Hey folks, Harry here – Hope you’re all recovering from the Turkey and stuffings you all feasted your way through – and that you got some of your holiday shopping over with. Now its time to think about yourself. What are you going to watch – as usual – I’m back previewing and picking some of the myriad of choices you face this Tuesday on DVD, HD DVD and BLU RAY. If you click on a box art or a title, you’ll be sent to Amazon – where you can read more on the title, buy it, add it to your wish list – or just make a personal notation about, in terms of your future rental life. Hope you enjoy the list – now let’s get started with a guest preview…

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

FUTURAMA – BENDER’S BIG SCORE

Got this review in on Bender’s Big Score So I’ll let Orwell guest review the title:

Hey Harry,

I got my hands on a preview DVD of "Futurama: Bender's
Big Score" and have to say that this is a FANTASTIC
movie. Unlike the family guy "stewie griffin story"
this feels like a proper film and not three episodes
spliced together. The whole movie feels like a great
big hats off to the fans for supporting the DVDs and
the show. The movie is packed to the gills with
references to damn near every character and storyline
from the series. Everyone from the Evil Robotic Santa
Claus to Zap Brannigan to the Head of Richard Nixon
are in there.

Right off the bat BBS takes shots at Fox for canceling
the show. The executives responsible are turned into a
running joke through the whole story. The main plot
revolves around a group of e-mail spamming aliens who
use the secret of time travel, and a virus infected
Bender, to amass all the earth's treasures. They also
take over Planet Express (and later on the whole damn
planet) using their cunning e-mail spam.

The story plays with time travel and all it's
weirdness really well. Bender, under the control of
his new masters, keeps storing himself in a cave for
ceenturies, much like Data from Star Trek: The Next
Generation. Time paradox duplicates abound and all
kinds of messy situations come up when the E-mail
aliens, who look like shriveled versions of Dr.
Zoidberg, order Bender to kill Fry.

The sci-fi in jokes abound. The sound effects come
from Star Wars, Star Trek, even Logan's Run! Wait til
you see the Gold-Plated Death Stars.

Speaking of stars, awful segue there, there are a few
notable ones. Al Gore has some really funny moments.
He also features as an extra on the DVD "A Terrifying
message from Al Gore".

The main characters are spot on. Fry and Leela have
their usual awkward romance (even when it's Fry having
a proxy romance with a narwhale that reminds him of
Leela) and Bender is in fine form killing and stealing
his way through time. I wish they'd shown more of his
time-traveling heists, the bit we did see is
ridiculously funny.

The Spamming aliens are utterly repellant bastards,
gross in their design, voicing and even the way they
move. When they do get their comeuppance you're almost
cheering.

The only weak point I thought were the musical
numbers. They felt kind of jammed in and seemed to
just be there to fill a little time in story lulls.
Unlike the Robot Devil number from the series, the
songs seemed kind of monotonous and didn't seem to
move the story along at all.

The single best feature on the DVD has to be the full
length (22 minutes) episode of "Everyone Loves
Hypnotoad". One of the funniest gags from the original
series brought to full and terrible life.

If you use this call me Orwell.

Cheers,

-Orwell

WAITRESS

Most likely the very best film that Fox has put out this year. I adore Keri Russell… and that she’s in a waitress outfit serving pies… well it speaks to my favorite fetish… but this film is deeper than lame innuendo on my part, it is a movie with sadness and joe – and a fantastic cast. From everyone’s favorite Nathan Fillion to Jeremy Sisto and the dearly departed Adrienne Shelly… along with the great Andy Griffith. If this film passed you by earlier this year, here’s your chance to catch up and be served a perfect little film. Because that’s exactly what it is, a perfect little film.

PAPRIKA

Available in both BLU-RAY and Standard Def - is this stunningly beautiful Anime – if you have a BLU RAY player, I can’t possibly recommend getting this enough. No, I don’t have one yet, but I saw this digitally projected earlier this year and holy fuck was the clarity and perfection beautiful. The story and vision are equally beautiful – and is a must for anime lovers and something you others should give a chance. One of the best films I saw this year, though it was released overseas last year.

