The Week In Screenings Part XXIII – Film4 FrightFest Special
Film 4 FrightFest really is one of the highlights of my year; the chance to spend five days watching world class back to back films is just too good to miss. Now in its 12th year FrightFest continues to grow and grow, attracting filmmakers and film fans from all over the world. One of the [...]
Click here for more >Can You Feel It?
The Raygun is in a warehouse cum squat in Hackney, surrounded by youths drinking nothing more than bottled water, or maybe Lucozade or Ribena. The youngsters, teenagers and twentysomethings, are clad in brightly coloured, sometimes dayglo streetwear, baggy and a touch scruffy, all are clad in ubiquitous Converse canvas basketball shoes or trainers. Smoke machines [...]
Click here for more >Hanna Barbs Don’t Stick
Its reviews were wildly varied – the film is either one of the year’s best, or a stinker, depending on who you listen to – but there’s no denying that, whether they liked it or not, critics were compelled to write about Hanna. The thriller was, as our weekly round-up of home entertainment in the [...]
Click here for more >The Bell Tolls
The stridently independent Terracotta label is one of the more admirable indie outfits, it’s not only established its brand as a DVD label, but also looks beyond that too, and has, as we’ve noted elsewhere, developed its own film festival as well as hosting regular get togethers. Now it’s launching a new imprint, the Terror [...]
Click here for more >Stepping Out
We’ve already noted this on our newsletter, but it seems as if you can’t turn the telly on these days without seeing comic Micky Flanagan. He’s everywhere these days, appearing on most of the panel shows that are on most of the major channels, having been on the likes of The Apprentice You’re Fire, The [...]
Click here for more >An Open Letter To The BFI…
We found this on MovieMail’s website, in the section selling the forthcoming BFI release The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume One The First Days (due on September 19) and loved it. Yes, it’s a little over the top, but it illustrates so many things – the devotion that a film-maker like Jennings inspires, as well as [...]
Click here for more >Children Of The Scala
Many who grew up watching films at London’s legendary Scala cinema – or at least wishing they could go or were there – are alive and well and running DVD labels, as the Scala Forever season proves. The Raygun, once a devotee of everything from its Laurel and Hardy days and pre-Christmas It’s A Wonderful [...]
Click here for more >Top 10 Bestselling Momentum Titles
One of the more interesting items we picked up on during Momentum’s recent Q4 presentation to The Raygun, looked at the independent’s all-time bestsellers. The company’s strong year, as noted here and on our newsletter, has seen it score the second biggest title of the year on DVD and Blu-ray. And, on the back of [...]
Click here for more >Dude Bowls Papers Over
Everything from children’s fare (Winnie The Pooh) through to slasher flicks (Scream 4 chief among them) made up titles appearing in this week’s newspapers and magazines, as our weekly round-up of press coverage for Blu-ray and DVD releases highlights. There were no runaway winners as the most reviewed title of the week, the aforementioned two [...]
Click here for more >Taking Insidious Even Further
It’s the highest-earning horror film of 2011 at cinemas, has performed way beyond expectations and now is making its way to home entertainment. Insidious boasted incredible word of mouth, strong marketing that played up the audience response and some great imagery for the campaign. With the way effectively paved for Momentum’s DVD and Blu-ray release [...]
Click here for more >Cracking The Code
Director Duncan Jones, he of Moon fame, is one of those loved by critics – he’s making broadly mainstream movies but, like Christopher Nolan, is looking to challenge the viewers with something a little more taxing than the average blockbuster. This means he can pull in a good crowd too, so it’s no surprise to [...]
Click here for more >The Week In Screenings Part XXII
After a relatively quiet week last time around, Alex Kidd, our regular screening correspondent, was out and about all weekend, sampling Empire magazine’s Big Screen event. Here’s his on the spot report… Thursday night and I’m at the O2 Arena for the Cowboys And Aliens premiere and the first night of the Empire Big Screen [...]
Click here for more >Richard Larcombe
He would be the last to make any such claims for himself, but Richard Larcombe, who died last Friday aged just 55, played a substantial part in the development and promotion of the UK video and DVD industry. Best remembered today as the boss and founder almost 22 years ago of PR company The Associates, [...]
Click here for more >Fallout From The Riots: Trade Reaction
“The fire which started at the Sony DADC UK Distribution Centre in Enfield, UK just before midnight on 8th August is at this time still smouldering and the London Fire Brigade remain at the scene. The levels of smoke are restricting any access to the site and consequently no assessment of the damage has yet [...]
Click here for more >Top 10 Bestsellers January To June 2011
The BVA has unveiled the figures for the first half of 2011, totting up the January to June sales and other elements. Sales for the first half of the year were down overall on the same period of 2010, but less than you might have been led to believe; 5.7 per cent, a figure that [...]
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