Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Well, November’s over, you’ve got less than a month to shop for Christmas, and yet, here’s one of those reeeeeeeeeally quiet weeks in terms of what’s being released. So quiet that it’s a little odd. I’m not used to having only eleven entries on a list for the week, but that’s the way the release schedule works out sometimes.
I’ve been busy posting some new reviews over at the DVD blog, so if you’ve got some time, stop by and check them out. In the last week, you’ll find reviews of FRENZY, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, LIFEBOAT, and later today, you’ll see reviews for a great new WHO LIVE triple disc, MARNIE, FAMILY PLOT, the BAD NEWS BEARS remake, and many more. You’ll also find some news and links that are only on that site, so join the thousands who are already visiting daily and help kickstart even more conversations.
Right now, let’s get to the new titles. If something’s got an asterisk (*) beside it, that means we’ve had a chance to check it out here at the Labs. If not, then I’ll be hunting down a copy for myself sometime this week, probably during one of my many runs to Amoeba.
*CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON
I’m not a huge fan of procedural TV, and on the occasions I do watch it, I’ll pick a LAW & ORDER over a CSI most of the time. However, I did tune in for the season finale of CSI last year to see what Quentin Tarantino had done with it, and I thought it was a pretty entertaining couple of hours of TV. Flipping around the rest of this box set, I’ll say this for CSI… it’s one slick show. DVD makes it look and sound even better, and fans are going to love the wealth of extras, including commentaries on nine of the episodes, a couple of different behind-the-scenes features including “CSI: Tarantino Style,” and an eight-part breakdown of the reality of forensic science versus what you see on TV. It’s a solid set, if a wee bit on the pricey side.
DON’T GO IN THE HOUSE
I’ve probably seen the trailer for this film ten times or so on the bigscreen thanks to Tim League and the Alamo Drafthouse. Most recently, it was shown on one of the evenings of the QT Fest, and as always, it got a huge response from the crowd. This looks like an ugly, brutal, primal horror film about a guy who keeps women in a steel room under his house where he tortures them with a flamethrower. What better present for the holiday season to show someone you really care? I’ll be picking up a copy for myself, and one for my writing partner, who’s currently doing some work on his house to put in a steel room of his very own. Unfortunately, all the reviews I’ve read seem to suggest that this transfer is spectacularly shitty, which can be a kick in the nuts. I was thrilled when I picked up A FISTFUL OF TALONS recently, only to find that it looks like it was shot through a slice of ham before being transferred to DVD, so if you’re a stickler for image quality, you might consider renting this before you buy it.
FAMILY GUY VOLUME 3
Y’know, every time I mention FAMILY GUY, it seems to cause figurative fists to fly, so let me try one last time. I think FAMILY GUY is fitfully funny. I think there are moments where the show can be hilarious. I do think the pop culture references become numbing after a certain point, but that’s my particular taste. I wish Seth McFarlane and his writers didn’t use them as a crutch so much, when the moments that tend to really work are the surreal non-sequiturs and the character humor. I haven’t watched much of the show since its return to Fox, mainly because it’s got a rotten time slot, but I’ll catch up with it on DVD. For hardcore fans, this is a no-brainer purchase this week, and my mixed reaction will get me cursed at once again. Oh, well...
THE FRIGHTENERS: DIRECTOR’S CUT
I’m dying to get my hands on this one and check out all the bonus materials that have been included. Although it sounds like they didn’t bring over every single bit of the amazing laserdisc-only 4.5 hour documentary about the making of this film, it does sound like they included more than anyone expected. One of the few movie posters I actually took the time to frame and put up here at the Labs, out of the thousand or so I have rolled in tubes in the closet, is that gorgeous FRIGHTENERS one-sheet with the skull pushing out of it, signed by Peter Jackson and Jeff Combs a few weeks before the film opened. I was a big fan of the script, and I really like the film. Still, the idea of getting to see a new edit of it and finally seeing all that behind-the-scenes stuff is a blast, and I’m hoping the renewed interest in all things relating to Peter Jackson help this film finally find a wider audience than it did when it was released. Also, you’ll get a free ticket to KING KONG when you buy the film, so I assume that makes the decision even easier.
