Tag: DVDs

Fear Factor: DVDs for Halloween

Mark

Test your Fear Level (Low, Moderate or High) with this selection of classic & lesser known Horror films & TV shows from our DVD collection at Te Awe & our offsite Storage Branch Te Pataka.

Halloween (1978)
Fear Factor: Moderate
Mark: Moody. Tense. Created its own cult & changed modern Horror forever.
Neil: John Carpenter‘s low budget masterpiece spawned a million imitators, but none as good as the original.

 

 

Gremlins (1984)
Fear Factor: Low
Mark: Great family fun that never dates.
Neil: One of the Halloween at Christmas movies. Hugely entertaining fun in a twisted & dark way.

 

 

Near dark (1988)
Fear Factor: High
Mark: Grimy & violent with Vampires as soulless spree killers. The anti-Twilight.
Neil: Kathryn Bigelow‘s genre redefining Vampire movie set in the American Midwest is a joy to watch for Horror film fans.

 

The hole (2009)
Fear Factor: Low
Mark: Intelligent YA film has 3 teens discover a mysterious bottomless pit, unleashing something that forces them to confront their own deepest fears.
Neil: No idea. Joe Dante usually makes a great film.

 

 

The cabin in the woods (2011)
Fear Factor: Moderate
Mark: A meta tribute to Horror films. Great fun. Helped to launch the career of Chris Hemsworth.
Neil: Joss Whedon reverses every horror trope in this twisty film. Super clever.

 

 

The birds (1963)
Fear Factor: Moderate
Mark: Hitchcock works out more issues.
Neil: Daphne du Maurier’s short story is given the Hitchcock treatment in this dated but truly disturbing movie which utilises Tippi Hedren‘s real life fear of Birds.

 

The descent (2005)
Fear Factor: High
Mark: The caving is super scary even before the true horror begins. Tips the whole female-bonding trope on its head.
Neil: Do not watch this if you suffer from claustrophobia!

 

 

Eden Lake (2008)
Fear Factor: High
Mark: Brutal ‘Hoddie-Horror’ sees Kelly Reilly on the run from local nasties.
Neil: A frightening version of Deliverance set in the British countryside.

 

 

The evil dead (1981)
Fear Factor: High
Mark: Sequels. A TV Show. Bruce Campbell. Enough said.
Neil: Classic schlock horror. If you’ve seen it, go back and watch it again. If you haven’t, watch to to understand the DNA of horror films.

 

 

Fright night (1985)
Fear Factor: Low
Mark: Another inspiration for Stranger Things. Teens fight monsters that adults don’t believe are real.
Neil: If you want to see mainstream American Horror was like in the 80s this is a great place to start.

 

The haunting of Hill House. (TV Series, 2018)
Fear Factor: High
Mark: Gripping. Atmospheric. Psychological. One of the best Horror TV shows ever.
Neil: Shirley Jackson‘s reputation as a master writer of Horror makes this a TV show worth watching.

 

The wicker man : the final cut (1973)
Fear Factor: Moderate
Mark: A classic inspiration for the recent Midsommar.
Neil: This was Christopher Lee‘s favourite performance. The detailed pagan ritual & rural Scottish setting give it a truly unsettling atmosphere.

Films from the Big Apple

Neil

I’m staying! You hear that, New York? THE FROG IS STAYING!

― Kermit the Frog, The Muppets Take Manhattan

We recently did a small blog on books set in New York City – but as well as fiction, New York City is one of the most filmed locations on the planet.  The city was first committed to celluloid in 1901 just a few years after the birth of cinema. It’s a vibrant, unique, melting pot, and its multi-cultural population coupled with its iconic skyscrapers and historic monuments  make it a perfect setting for so many tales.

The films stretch from the Jazz Singer (the world’s first talkie) to films that are regarded as all-time classic films such as Citizen Kane,  and The Godfather. There are also legions of films that are loved for different reasons such as  Escape from New York, The Muppets Take Manhattan and Crocodile Dundee. The good news is that many of these iconic New York films are available to borrow from our extensive DVD collection – for our small selection read on – and enjoy.


