I’m pretty sure someone did this last year. Anything anyone is really jonesing to get for Christmas this year, movie-wise? I’ve railed against bizarre box sets before, but I have to admit that this first season SNL set for under $50 sounds pretty sweet. I’ve wanted to see the Albert Brooks films for years, as well as some of the musical guests. Then there’s the ability to program up a full batch of Michael O’Donaghue written sketches.
There’s also a pretty good deal on the Arrested Development 3 season set. I caught a few sequential episodes over Thanksgiving amoung the 2,000 channels at my parents’ house, and it made me think getting the DVDs wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Some of the The Kids in the Hall box sets are really cheap on Amazon now that no one bought them at full price, but I look at the big 16 disc Monty Python set which I love but almost never watch and think, come on, you don’t need that crap.
Amazon seems to think I’d enjoy some Fasssbinder, Altman and Sturges DVDs, but I think it’s just trying to flatter me and make me feel sophisticated. I’m also starting to think of a list of records I liked this year. I saw very few new releases in theaters this year, so any movie list from me will be way off base.
i think i will finally complete my kids in the hall dvd collection this winter. that sturges collection is also calling to me. mark, i think you’re the one to buy it for me. go on, you know you want to.
I want the newest installment in the SCTV set, a 3-disc collection called “Best of the Early Years.” It’s not what a real fan would have hoped for, but in the words of Edmund O’Brien, “it’ll do.” I am eagerly awaiting the Harold Ramis stuff (Dialing for Dollars, etc.), and this new volume should have it. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t reach back far enough. Ramis was in series 1-2, and this set has only three episodes from series 2, and nothing of Ramis. I don’t know why they can’t just give us a volume devoted to the first 3 series. But, as I said, I still want this. It’s got some classic stuff, including early Bittman (On the Waterfront Again) and Sammy Maudlin.
I thought those those five volumes of 5-disc “season” dvd boxes of SCTV stuff were the full seasons, but I guess not?
I know I rented a few discs from the first volume and Ramis was all over them, including Dialing for Dollars.
Like the “Kids” stuff, they’re now going cheap. On Amazon they’re $18 – $24 for each set.
And on a partially related note, the new Christopher Guest movie looks bad. I may have to wait to rent it and just FF to all the scenes with Fred Willard. Speaking of which, still no sight of a Fernwood 2Nite DVD…
I used to just randomly tape Nick at Nite from 2 to 4 am, which would net up some SCTV or Fernwood, but not lately
Mauer, the volume you rented is the first volume, which is the first NBC season, and because NBC had to introduce SCTV (the characters, the concept) to America, they compiled skits from previous seasons 1-3 and put them in with original sketches. So the first few episodes on NBC were really just compilations. I think this was done also because the writers just didn’t have enough material yet–but I’m not sure about that. Anyway, a true, complete episode from the first three series (which were shown on PBS) has not been released on DVD yet. Don’t know why.
I hear Catherine O’Hara is amazing in For Your Consideration. It might be worth it just to see her performance–as was the case with A Mighty Wind (though I must say, Eugene Levy was brilliant in that as well).
My wish list is short. I want everyone on this blog to chip in and buy me this.
i’m pledging $5.
also, i want one, too.
Some things that aren’t available that I kind of want:
A couple Korean films not currently available–
Peppermint Candy, by Chang-dong Lee
Barking Dogs Never Bite, Joon-ho Bong’s first film
(Just double-checked–and I stand corrected, as at least Candy IS available. So I simply want that.)
An Irish tv miniseries written by Roddy Doyle and directed by Michael Winterbottom called Family.
I still want Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, but not some crap ebay copy.
I’m tempted by Sturges, still kind of dream about the Val Lewton collection.
I just saw that the price of the great Singing Detective is down to just over $25… so I may actually grab that.
How much of the stuff I love that I may never watch again or more than once should I actually buy? That’s a rhetorical question, unless you all decide to screw John and just send me money (Paypal accepted) instead.
reynolds, my “crap” eBay copy of Ace in the Hole is surprisingly good quality, but I too want an official release. But we may have to wait until Jan. 1, 2008.
i scored fairly well on a scavenging trip to tower records yesterday (prices down to 50-70% off as they’re going out of business).
re the low prices on the kids’ sets. partly, i am happy that i can get the last three sets at low prices; mostly, however, i’m pissed that i paid full-price for the first two. i do watch them from time to time, as i do my monty python set. however, my large collection of films, recorded painstakingly on vhs tapes that i could not afford, from ifc, sundance, tcm, amc and bravo mocks me daily. considering i recorded 2-3 movies per tape they’re probably all already unwatchable.
Dayna recently broached the subject of Ye Olde VHS Librarie which takes up a couple shelves of closet space as well. I”m rather scared to watch them for fear they are unwatchable, or more likely the soundhas become unlistenable. There was some good stuff up there too – a full sets of Hal Hartley and Guy Maddin, some Derek Jarman, Lynch, cult-shlock like Spider-Baby and music videos from Hasil Adkins and a bunch of others. Thanksfully DVD technology will never go away and I’ll never have to buy more movies again.
