Smurfing Heck....

THE SMURFS^™ JUST GOT BIGGER!

World’s largest inflatable Smurf to appear

next to Tower Bridge this weekend

The Smurfs are set to take over the Southbank this weekend as the world’s largest inflatable Smurf will appear next to Tower Bridge on Sunday 4th December 2011 at 12pm to promote the launch of The Smurfs ™.on Blu-ray 3D™, Blu-ray™ Double Play, DVD and digital.

Fans of the franchise will get to meet and greet Papa Smurf and Smurfette whilst also having their picture taken next to the giant, 40 foot inflatable structure.

Sony Pictures Animation’s live-action animated feature, which stars Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, Sofia Vergara, Jayma Mays and the voices of Katy Perry, George Lopez and Jonathan Winters, is  available on Blu-ray 3D™, Blu-ray™ Double Play, DVD and digital on 5^th December 2011.

Eureka Entertainment announce their line up for 2012

Following the announcement earlier this year of Touch of Evil and Silent Running as Blu-ray special editions, Eureka Entertainment would like to announce the forthcoming blu-ray release of Repo Man, the feature debut from director Alex Cox starring Emilio Estevez, and the melancholy open-road epic Two-Lane Blacktop (dir. Mante Hellman) amongst their Q1 2012 line up.  Both titles are part of a Eureka Entertainment/The Masters of Cinema Series agreement with Universal Pictures to release several high-profile catalogue titles throughout 2011 and 2012 to celebrate Universal's centenary. 

Here is the full line up of releases from Eureka Entertainment and its UK distributed labels Bounty Films & ISIS for January, February & March 2012.

January

TWO-LANE BLACKTOP (Masters of Cinema), Eureka Entertainment, Blu-ray & Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook, 23 January 2012

Perhaps the greatest road movie ever made, Monte Hellman's counter-culture masterpiece from the early 1970s, starring James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, and Warren Oates, on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world.

LE SILENCE DE LA MER (Masters of Cinema), Eureka Entertainment, Dual Format: Blu-ray/DVD, 23 January 2012

One of the most important French films to deal with World War II, and a landmark in Melville’s distinguished oeuvre, Le Silence de la mer is a lyrical, timeless depiction of the experiences and struggles of occupation and resistance available for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.

PUNISHMENT PARK (Masters of Cinema), Eureka Entertainment, Dual Format: Blu-ray/DVD, 23 January 2012

Both controversial and relentless in its depiction of suppression and brutality, Punishment Park was heavily attacked by the mainstream press and permitted only the barest of releases in 1971.  The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to celebrate Punishment Park’s 40th anniversary with its first ever release on Blu-ray.

WHO PAYS THE FERRYMAN?, Eureka Entertainment, DVD, 23 January 2012

Much loved 1977 BBC British drama series, created by Michael J. Bird, set on the Mediterranean island of Crete starring Jack Hedley as Alan Haldane.

TOMIE:UNLIMITED (Monster Pictures), Bounty Films, Blu-ray & DVD, 23 January 2012

Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl, Mutant Girls Squad) brings his brand of mayhem to the Japanese cult Tomie series.

ZIFT, I.S.I.S. Ltd, DVD, 23 January 2012

"Zift" is a genre mixture of neo-noir and soviet non-conformist art from director Javor Gardev

CANO DORADO, I.S.I.S. Ltd, DVD, 23 January 2012

The story of Panceta, a young labourer from one of the poorer suburbs in Buenos Aires, whose unbounded ambition for money leads him to manufacture and sell home–made arms in the neighbourhood.

February

REPO MAN (Masters of Cinema), Eureka Entertainment, Blu-ray & Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook, 20 February 2012

Alex Cox's legendary cult classic debut - a post-punk, sci-fi, crime-ridden, apocalyptic comedy - returns for the first time anywhere in the world as a glorious, new special edition Blu-ray

THE INSECT WOMAN/ NISHI-GINZA STATION (Masters of Cinema), Eureka Entertainment, Dual Format: Blu-ray/DVD, 20 February 2012

Shohei Imamura's epic spans 40 years in the life of a working class woman ever-adapting to a changing Japan, alongside an earlier Imamura feature 

THE YELLOW SEA (Monster Pictures), Bounty Films, Blu-ray & DVD, 20 February 2012

Korean crime drama starring Yun-seok Kim and directed by Hong-jin Na who won critical acclaim for his previous film The Chaser.   Premiered at this year’s Cambridge Film Festival and to be released theatrically on 21 October 2011.

March

YAKUZA WEAPON (Monster Pictures), Bounty Films, Blu-ray & DVD, 26 March 2012

A wild combination of hard-boiled gangster action, manga-style comedy and splatterific special effects, from director and star Tak Sakaguchi.

