Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Today’s not a huge day for DVD releases, but it’s also not the sort of day you can completely write off. There are some cool obscurities coming out, and some TV on DVD worth owning, and a few films I can’t even really define. If you’re more interested in reviews than in the new release list, you might check in over at my new DVD blog, where there are several reviews a day being posted right now, including my takes on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SEASON ONE, VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, and some overlooked gems like THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE and MY SUMMER OF LOVE.
As always, anything on my list that’s got an (*) asterisk by the title is already here in the house. Everything else on the list is going to have to wait until I can get over to Amoeba later today. With that in mind, let’s dig in:
DUTCH GIRLS
I haven’t seen this one, but it’s got a young Colin Firth and a young Timothy Spall as two of a group of English boys who use a soccer trip to Holland as an excuse to try and get a piece of the titular characters. Director Giles Foster also made CONSUMING PASSIONS, which I liked, and if I show this to Mrs. Moriarty, I’ll get bonus points for feeding her Colin Firth addiction. Besides, for around $15, I can’t go too wrong.
THE EDUKATORS
This sounds like a wicked little slice of anarchy, a la FIGHT CLUB, but without the slick that $70 million buys you. A group of friends begin to break into rich people’s homes to “adjust” their environments, leaving behind the same note each time: “You have too much money.” I always complain that we don’t see enough German films in the US, so I’ll check this one out for sure.
FANTASY ISLAND: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
”Boss! The plane! The plane!” Man, this was a big part of my childhood. I remember Saturday nights and having to sit through THE LOVE BOAT to get to FANTASY ISLAND, which is the show I was really interested in. I remember enjoying the darker stories more than the romantic stories, but since there were always multiple plots unfolding, you never have to sit through something you don’t like for very long. I have no doubt that this will play like total cheese when I see it now, but I look forward to dealing with the nostalgia shock.
*FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY/CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER
Mondo Macabro is one of those small cult labels that puts out some truly deranged movies, and this double-feature disc is one of the weirdest things to end up in my mailbox in recent memory. First up, there’s FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY, a deranged James Bond ripoff starring Weng Weng, a two-and-a-half foot tall Filipino guy who runs around in a SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER style white suit and does kung-fu. You really can’t begin to get a taste of how weird this one is without watching it, and once you do, you’ll probably have to show it to a friend immediately just so someone else can understand your random laughing jags in the days that follow. The second film on the disc is called CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER here, but it appears to be listed as GYMKATA KILLER on the IMDb. It’s one of the many films to star Bruce Le, one of the many guys who cashed in on Bruce Lee’s death by using a not-so-subtle version of his name. It’s not worth the effort it took to track that other title down, but who cares? You’ve got Weng Weng on DVD finally, and that’s more than worth picking up.
THE HAROLD LLOYD COMEDY COLLECTION
Well, comedy fans, this is the one you have to get today. No question about it. Harold Lloyd is my second-favorite silent comic, after the great Buster Keaton, and I think he’s frequently underrated. “Safety Last” is the most famous film that Lloyd ever made, but this seven-disc set features nearly 30 of Lloyd’s movies, and there are plenty of films here that I look forward to seeing for the first time. It looks like New Line put together some commentaries and other extras, and once I get a chance to dig in, I’ll review the entire set.
*LAST ROUND
The first thing I noticed when I opened this DVD from NoShame Films was the second bonus disc, which is officially The Coolest Fucking Thing Ever. For today, anyway. The complete title of the bonus disc is... deep breath now...
