Friday, November 24, 2006
Review: The Fountain
Darren Aronofsky, the New York based filmmaker behind Pi and Requiem for a Dream, has now, after a six year break, emerged with The Fountain, a science fiction poem that uses the feelings and emotions of love between man and woman as ciphers to explore the often terrifying ideas and concepts of life, death, and the meaning behind them. The result is a work of cinema that not only deftly plays with the language of film, but one that challenges us to confront our own ideas of the finality of existence. Most importantly however, The Fountain allows us to revel in a possible glimpse of the absolute beauty inherent in something as unknown as death like only the magic and wonder of celluloid can provide.
I'm not going to break the "plot" of this film down for you. Sorry. There are, I'm sure, lots and lots of reviews on the internet that'll do that. What I do want to do is sort of just talk about the concepts, the themes, and the filmmaking on display here. For what it's worth, explaining the plot would be somewhat inconsequential since The Fountain is not concerned with narrative in the traditional sense. It's about sensory experience, metaphor, and again, poetry.
As I mentioned already, "love" is used a cipher to explore the concept of death in the film. Which is a brilliant way to go about it. With the exception of the love for a child or perhaps the love of family, there is nothing in a man's life as significant or important as the love for a woman. For me, a person who's deeply involved in both an emotional and spiritual sense to a very special woman, The Fountain touches on a key fear that plagues someone like me. The fear of losing that person. I've often wondered how a man can deal with the passing of a spouse. My grandfather, just last year to the day, lost his wife, my grandmother, to cancer. And for me, it's been a year of discovery in terms of emotion. Sadness. Joy. Fear. Acceptance. I, of course, can't help but correlate it to my own life. Like Hugh Jackman's character Tommy, I would go through hell and back if it meant finding a means to keep my loved one by my side for eternity. But The Fountain wants us to explore that even further. Is everlasting life really what we want? Is it what we need? "Death is a disease" is something that Tommy says, and it, along with the desperate desire to have his wife in his life forever, is the basis for why he does what he does. His refusal to allow the inevitable to come as a result of his wife (Rachel Weisz) Izzi's terminal disease is often frustrating because you want so much for Tommy to just be at peace. But of course, being in his shoe's changes the dynamic entirely, and one can't help but understand and empathize with the overwhelming human need to have hope. Hope for life to somehow find a way and to be spared the grief of loss. Or even the fear of what is beyond our existence and understanding.
The Fountain is an utterly moving piece. Not only because of the heavy themes it's touching on, but even more simply because of the visual grandeur on display in what's undoubtedly a film of complete and total intimacy. And isn't that so relatable? What would seem as the most insignificant moments of our lives in the eyes of others are to us the cornerstones of our existence, who we are, or who we want to be. For us, these moments are larger than life. And in memory, are peppered with all the beauty and grace our imaginations can muster. Aronofsky plays many of Tommy and Izzi's moments in this way. Moments that are visually connected throughout all three of the film's storylines in ways that are so subtle yet so wonderfully poetic. The specifics, I can't really get into without getting spoilery. I apologize. But, it's the feeling of transcendence one has when experiencing such moments that it'd probably be futile to explain anyway. As I said earlier, The Fountain is a film about sensory experience and metaphor.
I regret not having seen The Constant Gardner for two reasons. One (and unrelated to The Fountain), it was directed by Fernando Meirelles of City of God fame, among my very favorite films of all time. The second reason, it featured Rachel Weisz in what was apparently a career best performance. Well, I would certainly say that Darren Aronofsky has directed his real-life wife to what's probably another career best here in The Fountain as the character of Izzi/Isabel. Weisz is tasked with the job of being a woman who simultaneously accepts the inevitability of her condition while always carrying a hint of deep fear for her own end. It sounds contradictory, but I know for a fact that it's the same feelings my own grandmother felt during her final days. There's a moment when you come to realize that control is an illusion of our inherent human nature to have hope. But once that need to control is finally released like a caged bird, there's a feeling of existential calm, understanding, and freedom. That's what Weisz delivers in her performance. And the impact of which is felt throughout the various storylines of the film. It's simply a wonderfully touching and heartbreaking performance.
As for Hugh Jackman, he fairs equally well if not even better since he has to demonstrate the extremes of human emotion and masculine fragility as well as everything in between. With his character Tommy, you have the embodiment of a determined man, committed to the love that's his wife, and the search for eliminating death. Jackman plays Tommy so determined sometimes that he often feels like a child that simply won't come to terms with the truth or with reality. Stubbornness, I guess would be the word. It's what he learns because of that though which makes his character so compelling and layered. The parts where Jackman is Tomas the Spanish conquistador, the role is played more matter of factly, though still very well. There's the air of nobility and duty in those sections, which are in fact, present when he's Tommy in today's time, only with that modern twist. It's a nice touch. But it's the scenes in the future, out the in the vastness of outer space, where Jackman, coupled with the awe inspiring special effects, dramatic sound design, and artful photography, is something else entirely. He plays his character as both sort of a Buddha-like man, but one that ultimately has gone for hundreds of years without ever really changing. His focus is the same. His determination the same. His hope the same. He lives on, both blessed and haunted by the memories of his life. And it's not until the end is near where we see a wonderful revelation in Jackman's eyes where he finally sees death for what it truly is. A stunning performance that's so, so moving.
And I have to say at least just a little bit about Clint Mansell (with the aid of Kronos Quartet and Mogwai) and his wonderfully evocative score. There's a particular rhythm that the film follows, both in its editing and its scoring. And since so much of the film is about that sensory experience, it's an absolutely beautiful marriage of sight and sound. The music is haunting, but never dreary or entirely sad. It's certainly melancholic, but it's filled with a sense of wonder and awe for the unknown. It plays so romantically as well, which jibes so perfectly with the story that's being told between Tommy and Izzi. It's a simple (there are only a few motifs and one or two central themes) yet wonderfully intimate and very elegant soundtrack, one that really enhances the raw emotional experience of the film.
I'm now about to go into some very spoilery material. So if you haven't seen the film yet, go ahead and skip over to the last paragraph of my review. For those who have seen it, this is my interpretation of the finale...
I believe so very strongly that the future scenes featuring Tommy traveling through space are to be taken literally. The denouement shows a scene at Izzi's grave that some have interpreted as Tommy "being at peace" with her passing, and thus, confusing them as to why then would Tommy literally move through time and space to save his wife if he really is "at peace" with her death. Well, the thing is, I personally don't think he's at peace at all. Tommy simply accepts (and I do think there's a strong distinction between "accepting" and "being at peace" with something) that this here in the now, at her grave, her death is what it is, but that by planting a seedling (From the Tree of Life? I think yes, but it's ultimately inconsequential), birth is given to a whole new hope. The ending of the film is literally and metaphorically a new beginning. That Izzi will be reborn and that Tommy will once again have a chance to save her.
