Big Lots Sale - Page 14

I guess I won't go back today.  I wouldn't mind paying regular price the the things I want if they'd just put them out there.   

Purchase reviews: 

1. Exorcist the Beginning.  Much better than expected.  This was torn apart by critics, movies fans, etc.  Some of the violence is overly grizzly.  Certainly doesn't match the original's shocking story (borrowing a little too much, particularly the so-so ending sequence), or the cleverness of the 2nd sequel, but I can say I'm satisfied in the $2.40 purchase and it beats out what I remember of the first sequel. Definitely plan to get the Schrader version.  Very good transfer, upconverts nice!  DTS soundtrack shook the room relentlessly.  I guess I'll have to check out the remake of The Omen sometime.  These remakes often get overly criticized. 

2. My Dog Skip.  I'd always meant to see this but put it off over and over. I'm shocked it came out in 1999.  But too many of these "kid and his dog" flicks just fail under modern filmmaker. Somehow this one gets it right.  Lots of interesting, non-2D characters and a great story being told.  The little dog in the film is very good, with many funny scenes, but there are some things about your dog that are almost impossible to film and that's the case here.  I truly relate to the story.  Made me think of the dogs I've lost recently, during my childhood, and the ones that were sitting there watching parts of this with me that are still teaching me about life.  If I'd known this would be so good I would have gotten a bluray instead.   

So, thanks to this thread and you guys that keep it going I went to a nicely stocked Big Lots! today (fyi, on Montauk Hwy in W. Babylon, LI) and picked up Universal's CLASSIC WESTERN ROUND-UP VOL. 1 & 2, the WB HOMEFRONT COLLECTION, the GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL/LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL double feature, a blind buy on a William Holden/Glenn Ford western called TEXAS and I threw in the ZODIAC 2-disc'er. With the coupon, that came out to 15 movies for $25. DVD may be dead but not at my house.  

Pete, you got some great stuff.  The two stores I visited today didn't have any of those.  I'll keep looking. 

Universal's CLASSIC WESTERN ROUND-UP VOL. 1 & 2, 

WB HOMEFRONT COLLECTION 

Laurel & Hardy TCM Archives

WB Sidney Poitier  Collection

all at $6 a peice but they had a 20% off sale today so i got each set at an amazing $4.80 for each

Holy Crud!

I guess I have to make a run at lunch again.

I never even knew of 'Big lots' until I checked this thread only a couple of months back, on my first visit I was looking for  “days of heaven”, ‘Black snake moan’ and ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ 2 disc, but had to settle for “good night and good luck”  ..

Sunday I went back and scored..

THX 1138
Body Heat (deluxe version)
 A perfect murder
Charley Wilson’s war (plenty of this)
Copycat
After the sunset (5.00)
you’ve got mail (for a present)

I was mainly hoping to find ‘The outsiders” , but I visited two different stores and no luck, also looking for but never saw any of “Fandango, Get Shorty (two disc) or “Point of no return”..
 

I got a call from my "insider contact" at the local store alerting me new DVDs had been put out (much to my wife's consternation - she thinks I have *way* to many DVDs...).

I rushed to the store and picked up:

"Twilight Zone: The Movie" (only because it was $3 - My recollection of it is not that good as it's so-so remakes of episodes. I remember being very disapointed when it came out.)

And for $6/each:
"The Whole Nine Yards/The Whole Ten Yards" double feature
Classic Western Roundup V1
Classic Western Roundup V2

If I didn't already own the Laurel & Hardy titles I'd have been all over them even though the ones here are slashed (both titles).

I found but *no* copies of "Soylent Green" and my "contact" even helped me look for it.  It looked like ~20% of the titles from the list made it here.  There are several others I may return to pick up... doing a bit of research first.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobO'Link 

 

"Twilight Zone: The Movie" (only because it was $3 - My recollection of it is not that good as it's so-so remakes of episodes. I remember being very disapointed when it came out.)
 

It's not a great movie but I like Joe Dante's take on It's A Good Life and I think Nightmare At 20,000 Feet is pretty good too.

I ended up getting Outsiders complete Novel for $5.99 from Amazon.com to bump up another order for free shipping.  Evened out.  I also recommend Rumble Fish for fans of that film.  Saw it for the first time recently and was very impressed. Looking forward to seeing Outsiders unlike I've ever seen it before. 

