Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Today we’re going to start tweaking the format of this new-release list. I don’t want to run a review of a disc here, then run a separate one on the site as well. No point to it. What I want this to be for you from week to week is a list of the stuff that I personally think is the new stuff on the shelves that is either good or promising or terrible but fun or whatever. It’s not a comprehensive list of every single title that will be in stores that week... it’s just a list of the stuff I feel like focusing on. As a result, I’ll try to streamline the list so it’s easier to use. Tell me what you think in the talkbacks, and do the same in the individual reviews you’re seeing more of each week now. Your feedback’s going to help me figure out exactly how to make our DVD coverage work best here at AICN.
In the meantime, I’ll remind you since some of the talkbackers have already started saying, “Hey, that DVD you just reviewed isn’t brand-new,” that I plan on reviewing exactly what the column-name says: anything and everything that’s on my shelf. Eventually, I’d love to post reviews for every single thing here. It’ll never happen, but it’s a dream, so let me dream it. I’ve starting posting the reviews on a more regular basis, and it’s only going to get faster, so expect old stuff and new stuff alike. Having said that, on with this week’s titles:
CHARLIE CHAN COLLECTION 1
I bought the MGM “Chanthology” when it came out, but this Fox collection marks the debut of a fairly major restoration project. There are four great Chan films here as well as a rare Spanish-only Chan film called ERAN TRECE. Fox doesn’t have me on on their review lists anymore, so I’ll have to pick this up and review it in the weeks ahead.
CLARK GABLE: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION
Clark Gable’s career was sort of all over the place, and so is this box set. DANCING LADY, CHINA SEAS, SAN FRANCISCO, WIFE VS SECRETARY, BOOM TOWN, and MOGAMBO make up this six-pack of his films.
EIGHT BELOW
Paul Walker and dogs in Alaska. Isn’t that the very definition of entertainment?
EQUINOX (The Criterion Collection)
This is a weeeeeee tiny horror film from 1970 that was, like DARK STAR, a student film that ended up getting a theatrical release after some additional footage was shot. Why is this film significant? Check out the names of he people who provided the FX for this one: Dennis Muren. Jim Danforth. David Allen. This is a starting point for people whose work you know quite well, and it looks like Criterion has packed this thing full. I’ll review it as soon as I’ve seen it.
A FINE MADNESS
THE GANG THAT COULDN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT
I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS
THE LOVED ONE
PETULIA
Irvin Kershner directed this film, which features one of the more unconventional Sean Connery performances. This is part of a promotion that Warner Bros. is doing today with a series of unusual ‘60s comedies.
This is another of the Warner comedies, this one based on Jimmy Breslin’s best-seller about a turf war between some low-level mob goofballs and pretty much everyone else in Brooklyn. And check out De Niro as the preist on that cover!
There’s a pretty groovy documentary playing on Sundance right now called THE DRUG YEARS, which takes a look at the impact the drug culture had on the larger American culture, particularly in the ‘60s and ‘70s. This Peter Sellers film does much the same thing, but it features Sellers as a straight who gets seduced into the hippie lifestyle. It must have been shocking when it was released, but now, it’s a cute time capsule with a bitter edge, one more of the Warner comedy titles for this week.
This is one f’ed up movie, as the cover so gleefully announces. It features one of the few great Jonathan Winters performances, and Robert Morse anchors an otherwise completely unhinged cast in this jet-black comedy about the funeral business, part of the Warner comedy collection today.
The last of the five Warner comedy titles for today, this one, stars the ravishing Julie Christie at the very height of her stardom. Richard Lester, still riding high on the success of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, directed this trippy love story about a doctor, on the rebound from a divorce, who meets a dingbat who charms him immediately. George C. Scott is the doctor, and Julie Christie plays Petulia. This is a time capsule, set in the same era as ALICE B. TOKLAS, but this plays things serious, and to slightly more devastating effect. Great soundtrack, too, with some early Grateful Dead as a standout.
THE HILLS HAVE EYES (Unrated Edition)
THE OMEN: 2-DISC COLLECTOR’S EDITION
NIGHT WATCH
These three titles from Fox are an interesting group. One’s a remake. One’s just been remade. And the last one is going to be remade in the near future. Such is the state of our industry, I guess.
I enjoyed this one a lot when I reviewed it earlier this year, and I’m curious to see Aja’s unrated cut. He was evidently furious about having to trim the film, and even if the cuts only amounted to a couple of minutes, that particular couple of minutes made him feel like he gutted his movie. I find it hard to believe the film could be rougher than it was, so I’m looking forward to it.
Richard Donner’s supernatural thriller was just given the carbon copy treatment, but the original is still good trashy fun, elevated by the casting of Gregory Peck as a father having the worst day of his life. Fun stuff, and I’m curious to see what extras they’ve put together for this.
Finally, there’s NIGHT WATCH, the Russian-produced fantasy/horror film that was given a limited theatrical run last year. I saw the Russian version, but never had a chance to see what they did to it here. I think there are moments of great visual invention in NIGHT WATCH, but it’s damn near incoherent, so hopefully they did some work to fill in the story gaps with the subtitles and editing work.
THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD AND FOURTH SEASONS
JUSTICE LEAGUE: SEASON TWO
KRYPTO: THE SUPERDOG VOL. 1: COSMIC CANINE
LOIS & CLARK – THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON
LOOK UP IN THE SKY – THE AMAZING STORY OF SUPERMAN
SUPERMAN – THE ANIMATED SERIES, VOLUME THREE
SUPERBOY: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
It’s Superman day from Warner Home Video, and they have really gone full-blown super-crazy. There’s great stuff here and some vaguely wince-inducing stuff, too, but for superfans, this is the motherload.
