When 226 releases seems like a walk in the park, there MUST be something wrong with me, but nonetheless here we are once again with the big list of every new release coming out during the week beginning Tuesday, May Day 2007. Almost all of them are actually out ON 5/1, but there are a few stragglers here and there, so I say "week of" to cover my ass. You have probably heard this before.
If you're joining us for the first time, you can hover over the titles to see Amazon's current price, as well as click ON the title if you are so inclined to make a purchase (and we get, like, a nickel for each purchase you make this way). All links will open in a new window just in case you want to come back here without messing around with your "Back" button!
Because Amazon is woefully bad at providing additional information, I have written a blurb of a sentence or two AND provided links to the Internet Movie Database ("IMDb" icon) or tv.com ("tv" icon) entries for movies/shows where applicable. If even THOSE sources have no information, I have done some digging to try to get you SOMETHING. I do this realising you probably could not care less about most of these titles, but I get obsessed with seeing what my research can produce and you - YOU! - are the benefactor. Or the bored. Or both!
Since I am usually writing about things I haven't seen, YOU may be a better person to make a recommendation (or just show off your Mr. Smarty Pants knowledge) - I heartily encourage replies to this post letting people know I should have paid more attention to a certain title!
If you're not registered to the board but would like to give me some feedback without doing that, you can drop me a line at CRZ.DVD@gmail.com.
ONWARD, HO
I can no longer imagine starting one of these things without drawing your attention to my
PICK OF THE WEEK: Illegal Aliens (The W at Amazon) (Direct to DVD, 2007) Anna-Nicole Smith, Joanie Laurer - yes, THAT movie - hopefully its release means we as a nation are one step closer to completely forgetting about this horrible, horrible tragedy - at least, until Danielynn's first Penthouse shoot
IF YOU LIKED THAT, YOU'LL ALSO WANT: Mahogany (1975) Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams - aww, yeah - I could have sworn this was out already, but I must have been thinking of that OTHER Diana Ross/Billy Dee Williams movie?
NEW VERSIONS OF MOVIES YOU ALREADY BOUGHT: Fletch (The "Jane Doe" Edition) (1985) Chevy Chase - Digitally remastered, probably a few new extras (but probably JUST a few)
ANCHOR BAY BRINGS THE FILMS OF ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY: El Topo (The Mole - Mexico, 1970) The Holy Mountain (Mexico/USA, 1973) The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Fando y Lis / El Topo / The Holy Mountain) Long awaited remastered releases! (Mexico, 1968) and the next two, and a lot of shorts INCLUDING Jodorowsky's thought-to-be-lost-forever first short La Cravate (Les Ttes Interverties - France, 1957) , and a couple CDs, and....wow, that's a lotta extras - head over to DVD Talk (dvdtalk.com) for more information, since Anchor Bay's got NOTHING
KINO: Old Joy (2006) Friends camp in Oregon - boy, that has "indie" written all over it, doesn't it?
SAVVY TITLE CHANGE OF THE WEEK: Deadly Justice (The Rape of Richard Beck - made for TV, 1985) Richard Crenna plays a cop whose opinion of rape victims changes dramatically when he becomes on - also starring hot, hot Meredith Baxter Birney
SOMETHING WEIRD DOUBLE FEATURE OF THE WEEK: Joys of Jezebel plus My Tale Is Hot (1970) (1963) Two "devil" films which exist mostly to show off softcore variety nekkid chicks
The Singing Hill (1941) Gene Autry Alice, Sweet Alice (Communion, 1976) Uncut version (rerelease of the Anchor Bay DVD?) - Brooke Shields' first on-screen appearance! I bet it doesn't last long! Formula (USA/West Germany, 1980) Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, and "Also Starring" John Gielgud (in all of one scene) - released last week as part of a MAC two pack
Tower of the Firstborn (I Guardiani del Cielo - miniseries, Italy/France, 1998) Ben Cross, Peter Weller, Ione Skye - another "Secret knowledge at the Vatican" adventure Power Play (2002) Dylan Walsh stars in this exciting thriller about...the electrical power industry
Straight From the Heart (made for TV, USA/Germany, 2003) Teri Polo, Andrew McCarthy - If you ever wanted to see a story set in New York but filmed in Placerville, CA, here's your chance! The Last Cowboy (Hallmark Channel, 2003) Jennie Garth, Lance Henriksen, M.C. Gainey
Sex Machine (2005) Probably not the best choice of title for a horror flick Clawed (The Unknown - 2005) I think it's about a Bigfoot
Diggers (2006) Paul Rudd leads a serious comedy about clam diggers
What I Like About You - The Complete First Season (The WB, 2002-3) Amanda Bynes, Jennie Garth - Are the kids who watched this show old enough to have disposable income for DVD season sets yet? Warner is BANKING on it!
