Trailer: Blackfish

Ever since its premiere at Sundance Film Festival early last year, Gabriela Cowperthwaite's controversial, anti-SeaWorld documentary Blackfish has been gathering major steam, igniting the debate over keeping orcas in captivity while prompting responses that ranged from bands pulling out from SeaWorld gigs to Pixar rewriting the ending to their Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory. There's been the expected backlash of course, not least of all, from SeaWorld themselves, who've been going on the damage control warpath to salvage their increasingly tarnished reputation. If you missed the screenings at the New Zealand Film Festival, Madman will be releasing Blackfish on DVD exactly a month from today; watch the trailer below:

Moa Winners Shopping and White Lies Now on DVD

Two Rialto Channel New Zealand Film Awards winners, Shopping and White Lies, are both now available to rent on DVD. Shopping, the gritty coming-of-age tale from Louis Sutherland and Mark Albiston, scooped up 7 Moas, including Best Picture and Best Director, while the period drama White Lies picked up Best Makeup Design and Production Design. Check out the trailers below; full list of winners here.
Also it's great to see Geoff Murphy, director of Kiwi classics such as Goodbye Pork Pie and The Quiet Earth, honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Hopefully we'll get to see a re-release of the currently out-of-print Utu on DVD in its restored form soon.

Trailer: Beyond the Black Rainbow

January 10th will see the release of Panos Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow from Madman, and  it's without the doubt the weirdest, trippiest film you'll see that month. I've already done a rave in my review, so let's put some pictures to words now with this trailer: If you remotely have a taste for unusual, dreamlike cinema, you'll find much to enjoy/admire here (and if you don't, it won't be the easiest 90 minutes you'll sit through lol).

The Raid... with Claymation Cats!

The title says it all! Watch the ultra-violent Indonesian martial arts The Raid remade as a claymation short featuring... cats! If you missed it at the movies, The Raid will probably be coming out on DVD & Blu-ray in August from Madman.

The Raid Will Knock Your Socks Off

The good folk at Madman held a preview screening of Gareth Evans' much-hyped Indonesian actioner The Raid a couple of nights ago and boy did it bring the house down. This isn't a review, just a few quick words, mostly to say... it delivers, and then some. The trailer is a good indication of what to expect, but it's a movie that actually surpasses the trailer in its promise. It's been a while since I've been so slammed into my seat by an action film; after watching The Raid you'll find anything coming out of Hollywood too limp-wristed in comparison. I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to action films so I'm not saying any of this lightly. The Raid is IN-SANE. Go see it and tell your friends. It'll be in theatres March 22nd. I'll be going for a second hit.

Notable Festival Titles from Madman in August

Since it's film fest season, I thought it'd be apt spotlight three terrific titles from last year's NZFF that are coming to DVD from Madman next month. Check out the trailers and click on the titles to add to your queue:

Carlos the Jackal (Mini-series; Shorter Theatrical cut) - Édgar Ramírez stars as Ilich Ramírez Sánchez -- aka Carlos the Jackal -- an elusive Venezuelan terrorist who executed scores of assassination plots, abductions and bombings across Europe and the Middle East. This Golden Globe-winning biopic follows Sanchez from 1973 to 1994 as he and his cohorts wreak havoc on the Left Bank in Paris, storm OPEC headquarters in Vienna and carry out other devastating acts of politically motivated violence.



Certified Copy - Renowned Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami serves up an elegant rumination about art and love in this story about British writer James Miller (William Shimell), who meets an art dealer named Elle (Juliette Binoche) in Tuscany and begins -- or possibly continues -- a romance with her. As James and Elle wander through a small town, their playful conversations reveal an intimacy that leads locals to suspect that they are actually longtime spouses.



The Housemaid - A wealthy family's new maid, Eun-yi (Do-yeon Jeon), attracts the attention of Hoon (Jung-Jae Lee), the man of the house, and a fiery affair develops between them. But although Hoon signs Eun-yi's checks, he's not the one controlling the relationship. One secret leads to another, until Eun-yi threatens to destroy the entire family. This update of the 1960 chiller was an Official Selection of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.