Monday, July 31, 2017

Top Five Best DVD/Blu-ray Finds: C.C.C Issue #64



Top Five Best DVD/Blu-ray Finds

I’ve been collecting DVDs and Blu-rays for about a decade, and in all that time, have built up quite a sizeable library of films. Sometimes, I come across a particularly noteworthy movie or collection of movies (maybe on purpose, often by accident) that could be noteworthy for a variety of reasons—perhaps it’s rare, or something I’ve been seeking for a very long time—but these five instances are among the best DVD/Blu-ray finds I’ve made.




5. Devious Dinosaurs (2008, 2009, 2017)

As a dinosaur-obsessed kid, I had a tough time finding very many Hollywood dinosaur movies at the video store. There were the Jurassic Park movies, of course, a couple Godzilla movies, Disney’s Dinosaur, the Land Before Time series (but those were for little kids), and Carnosaur (which I wasn’t allowed to see it because it was R-rated). What the video store did have, though, were several dinosaur documentaries, which I rented constantly. Many of them often used footage from old dinosaur movies as examples (even though they weren’t scientifically-accurate examples) and I always enjoyed these clips, though some of them actually freaked me out. There were people running away from a T-rex that came stomping out of a cave, a cave girl sitting in a massive egg shell with a behemoth reptile bearing down on her, and most-used of all, a purple T-rex chasing cowboys around. They even showed the title of the movie from which that clip came: The Valley of Gwangi. It was a name I never forgot.

In 2008, I was looking through Amazon.com, which was still relatively new to me at that time, and somehow came across The Valley of Gwangi. Not only did I find that, but I found another movie, One Million Years B.C, which had stop-motion dinosaur effects by the same guy (the legendary Ray Harryhausen) who did Gwangi. Finally, I would be able to see the clips I had seen so many times in the context of their rightful films. 

As satisfying as it was to see Gwangi, there was still the matter of the T-rex exiting the cave, but I had no idea what movie that clip was from. Other clips from the mystery film showed the T-rex killing a large lizard and carrying it back to the cave—it looked like an even better movie than Gwangi. After doing some research, I discovered it was from a movie called Planet of Dinosaurs, the premise for which sounded incredible. People trapped on a planet that’s like earth, only millions of years behind in evolution? Sign me up. I found a couple clips on YouTube, and finally, in 2009, I found the DVD on Amazon. It was every bit as satisfying as seeing Gwangi (even though the movie was even cheesier).   

By 2017 you’d think I would have seen all of the films that had been featured in the documentaries of my youth, right? Wrong. I nailed down the sources of all the borrowed footage, and one of them, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth, proved impossible to obtain. Not only was I unable to find a pirated version anywhere online or any clips on YouTube, the DVD was out of print and considered a collector’s item. For years, I awaited a re-release. They had to re-release it eventually, didn’t they? Every passing year, my hopes dwindled. Then, just this year, a miracle occurred. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth received a Blu-ray release. I bought it instantly (along with the re-released One Million Years B.C, also on blu ray, with the international cut sporting additional footage I had never seen before), and though the movie didn’t fully live up to the expectations I had built up for years and years, it was still very satisfying to have finally seen it.    
  
The search for the elusive dinosaur movies that played a significant part in my childhood is nearly complete. All that’s left is to get a Blu-ray re-release of Dinosaurus! (a flick from 1960 combining shoddy puppets and stop-motion, clips of which were also often used in Paleo World), then I can rest easily.     


4. Childhood Cartoons on DVD (various)  

Like most kids, cartoons were a big part of my childhood, but even as I got older, they never really stopped being fun or entertaining. We had basic cable when I grew up, which meant standard Canadian cartoon channels—Teletoon, Teletoon Retro, and YTV. It was awesome, except for one problem: every year the line-up of shows was altered, and often a favourite of mine would get the axe, disappearing from the schedule entirely. Three examples of this are Ed, Edd n Eddy, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, and Super Friends

Ed, Edd n Eddy originally premiered on Cartoon Network, a channel that no one (that I knew of) had in Canada, but I first discovered it when we went to the U.S. in 2000, when the show was still relatively new. I laughed my ass off watching it, and then a few years later, Teletoon started showing re-runs of it on weekend mornings. I watched it every weekend, and it never got old. Then of course, it got axed, and for years, I never saw Ed, Edd n Eddy again. I checked the internet but couldn’t find any episodes online.

