Not on DVD

[auto-da-fey]

The Powers That Be have apparently deemed The Pack unworthy of release on DVD, but there is not a better film in existence about Joe Don Baker engaging in mortal combat with a pack of rampaging wild dogs. What struck me while watching it was just how unlikely a movie star Baker was--not much of a looker, nor really charismatic, or even particularly talented, he nonetheless has a sort of burly Everyman presence that keeps him consistently watchable, even as his constipated growl renders lines like "I'm gonna kill the bastards" a little ridiculous.

[Trousers and Pat]

Now that sounds like a good premise for a movie. I remember enjoying Final Justice way back when I saw it on MST3K... he takes his grumpy texas justice on the road to Malta.
Heh, and here's a fun post from the imdb forum for the movie: Joe Don Warning

on the man vs beast note I'm pleasantly surprised to see that Karate Bear Fighter is out on DVD, at least kind of.

[Nickosaurus]

The brilliant "Los Angeles Plays Itself" may or may not ever make it to DVD. Such is.

[auto-da-fey]

Even more than Los Angeles Plays Itself, I'd love to see some of the films included in it make it to DVD--not least L.A. Plays Itself, which is my nomination for the best gay porn feature ever, even though I still have yet to see that damn fisting scene excised from the only VHS copy I've managed to track down. Which I know I've mentioned before, but which irks me still. Not because I'm hankering for fisting footage, but because edited films make me irate.

Bless Their Little Hearts and The Exiles also stick out in my memory as two films Andersen uses that I'd ove to see show up on DVD.

[auto-da-fey]

Apropos really of nothing, Thom Andersen (director of Los Angeles Plays Itself) just curated a screening series of the works of Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, none of whose works are domestically available on DVD, here this weekend. I wanted to go but didn't make it, and now I regret it already.

[difficult]

Apropos really of nothing, Thom Andersen (director of Los Angeles Plays Itself) just curated a screening series of the works of Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, none of whose works are domestically available on DVD, here this weekend. I wanted to go but didn't make it, and now I regret it already.

Costa! He's great. I have access to a few of his films on DVD, some with subs some without

[hannah]

He is great, yes yes. Saw In Vanda's Room and Colossal Youth in New York in August.

[auto-da-fey]

Well, shit. Way to validate my decision, guys. I guess I'll try to use it as motivation--NEXT time I have one of these only-once opportunities, I'm gonna TAKE it.

[auto-da-fey]

The Brink's Job is a largely forgotten 1978 heist movie that I only watched because William Friedkin directed it, but it doesn't feel like a Friedkin pic. It's mostly broad (and flat) humor, which is a shame because he squanders an ace cast--it's like he rounded up the best character actors of the 1970s, with Peter Boyle, Allen Garfield, Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands, and Warren Oates, but none of them have anything to do but chew scenery. I assume Friedkin directed this while in a state of catatonic shock from the box-office disaster of Sorcerer, and it shows.

Someone oughta release it on DVD anyway, just for historical purposes. But there's really no reason anyone should want to see it.

[auto-da-fey]

So when my beloved Jerry's Videos vanished, I had this list of stuff I wanted to rent from it. Some of it is tough to track down anywhere--Umberto Lenzi's The Cynic, the Rat, and the Fist and the 1968 British sleaze drama Baby Love come to mind--but other not-on-DVD films turned out to be just sitting on half.com for $2.

Thus I saw Busting, a 1974 cop film with Elliott Gould and Robert Blake. It's nothing great--a fairly archetypal vice-cops-up-against-the-forces-of-internal-police-corruption story--but I'd watch Gould and Blake together in anything, and it does map out the geography of mid-70s L.A. sex underworlds in nice, vivid detail. So I'm happy with it. Certainly it's the best thing writer-director Peter Hyams did, at the start of a career that absolutely personified the anonymous journeyman that once inspired a thread here.

[auto-da-fey]

Also, Busting had a pretty swell poster:

[lastclearchance]

Look around you, and then go with "maths."

Look Around You is not worth going region-free for (since I can watch it on youtube) but it's pretty great and I'd love a region 1 DVD.

