| The movies covered in this week’s Video Vulture are much more mainstream and popular than what usually gets reported on here, but they have seriously compelling reasons for belonging in your DVD collection, over and above their bargain prices.
Ghost World (2001): Director Terry Zwigoff’s follow-up to his award-winning documentary Crumb (1994) surprised absolutely everyone. It’s a smart, cool, funny look at adolescent alienation that ignored teen-movie clichés and wound up being one of the best films in recent years. The script (based on the comic by Daniel Clowes) is superb and so are the performances by Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi. Buscemi is always great, but Ghost World actually made me forgive Thora Birch for her wretched performance in Dungeons and Dragons (2000). The main characters, Enid (Birch) and Seymour (Buscemi) are intentional misfits who can’t relate to modern society and who prefer just about any other culture or time period to their own. (Seymour obsessively collects old blues and jazz records – Enid grooves to ’60s Hindi dance numbers and dresses as a 1977-style punk rocker.) Their often rocky friendship is rooted in appreciation for forgotten pop icons that they realize the rest of the world just won’t "get."
My favorite bonus feature on the Ghost World DVD is an amazing example of the sort of bizarre pop-culture artifacts that fascinate Enid. It’s the entire musical number "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" from the 1965 Hindi film Gumnaam. Ghost World shows clips from this number during the opening credits, but you really owe it to yourself to experience the song uncut, in all its ludicrous glory. Holy cow! Hastily choreographed dancers in Lone Ranger masks gleefully shake their heads and wrists to the strains of an impossibly cool Hindi surf-rock tune. Men and women in silly outfits twitch like they’re having seizures, while reaching heights of delight only accessible to those who really don’t care how ridiculous they look. At one point, the singer collapses from exhaustion, panting loudly into the microphone, only to leap back to his feet seconds later, completely refreshed and ready to rock.
I must have played this clip five times before I even got around to watching Ghost World for the first time. It is quite possibly the best music video ever. Oddly enough, the Hindi film this chirpy dance number comes from is actually a murder mystery based on Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians!
Robocop Trilogy (2004): Why the hell would anybody buy a box set of the three Robocop films? Simple – it’s the only way to acquire the uncut, unrated version of the original Robocop (1987) without paying through the nose.
Years ago, Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi classic received a deluxe laser disc release from the Criterion Collection that restored some never-before-seen footage that had to be cut from the theatrical release in order to secure an R rating. Notable differences included a longer death scene for the unfortunate junior executive Mr. Kinney at the hands of malfunctioning law-enforcement droid ED-209, and a much more graphic "death" for officer Murphy (Peter Weller) prior to his "resurrection" as the unstoppable cyborg Robocop. These scenes significantly alter the tone of the film, particularly the scene involving Mr. Kinney’s demise. While the theatrical version of the scene is short enough to seem quite shocking and brutal, the extended version of the scene is definitely black comedy, as ED-209 continues to pump machine gun ammo into Mr. Kinney’s inert form long after he collapses.
I’d heard about the extended version for years, and had always wanted to see this old favourite restored to its original form, but Criterion Collection discs are notoriously expensive. Even Criterion’s DVD version of the director’s cut retailed for more than $50 back when it was available – both the laserdisc and DVD versions have been out of print for years. A Robocop stand-alone DVD is available, but it’s a no-frills theatrical version without the added footage.
Now, with very little fanfare, MGM has released this director’s cut on disc, but only offers it as part of the brand new Robocop trilogy box set. Like many of you other action movie fans, I loved the original Robocop, was seriously disappointed with Robocop 2 (1990), and never bothered to watch the universally hated Robocop 3 (1993). Fortunately, the trilogy is very reasonably priced, just more than $20, which is surely good enough for a deluxe, expanded version of Robocop, complete with deleted scenes, featurettes and audio commentary. I’ll keep the first sequel for occasional glimpses at Phil Tippet’s stop-motion animation, and I might check out part three someday just out of morbid curiosity. (The disc could also serve as a coaster or a clay pigeon.)
For some reason, the Robocop trilogy comes out of the box folded up like a uber-complicated road map. Here are step-by-step instructions for getting it open:
1. Slide out the inner box, and flip it over.
2. Lift the first gatefold up, the second gatefold down and the next gatefold sideways to the left.
3. Press down on the MGM logo with the index finger of your left hand, while sliding the inner trapezoidal shape downward with your right hand.
4. Catch the collectible notebook before it slides out onto the floor.
5. Face Magnetic North and put your right foot in a bucket of salt water.
(Due to a lack of space in this issue, steps six through 29 of "Unfolding the Robocop Trilogy" will appear in next week’s Video Vulture column. See you then.) |
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