The “staff pick” is back to rescue you from a slow scene day with another top notch film. Christian Bale portrays a psychotic murderer in this horror thriller from 2000. The rest of the cast includes Willem Defoe, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto and Justin Theroux, all of which give great performances. Personally, I didn’t know Christian Bale before “American Psycho”, but have seen all of his movies since. What an incredible actor. I fondly remember many quotes and scenes from this one, and it’s one of those movies you can just watch again every couple of years.

Torrent: About the torrent, I’m sorry to provide you with quite a slow one, but it’s the best I could find. If anyone knows of a faster public torrent, post it in comments and I will change the link. And no, I have no idea why the filename is td-* while the group name is MF.

Synopsis: Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) and Guinevere Turner’s (Go Fish) adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel distills the critically maligned book down to its ironic, satirical core. Wisely situating most of the novel’s grisly action off-screen, Harron employs violence as a metaphor for the spiritually vacant materialism and corporate machismo of the Reagan ’80s. Christian Bale (Velvet Goldmine) delivers a shining performance as the status-obsessed, psychotic broker Patrick Bateman–self-proclaimed expert in “murders and executions.” Traveling amongst narcissistic, misogynistic, barely discernable corporate clones, Patrick spends his workdays obsessing over tasteful business cards, designer suits, and prime reservations at trendy restaurants. After hours, he dismembers prostitutes, models, transients, and literally gives a co-worker the axe in a series of increasingly surreal episodes, all prefaced by demented lectures on the virtues of Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, and Huey Lewis.

Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller
IMDB rating: 7.2 (56,195 votes)
RT rating: 65%
Directed by: Mary Harron
Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Willem Defoe

Release Name: American.Psycho.2000.DVDRip.XviD.iNT-MF
Size: 2 CD, 1.4 GB
Quality: DVDRip, XviD, 640×272, 1522k, 448k @ AC3 6ch
Runtime: 101 minutes
Filename: td-american.psychoa, td-american.psychob

Links: IMDB, Homepage, Trailer
NFO: Here
Torrent: Isohunt

Comments(95) ->

A while back a rlslog reader gave me the idea to start doing Releaselog Staff picks of scene releases. I thought this was a really good idea and shared it with some of the staff who agreed and so did Martin. Bleez has already posted a first staff pick (Donnie Darko) but I just thought I’d introduce the actual idea properly. The plan is that when there are no other posts to make, Staff members can share some of their favourite releases with you. This will give you as much rlslog reading pleasure as possible, since a lot of you have noted that you hate returning to rlslog after a few hours and finding nothing new to read/download. The staff pick idea might also help you find new and cool stuff! Feedback to this idea is welcome in the comments.

My very first pick will be one of my all time favourite films: Survive Style 5+. Its very hard to explain what this film is about or what makes it such a great watch. Its even difficult for me to explain why I love it so much, but its a mixture of great cinematography, a great soundtrack and a cool Japanese cast (plus Vinnie Jones lol). The atmosphere of the movie is simply amazing and the colours and pretty much all the locations and sets could be considered art. If you like linear plots this film is probably not something for you, since the film follows 5 different stories (as the title implies) that in some way intertwine in the end. However if you like film eye-candy with fun music and an endearing plot, this might be something for you. It probably helps if you have a general interest in Japanese movies and culture but even if you don’t I urge you to check this rls out.

A man continually trying and failing to get his wife to stay dead; a self-absorbed ad agency creative director who comes up with one unworkably inane idea after another; a Brittish hitman who only wants to know everyone’s function in life; and an unfortunate office worker and father whose brain is left scrambled after a stage hypnotist is murdered in mid-performance. Starting off as unrelated plot lines, they intertwine with each other as they continue on their respective ways.

Quality: The quality of this rls is great. iMBT have supplied a top notch DVDRip at 1178kb/s video bitrate and 448kb/s bitrate AC3 audio. Picture quality is great and the colours are all vibrant and saturated as they were meant to be seen. You really can’t ask for much more from a DVDRip rls. English subtitles are naturally included.

