Month: December 2004

twenty gaps on DVD: the ongoing updated list

Last updated January 31, 2008 with info on Midnight, Easy Living, and The Major and the Minor.
Awhile back, I wrote an essay about 20 gaps in the DVD market. It’s in three parts starting here if you want to reread it. I was frustrated that so many of the movies I wanted to see were not available to me on DVD.
I thought it would be useful to track all the movies listed in that essay to see which ones have been released on DVD since that time. Some of the news is encouraging—I frankly did not think I would be seeing Harold Lloyd movies on DVD anytime soon—and some gaps are still frustrating, like the status of The African Queen.
This information applies to US (Region 1) DVDs only. Some of these movies are available on DVD in other countries/regions, but you would need a multi-region DVD player (with PAL capability for UK movies) to watch them.
I will update this page regularly as I receive new information about upcoming releases. If you learn anything about these movies being released on DVD, please email me with the information, citing your source, and I will post that information here.
Remember, the best way to help get more of these movies released on DVD is to buy or even rent similar movies that are already available on DVD. If lots of people are buying the Marlene Dietrich Glamour Collection, maybe Universal will release A Foreign Affair, and so forth. The Amazon links below are affiliate links for this site, so buying the DVDs by clicking these links helps support my Web site.

Continue reading twenty gaps on DVD: the ongoing updated list

holiday greetings

It has been quite a festive holiday preparation weekend chez Jette and Beau. I assembled and decorated the pink and sparkly Barbie tree, which is topped this year by a finger puppet of the Abominable Snowman that my sister gave me last Christmas. I also kept Drinky Snowman and put SpongeBob next to a curvaceous bikini-clad woman. At the foot of the tree, Eloise’s pet turtle Skipperdee rests atop a hot-pink-and-silver tree skirt. Keep it fun, that’s my motto. My boyfriend looked on in amusement during breaks from coding Holidailies, which is his idea of festive holiday preparation.
I put on appropriate tree-trimming music, too. My boyfriend requested that I skip the Muppet music. I have some Christmas CDs that aren’t Muppet-y, but they weren’t quite what I wanted. I finally put the following four CDs on random in the CD player, where they provided excellent background music for the evening:

Continue reading holiday greetings

oh, I do believe

I don’t need to write a letter to Santa Claus this year. I received my Christmas gift already. I could not ask for more.
On March 1, 2005, Warner is releasing the following movies on DVD in the US (aka Region 1): Bringing Up Baby (a two-disc special edition), Dinner at Eight, Libeled Lady, Stage Door, To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch), and a new two-disc special edition of The Philadelphia Story.
(This info is courtesy of DVDAnswers, which also has images of the DVD cover artwork. Thanks, guys.)
I am all Natalie Wood and Tiny Tim right now. I am suddenly filled with the holiday spirit. I may put up the Barbie tree this weekend.
Next year we’re getting all these lovely movies on DVD plus Harold Lloyd movies plus more Sam Peckinpah and all kinds of other cinematic goodness. I am going to post an entry soon that updates my list of twenty gaps on DVD so you can see just how many of those movies have been released since I wrote it, or are being released soon, and the number of releases is truly gratifying.
Who knows, someday we might even see Holiday on DVD in the US. Not just the 1938 version, but the 1930 one too. “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.” Or so they say in the movies.

Holidailies: registration is open

Holidailies is now open for registration. Please read the About page before registering because some things are a little different this year.
We have a short registration period and it will close next week so go register right-damn-now. Last year the portal had so many registrants that I closed it early. I don’t think I will close it early this year, and if I do you can still sign up for Holidailies at Home, but I just wanted to give you all fair warning. Do not procrastinate.
Between the time when the form went live on the Web last night and the time when I checked my email this morning, we had 43 people sign up. Wow.
The portal will open for posting on Dec. 7. It’s a great place to visit if you are looking for good stuff to read. And new stuff appears regularly! Sometimes I think the whole project is just a big present for me, because so many of my favorite online journallers and bloggers participate and post good stuff all month long. (My all-time favorite was Roe of metrocake, now at ultramegawow, who used to post gorgeous pictures of holiday decorations in NYC every day. I still miss that.)
Email me if you run into problems with registering, but so far it all seems to be running smoothly.
I am thinking of adding a tagline for Holidailies this year. It’s no longer “Updating daily in December” because I ran late. But how about “Updating daily from Hanukkah to Epiphany”? My boyfriend thinks it’s a bit lame but then he didn’t like my Army of Darkness joke either.

movies this week: nothing new

The weekend after Thanksgiving is generally pretty low-attendance at the box office, since everyone scurried out during the extended holiday weekend to see all the big shiny blockbusters. Didn’t you? I didn’t, but then I was in Boston eating beans and haddock and clam chowder and looking in the holiday-decorated windows at Filene’s and finding a winter hat that covers my ears without making me look like that chick in The Blair Witch Project. I ended up with the most irresistably adorable hat ever. Every time I put it on, my boyfriend stops whatever he is doing to kiss me. Yes, we’re kind of nauseating in that way sometimes. Better hope you don’t run into us on a cold day.
Anyway, the traditional drop in box office is probably the reason why hardly any new movies are opening this weekend. I guess the conventional wisdom is that we’re all planning to stay home, trim the tree, and watch some old holiday favorite on TV like It’s a Wonderful Life or Brazil. Screw the conventional wisdom, there are plenty of good movies still in theaters, from The Incredibles to The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie to Sideways. Austin theaters are still showing The Motorcycle Diaries, Kinsey, and I Heart Huckabees.

Continue reading movies this week: nothing new