Frances Ha
“A story that follows a New York woman (who doesn’t really have an apartment), apprentices for a dance company (though she’s not really a dancer), and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possibility dwindles.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The warriors
“The Warriors are a street gang from Coney Island, trapped in the Bronx when a city-wide truce explodes. What follows is non-stop suspense and violent action as they try to get through 28 miles of “enemy territory” with 100,000 gang members after them!” (Adapted from Catalogue)


Breakfast at Tiffany’s [videorecording]
“An eccentric New York City playgirl is determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire, but her next-door neighbour, a writer, changes her plans.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

3 Spike Lee joints [videorecording].
“Do the right thing” – Traces the course of a single day on a block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. It’s the hottest day of the year, a scorching 24-hour period that will change the lives of its residents forever. Also included in this collection “Jungle fever”and “Clockers”  (Adapted from Catalogue)

King Kong [videorecording].
“An expedition exploring a remote island capture a gigantic ape and bring him back to New York for exhibition. A beautiful actress who accompanies them is menaced, when the monster’s love for her causes him to break out” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Ghostbusters ; plus, Ghostbusters II. [videorecording] The original “Ghostbusters” and its sequel teamed comedians Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis with director Ivan Reitman, to tell the story of a trio of paranormal investigators who must save the world from the evil clutches of the supernatural.

Taxi driver [videorecording] “Vietnam vet Travis Bickle works as a loner night-shift cabbie in New York. Roving the streets, he kills time by keeping a diary, popping pills and hanging out in porn theatres. A series of frustrations and his encounters with a 14-year-old prostitute compel him to clean up the sordid milieu in which he operates.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Once upon a time in America [videorecording]
” Spanning four decades, the film tells the story of David “Noodles” Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his Jewish pals, chronicling their childhoods on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1920s, through their gangster careers in the 1930s, and culminating in Noodles’ 1968 return to New York from self-imposed exile, at which time he learns the truth about the fate of his friends and again confronts the nightmare of his past.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

New DVDs at Te Awe

Mark

Here are some new movies & TV Shows recently added to our collection and available at our CBD Te Awe Library and selected Branch locations.

New Movies:
Photograph
“A struggling street photographer in Mumbai, pressured to marry by his grandmother, convinces a shy stranger to pose as his fiancée. The pair develop a connection that transforms them in ways they could not expect.” (Catalogue)

 

 

Why didn’t they ask Evans?
“During a round of golf on a cliff-top course in Wales, Bobby Jones discovers a man lying gravely injured on the rocks below. His last words, “Why didn’t they ask Evans?,” leads Bobby and his friend on a quest to find out what happened to the man.” (Catalogue)

 

 

A White, White Day
“The powerful new film by Hlynur Plmason centres on a grieving police officer in rural Iceland (Ingvar E. Sigursson) who turns his vengeful sights on a neighbour he suspects may have had an affair with his now-deceased wife.” (Catalogue)

 

 

New TV Shows:
Shakespeare & Hathaway : private investigators. Season one.
“Private inspector Frank Hathaway has always worked alone. But Frank isn’t doing so well. He’s out of shape and low on cash. Frank needs a partner. Frank needs ex-hairdresser and people-person Lu. He just doesn’t know it yet. The two eventually join forces and form a highly unlikely and hugely entertaining detecting duo. Frank and Lu quickly discover that all is not as peaceful as it seems in their pretty theatre town. The mayor is murdered, vengeful lovers stalk the streets and a magician’s trick fatally misfires. Welcome to Stratford-upon-Avon, where low life criminals get caught up in deliciously high drama.” (Catalogue)

Ray Donovan. Season seven.
“While Ray makes progress in therapy, there are dangers from the past that require the Ray Donovan of old. Between NYC mayor Ed Feratti, an unrelenting NYPD officer hunting for the truth and clients old and new, Ray struggles to find the balance between fixing for clients and fixing himself. And when Feratti’s corruption brings a piece of Mickey’s past back to New York, Ray is forced to seek answers to long-buried questions.” (Catalogue)

 

