Electric Shadow

"I'm Botoxicus!"

I wish I hadn't been disappointed with Universal's Blu-ray of Spartacus from the opening frame, but this one is a burn. The opening shot contains so much edge enhancement that I honestly thought I was watching a DVD. I'm still rather shocked that Spartacus turned out this badly.

 


What was so bad about white letters over black? Did they need to make this key art for the opening bit of the Overture?

 

There's so much visible de-graining that it's like Universal added a "botoxify" button to the machines that do their masters. The Blu-ray horror show I'd compare it to the most is Fox's Patton, which suffers from similar digital plastic surgery. There's a shot here and there that looks...all right I suppose, but this is a movie that should transfix you on this format, not make you squint or shrink back.

Robert A. Harris, who supervised a very expensive restoration a couple of decades ago, weighed in with his thoughts a few days ago. I agree with him on every point, especially that this rush-job does considerable damage to the brand and reputation of the Blu-ray format. Set aside the fact that as with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and others, Universal chose not to license the extras created by the Criterion Collection for their DVD edition. Anyone with the Spartacus Criterion DVD should keep it. Forget about this release completely, since it really has nothing of note to offer.

Remarkably, DVD Beaver gives this release a pass in spite of the consistently redder-than-it-should-be color palette and other glaring issues. Yes, the audio is improved, and yes, the picture is better in some respects in some places, but overall this is a burn, baby, burn from scene one.

I Have No Time, But I Must Screen (Vol. 4)

 


Escape from L.A. is drastically inferior to Escape from New York, but the surfing bit is funnier than most "comedies" released so far this year. I'm on the record despising actors speaking in accented-English, when they should be speaking Russian, or German, or something else that requires subtitles. I dismissed K-19: The Widowmaker out of hand for that very reason, not knowing at the time that Kathryn Bigelow directed it. I liked her work before she was winning Oscars. I admit I didn't catch up with it until the Blu-ray arrived. Carlito's Way and Dune look fantastic, with little to no visible artifacts or evidence of excessive digital noise reduction.

 

 


Sixteen years ago,Tony Stark using a suitcase to become Iron Man wasn't nearly as cool as it is in this year's Iron Man 2. The 1994 Iron Man animated series was nuts from the first episode, incorporating most of the character's rogue gallery immediately (including the much less scary Whiplash/Backlash from the comics). Considerable thesp James Avery voiced James "Rhodey" Rhodes, which was pretty distracting on its own, considering his direct association to playing patriarch Phillip Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Stark himself is played by Robert Hays (Ted Striker in Airplane!). The complete series hit DVD on three discs a couple of weeks ago. The final two-disc set of the 90's X-Men series arrived on the same day, and includes an episode guest-starring Captain America. When people complain about comic book adaptations not being "true to the comic", I wish I had a series like this for every property so that I could say "there it is. What you're talking about only works as a cartoon."

 

Complicated Naptime

I didn't dislike It's Complicated for the reason various male critics have: they dismissed it as "older lady wish-fulfillment fantasy". Substitute some nouns and adjectives and that descriptor applies to the best films of Federico Fellini. I'm not saying Nancy Meyers is a female Fellini, just pointing to the flaw in a hypocritical, sexist argument that I see far too often.

There were bits I had fun with, that reminded me of the Shymeyers golden era movies like Father of the Bride duology (which I still enjoy), but they were painfully few and far between. I stayed awake thanks specifically to Streep, Baldwin, and Martin, with a side of John Krasinski. The best thing it's got going is Streep and Martin doing pot. Well, there's that and every time Baldwin opens his mouth. He works wonders with uncomplicated brutes.

The Blu-ray includes a commentary track with writer/director Nancy Meyers and a 20-minute featurette that is nothing more than EPK fluff. Everyone seems to have loved working with everyone, and by the way: everyone was fabulous.

Paramount Officially Recalls Private Ryan

As reported here yesterday by way of The Digital Bits, there's an audio synch issue with all Saving Private Ryan Blu-rays currently in the wild. Today, Paramount issued an official recall posted at The 'Bits. Apparently, the issue is related to a mastering error at "valuable partner" Technicolor prior to mass duplication.

People who already have discs in hand can follow these replacement instructions from at The 'Bits (where you can read the rest of it):

"Technicolor has set up the following toll-free numbers for consumers who have already purchased the Saving Private Ryan Sapphire Series Blu-ray, which provides details on how they can receive a replacement copy -- US and Canada: 888-370-8621, UK: 08000-852-613. Consumers can also return the Blu-ray to the stores where they purchased the product to receive a replacement. Technicolor expects to have replacement discs available at retail no later than Tuesday, May 18."

Digital Bits Editor Bill Hunt (scholar, gentleman, and good guy) has confirmed that the "fixed discs" will have yellow UPC labels.

Paging Night Nurse

The original Alamo Drafthouse folks throw any event, whether large or small, better than anyone else. Take the ordinary, and they can make it kind of a big deal with seemingly no effort.

 

Take a Flying Leap

Why the hell did my wife and I watch Leap Year? Morbid curiosity? We shut off the cable and wondered if it could be worse than most of that crap that we watched? In the interest of familiarity, it follows Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, and Louis Vuitton The Suitcase on an impossibly long journey across Ireland so that Anna (Adams) can propose to her boyfriend on Leap Day (an old Irish folk tradition). I won't argue the coincidental nature of a dashing ruffian Irish chef happening to be available as a taxi driver in the tiny village Anna finds herself in. You throw out coincidences, and you throw out most movies, since that literally describes crossing of paths. I will argue that this movie was composed to be a perfect fit as a Lifetime Saturday Matinee. Transitions even quick-fade to black like a commercial is about to pop up. The poster, marketing, and everything is aimed at American women of some Irish descent who identify as "Irish", are obsessed with Cladegh rings, are probably Catholic (lapsed or not), and obsessed with nuclear family values. The three stars make the most they can of the material (admittedly not much),including "Louis" the suitcase. I hope they got a big fat pile of money from Louis Vuitton for product placement, since the repeated brand-dropping is more prevalent than a believable plot or characters to speak of. The Blu-ray tellingly only includes seven minutes of deleted scenes in the extras. The movie bombed hard, and on top of that, everyone involved seemed to be fully cognizant that they were in MadLibs: The Movie (Romantic Comedy Edition!). And, SPOILER ALERT: They spoil the end of the movie in the photos on the back of the case and the clips in the menu, and on top of that, when Anna walked up to a cliff at the end, I kind of hoped she would jump and make the movie somehow memorable rather than execrable.
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House Party 2.5

Just after the release of House Party 2 and a couple of years before House Party 3, Kid N' Play teamed up for Class Act, a Prince and the Pauper descendant by way of Trading Places. Kid plays a poindextery nerd, and Play is a delinquent. They both transfer to the same school, and oh snap, their records and photos get switched! File this one under remakes that don't wouldn't work in the Information Age.