I think by taking the future scenes literally, it profoundly strengthens the idea of how important hope and love is to humanity. And in the context of a love story (which The Fountain fully is), it's the most romantic of notions that a man would struggle for lifetimes beyond lifetimes to save his love, and in essence, the very reason for living. But I think it also illustrates that hope can delude us so much from truth and reality, and that sometimes, that reality really does offer what we ultimately want and need, just not in the way we as humanity can understand or comprehend. It's beyond us. The fact is that Tommy ultimately does live forever with Izzi, but in a celestial way. Not living like we know it in our perception of reality, but among the heavens and among the stars.
Death is a touchy subject. We're so used to films that deal out death with little to no consideration of what it actually is, what it means, or what it does to us. And that's fine. Not every film can (or should) consider those things. But when cinema comes along like The Fountain, it's a blessing. I don't mean that to sound hyperbolic, but the truth is that real art makes you reconsider the ideas of our own lives. Love, hope, and mortality... it's all touched upon here in The Fountain. And it does so in a way that's unconventional, not for the sake of non conventionalism, but to be lyrical. To be poetic. In the best ways that literature can evoke, Aronofsky has used The Fountain as a means to experiment with the different avenues of what can be told cinematically and, more importantly, how it can be told. The Fountain is one of this year's masterpieces. It challenges us to think and to perhaps reevaluate life itself and what it means to each of us... its purpose and humanity's place in it. But above all, The Fountain, like so many great works of cinema, shows that there is beauty, wonder, and love to be found in even the darkest of places. That is such a beautiful thought. A thought I think we can all hope to embrace.
9.8 stars out of 10
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Thursday, November 23, 2006
DVD Review: King Kong - Deluxe Extended Edition
The answer to the question of how many films it takes to burn off the goodwill from creating the best-loved trilogy of the last 20 years, it turns out, is only one. Peter Jackson's King Kong is a deeply flawed movie. The recent news that financial disagreements between Jackson and New Line means he won't be directing the adaptation of The Hobbit have led to many suggesting that he is not the right man now to direct it anyway. How horribly fickle we are.
This three disk extended edition DVD was this close to not being made at all after the film only limped to the new blockbuster box office threshold of $200m. Very much modeled on the four disk extended editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the lack of that final disk tells us a great deal about the sword of Damocles that hangs over even the very highest profile directors in the industry. As does the lack of a sexy fold out case, replaced here with three normal boxes. Still, it has been made (mostly) to the very highest standards and is full of the juicy extras we have come to expect from Jackson's DVD releases. This is the edition to get of Peter Jackson's grand adventure and, perhaps, folly.
The question is whether you would want to. I'll assume that you, like me, have seen the theatrical cut by now, but when I sat down to watch the film again I ended up turning it off just after the spider-pit sequence, only two-thirds of the way through. Beaten down by the seemingly endless first act on the boat going to Skull Island and still faced with the extended fight with the bat creatures as Jack Driscoll tries to rescue Ann Darrow from Kong's mountain top retreat, the extended fight when they try to capture Kong just outside the great perimiter wall, and the extended fight as they battle him again in the cove at the bottom of the island before the film even gets back to New York, it all became too much. I was breathless from exhaustion from the relentless spectacle and breathless from how thin the narrative air was. I went to bed and watched the rest the next day.
And this is the problem with the movie. Very little of it is all that bad, and from minute to minute it is glorious and exciting. But the plot is for a 90 minute movie, and this film's minutes just keep multiplying. This was always Jackson's dream project. It was the film that first inspired him to make films, and he first attempted to make it, using stop-motion in his garage, when he was twelve. Thirty years of obsessing over a movie means you acquire a great deal of detail you have to put in, but you lose track of the wider picture.
It seems a bit mean to criticise his passion by itself, though. Lord knows we need a bit more child-like enthusiasm in our directors. What proved his downfall was being given complete freedom by the success of The Lord of the Rings. He was given an unlimited budget, as complete control as you can get and all the resources he asked for. The budget came out somewhere around $250m and the running time is three hours. No-one was there to hold the little kid back and this film is what came out.
There's no need for the Brontosaurus stampede, yet not only was it included it lasts ten minutes, taking in a long build up, several different variations on stampeding, collapsing cliffs, a massive Bronto pile-up and then another, final section where velociraptors chase the survivors up a another cliff. Or how about the famous Kong vs V-Rex fight - it has a build up, it has a fight with two dinos, then three, then they fall off a cliff, then there's a fight while suspended in vines, then a final fight on the valley floor. Or how about the already mentioned 'capturing Kong' sequence, taking in those many repetitive parts.
The actual story and character elements in these sequences are very small (he even mentions that the only bit of story in the spider pit sequence is that the camera gets broken, which he put there so the sequence couldn't be cut), so their distension is purely because they had the money and they could have fun with their dinosaur toys and visual effects. The making of's these sorts of films are usually filled with 'well we would have really liked to have done 'x' but we didn't have the money' stories. Not for this film, and this film is the producer's answer to any director asking for more cash. It's too much and, while it can never be accused to being boring, all you can do with such narratively empty sequences is gawp and after a while your jaw gets tired and the fun dries up. These days you could have an sfx fight that lasts an entire movie (effects genius/whore, Robert Zemeckis, currently making Beowolf entirely in CG, has been quoted as saying there's nothing that can be written that can't be brought to the screen for $1m a minute), but nodding off halfway through the punching is the reason why you shouldn't.
The good bits you remember of the film are great. When the effects work they are astounding, Naomi Watts is great, Kong is even better, and worth watching the film for by himself, the final act, while still too long, works perfectly and is genuinely, if a touch sentimentally, emotional. The bad bits are all exactly how you left them too. When the effects are bad (usually involving compositing real humans on the fake landscapes) they are awful, and the tone varies between quite dark and extremely goofy, sometimes in the space of a couple of shots.
Re-watching this movie doesn't diminish the good or rejuvenate the bad. The film does not cohere and, until they return to New York, is essentially a big grab bag of stuff that Jackson wanted to see on screen.
There's ten minutes of extra footage in this edition, and it really doesn't make much difference. The main addition is a swamp attack scene with the crew on rafts getting nibbled by scorpion-crab-things and getting chomped by a giant eel-thing that adds nothing to the plot, is about as good as the Bronto stampede and, once again, goes on too long. As I was already a bit grumpy by this point, the beats where Denham's camera is somehow saved from destruction yet again added to the bad taste of the extremely silly that runs through the movie.
There are some small additions to dialogue which, again, add very little but are in no way bad, so giving your attention a little prick of newness while you are watching. There's a cameo of some of the art department as soldiers in the back of a truck in New York. Again, it is small, adds nothing, but has a fun punchline.
The one good bit of addition is a Triceratops attacking the sailors almost as soon as they enter the jungle. It's night-time, there's no set up and the dino simply jumps out of nowhere and starts flinging them around. You never get a clear look at him and the scene is shot very close and chaotically. Think the Cave Troll attack in Fellowship of the Ring. This very dynamic introduction actually fits well with the next scene where Kong is running through the jungle carrying a screaming Ann, again with no clear shots of the monster. This introduction gives a much more visceral sense of the danger, chaos and sheer physicality of the island and its inhabitants, something that is lost when you see Carl Denham jogging quite safely in between the legs of stampeding Brontos.
