Saturday, November 5, 2011

Home Alone Collection [Blu-ray]

  • Condition: New
  • Format: Blu-ray
  • Color; Widescreen
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has become the man of the house, overnight! Accidentally left behind when his family rushes off on a Christmas vacation, Kevin gets busy decorating the house for the holidays. But he's not decking the halls with tinsel and holly. Two bumbling burglars are trying to break in, and Kevin's rigging a bewildering battery of booby traps to welcome them!Now and forever a favorite among kids, this 1990 comedy written by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) and directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire) ushered Macaulay Culkin onto the screen as a troubled 8-year-old who doesn't comfortably mesh with his large family. He's forced to grow a little after being accidentally left behind when his folks and siblings fly off to Paris. A good-looking boy, Culkin lights up the scree! n during several funny sequences, the most famous of which finds him screaming for joy when he realizes he's unsupervised in his own house. A bit wooden with dialogue, the then-little star's voice could grate on the nerves (especially in long, wise-child passages of pure bromide), but he unquestionably carries the film. Billie Bird and John Candy show up as two of the interesting strangers Culkin's character meets. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are entertainingly cartoonish as thieves, but the ensuing violence once the little hero decides to keep them out of his house is over-the-top. --Tom Keogh Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has become the man of the house, overnight! Accidentally left behind when his family rushes off on a Christmas vacation, Kevin gets busy decorating the house for the holidays. But he's not decking the halls with tinsel and holly. Two bumbling burglars are trying to break in, and Kevin's rigging a bewildering battery of booby! traps to welcome them!Now and forever a favorite among kids, ! this 199 0 comedy written by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) and directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire) ushered Macaulay Culkin onto the screen as a troubled 8-year-old who doesn't comfortably mesh with his large family. He's forced to grow a little after being accidentally left behind when his folks and siblings fly off to Paris. A good-looking boy, Culkin lights up the screen during several funny sequences, the most famous of which finds him screaming for joy when he realizes he's unsupervised in his own house. A bit wooden with dialogue, the then-little star's voice could grate on the nerves (especially in long, wise-child passages of pure bromide), but he unquestionably carries the film. Billie Bird and John Candy show up as two of the interesting strangers Culkin's character meets. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are entertainingly cartoonish as thieves, but the ensuing violence once the little hero decides to keep them out of his house is over-the-top. --Tom K! eogh Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is back! But this time he's in New York City with enough cash and credit cards to turn the Big Apple into his own playground! But Kevin won't be alone for long. The notorious Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), still smarting from their last encounter with Kevin, are bound for New York too, plotting a huge holiday heist. Kevin's ready to welcome them with a battery of booby traps the bumbling bandits will never forget!This somewhat unpleasant 1992 sequel to the blockbuster Home Alone revisits the first film's gimmick by stranding Macaulay Culkin's character in New York City while his family ends up somewhere else. Again, the little guy meets up with colorful people on the margins of society (including a pigeon woman played by Brenda Fricker) and again he gets into a prop-heavy battle with Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. The latter sequence is even worse than the first film in terms of violence inflict! ed on the two villains (director Chris Columbus, who also made! the fir st film, can't seem to emphasize the slapstick over the graphic effects of the fight). The best running joke finds a concierge (Tim Curry) at the swank hotel where Culkin is staying trying and failing to prove that the boy is on his own. --Tom Keogh Home Alone
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 3
Home Alone 4Contains Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

The Good, the Bad, the Weird [Blu-ray]

