Something to Muse About: Thomas Kretschmann

“This film is gorgeous.” – Chris Nashawaty, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Compelling in a way that almost defies description.” – Stephanie Zacharek, VILLAGE VOICE

“Big explosions and bigger theatrics, and it works.” – Jordan Hoffman, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

STALINGRAD

Available May 13 on Two-Disc Blu-ray^™ with 3D, DVD & Digital

Blu-ray Bonus Materials Include an English Dub &
Two Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes

CULVER CITY, CALIF. (March 31, 2014) – An epic look at the battle that turned the tide of World War II,STALINGRAD marches onto two-disc Blu-ray^™ with 3D and DVD with Digital HD UltraViolet^™ May 13 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. As the highest-grossing Russian film of all time and Russia’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film to the 86^th Academy Awards^®, STALINGRAD contrasts the grand scale of the famous battle with the intimate human drama among the Russian soldiers, the few remaining civilians and the German soldiers who invaded the city.

The film is directed by acclaimed Russian hitmaker Fedor Bondarchuk (9th Company), who was introduced to the world of cinema at an early age, as the son of actress Irina Skobtseva, and internationally acclaimed film actor and an Academy Award^®-winning director Sergei Bondarchuk. Starring in the film is an ensemble cast, hand-picked to reflect the tone and time period, including Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong), Petr Fedorov, Sergey Bondarchuk, Mariya Smolnikova and Yanina Studilina.

The STALINGRAD Blu-ray comes with two all-new featurettes. “The Making of Stalingrad” is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, and “Stereoscopic Stalingrad” features experts Steve Schklair and Matthew Blute, describing how Russia’s very first IMAX 3D film was created.

Synopsis:

A band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to a Russian woman who has been living there.

STALINGRAD is directed by Fedor Bondarchuk from a screenplay by Ilya Tilkin and Sergey Snezhkin, based on chapters from the novel Life and Fate by Vasiliy Grossman. The film was produced by Alexander Rodnyansky, Anton Zlatopolskiy, Dmitry Rudovskiy and Sergey Melkumov, with Nataliya Gorina serving as executive producer.

Blu-ray Bonus Features Include:

English Dub

Two Featurettes:

“The Making of Stalingrad”

“Stereoscopic Stalingrad”

DVD Bonus Features Include:

English Dub

“The Making of Stalingrad” Featurette

STALINGRAD has a run time of approximately 132 minutes and is rated R for sequences of war violence. In Russian and German with English subtitles, the film will also include an English Dub.

Visit Sony Home Entertainment on the Web at www.SonyPictures.com.

“Academy Award^®” is the registered trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) is a Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) company. Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com.

Fantasy and horror continue their TV take overs this year. First we got the captivating Sleepy Hollow, followed by Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, and Reign. Admittedly these have all been added to my overly full DVR. Today marks the latest entry in Dracula, but does it have enough bite to make it into the weekly lineup?

The pilot opens with Dracula’s return from a shriveled up decrepit state. Two men find a tomb, they've been searching for a long time for it. Its full of gold, and trinkets, but that's not the prize. One of the men kills the other, spilling his blood over the coffin and feeding the beast below, who regenerates into the lovely but hungry Dracula. He is reborn.

Flash forward to London, 1896, Suave. Dracula readies for a demonstration, and a new identity. He masquerades as an american, Alexander Greyson, with a fairly hideous accent. The British one suits his mouth so much better.

Grayson's party is overly posh and lavish, and looks very much like the masquerade out of Van Helsing. Grayson instantly falls in love with Mina, and he sends Renfield to dig up the goods on her while he plays the good host. Then in a scene straight out of The Prestige, Grayson illuminates dozens of wireless light bulbs using energy harnessed from the magnetosphere, but only long enough for everyone to stare in awe before his steampunk factory has a meltdown, one that could have been avoided if the board members of the British Imperial Company would be willing to sell an "american" their coolant patents. But instead worried over their futures and see Grayson as a threat.

And he is a threat, but not just in the way that they think. The British Imperial Company is a front for the centuries-old Order of the Dragon, an evil Illuminati that Grayson plans to take down at all costs. Long ago they burned his Mina doppelgänger. But they didn't just stop there, The Order of the Dragon also slaughtered Van Helsing's family, so the two men are in a rocky partnership, which may not be what it seems, though he was the man who freed Dracula from his fancy iron box.

Another double player is Lady Jane, who seems to be not only pursuing Dracula, but also hunting him, and other vampires. At one point she's sexing Grayson in her opera box and later tries to get information from a captive vampire, who refuses to give up her sire.

The main problem with Dracula is that it isn't what you would expect. Sure there's bloodshed, but Rhys Meyers brings such an eroticism to it that there is nothing fear worthy. The darkness of Dracula is utterly absent.

It has the beauty one expects a Dracula piece to exude, but lacks the panache. Establishing such a well known character, in fact many well known characters, takes entirely too long. There are very few changes made from their classical literature predecessors and while Rhys Meyers is lovely and a great actor, that perfect compulsive and obsessive nuance that Gary Oldman captured so perfectly in regard to Mina in the film of the same name is lacking here. There's no intensity, no intricate paring on fear and desire on a razor's edge. So far the chemistry between Rhys Meyers and De Gouw is non-existent. It's not that white hot fury he displayed with Natalie Dormer on the Tudors. It's definitely intriguing enough for another view, but so far I'm not completely sold on the series, though it certainly doesn't lack potential.