Nightbreed

As I typically keep up on forthcoming special editions of various movies and frequent Bluray
collector sites, I became aware of a movie named Nightbreed that was being given quite the royal treatment. Shout! Factory was releasing a 3 disc special edition of this film, pricing it at about $45 and stamping limited numbers on some of them upon the thriving horde of movie collectors worldwide. Never heard of Nightbreed before, so I took it upon myself to see what the fuss is all about, and most importantly, decide if I wanted to partake in this expensive special edition. After all, at a price like this, there must be something boiling underneath.

The first hit on this movie brings up the name Clive Barker, who wrote and directed the film, which was based on a short story of his own creation. It's a familiar name, especially for those of us growing up in the late eighties: a few iconic horror movies adorned Clive's name above the title, including Hellraiser and Candyman. He was also a well known author, and was involved in various comic book projects (and still is, most likely). It wasn't my type of horror back then, so I missed out on all of it, including Nightbreed.

Not having seen it upon initial release shields me from the nostalgia-goggles that so often blurs the quality of a product - or movie, in this case - from your harsh adult judgments. It's not a bad thing by any account: I love watching movies that were significant to me when I was younger, even though I can see why they would be terrible. Nightbreed, however, was met with critical and box office failure when it released back in 1990. A special edition decades later like this screams cult classic, which indicates I could very well enjoy the film. After all, I've been revisiting many films from the eighties recently and have gotten a kick out of most of them.

Nightbreed is definitely a cult classic. Further investigation unearthed a story of studio meddling, cutting and general Hollywood tomfoolery. The theatrical cut was an abomination, and soon after, Clive Barker put together his own cut which became known as The Cabal Cut. It looks like there was a 145 minute version Barker put together back in 1989, which existed only on VHS as a work print and presumably was bootlegged into cult status. Fast forward two decades, and a newer 159 minute cut was revealed on another long-lost VHS. In 2012, a new 155 minute cut was put together, using elements of the VHS tapes and a DVD from the Warner Bros Archive. This was enough to get people really excited, and it was time for Shout! to announce an upcoming DVD release for the followers of this film. Turns out, they really outdid themselves, as they discovered the original film elements of Nightbreed and gave Clive Barker the opportunity to put together his own cut. The Director's Cut would be the definitive version of this film, and it's made up entirely by thoroughly restored original footage. If you were part of the cult, this was a dream come true.

With all that knowledge, it was time to watch the movie - because I knew about the history of the film I kept myself dark on the film itself. I chose to watch the Director's Cut of course. And what can I say? This is not a good movie, and it pains me to say that. I really wanted to enjoy this film. It's not even a matter of exceeding or falling short of expectations, I just sincerely could not enjoy the film. The first act felt disjointed; there was a lot happening that I didn't understand, nor did the film provide me a lot of clue in the end to what was happening. Our main character - played by Craig Sheffer- is flat generic and meaningless. His girlfriend, played by Anne Bobby, is perhaps the most versatile and impressive on screen, but her poor character keeps walking into danger. Many character actions just don't seem to make a lot of sense. The plot seems like a mess. Is this because there was such a focus on the "monster" makeup? Clive Barker's mind can produce some really interesting imagery, and it's all present here. Each of the dead, residents of Midian, are unique and interesting to look at. Unfortunately they all kind of suck. They are not interesting characters. In fact, they all seem like pushovers with a ton of negativity. Barker wants to guide us through a dream like world, but there's simply too much. The literal trip down the levels of this underground world is incredibly impressive: the monsters and sets are incredible. Unfortunately it's all marred by poor dialogue, silly actions and a weak story. Then there's Cronenberg - yes, that David Cronenberg, who plays a doctor who is really a serial killer trying to frame our poor protagonist. He aids in exposing the hidden refuge of these mutants, and helps the plot along and get us our actual "horror" in the film with traditional slasher methods. The mask he wears is brilliant.

Apparently Clive Barker wanted this to be a Star Wars of horror films, so to speak. And you can feel that ambition flowing from the film and it's rather unfortunate that it falls flat. It seems like this happens too often, and when you look back at some of the great trilogies and worlds, they are built on strong first outings, and those first films don't necessarily try to build up an entire world and leave strings out for future iterations. The first Star Wars film - episode IV - can stand on its own. When you boil down the plot and the characters, there are classic elements that have withstood the test of time and proven themselves in other films (before Star Wars). Through the creation of compelling characters, future stories are born.

The story of how this film came to be restored is interesting, and I'm envious of the fans of the movie. If only some other cult classics could be so lucky and treated with such care and passion. While the movie didn't impress me, I can see that passion coming through, and I can see hints of great, more wonderful things emerging.

PlayStation 4

The other day, I bought a PS4. It seemed initially to be a result of the perfect combination of peer pressure, (too much) disposable income, peer pressure and finally, peer pressure. While I'm eager and always willing to blame my friends for my seemingly absurd purchases, I have nobody to blame but myself. This allows me to step back and look at the long, storied history of factors that put myself in a Wal-Mart at 7:20am on a Thursday morning, asking for - and subsequently - purchasing the latest iteration of Sony's home video game console.

Sorcerer

As I "review" films I often make a note of what my expectations were going into the film, and how those
expectations affect my level of enjoyment. It's typically an inverse relationship with low expectations often resulting in a high enjoyment of the film. That is to say, it's easier to enjoy a movie if you bring in low expectations, as it's harder to enjoy a movie with high expectations. Oftentimes, I think of it as a crutch, and it's easy to dismiss or praise a film based on that binary scale. Every so often though, I bring in expectations not of general quality, but regarding specific elements, which can either be met or not met, and in turn, my satisfaction could go either way. For an early example, I look back to the original Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In this case, I knew very little and didn't expect very much, but I did want to see some great skeletal action - you could say I wanted an update on the old Clash of the Titans skeleton combat that I so thoroughly enjoyed as a child. I got it, and much more (did anyone expect such a clever performance from Depp though, really).

Over the past few weeks I've been keeping tabs on the latest Blu-ray releases, and saw a movie named Sorcerer come up on a frequent basis. I hadn't heard of the film before, and for some reason, I never sought out any information on it. I would see the cover art - and this is crucial - in thumbnail form alongside other April releases, but I would never click on it. I saw news of different editions, and discovered that the film is from 1977 and directed by William Friedkin, a name of whom I did not recognize (although in retrospect I should have, being the director of The Exorcist). None of this was on purpose, but it ended up being quite the experiment in what your expectations can do to a film.

I'll allow you to stop reading now if you don't want to know more about the movie - an effort for me to pass onto you the ability to view the movie with a completely blank slate. (So spoilers ensue, of course.)

Movie Collection part 4: High Definition

Many of you may remember the high definition format war that occured between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. It was a confusing time that I would equate to Betamax and VHS (although my family had plenty of both) back in the eighties but not something that I had to deal with directly; I was a child, after all. The high definition wars had me at my prime: I had money, I had knowledge, and I had a love for movies. So which one do I go with?

It came down to dollars, initially. Since I had an Xbox 360 it was cheapest for me to get the HD-DVD add on, and with it, I bought a slew of movies. Many of them were upgrades of DVDs, so I was able to continue to get rid of the original DVD collection. One of the first movies I recall playing was TRAINING DAY. The scene I remember as a standout of high definition was an interior shot of a car driving in the rain; the rain drops collected on the window, while the actors inside remained sharp. The detail throughout was amazing, and you could see the depth of the picture: the actors, the window and the world outside. HD-DVD really impressed me, especially on the 50 inch DLP television I was able to pick up around the same time, which was a set that would last me years and never failed to impress with quality. It was very sad to let go of.

Blu-ray players were very expensive. And it looked like Sony was going to pull the same trick with the PS3 as they did with the PS2, and it worked. The PS3 came out and ended up being the most inexpensive player around, not to mention the best one on the market. It's also worth noting that it has withstood the test of standards through the ages: as the Blu-ray spec was bumped, the PS3 was able to accommodate. It was future proof, so I bought one for the cool price of $500. Being a bit of a gamer, the decision was a no brainer: getting Blu-ray capability plus the ability to play the PS2 and PS3 library of game made it a great addition to my collection. Then, I started buying Blu-ray movies.

Every day I watched the news on the wars. It flipped back and forth a bit, but it looked like Blu-ray was going to win out. Then, the adult industry declared support for HD-DVD, which in the past, has been a deciding factor in format decisions. However, as I imagine digital/internet distribution being the major source for that industry, that their support lent very little to the war. In the end, it was the announcement coming from Warner Bros to support Blu-ray, that led to a quick demise for HD-DVD. If you will recall, Warner was a huge supporter of DVD, so yet again, many of my initial HD-DVDs were from Warner and their affiliate studios. With the war over, I was able to happily invest in Blu-ray, and after a couple of years, I parted with all of them, giving them to a friend who owned a dedicated HD-DVD player (the only person I know who did, actually). They have a good home.

