MAY 2004 DVD PICKS
I’m so glad that so many of you really seem to love this column. I have to say as a writer and lover of film, it is the purest joy I get working on. Just the very idea that I get to write about Bresson, Bergman, Ed Wood Jr, The Marx Brothers, Hope & Crosby, Kurosawa and Mifune, animation and documentaries… Just everything from old to modern, television to film… Black & White to Cinerama Technicolor… What A Joy!!! As always – the links take you to Amazon where you can purchase the DVD and a meager kickback comes to yours truly, but by all means shop around and/or support your local vendors. Also this is the first time that I've been forced due to text length to divide the Picks into two pages. You'll find the link to the second part at the bottom of this page. Let’s get to the list…
May 4, 2004
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
If you never got around to seeing this Scarlett Johansson film about the inspiration and story around the creation of Johannes Vermeer’s classic work… well, you are truly missing out. The cinematography by Eduardo Serra is masterful, and there are a couple of shots so stunning that a tear will fall from any appreciative eye. Stunning work. For a film about one of the great painters to be such a masterpiece of color and lighting and mood… well it really makes the film magic. If you thought you loved Scarlett in LOST IN TRANSLATION or GHOST WORLD… this one will seduce you further. Stunning film and a beautiful DVD.
THE LAST SAMURAI
I’m not the biggest fan of this film – I like it, but I like it only because of the amazing Production Design and Ken Watanabe’s performance. The battle scenes never really did anything for me, although the Ninja ambush on the unaware Samurai is a scene that just gets every ounce of geek geeking out of me. The DVD extras though are the real reason to pick this up. Specifically for the section on Production Design and Costume Design and lastly for the Weapons piece. The film is fine, but if you’re short on money and only want to make one Samurai purchase in May – save it for a box set recommended later this month. That’s where the real joy is.
THE MARX BROTHERS COLLECTION – (A NIGHT AT THE OPERA / A DAY AT THE RACES / A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA / ROOM SERVICE / AT THE CIRCUS / GO WEST / THE BIG STORE)
Bliss. Complete and Utter Bliss. Checking out this set has been pure happiness.
Starting off with A NIGHT AT THE OPERA – Possibly one of the funniest films ever created. The disc has Commentary by Leonard Maltin, a great documentary on them, Groucho TV appearance from 61 that you must see. AND – one of the greatest comedies of all time. The wisdom of Otis B. Driftwood has no comparison – “You're willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.” YES!
Next up is A DAY AT THE RACES – Another brilliant disc and film. This time you have Marx expert Glenn Mitchell yapping, another Marx doc – 4 vintage shorts like Robert Benchley’s great A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – plus musical outtakes!!! And Dr Hackenbush’s classic, “If I hold ya any closer, I’ll be in back of ya!”
Next is A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA! Not nearly as great as these first two, but hidden Nazis trying to take over a hotel by bumping off Hotel Managers, till they get to Groucho… well I love it! There’s cool shorts on that disc – but nowhere near as lavish as the first two.
Next is ROOM SERVICE – That’s an ok flick and has a couple of cool extras, but you flip the disc and you get AT THE CIRCUS -- Not generally considered a great Marx Bros comedy – I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! Maybe it’s my Circus fetish, maybe it’s Groucho singing “Lydia The Encyclopedia” or maybe it is just that I really like the musical aspects of this film. Whatever it is. I love this later Marx.
Next is GO WEST – another of the more maligned Marx’s, but again… I love seeing them in the Old West. Also on that side of the disc you have this great Cavalcade of San Francisco and a short about the advent of flash photography and how with it you can slow and clarify objects in motion. Really hypnotizing. And a great cartoon called THE MILKY WAY which is just really trippy. And Lastly we have THE BIG STORE – A weaker Marx film – which basically means it is funnier than 95% of the stuff calling themselves comedies at a theater near you! More shorts and musical outtakes. IN CONCLUSION – this set is GREAT! A must have!
ON THE ROAD WITH BOB HOPE AND BING CROSBY COLLECTION ( ROAD TO SINGAPORE / ROAD TO ZANZIBAR / ROAD TO MOROCCO / ROAD TO UTOPIA )
Ok – right around the time that those Marx Comedies were winding down, Hope & Crosby were ascending. These are priceless and getting the first 4 “Road To” comedies in one set is great!
They got started with ROAD TO SINGAPORE – which wasn’t the best, but it set the formula and gosh darn it was a great formula. Music – Comedy – Bing & Bob just are great! And Dorothy Lamour… Dear God she is eye candy that your lashes could lick for an eternity.
