He actually got hooked by the BBC TV series, of all things. Which (combined with the Zork games) inspired him to buy the text-based video game, which inspired me to read the book, which inspired him to read the book, which was then thrust by him into the hands of my sister and brother when they were each old enough. It's all very circular.

Though how my mom managed to reach this point without ever reading it until now, I don't know.

Dawn, Easter Parade is available as a separate 2-disc set, but the five-film boxed set is very cool, and really very affordable. Band Wagon is also a 2-disc set, but the other three films are just one disc each and have comparatively few extras (but Finian's Rainbow does have commentary by Francis Ford Coppola).

Willie is in The Dukes of Hazzard? Is he playing a pot-smoking, whiskey-running, folksy-wise version of Uncle Jesse or something?

puts finger on nose and points at Mr. Industries.

I've only seen two of this guy's movies, and one of them was... okay but not exactly good (Mona Lisa Smile) and the other was eleven years ago (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and neither of them is remotely like a Harry Potter movie.

This was from a while ago, but Mike Newell also did Donnie Brasco (and Pushing Tin, which I have a bizarre fondness for).

five-film boxed set is very cool, and really very affordable

Ohhh Thanks! I think that I'ma get 'em

Finian's Rainbow

I have an unhealthy love for this movie...

Mike Newell also did Donnie Brasco

*lightbulb goes off*

I knew he'd done more than got mentioned above (but never got around to imdb). Pacino's last truely great performance, and one of Johnny's best. That's a director with range, I must say.

I think Slate had a piece about the MGM dual disc sets and how great they were. Not just the picture quality but also the extras and that there are two discs because whatever process they used to transfer the movies had more information so took up more space which meant the picture quality was fantastic.

I haven't watched any yet, but I'm planning on it.

The two movies I've recently watched were Men with Guns (with CKR) and Greenfingers (with Clive Owen). I haven't exactly finished either yet and I think I ruined Greenfingers by watching it the same time as Oz. I couldn't help but wonder how the characters would do after Adabisi or Schillinger got a hold of them.

Slate had a piece about the MGM dual disc sets and how great they were.

The Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 2-disc set has not only the Cinemascope version (on disc one, with a commentary by director Stanley Donen), but also the unseen-before-now "flat screen" version, which was filmed at the same time as the Cinemascope. Like Oklahoma (filmed in both Todd-AO and Cinemascope, IIRC), they had to use two separate cameras for the different film processes, and so doubled up the number of takes. Easter Parade has what looks to be a great American Masters bio of Judy Garland included on its second disc.

So, I'm doing some research so I can write a little background thing on Willie Nelson, and I pull up the imdb entry for The Dukes of Hazzard. I was trying to see if the boards said anything about the release date so I could add it to the background info. Dude. it's just wanking off in all directions Brittany vs. Jessica, I HATE JESSICA, JESSICA IS TEH AWSOM!!!, RACIST!, The Dukes never smoked pot!, I hate BURT REYNOLDS!!, BURT IS THE GREATEST ACTOR EVAH!~

Heather, stay FAR, FAR away from the IMDB comments for Kingdom of Heaven.

Oh man, I got sucked into the comments for Ju-on a few months back. I can only imagine how bad the arguments get when the evil creatures being discussed are teen idols rather than vengeful ghosts.