DVD Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (3-Disc Collector's Edition)

Arriving on Disney
DVD & Blu-ray 12/2/08

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Perhaps in an attempt to soothe our optimistic anxiety of the promises which were to greet us just outside the school doors before any given Fall, Winter, Spring, or Summer break, it became a tradition in my K-12 public school system for teachers to entertain us with movies. Renting those awkward and clunky TV/VCR combination carts from the Audio Visual Department that took our poor instructors twenty-five minutes to get working as their foreheads crinkled with each audible sigh and exasperated remark from the technologically savvy observations of my classmates who suggested plugging in the cord or changing the channel to "Video Three," we never knew just what would be screened for our viewing pleasure.

Of course-- anything being preferable to fractions and fill-in-the-bubble with a number two pencil tests-- we didn't much care if it was the inspiring sports films favored by gym teachers like Hoosiers, those from the child-friendly oeuvre of John Hughes or Steven Spielberg or the newest videotape from Walt Disney Home Studios Entertainment. However, there was one exception to the rule-- at least in the eye of this viewer, a budding critic who already received her name on the board (the one and only time) for expressing dismay at a particular classic in the second grade. Specifically, this was when without fail, every year we were force fed the old school version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Memories of the creepy White Witch, that smug little kid so easily manipulated and willing to gorge himself on a nasty diet of British delicacies like Turkish Delight (which still sounds like something you'd reject as a meal in the Coach section of any major airline) and the continual frustration of only being able to watch the beginning over and over and over again made me dread Narnia like the dentist. Never one for fantasy and someone who had trouble staying awake through the first Lord of the Rings-- it was only after a graduate level course focusing on Harry Potter that I began to appreciate the nuances of the genre and how much J.K. Rowling "borrowed from authors" of the past whether it was Tolkien, Lewis, Dahl and many, many others.

And likewise, once Disney and Walden Media got involved with the Lewis's Narnia-- trying to carve out a slice of the veritable science fiction/fantasy movie box office ATM that dished out so much money with LOTR and Potter, I became fascinated to try and get reacquainted with the storyline despite mixed reviews. And finally when I began hearing the raves about the thematically different and more action packed sequel Prince Caspian, I knew I needed to check it out.

While admittedly, the first film caused numerous yawns throughout despite a wickedly brilliant turn by Oscar winner Tilda Swinton as the White Witch, Prince Caspian simply astounds as one of those rare sequels that far surpasses the original. Yes, still annoyingly it's overly long in places as we're dished out a Disney-light take of Lewis's penchant for Christian dogma. However, the benefit of this particular version is that it ramped up the action and made the look of the film so much more international that instead of getting that claustrophobic, limited, and lily-white view of Aslan the lion and the White Witch, we're able to take the subtext of having faith as staying true to yourself or your imagination-- a very Disney principle of wishing on that famous star.

Although my interest was piqued by Caspian (which was definitely helped by posters of its frankly dishy twenty-something swashbuckling lead sporting Johnny Depp styled hair and model ready cheekbones), the one-two punch leveled by Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man and Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones knocked it off the block completely. Crashing and burning not quite as badly as Speed Racer which revved onto DVD and Blu-ray a mere four months after its initial release, the incredible DVD and Blu-ray marketers at Team Disney pulled out all the stops with a stunning variety of releases for Caspian.

While of course those who've already experienced their Blu-ray line know about the Disney BD-Live feature, DVD owners are in for quite a treat as well with this 3-Disc Collector's Edition, which includes the feature film transferred in its original widescreen aspect ratio on the first disc which also includes filmmaker commentary as well as a second overflowing special features disc but a third one which boasts viewers the option to download the film as a Disney File Digital Copy which allows you to travel along with Narnia on your iPod and other portable devices.

Serving up a much darker, action packed, and adventurous Arthurian Knights of the Round Table styled adventure, we're introduced to our hero the Prince Caspian (Stardust's Ben Barnes) who is set-up for assassination by his evil uncle (brilliant Italian actor Sergio Castellitto). When he makes his way to the wooded forest and sounds the call for help, the Pevensie foursome from the original are transported from London to Narnia once again, only to discover a world where the magic and its eccentric inhabitants have been subjugated by the Telmarines.

Offering Susan (Anna Popplewell) the chance to play a warrior like princess-- er, Queen-- the group initially explores the remarkably picturesque landscape only to answer the call from Royal Duty to kick-butt duty a bit too readily, stepping in to help the people of their land without blinking an eye. The first beneficiary of their assistance is the always welcome Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent, Find Me Guilty, Elf) as a Ben Folds-like "one angry dwarf" or as Queen Lucy (Georgie Henley) refers to him-- their new "dear little friend."

While unfortunately, Caspian seems to foreshadow that my two favorite Pevensie children-- Susan and High King Peter (William Moseley)-- both far less irksome than the whiny Edmond or pious Lucy will probably be relegated to the sidelines if the next sequel (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) is made, at least we're able to relish in their great turns in this film. Although, it does take nearly a full hour for the Pevensie quartet and Prince Caspian to cross paths.

Making up for the building plot with some tremendously astounding action sequences-- the storming of the castle at night is a particular highlight-- and are breathtaking landscapes-- the DVD's sound is phenomenal whether it's played via a receiver or on a stereo television as each and every hoofbeat and flap of a wing is heard. However, while the picture quality-- especially the mind-boggling CGI we learn more about in the Previsualization portion of a Disc 2 featurette-- is incredible, the film is best viewed on the largest screen you have access to and in the darkest room as it's predominantly dark gray, black, brown and night filled landscape and color scheme makes for some tricky viewing that would perhaps benefit from HD, Blu-ray, or from playing with your sharpness option on the remote.

Again offering a superlative number of extras on the second disc that displays the extraordinary amount of talent involved (the film's final credits-- featuring the beautiful closing song "The Call" by Regina Spektor and many other tracks-- runs over ten minutes), Disney delivers more than just run-of-the-mill promotional material.

Although its menu uses a font and text color that's incredibly faint and hard to read (light gray on a foggy, cloudy background), viewers are invited "Behind the Magic" for first-person accounts from cast-mates, the co-writer and director Andrew Adamson, the many members of the effects team, wardrobe, location scouts and more. Leading off the disc with a roughly thirty-five minute "Return to Adventure..." mini-documentary, the charismatic director and producers discuss the many, many obstacles of making the first movie along with essentially getting the same incredible band back together of those who'd stayed available to work on the sequel, as we witness the tremendously complicated shoot which involved eight to twelve hundred people on any given day with numerous departments working in tandem on different aspects. From nightly "tick checks" in risky locations and chronicling the globe, touring the sets with a relative of C.S. Lewis, and checking out the video game like Previsualtion and pre-editing of those amazing fight sequences, we're led into numerous creative enterprises as the movie began to take shape but one of the best featurettes by far, was "Big Movie Comes to a Small Town."

Clocking in at around twenty-three minutes-- yet filled with historical facts, poetic beauty and subtlety--Andrew Adamson introduces us to the residents of Bovec, Slovenia along with the emerald green river Soca, which he found to be the most spectacular river in the world. Filled with interviews with residents in subtitles, the filmmakers discuss the obstacles facing them in working in such a small historically significant town with the exceedingly well-protected water before going further back into history tying in some heartbreaking events from World War I and also managing to work in Hemingway's Farewell to Arms. A featurette of remarkable beauty and a highly welcome one that goes against the grain of required bloopers and interviews, it's these little touches that crop up surprisingly throughout the well-packed second disc that make it well worth exploring.

Although it was the winner of the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award, I must admit that despite its bloodless battles, the incredibly audacious action sequences and emphasis on flying arrows and dueling swords make it a film richly deserving and even pushing its PG rating to the limit. Yet Prince Caspian is a remarkable fantasy picture, in lieu of its trying 149 running time, that would've benefited from more than twenty minutes of trimming. However, this being said, it works effectively even for those who-- like me were a bit Narnia shy given the yawn-inducing Lion, Witch and Wardrobe-- or for those unacquainted with the work of C.S. Lewis. Releasing just in time for the holidays and no doubt in time for teachers to begin trying to bring it in before winter break-- hopefully they've come a long way since the days of the squeaky cart and blinking clock so kids will get a chance to fully delve into the wonder of Narnia adventure and away from those pesky fractions.

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(Watch Part 1: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe)

Sangre de Mi Sangre (2007)

Arriving on DVD on 12/2/08

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Alternate Titles:
Padre Nuestro; Blood of My Blood

Whether it's journeying to a new land or returning from battle-- ultimately, you are who you say you are. Although it's a frequent topic on the evening news-- the term "identity theft," is fairly new and seems to call up images of online tricksters, mailbox raiders, and those seeking to impersonate you to score loots of prized booty like evil, amoral, technological pirates. Yet stemming back to books like The Count of Monte Cristo, to films like Sommersby and even modern day television series like Mad Men which are both set in the past, the irresistible idea that one can-- like hitting reset on a video game-- start over and become someone new has always existed.

Of course, it's much better in fiction and when one nobody is hurt in the process but in the case of writer/director Christopher Zalla's directorial debut Sangre de Mi Sangre, he raises the stakes doubly when the fake and real characters confront each other and also when he blends identity theft with the hot-button issue of illegal immigration. Obviously, on the surface, the two seem to be strange bedfellows but Zalla's plot set-up is ingenious and heartrendingly dramatic. It gives off a literary vibe by taking a rudimentary and gritty approach to the blending of the two instead of relying on cyber crime and a band of thieves with master's degrees in Internet Technology and Computer Information Systems who are unable to find work in this economy (hmm... perhaps that will be his follow up project).

Despite an overly clunky screenplay that often requires so much suspension of disbelief that we're forced to check any sense of logic at the door right from the opening few minutes, the film-- which earned the top Grand Jury Prize at Robert Redford's 2007 Sundance Film Festival-- works well at an essentially human level.

Centering on two young men who meet when both make the more than 2,000 mile journey from Mexico to New York City with the aid of a crooked border patrol employee and trucker, we're quickly introduced to Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espinodola) and Juan (Armando Hernandez) as instantly recognizable cinematic types.

The poor penniless, illiterate peasant Pedro, who recently buried his mother is traveling with the improbable yet optimistically grandiose hope of meeting the man who fathered him, who-- incidentally-- is unaware of his existence. Bearing only a letter of introduction written by his mother before her death, which he's obediently kept sealed and is unwilling or able to read, he bonds with the scheming Juan, whom we first see fleeing an angry group (of possibly those he's wronged) in his homeland before he hitches a ride on the Border Patrol Express.

While we're forced to overlook a few inconsistencies right off the bat involving the truck's proximity to the border, the decision to accept riders who don't have the correct fee, etcetera-- mainly Zalla pushes us past the more cerebral level of thinking by taking us straight into John Steinbeck meets Woody Guthrie territory. Instead of riding the rails, these young men are riding the truck into a country where they stay in the shadows, alluding authorities, and scrape to get by any way they can from sewing pieces of fabric together to make cloth flowers, to working in a kitchen, or trying to hustle on the streets.

Shortly after the two share their story-- or more precisely, the lonely and trusting Pedro hopes for a friend he'll know in New York-- we cut to a brutal reality as Pedro wakes up and is forced out of the truck, briefly beaten by the driver when he initially refuses to leave as he discovers that not only have all the other riders vanished including Juan but his letter has as well.

It seems that the ruthless and cunning, street-smart Juan has decided to look up Pedro's father, Deigo (Jesus Ochoa) himself, managing to locate him with very little trouble due to an address on the letter which-- just to sell the story and gain the confidence of the father as a budding "con" man-- he's read cover to cover.

Although the gruff restaurant kitchen worker Diego is extremely hesitant and unwilling to accept Juan (a.k.a. the "fake Pedro") at first, soon he takes the boy in as Juan does his damndest to scour the man's apartment looking for a rumored hidden stash of money that he's allegedly hording.

Meanwhile, Pedro doesn't fare nearly as well-- with no English, without his backpack, and with pockets full of lint instead of change-- the only thing he has of value is a gold locket bearing family photos which he's promptly swindled out of by a street smart, drug addicted, hooker named Magda (Paola Mendoza).

In a series of increasingly hard to believe scenarios, soon Magda joins the guileless Pedro on his impossible Don Quixote like quest to find his father whom he believes to be wealthy and prominent. Of course, on one level, you realize that Magda is simply-- much like Juan-- in it for the possible money, but the sudden change from Oliver Twist to Nancy Drew to the cliched "Hooker with a Heart of Gold" is much less fascinating than the dynamic between Juan and Diego.

While of course, you can't have the identity theft story without showing both sides of the crime-- namely, both the thief and the victim-- in Sangre, while our hearts are with Pedro throughout, his plot-line seems far less compelling or truthful and there are a few instances involving the prostitution angle (including a rape) that simply feel as though they were worked in to shock us into accepting their dynamic.

Yet, intriguingly-- although it isn't revealed until a bravura confrontation between Juan and Diego near the end of the film as the contents of the letter and circumstances of Pedro's past life in Mexico are finally revealed-- that the Magda and Pedro line finally makes sense. Of course, then again, Diego's comment early on in disgust to his "fake" son that when he'd first come to America, he'd had nothing mirrors Pedro's situation completely.

Thus in Sangre, the back and forth shots between both storylines endlessly remind us of the film's title in translation "Blood of My Blood," but I wonder if it would've been a bit more effective structurally if more of the familial history was hinted at earlier. And likewise, while I'm sure it plays infinitely better on a second viewing (which I'd recommend), to the typical filmgoer, two screenings shouldn't be required for a movie that doesn't fall into the "whodunnit" genre or M. Night Shyamalan territory.

And while the Greek tragedy elements exist as soon as Ochoa (most recently cast in Bond's Quantum of Solace) is first seen onscreen, they aren't fully served up until its riveting third act. In the end, it's the characterizations that draw us in-- despite a far too brief, rushed, and unsatisfactory confrontation and conclusion. For eventually this time in the end, it's the audience-- instead of simply Pedro-- who feels like we've been victimized not just by the scheming Juan but also by a slightly manipulative script from Zalla.

Despite this, otherwise Sangre is a riveting and affecting work that takes a decidedly different look at illegal immigration through the initial and disturbingly problematic thesis of-- in a new land and without documentation-- you are who you say you are whether it's Don Draper, Jack Somersby, The Count of Monte Cristo or a boy named Pedro.

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TV on DVD: Spin City -- The Complete First Season

Now Available on DVD

Much like the equally creatively lauded hit Sports Night-- Spin City was one of those '90s sitcoms I completely missed out on during their initial run. Never one to jump into a series without knowing the complete back-story, including the pilot-- just like I can't watch a film if even a second has played before I walk in-- I was thrilled to learn that the good folks at Shout! Factory were premiering the first entire season of Spin on DVD this November.

Appropriately debuting on election day, Spin City reunites America's beloved Alex P. Keaton-- er, I mean Michael J. Fox-- with his Family Ties creator and executive producer Gary David Goldberg. This time we find him playing a character that seems much looser, fresh and quintessentially Michael J. Fox-like. In other words, instead of a young man masquerading as a grown up, Fox takes on the role of a grown up, whom, due to his career in the realm of politics, must often masquerade as a young man.

Hilarious and sharply written by its talented writers including co-creator Bill Lawrence who in the '00s would craft his own brand of workplace humor with the Peabody award winning hit Scrubs (moving curiously from NBC this year to ABC which also housed Spin), Fox is matched by his many verbal sparring partners in the form of season one cast-mates Carla Gugino, Barry Bostwick, Richard Kind, Alan Ruck, Michael Boatman, Connie Britton, and Alexander Chaplin.

Fittingly starring as Mike, Fox plays the New York City Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty, who, truth be told, seems to be the one running everything-- the mayor behind the mayor, if you will-- pulling the strings and trying to avoid disaster at every turn. Although on the surface Barry Bostwick's Randall Winston is the guy with the title and his face on the evening news, Fox's Mike-- a "human handshake" as one city councilwoman memorably refers to him-- is his constant filter as the well-intentioned but often hopelessly clueless Winston makes faux pas after faux pas, leaving others offended in his wake of unintentional mixed messages and gaffes.

After he replies to an invitation to join in the gay pride parade with the retort, "Are you drunk?" in the pilot, gay activists are rightfully up in arms but Mike cleverly recruits one of its leaders, the successful and brilliant, gay African-American Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman) as head of minority affairs.

While his life at the office leaves little time for his girlfriend Ashley (Carla Gugino), given an instantly unlikable role as the toughest adversarial reporter in the press room who sends the mayor's Press Secretary and frequent scene stealer Paul Lassiter (Richard Kind) into a panicked frenzy, midway through the first season the clunky writing of that subplot was fixed when the otherwise incredibly talented Gugino parted ways with the show.

An overwhelming boys club with one sole major female cast member-- the hilarious, tough talking Nikki (Connie Britton) who unknowingly drives every male coworker around her wild-- the show thrives at its best when it deals with the inter-workings of the office and the countless hurdles the staff needs to jump in any given day.

A terrific example of the show firing on all creative cylinders can be witnessed in this clip in one of the season's funniest offerings "Dog Day Afternoon" which finds Mike scrambling to make up for the mayor's accidental insult towards the law enforcement community by staging a funeral for a heroic police dog... only to have his two staffers, Carter and the sexist Assistant Deputy Mayor Stuart (Alan Ruck) lose the animal on the way.

And while-- much like News Radio and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, we're quick to realize that the dysfunctional group, which also includes the sweet-natured, optimistic speechwriter James (Alexander Chaplin) who's hopelessly in love with Nikki serve as a terrific alternate "family" to the tired slew of endless dysfunctional family programs like the mean-spirited hits Everybody Loves Raymond and The King of Queens, we also realize that, unlike those shows, just how loyal these characters are to one another.

Especially apparent in another season one standout, "Kiss Me, Stupid," which finds everyone's Valentine's Day plans going horribly, horribly wrong as Mike is forced to pretend to be Carter's new boyfriend, Paul sends his girlfriend to the emergency room, and James can't figure out how to make Nikki see him in another light--Spin City offers proof of comedy at its most sophisticated. Likewise, it's no wonder that two of the most successful sitcoms running right now are workplace situation comedies with The Office and 30 Rock, which perhaps tried to sprinkle some of Spin and Radio's fairy dust left over from the heyday of Mary Tyler Moore.

Whatever it is-- if it is some secret recipe-- this Thanksgiving week, I'm thankful to Shout! Factory for preserving the comedic legacy of Michael J. Fox with this superb four disc set that will definitely be getting repeat play in my DVD player. Likewise, I also want to dish out thanks to the one and only, Fox, who I grew up watching and was thrilled to revisit once again over the course of this first installment of Spin City.

DVD Review: The Longshots (2008)

Rushing onto DVD & Blu-ray 12/2

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Who knew that Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst, who once sang about how much he wanted to rip someone's head off in "Break Stuff" or confessed that he did it all for the "Nookie" to keep "Rollin'" had it in him to direct a heartfelt, touching family movie? I certainly didn't but was delighted to be proven wrong with the refreshing and uplifting film, The Longshots.



