Cheap DVDs for sale!

I've recently upgraded to Bluray (in addition to purchasing quite a few more legit Criterion DVDs), so I now have quite a few more duplicate titles on DVD, so I'm letting go of these as well. Check out the list below:

SPECIAL OFFER: Take EVERYTHING for RM150 only! That's 9 original DVD titles (but 12 discs in total) left + 14 bootlegs (17 discs total), very special price for u... hehehe

Original DVDs (a mixture of US, UK and Malaysian versions) - RM10 per disc:

• Wanted (steelbook cover, 2-disc) - Timur Bekmembatov
• Gladiator, Extended Special Ed (3-disc) -Ridley Scott
• Taken - Pierre Morel
  
• A Night At The Opera (Marx Brothers) - Sam Wood
• A Night In Casablance (Marx Brothers) - Archie Mayo
• Monsieur Hulot's Holiday - Jacques Tati
• Star Trek (2009) - JJ Abrams
• The Nutty Professor - Jerry Lewis
• Open City - Roberto Rossellini
  
• Watchmen Director's Cut (2-disc) - Zack Snyder
• Breathless - Jean Luc Godard
• Pather Panchali - Satyajit Ray
• The Wind Will Carry Us - Abbas Kiarostami
• M - Fritz Lang
• Citizen Kane - Orson Welles
• Day Of Wrath - Carl Theodor Dreyer
• The Prestige - Christopher Nolan
  
• Batman Begins (2-disc) - Christopher Nolan
  
• The Dark Knight (2-disc) - Christopher Nolan
• Casino (2-disc) - Martin Scorsese
• Che (2-disc) - Steven Soderbergh
• Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
• Death Proof - Quentin Tarantino
• Planet Terror - Robert Rodriguez
  
• Shaun Of The Dead - Edgar Wright
• Hot Fuzz - Edgar Wright
• District 9 - Neill Blomkamp
• Serenity - Joss Whedon
• Stranger Than Paradise - Jim Jarmusch
• Bottle Rocket - Wes Anderson
• The Game - David Fincher
  
• Up - Pete Docter
• Fulltime Killer - Johnnie To
• The Night Of The Hunter - Charles Laughton
• Requiem For A Dream - Darren Aronofsky
• The Wrestler - Darren Aronofsky
• The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky
• Drag Me To Hell - Sam Raimi
• Alfred Hitchcock 2 Movie combo: The Lady Vanishes + Jamaica Inn

Not-so-original DVDs - RM5 per disc:

• The Apu Trilogy (3-disc) - Satyajit Ray
• The Complete Jean Vigo (2-disc) - Jean Vigo
• Le Cercle Rouge - Jean Pierre Melville
• Short Cuts - Robert Altman
• Salo, The 120 Days of Sodom - Pier Paolo Pasolini
• Jour De Fete - Jacques Tati
• L'Atalante - Jean Vigo
• Requiem For A Dream - Darren Aronofsky
• Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans - Werner Herzog
• Hellboy - Guillermo Del Toro
• Hellboy 2 - Guillermo Del Toro
• Collateral - Michael Mann
• The Battle Of Algiers - Gillo Pontecorvo
• Walkabout - Nicolas Roeg
• Do The Right Thing (2-disc) - Spike Lee
• The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
• Dead Or Alive - Takashi Miike
• Dead Or Alive 2 - Takashi Miike
• Dead Or Alive Final - Takashi Miike
• The Man Without A Past - Aki Kaurismaki
• Traffic - Steven Soderbergh
• Before Sunset - Richard Linklater
• Twenty-Four Eyes (2-disc) - Keisuke Kinoshita
• Zodiac Director's Cut - David Fincher
• Wings Of Desire - Wim Wenders
• As Tears Go By - Wong Kar Wai
• Batman Begins - Christopher Nolan
• The Dark Knight (2-disc) - Christopher Nolan
• Adventureland - Greg Mottola

Apologies for not being able to upload some photos, Blogger's kinda slow lah this morning, dammit!

Contact me here for enquiries: encik.aidil@gmail.com

Imported DVDs for sale - from the USA + UK

Did another spring cleaning after the one yesterday, and found that I have 2 copies of a few more DVD titles (when you're in the habit of buying Criterion versions or Special Editions of films, these things normally happen, hehe), so I'm selling the ones listed below. These are true blue, imported and ORIGINAL DVDs from the USA and the UK.

