Electric Shadow

Trick R Treat: Lost and Not Found?


I haven't gotten my hands on a copy of Trick R Treat due to a lack of trying, I assure you. I checked "big box" stores in my area, and they are either out of stock or not carrying it. Reports like this are pouring in from all over the country. I said nearly two years ago that this Creepshow-inspired anthology film could take the Halloween season crown away from Saw, and frankly, it still could. Director Mike Dougherty has floated the possibility of a sequel, which I think would be successful even if a series of them went DVD-only like the first one. I can't definitively point a finger at who's to blame for the fact I can't find Trick R Treat in any physical location in Austin. Did WB not make enough discs? Did the big box stores not order enough discs (or at all), perceiving no demand? Did WB not make enough discs to meet demand because those big shelf-space-having stores didn't order them? Who the hell knows. Regardless of immediate availability and what/how you feel about how WB has handled the movie since its completion, voting with your dollars is the best way to show the studios what people will actually pay for when it shows up. Amazon has the Blu-ray for $25 and the DVD for $15. If anyone illegally downloads this DVD and tells me they did, I will punch them in the mouth. Acknowledgement of having read this piece in front of witnesses prior to or after the punching commences is considered tacit agreement to not hold me liable for any and all damages as well as to forego any litigation related to said incident.
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Balance of the Weekend

Tomorrow and the weekend will find me catching up my massive backlog in a flurry of posts, excepting a few Fantastic Fest films I'm catching up on thanks to screeners. Expect reviews of DVDs, Blu-rays, festival films, the VOD evolution, and short films you may have never seen. If I'm lucky, I'll have a couple recurring features return to regularity tomorrow. What a pair of weeks.
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Kim and The Health Care Crisis

Movie City News columnist Kim Voynar explains her current medical condition and crisis better than I can summarize it here. Read what she's posted and then come back. Nothing I say below is necessarily how Kim feels, it's how I feel when I read a story similar to hers. I barely know Kim. I briefly had a "hi, how are ya, nice to meetcha" moment with her at South by Southwest a couple years ago. She is, for me, the new face of the current health care debate. Should her life or death be decided by her "choosing" to get divorced? For having four kids? For having cancer? The weakest argument going around equates the sick and suffering as "bad actors" or "the abusers in the system". That analysis makes me want to grasp those people firmly by the shoulders and ask if they've truly lost their minds. Sarah Palin didn't invent Death Panels all on her own, they already exist. The Death Panels are the boards of the major insurers who deny coverage or procedures to people who need them most. How dare Those Against Reform decide who lives and who dies? Without a compelling reason to find a cure to deadly diseases, major insurers and pharmaceutical companies will choose not to try. People prolonging their lives before a certain death are far too profitable to give up as "customers". Symbolically, we the people should file an anti-trust lawsuit against the healthcare industry, as they've cornered the death market. A good friend of mine died of brain cancer earlier this year. My mother-in-law's life was saved by being successfully treated for renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) last year. Even before either of them got sick, the stories of suffering in the face of indifferent insurance companies made me furious. The opposition to healthcare reform calling for "the right reform" isn't proposing an alternative, so logically speaking, they're pushing the status quo. Those people make me wish I didn't work a day job and had the opportunity to go around and listen to people's concerns about healthcare and dispel ridiculous rumors without the baggage of being a politician. It makes me wish I had a broad platform to make my voice heard that's free from the insanity and inanity of anonymous message boards and comment threads. This will have to do, I suppose.
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FF09: Private Eye - Holmes Sher-lock


"Private Eye" Hong, Lady Inventor "Mrs. Q", and "Doc"
The best film I saw at Fantastic Fest this year was Park Dae-min's Private Eye, a brilliant and impressive first feature from a screenwriter-turned-director. It's the second highest-grossing movie in South Korea so far this year, and it's better mainstream entertainment than the US has produced in the last nine months. After both Fantastic Fest screenings, various people remarked that this Korean period crime movie was all the Sherlock Holmes they were looking for, and that they didn't know how Guy Ritchie's Holmes could hope to be this good. Private Eye takes place in early 1900's Japanese-occupied Korea. All the details are perfect, from costumes to locations to the nuances of the script. The story follows a private eye named Hong Jin-ho (Hwang Jeong-min) who gets tangled up in a murder investigation when a medical student (Ryu Deok-Hwan) finds the body of a government minister's son and comes to Hong for help. The reason the med student (who is never named, but referred to as "Doc" by Hong) needs help is that prior to finding out who the body was, he started dissecting it for study. Without spoiling any of the twists and turns, by the end of the movie Hong and "Doc" have a very Holmes & Watson thing going. I'm not alone in wanting to see a followup, based on the responses of very enthusiastic audiences at both shows last week.

Hwang is one of the most famous actors in Korea these days, and director Park mentioned at one point that his participation is the main reason the movie was made with the budget it needed. His portrayal of Hong is at once disciplined like Holmes, but also somewhat obsessive and revenge-driven like Batman/Bruce Wayne. Unlike both characters, Hong's background (which is revealed later in the film) makes him right at home delivering brisk, decisive judgment in a Korea that isn't run by the laws on the books. It is Hwang's talent for subtle, naturalistic comedy that really sells the part. Otherwise, the hard-boiled detective would feel too much like a carbon copy of Holmes or Batman without the costume.

Ryu Deok-Hwan (Doc), Uhm Ji-won (Lady Inventor), Hwang Jeong-min (Private Eye Hong), director Park Dae-min
Hwang and Ryu make for a great team, and all the supporting cast members are solid no matter how few lines they may have. Uhm Ji-won has comparatively little to do as a Lady Inventor (whose name escapes me), but she's crucial to the plot and could figure much more prominently in a sequel. Director Park mentioned in the first screening's Q&A that she was loosely modeled on Q from the James Bond series. We're never directly told where "Mrs. Q"'s husband is, whether dead or what, but he's certainly absent. One of my favorite throwaways in the movie is seeing she's made various devices for Hong that are never seen again after they're demonstrated. Deductive reasoning wins out over gadgets and toys in the world of Private Eye. More than anything, Private Eye succeeds in the details of its character development. One bit that figures prominently in the growth of "Doc" is a point where he makes his views on unequal medical treatment for the poor extremely clear. He's studying under a very profit-driven, old school Japanese doctor whose heart isn't into the rewarding nature of the work, but the financial incentive instead. In one of a few places where Park resists the urge to show us every last detail, but gives us enough evidence to assume the result, "Doc" stands up to the man he starts out revering, and it makes you want to buy the kid a beer. The whodunnit style of crime story isn't reinvented here (I don't think that's possible), but it's perfectly shown tribute by a smart, funny script. Private Eye screened late in the festival, after most of the buyers and industry people had already left. The movie is one of the best I've seen in any language this year, with characters, music, and (most importantly) a story that deliver on every level. I'm hoping that post-festival buzz will carry it to a US distribution deal. If anyone knows where/how I can import the score, I'll pay whatever it costs.
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FF09: John Gholson's Day 6