For Christmas I want Santa to come into my house, and remove all of the tapes, along with my memory that I ever owned scores of my favorite films that have slowly disntegrated over the years.
Knowing that some shelf space will empty up when I try to watch an old videotape of “All the Vermeers in New York,” a comilation of Sigmund and the Sea-Monsters episodes or the Wonder Stuff’s “Welcome to the Cheap Seats” and then throw them into the trash, I went ahead and ordered the first two seasons of Kids in the Hall from Amazon.
It was either this or chip in for John’s insane laser-guided Victrola-phone.
I take it you don’t want the Nilsson or the Titicut Follies VHS tapes anymore? I wouldn’t want to clutter your shelf.
I saw Curtis Armstrong at Trader Joe’s yesterday. I really wanted to talk to him about Nilsson. I mean, the guy is probably called “Booger” by total strangers every day of his life that he ventures outside, and yesterday someone was about to tell him how good his liner notes are for the Harry Nillson CD re-issues that came out over the last few years.
Then I decided not to.
The moral of the story is that a lot of people are buying those “live Christmas trees” from Trader Joe’s.
I also wanted to know if he and John Cusack are ever in contact anymore. I think I could learn a lot about the nature of John Cusack if I had asked Curtis Armstrong that question.
From his very recent interview:
[Onion AV Club]: You probably have somebody call you “Booger” every day of your life. Do you ever find yourself wishing you’d never made Revenge Of The Nerds?
CA: Never. I owe a great deal to that movie and I loved making it. But I’ve said this a lot: That character is as far from me as it’s possible to be. People feel like they know who he is, and when they see me they just assume that I’m going to be like that guy. For me, to be that kind of anti-social misfit was something that I found to be a real challenge. That said, I saw this moody dark-haired fucker staring at me at Trader Joe’s the other day, and I thought, “If he asks me about Nilsson, I’m going to pull a Booger and blow his mind.”
good one, mike!
Movie list? I didn’t see everything (and still have a few I’m keen to see), and I am not sure I’m ready to rave about a top 10, but–films I saw really worth seeing this year:
The Departed
Inside Man
Slither/The Descent/Feast
Bubble
Little Miss Sunshine
The Prestige
Flushed Away/Monster House
Friends with Money
Lady Vengeance
An Inconvenient Truth
But I think the “best” stuff I saw this year I saw on dvd, often-older oddities and less-hyped stuff: William Eggleston in the Real World, Chopper, The President’s Last Bang, Mondovino (thanks, Mauer!), Mountain Patrol: Kekexili, Junebug, Cache (the last 2 were actually only available here in the Twin Cities this last year), Kamikaze Girls, Youth of the Beast.
my fave of 2006, in order:
BORAT!
inside man
casino royale
l’enfant
cache (came out in miami this year)
friends with money
prime suspect: the final act
the departed
the devil wears prada
water
so many i haven’t seen, but these are the top of my list.
I forgot Cache! That’s on my list, too.
And–I’ll post on this later–Children of Men is by far the best film I’ve seen this year. Maybe last, too. I finished watching and almost turned around to buy another ticket and see it again.
Oh, I didn’t forget Cache. I had it on my dvd list. But I’m happy to have it on both.
OK, my best of the year (as well as a few suggestions for your Christmas wish lists).
Best Films released in 2006:
United 93
The Departed
Bubble
Three Times
Children of Men
L’Enfant
Inside Man
Marie Antoinette
Little Miss Sunshine
Night Watch
With mentions to Babel, Brick, Down in the Valley, Borat and The Devil Wears Prada.
Biggest Disappointment: The Descent
Performances worth remembering: Diane Lane (Hollywoodland), Jackie Earle Haley, Phyllis Somerville & Kate Winsley (Little Children), Emily Blunt & Meryl Streep (Prada), John C. Reilly (A Prairie Home Companion, Michael Caine (Children of Men & The Prestige).
Books:
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Tragi-comic
David Mitchell’s Black Swann Green
Allegra Goodman’s Intuition
Dana Spiotta’s Eat This Document
George Pelecanos’ The Night Gardener
Ken Kalfus’ A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
Music:
My Chemical Romance, “The Black Parade”
Joanna Newsom, “Ys”
The Figurines, “Skeleton”
Neko Case, “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood”
Lindsey Buckingham, “Under the Skin”
Mates of State, “Bring It Back”
The National, “Alligator”
Tapes ‘n’ Tapes, “The Loon”
Band of Horses, “Everything All the Time”
Yo La Tengo, “I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass”
The Hold Steady, “Boys and Girls in America”
Best Live Performances:
Tom Waits, The Palace Theatre, Louisville, KY
Spring Awakening, Eugene O’Neill Theatre, New York City
Gatz, by Elevator Repair Service, American Premiere at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Joanna Newsom, 400 Bar, Minneapolis
Mother Courage and Her Children, Frank Theatre, Minneapolis
I think we all know what reynolds will be getting for Christmas. At long last, Ace in the Hole is out on DVD–as part of the Criterion Collection, no less! My guess is he won’t wait until Christmas.