NEW RELEASES - OCTOBER 28 2008

Abbott And Costello: The Complete Universal Collection

Anaconda 3: The Offspring

Animal House: The 30th Anniversary Edition

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens

Baraka: Special Edition

Billy The Kid

Blue Eyes Of The Broken Doll

Dick Tracy Vs. Crime Inc.

Exprcism

Fanny Hill

Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot

Horror rises From The Tomb

Human Beasts

Journey To the Center Of The Earth 3-D 

Ludwig

Night Of The Flesh Eaters 

Patrick

Pieces

Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead

The Prince And Me: Royal Honeymoon

Run For Your Life: The Fred Lebow Story

Strange Behavior

Thirst

Tinkerbell

Vengeance Of The Zombies

Zombie Strippers

TELEVISION:

According To Jim Season One

Biography: Elton John

Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav

The L word Season 5

Mystery Science Theater 3000:

   * First Spaceship on Venus * Future War * Laserblast * Werewolf

       

NEW ARRIVALS, REPLACEMENTS, REQUESTS:

Bitter Moon

Black Widow

Brother’s Keeper

Executive Decision/ Unlawful Entry

Gone Dark

The Hills Have Eyes

The Hired Hand

Logan's Run

Never Been Kissed

Of Mice And Men (1939)

Old School

The Outlaw

The Pick Up Artist

The Rocketeet

Romeo And Juliet (2002)

Terminator 2

This Film is Not Yet rated

Transamerica

Where Eagles Dare

ROCKET STAFF QUESTIONNAIRE

EMPLOYEE:  Sean    

1. WHAT ARE A COUPLE OF YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME?

Annie Hall, Godfather, Once Upon A Time In The West

2. WHAT'S A MOVIE YOU MIGHT CALL A GUILTY PLEASURE?

My classic lame flick I dig would be The Fast And The Furious.

In terms of pleasure and guilt? Thriller with my favorite Swedish actress Christina Lindberg.

3. WHAT'S A MOVIE THAT RENTS A LOT, YOU'RE NOT TOO CRAZY ABOUT?

I hate Boondock Saints. It seems to have a following with the collage crowd who have never seen seen a movie before Fight Club.

3. HOW ABOUT A COUPLE OF RECOMMENDATIONS THAT DON'T RENT MUCH?

I’ve mentioned in the past... Baby It’s You (now on DVD), West Beirut, the PBS doc Eyes On The Prize

Today I would add The Wanders.

4. WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU STILL WAITING TO GET A DVD (REGION 1) RELEASE?

Tougher Then Leather with Run DMC.

5. WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FROM THE TELEVISION SECTION?

The first couple of seasons of Happy Days and All In The Family. Then the usual suspects The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield. You know what I thought was good was that thing where Lisa Kudrew played a washed up actress. She was great.

6. HOW ABOUT FROM THE MUSIC SECTION?

I liked that Elton John Doc we got recently.

7. HOW ABOUT FROM THE CHILDREN'S SECTION?

I just watched this Peter Pan (2003) with Jason Issacs as Hook and Ludivine Sagnier as Tinker Bell. Loved it.

8. HOW ABOUT FROM THE FREE SECTION?

The gem in there is our copy of the amazing doc LA Plays Itself. Also amazing also is  Sean Sweeney’s Reel. 

9. OVER ALL WHO MIGHT BE YOUR FAVORITE DIRECTOR OF ALL TIME? WHAT ARE SOME OF HIS/ HER FLICKS YOU DIG?

I wanna say Billy Wilder. But hey, I love a buncha flicks by Sergio Leone and Hawks and Ford and   Robert Aldrich and John Borman and Orson Welles and Spielberg and Scorses and Melville. But the bottom line, A-Number One for me is Alfred Hitchcock. I’ll just toss out one title... Vertigo.

10. WHAT 2008 FLICKS HAVE YOU ENJOYED?

Man On Wire, Wall-E, Ironman, The Dark Knight, The Chicago Ten, Surfwise, Tell No One

MY 100 FAVORITE CREEPY MOVIES OF ALL TIME - UPDATED

It's October, time for a ridiculous Halloween movie list.

My 100 Favorite Creepy Movies of all time.

I don’t want to call it a Horror movie list or even Scary movie list because maybe now Omega Man or Laurel and Hardy in The March Of The Wooden Soldiers don’t scare me, but when I saw them as a kid they creeped me out.

I'm sure I’m missing about twenty more movies that would of qualified, had I remembered them.

What’s missing that would make your lists (and don’t say Saw 2)?

