*** DVD CORNER ***

[BruceH]

Did you see and like the Director's cut of BLade Runner? did anyone here on this Board see it?

I saw the lauded "Director's Cut" of Blade Runner and thought it wasn't much of an improvement. But I also thought the original theatrical version was weak.

[Noj]

I found Blade Runner a fairly disturbing movie. The replicants were clearly human despite a government ruling that they be exterminated. The hero of the story is hunting the replicants and murdering them, even if they're ladies in ballet skirts. Who do you root for? I ended up sympathizing more with the villains.

[Aggie87]

Picked up some popcorn movies at Best Buy this evening:

King Kong Deluxe 3 disc edition

The Mummy Collector's set (Mummy, Mummy Returns, and Scorpion King)

Riddick Trilogy

Each was marked at $9.99. I don't think I would have bought any of them at full price, but figured that wasn't a bad deal.

[Guy Berger]

Tonight I saw "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Great movie.

Guy

[Kalo]

Just ordered Night/Curse of the Demon. Cummins!

What'djathink?

I got this myself, and I have to say that it's a flawed, yet intelligent and powerful film. Especially for what is, in essence, a mere monster movie.

Kind of difficult, unfortunately, to see the great actor Dana Andrews in latter days, clearly drunken in several scenes. Peggy Cummins, the most fatale of femmes in Gun Crazy is good in a good girl role, and villain Niall MacGinnis is magnificent, the ultimate scary clown.

Director Tourneur is still in his prime, and the flick is surprisingly chilling and affecting. Glenn Erickson, AKA "DVDSavant," suggests that the controversial scenes explicitly showing the demon were shot actually by Tourneur, barring the close-ups. I'm inclined to believe him. Erickson even defends the close-ups as well, which is where I part company with him. But imagine the movie without them, and I believe that the long-shots of the demon, perhaps cut by several frames in an ideal world, are quite effective in the context of the film.

[BERIGAN]

Tonight I saw "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Great movie.

Guy

Which one?

[MoGrubb]

I'm a Clint Eastwood buff, just bought a DVD player and went hog wild.

Every Which Way But Loose[Ruth Gordon cracks me up in this.]

trilogy--A Fistful of Dollars, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For A Few Dollars More

trilogy--The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven, Pale Rider

trilogy--The Godfather series

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Pulp Fiction

Platoon

Edited August 13, 2007 by MoGrubb

[Shawn]

Tonight I saw "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Great movie.

Guy

Which one?

Yet another version of Body Snatchers opening this month..."The Invasion" with Nicole Kidman & Daniel Craig. I've got extremely low expectations of this one. It's been sitting on the shelf since early 2006 and has been massively re-scripted, re-shot and generally tweaked to the point where most likely nothing is left.

[BruceH]

Tonight I saw "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Great movie.

Guy

Which one?

Yet another version of Body Snatchers opening this month..."The Invasion" with Nicole Kidman & Daniel Craig. I've got extremely low expectations of this one. It's been sitting on the shelf since early 2006 and has been massively re-scripted, re-shot and generally tweaked to the point where most likely nothing is left.

...And it seems to be set in a big city rather than a small town like the original. (Of course, the 1978 remake was set in San Franciso of all places, where if everyone were taken over by space aliens, the outside world wouldn't know the difference.) But I think Kidman is damn good actress. If there's anything good in the movie, she'll help it.

[BruceH]

Just ordered Night/Curse of the Demon. Cummins!

What'djathink?

I got this myself, and I have to say that it's a flawed, yet intelligent and powerful film. Especially for what is, in essence, a mere monster movie.

Kind of difficult, unfortunately, to see the great actor Dana Andrews in latter days, clearly drunken in several scenes. Peggy Cummins, the most fatale of femmes in Gun Crazy is good in a good girl role, and villain Niall MacGinnis is magnificent, the ultimate scary clown.