So that bit can stay, but the other bits are all so short you don't feel them weigh down that three hours any further anyway.
Technically the transfer seems beautiful. Clear and crisp and, when the shots work, beautifully atmospheric. The sound is deep and detailed and only really suffers from the 'too much stuff' problem that afflicts most modern action films.
So the film is still very much the amazing but ultimately unsatisfying experience it was last Christmas. The extras were where I found most of my fun, though not always in the ways the DVD producers probably wanted.
The presentation is very similar to the DVD of the theatrical cut, taking the art deco stylings of the opening credits and placing them round a central image of the film camera Carl Denham uses. It's effective, and doesn't spend too long transitioning from screen to screen with bad cgi and looped clips from the film. It still takes too long (those transitions are a real bug-bear with me) but at least it's tastefully done here.
That lack of a fourth disk means the deleted scenes (another forty bloody minutes, replete with individual introductions from Peter) and other oddments are snuck in next to the film on the first two disks. The third disk is reserved for a three hour documentary covering Peter's childhood fascination with Kong, the various false starts, and the production all the way from first drawing to premiere. If you've seen the documentaries on the Lord of the Rings disks, you'll know what to expect here, from structure to content to tone.
It contains all the interviews, back stage footage and juicy sfx test shots you could want. It's good watchable stuff, but then I do love all those incomplete fx shots. What was really interesting, though, was that the documentary tells exactly the same story as the LOTR documentary. Humble director explains his childhood love for a great work of art, gets the opportunity to direct the film, gathers a group of hugely talented professionals who also really love the work of art, they go through many hardships and hard work to make it happen, but through their dedication, plucky optimism and love for the work of art, they finally succeed in doing the impossible with much emotion and big hugs at the end. This narrative fit over LOTR very believably but it doesn't seem to fit quite so well this time. This could just be because I have now noticed the formula so am now trying to look behind it to see the seams. But noticing what hasn't been included is interesting.
Always the problems (present on all films, of course) are mentioned in passing, then shown being solved politely and just in time. Where is the conflict? The arguments? The grumpiness? Its lots of fun to see Jackson's reaction to the news that Andy Serkis went to Somalia to study gorillas against his specific instructions. Is that a shadow of pissed-offness passing over his face?
I was willing to buy into the narrative of everyone being nice on the LOTR documentary simply because I was in love with the films, so watching the documentaries was like carrying on the celebration of their glorious existance. Watching this documentary with a slightly cooler head meant I could have more fun trying to see where the documentary was being straight and where we were being told a story.
There's a great moment during the art department's commentary on The Two Towers (yes I listened to it) during the bit when Merry and Pippin are about to be eaten by Orcs when one of the artists, meekly and almost embarrassedly, suddenly feels he has to pipe up about the stupidity of the line 'Meat's back on the menu boys!'. 'But Orcs don't even have menus!' he says (roughly. Don't make me listen to it again to get the exact quote). It's a wonderful humanising moment of dissent, and something I wanted more of from this documentary.
I wasn't there, of course, and I've never met Jackson or any of the other people involved and, while it is fair to say he is a very shrewd operator underneath the hairy amiability (let's see how this Hobbit thing plays out, shall we), there's no reason to think he is not a thoroughly nice man. I certainly want him to be, having been a fan since Bad Taste. Watching the carefully smoothed veneer of the narrative start to crack is always fun though, as is seeing the line between documentary and PR puff piece.
The deleted scenes are all predictably pretty good but disposable. You may each find some little tid-bit you wish was back in the film, but I imagine it will be a different bit for each person. The bloopers are kind of funny, there's a short film the cast made on set that is funnier, and the barely hidden easter egg is a 'lost' production diary that ends with a genuine LOL. The 1996 and 2005 scripts are both included too if you really, really haven't got anything better to do.
The other main extra is the commentary, of which there is only one, between Peter Jackson and co-writer Philippa Boyens. It's reasonably informative, works hard not to repeat subjects covered in the documentary and is as amiable as ever. Peter does seem a little defensive in this one though. He keeps returning to the length of the 1st act, talking about wanting to add drama and add tension. He keeps saying variations on 'there are parts of this that are really good', so implying but not saying that there are bits that decidedly aren't. He even seems to question the Bronto stampede, before Philippa comes to it's defence saying she loves it.
Am I reading stuff in? Possibly, but Peter Jackson is at a very interesting stage of his career right now. He's risen to the very top of the game. Where does he go now? Become a super-producer? Go back to smaller films? Carry on making sfx adventure blockbusters? There's evidence for all of them at the moment, so you can't help but look for clues. Is this defensiveness and need for a 'everything's great' narrative suggestive of a man who, given the keys to the kingdom and surrounded by 'yes' men, has lost his way into self-indulgent and childish sfx bloat? Or is this a man quietly admitting to himself that there are problems with his dream project? That maybe he knows he's had his fun with the CGI and now he needs to step back a bit? I hope it is the latter, as that bodes well for the future films from one of my favourite directors. It would also say a great deal about him if he could admit those mis-steps. You try being objective about something you've created. Now try it with a project you've dreamed about since you were twelve. I wish Peter Jackson the best of luck, if only for the selfish reason of not wanting to sit through too many more three hour bum-numbers.
My advice is to ignore this DVD for now. You'll find it reduced in price within six months, remember that bit when Kong starts laughing at Anna Darrow's falling over routine and decide to buy it then. It's a well made, thorough set of disks that will take a week to get through, and you'll probably be in a more forgiving mood over the film's weaknesses. Just remember to keep your finger on the 'chapter skip' button.
7 Naomi Watts' nipples in a skimpy silk dress out of 10
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Trucks - Part 1
I was at a gig the other week and the DJ's were The Truckin' Lauras. They are both called Laura and they play records about trucks. They are, of course, the coolest thing on the planet. To celebrate I decided to watch a bunch of films about trucks. First to the top of the rental queue was 1978's Every Which Way But Loose.
In it Clint Eastwood plays a trucker who is also a bare-knuckle fighter. He gets into fights in bars, chases after women, hangs out with his mechanic friend Orville Boggs and owns an orangutan called Clyde.
This film is weird. I remember watching it and its sequel, Any Which Way You Can, a lot when I was a kid and you all probably remember too. Ask anyone about the movie and they'll say 'it's the one with the monkey, right?'. Nick Frost even did an impression of Clyde in Shaun of the Dead. The famous bits of this movie are firmly rooted in this generation's cultural memory but, watching it again, the movie itself isn't.
What I remember as a light, child friendly comedy about a monkey starts off as an almost Altman-esque slice-of-life film about a backwards town somewhere in the southern states of America. The camera flies high over identical, single story houses separated by wide crude roads and then zooms in to focus on a beat-up delivery truck that Clint is driving. You can practically still see the desert. The truck is pastel blue. This is not a film going for glamour.As a slow country ballad croons over the soundtrack the shots slowly follow the truck as it drives through town, then pull into the delivery station. Clint gets out, signs his papers, walks through the entire building, gets into his own beat-up old truck and heads to a bar. This is mostly done in wide tracking shots where Clint is lost within the lazy bustle of the frame. When the chorus finally hits (be warned, it's catchy) there isn't even a hero shot. It just turns up halfway through an extended look at a car park. At this point it feels like The Long Goodbye, the first 15 minutes of which consist of Elliott Gould buying cat food.
