Since we’re going to be providing daily review content, I’m not going to be doing full-blown reviews in this weekly column anymore. Instead, this is a quick hits round-up of what I’m personally excited about or interested in for each week. This isn’t comprehensive. This isn’t every single title that’s coming out. And it’s not meant to be. But if it ends up on this list, it’s something that will end up on my actual shelf, something I’m genuinely curious about. I’m still going to highlight one title each week, though, something that really stands out when looking at the list of upcoming releases. With that in mind...
This Week’s Featured Title (11/14)
LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION: Volume 4
I love that Warner Bros. has stayed with this series of releases, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy so I can share more of my favorite animation with Toshi. It looks like Warner Bros has broken the four discs up by loose theme this time. First up is BUGS BUNNY CLASSICS. You’ve got 15 Bugs cartoons, along with commentaries by Eric Goldberg, Paul Dini, Jerry Beck, and June Foray, along with a fairly well-stocked extras section. I’m absolutely giddy at the prospect of Disc Two, FRANK TASHLIN CLASSICS. Tashlin’s a brilliant filmmaker, whether in live-action or animation, and a collection of his cartoons is something I didn’t even realize I could ask for. Now that they’re doing it, I feel like someone got me a great Christmas present I didn’t even see in the catalogue. “Oh, they make that? WOW!” Even better, Tashlin shows up on the commentary tracks. Bliss. My wife is absolutely crazy about Speedy Gonzales, which is all disc three is, so she’s going to be very happy. And then there’s CATS, disc four, and I’m sure Warner Bros could do an entire box set on just this one theme. This’ll be one of the first things I pick up this week, and I salute Warner Bros for the way they continue to put these out, and they continue to go above and beyond in putting them together. It’s DVD at its very best. Now before we do this week’s titles, let’s look at what we missed last week:
CARS
Pixar’s latest feature was the first of their films I’ve missed in the theater, and I have to admit... it’s the basic subject matter that kept me away. Car culture has always sort of left me cold. Now that I’ve seen the film (and I’ll do a longer review soon), I can understand what John Lasseter really wanted to accomplish, and I can respect his desire to make a love letter to a lifestyle that no longer exists. Technically, the film’s a knockout, and the sound and picture on this disc are excellent. You’ll get two bonus cartoons (“One Man Band” is a lovely little piece with a great Michael Giacchino score), but it’s nowhere near as tricked out as Pixar DVDs have been in the past, so be aware... there’s a possible double-dip lurking out there somewhere in your future.
CINEMA PARADISO: LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION
Damn youse, Weinstein Company. You’re going to make me buy this again, aren’t you? My ring tone on my phone is that lush, beautiful Ennio Morricone score. And now you put out this version of Giuseppe Tornatore’s heart-wrenching love letter to the relationship we have with movies, a character epic set in a small Sicilian village. It’s all about the relationship between a small boy (played by Salvatore Cascio in one of the great child performances every captured on film) and Alfredo (Philippe Noiret as his grizzled best), the projectionist at the village’s only theater. This is magic, pure and simple, and this box set comes with both versions of the film (the American release version and the much-longer director’s cut), two all-new documentaries, the CD soundtrack, and more. And despite owning two previous releases, I’m sure I’ll pick this one up, too. I love the movie that much.
DR. WHO: THE HAND OF FEAR
DR. WHO: THE MARK OF THE RANI
I’m not a Dr. Who fan, but I know that many of you are, and I’m glad to see that they continue to put out episodes from every different era of the show. I know there’s stuff they’ll never find, but for now, at least DR. WHO fans get a regular fix. Warner is also putting out Season One of the new reboot today, broken into two separate box sets. It’s been released previously as a full season box-set, so I assume this is like the “Spotlight Collection” of the Looney Tunes box from this week, a way of giving consumers several lower-priced options just in case they don’t want to take a $40 or $50 bite out their wallet at one time.
THE FALLEN IDOL (Criterion)
I am completely unfamiliar with this film, but it’s Carol Reed (director of THE THIRD MAN), and it’s got a great cast, and most importantly, it’s being released by Criterion. I’ve seen more great films thanks to blind buys of Criterion titles over the years than I have at any festival or thanks to any single friend’s recommendations. I trust Criterion. Love the redesign for their packaging, and this may be the first film to sport that new logo. It sounds like an interesting thriller, a riff on “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” that was inspired by a Graham Greene short story. Reading various descriptions of this, it sounds like a great suspense piece, and it was Oscar-nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay the year it came out. Factor in the typical interesting mix of extra features on the disc, and I’m sold.
