Jeri Jacquin
Now on 4K Ultra HD for the first time from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a collection of beloved classics!
Nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1959 including Best Picture, the black and white film ANATOMY OF A MURDER directed by Otto Preminger is the story of lawyer Paul Biegler (Jimmy Stewart). Keeping himself busy doing a little of this and that, he spends time with partner Parnell (Arthur O’Connell) and secretary Maida (Eve Arden). When Army Lt. Manny Manion (Ben Gazzara) is arrested for murder, he claims it is due to temporary insanity and his wife Laura (Lee Remick is by his side.
But there is more here that Biegler must uncover, and it is going to bring secrets to the surface that are disturbing. With an all-star cast, ANATOMY OF A MURDER digs deep into a well of secrets that is riveting to watch on the screen. The disc includes Commentary with Film Historian Foster Hirsch, Gary Giddins Interview, Pat Kirkham Interview and Excerpts from FIRING LINE Featuring Otto Preminger.
The film OLIVER! from director Carol Reed is the 1968 British musical that was the winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Young Oliver (Mark Lester) is living in an English workhouse run by Mr. Bumble (Harry Secombe) and Widow Corney (Peggy Mount). After an incident during supper, Mr. Bumble makes it his personal mission to subject Oliver to the worst life has to offer.
Meeting Artful Dodger (Jack Wild), Oliver meets Fagin (Ron Moody) and begins a life of crime. There is a history for Oliver that is audience will see as the push and pull of this young man’s life, how it started and how he remains Oliver.
The disc also includes Commentary with Film Historian Steven C. Smith, Jack Wild Screen Test, Meeting OLIVER!, Meeting Fagin, Sing-Alongs and Dance-Alongs.
In 1976, audiences were taken on the wildest ride as director Martin Scorsese’s film TAXI DRIVER hit theatres. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a vet of the Vietnam War and living in New York City. Suffering from lack of sleep and PTSD, he tries to find ways to keep moving forward.
He tries dating which turns into a disaster but also leads him down a destructive road that is both frightening and disturbing. Declared a masterpiece of filmmaking, the film received the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for four Academy Awards that would include Best Picture.
The disc includes Making TAXI DRIVER Documentary, 40-Minute Q&A, Commentary with Director Martin Scorsese and Writer Paul Schrader, Influence and Appreciation: A Martin Scorsese Tribute, God’s Lonely Man and TAXI DRIVER Stories.
Director Ivan Reitman brings the best laughs in the 1981 Bill Murray film STRIPES!. John Winger (Bill Murray) in the middle of a life crisis. He decides to join the Army and takes best buddy Russel Ziskey (Harold Ramis) with him and off they go to basic in Kentucky. At Ford Arnold they are immediately met by Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates) who makes it his personal mission to ride his troupe.
Trying to find a little fun they meet MP’s Louise (Sean Young) and Stella (P.J. Soles). During a training mission they end up being transferred to Italy. Missing the girls, Winger and Ziskey take a tank and head to Germany starting up another jaw dropping but funny misadventure.
The STRIPES! disc also includes 40 Years of Stripes with Bill & Ivan, Commentary with Ivan Reitman and Dan Goldberg, Eleven Additional Deleted & Extended Scenes and the 1983 TV Version of the Film.
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is based on the Jane Austen novel and directed by Ang Lee in 1995. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, the story tells of the Dashwood sisters Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet) living in England. Living a very simple life, there is relationships, family, disappointment and believing that love can come from anywhere.
The cinematography is filled with beauty and the costuming is sheer perfection as this all-star cast brings such a wonderful story from book to screen. Austen’s novel was printed in 1818 proving that love is timeless when done so beautifully.
The disc also includes 25th Anniversary Reunion: Back to Barton Cottage, Emma Thompson & Producer Lindsay Doran’s Audio Commentary, Director Ang Lee & Co-Producer James Schamus’s Audio Commentary, Adapting Austen Featurette, A Very Quiet Man Featurette, Locating the World of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY Featurette, Elegance and Simplicity: The Wardrobe of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY Featurette and Deleted Scenes.
Finally, director David Fincher would bring the story about the app that almost everyone has on their phone with the 2010 film THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a college student who comes up with the idea of an app along with friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). It is immediately successful much to the irritation of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer).
Through legal action, Zuckerberg is faced with the wrath of the Winklevoss’ and one-time friends who think he has gone to far. THE SOCIAL NETWORK gives a look at the beginnings of the man behind the technology that would grab ahold of the world and create one of the riches men in the world. The film would be nominated for 8 Academy Awards that includes Best Picture.
The disc includes Audio Commentary with David Fincher, Audio Commentary with Aaron Sorkin & Cast, How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?, Trent Reznor-Atticus Rose-David Fincher on the Score, In the Hall of the Mountain King: Reznor’s First Draft and Swarmatron.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment encompasses motion picture production for television, digital content and theater releases. The studios include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films and Sony Picture Classics. To see what is coming to theaters and to home entertainment please visit www.sonypictures.com.
What is even more amazing about this collection is the 20 short films from the Columbia Pictures library that include: Umpa, The Three Stooges: Disorder in the Court, Charley Chase: Man Bites Lovebug, Color Rhapsodies: The Little Match Girl, Charley Chase: The Sap Takes a Wrap, Color Rhapsodies: Dog, Cat and Canary, The Ragtime Bear, The Wonder Gloves, Georgie and the Dragon, Madeline, Pete Hothead, The Tell-Tale Heart, When Magoo Flew, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, Christopher Crumpet’s Playmate, Stage Door Magoo, April in Portugal, The Chubbchubb’s, The Early Hatching Gets the Worm and Puppy! A Hotel Transylvania Short.
The COLUMBIA CLASSICS 4k ULTRA HD COLLECTION VOLUME 2 is a fantastic collection that all film lovers need for their home entertainment library’s. The films chosen in this set are each stellar on their own laurels and rightfully so. Together, as a set, these are films that can be enjoyed again and again – and trust me I will be doing just that.
The films are cinematically beautiful fraught with the frail human condition, yes, even with the comedy STRIPES! Each of them take on the era for their storyline and I am a huge fan of costuming and each one is done so well it draws the viewer deeper into the tale being told.
It is the directors that have brought the images to us bigger than life. Preminger, Reed, Scorsese, Reitman, Lee and Fincher used their mastery of story telling to bring us such visions of perfection. If you are looking for a gift for the coming season for the film-lover in your life, this would be it!
In the end – classics films are classics forever!
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