Director Tourneur is still in his prime, and the flick is surprisingly chilling and affecting. Glenn Erickson, AKA "DVDSavant," suggests that the controversial scenes explicitly showing the demon were shot actually by Tourneur, barring the close-ups. I'm inclined to believe him. Erickson even defends the close-ups as well, which is where I part company with him. But imagine the movie without them, and I believe that the long-shots of the demon, perhaps cut by several frames in an ideal world, are quite effective in the context of the film.

I agree; flawed but surprisinly good. Or not so surprising if you know Tourneur's earlier work. As for Dana Andrews, there was worse to come--I saw portions of some later films recently, and he looked even more under the weather, shall we say, than in Demon. Tourneur supposedly directed a couple of episodes of The Twilight Zone. I should seek those out.

[Aggie87]

Coming Oct 30th - Beatles "Help!" 2 dvd edition

Apple Corps Ltd have announced the eagerly anticipated DVD release of The Beatles’ second feature film ‘Help!’ on October 30th (October 29th ROW) which will be marketed and distributed by EMI Music.

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band’s debut feature film ‘A Hard Days Night’, ‘Help!’ made its theatrical debut in 1965. The story follows The Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo's possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.

In addition to starring the Beatles, ‘Help!’ has a witty script, a great cast of British character actors and features 7 classic Beatles tracks, including:

• ‘Help!’

• ‘You're Going To Lose That Girl’

• ‘You've Got To Hide Your Love Away’

• ‘Ticket To Ride’

• ‘I Need You’

• ‘The Night Before’

• ‘Another Girl’

The DVD will be a 2-disc set. Disc 1 will feature the original film digitally restored with a newly created 5.1 soundtrack, while Disc 2 contains an hour of extra features, including:

•The Beatles in Help! – 30 minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew. Includes exclusive behind the scenes footage of The Beatles on set.

•A Missing Scene – Featuring Wendy Richard

•The Restoration of Help! – An in depth look at the restoration process.

•Memories of Help! – The cast and crew reminisce

•Theatrical Trailers – 2 US trailers and 1 Spanish trailer.

•1965 US Radio Spots - Hidden in disc menus.

There will be 2 editions of the DVD - a standard digipack and a deluxe boxed set that will contain a reproduction of Richard Lester’s original annotated script, 8 lobby cards and a poster, plus a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie. Both the deluxe book and the standard booklet feature an introduction by Richard Lester and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese.

Watch the ‘Help!’ DVD trailer here: http://emicat.edgeboss.net/wmedia/em...trailer_us.wvx

[jazzbo]

I added this info to the Film Corner thread, not really realizing/remembering that there was a DVD Corner thread . . . .

I've always been fascinated with Blade Runner and how it differs from the novel it's "based" on and the twisting and turning road it took to the cinema.

Well, I've been reading about "Blade Runner" again recently and started to look around and see if the "Dark Days" documentary was around, and whether there were plans for a 25th anniversary edition and lo and behold. . . there are going to be 2 disc, 4 disc and a 5 disc version released December 18! I've preordered the 5 disc version as the fifth disc is the only version of the set that includes the infamous "work print" that was accidentally released after the theatrical version and was largely responsible for a lot of critical reappraisal and a theatrical rerelease of the film and the "Director's Cut". . . .

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/355/bladerunner.html

[Aggie87]

I added this info to the Film Corner thread, not really realizing/remembering that there was a DVD Corner thread . . . .

I've always been fascinated with Blade Runner and how it differs from the novel it's "based" on and the twisting and turning road it took to the cinema.

Well, I've been reading about "Blade Runner" again recently and started to look around and see if the "Dark Days" documentary was around, and whether there were plans for a 25th anniversary edition and lo and behold. . . there are going to be 2 disc, 4 disc and a 5 disc version released December 18! I've preordered the 5 disc version as the fifth disc is the only version of the set that includes the infamous "work print" that was accidentally released after the theatrical version and was largely responsible for a lot of critical reappraisal and a theatrical rerelease of the film and the "Director's Cut". . . .

