Category: laserdisc reviews

Now Available on Laserdisc: Salo

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I’m an odd guy. I like odd movies; especially ones that elicit a reaction. For a long time, the late Italian independent filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final film Salo – an adaptation of the Marquis de Sade’s final novel – was the defacto choice when it came to disturbing, shocking cinema. Sure, there have been more horrifying movies released since, depending on one’s own preferences: August Underground; I Spit on Your Grave (any of them); Irreversible; Hereditary, to name a few. Any one of these could be a “jumping-off point” for future-filmmakers with a skewed world-view, but my own entry-point was Salo. I couldn’t tell you how I first came to know about it – probably from some Internet forum – but I can tell you how I came to watch it. Salo is a part of the Criterion Collection: a maverick distributor that secures the rights to oft-forgotten classics and international cinema (and movies that no one else seems to want to deal with, like Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture and Bowling for Columbine) and releasing expansive special-edition sets that cost an arm-and-a-leg for. It seems they are contented now with putting out anything that isn’t tied down, but back in the day you could count on a Criterion release – whether that was Laserdisc or DVD – to be the definitive edition of an otherwise-lost film.

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Now Available on Laserdisc: Arthur 2

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Full confession: I have not seen the original 1981 “Arthur”. “OH MY GOD, a movie Jason HASN’T SEEN?” Wait wait wait. I have seen the 2011 remake with Russell Brand and from what I can surmise the two movies follow the same formula: a belligerent and wealthy playboy has to learn to live without money if he wants to marry the woman of his dreams. The 2011 film oozed sentimentality and I think that had more to do with Brand’s personal struggles at the time (and his subsequent Producer credit on the remake) then it did a changing of the times: it doesn’t matter how much money either Arthur has, because eventually you will run out of things to do with it. No amount of modernization can change this, and sadly makes Arthur’s rich boy antics irrelevant; especially when there have been so many movies since about the 1% acting like idiots (The Hangover series; Blank Check; Wall Street 2; Fracture, to name a few). But where Brand’s characterization had a pathos when confronted with responsibility, Dudley Moore’s original really is only concerned with having a good time. The guy is a fucking useless drunk, and he’s an asshole! There could very well be more lurking beneath the surface of his interpretation, but Arthur 2 never gives us a chance to learn more about him: why he’s a drunk; how he feels about getting older and still not taking control of his life; his lack of confidence at middle age. Answering these wouldn’t make for a very funny movie, though (and there’s a good chance they were answered in the first one and I simply don’t know what I’m talking about. I have the sequel, not the original. I have to work with what I’ve got here).

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Now Available on Laserdisc: The Hudsucker Proxy

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Before we go any further, I have to eulogize the elephant in the room: my trusty Pioneer dual-sided Laserdisc-slash-CD player. I’ve had her for years now and she is a shining testament to the durability of 80s technology: this shit was built to last.

And she has lasted. She is heavy and unwieldy and unless we have her own separate station set up beside the TV then she rests on top of my wife’s ten-year-old IKEA entertainment unit. Two years ago I forgot that the lid was ejected and I walked into it, dislocating the arm from the unit. It was easily fixed by snapping it back in but she hasn’t worked the same ever since. Now she takes almost two full cycles before she can eject the door; CDs get stuck inside her and require surgical removal; and there is an ever-increasing chance that one day she will lose the use of her tongue completely and never be able to speak again. But she has persevered regardless! And no matter how much longer she may last, her contributions to my cinematic endeavors cannot be overstated enough.

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Now Available on Laserdisc: December

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When you look at the cover of this movie, what is the first thing you see? “Jay, you need a better camera.” Okay, what else? “Better lighting.” And? “A better intro.” Try again. WIL WHEATON IS IN THIS MOVIE! OHH MAHH GAWWDDDdddd there he is, front-and-center in the group shot. Star Trek: The Next Generation was into its fourth season when this came out, so he is obviously the main attraction (could be the reason it got released in the first place). I like Trek but I am not a fanboy, and I don’t camp out at conventions hoping to get a sniff of Westley’s Essential Oils. I have actually never been to a Star Trek convention so I don’t know what it would be like, but I have an inkling that the attention these actors get – especially the TNG cast – is INSANE. Like, a real endurance test of patience and compassion to be able to tell the same stories; to sign autographs all-day; and to be accosted by fans of every sort, asking questions to plot points an average viewer would never have asked themselves. These are just the actors, people: not the writers. Wheaton seems especially game these-days to joke and explicate a career he left when he was a child, but he’s still famous for what he did when he was a kid and not really much else these days. Fame is messy. The more you know.

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Now Available on Laserdisc: Ghost

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Why would Costco still sell Blu-rays? Hasn’t the market moved-on already? Up until last year they would also have the TV box-sets around Christmas time but I suppose they figured that dried-up when they didn’t sell A SINGLE M*A*S*H COMPLETE SERIES SET. My nearest Warehouse had an entire table one year dedicated to just the M*A*S*H, X-Files, and Bond box-sets they were struggling to off-load. And then there was nothing; nada except for the newest releases. There is something tangible about holding something you’ve purchased in your hand: reading the blurb at the back; maybe there’s a paper-insert inside with a special offer or some trivia. I’ve had my share of DVD limited-edition sets and Laserdisc sets and sometimes it’s the only way to see a certain version of a film that you want, and other times you just want the pretty packaging. The benefit to the vinyl format of Laserdiscs are that sometimes with a two-disc set you get a nice gatefold with some pictures and text: sometimes it’s just the Chapter Listing, and other times – like with Criterion sets – it would be an essay. Ghost has neither.

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