishful Drinking will receive an encore presentation on January 1 at 9 (ET/PT). This feature-length adaptation of Fisher’s hit autobiographical stage production tells the intoxicating tale of her life, combining her raucous one-woman stage performance, interviews with family and friends, and archival footage.

Celebrity Chatter, DVDs

Film Movement releases the sci-fi cult classic “The Quiet Earth”

Film Movement, the New York-based distributor of arthouse and independent films, has released Geoffrey Murphy’s sci-fi cult classic The Quiet Earth. It’s news that shouldn’t remain quiet: The 1985 flick is now available for the first time on DVD and  Blu-ray.

Bruno Lawrence stars as scientist Zac Hobson, a mid-level scientist working on a global energy project who wakes up to a nightmare. After his project malfunctions, he discovers that he may be the last man on Earth. As he searches empty cities for other survivors, Zac’s mental state begins to deteriorate, culminating in the film’s iconic and hotly debated ending.

Called “the best science fiction film of the ’80s” by the Los Angeles Daily News, The Quiet Earth is loosely based on Craig Harrison’s novel of the same name. With this film Geoff Murphy ushered in a renaissance of classic New Zealand films in the ’80s. The film, which was originally screenwriter and producer Sam Pillsbury’s project, was sold to 80 countries, gained a cult following and won Murphy attention in the United States.

The DVD and Blu-ray editions feature a unique bonus: Commentary by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Director of the Hayden Planetarium of the Natural History Museum in New York, together with rogerebert.com film critic Odie Henderson. FYI: The Quiet Man is one of deGrasse Tyson’s favorite science fiction films.

CDs, Celebrity Chatter, DVDs, Music

Don’t think twice, it’s all right: “50 Years with Peter Paul and Mary” is essential

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

I have such cherished memories of spending time with Mary Travers throughout the years. Then, on September 16, 2009, one day before my birthday, something happened to Mary: She died.

Now Peter and Paul, apostles of folk music, continue the legacy.

50 Years with Peter Paul and Mary  (MVD Entertainment Group) is a new documentary by four-time Emmy-winning producer/director Jim Brown that focuses on portions of the trio’s career not included in previously aired PBS specials. This program features rare and previously unseen television footage including a BBC program from the early ’60s that embodies many of the trio’s best performances and most popular songs.
This is Peter Paul and Mary at the peak of their artistry, a time when this popular and influential trio dominated the Billboard music charts.  From the group’s emergence in Greenwich Village, to the Civil Rights and Antiwar era of the 1960s, through the decades of their later advocacy and music, to Mary’s moving memorial, and finally to the present, where their legacy continues to inform and inspire successive generations, this far deeper and more intimate exploration of the trio reveals the impact of their artistry and activism on their generation and the world. Celebrate the trio whose anthems provided America’s soundtrack for generations. And still do.

Celebrity Chatter, DVDs, TV

Three broads (Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer and Hillary Clinton) and their “Broad City” (mis)adventures

Think of them a 2 broke girls.

Broad City is an odd couple comedy about two best friends navigating their twenties in Madhattan. Their (mis)adventures always lead down unexpected and outlandish paths. They’re broke, flawed and don’t shy away from the sticky situations NYC throws at them . . . they dive right into the shi…, er, muck. But no matter how bad it gets, these young broads are always down with whatever hits them.

Think of it as comedy central.

Upright Citizens Brigade alums Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer came up with the idea for the show; the gals also star and their dynamic relationship, combined with their impeccable comedic timing and chemistry, has been described as “passionate, funny and sometimes raunchy” by The New York Times.

Broad City: Season 3 hits stores on January 10. The two-disc set brings back TV’s baddest BFFs for a whole new set of adventures. Join Abbi, Ilana and a lineup of special guests as they find true love (or one-night stands), get high on life (among other things) and show New York City how it’s done. Just ask one of the season three’s guest stars, Hillary Clinton. 

Books, CDs, Music

Bazillion Points offers two hardcore books that appeal to punks, morbid angels and misfits

And we thought we knew all the publishing companies.

A random house that offers “the most authentic, detailed and sought-after books about Nirvana, Metallica, AC/DC, Black Flag, NYHC, California punk, Norwegian black metal, Swedish death metal, and much, much more”: Bazillion Points Books. The company, that calls itself “America’s smallest but heaviest book publisher”,  has expanded its comprehensive library with two essential new offerings from the world of horror punk/hardcore and death metal/grindcore.

No, George Michael and Madonna won’t be here. The books are no minor threats, simply improved editions of two cult books that deal authoritatively with matters near and dear to all dark hearts.

