p e n g u i n d e v i l

I managed to watch a couple of movies this week that were a bit off of my beaten track. The highlight was that we watched Man with a Plan. A must watch for anyone interested in rural Vermont. A fake documentary about a real person. The story of a (real) old farmer from Tunbrudge VT who (the unreal part) runs against the incumbent congressman. It is a silly movie, really just a setup to watch the good oldmanness of Fred Tuttle, but it is oh so very wonderfully Vermont! Great scenery, great people and some really nice accents! Fred goes around and raises a few dozen dollars as he begins to encroach upon the incumbent in the polls, campaigning with his plan of “FRED” (Friendly Renewable Extraterrestrial Dinky) and help enlisted from his neighbors Kermit, Euclid and others. He travels around Vermont set on winning a seat in the house to get some of that money that Washington wastes on jet trips and vacations and use it to pay for his fathers hip operation and to help keep their family farm afloat…

fred debating

vermont

We then watched Shawshank Redemption. Of course, this was a good movie, as I have always heard. And another great movie based on a story taken from Different Seasons. The story of a man sent to prison for murdering his wife and her lover. He doesn’t really fit in, being not a violent criminal, but instead a well educated bank vice-president. He uses his rather unusual (for a prison inmate, anyway) skills to carve himself a niche inside. But he is also a man of great character who fights against the prisoners and the prison establishment to do what’s right. It stars Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins (one of my old fav’s), and a great cast of familiar faces, including Clancy Brown (from Buckaroo Banzai, Highlander and Starship Troopers!), James Whitmore and David Proval from The Sopranos (who is always seems to be around, but doesn’t utter a line until nearly the end of the film).

It’s a good, entertaining drama covering: friendship. corruption, right and wrong and the realities of prison life. Well, if you want real drama on the realities of prison life, check out American Me, but this was good for something more palatable to the regular movie going audience.

In other movie news, DVDSavant calls it “less than spectacular”, but that is oh such an understatement for this terrible news. In another case of “a film that should not be remade” meets “an actor who should never be cast in a serious role”, Keanu Reeves has been confirmed as taking on the role of Klaatu in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Um, a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still? What, why, why? Um, Keanu Reeves? Did the producers never watch his agonizing performance in Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Compounding sad tragedy upon tragedy…

And finally, also from DVDSavant, we learn that the DVD Journal is closing up shop. His final post is a good read, as it covers the history of dvd and home film viewing in general. I am one of those folks who accumulated VHS, mainly recorded off cable TV or by duplicating cruddy bootlegs VHS from places like Movie Madness. I also remember a time before cable and before VHS. I remember when I was ten and Star Wars left the theater, it seemed quite likely that I would never see it again. Oh, such a fool am I. Then came VHS, which was fine. But nothing compared to the effects of DVD. I was an early adopter of DVD, spending $600 (or was it $700?) on my Toshiba player in October of ’97 because, as he said, “the idea of feature-length movies on CD-sized discs was a holy grail of film collectors”. Oh, so unimaginably true.

Those early days were fun. Tower Records seemed to be the only place that sold DVDs and they had maybe 100-200 titles. And what an interesting blend it was: some Criterion, Troma jumped in both feet first and then the few big companies that put out DVDs, mainly released old classics. Due to these three factors, those early days were the best for DVD shopping (in terms of the ratio of good to bad), yielding me many DVD’s that I still treasure now, ten years later, Criterion’s (this is) Spinal Tap, autographed Toxic Avenger, the original DVD of Forbidden Planet (though I hear that the new release is much improved, so I’ll need to get it. I should have sold my old one when it was still worth $70, but I just didn’t have the heart) and the James Bond movies….

Now, as movies and music begin the big move to an “all data” format, I see my collecting urges fading away. Yes, I own a mp3 player and have a few thousand mp3’s, but to me, they will never compete with a solid item. A hard drive filled with MP3’s just isn’t as neat as a bunch of CD’s (or better, LP’s) and I don’t even find a burned DVD worth adding to my movie collection, maybe worth keeping around, but only unofficially…