The only good Brosnan Bond...now on streaming!

They say your favorite James Bond tends to be the one you grew up with. For many who came of age during the 90’s, that would be Pierce Brosnan, who staked his claim as the famous secret agent in a string of films from 1995 to 2002. Today, his first three outings as 007 have arrived on Netflix streaming. Goldeneye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and The World is Not Enough (1999) are all on Netflix Instant as of today and in HD, no less.

As a Bond fan, this gives me hope that we’ll see Goldeneye on blu-ray sooner rather than later, but I suspect that Sony/MGM are still waiting for the theatrical release of Skyfall to give us the remaining Bond titles on blu-ray. It’s just a shame that arguably the two best Brosnan flicks are still unavailable in hi-def, not to mention a handful of classic outings with Sean Connery (You Only Live Twice) and Roger Moore (The Spy Who Loved Me). Anyhow, Pierce Brosnan fans, rejoice – this day is for you.

The Vineyard DVD (Image)

Back in late September, Image Entertainment released a slew of out-of-print 80’s horror and cult movies on DVD, many of which had previous been released by Anchor Bay, as part of their new “Midnight Madness” imprint. Just yesterday, most of those titles ended up streaming on Netflix Instant.

Not all of them are winners but there’s certainly a little something for everyone and many of these movies have long since disappeared from store shelves. Halloween may have come and gone but if you’re looking for a spooky flick to watch this winter, just peruse this list:

Hellraiser (1987), Stephen King’s Children of the Corn in HD (1984), Creepshow 2 (1987), Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988), Vamp in HD (1986), Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988), House (1986), House II: The Second Story (1987), Dead Heat in HD (1988), C.H.U.D. (1884), The Initiation (1984), Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983), Return to Horror High (1987), Slugs (1987), Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), The Vineyard (1989), Dead End Drive-In (1986), Flowers in the Attic (1987), The Stuff (1985)

Triple Tap Blu-ray & DVD (Well Go USA)

“HIGH ADRENALINE ACTION” – Twitch

“Superior fascinating thriller!” – Beyond Hollywood

“Yee continues to surpass his demanding audience expectations” – A Nut Shell Review

The Stakes are Higher, the Danger Greater
and the Sharpshooter Much, Much Deadlier

TRIPLE TAP

Louis Koo, Daniel Wu and Li Bingbing Star in Director Derek Yee’s Action Thriller on Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack and DVD December 6

Bonus Materials Include Deleted Scenes,
Behind-the-Scenes Featurette and a Photo Gallery

Two-time Best Director Hong Kong Film Award winner Derek Yee’s (One Nite in Mongkok, Shinjuku Incident) latest action-packed thriller Triple Tap debuts on Blu-ray^™ + DVD Combo Pack and DVD December 6 from Well Go USA. Louis Koo (Triad Election, Flash Point) plays a champion shooter who becomes a hero after fatally-shooting a band of armed bank robbers, but is soon suspected to be the mastermind behind the heist by a crack shot police officer (Daniel Wu, Shinjuku Incident). The follow-up to Yee’s earlier film Double Tap, the film also stars Li Bingbing (Forbidden Kingdom) and Charlene Choi (Robin-B-Hood). Triple Tap comes packed with explosive extras, including deleted scenes, director and actor interviews, a behind-the-scenes featurette, a photo gallery and an optional English dub. Triple Tap will be available in a Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack for $29.98 SRP and on DVD for $24.98 SRP.

Synopsis:

Champion competitive marksman Ken comes across an armored van robbery. He sees a policeman held hostage and shoots and kills four of the robbers. One of the robbers escapes and the policeman survives. The case is handled by Jerry Chang, whom Ken knows from having recently beaten him in a shooting match. Ken is found not guilty in court. Soon after, Ken is attacked by the escaped robber Pang Tao. Their confrontation reveals a very different background story and brings about a myriad of lies and traps and changes in relationships as Jerry and Ken try to outsmart each other.

Bonus Features Include:

–  Director and Actor Interviews
–  Behind the Scenes Featurette
–  Deleted Scenes
–  Photo Gallery
–  Optional English Dub

Triple Tap has a runtime of approximately 94 minutes and is not rated.

A horror anthology featuring Eric Roberts!

Some noteworthy titles have been added to Netflix instant. These films are actually arriving day and date with their blu-ray/DVD counterparts, perhaps a sign of things to come. Will advertisements in the future read “coming soon to blu-ray, DVD, and Netflix”?

