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Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: Season 2
(20th
Century Fox)
Given the fact that I only received two out of this set’s six discs to review, I can objectively say that if discs two through five are even a fraction as insightful and entertaining as the ones I saw, then 20th Century Fox has a bona-fide bestseller on their hands.
Following up the show’s recently released season one on DVD, the set will not only entertain Slayer fans with all 22 episodes of the show’s second season, but also a truckload of insightful commentary (most by the show’s creator, Joss Whedon) and behind-the-scenes featurettes which don’t skimp on the details. One of the featurettes, "A Buffy Bestiary" (which can be found on disc six), showcases the entire slate of villains from season two. Audiences are treated to the intimate details of everyone from Amy the Witch to the Fish Creatures to the dynamic vampire duo of Spike and Drusilla, all of which is highlighted by commentary from Whedon, Marti Noxon (writer and current exec producer), makeup crew members and even the actors themselves.
The set also features art galleries (with pictures of the sets, sketches of monsters and more), biographies, television spots and much, much more. Heck, even the title menus (which lead the viewer through a seemingly three-dimensional graveyard) are exciting.
Season
Two Grade: A
DVD
Grade: A
——Abbi
Toushin
Charlotte Gray is a reversal on the typical spy thriller plot in which James Bond or some other macho facsimile is trekking halfway across the globe for the hot mama he loves. The film has the effervescent title character (played by Cate Blanchett) falling in love with a RAF pilot who goes down over France during the war. Gray does what any sane woman would do, and becomes an undercover British courier so she can go find her fair-haired beau. Of course, when she meets a member of the resistance in the guise of Billy Crudup, Gray’s heart gets pulled in all the wrong directions. What’s a spy gal to do?
No stranger to this type of material is director Gillian Armstrong, who had Diane Keaton doing back flips for Mel Gibson in dire straits in Mrs. Soffel. The extras on this disc include two documentaries that will get you up to speed if you failed those European history exams, so when you watch this film you’ll be able to keep up with Gray’s adventures. But all the brisk cinematography and well-dressed war-torn locations in the world cannot mask the fact that this tale is more of the same we’ve seen before, just flip-flopped to a woman’s perspective.
If you are looking for a romance, this film will keep you gripped. But as far as intrigue goes, Armstrong does very little to make all the red herrings not reek of pointless subplot stench. After you have all of the players in the spy game figured out, all you’ll have is Crudup and Cate looking gooey-eyed at each other as bombs burst in air.
Film Grade: B-
DVD Grade: B
——Greg Reifsteck
Dark
Blue World (Sony Pictures Classics)
Directed
by Academy Award winner Jan Sverák (Kolya), Dark Blue World
is a moving WWII epic with just the right mix of action and emotion.
The year is 1939, and the Nazis have just invaded Czechoslovakia. Two
Czech pilots, Franta (Ondrej Vetch) and Karel (Krystof Hádek) flee
to England to fight against Germany for the RAF. The young rookie Karel
and his mentor Franta become the closest of friends, but that friendship
is tested when they both fall in love with the same woman. These men must
trust each other with their lives, but will jealousy overwhelm that trust?
Dark Blue World is intelligently written, extremely entertaining
and often very funny. The film is shot with beautiful visual artistry
and a keen sense for detail. It’s an impressive accomplishment, especially
considering that this is a period piece shot on a relatively modest budget
(modest by Hollywood standards; it’s still the most expensive Czech
film ever made.) According to the commentary track, they saved money by
inserting outtakes from the classic Battle of Britain for some of the
aerial shots!
Aside from the commentary track (which features Sverák and producer
Eric Abraham), the DVD also features two making-of documentaries, a photo
montage, and several trailers. There’s nothing especially unique
about these supplements–they’re pretty much the standard assortment
we’ve come to expect–but they are interesting nonetheless. And
the film itself is good enough to make this a disc worth looking for even
without any extra material. This movie has something for everyone–love,
brotherhood, war, betrayal, beauty–and it all works. Even if you’re
the type who cringes at the thought of having to read subtitles, Dark
Blue World is one that deserves a chance.
Film
Grade: A
DVD
Grade: B
——Brandon Makaryk
The
Deep End
(Fox
Searchlight)
An underestimated suspense thriller that dives deep into the core of human emotion and motherly love, The Deep End is frightening and serene at the same time. A smartly understated script, fantastic performances and breathtaking cinematography aid writer/directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s sophomore film, which is a modern-day retelling of The Reckless Moment, a 1949 film noir from director Max Ophüls.
At the center of The Deep End is a family melodrama that focuses on Margaret’s (Tilda Swinton) motivation and determination to clean up the mess surrounding her teenage son, Beau (Jonathan Tucker). When Margaret discovers the body of Beau’s gay lover Darby (Josh Lucas) floating in the water near her picturesque Lake Tahoe home, her emotions go into overdrive. Assuming Beau is responsible, Margaret quickly hides the body. However, when two con men(one of which is ER’s Goran Visnjic) come looking for Darby, they blackmail Margaret with an extremely intimate videotape of Beau and his lover. Margaret is now at their mercy, and must do whatever she can to ensure her son’s name is kept in good faith.
Aside from Swinton’s electrifying performance and excellent direction by McGehee and Siegel, one of the most interesting elements in The Deep End is cinematographer Giles Nuttgens’ soothing photography. Shots of rippling water are combined with the color blue (everything from the Lake Tahoe sky to the color of Darby’s sports car and the hue of a matchbook) to creative an effective theme that is used throughout the film.
The DVD itself is slim but satisfying, containing a full-length audio commentary by the writer/directors, the Sundance Channel’s "Anatomy of a Scene" featurette, a selection of still photographs and the film’s theatrical trailer. Perhaps some commentary from Nuttgens on the film’s visual scheme would have been appropriate.
Film
Grade: A
DVD
Grade: B
—Abbi
Toushin
Eight Legged Freaks (Warner Bros.)
