BIG LOTS, BIGGER DEALS: My Big Lots Closeout DVD Purchases for 12.06.10

I know, I know. Many of you may think you're "too good" for discount store Big Lots. I was once like you, until one day a year or two ago I wandered in and found so many great DVDeals. And while they always had great stuff, for some reason in the past six months, Big Lots' acquisitions have gone from great to insane in the membrane. Insane in the brain, if you will. They are getting real DVDs from real studios and, best of all, all for only three bucks! Here's my haul from this week--feel free to post yours in the comments!



The title of this posting is really a bit misleading: I've actually had this last batch of Big Lots buys sitting on my desk for a few weeks now. I was wanting to do one big post after checking out what Black Friday new additions BL had--they were supposed to get a few handfuls of recent television seasons for around $6 each, mostly of the CBS/Paramount/Showtime variety--but I never made it there and still haven't had a chance to peek in even though the store is only about ten or so blocks away and I need to pick up some dog food. Best laid plans and all that.

Either way, I need to clear this junk off my desk, so here's my most recent Big Lots purchases for kinda 12.06.10:

* PSYCHO II/PSYCHO III/PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING - Having recently watched the workmanlike extended DVD special-feature THE PSYCHO LEGACY, it utterly pained me to come to the realization that, even though I had seen the PSYCHO sequels, I had no memory whatsoever of their plots. I was considering going out and buying each entry individually when I happened upon this triple feature set at the Lots and, well, problem solved. Sadly, I still haven't found the time to watch any of them, which sucks, because I kinda remember Olivia Hussey being a total nutcase proto-MILF in PSYCHO IV and that might have influenced my choice in women about three time in my life.

* THE SPECIALIST - Here's another Stallone movie from that awkward mid-90s period of his where he was trying to find some sort of resonance in a cinematic world that was ultimately leaving action stalwarts like him and Schwarzenegger behind. It was the Nirvana/hair metal thing all over again, but with a bigger budget. Still, THE SPECIALIST is not really all that good, with Sly as ex-CIA explosives expert Ray Quick, hired to help empty-headed siren Sharon Stone (who is trying to get away with playing, I think, 21) get revenge on some hilariously over-Latinized mobsters. Thank goodness for Eric Roberts and James Woods, who obviously are having fun hamming it up. No thank goodness for the brutally explicit Stallone/Stone sex romp on a shower floor. Keep that ham to yourself, please.

* BODY AND SOUL - My number one rule of Big Lottin'? If you see a movie starring Leon Isaac Kennedy, you pick that sucker up, no questions asked.

* EL CANTANTE - Look: I'm a total sucker for music biopics. I don't care who it is or what type of music they did, I'll always watch it without reservation. I was never really familiar with salsa legend Hector Lavoe, but, knowing the typical biopic blueprint, I knew that I would be in store for the following: overwrought drug-usage, vases being thrown at a wall during a dramatic moment, sleazy adultery that would be rationalized by claiming that's what "life on the road" is like and fiery greatest hits musical numbers designed to showcase the soundtrack tie-in. And EL CANTANTE delivers all of that in the most entertainingly awful way possible! God bless you, agents and producers, for not knowing when to tell Jennifer Lopez "no"!

* CRUISING - Al Pacino infiltrates the highly stylized gay NYC leather-daddy scene--seriously, the whole thing looks like a still from a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition--to find a serial killer. Here's another film that has been on my list for years, having cloudy memories of watching it as a kid, and I was super-excited to find it, but still haven't been able to muster the time to watch the damn thing again. I noticed that it co-stars Paul Sorvino--him and Pacino don't fuck, right? OH GOD PAINFUL CHILDHOOD MEMORIES FLOODING BACK!

* UNDER THE CHERRY MOON - Much like the works of Steven Seagal, Big Lots has gone out of it's way to stock the complete filmography of His Royal Badness, Prince, for me. So far I've picked up PURPLE RAIN, GRAFFITI BRIDGE and, now, UNDER THE CHERRY MOON. All I need is SIGN "☮" THE TIMES to complete my collection...I'm waiting, Big Lots. * looks at watch, taps foot, humps a guitar *

* EVERY WHICH WAY BUT/ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN/HONKYTONK MAN and SPACE COWBOYS - You know, I just realized how many Clint Eastwood flicks I've picked up at Big Lots over the past few months. Here's a few of his best, including the two greatest redneck comedies this side of whatever Burt Reynolds was doing at the time. Which actually makes me wish that, instead of doing CITY HEAT, Clint and Burt teamed up for a Bandit/Beddoe crossover--Clyde the orangutan could've rode shotgun with the Snowman. There even could've been a hilarious scene where Clyde flips off Sheriff Buford T. Justice, who would in return make a mercilessly foul racial joke.

* CANNONBALL RUN II - Speaking of Burt Reynolds vehicles (and, I guess, Burt Reynolds in vehicles), I finally found a copy of the seminal CANNONBALL RUN II, starring number three on my list of youthful crushes, Marilu Henner. Between this and JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY, she was it for me the summer of '85 thanks to constant HBO replays and an early-developed interest in redheads with large breasts. Also, hey Criterion: when can the CANNONBALL flicks and the BANDIT movies get their proper due from you guys? I'd love to write the liner notes. I'd do it for free.