... THE ULTIMATE ECLECTIC CINEDELIC EXPERIENCE: FUNKY COPS & HARD-BOILED GIRLS (AS PERFORMED BY ENTROPIA). Sorta rolls off the tongue, no? Forget the title. This album is excellent, and if you're a score geek, this is fun. Pure and simple. They've taken tracks from all sorts of Italian Crime Movies and they've done them as electronica tracks, complete with sound effects and dialogue from the original films. In order, the tracks are:
"Black Jack" from SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL (by Luciano Michelini)
"Drug Addict" from SPECIAL COP IN ACTION (by Franco Micalizzi)
"La Mala Ordina" from HIT MAN aka THE ITALIAN CONNECTION (by Armando Trovajoli)
"Mara's Theme" from FOREVER EMANUELLE (by Franco Micalizzi)
"Il Libanese" from HIGH CRIME (by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis)
"Milano Odia: La Polizia Non Puo' Sparare" from ALMOST HUMAN (by Ennio Morricone)
"La Polizia Ha Le Mani Legate" from KILLER COP (by Stelvio Cipriani)
"Affanno" from ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON (by Franco Micalizzi)
It's one of those albums that I knew I was going to love by about 40 seconds into track one. I love the sound of it. I love the themes. Italian scores are some of the best in the world, and it's because there's a theatrical baroque emotionalism to them, even the ones for softcore porn and violent exploitation. Especially those, in some cases.
As for the film itself, this stars Carlos Monzon, a former middleweight boxing champion from Argentina, a guy some people consider one of the best middleweights ever, as a variation on the whole Man With No Name thing. This is basically YOJIMBO or A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, retold again, and it's a nice riff on the material. There are a number of great moments and lines here ("Tonight, you'll take your mother's place" made me cackle), and the film ends strong. It's got a great score by Luis Bacalov, whose name should be familar to fans of KILL BILL.
What really blew my mind while watching, though, was when my wife walked into the room and saw Manzon onscreen. She's from Argentina, and she's the one who told me what a huge boxer this guy was, and how he was so famous when she was growing up. She mentioned that he used to be linked by the tabloids to Susanna Gimenez, who now hosts a talk show that my wife watches all the time. These days, she's like this grandmother who everyone's afraid to tell to stop dressing sexy, but in 1976, she was a pretty famous pin-up there. As she's telling me all this, suddenly Susanna appears onscreen in the movie as well, as the mistress to one of the gangsters that Monzon is setting up. Blew my mind, because I see this woman all the time on TV whenever my wife watches her, and now suddenly here she is in one of my exploitation films. Just one of those moments where the world seems a little smaller.
As always, the disc looks and sounds really nice. No Shame has a disclaimer at the start about how they tried to find the best possible print, and this one was restored, but it's still imperfect. Don't sweat it. This looks better than I'm willing to bet any 35mm print of this film will ever look again. Another of the bonus features is a visit to the antique store of Luc Merenda, the main villain of the film. He's such a fucking bastard in the movie that he actually rapes a blind girl. In the special feature, he's revealed as this elegant old European living in Paris and running a store, which seems even more ironic when you read the extensive liner notes and see that Monzon, the film's hero, ended his life in jail, where he was sent for killing his wife. If you love this genre, pick this one up. You won’t be sorry.
*A MAN CALLED MAGNUM
The only one of the new NoShame Italian crime titles that I haven’t watched yet, this one’s distinguished by the fact that it was written by Dardano Sacchetti, who also wrote CAT O’NINE TAILS, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, and THE BEYOND. This one will definitely make it into the rotation in the next week or so.
MURDER ONE: SEASON TWO
The first season of this show stands as one of my favorite seasons of any show ever, and one of the great uses of the episodic format in my opinion. This second season never quite hit the same heights as the first, but it still featured a strong cast and some really dynamic cases. Looking at a show like 24 these days, it’s obvious that MURDER ONE was just ahead of its time, and changing the format only hastened its cancellation. Still, for fans, this is worth picking up to round out the collection, and to serve as a lesson of what happens when the network’s lack of confidence undermines the creative impulses that make a show special in the first place.
*NEWSFRONT
A real treat for fans of Australian cinema, or for anyone interested in some of the great oddball footnotes in the history of cinema overall. Philip Noyce directed this story of dueling teams of newsreel producers in the ‘40s and ‘50s. It’s told using real period footage that is cannily blended in with the new material, and it tells a compelling story about pioneers, guys who would do almost anything for a story. Much was made of the way Martin Scorsese’s filmmaking style gradually changed from era to era in THE AVIATOR last year, but Noyce did the same thing nearly 30 years ago in this film, and it’s pretty remarkable to watch. Blue Underground’s packed a stunning amount of extra features onto this disc, and it’s a revelation even if you’re already familiar with the movie. I highly recommend this one.
