last house on the left.

so as i intend to begin saving money for the first time in my life it seems, i think it's going to be about time i cool it with the box set-deluxe edition madness.

doesn't REALLY change the direction of this blog i suppose, i'll just be talking more about shit i already have and that's coming out rather than shit i'm about to buy.

i know i'll fall off the wagon eventually, especially if bands like these guys do shit like this.

so just a quickie today, as doom is impending at work. and kim, i know you just did an entry about the remake but its fresh on my mind, so deal with it haha.

picked this up a few weeks ago.



the last house on the left 3-disc ultimate edition.

in brief, this is one of sean s. cunningham (friday the 13th creator)'s first produced movies, and more notably, the directorial debut of some guy named wes craven.

basic synopsis, girls go to concert, girls try to buy drugs, girls unintentionally meet escaped prisoners, prisoners rape and torture girls before eventually killing them, prisoners go to random house (on the left apparently), house is that of one of the girl's parents, parents find out about what happened, parents go ballistic on prisoners. basically your good setup for mayhem and murder.

film is a little rough and a little dark, i'd say maybe more disturbing than it is scary. plus its always great to see an all-american dad flipping his shit and going chainsaw. and no, not this chainsaw:



anyway, film was banned in the UK for like 30 years, then finally released with heavy cuts in like 2003. it didn't see fully uncut light until this release last year. so therefore the most extensive version is only available on a region 2 UK release, and the US release is shit. makes sense to me.

here we go:

uncut original release. lovely.
alternate cut. very very similar with one notable extended scene which actually adds to the plot and makes the film make a little more sense. it's a mystery why it was cut from the final release.
couple decent documentaries, some unused footage, behind the scenes footage, trailers, some weird silent movie called "tales to tear your heart out", basically your standard decent bonus stuff. with one exception:

disc 3 has a great documentary called "going to pieces: the rise and fall of the slasher film", which i had never heard of before this release, but i gotta say i was impressed. wonderful surprise.

in short, last house isn't the best, or the scariest, slasher-type film, but it is good. and not too dated either. and it began the career of two of the biggest names in horror, so we'll file this under "cool" and "historically significant".

speaking of which, i'll be re-watching "the maltese falcon" soon. absolutely great bogey flick.

side note: get yourself a multi-region dvd player. mine was $70 and it also upscales to 1080i. a lot of times instead of getting a shitty US release (as in this case, which is out of print and $20+ for a USED copy), you can get a much better version from the UK (or whatever country, i hear the re-cut 4+ hour single movie version of kill bill is an official release in japan!).

until next time..

director collections.

now i could go allll day on this, but i'll keep it to a couple examples.

first of all, i'd like to start out by saying i just got the deal of the year, via fye.com. normally overpriced, but they have some killer sales, and rebates from time to time so i would recommend joining their emailing list.

anyway, just got this:


the ultimate oliver stone collection. now "ultimate" may be a little strong, but we'll get to that later.

before i tell you what i paid (and what you will if you choose to get it yourself), let's go pros and cons for a second.

pros: 14 discs. good start. movies included are:

salvador (never saw)
platoon (amazing)
wall street (only saw parts, those parts were good)
talk radio (never saw)
born on the fourth of july (amazingly, never saw)
the doors (farfetched, but good)
jfk (excellent)
heaven and earth (never saw)
natural born killers (been a while, remember it being good)
nixon (never saw)
u-turn (never saw)
any given sunday (great)
america (never saw)
looking for fidel (never saw)
persona non grata (never saw)

cons: some of the movies have been independently released with more features, bonus discs, etc, so "re-buying" some of these may come into play down the road, and, in the case of platoon, already has.

so you may be wondering, why invest in such a collection, you've only seen half of the movies!

here's why: $9.99

that's right, 10 measly bucks. or, about $0.71 per dvd. $29.99-$20 rebate+free shipping=$9.99

one hell of a deal. i highly suggest you do the same, i believe its still available with that deal.

with that said, i move on to kubrick.



now, you really can't go wrong with kubrick. both sets are really good, but both miss the boat.

we'll give the first one a bit of a pass because it came out in 2001.

stanley kubrick collection.
lolita (good, not great)
dr. strangelove (or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb) (fantastic)
2001: a space odyssey (top 5)
a clockwork orange (top 20)
barry lyndon (amazing amazing movie, and shamefully nobody has seen it)
the shining (no comment necessary)
full metal jacket (excellent)
eyes wide shut (fidelio)
stanley kubrick: a life in pictures (nice doc)

b+ for the collection, d- for bonus features. overall, c.

now, stanley kubrick directors series.
2001
clockwork
shining
full metal jacket
eyes wide shut
kubrick doc

2001, clockwork, the shining, and eyes wide shut all get really nice treatment here. excellent transfers, great bonus features and documentaries.

full metal jacket, so-so featurette and a trailer. eh.

notable omissions from the last box: dr. strangelove (which was released on its own in a great 2-disc set in 2004), lolita, and barry lyndon. why? why do studios do these things??

c for the collection, a for the features. solid b.

i would be done, if not for the fact that i have further kubrick beefs.

where on earth are fear and desire, killer's kiss, the killing, paths of glory, and spartacus? i know, different studios i imagine. but the rights on the first 4 have got to be so cheap, i don't know why it wouldn't be worth it to obtain them for a "complete" complete collection. he only directed 13 movies. should be easy enough.

and that is all for today.

side note: criterion, which always puts out incredible stuff, did a great job with spartacus. go check it out.