Hey folks, Harry here with the last DVD TUESDAY before ELECTION DAY TUESDAY – when we’ll all be glued to our sets celebrating or crying profusely. For now, it’s just another Tuesday of DVDs – and I’m getting these out a little early, due to my ambitious Halloween party line-up here at Geek Headquarters.

As usual, by clicking on a box or a title, you’ll go to Amazon where you’ll learn more on the title in question – and if you feel so motivated, you can purchase the title and a small portion of that expenditure will go towards the continued life of this column and its pursuits to find the coolest and most fun releases – while warning you of others. Enjoy…

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

TINKER BELL

This film is CUTE. All Caps CUTE. Are there things that annoy the living hell out of me? Yeah, I kinda can’t stand that Tinker Bell can talk, I know it’s a Faerie to Faerie set of conversations, and not Faerie to Person – and perhaps that’s whom she can’t communicate with, but having her silent, save for that ‘tink’ sound from Disney’s PETER PAN… I loved that her character was silent, yet understood by Peter. I found a remarkable amount of charm lost with the character, not that the voice work was bad, just that it robbed the character of it’s… animated communicative abilities. The story is sweet and you'd have to a real grump not to at least like it. It's very pretty and very very cute. But the old 2D Tinkerbell was cuter and more adorable.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3-D

A complete and utter piece of shit. At all levels. This does come in anaglyph 3D in 1080p, but the film is such utter retching bile and pus – that I do not under any circumstances recommend it to a single soul. This isn’t interesting shit, slightly amusing shit, this is EMBARRASSING SHIT – this is diarrhea in your swim trunks as everyone was about to see you do a trick dive shit. In otherwords, the sort of shit you never want to shit. FUCK THIS MOVIE. The 3D in the HANNAH MONTANA concert movie is far far far superior. This is just – well, I think you get the point.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

For 1/3rd of the above price, you can get the original, great version of this Jules Verne tale. A film that still captures the imagination, the same way that Verne’s story does. James Mason is absolutely a marvel in the film, as are the old fashioned matte paintings and just solid set craftsmanship. This is filmmaking and storytelling for kids and the whole family, the way it should be done! Can’t wait for this to hit BluRay some day.

KIT KITTREDGE – AN AMERICAN GIRL

Kinda like a little girl version of the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, but if instead of being a lil version of a detective, she’s an inspiring investigative journalist. This film is very well done, little Abigail Breslin is adorable as Kit, but it’s the supporting cast is amazing. You have Chris O’Donnell, who generally I despise due to his shitty Robin work, but he’s really likable here. Then there’s Julia Ormond, Stanley Tucci, the always great Joan Cusack and a host of others. Solid stuff for kids!

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition (Limited Edition)

I know I’m not a fan of MST3K, but I know there’s a lot of you that love this show and I respect that. Here’s the details on this set:

Mystery Science Theater 3000 celebrates its 20th anniversary with a specially packaged DVD set housed in a limited-edition tin box featuring 4 custom lobby cards and a figurine of Crow T. Robot! Features four of the show's most-requested episodes--First Spaceship on Venus (1960), Laserblast (1978), Werewolf (1996), and Future War (1997).
The Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 became a pop culture landmark in the '90s by poking fun at horrible movies of every genre and time period, and letting us listen in. They made the unwatchable essential viewing.
Bonus Features: _* "The Oral History of MST3K" feature in three parts._* 2008 Comic-Con MST3K Reunion Panel, featuring Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Mary Jo Pehl, Bill Corbett, J. Elvis Weinstein, Paul Chaplin and Bridget Jones-Nelson. Moderated by Patton Oswald._* Original film trailers._* "Variations On A Theme Song", featuring all six versions of the theme song._* Limited-edition version comes in a tin box with 4 lobby cards and a figurine of Crow T. Robot, all exclusive to this set.

Personally, I love FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS and LASERBLAST – heck, I not only have that last film in 16mm, but I own one of the stop-motion armatured turtle-aliens from the film. This should be something you folks would enjoy.

THE LITTLE RASCALS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

This is the jewel of the week in my opinion. The greatest child acting series of all time. Precious, hilarious and often brilliant. From 1929 to 1938 – this has them all. In addition it has 3 silent Little Rascals, and special features including interviews with Dickie Moore, Jean Darling, Jerry Tucker, Annie Ross and a documentary on Spanky, who I knew quite well when I was a child. He was a great guy.