HAPPY DAYS – THE THIRD SEASON

I remember being in utter suspense this season – as a child – as this is the season where Fonzie did his daring motorcycle jump. I was a dwarf, but I remember being traumatized when Fonzie crashed in that Chicken Stand that Pat Morita owned. That’s right, Mr Miyagi was Arnold in this… his sole season. This is childhood gold. I love Happy Days.

DRUNKEN ANGEL – CRITERION COLLECTION

This is generally considered the very first, great Akira Kurosawa film, and finally for the first time ever – it has been given the treatment that this landmark film in Kurosawa’s career deserves. And who is responsible? Criterion, of course. This is a great Post-WWII Film Noir in the scummy alleyways of Tokyo. It may not be samurai, but Kurosawa was about so much more than just Samurai tales. A truly great film for Criterion to work their magic on!

RETURN TO NEVER LAND (Pixie Powered Edition)

Of all the needless, worthless, horrifyingly unnecessary sequels to their great animated films… This one is the most tolerable and the most ambitious. I think the World War II beginning was the most thrilling aspect of this. The idea of Peter Pan visiting kids during that horrifying period in London’s history. The sad thing is… The Neverland parts just don’t live up to the real world events – and that’s messed up. That said if you have the original Disney PETER PAN – and you have SMALL children, this would be something worth picking up as it is pretty good.

HOT FUZZ (3 Disc Collector’s Edition)

Personally – I feel this set should have come out a few years from now… not a short time after the previous releases. I mean… it is a FANTASTIC release. 5 commentary tracks, near Peter Jackson attention to every detail making ofs… Then there’s the brilliant DEAD RIGHT, which has its own making of – and special commentaries… You just won’t believe it. It is very much worth it for all you that want to know everything about how they made this hilarious film and what went into it. I just wish this had been the first release, or at least an anniversary release – cuz it just feels a bit too much like an unnecessary double dip.

HOT ROD

From the comedy geniuses behind “Dick in the Box” and the “Natalie Portman Rage Video” comes HOT ROD, which is a vaguely entertaining mediocre affair that shows us that Ian McShane can in fact suck cock on screen…. And that Sissy Spacek is pretty bland these days – and that the old adage of the SNL comedians being, “NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME PLAYERS” is in fact very true here. I think what makes this film so incredibly lame for me is that at SXSW this year, there was a brilliant stuntman comedy called THE DEVIL DARED ME TO which was fucking hilarious from top to bottom and felt like an irreverent comedy should. SO – basically, skip HOT ROD, but check out THE DEVIL DARED ME TO as soon as you find it!!!

I KNOW WHO KILLED ME

Many artists go through a BLUE period – here – I’m thinking that Lindsay Lohan was tumbling through her own special BLUE period – while making this film. That this is coming out on BLU-RAY makes sense – because – well… everything about this movie is BLUE. Patches, shirts, cel phone illuminations, the weapons of torture, everybody has blue gloves, frames in the background the scrubs in the hospital, the masks… everything – big bright and blue. AND Lindsay is constantly blue. If you’d like to see Lindsay get fucked with for an hour or so, check this out. Otherwise – RUN don’t walk away from this film. It’s hideous. Really truly fucking awful. The whole film is shot or conceived by someone that only ever had a red and blue crayon growing up. And the whole film is that deep. The best is her strip club scene – where they show other women’s tits… but she ALWAYS has her top on, because, that’s how she rolls. And her sexy cigarette thing… EWWW… Oh – and she’s one of those that wears her bra during sex - and this movie is so good, that they make you want to think she doesn’t have a bra on – for a back shot – but then when she rolls back over in the next shot – the bra is magically back… only this time its strapless. This movie pays attention to the details folks!

OLD SCHOOL

Don’t get the idea that you’re suddenly going to have hot college age sex scenes – because there’s nothing here that takes the film to the vaunted need for an UNRATED AND OUT OF CONTROL label – but this is the first time that OLD SCHOOL is coming to HD DVD and frankly, I was one of those people that really enjoyed OLD SCHOOL. I just want more and more titles in HD. I love it.

