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california just ruled that "victims cannot sue weapons manufacturers for damages when criminals use their products illegally." in this case, isn't the DeCSS code the gun, the victim the MPAA, and the gun manufacturers the hosting company and the person that hosts the file? This case will definately set a precedent, if not for the freedom of speech/press, then for the inability of the courts to decide on the improper laws our legislative body makes up. laws go where the $$$ is, and i wonder how much the MPAA and RIAA had to pay to get that law enacted. and then i wonder if it has affected the bottom line for any musician or movie producer. if anything, i bet the musicians are still the ones getting screwed, as are the fools that go out and pay $25 to buy the newest DVD release.


on a side note, i just rented the movie snatch on dvd. it came on two "enhanced" dvds. well, each of these dvds were single sided. is the only reason to release a dvd as a two dvd set to make an extra buck? it seems that it would be real easy to make it double sided and not have to charge an extra arm and leg for it (retail for snatch is $27.95 although you can buy it for $20 on sale).

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Ok

Urotsukidoji Perfect Collection

There's quite a bit more, I'm just too lazy to look.

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Judging from the story on starwars.com, it's not entirely clear whether Lucas is 100% disavowing this rumor or not. Take a close look at Lucas' exact words:

"The robotics technology inside the Artoo models have advanced to the point where they can achieve most of the performance I need right along side the other actors. Still, there's an element of humanity to Artoo that comes from having Kenny Baker inside. We've always had Kenny scheduled for a number of shots during the final week of shooting at Elstree Studios."

Lucas certainly isn't enthusiastically stating that only Kenny Baker can play R2D2. It sounds to me like Lucas is saying that most of the R2D2 shots can be done with robotic technology; he just wants Kenny to come in for a few specific shots that, for whatever reason, the robotics can't handle. (I'll leave speculation as to whether this is due to technical limitations or to avoid looking publicly like he was dumping Kenny Baker as an exercise for the reader.)

Truth be told, for all the to-do about this story, my sentiments are mixed. While Baker made a great R2D2, Terry Gilliam makes a great point in his commentary track on the Criterion Collection DVD of Time Bandits , which Baker starred in. He says that it's a shame that actors like Baker are forced by their height to spend their lives playing robots and Ewoks, hidden under costume and makeup, rather than playing actual human beings who just happen to be shorter than most. Something worth thinking about while we all wring our hands over whether Kenny gets to spend a week in a robot suit.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

Not that I'd be a shoujo fan or anything, but...

If you want something really different,try shoujo, and you think anime is just about sex and violence, there is a entire branch of anime that has not really been released over here. Find a hard core anime fan and ask him about these. Fushigi Yuugi (although this is really a shonen series in disguise) is a classic, although the end leaves one wanting.

IMHO, a box set of the first 26 episodes definitely is a release... ^_^

Oh well, I'm nitpicking again...

Pole - Fahren (2)

As always under permanent deconstruction.

Ive known this was coming for a while.

First off I'd like to lay down a little known fact about the anime biz.

Dubs sell more. Far more. Most of the US based anime companies revenue comes from dubbed vhs tapes that people buy on a whim. I.E. "Wow this looks cool ill think ill buy it." The devoted anime fans who buy an entire series of subtitled tapes make up a fraction of the market, and a large percentage of these people have already moved exlusively to dvd. Although many people argue that if they carried more subtitled tapes they would sell more.. but this is a cyclical argument.. and i would wager that most people are too lazy to want to read their tapes. (dubs suck btw)

Subtitled anime on dvd is a good thing for the consumer and for the anime companies. Im not sure here, but i think its cheaper to mass produce dvds then it is to produce vhs. The only people this is going to hurt are the small comic/anime shops where most of there revenue comes from tape sales. These stores cannot compete with Online DVD sellers So they usually dont carry dvds. This sucks for a good number of my friends as this move is likely to destroy their livelyhood. (I warned them that this was coming...)

Most individuals who buy subtitled anime are also the kind who want the best quality and are more likely to have a dvd player. I made the move to DVD a while back and i havnt been disappointed with the quality of anime titles available. Ill put the obligitory link to animeondvd.com here.

This shouldnt suprise anyone, and is a good thing for me as a devoted anime fan and someone commited to dvd.

btw, im pretty sure that none of the anime companies are members of the MPAA.. maybe pioneer.

