Hey folks, Harry here with the first week of March’s DVD releases. We have tons of great stuff here. Now – you can click on the titles or the DVD boxes to order or get more information from Amazon. Often times they’re giving you 30%-50% off retail prices – but find the best deal you can – or just add it to your NetFlix queue. See you with next weeks list.
March 6th, 2007
BORAT
I can’t really recommend this. I’m that stick in the mud that doesn’t enjoy BORAT. To me – it just feels like r-rated cable bullshit polluting my local theaters. However, many of you love Borat – and you’ll be getting your sequel. For me, I’m looking forward to Sacha Baron Cohen’s work opposite Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s next film. I think he has immense potential as a comedic performer – and I’d love a fully produced BORAT film in a fully realized Kazakhstan. I just don’t like the docu-feel of the film. Gives me a headache. The DVD isn’t fully stuffed – you know and I know that there will be an additional DVD at some point… but at this point it has Deleted Scenes and other extras that were funny.
PETER PAN 2-Disc Platinum Edition
This is hands down one of my all time favorite Disney films. This past weekend, I shared this with my nephew – who is currently a PSP addict. However about the time that Peter Pan is chasing his shadow – the PSP dropped to Kublakhan’s lap, and his eyes became entranced upon Peter Pan. In fact – he didn’t move for the entire film – transfixed by the story, the music, the characters… That’s the power of classic Disney. This is one of those Platinum Editions from Disney, which means – you’re getting every ounce of your money’s worth. Of the tons of features, perhaps my favorite was the “IN WALT’S WORDS” where Disney reveals why he made Peter Pan. I love watching Walt Disney talk. When the corporate trappings melt away and it’s just Uncle Walt telling us stories about how and why cartoons come to life. On the other hand – the worst feature on the DVD is the “Sneak Peek at the all new TINKER BELL movie” - ARGH!!!! Yeah. I wish John would stop the regurgitation that Eisner started by raiding the vaults for terrible endless sequels that make 2D animation look like pap.
SOUTH PARK – Complete 9th Season
Here’s the complete 9th Season of SOUTH PARK – today’s Lost Boys, if you will. Hilarious and wrong – South Park continues to own. What was on the 9th season? Here ya go:
1. Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina - Mr. Garrison becomes a woman.
2. Die Hippie, Die - Hippies come to "South Park", so it's up to Cartman to get rid of them.
3. Wing - The boys open their own talent agency and try to get Token to sign with them.
4. Best Friends Forever - Kenny buys the latest game console, dies and then helps Heaven beat Hell.
5. The Losing Edge - The boys don't want to play baseball the whole summer, so they come up with a plan just to lose.
6. The Death Of Eric Cartman - Cartman thinks he is dead, because everyone is ignoring him, do to what he did and Butters is the only one who can see him.
7. Erection Day - Jimmy is growing up and something is happening to him that he doesn't understand.
8. Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow - Because of Stan & Cartman a Beaver Dam is broken and a near town goes underwater, making everyone blame each other and everything for what happen.
9. Marjorine - The boys fake Butters' death, to dress him up like a girl so he can spy on the girls, that supposedly holds something that predicts the future.
10. Follow That Egg - The boys are divided into two's to take care of a egg, which represents a baby and Stan wanted to be paired with Wendy, buts gets paired with Kyle, making Stan mad at Kyle, even though Kyle doesn't like Wendy.
11. Ginger Kids - After Cartman makes find of red haired kids, calling them "Gingers", Kyle, Stan & Kenny teach Cartman a lesson, by bleaching his skin and coloring his hair Red, making him a "Ginger".
12. Trapped In The Closet - Stan takes a test Scientology test, when he gets high numbers on the test, Scientologists start to believe he is the reincarnation of the founder of Scientology.
13. Free Willzyx - The boys are tricked into thinking that a Orca/Killer Whale named Willzyx talks and that he is from the moon, making them help the Whale get back to the moon.
14. Bloody Mary - After Stan's father becomes a alcoholic. He here's about a statue that bleeds blood, believing he can be healed from being a alcoholic he goes to the statue.
Hawaii Five-O – 1st Season
Jack Lord kicks ass! Had the Snakes on a Plane scenario had happened on his watch… that plane never would have left the airport. He would’ve nailed that drug dealing bastard before he made like a piñata on that D.A. Cuz Steve McGarrett was the shit! This set doesn’t only have the original 24 episodes of the first 1968 Season – but the Pilot Movie “COCOON” that I know I had never seen… and it kicks ass. And every time those opening titles kick in, it’s like 20,000 licking tongues. AWESOME!