Best-known for her role as Hilary on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Karyn Parsons (seated, left) has the movie's most-quoted line, "Let's make bacon!"
One of the things Class Act does better than many, many movies is that the game show-style academic competition show sequence is blissfully short. The cast is an interesting mix, from Rhea Perlman to Pauly Shore to Doug E. Doug to Meshach Taylor (Hollywood Montrose from Mannequin). There's a brief appearance from the wonderful Loretta Devine. I'd forgotten that one of my college theatre professors, Tony Simotes (now Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Co.) appears briefly as well. Class Act is early 90's, sub-100 minute comedy at its most typical. It's a waste of time to some, but has nostalgic value to many of us.

Madames et Monsieurs...The Wiez
Warner Archive will have Class Act available for sale starting 18 May at this link.
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Criterion Collected: Fixing Up Stagecoach (#516)

In the opening minutes of Stagecoach, Gatewood (the banker) pronounces "what's good for the banks is good for the country!". That moment underscores one of the qualities that makes Stagecoach forever young and fresh: populist social commentary.

Screencap from DVD Beaver's writeup.
Many now cite other movies like My Darling Clementine as their favorite from John Ford. They dismiss Stagecoach as nothing more than a "popular success" and party to an Orson Welles soundbite. I think my collegiate preference for Clementine came from listening to too many academics instead of my gut. In the years since, Stagecoach and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance have come about even with one another. I'd be curious to ask folks who turn their noses up at Stagecoach how recently they've revisited it. I've watched it three or four times since receiving my advance copy, and I'm not a guy who has a ton of free time to re-watch things. Even though it hasn't always been my favorite Ford, it has always been my favorite picture featuring John Wayne.

The handsome packaging on Criterion's Stagecoach (25th May) reminds you of the difference between things you own and things you borrow. I love that they incorporated one of Yakima Canutt's most iconic stunts into the cover art. You don't get a good appreciation for the subtle design flourishes in the cover and packaging in photos, it's something you need to see in person.
It bears mentioning that, contrary to popular belief, he's not really the star. It made him a star, but Claire Trevor is the headliner and the center of the story. I enjoy correcting people who tell me they love the part where Wayne jumps from horse to horse, and I tell them it's actually a European immigrant named Yakima Canutt (but I'll get to him later). Nine people are on a trip from point A to point B on a stagecoach, with Apaches in between. The plot is simple, and thanks to that simplicity, stereotypes rise above their typical implementations. You get enough archetypical characters in one place, and they start to resemble the real world to most viewers. That accessibility is why Stagecoach is credited as catapulting the western into being the juggernaut genre of the next decade or so after its release. Regarding the picture restoration, I'm not going to reprint all of my thoughts from the preview piece that I ran a couple of weeks ago. Instead, I'm going to respond to the concerns Jeff raised recently in response to Gary Tooze's DVD Beaver piece by selectively pulling from one graph of my article and elaborating. In Jeff's piece, he raises concerns about the amount of grain in the image, the fact that they left picture damage in, and that Tooze calls the mono soundtrack "flat". From me: "The dolly shot of Wayne is still blown out, but that's how it looked originally (shot over-lit on a soundstage). There are still some frames that feature some damage, but without inventing wholly missing data, there's nothing else to be done. One shot notably features a black mark dead in the center of the frame for a few seconds, but I presume that there were no suitable elements that contained that portion of the picture intact, so Criterion wisely left well enough alone." I wrote this before I had a copy of the booklet, which details the restoration thusly: "Stagecoach is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. For the DVD edition, the picture has been slightly windowboxed to ensure that the maximum image is visible on all monitors. "The original negative for Stagecoach has been considered lost for decades. For this edition, we evaluated several of the best surviving prints, both restored and original, before we found a 1942 nitrate duplicate negative that showed exceptional detail, gray scale, and clarity. We chose it as the primary source for this new high-definition digital transfer, created on a Spirit 2K Datacine, because we believed it was the best surviving film material of Stagecoach. For safety, a new 35 mm fine-grain positive was made from the negative as a preservation." This is why Tooze notes "different" damage between this and the previous Warner Bros. DVD. Mystery solved, so take Encyclopedia Brown off the case. Glenn Kenny and I park our Grain Monk bicycles at the same abbey. "Inevitably, certain defects remain. The picture suffered from thousands of instances of blended-in scratches and debris, especially around reel changes and in action sequences. In cases where the damage was not fixable without leaving traces of our restoration work, we elected to leave the original damage. Through hundreds of hours of restoration work, we've manually removed the worst of the damage, along with dirt, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker, using..." So yes, they left some damage in because to "correct" it would leave digital fingerprints and smudge marks that would not inspire the latest Jeff meme, "angel erections" from the movie's director. My incredulous disagreement with Jeff's rant the other day comes from knowing that the Masters of Cinema disc of City Girl benefits from dramatically better condition of available elements, including the original negative. By extension, his argument also would contend that all movies of previous eras were shot on the exact same quality of stock with the same DP and the same lighting rigs and conditions. As for his crack about the sound, the audio track is single channel Mono, but as clean and crisp as could be throughout. I wouldn't want some "extrapolated" 5.1 or 2.0 track on this or any Mono movie. This is the extent to which I'll cramp my fingers arguing against an indefensible, sight-unseen "guess-essment". One last thing, though: if you don't like grain and want some digitally smoothed-out botoxified picture, you should go back to DVD and forget Blu-ray exists. The essay in the booklet is written by the extremely knowledgeable David Cairns, who no less than Irish screenwriter Graham Linehan (Father Ted, The I.T. Crowd) touts in a quote on Cairns' website. Cairns does a brilliant job of encapsulating the lasting value of Stagecoach.