Twilight Zone the Movie.  Me and the folks saw it together when it first came out and left very satisfied.  My dad, not a movie fan, had fun with the "wanna see something scary?" at Halloween with this mask we bought (I have that on film, haha).  Certainly worth $3 for the interesting mix of stories, Lithgow and the Scatman are complete standouts.  I have to say I'm more of a fan of the original stories they used, particularly "Kick the Can" which Speilberg played out way too much for the movie version.  The original managed to leave an eery feeling afterwards while Speilberg's ended happy and upbeat.  A failure in my book with it's lookalike child actors, etc. Still fun though.  But the "something on the wing of this plane!" bit from Lithgow surpasses Shatner's take, as good as HE was too.  It wouldn't bother me if they tried Twilight Zone as a movie again...although I wouldn't want anything to do with the production myself because I BELIEVE that curse!   

Finally seeing some new stuff at mine.

Picked up:

Exorcist II: The Heretic. 

A Little Romance. 

Elvis:  That's the Way it is. (gonna return since this is a single DVD edition...bummer)

Nice variety there! 

Review of purchase:

A Little Romance. (1979)  A couple of young people, she's American and he's French, find love in France with the help of an old pickpocket.  Sounds dated, but really it isn't-You could show this to your young daughter and "this is old" probably won't be a complaint.  The young couple, a French kid playing the boy and a young Diane Laine playing the girl, are believable in the roles and charming to watch.  Sally Kellerman plays Lane's overbearing mother and does less well than the actors playing the 2 fathers of the kids.  Watching the trailer, you'd expect something action packed but it's not that frantic, more a medium pace.  There's a short interview from the early 2000's with Lane looking gorgeous and speaking highly of this, her first, movie starring role..even getting emotional when speaking of big star "Larry" (Olivier).  The transfer is visually okay, the sound not so good.  Out-of-sync a few times...I hate that.  The level goes up and down...overall sounds muted.  Still, I guess this worth $3 for it's intended audience, of which I'm not quite a part of but still like it for the late 70s feel. 

StreamingSoundtracks.com often plays parts of the Georges Delerue score from A Little Romance.  Been kinda curious about it. . .

I have to admit, the music from A Little Romance didn't strike me as anything special.  I know the reviews for the film and the score were stellar, but overrated from my experience.  The 2 young leads are the best thing about it followed by gorgeous locations of France and Italy.  Although while it was in Italy I was sort of wishing I was watching Don't Look Now instead.  Or when in France...Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.     

Exorcist II:  The Heretic.  (1977) Not too much to recommend this.  I'd say it's among the worst first sequels in history and among the biggest wastes of a good cast in movie history.  John Boorman had just come off the odd Zardoz, and it shows.  The cheesy effects that sort of worked for that don't work here.  It reminds me of Poltergeist II in that it confirms it's uselessness almost right away and runs way way longer than it should (nearly 2 hours!!), leaving you extremely disappointed and worn out from all the boredom.  Actually, I should say Poltergeist II is disappointing, but much less than this hokey, ill conceived pile of garbage.  I do like the cast they gathered, Blair is still perfect for that role and Fletcher works just fine.  Burton is the least of the leads, looking like he's wondering if the film will completely kill whatever career he has left.  Conclusion: only worth the $3 for completists, or those who like the film for some reason...there are some laughs here in a MST3K way, when you're not tired from the boredom to attempt it. 

In spite of the ad which shows "new" 2 title/disks @ $6/ea. and new $3 DVDs there's nothing new here.  But that didn't stop me from picking up a couple of titles:

Memoirs of an Invisible Man ($3)

Christopher Guest Collection (A Mighty Wind / Best in Show / Waiting for Guffman) for $6

I already own "A Might Wind" and "Waiting for Guffman" picking up this "set" (actually the 3 individual titles with a small ribbon wrap-around shrink wrapped together) only for "Best in Show".  Even for $6 and a couple of duplicates it's worth it as I've not seen "Best in Show" for under $10 anywhere.  I can always gift the dups or trade 'em in at Hastings...  Might even come out ahead that way.

I already have those other 2 as well.  Best of Show is the best of the lot IMO. I think you'll like that one.  Not a big fan of Guffman, it's okay, but A Mighty Wind is a clever variant on This is Spinal Tap and really works well most of the time.  Great music.  Memoirs might be underrated. I have a tape that I refuse to watch.  But I'll nab a DVD when it appears. Cool! 

