Repo Man (Collector's Edition) (1984) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Repo Man is completely unclassifiable. Funny, dark, biting, thrilling, confusing, action, adventure, it's all there. Emilio Estevez plays Otto, a "white suburban punk" living in LA's sprawl, with a nowhere job that he loses in the film's second scene. When his hippie parents admit they sent his college fund to a TV preacher (We're sending Bibles to El Salvador!), Otto meets Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), a cocaine-driven Repo Man who needs an extra driver. Otto joins the firm and soon learns the Repo Code; Bud's version (You see, a Repo Man gets himself INTO tense situations), and the other regulars at Helping Hand Auto share their philosophies too. Light finds Bud's view tedious but is willing to handle shoot-outs when he's not reading parodies of Scientology (Diuretix), Miller seems completely neuron-fried (The more you drive, the less intelligent you are), and Oly is along to make a four-pack. (Did you notice the four experienced Repo Men are named after beers?) Let's go get a drink, kid!
Multiple plot strands at first seem unrelated, but bind together closer and tighter as the film moves along. Otto and the other Repo Men are on the lookout for a 1964 Chevy Malibu, with a $25,000 bounty. So are some creepy FBI agents, who stalk and kidnap Otto. And so are Helping Hand's arch-rivals, who careen into the plot whenever things are getting dull. The car's driven by a nuclear physicist in from Los Alamos, who warned a CHP officer not to look in the trunk (with deadly results). Otto's punk friends find the car while breaking into a pharmaceutical factory, but they're too stupid to keep it. (These three are some of the dumbest criminals ever shown in film, including Kevin Kline's Otto in _A Fish Called Wanda_) Otto finds love, after a fashion, but since this is Reaganesque LA, even his girlfriend has her own motives. ("Otto! What about our relationship?" Otto's reply is a brilliant retort to Cary Grant's last line in Gone with the Wind.)
The film abounds with hilarious throw-away lines, signs, and labels. Several scenes take place in food stores, and all the food is generically labeled. Multiple viewings are required to catch them all; be sure to read all the signs in the windows. Even the TV preacher shows up on several television sets. Repo Man takes its structure from Miller's bizarre rant about the cosmic latticework of interconnectedness, because everything is interconnected, and Miller turns out to be right about all of it by the end. "And flying saucers are... You got it. Time Machines."
Top it off with a TERRIFIC sound track by Iggy Pop, Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, and a host of others from the punk scene and this is one of the best movies ever made.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Repo Man (Collector's Edition) (1984)

REPO MAN SE - DVD Movie

Get 20% OFF

Click here for more information about Repo Man (Collector's Edition) (1984)

The Mighty Ducks Boxed Set (All 3 Films) (1994) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Buena Vista (the company that releases Disney films on DVD) chose to not release anamorphic DVDs when they first came to DVD, so none of these films are anamorphically enhanced. This means, if you have a widescreen television, you will have black bars on all four sides of the picture. Also, these discs are absolutely barebones, only featuring a Dolby 2.0 soundtrack and a 1.85:1 widescreen presentation. Where are the extras?! I don't know about you guys, but I am a Mighty Duck fan who is disappointed by the DVD releases of these films.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Mighty Ducks Boxed Set (All 3 Films) (1994)