NYHC

  • N.Y.H.C. is the first feature-length documentary to explore the New York Hardcore music scene. Drawing its roots from punk rock, hardcore has evolved into a dedicated, self-contained movement, unconcerned with success in the mainstream. This documentary follows seven bands in the summer of 1995, ranging from Bronx inner-city youth to Long Island suburbanites to Hare Krishna devotees. For the legen
Fueled by a ferocious soundtrack, director Paul Rachman's American Hardcore gives fans an all-access pass to the rise and fall of the U.S. punk scene, an explosive musical and cultural phenomenon that shaped everything from the grunge movement to the emo and pop/punk music currently riding the charts. Set against the conservative early '80s political landscape, American Hardcore chronicles the homegrown hardcore scene that was a swift kick in the head to corporate rock and mainstream ! complacency, as disaffected teens adopted the same collective credo - harder, faster, louder. From downtown warehouses to suburban bedrooms, the scene spread from city to city like wildfire, uniting bored, angry outcasts into an authentic underground revolution. A raw blast of politics, passion, and rage, American Hardcore features never-before-seen live footage from Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, MDC, SSD, DOA, DRI, The Adolescents, 7 Seconds and many more, plus exclusive interviews with punk icons like Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, Keith Morris and H.R. (Paul Hudson).The history of hardcore punk--the tougher, faster, and more politically minded stepchild of the '70s punk movement that arose in the '80s--is examined in exuberant detail in Paul Rachman's documentary American Hardcore. Rachman's cameras careen across the landscape of the U.S. to trace the movement's beginnings in cities like Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York, and cherrypicks inte! rviews with the musicians that helped shape its sound and impa! ct, incl uding Henry Rollins and Greg Ginn of Black Flag, H.R. (frontman for the highly influential, all-African American outfit Bad Brains), Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat (and now Fugazi), and many others. Hardcore's violent reaction against the Reagan administration and the complacent mindset of middle-class America is also detailed in countless performance footage clips and poster-art reproductions, which do much to dismiss the popular opinion of hardcore as nothing more than mindless hooliganism. Some fans may find the omission of certain bands a considerable oversight (San Francisco's lethally satirical Dead Kennedys are not mentioned only in passing), but for most punk devotees, American Hardcore will be vital and essential viewing. The DVD includes several deleted scenes and bonus performances, commentary by Rachman and writer Steven Blush (whose book of the same name provided the inspiration for the film), and a gallery of photos from photographer Edward Colver, who cove! red the hardcore scene in detail during its heyday. -- Paul Gaita

Stills from American Hardcore (click for larger image)





"American Hardcore sets the record straight ! about the last great American subculture"â€"Paper magaz! ine

< P>Steven Blush's "definitive treatment of Hardcore Punk" (Los Angeles Times) changed the way we look at Punk Rock. The Sony Picture Classicsâ€"distributed documentary American Hardcore premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. This revised and expanded second edition contains hundreds of new bands, thirty new interviews, flyers, a new chapter ("Destroy Babylon"), and a new art gallery with over 125 rare photos and images.

Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music is a tribute to the innocence and accidental sophistication that jump-started the look and sound of hardcore music.

Hardcore music emerged just after the first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. American punk kids who loved the speed and attitude of punk took hold of its spirit, got rid of the “live fast, die young” mind-set and made a brilliant revision: hardcore. The dividing line between punk and hardcore music was in the deli! very: less pretense, less melody, and more aggression. This urgency seeped its way from the music into the look of hardcore. There wasn’t time to mold your liberty spikes or shine your Docs, it was jeans and T-shirts, Chuck Taylors and Vans. The skull and safety-pin punk costume was replaced by hi-tops and hooded sweatshirts. Jamie Reid’s ransom note record cover aesthetic gave way to black-and-white photographs of packed shows accompanied by bold and simple typography declaring things like: "The Kids Will Have Their Say", and "You’re Only Young Once."

