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Try to sell a difficult Blu-ray title to the HTF Membership (1 Viewer)

Ruz-El

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I'm going to go a little out of the box and suggest an entire company. Vinegar Syndrome.

They're doing the work that Criterion does, only on Grindhouse features no one has heard of. A tough sell even to the cultist, most of their releases are porno chic. Many of the films are bafflingly inept. All of them are interesting to watch. There is a passion in these releases, an Ed Wood Jr. type reach for something more, even on such wonk title like JUNGLE BLUE that tries to mix a Tarzan plot with stock wildlife footage and hardcore porn and failing at all.

Yup, I love me my Vinegar Syndrome discs. they have some titles available for free download on their site, if you're feeling adventurous.

PROS:
You've never seen movies like this before. Lost and forgotten, and restored to the best they can be.
Value. If the elements are in too rough of shape to harvest a good blu-ray, they tend to put them out as double features that still look great. They're blurays have all been outstanding.

CONS:
These are z-grade titles. They're cheap, some are slow, some are flat out inept, a bunch are hardcore porn. If you're easily offended, than they are not for you.
 

EddieLarkin

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Vinegar Syndrome have been one of my favoured labels for the past few months. I've nearly got all of their Blu-rays, which are invariably excellent. Check out Night Train to Terror for an unbelievably daft experience!
 

Ruz-El

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EddieLarkin said:
Vinegar Syndrome have been one of my favoured labels for the past few months. I've nearly got all of their Blu-rays, which are invariably excellent. Check out Night Train to Terror for an unbelievably daft experience!
I've got everything they've ever released. After getting their first set, I decided to collect them like I always wished I had with Something Weird or Criterion. The only film left me totally flat was "Marilyn and Senator" that is just disastrously overlong. We should probably have a separate thread to discuss the joys of Vinegar Syndrome ha ha. :D
 

EddieLarkin

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I'm already set on getting all of their Blu-rays (only 3 more to go!) but I don't know where to start with their DVDs (other than Jungle Blue, which I just had to pick up!). Any recommendations?
 

Ruz-El

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It really deppends since so much of the DVD is porno. The Peaches 2 pack is really good, as is "A Saint, A woman, A Devil", directed by the co-writer of Raging Bull. "A Labor of Love" is a great documentary on the making of an independent film that went hardcore to get financing, one of the most awkward things you will see. The "Kung-Fu Vixens" double feature is a fave. Kung Fu Vixens is horrendously bad as a film and a porno, but the editing and story is nuts, there's at leadt 3 "WTF" moments that had me pausing and backing the disc up to re-watch haha.

Many of these are double features available to Americans for under $15 with free shipping. I'm an unashamed fanboy.
 

Jeffrey Nelson

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Pennies_From_Heaven-838477249-large.jpg


The dark musical PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1981) is my pick. One of my fave films of all time, and the last great Hollywood musical, based on Dennis Potter's British TV series. It was a box-office bomb, and I think the only critic who liked it was Peter Rainer, bless him. It's about a Chicago sheet music salesman trying in vain to make a living during the Depression while trapped in a loveless marriage. His life is radically changed in various ways after he successively meets a homeless accordion player, a lovely demure schoolteacher, and a pretty blind girl.

This musical is one-of-a-kind; the main characters all lip-synch to pre-existing vintage recordings of wonderful songs from the early '30s, with these bits occurring only in their imaginations. Some of the numbers are stripped down and subtle, and some are full-blown Busby Berkeley. The story is classic film noir bleakness.

PROS:
Excellent cast, including Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper, Vernel Bagneris and Christopher Walken (with the latter doing a mindboggling striptease number!)
Wonderful Edward Hopper-esque sets
Perfect selection of tunes from the early '30s
On-the-nose choreography by Danny Daniels
Crackerjack direction by Herbert Ross, which actually lets you SEE the actual dancing (unlike overedited faux musicals featuring mostly stars that can't dance such as CHICAGO)
Great Bob Mackie costumes

CONS:
A crucial scene featuring the accordion man and the blind girl was deleted by the director for pacing reasons (I REALLY wish this would turn up)

Yep, I could only find one con. If you love classic Film Noir and musicals like I do, you really need to check this one out (having the hots for my babe Bernadette won't hurt either!). The available DVD is pretty decent, though I'd love a BD upgrade.
 

Matt Hough

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I do admire Pennies from Heaven very much, and there's no question it deserves the Blu-ray treatment, but it's not just dark; it's sometimes ugly and depressing. The musical numbers give it snap and pizzazz and a haunting kind of lyricism that's quite unique, but that ending! Downer doesn't nearly cover it.

It makes All That Jazz seem like a perky, feel-good musical.

Was it ever released on DVD? I only have the laserdisc.
 

Sam Posten

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Eating RaoulThe cook, the thief, his wife and her loverI was at the perfect time in my life to see both of these films, in college and expanding my horizons from the usual mass american fare. Not sure even I would enjoy em again today, let alone trying to convince others they had merit.
 