With Eight Legged Freaks, the producing team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Godzilla) serve up a monster film with less box-office brawn and giddy absence of plot logic than the ’50s predecessors to which it attempts to pay homage.
Sending up those old "big bug" howleers like Them! and Empire of the Ants, director Ellory Elkayem brings on his own army of radioactively altered arachnids. You pretty much know the film is going to be a write-off when David Arquette signs on as the lead. And, in case you didn’t know, the actor even came up with the film’s title while adlibbing a scene. Way to go, Ellory! And former MTV VJ Kari Wuhrer–who, sadly, plays the sheriff of this pathetic desert town–lets her jugs do the jigglin’ as she runs away from, and overacts towards, some fine CGI spectacles and tentacles.
Elkayem could have helmed a film worthy of Ron Underwood’s underrated giant-worm wiggler Tremors (1990), but Freaks doesn’t have the same bite. All the cool web-spitting and spider-leaping gets pretty tiresome after awhile, falling more into suit with other special effects-driven creakers like the woeful remake of The Blob.
The only way to save this dud would have been to tone down the script’s spoofing tendencies, but no such luck. The DVD itself is also mediocre; extras include anuneventful commentary by Arquette, the producers and the director, and eight additional scenes that should have stayed out just to keep it shorter.
Film Grade: C
DVD Grade: B
——Greg Reifsteck
Happy
Campers(New Line)
Seven camp counselors spend the summer trying to have sex with each other, and they all learn a valuable lesson about life. Yawn. Not to get all "been there, done that," but I think this movie was already made about twelve times before, and all of them better than this film. The script for Happy Campers wants to be a wacky, raunchy teen sex comedy that also has its characters going off on sappy, pseudo-philosophical rants about love and destiny. Hey, choose which kind of movie you want to make and stick with it, all right? It’s OK to be cynical, or irreverent, or tearfully sentimental, but you can’t do all three at once!
What’s
really disappointing is that this fluff was actually written by Daniel
Waters, who gave us the classic Heathers. Come on, Daniel, we know
you can do better than this! (Then again, he also wrote Demolition
Man and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Hmmm…methinks
perhaps Heathers was a fluke). You can’t really blame the actors
for this train wreck. They do the best they can with what they’re
given, stuck in cardboard caricatures of the teenager caste system: jock,
brooding loner, geek, cheerleader, hippy chick, etc….But the story
is boring and predictable, the characters lack depth or sympathy, the
dialogue is nauseating, and the jokes just aren’t funny.
The DVD features absolutely no extras of any sort, but that’s okay
because you won’t want to spend any more time with this disc than
you absolutely have to. If you’re
like me, about halfway in you’ll start praying for Jason Voorhees
to show up at the camp and introduce some excitement of the machete-swinging
variety.
Film Grade: D
DVD Grade: D-
——Brandon Makaryk
Heartbreakers
(MGM Home Entertainment)
What seems like a good idea at first ends up faltering just a bit with Heartbreakers, a film that sets up jokes and gags so cleverly it’s a wonder that it doesn’t always succeed in pulling them off.
The film stars Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a mother/daughter con team who successfully pull off scam after scam after scam. Weaver works up front while Hewitt comes in for the final punch – in other words, mom dates the rich guy and lures him into marriage, while daughter is the "last chance," boob-laden fling that said guy ends up falling for. When all is said and done, sadnew bride sues clueless groom (the movie opens up with Ray Liotta in this tight spot) for mounds of money, and mom and daughter relocate to pull off their next con.
The performances here are decent, but don’t hold up too well when parts of the film fall flat. Weaver seems to take the comedic aspects of her Galaxy Quest character to pleasant new heights, proving once again that she’s good with the funny stuff. Hewitt, who has grown up quite a bit since her teen-based film days (The I Know What You Did Last Summer movies), is much less annoying and much more toned down than viewers are used to seeing her. Although her character can be rude and crude when the script calls for it, the actress – who wanders all over the film in mini dresses with low cut tops and ultra high heels – has grown into an adult role, and therefore these traits aren’t nearly as annoying as they would be when running from a raincoat-clad man with a fish hook, or something similar.
Liotta is funny, as is Gene Hackman, who plays the second subject of a mother/daughter con. He’s made up to look older, and smokes so much it’s a wonder he doesn’t spontaneously combust. But it’s easy to identify the fact that he’s putting his all into the part. Jason Lee, as Hewitt’s could-be beau, is decent, although his character doesn’t have much of a carved-out place in the scheme of the film.
The DVD, while colorful and enticing both in teasers and titles, is just like the movie – its setup is good, but the overall product doesn’t measure up. The only special features available are two short documentaries on making of the film, a couple commentary tracks and a trailer. Deleted scenes – all 22 of them – are somewhat entertaining but, since the film wasn’t that funny, you begin to wonder how many scenes director David Mirkin actually had to choose from.
Film Grade: B- DVD Grade: C
Abbi Toushin
I
Am Sam(New Line)
Sean Penn’s Oscar-nominated performance as a mentally retarded man struggling to keep custody of his daughter is a good enough reason to see I Am Sam, but it is by no means the only one. There’s also the script by Kristine Johnson and director Jessie Nelson, which is both funny and heartbreaking without ever seeming manipulative or sappy. And there’s Elliot Davis’ breathtaking cinematography, as well as the phenomenal soundtrack of Beatles covers. And though Penn is undeniably the star of this movie, he is supported by a stellar group of actors, including Michelle Pfeiffer as Sam’s workaholic lawyer, and the surprisingly talented newcomer Dakota Fanning as Sam’s daughter Lucy (as in "…in the Sky with Diamonds"). This is a truly beautiful film, visually, artistically and emotionally. If you can watch I Am Sam without getting at least a little choked up, then you, my friend, are not a human being.
New Line did their usual bang-up job on the picture and sound transfer for the DVD release, and gave fans some pretty decent special features. There’s a commentary track with Nelson, an excellent "making of" documentary, a collection of deleted scenes, and the theatrical trailer. All pretty standard for major titles these days, but interesting nonetheless.