The book also includes the short story "Stage to Lordsburg", which inspired the film.
The commentary track by author Jim Kitses (Horizons West) proposes some interesting hypotheses and makes some compelling arguments in favor of Stagecoach's worthiness as a classic of its genre and cinema in general. Especially notable are his sound points regarding allegations of racism against Ford here, which I agree are largely baseless. The inclusion of the once-lost Ford silent Bucking Broadway (1917) is nice, complete with a new score written and performed by Donald Sosin. I don't really plan to re-watch it much, but it's a good historical antecedent to the New Western that Stagecoach was. I should hope future Criterion silent westerns (hope hope) make use of Sosin for new scoring. One of the most satisfying parts of the package is an hour-plus 1968 interview with Ford conducted by British TV presenter Philip Jenkinson. Ford just lets Jenkinson have it with every ounce of snark and acerbic wit he can spew. The 15-minute interview with Peter Bogdanovich plays as a nice complementary piece to the Ford chat in that it's almost wholly concerned with how Bogdanovich broke through Ford's shell. The appreciation featurettes of both Yakima Canutt and trader Harry Goulding are the kinds of things you only find in the Criterion Collection. Goulding was the guy who brought Ford out to Monument Valley, the place that would be Ford's cinematic stomping grounds for some time to come. Canutt is the spiritual father of all modern stuntmen, and performed the big stunts in the film: the horse-jumping one for Wayne and the Apache going under the stage, both during the big chase sequence. Yakima Canutt deserves his own biopic, but failing that, the short featurette on this disc suffices in highlighting his significant contributions to stunt work and film in general. Tag Gallagher contributes another of his wonderful video essays, examining Ford visual approach and choices. Gallagher's essays are mini-workshops on framing, lighting, and focus: how and why they did what.

Amazon is offering Stagecoach for pre-order at $29.49. The Criterion Store lists it at a firm $31.96.
Criterion's release of Stagecoach is the finest overall presentation of a western available on Blu-ray. The restored transfer and absolute feast of supplemental material have set a new standard for the respect that should be paid to classic westerns on disc. As I said in my tease to this article, I hope this means that we'll see Criterion take on more of them, since they really know how to put the shine back into an old, appreciated, but neglected saddle.
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Remembering Ryan (and 1998)

The night before I watched Saving Private Ryan on Blu-ray, Shakespeare in Love was on one of the various movie channels. The cable service we're cutting off in a few days has caused me to unintentionally be suckered into re-watching all kinds of things that I haven't seen in years. The last time I watched Ryan was 2002 or 2003, but all throughout college, I was subjected to the "Ryan v. Shakespeare" Best Picture argument over and over. I preferred Elizabeth and The Thin Red Line to both, personally.

Contrary to Jeff's accuracy arguments dashed off of the top of his head last week, the biggest "true to life" failings were the prominent officer marking on Hanks' helmet, all the talking they did in the Normandy bit while ostensibly sneaking around, and that our group of heroes are in Wave One, of which there were basically no survivors. The video transfer on Ryan is stellar, as with other Sapphire Series titles (excepting Gladiator, which is being re-released later this year). It's a gigantic improvement over the muddy (by comparison) DVD transfer. The biggest improvement is in the contrast levels, where less is hidden in unintended murky shadows. The hint of color in skin that could be seen in theatrical prints has returned in the new HD transfer. The color palette was always desaturated, but the DVD turned everyone into a pale vampire. As reported by The Digital Bits today, there is an audio sync issue that's now been acknowledged by the studio. It's not your player, it's the disc. My copy was affected by this and I held my review because I couldn't ascertain if it was my player, a concentrated issue, more widespread, or something else. The issue affects any and all discs currently out there, and Amazon has temporarily pulled it from active sale. Retail stores are following suit. The good news is that there is going to be a disc replacement program put into place ASAP. This is a shame, since the video transfer is one of the top modern film Blu-ray transfers of the year thus far. The Blu-ray extras are wholly repurposed from the D-Day 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition released in 2004. They still omit the 20-minute featurette from the original 1998 DVD release, but it was un-memorable enough that I've completely forgotten it by now. I'm very happy they cleaned up and re-transferred the theatrical and re-release trailers, but they're the only extras in HD. The fact the extras are on a Blu-ray disc would be great if they were in HD, but the ported featurettes are all SD.
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Authentic Ass-Kicking

I like Defendor a great deal more than Kick Ass. Woody Harrelson's Arthur Poppington is the genuine article good samaritan against sane judgment. Only part of my relative preference is due to Defendor sticking with a world of realistic physics rather than setting that up and then eschewing it as Kick Ass does. That isn't to say that I disliked Kick Ass.

The thing is that KA falls into the wish fulfillment subset that never see the stakes raised. I never felt that the hero wouldn't emerge triumphant, not for a moment. Come to think of it, that's how I felt about the army of drone bots in Iron Man 2. Everything in KA lives in a heightened reality: the physics, the motivations, all of it. I liked it within the rules it set up and bent, I did, but there was no suspense to the whole endeavor (and that isn't because I read the comic...I didn't). Defendor is more of a success in the respect of it being a compelling "regular guy becomes a vigilante and gets his ass kicked a lot" story. I didn't really give a shit about the hero of Kick Ass after a point. I was much more interested in the complexity of Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Harrelson's Arthur/Defendor never lost me for a moment. Maybe I loved this because the bad guy's name is Captain Industry. Maybe I just dug Harrelson's "Bale Batman Voice". Maybe it was the WWI trench club, or maybe it was the well-intentioned, gentle texture that is missing from so many comic book heroes. The other guys were all painted with the same broad-shouldered brush in the 60's and 70's, and that's the reason so many comic movies have a homogenized plot, hero, and structure. Kat Dennings and Elias Koteas are both also in top form. Dennings I'd only seen in House Bunny and Shorts previously, but here she actually has something to work with. Netflix it, RedBox it, rent or buy Defendor in whatever flavor you prefer. This is "comic book hero" cinema that enriches the field rather than simply retread things with a glossy CG sheen. It's yet another triumph for Harrelson, and a credit to all involved. Sony released it last month, and Amazon has it for $21.49, and I'd classify it a safe blind buy if you're the type. The DVD includes deleted scenes, outtakes, a bundle of featurettes, and a commentary track with Harrelson, Dennings, the producer, and the writer/director. This was a great discovery for me.
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Disc Roundup (Movies & TV) 11 May

The Disc Roundup is making a comeback, as I want to trim down my overall number of posts, but localize disc coverage and at once make the content more substantive. Standalone reviews and little bits will still pop through, but only as time and merit dictate. Assume that all titles are Blu-ray and DVD unless otherwise noted.

