The Latest on DVD: Leather and Polyester Edition

Two throwbacks to times of more questionable fashion choices are amongst this week's latest DVD releases:

Featured Titles:

• Cruising- After all the talk and debate, it is finally here in a deluxe "Leather Daddy" edition. OK, not really.
• Brothers & Sisters: The Complete First Season- On the heels of Sally Field's deserved Emmy win, this set not only includes every episode you've seen, but even one you haven't.
• Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof- The Quentin Tarantino half, in a two-disc special edition.
• Saturday Night Fever: 30th Anniversary Special Collector's Edition- White polyester suit not included.

Classics Corner:

• Deliverance- A new Deluxe Edition. Also available in HD-DVD and Blu-ray, so you can now see every pore on Ned Beatty's body.
• Anne of the Thousand Days/Mary, Queen of Scots- A royal double feature, these costume epics star two Oscar-nominated actresses: Geneviève Bujold and Vanessa Redgrave, respectively.
• The Threepenny Opera- Beware Mack the Knife in this Criterion edition of G.W. Pabst's version of the Kurt Weill musical.
• Robinson Crusoe on Mars- Daniel Defoe's classic gets a sci fi twist in another Criterion release.
• Alligator- OK, this one is more camp then classic, but it does feature Robert Forster and a big rubber gator.

What Else is New:

• Pittsburgh- Jeff Goldblum stages The Music Man with Ed Begley Jr. and Illeana Douglas in this offbeat documentary.
• The Gymnast- Lesbians in the air ... and in love.
• Zoo- Uh ... I'm just going to quote Imbd's plot outline on this one: "A look at the life of a Seattle man who died as a result of an unusual encounter with a horse."

What's on TV:

• Smallville - The Complete Sixth Season- Last year, Superman-to-be Tom Welling was almost out-super hunk'd by Justin Hartley's Green Arrow.
• The Best of Rocky and Bullwinkle: Vol. 2- More wackiness with moose und squirrel.
• Josie and the Pussycats: The Complete Series- Yeah, I know, now I got the theme song stuck in my head too.

Special Editions and Box Sets:

• The Roger Corman Collection- Includes eight of the cult director's drive-in classics, including Bloody Mama, A Bucket of Blood and The Man With the X-Ray Eyes.
• Wall Street: 20th Anniversary Edition- Greed is good, even two decades after the fact.
• Flashdance: Special Collector's Edition- What a feeling. Take your passion, and make it happen.
• Troy - Director's Cut- Available in a two-disc edition or an "ultimate collector's edition", as well as on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, so you can now see every pore on Brad Pitt's body.

Click on the individual titles to purchase them from Amazon.com.

Link via AfterElton.com.

Who's Cruising Who?

A lot of movies are talked about long after they come out, but those are usually good ones. Cruising, the notorious gay killer thriller written and directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, is not a good movie by any means. Yet, here we are, 27 years later, still talking about it.

The controversy surrounding the making of the film places it in a unique place in gay history. However, aside from occasional airings on pay cable or dusty VHS tapes, it has mostly stayed buried since its box office failure back in 1980. More people have heard about Cruising then have actually seen it, and the coverage the book and film The Celluloid Closetgave it pretty much damned it in the eyes of most, sight unseen. Friedkin rarely discussed it, and as far as Pacino was concerned, he never made it (for example, it was conspicuously absent from his recent AFI tribute).

Nevertheless, the film did develop a sort of "cult" following through the years, largely due to its scarcity. It was even unofficially "remade" as a comedy, two years after it was first released, as the even more dreadful Partners. (If you really want a laugh though, skip that one and watch Boy Toys, a scene-for-scene "remake" of Cruising ... using Ken dolls. Warning: lots of gratuitous fashion doll nudity and violence.)

So now that Cruising is making its long-delayed DVD debut this Tuesday, a lot of people have been talking about it even more; Friedkin himself is particularly chatty about it. Some say it's worth another look, while others naively wonder what all the fuss was about; this being the internet, there are diverse opinions ranging from the clinical and balanced to the superficial and dismissive.

However, if you read one article about Cruising, make sure it is this superlative piece from Entertainment Weekly contributing writer Mark Harris. Harris covers all the bases regarding the film's infamous makings and deconstructs it with not just a critical eye, but with the eye of a gay man. He also calls to task Friedkin and producer Jerry Weintraub, who (in the DVD extras) try to frame the movie as "a work of art ahead of its time". Yeah, right. If anything, Cruising was a product of its time, not a victim of it.

UPDATE: For his typically laugh-out-loud take on something other then Top Chef, be sure to check out Steven Frank's irreverent look at Cruising over at After.Elton.com.

Click here to pre-order Cruisingon DVD from Amazon.com. Click here to buy Cruisingposters from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com, AFI.com, YouTube.com, eBAR.com, Cinematical.com, NYBlade.com, SFBayTimes.com, VillageVoice.com, BrightLightsFilm.com, SFBG.com, NewNowNext.com, AfterElton.com and EW.com.

