DVD Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Film Collection -- 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition (2009)

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Titles Included in 4-DVD Set:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time (1993)
TMNT (2007)

For whatever reason, I’ve never felt compelled to keep a diary. Like most movie buffs, my passion for cinema has been present for so many years that all I need to trigger an oral diary entry is the title of a work and I can tell you precisely where I saw the film in question, whom I was with, and what was going on in my life at the time. And since my life has been best bookmarked by the movies, I’ve learned that landmark events don't necessarily coincide with cinematic masterpieces which is precisely the reason that the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film holds such a special place in my heart. Viewed on the big screen during the film's opening weekend alongside my older brother who loved the TMNT series even more than myself-- when I initially saw the movie theatrically, it marked two big firsts in my life.

Intriguingly, one of those “firsts,” was something I just discovered recently upon reviewing the new 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD set of all four films. Via the WB press release, I learned that at roughly the age of eight, I had witnessed my first-ever independent film in the theatre. That's right... it is a little known fact but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is indeed an independent film. And while granted, it’s not exactly the Sundance fodder we usually imagine and the movies that followed the original were the opposite of independent, the film triumphed as the fifth internationally highest grossing picture of 1990. Managing to hold its own opposite such lauded competition as Ghost, Dances With Wolves, Goodfellas, Home Alone, Days of Thunder, Total Recall, Pretty Woman, Misery, Dick Tracy and The Godfather III, its global success as one of the year’s top grossing works was an unexpected achievement that additionally ensured it was the most financially successful independent film released to date.

Of course, weighing these facts now professionally makes me further appreciate just how big of a phenomenon I'd enjoyed in my youth yet despite the fact that it’s a great find to say the least since critically I’m the most fascinated by independent movies, nonetheless this “first” in my life pales in comparison to the previous reason why the movie stood out for me.

Essentially, in a “Turtle-shell” (as opposed to a nutshell), director Steve Barron’s film also coincided with my initial feeling of moviegoing independence as it marked the first film I had the pleasure and rite-of-passage honor of seeing “sans parents,” to quote Dana Carvey's Garth from Wayne's World 2. With our parents down the hall viewing the latest Tom Clancy adaptation The Hunt for Red October, my older brother and I received our first taste of maturity and freedom while watching four giant turtles named after some of the greatest minds in history instead of witnessing the work of greater minds as Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery engaged in a Cold War submarine standoff.

Nope, in trading a submarine for a New York City sewer, our movie ticket purchase marked our young votes for a quartet of turtles in the film adaptation of the comic book and animated series based on characters created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. In case you’re not as Shell-Shocked as Generation Cowabunga, the TMNT group consisted of the hip and humorous Michelangelo, the moody crime fighting Raphael, the responsible Leonardo, and tech savvy Donatello. The foursome who live with their wise, Yoda meets Mr. Miyagi rat guardian Master Splinter had all evolved into talking, walking, and ninja kicking giant creatures due to a mysterious chemical ooze that had emanated from a broken canister left in a New York City sewer.

Going back to the original source material for the introductory film’s plot to deliver a strong introduction to those new to the series, the movie finds the Turtles taking on Splinter’s arch-enemy Shredder who’d murdered Splinter’s owner back in Japan. As the movie develops, we learn that Shredder has brought more than just his ninja skills over to his adopted homeland by organizing a New York version of a largely teenage-based army inspired by the Japanese Foot Clan which primarily consist of troubled runaways and petty criminals (including a young Sam Rockwell!) in an Oliver Twist meets Pinocchio style underground gang.

And when the strong-willed TV news reporter April O’Neil (Judith Hoag) gets a little too close to the story by exposing the spike in crime as the work of the Foot Clan, the pizza-loving Turtles emerge from their sheltered lives to become heroes in half-shells to restore order and save the woman who becomes one of their two strongest human allies throughout the series.

However, when the Clan discovers their home below the city streets, their second hideout of April’s apartment is ruined and Master Splinter is abducted. Left reeling and injured, April and the Turtles flee to her childhood country residence. Joining up with the group in retreat, we meet the franchise’s MVP in the form of the group’s second human ally played with the right mixture of charisma, rebellion, charm, and humor by underrated character actor Elias Koteas in his breakthrough role. As the formerly brief professional hockey player Casey Jones who’d been injured on the ice, Koteas relishes the opportunity to tackle the Johnny Depp hair and hockey stick used as a weapon in playing the series’ favorite vigilante who first crosses paths with Raphael in a confrontation over the handling of thugs in Central Park before they inevitably realize they’re on the same side.

