Kino Lorber Studio Classics

[Aunt Peg]

UFOria (1984) UHD and Blu-ray

Brand New HDR/DV Master!
Starring Cindy Williams, Harry Dean Stanton, Fred Ward & Harry Carey Jr. – Shot by David Myers (THX 1138) – Music by Richard Baskin (Welcome to L.A.) – Written & Directed by John Binder (Endangered Species).

Finally \:D/ - haven't seen it since its first cinema release.

[therewillbeblus]

Just watched UFOria, and while I'm not as enthusiastic as Ebert, beamish, et al. - there's an inconsistently slapdash approach to some comedic bits, and in the editing room, that creates some alienation from intended punchlines - it's definitely an bizarre work that, often-amusingly, exists between states of droll satire and mild farce. This feels like an optimal title for Fun City Editions or Cinématographe to release, and would fit squarely within each's ethos. Good on KLSC for going ham on such a weird, messy flick

[pistolwink]

Good film, and til now only available on VHS!

[dwk]

This weekend's first announcement:

Coming Soon on Blu-ray!

THE AMOROUS ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS (1965) Kim Novak, Richard Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Leo McKern, Vittorio De Sica, George Sanders, Lilli Palmer, Hugh Griffith & Cecil Parker – Shot by Ted Moore – Music by John Addison – Directed by Terence Young

[dwk]

And Sunday's announcement

Coming Soon on Blu-ray!

BATTLE OF THE COMMANDOS (1969) Jack Palance, Thomas Hunter, Aldo Sambrell, Wolfgang Preiss & Curd Jürgens – Shot by Alejandro Ulloa (The Mercenary) – Co-Written by Dario Argento (Suspiria) – Directed by Umberto Lenzi (Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, Spasmo).

[domino harvey]

Paramount must be dying laughing at getting KLSC to trade for these

[captveg]

As stated ~ two weeks ago the following WSL titles went OOP on 7/23 due to licensing agreements expiring:

Accident (1967)
And Hope to Die (1972)
Britannia Hospital (1982)
Buffet Froid (1979)
The Caper of the Golden Bulls (1967)
The Captive Heart (1946)
The Chicken Chronicles (1977)
Connecting Rooms (1970)
The Criminal (1960)
The Deadly Trap (1971)
Diabolically Yours (1967)
Dog Day (1984)
Don't Drink the Water (1969)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
Dr. Who - Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)
Emmanuelle 2 (1975)
Go Go Mania (1965)
Goodbye Emmanuelle (1977)
Helas pour moi (1993)
Leon Morin, Priest (1961)
The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961)
A Man, a Woman and a Bank (1979)
La Marseillaise (1938)
The Mind Benders (1963)
The Monster (1994)
Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)
Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995)
The Night My Number Came Up (1955)
Not for Publication (1984)
Old Boyfriends (1979)
Perfect Friday (1970)
Pool of London (1951)
A Pure Formality (1994)
Quai des Orfèvres (1947)
The Raging Moon (1971)
Slayground (1983)
The Sound Barrier (1952)
A Sunday in the Country (1984)
Sweeney! (1977) / Sweeney 2 (1978)
The Third Lover (1962)

The following titles have been added to the WSL sale, and will be OOP upon selling out. All titles BD only unless noted otherwise:

4D Man (1959) (+DVD)
The Astro-Zombies (1968) (+DVD)
Black Moon Rising (1986)
Brannigan! (1975) (+DVD)
British Noir (1943-1952) (DVD ONLY)
British Noir II (1949-1957) (DVD ONLY)
British Noir III (1940-1955) (DVD ONLY)
La Cage aux Folles II (1980)
Candy (1968)
Dagmar's Hot Pants, Inc. (1971)
De Sade (1969)
Dinosaurus! (1960)
Maid in Sweden (1971)
Mercenary Fighters (1978)
No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948) (+DVD)
Number One (1969)
Room at the Top (1959) (+DVD)
The Slasher (1953)
Starflight One (1983) (+DVD)
Sunnyside (1979) (+DVD)
Tentacles (1977)
Terror Squad (1988)
Valdez Is Coming (1971)
The Violent Breed (1984)

[dwk]

I can't keep up with what they had announced months ago, so here are the full specs for two upcoming Paramount titles
Coming September 17th:
BODY AND SOUL (1947)
• 2021 HD Master by Paramount Pictures – From a 4K Scan
• NEW Audio Commentary by Author/Film Historian Alan K. Rode
• Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase
• Optional English Subtitles

