Speaking of conspicuous DVD packaging (see the previous blog entry's talkback), the little gewgaw on your left arrived at FFC HQ today from Blue Underground. It's a casket-shaped box set housing all the films that constitute Amando de Ossorio's "Blind Dead" series, a bonus disc dedicated to the late Ossorio's exploits, and the 2005 edition of Nigel J. Burrell's monograph Knights of Terror: The Blind Dead Films of Amando de Ossorio (which looks like a fabulous read). After the brouhaha over the "Homer head", I wouldn't be surprised to see fewer and fewer of these impractical objets d'art put into production--but might I suggest that for those seminal works not necessarily on the zeitgeist's radar, the nonconformist approach to packaging is a necessary evil? They need the beacon; if I had a nickel for every time I unwittingly flipped past some cultish find while cruising the record store for same, I'd be Harry Myers, "An Eccentric Millionaire."On a side note, the DVD I have most coveted in the history of the format is finally coming out on November 22nd. Can you guess what it is?
20 comments:
P.S.: Sorry for the shitty photo; my camera battery died just as I snapped it--no retakes.
Man - I never did get the Blind Dead flicks, but in the back of my head I always admired how they took something so particular and strange and turned it into something like a franchise. There was always something seedy about them, too, a certain Saturn 3 grotesquerie to 'em that they always made me feel a little sick and subverted.
Are you talking, by the way, about the King Kong (1933) that Warners is releasing as a two-disc?
Nope, it's not Kong (though I'm dying to see the new transfer), and it's not Alien Vs. Predator (though I'm dying to shoot at it like skeet).
Saturn 3--what a picture. Genuinely fascinated by its sordidness.
Tales of Hoffman.
DISORDERLIES, starring the Fat Boys?
Alien vs. Predator - with an all new and improved X-TREME transfer; now you can kind of see what's going on during the film!
Also coming - the Boogie Nights Super Deluxe "Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow" Edition, shaped like... well, you know.
I'll also take the Criterion route and say that the anticipated title is Ran. I mean, I guess that one was already out on DVD, but I think the Masterworks edition barely counts for anything.
-- Ian
Now c'mon Scott, you know Disorderlies came out in June!
All good guesses, but still no cigar. Let me say that Chad is on the right track in that it's not actually a movie.
Gotta be The Beave.
Er... something you found particularly intriguing about the fifth and sixth seasons of "Seinfeld"?
-- Ian
To the poster who guessed "Leave It to Beaver", I offer "most impressive" in my best Darth Vader voice. Let's hope they get the whole series out posthaste.
Ah shit! "Leave it to Beaver"! One of the most underestimated programs in the history of television: every episode a little slice of didactic perfection.
Hope they package the set in an actual beaver carcass.
Now those are some slim chances.
Personally, I'm looking forward to "Mighty Joe Young"--I have many fond memories of watching it with pop on Sunday afternoons. I'm intrigued by "The Blind Dead" box set--though I probably will not unlimber my wallet for that one--I have to be a little choosier with my horror buys now that I'm all hitched and growed up (ie--"in debt". I recall seeing most of the first "Blind Dead" on the old "Elvira" show--didn't leave too much of an impression (though as I remember, watching "Elvira" was only a pretense to flipping aback to the racy Italian movies they used to show on a local station--in those pre-internet days, you had to work for your filthy, teenage minds)
The one nifty thing about the Blind Dead set is that it marks the first time the Spanish originals (which often clock in at around 10 minutes longer than their U.S. counterparts) have been available on DVD in North America. The cover art hypes a lot of extra gore and nudity, natch, but I'm hoping the extra footage makes these flicks a little better paced.
Off-topic on-topic, what are the odds one of you (preferably Walter) will review Lost Season 1 on DVD?
Hey, Cap'n -
I'd say the odds are pretty good - though that news is only probably really, really good if you're not much of a fan.
Love Mighty Joe Young, too - remember seeing that one before King Kong actually. Musta' happened upon it on Saturday afternoon TV - lots of great stuff stuck in my deep memory banks only to erupt now and again at the weirdest times. I remember recording Clash of the Titans off our local independent station and watching that tape once a day, every day for all of one summer.
Made my Harry Hamlin/"L.A. Law" awareness a little hard to reconcile, let's just say.
Uh-oh. Sounds like Walter's about to lay the smackdown on "Lost," Chaw-style. That's a shame, because I like the show. In theory anyway, if not always in practice. Oh well.
P.S. I like you as a critic, Walter, so hopefully no negative connotations are derived from my new made-up word, "Chaw-style." Was just trying to be goofy.
Whoa! I posted at 3:14! Like, totally pi, man!
I would never have that problem anyway, 'cause I never really bought in to those huge tins. Heck, when I could have easily chosen between getting Maniac in the standard casing or the tin at my local video shop, I picked the standard edition without a second thought. This goes back to the extreme difficulty of fitting the Evil Dead - Book of the Dead edition anywhere in my cupboard. Didn't want to have to deal with that again, and plus, I find there's something ugly about that style of packaging.
This is not quite related to DVDs getting erased, but I had a truly bizarre experience two years ago when I bought the Basic Instinct special edition, the one that came in the horrible see-through case. When I got home, I opened the package to discover that the case was cracked in a number of places and the data side of the DVD was covered with sand. Whatever the Hell was happening up at the factory I really would rather not know.
As for the Blind Dead Collection, I have no doubt that it will be an awesome package. Heck, Blue Underground’s becoming a great company for obscure genre film special editions right alongside Anchor Bay. Still though, I won’t be getting the collection. The Blind Dead films are perfect cures for insomnia.
P.S. Whenever I try to choose a user name when signing up for a Blogger account, it says that the name is not available. No matter what name I use, I always get that message. A glitch in the software, or is there something I’m just not doing properly?
- David Hollands
david, Wonder why I picked the name I picked ? Because I could not find fucking anything. And my name is prashin, nobody has that fucking name in the world. So look for the most abstract random shit and use it as your user name. that's all i can suggest.
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