Electric Shadow

Becket Blu on the Cheap

In one of the best catalog Blu-ray deals I've yet seen, Amazon has Becket for $15.49 currently, which is less than the DVD usually goes for ($15.99). Buying movies at this kind of pricing sends a message to distributors and studios, so open your wallet if this is your kind of release. Becket is the 1964 film adaptation of the play "Becket or The Honor of God," which focuses on the relationship between King Henry II of England and his confidant Thomas Becket. Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole star as Becket and Henry, respectively. Both were nominated for Best Actor, and the film was nominated for a total of 12 Oscars. In late 2006 and early 2007, Jeff focused a great deal on the limited run rerelease and the restored print & transfer to DVD of Becket, "in which O'Toole arguably gave the finest performance of his career as King Henry II." Act quickly to get this price on it from Amazon. Purchasing from the links in this entry helps support this column and is much appreciated.
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Pushing Pulling

And now for our all-too-frequent feature, "European TV shows no one has heard about that are much better than US broadcast TV." I'll work on a better title. Unfortunately cancelled after its second season, Pulling is the kind of show that wins awards and acclaim and stills ends up unfortunately cancelled. The humor is dark, the women's roles are complex and interesting, and the guys are mostly fundamentally flawed--much like real life, go figure.
Pulling follows three single women, one of whom starts the first episode engaged. Series co-creator Sharon Horgan plays Donna, who works an uneventful office job, Tanya Franks as Karen, a promiscuous primary school teacher, and Rebekah Staton as Louise, a naive cafe hostess. The co-creator and writer who does not also appear in the show is Dennis Kelly, who writes plays I'd be interested to read if they were published in the States. Pulling was the last comedy show produced and brought to fruition by Harry Thompson, who was a primary driving force behind the conceptual creation of Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G. Thompson also produced popular panel shows in the UK that exposed the public to Cohen, Ricky Gervais, and others not as familiar to dirty American audiences who I could pretend to know more about than I do. Here's Thompson's Wikipedia page. I think it's a discredit to Pulling to recommend it as Dark Sex and the City, as if it were some sort of alternate-universe version of affluent women getting into all kinds of hilarious jams and sometimes Very Special episodes. It's indicative of the relative state of women in the media that everything involving women has to be relative to that fucking show (which, full disclosure, I watched and enjoyed on and off). "It's like Sex and the City crossed with the evening news!" Pulling distinguishes itself from most TV these days by not reinforcing accepted sitcom stereotypes, irrespective of gender. Even many of the best American shows that are untimely cancelled still bend over for the same tired crap, featuring relationships like an idealized damsel in distress paired with a hopeless manchild. Nothing fully traumatic or lasting ever happens to people in these shows. They both stay the same and never show an inch of development. There is no jeopardy too trivial. Not that they're similar in any way other than narrative structure, but Pulling continues snowballing and raising the stakes for the three women at its center episode by episode as Eastbound and Down recently did with a completely different components. Flawed people making mistakes is a very interesting thing to watch, completely unlike Confessions of a Shopaholic. The primary thread I could relate to is the thrust of the first episode, in that heterosexual women worldwide are less likely to marry because, well...look at the options they have. The only thing that frustrates me is that now I have to wait for the second season to be released so I can plow through the rest of the show. The first season of Pulling is now available on DVD.
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DIGITAL: International Velvet at last

As far as I can gather, you can now own International Velvet for the first time on DVD. The catch is you get it in a cheaply-produced, single-layer transfer on a two-sided disc (National Velvet is on the other side). The roughly ten dollar multi-feature also includes Black Beauty and The Story of Seabiscuit. Amazon has it for $10.99, but Ashley and I got it at Target for a dollar less. Adding nearly a buck for tax makes it a wash, though. We got a $5 bin copy of Black Beauty a while back that's no better than the transfer in this flip-set. This just means we have a spare to give away or sell off, but it made me think how much I'd like to move up to a full HD transfer on Blu-ray.
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(Battle for) Terra

I reviewed Battle for Terra back at Fantastic Fest, when it wasn't yet in 3D and called Terra. The reviews and flat dismissals I've seen around the web for this movie are interesting in that they're all written by adults acting like this movie was made with them in mind.
Battle for Terra, by all predictions, stood to be completely slaughtered this weekend, but hopefully it'll see an uptick or some sustained business with families who've already seen Monster vs. Aliens until UP takes all its screens at the end of the month. For those with kids, I really think it's more worthy of your time than MvA and the wide swath of not-so-great choices moms and dads are usually stuck with. It's the type of movie that an eight year old will wear out on DVD and recall fondly in their adult life as something they loved when they were a kid, simplicity be damned. On a side note, I find it interesting that the Romulan ship in Star Trek (5/8) and the enemy ship here share more than a passing resemblance in design and "drill" weapon. As I said back in September: "I know people who just dismissed it from their must-see list or saw it and said "meh", falling back on something to the tune of "it didn't knock my socks off or anything". Does it blow the doors off of the CG or scifi genres? Honestly it doesn't, and I really don't think they were aiming to. They were going to tell a story that could really only be told this way independently. As expensive as I'm sure non-studio CG animation must be, it'd be nothing compared to trying to make this thing live-action. "Terra takes place on and around a distant planet to Earth and features an alien people who "swim" around through the air, hovering over the ground, but who are also fascinated with flying machines. They seem to have strict controls on technological development, for unclear reasons at first. "Humans come into the picture at one point, and my wife commented it was an interesting companion piece to WALL-E thanks to thematic similarities involving mankind forced into outer space as a result of making Earth uninhabitable. "There are spaceship laser battle sequences, and the influences of many other science fiction films is present, from Star Wars to Independence Day, but never to the point of ripping anyone else off. Others may make that allegation, but the closest you see to them ripping off ID4 is the fact there's a Quaid in the voice cast. "What I like most is that it does its own thing without trying to be the writer or director's "version" of someone else's vision. I dare say Terra does the spirit of Star Wars better than Star Wars has done in some time. It keeps the themes and plot progression simple. It is absolutely family-friendly and has a "don't just do as you're told when it feels wrong" message that has been missing from so many animated features aimed square at kids for so long. Then again, it has been in some of them, but it's aimed more at "be rebellious and stupid" instead of "do the right thing."
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476: Button Blu

