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| THE DEEP FOCUS DVD LIST | |
| An Opinionated Survey of Upcoming Releases | |
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Note: All dates are tentative until the product is in your hands. Highlighted titles link to the Deep Focus review of that film. Publisher and MSRP info link to Amazon.com, which discounts most titles and gives me a kickback if you actually purchase a disc from Amazon.com using the link.
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October 24
AIRPLANE/AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL. The dumb comedies that started it all. Or at least the first, dumbest ones that my movie-addled 31-year-old brain remembers. Paramount, $29.99
AMERICAN BEAUTY. If ever there were cutting-room floor scenes that begged to be included on a special-edition DVD, this movie has 'em. Unfortunately for fans, historians, and the terminally curious, director Sam Mendes opted not to include the original ending, (SPOILERS AHEAD) which had Lester Burnham's daughter and her creepy boyfriend taking the fall for his murder. Now that DVD is becoming a mainstream format, expect even more reticence on the part of directors who are less than eager to pull back the curtain on the creative process for a larger and larger proportion of their viewing audience. The disc does have a director/screenwriter commentary, a making-of short, and an anamorphic widescreen transfer. As for the movie itself, it's overrated.
BETTER LIVING THROUGH CIRCUITRY. Fairly interesting-looking documentary on rave culture. I missed it theatrically, but the 5.1 sound mix should play well at home. Moby, DJ Spooky, Roni Size, and Genesis P-Orridge appear, among other notables.
THE CELEBRATION. You may as well catch this mildly twisted family-reunion yarn on DVD, since it was originally shot on digital video. Another Dogme 95 title, from Thomas Vinterberg. October 31 BLACK NARCISSUS. The groundbreaking commentary recorded for laserdisc by the late director Michael Powell and one of his biggest fans, Martin Scorsese, finally comes back to light as the Criterion Collection continues working its way through Powell's body of work on DVD. Forget the movie (which is pretty great), and pay no attention to the new documentary, Painting With Light, commissioned specifically for this release -- listening to these two talk is worth $40 in itself. Criterion, $39.95
EVIL DEAD TRAP. I haven't seen this 1988 Japanese horror flick, but it's notorious enough that I'd like to. Synapse's PR promises a cross between Argento, Cronenberg, and Raimi -- we should be so lucky! Widescreen with removable subtitles, and commentary by director Toshiharu Ikeda and the FX guy.
I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! Another Powell/Pressburger production, this one a romance set in the Scottish Hebrides and characterized by a refined moodiness. Criterion's version includes an audio commentary by Ian Christie, production stills and home movies narrated by Powell's widow (and Scorsese's favored film editor) Thelma Schoonmaker, a 1994 documentary on the film, and book excerpts from Powell's own The Edge of the World (1937) and Return to the Edge of the World (1978).
MICHAEL MOORE'S THE AWFUL TRUTH: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON. Baldly narcissistic but strangely compelling, Michael Moore's made-for-TV broadsides of corporate America are collected for posterity. Two discs, 12 episodes.
TALK RADIO. One of Oliver Stone's better efforts is this small-scale drama that casts Eric Bogosian in an abrasive role inspired by Alan Berg, the Denver-based talk radio host whose rants and screeds I grew up on, and who was eventually gunned down by anti-Semitic right-wing weirdos.
TOUCH OF EVIL. Orson Welles' 1958 drama about dope-related intrigue in a Mexican border town cast Charlton Heston as a Mexican but is considered a towering classic anyway — maybe the film noir that ended the film noir cycle for good. Ace film editor Walter Murch took it apart and put it back together again for a 1998 theatrical reissue, following instructions given to Universal Studios by Welles himself before the original release. (Naturally, the studio ignored them.) This DVD is the new edit of the film, and includes the complete text of Welles' 58-page memo — but why both versions aren't included is a question for the ages. November 7 2000 SEEN BY ... COLLECTION. Back in 1998, forward-thinking French television commissioned a series of films dealing with the millennium. Specifically, each work was to be set on December 31, 1999. Don McKellar's Last Night is pretty good, and got the widest distribution of any of these — ironically, it's not included in this package of eight films. Hal Hartley's Book of Life, which is here, probably got the most press of those remaining. Taiwanese entry The Hole is reportedly also worth seeing, but I don't know much about the others. Also available individually. Fox Lorber, $119.98
BEASTIE BOYS: DVD VIDEO ANTHOLOGY. Some collectors cried foul when Criterion announced that the Beastie Boys would join the ranks of "classic and important contemporary films" issued by the boutique DVD publisher. This collector calls those collectors snooty. Loaded with 18 music videos, alternate video edits, remixes, and other goodies, this two-disc set is the title this cinephile is most looking forward to sliding into his player later this year.
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. The titular bridge remains a monument to the folly of wartime endeavor. Alec Guinness gives a characteristically fine performance, and David Lean again demonstrates his firm, apparently effortless grasp of the art of storytelling. (The more expensive two-DVD version includes documentaries and short films plus DVD-ROM content.)
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II. John Woo's fourth Hollywood feature left me cold, but lots of folks disagreed. The DVD looks to be Paramount's biggest special edition yet, with a Woo commentary and lots of behind-the-scenes foofaraw. Hopefully some of it will be worthwhile, but I've come to expect the unexceptional from studio-sponsored special editions. November 14 THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE / A PROPOSITO DE BUNUEL. Following its theatrical reissue earlier this year, Criterion releases Bunuel's 1972 surrealistic classic The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie along with A Proposito de Bunuel, a new 105-minute documentary based on the director's's autobiography, My Last Sigh, on a two-DVD set. Also included is "El Naufrago de la Calle de la Providencia," a 25-minute documentary from 1970, and Bunuel's favorite martini recipe. Criterion, $39.95
DO THE RIGHT THING. Spike Lee's stylized look at life in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoood of Brooklyn during one overheated summer remains one of the key American films of the last 20 years. This DVD supersedes the previous no-frills release from Disney, offering up a new 16x9 widescreen transfer, a one-hour making-of, audio commentary, and storyboards for the riot sequence plus more goodies. A must-buy, but I have one quibble — where's Lee's music video for the theme song, Public Enemy's "Fight the Power?"
EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS. Criterion gets you to buy both Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible Part 1 and 2 by packaging them in a three-disc set, with many extras included. Crafty.
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE. I love it when the folks who bring you Eisenstein and Carl-Theodor freakin' Dreyer throw a curveball by licensing a well-loved B-title like the super-freaky Fiend Without a Face. Flying brains attack!
GIMME SHELTER. One of rock and roll's crucial filmed documents, Gimme Shelter is a powerfully downbeat documentary on the infamous Altamont Speedway concert where a Hell's Angel knifed a concertgoer to death. There's a frustrating ambivalence to the whole affair, but it packs a wallop. David and Albert Maysles directed. The film is uncensored and gets a 5.1 sound mix for the new DVD (and the preceding theatrical reissue).
NIGHTWATCH. With Ewan McGregor. Sucks slightly more than the original Norwegian version.
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL. Synapse Films, better known for horror titles than documentaries, took a crack at Leni Riefenstahl's document of the 1934 Nazi Party Rally. The perspective of history makes this a disturbing document, although an undeniably important one. It's also made with a skill and artfulness that belies its status as propaganda and ranks its director as perhaps the single greatest female filmmaker in history. Like Synapse's carefully produced genre titles, expect this to be a class act. Some profits go to the United States Holocaust Museum.
YEAR OF THE HORSE. Jarmusch does Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Shot in 16mm and Super 8, but mixed in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 sound, for that grungy kind of polish. November 21 CHICKEN RUN. Breezily entertaining but unambitious effort from Aardman Animation bodes well, I suppose, for the inevitable Wallace & Gromit feature. I got a strong sense of déjà vu all the way through, since the story bears more than passing resemblance to Pixar's A Bug's Life. The DVD's audio commentary, however, could be remarkable. Dreamworks, $26.99
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. The movie is great fun (if a little more sluggish than I had remembered), and the new 16x9 transfer will be an upgrade from existing versions, but why is this DVD missing the audio commentary from the laserdisc? Fans who only know this from pan-and-scan videotapes will fall to their knees and weep at the restoration of Carpenter's masterful widescreen cinematography.
GLADIATOR. Entertaining in grand, thunderous style, this will make the sort of DVD that expensive home theaters thrive on. There's a whole mess of extra material on two discs, including deleted scenes, a director's commentary, a half-hour "behind the scenes" special, a one-hour documentary on real gladiators, an interview with composer Hans Zimmer, et-freaking-cetera. You may never watch any of it, but for $29.99 minus discounts, who cares? November 28 A BETTER TOMORROW. The John Woo flick that started it all. This predated The Killer by three years. It's not as well put-together, but includes many of the man's trademark moves, including his signature guns-at-each-other's-heads trick. According to the Internet Movie Database, Tsui Hark has a cameo. Anchor Bay, $24.98
A BETTER TOMORROW II. More of the same, only more so; this is the violent film seen playing on the television in the Tarantino-scripted True Romance. December 5 MR. VAMPIRE. From Hong Kong, the quintessential hopping vampire movie. Tai Seng, $29.95 December 12 THE CONVERSATION. Just one of the brilliant movies Coppola made during the 1970s, this would be a high-water mark in just about anyone else's career. The themes of surveillance and paranoia have remained relevant in the intervening years (see Enemy of the State, which is almost a sequel), but Hollywood thrillers these days rarely match Coppola's style and intellect; the DVD includes commentary by Coppola and ace film editor Walter Murch. Paramount, $29.98
KIDS RETURN. Takeshi Kitano, 1996 model.
KIKUJIRO. Takeshi Kitano (the beautiful, violent Hana-bi) tries his hand at a child-adult bonding story. The resulting film is suffused with charm and sentiment, but a disturbing vignette and some flamboyant dream sequences raise it well above the banal.
A SCENE AT THE SEA. It's "Beat" Takeshi day! I know nothing about his 1991 film; reviews online suggest it's about a deaf mute surfing couple. Right on. December 19 DEAD MAN. Jim Jarmusch's elegaic, black-and-white western stars Johnny Depp as "William Blake" and has music by Neil Young. Photographed, in typically luminous fashion, by Robby Mueller. Lance Henriksen, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, and Robert Mitchum all appear. (Don't try that at home.) Miramax, $32.99
FORGOTTEN SILVER. Few of his U.S. fans got much of a chance to see Peter Jackson's reputedly clever hoax documentary about a pioneering New Zealand filmmaker. Now we can.
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES. Shame about the film, I thought, but the DVD could gain in sleepy intimacy what it loses in big-screen splendor. The score is by laid-back French popsters Air and should sound great in 5.1 at home. The disc has a trailer, a documentary, and the music video for "Playground Love." I hope I can get a copy without paying for it. December 26 ECSTASY OF THE ANGELS. Part of the Japanese Outlaw Masters series that played at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles last year. I hear that the great Female Convinct Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 was by far the highlight, but if this is even half as good, I want to own it. Directed by Koji Wakamatsu. Image Entertainment, $24.99
GO, GO, SECOND TIME VIRGIN. Another Wakamatsu (see above). Image sez he's "a combination of Godard, Gregg Araki and Jesus Franco," and I'm not sure that's a compliment.
GODZILLA 2000. Japanese and English-language versions! Merry Christmas. | |
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