Nang Nak Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"Nang Nak" is set in the late 1860s and is based on a Thai legend of the supernatural. When war comes to Thailand, a young husband, Mak, leaves his newly pregnant wife and goes off to fulfill his duty as a soldier. A serious wound leaves Mak convalescing in Bangkok for many months, but eventually he becomes strong enough to return home. There he reunites with his devoted wife, Nak, and finally sees their infant son. However, it soon becomes evident that Nak's labor pains caused a singular transformation in her. The other villagers have come to fear Nak--and for good reason.

"Nang Nak" set box office records in Thailand when it was released in 1999. It even managed to outsell James Cameron's "Titanic" in that country, and it is easy to see why. Filmed among menacing rivers and lush jungles, "Nang Nak" is a visually stunning film grounded in a solid story line. From the beautiful shots of Thailand's flora and fauna to the chilling supernatural scenes (which occasionally have the slightest--and rather surprising--hint of Sam Raimi's distinctive cinematic style), director Nonzee Nimibutr immerses his audience in an enchanted world. If the film can be criticized for one thing, however, it may be said that the devotion paid to Image is too zealous. The actors chosen for the two lead roles sport close-trimmed modern hairstyles and ideal physiques, and this works against their credibility as village peasants. Also, some of the most evocative nature sequences in the film are edited too aggressively; hence these images are denied some of the power they might have achieved in the hands of, say, Werner Herzog or Terrence Malick. Even so, "Nang Nak" has plenty of power and poetry to spare.

(A cultural/historical note: The unusual and rather startling blackened teeth of the villagers in the film are due to the practice of chewing beechnuts. Notice that at a certain point in the film one of these nuts is placed in a corpse's mouth as it is prepared for burial.)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Nang Nak

NANG NAK tells the heartbreaking story of a loving husband and wife who are separated by war.The husband returns home to find his wife has given birth to their son.The reunion seems idyllic until Mak gradually awakens to the horrifying truth that both his wife and child had died while he was serving his country.

Click here for more information about Nang Nak

Read More...

The Hills Run Red Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)THE HILLS RUN RED is a fine film that has been somewhat hamstrung by its reputation. Difficult to see for many years until the Japanese DVD release from Stingray and the new DVD release from MGM, like many movies that have been out of circulation for some time the movie acquired a slightly inflated reputation. Whilst it's a good film, an enjoyable romp for most fans of the Italian Western, it's a hyperbolic tale of revenge and therefore like most films from this very particular subgenre the movie is something of an acquired taste.
However, when all is said and done, it has to be said that THE HILLS RUN RED isn't Lizzani's best Italian Western: for me, it's not as impressive as the bizarre REQUIESCANT/KILL AND PRAY. However, it's at the top end of the movies made in the early years of the Italian Western craze, and it's great to see the movie finally receive a fine presentation on the DVD format.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Hills Run Red

Studio: Tcfhe/mgmRelease Date: 05/13/2008Run time: 89 minutesRating: Nr

Get 34% OFF

Click here for more information about The Hills Run Red

Read More...