Reviews of BL Purchases:

Watched Blood Reaper from one of those 3/$3 sets.  If you like porn films but wish they didn't have so much hard core heated sex action...this might be a dollar well spent.   For my money, porn actors spouting home movie style dialogue, a guy with a black ice bag over his face as "the reaper", a good special effects guy doing gore (though I suspect those "guts" are actually quite edible! hahahaha! spaghetti with strawberry sauce perhaps? yum!), an okay guy doing the music on his Casio keyboard and a guy who did the writing who shouldn't quit writing for the local newspaper for this...all rolled together equals a film I paid 75 cents too much for since the nice case is worth a quarter to me.  I say, rent Blood Waters of Dr. Z (or similar, including those nifty SOMETHING WEIRD releases) with or without MST3K instead, it feels the same and you get a goofy monster in the bargain.  Blood Reaper is like a youtube link you get in your email called "RE: HEY, WATCH MY REALLY COOL HORROR MOVIE ME AND MY FRIENDS MADE!111!!1!"  At least it's only 80 minutes, including very slow credits roll at the end. 

Z.P.G. (Zero Population Growth).  You know you've gotta a good one when when it's initials and then the full title next to it!  Tee hee!  I had a feeling about this though after really liking the Legend Films release of The Pied Piper (with Donovan) I got from BL months back, and another I'd never heard of before.  I was hoping more of these rarities would show up on the shelves; and now, after Z.P.G., I'm game to look a little harder.  Z.P.G. has a huge asset in Oliver Reed, an actor I've never had a problem with in any film I've ever seen him in.  He's a Welsh Jack Nicholson.  Plus, his film here is very retro sci-fi in feel like A Clockwork Orange, Logan's Run, 1984, Fahrenheit 451,etc.  Fans of those should seek this out right away.  It's a future that has making babies illegal, you can "do it" you just can't put a bun in the oven, so to speak, or you'll be put to death.  I'd say the story is very "Bradburian" and that's why I liked it so much.  The whole thing about the robotic dolls is a hoot. The transfer won't win awards, and that' a shame since it's more worthy of a restoration treatment that others that get it. 

I actually enjoyed "Guffman" more than "Wind" because "Wind" felt like a half-baked folk retread of the much better "Tap".  I also recall being somewhat put off by all the profanity in "Wind", most of which felt gratuitous.  I didn't think I'd like "Guffman" simply because I don't care for theater, but it was a hoot!  But films by Guest take a different approach overall and aren't for everyone.  They seem to be somewhat an aquired taste type thing. 

I watched "Memoirs" last night since it fits the theme of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy challenge going on over at DVDTalk.  It's not too bad, especially for $3.  I feel it's much better than "Hollow Man" (which I'm currently watching... also for the challenge... also purchased at BL).  I think most people gave it a pass because they saw Chevy Chase as the star and assumed it's a comedy, but it's *not*!  It's more a drama/serious film with humor that simply arises from certain situations.  It's *not* played for laughs at all.

On a side note... my "Essential Ozzie & Harriet" arrived today!  I'll screen a few eps. just as soon as the challenge is over this Saturday (watch 100 SF/Fantasy titles during July).  While I'm not crazy about the paper envelopes/slip cases for the individual DVDs that Mill Creek seems to now use for everything, I'm not gonna complain too much considering the price. :)

I'm usually not bothered by language, so I don't remember Wind being bad in that area.  I actually liked the retread feel...  It felt almost like a sequel of sorts. 

When it originally aired, I saw the original SNL skit with the Guffman character instructing Harry Shearer and Martin Short on water ballet.  Side splitting!  Short:  "...I'm not that strong a swimmer..." 

Hallow man was a slight disappointment.  I remember Memoirs having subtle, but better effects. 

The Guffman character came from the synchronized swimming sketch?!?!?!  I never knew that!