Another in a long line of true sports stories-- Longshots stars Akeelah and the Bee's talented young actress Keke Palmer. While the young phenom she played in Akeelah was the brainy spelling champ, this time she shows us her athletic side by portraying eleven-year-old Jasmine Plummer. Plummer, the first female quarterback in the fifty-six year history of Pop Warner's league, ultimately rallied the hearts of everyone in her small town of Minden, Illionis when she took her team to Warner's Super Bowl.



In a nice change of pace for rapper/actor Ice Cube, he becomes Jasmine's unlikely mentor and father figure. As her unemployed, slacker uncle Curtis, we first encounter Cube's character as he's still having trouble getting over his mother's death and spends his days playing Backgammon and drinking beer, all the while putting any spare change he can wrangle up into a box he labels "Get Outta Minden Fund." While the box also contains sunny postcards of his dream relocation of Miami-- more than anything, we get the feeling that the former high school football star Curtis just wants a second chance to play the game, even if it's vicariously through his niece.

A bit of a shy bookworm who's endlessly teased by the cliquish, trendy girls in her middle school, Jasmine spends far too much time alone as her hardworking mother has to take longer shifts at the local diner to make ends meet and her deadbeat father has disappeared from her life. And unfortunately, yet true to most kids who've been abandoned, Jasmine endlessly hopes he'll return, going as far as to compulsively wear his wristwatch twenty-four hours a day.

When her mom encourages Jasmine to sign up for an after school activity, the girls laugh her out of joining a fashion club in her quest to become a model. Retreating once again to her solitude and books, soon Jasmine's mom manages to bribe her uncle Curtis into spending more time with his niece after school. While initially they get off to a rocky start as he forgets to feed her dinner and manages to lose her for the better part of an evening when she storms off in frustration, soon as a last straw she throws a football back to him in the park and he notices her natural ability to fire it straight to his fingertips.



Inspired for what seems to be the first time in his life since high school, Curtis begins training Jasmine to become the ultimate quarterback. And after having to prove both the other coaches and her eventual male teammates wrong, Jasmine soon becomes the quarterback for Pop Warner's Minden, Illinois team.

Of course, I grant you that sports films are a dime a dozen as they follow a set paradigm and manage to continuously comfort us again and again by serving up a much needed dose of optimism, especially in these trying times. However, this being said, The Longshots benefits where others have failed in not just telling a story that is true but by nearly making the football secondary in lieu of developing fully realized and heartfelt characters. Additionally in a rare change of pace for the genre, it's awe-inspiring to see the tale of a young woman who despite being athletic is still very much feminine as she's trained via an unorthodox and hilarious "hit the diva" target practice you'll need to see to believe.

Moreover, we can't help but become moved as Jasmine discovers not only her self-confidence as well as finding and choosing her own father figure in the form of her uncle Curtis, which especially appealed to the director as the adopted Durst notes on the DVD that he could fully relate to the script and was drawn in by the familial "love story." Likewise, in choosing to include so much of the eccentricities of the small, tight-knit yet broken down community that has been hit very hard by the same dire situations facing all of us, Durst manages to really make his story memorable by making a great character driven and community celebration film disguised as an average sports picture.



Arriving on DVD and Blu-ray shelves on December 2 from Dimension Home Entertainment, Genius Products, and The Weinstein Company, Longshots' DVD contains some truly worthwhile special features that go beyond simple promotional coverage to include separate interviews with Durst, Ice Cube, and the amazing Palmer. Likewise, we're served up a great featurette that interviews the real Jasmine Plummer and her relatives who we still find setting high goals for herself, yet remaining intelligent, grounded, and witty when discussing what it was like to see her life become a feature film. And although you couldn't ask this reviewer to explain even the fundamentals of the game of football, I can promise you that when it comes to the movie, The Longshots manages to score a touchdown.

Also Recommended

Australia (2008)

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Despite their tendency towards chaos, I frequently find myself swept away by the overwhelming aesthetic beauty of the films from director Baz Luhrmann. And although they are always quite something special to behold, I still must admit that honestly, the filmmaker's Achilles heel continuously lies within the stylistic inconsistency of his problematic openings.

My first introduction to his films was with William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet which gave me such a headache within seconds and was so unbearably campy that I ended up walking out of the theatre after ten minutes. Since then and out of friendly duty, I've viewed the entire feature on DVD. And while granted, it's gorgeous and the emotional core of the film served up by its charismatic leads Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio is undeniably effective-- you couldn't pay me enough money to watch it again without supplying me with ear plugs and a working remote to fast-forward a majority of the picture.

While I heartily enjoyed Strictly Ballroom-- like countless others, I was amazed by his sensuous take on Moulin Rouge. Although again much like Juliet, I typically find myself watching the first few minutes before fast-forwarding through the world's most annoying Sound of Music tribute until the gang ends up at the club for the first time. Yet, the difference between this one and the ridiculously chaotic and ADD addled Juliet is that--again despite the chaos-- I own and love Moulin Rouge for its incredible euphoric visual and auditory feast.

Needless to say, it was with a mixture of incredible anticipation and hesitation that I viewed Australia. Drawn to the work from the moment I set eyes on the gorgeous eye-candy shots from photographer Annie Leibovitz and its countless posters, I tried to ignore the articles I read that seemed to indicate that Luhrmann's opus-- the most expensive Australian film made to date with a whopping nine month shoot-- was in trouble. In fact, less than two weeks ago, word spread that he was still editing the film.

Red flags were raised in the film critic community as this much post-production tweaking usually doesn't mean there's confidence in the product. Likewise, the same was true when we discovered the film had been written with multiple endings (going as far as to learn that a few were shot) and it was rumored that possibly the ultimate finale was chosen to appease the studio bringing the movie to the screen.

However, while it indeed is a bit of a mess and admittedly, it could certainly stand to spend much more time in the cutting room, it's still a sweepingly old-fashioned spectacle. Additionally, it draws from so many sources ranging from The Wizard of Oz (unlikely indeed save for the fact that the setting is nicknamed Oz) to Out of Africa, The African Queen, and even South Pacific that it's sure to appeal to audiences looking for escape on an epic level.

Although, this being said, I wish the release date had been postponed and the first portion of the film had been re-shot as the opening squirm-inducing hour feels incongruous to the rest of the entire film. It's downright painful to watch Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman being forced to gasp, sigh, and duplicate the same phony and over-the-top histrionics that her character employed while trying to seduce "The Duke" early on in Moulin Rouge. Likewise, our first introduction to Jackman seems like they stuck John Ford, John Wayne, Indiana Jones, and Howard Hawks in a blender as he gets into a whopping bar fight that results in Kidman's lingerie being scattered in the dusty, dirt road.

The film is set in the 1940s, just prior to the same Japanese attack on Darwin, Australia from those responsible for the one on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor as the globe found themselves in the midst of World War II. It chronicles a prim and proper wealthy British aristocrat who-- convinced her husband is up to no good down under-- journeys to Australia.

Narrated by a young orphaned half-Aboriginal, half-Caucasion boy named Nullah (a phenomenal turn by newcomer Brandon Walters) who is an outcast in the land where he isn't welcomed anywhere because he's of mixed-race, the boy describes the woman who would become his eventual caretaker Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) as "the strangest woman I've ever seen."

As she makes her way to her husband's sprawling cattle station that's on the edge of ruin by scheming and greedy rivals Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) and King Carney (Bryan Brown), she's shocked to learn she's become a widow, but soon pulls together to save her newly inherited Faraway Downs. Despite getting off on the wrong foot when the freelance rancher and stock-man, the Drover (Hugh Jackman) who repeatedly delivers tired monologues about not being tied down or owned by anyone, soon she and the Drover mend fences.

With a group of outsiders of all ethnic backgrounds, Lady Sarah and the Drover lead the riders to drive 1,500 cattle over hundreds of miles of incredibly challenging terrain made all the more problematic when villains try to sabotage them along the way. Predictably, the two who loathe each other from the start-- even going as far as to seal the nail in the predictable courtship coffin when one says the ultimate sappy line that they wouldn't bed the other if they were the last person on Earth-- fall in love amidst breathtaking backdrops.

Jackman gives the golden-haired beauty Kidman a run for her money on who can take most viewers' breaths away, with a downright jaw-dropping eye-candy shot of a bare-chested shower. The effect found this reviewer doing her very best to restrain herself and not yell, "Damn!" as so many male viewers have done in countless other public screenings.

However, at times the film feels a bit overly computer generated and not just in the director's tremendously choreographed action scenes whether it's a stampede or in several war driven sequences in the end. And unfortunately, even some of the enchanting landscapes feel so overly heightened to capture the precise shade of every color that it ultimately keeps us at an arm's length. Yet, to his credit, Luhrmann's epic really gets us involved as soon as the cattle drive begins.

While things slow down considerably once the relationship starts, soon enough-- as screenplays all dictate-- an obstacle must drive a wedge between the lovers. Although, I wished that--of the countless screenwriters who worked on the film some would've given the actors more compelling and memorable lines to say that are worthy of its scope. However, it still remains firmly capable as a knowing "wink wink" blockbuster-to-be, both in length and in homage to dozens of other films that must have inspired the filmmaker as both a movie fan and director.

Ironically, in the end, despite its undeniable beauty, there's a messiness to the structure and meandering tonal shifts and subplots that makes Australia another imperfect "Luhrmann masterpiece." Moreover, maddeningly, Australia touches perfection enough times to make us wish it would've been better yet in giving the audience literally something for everyone whether it's a morality tale, a history lesson, a love story, a western, or an adventure film, he's definitely made something mesmerizing to behold that is one of the truly genuine "big screen" event blockbusters of the year. Especially since you just know that-- like Rouge-- unless you have a TV the size of a drive-in, Australia is going to lose some of its luster at home.

In other words, go see it and if you find yourself looking longingly at the exit for the better part of the first hour, stay with it. After all, once he works out his beginnings, Luhrmann really knows how to deliver a world to get lost in especially when it's his take on Oz filtered through the land of Oz.

Recent Additions (as of 11/26/08)

Happy Thanksgiving from Film Intuition!

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Celebrate National Children's Book Week

Music DVD Review: Composing the Beatles Songbook (1966-1970)

Music DVD Review: Smashing Pumpkins -- If All Goes Wrong

TV News: Andy Warhol's Factory People


New Video Screening Room Additions

Big (Piano Duet Scene)

In the Heat of the Night (Feature Length Film)

Lost in Translation (Clips)

The Philadelphia Story (Clips)

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (Clips from the Thanksgiving Classic)

Smashing Pumpkins: Video Postcards

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Dirt Bike Chase)


Updates to The Trailer & Photo Gallery

Birds of America

Cash

A Christmas Tale

The Clique

Crossing Over

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Diminished Capacity

Expired

Fred Claus

Garden Party

How About You

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

The International

It's a Free World

Lake City

Last Chance Harvey

The Longshots

Mister Lonely

Nothing Like the Holidays

The Nutty Professor (2008; Animated)

The Pleasure of Being Robbed

Push

The Reader

Sangre de mi Sangre

Savage Grace

Star Trek

Up

The Wrestler

Yes Man

New on DVD for the Week of 11/23/08

DVD Pick of the Week:

Bottle Rocket

Bottle Rocket [Criterion Collection]

Composing the Beatles Songbook: Lennon & McCartney (1966-1970)

Fred Claus

Hancock

The Kingdom [Blu-ray]

Meet Dave

Space Chimps

Other New Arrivals

DVD Review: Fred Claus (2007)

Flying onto DVD & Blu-ray on November 25




Click Here to View the Trailer & Photo Gallery

Talk about the ultimate black sheep-- Jan Brady has nothing on Fred Claus. The older brother of the boy who would become St. Nicolas, Fred discovered at a young age that sainthood is a tough act to follow. Driven to rage by being constantly overshadowed by his brother's accomplishments and given an annual reminder of his success with the incessant caroling, holiday displays and more-- Fred (played by Vince Vaughn) decided that since he didn't want to join the family business making toys at the North Pole, he'd move to Chicago and become the polar opposite of his brother Santa (Paul Giamati).

Instead of selflessly delivering goods, Fred becomes a repo-man, taking away flat screen televisions and elaborate presents he sometimes moves directly into his own apartment and delivering monologues to his young neighbor Slam urging him not to "drink the Kool-Aid" that is Christmas by being "a cheerleader for Santa Claus," whom he likens to a megalomaniac embodiment of a shell game con artist. An inconsiderate and absent-minded boyfriend to the lovely British meter maid Wanda (Rachel Weisz taking on a Dickensian, wrong-side-of-London accent), when Fred ends up in the slammer following a hilarious confrontation with a veritable army of Salvation Army santas (that seem to be as stealthy as soldiers), he's forced to call his brother for help.

With St. Nick's wife Annette (Miranda Richardson) trying to convince her "closet-eater" husband to practice tough love which doesn't quite fit the saintly mandate, Santa strikes a deal with his brother offering him financial assistance for an upcoming business venture if he'll come work for the handout at the North Pole. Grudgingly, Fred agrees and predictably, he wreaks endless havoc from taking out his frustration with carols by inspiring an impromptu Elvis Presley dance party to helping a shy Elf (Christopher Guest and Kath and Kim scene stealer John Michael Higgins) make a love connection with the mathematically gifted yet Victoria's Secret styled hot elf (Elizabeth Banks) to getting in a wicked snowball fight with his brother until ultimately the family stages an intervention.

By this point the film which seems to draw a large majority of its humor from taking a cynical view of the holiday with mean-spirited jokes (think Bad Santa-- the PG rated version) begins to grow long-winded, not sure whether or not it's masquerading as a comedy about sibling rivalry a la Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly's Stepbrothers or as a companion piece to the much lighter, brighter, and surprisingly contemporary yet nostalgic Will Ferrell vehicle Elf.

The beautifully packaged DVD and Blu-ray disc from Warner Brothers which offers feature length commentary by its filmmaker David Dobkin also adds more than twenty-five minutes of additional scenes, some of which further shift the story's theme from "naughty" to "nice" as well as the opportunity to view it in either its theatrical widescreen aspect ratio which is enhanced for widescreen televisions or in a formatted full-screen version to fit the standard square shape. Additionally, offering both language and subtitle options for English, Spanish, and French speakers-- one of the true audio highlights in its sharp Dolby Digital 5.1 surround is the movie's terrific soundtrack which contains not just holiday classics but other less-than-predictable songs which make the film much more effective including The Byrds' cover of Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages," although only certain numbers made it onto its incredible companion album you can explore below.

Filled with Vaughn's trademark whirlwind monologues and seemingly spontaneous references and jokes that make even uneven films like The Break-Up work, he elevates it well and the Jingle All the Way meets National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation inspired chaotic chase through the streets early on is a complete joy as is a ridiculously creative and funny meeting for Siblings Anonymous where recovering siblings like Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton, and Stephen Baldwin air their frustrations with their famous brothers. Yet, while that is hands-down one of the most ingenious portions of the film, especially when Stephen nearly comes to blows with Fred Claus until he begins repeating his mantra, "that's not Alec," the jokes and tenor of a film which finds Santa being threatened by a struggling economy when efficiency expert Kevin Spacey arrives all too ready to fire him with a three strikes system, doesn't quite know which audience for which it's playing.

Far too nasty for young children and with jokes such as the "I'm a recovering sibling" scene that are sure to go over their head-- it seems like it's shooting for the demographic Vaughn usually reaches of young men who latched onto his frat-pack comedy alongside Owen Wilson--Wedding Crashers (from Claus director David Dobkin who also directed Vaughn in the darker indie Clay Pigeons). Yet, in its indecision in awkwardly moving from a storybook like opening (similar to Elf which was made by his Swingers pal Jon Favreau) to an angry, embittered tale of family dysfunction that always comes to the front burner during the holidays, it loses some of its focus in an overly long second half.

Additionally, while we know it's Fred's story after all as our narrator reminds us, it is a Christmas movie and unfortunately, wastes its lovable Sideways and American Splendor curmudgeon star Paul Giamatti as a spineless Santa who eats his feelings to such an extent that he's developed acid reflux, insomnia, and problems in the sack. The same goes for the film's other Oscar winners and nominees like Kathy Bates, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz, and Kevin Spacey (who does have one brilliant in-joke about wanting to be Superman as a nod to his Lex Luthor role in the newest Warner Brothers film) who aren't given enough to work with and especially in one plot that is endearing, too little time is spent on the cute John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks subplot.

Yet despite its many, many flaws, and an overwhelming urge to go back into the cutting room and trim away at least fifteen minutes, there's enough good stuff in the film to make it watchable and even memorable but it's muddled by its angry script from Cars and Bolt screenwriter Dan Fogelman (who despite this, deserves ample kudos along with story creator Jessie Nelson for a wonderful premise), that I'm guessing went through too many rewrites which led to such a thematically confusing finished product.

While for fans of Vaughn, like myself, who've been enjoying his career ever since he went to "Vegas, baby, Vegas," even though admittedly he seems to play the same character repeatedly (aside from a few wonderful against-type roles in movies like A Cool, Dry Place and Into the Wild), it's worth a look, especially if you have a thing for holiday movies and it makes a nice companion piece to the superior Elf.

Still unfortunately for Claus, Vaughn definitely said it best when he told Favreau he was "so money [that he didn't] even know it" in Swingers as ultimately, it's Favreau's Elf that in the future is destined to become a new contemporary Christmas classic.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

(Find Your Favorites Below at Amazon)

The Clique (2008)

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Now on DVD:

Having moved six times before graduating high school, this reviewer definitely knows what it's like to be "the new girl" in school. Whether it was making an embarrassing faux pas while trying to figure out the new slang or what was "in" from one week to the next such as (and I'm dating myself) spiral permed bangs, rolled up jeans, snap bracelets, Esprit bags, or Francois Girbuad jeans, after viewing The Clique, I realized how incredibly lucky I was to be born at the tail end of Generation X.

With our fast-paced society and worldly children, it seems that twelve is the new sixteen and sixteen is the new twenty-five. While I was concerned with where to eat lunch or who to sit on the bus with, it seems like today's tweens and teens have it a whole lot tougher as the bullying doesn't stop when you drop your books off on your kitchen table. Now with text and instant messages, camera phones, endless e-mails, and social networking sites like MySpace-- it's no longer just the kids with pocket protectors that are into gadgets as now anyone with a keyboard and a grudge can make a classmate's life a living hell from a safe distance, sometimes anonymously making rushed judgments and then forwarding their thoughts onward to the entire school within seconds.

And although the tween fashionista girls that make up The Clique or rather "The Pretty Committee," rocking the hallways as if they were runways of their private, exclusive, Octavian Country Day girls only middle school relish in cruelty, they aren't playing with quite as dangerous of stakes we see every Monday night on the CW in the addictive hit, Gossip Girl. However, there are many similarities between the works as again the beautiful and wealthy characters use the outsiders and new kids for target practice to unleash their own angst and far more intriguingly, both Gossip and Clique were adapted from a popular young adult series of books.