B&W 106 Minutes 1.37:1 Not Rated
The great John Garfield (The Postman Always Rings Twice, He Ran All the Way) gives an Oscar-nominated performance (Best Actor, 1947) in this knockout noir tale of driving ambition. Garfield stars as Charley Davis, a strong-willed young prizefighter whose ruthless quest for a shot at the title forces him to mortgage his humanity to a corrupt boxing syndicate. But when faced with the chance to regain his self-respect, Charley climbs into the ring one last time—in an unforgettable climactic fight scene, breathtakingly shot by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe (Pursued, The Rose Tattoo). Widely regarded as one of the best boxing pictures ever made, Body and Soul was Academy Award-nominated for its sharp script by Force of Evil’s Abraham Polonsky (Best Writing, Original Screenplay, 1947) and won for its innovative editing by Francis D. Lyon and Robert Parrish (Best Film Editing, 1947). Powerfully directed by Robert Rossen (All the King’s Men, The Hustler) and featuring Lilli Palmer (Cloak and Dagger), Anne Revere (Secret Beyond the Door), Canada Lee (Cry, the Beloved Country) and William Conrad (The Killers).

FIRST LOVE (1977)
• 2021 HD Master by Paramount Pictures – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
• NEW Audio Commentary by Star William Katt and Film Critics/Authors Lee Gambin
• Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase
• Optional English Subtitles

Color 91 Minutes 1.85:1 Rated R
There’s nothing quite like first love. Veteran TV director Joan Darling’s (M*A*S*H, Taxi) feature film debut captures the warmth, the pangs and the excitement all young lovers experience the “first time.” Caroline (Susan Dey, TV’s The Partridge Family, L.A. Law) is every young man’s dream of what a first love should be. Elgin (William Katt, Carrie, The Unwanted) is the Everyman of the seventies, exemplifying confusion and passion that any college student can relate to. The beautifully photographed love scenes are handled maturely and tastefully; it is rare to find a film that portrays love so refreshingly and honestly. Co-starring John Heard (Cutter’s Way), Beverly D’Angelo (Paternity), Robert Loggia (Prizzi’s Honor) and Swoosie Kurtz (Dangerous Liaisons).

[dwk]

Today's announcement it a TV movie
NIGHTLIFE (1989) Blu-ray
Brand New HD Master!

Ben Cross, Maryam d’Abo & Glenn Shadix – Shot by Peter Fernberger (Mindwarp) – Written by Anne Beats (Saturday Night Live) & Daniel Taplitz (The Squeeze) – Directed by Daniel Taplitz (Breakin’ All the Rules).

[dwk]

The Rundown (2003) UHD
Brand New HDR/DV Master
Music by Harry Gregson- Williams (Man of Fire) – Shot by Tobias A. Schliessler (Hancock) – Written by R.J. Stewart (Xena: Warrior Princess) & James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) – Directed by Peter Berg (The Kingdom).

[domino harvey]

I’ve never even heard of this movie but I guessed from the release year and credits that it starred either Wahlberg or the Rock and was not wrong when I looked it up

[jazzo]

Dom, the last time you said you hadn’t heard of a film, I believe it was when Nancy Savoca’s DOGFIGHT was announced by Criterion. I think I replied that it was a beautiful film that everyone should see.

This one ain’t gonna get that recommendation from me. It has its fans, for sure, but I was underwhelmed by it, and maybe because of the ardent support.

But you never know!

[beamish14]

Dom, the last time you said you hadn’t heard of a film, I believe it was when Nancy Savoca’s DOGFIGHT was announced by Criterion. I think I replied that it was a beautiful film that everyone should see.

This one ain’t gonna get that recommendation from me. It has its fans, for sure, but I was underwhelmed by it, and maybe because of the ardent support.

But you never know!

The only positive thing that I can say is that it features less of the overt racism and reactionary politics of Peter Berg’s subsequent films. Much of it takes place in a jungle, but was obviously shot in some parks in Los Angeles

[nicolas]

Just watched some of the newest KL livestream with Frank Tarzi. He announced Xanadu in 4K as coming soon.