Then, one day I went into Best Buy, and randomly found a Cartoon Network DVD set that contained the compilation Fools’ Par-Ed-ise (as well as compilations of two other shows I watched around the same time as Ed, Edd n Eddy, those being Johnny Bravo and Courage the Cowardly Dog). I had no idea the show was released on DVD. It was an utter joy to re-watch a show I had enjoyed so many years before, and not only that, discover that it held up surprisingly well. 

The same thing happened with Tales from the Cryptkeeper, but with an even bigger gap between seeing it on TV and finding it on DVD. I saw nearly every episode of this show back in the day, then when I was perusing HMV with a friend one day after class, nearly ten years later, I noticed a DVD with a silly, childish cover of a mummy and vampire and Frankenstein's monster that made it look like a pre-school kids Halloween special, but the title was what caught my eye, and when I looked at the back, I saw several stills that I remembered seeing on a rainy Sunday afternoon while eating fruit roll-ups (random, I know, but that’s just how my memory works) and bought both volumes of this seemingly-misleading DVD set, and was relieved to find it was the show as I remembered it, not altered or remade in anyway. 

As for Super Friends, this came later in my childhood, toward my teen years. Half-hour installments of Super Friends were shown on Teletoon Retro from 2008 to 2010. My friends and I would watch it just to laugh at the cheesy 70’s animation and one-liners, but mainly it was to see the extremely ridiculous (and hilarious) Wonder Twins turn into various animals and water/ice/steam-related forms. A DVD set was released in 2008 that collected the first season of The All-New Super Friends Hour, which turned out to be even better than the episodes shown on Teletoon Retro, because it had more segments, more variety, and more ridiculousness. A second volume came out the next year, and I bought both. It’s fortunate so much of Super Friends has been put on DVD, since Teletoon Retro no longer exists, and there’s nowhere else to see the show.

Preserving cartoons on home video is, I think, an important thing to do, and though these are just three of many other shows I’ve collected, there are numerous others I’d like to see released on home video, though I doubt a number of them (mainly the Teletoon originals) ever will be.   


3. Planet of the Apes 40th Anniversary blu ray set (2011)

In August of 2011, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released and surprised everyone by rebooting the Apes franchise with innovative cgi effects and a fresh take on the material. After seeing it, I decided I had to see the original movies, so went on Amazon and found a blu ray set that had all of them in a 40th anniversary collection, and it was only 40 dollars (interesting coincidence). 

When the set arrived, I was surprised to find it was quite large, and in addition to the five films, also contained a 250 page book, with write-ups and full-colour images—a nice additional bonus feature. All of the films look incredible on blu ray, especially the original. The image transfer is one of the best I’ve seen. You wouldn’t guess it came out in 1968 if you didn’t already know, the picture and audio are that clear. 

Sometimes, I’ll see a movie I want, but wait to buy it in hopes that the price drops, and sometimes this can backfire, because certain films are given a limited home video release, meaning they don’t keep producing copies after a certain point. This rarely happens with mainstream films, but I’ve encountered this issue many times, mainly with older, lesser-known films. Another problem is the edition of the film is sometimes discontinued, which is what happened here. 

The original five Planet of the Apes films are readily available on blu ray, and for less money than I paid. But, the set lacks the elaborate packaging and book, which for casual viewers, is a non-issue, but for collectors or big fans of the franchise, it’s a little disappointing in comparison to the 40th anniversary set. That set is now a collector’s item, and sells for a lot more than I originally paid. I didn’t even fully realize what I was buying at the time. It was a happy accident that I got the edition that I did, and it turned out to be worth buying. 