Based on Lisi Harrison's Clique books which have-- much like The Babysitter Club in my generation-- spun off into all different directions with new adventures and sub-series, this high-quality straight-to-DVD adaptation by screenwriter Liz Tigelaar, director Michael Lembeck and executive producer Tyra Banks taps right into its teen friendly market with its bright, fun cinematography and underlying themes of friendship that also were explored in the superior adaptations of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book series (again from Warner Brothers).

Following their recent release of Traveling Pants 2 and another girl-power book turned WB film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, it's been a wonderful year for Warner Brothers in ensuring that opposed to the young male demographic most studios incessantly tap into at the exclusion of other viewers, they're actively seeking out good material for young women, from books by women and often made by women as well.

Despite this, initially, The Clique begins in a slightly over-the-top fashion as our main character and quintessential drama queen, Massie Block is told that she's unable to attend a hip party and her Sex and the City: The Junior Version tantrum is a bit too much as she manipulates the rest of her clique into avoiding the same event with a series of catty lies. However, the movie soon finds its stride when Pretty Committee leader Massie meets the girl who will become her arch nemesis-- Claire Lyons.

Wholesome and pleasant-- Claire, who arrives with her obnoxious little brother and parents to stay with Massie's family while her father settles into his new job-- is the polar opposite of the Queen Bee. Friendly, generous, and smart, Claire's presence annoys Massie from the start mostly on appearance alone as instead of a home with wealth, privilege and a never-ending allowance via her American Express card to purchase couture, she dresses like (gasp) a typical middle class teenager whose family is on a budget.

While grudgingly, Massie realizes she has to share the family chauffeur with the new girl to attend school with her, right from the start she draws a line between the clique and Claire, kicking her to the back of the car and with repeated rudeness delivering lines like "Did I invite you to my BBQ? Then why are you all up in my grill?" Along with the other three girls-- the redheaded Dylan whose mother keeps insisting she lose weight to go from a size six to a four, the obsessively academic Kristen and "ready for the runway" label obsessed Alicia-- Massie decides to make Claire's life a living hell, especially when she sees her talking to a boy that she likes as well.

When Claire finally has enough and decides to fight back-- similar to the clever Tina Fey penned and witty Lindsay Lohan comedy Mean Girls-- she begins to give Massie a run for her money, until realizing that when she stoops to the other girl's level, she doesn't like the reflection staring back at her in the mirror. While of course the the girls in the film are a bit hard to relate to in real life given their enormous privilege and wardrobe, the underlying themes and situation of a new girl trying to break into a group of friends is something with which anyone can relate.

Definitely a film that will appeal to the books' fans as an above average straight-to-DVD offering sure to reward Harrison's supportive readers-- the disc which provides the option to view the film in either wide or full-screen (along with a special code allowing purchasers to download a digital copy to their computer), also serves up some fun special features that go behind the scenes with the stars, offers a great featurette that focuses exclusively on fashion and celebrates the cast's appreciation for the national bestselling books as well.

Of course, it's a bit of a forgettable confection on the surface and it doesn't delve into issues the way other Warner Brothers films made for girls this year did but this being said, it's a great companion piece to the studios' other releases and should provide much comfort to all the "new girls" out there who have to deal with their school's hopefully Massie-less version of The Pretty Committee.

Garden Party (2008)

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Now on DVD

Don't let the title fool you into thinking this is a Masterpiece Theatre Henry James styled soap about croquet and tea parties. For, although one of the main characters in writer/director Jason Freeland plays a song called "Garden Party" while performing at such an event-- the environment is anything but idyllic.

Set in Los Angeles a.k.a. the city of angels where it seems there's more devils than ever before eager and willing to exploit, manipulate, and use--all with a smile or a fistful of dollars, of course-- the dreaming angels now seem lonelier than ever.

On one level the film's poster and DVD cover for its Lionsgate release tries to titillate and entice the average passerby to gawk-- similar to the way the characters are used for their sexuality and youth by predators, unsavory photographers, and more. Yet on another level, it's both shocking in its innocence of so many young people nearly naked in their insecurity and carnivorous landscape having come a long way from the pool parties of their childhood. And, this being said-- frankly, they're supremely lucky to still find that their heads are above water. Likewise, it doesn't seem like an accident that the gorgeous, light-filled city landscape is behind them-- just out of reach-- tempting in its contradictions of being both so accessible and so overwhelming at the same time.

Decades earlier, in the unofficial New York City anthem, "New York, New York," the lyrics from the Liza Minelli version called out the promise of "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere," but as people have begun to filter out from the east, Midwest, south and every region of the United States to try and grab that irresistible slice of the Hollywood dream, now more than ever, those lyrics truly apply to Los Angeles.

Filled with the stories and hopes of yesteryear of actresses being discovered in a malt shop or walking down the street, the city beckons to the dreaming outsiders who-- more often than not-- feel that although they don't fit in in their small towns, they're just sure they'll make an impact in show business. Yet, in addition to the aspiring artists, Hollywood-- perhaps because it's the dream factory after all-- seems to attract those longing to escape a horrible existence whether it's abuse, neglect, or secrets from the past.

In writer/director Jason Freeland's film Garden Party, he manages to create an ensemble piece primarily about five individuals (although others jump in and out of the pool, if you will) all struggling to not only get by but get ahead, whether it's just to make a living or become a star. The film was shot and set in the filmmaker's Echo Park neighborhood with stunningly artistic and sharp cinematography by Robert Benavides which adapts to every surrounding stylistically (and seems to cast a blue filter over some of the scenes throughout). A character driven work that at times feels like it was derived from too many short stories or anecdotes strung together, Garden Party is nonetheless bolstered by its talented and completely convincing cast in what seems like a remarkably authentic and personal insider's view of the harsh realities of La La Land.
After she's abandoned by her stripper/cocktail waitress mother and forced to live with her stepfather who's overly fond of leering at her in the shower, the young beautiful April (The O.C.'s Willa Holland) makes an impulsive decision to get as much cash together as possible and move out. When a friend tells her about Dirk (a horrific Eric Bragg)-- a creepy photographer who will pay her hundreds to pose nude for his website-- April in turn pays him a visit before ultimately moving into her lesbian cousin's apartment.

While April's main ambition is to declare her independence, Sammy (Erik Smith) arrives in town, homeless, hungry, and eager to join a band. Incredibly talented (and indeed the actor plays his own material), Sammy lucks his way into a gig and a pizza at his first audition and later finds a place to crash with the sexually confused, aspiring dancer Nathan (Alexander Candese). Working for a high-powered top Los Angeles Realtor, Sally St. Clair (a terrific Vinessa Shaw), Nathan looks after one of her residences, tending to her locked "garden" a.k.a. a greenhouse full of homegrown pot that she uses to garner more listings and hold onto her top spot in the market.
Although Nathan continually reminds Sally that he's just her assistant--to her that definition means he's on-call twenty-four hours a day as he's easily replaceable as soon, we discover Sally's ingenious Modus Operandi for luring cheap, eager, and loyal labor as the mother (or Diva) hen, handing out her business cards at a local coffee shop and helping give newcomers to town a leg up on L.A. Of course, what Sally considers to be the opportunity of the lifetime does involves marijuana and strange situations which soon reveal themselves after a motorcyclist assists her one evening in ridding her designer heels from chewing gum.

Linking together Sally's plot with April's (which mirror each other until later they become acquainted), we realize that Sally had also been exploited by a photographer when the obsessed motorcyclist Todd (Richard Gunn) makes an indecent proposal to help her get those photos off the web. Of course, Sally is no babe in the woods and she takes him up on his offer which leads to a tense showdown as she confronts her past head-on in a hold-up.

In its roughly ninety minute running time, Garden Party seems equally concerned with the way that technology is used to manipulate and hold sway over individuals with the world wide web, camera phones, social networking sites, and the nearly total lack of individual privacy as it is with the Los Angeles setting. And while sometimes its unseemly surroundings, situations and characters begin to twist your stomach into knots as Freeland once or twice seems to go over the line from explorer to voyeur himself-- in the end, it's a compelling and richly crafted independent film.

Impressively the type of work that leads us into it with a few predictions that soon get tossed aside as it goes on-- while the baggage, kinks, quirks and eccentricities of its ensemble remain front and center, ingeniously Freeland manages to make us ask some startling questions of just whom is really manipulating whom as a few of the leads including the disgusting low-life Dirk wear their profession and true intentions on their sleeves and others try to hide it away under the camouflage of makeup, layers of clothing, the heat of the L.A. sun, or by trying to stay in the water as long as they can without drowning. Unsettling but compelling and a good cautionary tale to show those longing to just run away with five bucks and a dream to the city of angels, Garden Party is now available on DVD from Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, and Lookout Films.

DVD Review: Sunset Boulevard (1950) -- The Paramount Centennial Collection

Available in a Deluxe 2-Disc Collectible DVD Set
From the Paramount Centennial Collection


Own It

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"This Billy Wilder should be sent back to Germany!
He bites the hand that feeds him!"
- Studio Executive Louis B. Mayer, following Sunset's premiere

"I am Mr. Wilder and why don't you go f**k yourself!"
- Billy Wilder, upon hearing Mayer's comment*

*As quoted from Cameron Crowe's Conversations With Wilder
(pg. 341)

In editors David Thompson and Ian Christie's Scorsese on Scorsese-- referring to a conversation he had with Joe Pesci-- the Oscar winning director notes, "John Ford made Westerns. We make street movies. Let's do that," (pg. 146). And while of course, Marty Scorsese has gone on to do so many other things by exploring comedies, epics, biopics, and even musicals-- like most directors, he's arguably at his best when working with a subject or genre that comes directly from his core. And this is not a singular case as it seems to be a recurring tale for countless directors as nobody crafts a grand scale epic like Ridley Scott, an urban night-filled masterpiece like Michael Mann, or a psychological comedy like Woody Allen.

However, when it comes to trying to define the career of Billy Wilder, I'm not only stumped but in awe. Currently the subject of our latest Film Intuition poll asking you guys to select the filmmaker's masterpiece-- just looking over a majority of titles from Double Indemnity to The Lost Weekend to Sunset Boulevard to Some Like It Hot and Stalag 17-- there isn't a genre he hasn't explored and (in the same turn) mastered.

Is there a greater film noir than Double Indemnity, for example or a funnier cross-dressing picture than Some Like It Hot? A more bittersweet romantic comedy than The Apartment? I'd be hard pressed to find one and on the new gorgeous restoration of his 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard, released as title number 1 in Paramount's newly launched 2-disc DVD sets which comprise their Centennial Collection, one interviewee even goes as far as to joke that Billy Wilder made the greatest movie ever made in every single genre.

While of course, it's an overstatement, just glancing through his credits, one realizes that cinematically he was pretty close to perfection, even when some of his pictures went off course. And certainly there are threads running throughout his films that link together characters and themes that echo one another throughout, but he enjoyed challenging himself with innovative shots and ideas that one doesn't normally think about when the phrase a "Billy Wilder film" is uttered. Mostly it's the lines people remember like "shut up and deal," from The Apartment, or Sunset's "I'm still big, it's the pictures that got small," or "Nobody's perfect" from the end of Some Like It Hot and while upon first, second, and even a third viewing, you find it hard to look past the dynamic presence that is Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (nearly realizing as an afterthought just how incredible William Holden was in that brave and frankly equally reprehensible role), watching it again in its epic glory, I was blown away by some of the breathtaking shots and epic photographic demands being placed on cinematographer John F. Seitz (Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend).

Consider how incredibly difficult the film's opening shots would've been to construct in that era as we meet our narrator-- the unlucky dead screenwriter (a joke referenced to in Altman's The Player given the industry's lack of respect for their scribes) Joe Gillis (William Holden), floating eerily still, killed by gunfire in the pool of Norma Desmond. And of course, this is before the film goes even further back into the past when the writer is alive and well, hiding out from creditors and those he's indebted to by punching his typewriter keys in a lonely, stale apartment that the camera swoops up into, blowing perfectly past a drape in a great reveal of the writer at work.

Always wild about voice-over narration since according to the DVD's featurette "Sunset Boulevard: The Beginning," it allowed Wilder the chance to unload all of the exposition quickly to delve into the story and also as a satirist, giving him the opportunity to comment on the goings-on-- the film deceptively sets itself up to be about Holden. After all, he's our main character who, unable to sell his recent screenplay seems to have hit rock bottom when he loses an agent in quick succession just before a tire blowout. Yet when the stranded motorist steps inside the nearest mansion on the boulevard, nothing could've prepared either him or the audience for Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson).

An aging silent movie star who lives like a near recluse, awaiting a call that will never come from Mr. DeMille to get back into the pictures, reading stacks of fan mail, and working on a bloated melodramatic interpretation of Salome-- Desmond first mistakes Gillis for the man who has come to bury her beloved dead chimpanzee but upon discovering his true profession and after he manipulates her for a handout, hires him to do a script rewrite. Of course, instead of a simple doctoring of the work he could hammer out in a day, Desmond settles his debts and asks her trusted butler (Erich Von Stroheim) to move in all of his belongings. Soon the line blurs between the two as he turns into her favorite paid boy toy when Holden crosses ethical boundaries and allows himself to become her own gigolo.

A writer whoring themselves out for work is of course, not a new idea in Hollywood as we hear plenty of tales of artists just "in it for the money" whether it's starring in a cheesy comedy or brainless blockbuster but Sunset Boulevard seems to work on a number of levels. It's as filled with irony and backstabbing as its main competition that year and winner of the Best Picture Oscar, the excellent All About Eve (which again displays a remarkably dark side of show business except this time in the theatre), it's a film that seems to change with each viewing.

On one level Sunset could be labeled a campy horror film, as "operatic" as the Broadway musical, a Hollywood slice of film noir, a dark comedy, a strange ode to the unpredictability of Tinsletown as fame and "another picture" can show up in a number of ways as well as a another cautionary tale about people who try to step over others opportunistically as every character-- even the wholesome writer (Nancy Olson)-- is always scheming on some level. Yet, whichever way you view it, it compels you in such a way that although it's Hollywood he is analyzing, one can see the way that the film holds up today in not just reflecting the eternal battles of deciding whether or not to compromise yourself to make a living (whether artistically, ethically, etc.), negotiating and finding a balance with others, and fighting to get back "up" once you've been downsized, let-go, or are no longer the box office draw you were decades earlier.

Admittedly, a risky film for Wilder to make as even he told Crowe that he "wanted to make things a little harder for myself... to do that thing which never quite works-- a picture about Hollywood," (pg. 47) the film was especially daring in the amount of insider details, lines and situations that hit a little too close to home, and aspiring cinema scholars will relish in the amount of in-depth information available in the 2-disc set from a feature length commentary by On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder author Ed Sikov on the first disc or the fifteen additional featurettes on the second disc of bonus material.

With rare interview footage featuring its star Gloria Swanson and a look back at every aspect of the film from the score to the location map, a profile on acclaimed costume designer Edith Head, insider details by scholars, media experts, and those involved (including numerous sharp observations by Nancy Olson), a portrait of William Holden that makes a nice companion piece to a thirty minute featurette on the Centennial disc for Sabrina, and more, there's enough food for thought to enrich your viewing experience several times over.

Finally a version of Boulevard that's ready for its close-up in your home DVD library, it's an ultimate celebration of a unique film that one realizes painfully would never be made in quite the same way today (if it were greenlit at all), yet one in which the references and incessant homage show up again and again throughout our culture... much like a majority of other films from the endlessly versatile, label-transcending, and surprising chameleon, Mr. Billy Wilder.

Twilight (2008)

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Visit Amazon's Twilight Store to Pre-Order DVD

"So why do we choose the boys that are naughty?
I don't fit in, so why do you want me?
I know I can't tame you... but I just keep trying."
- Gwen Stefani, "Bathwater"

"Why do the good girls always want the bad boys?" Stefani asks in her alternately catchy and creepy anthem "Bathwater." And although I completely disagree, it's a popular stereotype and a cliche so frequent that as a woman who could always count her female friends on one hand (since there are very few female film geeks), it's nonetheless a conversation I've had repeatedly with my male sidekicks for years. Honestly, I've never had the patience for the posers-- the brooding bad boys-- or the "inner demon" poster boys who use too much hair gel and seem to have taken notes from the James Dean and Marlon Brando playbook.

Admittedly while mysterious is impossibly sexy, my game-playing days ended when I outgrew "Candyland" but then again, I've never been overly mesmerized by the Harlequin romance styled fodder that are purchased by the truckload each and every week in supermarkets across the country. Now in my late twenties and therefore not in author Stephenie Meyer's demographic, I first heard of her incredibly popular young adult Twilight series in the first part of 2008 when word that a film version was in the works began inundating the media.

Like the actress who would become Bella (the film's main character)-- a.k.a. Panic Room and Into the Wild star Kristen Stewart-- it was a series with which I was completely unfamiliar yet, similar to her confession in the Summit Entertainment press release, once I heard the title, soon I realized that Twilight fever was everywhere. Having earned a cult following the likes of which I hadn't seen since Harry Potter, I always planned on reading the first book prior to the screening but grad school and work got in the way so it was with very little preparation that I entered the press screening earlier in the week.

Although I knew it wouldn't be an ordinary ho-hum, laid-back evening at the movies, what I walked into was something close to Beatlemania as the small but packed audience contained more screaming girls and palpable excitement than I'd experienced only one week earlier for the latest film featuring James Bond. And while the audiences were definitely different as middle aged men genuinely don't shriek despite their affection for Bond (and more so for the striking Bond girls), nothing could've prepared me for the enthusiasm of the audience. Carrying the books with them as though they were life preservers should the audience flood with the sound of screams or tears, it was easy to tell press from the fans as the lucky "free pass" holders pledged their allegiance proudly to Meyers' universe with Twilight t-shirts and vampire-like clothing.

Eager to learn more, I chatted with a few people who told me I "must read the books," and being that my main experience with the genre is owning and loving every episode of Joss Whedon's brilliant Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I started to get caught up in their excitement. Yet, once the film kicked into gear and the simplistic story was set into motion and the emotionless dialogue started to overtake the amazing cinematography and stunning visual look of director Catherine Hardwicke's film-- instead of Stefani's lyrics--another torch song filled my head, a Peggy Lee classic wherein she wonders, "Is that all there is?"

But before we dissect the film, a little background for those, like myself who are Twilight newbies. Due to her stepfather's endless travel demands as a minor league baseball player, the beautiful yet shy Bella (Stewart) makes the decision to move her cushy life in perpetually sunny Phoenix, AZ to stay with her estranged father in the small town of Forks, Washington. Immediately giving off a vibe that's halfway between David Lynch's Twin Peaks and Buffy's Sunnydale, Bella appears to be the unwilling "shiny new toy" for her classmates, instantly making friends as though this were high school in the '40s instead of in the '00s where cool is everything. Moreover, the seventeen year old also finds herself given the evil eye by handsome, perfectly coiffed, and extremely pale-skinned Edward (Harry Potter's Cedric Diggory, actor Robert Pattinson).

