Dingly Dells, National Trust And Daily Mail Readers, Sightseers Coming This March

Dingly Dells, National Trust, Tins of Pasta sauce and Non Humans better known as Daily Mail readers it could only mean Ben Wheatley's Black comedy Sightseers! Studiocanal have announced the follow up film to Kill List will be released in UK&Ireland this March!

Synopsis: Chris (Steve Oram) wants to show Tina (Alice Lowe) his world and he wants to do it his way - on a journey through the British Isles in his beloved Abbey Oxford Caravan. Tina's led a sheltered life and there are things that Chris needs her to see - the Crich Tramway Museum, the Ribblehead Viaduct, the Keswick Pencil Museum and the rolling countryside that accompanies these wonders in his life. But it doesn't take long for the dream to fade. Litterbugs, noisy teenagers and pre-booked caravan sites, not to mention Tina's meddling mother, soon conspire to shatter Chris's dreams and send him, and anyone who rubs him up the wrong way, over a very jagged edge...

Extras:
Behind The Scenes
Outtakes
Trailer
Cast commentary: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Richard Glover and Ben Wheatley
Technical commentary: Laurie Rose & Ben Wheatley

Pre-Order/ Buy Sightseers : Blu-ray / DVD

Stay tuned for a new review and a competition which we will launch in March over at The Peoples movies

Sightseers will be released by Studiocanal on 25th March 2013 on DVD and Blu-ray

Sacha Guitry's La Poison To Get A Masters Of Cinema This Month

Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing a glorious new HD restoration of LA POISON [POISON], the classic of '50s French cinema, directed by Sacha Guitry, the "total filmmaker" (writer/director/star) of tens of sophisticated comedies, and who is considered by many the equal of the great Ernst Lubitsch. Starring one of the greatest and most famous French actors of the 20th Century, Michel Simon (Boudu Saved from Drowning, L'Atalante), LA POISON [POISON] will be released on Blu-ray & DVD on 25 February 2013.

One of the great late period films by Sacha Guitry — the total auteur who delighted (and scandalised) the French public and inspired the French New Wave as a model for authorship as director-writer-star of screen and stage alike. In every one of his pictures (and almost every one served as a rueful examination of the war between the sexes), Guitry sculpted by way of a rapier wit — one might say by way of "the Guitry touch" — some of the most sophisticated black comedies ever conceived... and La Poison [Poison] is one of his blackest.

Michel Simon plays Paul Braconnier, a man with designs on murdering his wife Blandine (Germaine Reuver) — a woman with similar designs on her husband. When Braconnier visits Paris to consult with a lawyer about the perfect way of killing a spouse — that is, the way in which he can get away with it — an acid comedy unfolds that reaches its peak in a courtroom scene for the ages.

From the moment of Guitry's trademark introduction of his principals in the opening credits, and on through the brilliant performance by national treasure Michel Simon (of Renoir's Boudu sauvé des eaux and Vigo's L'Atalante, to mention only two high-water marks), here is fitting indication of why Guitry is considered by many the Gallic equal of Ernst Lubitsch. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to introduce Sacha Guitry into the catalogue with La Poison for the first time on video in the UK in a dazzling new Gaumont restoration.

Check out this brand new released clip for La Poison...

SPECIAL BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITIONS:

• Glorious new HD restoration of the film, presented in 1080p on the Blu-ray.
• Newly translated optional subtitles.
• Substantial booklet containing writing on the film, vintage excerpts, and rare archival imagery.
• More features to be announced closer to the release date!

Buy:Blu-ray / DVD

Watch Red Band Trailer For Horror Anthology Sanitarium

You could say thanks to the likes of V/H/S, 26 ABCs Of Death the Horror anthology is making a big comeback probably to the delight of horror fans. Whilst horror as one feature maybe struggling in general to keep things a fresh delivering the same thrills but in small doses and in Sanitarium it's 3 stories and we have the film's red band trailer.

Sanitarium is based on three 30 minute stories based patients within the sanitarium, stories directed by Bryan Ramirez, Kerry Valderrama and Bryan Oritz. Malcom McDowell leads the cast as Dr.Stenson the the lead doctor and also  the film's narrator whom he introduces each story like in the vein of Twilight Zone, Creep Show, Tales From The Crypt. You may not like the film choice he makes but there seems to be no part that fazes him with many of McDowell's roles been in small independent horrors and thillers but you can't deny he's one of films hardest working actors.

