Psychedelic

Pink Floyd - The Wall

In celebration of the quarter-century anniversary, Columbia Records is releasing a special limited edition DVD of this landmark film. Packaged in a deluxe DVD digi-pak designed to look like The Wall with debossed brick work and a clear O-card, this stunning release features a photo montage of film shots and a fold-out reproduction of the original film promotional poster. All the artwork and design for this lavish packaging has been coordinated by original Pink Floyd designers Peter Curzon and Storm Thorgerson. Track Listing: 1.Original film presented in high-definition widescreen and mixed in 5.1 surround sound 2."The Other Side Of The Wall" - a 25 minute documentary about the making of the film 3."Retrospective" - an exclusive 45 minute retrospective documentary of interviews with Roger Waters, Alan Parker, Gerald Scarfe, Peter Biziou, Alan Marshall and James Guthrie 4.Original film trailer and production stills
Price: $18.91

The Monkees - Head

Mint condition disc and cover of the Monkee's cult classic. Region 1 (USA & CANADA)
Price: $11.12

Brazil

Terry Gilliam's stunning look at a bleak totalitarian future is filled with incredible scenes and imagery. A lowly bureaucrat (Jonathan Pryce), trying to escape reality in his daydreams, becomes involved in a plot that includes renegade repairmen, government tortures and anti-state terrorists. Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin and Robert De Niro also star. Restored version; 143 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital Surround; Subtitles: French, Spanish.
Price: $6.66

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

This 1968 oddity is probably a film only a total Beatlemaniac could love, but it carries both musical and historical resonance. It also gives intimations of what would happen in the next 30 years as artists gained more and more power over how they were presented. The roots of virtually any rock star's vanity project (including Prince's Under the Cherry Moon) can be traced to this little Liverpudlian home movie. Fresh from the success of their films A Hard Day's Night and Help!, and still under the influence of the intoxicants of the era, the Beatles set out to make their own fancifully psychedelic project. What they got out of it was, essentially, a knock-off album with a few good songs and a lot of filler, which is more than can be said for this alternately self-indulgent and mildly amusing British version of Ken Kesey's magic bus tour. Using some of their favorite actors (including Victor Spinetti, who was in their first two movies), the Beatles make an alternative British travelogue, stopping occasionally to sing songs like "I Am the Walrus" and "The Fool on the Hill." Strictly for completists. --Marshall Fine
Price: $24.99

Altered States

A mind-blowing science-fiction/fantasy experience by pseudonymous writer Paddy Chayefsky and director Ken Russell. Scientists using drugs and deprivation tanks to study human consciousness and race memory unleash incredible powers that run the gamut of the evolutionary chain. William Hurt, Blair Brown, Charles Haid star; look for Drew Barrymore in her film debut. 103 min. Standard and Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: English, French; TV spots; theatrical trailers.
Price: $3.98

The Criterion Collection 3-Disc Boxed Set

If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, Brazil was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unraveling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labeled as a miscreant.

The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. This DVD version of Brazil is the special director's cut that first appeared in Criterion's comprehensive (and expensive) six-disc laser package in 1996. Although the DVD (at a fraction of the price) doesn't include that set's many extras, it's still a bargain. --Jim Emerson

Price: $27.94

Reefer Madness

Although it was made in 1936, Reefer Madness didn't become a cult hit until 1972 when the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) rescued it from the Library of Congress film archive. Thereafter, it was a mainstay on the midnight movie circuit. And it's easy to see why. The ostensible story involves a group of upstanding young high school students who succumb to the allure of the "killer weed." What follows, as if by natural progression, is a catalog of crimes that includes hit-and-run driving, loose morals, rape, murder, suicide, and my personal favorite, permanent insanity! The action is at times so hysterical, in both senses, that you may forget to inhale. Honors go to the wild-eyed, cackling hophead David O'Brien; his performance reaches a raw intensity that is hard to imagine. One measure of this film's pervasive influence is the extent to which its title continues to be invoked in news stories about decriminalization and medical marijuana. Such posterity for unintentional humor must be rare. A great film to see stoned, man. --Jim Gay
Price: $3.70

Mantis in Lace

Look out, it's Lila! A sweet-faced topless go-go dancer, Lila loves mixing S-E-X with L-S-D. Trouble is, when she starts hallucinating, she sees flashing lights and swirling colors. The freaked-out Lila then grabs a handy meat cleaver and promptly hacks up her lovers in an acid-fueled frenzy. A mesmerizing mix of murder and madness from producer Harry Novak (Please Don't Eat My Mother), this edition of "Mantis in Lace" is the premiere of the rare, uncut version, digitally remastered from the original 35mm hallucinogenic negative. Outta sight, baby. PLUS: Over 100 minutes of never-before-seen outtakes, Trailer for this and other Something Weird titles, Alternate psychedelic murder sequence; Three archival short subjects: Sid Davis' classic classroom scare film "LSD: Trip or Trap," "Alice Goes to Acidland" and "Girl In a Cage;" Gallery of Harry Novak exploitation art; Harry Novak radio-spot rarities
Price: $21.50