And this 'scenes from a village' approach continues as characters move in and out of proceedings seemingly at random, and the film mostly just follows Clint going about his daily business. It is a quiet, observational film, with no score beyond the odd country song that, while not very gritty, gives a very dusty view of (then-) modern Southern life. Incidents happen and slowly build up and cohere into events, but there's almost no momentum and nothing resembling a plot that a (now-) modern audience would recognise.
Then the Orangutan appears and blows a raspberry. Then some Hell's Angels turn up and everytime they appear there's a sleazy blast on a saxophone on the soundtrack, like the first note of a burlesque striptease tune. They chase Clint and Clyde and the Angels end up in a car-wash making pantomime gurning faces when they see the giant squeegee coming at them. Then Clyde gets on a giant steam roller and crushes the bikes while flipping the Angels the bird. And blowing a raspberry.
Suddenly we are into some really broad, low comedy. It's one custard-pie fight away from being a cartoon, or one of those silent movies where everyone moves too quickly and falls over banana skins. All I remember of the sequel is the Angels getting tarred and feathered and having to wear really silly wigs. Maybe there's a pie fight in that film.
Then suddenly we are back into the gentle, episodic, picaresque story-telling when he sees a new singer in the local bar and falls for her. She's played by Clint's then-wife Sandra Locke (fans of country music will get some jollies out of this scene because she's really, really bad at singing). Then it turns out she has a boyfriend, then she leaves mysteriously and Clint starts acting like a love-sick teenager and decides to pick up everything and chase after her. Now we're into a relationship drama played entirely straight, as well as a deconstruction of the Southern male, as this laconic character finally starts to open up his feelings and become vulnerable.
Add to this a regular dose of fairly brutal, if not Raging Bull-violent, bare knuckle fighting.
This shifting around happens all the way through the movie. Yet the film is firm footed and sure of itself. This is all deliberate. Take a scene where Clint tries to chat up a woman who turns out to be a snooty student from California, studying modern Southern life for a paper. Here we have conflict between different ways of life, class divides and evidence of Clint's world becoming sidelined and obsolete by the brash, modern city attitudes. Then he chases her off by putting Orville's false teeth in her soup, making her squeal and run away.
So why is it so weird? Maybe the director, influenced by the 70's going on around him, tried to smuggle the style into a dumb kiddie movie. But James Fargo's filmography does not suggest any hints of auteurship (Voyage of the Rock Aliens, anyone?). The answer is most probably that this is what passed for entertainment in redneck movies back in the 70's.Coming from London and so naturally dismissive of anyone who doesn't live in a city of less than say, 10 million people, means that my understanding of the film is going to be very different from its intended audience. But then anyone living this side of the millennium will probably be in the same boat. And this is what makes it great. There's no point making judgments about how dumb rednecks are. It is a time capsule from another era, left behind when Star Wars altered Hollywood film-making so completely. It is as alien to us and our fast paced, rigidly three act structured films as a film in Mongolian - only understandable through subtitles, but gloriously exotic.
So we have some serious scenes, some scenes showing Clint as a tough guy, then some country music, a bit of romance, now some comedy, now some fighting, mix and repeat. It's old style entertainment almost to the point of cabaret.
It's so utterly old fashioned it's practically psychedelic. I was shell-shocked by the end of it, having no idea what I had just seen. Now, I certainly won't say it is a good film, but its gentle rhythm and lack of histrionic drama were strangely enjoyable compared to the shrill noise of modern movies. And it has a monkey in it.
Next up will be a film that is exactly as you remember it, thank crap: Smokey and the Bandit.
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Review: Special (Rx) Specioprin Hydrochloride
Special tells the story of a man called Les (pronounced 'Less', and more on that later), a mild mannered metermaid who takes part in a clinical trial for a drug nick-named 'Special' that switches off the part of the brain that gives us self-doubt. He then starts exhibiting superpowers such as levitation, telepathy and running through walls and quits his job to become a crime-fighting superhero. But is he really superpowered, or has the drug made him crazy?
The trailer plays up this 'is it real?' question a lot, possibly because more people are likely to go and see a superhero movie. The film, however, makes it clear in the first ten minutes that these powers are entirely in his head.
This, I guess, would be the big twist in an actual superhero movie, so giving it away in the first ten minutes seems insane. This is actually a great move, however, and leads to the best parts of the movie. Les, as played with a charmingly clumsy goofiness by Michael Rappaport, patrols the streets in a homemade costume looking for crime and, as we know he's gone loopy, it turns the myth-building and iconic poses of superhero stories on their heads. He looks like a drugged-out perv and has a legitimately creepy presence while staring at people passing by.
With that 'is he/isn't he' dynamic out of the way, film plays out as an inverted paranoid conspiracy thriller - with the audience knowing that the protagonist is, in fact, just a paranoid loon. It's a nice gag and the film gets some good mileage out of this in certain scenes but, unfortunately, it never develops beyond this conceit set up in the first reel. We know everyone is being basically quite honest with him while he thinks he is a superhero trapped inside an ever increasing web of dark deeds. It's played out fairly organically so that we know, without too much forcing of the issue, both what he is thinking the world is like and what the world outside his fractured mind is like. But what would be a good opening of a Philip K. Dick story is stretched out to feature length without any further development.
Which is fine, or would be if the point of the film was to be a character piece, or an exploration of mental illness. Getting the 'twist' out of the way early on is the best evidence of this reading. The film also starts with quiet, slightly melancholy keyboard music that sounds a bit like the quieter bits of Air or Sigur Ros and Les narrates his diary over the top in a slightly dazed, faux-naive expression of simple-talking wonder. The problem is that this is rapidly becoming a cliche of independent movies, signaling that this movie is about character rather than simple plot, and is slightly more spiritual and uplifting than normal. What it doesn't give us is anything specific about Les' character. It's tremendously generic, not saying much more than 'this is an indie movie, and slightly quirky'.
Equally, we aren't given much more about the specific nature of Les' illness than what I have already included so the hokey bit of pseudo-science about a doubt-inhibiting drug comes over as nothing more than another comic book device, no more believable than radioactive spiders. Perfectly fine in a comic book movie, but it doesn't tell us anything about mental illness. Adding to that problem is that the film-makers still try and add 'maybe it's real' moments to the proceedings, so trying to have their heroic conspiracy-thriller cake and eat it, only to undermine the more human, character-based tone they try to cultivate.
These mis-steps in tone all suggest that this is not an adult movie using comic-book conventions to get under the skin of a mentally ill man, but just a comic book movie with pretensions to being adult and mature. It can't be both and, as such, is a mess.
This is a very low budget movie that was successful enough on the festival circuit for it to get some actual distribution and so, for these new film-makers, the film is a great success. But for everyone else, the bar for no-budget independent genre films was set in 2004 with Primer and compared to that, this film is amateur-hour.
