Cheap DVD Reviews

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Ken_McAlinden, May 22, 2003.

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  1. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Another great film now in the $5.88 bins at WalMart is "The Poseidon Adventure."
     
  2. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    I was just looking at that during my lunch break. Are you following me around, Bradley? I almost bought it, but then I noticed that they had "The Love Bug" special edition, "The Rescuers", and "Snowball Express" for only $14.44 a piece. I was overcome with Disney nostalgia and grabbed those instead.

    Against my better judgement, I bought "Snowball Express" even though it was not letterboxed. I probably saw this wonderful piece of idiotic hokum more times than any other film in my pre-teen years, and I couldn't pass it up. I feel almost the same way about "Absent Minded Professor", but Disney went the extra mile and colorized it, guaranteeing a no-sale to me. :mad:

    Regards,
     
  3. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I agree with indy mike on the Batman: The Movie DVD. The Poseidon Adventure DVD uses only the mono soundtrack, not the stereo soundtrack. The picture quality on Poseidon Adventure is excellent though.
     
  4. indy mike

    indy mike Forum Pest

    Colorized? The visual equivalent of rechanneling - well, at least you can zap the color and probably find a decent quality print underneath the yucky pastel hues... ;)
     
  5. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Actually, you made a great analogy, because trying to decolorize a film is about as fruitful as trying to re-mono-ize a rechanneled stereo track. The processing changes the densities such that you don't get the original B&W film when you turn your set's color all the way down. :(

    Regards,
     
  6. indy mike

    indy mike Forum Pest

    Yep, it's never as good as just using the original elements; occasionally you find a reasonably clean print underneath the pukey colors with the color zapped, which is better than a crappy, public domain sourced print that's all scratchy and missing hunks of sound. Sad that so many studios think B&W won't sell, as it oftentimes has a beautiful look that color would have destroyed (Citizen Kane, anyone)???
     
  7. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    The silver lining in the cloud that was Ted Turner's experiment with colorization in the 80s was that in order to do it, they had to start from a fairly pristine source for the original film. This forced them to try and identify the best elements available, which probably kept some of the B&W films in the vault from deteriorating or getting significant source materials ash-canned.

    Regards,
     
  8. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Buy the Poseidon Adventure DVD as it is letterboxed, despite the mono soundtrack rather than the stereo soundtrack being used.
     
  9. JohnG

    JohnG PROG now in Dolby ATMOS!

    Location:
    Long Island NY
    Another cool movie that was recently released is Miracle Mile starring ER's Anthony Edwards. It is value-priced at BestBuy for $9.99.

    Though this DVD transfer is not OAR which has pissed of some fans, I still bought it because I love the movie and this may be all we get.

    The plot goes like this:

    Imagine you have finally met the girl of your dreams and you have a date tonight. But sometime during the nap your taking the power goes out and you fail to wake up in time to see the girl. When you do get up its like 2AM and you race down to where you were supposed to meet (an All-Night Diner in Downtown Los Angeles).

    At that Diner your pissed and hanging around the creatures that haunt a place like that when the outside PayPhone begins ringing. You pick it up and on the end of the line a guy is yelling at who he thinks is his father that the US is in DefCon1 and WW3 is about to begin, when the guy on the end of the phone realizes he dialed the wrong number he hangs up.

    You now wander back into the Diner wondering what the hell was that?

    So starts our movie...a little gem on HBO Video that stars a very young Anthony Edwards back when he had hair.

    See this one! :thumbsup:
     
  10. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Shenandoah

    This week's (second) offering: Universal's release of "Shenandoah"

    Directed by: Andrew V. McLaglen

    Starring: James Stewart, Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne, Rosemary Forsyth, Phillip Alford, Katharine Ross

    Purchase Price/Source: 9 bills at Costco

    The Film

    Arguably the best film of director Andrew McLaglen's long career, Shenandoah stars Jimmy Stewart in a great performance as Charlie Anderson, the fiercely independent patriarch of a large farming family in Virginia. The Civil War has been raging and the South is losing. Anderson opposes slavery, has no allegiance to the North, and feels that it's not his or his sons' quarrel to fight. When one of Anderson's sons is mistakenly arrested by the Union army, he finds that whether or not he chooses sides, there is no avoiding being drawn into the conflict.

