Out of Print Watch: Criterion's "Chungking Express"

It's my sad duty to report that one of my favorite films by Wong Kar-Wai is now OOP in its Criterion Collection edition (per big black capitol letters on their website).

The commentary track from Tony Rayns, a major Wong authority, is quite good, as are the few other extras, which I would not bet on finding in any new edition from Miramax/Lionsgate that may be forthcoming.

Grab it while you can, and try not to spend more than $30 for the Blu-ray. Paying any more than that is highway robbery, like the "in-stock" listing from "Overstock Deals" priced at over $40. Most Best Buy and Fry's stores that stock these titles should have it for the time being.

Weekend Rental Reco: "Maxed Out"

This 2006 documentary is about the general topic of debt: national, personal, and everything in between. Louis CK, Dave Ramsey, and Elizabeth Warren (among others) appear. When I saw it at SXSW, I assumed it would never get picked up because it went directly after the banks that would succeed in crashing the economy only two years later.

Netflix Watch Instantly available as of this writing
$3 rental on iTunes

"The Strain" Motion Comic on Geek & Sundry

MTV Geek reports that in advance of the recently-announced TV deal for The Strain, co-created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, it's coming to Geek & Sundry in another form as of tomorrow. I've been a big fan of what they've done with their premium YouTube channel thus far, and this looks to continue that trend nicely.

The Daily Grab (18): Boppity Blu

Yes, it looks that good.

Festival Time

It's going to get pretty busy around here with Fantastic Fest starting tomorrow. I may very well be posting multiple Screen Time mini-episodes throughout the next week, depending on how often and quickly I get interviews done with various people.

Stay tuned.

The Daily Grab (17): No Time for Love

These all look so damned clean and crisp, without losing any of the fine detail due to overscrubbing.

The Daily Grab (16): The Hat

Out today: three magnificent restorations of some of my favorite Spielberg movies, plus Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I half-watched on cable once. Raiders is honestly part of the reason I ended up studying Anthropology in college.

The Daily Grab (15): It's Clean

This doesn't come to the US until November, but I have my hands on the UK import. The massive amount of restoration cost and work was well worth it. It looks outstanding. Review coming before the weekend.

Boxing Up Keaton (Kino's December 2012 Slate)

On the heels of Criterion's announcement come Kino's December titles.

The best and smartest thing they've done is collect their entire line of Buster Keaton Blu-rays into a box set hitting on 11 December. This provides a perfect way to save in bulk while investing in some of the most substantive silent film editions available. Every existing Keaton Blu-ray is included, adding only College from 1927, which will remain exclusive to the box until next year.

The other major standout is Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (starring Marlene Dietrich) on 4 December. This is the first time it's been available on home video.

Those two giants join remastered editions of two Mario Bava movies (Baron Blood and Kidnapped), along with various others. Hit the link above for the full rundown on...Facebook (blech).

The Daily Grab (14): Ow!

This is an exceptional HD transfer, and I say that having recently seen a clean 2002-vintage 35mm print. Review coming soon.

Ihnatko Almanac 42: You Know What 42 Means

It's serendipitous that my guest-sidekick-ing on Andy Ihnatko's show coincided with edition 00042 of his wonderful program, since we're both BIG fans of the great Douglas Adams.

Comic book fans should note that this marks the first-ever canonical instance of a guest sidekick in an installment of The Ihnatko Almanac, so preserve this holofoil-stamped issue in your Friendly Local Comic Shop's finest Mylar bag and board tech.

In our quest to define the meaning of life, the universe, and Everything, we look at the minimalist travel lifestyle, the joy of downsizing the junk packed in one's travel trunk, and the world's impending conversion to being EarPod people. We cringe at the prospect of Brawndo-infused phones being what some dudes crave, and we also discuss various new Apple devices for a moment or two.

This edition of The Ihnatko Almanac is brought to you by Brawndo. Is your shit all fucked up? Get Brawndo, it's got electrolytes, and it's what dudes crave.