D2: The Mighty Ducks - DVD- Duck Power triumphs again!" (American Movie Classics) when everyone's favorite peewee hockey team returns to the ice for more slapshot action and slapstick laughter! The Mighty Ducks are thrilled to be chosen to compete in the Junior Goodwill Games as Team USA. They'll be facing off against the best teams from all over the world -- including the meanest team that ever sliced up the ice! Are they out of their league? Has Coach Bombay (Emilio Estevez) let the big time go to his head, forgetting that it's just a game? But when a street hockey gang teaches the Ducks to get tough, the Coach remembers how to have fun ... and the Ducks show the world the true meaning of Duck Power! D3: The Mighty Ducks - DVD- Emilio Estevez and the original Ducks are back in this fast-moving comedy starring the most popular hockey team in movie history! After the Ducks win scholarships to a snooty private school, Coach Bombay (Estevez) announces that he's moving on to greener pastures with the Goodwill Games. Shortly after the team arrives at Eden Hall Academy, they inherit a new coach who turns out to be their worst nightmare when he strips Charlie Conway (Joshua Jackson) of his position as captain! Then, with their scholarships on the line, they face their toughest rival -- the 10-time championship varsity team! The Ducks and their opponents engage in a series of hilarious pranks to warm up for their battle on the ice. And in a thrilling and climactic third-period battle, the Ducks must prove why they are called the Mighty Ducks! "The quack attack is back!" (USA Today) -- and D3 will have you and your family cheering! The Mighty Ducks - English/French/Spanish DVD- Screen favorite Emilio Estevez (STAKEOUT, YOUNG GUNS) stars in THE MIGHTY DUCKS, the hilarious comedy that made moviegoers stand up and cheer! Tough trial lawyer Gordon Bombay (Estevez) never loses. But when he's slapped with a community service assignment, he must coach a ragtag team of pee wee hockey players who can't skate, can't score, and can't win! Reluctantly, Bombay takes on the assignment and soon realizes there are more important things than winning. Armed with this new attitude, feathers fly as Bombay and the Ducks battle along to the toughest game of their lives!

Get 17% OFF

Click here for more information about The Mighty Ducks Boxed Set (All 3 Films) (1994)

St. Elmo's Fire (1985) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A forerunner to Friends and a Brat Pack movie with the most...Brat Packers, St. Elmo's Fire was a romantic comedy that bowed out to theatres in 1985. Seven of the eight stars were in the enviable "Brat Pack" group, young and precocious actors and actresses that were considered the best of the best of their generation. While St. Elmo's Fire is often considered a mellow and almost overblown teen romcom by the starchiest of critics, it's a favorite of many 1980s film lovers.
Summary in 13 words:
Seven college graduates try and struggle with real life, some succeed, some don't.
DVD Details
2.35 Anamorphic Widescreen
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround (English),
2.0 Dolby Surround (Director's Commentary)
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, Korean Subtitles
Release Date: 1999
Single-Sided Single-Layered Disc
Suggested Retail Price: $14.99
Black Amaray Keepcase
Video and Audio
The video is remarkably clean. The film was issued in the early years of DVD, when most transfers looked more like cable TV quality, but the video here is exceptional. Presented in its original widescreen is always a good thing, and the print quality is great. The colors are vibrant and accurate, and there's little to no grain or dust. One minor complaint would be the main titles, in its unsettling red font, but other than that, the video is great.
Audio is offered in English, but the subtitles are in so many languages that if you wanted, you could learn Chinese by reading the film enough times. It's pretty balanced in terms of dialogue vs. background noise/music.
Bonus Features
A commentary by Joel Schumacher is one of the many audio tracks given on this disc. He does a pretty good job talking about making the movie, including various tidbits about the actors and the story (which he wrote). The guy's pretty good with a microphone. If only he could have done a commentary for his film The Phantom of the Opera in 2004.
A faded and dirt-filled 8-minute EPK about the making of the film is also presented, made at the time the film came out. It has quick interviews with the cast and director, with a narrator talking during much of the behind the scenes footage. Is it an exhaustive documentary? No. Is it a useless 8 minutes of your life taken away? No. It's pretty rewatchable, though a longer more substantial featurette would be welcoming.
"Man in Motion" is the music video that uses the St. Elmo's Fire theme with lyrics. It's got a real 80s look to it, and features most of the cast as well as video clips from the film.
There are four trailers: St. Elmo's Fire, About Last Night, Groundhog Day, and Jerry Maguire. The trailers for St. Elmo's Fire and About Last Night are not the best video-quality-wise, while Jerry Maguire is not the best movie-quality-wise. Groundhog Day is okay for what it is.
There are also cast/director biographies and filmographies up until 2000.
Closing Thoughts
Perhaps the second best brat pack movie of the 80s (The Breakfast Club, of course, is THE best), St. Elmo's Fire is a wonderful "coming-of-age...now what?" kind of film that is best enjoyed in the company of your closest friends.

Click Here to see more reviews about: St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

Seven friends, recent college graduates, struggle to find meaning in \real life."Genre: Feature Film-DramaRating: RRelease Date: 29-JUL-2003Media Type: DVD"""

Click here for more information about St. Elmo's Fire (1985)