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- [00:00]
A
This episode is presented by State Farm. Life's full of decisions, big and small, and sometimes you make movie ones you can really stand behind. For example, I was wise enough to stick around through the mid credits during Ryan Coogler's Sinners. And unlike my co host Amanda, I got to see a very special sequence with a great buddy guy, among other things. State Farm gets it. Making confident choices can make all the difference. That's why with the State Farm personal price plan, you can choose the right amount of coverage to help create an affordable price for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by the Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card. This is an ad for the Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it, big or small. So whether it's buying tickets to the game with your mom or grabbing a coffee with your dog, earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases made with it. Say it with me. The Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. Learn more@wells Fargo.com ActiveCash terms apply. I'm Sean Fennessy and this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about physical media. And I have convened the High council, the tribunal of physical media fathers and sons. And I'm just absolutely delighted today to be rejoined by Tracy Letts, the king of physical media, the crown prince, Timothy Simons, and our beautiful baby boy, Chris Ryan. Hi, boys. How are you doing?
- [01:59]
B
I thought you should have started this pod. This is a conversation about men and their dependencies.
- [02:04]
A
Well, you just concluded a conversation about Zinn and your addiction to it, so why not plunge right into plastic? So we've never done this before.
- [02:13]
C
Never done what?
- [02:14]
A
Well, the three of us have never podcasted. This was long threatened when you dubbed Timothy Hitmaker.
- [02:20]
C
Yeah.
- [02:21]
A
For his work on various television shows, most recently. Nobody wants this.
- [02:25]
D
I will say when I was listening, I was up in Toronto last year listening to that. And your commitment to the bit to the hitmaker of correcting Sean every time he said my name was joyous.
- [02:39]
B
I actually thought hitmaker before I listened to the episode referred to Tim's ability to. To simply mention the name of an obscure film and immediately have it get like a Criterion edition of it like, you know what I mean? Like fashion, important physical media headlines right out of thin air. But it's not.
- [02:57]
A
No, it's just about the. His stardom. I mean, his star power.
- [03:00]
C
Oh, my God. He's. He's. He sells Volkswagens. He's got his own line at his own clothing line at Walmart. He's. He's on a hit show. He's on a show called Nobody Wants this. And he turned that into a hit. They. They considered tit like garbage. This is garbage. This show is trash. Please don't watch. Nobody's watching.
- [03:23]
B
Just a pile of shit.
- [03:24]
C
Did you consider it? All these finally settled on Nobody Wants this? Oh, we put Hitmaker in it and it's. There you go.
- [03:31]
D
When they announced the title, I actually didn't know. And then they sent us like, you know, all the things. I don't know if I told you this, but, like, I like, you know, I put it out on social media and I was like, I truly. This is what. It's what I said. I was like, I really hope that critics enjoy this show because otherwise they are going to dog fuck us into.
- [03:48]
A
The ground with our title.
- [03:49]
D
Like, we are opening ourselves up for so many ridiculous, ridiculously easy headlines.
- [03:57]
A
You're lucky that you don't get the more like don't watch feedback from your podcast. You know, it could. It could. It cuts all ways.
- [04:04]
B
It could break bad for us.
- [04:05]
A
Yeah. I wanted us all to be together because three years ago, you came on the show when the show was not on video. And I'm sorry that you have to be on video right now, but when it was not on video and you sat in a black studio with me and we talked about our terrible joy, which is collecting Blu Rays. And when you were relatively recently starting to get into it and we hit upon something, obviously there were a lot of sad people out there. A lot of men. Not all men, but a lot of men. And the feedback to that episode was very strong. We did it again, and then Tracy came in and kind of reset the table. He elevated it due to not just the, you know, the power of your wit and wisdom, but he's like Carlito.
- [04:56]
B
Brigante getting out of prison. That's just like, I run shit here.
- [05:02]
A
And since then, this guy's gotten interested. Yeah. And that's not surprising.
- [05:09]
D
Right.
- [05:09]
A
You're a collector of books. You have a library at home.
- [05:11]
C
Sure.
- [05:12]
A
You. You love film and you love to be a part of a team. You're a good team player. And so you're now like at the beginning of this. So I kind of wanted to have a conversation with you guys at the start of this about the state of the art. And I'm calling collecting physical media and art at this point because I do think there's an artistic qualities to it. But then I also want to. We can talk about our favorite stuff that we've picked up this year that we've seen. Labels and titles that we like, maybe gift some things to. To. To the young man who's joining the team.
- [05:42]
D
Can. Can we all agree. I assume we all had the same reaction when CR was like, hey, I picked up a couple titles, which was to be like. It was like holding a Faberge egg. I was like, I just. I didn't want to be too rough. I. I didn't want to, like, just hit the gas.
- [05:58]
A
Yeah.
- [05:59]
D
Like, zero to 100 in three seconds. I was like, oh, that's.
- [06:02]
A
That's.
- [06:02]
D
That's really great, man. And like, I was like, I can't believe it's happening.
- [06:07]
B
Him especially, it was. Has been. He's been, like, just the right amount of encouraging. Yeah, it's like, good job, man.
- [06:14]
C
Before you picked up a couple of items, didn't you view his collecting with some skepticism?
- [06:21]
B
It wasn't really that. I mean, I think I view Sean with skepticism, and we like to, like, make fun of Sean's pathologies, but, like, I think it was more just like, you know, it can't let Shawn leave Earth's orbit, so anything he likes, we got to take him down 2 or 3 degrees.
- [06:36]
A
I see.
- [06:37]
B
But I always admired it. And when I would go to your house, I would see all these titles, and I was just like. I think I got to the point where I had had a couple of things that I had just been counting on always being on streaming disappear, whether or not, like, they just like a rights issue or whether they just, like, vanished because they were too obscure. And as I, like, started to, like, reckon with the idea that, like, I didn't truly own any of my favorite cultural artifacts anymore, I just wanted to. Right or wrong. And it had a lot to do with listening to you guys podcast about this stuff, because, you know it. I know you talk about it like it's this crippling addiction, but it's obviously also, like, a huge celebration of something and a way of being, like, I don't want to go quietly into the night of everything being ones and zeros on an Amazon web service. Like, I want it to be something that I can always have.
- [07:28]
A
Very quickly, though, it did Evolve for Chris, where he wasn't just acquiring his favorite Friedkin and Coppola movies. He was like, have you seen this Enzo Castellari movie about an Italian mobster who blows people up? And that's what happens, right? That's what happens.
- [07:46]
D
That was the moment where I kind of knew. It was like, I ordered three unseen Italian crime movies, and I was like, oh, folks are in.
- [07:56]
B
I started this being like, I want to have a good copy of my 100 favorite movies movies. And Simmons is doing the same thing where he's just buying all, like, the rewatchables movies on 4K. But he's, like, setting these very strong limits because I think he's like, I don't want to turn this into buying Larry Bird posters all over again where, like, I'm on ebay all night. But then as soon as I started finding out about some of these other labels from you guys and from the labels themselves, just reading, like, I guess I was just finding, like, pockets of cinema history that I did not know existed or things that I just never. If I saw it on Tubi one night, I was like, that's pretty cool. But it's like a shit dubbed version, and the. The print's not very good. And you. Your eye. It's basically like learning how to see movies again when you start watching them like this.
- [08:42]
A
How do you think everything's going in this world? I feel like it's gotten a lot bigger even since we last talked about it. At length.
- [08:48]
C
Well, bigger and smaller, both right in that the big. The DVD market at large is still like 1% of what it used to be. A couple of the big box stores have taken them off the shelves entirely. So they're not ubiquitous. They're not a major part of the business the way they once were. But these boutique labels continued to put out these titles when they, you know, they continued to upgrade titles that we've had for years and years, or they unearth titles we didn't know about before. Price points are going up. Certainly for international sales, price points are really going up. You know, there's sometimes a lot of bells and whistles and boxes and action figures and posters and stuff to help drive that price point up so it becomes a little more specialized. But what you say is true, that there are a lot of people who are into this and who are discovering the joys of this. The joys of owning this physical media and having it on your shelf and being able to put it on and not having to worry about whether or not it's streaming somewhere or not. There are no gatekeepers, right, for that in the way that there is for streaming. I mean. And also, of course, once you get used to it and you watch a movie on streaming and then you see the sort of lousy haloing effects and all the stuff going on, visually, you say, sure would be nice to have this scene at night and not be noticing all of this extra visual noise going on. Sure would be nice to have a. And of course, over the years, TVs have gotten bigger, technology has gotten more sophisticated. With a 4k on a good system, it's pretty much reference quality.
- [10:42]
B
I'll say. Just, I'm sure you've said this many times. There's probably a really good list of movies that would be, like, the conversion film, like, the film that would convert you to physical media. And for me, it was. The first one I got was the Thing, John Carpenter's the Thing. And I think I still have the text that I sent you guys where I was like, oh, this is what they're talking about. Like, I did not. Like, you can see the grains of snow as the helicopter's flying over. Like, the sound is astonishing. Like, everything. The night is so much richer. Like, all of these things that I had taken for granted or I'd never really seen in this movie because I've always watched it on VHS or, like, streaming. I was like, oh, now this is proof of concept. Then, like, I'm totally sold. I used to think it was a little bit more like, I don't know if you've noticed, but the grade between this and this. And I'm like, I don't really care about that.
- [11:29]
A
It's impossible to not sound that way when talking about that level of detail and technological interest. But it is true. Like, it is just undeniably true because.
- [11:38]
C
Those grains of snow actually change your viewing of the movie. The snow is. It's not theoretical. It's not like, yeah, I'm pretty sure this scene is set in winter at night. No, somebody actually worked hard to make this look like that. And so to be able to see the way it was intended to be represented is. It's a difference maker.
- [11:59]
D
Can I tell you, off of that, two things that happened since we have last done this that are related to my kids. There are. One of them is that now, like, we have a thing in my house called, like, Papa Movie Nights, where I'll choose one and we all sit down as a family, or my wife will choose one. A really big one recently was I showed my kids 2001 for the first time. And it played like gangbusters. It was incredible.
- [12:25]
C
Nice. And how old are your kids?
- [12:27]
D
And they're 13. And. And like, look, this is, like, hyperbolic. But I was talking to my wife and. And. And she was like, why is this so important to you? And I, like. I kind of pulled it out where I was like, I don't know if this is really true, but I was like, you know, moms have the ability to, like, talk about menstruation and, like, guide their children through that. Dads have the ability to show their children 2001 for the first time. Like, coach. Well, I'm sure she was like, fucking googling divorce. But so it has gotten to the point when Papa Movie nights, when I say, like, oh, we're gonna be watching this. My son, he. He, like, is a very, like, sort of organized kid. I noticed, without really asking, that at a certain point in doing this, he went straight to the shelf first to go look for it, rather than. Because it was, oh, I'll search that up on itunes, or just watch to see where it's playing. And it just subtly switched to, he's going to the stacks first. And then the other thing that happened, and this was both of my kids, we were watching a movie when you're talking about the haloing at night. And at one point, there might have even, like, maybe the connection was bad. And all of a sudden, it, like, dropped down from 1080 to 720 or whatever. And the kids were like, what's happening? What is this? Why don't I, like, this isn't good. And I was in the back of my head, I was like, oh, I've got them. I was able to pause it and be like, what's happening right now is buffering. And you know where buffering does not happen. Like, it was, I realized, should not be allowed to have children.
- [14:12]
B
You're preparing them for a life, like, such a cool life at college when they're like, this actually, summer I turned pretty is not buffering correctly.
- [14:23]
A
So when we recorded some years ago, I had personal rules that I'd set for myself about how much money I was willing to spend on this hobby.
- [14:32]
B
Everybody reaches for a beverage.
- [14:35]
A
We need to hydrate to have this conversation. And I was trying to hold myself under $40. I was trying to hold per title because. And Tracy pointed out that increasingly there are these limited editions that include posters and, you know, soundtracks and additional items that will bump up the prices. But we're. We're getting into this interesting Place where just the a steelbook 4K release of a major title is like, just kind of 4499msrp right now. Like, it is impossible if you're trying to keep up your collection in the way that you think it should be, the way it should look. It's. It's getting a lot more expensive. And I am. I don't want to have too much negative energy around this conversation, but I am a little bit concerned that it's going into collecting Faberge eggs rather than enjoying movies and it being communal. And one thing that I am, like, always talking about on this show is just that the act of going to movies, I think, should be, like, an extremely affordable communal experience. That it is not. I did not like when they put the Odyssey tickets on sale one year early because I was like, this is alienating people. It's like leaving people out of the experience. The fun of doing this, being able to do it together. Now, I. I am lucky that I can afford to buy this stuff. And I like buying nice versions of new movies, but it is. And I know inflation is hitting, but it is getting very expensive to do this, even without some of the knickknacks.
- [16:00]
C
Look, man, I went to see Weapons in the movie theater.
- [16:04]
D
I went by whatever sentence you were about to say. It started with Tracy Lett saying, look, man, I'm fucking whatever Jack right now.
- [16:11]
A
I mean, listen, Jack, I went to.
- [16:14]
C
See that movie in the movie theater. It's very hard for me to get to the movie theater these days because I have young kids. We don't live near a movie theater. It's just easier for us to watch films in the basement. But I wanted to see the movie because I didn't want people to spoil the movie for me. So I went by myself. I watched a matinee price. I got my popcorn and my Coke. By the time I paid for all that, you're looking at 30 bucks. Well, I could own the movie forever for that price.
- [16:45]
A
Yes, that's true.
- [16:46]
C
I just don't see it as a lot more expensive than what I'm paying for. And if I were to take a family of four to see the movie, how much am I laying out for that?
- [16:56]
A
Yes, but that's an unforgettable communal experience in which you've gone out and done something.
- [17:00]
C
Sometimes it's a forgettable communal experience.
- [17:03]
B
Are you talking specifically about, like, for a limited time only, the Alien egg with all the Alien films inside of it, or, like, are you talking about just like, a Steelbook?