*HAVOC: UNRATED
Also known to the vast majority of our readership as “that movie where the PRINCESS DIARIES chick shows her titties,” and if that’s all you want from the film, then get out your lotion and hit the store tomorrow. You won’t be disappointed. However, this is an ambitious, if not completely successful, film that deserves more respect than it’s gotten since it was produced. This title’s been sitting on the shelf for a while over at Miramax, and it seems to me like ever since Bob and Harvey Weinstein announced their split from the company, the vault doors have been thrown open, and we’ve seen a lot of long-lost titles starting to finally make their way to video. HAVOC was directed by Barbara Kopple, an Academy Award-winning documentarian, and it was co-written by Stephen Gaghan, writer/director of this year’s pulverizing SYRIANA. This is a film about kids who watch the thug lifestyle on TV and think they know what it’s all about, leading them to seek out the real thing. These are kids from good families, kids who have grown up with anything they want, who pass their time by experimenting with drugs and their own sexuality. When Allison (Anne Hathaway) and Emily (Bijou Philips) meet Hector (SIX FEET UNDER’s Freddy Rodriguez, nearly unrecognizable here), they are drawn to the aura of danger around him, never realizing how serious his world is, or how hard it will be to escape.
The film’s not totally successful, but having lived in LA for fifteen years now, I can say that they got the youth of LA pretty much dead-on accurate. There’s a frightening mix of maturity and absolutely childishness that many kids in LA possess, and this film really points up the inherent dangers to that mix. There are some nice performances here, including Hathaway’s. She’s playing a hollowed-out girl looking for some experience that will affect her, and as a result, she’s hard to sympathize with. Bijou Philips is a tabloid favorite, but she’s actually the one you end up feeling sorry for by the last third of the film. The best work is by Rodriguez, who will make you forget his character on SIX FEET UNDER completely. The problem is that the film doesn’t really have a narrative spine to hang the individual moments together, and so the impact ends up being greatly muted. Still, if you’re one of those people who picks it up just so you can ogle Hathaway, you’ll be surprised by the film, and if you’re looking for a dark, challenging drama that bites off more than it can chew, HAVOC fits the bill.
KING KONG VS GODZILLA / KING KONG ESCAPES
Ishiro Honda is pretty much the mack daddy of “Man In Suit!” movies, and he actually managed to make two films that incorporated King Kong into the world of kaiju. The first, KING KONG VS GODZILLA, was released in 1962, and despite years of apocryphal reports traded fanboy to fanboy, he didn’t shoot a different ending to show each of the title characters victorious. Kong was always meant to be the winner of this showdown, and the film’s obviously been created with him as the hero. This film breaks from Toho tradition in many ways. It was the first movie to show Godzilla (or Kong) in color. It’s one of the few Toho films to incorporate any stop-motion material in bringing the monsters to life, even if only for a few scenes, which is appropriate since Willis O’Brien was the one who originally had the idea of teaming Kong up against other monsters. It’s a fun film, but I’m curious which cut they’re releasing. The American version was pretty much chopped to shreds, and besides, it’s more fun to say the title of the Japanese version: KINGUKONGU TAI GOJIRA.
In ’67, Honda brought Kong back again, but not in a sequel to his earlier film. You know those crappy KONG cartoons that Harry mentioned in his most recent DVD column? Well, this film was a live-action tie-in to those cartoons. I prefer this one because it’s got a variety of kaiju fights, featuring Kong, a giant MechaKong, a sea snake, and Gorosaurus. Honda’s obviously having fun with both of these movies, and the only question I have in picking these up tomorrow is print quality and presentation. If anyone’s already seen the disc, let me know how they are. Otherwise, I’ll write up a review for the blog sometime soon.
*MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
Y’know, I’m not surprised at all about the success of MARCH OF THE PENGUINS at the box-office this year. In fact, I called it early.
It’s not the best documentary of the year. Heck, it’s not even the best documentary being released on DVD today. But it’s the sort of film that anyone can watch, and that trailer sold it as a family experience. I think there’s something sort of great about people turning out en masse for what is essentially a 21st Century version of those Disney True-Life Adventure films I grew up watching. You don’t see a lot of nature documentaries get theatrical play these days, and especially not with a major marketing push from Warner Bros. The most interesting part of the DVD, especially if you’ve already seen the movie, is the behind-the-scenes stuff, where you get a real sense of what a nightmare it must have been to capture all of this on film. I wish they had included the option of watching the original international cut of the film with the dubbed voices for the penguins, just so I could see how it played, but the choice to have Morgan “Smooth Voice” Freeman narrate the American version was one of the shrewdest things that Warner Independent did. And best of all, Warner Bros. included a classic Looney Tunes short on the disc, “8 Ball Bunny.” Picture and sound quality are rock solid, and it’s a really nice package for fans of the film.
