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Aisle Seat 10-29: Halloween Wrap, Part 2!
Posted By: Andy Dursin 10/28/2024 - 10:00 PM
Writer Eric Red and director Robert Harmon’s THE HITCHER (97 mins., 1986, R; HBO/Warner) has long been a cult favorite: a vividly shot, superbly acted, tense suspense-thriller about an enigmatic serial killer (Rutger Hauer) who picks a naive young man (C. Thomas Howell) for his latest prey along the dusty desert highways of the American Southwest. Yet does Hauer’s “John Ryder” want to merely toy with Howell’s Jim Halsey out on the open road, or does he have some other purpose involved in his psychotic behavior? Those are the questions raised, but mostly unanswered, in Eric Red’s script, which is light on explanations but heavy on mood, atmosphere and tension, all of it beautifully captured by Harmon and cinematographer John Seale.
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Aisle Seat 10-22: Halloween Edition Part 1
Posted By: Andy Dursin 10/21/2024 - 10:00 PM
Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” franchise kicked off its existence with a pair of modestly budgeted horror outings produced by New World Pictures in the midst of its post-Roger Corman mid ‘80s heyday, back when they and other upstarts like The Cannon Group tried to throw their hat into the ring with major Hollywood studios. The first two “Hellraisers” weren’t big box-office hits but nevertheless became instant cult classics and are collected on 4K UHD for the first time along with the intriguing, if hugely uneven, third and fourth series entries in Arrow’s dynamite HELLRAISER: QUARTET OF TORMENT 4K UHD box-set – one that was released to widespread acclaim and big sales in the UK in 2023, and now comes to the USA in an identically packaged release.
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Aisle Seat 10-15: TEXAS CHAINSAW at 50
Posted By: Andy Dursin 10/14/2024 - 10:00 PM
It might be hard for some viewers, especially younger horror fans, to understand just how fresh and influential Tobe Hooper’s TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (83 mins., 1974, R; Dark Sky Selects) was at the time of its release – but the hardcore horror fan who does will want to head over to Dark Sky’s website for one of the most lavish limited edition physical media offerings in recent memory. A Dark Sky site exclusive, this spectacular 50th ANNIVERSARY CHAINSAW EDITION is adorned with a mini-chainsaw replica, a VHS copy of the film and more extras than any Leatherface fan could shake his cleaver at.
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Aisle Seat 10-8: An “A+” For PROJECT A; OCN New Releases
Posted By: Andy Dursin 10/7/2024 - 10:00 PM
Regarded as one of Jackie Chan’s most important vehicles, “Project A” was released at a time when Chan was trying to branch out from typical Hong Kong movie fare; having just appeared in “The Cannonball Run,” the superstar was trying to parlay his success into movies that could have worldwide appeal. While not a fully realized piece, the first “Project A” was still a solid hit for Chan and found Jackie directing and starring in a 19th century adventure movie as a young HK Marine Police officer taking on pirates. He’s joined by Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao in the 1983 original, while Chan reprised his role in a bigger, more technically polished 1987 sequel – both movies newly remastered in 88 Films’ THE PROJECT A COLLECTION, a 4K UHD/Blu-Ray box-set that ranks with the most exciting disc releases of the year.
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Aisle Seat 10-1: Super Friends Fly onto Blu-Ray
Posted By: Andy Dursin 9/30/2024 - 10:00 PM
If you grew up watching cartoons in the ‘70s or ‘80s, there was no way of not running into SUPER FRIENDS (Warner), the Hanna-Barbera adaptation of DC Comics heroes which became one of the era’s biggest Saturday morning ratings grabbers for ABC. Running in various formats from 1973 through 1985 (and for years thereafter in syndication), “Super Friends” brought young kids colorful action and the adventures of Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and other Justice League of America members, usually fighting crime and battling alien menaces that didn’t have a whole lot to do with the actual DC Comics they were based on.
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Aisle Seat 9-24: Fall Arrival Edition!