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/355/bladerunner.html

I liked the film, may have to get the new DVD. How many DVD releases has this had now???

[Matthew]

Like the news about Help!, probably will be getting the deluxe box.

[jazzbo]

I don't know how many dvds there've been. . . I've only ever seen two, one the original release, one the Director's Cut.

I saw the film on its original theatrical run and several times on dvd. I really DO like this film. It's very different than the novel (which I also really like) and at first that sort of riled me, but I've learnt to really say "vive la difference."

Edited September 4, 2007 by jazzbo

[Kalo]

Just ordered Night/Curse of the Demon. Cummins!

What'djathink?

I got this myself, and I have to say that it's a flawed, yet intelligent and powerful film. Especially for what is, in essence, a mere monster movie.

Kind of difficult, unfortunately, to see the great actor Dana Andrews in latter days, clearly drunken in several scenes. Peggy Cummins, the most fatale of femmes in Gun Crazy is good in a good girl role, and villain Niall MacGinnis is magnificent, the ultimate scary clown.

Director Tourneur is still in his prime, and the flick is surprisingly chilling and affecting. Glenn Erickson, AKA "DVDSavant," suggests that the controversial scenes explicitly show ing the demon were shot actually by Tourneur, barring the close-ups. I'm inclined to believe him. Erickson even defends the close-ups as well, which is where I part company with him. But imagine the movie without them, and I believe that the long-shots of the demon, perhaps cut by several frames in an ideal world, are quite effective in the context of the film.

I agree; flawed but surprisinly good. Or not so surprising if you know Tourneur's earlier work. As for Dana Andrews, there was worse to come--I saw portions of some later films recently, and he looked even more under the weather, shall we say, than in Demon. Tourneur supposedly directed a couple of episodes of The Twilight Zone. I should seek those out.

I recently got a copy of Chris Fujiwara's Jacques Tourneur: the Cinema of Nightfall which lists only one Twilight Zone in its filmography, "Night Call." Author Fujiwara, however, considers it Tourneur's last major work. A good, very thorough book, if perhaps too academic in tone.

The introduction to the book, by the way, is by Martin Scorcese, who seems to relish the fact that someone finally wrote a book on Tourneur. I've seen it suggested, I can't recall where, that the relationship of the Keitel and DeNiro characters in Mean Streets was heavily influenced by the relationship of the Dana Andrews and Brian Donlevy characters in Tourneur's Canyon Passage. In his introduction, Scorcese calls Canyon Passage "a picture that's very special to me," and proceeds to rhapsodize about it for half a page, though he doesn't acknowledge any specific influence or borrowing.

[BruceH]

There's supposed to be a copy at my local public library. Maybe I'll check it out, literally.

[Aggie87]

For any Beatles fans, Amazon has the Deluxe Edition of Help! on sale as a "Gold Box" special today for $29.99. Normal retail is $135.00. This is the big box version with a reproduction of the script, lobby cards, poster, 60 page book, and slipcase.

Link

A good deal, as the regular DVD edition of Help! retails for about $30 anyway.

[BruceH]

Makes you wish "Help!" were a better movie.

Oh, wait, I wished that a long time ago, when I first saw it.

[Aggie87]

Makes you wish "Help!" were a better movie.

Oh, wait, I wished that a long time ago, when I first saw it.

Agreed.

[BERIGAN]

Anyone ever see this Buck Henry show???

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DHE9G...f_rd_i=13743401

Amazon exclusive. I don't remember it at all, which seems strange, but so be it. The little clip they have doesn't overwhelm me either, but I know the show has a cult following....

[Aggie87]

Free and I both remembered it, in this thread of yours!

[BERIGAN]

Free and I both remembered it, in this thread of yours!

Man, you had me worried I had started a tread about that show! I said in December it rang a distant bell, now I say I don't remember it at all! Ah, getting older, so much fun!