Well folks, after the crappy crud-fest of last week's release schedule, excepting the 2-disc edition of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and the pretty poor selection of the past few weeks in general, this week seems like an innards-molesting burst of diarrhea after a year spent constipated.
Toilet humor, motherfucker.
Anyhow, there's a load of stuff I'd be interested in picking up, and some of these here will head straight to The Duke's Import List, unless a Region 2 version is available.
Stuff like this right here, in fact.
The Buried Secret Of M. Night Shyamalan / The Village
I hoped The Buried Secret would be an extra on The Village, but turns out they're being released separately, which sucks, since in order to complete the old collection and so on I'm gonna have to buy The Village anyway.
In case you didn't know, The Buried Secret… is just about the most inventive making-of you'll ever see. A three hour (actually 125 mins shorn of adverts) mockumentary initially screened on The Sci-Fi Channel, it purports to be all about the making of The Village, but then the fella making the doc finds out all this freaky shit about Night, like his relationship with ghosts, and why he films all his flicks in his home city. Incredibly, some members of the Internet Filmic Criticism Cognoscenti took offense to this incredibly entertaining spoof. What The Duke would suggest is they go fuck themselves. For fans of M Night, this is a hell of a lot more rewarding than the flick from which it stemmed.
Paradoxically, though, The Village is probably M Night's most socially conscious, intelligent film to date, and yet it's obscenely insulting and pretentious. It offers nothing to folks who wanna sit through it a second time, renders itself pointless until the last half-hour. It's intellectually engaging, but only in intention. The execution is fucking soul-destroying. You can read The Duke's take on it all HERE.
Shyamalan's much-earlier Wide Awake also hits the shelves this week.
Ghost In The Shell - Special Edition
Like The Village, Ghost In The Shell is visually stunning, and yet awash with laughable cod-philosophy and pretentious beyond measure. Unlike The Village, however, it's a pleasure to sit through. I haven't saw it in a couple years, and don't even know if the DVD I have of it works, since I ain't had the damn thing in the player since I bought it. For anyone interested in animation, though, it's essential. The sequel, of course, was released on DVD a couple weeks ago.
Fudoh - The New Generation
Another masterpiece from Asian genius Takashi Miike. What this concerns itself with, is the Yakuza tomfoolery, and the old revenge and so on. It's kinda similar to Dead Or Alive, and borrows a few cast-members from such. If you only see one film about pre-teen assassins and a woman who shoots poison darts from out her hoo-hah, then this is the one to go for. It's slightly inferior to, say, Ichi The Killer, but rules ruthlessly nonetheless. I'd recommend watching it with Full Metal Yakuza, Miike's take on Robocop, for an evening filled with jaw-dropping visuals and brilliant satire.
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Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
I don't know that I should be pleased or shocked and appalled that I didn't even need to think about parsing "ASAMFP"
2 - Eric Berlin
Duke - I believe Chuck D also has a beef with John Wayne. "Motherfuck John Wayne" I believe the line goes. What's up with the gangsta rap v. John Wayne beef?
Also: believe it or not, there was a time when Paula Abdul dominated the radio and MTV. "Cold Hearted Snake," when played at the proper volume, can likely get caught in your skull for weeks on end. Deadly.
Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
hey folks.
Jim - think how I feel!
Eric - Yeah, the Chuck D one was in Burn Hollywood Burn, wasn't it? Or was it Rebel Without A Pause? Or mabye Fight The Power. shit, i can't remember. The ice-t one was from Race War, from his best album of all ever, Home Invasion. "Fuck John Wayne - i don't hate whites, i just got a death wish for motherfuckers that ain't right"
I think it stems from Wayne's reactionairy beliefs, and his cannonisation as an American Hero, on account of his flicks wherein he slaughtered Native Americans. The Searches, though, is a masterpiece on account of it totally subverted the idea of wayne as the gallant hero takin out those filthy injuns. Wayne in that flick was a hateful psychopath. I imagine that was down to John Ford, though, who started his career talking about the white folks who made america great, and then realised that what America was becoming was an increasingly corrupt and inhumane place. He also ripped the arse out of the myth of "quaint ireland" with his Quiet Man, also starring Wayne. It has all the traiditonal cliches, the white thatched-roof cottages and so on, but dozens of suggestions that, really, the palce ain't like that at all.
And, jesting aside, i do recall when Abdul dominated the airwaves. Still, there's been worse.
4 - Jim Carruthers
I can't remember, and am too lazy to look it up, but is "Leon - The Professional" a remake and a sequel to "La Femme NIkita" which was remade as both a movie and teevee show? Which inspired a major part of "Pulp Fiction"?
5 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
other than that they are both great hit-person flicks by Luc Besson, i don't know of any ties between the two.
6 - Eric Berlin
The PE was Fight the Power, Duke -- a great great song.
And great analysis regarding John Wayne -- I think you hit it exactly. I've never seen The Searchers, I'll have to check it out. I imagine it's for Wayne what Unforgiven was for Clint Eastwood.
7 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
eric - thanks for the PE reminder. it is indeed a brilliant number. As to The Searchers, you should definately check it out, and it shares a lot with Unforgiven. Both are revisions of the western myth by masters of the genre. In the case of the searchers, though, the genius lies with the director and not the star (unlike Unforgiven, when it rested with both, since they were one and the same).
8 - Eric Berlin
By the way -- there were (and are) much worse than Abdul dominating the airwaves. It's just strange to look back and remember there was such a time... isn't it?
9 - Jim Carruthers
Aside from that incident in Brentwood where John Wayne came to the front door in a frilly pink night-gown, "The Searchers" is one of the best Westerns ever made, ever. It inspired the Buddy Holly song "That'll Be The Day", and features John Wayne as a stone-cold, obsessed killer. It is one of my favourite movies of all-time.
10 - Phillip Winn
Wide Awake is a great movie by M. Night, and one can see the seeds of this later films even in that very-early flick. But, it's already been out on DVD for a while, I caught it months ago. Wha-a-a...?
11 - MrPC
Ahh yes, the debate about the Village resurfaces.
Too bad "The Duke" doesn't seem to enjoy The Twilight Zone (original) or anything inspired by it.
If you did, you would see the replay value of the Village, just as there is a replay value in Rod Serling's epic series, from which M. Night ADMITTEDLY take influence from.
The Village is basically a feature length episode of the original Twilight Zone. If you can't see that, you must have your blinders up big time.
12 - Smenkharon
Wondering, is it a special edition of Fudoh? I have had that on dvd for years so I am curious if there is anything different on this version or if it just a re-release?
13 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Smenkharon, this release seems to have not a drop of the extra material, despite the collectors edition or whatever billing. Keep your green in your pocket, is what.
For folks who don't own it, though, nows as good a time as any.
MrPC, it's not that i don't enjoy the twilight zone, nor see the similarities between the village and such, it's just that the village wasn't particularly good. It's intentions were grand, it's got plenty going on for to think about, but none of that thinking is going to be helped by watching it again. It's just a poorly written, incredibly badly arranged narrative. But it looks gorgeous, so...
And Phil, probably it's been re-released so as it can sit alongside The Village and The Buried Secret on this week's "NEW RELEASES" shelf in the stores. More likely to nab a sale or two if folks are there for to pick up the others anyway, or at least one of them.