Phase IV!

So, props go out to Doering for pointing me towards this news item. Legend Films have acquired the rights to some of Paramount's back-catalogue, including Phase IV! I first heard of Saul Bass's trippy ant movie when its trailer showed up on the 3rd (?) volume of Synapse Film's 42nd Street Forever series. I have an earlier release by Legend Films, Carnival of Souls. I feel certain that even if they add some schlocky special features, (like commentary by Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater fame) the disc will still look good. Maybe not Criterion good, but good.

ANTS!

Yo Joe!

So, I'm not going to get the Trapped In The Closet review up today afterall. In lieu of that, I'll present some GI Joe PSA parodies, to celebrate the absurdity that is the forthcoming live-action GI Joe movie. Enjoy!

...and my personal favorite...

Another Casino Royale DVD...

As reported here and here, Sony is going to pump out another DVD (as well as Blu-Ray) of the last James Bond film. Kind of makes you NEVER want to buy anything when it comes out, since there's going to be an even bigger, splashier copy right around the corner. But since studios base the release of future editions off the previous ones' sales, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I am guilty of buying my Sean Connery 007 movies all over again after the Lowry restoration, but that was a real upgrade. I mean, Dr. No looked like a new movie. For me, the film is all that matters. Supplemental material is just icing on the cake.

So, if I buy that 5-disc Bladerunner, does that mean an 8-disc one is right around the corner?

Real Talk!

Credit goes to my buddy Yusuke for pointing me towards this. If you haven't seen it yet, you are in for a treat. Real Talk!



"Bitch, I wish you WOOOUUULLD ..." Okay, so I know this isn't for everyone. If you enjoyed that though, check back tomorrow for my breakdown of Trapped In The Closet. It is by far, the most awesome/dumbest thing I've seen in a while. Real Talk!

Hunky Black Tiger

So, I'm going to admit a guilty pleasure here. It's a hobby of mine that I don't talk about in polite company. I like to watch movies, and give them completely new scores. There, I said it.

I'm sure you're familiar with syncing up the Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. If you start the album right with the third roar of the MGM lion in the title credits, magic happens. You remember the introduction of this guy:

The Scarecrow flopping over the fence syncs up with the line "The lunatic is on the grass." There are more examples of this synchronicity. Coincidence? I've heard many a person debate whether this was done intentionally, whether Pink Floyd used the film as a framework for their album. I personally feel that A) that gives them too much credit, and B) doesn't matter in the slightest. When confronted with randomness, our brain attempts to connect the dots and make order. What's special about playing that specific album and film together is how many times they match up.

At the end of the day, I'm not really what you would call a Pink Floyd fan. But I am a fan of this synchronicity between two things that should make absolutely no sense together. Allow me to share some of my findings. Are you familiar with the film Tears of the Black Tiger?
I should point out that I enjoy the original music to the film. The reference to Morricone's For A Few Dollars More theme, as a greater reference to Thai (and other) Westerns blatantly stealing iconic score music was not lost on me. But again, this is beside the point. We're about to work magic!

First you are going to need copies of the DVD Tears of the Black Tiger, and the album Hunky Dory by David Bowie. Set your DVD to play at the beginning of Chapter 1. As in hit play and then immediately pause it. We don't want to be thrown off by player delays. In a separate player, Hunky Dory should be playing Eight Line Poem (track 3). Hit play when the song is at 2:16, which is right after David Bowie's last word in the song fades. Now enjoy!

Originally I synced this later in the movie to start with the beginning of the song Andy Warhol. So I can't vouch for the first 15 minutes of the movie, but the rest is gold. Comments on personal enjoyment are appreciated. Comments on me being full of crap are looked down upon but also appreciated in their own way. I'll try to post regular examples of this phenomenon; look for my Road Warrior/Nine Inch Nails sync-up in the future.

Come with me if you want to live!

My boo's birthday was this past wednesday. In all fairness, you can read her breakdown of the night's events here. We met up at 5 in the East Village to partake of some happy hour margaritas and bar food at La Palapa. In retrospect, more emphasis should have been put on the "food" part, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I arrived first and was greeted by ... plastic wrap and sawdust. Not a good start. I'm informed that they are under week-long renovations, but that I can take their chartered bus over to their West Village location. As I'm trying to politely bow out, they tell me that the bus will be running back and forth until 10 that night and will be passing out free drinks. And then the ringer: there will be a dj on board. No you didn't!

