Hey folks, Harry here with this week’s column! It isn’t very long, but there’s some very worthwhile titles on the list! As always the titles and pictures are linked to AMAZON where you can learn more on the title or purchase it, which would give a small kickback to help support the column and its habits. Well here it is, enjoy…
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
GHOSTBUSTERS (Blu Ray)
This is a very conflicted recommendation. My first reaction to watching the transfer was to take it out of my player in anger. This frustrated me. GHOSTBUSTERS is a seminal and important film work in my geeky life. I love the effects, the comedy, the performances, the music… everything – and when I watched it – The grain was so sharpened that it became an instant and annoying problem. Mainly due to the fact that I’ve seen this film in 35mm and it does not have the issues with the grain that I saw on the Blu Ray. I’ve read that the original DP supervised with the producer this transfer. And when I put my old DVD in, yes.. there is a VAST improvement in image quality. But mainly due to the fact that the GHOSTBUSTERS dvd is one of the worst DVD transfers that I’ve seen – this side of that original ROAD WARRIOR disc. BUT when they gave us ROAD WARRIOR on Blu – it was stunning. Not really the case here. I am recommending this disc for many reasons, the main one is that… at least it is better than what we had before, but it isn’t mind blowingly great. And that is a shame.
THE THREE STOOGES Collection Vol. 6: 1949-1951
As a student of Stoogian philosophy, I have been delighted in the five previous sets. This set has one of my fave shorts – SELF MADE MAIDS, which is just all sorts of fucked up. If you’ve been picking these sets up as they’ve come out, you need only know… there’s a new set.
DR. STRANGELOVE ( Blu-Ray )
FUCKING BLISS. From the menu screen, through the print to the extras. This movie is so fucking good. So good. You sit there and watch it and you remember just how tense this stuff was in 1964. You didn’t have to be alive for it. Just read the history of the time. Or watch Robert McNamara detail how not cold the Cold War was – and you begin to see how films like this and FAILSAFE helped the American and International public realize how insane it all is. Are we seeing a bit of the old insanity back with what’s happening in North Korean and Iran? Certainly no where near the scale of lunacy that this film plays with, but ya know… Thank God. Right? We did make it through this period, only to surface in a more sinister and deceptive threat. Don’t you wish Kubrick was around to play in this modern world?
LOST: 1st Season (Blu Ray)
Ahhh – the LOST pilot in 1080p is a thing of beauty. This also helps complete our LOST high def collection. Right?
LOST: 2nd Season (Blu Ray)
Another great season, finally released on Blu Ray! For fans of the show – this is a must.
FRIDAY THE 13TH (Extended Killer Cut)
I had fun with this film, though Jason is still a far cry from my favorite psycho cinematic killer. And I really wish these films were somehow allowed to just go out Unrated to begin with. This doesn’t feel too hard, its hard to believe the unrated cut had to be unrated. But who the fuck knows how the MPAA works. But this was a fun take on the series.
TRANSFORMERS: THE Complete First Season (25th Anniversary Edition)
G1… in its entirety. Joy. At $20, this is a steal. Gotta love it!
THE SEVENTH SEAL (Criterion Blu-Ray)
. One of the truly great films in history. Parodied to an extreme – the film is about so much more than that famous scene. This BLU RAY is great and has A LOT of extras, plus the feature length documentary from 2006: BERGMAN ISLAND. Here’s all the extras you get:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Introduction by Ingmar Bergman, recorded in 2003
Audio commentary by Bergman expert Peter Cowie
A new afterword to the commentary by Cowie
Bergman Island (2006), an 83-minute documentary on Bergman by Marie Nyreröd, featuring in-depth and revealing interviews with the director
Archival audio interview with Max von Sydow
A 1998 tribute to Bergman by filmmaker Woody Allen
Theatrical trailer
Bergman 101, a selected video filmography tracing Bergman’s career, narrated by Cowie
Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Gary Giddins
JOHN ADAMS (Blu Ray)
A truly great mini-series event from HBO about one of the most amazing of our Founding Fathers. Giamatti is perfect as Adams and it just makes me so happy to have this on Blu. The great cast joining Paul does uniformly great work. If you haven’t seen it and you love American History – historical epics and just love seeing a period lovingly recreated. This series has so much to offer ya.
SPACEBALLS (Blu Ray)
I probably love this movie more than it deserves. It’s plagued by an overage of Jewish humor, which seems oddly placed in the story and overall plot, but I suppose that stuff is able to be forgiven due to the genius of Rick Moranis and John Candy. The Joan Rivers bitch bot has always bugged the hell out of me. This is a nice Blu Ray. But I can’t wait for the really great Brooks stuff to see the light of Blu Ray!
GENERATION KILL (Blu Ray)
Another fantastic HBO Miniseries, this time about the Iraq war – and it’s a show that vets from our latest military engagement seem to feel is a very well done piece on the world out there. That pretty vampire guy from TRUE BLOOD is pretty goddamn awesome in this film. I know I was rooting for him to get the THOR gig – but maybe he’s Captain America? He’s definitely some superhero! And this show is hypnotic to watch.
FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART 3 3D (Blu Ray)
A little annoyed that we’re getting these a few at a time and not just one big box set of bloody Blu. That said, I watched the early standard def version of this disc, but man, watching this on Blu… JUST GORGEOUS. The film isn’t that great, but this is the one that introduced to us the JASON we all know and love. Actually, I have a lot of fun with this movie.
FRIDAY THE 13TH Part 2 (Blu Ray)
Aha – Attack of the Bag Head Bastard. A very weird chapter of the Crystal Lake saga – and it is just weird to see - but I’d never seen this film in this sort great presentation. Gorgeous print. But it’s not a fave of mine.
MORNING LIGHT
Personally I found it fairly mediocre. At it’s heart it is a story about a group of aspiring sailor youngsters that are given an incredibly high tech boat, training and entry fees to enter one of the most prestigious ocean crossing races - but I just can’t get it out of my head that they have really been given every advantage. A crazy fast and majestic boat. Several months worth of training – and at the end when they win – it just doesn’t feel as though there were any real drama at all. Which ultimately made this project fail for me.
KICKBOXER (Blu Ray)
Van Damme in fine form. KICKBOXER was one of the first films I saw Jean Claude in. I’m not hearing the best from his next couple of films, but I hope he finds something as good as JCVD to do again – or that he turns himself over to a solid director again. Shame he couldn’t get it together to be in THE EXPENDABLES. In the meanwhile, this joins my ever growing Van Damme in Blu collection!
MIRACLE (Blu Ray)
I remember watching this history play out. I’ve always been an Olympic junkie. LOVE the Olympics. And even better? COLD WAR OLYMPICS! It’s really what made me love Gymnastics and Figure Skating, because it always came down to being an East vs West thing – and when this showdown came – it was equal to the title of the film. You gotta love Kurt Russell and the costume designer on this film. Both are fantastic! Wonderful and inspirational film.
THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED (Blu Ray)
Directed by Bill Paxton, somehow this movie completely slipped me by. It was probably the subject matter of Golf, which usually just bores the fuck out of me. Here though – more than golf, the film is about class struggles – and the self-righteous sonsabitches that were elitest pricks needing to be brought down to average Joe status. Well, that part of the story I just love. Paxton does a bit of that Sam Raimi FOR LOVE OF THE GAME thing – and he does it well here. All the characters are played well – and as for it being THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED… I’d say the greatest game of golf ever was between Auric Goldfinger and James Bond over a bar of Nazi Gold! That was a great fucking game!
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (Blu Ray)
Told by the great filmmaker, George Stevens, this rather solemn and amazingly true tale from World War 2 is brought to life wonderfully. Why Blu-Ray? Well, the production design is exquisite and the photography by William Mellor was the best of his career. And in Blu, it is just wonderful to see on screen! One of the great stories of World War II. Very much worth discovering if you haven’t.
MY BREAKFAST WITH BLASSIE
I love Andy Kaufman – and I’m still waiting for him to share his greatest punchline, but till then – having MY BREAKFAST WITH BLASSIE will have to hold me over. In addition to the film they have all kinds of lost footage and weird Kaufman treats. So cool!!!
Next week I’ll be looking at: INKHEART, CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC, PINK PANTHER 2, WALTZ WITH BASHIR, LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Blu), MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, TOM AND JERRY: THE CHUCK JONES COLLECTION, BACKWOODS, THE MONSTER SQUAD: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE SPIDER THE MISTRESS AND THE TANGERINE, THE PIANIST (Blu), CHOKE CANYON and more!
