Ended up getting all three of the DVDs I spoke of earlier, which means I have to clear some space. DVDs for sale below.
$6 each (includes first-class shipping), 4 for $20. All in perfect shape.
Crash (2004)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Four Brothers (2005)
Dead and Breakfast (2004)
Freaked (1993)
Death Race 2000 (1975) full screen ed.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Bad News Bears (2005)
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Spun (2002)
Leave a comment or send me an email.
I must mock you for owning the remake of “Bad News Bears”.
Mock, mock, mock.
Did you like Crash?
I deserve to be mocked, half canadian. But the original is my favorite movie, so I had to see this one, holding out hope that Richard Linklater and Billy Bob Thorton would do it justice.
It has a few good moments, but in just about every respect—and in every performance—the original was far superior, in my opinion.
But then, not everyone shares my tastes. And they can judge for themselves.
Re: Crash —
No, I didn’t much like it, to be honest, MC. But I seem to be in the minority on that score.
Jeff, I forget- have you seen 40 Year Old Virgin? It was our family movie night last night, and I have to say we all laughed out loud. It was sweet in its way,too…although maybe that’s kind of a girly momish thing to say.
How times have changed at the MayBee house. Used to be my husband and I would get an R rated movie and kick the boys out of the room. Now husband and sons watch the R rated movies and I have to get permission to watch it with them. So far, I’ve been banned from Team America.
Enjoyed 40 Year Old Virgin quite a lot. Which joins a suprising number of recent flicks I’ve liked (thanks in large part to having so low expectations). Others I’ve liked recently: The Girl Next Door; In Good Company, Sky High, The Polar Express (the last two as family flicks).
YOU’RE SELLING FERRIS BUELLER?
Goldstein, what’s wrong with you?
You’re selling The Wild Bunch? To make room for Wedding Crashers?
It’s like I hardly know you …
I’ll take these four for $20 Jeff:
Crash (2004)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Send me an email with an address and I’ll mail you a check.
I hardly ever buy DVDs; I usually rent them, unless it’s rare and I’m afraid it will go out of print. Do you watch them multiple times, or…what’s the attraction of owning them?
I watch them multiple times, listen to the commentary tracks, etc. I’m a big movie buff, though. The appeal of owning them is having them on hand when I want to see them. I was an original member of Netflix, but I found that oftentimes by the time the films in my queue arrived, I’d be in the mood to watch something entirely different.
But then, I’m also big on book ownership, despite all of our very serviceable public and university libraries. Just like to be able to reference things immediately. It’s a personality flaw.
I buy some new releases new, but often buy the “pre-viewed” titles at BlockBuster, or the older releases at Target or Walmart. I too like to have them available when the mood strikes.
I’ve also sent quite a few packages of a half-dozen or so (or more) to various soldiers in Iraq or Walter Reed as I run across appeals in my Net surfing. The drawback there is my (not that I mind) peering into the shelves, six months later, looking for the DVD that I “know” I have!
I had read that your favorite was the original Bad News Bears so I was interested to hear (in more than 5 words) what you thought of the remake. I just watched it last night, and although I admit my bias, having seen it in the theater when most of the cast was my same age, I just thought the Billy Bob rendition was closer to Guns ‘n Roses attempting “Rock and Roll”–you can’t re-do what you’re not capable of in the first place.
I like Billy Bob, I do, but, is there some contactual obligation that he be in every frickin scene?
The ‘76 version also seemed to respect the stories of each individual kid a little better. Ahmad fares better in the original, as does Engleberg. More time is spent exploring the relationship between Buttermaker and Amanda (who was clearly better portrayed by O’Neal.)
But, overall, the original was simply a better total film.
The cinematography was better, the pacing was better and it didn’t harbor the sitcom mentality the re-make does.
The new version seems like conscious mimickry–we know the story so let’s hurry through it–(that and the built-in audience the studio knew it would garner) than any attempt at commenting on the origingal, which is the only artistic point of doing a remake–to view the original in light of later cultural history.
Part of the oblique charm of the original was hearing ten-year olds say such filthy language. In 1976 this was unheard of. But who hasn’t seen a mouthy, foul-mouthed kid in the interveneing 29 years!? So, why remake a film one of whose chief charms was raising this taboo?
Additionally, Kelly Leak’s character in the original really did seem to be a bad seed, but notice he’s suddenly not a smoker in the 2005 version.
And what the hell is Greg Kinnear doing? Vic Morrow came off like a evil motherf*cker. Kinnear seems to want to be bad, without actually going through with it.
