The Last Kung Fu Monk

Martial arts continues to be a hugely popular movie genre which is just one reason why ‘The Last Kung Fu Monk’, released on rental and retail DVD and retail Blu-ray by Scanbox Entertainment on 21 March will be another massive hit with martial arts fans. 

Directed by and starring Peng Zhang Li (Tooth Fairy and Shaolin Temple), this thrilling, high-kicking adventure delivers on everything the core audience wants … spectacular martial arts action and extravagant, dangerous villains!

Chinese Shaolin Fighting Monk Li Bao Xin has to emigrate to New York City to look after his dead brother’s son. Struggling to make a new life Li Bao faces challenges that test his character and emotional strength rather than his physical prowess.
While setting up a kung fu school he becomes embroiled with the Mafia and must defeat a barrage of deadly fighters to save the day.

Through it all his mind remains filled with the heroic stories of the Shaolin Temple, a great tradition that defines him but which also makes his acceptance of Western culture more difficult.

While in China he was a revered Master but in America he is nobody. To make a life for himself and his brother’s son. he must come to terms with a modern society where his great fighting skills and heroic lineage mean nothing.

Eventually he has to decide what is more important … his dreams or his family.

‘The Last Kung Fu Monk’ has a run time of 90 minutes, a 15 certificate and a recommended retail price of £ 12.99.

Cuckoo on DVD

‘Cuckoo’, a creepy thriller starring Richard E. Grant, Laura Fraser (‘Lip Service’, ‘A Knight’s Tale’), Tamsin Greig (‘Episodes’, ‘Tamara Drewe’, ‘Love Soup’ and ‘Green Wing’) and award winning jungle/drum & bass artist Adam Fenton (Adam F) will be available on DVD and on Blu-Ray from 28^th February.

In one of his darkest roles, Richard E. Grant plays an ageing professor obsessed with his star student, Polly (Fraser). Polly is trapped in a dead-end job working for intrusive Professor Julius Greengrass (Grant).  Her relationship with boyfriend Chapman (Adam Fenton) is falling apart, and jealous sister Jimi (Antonia Bernath) rarely leaves her side. When Polly has the chance to escape, her nearest and dearest have other ideas.

Alone in her flat, Polly struggles to keep her grip on reality. Mysterious sounds surround her, voices in the darkness, whispers of deceit. Polly knows she’s not cuckoo, but why won’t the noises go away? She turns to the one person she can trust – her boss. But Julius has a dark secret of his own. He wants Polly, and he’ll do anything to get her.

Using oppressive cinematography and a haunting soundtrack from BAFTA nominee Andrew Hewitt, writer/director Richard Bracewell, whose first film was the acclaimed low-budget comedy ‘The Gigolos’, carefully builds Polly’s world, echoing her stressed and anxious state.  Expertly played by Fraser, we feel Polly’s sense of isolation as events unfold around her in this darkly atmospheric and compelling story of deception and intrigue.  

‘Cuckoo’ teases and provokes as it heads towards its dramatic and shocking climax, asking as many questions as it answers.

”Masterly and thrilling” said Clive James at the Cambridge Film Festival premiere. 

Travellers, Arrive On DVD

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Kris McManus

STARRING Dean Jagger, Shane Sweeney, Tom Geoffrey, Alex Edwards, Celia Muir, Charley Boorman

Travellers is a fearsome survival thriller that marks the directorial debut for the UK’s newest rising talent Kris McManus and features some of the most brutal bare-knuckle fighting ever seen on film.

Four young friends from London set out on a motorcycle adventure weekend, clocking up miles in an attempt to outrun the big three-o and their City-boy lifestyles. One night they set up camp in a muddy field only to discover the next morning that they’re sharing the field with an ominously- deserted, beaten-up old caravan. When the City boys investigate, they quickly discover that the beaten-up caravan is anything but abandoned.

Within seconds, a idiotic prank sets off a series of brutal events pitching the City boys against a group of angry Irish travellers in a deadly race for survival involving kidnap, murder and bare-knuckle boxing. As events spiral out of control and we learn more about the back story of each of the City boys, we’re forced to question our own prejudices. Its City boys versus Irish travellers and the unfolding sequence of events lead us to reconsider who the villains of the piece really are.