And while she's indeed attractive, the thing catching Edward's attention more than her dark mane of hair and sweet features is her smell-- not just the pheremones one would expect but precisely her blood. Nearly unable to contain himself in a scene that must've played much better in literary form-- as onscreen it just appears to be high camp-- Edward catches a whiff of Bella as a fan blows in biology class and he looks as though he's going to need to make a trip to the nurse's office.

While of course, those familiar with the book and from the trailer realize instantly that he is in fact a vampire, the overly languid pacing of the 120 minute film takes a full hour to reveal his true nature. By that time of course and typical of the old adage which started this review, Bella is head over heels in love with the bad boy, yet she hasn't deluded herself into wanting to tame him but instead is perfectly willing to be devoured or "turned" into a vampire as well in a subtly bizarre S&M relationship.

Noting in the press release the disturbing trend of girls who've treated the book as though it were "a bible" even going so far as to tattoo the phrase "and so the lion fell in love with the lamb" on their ankles-- while the modern day allusion to Romeo and Juliet cannot be understated, more than that, the film seems to be the ultimate in promoting submissive women to fall under the spell of brutes like Beauty and the Beast. While of course, Edward is a "good vampire," whose family is comprised of impossibly beautiful, mostly Nordic looking individuals who "sparkle" like diamonds in the sunlight (going against traditional lore that vampires die in the sun) and only feasts on the blood of animals-- repeatedly throughout the film, he proclaims how much he hungers for her blood. Still, for a vampire movie, there is very little action and the best staged scene involving vampire baseball is one of the lamest attempts to recreate the excitement of Harry Potter's Quidditch in years.

Yet, it's more concerned with a different kind of "action"-- specifically, not so subtle sexual tension with a heavy-handed and fantasy delivered abstinence message as Bella proves to be the aggressor, longing to make love with Edward, who refuses because he's afraid he'll lose control and harm or kill her. Needless to say, it should feel more sensual than it does but because the personalities of the characters are so poorly constructed, it managed to cause surprised laughs in places that were hoping to be deemed romantic. And granted, as a vampire Edward fares better and Meyer taps right into her tween market by crafting an impossibly handsome lead, even despite his slightly androgynous boy-band looking persona, the actor garnered impassioned squeals from his hormonal fan-base. Although he crawls through her window and eerily watches her sleep, he also who wants to formally meet Bella's father before taking her out, comes to her rescue at every single critical moment, plays piano for her, and shows her the beauty of Washington from a tree-top. Yet, while he's the stuff of Harlequin romance, Bella is a blank slate.

Stewart is a remarkably emotive young actress who always seems contemplative and in-tune with whatever character she's playing no matter how little time we spend with her onscreen whether it's trying to name all of the Beatles albums in Panic Room to stay calm and not go into diabetic shock or urge her mother Jodie Foster to curse at the home invaders or remain secretive about a sexual relationship with her father's business partner in What Just Happened, yet despite this, Bella remains a mystery in Twilight. Seldom given more than a complete sentence to utter at one time and being forced to mostly stammer like Hugh Grant in the early '90s, she hides her smile as well as her personality behind the clumsily stale script by Step Up screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. Without any real sense of her ambition or interest aside from chatting by phone with her mother and carrying a tiny cactus with her, Bella is basically a cardboard cut-out walking around until the male character makes her whole by singling her out for romance.

Although it's filled with a wonderful color palette of Earth tones including great usage of blues, browns, greens, and grays that match the Washington landscape (despite being filmed in Oregon) and some of the exquisite cinematography leaves you breathless and there's an awesome final "reveal" near the ending that is sure to cause more excitement and tension in the sequel, I was amazed by how unaffected I was by the film and how uninvolved I was with our leading lady. Luckily, I was assured by a few audience members who were Meyer devotees and also disappointed by the cinematic interpretation, who later pleaded with me to read the far superior series which I think I'd like to do, mostly out of curiosity to see if and how events and characters were developed in the text.

Yet, ultimately, the film felt as icy as Edward's temperature and I was troubled by some of its implications about the submissive and overly masochistic Bella character (despite a screenwriting joke that tries to trick us into thinking Edward was the masochistic one) as she begs him to "bite" her so that they can spend eternity together. Of course, it's supposed to add to the belief that they are star-crossed lovers and soul mates but Bella's complete willingness to subvert her entire identity (what little there is of course) is about as troubling as the news this year of the high school pregnancy pact.

Obviously, dating a vampire, Bella wouldn't have to worry yet about delivering a child, especially given their chaste relationship, and while there's no way to duplicate the spunk of Sarah Michelle Gellar's feminist Buffy character especially because it seems obvious that deeper tragedy will spring up in the next Twilight installments, by not giving us anything to care about onscreen, it makes it really hard for me to understand why so many young women say they identify so strongly with Bella... without being quite alarmed in regards to my gender.

While definitely, this could change if I read the book... unfortunately as a film critic, I'm only able to give you my evaluation of the movie as it stands alone. Of course, it will be no surprise that Twilight is sure to rake in the box office dollars (and for a female driven film directed and written by a woman based on a novel by a woman, I couldn't be happier), but I only wish that the fans had been delivered a product worthy of-- if not the book, ticket, and merchandise sales-- than the strain on their shrieking vocal chords alone.

DVD Review: Roman Holiday -- The Paramount Centennial Collection

Available in a 2-Disc Collectible Set
As Part of the Paramount Centennial Collection

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Initially intended to be filmed by iconic Italian-American director Frank Capra as a sort of re-imagined update of his Oscar winning 1930s screwball classic It Happened One Night and set to star Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor, Roman Holiday eventually lost all three of those attached. The first change occurred when Capra balked at working with blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and after Taylor was recast with the young, adorable Belgian newcomer Audrey Hepburn, the self-conscious Grant felt he was much too old to play her leading man.

Jumping ship and studio to Paramount where it would become one of the best loved films of not just the '50s for Paramount but helped garner the studio three more Oscars (including one for Hepburn), it's also become one of the most treasured romantic comedies of all time, finally earning the chance for eternal preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry where it was dubbed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1999.



While its similarities to It Happened One Night are definitely apparent, there's no mistaking the two works as-- where Night was screwball and distinctly American-- Holiday was fairy-tale rooted and far more exotic, blending together not just the Italian location but the Belgian actress Hepburn, her American costar Gregory Peck, and German born director William Wyler. Moreover, it's a free-spirited, wonderfully uplifting but startlingly bittersweet love story that uses the frame work of "what if," yet believably moves towards a logical conclusion that boy will lose girl after all.

Following a legendary screen test that found the camera still rolling as Hepburn eased out of her nervousness and spoke candidly about her life, she starred in the career making role at the tender age of twenty-four and followed up Holiday with a half dozen additional pictures for Paramount over the next decade. Although Grant had backed out but would later fall prey to Hepburn's charms onscreen in the classic caper comedy Charade, Peck jumped at the chance to trade in the cowboy boots and dramatic roles to try his hand at comedy for the first time, though later admitting that every hand-me-down screenplay in the romantic genre seemed to have "the fingerprints of Cary Grant on it."



However, after watching only twenty minutes of the film, it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role of American newspaperman Joe Bradley than "Mr. Integrity" himself and the man who would later become Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird-- namely, Mr. Peck. Bringing a no-nonsense angle to the role in a way that perhaps the suave and overtly smooth and sensuous Grant wouldn't have been easy to persuade viewers into buying quite as easily, we're fully invested in the characters by the time the two meet on a park bench under the Italian moonlight.

Shortly after it begins, Princess Ann (Hepburn)-- having become exhausted by her demanding European goodwill tour and endless scheduling commitments for speeches on "youth and progress" or "trade relations" falls into hysterics following a draining ball. After a tantrum where she pleads for her handlers to "let me die in peace," her kindly doctor gives her a sedative to calm her nerves and tells her to do what she'd like for awhile. Yet instead of falling quickly off to sleep, Ann takes that literally, wandering Italy alone in the middle of the night but when the shot kicks in full blast and she falls asleep, she's rescued by Bradley who doesn't feel right about leaving a young woman alone in such a state.



After a few unsuccessful attempts at trying to return her to her residence but realizing she is uncooperative, he grudgingly brings Ann back to his apartment where she finally gets the chance to wear pajamas and spends the night in a man's apartment for the first time (quite scandalous for the '50s although the film is remarkably chaste). It's only when he misses his appointment to interview the princess that Joe realizes that the princess who press releases are noting has fallen ill to avoid scandal is sound asleep back in his own apartment.

Deciding that he's going to deliver the story of a lifetime in revealing the private and most innermost thoughts of a princess, Joe misleads the young woman, now calling herself Anya Smith, by befriending her under the guise that he works in fertilizer and chemicals. Spending a memorable day with the young woman, Joe recruits his photographer friend Irving (a hilarious Eddie Albert) who uses a mini lighter cam to take candid photos of the girl unaware.



While of course, predictably the two fall in love as the adventure increases and they explore the most picturesque landmarks of Italy (which were filmed in black and white so as not to upstage the stars), the film impressively remains true to its characters, resulting in a finale that still manages to tug at our heartstrings today, no matter how many times we've seen the film and especially in the wake of the shocking death of Princess Diana in the late '90s.

The chemistry between the relative newcomer and Peck is unmistakable and Peck was so blown away by the beguiling young woman that in an unprecedented and admirable move (while typical for the ethical Peck yet unheard of in the ego and male driven Hollywood), he demanded that Audrey Hepburn either receive top billing or share equal billing in the opening credits as he realized-- before anyone-- how this would become the ultimate showcase for its star and that in the end, it's Ann's story after all.

Although it's not just a showcase but a sweeping sophisticated work and one of the few films set over the course of a little over a day that genuinely feels as compelling and authentic as it should as opposed to some of the gimmicky "real time" or "short time frame" films of today. And moreover, it's perhaps because of its pacing and the fact that it still feels a bit fresh in it's approach that-- although unsurprisingly to the film's cast and crew-- it's no wonder that those who encounter it for the first time find themselves enchanted right along with Peck by Hepburn's debut.



Exquisitely transferred to DVD as the second offering in the Paramount Centennial Collection, this two disc must-own collectible set comes with a booklet filled with photos and facts and additionally, like the other two films released in the Paramount series so far, also goes above and beyond most classics in serving up a cinematic feast of knowledge on the second disc.

In a thirty minute special "Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years," we get a biographical look at the star and her rise from a young woman in a war torn country whose system was ravaged by malnutrition who gave up her dream to become a ballerina and would later become one of the world's most recognizable actresses and fashion icons. In "Remembering Audrey," the anecdotes continue as family and close friends share their impressions of the woman she was away from the filmmaker's eye, either in her tireless charity work or in her devotion to others.

Touring Italy in "Rome with a Princess," we get another sense of the travelogue aspect of the film as we learn more about the landmarks used in Roman Holiday and there's another fascinating and richly deserved portrait of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo "From A-List to Blacklist" as it's only within the last two decades that he finally received the credit he deserved on this wonderful film as his widow was presented with an Oscar in 1993 and his name was digitally added in the opening titles, according to the press release.



Also including the popular "Paramount in the '50s- Retrospective Featurette," available on other titles, this disc's "Behind the Gates" segment fitting devotes its energy to the costuming department of the studio although most of the clothing discussed is too current and I wish more would have been elaborated on from this era, despite knowing that Hepburn received her entire Princess Anya/Ann Smith wardrobe. Likewise, I longed for a featurette on Peck who turns in a wonderfully understated comedic performance that gets funnier with each successive viewing, especially in his best scene opposite Hepburn and Eddie Albert when he keeps trying to prevent his friend from telling the princess of their true profession.



Also in a short but noteworthy bonus for film scholars, we're given a succinct roughly seven minute look at "Restoring Roman Holiday" as we're taught the difference between preservation and restoration and the process the craftsmen went through to bring this gorgeous film to its DVD glory in a way that which I'm sure those involved would've been proud.

Of course, while it's impossible to speak for Hepburn, Peck and Wyler-- speaking as an avid fan of Roman Holiday who counts it as one of her all-time favorite romantic comedies and one of the best Audrey Hepburn films, I can promise that although I've seen it so many times I can probably perform it from memory, it's never looked or sounded quite as amazing as in this set.

DVD Review: Walt Disney Treausres Wave VIII: Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1964)

Walt Disney Treasures: Wave VIII
Dr. Syn:
The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
(1964)

Available on DVD
(For a Limited Time)

“Books of adventure, suspense and mystery always have a special appeal for me when they're about real people—or based on a real person.”

-- Walt Disney

Inspired by the true events surrounding bands of smugglers who staged minor battles raiding supplies at night to combat their existence being taxed to death by King George and most likely equally influenced by The Scarlett Pimpernel-- author Russell Thorndike created the Robin Hood-like vicar Dr. Syn (played by Patrick McGoohan) who runs a parish by day and becomes a daring smuggler by night.

Donning a mask to become "The Scarecrow"and hiding his true identity from a vast majority of the community aside from his most-trusted sidekick Mipps (George Cole), Thorndike's character has become one of the most enduring in popular culture, inspiring Zorro and numerous other masked men, including possibly Batman or at least his villain also named The Scarecrow.

Originally conceived during a sleepless night where Thorndike and his sister comforted themselves following a murder in their hotel by telling stories to pass the time, his educated and polished Dr. Syn first appeared in print in 1915 and later caught the attention of book lover and adventure enthusiast Walt Disney. Utilizing the London satellite studio that Disney completed in the 195os-- viewers were first treated to a riveting and far more politically correct retelling in a three-part miniseries on his Wonderful World of Color program in 1964.

One of the most requested titles in the entire Disney catalog, fans have been longing for a DVD set for years but as Walt Disney Treasures co-creator and host, the Disney expert Leonard Maltin notes, due to the studio's reputation and demand for the highest of standards, they wanted to wait until they could present a version that is not only technologically awe-inspiring but also could recapture the way that the show looked both when it first aired and also when it was trimmed down into a popular feature-length film.

Taking great pains to remaster the film-- it's now presented in its widescreen glory and using the same original negatives and recorded master tapes so that the 2-disc set offers audiences the opportunity to relish in the 5.1 surround sound or stick with the monaural audio track for purists. And because of the film's emphasis on numerous night scenes and dark color schemes, the technical efforts put into the film were of the utmost importance to manage and recreate exactly what Disney filmmakers were going for at the time without brightening it or changing the exposure.

Also containing both the cropped and widescreen introductions to each episode by Walt Disney himself in a series of promos that manage to capture his enthusiasm for the project and convey his ambition to offer viewers a grand tale of escapism and adventure, history buffs and those who want to look deeper into Syn will also want to seek out some of the bonus features including a great sixteen minute mini-documentary on the history of the Scarecrow/Syn legend. With historians and literary experts arguing about the multi-faceted layers of a tale that “on the suface...[seems to be] a story of high adventure,” but love and compassion run throughout as well as the intriguing presentation of a hero unafraid to serve up his dark side, they also note that he has “all the elements of a villain." Yet, interestingly for a hero, he is on the side of justice and the common man, urging them to rise up against oppressors like King George and join forces with Americans also seeking sedition.

View a Video Clip

Boasting a wonderful performance by its leading actor and with all of the Disney departments working in tandem to bring audiences a rich and literary work of excitement and drama-- admittedly the three part series may best amuse the die-hard devotees but the feature-length film (named Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow) on Disc 2 is just as riveting and exciting as Zorro and Robin Hood. A Disney creation of which I was unfamiliar and one with a theme song destined to stick in your head-- the release of Romney is also coming at a time that would no doubt intrigue its fictitious character as again we as a people are struggling to feed and clothe our families.

While of course, it's not recommended to "Go Scarecrow" or become an avenger, the idea that citizens can stand up for themselves and exercise their first amendment right as well as the right to peaceful assembly is one we're seeing again and again today. And although thankfully, we no longer have to hide behind masks, I'm sure we'd all love to have a theme song half as cool as Dr. Syn's.

The Singing Revolution (2006)

A Film By

James & Maureen Tusty

Click Here to Order the Collector's Edition
Now Available
Exclusively through the Website

Or

Pre-Order the Standard Edition DVD
(Available 2/2009 through Amazon)

Whether you're a parent, student, or concerned citizen-- the next time you get word that your local school district is in favor of cutting out arts and music programs (while per usual, leaving the physical education and sports departments unscathed from the budgetary axe), you may want to drop this wonderful three disc set in the mail and address it to the attention of lawmakers, superintendents, and basically anyone you know in a power position.

Guaranteed to leave a lasting impression as well as educate viewers on a topic that-- while in the news-- is woefully underrepresented in K-12 textbooks and 20th century history, this incredibly moving documentary by husband and wife filmmaking team James and Maureen Tusty recounts the agonizing struggle for the nation of Estonia to declare its rightful independence from hundreds of years of invading countries. A beautiful and highly coveted stretch of land that serves as a veritable Baltic sea gateway between Russia and Europe, for centuries, the small but proud country has faced annihilation, usurpers, violence and staggering attacks by neighboring countries all eager to retain control.

One of three Baltic states along with Lithuania and Latvia who endured the occupation of both Nazi and Soviet forces during the last century following the illegal Molotov-Ribbentrop pact negotiated by madmen Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin in 1939, the film chronicles the plight of its patriotic, proud, and incessantly patient people. Having been a short-lived independent European State in 1918, the Molotov-Ribbentrop passage put an end to their progress of economic prosperity, high rates of literacy, and success when the Soviets crossed the border in 1939 killing a thousand and shipping more than ten thousand off to slave labor camps in the Siberian Gulag. After they withdrew upon the arrival of the Nazis who later left as well, the Soviets returned and occupied Estonia for fifty years, ravaging the country wherein, after 5,000 years of living on their own soil, Estonians as a people almost ceased to exist.

Yet they remained strong and survived as some fled with the hopes to return when their nation was free, others retreated to join an underground resistance group in the woods called the "Forest Brothers," and family members were separated, imprisoned, killed, released and then the cycle continued onward. However, there was one tradition that began in 1869 that managed to rile their spirit that Estonia kept throughout the disarray-- namely the decision that every five years, citizens from all over the country traveled for miles to sing in The Song Festival, named "Laulupidu," which helped inspire greater solidarity. Likewise, it served a dual purpose in leading a subtle, nonviolent revolution that propelled them towards their inevitable stand against the communist forces until their reestablishment as an independent nation in 1991.

Proudly joining hands and voices to perform the songs of their land including their unofficial national anthem "Land Of My Fathers, Land That I Love," which derived from a century old Estonian poem-- the festival was a defiant act against their Soviet leaders. Likewise, their bold display of wondrous, harmonious civil disobedience in celebrating the one hundred year anniversary of the start of the festival re-energized the nation for the first time since what was deemed "The Year of Suffering," when the actions of Hitler and Stalin's forces forever changed the Estonian, European, and Soviet landscape.