[Greg Nog]

I was just talking to a friend of mine the other day about her Halloween costume (she's going to be Darth Maul), and I mentioned the fact that Look Around You's creator is also Darth Maul's voice.

I have a region-free DVD player these days, and I don't think I can ever go back.  I love it.

[lastclearchance]

I have a region-free DVD player these days, and I don't think I can ever go back.  I love it.

I'm pretty sure I'll get one eventually but for now I just have a small list of things that I'd like to see, like Lilja 4-ever.

[auto-da-fey]

I have a region-free DVD player these days, and I don't think I can ever go back.  I love it.

I'm pretty sure I'll get one eventually but for now I just have a small list of things that I'd like to see, like Lilja 4-ever.

Dude, that's on R1. I saw it through Netflix. A seriously harrowing film, one of my favorites from recent years probably.

[dieblucasdie]

I have this $30 DVD Player that has a simple software hack (you press three buttons) that makes it region-free.

[lastclearchance]

Dude, that's on R1.

WHAT

WHAT

WHERE

I have this $30 DVD Player that has a simple software hack (you press three buttons) that makes it region-free.

I should probably just do that. The reviews on target's site aren't so positive, though, eh?

[dieblucasdie]

I've never had any problems with it, but yeah, it's a cheap DVD player.  But it's region-free!

Also, those little DVD players have had quite the saga.  Basically "Tru-Tech" is a Target-store-brand, and they're just re-branded Cyberhomes.  So basically everyone is well-aware that the region bug exists and no one cares, since these DVD players are illegal anyway.  Target is just trying to make a quick buck and get out.

[auto-da-fey]

Dude, that's on R1.

WHAT

WHAT

WHERE

voila.

[jebreject]

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-DVP642-DivX-Certified-Progressive-Scan-Player/dp/B000204SWE

hackable with a remote code, and will play damn near anything that you'll put in it, including xvid

[auto-da-fey]

Jonathon Demme is one of those directors I'd probably offer a knee-jerk dismissal of if ever asked, mostly because of Philadelphia (which, don't get me wrong, totally makes me cry, but which I hate on ideological grounds for making gayness so damn asexual). But if I ever put any real thought into it, I think I'd actually be pretty much in favor of him--I like his 70s roots in Roger Corman movies, his concert films are well done, and I even dug that Manchurian Candidate remake, to my surprise.

So anyway, I went to Mondo Video yesterday, which is still sort-of operational (the lease doesn't expire till Halloween; they're mostly just shooting gangbang porn there, but the entire video stock is still for sale; apparently they're not really renting anymore, but I got a pass from the owner because I'm "not an asshole," in his words). I sifted through the "Spies" section, out of curiosity. Last Embrace was sitting there, and I grabbed it. It's a 1979 Demme thriller with Roy Scheider, and while it's not really successful, it's interesting enough that I'm glad I saw it, since it's apparently been excluded from cinema history for the most part. Scheider is some sort of vaguely-defined secret agent with paranoia problems, and people chase him around as Demme heaps on Hitchcock homage after Hitchcock homage; while it never adds up to much, it's got a charming loopiness to it not that far removed from the tone of Something Wild. There are worse ways to spent a Tuesday night.

[das kranke Tier]

So anyway, I went to Mondo Video yesterday, which is still sort-of operational (the lease doesn't expire till Halloween; they're mostly just shooting gangbang porn there

Seriously?

[auto-da-fey]

Yeah, apparently. I mean, they do the shooting after-hours, so there's no risk of stepping in to look at movies and catching a cumshot on your shoes or anything; as far as I can tell, they spend the days editing (there's an improvised editing set-up right in the middle of the floor now), while various miscreants continue to come in and buy the remaining film stock. Apparently William Friedkin is or was going to stop by to hang out and chat with customers and fans at some point, but no one there seems to know when this is or was. Grindhouse directors William Lustig and Jack Hill have also done the same recently. It's pretty crazy and baffling, but gloriously so.

[coldforge]

nice

[auto-da-fey]

hey coldforge, NICE YOU