No word on an exact release date or even what format the film will be when or if it arrives in UK, 1st March it will kick off it's festival run  at Miami Film Festival. Sanitarium also stars Horror legend Robert Englund, Lacey Chabert, Lou Diamond Phillips and John Glover.



source:Theplaylist

Valley Of Song DVD Review

Valley of Song, though a classic example of British cinematic whimsy, is at times hard to watch due in main to the sheer simplicity of its storyline. Directed by Gilbert Gunn, and starring Clifford Evans, Mervyn Johns and Maureen Swanson, this film perfectly encapsulates a period when the pace of life, and everything else, seemed to be just that little bit slower, and often none-the-worse for that.

Returning to his Welsh hometown after living for five years in London Geraint Llewellyn (Evans) is, to many people's surprise and not least his, made choirmaster at the local church. His initial excitement is soon forgotten however after he picks Mrs Davies (Betty Cooper) over her rival Mrs Lloyd (Rachel Thomas) for the lead in the new production of Handel's Messiah. Petty differences and age old emotions amongst the close-knit community boil over with comic results, before everything comes to a harmonious and not totally unexpected conclusion.

The premise behind Valley of Song is almost as simple as the everyday lives of the characters around which it centres. Whether concerning the well-meaning if hapless Geraint (lent a marvellous air of undisclosed panic by Evans) as he becomes stuck within the feuding factions of the extended Davies and Lloyd clans, or the unrequited love between Mrs Davies' daughter Olwen (Swanson) and Mrs Lloyd's son Cliff (John Fraser), the eventual culmination of which acts a catalyst for reconciliation amongst the townsfolk, the storyline is hardly complex.

Though this said simple approach may make the film appear slow when viewed now (it plays out in the main like an extended episode of some sunday evening television drama), it is also what gives the film it's appeal as a perfect example of the era in which it was produced. Everything about the small town to which Geraint returns after his sojourns in London (which is as alien to the inhabitants of the town as the moon would be to the rest of us) is quaint - from Bessie Lewis (Rachel Roberts), the local gossip who drives her milk cart around the town as though the devil himself were after her, to the one train a day which serves the town (miss it and you're stuck there for the duration) - making this film as interesting as a snapshot of a lost way of life as for anything which actually takes place in the story.

Featuring star supporting turns from a host of British stalwarts including Mervyn Johns and Kenneth Williams in his pre-Carry On days, Valley of Song is guaranteed to brighten the greyest of days even if only for its relatively short duration.

Cleaver Patterson

★★★☆☆

Rating:U
DVD Release Date: 18th February 2013 (UK)
Directed By: Gilbert Gunn
Cast:  Mervyn Johns, Clifford Evans, Maureen Swanson
Buy:Valley Of Song [DVD] [1953]

Rust And Bone DVD Review

Jacques Audiard has fast become one of Europe’s most prominent filmmakers with his previous two features: The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet. His latest film, Rust and Bone, will surely further boost his reputation and gain the director a wider audience with its crowd pleasing love story starring Academy Award winning actress Marion Cotillard.

The film opens in a style reminiscent of a Dardenne social drama when we’re introduced to Ali, an unemployed ex-boxer, with his five-year-old son in tow, fleeing Belgium for the French Riviera, where he moves in with a sister he hasn’t seen for years. After finding employment as a bouncer at a local nightclub, he has a chance encounter with Stephanie, a whale trainer. After this brief encounter Stephanie loses her legs in a horrific accident at work and the film turns away from its gritty social drama beginnings and becomes a fey and ridiculous love story hinged on the relationship between the two leading characters.

After the accident Ali and Stephanie strike up an unlikely relationship. This is where my problem with the film lies. Rust and Bone becomes forced and overly sentimental in its depiction of the opposing nature of the characters sensibilities. Ali is predictably brutish and Stephanie is predictably frail and it is these characteristics that bring them together. The film is about damaged humans and the animalistic nature of human behaviour but is too predictable and simplistic in its execution to be convincing.

Besides the gimmicky and rather conventional telling of its story, Rust and Bone boasts some beautiful cinematography and outstanding special effects. The scene where Cotillard’s Stephanie swims for the first time after becoming an amputee is a breathtaking example of both the beauty of the films cinematography and its seamless use of special effects. Unfortunately, the visual beauty of the film isn’t enough to elevate the film above its conventional and predictable storyline. By the end the film just feels too fey and insubstantial.

Shane James

★★1/2☆☆

Rating:15
BD/DVD Release Date:25th February 2013 (UK)
Director:  Jacques Audiard
Cast:  Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure
Buy Rust&Bone: Blu-ray / DVD

Tower Block DVD Review

British cinema seems to have a dangerous love affair with the unpretentious high rise flat or sometimes known as the tower block. From Attack The Block, Dredd (a British creation), even The Raid (Indonesian directed by a Welshman) and now Tower Block a British thriller that sees residents of high rise flats find themselves targets of a pissed off sniper. The worrying thing is for myself should I be worried writing this review as I'm currently writing it in.....Tower Block?!!