In this stirring retelling, clocking in at roughly one hundred minutes which was released to rave critical reviews, the Tusty's have crafted a film that celebrates the importance of culture, unity, and using one's intellect as the ultimate weapon against oppressors. Filled with firsthand accounts, interviews, rare and archived news footage from all sides (including propagandist films from the former Soviet Union), this three-disc set available only through their website comes complete with a thirty-two page instructor guide and two additional DVDs containing more than four hours of heart-wrenching interviews, thirty printable historical documents, seven newsreels spanning two decades, fifteen maps of the area from 180 A.D.-1997, Estonian History Timelines, filmmaker commentary and more-- it's a must own historical and inspiring work that would augment twentieth century and global history classroom curricula.

While in my own experience, a majority of the curriculum spent on World War II history fails to look far beyond the attack on Pearl Harbor and experience in Nazi Germany, it's all too easy to forget how that horrific war shook up the entire globe and while this Collector's Edition 1.0 set focuses explicitly on Estonia, one must keep in mind that Lithuania and Latvia were undergoing similar hardships as the three countries linked together to form a human chain in a stunning act of resistance just before they were finally freed following the Gorbachev coup and Yeltsin's takeover.

One of those simply remarkable and increasingly rare documentaries that transcends the filmmaking medium to become not just a movie but an incredibly vital historical document, The Singing Revolution deserves a greater audience and a permanent place in library, museums, and educational institutions. And more than just by offering a terrific overview of the country's events and the reverence for its brace people, it also begs numerous questions throughout in its narration by Linda Hunt as viewers begin to question just how countries would react to such oppression today not to mention my disappointment with the complete lack of knowledge I'd received on the situation in my K-12 education.

Perhaps, in taking away our arts and music programs and in favor of standardized testing, the educational curriculum began growing much more narrow in its scope. And while of course, the athletic department never suffered, the release of this DVD helps augment our education and hopefully with enough of a push from well-meaning viewers, parents, students, and community members-- the history of the former Soviet Union (as well as study of numerous other parts of the globe) will also find its way into middle and high school classrooms.

And while I may be guilty of idealism, picking up the DVD (either in the collector's set or in the regular edition 2009 Amazon pre-order) and recommending it to others definitely won't hurt and moreover-- think of it as a cinematic revolution, if you will... unless, of course, you'd like to use the booklet to learn Estonia's unofficial national anthem.

TV on DVD: The Odd Couple - The Final Season

In his essay, “Portrait of the Writer as a Schizophrenic,” which kicked off the first volume of his collected plays, Neil Simon described the irritating intellectual division most writers face as both “human beings” whom he admitted were rather dull and “observers” who reap the benefits of everyone’s quirks for literary fodder all the while hoping not to get caught in the act of artistic identity theft.

In relating a horrific argument he’d had with his wife wherein suddenly after a slew of insults, she hurled a frozen veal chop at his eye, Simon notes that suddenly he found himself going into writer mode and mentally tucking away the incident “for future use.” “A strange phenomenon,” Simon reasoned, “this two-headed monster who finds himself totally involved in situations, and then suddenly without warning steps back to watch the proceedings.” Confessing that it’s predominant in writers and especially those who work in the realm of comedy writing, Simon finally surmised, “Like the werewolf, that half-man, half-beast, I have had to come to grips with the frightening but indispensable truth: I am a creature controlled by some cruel fate that had twisted and warped my personality so that at the first sign of personal involvement, I became transformed from human being into the most feared and dangerous beast on earth, the observer-writer,” (p. 4).

Yet, it’s perhaps because of this comical ability to observe and digest the most absurd events around him that have made the work of Neil Simon still some of the most accessible and popular contemporary works of the last five decades. Whether it’s a madness, a gentle schizophrenia that can drive those around him batty, or his innate ability to look past the mundane to dig out the funny, one can seldom flip on a television, go to the theatre, or take part in any aspect of pop culture without seeing some reference to his work, whether it’s an homage to Barefoot in the Park on Gossip Girl or various interpretations of his plays, yet the one that seems to resonate the most is at its most basic, Simon’s simplest—The Odd Couple.

The basis for all of comedy—put two characters in a room where one wants one thing and the other does not and you have a show and it’s this constant tug-of-war (not unlike the one endured by writers) that makes for something compelling, authentic, and endlessly entertaining. From Joey and Chandler on Friends to the quartet on Seinfeld, the amoral, misanthropic bar gang on the hilarious It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the characters on Two and a Half Men, Michael’s relationship with any of the Bluth family on Arrested Development, or any number of series—the fingerprints of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison as well as their creator, Mr. Neil Simon are everywhere.

Originally written as a play before it became a successful film starring America’s favorite Grumpy Old Men, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, later Simon’s Odd Couple would go on to evolve into a female stage version, an African-American version on television, yet none would become more popular than the original television series which ran for five years on ABC. Although it suffered from low ratings and constant schedule shuffling during its inclusion in the primetime schedule from 1970 to ’75 and the first season filled with loathsome canned laughter and a cinematic one-camera production style hampered it creatively, when it hit it stride, it felt as fresh and entertaining as a night watching Simon’s play from the front row of any of a dozen theatres in America where no doubt it’s playing tonight.

Once the show developed into a three-camera style televised stage play filmed in front of a live-studio audience, helping recreate the theatrical effect in a way that made the actors freer and more irresistible in this case as opposed to the risk of going too broad, The Odd Couple became an excellent comedy training ground. With a strong behind-the-scenes group in executive producer Garry Marshall, his sister Penny Marshall turning in a supporting role as Oscar’s secretary, and excellent writers who would go on to create further comedy gold including Jerry Belson, Jerry Paris, Harvey Miller, Bob Brunner, Mark Rothman, and Lowell Ganz, The Odd Couple seemed to be at the peak of its powers in its fifth and final season, releasing this week from CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment.

With the unforgettable Emmy award-winning actors Jack Klugman as the persistently grumpy Oscar (in the Matthau part) and the irreplaceable Tony Randall filling Lemmon’s shoes as Felix Unger—always the scene stealer and center of the show—the twenty-two episode fifth season arrives on three digitally remastered discs. With an amusingly retro cameo by Rob Reiner (Penny Marshall’s then-husband) as her boyfriend in the first episode, the series gets off to a funny if slightly insider-like slow start as Felix and Oscar take it upon themselves to remake the frumpy Myrna (Marshall) into marriage material but it grows stronger with the next four successive episodes.

When Oscar’s bullying and pressure on talented bowler Felix results in his wish to withdraw from their team the Bon Vivantes, the two feud into predictable silence (a regular gag in the series) but later team up to try and replace a missing frog belonging to Felix’s son in one of those up-all-night comical misadventure episodes, until Felix’s tendency towards obsession alienates everyone in Tinsletown in a fun episode called “The Hollywood Story.”

Alternating from pratfalls to highbrow comedy as the two reason they should patch things up since our country talked to China and Russia or in exaggerating Oscar’s temper, Felix lies that, “the man slapped Fellini,” The Odd Couple also made great usage of its supporting players. And while numerous stars came and went, there was no greater cast-mate for perpetual go-to laughs than Al Molinaro’s Murray the Cop, their none-too-bright man in blue, poker buddy who finally gets to save the day in the hysterical “Two Men on a Hoarse,” which find both halves of The Odd Couple unable to speak.

While Klugman never truly got the opportunity to showcase his range in the series as Oscar is pretty one-dimensional, the lifeblood of the series seemed to be in his pitch-perfect chemistry with Randall who truly seemed willing to break his legs for a laugh as he delivered monologues about trivial cleaning ingredients, tripped over objects, sang, danced, wore some of the most ghastly and campy attire on record, yet managed to be the heart and soul of the series in his genuinely loving and supportive relationship with his best friend.

Additionally, it appears to be the type of series that must have been as enjoyable to make as it is to watch as the men find themselves in the most ridiculous situations from Felix kidnapping a dog, to having to lead a square dance or help stage a rent strike and Oscar making so many jokes about New York that the two set out to try and prove the rudeness stereotype wrong (in another one of the show’s endless bets by gambling addicted Oscar).

And while the last episode seems a bit slapped together as Felix finally gets the happy reunion with his ex-wife, I’d defy anyone to watch without getting a bit misty as the two men say their final goodbyes. And although we can always keep it going in its increasingly popular syndication as well as through Paramount’s beautifully packaged and high quality DVD set (nicely as compact as a single DVD), despite zero extras, it’s great fun for aspiring comedy writers to view again and again critically in order to fully appreciate the incredibly witty dialogue as well as the nuanced portrayals by our leads.

Multi-layered and far hipper than one would assume—while for most shows, going “stagey” would be the kiss of death (save for Cheers which seemed to always exist at that same primary location), it works infinitely well for The Odd Couple in taking the Jekyll and Hyde aspects of Simon’s witty play and bringing them to life both conversationally and physically in the writing and performance. Thus in the end, it makes us feel as schizophrenic as Simon himself as we’re half-human and half-observers, falling in and out of hysterics and stepping back to dissect just what it is that makes it so damn funny.

Although, it’d be easy too make dismissive assumptions and say it was precisely this or precisely that, one shouldn’t because in the phrase that was first uttered by Randall’s Felix, “don’t assume, because when you assume, you make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me.’” Plus, it’s much too fun to become the observer-writer, storing up inspiration for future use and when Marshall, Randall, and Klugman were involved, you know you’ll have enough good stuff to keep you laughing for a long, long while.

New on DVD for the Week of 11/16/08

DVD Pick of the Week:

Priceless

Lucky Number Slevin [Blu-ray]

Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years

The Odd Couple: The Final Season

Priceless

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

The Third Man [Blu-ray]

Tropic Thunder

WALL-E


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DVD Review: WALL-E (3-Disc Special Edition)

On DVD November 18

In honor of this week's DVD & Blu-ray release of Pixar's incredible animated film, WALL-E, I'm offering you an insider's view of the DVD that Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Pixar Animation Studios were kind enough to send my way. However, before I go into the DVD features, first I'll serve up an excerpt of my original theatrical review of WALL-E, originally published on July 6, 2008.

WALL-E
Directed by Andrew Stanton

"Although most of us run from fix-ups, even if they are preferable in my humble opinion to speed-dating, matchmaking websites, and singles bars, imagine what a tough sell it would be to try and set up a friend like WALL-E. The pitch would have to be well-rehearsed but would most likely go something like this: “I know this great guy. Well, he’s self-employed which in our technology driven society is really impressive… oh, well, technically he’s in waste allocation, actually. He loves movies—Hello Dolly is his favorite and he listens to show-tunes all day. Yes, I’m sure he likes females. Other hobbies? Well, he collects things… oh, um sporks, Rubik’s Cubes, bras, bowling pins, Zippo lighters. Personality? Well, he’s someone of few words, kind of a loner… no, actually, he doesn’t really have any friends but you just know he’s one of the good ones. Wait-- where are you going?”

Needless to say, if WALL-E lived in today’s society and not seven hundred years in the future, he’d be the prime candidate to star in a modern remake of the Ernest Borgnine classic Marty. If you know, it was animated by those wizards at Pixar who by now probably have so many awards that they could possibly build an entire studio out of gold. There’s just something instantly huggable about the titular lead character in their latest film WALL-E that turns viewers into the office busybody, the over-eager relative or worse, those smug married friends who all just want to see this adorable Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Class robot find himself a nice robotic girl already. And while we’re at it, hopefully a fellow movie buff unafraid of director Gene Kelly’s less-than-stellar 1969 Barbra Streisand film Hello Dolly and someone with whom WALL-E can roam his bleak, deserted, overwhelmingly trash filled, sun-drenched and beige version of Earth set seven hundred years in the future where rampant consumerism and greed have taken the color out of everything with nary a blue sky, crystal clear lake, or flower, and one in which humankind abandoned years earlier to live blissfully ignorant, fat and happy reaping the benefits of virtual reality in space."
(Click Here to Read the Rest of the Review)

The 3-Disc Special Edition DVD

With a bonus third disc that contains a DisneyFile Digital Copy that's compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media Player allowing you to bring the film with you on your laptop or portable video device (like the newest generations of iPods), the true overwhelmingly impressive content of the set is spread out over two state-of-the-art discs.

Overall, it features-- as director Andrew Stanton noted in the press release-- documentaries and behind-the-scenes content that "are treated like an AFI special [wherein the Pixar employees]... explain and talk about these things at the level that we talk about them day to day." These were made via Pixar Studio's "in-house DVD department," which lets viewers inside the offices of that amazing studio in order to give us "a huge scope of how much knowledge and talent goes into "every aspect of making an animated film as highly complicated and intellectually challenging as WALL-E.

With a crystal-clear transfer of the film on Disc 1 which also contains a promo clip, trailers, feature-length filmmaker commentary, deleted scenes, and Presto the original animated short which preceded the film, two of the major standouts on Disc 1 come in the form of one of those terrifically detailed documentaries which focuses on "Animation Sound Design" with Star Wars veteran and master sound-man Ben Burtt as well as the brand new, knock-em-dead short BURN-E.

With BURN-E, a new character who like our beloved trash compactor also fulfills a duty, with BURN's being as a repairman, we're treated to an imaginative and ingeniously hilarious action packed and old school blend of comedy and musical choreography reminiscent of the Disney heyday as BURN-E who loves Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as much as WALL-E cherishes "Hello Dolly" keeps getting interrupted by our mischievous garbage-bot mid-repair. With tools flying off into space and his nerves wearing thin, Stanton's love of both classic Disney animation as well as the work of Kubrick shines through as we encounter a 2001: A Space Odyssey homage in a short that not only was good enough to have been included somehow in the theatrical film but also would've helped aid in WALL-E's overly sluggish, dark, and dissatisfying finale of the otherwise brilliant Pixar movie.

Additionally, Ben Burtt's behind-the-scenes struggles to create every single sound effect from the voices of the nearly silent characters Eve and WALL-E to each individual beep and squeak is a fascinating film-school quality featurette that celebrates the history of the Disney sound department as we're taken behind-closed-doors to look at the wondrous artifacts from rain machines and more but also a tribute to our limitless imagination as Burtt toys with a slinky and other everyday devices used in unpredictable ways to create what on the surface seems to be a cacophony of sound but somehow blended together makes the memorable universe of WALL-E. Admitting that it took a full year just to find the right sounds for the main characters, the tireless work from the sound department which is made much harder when working in the realm of animation instead of live action and twice that when the characters seldom speak, is in the end described as consisting of tens of thousands of decisions to ultimately lead to the acceptance of thousands of sounds that when played together help make or break each and every scene that makes it an overall whole.

View a Sound Featurette from MovieWeb

While the second disc is divided into two different menus for film fans or for families and contains so many extras that you could spend days delving into each and every one, by far the most impressive inclusion in the lot was the award-winning director Leslie Iwerks's compelling roughly ninety minute documentary The Pixar Story. Fascinating enough that it could've been released theatrically or at least been submitted into numerous film festivals, it's a wonderful portrait of the approximately twenty year history of the animation studio that chronicles the lives and professional involvement of its three key players-- John Lassetter, a Disney lover who would go onto direct the wildly successful Toy Story, computer and physics genius Ed Catmull who blended together science and programming with animation as he became not only responsible for the first use of 3D in a live action 2D film but also helped transform George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd., as well as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who met up with the Pixar men at precisely the right time, believing in their ability and becoming their greatest financial advocate and backer in a relationship that still holds strong today.

Weaving in history of animation and especially the men's love of the classic Disney cartoons that inspired them, along with great insider tales about life at CalArts studying alongside future Disney animators turned filmmakers including Tim Burton and Brad Bird as they were mentored by the lovingly dubbed "Nine Old Men," who helped establish the distinctly Disney emphasis of injecting emotion into hand-drawn images, it's a gripping and passionate piece of filmmaking.

The Pixar Story also recounts some of the checkered history between Pixar and Disney when animators were scared to death that 3D and computer animation would make the exquisite hand-drawn lines of the Disney studio obsolete as people began losing jobs in a technological shakeup and Lassetter was let go when his mind and imagination for the blending of animation and technology proved far too daring to his parent studio.

Additionally containing some great personal anecdotes from others associated like George Lucas who was always at the forefront, embracing computer potential before it was hip, along with interviews with Lassetter's wife who had to share her husband with the overwhelming demands of Pixar, above all it's an ode to the power of imagination and the oft-repeated thesis that Lassetter notes in that "art challenges technology and technology inspires the art," as so many diverse talents came together whether they were computer PhDs or animators to fully embrace a new exciting medium of filmmaking.

A must-see for anyone who owns more than one Pixar film (and I'd venture to say that'd be basically every DVD owner) as well as aspiring artists and history buffs-- much like Disc 1's short film BURN-E, Disc 2's The Pixar Story is not only worth the investment but incredible enough that one wished they would've been included either as a double feature with WALL-E or somehow more been made more accessible to audiences without DVD or Blu-ray players.

A beautifully crafted set, despite some clumsy packaging that's a bit frustrating for those whose hands are bigger than WALL-E's as the discs open out sideways, WALL-E is nonetheless packaged to be as efficient and compact as the little, adorable main character himself and sure to capture even more hearts when you can bring him home.

Recent Additions & 4 New Polls (11/16/08)

We're now taking requests-- voice your opinions for what you'd like to see by taking the polls in our Video Screening Room & Trailer & Photo Gallery. And for 2 bonus topical entries, check out the new biweekly polls in our Review Database and Jen's P.O.V. Page.

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Web Series on DVD: Prom Queen (2007)

Now on DVD:

Whether you use the term cliques, the “in-crowd,” the popular groups, the “A-listers,” “mean girls,” or Queen Bees-- every American woman who survived high school is instantly familiar with that certain breed of young teenage female whose effortless beauty, tendency towards gossip and back-stabbing, ability to turn men into slobbering puppies, and willingness to do whatever it takes to be the leader of her pack made her the girl to fear, envy, loathe, or worship in every generation.

While they made our lives a living hell-- unless you were one of them (and if so, your four year reign is over, so move on)-- and generally gave our sex a bad name by living up to every stereotype in the book whether it was toying with the emotions of weaker girls to build themselves up, playing tricks on others, or stealing any boy that had the audacity to fall for another girl in the clique, the idea of the Queen Bee or high school version of Lady Macbeth is the stuff of operatic soap operas.

And it's no wonder that it keeps cropping up in popular culture whether it's the bad girls who never got over their high school years in daytime soaps or the young, wealthy Upper East Siders in the hit CW series Gossip Girl-- there's nothing like a bad girl we hate to love and love to hate that manages to capture our attention, especially because now with a screen separating us along with the lines of fiction and reality securely in place, they can no longer injure. No, instead, they entertain as we secretly root for both their demise and their good fortune, torn emotionally in our response to characters like the talented Leighton Meester's interpretation of Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl or Natalie Zea's wonderfully witty Karen Darling on Dirty Sexy Money.

For Michael Eisner's first big project following his departure from Disney where he served as the CEO and with the major release by his brand new media production company Vuguru, he tapped right into this demographic and appetite for the Shakespearean tales of the bitchy Queen Bees with his groundbreaking and creatively daring venture into online filmmaking, aptly named Prom Queen. Queen also has the prestigious distinction of becoming the first “studio” backed serialized drama crafted specifically for the internet. Working in tandem with Big Fantastic on the production side (who'd been behind the series SamHas7Friends), this Emmy nominated smash hit which premiered directly on MySpace on April 1, 2007 soon captured the attention of tens of millions of viewers who tuned into see the latest “video diary” styled entry in the twelve-week run.