Plenty of people online cried foul when word broke that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was immediately getting the Criterion treatment. Having gone through the extensive supplements on the Blu-ray hitting shelves this Tuesday, I can't imagine what would have resulted without their platinum touch.
Fincher's process is so exacting that any of his films deserves the most detail-oriented and comprehensive treatment possible, especially one that went through a 20 year development. The Birth of Benjamin Button feature documentary clocks in ten minutes longer than the movie at 2 hours 55 minutes, and it covers everything one could want: script development, the talent involved (at one time Frank Oz directing Martin Short), the choice of New Orleans, and the nearly invisible visual effects. Among my favorite anecdotes throughout the doc are the effects guys talking about Fincher's impossibly high expectations and one where Fincher talks about casting and apologizes to Darren Aronofsky.
I'd estimate that around or over half the running time focuses on the various stages of practical and CG work, and rightfully so. I found myself replaying each of the post-production chapters covering the replacement effects as soon as I finished watching the whole thing in one go. The consummate professionalism brought to the production value of this doc is why a studio single disc-only edition wasn't going to cut it. The movie's craft deserved better, and it got the best. Even if you didn't fall in love with the movie, the doc alone is worth purchasing the set. It's a high-end, 3-hour film school class on a disc. I could actually see myself re-watching it more than once.
most of the talking heads featured in The Birth of Benjamin Button
The individual chapters of the feature doc are also viewable individually, along with a couple featurettes not available as part of the Play All version. Tech Scouts [12:23] is just additional behind the scenes footage captured from various location scout trips. Costume Design [7:38] feels three times longer than it is in a good way. Costume Designer Jacqueline West takes us on a visual tour of all the great clothes in the movie and how the actors' performances and the costumes informed each other symbiotically at times. After going through all of this in addition to about half of the Fincher feature commentary, I'm dumbfounded as to why I haven't bought the Zodiac SE on Blu-ray as well. Fincher is more cognizant than many directors of the fact that no one likes commentaries duplicating info available elsewhere on the DVD and keeps things interesting. One fact related to the old guy who keeps getting struck by lightning frustrated me: the seventh lightning strike was cut from the movie and it's not available anywhere on the DVD as an extra or easter egg. Also included are Storyboard, Art Design, Costume Design, and Production Still Galleries. For me, the most important thing about Criterion jointly releasing this 165-minute movie with the studio is that quality-conscious Criterion have split the Feature and Supplements across separate discs. They even put the Theatrical Trailers on Disc 2. Only the movie and the various audio tracks (French and Spanish included) are on Disc 1 of both the DVD and Blu-ray, ensuring the highest possible audio and video bitrate. The deep blacks and rich contrast on display wouldn't look quite as decadent if the movie were crammed on the same platter (even dual-layer BD-50) as any or all the extras. I admired the movie's craft when I saw it in early December, and my wife's reaction at the time was that "it was ok, but I didn't get too invested because I didn't want it to really affect me." There are many in our generation who are more afraid of conscious vulnerability than anything else, and I suppose plenty of others had the same reaction. There were a few moments that got me upon my initial viewing, but it was when I saw it later on, after my father had a stroke and nearly died, that Benjamin Button really wrecked me. Fincher starts the Prelude of the Birth doc talking about how it's a movie about death that was greatly informed by the passing of his own father. It may be that to get the full impact of the movie, you have to have recently lost someone you never truly knew as well as you could, as Daisy's daughter does over the course of the movie. At the very least, the ability to summon that feeling of loss is instrumental to getting the most out of the movie, and not everyone wants to do that voluntarily. You've got to be there already or be really close. When you have that recency of loss, Button allows one to escape within that emptiness, imagining the remarkable life experiences you never did or will know about. The movie does not work for everyone, but I figure that's precisely why. EDIT: As of this writing, the two-disc DVD ($22.99) is only $3 less than Amazon's price on the Blu-ray ($25.99). The single disc is $15.99 but is just the movie and commentary track, no Birth of Benjamin Button. If you found this review helpful and plan on buying this title, you can click on any image in this article (or here) to order it at Amazon. A small percentage of your purchase goes toward supporting this column, and I'll link elsewhere if someone has a better price on a title during the week of release.
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HotDocs09: Best Worst Movie

Some of the best movies I missed at SXSW09 (which I have since seen) are playing HotDocs 2009 in Toronto this weekend, and everyone attending should make time for them all. I'll be adding a couple others later on. For those attending, I recommend using BSide's festival schedule tool that I used at SXSW. It's a life-saver. Best Worst Movie has been raved about from here to kingdom come by this point, but as these docs continue their life on the festival circuit, they need as much exposure as possible. The child star of Troll 2, a movie that was neither an actual sequel nor very good, picked up a camera all these years later to document the rabid cult following of IMdB's lowest-rated movie of all time. Michael Paul Stephenson's movie does not require you to already be a huge fan of Troll 2, and that's why it works so well.
marquee from one of many revival screenings
In fact, even to those who detest watching movies like Troll 2, Best Worst Movie is quite satisfying as an anthropological study of cult films: the making of them, the maturation of the cult, and the wake left by the movie. Folks who get soundbitten range from Alamo Drafthouse programmers to critic Scott Weinberg, and fans across the world. They also check back in with every notable member of the cast they could find, and one in particular kinda creeped me out.

practical effects at their best worst
The Italian director and production team responsible for the wretched shit of a script they had and movie they came up with are so deadly serious about their craft, it reminds me of docs like General Idi Amin Dada (watch free this month in the US here), where the great transgressor sees himself as the great philanthropist. To see such joy and relative fame come to people like George Hardy and at once embarrass them just as they are exalted is hilarious, fascinating, and tragic all at once. Rare for a doc, this one is universally appealing and extremely commercially viable. Someone will pick this up and make tens of millions on home video with it. People won't illegally download it out of respect, and they'll gift it to friends. Fans of Troll 2 will have to have it, and people who love movies and aren't in on the joke yet will have it introduced to them by this precision-cut documentary. This is a "holy fucking shit, let me go grab it off the shelf and show it to you" documentary. Catch it tonight at 845pm, Saturday at 1145pm (at the Bloor), and 2pm Sunday.
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Choose Next Criterion Blu & Free Docs


Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants,
Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law,
Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock
In a poll that requires you to log in over at Amazon, Criterion is soliciting input for which of five films should go Blu-ray next. My personal vote is for Au revoir les enfants, closely followed in preference by Down By Law and Picnic at Hanging Rock. The choice of the former is for the glorious monochromatic potential, and the latter for my admiration of decades-old Weir.
This month's free-to-watch-online Criterion titles have just been posted over on The Auteurs. They're all docs, including a couple personal favorites (General Idi Amin Dada and Harlan County, USA), one of the definitive concert docs (Monterey Pop), a classic being re-released fully remastered for HD in July on disc (For All Mankind), and a couple I haven't caught up with but can now (Salesman and Burden of Dreams).
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Lord of the Road

Really? The State of Florida's legislature has ratified these new Jesus Christ license plates ("buy now and get Truck Nuts 50% off!"). When asked about how this might violate separation of church and State, Gov. Charlie "Heterosexual Gun-Lover" Crist repeats the same lazy "In God We Trust is on the money" crap that has been used for ages by righties. I expect them to release one with Buddha on it in addition to one for Ganesh and a limited edition Obi-Wan Kenobi. jesusplate.jpeg
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And Franken Makes 60

I never thought I'd see the day when Al Franken and a five-term Republican gave a black President a supermajority in the US Senate (pending the completion of the Everlasting Recount). What next, affordable healthcare that takes the shackles off millions of Americans who are dependent on their corporate employers to insure them? I guess Chris Matthews isn't running as once thought, but who was eyeing the primary originally, and will they still? I feel like I'm living a Rod Lurie movie. I'd say like The Contender in plot, but more Deterrence in thrilling effect. There may be something for making a cable drama of a senior Republican switching parties, an HBO miniseries or movie. Everyone who tuned in for Recount would watch it. In absence of that, I'd go rent or buy Nothing But the Truth and celebrate real political drama on film. Arlen Specter must have waited until today to help promote the DVD release of an excellent movie that never should have gone direct to video. Having not seen it, I'm assuming quality based on pedigree and word of mouth from those I trust on political thrillers. Now that I can get my hands on it, expect a review soon.
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Star Trek from the Beginning

The first season of Star Trek was cheaply-made and hastily shot, but its impact still resonates. Science Fiction on TV at the time was essentially limited to Lost in Space. The way it has matured to the point a series like the recently-concluded Battlestar Galactica can air at all, let alone for four seasons, is rather remarkable. The reviews of the upcoming reboot (mine included) seem to indicate Star Trek has finally taken a form that's appealing to the masses beyond the faithful, and this Blu-ray edition could easily find its way into the homes of new fans won by the new movie. CBS has pulled off a release that all future catalogue TV titles will be compared to from here on out. Most importantly , what they've done here is position the original, ground-breaking series the best they can for future preservation. This makes me wonder at what glorious work could be done on The Twilight Zone (coming later this year) and Night Gallery in particular among many others. Video & Audio A few years ago, they completely restored the original series episodes in the process of adding new effects shots and audio for HDTV airing. Here they have included both versions, accessible via seamless branching. George Lucas looks like more of a selfish idiot than ever for being opposed to doing the same thing to his original Star Wars trilogy. Using the Angle button on the Blu-ray remote, you can hot-swap from one version to the other mid-episode. Make sure you're running the latest firmware on your player, or you may run into issues as I did prior to downloading an update.

