What a fascinating career Arnold Schwarzenegger has had. He started out as a bodybuilder, becoming one of the greatest weightlifters ever known. He got bit parts in various movies and then had a starring role in the documentary Pumping Iron which put him in the national spotlight. Within a few years, he had become one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, despite not being a particularly good actor or English being his first language. Then he became Mayor of California. He could have retired then and rested on his laurels, but here he is, pushing 80 years old and still making movies.
But this isn’t about some new movie he’s made. No, this week’s pick is about two movies he starred in when he was first starting out. Those early roles relied heavily on his muscular physique. He might not be able to act, and he’s got a heavy accent, they seem to say, but oh boy is he ever big.
I was a little too young to have seen Conan the Barbarian when it came out in 1982, and though I looked at it often in the video store I only recently watched it. I gotta say for a silly sword and sorcery movie it’s actually pretty good. I still haven’t seen the sequel Conan the Destroyer, but I suspect this new set from Arrow Video is gonna change that.
Arrow Video consistently puts out terrific editions of less-than-stellar movies. They clean up the prints, load them with special features, put them in a nice box, and throw in a fully loaded booklet. The Conan Chronicles does all of that and more and that’s why it is my pick of the week.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Trainspotting: Danny Boyle’s adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel is a mesmerizing, flashy, thoroughly entertaining film. Not something you expect from a film about heroin addiction. It is one of the definitive films of the 1990s and now Criterion is giving it a definitive home video release.
Danza Macabra: Volume Two — The Italian Gothic Collection: As the title implies this collection from Severin Films includes four gothic thrillers from Italy (Castle of Blood, Jekyll, They Have Changed Their Face, and The Devil’s Lover). I’m not familiar with any of them, but I love Italian genre cinema.
Forgotten Gialli: Volume 6: If you’ve been a fan of my blog for very long then you’ll know I’m a big fan of the Italian horror subgenre known as Giallo. Vinegar Syndrome includes three obscure (and also very likely not very good) Giallit in this set (Death Carries a Cane, Naked You Die, and The Bloodstained Shadow). Good or not color me interested.
Mudbound: Another Criterion release. This one is about two men returning home to rural Mississippi after serving in World War II where they deal with rampant racism and struggle to adjust to civilian life.
The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2: I guess I was a weird kid growing up because I love Abbott and Costello. I used to argue with my friends that they were better than The Three Stooges and my friends loved The Stooges. I imagine I’ve seen skits from the show, but I don’t know that I ever sat down and watched an episode. This should be fun.
Thanksgiving: A horror-themed Thanksgiving movie. How did it take them this long to think of that?
Joe’s Apartment: The old joke is that no one can remember when MTV actually played music videos. They did, I can attest, I remember those days. But they always had other content as well. At some point during my youth, they ran a short film called Joe’s Apartment about a guy who lived with a bunch of bugs who could talk and sing and acted like little, grubby humans. It was delightful. It was popular enough that they made a full-length feature film out of it which promptly bombed at the box office and was hated by everyone.
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