I haven't seen Guffman, but I *loved* Best in Show and liked A Mighty Wind.  That swimming sketch is one of the greatest things ever aired on TV.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dana martin 

Universal's CLASSIC WESTERN ROUND-UP VOL. 1 & 2, 

WB HOMEFRONT COLLECTION 

Laurel & Hardy TCM Archives

WB Sidney Poitier  Collection

 

all at $6 a peice but they had a 20% off sale today so i got each set at an amazing $4.80 for each

My store had these out today, along with a bunch of other multi-film sets for $6 (and, oddly enough, the single disc "Passenger 57" at the same price). Picked up all the above except Laurel & Hardy.

A few others that I can recall; many are full screen so check them carefully:

Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2

Grumpy/Grumpier Old Men

The Mask/Dumb & Dumber

Police Academy 2 & 3

The Jennifer Lopez Collection

Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned

IT/The Shuttered Room

People Under the Stairs/Shocker

Family Film 4-pack (Big Fat Liar, Johnny English, 2 others)

Every Which Way But Loose/Any Which Way You Can/Honkytonk Man

Road Warrior/Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcolm R 

 

...

...

Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned

.

Planning a trip today.  I hope mine has this.  I need to replace a VHS of VotD.  the sequel would be a nice bonus. 

@aaron.  Well...I'd always remembered it that way but perhaps the character from SNL was just a similar one.  In fact, they are a lot a like...  HERE"S THE YOUTUBE OF SWIMMERS...  still a hoot! 
 

Nothing new.  Grrr...and I forgot to take one I wanted to return for the movie Sea Wolves. 

I stopped at the store closest to my work, but they only had a smattering of dual and triple features, but nothing I needed.  No sign of the Poitier, Universal Westerns, or Homefront collection. 

I'm going to try some more of the next few nights. 

Made a second stop last night.  I looked through two giant displays and was leaving the store disappointed (for the second time in the same day)....and as I turned the corner by the checkout, I almost tripped over another display of movies!!  BINGO - I got everything above except for the "Homefront Collection". 

This haul included:

Universal Westerns Vol. 1

Universal Westerns Vol. 2

Sidney Poitier Collection

Laurel & Hardy Collection

Clint Eastwood (Any Which Way, Every Which Way, Honkytonk Man)

The Road Warrior

I might make a stop by store #3 tonight to check on The Homefront Collection.

Yeah, in my store the DVD section is so overflowing that they now have displays of DVD's in three different places around the store. I was getting ready to ask about the "new arrivals" promised in the circular, as it seemed like all the same stuff that has been out for several weeks, when I came across the third display.

Amazing to see that these sets (westerns, Sidney Poitier, etc.) are still priced $22-$35 on Amazon.

Eric,

My Big Lots in Clifton, NY has a bunch of The Homefront Collections and I am looking for the Sidney Potier Collection....want to pick one up for me and I will do the same for The Homefront Collection? Will send USPS to you and you can do the same?

Lou
 

Lou,

I managed to find a "Homefront Collection", but I'd still be happy to pick up a Poitier for you....and I can either hold it for a future trade, or I can send it off to you and you can pay me for postage.  I'll try to make time to swing by tonight.

Eric, thanks much, let me know how much ($6) plus postage and I do a PayPal pament to you....

Nothing new in my local stores, but found the WS version of "Paycheck" , all the previous version I found before were FS..

I heard this movie is not very good, and Ben Affleck never struck me as "action hero" material..but at this price I'll check it out... and at least Uma is in it

Lou,

I'm on the lookout, but I've been to 2 stores in the past 2 days and no more copies of the Poitier set.  I'm going to try and hit 2 more before the weekend, so I'll let you know if I find anything.

Thanks much, but knowing Big Lots, it might be working it's way east....I'm going tomorrow, so you never know. But really thank you for checking....

The SF/Fantasy challenge ended (106 films total for July) so I started watching the "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" set I picked up.  They are great!  Funny, and for the most part uncut!  Many include original commercials which are fun too.  Video quality varies, but considering the age and *especially* the distributor (Mill Creek) it's not too suprising.  So far all are very watchable with only a couple being a bit washed out looking (I've watch 2 disks, 16 eps. so far).  The words "Mill Creek" are supered as a "bug" during random episodes but it's not very obtrusive and I truly don't notice (which is odd as I *HATE* "bugs" on any programming) too much.  Maybe it's because I'm enjoying the episodes too much to notice this.  The 2 disks I've watched so far are also part of the $5 MC set that's been at BL lately.  Highly recommended if you're a fan of classic TV and/or sitcoms.