NEW SECTION: DVD COLLECTION

Turn down the lights, turn up the sound and enjoy the remastered splendour of films on digital versatile disc...

I have decided to set up a new section on my blog under the title of "DVD Collection". Unsurprisingly, this part of my blog shall comprise of a list of all the official DVD releases I own and my opinions on them. I intend to give a star rating out of five for the featured film/TV programme presented on each disc and another rating out of five for the extra content included.

In depth analysis shall not be paid to quality of image transfers and the like here. I will of course write a line or two if the image transfer of a release is of particular interest otherwise for specific commentary on DVD image transfers, I refer you to the informed opinion of Michael Mackenzie at Whiggles.com and his Image Transfer Hall of Fame.

At a guess I would say I have about 300 to 350 titles so it may take me a little bit of time to get all the DVD info posted. However, it should prove a useful exercise in organisation and it might even help me to identify discs I want to sell on and bring to my attention those films in my collection that have since had a superior release on DVD.

In the past I have infrequently used DVD Profiler to catalogue my DVDs and keep note of my purchases - can check out my list here. Hopefully, as this section is updated it will allow me to get a definitive list of my DVD Collection online.

By the way, two useful websites I use to determine the best available release on DVD of any given film are DVD Beaver and Rewind.

TWIN PEAKS TUESDAY!

Okay, okay... I know today is Wednesday but somehow I overlooked the fact Twin Peaks: The Second Season was officially released on DVD yesterday!

Twin Peaks aired from 1990 to 1991 and was created by the highly distinctive director David Lynch and Mark Frost (writer of Hill Street Blues and other hit TV shows fame). Twin Peaks proved to be both a critical and popular success before unceremoniously being cancelled at the close of this its second season.

The other work commitments David Lynch took on during this period meant he had less and less time to supervise the show. A uniquely personal vision to David Lynch and enhanced by his collaboration with Mark Frost, Twin Peaks was destined to stutter and shake under the weight of its growing reputation and the broad and unwieldy nature of the television series format. Hiring different directors to deliver scripts increasingly produced by larger and more disparate sets of writers/producers inevitably saw the creative vision diluted and obscured. Ultimately, David Lynch conceded the series had reached its zenith in terms of its TV incarnation and there have been no more seasons of the show. The director, himself, returned to the setting and characters of Twin Peaks, for many fans his greatest achievement, in his controversial and often derided 1992 feature Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Whilst perhaps not tying up the multitude of plot strands begun by the television series and unmistakably bleaker in its outlook, the film does succeed in providing an illuminating counter point to Twin Peaks the TV series. Recently voted the ninth best television drama ever by critics and TV industry professionals in the UK - for Channel 4's 50 Greatest TV Drama list show - no small feat for an American drama, Twin Peaks remains a landmark in television history and a richly textured work of art.

This 6-disc set is region 1 encoded and NTSC from the US. The distributor label is Paramount rather than Artisan, who released Twin Peaks: The First Season in the US, and is available from online retailers such as DVD Pacific, Amazon.com and Deep Discount DVD.

This release has been an awful long time in coming with many fans of the groundbreaking television series making do with well worn LP recorded VHS tapes. For myself, I must confess to only having recently sat down and watched the first season in its entirety. Being an admirer of David Lynch, I was expecting to enjoy the show but even so Twin Peaks is a polished gem of a TV series. The episodes encompass a plethora of well written characters and the main plot, to find the killer of Laura Palmer, is in many ways the back story to all the sub-plots brought to the surface in the series. Considering the different directors involved and the fact that this was the first run of the programme the mood and atmosphere is superbly maintained throughout. Of course there is no shortage of the bizarre with numerous 'moody' sequences infused with the intangible sense of the oneiric. However, there are also moments of genuine emotion and comedy; in fact I would say it was Twin Peak's ability to switch fluidly between different genre conventions without losing spectator engagement that is the greatest strength of this highly original concept.

