Desert Island DVDs

Apparently there is a radio show on BBC...something about what 8 cds you'd want to be stranded on a desert island with. Now, I usually think of High Fidelity and top five lists, so to my more American sensibilities, 8 seems a bit odd. I guess if I want to make the rules, I can create my own multi-blog, all internet all the time kind of event. Why do that though when the Fandango Groovers Movie Blog has already gone and done it?

So, let's let them sum the whole thing up:

The idea is a variation on the radio program Desert Island Discs: For those who don’t know the show has been running on the BBC for nearly 70 years. Guests are invited to imagine themselves cast away on a desert island with only eight pieces of music to listen to. Being a movie blog obviously we are having a twist on the idea. Simple pick the eight DVD’s that if you were stranded on a desert island (don’t ask how you would play them) you could happily watch over and over again. For some people this will be their favourite movies for others it will be subtly different.

Sounds easy enough, right? Especially for someone like me who watches the same movies over and over (and over) again. What 8 movies would I be able to be stuck on an island with and watch on my solar powered, built from coconuts, portable dvd player?

I've said it many many times, and I'll say it once more. I loved The Brothers Bloom and I like it more every time I watch it. I'm happy to watch it and relax, and I'm happy to watch it and study it in depth to look for new details and clues. Without a doubt, this in one movie I'd be happy to have with me.

Ah, Jurassic Park. You know how you can tell a movie is good? After almost 20 years, it's still enjoyable. I saw it, like millions of others, back in the summer of '93 and to this day watch it a couple of times every year. Even with the advances in CGI over the last 17 years, the effects in Jurassic Park look as good as ever. To me, this is Steven Spielberg's master work.

I came late to the Firefly/Serenity party. I'm not alone on that. If I were, it wouldn't have been canceled so early. It's a testament to the creators and fans that this canceled series got made into a movie, and a damn good one at that. Serenity is just a fantastically re-watchable movie.

How can you go wrong with High Fidelity? I've seen it many many times now and still love watching it. I will admit though to finding Rob to be a bigger and bigger jerk as time goes on.

I'm generally among the first to admit that Johnny Mnemonic is a terrible movie. Terribly AWESOME! (See what I did there?) Like a moth to a flame, I'm inexplicably drawn to this movie. I can't imagine ever NOT wanting to watch it.

King Kong. No explanation needed (I hope).

How many ways can you say you just don't get sick of a movie? Think of another and apply it to The Thin Man, the charming story of two drunks solving a murder.

And last, but not least, the charming story of zombifying slugs run amok in rural America, Slither. Quotable and hilarious, it's hard to leave this one out.






This is just my list, and I told you way up at the top that this was a multiple blog event hosted by Fandango Groovers Movie Blog. To see more Desert Island DVD lists, you can go here

dreamrot's favorite movies week: day 5: High Fidelity

What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

And thus begins one of my desert island, all-time, top-five favorite (not to mention most quotable) movies, High Fidelity. It's the story of a record store owner in Chicago who does all the wrong things.

No. Not all the wrong things. He does the right things, just for the wrong reasons. No. That's not it either.

Lets start over. Rob Gordon owns a record store. He has an apartment he can't possibly afford and, up until VERY recently, had a girlfriend. That would be Laura. Laura and Rob have broken up. She's moving out and he's listening to records, mulling the philosophical implications of pop music.

You see, Rob is in a rut. Much like Shaun the other day, Rob has to do something about his life. He feels he's doomed to repeat the same mistakes that he's made since his first "girlfriend" when he was 14. He thinks that there's some big thing he's been doing wrong all this time. So, he goes on a mission to find out what he's been doing wrong. He wants to kind of rehash the past and try to figure out what happened.

I should have gone to the bathroom BEFORE burying myself in records!

Rob has two employees at his record store, Dick and Barry. Dick is sort of...well, Dick. Soft spoken. Quiet. He looks and acts like the type of guy who enjoys the sad bastard music he listens to. Barry on the other hand is very over the top. Spunky, one might even say. Or, like a rambunctious chihuahua.

So, what do you think of the new Corey Hart record?