a crude snapshot from the Spacelift featurette highlighting the pre- and post-restoration difference
The audio options are also note-perfect. Included is a full DTS HD 7.1 track that includes the re-recorded score in addition to the original 2.0 Mono track. They've even included Spanish and French 2.0, which is often left off. Even if you aren't fluent as I am, swap over to Spanish a couple times to hear Kirk say, "Eh, Senor e-Spock" a couple times. If I had one item on my BD-Live wish list, it'd be that I could re-dub the episodes in spanish myself along with friends in true telenovela style and upload it to the "cloud." Maybe that can be done down the road, since that's the whole idea behind BD-Live. User-generated alternate audio and YouTube-hosted video could help BD-Live get popular. Now if only manufacturers made some WiFi-enabled, low-cost players. Extras There's a great deal of ground to cover here, with over 2 hours of standalone supplements. On top of those, select episodes are enabled as Starfleet Access, which translates to picture-in-picture video commentary blurbs and text comments interspersed throughout. Just like audio commentary tracks, you don't want to watch them before having seen the show on its own. There is a bit of recycled chatter seen in the wealth of featurettes elsewhere on the set, and there's a regular bit of "now I'm going to describe what is happening on screen right now." Episodes that have SA include Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Menagerie (Parts I & II), Balance of Terror, Space Seed, and Errand of Mercy. Most of the supplements have been repurposed from the HD-DVD release and the 2004 DVD releases, with a few cut that I don't miss: text commentaries, a missing Starfleet Access on The Galileo Seven, a pair of featurettes and a History Channel doc. The featurettes and doc may show up on a later set. Watch this space for a breakdown of the hidden easter eggs I can find and confirm in a separate post later in the week. Each disc in the set also features the "coming next week" preview trailers that originally aired with the episodes. There's some doubt as to whether these are exactly as aired, but who really cares? I don't. The featurettes on this set primarily feature Shatner, Nimoy, series writer DC Fontana, Associate Producer John D.F. Black, and choice bits with Nichelle Nichols and George Takei. I saw James Doohan and Walter Koenig in a couple too. Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century (HD 20:00) [Disc 1] They cleaned up the video and audio substantially for this release as noted previously. Here you get a look at the process of restoring from original negatives, cleaning up damage and dirt, and re-timing color and contrast. The side-by-side with what were previously the "best available" masters is breathtaking. On top of that, they go into how they re-recorded the theme and built the new effects shots for the Remastered version.

Reflections on Spock (11:52) [Disc 3] Leonard Nimoy goes into some depth on the duality of his existence as Leonard and as Spock. A nice, tight bundle of anecdotes. Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner (10:16) [Disc 3] William Shatner loves horses, his wife loves horses, and they own many horses. Why hasn't someone recently put Shatner into a western? Imagine Shatner as a sheriff or a ranch owner with a big mustache. To Boldly Go...Season One (18:52) [Disc 5] An overview of the episodes of the first season. Boundaries they pushed and limitations they rammed up against. The Birth of a Timeless Legacy (24:07) [Disc 5] This is more focused on the genesis of the series, covering the multiple pilot episodes, changes made to the cast, and including a fair amount of Gene Roddenberry interview clips. Sci-Fi Visionaries (16:30) [Disc 6] Hre they talk about how they brought in established names from science fiction to give the show Sci-Fi credibility. I can't be the only one who misses the presence of Harlan Ellison, who I would have paid extra to have seen here, since the set contains one of the greatest episodes they ever did, which he wrote (The City on the Edge of Forever). Instead, they focus a lot on The Naked Time, and at one point Associate Producer John D.F. Black talks about Ellison like they're ever the best of friends and then makes fun of him in the same breath. I'm not talking about the "aw you old son of a bitch" kind of thing, but where some anger and envy seeps into one's voice. It's the kind of thing where you wonder if he would say the same thing with Harlan in the room. Interactive Enterprise Inspection (HD 1:00:17) [Disc 6] This is most likely to only appeal to serious Trek fiends and children being introduced to this stuff for the first time. This thing as a whole runs a total of about an hour and lets you select different systems and features of the ship for it to talk about. Kiss 'n' Tell: Romance in the 23rd Century (8:23) More like "Chasing Tail in the Future." Kirk's many conquests take up a healthy chunk here, but they touch on other crew members, even Uhura, Scotty, and Chekhov. Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest (HD 13:22) Billy Blackburn was DeForest Kelley's stand-in and played various background characters including the Enterprise's navigator. Blackburn talks about the atmosphere on set and shares some Super8 footage he took throughout production. Star Trek BD-Live This is the kind of BD-Live integration I've been hoping to see since its inception. New content keeps old releases fresh, and linking them to the physical, definitive software release not only keeps DRM concerns in check but prevents the tendency of double-dips being necessary. When Paramount releases a new Trek sequel, they can flip the switch on new content for owners of the existing TV show sets. BD-Live requires both an active internet connection and a SecureDigital (SD card). The trick is that even once you've downloaded content to the SD card, you have to have Disc 7 of the set in your player and be connected to the BD-Live service to access it. I'll edit this to include coverage of the BD-Live featurettes later in the week as I'm assuming some other stuff might pop up once the box set has been released to the public. Check back Wednesday. The lingering issue preventing this from exploding in popularity is getting people's internet connection into the living room. As it stands, you have to go hard-wired in, as WiFi players are only just being demoed and won't be mass-market for I don't know, two or three years? Technophiles like myself are not fazed by this, but if studios want these features to proliferate to broad market titles like Planet Earth and others like them, there's no way around being hamstrung by broadband providers and hardware manufacturers. Final Thoughts The first disc in the set auto-plays the trailer to the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie coming out May 8th. Having seen it a few weeks ago and now having plowed through these discs, I feel confident we're coming up on a surging wave of interest the likes of which the franchise may have never seen. The reboot/sequel/origin story works, the home video version of the original series episodes is immaculate, and Star Trek is on the verge of becoming really cool in two weeks' time. Gone are the days that it cost near $150 for one season of this stuff. The current Amazon and BestBuy week-of-release prices are $64.99, which is a much better value than anyone is used to on Blu-ray or DVD. Proportionately, do you usually get over 8 hours of content on a $20-$30 feature film Blu-ray? They've been ratcheting the price down on this since the pre-orders went up, and I think wisely so. This could go a long way toward bringing down Blu prices across the board if other TV box sets follow suit. Talking to a friend yesterday, he's considering buying a Blu player for this set at this price even though he does not own an HDTV. Anyone who has affection for this show and have put off getting these shows on disc can feel safe pulling the trigger now and not feel burned. CBS wants this to be right the first time so that it really is a truly definitive release. I should hope other studios follow suit on other vintage titles. This is a top shelf disc with no compare in the TV department, and only a few in the feature film category stack up in terms of proportional value.
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Efron Can Open Orson Welles

For me, Obsessed is not the story of the weekend. Now that 17 Again has solidified the idea that Zac Efron can open and sustain something that doesn't have High School Musical or another brand stamped on it, it's time to talk about Me and Orson Welles.

