October 22, 2008

A glimpse: the DVDs

Because it's clearly something that you folks demand, our "A Glimpse" series continues with the DVDs that I own and that live on both sides of my stereo above the television...left side first...from left to right...


Sin City was a great time in the theater. Loved it. The movie hasn't held up on further viewings. It's neat and all, but it's not one I love seeing again and again. And the double disc version is amazingly tedious - except for Robert Rodriguez's Ten Minute Cooking School - which is brilliant and should be watched and to which I would link if it didn't end with a horrific vulgarity.

The Muppet Movie was a gift from Calen after I crabbed that it was stolen by some punks who broke into my house a few years ago. It's one of my all-time favorite movies, and the jokes get me smiling and laughing every time. Cameos out the wazoo - Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Edgar Bergan, Charlie McCarthy, Charles Durning, Richard Pryor, Dom DeLouise, Milton Berle, James Coburn, Bob Hope, Elliott Gould, Carol Kane, Madeline Kahn, Telly Savalas, Orson Wells - all brilliant. One of my all-time favorite movies.

Fight Club is one I can watch over and over again. I know the twist is coming, and the movie works even better for me because of it.

Hoosiers is the other favorite movie. I'll watch it three or four times every year and break into tears when the minister gives the David and Goliath speech every time. When I first got the DVD, I watched every game scene and skipped every other one...tears anyway. This edition is great because it has all the deleted scenes that make the plot holes close right up. Plus, bonus points because "I think Jimmy can get an academic scholarship to Wabash College."

Then the whole Kevin Smith oeuvre - cartoon, Clerks X, Mallrats 10th anniv, Chasing Amy (the best he's done yet and the one I enjoy watching the least...the movie spoke to me at the time, what can I say), Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (the worst of them and the one I probably watch the most). Don't know why Degrassi is way out of order, but that a'ight.

North to Katahdin is a documentary about the Appalachian Trail that I bought for The Girl a while back and that we've watched once. It did give me some idea of what her 2100+ mile trip was like.

A Lion in the House is heartbreaking, and I've blogged about it twice before.

The next two are Wilco - one of the band and one of Tweedy alone. The first is a better movie by far, the second a simple concert DVD with extra content that I've never been able to get to work. Which sucks.

The Big Lebowski is the funniest movie I've ever seen. Love it.

The two two-flick DVDs were about $10 each at Target, and I've seen Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity enough to justify both purchases.

The Wimbledon up top is the last of these to have been in the player. It's the classic final from this past summer. Five full hours of fascinating BBC coverage of the match.



LA Story is the second movie that The Girl and I went to see - our second date. It's a magical and hilarious tale written by and starring Steve Martin.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension is an atrocious piece of 80's filmmaking. It's a product of its era as strongly as almost any I've ever seen. I love it - especially the end credits. The special effects and the make up are awful. AWFUL. I love it.

Family Guy pretty much isn't funny. I enjoyed it briefly, but I hate it now.

Spirited Away from Miyazaki is beautiful. It's an animated feature of stunning beauty. It's been a while since I've seen it because Calen's daughter hasn't been over in a while. She watches it nearly every time she visits.

Rozencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the tale of "Hamlet" as told from a different point of view, focusing on his two bumbling friends and their struggles with trying to acknowledge that they have very little - if any - control over their own path in the play. Funny, witty stuff.

Field of Dreams has me in tears at the end every time.

Hero is the finest movie ever made. I stand by that statement. It's the only one that I've given a 100-rating to on criticker.

The Aristocrats is not the Disney movie that you're thinking of. It's the most vulgar movie I've ever seen, all about a single horrifically off-color joke. Do not see it if you're at all offended. By anything. Anything at all.

Kill Bill volume 1, only.

Time Bandits is one out of the childhood and another gift from Calen.

The Triplets of Belleville is an animated film almost entirely in French, probably not ten English words and not many words at all, honestly.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the other flick - with Lebowski - for funniest film I've seen.

The ones up top are all borrow films - Matrix from my neighbor at shcool, Signs and Saving Private Ryan from Coach Sullivan, The Secret as an absolute joke from the guy who lived in my basement last summer, and the 15-Minute Workout is The Girl's loaner.

I'm not sure there was a lick of anything revealing there at all.

Thanks for getting that far.

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