Salvage - UK- Directed by Lawrence Gough Synopsis: A mother estranged from her daughter tries to make things right amidst a sudden and deadly military takeover of their neighborhood. About twenty minutes into Salvage, I turned to my friend sitting next to me and whispered, "If this is a monster movie, it has some of the best characterization I've ever seen." Salvage is definitely a monster movie (not a spoiler), and it does have great acting and sharply written characters. Unfortunately, that's about all it has. When the movie ramps up the action, all logic seems to fly out the window. It's a real shame too, because Neve McIntosh is outstanding as Beth, the mother, and I can say without a doubt that it's one of the most three-dimensional roles a woman has ever had in a horror film, indy or otherwise. She feels real--the character is introduced in a scene in which a very adult mistake on Beth's part causes unnecessary heartbreak with her teen daughter, Jodie. She struggles with that indiscretion, as well as more damaging, timeworn mistakes and the effect they've had on her relationship with Jodie. By the time Beth becomes a fiercely protective animal at the end of the film, it feels completely earned. But...this is a monster movie we're talking about--one in which the military behave as trigger-happy idiots, doing whatever actions the screenwriters need them to do at that given moment to ramp up the thrills, reality be damned. I'd give that a pass, maybe, if the monster was cool, but he looks like a rejected make-up idea from a DTV Wrong Turn sequel. He's a lumpy-headed mutant that roars like Godzilla, murders people like a rabid gorilla, but always takes the time to use proper bathroom ettiquette when he has to go. Yes, between kills, the monster pees in the potty. Good boy. The bathroom scene encapsulates everything that's right and wrong with Salvage. Beth hears someone relieving themselves through a closed bathroom door, thinks it's Jodie, and goes to open the door, only to see Jodie standing across the room from her. Jodie gives a barely perceptible headshake to let her know that her mother should definitely not open that door. The monster is in there, pissing. It's a solid moment of acting between the mother and the daughter, ruined by a ridiculous, unbelievable situation. Salvage is the very definition of a mixed bag. Rampage - Canada/Germany - Directed by Uwe Boll Synopsis: An unremarkable teenager goes on an unprovoked killing spree. Don't let anyone tell you that Uwe Boll has finally made a good film. He's made one that isn't laughable, but Rampage is not good--not by any stretch of the imagination. Boll still has too much love for slow-motion violence, bad camera work, and lousy soundtrack choices, and an incredible tolerance for terrible performances. Rampage may feel competent, but barely. Not content to let the story play out at its own pace, or perhaps not confident in his own abilities to create a slow-burn sense of dread, Boll dishes out violent flash-forwards during the actors' inane improvised conversations at the beginning of the film. These never feel like foreshadowing (they aren't artful enough for that), but promises to the audience that, trust me, these characters will shut up soon, and we can get down to the killin'. Rampage is an ugly, irresponsible film--a repellant, sociopathic male power fantasy that assumes we've all wanted to be the guy that could get away with killing all those jerks out there on the street. Thing is, I'm not a sociopath, so, no, I don't want to kill everyone I see. Uwe Boll is a person who once responsed to negative reviews of his video game movies by offering to fly critics to his location so that he, an amateur boxer, could knock them out in a boxing ring. It's a violent response to a trivial issue. Rampage is that response times one thousand, simmering with misplaced anger and hatred towards the middle class. It seems destined to become the new favorite film of disaffected, violent white trash fifteen-year olds across America. I don't believe cinematic violence causes real world violence, and, personally, I happen to like a lot of violent films. My issue here is that Boll has created a film without subtext or satire, immoral and lacking remorse, offering not one iota of intellectual or philosophical insight. A character study about the worst cold-blooded killer in history can at least offer us some moments where we reflect on the unusual psychology on display. Rampage just isn't about that. It's about the thrill of putting a bullet in the head of the guy that got your coffee order wrong. It's a thrill that I can't force myself to relate to. A Serious Man - USA - Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen Synopsis: Larry Gopnik experiences a troubling cycle of small victories followed by huge personal tragedies. I'm a Gentile, and I loved A Serious Man. I comprehend the "what can ya do?" attitude of the film, but not in the way that it might resonate with Jews (in much the same way that "Catholic guilt" doesn't resonate with me, but I can understand it). As far as character studies go, they don't get more well-crafted than A Serious Man. Michael Stuhlbarg carries the film with what is sure to be the break-out performance of 2009. His Larry Gopnik is desperate and patient, often at the exact same time, and it makes for an interesting combination of character traits as the Coens (playing G-d) continue to pile heartache upon heartache on poor Larry. Watching Gopnik's personal drama unfold is painful, but the Coens get us from scene to scene easily with plenty of strange characters and well-timed comedy. Tonally, A Serious Man reminded me a lot of 2001's The Man Who Wasn't There, but Billy Bob Thornton's character in that film, Ed Crane, is a simpleton. Gopnik is smart, but he's no more effectual than Crane at controlling his own life. There are forces at work bigger than Gopnik, and they were there before he was born (illustrated by the Coens' odd prologue, set centuries beforehand), and will continue to go on after he is dead (illustrated in a powerful way by the Coens' not-exactly-an-ending ending). In many ways, A Serious Man feels like the most personal work yet from Joel and Ethan Coen, and I look forward to seeing it again so that I can give it some further thought.
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Mirageman


A young man named Maco (Marko Zaror) and his kid brother are orphaned after their parents are killed in a brutal attack. Maco is mistaken for a masked superhero by TV reporter he saves, and Maco's little brother becomes obsessed with this new vigilante. The movie itself is a bit of a mix of vigilante comic book movie, old-school Jackie Chan, and a dash of Latin American direct to video action. The combination results in one of the most inventive and watchable action flicks I've seen in a long while. I'd take twelve movies from these guys before I'd crack open another Hong Kong cookie-cutter thing. The team behind Kiltro got back together for another round of South American martial arts action in Mirageman. They also brought Mandrill, their newest film, to Fantastic Fest this year. Unfortunately, I couldn't get in to either show. They also apparently announced that this very movie was going to be remade in English and 3-D. The action in this original is taut and well-choreographed, but it never really rises above martial arts film tropes, so don't expect a revelation. On the other hand, it's nice to have a fight movie that has nothing to do with Thai boxing, ninja, or Chinese kung fu.
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Disc Roundup (Movies) 9.29.09


New Release of the Week In a Dream (DVD only) 2 Deleted Scenes [2:49], Alternate Ending [3:47], Recommitment short documentary [4:51], Theatrical Trailer Short Films: Cutting Ice to Snow video for Efterklang, Coney Island, 1945, Paints on Ceiling I've been an enthusiastic supporter of Jeremiah Zagar's masterful work of mosaic documentary filmmaking since I saw it a year and a half ago at South by Southwest 2008, before it made the shortlist for Best Documentary feature at last year's Oscars. In a Dream delves into his family history, specifically focusing on his father Isaiah's battles with madness and genius and how those epic wars within himself affect those who love him. Jeremiah turns the camera on his mother and elder brother, but never on himself. Some have inferred that his reluctance to do so is cowardly, or unbecoming of a documentarian. All those people are assholes, idiots, or likely both. The genius of Jeremiah's work is in the intimate distance he achieves and the mystery he inadvertently creates around himself unintentionally. With so much turbulence surrounding his family unit, how could Jeremiah do anything but be the observer in the shadows? Knowing little about him directly and a great deal more about those around him is what makes the movie and its twists all the more compelling and thought-provoking. Isaiah has created building facades and interiors full of mosaic art chronicling the family history, and to his own surprise, son Jeremiah has molded a towering achievement out of 4-5 years of fragments he didn't start out knowing what to do with.

Julia (l.) and Isaiah (r.) Zagar. Click the image to enlarge.
The supplemental materials are all easily re-watchable, including a short hidden one that I watched two and three times after finding it. This is one worth Netflixing if you haven't seen it yet, but be ready to pull out the credit card, because it's very much the kind of discovery you want to share with people. In a Dream is $20 on Amazon, but there's also a very unique Limited Edition version being sold off their website for $60 that they're only doing 500 of total. The additional extras on this version include the following: Deluxe Packaging (designed by Jonah Birns) Autographed 13"x18" Movie Poster (signed by Isaiah, Julia, Zeke & Jeremiah Zagar) Hand-Crafted Isaiah Zagar Figurine Bonus Disc -Even More Deleted Scenes -Rare Jeremiah Zagar Short Films -Short Works by Friends of In A Dream -Original Fundraising Trailer -Interviews, Slideshows and More!! My assumption (as should be yours) is that a larger portion of these sales goes to the filmmakers on top of the fact that the additional extras listed are worth investigating. New to Blu-ray Release of the Week The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Edition (also on DVD) The picture quality is better than I have ever seen it, and there are tiers of options depending on the amount of extras you care about. This will be, mark my words, one of the big software reasons people will go Blu-ray this year. My photo-inundated writeup of the set can be found here. I'm calling this as easily one of the top 5 disc releases of the year, and we still have two months to go.

