Tuesday, June 2, 2009

DVD Picks of the Week: June 2nd, 2009

Welcome to June everybody! I'd like to open this entry by commenting on one film I posted in last week's submission. That would be the David Cronenberg film M. Butterfly. I received my copy of the film yesterday and subsequently watched it. Suffice to say, I was amazed. It's a truly spellbounding film. It's right up Cronenberg's alley thematically, with its questions of identity and metamorphosis, but was a much different of a monster and project for him at the time. Anyway, enough about last week, let's get on to the present day.

Revolutionary Road [DVD][Blu-ray]


You know what, I'm extremely sick of people shouting "Oscar bait!" at the sight of an emotionally teasing provocative drama come winter season. People that spew this usually unreasonable claim tend to so with one eye closed to the film and situation. What you have with Revolutionary Road is a film based off a classic novel by Richard Yates that stars two of the mainstream world's better actors (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet). This is all directed by one of the underrated greats, Sam Mendes, who put forth pieces such as American Beauty and Road to Perdition. Oscar bait? Try sincerely good and passionate film. The film is driven by the acting of DiCaprio and Winslet, whose performances put them into an upper echelon of serious acting. I've heard that the adaptation of the novel isn't the greatest, but for someone who hasn't actually read the book, this was no hindrance for me. This tremendous effort from Mendes makes life in Connecticut look like hell. As a resident of the state, I can say that it is not, although I do sometimes wish I was on other places half the time. Revolutionary Road wasn't the greatest film of 2008, but it certainly has enough willpower to grip its viewers while never letting go.

Last Days of the Fillmore [DVD]


I only know the Fillmore by name. It's a famous venue in San Francisco that closed in 1971. This documentary gives light on the final days of the great concert venue with behind-the-scenes look of the venue and some of the shows that took place during the final days. Included here are performances by Santana, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and more than enough other bands to make you feel the magic of the era that is long gone. This seems like a most interesting vision for fans and newcomers alike, something that will make you fall deeper in love with the music or begin your own personal relationship with great bands like the Grateful Dead.

Here is some awesome Grateful Dead to get you in the mood:



Defiance [DVD][Blu-ray]


Back in the fall when I was seeing a new film in theaters almost every week, one that I'd end up reviewing for The Recorder, I saw the trailer for this film time and time over. It looked okay, nothing much to get excited over, but something that would probably be worth watching sooner or later. To this day I still haven't watched the film, but I'm still interested. The story is pretty intriguing, even if films that detail the era this one does are getting a bit old about now. I think this even being on the part that I write about shows how weak this first week in June is.

The Sweet Pussycats
[DVD]


I am willing to bet that this is some lame sex comedy that sucks the hard one. That said, Edwige Fenech is in it, and as soon as I saw that name I flashbacked to one film of hers in particular. It was this great little Italian giallo cleverly titled Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. And I tell you what, she was smoking hot in that film. Granted that film was actually good. It's one of the more suspenseful, psychologically appetizing and demonic giallos ever to be made. It's a title I wish I had bought on DVD before it went out of print. I guess you can tell that The Sweet Pussycats is probably pretty insignificant and most likely awful judging from how this post is about how hot Fenech is and how good that one giallo was.

The Legend of Blood Castle [DVD]


I've never seen this film, but I can guess a lot about it. Let's see, it's an obscure Spanish entry to the horror genre from the 1970s, so that means it hopefully has a good amounts of funny looking gore, along with a plot that moves far from the speed of light. This is typically how these things go, and I love it. Director Jorge Grau went on to make what I consider to be one of the greatest and most underrated zombie films ever, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (also known as The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue). Based on that alone I have become even more interested in the prospects of this film. God, I love the invention of DVD. It brings titles such as this to our homes in a way they've never been seen before. It's truly brilliant.

What else comes out this week: Weeds - Season 4, Prison Break: Season 4, He's Just Not That Into You, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete [Blu-ray], The Graduate [Blu-ray], Glory [Blu-ray], Air Force One [Blu-ray], Inside Man [Blu-ray], Road House [Blu-ray], The Hunger: The Complete First Season, Out of Time [Blu-ray], Fletch [Blu-ray], Thrilla in Manila, Anaconda [Blu-ray] and a bunch of other shit.

What to stay away from: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete [Blu-ray]. That is, unless you want to stroke your neckbeard while you comb your weeaboo hair as you watch men that look like women and women that look like 12 year old girls fight each other with swords bigger than their bodies. I'm just hatin', FF freaks, chill out.

Terribly lame weak. But what are you going to do. Just go watch Drag Me To Hell a few times. Speaking of which, expect a review a little later on tonight.

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