Christian McKay, who will be nominated for major awards if Me and Orson Welles is finally released this year
Many are quick to disdain anything that Efron is associated with, but don't let his Disney channel affiliation and wild success turn you off of him here. Even though I've not invested any time in the High School Musical movies, I thoroughly enjoyed him in Hairspray and now this. Instead of playing some super popular jock as would be convenient typecasting, he is a daydreaming artiste-in-the-making. He's alternately naive and arrogant, showing a range and vulnerability he's not had the opportunity to as of yet. Given the plot of the piece, where Welles gives Efron's Richard his break into showbusiness, it's ironic that the "kid" is Welles' ticket into theaters at this point.

Efron brooding
After seeing Welles in March at South by Southwest, I'm amazed it hasn't found distribution yet (last anyone heard). This movie must not go direct to VOD or DVD, it demands a theatrical presentation. It's in the same vein as other films where a real-life figure is involved in "putting on a show." It's definitely as good and in my mind better than Shakespeare in Love if we're comparing apples to apples. Christian McKay's performance as Welles is so good that many reviewers at Toronto last year allowed it to overshadow a very solid coming-of-age period piece. That isn't to say that McKay's Welles isn't worthy of effusive praise, as it's much more than an impersonation. What McKay has produced is a charming, comprehensive channeling of Orson, rich with texture and completely authentic. It's so well done that the superstitious part of me wonders if the cursed luck that daunted much of Welles' later life has somehow infringed on the future of this film.

The only decent photo I could find of James Tupper
As in their real-life counterparts' collaborations, I find it unfortunate that James Tupper's performance as Joseph Cotten has been mostly overlooked for that of McKay. Eddie Marsan also does a sturdy job as John Houseman, a stark contrast in type to his Scott in Happy Go Lucky last year. It would be inaccurate and hyperbolic to call it the greatest film of the year, but it certainly deserves mention as one of the best movies I saw at SXSW and one of my favorites of 2009 thus far. I go see it twice, buy it, and recommend it to friends. I happened to bring a friend along back in March, knowing what this "Secret Screening" was in advance. He's a generation or two older, loves the films of Stanley Kubrick and almost compulsively collects books and movies. He first decided I was worth talking to when our introductory conversation turned to Lawrence of Arabia and 2.35:1 aspect ratios. He loves the smell of books upon books lining the shelves of his den at home and is generally bored by the majority of wide releases each year. After the movie was over, he expressed gratitude for my pressing him to be there at 11am on a Monday. He added something to the effect of, "I didn't feel like a second of my life was wasted watching that. That's rare these days." Me and Orson Welles is a fully satisfying film of its species and breeding that especially deserves to be seen by aspiring creatives: the naive, the jaded, and all in between. We need movies every once in a while that celebrate the craft and history of the stage. There is truly nothing like live, electric theatre. I ascribe to the idea that there are certain staple stories that need to be (and are) done every so often. They are not as often done well or hungrily enough, but this one hits it on the nose. Not everyone will walk in to Welles and walk out revived by the spirit of creativity, but I sure did. Revived and well-fed, I was spoiled for the rest of the festival.
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Most Wanted: The Work of Jack Cardiff

Many have already acknowledged the passing of Jack Cardiff, one of many great cinematographers who people know better by his work than his name. For those who love his craft in any capacity behind the camera, it's time to look at where there are holes in home viewing options. He directed a few features that are still missing on DVD (already featured in our Most Wanted box), but I wanted to give as comprehensive a look as possible at all of his work and where it stands digitally. For someone so associated with the images he burned into the memories of many, I've included those titles he shot that may be on DVD, but not yet Blu-ray, knowing full well that the progression to Blu takes time. As Cinematographer

Hepburn and Bogart
The African Queen (Huston, 1946) Paramount has long-promised this would eventually come to DVD (and now Blu-ray), and it stands as one of the prestige catalogue titles not yet available on home video in the US since VHS. It has been available on DVD in what looks like an all-region Hong Kong dupe of questionable quality for a few years.

Still unreleased, VOD only, and Out of Print
The Awakening (Newell, 1980) Charleton Heston is featured as an archaeologist whose daughter is possessed by an ancient Egyptian spirit. Those archaeologists and their propensity for entanglements with evil spirits! Susannah York is in it as well, and fans of the Harry Potter movies will recognize Miriam Margoyles in a small role. This title has not been on DVD in the US, though it has popped up in the UK and Australia. Americans do have the option of VOd renting through Amazon on their computer for the time being. Death on the Nile (Guillermin, 1978) Starz/Anchor Bay released this Ustinov-starring Poirot movie in 2001, but it has since gone out of print. It would be nice to see a DVD/Blu rerelease alongside other Poirot titles they have. Directed by Cardiff The Mercenaries (aka Dark of the Sun, 1968) This is his greatest directorial effort not released to DVD. Described quite accurately as a cross between The Dirty Dozen and Heart of Darkness, Rod Taylor's performance here is raw and intricate, absolutely stellar. With the major studio release this year of a "death squad on a mission" movie (Inglourious Basterds), one could hope we see MGM or whoever controls Dark of the Sun (as many know it from VHS) give it a decent release at least in time for the Tarantino movie's home video release. That's something I'd buy five of for friends. A great discovery for many that has faded due to never seeing any kind of digital release.

Young Cassidy (1965) John Ford started out directing this movie and then passed the reins to Cardiff when he fell ill. It tells the story of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey (here renamed Johnny Cassidy) and stars no less than Rod Taylor wrestling with choosing from two love interests: a prostitute (Julie Christie) and a bookshop clerk (Maggie Smith). Having never seen it and only read about it, this looks like a lightweight, melodramatic biopic like any other, but the headliners and supporting cast demand it be viewable. Michael Redgrave, Flora Robson, Jack McGowran, Sian Phillips, and Edith Evans are all good reasons to

Dean Stockwell and Mary Ure
Sons and Lovers (1960) Dean Stockwell with a controlling mother bearing down on him plus early 1960s monochrome. Fox owns the rights, so who knows if we'll ever see this one. There's an Australian disc and a Hong Kong crap transfer, but that's not good enough for me. B&W deserves justice.

Marianne Faithfull
The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) Released in 1999 and now out of print. Alain Deleon and Marianne Faithfull star. Wife leaves her husband and hits the road on a Harley. M.I.A. on Blu War & Peace (Vidor, 1956) Paramount put this one out in 2002. It could be a good addition to a burgeoning catalogue selection. The Barefoot Contessa (Mankiewicz, 1954) MGM released a bare version of this in 2000. I don't care if they make me buy it in a 3 or 4 movie set, I would like to see it in 1080p.

Moira Shearer
The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948) Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger, 1947) A dance classic and an emblematic Britons-in-the-jungle story. Criterion's existing editions of both currently sit on the my top Criterion shelf (I have them separated for cataloging purposes). Now that I've seen a few pre-1960 transfers from them and WB, I'm hungry for both of these. I'll pay the upgrade cost on all the ones I already own.

Kim Hunter and David Niven
A Matter of Life and Death [aka Stairway to Heaven] (Powell & Pressburger, 1946) This is available in a double feature package released in January (paired with Age of Consent). Sony have it, and as the progenitors of Blu-ray, this one would be a stellar catalogue title for them to get on store shelves. It's the movie that introduced me to David Niven, and I could watch it any day of the week.

Ava Gardner in Pandora
Pandora and The Flying Dutchman (Lewin, 1951) Kino released this one in 2000. Starring Ava Gardner (also in front of Cardiff's lens in Contessa), James Mason plays a mysterious potential love interest in a picture that isn't very deep, but is great to bask in the technicolor glow of on a Sunday afternoon. The Kino DVD is currently sitting in the Blu-ray price range at $26.99 on Amazon. I'd rather wait a few years than drop that on a 9-year-old DVD at this point.

