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Moriarty's DVD Shelf! New Release Tuesday For September 5th!!
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Didn’t I just post a new release list? Do they really need to do new releases every single week? C’mon... give a man a break. It’s a holiday weekend, but here I am, sitting down on Monday morning to compile this list once again. I’m going to try to finish on time, but chances are I won’t, since I’m also going to enjoy this all-day barbecue with my family. We’ll see if I can finish this between water fights with the baby and big plates full of delicious asada.
Mmmmmmm... asada.
On Saturday, I went to a friend’s house to show them something mighty cool on DVD, and the friend told me that if I’d make enough time for the demo, he’d like to try to change my mind a bit about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. This guy’s a fairly big-name writer/director, and I know he’s a huge fan of screening a print on actual film whenever possible. I also know he’s a rabid videophile, and was a big fan of laserdisc back in the day. He’s a perfect example of an early adopter. He was setting up a new home theater and bought both systems, HD and Blu-Ray, and also included his DVD and laserdisc players, as well as an HD-satellite receiver. It’s pretty pimped out. And I’ll be the first to admit, one reason to not jump directly into HD or Blu-Ray at first is because of price. I make a decent living. I’m not rolling in it, and I’m not about to buy a buggy first-gen player before they’ve had a chance to road test it a bit and improve the hard and software a few times over. I didn’t buy an early-gen DVD player, either. I probably waited at least two years after they first hit stores to make the plunge. And even so, the first player I bought cost a lot of money and was sort of a high-end piece of shit. I’d say I’ve only really been happy with the last two players I’ve had (not counting multi-region) out of five. It takes a while for people to get really good at making these things. The first laserdisc players were enormous, and they were buggy as hell. It was just tricky dealing with platters that size. So much machinery, so many things to go wrong.
Anyway. The first thing he showed me was Columbia’s THE FIFTH ELEMENT on Blu-Ray. I’m a fan of the film, and so it was perfect to show me as a test of video quality. I know how that film looked in the theater, and personally, I’ve never been completely happy with any of the DVD transfers, even the widely-regarded Superbit version.
I’m happy now. It’s funny... what won me over to HD-DVD wasn’t the fact that it takes the hyper-clarity of DVD to the next level... It’s sort of the opposite, the fact that a film looks more like film. I guess my impression of HD based on the live broadcasts I’ve seen in HD and some television stuff in HD was that it was clearer than film, more hypervivid than film. It’s like a window. But film isn’t. Film is a chemical thing, and there’s texture and grain to it. It’s the way light and chemical combine that gives film its indefinable magic, and what a nice HD transfer does is reproduce the quality of film to a much more accurate degree. My friend’s screen is something like nine feet across. It’s pretty sweet, with the aspect ratio panels that slide down or that open out depending on the film. And with the shades down on the windows and doors to create a proper black box atmosphere, I have to say... it felt like a film. I spent the time watching focused on things like the walls of the temple where the old man, Luke Perry, and the priest read ancient carvings. Or on the texture of the bronze platter being held up by the kid (“Aziz! Light!”) in that scene. Or the water as the giant robot creatures come marching in. I looked for things that are noticeably difficult for DVD to get just right, things that inevitably end up looking compressed, that seem to invite digital edge.
The next test was also impressive. My friend put on the best of the T2 versions on DVD, the one that came out a few years ago. And then he put on the new HD-DVD version on another player. He started both of them at pretty much the same time so he could just toggle back and forth. We watched the opening moments of the film in both formats. The two children on the swings. The shot of the freeway. Everything goes white. The ruined landscape and the slow pan right until we stop on a skull which is shattered by the steel foot of a Terminator. And the difference was immediate, startling. The amount of detail that shows up in that opening shot is outrageous. You can see everything on the set all the way to the edge of frame. Clearly.
The truck chase? Even better. One of my favorite stunts Cameron’s ever shot is in that scene, the motorcycle jump off the overpass by Peter Kent, Arnold’s stunt double. There’s all sorts of trickery in that shot mixed with reality. And on that HD-DVD, it looks pretty much exactly the way it looked in the Cinerama Dome when I saw it there a whole shitload of times the summer of 1991, crystal clear. The HD-DVD version also does an excellent job of recreating that crazy Cameron blue that his films are always shot in. There’s really no arguing it. I was impressed.
Afterwards, we got into a discussion about the format war and about where the market’s heading. His feeling is that there doesn’t have to be a format war, particularly with the announcement of players that will be able to handle both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. “Look, if they come out with a better machine in five months that’ll play both, I’ll pick it up immediately.” And that’s what it really comes down to right now... are you willing to pay for it? I know a lot of people only really got into DVD in the last three or four years, and that slow shift is something that studios have to take into account. If they want this to happen, they have to give the consumer time to come to it when they went to. You can’t just jam high-end equipment down the general public’s throat just because you’ve exploited a majority of your big titles on DVD and you want a new format now so you can sell them again. I’ve heard from several people now that I “hate” HD, and that’s not the case at all. I just think we’re rushing to sell what may very well be a temporary format at best. I was reading something earlier about a set-top Netflix box, like a Tivo that would hook directly to the Netflix service allowing them to offer up their catalog as in-demand viewing. That sounds to me like where things are eventually headed, especially when you add HD into that equation. I have no doubt that high-definition mastering is superior to anything I’ve ever watched before at home. I’m just not convinced the studios have the right business plan in place to deliver it to people at this point.
Today, as I was working on this article, this letter showed up from my friend:
That Blu-Ray image is amazing, as you witnessed for yourself.
