PACINO’S ‘SCARFACE’ CELEBRATES BLU-RAY RELEASE
You’ll never hear me make any apologies for my unqualified love of this film. It’s just a fact (admit it) that when you’re in the right mood and have three-hours to kill, Brian DePalma’s completely over-the-top gangster pic feels like the greatest movie ever made. Among my perversely large DVD collection (yes, I have a problem), “Scarface” ranks in the Top 10 Most Re-watchable.
For me, the movie takes off during the chainsaw scene; when a handcuffed Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is splattered with gore as his partner is cut to pieces. He refuses to talk, even when faced with the most gruesome death imaginable. The look of defiance and fear on the actor’s face is unforgettable. Furthermore, DePalma’s crafting of the scene is masterful. The director is famous for exploitation and yet he chooses not to show the chainsaw doing its dirty work. You only hear it, which allows your mind’s eye to vividly picture what’s far worse than anything any special effect could cheat.
Best of all, everything that happens is Jimmy Carter’s fault. He’s the idiot who got duped by Castro and let Tony Montana into Miami.
And you can’t ask much more from a film that offers up a double-shot of Michelle Pfeiffer and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio — two of the most beautiful, talented and intelligent actresses of the last thirty years. Two of my all-time favorites.
Did I mention that my birthday is only seven months away?
‘NETFLIX’S CHANCES AFTER RATE HIKE REMAIN STRONGER THAN EVER‘ (BUT NOT WITH ME)
Anyone who’s been reading Big Hollywood for a while knows that for going on two years now, I’ve been awed by the effect Netflix is having on the world of home video. Like I’ve said before, though nowhere near as destructive, Netflix is and will be to the film and television business what Napster was to the music business: a major (though, unlike Napster, completely legal and ethical) meteor strike with a fallout we won’t fully understand for years to come.
I will be cancelling part of my Netflix service, however. The coming rate hike just isn’t worth it. Streaming I’ll hang onto until my last gasp. The DVDs-by-mail portion, though, is about to be cut loose. There’s SO much superb content on streaming, especially if you love old television shows as I do, that there’s no reason to receive DVDs. Eventually, everything will end up streaming anyway, so I can wait.
And if I want to see a new release (and there’s so few I want to see these days), there’s five Redbox’s within a mile of my house.
ORIGINAL THEATRICAL VERSIONS OF ORIGINAL TRILOGY NOT ON UPCOMING “STAR WARS SAGA” BLU-RAY RELEASE
Man alive, George Lucas pisses me off. He calls the 9/16 Blu-ray release “The Complete Saga” but leaves out the original cuts of the first three films — the cuts we all fell in love with, where Han Solo’s character is beautifully established by him shooting first.
If Lucas wants to clean up matte shots and color correct and the like, I get that, but to change important character bits and make certain background shots busier just because he can, is infuriating. Fine, indulge yourself with another version. No one’s saying you can’t. But those of us who grew up with these films want to remember them as they were. It’s like someone tinkering with your home movies.
Bless Steven Spielberg, who altered the DVD release of “E.T.” to, among other things, digitally remove the handguns held by the government men hunting E.T. But Spielberg also included the untouched original version in the set, which is the only one I’ll watch.
Worse still, we all know that in a few years, Lucas will gouge fans further with a Blu-ray release of the original cuts of the original trilogy, which will only add to the charge that he’s become more of a mercenary profiteer than an artist.
Hey, I’m a capitalist and Lucas is entitled to make as much money as he wants. But that doesn’t mean I like to feel manipulated or have my fanboy love taken for granted.
Oh, and the prequels suck. Darth Vader as whiny, crybaby metrosexual. Gawd.
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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING
Damages (2007): For the most part, movies suck today. Period. End of story. Television, however, has enjoyed a decade of unprecedented brilliance and I’m just starting to get caught up. Glenn Close is a brilliant actress, I’ve heard nothing but good things about this series, and the first two episodes left me wanting more.
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QUICK HITS
THE ROD SERLING VIDEO FESTIVAL IS NOW ACCEPTING ENTRIES
“CONAN” SCREENWRITER ADMITS WATCHING FILM FLOP WAS “DEVASTATING”
10 BEST AND WORST BRITISH ACCENTS IN FILM‘
10 OSCAR-WORTHY SCI-FI MOVIE PERFORMANCES
USA NETWORK GIVES ‘BURN NOTICE,’ ‘COVERT AFFAIRS’ FALL PREMIERE DATES
MAYBE THE OSCARS SHOULD TRY THIS
KYLE SMITH DECLARES “DRIVE” THE FIRST GREAT FILM OF THE FALL
LEIA’S METAL BIKINI HAS ITS OWN WEBSITE
ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING COMEBACKS IN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY
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CLASSIC PICK FOR THURSDAY, AUGUST 25
TCM:
11:30 PM EST: Killers, The (1946) — An insurance investigator uncovers a string of crimes when he tries to find a murdered boxer’s beneficiary. Dir: Robert Siodmak Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien. BW-102 mins, TV-14, CC.
Ava is so beautiful in this classic, tough-as-nails, beutifully photographed noir tale — your heart will ache. What a vision. What a talent.
–Please send tips/suggestions/requests to jnolte@breitbart.com
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