First of all, Deepdiscountdvd.com is having their annual 20% off sale (off their already discounted prices). So if they are selling a $45 DVD for $30, you’ll actually pay $24. Shipping is free, but they do charge for tax. Which is less than the shipping, so cool. Use the code ‘supersale’ when checking out to get the additional 20% off. More sales codes are available on the web (should you decide to place more than one order), just Google for them. The sale continues through June 16th.
The TV set of the week is the second season of Mission: Impossible, the first to feature Peter Graves as IMF leader Jim Phelps. Actually, I really like actor Steven Hill, who played the leader the first season, but in any case Mission: Impossible was a terrific show and well worth a look.The obscurity of the week is the primetime cartoon sitcom Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home, which I used to watch as a kid but remember almost nothing about, other than the fact that Paul Lynde voiced the family’s wacky, paranoid right-wing neighbor.
Other sets this week include CHiPs S1; Cosby Show S3; Cosby Show S4; Dark Angel S1; Dark Angel S2; Dead Zone S5; three Doctor Who arcs that saw the Tom Baker Doctor become the Peter Davidson Doctor (The Keeper of Traken; Logopolis; Castrovalva), available separately or in a “Doctor Who: New Beginnings” set; Fall Guy S1; Hex S1; Hogan’s Heroes S6 (last season, a complete series set is now also available); Rescue Me S3; Robin Hood (BBC) S1; and Seinfeld S8.
The movie DVDs of the week are definitely a pair of further releases from Classic Media’s extraordinarily good Godzilla discs. Especially welcome is the seminal Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, which has never been available on DVD, ever. It was Toho’s first monster mash film (aside from introducing Ghidorah, the movie offers Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra), and also the first film to start ‘humanizing’ the monsters and making them friendly. Here the balance isn’t yet that good, though. Meanwhile, Invasion of the Astro-Monsters (aka Monster Zero) features aliens requesting the use of Godzilla and Rodan to help fight off Ghidorah, currently decimating their world. Needless to say, it’s all a nefarious plot. The reliable DVDdrive-in.com asserts that the presentations of these two films, especially Astro-Monsters, is the best Classic Media has yet offered. Which is saying something. Further details including info on all the extras can be had by clicking the movie titles above, but as with CM’s previous Godzilla releases, these are essential buys.
Attack of the Super Monsters is a supposedly awful Japanese dai kaiju movie that mixes animation with suitmation monsters.
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a recent supposed ‘remix’ of the silent German expressionist classic, with modern actors computered into the older film. I’d like to think this will be an interesting experiment, but more likely it will prove an obnoxious, not to mention uniquely irritating, art house folly.Cheerleader’s Beach Party ‘Classic’ cheerleader sexploitation from the ’70s, if that’s your thing. Although this is supposed to be a tepic example of the breed.
Deadly Voyage Supposedly decent, albeit grim, suspenser, “BASED ON A TRUE STORY,” about African stowaways on a Russian trawler, who end up in a wee spot of trouble when the crew decides to dispose of them at sea. Nice cast includes Omar Epps of House, Joss Ackland and Sean Pertwee, Doctor Who’s son.Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Collection Vol. 2 This actually has some of the pair’s better movies, including the gentle Western spoof Pardners, the comic book-publishing satire Artists and Models (believe it or not, a young Shirley MacLaine is actually pretty sexy in this), and Hollywood or Bust, in which Lewis has a cool huge dog called, if childhood memory serves, Mr. Bascombe. Which I always thought was a great name for a cool huge dog.
Duck You Sucker Leone Spaghetti western with James Coburn as an Irish revolutionary and explosives expert; which isn’t as good as it should be. Coburn was meant to play the original Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars, but he wanted too much money. Eastwood was hired instead, and cut out 90% of his own dialogue immediately after getting Leone’s talky script. In that way he made the movie what it was, thus launching his own career, Leone’s, and pretty much an entire genre.
God Forgives I Don’t Oddly grim Spaghetti western starring the usually comic pair of Terrance “Nobody” Hill and big Bud Spencer.H.O.T.S. The Danny Bonaduce classic! There was a time when HBO ran this movie about seven times a day. That, and C.H.U.D. Somebody there must have liked acronyms.
Jaguar Lives Christopher Lee, Woody Strode, Donald Pleasance, Barbara Bach and John Huston co-star in what sadly is supposed to be a mediocre martial arts picture from 1979. Still, what a cast!Mama Dracula Louise Fletcher (!) IS Mama Dracula!
Neptune Factor 1973 Canadian underwater adventure with big fish. Stars Ben Gazarra, Walter Pidgeon (the designer of the Seaview in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), Earnest Borgnine and Yvette Mimieux. Not exactly supposed to be a thrill a minute, despite being made by Canadians.
Prey of the Jaguar Hmm…Linda Blair Paul Bartel Stacey Keach…oops, directed by David DeCoteau. Never mind.Sand Pebbles War movie with King of Cool Steve McQueen.
Seizure Oliver Stone’s first film was this horror pic about horror author Jonathon “Barnabas Collins” Frid being menaced by his characters, come to life. (Shades of The Hand.) One of them is played by Herve Villechaize (!), although sexy Martine Beswick is on hand too.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo All star movie from 1994 about the Doolittle air raid on Japan, made right after the war. Nice cast includes Van Johnson, Robert Mitchum and Spencer Tracy.
Von Ryan’s Express Few films played on late night TV back in the old days than this Frank Sinatra WWII epic.