New to Blu-ray Release of the Week (honorable mention in the face of Oz) Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal Labyrinth: The Storytellers Picture-in-Picture track (Blu-ray exclusive); Original DVD extras including Commentary and Making-Of Documentary The Dark Crystal: Picture-in-Picture Storyboard Track; Introduction by screenwriter David Odell on Skeksis language; The Book of Thra and Crystal Challenge interactive features; Original DVD extras including Commentary, Documentary, Retrospectives, and Deleted Scenes Sony has really outdone themselves with the transfers on these two Henson Company classics. I've never seen either one of these movies projected, just VHS copies and DVDs, and they both look jaw-droppingly good. Sony is handily maintaining its reputation as one of (if not the) best Blu-ray houses in town, as well they should, having invented Blu-ray in the first place. The all-new Storytellers PiP track on Labyrinth is much more than just the least annoying PiP track I've been subjected to, it's actually quite good. It features interviews with Cheryl Henson, puppeteer Kevin Clash, puppet makers Rollin Krewson and Connir Peterson, actor Warwick Davis, and makeup artist Nick Dudman. Dark Crystal has some interesting new extras, but none quite approach The Storytellers. All the original supplemental material is on both of these. New Release

The Girlfriend Experience (Blu-ray & DVD) Feature Commentary by Steven Soderbergh and Sasha Grey Blu-ray Exclusive: Unrated Alternate Cut The allegory one could apply to this movie is actually pretty universal. Do you sell something? Do you obey a master, corporate or familial? Do you know you're being molded against your nature into someone else's ideal and let it happen due to having no other choice? Sasha Grey, a porn star in real life, portrays Chelsea, a high-end call girl who seems happy with her job. She has a live-in boyfriend who's fully aware of what she does, and whether to cope with what his girlfriend does for a living or due to his own overcompensating personality, he reaches for stars that'll never be within his grasp. The shooting style and fractured chronology reminded me of the sadly forgotten HBO series K Street, which Soderbergh out together. I watched this twice, first the Theatrical Cut and then the Alternate Cut. I didn't have the time to give it a third spin to listen to the Soderbergh/Grey commentary, but I'm trying to find the time this week. The Alternate version gives Glenn Kenny the push he needs over the top in this year's Sleazy Supporting Character Awards. Away We Go (Blu-ray & DVD) Feature Commentary with director Sam Mendes and writers Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida Featurettes: The Making of Away We Go, Green Filmmaking This is the movie I haven't seen that is most frequently-recommended by friends. It drives me nuts that I'm looking at an unopened copy of a new Sam Mendes movie that I don't have time to watch. Based on my tea leaf reading, I have a feeling this is going to do some significant business on video, as a huge potential audience (new parents) mostly stayed away from the theater because that just isn't how they'll see movies for a few years. Monsters vs. Aliens (Blu-ray & DVD) I skipped this in theaters and I'm skipping it on home video. The twenty minutes I saw at BNAT last year were painful. Management (Blu-ray & DVD) I forgot this movie existed. Catalog New to Blu Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer Snakes on a Plane Billy Jack Skipping the one in the middle, are Henry and Billy Jack not perfect examples of how Blu-ray has undeniably arrived as a format? Pushed Back 42nd Street Forever Volume 5: Alamo Drafthouse This one appears to have been pushed back into late October. I can't wait to get my hands on it personally, since I've seen most if not all of the trailers on it in person at the Drafthouse and love all of them, no matter how goofy or outright insane. Disc Roundup (Movies) is posted each week at some point, depending on how many discs there are to get through. Screener copies of In a Dream, The Wizard of Oz, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Girlfriend Experience, and Away We Go were provided by their respective studios. If you think I've missed something, feel free to send me an email.
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Disc Roundup (TV) 9.22.09


Release of the Week Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2 (Blu-ray) These classic Trek seasons on Blu-ray are reasons to own the player in and of themselves. The remarkable picture quality from the first season set is also present here, as is the multi-angle option allowing you to toggle between the original effects shots and the "remastered" ones. Some of my favorite episodes are in here, including "The Apple", "The Doomsday Machine", "By Any Other Name", and "The Ultimate Computer". These sets are like Warner's Blade Runner Blu-ray release in that I can't really fathom why I'd ever have to buy it again in some new format. CBS has already shown a good deal of dedication to actually using BD-Live as incentive, unlike other outfits that aren't even trying. Others and I heap all kinds of hate on BD-Live's slowness and uselessness, but on these Trek titles, I don't really mind the wait because the content's worth it. New to this release compared to the other is the Mobile Blu feature, which lets you use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a remote and download exclusive content to it. I haven't tried it, but I haven't seen any complaints thus far, so I assume it's a-ok. The entirety of Disc 4 is dedicated to the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles," and it includes both the Animated Series and Deep Space Nine episodes that involve the furry little buggers. It's a well-produced disc all on its own, but it just made me yearn all the more for DS9 on Blu-ray with new featurettes. Speaking of, featurettes are semi-sparse on the first few discs, but Disc 7 is pretty supplemental heavy, so it evens out. On top of that, it turns out CBS/Paramount has hidden twelve featurettes across the set, and I don't mind spoiling how to find it all since the vast majority of these aren't things you'd stumble across by chance. Here are the keys to the kingdom, as provided to The Digital Bits by the studio: All 12 are brief interview featurettes (short, but well worth finding). For the Easter eggs that require you to enter a code, simply go to the disc's main menu screen and enter the numbers with your remote. Disc 1 #1 - (Enter 4-digit number) - The year Star Trek first aired on TV. Disc 2 #2 - (enter 4-digit number) - The first year of the Enterprise's five-year mission. #3 - (navigate right from Communication) Disc 3 #4 - (enter 4-digit number) - Spock's Birth Year #5 - (navigate right from Communication) Disc 4 #6 - (enter 4-digit number) - Original air date (month/day) of "The Trouble With Tribbles" Disc 5 #7 - (enter 4-digit number) - Registry number of the Enterprise #8 - (navigate right from Communication) Disc 6 #9 - (enter 4-digit number) - The year Shakespeare died (from "By Any Other Name") #10 - (navigate right from Communication) Disc 7 #11 - (enter 4-digit number) - The year the crew returns to in "Assignment Earth" #12 - (navigate right from Communication)" The thing that drove me mad more than anything was that I was in the thick of Fantastic Fest when the review copy of this set arrived and as a result didn't really have a chance to dig in to it until I fell ill just following the festival. Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2 is not only the top TV release of the week of 9.22, it's one of the best releases of the year. New Release

The Mentalist Season 1 (DVD only) Unaired Scenes on 3 episodes, Gag Reel Featurettes: Evidence of a Hit Series, Cracking the Crystal Ball: Mentalist vs. Psychic This show is in ink at the top of my "I should get into that show before it's cancelled after two seasons for no good reason" list. I'll have something more than a witty one-liner by the end of the week now that I have it in my hands. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 (Blu-ray & DVD) Commentaries on 4 Episodes (including finale) with Exec. Producer Josh Friedman and Cast & Crew, Unaired Scenes, Gag Reel Featurettes: The Continuing Chronicles: Terminator 8-part featurette gallery, The Storyboard Process, Cameron vs. Rosie Fight Rehearsal Blu-ray Exclusive: Collision with the Future: Deconstructing the Hunter Killer Attack I hope the reference to "cancelled after two seasons for no good reason" above relating to this title isn't too glaringly obvious or looks like a slam. I never kept up with this show during its run, and I'd feel guilty about that if there weren't seventeen other shows from the last few years that I've defended until after they're dead. It's a shame there's one less capably-produced science fiction show on TV. I need some more time to get to this one too, so check back at the end of the week. 30 Rock Season 3 (Blu-ray & DVD) 1-900-OKFACE commercial, Audio Commentary on select episodes, Deleted Scenes, Behind-The-Scenes With The Muppets, The Making of "He Needs a Kidney", Table Read of the Season Finale, Photo Gallery I went over this one here yesterday. It's infinitely re-watchable for me, at least. Brotherhood The Final Season (3) (DVD only) This good side/bad side family drama started with a bang in the ratings and all but disappeared without a trace by the end, with people jumping on other bandwagons. This final season DVD set has no extras on it, but it's got the final 8 episodes of the show on it, so you can safely line up the whole show in a Netflix queue now. Mitch Fatel is Magical (DVD only) Interviews with Fans, Special Mitch Animation, Outtakes, Photo Shoot Mitch Fatel was co-headlining a college tour with Mitch Hedberg shortly before Hedberg died (many conveniently forget, of an overdose). That tour swung through Tallahassee, where I lived at the time, and the universal consensus was that Hedberg was ok, but that Fatel was actually a great deal funnier. I've never really warmed to his stuff, most of which is about his penis and things that happen during events that involve his penis. His fans love him for being "the perverted guy who talks about it and isn't ashamed." Castle Season 1 (DVD only) Bloopers & Outtakes, Audio Commentaries Featurettes: Whodunit: The Genesis of Castle, Write-Along With Nathan Fillion I hope that anything with Nathan Fillion in it succeeds on principle. That said, I think I need more time to warm to Castle. In it, Fillion plays a crime novelist whose books are being used as source material by a copycat killer. The NYPD pair him with an all-business real-life cop to try to prevent the crimes before they happen. They fight crime. Repeat. I'm in a detective story mood of late, so I'll give this show another shot when I can. The Ghost Whisperer Season 4 (DVD only) The Other Side III Webseries Featurettes: Season 4: Love Never Dies, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Scoring the Spirit World Interactive Features: Haunted Dollhouse puzzle game, Grave Mistakes game, Fashion Style Guide Now part of the Paranormal Phenomena Friday block on ABC that I will likely find myself far too often accidentally watching, Ghost Whisperer is a somewhat rare breed: it's a show about the paranormal that I really can't get into. The reason for this is probably the same as why Twilight makes me sigh and and check my watch: I just don't have the patience for this volume of longing stares and lovelorn protagonists. I do particularly admire the Other Side III webseries, which leverages webisode format programs as universe extension rather than cutting room floor gags or advertising like many other shows do. This is the third year they've been doing it, and I'm more interested in Other Side than Ghost Whisperer. Jamie Kennedy joined the cast and Jennifer Love Hewitt's real life love life this season, for better or worse on both fronts. And yes, the Fashion Style Guide interactive feature has to do with all the pretty clothes the people in the show wear. Law and Order SVU Season 10 (DVD only) I think they intentionally keep the price of these sets so high that I can't afford them to make sure I watch all the repeats that come on. SVU keeps me hooked, even ten years later. Ugly Betty Season 3 (DVD only) Look Who Keeps Popping Up pop-up video commentary Featurette: Coming Home to New York City MODE After Hours Webisodes, Betty Bloops (Gag Reel), Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary Ugly Betty has long since departed from the original Betty La Fea it's based on. They're alternate realities of one another rather than one acting as an adaptation of the other, really. The third season saw the show transplanted from L.A. to NYC, and as a result, this is actually a good jumping-on point for new viewers. Catalog