All in all, a pointless and irrelevant remake.
I’ll Save Ferris…. ‘Bout time I upadte.
Thanks Jeff! Write me how you want to do this…
That pretty much captures it, Toby.
I, too, like Billy Bob, but Matthau was able to do so much with just a look —
The speech in the dugout when both Buttermakers come to the realization that they’ve been pushing too hard to win and had lost site of just letting the kids play. Matthau says nothing during that realization; Billy Bob feels the need to fill the silence. Two different styles, but only one belongs to Morris Buttermaker, so far as I’m concerned.
And you’re right—every kid in the original was far better. And why get rid of Rudy Stein? Why Oglivie? What did the new kids add? Why change Timmy Lupus into a crack baby?
To their credit, the writers believe the original to be nearly flawless. So they did things like change Roy Turner into the new Kinnear character, who wasn’t quite so obviously monstrous. But it didn’t work—though Kinnear does get off a few good deliveries.
And just as you noticed Kelly didn’t smoke, note, too, the Kinnear doesn’t strike his son, just kind of pushes / bumps him.
I should almost keep the DVD just to use as a sociology lesson on how the PC culture has intervened in the last 30 years.
I buy books, too. I want them to be mine and I like to refer to them and reread them as the spirit moves me, to revisit something I loved or something I just realize I understand.
Maybe I will start buying DVDs, too. I do hardly ever watch the commentary tracks on rentals because I don’t want to right after I se it once. Sometimes tho I love films the first time and hate them after that. Since you all don’t actually know and can never reveal this to anyone who does, I LOVED BILLY JACK the first time I saw it, as a kid!
BNB has aged well—very well. Despite the fashions of culture, the humanity of the characters still shines through.
Having BNB on DVD, I recently purchased Paper Moon and was sorely disappointed to find that it cut off just at the point that the book got interesting.
Can’t imagine thrashing my way through a “this moment” remake of BNB when the classic version captured its moment so well….and having this moment suck so bad in comparison to the times of the original.
I’ll take a chance on watching Death Race 2000 just because it upset so many people in the 70’s. Cross it off and I’ll hit the paypal.
Jeff, agree, and the remake would certainly gauge the measure of our “progress” in the three decades hence. But the omission of the Ogilvie character is most striking in the Billy Bob version: if the kid in the wheelchair is supposed to be his stand-in, why deliver such heavy-handed self-pitying lines? Are they meant as humor? sympathy? the viewer never knows.
And Ogilvie, in the first movie, offered an original character–the kid who might not have the skills to compete but who kept the statistics and loved the game; a kid who at least, might someday show up on the Sunday morning talk-shows or write for the National Review and occasinally write Doris Kearns Goodwin-esque fawning reviews of the Boston Red Sox but, hell, at least you could tell he loved baseball.
And that’s a small but ubiquitous point, I don’t think the new purveyors of The Bad News Bears knew, or were interested in, the game at all…
pity that was the subject of their million-dollar film.
I need to get Polar Express. There are just so many great things about that book for me…memories with the kids, hometown connections, blah blah blah.
I too am a book buyer(hardcover is best) and a special features watcher, but I tend to only buy those DVDs the kids like because they will watch them over and over. I wish they would embed subliminal geometry lessons in some of them.
In Hong Kong they sell VCDs to compete with the pirated DVD market. VCDs have worse picture quality and no special features, but can cost as little as $1/movie. Does anyone think those would be a good product in the US market?
Patricia- your secret is safe with me. Never saw the movie, but that song…..
If it’s still there, I’ll take Four Brothers. You’re even cheaper than Wally World!
Jeff, I’d like to request Dominion. I’ve heard it’s a hell of a lot better than the “other” movie, although that doesn’t say much. I am willing to spend $6 on it, though.
Jeff, did you see or like Peter Jackson’s ‘The Frighteners’? The special edition DVD just came out. I remember seeing it a few years ago and thinking it was ok, but I saw it again and thought it was much better. Very funny with some good scares thrown in as well.
Not sure how much you are into extras but if you like commentaries, Peter Jackson is one of the best. It’s always interesting. The big thing on this however is the 3 1/2 hour documentary on the making of the film. Jackson produced it himself and covers just about every aspect of the film from script work to post production. Great stuff.
I saw the Frighteners when it first came out and ranked it as one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
Maybe I’ll give it another try, though.
Some have said; why buy the movie not rent? At $4 for rental and late fees, $9.50 to see the show in the theater it makes only good business sense to wait for DVD release, buy the movie at $14, and then allow your family and friends to watch it for free.