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Polish Curse in Burbank

As digital video has become a legitimate format for feature film production, we pause this week to look back on how home video has played a major part in the evolution of motion pictures over the past two decades or so. Remember, once EVIL DEAD was just a mad dream given life on 16mm film. Now it's a cottage industry, with a new special edition popping up on DVD every year.

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

This week, [IMG2R]our spotlight falls like the jawbone of a prop skeleton on a pair of early movies by video pioneer Mark Pirro. While working as a Universal Studios tour guide and part-time theater popcorn boy in 1980, Pirro had some success screening his Super-8 shorts at a local theater, which inspired him to go into full feature production, despite the fact that there was no way to market a Super-8 feature. But Pirro had timing on his side, and not just the comedic kind the hungry new mediums of home video and cable television made his modest movies hits:

[ ]     A POLISH VAMPIRE IN BURBANK (MTI) Shot over two years at a budget just over $2500, POLISH VAMPIRE became the little picture that could, raking in a half million dollars in video rentals. When star Eddie Deezen quit, Pirro rewrote the script to work around the finished footage and recast himself as the lead. Even with a digital clean up and a stereo soundtrack, it still looks like an old Super-8 movie, but that's just part of its charm.
[ ]     CURSE OF THE QUEERWOLF (MTI) Pirro expanded a popular one-joke character from his first film into this outrageous spoof of homophobia. Both DVDs include commentraks, deleted scenes, bloopers, and more.

NEW RELEASES

[ ]     ANGEL - The Complete First Season (Fox) No, [IMG3R]it's not the high school student by day, prostitute by night movie. And not the Hong Kong action series with Moon Lee either. It's everybody's favorite BUFFY spin-off, back before it got too melodramatic, with commentraks and more.
[ ]     BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946) (Criterion) Jean Cocteau's classic LE BELLE ET LA BETE gets the Criterion Collection treatment, including all the expected belles & whistles, including two commentraks, trailers, galleries, and a separate track with Philip Glass' opera version.
[ ]     BLOOD OF THE WEREWOLF (Delta) An anthology of werewolf tales.
[ ]     CHRISTMAS SEASON MASSACRE (Sub Rosa) Just in time for Valentine's Day! 2 commentraks; 2 featurettes; trailer.
[ ]     CONTAMINATION (Image) Luigi Cozzi's 1980 sci-fi splatterfest (aka ALIEN CONTAMINATION) about nasty pod-things that invade from Mars and make a huge disgusting mess. Includes interview, documentary, comics adaptation and more.
[ ]     THE COOK AND OTHER TREASURES (Milestone) Two Fatty Arbuckle shorts once thought lost, restored for DVD, along with Harold Lloyd's NUMBER PLEASE?
[ ]     DAREDEVIL VS. SPIDER-MAN (Buena Vista) Five episodes of Spider-man 1994 TV cartoon show, plus one 1995 FANTASTIC FOUR episode guest-starring DD, and a 1966 Spidey cartoon with Kingpin.
[ ]     THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Milestone) Great early Michael Powell (PEEPING TOM) drama, along with two shorts.
[ ]     THE FAST RUNNER (Columbia/Tri-Star) An Inuit warrior battles an evil spirit plaguing his village.
[ ]     LEGEND OF THE PHANTOM RIDER (MTI) Denise Crosby stars in this weird western.
[ ]     LIFE STINKS (MGM) Mel Brooks comedy about a rich jerk who tries to live among the common folk on a bet, and finds out... well, you know. Commentrak with Brooks, featurette, trailer.
[ ]     LIVING IN OBLIVION (Columbia/Tri-Star) Steve Buscemi stars as a director trying to make an independent film.
[ ]     THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (Anchor Bay) David Bowie stars as an alien stranger in a strange land who gets down to business. Previously on disc from Fox, this is a new 2-disc THX DTS special edition.
[ ]     THE MIND SNATCHERS (Image) Early Christopher Walken sci-fi outing from 1972 about soldiers used as guinea pigs in brain control research.
[ ]     MONSTER MAN (Delta) Aliens led by Conrad Brooks wipe out humans with a virus can the only two survivors fight back?
[ ]     MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING [IMG5R](HBO) Moms all over the country loved it, and now it's your chance to catch up with the sleeper hit of 2002 (before its inevitable sitcom sequel follows later this month). Typical Cinderella story transplanted to the Greek-American world of writer-star Nia Vardalos, and not bad at that. We'll reserve judgment on the sitcom though.
[ ]     MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Collection #2 (Rhino) Joel, Mike and the 'bots try to survive ANGELS REVENGE, CAVE DWELLERS, POD PEOPLE and a collection of shorts.
[ ]     THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (Image) This 1979 "remake" debuted in the USA as a TV movie, and tried to make a STAR WARS space opera out of the H.G. Wells original.
[ ]     WASABI (Columbia/Tri-Star) A Japanese action thriller made by Frenchmen, with Jean Reno.
[ ]     X-MEN 1.5 Collector's Edition (Fox) This re-release comes with a second disc full of extras.

ANIME ADDITIONS

And finally, we close off each weekly list with a rundown of the constant stream of anime imported from Japan:

[ ]     ALL PURPOSE CULTURAL CAT-GIRL NUKU NUKU Collection 1C: Complete (ADV)
[ ]     ANIMATED CLASSICS OF JAPANESE LITERATURE (Botchan: Parts 1 & 2 / Student Days) (Central Park Media) Catch up on your reading via subtitles.
[ ]     ANIMATED CLASSICS OF JAPANESE LITERATURE (The Harp of Burma: Parts 1 & 2 / Season of the Sun) (Central Park Media)
[ ]     ANIMATED CLASSICS OF JAPANESE LITERATURE (The Sound of Waves: Parts 1 & 2 / Growing Up) (Central Park Media)
[ ]     ANIMATED CLASSICS OF JAPANESE LITERATURE (The Izu Dancer / The Dancing Girl / A Ghost Story) (Central Park Media)
[ ]     ARIEL (Central Park Media)
[ ]     CHANCE POP [IMG4R]SESSION Vol 2: Session 2 (ADV)
[ ]     DNA 2: METAMORPHOSIS (Central Park Media)
[ ]     DRAGONBALL Z: Androids Box Set (FUNimation)
[ ]     DREAM HAZARD/PIANIST Double Feature (Central Park Media)
[ ]     GIGANTOR #2: episodes 27-52 (Rhino) Continuing the definitive presentation of the very first giant robot cartoon series with another 4-disc set; commentrak; more!
[ ]     HAND MAID MAY Box Set (Pioneer) includes extra CD-ROM; interviews; and May action figure!
[ ]     KIRBY - Kirby's Egg-cellent Adventure (FUNimation)
[ ]     LUPIN THE 3rd: DRAGON OF DOOM (FUNimation) Can't go wrong with Lupin.
[ ]     PATLABOR: THE MOBILE POLICE DVD Collection (Central Park Media) Complete TV series.
[ ]     PATLABOR: THE MOBILE POLICE TV Series Vol. 4 (Central Park Media)
[ ]     PROJECT ARMS: EYES OF FLAME - Vol. 3 (Pioneer)
[ ]     RANMA FOREVER: Wretched Rice Cakes of Love - Vol. 5 (Pioneer)
[ ]     STRAWBERRY EGGS #4: Absent (Pioneer)
[ ]     TWISTED TALES OF TOKYO (Central Park Media)
[ ]     ZOIDS: The Ultimate X (Pioneer)

And be sure to check back next weekand every weekfor CINESCAPE's DVD Shopping List!

DVD Shopping List is our weekly DVD column.