O.C. & STIGGS
One of the weirdest films that Robert Altman ever released, and that’s saying something. Based loosely on an issue of NAT’L LAMPOON, this is the story of two total morons who torment a local family for no good reason. Altman doesn’t even try to make his two young leads into likeable people. He just lets them be pricks, and much of the humor comes from the lengths they’ll go to in their efforts to make Paul Dooley crazy. King Sunny Ade provides some great soundtrack music, and there’s plenty of anti-social behavior on display to enjoy. And thanks to MGM, you’ll find this for around $10 in most places.
*OLD YELLER/SAVAGE SAM
If you have any heart at all, you probably had it broken at some point by the ending of OLD YELLER. This is unabashedly sentimental Disney live-action kiddie fare, but it’s a classic example of the genre, and dog lovers worldwide should keep this on their shelf. It’s a simple story about a boy named Travis (Disney regular Tommy Kirk) who adopts a pup and raises him as his best friend. SAVAGE SAM follows Kirk years later, when he adopts another pup, and it’s basically an imitation of the original, but decent in its own right. Disney’s put some cartoons and some interviews on the disc, but the main reason to pick it up is because the film’s never looked quite so pretty. Now you’ll be able to see it in crystal clarity as it makes you cry like a li’l girl. Not that I did... of course.
RIKKY & PETE
Another Australian film, but this one’s from the ‘80s, and it’s an eccentric comedy about a brother and sister that’s pretty hard to describe. He’s an inventor, and she’s a country-western singer. Together, they travel into the Outback and encounter various colorful characters. There’s more to it than that... but not much. It works because Stephen Kearney and Nina Landis make such engaging leads. I haven’t seen this one since it came out back in 1988, and I’m eager to see it again.
*SCRUBS: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
Another of those shows that I missed on TV for one reason or another, but which I’m enjoying tremendously now that it’s on DVD. Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Donald Faison, Judy Reyes, and the rest of the regular cast all do their jobs very well, but it’s the writing staff assembled by Bill Lawrence that made this show work from day one. The show’s got a fast and furious sense of humor, and it never dwells on anything too long. The sentiment that creeps in from time to time doesn’t feel forced, and the show knows how to deflate its own pretensions admirably when it needs to. As with Season One, Buena Vista’s packed a lot of extras onto the discs, and I’m still working my way through the whole package.
THE SKELETON KEY
I’m curious. Ehren Kruger drives me a little crazy, but I find that I’m compelled to see his films anyway just to see if maybe I’ve been too harsh on him in the past. In this case, Ian Softley directed, and I’m a huge fan of BACKBEAT, so I always want to give this guy a chance. I’m a sucker for even a halfway decent horror film, so I’m going into this hoping for the best, and I’ll review the Universal release when it arrives later this week.
*STEALTH
I was as open-minded as I could be with this one, and even so, there’s very little to recommend about Rob Cohen’s latest. I’ll give the FX team their due, because I think they did some pretty great work in places. A major character dies about halfway in, and the actual shot where he hits a mountain is both hilarious and harrowing at once. We’ve come a long way from FIREFOX in the visual FX department, but this is a painfully thin script that strands everyone, including Cohen. If you’re an FX junkie, I’d say it’s worth a rental. If you’re just looking to be entertained, you can skip this and never worry that you’ve missed a thing.
*THE ANDY SIDARIS COLLECTIONS
I will not attempt to explain the inclusion of these titles on this list. I will not justify my decision. I will simply say that the combination of Playboy Playmates, copious amounts of nudity, and some very silly sub-MAGNUM P.I. type storylines are fairly irresistible, and Andy Sidaris deserves some credit for his tireless crusade to put quality titties in the hands of the masses.
And on that note, I have to get back to transcribing. I’ve got so much stuff I’m working on for you guys, and Wolfgang Peterson’s accent is slowly but surely killing me as I try to get my POSEIDON set visit ready. Keep the faith, though, and check in all week. Until then...
"Moriarty" out.