Travellers comes to DVD with a whole host of extras on 28 February 2011.

Captain America Car Auction

As a curtain raiser to its expanded 2011 auction programme, Historics at Brooklands has consigned to its next sale on 3^rd March, a blockbusting collection of classic American vehicles fresh from the set of the forthcoming Marvel Studios movie, Captain America – ‘The First Avenger’.

The epic 50+ strong collection features vehicles from 1931-1948; the more unusual including a 1942 Chevrolet Gillig School/Tour Bus, a 1933 Dodge Tow Truck and a WWII Dodge Military Ambulance, with all vehicles used during filming at Shepperton Studios in London, and on location in Manchester and Liverpool, UK.

With the film due for global release from July 2011, the cars will be part of an action-packed sale at Brooklands on 3^rd March 2011, alongside a supporting cast of a further 65 fine classic and sports cars.

Each car from the Captain America collection boasts its own intriguing history – including a 1933 Dodge Tow Truck sourced from the Nevada Desert that comes complete with genuine bullet holes on the driver’s wing and bonnet - and all will be accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity.

Other stars on show are a 1941 Cadillac Series 61 boasting superb art deco styling and a 1935 Hudson Sedan bristling with a mighty straight eight powerplant, whilst a number of two door coupes from the likes of Dodge, Hudson, Chevrolet, Plymouth and Ford – many of which are fitted with flathead V8’s – will appeal to hot rod fans.

A whole host of commercial vehicles will also share the limelight, including a pair of Dodge and Chevrolet pick-up trucks, a 1942 Dodge Ambulance, an imposing 1942 Diamond T Wrecker truck, a trio of Berliet military trucks and a superbly restored 1938 Harvester Van.

Having undertaken the painstaking process of sourcing and acquiring the collection,

Executive Producer Nigel Gostelow, commented, "I, along with our Director, Joe Johnston, are both avid 'petrol heads', and so historical accuracy was vitally important to us.  When it comes to movie production, the settings need to look and feel real, and these cars played a large part in that process.  Ultimately they looked great on set, and pleasingly, were correct and very well prepared."

Historics at Brooklands Auction Director, Edward Bridger-Stille, added, “We are delighted to be working with Marvel Studios on this project. The cars are fascinating and with extremely low reserves set across the board, everybody will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a little piece of cinematic history.”

Historics continues to utilise the Internet auction tool, i-bidder, which allows for real-time, online monitoring and bidding, and increases the possibility that a number of the sought-after cars may head back across the pond to their country of origin.

For more information, and to attend the Historics at Brooklands auction on the afternoon of 3^rd March, call 0800 988 3838, e-mail: auctions@historics.co.uk, or see the website, www.historics.co.uk.  Entry by catalogue only, available prior to, or on the day of the auction.

Open Eye: BBC World Service Documentary

Open Eye is not a series about photography, but more about the people and the landscapes with which a photographer forms a deep and visceral bond.   

  

In part one Lebanese photographer Dalia Khamissy attempts to uncover what happened to the estimated 17,000 people kidnapped during the Lebanese civil war.  Her journey takes her to a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut where she meets seventy nine year old Amina Hassan Banat.  In 1981 Christian militants took four of her sons, which she was never to see again.  Even after all these years, Amina still has hope that she will be reunited with her sons, but as one politician tells Dalia, ‘Lebanon is a country of mass graves.’  

Open Eye is accompanied by a unique photo film, featuring the stills of Lebanese photographer, Dalia Khamissy, online at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12216975  

In the second programme, acclaimed photographer Joseph Rodriguez turns his lens on a group of young Muslims growing up in the city of Malmo, Sweden. Its a city increasingly divided on racial, religious and cultural grounds,  and one  in which Joseph discovers many young Muslims feel they are treated as second class citizens. One young woman who runs a youth club declares that she is tempted to wear the veil in protest of the racism she feels is prevalent in Sweden. 

The first episode is available to listen to at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2011/01/110117_open_eye.shtml .  The second episode will air on BBC world Service  26^th January at 15.06 – 15.30 GMT 20.06-20.30 GMT