Just as I wanted to turn off, the guest Eric Wilkinson of MVD actually mentioned the topic of UHD encoding. They’re also only encoding the feature film on 4K because, according to him, this is the least risky way of working as reauthoring in case of errors would be too expensive. It’s not primarily about the PQ for them. Tarzi agreed and mentioned that the file size of a 4K master is so much bigger that you’d need BD-100s for the least amount of compression and adding extras would therefore interfere with the feature film. (The top authoring houses laugh about this).

It seems Tarzi in particular isn’t familiar with the degree to which his discs are actually filled. I’m saying "his" because he frequently uses I instead of "we" when he talks about who releases their editions. For instance, the film Cry-Baby barely exceeded 66 GBs and was placed on a BD-100. Many other films in the 70-80 GB range and others obviously approach 90-95 GB. Their authoring house’s "work" (AI) clearly proves him wrong.

What’s frustrating is that at this point there really should be a discussion about encoding, however the host sadly ended the stream right then and claimed that this brief talk about encoding was a "masterclass in disc production". (The host appeared to me more of a streaming fan than physical media. She used audience questions for most of the time and asked her own question at the end about the KL streaming service and whether some KLSC titles are planned for that even though this was already answered in the first stream). This probably sums up these streams in a nutshell. An hour long, 80 viewers, a handful of questions but they’re still not managing to actually convey something informative.

Also, KL’s BD-50 re-issues of films with older masters they once released on BD-25s, such as Juggernaut, do really well for them and according to Tarzi, KL fans appreciate if they fix some of their earlier mistakes. In other words, they appreciate that their fans pay for the same crummy masters once again.

[domino harvey]

The Universal TV show KLSC has licensed is Darkroom

[flyonthewall2983]

I’ve never even heard of this movie but I guessed from the release year and credits that it starred either Wahlberg or the Rock and was not wrong when I looked it up

I saw it in theatrical release. It’s a good start for Johnson playing a more contemporary character after his association with the Mummy franchise put him on the map in Hollywood. The movie itself is just okay, decent acting across the board and some actually funny repartee between him and Seann William Scott.

[therewillbeblus]

I've seen it too and it's not very good, but YMMV depending on how fun you think a buddy action-comedy derived on forcing chemistry between The Rock and Sean William Scott can possibly be. It's exactly what you'd expect from that.

[cdnchris]

It's a shockingly dull movie. The premise and cast are promising but I remember it having no energy and feeling Scott was the only one actually trying to get the chemistry working between him and Johnson. Walken was also phoning it in.

[Beloved Aunt]

I've seen it, I've actually seen two whole The Rock movies haha and I think The Rock is essentially a live-action Pixar character (you have to at least admit, he looks like one), and his movies are live-action Pixar movies.

[therewillbeblus]

That makes them sound way more fun than they are!

[flyonthewall2983]

The action in this is quite good, all the stunt work and the huge set piece of the little town it takes place in was effective for a PG-13. And the opening scene is quite funny too with a pretty notable cameo.

[Beloved Aunt]

That makes them sound way more fun than they are!

Not to me! haha

[cdnchris]

I thought Rampage was a far better film than it ever should have been if only because it went all out with the premise and featured a rather wild climax. But of course, The Rock had nothing to do with that and was essentially just there playing The Rock.

[therewillbeblus]

That makes them sound way more fun than they are!

Not to me! haha

Now I can't stop imagining an Inside Out 3 where The Rock plays every emotion. He'd self-reflexively play a good 'ego', tho

[jazzo]

I've seen it, I've actually seen two whole The Rock movies haha and I think The Rock is essentially a live-action Pixar character (you have to at least admit, he looks like one), and his movies are live-action Pixar movies.

He’s very charming, both on and offscreen, but so limited in range that any time they attempt to cast him as anything other than a lovable oaf, he comes across like Chester The Terrier https://charactercommunity.fandom.com/w ... nd_Chester.

He tries so hard, and he’s got some good comedic timing, and can even have some nice dramatic moments if the role needs it, but his shtick can also be fucking annoying or completely unbelievable. I sat down and watched Jungle Cruise with my kids and, its horribleness as a movie aside, I mostly couldn’t believe they were actually trying to sexual chemistry between he and Emily Blunt, because it’s the one thing he has zero of onscreen. Watching them mash their faces and bodies together in a G-rated adventure film was like watching Emily Blunt trying to seduce the Michelin Man, and just embarrassing for all involved.