- [17:13]
A
I'LL give you a very specific example. I won't forget this because we have a, we have a text chain, a years long text chain about new physical media stuff. And I remember when Studio Canal announced the conversation on 4K which was a very big deal that obviously all four of us really love. And I think you were the first on it that was like, hey, this is here. It's like 79.99 and it includes a cassette with the soundtrack to the film on it. But it's here and this is a big deal. And my first reaction at that point was like one, it's Studio Canal. I'll wait for the US conversion. There will be a US edition. Ultimately there was from Lionsgate Limited. And two, I just don't want to pay 80 bucks and I've still not bought it and it's still 80 bucks and maybe it'll go on sale or something. But I have some sort of like moral rejection of charging $80 for a movie where you could get the entire Godfather trilogy box set on 4K for less money than that right now. And so I, maybe it's just a roadblock in my mind. I hear what you're saying about the movies. The movies are going to the movies is too expensive as well. But there's like an up, like a gouging and an up pricing happening right now that I'm a little not trying to be too man of the people here. We're talking about collecting shit. But it just feels a little expensive.
- [18:29]
C
I don't disagree with that. I mean, and I do think there is a line and obviously everybody has to set the line for themselves about what they'll what. I mean, I bought the Conversation box.
- [18:40]
D
I also did obviously. But like a few weeks later I was like, am I ever going to play that cassette? No, you can burn. I mean it's very cool. But am I ever. Am I going to watch the movie again? 100%. But am I going to play that cassette tape? I don't know.
- [18:54]
C
And Studio Canal does awfully nice work. That is a gorgeous reference level disc of conversation. That's one, right? That's one you want on the shelf.
- [19:02]
B
I wonder if you are experiencing. There's a moment when in my baseball card collecting life when you know, and I remember when I was a kid buying tons of packs and part of it was like trying to collect all of a year of Tops or Donrus or whatever. But I also would like make up games where I would like put the guys all out like on a field and like Narrate like, a baseball game, use the baseball cards basically, as like. And ruining the condition of the baseball cards. But, like, had hours and hours of, like, World Series in my head. And then The Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card from Upper Deck came out. And it felt like in my life, that was where you take a thing that you get and you immediately put it in the hardest to break case possible and put it away. Because it's like, this is now just. It's not like, something that brings you joy. It's something that's like a collector's item. And I wonder if the conversation is like this for you is like, this turning point where you're like, I want this. This is Coppola. This is Hackman. I love this movie, but I don't want to spend $80. Half of the. Half of the, you know, project is something I'm never going to use.
- [20:12]
A
Yeah.
- [20:12]
B
Like, I don't know. And it's just, like, it goes right into a case, never to be touched.
- [20:16]
A
I mean, I would. It's a movie that I would watch and will watch when I eventually break down and buy it. And it'll probably be right after this recording because I've had crippling jealousy knowing that they both own it. And then you'll probably, too.
- [20:26]
B
And then I'll wait for it to go, like, 30% off, and I'll be like, pretty good.
- [20:31]
D
And then you. You also got to go and buy a tape deck. I mean, like, it's all the, like, the ancillary stuff that you have to, like that. I. I think that. I think one thing I've learned over, like, the last couple years is, like, there is that initial thing, like, if. When they come out with, like, those limited things, like, I pulled the trigger on the conversation, but there have been plenty of those where I haven't. Even though it is like, man, that's beautiful. Because I'm like, that movie simply is not important enough to me personally to justify spending that amount of money on it. And I'm glad, like, those things, I am, like, I'm glad that exists for the people who are so dialed into that movie that they want to do that. But I think ultimately the thing that I find that I'm after the most, and I know I brought them up on, like, the Real Ones text thread are, nobody wants this first season. Dp A guy named Adrian Penkreya is, like, a savant about transfers and bit rates and all that stuff. He understands, like. Like, ultimately, the thing that I'm looking for Is like, what is the best version, the best transfer of the intended, of the intended look and going to him for that. And so sometimes it is like, okay, well this one might be more expensive, but I might ask him and he'll be like, actually like that, whatever, that transformer, that whatever is actually less like the intended look. And so this one is better. And so sometimes that's sort of the thing that I'm chasing.
- [22:10]
A
I wanted to ask you guys about that. Since you've watched a lot of stuff like this over the last couple of years. There have been some filmmakers who have been very particular about upscaling, even with AI, the look of some of their movies. Fincher, Fincher, James Cameron, like these, they have very specific ideas about modernizing the way that their films that were made 30, 40 years ago. Look, some fans reject this. They hate seeing the movie changed in any way. Some people are comfortable with it. Don't even think about it. I don't have to have a philosophical feeling about it. But do you feel that you are watching movies now looking at whether or not it feels the way that it did when you first saw the movie decades ago, or are you looking for something to be improved? Like, what's your mentality about it going into watching something that's been converted?
- [22:51]
C
Oh, I don't know that I have a blanket idea about that. I, I, I don't, I don't know what makes it pornography, but I know it when I see it, whatever that old phrase is, right? It's like, so when, when I watch the conversation, I know looking at it, it's like that's the way that's supposed to look. You know, I had the experience recently of revisiting Star wars for the first time since my childhood because my kids, you know, are now my 7 year old boy interested in that stuff. And I couldn't find the original fucking Star Wars. It's not available. I didn't realize this was a thing because I haven't been tracking this conversation.
- [23:31]
A
It's a good one to bring up. I mean, we just did A New Hope on the Rewatchables earlier this year and there was some conversation in that discussion about the same thing. There are projects online where you can find the kind of reconstructed original version of the movie, but not on physical. You know, there's not, you can't pop a disc in that shows you what it looked like in 1977.
- [23:51]
C
Here's how out of the loop I am. I didn't know it was called A New Hope. I thought it Was called Star Wars.
- [23:57]
A
Not a Star wars guy. Star Wars Marvel. You're out. What else are you out on? Anything else?
- [24:01]
C
I'm not out on it. I just. Or I suppose I've been out on it since I was a kid. Right. And I was certainly happy to show it to my son.
- [24:11]
A
Did you enjoy it?
- [24:13]
C
Did I enjoy it? Well, I didn't enjoy the, the, the digital, the new creatures. CGI that looks like shit.
- [24:22]
A
Yeah.
- [24:24]
C
And I don't know what your feelings about this are. The climax of Star wars has got to be the most boring climax for.
- [24:32]
A
A great 100% wrong. One of the worst takes I've ever.
- [24:36]
B
The trench run.
- [24:38]
C
Trying to drop the little sperm into the. Into the. Into the. Into the Death Star. So boring.
- [24:49]
A
That is. That's a fireable offense, what you just said.
- [24:52]
B
I honestly, I hope you do get aggregated on that.
- [24:55]
A
I hope they're just like. You're right though, that like that is something that was basically taken away. There was an original vision and the filmmaker himself wanted to change it and he didn't want what he originally did to be out there. I will say, I'm sure you felt this as a writer, even as a journalist. I would finish a piece, turn it in and immediately be like, this is trash. Like, I cannot believe I allowed myself to hand this in. And when I would read it back, have like immense self loathing. So, like I have, I have empathy for the experience of. Somebody made something, they did their best, they put it out in the world, everybody loved it, but they didn't feel as good about it as they could. But I think sometimes something goes out in the world and it belongs to everybody else. And the changing of things, the way that the Cameron Blu rays Look, the 4Ks, is just odd to me. It just feels part of what's so great about those movies is also what's great about Star wars is they feel handmade. They feel like you can feel someone carving out a sculpture from a piece of metal and then putting it on screen. And so I don't like when that stuff feels glossy and kind of like moisturized, you know?
- [26:05]
C
Right.
- [26:06]
D
I will throw this out. And this is gonna lead to a question for Tracy, but I was watching like a 4K of Escape from New York like a month ago, and there was something, even though the technology is at this point 40 years old, there was something so beautiful and so real about this obviously handmade New York City skyline that had been comped. I think you would think that like a 4K version of that would make it look worse. It just, for whatever reason, makes it look better. And I think that's awesome. And trying to fix that later I kind of don't love. But I think the question that I'm going to ask is like the authorial intent versus once you put it out, does it belong to you? As somebody who is a writer, who is a playwright, how much do you believe in that idea of authorial intent versus once it's out there, it now belongs to them.
- [27:04]
C
Well, look, I'm a playwright, so I write a thing that is a blueprint for other people's productions. I want them to do my play, but certainly they get to do what they want with my play. Right. They get to change the set, they get to cast it the way they want. They get to emphasize different things. They just have to do the play that I wrote. They don't get to change the ending of my play.
- [27:25]
A
Do you ever update though, because you're restaging?
- [27:27]
C
I don't and I don't at all. And it's just my own feeling about. I write a play and it gets published and I put it on the shelf and I feel like that's who I was when I wrote that.
- [27:40]
D
Right.
- [27:40]
C
That's a record of that moment, for better or worse. Now there are playwrights who mess with that. Tony Kushner is somebody certainly who has gone in and tinkered with plays after the fact, that Tennessee Williams tinkered with plays after the fact and Edward Albee tinkered a lot. I would suggest that Mr. Albee made improvements to who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf when he went back in and messed with it some years later. But he totally fucked up the Zoo Story. He paired the Zoo Story with this other one act play that he wrote many years later. And now you're not allowed to perform one without the other. The Zeus story is now one act of a two act or a two play evening. And to me, I think it's a little fucked up. Zoo Story was a perfect thing. And then as far as I'm concerned, he rendered it somewhat imperfect thing. But, you know, I guess my point is it's up to the author, you know, how much they want to tinker with stuff. Is there stuff that I would like to that were I to go and revisit, I would change? Sure, there probably is. But I don't view it that way. I'm just like, that's who I was when I wrote.
- [28:54]
A
And you of course have done this as well with the reheat. Your second rewatchables podcast about the film Heat.
- [29:00]
B
I am always going into the files and taking out corrupting, incriminating statements.
- [29:06]
A
And any of Andy's good jokes. You cut all those as soon as you can.
- [29:09]
C
Let me tell you something. I've got about five pages of revisions for the Chicago movie draft. There's a lot I'd like to revisit from that time.
- [29:19]
A
There's no. No revising in podcast.
- [29:22]
C
It's just done. It's out there, and it's done. You don't get to go.
- [29:24]
A
Anyone who told me it's all one podcast, unfortunately, we never stop.
- [29:28]
B
I think it's actually as far as, like, Fincher goes. And I know people have noticed that, like, he's going into, like, seven and taking dust off of the Kevin Spacey's glasses, lenses or something like that. That, to me, is just maniac. And that's actually perfect for David Fincher. Like, of course, if you let him do this, he will lose himself in a maze of decisions that have never actually affected the viewer.
- [29:52]
A
I believe The Fight Club 4K has been delayed multiple times for this reason.
- [29:57]
C
Yeah, really.
- [29:58]
A
That the work is not completed because he is not satisfied with where it stands.
- [30:02]
D
I feel like I talked about this. I may have even brought it up on the first one. But there are, like. What that makes me think of is, like, the oner in Children of Men, when the blood hits the camera, or like, in that. In.
- [30:14]
A
They don't stop.
- [30:15]
D
Like, when the. When they're doing the. Like, do you hear the lambs screaming, Clarice? Like, there are moments on Jodie Foster where the camera is out of focus. There are these moments where I'm like, oh, this reminds us that. Yeah, that might take you out of the reality for a moment, but it reminds me that human beings made it.
- [30:36]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [30:37]
D
And there is a part of me that doesn't want to see them figure out how to get that blood off the camera or to somehow get that Jodie Foster shot perfectly tack focus. Like, so, I don't know. I mean, like, there is that problem. I don't want to lose that. I don't want to have that be correct because that was part of the magic.
- [30:56]
C
I agree with that 100%. There are some famous shots of Frank Sinatra in Manchurian Candidate that are also out of focus. That, you know, I guess in the moment they said, well, it kind of makes a certain amount of sense given what's going on with the character. So in some ways, it was a happy accident. I still view it as that does somebody want to go in and now refocus the picture on Frank Sinatra? I would hate it if that happened.
- [31:21]
A
Yeah, yeah. What's good about what's happening right now in physical media?
- [31:27]
C
Oh, man. Such variety. Such variety and such excavation going on. We talked and we will talk more about Radiance, I'm sure, the company out of the uk. I just became a subscriber. I think I was maybe one of the first subscribers. And they've now added that as a feature on the web. You can just subscribe and whatever they come out with, they're going to send you. And it's totally worth it because the titles there, so many titles they put out. I just thought, I never heard of this movie before.
- [32:02]
A
It is remarkable.
- [32:03]
B
I had to stop myself from bringing all Radiance titles.
- [32:05]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The. The curation is pretty crazy. And it is. It's like. It's like going to graduate film school or something where you're like, okay, I've gotten the classics down. But now it's a fine grain combination too, of what they're doing, I think, which is that they're finding lesser known works by great filmmakers, but then they're also helping you discover. Many filmmakers you've probably never heard of before who may be in their home countries are well known or at least a part of the cinematic history. But here or in the UK it is the work of like what someone who works at the Museum of Modern Art does or the, you know, any museum really. It is like rediscovering and contextualizing why something matters in a movement. And it's very cool. I would say that for me, their films are still hit and miss in terms of whether or not I actually like the title, the packaging, the contextualization, the extras, everything like with that is always world class. Yeah, it's, you know, it's like anything else with movies. Some. Some you like and some you don't like. But I probably own like 50% of their catalog, which is a lot of movies. And it's exciting to pop something in and have no idea what I'm going to get. That's something that is getting harder for me as I get older. So I love that feeling that they give.
- [33:22]
C
How many movies you got? Roughly?
- [33:23]
A
I'm like over 5,000. I'm in that. In that range, you guys.
- [33:29]
D
I'm creeping up on 900. Like, I'm not there into the K's yet, but I'm creeping up on it. There are going to be conversations if it overflows. The two shelves that I have. You know what I mean? I'm nervous about that.
- [33:46]
C
Conversations. You mean with your wife?
- [33:48]
D
Yeah, with my wife and family.
- [33:49]
A
Just buy a new house just for the stuff. Just. Why not?
- [33:53]
B
I think I have 100 to 150.
- [33:55]
D
But, oh, man, it hasn't been that long. And I love this bleeding out of.
- [33:59]
B
The shelves and starting to have vertical stacks that are like, kind of drawing some sidelong glances here and there.
- [34:06]
A
Do you have an accurate count at the moment?