By the way the 4-disc set of the first season is available in UK and PAL, region 2 encoded from the Universal Playback label.Anyway, I certainly intend to pick up Twin Peaks: The Second Season come pay day and would urge any Twin Peaks virgins to seriously consider taking the time to delve into this hugely entertaining and enchanted Lynchian world!

To read some early reviews of the Twin Peaks: The Second Season DVD release head over to DVD Talk, DVD Verdict and DVD Town

HAMMER TIME!

Recently, I drifted into reverie regarding the horror films I used to watch as a youngster on late night TV and on old beaten up VHS. A particularly striking period of this nostagia trip focused on the much celebrated black and white horror pictures of Universal Studios in the 1930s. However, my thoughts then turned away from the black and white images of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff fickering across my mind's eye. As off over the horizon a garish blur of colour slowly came into view and then it hit me, bright smack in the face... Hammer Film Productions!

I was amazed, I had totally overlooked the exploits of my own nation and the imporant part it played in my formative introduction to the world of horror. "Hammer Horror" was all the rage in the 50s and 60s infusing classic horror texts with new vitality via sumptous color schemes and heaving bossoms. And trust me this seductive hyper-stylized re-imaginging of the familiar monster vehicles was not lost on me as a child. I was transfixed with both fear and facination upon first seeing these films and grew to revel in their almost camp jovality.

Thus, I thought it was high time I revisited those old classic British horror movies that helped to turn me on to the whole genre in my youth. Looking through the (limited) available discs at my preferred online DVD rental site, I've added the following to my delivery list: The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, The Devil Rides Out, The Nanny and The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires.

I must admit I've yet to see quite of few of these films as my exposure to classic British horror of yesteryear has mainly centred on the numerous Frankenstein and Dracula cycles. Unfortunately, many of my other fondly remembered titles such as The Quatermass Xperiment and Twins of Evil are either "low demand" meaning not available to rent or missing from the listings altogether.

Judging by availability and demand I should be getting The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula, Prince of Darkness in the next batch of 3 DVDs to be delivered. Nonsensically, I've also thrown in Brian De Palma's Dressed To Kill on a whim, to make up this Anglo/American horror trio. I used to love the movie and all things De Palma whilst at college and haven't seen it in years

If anyone else out there can point me in the right direction for more "Hammer Horror" titles on DVD I should check out please leave a comment.

DVD INCOMING

The Departed (R1, 2-disc Special Edition, Warner Bros) and A Blade in the Dark/Macabre (R0, Double Feature Edition, Anchor Bay) arrived from DVD Pacific yesterday. I haven't had time to take a look at either of the discs yet but I intend to sit down and watch The Departed this week. I was delighted Martin Scorsese, one of my favourite living directors, received his much belated Oscar for Best Director. Having not seen Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong crime thriller upon which The Departed is based, I can approach to this film without any preconceived ideas of how or to what degree this American remake is better or worse than the source material. I'll post my thoughts at some point in the future.

I ordered A Blade in the Dark and Macabre primarily to bring my order at DVD Pacific close to my preferred £18 spend (£18 is the sum total in British pounds sterling that you can import goods for from outside the EU without having to incur HM Customs chargers. This figure rises to approx £32 if you can get the package to be identified as a gift). However, A Blade in the Dark has been on my 'too watch' list for some time and being a massive Mario Bava fan, I am keen to see how his offspring's efforts compare. More comments on these Lamberto Bava features to follow.

A LOAD OF LYNCH

Back in September I picked up Lynch on Lynch from the Faber and Faber series of career length interviews with celebrated film directors. Having only recently found the time to sit down and begin to delve into the book, I decided to accompany my reading by ordering three films by David Lynch from Amazon UK.

As luck would have it Amazon UK are having something of a Lynch sale with selected titles going for £6.97 each. I ordered Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, The Elephant Man and Lost Highway. Out of the three films I have only seen Lost Highway and it is a personal favourite of mine, included in my Top 20 films of all time. I did catch part of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me when it was broadcast on Film Four a few years ago. However, having never seen Twin Peaks the television series I didn't want to expose myself to potential spoilers so I switched channels. Finally, The Elephant Man is a film I have been meaning to see for some time. I have a particular curiosity for the Victorian Era and am fascinated to see how that very distinctly British world is interpreted by an American artist such as Lynch.