THE FLOWER DRUM SONG
Of all the Rogers & Hammerstein musicals, this is one of my favorites, and yet it’s almost never brought up or mentioned when people talk about classic musical films. It’s a primarily-Asian cast in a film about Asian-American culture, and that alone should be lauded, considering this was released in 1961. A girl and her father sneak into America so that she can be part of an arranged marriage. Things do not go according to plan, and romantic hijinks ensue. I’m curious to see the new Universal transfer.
GARY COOPER: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION
THE MARLON BRANDO COLLECTION
It’s almost exhausting keeping up with Warner Bros. as they continue their excellent recent efforts regarding their catalog titles. These two box sets both celebrate the arrival of some long-requested titles on DVD. In the Cooper box, you’ve got SERGEANT YORK and THE FOUNTAINHEAD finally, and for any fan of Cooper’s particular low-key charm, this is great news indeed. I’m not familiar with the other titles in the box, and here’s hoping for some gems I’ll discover for the first time. The Brando box is what’s really got me pumped, though. JULIUS CAESAR, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE... that’s a lot of fascinating Brando to dig into all at once. MUTINY was a notoriously troubled film, and Brando’s Fletcher Christian is a perfect example of the way he could completely subvert and derail a movie while being enormously entertaining the entire time. His Marc Antony is a strong, unadorned interpretation, well worth seeing. The other three films are problematic, but still worthwhile. REFLECTIONS is a film about homosexuality made at a time when Hollywood still couldn’t really handle the subject, so the good work in it is lost under all the layers of Hollywood horseshit. THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON is, shall we say, unfortunate in terms of casting Brando as a Japanese interpreter, but if you can get past that, he’s actually very funny in the film. Finally, there’s THE FORMULA, a film he’s barely in. He’s really good, particularly when he and George C. Scott collide in a few scenes, but it’s not really his film. Both boxes have extra features on some of the discs, and for classic films fans, I’m sure these are a must.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA PRESENTS WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS’ THE JUNKY’S CHRISTMAS
What the hell is this? I love Burroughs, so the idea of a stop-motion animation Christmas film based on one of his stories is just outrageous. I’ve never heard of it, but it’ll certainly be part of my holiday festivities this year.
THE JAMES BOND ULTIMATE COLLECTION, VOL. 1 and 2
THE ULTIMATE FLINT COLLECTION
THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM
I’m seeing CASINO ROYALE tonight, and my fingers are crossed so hard they’re cramping. I love Bond. I acknowledge that there are some truly crappy Bond films out there, and many of them are included in these two seemingly-pointless repackagings of random entries in the series. I say seemingly-pointless, but I’ll be picking these all up because of those Lowry Digital frame-by-frame restorations and the new 5.1 tracks. They’ve also put a ton of new extras onto the discs, so they’ve basically bullied me into rebuying many of the films I already own. There are two more collections coming out on Dec. 12th, but for now, you’ll get THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, GOLDFINGER, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, and THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS in the first box, and A VIEW TO A KILL, THUNDERBALL, DIE ANOTHER DAY, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and LICENSE TO KILL in the second. You can find the collections for $60 each or less if you look hard enough, and if you’re in a Bond kind of mood, this is the best you’ll be able to find at the moment. The Flint films are, if anything, even more rareified fun than Bond. There were many Bond imitators in the ‘60s, but the two FLINT films were probably the best of the bunch. James Coburn as the lead helps quite a bit, and so does the particular sense of oddball humor that permeates the movies. I love that Fox has finally put together a collection of both films along with a bunch of extra features, and I can’t wait to watch it all. Finally, if you just can’t handle the campy excess of Bond or Flint, then THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM, with its Harold Pinter script and its cool British style, is a sort of anti-Bond, one of the “real world” espionage films that were so popular at the time. Alec Guinness, George Segal, and Max Von Sydow star in a story of neo-Nazis in ‘60s Germany, and it’s a damn fine thriller all the way around.