This film includes the now rather famous Vinnie Jones as a British assassin. His role is pretty funny but definitely not the highlight of the film. Performances by Tadanobu Asano, Hiroshi Abe, Jai West and the beautiful Reika Hashimoto (although she dosen’t speak a single word during the entire film) make this film shine . This film is still being seeded at The Pirate Bay (see torrent link below) but by very few people. If you enjoy the film, please help seed it.

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Mystery
Directed by: Gen Sekiguchi
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Vinnie Jones, Hiroshi Abe, Jai West, Reika Hashimoto

Release Name: Survive.Style.5.Plus.2004.DVDRip.XviD-iMBT
Size: 2 CD, 1.36 GB
Quality: DVDRip, XviD, 25.00, 640 x 352 - 1178kb/s | AC3 448 kb/s
Runtime: 120 min

Links: IMDB(7.9), Trailer
Samples: #1, #2, #3
NFO: Here
Torrent: ThePirateBay

Comments(147) ->

My first old pick has to be “Donnie Darko”, which was released by ViTE on February 18, 2002 (on good old DivX). Odds are you’ve heard about this movie, but for anyone who hasn’t, this is seriously a must get. I’m going to let the synopsis sum up the storyline, because the movie is much more than just the story. It’s about the atmosphere, the dialogs, the soundtrack, the feel and how it is portrayed visually.

Much of “Donnie Darko”’s appeal has to do with the fact that it is a small, low budget (less than $5 million) film that won a huge following of viewers who have become fascinated with it and raise theories about events in the movie to this day. This is evident by the fact its been rated by over 131,000 people on IMDB. Considered a cult classic, the movie hasn’t lost its charm 7 years after its limited release. I doubt it will for years to come. Maybe it’s because it just doesn’t come across as pretentious. It’s a wild ride that is consistently interesting, humorous and romantic, and it stays with you for days after you’ve watched it. Jake Gyllenhaal does an incredible job here, and it’s safe to say that this film made him. No one knew who he was before this role. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jake’s real-life sister, who has become quite a popular actress herself, is in the movie too, playing who else but his sister.

The cast also includes Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze and Jena Malone. Amazingly, this cinematic success is the work of a relatively anonymous Richard Kelly, who hasn’t done much worth mentioning since, possibly with the exception of his upcoming film “The Box (2008)”, but that literally remains to be seen. “Donnie Darko” scores an average of 8.3 on IMDB and 83% on RT, and should be appreciated fully in this Director’s Cut, released by group PTi in 2004.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and even if you skipped everything and just went for the download that’s fine with me. I’ll appreciate any feedback on this post and the staff picks idea in general - too long? too boring? liked it? maybe this post made you discover a new film? Thanks.

Synopsis: In a funny, moving and distinctly mind-bending journey through suburban America, one extraordinary but disenchanted teenager is about to take Time’s Arrow for a ride. October 2nd, 1988: just another ordinary day in Donnie Darko’s teen-aged existence. He’s taken his medication, watched Dukakis and Bush debate, and had dinner with the family. Then comes an outrageous accident. Out of the blue, a 2,000 pound jet engine plummets from the sky and crashes into Donnie’s bedroom, obliterating it. Luckily, Donnie isn’t in bed. Or is it luck? As Donnie begins to explore what it means to still be alive, and in short order to be in love, he uncovers secrets of the universe that give him a tempting power to alter time and destiny.

Genre: Drama/Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller
IMDB rating: 8.3 (131,152 votes)
RT rating: 83%
Directed by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze

Release Name: Donnie.Darko.The.Directors.Cut.2004.DVDRip.XviD-PTi
Size: 2 CD, 1.4 GB
Quality: DVDRip, XviD, 640×272, video 1065k, audio 448k @ 5.1 AC3
Runtime: 129 minutes
Filename: pti-dddc-1, pti-dddc-2

Links: IMDB, Homepage, Trailer
NFO: Here
Torrent: NewTorrents

Comments(145) ->