by JB
Get rid of Halloween, I tells ya’, and Christmas rises to NUMBER ONE!
NUMBER ONE, JERRY!
Ah! Christmas—does anything sound Kris Kringlier than that? City sidewalks, busy sidewalks? Folks dressed up in holiday cheer? Shoppers rushing home with their treasures, perhaps some video treasures for YOU AND ME? Here is an incomplete list of the little shiny discs I find most intriguing. Maybe you will find them intriguing. Maybe I will find them under my Christmas tree this year. HINT. HINT. SANTA.
Hard Boiled in 4K
It is generous of the fine folks at Shout! Factory to give us a few weeks between the releases of these magnificent Hong Kong action films so that we can 1) save up for the next one and 2) pay our mortgages and buy groceries. It’s big of them. I have been a superfan of these John Woo epics since the Criterion special editions in the days of laser discs. Woo!
Shudder 10
What a wonderful idea! Like their recent Joe Bob Briggs’ The Last Drive-In Blu-ray release (collecting two movies and Joe Bob’s breaks on one disc) this new collection assembles ten films that were released exclusively to the Shudder horror streaming service. It’s currently priced at less that $11 per movie on the Amazon machine.
How do they do it? Volume.
Re-Animator 4K
My favorite Stuart Gordon film makes its 4K debut. That means that Barbara Crampton will now be four times as embarrassed by her nude scene.
Spinal Tap II 4K
This only received a week or so of theatrical playdates, but it’s a very funny film and a worthy sequel... 41 years after the original. Is it as fresh and funny as the original? No, but then again, what is?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Spotlight
Two Oscar Best Picture Winners make their debuts today in 4K.
11/18
Better Tomorrow Trilogy 4K
Your chance to own the entire trilogy in 4K... at popular prices!
Hell's Angels (4K Criterion)
If that film we see Leonardo DiCaprio working on endlessly in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator piqued your interest... this is that film. Our favorite germophobe’s first foray into motion pictures... Howard Hughes would later produce The Outlaw, date Katherine Hepburn, and become obsessed at the end of his life with Ice Station Zebra. Bride of Frankenstein director James Whale was dialogue director on Hell’s Angels; he is not mentioned in the Scorsese picture. I can’t wait to see the Criterion Collection version of this museum piece.
James Cagney Collection
What a wonderful idea! Like their recent Joe Bob Briggs’ The Last Drive-In Blu-ray release (collecting two movies and Joe Bob’s breaks on one disc) this new collection assembles ten films that were released exclusively to the Shudder horror streaming service. It’s currently priced at less that $11 per movie on the Amazon machine.
How do they do it? Volume.
Re-Animator 4K
My favorite Stuart Gordon film makes its 4K debut. That means that Barbara Crampton will now be four times as embarrassed by her nude scene.
Spinal Tap II 4K
This only received a week or so of theatrical playdates, but it’s a very funny film and a worthy sequel... 41 years after the original. Is it as fresh and funny as the original? No, but then again, what is?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Spotlight
Two Oscar Best Picture Winners make their debuts today in 4K.
Better Tomorrow Trilogy 4K
Your chance to own the entire trilogy in 4K... at popular prices!
Hell's Angels (4K Criterion)
If that film we see Leonardo DiCaprio working on endlessly in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator piqued your interest... this is that film. Our favorite germophobe’s first foray into motion pictures... Howard Hughes would later produce The Outlaw, date Katherine Hepburn, and become obsessed at the end of his life with Ice Station Zebra. Bride of Frankenstein director James Whale was dialogue director on Hell’s Angels; he is not mentioned in the Scorsese picture. I can’t wait to see the Criterion Collection version of this museum piece.
James Cagney Collection
Four of Cagney’s finest films, Public Enemy, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Angels with Dirty Faces, and White Heat... at popular prices!
11/25
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 4K
Abbott and Costello the Invisible Man 4K
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde 4K
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy 4K
After buying these titles only seven times before on VHS, Special Edition VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Special Edition DVD, Blu-ray, and the Special Edition Blu-ray boxset, don’t you have just $120 more for these? But wait! Where is the fifth title in the series, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff? Do I smell a 4K boxset EXCLUSIVE coming down the pike?
Alec Guiness 4K Collection: Kind Hearts & Coronets, Lavender Hill Mob, The Lady Killers, The Man in the White Suit
I already own the 4K disc of The Lady Killers... it’s one of my favorite color 4K transfers.
The Man Who Could Cheat Death 4K
One of my favorite obscure Hammer films, I’m convinced it would be much better known if it had starred Peter Cushing instead of Anton Diffring. I’m curious to see the 4K transfer, and the new slate of special features that Vinegar Syndrome is including here make this disc a must-upgrade kind of affair. (Order direct from Vinegar Syndrome if you would prefer the slipcase version that also includes a 40 page book.)
It's a wonderful time to be alive. Film archivists continue to find impossible rarities I never thought would ever see the light of day. The complete long version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is suddenly found under the floorboards somewhere in Argentina. The extended gory ending to Horror of Dracula, which Forrest J. Ackerman wrote about for decades in Famous Monsters of Filmland and most people assumed was apocryphal, is suddenly found to be real and reinstated into the film. This new version of The Man Who Could Cheat Death contains a Hazel Court nude scene, previously only included in a spicier “continental version” of that film. What’s next? A complete print of Magnificent Ambersons, representing Welles’ vision before it was desecrated by RKO? A full-length A Star is Born from 1954 before it too was almost destroyed? A complete eight-hour print of Erich Von Stroheim's Greed? Dare I dream that a complete print of London After Midnight will be unearthed before I shuffle off this mortal coil? Fingers crossed.