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene 1920)

Freaks (Browing 1932)

King Kong (Cooper, Schoedsack 1933)

March Of The Wooden Soldiers (Meins 1934)

Cat People (Tourneur 1942)

Curse Of The Cat People (Wise 1944)

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Barton 1948)

The Thing from Another World (Nyby 1951)

Diaboliques (Clouzot 1955)

Night Of The Hunter (Laughton 1955)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel 1956)

Night of the Hunter (Laughton 1957)

House on Haunted Hill (Castle 1959)

Psycho (Hitchcock 1960)

Village of the Damned (Rilla 1960)

The Innocents (Clayton 1961)

Carnival of Souls (Harvey 1962)

The Day Of The Triffids (Sekely 1962)

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (Aldrich 1962)

The Birds (Hitchcock 1963)

Knife In The Water (Polanski 1963)

Kaidan (Kobayashi 1964)

Onibaba (Shindo 1964)

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (Forbes 1964)

Repulsion (Polanski 1965)

Viy (Kropachyov 1967)

Wait Until Dark (Young 1967)

The Boston Strangler (Fleischer 1968)

Night Of The Living Dead (Romero 1968)

Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski 1968)

Blood on Satan’s Claw (Haggard 1971)

Deliverance (Boreman 1971)

The Omega Man (Sagal 1971)

See No Evil (Fleischer 1971)

Frenzy (Hitchcock 1972)

Horror Express (Martin 1972)

Last House on the Left (Craven 1972)

The Exorcist (Friedkin 1973)

The Legend of Hell House (Hough 1973)

The Wicker Man (Hardy 1973)

Black Christmas (Clark 1974)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper 1974)

Deep Red (Argento 1975)

Jaws (Spielberg 1975)

Race With The Devil (Starrett 1975)

Burnt Offerings (Curtis 1976)

The Omen (Donner 1976)

Who Could Kill A Child (Serrador 1976)

The Hills Have Eyes (Craven 1977)

Suspiria (Argento 1977)

Dawn of the Dead (Romero 1978)

Halloween (Carpenter 1978)

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (Kaufman 1978)

Alien (Scott 1979)

The Brood (Cronenberg 1979)

Nosferatu the Vampyre (Herzog 1979)

Picnic At Hanging Rock (Weir 1979)

Salam’s Lot (TV) (Hooper 1979)

The Changeling (Medak 1980)

Dressed To Kill (De Palma 1980)

The Shining (Kubrick 1980)

An American Werewolf in London (Landis 1981)

The Howling (Dante 1981)

Venom (Haggard 1981)

The Evil Dead (Raimi 1982)

Poltergeist (Hooper 1982)

Tenebre (Argenta 1982)

The Thing (Carpenter 1982)

Razorback (Mulcahy 1984)

Demons (Demoni) (Bava 1985)

Fright Night (Holland 1985)

Lifeforce (Hooper 1985)

Aliens (Cameron 1986)

Dead-End Drive In (Trenchard-Smith 1986)

Near Dark (1987; Kathryn Bigelow)

Blue Velvet (Lynch 1986)

The Vanishing (Spoorloos) (Sluizer 1988)

Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1990)

Jacob's Ladder (Lynne 1990)

The Silence Of The Lambs (Demme 1991)

Ghost Watch (TV) (Manning 1992)

Heavenly Creatures (Jackson 1994)

The Kingdom (TV "Riget") (Von Trier 1994)

Mute Witness (Waller 1994)

Se7en (Fincher 1995)

Ringu (The Ring) (Nakata 1998)

Audition (Miike 1999)

The Blair Witch Project (Myrick, Sánchez 1999)

The Devil’s Backbone (del Toro 2001)

The Others (Amenebar 2001)

The Mothman Prophecies (Pellington 2002)

Wendigo (Fassenden 2001)

28 Days Later (Boyle 2002)

Haute Tension (Aja 2003)

Ju-on: The Grudge (Shimizu 2003)

A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003 Kim)

Calvaire (Welz 2004)

Shaun of the Dead (Wright 2004)

Dawn Of The Dead (Snyder 2005)

The Descent (Marshall 2005)

13 Tzameti (Babluani 2005)

Them (Ils) (Moreau, Palud 2006)

RANDOM ALSO:

The Crazies, Zombie, Peeping Tom, The 6th Sense, 10 Rillington Place, Wolf Creek, Jeepers Creepers, Carrie, Wrong Turn, Night Of The Creeps, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, Trilogy Of Terror (TV), Rabid, And Soon The Darkness, Island Of Doctor Moreau (1996), Audrey Rose, It's Alive, Raw meat (Death Line), Piranha, Fear In The Night, Cannibal Apocalypse, [REC], Damian: Omen Two, Habit

UPDATE:

I keep recalling more flicks that creeped me out at one time or another.

