Laser Dreams

Before we headed out to Alaska for almost two weeks, I made a trip to the West Side of Los Angeles for  a Pop Up event promoted on one of the Facebook Groups I am a member of.  If you have been here before, you may know that I am a fan of an extinct technology, The Laser Disc. Millennials will not recognize the Laser disc, to them it looks like a DVD that is blowing up and set to explode. Once upon a time it was the cutting edge of home video technology, and there are many keepers of the flame out there. While I don't get into the gear head aspect of color filter combs, AC-3 Inputs, CRT displays and upscaling technology, I do appreciate the discs and technology for nostalgia purposes.

Some of the collectors in the group are completists , who want to own every Criterion Release or Signature Edition. If there is a version of Star Wars they can import from Japan to make sure they have every possible permutation, they will do so. More power to them I say. I am mostly content to enjoy the thousand or so discs I collected while the technology was active. That does not mean however that I don't want to add to the collection.

     Ron Dassa of "LaserBlazer" was the primary host but he was joined by Maxine Davlin who brought a large collection of discs as well. It was a one day event, although there are rumors that it was successful enough to repeat.  You can see the set up on this Facebook Post about the event:

https://www.facebook.com/laserblazer/videos/10217245536189483/

For an old timer like me who remembers thumbing though the Laser Discs at a dozen different stores around the L.A. area, this was a trip down memory lane.  The joy of flipping through disc after disc and finding something that delights you is just hard to find now. I really hope they do it again. Ron was especially helpful in guiding me as I picked out a player that had dual side capability. We still need to get the remotes exchanged, he gave me a loaner until the correct one came back to him.

So, the question I am going to answer now, whether you care or not, is "What Did I Get and Why?"

Let's start with the musicals. I love this traditional film art form and there were dozens to choose from. My daughter Amanda went with me and picked out several of the discs that we bought. Right now she has an interest in Doris Day. She had a film professor who loved Miss Day and Amanda wants to see more of her work. There was a Double Feature and a nice copy of "The Pajama Game". She also has a crush on Howard Keele so "Kiss Me Kate Joined the pile. We got four other musicals from the fifties and a couple of 60s efforts as well.

I could not resist picking up the Albert Finney version of "Scrooge", I've only seen parts of it, so this Christmas we have a discovery to make. Finally in the musical pile, we have a major find. Ron had box sets on a wall in the entryway and Amanda found a set that has all four versions of "Showboat". This is a treat that we will have to indulge in a little bit at a time, so we don't get over stuffed on "Old Man River".

This next set of finds is made up primarily of classic films. There is a Vincent Price Double feature of horror movies, Bing and Bob head to Hong Kong, and Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau crack us up as the odd couple. "How to Steal a Million" is on the DVR and has been for months, now I can move it off and watch Audrey Hepburn with Peter O'Toole in a nice widescreen presentation. Amanda is a Jane Austin fan, so the early version of "Pride and Prejudice" was a natural. "Gunga Din" is one of my favorite films, but the only copy I had before this was one I burned from a TV screening onto a DVD. We have a copy of the remake of "Sabrina" but now we have the original for comparison purposes as well.

Some 80s and 90s films also made the grade, but first there is a Sergio Leone Film from the 70s. "A Fist Full of Dynamite"  was a film I saw as a kid when it was titled, "Duck You Sucker". This is a fully restored version of the movie at it's full length.

I have a copy of "Matinee" already, but the widescreen edition was the version I really wanted and it comes with a feature addition of "Mant" the movie that is central to the story of the film. "Innerspace" is another Joe Dante film and I have never owned a copy until now. This makes me quite happy.  The early 90s were filled with comic book style movies that were more influenced by the pulp fiction of the 30s and forties rather than comics. Now as a companion piece to "The Phantom" and "The Rocketeer" I can say I have a copy of "The Shadow". Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of a laser disc collector?

Two movies that just make me happy everytime I see them. First is the "Idolmaker", a musical about the creation of teen idols at the start of the rock era. It comes from Taylor Hackford who has exquisite taste as illustrated by the fact that he is married to Helen Mirren. Finally, there is "Defending Your Life", an Albert Brooks film featuring Meryl Streep and a highly quotable Rip Torn. At our house it is a black hole film, we can never escape it's gravitational pull, and now we have it on a charming old fashioned format that is perfect for a 90s movie.


The last set of films on Laser that we purchased I picked up for one reason only...the covers. One of the things that made discs so alluring to me back in the day were the vivid art on the covers of Laser Discs. They were often miniature versions of the movie poster but in a 12 x 12 format. Most of these movies I already own on DVD or Blu-ray, but you would not appreciate those formats being prominently displayed on the wall. That's what I intend to do with each of them.