There's No Business Like Show Business

Rounding up the latest scoop on exciting DVDs coming your way soon:

Show Business: The Road to Broadway- This documentary takes a rare look at the creation of a Broadway show. Focusing on the 2003-2004 season, the film covers such gay-friendly shows as Avenue Q, Taboo and Wicked. Available October 16.

Warner Directors Series - Stanley Kubrick- What Kubrick fans have been waiting for: two-disc special editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut and Full Metal Jacket. No official word though if never-before-seen deleted scenes will be included. Available October 23.

Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Five- Bugs, Daffy, Porky and the whole Warner Brothers gang are back with even more classic cartoons. Visit TV Shows on DVD for a full contents list. Available October 30.

John Waters: This Filthy World- A candid look at the sultan of trash cinema, John Waters. Includes dishy bits on Kathleen Turner, Tab Hunter and Divine. Available October 30.

Cruising- This controversial film's long-delayed DVD release will be preceded by a special screening at the Castro Theatre this Friday. Meanwhile, fans of the movie can find a like-minded soul over at Film4, or you can head over to Slate to find out how Cruising star Al Pacino got typecast as ... Al Pacino. Available September 18.

All the DVDs covered here are currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Click on the individual titles to purchase them now.

Links via Playbill.com, Cinematical.com, FilmBabble.blogspot.com, TVShowsOnDVD.com, SGN.org, SFGate.com, CastroTheatre.com, Channel4.com and Slate.com.

It's a Scandal! It's an Outrage!

When I previously reported the reader polls that The Advocate was conducting in preparation for their 40th anniversary issue, the only categories at the time were for movies, TV and "Hunks".

Well, the polls have been updated to include music, books, theater and, yes ladies, "Women". (Shouldn't that be something like "Babes"? I mean, if the gays get to objectify men as "Hunks", then certainly the lesbians can too.)

There is one other category for "Scandals", which to me seems a bit too National Enquirer-ish for The Advocate. Aside from a surprising amount of political sex-capades, the nominees include the public outrage met by such films as Cruising, Basic Instinct and Braveheart.

You can vote here for your ten favorites in all categories now, plus don't forget to vote for the magazine's "gay heroes" too. Results for all the polls will be published in a special 40th Anniversary issue of The Advocate, at which time I will cover it right here as well.

UPDATE: If anyone has the results of The Advocate's 40th Anniversary polls, please email them to me at my Hotmail address, located in the sidebar below my profile. It would be greatly appreciated!

Links via Advocate.com.

Replicants and Reprobates

All the latest on notable films coming soon to DVD:

Blade Runner- I have never been a member of the "Church of Blade Runner". Sure, it's a great sci fi flick, but all those alternate versions (real or rumored) is too much to keep track of, and now the so-called definitive "final cut" is making its way to DVD in a myriad of editions. Now, can we put to rest all those "Is Deckard a replicant" debates?

Caligula- If all those Blade Runners make your head spin, then get ready for not one, not two, but three different versions of this notorious historical epic. The presence of Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and Gore Vidal should make the bonus features interesting.

Mala Noche- Finally making its DVD debut is Gus Van Sant's first feature film, a tale of one man's obsessive lust for the unattainable object of his desire.

Surf's Up- I really have no desire to see more animated penguins, but this upcoming DVD may get a look-see if only for the return of the ChubbChubbs.
Nick Name and the Normals- An ex-Mormon-turned-gay-punk-rock-singer is the star of this documentary.

Twilight Zone: The Movie- "You wanna see something really scary?" How about the long-delayed DVD of this infamous film adaptation of the classic TV series? Another Spielberg-related film on the DVD horizon: a Poltergeist special edition.

Cruising- For all you ever wanted to know about Cruising (the movie, finally surfacing on DVD this fall) but were afraid to ask, head over to Nightcharm (warning: site contains pictures and content soooo NSFW).

Twin Peaks- Cult TV fans start saving for this 10-disc Definitive Gold Box Edition, which, unlike the first season set already available, will actually include the first episode.

Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934- The National Film Preservation Foundation does it again with an upcoming four-DVD box set collecting rare and forgotten films from the dawn of cinema. The collection will include 48 films, all new to DVD, dealing with such hot topics as birth control, homelessness and immigration. Ah, the more things change, the more things stay the same ...

Planet Terrorand Death Proof- And finally: All you fans of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse, prepare to be double-dipped. Not only are the two parts (Planet Terror, Death Proof) that made up the full Grindhouse film being released on DVD separately, but all the fake trailers that made the original theatrical version so much fun will be MIA. One need only to read between the lines to figure out that a complete "ultimate Grindhouse experience" set will be unleashed sometime down the line.

Click on the individual titles to pre-order the DVDs from Amazon.com.

Links via ObsesseedWithFilm.com, TheDigitalBits.com, MovieWeb.com, Criterion.com, AWN.com, HotInHollywood.tv, Nightcharm.com and FilmPreservation.org.