Friday the 13th The Series The Final Season (DVD only) My mother did not let me watch shows like this when I was in the first grade, so this is my first exposure to Friday the 13th: The Series. As indifferent as I am to the Friday movies, the show is interesting to me since it's really just a creepy things and fighting evil show that's "F13" in name only. The show primarily concerns itself with the main characters locking away cursed items that will bring about untold evil. Taxi Season 4 (DVD only) I miss this show being in syndicated rotation. I could always switch it on and say to myself, "life could be a lot more boring with a much worse day job," and in the same breath remind myself, "and there's no way it'd be as interesting of a terrible job as the guys driving taxis in this show have." Compared to much of what has ever been on TV in the 70's and early 80's, I don't think a show ever quite nailed casting the way Taxi did. Reissue/Repackage The Judy Garland Show Volume 2 (DVD only) Outtakes I'm positive this must have been released previously. When I worked at Barnes & Noble, Teddy the newsstand manager came over to ask me about The Judy Garland Show arriving on DD what seemed like every other day. This second of thirteen volumes features two 50-minute episodes that feature guests like Ray Bolger, Ethel Merman, and The Smothers Brothers. TV on Disc is generally posted a few days after the corresponding week's Disc Roundup (Movies) and covers the week's TV releases on DVD & Blu-ray. With the exception of Law and Order SVU Season 10, screener copies of titles reviewed were provided by the respective studio. If you think I've missed something, feel free to send me an email.
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Crack Rock


One of the few things I can put on in the background while I write these columns other than music is network TV shows. 30 Rock is one of the few that make it difficult to work while they roll along in the background. At various points in my post-festival illness when I haven't felt up to being upright, I've stuck in a disc from the Season 3 set that's been sitting in my review stack for a couple weeks, sadly neglected like a ton of other DVDs I haven't reviewed yet (but should be caught up on later today). Season 3 of 30 Rock is the best yet, and it's easy to re-watch episodes like the one with Muppets or the one where Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) tries to find Mr. Green (Alan Alda) a kidney. Extras include the full 1-900-OKFACE commercial, Audio Commentary on select episodes, Deletes Scenes, Behind-The-Scenes With The Muppets, The Making of "He Needs a Kidney", the Table Read of the Season Finale, a Photo Gallery, and a couple other things I'm sure I'm missing here. Unlike the majority of TV disc releases, the producers of these build a good deal of value into owning 30 Rock rather than just letting it remain in stasis on your DVR.
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Remastered, HD Snow White


Disney's new Blu-ray of Snow White can be purchased from Amazon for $9.99 by using the coupon code "snowhite" at checkout. It's currently backordered, but worth waiting for at that price.
It's been interesting exploring this set after The Wizard of Oz, which was greenlit by MGM in the wake of Snow White's success. Disney's Blu-ray treatment of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs exceeds the standards already set forth by Sleeping Beauty and Pinnochio. The inaugural "Diamond Collection" release features a gorgeous new HD video transfer and all of the extras from the previous Platinum Edition 2-disc DVD. On top of that, there are a bunch of new extras, including a short doc (The One That Started It All) and beautifully-restored classic Disney animated shorts like Playful Pluto, Goddess of Spring, Flowers and Trees, and Music Land. The work that's been done here has me very much looking forward to Diamond releases of Beauty and the Beast next year and even more so to Fantasia & Fantasia 2000 later in 2010. The new features and additions are excellent, especially the immersive Hyperion Studios guided tour. Andrew Stanton introducing the tour is just one instance of the Pixar touch evident throughout the whole thing. The interface has you go from room to room of Hyperion, with archival audio interviews introducing each area. Inside each room is a collection of short Ken Burns-style documentary clips, short films, deleted scenes, and galleries related to the particular area's role in the production of Snow White. All of the content here is worth watching, so I wish there had been an auto-pilot option to just sit back and let it guide me through. Consider that a non-complaint. My personal favorite bits were those focusing on the role of women who worked in the ink & paint department. Even today, the role of women in animation (on screen and behind the scenes) is marginal, but it appears Pixar is working to change that with the upcoming The Bear and the Bow. The One That Started It All [17:12] is a short documentary that hits on the historical significance of the movie without needlessly repeating info provided in either the classic extras or the new ones. One of my favorite anecdotes had to do with critics arguing that no one would be able to deal with the horrible eye strain that would result from watching a feature-length, full-color animated movie. As for other features of the disc, the Magic Mirror eerily makes recommendations and says things in the main menus based on your IP address' geographic location, viewing habits, and history viewing the disc. I don't care at all for the DisneyView feature that adds matte paintings to the sides of the Academy ratio picture to fill the "black bar" space to either side of the frame. Other supplements include storyboards from Walt Disney's would-be sequel, Snow White Returns*, a Disney Channel starlet singing "Some Day My Prince Will Come", and a 6-minute preview of The Princess and The Frog. The review copy that Disney sent me came in a standard DVD-sized case, and based on what I've seen in ads, you're buying the same innards regardless of whether you get the "Blu-ray" or "DVD" of the Diamond Edition. The two Blu-ray discs are complimented by a standard-def DVD that has the feature, the Platinum Edition's patched-together Walt Disney commentary, the music video, and the Princess/Frog preview. They're still doing the DVD version of the new Diamond Edition on November 24th just in time for the holidays, but this is the one to get. * the title conjures images in my mind of Snow White brandishing a sword or a gun, and a tagline like "Red Ruby Lips Meet Blood Red Revenge!" or "Some Day Revenge Will Come!"
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Inside the Oz Limited Box

In an effort to offer something a little different from the ton of different reviews out there, I'm coupling unboxing photos with impressions as I go on the various components of the set. Details on extras and just about every detail one could ask about will be answered in the captions below. Lighting was horrible due to rushing, but that will improve in further posts of this type.

The box itself takes up a great deal of shelf space horizontally, but it can also be set up on its side. This is intended by design, since when you set it up on its end, there's "spine art" on it. Whichever way you set the thing, it takes up a hell of a lot of room.

Art from the underside of the lid.

The cover of the 52-page The Wizard of Oz: Behind the Curtain of Production 1060 hardcover book that greets you inside the box.

A couple of pages from said book.

The back cover of the book (l.) and a color copy of the budget sheet for "Production 1060" on top of a black ribbon that lifts the book & budget sheet from the box.

The cover of the reproduction of the 1939 ad campaign "exploit" book can be seen (r.), with the tin case for the watch peeking out (l.)

Inside the campaign book. What isn't immediately apparent is the book on the right. I could do a photo post just on the inside of this book. Oz collectors will love this detail more than any other.

The tin for the watch, with a green leather strap and REAL CRYSTALS (stressed nearly that much on the stickers that were on the cellophane. The disc case itself is thicker than a standard size DVD or Blu-ray case and is the same physical size for both the DVD & BD versions of the set. I greatly prefer the Target-exclusive version of this pack, which has the same discs in a case much thinner and less easy to smudge (I'll get to that in a minute). Underneath the disc case is the Digital Copy disc in a cardboard sleeve (not pictured, my apologies) and a few small ad inserts.
The discs feature all of the extras on the previous 3-disc DVD set and add a few more: a 34-minute documentary (Victor Fleming, Master Craftsman), a 93-minute TV movie from the 90's (Dreamer of Oz), a featurette (Hollywood Celebrates Its Biggest Little Stars), and two vintage films shy of feature length (The Magic Cloak of Oz and The Patchwork Girl of Oz ). The MGM: When the Lion Roared documentary is an exhaustive, chronological look at the history of MGM that would make many Film History courses across the country appear lacking.

