I really hope everyone had a nice holiday, full of presents and moments that make this season always a little special. It’s time to get back to work and I will have for you three reviews at the very least in the month of January. These discs are provided to me because of the fine people at Upcomingdiscs.com. Once again, it seems like I’ve drawn the foreign language straw and every single one of them is in French. Two French films from the late 70’s/early 80’s and a sequel to a wonderful French animated film from GKids and Shout Factory. Let’s take a brief look at these films.
The first film is called A Thousand Billion Dollars (isn’t that a trillion?) or known by it’s French title: Mille Milliards de Dollars. This film was made in 1982, and didn’t even see a blu-ray release until 2022 in it’s own home country. Kino is providing the goods here and it’s about a journalist who comes across a conspiracy while investigating a politician’s suicide. Shocker, it’s an assassination, and perhaps less of a shock some evil American company is at the root of this. So the journalist needs to get evidence against said company before more companies start disappearing or more lives including his own fall victim. Henri Verneuil directs (The Sicilian Clan) and Patrick Dewaere starts. It’s supposed to have a new audio commentary as well. I do well with films in the late 70’s through the late 80’s, even if they are foreign flics. I hope that’s the case here.
Apparently, I’m not done with the Henri Verneuil films because I’m also getting I…For Icarus (or I… comme Icare) from 1979. This one is probably a little well known, and again we are going the political assassination route. This one sounds an awful lot like the JFK assassination but puts it in a fictionalized state/country. It centers around an investigation which has doubts about the “lone gunman” theory. Therefore, the investigation is re-opened and of course the secrets eventually come a little loose. Extra bonus, the soundtrack is done by Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West among many other films). Again, we get another commentary here (same speaker) and like A Thousand Billion Dollars, it also has reversible cover art. I usually roll my eyes at political thrillers but when it comes to French cinema, I know this one is near the top. *fingers crossed*
Finally, I’m getting the sequel to Ernest & Celestine; Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia. If you have never heard of Ernest & Celestine before, don’t worry I hadn’t either until my website offered it to me. The original film was produced back in 2012 and was actually nominated for an Academy Award. While it was French, the American translation featured a heavyweight cast including Forest Whitaker, Mackenzie Foy, William H. Macy, Paul Giamatti and Lauren Bacall! I have tracked down a reasonably priced blu-ray copy and in the meantime have started watching it on Tubi because I’m not good with patience.
The “sequel”, which was made in 2022 joins the bear and mouse on another adventure, this time to repair Ernest’s violin. Unfortunately, music has been banned in Charabia for quite sometime which should lead to some funny and interesting adventures. I say sequel in quotes because apparently there was a 45 minute feature in 2017 called Ernest & Celeste in Winter. I doubt that this is on the blu-ray from GKids and Shout Factory as an extra, so I will need to see if that ever made it to disc anywhere as well (there might be a dvd, not sure if it’s English friendly though). If you sense my excitement, I watched the first half of the original movie last night and it is utterly fantastic. The two title characters are so damn charming as well as funny and I am really looking forward to this new adventure.
That’s about it for right now, I should have all of these done in January. Despite me wanting to do Ernest & Celestine the minute I get it, I’ll probably need to do the Kino titles first since their release date has already passed (A Trip to Gibberitia drops on January 16th). Hope you folks enjoy, take care!
