|
|||
DVD SUPPLEMENT
PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
SABRINA; SUNSET BOULEVARD; ROMAN HOLIDAY/Centennial Collection: If you’re a real movie buff, you might think Paramount kicked off their centennial celebration collection with a round robin of an inside joke. It’s three pics, but you have 2 Billy Wilders, 2 William Holdens, 2 Audrey Hepburns and they are paired up in such a way that Wilder is working with Holden twice, Holden is working with Hepburn and Hepburn is shown in her first two pics. Have we lost the non-film geeks that find conspiracies everywhere yet? Anywho, this past weekend, we were watching TMC by accident and it was the first time one of us ever saw old movies like “Star is Born” and “All About Eve”, becoming transfixed by these pics, a cool thing since they be among the many that automatically thinks anything old is bad. This troika of pics are all older, about 60 years old each, and they hold up remarkably well. Wilder had just the right touch for his pics in his time. You probably know him best from “Some Like It Hot”, but here he handles scary psychodrama and romantic fluff with the same easy handed grace. “Sunset Boulevard” is the insider, dilapidated Hollywood pic that set the standard for all the like genre pics to ever flow in it’s wake. “Sabrina” is the reason we get fluffy romantic comedies from Meg Ryan and Kate Hudson that seem like they came off the assembly line—this particular wheel was invented three generations ago and seems to still have the juice to push modern works to the finish line, even if just barely lately. “Roman Holiday” showed Hepburn to be just the right pre-Camelot dolly to propel the Cinderella fantasies that would fuel emotions until the Net came along and deconstructed everything. With first class remastering throughout on all three, these pics state a fine case for the legacy of Paramount. “Sunset Boulevard” is the hands down winner if you only want to check out one, but the other two are fine representatives of pre-Korean War date night pics that guys could sit through (enjoy?) while scheming activities for the post date ride home. These pics might have tossed off some ideas as well. If TMC and AMC are regular stops on your way around the cable dial, these spiffy remasters are smart bets to start pushing on your holiday hint list. At 60 years old, the pics are a sure quantity for movie fans and the real movie fan, particularly if they like the oldies, won’t be disappointed. Even if they don’t like the oldies, they could be in for a pleasant surprise, and how can you go wrong with prime period Bogie?
COMEDY CENTRAL SALUTE TO GEORGE W. BUSH: A veritable channel greatest hits package as everyone from “South Park” to fleeting stand ups get their licks in at the Presidency of the last 8 years. If you’re a Jon Stewart fan, it’s comedy gold, if you’re on the right, you probably won’t like it as much. No matter where you stand politically, it’s been real and this is a look back on it all, much of it in then real time, right through the fun house mirror. So, let’s fire up “The Whiffenpoof Song” as Dubya moseys along and takes his place in the collective pop memory along side Ford, Carter, Clinton, and all the rest. Vaughan Meader anyone?
TROPIC THUNDER: A bunch of hambone actors led by Ben Stiller find themselves moved from making a war pic to being trapped in a real war. Stiller and his pals deliver the laughs in the situation in just the way they know how to do so well time and again. A laugh riot of an anti-Rambo, this is one of those contemporary comedies that will live forever on vid.
TOUCHSTONE
SCRUBS season 7: For a hit show, this show has been given so much disrespect by it’s network that I generally thought it was a cable show in the first place. A delightfully daffy show when you can find it, as you certainly couldn’t during this last season, this particular season seems to find the show running at the top of it’s game. Nutty fun with young doctors, nutty janitors and all the kind of cross relationships that fuel the serious doctor shows but are more fun here, this is a dandy laugher and it’s fun to see it all at once, without commercials and in one place at one time. Check this out for a real laugh.
Volume 32/Number 3
November 3, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI