TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

Stellar drift?

Anyway, I found what I want get my dad for Christmas--the Criterion Rip Off Machine's Akira Kurosawa centennial collection.  25 films, only $300 new(ish), $2xx if I buy it used with all the uncertainty that entails.  It's on regular SD DVD, with no extras.  Pretty packaging though!  I do need to figure out if dad's already obtained the larger part of them, in whatever fashion ( ), since if so that's $300 for a bunch of nice boxes and a picture book.  Can you believe that there isn't an English-subtitled Kurosawa collection on BD?  I bet I could get some shitty anime with subtitles on BD.  There are some overpriced (Criterion ) single-issues, e.g. Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Rashoman, perhaps a smattering more.  OK, I admit I want this for myself.

I went through the same thing in considering the Stanley Kubrick collection on Blu Ray as a gift.  That is, 1)I'm pretty sure he has DVD copies at least, and 2)I am going to get this for myself.  At $100, it's a reasonably well-priced deal for the (famous) Kubrick films.  What sucks is that it doesn't include Paths of Glory, or The Killing, or some other odds and ends.  Recalling that I described Criterion as a quasi-scam, Paths of Glory and The Killing are available on BD through them for the low, low price of about $30 (apiece).

So, the stealth theme of this part of the post is: Criterion is fucking balls.  But this is a serious question--do they just lock up print rights to--and we're not talking obscure art-house shit here--movies like Paths of Glory and then jack the shit out of the price with the illusory value added by their branding and packaging?  I can't believe there is not a market for Paths of Glory at the $10-12 level, which is where you would find most big-deal-but-way-old-like-Ed-Anger-old movies, and is in fact what the "bigger" Kubrick films cost.  Or, more simply, why doesn't a Stanley Kubrick collection include Paths of Glory?  Because fuck you, that's why.

***
Now, the helpful part of the post.

Other BD stuff that I found that may make good gifts to oneself or, if you're into that, other people.  Films include in bold, grades added for ones I've seen because I'm compulsive.

I talked about the Stanley Kubrick collection above.

Included : Spartacus (A), Lolita, Dr. Strangelove (A+), The Shining (B), Full Metal Jacket (A), Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange (A+), Eyes Wide Shut (A), 2001 (A+)).

Mel Brooks 8-movie set for about $50.  It's got all the good stuff but Spaceballs and The Producers (those of you arguing that Dracula: Dead and Loving It, as my girlfriend does, is "the good stuff," are a testament to our nation's declining aesthetic sensibility).  It does include Blazing Saddles through special arrangement with MGM (or the other way around, I forget).  Here's a fun fact illustrating why brick and mortar stores deserve to die: Best Buy is selling this for $110.  For fucking real, guys?

Included: Blazing Saddles (A), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (B), High Anxiety (C+), Silent Movie (B), History of the World: Part I (A+), Young Frankenstein (A), To Be or Not to Be, Twelve Chairs.

A Tim Burton/Time Warner 7-movie collection that perforce excludes two of the three most important Burton films, Edward Scissorhands (available reasonably priced in standalone) and Nightmare Before Christmas (available for twenty fucking dollars via Disney's Criterion-like market-defying price scheme), nor does it include his best film, Ed Wood (also available but a little pricey).  (Oh, the other "most important" was Batman.)  However, the price of the collection itself is like $45, which is a pretty great deal.

Included: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (B), Batman (A), Batman Returns (B+), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (B), Corpse Bride (C), Mars Attacks, Beetlejuice (A+).

A Blade Runner collection, out in a couple of days, that includes all the cuts, final, director's, theatrical, international, and a workprint (!)... at least, I think so.  I can't tell what they're actually selling as the product description of the 3-disc, reasonably-priced-at-$23 set, describes a set with 5 discs instead, which is like a billion dollars, or might as well be because I'm not buying it.  Anyway, I might get if I can get most of the content at the non-retarded price point, and then I can enjoy the various mutations of Ridley Scott's one really great movie (unless I'm forgetting something... I am not forgetting Alien, which is an important and influential movie as opposed to being a truly great movie; people should learn the difference).

Included: a trillion different Blade Runners, all A+.

Alfred Hitchcock collection.  $225.  15 movies.  No Strangers on a Train.  Whatever, dude.  I'm not a Hitchcock expert or huge fan, but I don't see how leaving that out, but keeping The Birds in, earns you any favor with your god.

