TV on DVD: Two and a Half Men -- The Complete Sixth Season

Season 6 is Now Available to Own

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After being thoroughly impressed by the extraordinarily inventive scandalous wit utilized by the writers in the previous DVD set of America's number one smash TV comedy, I must say that I was initially dismayed by the lack of creativity evidenced at the start of the sixth season.

While fortunately it bounces back, unfortunately it doesn't manage to do so consistently until the middle of the set's second disc or approximately one half of the season's run with twelve's "Thank God For Scoliosis," which was a double-back on a previous episode as Alan (Jon Cryer) begins dating his receptionist whom Charlie (Charlie Sheen) of course had previously used and abused.

Yet despite this sign of more surefire comedic awkwardness to come as the men engage in multiple episode arcs with (gasp!) the same women and Charlie becomes engaged to the beautiful and kind Chelsea (Jennifer Taylor Bini), before "Scoliosis," there had only been one must-see via the ridiculously funny "It's Always Nazi Week" which was ironically the sixth episode of the sixth season that wouldn't be topped for six more episodes.

Helping to propel one of the season's biggest mysteries and comedic goldmines, in "Nazi Week," Alan and his ex-wife Judith (Marin Hinkle) briefly hook-up after she has a falling out with nerdy replacement husband Herb, played by the terrific Ryan Stiles from America's underrated take on UK's sketch comedy series Whose Line is It Anyway?

Needless to say, their old pet peeves along with fundamental down-to-their-core incompatibility soon take over which ends the couple's brief insecure mad dash for comfortable familiarity. However, when Judith is revealed to be pregnant six weeks later, their reunion is far from over as far as Alan's concerned. Yet since Judith and Herb had reconciled, Judith keeps her moment of insanity with Alan from Herb but it does little to keep Alan from trying to be a part of what very well could be his soon-to-be-born child's life.

While the familiarity of making whoopee isn't exchanged for the other kind of booties as in the land of Men, boom-boom always comes before babies, at the same time for fans who'd been growing weary of the same paradigm we'd seen previously, the show grows stronger with several plot-lines firmly in place.

Thus it endures after its odd start wherein the main problem seemed to be in the writing as it replaced the brilliance of its sexually charged hidden innuendo by fixating far too heavily on scatological humor wherein jokes about number two, the gasses emitted by Jake and the need of his father to use a special stool for stools became the most go-to source of humor.

Obviously "potty humor" as it was always called in my neck of the woods has never been foreign fodder for these Men but it was one of the many weapons housed in the show's successful arsenal of jokes and writers, comedy junkies, series enthusiasts, and the show's extremely hard working ensemble deserved much better than the series stooping that lazily low for laughs. I'm not sure if it's because they were spreading themselves too thin with the series mastermind Chuck Lorre's co-development and launch of the sweet and hilarious Big Bang Theory which will now play with the Men on Monday night's lineup in the most coveted time-slot on CBS.

Still, whatever the case may have been, once it makes its way past a few speed bumps, there are some priceless episodes to enjoy as Alan struggles internally about Judith's pregnancy but begins a romance that results in an acid trip with the girl's mother, Charlie grows serious about settling down, and Jake dates the girl next door whose ex-NFL star father is played by Michael Clarke Duncan. While guest stars including Alicia Witt, Sheen's brother Emilio Estevez and Duncan are introduced early on, it's Duncan who is given the best material when he returns for arguably one of the season's wittiest episodes following what we'd feared would be a one-time cameo.

Aside from the aforementioned titles, the other can't miss episodes include: "David Copperfield Slipped Me a Roofie" which saddles Alan with the worst fortieth birthday party in history (to our delight), "She'll Still Be Dead At Halftime" in which the trio has to get rid of a drunken, lingerie-clad, passed out blonde in Charlie's bed before his fiance returns, a Friends meets Sex and the City style dysfunctional bromance pity party in "The Two Finger Rule," and Alan's blind date with Melanie Lynskey's cutesy stalker Rose in "Above Exalted Cyclops."

Likewise, aside from a surprising turn at the end of the season that demands a DVR program for its comeback this month, by switching up the main duo's roles, we have new sources for laughs as Alan is the player of the season compared to Charlie and the Two rebounds from more of the same to new craziness as Charlie is put to the test taking care of Chelsea and Alan "text-blocks" Charlie when he becomes the quintessential gay best friend of Chelsea.