Les is pronounced 'Less', as I mentioned, which is a horribly clunky 'signifying' name for this meek under-achiever, the outside world is mostly presented to us by some broad satire of corporate mantras given by his boss, the 'evil' corporate stooges talk about Les' 'powers' (throwing in the 'is it real?' idea once again), only to have one finish the sentence later to with 'his powers to sue us'.
It looks terrible, displaying very little compositional imagination (so often the saviour of no-budget movies). I've already mentioned the unoriginal sound choices, but when it breaks out into heavy metal for a wacky chase sequence, we're into home-movie territory. The performances are very likable, especially from Rappaport and, at 80 minutes, the film doesn't outstay its welcome. Unless you count the last five minutes which I get the horrible feeling try to be profound and, even worse, symbolic.
Special wants to be the realistic, adult movie, but it reverts to often into comic-book movie broadness, so ultimately failing at both. Let's hope that this is a film by some rapidly developing talents, as a bigger budget may have allowed for it to look a lot better, but it wouldn't have changed the failings in basic conception.
5 capes out of 10
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006
DVD Review: Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut
A young man wearing a comedy oversized clock once said some very true words of wisdom. Don't believe the hype. Hype is a very large concern amongst the movie world, especially with the way nerds latch onto things. Whenever something comes along that we're excited to see, no matter how hard we try, we just can't seem to cease playing it up as much as possible, so in the end, we inevitably end up saying "Worst. Movie. Ever." Look at Star Wars. For years upon end, we all had ourselves convinced this was going to be the reason we were born. And then Jar Jar fucking Binks happened, accompanied by a script so stunted it makes the Silmarillion flow like it was written by Eazy-E.
I haven't been around the internet much - hey, taking the big step of moving in with someone is very time consuming - so I'm not really up on how much expectation and hype there really is for Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, outside of the original fanboy cries for it over the past years, and the usual fanboy cries of "OMG it sucks there's a clanking sound on Donner's credit!" Myself? I was hyped up for it a lot, so it fits that it's the first disc I've picked up in a while on its street date. So, as I hope you're asking, what's the verdict? It depends. If you're that guy who demands every little thing to be perfect and cries childhood rape if a sound effect is changed or enhanced, you're probably better off sitting in your room and telling yourself how great you are because you know so much about movies. Which I'm sure you'd rather do anyway.
But if you're a perfectly balanced movie fan who happens to like fun movies that aren't afraid to be emotional and slightly melodramatic, I think you're in for a treat.
But before I go into the details, a little backstory. Originally, Superman: The Movie and Superman II were shot by Richard Donner back-to-back, ala The Lord of the Rings. However, time and budgetary constraints meant that they had to stop filming Superman II three quarters or so of the way through and concentrate on getting Superman out for its release date. As we all know, that turned out brilliantly and the film was a huge, huge hit. Unfortunately for Donner, the producing team of the Salkinds, who he had clashed with during production, fired him, and hired British director Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night) to direct the sequel, and ultimately, Superman III. And we all know how well that turned out.
While originally having a reputation that indicated it superseded the original, time has not been kind to Superman II. As it stands now, the film shows a lot of potential but is undermined by some sloppy editing and some overly-comedic scenes, the kind of scenes which killed Superman III. A friend of mine once described the Superman series as a portrayal of alcoholism. Sober at first, nicely drunk by the end of II, stone drunk by the climax of III and waking up in a pool of your own vomit as Nuclear Man shows up in IV. To put it bluntly, III and IV never really had a chance, for various reasons. But II always had that potential, and thankfully, The Richard Donner Cut comes close to realizing it.
For starters, the tone is radically different. Gone are a lot of the movie's campy and comedic scenes, with Chris Reeve's Clark Kent and Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor providing the comic relief. There's no scenes of Non being overly dumb, and gone is the sequence where he tries his heat vision, only for it to not work, reminiscent of Godzooki trying to breathe fire in the old Hanna-Barbera Godzilla cartoon. Here, the three Kryptonian villains are presented squarely as a real threat, and it really helps the film's dynamic. Most of the scenes in Houston are gone, including Ursa's arm wrestling and the annoying kid with the British accent asking them not to kill his hillbilly poppa.
The film's central relationship also takes on a new dimension, and a much more satisfying both dramatically and thematically dimension at that. As in the original, Superman gives up his powers for Lois Lane, but whereas in the theatrical cut, the moral argument about Superman's position on Earth and his duty to its people was kept to a minimum, here it's central, and leads into my next point, Marlon Brando. Brando shot a bunch of scenes for II as Jor-El, but such was the Salkinds' nature, they decided to cut him out completely so they wouldn't have to pay his probably understandably high repeat fee. All I can say is, you fucking dumb idiots.
This is no disrespect to Susannah York, who played his mother in the first two movies and was saddled with having to take Brando's role in the second, which can't have been easy for anyone, much less a fairly decent but not amazing actress like York. But kudos to her, she did okay. But the fact that Brando's scenes were replaced with hers is sure proof that being obsessed with money makes people stupid. Brando's scenes here are incredible, two of which are absolutely standout performances, the first of which is where Superman tells Jor-El that he loves Lois. Instead of the theatrical, where it's a pretty brief 'are you sure this is what you want?' 'I love her,' Brando and Reeve have a full on argument debating Superman's "mission, and his selfishness for wanting to give up on the planet so he can be with Lois. The second scene is a counterpoint to this, after he goes back to the Fortress having seen Zod and his crew and the damage they've done.
In the theatrical, as far as I remember it had the shots of him walking back, and then cut away as he got there, not returning to the character editorially until he appears outside the Daily Planet asking Zod to "step outside," a line which incidentally is no longer in the picture in this cut. But here, it doesn't cut away at all, but again has an intense and emotional scene between Reeve and Brando, ending in a quite poignant and heartbreaking way which I'm not going to spoil here.
In addition to all this, both the opening and the ending of the movie is different, both of which are heavily linked to Superman: The Movie, or at least events contained within. In the theatrical cut, the villains escaped from the Phantom Zone after Superman sent a hydrogen bomb he had taken from terrorists in Paris into space, which then, via a terrible, terrible animation effect, shattered their prison. Here, it begins halfway through the first movie, where the two nuclear missiles have been set on their alternate courses by Lex Luthor. Remember where Superman rescues the first one and sends it into space, thus keeping his promise to Miss Teschmascher? That happens here, but it's that explosion that releases the villains.
The ending, well, all I can say is that it's not the magic kiss. The new ending, well, what should have been the original ending, is the same as Superman: The Movie, being that he turns back time. Some folks may not be able to deal with that, but the deal is that it was always the intended ending, and was only moved into the first film when they realized they had to stop working on II. Already being the ending for the first, it makes it little odd, but despite it perhaps being a little strange, it still works. And the new scenes are pretty neat.
It also has to be said that there are a bunch of new effects in the picture, and while they work as long as you can accept that this is not a big budget job, this ain't ILM. And this is one of the only real criticisms I have with the film, that the budget the production company was given by Warner Bros must've been pretty small and because of it, some of the effects look a little jarring. I would have loved to have seen Warner do a proper job on the flick and then throw it out in theaters, but I guess there's a limit to what the fanboys can achieve with their online petitions. But hey, getting the thing actually produced is an amazing effort.