The Sergio Leone Anthology (A Fistful Of Dollars / For A Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad And The Ugly / Duck, You Sucker) (1967) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Prepared for release in 2005 we've only had to wait two years for this deluxe reissue of three of the four Leone films included here. For those that want to know this box set has a 32 page booklet with credits and essays on the films but no postcards like the original release of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". If you want the collectable version, I suppose you'll have to buy these individually. This set is definitely worth picking up as it is a HUGE improvement over all the previously released home video versions of the film. All the films look terrific, have commentary tracks (although "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" is the exact same release as before)and great featurettes/extras that were released overseas two years ago."Fistful of Dollars" looks very good in its new DVD transfer lovingly restored although there is an odd strobe like effect in one sequence. We get a terrific commentary track from Leone scholar Sir Christopher Frayling discussing the making of the film, the delayed release in the United States (part of which was related to Akira Kurosawa's lawsuit. It was legit though since "Fistful" is an unauthorized remake of Kurosawa's classic "Yojimbo" although Leone's version of the same story is equally compelling), how Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson (who called it one of the worst scripts he had ever read...interesting considering he later appeared in "Once Upon a Time in the West")both turned down the lead role.
Eastwood reveals in a featurette that he wrote much of his own dialogue for the film, made his own script notes all of which contributed to truly making the role his own.
"For a Few Dollars More" looks exceptional. Like all the films here, it is released in an anamorphic widscreen transfer that does justice to the deep, rich colors of the films. There is one scene where there appears to be some sort of scratch on the film that wasn't corrected but otherwise the film looks beautiful. We also get Eastwood again discussing the making of the film, Sir Christopher Frayling with another very good commentary track as well as a section that compares three variations in the film (the sequence where Manco and Mortimer are beaten up has a slightly longer more brutal variation and we also see the way UA released the film with a brief trim that eliminated Manco's name to tie the film into the promo campagin that UA had for "The Man with No Name").
"The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" is exactly the same as the 2005 release on DVD right down to the graphics on the disc. Sir Christopher Frayling did record a commentary track for this after it was released hoping that it could be added to later editions (he wasn't available for the original remaster. Time critic Richard Schickel does the honors here). The extras are exactly the same. For those that are interested this includes the 5.1 mix that had new sound effects for that mix but does not include the original mono soundtrack in English.
"Duck You Sucker" comes in the most complete version released so far. At 157 minutes it is closest to Leone's original cut of the film. The film looks exceptionally good. It's clear that John Kirk went the extra mile to get this right. Also, kudos to Glenn Erickson (aka DVD Savant at DVD Talk)who worked on the featurettes and started the campaign to get these films restored and released on home video ages ago.
Again, Sir Christopher Frayling does a very good commentary track discussing the various versions of the film released. The soundtraack has been reprocessed for 5.1. Sergio Donati a collaborator of Leone's discusses working on the film in a featurette and how Eli Wallach was replaced by Rod Steiger at United Artist's insistance but that Leone never shared the information with Wallach. "Restoration Italian Style" features John Kirk who worked on this special project discusses how he went about reassembling the film for this edition. We also get location comparisons (this is also on the other discs as well)showing scenes from the film and how the locations look now. "The Autry Exhibit" is a featurette on a show assembled by Frayling and Estela Chung for a Leone exhibit. Unfortunately, that happened in 2005 when this was ORIGINALLY was supposed to be released before MGM was bought by Sony throwing this and other releases into limbo. "Sorting out the Versions" uses stills, footage used to show us scenes that weren't included in the movie.
The whole set is assembled in a cardboard foldout box with the discs resting on top of each other. There's a little holder built into the set for the booklet.
Overall this is a terrific set and an essential addition to fans of Leone's westerns. Although it took two years to get this released in the United States (that's nothing compared to the delay for the second season of "Twin Peaks" for even the release of the pilot for that show in the U.S.), it was worth the wait. I'm not sure what the Blu-Ray plans are for this release yet so I went ahead and plunked down the money for the whole set. Fans who already have "TGTBATU" may want to buy these individually although it would be more expensive than this set. MGM (and Fox which distributes all MGM titles now even though MGM is held by Sony)have done a terrific job with this set. My only complaint is that it would have been nice to have the collectable postcards that reproduced the lobby cards/posters. Highly recommended.


Click Here to see more reviews about: The Sergio Leone Anthology (A Fistful Of Dollars / For A Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad And The Ugly / Duck, You Sucker) (1967)

Disc 1: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY Collector's Edition Disc 2: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY Bonus Disc Disc 3: A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS Collector's Edition Disc 4: A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS Bonus Disc Disc 5: FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE Collector's Edition Disc 6: FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE Bonus Disc Disc 7: DUCK, YOU SUCKER (A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE) Collector's Edition Disc 8: DUCK, YOU SUCKER (A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE) Bonus Disc

Get 25% OFF

Click here for more information about The Sergio Leone Anthology (A Fistful Of Dollars / For A Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad And The Ugly / Duck, You Sucker) (1967)