Sadly missing series favorite Lynskey in the interviews contained in the set's intriguing and hilarious featurette "The Women of Two and a Half Men" in which I realized the way that Conchata Ferrell's Berta has replaced Holland Taylor's mother Evelyn for Charlie, there's also an especially interesting portrait of Angus T. Jones and the way he's essentially come-of-age on television in the refreshingly earnest "Growing Up Harper" that presents us with not only the opposite of Jake but the opposite of a child actor stereotype.

Additionally containing the obligatory gag-reel that illustrates the way the actors cope with the tongue-twisting lines live in front of a studio audience and giggle fits (often even before the joke is uttered) which again makes you appreciate just how much more Cryer has to do in any given episode, the four-disc set from Warner Brothers thankfully includes a DVD episode-guide insert that lets you jump right to your favorites.

Uneven yet still more consistently funny than the crash-and-burn of NBC's The Office which has overstayed its welcome, by briefly showing us an alternate side of the Men as they slightly morph into one another and pick up atypical habits throughout season six, stale becomes fresh in a quality comeback for the perennial favorite network comedy.


Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

DVD Review: Delgo (2008)

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As grueling as it is to actually sit down and view the work in the form of a motion picture-- at the very least, co-director Marc F. Adler and Jason Maurer’s feature filmmaking debut Delgo can be considered a bold experiment. And as such, it’s one that’s worth exploring purely for those interested in the business side of independent filmmaking... even if the finished product is visually unappealing, filled with far too many characters, and seems to crib extensively from far superior tales by Peter Jackson, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Ang Lee.

Although it was conceived and written as the first installment of an intended trilogy, the film which was admirably completed entirely away from the traditional Hollywood studio system and funded fully from private equity reportedly “had the lowest per-theater gross on its opening weekend of any wide release in American film.”

While admittedly the lack of a good studio push or ad campaign most likely hindered it beyond repair, Adler and Maurer knew going into the venture that spreading word-of-mouth for their labor-of-love would be an uphill climb. To combat this, the guys took a proactive route and made an unprecedented decision to let audiences around the world in on the entire filmmaking experience.

By posting the movie’s dailies on Delgo’s official website, it enabled the directors to utilize the free advertising of the internet by sharing “rough footage, fragments of animation as they were being scrutinized, polished, and reworked." This action “was a first for any active studio production," yet the movie being served up by the filmmakers in collaboration with their animation team at Fathom Studios independently made another creative marketing decision along the way.

To this end, they used their budget wisely to secure an amazing roster of talent to voice the film and then spread out the casting announcements to help build up anticipation for Delgo. Yet perhaps because the entire production lasted more than five years—going well beyond Kubrick Eyes Wide Shut territory— eventually I’m assuming the novelty of watching a live film being made wore off. And this may have overwhelmingly been the case when the lead voice actors--Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt-- were no longer quite as in-demand as they had been many years earlier or when viewers discovered how poorly conceived the plot-line was at its very core.

Essentially, we’re presented with a star-crossed lover story straight out of Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story via this wrong-side-of-the-magical-world Jhamora scenario as our main character Delgo (Prinze Jr.) becomes friends with an independent princess Kyla (Hewitt).

Furthermore, each character comes from two feuding civilizations which is visually apparent right away as Delgo originates from the Lockni natives in what appears to have been a misguided animation attempt wherein, instead of Shrek, he resembles a gecko crossed with a dinosaur crossed with a person. Fortunately for Hewitt's character, Princess Kyla was hit with the adorable pixie fairy-like stick as a member of Nohrin royalty who seems to be hoping for a role as Tinkerbell's understudy if she ever went "punk."

When you add in a backstory involving murder and then frame the current relationship of the two teens amidst a series of misunderstandings, the plot becomes increasingly convoluted until predictably it ends with the important message about the need for tolerance and peace.

Utilizing nearly the same number of writers as it took years to complete the work which is sadly the final film of Hollywood legend and actress Anne Bancroft, ultimately Delgo never effectively engages us on any level with unappealing animation completed entirely on computers that still comes across murky and dull on the DVD in addition to its cliché heavy, forgettable plot.

While it was a brilliant attempt and great strategy to use their finances to secure not just the aforementioned actors but also Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, Louis Gossett Jr., Burt Reynolds, Eric Idle, Chris Kattan and Kelly Ripa, when you discover that the impressive Michael Clarke Duncan ended up recording his vocal work 3,000 miles away from where the production was taking place, then it’s no wonder that most of those involved sound only halfheartedly caught up in the feature.