Radio Silence documents the ignored space between the Ramones and Nirvana through the words and images of the pre-Internet era where this community built on do-it-yourself ethics thrived. Authors Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo have cataloged private collections of unseen images, personal letters, original artwork, and various ephemera from the hardcore scene circa 1978-1993. Unseen photos lay ne! xt to hand-made t-shirts and original artwork brought to life ! by the w ords of their creators and fans. Radio Silence includes over 500 images of unseen photographs, illustrations, rare records, t-shirts, and fanzines presented in a manner that abandons the aesthetic clichés normally employed to depict the genre and lets the subject matter speak for itself. Contributions by Jeff Nelson, Dave Smalley, Walter Schreifels, Cynthia Connolly, Pat Dubar, Gus Peña, Rusty Moore, and Gavin Ogelsby with an essay by Mark Owens.ANOTHER STATE OF MIND - DVD MoviePunk's Not Dead is more than just a tribute documentary. It takes you on an era-by-era journey that puts punk rock's non-conformist reputation under the knife. Officially sanctioned by the bands in the film who donated personal photos, fliers and home v

Since 1972 and the release of Deep Throat, the business of making commercial hardcore feature films has grown dramatically. Thousands of films are produced every year. Yet for the most part the industry remains a mysterious commodit! y, with the people behind it still seen as unscrupulous, vaguely threatening figures.

Now the record is put straight with The X Factory, an eye-opening trip into adult feature films courtesy of interviews, on-the-set reports and a visit to the World's Biggest Gang Bang 2.

"The best peep-show coverage of the porn-video business."-Screw

Originally released as a now-legendary underground VHS tape in 1999, N.Y.H.C. will come to DVD for the first-time as a deluxe 2-Disc Set.

This incarnation features interviews with Jimmy Gestapo (Murphy's Law), John Joseph (Cro-Mags), Lou Koller (Sick of It All), Lord Ezec (Crown of Thornz, Danny Diablo), Roger Miret (Agnostic Front), Rick ta Life (25 ta Life), Toby Morse (H2O), Vic DiCara & Rasaraja das (108), Freddy Madball (Madball), Tim Williams & Mike Kennedy (VOD, Bloodsimple), District 9, No Redeeming Social Value, and more.

The brand-new "Disc 2" includes "Where Are They Now?" intervi! ews shot ten years after the original documentary, flashbacks ! of key v enues, and previously unreleased live performances of iconic songs by VOD, 108, Madball, 25 ta Life, Crown of Thornz, and more.

N.Y.H.C. is the first feature-length documentary to explore the New York Harcore music scene. Drawings its roots from punk rock, hardcore evolved into a dedicated, self-contained movement, unconcerned with success in the mainstream. The documentary follows seven bands in the summer of 1995, ranging from Bronx inner-city youth to Long Island suburbanites to Hare Krishna devotees. N.Y.H.C. is a surprisingly in-depth and non-exploitive look into a vital and often neglected music community.

DISC 1

- THE MOVIE
-- Commentary by Frank Pavich (director), Stephen Scarlata (producer), & Kevin Gill (SFT Records)
-- Trailer
-- Subtitles: English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Japanese

- ADDITIONAL SONGS

-- Madball (1995 at Coney Island High)
"New York City"
"Down by Law"
"Streets of Hate"
"Neve! r Had It"

-- VOD (1995 at Northport Pipeline)
"D.T.O."
"Formula For Failure"

-- 108 (1995 at Northport Pipeline)
"Solitary"
"Holyname"
"No Spiritual Surrender"

-- 25 Ta Life (1995 at The Pipeline)
"Separate Ways"
"Short Fuse"
"Inside Knowledge"

-- District 9 (1995 at Coney Island High)
"Fool"
"Pushed To The Edge"

-- No Redeeming Social Value (1995 at "Crucial Chaos" NYU Radio Show)
"No Regrets"

-- Crown Of Thornz - 1995 at Coney Island High)
"Juggernaut"
"Love Sick"
"The Hard Way / Crown of Thorns"

- THE CLUBS R.I.P.
-- Coney Island High (NYC)
-- The Pipeline (Newark NJ)
-- Northport Pipeline (Northport, Long Island)