Read More...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1966) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)MGM released a DVD edition of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the late 1990s, but it had few extras, a mono soundtrack, and a scratched print. Finally, MGM has given Sergio Leone's Western epic the double-disc special edition it deserves. The print is restored and as clear as I've ever seen it, the sound is now an astonishing 5.1 Surround (listen to the glass falling off Tuco after he springs through the window in the opening sequence!) nineteen minutes of footage from the Italian original have been restored, and the discs are packed with extras. Even the packaging is great: a sturdy interlocking box, with the DVDs kept in the upper and bottom parts of the two lids. Also inside the box are cards containing posters for the film in five different countries.
The film, like most of the European Westerns of the 1960s, was critically disregarded in its day. The New York Times said of it: "the most expensive, pious, and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre. There is scarcely a moment's respite from the pain." It's amazing how people missed the brilliance of this movie, which turned Western conventions upside down in such a wonderfully bizarre, European way. Now the film is considered a classic, and only Sergio Leone's own "Once Upon a Time in the West" (another great 2 DVD set, by the way) has more respect in the genre. Leone's strange style -- stretched out time, obsession with close-ups and extreme wide-shots, focus on rituals, and use of Morricone's wild and avant-garde score -- are all in full force in this tale of three treasure-seekers searching for a cache of gold coins on the Texas-New Mexico border during the Civil War. The implacable and unflappable 'hero' Blondie (Clint Eastwood), the crazy comic bandit Tuco (Eli Wallach), and the calculating immoral sadist Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) cross each other's paths amidst the senseless violence of the war. Leone perfectly contrasts the self-interested men with the greater backdrop of the tragedy of war. It's a strangely emotionally affecting picture despite its focus on three men who are detached from normal society and seem not to care about anything but money. So many individual scenes stand out for their virtuosity that the movie a parade of "greatest hits." Most astonishing of all is "The Ecstasy of Gold" sequence where Tuco dashes madly through a cemetery, looking for the grave that might hold the gold. Morricone's music here is especially overwhelming.
Chances are you've seen the film and love it. What about the new scenes and the extras?
Nineteen minutes of footage have been restored that were never shown in the American prints. The scenes integrate perfectly into the film, and after seeing them once, you won't be able to imagine they were ever missing. Among the scenes are Angel Eyes visiting a destroyed fort; Tuco hiring bandits to help him chase Blondie; Blondie and Angel Eyes having a face-to-face when they first set out together to find the gold; and some extra conversation between Tuco and Blondie in the desert. However, these scenes were never dubbed into English in the 1960s. Therefore, the DVD producers had to newly dub them. Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood do their own voices. An actor named Simon Prescott does the imitation of the deceased Lee Van Cleef. Admittedly, Wallach and Eastwood no longer sound the same, but I couldn't imagine someone else imitating their voices -- it couldn't have been done any other way. Prescott is pretty good as Angel Eyes, if a bit more gravelly.
The extras...
Disc 1 has audio commentary by Richard Shickel, a film historian who wrote Eastwood's biography and also did commentary on Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" DVD. His comments can be pretty dry, and he focuses mostly on Leone's style and techniques instead of on background information on the filming itself. Nonetheless, there are many interesting insights, and Shickel manages to say a lot during the three-hour running time.
Most of the extras are on Disc 2:
"Leone's West" -- A 20-minute documentary about the making of the film. Includes interviews with Shickel, producer Alberto Grimaldi, author of the English dialogue Mickey Knox, and best of all, Eastwood and Wallach. There's some very interesting info and memories here, mostly from Knox and the two actors.
"The Leone Style" -- A 23-minute documentary, really just an extension of the first one. It spends more time on Leone's unusual techniques. The same interviewees appear here.
"The Man Who Lost the Civil War" -- A 14-minute documentary that was produced separately from the DVD. It makes no mention of the movie, but is about its historical backdrop: the disastrous General Sibley campaign in Texas. Sibley appears in the film briefly, and this short documentary gives the viewer an important insight into the world of Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes.
"Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" -- An 11 minute look into the painstaking work involved with fixing the picture and sound, restoring the cut scenes, and re-dubbing it.
"Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone" -- 8 minutes; mostly an interview with music scholar John Burlingame about the film's score. At the end of the feature, you can choose to listen to an audio-only twelve-minute lecture by Burlingame that provides a much more in-depth analysis of the music.
"Deleted Scenes" -- Two scenes couldn't go back into the film. The extended torture scene had a damaged negative, so here it is in its rougher state. An apparently lost scene is reconstructed through text, stills, and clips from the French trailer.
Finally, there's a gallery of posters, the original trailer, and MGM tossing in some gratuitous advertising for their other films.
Don't miss this DVD. Not only is it one of the great action films and one the great westerns, but it's the kind of release that the DVD format was invented for!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1966)

By far the most ambitious, unflinchingly graphic and stylistically influential western ever mounted, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an engrossing actioner shot through with a volatile mix of myth and realism. Clint Eastwood returns as the "Man With No Name," this time teaming with two gunslingers (Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef) to pursue a cache of $200,000and letting no one, not even warring factions in a civil war, stand in their way. From sun-drenched panoramas to bold,hard close-ups, exceptional camera work captures the beauty and cruelty of the barren landscape andthe hardened characters who stride unwaveringly through it. Forging a vibrant and yet detached style of action that had not been seen before, and has never been matched since, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly shatters the western mold in true Clint Eastwood style.
Audio: English: Mono, 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio / Spanish & French: 5.1 Dolby Digital
Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & Spanish
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 2.35:1

Get 36% OFF

Click here for more information about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1966)