Release of the Week - Catalog New to Blu (tie) M (The Criterion Collection) I'm crowning this title sight-unseen based on recent track record of Criterion's B&W releases. All supplements from the DVD reissue are present along with the English language version, once thought to be lost. Rock N Roll High School (The Roger Corman Collection) Shout! Factory is kicking off their Roger Corman Collection with one of his highest-profile and most beloved movies. Shout! has informed me that a copy is in the mail to me, so I'll follow up once I've had my eyes on it.

Release of the Week - Catalog TV Daria: The Complete Series They had to replace some music due to music rights complications (the plague of many an MTV property). I haven't received a copy yet, but a friend and major Daria devotee assures me that it's every bit as satisfying as MTV's The State collection from last year. Release of the Week - Movies New Release Daybreakers The Speirig Brothers are among the genre filmmakers out there that really know what they're doing. I was shut out of a Fantastic Fest press screening of this movie that I had put on my schedule and was told I was clear for. I was given the thumbs down by the flack at the door, because I hadn't "signed up to do an interview with talent". I said, "fine, I'd love to, I just didn't think I would have time to talk with them and didn't want to abruptly no-show or cancel on you." To that, I got a "sorry, we're all full" from the rep who obviously didn't understand the definition of the word "publicity". Being fully cognizant of how little influence I have as just one guy, I didn't kill myself to get into the public Closing Night screening (which was sold out anyway). I also missed it in first run because there was too much going on at the time. I trusted in the Speirigs putting together something worth watching, and figured that I'd just wait for DVD/Blu. Aside from the eleven million trailers in-between popping in the disc and the main menu, the disc is nicely put together. Extras include commentary with the directors and Steven Boyle (creature designer), a printed note from the directors in the case (a rarity these days), a feature-length Making of Daybreakers doc, Speirig Bros. short The Big Picture, picture-inpicture animatics and storyboards during the feature, and the requisite digital copy. A nice package overall, complimenting a worthy new entry into the vampire genre. [Note: future DR installments will feature more mini-reviews like this]
From Hammer Films' Sword of Sherwood Forest
Release of the Week - Catalog Movie New to Disc Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946) Prince of Thieves (1948) Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950) Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) Sony put together four of the 52 film incarnations of Robin Hood in concert with the Ridley Scott-ified version of the legend premiering at Cannes this week. I'll have a screencap-laden spread on these titles tomorrow. Movie New Releases Edge of Darkness I dearly love the original miniseries starring Bob Peck, which Warner put out last year. I didn't catch this one in first run, and plan on spinning it in the coming days. North Face (DVD only) Legend of the Tsunami Warrior Tidal Wave Malice in Wonderland (DVD only) Magnolia & Magnet have this trio of curiosities out today. Tsunami Warrior and Tidal Wave are South Asian titles that interest me, but I'm just aware of their existence. Into the rental queue they go. Legion This is worthy of skipping according to friends. I can't see making the time, myself. Catalog New to Blu The Karate Kid Collection (The Karate Kid I & II) I have a healthy amount of nostalgia attached to these movies, as I re-watched them many, many times on VHS as a kid. The AV transfers are solid, and it recreates the theatrical experience as best as I'd gather is possible. All previous extras from the most recent DVD editions are preserved. Added for Blu-ray is a fact/trivia track. I'll have more to say relative to these movies and the upcoming Chan-headlined remake. The Edge Mamet, Baldwin, Hopkins, and Bart the Bear: a wonderful combination. I haven't gotten my hands on this disc, though I was told I'd have it by now. Such are the troubles associated with moving and being of a million different comp lists. The Magnificent Seven Collection (The Magnificent Seven, Return of the Magnificent Seven, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, The Magnificent Seven Ride!) I've only seen the first two in the series, but have to say I'm tremendously impressed with MGM/Fox Home Video putting them all out in HD simultaneously. I haven't managed to get my hands on this yet, so I can't speak to the transfer quality on them. They're westerns, so I'll end up tracking the box down sooner or later. Hang 'Em High Ditto for this one: gotta have it as both a solid Eastwood-headlined western and as an enjoyable revenge movie. The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) I have no interest in revisiting this, one of the big stunt casting bores of the 90's. Marked For Death (1990) These are Seagal's finest 94 minutes. Reissue/Repackaging Kid With the Golden Arm (1980) The original US DVD edition of this was apparently taped off of a TV screen. This has to be some sort of improvement, right? Robin Hood: Men in Tights History of the World Part 1 High Anxiety Blu-rays of these all came out as part of the Mel Brooks Collection. Now you can get them separately. The box set comes out cheaper per disc if you want all the movies in it. Catalog Movies New to Disc One Deadly Summer (L'ete Meurtrier [1983]) "French movie arrives on Region 1 DVD for the first time": a headline not often written. The Cantinflas Collection El Circo El Senor Fotografo El Gendarme Desconocido El Mago Si Yo Fuera Diputado A Volar Joven Los Tres Mosqueteros The "Mexican Chaplin" Cantinflas' movies have been available on extremely poor quality bootlegs in the US for years, but Sony has finally released them properly. I haven't been able to look at these discs in advance, but I've not seen a terrible DVD or Blu mastering job by Sony in years. More titles will come to their Cantinflas series this summer. TV New Releases Raising the Bar Season 2 Catalog TV The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Season 5 I'm prepping a short Will Smith then and now bit for tomorrow (emphasis on short). Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk thirtysomething Season 3
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Natural, Simple Elegance

Barry Levinson's The Natural is one of the finest movies about baseball (or any sport for that matter). I watched it for the first time on VHS or cable (I forget which) at a friend's house as a kid. We played on the same team. Until I got to college, I didn't re-watch it, but once I grabbed the DVD secondhand, I watched it every couple of months for a year, alternating with Field of Dreams. That classic rounding of the bases is how reflecting on the best memories feels.