The vigor that took place when collecting DVDs was gone. It was difficult for me to part with my money in most instances, although some movies were purchased immediately. One of the contributing factors was the idea that I had spent money on the DVD beforehand, and this is essentially a "double-dip." The initial run of Blu-rays being released were often bare-bone releases, with little to no special features, and terrible packaging that wasn't going to stand the test of time. Another factor was downloading. No, I'm not particularly proud of it, but I did partake and it made the idea of purchasing a skeletal release that much harder. I invested a lot of money in HTPCs, hard drives and saw the collecting of digital movies become a hobby upon itself that combined my love for movies with my love for technology. In the end though, it felt empty, and I'm happy that I was purchasing my most beloved movies on physical medium all the time throughout.

Services like Netflix also seemed to negate the purpose of buying these movies, as they were available for streaming immediately. It didn't take long to notice though that titles would disappear after but a few months, and it was definitely clear that this wasn't your collection of movies. They wouldn't always be available at times for reasons beyond your control.

Having dealt with movie-only digital formats for a while, my interest toward special features begun swinging back into focus. The industry began releasing collector-focused editions that grabbed my attention and sparked an interest in the medium that hadn't been around since DVDs were in their prime. I stumbled across CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, in an 'ultimate' edition, gorgeous box that included multiple cuts of the film, a delightful book and a low price point. My love for digibooks was born as I found BATMAN, SE7EN and killer editions of JAWS and FULL METAL JACKET. The hunt in stores and online for these kinds of editions is tremendous fun.

Unlike DVD, Blu-ray movies would come down in price fairly quickly. It would be foolish to buy a new movie within the first four or six months, as they always came down. There was also a multitude of movies coming in under $10, which made any lack of features or special packaging nearly irrelevant. Indeed, $10 seemed to become the magic price point, at which I could happily purchase a movie that I've owned before, or take a chance on one I maybe haven't seen.

Collecting Blu-ray has become quite exciting: there are lots of editions of movies coming out, new masters being struck and released, and different packaging becoming available. At first, I wasn't a fan of Steelbook releases, viewing them as a cheap way to grab a buck: often they contained less content than their standard counterparts at the trade-off of beautiful cover art and presentation.

I was also going to approach things differently, with a philosophy and some rules in mind. I didn't want to buy new releases: if I loved the movie I could wait a year after release. This could help clear my mind on the quality of the film itself, but also allow for any new editions to come out or be released. Most importantly, it would save money. I wanted to collect what was important to me, and suppress the impulse purchases. What I end up with is a solid collection that I'm proud of.

MOVIE COLLECTION

part 1: The Beginning

part 2: Collecting

part 3: The Great DVD Purge

part 4: High Definition

part 5: Current DVDs

part 6: The Third Era

Movie Collection part 3: The Great DVD Purge

In 2005, everything changed.

I finished school: four years of university and an additional year of college. I quickly moved back to my home town and was living in my friend's basement trying to find a job. Four long months went by with nothing. To say that times were tough is an understatement, but I had supportive parents who kept me afloat. Unfortunately it meant a complete stoppage of luxury items, which included DVDs. The collecting had come to a crashing halt, to which it has never recovered. When I did get a job, I went out looking for a movie to buy, but couldn't pull the trigger on anything. THE AVIATOR had just come out - a movie I thoroughly enjoyed - but I couldn't justify the cost. Bills were in the way, including car payments, rent and groceries.

Digital convergence was upon us, but not many people knew what was coming. I modded my (original) Xbox and installed XBMC, which allowed me to stream video and music across the network. It didn't take long to find a solid process that enabled me to rip all of my DVDs to my hard drive and stream them to my television through the Xbox. I could enjoy the collection in a whole new way, but in an effort to save drive space, everything was stripped away, including any and all special features. Then something bad started to happen. We were already in the habit of renting movies, so now we could rip them and store them on our drives to enjoy later on (although we rarely did). Over the months we amassed hundreds of films (between myself and my friend renting every week). I think we watched a quarter of them, at best. We were obsessed with collecting and sorting, just like with physical DVDs but it was all digital now. The low cost of renting was the ultimate enabler. The DVD collection in my room gathered dust, and became less relevant, especially as we focused on watching movies moreso than caring about special features.