12/02
The Killer 4K
Ah! Shout! Factory has saved the best for last. Exquisite mayhem... and a man with a code.
Laurel & Hardy, Year Three
This Flicker Alley restoration collection contains some of my favorite shorts by the boys: Double Whoopie, Wrong Again, and the amazing Big Business. Nine shorts for $40, American. Egad! That’s only $4.50 a short!
His Girl Friday (4K Criterion)
The best screwball comedy ever made makes its 4K debut. Thanks, Criterion.
12/09
Catch Me If You Can
One of my favorite late-period Spielberg films gets a spiffy new 4K upgrade.
12/16
House on Haunted Hill
This new Film Masters restoration comes complete with an audio commentary by friend-of-the-site, Heath Holland from Cereal at Midnight. This film has always looked a little shabby in its previous home video incarnations. I have high hopes for this new release. It’s one of my favorite Vincent Price performances and my favorite William Castle film. Delicious.
FUN HINT: When you pick this up on Amazon, buy yourself an inflatable skeleton, some fishing line, and a stick so you can recreate Castle’s “Emergo” schtick in your very own home!
David Byrne’s American Utopia (4K Criterion)
I feel this got overlooked during COVID, when it premiered on the HBO machine.
Spike Lee’s film adaptation of David Byrne’s epic Broadway show is a masterpiece of staging, song selection, performance, lighting, and direction. One would think it hard for David Byrne to top himself for best concert film after Stop Making Sense, but here he almost does. Dazzling and thought provoking.
Abbott and Costello the Invisible Man 4K
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde 4K
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy 4K
After buying these titles only seven times before on VHS, Special Edition VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Special Edition DVD, Blu-ray, and the Special Edition Blu-ray boxset, don’t you have just $120 more for these? But wait! Where is the fifth title in the series, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff? Do I smell a 4K boxset EXCLUSIVE coming down the pike?
Alec Guiness 4K Collection: Kind Hearts & Coronets, Lavender Hill Mob, The Lady Killers, The Man in the White Suit
I already own the 4K disc of The Lady Killers... it’s one of my favorite color 4K transfers.
One of my favorite obscure Hammer films, I’m convinced it would be much better known if it had starred Peter Cushing instead of Anton Diffring. I’m curious to see the 4K transfer, and the new slate of special features that Vinegar Syndrome is including here make this disc a must-upgrade kind of affair. (Order direct from Vinegar Syndrome if you would prefer the slipcase version that also includes a 40 page book.)
It's a wonderful time to be alive. Film archivists continue to find impossible rarities I never thought would ever see the light of day. The complete long version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is suddenly found under the floorboards somewhere in Argentina. The extended gory ending to Horror of Dracula, which Forrest J. Ackerman wrote about for decades in Famous Monsters of Filmland and most people assumed was apocryphal, is suddenly found to be real and reinstated into the film. This new version of The Man Who Could Cheat Death contains a Hazel Court nude scene, previously only included in a spicier “continental version” of that film. What’s next? A complete print of Magnificent Ambersons, representing Welles’ vision before it was desecrated by RKO? A full-length A Star is Born from 1954 before it too was almost destroyed? A complete eight-hour print of Erich Von Stroheim's Greed? Dare I dream that a complete print of London After Midnight will be unearthed before I shuffle off this mortal coil? Fingers crossed.
The Killer 4K
Ah! Shout! Factory has saved the best for last. Exquisite mayhem... and a man with a code.
Laurel & Hardy, Year Three
This Flicker Alley restoration collection contains some of my favorite shorts by the boys: Double Whoopie, Wrong Again, and the amazing Big Business. Nine shorts for $40, American. Egad! That’s only $4.50 a short!
His Girl Friday (4K Criterion)
The best screwball comedy ever made makes its 4K debut. Thanks, Criterion.
12/09
Catch Me If You Can
One of my favorite late-period Spielberg films gets a spiffy new 4K upgrade.
House on Haunted Hill
This new Film Masters restoration comes complete with an audio commentary by friend-of-the-site, Heath Holland from Cereal at Midnight. This film has always looked a little shabby in its previous home video incarnations. I have high hopes for this new release. It’s one of my favorite Vincent Price performances and my favorite William Castle film. Delicious.
FUN HINT: When you pick this up on Amazon, buy yourself an inflatable skeleton, some fishing line, and a stick so you can recreate Castle’s “Emergo” schtick in your very own home!
David Byrne’s American Utopia (4K Criterion)
I feel this got overlooked during COVID, when it premiered on the HBO machine.
Spike Lee’s film adaptation of David Byrne’s epic Broadway show is a masterpiece of staging, song selection, performance, lighting, and direction. One would think it hard for David Byrne to top himself for best concert film after Stop Making Sense, but here he almost does. Dazzling and thought provoking.
I'll add Outland 4k that's coming out today. I don't have my copy yet, but it should be here soon
ReplyDeleteAdd Cloud Atlas to the 4k list coming December 23
ReplyDelete