Conversely, I'm finding the HD-DVD image somewhat disappointing. In some cases, very disappointing. I'm still not sure if it's a difference in technology, or luck of the draw with discs, some installation glitch, or what. But UNFORGIVEN, which I expected to look amazing, sucks. The dark scenes (of which there are many, like all the interiors) go so muddy and dark I have to crank up the brightness to a nauseating degree just to see what's going on. Frankly, I'd rather watch UNFORGIVEN on my standard DVD...at least you can see what's going on in the dark scenes.
Also on HD-DVD: U-571 looked okay (better than UNFORGIVEN by a long shot), but after getting used to seeing every film on Blu-Ray look so stunning, I was honestly expecting it to look better than it did. FULL METAL JACKET looked...well, about as good as U-571 did, which is to say so-so. I know FULL METAL JACKET looks better than that.
Basically, my experience is that the Blu-Ray discs I'm seeing are knocking me out. The HD-DVD discs, on the other hand...well, not one has impressed me. Or even satisfied me. Could it be a faulty player? Or faulty installation? Or badly mastered discs? Or does HD-DVD just suck compared to Blu-Ray? I'm going to check into all these possibilities.
For starters, I'll have my installer come back and re-examine the install to make sure it's the way it's supposed to be. Then I'll buy TRAINING DAY on HD-DVD and compare it to the Blu-Ray version of the disc that I already have.
I'll keep you updated.
I’m increasingly sure that by the end of the year, I’ll have a Blu-Ray in the house thanks to the PS3, and I may also spring for HD-DVD depending on a few various factors. I’ll try to be as forthcoming as I can as I get my feet wet, too. For now, I hold firm to my “Laserdisc 2K6” nickname for the formats, which isn’t really a slam the way some of you think. After all, I loved laserdisc. I just knew it was a niche market is all. Let’s get to the business of this week’s DVD releases now. As always, I want to start by pointing out one title that is the best of the bunch. But this week, I’m actually saving the best two titles for a separate article I’ll run right after this one. Keep that in mind as I pick..
This Week’s Featured Title (9/05)
UNITED 93
When I reviewed this earlier this year, I was impressed by the way Paul Greengrass approached this difficult material, but now that I’ve seen WORLD TRADE CENTER, he really looks like a genius. This is the real deal, a movie that manages to tell the story of an event that is inherently political and emotional, but in a way that does not play on cheap emotion, and that does not play up the politics. That’s not easy, and the value of what Greengrass has done may not be appreciated this year or next year or even in the immediate future. But by avoiding all the easy traps of Hollywood’s treatment of this type of material, Greengrass made a film that will endure, like his earlier BLOODY SUNDAY. I really want to listen to his commentary track on the film, but more than that, I just want to revisit what is still one of the strongest films released so far this year.
THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW: 100th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION SEASON ONE
The “100th anniversary” that the title of the collection refers to is Lou Costello’s birth, not the actual air dates of this show. That’d be a nice trick considering when television began. This is one of the earliest sitcoms, and there’s a reason Jerry Seinfeld (among others) still cites it as a major influence. Bud and Lou played unemployed actors living in a boarding house. Hijinks ensued. That’s about it.
And that’s enough, of course. Abbott and Costello are one of the cornerstones of American comedy for a reason. They were incredibly polished professionals by the time they hit film, and then the TV show was after that, so by this time, they had a lifetime’s worth of work to draw on and play with. They knew what their audience expected of them, and they knew how to play to expectation and then also tweak that expectation in very smart ways. If you want to understand their lasting appeal, this would certainly be essential viewing.
THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY
Look at that cast. Richard Burton. Alain Delon. Romy Schneider. Valentina Cortese. Hot cast. Directed by Joseph Losey right at the height of the Commies-are-romantic movement in pop culture. Losey, of course, left America during the McCarthy era when he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to testify or name names. Rather than appear and be found guilty of contempt, he left the US and spent the rest of his life making films abroad. TROTSKY hotly divided critics when it was released and continues to do so even now. I’ve only seen it once, on cable, many years ago, but I tuned in ready to hate it. I’d read a Medved/Dreyfuss assassination of ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY as one of their 50 WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME. I remember thinking it was anything but. It’s a mess, but it’s a really interesting mess. It’s definitely one I want to revisit.
THE BELA LUGOSI BOX SET: 15 FRIGHTFUL FILMS
You can find this for less than $20 in most places, is my bet. And for that price, this is pretty much one-stop shopping for everything but Lugosi’s DRACULA films. You’ll get GLEN OR GLENDA, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, WHITE ZOMBIE, SCARED TO DEATH, THE DEVIL BAT, THE CORPSE VANISHES, THE DEATH KISS, THE APE MAN, THE HUMAN MONSTER, THE RETURN OF CHANDU, BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT, THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG, CHANDU ON THE MAGIC ISLAND, and THE MIDNIGHT GIRL. Some good. Some crap. The two Ed Wood films he starred in. For less than $20? Seriously?
AMACORD (Criterion)
BRAZIL (Criterion)
PLAYTIME (Criterion)
Some re-issues here, but in slightly different versions. Definitely a diverse, challenging week for Criterion, the company with the best taste in the business.
ARMACORD won Fellini an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and it might be his most approachable masterpiece. Bawdy, rowdy, spilling over at the edge of frames with life. ARMACORD is sort of unfettered imagination, another stroll through Fellini’s subconscious. Criterion put this out in ’98, and it was a single-disc edition with nothing in the way of extras. Now it’s been remastered and there are a ton of extras that the company’s put together. Documentaries, audio interviews, a commentary by two Fellini experts. This was always a disc worth having, but now Criterion has significantly upped the stakes, and I’ll absolutely double-dip for this.