MEN BEHAVING BADLY – COMPLETE COLLECTION
POLICE SQUAD: THE COMPLETE SERIES
These two shows, taken here in collections of their entire runs, point out a pretty major truth in terms of what endures on television. BBC’s MEN BEHAVING BADLY ran for pretty much the entire ‘90s, a full seven series. It’s not a bad show, but it’s certainly not a great show. It’s a sort of amiable sitcom with a bit of naughty talk from time to time, a cuddly version of what is obviously meant to be “edgy.” It’s the sort of show that you can watch a full season at a time, and it all sort of blends together into one sort of static gag. You don’t have to watch it too closely, because nothing ever really happens. That’s why it ran forever. It offers a viewer a comfortable familiar experience every week. POLICE SQUAD, on the other hand, ran for six episodes before ABC pulled the plug on it, and watched straight through, it’s about the length of a single feature film. It’s demanding, packed with sight gags and hilarious wordplay and ZAZ’s trademark surreal silliness. I think these six episodes and TOP SECRET! represent the absolute pinnacle of the work that ZAZ did as a team. POLICE SQUAD holds up because of how meticulously crafted every scene is. This show literally never stops being funny. There is no lull, no downtime, no wasted image. It was never going to last as a television series because it only really works if you give it your undivided attention, and on DVD, thankfully, you can. There are some nice extra features included here, including some hilarious commentaries and a featurette about the freeze-frames that end each episode.
THE PUSHER TRILOGY
Nicolas Winding Refn is a serious filmmaker, a heavyweight who is overdue for discovery by mainstream America. It seems bizarre to me that he’s in the middle of making an Agatha Christie TV movie right now. If you want to understand what makes him worth serious consideration as a filmmaker, you have to pick up THE PUSHER TRILOGY, three films made over the past ten years. PUSHER was 1996, PUSHER II: WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS was 2004, and PUSHER 3: I’M THE ANGEL OF DEATH was 2005, and this year, they got a theatrical push as a trilogy, which is how they’re appearing on video, all of them released at once along with GAMBLER, a feature-length documentary about Refn’s decision to make two sequels to his original film. And for anyone who sees CASINO ROYALE this weekend, you might want to check out this work by Mads Mickelson, that film’s bad guy. He’s a pretty fucking great performer, so if this becomes his big break, maybe it’ll drive audiences to discover this, which would be a great thing. As soon as I get my hands on this, I’ll be sure to include it as one of my daily reviews so we can discuss it in depth.
THE SOPRANOS: SEASON SIX, PART ONE
I got a lot of love for HBO’s programming, and some of their DVD collections (FROM EARTH TO THE MOON and BAND OF BROTHERS, for example) have gotten heavy repeat play in my house. I really enjoyed introducing my wife and her mother to THE SOPRANOS on DVD, and watching everything with them to catch them up before the fifth season started to air. Since then, we’ve been waiting, like everyone else, for David Chase to wrap up his sprawling epic story of family life in the New Jersey mob. Count me among the fans who really loved this first half of the sixth season. I don’t think it went anywhere I expected it to, but that’s okay. I think it advanced some of the major themes of the series, and it set up what I pray is a magnificent conclusion next year.
TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE: 20th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION
I’ve said before that I just don’t get TRANSFORMERS. I was a little too old for it when it made its premiere as a show, and it always seemed like a crass toy commercial to me. When this film came out, a full 20 years ago now evidently, I was working as an usher at a theater, and I was amazed at how emotional some people seemed to get at this film. If the last year has taught me anything about TRANSFORMERS, it is that there is a large, vocal, passionate fanbase out there who is still invested in the property. Because of that, I plan to pick this up and revisit the film for the first time since its release, and I’m curious to see how it plays for me as a non-fan. It certainly looks like Sony BMG Music Entertainment went hogwild with the extra features, too, so I’ll check out what I hope is a great look at that fanbase and just what it is that has kept them so crazy all these years.
ULTRAMAN: SERIES ONE, VOLUME TWO
On the other hand, I totally loved ULTRAMAN growing up. I was probably six when I discovered the show in twice-daily airings on a local channel in Dunedin, Florida. This show would get me so crazy that I’d try to wrestle the dog or do kung-fu on my sister every time I’d watch it. The bizarre condition of the prints being used for these transfers only adds to the oddball charm of the show, and I find this compulsively watchable even now.
WORDPLAY
I can’t believe I missed this one. It sounds like a great character piece, a documentary about Will Shortz, the crossword-puzzle editor for the NEW YORK TIMES, as well as the people who absolutely adore the work he does and who make the puzzle a daily part of their lives. People who saw it seemed to love it, so I’m going to hunt down a copy of this IFC release immediately. Now let’s jump right in with this week’s titles, another dense and varied list of releases:
ACCEPTED
I just recently spent an evening on the set of a new comedy called SUPERBAD, and one of the two stars of that film is Jonah Hill, best known to some people from the trailers for this movie as the “Ask Me About My Weeeeeeiner” kid. Hill makes me laugh, and so does Justin Long, and so does Lewis Black. I didn’t feel compelled to rush to the theaters for this, but I certainly expect I’ll check it out at home, and I’ll hope for some funny from the talented cast.
THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: THE COMPLETE FIFTH AND SIXTH SEASONS
Fans of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN tend to place the first few black-and-white seasons on a pedestal above the color seasons. This collection, which wraps things up for the series, was shot in a crazy hypervivid Technicolor, and these are actually the best episodes to show to kids. In some ways, I prefer this to any of the modern Superman films, and hold it dear in the way I revere the Fleischer cartoons. There’s a real purity of spirit to this show, and George Reeves is pretty consistently great.
THE BEDROOM WINDOW
Yes, I know this is a Steve Guttenberg movie from the ‘80s. But the reason to pick this up is because of writer/director Curtis Hanson. These days, he’s known more for films like 8 MILE and LA CONFIDENTIAL and IN HER SHOES. But I have a particular fondness for the thrillers he wrote and directed. His script for THE SILENT PARTNER is wicked and nasty stuff, and it’s worth tracking that film down if possible. He wrote and directed BEDROOM WINDOW, and it’s certainly his nod to Hitchcock in many ways. Isabelle Huppert, Elizabeth McGovern (one of my most shameless crushes of the ‘80s), and Guttenberg are the major players in a great, taut little square dance of betrayal and mistrust.
THE BEST OF THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, VOL. 2
I wrote earlier this year that volume one of this collection was one of the year’s best discs, and I can’t wait to get my hands on volume two. This show looks even more revolutionary now than it must have when it was airing in the ‘70s. I’ll write more when I actually see this one, but in the meantime, pick it up.
BLACK BOOKS 2
LITTLE BRITAIN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SERIES
I’ve never seen BLACK BOOKS 1, but I’m definitely going to get a copy soon now that I’ve seen the second series. First, though, I’m going to go back through these six episodes and listen to the commentaries by the cast, Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, and Tamsin Greig. I’m pretty fond of all three after watching these episodes. I know Greig from her work on GREEN WING, and Moran from SHAUN OF THE DEAD, but this is essentially just their three characters every week, and they are all glorious freaks. Moran play Bernard Black, owner of a small bookstore, and Bailey is his employee/whipping boy, while Greig plays his best friend. They are miserable, awful people, SEINFELD-cubed, and it made me belly laugh repeatedly. I feel like I should be ashamed of myself for enjoying LITTLE BRITAIN. It’s absolutely base humor much of the time, and there’s a repetition to the series that has certainly started to wear thin in this, the third and final (so far) series of episodes. Still, David Walliams and Matt Lucas are genuinely funny and evidently deranged, and sometimes, their brand of grotesquerie hits me just right. I find the Bubbles sketches to be among the most vile things I’ve ever seen done in the name of laughter, but lord help me, I watched every one. There are excellent commentaries on every episode on the first disc, and then on disc two, there’s almost an hour of deleted scenes with commentary, an episode of THE SOUTH BANK SHOW about Lucas and Walliams, and a bunch of other TV content featuring the guys appearing on other shows.
CARY GRANT: THE SCREEN LEGEND COLLECTION
THE PAUL NEWMAN COLLECTION
ROCK HUDSON: THE SCREEN LEGEND COLLECTION
Sometimes, when you put together one of these actor-driven box sets, you have a lot of great films to choose from, and other times, these box sets are shameless attempts to dump some forgettable b-product on the consumer using a movie star’s face. The Cary Grant box set is a bust. BIG BROWN EYES, WEDDING PRESENT, KISS AND MAKE UP, WINGS IN THE DARK, and THIRTY DAY PRINCESS are early pictures from his filmography, when he was a contract player, and there’s not a gem in the bunch. There are moments in many of them, particularly when he plays off a co-star like Joan Bennett, but not a genuinely consistently good film out of the five. The Paul Newman box, on the other hand, is a knockout. You get your money’s worth with HARPER, THE DROWNING POOL, THE LEFT-HANDED GUN, THE MACKINTOSH MAN, POCKET MONEY, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, and THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS all for under $50. I love HARPER and its sequel THE DROWNING POOL, great slow burn detective films where Newman gets to be cooler than cooler than cool. SOMEBODY is the Rocky Marciano story, a boxing biopic, and it’s earnest and well-made, and Newman’s charismatic as hell in the lead. John Huston’s MACKINTOSH is a thriller that really is hard to categorize, a smart, bracing adult entertainment that holds up. POCKET MONEY is the one I’m most interested to see, a cowboy comedy with Lee Marvin and Strother Martin co-starring. PHILADELPHIANS is a young lawyers in the city drama, a completely average ‘50s film. Finally, LEFT-HANDED GUN is his Billy The Kid movie, and it’s an ambitious effort by director Arthur Penn. Newman’s quite good in it, and it’s a real treat, just one of many in this collection. I’m not sure which way the Rock Hudson set goes, since I’m not familiar with any of the five titles included. THE LAST SUNSET, HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL?, THE SPIRAL ROAD, A VERY SPECIAL FAVOR, and THE GOLDEN BLADE are new to me and new to video, and if any of you are familiar with them or pick up the set, pipe up in talkback and tell me if they’re worth my time.