2. Dead Alive? I’d buy that for a dollar! (2016) 

Before he became famous for directing the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, Peter Jackson made some low-budget gross-out horror-comedies, the best-known of these being Braindead, A.K.A Dead Alive, a “splat stick” zombie flick with massive amounts of over-the-top gore and hilarious gags. I recall hearing about this movie years and years ago, and when I finally decided to seek it out, I made the unfortunate discovery that the DVD (and Blu-ray) was out of print. Though I did eventually see it thanks to a friend, I wanted to own a proper copy of it, but the few available ones that popped up online went for upwards of a hundred dollars. For years, I awaited a re-release, but to no avail. 

I was perusing a pawn shop that I frequently went to and as I scanned the spines of the “D” section of DVD’s, I saw the title Dead Alive in a bright-green font that reminded me of the Creepshow title font. I stopped, taken aback, and thought it must’ve been a bootleg, but no. I pulled it out and found it was the real deal. Not only was it the real deal, it was in perfect condition. The disc was unscratched, the case didn’t have any damage. It was like brand new. And the price? One dollar. Pardon the pun, but it was a no-brainer.  

As of writing this, the DVD goes for 40 dollars on Amazon. This is just one of those really lucky scenarios where someone had something they didn’t understand the full value of, and the right buyer came along and snapped up one hell of a deal.


1. Completing the Godzilla collection (2014) 

In the previous four entries on this list, I covered several factors that crop up as a collector of DVD’s/Blu-rays—finding discontinued home video releases, getting good deals on rare films, figuring out what movie a clip used in another movie or show came from, rediscovering childhood favourites—and when I decided to complete the Godzilla collection, I dealt with all of these factors. 

With the announcement of a new American Godzilla movie coming out in 2014, I decided in early 2013 that I was going to attempt the impossible. I wanted to own and watch every Godzilla movie Toho had ever made before the release of the new movie. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, especially as a starving student at the time, but I figured if I bought a few every so often instead of all at once, it wouldn’t be so bad—after all, I already owned about half of them. I underestimated the challenge this would pose. 

In August of 2013 I started by purchasing the original Gojira on blu ray from Criterion (a pricey way to kick things off, but worth it, since I’d only ever seen the American re-edit titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters!), as well as the second film, Godzilla Raids Again, from Amazon. I calculated that if I watched three Godzilla movies per month, starting in August, I would finish watching them all in May, right before the new one came out (yeah, I was a little obsessed [and crazy] about it), but of course it didn’t go completely to plan.  

There were three in a row that proved difficult to obtain, Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla, and Destroy All Monsters. Sea Monster and Son had been released on DVD years before, but had since went out of print, and copies sold on eBay had insanely high prices. So, I searched for alternatives, and found a foreign seller who claimed to have copies of not only Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, but Godzilla 1985, as well, which was an even bigger deal, because that movie had never officially been released on DVD in North America (at that time, it’s readily available now). I took a gamble on this sketchy seller and got lucky. Though both movies were bootlegs, the quality was good and they were affordable (but not cheap). As for Son of Godzilla and Destroy All Monsters, I couldn’t find them online. Thankfully, a friend was able to get me bootlegs of both of them.

The majority of my collection, as it looks today. 




Many of the earlier Godzilla movies are no longer available, but when I bought the majority of them back in the day, I had no idea that would ever happen. Many of them, like Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, and Godzilla vs. Gigan, were part of the 50th anniversary series, and though some have since been re-released, many have not. 

Collecting all the Godzilla movies is a lot more difficult than you might think. Hopefully one day a massive Blu-ray box-set is released with all of them together in high definition, but for now, there are only a scattering of Godzilla titles on Blu-ray (mostly paired up in random double-features). I’m happy with my collection, even if a couple are bootlegs, and no matter what happens with home video releases, whether a new format comes and takes over Blu-ray and DVD, or physical media is no longer produced, I will still have my Godzilla DVD set: one of the crowning achievements in my overall DVD/Blu-ray collection.  