Damn it. I already have that great giant 3-disc BRAZIL box set that Criterion put out, and I love it. BRAZIL is, as I’ve said here before, one of my two favorite films ever, tied with LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. There’s no reason I should pick this up based on content, but this is an anamorphic widescreen transfer, and that might force me to buy this one. This is more for people who want a copy of the movie but don’t really need every version that’s been cut and all the bells and whistles. There’s still a really solid Terry Gilliam commentary here, and if this is an improvement over the original Criterion transfer, then it’s got to be dazzling.
Jaques Tati was a master at staging screen comedy, but there’s always such a rich subtext to what he did that it’s hard to call his movies “just” comedy. This film just played at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend in a 70MM print, and I would love to see it projected like that. Monsieur Hulot was the character that Tati played over and over, his “Little Tramp,” the way he could comment on the world around him. In this film, Hulot confronts a changing Paris that he’s not prepared for. There’s a distinct melancholy to the comedy this time, as if Tati is saddened by the onrush on the modern age, and he’s mourning a Paris that will never exist again. He’s got a remarkable sense of composition, and he’s a nimble physical performer, but don’t go into this expecting giant belly laughs. Tati was a very esoteric humorist, and even when he’s throwing body blows at his culture, he does it with a feather touch. Criterion’s added all sorts of extras to this one to improve over the old single-disc edition, so even if you’ve already got it, Tati fans are going to want to upgrade.
CLIVE BARKER’S THE PLAGUE
All the children in the world fall into a coma, and then a decade later, they finally wake up, all at the same time, and then immediately begin to kill all the adults they can get their hands on. Somehow, James Van Der Beek figures into things. This may well stink, but I’m curious enough that I’ll check it out.
DEAD MAN’S SHOES
Shane Meadows is quietly building a heck of a filmography, but he seems to be having some trouble getting his films the exposure they deserve in the US. This film was released in 2004, but it’s just now getting a US release through Magnolia Films. This one’s worth tracking down, though, so you can get familiar with the work that Meadows is doing.
Meadows seems comfortable slipping from comedy to drama, and sometimes mixing them in unexpected ways. Don’t expect many laughs here, though. Paddy Considine (so brilliant in IN AMERICA) stars here as Richard, older brother to Anthony (Toby Kebbell), a slightly-retarded and deeply sweet-natured boy. Richard’s just back from the Army, and he’s got a score to settle with some locals who brutalized Anthony. That’s pretty much it, story-wise, but this film isn’t about story... it’s about what happens when bullies finally run up against someone they can’t intimidate, someone who’s going to make them feel the terror they constantly drop into other people’s lives. Paddy Considine is rapidly becoming one of my favorite working actors just because of the integrity he brings to each role he plays. I believe this guy every time out,a nd I’m impressed by how different he is in films like MY SUMMER OF LOVE, CINDERELLA MAN, IN AMERICA, and this one. He’s terrifying here, and never more so than when he reveals the broken heart that just barely keeps him moving as he reigns hell into the lives of the men who messed with his brother. The cover sort of ruins one of the film’s most striking images, but there’s a lot of power here in a deceptively simple package. DEAD MAN’S SHOES deserves to be seen by a wider audience, and I urge to at least rent it and see for yourself.
DISTRICT B13
Someone was telling me last night that I don’t appreciate escapism if I don’t like the films of Michael Bay and Simon West. I’m not really sure how that makes any sense. I like escapism quite a bit, and I love action movies dearly. I just have my own particular criteria for what good action cinema is. Right now, I must admit that Luc Besson is maybe my favorite action producer in the world. He consistently gives good action filmmakers a chance to make movies with solid action stars. He’s not reinventing the wheel, and something like TRANSPORTER 2 is as bone-stupid as anything Simon West has ever touched, but it’s stupid with genuine style and kinetic grace, and that counts for a lot with me in this type of movie. DISTRICT B13 is a shameless rip of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, and it’s eight kinds of awesome.
The movie opens with a chase scene that shows off the Parkour that is the film’s secret weapon. If you don’t know what Parkour is yet, you probably will by the end of the year since the makers of CASINO ROYALE are going to do their best to mainstream it completely. It’s basically a crazy sort of acrobatic sport where you bounce through a city, up and down the outside of buildings, rooftop to rooftop, frequently defying the laws of physics and gravity. David Belle plays Leito, a guy who only wants to keep his building clean in the ghetto district where he and his sister live. Belle’s one of the creators of Parkour, so the way the opening scene is put together, it’s just about setting up what Leito can do and then taking his sister away from him to set up what he’s going to have to do for the rest of the film. Bibi Naceri (who co-wrote the film with Luc Besson) plays the crime boss Taha who takes Leito’s sister, and she’s played by Dany Verissimo, former hardcore porn actress, and she’s certainly good at being hot and trashy, just the way Besson likes ‘em. Leito is teamed up with Damien, an undercover cop played by Cyril Raffaelli, one of the guys Besson’s been using in many of his films. He and Belle make a hell of a team, fighting each other as much as they fight anyone else. The movie doesn’t ultimately amount to much, but the action scenes are so much fun to watch that you just won’t care.
