Spaced: The Complete Series (1999-2001)
dir. Edgar Wright
I would suggest that if you only buy one DVD all year, make it this one. This is one of the best TV comedies of all time, and it only ran for 14 episodes. Damn those British sitcoms and their less-is-more mentality. You might be saying HEY, this set has been out for a while in the UK, why would I want this? Well, this set has everything the UK set had, PLUS all new retrospective commentaries with people like Quinten Tarantino, Patton Oswalt, Matt Stone, and Kevin Smith. If you love Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz and you've never seen this, then 1) kick yourself in the face and 2) buy this immediately. You'll be imitating Duane Benzie in no time.
Product Decsription:
It only takes one episode to become very protective of this 1999 British Comedy Award-winning series that put comedy soul mates Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (now Hynes), as well as Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) on the map. One can only hope a threatened American version is never produced. This is one of those brilliant, off-center, lightning-in-a-bottle creations that gets you so jazzed, you want to turn all your friends on to it. Spaced (actually, Friends might have been a better title; too bad it was taken) stars Pegg and Stevenson as strangers Tim and Daisy, "amiable 20-somethings" who pose as a "professional couple" to rent an apartment. He is a recently-dumped aspiring comic book artist. She is an easily distracted writer. As the series unfolds, their apartment becomes an "island of calm in the ocean of life" as Tim and Daisy form a kind of 21st century family with their similarly misfit friends, including soused landlord Marsha (Julia Deakin), who lives with her teenager daughter (aka "the devil in a A cup," who is heard, but never quite seen), Brian (Mark Heap), an artist who deals in anger, fear, and aggression, Simon's best friend Mark (Frost), a militaristic gun nut, and Daisy's best friend, Twist (Katy Carmichael), a fashion poseur (in the series' penultimate episode, look for a pre-Office Ricky Gervais). Spaced is not so much interested in Tim and Daisy's charade as it is in cramming each episode with pop culture references and obscure in-jokes, and brilliantly realized film and TV homages, ranging from Woody Allen's Manhattan to Pulp Fiction and The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars, especially, looms large in Tim's slacker universe). As with Arrested Development, Spaced benefits from repeat viewings to catch missed bits of business and gags that fly by at a Simpsons-esque rate. This Complete Series set is everything Spaced's fervent following would demand. Each episode is complemented by the original commentaries as well as newly-recorded gabfests that also feature American friends of the show, including Kevin Smith, Patton Oswalt, Quentin Taratinto, Matt Stone, Diablo Cody, and Bill Hader. There are deleted scenes and outtakes, and, best of all, an hour-long 2007 Q&A with Wright and the cast, in which Pegg allows that, had there been a third series (and we can still dream), it would have provided viewers hoping that Tim and Daisy would ultimately get together with "a moment to make every hair of your body stand on end." You will see such a moment if you "skip to the end" of the essential near two-hour series retrospective. --Donald Liebenson
DVD Features:
Audio Commentaries on every episode featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Jessica Stevenson
Alternate Audio Commentaries on every episode featuring Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, Patton Oswalt, Bill Hader, Quinten Tarantino, and Diablo Cody
Skip to the End, a feature-length documentary on the series
NFT Q&A
Homage-O-Meter subtitle tracks
Outtakes
Deleted Scenes
Character Bios
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High and Low - Criterion Collection (1963)
dir. Akira Kurosawa
For some reason, this is the only Kurosawa Criterion I don't have. But, I'm glad I waited, because this re-release looks awesome (as do all other Criterion reissues). Remastered picture, lots of new extras, all the usual stuff.
Product Decsription:
Although best known for his samurai classics, Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa proved himself equally adept at contemporary dramas and thrillers, and 1962's High and Low offers a powerful showcase for Kurosawa's versatile skill. The great Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist who has just raised a large sum of money to execute his planned takeover of a successful shoe manufacturer. Fate intervenes when he receives a phone call informing him that his son has been kidnapped, and by unfortunate coincidence the ransom demand is nearly equivalent to the amount Mifune has raised for his corporate coup. A philosophical dilemma emerges when it is revealed that the executive's son is safe, and that it is actually his chauffeur's son who has been taken. What follows is both a tense detective thriller, as the police attempt to track down the kidnapper, and a compelling illustration of class division in Japan--the "high and low" of the title. Far be it from Kurosawa to make a mere thriller, however; this loose adaptation of the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom provides the director with ample opportunity to develop a visual strategy that perfectly enhances the story's sociological themes. The Criterion Collection DVD of this extraordinary film is presented in the original "Tohoscope" aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
DVD Features:
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer with original four-track surround sound
Audio commentary featuring Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
A 37-minute documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
Rare video interview with actor Toshiro Mifune, conducted by TV talk-show host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
New video interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki, who plays the kidnapper
Theatrical trailers from Japan and the U.S.
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and an on-set account by Japanese film scholar Donald Richie
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Vampyr - Criterion Collection (1931)
dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
Most film nerds go bonkers at the mere mention of Carl Th. Dreyer's name, but I'll be honest, I haven't seen any of his movies. Not on purpose, I just haven't got around to it. This one looks very very promising, so I'll make it my first. Maybe if I like it enough, I'll pick up the Dreyer boxset too.
Product Decsription:
With Vampyr Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer's brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere profoundly unsettling imagery (as in The Passion of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath) was for once applied to the horror genre. Yet the result-concerning an occult student assailed by various supernatural haunts and local evildoers at an inn outside Paris-is nearly unclassifiable a host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds creating a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs ominous scythes and foreboding echoes Vampyr is one of cinema's great nightmares.
DVD Features:
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
The original German version in a new high-definition digital transfer from the 1998 restoration by Martin Koerber and the Cineteca di Bologna
Newly credited alternate version with English text
Audio commentary featuring film scholar Tony Rayns
Carl Th. Dreyer (1966), a documentary by Jørgen Roos chronicling Dreyer's career
Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer's influences in creating Vampyr
Radio broadcast from 1958 of Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, Koerber on the restoration, and a 1964 interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg, as well as a book featuring Dreyer and Christen Jul's original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 story "Carmilla," a source for the film
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Bird (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1988)
dir. Clint Eastwood
WHAT IS CLINT EASTWOOD'S PROBLEM, WHY AREN'T THERE ANY BLACK PEOP.......oh.
Product Decsription:
Clint Eastwood's moody, evocative direction and Forest Whitaker's strong, sensitive performance are the chief proponents to recommend an otherwise muted biopic of '40s jazz legend Charlie Parker, who fell victim to his chemical excesses and convinced the doctor who pronounced him dead that he was a good four decades older than he actually was. The film doesn't try to assign clear blame for Parker's demons, though the era's racism is addressed unflinchingly. Clearly a labor of love, Eastwood's movie structurally attempts to ape the angular music of bebop itself (there are flashbacks within flashbacks, which gets a little confusing), but doesn't quite capture the smolder of the period. Diane Venora registers strongly as Bird's wife, Chan, the woman who can't rescue Bird from the abyss into which he peers.
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Round Midnight (1986)
dir. Bertrand Tavernier
For some reason, there are a slew of these jazz/blues based movies coming out this week. Not sure if it was carefully planned or a complete coincidence, but it's pretty sweet either way. Where's a special edition of Altman's Kansas City when you need it?
Product Decsription:
Like the music it celebrates, Round Midnight is long on atmosphere, short on formal structure, alert and open to improvisation, making this 1986 drama the most authentic glimpse of jazz yet filmed. Its subject, Dale Turner (played by Dexter Gordon), is a composite of brilliant but bruised jazz warriors who left America behind for self-imposed European exile, finding a more tolerant and appreciative audience while never completely eluding their private demons. Drugs and drink have battered the tall, laconic saxophonist, whose diffident, somewhat distracted manner only partly conceals a deeper exhaustion as he plays a 1959 engagement in a Parisian club and tries to stay sober. His burnished solos drift behind the tempo with a languor that can't be fully explained as a point of style. But when an ardent, impoverished French fan (François Cluzet) intercepts his idol and then offers him simple acts of kindness, the gesture inspires a brief but glowing second wind in the aging musician, reflected in his playing. Even as the film contemplates Turner's return to his homeland as a portent of his own death, his moments on the Parisian bandstand suggest a glimpse of redemption.
