back?

well, maybe. considering life is quite boring these days maybe i'll get this nonsense started again. or maybe i'll start playing music again. probably neither.

today's entry: too much of a good thing.

after what seems like 2 weeks of solid viewing, i finally finished up this ridiculous thing: the alien anthology blu-ray set



okay, so the movies grade well:

alien - a
aliens - a+
alien3 - b
alien resurrection - b-

which brings me to the set. 6 blu-rays in ridiculous alien egg packaging SCREAMED out "buy me immediately", however, some serious drawbacks are present. for one, the set features literally DOZENS of hours of bonus shit. the problem is, almost everything overlaps -- new documentaries and features don't supplant old ones, they've included EVERYTHING from every release of each movie, ever. each different featurette/documentary features 90% identical clips, interviews, etc, and only 10% different material. hence, a lot of fast forwarding.

next, much like any disney release would have, they've included every piece of art/storyboard/production photos, pre-viz, etc that was ever created. probably over 5000 pictures or more. completely over-the-top and unnecessary.

and, the scripts for each movie. who the hell is going to read those, on their tv no less?




but the nice part is, they've included BOTH the theatrical and "special edition"/director's cuts of each movie. george lucas should pay attention. this appeases the purists AND casual fans.

the movies look great, and the sound is excellent.

extensive interviews with everyone of importance (with the exception of david fincher, who disowned his involvement with the franchise after he acted like a baby and fox wouldn't put up with it and fired his ass...i think he survived just fine).

overall, b+.

major points deducted for the above mentioned items and also for the inclusion of the "laserdisc archives", meant to allow you to relive the original laserdisc experience -- there is a reason laserdisc was phased out.

if you like ridiculous packaging, get the egg set. it lights up and looks cool. otherwise, save $50 and just go for the discs.

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.

radiohead.

so as i often do, i was looking through my amazon wish list to see if prices had come down at all on things i've been waiting to buy, and i took a look at the radiohead box set, which is a nice set but a little pricey. as i scrolled down, i discovered a few things that flew under my radar:





new fancy releases of pablo honey, the bends, and ok computer. goddamit.

being that the albums already sound very good and really didn't need remixing/remastering, these all (including the box set) fall under the "cool packaging" and "bonus stuff" categories.

but this brings me to my beef with it all.

why is there no single, all-inclusive set?

they released the box about a year ago, and now all of a sudden they have (at least) 3 cd's and 3 dvd's full of extra material? they also released the best of radiohead dvd seperately around the same time, when it could have very easily been thrown into the box set as well.

don't get me wrong, i appreciate the abundance of material. makes for a nice little saturday. but the way this stuff is released drives me bananas sometimes.

so the story goes, i will be getting the box, and the 3 new versions of the aforementioned albums (and the other ones which are bound to be released within the next couple years), and the dvd. but not yet. smells like half.com to me.


side note: they pulled this shit with "rocky" also: 2-disc edition released in 2006, stripped down to one disc and ZERO bonus features for the box set. although i think i only paid $25 for the rocky box so i really can't complain toooo too much.

now THIS is what a box set should be.

just arrived in the mail. finally, SOMEONE gets it right.



coheed and cambria: neverender.

1 documentary dvd with bunch of bonus stuff.

4 live dvd's

4 live cd's

48-page book.

and a big fucking metal dragonfly.

awesome.

led zeppelin.

so as i'm sure many led zeppelin fans have done, i have been waiting patiently for a "real" box set to come along, or at the very least, fully remastered individual releases. the mid-90's "remasters" sets sounded way better than the original CD's, but still horrible by today's standards. the "complete studio recordings" was the same quality but way overpriced and lacking "the song remains the same" (shit, but still part of the catalogue).

so i heard about this new box set and got excited. but then, led zeppelin took a shit on me again. as it turns out, this box is apparently fully remastered, and the packaging looks great with mini-LP replica sleeves and all. however, there are ZERO bonus tracks. not even the extra tracks they JUST released on "the song remains the same" reissue. not even the 4 from the other box sets. zip.

also bullshit, apparently the japanese release is SHM, better quality but buying imports here costs twice as much.

led zeppelin really shit the bed on this one.

so fancy packaging, A+. content, C-. overall, B.

probably not getting this one. at least not while it's $150 dollars.

still waiting for the beatles remasters.

briefcase box?

kind of surprising i have yet to purchase these. deluxe BRIEFCASE editions?? eventually. have to finish watching all 3 versions of dawn of the dead first.



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shit is nuts.