FRAGGLE ROCK: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
When I reviewed the box set for season one of Jim Henson’s FRAGGLE ROCK, I remember how surprised I was by the nature of political activism that the show represented. I think it’s the most nakedly personal show that Jim Henson ever created, and it’s designed to let him make social comments using this giant interconnected ecosystem that he’s created with doozers and fraggles and gorgs all living side-by-side, and using the postcards home written by Uncle Matt as he explores what the Fraggles call “outer space,” which turns out to be our world. It’s all very clever, but it’s also just plain mesmerizing for kids. This is one of the few shows my kid actively enjoys so far, along with PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE. High praise, indeed.
I haven’t seen this set yet, but Hit Entertainment set the bar pretty high last year with their excellent packaging and extra features, and I hope they’ve lived up to that standard this year. Little by little, Jim Henson’s legacy is being released on DVD, something I consider fairly important, and I’m pleased to see it happen.
FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND
This is most notable as the last film directed by Roger Corman, and it’s a very strange ride. Based loosely on a Brian Aldiss novel, the script is by Corman and justly-acclaimed film critic FX Feeney. John Hurt plays a mad doctor in the future experimenting with a black hole gun, an experiment just crazy enough to shred the very fabric of time and space. Nice work, doc. When a time vortex opens and the doctor is taken back in time, things get truly bugfuck, and the film becomes unintentionally hilarious. It’s worth seeing as long as you have no expectations of a “good” film. This is just plain lunatic in its ambitions, and if it does turn out to be Corman’s last film, at least he went down swinging.
GODZILLA: GOJIRA DELUXE COLLECTOR’S EDITION
SEVEN SAMURAI (Criterion)
Okay, I know UNITED 93 was what I listed as my featured title of the week, but that’s only because I’m going to be writing about these two classics separately.
This is an impressive and classy piece of Godzilla packaging, maybe the most respectful thing I’ve ever seen issued here in the States. I love the inherent cheese of the later Godzilla pictures, but I maintain that Ishiro Honda’s original film exists in a class all its own. It’s a great horror film, a great cautionary fable, and one of the most important and influential modern mythological creations from any country on Earth.
I’ll just give you the short version: best DVD of the year so far, no question.
Akira Kurosawa’s epic masterpiece has been remade, both directly and indirectly over the years, and it’s arguably the film that gave birth to the modern action movie. Beautiful, thrilling, crushingly sad, unflinchingly honest, SEVEN SAMURAI does everything right, and it does it so well that to revisit this film is to be reminded of just what storytelling is supposed to be onscreen.
Again... I’ll have full review for both of these this week. There’s no way to do justice to either in such short space.
KINKY BOOTS
Director Julian Jerrold cut his teeth on English television doing tony, high-brow stuff like CRIME & PUNISHMENT and ALL THE KING’S MEN, but his theatrical debut is yet another “charming” English comedy about an eccentric working-class community coming together to beat the odds. In this case, Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton, best known to mainstream audiences as Uncle Owen in EPISODE II and EPISODE III) inherits his family’s shoe factory in a small English town, and he’s determined to keep it open, keep everyone working. Sure enough, help comes along in the form of Lola, a gigantic drag queen played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who does his best playing a routine and overly-familiar character. It’s amazing how fast we’ve gone from drag being something outrageous to the mainstream to drag being something completely blasé because of over-exposure. Lola teaches everyone in the small English town to loosen up, and teach her all about the warmth of community. Thanks to the work by SHAUN OF THE DEAD’s Nick Frost, the super-cute Sarah-Jane Potts, and the rest of the supporting cast, this goes down smooth, but don’t expect anything you haven’t seen before.
LOST: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
OZ: THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON
SUPERNATURAL: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
One-hour drama is some of the best work being done in film or television right now, and when it really works, there’s a type of payoff that no other media can offer.
Screw the naysayers. LOST remains one of the grooviest, craziest, most addictive things on TV precisely because they know how to keep you on the hook. I love the show. I love the cast. I love the way the mythology of the show has been doled out, little by little, and the way they reinvented the format of the show this year by introducing the inside of the hatch. The finale for this second season was thrilling and bizarre and threatens to change the show again, which I love. Network scheduling may be a pain in the ass, but people complaining about that and then saying it somehow made the show bad confused me. The only reason I was frustrated by the way the network aired the second season was because of how much I love the series and how much I wanted to see the new episodes. I like their plan for this year, with two distinct grouping of episodes, running uninterrupted in each arc. But watching them on DVD, you can mainline them as fast as you like, and the intricate plotting and crazy character connections are even more fun when seen like this.
Check out Herc’s detailed breakdown of the box’s contents right here!
OZ peaked somewhere in the middle of its six-season run, but even at the very end, there was a lot to like about HBO’s most brutal original drama, set in an experimental wing of a state prison.
I love that Tom Fontana wrapped up all the major storylines in ways that I found surprising in many cases. For my money, this was always the story of Beecher (Lee Tergeson). It started with his arrest and convicton for drunk driving. Up to that point, he was just a normal guy with no criminal record, but the first season of OZ was all about the degredation and destruction of Beecher as a person as Schillinger (JK Simmons) bitched him out and severed whatever thin strand of hope for a normal life Beecher was holding onto. This final season sees Beecher on the verge of a release back into society, and he’s a totally different person by this point. For one thing, he’s in love with Keller (Christopher Meloni), who either loves Beecher for real or is a complete sociopath just fucking with him for sport. I also really love the way the storyline about brothers Ryan (Dean Winters) and Cyril (Scott William Winters) played out, and I thought they gave McManus (Terry Kinney) a suitable finish as well. Harold Perrineau served as the show’s Greek chorus, and they took an interesting, somewhat ill-advised turn with his character towards the end of the show. I think what Fontana kept striving for was the idea that there could be dignity even in the darkest corners of the places we congregate as men, and for the six years this show was on the air, I think he made his point.