Included: what you'd expect--except Strangers on a Train.  Presumably it was left out to package in the physical blowjob (B+) you'll recieve for spending $225 on 15 films, one of which is The Birds (D+).  It does have The Trouble With Harry (A+), an important precursor in the evolution of film that led, inexorably, to Weekend At Bernie's (A+).

Everyone probably already knows about the James Bond 22-film collection.  I'm not a big Bond guy, but I confess to a little temptation purely because I like shit in boxes and at $180 it's a rather nice price assuming you actually want all of these, but for my part I don't need this because Moonraker is available separately and it doesn't even try to include the original Casino Royale (sure, it sucks, I know, but there's a really great 90 minute movie trapped inside that 130 minute abomination).  I think it's missing another one due to rights issues too--In Her Majesty's Secret Service iirc?

Included: 93% of all your James Bond needs, and 100% of your Mookraker (A) requirement.

5-film Christopher Nolan /Time Warner collection.  See, the trick is to buy The Prestige separately, take the book out of the box, put The Prestige where the book went, because it fits perfectly, and, finally, throw the book in the garbage, because it's lame.  The good part is it's really bargain-priced at $34.  It'd be nice if it had Following too, but that's life.

Included: Memento (A+), Insomnia (A+), Batman Begins (C), Dark Knight (B), Inception (A).  Also The Prestige (A+), if, like me, you are crafty.

Oh, and here's a novelty, although it's not out till November--a director's collection, that actually collects the director: the 8-film Quentin Tarantino collection. Okay, it's got a few weaknesses, on which more in a moment, but they are in the scheme of things minor: it has every feature film he directed, plus True Romance.  I really wish it had Four Rooms, because, honestly, that movie is amazingly fun even if Tarantino only directed a quarter of it (and arguably not the best quarter), and it doesn't include other writing ventures (e.g., From Dusk Till Dawn, i.e. big fucking loss).  That's $90.

Included: True Romance, Reservoir Dogs (A), Pulp Fiction (A+), Jackie Brown (B), Kill Bill (A), Inglorious Basterds (A), Death Proof.

***

Of these, I am definitely getting the Stanley Kubrick and the Tarantino sets.  N.B.: all prices viz. Amazon, but you knew that.

[CountDeMoney]

Will you knock it the fuck off with the editing already?  You make Valmy look like he's taking his Ritalin.

[Ideologue]

OK, I'm done.

[Eddie Teach]

Hitchcock's gotta include The Birds, say what you will about quality, in name recognition it's up there with Psycho and Vertigo.

[CountDeMoney]

Stanley Kubrick is as overrated by his fanbois as Nietzche is by the 18-21 sullen white boys demographic pissed about their high school girlfriends not wanting to make the whole "long distance" thing work in college.

[Habbaku]

Will you knock it the fuck off with the editing already?  You make Valmy look like he's taking his Ritalin.

What are you talking about Valmy uses all the grammar he needs to and is a really nice guy to boot jerk.

[CountDeMoney]

Will you knock it the fuck off with the editing already?  You make Valmy look like he's taking his Ritalin.

What are you talking about Valmy uses all the grammar he needs to and is a really nice guy to boot jerk.

Valmy edits each post approximately 3.1 times.   

[mongers]

OK, I'm done.

Ide, you should get this:

'Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski: A Film Legacy'

Aguirre, The Wrath of God in Full Frame Presentation (1.33:1)
Woyzeck in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Cobra Verde in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1)
Nosferatu in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) - German Language Fitzcarraldo in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
My Best Fiend in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1)

http://www.amazon.com/Werner-Herzog-Klaus-Kinski-Legacy/dp/B00005YKXQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1350844613&sr=1-2&keywords=Werner+Herzog

I'm just about to order it, if I can find a uk supplier.

[Habbaku]

Will you knock it the fuck off with the editing already?  You make Valmy look like he's taking his Ritalin.

What are you talking about Valmy uses all the grammar he needs to and is a really nice guy to boot jerk.

Valmy edits each post approximately 3.1 times.   

All that and he still can't find the comma. 

[katmai]

Will you knock it the fuck off with the editing already?  You make Valmy look like he's taking his Ritalin.

What are you talking about Valmy uses all the grammar he needs to and is a really nice guy to boot jerk.

Valmy edits each post approximately 3.1 times.   

Still better than MBM's 42 times.