TonyD

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How about a movie that features about a dozen popular and great actors. One movie that has Sharon Stone, Christopher Walken, Gene Hackman, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtain, Jennifer Lopez, Paul Mazursky, John Maloney, Grant Shaun, April Winchell(daughter of Paul) and also happens to star Sylvester Stallone and Woody Allen as best friends. It seems to me that this movie has been forgotten even though it was made within the last 20 years. Probably because it was overshadowed by another similar movie that came out the same year.My selling point is to that I've always thought of this as a Classic Woody Allen movie complete with his biting sarcasm and usual neurotic attitude. The movie starts out with Z(Allen) wondering what his place in the colony is while at a session with his psychiatrist. It's a funny movie with great Woody wit, his trademark outer-monolog, with plenty of sarcasm a bit of satire and an a-list cast. So if you're a Woody fan and haven't seen Antz, you should. Btw DreamWorks, it's time to put this and the other DWs animated movies on bluray.
 

schan1269

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Red Road.From the woman that brought us Fish Tank (itself a tough sell).Want to see the bad side of GB that Bond movies won't go near...find some Arnold films.Yes it plods. Yes it is repetitive. But the last 15 minutes...all that came before suddenly makes sense.
 

Josh Steinberg

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Here's a film that the distributor had such a difficult time with, they took the rare step of releasing it twice in the same year, and still couldn't figure out how to draw an audience:

"Wonder Boys"

It's from 2000, and was directed by Curtis Hanson, with a screenplay by Steve Kloves (who went on to write the scripts for all but one of the "Harry Potter" movies), based on a novel by Michael Chabon. The cast included Michael Douglas, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey, Jr. (before he was "Iron Man"), Tobey Maguire (before he was "Spider-Man"), and Katie Holmes. Bob Dylan won an Academy Award for his original song "Things Have Changed", which is probably now more famous than the film itself.

I think it's a perfect movie. The writing is great, and the acting is wonderful -- each actor inhabits his role perfectly, and they really bring the characters to life in such a way that when it ends, I always want to spend more time hanging out with these people. Great direction and cinematography, all brought together with some really good editing that makes perfect use of both the film's original score and a wonderful selection of songs that the director chose to use.

This is easily on my top five favorite movies of all time (truth be told, it's probably #2), and yet no one has seen it. It's on DVD, but not available on Blu-ray, nor on any streaming or digital sell-thru site. The trailers and posters for the movie do a pretty lousy job of making it seem like it's worth seeing, to the point that when Paramount first put it out in Winter 2000 and it flopped, they decided to re-release it theatrically in October 2000 to try again -- and still couldn't get it right.

With Robert Downey Jr now one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Tobey Maguire's stature also being a lot higher than it was, and Michael Douglas having had a comeback of sorts with "Behind the Candelabra" and the upcoming "Ant Man", I'd love for more people to discover this movie.

PROS - Fantastic writing, great acting, nice direction, brilliant soundtrack
CONS - It's a character piece with moments of levity and moments of drama, but it never settles firmly into one genre -- some people might not appreciate a movie that is comfortable not falling squarely into an easily identifiable genre. And the marketing campaign sucked -- if you're the kind of person who normally decides whether or not to see a movie based on a trailer or posters, in this case please, please ignore them and just see the film!
 

AnthonyClarke

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Despite Mr Crawford's aversion to sad movies at this stage in his life (which I can TOTALLY relate to!) I do urge him and everyone else to try to see the powerful and moving anti-war animation classic from Japan, 'Grave of the Fireflies'.
Sad, yes, Moving, yes. Totally wonderful? Yes yes yes.
 

Adam_S

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Marketa Lazarova

Imagine if Sam Peckinpah decided to shoot a medieval epic in black and white cinemascope and hired James Wong Howe as his DP

Imagine Peckinpah hired Quentin Tarantino to write the script and said, "make us a pastiche of ancient lore, Game of Thrones and Andrei Rublev."

Then he hired Philip Glass to craft an intense score.

Then imagine they went out and shot some of the most beautiful black and white period photography ever seen. The script was naturally Out of Order so the editing and storytelling is delirious, punctuated by the mind bendingingly gorgeous scoring. The battles are harsh, realist and brutal, and the characters are unforgettable and numerous.

The only drawback is you see the film and sit there stunned afterward wondering, "What the Fuck did I just see?" The Storytelling is dense and elliptical, the cast is at times confusingly large, and untangling the backstory of the characters is an uncertain venture at best. But those are more features than failings, because the film is magnetic and compelling, a staggering triumph of cinema easily on par with the all-time-greatest films. It's the single best Blind Buy I've ever made in fourteen years of DVD and bluray.

And it's been given a loving restoration equal to the best work done by the major Hollywood Studios with an absolutely killer Bluray transfer.

