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Okay, so the title is totally made up and stupid. Hope you didn’t click just because of the title…
So…if this is just me talking about my week off, then why is it in Fanboy? Because I spent almost the whole time watching movies, that’s why. Since I’ve felt my blood pressure spiking in the last few weeks, I figured I’d spend my time off staying very quiet.
I’m not sure if you guys know, but since April and I didn’t go anywhere for our 10th anniversary, we decided to spend our saved up money on a badass surround sound setup, something we had been planning for a long time. Because we’re Best Buy Reward Zone Premier Silver members, we got a bunch of gift certificates when we bought the system, so I went shopping for some Blu-Rays I’d been wanting, and here’s what I’ve been doing…
Shogun Assassin – I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this on my podcasts before, but many don’t know that I’ve got a soft spot for martial arts movies. It doesn’t really fit my typical taste in movies, but this one’s one of my favorites. I saw it for the first time just a couple of years ago when I went on a martial arts movie rampage. I probably downloaded and watched 20 movies I’d never seen before. Anyway, this one tells the story of a Samurai warrior that sees his wife killed, so he goes on a murderous rampage with his infant son in tow. It’s just awesome – the violence is reminiscent of Kill Bill in the gore factor. Just a fun movie to watch every couple of months – and it’s only $14.99 at Best Buy on Blu!
Seven Samurai – Criterion Blu-Ray – This is Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, and has been copied by so many filmmakers countless times. A village has been constantly troubled by pillaging bandits, so the small farming community goes out and hires Samurai to battle the bandits when they return, finding that they have the strength within to protect themselves. Sound familiar? There’s just so much to love here. The three and a half hour runtime really surprisingly flies by, and I have to say it’s the best it’s ever looked in my opinion. I was lucky to find this on sale at Barnes and Noble (half off!) a few weeks ago, and finally got to sit down and enjoy it this week.
Grindhouse – Finally, in its theatrical release glory! As I’ve said before, I’ve never laughed so hard in a theater before or since. Planet Terror is so ridiculous and fun, and Death Proof turns into one of the best, if not THE best car chase ever! It makes me sad that this didn’t get the attention it so deserved, but now i can watch it the way it was meant to be seen. You might wonder if having it on Blu-Ray really makes a difference – PT was meant to look horrible, and well, it still does, but DP looks amazing! I think what they were going for (in the classic drive-in double-feature format) was that PT was supposed to be the movie they kept around to attach to almost any movie (which is why it looked so shitty), and DP was supposed to be the “new” movie. But it’s all awesome – I was surprised to find out that Simon Pegg IS in “Don’t”, but he’s so unrecognizable that there would have been no way to tell otherwise. Man, I love special features!
Alien Anthology – This is a great set, no question. Both this and the next will probably be considered the best sets to come out this year. The one movie I was really surprised at (clarity-wise) was Aliens – the movie has never looked that great, even when they did the restoration a few years ago. For this, though, it’s totally different – it looks equal to Alien now, finally! If you’re a fan of both Alien and Aliens, you should totally pick this up. For me, I’ve been a big supporter of Alien3, and I know there are those of you that haven’t even tried to watch it, remembering how bad it sucked. Well, I’m here to tell you – if you watch the documentary called Wreckage and Rage (with footage reinserted regarding the Fincher/Fox fights), it will make you want to check it out again.
See, when they did the Quadrilogy set a few years back, they asked David Fincher if he wanted to come back and edit his definitive cut of the movie, since they found all of the footage. He quit before editing began, because the people running Fox at the time were a bunch of assholes. They wanted specific things in the movie, and they went through at least two directors before landing on Fincher. He hadn’t directed a movie yet, and they wanted a director who knew how to make it look good, but also someone they could push around and hopefully be so thankful for the opportunity of directing such a high-profile movie that they would lay down for them. To Fincher’s credit, he did not do that – he even secretly shot some scenes behind their back.
Anyway, since Fincher was still so angry at the situation and the studio (and rightfully so), he declined to give any participation for the set. He did, however, give them permission to use his production notes to do whatever they wanted. The team at Fox edited together the footage and gave us basically an entirely different movie. I think that if Fox had left Fincher alone, Alien3 would now be as highly regarded as the original.
I probably went on a bit too long about that, but this is why I love big elaborate movie sets – sometimes the making of these movies is as interesting to me as the movies themselves. Even though there wasn’t much more really considered to be new as far as special features go since the Quadrilogy set, it’s still worth having the first three movies, for me, in super-beautiful hi-def awesomeness.
Apocalypse Now!: Full Disclosure Edition – To cap it all off, I bring you this classic. Now this is a fucking movie! They released the “Apocalypse Now! Redux” DVD set a few years back – basically it was a new cut of the movie with 45 extra minutes added back in. I’d seen the original a couple of times, but I hadn’t seen the new cut. I kept waiting for it to go on sale, but then totally forgot about it. When I heard about this new set, with both versions of the movie and a shit load of special features, including “Hearts of Darkness”, the documentary by Coppola’s wife about the making of the movie, I knew it had to be mine!
First, the Redux cut – there are a lot of new scenes in the movie that I really like, but I actually think in this case, less is more. I’m actually glad that I’d watched the original first, because I think it is superior to this cut. Totally worth watching, and two of the major additions to the movie have titties (and who doesn’t love titties!?)
