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Tuesday November 24, 2009
FREE AT LAST!
Savant's new reviews today are
The Exiles
Milestone / Oscilloscope
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Warner Archive Collection
and
Godzilla
1998
Blu-ray
Sony
Welcome back, wherever I've been. This is by far the longest that DVD Savant has been non-operational, and just getting going again is a bit weird ... after doing the site's background routines automatically for so long, I suddenly have to remember how it all works again. I have three reviews up meant for 10 days ago. Check back in a couple of days and I'll have more -- not so much to "catch up" but to keep faith with DVD companies that need their review notices to come out reasonably close to street date. So let's hope everything uploads in a coherent manner. My thanks to John Sinnott, Dick Bradley and Nate Andrews of the parent company for getting me connected ... communication is patchy so I hope I stay connected!
Back to business ... Dick Dinman has new programs about new Sony/Columbia releases up on the web from his popular WMPG FM radio show DVD Classics Corner On the Air. Listenable post-broadcast on the web are:
A Fuller Film Experience. Samuel Fuller's widow Christa Lang Fuller, Fuller star Michael Dante and host Dick Dinman salute the defiantly maverick writer-director whose striking works are now on display in the new dvd release The Sam Fuller Collection.
A Castle of Columbia Noir. Dick Dinman and guest Rita Belda (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Technical Specialist, Film Restoration and Asset Management) discuss Sony's dvd releases of The William Castle Collection and The Columbia Pictures Film Noir Collection #1.
Edward Sullivan reacts to the "Ellie & Carl" montage in Pixar's UP by sending this link to a somewhat similarly themed animation by Bruno Bozzetto, Life in a Tin. I covered it in an older review about another Bruno Bozzetto feature film. The quality here is better but the audio seems about ten frames out of sync!
Something impressive from Uruguay -- a new five-minute short subject with special effects (and direction) that rival Hollywood feature films. Giant Robots (¡Robots gigantes!) attack Montevideo in Fede Alvarez' Ataque de Pánico! Almost 300 thousand views on YouTube already.
Thanks for bearing with all of this -- Glenn Erickson.
Saturday November 21, 2009
Good morning! As nothing has changed at DVDtalk, I still cannot upload new reviews to the DVD Savant pages. I've gotten a number of notes from readers offering to complain to DVDtalk about the situation; thanks but I don't see that as a good idea. I'm also not really free to discuss the nature of the problem, and I don't have the whole picture, anyway. At this point I'm convinced that DVDtalk's position is sincere. But thanks for the concern.
Elsewhere, I just heard the news that the new, full-length restoration of Metropolis is to be given its North American Premiere at the TCM Classic Film Festival to be held concurrently at Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, this coming April. I think I'm going to try and catch that one.
I have more news but just keeping track of my finished but un-launched reviews is rather complicated right now ... thanks for keeping an eye on "DVD Savant, the Incredible Shrinking Review Page".
Glenn E.
Thursday November 19, 2009
Well, I don't know where things are with DVD Savant, exactleeee. A manager at the host site told me he'd have me connected again on Tuesday; when nothing happened yesterday I wrote back. Haven't received an answer yet. I'll write everybody again this morning and see what happens -- I don't think there's much else I can do at the moment. Thanks for all the notes expressing interest. If you'd like to read my review of the Universal Cult Horror Collection, it's up at this link at TCM. I know some readers (I hope I still have a few) were waiting for that one. Cheers ... ? Glenn E.
Tuesday November 17, 2009
Well, tomorrow it will be a solid week of no Savant updates; after 11 years of being prompt and punctual with my reviews this feels very disturbing. I promised the distributors of The Exiles, a really important independent release deserving of exceptional treatment, that their review would be up today -- it was supposed to go up last Saturday.
DVDtalk's site maintenance people have been very attentive and helpful in the past, so I've waited until today to try to contact one of them personally. Maybe he can take a second from putting out programming fires elsewhere, to reconnect DVD Savant to the web. Glenn.