Didn’t watch a single episode on the air last season, but I tried the first disc of this set out when it was sent to me for review. It’s not terrible, but I also didn’t find myself compelled to continue watching. Since LOST had its first huge season, everyone seems to have rushed shows on the air trying to catch hold of that same vibe. Dark, spooky, with serial stories. I’m a long-time fan of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and it’s pretty obvious that the creative team behind this show has studied BUFFY and X-FILES and all the required reading for this type of genre programming. I’m just not sure I buy the chemistry (or lack thereof) between the leads, and the monster-of-the-week format feels awfully familiar. It’s a nicely done WB box set with a fair amount of extra material including commentaries and deleted scenes, so if you’re a fan, it’s worth the coin to pick it up.
MRS. PARKER & THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
Jennifer Jason Leigh is, by all accounts, prickly and demanding and can be a real challenge for a director, but I love her dearly all the same. She’s never been able to hide the keen, probing intelligence that is her trademark, even in early teen films like FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. She’s always been brave about laying herself bare, emotionally as well as physically. Alan Rudolph is a hit-and-miss filmmaker. When his work connects, it can be strange and beautiful and ethereal, but when it doesn’t, it can feel indulgent and annoying. He took on a hell of a project in trying to tell the story of the Algonquin round table, an informal gathering of New York intellectuals in the ‘20s, using Dorothy Parker (Leigh) as the center of the piece. The film is packed with great character actors, featuring Cambell Scott, Jon Favreau, Keith Carradine, Matthew Broderick, Peter Gallagher, Stanley Tucci, Nick Cassavetes, Gwenyth Paltrow, Heather Graham, Stephen Baldwin, James LeGros, Jennifer Beals, Andrew McCarthy, Martha Plimpton, Lili Taylor, and Wallace Shawn. And yet, despite Rudolph’s best efforts, the film never quite congeals. It’s interesting, it’s well-performed, but it never feels alive. You’re left feeling like you’ve seen an elaborately staged reproduction of something, and not the thing itself. It’s worth it for fans of Rudolph or fans of Leigh, but it’s hardly the film this legendary group of friends and rivals deserves.
SHOCK TREATMENT
I remember the first time I saw an ad for this in STARLOG, where it was being sold as “the sequel to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.” Technically, I guess that’s true, but anyone looking for a direct follow-up will be bitterly disappointed with this odd, mostly toothless satire of early ‘80s American pop culture.
Hats off to Fox, though, for not only finally putting this on disc, but for actually making a little effort with it, too. There’s a commentary here by the co-presidents of the SHOCK TREATMENT fan club (“We’re not only the presidents, we’re the whole club!”) and some behind the scenes features as well. Brad and Janet have returned to their hometown, but their marriage has hit a rocky place, and things get worse when they realize that their home town of Denton is basically just a TV game show. As in RHPS, the two of them are separated, and Cliff DeYoung plays both Brad and the head of the TV station to no discernible effect. It’s a big weird mess of a movie, but cult film fans have been waiting for this DVD for a long time, and will definitely want to check it out.
SISTER STREET FIGHTER COLLECTION
I’ll confess that I’ve only ever seen one of these films, and I had a blast with it. The fact that there are three sequels that I haven’t had a chance to see yet pleases me enormously, and I love it when companies do box sets like this. If anyone’s already seen this, do me a favor and post in talkback to tell me/us what the quality is like, and how the other three films are. I assume there is much ass-kickery, and that sounds good enough for me.
UNKNOWN WHITE MALE: A TRUE STORY
How much of our identity is based on our memories, and how much of it is innate to who we are? Doug Bruce had to confront that question when he had a catastrophic event happen to him on July 2, 2003. He simply lost everything in one fell swoop, his whole 37 years worth of memory. This documentary evidently uses staged recreations to try to piece together what happened to Doug and why. The Wellspring disc features an update on Doug, more interviews with his friends, and a Q&A with the director and producer.
Double-Dip Tip Of The Week
BLADE RUNNNER: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT
Don’t buy this.
I love BLADE RUNNER, and this has always been a title that I’ve been willing to buy each time it’s been released in a new format. Yes, this is an anamorphic transfer finally, but this is not what you want to buy. I mean, if the only version of the film that you like is the “director’s cut” version (which isn’t, technically speaking, the director’s preferred cut of the film), then you should go ahead and buy this. But for anyone who really loves this film, you need to just hold on for next year, when there’s a super-mega-ultra-deluxe tricked out balls-to-the-wall version coming, with every cut that has ever existed, as well as a new cut you haven’t seen before and even some things you haven’t heard about yet that will make that BLADE RUNNER the only one you will ever need to own. Ridley Scott has obviously embraced the DVD format (just check out the amazing KINGDOM OF HEAVEN DIRECTOR’S CUT disc set to see what I mean), and he works with the same great team each time, which is why they turn out such good work. BLADE RUNNER is in good hands, and if you’re patient, it’ll pay off.
Consider yourself warned.
Okay, gotta run. I know I’m late, and looking back at that first paragraph, I was hopelessly optimistic for a holiday week. I’ve got that SEVEN SAMURAI/GOJIRA piece for you, as well as reviews of HOLLYWOODLAND, SCIENCE OF SLEEP, JESUS CAMP, and more coming, so until then...
"Moriarty" out.
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Seven Samurai, you will be mine.
