Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Chronos on DVD

Ron Fricke, visionary director of the acclaimed Baraka, made his directorial debut with the stunning visual odyssey Chronos, which makes its DVD debut courtesy of Second Sight on 26 February 2007.

The film imparts a unique vision of our world – the first non-verbal, non-fiction motion picture filmed in time-lapse photography. Presented as a visual symphony in seven movements, Chronos embarks on an unprecedented cinematic journey across the worlds of natural beauty and manmade monuments, as it explores the essence of time.

Fricke burst onto the scene as director of photography for the groundbreaking Koyaanisqatsi in 1983 and has since gone on to deliver the rousing Baraka, a huge success upon its DVD release. Award-winning composer Michael Stearns provides the rousing score.

Chronos is a visual and musical journey through time from the cradle of civilization to modern day Paris.
Bonus Features – commentary and behind the scenes feature

Title: Chronos

Release Date: 26 February 2007
RRP: £12.99

Hellzapoppin’ On DVD

The ground-breaking and hugely influential comedy classic Hellzapoppin’ makes its DVD debut courtesy of Second Sight. The film was way ahead of its time and has inspired generations of comedians. It has been described as ‘Pythonesque’ and will be released for the first time ever on DVD courtesy of Second Sight on 5 February 2007.

The film was based on the Broadway hit of the same name, where anything went, there was no plot and no two shows were alike.

The film stars Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson and somewhere amid the non-stop gags and hysterical mayhem there’s a plot involving the staging of a musical, a romance, a bumbling private eye and a man who keeps wandering on with a pot plant for ‘Mrs Jones’! But any plot is incidental to the speed, imagination and sheer craziness that ‘outstrips the works of the Marx Brothers’ (Time Out).

Hellzapopppin’ features the most famous and most spectacular Lindy Hop scene ever preserved on film, the breathtaking routine is performed by the wonderful Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers.

Title: Hellzapoppin’
Release Date: 5 February 2007
RRP: £15.99

LOVEFiLM LAUNCHES TV DOWNLOADS

LOVEFiLM.com, the UK’s number one online film rental and download service, has added TV programmes from Discovery Networks to its product line up today.

The service, which already offers over 62,000 titles in its online DVD rental range, and over 2,000 movies and short films in its download range, will now offer over 45 titles from Discovery for download rental. Discovery Networks will provide LOVEFiLM customers with a resource of real-world video content from the company’s vast library of programming, including popular series such as Mythbusters, American Chopper, Extreme Engineering, Deadliest Catch and John Lydon’s Mega Bugs as well as documentary specials such as Da Vinci Code Declassified. Additional titles will be added each month.

LOVEFiLM has transformed the UK entertainment rental market in the UK with its revolutionary DVD rental service. The ultra convenience of DVDs delivered to customer’s homes was improved by the launch of downloadable movies to the PC in the last year. Now, customers can also download shorter-form programmes from Discovery’s family of channels..

“The LOVEFiLM download service is super fast and praised for its high quality images. Our users are crying out for the kind of great programming that Discovery is bringing to downloads”, said LOVEFiLM’s Marketing Director, Simon Morris.

He continues, “The great thing is that we can also match programmes to consumers based on their existing ratings and preferences. We know an awful lot about today’s entertainment consumer, what they want to watch and when they want to watch it. It’s great to have Discovery on board.”

“By providing some of Discovery’s best content for download rental to LOVEFiLM users, we are giving fans of Discovery’s programming more ways to enjoy content that both informs and entertains from across key categories, such as engineering, motors, science, natural history, human adventure and lifestyle,” said Melanie Honnor, Vice President of New Media, Discovery Networks Europe.

* LOVEFiLM also operates a VoD service to AOL UK customers and selected titles from the Discovery range will be available on the LOVEFiLM powered AOL service. (http://www.aol.co.uk/film/downloads/)

Universal Shows Its Bottom

THERE’S A rumbling in the basement, a rumpus in the offing and a foul smell in the air as Universal Pictures reaches for the air freshener and announces a 27th November release date for The Big Bottom Collection. With a recommended retail price of just £39.99, this brilliant new box set celebrates the very best of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's anarchic creations, featuring DVD releases of no less than five live shows plus Best of Bottom Live and, as an added bonus, the depraved duo’s equally riotous feature film, Guest House Paradiso.