The Spanish-language home invasion thriller “Kidnapped” has been added to streaming, as well as the horror movie anthology “Chillerama” and Werner Herzog’s latest documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”

Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City aka Vengeful Zebra City Blu-ray/DVD (Funimation)

The last week of November finds plenty to get excited about. Time to get started on your Christmas shopping if you haven’t already. Who doesn’t love a good Asian blu-ray stocking stuffer? So here is our list of Asian and genre blu-ray and DVD releases for the week of 11/29/11:

ASIAN CINEMA

Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (Blu-ray + DVD combo) – Zebraman is back for a futuristic adventure in Takashi Miike’s 2010 sequel. Zebra Screw Punch!

Flying Guillotine (DVD) – the 1975 Shaw Brothers classic that introduced the now infamous weapon is now on DVD with restored picture and original language audio track

Flying Guillotine 2 (DVD) – the 1977 sequel to the “Flying Guillotine” features Hong Kong legend Ti Lung (“A Better Tomorrow”)

Zen (DVD) – a thoughtful, G-rated 2009 Japanese biopic about Dogen Zenji, a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and the founder of the Soto school of Zen

Jackie Chan 4 Film Collection (blu-ray) – it appears as though Echo Bridge Entertainment has taken the Miramax prints and dubs of several of Jackie Chan’s films and put them on blu-ray without improving the picture or sound at all. On this collection, you get: “Project A,” “Project A 2,” “Armour of God,” and “Armour of God 2: Operation Condor.” There’s a review on Amazon that goes into detail about this disc’s failings, mostly that the prints are subpar and the movies offer no Cantonese language track. In the end, the reviewer still recommends the disc for hardcore Jackie Chan fans. The good news is that this set is only $10

FOREIGN CINEMA

Kidnapped (DVD) – a 2010 Spanish language home invasion thriller that won rave reviews from the likes of Twitch Film and Arrow in the Head

The Wave (DVD) – a 2008 German film about a high school social experiment detailing the effects of totalitarianism

Vampires (DVD) – a 2010 Belgian mockumentary that has been called the “Spinal Tap” of vampire movies

ANIMATION

Loups=Garous (blu-ray/DVD) – a post-apocalyptic 2010 Japanese anime about a group of young girls in a closed society who try to contact the outside world just as a series of murders rocks their isolated community

CULT

Another Earth (blu-ray + DVD combo) – what would you do if there was another world, with another you, and a fresh chance to start over? That’s the premise of this 2011 meditative science fiction film that won rave reviews at Sundance

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (DVD) – the 2011 documentary from Werner Herzog finds the iconoclast heading deep underground to examine cave paintings that are over 30,000 years old

The Future (DVD) – the latest, 2011 quirky indie film from scene darling Miranda July

Chillerama (blu-ray/DVD) – a 2011 throwback to the era of Troma movies and drive-in cinema, co-starring Ray Wise (“Twin Peaks”) and Eric Roberts

MAINSTREAM

5 Days of War (blu-ray/DVD) – a different kind of movie from “Cliffhanger” director Renny Harlin, this 2011 film follows the struggles of war journalists

TELEVISION

The Six Million Dollar Man: Season 1 (DVD) – the fan favorite television show starring Lee Majors, now on DVD

Mission: Impossible – The ’88 TV Season (DVD) – the “Mission: Impossible” series briefly returned to television with this 80’s revival, now on DVD

HORROR

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (blu-ray/DVD) – Magnet Films presents this 2011 fan favorite horror satire about backwoods rednecks who run afoul of some accident-prone teenagers

The Horror Express (blu-ray + DVD combo) – Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star in this 1972 horror film about what happens when the “Missing Link” wakes up from a deep thaw while being transported aboard the Trans-Siberian Express

Needle (DVD) – a 2010 Australian horror film with a bit of a “Hellraiser” inspiration. What happens when a college student inherits an ancient mechanical device with supernatural properties? All hell breaks loose, naturally

House of Seven Corpses (DVD) – a 1974 zombie chiller starring John Carradine, supposedly filmed in a bonafied haunted mansion

Interested in any of these movies? If so, we hope that you’ll consider ordering from our affiliate to help support this site. Thank you!

Shaolin Blu-ray/DVD (Well Go USA)

When Netflix added a surplus of Asian films to their streaming catalog, cinema fans everywhere rejoiced, including the folks here at City on Fire. However, as their increased price hike and falling stock prices have proved, Netflix can’t seem to do anything these days without some kind of hiccup.

