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ANIMATION/ADVENTURE BRAVE STORY (PG) 108min

(Optimum DVD retail) 0”

Based on a novel by prolific Japanese authoress Miyuki Miyabe. Brave Story is a tale of love. friendship, and the sacrifices people must make in order to do what is right. EIeven-year-old protagonist Wataru meets Mitsuru. a lone figure who tells our young hero about the World of Vision, a place where destiny can be changed. Wataru chooses to enter and

follows a chain of events

involving his family. He also forms friendships and discovers much about life.

Directed by super talented animator Keichi Chigira (Tokyo Baby/on, Full Metal Panic) Brave Story is an exquisite yet simple piece of magic realist anime. Extras include The Five Jewels of Brave Story a ‘making of' featurette documentary and We Are Not a Couple. a short film which attempts to explain some of the more mystical aspects of the film. (Zaineb Al Hassani)

DRAMA/CRIME BABYLON (1 5) 95min (lcon DVD retail) em

The long overdue DVD release of Franco Rosso's seminal 1980 tale of working class black youths and their

music in South London really is something to celebrate. A kind of reggae counterpart to Ouadrophen/a, Rosso's naturalistic film details the shenanigans of mechanic and part-time sound system ‘Toaster' Blue (Brinsley Forde) and his Ital Lion crew,

who are looking toward '

to their forthcoming reggae sound clash competition with rival outfit Jah Shaka. But as the event approaches. Blue's personal life begins to unravel with very public results.

Powered by a fantastic score. composed and arranged by legendary guitarist and record producer Dennis Bovell. with additional songs by Yabby U, l-Roy and Aswad. Baby/on is a blinding neo-realist document from a time of incendiary, race relevant change. This DVD is pressed from a newly restored print of the film. Decent extras include commentaries from director and cast. (Paul Dale)

THRILLER TWO-MINUTE WARNING

(15) 110min (Nouveux DVD retail) 0..

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Larry Peerce's part- thriller, part-disaster movie evokes a certain nostalgia for its period. while containing some of the flaws characteristic of its time. The 1976 epic sees an unhinged sniper with a high powered rifle secret himself into a tower overlooking a major American football match. seeking to assassinate the President (it would have been Gerald Ford at the time would anyone have noticed?) When the chief doesn't show, he threatens an indiscriminate killing spree.

There's a peCLiliar kind

of detachment to this film's presentation. leaving the film ambiguous about whether it’s a quietly subversive attack on the ineptitude of the authorities in charge of security or a right wing politics of fear piece. What it certainly is, is crowded with stars in that disaster movie kind of way Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes. David Janssen and Walter Pidgeon are among many spotable faces. But there are perhaps too many incidental characters to allow one to identify with any partiCular story. Still, given the static nature of its premise. it remains pretty tense throughout. Not much in the way of extras. (Steve Cramer)

HORROR

FEAST

(18) 95min (Optimum DVD retail) 0...

John (son of Clu) Gulager's horror comedy is a delight in minor key. Somewhat like the endearing Tremors of two decades ago, it never loses its playful spirit and sense of homage to earlier monster movies. though here the tone is somewhat darker and more acrid. In it. a handful of down at heel patrons in a remote desert bar are set upon by a group of hideous scaly monsters of unresolved origin.

What makes the black comedy blacker is the deliberate play with genre conventions - Our creatures eat heroes and children first, knowing no more of the rules that are meant to apply to their world than an investment banker does in ours. It self conscious genre parody has become run-of-the-mill since Scream, no matter, for here it's all put

. DVD ROUND-UP ;

Miklés Jancsé’s The Round-Up

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“A. w ‘5'“-

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The much threatened. barely still breathing DVD industry has had little to celebrate in the last few years. The current modus operandi seems to be: “let's release as much old, new and rubbish stuff as we can before the bubble bursts and new technology sweeps us away.’ One company that is bucking that trend by simply taking the highbrow cinema product they release very seriously is the Second Run DVD. This issue's roundup is

dedicated solely to them.

Set up in 2005. Second Run DVD began with an agenda of releasing important and award-winning films from around the world. Their films encompass many genres and languages and are chosen for their quality and ethos. They are films the company obviously love and want to share with others. Every release is re-mastered to the best possible sound and picture quality and includes a range of original extras.

In the past 12 months Second Run has released undeniable masterworks of world cinema such as Andrzej Zulawski's 1971 wartime nightmare Third Part of the Night, Frantisek Vlacil's bonkers 1967 pagan romancer Marketa Lazarova, two indescribany good films by the great Hungarian filmmaker Miklds Jancso, My Way Home and The Round-Up, and. most recently Jaromil Jires' much celebrated sexual fairytale Valerie and the Week of Wonders. Future releases include two films by Ron Peck the great forgotten progenitor of British queer cinema and two documentary films by rising star Kim Longinotto (the first of a whole package of documentaries by Longinotto and other British documentary filmmakers). It's an idiosyncratic and inspired catalogue, most of which is available for around the 210 mark. Without sounding like I have stakes in the company I can only urge you to check out Second Run's awe-inspiring selection of challenging, unforgettable and conversation- creating films.

(Paul Dale)

I wwwsecondrundvdcom

together wrth a wicked kind of gusto, the side-

? of-the-mouth wit and

bathetic humour all w0rking to paper nicely over the cracks. There's

also a nice package of

extras. (Steve Cramer)

WESTERN SOLDIER BLUE (18) 110min (Optimum DVD retail)

Originally released in 1970 at the tail end of a period of huge social. political and psychological change

and based on the

massacre of Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek in

1864. Sold/er Blue is as relevant today as it ever was. Predominantly a love story. the film is set against a background of colonial repression brought to bear against the Native Americans in

the late 19th century.

Focused around the romance of the feisty Cresta (played to perfection by Candice Bergen) and the somewhat naive Honus (played by Peter Strauss and also the title character) the film bubbles with warmth and passion on its way to a very bloody denouement.

Powerful and heartbreaking. So/d/er Blue is a remarkable apotheosis from an age of significant upheaval and revrsionism. Minimal extras.

(Zaineb Al Hassani)

30 Oct-13 NOV 2008 THE LIST 57