Customer Reviews

DVD Delirium: The International Guide to Weird and Wonderful Films on DVD, Vol. 3

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased the first two volumes of this series at a local store here in Vancouver for $45.00 each and thought I had a bargain with the quality I found in them. But when I found that there was a third volume available from Amazon for one third of the local price, I jumped at the chance to buy. The first volume has been revised (and if you have the unrevised first edition, the second edition contains `120 pages of new material), but if you are into the type of films covered in these books, they are worth their weight in gold. Each film begins with a look at the disc's technical specs: color, year, running time, director, stars and finally dvd manufacturer and region availability. Then follows a synopsis of the plot, followed by a discussion of each disc's technical merits. These include aspect ratios, color, sound and what king of extras can be found on each disc. For example, I wanted to buy the film "Cube", but I couldn't find a copy in Vancouver, so I drove to Seattle and found a copy there. Having looked the film up in these books, I'm glad I had to drive south. It seems the Canadian disc is a bare bones affair: no extras except the trailer. The American disc on the other hand has tons of extras. This kind of information is hard to find anywhere else. These books will also stand up to constant use as they are very well bound. The only drawback that I have found is that they list films that I very much want, but aren't available in my region. Oh well, at least I know they're out there somewhere. These are excellent guides and at the price Amazon is asking, worth every penny.

I have to agree with other reviewers who say this is a valuable film resource. The book details available copies of movies with their aspect ratios and a brief description of their virtues or failings, and has an index to titles. It loses points with me, though, on both selection of material and the index. I believe all resource guides to film should have more than one listing in their index, at least by director and maybe cast or even alternative titles. In addition while the selection here highlights somewhat off-beat material, I looked in vain for several well-known international movies in the comprehensive index for volumes 1-3. So we have Eyes Without A Face (1959) and Black Belly Of The Tarantula (1971), but no Tampopo, Uzumaki, or Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter. In fact, a lot of these titles are better indexed and reviewed in other publications: do we really need another rundown of titles like Basic Instinct and Jurassic Park 3?

For the quality of the reviews and DVD details, as well as the slight reach this book makes to some more obscure titles, I give it a "good" rating of four stars, but would have liked to see a better index, less coverage of average or blockbuster titles, and more coverage of the truly obscure or "hidden gems."

One series that offers more comprehensive international coverage of specific genres is the Overlook Film Encyclopedia series:

The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction (The Overlook Film Encyclopedia Series)

One standard work that has superior indexing and covers all well-known titles and some obscure ones:

Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever 2010 (Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever)

This series is up to four volumes, each of which is packed with details of hundreds of movies. For each flick, there's a listing of major cast and crew members, a plot summary and review, and loads of information about various DVD releases. The contributors will tell you all about the assorted aspect ratios, soundtrack options, subtitles, commentaries, extras, Easter eggs, and picture quality, and they'll advise you which DVD version is the most awesome. They often comment on how the DVDs stack up to the original prints--whether the color has remained true, how grainy the picture is, what kind of damage has crept into the transfer, what scenes were deleted or added, and so forth. Sometimes the amount of data they provide is daunting, especially when they begin to hold forth on the virtues of obscure Burmese DVD releases of Euro art films from the Soviet bloc in the Sixties and such-like.

Be advised that virtually none of the films covered are mainstream films, at least by American tastes. It's a lot of genre stuff (science fiction, fantasy, horror, grindhouse/exploitation, and so forth), plus oodles of foreign material, mostly Italian, French, and Japanese. It seems as if virtually every giallo and Italo-Spanish zombie movie ever created is listed in one of these volumes, along with the more surrealistic stuff from Japan. The editors also have an amazing obsession with Chabrol and basically go through everything he's ever done, although it's not quite clear why.

These books are one of the best film resources I've encountered and you can spend days going through them. Very much worth the price and highly recommended.

The third installment in this series (a fourth has just been released) continues the tradition upheld in previous volumes of this highly valuable (but not yet quite priceless) reference tool. It's listed, characterized and self-referenced as a 'cult film / reference' book by both its author and publisher, 'The international guide to weird and wonderful films on DVD', and true to form, there are a treasure trove of highly unusual, cult, Eurohorror, Asian cyberpunk, forgotten flicks, oddities, gothic gems, slasher and splatterfest, Italian gaillos and crime dramas, surreal, gorehouse, arthouse, schlockhouse and exploitation oddities as well as some cinema of yesteryear that warrants searching for. On the merit of these inclusions alone, it's to die for and somewhat invaluable to those who want to know more about non-mainstream films and directors.

However, the term "All killer and no filler" isn't applicable here by any stretch of the imagination, I'm sorry to state, and this is true of all volumes. Although cited in the introduction that "A major studio film can be included, of course, provided that it has some kind of oddball twist that makes it worthwhile", the deluge of films that don't belong here under any circumstances is the book's biggest liability. It's completely unnecessary padding that ultimately detracts from the entire series by watering down the intensity of the voluminous amount of desirable content. Take these 'meat by-products' out, and we're left with a significantly stronger series of cinematic sapphires and gems without the baubles and celluloid costume jewelry. I'm aware this sounds hyper-critical, but bear with me for a moment.

