Pocket Symphony

Last Monday night, I decided to watch a movie. Not really a surprise, right? I’ve admitted that I love movies, my DVD collection is pretty big, and my TiVo’s hard drive is almost always full. A couple of months ago, I made the announcement that I was going to try to watch every movie in the TSPDT list of 1,000 greatest films (plus the best of the 21st Century films so far), and I have a pile of movies recognized as “great” sitting on a shelf, just waiting to be viewed. So when I assessed my evening and decided that I had a couple of free hours, I reached for…

“Stephen King’s The Mist” by Frank Darabont.

Don’t bother looking… it’s not on the “top movies” list.

When I was a teen, I loved Stephen King’s books. The Shining, Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot… they were all greedily devoured by my young horror-obsessed mind. The Stand was an epic work that lasted an entire family vacation in Cape Cod. The movies based on King’s novels were pretty amazing, too. DePalma’s “Carrie”, Cronenberg’s “The Dead Zone” and Kubrick’s “The Shining” were and remain favorites of mine.

But then a couple of things happened. My taste in literature started to mature and King’s novels started reading more and more like fleshed-out movie treatments. I still respected the man, but I slowly stopped reading his work. The movies started getting worse, too. “Cujo”… “Christine”… and many mediocre (or worse) TV adaptations… culminating in King’s own destruction of “The Shining” in what was probably one of the more wrong-headed moves in an industry known for wrong-headed moves.

Occasionally, there would be moments of genius. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, for example. But for every good Frank Darabont adaptation of a non-horror King story, there was a bad Mick Garris adaptation of his horror work. 

So last year, I started seeing commercials on TV for a Darabont-helmed Stephen King movie. And it kinda looked like a horror flick. The ads were pretty vague… so as not to give anything away. They showed a bunch of people holed up in a grocery store in a giant cloud of fog. “There’s something in the mist!” is one of the memorable lines in the trailer. My initial reaction: “Possibly interesting. Looks like a rip-off of ‘The Fog’. And the remake of ‘The Fog’ was completely unnecessary.” I put it on my “maybe one day” list and then forgot about it.

Mark Kermode

As a former podcaster, there are still a bunch of shows that I still always download to my iPod. One of them is a weekly download from the BBC, called Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews. Not exactly the catchiest of titles, but very clear in its labeling. Mark Kermode is an outspoken film critic, and a complete and unrepentant film geek. He’s a big fan of the horror/sci-fi/fantasy genre (when it’s done right) and will always find a moment or two to praise “The Exorcist” - even in the most unlikely situations. But his criticisms can be brutal, so when a film in one of his beloved genres isn’t good - he tears it apart. More often than not, I find that his opinions about movies mirror my own, so a “must see” from Kermode is taken very seriously by me. When he reviewed “Stephen King’s The Mist” favorably, it moved the movie from “maybe one day” to “should see this sooner rather than later” (I have way too many lists).

When the movie came out on DVD, I didn’t buy it. When I bought my blu-ray player, I decided that I wouldn’t buy any new movies on the older format, and decided to wait for the blu-ray (see my previous post on “double-dipping”). My pal Jeff doesn’t yet own a blu-ray player, so he went ahead and grabbed a copy of the DVD. He’s a Kermode fan as well, so his first viewing was (by Kermode’s recommendation) of the Director’s “preferred” version of the movie - presented in black and white(!) as a bonus feature in the DVD set. After he watched it - he told me that I needed to see the movie. A nod from both Mark and Jeff pushed this movie to the top of my “I’ll buy it as soon as I can” list. Last month, nearly five months after the release of the DVD, the blu-ray was released. I bought it and promptly stuck on my shelf.

Which brings me to Monday. The evening was a little chilly by LA standards. Heather was out of town for business. I was alone with the dogs. It seemed like a perfect night for a horror movie. So I popped in “The Mist”. What a great movie. I hesitate to write too much about it because a cold viewing is the best way to appreciate it. I think the fact that I had read certain adjectives describing the ending was almost too much. However, while trying to avoid spoilers, here’s what I’ll say:

• It’s not a rip-off of “The Fog”.
• It’s definitely a horror movie - in multiple senses of the word (or multiple understandings of the genre).
• The script is intelligent and the characters are well-formed and interesting.
• The special effects (yes, there are special effects) are pretty darn neat.

This could be one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in a very long time.

Do yourself a favor. Go out and rent or buy this movie. Go for the 2-Disc version (on DVD or blu-ray) and watch the black and white cut. You can thank me later.

If you’re reading this, you probably know that among my geeky obsessions, I have a thing for Disney. And again, it’s no secret that I’m a sucker avid consumer of home video. So let me tell you a story about something called “double dipping”. In a 1993 episode of Seinfeld, “double dipping” was a term used to describe putting your chip into the dip after you’ve already had it in your mouth. It’s a disgusting thing to do. In the world of home video, ‘double dipping’ refers to something different, but equally gross.

In the last thirty years, there have been several different video formats: Beta, VHS, DiscoVision, LaserDisc (CLV and CAV), DVD, HD-DVD, BluRay… and a couple of others. At any given time, a couple of formats co-exist and invariably, the better one costs a little more and has a smaller market share. For example, in the ’90s, consumers had the choice between VHS and LaserDisc. VHS was tremendously popular, but LaserDisc was better (and more expensive). Since LaserDisc catered to a smaller but more avid group of movie fans, it was the format that first introduced things like director’s commentary tracks, surround sound and, most importantly, widescreen presentations. If you were a true film buff and were given the choice of formats, LaserDisc always won, hands down.

Now, if a movie was released on both VHS and Laser on the same day, the decision was easy. But every once in a while, a movie would be released on VHS only and then, a short time later, would be followed by the LaserDisc version. When a movie is a classic film that appeals both to kids and adults and only has a limited release period (i.e. every Disney classic), such a move forces the potential consumer to either wait out the VHS-only period (and wait out the incessant commercials and even, perhaps, the crying of their children), or buy one format and then the other. Hence the term “double dip”. And Disney was famous for it.

In the past few years, though, things have changed. LaserDiscs are gone, and so, for the most part, have VHS tapes. Pretty much all of the new releases are on DVD, blu-ray (a hi-definition variant of DVD) or delivered directly through the internet to various home machines, such as TiVo or AppleTV. With so many people owning HDTVs, more and more people are investing in blu-ray players (even the PS3 is a blu-ray player) - and until everyone abandons the physical storage of those five-inch discs in favor of internet-based delivery of media, blu-ray is as good as it gets. But those discs aren’t cheap. Which brings me to this happy post.

Over the past year, Disney’s home video arm has recognized that overt greed isn’t a good thing - and nurturing (and respecting) their dedicated consumers is a good move. To that end, they started putting a rebate coupon in some of their blu-ray titles. If you spend twenty-something dollars on a blu-ray that you already have on DVD, you can send in a coupon and get ten dollars back. Not a bad deal. Makes the double-dip more enticing. Last month, Disney released fan favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas on blu-ray. Included in the package was a special disc that allowed you to load a digital copy of the movie onto your iPod, iPhone, computer… whatever device you own that lets you watch digital movies. That was another good move. But up until last week, Disney had not released any of their “animated classics” on blu-ray - so the hardcore fans were wondering how it would shake out.

The first Disney Classic to make it to blu-ray is Sleeping Beauty. Because I’m lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, I was able to attend a special screening of the remastered movie at Disney’s flagship theater, El Capitan. The evening was made even more special by the inclusion of a panel discussion of Disney alumni and experts, including the voice of Princess Aurora herself.

The movie itself looked great - so I knew that I’d be purchasing the blu-ray as soon as it was released (for the record, I’ve owned this movie on VHS, LaserDisc, Special Edition Laserdisc, and DVD). When it came out on Tuesday, I was surprised and delighted to discover that not only did Disney release the blu-ray edition on the same day as the DVD edition, but that the initial copies of the blu-ray include a free copy of the movie on DVD stuck right on the cover. For homes that have one blu-ray player for the grown-ups and a DVD player for the kids - you now have two copies of the movie. For fans of the movie who want to see it now but don’t yet have a blu-ray player (but are planning on getting one in the near future), you can enjoy the standard-def version until you have a hi-def player. This is the opposite of double-dip. It’s a single dip… a skinny-dip. And that is a good thing. Thanks, Disney!

(Want my review of the blu-ray? Well… I’m not posting it here, so you’ll just have to ask me in person.)

On your right, you’ll see that I’m keeping track of all of the “Classic Movies” as I watch them. I imagine that at some point I’ll just show the latest 20, but since it’s only been 5 to date, you see them all.

Friday night, we watched the Woody Allen flick Broadway Danny Rose. As I unwrapped my DVD, I realize that this might only be the second time I’ve seen it since the original theatrical release (the first being the one and only time I watched my laserdisc). Since it was the weekend, we made a small party of it, and I was joined by Heather and Stephen, our next-door neighbor, who not only works in the film biz, but is a fan (you’d be surprised at how rare that is). The broad comedy of much of the movie prompted the question: “this is one of the greatest movies of all time?” - but in the end, the final feeling was that it’s a fine film (at least, that’s what I argued).

That night, I intended to watch the original Scarface, but I chose sleep instead. I wouldn’t get back to my DVD player until late Saturday night, after we returned from the Arclight Theater on Sunset where we saw the latest installment in the Batman franchise (for my opinion on that movie, you should check out the message board that I contribute to. There’s currently a lively discussion about The Dark Knight there).

A few months ago, I had a conversation with my pal Jeff about the original Scarface. He pointed out that the De Palma / Pacino movie of the same name (with script by Oliver Stone) is more of a remake than one might imagine. When I revisited the 1932 Hawks film, I went in with that in mind. And he was right. The movie is much tighter (read: shorter) than the 1983 epic, and the script is great. The entire cast is spot-on, with the one exception of Boris Karloff as a rival gangster. Maybe it’s just my expectation of Karloff in a certain kind of role, but it was difficult for me to get my head around him as a menacing Chicago gangster.

The latest movie on my list was Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon. This is indeed a cool movie. Released in England in 1957, it didn’t come out in the US for another seven months, when it appeared in truncated form as Curse of the Demon. This short version is the only one that was available in the States for many years (I think the long version was accidentally released on laserdisc at some point - but it wasn’t widescreen). The current DVD is a stunning widescreen presentation of the longer original version of the movie. As a skeptic who also happens to love stories of the supernatural, this played like a wonderful horror episode of the X-Files, albeit with the gender switch of Dana Andrews playing the skeptical Scully part. Additionally, as a pop culture fan, I was delighted to not only recognize this movie as the source for a line in a song from the Rocky Horror Show, but to spot an quotation that Kate Bush sampled for her masterpiece “Hounds of Love”.

I’ll probably not post this much about every movie I see (when would I have time to watch movies?). But if you see something appear in the list on the right and would care to start a discussion about it, I’m always game.

So last night I watched 12 Angry Men. Great flick.

With a small cast (of, um… 12 guys, mostly), and a setting that rarely leaves a single room, Sidney Lumet created what might be the ultimate courtroom drama - in his first feature film!

Then I watched Duel.

With a small cast (of, um… 1 guy, mostly), and a setting that rarely leaves a single car, Steven Spielberg created what might be the ultimate chase movie - in his first feature film!

OK… Duel isn’t the “ultimate chase movie” - I think the chase scene in Ronin is still my favorite. But it’s a damn fine movie.

What’s next? I just noticed that DeepDiscountDVD is having a “buy one get one free” deal on some Criterion DVDs… gotta go!

Before I get to the Spiritualized post, I wanted to share that as of today, I’ve decided that I’m going to join the ranks of those movie geeks who are attempting to see all of the movies on the 1,000 Greatest Films List that’s compiled and hosted by the lunatics at They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?.

Even though I’ve already seen many of the movies on the list, I’m going to try and watch all of them, in no particular order, including revisiting the ones I’ve already seen.

I’m also including the 35 films on their “must-see” list that aren’t currently in the Top 1,000 (as of the December 2007 list).

I’m going to try and make a brief post about each one I see - and perhaps have a “most recent movie” in my sidebar, so you can play along.

Tonight’s choice: 12 Angry Men.