Price: RM30 each
Contact: encik.aidil@gmail.com

Titles:

1. Breathless (A Bout De Souffle)
dir: Jean Luc Godard
Region 2, UK version, released by Optimum Releasing
Special features include Charlotte Et Son Jules: A Short Film by Jean Luc Godard, Original trailer + 1983 Jim McBride remake trailer, Full production notes, Poster + Photo gallery

2. Stranger Than Paradise
dir: Jim Jarmusch
Region 1, US version, released by MGM, now out of print.
Includes Behind The Scenes featurette

3. The Nutty Professor (Special Edition)
dir: Jerry Lewis
Region 1, US Version, released by Paramount
Special features include Commentary by Jerry Lewis, Jerry Lewis Featurette + Documentary, Archival materials, Theatrical trailer

4. Death Proof
dir: Quentin Tarantino
Region 1, US version, Blockbuster exclusive, released by Dimension/Genius Products
Special features include The Hot Rods of Death Proof, Trailer + Poster gallery

5. Planet Terror
dir: Robert Rodriguez
Region 1, US version, Blockbuster exclusive, released by Dimension/Genius Products
Special features include Commentary with Robert Rodriguez, Audience Reaction Track, Comic-Con 2006 Featuring the Directors and Cast of Grindhouse, Trailer + poster gallery

Have fun shopping! Sorry I couldn't upload photos of the DVDs here, internet connection's being a real bitch today...

DVDs for sale!

SORRY FOLKS, DVDS IN THIS POST ARE ALL SOLD!

After doing some DVD spring cleaning, I found that I've duplicate copies of quite a few DVD titles, so I'm selling the ones listed here. Most are DVD9 (which means that you get all them special features etc). Here's the pricing:

RM5 per title
RM10 per title if it's a 2DVD set

OR you can just buy all 61 titles listed below for the bargain price of RM200 only!

Contact me here: encik.aidil@gmail.com

Titles:

• Amelie – dir Jean Pierre Jeunet
• Memento – dir Christopher Nolan
• Suspiria – dir Dario Argento
• The Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night” (2DVD) – dir Richard Lester
• Reservoir Dogs (2DVD) – dir Quentin Tarantino
• Pulp Fiction (2DVD) – dir Quentin Tarantino
• Jackie Brown (2DVD) – dir Quentin Tarantino
• Kill Bill Vol. 1 – dir Quentin Tarantino
• Kill Bill Vol. 2 – dir Quentin Tarantino
• Some Like It Hot – dir Billy Wilder
• Love In The Afternoon – dir Billy Wilder
• Limelight – dir Charles Chaplin
• Monsieur Verdoux – dir Charles Chaplin
• A King In New York – dir Charles Chaplin
• A Woman Of Paris – dir Charles Chaplin
• It Happened One Night – dir Frank Capra
• The Third Man – dir Carol Reed
• A Place In The Sun – dir George Stevens
• Giant – dir George Stevens
• Magnificent Obsession – dir Douglas Sirk
• Blow Out – dir Brian De Palma
• Femme Fatale – dir Brian De Palma
• Throw Down – dir Johnnie To
• The Mission – dir Johnnie To
• Election 2 – dir Johnnie To
• PTU – dir Johnnie To
• Jackass The Movie – dir Jeff Tremaine
• The Matrix Reloaded – dir The Wachowski Brothers
• The Matrix Revolutions – dir The Wachowski Brothers
• 28 Days Later – dir Danny Boyle
• Napoleon Dynamite – dir Jared Hess
• Stolen Kisses – dir Francois Truffaut
• Shoot The Pianist – dir Francois Truffaut
• Boogie Nights – dir P.T. Anderson
• Far From Heaven – dir Todd Haynes
• Cinema Paradiso (director’s cut) – dir Giuseppe Tornatore
• Old Boy – dir Park Chan Wook
• Bloody Sunday (2 copies available) – dir Paul Greengrass
• The Terminal – dir Steven Spielberg
• Catch Me If You Can – dir Steven Spielberg
• Charade – dir Stanley Donen
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind – dir Michel Gondry
• Mystic River – dir Clint Eastwood
• The Big Red One – dir Sam Fuller
• Ghost World – dir Terry Zwigoff
• Being John Malkovich – dir Spike Jonze
• Kung Fu Hustle – dir Stephen Chow
• Irreversible – dir Gaspar Noe
• Signs – dir M Night Shyamalan
• Matchstick Men – dir Ridley Scott
• Dancer In The Dark – dir Lars Von Trier
• Shaun Of The Dead – dir Edgar Wright
• The French Connection – dir William Friedkin
• The French Connection 2 – dir John Frankenheimer
• Starship Troopers – dir Paul Verhoeven
• Robocop – dir Paul Verhoeven
• The Cooler – dir Wayne Kramer
• The Big Lebowski – dir Coen Brothers
• Hulk – dir Ang Lee
• The Host – dir Bong Joon Ho
• Confessions of a Dangerous Mind – dir George Clooney

Have fun shopping!

Wow, new post?

It's been almost a year! Ahahaha. Well, if anyone is still following, I'd just like to apologise for being such a lazy ass, but like every other lazy ass on this planet, I have my reasons! Hehe. I've been writing reviews and the odd article for Junk magazine, and I also now have a column in the Malaysian Insider (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/aidil-rusli).

