VCI Entertainment Brings Gorgo To Blu-ray On Mar. 19

It didn’t stomp Tokyo, but watch out London … here comes Gorgo!

VCI Entertainment has a new hi-def transfer and a complete restoration of this 1961 giant monster classic ready as an “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” for both Blu-ray and DVD on Mar. 19.

The cycle began in 1953 with The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.  Giant ants (Them), spiders (Tarantula) and more quickly followed.  The “giant monster” genre got some more wind at its back when Godzilla: King of the Monsters arrived in domestic waters in 1956 (released in Japan two years earlier), recut and complete with an American star (Raymond Burr).

Of course you could always go back to King Kong and the like, but we are talking about post-war monsters, usually spawned by radiation — the nuclear age.   We were treated to giant crabs (Attack of the Crab Monsters), scorpions (The Black Scorpion), a preying mantis (The Deadly Mantis) and even giant men and women (The Amazing Colossal Man; Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) during the heyday of the cycle.   

It was the nuclear age.  It was the baby boom.  It was era of the giant beasts!   The cycle continued well into the 60s and sort of petered out (and mocked) when Marv Newland’s 1969 brilliant bit of animation surfaced and put both an exclamation point on and a period to the cycle … Bambi Meets Godzilla said enough; enough already!

But it was in 1961 that filmmaker Eugène Lourié, the same director that launched the cycle with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in 1953 (and followed with The Giant Behemoth in 1959), who first signaled that the end was coming with one last “big splash,” Gorgo.   

And if you’ll recall (fondly), Gorgo the giant monster captured early on off of the coast of Ireland is just a little guy.  Sure, he’s plenty big all right, but it’s his mother, Ogra, who comes to his rescue and destroys all of London in the process!   

As to bonus nuggets included on the DVD and Blu-ray SKUs from VCI Entertainment, be prepared to enjoy Daniel Griffith’s new documentary, “Ninth Wonder of the World: The Making of Gorgo,” plus a photo gallery, a pressbook gallery, an extensive collection of theatrical posters and lobby cards, plus the Gorgo video comic book ... and more!

Not done yet.  VCI Entertainment also has a pair of DVD double features planned for release on Mar. 19 under the “Creepy Creature Double Feature” promotional banner.

The first double bill is Monster From the Ocean Floor (1954, with Stuart Wade and Anne Kimbell) and Serpent Island (1954, Sonny Tufts), while the other double feature presentation includes The Crawling Hand (1963) and The Slime People (also 1963, with Robert Hutton and Les Tremayne).   

Both SKUs are priced at just $14.98 each and include bonus treats.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Blu-ray Ekes Out 2012 SKU Growth ... By A Whisker

It took a year-end recount coupled with a tedious search for indie Blu-ray product sources (and all that entails in trying to figure out when some of these jokers actually released their stuff) to push the final Blu-ray SKU count up and over the 2011 total.

In 2011 there were 1,886 confirmed Blu-ray product offerings.  Last year the number (thus far, with a few stragglers still in the wind) stands at 1,909 … that meager up-tick represents a year-over-year gain of 1.22 percent.

For a format that is just seven years into its lifecycle to suddenly go flat — in terms of new SKU growth — is an event that should be viewed with some degree of concern for those involved in the home entertainment packaged media business.  Or maybe not … perhaps suppliers are engaged in “rational” behavior.

If the truth be known, the format has never really taken off.   Oh sure the sales numbers have soared, but there’s a good deal robbing Paul to pay Peter embedded in that growth.

For consumers the marginal increase in resolution offered by the Blu-ray format over DVD has simply not been the same drawing card as DVD was to VHS.

There are other factors that have inhibited the growth of Blu-ray, again, in terms of SKU counts.   GIGO is certainly an issue.   Some stuff just doesn’t work; it doesn’t translate to hi-def.

Price is also a factor, but not just the new-to-new differential between a DVD and a Blu-ray release of the same title.   Trying to promote Blu-ray catalog is difficult when the consumer is more than willing to buy used DVDs (they’ve discovered that it is not the same value proposition as the crap shoot of purchasing used VHS) at just a fraction of the cost of the same title on Blu-ray … that’s a killer.

Unless it’s a genre-specific or a title-specific purchase, most films are simply there for consumption.   The vast majority are viewed once and it is time to move on … not everything can be Star Wars.

Throw in changes in the retail environment and a less than stellar economy and you have plenty of reasons for a go-slow approach to the Blu-ray format since its inception.

Since the focus for Blu-ray has been on New Theatrical (and hit New Theatrical releases at that) sales, this too has proven to be something of a trap.  The studios can only generate 98 to 105 of these new golden eggs per year ($25 million plus at the box office).   It’s a function of available screens and available seats at the multiplex level.