- [34:09]
C
It's never gonna be totally accurate because there are. I have some short films listed there. It's never going to be totally accurate. It's roughly 11,500.
- [34:22]
D
Okay, and what are we looking at for presentation? Are you double stacked? Are you vertical stack?
- [34:28]
C
We're running out of room. That's a lot. That takes up a lot of real estate. 11,500. By the way, my wife is completely agreeable to this. A podcast with Blu Ray widows getting together.
- [34:45]
D
It's gonna be such a short podcast. Just the three of them being like, what the fuck?
- [34:49]
B
I think the mistake.
- [34:50]
D
Are you kidding me? And they're like, all right, roll fucking credits.
- [34:54]
B
The mistake I made was ever saying, here's what I'm doing. I'm just getting, like, Jurassic park and, like, the Godfather movies, and, like, we're just gonna have the core titles. And then, you know, she turns her back and I'm like, watching Yakuza Graveyard, and she's just like, a core title of yours, I'm sure. And it's just like. It's just getting a little out of control.
- [35:19]
A
So I wore this Werner Herzog T shirt today because Herzog is an important part of my physical media journey. And it's with my wife, because my wife and I were on a very big Herzog movie watching Kick In, I guess, maybe like the late 2000s, whenever Rescue dawn came out, the Christian Bale movie, which was an adaptation of Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which is like a documentary that he made that I think is one of his best movies. And we'd watch Little Dieter, and then we went to go see Rescue dawn, and I was like, God, I. We just. We loved Herzog movies. And so that was around the time of the Shout Factory box set of his movies, which compiled basically everything from whatever it was, 1970 through 1995. And I used that as a way to start doing this in a way that would be acceptable to her, because I was like, I'll get this. We'll watch all the movies. We'll watch the White diamond, you'll be completely baffled by Stroszek, but it'll be like a fun thing for us to do. And then, huge Hitchcock fan, we did it with Hitchcock. Huge Woody Allen fan, we did it with Woody Allen. And they were points of connection for us to watch the movies together. We weren't doing philosophical talk about the transfer and how this captures the cinematic experience. It was just, this is in a pre streaming era, rather than rent a movie, this was how you could watch it if it wasn't on television. And then like at some point I just started buying things that she didn't give a fuck about. Right? And then it became my collection. And then obviously has gone on to very terrible space, but to her credit, does not give me shit about this at all. She's like, this is your one thing. This is your thing that you're interested. This is your hobby. That is not a part of my life. But for now, we have enough space to let you do this. So if she was on the widow's pod and maybe that would be a better experience than the other widow's experience your wife had. I think she'd be like, yeah, my husband is weird, but I'm willing to give space if he can give me space for my weirdness, which I do.
- [37:29]
C
Right. I think Carrie would say much the same thing. And given some of the proclivities over the course of my 60 years on this planet, she would say it's a good thing you're.
- [37:40]
D
This is what you beat Smoking Camel.
- [37:43]
B
Blues, getting lost downtown, for sure.
- [37:46]
A
Yeah. There's no. No booze, no drugs, no cigarettes, you know, no cheating, no car or boat obsession. You know, there's all kinds of terrible, terrible things that could be done in its place.
- [37:57]
B
Right.
- [37:57]
A
I don't know what is exciting to you about what's going on right now?
- [38:00]
D
Well, I just. I want to read this because this is like a tweet that I saw that I really liked from the abominable Emperor, Ashley something filmmaker. This is my worst movie. Beyond reclamation. Serious. But only for true sicko completists who will never see the light of God. Not even I will watch this again. Vinegar Syndrome. Now available in limited edition 40 media book slip case with 40 page booklet. I just love that there is something so true about this that it is like, here's the worst move, worst movie possible, that even the filmmaker would be like, only a sicko completeness would buy this. And they're just like, here we have a limited edition.
- [38:49]
B
I think that happens.
- [38:50]
D
Wait, what was the question?
- [38:52]
B
That happens almost naturally. Like, I. I think that no matter what, if enough time goes by, you're just like, you know what, man? Public Enemies isn't bad.
- [39:01]
D
You know what I mean?
- [39:01]
B
Like, it eventually happens, but it's like, if Public Enemies also came inside of a Tommy gun, you know, with a poster, I'd probably be like, no. Public Enemies is one of his.
- [39:12]
D
You auditioned for Public Enemies?
- [39:14]
C
No.
- [39:14]
B
You didn't, did you?
- [39:16]
D
I did.
- [39:17]
C
Oh.
- [39:17]
D
I mean, it was like, you know, in Chicago at the time, and I thought maybe you would have.
- [39:21]
C
No.
- [39:22]
A
Did you audition for Depp's part? What? Did you. Were you.
- [39:24]
D
I did. I heard it was down between he and I.
- [39:28]
B
You're so dilling.
- [39:29]
C
I did turn down a small role in Black Hat, which I thought would.
- [39:33]
D
Oh, which one?
- [39:34]
A
God damn it.
- [39:37]
D
Okay, now. Okay. Chris and I are sitting up a little straighter right now, and I have to say.
- [39:43]
B
Was it the Viola Davis part?
- [39:46]
C
No, it was a small part, and I. I couldn't make heads or tails out of the script when I read it, because at that time, it was pretty. It was pretty forward thinking about. Right. That technology.
- [39:57]
B
Very much so.
- [39:58]
C
Now you look at it and some of is like. You understand. I was like, oh, that's what this.
- [40:02]
B
Of course.
- [40:02]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [40:04]
D
It always made perfect sense to me.
- [40:05]
A
The curve is always. Michael, man.
- [40:08]
D
I just want to shout out that. I did. I was telling you guys earlier, I went to that Canelo Crawford fight.
- [40:14]
A
Yeah.
- [40:14]
D
And you know that meme of Leo, like.
- [40:17]
A
Yeah.
- [40:18]
D
You know, when he's pointing at the thing from. Was like, in the lead up, we were, like, hanging out at a bar, getting a drink, and they were like, you know, showing people in the crowd, and they were all showing immensely famous people. And then they fucking cut to Holt McCallany. And I did the whole thing. Truly. I was at the fight, nowhere close to the man. I shouted, that's my fucking guy. Just because, I don't know. I fucking love Holt McCallany. And I was thinking about Black Hat because it's a. It's a great film, only would have been made better if I. If you were in it.
- [40:54]
A
Yeah.
- [40:55]
B
That's the only way it could have been proved.
- [40:57]
D
The only way it could have been improved upon.
- [40:59]
A
I hear Holt McCallany and I think of Mindhunter and how we'll never have a physical edition of Mindhunter. And that's an entire era of David Fincher's career.
- [41:07]
D
It bums me out that we won't have the killer on 4k that we won't have.
- [41:13]
A
We might we might. I've seen licensed titles.
- [41:15]
D
I was able to find Killers of the Flower Moon in, like, that Italian 4K.
- [41:20]
A
Yes, I did as well. And you bought that as well, didn't you? You bought.
- [41:25]
D
No, no.
- [41:26]
A
Not a fan. Not a fan of Marty?
- [41:28]
C
No, I love Marty. I just assume someday that's going to be available in it.
- [41:33]
A
I hope so.
- [41:34]
C
I don't feel the need to get.
- [41:36]
A
The Italian fork, but from you, that's so strange because I do feel that you have the international edition of many movies.
- [41:42]
C
I'm a man of many contradictions.
- [41:46]
A
What's been good to you? How are you feeling? Do you feel like you're slipping into the abyss? A little bit.
- [41:52]
B
A little bit. I can see why. I remember, like, you know, this has obviously been documented in. What's the Steve Buscemi movie about? Record collecting?
- [42:03]
A
Ghost World.
- [42:04]
B
This is documented in Ghost World to some extent. But there is that feeling, like when you're getting into music and then you start buying records and then you start finding out about musical history and, you know, record collecting history. And then you're like, I buy blue 78s, and that's what I do. And I've been conscious of, like, not wanting it to turn into blue. Collecting blue 78s at the expense of seeing weapons and at the expense of, like, watching new movies and understanding what is actually shaping culture. Now, that being said, there are three genres of films that I are. Am now like, I guess I'm just gonna buy all of these if I can, and yakuza movies from the Japanese New wave, Spaghetti Westerns, Best Things I can Find, and Italian police dramas from the 70s. And I'm like, this is kind of like, there's like 300 movies here that I haven't seen, or if I've seen them, they're like really bad versions of them on TV at some point. And they are the ones, especially the spaghetti Westerns, that I feel like I have noticed the largest leap in quality going from the way I traditionally seen them on cable or streaming to having a 4K or a Blu Ray of them and how they look and how they feel. And it's also just really fun to just be like, all right, now I'm gonna look for all the Damiani movies, and now I'm not gonna look for all of these. And it's just like a. It's just been a really, like, honestly refreshing, replenished my love of, like, watching films.
- [43:30]
C
In some ways, you know, you're looking at thousands of movies. I know those three genres. You Named total in the thousands when you add them all together. In fact, I remember talking to William Friedkin about this when I had sort of learned about polizia. Techy movies.
- [43:46]
A
Yes.
- [43:46]
B
I just didn't want to butcher the.
- [43:47]
C
Word, you know, which mostly all come from French Connection.
- [43:51]
A
Yeah.
- [43:51]
C
I mean, French Connection is the original. I said, bill, are you aware of the sub genre that you spawned that created hundreds and hundreds? He's like, oh, yeah. Oh, no, I know. I know all about it.
- [44:06]
A
Proud. Not proud.
- [44:06]
C
Sure. Very proud.
- [44:08]
A
Yeah.
- [44:08]
C
I mean, for a guy with not a huge filmography, he made two movies that spawned maybe thousands of movies.
- [44:19]
A
I mean, between French Connection and Jade.
- [44:22]
B
And Blue Chips. I do. I will say, to your point, though, about, like, the hit rate of actually loving the film is that with those 70s Italian crime movies, 60% of them are basically as good as watching the Beastie Boys Sabotage video. You know, it's like a lot of guys sliding over the hood of a car and be like, I'm ready. And, you know, like.
- [44:48]
A
But it creates. Popping them on creates a vibe that is very difficult to replace and enjoyable.
- [44:54]
C
And because I'm DJ at the house and I pick out the movies, I've had to be careful about some of that. Like, I put on one of those DeLeo movies that I had not seen. I put it on for me and Carrie. And Carrie was just like, this is the worst thing I've ever seen. This is terrible.
- [45:09]
B
Yeah, there's one that's, like, about a police. Police commissioner. He's the commissioner, but he's, like, 26 and is, like, the hottest guy ever and just goes around, like, having sex with all of Rome. And he's like, I am the commissioner. You know, like.
- [45:26]
A
And you thought. And I thought, he's a role model. Yeah. This is better than weapons. Any new labels that you're switched onto? I feel like last year you brought a lot to the table. I don't know if there has anything emerged recently that is like, very probably.
- [45:41]
C
Have to get into the case to talk about this, because I don't have a.
- [45:44]
A
We have multiple cases. We've asked everybody to bring their. To show their work today. So Chris has brought in some titles. Tim's brought in some titles. You've brought an entire suitcase. I've also brought an entire bag that includes some of your choices as well.
- [45:56]
C
My suitcase is not filled with the choice just choices of mine. It's also filled with some doubles. Now, why do I have doubles of movies? Well, maybe I didn't look carefully at the. At the online order form and I had a two there instead of a one. And I got.
- [46:13]
B
And that's where they get you.
- [46:15]
C
Reselling these things is real challenge.
- [46:18]
A
Nothing wrong with owning two copies of Jade. I'm just gonna say so.
- [46:21]
C
I've done some re gifting and I'll be doing some re gifting today. Maybe that's a reason. Or maybe. Well, maybe there's a variety of reasons why I have multiple copies of something. But we have a new collector in our midst and so membership has its privileges.
- [46:37]
A
One last line of thought before we dig into the specific titles. Replacing is something that I am encountering a lot as a challenge intellectually, where I have a lot of titles on Blu Ray. I have, among all of my favorite filmmakers, every title on Blu Ray that is available and in some cases the DVD. But many films are being replaced in 4K now. And is your mentality immediately replace the lesser edition?
- [47:07]
C
Just give in, man. Just give in. If you've got. I was you once, man. I was you once sitting there going, I've already bought this. I've seen it. It looks fine. I don't need to upgrade. Just give in.
- [47:23]
B
And when you give in, just take the Blu Rays to donate them to the library.
- [47:27]
C
Do you know how many copies of Kind Hearts and Cornets I've bought in my life? You know how many copies? Seven. I've bought Kind Hearts and Coronets seven times.
- [47:39]
A
Why?
- [47:40]
C
Because it's. Because it started out as a not great DVD and then became a better DVD and then became a not great Blu Ray and then became a better Blu Ray. And just on up the ladder.
- [47:54]
B
I did ask him when. When I first. When I first got into this shit. And I was just like, one thing you have to promise me is that there will not be like a 6K or an 8K and that I'm just gonna have to do this all over again in five years.
- [48:06]
A
I said there won't, but I might have been wrong.
- [48:08]
D
I think there is ultimately going to be an 8k, but from what I have heard, the human eye cannot detect the difference.
- [48:15]
A
That's right. That's right. But Chris is part.
- [48:17]
D
Whatever Flash forward six years. It's now the four of us and like two other people in this room being like, you know, what about it? A case. There's just something you can't describe. I'm. I'm not all together there with where. Where Tracy. I'm gonna be the counterpoint, okay. Of. I think it's important. Same thing with like that thing we were having the conversation that we were having about the conversation that if it's important to you to, to do it like the Sorcerer for me, like the sorcerer, that criterion 4k that happened, like, that was something that I immediately pre ordered, like, didn't wait for a sale. I was like, that's happening. And because I forgot to look at the thing, I think I ended up having two copies shipped to the house because I ordered it from two different places because I had forgotten and I was so excited. So I think if it's important to you, you can do it. But like, if there's a movie that you're like, I kind of like that movie. And there's also no reason for me to own it on Blu Ray and I do. There's no reason for you to upgrade that movie that you kind of don't really like. You know what I mean? I just think if, like, if it's important to you, I think that's important. I agree with that.
- [49:28]
C
My collection of Kino Lorber Blu Rays is extensive.
