Hey folks, Harry here – sorry that I missed the deadline on this, but it’s been a crazy last few days. That said – it’s another strong week of films. As always, the box art and titles link to Amazon – where you can buy the titles (with a percentage benefiting this column) or you can just read more on the titles – or just use this column as a guide for your rentals. Next week’s is already being written – till then – enjoy…

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

RATATOUILLE

RATATOUILLE is a fantastic film from Pixar. A movie that possibly had more behind the scenes trouble than any previous Pixar film, including replacing the director – but with the amazing Brad Bird who came in and knocked this one out of the park. As is usual on a Pixar DVD release – there’s a plethora of extras – the best thing is a new Pixar Short called YOUR FRIEND THE RAT… Now this is a bit of a throwback to the classic Disney info-toons that Ludwig Von Drake did back in the day. Only this time it’s with our two rat leads from RATATOUILLE – as they take us through the history of the rat. Now here’s the miracle. Its 2D hand drawn, with bits of Stop Motion and more. This is literally a “kitchen sink” animated short – throwing every type of animation at us, dominated by a great Disney style that we haven’t seen since the late 50’s and 60s. Add to that – the behind the scenes, the art and just a brilliant film in RATATOUILLE and that makes this one a must own. For those of you with BLU-RAY – enjoy this title, I’m jealous. -- Also of note CARS hits BLU-RAY this Tuesday as well!!!

SEINFELD – SEASON 9

Didn’t get enough Seinfeld with BEE MOVIE this weekend? That film is absolutely wonderful – shockingly so – horrible commercials and trailers. Well you should see that film, but here’s the final season of SEINFELD – and it was a really wonderful season. The whole series is available a little later on in this week’s column, but if you just need the final brick of hilarity, here it is…. Love the bow cover!

DOCTOR WHO – THE COMPLETE THIRD SERIES

I’ve never been a DOCTOR WHO fan, but I’ve also never really given it a shot in any of its incarnations. I know a lot about it, but just never sat down to give myself over to it. My friends though tell me that this incarnation is the very best version of DR WHO, yet. So here ya go, 3rd Season all ready for you to vegetate to. Should be what the doctor ordered.

SICKO

One of the most frustrating and embarrassing aspects about living in the United States is the total and utter clusterfuck that is the American Medical System. A greed based system and cares about bottom lines, not human life. Michael Moore makes a very non-partisan look at the PROBLEM and why both liberals and conservatives are a part of the problem, due to the powerful insurance and medical lobbies that leave a majority of Americans without any coverage. Will we ever see a change in our lifetimes? Let’s hope. This should be a Christmas gift for every single politician you and your family knows.

HELP! (Deluxe Edition)

I love HELP! And this is one helluva way to put it out. The film has been cleaned up nice and tidy, there’s a documentary, a missing scene, a look at the restoration process – a remembrance about the making of the film – this edition comes with a set of 8 Lobby Cards, a reproduction of the original poster, a 60 page book with intense behind the scenes on the film and pics – and in addition there’s a copy of Richard Lester’s original script with his notes included. A real geek item for any Beatlemaniac!! Plus the film has just never looked better!

PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION – VOLUME 1

Now this is an awesome DVD – you get THE ADVENTURES OF ANDRE AND WALLY B., RED’S DREAM, KNICK KNACK, TIN TOY, MIKE’S NEW CAR, LUXO JR., ONE MAN BAND, GERI’S GAME, FOR THE BIRDS, JACK-JACK ATTACK, BOUNDIN’, MATER AND THE GHOSTLIGHT and LIFTED!!! This is the complete collection – well – if you get RATATOUILLE this week, you’ll have all 14 PIXAR animated shorts. Each short has an audio commentary – and then there’s behind-the-scenes and a look at the history of Pixar through these shorts. It’s a fantastic revelatory look at the CG film’s development. If you love PIXAR – this is a must own. Also Available in BLU-RAY!