Overall, a great film and a great DVD. It’s hard to find anything to criticize. Oh yeah, AOL Time Warner is still selling their discs in those stupid flimsy cardboard snap cases instead of the plastic clamshells everyone else uses! There, I knew I could find something. But when packaging is the weakest link, that’s really a compliment, not a criticism. If you missed this one at the theatres, rent the DVD. It will make you believe, as those lads from Liverpool put it, that "love is all you need."
Film Grade: A
DVD Grade: A
——Brandon Makaryk
Ice
Age(Fox)
The future of computer animation stands solidly on four feet——and fuzzy ones at that. Fox and Blue Sky's s new CGI extravaganza Ice Age only furthers the notion that this new medium works best in the animal kingdom. This is an extremely engaging tale about three prehistoric misfits——a wooly mammoth, a sabre-toothed tiger and a sloth——that band together to help reunite a human baby with its tribe. The voice characterizations by Ray Romano, Denis Leary and especially John Leguizamo are terrific and the animation is top notch too——except when the subjects walk erect. There is something about the coldness of CGI and its almost too minute attention to detail that renders people as stark and angular creatures. The Disney Princesses would not be such preschool juggernaut had they been computer-generated. It just isn’t the same. That said, the humans make up a small part of Ice Age and don’t detract much from the overall experience. The DVD is chock full of delightful extras, including commentary from the directors, a wealth of making-of documentaries and featurettes, as well as Blue Sky's Oscar-winning film Bunny. However, don’t miss the hysterical commentary by Leguizamo in character as Sid the sloth, and a new short featuring Scrat, a neurotic, nut-hoarding squirrel.
Film Grade: A-
DVD: Grade: A
——Elena Tropp
Kate
& Leopold(Miramax)
Kate & Leopold, from director James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted), is a sweet treat for hopeless romantics and Prince Charming wannabes. A smart and sexy romp which successfully combines a time travel adventure with a quirky comedy and die-hard love story, the film smartly utilizes the talents of both Meg Ryan (Hollywood’s queen of romantic comedy) and Hugh Jackman (the tough-as-nails Wolverine in last year’s X-Men) and is both amusing and entertaining.
The film’s DVD is equally as satisfying, mostly because it features the original theatrical version as well as a director’s cut. The other frills include a commentary by Mangold, a handful of deleted scenes (some which suggest that the film’s subject matter is a bit incestuous), a costume featurette and the music video for Sting’s "Until."
Film Grade: A-
DVD Grade: B
——Abbi Toushin
Kissing
Jessica Stein
(Fox Searchlight)
The charming cover tag of this heartwarming disc reads: "A funny, smart, fresh look at sex and the single girl." After seeing the film–in which co-writers and co-producers Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen also co-star–it is clear that there is no better way to sum up this somewhat offbeat, kinda-quirky romantic comedy.
In the film, ultra-picky copyeditor Jessica Stein (Westfeldt) is fed up with the NYC dating scene. A 28-year-old single with a mother breathing down her back about not being married, Jessica decides to scope out the personals. She stumbles across an ad written with wit and grace. Only problem is, it was submitted by another woman.
This woman is Helen (Juergensen), a fellow single whose comfortable in her sexual skin and not afraid of exploring a bisexual relationship. She and Jessica meet and, after a lot of hemming and hawing, embark on a journey of exploration and intimacy.
The film is heartwarmingly sweet and funny, DVD frills included. The most enticing is one of the two audio commentaries, featuring the two actresses, who are extremely proud of their little independent venture. These emotions come out on the welcoming commentary, which is mixed with a lot of laughter and chattiness. The other audio track, by director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld and lenser Lawrence Sher, is just too technical. Other specials include deleted scenes, a handful of hilarious outtakes and a featurette entitled The Making of Kissing Jessica Stein.
Film Grade: A-
DVD Grade: B
——Abbi Toushin
The
Last House on theLeft
(MGM)
Viewers familiar with Wes Craven from his Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street series will receive less of a shock and something more like severe head trauma from his feature debut, 1971’s The Last House on the Left. Based loosely on Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, Last House begins with a pair of teenage girls, who are brutally murdered by a quartet of depraved criminals. The killers are forced to seek help after their car breaks down. Their hosts, however, are the parents of one of the murdered girls, and after discovering the truth about their guests, plan a terrible revenge.
Last House’s reputation as one of the most brutal examples of Seventies-era horror is well-deserved. Craven and producer Sean Cunningham (the Friday the 13th franchise) intended to make a visceral comment on violence in society, and achieved it with a documentary style that made the suffering of the victims seem all too real. Its explosive finale can be read with socio-political interpretations, but even without the semiotics, is one of the most powerful in horror film history. MGM’s DVD offers commentary by Craven and Cunningham as well as ten minutes of gory outtakes, long the subject of controversy, are also included.
Movie Rating: A
DVD Rating: A
——Paul Gaita
Aside from the fact that it’s skillfully shot and features a likeable actor (Jim Carrey) in the leading role, The Majestic–director Frank Darabont’s follow-up to 1999’s The Green Mile–has nothing remotely interesting to offer audiences. If anything, it is merely evidence that Darabont has tried too hard to rival the Frank Capra classics of the 1930s and ‘40s, like Meet John Doe and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Unlike Capra’s films, which thrived on evoking emotion in the hearts of everyday audiences, The Majestic is little more than an extremely cheap, emotionless carbon copy that looks nice and glossy on the outside but is, unfortunately, hollow on the inside.
In the film–set in the ‘30s–Carrey plays Peter Appleton, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter who is finally cracking into the semi-big time after Sand Pirates of the Sahara, a cheesy B adventure film for which he penned the script, is theatrically released. However, a looming blacklist halts Peter’s budding career when the studio chiefs find out that Peter attended a Communist rally while in college. Told to take a leave from the studio, Peter sets out for a drive, which ends in a car accident and lands an amnesia-stricken Peter in a tiny California town where the townspeople believe he is one of their long-lost sons sent off to war. Believing that his son has returned, Peter’s father (Martin Landau) decides to reopen the town’s theater, aptly called "The Majestic."
