Tackling Movie Mountain #2
This space is where I log all the discs I watch as I slowly (slowly) make my way through a massive pile of disc media I’ve been panic-purchasing since the pandemic.
Ridley Scott’s The Martian (2015) - 20th Century Studios - 4K
This stellar-looking and sounding disc from 20th Century Studios is the “Extended Edition,” which, from what I can tell, is mostly more scenes of Matt Damon living it up on the Big Red Planet, as well as some more stuff back at Mission Control. I really dig this movie, on top of being a big fan of the book and this adaptation did not disappoint—besides some questionable casting decisions that are still kind of mind-boggling. I think this longer cut also adds some more profanity which never hurts. But Damon is really putting on a show here, charming the hell out of the camera with every log entry he makes. This is up there for me in Rotten Rid’s filmography too because like I mentioned in my Letterboxd blurb, but I’m a sucker for whenever Scott goes to space.
Charles Chaplin’s Limelight (1952) - The Criterion Collection - Blu-ray
One of my weird obsessions when it comes to disc media is owning every film by a director put out by certain boutique labels. Criterion is one such place, and Charles Chaplin is one such director. Although I prefer Buster Keaton’s more stunt-driven, hyper-physical comedy, I go to Chaplin to be really affected. I hadn’t seen Limelight before purchasing, but considering Chaplin is one of my completist directors, I don’t consider this technically a dastardly Blind Buy. But the film itself is incredibly moving. Chaplin plays a washed up stage comedian who takes in a young ballet dancer after her failed suicide attempt. It’s an incredibly draining film, emotionally, and wow, as someone who travels around doing WHM, always chasing that next high I get from making an audience laugh, yeah, this film is a wildly depressing tale of how all that can end.
Al Reinert’s For All Mankind (1989) - The Criterion Collection - 4K
One of my all-time favorite cinematic spectacles. It’s a total gift that footage like this exists, especially more than enough to piece together this fabulous film. Brian Eno’s score makes this a definite chill-out movie of the highest order. I’ll admit to doing a re-buy here, I already had this Criterion edition on blu-ray and decided to double dip for the 4K. When I’m buying stuff that I know I’m going to be high while watching, I want it looking and sounding as best as possible. Solid stuff that I will rewatch many times in the years to come.
Stephen Herek’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) - Shout Selects - Blu-ray
Peter Hewitt’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) - Shout Selects - Blu-ray
I was stoked to re-watch these total classics back-to-back two nights in a row thanks to picking up the Shout Selects set, Bill & Ted’s Most Excellent Collection. I was kind of bummed that Face the Music wasn’t included, but it was the rare case of I already owned that film, the third in the franchise, but hadn’t ever picked up the first two. As far as the franchise on the whole, I think I’m a 1-3-2 guy, but I will say that I’ve come around much more to Bogus Journey since whenever it was WHM recorded our episode on the film. Being such a geek for time travel stories, I think I was always just bummed there wasn’t more of that in the film. But now that I’m a little (much) older, I can see that the sequel also has a lot of merit. I still think Station looks disgusting, and both films should’ve never added the gay slur to the script, but otherwise, these films hold up as the fun, stoner comedies they are.
Tony Scott’s Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) - Paramount - 4K
It’s a great week when I can watch films by both Scott brothers! I’ve mentioned this before, but Paramount is doing a real nice job with their 4K releases and I was pleased to see that the better-than-its-original sequel (“I got it, by the way…”) also received a solid upgrade treatment. I also have the first film on 4K, with zero plans to pick up part three whenever it’s released, but I do prefer this one to the first. Scott injects some real adrenaline into the film that Martin Brest’s original never really achieves. Brest’s film is a fine cop comedy, but Scott’s action sequences and overall added firepower to this one makes the story really sing. Plus you have the totally ad libbed scene between Eddie Murphy and Gilbert Gottfried which is fantastic.
So another five (or I guess technically six with the B&T set) films down. I will say that in the time since the last TMM post, I’ve either received or pre-ordered a few new things, including the second Hitchcock 4K set that Universal put out, so yeah, lots more to come.