- DELETED SCENES
-- Alternate Intro (9 mins)
-- "Religion" (9 mins)
-- "In Effect Magazine" (2 mins)
-- "Moshing" (2 mins)
-- "Fights / DMS" (8 mins)

- BONUS FOOTAGE
-- Rick Ta Life interviews Tommy Rat! (6 mins)
-- No Redeeming Social Value at NYU (8 mins) -- Jimm y Gestapo & Todd Youth (10 mins)
-- The Philosophy of John Joseph (6 mins)
-- Conversations with Lord Ezec (6 mins)
-- Speaking The Truth with Myke & Todd (6 mins)
-- Loki & His Animals (8 mins)
-- A Hospital Visit with Roger Miret (2 mins)

DISC 2

- UPDATED INTERVIEWS
-- Rick Ta Life (11 mins)
-- Tim Williams & Mike Kennedy of VOD (16 mins)
-- Freddy Madball & Toby H2O (18 mins)
-- Lord Ezec (aka Danny Diablo) (24 mins)
-- Myke Rivera of District 9 (19 mins)
-- John Joseph of Cro-Mags (11 mins)
-- Kevin Gill of SFT (17 mins)
-- No Redeeming Social Value (32 mins)
-- Mike Dijan of Crown Of Thornz (13 mins)

- SPECIAL FEATURES
-- Lou Koller of Sick Of It All
-- CBGB: Last Rites at the Last Ever Sunday Hardcore Matinee

Phantom of the Opera (Easy Piano)

Critters 2 Main Course FINEST BRAND CANVAS Print With Added Heavy BRUSHSTROKES Unknown 11x17

Cradle Will Rock

  • As labor strikes break out throughout the country during the 1930s, the art and theater world of New York City is a growing cultural revolution. Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center, while Italian propagandist Margherita Sarfatti (Susan Sarandon) gives Da Vincis to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini w
Powerful and sweeping, the critically acclaimed CRADLE WILL ROCK, starring Hank Azaria, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Bill Murray, and Susan Sarandon, takes a kaleidoscopic look at the extraordinary events of 1930s America. From high society to life on the streets, director Tim Robbins (DEAD MAN WALKING) brings Depression-era New York City to vivid life. It's a time when DaVincis are given to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini war effort and Nelson Rockefeller commissions Mexican artist Diego Rive! ra to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center. A time when a young Orson Welles and a troupe of passionate actors risk everything to perform the infamous musical "The Cradle Will Rock." As threats to their freedom and livelihood loom larger, they refuse to give into censorship. Based on actual events, CRADLE WILL ROCK will move you."Based on a (mostly) true story," according to the opening titles, Tim Robbins's dazzling dramatization of one of the great stories in American theater indeed takes a few liberties with history. Ostensibly the story of the mayhem surrounding Marc Blitzstein's worker's opera The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles for the WPA at the height of the Depression, Robbins paints a veritable mural around this incident, a city alive with plotting industrialists (John Cusack as Nelson Rockefeller), radical artists (Ruben Blades's Diego Rivera), and struggling citizens (Bill Murray's frustrated vaudeville ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw). Lightnin! g strikes when the government closes the show before it even o! pens and the cast marches 20 blocks to an empty theater and tosses the staging aside to perform in the aisles, the balconies, and the seats. It's a rare moment of cinema capturing the immediacy and charge of live theater on the screen and it's the heart of Robbins's often exhilarating film. His heroes are Blitzstein (a warm, gently impassioned Hank Azaria) and cheery WPA Theater director Hallie Flanagan (Broadway star Cherry Jones), but in the process he snidely turns Welles and producer John Houseman into sour, silly caricatures. The stew of artistic creation and political action gets murky and at times contradictory, but vivid performances and Robbins' driving pace and staccato crosscutting keep it humming through even the most didactic moments. The songs are by Blitzstein, and the character-rich cast also features Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro, Emily Watson, and Philip Baker Hall. --Sean Axmaker