The Best of the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet 24 episodes "cherry-picked" from 14 seasons - normally I'd openly scoff, but instead I'll give Shout! Factory the benefit of my doubt - still, no real info on what's available even at their page (shoutfactory.com)
KOREAN TV OF THE WEEK: Alone in Love (연애시대 - SBS, 2006) 16 hours/episodes - Like all YA releases, expect it to disappear by Monday, but I'm a sucker for listing these just to show off the fact that I can always find a English link to Korean TV (global.sbs.co.kr)
HOOPS: One Love Boxed Set (3 Disc Set) - sure, if that one love is the love of high school basketball by folks later in the NBA - but the cover promises "SICK highlights!"
GRAPPLE: Professional Wrestling Fujiwaragumi 2 See young Glenn Jacobs, Joe Malenko, Carl Greco, Yuki Ishikawa and people they must think we don't know (since they're not in the ad) grapple - More info (budovideos.com)
BROADWAY: The Best of the Tony Awards: The Plays 19 performances from the awards show broadcasts with a "Who's Who" of talent (read the description for the complete list) Camelot (HBO, 1982) Taped performance of the 1980 revival starring Richard Harris
NEW VERSIONS OF MOVIES YOU ALREADY BOUGHT: Fletch (The "Jane Doe" Edition) (1985) Chevy Chase - Digitally remastered, probably a few new extras (but probably JUST a few)
Actually, I don't own this one yet, so I'm glad I can buy the JD edition and not feel screwed.
Originally posted by CRZDef Poetry - Season 5 (HBO, 2005) Also, the final season!
According to HBO.com the sixth season of Def Poetry Jam is currently being shown.
Damn me for believing...uh...wherever I read that! (Probably tv.com)
Originally posted by dstanleyNEW VERSIONS OF MOVIES YOU ALREADY BOUGHT: Fletch (The "Jane Doe" Edition) (1985) Chevy Chase - Digitally remastered, probably a few new extras (but probably JUST a few)
Actually, I don't own this one yet, so I'm glad I can buy the JD edition and not feel screwed.
Hey, if/when you get this, if you wouldn't mind putting together a quick review, I'd really like to know just what extras are on there and if it's worth buying.
I was just looking up info about this one a couple months ago; I was at retirement show for Chabela Romero, and she has a bit part (and probably some stuntwork) in this movie.
You can see another movie poster on NYT.com, and there's a good review of the movie here, and this is the money quote:
But the biggest problem with Las luchadoras contra la momia is the overall lack of mummy.
If I remember my history correctly, this movie was during an upswing of women's wrestling popularity in Mexico, but since they were still banned from wrestling in Mexico City, I guess this and the previous movie was an alternate way of trying to make money from the concept.
I went to the official Rush site to see if there was any details on the new separate release of this (to see if it's the same 60-minute edit as the "Replay" DVD has, or if it's the full original release), and was surprised to discover Rush has a new album coming out next week. SCORE.