Just like the empty film, which strives to be heartfelt but instead comes off as being ultra-pretentious, the DVD, while nicely packaged, has pretty slim pickings. Aside from a few additional scenes (why would we want to watch these?) and a complete Sand Pirates sequence, this disc is a theatrical trailer, cast and director film highlights and select scene access. Definitely a should-miss.
Film
Grade: D
DVD
Grade: D+
——Abbi Toushin
MementoThe Limited Edition (Columbia/TriStar)
A man stands in a dark and dingy room, looking at a Polaroid he has just taken. It is a picture of a dead body surrounded by a pool of blood. Slowly but surely, the picture undevelops, leaving a clean, white slate where the photo used to be. The Polaroid goes back into the man’s camera, the bullet back into his gun and the body is now happy, alive and talking to the man who was, just moments before, looking at the Polaroid of the cold and bloody corpse on the floor.
That’s the opening few frames of Memento, a haunting film noir that starts at the end and works its way back to the beginning. Guy Pearce stars as Leonard Shelby, a man who cannot form new memories and therefore tattoos clues on his body tohelp him track down his wife’s murderer. The film was written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who, in an effort to further indulge fans of the film, has personally developed the film’s limited edition two-disc DVD set.
The DVD set is, in simple terms, as surprising, confusing and mesmerizing as the film itself. Nolan designed the DVD himself, and the result is genuinely unique. When you pop in one of the discs, you are guided through a series of psychiatric tests which, depending on your answers, will land you on a certain special feature. If you answer the questions one way on disc two, you will hit the Sundance Channel’s "Anatomy of a Scene" featurette. If you answer differently, however, you may end up viewing the film’s poster art or watching either the film’s international or domestic theatrical trailers.
Also contained on the discs are the Jonathan Nolan short story on which the film is based, production stills and sketches and, most notably, an extensive, surprise-filled commentary by Nolan himself which can be accessed while watching the film.
From its creative packaging (which looks like Shelby’s case file from the psychiatric ward and contains clues to solving the brain teasers Nolan included within the DVD) to a beautifully re-mastered edition of the film itself, Memento: The Limited Edition is definitely a must-own.
Film Grade: A
DVD Grade: A
——Abbi Toushin
Men
in Black II(Sony)
After five years in the dark, MIB agents Jay and Kay have finally returned–too bad, however, that their adventures in Barry Sonnenfeld’s follow-up to his creative 1997 original are more bust than must.
When we left the simple suit-clad pair at the end of Men in Black, new recruit Jay (Will Smith) was flashing away the memory of MIB vet Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), who wanted to return to his normal life after years of keeping tabs on the nation’s alien population.
As we return to the life of the MIB in 2002, Jay, the agency’s new super agent is frustrated with his string of current partners. When he stumbles onto a case involving the arrival of Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) to planet Earth, Jay and MIB head Zed (Rip Torn) realize that the only person who holds the key to helping them stop her is Kay, who now works as a small-town postman.
With the help of talking dog Frank, who becomes annoying after too many cutesy jokes, Jay wrangles Kay into returning to the MIB. The rest of the film balances the plan to stop Serleena with Jay convincing Kay that he was an MIB agent.
The film suffers because it lacks the original's wonderful dynamics, most notably in the sarcastically comic relationship between Smith and Jones. A flat script also hurts the project, as do seemingly dispensable characters as Laura (Rosario Dawson), Jay’s kinda-sorta love interest and (possibly) Kay’s daughter, and Scrad (Johnny Knoxville), Serleena’s two-headed assistant who disappears in the third act and never returns.
The two-disc DVD set of MIB II is less disappointing than the film, and features a plethora of extra features. Most notable are a specially animated short film, the alternate ending, a blooper reel and a DVD-ROM featuring a cool MIB game and downloadable screensaver. There is also a bunch of featurettes covering everything from "Alien Esoterica" to "Barry Sonnenfeld’s Intergalactic Guide to Comedy."
Film Grade: C
DVD Grade: A-
——Abbi Toushin
An undeniably gritty and overwhelmingly honest portrayal of life and issues in the South, Marc Forster’s Monster’s Ball delves deep into the heart and soul of human emotion and hardship. A compelling, heart-tugging script and stellar performances by Billy Bob Thornton and Oscar winner Halle Berry aid in the film’s remarkable ability to explore tough issues like interracial relationships and the death penalty.
Thornton plays the head of a small town’s department of corrections who is put in charge of a convict’s (rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs) trip to the gas chamber. Little does Thornton know that his life will eventually intertwine with the convict’s wife (Berry), who comes into contact with Thornton after her son is hit by a car.
The DVD lightens the film’s emotional load with a commentary track with Forster Thornton and Berry. There is also a brief featurette which highlights Thornton’s knack for keeping things light on the set, and cracking up his co-stars in the process.
Film Grade: A
DVD
Grade: B+
——Abbi Toushin
Monty
Python
and the Holy Grail
(Columbia/ TriStar)
From Monty Python, the boys who made Spam a house hold name long before it meant getting deluged with e-mail, comes a digital update of their first, and most quotable, feature film. Thanks to the leaps and bounds of DVD technology, one can now dive right into scenes like the bridge crossing and the bunny massacre with nary a tap of the fast forward on that haggard VHS copy you've been toting about. The extras on this disc make it a must for any collector, but it's the film itself that will make fans out of kids brought up on the likes of Tom Green and Adam Sandler. These Brits (and one Minnesota-born Yankee) sought outto poke fun at religion and the Round Table, and succeed in tickling its funny bone harder than a 50-ton weight dropped on your head.
