Once upon a time, the state of cinemas was a gritty, hilarious, violent place filled with guns, big boobs, and every kind of animal wanting to kill and/or eat your flesh. These days, everything is dumbed down to the least common denominator, but with an homage to some of those classic film genres.

Now, you can get to see exactly what that world was like with a brand new documentary delving into the eclectic mind of cinematic legend Roger Corman in Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel. Here’s the premise.

CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL is a tantalizing and star-studded tribute to Roger Corman, Hollywood’s most prolific writer-director producer, and seminal influencing force in modern moviemaking over the last 60 years. Featuring interviews with Hollywood icons and cinematic luminaries, some who launched their careers within Corman’s unforgettable world of filmmaking, including Paul W.S. Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert De Niro, Peter Fonda, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Martin Scorsese, William Shatner and Jack Nicholson, along with many others, this documentary chronicles how Corman created his cult film empire, one low-budget success at a time, capitalizing on undiscovered talent, and pushing the boundaries of independent filmmaking.

The film is set to hit select theaters on December 16th, but you can check out the very first trailer for it after the jump.

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Like most weeks, this time around we’ve got another bunch of new movies and TV shows hitting DVD and Blu-ray. Some of them are new, some are old and some are hitting Blu-ray for the first time.

Of the ones hitting stores today, we’re most interested in the Blu-ray release of The Last Station, the extra fun and campy Death Race 2000, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Afro Samurai: The Complete Murder Sessions, Riverworld and the action film Green Zone (pictured above with Amy Ryan and Matt Damon).

Movies

A Star Is Born (Blu-ray Book) ~ Judy Garland (Blu-ray)

Close-Up (The Criterion Collection) ~ Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah (Blu-ray)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ~ Bill Hader, Anna Faris (Blu-ray and DVD)

Death Race 2000 (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics) ~ David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone (Blu-ray)

Fireball ~ Ian Somerhalder, Lexa Doig (Blu-ray and DVD)

Green Zone ~ Matt Damon (Blu-ray and DVD)

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Here’s a list of some of the new DVD and Blu-ray releases this week. Plus, some old favorites (and not so favorites) coming out this week on Blu-Ray.

Movies:

For All Mankind: Criterion Collection ~ Jim Lovell, Kenneth Mattingly, Russell Schweickart, and Eugene Cernan (Blu-ray)

The Color of Magic ~ David Jason, Sean Astin, Tim Curry, and Jeremy Irons (DVD)

The Towering Inferno ~ Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Richard Chamberlain (Blu-ray)

The Haunting in Connecticut (Unrated Special Edition) ~ Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas and Virginia Madsen (DVD and Blu-ray)

The Edge of Love ~ Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys, and Simon Armstrong (DVD and Blu-ray)

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Curse of the Golden Flower / House of Flying Daggers Trilogy ~ Ziyi Zhang, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, and Chow Yun-Fat (Blu-ray)

Horsemen ~ Dennis Quaid, Ziyi Zhang, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Clifton Collins Jr. (DVD)

Van Wilder: Freshman Year – Unrated ~ Linden Ashby, Kurt Fuller, Jonathan Bennett, and Steve Talley (DVD)

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer ~ Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jr. Freddie Prinze, Brandy, and Mekhi Phifer (Blu-ray)

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According to the Associated Press, actor David Carradine, most known for his role of Caine in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, was found in his Bangkok hotel room, hanged, and was believed to have committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room. It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday.

It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room’s curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

A police officer at Bangkok’s Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man to The Associated Press, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there.

Carradine had been in and out of the spotlight for decades with the Kung Fu franchise and then when Quintin Tarantino approached him for the titular role in the Kill Bill films. Carradine also comes from a family of actors, son of legendary actor John Carradine, brother to Robert and Keith Carradine, and uncle to Martha Plimpton. He can be seen most recently in Crank 2: High Voltage.