By This weekend is your last chance to pick up the perfect gift. You’ve got Hanukkah ending today and Christmas just a over a week away. You’ve been struggling to get the perfect gift for that film buff in your life. They already own every movie ever so what the heck can you buy them?
Plenty, that’s what. There’s a ton of great stuff out there for everyone to pick up that related to movies. We’ve got the greatest gift guide ever (until we do one next year) below. It features some awesome stuff for the crazy film buff in your life. Whether they want to watch movies, make movies or simply read about them we’ve got you covered.
For whatever reason, a large portion of the music that I listen to in my life is soundtrack related. Sometimes it’s videogame soundtracks, other times it’s movie or musical soundtracks. I listen to soundtracks while I do work to make it seem more important or just to set some kind of mood. You know what sets a great mood? James Bond. The 50 Years – 50 Tracks collection has the main themes from the first 22 Bond films (the lack of Adele’s “Skyfall” is noticeable and unfortunate) and a whole bunch of orchestral renditions of other songs from the films. Whether you’re a Bondophile or not (I’m not), it’s still a damn good collection. If only to make whatever you do feel a little bit more like international espionage, and who doesn’t want that? – Alec Kubas-Meyer
So you’ve got begun to assemble THE LARGEST MOVIE COLLECTION OF ALL TIME, but you’re running out of space to keep all of your cases, aren’t you? Fear not, because my 2012 Holiday Gift Guide Suggestion™ is the Atlantic Nestable 52 Disc Tower. With a very stylish gunmetal finish, a slim design, and room to fit not only DVDs, but Blu-Rays, PS3, 360, and Wii games, it’s currently on sale at Amazon. Be wary, though, because the slots are a bit too wide for Blu-Rays to fit snugly, but as long as you don’t bump it around, your collection of Air Bud (we won’t tell) movies will be well-protected. – Geoff Henao
Film criticism can do more than tell you if a move’s worth watching. Sometimes ideas take hold and the criticism becomes an essay on something beyond the film. Or sometimes the writing is just fun to read. If you enjoy reading criticism, you should really consider American Movie Critics: From the Silents Until Now, an anthology edited by Philip Lopate. (Lopate also edited The Art of the Personal Essay, another fine anthology.) The book retails for $24.95 in paperback and $40.00 in hardcover, but is well worth the cost in either format.
American Movie Critics is more than 800 pages long and features reviews spanning from the silent era to 2005. Well-known critics like James Agee, Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Roger Ebert, and A.O. Scott get entries. What’s equally fascinating are the other writers included, whether they’re well-known film types like Paul Schrader who started as a film critic, or fim critics that are rarely read by those not in the know. (How many of your friends have heard of Manny Farber, for instance?) Lopate also includes literary giants like H.L. Mencken, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, and John Ashbery. (On that note, The Graham Greene Film Reader is also worth checking out if you dig Greene’s writing.) If you’re unable to get a new copy of American Film Critics, used copies can be easily found online for your cherished cineaste bookworm. – Hubert Vigilla
This one isn’t for the cinephile so much as it is for the budding filmmaker. In order to make a movie, you obviously need a camera, and Canon DSLRs are really the way to go. For the price, you get damn good photograph cameras and damn great video cameras. Some are more user friendly than others (the T4i/650D, for example, added a touch screen for usability), but they are all pretty good. I’ve been using a T2i/550D for years, and it takes great video, significantly better than actual prosumer video cameras that cost three times as much. If you download Magic Lantern (and you must), the amount of amazing features it adds is incredible, and it’s free (as in both beer and speech). You have to choose what model you want based on what each one offers (e.g. 5Ds offer a full frame sensor, but 7Ds can shoot stills at 8fps), but if you do some research (and pick up a nifty fifty while you’re at it), you’ll be blown away by just how good your little indie projects can look. – Alec Kubas-Meyer
In case you missed our in-depth look at artist Olly Moss’ book Silhouettes of Popular Culture, allow me to explain why this is a good holiday gift for your favorite pop-culture nerd. The book not only looks nice, it’s also a conversation starter. It’s surprisingly interactive for a book with basically only pictures in it because part of the fun of it is trying to recognize or guess each character. Trust me, this is sure to break the ice at those painfully structured or awkward family get-togethers this holiday. For the same reasons, Silhouettes is also a good coffee table book that your gift recipients will keep on display year-round to seem relevant and hip. Olly Moss is also a young rising star in the art world, so by giving the gift of his book to someone this holiday, it’ll make you seem like you actually know about popular culture, like the kids these days! With all of the above, and the fact that it’s pretty economical, Silhouettes of Popular Culture by Olly Moss will make a great gift this holiday season. – Liz Rugg
This one is aimed towards a very specific market, one that I’m not entirely sure Flixist caters to: the rather wealthy. 4K displays are still expensive as hell ($5,500 for the cheapest one money can buy, as far as I can tell), and they act as a showpiece more than anything, because so little 4K content exists to be consumed. RED, makers of the cameras that have shot everything from last year’s excellent Beginners to the upcoming The Hobbit, has decided to fix that. The REDRAY player is a $1,450 box that native plays 4K files and will upscale old content as well. What makes this one especially notable though is its ability to play back 3D at high frame rates (48 or 60 fps), which will make this player the only real way to properly watch The Hobbit once it’s left theaters. The REDRAY is part of a two-pronged attack, the second part of which has yet to get release info. It’s going to be a sub-$10,000 (so probably $9,999.99) projector capable of playing all of the things that the player can output, which is going to make quite the combo, since those features are extremely rare even within the 4K display space. This is the most bleeding-edge player on the market, so if you can afford it, why not treat yourself? – Alec Kubas-Meyer
Let’s say you don’t necessary want a billion dollar camera or books, but don’t know exactly how to spend your money. “Hey Nick, how do I get the most childlike wonder for my buck and still look cool for the ladies/manfolk?” you’ll ask. And I’ll answer, “Get off my porch you bum, and go by yourself some LEGO!” for serious though, this year LEGO released a good amount of Avengers and Lord of the Rings sets to catch the eye of everyone everywhere (not including all of the existing Star Wars products. That’s a big deal this year, right?). Both of the sets will cost you about 40-45 dollars each (at Target at least), but they make smaller sets for those of you who want a LEGO Frodo and Gandalf, but don’t want to spend more than ten dollars. Out of the two, I suggest the Helicarrier set a bit more because it’s got a LEGO version of the Hulk. That’s so cool, man. – Nick Valdez