Monday November 16, 2009
Hopefully DVDtalk will put DVD Savant back live today. In general the site maintenance here is excellent and we've never been down this long before. I have reviews ready for The Exiles, Confessions of a Nazi Spy and a Blu-ray of the 1998 Godzilla. Thank you. -- Glenn
Saturday November 14, 2009
Hello -- ! I have reviews ready today but our host site DVDtalk has been experiencing some problems, which include an inability for me to upload any reviews at the moment. I'll check back several times today to see if I can update the site. -- Glenn.
The Exiles
The best restoration of the year is a late-1950s USC thesis feature that's halfway between a documentary and an American Graffiti- like story about aimless, disenchanted American Indians living near downtown L.A.. Great filmmaking and a terrific ethnographic record of Bunker Hill and Angels' Flight -- and the music of The Revels. Milestone / Oscilloscope.
11/24/09
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Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Warners takes the lead in social realism by being the first studio to come out with a virulent anti-Nazi film -- in the spring of 1939. Edward G. Robinson takes down a German-American Bund plot to weaken America with propaganda, espionage and sabotage. Warner Archive Collection.
11/24/09
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Godzilla (1998)
He's big, expensive and the butt of a lot of jokes, but the 1998 CGI-zilla is quite a special effects dazzler for his year. He also looks mean and green in Blu-ray. Sony.
11/24/09
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Notes on Marie Menken
Martina Kudlácek assembles a detailed biography of a famed New York avant-garde filmmaker, a subject that also gives an interesting perspective on Andy Warhol's Manhattan art "Factory". Icarus Films.
11/10/09
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Rancho Notorious
Fritz Lang's emphatic, operatic western is all about Hate, Murder and Revenge! Starring Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer. Warner Archive Collection.
11/10/09
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It's a Wonderful Life
Let's give a round of applause for the film restorers; this new Blu-ray of America's favorite Christmas film looks splendid in HD. A double Blu-ray disc release with a second Colorized version. Paramount.
11/10/09
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Wings of Desire
Wim Wenders bends his style to embrace old-fashioned German Expressionism in one of the most emotional art films ever: Bruno Ganz's forlorn angel of mercy falls in love with circus aerialist Solveig Dommartin, and chooses to become mortal. With a wonderful appearance by Peter Falk, this looks fantastically good in B&W and Color in HD Blu-ray. Criterion.
11/10/09
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UP
Pixar's latest dazzler comes in a can't-miss all-format 4-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy. What, no laserdisc? Carl, Russell, Kevin and Dug the Dog's Lost World adventure is easily the most entertaining picture so far this year. Buena Vista.
11/07/09
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Gabriel Over the White House
Eagles Over London
Blu-ray
Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro Seasons 1 + 2
From Hell It Came
The Claudette Colbert Collection: Three-Cornered Moon, Maid of Salem, I Met Him in Paris, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, No Time For Love, The Egg and I
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics 1: The Sniper, The Big Heat, 5 Against the House, The Lineup, Murder by Contract
The Subject Was Roses
North By Northwest
Blu-ray
Howards End
Blu-ray
The Sam Fuller Collection: It Happened in Hollywood, Adventure in Sahara, The Power of the Press, Shockproof, Scandal Sheet
Berlin Express
The Prisoner: The Complete Series
Blu-ray
Messiah of Evil: The Second Coming
"Z"
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Blu-ray
Nothing Like the Holidays
Blu-ray
Jack the Ripper
Death in the Garden
Karloff and Lugosi Horror Classics: The Walking Dead, You'll Find Out, Zombies on Broadway, Frankenstein 1970
Experiment Perilous
Black Rain
Not Quite Hollywood
The Tall Target
Chéri
Monsoon Wedding
Blu-ray
Lightning Strikes Twice
Contact
Blu-ray
The Last Days of Disco
Highway 301
Hardware
Blu-ray
Don't Turn the Other Cheek by Lee Broughton
Esther Williams, Volume 2: Thrill of a Romance, Fiesta, This Time for Keeps, Pagan Love Song, Million Dollar Mermaid, Easy to Love
The Search
Stop Making Sense
Blu-ray
The Gate
Suspense
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Blu-ray
SAVANT'S DVD WISH LIST 2009
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