Hey folks, Harry here with another week of DVD picks and peeks. Some fun stuff, including a really beloved romantic film that I love that not many know. So give the list a look and remember – if you click on the box art or title, it’ll take you to Amazon where you can learn more on the title – and if you feel like it, you can purchase it there, where a small percentage goes to support this column. Hope you enjoy the list, I enjoyed making it…

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 – My Nephew’s Eighth Birthday

MAD MEN – Season One

See – this is what happens when I get something sent to me on Blu Ray that I have no interest in. I end up watching it, cuz I’m addicted to the format, and end up discovering something that I never would have tuned in for. MAD MEN is actually about AD men from around the same time as WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? – but instead of being tongue in cheek and goofy – it’s probably a lot closer to the reality of the period. I say that, cuz I certainly didn’t live in the late fifties / early sixties – but having seen THE APARTMENT – MAD MEN is like Rock Hunter, by way of THE APARTMENT, but with a really hard WALL STREET flavor. That they work real products and real slogans into the series is classic. Great cast – can’t wait to see more of this series – season one went by in a single night.

GANGS OF NEW YORK (Blu Ray)

It’s strange, for some reason in memory – I remember being disappointed by GANGS OF NEW YORK, but rewatching it – all I can do is love the film. I love the look and feel of the movie. I like that essentially it is just a revenge story. And oddly – in light of THE DEPARTED the film feels like a book end for this movie. I know they’re different cities, that this one has little to nothing to do with cops – but everything to do with the gangs… and really – the cops just later became the legitimate gang. But I love and have always loved Daniel Day-Lewis’s Bill The Butcher. And I’ve come to love Amserdam Vallon as played by DiCaprio. Scorsese does some very nice work here. There isn’t really any additional content from the regular DVD – all you get is VISUAL PERFECTION. Awwww…

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS

Now if there’s a filmmaker whose movies should be required to have a Blu Ray release – it is Wong Kar Wai. I don’t love this film as much as I have his other work, but I’m still quite fond of it. Maybe its English. I don’t know, but Wong Kar-Wai’s first English language film doesn’t have that same otherworldliness that comes with the language barrier – the texture is there – but the literary sensation is more absent. The film is drenched in his visual style, his dedication to passion and love. The movie makes you pang for love and romance. And even though it isn’t my favorite film of his… it’s still one of the best films I saw last year.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE (Blu Ray)

Oh I love this movie! I love that plastic gun of John Malkovich. I love Clint Eastwood as the aging Secret Service man. I love the score, I love the direction by Wolfgang Petersen – and I just plain love the movie. Watching the movie feels like fishing, building a birdhouse in your shop, like grilling up food for the Fourth of July. It’s man stuff and it hasn’t cut the fat. Now I have it in 1080p!

ONLY THE VALIANT

Do you love “Men on a Mission” flicks like THE PROFESSIONALS, WHERE EAGLES DARE, THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and THE DIRTY DOZEN? Then this film is for you. This is one of those types of impossible missions filled with hard luck cases doing their best to just see the next day given the short straw they drew. They’re headed by Gregory Peck, who is blamed for fucking everything up to begin with – He’s leading his pick of a select group of nothing to lose men to man an abandoned fort in a 300 type of position at a canyon – and to hold out till the cavalry (literally) arrives. These 3 other men are played by Ward Bond, Neville Brand and the fucking awesome Lon Chaney Jr! Also watch out for the badass Apache Chief played by Michael Ansara (the voice of MR FREEZE or Kang from Classic Star Trek!). He’s outstanding, as is this movie. Discover it, you won’t regret it.

DRILLBIT TAYLOR

The trailers for this movie looked like ass. This isn’t a great comedy – but it is better than WALK HARD, which I consider the low water mark for the Judd Apatow produced comedies. It has it’s share of laughs – but what Brill does that makes it not one to own is he really fucks up the kids. They’re not real. You can tell that the film prefers Owen to the kids and that’s not how the film should feel. In many ways – the movie prefers the bully – and that kinda blows. Actually – the film kinda is ass – at least WALK HARD had fun songs. Yeah, this sucks, skip it.