Next is the best of the series, ROAD TO ZANZIBAR -- best because the songs rule and why is it that Bing could not only sing better than any human being, but man… his humming is to dream of. Again you have Dorothy just as a living doll. Plus the Gorilla fight kicks ass! I am dying for my discs to arrive – there wasn’t a review copy of this set, but just remembering them has me giddy!
Next is ROAD TO MOROCCO – This is one I love. Anthony Quinn’s Mullay Kassim… while he may not be a river unto his people, he’s a hoot. And this was when I really wished that Dorothy would straighten my toes… A very funny film filled with Avery-esque Post-Modernistic jabs at the very fabric of film. Great flick!
Lastly we have ROAD TO UTOPIA – This film contains my all time fave Bob Hope line, “I’ll have a lemonade… In a dirty glass” it absolutely kills me everytime. And I have no idea how they got that bear to sneeze, but again – that rules! There isn’t much information on this set, I have no clue if they’ve dollied them up with extras like the Marx Brothers collection, but even as plain Janes, they’re worth every penny. The jokes may be 60 years old or more, but those laughs are here today.
PETER PAN
Absolutely ludicrous controversy and a terrible marketing campaign kept most of you away from this jewel, but give this one a chance. If you rent it, you’ll be buying it later, but I understand, you want to feel a pillow before going to bed with it… so squeeze it first if ya must. Me, I’m buying. I saw this one Christmas Eve and then 3 more times. Donald McAlpine’s cinematography is stunning. The Design and Décor of this film is perfection and Jason Isaacs rules the part of Hook in a way that Dustin Hoffman can only toss and turn dreaming of. As for Pan and Wendy -- Jeremy Sumpter and Rachel Hurd-Wood are cast from a turn of the century Art Nouveau engraved dream. This film will live longer than most of the films that played against it… and it’s success will grow as others’ fades. A truly great film.
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE
Speaking of truly great films… THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE is another. This French Animated Wonder was robbed of Oscar Glory by another of those damned brilliant Pixar films… not that I’m griping, it’s just… Pixar should just have its own category where they give them “THE UTTERLY STUPENDOUS UNIMAGININGLY BRILLIANT AWARD!” Alas… I already own a foreign disc of this, but I’m picking one up for my nephew so he can learn to hunt frogs the proper way.
THE ANIMATION SHOW – VOLUME ONE
Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt deserve personal eternal life for starting this series. I can’t wait to get this on DVD and the phrase “Volume One” makes me hunger for the following 49 at least. Or perhaps more. Hilarious, sobering, retarded and smart. The animation contained on this volume, you’ll be quoting and referencing in everyday life, from the moment you watch it on.
May 11, 2004
THE 300 SPARTANS
If you like Frank Miller’s 300 and you’re waiting for an adaptation… well, surprise… it already exists! The film isn’t great, the performance are not particularly wonderful, but Fox’s color and wide wide wide screen make this gorgeous. Not nearly as great as what could be done from Miller’s great book – but then that’s Miller for ya. That being said, what is done great here are some stunts… and knowing that there’s no CG which just makes your eye stunned by what you are seeing. The shield/cavalry defense is amazing! Cool enormous flick.
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (Special Edition)
Great film. Great extras including commentary, documentary and interviews. There isn’t a second of this film that isn’t perfect. William Goldman earned eternal godhood status for this one! Only problem will be shaking “Raindrops” for days out of your head.
CURSE OF THE EROTIC TIKI -- “Experience The Hooter Horn!”
I have not experienced “The Hooter Horn” therefore I can only think that I haven’t lived a day. I’m a shell of the man I could be, and I have made the proper ordering steps necessary so that “The Hooter Horn” will forever be a part of the collection of experiences that I laughingly refer to as my life. I must see the mystic tiki of weyamoa and the Bikini A Go-Go. I must witness unleashed robotic henchmen and the lost sexual inhibitions that go with the wearing of the Mystic Tiki of Weyamoa. All these things and more will soon be mine. This is the official wacky whim choice of Harry!
THE FOG OF WAR – ELEVEN LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ROBERT S. McNAMARA
Much like CURSE OF THE EROTIC TIKI, THE FOG OF WAR is a must see. Please God, put that on a poster for FOG OF WAR! Joking aside, THE FOG OF WAR is a brilliant documentary that demands to be seen by everyone, but especially anyone in politics or with aspirations to one day be in politics. The film is sobering about so much, and Errol Morris so deserved that Oscar. That being said, the chance to see 24 additional never before seen scenes from his sessions with Bob McNamara… well, that’s more incentive than I could hope for to pick up this disc.
JONNY QUEST: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
I’m giddy about this set. Really. I am a major Jonny Quest fan, so much so I was pissed when Burt Reynold’s took his most famous character name from this series’ brilliant mutt. 11 hours of Jonny Quest and Hadji and creepy cool mysteries. Pure kid brain candy!