In late 2005, the Xbox 360 came out, and I needed one. I had also heard that a new digital format was coming to support our high definition televisions, and it was coming quickly. I was reminded of the old VHS movies of yesteryear sitting sadly on the shelf, so I decided to get ahead of the curve on this one. I would sell all my DVDs in anticipation of the new format(s). Movies were sorted by gut feeling: a pile of "get rid of" and a pile of "keep." Over two months I sold 100 DVDs to local stores.


The above image was taken just months before the purge; it doesn't show the entire collection but much of it is within view. It remains the most complete image of the collection in existence. There is another shelf on the rack at the bottom that is out of frame (the Marshmallow Man was the focus of the image, it seems) as well as a smaller rack on the other side of the room that contained a few more releases, as well as a video game collection. Click on the image for the full picture, which you can then zoom into to see the individual DVDs.

Trading in at Blockbuster was the most lucrative: they would only give you store credit (which I later used to buy video games) but they would give much more for credit than other places would for cash. They were just getting into a fully developed used DVD section and needed to stock their shelves. I came in at just the right time. Often, I would take 30 movies into one store, they would take 20 of them, and I could go across the street to unload the rest. It was clockwork.

Condition wasn't that important. Neither were little extras, which is one element that bothered me. The GORILLAZ PHASE ONE: CELEBRITY TAKEDOWN set - for instance - was this gorgeous box with extras that included a book and some stickers. I was careful not to use the stickers during the period I owned it, as I wanted the set to be complete, always. The clerk opened it and the loose extras fell to the table. She asked if I wanted to keep the stickers as they wouldn't add any value to the sale. Dismayed, I quickly thought about selling it on eBay, but it wasn't worth the hassle. I said no, keep the stickers, and sold the whole thing to them. I could only rest easy in the belief that another collector came upon the set and purchased it without hesitation because of its condition and completeness.

GORILLAZ wasn't the only DVD I regret selling. PANIC ROOM was a film I loved and is now gone: it was the slim Superbit edition (yes, I was addicted to Superbit for a while). MOBY: PLAY was a fantastic collection of his greatest work and was a prime example of the type of release I wanted from artists. I had a numbered, limited edition of ARMY OF DARKNESS that I let go. I was perhaps a bit foolish to believe that studios would be quick to release high definition copies of some of these movies. Eight years pass and I'm still working without a copy of THE ABYSS, among others.

The Great Purge was going quite well: I was getting an average of $7 for each movie, which is unheard of today. Like I said, people didn't know what was coming, and I took advantage of it.

With that money, I bought myself an Xbox 360 and a few games, and never looked back. After a few years, I found myself collecting 360 games like I did movies: they were cheap enough, especially the used ones. Financially, it made sense: I could buy Oblivion for $60 and get 120 hours out of it, where I could buy 3 or 4 movies for that price and get a fraction of that time out of them. Everything was broken down into dollar per hour measurements to accommodate the strict entertainment budget I had to put myself on. Movies simply didn't fit into it, and the final nail was going down the piracy road. I'm not proud of it, but it allowed me to watch movies I wouldn't normally have done and work within my budget. Unfortunately, it would alter the way I view movies for a long time. No longer did I care about special features, nor editions. I wanted the best quality picture possible, and that was it. The industry certainly didn't help either, with double and triple dip editions becoming commonplace. I also feel vindicated to some degree because I was (and still am) an avid theatre-goer. In the summers, not a week would go by where I didn't go see the latest release.

After the dust settled, I had counted 64 DVDs. It would take many years to whittle that number down. These were movies I wanted to own, and would sell them once I replaced them with their high definition counterparts.

MOVIE COLLECTION

part 1: The Beginning

part 2: Collecting

part 3: The Great DVD Purge

part 4: High Definition

part 5: Current DVDs

part 6: The Third Era

Movie Collection part 2: Collecting

After the family got the DVD player in 1997, DVDs were purchased on a fairly regular basis. I was always on the lookout, as it wasn't easy. As you could imagine, the selection was poor, at best. Warner Bros did the best job of releasing a good variety of movies, and as such my collection reflected many Warner titles. Nearly every birthday and Christmas, DVDs were given and received as gifts, and we built up a decent collection. I would borrow DVDs from a friend, and rental stores began offering them. The VHS collection was neglected, and gradually discarded over time. The last tapes to be given away were a collection of Disney movies, in their "collectible" oversize white plastic tombs.