Critical Path 54: Moving the Ball Forward

My third shot co-hosting with the venerable Mr. Horace Dediu finds us talking about this past week's Apple Event.

We discuss how the announced gadgets re-assert Apple's substantive platform lead over others, while also pondering how they are actively looking to kill the iPhone as the cornerstone of their strategy, just like they did with iPod.

That's right, Apple is trying to kill the iPhone...and cinema, and loads of other things.

Just listen to the show. Horace is brilliant, and more prescient on this than most.

Going Home Again

Universal is really knocking it out of the park this year. More evidence has arrived. Extended thoughts Monday right here, preliminary thoughts sooner on the latest Screen Time podcast.

The Daily Grab (13): The Grand Dame

On first through fifth viewings, fellow Texan Kathy Bates has always been my favorite element of Titanic. I had planned to feature this frame today even before I saw she'd revealed via Twitter that she's recovering from a double masectomy due to breast cancer diagnosis. Didn't know she had a Twitter until today.

As a young actor in suburban Dallas, I loved that such a vibrant and resonant talent as Ms. Bates had studied acting at SMU, a college that I desperately wanted to attend to study acting myself. I haunted the campus, seeing shows and lectures. When I was on the grounds, I regularly thought "holy shit, Kathy Bates rocked this joint".

Kathy Bates is unsinkable. If there is a group of people who have the strength to beat the everloving shit out of cancer, she's team captain.

Hot & Cold Branding: USA Today

I thought there'd be just the one terrible rebranding today! AdAge covers the rebrand of Gannett's flagship publication.

Old compared to new. "That's no moon..."

Three Elaborated Problems:

1) Their "masthead" version of their new "logo" is more like "headline" formatted "text". It gets the viewer immediately, completely lost in an impenetrable wall of text. At the very, very least, it simply blends rather than pop. Was that the goal? If so, success!

2) The new utilitarian-ization of their sections could use a strong icon-based do-over, if the plan is to make that succeed in strongly marking what section you're in at a given time. The "turquoise moon" and the typeface change make this look like an offshoot of the USA Network instead of a news publication.

3) This half-hearted rebranding is unfortunately indicative of the fact that their business model fundamentally does not understand digital delivery and is limply kicking and screaming to not adapt and evolve. This is why Gannett and other publishing monoliths have been on the decline for years.

Hot & Cold Branding: eBay

I do brand consulting for money. It's a thing I do. Welcome to the first bit of commentary on that world on AC.

eBay unveiled a new logo today. It's terrible. Why? Three reasons off the top of my head:

1) Needless dumping of an iconic, non-problematic brand identity.

2) Insanely terrible kerning. John Wayne Gacy-level insane.

3) See item 1

The Daily Grab (12): Carry On, Wayward Son

One of my favorite movies, and an outstanding Blu-grade from Criterion. Anderson is another candidate for my series of ongoing Retrospective Series...maybe sooner than later.

The Daily Grab (11): A Bigger Boat

People like to write this one off, and I think that usually comes from resenting its popularity and success.

Showing it to my wife last night, she was wholly captivated. She "never watched past the first tape" 14 years ago, and said quite plainly that she didn't care to invest in watching it "because everyone [the masses] liked it so much". She assumed it couldn't be any good. It was great watching her seeing it for the first time, not really remembering the pieces she had seen.

I've seen it three times, with this being the fourth, and I plan on somehow screening the 3D discs too.

The Daily Grab (10): Chico, Don't Be Discouraged

Especially considering its Cuban connections, I'm amazed I've gone this long without seeing Chico & Rita, which was nominated for Best Animated Feature in last year's Oscars. The Blu-ray drops on 18 September in the US, including some extras and the full soundtrack on CD.

This grab taken from the included DVD, since I couldn't get the Blu-ray to load in my screencap software.