A fan knows this disc is going to be the hoot from not only the clever menu screens featuring Terry Gilliam-fashioned animations depicting highlights from the film in all their wacky splendor. One could almost keep this on as a screen saver for the television, helping one escape the round-the-clock hypnotic CNN news updates.
Bonus goodies include a sing-along feature for three parts of the film: Sir Robin, The Monks, and the Knights of the Round Table tunes; a locations documentary, Japanese versions of select scenes, a word on coconuts, the legendary trailers, and tons of other insane artifacts.
To even get to the extras, one is told to place disc two in the player, hears a zipper open, and is told "no put it in THE PLAYER."
The bold, colorful, remastered transfer is crystal clear, and includes 20 seconds of new footage many have already seen on the film’s revival art house run. Every new menu is a hoot, since when you reach the monks sing along, Terry Jones gives instructions on how to bring harm to yourself with the DVD box.
Film Grade: A DVD Grade: A
—Greg Reifsteck
Panic
Room (Sony)
While not as explosive or exciting as David Fincher’s Fight Club, the director’s latest endeavor, Panic Room, is for the most part a satisfying thriller.
In the film, Jodie Foster is Meg Altman, an intelligent woman who’s recently split from her husband and is now house hunting with her rebelling daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart). Because her ex is wealthy, the newly single Meg can afford a house of any caliber, and she finds herself checking out a three-story, multi-bedroom brownstone in a ritzy NYC neighborhood. What ultimately sells Meg on the monstrous property is a state-of-the-art panic room (hence the film’s title), which is laden with cameras and designed to protect the house’s occupants from intruders.
Sooner than one can say Anna and the King, a handful of burglars (Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakam) break into the house, looking to recover some precious goods that are hiding beneath the floor in the panic room. What ensues from the break-in is a decently intelligent game of cat-and-mouse played between the Altman gals and the three intruders.
One of the film’s main strengths is Fincher’s ability to transform this massive house into a truly frightening character. This aspect is aided by Conrad W. Hall’s chilling cinematography. The only false note in the film is Leto’s Junior, who looks and sounds like a bumbling clown out of his environment.
The DVD isn’t nearly as satisfying as the film. Released on Superbit, which does aid in improving the quality of picture and sound, the Panic Room DVD is virtually empty. Apparently a deluxe edition is being readied for release.
Film Grade: B+
DVD Grade: D
——Abbi Toushin
Queen
of the Damned
(Warner Bros.)
Who needs the meandering mumbo jumbo of Tom Cruise in Interview With the Vampire? Lestat (Stuart Townsend) was meant to rock, and he gets to even more in the deleted scenes and music videos on the Queen of the Damned disc. If you enjoyed the Gothic visuals and Kornified Jonathan Davis grunges that flickered on television screens in the theatrical feature, you’ll bang thy head in joy as all three Lestat music videos are included in their entirety.
Queen of the Damned lent the question: What if Lestat awoke in modern time and became a TRL sensation, haunted the dreams of Jessie (Marguerite Moreau) and even awakened an ancient mother of all vampires (the late Aaliyah) along the way?
Director Michael Rymer pours on the humor and camp absent from Interview, making the vampire legend more accessible to the System of a Down crowd. My only gripe is that I know they had to enhance the late R&B icon’s voice, but did they have to make her role laughable? Rymer needed to tone down the fire and brimstone to make her a little more Vampirella and a little less Jackie Brown.
The film’s over-the-top approach helps it succeed as a guilty pleasure. Townsend’s Lestat could kick the crap out of Cruise on looks and leers alone. One line that makes this film work (at least for locals) on a comedic level is a hilarious scene in which Lestat is seducing his backstage prey of Goth gals gone wild. "You know where I’m from," intones Jessie. "I’m from Tarzana," she declares proudly, valley accent and all.
Definitely something for SoCal audiences to sink their teeth into, along with tons of deleted scenes, a hilarious gag reel of wire work gone wrong, a director’s commentary and three behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Film Grade: B+
DVD Grade: A+
——Greg Reifsteck
Shrek
(DreamWorks) The studio’s multi million-grossing green Ogre comes
home at last, bringing with him 11 hours of special features – including
film info, games, tech stuff and more. The most entertaining part of this
2-disc set is Shrek’s Revoice Studio, which allows the DVD user to
directly interact with the film by plugging a microphone into his computer
and recording his voice over certain character’s lines in a handful
of selected scenes. As hilarious as it is to watch Lord Farquaad torture
the unassuming Gingerbread Man in the film, its even more entertaining
when you hear your own voice piping in with "No, not the buttons!
Not my gumdrop buttons!" The film, an animated fairy tale twist featuring
the voice talents of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy, is excellent
on its own – the DVD features are only extra icing on an already
yummy cake.
One of Woody Allen’s last truly great films, 1992’s Husbands and Wives, has finally arrived on DVD. A compelling documentary-style dissection of the ups and downs of middle age marriages, this film attracted a lot of attention upon its initial release because it followed the scandalous break-up of Allen and Mia Farrow. It was their last film together and beyond the fascination of watching their on-screen marriage fall apart, this was a fitting send off, as they’ve rarely been better on screen.
There are also top-notch supporting performances from Sydney Pollack, Juliette Lewis, Liam Neeson and Judy Davis (who was Oscar-nominated, as was the screenplay). The film walks the line between comedy and drama and is one of Allen’s most sophisticated pieces of work.
As with the other DVD releases of Allen’s films, this disc does not feature any significant bonus materials. The viewer does have the option of watching the film in full frame or widescreen, and the trailer is included, as well as a trailer for Allen’s follow-up film, Manhattan Murder Mystery. Recommended as a rental for anyone , but as a purchase, for serious fans of the film and/or Allen only.
Film Grade: A DVD Grade: C+
The
Replacement Killers
(Columbia)
Want to listen to Anton Fuqua, the director of Training Day, talk about how he made his directorial debut with Chow Yun-Fat? Well, you'll find out on the commentary of The Replacement Killers that Fuqua got the gig after the video for "Gangster's Paradise" from Dangerous Minds sold the film so well, the Killers producers thought he could sell Yun-Fat's brand of Hong Kong action to the states.