It was 15 years ago that sad pervie Richard Richard (Rik Mayall) and his masochistic flatmate Eddie Hitler (Adrian Edmonson) first launched their whirlwind blend of slapstick, farce and abuse onto an unsuspecting British public. Three TV series and five live theatre shows of Bottom later, these two head-banging morons whose idea of a wild night is pulling out nose hair with a pair of pliers have become two of the nation’s greatest ever comedy creations.

BOTTOM LIVE – THE STAGE SHOW

Recorded live at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton during a sell out 1993 nationwide tour which left over 250,000 fans in a state of complete delirium, this is a side of Bottom that television would never dare show! For the first time unfettered by the restrictions of TV, Bottom Live - The Stage Show transported viewers into the explosively insane world of society's most catastrophic no-hopers. Surviving on a diet of vitriol, mutually inflicted wounds, booze and rotten food, they belch, curse and smash their way through the boredom of life. Totally over-the-top, completely uncensored and bloody hilarious, this is Richie and Eddie as they were meant to be seen.

BOTTOM LIVE – THE BIG NUMBER 2

Sex is the problem for Richie and Eddie, they can't get any! In this outrageous slice of obscene live comedy filmed at the Apollo Theatre, Oxford, the boys become obsessed with the fact that everyone in the world apart from them is having sex - and no one will let them watch. Deciding to do something about it, they set out on a desperate quest to press the flesh, from the Queen to sheep.

BOTTOM LIVE – HOOLIGAN’S ISLAND

Filmed during their sell-out 1997 tour, we catch up with Richie and Eddie as they are marooned on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific with no food, and even worse, no booze or pornography. Will they build a raft and escape? Grasp the opportunity to embrace the earthly paradise around them? Or will they simply fart and fight, puke and poke their way through 100 minutes of hilariously outrageous live situation comedy?

BOTTOM LIVE – AN ARSE ODDITY

Filmed during the sell-out tour of 2001, we find Ritchie and Eddie where we left them - stuck on a Pacific island and still the saddest pair of losers the world has ever known. Surviving on a diet of bone-crunching nastiness and violently successful accidents, they encounter an exploding parrot, experiment with a chainsaw and indulge in a bout of enthusiastic pig worrying. Explosively insane and unfettered by any morals whatsoever, this is as disgusting and degrading as it is hilarious.

BOTTOM LIVE – WEAPONS GRADE Y-FRONT TOUR

Full Metal Jacket meets Apocalypse Now…..in the bog. Yes, it’s time for everyone’s favourite insane no-hopers to save the world from a war much bigger than a mere Middle Eastern conflict - the fight between good and underpants. Luckily, Eddie has invented a time travelling toilet to help them along the way...

THE BEST OF BOTTOM LIVE

The legendary Bottom Live tours were the most anarchic, squalid, violent and downright bloody hilarious comedies ever seen and now all the very best bits have been condensed into one hilarious DVD. Also featured are interviews with Rik and Ade’s unlucky neighbours, exclusive bloopers from the boy’s movie, Guest House Paradiso, and a brilliant Making of Documentary which reveals just how they managed to sink to such depths of depravity.

GUEST HOUSE PARADISO

Richie and Eddie’s feature film debut sees them joining forces with a whole host of luminaries, Bill Nighy, Simon Pegg, Vincent Cassel, Sophia Myles and Fenella Fielding to name but a few.

Richie Twat and Eddie Elizabeth Ndingombaba welcome you to the Guest House Paradiso where people pay to check in and pray to check out...

Very possibly the world’s worst hotel, its chef's a drunken illegal immigrant, the waiter's been readmitted to the psychiatric hospital, Mr Twat likes rummaging through his guests' underwear and the sea-view’s not quite what it should be.

All in all the Guest House Paradiso is the perfect hiding place for sexy Italian movie star Gina "Nipples from Naples" Carbonara (Helene Mahieau), who’s on the run after jilting her fiancĂ©, renowned playboy and former-racing driver, Gino Bolognese.

But with her ex in hot pursuit and something decidedly iffy about the fish dinner, Richie and Eddie really are going to need a miracle.


Product Information:

Release date: 27th November 2006

Running Time: TBC

Certificate: TBC

No. of Discs: TBC