Posted late. My apologies. I came down with something nasty yesterday after interviewing voice director Andrea Romano.
This is one of the most affecting frames in The Dark Knight Returns Part 2. Like I said to Andrea yesterday, Jim Gordon might be my favorite part of the Batman universe she has sculpted over the last 20 years.
Like the first part, released late last year, The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 looks, sounds, and plays note-perfect. I'm hoping to have voice director Andrea Romano return to Screen Time this week to discuss all things Batman with me. Things are looking positive. UPDATE: Tune in at 4:30pm CST Thursday right here.
With the distance of time, Superman's employment by President Reagan as his human WMD is funny but not entirely unrealistic or farcical.
Who cares about The Jazz Singer anymore? Does it matter, aside from its place in history, which is mostly due to being the right movie at the right time?
Isn't it just a regressive, racist, and decrepit artifact?
Yes, absolutely hell yes, and in a manner of speaking, I guess so.
Racist and offensive, but it's important to remember the sins of the past.
It's worth mentioning that loads of English comedians (Ullman, Lucas, others) still do black/brown/yellow-face characters in their sketch comedy.
These are the three most-ignored movies in Soderbergh's filmography. Every one of these movies bombed, but he would make two more commercial failures right after them. I'm glad that Hollywood used to be a version of forgiving.
From one of Ozu's masterpieces, 1932's I Was Born, But... (featured in today's new installment of Discovering Ozu).
This is from right before two little boys bring down the thunder.
This cycle of three films finds Ozu saying goodbye to making movies about small children or college kids (for the most part). We see his signature lead actor (Chishu Ryu) take on more substantive roles, in addition to the rise of a silent-era comedy star (Takeshi Sakamoto) and the big break for a legendary Japanese actress and filmmaker (Kinuyo Tanaka).
THX's new app costs $2 starting next week, and is made to turn your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch into a home theater calibration device.
What's the upside to this over the THX calibrator on various DVDs and Blu-rays? You can use the phone/tablet's camera to do color and tint calibration instead of shelling out for blue filter glasses (which aren't cheap or easy to come by).
You can calibrate video via AirPlay and an AppleTV, but to do sound you'll need Apple's iPhone/iPad to HDMI adapter: Lightning connector version, 30-pin version.
JJ "Jeffrey" Abrams is the credited co-writer on 1997's wrong-guys-caught-in-the-middle-of-something comedy Gone Fishin', which stars Joe Pesci and Danny Glover. Willie Nelson is their spiritual mentor, as he should be for everyone. This is a screen capture from the Blu-ray, which can be found almost everywhere for the princely sum of $5.
Vulture has a really great longread transcription of an interview with Steven Soderbergh, wherein you actually get some context as to his "post-cinema" career that begins after the release of Side Effects next week.
He talks about painting, the allure of television, and the major cultural transformation seen over the last 30 years or so...
...but one of the most interesting nuggets revealed is that he's working on a recut, German-dubbed (!) reworking of his 1991 movie Kafka. The movie stars Jeremy Irons as Kafka and features one of Alec Guinness' final screen performances. They apparently shot inserts during production of Side Effects for the new version of the 22-year-old movie.
Kafka isn't perfect, but it's really goddamned interesting, and I think it's a lot better than Soderbergh himself thinks it is.
The relevant segment from the interview:
Well, I’m remaking—it’s been a long process—but I’m overhauling Kafkacompletely. It’s funny—wrapping a movie 22 years later! But the rights had reverted back to me and Paul Rassam, an executive producer, and he said, “I know you were never really happy with it. Do you want to go back in and play around?” We shot some inserts while we were doing Side Effects. I’m also dubbing the whole thing into German so the accent issue goes away. And Lem and I have been working on recalibrating some of the dialogue and the storytelling. So it’s a completely different movie. The idea is to put them both out on disc. But for the most part, I’m a believer in your first impulse being the right one. And I certainly think that most of the seventies directors who have gone back in and tinkered with their movies have made them worse.
He's not erasing the original cut from existence, either, as he says above. Here's hoping for yet another great Criterionization of a Soderbergh movie. As it stands, Kafka is only on OOP laserdisc, for crying out loud.
The next proper installment of Soderberghopolis, which posts tomorrow, just so happens to include Kafka.
(Yes, I know it's "en pointe")
Criterion's first 3D Blu-ray release is the ambitious, beautiful, and deeply moving dance performance art documentary (ish) hybrid Pina, from the great Wim Wenders. One of my biggest missed-in-theatres regrets is now on my shelf. I'll have to revisit it if/when I get 3D capable equipment.
My favorite and most unique college film class experience came from taking Dance in the Movies, taught by an amazing dance historian, critic, and professor: Dr. Sally Sommer. I can't calculate how much I owe the person who introduced me to Madam Satan and so many more, especially Saura's Carmen and Jamaican sensation Dancehall Queen.
The best portrayal of Elvis ever.
About four years ago, I wrote an article that took me all night.
"I wasn't born until 1983, so I've only heard stories from friends and their parents about the summer of '77. You didn't have to be a "geek" or a "nerd" or a five year old who loves CG to go see Star Wars."
I went into work the next day without any sleep, because my wife and I were part of the first audience in North America to see the new Star Trek movie. So sue me, I liked the lens flares (and still do):
"Star Trek has never been this visually dynamic. The camera work is full of lens flares, reflections, and focus effects that really sell the atmosphere as being less steady and...overly-tidy than before. You also have a more nuts n' bolts, gaskets n' pipes styled Enterprise, where the ship feels like a labyrinthine submarine merged with an aircraft carrier. The mixture of practical and CG alien and creature effects are also fantastic, with all kinds of new stuff never seen before in the franchise in terms of design or quality."
Now JJ Abrams is apparently set to direct Star Wars: Episode 7: Revenge of a New Subtitle, and...I think he's a perfect fit.
from ITV Studios's Blu-ray of Michael Powell's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Region B only)
Rian Johnson had a dilemma yesterday. The Hive Mind tried to help. I hope this solves it for him.
This guide is written from the English-speaking, US perspective (predominantly), but its contents are generally applicable regardless of which region-locking wall you're behind. Just about everyone in Europe can just swap the UK/EU references for US and vice versa.
Did you just hear about some amazing release of a movie that's not yet available in the States? Whether a BFI or Masters of Cinema disc from the UK, or a Ghibli Collection disc with English subtitles (Region B people, think Criterion), the solutions are generally the same.
A Holmes kick gave way to finally giving a good look at Sidney Lumet's excellent film adapted from Ira Levin's Deathtrap. One of the two hardest choices I've had as a stage actor was having to turn down the role of Clifford Anderson (the Christopher Reeve part) in lieu of doing an obscure David Mamet play called The Water Engine.
Deathtrap is only available on Blu-ray thanks to the great people at Warner Archive, who have started doing limited-batch Blu-rays like this and Gypsy (1962). The Hudsucker Proxy is coming soon from them on Blu-ray as well.
Yesterday's DG posted late. I'm obsessed with this movie this week.
I'm rather certain that I at least registered that Shout Factory was putting The Seven-Per-Cent Solution on Blu-ray today. It may have subconsciously driven my posting of Holmesian editions of this feature late last week.
Three years ago, I wrote a piece (for a now-deprecated feature) wishing that the screen adaptaion of Nicholas Meyer's apocryphal Holmes novel would come back into print on DVD at least, if not Blu-ray.
Nicol Williamson (Excalibur) plays the Great Detective, Robert Duvall plays one of the best screen Watsons (not joking), Laurence Olivier is kindly math professor Moriarty, and none other than Alan Arkin plays Sigmund Freud.
The Blu-ray/DVD Combo edition runs $25 on Amazon, and includes a freshly-recorded, 20ish-minute interview with Nicholas Meyer. If you're any sort of Holmes fan, just get the thing. I found a single copy in one store in Austin, so Amazon is your best bet.
I'm writing a review to go up on Ain't It Cool. I'm thrilled that this one is back out in the world.
Peter Lorre's big English-language breakthrough role came in 1934's The Man Who Knew Too Much, which director Alfred Hitchcock later remade with James Stewart in the lead. My attachment to Peter Lorre accounts for a lot of why I prefer the original over the remake. The cold, reptilian indifference that he radiates is pure malevolent magic. I've become more and more fond of Hitch's early British work of late.
Criterion's new Blu-ray restoration is stellar, and a great example of why they do early 20th Century film restoration better than just about anyone. I'm glad to see the Restoration Demonstration extra feature come back into the fold especially (alongside about 20 minutes of Guillermo del Toro talking Hitch).
iTunes link / RSS link (for other podcatchers)
I added a blazing-fast news segment to the front end, and an equally-fast New Releases piece at the end of this episode. Let me know what you think as I continue to monkey with format.
Tom Hall has had a major impact on my creative development ever since I was in elementary school.
A nice fellow who helped set up our blazing-fast 386SX GeoWorks-brand computer put a game on it that he thought I would like. That game was Commander Keen, a platform adventure game like few others (then or since). It's available on Steam, albeit Windows-only. It's not hard to...find a way...to make all 6.5* games work on the Mac.
Tom has a big, cool new thing that he's got attached to a Kickstarter. We hoped to include that announcement in this episode, but Amazon Payments threw a wrench in our plans. That short segment of this interview will be included in next week's episode, and it'll also be posted as an After Dark attached to this episode for good measure.
*Keen Dreams really only counts as .5 of a whole game.
The second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation saw a very important addition to the crew: Commander Riker's trademark beard. This is not that beard:
I got so preoccupied recording yesterday on toip of loads of housework that I missed hitting publish on this.
In the Mood for Love is one of Criterion's best Blu-grades of last year, and is one of the specific titles that make instant fans of Wong Kar-wai. I previously featured a grab that was taken in the middle of a fade to black. This one shows off the vibrancy of the color much better.