On a region-encoding note.. Gianax, the company that made Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gunbuster is now releasing their newest series on dvd in japan w/ english subtitles. Wonder what that could mean? :)

Im currently writing dvd reviews for atanime.com and a few buddies and myself run #animeondvd efnet, so stop by if you feel like talking.

And I'd suggest anything by Miyazaki, too, but about the only work of his that's on DVD yet is Castle of Cagliostro . (Which is easily one of the best anime movies of all time, by the way, and hit Express.com's top-ten list the first week it was out, selling out over 2500 copies in just a couple weeks.)

The original Bubblegum Crisis is another good one, though you might be advised to wait for the re-pressing/additional disc set that's due out one of these days; the first set, being a relatively early DVD issuance, had some problems.

And hey, if someone can suggest The Matrix as anime, then I feel more than entitled to suggest Tampopo . It's Japanese live-action comedy (like anime except not animated!), and deals with another geek staple--ramen noodles. (It's a "noodle western," a parody of/homage to all the samurai movies/westerns of bygone days.) It's probably the best movie ever made that you've likely never heard of.

There are so many good anime, and I'm at least fond of most of them. A good place to check for tips is AnimeOnDVD; it has an "Essential Anime" section that hits a lot of the classics.
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I once read somewhere that while it wasn't intended, the films "Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "12 Monkeys" form an odd trilogy of movies produced by Terry, representing three phases of life. "Time Bandits" as childhood, "Brazil" as middle age, and "12 Monkeys" as old age.

Actually, you're only 2/3rds right. While Gilliam has said that he never set out to create a formal "trilogy", he realized after the fact that the themes of three of his films do track the progression of the life of the dreamer from birth to death: Time Bandits showing the dreamer as a child, Brazil depicting the dreamer in adulthood, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (not 12 Monkeys ) showing the dreamer in old age. The three movies in the "trilogy" were all written by Gilliam (which allowed him to shape the storyline to fit his ideas), but he did not write 12 Monkeys (he was brought in by Universal as a hired director to film an already-written script).

Gilliam's films are almost uniformly fascinating to watch and think about, even the less artistically successful ones such as Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Anyone who is interested in Gilliam's work can find lots of great info in two books: The Battle of Brazil by film critic Jack Mathews, chronicling the struggle on Gilliam's part to get Brazil released with its original ending, and Gilliam on Gilliam , a series of interviews in which Gilliam talks about his life and work. Both are excellent reads.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

I once read somewhere that while it wasn't intended, the films "Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "12 Monkeys" form an odd trilogy of movies produced by Terry, representing three phases of life. "Time Bandits" as childhood, "Brazil" as middle age, and "12 Monkeys" as old age.

Actually, you're only 2/3rds right. While Gilliam has said that he never set out to create a formal "trilogy", he realized after the fact that the themes of three of his films do track the progression of the life of the dreamer from birth to death: Time Bandits showing the dreamer as a child, Brazil depicting the dreamer in adulthood, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (not 12 Monkeys ) showing the dreamer in old age. The three movies in the "trilogy" were all written by Gilliam (which allowed him to shape the storyline to fit his ideas), but he did not write 12 Monkeys (he was brought in by Universal as a hired director to film an already-written script).

Gilliam's films are almost uniformly fascinating to watch and think about, even the less artistically successful ones such as Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Anyone who is interested in Gilliam's work can find lots of great info in two books: The Battle of Brazil by film critic Jack Mathews, chronicling the struggle on Gilliam's part to get Brazil released with its original ending, and Gilliam on Gilliam , a series of interviews in which Gilliam talks about his life and work. Both are excellent reads.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

I once read somewhere that while it wasn't intended, the films "Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "12 Monkeys" form an odd trilogy of movies produced by Terry, representing three phases of life. "Time Bandits" as childhood, "Brazil" as middle age, and "12 Monkeys" as old age.

Actually, you're only 2/3rds right. While Gilliam has said that he never set out to create a formal "trilogy", he realized after the fact that the themes of three of his films do track the progression of the life of the dreamer from birth to death: Time Bandits showing the dreamer as a child, Brazil depicting the dreamer in adulthood, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (not 12 Monkeys ) showing the dreamer in old age. The three movies in the "trilogy" were all written by Gilliam (which allowed him to shape the storyline to fit his ideas), but he did not write 12 Monkeys (he was brought in by Universal as a hired director to film an already-written script).