Read More...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)MGM released a DVD edition of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the late 1990s, but it had few extras, a mono soundtrack, and a scratched print. Finally, MGM has given Sergio Leone's Western epic the double-disc special edition it deserves. The print is restored and as clear as I've ever seen it, the sound is now an astonishing 5.1 Surround (listen to the glass falling off Tuco after he springs through the window in the opening sequence!) nineteen minutes of footage from the Italian original have been restored, and the discs are packed with extras. Even the packaging is great: a sturdy interlocking box, with the DVDs kept in the upper and bottom parts of the two lids. Also inside the box are cards containing posters for the film in five different countries.
The film, like most of the European Westerns of the 1960s, was critically disregarded in its day. The New York Times said of it: "the most expensive, pious, and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre. There is scarcely a moment's respite from the pain." It's amazing how people missed the brilliance of this movie, which turned Western conventions upside down in such a wonderfully bizarre, European way. Now the film is considered a classic, and only Sergio Leone's own "Once Upon a Time in the West" (another great 2 DVD set, by the way) has more respect in the genre. Leone's strange style -- stretched out time, obsession with close-ups and extreme wide-shots, focus on rituals, and use of Morricone's wild and avant-garde score -- are all in full force in this tale of three treasure-seekers searching for a cache of gold coins on the Texas-New Mexico border during the Civil War. The implacable and unflappable 'hero' Blondie (Clint Eastwood), the crazy comic bandit Tuco (Eli Wallach), and the calculating immoral sadist Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) cross each other's paths amidst the senseless violence of the war. Leone perfectly contrasts the self-interested men with the greater backdrop of the tragedy of war. It's a strangely emotionally affecting picture despite its focus on three men who are detached from normal society and seem not to care about anything but money. So many individual scenes stand out for their virtuosity that the movie a parade of "greatest hits." Most astonishing of all is "The Ecstasy of Gold" sequence where Tuco dashes madly through a cemetery, looking for the grave that might hold the gold. Morricone's music here is especially overwhelming.
Chances are you've seen the film and love it. What about the new scenes and the extras?
Nineteen minutes of footage have been restored that were never shown in the American prints. The scenes integrate perfectly into the film, and after seeing them once, you won't be able to imagine they were ever missing. Among the scenes are Angel Eyes visiting a destroyed fort; Tuco hiring bandits to help him chase Blondie; Blondie and Angel Eyes having a face-to-face when they first set out together to find the gold; and some extra conversation between Tuco and Blondie in the desert. However, these scenes were never dubbed into English in the 1960s. Therefore, the DVD producers had to newly dub them. Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood do their own voices. An actor named Simon Prescott does the imitation of the deceased Lee Van Cleef. Admittedly, Wallach and Eastwood no longer sound the same, but I couldn't imagine someone else imitating their voices -- it couldn't have been done any other way. Prescott is pretty good as Angel Eyes, if a bit more gravelly.
The extras...
Disc 1 has audio commentary by Richard Shickel, a film historian who wrote Eastwood's biography and also did commentary on Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" DVD. His comments can be pretty dry, and he focuses mostly on Leone's style and techniques instead of on background information on the filming itself. Nonetheless, there are many interesting insights, and Shickel manages to say a lot during the three-hour running time.
Most of the extras are on Disc 2:
"Leone's West" -- A 20-minute documentary about the making of the film. Includes interviews with Shickel, producer Alberto Grimaldi, author of the English dialogue Mickey Knox, and best of all, Eastwood and Wallach. There's some very interesting info and memories here, mostly from Knox and the two actors.
"The Leone Style" -- A 23-minute documentary, really just an extension of the first one. It spends more time on Leone's unusual techniques. The same interviewees appear here.
"The Man Who Lost the Civil War" -- A 14-minute documentary that was produced separately from the DVD. It makes no mention of the movie, but is about its historical backdrop: the disastrous General Sibley campaign in Texas. Sibley appears in the film briefly, and this short documentary gives the viewer an important insight into the world of Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes.
"Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" -- An 11 minute look into the painstaking work involved with fixing the picture and sound, restoring the cut scenes, and re-dubbing it.
"Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone" -- 8 minutes; mostly an interview with music scholar John Burlingame about the film's score. At the end of the feature, you can choose to listen to an audio-only twelve-minute lecture by Burlingame that provides a much more in-depth analysis of the music.
"Deleted Scenes" -- Two scenes couldn't go back into the film. The extended torture scene had a damaged negative, so here it is in its rougher state. An apparently lost scene is reconstructed through text, stills, and clips from the French trailer.
Finally, there's a gallery of posters, the original trailer, and MGM tossing in some gratuitous advertising for their other films.
Don't miss this DVD. Not only is it one of the great action films and one the great westerns, but it's the kind of release that the DVD format was invented for!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967)

By far the most ambitious, unflinchingly graphic and stylistically influential western ever mounted, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an engrossing actioner shot through with a volatile mix of myth and realism. Clint Eastwood returns as the "Man With No Name," this time teaming with two gunslingers (Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef) to pursue a cache of $200,000and letting no one, not even warring factions in a civil war, stand in their way.From sun-drenched panoramas to bold,hard close-ups, exceptional camera work captures the beauty and cruelty of the barren landscape andthe hardened characters who stride unwaveringly through it. Forging a vibrant and yet detached style of action that had not been seen before, and has never been matched since, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly shatters the western mold in true Clint Eastwood style.

Get 27% OFF

Click here for more information about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967)

Read More...