The picture quality really is outright remarkable, but you need to see it on an HD monitor to properly appreciate it. When you slide out the inner disc digipack and open it, the features of each disc are listed on either "page", each of which then fold out to reveal...

...the discs themselves. On the Blu-ray set, disc 1 is a Blu-ray...

...disc 2 is a Blu-ray, and the double-sided disc 3 is a DVD that includes the six-hour MGM: The Lion That Roared documentary (narrated and hosted by Patrick Stewart).

One side of the ad insert for the similarly decked-out and remastered deluxe Gone With the Wind set...

...which they recommend you buy "for your loved one", but unfortunately, neither I nor my wife are really into the movie. I am, however, really into docs about famously fraught productions...

I'm glad to see an ad for the Warner Archive titles in just about every deluxe or semi-deluxe release from WB. Tomorrow I'll be digging into some recent Archive titles that are particularly noteworthy.
This is one of the top releases of the year, with or without all the extra bells, whistles, watches and tchotchkes. Target is selling the no-Digital-Copy, 3-disc Blu-ray for $34.99, so it's a matter of whether all the extras are worth $17 more for the $51.99 Amazon is asking for the Limited Edition version. In the interest of full disclosure, Warner Bros. sent me a copy for review, but if I had to choose, I'd probably go for the huge box over the $35 one. The Digital Copy, hardbound book, and marketing exploitation reproduction are worth seventeen bucks to me, but they wouldn't be for everyone. Oz is more than just a film I respect or admire academically, it's one of my "desert island" films, as a friend put it recently. Yes, I want it available to me in glorious 1080p on my TV and in SD on a portable computer or media player I have with me at any given time.

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Disc Roundup (Movies) 9.22.09


The original 1954 Gojira, the first of three New to Blu "Release of the Week"-worthy titles
New to Blu-ray Release of the Week (A) Gojira (Godzilla) Audio Commentary with Gojira experts Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski, Original Theatrical Trailer Featurettes: Story Development, Making of the Suit After a great deal of comparison watching, the new Blu-ray offers a great deal more clarity than what is to be assumed going from DVD to Blu-ray. The image is not particularly grainy, not so much due to DNR, but the fact that the existing elements are far from perfect. Some may instinctively leap to complain about picture quality as they did on the DVD, but this is about as good (if not better) than release prints came out thanks to scratches and dirt that were on the original soft-emulsion negative before and after adding optical effects. Cutting rooms were notoriously difficult to keep clean, and when you mix the wear and tear adding "analog" effects can add, this is really what the best restoration prints of Gojira look like. The only thing missing in the jump from the Classic Media's prior DVD release is the U.S. version, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Amazon has it for $12.99 at the time of this writing, and it carries my highest recommendation.

New to Blu-ray Release of the Week (B) Hot Fuzz Every last feature from the 3-disc Ultimate Edition DVD is ported over with upgraded picture and sound. This is one of my very favorite action films, without qualification. I'd shoot a gun straight up in the air for it. Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead (below) were available about a month in advance exclusively from Best Buy, and I know plenty of people who gladly paid $20 apiece for them.

New to Blu-ray Release of the Week (C) Shaun of the Dead New to US Blu-ray: Lucy Davis' video diary, Joe Cornish's video diary, TV Bits (Remembering Z-Day), Audio Commentary w/ Bill Nighy & Penelope Wilton, Audio Commentary w/ actors who played Zombies The thing I miss most in the move to Blu-ray for Shaun is the original DVD menus, which were replaced with the now-standard "Universal Blu-ray menus" that feature unified navigation on all Universal titles. I didn't find the above-listed extras on my original US DVD, and may have missed a couple. New Release of the Week Observe and Report (Blu-ray & DVD) Blu-ray exclusive (all extras): Gag Reel, Seth Rogen & Anna Faris: Unscripted, Basically Training, Forest Ridge Mall Security Recruitment Video, Picture-in-Picture Commentary with director Jody Hill and actors Rogen and Faris My review from a couple weeks ago can be found here. New Release O'Horten (DVD only) A delightful Norwegian movie about a train engineer's adaptation to forced retirement, O'Horten is yet another Sony Pictures Classics title that not enough people saw in theaters (as is so often the case with arthouse fare). The audience is given a protagonist whose life has been anything but spontaneous for over four decades, and the beauty of the movie is that it never allows you feel like you know what will happen next in Odd Horten's journey. This is a movie it won't take long for Netflix to get to you, but will stick with you for a while. It's as much about the human condition in general as it is having a good time. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Blu-ray & DVD) Matthew McConaughey plays Connor Mead, a self-centered womanizing photographer and Jennifer Garner is the nice girl he never had the sense to settle down with. Breckin Meyer plays Connor's younger brother, who's getting married to a bridezilla played by Lacey Chabert. I got so tremendously bored watching this that it was difficult to not take a nap. I woke up each time Robert Forster showed up to play the bride's caricature-drawn military dad. My god do I love Robert Forster. The movie begins, middles, and ends exactly the way you'd expect. Battle for Terra (Blu-ray & DVD) I never hated this movie, preachy though it may have been. Unlike many animated movies aimed at children, it isn't selling toys, just do-gooder ideology. I never got to see it in 3D, but I wish I'd had the chance. Adam Resurrected (DVD only) This would be on more people's radar had Goldblum been nominated for Best Actor as many thought that he would. Catalog New to Blu Star Trek: TNG Motion Picture Collection (also on DVD) (Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek: Nemesis) On a cursory inspection, the DVD transfers on all of these are improved from the previous DVD versions. I haven't touched to Blu-rays, but I've read a couple reviews and forums posts that point to DNR issues, but I'm not seeing nearly as much complaining as many did on the previous 6-movie set. The fact these are all relatively new masters compared to the TOS movies makes a big difference all on its own. All four TNG movies carry over previous DVD extras with the exception of Michael Okuda's text commentaries (oh well). In terms of new extras, there's a new commentary on each disc and four installments of an interview with Brent Spiner. There are a pile of new featurettes, most of which seemed interesting from the few minutes each I gave them. The one I did watch the whole way through, Reunion With the Rikers, was excellent for anyone who loves Frakes-Sirtis banter. I grew up with TNG, so things like this really make me smile. Complete Monterrey Pop Collection (Criterion) As with Warner Bros.' Woodstock release earlier this year, the top reason to get this set must be the lossless audio. I'm sure the picture is improved, but my supposition is that it can't be a staggering improvement. I'll allow, of course, that Criterion being Criterion, they could have pulled off a coup with this one. Reissue The Paul Newman Collection None of the titles included here are new to DVD, so the only exclusive is the book. The price is reasonable for what's included if you're going gift-buying, but I'd hope for a Blu-ray version. I haven't gotten my hands on the book, so I don't know how good it is, but frankly I'd be amazed if it's better than Shawn Levy's biography Paul Newman: A Life. Direct to Video Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side I fell asleep watching the original Family Guy Star Wars parody. I don't expect this one is much better. Ghost Cat Ellen Page stars in this 6-year-old made for TV movie, and let me assure you, it is definitive when it comes to "made for TV". First off, it's readily apparent that it was scripted with commercial breaks built-in. It appears Animal Planet aired it sometime in 2007. Natalie (Page) and her widower father move into the home of an older lady with a 15-year-old cat. The sweet old lady and the cat both pass away. There's an attractive lady neighbor with two sons, one of whom is age-appropriate for Natalie. The Attractive Lady Neighbor runs an animal rescue, and the Greedy Nephew of The Old Lady wants his inheritance and also wants to push the Attractive Lady Neighbor off her land in exchange for a payoff from the Evil Land Developer. The movie is actually better than most of the stuff I flip past on cable, and it's kid-appropriate, with not a hint of sexuality or real scares to be found. [Note: it's on IMDb as Mrs. Ashboro's Cat] Disc Roundup (Movies) is posted each week at some point, depending on how many discs there are to get through. Unless otherwise noted, screener copies of titles reviewed were provided by the respective studio. If you think I've missed something, feel free to send me an email.
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Disc Roundup (TV) 9.15.09