If you're reading this review, presumably you are a fan of these types of flicks that fall below most radar screens, correct? So, it's a given that you possess some knowledge of main stream manure and Hollywood dung droppings, yes? I thought so. Then here's a partial list of the reviewed titles I consider warrantless so you can decide if I'm being harsh in my appraisal - 'Airplane', 'Saw', 'Bad Santa', 1933's 'King Kong', 'Basic Instinct', 'Catwoman', 'Spider Man 2', 'Big Fish', 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider', 'Batman Begins', 'Sin City', 'Phone Booth', Ang Lee's 'Hulk', 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', 'Talented Mr. Ripley', 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', 'House of Wax' remake w/Paris Hilton, 'Taking Lives', 'Open Water', 'Pirates of the Caribbean', 'C.H.O.M.P.S.', 'The Ghost and Mr. Chicken' and other animated kiddie fare like 'Batman and Mr. Freeze: Subzero', 'Batman: Mask of the Phantasm', 'Batman: Mask of the Batwoman', not one but 14 Sherlock Holmes flicks from the late 30's-40's starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Greene, 'Freddy Vs. Jason', - am I making my point yet? (I tallied up 70 movies in this volume alone I couldn't reconcile being included herein). If you're unaware of these titles, not only are you no film lover, but you must dwell in an underground bunker or have shared a room with Anne Frank.

Regardless, at 618 pages of reviews, the vast bulk of the book contains films even mongers, mavens, militants and mutated movie lovers will be unaware of to one degree or another, so the sanctity and significance of this digest is salvation for all celluloid souls alike, in spite of my criticisms. No matter whom you are or what you might think you know, there's something to add to that database of movie minutiae you've been cultivating and refining.

A vast majority of the major players in the production and reintroduction of such releases are plumbed nicely too - labels like Mondo Macabro, Synapse, Blue Underground, ArtsMagic, Cult Epics, Media Blasters, the sadly defunct NoShame label (always a fave of mine, and apparently the authors as well), Dark Sky, Tokyo Shock, Tartan, Shriek Show, etc. are all showcased reviews. As it should be.

Regrettably, I have two more peeves to put forth; one minor, the other not so much. First, the bulk of reviews in this volume have gotten rather long and suffer from TV's "Just the facts, Ma'am" utterance from 'Dragnet's Sgt. Joe Friday - extremely bad films are dissected to the extreme and are difficult to hold one's attention steadily as we already know they are wretched. Yes, sometimes 'less is more'. Some are too bland, sterile and lack personality while trying to remain too objective - in short, they're not opinionated enough. After reading, you still don't know whether the flick warrants attention or not. My personal thought (though you may feel differently) is that a review should steer you towards or away from a film for the most part, unless the film's motive was unusually ambiguous. One notable exception is Tim Greaves, who injects sufficient sarcasm, humor and additional insight more so (usually) than most reviewers assembled here. My minor peeve is that there is too much attention spent sometimes in the specs, bonuses and details in the various editions that have been released worldwide. Don't get me wrong, most of this info is helpful, but a page of it is overkill after sitting out a tedious synopsis. Again, you may feel differently.

After all my petty grievances, is this book worth getting? The price isn't too steep, and all knowledge comes at a cost, right? After my disclosures and nit-picking, I believe it is, but I hope I've provided enough of a review for you to decide for yourself whether to steer towards or away from this volume - if so, I've done my job...

This is a wonderful book. I am a certified DVD addict, favoring extreme, exploitation, wild, wonderful, and off-the-radar films. This voluminous gem is volume 3 and totally awesome. This book has been an invaluable guide into opening my already wide-eyes to a number of amazing films that I had never even heard off...

My favorite feature of this delicious book is the index, which handily indexes all three volumes.

The information provided in this book has paid for itself many times over. The reviews are very well written and informative...

The things that this book does better than any others I have encountered thus far, is that it explains and clarifies the differences amongst the different releases for the same film wonderfully. 'DVD Delirium' has saved me countless dollars, and has ceaselessly pointed me to the proper version of my favorite Italian Zombie films and Exploitation gems. There are so many versions of some of these films, that blindly picking the right one is a virtually impossibility without some authoritative help. This guide provides just that flawlessly...

The film selection within is exquisite: classics, foreign films, horror, exploitation, and just plain awesome films that managed to hide from us discerning addicts are all described perfectly...

The only drawback to purchasing this fantastic guide, is that it will invariably cause you to spend far too much money on DVD's... Good Luck!

The third volume in this great set is just as indespencible as the other two. The details given are very important to someone like me (in the horror film industry). I can not wait for the fourth.

Tony Bernardini
Horror Theater Video (dot com)