Recently Netflix made a deal with distributor Asian Crush that saw many Korean titles bypass blu-ray/DVD distribution altogether in the West and head straight to Netflix streaming. Titles included the popular Korean 007 spoof “Dochimawa Lee” and the modern day Robin Hood tale “The Righteous Thief.” In less than a week, nearly a hundred Korean films were added to Netflix, all at movie-goer’s fingertips.

But it didn’t take long for problems to arise: reviews came pouring in, claiming that several of the streaming titles had audio problems. The sound would drop out entirely for long bouts of time, rendering the films unwatchable for most. Within days, the affected titles were gone. Some of the movies still say “streaming coming soon,” while others have vanished from the site completely. Since these films aren’t even available on disc, there’s no way to rent them even if you’re paying a higher price for DVDs by mail.

Asian film buffs are waiting patiently for the audio issues to be corrected and the movies returned to streaming, all with no word from Netflix. Meanwhile, Benny Chan’s high profile 2011 martial arts film “Shaolin” – featuring an all-star cast that includes Andy Lau and Jackie Chan – made its way to streaming a few days ago. The only problem was, the movie cut off after about 50 minutes of its two hour runtime. The review section became inundated with complaints: streaming audiences had no way to finish the movie. A day or two later, “Shaolin” has now been pulled from streaming. Netflix says it’s “Coming Soon.” Subscribers are not happy. Forced to be anonymous since Netflix removed usernames from their site, they write:

“movie ended halfway through. Now you want me to pay more to see the rest of it. FUCKYOU NETFL!X!”

“The first 51 minutes of the movie was great. I was disappointed that it was cut short half way through the movie. Figured it would be fixed and I could watch the rest later. Instead of fixing the issue it’s been added to DVD only and removed from streaming. Seriously…..Is this some sort of new marketing ploy to get you to add DVD rentals? Can we ‘paying customers’ at least get an explanation when something like this happens.”

“Are you kidding me!!!! What kind of inept service is this? Along comes a great movie in a long time and we get cut off. Can I pay half of the bill to the company? If you can’t get it right, the customers have the right to be refunded or compensated. WE COULD TAKE IT TO THE BBB AND FILE A COMPLAINT.”

Sure, some customers vent their concerns more eloquently than others but the issue remains: Netflix puts titles on streaming whether they’re actually ready to be streamed or not. There’s no doubt a lot of technical issues are involved in making hundreds of films available on demand, but paying customers shouldn’t click on a movie only to have the experience ruined by audio problems or an incomplete film. Right now this is another serious complaint on the laundry list of issues Netflix subscribers have with the company. Let’s hope somebody is listening.

They changed the name so Pixar wouldn't sue

Today Crunchyroll reports that Funimation has acquired the rights to Hong Kong superhero parody “Incredibly Ever After” (known as “Mr. and Mrs. Incredible” in Hong Kong). The film follows retired superheroes Gazer Man (Louis Koo) and Aroma Woman (Sandra Ng), and is set for a DVD release in the fall of 2012.

Here’s some older news but still good to know: Twitch Film reported earlier in the month that Well Go USA acquired the domestic rights to the John Woo-produced, two-part Taiwanese epic “Seediq Blade.” It’s unknown whether Well Go will release the truncated international version of the film or the lengthier two-parter.

In addition, Well Go USA obtained the rights to Andrew Lau’s action epic “The Flying Guillotines” and the Cecilia Cheung-starring “The Legendary Amazons.”  Since it’s Well Go USA, we can expect glorious blu-ray releases for all these titles as long as hi-def materials are available.

Aragaki Yui

The classic manga/anime Ranma 1/2 is being turned into a live-action drama special starring actress Aragaki Yui. NTV will broadcast the 2-hour drama sometime in December. The announced cast also features Hasegawa Kyoko as Tendo Kasumi, Tanihara Shosuke as Ono Tofu, Furuta Arata as Saotome Genma, and Namase Katsuhisa as Tendo Soun.

Click here for the full story.

Update: Anime News Network linked a teaser pic of the cast in costume.

Update 2: More individual pics of the cast here. Thanks to @crazynabe and @namimi_sanjyo for the link.

Update 3: Check out a trailer here.

"Speed Angels" Chinese Teaser Poster

Directed by Jingle Ma (Tokyo Raiders) and starring Cecilia Cheung (12 Nights), Rene Liu (Run Papa Run) and Tang Wei (Wu Xia); Speed Angels is the first ever racing car film dedicated to female drivers. The film will feature a lineup of celebrity heavyweights from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Chinesefilms.cn reports that Speed Angels will be screened at on December 28, 2011. Also visit the link for additional stills and concept posters. Check back for the trailer.