- [49:32]
A
I have a lot of them.
- [49:33]
C
Some of the movies, I mean, Kino Lorber puts out a lot of movies. And so some of them are great. Some of them are classics and some of them are not. Some of them are Barcaro with Lee Van Cleef, which is a not great western. And If a new 4K of Barcaro comes out, I'm not going to buy it. Though I have watched the Blu Ray of Barcaro with Lee Van Cleef.
- [49:57]
A
I just want you to know you are bullying right now. You kids, you kids, you poor kids.
- [50:06]
C
You're all so beautifully parented.
- [50:08]
A
This episode is presented by State Farm. You know what's even more impressive than being an expert at movie trivia? Being smart about saving money. And a great way to do that is by choosing to bundle home and auto insurance with State Farm. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn ads. The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people. So when you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals and 130 million decision makers. And that's where it stands apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title industry Company role, seniority skills, company revenue. So you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. It's why LinkedIn Ads generates the highest B2B return on ad spend of all online ad networks. Seriously, all of them. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com TheBigPicture Terms and Conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by the HBO original drama series Task from the creator of Mayor of Easttown. Set in the working class suburbs of Philadelphia and FBI agen a task force to put an end to a string of violent robberies led by an unsuspecting family man. Don't miss Tasks, starring Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelfrey. Now streaming on HBO Max with new episodes every Sunday. Who is. Who's presenting first? Do you want to present first? I have a bunch of your stuff here.
- [51:47]
C
Can I open my suitcase?
- [51:48]
A
Of course you may.
- [51:50]
D
While he's opening his suitcase, I just want to mention that, like, the Emmys were last night. I'm, like, a little hungover. I think I'm still, like, I made these choices this morning in a rush. Not in a. In a rush. It was a slow rush, and it was a little fuzzy.
- [52:07]
A
Are you experiencing blue regret right now?
- [52:09]
D
I am experiencing the. I kind of don't remember what I have in there. That's what I'm.
- [52:15]
A
You want to take it out and look at it?
- [52:17]
B
Tracy?
- [52:18]
C
I'm gonna start at the top here.
- [52:19]
A
Okay.
- [52:20]
C
Lifeguard. Fun City editions.
- [52:23]
A
Yeah.
- [52:26]
C
Fun City editions. They don't put out a lot of content.
- [52:30]
A
One a month.
- [52:34]
C
Did you know this movie before?
- [52:36]
A
I'd heard of it and never seen it.
- [52:37]
C
I was exactly the same.
- [52:40]
A
I think it played the New Beverly in the last 10 years.
- [52:43]
C
It's so good.
- [52:45]
A
Incredibly good.
- [52:46]
C
It's a really good.
- [52:47]
A
Shockingly good.
- [52:48]
C
And Sam Elliott is so fucking good.
- [52:52]
A
Well, based on. So just take a good look at this. The COVID art, which is the original poster for the film. This is not what this movie is.
- [53:00]
B
Where it's like a beefcake lifeguard. Just.
- [53:03]
A
This looks like an update of, like, in a net. Funicello movie or something.
- [53:07]
D
And that's supposed to be Sam Elliot.
- [53:08]
A
It is Sam Elliott. And honestly, it's not the. It's not the worst rendering of what he looks like in the film, which is magnificent. I don't know if a man has ever looked as good as Sam Elliott looks in this movie, but he plays a former athlete star who's A kind of a wayward guy in his early 30s who's a lifeguard and meets a woman. And that woman that he meets challenges his expectations of who he's going to be. Right?
- [53:35]
C
Yeah. And there's just a sense that he's kind of at a crossroads in his life. He's at a place in his life where he has to make some decisions about the guy. He's going to be moving forward. And it's just, it's great, just a great movie.
- [53:49]
A
You're a big Sam Elliot guy because of Taylor Sheridan.
- [53:51]
B
Yes, exactly.
- [53:52]
A
First time you'd ever seen him was in 18, what's the name of that show? 2318, 11.
- [53:58]
D
Yeah, I thought about, I thought about bringing Possession.
- [54:01]
C
This is the 4k possession put out by Umbrella, which is an Australian company. We'll be talking some about the Australian companies today. This is a real upgrade. If you have the Blu ray of possession. The 4k of possession is a real upgrade. I don't know how you feel about this movie.
- [54:19]
A
I think it's huge favorite, but so it has become. In the last 10 years, I feel like more people have become hip to it. The Jenna Ortegas of the world have said. Yes, exactly.
- [54:30]
C
The who's of the world.
- [54:31]
A
Jenna Ortega, star of Wednesday, she's a big horror fan and she's. When she says Possession is one of my favorite movies, the millions of fans that she have, have, has will then flock to a movie like this, which was, I would say up until 20 years ago, pretty obscure and is not very well known.
- [54:48]
D
Collectively we are all 1/5 a Jenna.
- [54:53]
A
Ortega in terms of audience reach in.
- [54:56]
D
In terms of like, if we all like, that's really 1 25th.
- [55:02]
A
Four fifths of that 1 5th, yes. Hitmaker.
- [55:05]
D
No, that was actually, that was an exaggeration. But I feel like if the four of us really pushed.
- [55:10]
A
Yeah, yeah. Do you have any titles that you're gonna try to elevate to possession level hysteria today?
- [55:16]
D
Maybe, maybe.
- [55:18]
A
Do you think this is an accurate portrayal of marriage?
- [55:21]
C
Yes. I also think there's. I've seen a thing happen with actresses where there becomes a kind of shorthand with actresses as they're coming up and the older actresses pass on to the younger actresses kind of secret texts like you might not know about this. Maybe you should take a look at this woman under the influence being the chief example. But Possession is up there too and because I think what it shows to young actresses is there is a world where you get to do what normally is the province of the boys. Yeah, there Is a world where you get to just fucking go crazy.
- [55:59]
A
Take the safety off. Yes, totally. That's Isabel Johnny in that movie for sure. Good one. You're gonna try to proselytize for a time.
- [56:06]
D
I might proselytize for this because it was a new one for me and it was part of like that little Tuesday night gang that I have. And I got this 4k of wake and fright, which I had.
- [56:17]
C
I've touted that on this show before.
- [56:19]
B
Is this umbrella?
- [56:21]
D
This is. Yeah, this is umbrella.
- [56:23]
A
Is it a 4K? It is. See, this is a good example of something where there is a really nice Eureka edition in Blu ray of this that I have that I've had for a while and I really would like to buy that.
- [56:33]
C
Worth the upgrade?
- [56:34]
D
I think it's. It's worth it.
- [56:35]
A
Okay.
- [56:36]
D
I, on top of it being like a really incredible movie, there is it has now spawned a really wonderful inside joke with me and my neighbor who I do this Tuesday night film night with.
- [56:53]
B
Is it daddy's pick or who picks? Is it papa's pick or is it this?
- [56:59]
D
When I showed Wake and Fright straight to my children, it was. It has spawned this joke of because, you know, like we met through our kids being in kindergarten. We've been friends for a long time. Spawned this inside joke of now whenever we are going to like a neighborhood parent hangout, we're always talking about how we're going to go yabba and which is that we are going to get out of our minds blitzed and start smashing our friends windows with a chair that we pick up. Just the idea of a yabba generally is just so. Getting so degeneratively fucking drunk that we destroy every human relationship we have. And we think that it would be the funniest version to do that at like our very nice parent friends homes who have like, you know, ordered in some tacos.
- [57:51]
A
Murder a kangaroo in front of these people or that.
- [57:53]
D
I think that might be like the greatest example of the thing that we're shooting for on Tuesday nights is that there has to be a title card with some sort of apology for something that happens. Happens in the movie.
- [58:03]
B
And they were assuring you that nobody was harmed in the making of the film.
- [58:07]
D
Yeah. Yes, we. Okay, so we just want to let you know that those kangaroos that were definitely shot were shot in a actual hunt that had been, you know, signed off on by the Australian government. And yes, it was awful, but it was for these reasons. Like if an apology has to be made that is perfect for Tuesday Nights. And I think this Wake and Fright was a good version of that.
- [58:29]
A
Quick question, because I see that the title, the first title that you brought, that title and what you're about to lift up. They all have slipcovers. Is a slip cover a must?
- [58:38]
C
It's not a must, but I prefer it.
- [58:41]
B
I think it's pretty cool, but I.
- [58:42]
D
Think it's pretty cool.
- [58:43]
B
It's not. It's not a deal breaker.
- [58:45]
A
Just curious.
- [58:45]
B
Yeah, I'll go for my first one. It's just to piggyback off of Tracy's love for Fun City as a label. This is one of the first things I bought when I started getting into the physical media. And it is my most beloved disc still. I think in terms of, like, I watch this more than any other thing. It's called welcome to Fun City and it is from the Fun City label. And it's basically a series of trailers from the 1960s and then a ton from the 1970s and the 70s. You can go through by year. And it is now kind of replaced ambient. Turn the television on for me. So, like, you know, when I was younger, I used to just put on espn, just let it play in the background. No idea what was on. SportsCenter can just run five times. I'm just, like, walking around my apartment doing stuff. This is now, like, if I don't know what I'm watching, I'll just throw this on. And it's both, like, very cool to see the trailer for Coogan's Bluff and see all the ways in which she calls Coogan's Bluff. She lost Coogan's Bluff. And it's like him slapping, you know, women in Central Park.
- [59:51]
A
But there's also some of your favorite. That's one of your favorite with some shot.
- [59:56]
B
It actually is. This also has, like, tons of movies I'd never heard of. And you'll just be watching and you're like, I guess I have to check out the sidelong glances of Pigeon kickers. You know, this early Milos Foreman American film that I'd never heard of, Buck Henry. And it's so fun just to have this on.
- [60:15]
D
That is just trailers.
- [60:18]
C
And it's like five hours long.
- [60:20]
A
Yes.
- [60:20]
D
Does it provide context or it's just trailers.
- [60:23]
B
It's just trailer.
- [60:23]
A
Trailer of the same title. So it'll be like. Like three consecutive trailers for Taxi Driver and then two TV spots from Taxi Driver from. From the time. It's an. It's an amazing collect, like, artifact of movie history.
- [60:37]
D
I am. I'm not kidding. I'm Going to buy that immediately.
- [60:41]
B
Everybody should get this. It's just so much fun to have. And it's like exactly like Sean's saying, like every version of the Rosemary's Baby trailer and you're just like, damn, I would have seen that movie like.
- [60:52]
A
And we know you love marketing. That's one of your passions.
- [60:55]
B
It really is.
- [60:55]
A
Do you want to go next? Yes, I'll go. This is very new and very exciting I think for huge, huge fans of a certain kind of movie. This is the first film in the Hong Kong classics edition from Shout Factory, which is City on Fire, Ringo Lam's incredible Hong Kong crime movie starring a very young Chow Yun Fat. This movie is a huge and maybe bigger than you ever realized influence on Reservoir Dogs. And it's really exciting because there's a lot planned for, for these films, these Hong Kong films, especially the John Woo all time classics like Hard Boiled, which is coming very soon because these are movies that were very hard to find for a very long time. And Shout has acquired the rights to a whole gang of these movies. A Better Tomorrow trilogy, a whole bunch of other stuff that's coming in the future. But I just popped this in last night for the first time. It looks amazing. It sounds great. And these are like, like these are the 80s versions of these 70s Italian films that you're talking about. These like very gritty, violent, operatic, beautifully composed movies that like kind of changed crime cinema and they were hard to find, you know, like post VHS era. You could buy now hundred dollar Japanese editions of some of the Wu films. But it's, it's kind of a huge watershed thing where we've been asking for these movies for 20 years.
- [62:22]
C
It's been an amazing time for Hong K cinema on disc in the last few years. Arrow has put out these enormous Shaw Brothers boxes.
- [62:33]
A
Got some of those in the bag too.
- [62:34]
C
Shout Factory has put out I think eight boxes of Shaw Brothers. There's very little crossover between these.
- [62:42]
A
Where do you start? I don't even. That's those sets, those eight sets of the Shout Factory ones. I don't even again, to your point about how you could watch 300 movies.
- [62:51]
B
Just lose yourself into.
- [62:54]
A
Doesn't have the same organizing principle as like, like okay, here are all the Cindy Luman movies. I'm going to start at the beginning. You know, it is such a, it's a, it's such an unconquerable world. But the additions are so beautiful now that it's very enticing.
- [63:05]
C
Yeah. Were you going to show, show something else?
- [63:07]
A
Show you. The Shaw Scope. I mean, these are. These are a little bit older now, but they're quite nice. So here's volume three of Shaw Scope.
- [63:18]
C
Nice.
- [63:19]
A
Which is. This is primarily. Which one is this? This is. This is not the. Just the. The martial arts films. Right. These are like more samurai oriented in part three. Parts one and part two are your typical, like Shaolin Warrior, Wu Tang Clan style films.
- [63:41]
C
I have all these. I didn't realize there was that kind of organizing principle.
- [63:45]
A
Yeah, this is much more samurai based.
- [63:47]
B
It looks like a. A gorgeous package.
- [63:49]
A
Yeah, it's really, really nice. And this.
- [63:51]
B
Can you show people the illustrations on the inside?
- [63:53]
A
Yeah, it is very, very beautiful. And retailing for under $100 right now, there's like 14 movies.
- [63:59]
B
It's almost Christmas. Don't worry about it.
- [64:02]
D
Don't worry about it.
- [64:03]
C
Since he mentioned it, since Chris mentioned Milos Forman, this is the movie I.
- [64:08]
B
Was talking about taking off.
- [64:10]
C
This is released by Carlotta. And the reason I'm holding this up is because you might have to go outside of your comfort zone to find some more obscure titles. I got this off of French Amazon. You always have to make sure that this is a French disc. You always have to make sure that subtitles aren't burned in. Right. So you can watch the movie in its original English language.
- [64:37]
A
What do you recommend for looking into confirming some of that information? Where do you go?
- [64:42]
C
I go to DVD Beaver.
- [64:45]
A
Waiting for you to say those words.
- [64:46]
C
Yeah, DVD Beaver is a very good resource.
- [64:50]
B
That is the clip from this show. It's just. I go to DVD Beaver. Looped 50 times.
- [64:57]
A
Just recreationally visit that place.