The second thing that I picked up on is the editing of the film. Don't get me wrong, overall it's edited really well, and the pacing is a lot better than the original, but, well, some of it seems a bit choppy. I don't know how much this is down to Donner's input, whether he was asking it to be edited within the context of today's event movies or the editorial style of the late 70s, or whether it's down to the elements themselves that were found.
But like a few things in the film, it will really come down to how much you're into the movie in the first place. There are a few other things that may be slightly odd, like for example the scene where Lois discovers Superman's identity. Instead of the scene as it was in the theatrical cut, which Lester had shot, instead we have a scene made up of screen tests, being the only source of footage which matched Donner's original intention for the scene. It's a great scene, and much more intimate than the original, although some people may find it a tad strange, mainly because of the way the shape of Clark's glasses seems to change, being that it's two different screen tests edited together. But fuck it, it works.
At the end of the day, the fact that this cut even is exists is a pretty big achievement, and the fact that it's a huge improvement over the original is icing on the cake. Whereas Lester's cut suffered from silliness (the big plastic S anyone?), Donner's has a more serious and weighty tone, especially with the Brando scenes. Of course, being that it's been produced twenty-eight years or so since the film was shot, it's impossible to say whether or not the original flick would have ended up like this had Donner been allowed to complete it. Hell, it might have been better.
All in all, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut finally allows the sequel to sit proudly the original movie as a very good companion piece. It may not be what it might have been in 1980, but for a long time, people have loved to argue over whether Donner's cut would have been a big improvement over Lester's. Having seen TRDC, all I can say is, that's a big fucking yes.
As for the disc itself, well, it's decent. The audio and video quality is the big reason for buying this along with the film itself, as it has a pretty damn fine 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer and offers a 5.1 mix that had me wondering if my house was exploding. The film has also been rescored with John Williams' cues from the first that Ken Thorne had (pretty sloppily) adapted, and it sounds so much more classy.
The features are little, but not bad. You get a few deleted scenes, one of which explains how Luthor gets away from the Fortress of Solitude, and they're nice, but you can easily see why they were cut. There's a little featurette on the restoration and the editing of this new cut, which has a lot of Donner sitting at a mixer or a movieola, which is nice, but at around fifteen minutes, not really in-depth at all. There's also an introduction from Donner.
Probably the best extra is the Donner commentary with Tom Manciewicz. It's obvious he was very hurt by what the Salkinds did to him, and what Lester did to his film, and he's not afraid to show it. It's a entertaining listen, even if Donner is perhaps journeying towards senility.
The cover art, well, if you live in America, it sucks. In Britain, it's a little nicer, but still based around the same concept. You can buy the flick in a multitude of ways, either on its own or in the Christopher Reeve Collection or that huge ultimate boxset they're doing that includes all the movies plus Superman Returns. In the UK, it comes as a three-disc set with a copy of the two-disc Superman II theatrical special edition, and if you shop around, it's pretty damn cheap.
All in all, as I said above, it's amazing we actually have Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. It's a testament to the fans and their ability to nag people in their thousands, and it's really wonderful that Warners have done this. And for once we have a director's cut that far outweighs the original.
8.5 magic kisses out of 10
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News Round-Up: 11/21/06
Loving the one sheet for Hot Fuzz, the upcoming cop spoof comedy from the Shaun of the Dead boys. Simon looks badass and Nick looks like the Brit version of Deputy Dog. That is, no doubt, on purpose. I have every confidence that they will do for the cop/action film what they did for the zombie film. That is, make it funny as hell and in some ways better than the original sub-genre. -- Scott Roche
Source: IMP Awards
I think I'm the only staff member here that enjoys Heroes and I'm okay with that. George "Sulu" Takei has been cast as the father of Hiro (the best of the bunch, unless/until Gay Boy gets a power). Masi Oka (Hiro) is thrilled hoping that he'll get to say "Dad! Sulu is my hero, not you!". More details, including when he will appear, will be in the November 27th issue of TV Guide. -- Scott Roche
Source: TV Guide
Russian 'dissident' ex-spy, Alexander Litvinenko, lies in a London hospital bed today after having been poisoned with thallium slipped into his lunch. It is widely argued that Russian Premiere Vladimir Putin, himself with strong ties to the ex-soviet secret services, was ultimately behind the attack. This proves that the PR department for new Bond film Casino Royale really will stop at nothing for publicity. I should really label this picture with a 'spoiler' tag as it strongly suggests the return and origin story of famous Bond villain, Blofeld. -- Andrew Clarke
Source: Guardian Unlimited
One of my boyhood crushes was on Barbara Feldon who played Agent 99 on the 60s television series, Get Smart. When I heard that they were doing a movie remake I cringed. Then I heard that Steve Carell was playing Max. That perked my ears up. He was so good at playing earnest and innocent without being mean in The 40 Year Old Virgin that he seems like a lock for this role. News today is that Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, Brokeback Mountain, HAVOC) has been cast as 99. If they keep casting quality like this then they'll certainly be snagging my eight bucks. -- Scott Roche
Source: Variety
Digital Bruce? Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, XXX, Stealth) will be creating a second Bruce Lee movie called Rage and Fury. He made the biopic, Dragon, but this sounds like it will be a different animal. The key to all of this will be his use of digital technology to create a virtual Lee. The voice will be the real deal culled from all of the Dragon movies. The virtual actor will be created by Digital Domain who did the effects work for XXX and Stealth. According to the script review, he will be the ghostly mentor to a fifteen year old. It sounds like it could be extremely, perhaps even dangerously cheesy, but I'm interested to see the technology in action. It already sort of happened with Brando in Superman Returns. Could this lead to "new" movies starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, or Marilyn Monroe? -- Scott Roche
Source: LatinoReview.com
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Robert Altman is dead. Having passed from complications related to cancer at the age of 81, Altman was widely considered among the great American filmmakers with credits such as MASH, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and most recently, this year's A Prairie Home Companion, a film many felt could actually have earned Altman yet another Oscar nod (he had been the recipient of the honorary Academy Award - a.k.a. The "You're Probably Gonna Die Soon, Huh?" Award - last year). Fortunately for us, we've got Paul Thomas Anderson to rip him off beautifully for many years to come. -- George Merchan
Source: VarietyDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards! Continue reading News Round-Up: 11/21/06
DVD Invasion - Massive Turkey Explo-dition 2006
A lot of very attractive gift sets are seeing their release this month, too many in fact to report on in the normal fashion. It's just about time to get warmed up for the inescapable post-Turkey Day madness that is Christmas shopping, so this week's DVD column will focus on the biggest and most spectacular collector's sets hitting the stores in November, as well as a few regular discs that will make nice gifts. Friday is the biggest shopping day on the vast hunk of land between Cali and Carolina we call the YU-ES-AY. You are honor bound to transform some of the following into thoughtful gifts for your family and friends, and to mention your cool selflessness to complete strangers to make them feel as small as they are. The rundown will be short on my overwrought commentary (I'm sure you won't miss it, but send e-hugs of support to bill@thefakelife.com if you like) and long on the info you need to justify your purchases. Unless otherwise noted, expect the TV collector's sets to include all of the original special features that came with the individual season sets as well as the features I have listed. And so...
