Let us, for now, put aside the question of if Alfred Hitchcock was one of the greatest directors of all time -- he was, but... -- and instead contemplate how no director before or after Hitchcock has been as public, and as perfectly matched to their public persona. Sure, Scorsese and Spielberg and Shyamalan all get out in front of their flicks, to an extent, but not in the clever, in-on-a-joke way that Hitchcock became Hitchcock. It is, interestingly, one of the things that gets in the way of actually looking at the films -- Hitchock's life was more fractured and flawed and unforgiving than that of even most directors. But this new Universal set, 'Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection,' confronts you with such a dense chunk of his filmography so well-presented and restored, in a package as stout as the man himself, that it physically confronts you with his actual work.
Like the caged bird looking to the sky through their bars -- or, less poetically, a kid in a small Canadian town back when we had winter and meant it -- I saw a lot of the world through movies; I saw parts of the world I thought I would never see. And the city you saw on film the most -- in my house, anyhow -- was New York.
New on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming this week, one of the year's surprise best films comes home to show off its assets, while love and politics get complicated.
It's easy to feel ambiguous about Halloween -- so much delight and so much excess, every sign of joy on the face of a true believer paid for with a grim, hobbled, hollow-eyed walk of shame home on one broken high heel -- in my case, a shame specifically because my "Sexy Ripley in 'Aliens'" costume was, like, totally both interpretive and respectful. But there can be a mid
Around the time I saw the new Ethan Hawke-led horror film, 'Sinister' -- a film a lot of critics seem to like, and, at the most begrudgingly, a film that I wish were better, if that makes sense, as it has some smart things in it -- I was cleaning out my desk in a fit of procrastination. Among the USB keys of Alexandria and product registration cards was a Kodax Max camera, six of its 27 pictures used, its bright disposable body either shining yellow or solid utilitarian black, with a "Develop before 09/2005" emblazoned on it. And while it wasn't a series of reels of Super-8 being dropped off by an elder God who feeds on both story and sorrow as in 'Sinister,' that Kodak Max camera out of nowhere did make me turn my head and ask: Hmm, what's on you?
Looking at the mammoth 'Bond 50' set, it's a little startling to realize how compact a package it is considering it's full of all the films making up one of the more enduring characters and series in the pop-culture canon. The 22 films, starting with 1962's 'Dr. No' and ending with 2008's 'Quantum of Solace,' and even with a blank space for 'Skyfall' when it comes to disc in 2013 -- a nice bit of long-term thinking that demonstrates that for Hollywood, for 50 years, selling Bond has been like buying bonds -- is a solid investment, but better when you keep an eye on them.
New on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming this week, Depp and Burton repeat offend, while one of the year's best films sneaks out after a limited run in theaters. ...
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