- [65:00]
B
Winning playwright.
- [65:03]
C
Carrie and I had never seen this before and we watched it this year and I have to say it's probably our favorite movie that we've watched this year. It's very good. This is a great.
- [65:11]
B
Yeah, Buck Henry's in that, right?
- [65:12]
C
He is. He's hilarious in it.
- [65:14]
A
Remind me. It's about a young woman who is. Wants to become a songwriter and she enters a contest and she's leaving home.
- [65:20]
C
She goes to a big audition and she's leaving home. And so it cuts between the parents who are at home looking for her and having kind of a weird dinner party and her adventures misadventures out in the streets. And it's just really laugh out loud funny.
- [65:35]
A
I have, I think either a Spanish or Italian version of that movie, which I got a long time ago when I was on Emilo Schwarminkick. And for whatever reason it's still not been issued. By any American company. I don't know why that is. It's very strange. Okay, Tim, what do you got?
- [65:48]
D
I'm gonna throw this one out. This one kind of is just because I thought it was funny. Yeah, this is that third man. And I think I kind of got it because you know what? Like, the Blu Ray criterion is out of print. I'm sure there will be a 4k eventually, but I didn't want to spend 200 on a, like, you know, an ebay. But I just love that this pops up and you have the thing. I'm gonna get close to the mic.
- [66:12]
B
Is that the zither.
- [66:15]
A
Jack? Are we getting that? The most iconic film score.
- [66:19]
D
I mean, this is so ridiculous. This is so ridiculous. It's toys and their toys.
- [66:25]
A
Don't shame yourself.
- [66:25]
D
Happy. I just. I had no idea it was going to do that when I bought it. I was bought. I bought it so that I could have it.
- [66:33]
C
I have it and I love it.
- [66:34]
A
It's great.
- [66:35]
D
The joy that that brings me, I know, is unbelievable.
- [66:39]
C
And it's a gorgeous addition. They do amazing work, those four. The 4k of the servant that Studio Canal has is one of my favorite discs. It's just startling to look at the Joseph Losey movie the Servant with Dirk Bogart.
- [66:56]
D
Now, obviously, Orson Welles is a writer as well. I'm gonna ask you this question. How do you feel as a writer when everybody talks about how amazing it is that Orson Welles, like, improvised or whatever that, like, you know, the cuckoo clock speech in that movie? How do you feel about that?
- [67:12]
C
I would feel great if Orson Welles was supervising.
- [67:19]
A
What do you got next?
- [67:19]
C
Well, I'll.
- [67:20]
B
I'll grab one. Kind of in the same vein of Tim's package here. Tim's package.
- [67:26]
A
Tim's package.
- [67:28]
B
But I kind of want to hear.
- [67:29]
D
Those two things together.
- [67:31]
B
I want to hear Tracy Cook on this. So this is Arrows. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
- [67:38]
C
You know, they're gorgeous additions. You know, Eastwood is a. Is often a driver of new technologies. And anytime you see, oh, we're starting to move from DVD to Blu Ray. We're moving from Blu Ray to 4K. Some of the first editions you will always see is Eastwood. The reason being because men tend to buy this stuff more than women. Confirmed. Men like Clint Eastwood, he sells.
- [68:10]
A
He moves units.
- [68:11]
C
Yeah, it's true. And they're gorgeous edition. They've released all of that trilogy on 4K, and it's a must own. I can't believe you don't own it.
- [68:23]
A
I'll get it. I'm not worried about it. Well, see what you're holding in your hand is the UK edition.
- [68:27]
B
Yes.
- [68:28]
A
It's the US edition that is now sold out everywhere.
- [68:32]
B
This took the entire summer to arrive. This had multiple delays. I don't know whether it was a tariff thing or a supply thing. So yeah, this had. Comes with a poster, pretty cool poster. And it has the international cut and the extended cut and then a second disc of supplementary documentaries and making ofs and stuff like that. And the booklet, the essays in the booklet are quite good. It was kind of awesome to watch it on Saturday night and just kind of like read along about like, oh, I didn't really know about a lot about this.
- [69:09]
A
You know what's a little bit of a hang up for me with this? This is really geeky, but maybe you'll at least know what I'm talking about. For years, my Leone set was the Dollars trilogy and Duck youk Sucker all in one Blu Ray set. Which is probably fairly early on in my Blu Ray collecting something that I picked up. I love those movies. I just saw the Dollars trilogy in theaters at the Vista last year. Like wonderful movies. But Ducky Sucker has not been upgraded now. Once Upon a Time in the west has been upgraded. Those three movies have not been upgraded. So now there's a part of me that is like, are they going to combine these films again into a big massive set that I'm going to want to own? I see then. And that is something. If they put all those movies together, I would pre order that in five seconds. But maybe I'm overthinking it. It's entirely possible.
- [69:51]
D
This points out that I have a very. I'm going to be texting you a lot if this is going to be. This is one of the three genres that you mentioned. Spaghetti Westerns, Italian, 26 year old police chiefs, slapping women in Central park and having sex with everyone in Rome. These are your. I have large gaps in spaghetti Westerns. For whatever reason, that was like a thing that I growing up, I never found my way into. So I'm going to text you a lot for recommendations in that world.
- [70:19]
B
I can't wait. Okay.
- [70:22]
A
This is. Speaking of the Australians.
- [70:24]
D
Oh man.
- [70:25]
A
Something that I'm very excited to have gotten. Gene Hackman died earlier this year, obviously an actor that we all love. You already mentioned French Connection today. And this is a collection of three titles from Imprint, the Australian company in their film focus series. So they have these box set series that are often random assortments of titles that they can license that are usually somewhat rare from either directors or actors. In this case, it's four Hackman movies. Actually. I Never Sang for My Father for which he was nominated for his first Academy Award. Second Academy Award after Bonnie and Clyde. Bite the Bullet, the Domino Principle and March or Die. Two of these movies are not available on Blu Ray in America. The other two are in really shitty editions and these are beautiful.
- [71:17]
C
Bite the Bullet is a shitty edition.
- [71:19]
A
It is. Yeah. No. Bite the Bullet has a nice. Has a. Is it olive? There may be an olive. Bite the Bullet.
- [71:25]
C
I don't remember.
- [71:27]
A
But March or Die is an. A shitty edition. I Never Sang for My Father is not available. Domino Principle, I think maybe was just reissued. But Australia, which you've already invoked, has two amazing. Imprint and Umbrella are both amazing Blu Ray companies. Now it is more expensive.
- [71:47]
B
And I was going to buy these titles. Distro by Diabolic or like can you get. Is there American distribution for those or do you have.
- [71:55]
A
You can. At any of the best of the Blu Ray stores online you can usually find these titles or you can buy directly from their websites.
- [72:03]
B
Right.
- [72:05]
C
And depending on. Some places have better interface on the Internet than others. Imprint is one I tend to buy directly from them. Pretty good.
- [72:16]
B
Tracy, can I just ask a question?
- [72:17]
A
Yeah.
- [72:18]
B
Was this carry on or checked?
- [72:21]
C
I carried this on. Yeah.
- [72:24]
A
This is like traveling with.
- [72:26]
C
This is. This is both a recommendation and a giveaway. I have a. I have. This is a double. I have a double.
- [72:31]
B
That's what it's all about.
- [72:32]
C
I have two of these.
- [72:35]
B
This is the real DVD.
- [72:36]
D
Beaver, right here.
- [72:39]
C
Al Pacino cruising on 4K from Arrow. Do you own this?
- [72:44]
B
I don't.
- [72:44]
C
You do now, baby.
- [72:48]
A
The act of giving is so beautiful. You know what I'm doing tonight?
- [72:53]
C
It's a gorgeous addition.
- [72:55]
A
True story. Bill Simmons yesterday texted me and he said, how are you feeling about the jets offense? And I just sent back a still from the film Cruising of the man tied up with the knife at his neck at the very beginning. First kill of the film.
- [73:06]
B
And Villa just wrote back, hahaha.
- [73:08]
A
Yes. Which is indeed how I felt. That's. That's beautiful. Arrow having a very nice year.
- [73:14]
B
Thank you so much. Very nice of you.
- [73:17]
D
I'm gonna pull this one out. And this one, look, it's a little bit on the basic side, but I think I just find this beautiful. Like all these Miziaki Steelbooks I think are beautiful. This is my neighbor Totoro. Obviously. This was like sort of like something that we watched my kids quite a bit, but really the reason I think that I brought this in was just to bring up the thing that's been in my head so many times since last year when you were on this podcast and you said, my house looks like a GameStop, which I think is a. Is a reasonable thing to say in that I like it when there is an attempt to make something beautiful. And I think that these are not only great movies, but these look beautiful when they're in your home. Home.
- [74:00]
C
Is that a Shout Factory? Are they the ones who put out the steel books?
- [74:04]
A
They are.
- [74:04]
D
Yeah, they are. I actually. I did not know that because I.
- [74:08]
C
Have a Miyazaki box set of Blu Rays. I. I don't know where I got them from. They're all perfectly good and serviceable, though. I am envious of these.
- [74:16]
A
That was an Amazon exclusive. The box set, which is no longer. Which is out of print now, but all of those steelbooks are gorgeous. I think there's only one Miyazaki movie that is not available, and that's still. Books. Like Lupin iii is the 1:1.
- [74:28]
C
Why would there be all. All but one?
- [74:30]
A
I think it's because that film was made with a slightly different studio Ghibli.
- [74:34]
D
Relationship, and I feel like they're.
- [74:36]
A
You.
- [74:36]
D
These are all available generally. You could, like, get all of them right now if you wanted, except for one, which is out of print, and everywhere you look for that one.
- [74:44]
A
What is it? Castle in the Sky?
- [74:46]
D
Is it Howl's Moving Castle? I can't remember which one it is, but, like, if you would like to buy this version of that, it's like $300, by the way.
- [74:54]
C
I saw the live stage version of My Neighbor Totoro on stage in London. I took my kids to see it. They've done. They've made a remarkable.
- [75:05]
A
Did your kids like it?
- [75:06]
C
Oh, they loved it. They were transported by it. And I think it's gonna come to Broadway.
- [75:10]
B
That's cool.
- [75:11]
C
In the near future.
- [75:11]
D
It's really gorgeous.
- [75:12]
A
I have three tickets to see my neighbor Totoro at the New Beverly on Saturday. True story. With my family. Chris has never seen a Miyazaki.
- [75:20]
B
I. I've seen Poco Rosso.
- [75:22]
A
Porco Rosso? Yeah. Porco. What is.
- [75:24]
B
I called Poco.
- [75:26]
A
Poco. The band's cover of the Porco Rosso soundtrack. What's. What's. You got anything else for us?
- [75:32]
D
Chris, while he's. Look, Chris hates joy. That's one thing that is like a. Is a constant.
- [75:38]
A
It's funny because he brings a lot of whimsy to the Table.
- [75:40]
D
He does.
- [75:41]
B
I'll do. I'll do my two international crime joints. This is. I want to shout out Paul from Radiance, who has been kind of my rabbi when it comes to Radiance curating Radiance's curation of international noir, international crime. So Sympathy for the Underdog is a Kenji Fukusaku early 70s yakuza movie. This is the movie that, like your way you described the milish Foreman with watching with Carrie. When I got 20 minutes into this movie, I was like, I think I'm watching one of my favorite movies of all time. And that is such a sick feeling, like to feel that almost childlike passion and enjoyment for something this has got. The setup for this movie is very straightforward. Guy comes home from prison to Yokohama and it turns out his old rival has taken over his territory. So he and his Ragtab gang move to Okinawa and start like taking over the underworld around the US army base in Okinawa. And it is basically shot like a French New Wave movie meets a spaghetti western. A lot of handheld, a lot of incredibly staged multi man combat scenes of dudes just running up to another dude and shooting him. And it is incredible. Like I. I can't believe I went this long in my life without seeing it. So Sympathy for the Underdog. I would definitely start here if you were looking for these kinds. And then another radiant set. This is the Hard Boiled set, which is three pulp the Road thrillers by the French director Alan Corneau. And my favorite is like mid-70s to early 80s is the set. My favorite's the Choice of Arms, which is this great white knuckle, kind of like two fugitives and a guy holed up in a country house. You know, kind of very, very like solid thriller setup, but Yves Montan is in a bunch of these Depardus and Choice of Arms. But these are just all fantastic and I feel like. Feel like Michael Mann. You'd really like these.
- [77:41]
D
Dope.
- [77:42]
A
This was on your list as well.
- [77:43]
C
It was on my list too. Yeah.
- [77:45]
A
Okay, where to go next? I know that this was on your list as well. So let's talk about these.
- [77:57]
C
Oh, you've got volume. I don't have volume two yet.
- [77:59]
A
This is also in the category of movies that we have wanted on, not just, I mean, Blu Ray for some of these titles were not available for years and years. So Shout Factory, which is getting a lot of love on this podcast right now, just released in the last six months, two different sets of blaxploitation movies. And while this isn't the Complete History of Blaxploitation. It's an amazing start for these films. I actually had never seen Cotton Comes to Harlem and I watched it for the first time, which is an amazing movie. Ozzie Davis, first film as a director that is. I didn't realize, but clearly the blueprint for all of these films. It's the first one that comes from 1970, but then you've got four Pam Grier movies. Coffee Sheba Baby, Friday Foster and Foxy Brown are in these two. You've got the Jim Brown films, Slaughter and Slaughter's Big Ripoff. You've got Hell up in Harlem. Black Caesar across 110th street, which was on the Criterion Channel for the last year or so, and Truck Turner, which is probably my favorite movie in this set from the late, great Jonathan Kaplan starring Isaac Hayes. These movies are in fucking 4K.
- [78:59]
C
Yeah, I know.
- [79:00]
A
Amazing. I never would have guessed that. Just the idea that there's like a market for this is very exciting. But these are super cool movies. That, again, I'm sure was switched onto by Tarantino movies very early on in my fandom. But this is fancy stuff for what was long considered low rent. And when a lot of the Corman or exploitation movies were getting issued on discs, they would come on discs that had like six movies on them. And the transfers sucked. They looked really shitty, and there was not a lot of care put into them and they were just kind of pumped out really quickly. So it's exciting to see such care being put into these, even though I wish these box covers were a little cooler. But otherwise.