If you love the black-and-white SUPERMAN television series, you’ll get two full seasons in this new box set. These shows are pretty much devoid of any real special effects, but they’re long on charm and personality. Definitely worth picking up.
I think this JUSTICE LEAGUE series may be one of the greatest superhero films or televisions shows ever produced. You want giant-scale superheroic action? This show delivers it in episode after episode after episode. I’m not sure we’ll ever see a feature film that has cross-overs like this, but really... does it matter after seeing someone get it this right?
I’ve never seen a single episode, but as I understand it, this is a kid’s show. Considering how much many of the animated DC shows skew toward adult audiences, I think that’s a good thing. They should have some that are expressly for kids, and Krypto’s a perfect candidate for that. I doubt any fanboys are getting upset about the sanctity of Krypto. And if you are... god help you.
Here’s one of the incarnations of Superman where they lose me. This show desperately wanted to be MOONLIGHTING in a cape. As I remember it, it wasn’t. Not even close.
This is a new documentary about the Superman character and the ways he’s appeared in various media over the years, which I haven’t seen yet, but which Harry reviewed right here. Right now, there’s some question about whether or not Warner Bros. is even going to let me see Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN RETURNS before it opens, so I guess if I want to see any of the movie, I’m watching stuff like this or those eleven clips that showed up online. Otherwise, I guess I have to sit the conversation about the film itself out completely. I’ll admit it, too... the way SUPERMAN has affected the community of online journalism, both in print and out of it, has shaken some of my long-held faith in that community. It’s discouraging... all of this over a movie. In the end, it’s a movie. It’s just a movie. It’s the latest chapter in the ongoing efforts to define and redefine this enduring icon. Singer’s is not the last word on Superman, no matter how great or how bad his film ends up being. Singer’s is just the latest voice, and it looks like this documentary sort of makes that point.
I’m giddy at the thought of the Fleischer animated Superman films finally being restored and buffed to a fine glow and given a deluxe treatment for release this fall, and in the meantime, I really, really like the most recent SUPERMAN animated series that Warner did. Much of the talent responsible for revitalizing Batman in animation took on the challenge of making DC’s other most important character into a similar show, and they managed to match the personality of the character with the shape of the show just as well as they did with Batman. This is an action show. This is a big sunny bright colorful action show. It’s got characters as primary colors, good and bad, and it’s got cosmic threats you never saw on B:TAS. Superman is super-powerful, a convincingly god-like being. And the characterizations of Clark and Lois are right on the money as well. These guys... all the writers and producers and directors... these guys definitely get it.
Finally, there’s this low-budget syndicated show that serves mainly to remind us just how low Superman stock was in the mid-‘80s. After QUEST FOR PEACE, Superman was a joke. The comics were atrophied, the movies were dead, and the best anyone could do was this ultra-cheap version. Having said that, I know it has some fans, but mainly, they seem to be people who were very young when the show first aired. Trust me... it wasn’t pretty.
NATE & HAYES
Why didn’t Michael O’Keefe happen?
I mean it. The guy was Danny Noonan, for chrissakes. He was Danny Noonan in CADDYSHACK, the kid who Ty Webb respected, the kid who stood up to Judge Smails. He was pretty goddamn cool in that movie, and it wasn’t his fault all his scenes with Maggie sucked. He should have been a star after that film. Hell, in a perfect world, he should have been a star after THE GREAT SANTINI. Remember that basketball scene? One of the great scenes in any film from the ‘80s. For some reason, he just didn’t happen. He was really good in SPLIT IMAGE, but no one saw it. And then there was this film, NATE & HAYES, which pretty much stopped him cold. He never made a good decision again, looks like. Hell, it’s nice to see him show up in garbage like THE HOT CHICK just because he was so damn good in those early films.
This is, of all things, a pirate movie starring Tommy Lee Jones. Made a few years after RAIDERS, this doesn’t really hide its influences very well. It’s an ‘80s film, through and through, with giant artifical sets like a Disney ride or like Altman’s POPEYE, and it’s a pretty old-fashioned adventure. It’s not bad, and when it was a cable mainstay, I remember watching it often. It’ll be interesting to see it again after all this time.
NEWSRADIO: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON
Okay, I’m not really sure how long this show was on the air. I know I was faithful to the bitter end. I see Phil Hartman on the cover there, so I guess he was still alive at this point. I still get choked up about Hartman’s death, and counting down these box sets is, in some weird and ghoulish way, like waiting for that moment to happen again, that insane announcement about how it happened. Heavy baggage for what it still one of the ten best sitcoms of the last 30 years. I’ll watch this whole thing in an afternoon. I know it. I hope Ted’s funeral is from one of this season’s episodes. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean. It’s a great, great moment, and just one of a thousand reasons I love this series.
SYRIANA
I loved this film, and I think it’s going to age very well. If you haven’t seen it, try it as just a thriller. It’s a spy movie. It’s about the way ripples are caused in the international community, and it’s pretty great. Not a lot of extras, but a disc worth picking up.
That’s it for today. I’ve got reviews popping up all week, both here on the DVD Shelf, and on the front page for movies, books, and even TV. I’m freakin’ EVERYWHERE, man. But until then...
"Moriarty" out.