View The Trailer


Prom Queen Series Trailer - Funny videos are here

Also airing on ElleGirl.com, the show's official website, and YouTube through Veoh Networks and brilliantly widening its appeal with official character pages on MySpace and additional footage, pics, and clips to tap right into its net savvy demographic, the 80 episode series which was released in succinct yet addictive 90 second installments was in such demand that a fifteen episode mini-arc spin-off called Summer Heat followed the first season and recent confirmation online has revealed that not only is the first season being remade in Tokyo for Japanese audiences but also Michael Eisener has confirmed that there will be a third installment of Prom for its devotees.

Now conveniently releasing both Prom Queen Season One along with Summer Heat in an equally high quality transfer to a 2-Disc DVD from Shout! Factory, viewers including those clueless film fans nearing their thirties who feel a bit too old for the MySpace platform are able to watch them all unfold in quick, irresistible succession without having to hunt down each clip or wait for slow net connections or sit in uncomfortable computer chairs. Although it doesn't shake its made-for-the-web feel on DVD, like Gossip Girl which also thrives on the latest technology, it feels entirely timely and urgent.

Additionally, I think the DVD release benefits the deceptively ADD styled show as it gets increasingly complicated as it evolves. Beginning with a series of eerie episodes that alternate from fun YouTube styled clips to ones that stay with you like that tape from The Ring, we're introduced to a group of senior students at the fictitious Edwards Adams High School. In the final few months nearing both graduation and prom, instead of the caps and tassels, the thing that seems to be on everyone's minds is the gowns and the crown as five young women will find themselves nominated for prom queen.

While certain girls like the overtly flirtatious Nikki, the dysfunctional Lauren who struggles to live up to her mother's image as a former Prom Queen, and the beautiful yet secretive Courtney seem like sure bets, other surprise contenders begin to creep up including the British foreign exchange student named Danica who does a bulk of the filming to capture her American experience, and the bright daughter of an Iraqi soldier named Sadie who masquerades as an “emo-outsider” but is much more Molly Ringwald than Ally Sheedy deep down.

Further complicating matters and giving the show a subtle teen horror movie vibe that resonates throughout occurs fairly early on in the first episode as Danica wakes up in the yard and upon finding the camera rolling says “oh no,” in a way that immediately haunts the viewer likewise when Ben, Sadie's brother who has always been known as “the best friend” or nice guy instead of the boyfriend, receives a threatening text message telling him that he will kill the prom queen. A genuine good guy-- it seems to be the last thing we'd expect of Ben yet more anonymous text messages, videos, instant messages and e-mails follow as secrets are spilled among the group of more than a dozen characters (some of whom are initially hard to keep straight as-- much like this reviewer-- the casting director obviously had a thing for dark haired men) and other subplots fascinate and infuriate.

Much more titillating and shocking than Gossip Girl-- there's plenty in Prom Queen to horrify parents everywhere as one girl abuses pills, another embraces self-mutilation, one girl seems to be blackmailed into appearing on an adult site, one male character lives in a shoddy motel hiding out from a past straight out of Film Noir involving a gun and briefcase filled with cash, and another guy has a mysterious pink phone that connects him with an entirely unexpected plot that moves it into the world of effective melodrama.

While the Scream 2 styled finale does feel a bit rushed and Summer Heat fails to engross on the same level as Prom Queen since it seems to stick the remaining characters into a none-too-effective cliched Hollywood plot, it's best when it stays true to its MySpace, YouTube, blogging, current technology roots that tackle issues facing teens today and worst when it tries to compete with the creatively challenged Hollywood films being forced down the throats of teenagers at the multiplex.



And while I'm still not certain I completely understand or fully buy its Keyser Soze-ish "a-ha" moment as the ultimate villain is finally unmasked at the end of Prom Queen to a slightly unsatisfactory result (perhaps due to its summation having to occur in the 90 second framework), it's still compelling, easy to get lost in, and incredibly watchable. Yet, most importantly, it also promises truly exciting online ventures in the future. With the current economy and competitive entertainment market as corporations try to test the waters and distract their target demographic from all sides with video games like Guitar Hero, feature films, television shows, MP3s, books and more-- it's great to see such an above average, low-budget, intellectually stimulating work of amazing bravery from Eisner, the show's ingenious and hard-working writers and directors along with its instantly relatable young cast members whose unknown status manages to get us to buy right into their plights as though they were the struggles of real teens airing their complaints, triumphs, and failures on the world wide web.

With a second disc of bonus features and more in-depth video blogs from the characters, Shout's excellent DVD release is certain to garner more fans who, like yours truly, weren't on the internet wavelength and hopefully inspire more creative work to appear online whether they're from a studio like Eisner's Vuguru or made by a group of talented high school and college students who band together to bring the level of entertainment they crave directly to the audience in the wonderful democratic equalizer of high-speed technology.

Of course, this begs the question of whether or not shows like Prom Queen will soon make regular theatre going obsolete and while I certainly doubt that, I definitely welcome the challenge and any opportunity to bring more voices to a diverse world tired of being presented with the same spoon-fed choices again and again. Long live the Prom Queen.

DVD Review: Walt Disney Treausres Wave VIII: The Mickey Mouse Club Presents "Annette" (1957-1958 Season)

Walt Disney Treasures: Wave VIII
The Mickey Mouse Club Presents Annette
(1957-1958 Season)

Available on DVD
(For a Limited Time)

During a Burbank, California ballet recital in 1955 that found the twelve year old Italian-American ballerina Annette Funicello performing Swan Lake, Walt Disney became enchanted by the young girl and global history was made. "I'd like to meet the little dark-haired girl. Bring her to the studio," Walt requested following the show and thus began the adorable Annette's induction as one of the original members of his popular television series, The Mickey Mouse Club.

The only Mouseketeer handpicked by the studio head himself and undoubtedly the most popular cast member in the history of the long running show, the sweet yet incredibly shy Annette Funicello soon skyrocketed to the status of a young teen idol. Ultimately receiving 6,000 fan letters per month and later going on to star in numerous Mouseketeer serials, Annette Funicello also appeared in this twenty-episode classic named after its star that is captured in this wonderfully nostalgic, collectible tin as part of the latest wave of Walt Disney Treasures. In the series, Funicello further made Disney history by singing "How Will I Know My Love" which received such a wonderful reception by viewers that Disney later signed the young girl to a musical contract, despite her fear that she wasn't much of a singer.

That number, along with numerous other beloved moments from the 1957-1958 Annette serial are included in the digitally masted vintage monaural track to recreate the show as it aired fifty years ago. Hosted by the Walt Disney Treasures series co-creator and Disney expert Leonard Maltin-- the critic's enthusiasm and knowledge of the material throughout all three Treasures sets is downright scholarly as he breathlessly rattles off endless facts so quickly it's hard to keep up without rewinding it again and again. While there's many intriguing extras such as a lovely ode to Annette's career and life including her private battle with M.S. which compelled the actress to open the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders at the California Community Foundation in 1993 called "To Anette With Love," for fans of Disney history and those who fondly recall the show like my very own mother, there's no substitute for the episodes themselves.

Although, admittedly they're a bit overly simplistic by today's standards, it's a tailor-made special crafted completely to appeal to Annette's fans and showcase the darling girl that captured Walt's heart. Described as both a "mentor... [and] almost... second father," by her good friend and fellow Mouseketeer Sharon Baird, Disney's relationship with Annette flourished throughout their work together, whether it was helping encourage her to keep her "virginal image" in the numerous popular beach movies she made with Frankie Avalon in the '60s or giving her a sweet sixteen birthday present of a three-episode story arc in Zorro because of her hopeless crush on the show's star Guy Williams.

Encouraging Annette to believe in herself whether it was discouraging her from changing her ethnic last name to something more "American" sounding and easier to pronounce as he showed his appreciation for her heritage by allowing her to "narrate the 5-part travel serial Italian Correspondent on the first season of The Mickey Mouse Club," or telling her not to try and combat her shyness with therapy, Walt's endless refrain was to stay true to herself since otherwise "Then you wouldn't be Annette; that wouldn't be you."

In staying true to Annette or Walt Disney's idealized version of the young girl loved by millions, in this Mickey Mouse Club serial spin-off, The Pokey Little Puppy children's book author Janette Sebring Lowrey's novel Margaret was adapted specifically for its young star. However, initially it was to co-star Annette along with Spin and Marty Mouseketeer Darlene Gillespie but soon rewrites and shakeups found Annette and Darlene turning instead to Annette's solo vehicle.

Ultimately, renamed Annette, the easily relatable and still identifiable plot-line centers on a young country girl named Annette MacLeod (Funicello) who goes to live with her estranged aunt and uncle in the city. Finding it hard to adapt to her new surroundings following rural life as the fast-living and cliquish city kids including the insecure, rude, popular and wealthy Laura (played in what couldn't have been an easy role by Roberta "Jymme" Shore) tries to discourage others to befriend her.

View A Clip

And soon Annette's transition is further complicated when Laura's necklace goes missing and she tries to finger Annette as the thief. Of course, viewers know that sweet Annette would never do such a thing and the story evolves into a mystery until the aptly named concluding twentieth episode "The Mystery is Solved" which aired on March 7, 1958 completing the plot arc and finding everything tied up nicely. Along the way, of course, there are some terrific musical numbers and Mouseketeer enthusiasts will want to look for favorites like Funicello's good friend Sharon Baird, also Spin and Marty stars Tim Considine and David Stollery along with Doreen Tracy, and Shelley Fabares.

While it's a bit dated and some will find it a bit too corny to live up to today's standards, for devotees, it's a wonderfully wholesome set, complete with the added bonus of including the first and last episodes of The Mickey Mouse Club and another special called "Musically Yours, Annette" which was derived from Funicello's '92 interview as she fondly recalls her recording career in a mini-documentary which manages to work in great candid interviews by her "fellow teen idols Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon and Fabian."

An earnest, sentimental and feel-good salute to the woman who brought smiles to everyone who encountered her onscreen or in real life, however it's also one that makes for sometimes emotional viewing considering concern about her health today. Still, it's vintage, excellent Disney with a lovable Mouse Club of kids who gleefully wished upon a star and did much more with their lives than some of my generation's Mouseketeers and former Disney idols who instead have found arrests and child custody battles clouding their legacy instead of the charm and grace possessed by Annette who humbly notes on the DVD that she owes everything to those Mouseketeer ears.

However, I think it's safe to argue that any child of the baby-boomer generation would say that the ears would've been nothing had they not been worn by Annette Funicello, the young Italian-American girl with a great big heart.

DVD Review: Sabrina (1954) -- The Paramount Centennial Collection

Available in a Deluxe Collectible 2-Disc Set
From the Paramount Centennial Collection

Own It:

Click Here to View Video Clips from the Film

On Audrey Hepburn:

"That's the element X that people have, or don't have. You can meet somebody and you can be enchanted, and then you photograph them and it's nothing. But she had it. And there will not be another. She exists forever, in her time. You cannot duplicate her, or take her out of her era. ... She started something new, she started something classy. But no actress should be expected to be Audrey Hepburn. That dress by Mr. Givenchy has already been filled."

--Billy Wilder
As quoted from Cameron Crowe's book
Conversations With Wilder (pg. 52)

In the third release from Paramount's gorgeously packaged 2-Disc DVD Centennial Collection offerings, serving up some of their most acclaimed and best loved films-- following Sunset Boulevard (#1) and Roman Holiday (#2), we encounter Audrey Hepburn in her second American film. The quintessential Hepburn film-- a Cinderella story or Ugly Duckling Story (although nobody could ever use those words to describe Ms. Hepburn)-- master writer/director Billy Wilder adapted Samuel Taylor's play Sabrina Fair along with Ernest Lehman and managed to give it his unique brand of sharp wit, edge, and Ernst Lubitsch inspired charm.

While being a product of my generation, my first introduction to Sabrina was by way of Sydney Pollack's gorgeously photographed color remake, updated for the '90s with the lovely Julia Ormond (whom Wilder told Crowe he disliked), Harrison Ford, and Greg Kinnear. However, as someone who cherishes Hepburn, especially after I read numerous biographies and realized the grace behind the beauty, I was curious to seek out the original. And although it's not my favorite Hepburn film, perhaps due to its wickedly dark set-up which finds the young chauffeur's daughter, Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn) so in love with the playboy bachelor David Larrabee (William Holden) that she attempts suicide as well as what Crowe described as the incessantly "sour disposition of Humphrey Bogart," it's a sophisticated romantic comedy that I've grown fonder of over time.

Framing it as a modern fairy tale, the young chauffeur's daughter leaves her father and residence living above the garage on the gorgeous and sprawling Larrabee's North Shore Long Island estate for cooking lessons in Paris, where she falls under the kindly tutelage of a baron who remakes her into Audrey 2.0, the Givenchy attired version complete with another updated, chic haircut (similar to Roman Holiday), and much more confidence. Yet, upon her return, complete with a dog she's named David (which was thankfully left out of the remake), she's spotted by none other than the dashing young object of her affection who-- having barely noticed her throughout their mutual childhood spent around one another-- predictably, cannot recognize this perfectly coiffed version standing at the train station two years later.

Although he's engaged to the wealthy and beautiful Elizabeth Tyson (Martha Hyer) in a match that has found his older brother Linus (Bogart) gleefully solidifying with a multimillion dollar business merger, the impulsive David seems ready to throw it all away for Sabrina until Linus takes over and tries to seduce her into-- if not attraction-- than confusion and enough distraction that she'd begin to have doubts. Needless to say, his plan works a little too well as Linus and Sabrina realize that there may be more than just a tiny spark between them, leading to a witty, rushed, and characteristically breakneck conclusion by Wilder as he brings the love triangle to the front burner leading to some terrific scenes by our leads.

However, the film stumbles considerably due to what can no doubt have been Bogart's attempts to sabotage his first Paramount role. Loathing the film, Wilder, Holden, and Hepburn's relative inexperience and need for multiple takes especially given the fact that he knew he was a last minute replacement for Wilder's first choice and the ideal Linus (Cary Grant), although he was the highest paid actor of the three, his disdain shines through. Of course, the trouble rested not just on Bogart, whom it was later discovered was battling a wickedly intense cancer privately as after the film and via Lauren Bacall, he and Wilder mended fences (Crowe, pg. 11) but also the film's script which was constantly changing and at times, the crew would arrive to find there were zero pages to shoot. Always loyal to her director, Hepburn was willing to flub a line or two to buy time as Wilder told Crowe, he remarked that the film "was a difficult time for me... [and the] picture was still being... shaped as we went."

However, there were other legendary battles of egos both onscreen and off, which resulted in some terrific back-stories involving a professional snub of the Oscar winning costume designer Edith Head who created all of Audrey's pre-Paris wardrobe (including that wonderful and perfect character defining dress in her introduction longingly staring at David from a tree) yet forbid Hubert de Givenchy from receiving a much-deserved credit for his work on all of her post-Paris looks. Additionally, the film's plot was echoed in reality as the married Holden began an off-screen affair with Hepburn. Despite the rough edges, however, Sabrina is still a sumptuous work of unparalleled beauty.

Additionally nominated for four other Oscars including one for Wilder's direction, Hepburn's performance (although she'd won previously in Roman Holiday), the extraordinary art direction and Charles Lang Jr.'s cinematography, which make Sabrina one of the best looking films of Hepburn's in the '50s and the one that still holds up remarkably well in this DVD presentation. Yet, aside from the film's flaws in regards to the lack of chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn, it's Audrey who captures our heart from the first moment we see her onscreen and even more so when she returns evolved into something in the same realm as exotic royalty, managing to liven up couture and make it seem irresistible and as natural as a second skin for the actress.



As Crowe noted, "...the picture is... a high-water mark of modern style. An issue of Vogue still rarely goes by without a referencing photo of Sabrina and rightfully so. It is also the definitive display of its beguiling strengths," (pg. 343). And indeed, the film's groundbreaking introduction of fashion into film which would catapult its iconic young star into one of today's most recognizable and still best-loved actresses, is celebrated in a wonderful roughly eighteen minute extra on the DVD's second disc. In "Audrey Hepburn: Fashion Icon," the mini-featurette incorporates the expert evaluations of top designers, historians, and professors including such well-known and respected professionals as Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Rowley, and Eduardo Lucero who still cite their endless inspiration from Hepburn's long-time collaboration with Givenchy and the way she changed the rule of the traditional '50s "curvaceous" body shape.

Also featuring six additional featurettes including a great thirty minute biographical look at "William Holden: The Paramount Years," which is a profile of the young gymnast turned soldier turned Hollywood Golden Boy who earned an Oscar nomination with his first Wilder collaboration in Sunset Boulevard. Likewise, there's also a great love-letter to the North Shore of Long Island architecture, history, and location in "Sabrina's World," the many character actors who worked "Supporting Sabrina," a film documentary, as well as a "Behind the Gates" special focusing on the camera department at Paramount ,and a short "Paramount in the '50s-- Retrospective Featurette," which showcased the studio which earned nearly two hundred Oscar nominations and thirty wins in major categories during the decade.

Including a beautiful fact and photograph filled booklet and a keepsake box, Paramount Pictures pulled out all the stops in this tremendous release that is sure to appeal to both Audrey fans and film buffs who are collecting the other works in the Centennial Collection series which will be releasing additional titles in the near future.

Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years (2008)

Watch the Trailer

Dancing Onto DVD on November 18

Order It Today:

Although she began her career on film as a self-described "second banana" at one point filming three movies simultaneously which she loved with stars such as Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Ethel Merman, the legendary Miss Mitzi Gaynor's big break came with one extremely sudsy batch of shampoo, sounding the battle cry of wronged women everywhere with "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair."

Of course, the film that later had Mitzi proclaiming "I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with a wonderful guy"-- namely Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical South Pacific, catapulted her into the spotlight and earned her a well-deserved Golden Globe nomination for a challenging performance that showcased her ability for dramatic work.

Yet as Marlene Dietrich would later advise Mitzi Gaynor, that despite her love for the dramatics, "you're much more charming when you're amusing," and Gaynor took that advice to heart. The global television watching public wouldn't have it any other way as, following a successful run in Las Vegas which began in 1961 and showcased her tremendous versatility, she got her second chance to razzle and dazzle with a show-stopping performance of the musical number "Georgy Girl," at the Academy Awards which an interviewee on the DVD notes still holds the record for the longest standing ovation following a musical act.

After the Oscars brought the sunny, guileless blonde into everyone's living room, as we learn in Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years, "for ten solid years, the world demanded a Mitzi Gaynor special." Launching headfirst into the idea of a variety special that had the look, glamour and class of both a big budget Hollywood movie and Broadway musical, Gaynor relied on the talent and partnership of some extraordinarily creative collaborators including her main director and choreographer Tony Charmoli, dancers Alton Ruff and Randy Doney, and of course, Mr. Bob Mackie who crafted the wonderfully inventive and nearly nude costumes she donned in the eight specials that were broadcast for a decade following her debut with 1968's "Mitzi!"