- [79:39]
B
Can you buy those at all individually?
- [79:41]
A
They're not selling them individually yet, but I would imagine that they'll be available soon. Like, you'll be able to get Foxy brown individually on 4K soon. Cool.
- [79:50]
C
More gifts. Oh, no. Before I get to that, we were talking about Eastwood. These beautiful steel books of Dirty Harry, outlaw Josie Wales. They also have one for Pale Rider. And was it just three or were there four? I don't remember.
- [80:06]
A
I think it was just the three.
- [80:08]
C
The disc for Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry's never looked better than this. I won't say it's reference quality. It's very good. This outlaw Josie Wales is Absolutely reference quality. 4K disk. Beautiful, beautiful steel steelbooks. And yeah, get outlaw Josie Wales. Get it. I don't know why you don't have it so good.
- [80:31]
A
I'll get it. This is. This is.
- [80:33]
D
I'll get it.
- [80:34]
A
This is a bank account. Dream podcast. Yeah. Why are you such a. I Don't understand you, man.
- [80:41]
D
I'm gonna do a little gift. This is my little stack of doubles for. For Chris, just in case. Got a master and Commander no Country Inside. Lewin Davis. Double Indemnity. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Wrath of man in the conversation. Like the blue.
- [80:53]
B
Wrath of Man.
- [80:54]
D
Wrath of Man. Here's the thing. I actually so, you know, I'm like a Wrath of Man.
- [80:59]
B
You know, I wanted to do a Guy Ritchie movie that he directed via iPad.
- [81:05]
D
And is somehow I. Is brilliant. I love it so much. I think true. Like, you see, you've heard me like proselytize for it before. I think it's like la. No, it should be like, considered La Noir cannon. I love that you don't own Wrath of Man.
- [81:19]
B
I don't know.
- [81:20]
C
I haven't seen it. You're. You're not as high on it as him.
- [81:23]
A
I like it and I have a lot of. I am a Guy Richie defender.
- [81:27]
D
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [81:28]
A
But I think one of the need.
- [81:31]
C
Defender.
- [81:32]
A
I think so. I think.
- [81:34]
D
Does the devil need an advocate, Chris.
- [81:36]
A
I think he. He has an alarming amount of style right now. That is not the style you think it is. Like his movies no longer feel like Snatch at all to me.
- [81:48]
D
That's one of the reasons that I thought Wrath of Man ruled so hard is because I went in expecting Fast Guy Ritchie and it's like deliberately Slow Guy Ritchie and I just fucking loved it.
- [82:01]
A
Did you end up seeing. Was it the Covenant, Chris? Yeah.
- [82:05]
B
Didn't we see that film, the Jake.
- [82:06]
A
Gillette about the translator? Yeah, yeah.
- [82:08]
D
No. Oh, yes, I did.
- [82:10]
A
Which is actually same. Very good, very well made. This is an enormous stack. I'm.
- [82:14]
C
Because I'm jumping the line here to get in on the. The gift giving.
- [82:19]
B
Are you serious?
- [82:19]
C
Yeah. This is all for you. This is narc. This is yourself and yours. Some Hong Sang sue, which I double ordered. This is a visconted. I don't know anything about this movie. The Last Stop in Yuma County. I don't know why. I have two copies of it. One of them is now Chris's.
- [82:38]
A
It was released last year. It's a very nifty little all in one location crime movie about like a diner invasion.
- [82:45]
B
Oh, yeah, this is Jim Cummings.
- [82:47]
A
Jim Cummings is in it. Yeah. Our buddy Jim Cummings.
- [82:50]
C
Carrie went to the Criterion closet and got some stuff out of the Criterion closet that we already had.
- [82:55]
A
So there's happiness.
- [82:56]
C
Happiness.
- [82:57]
A
Chris's favorite movie of all time.
- [82:58]
B
There's the Blu Ray Wash football.
- [83:00]
C
There's the Blu Ray Of Mandavi. There's the Blu Ray of Unmarried Woman. Here we go. With some Eureka. Eureka's put out a lot of Hong Kong material. Shaolin boxers, daredevils.
- [83:15]
B
Do you have all this? Are you just. Are you just absent mindedly passing this to me?
- [83:19]
D
I'm passing these to you. I don't. I'm just. I'm admiring the spider.
- [83:23]
C
I don't know what the hell that is.
- [83:25]
D
L of the Field.
- [83:26]
C
You've doubled up on the kino. Lilies of the Field. This is Imprint Juyu's train.
- [83:33]
B
What am I supposed to do?
- [83:34]
A
Did you know that there is a.
- [83:37]
D
Version of Lilies of the Field of the play written for the main character to be played by a white person?
- [83:42]
C
I didn't know that.
- [83:43]
A
Did you write it?
- [83:45]
D
Did you know that I was once in a production of Lilies of the Field in the version in which it is played by a white girl?
- [83:52]
C
I can't believe you've done just told the world that. This is a new Three Musketeers movie which I actually haven't seen, but I have two copies of it. And here's the 4K. King Kong, the 1970s, Jeff Bridges. I don't have that.
- [84:09]
B
You should go through this with me and be like, I need it. I need it. I need it.
- [84:12]
D
Hold on a second.
- [84:13]
C
Do you want that?
- [84:14]
A
I don't have that.
- [84:15]
B
Yeah, you can have King Kong.
- [84:16]
A
That's a Jessica Lang artifact that I need. Indeed. Thank you. Is this new?
- [84:21]
C
Yeah, new.
- [84:22]
B
Ish.
- [84:23]
A
I don't think this guy. This one got past me. Good stuff.
- [84:28]
C
It's Christmas, everybody.
- [84:29]
D
This is great.
- [84:30]
A
He did giveaways. You want to bust something else out that's not from the giant stack that was just handed to me?
- [84:35]
B
Steelbook, Kingdom of Heaven. Director's cut. As good as I thought it was going to be, I waited a very long time.
- [84:41]
C
I don't know anything about this.
- [84:42]
A
What?
- [84:43]
C
I don't.
- [84:44]
A
This is like one of the grails right now.
- [84:46]
B
One of my favorite movies in the 21st century. Ridley Scott, his depiction of the 14th century Crusades.
- [84:53]
D
And.
- [84:55]
B
Stars Orlando Bloom, who I think is actually pretty decent in this movie, but who is much more decent is David Thewlis, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson. Like all the supporting actors, Michael Sheen is incredible in this. This fucking slaps. It's everything I wanted it to be from the booming overture, you know, like 190 minute runtime and extras. Ridley Scott's director's commentary is priceless with this because both he's hilarious and seems to have like instant recall of every setup that he made. But also just talks really beautifully about the experience of making this movie, which was essentially like more or less DOA because like everybody was like, that wasn't very good in the theaters. And it like immediately was like, but there's a longer version we're gonna get. Like, it's kind of haunted him going forward where like a lot of his movies now are like, well, here's the two hour version that I arrived at. But there will be a four hour version that I eventually put out. This is the one that makes all that stuff worth it. This is just an astonishing movie.
- [85:55]
D
I went. I. I have never seen it truly. Blind bought that one.
- [86:00]
B
Did you check it out since you blind bought it?
- [86:02]
D
No, because it just arrived a couple weeks ago. I made a promise to myself at the beginning of this year that I wasn't gonna buy any more new ones until I watched all the ones that I own. Guess what did not happen in any way to an embarrassing level.
- [86:15]
A
But you also are a married person with a thriving career and children. Like, the idea of being able to.
- [86:21]
B
Collapse that you gotta make titles off your list is blind viewing of.
- [86:25]
C
You have to understand, I view my writing and acting in film and TV and theater. That's my hobby. This is my day job.
- [86:40]
A
I wanted to shout out.
- [86:41]
D
Do just shout out August Osage county in between out alphabetizing Blu Rays.
- [86:50]
A
Well, it certainly could be a job if you wanted it to be.
- [86:52]
B
You write bugs so that you can pay for three copies of King Kong.
- [87:00]
A
I would say Criterion is going to the next level with certain things right now. Where they are now finally have got their arms around titles that it sounds like they had been wanting to distribute for a really long time. And they also, you know, internally they like have the rights to some films and they're kind of like meeting them out over time. So you mentioned the sorcerer 4k earlier, which I was very lucky to be asked to participate in this, which was very exciting. But as I would imagine for the hardcore collectors, this is. Was one of the most desired upgrades on the market for years and years. Everything on this disc is beautiful and the film is amazing. Another one recently reissued on 4K that is like. It's an astonishing upgrade. Is Barry Lyndon Stanley Kubrick's movie. And then just this month, I don't even know if this is street legal yet. Is. This is Spinal Tap. Because there's a sequel to this movie that is out right now.
- [87:52]
B
Wow.
- [87:53]
A
But I received it in the mail yesterday, breaking the embargo. I'm breaking it out here. But, you know, I think with the rise of all of these other labels, I think Criterion sees that they kind of have to, to. They have to rise to the occasion too. And they're putting out a lot of really cool stuff.
- [88:10]
C
They are still the gold standard. They really are. I mean, there are a lot of great labels doing a lot of great stuff. I think largely inspired by Criterion. Oh, look, this is what a company like this. Yes. Can be. And so a lot of these companies are doing yeoman's work to try to get up to that level. But they are still the gold standard. Absolutely.
- [88:29]
A
Radiance is staffed by, you know, former Criterion samurai, you know, people who have learned under the, under the wing of what they do.
- [88:37]
C
Do you know how big the staff is at Criterion?
- [88:40]
A
I wouldn't even venture a guess. I mean, I think with the channel, there's more people there working there now, but I think a lot, a relatively modest number of people do an incredible amount of work.
- [88:49]
C
They told me, I was just there and they told me 120 people. And I was like, wow, that's bigger than the stats.
- [88:54]
A
That's bigger than I would have thought.
- [88:55]
C
Bigger than I thought.
- [88:56]
A
Yeah, that's bigger than I would have thought. I would have guessed around 100.
- [88:59]
D
It is really fun to see, like, you know, you mentioned it like sort of off mic before we started, like the, the clamor for the Criterion truck. Like, they seem to have like capitalized very well off of, like, you know, it's a niche thing, but people seem incredibly excited about it. Like just, I mean, like the fact that I was so excited to be able to go and like, get my picture taken, holding up four discs. Like, it was a really great, like a really great day for me, like, to be able to capitalize off and get people excited about not only just like the idea of Criterion movies, but like exploring old movies as well. Is really cool, what they're doing.
- [89:39]
C
There's something going on. There's something generationally going on.
- [89:42]
D
Right.
- [89:43]
C
There's a new generation that is embracing some of this stuff, whereas the, the previous generation didn't. I don't understand. Do you know, you, you were. You're nodding your head like you've got.
- [89:52]
A
We've been talking about it over the years. I mean, I think think it's in tandem with what's happening with at least the rep scene, which you know about too out here and I think is going on in New York and Chicago and a handful of other places that are fortunate to have a robust movie going experience. And I think there's a lot of theories for it, but I think Covid activated a cinephilia amongst younger people because there was not much for them to do but to go seek and discover. I think that even though in some cases it feels like the streaming services are these villains in the story, that they did provide a modicum of access to an exposure to films that we didn't have when we were kids. We had to hunt and I liked hunting.
- [90:34]
B
Or you had to like wait for Turner Classic Movies to show it.
- [90:36]
A
Yes. And I cherished that experience and that kind of fire that it put in me to find stuff. But just getting exposed to Barry Lyndon on a streaming service at 15 years old, that's just very powerful. And then on top of that, I do think that the act of being somewhere tactile with your friends, that's something that's happening with the Criterion closet where they're actually building community with those trucks where people are waiting in line for hours together. They're making friends. It's a day out. It is as close to a dork party as you can have doing that. I mean, we visited it when they were out of idiots. And everybody that we talked to on the line, we talked to dozens of people on the line. Sweet. People who just love movies, who just want to have the experience. I want the photo too. They want the.
- [91:21]
B
I think that there's an organizing principle where Criterion isn't aesthetic. It isn't like become a genre. And so that actually honestly is fine. Like I. You could say like, oh, you're like, you're basically like making this movie, but not this movie like has the cool, cool art and the cool addition. So one movie gets lost. These films that they have in their library are almost to a title really worth watching and worth preserving and worth celebrating. So it's kind of like there's really not a bad guy in this one.
- [91:55]
A
They also haven't abandoned their mission to distribute hard to discover international cinema. Like if you look at the lineups every month of what they put out, like just today it was announced that Pee Wee's Big Adventure is coming to the collection, which is very cool. I love that movie. I love Tim Burton, I love Peewee. It's great that a movie like that will get the full scale treatment. But at the same time they're also announcing plenty of titles that you've, you know, Abus Kirstami short film collections that you otherwise would just not have access to if they weren't doing that work.
- [92:23]
C
But do you think there's also something going on with the generations? Is there, Does Gen Y like something that millennials don't?
- [92:32]
B
Well, this is, this is the argument that like there would be a rejection of like algorithmic social media phone based culture and that people still have an interest in having these kind of more tactile experiences. But I mean I, I feel like you can't watch Paris, Texas and be like, I'm on my phone and I'm doing 100 other things and I'm second screening it. There's no point in watching it that way, you know, like so I do wonder whether or not it's, it's creating really good happen habits for some people.
- [93:02]
A
You know, I think that they're. Go ahead, Tim.
- [93:04]
D
Well, no, I was just gonna say like, I think there is also like this like younger generations now are actually seeing the value and communal experience of going, of like going to movies and not just like, yeah, like we're in la, it's a movie town. There are gonna be a lot of movie fans here who want to go to rep screenings and are excited to go to those things. But at the same time like I went to a, A, a Monday night 8:30 showing of weapons on like the second, after the second weekend and it was a packed theater full of a lot of people who were just like, I'm going to see a movie. I heard was fun and it was an packed, incredible experience and I think people are enjoying and, and sort of like finding that again to be like, yeah, that was a really fun movie to sit through but it was also really fun to sit there and have that reaction with another group of people that I don't know. And I think that that is kind of like a generational thing. Yeah. That they are kind of finding that again.