NIGHT OF THE COMET
NIGHT OF THE COMET! NIGHT OF THE COMET! I love this movie. “Daddy would have gotten us Uzis!” Hehehehehe… This is one of the great 80’s cult films. If only because it disappeared. This is like Zombie Last Starfighter for me. I stay awake at night fretting about some asshole remaking this. Some people call it dated, I say it’s period. Besides – I could watch Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Meroney all day, every day. Rowr! The DVD is like feature-less. But hopefully if this sells well, they’ll do a deluxe version some day. At least we finally have the film on DVD.
LITERARY CLASSICS COLLECTION ( Madame Bovary ‘1949’ – Captain Horatio Hornblower – The Three Musketeers ‘1948’ – The Prisoner of Zenda both 1937 & 1952 versions – Billy Budd )
This is another in a great classic collection put out by the brilliant folks at Warner Home Video. For example – the least well known of the titles – BILLY BUDD features a commentary by Terence Stamp and Steven Soderbergh. Just being able to get great prints of CAPTAIN HORATION HORNBLOWER and MADAME BOVARY and both THE PRISONER OF ZENDAs is worth it. All with Cartoons and specialty shorts… that recall those marvelous matinees at the Bijou. However – the inclusion of the 1948 THE THREE MUSKETEERS is nothing short than a miracle. I grew up in love with the Michael York and Oliver Reed 3 & 4 Musketeers movies. And I just assumed that they were the best versions of the tale. In some ways, they are. But when I went to college, I was once assigned to review a Swashbuckler flick for my Film Appreciation class – So I went to THE MOVIE STORE here in Austin to find one that I had never seen. A tough task, as I was raised on Swashbuckling. There I found the 1948 THREE MUSKETEERS with… lol… Gene Kelly as D’artagnan. I assumed it would be terrible. I LOVE IT! This is a storybook film. The Technicolor makes all the actors unbelievably perfect. Lana Turner never looked more dangerous or delectable. Vincent Price as Richelieu oozes slime. However, it’s Gene Kelly as D’Artagnan that soars for me. I always thought of D’Artagnan as a wild, juvenile doer of derring-do. At the beginning of the film, he’s playful, goofy and a tad gay. But as he experiences more, as things he loves are taken away – the boy gives way to a Musketeer. Meanwhile – Kelly’s physical prowess are unleashed and frankly are remarkable. I love this film. This set is fantastic.
FAST FOOD NATION
This isn’t Linklater’s strongest film by a long shot, but it’s incredibly ambitious. I like to think of it as TRAFFIC for the fast-food industry. Only – because the drama isn’t as high as in TRAFFIC – the fact is it’s still a very entertaining film. And how can I let a hole occur in my Linklater shelf? There is a commentary with Rick and writer Eric Schlosser. However, my fave extra is the Manufacturing Fast Food Nation featurette. It kinda rocks.
JESSE JAMES
The best Jesse James flick ever made is Walter Hill’s THE LONG RIDERS – that being said – the CLASSIC Jesse James flick is JESSE JAMES starring Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda as Jesse and Frank James. Here – Jesse James is played as a vengeful Tom Joad/Robin Hood esque character. The cast for this is just epic. Joining them is the amazing Henry Hull, Randolph Scott, Brian Donlevy, Jane Darwell … and the sleaziest son of a bitch to ever play the coward Bob Ford… John Carradine! Hehe.
RETURN OF FRANK JAMES
In many ways far better than the original film JESSE JAMES – even if it is far less based in history than the first film – hard to do. But RETURN OF FRANK JAMES was directed by Fritz Lang, who had just recently migrated to Hollywood from his native Germany. The Technicolor is stunning – as is Gene Tierney – who was never younger on screen than she was here. Mainly because this is her first movie. See it for Henry Fonda, for Fritz Lang and for the gorgeous Gene Tierney. It’s classic Hollywood – pure fantasy, mythology and iconography at its best.
PRIVATE SCHOOL
Ok… yes, owning this movie is a pervy thing. But one of the truly great things about the 80s – was all the great T&A High School / Girl school / College flicks that delighted in exposing the uncovered talents of such brilliant babes as Phoebe Cates. You also get the ungodly beautiful Betsy Russell to take into your whack fantasies. And did I mention the shower scene or the nude horseback riding scene. Yeah. This movie is lame on many levels – but it has it where ya want it.
THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT
One of the great – so full of itself, self-serious messes – that it became one of those great unintentional comedies that just is funny, because it’s so serious. Watch Susan Sarandon when she was impossibly young and beautiful. She’s still beautiful, but not like this. This was… back in the day – when she was what she was. Whew.
MANITOU
This is an amazingly fucked up awesome piece of genre weirdness. Bet you never knew that Susan Strasberg once gave birth to a full sized Indian Witch Doctor out her backside didja? And I bet you didn’t know that Tony Curtis fought this doctor with the spirit of Hospital Mainframe Computers didja? In the world of what the fuck, this is a what the fuck. Awesomely entertaining in the… DID THE INDIAN FETUS TAKE OVER THE LASER THINGEE – kinda way. You kinda gotta see it to believe it. Fucked up in the right ways.
