DVD Traffic Report: October 2007 Archives

Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Volume 5 (Warner)

There were two reasons for my decision to purchase a DVD player in time for Christmas, 1997. One of them was the news that Criterion had begun releasing its catalog of "classic and important contemporary films" to the new format, so that a film-and-extras package that cost $100 or $125 on laserdisc would soon be available as a $40 DVD. And the other was the Warner Bros. announcement that the Looney Tunes catalog was on its way to DVD. The Looney Tunes announcement turned out to be years premature, but the shorts did start showing up on four-disc DVD collections, one per year, in 2003. The sets aren't exactly optimized for the collector — they're not chronological, and there is no all-Chuck Jones set, or all-Robert McKimson — but they're organized smartly enough from a commercial perspective, sprinkling the best-known shorts across enough discs to keep the nostalgia factor high for casual viewers while dipping deep enough into the catalog to surprise even Looney Tunes fans. (Still no "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips," in case you were wondering.) Highlights of this set include a helping of Chuck Jones classics ("Ali Baba Bunny," "Transylvania 6-5000," "Bewitched Bunny," among others) plus a 2000 documentary (Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens), an all-Bob Clampett disc, and an "Early Daze" disc presenting pre-1944 'toons from Clampett, Jack King, Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin, and Tom Palmer (1933's "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song"). Extras include a couple of Private Snafu cartoons and the usual flotilla of short documentaries, commentaries, music-only tracks, etc. (Do not confuse this with the less-expensive Spotlight Collection, which only includes the first two of these four discs.)

Buy it from Amazon.com: Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Five

Twin Peaks: The Complete Series (Paramount)

OK, it's a mixed bag, really. The second season of Twin Peaks was a disappointment, growing sillier and more disassociated from any notion of a conventionally satisfying narrative (which the early episodes delivered on top of all the Lynchian quirkiness) as each episode stretched on. Even the eventual revelation of Laura Palmer's killer was bungled in the program's increasingly unfocused execution. And, yeah, $100 is a lot of money to spend on a TV show. But television rarely got stranger or grander than this program's first season, which examined the aftermath of the murder of Laura Palmer, a pretty, popular high-school girl who was found dead, wrapped in plastic, on a riverbank in Twin Peaks, WA. What ensued was a tongue-in-cheek soap opera involving the denizens of the town, plus newcomer Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), on hand to investigate Palmer's murder and slug down diner coffee. It's a masterpiece of mood if nothing else. And the portentous, wryly funny feature-length pilot episode remains, even after all these years, a highlight of David Lynch's career. Watch it, and imagine what Mulholland Dr. could have been. This definitive, 10-DVD set includes all 29 episodes of the show, the original pilot, the European version of the pilot (which resolves the "mystery" in a clumsy coda at the very end), deleted scenes, and even footage from the Saturday Night Live episode hosted by MacLachlan at the height of Agent Cooper's popularity.

Buy it from Amazon.com: Twin Peaks - The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series)

Breathless (Criterion)

I've not seen this in years — and from what I remember this is hardly my favorite Godard film — but it's an iconic piece of history nonetheless, moving-pictorial evidence of the ways the French New Wave synthesized elements of hard-boiled American culture with a distinctly Euro sensibility to effect a sharp demarcation from your daddy's cinema. Slate it as the capper to a triple feature with The 400 Blows and Hiroshima Mon Amour, also on Criterion DVD.

Buy it from Amazon.com: Breathless - Criterion Collection


Eyes Wide Shut (Warner)

Warner Bros. is reissuing a whole slew of Kubrick movies on DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc today. I'm singling out Eyes Wide Shut not because it's a particular favorite but because, as far as I know, it represents the first time a non-bastardized version of Kubrick's final film has been available in the U.S. (Previous versions had clumsily inserted digital figures blocking simulated sex acts during the film's orgy scene, which were added — after Kubrick's death! — in order to secure a contractually obligated R rating.) If we're lucky, this will also exhibit the return of some very heavy film grain that seemed to have been noise-reduced out of previous versions. Even if you own them already, the other releases are likely well worth picking up, since they boast improved transfers and, in several cases (notably Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining) they're available for the first time in their proper, widescreen theatrical framing. (Why this has been the source of online controversy for years and years I'll never understand; Kubrick was said to prefer full-screen telecine for television versions of his films, but he was making those decisions in the days before anamorphic DVD and high-definition displays changed the rules of the game.)

Buy it from Amazon.com: Eyes Wide Shut (Two-Disc Special Edition), Eyes Wide Shut [HD DVD], Eyes Wide Shut [Blu-ray], or Stanley Kubrick - Warner Home Video Directors Series

Days of Heaven (Criterion)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is only the latest in a long line of films that were influenced by Terence Malick's direction and Nestor Almendros's famed golden-hour cinematography. If you've never seen this before, consider yourself lucky to have the chance to watch it in an improved transfer; if you're a fan, this is probably a necessary upgrade. (The nagging question that may hold you back: when will Criterion announce its first catalog of high-definition releases?)

Buy it from Amazon.com: Days of Heaven - Criterion Collection

28 Weeks Later (Fox)

I suppose it's a minority opinion that this rather more cacophonous, action-oriented sequel is better than the low-key original (28 Days Later), but damned if this isn't the spiritual heir to George A. Romero's socio-politically charged forbears. Its release coincident with the thickening quagmire in Iraq, the military solution to infestation it depicts — firebombing a city to take out the human survivors alongside the uncontainable zombie insurgents — qualifies as a ghoulishly modest proposal. With contemporary horror lacking much in the way of ideology beyond torture-porn's implicit sidelong critique of Abu Ghraib etc., it's reassuring to see a thrill ride that tries to get its hooks into the social zeitgeist. The action isn't bad either, with a few supremely disquieting set pieces (the first one is illustrated above) and a genuinely distressing tone. One of the year's best for sure.

Buy it from Amazon.com: 28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition) or 28 Weeks Later [Blu-ray]

This is a week late, but the folks at MTI Home Video were kind enough to send me a review copy of their September 25 release of Spider Baby, a movie whose reputation I knew well but had somehow managed to avoid until now. To my delight, it's an entirely excellent B-grade horror comedy that exhibits director Jack Hill's trademark good-natured humor but also manages to crank up an impressive creep factor in a couple of scenes and fulfills its disturbo potential without being self-consciously transgressive. (This was strong material for the mid-1960s.) The cast, including Lon Chaney Jr. and latter-day Rob Zombie stalwart Sid Haig, is generally very good — and Jill Banner, the big-eyed newcomer who played the arachnophilic slasher Virginia (pictured), is sexy as all hell. The DVD image quality is excellent and "The Hatching of Spider Baby," a new short documentary consisting of latter-day interviews with the stars and filmmakers, is good fun as well. There's also an audio commentary with Hill and Haig. My only quibble is with the audio track, which starts to exhibit a droning noise that sounds like digital distortion in the film's midsection. (Whether this artifact was introduced by this particular DVD transfer I can't say.) Otherwise it's an excellent release.

Buy it from Amazon.com: Spider Baby (Special Edition)