Physical media,thift stores,junk stores and why I am up early on Friday and Saturday mornings

 

Ever since I started working back when  I was 15 I have been a collector of movies on whatever physical media I can get. And  I never really stopped buying.Even back 6 years ago when I started streaming I still buy dvds/blu rays and 4Ks. 

And I would have people that asked me why. Why are you still buying them when you can just stream the movie? Why do I have more dvds than most stores that sell them?

Why? Cause many reasons. First off when I stream say Snakes on a Plane all I get is the movie. Not the commentary,not the deleted scenes. Just the film. Secondly I never know when for example Airheads will leave streaming. Not that long ago I saw Airheads was streaming on Hulu. Cool I want to watch it. Watched it and enjoyed it again. Maybe 3 weeks later want to watch it again but now it isn't streaming. 

Noticed over the past 5 months more and more people talking about how they are rebuilding their DVD library. Guessing people just sold off their DVDs once they started streaming. Dumb idea.

And right now is the time to get back into physical media. Once a week I make a circuit of the pawn shops,junkstores and thrift shops.  And depending on the store prices can be as cheap as 50 cents a dvd/blu ray,all the way up to buck per dvd and 3 bucks for blu ray.

As to why I am up early on  Friday and Saturdays...the best junkstore in the area is only open those two days. Opens at 8am and gotta be there early to  get the  deals. Like  how recently I got 4 seasons,two of them still sealed and new, of Everybody Loves Raymond on  DVD. 50 cents a season. Less than a week after buying them I had the two sealed season sets sold and  made a 14 buck profit. Which of course got usedd the next week on more cheap DVDs.

And that picture at the top. That is a new blu ray from Terror Vision. A small boutique company. And somehow they got a deal to get that one film into big box stores,like Walmart. So to support a small company and hopefully make it where more smaller companies can get stuff into mass market stores I grabbed that movie sight unseen. Turned out to be a good movie.

Now I gotta finish getting dressed cause it is time to hit my secret junkstore and see what I find. 

Supreme Blue Rose

 

TITLE-Supreme Blue Rose

PUBLISHER-Image

Supreme is an oddity when it comes to 90s boom creations. Sure he got 40+ issues before Alan Moore took over and revamped the title into a critical success. I read maybe the first 3 issues of that run. Skipped the Moore run. Then  finally in 2009 or 2010 thanks to Inter Library Loan I got the two TPBs from Checker Books that reprinted all of Moore's Supreme run. 

I was surprised at how good it was. Having read most of Moore's previous work at Image,and only really enjoying 1963,Supreme was a love letter to Silver Age Superman. And  much better one that the IMO Highly over rated All Star Superman.

Thanks to no one wanting them and their reputation of being total crap,plus the early stuff having huge print runs,over the course of about 5 years I managed to get a full run of the pre Moore Supreme.

It was not long after finishing that run that I saw the solicits for the Supreme Blue Rose mini series. My plan at the tiime was to just get scans of each issue. Then  grab the TPB once that was out. Got the scans read and loved it. Then  forgot to grab the TPB until sometime in summer of 2023.

Written by Warren  Ellis and with amazing art from Tula Lotay. And that art. Pastels and this chalk or crayon like texture to most of the colors. The art fits the odd nature of the story.

An out of work reporter is hired to find out about a plane crash in Littlehaven. Hired by a man with the same name as Supreme's lead villain,a Lex Luthor like mad scientist.

Using the Supremacy idea that Alan Moore created(The Supremacy is a pocket dimension where all the previous versions of Supreme live.) Warren Ellis creates a story that reads like David Lynch and Jordorosky teamed up. And Vince Mcmahon/Hulk Hogan No Holds Barred style spent a weekend in a  hotel with a typewriter and possibly some chemical help and created this insane story.

A story that not only keeps all the previous Supreme stuff in cannon but adds to the concepts Alan Moore came up with in the other Extreme/Awesome comics he wrote.

Being only 7 issues, and having not read it since it was coming out monthly,I had forgotten how unlike most modern comics this isn't a fast read. Even with more than a few pages that are either double page splashes,that look amazing. Or sometimes 3 or 4 pages of no dialogue,just gorgeous art that tells the story.

From what I can see as of writing this is the newest Supreme stuff. One good thing about how Warren Ellis wraps up this mini is the next creative team can take what happens here and build on it. Or just ignore it and either way works.

