Mike's DVD Haul

My DVD buying seems to happen in clusters. I'll buy a lot all at once and then none for a long period of time. It's probably because I don't often rely on the local mall to do my purchasing and a lot of the locations where the best stuff is requires me to make a special trip. So, with that said, there will be one more Haul after this at the beginning on November and then probably not another one until Christmas.

With the exception of The Great Dictator, Chaplin's three other sound films often get mixed reactions. However, in my quest to own all of Chaplin's feature films now only City Lights remains.

 Richard Linklater is one of my favourite directors. It's a shame more people didn't check this out when it was in theaters. Then again, it probably didn't come to a theatre near too many people.

I know I ranked Avatar as my favourite film of 2009 but that was because I hadn't seen Up in the Air at the time.

 Thus completes my Apu Trilogy.

Although this isn't always the work of hers that gets most praised or is the most timeless but this early Agnes Varda film was just as good as Truffaut and Godard's early French New Wave films. It also features a wonderful little cameo from Godard and wife Anna Karina.

My quest to own all of Disney's feature length cartoons (with the exception of Treasure Planet and Home on the Range) comes on step closer to being completed (The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast remain). I know this is going to be rereleased in November with Fantasia 2000 but I already own that film and it is getting bad reviews for being a censored version so I instead hunted down this out-of-print copy. 

Sarah Silverman is funny. This movie lets her down by cutting pretty horrible skits into her stand up routine but it's her only performance on video and so therefore you have to take the bad with the good.

Grabbing the other two seasons of Arrested Development.

Mike's DVD Haul

The reason I haven't done a DVD haul in a while is because I stopped buying DVDs for a while. You see, I was really unhappy with my job and I figured, with the job market for Human Resources (my most recent area of study) opening up in September, it was the best time to get out and find a new job. Turns out, working in the movie business is not as exciting as it's cracked up to be especially when working under poor circumstances. Regardless, I will be starting a new job on Tuesday and to celebrate I basically blew my first pay. Here's what I got:

I'm not a big TV watcher with the exception of Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm, but decided to go back and check out a few shows that everyone seems to buzz about. I love Hell's Kitchen (Gordon Ramsay is an inspiration for me) and it turns out How I Met Your Mother and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are really funny shows as well. I'm interested in checking out Breaking Bad, can anyone say they'd recommend it or advise against it?

Unfortunately you can't always get the Criterion Collection version, especially when the regular version is as readily available as David Mamet's masterpiece House of Games. Mamet is easily one of the best, most distinctive screenwriters in Hollywood and anyone interested in screenwriting should study this film from both a dialogue and structural standpoint. Being a writer, Mamet is one of those directors who simply sets the stage for his writing to flow, which is just fine as that's the highlight anyway. Anyone further interested in Mamet should check out his book On Directing Film which, even if you don't agree with all of it, is both fascinating and eye opening.

I love Jean-Pierre Melville and this was his last film before his death. I haven't seen it and was actually surprised to find it, but I'm excited to have it in my collection.

Meeting John Madden at TIFF reminded me of how much I liked his underrated film Proof.

I didn't realize that this movie even existed until reading a review of it in my huge 700 page volume of American Film Criticism (which I have since, thankfully finished). This is another unseen-by-me last film by a great director. This time it's Charlie Chaplin.

Chris over at Celluloid Moon wrote about  this Powell and Pressburger film a while ago and recommended it greatly. Hey Chris, don't ever say no one takes your suggestions.

I hadn't owned the original Star Wars trilogy for a long time because there are so many versions of it out there and I didn't want to own the remastered ones that Lucas edited after the release of his prequel trilogy. This box, for someone who doesn't own the flicks, seems to offer both despite all the scorn it got on Amazon from die hard collectors who are sick of repurchasing the same thing over and over again.

I've tried to watch this show in the past and it just never clicked. Then I one episode on the Sundance Channel late one night and laughed out loud more times than at any other show. Alas, another TV show goes on my list of things to rediscover.

This was one of three pairings between director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene, the most popular being The Third Man. I haven't seen it but a Criterion for $16.99 isn't something I easily turn down.

Doing the Movies that Made Going to the Movies suck list reminded me of how much I really love this movie. It's one of the greatest romantic comedies Hollywood ever produced. Strange how no one involved in it thought it was any good at the time. Good job to Ditty for her excellent post on it.

This is the classic Woody Allen movie that always divides fans. The first time I saw it on VHS I hated it, but figured since I own about 90% of Allen's films already, maybe it was time to give it a second chance since I seem to like even his most critically panned older movies (Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Shadows & Fog) and at $2.99 what's there to lose?

This is the kind of movie that you can just throw on and it makes you happy. It was made with love and joy by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott who are both great in their acting roles as well. It's the kind of movie I could watch any time, any day and it would make me smile.

An early John Sayles movie that I haven't seen but again, at $2.99 and owning most of Sayles other movies (just need City of Hope, Passion Fish and Matewon really), there was nothing to lose.

Haven't seen this one either but a lot of very good critics buzzed about it when it first came out. It's cost also had a lot to do with the purchase.

