Madman January DVD Releases

Lets jump straight into the New Year as there are some great discoveries with National Geographic... we have three brilliant titles this month that we would love to share with you.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: SNAKE UNDERWORLD WITH HENRY ROLLINS. It is becoming more and more common for people to bring snakes into their homes with literally millions of pet snakes slithering their way in to our neighbourhoods. Henry Rollins: punk rocker, spoken word performer, actor, and author, has been obsessed with snakes from a young age. With his unique zeal, this cultural commentator guides us through the underbelly of America's obsession with snakes, revealing just how far people will go to get their hands on some of the most dangerous species on the planet.

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: MAN VS MONSTER. The 'Bear Man' Takes On Truly Terrifying Creatures.

Cameraman Richard 'Bear Man' Terry treks to the world's most forbidding places in pursuit of spine-chilling creatures whose very existence haunts our nightmares. Horrifying myths and legends have been assigned to these beasts by witnesses and victims who have encountered them, but are they to be believed? Richard will see if these animals are worthy of their monstrous reputations.

Episodes: Amazon Terror, Flying Demon, and Cold-Blooded Killers.

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: BANGED UP ABROAD - THE REAL MIDNIGHT EXPRESS. Five True Stories Of Travellers' Worst Nightmares.

The 1978 film MIDNIGHT EXPRESS told the story of 23-year-old college student Billy Hayes - his life, imprisonment due to drug smuggling and escape from a prison in Istanbul, Turkey. But because of legal reasons, neither the film nor the book, authored by Hayes, were completely accurate. Now, Billy tells the real story of being sent to the infamous Turkish Sağmalcılar prison.

After spending five years there, he was sent to Imrali, an island prison off the coast of Turkey. His journey to freedom from Imrali began after stealing a fisherman's dinghy and heaving a skiff seventeen miles through the rolling waves to the mainland. However, once he reached the shore, Billy ran into a military checkpoint, where he was immediately arrested. His captors turn out to be Greek, historically enemies of those who had previously incarcerated him, and Billy is granted his long-awaited freedom.

Bangkok
A 28 year old Australian teacher named Tim Schrader agrees to smuggle 8 kilos of heroin into the U.S. to solve his financial problems. Although he knows he could receive the death penalty, the money is too tempting to resist.

Saddam's Iraq
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Tom Lynch and his fellow contractors decided to get out of Iraq while they still could, but were captured by Iraqi soldiers and taken to a notorious prison in Baghdad, where they must listen to inmates being tortured to death.

Tokyo Justice
After Jackie Nichols's fiancé dies in a car accident; she flees to Japan to restart her life. Once there, she meets a charming drug mule and agrees to smuggle hashish with him. She gets away with it four times, but the fifth time, she's not so lucky.

Ecuador
Michael Morey, a music-loving hippie agrees to smuggle cocaine from Ecuador to Europe and although he makes it to Spain his final stop is to prove his undoing.

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Let’s head into something a bit lighter... Perfect for the loved up summer.

KISS ME AGAIN. The story of all love stories.

Carlo and his friends are each at various crossroads in their lives. Now in their forties, they are calmer and more philosophical, having left behind the heady days of casual affairs, late nights and unrealistic dreams. Furthermore, there are children to get to school on time, separations to negotiate, jobs to take seriously and routines to follow, to so there is hardly time for frivolity.

KISS ME AGAIN reunites the group of friends we first met in 2001's THE LAST KISS, and discovers that there is passion and satisfaction in sharing your life with the people who love and know you best.

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COPACABANA. Babou dances to the beat of her own drum, but to win back her daughter she must change her tune...

Babou is the ultimate free spirit, an unemployed single mother living in the North of France, she has lived all over the world, though she still dreams of going to Brazil. When her by-the-book daughter Esmeralda announces that she is getting married, and that she is too ashamed of her own mother to invite her to the wedding, Babou decides to make some changes. She takes a dubious job selling time-share apartments during the off-season at the Belgian seaside, and surprises everyone by becoming the model employee. But Babou soon finds her bohemian ideology compromised by her success.

Can she remain true to herself while at the same time winning back the love and respect of her daughter?

Tinged with Samba-flavoured music, this bittersweet comedy features a truly memorable performance from Isabelle Huppert, teamed on screen for the first time with her real-life daughter, Lolita Chammah.

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PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES. This year, the biggest story's their own.

In the tradition of great fly-on-the-wall documentaries, PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES deftly gains unprecedented access to The New York Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk. With the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, PAGE ONE chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. Writers like Brian Stelter, Tim Arango and the salty but brilliant David Carr track print journalism’s metamorphosis even as their own paper struggles to stay vital and solvent. Meanwhile, their editors and publishers grapple with existential challenges from players like WikiLeaks, new platforms ranging from Twitter to tablet computers, and readers’ expectations that news online should be free.

But rigorous journalism is thriving. PAGE ONE gives us an up-close look at the vibrant cross-cubicle debates and collaborations, tenacious jockeying for on-the-record quotes, and skillful page-one pitching that produce the “daily miracle” of a great news organization. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of journalists continuing to produce extraordinary work—under increasingly difficult circumstances.

At the heart of the film is the burning question on the minds of everyone who cares about a rigorous American press, Times lover or not: what will happen if the fast-moving future of media leaves behind the fact-based, original reporting that helps to define our society?
 

Published 9th Jan 2012

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