Walmart DVD finds

[trekgeezer]

Hey, I was running by Walmart today to pick up a couple of grocery items and they had a big $4.88 DVD display right in the front of the store.

I picked up "Vanishing Point: The Wide Screen Edition" and "Big Trouble in Little China" (also in wide screen).  They were by far the best choices, although they did have "Commando" and "Enemy Mine". I didn't see anything else I cared to own.

As usual when I am distracted by such things , I forgot the sausage I was supposed to pick up. Hey, I got 3 out of the 4 items I was supposed to get.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I haven't dug through the local WalMart's bin in a few weeks.  My wife keeps me away from it each time we go there.

I did see Commando in there when I walked by over the weekend.  I'd probably pick that one up.

Didn't realize they had Vanishing Point.  Is it the original or the Viggo one?  I love the original with a passion and it'd be awesome to get it on DVD.  Might have to slip away from my wife the next time we go shopping.

[akiratubo]

The copy of Vanishing Point I got from Wal-Mart has scan lines running through it, like they dubbed it off a decaying VHS tape.   

[trekgeezer]

I haven't dug through the local WalMart's bin in a few weeks.  My wife keeps me away from it each time we go there.

I did see Commando in there when I walked by over the weekend.  I'd probably pick that one up.

Didn't realize they had Vanishing Point.  Is it the original or the Viggo one?  I love the original with a passion and it'd be awesome to get it on DVD.  Might have to slip away from my wife the next time we go shopping.

These weren't in the usual $5.50 bin that all the Walmarts around here have. They were at the front of the store in a cardboard display stand for $4.88.

This is the original Vanishing Point and has a directors commentary and includes the US and UK versions of the film . Evidently the UK version has an additional sequence with Charlotte Rampling as a hitch hiker .
Haven't watched it yet, but I'll let you know about the quality.

[KYGOTC]

In the target discount bin, there is STAR ODDOSY and DESTROY ALL PLANETS.

[Ash]

I picked up "Flatliners" and "The Family Man" in the Wal-Mart cheap bin the other day.
I haven't seen Flatliners in years...since at least 1992.
Definitely looking forward to sitting down and watching that one.

[Menard]

The Vanishing Point DVD they have is the same one I bought a while ago, but I paid more for it. I didn't have scan lines in mine though; I wonder if it is just a defective copy you have, Akiratubo, or if they are selling a bad batch.

The Charlotte Rampling scene, which is included in the British edit on this DVD, is ...well...weird. It does not fit well with the rest of the movie, though it does provide some additional insight and also provides us with the answer as to how the police were tracking Kowalski.

[CoreyHeldpen]

Some DVDs I found at Wal-Mart are Altered (Loved it), Little Shop of Horrors (Loved it too), and Congo (Bleach! I'm ditching this at the next Garage Sale).

[Yaddo 42]

Picked up Vanishing Point there the other day, irritates me I rented it about a month ago, when I wanted to see it widescreen, instead of my old VHS copy on a dull weekend. At least I can watch it when I want now, in its full glory.

The scene in the UK version was odd and stuck out when watching it, plus I watched the film with the commentary on, which was interesting.

I made a point to not get any other movies at Wally World, I knew $4.88 per film could turn into $20 extra bucks quickly.

They had Hell is for Heroes at the one I went to. I was tempted, plus they had a couple of horror double features: One had The Body Snatcher with Boris Karloff. the other had Taste the Blood of Dracula. Don't remember what films they were paired with, I tried sticking copies further back in those cardboard shelves, but that won't stop anyone.

Before this the last film I got there was Marathon Man from the $5.50 black hole several weeks. Damn, was that thing picked over early on the 27th. That whole Wal-Mart was a disaster area even after the rampage of shopping on the 26th ended. Even the $1 movie rack was down to the dregs, Still plenty of copies of God's Gun/Kid Vengence in there, along with the cheap cartoons.