THE MATRIX stood out as a pivotal DVD upon initial release. The movie was all the rage, especially in my circle (who wasn't in love with it?) and it seemed to be the perfect fit for the digital format. My guess is that it was the first movie for many people to go out and purchase. At the time, my friend bought and installed a DVD-ROM drive for his computer in the hopes of playing back these discs, and we used THE MATRIX as the test. Unfortunately it seemed to have some problems and would stutter, so to speak. Soon after, the PlayStation 2 would be released and easy playback of DVDs would become available to millions of users. Sony, as one of the co-creators of the format, had a vested interest in DVD technology and sales taking off, and the home video game system was the perfect platform to get it going, as standalone players were still fairly expensive.

In 1999 I had managed to save a decent amount of money and bought myself a home theatre system, that included a JVC 5.1 receiver, and a set of surround sound speakers - my uncle provided the fronts as he was replacing his own system. DVDs came to life in a new way, as I experienced surround at home for the first time. TOMORROW NEVER DIES was the demo disc of choice, with gunshots and bullet ricochets bouncing around the room. In what was probably my first true "special" edition, I would turn the volume way up on the FIGHT CLUB intro, much to the frustration of my parents upstairs. The only thing lacking was a big television, but those were prohibitively expensive, and I was going off to university.

University wasn't too far away though, as I studied in town but lived in the school's residences. The DVD collection didn't make the trip, so I would organize special trips with some of my friends to my parents house for the sole reason of watching movies. One of my roomates had a new iMac, which came equipped with a DVD-ROM. Somebody picked up AMERICAN PSYCHO and we spun that disc (what feels like) a hundred times. And of course, we were watching it on the tiny monitor as no video out option was available.

I bought the two disc digipack edition of FIGHT CLUB alongside the five star INDEPENDENCE DAY edition from Zellers (a now defunct Canadian department store chain) on a whim. FIGHT CLUB would be the best blind buy I've ever made, and sit at the top of my favourite movie list for nearly a decade. ID4, on the other hand, brought me back to the multiple times I saw it in the theatre upon release back in '96, but it offered something else that was fairly novel on DVD: different versions of the movie on one disc. It included an alternative cut that added a whole new story line to the film, and both movies presented us with audio commentaries that warranted multiple viewings. These two films on disc offered a new way to watch movies that was actually engaging. Special features became a criteria for future purchases that would both consume and disgust me over time.

Standalone players were cheap enough by my second year of university that I purchased one for my home away from home, and brought along the excessive sound setup as well. The criteria for purchasing movies was fairly loose, but I focused on special features quite a bit, and with the internet really ablaze, was able to plan ahead and become aware of future releases. Every Tuesday, my buddies and I would hit the town looking for the latest releases. They were growing their collections while I quickly surpassed a hundred movies - a feat of no insignificance as I was working on a student budget.

There was a loose $20 to $30 limit - if I recall correctly - but I allowed make some purchase above that range. EQUILIBRIUM, for instance was a very pricey title for a long time. One of my crown jewels was finding the special edition of MASTER AND COMMANDER. It disappeared from store shelves quickly and it was the envy of my friends (although it's quite inexpensive to find and buy now). Collecting went to a whole new level when my parents agreed to buy me the Criterion edition of THE ROCK for a birthday one year. It was my first hands on exposure to Criterion, and it blew me away. We had seen other Criterion movies around, mainly at large stores in downtown Toronto and in US malls, but none of us had them as they were simply too pricey (aside from a release of CHASING AMY which landed at typical retail prices). A local rental/weed shop had a hearty collection of them for rent - never for purchase - so we were able to experience some of them, including ROBOCOP.

As collecting took hold, we became enthralled with the whole process. It didn't take us long to count and compare collections, and in this process, come up with a set of guidelines for the official count, which I've included below.

Although the version 1.0 above was a bit crude, it added an additional way for us to enjoy our collections, as we could talk at length about how we count them, store and sort them after we finish talking about the discs and movies themselves. It wasn't long before we would compare number of discs, number of movies, number of packages and so forth, in addition to discussing how complete our sub-collections were - like how many David Fincher or Martin Scorsese films we had.