BARAKA (Blu Ray)

This is perhaps, the single most perfect looking moving images I’ve yet seen on Blu-Ray. BARAKA is a visual poem to the world, nature, faith, mankind & all of it. The 70mm print was scanned at 8K – that’s 4 times the resolution of 1080p – and I don’t know what a projected image at that quality looks like, nor do I know when we’ll be able to fully realize the potential that this disc apparently has. But at 1080p – it’s breathtaking. Absolutely stunning. If you love something like PLANET EARTH – you’ll love this.

THE POLAR EXPRESS 3D (Blu Ray)

This movie has grown its audience since initial release. Part of that has to do with the IMAX 3D experience. The film is truly remarkable in that format – snow is amazing in 3D – and the scenes as the boy is on the outside of the train are stunning in 3D. The major flaw in the film is the lack of animation in the characters’ faces… the dead eyes in particular. BUT – it’s a fun Christmas story that seems steadily headed towards “Christmas Classic Status”. I much prefer MONSTER HOUSE to this and can’t wait for the ANAGLYPH version of that Film to hit, though I really want Polarized HD 3D as soon as possible, so I can have the colors looking better.

THE DONNA REED SHOW: The Complete First Season

This was a huge show in the late 1950s – and this was its first season. That’s her family on the DVD cover and the episodes were essentially a series of familial problems and conflicts which the lovely Donna Reed’s Donna Stone solved with her own particularly perfect and cute way. It was classic. The perfect 50’s home. Watching the episodes call up a different, simpler feeling era. One that wasn’t complicated – to the white suburban lifestyle. It’s a time machine. Think of it as the anti-Douglas Sirk.

POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD

The ultimate Halloween/Easter title. The film is absurdist freakout at its most obscenely nutsoid. This is one of those films where you find yourself either laughing non-stop by what you’re watching… or you find yourself staring slackjawed trying to process what is in front of you. No matter what scene you’re watching, I can pretty much assure you, you haven’t seen THIS before.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN (Blu Ray)

I really really love this movie. That said, I really really wish the film would have pursued a different tact. I’d love for this film to have been the first of a series of films about what would have happened had a 1980’s Aircraft Carrier with its world of technology had been transported through time and allowed to completely destroy the Japanese forces heading for Pearl Harbor. And then, what would have happened next. I love getting to see this in 1080p – it is also notable as being BLUE UNDERGROUND’s first Blu Ray title – thus signaling the beginning of a whole different type of film coming in the format. I love Kirk Douglas in this film – I just wish it could have been a series.

THE FLINTSONES: The Complete Seies

24 DVDs with 70 hours of the FLINTSTONES – yes, all of them. Isn’t this fantastic? There’s over 4 hours of extras and all 166 episodes. The Flintstones were brilliant – it’s great to be able to have the complete original run of the series here for us.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection

Wow – This is pretty fricken great! Do you love Abbott & Costello? I do. I even have 30 of their Animated Cartoons in 16mm film, which are still not available. But even a Bud & Lou fan like myself – hasn’t seen all their films from Universal, and I can not wait to dive into this set. Here’s what we’re getting:

One Night in the Tropics (1940)
Buck Privates (1941)
In the Navy (1941)
Hold That Ghost (1941)
Keep 'Em Flying (1941)
Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942)
Pardon My Sarong (1942)
Who Done It? (1942)
It Ain't Hay (1943)
Hit the Ice (1943)
In Society (1944)
Here Come the Co-Eds (1945)
The Naughty Nineties (1945)
Little Giant (1946)
The Time of Their Lives (1946)
Buck Privates Come Home (1947)
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Mexican Hayride (1948)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)
Comin' Round the Mountain (1951)
Lost in Alaska (1952)
Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Bonus Features -

The World of Abbott and Costello: This compilation includes classic routines from 18 of Bud and Lou's most popular films.

Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld: The popular comic hosts a tribute to Bud and Lou in this insightful retrospective.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters: A behind-the-scenes look at the duo's popular series of films as they meet up with Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolf Man.