"The Bride Possessed" from One Step Beyond

Moss and Roy hatching a plan A-Team-style in The IT Crowd
New Release of the Week The IT Crowd Season 3 (DVD only) Audio Commentary with Graham Linehan, An Interview with Graham, Set Tour, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Original Title Sequence Animatic My favorite sitcom on television does not air on an American station that I get on my cable package (IFC). The most recently-completed season contains my new favorite episode, wherein Jen (the IT manager who knows nothing about com-puters) is named employee of the month and the B plot features boss man Douglas romancing a woman with..."a past". A fourth season is being written as we speak, and I can't wait. Catalog Release of the Week One Step Beyond Season 1 (DVD only) Extended Pilot Episode (The Bride Possessed), Next Episode Promos, Alcoa Sponsor Version Opening, 1990s Rerun Opening, Archival Audio Interview with Dan Mankiewicz There are super-cheap, super-shite public domain versions of this show on DVD that are low-quality, incomplete, and out of order. CBS has properly remastered and restored this paranormal TV fiction classic five decades after it originally aired. Just ten months before The Twilight Zone hit, host & director John Newland's show began its first year on the air. Different than Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond dealt specifically with paranormal cases substantiated to have actually happened. Like Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour/Presents, One Step Beyond is still thrilling to watch thanks to a solid creative team in front of and behind the camera. Catalog

Bonanza Season 1 Vol. 1 & 2 (DVD only) Volume 1: Archival Interviews w/ Creator-Producer David Dortort, Galleries of Extensive Episodic and Rare Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Original Network logo/bumpers/RCA promo on A Rose For Lotta, 1953 Fireside Theater episodic Man of the Comstock, Original Promos on selected episodes, Early Credits Concept Drawings Volume 2: Archival Interviews w/ Creator-Producer David Dortort, Galleries of Extensive Episodic and Rare Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Original Network logo/bumpers/RCA promo on A Rose For Lotta, Original Promos on selected episodes Similar to One Step Beyond, CBS has properly remastered these episodes for official release on DVD and included some better-than-you'd-expect extras. I've only ever watched Bonanza out of order in reruns. At this point, anything Western is actually a bit of a rarity, and I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but: I can't wait to dig into Bonanza from the beginning.

X-Men Volumes 3 & 4 (DVD only) These two volumes roughly comprise the third and fourth seasons of the highly-regarded X-Men animated series from the 90's. The reason I say "roughly" is that episodes are out of order (based on airdate) and enough are missing so that a Volume 5 release won't seem lacking with only the ten episodes produced for the afterthought fifth season. The fact there are no extras on these sets doesn't bother me in the least, but it would have been nice to see a "how it was all made" doc or set of featurettes. Those minor quibbles are small in the face of the quality presented here, which is rather impressive compared to the VHS copies that included two episodes each (!). The X-Men cartoon handled classic storylines and characters loads better than Fox has in any of their four live action attempts. Fox only had a hand in the show's success by airing the episodes in their Saturday morning kids' block, since Saban Entertainment teamed with Marvel to produce X-Men. Buena Vista Home Entertainment handled the DVD release of these two volumes and their predecessors, which reminded me of the fact that pending tons of hurdles get cleared, Disney will have an active hand in actually producing X-Men and other Marvel properties in animated form. Just the possibility of that thrills me. The Transformers Season 2 Volume 1 (DVD only) This set includes the first 28 second season episodes from the original Transformers animated series. If you're a fan but aren't interested in the gigantic complete series set coming to more than direct mail order soon, this is a good set to pick up. It includes the "Dinobot Island" episode among other notable ones. These episodes are from what many fans consider the "sweet spot" in the series, before robot (toy) proliferation made the show more of an advertisement than a narrative. Reissue/Repackage

Fame Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD only) Fame: Then and Now featurette (Season 2) The delightful thing about this release is that many fans of the show will want the DVDs no matter what and have their trip to see the do-over/remake subsidized and guilt-free. The attached Movie Cash voucher lasts until the end of October. The first season was previously released separately and discontinued. New Release Grey's Anatomy Season 5 (DVD only) Unaired Scenes, Outtakes, 100th Episode: Tales from the O.R., Extended Episode ("Stairway to Heaven"), featurette Heaven Sent (Jeffrey Dean Morgan talks about popularity of his character) I've never really had the time to get fully invested in Grey's Anatomy, and it's one of those very type of shows: the kind you have to invest a great deal into. This season saw the addition of the wonderful Sara Ramirez, which makes me wish I were into it. There's a seasons 1-4 recap that seems to pretty capably get me up to speed, but the last thing I need is one more show to keep up with. Private Practice Season 2 (DVD only) Deleted Scenes and Bloopers, Extended Episodes ("Crime and Punishment", "Nothing to Fear"), Life Through the Lens: The Pictures of Chris Lowell, Patient Confidentiality: Examining Season 2 As tough as it is for me to fathom getting in to yet another show, it's more difficult to conceive getting into a spin-off of yet another show. A cast including Audra MacDonald, Taye Diggs, and Amy Brenneman makes it tempting. Anyone remember when lead actress Kate Walsh had but a two word part in Anchorman ("Mr. Burgundy!"...or was that in Wake Up, Ron Burgundy or the trailer?)? CSI: Miami Season 7 (DVD only) Audio Commentaries: Episodes 6 & 8 Featurettes: Miami Classified, The Miami Sound Machine, The New AV LAB, CSI Miami - Heating Up Season 7 David Caruso's still stringing things along in the Florida-based CSI spinoff nearly a decade later. I find myself watching about half an episode before deciding I should just get ready for bed. I invariably come back about 15 minutes later. Disc Roundup (TV) is generally posted a few days after the corresponding week's Disc Roundup and covers the week's TV releases on DVD & Blu-ray. Unless otherwise noted, screener copies of titles reviewed were provided by the respective studio. If you think I've missed something, feel free to send me an email.
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FF09: John Gholson's Day 5

[REC] 2 - Spain - Directed by Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza Synopsis: A Vatican priest accompanies a SWAT unit to investigate the aftermath of a viral outbreak that may not be quite what it seems. [REC] 2 is a fantastic sequel, expanding from the first film in surprising and exciting ways. Not content to be just a great zombie film, [REC] 2 takes a first-person walk into the spiritual side of horror with its tale of a church experiment gone horribly wrong. If there's any significant knock against the film, it's that [REC] 2's scares bear too much influence from survival horror video games, complete with white-skinned ghouls that crawl across ceilings and a sewer "level". For some, these bits might work just fine, but for me they were akin to watching someone play a scary video game, which is a much different experience than playing one yourself. The characters are all thinly drawn and serve the story only to die, more-or-less, and it impairs the tension that Balaguero is trying to create. Regardless of whether or not I was personally terrified, I never expected [REC] 2 to be so interesting. The greatest movie sequels deliver the most well-regarded elements from the original while expanding situations in an unexpected way. Horror sequels are notoriously lousy at this, always trying to one-up the original in the least creative ways possible. [REC] 2 avoids sequel-itis by replicating what works from the original [REC] and only attempting to out-do its predecessor's story, not the scares. Nice work, guys. Cropsey - USA - Directed by Barbara Brancaccio & Joshua Zeman Synopsis: This documentary examines how truth can spin into urban legend as it presents the case of Andre Rand, a Staten Island drifter accused of murderering mentally handicapped children. It's almost too easy to draw comparisons between this film and Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Both films explore how a community reacts to a potential monster, especially if that monster is just enough of an outsider for people to draw their own conclusions about the details of the monster's crime. Brancaccio and Zeman are not interested in presenting a detailed case in support of Rand (unlike the support that the West Memphis Three found in Paradise Lost), despite the appearance to the contrary, as they dismiss many assumptions about Rand and his crime with this film. For a while it looks as if they're painting Rand as a martyr who got punished for being the wrong guy at the wrong time, but as the story unfolds and the tales from the police and Staten Island residents continue to get increasingly bizarre, Rand's guilt becomes almost irrelevant. The question then becomes "why do we need to create monsters?" If Rand is guilty of kidnapping and murdering children, that's horrible enough on its own. Why do many of the people involved with the case want to reimagine Rand as the retarded, necrophiliac lackey of a Satanic cult? Since when do you need to be substantially more than a child killer to be considered evil? Unfortunately, it's not a question Brancaccio and Zeman are capable of answering in Cropsey, and if the documentary falters at all, it's because of the lack of something definitive. To placate our own desire for closure, we go the only conclusion that the filmmakers weakly offer, which is that Rand is most likely guilty. Cropsey is unforgettable--more unsettling than any run-of-the-mill horror movie, and I commend Brancaccio and Zeman for exploring the dark questions in Cropsey, even if they don't provide any answers. It's obvious the heartbreaking subject matter got the filmmakers thinking, and it got me thinking too. I also don't have any answers. Bronson - UK - Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Synopsis: Michael Peterson adopts the identity of Charles Bronson and goes on to become Britain's most notorious serial prisoner. I'd dismissed Tom Hardy because I didn't like him in Star Trek: Nemesis. I feel idiotic even admitting that right now, because Hardy is downright relevatory in Bronson. It's an Oscar-calibre performance that provides the centerpiece for a series of darkly humorous vignettes about the life of a completely psychotic thug. I'm not really sure what the point of Bronson is (A celebration of thuggery and violence? How much animal is in a man?), or if there even is a point, but who cares? Hardy as Bronson is incredible. It's a fearless portrayal of unhinged violence, tempered by absurd humor and humming with dangerous immorality. I'm nothing like Bronson. I don't ever want to meet anyone like Bronson. There's hardly a violent bone in my body, but, man, I sure did like watching this character, up there on the movie screen, unable to throttle me from the safety of my theatre seat, no matter how alive Tom Hardy made him seem. Bronson is a hilariously rude, astoundingly brutal must-see. House of the Devil - USA - Directed by Ti West Synopsis: A teenage babysitter takes on an unusual job that turns into a Satanic nightmare. Going into the festival, House of the Devil was one of the few films already on my radar. I'd heard that director Ti West was working to create a perfect replica of a 1980's horror film, and I was expecting the excess cheese of something like Night of the Demons. I expected squealing nude teenagers being gruesomely stabbed to death while Bullet Boys played in the background. I was very wrong. Make no mistake, House of the Devil does feel like a forgotten gem from the 1980's, but it's a resolutely low-key affair. It has that slow, creeping kind of terror (and the use of the zoom lens) that earmarked many European horror films from the early 80's, except House of the Devil takes an American approach to its narrative (which is a nice way of saying it doesn't completely throw logic out the window). It's a solid "trapped babysitter" film, and I imagine my reaction to it would be the same if it had been created in 1983 instead of 2009--It's pretty darn good. I like parts of House of the Devil more than the whole, and I wish West had gone just a little bit darker, a little bit nastier with it. There's a lot of repetitive build-up for such an abrupt pay-off, but the length of the pay-off maybe wouldn't have mattered if it were just a touch more horrific. I even think some of that could've been remedied stylistically, as the film's finale is shot with modern hand-held camera techniques. That's not the way horror films were being shot back then, and it's the only one awkward misstep in this otherwise excellent homage.
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This Side of a Backlog