So I wait in the sawdust, because ridiculous opportunities like this don't come nearly often enough. Suzy shows up and had the same initial reaction as me. She had emailed her friends the itinerary, and wasn't comfortable skipping across town at the last second. I could be wrong, but I think the sight of the Colombian party bus was what pushed her over. We got on the bus. I'm not sure how this bus was sad and awesome at the same time, but it rode that line. Anyway, I had let slip earlier that it was Suzy's birthday. So everyone burst into a happy birthday song, complete with her name. At no point had I mentioned her name! The creepy factor only rose when this tiny lady dressed up as the Gordon's fisherman started dancing her ass off. Did I mention there were only 3 passengers on the bus? My fear was calmed by 2 margaritas though.

We arrived at La Palapa, and met up with some friends who we'd told of the venue shift. I had 3 more margaritas and a scrape of guacamole. I should mention that all I had eaten earlier that day was a small piece of meatloaf and a mealy apple. Not a good base. Well, La Palapa flew by, and before you knew it: bus time again. No fishermen this time, but I did have another margarita. Arriving in the East Village, we walked to the Continental. For those not familiar, the Continental offers 5 shots for $10. And these aren't limited to your standard well liquor. As in, I could order 5 shots of Maker's Mark. And did. Repeatedly. Bad news.

More friends showed up and good times were had by all. The bar was showing The Terminator on a projection screen, which was pretty cool. I remember ordering another round of Maker's and then almost falling off a bench while trying to plug a battery charger into the wall. And then that's it. My memory stops. I hear tale that I was kicked out of the Continental, and about a homeless man helping me up off the street, but I can't corroborate these stories. But I do remember the Terminator.

My review of my Mar. 19 viewing of The Terminator:

So, you've got this lady with muskrat hair being chased by the governor of California. (he used to be an actor?) She holes up in a police station with the guy from Star Trek 2 and the dude from Aliens. ("I prefer the term Artificial Person") They are all cocky and police-like until a car drives into the station. People get shot. Another dude from Aliens ("Stay frosty") shows up and says, "Come with me if you want to live!" More people get shot. The end.

I should eat more before I go out drinking. And I shouldn't hijack my girlfriend's birthday. Sorry baby!

Not really a review, but...

This is actually just a post to complain about Region encoding on DVDs. Sexy, right?

So I was looking at DVDBeaver today, and noticed they had a new image comparison up for Lost Highway. Side note: If you haven't checked out their site (and you're anal retentive about image and sound quality), you should bookmark it. They are THOROUGH. I started checking their site fairly regularly after I got my region-free DVD player.

So, a little background. A year or so back I bought my current copy of Lost Highway.

It was released by Cinema Club (?) on Region 2 exclusively in the UK. It apparently has the same transfer and special features as the MK2 release in France. Which is a good thing. MK2 does great work. So I shop around, and order a copy online. Now, I figure that it will eventually get released in the US. I know this. It's a David Lynch film; it has to get a domestic release, right? Well, you're forgetting about the ongoing litigation surrounding the murder of Robert Blake's wife. And how he was the prime suspect in that murder trial. You can catch up on that here. I assumed someone was doing Blake a favor by not releasing the film here. Other than playing one of the creepiest characters I've ever seen in a Lynch film, there's that whole wife-murdering storyline... But this is all conjecture.

What I do know is that Universal is finally releasing Lost Highway in Region 1. (Mar. 25 to be exact)

At first, I was a little perturbed. I found my copy on sale, but still...c'mon! The exchange rate with the UK isn't exactly favorable. You can read DVDBeaver's comparison yourself, but it looks like the only nice thing about this new release is the price. No DTS track, skin tones that are WAY too red, and absolutely no supplemental material.

I'm glad I didn't wait for the domestic release.

We'll Be Up And Running Soon...

So, here we go! Soon this site will be full of reviews of wonderful and terrible films. For now, it is this. Poo.