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Sad that I don't have enough for Seven Samurai or LOST Season 2, damn you bills! I have doubts about buying stuff anyways what with the emerging HD market, though who knwos if the public will just shun both and retain DVD as their primary format due to familiarity, price and not giving a crap about pristine video quality. http://k105.blogspot.com/
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Very informative as usual Moriarty, thanks but can anyone tell me where I can get cheap / used DVD's in L.A? (Apart from Ameoba) I'll be there soon with a wad of dollars burning a hole in my geeky pocket.
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It's spelled "Amarcord".
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great column. I think I will probably get a hold of Seven Samurai, dvd looks fantastic.
www.obsessedwithfilm.com -
I was excited about the new technology not for "CRISP! CLEAR! IMAGERY!" but for all the extras the studios started cramming on to the discs. That's why I'm not that interested in Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (though, like Mori, I'll be getting a Blu-Ray almost by accident when I get a PS3 in a few months).
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About a year ago I saw a doc on tv about a sport called free running. It was one of the most exciting things i had ever seen. I guess they are now calling it parkour and that is fine by me. I watched District B13 tonight and the stunts in the film took me back to that documentary. This is seriously coolm shit. if I was 20 years younger parkour would be my sport of choice. I used to do stuff like this all the time but back then they did'nt have a name for it. This movie shows off the skills of free runners and it kicks ass.
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And Mori, you should have known this by now, new shows (most of the time) take awhile to get going. I've said this countless times, the cabin scene in the finale was one of the best moments in television last year. Jeffrey Dean Morgan rules!!! Too bad he's probably leaving the show.
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Make up your minds! I can't take it anymore!!! (Runs away sobbing.)
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I already own the BFI version of seven samurai (as well as every over samurai movie made by kurosawa) but i'll quite happily replace my entire collection if they do as good a job with the rest as they have done with 7S. Next on the list has to be yojimbo followed by sanjuro and throne of blood, then hidden fortess then ran then rashamon then kagemusha. Oh god i need them all (well less so kagemusha).
Oh and supernatural might get better towards the end but thats only after 16 odd episodes of mediocrity and then it barely manages to get much beyond average. Supernatural has it's moments and it's always nice to see who the hot woman will be in each episode but as a dvd collection i really don't see the point. Oh and don't get me started on the vampre episode or for that matter the shapeshifter episode that lives in the sewers (it's one thing to have continuity errors quite another for them to have the plot require them). -
Try Second Spin. I know of one on Ventura Blv. in Sherman Oaks down the street from Aaaaahs and Baja Fresh. Lazer Blazer on ?Pico? down the street from Westside Pavillion isn't bad. Penny Lane carried used DVDs; I think there's still one in Westwood but I'm not 100%. Backside Records in Burbank near Media Mall... though quite frankly Amoeba is the best. They're selection can't be beat and if you shop carefully you can find good prices. Anyone care to add to this?
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The Criterion 3-Disc version of Brazil - now in anamorphic - is also being double-dipped this week. Your column makes it sound like only the barebones one-disc version was being released. It won't do you any good to buy it if you already own the previous release (buy the single-disc version for the picture upgrade) but for those of us who never bought Brazil becuase we didn't want to spend money on a non-anamorphic 3-disc set, our prayers have finally been answered. Thank you Criterion!
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You had me at Baja Fresh.
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Didn't realize that. Thanks! I guess I've got to upgrade now.
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Drew, have you (or anyone else reading) watched to new edition of Meet The Feebles yet? How are the extras? Is the print good? The print on the first release is one of the worst I've seen on DVD. Hopefully there's improvement. Also, I found out recently that Polanski's Repulsion has been out on DVD for a while. Have you viewed that disc? How is it? Repulsion is one title I can see myself getting and then finding out the next day Criterion is planning an ultimate edition. As always, I enjoy the DVD column.
As for HD/Blu-ray, I'm waiting for a Tivo/Netflix set up like you've described. 500 HD quaility DVDs on one drive attached to a top of the line HD set is the way to go. HD-DVD/Blu-Ray will probably be the last hard copy format. I figure within two years we'll see the first wave of such hard drives. However, they probably won -
Is a hell of a film. Great performances and a rather uncomfortable viewing experience, especially if, like me, you come from the remote midlands of England where arseholes like the many characters within the film abound.
Strange cover though, as it's just some guy in a gas mask, not Paddy who wears a completely different getup in the film. -
I should add she is great in Roger Dodger.
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I watched the first few episodes when they aired but stopped when they skipped weeks at a time without new episodes. Couldn't stand it. Thats one thing I love about 24. I might watch this year since they are having them air back to back with a gap in the middle. Anyway, back to season 2. I bought it on Tuesday. Watched the first disc, which is the first 4 episodes, on Tuesday. Watched the last 20 on Wednesday. The first half of the season was somewhat boring but once they cought the Other it really picked up. Looking forward to Season 3.
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fuck them up their stupid overrated doublie-dipping assholes. They are just as bad as any other studio. They "unearth" new prints, and remasters, and sell non-anamorphic, digitally noisely edgey piles of shit, with the most retarded, pretentious, esoterically STUPID special features (Rushmore AV Club, anyone?) that no one could possibly ever want. And everyone laps them up just because they're the assholes smart enough to get the rights to great films like Seven Samurai. I've never liked criterion's picture quality, and their soundtracks never impressed me. Anyone who is impressed by them, obviously confuses an appreication for taste (which they do have), as a sign of overall quality.
