Since my TV has been fixed, I have been watching a lot of DVDs.

Movies :-

Zatoichi (2003 version) - Pretty good revisionist samurai movie from Beat Takeshi. The CGI blood are a bit of a letdown but it doesn't detract from the intensity of the swordfights. Nice smooth-flowing plot as well, if a little predictable. Very out-of-place ending hip-hop dance sequence.

Kagemusha - Zzzzzzz!

Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More - the other two of the Dollars trilogy I got. Fistful is extremely stylish, and pretty violent for its time, especially the machete sequence. "More" is the least inspiring of the trilogy, I guess, with only the standout music and the "chimes end" duels sustaining interest. Funny how Lee van Cleef and Eastwood are frens here and in the next movie, they turn on each other.

Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer - Crap follow-up with none of the visual appeal of the original.

Organ - A listless horror movie borrowing elements from most of the first Tetsuo. Boring, incomprehensible, visually staid and quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen.

Angel Guts : Red Vertigo - More rape-themed pinku roman. This one is short but extremely effective. As a reviewer commented, an extremely feminist porn movie.

Perversion Story - Lucio Fulci's lost giallo from 1969. Borrows a lot from French New Wave and encapsulates the spirit of the 60s but otherwise, displays none of the ingenuity of his "classics".

Der Golem - Renews my interest in Weimar cinema, really. Sustains a generally uneasy mood and probably the launchpad of the Universal version of Frankenstein. The third Golem movie from Paul Wegener. The first two are lost.

Documentary :-

The Filth and the Fury (The Sex Pistols movie) - Sheds no new light on the Pistols. I don't really like the music all that much either. All the time I think about this movie, The Buzzcocks' "Breakdown" plays in my head. The Pistols I think are more remarkable for their peers:- The Clash, The Jam, Buzzcocks. Only reveals how punk can be carried to its extreme idiocy in the form of Sid Vicious. Pitiable bastard, though.

Concerts:-

Cream Reunion - Hellishly boring with none of the great hits. The shredding is mind-numbingly rote. I got this on the mistake that it was a 60s concert.

Wu Tang Clan : Disciples of the 36 Chambers - Pretty rivetting concert spliced with interviews. Too bad my DVD jams halfway through. No way to get it changed as the shop I got this from has closed down. Damn!

Rambo 4 - John Rambo

I dunno what to comment on this. All I can say is that it's about as essential as cartoons printed on toilet paper. To divert your attention that Sly's an old man now, all the killings are done in an extreme splatter glee usually reserved for "horror" movies. And just what is the message here? The Christian way is useless? Might is right? Mow all injustices down with firepower?
Glad however to see our censors were so lenient with this one - only a disembowellment scene is cut. Then again, to take out all the gruesome bits would have cut the movie down to half its length.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed this. The battles are done vividly and brutally and recalls Hamburger Hill (a Viet War movie I liked) and of course, the intro of "Saving Private Ryan". When the climactic battle ended, I was hoping for more. I have to say I liked all the Rambo movies and this one is no exception. Pretty good piece of farce to escape from the dreariness of ordinary life, even if the subject is no laughing matter.

Finally got round to buying the Dylan stuff everybody else likes but left me pretty cold, and the studio version of Tommy:-

John Wesley Harding - Dylan

A huge letdown after Blonde on Blonde but still an enjoyable romp. Gave it a wide berth the first time I heard it cos it's nothing like Blonde on Blonde. On hindsight and upon getting older, this is not such a bad collection of stripped down rootsy folk, even if the songs are a bit repetitive as they are mainly just verses with no choruses to speak of. The original version of "All Along the Watchtower" is also pretty bare and unremarkable and Hendrix's version is THE definitive one. Fave song here - "I Dreamed I saw St. Augustine".

Nashville Skyline - Dylan

Also didn't get this last time, due to its country-rock leanings and its shortness (27 minutes). Again, very enjoyable nonetheless. Shame that Dylan only adopted that gruffy baritone for one album only as it's a nice break from his whiny and sandpaper vocals. Girl from the North Country rolls along nicely although I still prefer the version from Freewheelin'. My fave song here is One More Night which hits the country-rock parts that the Byrds cannot reach.

Street Legal - Dylan

My fave of the three I got, cos it's a lot more nearer to the sound of Slow Train Coming (one of my Dylan favourites), which came out a year later. I already have Changing of the Guards and Senor and liked both so it's no surprise I like this album a lot. With horns and gospel-like backing vocals, the Angry Jew used the same formula more successfully on its successor.

Tommy - The Who

I didn't like the live version that much (second disc on the expanded Live at Leeds) but got this and was pleasantly surprised. Because their band dynamics hasn't changed that much from Sell Out! And also this one uses the original tinny bare-assed mix from the IBC Studios master tapes (which is closer to the vinyl version I heard) and not the beefed-up sound that other CDs use. One thing I really like about this is that I can learn the entire album on guitar and play it end to end without losing much as there are hardly any overdubs. The linking songs are prettier (It's a Boy, Miracle Cure) but the best melody here is the "See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You" bit which crops up everywhere. Still find the concept overblown and pretentious and incomprehensible, but glad to hear "Cousin Kevin" which wasn't on the live disc. The lyrics booklet is also jumbled up (intentionally?).

Another one I got is the Psychedelic Furs comp which isn't that good, as I liked the (fewer) noisier cramped-up mix of the early songs (Highwire Days, Dumb Waiters) rather than the (quite abundant) pretty almost synth-pop hits later on (Heaven, Heartbreak Beat).

Tetsuo : Iron Man & etc.

Shinya Tsukamoto's chef d'ouevre. I didn't like this much when I caught it on British TV and am still in spilt mind about it. Sure, it bodes for the future with some innovative stroytelling but the message is kinda garbled. Same for the incongruent ending which is everything and the kitchen sink thrown on the lead character. Worth watching for the penis drill alone, if nothing else. And the pipe insertion into the ass looks painful. Techno-fetishism, anyone? Great soundtrack if repetitive.

As soon as I finish the Twin Peaks box set, Zatoichi and Tetsuo 2, I'll be making a trip to get Kwaidan, Bad Boy Bubby (not on the shelf but in the catalogue, still categorised as porn, though) and A Canterbury Tale (they have some Powell and Pressburger).