    Stewart is in his surly mode which he honed to perfection in his 50s films with Anthony Mann, and he is convincingly intimidating to just about every character in the film (with the exception of his daughters and his deceased wife to whom he speaks at her gravesite). The rest of the cast plays off of him well. In particular, Phillip Alford (best known for playing Jem Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird") acquits himself well playing "Boy" Anderson, the youngest son, and is at the center of the action for most of the key sequences in which Stewart does not appear. There are notable cameos from a number of well-known character actors including George Kennedy, Harry Carey, Jr., Strother Martin, and Denver Pyle.

    The plot relies on a number of unlikely coincidences, but since the Anderson family seems to have a fairly even mix of both good and bad luck, it does not detract from the drama. The 1965 film raises some interesting questions about a man's duty to serve in a war he feels is unjust that must have resonated strongly with contemporary audiences considering the escalating involvement of the US in Vietnam. It is marketed by Universal as part of their "Western Collection", but it is really much more of Civil War film than a western.

    The DVD

    The source print for the transfer looks dodgy for the first minute, consisting of the opening titles and some establishing battle field scenes, but it improves quickly and substantially after that. The 16:9 enhanced transfer of this 1.85:1 aspect ratio film is exceptional, with few if any flaws in the source print evident. Colors are a bit subdued, but pleasant, and the night scenes look above average compared to other transfers I have seen for films of this vintage. The mono audio is also pretty good, with few audible flaws. The only extra is the film's theatrical trailer, which includes some spoilers, so I would not advise watching it before the film.

    In summary, an excellent way to spend less than $10. :thumbsup:


    Regards,
     
  11. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Her name is Rio and she dances on the Lobo

    This week's offering: Paramount's release of "Rio Lobo"

    Directed by: Howard Hawks

    Starring: John Wayne, Jack Elam, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill, Christopher Mitchum, Victor French, Sherry Lansing, Susana Dosamantes

    Purchase Price/Source: 10 greenbacks at Costco

    The Film

    Of the five feature film collaborations between John Wayne and Howard Hawks, this is certainly one of them. :)

    Rio Lobo is most notable for being the last film directed by the great Howard Hawks, and his last collaboration with screen icon John Wayne. It starts off with a cool opening title design followed by an exciting train heist and pursuit sequence coordinated by Hawks and his second unit director, legendary Hollywood stunt man Yakima Canutt. It features a classic Hawksian scenario involving tough men living by a code of honor that is only occasionally questioned by tough women. The script by Leigh Brackett (who penned all of the Hawks-Wayne films except for Red River) is tailor-made for the kind of repartee that we love to see in Hawks films.

    So what went wrong? Well, the cast went wrong. The film is marred by a middling to bad performance by Jorge Rivero, and an absolutely horrible performance from Jennifer O'Neill. One gets the sense that Hawks saw how badly O'Neill's performance was progressing and introduced Sherry Lansing (then a small-time actress, now a big-time studio executive) as a salvage move to carry the drama in the film's second half. Other than Jack Elam, nobody on the screen seems to be able to fit in the same frame with John Wayne, even though Wayne gives a fairly unselfish performance considering his larger than life persona. The film was made for $4 million, which was $2 million less than the previous Hawks-Wayne collaboration El Dorado. The budget is reflected in the casting, and, to a lesser extent, in the sparse production design.

    The skeleton of the plot involves Wayne, a Civil War Union Calvary Colonel, searching for the soldiers who had been selling information about Union gold shipments to the Confederates during the war. Wayne will not rest until he has identified and brought to justice the Union traitors. In his efforts, he teams up with ex-Confederate soldiers who were captured and imprisoned during one of the train raids.

    At one point, Wayne and some of his cohorts find themselves holed up in a jail house under siege. Because of this, Rio Lobo is often described as an inferior remake of Rio Bravo and El Dorado. In truth, the siege portion is quite brief, and Rio Lobo is actually a lot different in its approach than either of those films were from each other.

    Look for a cameo by writer/"life experience sampler" George Plimpton as a gunman who is shot down almost as fast as he is introduced.

    The DVD

    The 16:9 enhanced transfer of this 1.85:1 widescreen film is very solid. The palette is a bit pale, but its uniform appearance suggests that this may be the intended look of the film. The sound is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 surround in addition to a French mono dub. Both of the English soundtracks sound pretty good. They are not highly directional, with modest surround support mostly for music. They are marred somewhat by what sounds like noise reduction artifacts, but it is not overly distracting. There are no extras.