Roberts Redford and Duvall are both wonderful, as is the rest of the cast. Sony's new Blu-ray from a few weeks ago is the typical bang-up AV transfer. The only thing missing from previous DVD editions is the director's cut, which this release borrows its cover art from (rather confusingly). The big pile of featurettes are nice and all, but the movie is all I really feel like I need here. This reminded me of how I have no need for commentary tracks on Spielberg flicks (and tons of other movies, honestly). Redford was recently quoted saying he doesn't care about extras at all, and even though I wouldn't go that far...I get where he's coming from. If I could have a gorgeous transfer of the movie, the theatrical trailer (missing here...what gives, Sony?), and no forced ads or trailers, I'd start happy. Not everything needs a "disc two". On the merit of the transfer alone, I've added this to my list as one of the best discs of the year thus far. I'll be serving up a Discs of the Year 2010 Thus Far piece as soon as I've got it solid (likely just in time for the weekend).
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The Sooth of Tooth

It's astounding that The Tooth Fairy manages to so precisely feel like a late-80's, early-90's Schwarzenegger concept comedy down to the line readings. I should mention that star Dwayne Johnson is many times more likable and believable than Das Governor would have been at any age.

I found enjoyment in the amount of practical effects they employed (an endangered species!), and for most viewers, the movie is exactly as good or bad as the trailer indicates. You might hate it for being crassly commercial and elementary, or love it for this. There is no deeper hidden meaning, unless, perhaps, you watch it as half-inebriated as I was yesterday. If you think about it, the storyline encourages the myths of the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus constructs on the surface, but is more directly reinforcing theological belief systems. That's a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you are, but it's the kind of thing that didn't wear age well relative to movies I enjoyed as a kid. The movie is dated, and the script seems largely unchanged from when it was pitched as a Schwarzenegger vehicle. The casual sexism inherent in the girlfriend character (Ashley Judd) is 90's chick stereotyping at its best. She endures no end of betrayals of trust and plenty of evidence of cheating, but she always sticks by her man like a good victim! Likewise, her kids are the un-complex, easy to please kids that were how all children were homogenized in the 90's. Only the use of the word "emo" dates one kid as post-millenial. Substitute a pager for a Blackberry and poof, instant 90's. The extras include behind the scenes featurettes that are surprisingly informative and not snore-inducing. It's been a while since one of these broad audience, kid-friendly movies has managed something like this, and I have a feeling it's thanks to director Michael Lembeck's insistence that they show off the solid effects work. Yes, Lembeck directed both Santa Clause sequels and Connie & Carla, but the supplemental stuff adds a layer of respectability to the guy. The Gag Reel is basically a waste with the exception of a bit with Johson and Stephen Merchant oogling a blurred-out nude centerfold of Ashley Judd, which made me laugh so hard I coughed up a lung. Tooth Fairy hit the street this past Tuesday.
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Merlin Begins

NBC has recently started airing the BBC's Merlin, which tells the story of the mythic legend from the point he arrived in the kingdom of King-to-be Arthur's dad Uther Pendragon's kingdom. I'm not terribly fond of the semi-modern schoolyard bullies and nerds take, but it's better than US TV, which features barely any fantasy adventure content at all. The major standout among the cast is Anthony Head as Uther. The pace does pick up as the first season goes on, but it didn't pick up nearly as fast as the three-year-old Robin Hood show did, but such is the nature of what they're going for here.

The first season hit DVD in a five-disc set. The fifth disc contains all of the extras save the audio commentary, which is spread across the rest of the set. The two-part Behind the Magic (two half hours) is rather thorough. The video diaries and the 15-minute Black Knight episode featurette are nothing particularly special. Amazon's got it for $34.99.
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Son of Edison, Son of Tesla

This is one of those reviews that I intentionally hold until day of release since I know my posting it won't wield any sort of influence on whether anyone sees the movie or not. What I'm interested in is the conversation that has developed since people started seeing it. Iron Man 2, much like its protagonist, is put-upon with the responsibility of catering to a larger world and much higher expectations than its freshman go.