[trekgeezer]

Yeah, I watched the UK version last night and the Charlotte Rampling stuff does seem like it was tacked on and really didn't add anything. I also thought it interesting how the CHP was tracking him the whole time. Those looked like the little boxes they used to put on the highway to count traffic.

The disc I have definitely has nothing wrong with the picture quality. You can,however,  tell that they did the sound different back then. To me it sounds like they didn't loop anything and all the sound effects were  actual sounds.

[Menard]

...the Charlotte Rampling stuff does seem like it was tacked on and really didn't add anything.

The main thing that the scene added for me was something which flew in the face of that horrible remake. In the remake, they give Kowalski a first name: Jim. Thoughout the original, we have never heard him referred to anything other than as Kowalski. In the Charlotte Rampling scene, she specifically asks him if that is his only name to which he replies (paraphrased) 'first, last, and middle'.

[Yaddo 42]

Maybe I need to look at it again, but everytime I've watched it I've always gotten the impression they were tracking him the whole time. Even when he goes offroad, the tracks would easy to follow from the copter. I figured they were waiting him out rather than risk men and resources in the desert or wanted to run him to ground or force him to surrender with people watching since he was becoming a quickie folk hero according to the movie.

Which seemed odd as well. The time frame of the story is fairly short for it to reach most of the nation, especially before the days of cable news, etc.; and Super Soul was on a radio station in a small little desert town, just how far would his signal carry anyway? Wire services spreading the story?

I know some, including the director, hint at the telepathy-like link between Super Soul and Kowalski, but it seemed to only be one way, and Kowalski was wired up anyway so I figured he was thinking outside a "normal" frame of mind anyway.

Plus the remake gave him a higher purpose or goal, the daughter being born storyline. The original works better since he's a man with no real purpose (it all started from a pontless bet), cut loose from conventional society, no full name - he was a symbol people could project onto.

[Menard]

Vanishing Point is definitely an interesting movie from various aspects, but in particular in trying to define it. At times it seems allegorical in its context perhaps representing a movement of anti-authoritarianism gaining ground in a relatively short span of time with a public both rallying behind it and wanting to see it stopped. What flies in the face of its potential political context is that the writer of the story lived in England and was of Cuban/English desent.

In some ways it almost seems as though there is a Christ allegory to Kowalski (which would suggest an even more interesting allegory for Super Soul). In some ways, I felt that Dean Jagger's prospector character was an allegory for the devil; Kowalski crosses the desert, but it is the serpent collector who shows him the path back to the mundane world.

In some ways it seems, and is probably more of the case, that the movie just touches on enough, without really saying anything specifically, that its meaning is whatever the viewer ascribes to it.

On a side note: the ending of the movie was originally supposed to have Kowalski miraculously pass through the bulldozers. The producers of the movie did not feel that a viewing audience would accept that and made them change it to the ending with which we are now familiar.

[Pilgermann]

A few months ago I found a Village of the Damned (1960)/Children of the Damned double feature for $4.88.  I remember seeing Critters for the same price but passed on it.

I've found plenty of good things in the $5.50 bin, like Godzilla 2000, Fear/Parents (I haven't watched Fear but Parents is a weird little dark horror/comedy about a boy who suspects that his parents are cannibals.  The dad is played by Randy Quaid and he's actually kind of creepy in it.), When Worlds Collide, Batman (1966), Creepshow (although I think it's been there since the beginning of the $5.50 bin), and a number of other things I can't remember.

I haven't seen Vanishing Point, but it sounds interesting enough to buy.

[Andrew]

Welcome aboard Pilgermann.

Man, some of you all find hidden gold in the Walmart bins.  When I happen by there and check, it is always a bunch of mediocre crud.  I think my best find was "Barbarella" for about $2.  The films always seem to be fifty copies of "Dante's Peak" (or some such), sprinkled with a bunch of exercise videos and throwaway documentaries that I would probably not watch even on a slow TV night.