If Turner's frail character echoes real-life ex-pats like Bud Powell and Lester Young, director Bertrand Tavernier's insistence upon casting the role with veteran tenor player Dexter Gordon breathes startling authenticity into the figure. Gordon's own drug arrests and an extended idyll abroad give him direct access to Turner's isolation, and Tavernier elicits a natural but compelling performance that earned Gordon (who died in 1990) an Academy Award nomination. Likewise, the director cast his cinematic band with world-class musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter, and shot these sequences as live performances. Hancock's score deservedly won both British and American Academy Awards, as well as a French César. --Sam Sutherland
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Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
dir. Jack Webb
Product Decsription:
A Kansas City singer and his jazz band bow down to pressure from a local gangster and take on the thug's alcoholic girlfriend as a singer.
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Blues in the Night (1941)
dir. Anatole Litvak
Product Decsription:
In this backstage musical with film-noir overtones, an up-and-coming jazz singer (Priscilla Lane) is looking for success. When an on-the-lam criminal joins the band and hooks up with a sultry sexpot (Betty Field), it adds a note of doom that resonates all the way to the film's finale. BLUES IN THE NIGHT was directed by Anatole Litvak, but it is also notable for the future filmmakers in its ranks: Robert Rossen (THE HUSTLER) co-wrote the script, Elia Kazan (A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE) plays a clarinet player, and Don Siegel (DIRTY HARRY) created the film's montage sequences.
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Kiss of the Spider Woman (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) (1985)
dir. Hector Babenco
I haven't seen this, but I've heard nothing but good things. William Hurt's awesome, and he won a ton of awards for his role in this (including an Oscar for Best Actor, and Best Actor at Cannes).
Product Decsription:
Luis Molina and Valentin Arregui are cell mates in a South American prison. Luis, a homosexual, is found guilty of immoral behaviour and Valentin is a political prisoner. To escape reality Luis invents romantic movies, while Valentin tries to keep his mind on the situation he's in. During the time they spend together, the two men come to understand and respect one another.
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21 (2008)
dir. Robert Luketic
Product Decsription:
An unconvincing exercise in moral complexity, 21 is based on Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) plays brilliant, blue-collar scholar Ben Campbell, whose doubts that he'll win a scholarship to Harvard Medical School compel him to join a secret, M.I.T. gang of math whiz kids. Under the silky but chilling command of a math professor (Kevin Spacey), Jim and the others master card counting, i.e., the statistical analysis of cards dealt in blackjack games. The team lives a humdrum existence during the week, but on weekends in Sin City, the students are rolling in cash, going to exclusive clubs, and feeling on top of the world. (Ben even gets the girl: a comely, fellow counter played by Kate Bosworth.) Despite all that success, Ben feels ethically compromised, and indeed director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), in the old tradition of American movies, plays it both ways where fun vices are concerned. On the one hand, it feels so good; on the other, ahem, we know it's wrong. That studied ambivalence proves wearing after a while, making the most interesting character in the film a casino watchdog played by Laurence Fishburne. A master at reading the emotions of gamblers beating the house with a scam, he's admirable for being good at his job, but repellent for wrecking the faces of counters in casino dungeons. He's all about moral complexity in the tradition of anti-heroes, and a truly provocative element in an otherwise superficial movie. --Tom Keogh
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Duck (2005)
dir. Nic Bettauer, Nicole Bettauer
I haven't heard anything about this, but anything with Philip Baker Hall gets a mention.