Hey, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I've read books like "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "Love in the Time of Cholera", and I think I've understood them. They're about girls, right? Just kidding. But I have to say my all-time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography "Cash" by Johnny Cash.

Rob takes on the mission of looking up his top 5 ex-girlfriends to try to figure out what went wrong while also having a one night stand with a local musician and starting his own record label.

Weren't you on the Cosby Show?

In the process, Rob does some of that growing up thing that people seem to like so much. And, in that growing up, he sees how he really feels about Laura. His problem is that it's not new. There's something about a new relationship when you're still figuring each other out, and that's gone. And he's not sure how to handle that. If he stays with Laura, he'll never feel that particular feeling again. And that frightens him.

I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments.

This picture just goes to show how much better Cusack's hair is in comparison to the rest of humanity....and why I'm so jealous of the bastard.

There's so much I love about High Fidelity. To start with, it's the first movie I saw Jack Black in and knew I was seeing Jack Black. He's great in a supporting role like this. I don't think that he's much of a lead, but man can he be hilarious in small doses. I love that Dick is so meek throughout the movie, but is probably the most well adjusted of the three. I love that I relate so well to Rob and can really see a lot of similarities between he and myself. I should also at this point add that I hate that I relate so well to Rob and can really see a lot of similarities between he and myself. Think about it, Rob is really not that great of a guy. He's a bit vain and is a bit of a self absorbed jerk. Don't get me wrong, he does kind of redeem himself, but not really. I mean, he asks Laura to marry him based solely on the fact that he's sick of...well, here:

Rob: I'm tired of the fantasy, because it doesn't really exist. And there are never really any surprises, and it never really...
Laura: Delivers?
Rob: Delivers. And I'm tired of it. And I'm tired of everything else for that matter. But I don't ever seem to get tired of you, so...

It's probably the most romantic way anyone ever came out and said "I'm settling for you." And that's just it, Rob makes such horrible choices and decisions, but still manages to come off as charming.

And among everything else, I love Laura's little chuckle at Rob's question of he sanity about the cd release party. Just that smile and chuckle.

This is going to make twice this week that I've done what about to do. Not surprisingly they're both movies who appear to be about one thing (zombies and music respectively) and turn out to be about something entirely different, High Fidelity gets what it deserves, 10 mix tapes full of stuff she'd like, full of stuff that'd make her happy, because, for the first time, you can sorta see how that's done out of 10.

He's grumpy, he's broke, he hangs out with the musical moron twins...

It was announced yesterday that the original Star Wars trilogy would be released yet again on DVD. This time as "attractively priced individual two-disc releases". Basically, disc 1 is the dvd you already own and disc 2 is the unmolested trilogy. Apparently, there will be no added bonus content. So, why bother? I have both versions on DVD. And, most likely, I will buy it again, because...well, I'm just not all the bright.

But it got me to thinking about a conversation that I had last weekend. I think it was last weekend. If it wasn't, lets pretend that it was. A movie I think should get a new version, a "special edition" perhaps, is the 2000 John Cusack film High Fidelity.


The DVD, when it was originally released, was amazingly sparse in terms of special features. A few deleted scenes and a couple interviews. By today's standards, you could hardly call them special features. So, here's the special features that I would want on my fantasy DVD...

1) Commentaries. 3 of them actually. The first would be Cusack and director Stephen Frears. The second would be a cast commentary with Cusack again, Jack Black and Todd Luiso. Iben Hjejle would also be welcome here. The third, and I think this would be great, would be Nick Hornsby, who wrote the novel the movie was based on. He'd be able to talk about the differences in the stories and how he felt about them.

2) Deleted Scenes Undeleated. That's right, take the deleted scenes and put them back into the movie. Or, at least make it an option.

3) A trivia track. The Ultimate Edition of The Fifth Element has one. Shaun of the Dead has one. I think they're fun, and a great use of a subtitle track. I wouldn't want it to go all Pop-Up Video or anything, but a little bonus information at the bottom of the screen would be pretty nice.

4) A gag reel. They're just fun.

5) Behind the scenes kind of stuff. Mini documentaries. Making ofs. Something like that.

If High Fidelity ever gets a new version, I'll buy it. But these would just make it a great DVD as opposed to a DVD with a great movie.