- [94:04]
C
By the way, did you notice last night at the Emmys the number of speeches that referenced thank you to my parents for showing me things that weren't appropriate for kids or thank you for taking me to the video store. And when I was a kid, you know, really interesting.
- [94:16]
B
Stephen Graham was talking about like they, they, I got exposed to art in like a really important way when I was a kid.
- [94:21]
C
Yeah, right.
- [94:21]
D
Yeah, yeah.
- [94:22]
A
It's all part of the plan. It's all coming up us. The one additional thing is that while again you can point fingers at social media being a negative and fast moving content being a negative, I think that there is something about representing your taste online that film fandom is really like a boon for and that one of the reasons why letterboxd has become so popular in the last five or six years is because it is a display. It is like getting a tattoo. Your four favorites and showing what you're about or what is interesting to you. It's an advertisement for a personality that might seem frivolous, but I think is actually quite powerful. And people connecting over things that they'd like and just saying, here's what I enjoy and sometimes things that they don't like and dunking on things. But for the most part, I think it's about sharing what you have an emotional reaction to. Which at this very weird time in the world, I think means a lot to people. I think it means a lot to me. Like, have you seen Sorcerer? It changed me as a man. As Chris once said to me, while looking deeply in my eyes, you know, that has power. Right. Who's up?
- [95:26]
C
I don't know. I'll go Second run. I mentioned them last time I was here on the show the Barnabas Kass Case and who Wants to Kill Jesse. They put out a lot of work, especially from Eastern European filmmakers, some pretty obscure stuff. It's a guy in the UK who runs this company and he does a great job of curation. They've now been around a long time. They are a regular for me. I'm essentially a subscriber to this as well. I buy all of their new titles and I've seen some great stuff that I otherwise never would have heard of. Like these movies. So big recommendation for second run.
- [96:08]
A
Those are great. Got any more in the bag?
- [96:10]
D
I've got one more here and I brought it just because this was sort of. I think this is. This is Arrow, but I think it's uk. It's To Live and Die in la. And I think the reason I brought this in in my sort of hungover state is I was like looking the thing and I was like, all right, well, what's. Bring me. What's brought me a lot of joy and I think like being able to buy a good version of this when it wasn't available in the States. This was like a very early on purchase. And I was like, I've only been able to find like bad streaming versions or there's a DVD and I feel like this one was very early on and just generally I give this five William Peterson erect penises on a scale of five William Peterson erect penises because. Because there is definitely.
- [96:54]
A
Is that the DVD Baber rating scale?
- [96:56]
D
Erect penis in this movie. And a lot of Chicago connections there, which I Want to ask you about, you know, did you have any. Did you audition for that one?
- [97:06]
C
Dylan, Die in la? No, I'm a little too young for that, actually.
- [97:10]
A
We talked about it a little bit when we were in Chicago, though. What were we saying about it? Do you remember?
- [97:14]
C
Well, just that, you know, for Bill Peterson, it was his big break to live in a dine. I mean, Billy Friedkin had seen Billy Peterson on stage at Stratford. He was doing maybe doing A Streetcar at Stratford. And just on the basis of that, Billy Friedkin offered him that movie. And it was like, oh, my God, out of the blue. But even, like, Billy Peterson told me a story about Friedkin saying, hey, we're gonna go out to the airport and do some location scouting, and we want you to come with us. And so Billy said, of course. You know, it's his first movie. He doesn't know. They go out. And Billy Friedkin has a cameraman with him who's got a camera. He's like, yeah, we're just gonna take some shots of you here in the airport just so we can get a sense. Before you know it, Friedkin has put a gun in Billy Peterson's hand. Like, okay, now I want you to run down this. Run down this hallway here. And they're shooting the movie. I mean, they're just stealing footage in lax. Billy's like, I'm running through the airport with a gun in my hand, being chased by a guy.
- [98:19]
B
Legends walked among us.
- [98:20]
A
That was the story that you told me.
- [98:22]
D
And he's like. And we just, like, watched it again recently. Like, he's, like, jumping up on, like, the moving walkways in between the things, like, he's. They're not being subtle about this.
- [98:33]
C
Yeah, a lot of. He's running stolen footage.
- [98:35]
D
Stolen footage. Full. Holy.
- [98:39]
A
Got anything else in the bag?
- [98:40]
B
Yeah, this one is an interesting one because this is called Wariker. It's the Worker trilogy. It's a series of spy films that were written and directed by the English playwright David Hare. This was, I think, in 2010s, one of the kind of streaming libraries are trying to populate their catalog. So they're just buying stuff from England. And, like, I saw these, I don't know, 20, 15, 16, 17, and was just blown away by them, I think. I have not really seen much David Hare stuff.
- [99:15]
C
What are they called individually?
- [99:17]
B
Page eight. Trucks and Caicos. Insulting the Battlefields. Three films. The star, Bill Nighy, is this aging spy. And this is a really good example of, like, if you like something relatively obscure, buy it because this is not no longer on streaming, even though it's got got Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Christopher Walken and Rachel Weiss in it.
- [99:40]
A
I've never seen those.
- [99:41]
B
And they're excellent. They're very really like, they're very mannered, they're very charming.
- [99:45]
A
Like, you may have to open the lending library.
- [99:47]
B
I know, but this is fantastic and I'm so glad I own this because you cannot find this on streaming anymore.
- [99:52]
C
Right. I think I have page eight by itself on disc. I didn't know about the others.
- [99:57]
B
Very, very cool. And then my last one I got in Chicago when we were doing our Chicago show at the terrorvision Pop up, which is a small horror label. End of the Line, which is a Canadian 2007 movie, I think, about a woman on a subway and it's a normal subway ride. And then a fucking crazy cult takes over the subway and are like, it's Judgment Day and we're gonna chase you into the subway tunnels. You and your subway mates here. And it is just like a really solid horror film, but more so like never heard of it. Great to have a label that's just like we've gone through the racks and the stacks and we have found like some titles for you to check out. And this one's really sick.
- [100:46]
A
I will stack your Terrorvision note with this one. So the fine folks from terrorvision reached out after our podcast because I shouted it out when we were discussing buying stuff. And they send me a care package that is full of a lot of really interesting and obscure stuff. But the thing that jumped out to me the most is this movie, Gushing Prayer, which is a 1970s underground Japanese film about a 15 year old prostitute. You may be thinking to yourself, this is illicit material. You should not be showing this on a podcast. That may be true, but it's actually like an amazing rendition of art made in secret about ideas that in a contemporary society are not accepted, but is an exploration by Masao Adichie, who's this Japanese filmmaker who made films basically about serial murderers, prostitutes and violence in society and pushed the envelope in Japan as far as it could possibly go in terms of what could be portrayed on screen. And then disappeared and went underground in the late 1970s and has not been heard from again. And this is a very bracing movie. It's kind of funny. It's very heartbreaking. I had never heard of it until they sent it to me.
- [101:53]
C
I've never heard of it.
- [101:54]
A
They just dropped it in the mail for me. And are just selling this on their website from their Grave Face sub label. And it's just a bracing piece of work. So I wanted to shout it out. I brought one for you and I brought one for me. These are both from Vinegar Syndrome. One from the Cinematograph label which is Bang the Drum Slowly. And I also brought let's Scare Jessica to Death because they're directed by the same filmmaker. Even though these movies could not be more different. John D. Hancock if you've not seen let's Scare Jessica to Death, it is probably the most important unknown key to American horror. It is a trailblazing portrait of a slasher that is pretty under recognized I would say, generally speaking. And it's amazing that this filmmaker is able to do that and also able.
- [102:43]
C
To do that that Bang the Drum Slowly. Michael Moriarty and Robert Dairo early Dairo performance. For my money, it's the bas best baseball movie ever made. It's based on Mark Harris. Not the Mark Harris who writes about film and culture these days, but an earlier Mark Harris book books he wrote in the 1950s. It's an important text in my life. I've done a stage adaptation of this. I did a radio play adaptation of this this before it was a movie. It was a 1950s, 1960s like Texaco Star Theater version with Paul Newman and Albert Salmi. And just to have it on 4K is just. It's a marvelous, marvelous edition of this great movie.
- [103:33]
A
We're winding down. I wanted to talk about one particular pickle that happens from time to time. So I have an ongoing discussion with you guys as well as the other text chain that we are on with our buddies from Blank Check among other friends about. And one of the topics of conversation this year was Mike Nichols. Why is Mike Nichols the least represented great film American film artist on physical media. When you look at his catalog of movies like the Graduate is in the Criterion Collection. But a lot of his movies, especially his movies in the 80s and 90s, don't have nice additions if any at all. But probably the single biggest outlier for years and years was Carnal Knowledge. So this is an edition of Carnal Knowledge that was issued this year from Indicator. And when it came out I think I probably texted you guys or maybe you texted me.
- [104:22]
D
Yeah, I got it immediately.
- [104:23]
A
And we were like we gotta pre order that. It's very important that we get this. This is a movie that we love. Written by Jules Pfeiffer, the great playwright and an amazing portrayal of the male psyche. Right. What men do to each other and what they do to women and pre ordered it. And then two weeks later Criterion said, guess what? We're also doing one. And they have completely different features. I haven't looked at that. So I don't know how it compares visually, but I suspect you have both. Do you have both?
- [104:54]
C
I do have both.
- [104:55]
A
Both.
- [104:55]
C
This is one of the rare times when I. I would urge one to double dip if you're a fan of the movie, because they are very. The extras are not only very different, but the. The. The visual representation is very different as well.
- [105:10]
A
How? In. In what. Any particular ways?
- [105:13]
C
What seemed to me like random ways. They both look great.
- [105:16]
A
Okay. You like this movie?
- [105:19]
C
It's my favorite Mike Nichols MO movie. It's number one on my Mike Nichols list. Wow.
- [105:23]
A
You seen this?
- [105:25]
B
Yes, but not for a long time.
- [105:27]
A
Is this your favorite Art Garfunkel performance?
- [105:30]
B
No, I prefer the Central Park Reunion concert.
- [105:34]
C
What about bad timing?
- [105:35]
D
Can I just.
- [105:36]
C
Essential session. Nick Rogue.
- [105:38]
D
I'm just going to tell you real quick that one of my really good friends from high school convinced me that Garfunkel did not have hands. That he lost his hands in a car accident because he flew through the windshield and it severed his hands. And that's why he. He's always standing behind Paul Simon in every picture.
- [105:55]
A
Why he doesn't play guitar on the.
- [105:56]
D
He can't hide his look, man, I believed it.
- [105:59]
A
Yeah.
- [105:59]
D
Prove me wrong years. I believe that Art Garfunkel did not.
- [106:03]
B
Or if he does, maybe they're like Luke Skywalker Empire Straight backhands.
- [106:07]
A
Very well. Could be.
- [106:08]
C
Do you have more?
- [106:09]
A
I have a few more, but. Why don't you do something?
- [106:11]
C
I'm. Do you want me to. There's going to come a point where I'm going to rip through some stuff.
- [106:14]
A
I have a few that I'll rip through as well. But do. Do you want to talk about Choose Me? It's just.
- [106:20]
C
It's just. It's just my favorite movie that hasn't had a good disc for a long time. And so when Criterion finally came out with this movie, y. I felt. I felt like.
- [106:30]
B
I felt.
- [106:31]
C
I felt like, oh, somebody else gets it. It's not me. Allan Rudolph. And it's a superb movie. It's just a great time. It's just a recommendation. Watch Choose Me.
- [106:43]
A
It's a very good film. I hope a bunch more Alan Rudolph films come to Criterion. Obviously they're running the Altman series right now, and Rudolph was kind of his apprentice. Slash.
- [106:54]
C
And listening to you guys talk about Altman, which, by the way, was superb. I really enjoyed the Robert Altman episode. It occurs to me that, you know, he's sometimes he's dismissed, right, as an Altman copier. But the truth is that if you get to the 1980s, I think what Alan Rudolph was doing in the 80s was certainly more interesting than what Robert Altman was doing in the 80s. Not that it wasn't important to Altman as an artist and his development as an artist, but I'd rather watch those Alan Rudolph 80s movies than Robert Altman's 80s output.
- [107:29]
A
I just looked at Remember My Name for the first time in a long time, which is also just an incredible movie. Just such a bracing. Have you guys seen that movie before With Geraldine Chaplin and wild performance from her. Two quick ones from Severin Cemetery man, which I held out on for the longest time. My friend Alex Russ Perry was like, you're a coward. Just buy it. And I did buy it. And then this just came out. And this kind of reminded me of what I used to like to buy and still in some ways do like to buy. So Warner Archives just released a six film collection of Errol Flynn movies. And part of the reason why I wanted to get it is because like four of these films are Michael Curtiz films. And I've gotten really into Michael Curtiz in the last few years. I just talked to a very famous filmmaker who's told me that Michael Curtiz is one of his biggest influences.
- [108:16]
C
Friedkin would have said the same thing.
- [108:18]
A
And he's an amazing filmmaker. Flynn, of course, like one of the screen icons of the first generation of Hollywood. And there's some damn good movies in here. Like Adventures of Robin is probably the most famous. But the Seahawk is also very, very good. Objective Burma. And I do feel like in the early days of DVD collection, you saw a lot of stuff like this where you would just get 10 movies and Cary Grant's face would be on the COVID and be like, this is how you see Mr. Blanding builds his dream house or whatever. And so like the Adventures of a Don Juan I've never seen and now I own it and I'll probably pop it in.
- [108:48]
C
I think those are all available individually too, by the way.
- [108:51]
A
Makes sense. Yeah, but not for $40.
- [108:54]
C
Right?
- [108:55]
A
Okay, fire away.
- [108:56]
C
All right, I'm going to rip. I'm just rip through it. Get ready.
- [109:00]
D
You had to go bring this through security. Love this.
- [109:04]
B
Here's.
- [109:05]
C
Here's another double for Chris. There's some Hong Kong action. Now I've got two Copies of Witness. One which is a beautiful Blu Ray box and one which is a 4K. Who needs a. Who needs witness?
- [109:17]
D
I actually do need a witness.
- [109:19]
C
What do you need? Which do you need?
- [109:20]
A
Can I get a witness?
- [109:22]
D
Can I get a witness? I'm going to go. I'll go for 4K.
- [109:24]
C
We got the 4K. Who wants the.