Posted By: Andy Dursin 9/23/2024 - 10:00 PM
Whatever happened to Richard Franklin? The Australian auteur became a hot commodity for a while in the ’80s thanks to genre films like “Psycho II” and the kid fantasy “Cloak and Dagger,” but he saw his career fizzle out after misfires like the barely released 1986 ape thriller LINK (103 mins., R; Kino Lorber). Produced for Thorn EMI before their film division went belly-up and was sold to Cannon, “Link” stars Terence Stamp as a daffy college professor whose work with intelligent simians results in one of those predictable “don’t mess with nature” plots, forcing grad student Elisabeth Shue to battle a chimp gone wild in Stamp’s isolated British manor.
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Aisle Seat 9-17: Season 28 Premiere! 4K Debuts & New Release Wrap!
Posted By: Andy Dursin 9/16/2024 - 10:00 PM
It’s unfathomably hard to believe I wrote the first Aisle Seat column for the internet way back when I was graduating from college in 1997 – since then we’ve been through more movies, home video releases, and format changes than you can count! Yet throughout it all, I’ve had a blast covering an industry that’s shifted from small “boutique labels” (in the earliest days of DVD) to major studios (the heyday of that format and Blu-Ray) and now back again to a lot of indie labels and distributors keeping physical media alive across Blu and 4K UHD (and DVD too for that matter – the format that simply will not die). We’ll still be here as the marketplace shifts, changes and adjusts to post-COVID viewing habits and a theatrical marketplace that has never recovered from “the pandemic” – and invite all of you to join me on our message boards for always-lively discussion about movies both new and (especially) vintage in nature.
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Aisle Seat 8-27: Labor Day Edition, From ALIEN ROMULUS to 70s Wrap!
Posted By: Andy Dursin 9/2/2024 - 10:00 PM
Freshly remastered from the vaults of CBS’ Cinema Center Films this month is the tough, exciting PRIME CUT (86 mins., 1972, R), a gritty rural gangster thriller that receives a welcome upgrade on 4K UHD from Kino Lorber – the first of four ‘70s remasters headlining late August’s big disc releases.
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Aisle Seat 8-20: LAST EMBRACE Remastered on 4K UHD
Posted By: Andy Dursin 8/19/2024 - 10:00 PM
After the passing of Alfred Hitchcock numerous directors attempted to keep the director’s “vibe” alive by producing homages like Jonathan Demme’s 1979 affair LAST EMBRACE (102 mins., 1979, R; Cinematographe). This adaptation of Murray Teigh Bloom’s novel “The 13th Man” offers a laundry list of attractive ingredients – from a terrific lead performance by Roy Scheider to its outstanding supporting cast and Miklos Rozsa’s romantic, old-fashioned score – yet the movie itself doesn’t work, an unsuccessful attempt at melding the suspense of Hitch with the sensibilities of the late ‘70s.
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8-13-24: ONCE AROUND, 4K TITANS, TWISTERS & More
Posted By: Andy Dursin 8/12/2024 - 10:00 PM
The smoldering chemistry between Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter generated in Steven Spielberg’s 1989 romantic fantasy “Always” led audiences to demand a follow-up, which they got just over a year later with director Lasse Hallstrom’s English-language debut ONCE AROUND (115 mins., 1991, R; Mill Creek).
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Today in Film Score History:
November 10
Billy May born (1916)
Bruce Broughton records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Thanksgiving" (1986)
Carl Stalling born (1891)
Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Child” (1988)
Ennio Morricone born (1928)
Julian Wass born (1981)
Michel Colombier begins recording his replacement score for The Golden Child (1986)
Mischa Bakaleinikoff born (1890)
Philip Sainton born (1891)
Recording sessions begin for Christopher Young’s score for Hush (1997)
Richard LaSalle records his score for the Land of the Giants episode “A Place Called Earth” (1969)
Robert Gulya born (1973)
Sylvain Chomet born (1963)
Victor Young died (1956)
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