More news on this one as we hear it.

From the director of the award winning Last Exit to Brooklyn, BAFTA nominated Uli Edel.

Based on the true story of Christiane F, who at 13 became addicted to Heroin and turned to prostitution.

Christiane discovers a place called “The Sound”, a seedy teen hangout infested with drugs and dealers only too happy to feed Valium and Heroin to kids eager to escape their dreary reality. She meets Detlef, who starts using heroin soon after they become a couple. Scared of losing him to the drug, Christiane also beings using and in her desperation soon finds herself selling her body on the street trying to support their habit.

A dark and powerful film about the brutal reality of an addiction to Heroin.

The DVD will be released on the 16th November 2009 and will be available at Amazon.co.uk

Region: 1
Discs: 3
Publisher: WWE Home Video
Length: 9 hrs
Video: 1.33:1
Audio: Dolby Digital English
Subtitles: none
UPC: 741952929734
Release Date: August 25, 2009
MSRP: $34.95 US

PROS:

• interesting story covered
• interviews with legends of the business
• plentiful, valuable bonus features

CONS:

• heavily biased
• surprising omissions
• time wasted on axe-grinding
• shallow coverage

MAIN FEATURE

In the mid-1990s, professional wrestling was the hottest thing on cable television. This was mostly due to an all-out war between the two biggest companies in the business: WCW (World Championship Wrestling, owned by Time Warner) and the WWF (World Wrestling Federation, owned by Vince McMahon, now called WWE). At the height of the war, WCW was doing especially well for itself — it became a household name, dominated its adversary in the ratings for over a year and a half, made hundreds of millions of dollars, and nearly drove the WWF into bankruptcy.

Just three years later, WCW was dead, sold to the WWF in a fire sale for a mere $4 million.

The story of WCW’s demise is one that should be studied by any wrestling fan, of course, but also by anyone with a general interest (or a job) in the entertainment business. It is an object lesson in what happens when a cultural product is placed in the hands of executives who neither understand nor appreciate it, when some of the talent is given too much creative freedom while others are given none at all, and when fans are treated as a nuisance or ignored altogether. It’s a story that remains relevant today; WWE’s main competitor, TNA (Total Nonstop Action), seems determined to make as many of the same mistakes that killed WCW as they possibly can these days.

However, if you are not yet familiar with this story, The Rise & Fall of WCW is probably not the best place to learn about it. History, as the saying goes, is written by the conquerors — in this case WWE, who produced and released this DVD. For that reason alone, the documentary cannot help but be heavily spun in WWE’s favour.

Many important factors are either glossed over or ignored completely. There is, for example, surprisingly little mention of Vince Russo, the booker (i.e. scriptwriter) whose work was so thoroughly rejected by WCW fans that the company lost $60 million in the one year of his employ. The title reign of David Arquette, possibly the single biggest error in judgment the company ever made, is likewise underplayed. And there is, of course, no mention of how thoroughly WWE botched the “Invasion” storyline upon their purchase of WCW, one which should have been a license to print money.

Wrestler Jeff Jarrett receives about as much coverage as Russo and Arquette do. In Jarrett’s case, however, it’s far too much, as Jarrett was never a major player in the company and most fans do not even recall that he was its champion at one point. He is trashed for one reason in this doc: at the time it was made, Jarrett was in command of TNA. This kind of petty axe-grinding is common in wrestling, but does nothing to improve this DVD.

The documentary is not without some merit. It features many exclusive interviews with the men behind WCW at various points in its history, such as Bill Watts and Dr. Harvey Schiller, who offer up inside information and new perspectives. For the most part, though, The Rise & Fall of WCW is content to skim the surface of these events without digging any deeper than it has to.

BONUS FEATURES

As with most WWE DVDs, the set is packed with bonuses. It contains two full discs of important matches from WCW’s history. Most of them are truly outstanding, probably worth the purchase price by themselves. There are also some interesting snippets of interviews covering such subjects as the marketing of Bill Goldberg and Eric Bischoff’s controversial practice of giving away spoilers of WWE shows on live television.

