Directors

Oh Yeah!

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Prince of Darkness 4K
Seriously stoked that there is a big fancy 4K edition Prince of Darkness (my favorite-est John Carpenter movie) coming from Studiocanal! How can you not love a movie starring Jameson Parker‘s most excellent moustache? This bad boy is already on pre-order.

This release is beautifully packaged with a stylish, newly commissioned illustration by Matt Ferguson on the cover. It contains a UHD of the feature as well as a Blu-ray feature disc, bonus disc and the original soundtrack on CD. It also contains 5 art cards, a newly illustrated theatrical poster and booklet containing original articles, photography from the set, production notes and an essay from celebrated film journalist Kim Newman.

SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Malevolent: Unearthing John Carpenter’s PRINCE OF DARKNESS: A brand new retrospective documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and featuring interviews with Cinematographer Gary Kibbe, actor Peter Jason, actor Alice Cooper, composer Alan Howarth, script supervisor Sandy King, visual effects supervisor Robert Grasmere, stunt coordinator Jeff Imada, Carpenter biographer John Muir, film historian C. Courtney Joyner, music historian Daniel Schweiger and Producer Larry Carpenters.
  • Intro by John Carpenter – an interview with director John Carpenter originally recorded for a French DVD release in 2003
  • Scene Analysis by John Carpenter – Director John Carpenter analyses key scenes from Prince of Darkness, in an interview from 2003
  • Audio commentary with John Carpenter and Peter Jason Sympathy for the Devil: Interview with John Carpenter – from 2013
  • Horror’s Halloween Hallowed Grounds with Sean Clark – a fun tour of the film’s locations hosted by Sean Clark
  • Trailer
  • Photo gallery incl. Behind the Scenes

*drools*

Oh Yeah!

Upcoming!

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Criterion Collection: Hitchcock's Notorious
Super stoked that Criterion has announced a new blu-ray edition of one of my favoritest movies of all time …. Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious! Such an amazingly romantic and thrilling film. Plus, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. What more do you need? It streets on January 19, 2019.

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentaries from 1990 and 2001 featuring Alfred Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane and film historian Rudy Behlmer
  • New interview with Hitchcock biographer Donald Spoto
  • New program about the film’s visuals with cinematographer John Bailey
  • New scene analysis by film scholar David Bordwell
  • Once Upon a Time . . . “Notorious,” a 2009 documentary about the film featuring actor Isabella Rossellini; filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich, Claude Chabrol, and Stephen Frears; and others
  • New program about Hitchcock’s storyboarding and previsualization process by filmmaker Daniel Raim
  • 1948 newsreel footage of actor Ingrid Bergman and Hitchcock
  • 1948 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of Notorious, starring Bergman and Joseph Cotten
  • Trailers and teasers
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Angelica Jade Bastién
Upcoming!

But The Good Thing Is …

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All this extra work means more bank for the annual B&N/Criterion 50% Off Sale in July. I am going to go broke this year as Criterion has been putting out a lot of good stuff.

The Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood set looks amazing with six early Hollywood films from director Josef von Sternberg featuring German actress Marlene Dietrich.

And … I would love to get the 100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012 set but have not been able to justify dropping the $$$ on it (mainly just for Olympia and Tokyo Olympiad).
100 Years of Olympic Films

But The Good Thing Is …

Another Movie!

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The Shape of Water
I *finally* got to see The Shape of Water this week. I really liked it. It has great acting in an engaging “adult fairy tale” story with fantastic direction and production design. A minor quibble would be Michael Shannon as the villain. He’s fine in the role, but Shannon has played LOTS of villains and it just seemed like more of the same. Past that, I was totally enthralled by this movie and even got teary-eyed at the end.

My bet is that The Shape of Water will take home Best Picture in a few weeks at the Oscars. I am still rooting for Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri to win (because it’s great and was filmed locally!) … but I don’t think it will win because of the bad buzz surrounding the character of Dixon.

Another Movie!

Snubbed?

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Wonder Woman (2017)
It’s been interesting to see the outcry on the internet about Wonder Woman and its (supposed) Oscar nomination snubs. I like the movie. LIKE. When I went to see it at the movie theater, I enjoyed it but had some issues with the story (why is this set in WWI and not WWII?) and execution (oh hey, yet another generic, video game-esque CGI battle/climax). Gal Gadot is fine and Patty Jenkin‘s direction of the movie is fine too. FINE, not exceptional. There are certainly much better comic book movies out there (The Dark Knight and Captain America: The Winter Soldier to name a couple). I don’t think that Wonder Woman deserves a less of a critical eye because it’s the best of the (arguably) lackluster DC Extended Universe movies. Which means that I don’t think Wonder Woman rises to the level of being nominated for top honors at the Oscars.

Snubbed?

Busy (Doing Nothing)

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Actually … the weekend was kinda busy.

David and I binged watched the new season of Grace and Frankie on Netflix. I do like the show … and I think we can all agree that Ethan Embry is totally adorable.
Ethan Embry in Grace & Frankie

Saturday, we went to Asheville and saw separate movies. Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Phantom Thread FINALLY opened here and it was amazing.
Phantom Thread

We stopped at Diamond Brand after the movie(s), and I picked up a new water reservoir for my new pack. New hiking gear is always fun to get!

I went down to self-serve karaoke at Harmons’ Den Bistro on Saturday night because Kiki commanded that I be there. It was pretty fun singing 80’s new wave (my specialty).

PT, Stephanie and I went on a wee hike on Sunday. It was somewhat fun, but the ice on the trail made it less so. Fortunately, nobody broke anything.
Parkway Hike 01/21/18

I have been fighting being in a funk since Sunday afternoon. It’s another one of those “everything is fucked up and won’t get better” kind of things. Ugh. Right now, the funk is winning.

Busy (Doing Nothing)

OMG … I Love Criterion!!!

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On June 12th, Criterion releases one of my favorite movies!

FILMMAKER-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

  • New, restored digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Brian Tufano, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Two audio commentaries: one by director Danny Boyle and the other by screenwriter John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald
  • New interviews with stars Christopher Eccleston, Kerry Fox, and Ewan McGregor
  • Digging Your Own Grave, a 1993 documentary by Kevin Macdonald on the making of the film
  • Andrew Macdonald and Kevin Macdonald’s video diary from the 1992 Edinburgh Film Festival, where they shopped around the script for Shallow Grave
  • Shallow Grave trailer and Trainspotting teaser trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp
OMG … I Love Criterion!!!

“Tattoo” vs. “Tattoo”

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David Fincher movies get me all excited. So, when it was announced he was at the helm of the American-ized version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” I got super excited. I really enjoyed the Swedish film, so I was curious as to what Fincher would do with the material.

Now the results are in theaters and it stacks up well (and sometimes not so well) against the original Swedish film.

For the most part, Fincher’s version works very well. The tone of the movie is very cold, clinical and precise. Fincher seems more interested in presenting the mechanics of the investigation rather than making it a more lurid thriller. It’s kinda like a lighter and more user friendly version of “Zodiac.” Some plot elements from the book that were ditched in the original movie show up here which make a nice addition. All the actor’s are solid and the pacing clicks along fairly well (except for wrapping up all the loose threads at the end). Plus, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross deliver another very interesting soundtrack.

So, does Rooney Mara kick it as Lisbeth Slander? She does and then some. I liked Mara’s take of the character more than Noomi Rapace‘s. It’s more dark, internal and withdrawn.

The major problem with the movie is that it has about five endings. They catch the killer and then there are about four more plot points to resolve which drags out the ending. And the movie is fitted with a bizarre James Bond-esque opening credit sequence. It looks cool and plays under the blasting sounds of “Immigrant Song” (covered by Reznor/Ross/Karen O) … but it doesn’t really serve any other purpose than to look cool.

There are better Fincher films … but, on the whole, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” worth checking out.

“Tattoo” vs. “Tattoo”