The Top 5 DVD's of the week - 3/23/10

PICK OF THE WEEK – The Fantastic Mr. Fox (DVD/Blu-ray)

 

There is so much greatness this week - it’s a very expensive week - but the film that has been seen the least of all these great films is Wes Anderson’s return to form The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Though his first couple films showed life and promise, either with The Royal Tennenbaums or The Life Aquatic – depending on whom you talk to – Anderson seemed to be in a story rut, and The Darjeeling Limited did nothing to assuage those concerns. But working in stop motion both heightened his designed fetish, and made it come across as fitting for the format. The film has energy to spare, is smart about its characters and running time, and deserves to be found on home video.

 

RETRO– Days of Heaven and Yojimbo and Sanjuro (Blu-ray)

 

Um, Criterion brought the kick-ass to Blu-ray. Days of Heaven is a film that would make every short list of the most beautifully shot films, and now it’s in 1080. The transfer is spectacular. And then there’s the Kurosawa double feature of the Yojimbo films, with Toshiro Mifune at his absolute best, with the first film the source material for Sergio Leone’s Fistful of Dollars. Criterion has always been film school 101 when it comes to the classics, and their collection of Blu-ray releases is somewhat odder so far than their main catalog, but Jesus, this is awesome. Also of note is their Bigger than Life release, which has James Mason playing a cortisone addicted teacher who plans to kill his child. Well worth checking out.

 

NEW – The Red Cliff – International Version (Blu-ray/DVD)

 

John Woo made his worst films in America, or that is to say he made Mission: Impossible II there (I have a soft spot for almost everything else, for better or worse). For the Red Cliff films, he moved back to Hong Kong, and though it almost signaled a reuniting with Chow Yun-Fat, he did get the always amazing Tony Leung, and Takeshi Kaneshiro to headline. Foreign film distribution is shoddy in America at the moment, but these films deserve to be seen, and for those who didn’t import them, you can either watched the stripped down American cut, or the five hour version of the film. I’ve only seen the long cut, but its epic, a late stage masterwork and an impressively large film from Woo, who is back on his game.

 

RETRO – Toy Story 1 and 2 (Blu-ray)

 

CG animation and Blu-ray were made for each other and with the exhaustive supplements, and the films themselves, the Toy Story films are the crown jewel of any Blu-ray collection. The transfers are excellent, straight from source - as it were - with the majority of the previous supplements included, and a handful of new ones. With word from Show-west that the third film is kick ass, it may be time to reacquaint oneself with these films in preparation for this summer.

 

RETRO – The African Queen (Blu-ray/DVD)

 

This was the last holdout of the American Film institute’s list of 100 greatest films of all time to hit DVD (and now Blu-ray). The problem was two-fold. One was that the film needed restoring, and the second was that it got caught up in rights issues, so even the owners were reticent to make hay with it with the inferior prints and material available. Paramount’s restoration is absolutely gorgeous. And though the supplements are limited in that the principles have all passed on, there’s a great hour long documentary on the making of the film, and the deluxe edition comes with the book Katherine Hepburn wrote about making it, which helped inspire the movie White Hunter, Black Heart. If you’ve never seen this film, it’s a ripping yarn of a middle aged couple who find each other and a great adventure fighting the Nazis. John Huston was a master filmmaker, and this is one of his great light triumphs.