DVD Diggers

Welcome back to another edition of DVD Diggers, taking place in a West End town in a Dead End World, with East End Boys and West End Girls.

It’s ‘80s week at DVD Diggers! The decade of material possessions and parachute pants is taking the week by storm. What better way to celebrate that than with the first season of “ALF”! That’s right, “Alf” is on DVD baby! The big furball complained and complained about his hit show not being available, and made it happen (you know he complained because he includes those complaints on the DVD Menus – calls to his agent, the network, etc). Some of you are sitting there wondering, “What’s an Alf?” Others are counting down the hours until the stores open Tuesday morning so you can bask in the joy that is Alf. Still yet others could care less and are moving past this part of the column. I suppose I should too.

Where would the ‘80s be without the evilness of Kiefer Sutherland? Kiefer’s best film, The Lost Boys finally gets some respect with a 2 disk DVD Special Edition this week. Believe it or not, this is even Bluntchop’s Pick of the Week! A mainstream movie picked by Blunt. It’s gotta be good. It has everything you need – Kiefer, the two Coreys, vampires… ah, who am I kidding. If you haven’t seen this one by now there isn’t much I can say to sell you on it. If you like The Lost Boys’s Jamie Gertz though, another ‘80’s release this week is Crossroads. No, this isn’t that Britney Spear’s flick. Instead of teen sensation Britney Spears you get teen sensation Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid). Yeah, Ralph Macchio was a teen sensation. Hey, it was the ‘80s! We didn’t have cute schoolgirls dancing around half-naked to “Kiss Me Baby One More Time”. We had Ralph Macchio. Hmmm… truly the world is a better place now.

During the ‘80s Thursday night television was dominated by Bill Cosby. Well, his television show isn’t coming to DVD (at least not yet – give it time though *shudder*). However, Cosby’s greatest stand up comedy bit, Bill Cosby: Himself is coming out, and it’s about time. I’ve probably heard this two hour routine half a dozen times by now, but I always seen to find new stuff in it that I’d previously forgotten, and it always makes me laugh. Cosby tackles alcohol and parenting with humor and makes it funnier then most stuff coming out these days – and cleaner too. Some great stand up comedy for the whole family to enjoy!

If you thought that was a stretch to keep things in the ‘80s week wait until you read this one. Remember those great National Lampoon Vacation movies of the ‘80s? Well, hold onto those memories dearly. Ripping off the Vacation concept is Johnson Family Vacation with Cedric the Entertainer. I think I know why Cedric is “the Entertainer”. Would you reveal your last name If you released a movie that was being beaten in presells by Hillary Duff: In Concert – The Girl Can Rock on Amazon? You can’t blame him for ripping off an old concept from National Lampoon though, it certainly wouldn’t make any sense to rip off a new one. The great people at National Lampoon haven’t put out a good movie in years. In fact, I’ve never even heard of the one coming out this week, National Lampoon presents Dorm Daze. Get it – daze instead of days? It implies some sort of drug humor! (Because just saying “National Lampoon presents” doesn’t imply that enough already). The DVD is available Rated-R or “Unrated”. Why? If it’s a film nobody’s even heard of, why bother putting two editions out?

Finally, remember… hmmm… well, there’s really no good way to tie this last release in to ‘80s week, so jump back in the time machine to modern day and look for Kill Bill: Volume 2. I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t care much for Kill Bill: Volume 1. It had some cool action, but not much in the way of signature Tarantino dialog or character work. Well, all of that is in Volume 2. If you saw the first one and missed this one then rent it. If you missed the first one… well, wait a bit. Soon they’ll be putting out both movies recombined in a super DVD set. So while it’s a cool movie, I guess it’s really better as a rental until the next version comes out. Gotta love double-dipping.