Set in inner city London the last remaining residents of the condemned tower block Serenity House huddled together on the top floor living in fear, not from the prospect of not having a roof of their heads soon but in fear of a ruthless sniper. What does this  sniper seek? Retribution, revenge on those who did not aide the young man brutally murdered as the neighbours listened in fear as Becky (Sheridan Smith) attempted to help but find herself beaten up as a result.

The simple plot style of 'Us versus them' actually does work well here but also works against Tower Block. Keeping the identity of who the mysterious sniper is and why there doing what their doing does help create a real sense of tension and things do get more visceral when the first bullets get fired. Death is delivered with brutal swift precision delivering fear throughout the floor forcing those who ducked and dived fortunate to get themselves into the block's corridor. But this sniper means business trapping the residents as all the stairways out have been booby trapped. Despite been a positive the lack of possible suspects  actually works against the film as when the big reveal on who the sniper is becomes a bit of a damp squib, disappointment, their motives are which is a shame after a decent build up.

After making it's cinematic premier at last summers Film4 London Frightfest it's left some believing Tower Block it's actually a horror when in fact it's really a social urban thriller. From the bleak grim surroundings of a deprived area (delivered masterfully in the film's cinematography) to the film's maybe predictable but also stereotypical of many British Suburban areas, the 'broken Britain' . This is the Britain that the Conservative government pretends to say it's helping when actually what they are doing is destroying it piece by piece like the mysterious sniper killing the character bullet by bullet. Every character Symbolises one of the many issues that plight working class families everyday lives but in the film your left wondering should I really hate them or  sympathetic towards them?

The cast or most of them actually deliver a decent performance helping to keep the film interesting however by the time we get to know them all you've actually guessed their predictable fate. Sheridan Smith is our heroine Becky who despite her problems to convey out and out emotions actually delivers one of her better performances. She becomes the survivors leader keeping everyone as sane as possible as she thinks a logical way to escape, using that strength we see at the beginning. Jack O'Connell is great as the scumbag Curtis who is forced to grow up quickly and actually provide that 'protection' the residents 'pay him' to do. Since  I saw him play a young Bobby Charlton in last years United BBC drama I've had an appreciation for him he has made some questionable/generic film choices but he does show he has the acting chops with his diverse range of characters. As for the rest of the characters we don't really learn enough about them to show empathy or sympathy towards them other than they might be next for a bullet to the head.

Let's make one thing clear here on High rise flats or tower blocks, the past decade they have become the symbol of refuge for junkies, alcoholics and pensioners which is totally false. Some do live up to the reputation and like the one I live in, it's not a affulent area nor is it in a deprived area good people do live in these blocks.So if you can push aside the films predictable flaws, Tower Block does actually deliver an intense, brutal silly but entertaining yarn. An intriguing   little timewaster that uses its very limited budget constraints to deliver a film something that's actually worth a watch , most of all you will be supporting the British film industry.

Paul Devine

★★★☆☆

Rating:15
DVD/BD Release Date: 18th February 2013 (UK)
Director: James Nunn ,Ronnie Thompson

Cast: Sheridan Smith, Jack O'Connell, Ralph Brown;Russell Tovey

Buy:Blu-ray / DVD
Win: Tower Block on DVD (link to The People's Movies post)

GFF 2013 - Bernie Review

In a small town in Texas lives Bernie (Jack Black), a popular mortician who befriends the lonely, rich Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine). The pair do everything together, however Marjorie eventually becomes abusive, and after one demand too many Bernie makes a fatal decision. The film is presented in a documentary style, with the story told by residents of the town in interviews which flash back to the events, some of whom are in fact real-life Texan’s who took part in the real case.

Richard Linklater has assembled a great cast for his latest offering. Matthew McConaughey stands out as the district attorney, while this is Jack Black’s best role for a long time, and shows he has a wider range of ability than his usual performances would have you believe. The problem however lies in the narrative: it is just not engaging enough to care about the characters. There is no build-up of events, just a meandering plod from start to finish. While displaying moments of quirkiness and charm, the script does not contain enough humour for it to deliver as a comedy. It is difficult to guess what Linklater’s intentions were, as the light-hearted tone of the film persists from start to finish, despite the turn of events. Bernie is an enjoyable watch, just not satisfactory, and may leave you wondering: what was the point?