Screen capture from DVD Beaver's review of Under Capricorn.
Under Capricorn (Hitchcock, 1949) Image released this in 2003 on DVD. I'm not a huge fan of it, but for completion's sake, it should be available in HD, both due to Cardiff's work and the fact it's a Hitch title. The Black Rose (Hathaway, 1950) Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, and owned by Fox. This was part of their 2007 Tyrone Power box set, and I hope to see the thing just rereleased with a Blu coat of paint.

Screencap from Vikings cropped to prevent spoiling.
The Vikings (Fleischer, 1958) Another MGM title dropped on DVD in the early 0's, the 2.35:1 photography demands a Blu-ray transfer with a cast like Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, and Janet Leigh. The DVD is ten bucks, but I'd pay $20 for Blu. Put it in a box with two other things I don't care about, and I'll buy it anyway. Legend of the Lost (Hathaway, 1957) John Wayne and Sophia Loren star. MGM owns it, and could pack this in a three-movie set of other Wayne movies, easy. Gorgeous frames of West Africa before a series of conflicts split it into a bunch of pieces.

Leslie Caron in Fanny (photo again from DVD Beaver's review)
Fanny (Logan, 1961) Image released this in 2008 after many clamored for it, and I'm uncertain of the quality that came across. As with many of their releases, it's a mixed bag from what I've read, with dirt and flaws marring the opening sequence. Image does not appear to have done any cleanup or restoration, which Cardiff's photography of Marseilles demands. Some are glad it's available, but many fans stay away. Questions abound as to whether Warner Bros. still retains any rights to this title. If they do, they should slap it and a couple other non-marquee name musicals into a restored Blu box and I'd buy it. The Dogs of War (Irvin, 1980) Early 1980's merc movie with Walken and Berenger. Another MGM 2001 release. People buy bundles and double features. Pair it with another action movie from the same era and charge $20.
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The Emperor's Magic Box

There have been a number of developments of late that have started to finally awaken the vocal when it comes to the ridiculous state of digital movie and TV distribution in the U.S. There are various failings that all have to be remedied to keep the selling of movies and TV shows viable in all forms, including physical media. puzzlebox.jpg So many have tried to peg one brand on my generation, the one allegedly ruining the music and movie industries with their compulsive downloading. Since my childhood, I've repeatedly heard how spoiled my generation is, how we've never really had to suffer or go without, and I absolutely agree. We're a bunch of spoiled, uncultured jerks for the most part. Our "rebellion" has emulated that of previous generations, as has our choice in fashion. We're nothing if not derivative to a fault in our collective output and analysis of the world around us. Advances in technology and how we use it have highlighted us as a generation of Little Emperors, the Generation of Entitlement. Our tantrums and acting out have hastened the decline in profitability for media that we thrive on, as we want it now and the established infrastructure of delivery isn't fast enough to keep up. What many are ignoring is that it's not just the bad eggs who are the problem when it comes to media delivery. Everyone has become fed up with how hard it is to do something that seems so easy: giving people the content they want when they want it. The Fall of Brick & Mortar I recently had trouble finding a Best Picture winner (1951's An American In Paris) the day of release on Blu-ray at Best Buy. The closing of Circuit City has also been noted as another reason Best Buy remains comfortable only stocking catalogue releases online and not in-store. As noted in my piece linked above, this phenomenon is not limited to Best Buy, and the only place in Austin I've found these titles is Fry's Electronics, a filthy barn of a place. Jeff recently noted that for the life of him, he couldn't find a copy of the newly restored and remastered Nickelodeon from director Peter Bogdanovich. If you can't find it in New York City, there's something wrong. Why have physical media if you can't go and get it? The thrill of the hunt is a big part of the joy. The majority of my first date with my wife was comprised of scouring Tallahassee, Florida for one specific title on DVD. There used to be just a price premium in the way of getting something in person, but now you don't even have the option to get it, even if you pay more. With the Virgin Megastores closing, Richard Branson's own proclamation that the future isn't in brick & mortar outlets is coming true all around us. The Content Many blame the recession and the proliferation of illegal downloading as reasons you can't walk into stores and find any given new title anymore. That's part of it, but it's also because these stores were never focused on giving the customer the software they want. Instead, the software was the carrot to get you in the door and sell you cables and various other things they make their real money on. If they don't want me in there messing up their pretty store with my sophisticated taste, then fine, I'll shop from my couch. If I could push a button and rent the complete feature package available on the Gigi Blu-ray to watch it with my wife and mother-in-law tonight, I would. The same goes for hundreds, thousands of titles. I'd pay the same $5 I gave Blockbuster to rent Doubt last week if it meant I got access to all the stuff on the disc for around a week, with unlimited replay during that window. I would like this even more if it meant that I could then have some sort of incentive coupon toward buying the physical disc from whoever I streamed the "disc". This would also assuage my rage when I can't pick up a Blu-ray at a store during the week of release. I could then tolerate the wait for an online retailer to ship it. Just thinking about it makes my heart skip a beat. Criterion is experimenting with this through their streaming program, where you can watch the movie online for $5 and then for a year thereafter apply that $5 toward purchasing the disc from them. Juliet of the Spirits, Mon Oncle, and Cleo from 5 to 7 are among the 46 titles they have available. They do not as yet have special features-enabled pay-to-stream options, but I'll be first in line when they do. I just wish I could watch these on my TV. The content is and has been out there in some forms, but not wrapped in an end-to-end model that works for everyone. What we need is a real Swiss Army Knife approach to delivery of content. A box that is WiFi enabled and can sync media of any flavor from your computer or stream from various online outlets is what everyone would want in very general terms. The Magic Box There are tons of movies and TV shows from various studios on Netflix Watch Instantly, which you can watch on your computer, an Xbox 360, or the Roku set-top box (which also does Amazon HD). So far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to plug my computer into my TV, and my wife is never going to allow a new game system in the door, so the Roku box would be my option, right? Not a chance. Even at $100, I'm not going to buy what could become vaporware as standardization progresses. It's connected to only the Netflix W.I. service and Amazon, which while great at the moment, I can't be certain is worth the investment. No matter how good or great a company is that's behind a device, I can't ever bet on just one horse in this game. No matter how much anyone pushes any individual box to me, I am not buying in at a volatile point in the development of such a complex solution. What about if and when someone comes through with the Magic Box I want, which includes access to DVD-style special features? The bottleneck will still come, mark my words, in terms of studio support. All the majors are working on their own gate to the content they own, from Hulu to Crackle to others I can't pronounce. Unlike the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war, there's no physical media format involved here, eliminating a big chunk of user adoption pain. Everyone uses the same codecs for digital, they have since the introduction of DVD. However, what happens when Sony, NBCUni, Paramount, Warner Bros or someone else goes with their own competing service or box? Notice I don't use the word "if". What we really need is a couple companies that make clone boxes that have standard hardware, open-source OS software, and options for software customization. Who cares which service something comes from? I really like what the guys at Boxee have going, and in my opinion, they're the only ones on the right track. All anyone wants is the content and a clean interface. The day these guys get a solid manufacturer putting their OS on a box and selling them for $100 is the day digital downloads really take off. The Pipe None of the spitballing above means anything until broadband finally gets somewhat standardized across the country. What Koreans consider slow is three times the top speed available in major metro areas in the U.S. Ma and Pa in the hinterlands are still transitioning from dial-up, and when you add WiFi into the equation, they get even more confused. Time Warner Cable has decided to freeze their plans to move forward with ultra-high-speed expansion in areas they had earmarked for metered billing. As I've gone on about previously, before they delayed their plan to institute metered billing, TWC is very interested in taking us back to 1995 when it comes to how we access the internet, charging based on usage. Charging by the databyte is like charging a customer at retail for the standard disc price and then and additional arm and a leg for all the freight and storage costs tagged to that disc. Who would pay $45 to watch Twilight streamed over their internet connection to their TV? You should charge for how fast people get where they're going. Nothing else appeals to anyone but the megacorporations we're writing checks to each month. Now comes word that TWC is arbitrarily disconnecting "abusive" users. Whether the guy in question was torrenting 44GB of illegal media or not, that's not an unheard-of amount of data for someone who streams a lot, even YouTube at high quality or HD trailers on Apple's website. I'm all for the pipe-owners policing contraband going through, but assuming everyone's a criminal is irresponsible and will only turn subscribers away. As the conversation has escalated in targeted markets, so has the investigation into towns setting up their own public internet utilities, and some of them are looking pretty competitive. The most unexpected result of all the hubbub could be a major shift in how high speed internet access proliferates. Put new jobs into it and pull away the corporate veil, and it might finally spread like wildfire. The major conglomerates are just going to bury themselves, because they no longer have a President who will let them run free of regulation. He also happens to hold net neutrality as a top issue, and I have a feeling that he isn't interested in helping the conglom ISPs make publicly-owned ISPs illegal. The Bottom Line Digital downloads are coming on apace, but those who allege that people will get over physical media are dead wrong. Human beings will continue to be materialistic hoarders according to their nature (take a class in Anthro sometime). Beyond that, due to limits in the pace of broad adoption in hardware, software, and bandwidth, there will always be a healthy appetite for the highest quality available. As far as the disc media itself goes, all releases going forward should include a digital copy at no premium charge. If you buy it, you should be getting access to that without bothering your tech-head friend. People want this stuff on their portable media players and computers, so don't give them an excuse as to why they feel entitled to break your DRM. When people aren't given the appropriate options in terms of access and selection, they'll find a way. They'll download illegal files from the net, burn them to disc, or sync them to internet-connected home theater PCs. Bootleg DVD stands will pop up in larger numbers. It's up to Hollywood as to whether they want to make money on all the opportunity staring them in the face, but they're screwed if hardware and bandwidth providers let them down. We're on the brink of the most interdependent age in home media we've hit yet, and it'll be fascinating to see how it all unfolds, even if my Magic Box never happens.
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So Many Movies

