Tuesday DVD top 3: September 9th 2008

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September 10, 10:58 PM

by Jason Roestel, Movie Examiner

 

 

My Father would call this "A day late and a dollar short". Yes I've been neglecting my DVD duties. This is, after all, my easiest column to write each week. Pick 3 DVD's spill a little love on them and the page almost writes itself... But Damnit Jim some weeks it's like pulling teeth trying to find three releases worth giving a toss about, let alone recommending to total strangers. Last week's big release was the half-cropped season 4 of The Office. I love The Office, (really, really love it, it's almost a full-blown Liz Taylor-sized obsession...) I bought the new Season 4 set that day, (for the same frackd' price as the full 24 episode seasons mind you...) and I've since watched the entire thing. But that was it, that was the only really good release last week. That is my excuse, and my excuses are my own, but that's why I did the lazy thing and skipped the column entire. Well, that and I was combing the internet for really bad movie haircuts... 

I'll keep this column chugging right along, but I want to make it a bit more interesting to write. You know how new DVD's always have those "This film fried my freaking mind!" super-quotes hogging up the cover art? I'm going to do that same thing here, but I'll be grabbing my quotes from the veritable library of congress that is the Amazon.com bush-league of amateur movie critics. Where any old schmo can review everything from snow shovels to the Bring it On two-disc special edition. There's so much gold on Amazon.com you have no idea till you go looking for it. So this week's Tuesday DVD Top 3 will be a bit different, and alot more fun to research. Let's get to it...

 

The Forbidden Kingdom/DVD-Blu-Ray/2008

Starring: Jet Li and Jackie Chan

Hey it's a new-school kung-fu flick starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, of course I'm seeing this. This is like if Schwarzenegger and Stallone released a muscle-flick this week, I'd feel the same way. These two are legends, even if the film is a bit "kiddie". This is what I'm watching the minute I get done with this column tonight.... Oh and I just might make it a full-on kung-fu double feature with my next pick...

"An almost laughable combo of Never Ending Story with Karate Kid!"-Chad E. Munn (Canton GA, United States)

 

Fist of Legend/DVD/1994

Starring: Jet Li, Paul Chiang

If there is one new-ish kung-fu flick that can hold it's own with Drunken Master 2, (Jackie Chan's 1994 masterpiece) it is Jet Li's completely BADASS Fist of Legend. It's Japanese vs. Chinese in 1937 Shanghai. This film has some of the most hardcore fight scenes in the kung-fu genre. No wires, no "floating-dragon" bullsh!t, just dudes breaking dudes down hard and brutal. The absolute trophy moment of the film is Li's square off with Yasuaki Kurata, both men wearing blindfolds. This is one of the very best kung-fu movies ever made, and is easily Jet Li's best film to date. No question.

"from the opening fight, where jet displays a bone crunching dislocating style of combat, you can tell that this movie is going to deliver the goods-Hurrah for the madness of the wind! "-A Customer (Somewhere in the UK)

 

Big Lebowski 10th Anniversary Limited Addition/DVD/1998

Starring: Walter, The Dude, Donny, The Jesus, some German nihilists....

Yes Universal has dipped, (that's a DVD collector term for re-releasing a film on DVD many times over trying to get the poor-sucker movie fans to buy it  again and again and again..) on The Big Lebowski more times than a big-rig driver on a can of Copenhagen. But sweet Jesus, (The Jesus) this bowling ball packaging has me clawing for my debit card. Added to this latest, same movie I own four copies of already, release of my favorite Coen film is the full "Lebowski-Fest" experience. Included in this edition are documentaries about the Lebowski phenomenon. How the film has aged into a true-cult legend. I just wish Universal would have included a Blu-Ray version, to save me the pain of buying this movie one more time after I buy it this time... I'll be dipped again, I just know it...

"poor Steve Buscemi - a wonderful character actor normally, but his character here is only allowed to say half his lines before Goodman's character tells him to shut up."-Michelle "mishi55" (Pittsburg PA, United States)

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