It may seem odd, but I sorted my collection by packaging. I amassed quite a few special editions that were either taller or wider (and both) than regular releases, and I found that they just looked out of place when strewn about through their typical alphabetical order. They were then given top priority - literally - as they took their place on the top shelf. Regular releases, which made up the bulk of the collection, were alphabetical, and at the bottom was all the Warner Bros films that used the cardboard packaging. They were slightly taller and thinner than the typical case, and drove me nuts to no end. They did not age well, getting scratched, peeled and bent, so they took their place on the bottom and were often forgotten. But when I did sit down and go through them, they brought me down memory lane: many of them were some of my first purchases and additions to the collection.

A portion of the collection in 2004

Rarely were blind buys utilized, but there were many DVDs I just never got around to watching. Later on, the $5 bin at various stores were coming about, and DVDs were becoming pretty inexpensive, which allowed the collection to grow even more rapidly.

A spreadsheet was used to keep track of all the movies I had, but has unfortunately been lost to time. Only one number stands out in memory now: 184. That's how many I had before The Great DVD Purge, where casualties were high. 184 may seem small in comparison to some collections, but it was a sight to behold in its time. Considering the circumstances, I did pretty well for myself.

MOVIE COLLECTION

part 1: The Beginning

part 2: Collecting

part 3: The Great DVD Purge

part 4: High Definition

part 5: Current DVDs

part 6: The Third Era

Movie Collection part 1: The Beginning

I walked out of HMV carrying two VHS movies: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, and Reservoir Dogs. I didn't fully realize at the time that these would be the last two movies I bought on the aged format, but there was that inkling. DVD was just around the corner, after all.

My VHS collection was modest, but I can't help but think that if I was a bit older and more importantly, had money, that I would have had a much larger collection. Just as I was entering high school more films were being released on VHS in their "as the director originally intended" widescreen format. Fox released an entire series of special editions (of which my friend had many) and I picked up a couple, as well as a few other editions. Notably, I was most proud of my copy of The Rock, and reveled in its widescreen glory. I would often order PPV movies when they were widescreen, and record them onto my own tapes.

Then, DVD came out and rendered all these tapes obsolete overnight. I knew it was coming, but I didn't know how big it would really be.

In the winter months of 1997, I was in North Bay visiting family. Being a bit bored, and with my fresh drivers license, I decided to head over to the mall and quickly found myself in Wal-Mart. The store was nicer back then: it was still new, novel. And North Bay seemed to have one of the better ones. In present times, Wal-Mart is a soul crusher of retail destruction. Every time I go in the pressure of gigantic box store consumerism bears down on me and I find myself going home to curl up in the fetal position and sing myself to peace. In 1997 though, it was a different game. I make a bee-line for the electronics section, as I always do, and was perusing the movie section when I saw a small cardboard box sitting on top of the shelf. In it, were about 20 DVDs. It may have been the first time I saw them in store, and my excitement was difficult to contain.

Two titles were in my grasp, and I found myself wandering to the checkout in a zombie like trance of anticipated digital revolution. The cashier didn't share my excitement, but they rang them through and I slid my debit card to finalize the purchase. The first one I bought was CONTACT, while the second choice was U.S. MARSHALS. They were both released by Warner Bros, in what is now considered old - and horrible - packaging that was mostly cardboard secured by a plastic snap commonly known as "snappers." CONTACT was a great movie that I had seen a few times, and was well worth the price. U.S. MARSHALS, on the other hand, would become my first blind-buy - I had some money to spare and no other title held my interest. Consequently, it would become one of the first DVDs I sold in The Great DVD Purge, which will be discussed later on. My copy of CONTACT remains in my collection as a memento and symbol of a dawn of the digital age and of serious collecting and critical viewing of movies.

Driving home, I was giddy. My parents were visiting an uncle, and I eagerly showed off my latest purchase. The sixteen year old Ryebone was full of life and energy, as he explained why DVD was superior to tape in a multitude of ways, and how it would change the way we consume movies and television shows. They may not have been convinced, but were amused at my ramblings. They were also in stitches when they discovered that I had no way of playing these CD-sized discs back. They didn't work any your computer, in your CD player and most definitely not in your VHS player. An investment for the future, I would tell them. In retrospect, it was pretty funny, but I was confident back then - for good reason. DVD would reign supreme to the foreseeable future.

Luckily, my father was into it as well. For Christmas, he picked up a DVD player for the family, and we all got to enjoy digital clarity that day once it was all hooked up. I spared no time in getting it connected to the stereo, and became enveloped in sweeping audio. The intro to CONTACT, where we zoom out of the planet and listen to various radio broadcasts was incredible, and still a demo worthy technical achievement. The picture, going from VHS to DVD was really astounding, and was noticed by everybody we showed it to. There was no doubt that DVD was going to take the world by storm.