Misery Obscura: The Photography of Eerie Von ($29.95)
Beginning as the unofficial photographer for punk legends the Misfits and later taking charge of the bass guitar as a founding member of underground pioneers Samhain and metal gods Danzig, Eerie Von captured the dark heart of rock’s most vital bleeding edge during a time when rock and roll was not only dangerous, but downright menacing. Hundreds of “fly-on-the-wall” photos from the best seats in the house document everything from the Misfits’ humble beginnings in Lodi, New Jersey, to the heights of Danzig’s stadium-rock glory.  There are forewords by Lyle Preslar aned Mike D’Antonio; the book ships with a signed 8×10 full-cover lobby card.
Metallica’s lead guitarist coos: “Misery Obscura has an amazing fly-on-the-wall feel that is mesmerizing but unequivocal. He puts me right back in the 1980s, in the same space where the Misfits and Samhain were.”

Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore ($29.95)
Albert Mudrian’s widely praised blow-by-blow history of metal’s most relentless strains was first published in 2004. Picking up the gruesome path over a decade later, Mudrian leaves no tombstone unturned, delivers three new chapters, and expands existing material with the results of 50 new interviews. Brutal new 16-page color section features raw, bloody early photos of Death, Repulsion, Obituary, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Thanatos, At the Gates, Napalm Death, Carcass, Dismember, Nihilist, and many others. There are forewords by Scott Carlson of Repulsion and BBC DJ John Peel; the book ships with free limited color woven patch. Coos  Napalm Death (dis)member Shame Embury: “Albert Mudrian, our disciple of all that is heavy and extreme, definitively documents this period of blissful cacophony for all to behold. Play fast or die!”

Visit bazillionpoints.com . . . if you dare.

 

 

CDs, Music, Vinyl

Skip the New Year’s bubbly. Head straight for the “Fresh Cream.”

A most musically way to begin the New Year: The deluxe edition UMe release of Fresh Cream, the debut album by the British, blues boom power trio, Cream.

The 3-CD + 1 Blu-Ray audio disc come housed in a gatefold sleeve within a rigid slipcase and includes a 64-page hardback book, featuring new sleeve notes by respected Rolling Stone writer David Fricke. The set comprises various alternate and new stereo mixes plus several, previously unreleased BBC sessions. A special six-album 180g vinyl edition of Fresh Cream will also be released in April.

Can you name who was who?

Originally released in 1966, at the height of the UK blues bloom, Fresh Cream showcased the not inconsiderable talents of three of the then music scene’s brightest lights: Eric Clapton, fresh from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers; drummer, Ginger Baker, straight from the Graham Bond Organisation; Jack Bruce who, at the time, had just left Manfred Mann. Collectively the three had decided to give up their roles as much sought after sidemen to form their own super group.

Coming together as Cream in the early summer of 1966, the trio moved at impressive speed to make the release of Fresh Cream in December of the same year. Highlights include the racing harmonica work-out and the call and response excitements on Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”; a spine-tingling vocal on the Willie Dixon classic, “Spoonful”; as well as the self-penned “Sleepy Time Time”, which gave Clapton a free hand to wake up all and sundry. Their rousing treatment of the traditional standard, “Cat’s Squirrel” alerted listeners to just how well Clapton, Baker and Bruce musically complemented each other.

 

DVDs, Movies

Vestron Video Collector’s Series is a horror. That’s a bloody good compliment!

We must have been spending too much time cat-walking through catacombs since we just learned that  Lionsgate is exhuming classic horror films for the limited-edition Vestron Video Collector’s Series. Hours of materials have been assembled for the Vestron Video Collector’s Series Blu-ray releases, starting with six horror cult classics. Lionsgate vows fan will “taste the fear and the flesh, in shocking high definition for the first time, as teenagers meet their untimely demise at the hands of cannibals, killer robots, horror icons, sewer-dwelling monsters and an army of the undead!” Just the way we like it.

Starting with Chopping Mall and Blood Diner, and continuing with Waxwork and Waxwork II: Lost in Time Double Feature, Return of the Living Dead 3, and C.H.U.D. II: Bud the CHUD, these rereleases are for the collector and horror fan alike and will be available for a limited amount of time.

Other releases of grave matters . . .

Return of the Living Dead 3
Watch all of the terror in high definition when Curt transforms his girlfriend into a flesh-eating monster after her accidental death, in order to fulfill their pact to love each other forever. 

The Lair of the White Worm (available  on January 31). We can’t wait to hear the audio commentary by director Ken Russell.

https://youtu.be/y2jddx-qfWk

Parents (January 31)
In this black-comedy horror classic, a young boy in ’50s suburbia suspects his parents are cannibalistic murderers.

The Gate (February 28)
When two suburban kids accidentally open a portal filled with pint-sized demons hell-bent on taking over the planet, it’s up to them to seal the gateway and save mankind!