- [109:26]
A
I have. I have.
- [109:27]
C
I'll do the ray box.
- [109:28]
B
Thank you, Tracy. I don't know if my car is big enough.
- [109:32]
C
This is.
- [109:32]
A
You got more?
- [109:33]
C
I do.
- [109:34]
A
Oh. I didn't know what this was when you asked me about this. Can you explain what this is?
- [109:37]
C
Well, hold on a sec. First, I want to shout out a couple things here. Kino, I mentioned them earlier. They put out a large volume of stuff. Some of them. Some of it is Barcaro with Lee Van Cleef, but some of it is. Is Diary of a Chambermaid. Right. This is great Bunwell film. And so Kino, really, they cover the waterfront. You get a lot of different stuff with Kino, and they're really good. The quality control is excellent.
- [110:06]
A
It's kind of odd that they put that out because in the last year and a half or so, Criterion had a Bunwell collection and Radiance had a Bunuel collection. But Diary of a Chambermaid was not in either of those collections.
- [110:18]
C
As far as I know. This is the only Blu Ray of Bunuel's Diary of a Chambermaid. And it's excellent. I watched it just the other night.
- [110:26]
A
Great one.
- [110:26]
C
So good. Clean and sober. Now, I mention this because Warner Archive, they're really no frills. It's a no frills house. Here's the movie. Here's the movie. And you're not gonna see the movie any better than this. Nobody's gonna put out a 4k of clean and Sober anytime soon.
- [110:48]
A
Yep. Right.
- [110:50]
C
I don't know what the reputation is. I can tell you that as a. As a sober. This is a movie that gets it right. I put this movie at the top of the list of sober films. And it's a great Michael Keaton performance in this thing. But Warner Archive, check them out. They're inexpensive. It's inexpensive. No frills. Here's the movie. No bells and whistles.
- [111:11]
A
They are pivoting to 4K.
- [111:15]
C
Right.
- [111:16]
A
The Searchers is now available on 4K.
- [111:19]
C
High Society.
- [111:20]
A
Yes.
- [111:21]
D
But I love that idea when we're talking about money, about just being like, this isn't. This isn't a giant box set for $80. This is the movie presented in beautifully.
- [111:30]
C
And there you go, this doesn't have a black hat cult following. This is clean and sober. This was like standard Hollywood.
- [111:37]
B
I gotta say, I. You know, not to recommend a giant technology company that I don't work for, but if you put stuff in your Amazon cart, just like, okay, I know eventually I want to get Blade Runner and all these things. You will. You can monitor the price, the sales and the price drops and stuff like that and kind of be like, oh, shit, 999. Now I'm jumping.
- [111:57]
A
You know, like, we haven't really talked about sale hunting. I mean, do you do that at all at this point?
- [112:01]
C
Sure. I still. I don't buy Criterion until the, what, biannual sale that they have.
- [112:09]
A
Yeah, I mean, we've talked about this many times. It's. It's a life strategy. When it's your life's work. Once your work has become your hobby and your hobby has become your work, you have to be attentive. For example, there is a Kino Lorber, 50% off sale at Barnes and Noble right now. I'll be buying several 4Ks, including the film Coneheads, which I have no shame about owning.
- [112:32]
C
I think that Chris needs the 4K warriors.
- [112:34]
B
Thanks.
- [112:35]
A
That wasn't on your list. You're a Warriors fan.
- [112:38]
B
I am a Warriors guy, yes.
- [112:40]
D
That was one of the ones that I brought as well.
- [112:41]
C
Oh, wow.
- [112:43]
D
Because I actually bought that Blu Ray of the director's cut that makes it look like a comic book and ruins the movie. And it was. So. It was important to me that that was.
- [112:50]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [112:51]
C
I throw this up. The Criterion Night moves just because it's great.
- [112:55]
D
That was. We watched that one on Tuesday night because we went on a Hackman run. They definitely had to issue an apology for, like, Melanie Griffith being naked pre 18, but they didn't release it until after she was 18. And they were like, so it's cool, right, guys?
- [113:08]
A
Not how that works. So it's cool.
- [113:09]
D
Yeah, yeah.
- [113:11]
C
Match Point, Woody Allen. I throw this up because I got this at a site called yes, Asia. Sometimes on yes, Asia, you can find some stuff that you won't find anywhere else and you won't find Match Point on Blu Ray. And even some of the large collections of Woody Allen on Blu Ray, for whatever reason, probably rights issues don't have matchpoint.
- [113:34]
B
I've been going to no Asia. So that's why I keep. I keep missing on Match Point.
- [113:40]
A
I don't want to have a long Woody Allen conversation, but that's an example of a filmmaker whose work might not get Up.
- [113:48]
C
Nobody's gonna put Match Point out on Blu Ray anytime soon.
- [113:52]
A
Yeah.
- [113:55]
C
Russ Meyer. Severin is putting out the Russ Meyers in 4K. This is Russ Meyer's Vixen. Carrie and I watched it a couple of nights ago.
- [114:03]
A
Can I get Carrie's review of Vixen?
- [114:06]
C
Yeah, she said that's a. That's an aesthetic right there.
- [114:10]
A
And it's an aesthetic. That's a word for it. Is Vixen the one with Erica Gavin? Yeah. Yeah, I like her. Yeah.
- [114:17]
B
I can already tell what this is upside down.
- [114:19]
C
And it was 60 minutes long. This is Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Much bought, much purchased in my home. Many editions of this. But this is the new 4K from the good people at Shout Select Shout.
- [114:32]
A
Getting along.
- [114:33]
B
You just don't have to wonder what that movie's about.
- [114:35]
A
No, no. It's about retrieval.
- [114:37]
C
There you go. Keno.
- [114:39]
A
Oh, wow.
- [114:40]
C
Marion Bad Last year at Marion Bad 4k.
- [114:43]
A
Yep.
- [114:44]
C
Sterling Reference quality.
- [114:46]
A
Maybe Papa's movie Night last year at Marion Bad with the teenagers.
- [114:49]
B
Hiroshima. Namura first.
- [114:51]
A
Okay, Renee Night.
- [114:54]
C
So Eureka, which is a UK company, they've gotten more into Hong Kong cinema of late. We've talked about this a lot of martial arts cinema. They've gotten away from sort of the original Mission, where they were a kind of UK Criterion, but they still put out some pretty mean boxes. Terror in the Fog, the Wallace crimey at CCC set. So the lineage is Edgar Wallace, who was a mystery writer, English mystery writer. And then his movies became very popular as the basis for German productions, kind of horror mystery hybrid. Cremie then became ccc, was the company that was producing these. And they produced Bird with the Crystal Plumage. So the lineage from Cremi to Giallo is. That's very much on the family tree. And then you follow Giallo to slasher. So in some ways these are the proto slashers. Really excellent box.
- [116:00]
A
Just drop serious, Karen. Now I gotta go home and order my.
- [116:07]
C
Booze. Lives Dr. Mabuse.
- [116:11]
B
FCC.
- [116:12]
C
Right. So the underworld figure, hero, slash villain of Fritz Lang's movies from the 30s was brought back in the 1960s in a series of six movies. Very stylish, starring Gert Frob, who we know as Goldfinger, and Peter Ike. And I have a double of this. And that belongs to Chris Ryan.
- [116:37]
D
Hell, yeah.
- [116:40]
C
And finally, I, I, I just this box from Arrow V Cinema Essentials V Cinema. At some point, the Japanese started making straight to video.
- [116:52]
A
Just like.
- [116:53]
C
Well, the video stores are popular. We're going to make movies that are for the video store. And they are super low budget. They are 90 minutes long. They have synth scores and 80s lighting. And they're just really good sort of down and dirty crime stories. And they just work. And there's an actress in one of these movies who's my favorite actress.
- [117:15]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [117:15]
C
Who's ever lived.
- [117:16]
A
Who's that?
- [117:17]
C
I can't tell you her name.
- [117:19]
A
Okay.
- [117:19]
C
She's my new favorite actress.
- [117:22]
D
There is the. The Russ Meyer stuff in there. And that idea of like, we're gonna go from this tagalo to slashers or giallo to slashers, that's the kind of like, I think, feel like I was asking recently of like, I really want to gather more of those, like actual, like ground grindhouse scenes, Russ Meyer bullshit. And I feel like that has led me to like pre ordering some Ilsas. Like just stuff that feels like you should be embarrassed to own it.
- [117:51]
A
She wolf of the SS What?
- [117:53]
B
She was the she wolf of.
- [117:54]
A
Yeah, yeah. Do you. Are you attracted to Ilsa?
- [117:58]
B
I mean, Elsa's on the upswing right now.
- [118:00]
A
I think she would do very well.
- [118:02]
B
Now more than ever.
- [118:03]
A
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a great time for that. You know, if you are interested in those Severin Russ Meyer discs. Look incredible. The thing that I was always hearing from directors who really liked Russ Meyer movies before I watched those movies, which is true, but is sort of like I read Playboy for the articles of Cinephilia, is he was an amazing filmmaker who knew where to put the camera and how to cut. But his movies are about. About girls with huge racks killing men. And that's a great genre of movie. But it's very hard to be taken seriously when you're not talking to the tribunal here, you know, the High Council. Like, I hear it's safe for me to say in hour three of this podcast that vixen matters cinematically.
- [118:53]
C
Look, it's not for everybody. Not. Not everything is for everybody. Everybody's got the. Their stuff that they like. Yeah, great.
- [119:04]
A
Do you feel more emboldened right now?
- [119:09]
B
He just did something that I've never really seen anyone do. I mean, he just wrote cinematic history out of thin air by like holding two boxes. And I'm just kind of like, this is special to be a part of it, but is also why this is, I think, something I'm going to do for. For a long time. Which is like, the idea of being able to trace from Edgar Wallace to Jason Voorhees is pretty sick. Not everybody gets it. Maybe it doesn't matter to everybody, but it matters to us.
- [119:42]
A
Will you make DVD Beaver your homepage from now on?
- [119:45]
B
Yeah, among other Beaver homepages.
- [119:47]
D
I feel like between the four of us, like, we have provided most of the traffic to DVD Beaver.
- [119:56]
A
It's a. It's a. It's a common look for me. It's an awful look.
- [120:00]
C
You know, Carrie mentioned it on the Tonight Show. I mentioned DVD Beaver on the Tonight Show.
- [120:04]
B
DVD Beaver have a message board or a community function?
- [120:08]
D
You know, they barely have a search function.
- [120:10]
A
You can just go straight to 8chan for that.
- [120:12]
B
Should I make a Discord for DVD beaver?
- [120:14]
A
That sounds like a really good idea.
- [120:15]
C
Don't even really know what you guys are talking about.
- [120:18]
A
Do you. Do you feel good about what you're inspiring?
- [120:23]
C
Yes.
- [120:23]
A
Okay.
- [120:24]
C
I went to the museum, to the Art Institute with Amanda Dobbins when we were in Chicago. I had not been there in 10 years, and I took such solace in seeing people at the museum. The museum itself is extraordinary. The architecture is extraordinary. The work inside it is extraordinary. But to see the people looking at the art gives me hope. And so if people are engaged, as long as people are still engaged in stuff like this, in stories and art and culture and Russ Meyer and et cetera, then we're doing all right. I really feel like that's kind of the final boundary.
- [121:07]
A
This is what Russ Meyer aspired to, was to be mentioned in the same breath as the Chicago Art Institute, thanks to Erica Gavin's cleavage. Any closing thoughts? Tim, you good?
- [121:23]
D
This has been incredible. I really.
- [121:24]
B
Is your hangover cured? Is your hangover cured?
- [121:26]
D
A little bit. A little bit. I was definitely, like, a little sweaty at the beginning, but I'm kind of feeling. I'm feeling better. Got a lot more energy. I'm telling Grace. I feel like I'm still wearing the makeup that I was wearing.
- [121:38]
B
But you're gonna go home in your last night. How to kill a judge.
- [121:44]
A
You literally scheduled. I'm flying to Vegas for fight night. And that fight started very late.
- [121:51]
D
Yeah.
- [121:51]
A
Back to LA that night. Off to the Emmys on Sunday night. Monday morning, Big picture High Council of physical Media.
- [122:01]
D
Yeah.
- [122:02]
A
This is like. It's like most. It's like being the president or something. What is. This is an extraordinary run of business.
- [122:08]
D
High level talks in Geneva.
- [122:10]
A
Yeah.
- [122:10]
D
Then we got the whole thing going on.
- [122:12]
B
Losing on your hand, trying to keep cloth covered.
- [122:18]
D
That. That's the makeup that I was referencing. Still wearing to cover the bruising. No, I mean, it was like I was telling Tracy last night, like, this was like an incredible weekend. This was kind of the thing that I was looking forward to the most. Talk about Russ Meyer big titty movies with my friends.
- [122:37]
A
We did it. Thanks to everybody for embracing this moment in history and art. Thanks to our producer, Jack Sanders. Thanks to CR for thanks for showing me the secret. Beautiful baby boy is now in the family. We brought you home from the hospital.
- [122:51]
D
We can be alive so fast.
- [122:56]
A
We'll see you soon on the big picture, but I highly doubt it will be as good as this was.
- [123:20]
C
This episode is brought to you by Warner Brothers Pictures. One Battle After Another is coming to theaters September 26th. Don't miss legendary writer, director and producer my guy, Paul Thomas Anderson teaming up with Leo DiCaprio for the first time ever. Pretty exciting. They almost. They almost teamed together in Boogie Nights actually alongside award winning actors like Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor and Benicio Del Toro in this hilarious action packed adventure following Bob Ferguson, an ex revolutionary, on a mission to find his missing daughter and overcome the consequences of his past. One Battle After Another only in theaters September 26th. 6th get tickets now. Rated R. Under 17. Not admitted without parent.
- [124:05]
D
Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other.
- [124:08]
A
When Alyssa got a small water bottle.
- [124:10]
D
Mike showed up with a 4 liter jug. When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping. Oh, come on. They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia trip planner to collaborate.
- [124:22]
A
On all the details of their trip.
- [124:24]
D
Once there, Mike still did laps around the pool.
- [124:27]
C
Whatever.
- [124:28]
D
You were made to outdo your holidays.
- [124:30]
A
We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel.