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Cult DVDs

Blue Velvet (Special Edition)

Sales Rank:2398
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $5.92
Lowest Used Price: $5.77
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
DVD-Video
Special Edition
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Isabella Rossellini
Kyle MacLachlan
Dennis Hopper
Laura Dern
Hope Lange

David Lynch peeks behind the picket fences of small-town America to reveal a corrupt shadow world of malevolence, sadism, and madness. From the opening shots Lynch turns the Technicolor picture postcard images of middle class homes and tree-lined lanes into a dreamy vision on the edge of nightmare. After his father collapses in a preternaturally eerie sequence, college boy Kyle MacLachlan returns home and stumbles across a severed human ear in a vacant lot. With the help of sweetly innocent high school girl (Laura Dern), he turns junior detective and uncovers a frightening yet darkly compelling world of voyeurism and sex. Drawn deeper into the brutal world of drug dealer and blackmailer Frank, played with raving mania by an obscenity-shouting Dennis Hopper in a career-reviving performance, he loses his innocence and his moral bearings when confronted with pure, unexplainable evil. Isabella Rossellini is terrifyingly desperate as Hopper's sexual slave who becomes MacLachlan's illicit lover, and Dean Stockwell purrs through his role as Hopper's oh-so-suave buddy. Lynch strips his surreally mundane sets to a ghostly austerity, which composer Angelo Badalamenti encourages with the smooth, spooky strains of a lush score. Blue Velvet is a disturbing film that delves into the darkest reaches of psycho-sexual brutality and simply isn't for everyone. But for a viewer who wants to see the cinematic world rocked off its foundations, David Lynch delivers a nightmarish masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker

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Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983 & 2004 Versions, 2-Disc Widescreen Edition)

Sales Rank:1569
List Price: $19.98
Lowest New Price: $12.36
Lowest Used Price: $8.46
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

AC-3
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Mark Hamill
Harrison Ford
Carrie Fisher
Billy Dee Williams

The 2006 limited-edition two-disc release of Return of the Jedi is not only the first time the movie has been officially available by itself on DVD. It marks the first-ever DVD release of Jedi as it originally played in theaters in 1983. What does that mean exactly? The film is without the various "improvements" and enhancements George Lucas added for the theatrical rerelease in 1997 as well as the DVD premiere in 2004. So Sebastian Shaw reclaims his spot as the man behind Darth Vader's mask, and we don't see the otherworldly celebration (including the Gungans) at the end of the movie.

What do you lose by watching the 1983 version? Dolby Digital 5.1 EX sound, for one thing (only 2.0 Surround here), and digital cleanup. But for home-theater owners, the biggest frustration will be from the non-anamorphic picture. On a widescreen TV, an anamorphically enhanced (16x9) picture at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio will fill the screen with the exception of small black bars on the top and bottom. The original edition of Jedi, however, on a widescreen TV will have large black bars on the top, the bottom, and the sides unless you stretch the picture (and distort it in the process, especially considering the substandard picture quality). If you're watching on a standard square-shaped (4:3) TV, though, you won't notice a difference.

Yes, it's true that serious home-theater lovers who want spectacular sound and anamorphically enhanced picture can always watch the 2004 version of the movie also included in this set. But chances are good that they already picked up the trilogy edition of all three films, so their decision to buy the 2006 two-disc edition depends on how much they want the original film. The official LucasFilm stance is that this is an individual release of the 2004 version of Return of the Jedi, and the 1983 version of the film is merely a "bonus feature." Common speculation is that the only reason the original versions are seeing the official light of day at all is to undercut the booming black market for the laserdisc version. Star Wars fans will have to decide for themselves if that's worth the purchase. --David Horiuchi

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Doctor Who - The Complete First and Second Series (11pc)

Sales Rank:7265
List Price: $177.98
Lowest New Price: $137.70
Lowest Used Price: $139.00
MPAA Rating:

Format:

Box set
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Billie Piper
Christopher Eccleston
David Tennant

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/16/2007

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Army of Darkness

Sales Rank:3097
List Price: $12.98
Lowest New Price: $6.41
Lowest Used Price: $4.37
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Ian Abercrombie
Deke Anderson
Andy Bale
Billy Bryan
Bruce Campbell

A movie that only true horror buffs could love, Army of Darkness is officially part 3 in the wild and wacky Evil Dead trilogy masterminded by the perversely inventive director Sam Raimi, who would later serve as executive producer of the popular syndicated TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Raimi's favorite actor, Bruce Campbell, returns as Ash (hero of the first two Evil Dead flicks), a hardware-store clerk who is magically transported--along with his beat-up Oldsmobile and a chainsaw attachment for his severed left forearm--to the brutal battlefields of the 14th century. He quickly assumes power (who else in the Middle Ages packs a shotgun and a chainsaw?), and unites his band of medieval knights against the dreaded Army of the Dead. Raimi gleefully subverts almost every horror-movie cliché as he serves up a nonstop parade of blood, gore, and vicious sword-bearing skeletons--an affectionate homage to animator Ray Harryhausen's classic Jason and the Argonauts. The frantic action is fun while it lasts, but even at 80 minutes Army of Darkness nearly wears out its welcome. You know that Raimi can maintain the mayhem for only so long before it grows tiresome, and fortunately this madcap movie quits while it's ahead. --Jeff Shannon