"The Stunt Man" features the silhouette image of Peter O'Toole's devilish movie director on a crane filming a shot. It's a terrific design. "The Mask of Zorro" is a late release which is often treasured by collectors who want to find films that just managed to get a laser edition before the format folded.  I just love the "Z" graphic with the flames and another silhouette.

"Atlantic City" has beautiful artwork in the poster design, and it's a poster I don't own so here i get a chance to have it in some form. "The Muppet Movie" cover is bold with large images of Kermit and Piggy, and it is childlike and sweet.

"The Day of the Locust" is a film I wanted to see when it came out in 1975, the artwork was compelling then and it still intrigues me. I recently listened to a podcast from "Forgotten Filmz" and decided I wanted to see the movie but even more I wanted to look at the cover.
"The Outlaw Josey Wales" has other covers in other media, but this rendering of the original poster art just insisted that I own it.

The two final discs I bought ( for a very reasonable $4 each) are my favorites when it come to covers. Everybody knows "The Searchers", it is a John Ford/John Wayne masterpiece. So is the cover art which looks like a painting you could hang in an art gallery.

And finally, there is this fantastic graphic design, that I think must have been created exclusively for Laser Disc. I've not seen it elsewhere, including DVD and Blu-ray versions. It is simple and composed in a very satisfying set of images and angles.

This image kicks as much ass as Lee Marvin does in this movie. I can hardly wait to get it on the wall and stare at it every time I am blogging or podcasting.

I hope you enjoyed this little shopping expedition. Physical Media rules, and Laser Discs are the Kings of the Physical world. 

My Slate of Films from the Spielberg Draft on the Lambcast

OK, tell me that getting Spielberg's Biggest Blockbuster of the 1970s AND his Biggest Blockbuster of the 1980s isn't going to help me win this draft. Plus I have the sequel to his biggest Blockbuster of the 1990s to go along with it. This should be in the bag, but only if you do your part and vote for my slate in the Draft.

Jaws

There are plenty of posts on this site for this film. Here is a list:

40th Anniversary Jaws Week Posts

My Original Post on the 70s Summer Movie Project

Book Signing with Carl Gottlieb

Last Years Great Screening in a Great Theater

Others:

The Lost World: Jurassic Park


Spielberg Blogathon Entry

While I don't want to support Heather's Team of films, I do have a link to my vigorous defense of
Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom.



Vote at this link.

When you look at the choices, you'll know the right thing to do.

UPDATE!   Victory!

Thanks everyone who voted.

The 1987 Draft Slate

The Lambcast Draft of 1987 is underway and you may have already voted for the fine slate of films I managed to nab during the podcast. If you were uncertain in any way as to the quality of my selections, I thought I'd provide a brief rundown and justification for each of the five films. You can then go the The Lamb and vote your conscience. The video above will also give you a 42 second justification for my choices.

Robocop

In truth this needs no justification, everyone knows how amazing this Paul Verhofen film is. It is simultaneously  an action film, science fiction story and political satire. There are moments of extreme violence and there are sections where you may find yourself laughing at things you would never have imagined being funny. The special effects are a combination of stop motion, make-up and animation that are solid for 1987 and were not improved on by the remake a couple of years ago. The film is held together by two outstanding performances. Peter Weller is Alex Murphy, the police officer who becomes Robocop. His story line is surprisingly poignant and it is accomplished while wearing a heavy costume and uncomfortable make-up. Kurtwood Smith is the over the top villain of the piece, Clarence Boddicker, a drug dealing murderous thug with a flare for self importance that we wait a long time to see taken down.  Other performers are great as well, and I recently attended a Tribute Screening in honor of Miguel Ferrer who has a key role in the film.  

The Untouchables

For a ten to fifteen year stretch,  Brian DePalma was my favorite director. His films were hypnotic to watch but they often dealt with psych sexual concepts that kept them from being mainstream hits. The Untouchables  broke that barrier for him with a straight forward gangster story that had a group of law enforcement officers as the heroes rather than a Cuban gangster (i.e. Scarface). The good guys were played by newly anointed star of the moment Kevin Costner, longtime character actor Charles Martin Smith, newcomer Andy Garcia and the winner of this years best supporting actor award, Sean Connery. The part of Al Capone was originally going to be played by Bob Hoskins, but when Robert DeNiro became available, Hoskins was paid off and another bigger than life star was added to the film. Hard as it is to believe, DeNiro was upstaged as the bad guy by the skeletal Billy Drago, who is memorably escorted to the car by Elliot Ness. The facts may not have been straight but the story was pretty terrific with several amazing set pieces that stand up to scrutiny today. 