I've got two weeks worth of Disc columns (plus one TV column on top of that) to get up, in addition to individual coverage of a few releases in the works. I want to get a chunk (if not all) of this up before digging back into Fantastic Fest coverage on Monday. Items will be posted in spurts throughout the weekend into early next week. I've been diagnosed with a nasty case of Bronchitis, so I'll be writing when I feel well enough to do so.
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Fantastic Flu

I made it through the bulk of Fantastic Fest without falling ill, and then in the closing hours of the final evening, I began to succumb to what has been informally dubbed "Fantastic Flu." Worse, I started having some of the tell-tale signs of H1N1 (or Swine Flu/Pig AIDS depending on what you like to call it). Austin is considered at outbreak level when it comes to H1N1, so I'm being extremely cautious. I'm going to try to get something posted today, but I have to clear my agenda in favor of looking into the symptoms I have. I highly recommend anyone who left Austin or is still here promptly get some Tamiflu and see a doctor just to be safe. I may descend into one of those fever-dream mini-comas under the influence of medication. If so, I can only hope that I find myself in the universe of Park Dae-min's Private Eye (my favorite of the fest).
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FF09: John Gholson's Day 4

Kenny Begins - Sweden - Directed by Carl Astrand & Mats Lindberg Synopsis: Kenny Starfighter, Galaxy Hero in-training, accidentally ends up on Earth, just in time to stop evil Dr. Oversmart from gaining superpowers from a crystal hidden on our planet. A little research reveals that Kenny Begins is the film version of a popular kids' TV show in Sweden, called Kenny Starfighter. I feel a little better knowing that this was originally intended for children, because it's almost excruciatingly stupid. If this were an American production, it'd star some minor SNL veteran like Horatio Sanz, and it almost certainly wouldn't be playing at an international film festival. I guess seeing even the dumbest comedy in a foreign language can make you feel like you're getting a dose of culture, but, really, this is a movie where one of the biggest jokes is that people on Kenny's home planet of Mylta greet each other with "woolly boolly" instead of "hello". That's barely passable as comedy, no matter what language it's in. There's a sci-fi adventure story at the heart of Kenny Begins that at least keeps things from getting too boring while all the jokes hang silently in the air. Krabat - Germany - Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner Synopsis: An orphaned boy falls in with a group of black magick practicioners at a remote, mysterious mill. It's easy to describe Krabat as a more occult version of Harry Potter, replacing J.K. Rowling's "abracadbra" style of magic with chalkline pentagrams and ancient Germanic rituals. While the characters certainly share some similarities, I was pleased to find out that Krabat is based on a 1971 novel, one that's already been adapted to film once before, and I shouldn't lump it in with post-Potter cash grabs like The Seeker or Eragon. The Reader's David Kross plays the title character, a powerful magic user who finds himself torn between the young woman he loves and his loyalties to his sinister mentor and the rough-and-tumble group of boys that operate the mill. For the first hour or so, I was entranced by the movie, fascinated by its realistic portrayal of magic, its unique setting, and the dynamics of the relationships between the young men (all fatherless), and their master. Ultimately, Krabat wants to be a fairy tale, which means it eschews real-world logic for "true love conquers all" fluff. Sadly, that's not the movie I wanted to see, but it's the movie Kreuzpaintner made. To criticize it for not being the movie I wanted it to be is pointless--Krabat works excellently as a dark fable, regardless, and comes highly recommended to fantasy fans. Burantino, Son of Pinocchio - Estonia - Directed by Rasmus Merivoo Synopsis: A wealthy businessman wants to use the seeds of Pinocchio's wooden son, Buratino, to rule the world. Buratino opens with a bang--a bizarro musical number in which a woman longing for a child of her own is impregnated by an enchanted splinter of wood--but the movie never gets any better; it never delivers on the gonzo promise of its first ten minutes. I suspect that Buratino was created for the tween set. It's got a half-baked Romeo and Juliet love story going on, and there are a smattering of upbeat (but pointless) songs sprinkled throughout the film. Personally, I think Buratino's going to have a hard time finding an audience (which is not to say that it's bad, exactly). It's too weird and cheap-looking for the junior high set, and too safe and witless to form an adult cult audience. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus - UK/France/Canada - Directed by Terry Gilliam Synopsis: Dr. Parnassus uses his Imaginarium, a magic mirror that can conjure a world from pure imagination, to win a contest for human souls in a wager with his rival, Mr. Nick Too often the term "poorly paced" is used by film critics as a synonym for the word "boring". Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is never, ever boring, but it is poorly paced. It's the same stop-start rhythm that has plagued too many of director Terry Gilliam's works. I can recognize that Imaginarium feels like Gilliam's most personal film, I can acknowledge that it's a beautiful artistic achievement, but it's also very much a Gilliam film in other, less positive aspects too. It doesn't really have any characters I can relate to. The narrative meanders and stumbles, instead of striding along with total confidence. It's got enough midgets, Dutch angles, and Python-esque bits of humor to almost qualify it as self-parody. The Gilliam film it reminded me of the most was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Munchausen is gorgeous, but it's a hard film to re-visit, because everything is always turned up to eleven, and it, too, has pacing problems. Gilliam clearly wants to say something important about religion in Imaginarium, but he takes too complicated a route to find a simple truth, and he seems to confuse and confound even himself by the film's conclusion. It's more than a little frustrating, but still worth watching, mainly due to its awesome production design and enthusiastic acting by the entire cast.
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Fantastic Fest 2009 Standouts Thus Far