THE BEST OF THE COLBERT REPORT

With the Writers’ Strike looming this Monday – there’s a chance you’ve seen the last of Colbert for an undetermined period of time. That’s right – first the “man” shut down his run for President – then they’ve conspired to take his show off the air. Evil management! Evil writers! Well, here we can see Stephen Colbert at his written wittiest best – and thanks to this strike – we will know our money is going to line the corporate pockets of Paramount, which apparently isn’t doing what Colbert’s writers want, thus blocking Colbert from telling us how it isn’t! Fucking hell… when the show goes on hiatus for a week, I cry for days… gone for a month, half a year? Unfathomable. How can one get their girlfriend or wife in the mood for sex… without Colbert? This fucking strike could ruin my sex life… thank God I have THE BEST OF THE COLBERT REPORT – it’s like Viagra for Vaginas!

SESAME STREET: Vol. 2 – Old School (1974-1979)

Richard Pryor, Ray Charles, The Fonz… shit – SESAME STREET was the shit – and your kids need to know that for a fact. This has 5 complete hour long episodes with 57 bonus segments – and with all of that – you just can’t go wrong. Perhaps my favorite thing about being a toddler of the seventies was having 70’s Era SESAME STREET and ELECTRIC COMPANY. It’s classic – and the lessons taught are worth learning today as well as they were back then. Pure gold.

AMAZING JOURNEY: THE STORY OF THE WHO

The first rock n roll that blew my mind was The Who’s TOMMY and specifically – PINBALL WIZARD. I can still remember the time when one walked into an arcade and it was all pinball. No video games. And as a small boy I hung out in those pinball palaces and when PINBALL WIZARD came on – it felt as though I could do no wrong as I played. That was my introduction to THE WHO. And with each year that I’ve grown upwards and outwards – so has my love for THE WHO. This is a set of two documentaries regarding the birth, rise and meteoric ascension to the Rock Gods they have been for so long. The documentaries are exceptional and must haves for anythone that loves

THE X-FILES: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION

Ok – if you have all the seasons – you shouldn’t really go after this – it does have the feature film and all the extra features off the collections they’ve done… but it isn’t like they’ve offered this in some sort of High Definition format… dammit. However – this is the best price they’ve come up with for the entire collection of the X-FILES and it is more features than we’ve had before… but I imagine some time in advance of the release of the New Upcoming X-FILES movie next summer – we’ll have something bigger and better. However, for 61 discs - $230. That said – again, if you have the seasons, there’s no need to double dip, they didn’t do anything spectacular here.

SEINFELD – THE COMPLETE SERIES

The stats…. 32 DVDS with all the episodes. 104 hours of extras. A coffee table book – 226 pages long. – and that’s not counting the unmentionable brilliance of your own conversations stirred up by the Seinfeld shenanigans. This is an excellent series to gift – who doesn’t love Seinfeld?

CHINATOWN (Special Collector’s Edition)

This is a great improvement on the fairly bare-bones edition that has been out previously – that said – I really wish Paramount was doing day and date on this in HD DVD. That would simply be spectacular. I get the idea we won’t have long to wait though – but if you’re a huge fan of this utterly brilliant film – this is a great DVD of it. Can’t recommend enough. Also this Thursday, a new special edition of THE TWO JAKES has been released. TWO JAKES is by no means a film near the quality of CHINATOWN, but it is an interesting exploration in why some things should be left alone.

OLDBOY (BLU RAY)

Ok BLU-RAYers – here’s one to wag in my face. This I’m truly envious of. However, I actually do have an HD DVD of OLDBOY that I got Here and thanks to HD DVD’s lack of Region encoding – it and a great many other foreign titles are available. That said – for Extras – I still prefer the 5 disc DVD in Korea that was made that I have. That said – you BLU-RAYERS get it at a much more reasonable price domestically.

HEEERE’S JOHNNY – The Definitive DVD Collection From THE TONIGHT SHOW starring Johnny Carson

It’s a 12 DVD set that celebrates the best of Johnny Carson from over-the-course of his 30 year career on the Tonight Show. Personally, I love Johnny – he saw me off to bed each night of my childhood. Through this impending Writer’s Strike – it’ll be fun to relive those moments I did catch with him and those that predate me. And introducing Carson to my wife should be… interesting.

THE AVIATOR (HD DVD)

I don’t have this disc yet, but I can’t wait to check it out. Given how incredibly beautiful the film was – I can not wait to see this in cinematic home perfection. It’ll be beyond belief. This is also hitting in BLU RAY - and I’m sure in either format it’ll be absolutely gorgeous.

MUNSTER’S SCARY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

At one level it’s a sacrilege to watch this recast MUNSTER made for the holidays – but ya know – I’ve just watched it tonight – and had a blast with it. It’s produced by John Landis and is filled with characters like THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, the Charles Laughton HUNCHBACK, The PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, The Mole Man, The Invisible Man, Santa and so much more. It’s a blast. And what Santa uses as reindeer substitutes for his sleigh is just HYSTERICAL! This is so much better than SANTA CLAUSE 3. Seriously.

CHUCK JONES COLLECTION – RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI / MOWGLI’S BROTHERS / THE WHITE SEAL / A VERY MERRY CRICKET / YANKEE DOODLE CRICKET / A CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE

For under $12 you get these 6 Classic CHUCK JONES television specials -- and my favorite two are RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI and THE WHITE SEAL. Rikki is narrated by Orson Welles and it’s just awesome. And THE WHITE SEAL is just kinda scary. The Cricket ones are quite fun, and I’ve never watched MOWGLI’S BROTHERS – but I checked out my two faves just the other day – and figured I’d save the others for when my nephew next came over. These are classics for the whole family!

BOB HOPE ULTIMATE COLLECTION (Special Edition)

I was lucky enough to meet Bob Hope in Wichita Falls back when I was in High School and being a huge fan of his… I was in awe. This puts together tons of his stand up, movie shorts, radio appearances, WWII stuff and well… 8 hours of entertainment. It’s not as fascinating as “THE VIETNAM YEARS set a while back – but it’s still very very cool.

HULA GIRLS

It won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture and a ton of other awards – and now we have a chance to see it in the U.S. Years ago I recommended to you a film called PING PONG. It was a film that was outside the usual Asian imports. It wasn’t science fiction, anime or violent. There were no samurai swords or arterial sprays – but what it did have was 365 feet of pulsating loving heart and soul. It was magic. Everything I ever said about that film I can say about this one. It’s a stunning film, and not because the dancers are hot and Hula dancing is hypnotically sexually suggestive. That is there… but more so – this is a film of the tone and type of something like THE FULL MONTY – but better, in my book. I can not recommend this film enough – highest recommendation of the week!

CASINO ROYALE (40th Anniversary Edition)

One of the weirdest most bizarre parody satires you’ll ever see. Very much in the tone of CANDY and SOUTHLAND TALES – and has been equally maligned throughout its life. The cast and the sets are so far out – that they require you to watch it to believe it. This is the best version of the film put out thus far. However, if you love the original book – I recommend the new version which you probably already own.

ELECTION

Yes, Tarantino loves this film so much he said the quote on the box – and I agree with the passion he stated it with – I do love the film, it just wasn’t my pick for the best of 2005. Johnny To knocks this gangland triad story out of the fucking park. If you love badass Hong Kong cinema – run and get this as fast as humanly possible. You’ll love it.

SHE WOLVES OF THE WASTELAND

I know nothing about the film…. But fur loin cloth bikinis and automatic weapons… that’s enough for me to pay $7 for. And as I look at the box for this 1987 masterpiece (I assume) – I somehow believe that Women Rule. Don’t they?

WONDER WOMAN – THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

This is a reissue of the classic WONDER WOMAN series – different box – no new content, but it is the cheapest version of this title thus far – and just possibly the excuse you need to watch Lynda Carter in Satin Tights. How wonderful a woman!!!

KUNG FU – THE COMPLETE SERIES COLLECTION

I love KUNG FU. The ability to own them all for under $90… to see the entire journey of Kwai Chang Caine. You know, he wanders the Earth and gets in adventures and shit. Its awesome! Sigh. Caine’s the man!

That’s it for this week – sorry I’m a day late – but had an intense weekend of adventures that preoccupied me. I’ve already started on next week – which includes the final season of THE GILMORE GIRLS, PRIDE & PREJUDICE in HD, AMAZING GRACE, LA VIE EN ROSE, OCEAN 13, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, PARIS JE T’AIME, BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, DUCKTALES, THE ADDAMS FAMILY – COMPLETE SERIES, CHRISTMAS TIME IN SOUTH PARK, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR with June Haver, THE LORELEY’S GRASP, JEROME BIXBY’S THE MAN FROM EARTH and much much more!!!