SOLARBABIES
One of the worst, lamest, mostest stupidest movies ever made. SOLARBABIES is insanely awful, but it’s one of those dare movies on movie night – where you and your friends see who gives up first, who gives up last. It’s terrible in that, “I can’t believe I’m watching this shit” kinda way. It’s racist, unfunny, terrible storytelling… it’s just awful, but guess what? It’s now on DVD.
CINDERELLA LIBERTY
In the realm of rescuing a hooker with love movies go – CINDERELLA LIBERTY is pretty great. Mainly because it’s played so real. James Caan plays a lowly Navy sailor on leave that falls in love with a prostitute that has a kid, hustles pool and is just plain no good. But when is love ever perfect? Well, if you’re the one ending up with James Caan, I suppose it ain’t so bad. It could be worse, you could end up with Richard Gere. Check out the performances by Eli Wallach and Burt Young – they’re very nice. This is one of those forgotten films, check it out.
THE ELECTRIC COMPANY’S GREATEST HITS & BITS
If you’re like me – and planning on raising your kids on the utopian liberal upbringing of the Seventies – then you already have The Best of the Electric Company Vol 1 and Vol 2! This show was awesome. It was all about racial equality and diversity. It had Spider-Man. And generally I preferred it to SESAME STREET, though I loved that show too – and yes, I’m archiving those for my child rearing experiment. In fact – I’m buying vintage calendars to convince the child that it is infact – always the seventies. Cuz – the Seventies ruled!
EURO FIENDS FROM THE GRAVE ( The Red Headed Corpse, Faceless Monster, Satanik )
THE RED HEADED CORPSE features a drunken Farley Granger in an interesting Giallo mystery that I had never seen. Filled with the requisite Italian beauties. It’s hot in that misty lens way. FACELESS MONSTER (was actually released in the U.S. as NIGHTMARE CASTLE, I have the one sheet) starred BARBARA STEELE – the oh so yummy lady of the sixties scream queen heyday. The story is pure TALES FROM THE CRYPT. This is a typical story of Husband killing wife and her lover - only to have them come back to life seeking revenge. SATANIK is well, out of this set – it’s the jewel for me. And best to be discovered. Sure – it’s a poor man’s DANGER DIABOLIK, but dammit, it is still stylish, filled with hot Italian women and of a period that there never seems to have been enough movies from.
COMMISSAR
I haven’t seen COMMISSAR yet, but I make it a point of simply buying every release that comes from KINO. If you click the box above – you’ll know as much as me, until I pick this up and watch it. I love a great Russian film.
BUSTER CRABBE COLLECTION
There isn’t much information about this release online - but I love Buster Crabbe. He’s one of those B-actors that is hypnotic onscreen. Getting 7 movies – like JUNGLE MAN, SWAMP FIRE and FUZZY SETTLES DOWN – is amazing. Getting episodes of Captain Gallant, Planet Outlaws and more is just awesome. And 12 Flash Gordon episodes. This is a wonderful release for Crabbe fans.
THE MIRACLE MAKER – Special Edition
It’s the story of Jesus as told through the miracle of Clay Animation with the voice of Voldemort as Jesus himself. How awesome is that? I love Clay Animation – this isn’t the best work in that field, but it’s pretty nice. If you love this story, history, mythology – whatever your personal belief, this is a handsome production and very much worth a look.
THE HEMINGWAY CLASSICS COLLECTION – ( THE SUN ALSO RISES / FAREWELL TO ARMS / THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO / UNDER MY SKIN / ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN)
It is my opinion that no young man should go out in the world without first reading the work of Hemingway. I believe there is a necessary shot of intellectual machismo that comes from the reading of his works. However, since none of you read anymore… so sad… I suppose you should, at the very least, know these tales through their cinematic tellings – which is no substitute for actually reading Hemingway. This is a fantastic set. Most people know how awesome THE SUN ALSO RISES, FAREWELL TO ARMS and THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO are… but less seen, but also great are UNDER MY SKIN and ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN. So get these, sit back and let Papa tell you a story or two or five. Then – get ye to a bookstore – a place like Half price and get an old hardback copy - get a Havana cigar and a some nice brandy – and read.
KING KUNG FU
A Chinese Gorilla that knows karate! This could be – the greatest film of all time. The Monkey has a love interest named Rae Fay. This could be – the greatest film of all time. The film ends on the tallest building in Wichita, Kansas. This could be – the greatest film of all time. How can you deny the power of a kung fu gorilla from China unleashed upon Kansas. Monkey, I don’t think you’re in China anymore!