M*A*S*H - Martinis and Medicine Complete Collection
M*A*S*H is still one of the most beloved drama series ever made, and that is even after the episodes have played in syndication several times a day on various network and cable channels for the past twenty years. The series' finale continues to hold the record for the highest ratings of any television episode in the universe. This box includes eleven seasons worth of thinly-veiled Vietnam War imagery and superb tragi-comedy. The packaging is appropriate to the show's theme and would make any multimedia shelf look better. Check these features:
* Special canvas collector's box
* All 255 episodes on 33 discs (same as previously released), with three bonus discs
* M*A*S*H (The Movie)
* "M*A*S*H: Television's Serious Sitcom"
* Bloopers
* "My Favorite M*A*S*H"
* Cast interviews
* "Last Day of Filming"
* "Jocularity"
* PSA's
* "Saxophone Promo"
* "Just the FAQs" game
* "M*A*S*H: 30th Anniversary Reunion"
* "Fan Base"
* "Memories of M*A*S*H"
* Script from never made episode
* Collectible booklet
* Option to watch episodes with or without soundtrack (laugh track).
Release date: 11/07/06
The West Wing - The Complete Series Collection
This show had the good fortune of allowing the failings of the real U.S. government to provide endless story ideas for its writers. All that was necessary to sustain the show through eight seasons was to change names and situations slightly, and to lambast both parties in equal measure to keep viewers happy. It's only weakness is that it could not possibly be outrageous enough to match reality. It appears to be a very nice set for those who waited to buy (an issue that plagues all of these complete series sets. It's hard to wait it out). Here's the low-down:
* Dossier-style collector's box
* All 154 episodes on 45 discs
* Pilot script with foreword from series creator Aaron Sorkin
* Episode guide
* Over 20 commentary tracks
* Over 20 Behind-the-scenes featurettes
* Unaired scenes
* Gag reels and more.
Release date: 11/07/06
The Duh Vinci Code - Special Edition Gift Set
I don't have good feelings for this movie, hence the bastardized title above. The humans involved are okay (including the super-cute Audrey Tautou) but the source material is pure garbage. I'd rather watch National Treasure, and I hated that lump of shit. At least this set has a fun decoder thingy that you might be able to find in any economy-size box of Cracker Jacks. Features include:
* An authentic, working replica of the cryptex from the film
* "Discover the Truth" sweepstakes entry hidden inside the cryptex
* Instructions for creating your own secret code
* Full-sized reproduction of Robert Langdon's journal containing notes, symbols and codes used to decipher the truth of The Da Vinci Code
* "First Day on the Set" with Ron Howard in the Louvre in Paris
* The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown
* "A Portrait of Langdon"
* "Who is Sophie Neveu?"
* "Unusual Suspects"
* "Magical Places"
* "Close-up on Mona Lisa"
* "The Filmmaking Experience Parts 1 & 2"
* "The Codes of The Da Vinci Code"
* "The Music of The Da Vinci Code"
* DVD ROM content - The Da Vinci Code puzzle game PC demo
* Bonus previews.
Release date: 11/14/06
King Kong - Limited Edition Gift Set
It's longer now? Personally, I wouldn't care if this movie was eight hours long, I loved nearly every minute of the original cut. The added scenes include more dino action as well as a sea monster of some sort. Unlike the toys in the other sets, the Kong statuette appears to be on par with the small sculptures included with the LOTR gift sets. Big suprise there, since everyone's favorite hairy New Zealander is responsible for this respectful update of the 1933 film. The three-disc extended edition includes the following exhaustive features:
* Commentary by Director Peter Jackson and Co-Writer Philippa Boyens
* Limited Edition Weta sculpture of Kong climbing the Empire State Building
* New extended edition with 13 minutes of added footage
* 38 minutes of deleted scenes
* "The Eighth Blunder of the World" outtake and gag reel
* "Re-Creating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong" eight-part behind-the-scenes featurette
* "Return to Skull Island"
* "The Present" - an original short film by the cast of King Kong
* Computer-animated storyboards
* Conceptual King Kong artwork gallery
* ROM Scripts: Includes the 2005 and 1996 scripts for King Kong.
Release date: 11/14/06
Oldboy - 3-Disc Ultimate EditionIt's weird to think that Oldboy is arguably the most accessible entry in Park Chan-Wook's ground-breaking revenge threesome (which also includes Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance), because it is also one of the most innovative and bold films to travel the globe from east to west. This three-disc set includes all of these fine extras:
* Metal collector's case
* Director, Cinematographer and Cast commentaries
* Behind the scenes documentaries including: making-of, production design, CGI and more
* 5 behind the scenes documentaries
* 10 deleted scenes with optional commentary
* Cast & crew interviews
* "Le Grand Prix at Cannes" featurette
* "The Autobiography of Oldboy," a 212-minute video diary from the shoot
* An authentic film cell from the theatrical 35mm print
* 210-page Oldboy manga graphic novel.
Release date: 11/14/06
Forbidden Planet - Ultimate Collector's Edition
Forbidden Planet finally gets the special edition treatment it has deserved for so long. If you don't know, I'll tell you: this is one of the best sci-fi movies to be made in the 50's, and it stands the test of time. Unlike This Island Earth and other legendary sci-fi films of that era, you never feel like giggling at the special effects or earnest acting. This is the real deal. This collector's edition comes with some cool features:
* Metal Alloy Collector’s Case
* New digital transfer from restored picture and audio elements
* Collectible Robby the Robot replica
* Forbidden Planet and The Invisible Boy reproduction lobby cards portfolio
* Forbidden Planet original theatrical poster mail-in offer
* Two follow-up vehicles starring Robby the Robot: 1958 MGM feature film The Invisible Boy and The Thin Man MGM TV series episode "Robot Client"
* TCM original documentary "Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us"
* "All-new Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet" featurette
* "Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon" featurette
* Science-fiction movie trailer gallery
* Excerpts from the MGM Parade TV series
* Additional scenes
* Lost footage.
Release date: 11/14/06
Six Feet Under - The Complete Series Gift Set
I'd like to say that Six Feet Under went out on a high note but I can't, because I've only watched two episodes of the first season and I have no idea how it ended. Ha! But seriously, the show has its fair share of dedicated fans, so I'll trust the idea that it was a quality show throughout its five season run. The box concept is a great one regardless. It looks just like a box of dirt with a nice square of sod on the top. What else could you ask for? How about more features:
* All 63 episodes on 24 discs
* Headstone and turf on top of package
* Commentary by cast and crew on 25 episodes
* Featurettes: "Under the Main Titles," "Anatomy of a Working Stiff," "Living on the Ledge: A Bird's Eye View of the Third Season," "Cut by Cut: Editing Six Feet Under" and "Life and Loss: The Impact of Six Feet Under
* Six Feet Under: 2001-2005 series retrospective
* Deleted scenes
* Bob Costas cast interview.