6 Feature Commentaries by Noted Film Historians

Exclusive Bonus -

Abbott & Costello: The Universal Story - 44-page book detailing the legacy of Bud and Lou plus an overview of their films at Universal including rare photos, trivia and exclusive introductions from their families.

Isn’t that amazing?

ZOMBIE STRIPPERS

It stars Jenna Jameson (yeah, that one) and Robert Englund (yeah, that one) and the result is something very Z-exploitation. It’s not a great film, it isn’t astonishing titillation. It is kinda fun, just not that great.

HELL RIDE

I really dislike this film. This was sold as being an attempt at making the all-time exploitation biker film. Instead, it comes across as tired, lazy and wholly ineffective. You have a bunch of actors surrounded by tits, blathering on about nothing all that interesting. The film feels half-assed at every step. The shots, the music, the editing, it all falls flat. A huge bellyflop. There’s easily a good 20 biker films better than this – and none of them are as good a biker film could be. We’ve yet to see the greatest one.

ELF (Blu Ray)

Jon Favreau knocked this modern Christmas classic out of the park. I love watching this film. The scene of Will and Zooey singing? The scene of Will on Bob’s lap? The Snowball fight? Every second of James Caan annoyed by Will? Santa!?!? It’s classic. Hilarious. Note perfect and fun. This is a beautiful film on Blu Ray.

DORIS DAY: CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

You know… Doris Day kinda freaks me out – but I don’t know if you’re like me at all… but I love weird CHRISTMAS stuff. I love it. I eat it up the same way I devour weird Halloween specials and shorts. I love it. Here you have the 3 Christmas Episodes from THE DORIS DAY SHOW – and you also have new audio commentaries – and newsreel Christmas footage of Doris. So sit down and enjoy… a Doris Day Christmas. Try not to be driven Lovecraftianly mad with despair. I dare you.

PIECES

While it isn’t an ingrown hair on the ass of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, this is a wonderful little film – that also uses a Chainsaw. It’s a weird film. I love the opening dearly. It’s all kinds of fucked up. But the film does get weirder and weirder and weirder as it goes on. Now – this DVD up-res’ something wonderfully. In my system I could barely tell the difference. It was mastered in HD, just like this new edition of THE BEYOND that they’re putting out too.

THE BEYOND

A truly brilliant film by Lucio Fulci. Sure, this isn’t “realistic” filmmaking, instead – it is an impressionistic, surreal nightmare given vision by the great Fulci. The film is a lurid painted visage of a nightmare, unlike anything we’ve seen before or since. The transfer is breathtaking. The extras are legion. But the paramount fact is… the film is brilliant. My favorite gore film and the power of non-CGI unleashed. Why on earth we don’t have more horror like this is BEYOND me.

DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN: The Complete Series Megaset

This Megaset showed up about two weeks ago. It’s heavy. And I can’t imagine watching it. Nor can I imagine who would, but perhaps some of you have an aunt or a mother that loves Dr Quinn. They’ll love this, me – I think I’ll give it to someone with a cardboard sign on a street corner. I just think it’d be funny. Plus – they could get some good bucks for it, somewhere. But I just don’t have a Jane Seymour fetish that extends past SOMEWHERE IN TIME.

THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL (2 Disc Set)

I don’t know if you’ve seen THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL, but it is one of the most amazing nature documentaries, you’ll ever see. Although, it’s about more than the birds, it is also about Mark Bittner, a drifter looking for meaning to his Bohemian existence. He finds it within a flock of Parrots – from God knows where, but we suspect their parrots that have flown their previous coops. Over the course of the documentary, you find the flock growing from 45 birds to 160, we can only imagine how they’ve grown since. This 2 Disc set not only has the original film, but lots of material excised from the original film – as well as some follow-up. This is a fascinating film.

EIGHT MILES HIGH

My favorite film about the modeling business is LOOKER, but that’s mainly because I have a passion for all things Michael Crichton… and that I typically find models boring, outside of their obvious ooglability. Here, however, we have a fascinating tale of Uschi Obermaier, the muse for Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Dieter Bockhorn and more. This film is so much more provocative than the cover. And it is legitimately one of the best films I’ve seen thus far this year.