The audience from the Fan Screening in Austin last week.
The movie's pace shifts into lower gear in the middle of the movie under the burden of fleshing out new characters and developing more storylines than the first film had to deal with. After the sequence in Monaco, we suddenly jump from a fast-burning to a slow-buring fuse. Once the third act ignition kicks in, however, we burn yet faster than before. The movie opens with Mickey Rourke's Ivan Vanko caring for his ailing father while watching Tony Stark on TV declaring that he is Iron Man. The fathers of Vanko and Stark are set up with a Thomas Edison-Nikola Tesla rivalry dynamic, and Ivan emerges as a morally justified post-Cold War villain. As same-same as superhero movies have become, the texturing that Favreau insists upon in the Iron Man movies deserves a great deal of credit. The methodical pace of the middle of the picture mirrors the journey and process of Vanko, the villain (or is he? is it instead Howard Stark?). Vanko patiently hones his blade of attack on his own schedule. Tony isn't aware of him for a significant amount of the movie's running time. Tony focuses on the doom brewing in his chest rather than the slow-cooking hell waiting for the right moment to burst open. The movie primarily deals with variations on the theme of being overwhelmed by one's own potential. Those leveling the expectations, tone, and nature of other franchises on this followup are committing the same error of judgment as anyone who holds a new sci-fi sequel up against The Empire Strikes Back. It's a comparative analysis inherently flawed by the odds being stacked impossibly against the movie in question. There's no good reason that Iron Man 2 should try to or pretend to be the "Dark Knight" of Iron Man movies, in nature or impact. The only mission IM2 is beholden to is continuing the story begun in the first film and remaining engaging, something I found it did quite well in spite of the abrupt change in pacing. Those who have already complained that this is "more of the same" should ask themselves if The Dark Knight suffers from being "more of the same" as compared to Batman Begins. What do these people want, Iron Man on Roller Skates? Iron Man in King Arthur's Court? Iron Man Trains a Dragon in 3D? I smell various sites inventing stories out of how Iron Man 2 "underperforms" in various ways come Monday. Shy of the movie making five bucks, there's no way in hell this movie will "underperform". The fat that could have been trimmed, according to others, lies in riffing that only truly wore out its welcome for me a couple of times. According to Favreau, Downey's style of acting is such that he hates repeating take after take". To wholesale throw it all out would eliminate the tone they established in the first film, which had its share of off-the-cuff takes too. If you get rid of all the marbling in a cut of meat, you're ditching the flavor. All these reviews that talk about whole scenes dedicated to Thor and Captain America references are inaccurate. I counted three. Yes, it runs long in places, and we feel it. The reason we do is that expectations have been raised so high that God himself couldn't surmount them. The gigantic pleasant surprise that was the first movie couldn't hope to be duplicated in emotion or sense of elevation. Where Iron Man 2 succeeds is in being a coherent, faithful next step in expanding the universe of the first film. The movie's primary storyline is firmly entrenched in how the U.S. government goes about checking and balancing Iron Man, the most advanced weapon in the world. The scenes that involve government agents (Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and others) are in service of this. Are there reference to The Avengers? Yes, of course there are, but they're minor at best to anyone outside of fans of the comic and aren't gratuitous since they're there in service of the story. To say they're irrelevant is to say "if I wrote my version of this script, it would go thus and so and include this superhero they should have used". The fanboy question that has been asked to death since the synopsis of the movie got out is "why didn't they do the Demon in a Bottle story from the comics?" For those who have no idea what that is, Demon was a story run of Iron Man that dealt with Stark's alcoholism, and it went really dark. It went darker-than-Dark Knight dark. It's considered the quintessential Iron Man storyline of any era. In interviews, Jon Favreau has referred to it as "Leaving Las Vegas territory". A guy wearing an Iron Man t-shirt asked Favreau at the Austin Fan Screening post-show Q&A why they didn't do "Demon in a Bottle". The funny thing is, they did incorporate a lot of "Demon", including a mix of booze and the suit with Stark in a public setting. The biggest roadblock Paramount set in their own path was cutting a trailer that touches on the best moments in every single action sequence. This sets people up to expect "boom, BOom, BOOM!" for the entire running time. Were audiences going in expecting more talkiness, I think the popular response wouldn't be peppered with the sigh-prefaced "it was o-k" that's started spreading.
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Greenlight Impossible: Oil Spill! directed by "Irwin Allen"

On Twitter today, I responded to a tweet from Indiewire's Eric Kohn, wherein he noted that today is the birthday of the following people: Orson Welles, George Clooney, Gabby Sidibe, Max Ophuls, and Sigmund Freud. I proposed the idea of these individuals possibly making up the best cast that could be imagined for an Irwin Allen-style 70's disaster movie (complete with exclamation mark). Thanks to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I have a perfect plot to be ripped from the headlines. I decided to waste some time writing about how I would envision Oil Spill! as made today. The expected major impediment to using all the listed people is, of course, that Welles, Freud, and Ophuls are long-dead. I've figured out a creative way around that that doesn't strain credibility any more than the idea for this piece (and potential series). Here's my spoiler-heavy summary of this will-never-be movie: Crisis hits the U.S. Gulf Coast region when a British Petroleum oil rig sinks and spills hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil. A luxury ocean liner based out of Cancun is stranded in the middle of the spill, with the world's great scientific minds onboard for a conference on renewable energy. Among a couple of thousand people are wunderkind chemical engineer/single mom Sandy Nichols (Gabby Sidibe) and Richard "Dick" McLanahan (George Clooney), the "drill baby drill" former oil man who is now President of the United States. The President was due to give a keynote speech on the viability of fossil fuels just minutes after the oil rig goes down. Making things worse, the oil around them ignites, creating a giant ring of flames. Further crisis strikes when food poisoning levels all the most brilliant minds in the world along with most of the crew. Among the few who didn't eat the fish at lunch are Sandy, President McLanahan, Michael Bay (playing himself and onboard for no apparent reason), and the expressionist filmmaker husband of the German chancellor (Inglourious Basterds' Sylvester Groth, who would look like Max Ophuls if bald). While searching the ship for a means of escape, they find a Colombian smuggler named Paco (Luis Guzman) watching over a cryogenic chamber in the cargo hold. Inside is none other than Sigmund Freud (Christian McKay as Orson Welles as Freud). During a very forced conversation full of questionable science, we discover that the oil spill can be contained through a controlled series of explosions. Bay interjects with "so what you're saying is...we've got to blow up the Gulf of Mexico. [pause] Mr. President, yes we Mexi-can." The problem is, they don't have the necessary explosives or air support to deliver the boom-boom in time to save everyone on the ship. Bay makes an offhanded reference to The President having been a former National Guardsman who flew a helicopter during the invasion of Panama (Clooney wears age makeup and plays older, roll with me here), but that's of no use until... They discover that there are both a massive smuggled shipment of C4 and a helicopter on the ship. President McLanahan starts having a panic attack. He hasn't flown since Panama due to his daughter and wife dying in a private jet crash. They have no choice but to unfreeze Freud, who is the only one who can get The President's head right in time to save everyone. Freud goes through a "so this is the future" discovery/awakening montage as they move the C4 from the bottom of the ship to the top. In a freak accident, Paco and Michael Bay are blown up when Bay rests a lighted cigarette too close to their bundle of C4 just as he says "fuck Titanic" while arguing with Paco about James Cameron's talent relative to Bay's. The resulting explosion blows a hole in the side of the ship, which begins to capsize and break in half at the same time. "Fuck Titanic" indeed. It's a race against physics for The President, Sandy, the German filmmaker, and Freud to get to the chopper in time. They finally get to the helipad, narrowly escaping electrical fires and the Bengal Tigers that Bay brought on board with him. It's a two-person chopper. The Germans sacrifice themselves valiantly at the last minute by pushing the helicopter off its moorings and staying on the ship. Insert gigantic megaton explosion and fish fry joke. After saving...not much of anyone but himself and the female lead, The President marries Sandy, symbolizing post-racial, post-body image America in one fell swoop. We close at a press conference with the Prime Minister of Great Britain (Stephen Fry) denouncing the President for blowing up/killing the greatest scientific minds of the world, since a rescue was on the way. The President declares war on Great Britain, citing a needed regime change. Cut to black, roll credits against AC/DC's "T.N.T.", with the first being a pseudonymous "An Irwin Allen II Film" credit for Roland Emmerich. This whole thing has been cooked up in less than an hour, but how much more ridiculous is it than sending oil drillers into space to save us from an asteroid?
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Flicka the Fifth