No doubt making the film appeal to adults who were saddled into bringing their young turtle fans along, the pitch-perfect casting of Koteas adds so much to the film as he embarks on a Moonlighting style rollercoaster flirtation with April. Likewise, a good amount of its success is owed to the amazingly complicated efforts of Jim Henson's Creature Shop that enabled real individuals to wear the turtle suits before the addition of vocal performances by those including Corey Feldman helped enliven the movie in humanizing the humorous, pop culture laced fast-paced work from typical live action versions of comics and cartoons.

And atypical for traditional family fare and therefore hearkening to the fact that the series had fans of all ages, the original film was filled with so much martial arts action that parents were alarmed by their use of the weapons that were as identifiable to the characters as the four different color masks they wore. Thus, one of the marked differences in the film's first higher profile, bigger budget follow-up work-- 1991's rushed The Secret of the Ooze was that it necessitated the Turtles to replace their traditional weapons like nun-chucks and bo-staffs with props like toys, sausages, and more in inventive yet increasingly child friendly fashion basically using the Jackie Chan modus operandi that hadn't yet reached the states in the '91 and '93 sequels.

While the subsequent installments all lacked the originality, sheer entertainment value and overall quality of the first, there was one beneficial change in the look of the franchise. To this end, in the sequel, the cinematic style was visually brightened from the first “murky” theatrical print as cited by Leonard Maltin which helped improve the series considerably as it continued on. Likewise as evolutions in the TMNT universe were inevitable, there were some cast shake-ups as well since the actress who originally brought April O'Neil to life (Judith Hoag) wasn't pleased with the way her performance was edited as listed in numerous locations throughout IMDb. And admittedly since I agree that the first “April” came off as a tad too cynical and hard edged it's completely understandable that she made the decision not to return for the next installment so thus April was recast and brought to life in the next two films by actress Paige Turco.

The replacement was treated as a humorous “in-joke” included in the film as actors on the street call her character by name as "April from TV" just to alert audiences of the change. And while Turco didn't get the chance to add more spunk to her performance (possibly worrying as Hoag did about that "edgy" first cut), she nonetheless makes a cute, bubbly April who admirably stayed around all the way through the third and weakest live action entry, Turtles in Time even though she wasn't utilized to her full potential as the character morphed from serious investigative journalist to just plain silly from II to III.

While the rushed second work was a notable step down in quality, it was admirable of the filmmakers to try and follow through with what had originally been the potential to create a complicated plot by digging further into the origins of the Turtles' mutation from that chemical ooze. However, once the ooze falls into the wrong hands when the Shredder stuns all by coming back from the grave as we'd assumed he'd perished at the end of I, the movie begins growing increasingly ludicrous with the addition of juvenile mutated villains and scatological humor.

Luckily it's still watchable thanks to the fun turn by one of the original film's turtle fight doubles-- Ernie Reyes Jr.-- who delighted producers enough to give him a chance to show off his martial arts skills and adorable charisma as a young pizza delivery character who fights alongside the Turtles in the opening and becomes a temporary Casey Jones replacement. Despite his "teen friendly" persona, there's no replacing Koteas nor Casey but Reyes' Keno is amusing enough so that we look past his limitations as a new actor.

However, overlooking the plethora of product placements in the first film-- the series grew far more obvious about its commercialism with the subsequent works boasting the then popular musician Vanilla Ice in his cinematic debut performing “Ninja Rap” in Ooze to help push soundtracks. And sure enough by the time the horrific fourth all-CGI installment TMNT came around fourteen years after the third live action film, it felt like its sole purpose was to promote a companion video game. But at least in comparison to 1991's Ooze, the filmmakers earned points by still trying to make it feel like it was an extension of the previous film, the animated series and the comics.

Dedicated to the late Jim Henson, the second film sadly marked the last time his creature shop was used so far to produce the Turtles which broke the appearance consistency for the third film. Yet while the Turtles may have begun to change their shells, at least some of the strongest elements of I came back as the movie's main saving grace was achieved by the return of Koteas (in dual roles no less) along with voice actor Corey Feldman.

Nonetheless, a far cry from the original film, Turtles III is otherwise only memorable for its beautiful scenery and appreciation for the cultural background of the characters as the Turtles have to journey backwards in time to feudal Japan to rescue April. However, I think most viewers by this point wished that somehow we could send the Turtles in to save the franchise. And when one Turtle mentions that “westerns are dead” in one of the endless pop culture references throughout the films (that have aged them for today's youth), it comes off more as a citation about the failure of the screenwriting process and the idea that this overly commercial movie just stuck the turtles in whatever genre or plot was hip that week.

The least profitable and lowest rated film of the series, it appeared as though that would be the last hurrah, until more than a decade later, for a reason that most likely can be attributed to love of green in cash form as opposed to the green Turtles, director Kevin Munroe crafted an awkward CGI adaptation complete with another gimmicky bizarre Star Trek meets Indiana Jones plotline.

While the voice talent roster for 2007's TMNT was amazing and included everyone from Buffy's Sarah Michelle Gellar to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's Ziyi Zhang and X-Men's Patrick Stewart, the warning sign appeared right from the start when Laurence Fishburne's nonsensical and overly complicated narrated prologue fills nearly five minutes of running time. Headache inducing and dissimilar to everything else that had come before it in a movie that resembles Spiderman and The Matrix more than the Turtles with a video game style execution, while TMNT might be fun for members of Generation Y who hadn't caught the other films or knew of the franchise's origins, to Generation X everything about the movie looked and felt wrong.

As the newest work included in the set, the sheer DVD presentation alone makes TMNT the most impressive offering in terms of visual quality and special features but it's a useless bonus for the majority of those such as this reviewer who didn't like the movie. And while it was quite a treat to see them all again so many years later, I was baffled as to why more time and technical attention hadn't been devoted to the series for its anniversary release since none of the previous works appeared as though they'd been touched up or remastered in the slightest.

Having seen the first three in the theatre and with only the VHS of the first two with which to compare the DVDs, I was disappointed that the first film especially showed minimal improvement from the video quality, even when the DVD was viewed on an upconvert Blu-ray player. While given Maltin's critique of the film which indicated that perhaps the print was "murky" from the start from budget restraint or poor film lab processing, even tweaking with the color adjustments made zero difference in a weak presentation which made me extremely curious as to whether there's a noticeable difference in the Blu-ray set since I felt like the DVD was on par with the video.

However, when you realize that only one of the four films would be of interest, the Blu-ray set's price tag doesn't entice one to opt for the collection, unless perhaps Warner Brothers is going to release the films individually in Blu-ray. In lieu of bonus features like cast and crew interviews which may have been of interest or even perhaps a few bonus discs of the animated episodes or a documentary on the franchise, the DVD set opted for a kid-centric approach with a DVD travel case that resembles a manhole cover, temporary tattoos and the four different color Turtle masks.

When you contrast these "extras" in comparison with the Blu-ray's "retro pizza box packaging" and collectible sketches and character art, you're left with the impression that this format's set-up was designed to appeal to the far more age appropriate Turtle Generation who grew up with the series and would own the Blu-ray technology. And despite the flaws of the sequels and the relative ease with which critics can take a highbrow approach to snob up and talk down about the Turtles, to quote Sheryl Crow, "if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad" and the series has made so many people happy for 25 years including two suburban kids catching the movie alone "sans parents" that it's not bad at all.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
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DVD Review: Dark Streets (2008)

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It seems that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas-- even when it comes to CineVegas where filmmaker Rachel Samuels received a 2008 Special Jury Prize for this-- her third feature film based on screenwriter Wallace King's adaptation of Glenn M. Stewart's play "City Club."

And perhaps the reason Dark Streets was such a hit in a city filled with so much sinful eye candy is precisely because that's exactly the type of film that Samuels made. Likewise, it's the style of musical I gravitate to with its classic film noir landscape of dark shadowy sidewalks and mysterious alleyways-- men dressed from head to toe in slanted fedoras complete with shoes so shiny you can see your face in them and women who are sassy, sexy, yet refreshingly smart wearing gowns that practically need to be sewn onto them directly with perfect red lips and chip free nail polish to match.

In fact, this is where the film's downfall comes in as the talent and beauty simply oozes off the screen in an overwhelming visceral feast for the senses that musical and noir junkies are sure to eat up on aesthetics alone... until that is, they realize that we're all following the wrong main character throughout the eighty-four minute running time, the screenplay makes little-- if any-- sense, and the last portion of the film derails completely into a strange hybrid of Moulin Rouge meets Inland Empire.

Still for a majority of the 1930s set work-- the areas of costume, makeup, production design, luscious cinematography, classy Fosse meets 30s choreographer from Rent brainchild Keith Young, and original music from such blues and jazz luminaries as B.B. King, Natalie Cole, Etta James, Richie Sambora, Aaron Neville and Dr. John keep us dazzled as the backdrop for a classic musical noir storyline.

Having recently inherited the Tower nightclub after his power company executive father died in mysterious circumstances, we're soon caught up in blandly inevitable love triangle involved when our leading man (played in all actuality by Gabriel Mann) casts aside his brunette headliner Crystal-- a talented cabaret singing sexy girl Friday (Bijou Phillips)-- in favor of a blonde and seemingly angelic chanteuse (Izabella Miko).

Although Mann struggles with a bad period mustache and an under-written role that's roughly on par to Michael Douglas sitting in the audience in A Chorus Line-- Phillips easily dominates her scenes and all of her numbers. While Samuels and her screenwriter try to throw a few red herrings into the film including some frequent power outages that Ebert, Cinematical and others have likened to possible Enron allegories and Mann's character does initially try to pursue what had happened to his father-- ultimately it never really pays off and we don't feel that invested in his plight.

In fact, I became far more fascinated wondering how much better the Dark Streets would have been if-- obviously in addition to a complete rewrite and just going for it with those tremendous show-stopping numbers-- perhaps Phillips' Crystal would've been the character we'd been following all along in the vein of more female-centric (or at least better gender-balanced) musicals like Chicago, Moulin Rouge and Cabaret.

Likewise, Mann's character's stupidity is infuriating as it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that something is definitely rotten in these Dark Streets when the blonde woman shows up shortly after his father's death when the indebted young man is asked to audition her by a shady police lieutenant friend (Elias Koteas).

Overall, Samuels has ultimately made a beautiful and passionate film of wasted potential-- that's essentially similar to a jazz or blues artist who squanders their promise not on the music but the fast lifestyle that the film's trailer, tagline, and synopsis promise. Although, honestly, given the amount of talent involved, I still think it could still be salvaged as one hell of a wonderful Broadway musical.

Yet much like a weekend in Vegas, it's an artistically imaginative and inspiring spectacle from a purely visual and auditory standpoint and something you'll have to see to believe but you probably won't want to return to often... when you realize that in the end, there's still no place like home or a narrative that makes sense.

Still, for those fellow musical buffs like yours truly that can't wait to scope it out-- you'll be happy to learn that it's been impeccably transferred on this Sony DVD that boasts director and cast commentary (which beats the uninspired dialogue but not the musical numbers so you'll want to switch it off for that) along with deleted scenes. Though, overall, for a superior movie from Sony about what it truly means to sing the blues-- check out last year's underrated Cadillac Records.

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Blu-ray Review: The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)

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I’m just going to go ahead and blame it on Bagger Vance. The only thing worse than watching golf on television is watching a really dull movie about golf. And sure enough, this was precisely the case when I brought my golf-loving grandfather to the theatre in 2000 to see Robert Redford’s The Legend of Bagger Vance and realized that not only was I bored out of my mind but my grandpa had actually fallen asleep while we’d been sitting there in the futile hope that something interesting would happen. And for those of you who suffered the same fate, I think it's safe to say that, man, nothing ever did.

Famously described by Mark Twain as “a good walk spoiled,” I must admit that I’ve never been a fan of traditional golf myself aside from, of course—much like getting a kick out of going with my niece and nephew to Chuck E Cheese to play Skee-Ball and shoot hoops—using every opportunity I could come up with to hit a mini golf location while growing up.

There was just something so satisfying about putting a ball through a paint-chipped ‘70s style Flintstones meets fairy tale land that never quite resonated with me in the official version of the game. Mainly it's because golf always seemed like a stuffy pastime considering that the the sport has been dominated by the privileged, wealthy, and mostly white middle aged male demographic (before of course, Tiger Woods became the notable exception).

After suffering through the mind-numbingly anticlimactic work that was Bagger Vance, I wasn’t exactly up to checking out a 120 minute period film about the sport when actor turned filmmaker Bill Paxton’s The Greatest Game Ever Played hit theatres in 2005. However, at least the 2005 film had the bonus that Vance didn't since Bagger again condescendingly cast a talented African-American actor (Oscar nominee Will Smith) in a stereotypically thankless role of helping white people find their way a la Whoopi in Ghost or Don Cheadle in The Family Man.



Yet this was definitely not Bill Paxton’s fault as I’d been a huge fan of the risk-taking actor who's consistently and passionately pursued lower budget indie films as well as larger studio works moving from One False Move to Apollo 13 to A Simple Plan before directing the incredibly underrated and intelligent shocker Frailty.

Likewise, I was also impressed by the employment of an old professor’s filmmaking colleague and friend—the talented cinematographer Shane Hurlbut --whose versatility and ability to light up sequences so that they simply popped as he did in HBO’s lauded The Rat Pack led to higher profile pictures sharpening the gorgeous oceanic landscape of Into the Blue, the overlooked rom-com Something New as well as We Are Marshall, Semi-Pro, Swing Vote and most recently Terminator: Salvation.

And now thanks to Walt Disney’s underdog sports themed double release of this film along with Gavin O’Connor’s Miracle onto Blu-ray this month--no doubt to tie in with Father’s Day-- I was finally given the push I needed to take a chance nine years after the Bagger incident had occurred when the studio kindly sent me this film for review.



Still dubious that I’d enjoy a golf movie—even one that starred the [then] up-and-coming charmer Shia LaBeouf who is currently attempting to break box office records this week with the release of Michael Bay’s sequel to the smash hit Transformers-- I’m thrilled to admit just how wrong I was when I became utterly mesmerized by Disney’s film which deservedly earned Paxton’s first studio helmed effort a Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award.

Described by the filmmaker as not just a true story “that everyone could relate to” but also one that is likewise “the first underdog story in American sports"-- his passion to make the movie for the studio that crafts underdog stories better than all the rest (Invincible, Glory Road, Remember the Titans) shines through right from the beginning of the piece.

The work which screenwriter Mark Frost adapted from his book chronicles the unlikely match-up of amateur twenty year old golfer Francis Ouimet (LaBeouf) who managed to battle his golfing idol—the British champion often dubbed the game’s best player in Stephen Dillane’s Harry Vardon—for the ultimate victory to win the 1913 U.S. Open Championship.

Much like Miracle, which found our young American and relatively inexperienced players psychologically and physically outmatched, LaBeouf’s Francis Ouimet—a former caddie and son of two immigrants—is equally out of his league, trying to better his game by studying the one perfected by Vardon which he’d broken down in his nonfiction work on his golf methodology.

However, while we never got to meet the opposing team or see them as anything other than the opposition in Miracle—the fascinating thing about this film is that Paxton and Frost take the time to fully develop both characters whom we realize have much more in common than one would assume. Moments into the movie we discover that both grew up as poor underdogs near golf courses (or in Vardon’s case being evicted from his property as a child so that a course could go where his home had been) and later they realize that despite being naturally gifted with a club and a ball, they’ll never be respected as “gentlemen” of the game.



The emphasis on class differences and the elitism of some in the field in their treatment of the players as they climb the ranks hoping to be treated as equals makes the nearly one hundred year old story still resonate quite strongly today. Furthermore, it’s even given a great Disney outsider addition when Ouimet hires a fifth grade, ten year old caddie named Eddie (Josh Flitter) who almost manages to steal focus from the entire movie towards his adorable, supportive presence.



Yes, of course there’s a few plot points that feel a bit forced to make certain that the movie completely follows the genre mandated pattern such as Ouimet’s crush on the wealthy club owner’s daughter that’s cast aside when the game begins in addition to a few other minor crises about their struggles to prove themselves worthy and overcome the psychological aspects and feelings of insecurity. However, the filmmakers bravely switch up the typical presentation of these events.



Unafraid of venturing into the fantastical area of magic realism that one has a license to incorporate into filmmaking-- Paxton makes the intriguing, assured and incredibly effective decision to bring their insecurities to life visually via Vardon’s memory of the men in black hats who took over his land as a child when his nerves threaten to overtake him on the golf course.

Equally powerful in his decision to make sure the game never comes off in easy quick shots of the ball flying through the air and a cut to where it lands, in the last almost full hour of the film which brings us right inside the game, Paxton illustrates his commitment to “celebrate” the beauty of golf as a game by bringing in a “sequence conceptual consultant” to film CGI enhanced shots.

Thus he enables us to view golf in an entirely unprecedented way often with a constantly moving camera. Making it just as appealing as a brightly colored mini golf course, the filmmakers use rapid editing and the seamless movement of slow motion to fast motion as we zoom in to see a lady bug on a ball, we feel like we’re soaring through the trees along with the golf ball, and go underneath the tee to watch a swing from a vastly different angle.

In doing so, Paxton, Hurlbut, the technical consultants and his editor Elliott Graham take a "kids in a candy store approach" to cinematic trickery in a technically imaginative style with the decision not to let the 1913 setting pigeonhole them to a classic period production feel.



Although some may have a problem with the anachronisms they infer from the “show-off” style—by pulling out all of the rabbits they can find in the black hats of the men that haunt Vardon--Paxton has set his film apart in a way that not only manages to entertain on a higher level than most by-the-numbers underdog stories but also as a work of art that I feel should be mandatory viewing for film school editing, special effects, and cinematography courses.

And now it's heightened even more so on Blu-ray in the longstanding, typically exceptional Disney tradition of an ultra clear transfer of the film to its full HD 1080 pixels. Further boasting sound that manages to capture everything from the wind blowing leaves on trees to the sound of the ball moving through the air—it’s the best way to experience the picture in tandem with numerous extra features including two separate commentary tracks, a rare news archived video of Ouimet in the ‘60s, and behind-the-scenes footage wherein Paxton thanks every single major crew member by name.



Still, far from just dazzling us with what they can do in a way that LaBeouf likened to Paxton’s decision to shoot it “more like a war film”-- with the use of mini remote controlled looking airplanes attached to cameras and choreographing everything in addition to story-boarding the scenes to break it down again and again-- admirably throughout the film, The Greatest Game Ever Played always remains emotionally satisfying from start to finish.



Much more than just a golf movie and one that honestly manages to top most of the other Disney features from the underdog true sports sagas they’ve become as known for as animation—Paxton’s film is a remarkable hidden gem that’s well worth your time, even if you’re still suffering from post-traumatic Vance disorder.

Blu-ray Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) -- 2-Disc Criterion Collection

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In addition to the critical acclaim, Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, perhaps the most significant barometer for the level of unsurpassed class exemplified in David Fincher's masterpiece The Curious Case of Benjamin Button-- which followed another underrated masterpiece in Zodiac-- is that it's one of the very few contemporary films that's been given The Criterion Collection treatment right off the bat with its debut on Blu-ray and DVD.

The prestigious film buffs involved with crafting those amazing one to multiple disc sets that consist of scholarly essays, worthwhile featurettes, and the highest level of transfer and respect paid in moving the work from film to DVD and/or Blu-ray have done so 475 times prior to Button and while usually we're treated to magical offerings by filmmakers including Truffaut, Fellini, Kurosawa, Polanski, Renoir, Godard, or De Sica, it's the rarest and most curious of honors when a new release is given the same consideration.



While I do remember Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums releasing via Criterion, the fact that it's so atypical that that's the only one that immediately springs to mind makes the distinction of Button worth so much more than any traditional award since the award is in the Blu-ray and it's shared with everyone.

Indeed, this stellar transfer takes the most exquisite pains in ensuring that Fincher's largely digital original material not only presents his intent as a filmmaker (complete with a directorial seal of approval) but also marks Button as a film that actually looks the best it ever has when given the Blu-ray treatment.



Of course, as curious and rare as the Criterion honor is for a new release, a film like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is that rarest and most curious of films being served up by the studio system (financed actually by two titans in the form of Paramount and Warner Brothers) as it hearkens back to the epics of yesteryear but does so without treacly saccharine or forced nostalgia.



Definitely romantic, daring, and fascinating in its literary approach and the boldness to present a man's entire life in its eighty year span of-- as the film notes-- the “unusual circumstances” that our hero Benjamin Button was born old, ages in reverse, and dies young but it's a film without gimmicks. Likewise, it's one without dubious plot points to intercut our lead into every major historical event taking place, preferring instead to take a subtle, humanistic, dark, heartbreaking, wise, yet unbelievably breathtaking approach from scripter Eric Roth (working from both F. Scott Fitzgerald's original short story and the many drafts of Robin Swicord who helped shape the story into an actual plot) and helmer David Fincher.