Wow, the vast majority of my coverage the last few weeks has been of home video releases. What the hell am I doing here, Bitrate Cowboy? Maybe it says something about current releases that I'm barely paying attention to new releases. I've got a review of Pixar's Partly Cloudy and UP in the cooker, to be posted as soon as I can crack them. In reaction to 17 Again's success, I'm finally posting my Me and Orson Welles review. A lot of the movies I saw at SXSW09 have been like this one, I've wanted to just furiously post something, but I've opted to give them some time to breathe. A few have been picked up, a few haven't, and there are others like the Welles movie I'm not sure about. Linklater said that "the studio doesn't want me showing this until the fall" so it may have been picked up on the sly (I hope sincerely that it has). Back later with a lot more.
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The IT Crowd (Season One)

It's now possible, without importing, to legally watch and own one of the only sitcoms on TV of which I'd describe myself as a rabid fan. I first saw The IT Crowd ('eye-tee', not 'it') on a friend's imported DVDs in college, and watched subsequent episodes by falsely representing my IP address to the Channel 4 website so I could use their built-in web player. I shortly thereafter imported the first season DVDs and then the second and found myself loaning them around to all my friends with region-free, PAL-capable DVD players. As of this writing, I've completely lost track of them; however, now I have the identical US release of the first season and the second is coming out soon enough. Show creator Graham Linehan (link goes to his blog, a constant source of interesting news and entertainment) also created Father Ted and Black Books, which some of you may already be familiar with. If you aren't, you've got even more exceptionally hilarious TV to work through. Blind buy it all. If you don't laugh, you probably have some sort of disability preventing enjoyment of life as we know it. The IT Crowd follows Roy (Chris O'Dowd, link goes to his Twitter page) and Moss (Richard Ayoade, link goes to NNDB page where he sports a fancy mustache), I.T. technicians working for Reynholm Industries, a major corporation that does...something or another. If what they produce or do as a company is ever mentioned, I missed it. Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is hired on by the company's owner to manage the I.T. department despite her lack of anything resembling technology proficiency. Hilarity and hijinks ensue. If you like The Big Bang Theory, think of this as the undiluted, far superior original recipe. They're different in configuration, but you can tell Big Bang "borrowed" some components. Fans of sharp modern British comedy will be quite pleased. The show only recently started airing on the IFC channel here in the States, which means most of you have not seen it. The show is shot old-school, with a live studio audience for all the scenes not shot on-location. If you see anyone accuse the production of using a laugh track, slap them down, because it's all audience laughter. The IT Crowd won a 2008 International Emmy for Best Comedy. Say what you will about awards, but this one is well-deserved and rightly-awarded. This show deserves as much exposure as possible. NBC tried reformulating it for US audiences and seem to have failed miserably. As with many things that are remade, this one was fine all on its own. Frankly, NBC or anyone else could just air the British eps as they are in network prime time slots, but they're too scared to try. Video, Audio, Subtitles, and Menus The 1.78:1 SD video upconverts as well as it could, given the compression, and the original 2.0 Stereo track works fine. There are leetspeak subtitles that are hilarious if you're the kind of person who knows what leetspeak is. It's rare that you have a DVD where the menus inspire you to call them the best DVD menus you've ever seen, but these take the cake. Inspired by 8-bit video games, you can just sit and watch the action on screen until it loops back to the beginning. Extras Deleted Scenes (9:18) Deleted sequences from various episodes throughout the season that are just as funny as everything that made it in to the broadcast versions. Behind The IT Crowd (13:45) If ever there were a definitive satire of studio fluff EPK featurettes, this is it. A ridiculous ass-kisser host wearing a fully black beard and hay-colored hair interviews the cast and production team. If I say more, I'll entirely spoil this for you. Hello Friend (11:14) This is a short film written by series creator Linehan about a technological gadget that has a mind of its own. My wife says that I should learn a lesson here and stop using Twitter and my iPod Touch. Hidden: Easter Eggs I know there are Easter Eggs on this release, but I can't find them. I lost the notecard I wrote the "how to" on for my import copy. Someone help me cheat and I'll add the details here, with credit to whoever knows where the digital bodies are buried. Final Thoughts Tragically, the tech geeks this show features could be the death of this show's commercial viability in the US. With the huge time gap since its airing in the UK, illegal download has been the primary means the US has had to see the show. Ironically, one of the most-viewed clips of the show among non-fans is an Anti-Piracy ad that makes fun of the ad from a few years ago that equates media piracy with larceny. I can't find one of the many copies on YouTube that allows embedding, but here's a link over to the one I did find (from the second season of the show). I generally don't recommend buying TV on disc, especially since there are so few releases with decent extras, but this is the exception. If you love The IT Crowd or just imported TV (the best kind), you should buy it. Borrow it from a friend or Watch Instantly on Netflix to taste test, but if you really like it, buy it. Dollars translate to how networks and studios behave. If writer/directors like Graham Linehan composed even 10% of those producing content on US television networks, I'd actually watch TV, commercials and all. If I know you personally and you live in Austin, I will loan this to you on condition you give it back within a few days. This is significant, because I never loan out DVDs anymore. They would almost never come back when I did. I'm willing to risk loss on this one if it means I can turn one more person on to the show.
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Doubt for Easter

