…To Scott P for the Shakes the Clown DVD. I could watch the circus clown trashtalk with the rodeo clowns over and over again and never get bored.
And speaking of DVDs, I went to a couple of stores today to pick up the new edition of French Connection (which is essentially the same as the 5-star collection edition, only in thinner packaging—and I need the space), only to find that though both Best Buy and Targer were advertising it on their website, neither had it in stock or knew anything about it.
Instead, minimum wage employees in Blue / Red shirts gazed vacantly at computer screens before muttering “I don’t know. The computer says blah blah blah…”
Stupid computers.
I sold my 5-Star edition to Bill INDC—it’s hurtling through the larded USPS delivery system even as we speak on its way to his bachelor pad in the nation’s capital—so I find myself in the very uncomfortable position of not having a copy of my favorite movie in the house.
Hopefully I can rectify this problem by finding some unsuspecting 70s movies buff, cold-cocking him in the back of the head with a roll of nickels, then stealing his 5-Star edition, just to keep me going until somebody can figure out what the hell is going on with this newly packaged edition.
Seriously. I’m shaking. To paraphrase Pookie in New Jack City, “the Popeye—it keeps calling me, man. It keeps calling me…”
The technology now exists to add a sixth star to DVD re-issues. I’m cold and frightened.
I’ve had difficulty finding the new edition as well – my son, cinephile-in-training, recently decided he was finally willing to watch some of the Seventies flicks I’ve been praising to the skies, in preference to the Yakuza-eiga and anime that are his favorites. And, obviously, you can’t go wrong with Friedkin.
I may be a bit heretical, here, though – I deeply enjoyed the sequel, with all the hijinks in Marseilles and the final, breathless pursuit of Frog One, and am rather fond as well of the sort-of-sequel The Seven-Ups. Anyone who can watch the car-chase scene in the latter and not get a wee bit queasy has to have nerves of steel.
One temporary option would be to picture-in-Picture ‘All That Jazz’ while the watching ‘The Conversation’
I think that the sequel is better than the original. Gene Hackman on H? Can’t beat it. And the ending was great.
Jeff, have you been “picking your toes in Poughkeepsie” again?
The look on Scheider’s face while Hackman berates the dealerthey just chased down with accusations about picking his feet Poughkeepsie is one of the main reasons The French Connection made my top two films of all time (depending on my mood, I give it the nod over Bad News Bears).
I, too, like the sequel—and I’ve been waiting for years of The Seven Ups to show up on DVD, but without any luck.
MIMES!!!
Heheheh.
…and I thought I was the only man on earth that genuinely liked that movie.