*MR. & MRS. SMITH
I missed this one in the theater this summer, so I was excited to see it when it showed up here at the Labs a few weeks ago. It was one of those discs where there’s a constant burn-in in huge letters across the screen though, “PROPERTY OF FOX HOME VIDEO PUBLICITY,” so I was only able to sit through about 30 minutes or so. I’ll try it again with the release version of the disc, because what I saw, I liked a lot. In fact, none of what I saw even mentioned the fact that these two were assassins, which was a surprise. Normally, high-concept films these days have so little faith in the audience that they leap right to the high concept and skip things like character or set-up. MR & MRS SMITH is obviously playing things very light, but still, there was a sense in that first half-hour that the film had a pulse, and there was obvious chemistry between the leads. I’m looking forward to also watching the film with the commentary by Simon Kinberg and Doug Liman. Kinberg managed to stay involved with this film all the way through the development process, something that’s rare on a film of this size, and even when other writers were brought in to work on it, the project always ended up coming back to Kinberg. It speaks well of him, and of New Regency for letting it happen. There are also two other commentaries on the disc, but no sign of Brangelina. Once I do see the whole film, I’ll review it, but until then, consider me sufficiently curious.
*THE MUPPET MOVIE
*THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER
*THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL
*MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND
It’s been a good year for Jim Henson fans as far as DVD is concerned. I know that all of these films have been released previously on DVD, but as part of the 50th anniversary of Kermit the Frog, they’ve all been cleaned up.
THE MUPPET MOVIE is still the best of the bunch, no question about it. Fast, silly, all over the place, and jammed with some crazy star cameos, this is the movie that really turned the Muppets into an international phenomenon, coming hot on the heels of their hit syndicated show. THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER’s got a better narrative, and it’s still very funny, but all that story slows down some of the madcap pace that made the first film so great. THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL and MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND really aren’t anywhere near as good as the other two films, but they’re solid family fare, and they all four look great in these new releases. If you need more convincing to pick up these films, then they’re not for you. Personally, I’m pleased to have them looking this good finally.
MURDERBALL
Man, I dig this movie. Mark Zupan is the single most charismatic figure I’ve seen on film this year, real or fictional, and he’s just one of the fascinating characters you’ll meet in this hard-nosed documentary about how life with a disability does not mean giving up one single bit of “normalcy.” This movie transcends its subject matter by simply introducing you to some vexingly human people. They’ve got rough edges. They’re not perfect. They can be frustrating at times or infuriating. Joe Soares, the film’s other major character, comes across as a real prick at times, but so does Zupan. The thing is, the filmmakers never once seem to feel the need to pretty up what we’re seeing, and they don’t softpedal the way these guys really are. It’s the ultimate sign of respect, and the film is stronger for it. I haven’t seen this disc yet, but I can’t wait to get it and revisit a film that really hit me hard the first time I saw it, and if you missed it, then run to the store today. You’ll thank me later.
*SKY HIGH
Finally, there’s this live-action Disney release making its way to shelves today. I know Harry flipped for it when it came out in theaters, but I missed it until last week. It impressed me with its casting, its gentle sense of humor, its obvious affection for the genre, and with its visual acumen. It’s not THE INCREDIBLES, but it’s also not trying to be. It really is a modern throwback to all those films that Kurt Russell made for Disney in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and as such, it’s a winner.
In the next few weeks, I’m preparing a fairly major article that looks at where DVD is right now, where the format is headed, the best new and catalog titles in 2005, things I’ve been hearing about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and titles that we still haven’t seen find their way onto home video, even after the landslide of releases in the last few years. If you’ve got anything to say about any of those topics, make sure you get in touch with me at the e-mail address below. Right now, the entire industry is sort of holding its breath, trying to figure out where the business is headed, and I think the discussion is as important now as it’s ever been. In the meantime, keep stopping by the blog, and I’ll see you back here next week. Until then…
"Moriarty" out.
