Garv’s Pick of the Week: Top Secret! (Paramount)
For the release week of May 17th:
Garv’s Pick of the Week: Top Secret! [Blu-ray / Paramount]: Latrine!!! The funniest film from the team that brought you Airplane! (1980) finally gets a Blu-ray release this week. Val Kilmer stars in this Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker spoof of everything from World War II films, the Beach Boys, Elvis movies, and The Blue Lagoon. Peter Cushing and Omar Sharif also get to join in the fun.
Additional Titles of Interest —
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance [4K UHD / Paramount Presents]: This is one of John Ford’s greatest films, despite the fact that all of the leads (John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles) are about twenty years too old for the parts they’re playing. Adding a 4K UHD edition of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance to your collection should be a ‘no brainer.’ However, I have heard bad things about the way the image was mastered for 4K. I will refer you to Robert Harris’ review on Home Theater Forum.
Escape From New York [4K UHD / Scream Factory]: Snake Plissken’s excursion in and out of the Big Apple also gets a 4K UHD upgrade.
Licorice Pizza [Blu-ray / Universal]: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘coming of age’ movie set in the Seventies feels like a movie made in the Seventies. I know that the film was controversial for a couple of reasons, but for me, it was the best film of 2021.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time [Blu-ray / IFC Films]: Documentarian Robert B. Weide (The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell, W.C. Fields Straight Up) gets pulled into his own documentary about Kurt Vonnegut.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [Blu-ray / Warner Archive]: Personally, I prefer the Fredric March version. This one has Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, and minimal makeup effects.
Extreme Prejudice [Blu-ray / Vestron Collector’s Series]: I haven’t seen this one, but Walter Hill films are always worth watching. Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, and Michael Ironside soak the screen with testosterone.
Femme Fatale [Blu-ray / Scream Factory]: I saw this one during it’s original theatrical release, and I hardly remember it. Still, it’s a Brian De Palma movie, so I’m sure it isn’t completely without merit.
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