It’s hard to make a business out of two new product offerings per week on average. 

Trying to mine the catalog — it would appear — has also been frustrating.  Price (especially when you factor in all of the used product out there) versus the marginal increase in resolution seems to be a major factor in keeping SKU counts for Blu-ray from moving to ever-higher levels.    

You don’t have to sit in a sales meeting at a major Hollywood studio to see what is going on.  You don’t have to be a fly on the wall, so to speak.  All you have to do is to look at their release behavior over an extended period of time to see what works … and what doesn’t.

You either accept or reject the notion that businesses behave in rational ways; it’s not a hobby.   If it doesn’t provide an acceptable ROI … then they don’t do it.

For example, during the DVD-exclusive period of 1997 through 2005 only 14.1 percent of all New Theatrical releases have been converted to Blu-ray.   The DVD format, on the other hand, converted 92.6 percent of all those films released theatrically during that period.  That is a huge difference.    

Clearly, suppliers are not making the money they expected on converting this mass of product to Blu-ray, otherwise they would not be bouncing along at 14.1 percent conversion rate.

We suspect that the Blu-ray format will continue to focus on New Theatrical and genre-specific film library releases, while DVD will remain the workhorse for most other categories.   

Only time will tell if Blu-ray becomes more of a storage medium and less of (or in addition to) a hi-def bells and whistles format … if that happens, then we could see a significant shift in release patterns.   Stay tuned.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Eagle Rock Entertainment's Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium – 25th Anniversary Edition Arrives On Mar. 12

Eagle Rock Entertainment announced this past week that on Mar. 12 the magical 1986 concert at Wembley by the rock group Queen will be re-released as a double-disc DVD SKU titled Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium – 25^th Anniversary Edition.    

There were two sold-out concerts (Friday, July 11^th and Saturday, July 12^th) … for the first time Eagle Rock has re-mastered both performances — a massive 26-song set on Friday, with two additional numbers on Saturday.

In addition to the concerts, there all sorts of bonus goodies, including secret footage of the group in rehearsal, newly prepared interviews with Roger Taylor and Brian May, plus a 2003 film featuring the same two original Queen band members.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
 

Cinema Libre's Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home Debuts On DVD, Mar. 19

“There, but by the grace of God, go I,” is a familiar prayer … often uttered as the windows are rolled up and the doors locked as one encounters a group of homeless.  It is easy to forget that they are people, with names and faces, who once had hopes, families and dreams.

In documentary filmmaker Thomas Napper’s Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home, due out on DVD from Cinema Libre on Mar. 19, eight of the homeless who reside on the streets of Los Angeles have their names and stories put with those faces of despair.   Narration is by Catherine Keener.

Within this structure of introducing us to the broken (almost always by drugs or mental illness … or both) Napper weaves in a history of the long-standing area just to the east of downtown Los Angeles between 3^rd and 7^th and bounded by Main on the west and Alameda to the east.   

The film can serve as a call to action or as a reminder that these too are people.  Or simply as a history of what is past is future … economic pressures and social failings seem to create an endless stream of new Skid Row citizens regardless of today or 80 years ago. 

 

No matter what you take away from viewing Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home it does get you to thinking … and that’s a good first step.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
 

Well Go U.S.A.'s Interview With A Hitman On DVD and Blu-ray Mar. 5

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Well Go U.S.A. has tabbed Mar. 5 as the street date for DVD and Blu-ray editions of writer/director Perry Bhandal’s debut flick, Interview With a Hitman.

One doesn’t normally get all that excited about indie filmmakers, working with a small budget and a tight shooting schedule, delivering their first feature film.   Unless there is studio backing or some other reason to sit up and take notice (for example, an A-list actor going behind the camera) these indie first-time efforts largely pass unnoticed. 

That’s not the case with Bhandal, who holds not one, but two master degrees in Film and Creative Writing and formed his own production company in 2009 — after an 18 year hiatus from the business.   It took two years of planning, but his under three week shooting schedule (England and Romania) for his own screenplay paid off in spades … Interview With a Hitman is one slick action flick.

It also doesn’t hurt to have Luke Goss (Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pressed, One Night with the King, Blade II, etc.) as your leading man/action star.   Here he plays Viktor, the son of a deadbeat gambler in debt to the mob … as a kid, rather than cringe in fear while dear old dad gets whacked, he goes over to the dark side and joins a Romanian mob.  Nasty boys … kill or be killed.