ANCHORMAN – THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY

This movie makes me laugh very very very hard. The period design looks oddly beautiful in HD resolution – and – for me, this is just a title that I like to have on tap when I need to laugh.. like after I’ve watched a Lindsay Lohan turd. Jesus that movie sucked.

THE OMEGA MAN

You know what my favorite things about remakes? They always release the originals. I love Charlton Heston’s THE OMEGA MAN. It comes out on Blu-Ray as well as my precious HD to help publicize the upcoming I AM LEGEND with Will Smith – and that’s A-OK in my book, because – this shit is going to fucking rule in HD!!! And not an ounce of CG in HD. This is the number one – Charlton Heston with an Automatic Weapon film. When the endless hordes come knocking at your door – you should answer with an automatic weapon. Definitely my number one desire on HD at this point. Soon, it will be mine!

OUTLAND

I know that the science of people exploding in space is totally ass-backwards, but goddamn it, it sure as fuck would be cool if it were true – cuz Peter Hyams’ OUTLAND is a badass retelling of HIGH NOON in outer space. Everything about OUTLAND kicks ass. I love this film. I absolutely love it. The lighing, the look of the base… how he gets around the outerspace base is just fucking cool. I love that it’s coming to DVD, just wish it was high def.

ELVIS: BLUE SUEDE COLLECTION (JAILHOUSE ROCK / VIVA LAS VEGAS / IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD’S FAIR / KISSIN’ COUSINS / GIRL HAPPY / LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE / ELVIS: THAT’S THE WAY IT IS / THIS IS ELVIS )

A great gift for that Elvis fan out there. There’s noting super extra on here, but it is a great collection of some of Elvis’ best theatrical work. This is a great set – and Amazon has it for 41% off. So don’t be cruel, Elvis rules. Ok, that was really bad. Unlike this set.

DRAGON TIGER GATE

Totally fucking badass Nicholas Tse and Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip action. This comic adaptation has more energy, more fun and more action than just about all the American Comic Films put together. Sure, they’re not our childhood heroes – but this shit is so much fun, so awesome. If you’re expecting the more realistic action of SPL, this is all far more exaggerated – but ya know what? It fits the style of this movie and I had a blast with it. It’s FAR better than the crappy looking DVD box they have above.

HITLER’S JEWISH SOLDIERS

The title sounds like an outrageous exploitation tasteless comedy film… Alas this is not a tasteless crude film, but a documentary on the actual card-carrying members of the Nazi party that… you guessed it… were Jews. Not all of them, mind you, but the Documentary tells the story of 4 German Jews, that had lived in Germany for hundreds of years and were drafted into the Nazi Army and the madness they found there. It is… crazy. This one is for you Jeff! A distant relative?

LITTLE AMERICAN

A World War I Propaganda film directed by Cecil B DeMille and starring Mary Pickford? AWESOME. This film has a great turn of the century U-boat attack on a passenger ocean liner… very effective. The film is a melodrama about a young girl (Mary Pickford) being courted by a German and a Frenchman – both of whom get called into servince in their countries’ armies. It is sheer propaganda against the evil pre-Nazi Germans, whom come across as evil subhuman wretches. Very nice. This is a great piece of history and one of the earliest examples of propaganda that you’re likely to find on film.

The Spaghetti Western Collection: THE UNHOLY 4 & FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO

Forgotten Pistolero has the succulent Luciana Paluzzi and The Unholy Four has the awesome Woody Strode. Combine that with the fact that I’ve never seen either of these two Spaghetti Westerns and that this THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN COLLECTION set has never steered me wrong. This is my curiousity of the week.

That’s it for this week. Next week I’ll be taking a look at PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN – AT WORLD’S END, 24 Season Six, that Battlestar Galactica Razor thing, SUPERBAD, SNL 2nd Season (awesome), ARCTIC TALE, Season One of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in HD, WALLACE AND GROMIT, FORD AT FOX – The Collection, ERIK THE VIKING, 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, BOB HOPE MGM MOVIE LEGENDS COLLECTION, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK – 30th Anniversary, JOHN FORD’s SILENT EPICS, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, 12 ANGRY MEN, LUBITSCH in BERLIN, EXILED, CANNIBAL LUNCH BOX TRIPLE FEATURE and much much more!!! Till then, happy watching!