Well, I'm surprised at Alpha Dog being at 19. I know that it wasn't a BO hit, but my Target has plenty of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies and yet I still haven't seen one bought...like ever. So for both the HD and BR versions of Dreamgirls to get a higher pre-order rank than movies like Alpha Dog and Happily N'ever After does surprise me.
I bought seasons 1 and 2 of MXC after seeing you list that season 2 was coming available, and I seem to recall you saying if we bought anything, we should review it.
Anyway, MXC is Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, a TV show airing on SpikeTV, distributed by Magnolia Entertainment (who are also responsible for releasing The Host and Tears of the Black Tiger (I know this because preview for them were on the DVD)), is, if you haven't seen it, a cross between "Survivor", "Jackass", and "Iron Chef". Basically, it's footage of a Japanese game show ( Takeshi's Castle, which originally aired between 1986 and 1989 ), and redubbing all new audio for it. Commentary for the first episode indicates that the show was the brainchild of Paul Abyeta, who had previously been a producer on the show "Night Stand With Dick Dietrick". He conceived it as an Iron Chef for Japanese game shows, then hired a bunch of former Groundlings performers to write and perform the material. "Takeshi's Castle" was the perfect source material, because it features Japanese people doing strange and wacky (and occasionally quite painful) things. If you've never seen MXC, YouTube will give you some idea what to expect. That's basically all there is to it.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Season 1 is a two disc set, and contains commentary from the producers and writers on three of the episodes. Episode 1 is obviously the first episode to air, and features them talking about the history of MXC. Other special features on Season 1 one entire unaltered episode (with subtitles and/or English announcer translation) of "Takeshi's Castle", the 10-minute sales presentation of MXC, and "Kenny Blankenship's Most Painful Eliminations of the Season".
Season 2 is also a two disc set. It has no commentaries. Like Season 1, it has one unaltered episode of "Takeshi's Castle", and "Kenny Blankenship's Most Painful Eliminations of the Season". It also has a short Behind-the-Scenes, which is nice for putting faces to all the names involved in the show.
LIMITATIONS: Episode 12 of the second season is called "Real Monsters VS. Commercial Mascots". On the DVD, this episode airs very cut up. It seems that the reason is that many of the contestants in that episode were dressed up as copyrighted characters. If you want exhaustive details of what was cut from that episode, check out http://mxc25cuts.blogspot.com/ . The only copyrighted character I recognize is Slimer from the Ghostbusters, but perhaps someone more familiar with Japanese culture will recognize some of these characters (pictures at the bottom).
MY OPINION: If you like MXC, you'll enjoy either or both of these seasons. I think the Commentaries on the first season make its extras a little more enjoyable. The uncut episodes are enjoyable, though obviously not as enjoyable as the actual MXC episodes. And it's obviously disappointing to have a cut episode like the monster episode on the second disc, but I understand why they had to do that, even though they could have done a better job integrating what footage was included.
Old Joy is pretty good. It's about two hippiesh-types who visit a hot spring in Oregon. And...that's it. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie that has as little plot as this one. Theres virtually no conflict -- just a little friction, most of which is carefully swallowed anyway.
I was expecting the two guys to have drifted further apart, but that's not the case -- the guy who's "settled down" isn't a tie-wearing yuppie; he meditates outside with his prayer bowl and participates in a community garden. Their lives have diverged just enough that they simply don't connect as deeply as they used to, and neither of them can really articulate how or why.
Basically, the movie feels a lot like if Sideways was directed by David Gordon Green, and then Jim Jarmusch came along and took away most of the storyline.
Oh! I want to really quick mention Will Oldham, who plays the more feckless of the two. Indie-folk fans may know him better as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, while John Sayles fans may remember his appearance as a child preacher in Matewan (although they may not recognize him). I think he looks a little bit like a monkey puppet.
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I watched two of the shorts from the winsomely-titled A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films -- namely, the two Oscar winners (nothing but the best for me!), West Bank Story and The Danish Poet.