As the filmmakers involved stress-- including producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall who were onboard during the project's earliest development at Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment-- the film is at its heart the simple story of an everyman or a regular person whose experiences and interactions from first kisses to first hangovers help craft him into the man he becomes.



Despite this, some critics and audiences had fun riffing on the work as essentially a dark Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, and Panic Room director Fincher's interpretation of Eric Roth's Oscar winning screenplay for Forrest Gump. While the theory does hold water since both are adaptations of whimsical, fantastical literary material that chronicle a man's life and indeed share some central structural issues including a devotion to his mama (although Button's is an “adopted” one as his own dies in childbirth and horrified by the elderly “creature” that had just been brought into the world, his father dumps Benjamin off on the stairs of an elderly home) as well as a free-spirited true love-- there's much more wisdom in this piece than in the masterful fairy tale of Gump with its pop-culture one-liners.

Roth, who-- much like Fincher and other cast and crew members-- had experienced the painful deaths of parents during the process of conceiving the work, manage to sidestep the trappings of what seems to be a pop-song sentiment of “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger” or “Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now” (from Faces and Bob Dylan respectively) and instead look deeply into both the benefits and challenges of what it would mean to live your life in reverse.



While on the one hand, Benjamin comes to understand mortality at a very young age and must face it again and again throughout the course of his life as he learns that everything is temporary and life itself quite fleeting while losing one person to the next. However, on the other he's also been given the double edged sword of looking old and being perceived as someone who is ready to face the world as though he was seventy when in reality he's just a questioning adolescent still taken in by bedtime stories, eager to make friends, and fall in love.



And that he does when he first lays eyes on the beautiful red-headed child Daisy (perhaps named for Fitzgerald's most famous female character in The Great Gatsby) who-- while chronologically is the same age as he is-- appears young enough to be her granddaughter. Although again to some critics and audiences, Benjamin's struggle to make friends and go through typical coming-of-age experiences (such as his crush on Daisy) seemed far too creepy or unnatural to handle. Likewise, while I'm sure it probably will be a film that doesn't sit well with some churches since it “goes against nature” which is another argument I read-- honestly, it's a wide-eyed, equally optimistic yet realistic and mortal tale of discovery and an individual's journey through the time-line of life that is in the end more life-affirming than one would think once they get past their “creepy” reservations.

With the sweepingly assured storytelling approach and sheer beauty in the New Orleans set cinematography as well as the performances by its endlessly talented cast-- ultimately I was most moved by the underlying theme and subtext of the work that human beings are essentially comprised by not just the experiences they encounter but those who cross their paths and leave an unmistakable fingerprint on their lives.



Bravely confronting mortality right from the start as that thing that we're always trying to ignore in most modern day cinema as well as our daily lives, this existential work celebrates the collective experiences of Benjamin's life as well as his choices to take from each what he needs to, in order to ultimately become the man he wants to be as the film essentially plays as though it were presented via literary chapters complete with breathtaking illustrations from those bedtime stories that Benjamin and Daisy marveled in as children (despite their differing exteriors).



The Criterion set boasts a second Blu-ray filled with an unspeakably fascinating and emotional feature length documentary that is indeed broken into-- not simply chapters-- but installments that are named for the processes of a person's birth as well as the traditional Criterion caliber scholarly essay “The Man Who Watched the Hours Go By” this time by Kent Jones.



However, the most impressive aspect of the set in its own right is its presentation of the film itself which-- unlike most works-- wasn't completely pulled from the theatrical print shown in theatres but (aside from a few scenes that Fincher did shoot with 35mm film stock) but was instead moved directly from its digital source directly to Blu-ray providing the purest image possible. Additionally, it contains as a rich, multichannel mix audio experience which was optimized by the sound engineer Ron Klyce from the theatrical soundtrack to deliver the best in home audio.



In the end it's a richly rewarding film that unfolds like a novel and one complete with some illogical literary conceits as our narrator Benjamin describes things he couldn't possibly know (such as recounting the internal issues facing a number of strangers on a fateful morning). One of the top cinematic achievements of 2008 which admittedly did test the patience of those in the theatre with its requirement to watch with intellect fully engaged-- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button makes a far more satisfying "case" on Blu-ray in a Criterion Collection installment well-worth the investment.