Now the special features – I learned SO much. First, did you know that originally, George Lucas was supposed to direct, and that he was going to shoot it documentary style using handheld 16mm cameras? How about that Apocalypse Now! was the first movie with 5.1 surround sound? Or that the name of the movie came from buttons in the 60s saying Nirvana Now! (The original had a peace sign, and was worn by hippies of the day. It means that by dropping acid, you could achieve nirvana without the whole dying-rebirth thing. The writer added bombs and tail fins to the peace sign to make it look like a B52, and wrote Apocalypse Now! instead of Nirvana Now!) Or how about Martin Sheen’s character was originally to be played by Harvey Keitel, and was replaced just two weeks into shooting? Or how about that Martin Sheen was 35 when production started, and he had a heart attack during production? And while he recovered, his brother Joe Estevez stood in for Martin for five weeks, and they look so much alike, that not even THEY can’t tell who’s who when they watch it? Or how about the fact that shooting was planned for four months, and the actual shoot was 16 months? Or how Marlon Brando was to be paid a million dollars a week for three weeks of shooting, and when he showed up he was fatter than he’d ever been (Kurtz was supposed to be thin and almost sickly-looking), and hadn’t even read Heart of Darkness (the book on which the movie was based)?
The movie’s just a triumph of moviemaking, as it really is one of the best movies ever, and the story behind the troubled production (Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the Godfather series, threatened to commit suicide on six occasions) makes it even more interesting. I love all of these movies I’ve talked about for different reasons, but this really is the one that gave me the most bang for the buck I think. For someone who loves to know everything about the movies they love, sets like this remind me why.
I also watched The General (Buster Keaton’s silent movie from 1927). Fantastic movie, and so funny! I’ve watched a lot of the classics on the AFI Top 100, but that and City Lights (Charlie Chaplin) are two of my favorites. I’m serious – watching the Top 100 has been so awesome – if you’re starving for really good entertainment, I highly recommend you going off that list!
So, I guess that pretty much caps my week of movie-watching. Hope you enjoyed reading (or skimming).
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice one Rob. If I was rich I would totally go all the way to DFW just to hang out and watch movies for a week with you.
I love Seven Samurai also, and I also laughed my ribs into oblivion watching Planet Terror. Apocalypse Now Redux really is too sloppy with the extra stuff in it. I really want to see Shogun Assassin now and it’s all your fault.
- Women sense my power and they seek the life essence.
Yeah, Shogun Assassin really is a guilty favorite. It’s by no means a great movie, but it sure is fun.
i have to admit i came in here hoping for a nice diarrhea story. 🙁
anyway, rob, i have to say i think you’re the only person i know of who’s probably seen more movies than i have.
haven’t seen shogun assassin but looking at imdb, if i saw this at best buy for $14.99 i would definitely buy it.
picked up my copy of samurai seven on blu at barnes and noble as well. i’ve been wanting it on blu-ray ever since they started releasing kurosawa’s other films. and you’re absolutely right, for a 3 1/2 hour long movie it’s astoundingly lean and efficient film making.
i have the movies separate but don’t have the grindhouse edition. i’ll probably get it if best buy ever has it for that $14.99 price i like so much. as for death proof, i absolutely love that movie. it made me such a huge fan of zoe bell (check out angel of death for another starring role).
alien box set. on my “to get” list. i bought the dvds and double-dipped on the quadrilogy. so this well have to be sub $80 for me to get it.
i’ve got that apocalypse now redux dvd but can’t wait to pick up the new blu-ray version. this movie is very potent. i can’t hear “flight of the valkyries” without wanting to invade a 3rd world country.
good list.
My essence still senses Bucho's women.
You know, I find it funny that I post hear so randomly, but when it comes to movies, I can’t help but write about it, even if only a couple of people read it.
And I wish I had thought of the diarrhea thing – that post was like movie-diarrhea if you think about it, so the title was aptly named – from a certain point of view.
I find the first half of Death Proof not just Tarantino’s worst work, but the most boring part of any movie of the last half decade. The second half is fun but not enough to redeem the first.
I’m pretty curious to see the different version of Fincher’s Alien film though. I don’t remember Alien 3 being horrendous, just unremarkable, which is far below what Scott and Cameron accomplished.
- Women sense my power and they seek the life essence.
if there’s two things i love talking about, it’s movies and diarrhea. ever tried both at the same time? you can shoot the shit while you shoot the shit. get it? you can shoot the…
because you’re talking… but you’re also…
nevermind.
anyway, i picked up shogun assassin today. looking forward to it. i also got a little beauty called robo geisha because it looks as WTF as another movie i have called samurai princess. in samurai princess a chick takes off her boob (a bomb) and throws it at a dude and blows him up. fantastic.
back of the robo geisha package said something about boob bombs and butt blades.
My essence still senses Bucho's women.
Even reading about the chick taking her boob off has traumatized me.
- Women sense my power and they seek the life essence.
the title of this thread should in fact be the title of my week. I’ve been on a liquid diet, as everything I’ve eaten (my diet) has been damn near instantly turned into liquid fire.
I stayed home by myself for Thanksgiving… it should have been fun, but it turns out that the water closet gets boring, and is really a terrible place to be for that long.
@Version3 45474 wrote:
the title of this thread should in fact be the title of my week. I’ve been on a liquid diet, as everything I’ve eaten (my diet) has been damn near instantly turned into liquid fire.
I stayed home by myself for Thanksgiving… it should have been fun, but it turns out that the water closet gets boring, and is really a terrible place to be for that long.
well that sucks.
out of respect for you i won’t mention what a glorious meal i had. and i certainly won’t mention repeated plates-full of wonderful food.
My essence still senses Bucho's women.
I had cheetos puff, a single Red Baron french bread pizza, and chocolate pie.
I heated up some turkey leftovers later in the day, but it already isn’t a big deal food to me… so it was pretty disappointing reheated.
I’m much better now.
it’s the best collision of italy, france and germany since WWII.
My essence still senses Bucho's women.
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