DEADBALL (Monster Pictures), Bounty Films, DVD, 26 March 2012

Hilariously offensive, politically incorrect sports splatter comedy, Deadball is director Yudai Yamaguchi’s follow-up to his earlier zombie baseball classic Battlefield Baseball, and once again features action star Tak Sakaguchi (Versus, Be a Man! Samurai School)

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO  MATTHEW (Masters of Cinema), Eureka Entertainment, Dual Format: Blu-ray/DVD, 26 March 2012

Pasolini's masterpiece is one of the most revered and influential religious films ever made, now fully restored in HD 

ACCATTONE (Masters of Cinema), Eureka Entertainment, Dual Format: Blu-ray/DVD, 26 March 2012

Pasolini's gritty study of a pimp in the slums of Rome is one of the most explosive debuts in world cinema, now fully restored in HD 

TWO-LANE BLACKTOP

To be released in the UK on Blu-ray & Ltd Edition Blu-ray Steelbook on 23 January 2012

  

---

SYNOPSIS:

With the melancholy open-road epic Two-Lane Blacktop, American auteur Monte Hellman (The Shooting, Cockfighter, and the recent Road to Nowhere) poeticised the beautiful, terrible rootlessness of his nation in the era of Vietnam. Funded by Universal in a bid to recreate the success of Easy Rider – by giving a number of filmmakers $1m and final cut – Hellman's effort is now regarded as one of the key films of the New Hollywood renaissance of the early 1970s.

While driving eastward on Route 66, two rival car owners – The Driver (singer-songwriter James Taylor) and The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys) in a souped-up, drag-racing '55 Chevy, and a middle-aged braggart (Warren Oates) in a gleaming GTO – begin to race for each other's "pink slips" and the affections of the listless female hitchhiker (Laurie Bird) who joins them on the road.

Scripted by esteemed novelist Rudy Wurlitzer, and featuring the only screen performances of Taylor and Wilson, Two-Lane Blacktop remains a timeless, existential portrait of lives in transit and of a country questioning its identity.

"The film is immaculately crafted, funny and quite beautiful, resonant with a lingering mood of loss and loneliness." - Jay Cocks, Time

"Two-Lane Blacktop is a movie of achingly eloquent landscapes and absurdly inert characters." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice

"Self-enclosed, self-absorbed, and self-destructive, it's absolutely riveting." - Tom Milne, Time Out

Two-Lane Blacktop is one of the most popular car-fetishist / petrolhead movies ever made and  listed as one of the 50 greatest independent films of all time by Empire Magazine. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Hellman's iconic film on blu-ray and ltd Edition Blu-ray Steelbook for the first time ever anywhere in the world on its 40th birthday, released on 23 January 2012.

---

 SPECIAL DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• New restored high-definition master, supervised and approved by Monte Hellman 

• Original mono soundtrack and optional newly remastered 5.1 mix 

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired 

• Audio commentary by Monte Hellman and associate producer Gary Kurtz 

• On The Road Again: Two-Lane Blacktop Revisited, a 43-minute video piece in which Monte Hellman revisits the film's locations 

• Somewhere Near Salinas, a 28-minute interview by Monte Hellman with singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson 

• Sure Did Talk To You, a 24-minute video piece by Monte Hellman, interviewing producer Michael Laughlin, production manager Walter Coblenz, and the director's son Jared Hellman 

• Rare archival screen-test footage of James Taylor and Laurie Bird 

• Original theatrical trailer 

• Optional music and effects track 

• A lavish 36-page booklet featuring rare production imagery, the words of Monte Hellman, and more!

    

---

DETAILS:

Label: Eureka Entertainment Ltd

Catalogue No: EKA70044 (RETAIL ONLY)

Barcode: 5060000700442

RRP: £23.48

Steelbook Cat. No: EKA70069 (RETAIL ONLY)

Steelbook Barcode: 5060000700695

Steelbook RRP: £30.63

Release Date: 23 January 2012

Certificate: 15

Run Time: 103 min. approx.

Format:  2.35:1 OAR/ Colour

Genre: Drama

 Director: Monte HELLMAN

Year: 1971

Country:  USA

Language: English

Subtitles: English SDH (Optional)

PUNISHMENT PARK

To be released in the UK in a new Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD edition on 23 January 2012

  

---

SYNOPSIS:

Both controversial and relentless in its depiction of suppression and brutality, Punishment Park was heavily attacked by the mainstream press and permitted only the barest of releases in 1971. However, like Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (1969) and Robert Kramer’s Ice (1969), Peter Watkins’ film has established itself as one of the key, yet rarely seen, radical films of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Giving voice to the disaffected youth of America that had lived through the campus riots at Berkeley, the trial of the Chicago Seven and who were witnessing the escalation of the Vietnam War, Punishment Park was named by Rolling Stone as one of their top ten films of 1971 and has earned many admirers in the four decades since its release.

Set in a detention camp in an America of the near-future, Punishment Park’s pseudo-documentary style (continuing Watkins’ subversive innovations with Culloden and The War Game) places a British film crew amongst a group of young students and minor dissidents who have opted to spend three days in ‘Bear Mountain Punishment Park’. The detainees, rather than accept lengthy jail sentences for their ‘crimes’, gamble their freedom on an attempt to reach an American flag — on foot and without water — through the searing heat of the desert. The pursuit of Group 637 — a lethal, one-sided game of cat-and-mouse with a squad of heavily armed police and National Guardsmen — is contrasted with the corrupt trial of Group 638 by a quasi-judicial tribunal.