Flicka 2, which hits Walmart shelves exclusively today (4 May), is actually the fifth movie in the Flicka series, so I think a little recounting of that history should come first. The urge to groan about this being a DTV sequel to the remake of a 60+ year-old movie needs to be mitigated a bit. This is not remotely as bizarre an idea for a DVD-only sequel as is Marley and Me: The Terrible Twos (which is coming out soon).

Country legend Clint Black (l.) and Patrick Warburton (r.) in Flicka 2
The original My Friend Flicka, from 1943, featured a young boy with an out-of-place English accent (played by Roddy McDowell), whereas the do-over starred a post-adolescent, sassy young woman played by Alison Lohman. In both films, the spirit of a wild mustang inspires a young person to find focus and purpose in life. It's a theme often handled (badly) by The Hallmark Channel. I've always loved westerns, but since marrying an honest-to-goodness, barrel-racing cowgirl, I've watched enough plain ol' "horse people movies" to make most people sick. The original and the remake are tolerable and actually quite touching in places if you've ever had a connection to companion animal of any sort. The Flicka series was into sequels and rebooting over a half century before the 2006 remake happened. My Friend Flicka did very well financially, and two years later was followed by Thunderhead - Son of Flicka (1945). The sequel picked up with the same boy (again played by McDowell), now training the foal of his beloved Flicka to be a champion racehorse. It was shot in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah (a beauty to behold), and is notable for being the first American film shot completely on color 35mm negative. Three years later, Green Grass of Wyoming was cobbled together with a different actor playing the McDowell role in the same continuity. Thunderhead [COURTESY SPOILER ALERT] is causing headaches for ranchers by leading their brood mares off to join his mustang herd in the wild [END SPOILER]. GGoW was nominated for the Oscar for Best Color Cinematography, but didn't win. Fox released a three-movie slimpack set of the original Flicka trilogy a few years ago, which is now available from Amazon for $26.99. Ashley and I watched the three of them a couple of years ago, and they don't age so well as you go through them, but they're worth it if you dig Cinema du Cheval (Cinema of the Horse in my version of French). So, sequelization and brand exploitation are nothing new to the world of Flicka. Frankly, I'd rather the studios revive 60-year-old horse franchises than invent franchises out of board games. That doesn't change the fact that Flicka 2 is no better than the very best of cable TV movies. It isn't particularly compelling, nor is it horrible like the Zac Efron-starring The Derby Stallion. It simply "is" in a bland, inoffensive, and uncontroversial way. Flicka 2 takes place in the same continuity as the 2006 movie, but with a completely new cast of characters. Tammin Sursok (The Young and the Restless) plays Carrie, the skateboarding city girl cousin of the first movie's heroine. Her mom ditched Hank (Patrick Warburton) 17 years ago and high-tailed it for Pittsburgh when he got her pregnant. Carrie has been living with her grandmother since her mom died, and when grandma goes senile, Carrie is sent off to her dad's horse ranch in Wyoming. Carrie is captivated by the same mustang named Flicka, who now lives on Hank's ranch since the girl from the first movie went off to veterinary school. It bears mentioning that Flicka, who is supposed to be a mustang, is played in the film by an Arabian horse. With the exception of some dodgy digital photography here and there, the movie looks good. Sursok spent a couple of weeks learning to ride, according to one of the featurettes, and she is believable only in that her character isn't supposed to be a very proficient rider in the first place. She continues the tradition of 27-year-olds playing teenagers with aplomb. Warburton is the real standout here, getting to do something other than situation comedy for once (not that he doesn't earn a few laughs). When I caught his name on the press release I said, "why hasn't anyone used this guy in a western yet?" He's built and born for it. Warburton gets whatever "there" there is to be gotten here. The emotional undercurrent is all his, and without him, the movie would be just another husk. I wish we got to see him do work that really took advantage of his full range. Clint Black is in here as an incentive to buy for the target audience, but he's actually pretty damn agreeable. The supporting cast are mostly forgettable, especially the "cowboy" Carrie falls for. He's country-as-can-be until he gets a guitar in his hand and starts singing in John Mayer mode. Michael Damian (yes, the soap actor and singer) makes this his second "horse movie" after the Don Johnson-starring Moondance Alexander. He even sings on the soundtrack. I'm really sorry that his name immediately brings two things to mind: a Patton Oswalt comedy routine and his less-than-stellar turn in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He's got a solid gig going here, and I can say his horsey flicks are much better than the sea of others in the same vein. Regardless, I wish people were making good movies involving horses. I miss The West.
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I Have No Time, But I Must Screen (Vol. 3): In Spaaace


Ah, Apollo 13. The picture and audio are substantive upgrades over DVD, with minor edge enhancement and noise in places. There aren't any new extras to speak of, with the exception of some "U-Control" bits. If you love the movie, it's a very worthy upgrade ($16.99 at Amazon). Screencap from DVD Beaver's piece.