A/V

While some of the footage in this documentary is 20 years old or more, the overall show looks and sounds fine. It’s doubtful that any of the classic matches in the Bonus Features were cleaned up for this release, but they too are acceptable by current standards.

PACKAGING

The set uses a gatefold Digipak with an insert listing the disc contents.

OVERALL

The Rise & Fall of WCW tells a fascinating story, but never really sinks its teeth into it. The definitive work on this series of events has already been written: The Death of WCW, by Bryan Alvarez and R. D. Reynolds. This DVD makes an excellent companion to the book, but should not be considered an acceptable substitute for it.

You can buy this DVD from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk

Review written by forum member MegaHentai.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Source: By the Numbers

News item submitted by forum member TallGuyMe.

Source: Digital Spy

• Inferno Pool
• Rainbow Island: Towering Adventure

The deal of the week is 50% off Fable 2 Pub Games making it 400 points.

Also of interest is the ability to get the map packs for Call of Duty: World at War for half price until November 1st 2009.

You can buy Microsoft points from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk

Source: People

Region: 1
Discs: 6
Publisher: Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc.
Length: 650 minutes
Video: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0, Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English
UPC: 704400086755
ISBN: 1421016621
Release Date: August 25, 2009
MSRP: $69.98 US

PROS:

• excellent horror
• unique story structure
• clever art style juxtaposition
• creepy, yet beautiful, soundtrack

CONS:

• initially confusing
• too violent for some viewers

MAIN FEATURE

With Halloween fast approaching, many of you will be deciding which horror movies to watch to get ready for the day. For those who are looking for something better than mere special effects jumping out at you and shouting BOO!, allow me to make a recommendation: the newly-released eleven-hour box set of When They Cry.

Keiichi Maebara has moved from a big city to the small, close-knit community of Hinamizawa. At school, he falls in with the Games Club, a quartet of cute girls with a penchant for low-stakes gambling, and quickly befriends all four. Everything’s coming up roses for Keiichi until a visiting photographer clues him in to the town’s dirty little secret: a series of murders and abductions which take place every year during the annual Cotton Drifting festival, and which seem to have something to do with an abandoned dam construction project and a local legend known as “Oyashiro’s Curse”. Within days, more people are dead, and a cop is hinting that he suspects Keiichi and/or his friends.

What makes When They Cry so unique is that it tells this story three times. While the above details remain the same each time, everything else changes. Clues to the mystery are provided in each story arc, though it is unlikely that first-time viewers will correctly catch all of them. Following these three stories, three more give the answers to the mysteries. If anything, the answers are often even more disturbing than the questions.

Like the manga and video games on which it is based, When They Cry makes use of an unusual clash of art styles to increase the tension and terror. Most of the series makes heavy use of the kawaii aesthetic — the cute, bouncy style most commonly associated with anime. This creates extra unease in the viewer when things start going badly for any of the characters and the style suddenly shifts into jagged lines and grotesque features. It’s a crude technique, but a highly effective one. Imagine a version of Nightmare on Elm Street in which any scene not featuring Freddy Krueger is filmed in the style of The Doodlebops, and you’ll have an idea of the effect.

BONUS FEATURES

None, unless you count several trailers.

A/V

Both audio and video are high-quality by DVD standards. The music is especially wonderful — I actually watched the opening credit sequence in its entirety for all 26 episodes, which is a rarity.

PACKAGING

The box set contains six discs in three double-sided slimpacks, all contained in a slipcase. The cover art on the slimpacks seems to replicate that of the single-volume releases from last year.

OVERALL

When They Cry will haunt your dreams for days. Anime and horror fans alike will find it an interesting experiment in their respective genres. A second series and three OAVs have been made; here’s hoping they receive an English release very soon indeed.

Review written by forum member MegaHentai.

You can buy this release from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca