The New DVD and Blu Thread

[Vernadyn]

I have a PS3 too and haven't had any Bllu ray problems. Do PS3s automatically download upgrades from the Internet, or do they just not need upgrades at all? The reason I ask is because my PS3 isn't connected to the Internet, but I haven't had any problems with any discs, including Avatar.


As far as new Blu-rays are concerned, my bank account won't be very happy with all the recent and forthcoming releases, from How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 to the Back to the Future and Alien box sets (the last of which is making me feel foolish for buying the DVD box set not too long ago). My HTTYD Blu ray is still sitting on the shelf waiting to be opened, along with Goodfellas. The box sets and TS3 will add considerably to the backlog.

[Randall]

PS3s prompt you to download, or you can ask the PS3 to check for an update, but you do still have the option of choosing whether you download or not.

[Dan]

My recent (yesterday) pick-ups:

Back to the Future trilogy - Blu-Ray
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Two - Blu-Ray
Friday - Blu-Ray
Metallica: S&M - DVD

[Randall]

If I hadn't just blown my budget and spent hundreds of dollars on Russ Cochran's eBay sales of his EC Comics reprint books, I would have spent about $500 the past two weeks on Blu-rays. What a great month!! Alien, Apocalypse Now, Back to the Future, Clone Wars... I gues I'll have to have the last laugh when I finally pick up all these great titles when they're 50% off in a few months, once my budget is back on track.

I'm jealous that you can all enjoy them now, though. Although, busy as I am writing reviews for Animated Views (four in the past week and a half, with more to come), I guess I wouldn't have time to watch anything else now anyway.

[Ben]

I've been holding off on adding my recent purchases here, since I'm a bit too embarrassed at myself for how much I've spent! This doesn't even include the stuff I've been collecting over the summer, but as of late September/October, my shelves have gotten heavier thanks to:

Rocky: The Undisputed Collection (Blu-ray)
Falling Down (Blu-ray Book)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Blu-ray Book)
Midnight Movies (documentary)
20th Century Fox - The First 50 Years (doc)
Henson's Place: The Man Behind the Muppets
Sesame Street: 20 Years...and Still Counting!
Not Quite Hollywood (hilarious Aussie filmmakers doc)
Planet 51 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
The Lovely Bones (Two-Disc BD)
Astro Boy (BD)
Moulin Rouge! (BD)
Psycho (50th Anniversary BD)
How to Train Your Dragon (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
Kick-Ass (BD/DVD Combo)
Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy BD
Back to the Future: Trilogy (UK tin BD set)
BFI's two Famous Five serials (UK only)


I'm probably missing a couple too, and it naturally doesn't include the screener copies we get in for review (most notable: Beauty And The Beast and Secret Of Kells). I'm deciding on whether to pick up Apocalypse Now and Alien Anthology now or wait for price drops, since they're big sets, but will get them sooner or later.

November is going to be even worse! Bridge On The River Kwai, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Peeping Tom, The Goonies, Toy Story 3, Mater’s Tall Tales, The Sound Of Music box, Disney’s WOW Calibration Disc, Scott Pilgrim, Secret Origins: Story Of DC Comics, A Christmas Carol, Metropolis, Night Of The Hunter, Fantasia / F2K and the Disney Documentaries are all on my wish list with some others, though hopefully some of those will be screener copies for review.

December slows down a bit (Shrek, Despicable Me, A-Team), but I'm one of the loonies that has put down my pre-order for the Danny Elfman/Tim Burton zoetrope box set, for a cool $500 plus a silly amount more to ship to the UK and get through customs. But it's limited to 1000 copies and I couldn't resist! At least that takes care of my budget for the first six months of 2011!

[Dacey]

I really need to get "Moulin Rouge" on Blu-Ray. I don't even have that movie on DVD yet.

Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray/DVD drive on my laptop is completely broken. And that's the only means I have of watching a lot of movies, since things like "Kick-Ass" aren't exactly the sort of thing that my mom likes to have on the television.

Really, the drive only worked for a little while, but ever since I played the first "Resident Evil" film on it, it just stopped reading Blu-Rays. Then not long after that, it stopped reading DVDs, too. It really seems as though the drive wasn't very well made at all.

Gee, I'm not even sure why I said all that. I guess I just felt like getting it off of my chest.

[EricJ]

I really need to get "Moulin Rouge" on Blu-Ray. I don't even have that movie on DVD yet.

Indeed: Jose Ferrer delivers one of his usual embittered performances, but John Huston's deliberately thematic use of color looks amazing onscreen, considering Huston's usual hard-edged style.
http://www.amazon.com/Moulin-Rouge-José ... B0001V6ZJ8

(...Oh, what, you meant the drag-queen Ozploitation one? No thanks, I'm straight.)

Gee, I'm not even sure why I said all that. I guess I just felt like getting it off of my chest.

(Possibly even a Little Too Much Information.)

[Dacey]

I'm not sure if I follow you, Eric...

[Vernadyn]

I'm one of the loonies that has put down my pre-order for the Danny Elfman/Tim Burton zoetrope box set, for a cool $500 plus a silly amount more to ship to the UK and get through customs. But it's limited to 1000 copies and I couldn't resist!

So you are getting that Elfman/Burton box, Ben. I'm so tempted, but 500 smackers is a lot of money, more than a new gaming system, and there are pesky student loans to be taken care of. I would gladly buy it for half the price. To be honest, I couldn't care less about the zoetrope or the USB drive. I would be happy with the music, the DVD, and the content of the book (it would be neat if it was offered as a cheaper ebook or PDF download, but that's not going to happen.) Maybe when their collaboration is over (hopefully a long time from now), and I have more money, they'll release something similar, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

[EricJ]

I'm not sure if I follow you, Eric...

(Just making fun of the people who A) naively think the 00's Moulin is even remotely heterosexual--hey, I was one of those folks who never suspected the Village People back then, either--and B) culturally illiterate enough never to have seen the "good" 1952 biopic of the same title, which manages sufficient enough period accuracy to not portray Tolouse-Latrec as John Leguizamo in a nun's outfit.
It may not be on Blu-ray, but if you want color, try renting the "grownup" movie.)

And speaking of goofy lowbrow Australian schizophrenia:

Not Quite Hollywood (hilarious Aussie filmmakers doc)

...This. It's also on Instant Netflix, for those who can't find it at Blockbuster--Surprisingly, it's more interesting about how Australia had to build their own cultural identity from scratch to escape from the rest of the world's stereotypes, but it's also a Grindhouse trailer-retrospective fest of wacky B's you might or might not remember...If you ever wondered what was "with" Mad Max or Howling III, this sheds some light.

[Dacey]

(Just making fun of the people who A) naively think the 00's Moulin is even remotely heterosexual--hey, I was one of those folks who never suspected the Village People back then, either--and B) culturally illiterate enough never to have seen the "good" 1952 biopic of the same title, which manages sufficient enough period accuracy to not portray Tolouse-Latrec as John Leguizamo in a nun's outfit.
It may not be on Blu-ray, but if you want color, try renting the "grownup" movie.)

Seriously, Eric, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish sometimes...

[Ben]

Nope, me neither Dacey. I think Eric thinks he's being clever (so much for the pretty calm and rational posts he's been making since that warning a couple of weeks ago).

Actually, the 1950s Moulin Rouge is a pretty depressing and boring film. Yep, Ferrer is good as Lautrec (thought I'd spell it correctly), but it's a very dated film and vastly inaccurate as to the facts. A curiosity value piece at best, and not a "grown up" film at all.

Neither is Moulin Rouge! (the exclamation point being the thing that distinguishes the two) a statement on sexuality...plenty of straight people I know absolutely adore the film: it's just a great piece of escapist nonsense that looks sounds fantastic and looks even better. I saw it in New York, when something else that we couldn't get into was packed and we took a chance on it. We didn't know anything about it at all and were wowed within the first five minutes. Part of the charm was that Elton John's Your Song was used throughout the score, and that's a special track between Jenny and me, so part of enjoying the film is a warm reminder of a special feeling seeing it during a very special time with a special person. Gee, I used special there a lot, didn't I? But that's what it was: special, and that whole trip to NY in the September of 2001 is wrapped up in some very wonderful memories, just before the world changed a few days later.

I think, possibly, Eric's getting confused with Priscilla, since there's not one "drag queen" I remember in Moulin Rouge! at all. That, or he's understandably uncomfortable in his own sexuality to actually be brave enough to enjoy what is supposed to be a terrific slice of silly, shamelessly romantic fun.


As for the Burton/Elfman box, Vern, yep...I couldn't pass it up. I said the exact same thing to Randall that I'd be quite happy with a box set containing the discs (inc. the DVD, natch) and the book for half the price, and even the USB stick wouldn't be hard to squeeze in given the size. And I'm still wary that it says a limited "first run" of 1000 copies, meaning that an unlimited (and cheaper?) later run could come out, or that a cut down without the zoetrope could happen (that remastering and design work on this is going to have to be paid back, even if they sell all 1000 copies).

So, I'm on the fence on buying this, even if I'm slightly more over the fence enough to place the order. But on the other hand, I'll have one of the original sets, numbered, and there's something cool in that. And the zoetrope will be a pretty cool thing to see, even if it largely stays in the box. But when I think of stuff I've bought before (and the stuff I didn't get!) the cost eventually melts away. I can't, honestly, afford this one right now, but the chance that it doesn't come out again is too big to miss for me, and I'd rather have it than not.

I don't spend out on any other vices, and really this year has been low for us on spending (all our money at the moment is going into building a new house so there haven't been the usual outgoings for technology, new items or vacation, for instance). It's extravagant, but I figure this is my one big blowout of the year!

[EricJ]

I think, possibly, Eric's getting confused with Priscilla

(And I wouldn't be the first one, since Fox once rather disingenuously packaged the two movies together on a double-feature disk...)

since there's not one "drag queen" I remember in Moulin Rouge! at all. That, or he's understandably uncomfortable in his own sexuality to actually be brave enough to enjoy what is supposed to be a terrific slice of silly, shamelessly romantic fun.

No, wasn't referring to any specific drag queen, just that there's not a huge demographic of straight people that know the lyrics to "Lady Marmalade"...
(I couldn't finish it, so let me know, do they also get around to singing "We Are Family", "I Will Survive", "It's Raining Men" or "Wind Beneath My Wings"?)

And yes, this was back before "Chicago", so I wanted it to be the fun "We're bringing back the musical!" romp everyone thought it would be in 1999 too, before we knew the "real" musicals like Phantom, Rent and Dreamgirls would come back out of their twenty-year sleep--
But when I say I couldn't get past the first fifteen minutes, I was referring to Ewan first wishing he could escape to somewhere full of fellow people who would understand his soulful artistic nature (hint #1), away from his Socially Dogmatic Father punishing him for not following establishment (hint #2), he finds a hidden wonderland sanctuary of free-spirited shallow party-animals who dress up in wild costumes and indulge in recreational drugs (hint #3), where they dream of Kylie Minogue (BIG ol' hint #4--just ask Ian McKellen to rhapsodize some more about the Friends of Kylie) making the painfully rib-nudging entendre of "I'm the Green Fairy!" (hint #5--it's Australian for "subtle", mate).
...Call me "paranoid" if you live in the suburbs and are wondering what I'm talking about, but you don't live in a college town and already get this stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I'm glad you liked the color, and the flashy editing, and all the big swirly wishfully idealized versions of fin-de-siecle skirts and showgirl outfits.
And maybe I'm making too many personal assumptions after Luhrmann already put gratuitous party-drag queens into "Romeo+Juliet", but no one ever looked at "Nine" and accused Rob Marshall of not aiming squarely for those heteros.
(You asked me why the movie gives me hives, and I said so; my job is done: I'm not going to make a thread-hijacking issue out of it as Ben fears, but before anyone else gets hung up on the argument, seriously, a bit less naivety DOES help at times...And before anyone uses the Beauty/Beast defense and says "But Moulin must be good because it got nominated!", I would theorize that there is more than one reason why Chicago won the very next year--Look up "backlash" in the dictionary.)

[Randall]

My wife and I both love it too, and we're obviously hetero. And even if it has gay undercurrents, we really couldn't care less. We just like it for why we like it--- it's fun.

[GeorgeC]

It's like what they say in South Park, Rand.

"We're all a little gay when you get down to it."

If you like the film, what the heck does it matter what somebody else thinks?

I'm not a musical fan by most stretches of the imagination, but I like MOST Of the Disney animated features that ARE musicals and have most of their soundtracks, too!

(My musical tastes tend more towards classical and symphonic with a love for more operatic-sounding film soundtracks.)

In addition, I had a fun time watching Moulin Rouge, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Mary Poppins.

The 'gayest' film I enjoyed -- guilty pleasure -- was definitely The Rocky Horror Show. I fully intend on getting this film on Blu ray. Maybe even for Chrismas.

So it's got homoerotic overtones.

Sue me...

I liked it! Fishnets, bikers, and Meatloaf all!

I've seen nature, serial killer, and surgery documentaries that made my skin crawl... Rocky Horror was just weird AND entertaining! I didn't really think much about anything else at the time. I was having too much fun watching the film.