The loss of my mobile computer (functionally, that is) on the first day of this year's Fantastic Fest has crippled my ability to get things posted in a timely manner. For that, I offer my apologies. I'm also tremendously behind on Disc reviews, but I should be all caught up by the weekend. I'm dashing this together so as to have something out there in the closing days of the festival. The two movies I've seen that have most stuck with me are Merantau, which I saw the first day and is playing again tomorrow afternoon, and Private Eye, which plays once more this evening at 6:30pm. I highly recommend that anyone attending the festival make plans to see either or both, as their certainty of pick-up is not a lock. Quick thoughts on various things I've seen (with more detail to come): Toy Story 1 & 2 Double Feature This will lose some kids like the 8-year-old sitting next to me who had the youthful audacity to say "daddy, this is BOring" during "Jessie's Song" (the kid was not mine). The added depth is wonderful, particularly in the elevator shaft and Woody's Roundup-related sequences in Toy Story 2. The trailer for Toy Story 3 preceding the main attraction trained me to think of and look for hooks throughout the original two movies. I also noticed that bear briefly spotted in UP shows up in both Toy Story movies... Zombieland This movie is going to go over huge with the general public, and yes, The Cameo is pretty good stuff. Lines like "God bless rednecks" and "He's on the ceiling!" had me rolling, as did the opening lines making fun of Garland, Texas (my hometown) as looking "like a wasteland...but that's just Garland". The movie is gorier and bloodier than I'd been let on to believe. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus I was right there with the movie until the third act, when it seemed to contradict some of the Imaginarium "rules" that had been set up. Then again, there were circumstances that threw thing out of whack. I'm still rolling over this one in my head, but I walked out feeling like it was really uneven. Under the Mountain This is better than almost every children's movie I've seen in the last few years. Adults would likely be bored by it, but it's a perfect pre-tweener thing. I hope some American distributor picks it up. Yatterman Anyone who has ever been a fan of Anime series will get the very intentional in-jokes included in Takashi Miike's Yatterman, based on a couple decades-old Japanese series of the same name. In the film adaptation, they basically condense an entire "show" worth of stories into one two-hour narrative, including criticism of the reptitive nature of the medium and a gentle jab at the end to fanboys who refuse to out their toys away and grow up. I hope Miike's name will get this one picked up for some sort of Stateside video release at minimum. Love Exposure From the director of Suicide Club, this one is outright bugfuck insane in places, and shifts tonally more times than I could count. I need more than a few lines to get into this, but suffice to say that it earns its runtime by continually giving you a new reason to keep watching. The Men Who Stare At Goats From what I understand, we saw an unfinished version of this film. The Jedi lines being said to Ewan McGregor are almost impossible to not laugh at. I'd buy or rent the DVD just to watch the Gag Reel of hours of mucked up lines where he and Clooney couldn't keep straight faces. Ninja Assassin I was asked by WB publicity to not write about this until opening day, which I think is hilarious on its face for a movie that's screening to the public at a festival. Once I see embargo broken all over the place, I'll add my thoughts to the throng. From what I gather, I'm neither as positive or negative on it as the majority of reviewers, who seem to have been hot or cold. I've seen a great deal more than this, but this is the limit of what I have time to post on at present. I'm seeing Private Eye a second time tonight and an Avatar preview.
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FF09: John Gholson's Day 2

Hard Revenge, Milly/Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle - Japan - Directed by Takamori Tsujimoto Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic future, weaponized cyborg Milly seeks out those who killed her baby and left her for dead. Milly is a wacko little piece of Japanese action splatstick, full of ridiculous weapons and showers of aterial spray. Of the two forty-five minute films, the first one is the best one. It flies by so fast that you barely have time to register how silly it is before it's over and done. Bloody Battle doesn't match the original's efficiency, but the last fifteen minutes are a gore-soaked fight scene that fans of this kind of thing (Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police) are going to love. Neither film are particularly artful, but both provide a cheap, high-energy, oftentimes inventive, serving of ultra-violent junk food cinema. RoboGeisha - Japan - Directed by Noboru Iguchi Synopsis: Two quarrelsome sisters are trained as cybernetic assassin geishas by an unscrupulous steel company. Iguchi, director of Machine Girl, reins in his trademark gore for this oddball superhero origin film. I'd recommend avoiding the hilariously bizarre trailer for this movie, as most of its biggest gags are revealed there. Having seen that trailer, I was a little surprised at how conventional much of RoboGeisha actually is. It's weird, but never too weird--almost on the fence about whether or not it wants to be a kids' flick. The plot is dopey, the visual effects are intentionally terrible, and much of the violent humor falls flat, and yet...there's still something endearing about RoboGeisha. It's made with enthusiasm, and sometimes that's enough to turn dumb into dumb fun. Trick 'r Treat - USA - Directed by Michael Dougherty Synopsis: All manner of monsters haunt the residents of a typical American town one Halloween night in a series of interwoven stories. You know those "haunted house" audio CD's that go on sale every October, full of wolf howls and ghostly moans? This is the cinematic equivalent of those Halloween front porch standbys. That being said, I don't think Trick 'r Treat really works as a movie. The fractured narrative is ambitious, but the continual jumping between timelines and characters quickly turned me into a passive viewer. For better or worse, it's not interested in anything other than being a constant celebration of Halloween in all its sticky candy corn glory. The decision to maintain the same level of spookiness throughout robs the film of any suspense. If any scene is threatened by not being Halloween-y enough, Dougherty jumps to whatever characters are doing something nasty, regardless of whether or not it makes any narrative sense. Trick 'r Treat is a one-note drone of costume aisle horrors, that may not always work as a film, but it'll make for one heck of a great background movie for constant play during your next Halloween bash. Doghouse - UK - Directed by Jake West Synopsis: A group of guys out for a weekend away from their women end up in a zombie nightmare, where only women are infected. I don't think Jake West and writer Dan Schaffer set out to make a misogynistic film--I think they just wanted to make a zombie movie with an alpha male sense of humor. Regardless, Doghouse has a questionable subtext through all of its comedy. The men escape the shrill women in their lives, only to try and escape another, deadlier group of women, while leveling all sorts of violence against them, all in the name of surviving to enjoy a little bit of "bloke" time. I honestly don't know if I was comfortable with the ideas simmering right under the surface of the film. It's a good thing then that Doghouse is really funny. It makes it easier to ignore my feelings of politically correct male guilt, because Doghouse entertained me. The filmmakers strip the film of any feminine perspective, placing the "bro's before ho's" philosophy right at the heart of the film, then wrapping that in sharp dialogue, funny bits of grue, and fast-paced action. Zombie fans should definitely seek it out, then decide for themselves if West and Schaffer have only accidentally opened a can of worms, or if the filmmakers meant to fly in the face of feminism.
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FF09: Explosive Merantau

Of the films I've seen at Fantastic Fest this year, none has surprised me more than Merantau, the first martial arts film to come out of Indonesia in some 15 years. I took my own advice and skipped Opening Night film Gentlemen Broncos and saw this instead. Based on immediate reactions after Broncos let out and people were shuttled over to The Highball from the Paramount Theater downtown, I didn't miss much. Merantau is a rural Indonesian rite of passage wherein youths from areas like Sumatra go into the big city (Jakarta) and must survive unaided by their family. Yuda lives a simple, quiet agrarian life in the country picking produce. He practices the Indonesian martial art discipline of Silat, which to my eye is predominantly comprised of a dance of elbows, grapples, and kicks. Yuda arrives in Jakarta and finds trouble almost immediately. His problems multiply exponentially when he meets a disadvantaged girl and her little brother, but he remains pure of heart and purpose. He eventually runs into a couple of guys who speak thickly-accented english who traffic in women. Going much further gets into plot telegraphing.

Early in the film, I realized something I hadn't really given much thought to going in: Indonesia has a predominantly Muslim population. As a result, Merantau presents one of the more genuine and positive portrayals of Islam that I've seen...since I last saw a film made by a Muslim. I find that American friends and acquaintances who are only acquainted with Christianity and tiny bit of Judaism don't realize just how similar in fundamental precepts Islam is to what they know. I've heard a number of Christian friends, moderate to hard-core evangelical, compare heroes in martial arts films to Christ to the point that they interpret the narrative as What Would Jesus Punch If He Had To? The cultural debate that could erupt from this movie would be fascinating. Merantau apparently went through a needed shave-down from its original Indonesian cut. As Twitchfilm's Todd Brown put it in his intro last Thursday night, it lost "about 27 minutes of Indonesian family drama to get to the kicking and punching more quickly." It appears to be much better for it. I was moved to slap something together quickly the evening I saw it, but I thought better of that, wanting to stew over it a bit since it was the first film of many I'd see this week. Not only has it maintained its place as one of my favorites of the festival, but it's one of the more compelling and powerful martial arts films I've seen. The oft-used comparison of martial arts is to dance, but here the choreography is so precise that it never loses you nor does it feel phony or "on wires". Quite to the contrary, it looks as if lots of stunt fighters got really, really hurt "taking a bump" for authenticity.

I watch lots of martial arts films, and this is the rare one that even non-enthusiasts will get something out of, rest assured. Even I did not expect the movie to go where it eventually did until the final half hour or so, but even then, I didn't think I'd find myself experiencing an emotional catharsis in its closing minutes. Merantau approaches patiently for much of its runtime, appearing to be a run-of-the-mill fighter-on-a-quest movie, but it then sneaks up, grabs, and throws you before you realize what's happened. It would truly be a shame if a specialty distributor doesn't pick this one up. Those still at Fantastic Fest have one more chance to see it closing Thursday at 1:45pm. It's up against Hausu (vintage Japanese insanity) and Kaifeck Murder. No offense to either of those movies, see this one instead.
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