Release date: 11/14/06
Friends - Complete Series
Ten seasons and 236 episodes. That's how long viewers waited for the six friends to pair off and leave their unbelievably roomy New York apartments behind. Talk about your dedication. No wonder Americans get a reputation for being stubborn. I couldn't watch the show after Chandler and Monica hooked up. Lots of stuff happened after that, but I don't care. This set looks nice, which perfectly fits the show's biggest draw: the way the actors looked.
* All 236 episodes on 40 discs
* 60-page commemorative book with original pilot pitch and behind-the-scenes photos with cast and crew
* Commentaries
* Behind-the-scenes featurettes
* Gag reels
* Video guest books
* Trivia quizzes, and more.
Release date: 11/14/06
Alias - The Complete Collection
Like many supernatural series have done, Alias fell victim to its overly-intricate mythology and forgot to wrap it up adequately. According to several reports, the final season is a complete washout. The first two or three seasons provide plenty of entertainment as Jennifer Garner's plucky double-agent Sydney Bristow loped from mission to mission in super-hot outfits. This set may top all of the other TV boxes here in ultimate coolness. Here are the features:
* All 105 episodes on 29 discs, plus a bonus disc
* Packaged in replica of Rambaldi artifact box, with secret compartment holding the bonus disc
* Hardbound book revealing answers to the show's deepest secrets, including introductory letter from JJ Abrams
* Jennifer Garner's never-before-seen first interview as Sydney Bristow
* Exclusive J.J. Abrams interview
* "Identity theft" - Alias' sexiest Aliases
* "Case Closed" - cast reunion from the series finale
* "Dossier 47 – The Secret of the Infamous Number"
* Fan montage, bloopers, and more.
Release date: 11/21/06
Superman - Ultimate Collector's Edition
If you buy this collection and are able to say that you still need more super-goodness to be satisfied, I'll call you a fucking liar. This is the most comprehensive set any Supes fan could ever want (minus those who want to see Helen Slater in blue tights). Even the inclusion of the two weakest entries in the Christopher Reeve quadrilogy can't kill the magnificence of the overall package (I admit that I like Superman III a lot). This beautiful 14-disc set includes:
Superman: The Movie (Four-Disc Collector's Edition):
* Original 1978 theatrical version with soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1
* Commentary by producer Pierre Spengler and executive producer Ilya Salkind
* Theatrical trailers and TV spot
* 2000 expanded edition movie with commentary by director Richard Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz
* Music-only audio track
* Three documentaries: "Taking Flight: The Development of Superman," "Making Superman: Filming the Legend" and "The Magic Behind the Cape"
* Restored scenes
* Screen tests
* Audio-only bonus: additional music cues
* Vintage TV special "The Making of Superman: The Movie"
* 1951 movie Superman and the Mole-Men, starring George Reeves
* Nine Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons mastered from superior vault elements.
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut:
* Richard Donner's cut includes footage shot but never used, including a never-before-seen beginning, a never-before-seen resolution, 15 minutes of restored footage of Marlon Brando as Jor-El, and more
* All-new introduction by Richard Donner
* Commentary by Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz
* New featurette "Superman II: Restoring the Vision"
* Additional scenes
Superman II (Two-Disc Special Edition):
* The theatrical cut of the film
* Commentary by executive producer Ilya Salkind and producer Pierre Spengler
* Theatrical trailer
* Vintage TV specials "The Making of Superman II" and "Superman 50th Anniversary"
* New featurette "First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series"
* Eight famous studios Superman cartoons mastered from superior vault elements:
Superman III (Deluxe Edition):
* Commentary by executive producer Ilya Salkind and producer Pierre Spengler
* Vintage TV special "The Making of Superman III"
* Additional scenes
* Theatrical trailer
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (Deluxe Edition):
* Commentary by screenwriter Mark Rosenthal
* Additional scenes
* Theatrical trailer
Superman Returns (Two-Disc Special Edition):
* "Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns"
* "Resurrecting Jor-El"
* Deleted scenes
* Easter egg: "Wrong!"
* Theatrical and video game trailers
Three bonus discs full of extra material:
* Bryan Singer's Journals (Extended Edition)
* "Look, Up in the Sky!: The Amazing Story of Superman"
* "You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman."
Release date: 11/28/06
Two Weeks Worth of Tasty Leftovers:
November 14th:
November 21st:
Next week: clean your plate before you ask for more!
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Monday, November 20, 2006
News Round-Up: 11/20/06
;_;
Unfortunately it looks like we spoke too soon regarding The Hobbit. Peter Jackson has released an email that basically says that the whole business with New Line has left a bad taste in his mouth. He wanted to do the films anyway, but wanted to wait until a monetary-based lawsuit involving income from The Fellowship of the Ring was at a close. Then the call comes from Mark Ordesky at New Line, saying that they didn't have time to wait due to deadlines regarding the film rights. So the two (three?) prequels might get made by another director. That might not be horrible since the first book is lighter in tone and less epic... oh who am I kidding? This pretty much sucks. -- Scott Roche
Second Opinion: Seems like a pretty shrewd move on the part of PJ and co. to make this whole thing public to the fans. We know what the (annoying) extremes of fandom can be like (Browncoats), and that sometimes it can be enough to sway the opinions of the studio suits. Sometimes. Of course, this is assuming Jackson has an agenda with this public letter. Is it to somehow get back onto the film by way of the fans? Is it to simply paint New Line Cinema in a bad light? Or is it nothing more than PJ just having a lot of spare time to write letters? Who knows? Personally, I'm glad. Now bring on The Lovely Bones already! -- George Merchan
Source: TheOneRing.net
30 Days of Night will be using a new film technology that will allow them to shoot in pitch black. That would've been useful in that Vin Diesel flick, I forget the name. I finally got a chance to read the vampire comics that the movie will be based on and it's very cool. I can only hope that the movie will be as dark in tone as the source material. If it delivers on that and Melissa George's promise to show us something in a vampire that we've never seen before then I'm on board. That's far more important than any new technological whiz-bangery. -- Scott Roche
Source: Bloody-Disgusting.com
Bad news from the incredible Guillermo del Toro. They're having to do some rewrites on Hellboy II due to budget constraints. No word on what that will mean specifically. He's also stepping down from being a producer on Meg, the Jan de Bont directed/Shane Salerno written ginormous shark movie based on the novels by Steve Alten. And finally, he had a zombie video game project that he'll be leaving citing problems with the gaming industry. On an up note, he seems to be very happy with the popular reception that Pan's Labyrinth has been getting internationally. -- Scott Roche
Source: DelToroFilms.com
If you like MTV then you'll probably catch a sneak peek of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer on TRL tonight. Hugh Jackman will also be talking about The Fountain and you'll be able to learn more about next year's holiday comedy Fred Claus (the teaser of which you can check out over on MySpace), starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti. -- Scott Roche
Source: MTV.comDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards! Continue reading News Round-Up: 11/20/06