COLUMBO: THE COMPLETE SIXTH & SEVENTH SEASONS
I’ve written at length about my love of this series. Peter Falk’s performance is one of the greatest sustained works by an actor in the history of TV. He’s amazing, each and every time. He’s funny, he’s deadly serious, and he can play both bumbling and formidable. Two seasons at once makes me very happy, and I can’t wait to dig in.
THE DA VINCI CODE
I want to see this again for many reasons, and I plan to write a review of it when I do, and if I’m going to pick it up, I should get the bells-and-whistles version and check out Sony’s work on it.
FORBIDDEN PLANET
I’m reviewing this one tomorrow. I forgot how much I love this movie, but Warner really put together a package that is determined to remind me. Great stuff.
FRIENDS: THE COMPLETE SERIES COLLECTION
HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS – COMPLETE SERIES MEGASET
SIX FEET UNDER: THE COMPLETE SERIES GIFT SET
These aren’t just DVD collections. They’re furniture. That HOMICIDE set is next to my TV cabinet in my office right now, and when Toshi’s playing in there, hanging out with me, this has become an important part of his blocks-building real estate. I’m working my way through the first season right now, and I’m starting to remember just how unreal this show seemed when it first appeared. Now that Tom Fontana and David Simon and LAW AND ORDER and OZ and THE WIRE and a number of other shows have all been on the air on various networks and outlets, HOMICIDE doesn’t quite look as unique. But HOMICIDE was there first, and all those other shows obviously owe this a great deal. I’ll review this year by year as I work my way through, and I’m sure I’ll be watching it for a while. The SIX FEET UNDER set is another hefty box, large enough that Toshi can’t pick it up and move it. He’s tried, too. While I’m rediscovering HOMICIDE right now, SIX FEET UNDER still feels very fresh to me. That final episode was devastating, and it really did put the series to bed for me. I’m going to hold onto this one and rewatch it once I’ve let some time pass, once I’ve forgotten how it all works. It’s a great show, and I think they got out at the exact right moment, and that taken as a whole like this, this is one of HBO’s finest hours. I don’t have the FRIENDS box set, but I’m going to get it. My wife wants it, and I do think that this is a sitcom worth revisiting. There were good seasons and great seasons and not so great seasons, but it managed to stay true to itself all the way to the final episode. It’s a Teflon show. I don’t remember what happened in the last three or four years, much less what happened in the last show. Warner really went all out on this one.
THE GREEN MILE: SPECIAL EDITION
Frank Darabont resisted doing special editions of his films for a long time, but he finally broke down and did a commentary and documentary for THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, and now he’s done the same for THE GREEN MILE. I spent a lot of time on the set of this film, and I was impressed by the giant ensemble cast on a daily basis. There is a lot of sleight-of-hand going on in the film, too, and overall, I think this is a pretty epic film.
THE GROOMSMEN
Holy shit. I liked a movie by Ed Burns. I actually enjoyed something that he wrote and directed. Burns stas with John Leguizamo, Donal Logue, Jay Mohr, and Matt Lillard rounding out what played to me like a pretty shameless riff on DINER. Having said that, I thought it worked well, and I believed the relationships. I liked the cast. The film looks good, and it’s well-cut. It’s just a good solid movie. I’ve literally never liked anything else he’s done, but I would recommend at least renting this.