Occupied. Series 3.
“A new parliamentary election is due, and the campaign reignites old conflicts between the Norwegians. Seeing himself as the liberator of Norway, interim Prime Minister Jesper Berg is confident of winning the election. But the public is divided. Who are the real liberation heroes? How should traitors be treated? How will relations with Russia develop? And has Russia actually withdrawn from Norway? To complicate matters, Jesper is confronted by a group of young eco-scientists desperate to remind him of his original reason for entering into politics: His deep commitment to clean energy. Ambassador to Norway, Sidorova is torn between her wish to start a new life in Norway and her loyalty to Russia. Security Services Director Hans Martin Djupvik investigates the assassination of former Prime Minister Anita Rygh. And Bente takes her daughter to Moscow to escape the prosecution of traitors.” (Catalogue)

Homecoming. Season one.
“Good intentions. Erratic bosses. Mounting paranoia. Unforeseen consequences spiralling out of control. Heidi (Julia Roberts) works at Homecoming, a facility helping soldiers transition to civilian life. Years later she has started a new life, when the Department of Defense questions why she left Homecoming. Heidi soon realises there’s a whole other story behind the one she’s been telling herself.” (Catalogue)

 

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Season two.
“In the second season after tracking a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle, CIA Officer Jack Ryan heads down to South America to investigate. As Jack’s investigation threatens to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy, the President of Venezuela launches a counter-attack that hits home for Jack, leading him and his fellow operatives on a global mission spanning the United States, UK, Russia, and Venezuela to unravel the President’s nefarious plot.” (Catalogue)

His dark materials. The complete first season.
“A young girl is destined to liberate her world from the grip of the Magisterium, which represses people’s ties to magic and their animal spirits known as daemons.” (Catalogue)

 

 

The boys. Season 1.
“The Boys is an irreverent take on what happens when superheroes – as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as gods – abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It is the powerless against the superpowerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about “The Seven” and their formidable Vought backing.” (Catalogue)

 

Belgravia. Season one.
“On the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, two young lovers forge a legacy that will create scandal for generations to come. Years later, when the humble Trenchards (Tamsin Greig and Philip Gleinster) move to Belgravia, they find themselves mixing with the venerated Brockenhursts (Harriet Walter and Tom Wilkinson). The families share a history that threatens inheritances and reputations and there are those who would do anything to ensure secrets remain buried. Pride and loyalty will be tested as forbidden love blossoms amongst the rivalry and lives hang in the balance.” (Catalogue)

Good girls. Season two.
“Good Girls Season 2 opens with Beth (Christina Hendricks) dealing with her failed plan to get Rio (Manny Montana) arrested, while evidence about their crimes end up on Agent Turner’s (James Lesure) desk. Throughout the season, Ruby (Retta) and Beth deal with the new status of their relationships with their husbands Stan (Reno Wilson) and Dean (Matthew Lillard), now aware of their secret criminal life; meanwhile, Annie (Mae Whitman) and her daughter have a hard time getting along. However, with the threat of a conviction looming over them, they can’t afford to make any mistakes with any of their activities.” (Catalogue)

Striking out. Complete series one & two.
“Tara Rafferty is a high-flying solicitor living an apparently charmed existence with her good-looking law-partner fiancé Eric. But when she discovers Eric is cheating on her with a colleague, she decides to go it alone and start her own law firm.” (Catalogue)

 

 

New Amsterdam. Season two
“Inspired by the oldest public hospital in America, this unique medical drama follows the brilliant and charming Dr. Max Goodwin, the institution’s newest medical director, who sets out to tear up the bureaucracy and provide exceptional care. How can he help? Not taking “no” for an answer. Dr. Goodwin must disrupt the status quo and prove he will stop at nothing to breathe new life into this understaffed, underfunded, and underappreciated hospital.” (Catalogue)

Elementary. The final season
“Having lied and confessed to a murder he did not commit in order to protect Watson, Holmes moves back home to London in order to avoid jail time, so Watson follows.” (Catalogue)

The full Central Library DVD collection is now available to borrow!

Mark

It has been a huge job to relocate all our Central Library collections to a new home at Te Pātaka, our new collection and Distribution Centre located in Johnsonville. However we are very happy to announce that the Central Library DVD collection is available to be borrowed again in its entirety. Items can be reserved via our online catalogues from Te Pātaka to be collected from any of our other Branch Libraries.
We have decided to remove any fees for reserving items from Te Pātaka. However we have introduced a $2 charge per item if people do not pick up their reserved items within 10 working days of being notified they are available for pick up. This is to help keep the items in the collection circulating for everyone to access.