Unlike Easy Rider’s mythologising of American counter-culture, Punishment Park’s uncompromising stance, and its uneasy parallels with Guantanamo Bay, retain a powerful and prescient message in the post-9/11 present.

Rarely seen in the UK, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to celebrate Punishment Park’s 40th anniversary with its first ever release on Blu-ray.

  

---

SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT EDITION FEATURES:

• Newly restored high-definition transfer (shot on 16mm, Punishment Park has been remastered from a new 35mm print struck from the restored 35mm blow-up negative held in Paris)

• 30-minute video introduction by Peter Watkins

• Full-length audio commentary by Dr. Joseph A. Gomez (author of the 1979 book Peter Watkins)

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• 40-page booklet with two essays and reprints

---

DETAILS:

Label: Eureka Entertainment Ltd

Catalogue No: EKA70061 (RETAIL ONLY)

Barcode: 5060000700619

RRP: £20.42

Release Date: 23 January 2012

Certificate: 15

Run Time: 88 min. approx.

Format:  1.37:1 OAR/ Colour

Genre: Drama

Director: Peter WATKINS

Year: 1971

Country:  UK/ USA

Language: English

Subtitles: English SDH (Optional)

LE SILENCE DE LA MER

 To be released in the UK in a new Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD edition on 23 January 2012

  

---

SYNOPSIS:

Le Silence de la mer – Jean-Pierre Melville’s debut film – is an adaptation of the novella of the same title by celebrated French Resistance author Vercors (the pen name of Jean Bruller). Clandestinely written in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of France and furtively distributed, it captured the spirit of the moment, and quickly became a staple of the Resistance.

Melville’s cinematic adaptation – partly shot in Vercors’ own house – tells the story of a German officer, Werner von Ebrennac (Howard Vernon), who is billeted to the house of an elderly man (Jean-Marie Robain) and his niece (Nicole Stéphane) in occupied France.

One of the most important French films to deal with World War II, and a landmark in Melville’s distinguished oeuvre, Le Silence de la mer is a lyrical, timeless depiction of the experiences and struggles of occupation and resistance.

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Melville’s debut film for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.

---

SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT EDITION FEATURES:

• New high-definition original aspect ratio transfer, licensed from Gaumont

• New and improved optional English subtitles on the feature, documentary, and trailer

• Video discussion by Ginette Vincendeau, professor of French cinema at King’s College London [23:00]

• MELVILLE OUT OF THE SHADOWS - A new French-made documentary about Melville's film [41:00] - Blu-ray only

• Original Theatrical Trailer - Blu-ray only

• 56-PAGE BOOKLET including an article by Ginette Vincendeau, author of Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris, and a Melville interview by Rui Nogueira, author of Melville on Melville

---

DETAILS:

Label: Eureka Entertainment Ltd

Catalogue No: EKA70066 (RETAIL ONLY)

Barcode: 5060000700664

RRP: £20.42

Release Date: 23 January 2012

Certificate: U

Run Time: 84 min. approx.

Format:  1.37:1 OAR/ B&W

Genre: World Cinema

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Year: 1949

Country:  France

Language: French

Subtitles: English (Optional)

LOVELY BY SURPRISE

  To be released in the UK on DVD on 26 December 2011

"Lovely By Surprise is a fantastic movie, which fills every moment with brilliant writing, superb direction, and wonderfully weird characters."  - Den of Geek

---

SYNOPSIS:

A truly unique and visually stunning take on meta-fiction, Lovely By Surprise follows the journey of novelist Marian Walker as she attempts to finish her first novel.

Facing the age-old problem of writer's block, novelist Marian Walker (Carrie Preston) turns to her mentor and ex-lover, Jackson (Austin Pendleton). But his seemingly innocent advice to kill the book's protagonist unexpectedly leads one of her wilful characters (Michael Chernus) to escape from the novel and stir up the unresolved issues in her life.

At turns funny, lyrical, dark and mysterious, this enigmatic and visually striking film festival favourite film explores past and present, art and reality, and the meaning of life and death, ultimately revealing the strength and beauty of the human heart.

Lovely by Surprise is released in the UK on DVD by Eureka Entertainment on 26 December 2011

---

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Trailer

- Deleted Scene

- Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

- Feature length Director’s commentary

---

DETAILS:

Label: Eureka Entertainment Ltd

Catalogue No: EKA40340 (RETAIL ONLY)

Barcode: 5060000403404

RRP: £16.34

Release Date: 26 December 2011

Certificate: 12

Run Time: 98 min. approx.

Format:  1.85:1 OAR/ Colour

Genre: Comedy/ Drama

Director: Kirt GUNN

Year: 2007

Country:  USA

Language: English

Subtitles: English SDH