MOVIE COLLECTION

part 1: The Beginning

part 2: Collecting

part 3: The Great DVD Purge

part 4: High Definition

part 5: Current DVDs

part 6: The Third Era

The Dark Knight

As I mentioned a short while ago, Blockbuster closed all their stores, leaving all sorts of vacant consumer space around towns. Before BBV moved into one of the locations in town, it was a car shop - or something - but it cleaned up nicely. So what would move into the location now that Blockbuster walked away? A liquidation book and DVD store, of course. The Blockbuster signs are still lit up, the shelves in tact, and full of DVDs again.

Oddly enough none of the movies in the store are from Blockbuster. Each one is new - factory sealed and ready for you to buy it. Each movie is priced at $5, although there are some priced higher, such as television series or box sets. They have a modest Bluray collection as well, all priced at $8. They also have books, but mostly all garbage (except for the kid's books, I guess).

So, I was browsing around and found something interesting: The Dark Knight, Batpod edition. Basically this is the two disc version of the Bluray, but with a very cheap model of the Batpod that was featured in the movie. It was only $10. The regular movie sans pod costs more than that. It was a good movie. I had to buy it.

I ripped the packaging open when I got home and yes, the rumours are true: the model is incredibly cheap, flimsy and let's face it, the Batpod is not all that interesting to begin with. I would much prefer a die-cast model of the entire Batmobile, or something. This plastic is just cheap. It's collectible though, and fun: it fits on the shelf nicely and looks decent enough.

The Bourne Trilogy

Simply because you bought an item, or registered on a site, will guarantee hundreds of e-mails delivered to you for the rest of your life. Some sites are worse than other, and yes, I'm looking at you Eddie Bauer. I buy one pair of pants from you, sign up to get your card and I receive daily messages. Surely, there are not that many deals or petinent information about clothing every single day. Amazon, on the other hand, deals in a vast array of different items, so getting daily messages from them feels a bit more useful. It's also exciting when they send you something that interests you (a practice they practically pioneered) at nice discounts. Typically these e-mails get deleted quickly, but one message I received the other day was for the Bluray collection of The Bourne Trilogy.

All three movies for $25.

I had downloaded these a while back and basked in their glory, and this deal - just over 60% off the retail price  - was too good to pass up. I shopped around to see if anything else was worth buying: there wasn't. My standards are relatively high, although questionable. I put the item in my cart and proceeded to check out. Then I froze. What am I doing? I haven't been regularly buying movies in ages, especially since purging my DVDs a while back (I still have too many). I took a lunch break, and came back to it at the end of the day, fully resolved to make the purchase. I love the movies.

This is a trilogy that I will enjoy for a long time to come, and yes, I have bought them before (on DVD) and I believe the third movie, on HD DVD. Well, it was time to pay up and buy these movies again; the discounted price is the only reason the decision was on the table to begin with. And I felt that twinge of excitement again. This time around, I wasn't buying out of necessity or because the collection was special in some way. I verified the quality was excellent, and proceeded because the movies are just fantastic. It took me by surprise to see how often I've revisited the films over the years. So now, with the package arriving this afternoon, I find myself watching them again. This time, I'll be watching with an audio commentary, getting some insight into the making of these films.

Blu Alien

I couldn't help but get wrapped up in the excitement of the upcoming Blu Ray release of the Alien Quadrilogy. There are a few things that make me hesitant, first and foremost is the increased standards I have for disc purchasing. It's tough.

The biggest problem here is what I'll assume: these movies are only available in a package, and not individually. Is this a big deal? It is. I have never seen the third and fourth Alien movies. Shameful. The first two are such masterpieces I guess the desire to watch the others was minimized.

I bought those real nice, numbered collectors editions of the first two on DVD many years ago. Of course the quality was great and all, the packaging was fantastic but I never looked at the special features. It would take years for me to realize that just didn't need them; in fact I would tease myself with purchasing Superbit editions such as Panic Room and The Fifth Element. All the bits were devoted to the picture and sound, nothing wasted on relatively useless features.

So I started writing this with the intention of bringing this page to your attention: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare2/alien.htm It's hardcore; like, Rocklords hardcore. What got my attention and the reason I was browsing to it initially was a bit of fuss on the aspect ratio and cropping that was coming on these Blu Ray editions. Clearly, with the comparisons there seems to be, but nothing worth getting excited for. Just look at all the extra detail you're getting! What's really terrifying on these sorts of pages are the graphs comparisons the bitrates of the various editions. Also, the design is atrocious.

In the end I won't be making an effort to purchase these...simply because I don't want the complete package. Eventually they have to release these individually, and perhaps do away with the silly extra's discs. 

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds on Blu-Ray

When I got home from work Friday there was a package from Amazon that I had completely forgotten ordering. In the package was the Blu-Ray of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City.

I like music on DVD, mainly because you get a higher resolution sound and in most cases, surround sound. The Flaming Lips have put out two great discs so far with very aggressive 5.1 mixes. I was thinking that a Dave Matthews live performance in 5.1 would be pretty fantastic as well. The thing that I did not expect was a full acoustic performance with the rest of Dave's band. Just Dave and Tim. It still sounds great, although focused entirely with the front speakers, and of course the hi-def looks fantastic.

The performance runs about two and a half hours; I've made it through about an hour already and have been quite impressed. These guys are excellent guitarists and hearing Dave Matthews' songs are always great.

Years ago I was a huge fan of Dave Matthews Band and couldn't stop listening to them constantly. I must have gone a little overboard because I have slowed down quite a bit, even to the point where they're not in the regular rotation. What really killed it, I think, was the plethora of live performances coming out on CD, and the fact that they were all so identical. Listening to their marathon jam sessions at the end of some songs (with tracks reaching twenty minutes long) does not make for good random-play music, hence the removal from casual listening.

But, with this recent acquisition, their music may be played a bit more as I try and get all of their albums (I think I only own two, plus a live performance).

End of One Hi-Def a Week?

I actually looked at the calendar in research of this "project" of mine and have discovered that this is actually week six, and I have basically failed. I've bought, what, four hi-def movies thus far? Where is five and six? They may be months away. I just can't bring myself to pay money for some of the stuff out there right now. And what makes it really tough is that there are no great releases coming out now, or in the foreseeable future, for that matter.

And it's all the fault of the main rule: don't buy crap. Just buy quality; can't be that hard, but it is. In the past few years my movie tastes have become much more refined: gone are the days when I would instantly go out and purchase every edition of Terminator 2 or various other "great" action movies of the eighties and nineties.

A movie has to really stick with me; it has to be good and all that, although some of my purchases are questionable. But it all comes down to: am I going to watch (and enjoy) this movie again? So perhaps this is just a lull in releases and more good stuff will come out later on, but for now, the project is on hold.

Week Two through Four

First was Blade Runner, and now along comes 3:10 to Yuma. Was this movie worth the purchase? That may be debatable, but I kind of felt the pressure to purchase a movie in the second week of January and that was the best choice. When I put it that way, it practically breaks the rules, doesn't it?

The fact is I really enjoyed this movie in theatres. It's great to see Christian Bale do just about anything, and Russell Crowe was perfectly smug. Did you like the ending? Most did not. I did; and I can't really explain it. It seemed very...reasonable. Shall I spoil it for you? Yes, yes I shall. Crowe willingly takes the train to prison, when he doesn't have to. That seems to have upset a lot of people, but doesn't it just make sense that the guy wants to go for a ride? You know he's not going to stay in jail. I may be mistaken but they may have even mentioned that he's escaped from there numerous times already. In any event, there were some dastardly characters and it was fun to watch.

How does the Blu-Ray look? The fifteen minutes I've watched so far have looked great. Reviews indicate that this is a solid disc. I wouldn't doubt it at all, and I look forward to watching it in full.

So that's two weeks taken care of. I also went ahead and bought weeks three and four: Lord of War and Layer Cake. Of all the places in the world, I never thought I would be buying movies at HMV. It was a two for fifty dollar deal, which isn't all that great to begin with, but decent enough to warrant a purchase. I really dug the vibe of Lord of War, and Layer Cake is just a good movie all round. Of course, it's been a few years since I've seen it, so a re-watch is in order.

So what's coming up for week five? It's difficult to say; there don't seem to be too many great discs coming out, so I may have to dig into the shelves to find something decent. For some reason, I'm leaning towards TMNT, most likely for two reasons. One, it is a CG and would look really great. Second, there's a phenomenal fight scene between Raph and Leo that was just awesome.