Growing up in Bucharest he quickly learned to follow orders.  "Kill that guy" and sure enough Viktor put a bullet in his head, no questions asked.   So when his “family” of killers turn on him, he’s smart enough to know that it’s time to get out of Dodge.   He fakes his own death and heads out to greener pastures in London. 

 

Look, make no mistake about it, Viktor isn’t a nice guy.  He’s a killer.  He’s the type of uber-professional that you would expect to see trading blows with 007 in a Bond thriller.  And sure enough, in no time he finds steady employment with some English chaps of the mob persuasion.   He's a pro ... the work is steady.

But when his old friends come looking for him (seems Viktor popped the boss on his way out of town) he has to go to his fallback position (the reset button, so to speak), which means … KILL or be killed and trust no one.

Interview With a Hitman is non-stop, pedal-to-the-metal action.   Slick and never out of control!   Well Go U.S.A. has a DVD and Blu-ray hit here … and we expect to see more out of Bhandal; this will not be a one-off fluke.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
 

Warner Home Video Adds The Factory To The Feb. 19 Release Calendar

It makes you wonder how some films are released theatrically and others are not.  Have audiences for gore, murder and mayhem become so jaded that a thinking-man’s thriller no longer qualifies for the local multiplex?   

“Give us blood,” they chant.  “Give us gore,” they scream.   It is that twisted?  That simple?   Perhaps if the N-word was used 105 times it would be a hit.

On paper it seemed dead-certain that Aussie actor/filmmaker Morgan O’Neill’s The Factory, starring the always-interesting John Cusack and Dexter’s Jennifer Carpenter would certainly get a theatrical break.    

But no, it has been sitting on the shelf for some time and only managed a couple of film fest screenings … now word comes from Warner Home Video that a DVD-only edition (with UltraViolet) will be heading home on Feb. 19.

Cusack and Carpenter are detectives in Buffalo — a dark and dreary Buffalo at that — investigating one sick and twisted case.   The Hooker-Killer (Dallas Roberts — The Walking Dead, The Good Wife, etc.) is a serial killer that specializes in the local ladies of the night … but there’s more going on than meets the eye with this bad boy.   And there are no bodies, they just disappear.

When he unwittingly selects a T-girl for an evening of fun, he does away with the “mistake” quickly and moves onto the next available target, which turns out to be an even bigger mistake for all concerned.   

It seems that the girl he snatched off the street was none other than Cusack’s daughter (Mae Whitman — The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Hope Floats, One Fine Day, etc.), who was looking a little too slutty on that particular street (she had just stepped out for a smoke ... a lesson learned the hard way that smoking is bad for your health).  A simple mistake, but that little slip-up drives Cusack right off the edge.   The clock is ticking and he has to cut corners to save his “baby.”  

So you got a crazed cop chasing a serial killer?   That’s only half of it.  It seems our Hooker-Killer has a little business on the side (no reveals here) and a partner (unwilling) who is complicating the search.  Which of course drives Cusack even crazier!  

Despite arriving on the same day from Warner Home Video as Argo, don’t overlook The Factory … a nice double-bill for the evening: Argo and The Factory, think about it!

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Breaking Glass Pictures Sets Gaël Morel's Our Paradise For a Feb. 19 Debut

Breaking Glass Pictures goes over to the dark side of love with Our Paradise on Feb. 19 with the French-language import from actor-turned-writer/director Gaël Morel.

Vassili (Stéphane Rideau — Wild Reeds, Come Undone, etc.) is a “male escort,” who prefers robbery and violence to giving any sort of satisfaction to his customers.  Those days have slipped away.   He’s heading towards 40 and the dark streets of Paris offer neither prospects of a bright future or romance.

Surprise, surprise … after dealing with his latest “conquest” he stumbles across an unconscious young stud and doesn’t something quite unexpected.  He takes him home and tends to his wounds — a possible beating victim.  He was certainly in the right neighborhood for it … the streets can be a dangerous place.

He says is name is Angelo (Dimitri Durdaine in his film debut) and Vassili’s tender mercies turn into a passionate love affair … one that gets him to thinking.   Paris holds no future, so they take to the road to find their “paradise” and escape the sex and violence that permeates their lives.   Their combined attempts at hustling — even a little hi-tech hustling — doesn’t provide the satisfaction that Vassili yearns for … or Angelo appears to need.

Old friends; old acquaintances and an idyllic countryside (filmed in and around Lyon) seems to offer the two a future, but the violence; the frustrations of Vassili’s fading lifestyle are always there, ready to surface and take control.   

Jealousy, sex, frustration, violence and the dark side of love are all on view in Gaël Morel’s in critically-praised Our Paradise.

 To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report