The success factor on that is debatable. Even though a good foil was found for him in Mira Sorvino, Yun-Fat's only truly great role this side of the pond in a full-fledged American production was as his majesty in Anna and the King. Yun-Fat plays John Lee, who goes on the run after he betrays crime boss Mr. Wei, who hired him to avenge his son's death. Sorvino plays a sexy forger who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, giving him a fake passport to get himself and his family out of the country and away from Wei's harm. Sorvino puts in her edgiest part to date, kicking some nice ass in a short skirt as a gal who can hold her own. But after this film she fell off the planet, a victim of Louis Gossett Jr. Oscar winner's disease.
Fans of Fuqua's bled-out photography will love this film on DVD, because the fading light adds to the texture of this serviceable action flick. But we also find out from the deadpan commentary, as well as the deleted scenes, that Fuqua was forced to shorten the script – not only because of Yun-Fat's lack of handling the English language at the time, but key plot points were dropped seemingly at the producer's advisement for more action.
Thank goodness Fuqua can buy more substance to his films after his clout from the box office hit Training Day, because Killers never quite had enough thickness to its tale of dueling crime families. And proven by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yun-Fat can do more than just tout a gun to chew up scenery. Hopefully American producers will treat him with more respect than the ones of Killers did.
The DVD also includes a making-of documentary, an alternate ending and Chow Yun-Fat featurette.
Film
Grade: C+ DVD Grade: B
—Greg Reifsteck
Yu Law (Jet Li) has quantum jumped to 123 universes and committed first-degree murder in each of them. But according to Law, he was just trying to contain all of his selves that exist in all of the different universes into one body of indisputable power and knowledge.Delroy Lindo and Jason Statham have chased him for two years and finally have him sentenced to extinction. But he breaks free, setting the table for an 83-minute extended chase scene full of martial arts hyper-fights, minimal dialogue mumbo jumbo about the multiverse and bullets – lots and lots of bullets.
The directing and writing team of James Wong and Glen Morgan envisioned this for The Rock, who I'm sure bailed because he saw this as just another substanceless stab at the sci-fi genre. But, what the filmmakers can't get beyond is the same problem they had with their previous air-scare flick Final Destination. Li seems to have tried to lend his philosophical influences to the plot, but they are not dealt with in any depth. However, special effects junkies will love the rapid-paced fighting and well-done stunts. Li's multi-personas kick around humans like they were silly putty, or stops motorcycles with his bare hands and tosses them around like a 5-year-old heaving Hot Wheels. But those of us who know Li showed far more potential in Romeo Must Die and Lethal Weapon 4 will surely diss the lack of maturity in this film. As he fitfully says in the final scene in an intergalactic penal colony, he's "nobody's bitch!"
Slick transfer on the DVD enhances the dynamic and flawless digital effects sequences, but not the lack of use of the whole multiverse concept, that in more capable hands could have yielded a fun genre film.
Included on the disc are making-of featurettes, director and crew commentary track and trailers that don't really explain what went wrong.
Film
Grade: C DVD
Grade: B
–
Greg Reifsteck
When George (Kevin Kline) learns he is dying, he decides to spend what time he has left tearing down the shack he lives in and building his dream house. In the process, he befriends his troubled son (Hayden Christensen) and rekindles his relationship with his estranged ex-wife (Kristin Scott Thomas). In short, it’s one big metaphor about a man demolishing the crummy life he had so he can build a new and better one. It’s a bit maudlin at times, but full of humor, superbly acted and quite entertaining nonetheless. Young Hayden Christensen gives a powerful performance, demonstrating a real talent for angst and pathos which we’re sure to see again when he plays the-man-who-will-be-Vader in Star Wars: Episode II.The DVD boasts the standard grab bag of features: two short behind-the-scenes documentaries, deleted scenes, theatrical press kit, trailer, and a commentary track with director Irwin Winkler, producer Rob Cowan, and writer Mark Andrus. The features are adequate, but never particularly insightful, and they often repeat one another. Note to studios: Most DVD-philes would rather have a few really good supplements than a whole bunch of mediocre ones.
Five prostitutes were brutally murdered on the streets of London in the late 19th Century, and the identity of their killer, the infamous Jack the Ripper, has remained a question to this day.
One possible answer is offered up in From Hell, directed by the Hughes Brothers. Johnny Depp plays a detective famous for his intuitive abilities (aided by the potent potable drug absinthe) who is brought in to solve the Ripper case, and Heather Graham plays Mary Kelly, whom historians know as Jack’s last victim. The two fall in love, and their relationship complicates the investigation.
Unfortunately, the plot is a string of clichés, as Depp’s investigator becomes the standard renegade cop who fights against the system as he uncovers a conspiracy that leads all the way to the top of the government.
Still, the Hughes Brothers have enough skill to make an involving (and visually captivating) film, and they get strong assists from both Depp and cinematographer Peter Deming. It’s worth seeing at least once, especially for those interested in the Ripper case.
The DVD itself is a top notch special edition designed particularly for those interested in learning more about the history and theories surrounding Jack the Ripper. Special features include a wide ranging audio commentary featuring the directors, one of the writers, Deming and co-star Robbie Coltrane; a half-hour "interactive" documentary on the history of the case and engaging featurettes on the production design, graphic novel source material and absinthe.
Film Grade: B
DVD Grade: A-
——Geoffrey Berkshire
It’s Las VegHighway (New Line)
It’s Las Vegas, 1994, and Jack (Jared Leto) has a problem. It seems that some hired goons want to break a few of his favorite bones. Why? Because Jack’s a pool boy, and he got caught doing what pool boys have been doing since time immemorial with the wife of a powerful Vegas businessman. So Jack hightails it for Seattle with his lovable, wisecracking, drug-dealing buddy Pilot (the very talented Jake Gyllenhaal of Donnie Darko), and that’s when the adventures begin. Along the way they meet a girl who’s also on the run named Cassie (an under-utilized Selma Blair), and a spaced-out pothead extraordinaire called Johnny the Fox (John C. McGinley). It’s a fun buddy road trip movie, but with some very dark undercurrents. Along the way there’s plenty of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. Oh yeah, and an alligator boy.