As much-praised as Apollo 13 is (and rightfully so, I think), to be honest, I'll probably end up re-watching Armageddon more often. Screencaps taken from DVD Beaver's as-always wonderful writeup. Am I ashamed that I don't hate Armageddon with every fiber of my being? No, not at all. I relish the ridiculousness of the whole thing. I do actively dislike Michael Bay for his portrayal of modern-day Cuba as not unlike the capitalist paradise of Miami in Bad Boys II. I hate Leni Riefenstahl and D.W. Griffith, but I still marvel at the craft of their propaganda. Bay's thrust as a progangadist is rooted in the commercial sheen of, as Trey Parker and Matt Stone put it, "America, FUCK YEAH". Watching this in light of the recent catastrophic (and getting worse) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is rather off-putting, not unlike the 2012 DVD hitting rather close to the Chilean earthquake. Where are our miracle genius oil drillers?

The Armageddon transfer is absolutely stellar, and it should be, since they had to create a new negative from other existing elements since the original was apparently destroyed in a fire (no loss to most). The Criterion 2-disc DVD edition is the one with all the goodies, so hang on to it. Disney would have been wise to license everything for use on this release (a bit much at $19.99 on Amazon).
When I need to convey some thoughts about a few DVD or Blu-ray releases but don't have time nor you the need of 1000 words of filler, I compile thoughts in these entries. The title of I Have No Time, But I Must Screen is shamelessly adapted from the great Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, a wonderful collection of fiction that I consider one of my favorites. Amazon offers it in Analog Paper format for just under $11.
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Preach

Warner Premiere's Preacher's Kid (this Tuesday, 4 May) is an interesting look inside gospel theater and African American churchgoing culture for those unfamiliar with either. Unlike most faith-based features, it eschews an overly-simplistic, reverent-to-a-fault tone toward "the church life". This is despite the fact that the movie was clearly heavily-influenced by the parable of the Prodigal Son. I'm not certain the behind the scenes story of gospel theater has been told at all until now, and PK does it quite well indeed.

PK stars LeToya Luckett as Angie, the titular 21-year-old Preacher's Kid who lives at home to take care of her preacher dad after her mother's death. She has the voice of an angel and is devoted to her religion, but the Great Temptation of show business draws her away from the safety of home. Luckett was one of the original members of Destiny's Child who was unceremoniously dumped from the group by Beyonce's dad-manager. A touring gospel theater show called Daddy Can I Come Back Home? comes to town and the bad boy star gets his hooks into her. The name of and nature of the show-within-the-show is a bit on the nose, but if anything, the movie stands fine on its own for its primary audience (black gospel churchgoers) just as much as it is an accessible look at this culture to outsiders. Then again, who knows if white folk will dare pick this up in the video store, preferring instead to queue it through the anonymity of Netflix.

I'm not black, nor was I a regular churchgoer in my youth, but I had a lot of exposure to this world when I was younger. I don't share the abject hatred of Tyler Perry films like the sea of pale-skinned male movie bloggers that overwhelm the press sections at screenings across the country. The corrupted-by-showbiz story in movies is as old as talkies, and this is a really solid reworking of the theme. What will probably surprise white people more than the sheer number of black people on screen is the amount of physical and psychological violence perpetrated on the heroine by the man who injects a healthy amount of Stockholm Syndrome into his relationship with Angie.

I was glad to find Gregalan Williams in PK as Angie's preacher pop and likewise Ella Joyce as the enthusiastic church patron with more than a passing romantic interest in the widower preacher. Williams does a great deal of TV work and appeared briefly in Olver Stone's W. as an evangelical preacher. Joyce is best remembered by the geek set as the Nurse with the cream in Bubba Ho-Tep. She's a woefully under-used actress with loads of talent, and like Williams, I wish we got to see more of her.

The entire supporting cast is very strong and convincing. It's not often that someone credited as a character named "Biscuit" steals the show, but Carlos Davis really knocks it out of the park as the bus driver who takes on the role of a Madea-alike auntie in the show. He really makes the most of every minute he's given. In all seriousness, I would gladly watch an 85-minute feature about the long-suffering Biscuit the Bus Driver. I would watch this guy headline anything, he's overfull with charisma. The sense of exaggeration and intentional self-parody found in gospel theater only extends to the drama of the movie in a limited sense, with respect to the show-within-the-show echoing Angie's journey. Of course, jumping to the other side of the racial divide, how much did that hurt Moulin Rouge? Even with a plot template that has been re-used more than the Hero With a Thousand Faces "warrior-quest" story theorized by Joseph Campbell, Preacher's Kid manages to stand out. The energy and sense of jubilation existent in black churches is quite simply unparalleled, and PK taps this energy effectively and accessibly. If you aren't into this kind of story, then you're not into what this movie has to offer, plain and simple. Racial identification and religious similarity aren't required, I should note. The protagonist is who she is, but people with other beliefs and motivations are judged by the filmmaker only in their selfish versus selfless interests. The Blu-ray includes four featurettes and some additional footage, with a DVD/Digital Copy disc as well. The DVD-only edition has the additional footage and that's it. The Blu-ray is a bit steep at $26.99 over on Amazon.
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"Send More Chuck Berry"

I took a chance on an email I got from a publicist and asked for a review copy of a music doc called The Heart is a Drum Machine sight-unseen. I did this on the credit of the participation of Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips), Elijah Wood, Kurt Loder, and George Clinton, among various others.

The movie is a talking head meditation on the nature of music: what it is, where it comes from, and where it's going. It's really well-edited in context with what it's going for, but it's not for everyone. You get into people expounding philosophically about the work of Carl Sagan. You have to be able to get the vibe and just let its 73 minutes roll. It's pretty goddamned groovy, honestly. No, you don't have to be high to dig it (I wasn't), but I'm sure there are some who would say you do. Hell, some of the people who appear probably were high, who knows. A gigantic bonus is Tea Party wingnut Victoria Jackson singing a song about how she was worried that going to see a movie with Weird Al Yankovic during the filming of UHF would be a sin (she was married at the time). A cover of "Rocket Man" done by The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd (who did the doc's score) and Tool's Maynard James Keenan runs over the credits. I wish it were available for purchase. It's available for order from Amazon for $16.99. Extras include a 25-minute interview with John Frusciante, who is best known as the guitarist for The Red Hot Chili Peppers on their biggest studio records.
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