BLOODY MOON

Banned in the UK, makes this an automatic, must watch. This is the first time Jess Franco’s BLOODY MOON will have the opportunity to be seen in the United States in its complete form. We’ve always been denied the infamous “Stone Mill Saw” sequence – however, we’ve always been able to digest the incest and the roller disco parts. I love discovering new 80s horror / slasher flicks! This isn’t great, but like everything from Franco – he does now his nudity and hot gals – and Olivia Pascal is definitely one of em.

PARADISE LOST (Collector’s Edition)

Joe Berlinger’s PARADISE LOST documentary and its follow-up are the stuff of nightmares. It’s about the Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills – and there’s nothing scarier than true life child murders. I remember the first time I ever became afraid of the real world was during the Atlanta Child Murders – I just couldn’t conceive of an evil that would target kids. I though murder was for adults. Leave the kids out of it. This documentary is a nightmare on so many levels, from the initial crime, to every step of the case, to… well, watch it. Fantastic set of documentaries.

STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Long before Bill Condon was the established genius of GODS AND MONSTERS, KINSEY, CHICAGO & DREAMGIRLS – he was a genre kinda guy – co-writing this awesome little film. This film is all kinds of fun – and the dvd has a commentary with Bill on it – along with deleted scenes, an isolated score track – and lots more. This is an overlooked jewel.

THE WATCHER IN THE ATTIC

This is amongst the most fucked up, bizarre Japanese fetishistic weird fucking films I’ve seen… and I’ve seen a lot of these things. It really makes you wonder about the behind closed doors life of the Japanese. There’s weird stuff that you, in your most demented moments online, that you’ve never seen hinted at. And that’s this film, set in the 20’s and just fucking weird. Personally, I love weird stuff like this.

In The Folds Of The Flesh

This is classic screwy bizarre hot Italian “Gialli” – this has hot Italian actresses – from the seventies – and it is a fact that the hottest women in cinema, ever, were Italian babes from 70’s exploitation filmmaking. This isn’t really disputable. This print is gorgeous – and the film isn’t easily found. This is a great release from Severin.

PATRICK (Special Edition)

Directed by Richard Franklin, back when he was a total badass – this was a very fun Ozploitation flick that was in many ways a reaction to Brian DePalma’s CARRIE. This is an awesome flick, once you see the great Ozploitation documentary, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD – you’ll suddenly have a list of movies that you have got to see, PATRICK is one of those films. This is a great dvd of a film not many have heard of.

FASCINATION

If you love hot Euro-sex and deviancy – and just the dream of hot Euro-lesbian lovemaking and sangre-sucking… well, this is for you, like it is for me. This is Euro-erotica and sensuality at its best. And it has cannibalism. Everything a growing child needs!

STONE (2-Disc Special Edition)

Ok – you know that shit Biker movie earlier in the list? That one that was made on the idea of being the be all end all of Biker flicks – This is what it wanted to be. STONE is the fucking balls out Australian Biker-sploitation flick that just never calls it quits. This dvd has making of docs, makeup tests, and so much more. Look for Moriarty to write up an extended piece on it, at least he was going to do that at some point, but you know how he is. This film is fucking insane though and thoroughly entertaining. It basically gave Ozploitation it’s kickstart. And is featured heavily in NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD!

That’s it for this week, but coming up next month is the following brilliant release:

WALL*E

However, next week – we’ll be looking at: KUNG FU PANDA, FUTURAMA: BENDER’S GAME, GET SMART, The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, PRIMEVAL, the STAR WARS TRILOGY, POPEYE THE SAILOR: 1941-1943, BATMAN-THE COMPLETE ANIMATED SERIES, TALL T, DECISION AT SUNDOWN, BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, RIDE LONESOME, COMANCHE STATION, PLANET OF THE APES 40th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (Blu Ray), THE BOURNE TRILOGY, EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS, WATERWORLD Extended Edition, CALIGULA-BluRay, Tenacious D’s THE COMPLETE MASTER WORKS 2, THE WILD WILD WEST: THE COMPLETE SERIES, THE GREGORY PECK FILM COLLECTION, A CHRISTMAS STORY BluRay, FRAGGLE ROCK: THE COMPLETE SERIES, TRANSSIBERIAN, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER BluRay, MONSTER’S BALL BluRay, THE HOWDY DOODY SHOW, ALMOST FAMOUS BluRay and much much more! See you in a week as we hit November!