[Ideologue]

Stanley Kubrick is as overrated by his fanbois as Nietzche is by the 18-21 sullen white boys demographic pissed about their high school girlfriends not wanting to make the whole "long distance" thing work in college.

I never liked Nietzche.

Anyway, I think you're pretty off base.  I can't speak to Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss, The Killing, Lolita, or Barry Lyndon, but I've never seen a bad Stanley Kubrick movie other than AI, which I still think is pretty good to have been made by a dead guy, whereas it's very difficult to argue that Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, 2011, A Clockwork Orange, and the first half of Full Metal Jacket are not excellent.  That's five and a half excellent films.  That's pretty good.

For what it's worth, I think the last half of Full Metal Jacket approaches excellence.

Further, the Shining is widely considered excellent, and though it shouldn't be, all but one of its weaknesses are inherent to the source material (the eponymous Shining is, truthfully, a really incongruous and terrible interference, at least for my enjoyment of the movie), with the remaining major flaw a script problem (even if you pretend the Shining doesn't exist, the unlocking of the pantry door objectively establishes the existence of the supernatural in a movie that had heretofore masterfully played it ambiguous).  Nevertheless, it's still excellently directed.

Then there's Eyes Wide Shut, which isn't widely considered excellent, though it should be.  It's about fucking.  You should like it.

Beyond all that, Kubrick's movies aren't just art house curios, either.  They're beloved.  They're watched by everyone, forever remembered, endlessly, perhaps even sometimes tiresomely, quoted, and irrevocably established in the Western critical and popular canon.  That says something about the quality of the films that they're not just important and influential and masterfully constructed and blah blah blah; but they are richly entertaining on a very basic level.

So I don't think you can really overrate Stanley Kubrick, at least if you're not being hyperbolic and saying that he could do no wrong.  His reputation is fully deserved, both objectively, as wekk as comparatively--there's not many directors who have a more consistently great body of work.  He made a fair number of movies, and just about all of them for a quarter-century year stretch are great or border on greatness (again, with the caveat that I've neglected the protoype three, Lolita, and Lyndon--the first three because they're old and I never got around to it, Lolita for no obvious reason, and Lyndon because I will be the first to admit that shit looks boring).

Who else can claim that?  Not Spielberg or Zemeckis* or Nolan in the popular field,** and probably, I'd expect, not Bergman or Allen or Malick in more hifalutin circles.***

*I keep forgetting that Robert Zemeckis' 20th century output includes some really good stuff.  Is Contact the most underrated movie of all time?  It may be.  I'm looking forward to seeing Flight, which hopefully is a return to form.  It appears to be about Denzel Washington's character from Training Day flying a plane.
**Maybe John Carpenter from Halloween up through Mouth of Madness?   But Kubrick died before he started making really shitty movies, and that always helps.
***Disclosure: I don't know shit about Bergman.  Saw Seventh Seal and it annoyed me.  I mean, parts are excellent, and much of the imagery is indelible and iconic.  But every scene that does not feature Antonius Block is staggeringly dull.  I wish he'd slaughtered the traveling actors.  I'm not sure how that would've fit into the plot, but wouldn't that have been great?  I think Aronofsky has a shot at being as consistently as great a director as Kubrick--you have Pi, Requiem, The Fountain, Black Swan and YES I KNOW I need to watch the Wrestler. We'll see once his remake of Evan Almighty comes out.

[The Brain]

"wekk"? Maybe you should edit your posts.

[Ideologue]

OK, I'm done.

Ide, you should get this:

'Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski: A Film Legacy'

Aguirre, The Wrath of God in Full Frame Presentation (1.33:1)
Woyzeck in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Cobra Verde in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1)
Nosferatu in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) - German Language Fitzcarraldo in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
My Best Fiend in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1)

http://www.amazon.com/Werner-Herzog-Klaus-Kinski-Legacy/dp/B00005YKXQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1350844613&sr=1-2&keywords=Werner+Herzog

I'm just about to order it, if I can find a uk supplier.

One of these days I'm gonna dig into some Herzog.  I'm just not sure when.  There's Planet of the Apes sequels to watch.

[Ideologue]

"wekk"? Maybe you should edit your posts.

[The Brain]

Kubrick's greatness is indicated by the fact that he made milestone movies in so many different genres. He did one of the most famous comedies (Dr. Strangelove), SF movies (2001), war movies (Full Metal Jacket), horror movies (The Shining), gay movies (Spartacus) etc.