POINT BREAK (Blu Ray)

Retarded Bliss! You gotta love POINT BREAK. First off – casting Keanu Reeves as a surfing detective… well, it’s mad genius of the obvious sort. That said – Patrick Swayze owns this movie. He’s a god. He’s one of the absolute coolest bad guys of all time. And is it just me, or is THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS like a beat by beat rip-off of POINT BREAK? But a good rip-off. And it looks so pretty on Blu Ray!

MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS

ART. Brilliant ART as lived by Yukio Mishima as presented by Francis Ford Coppola & George Lucas and directed by the one and only Paul Schrader. You’ve got to see this film. Seriously. If you love art, documentaries, experimental cinema and just plain genius… this is the film for you. Criterion has again gone above and beyond on this fantastic release. Brilliant film.

BATMAN: THE MOVIE (Blu Ray)

Drooooooool. Oh yeah. Adam West BATMAN in 1080p… Cesar Romero… Frank Gorshin…. Burgess Meredith… Lee Meriwether… Shark Repellant! Walking up the side of a building! Genius reversed shoved in the oven, filled with confetti and it exploded and they caught it on film. This film had it’s world premiere in AUSTIN! The BATBOAT was made here in Austin – and those were HUGE DEALS to me as a kid. I wonder if kids today think it’s a big deal – or if they hang on to the fact that SIN CITY was shot in Austin. Hmmmm… It was a big deal that TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and This were hometown movies. So cool that it’s coming on BluRay.

PATRIOTISM – Criterion Collection

If you’re getting Paul Schrader’s MISHIMA, then you must pick up PATRIOTISM – a film by the subject of Schrader’s film, Yukio Mishima. This is a film about Mishima’s obsession with seppuku, ritual suicide. This film is only 27 minutes long, but Criterion accompanies Mishima’s film with a 45 minute audio interview with the director, a 45 minute making of documentary (of a 27 minute film – I love that sort of thing) – and more about the film in essay and in pictures.

SEX AND DEATH 101

From Daniel Waters, the writer of HEATHERS comes a film directed as well as written to make you laugh as well as stir the loins of men and women alike. SEX AND DEATH 101 is hilarious, adult and just generally fantastic. In some ways it resembles the Sex Farces of long ago – given a modern edge and I love the results. Really outstanding film – shame it didn’t get a wide release with a full marketing push.

CITY OF MEN

From the makers of CITY OF GOD (brilliant work of brilliance) comes a film that is only fantastic and great called CITY OF MEN. This film, in many ways, is more intimate than CITY OF GOD – and it’s story of two young men played by Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha are at the heart of this story. They were best friends that end up, over the course of the story – on opposite sides of a gang war in Rio De Janeiro – which isn’t a good thing. This is a superior film.

GIRL ON THE BRIDGE

Ok – Flat out – this is my favorite film of the week. GIRL ON THE BRIDGE by director Patrice Leconte tells the story of two losers… Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis (Johnny Depp’s sweetheart) are those losers. The film picks up as Vanessa Paradis is moments away from ending her life by leaping off a bridge. Daniel stops her. Because she has nothing else to lose, he offers her the position as the target in his Knife Throwing act. The film is in black and white and the story that follows is part Fellini and part Truffaut… and 100% blissful cinema. GIRL ON THE BRIDGE is one of my all time favorite romances. If you believe that the one you love will help set your life right, that you’ll become magically, perhaps tragically, aligned… then this is for you. If you love NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN… this is for you. And if you love this and those you should also check out this week’s SEX AND DEATH 101.

DEAD AND GONE

I haven’t seen it, but a friend tells me I should. Rumor has it, this feels a bit like 80s horror. I can’t say, but probably in a week or so I will be able to. So… will you chance it? Click through to Amazon – it has some solid reviews.

That’s all for this week, but next week we’ll be looking at BATMAN BEGINS on Blu Ray, BATMAN – GOTHAM KNIGHT, THE BATMAN – THE Complete Fifth Season, TEEN TITANS – The Complete Fifth Season, THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN, X-FILES REVELATIONS, STOP-LOSS, THE RUINS, LEFT BEHIND: DVD Collection, THE MUMMY (Universal Legacy Series), MON CNCLE ANTOINE, Unrated version of Jet Li’s FEARLESS, PHILOSOPHY OF A KNIFE, THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES, LITTLE GIRLS and much much more!