The Living Daylights

While my competitors on the podcast seem to mock my choice of a Timothy Dalton Bond film, all the real 007 fans out there know that Dalton was the real deal. He did not get much of a shot at playing the world's greatest gentleman spy. This was his first shot and the film was never tailored to his strengths. You can detect a little of the flavor left over from the Moore era Bonds, but the story did make the circumstances more real. Dalton looked the literary part more than any other  cinema persona, even the true Bond Connery. This entry in the franchise features an excellent fight sequence and Bond is not even in it. The double crosses in this movie are more believable than those in a dozen other spy films, and the stunts continued to be the high spot in the 007 outings of the 1980s. Two years ago, as we were anticipating the most recent Bond picture, I did a series on my 007 favorite things about each film, "The Living Daylights" entry is here for your perusal. This was also the final Bond film for the long tenured composer John Barry. 

The Hidden

This may be an obscure one for some of you. It was a low budget action film with stars who were not big names but were reasonably well known. The concept is the thing that sells this movie. In reality it is a science fiction chase film. Aliens have arrived on Earth, one is chasing the other. Now before you start having visions of Dolph Lungren in your head, the Aliens can take over a human body and use it to move around. The evil alien does this several times in the film, killing a series of otherwise law abiding people but turning their remains into blood-thirsty killers and thieves. There are some nice practical effects that show the parasite moving from one body to another. The L.A. Cop and the FBI Agent who are trying to track the perpetrator down are played by Michael Nouri from "Flashdance" and future otherworldly FBI Agent Kyle MacLachlan. This film features Agent Cooper before Twin Peaks, and we get an explanation as to why he is so odd. It is full of chases set in the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s. By the way, all the construction you see on the streets then, is still going on. There is one scene set outside a strip club that is located next to Miceli"s Restaurant in Hollywood. It is across from a newsstand that I frequented before the internet, it is long gone now. The parking lot where the alien screws a guy to death is still there however, and the car they occupy is in a spot that I still park in when I go to the Egyptian Theater. This is 96 minutes of shooting, car chases, improbable plot developments and well known character actors getting a chance to strut a little bit. This film has the most bang for your buck in 1987. 

Ishtar

Most people who ridicule this movie have not seen it. "Ishtar" was an attempt to recreate the film style of the Hope/Crosby "Road" pictures of the forties. Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty are cast against type, with Beatty as the flummoxed, tongue tied romantic and Hoffman as a self assured ladies man. Neither of the characters has it right but the two stars do all they can to sell it. Jack Weston is a New York talent agent who manages to get them a booking, and he is tired from the first to the last of his scenes. It is however Charles Grodin who steals the picture as a CIA man, trying to use the two musicians in a plot to control the government of a non-existent Middle Eastern Country.   The two lead encounter spies, terrorists, a mysterious woman and a blind camel. Writer/Director Elaine May had her directing career stymied by the results of this film, but she continued to be an important comedy presence of the big screen and is responsible for some great film scripts in the 90s. Legendary songwriter Paul Williams worked out a number of "bad" songs for the duo to performs, most of which have just a couple of lines used. However, if you can appreciate the theme "Dangerous Business" you will know what kinds of laughs we missed when the planned album of Rogers and Clarke was cancelled.

I own this two poster set, it is a great image that highlights a funny part of the movie.

I know it is a bit of a risk, but if any of you watches "Ishtar" as a result of my choosing it for the draft, even if I don't win, I will feel some vindication.

1987 Movie Draft; Lambcast

This is the one you have all been waiting for, the 1987 Movie Draft on the Lambcast Podcast.

Four other Lambs and I compete to create the best slate of five movies from 1987. The show is a blast, as there is trash talk, reminiscences and general enthusiasm for this 30 year old time frame. You can listen to the show on the link below but more importantly, you can vote for a slate of films on the second link below that. Of course as a follower/reader of my site, I expect you to support my team. The only caveat is that I did include an outlier choice in "Ishtar". Next week I will put up a mini-review page with comments for each of my selections. If you need to wait for that before you vote, I understand. Those of you who trust and love me however, should go vote now. My films are highlighted in the picture above. You cant go wrong with Robocop, Sean Connery and James Bond. "The Hidden" is a not so widely seen Science Fiction/Action film featuring Kyle MacLachlan. "Ishtar" is popularly thought of as a bomb, but it contains a lot of big laughs and an amusing attitude throughout.