Not content to simply be a song and dance girl, Gaynor showed off her range as a comedienne playing a "Hipsy Pipsy Gypsy" (see above) which Mackie seemed to find irresistible, noting that "there's just something about a glamorous woman with a rubber chicken." Additionally, she managed to do an incredibly authentic impression of a singing Rita Hayworth or Doris Day changing clothes every two seconds, or in those masculine grand pinstripes and shoulder pads as Rosalind Russell opposite George Hamilton's killer imitation of Cary Grant.

Whether it was creating an entire special as "A Tribute to the American Housewife" or an inspired, groundbreaking take on "Roarin' in the 20's," Gaynor was fearless in trying everything from dancing with animation (a la Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh), a mirror number (reminiscent of Fosse's Chicago), participating in a grand sweeping overhead shot number in the vein of Busby Berkley, performing with Olympic athletes, sliding off of a kitchen counter, kicking her leg up to her nose in a freeze-frame, or dancing, singing, and kissing one hundred of the most famous men on television. Yet much like her popular number "Everybody Loves My Baby," Gaynor and her husband and collaborator Jack Bean only had eyes for each other as they stayed together for fifty-three years in a happy and creatively supportive partnership of love and respect.

Transferring the hour long special which debuted originally on PBS with an additional hour of extras for the DVD including full-length clips (one from each special), bonus interviews (including a wonderful in-depth conversation with Mackie and Gaynor regarding the elaborate costumes), it's a must-own for Gaynor fans and those who love retro musical and comedy specials, especially considering all of the wonderful first-hand accounts by the humble, charming, and lovable Gaynor whose eyes still sparkle with wonder in her recollections that yes, she really did do everything being shown.

Fascinating and as colorful as the Mackie costumes themselves, the documentary-- like all great entertainers and indicative of its veteran star-- leaves us wanting more and in this case, a box set of all eight of Gaynor's specials which earned seventeen nominations and six Emmy Awards during their run. Today Gaynor still remains as vital as ever, serving as the President of The Professional Dancers Society which helps dancers both active and retired through the good times and the bad ("providing low income housing, retirement, and nursing facilities") as well as working on an upcoming new one-woman show and autobiography. Yet, the documentary is so incredible that it made me wonder just why in forty years since her variety show debut, television has plummeted so much that we now have reality shows like Wife Swap and game shows with submissive, statuesque, nearly silent women holding briefcases on Deal or No Deal.

While word that Rosie O'Donnell is set to launch a Carol Burnett inspired new era of variety shows within the upcoming weeks cheered me considerably, in the mean time we can take comfort in a woman who still fondly explains that her respect for her audience can be summed up with her signature closing song, "You are the Sunshine of My Life."

And thanks to City Lights Home Entertainment and Green Isle Inc.'s new DVD release, Gaynor's wondrous sunlight will continue to shine a bit brighter and hopefully inspire the company to remaster those old specials soon. Until then, you'll be delighted to know that Miss Mitzi Gaynor has created a YouTube Channel where so far, you can see a few of her classic clips right on your computer.

So go wash whatever you need right out of your hair, "Come on and Dance," reach into your closet for your brightest, most glamorous clothing confections, and prepare for some good old fashioned Razzle Dazzle!

View A Slideshow
Featuring Mackie's Costumes Below
(click to see it full-screen)

James Bond: Quantum of Solace (2008)

Bring Bond Home
3/24/09

Read the In-Depth Blu-ray Review

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Animated Spoof: The 30 Second Bunnies

As that rare breed of feminist who can still recite every single entry of the James Bond franchise from memory and manage to overlook its eye-roll inducing moments of the Playboy lifestyle as the quintessential late 20th century hero managed to charm the dress off of every woman in sight and knock every man out cold, I must say I was looking extremely forward to catching Quantum of Solace. Yet this morning looking over the majority of blurbs at Rotten Tomatoes, I realized the reactions were similar to the great political divide in America-- much to the left and much to the right with very few people falling in between. We had the gleefully upbeat freewheeling praise on one side and the witty puns of shame on the other like "The Spy Who Bored Me," and "License to Confuse," as the detractors seemed to make like Catskills comedians all answering the "It was so bad-- how bad was it?" style of jokes. Yet I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, still fondly recalling some of my favorite Bond movie moments that remain as vivid as when I first watched the movies along with my older brother.



My first Bond film onscreen was seeing Pierce Brosnan's debut as the smug and seductive variety (essentially shaking together pieces of both Connery and Moore into a human version of that famous martini), in the excellent Goldeneye. Yet, following the fun diversion of Michelle Yeoh as an ass-kicking martial arts Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies, the franchise seemed to have run its course with the atrocious World is Not Enough (save for the gorgeous theme song by Garbage that is Shirley Bassey Goldfinger good) and Die Another Day.



That is, however, until Bond went blonde and both the women and men had much more fun with Casino Royale, an epic old-fashioned style spy film with a worthwhile romance and the best Bond girl yet with Eva Green's sultry and stunning yet smart and sophisticated Vesper Lynd. Of course, it didn't hurt that Daniel Craig stepped into the lead role, really wearing more than just the suit with his incredible looks but also taking the emotional depth of work he'd completed in art-house dramas and injecting it into Ian Fleming's hero.

Starting at zero as Bond earns his '00 status in the opening sequence of Royale, it seemed as though we'd been given the chance to begin again, reinventing the character so that he resonated with contemporary society. And then a funny thing happened on the way to the sequel with the smash success of the Matt Damon's Bourne Identity action trilogy featuring rapid-fire editing and shaky camera work.

More specifically, movies became video games and while the action in Bond was always on a different level-- from the opening of Stranger than Fiction and Finding Neverland director Marc Forster's first turn at the wheel with the opening car chase in Quantum of Solace, we realize that we're presented with the cinematic equivalent of chaos.



While Bourne's style took some getting used to but ultimately served the film well, especially considering it had the brains to balance the buoyant editing and camerawork and a shaky camera helped get us right into the action in this year's Cloverfield and Eagle Eye, when it comes to Quantum, it's hard to keep up and frankly, we realize we could care less.

As our eyes strain to figure out which character just landed another blow or dove off a high structure and our ears feel as overpowered as though we're right near the speaker at a Metallica concert, Solace is a barely comprehensible, illogical, irritating, and downright ludicrous mess that's not only one of the biggest disappointments of the year for a Hollywood blockbuster but doubly tragic when it followed what is quite possibly the best Bond film ever made.



With an homage to Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, Diamonds are Forever, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and countless other Bond movies thrown into its succinct 106 minute running time (despite it feeling endless), on the surface it seems to follow the events from the previous film. With his lover Vesper dead, Bond decides that the best way to get closure is to get even, wreaking bloody havoc on anyone that crosses his path, while trying to uncover just who was behind her blackmail and responsible for her demise.

Managing to axe every lead like a wicked madman in some spectacular stunt work that comprises fights which go from one location to the next in typical Bond chase fashion-- instead of relishing in the excitement as we did in so many other beginnings-- the shoddy camera work, pointlessly pretentious inter-cuts to other high culture events, and distracting editing ruins every single action sequence. This is especially apparent in an airplane crash that looks so computer generated, for a moment, I felt like the reel had accidentally switched to James Bond: Quantum of Solace-- The Video Game.

Following the first forty minutes which finds us barely engaged with a Bond so icy and one-dimensional, Craig could've just been played by a stand in or one of those gorgeous eye-candy posters of the man adorning the walls of local Sony stores, and a plot that somehow finds us trying to take on the evil "fake-environmentalist" (yep, not exactly in the same realm as Odd-Job, Jaws or even that freaky diamond dude in Die Another Day), we start getting some semblance of an actual story. Yet, it's one of those that's so off-the-wall and barely plausible that it's almost as meaningless as the film's title itself which is destined to leave your brain as soon as the final credits roll.

Instead, it's obvious Forster just wanted to set aside art-house pretensions (aside from one excellent scene in an opera house that is pompous yet wonderfully staged) and leave the heavy lifting to the fight-choreographer, a cinematographer and editor who may need to switch to decaf and lay off the Red Bull, and stuntmen who no doubt are in traction at a hospital somewhere, if all of their limbs are still intact that is.

Headache-inducing and nowhere near as classy or superbly entertaining as Bond at his best whether it's in Goldfinger, Goldeneye, Casino Royale or some of the wildly unbelievable yet engrossing string of films starring Roger Moore like For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me, Quantum of Solace may boast a better Bond than Timothy Dalton but film-wise, I'd rather sit down and watch Dalton's The Living Daylights again for some much needed solace after Solace.



Or maybe I'll just grab Casino Royale and wistfully pine for what could've been had the filmmakers either quit while they were ahead or stayed away from video poker and slot machines and just continued to play Baccarat... since obviously Royale's Texas Hold 'Em led them astray. And while it's always good to try something new, it's called gambling for a reason and maybe it's time for the franchise to take a good long look at itself and question whether or not they need to make a meeting, go through twelve steps, and try something different instead of playing things so fast and loose, we don't even recognize the man in the tux any longer.

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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

Read the In-Depth DVD Review

Click Here to View the Trailer & Photos

View Video Clips from the DVD

Based on Irish author John Boyne's critically acclaimed, bestselling, and award-winning young adult novel by the same name and adapted by Brassed Off writer/director Mark Herman, the heartrending, dark yet surprisingly innocent fable The Boy in the Striped Pajamas makes its way to the screen this month.

By recounting the horrors of the Holocaust glimpsed through the eyes of an eight year old boy, it's not unlike director Marc Forster's questionable adaptation of the bestselling Kite Runner or Roberto Benigni's concentration camp comedy Life is Beautiful in making us contemplate the idea of the film both morally and intellectually as well as wondering if it's appropriate for young adult audiences. However, I'd recommend this one above the hero-less, self-important Kite Runner yet not as much as Benigni's solid venture about the importance of human imagination.

The type of work that marches its way towards its predictable yet nonetheless absolutely devastating ending that is hinted at cinematically throughout the picture in the composition of numerous shots by the wondrous, lush cinematography of Benoit Delhomme (The Proposition, 1408, and Breaking and Entering), Pajamas is a film that provokes, intrigues, upsets, and lingers in your mind long after it ends to such an extent that I'm still processing its triumphs and failures four days after the press screening.

Set in Berlin in the 1940s, Pajamas introduces us to young, adorable newcomer Asa Butterfield who stars as the eight year old Bruno. Content in his reasonably sheltered, innocent surroundings feigning gun battles with his friends, his young world is thrown into upheaval when his father (Harry Potter's David Thewlis), a Nazi officer is forced to move his family to a deserted home in the country. Arguing that being a soldier is about duty instead of choice, Bruno's unhappiness is evident from the start as he's often filmed at low angles, alone in frames and behind vertical structures to make us feel his sense of imprisoned isolation which is intensified considerably after the move into a cold, sharp-edged, architecturally intimidating and somber SS Headquarters.



Puzzled by a view from his bedroom window of what looks to young Bruno to be a large unorthodox farm of pajama-clad residents, he struggles to obey the cryptic wishes of his adamant father and emotional mother (The Departed's Vera Farmiga) in avoiding the place but childhood curiosity and intense loneliness prevail as he journeys past his property line into the unknown.

Of course, by now, viewers have realized that what young Bruno is living near is in fact a concentration camp but due to his parents' decision to try and keep him oblivious to what his powerful father is really in charge of, it takes an extraordinarily long time for our blue eyed tyke to discover the truth. Yet, to be fair, the wonderfully classic and chameleon-like Farmiga whose ability to act with her eyes to such an intense and expressive depth make her disappear into her role, also has trouble accepting the situation as she's horrified to learn that the "labor camp" is really part of the ghastly "final solution" or death chambers conceived by the Nazi Party.

Further complicating matters is Bruno's new acquaintanceship with a boy on the other side of the fence-- the young, malnourished and "pajama-clad," head-shaven Shmuel (a wonderfully mature Jack Scanlon). Regularly visiting his new friend in secret to try and share food or toys as best he can, Bruno and Shmuel seem to represent that all too vital realization that as producer David Heyman explained in the press notes, "children have the potential and the ability to overcome differences in culture and identity; that people ultimately can get along if they're not encouraged to hate; that governments, institutions and the media can and do cultivate conflict and distrust-- these are timely ideas with universal relevance and I think this story makes them accessible to anyone."



While this is indeed the case as Heyman and other critics have pointed out that the story-- despite being set in World War II-- has allusions to other conflicts involving genocide and war in places as diverse as Palestine and Israel to Iraq, Darfur and Rwanda, the attempt to make a fictitious fable about the Holocaust is extremely dicey. Although some critics have panned the film on the very premise alone, arguing that the movie trivializes the conflict or as author John Boyne noted in his press release quotation of the Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, "if you weren't there, don't write about it," others have applauded its courage.

I'm on the fence-- initially I feared it would be overly sentimental and at times, things seemed a bit too hard to believe, including as the filmmakers note the obvious factual error that a majority of the children brought to camps were immediately put to death, there was always an agonizing sense that we knew the film would only be able to end one particular way. While it does involve one trick that begins to reveal itself about midway through-- as hinted at in a few choice shots when Bruno notices his older sister's dolls shoved nude in the basement and other obvious uses of foreshadowing--the ending is extraordinarily hard-to-stomach on numerous counts involving not just personal moral anguish about the inhumanity of man but also a sinking question about manipulation and the idea that had a certain character not perished, would we have felt kicked so hard?

And although I'm not a parent, I do feel that it's always important to introduce children to history and feel that we must learn from the mistakes of the past indeed. Yet, I think I'd probably prefer to educate them similarly to the way my parents did which was first with fact (such as urging me to read The Diary of Anne Frank and sitting alongside my brother and me as we watched Schindler's List in the theatre) before complicating things with fiction or more precisely, sharing the point-of-view of those who were horrifically treated in facts before looking at it from the other side in fiction.

Still, this being said, Pajamas is far from a trivial or sentimental work, despite its easy dismissal as such by some facets of the media. Instead, it's a thoughtful, contemplative and well-intentioned work that boasts exceptional craftsmanship by its cinematographer and 2-time Oscar winning composer James Horner as well as a stunning supporting turn by Vera Farmiga.

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A Film Intuition Update & Progress Report (11/13/08): A Message From Jen

Dear Readers and Colleagues,

I've been getting numerous statistical and content requests recently so I wanted to provide everyone with an update. First off, thanks for your endless support and kindness-- I greatly appreciate it and you have no idea what it means to me to have such an amazing group of readers, friends, family, colleagues, and professionals in my corner. I'm hoping to segue into print, radio, or television journalism in the future and definitely value your guidance in this regard.

Yesterday, I hit two milestones-- I published my first ever live concert review of Ben Folds which additionally became my 100th article printed on Blogcritics.Org-- one of a few websites that publishes my content. With my site nearing 20,000 unique visitors per month here on Film Intuition (especially with the redesign and new subdomains for Trailers, Videos etc.), I'm now able to update it at a faster rate with music videos, shorts, movie clips, feature films, TV episodes and more. And in doing so, I've ventured out of my comfort zone of film criticism into music, television, variety specials, literary and other articles including interviews, political pieces, and news articles and will continue to expand my topic range in the near future.

Additionally, I now offer visitors the chance to read everything on my site in more than three dozen languages, building my readership considerably and helping encourage greater global unity and understanding, which is one of the things that drew me to the humanistic medium of cinema in the first place (click here or look below for a recent global map of readers from the Review Database alone). It's been amazing to hear from readers in countries such as Sweden, Australia, Italy, Germany, England, Japan, and more who've been coming back loyally to check out the latest addition each and every week.

Having built great relationships with studio personnel, PR firms, independent filmmakers, actors, and other critics including being quoted by Roger Ebert's editor Jim Emerson, referenced in high profile blogs from The Guardian UK and GreenCine Daily, I'm able to bring you exclusive advanced coverage including: films only being released in New York (with my review of The Dukes); supporting excellent movies that haven't been released nationwide yet (Local Color, Falling for Grace, August Evening); ensuring readers know about groundbreaking works that are flying just Under the Radar (Paranoid Park, Turn the River, Married Life, The Search for John Gissing, and Frozen River); Scottsdale International Film Festival Coverage; an interview with Debra Messing; DVD reviews weeks ahead of the release date (like Tropic Thunder); and a Trailer and Photo Gallery that's filled with independent, obscure and foreign releases that go beyond the endless coverage of the latest Hollywood blockbuster.

Additionally, the holiday season is right around the corner so if you're doing your shopping online to avoid the crowds or track down bargains, please visit the advertisers and affiliates who've been with me since the beginning by clicking right off my site onto Amazon.Com, iTunes, Overstock, Netflix, Film Movement, PBS, Tiger Direct, NBC, HBO, Linkshare, Comedy Central, Sirius Radio, Shutterfly, Magazines.Com and more. And in the same token, if you're interested in supporting Film Intuition, please consider making a small anonymous donation through our secure Amazon Honor System and thank you so much to those who have done so via Amazon or PayPal.

With more than 1,000 posts from reviews to in-depth articles on everything from Francois Truffaut to 1950's Westerns and more, it's been an awesome journey that wouldn't have happened without you. I'm hoping to freelance more in the future and explore additional movie hosting, film festival, researching requests, professional assignments, and grant writing duties so please keep your eyes and ears open for any opportunities as I'd be extremely interested in broadening my range and moving into the realm of paid journalism or behind-the-scenes film writing, festival, and or research work.

Likewise, please continue to visit the site, pass it along to others, add it as a favorite, alert other filmmakers to inquire about mailing out screeners and continue sending me e-mails with suggestions and comments (all of which, I do read aside from spam). While so far, Film Intuition is run by yours truly at very little financial profit (which does limit my ability to cover everything offered), my passion for writing and exposing readers to the finest in entertainment is limitless. And to this end, I hope I can strive to improve and build a greater audience in the future and above all, make the site worthy of your continued interest and support.

Thank you again.

Sincerely,
Jen Johans

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DVD Review: Walt Disney Treausres Wave VIII: The Chronological Donald, Volume 4 (1951-1961)

Walt Disney Treasures: Wave VIII
The Chronological Donald, Volume 4
(1951-1961)

Available on DVD 11/11/08
(For a Limited Time)

View Donald Duck Shorts in Our Video Screening Room

In the most recent wave of releases from the extraordinarily popular collectible DVD series that unlocks the Disney vaults to bring fans the rarest footage and most in-depth coverage of the studio's diverse history, co-creator and DVD host Leonard Maltin wraps up the fourth and final volume of the critically acclaimed and award winning Donald Duck shorts. Featuring thirty-one works that were crafted in what I feel was arguably his most artistically adventurous decade as Disney studios embraced widescreen, CinemaScope (in Grand Canyonscope), 3-D (with Working for Peanuts), blending live action and animation (Donald in Mathmagic Land), and other camera trickery to deliver their trademark superlative quality, The Chronological Donald, Volume Four is loaded with some of the most familiar shorts in the series.