Again, I do admire and applaud what normally would’ve been an ingenious publicity and marketing strategy had they started with the most important building block of a solid script, made the animation easier on the eyes and completed the work in a year or two. Unfortunately the only intriguing insight I can offer you about Delgo is that halfway through the film I was so bored that I realized if you turned the letters around it spells “Ogled” and sadly, this isn’t one film you won’t want to have ogled.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

DVD Review: One Way (2007)

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Despite the fact that popular German actor Til Schweiger is exceedingly easy on the eyes, after you begin to size up his character Eddie Schneider in writer/director Reto Salimbeni’s new DVD release One Way, you can see why Quentin Tarantino knew the man had it in him to become part of the ensemble of Inglorious Basterds.

Yet, in One Way, Eddie is our male protagonist which is the film’s greatest obstacle as it’s tough to worry about Schweiger’s constantly lying manipulator who first charms us while delivering a heartfelt speech about his love for Judy (Stefanie von Pfetten) when asking her father for Judy’s hand in marriage.

As this scene follows not just a jump in time but a horrific yet brief opener of a gang rape in the woods that ends with the introduction of a vengeance filled shoot ‘em up “General” (Michael Clarke Duncan) who may or may not be real--we’re admittedly jarred a bit by the sequencing as well as the tone established in the response Eddie receives.

For, since Judy’s father also happens to be Eddie’s boss at the advertising firm where Schweiger’s character works as the company’s creative director, Judy’s father replies to the request with a curt refusal and explains that once he’s landed a lucrative airline account the next day, then he’ll give the two his blessing. And it’s faux jokes like these served by those with icy demeanors in the never believable world of the New York firm Birk Advertising that makes Salimbeni’s film such an enigma.

Our patience for Eddie as a hero is further challenged when he makes the decision to show his devotion to his future fiancé by engaging in a crude quickie with his mistress-- arriving late for the presentation-- and then somehow shocking the executives into accepting his proposal with an over-the-top unprofessional display filled with profanity, ripping up their existing ads, and insulting them.

Yet amazingly you still can’t help sort of liking the guy overall, aside from the whole infidelity thing which by now seems to be an advertising stereotype thanks to this era of Mad Men. And even though I wasn't sure I fully bought his feelings for Judy or the mistress (the very little we see of her, of course and you can take that literally since she plays a mistress), honestly I thought Eddie had the best chemistry with his colleague and gal pal, Angelina Sable (Lauren Lee Smith).

Most likely, the reason the relationship between the two best friends who keep nothing secret from one another is saved is due to the fact that they haven’t jumped into the sack or joined the "men and women at work cliché party" but just as Judy is a much better fiancé to Eddie than he deserves, Angelina is likewise a much better friend as well.

For fairly quickly into the film, Angelina is brutally raped by Judy’s jealous brother—their colleague Anthony Birk (Sebastien Roberts)—in a painfully long sequence that still manages to avoid going for cheap tricks by focusing mostly on facial expressions, keeping actors clothed, and by the movie crew’s wise decision to use minimal lighting.

Quickly ascertaining that she is the very same wounded woman we met in the opening sequence makes Angelina’s ordeal far more excruciating especially when Eddie dutifully brings his traumatized friend to the doctor yet bears false witness to what she confides when Anthony blackmails him with photographic evidence of his infidelity. Since, when he realizes that he’ll hurt either his best friend or his fiancé with Anthony’s threats, Eddie opts to put his career and future in-laws before putting a criminal behind bars but when the plan backfires and Angelina begins to see "The General" again, revenge enters the over-crowded screenplay.

Moreover, the film seems uncertain if it wants to be a morality tale, a thriller, a psychological drama, or an exploitative revenge picture as one sequence made me fear we were heading into the same territory explored in Death Sentence, The Brave One and Closure. Yet despite this, there’s some great ideas at work in the movie but unfortunately I realized that we were following the wrong main character around throughout the entirety of One Way (therefore someone should've pulled the filmmaker over for going the wrong way from the start!).

Having been largely unacquainted with the character of Anthony Birk—Sebastien Roberts is able to fill in all the blanks for us in a scary turn yet a great deal of the time, and most importantly with Judy and Angelina who begged to be explored in larger detail, we’re completely at a loss. Additionally, the entire idea of The General is something that feels as though it had been introduced in the first draft of the screenwriting stage and then slowly deleted as the rewrites began piling up or the frames began to land on the cutting room floor as Duncan’s work is of so little consequence in the finished product that most likely he could’ve filmed his scenes in one day.

Thus, instead of tying up the loose ends or following a story we become genuinely invested in, we’re saddled with a gutless and downright despicable hero. Really rape is better than an affair? Oh yes, please let's root for that guy! And tragically the proof of Schweiger’s poorly constructed Eddie is established as if the film itself were on trial through an obligatory courtroom showdown that features Eric Roberts in an effective if brief cameo as even under oath Eddie is still able to avoid making any real decisions since luckily the strong women in his life will do it for him.

Again, there’s enough in One Way that could’ve been solidly utilized in the construction of a smart thriller… if that’s what they were going for because once more, we’re never quite certain why Eddie’s point-of-view was the one and only way to tell the story. For in the end, what we’re left with is a whole lot of side streets that lead you down them for a bit until you wish that somebody would’ve just stopped to ask for directions. Hmm, again, maybe Angelina or Judy would've been happy to oblige?

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

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.

Slipstream

Director: Anthony Hopkins

“I perceive life as a game, a game that we play at some unconscious level,” Anthony Hopkins explained to journalist Scott Macaulay in the Fall 2007 Filmmaker Magazine article “The Hollywood Life” which chronicled his latest experimental puzzler Slipstream from its birth as a stream-of-consciousness screenplay to its wild shoot and inventive post-production that found Oscar winning Anthony Hopkins both in front of the camera and behind it serving as the writer/director/star and film score composer as well.

While the film, which explores “the strange nature of time” is a wild opus purposely created to “annoy the audience” as the actor explained may be his own version of a game, the question then becomes in asking whether or not viewers will want to take part as, like Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, 8 & ½ and Last Year in Marienbad, it infuriates its audience with constant shifts in plot, character, and text that continually build on itself until we realize that it’s a film within a film within a film just like our main character, the “film’s” screenwriter Felix Bonhoeffer (Hopkins) is, as Vince Vaughn may have said in Swingers, the guy behind the guy behind the guy. Although Felix is perceived to be a main character, the film focuses instead on several others as the movie begins and we meet Michael Clarke Duncan as a bouncer of sorts and two villains played by Jeffrey Tambor and Christian Slater who decide to hold up a diner, not for any monetary gain, but just for the sake of menace as Tambor and Slater ramble out an increasingly crazy story about the 50’s film Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Slater’s typical Jack Nicholson styled cadence becomes far more frightening with each passing minute. Then, as soon as we’re beginning to grasp this nonsensical storyline, a “cut” is yelled and we’re taken behind the scenes of a sloppy film shoot in the desert that will soon find one actor dead and the rest all struggling to figure out how that will affect the film, with studio head John Turturro (given a majority of the picture’s best lines) arriving on the scene like a domineering madman.

Filled with Hollywood in-jokes as Turturro’s character named Harvey seems on some level to be a nod to the controversial tactics and persona of former Miramax head Harvey Weinstein, an off-screen phone call from “Dino” (De Laurentis) about casting Hopkins in Hannibal 4 as long as the price is right and a joke about films being cheesy dreams that can find Huckleberry Finn fishing on the moon similar to the image used as the Dreamworks logo. In addition, Hopkins casts his wife and the film’s producer Stella Arroyave as Gina, the wife of his character Felix and soon the film morphs from an Altman styled Player satire of the film business into one concerned with the past and of how characters came to be where they are in the face of their own mortality.

While an indisputable vanity project and one that will have most viewers reaching for the eject button within the first half an hour, it’s still an artistically imaginative ride for those willing to participate and while it’s nowhere near as effective as the films its emulating such as Marienbad or as I began to feel, literature from Kafka or Calvino, it’s of particular interest to film students who appreciate the amount of work that goes into experimental filmmaking and even more, the amount of dedication and artistry from those involved. Instead of being Hopkins’s film all the way, in the end, the real star of Slipstream and the one responsible for a large majority of its moderate success as a valuable work is the courageous editor Michael Miller who not only respected Hopkins’ vision but also added a dazzling sense of style to the picture giving it a feeling of more depth at times than it actually deserves in the process.