We have also curated a core collection of ‘Essential Viewing’ titles from our large Central AV collection, many of which are unavailable on streaming services in New Zealand. All our ‘Essential Viewing’ titles are taken from 1001 movies you must see before you die. They are also tagged on our catalogue. Just type in Essential Film Viewing & Essential Television Viewing as a search and you can check them out from home, your device, or on our online catalogues in the library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of just some of the DVD shelves out at Te Pātaka to give you an idea of the scope of what’s available. We will be posting some videos of us amongst the collection soon, as we start to highlight some genres and titles for you!




The 1945 Retro Hugo awarded to Science Fiction legend Leigh Douglass Brackett

Neil

No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”
― Leigh Brackett, The Empire strikes back. 

The 2020 Hugo’s have just been announced and one of the strands awarded is the retrospective Hugo given to writers writing exceptional Science Fiction before the Hugo’s started. The winner of this year’s retrospective Hugo is one of the most remarkable and versatile writers from that time and a legend in both science fiction and film noir circles. Leigh Douglass Brackett was born in 1915, she published her first science fiction story in her mid 20’s and contributed to the to Pogo’s STF-ETTE, probably the first ever all-female science fiction fanzine.

Proving her versatility and talent her first novel was not a science fiction work but was instead a hard boiled mystery called No good from a corpse. Which led to Leigh being approached by Hollywood director Howard Hawks to help write the script for 1946’s The Big sleep, staring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, the film is now commonly regarded as one of the finest Hollywood film noir movies. Leigh went on to work on a whole host of films such as Rio Bravo and famously The Empire strikes back writing some of Yoda’s most memorable lines. But her interest in science fiction remained constant throughout her career writing many science fiction novels and short stories earning Leigh the affectionate title “Queen of Space Opera”. Her most celebrated science fiction novel was her 1955 book The long tomorrow set after a nuclear war, and portraying a world where scientific knowledge is restricted and feared. The book was nominated for a Hugo the following year 1956.


The long tomorrow / Brackett, Leigh
“Two generations after the nuclear holocaust, rumours persisted about a secret desert hideaway where scientists worked with dangerous machines and where men plotted to revive the cities. Almost a continent away, Len Coulter heard whisperings that fired his imagination. Then one day he found a strange wooden box.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The big sleep ; Farewell, my lovely ; The high window / Chandler, Raymond
” The Big Sleep, Chandler’s first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, a private detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the 1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralyzed California millionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail, and murder. In Farewell, My Lovely, Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, a murder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentially deadly women. In The High Window, Marlowe searches the California underworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself deep in the tangled affairs of a dead coin collector.”(Adapted from Catalogue). For the availability of The Howard Hawk’s version of Big sleep film click here. 

William Shakespeare’s The Empire striketh back : Star Wars part the fifth / Doescher, Ian
“Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back and William Shakespeare’s The Jed Doth Return. Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages.” (Catalogue) For the availability of the Empire strikes back film click here. 

    Music & Film is back in the CBD at our new Te Awe Library!

    Mark

    Exciting news for Film & Music lovers with large sections of the Wellington Central Library Audio Visual collection now available once again at our newest CBD library, Te Awe, on Panama and Brandon streets.

    Some of our DVD collection, as well as a very small CD collection, were previously located in the Arapaki Branch on Manners Street following the closure of the Central Library building. We have added lots of core film titles to the DVDs, greatly expanded the CD collection, and brought them all together in a fresh new location, a cosy corner upstairs at the spacious new Te Awe library.

    We have also curated a core collection of ‘Essential Listening’ & ‘Essential Viewing’ titles from our large Central AV collection, many of which are unavailable on streaming services in New Zealand. Watch out for our new blue stickers!

     

     

     

     

     

     

    All our ‘Essential Viewing’ & Essential Listening’ titles are taken from titles such as 1001 movies you must see before you die, ‘1001 albums you must hear before you die’ & Nick Bollinger’s 100 essential New Zealand albums. They are also tagged on our catalogue. Just type in ‘Essential Film Viewing’, ‘Essential Television Viewing’ & ‘Essential Listening’ as a search and you can check them out from home, your device, or on our online catalogues in the library.

    Details on the library’s location and hours are on the Te Awe branch page. See you there!