Including such beloved characters as Donald's endearing nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie along with my personal favorites-- the adorable Chip and Dale-- that span the two-disc set with a running time of nearly six hours, viewers have the opportunity to watch them chronologically or alphabetically, searching out their favorites at will. Thankfully including subtitles which go a long way in understanding the nearly indecipherable Donald, each disc opens with a fact-filled, research heavy introduction by critic and Disney scholar Leonard Maltin who provides commentary throughout along with other animation experts.

With the boom of television threatening the survival of the motion picture industry, Maltin explains that the cost of the short in the '50s made theatre owners have to pay more to run them before Disney features, as was Walt Disney's wish. Vowing not to sacrifice the quality of their creative works, Walt closed down production on shorts starring Mickey, Pluto and Goofy, but kept the mischievous Clarence Nash voiced Donald running throughout a decade that saw many changes in the evolution of cinema. Due to the now restrained output, Donald's shorts became far more impressive, garnering a gorgeous one-sheet artistic poster for each film (which appear behind Maltin on the DVD; making me wish there would have been a poster gallery feature in the set) and sometimes additional music written in lieu of the famous Donald theme song.

In a special menu on each DVD called "From the Vault," Maltin introduces shorts that may be a bit politically incorrect by today's standards, urging audiences to watch with the frame-of-reference that they were a product of that era in mind and also encouraging parents to discuss what may make them uncomfortable or something that they felt was inappropriate with their children. Also including some great behind-the-scenes clips including "The Unseen Donald Duck: Trouble Shooters," which contain unproduced storyboards for the character's shorts that were pitched by Eric Goldberg, one of the studio's most acclaimed animators, it also features a fascinating mini-documentary called "Donald Goes To Press," which chronicles Donald's history from his first introduction to becoming a smash success in comic books and newspaper cartoon strips.

However, as someone who still fondly remembers the words to Donald's theme song and has unforgettable childhood memories of watching the shorts, the true gem is the gorgeous presentation of the shorts themselves in their original widescreen format. While there's no replacing Donald in Mathmagic Land--the epic educational short film that was used in public schools as far as sheer quality goes-- entertainment reigns supreme irregardless if it's in making us laugh or think and there were no greater foils for Donald than Chip and Dale.

Whether they were trying to steal Donald's popcorn in Corn Chips, moving into a tiny home in Donald's backyard electric railroad where the duck has a bit too much fun controlling the weather in Out of Scale, tampering with his apple crop in Donald Applecore, going sailing in a miniature boat in Chips Ahoy, or dealing with their tree getting chopped down in Up a Tree, you won't do much better than the shorts included in this set. Additionally working in some great shorts with his nephews in Don's Fountain of Youth or Lucky Numbers when the boys surprise their uncle with his recently won automobile, or seeing Donald take a memorable trip to Brownstone National Park in Grin and Bear It, there's a few that still feel timely today whether it's Donald having to deal with a very rude man in The New Neighbor or in the "you can never be too careful" hilarious cartoon meets public service ad, How to Have an Accident in the Home.

A wonderful pre-holiday release that made me wish I could find the earlier offerings in the limited edition series and one of three new Walt Disney Treasures to be released today in commemorative tins (stay tuned for reviews of the other two right here coming soon on Film Intuition), The Chronological Donald, Volume Four is so good that it makes you wish that more animated shorts were released to public audiences each year, in addition to the ones sometimes tacked onto the latest Hollywood films for children. Of course, if this were to happen, it would make this reviewer quote Donald enthusiastically in response-- "Oh yeah? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Until then, there's no denying that Donald was the alpha-duck of them all.

New on DVD for the Week of 11/9

DVD Pick of the Week:

Tracey Ullman's State of the Union: Season 1

Kung Fu Panda & Secrets of the Furious Five (Pandamonium Pack)

New York City Ballet: Bringing Balanchine Back

Sukiyaki Western Django

Tracey Ullman's State of the Union Season 1

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DVD Review: Tropic Thunder-- 2 Disc Director's Cut

Hitting DVD & Blu-Ray on November 18

Order It Today

Read the Original Soundtrack Review

Read the Original Theatrical Review

In honor of November 18th's DVD & Blu-ray release of the Ben Stiller's summer comedy Tropic Thunder, I'm offering you an insider's view of the DVD that DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment were kind enough to send my way. However, before I go into the DVD features, first I'll serve up the first four paragraphs of my original theatrical review of Tropic Thunder, originally published on August 13, 2008.

Tropic Thunder



Director:
Ben Stiller

Former highbrow theatrical director turned filmmaker Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is in trouble. When the explosives expert (Pineapple Express scene stealer Danny McBride) working on his big budget Vietnam epic film debut misinterprets Cockburn’s temper tantrum for a cue, four million dollars in explosives are wasted, everything is blown to smithereens, and the worst thing is that the camera wasn’t even rolling. Unable to control the actors on his set and already one month behind schedule after just five days of shooting, the British thespian is soon punched in the face very hard by a grip, upon orders shouted via webcam by sleazy studio boss Les Grossman (a hilarious and nearly unrecognizable Tom Cruise).

Out of desperation, he turns to Nick Nolte’s Four Leaf Tayback, the former Vietnam soldier who wrote the book they are adapting — not to mention the type soldier who may not have gotten the memo that the war is over. Visibly relishing his role, Nolte’s Tayback is often framed in a corner spouting off sentence fragments and irrational, obscenity-laced anecdotes that frighten and amuse all at the same time. Advising the mild-mannered Brit to get the actors “off the f***in’ grid” and into “the s***,” Cockburn heeds Tayback’s advice. With the hope that improvisational filmmaking will get the movie back on track, he sets up his “own little personal slice of ‘Nam.”

However, shortly after depositing his cast of five diverse leads deep into the heart of the jungle in order to show his pampered actors he’s really running the show, things go terribly, shockingly wrong. And soon enough the cast find themselves in a real life mini-war of their own when instead of guerilla filmmaking, the men become the target of heroin-trafficking guerillas who’ve mistaken them for DEA soldiers (yeah, I didn’t get that either). Obviously, this proves to be much more than the actors can handle, as they’d signed on with their contractual clauses for perks like gift baskets, TiVo, and luxury items, only to find themselves dodging bullets instead.

Heading up the group is Tropic Thunder’s director and co-writer Ben Stiller as Tugg Speedman, a has-been, Rambo-styled action star whose most recent film wherein he played a mentally challenged character — Simple Jack — not only ruined his career but was also named one of the worst films of all time. With his barefooted agent (Matthew McConaughey) behind him, Speedman tries to get back into Hollywood’s spotlight but is worried he’ll be upstaged by his costar, the five time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr. channeling Russell Crowe), an Australian method actor so committed to his craft that he underwent skin pigmentation surgery in order to play an African-American for Cockburn’s film..."

Click Here to Read the Entire Review


The 2-Disc Director's Cut DVD

Although it's dubbed the "director's cut," I couldn't honestly tell a distinct difference between the theatrical version of Tropic Thunder with the feature film presented on the first disc of this set. Yet, for true fans of the movie and those interested in filmmaking in general, the 2-Disc set is ideal with Stiller providing enough added hilarity and down and dirty, gritty behind-the-scenes movie-making 101 examples to make it a terrific investment.

Offering audiences the chance to watch the film with two different commentary tracks including one consisting of the more creative and technical side from the filmmakers of Thunder-- the second track is the more free-wheeling DVD commentary offered up by the cast, including Downey who joked in the film that he doesn't break character until he's recorded the DVD commentary.

Also, perhaps to answer the bad press the movie received shortly before its premiere regarding the "Simple Jack" controversy as Stiller's action movie character Tugg Speedman had recently played a mentally challenged man resulting in a few instances in the film where the word "retarded" is bantered about (more to poke fun at Hollywood ego and industry exploitation than anything else)), there is a quality Public Service Announcement added onto Disc 1 wherein the tagline promises that the only "R" word those with intellectual disabilities deserve is "respect." While it feels a bit forced, it's a worthwhile sentiment and actually should've possibly played before the film as one of the many commercials or trailers as opposed to being buried in a separate menu of Thunder's first disc.

However, fans can rejoice in Thunder mania that fills the entirety of the second disc as we discover co-writer, director and star Ben Stiller's passion for his screenplay that dates back twenty years. In "Before the Thunder," Stiller notes that while he was busy making one of his first and most important screen appearances in a bit part in Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, most of his friends were auditioning for the war movies that were incredibly popular in the late 80's such as Platoon and Hamburger Hill. Noting the ridiculousness of actors who shared with him that their two week boot camp really helped them get into character and bond, Stiller became inspired by the absurdity of pampered actors not realizing how very different it is to actually be in a war as opposed to a movie about war and initially toyed with the premise of a group of actors returning from movie boot camp with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Upon realizing that he just couldn't find away to make it work comically, he set it aside until ten years later when he and actor Justin Theroux (Charlies Angels 2, Mulholland Drive) began e-mailing back and forth various scenes they wrote in the hopes of keeping each other laughing. It's easy to get caught up in Stiller's twenty year passion with Thunder's excellently packaged DVD set as we go into each and every extra which run the gamut from standard "pat each other on the back" electronic press kit generic enthusiasm to some truly hilarious and inventive additions including a fake Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness styled documentary called "Rain of Madness" which chronicles the fake "movie within the movie" and another similar bonus dubbed "Dispatches from the Edge of Madness."

In numerous candid behind-the-scenes interviews and clips including original videotapes from the auditions and various tests, we discover just how damn funny the film's straight man played by Jay Baruchel actually is as we glimpse the film's epic table reading and the way that Downey managed to just launch into his character head-first in a way that made Baruchel share that, "I hadn't laughed this much since Dick Cheney shot that guy in the face." With Downey admitting that they aren't satirizing Hollywood on the same level as Altman's brilliant Player by joking that "we're kind of destroying any leg [we have] to stand on in the future," in Stiller's lampoon styled "love letter to what we do," we realize just how much effort was put into making the comical film look so professional.

In "The Hot LZ," "Blowing Shit Up," "Designing the Thunder," and more, we witness some of the epic undertakings by Stiller and company, whether it's creating a cinematic compilation mix tape of their favorite war scenes for the epic opening sequence which took three weeks and fifty stuntmen to shoot or gauging the level of explosion offered up by the special effects man who Stiller says may be "slightly insane but in a good way," during the incredibly complicated shoot by veteran 2-time Oscar winning cinematographer John Toll (Legends of the Fall, Braveheart, Thin Red Line).

In an entertaining special feature dedicated to "The Cast of the Thunder" which is broken down by the last name of each actor, the cast members riff on their own characters as well as their cast-mates discussing what must have been a creatively freeing shoot filled with improvisation and laughter as well as interesting surprises as the American Humane Association handler for Bertha the water buffalo that carries Jack Black unexpectedly delivered a baby that they named after the comedic actor.

Also including deleted and extended scenes as well as "full mags," to illustrate the number of choices that were made by Stiller and his editor, we finally discover just what happens to Matthew McConaughey's character at the end of the film and learn that the scene stealing dance by a nearly unrecognizable Tom Cruise was the brainchild of Cruise himself, who impulsively started dancing without music during a makeup test.

Featuring promotional material as well-- one amusing bonus consisted of a great MTV Movie Awards promotional spoof as Stiller, Black and Downey all toy with each other's egos by trying to figure out the best way to sell their movie. While it's nearly impossible to absorb the plethora of features included on the disc or listen to all of the available and optional commentary, the 2-Disc Director's Cut really makes one appreciate Thunder on an entirely different level.

Moreover, it makes one realize just how easy it is to overlook the master craftsmanship behind everything as we're far too busy laughing at the performances to fully appreciate the effects, production design and stunning cinematography that makes it seem nearly as authentic as the films it references, even so much as to set up the DVD menus as though we were getting ready to watch Platoon or Apocalypse Now. Of course, once the movie begins with fake ads for "The Fatties" and "Booty Sweat," we realize we aren't exactly in Oliver Stone territory... but it's always nice to escape the realities of war by laughing at men rushing out to go fake one.

DVD Review: Kung Fu Panda & Secrets of the Furious Five-- Pandamonium Double Pack

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In honor of today's DVD & Blu-ray release of the incredible animated film, Kung Fu Panda along with its straight-to-DVD companion Secrets of the Furious Five, I'm offering you an insider's view of the DVD that DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment were kind enough to send my way. However, before I go into the DVD features and review Panda's Furious Five sequel, first I'll serve up an excerpt of my original theatrical review of Panda, originally published on June 16.

Kung Fu Panda

Directors:
Mark Osborne & John Stevenson

"...We begin with Po the overweight panda-- a typical underdog, kung fu worshipping or Daniel Laruso like Karate Kid (voiced by Jack Black), who, although tirelessly devoted to his hardworking father who runs a family noodle shop, dreams of someday joining the famous “Furious Five” warriors he fantasizes about in his room, which are comprised of Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Knocked Up’s Seth Rogen), Viper (Kill Bill’s Lucy Liu), and Crane (Arrested Development’s David Cross). As Po sees it in his mind, he’s the missing Bruce Lee like link to rounding out the six with witty lines he creates such as dreaming he's telling those he’s saved that “There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness.” While his dad relates to having a goal, having aspired to run away from his responsibilities for the dangerous lure of making tofu, he tells his son Po the adage he’s resigned himself to which is that they’re noodle folk with broth running through their veins...

..."With a brisk running time of roughly ninety minutes, admirably not overstaying its welcome in a way that has become Pixar’s Achilles Heel in their last few offerings including the dully paced Cars, Panda offers a terrific action story in the mold of some of our best loved kung fu classics complete with several obstacles, a training montage, and seeking wisdom from eccentric elders, and seems to be the perfect introduction to children for the genre and one that, not only am I considerably glad one of my best friends told me to see but also one that I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase for my nearly five year old Star Wars obsessed nephew as soon as it’s released..."

Click Here to Read the Complete Review of Kung Fu Panda


Panda the DVD's Bonus Features

As witnessed with their recent release of Shrek the Halls, one of the things that DreamWorks excels at is filling their child-friendly DVDs with enough video game styled activities and easy to use special features and menus to make their DVDs tremendously appealing. While Shrek the Halls and Panda's counterpart, Furious Five are mostly tailored directly for youngsters, the crystal clear transfer of Kung Fu Panda from theatre to DVD is augmented by extras for all ages.

Providing a feature-length running commentary by the film's two directors as well as some excellent behind-the-scenes making-of-featurettes that will delight film lovers as we realize we can't even begin to fathom how much work it was to creat a humorous animated hybrid of a kung fu comedy to appeal to children and adults, we're given the DVD equivalent of a DreamWorks Animation Studio pass.

Meeting the chief technology officer who picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the directors to make Panda a no-holds-barred, exciting action movie to appeal to kung fu fans, we also encounter other members of the large creative teams from the effects and rigging areas, computer graphics specialists, a kung fu choreographer who works alongside other supervising animators to those whose role it was to focus purely on the character surfacing and effects to figure out just how to make an animated character jump twenty feet in the air and do a roundhouse kick.

Ultimately approaching the animation style of the characters themselves as though they were plush toys or as one team member jokes teddy bears who get into fights, there's also an amazing feature on the film's sound design headed up by an industry veteran who collaborated on King Kong, Transformers and Lord of the Rings. Watching the team try everything in an attempt to think outside the box from using a plunger on one man's forehead to mimic a possible sound that Po the Panda would make when he sloshes around, it's especially cool when the effects and behind-the-scenes work are shown side by side with the finished product as the group uses real world objects "to create a sonic tapestry."

And of course, since it is animation where every sound must be created, there's also a great featurette which gives us access to some footage of the cast recording sessions as the all-star talent discusses the challenges and joys of playing their characters from Jolie's desire that she was dying to be the tiger and feared Chan would get that part to some genuinely hysterical off-the-cuff remarks from Seth Rogen who Jack Black reveals was the ultimate improvisational artist of the group. And whether it's Dustin Hoffman joking that he refuses to be in a movie unless he gets to play a character who's endangered as he remarks he gets the "shifu kicked out of" him to David Cross admitting he would hang out with his alter-ego Crane in real life, it's especially revealing when Lucy Liu shares that the actions, movements, and facial expressions of each actors' performance in the studio were ultimately used in shaping each individual character onscreen.

Also featuring some great high-brow extra features wherein TV's Iron Chef host Alton Brown visits Mr. Chow's restaurant to discuss noodle making, along with Conservation International's call to Help Save Wild Pandas, or a tutorial on How to Use Chopsticks, there's added fun for kids involving DVD-Rom features, printables and web-links, trailers, the DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox I described in my Shrek the Halls review, plus a fun Cee-Lo "Kung Fu Fighting" music video, and an interactive feature to learn some basic kung fu in Master Shifu's Dragon Warrior Training Academy.

Secrets of the Furious Five DVD

Director:
Raman Hui

While it's easy to be skeptical when a twenty-four minute short film hits DVD as a tie-in to a blockbuster hit, especially when one realizes that we have a different director and few of the original voice actors involved, after only a few minutes of Furious Five, it's easy to cast those fears aside. High-quality and fun, Secrets of the Furious Five is structurally shaped like an excuse at a positive after-school special as Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) surprises Po (Jack Black) with the prospect of teaching an introduction to kung fu class filled with boisterous adorable bunnies. However, it becomes quickly engrossing as Po must reign in the eager youngsters by telling them that kung fu is not all about fighting.

By sharing the stories of his former idols and now allies, the legendary furious five from the main film, Po happily imparts lessons of patience, courage, confidence, discipline, and compassion with each flashback-driven, action-packed tale. Yet, still maintaining the fast pace and engrossing storytelling set forth with stunning animation, it provides a nice companion piece to the film as we realize that, as much as Po was an outsider when he was chosen to join Shifu, the furious five were also equally out of their depth as well.

While the DVD for the feature film is more focused on the technical aspects of the cinematic process, Furious Five is completely dedicated to entertaining its youngest fans. With some great interactive features including a Pandamonium Activity Kit (to coincide with the 2-DVD Package Set) that works in your DVD-Rom to games and a great artistic lesson that teaches kids to draw their favorite characters from the film, it's also filled with extra educational opportunities as you move into the "Land of the Panda" menu to discover more about the Chinese Zodiac, the animals from the film, and another kung fu lesson that parents will certainly want to supervise.

Also released in widescreen, along with the feature film to capture the theatrical aspect ratio, it's a great bonus for children and worth the investment for those of you interested enough in buying the original film to just bring home the two-pack to avoid an extra cost or second purchase down the road and by focusing on the positive, intellectual aspects of self-discipline and wisdom that coincide with kung fu, it makes a worthwhile double feature for children who may feel-- much like Po's unruly bunnies-- overly anxious to start trying to kick everything in sight.

TV on DVD: The 4400 -- The Complete Series (Review Part 2; Seasons 3 & 4)

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