West Bank Story is a 20-minute musical about two competing fast-food falafel stands, one Palestinian and one Israeli, and about the star-crossed lovers that are determined to be together. Some nice songs -- it could've used one more big musical number at the end to really put it over the top.
The Danish Poet is a 15-minute animated film about love and its dependence on happenstance -- very sweet and just the right length.
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Little Children is good albeit fairly unpleasant, being the story of a group of emotionally damaged adults making a series of bad decisions as their children are helplessly dragged along. It's a little bit like American Beauty without the flights of fancy, or Happiness without a sense of humor.
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I saw Dreamgirls when it was in the theater. It's not so much a movie as it is a song delivery system, which is fine, especially in the first half when everyone is hungry and optimistic and everything is exciting. Things bog down in the second half as fortunes turn and the songs grow increasingly lugubrious and I kinda lost interest. Eddie Murphy is great and his "Cadillac Car" is a pretty swell song.
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Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? is a documentary about Teri Horton, a 70-year-old lady trucker who buys a $5 thrift store painting and tries to get it certified as a genuine Jackson Pollock. There's obviously a difference of opinion between the "Fine Art Establishment" and Teri and her blue-collar friends and family; equally interesting is the division between the art experts and forensic scientists who are hired to prove the painting's authenticity.
The most dismissive of the art experts is Thomas Hoving, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Malcolm Gladwell writes about Hoving in his book Blink, as an example of an expert who is capable of making startlingly accurate conclusions almost instantly. In Jackson Pollock, we see Hoving purposefully courting this; he approaches the painting without looking at it, sits in front of it, and prepares himself before looking up, taking the painting in at a glance and taking specific note of his first gut reaction. He describes it as his "blink" reaction -- maybe Gladwell got the term from Hoving, or maybe Hoving is buying into his own hype. (It kind of feels like the latter.)
I like a documentary that's actually suspenseful (see also: Brother's Keeper and Hands on a Hard Body) and you do get what seems to be a pretty definitive answer at the end of Jackson Pollock -- but Im not going to tell you what it is.
That's all I saw.
--K
(edited by Karlos the Jackal on 2.5.07 0138) Last 5 movies seen: Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? ***1/2 - Little Children *** - This Boy's Life - The Dutch Poet ***1/2 - West Bank Story ***
Why wasn't EL TOPO your pick of the week? Any film where the director has his pre-teen son running around in his birthday suit only wearing a cowboy hat for half the film should automatically win the week, right?
That said, it along with HOLY MOUNTAIN are like the holy grail of seventies film collectors. There was a time when we thought they would never be released here in the states and I'm praying Anchor Bay doesn't fuck up the release of them. I pick up mine on Saturday.
Originally posted by CerebusWhy wasn't EL TOPO your pick of the week? Any film where the director has his pre-teen son running around in his birthday suit only wearing a cowboy hat for half the film should automatically win the week, right?
That said, it along with HOLY MOUNTAIN are like the holy grail of seventies film collectors. There was a time when we thought they would never be released here in the states and I'm praying Anchor Bay doesn't fuck up the release of them. I pick up mine on Saturday.
Oh, yeah -- El Topo is pretty messed up. I watched it on a horrible quality, who-knows-what-generation bootleg. I have been hearing for years that it was "on the verge" of being officially released, so I refused to believe it was actually going to happen until I held it in my hand. Which I've now done! It's actually here! (I haven't put it in a DVD player yet, but DVDBeaver calls the quality "astoundingly positive.")
I heard a while ago that he was planning on making El Topo 2, starring himself and his son again. Again, I'll believe when I see it.
--K
Last 5 movies seen: Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? ***1/2 - Little Children *** - This Boy's Life - The Dutch Poet ***1/2 - West Bank Story ***
Did DSM ever rise above the "Arrested Development... without comedy, and twice as long" label that some critics marked it with? I'm a fan of the cast and I was wondering if I should bother with it during Christmas break. EDIT~!
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