You will wonder why you've never heard of the director František Vláčil before, and you'll be dying to see his other films after you watch this one.

And criterion put it out, so right now you can get it fifty percent off from BN until the end of the week. Go buy it right now.
 

Vincent_P

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Steve McQueen's first film HUNGER definitely fits the bill here. I think it's one of the most tremendous films ever made, but it's structured so unusually (long stretches with little or no dialogue, then a sequence mid-movie that's literally a single take lasting nearly 20-minutes that all dialogue, a wonderful conversation between two men, plus switching points of view between characters), plus it includes some of the brutal and hard-to-watch images I've ever seen on film. It really is an overwhelming experience, but would be a tough, tough film for many (most?).

Vincent
 

schan1269

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Adam_S said:
Marketa LazarovaImagine if Sam Peckinpah decided to shoot a medieval epic in black and white cinemascope and hired James Wong Howe as his DPImagine Peckinpah hired Quentin Tarantino to write the script and said, "make us a pastiche of ancient lore, Game of Thrones and Andrei Rublev." Then he hired Philip Glass to craft an intense score.Then imagine they went out and shot some of the most beautiful black and white period photography ever seen. The script was naturally Out of Order so the editing and storytelling is delirious, punctuated by the mind bendingingly gorgeous scoring. The battles are harsh, realist and brutal, and the characters are unforgettable and numerous.The only drawback is you see the film and sit there stunned afterward wondering, "What the Fuck did I just see?" The Storytelling is dense and elliptical, the cast is at times confusingly large, and untangling the backstory of the characters is an uncertain venture at best. But those are more features than failings, because the film is magnetic and compelling, a staggering triumph of cinema easily on par with the all-time-greatest films. It's the single best Blind Buy I've ever made in fourteen years of DVD and bluray. And it's been given a loving restoration equal to the best work done by the major Hollywood Studios with an absolutely killer Bluray transfer.You will wonder why you've never heard of the director František Vláčil before, and you'll be dying to see his other films after you watch this one.And criterion put it out, so right now you can get it fifty percent off from BN until the end of the week. Go buy it right now.
2ndedThis is the perfect escape from lame Hollywood fare...
 

ROclockCK

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
1robots-gal-marvin.jpg

Pro's:

[*]Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox
[*]Alan Rickman (voice) and Warwick Davis (performance) as Marvin the Robot (shown above)
[*]Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast
[*]Helen Mirren as Deep Thought (voice)
[/list]

Big Plus:

[*]A Blu-ray transfer which is still among the best I've ever seen. Disney knocked it out of the park.
[*]Great replay value for its sidebar schtick and cameos (e.g. John Malkovich)
[*]Running gag visualizations of the effects of the 'Infinite Improbability Drive'
[*]Very Good Design (though sometimes a bit overblown)
[/list]

Con's:

[*]It's not the Douglas Adams Book
[*]It's not the Original BBC Radio Series
[*]It's not the Original BBC TV Series
[*]And I still feel, as I did in the theatre, that 2.35:1 was simply too wide for this subject and staging style...especially those animated excerpts from 'the book', which just looked silly in scope. The whole thing should have been no wider than 1.85:1, or ideally 1.78:1. An AR choice which hurt this film IMO.
[/list]
On balance, a personal fave disc which I revisit every every year or so...any awkwardness in this movie adaptation more than offset by the pleasures of its presentation via Blu-ray.
 

hanshotfirst1138

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schan1269 said:
Red Road.From the woman that brought us Fish Tank (itself a tough sell).Want to see the bad side of GB that Bond movies won't go near...find some Arnold films.Yes it plods. Yes it is repetitive. But the last 15 minutes...all that came before suddenly makes sense.
Didn't she make an adaptation of Wuthering Heights which got some buzz a few years ago?
 

Aaron Silverman

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I remember getting into a big argument with the guy who ran my college movie theater over whether we should show Exorcist III. A classic, no, but WAY better than anyone would expect. Very creepy!

To repeat myself from other threads, Cloud Atlas makes perfect sense if you've read the book (which you should do before trying to watch the movie). :)
 

CraigF

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^ Ah, but those devious brotherssiblings have added another layer, maybe 2 layers, to the book. It is not the same Cloud Atlas as the book, merely the same title and basic concept. That's the point of what I was saying: you should totally forget the book for the movie, otherwise you'll miss the best (IMO) parts of the movie entity. JIC someone disliked the book, they might like the movie (my "difficult" sell). Read the book to get the best parts of the book. :) Actually, though hard to forget one when considering the other (the book is always better since it's your imagination at work), that should always be done as they are different media for expression.
 

Ed Lachmann

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Among the older classics, LADY IN A CAGE, THE INCIDENT and SALO come to mind. Still, I've tried the newer ones with entrails, excrement, rape and unspeakable violence splattered all over the place and it really doesn't do a lot for me. Old-fashioned, you know.
 

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