Product Decsription:
Produced, written, and directed by Nic Bettauer, DUCK is the only narrative feature film winner of the year s Women In Film Foundation Film Finishing Fund. DUCK was an Official Selection of the Avignon & Avignon / New York, Hollywood, Denver (where Philip Baker Hall received The John Cassavetes Award for achievement and excellence in American cinema) and Sao Paulo International Film Festivals. DUCK won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at its Cinequest World Premiere and was selected for the prestigious American Cinematheque s Independent Showcase . DUCK won Best Foreign Dramatic Feature at the inaugural European Independent Film Festival.
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Masters of Horror: Season Two Box Set (2007)
The Masters of Horror series has turned out to be not so great, but this packaging is pretty sweet. Too bad it's not for something else.
Product Decsription:
This collection from the MASTERS OF HORROR TV show includes spine-chilling films from various lauded directors. Among the contributors are John Landis ("Family"), Dario Argento ("Pelts"), John Carpenter ("Pro-Life"), Rob Schmidt ("Right to Die"), Joe Dante ("The Screwfly Solution"), Mick Garris ("Valerie on the Stairs"), Stuart Gordon ("The Black Cat"), Tom Holland ("We All Scream For Ice Cream"), Brad Anderson ("Sounds Like"), Peter Medak ("The Washingtonians"), Tobe Hooper ("The Damned Thing"), and Norio Tsuruta ("Dream Cruise"). Please see individual titles for complete synopsis information.
DVD Features:
Audio Commentaries
Featurettes
Interviews
Trailers
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Andre Techine Boxset
Post-French New Wave doesn't exactly get my blood boiling, but I'll give anything a shot.
Product Decsription:
Andre Techine's extraordinary work with actors and his visionaryapproach to the complexity of emotions have made him one of France'sleading post-New Wave directors. The four acclaimed films in this uniquecollection represent Techine's move toward naturalism and hismasterful ability to examine the human condition. The ANDRE TECHINE4-FILM COLLECTION includes WILD REEDS (LES ROSEAUXSAUVAGES) I DON'T KISS (J'EMBRASSE PAS) HOTEL AMERICA (HOTEL DESAMERIQUES) and MY FAVORITE SEASON (MA SAISONPREFEREE).
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Comedy Central's TV Funhouse (2000)
dir. Robert Smigel
Product Decsription:
When you were a kid cartoons were on Saturday mornings TV show hosts were beloved and puppets were friendly caring and kind. Well you're not a kid anymore. That's why Comedy Central s TV Funhouse featuring host Doug and his Anipals is packed with enough twisted cartoons crass puppets live animals and guest stars to send you to bed weeping over your lost youth.
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Satantango (1994)
dir. Béla Tarr
Not many people have the patience to watch a "7-hour black-and-white epic". I guess you just have to approach it like a TV show, or similar to how you would approach Berlin Alexanderplatz. Reaaaally long movies are hard to swallow, but I've found that they're usually worth the effort.
Product Decsription:
Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr's 7-hour black-and-white epic based on the novel by Laszlo Karsznahorkai took two years to film. The complex story follows a group of people living in a dilapidated village in post-communist Hungary. Tarr examines their standstill lives through a series of episodes told from each person's point-of-view. Winner of the Caligari Film Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize Special Mention at the 1994 Berlin International Film Festival. In Hungarian with English subtitles.
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Big Dreams, Little Tokyo (2006)
dir. Dave Boyle
Looks like it might be decent. The few reviews I've read have been favorable.
Product Decsription:
Boyd, a self-proclaimed businessman convinced he's Japanese, and his roommate Jerome, a sluggish but affable Japanese-American sumo wrestler, have big dreams for themselves. Together, the two travel door-to-door by tandem bike, giving flyers and sales pitches to anyone who listens...but Boyd's Japanese clients aren't buying his "Translation Services," and no one will give Jerome--a paltry 200 pounds--a chance in the ring. When they meet Mia, who is unfazed by their oddities and offers a hand, Boyd and Jerome discover that in a world where cultural identity is seldom what it seems, there's a place for everyone.
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