    In summary, if you already own Red River, Rio Bravo, Hatari!, and El Dorado, you can now complete your John Wayne-Howard Hawks DVD collection. Anyone else would probably want to watch the other films first.

    Regards,
     
  12. John B

    John B Once Blue Gort,<br>now just blue.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Thanks Ken.
    I have been sitting hear quietly reading your reviews. How about Clint Eastwood's westerns? "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"?
    John
     
  13. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    I probably won't do an in-depth review of GBU, because there is reportedly an extended SE in the works for release in the next year or so. Taking the Jack Webb "just the facts" approach, the video transfer is quite good with anamorphic enhancement. The mono sound is about as good as it has ever sounded, and the extras include a number of deleted scenes in Italian with English subtitles. Those deleted scenes are the ones that will likely be incorporated at least partially into the extended cut. Since it is possible that the SE will not allow you to see the shorter cut of the film that most people are familiar with, it's probably worth risking the $6-10 it costs at retailers who discount if you are a fan of the film.

    Regards,
     
  14. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Back from a brief hiatus...

    This week's offering: Fox's release of "Flight of the Phoenix"

    Directed by: Robert Aldrich

    Starring: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Duryea, George Kennedy

    Purchase Price/Source: 80 Bits ($10) at Best Buy

    The Film

    1965's "Flight of the Phoenix" is a very engrossing plane crash/survival film. The premise involves the downing of an airplane over an isolated Arabian desert. In addition to pilot James Stewart and navigator Richard Attenborough, the passengers on the plane consist of various oil workers, the brother of an oil worker, and a couple of British military men to whom they are giving a lift. The mechanics of survival and various plans for escape provide a skeleton for the plot, but the meat of this film is rooted in the personalities of the various survivors and how they affect the group dynamics in this pressure cooker environment. This approach is very effective, and not all that surprising coming from Robert Aldrich, who's next effort would be the ensemble war film, "The Dirty Dozen". Since the main interest of the film-maker is how the men interact under stress, it is much closer in concept to "12 Angry Men" than to most other disaster films.

    The key players in this environment are Stewart as a tough pilot plagued by his belief that he was responsible for the crash, Attenborough as his alcoholic navigator and chief confidante, Peter Finch as a very very British officer (Attenborough's character has a humorous line about this that I won't spoil), Ronald Fraser as perhaps the worst Sergeant in the British Army, Ernest Borgnine as an oil worker who was being sent home after suffering from a nervous breakdown, Christian Marquand as the level-headed doctor who helps attend to Borgnine and stabilize some of the other injured and agitated survivors, Ian Bannen as a working class stiff who likes to stir up trouble, and, in a stand-out performance, Hardy Krüger as a bright but arrogant German engineer who the others find it harder and harder to get along with the more he is right about what he says. A semi-gratuitous hallucination scene results in there being at least one female cast member in the film: actress/dancer Barrie Chase.

    The core of the film is its ensemble cast, and all of the performances are strong. Events do not necessarily unfold the way they normally do in Hollywood films, so each character's chance for survival has little to do with how likable or annoying they are. Their ultimate plan for escape and survival, which is spoiled by most descriptions of the film's plot, is a novel one, and would make an interesting premise for a future installment of the TV series "Survivor". There are a few character conflicts that are developed and then abandoned, which hurts the general efficiency of the film and makes the ending seem abrupt, but this also adds an element of practical realism to the film. The 2 hour and 22 minute running time passes before you know it. This is a film that really needs to be watched continuously to be properly appreciated. Airings on commercial television don't really do it justice as the developing tension gets unwound with frequent interruptions.

    Sad Trivia: The film is dedicated to legendary Hollywood stunt pilot Paul Mantz who died in a tragic accident during the production. :(

    The DVD

    The 1.85:1 16:9 enhanced widescreen transfer is very nice. Since so much of the film takes place in a desert setting, overuse of edge enhancement would have wreaked havoc on the high-contrast color images, but fortunately, it is mild to non-existent. The print used was in good shape aside from a few segments where it appears that dupe negative material had to be used, and the anamorphically enhanced transfer will leave you very thirsty by the film's end. Like many recent Fox releases, the default audio is a fake 2.0 stereo track, but the original mono track is available with a click of your remote and is the preferred option.

