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.