Ashley and I recently browsed the aisles of a Wal-mart for the first time in a long, long time looking for clearance-priced Reese's Eggs and eventually found ourselves in electronics browsing the DVDs. We came across an "Easter Movies" display that we found curious. Naturally, there was no Jesus Christ Superstar, Last Temptation of Christ, or even The Passion of the Christ. We were not terribly surprised to find well-known Easter classics Kung-Fu Panda, Over the Hedge and The Animated Passion alongside "old-timer movies" The Robe, The Ten Commandments, and King of Kings. I didn't pay much mind to this reclassification of things until Tea Party Day this week, where a bunch of xenophobic, anti-government fanatics protested taxation at taxpayer expense (police, facilities, state employees among them who took a day off). The Governor of the State of Texas, Rick Perry, actually got up and fanned the flames here in Austin with talk of secession from the Union. If Mr. Perry had paid attention in Texas History class as I and other proud Texans did, he'd know that the Articles of Annexation of 1845 reserve Texas the right to split Texas into up to five states, but not to secede (as he claimed). Perhaps if he had a catholic school nun beating it into him, he would have. I've long thought that Texas splitting into five states could be a good idea, along with the dissolution of the Electoral College, but it won't happen. I'll go into more depth on the laughable state of the Republican Party in Texas in a separate post, but this does bear on how I thought of Doubt while watching the top-notch Blu-ray version earlier today. It is truly remarkable what people will claim in someone else's name entirely in vain, peppering their declarations with half-truths. The Movie Doubt as a play and movie is a parable on convictions. Those you hold and those you enforce are so subjective that no one is ever truly righteous in their judgment on earth. Rather than spend nearly five hours watching The Ten Commandments with commercials on ABC each year, why not make Doubt an annual re-assessment of one's beliefs? Put that in one of those pre-Christmas Easter Baskets instead of Madagascar 2. Set at a Catholic school in the early 1960's, the story concerns the convictions of Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) and the moral character of Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). The play featured only the two of them and Sister James (Amy Adams) and Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis), but the movie expands things to include other characters at the school, including Donald Miller, around whom the controversy swirls. The controversy deals with the exact nature of the relationship between Father Flynn and Donald, the first black student in the school. During awards season, I was with an Academy member friend at an after-party for an Austin Film Society screening. When the conversation finally came around to the Oscars (the deadline for nominations not having yet passed), she spoke only of Doubt. One of the reasons the movie works so well, as she put it (and as Shanley does in the extras) is that no two people see the film the same way. Video & Audio Here we have a crystal-clear video transfer and Lossless DTS 5.1 audio on the main feature. All the extras are in 1080p or 1080i. This is the type of treatment I can get used to. No need for a do-over in this department. Extras Miramax has put together a rather comprehensive set of extras such that I can't really fathom what they would ever double-dip for on this title. Feature Commentary Writer/Director John Patrick Shanley A pretty laid back track from Shanley wherein he mostly relates the reality of the era from which he drew inspiration and his personal history as an altar boy. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, save it for a raiy day like I did. From Stage to Screen (19:09) Shanley talks about the process of adaptation and a reduced version of the history of the show. He chats a bit with Meryl Streep, whose affection and admiration for Cherry Jones' performance of Sister Aloysius is readily apparent. Fluff-free. The Cast of Doubt (13:50) Dave Karger from Entertainment Weekly interviews Streep, Hoffman, Adams, and Davis, digging in to their relationship with the play and how they brought their respective voices to the characters on the page. A quarter of an hour with this grade of actors is better than years of acting classes in some respects. The camaraderie between them is truly warm and not unlike that of a company that has been doing eight shows a week for a year together. Scoring Doubt (4:40) A film's score is often one of the more invisible pieces of it to the passive viewer. When a score is very well done (as it is here), you don't find yourself noticing it as much as it pairs cleanly with the action. Sisters of Charity (6:23) Shanley's interview with Streep carries into this feature which focuses on the real-life sisters who are portrayed in the film, who he consulted in the writing of the play and the making of the film. The most interesting part of their conversation revolves around the changes in the Catholic Church in the 1960's. Final Thoughts Doubt has a longer, more enduring life to it than many films released last year. It recalls the era of when most of the best films of the year came from the greatest writing minds on Broadway. I wonder, what if Doubt had been released in 1965? It would have truly rocked the establishment and the censors back then. "How dare you criticize the church in the wake of a national tragedy?" It's a testament to the repressionist, puritanical leanings of our country that the issues explored are still relevant today. I'm specifically referring to the chain of command in the church and its refusal to modernize and evolve in important ways. If you really want to provoke thoughtful discussion in a religious household, you'll get more out of watching Doubt than going to mass. Post Script I am not nearly the enemy of critics' quotes as some of my friends are (having once worked in publicity), but I must insist that people not use Ben Lyons for these quotes. Quote Ebert, the New York Post, Rolling Stone, and even USA Today, but leave this guy out. When people look at these discs' back covers a few years down the line, his name will either not register as "prestige" or the person reading it will get a bad taste in their mouth. It should say something that this is the only complaint I have about this disc.
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Splinter


Shea Wigham as Dennis
One of the most pleasant surprises I've had this year is Toby Wilkins' Splinter, a low-budget, indie horror film that takes a different approach to the "zombie" idea without employing traditional zombies at all. I completely missed it last year and have just now finished devouring the Blu-ray from Magnolia like an old-school zombie devours brains. Two couples on the road for different reasons in rural Oklahoma are brought together by chance. A creature of unknown origin terrorizes them and traps them in a gas station. Instead of having some sort of disease-type approach to revive human flesh as some sort of flesh-hungry monster construct, there's something more fungal or scavenger-like to it here. The movie is left open-ended for a sequel, and I would like to see at least one followup, but only if the original creative team returns as well. Paulo Constanzo breaks free of whatever comedy trappings he may have had previously. Make no mistake, no actor magically springs forth into exceptional talent or range, it just takes time for them to be properly given an opportunity to show themselves off. I've sought out his work for some time, seeing potential rarely shouted from the roofs. The real discovery for me was a guy I didn't realize until afterward that I'd seen in Joel Schumacher's underseen Tigerland: Shea Wigham. I was doubly surprised to find that he was born in and grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, where I lived for a good six years. His portrayal of Dennis is sharp, tough, and affecting, the last of which you don't really expect in a horror movie. The practical effects work is really the third lead here. A couple friends who are more vocal and active proponents of practical creature effects could get into the details better than I could. What got me the most was that they used CG in only the places where they pragmatically could not build practical effects around it. You'd think that a low-budget horror movie would cheap out where they could, but instead they somehow managed to snag the people who did Watchmen's practical effects just before they jumped into a different cost bracket altogether. There are a couple CG shots that make me groan, but they aren't deal-breakers in any respect, just as the CG cats in Let the Right One In don't sink it either. Video & Audio The movie was shot digitally, and it never has that cheap "camcorder" look, and the Blu-ray transfer is pristine. Included audio is a 5.1 HD Master track with no noticeable artifacting or hiss. Extras Feature Commentary (1) Director Toby Wilkins & Actors Shea Wigham, Paulo Costanzo, and Jill Wagner More interesting and revealing than most cast-involved commentary tracks, much of the conversation deals with things that individuals knew about but are making others aware of for the first time, from improv on the day to how certain things were done. (2) Director Toby Wilkins, DP Nelson Cragg The Splinter Creature (4:05) Some test footage of the gymnast who plays the creature is the centerpiece of this piece on the practical effect that he was. Creature Concept Art Gallery (1:26) A brief look at renders done of the various practical creature effects. The Wizard (1:04) A quick look at the lead pyro effects man, who's a real-life embodiment of the Danny McBride character from Tropic Thunder plus prior military experience. Building the Gas Station (1:53) They built the gas station set where most of the film takes place from scratch. A bare cinder block building became a believable Shooting Digitally (2:23) How using HDcams made the low-budget, claustrophobic shoot easier. Oklahoma Weather (1:57) Shooting around Tornado Alley weather had to have been a nightmare, and this proves it. How to Make a Splinter Pumpkin (2:19) It seems to me this was created for run on HDnet prior to release. Lead actress Jill Wagner shows you how to make your very own Splinter pumpkin for Halloween. HDnet: a look at Splinter (4:33) HDnet's prerelease featurette on the movie. Final Thoughts This movie is an exceptional example of how true artists come together with limited resources and produce a fun, smart, engaging, and enduring movie that people will buy and not rent. It's a movie that's top notch among its genre, and certainly better than the swath of multi-million dollar franchises and remakes that are released each year. Fans will clamor for a solid followup, and general audiences will go for a sequel to a movie they haven't seen as long as it's well-marketed. This is how you do creature horror. Splinter is available on Blu-ray and DVD with identical supplemental features.
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Defining the Press