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Raising Arizona

Sales Rank:2152
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $6.91
Lowest Used Price: $5.34
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Ethan Coen
Joel Coen

Actor(s):

Nicolas Cage
Holly Hunter
Trey Wilson
John Goodman
William Forsythe

Blood Simple made it clear that the cinematically precocious Coen brothers (writer-director Joel and writer-producer Ethan) were gifted filmmakers to watch out for. But it was the outrageously farcical Raising Arizona that announced the Coens' darkly comedic audacity to the world. It wasn't widely seen when released in 1987, but its modest audience was vocally supportive, and this hyperactive comedy has since developed a large and loyal following. It's the story of "Ed" (for Edwina, played by Holly Hunter), a policewoman who falls in love with "Hi" (for H.I. McDonnough, played by Nicolas Cage) while she's taking his mug shots. She's infertile and he's a habitual robber of convenience stores, and their folksy marital bliss depends on settling down with a rug rat. Unable to conceive, they kidnap one of the newsworthy quintuplets born to an unpainted-furniture huckster named Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), who quickly hires a Harley-riding mercenary (Randall "Tex" Cobb) to track the baby's whereabouts. What follows is a full-throttle comedy that defies description, fueled by the Coens' lyrical redneck dialogue, the manic camerawork of future director Barry Sonnenfeld, and some of the most inventively comedic chase scenes ever filmed. Some will dismiss the comedy for being recklessly over-the-top; others will love it for its clever mix of slapstick action, surreal fantasy, and homespun family values. One thing's for sure--this is a Coen movie from start to finish, and that makes it undeniably unique. --Jeff Shannon

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Easy Rider

Sales Rank:1698
List Price: $14.94
Lowest New Price: $6.94
Lowest Used Price: $5.44
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

AC-3
Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Special Edition
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Luana Anders
Luke Askew
Robert Ball
Tita Colorado
Warren Finnerty

This box-office hit from 1969 is an important pioneer of the American independent cinema movement, and a generational touchstone to boot. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper play hippie motorcyclists crossing the Southwest and encountering a crazy quilt of good and bad people. Jack Nicholson turns up in a significant role as an attorney who joins their quest for awhile and articulates society's problem with freedom as Fonda's and Hopper's characters embody it. Hopper directed, essentially bringing the no-frills filmmaking methods of legendary, drive-in movie producer Roger Corman (The Little Shop of Horrors) to a serious feature for the mainstream. The film can't help but look a bit dated now (a psychedelic sequence toward the end particularly doesn't hold up well), but it retains its original power, sense of daring, and epochal impact. --Tom Keogh

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Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius (Episode 84)

Sales Rank:2669
List Price: $24.98
Lowest New Price: $17.34
Lowest Used Price: $18.37
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Color
DVD-Video
Original recording remastered
Subtitled
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Tom Baker
Elisabeth Sladen

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/07/2008 Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Nr

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Brazil

Sales Rank:3904
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $7.49
Lowest Used Price: $7.47
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Jim Broadbent
Ray Cooper (II)
Robert De Niro
John Flanagan
Kim Greist

If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, Brazil was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unraveling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labeled as a miscreant.

The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. This DVD version of Brazil is the special director's cut that first appeared in Criterion's comprehensive (and expensive) six-disc laser package in 1996. Although the DVD (at a fraction of the price) doesn't include that set's many extras, it's still a bargain. --Jim Emerson

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The Nightmare Before Christmas (Special Edition)

Sales Rank:3259
List Price: $19.99
Lowest New Price: $22.99
Lowest Used Price: $12.99
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Animated
Black & White
Color
DTS Surround Sound
DVD-Video
Letterboxed
Special Edition
NTSC

Director(s):

Henry Selick
Tim Burton

Actor(s):

Danny Elfman
Chris Sarandon
Catherine O'Hara
William Hickey
Glenn Shadix

For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called ... Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen." --Jim Emerson

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Clerks (Collector's Series)

Sales Rank:3451
List Price: $14.99
Lowest New Price: $4.98
Lowest Used Price: $3.40
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Collector's Edition
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Jeff Anderson
Lee Bendick
Al Berkowitz
Betsy Broussard
Ken Clark (VII)

Before Kevin Smith became a Hollywood darling with Chasing Amy, a film he wrote and directed, he made this $27,000 comedy about real-life experiences working for chump change at a New Jersey convenience store. A rude, foul-mouthed collection of anecdotes about the responsibilities that go with being on the wrong side of the till, the film is also a relationship story that takes some hilarious turns once the lovers start revealing their sexual histories to one another. In the best tradition of first-time, ultra-low budget independent films, Smith uses Clerks as an audition piece, demonstrating that he not only can handle two-character comedy but also has an eye for action--as proven in a smoothly handled rooftop hockey scene. Smith himself appears as a silent figure who hangs out on the fringes of the store's property. --Tom Keogh

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