Release of the Week
An American Werewolf in London
Full Moon Edition (Blu-ray & DVD)
Beware the Moon [1:37:32] feature documentary
Rick Baker: I Walked With a Werewolf [7:38]
Previously-available extras: Feature Commentary with David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, Making An American Werewolf in London [5:16], An Interview with John Landis [18:20], Make-up Artist Rick Baker [11:15], Casting the Hand [11:00], Outtakes [3:08]
The previously-released supplemental materials above are almost entirely duplicated in new interviews in Beware the Moon, which one should only watch after having seen the movie. I wouldn't ordinarily make that note, but I know plenty of people playing Blu-rays out there could be seeing the movie for the first time. The Walked With a Werewolf featurette has a very limited glimpse at the recently-delayed Wolfman movie with Benicio del Toro.
As I blurbed the other day:
I wish more studios treated their top-tier catalog titles like Universal has decked-out their second dip on An American Werewolf in London. The main attraction is Beware the Moon, a 97-minute feature documentary about the making of the movie put together by fans of the film, not a studio marketing department. It was obviously shot in HD, but is SD on the Blu-ray. That's the only unfortunate thing about it. What host/director Paul Davis may lack in game show-host charm and polish he more than makes up for in thoughtful staging, structure, and balance. this doc makes the Interview with John Landis and various other extras from the previous DVD & HD-DVD redundant for the most part. The movie looks like a fresh, grainy 35mm print from 1981 and the sound is top notch. Amazon has the Blu-ray for $16.99, and it's better than the vast majority of catalog upgrades out there.
New Release
Firth is a better dancer than he gives himself credit for.
Easy Virtue (Blu-ray & DVD)
Feature Commentary by director Stephan Elliott & write Sheridan Jones
Blooper Reel [8:47]
4 Deleted Scenes [4:48]
NY Premiere featurette [6:09]
I reviewed this one a few days ago. A couple thoughts from that writeup:
"Easy Virtue is about English society heir John Whitaker (Ben Barnes) bringing a feminist, independent wife named Larita (Jessica Biel) home to meet his parents (Firth and Kristen Scott-Thomas). Noel Coward's sociological comedy is rather enjoyable as it lives on the printed page, but it is much more fun in filmed form thanks to the talents of Firth and the always sublime Scott-Thomas. Barnes and Biel do good work in the parts they're given. Of the two of them, Biel outperformed my expectations most.
"If there's one most unsung performance from what I've read by others, it's that of the absolutely marvelous Katherine Parkinson as John's sister Marion, who's infatuated with an imaginary fiance. Parkinson is one of the stars of my beloved The I.T. Crowd that plays on Britain's Channel 4 and is most easily found on DVD or Netflix Watch Instantly in the USA."
Trumbo (DVD only)
Paul Giamatti reads another letter written by Trumbo [4:45]
Danny Glover (not in the final cut at all) reading a letter written by Trumbo [3:39]
Trumbo is about more than just left versus right or American versus Communist, just as the Blacklist itself was. I'm trimming a longer piece on this for posting before Fantastic Fest obliterates my schedule this weekend.
Triangle (DVD only)
The Making of Triangle [6:15]
Behind the Scenes [13:31]
I forgot to mention a couple days ago that this is yet another Magnet title that defaults to an ear-splittingly bad English dub track by default. From my Sunday review:
"The lazy comparison I've seen made to Triangle is Grindhouse, which is only similar to this movie in that it features famous directors teaming up. In just that respect, they're quite different, since instead of separate features, Hong Kong kings Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Johnnie To directed a single act (in the order listed) of a single "heist gone wrong" picture.
"As for the movie, it's solid stuff thanks to the three acts feeling about as cohesive as they would in a film directed by only one of these guys. It gets a bit muddled toward the middle, but the third act saves it. I intentionally avoided poking around to see who directed which part so that I wasn't watching it thinking "ah, how very To" or "Ringo you aesthetic mad genius, how I love you," but I still kinda picked up on who did what in the opening minutes of sections 1 and 2. I don't expect that to be the same for people who aren't into the work these guys do. For those who do, I should note that there's a nice nod in Ringo's act back to Tarantino, who was inspired by City on Fire when writing Reservoir Dogs.
"I enjoy the approaches of the three directors and I relish a good heist movie, so I was quite happy and at home here. Plot threads go unresolved or dropped in places, but save one instance of attempted vehicular homicide approaching Amnesia Bullets levels of implausibility, Triangle never remotely approaches laughable territory."
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Blu-ray & DVD)
Commentaries: (1) Director Gavin Hood, (2) Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter
Featurettes: The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation with X-Men creators Stan Lee and Len Wein, Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins
Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director Gavin Hood
Alternate Scenes: Memory Erase Sequence, Tag Scene: Japan
Blu-ray Exclusives: "Wolverine Weapon X Mutant Files Featurette: 10 Character Chronicles, "The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Chase Sequence", "X Connect and On Set With Gavin Hood", X-Facts Trivia Track, Fox Movie Channel Presents: World Premiere
BD-Live Exclusive: IMDb Live Lookup (requires internet-connected player)
The best thing about this release is the Live Lookup BD-Live feature, which is actually useful. It live-checks IMDb over the player's internet connection for biographical info and credits for people in the movie, many of whom are emerging stars not unlike Hugh Jackman on the heels of the first X-Men movie. I'm amazed it's taken this long for this to be available on Blu-ray titles. Before long, I should hope that this is as much a standard feature as Chapter Selections.