Sophie Stephenson

★★★☆☆

Rating: 15
Release Date: 15th February 2013 (Glasgow Film Festival) 26th April 2013 (UK&Ireland)
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast:  Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey

Hold On To Your Sons Wright And Watts Want Them In Trailer For Two Mothers

How many men have you heard been labelled 'Mummy's Boy', probably quiet a few in Anne Fontaine's Two Mothers starring Robin Wright and Naomi Watts want your sons!

Wright and Watts play long time friends Roz & Lil who live in Australia both with Twenty something sons (Xavier Samuel, James Frecheville) who end sleeping with each others sons. There seems to be a bit of a resurgence in the erotic based films with the likes of Fifty Shades Of Grey film adaptation on the cards however in Two Mothers does have a bit of style, elegance and 2 actress with a bit of class, so don't expect the tackiness of erotic that have been and gone. However if you caught this film at last month's Sundance Film Festival the response for the film was a bit on the jaded side.

Two Mothers is based on a novel by Doris Lessing, The Grandmothers adapted for the big screen by Christopher Hampton (Atonement, Dangerous Method) the film also stars Ben Mendelshon with no confirmed UK or USA release date but expect sometime 2013.


source:ThePlaylist

GFF 2013 - New UK Poster For Broken Starring Tim Roth

On 8th March Rufus Norris Award winning debut feature film Broken will be released in UK&Ireland and has been getting rave reviews  including much praise for  an outstanding performance by newcomer Eloise Laurence. Studiocanal have sent us an new UK quad poster for the film which you can check out below.

Set in North London young man Robert ‘Broken’ Buckley finds himself  at the wrong end of a brutal beating from neighbour Mr Oswald  after his daughter makes a false accusation towards Robert. As Robert struggles with what’s just happened 11year old Skunk daughter of next door neighbour Archie may have witnessed Robert  get the beaten up.

When you win best British Independent Film for your first feature it's one hell of stamp of seal of approval and a great reason to check Broken out which has a fantastic support cast of Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Rory Kinnear, Dennis Lawson and Robert Emms. Broken is due out in UK&Ireland 8th March however the film will be screened on 19th and 20th February at Glasgow Film Festival, support British Film!

Missed The UK trailer? Click here to watch trailer

Synopsis

From acclaimed director Rufus Norris comes BROKEN, a powerful, captivating and heartbreaking exploration of love in all its many forms: idealised, unrequited, and, ultimately, unconditional. With some light comic touches and a brilliant central performance from newcomer Eloise Laurence, this coming of age story deals with the tumultuousness of growing up in a world where the happy certainties of childhood give way to a fear-filled doubt, and where a complex, broken world fills the future.

Frodo Wants You To Watch The Precious, New UK Maniac Trailer

In 2001 Elijah Wood started on the long road to destroy the precious 12 years on Frodo does seem have eyes on the precious but its not the one ring to rule them all but woman's scalps, behold the UK trailer for Maniac.

Franck Khalfoun directs remake  of the 1981 William Lustig cult horror classic which sees Wood give up his big hairy hobbit feet for a knife to play Frank a disturbed Mannequin shop owner whose life was controlled and destroyed by his abusive mother. Thanks to that upbringing he finds himself killing women for their scalps!

If your a fan of  co-writer Alexander Aja's films you will certainly enjoy the style and gore of Maniac. The film seems to be a homage to the slasher films of the era with camera shots, lighting even the synth style score given the film an extra dimension of dread and authenticity. The previous trailers have fallen into the 'let's reveal all the film in the trailer' category thankfully UK trailer doesn't spoil the broth but focuses on Frank's psychotic side.

Elijah Wood has proven with Sin City he can play the disturbed unnerving parts  but can say Maniac will be his darkest most unsettling role to date. Maniac has been released in some non-English speaking parts of the world receiving mixed reviews thankfully the film is creeping into English speaking areas delivering more positive reviews and Maniac looking like a solid noir-esque remake.Whatever you do ladies don't fall for those big innocent eyes of Frodo Baggins as it'll be the last eyes you see!

Maniac will be released in UK on 15th March, no USA date confirmed but expect it later this year. The film also co-stars America Olivo and Nora Arnezeder

Synopsis:

Just when the downtown Los Angeles streets seemed safe, a serial killer with a fetish for scalps is back on the hunt. Frank is the withdrawn owner of a mannequin store, but his life changes when young artist Anna appears asking for his help with her new photo exhibition. As their friendship develops and Frank’s obsession escalates, it becomes clear she has unleashed a long-repressed compulsion to stalk and kill.

source:Thepeoplesmovies