If you’re a fan of Al Pacino’s, and by that I mean “fanatical” about Al Pacino, then perhaps you recall the 1980 movie he starred in called “Cruising” which featured Al as a straight undercover cop posing as a gay man trying to solve a string of homosexual murders. If not, then get ready to check it out as the film has been reissued on DVD. At the time, the movie flopped, was met with critical backlash by the gay community (which was the opposite of what director William Friedkin had intended), including portests and rock throwing in the streets of New York City while the film was being shot. To this day, Pacino still isn’t sure about his character’s outcome at the end of the film, and Friedkin seems to dig that fact.
Category: Movie DVDs (Page 77 of 100)
Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” a film that was originally critically and commercially damned but in recent times has become a cult favorite will be getting its definitive director’s cut re-release this winter. Subtitled “The Final Cut,” this latest DVD edition will present the film as Ridley Scott had originally intended.
“I wasn’t used at that point in my career to having too many cooks in the kitchen, and I think there were many people who started to get involved,” says Scott regarding all the extra tinkering that occurred with the film before its initial release.
…and greedy movie studios? That seems to be the theme of this month with the re-release of Elvis Presely’s entire film catalog. But while Paramount’s lackluster “Lights! Camera! Elvis!” set failed in offering anything new for fans of the musician-turned-actor, Warner Bros. – who just so happened to produce a majority of his films – has digitally remastered Elvis’ most popular movies just in time for the 30th anniversary celebration.
While every film is available individually in stores, Warner Bros. has packaged some of the King’s less impressive roles in “The Hollywood Collection,” a six-disc box set designed to save purists a few bucks. Let’s face it: Elvis may have made a lot of movies in his short time on this Earth, but a lot of them were really bad. Movies like “Charro,” “Kissin’ Cousins,” “Tickle Me” and “Stay Away, Joe” don’t have a very big built-in audience outside of the diehard fanbase, so it makes sense that WB would try to move a few more units by forcing the consumer to by all six. The lone classic of the bunch – “Girl Happy” – also happens to be the only film that has received a new digital transfer and a previously cut musical number added to the DVD.
Not crappy enough to make the box set, the rest of Elvis’ Warner Bros. catalog has been released, including “Harum Scarum,” “It Happened at the World’s Fair,” “Spinout,” “Speedway,” and “Double Trouble,” as well as deluxe editions of “Jailhouse Rock” and “Viva Las Vegas.” I really don’t know what the difference is between the regular releases and the deluxe editions, but the “Viva Las Vegas” disc does include an audio commentary, a never-before-seen new documentary (“Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas”), and a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, and I can only imagine that “Jailhouse Rock” (the other major Elvis picture from Warner Bros.) features much of the same.
Rounding out the August cash grab is “This Is Elvis” and “That’s the Way It Is,” two more special edition DVDs that include multiple versions of the film, featurettes on the restoration process, and never-before-seen footage. If I had to choose between one or the other, though, I’d have to go with “That’s the Way It Is,” the King’s sold-out 1970 performance at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. We’ve all seen The Story of Elvis before, but you’re not an Elvis fan until you own this seminal concert film.
Fans of “Hot Fuzz” — which in an ideal world would be every person on the planet — now have something to help them while away the days until the movie hits DVD on July 31. Behold, the Hot Fuzz Sandford Standoff. Just try not to hit the one with the slender neck.
To play the game, click here.
“Underground”
A movie like “Underground” relies solely on the power of deception. Convince enough people to rent your little movie and you’ve just earned back your budget. Fool even more into buying it, and now you have enough money to run away and never be heard from again. Set around an underground tournament featuring 12 ultimate fighters from different disciplines, the film follows their progression in the tournament until just two remain. And like any competition where money and violence is involved, it’s all for the entertainment of a bunch of greedy businessman looking to earn some extra pocket change. Starring some of the world’s best fighters and stuntmen, each character is given about 20 seconds of background and stupid nicknames like The Homeless and The Foreigner. It’s all pretty lame in an I-sure-hope-the-action-makes-up-for-it kind of way, but unfortunately, it doesn’t. Not only is the acting horrendous, but so is most of the fighting. The action sequences shouldn’t feel like they’ve been choreographed, but they positively reek of it. Of course, when the lamest dude in the competition is the one who wins, it’s difficult to expect anything less.
“Perfect Creature”
Attention Dougray Scott: I know you’re still pissed about losing out on the chance to play Wolverine (because, well, your career would be on a much different path if you had), but can you please, puh-lease, just crack a smile every once in a while so we can all rest assured you’re not an emotionless robot? Granted, the dude is playing a vampire in his latest direct-to-DVD role, but even bloodsuckers smile every once in awhile, right? Perhaps not, but it’s hard to believe Scott was able to take the subject matter so seriously when this New Zealand spin on the gothic horror genre is so incredibly tame. Vampires bound to God? A deadly epidemic? Been there, done that, thank you very much.
“The Long Weekend”
To be fair, “The Long Weekend” isn’t really as bad as it sounds. In fact, had the filmmakers toned down the raunchiness of it all, it could have actually been a decent rental for fans of sex comedies like “American Pie.” Instead, this tale about a hotshot ad executive whose brother spends the entire weekend trying to get him laid, is more concerned with frontloading the movie with goofy viral clips a la “America’s Funniest Home Videos” than just telling the story. And though it gets marginally better towards the end, it doesn’t make the final product any easier to watch.
“Surf School”
I’m proud of the fact that I made it through a whopping 27 minutes of “Surf School” before my DVD player imploded – not because it was as bad as that horrendous National Lampoon vehicle for Paris Hilton, but because it was much, much worse. Any movie made by Righteous Dudes Productions and Thongs R Us Entertainment is definitely going to have one of three things – hot chicks, bad actors and a chimpanzee dressed in a bikini. Amazingly, “Surf School” has all three. Need I say more?
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