Monday, July 10, 2017

Spider-Man 2 (2004): Favourite Films Series




Spider-Man 2 (2004): Favourite Films Series


Superhero movies aren’t special anymore. I’m not saying I no longer enjoy them, or have loads of fun with them, but the “event” feeling when going to see them at the theater is starting to die off. 

It was a different story back in the summer of 2004. I was nine, for one thing, so I was less jaded, having seen way fewer live-action superhero films. When my mom rented Spider-Man for us to watch from the video store, I was enthralled by it, to say the least. Then, when I heard there was going to be a second one, I got even more excited. I don’t know if I had been a little too young to see Spider-Man in the theater when it came out, or if I just missed it because I was unaware of it, but in any case, I got the chance to see Spider-Man 2 in the theater (I haven’t missed a Spider-Man movie at the theater since), marking my first superhero theater-going experience. What I saw radically affected my childhood. 

Spider-Man is still my favourite superhero of all-time, and that is largely thanks to Spider-Man 2. To me, it still holds up as well today as it did when it came out (for the most part, more on that shortly), and it remains amid the pinnacle of greatest superhero movies. Just like with Batman, fans will likely view certain actors as “their” Spider-Man (though I wonder if many will remember Andrew Garfield in the years to come). For me, it’s Tobey Maguire. I think he did a great job as both Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter-ego, but everything and everyone else surrounding the title character is every bit as great.    

Despite taking place two years after Spider-Man, it picks up pretty much right where things left off, first giving us a comic-book-style opening credit sequence set to Danny Elfman’s incredible score. Peter and M.J.’s relationship is still complicated, Harry Osbourne has taken over his father’s business and still wants Spider-Man to pay for what he (thinks) he did to his father, and Peter is still trying to balance college and work and personal stuff and being New York’s famous superhero. 

Woven brilliantly into the Harry plot thread is the origins of newcomer Dr. Otto Octavius, who gets his fusion project funded by Oscorp, and then things go wrong, turning him into a new supervillain: Doctor Octopus (Doc Ock). The scene where Octavius explains how his A.I-controlled robotic arms work and uses them to create a perpetuating tritium ball is one of my favourite scenes in the movie. The sound design is awesome. That noise when he powers up the fusion cradle still gives me chills. 

The later scene when the doctors try to remove the limbs after his failed experiment and the limbs go haywire, killing everyone, is a prime example of why director Sam Raimi was a perfect choice for directing the first three live-action Spider-Man films—even though a quick glance at his resume might not make it appear that way. Raimi was a horror director, most-famous for his Evil Dead films. At first that sounds counterintuitive to bringing a hero to the big screen, but a superhero is only as interesting as his or her supervillain, and Doc Ock is an unforgettable example. 

When you look at his comic book origins and appearance, Doc Ock comes off as a bit goofy, but there’s nothing goofy about Alfred Molina’s take on the character. He’s sympathetic at first, and you understand his reasoning for becoming evil, but he’s still intimidating—even without the homicidal robot arms. I never used to appreciate how skillfully he handles talking to the A.I. that’s controlling his arms. He’s essentially talking to himself, and it could’ve come off as silly, but it’s easy to buy into, and that’s also thanks to the cgi effects. 

Admittedly, not every visual effect shot in the film holds up, but it seems even the latest superhero movies still have cgi effects that simply don’t look believable (even by today’s standards). Mostly, Spider-Man 2 looks real, whether it’s Spidey swinging through the city or fighting Doc Ock, but Ock is the one who really stands out, mainly visually, and he’s an example of something that would not work without cgi. Even though I prefer practical effects, this is one instance where it would’ve been bulky and awkward without the use of cgi (though there are still practical effects incorporated, and that blending of cgi and practical is spot-on) and had they tried to accomplish this effect a decade earlier, it likely wouldn’t have worked and/or held up very well. 