    In summary, another high-quality bargain release from Fox which I recommend to fans of pressure-cooker dramas.

    Films on deck: The Vikings from MGM and Image's twofer of Charlie Chaplin's A King in New York and A Woman of Paris

    Regards,
     
  15. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Star Fjords Episode One

    This week's offering: MGM's release of "The Vikings"

    Directed by: Richard Fleischer

    Starring: Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Ernest Borgnine

    Purchase Price/Source: Part of a five films for $30 promotion at Best Buy

    The Film

    1958's The Vikings was probably the kind of film that George Lucas loved as a teen. It's a big goofy story with all of those mythic elements (fathers vs. sons, brothers vs. brothers, men of royal blood being raised as slaves, lots of severed limbs and disfigurement, etc.) that Lucas and Joseph Campbell like to talk about. :) Of course, if you are going to be telling a big goofy larger-than-life story with lots of action and hyper-drama, there is no better actor to put at the heart of it than Kirk Douglas in his prime. Douglas, who also produces the film, is reunited here with his director, Richard Fleischer, and production designer, Harper Goff, from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the production is made to look even more spectacular thanks to the lighting and photography of legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff.

    The film is filled with all of the requisite fighting, looting, and raping one could expect from a Viking movie made under the Hollywood production code. The dialog is (by design) very stilted, but it suits the overall mythic tone of the film not unlike the way everyone seems to speak in those Ray Harryhausen mythology movies. Tony Curtis plays the sympathetic lead and chief rival to Douglas and his father, played by Ernest Borgnine. This is not a film made to please fans of weighty dramas, but if you can appreciate the easy pleasures (both intentional and otherwise) of Kirk Douglas "running the oars" of his Viking ship, Tony Curtis "pitching the woo" to his real life wife Janet Leigh, Ernest Borgnine presiding over some rather odd recreational activities at a Viking feast, repeated lines of dialog that end with "by Odin", a large scale siege of a British castle, and the increasingly implausible excuses everyone keeps coming up with to not just kill Tony Curtis, you will enjoy the film.

    The production design is incredibly detailed. The recreations of Viking ships, villages, weapons, and modes of dress are as authentic as the history behind the story is dodgy. It is really a feast for the eyes. The fact that much of the film was shot on location in the Fjords of Norway adds to the authenticity as well.

    One interesting bit of trivia is that the opening titles feature some simple animation done by the UPA studio (of Mr. Magoo fame). Director Richard Fleischer has something of an animation pedigree himself as he was the son of animation pioneer Max Fleischer (and nephew of Dave Fleischer, of course).

    As an aside, who knew that Ernest Borgnine would make such a good Viking? He would have been perfect if they had made a live action Hagar the Horrible film.

    The DVD

    Wow! The 16:9 enhanced transfer for this title is really outstanding. You will see slight flickering in the film element during some of the outdoor shots, but this is altogether one of the best renderings of a large format 1950s film I have seen on video (The Vikings was shot in 3-strip Technicolor using the "Technirama" process, which was sort of like VistaVision with an anamorphic squeeze applied). No complaints. The mono audio is pretty good, although at times a bit muffled, possibly due to digital noise reduction. Aside from the theatrical trailer which really plays up the sex and violence appeal of the movie, the only substantial extra is a 30 minute combination photo gallery and interview with Richard Fleischer. He offers his reminiscences of the production in a filmed interview in his office supplemented by lots of behind the scenes photographs from his personal archive. It is a really nice unexpected treat for such a bargain-priced DVD.

    In summary, this disc is a steal if you are a fan of medieval action with lots of scenery chewing performances.

    Regards,
     
  16. RetroSmith

    RetroSmith Forum Hall Of Fame<br>(Formerly Mikey5967)

    Location:
    East Coast
    Man, I wish "A Swinging Summer", one of the least known "Beach Party" type movies would come out on DVD.

    This movie doesnt have much of a plot, BUT it has beautiful footage of Lake Arrowhead , and just FABULOUS performances by Gary Lewis and The Playboys, The Righteous Bros, and in their only film/Tv appearance, The Rip Chords doing "My Red Hot Roadster". Just amazing stuff!!!
     
  17. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    ...and one of Raquel Welch's first screen appearances, too.

    Regards,
     
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