I remember an ex-girlfriend buying this version of Almost Famous for her sister for her birthday many many years ago. I borrowed it to see what all the fuss was about and didn't love it or hate it, but always thought I should give it another try. I was surprised to find that, about a year ago, when I went to look up this Bootleg Cut that ads 40 minutes to the movie (I watched the theatrical version) that it was out of print and going for big bucks online. Luckily I found it used for $14.99 and hope that a second viewing, or maybe first viewing of the director's cut, will change my mind.

The one Dirty Harry movie that was left out of the package I got that had films 1-4 in it. This one, for some reason, takes a lot of flack but, besides the first, is my favourite Dirty Harry film. I especially love the scene where the chase form Bullit is recreated with remote control cars. I laugh out loud every time.

I've seen two of these three films (Blue has always eluded me). I've never been the biggest Kielowski follower (The Double Life of Veronique didn't move me here or there the first time) but again, it's time to rediscover this acclaimed director and Red, from my memory, is quite a special film.

I love dark comedy, which is why I presented a paper on it at the Midwest Undergraduate Film Conference at the University of Notre Dame, and this British one is minor but delightfully devious. The key to black comedy is giving the audience exactly the opposite of what they expect and that's exactly what this film does by casting the wonderful Maggie Smith as a nanny with some devious and very funny secrets.

I haven't seen this film but when I saw that Roger Ebert said that it's director Ramin Bahrani is the next great American director I took notice. I saw Man Push Cart a while back and was impressed by that but apparently this film is transcendent.



Mike's DVD Haul

Well, it seemed some people liked it this week when I posted about the sweet DVDs that I had just recently gotten in the mail. So, because I was away this weekend where I picked up some more titles and because I have nothing better to do, I'm going to do it again.

Peter Greenaway is the kind of filmmaker that you admire without every really liking in most cases. He's made acclaimed films like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, but they are all very heavy endeavours that you wouldn't want to watch on a regular basis. I haven't seen 8 1/2 Women but it was cheap, so why not give it a try?

I'm not a Kurosawa lover the way say Univarn is, but there's no denying that Rashomon is one of the most important films ever made and did more to advance popular storytelling than any other film I can think of. It was one of the contenders for my list of The Best Movies That Made Going to the Movies Suck list (maybe it deserves an honorary entry) but no one wanted to write about it. Regardless, no film lover has not seen this movie.

Aki Kaurismaki is a strange, offbeat, deadpan filmmaker whose films have never really found an audience in North America. If there is one contemporary director who can compare to him it would be Jim Jarmusch, which, in a sense, doesn't do Kaurismaki justice because, if anything, Jarmusch just pays tribute to him as opposed to making the same kinds of films. Although the dry, deadpan comedic style has been copied countless times, especially in European films, Kaurismaki remains a true original and Man Without a Past is both heartwarming and hilarious in the truly oddest of ways.

As a collector I`ve gotten passed the point where I need the best, most up-to-date versions of everything I buy (with the exception of Criterion Collection movies, which are worth the extra coin). Therefore, because of both money and space concerns, I was happy to find four out of the five Dirty Harry movies all in one convenient, low-price case. I never thought these movies were quite good enough to own until I was reading David Gilmor`s The Film Club in which he talks about that infamous ``Are you feeling lucky`` scene, which made me want to see the movies again. The only downside is that this doesn`t contain The Dead Pool, which, contrary to popular opinion, I think is the best Dirty Harry movie besides the original.

I haven`t seen this but it got good reviews at the time, was only $1.99 and I really like Ben Stiller`s early movies like Your Friends and Neighbours when he actually acted as opposed to the annoying goofball persona he assumed for good after Zoolander and Meet the Parents (up until Greenberg that is)

Ah, what can you write in a few mild sentences to do justice to Pier Pablo Passolini when whole essays fail to do this man`s work justice. This is, after all, the artist, poet, filmmaker who unapologetically spun film around on its head, turned it inside out and back around again by questioning God, religion, politics, sexuality, everything he could get his hands on and then ultimately ended up murdered for being a homosexual, that is, if he didn`t just fake his death. Momma Roma came early in Passolini`s storied, fascinating and wildly enigmatic career when Italy was still in, or maybe just getting out, of the Italian Neo-Realism faze. It was Salo however, based on The Marquis de Sade`s 120 Days of Sodom which would forever cement Passolini as being one of history`s most shocking filmmakers. The movie is vile, disgusting, violent, and profane. It is, even by today's standards, one of the most shocking, unpleasant and unnerving films ever made. And it`s also, in the eyes of most, a masterpiece. I think it`s something that any mature, intelligent viewer should seek out. Just don`t say you weren`t warned.

Godard again. I don`t think this is a major Godard work, although when I watched it I wrongly selected it for casual viewing and no Godard movie is anything that should be considered causal, so I wasn`t prepared for it. I think this must be one of the last few movies of Godard`s that I wanted to own and one of the last few he made before he lost his mind and started making nearly unwatchable ``anti``-movies.