Now I am not sure how well this reads to anyone that at least doesnt know the basics about Alan Moore's Supreme run. This re-read,which I did in  a doctor's waiting room one cold rainy day,I noticed how much stuff from the pre Moore run is referenced.

Looked and unless you just gotta have the issues it is much much cheaper and easier to order this as a TPB.

Supreme Blue Rose gets a B+.

Born in East L.A.

 

TITLE-Born in East L.A.

SOURCE-Universal Double Feature DVD

Was sure I had seen this. Remember the video store poster vividly. And not that long ago found the above pictured DVD Double Feature new cheap. 

Wanted something funny to watch and put on Born in East L.A. and maybe 15 minutes into the movie realized I had never seen it and was getting it mixed up with the other film Cheech made ,Shrimp on the Barbie.

Cheech  is sent to go pick up his cousin at factory. This is the same day that INS is raiding this factory. Cheech didn't grab his wallet when he left his home. Has no ID and no one is at his home to bring him his ID. 

Cheech gets deported and is now stuck in Mexico. And he is a Chicano who speaks almost no Spanish.

Based on Cheech's parody song,of the same name,this was Marin attempt at a solo comedic film career. Him and Chong had a falling  out and Cheech kept acting.

So we got Cheech in Mexico and at first he tries sneaking across the border. Like hiding in the fridge of a motorhome driven by an old white couple. Guess what they are drug smugglers so the drug dogs at the border smell the drugs. The Border guard find Cheech and he is back to square one.

Daniel Stern plays a ppool hall owner who is also a coyote. Cheech ends up working at the pool hall,doing various jobs,to earn enough to pay to be snuck across the border.

While working at this pool hall/strip club/bar Cheech meets and falls in love with a waitress. And on his last night in Mexico he finds out she is also in  love with him.

The next morning Cheech gets into the truck that is gonna bring him back into the US. A couple shows up,but only the husband has enough money to make the trip. Cheech gets up and gives his spot to the wife. 

Cut to  the hill  by the border. We see the two US border patrol guys in their truck having lunch. Then up on top the hill is Cheech,the waitress and Daniel Stern. Then they are joined by what appears to be 2000 more people. As they all rush the border Neil Diamond's Coming to America plays.

Cheech and his lady make it across with Border patrol on their ass. They end up in the middle of a Cinco De Mayo parade. Where a nearby Priest marries them right before INS gets to them. THey try to deport Cheech's new wife but can't now cause she is married to a citizen.

While it isn't as wild as the Cheech & Chong films,this isn't bad. I was laughing hard many times. With some of the best parts is when Cheech is trying to teach a group of Asian guys,one of whom is a young film debut Jason Scott Lee,how to "act like a vato". So when they go across the border they don't stand out.

Did some reasearch and seems the TV edit of the film adds in a pile of cut scenes. Need to track down that version.

For the buck I paid I am more than happy with this.

Born in East L.A. gets a B+

Tank

 

TITLE-Tank

SOURCE-DVD Rip off PLEX

It's odd how memory works. I doubt I have seen this movie since 85 or 86. But I remembered the last 10 minutes of the film clearly.

Released in 1984 starring Jame Garner and Shirley Jones,plus a young C Thomas Howell,this is a story about Garner who is in the Army. He is nearing retirement age. All he wants to do is spend time with his one son and finish his contract. They just moved to a new base in rural Georgia.

All is well until Garner goes to a local bar. Where he learns the sheriff deputy runs a brothel out of some trailers behind the bar. This all snowballs into the deputy planting drugs in Garner's son's school locker. So Garner ,the hooker(played by Jennilee Harrison) hop in the Sherman tank Garner owns. Break out the son and are heading to the GA/TN state line.

Fairly simple plot. And it is a movie that if I hadn't seen it as a kid I doubt I would have watched it again the other night. What saves this film is the acting. Jame Garner is a guy I have enjoyed in pretty much everything I have seen him in. I was surprised with Jennilee Harrison. Only having seen her short run on 3s company. She shows more range in this film than she ever did on that show.

So that ending part that I remembered? The mayor of the town with the hookers and corrupt deputy has set up a trap for Garner and his tank. They block the road with 18 wheelers. And the field the tank tries to cross is muddy. The Tank gets stuck. And somehow the Mayor has gotten a anti tank rocket launcher. Which misses.

Thankfully a local biker bar had this story on the tv. So the biker gang comes and using a piece of heavy construction equipment drags the tank across the state line.

Yea this is nothing I will go watch more than once every 30 years. Not that is it a bad film. It made for a fun movie night. 

Tank gets a C+