An obvious but important aspect to address is that Spider-Man 2 is a sequel. It’s important because it’s one of the best sequels of all-time. I love Spider-Man (the first one), but it was hampered somewhat by the origin story trappings, which took up most of acts one and two. It’s not that his origins aren’t interesting or that they were mishandled—on the contrary, I thought it was extremely well-done—but it didn’t allow for much freedom, story wise, to take the characters in any other directions. As for Spider-Man 2, done are we with Peter Parker’s/Spider-Man’s origins. Now it’s time to explore the characters more fully, as any good sequel should do. Peter and M.J. and Harry are well out of high school now, and it’s not only easier to accept them as the characters given the age of the actors, but more interesting because there’s even more drama. 

Sometimes a studio will try hard to double down on what everyone loved about the first movie when it comes to making a sequel, but in this case, more of what people loved before is doled out in the perfect amounts. There are more hilarious and memorable scenes with J.K Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle, another great cameo from Sam Raimi’s old buddy Bruce Campbell (it’s more conspicuous compared to his first cameo, but it’s even better, I think), and the action is amped up of course. But, previous flaws are also corrected. 

Not everyone loved the depiction of Green Goblin, played by Willem Dafoe (but I think most would agree he was excellent as his alter ego Norman Osbourne, so it was cool to see him come back for a cameo at the end of 2), and because Spidey was so new at the whole hero thing, their fights scenes weren’t particularly spectacular. The fight scene between Doc Ock and Spider-Man on the train is an incredibly well-directed and well-choreographed fight. The camera movements are innovative (a Raimi trademark) and you can easily follow what’s happening. All of the action scenes, really, are improvements compared to before.

Improvement is the keyword here. Spider-Man was a solid origin film. Spider-Man 2 is an improvement in practically every way. Tobey Maguire owns his role as Peter Parker, James Franco gives what I would call one of his best performances of his career, and Alfred Molina is Otto Octavius. Everyone else, too—Kirsten Dunst, Rosemary Harris (Aunt May), even the smaller roles like the pizza shop owner and Emily Deschanel as the unimpressed receptionist—deliver memorable performances. There are fewer silly moments throughout than the first film; it’s much more exciting and focused, which brings me to something unfortunate I have to address: Spider-Man 3.  

As bad as emo Peter Parker was, and the miscast Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, and the overabundance of mishandled villains, the worst parts of Spider-Man 3 were, for me, the lack of follow-up from Spider-Man 2. The ways things leave off is both totally satisfying and as ideal setup for the next movie. M.J. and Peter are together, he is Spider-Man once again, but meanwhile, the angry and vengeful Harry has not only discovered Peter is Spider-Man, he has also found his father’s goblin tech, meaning Harry and Peter will inevitably be in conflict soon. 

Buried in the mess that is Spider-Man 3 are some of the Peter/Harry plot threads that, had they been expanded on and followed up more strongly, could’ve made for an exceedingly better third movie. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I don’t know what happened to James Franco’s performance, but he just completely lost it. He’s always leering and making weird faces and being a goof. On top of that, his suit as “new Goblin” is a horrendously-designed outfit, and he gets amnesia, which basically ruins him for the rest of the second act, and then of course they have him come back as a good guy at the end and try for the feels by killing him off, which was not-at-all-satisfying. I won’t get into all the Spider-Man 3 issues (there are too many to cover), this is supposed to be focused on Spider-Man 2, but regrettably, knowing what really follows up the second film versus what could have followed it up robs Spider-Man 2’s ending of some of its power.

Luckily, though, Spider-Man 2 is a strong enough film to stand on its own. It’s still great even if you haven’t seen the first one, but is definitely better if you have. The attraction is obviously seeing Spider-Man fight Doc Ock and do whatever a spider can, but the true strength lies in the compelling characters and their dynamics. This version of Spider-Man successfully delivers the satisfying action while never forgetting the hero’s (and villain’s) humanity, and that is why it will remain one of the best superhero films for years to come.