Gilliam's films are almost uniformly fascinating to watch and think about, even the less artistically successful ones such as Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Anyone who is interested in Gilliam's work can find lots of great info in two books: The Battle of Brazil by film critic Jack Mathews, chronicling the struggle on Gilliam's part to get Brazil released with its original ending, and Gilliam on Gilliam , a series of interviews in which Gilliam talks about his life and work. Both are excellent reads.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

I once read somewhere that while it wasn't intended, the films "Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "12 Monkeys" form an odd trilogy of movies produced by Terry, representing three phases of life. "Time Bandits" as childhood, "Brazil" as middle age, and "12 Monkeys" as old age.

Actually, you're only 2/3rds right. While Gilliam has said that he never set out to create a formal "trilogy", he realized after the fact that the themes of three of his films do track the progression of the life of the dreamer from birth to death: Time Bandits showing the dreamer as a child, Brazil depicting the dreamer in adulthood, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (not 12 Monkeys ) showing the dreamer in old age. The three movies in the "trilogy" were all written by Gilliam (which allowed him to shape the storyline to fit his ideas), but he did not write 12 Monkeys (he was brought in by Universal as a hired director to film an already-written script).

Gilliam's films are almost uniformly fascinating to watch and think about, even the less artistically successful ones such as Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Anyone who is interested in Gilliam's work can find lots of great info in two books: The Battle of Brazil by film critic Jack Mathews, chronicling the struggle on Gilliam's part to get Brazil released with its original ending, and Gilliam on Gilliam , a series of interviews in which Gilliam talks about his life and work. Both are excellent reads.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

I once read somewhere that while it wasn't intended, the films "Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "12 Monkeys" form an odd trilogy of movies produced by Terry, representing three phases of life. "Time Bandits" as childhood, "Brazil" as middle age, and "12 Monkeys" as old age.

Actually, you're only 2/3rds right. While Gilliam has said that he never set out to create a formal "trilogy", he realized after the fact that the themes of three of his films do track the progression of the life of the dreamer from birth to death: Time Bandits showing the dreamer as a child, Brazil depicting the dreamer in adulthood, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (not 12 Monkeys ) showing the dreamer in old age. The three movies in the "trilogy" were all written by Gilliam (which allowed him to shape the storyline to fit his ideas), but he did not write 12 Monkeys (he was brought in by Universal as a hired director to film an already-written script).

Gilliam's films are almost uniformly fascinating to watch and think about, even the less artistically successful ones such as Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Anyone who is interested in Gilliam's work can find lots of great info in two books: The Battle of Brazil by film critic Jack Mathews, chronicling the struggle on Gilliam's part to get Brazil released with its original ending, and Gilliam on Gilliam , a series of interviews in which Gilliam talks about his life and work. Both are excellent reads.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

I paid $60 for mine (It was a gift that I had to buy right away... so I bought it at Suncoast (gak)

Try this link, it's cheaper than I paid, but it looks like it's out of stock: DVD Express

But Das Boot is already subtitled on DVD, by default. You can't get it any other way. So if you buy any copy of it, it will be subtitled.

And why would you be strolling down to the local store to pick it up, anyway? You can get much better bargains and selection online at places like Express.com, not to mention Netflix's $20-a-month-unlimited-rentals by mail program (which I'd hop onto in a heartbeat if only I could afford right now).

BTW, at the HR site you can listen to clips from the songs, the list of which I duly post here:

1.13th FLOOR ELEVATORS "You're Gonna Miss Me"

2.THE KINKS "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy"

3.JOHN WESLEY HARDING "I'm Wrong About Everything" [FULL SONG]

4.VELVET UNDERGROUND "Oh Sweet Nuthin'"

5.LOVE "Always See Your Face"

6.BOB DYLAN "Most Of The Time"

7.SHEILA NICHOLLS "Fallen For You" [FULL SONG]

8.BETA BAND "Dry The Rain"

9.ELVIS COSTELLO "Ship Building"

10.SMOG "Cold Blooded Old Times"

11.JACK BLACK "Let's Get It On"

12.STEREOLAB "Lo Boob Oscillator"

13.ROYAL TRUX "Inside Game"

14.VELVET UNDERGROUND "Who Loves The Sun"

15.STEVIE WONDER "I Believe (When I Fall In Love)"

I think that's the entire soundtrack -- it felt like more, though, when I saw the credits. I believe these are in chronological order -- in terms of when they are played in the movie. And, in fact, if you click "buy the soundtrack," you get directed here -- not Amazon, but "Express". $12.98? Perhaps a bargain.