MORE RANDOM: Evil Dead 2, Terror On The Beach (TV), The Orphanage, Prophacy (1979), Tales from The Crypt (segment: All Through The House), Dead Calm, Eyes Without A Face, It's Alive, Dark Water (2002), Witchfinder General, Sisters (1973), When a Stranger Calls (1979)/When A Stranger Calls Back, Irreversible, I Saw What You Did, Monkey Shines, Scream Of Fear, Young Frankenstein (as a child it spooked me out), Nadja

- sweeneyrules

NEW RELEASES - OCTOBER 21, 2008

Amazing Dr. Clitterhowe 

Birds of America

Bride of the Monster

Camp Blood in 3D

Creature from the Haunted Sea 

Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush

The Devil Bat

Expelled

Flight of the Red Balloon 

Hara Kiri: Blood & Boobs Boxset 

Incredible Hulk

Invisible Stripes

Kid Galahad

Larceny, Inc.

The Little Giant

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Vol. 6 

March of the Wooden Soldiers

Missing (Criterion)

Notorious

Phantom From Space

Phantom Planet 

Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film 

Saving God

The Stone Angel

The Strangers

Trailer Park of Terror

BLU-RAY:

Incredible Hulk

Iron Man

TELEVISION:

Family Guy Vol. 6

Incredible Hulk Season 5

REPLACEMENTS/ NEW ARRIVALS:

Absolutely Fabulous Series 5

Brady Bunch Movie

Confessions of a Superhero 

Entourage Season 1

The Front Page (1931)

Ice Age

The King and I

The Innocents

Legally Blonde

Legend of Drunken Master/Project A Z

The Machinist

Man For All Seasons

Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh 

Mean Girls

Mr. Brooks

Mr. Warmth: Don Rickles Project

Olympia 

Prophecy

Sayonara 

Smallville Season 6

RETHINKING REAR WINDOW & GRACE KELLY & HITCHCOCK

 Boy was I wrong. I always put Rear Window (1954) on my ‘most overrated film list’. 

Along side other films that often appear on ‘Greatest Films of All-time Lists’. 

Films like Stagecoach, The Searchers, the films of Godard (except Breathless), Jules and Jim, anything with Katherine Hepburn, Etc. I can understand their importance or artistic merits, but I never had the enthusiasm for them that others do. 

 But I recently rewatched Rear Window and oh baby, I was blown away. 

Maybe with age some flicks can be better understood. For instance, I always dug  Hitchcock’s Vertigo because I could always relate to obsession. But I  never really appreciated his Notorious, I thought it was pretty good, but it wasn’t until later in life, after I had experienced love (and heartbreak etc.) that I could fully relate to it. And now I hold it in high regard. 

 I recall that in the past I had found Rear Window a little ‘stagy’. Like a filmed play. But watching the newly restored Universal Legacy version on DVD I realized the film making technique Hitchcock used was a thing of beauty. 

 In the past I found the banter between James Stewart and (the great) Thelma Ritter to be lightweight comedy and time filling small talk. But this time I realized there was not a piece of dead weight in the streamlined script. Every moment was leading to the resolve. 

 Also perhaps where age helped me take a new view, was in the relationship 

between Stewart’s globe trotting photographer Jeff Jeffries and Grace Kelly’s shallow Paris Hilton like Lisa. Jeff has apprehension about getting tied down with a Manhattan party girl who seems more interested in the latest fashions then the latest adventure. Personally being rather shallow and pathetic, it’s impossible not to fall in love with the beautiful Grace Kelly, but I can see where some of Lisa's attitudes are annoying. As opposed to the the aggressive San Francisco party girl Tippie Hedren plays in The Birds, at least Stewart’s Jeff doesn’t have to explain his choices, when his buddy the detective, 

Doyle keeps eyeing Lisa’s overnight bag and nightie sitting out. Jeff more or less tells Doyle “don’t you go there”. His attitude does shut down the married puritan cop from making hay that his war buddy gets to bang this lovely creature. Where as in The Birds, Rod Taylor’s Mitch has to explain the appearance of Hedren’s Melanie Daniels to his uptight mother (Jessica Tandy), his nosey little sister (Veronica Cartwright) and the local sex starved spinster teacher (Suzanne Pleshette). Oh and birds are attacking and killing folks on the island ever since this wacky babe arrived.

The sexual tension in Rear Window and the incredible camera work is enough to excuse the corny Greenwich Village life that Stewart watches from his window. Again maybe getting older I can appreciate the truisms in the phases of relationships that are captured on Stewart’s ‘big screen TV’, no matter how cliched. 

Like most of Hitchcock’s best work it always fun to play spot the rip-offs, how many times in the years since have directors like Truffaut and De Palma... er, um...  “paid homage” to The Master, or the number of lesser films that directly stole from Rear Window (The Bedroom Window and Disturbia,  to name but a few). 