Voting can be done here:


LAMBCAST #385 1987 DRAFT: It’s time for another year draft! To celebrated Jay’s upcoming 30th birthday we’re taking the opportunity to look at films from his birth year, 1987! Jay competed against Dylan, T…
 http://www.largeassmovieblogs.com/2017/08/lambcast-385-1987-draft.html

Lambcast Acting School 101: Sean Connery

MovieRob, the host of Acting School 101 on the Lambcast, invited me to join him for a discussion of the films of Sean Connery. Anyone who has been here before certainly knows that I think Connery IS James Bond so I was thrilled to participate. We countdown our own top five performances by Mr. Connery and have a good time talking about toupees and other acting tools.







In preparation for the podcast, I went through my laserdisc collection and put up a wall of Connery features. Four of my five picks can be found here. Try to guess what they are before you listen to the podcast. Have fun everyone.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

There is a world full of film bloggers who dislike the whole idea of live action remakes or reboots of classic animation films. They regularly let it be known that there is no need for a live action film, that the existing version is excellent and, "gasp", the production of such a movie is a money grab. Well those are all ideas that I can sometimes understand, they often get bandied about without regard to the product for which those comments are intended. I try to hold my opinion until I see each film and I do my best to judge it by it's own merits. That goal is exceptionally hard to achieve with the current "Beauty and the Beast". The animated film from 1991 is beloved by many, and I include myself in that group. It holds a pivotal place in my nostalgia file, since my kids were the perfect ages to see that film when it came out and we lived on a steady diet of "B & B" video watches for almost five years. Although I try to avoid other reviews and certainly spoilers on line, it is hard to exclude them entirely, and I'd heard one of the regular guests on the Lambcast, knock this version for being lifeless. So although I wanted this film to be a success, it was with some slight trepidation that I approached the screening. To put it mildly, there is nothing to worry about, this film is solid.

The legend of the original animated design of Belle was that they wanted her to resemble Julia Roberts. I think we can dispense with that image. Emma Watson is a fantastic fit as the heroine of this story. She has the pluckiness that we want out proto-feminist character to deliver and the charm that we remember. I think her voice is very solid as a singer and the big numbers at the beginning of the movie are carried off with aplomb. She also seemed to develop some chemistry with the Beast, through hard work as an actor in some pretty well filled out sections of the film. The transformation from antagonist to friend and love interest was very believable in this version of the movie. I also thought her relationship with her father was more adult like and based in a long standing status rather than just being patronizing.

There are places in the film where there are additions to the well known story that I think work, but there are also a couple that seem unnecessary. I don't know that the enchantress that places a spell on the castle and town, needs to be a character after the first sequence. I did like the fact that the town was included in the enchantment, which helps to explain a couple of minor inconsistencies in the '91 animated film. The character of LeFou changes in a couple of ways. Much has been made of the character's "identification", and those that are bothered by that sort of thing will probably ind the slight bit of humor related to that offensive. I wonder if that alteration is the justification for turning the character into a more sympathetic figure toward the end of the film. As if an orientation transplant also requires a morality defense. It's just a thought I had as I was considering the whole film. It doesn't qualify or disqualify the movie for me.

Here and there are minor changes in scene and blocking. Gaston, as played very effectively by Luke Evans, is introduced in much the same manner but already as a suitor for Belle, in fact she has turned him down before. Their interactions have less of the comic effect than the animated film was able to achieve, and that is a small drawback, but the back story of Gaston as a soldier  makes some of his attitudes a little more sensible. His temper issue, which replaces the blackmail into marriage strategy of the animated version, is a lot more logical and it also justifies LeFou a bit more.  Another set of background issues concerns Maurice, Belle's Father played by Kevin Kline. Instead of being an inventor, he is an artist, and some of his work is mechanical like clock making. I suppose it makes sense to enlarge the part if you are going to expand the film and hire an actor of this stature, but I don't know that we needed to know all the history of their departure from Paris to the provincial areas.

The Beast himself, is seen early on as an adult, although they disguise his appearance a little for the reveal at the end. This was another place where the story gets expanded. It seems the young Prince, when denied maternal oversight became a reflection of his father. Not much was told to us about all of that, but because we get a little more of his origins, the library becomes more important as a way of connecting Belle and he. One of the minor criticisms of the animated film is the quick step to love that occurs. I think this is a little more realistic in timing, although it still happens faster than one might expect.

I may be an outlier on this film. On the podcast that I was a guest on today, two of the other participants were quite harsh in their judgments and the other was mildly enthusiastic. I'm all in, so take that for what it is worth. If you are interested in hearing the discussion, I will be posting a link when the podcast gets published. Until then, you are invited to be my guest, and enjoy this tale as old as time, without worrying that all those little people in the provincial town you find yourself in, will judge you too harshly.