The DVD’s image quality and 5.1 surround mix are both excellent. But unfortunately, this disc is a victim of AMS, or Animated Menus Syndrome. It’s always a sure sign that you’re getting a bare-bones DVD when the largest text on the back of the package is the exuberant "ANIMATED MENUS!" (The exclamation mark is essential) This disc has absolutely no extra features. No trailer. No interviews. Not even those cast & crew profiles that no one ever actually reads. And to be fair, the menus are "animated" in the very loosest sense of the word. Cool movie. Talented actors. Clever script. Killer soundtrack. Lousy DVD.
Film
Grade: A-
DVD
Grade: D
—— Brandon Makaryk
Like so many movies before it that tried desperately to cater to one specific audience, How High doesn't just miss its target demographic (college students), but all audiences in general.
How High is a fish-out-of-water comedy that focuses on two inner-city teenagers, Jamal (Redman) and Silas (Method Man), who discover a special form of weed that increases their intelligence. Needless to say, the plant helps them ace their college entrance exams and get into Harvard where (obviously) they feel out of place and try to make the Ivy League feel more like home.
While the idea of two stoners stumbling their way into Harvard and trying to make the grade could have had its share of laughs, screenwriters Dustin Lee Abraham and Brad Kaaya manage to avoid humor altogether and replace it with cheap gags, like dropping Cheetos on an expensive rug. Furthermore, How High should be a no-brainer to follow, but poor editing makes the story difficult to understand.
Even
the DVD lacks laughs, despite a few promising features. The many "outrageous"
deleted and extended scenes only offer a chuckle or two, the "Hide the
Stash" game is a complete waste of time and most of the "uncensored"
outtakes were already shown during the end credits. Even Method Man and
Redman can't bring a smile to viewers' faces as they take over the "sidesplitting"
making-of special, since they are as boring as the movie itself. In fact,
the only thing that may have made the DVD tolerable for teens and twenty-somethings
to watch is excessive T&A, and, just like the USA movie-of-the-week
the film resembles, it’s missing that too.
Film
Grade: D
DVD Grade: C
——Heather Wadowski
In the distant future, people in Central Asia are treated to Rollerball, the most extreme contact sport ever created. The major players include innocent all-American Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein), a mysterious Dutch femme fatale (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) and an accountant who can’t get enough of the Rollerball lifestyle (LL Cool J). Together, they make up the core of the Horsemen, a team owned by the league’s greedy, manipulative owner (Jean Reno). When Reno’s character figures out that violence equals ratings, Rollerball becomes even more extreme.
With an atmosphere more like professional wrestling than a movie, Rollerball is filled with more action than substance. Suggestions of plot break through the frenzy, but not long enough to make it substantial. While the movie centers on themes of greed, friendship and the extremes people will go to for money, the intense Rollerball sequences are the selling points of the movie. With director John McTiernan (Die Hard) at the helm, Rollerball is in good hands in the action department.
Rollerball is a remake of the ‘70s James Caan classic, but none of the actors in the remake hold a candle to Caan in the acting department. Chris Klein fails as a badass action star, and the only genuine performances come from Jean Reno (who is amazing in almost anything) and LL.
The DVD is more worthwhile than the film, mostly because it is the R-rated version not released in theaters. With an interesting and in-depth documentary on the film’s stunts and a couple of different commentaries to keep you busy, the DVD is rarely boring. The only other notable feature is the video for Rob Zombie’s "Never Gonna Stop."
Film
Grade: B-
DVD
Grade: A-
——Dane Jackson
Scooby-Doo
(Warner Bros.)
Universally reviled by critics upon its theatrical release this past summer, Scooby-Doo has just arrived on DVD. Despite the critical drubbing, Scooby is actually harmless fun, guaranteed to please kids and certainly no worse than the Saturday morning ‘toons from which it’s derived.
Although it could’ve been given the same kind of cynical satirical spin The Brady Bunch received in their big screen outing, the Scooby filmmakers decided instead to remain true to the spirit of their source material. Consequently, the film is a brightly designed, fast-paced and sporadically amusing adventure. It doesn’t have much in the way of brains, but it’s well cast with appealing performers and makes expert use of state-of-the-art CGI technology in order to make Scooby as three-dimensional as his now live action co-stars.
Like many kid-oriented DVDs, Scooby isn’t exactly a shining example of interesting special features, but there’s enough here to interest fans. Most notable are two audio commentaries, one with director Raja Gosnell and two producers with a focus on achieving the film’s visual effects, and a second with the four lead actors joking around and less than fourteen minutes’ worth of deleted/extended scenes (including an alternate animated opening). A few brief "behind the scenes" featurettes and an Outkast music video round out the set.
A breezy time-killer, if it interests you, Scooby is worth a rental. And if you’re offended by seeing a beloved cartoon turned into a live-action cartoon, just get the hell over yourself.
Film Grade: B
DVD Grade: B
——Geoff Berkshire
Spider-Man
(Sony)
In this long-awaited screen version of Marvel Comics’ web-slinging Gotham savior, Tobey Maguire (Pleasantville) is impressive as the dorky Peter Parker, a high school journalist whose finds himself able to sail between buildings and climb up the sides of skyscrapers after he’s accidentally bitten by a genetically altered spider.
The casting of Maguire is, unfortunately, one of the only saving graces of director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, which broke all sorts of summer box-office records, despite a wafer-thin plot, sloppy CGI effects and an onscreen romance that fizzles instead of sizzles.
