As a quick look over at the current reviews should tell you I spent an awful lot of time today sitting on the couch going through DVD and BluRay discs that had arrived and been neglected while I was busy with the TIFF / Fantastic Fest / Sitges troika of festivals. And as many as are included in depth over there, there are still a couple more worth touching on in a slightly more cursory way.
First, Paul Spurrier's Thai ghost story P is finally available on North American DVD. A chilling bit of work that turned an awful lot of heads when it first appeared on the scene a few years ago, P has been in a state of limbo for a good long time thanks to the collapse of Tartan and their subsequent buyout and reorganization by Palisades. It is the newly launched Palisades Tartan that are releasing this one after a delay of years and - honestly - it appears as though all of the DVD authoring was completed before the collapse, with the new company simply releasing what the old company had intended to. This isn't actually a significant issue - the transfer of the film itself is solid enough and fully anamorphic - but it is a bit surprising to see a DVD menu screen come up in 4:3 these days. The film itself is solid, with Spurrier providing an optional audio commentary - a very detailed one - with other features including a music video, a behind the scenes reel and a very funny, very tongue in cheek tour of the actual go-go bar district of Bangkok.
Also freshly released is Enzo Castellari's Eagles Over London, an early war picture from the man now best known for creating the original Inglorious Bastards. As a piece of entertainment, I found Eagles to be a bit lacklustre. The pace seems to drag and despite the presence of Van Johnson and Fredrick Stafford in the cast there's a shortage of memorable characters. What it does do well, however, are some massive scale battles and recreations of historical events - among them the mass exodus of British troops from Europe at Dunkirk. This is a film with a literal cast of thousands and the scope of Catellari's vision is simply staggering in places. Severin have given this one a release on both DVD and BluRay and the quality is quite strong, though the bonus features are limited to an interview segment between Catellari and Quentin Tarantino - with the Italian director mostly looking like he's just trying to figure out what the hell Quentin's going on about - and an appearance by the director himself at a rare LA screening of the film.
First, Paul Spurrier's Thai ghost story P is finally available on North American DVD. A chilling bit of work that turned an awful lot of heads when it first appeared on the scene a few years ago, P has been in a state of limbo for a good long time thanks to the collapse of Tartan and their subsequent buyout and reorganization by Palisades. It is the newly launched Palisades Tartan that are releasing this one after a delay of years and - honestly - it appears as though all of the DVD authoring was completed before the collapse, with the new company simply releasing what the old company had intended to. This isn't actually a significant issue - the transfer of the film itself is solid enough and fully anamorphic - but it is a bit surprising to see a DVD menu screen come up in 4:3 these days. The film itself is solid, with Spurrier providing an optional audio commentary - a very detailed one - with other features including a music video, a behind the scenes reel and a very funny, very tongue in cheek tour of the actual go-go bar district of Bangkok.
Also freshly released is Enzo Castellari's Eagles Over London, an early war picture from the man now best known for creating the original Inglorious Bastards. As a piece of entertainment, I found Eagles to be a bit lacklustre. The pace seems to drag and despite the presence of Van Johnson and Fredrick Stafford in the cast there's a shortage of memorable characters. What it does do well, however, are some massive scale battles and recreations of historical events - among them the mass exodus of British troops from Europe at Dunkirk. This is a film with a literal cast of thousands and the scope of Catellari's vision is simply staggering in places. Severin have given this one a release on both DVD and BluRay and the quality is quite strong, though the bonus features are limited to an interview segment between Catellari and Quentin Tarantino - with the Italian director mostly looking like he's just trying to figure out what the hell Quentin's going on about - and an appearance by the director himself at a rare LA screening of the film.
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