This trio of Lynch titles will supplement my other (relatively) recent Lynch purchases Blue Velvet (R0, 2-disc Special Edition, Sanctuary Visual Entertainment) and Dune (R0, 2-disc Special Edition, Sanctuary Visual Entertainment). Both of which I picked up on a shopping spree in Northampton whilst visiting family over the Christmas period.

ROMERO RENAISSANCE

Having celebrated my birthday earlier in the month, I find myself in the welcome position of having some extra cash to spend on my beloved DVD collection.

So taking advantage of being able to spend some cash without feeling too guilty I have ordered copies of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) (R0 USA - Elite Entertainment/Millennium Edition), DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) (R1 USA - Anchor Bay/The Ultimate Edition) and DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) (R1 USA - Anchor Bay Divimax special edition).

All three come courtesy of my preferred US DVD importer DVD Pacific.

My upgrade of George A. Romero’s definitive zombie trilogy from VHS to DVD has been a long time coming. Perturbed at the abundance of releases – all ranging from substandard to awful – that flooded the market early on I only ventured to pick up a budget version of the classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Thinking about it, I even had to buy a cheap release of this groundbreaking horror twice as a mate proceeded to lose my first copy. Needless to say both these failed to do justice to Romero’s masterpiece suffering from terrible transfers and clumsy sound design on bare bones discs.

At last this situation has been largely rectified with both NIGHT and DAWN getting something to approaching definitive DVD releases from the United States based Elite Entertainment and Anchor Bay respectively. I am especially keen to get my hands on the 4-disc DAWN release as it includes the European version of the film re-titled ZOMBI and edited by no other than Italian horror legend Dario Argento.

The jury is still somewhat out on the best release of DAY. Looking through DVD comparison sites and various forums on the Internet it would appear that the recent Region 1 and Region 2 special editions of the film suffer from some rather baffling soundtrack tampering.

See: http://www.istherefood.com/2006/04/09/day-of-the-dead-arrow-uk-release/

To round out my ‘Romero Renaissance’ I also picked up LAND OF THE DEAD (R2 UK – Universal/Director’s Cut) at the HMV sale.

I’ll be posting my thoughts on revisiting these great films and passing judgement on their treatment on DVD in these releases in the near future.

HITCHCOCK HAT-TRICK

Today, I took delivery of the these three discs from an online DVD rental company. Being a massive Alfred Hitchcock fan I thought it was high time I re-visited his signature collection released by Universal in 2003. I already own a number of the films included in this set but had never gotten round to watching THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1955), TORN CURTAIN (1966) and TOPAZ (1969).

I am particularly looking forward to watching THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, as the ‘Master of Suspense’ was known to have a particularly wicked sense of humour. By all accounts this film, whilst a minor work, is said to be a rather atypical but not unwelcome venture for the great British director.

I’ll be posting my thoughts as soon as I get the time to give the discs a spin.

NEW SECTION: REVIEWS

Hello visitors,

I have been exploring my new beta blog recently and have set-up a new section called simply "Reviews". By adding posts under this label I hope to build up a body of reviews for a variety of films. Essentially, these film reviews will be divided between 'bitesize reviews' of typically 250-500 words and longer pieces titled 'full reviews' of upwards of 1, 000 words. The former will act as a brief account of my immediate response to a particular film and be spoiler free, whilst alternatively the latter will more often than not contain spoilers and act as a more in depth consideration of the film in question.

You will see I have started to add posts to this thread using existing reviews I wrote for the Kent Newspaper Group. As a result these films are 3 or 4 years old but this was simply to get the REVIEWS section up an running. In the future I will be adding both 'bitesize reviews' and the more substantial 'full reviews' for contemporary films released theatrically and existing releases on DVD.

Your opinions are welcome, so please feel free to leave comments about the new REVIEWS section or a particular review.

Best wishes

The Count