recent DVD purchases

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 10:45 pm

noiseradio wrote:El Vez,

What do you do with The Good The Bad & The Ugly?

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of love for that one but I don't think it's quite as grand as Once Upon A Time In The West. Easily in my top ten westerns, though. What I love about The Wild Bunch, McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Once Upon A Time In The West is that they each define different aspects of their genre. The Wild Bunch tackles screen violence on a massive scale and with such absolute artistry that the opening and closing gunfights still haven't been topped by any other film that I've ever seen. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is so wonderfully disrespectful to ever single western convention (Leonard Cohen's music serving as a Greek chorus, Beatty shooting bad guys in the back) but is probably the only "Deconstructionist Western" that actually FEELS like a western and not an excercise. Leone's masterpiece is all about the operatic flourishes and the excitement of watching larger-than-life characters facing off and looking really cool while doing so.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 10:57 pm

I reallylike Altman, but I never really got "McCabe", though I know it's a favorite for tons of my fellow cineastes -- doesn't seem all that different to me than Altman's nearly completely forgotten "Quintet" (it starred Paul Newman, which means that people REALLY wanted to forget it!), which was also a lot of snow, and a lot of people walking very slowly towards the camera, in snow, for a very, very long time.

But I'm with you on the other two. Henry Fonda's "Frank" is one of my favorite villains of all time. And that Ennio Morricone music. Gotta be among the most gorgeous ever composed for film. Some L.A. film critic really nailed "Once Upon a Time in the West" when he called it "an opera where the arias are stared."

"The Wild Bunch" overwhelmed me in a way I didn't fully understand the first time I saw it. I thought I was sort of revolted by its apparent amorality, but there was and is something is that makes me watch it at least one every eighteen months or so. Why should I care about these rather revolting people whose behavior represents varying shades of black? I don't know, but I do.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:53 am

I ahev been teaching my Pop Culture students about film for the last few weeks. When we looked at the Western, I showed them Yojimbo, followed by Fistfull of Dollars and Sanjuro. I think Sanjuro is my favorite western.

El Vez, I appreciate the further clarification. I was just curious as to what you thought of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I think it's brilliant, but will have to watch Once Upon a Time in the West again.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:09 pm

Elv, naturally I love it. I didn't know the original, so checked it out and I love the way Bowie keeps some of the Richman nuttiness but makes it totally his own. It's very kickass and souds like they had a lot of fun doing it. Sadly not included on the Wembley setlist. Nice Spanish guitar. If you're a great artist, you can get away with it, it seems to say, the rest of us get called assholes. the two covers on Reality don't excite my in the way Cactus and I've Been Waiting do on Heathen, but they do work very well in their context and I've found them both to be real growers.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:01 pm

Otis,

Glad to hear it. I'll also have to pass your reviews of Heathen & Reality on to my girlfriend. She wasn't all that into the former and that has really dampened her enthusiasm on us getting Grim Shady's (a Bowie tag that stuck for me) latest offering.

Noise,

Yojimbo is a dynamite film. Sadly, I have yet to see Sanjuro. Have you seen The Last Samurai? My understanding is that, while it has much to recommend it, it ends up being a Tom Cruise vehicle where the naughty white guy learns to be a better man by interacting with a different ethnicity and absorbing their culture. And it's supposed to have all the brisk pacing of a frozen plate of molasses.

More early Xmas madness!

From Mom & Pops:

-Space Ghost Coast To Coast, Season 1 (YES!)
-Far From Heaven
-The Hospital (YES squared!)

From My Girl:

-Steve Goodman Live @ Austin City Limits
-Hell's Highway (An interesting documentary on those gruesome "Blood On The Highway"-type educational shorts)
-All About Eve

Post by **BlueChair** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 6:58 pm

I've never even seen it, but I picked up Jabberwocky on DVD, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Michael Palin. I saw it in a bargain bin for under $10. It looks silly, but fun.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 3:03 pm

From my wonderful girlfriend.....

-The Ninth Configuration. My favorite movie of all time and I had lost my vhs copy earlier this year when I left South Korea. Once I got back stateside, I could never find it no matter where I went.

-Adaptation

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 8:28 pm

Santa brought me the new, ultra-spiffy restorations of "Casablanca" and "Singin' in the Rain" and, most importantly, the complete "Firefly" TV series!

This cancelled TV series from "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon -- which basically takes the old cliche of space opera and horse opera being about the same to it's logical conclusion and is a real live space westerns with all the trimmings, including guns, horses, brothels, barroom brawls and te rest -- was screwed up in terms of by Fox -- who wouldn't air the all-important first episode until the show was cancelled -- but is easily the best TV western since "Maverick" (which was really the only actually good TV western that I know of; TV westerns have done more damage to real westerns than anything else, IMO) -- probably better. It's also arguably better than Star Trek.

If you love Westerns -- and even if you think you didn't care for "Buffy" --I'd definitely recommend renting/borrowing the first DVD.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 11:32 pm

The fat man in the red suit brought me -

Once Upon A Time In The West
The Last Waltz
Devo - The Complete Truth About De-evolution
The Outer Limits - The First Season (1963-1964)

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Sat Dec 27, 2003 5:02 pm

DVD's I got:

Concert for George
Shakespeare in Love
Fishing With John
A Christmas Story
X2: X-Men United
The Ben Stiller Show
King of the Hill Season 1

Lipstick got Chicago, so not a bad DVD haul.

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 9:59 pm

A secret santa gave me about 14 hours worth of Three Stooges on DVD, but apart from that, I have had to (as usual) do all of my own DVD purchasing... which includes the following:

"Nausica - Valley of the Winds" Collector's Gift Box - Hayao Miyazaki
"Alien Quadrilogy"
"Alice in Wonderland" - Peter Sellers et al
"Monty Python - Life of Python"
"Ultraman Tiga Starter Set" for my son who at just under 5 years old, is an Ultraman and Godzilla fanatic!!
"League of Gentlemen Series 3"
"Creature Comforts Series 1"

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 11:22 pm

....Do holiday gifts count?

Bluechair got me Hedwig and the Angry Inch! Very exciting!!

I also sort of got myself Finding Nemo....intended as a gift for my mother, but she had already gotten it so I just kept it and got her something else. It works, right?

Two very different, but both very good movies.

HungupStrungup · Post by **HungupStrungup** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 2:58 pm

Since Santa forgot to bring me the Concert for George DVD, I've ordered that for myself with my Christmas money and expect to have it later this week. I did get the Ed Sullivan Presents the Beatles set (4 complete shows, 20 songs), the Casablanca 2-DVD special edition and The John Lennon Legend, so I'm not complaining at all.

I bought Finding Nemo and The Princess Bride for a couple of friends with children, and I feel like I ought to own those my own self, so they will be purchased in the near future.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 11:16 pm

RedShoes wrote:....Do holiday gifts count?

Bluechair got me Hedwig and the Angry Inch! Very exciting!!

Well, Ms. Shoes, I counted them in my earlier post -- and congrats on receiving this particular DVD. I've gone on record here and elsewhere many times as something of self-proclaimed expert on film musicals stating that "Hedwig" is by far the best such musical in recent years.

The "Wig in a Box" sequence is probably the best musical sequence shot since Bob Fosse made his last movie. The only recent rival, Spike Jonze/Christopher Walken's "Weapon of Choice" video.

I've rented the DVD and it was great, too -- don't forget to check it out the nifty documentary.

Post by **BlueChair** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:41 pm

I decided I needed an evening's worth of entertainment on DVD if I'm not going to go out tonight.

So I picked up Space Ghost Coast To Coast Volume One, a 2 DVD set featuring sixteen episodes of the show. Guests include a wide range of oddballs such as Timothy Leary, Ashley Judd, The Bee Gees, Bob Denver (Gilligan), Bobcat Goldthwait, The Ramones, Weird Al, Adam West (Batman), Alice Cooper, Michael Stipe, David Byrne, Donny Osmond, Hulk Hogan, Terry Jones, etc.

This is going to be sweeeeet!

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 6:56 pm

That sounds pretty sweet Bluey...what is it? Space ghost....anything to do with Kazoo from the Flintstones?

I just picked up Simon Schama's History of Britain 6set DVD. That's the one that used some of the John Harle/EC stuff on it's soundtrack incidentally.

Post by **BlueChair** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:01 pm

What would Late Night be like if David Letterman was replaced by a superhero? That's the question posited by the Cartoon Network's original series Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and the answer is: truly odd and frequently hilarious. The series took '60s-era animated crime fighter Space Ghost and reinvented him as the slightly addled host of a celebrity gabfest. SG's awkward chats with guests like David Byrne, Hulk Hogan, and the Ramones were frequently interrupted by his old foes Zorak (now the show's bandleader) and Moltar (director). Deliberately stilted and proudly absurd, the program was a strange but often dead-on parody of hollow celebrity worship, and garnered a loyal cult following. However, those diehard fans may be disappointed by this two-disc set, which features only 16 of the 22 episodes from the first three seasons (a clip from one missing episode, "A Space Ghost Christmas," is included in the supplemental features). Also somewhat of a letdown is the commentary from the show's creative team, which is amusing but rarely informative. --Paul Gaita

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:04 pm

WOW!!!!!! Im buying that, Im such a massive fan of Hanna-Barbera, but have never heard of that...please let it be available in Region 2.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:26 pm

Jeepers!! What an impressive bunch! And the DVDs ain't bad neither...

Santa would not know how to pick out such things for me in a million zillion years, and anyway we only just got a DVD player aside from what's on our big-ass 2-yr-old Dell Inspiron notebook. But I recently found the following for $10-12 each:

ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL
JEFF BUCKLEY LIVE IN CHICAGO
THE CLASH WESTWAY TO THE WORLD

The info you guys provide here is super helpful-- I love knowing which ones have cool extras, especially the commentary, which is like eating chocolate to me...

Goody2Shoes · Post by **Goody2Shoes** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:48 pm

Some were gifts, some I bought:

The Maltese Falcon
The Princess Bride
Moonstruck
The Thin Man
A Christmas Carol
Austin Powers
Gone With The Wind
Big Night
Philadelphia Story

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:52 pm

I bought my husband Animal House for Christmas. You'd just have to know him to know how perfect the gift was--and that's what it's all about, right? Finding just the right thing???!!!

for #2 daughter, a/k/a susannah josephine (ain't that a tombstone to tote thru life?), Barbie Rapunzel. Yes, it's worse than you can possibly imagine.

and, it's not on DVD, but I found Bowfinger for $3.99 at Walgreen's. I just love a dog who can wear heels.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 10:13 pm

laughingcrow wrote:WOW!!!!!! Im buying that, Im such a massive fan of Hanna-Barbera, but have never heard of that...please let it be available in Region 2.

Surprised, then, you don't know the original HB "Space Ghost" show which has always had a higher than average cult-appeal. I haven't seen it since age 6 or so -- and now no one is saying that the original show was well, good, exactly (one of the best things about "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" is that it doesn't include the Ghosts teenage sidekicks, which I hated even at 6).

Still, the character wa voiced by the great Gary Owens, an L.A. deejay with a twisted Stan Frebergish sense of humor who was also the voice of Roger Ramjet and the announcer on "Laugh-In".

The characters were designed by revered cartoonist Alex Toth (not to be confused with revered film director Alex de Toth) -- a renowned curmudgeon who once sent my (very talented) cartoonist buddy a long, detailed, highly acerbic critique written in a tiny but incredibly neat scrawl on the back of a post card.

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 1:43 pm

Picked up Lost In Translation today.

Hooray!

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 10:08 pm

For anyone who might be into the Alien series of films, check out this little DVD collection that is being released in Japan for a tidy 29,800 yen - it is a limited edition of 9,000, and I think they are all gone, but it is still worth a look (note that the head actually holds the DVDs).

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/ ... /fox02.jpg

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 4:42 am

I want one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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