The film follows Parker’s various transformations–which are ultimately just as exciting for the audience as they are for the soon-to-be superhero himself–and, his encounters with arch-nemesis the Green Goblin, a Jekyll-and Hyde-type villain convincingly portrayed by the versatile Willem Dafoe. Sticky thing is, Goblin’s alter ego, Norman, is actually the wealthy father of Harry (James Franco), Parker’s best friend.
While some parts of the movie are fun–especially a sexy, rain-sodden scene where Parker, hanging upside down with only his mouth exposed from his latex suit, sucks face with love interest Mary Jane (an uninteresting Kirsten Dunst)–the love story lacks chemistry and the CGI (especially in a climactic scene with a cable car) is often laughable. Overall, it seems like the movie was made simply to make money and leave an avenue open for a sequel, both feats of which have already been accomplished.
The DVD features pack more punch than the film’s plot, combining everything from the usual commentary, trailers and featurettes to nifty extras like Maguire’s screen test, a historical documentary on the mythology of Spider-Man and the Spider-Man comic archives. There is also a boatload of DVD-ROM frills on this two-disc set, including a fun feature that lets the viewer record his own commentary.
Film Grade: C+
DVD Grade: A-
——Abbi Toushin
Waking
Life
(20th
Century Fox)
Last year’s best animated film wasn’t aimed at family audiences and didn’t make over $200 million at the box office. It was a small adult-themed independent flick that was a breakthrough in both animation storytelling and technique. Richard Linklater’s Waking Life is not a film for everyone, but it’s worth viewing for anyone interested in eye-popping visuals, thought-provoking ideas or both.
The film’s minimalist narrative is likely to frustrate many viewers. We follow a dreaming protagonist who slowly realizes that he’s dreaming as he encounters a series of unrelated people discussing issues of philosophy, politics and personal freedom. Only late in the game does a genuine plot kick in, as he realizes that he can’t get out of his dream state.
The film can occasionally feel like a philosophy class lecture, but that’s the point. Linklater isn’t talking down to viewers; instead, he’s trying to challenge us with questions and actively engage both the mind and eyes.
The animation process is the breakthrough here, as the entire film was first shot on digital video and then painted over frame by frame using computers in a process dubbed "rotoscoping." It gives the images a painterly feel that is also appropriately trippy.
The DVD transfer makes the visuals pop and is loaded with information about the process, including selections from the original digital video shoot, deleted animated scenes, an animation demonstration, an earlier short done in the same process and a feature commentary with the animators. There’s also a less-than-engaging filmmakers’ commentary that reveals how Linklater thought of this as a "kitchen sink movie" where he could incorporate ideas or characters that he had been thinking about for years but couldn’t fit into other projects.
Film Grade: B+
DVD Grade: B+
——Geoffrey Berkshire
Unfaithful
(Fox)
Director Adrian Lyne has always had a cynical yet realistic take on relationships in films. From the kitschy dynamic of Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri in his b.o. smash Flashdance, to the darker and more violently poignant shades displayed by Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke in 9 1/2 Weeks, Lyne has showed us how infidelity creeps in on all couples at one time or another.
Unfaithful, which is easily Lyne’s most mature work, gets us hot and bothered with Diane Lane as a woman who becomes caught up in playing the adulteress. We don’t just see her as the typical bored housewife in the ‘burbs cheating on her too-into-his-work hubby (Richard Gere). Instead, we see a woman who’ extra-curricular love life is almost as a disease which she cannot cure.
She seems like a happy family woman, but when a freak windstorm unexpectedly blows hunk Oliver Martinez into her life, temptation rears its ugly head. Her struggle to free herself is both realistic and erotic in one cinematic caress.
The DVD’s transfer accentuates cinematographer Peter Biziou’s rich textures of browns and autumn shades, dragging us down into her changing season of lust and confusion.
Lane is remarkably brave and her scenes with a maturity that most young actresses would never have summoned. Gere is no slouch either; his character takes action when push comes to shove, and goes over the edge with a surprise twist which manages to keep the unorthodox turn of events this film takes on course. The result is enough to make the film a crisp chiller with which to cuddle up with someone during this unseasonably cruel Cali winter.
Extras include a very informative and concise commentary by Lyne and the actors during key scenes of the film. Lyne also guides us through eleven deleted scenes, as well as an awful alternative ending that was thankfully exchanged for a more ambiguous one.——Greg Reifsteck
Film Grade: B+
DVD Grade: B
A
Walk to Remember (Warner Bros.)
The surprise winner of winter’s mini battle-of-the-teen-pop-singers-crossing-over-into-film (a.k.a. Britney vs. Mandy) was the girl with smaller album sales. Anyone who’s listened to her albums can tell you Mandy Moore has the better voice and wider range of material. That minor inclination towards something just a bit deeper shows up in her choice of film roles as well. While Britney’s Crossroads was completely shallow and contrived, Mandy’s A Walk To Remember is, well…a little less shallow and contrived.
It’s the story of a small town girl who walks to the beat of a different drummer (and never leaves home without her Bible) and falls in love with a rebellious cool kid who’s starting to realize the naughtiness of his ways. Together they make beautiful music until, like numerous screen couples before them, they’re torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. In the end they’ve loved, learned and by gosh, they’re better people for it (or deader people for it).
The nice thing is that both leads (Mandy and Shane West, part of the criminally underappreciated ensemble of TV’s Once & Again) deliver solid, engaging performances. The film works best when they’re on screen together, as they generate a natural chemistry. Chances are if you’re susceptible to a tear-jerking romance, you’re gonna find what you want here. On the other hand if this doesn’t sound like your bag, then it pretty much isn’t.
The DVD isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it suits the film. There are two commentaries: one with Moore, West and director Adam Shankman and a second with screenwriter Karen Janszen and author Nicholas Sparks, who wrote the source novel. Neither is inspired, but fans of the film should be satisfied. There’s also a trailer and a music video for the film’s theme song, Moore’s oh-so-appropriately titled "Cry."
Film Grade: B-
DVD Grade: C+
——Geoffrey Berkshire