JOYEUX NOEL
LAST DAYS OF MUSSOLINI
SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE FINAL DAYS
WERNER HERZOG’S THE WILD BLUE YONDER
Here’s a grab bag of foreign titles, all being issued for the first time this week. Remember the Paul McCartney video for “Pipes Of Peace”? Well, that’s JOYEUX NOEL, the story of a temporary holiday cease-fire called on the front lines of World War I. It’s a good version of the story, decently rendered, but since seeing it a year ago, I doubt I’ve thought of it twice until now. LAST DAYS OF MUSSOLINI is a new release by the always-interesting NoShame Films, and it’s one of the great batshit Rod Steiger performances. And I don’t mean that as an insult, either. Rod Steiger was frequently out of his fucking mind, a la Crispin Glover, and it led to some spectacular performances. Throw in Franco Nero (have I told you that babies looooooooove Franco Nero?), an Ennio Morricone score, and Henry Fonda in take-no-shit mode, and this one is a must-buy. SOPHIE SCHOLL – THE FINAL DAYS is a story of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance party, The White Rose. This is one of those stories I never heard until I read about this, and I’m looking forward to checking it out. I love Werner Herzog. I love how bold and wild he is as a filmmaker, how anti-career he’s always been. He’s a real artistic hero, a guy who has followed his muse to great success. I haven’t seen THE WILD BLUE YONDER, this documentary sci-fi hybrid starring Brad Dourif as an alien whose planet was invaded Earth, but I love what I’ve read about it. It sounds like another stylistic stretch by a director who never seems to stand still, artistically speaking. Subversive Cinema has included a commentary by Herzog on the disc, and he’s one of the most entertaining directors I’ve ever heard speak. Should be great.
KING KONG: DELUXE EXTENDED EDITIONS
I’ve been watching this the entire time I’ve been writing this column tonight, and now I’ve finished the second disc. It’s a pretty great set, but of course you need to enjoy the movie or this is going to be torture for you. It’s more, more, more. The Peter Jackson/Phillipa Boyens commentary during the extended edition of the film is warm and funny and conversational, and the extra features on the first two discs are really well-done. THE EIGHTH BLUNDER OF THE WORLD is one of the funniest gag reels I’ve ever seen on a DVD. There’s some stuff involving Jack Black getting his full-body laser scan done that had me crying from laughter. There’s a “hidden” documentary on disc one that is also incredibly sharp and funny. The new footage in the extended edition played pretty great, but the problems I had with the film before are still there. KING KONG the movie is a wild thing that Peter Jackson never quite tamed, and for me, all the behind the scenes stuff in this three-disc set is as much a part of what I like as the film itself. I love that Jackson used his megaheat coming off LORD OF THE RINGS to make something he always wanted to, instead of just chasing the easy money. I’m also glad it’s out of his system now, and I look forward to whatever’s next.
LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
I was talking to someone in line at the Arclight the other night, something I noticed happened a lot during the AFI fest. People in line would see the press badge, and they’d turn around and want to quiz me on the festival overall. In this particular case, they guy asked me what was worth seeing. I mentioned Lucy Walker’s BLINDSIGHT, and the guy practically recoiled. “I don’t like documentaries.” That just baffles me. As if all documentaries are alike, or even remotely similar. Look at these two released today. LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN is basically just a concert film, but Hal Wilner is the mastermind behind the various artists who show up to perform their interpretations of Cohen’s various classic songs. I’ve been a Cohen fan for about 20 years now, and every year that I re-examine his work, it means something new to me. I think he’s got one of the great songbooks for other people to try and perform, and Wilner is expert at putting this sort of thing together (his first Disney tribute album remains one of the best things he’s ever done). I haven’t seen WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?, and I’m afraid it’s going to piss me off ferociously. I am not some rabid anti-corporate hippie, but I do think there are examples of corporate short-sightedness that move beyond “wrong” into being actively evil. If our transportation needs could be met with electricity instead of fossil fuels, that would be enough to literally change the world. I’m excited to see this one, but I figure I should watch it alone so no one else has to hear me yell and curse.
MANIAC COP: SPECIAL EDITION
If that cover doesn’t convince you to pick up a copy of William Lustig’s darkly funny cult classic, I don’t know what to tell you. I’ll review it as soon as I’ve picked one up, and I’m looking forward to revisiting it.
OLDBOY: ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION
I’ve got the superdeluxe megaultra Korean collector’s DVD for this that came with the soundtrack and a bunch of other great stuff. And I shouldn’t really buy another special edition of it. Still... look at that freaking cover.
STRANGERS WITH CANDY