 But what makes Hitchcock’s version of events as opposed to De Palma’s de Sade-ian version, Body Double more amazing is how simple the thrills are (and the violence). It’s all a easy, carefully crafted step by step lead up to an exciting but not over the top payoff. Maybe what was lacking before for me was,  I was used to the extremeness of a De Palma and maybe I’m a prude now, but this week I’d take Stewart’s flashbulb defense any day to driller-killers.

Rewatching Rear Window I re-fell-in-love with the stunning Grace Kelly. Her first entrance in the film is as beautiful as any actress' intro I can think of (Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago comes to mind). She had a short lived film career that basically took place in the fifties. After doing a lot of television, Kelly played the wife in High Noon (regrettably another film I find ‘overrated’). She then did Hitchcock’s 3-D Dial M For Murder and the dull Gardner/ Gable three-way sudsy bore, 

Mogambo.

 And then Kelly won an Oscar for The Country Wife. Which I went and watched for the first time. There’s a lot to admire in the ‘54 drama. It’s a challenging downer of a script, based on a play by the “realistic” playwright Clifford Odets, and it too often feels like watching a play. Two or three actor scenes are drably shot in little rooms that feel like obviously sets. Grace plays the manipulative but later heroic wife of a washed up drunk ‘actor’, Bing Crosby who comes off more like a retarded sad sack version of Mister Rogers then a trouble making boozer.  

He gets one last chance at redemption starring on Broadway in superstar director William Holden’s latest opus. Which looks like the worst play of all time, a lefty musical, apparently about salt of the earth types dancing about in overalls. 

 The flick makes no sense, about a third into it, Holden and the dour Kelly declare their love for each other and though it’s a relief to the otherwise somber going-ons, I never saw any hint they had affection for each other, other then the fact that they’re the two best looking people in the movie. Interesting, I guess this was Kelly’s Monster Ball, she plays ‘ugly’ which means hot, but not movie star ‘hot’. Actually in her unglamorous frocks, but still careful photographed she kinda reminded me a little of a young Ingrid Bergman, in the films where she too was supposed to look a little less then Goddess.

 As much as I can appreciate flicks about washed-up drunken actors torturing the beautiful woman who love them, the film only rates as a curio because of the cast. Ironically enough Kelly won the Oscar beating out the much more deserving Judy Garland for her brilliant performance in A Star Is Born, where she too played the wife of a drunk actor, it helps that she got to share the screen with the much more believable heel, the terrific James Mason.

After finding my new love for Rear Window , I also rewatched Hitchcock’s follow up To Catch A Thief. His third go in a row with Kelly as his muse. Other then the interesting French Riviera images shot in VistaVision and the always entertaining Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, so adorable. This is a not very suspenseful suspense flick. Grant is trying to prove to Kelly he’s not the famous Cat Burglar and Kelly falls in love with him, though he barely shows any interest in her. It’s obvious that the French girl is the McGuffin. It feels a little over-cooked, cleaver dialog does not really cover the awkward plot. It kinda plays as a “best off’ 

Hitchcock - mystery, suspense, glamor, romance- but it never really fully succeeds more then adequately on any of those levels. 

 The most interesting aspect is the fact that Grace Kelly is just so stunning in it. 

To Catch A Thief  joins The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) as really just a overblown location flick that helped to lead Hitchcock to his perfect ‘Adventure-Comedy’ North By Northwest.

 I hate knocking my man The Hitch, cause other then Billy Wilder and maybe the pre-'92 Woody Allen, no director has more flicks on my personal favorite list. 

Maybe Rear Window will my favorite Hitchcock list, along with the aforementioned Notorious (1946), Vertigo  (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and The Birds (1963). As well as Strangers on a Train (1951) Frenzy (1972) and most of Psycho (1960) up until that last horrible  explanation speech.

 I plan on reevaluating Rebecca (1940) and Spellbound (1945) soon. 

Until then my next tear of Hitchcock would include... (I obviously have no appreciation for his pre-Hollywood flicks, perhaps I’ll give them a new looking-over as well) Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Rope (1948) and Topaz (1969). I also have some newly formed affection for The Trouble with Harry (1955). I kinda admire the mess that is Marnie (1964), which was intended as a Grace Kelly vehicle tell she went and married some rich A-hole Prince. I think Torn Curtain (1966) kinda sucks, but it does have one of the best fight scenes of all time. And though it doesn’t hold up, as a kid I loved the pretty lame Family Plot (1976). 

 So there. I now really love Rear Window and if not ‘love’, really like Grace Kelly, 

I mean like-like.

- sweeneyrules