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The HD DVD of Unforgiven looked awful, but Blu-Ray looks great? Dude, tell that guy to get whatever he is watching these discs on properly calibrated. Some of the later Blu-Ray titles, namely the ones put out by Warner Home Video, do indeed look as good as HD DVD, but the other ones suck. Fifth Element? It's bad enough the movie sucks ass, but the Blu-Ray transfer I had to endure about five minutes of looked terrible. Perhaps he is trying to justify the fact that he pissed away a thousand bucks on a Samsung Blu-Ray player. But anyone who would knowingly dish out that much money on a Samsung DVD player gets what he deserves: a piece of shit hardware.
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Calibration, son. Get the set calibrated.
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First of all, T2 is a Blu-rry title. It's not HD-DVD. Secondly, you were actually impressed by the BD version of The Fifth Element? It's been universally panned by everyone who's seen it. Even Sony has all but announced they'll be re-releasing it with an improved transfer. And third, what idiot wrote you that letter saying Blu-rry was more impressive than HD-DVD so far? He must be on the Sony payroll, cuz no one who's actually seen both formats in action would make that claim. HD-DVD is wiping the floor with BD at the moment with a player that's half the cost. The PS3 announcment yesterday doesn't help any either.
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it is crap, but amusing crap. Just get catnipped up and watch it. A complete mess but it is nowhere near the worst movie ever made, and any film with John Hurt in it deserves the time of day.
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I assume the new comics column will show up some time tomorrow, then?
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Finally saw it Mori and I really liked it.
But you can't be satisfied with Norman Reedus's performance. -
I've always felt that ST gets a raw deal from RHPS fans who were disappointed that the film didn't retread the original's mixture of sex, drugs and Tim Curry. Myself, I like the film because it decided to do something different and skewer the early 80s obssession with psycho-anylsis. Plus, I think some of the songs are better.
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Even if it makes absolutely no sense when you stop to think about it.
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Thanks for the heads up on the Seven Samurai release (I've been waiting a looong time to pick up a decent copy of this). I'm one of those movie types that can wait years to pick up the right disc at the right price. :-)
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Give me Give me! And GOD DAMN! Evangeline Lily is so good looking in real life, it's nuts. Good list this week, Thanks Moriarty
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Yeah the songs are better, but it a bit unfair to call it a sequel to RHPS. I guess that there really isn't another word for it. This is great news though, I've been hoping for more than a bare bones DVD of Shock Treatment for a long time. Life is good for the cult movie fan!
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Why did they insist on releasing District B13 with dubbing straight out of a 1970s monster movie? Seriously. It's that bad. I thought about turning the sound off and just putting on some thumping techno music. Then, I realized I don't have any. So I had to suffer. The action is spectacular, though.
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i've never seen it, but i would like to. which version should i watch first, and is it currently available on dvd?
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I like the original theatrical cut. A lot of people go on about the director's cut and voiceovers but I liked it fine the way it was. I will however wait for the long fabled release that has about 5 versions. However if you can pick up a basic disc for a bargain I'd do that in the meantime.
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HAHAHA! FUCK THAT! Last I heard they still didn't even have any working consumer models built yet. Delays on the Blu-Ray drives, delays on the chips, delays on everything. PLUS, Sony's making the controller batteries, so it's likely to burst into flames in your hands (laptop battery issue a few weeks ago). What are the chances you're gonna get one before Christmas? NONE!
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Yep, your friend is fucking clown shoes if he thinks that Blurry is even worthy to sniff the boot of HD DVD and your article is atrocious!! Get your fucking facts straight on BD and HD DVD, you are all fucked up mixing up the formats and throwing out false info, if you are going to wax intellectual about the subject get a friggin clue!!! CHRIST, check out avsforum to get your shit straight...
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The theatrical cut is not on dvd in any form, the only place it exists is VHS, and it's kind of rare. You might find it at an old mom and pop video store. So, unless you're willing to put forth the effort, you'll probably only find the director's cut until the big box set comes out. And if I may add my two cents, the director's cut is want you want anyway. There is some interesting info revealed in the voice over in the theatrical cut, but it's just so badly acted (on purpose, some say) that it detracts from the movie. I saw the directors cut first, then the theatrical, and I was shocked as to how bad it was in comparison.
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don't know why I thought it was out on dvd ages ago (probably cos it's from 1982!?!) anyway this is what I'm waiting for: http://tinyurl.com/eramz and I still like the voiceovers :-P
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thanks a bunch. looks like i will be adding the director's cut to my netflix queue.
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Not to many, but one particular shot that bothers me is the famous shot with the billboard sign. A flying car goes by. You can see through the car. It's semi-transparent. Suffering from the same effect seen in the AT-AT attack in Empire. Where you could see through the ships cockpit. Just darken the flying car or whatever and also get rid of some black outlines on the some of the effects and you have a perfect movie. Some Douglas Trumbull effects hold up better than others. No doubt though. The guy was way ahead of his time. Something that surprised me though was in the revamped ST motion picture DVD. They didn't fix the black outline on some of the effects, like when Scotty takes Kirk to the Enterprise. Lots of bleeding effects here and there. That still needs to be addressed.
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yes! fix those blade runner effects. and while you're at it, fix up (with editing and better dialoge loops) the plot hole of the fifth replicant. and also, while you're at it, it always bothered me that deckard shoots pris without her shooting at him first; could we have PRIS SHOOT FIRST? huh? orionsagels? or should i say GEORGE LUCAS? are you GEORGE LUCAS? you are, AREN'T YOU? keep your MITTS off my BLADE RUNNER! no SPECIAL EDITIONS! if you aren't george lucas, and you really think they should just darken that one car, then i apologize.
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1) When Deckard is talking to the synthetic pet shop owner it's obvious he's not saying what we're hearing
2) Digitally erase the Steadicam operator's shadow on the wall during the final chase scene
3) Digitally erase the wires on the spinners lifting off -
oh yeah that's a good list. but hey, better yet, let's just do a remake. with will smith as deckard ("aw HELL no you didn't jump to that other roof Roy Batty!") and katie holmes as rachel and the green goblin guy as tyrell and patton oswalt as sebastian and the asian guy from madTV as chu and do it all cg and add a car chase where they fly up the side of a building and a bomb goes off and someone is hanging from a high place and there is a conspiracy that goes all the way to the president. i am very sensitive because of the skin grafts i had to get after star wars burned me so bad. just play like i'm not here. i'm just mumbling to myself in the corner like a crazy person. star wars made me a crazy person.
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Look at that poor, mumbling, shambolic excuse for a human being. Damn you to hell sir. For shame!
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I know this site needs money like a crack whore but Dorm Daze 2? Really? And is that Elijah Wood or the dude from Harry Potter...?
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"best known to mainstream audiences as Uncle Owen in EPISODE II and EPISODE III"
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Mori, you are the shit, but don't ever tell me to not buy Blade Runner. Caution me that the uber set will be out in a year, but don't EVER tell me to not buy Blade Runner. I bought the very first DVD player available back in the day and drove for 3 hours the next day across the border to pick up Blade Runner in Seattle, cause it wasn't available in Canada yet. I will do anything to have a better version of that film in my possesion. And spending $20 now, to have a pristine version of the film to tide me over until the master set in out is a drop in the bucket for your favourite movie of all time.
Crazy bastard telling me about Blade Run.....(mutters to myself as I walk away) -
Carne, cerdo o pollo?
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Most people go with the Director's Cut of Blade Runner (an important reason for this is that it's actually readily available), and while I don't disagree I think the Theatrical version isn't exactly a train wreck. I got a bootleg at a con a few years ago, along with a copy of the SW Holiday Special (listen to me, I sound like a typical AICN reviewer, telling my life story), anyways, people like to make a big deal about the Harrison Ford narration. That he was forced to do it, so he did a bad job on purpose, etc. My thinking on it is this: Blade Runner is film noir. Ford's narration comes across as the kind of world-weary protagonist that populates most of the genre (though it does seem at times that he gets a particular tone in his voice where you think he's about to say "No, I don't have a landing permit. I'm tryin' ta reach Lando Calrissian.". So in the film noir context, it works for me. Or maybe I'm just making excuses. When the big set comes out we can all debate it then, I suppose.
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I watched a couple of taped version of that as a kid. It damn near mesmerized me... I wanted to eat those sugar building things those little dudes built...
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After a decade (or so) in development that Special Edition better be as definitive as it gets.
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There will be books written about how Sony dropped the ball with the PS3. It looks more and more like a big corporate cluster-fuck.
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It's just out of print. Next time, be an early adopter.
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Who's set up did you see? I'm guessing it wasn't at the Ranch.
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next year when Sony can get their system out on shelves. I just saw on MSNBC's investment show about how Sony says no more than 400,000 PS3's will ship this year to the US due to production problems (that's half of what they promised at E3). Then they followed up with rumors that NO PS3's will hit the states before Christmas and if they do, expect all kinds of mechanical problems due to the rush to get them out (bugs not worked out etc).
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Their disc of the 5 WC Fields shorts is TERRIBLE! The shorts have ADDED wacky music over the original versions, apparently put in later releases of the films. Yet most reviews seem to ignore this. If they do mention it, it's merely noted and not Criticized. How can they get away with that shit?! Why is everthing Criterion puts out gets universal praise. I have never seen anything like it. They've brainwashed everyone, simply because they pick interesting classic films. Frankly, Warner Brothers is doing an amazing job with their DVD releases and boxsets. Yet, hardly any love for them on this site or any other!
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... you must not read this site. I have been consistent in my praise of the way Warner turned their DVD department around and is now one of the best in terms of constant catalog title output.
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Bill Hunt, from the Digital Bits ran into the same thing that your friend described with an HD-DVD player. He even described the look in much the same way. Then the manufacturer released a firmware upgrade. --- He wrote: "Toshiba has officially released version 2.0 of their firmware for the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD-DVD players. It's available now via Ethernet download (just follow your player's instructions, as listed in the manual). According to Toshiba: "This firmware update adds support for certain anticipated network delivered content in future HD DVD discs, improves certain video and audio processing capabilities, as well as addresses certain disc playback and HDMI/DVI related problems identified by Toshiba." So what exactly does that mean? Check THIS out: "Support for Dolby True HD is extended from two channels to 5.1, which will be available in full resolution on the HDMI and analog 5.1 outputs and down-mixed to a DTS bit stream on the SPDIF output." FULL 5.1 TrueHD support! Keep in mind, the player was shipped with 2.0 support only." (http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa126.html#oh)
--- Granted, in that column, he was speaking about audio, but in a previous one, it was all about video quality as well. They even waited for a firmware upgrade to start reviewing the HD-DVDs. This is the second firmware upgrade they've done, and it's only improving. -
This article is so biased. Something is not hooked up right? Does your freind have firmware 2.0 and are they using the 1080i output on the Toshiba. The Sony titles on Blu Ray up till September are garbage they look horrible next to HD DVD discs. HD-DVD looks better hands down on all titles released before Sept. Now both Blu and HDDVD are using VC-1 on some titles and the difference is not there
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If he's praising Blu-ray's MPEG-2 infested crap of a picture, and thinking HD DVD looks off, he needs to recalibrate his system. There's no other explanation for it.
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