I didn't go see Wolverine just as I didn't see a number of other summer tentpoles (like Transformers 2...never watched the first either). From the rumors surrounding the script's insistence on cramming every licensable character imaginable into one less-than-smooth story to the dreadful word of mouth that followed The Big Leak of 2009, I had little interest in making time for this. I've read comics for years, and I couldn't care less about a movie centering on Wolverine. After finally sitting through the damn thing on Monday, I can easily say I wish that I hadn't.
The only thing terribly stimulating for me was thinking of Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" when the image of Weapon XI came around. There was no relation to the actual story of Ellison's, mind you, but simply a connection between the imagery and that title. Good actors and directors and crews can only do good work when given good ingredients. That being said, no one cares what I think and I'm not actively trying to tell anyone that I know mindless, badly-staged action any better than the next guy. What I am saying however is that this could have been much, much better. I'd really like the sequel to make this one disappear from memory.
Grace (Blu-ray & DVD)
Part of an exclusive pre-release date deal where Best Buy was selling this and Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz for $20 a pop, Grace is the odd one out that I'm not terribly interested in.
Catalog New to Blu
Hero (also on DVD)
Digital Copy
Featurettes: Close-up of a Fight Scene, Inside the Action: A Conversation With Quentin Tarantino & Jet Li, "Hero Defined" Making-of
Storyboards
Soundtrack Spot
One of my most anticipated titles of the week has not disappointed in the least. This goes right on the Chinese martial arts Blu-ray shelf next to Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Dagger, and Curse of the Golden Flower. I can finally retire my Hong kong import DVD I bought two years before Miramax released this movie stateside. The Close-Up of a Fight Scene extra is new. Hero and the other three Kung Fu titles below are available separately and in a 4-Blu box set for $74.99 ($30 for Hero on its own).
Iron Monkey
Donnie Yen Interview
Quentin Tarantino Interview
The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi
Exclusive Interviews with Crew
Behind the Scenes
These are both blugrades of their previous editions. The picture and sound is fantastic on both. Iron Monkey is $25.99 on its own from Amazon, as is Zatoichi.
The Legend of Drunken Master (Jui kuen II)
English Dub Audio ONLY
Behind the Master: An Interview with Jackie Chan
This is actually Drunken Master 2, and the same disapppointing shortcoming of the DVD is on this disc: the original Cantonese audio track isn't even optional, it's nowhere to be found. I was hoping this would be fixed, given this opportunity. Oh well, maybe next time. The featurette is again carried over from DVD.
Army of Darkness Screwhead Edition
Creating the Deadites [21:26]
Alternate Ending [4:39]
Theatrical Trailer
The transfer is great. The sound is booming and clear. The problem here is that this is far from a definitive HD version of a title that I own around four versions of on DVD. The fact there aren't more extras on this thing is borderline hilarious to me. The video transfer is so good that I can make out dust & dirt on the lens and in the frame. The Creating the Deadites featurette is new and just fine by me, but other than that, all you have is an ending and a trailer that might look great in HD, but does nothing to make up for missing documentaries and commentary tracks. What a goddamn shame.
The Hannibal Lecter Collection:
Manhunter
The Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal
The first movie and the sequel are new to Blu, but Demme's masterwork is a reissue of the existing Blu-ray. Silence of the Lambs retains the same extras from its prior Blu-ray release, but Manhunter and Hannibal are both completely barebones even though previous DVD extras are out there.
Misery
Child's Play
These two titles are part of a trend that I'd like to see stop. They both include DVD copies of the movie (the most recent SE's presumably), but the Blu-rays are movie-only. Are studios saving bitrate on the Blus by leaving the extras that were never going to be higher than SD quality out, or are they building obsolescence into "first gen" Blu-ray discs? The latter is sure what it looks like to me at this point. The odd thing is, this "no extras" Blu thing didn't happen on Spaceballs, also an MGM title released by Fox Home Entertainment....
Wrong Turn
Wrong Turn 2
Van Helsing
...and mysteriously these three don't need a separate DVD for all the extras (yes, I know that Helsing is Universal, not Fox). The picture and sound upgrades on all three are noticeable. There's not a whole lot to say other than that.
Catalog Repackage/Reissue
I Am Cuba Ultimate Edition
Spanish and Russian Soundtracks
The Siberian Mammoth feature documentary
Film About Mikhail Kalatozov feature documentary
Long Interview with Martin Scorsese
Interview with co-author Yevgeney Yevtushenko
Original American trailer
Collectible Booklet
Long out of print in the US, Mikhail Kalatozov's anti-Batista film was re-released by Milestone Films last week in a deluxe three-disc DVD set complete with a cigar box-style case and piles of extras. It's $35.96 on their website versus $44.95 at Amazon. I'm not sure if shipping and sales tax could bring the prices closer to parity, but I'd go with getting it from Milestone if only because there's a disgustingly long wait time from Bezos-Mart. I hope to review this one during or after Fantastic Fest, depending upon when I can secure a copy.
The Wes Craven Horror Collection (DVD only)
The Serpent and The Rainbow
Shocker
The People Under the Stairs
This is a pretty solid deal at $15 on Amazon, which breaks out to $5 each. There's also a $5 Candy Coupon inside the case. Isn't that nearly what it cost to rent movies at Blockbuster? Wow, what a difference!
John Carpenter Master of Fear (DVD only)
The Thing
Prince of Darkness
Village of the Damned
They Live
This is an even better deal than the Wes Craven set, with four movies for $15 at Amazon and the same $5 Candy Coupon inside. I'm not a sugar junkie, I just like the seasonal Reese's Pumpkins, so sue me.
Disc Roundup is posted each week at some point, depending on how many discs I have to get through. If you think I've missed something, feel free to send me an email at the name of this column at gmail dot com.