I've also just started a blog for my band Couple, apart from maintaining our Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, Twitter and all sorts of other pages. Ahhh the joys of technology... So as you can see, I'm one very busy guy, LOL.

But not too busy to miss out on watching all the good and bad films being made out there, that's for sure! As some of you might notice, apart from my unreasonably good taste of liking high-brow art films, I also like the other end of the spectrum (noooo, not porn!) i.e. B-movies/vulgar comedies/rom-coms etc. And maybe some torture porn as well (nooooo, this is NOT porn - it just happens to have that word in it).

Anyways, being an ardent follower of the career of David Twohy (he of The Arrival + Pitch Black 'fame'), I was more than excited to watch his latest opus, A Perfect Getaway, starring 2 actors I like in Steve Zahn & Milla Jovovich, and I'm happy to report that I'm liking it a lot.

And that's my review. The less you know about the movie, the better your experience will be. Yes, my laziness plays a little part in the shortness of my review, but actually it's my love for you readers (so much so that I don't want to spoil your experience) that makes it so.

But seriously, I'l try not to be too lazy anymore okay? And in case I do get lazy, you can just check out the links I put up here for more of my meandering writings, that way you won't miss me too much, hehehe.

"Susuk" - film review

After probably 2 years of waiting, Susuk finally makes its way to our cinemas. At first I thought it'd already met with the same horrible fate that befell Dukun. But lucky for us, it's finally here! I've pretty high hopes for this film, since I'm quite fond of Amir Muhammad's debut film, Lips To Lips, and his docus like The Big Durian and Lelaki Komunis Terakhir.

One thing I must commend the film for is the slick visual style, and the script's very clever structure. No, make that especially the structure! It's very rare (in my case, it might even be the first time) to encounter a Malaysian film with that big "twist ending" ala The Crying Game, The Sixth Sense, The Game (just to name a few films). If you've been paying attention to the happenings in the story (and believe me, they do give you plenty of clues!), then it's even more enjoyable viewing, just to see the pieces fall into place. So I won't really try to provide a synopsis since it's one of those "don't reveal the ending" films.

What lets the film down though, is the shocking/scaring you part. Yes, it's very bloody and gory, and you do see some Dario Argento influence in the art direction and lighting (as pointed out by a lot of reviewers), but let's be honest here, when has ANY film by Dario Argento ever been scary? To me, the marvel in watching Argento's films is in watching the technique, the over the top colours in the art direction, the fancy camera movements and angles, and the hilariously horrible music used as cues to shock us. The acting and script in all the Argento films have always been serviceable at best, the acting even worse. And there's usually no suspense whatsoever, just shocks/surprise. Like Hitchcock once said: "A bomb explodes - that's surprise. Knowing that there's a bomb that may or may not explode - that's suspense." And for much of Susuk, what you always get are shocks/surprises, never suspense. And to me, what really makes a great horror film is the suspense. The shocks/surprises just make me laugh...

Another letdown is that I get really confused trying to figure out what Susuk wants to be. At times, you KNOW that it's sort of a satire on our celebrity obsessed culture, and things we do to even get close to fame. At other times, it seems more like the filmmakers are playing it absolutely straight and actually do want to make a straight horror film, and scare the bejeezuz out of us. By the end of the film, the impression I did make was that it was sort of a mess.

On one part the structure's quite brilliant, the acting mostly solid, with the exception of the boyfriend (sorry Gambit, still a bit kayu!), and the 2 divas played by Sofea Jane and Aleeza Kassim (but I forgive Aleeza already, for that priceless swimming pool scene, and the blink-and-you'll-miss-it verbal reference to her character's sexuality! Hehehe). Even Ida Nerina's kinda suspect behaviour/acting during the early to middle part of the film ultimately made sense by the time the film ends, such is the attention to detail about the film's structure. And don't even get me started about how kickass the scene transitions are in the film! Really, really well thought out in advance!

But it's the believability of the whole thing that bogs the film down. For all the talk about how great a diva Suzana and the 2 other divas are, the songs they sing are just plain bad, even for mainstream Malay music standards. One might try to make a case by saying that the badness of the songs is part of the satire, but if you ask me, that's just plain cheating. Even the Josie And The Pussycats movie have hilarious but absolutely believable and strong songs for the parodied boyband in the film. Let's not even get started about how great the 'satirical' or 'parody' songs are on films like A Mighty Wind, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and of course This Is Spinal Tap. Unless, and this is a big unless, the bad songs here serve to show us the power of the susuk, that is that people will be fixated with you anyway, even if your songs are bad and your singing sucks. But I seriously don't get that impression when I was watching the film.

And so we get another half-half Malaysian film. Half of it's already well done, and close to brilliant, but the other half, by second-guessing themselves, or maybe even not thinking things up fully, end up making it a weaker film than it should've been. It could've been a real scorcher, a sort of brilliant kick up the ass of the Malaysian film industry like "Perempuan, Isteri dan ..." did back in the 90s, but I guess it's never meant to be...