Heading back from the local Mitsuwa Market, I stopped off at Target to see what DVDs were in their $10 rack. I found three: De-Lovely^•, Dogtown and Z-Boys^•, and Stripes^•. Since my DVD review backlog (having not done a review for about two years) is huge, I thought I’d start doing a quick round-up to point out possible bargains and special warnings. At the rate I’m going I’ll get to a full review of these in about 2034.

None of these DVDs support bookmarking (called “last memo” on my DVD player), so none of them would make my list of Technically Adept DVDs. They are, however, all theatrical cuts (no sides chopped off) and the two widescreen movies are enhanced widescreen.

As I write this, they are not $10 at Amazon, so depending on the cost of gasoline you may want to take a drive out to your local DVD discount retailer. One of them (Dogtown) was listed as only on sale “Saturday and Sunday” though that sale seems to be repeated every couple of months here in San Diego.

De-Lovely

I’ve been wanting to pick up De-Lovely for a while now but just haven’t gotten around to it. The opening with “Anything Goes” is just beautiful, and sets the mood for the entire show. This is the only movie I’ve seen that I went to the iTunes Music Store immediately afterwards to pick up the soundtrack. I don’t like restricted music, but (a) the iTunes store has the least restricted music, and (b) I wanted to listen to this music again, immediately.

This is a great movie, and I had to practically physically restrain myself from watching the whole thing when I put it in to verify that it worked and see which bookshelf it belonged on. (I keep bookmarkable DVDs on a separate shelf so that I can easily find a movie when I don’t have time to watch a full movie.)

Dogtown and Z-Boys

I had wanted to see this, but missed it when it came to the local Landmark cinema, so I was happy to see it in the $10 rack.

The version of Dogtown I’ve linked below is (currently) the Deluxe edition, not the Special edition, but the only difference I can see is that the Deluxe edition includes some ads and stuff for Lords of Dogtown.

Note that web sources seem to be confused about the aspect ratio on this movie. As I write this, IMDB lists it as 1.85:1. However, the DVD is 1.33:1 (Full Frame) and most reviewers seem to think that this is correct: that it was not filmed in widescreen.

Mine came with a peel-off sticker inside of the old Dogtown logo. It would make a great tattoo (and I suspect has, several times.)

Stripes

This was always a sort of guilty pleasure for me, compared to other Bill Murray movies I've enjoyed, but it had a special charm to it and a quotability factor that, while not comparable to Ghostbusters or the Blues Brothers, still has kept it in my mind since seeing it twenty years ago.

I need to detour a moment to complain about Target, however. This DVD comes in a normal plastic DVD case, but encased in the “special edition style” cardboard wraparound that many special editions have. Target put their huge anti-theft sticker on the cardboard wraparound. Not only is it impossible to get the sticker off without tearing off some of the cardboard as well, but it is hardly a theft deterrent when all any potential thief would have to do is slide the cardboard cover off of the DVD.

Blog blog blog.

This is an extended cut, with eighteen minutes of extra footage. It also includes the theatrical cut. Since both versions as well as the extras are all on one side of a single DVD, I’m guessing that the theatrical cut uses DVD branching to “cut out” the extra footage.

After for the first restored scene, the rest of them were unnecessary. The first scene added some depth to John and Russell’s relationship. At least two of the restored scenes, in my opinion, counter-productive: they tried to add a logic to what has happening, a realistic explanation that detracted from the general craziness of the movie. On the other hand one of remaining restored scenes involved extended P. J. Soles nudity, so take what you can get. It is very nice that the DVD allows watching the original theatrical version. The deleted scenes are available separately in the special features menu.

For $10 this, as well as the other two DVDs which I have not watched yet, is a great buy.