I saw State of Play last night here in Austin, and it's unfortunate that something other than the movie sticks out more prominently in my memory. In the middle of the film, Russell Crowe has a conversation with Robin Wright-Penn, the details of which I won't go into, but I mention as context for those who have or will see the film for what follows. At this very moment in the film, a member of the press roughly in my age demographic (the Generation of Shame) pulled out his cell phone and did more than check the time. He didn't have a babysitter sending him an urgent text, or a "we've gotta launch the nukes, Mr. President" type call coming in. King Hipster von MuttonChops seated in front of me decided it was best to check his Facebook account during the movie. He didn't just check for a crucial email or message, no, it was as if he were reading the whole damn Facebook cover to virtual cover. If I hadn't intervened, he probably would have spent the next twenty minutes on Twitter, posting things like "OMG #StateofPlay is awesome but no boobs. yet. ne1 know if redhead gets naked??" A tap on the back of his chair from my wife's foot wasn't good enough, and I'd had it with jerks like him ruining everything from press to full-on public screenings, so I leaned forward and told him, "put your fucking phone away." I was already angry, but his response amped me up to incensed. "Uh, what? Excuse me? Calm the fuck down, man. What's your problem?" More forcefully, I repeated, "you put your motherfucking phone away." "Geez man, calm down," he whimpered. Was the profanity deserved? I think I went easy on him. You have a studio rope off and reserve seats for you at an advance screening of a movie and you whip out your smartphone to see who Poked you this hour? His companion from the same organization pulled out her phone within ten minutes of the end. It wasn't worth getting in to at that point. After the screening, at least he knew he'd fucked up to the point he wouldn't look me in the eye when he left. Needless to say, I've sent a message to the studio reps so they can do something about both of them. I should add that they weren't bloggers, but the oblivious audience member would look at their outward appearance and assume as much. I've seen various "so you want to be a film critic" articles pop up, most recently from Devin at CHUD and Will Goss at Cinematical, and if I were to add my two cents, it'd be on this issue. I don't care who you are, you don't pull out a cell phone in the middle of a movie as if it were showing in your living room. Another member of the press a few rows down had to take a call (it didn't ring) at some point, so he quietly shuffled out to the lobby. Why is it so hard for people to disconnect from their little magic screens for 90 to 120 minutes on average? Owning a cell phone does not include a license to use it in a darkened cinema whenever and for whatever you want. My problem, and that of many in the press community, is that inconsiderate "peers" are ruining the experience and no one is doing anything about it. I spoke to a couple friends after the show, relating what went on, and they concurred that we have to start actively policing this ridiculous behavior ourselves. Glares and gentle seat tapping need to be retired in favor of unapologetic reprimand. I'll censor myself from profanity until if and when I have to repeat myself, but if you backtalk me, I'll have it in for you. Complacency equals complicity. With all that out of the way, the movie is excellent, and a full writeup is coming later today.
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The Spirit [Blu-ray]

The Spirit of the title dies and comes back to fight evil. There are a comic book hero, villain, and a bunch of women. It's really not worth going into too much detail about other than noting Samuel L. Jackson gives a Hall of Fame over-the-top bad guy performance. Where it isn't just gorgeous to look at, you get a fair amount of so-campy-it's-fun. The most surprising thing about Frank Miller's version of Will Eisner's The Spirit is that it's not utterly awful. It doesn't work as a whole, but like many movies that fail at the box office, it actually has more redeeming value than plenty of movies that cross the $100 million mark. It's high camp to be sure, the kind of thing that used to carry the "comic book movie" stereotype: hyperbolic dialogue and action paired with cartoonish sets and visuals. The difference here is Miller's personal sense of style. If he was going primarily monochromatic, I would have preferred he go all or nothing. The comparisons (unfair though they may be) to Sin City are inspired directly by this. Taken on its own, The Spirit is interesting to look at beyond the "morbid curiosity" you may see mentioned in other reviews. People will mention that this is Miller's first solo directing effort, and I sincerely hope it isn't his last. This outing was imperfect, but he has better chops than many first-time directors I could name. Video & Audio Enemies of grain will be glad to see that this all-digital production is fully devoid of it. It makes even dirty scenes look clean. Seriously, though. One of the best Video masters I've seen for Blu-ray is coupled with a flawless 7.1 Audio track for one of the best tech demo discs I've seen so far. Extras Green World A look at the greenscreen process they used, a la Sin City. Nothing too revelatory if you've seen how it's done elsewhere. Miller on Miller A Frank Miller bio piece that's mostly retread for those who follow Miller's work and career. History Repeats A piece that covers the history of the character and creator Will Eisner. Of the three featurettes, this is the most worth your time. Animated Alternate Ending Samuel L. Jackson and Gabriel Macht provide voiceover on this ending that got tossed. More engaging than similar "storyboard" cut scenes on other releases thanks to the extra production value lent to it. Feature Audio Commentary Frank Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete BD-Live: MoLog (requires internet connection) This is one of the type of networked features people don't really use on other titles, like "chat while you and a friend watch the movie!" that I don't see many people engaging in using. This blog-ish feature is kind of a neat idea that people might think no one will use on a theatrical disappointment. To the contrary, there are a fair number of people, bloggers even, who love these types of features with flaws like my pal Scott Weinberg and I, who both share an unapologetic soft spot for Sky Captain. It'll be interesting to see if and what kind of community grows out of this thing. This and the other BD-Live features are the first for a Lionsgate Blu-ray. As time-draining as they could potentially be, I wonder about how many people aside from gamers have their Blu-ray players connected to the net. Theatrical Trailer Small quibble here: any other promo spots or anything are a nice historical record of the thing. Believe it or not, universities use DVDs for case studies in advertising. Digital Copy Any studio selling Blu-ray would be wise to include these so that consumers don't go looking for excuses to illegally rip their physical copies. I've actually watched my digital copies of WALL-E and Hellboy 2 more than once each. It'd be nice if there weren't a price premium to Special Editions that include Digital Copies. Just a bug I'll keep in the studios' ears. Final Thoughts This is a pretty impressive release for something that so spectacularly opened and closed last December. That being said, the movie doesn't work as a whole, but it's still worth watching on the Blu-ray release. The extras are not comprehensive, but they're about as much as one can expect this title to see for the rest of its life. You probably have no interest if you saw it and hated it (which doesn't cover many people, since so few saw it), but it's worth tossing in and even buying blind for those who want to pick up a thing or two about how complex, effects-driven sausage is made.
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