Posts Tagged ‘DVD review’
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Adam Brody, Rob Corddry, Famke Janssen, Ron Silver, Jason Sudeikis, Gretchen Mol, Oliver Platt, Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Liev Schreiber,and Jessica Alba.
There must have been something pretty attractive about The Ten (on DVD January 15) to attract this level of talent. Now that it’s all said and done, I’m still trying to figure out what it is.
Written and directed by two alumni of the sketch comedy group The State, The Ten is a modern examination of The Ten Commandments. It’s not so much a film as a series of comedy sketches performed by a rotating and sometimes interceding cast of characters.
Paul Rudd plays Jeff Reigert. An everyday guy, he’s supposed to be guiding us through these stories. But between his wife, his mistress and Diane Wiest, he can barely get two sentences out with breaking a commandment or two himself.
That’s about as much narrative as you’re going to get in this picture and the random inclusion of Diane Wiest should give a clue as to the completely unpredictable nature of this comedy.
The film is fairly elliptical about how it addresses the commandments. In some cases, those who break them end up having things work out for them just fine! It’s not so much a morality tale, but more of an attempt to let the air out of a serious subject. Watching the film, I kept thinking about Monty Python’s The Life of Brian. The Ten is just as random, just as offensive and just as odd but it’s not the kind of movie whose sense of humor all audiences will appreciate.
I mean, once you have Winona Ryder having vigorous sex with a ventriloquist’s puppet, pretty much all bets are off.
I think there is a lot to like in The Ten, but in small doses. I would have hoped that the film could have gotten out of it’s own way at times and maybe found a way to interweave the narrative between stories a little more. Near the end of the film, things start to gel . But from a distance, the film feels like little more than a series of sketches that would have played much better on TV.
Then again, the film never takes itself that seriously. So maybe neither should we.
This is a great film to have on DVD, a fun afternoon rental if you don’t mind disconnected humor. Give it a shot if you’re willing to try something different. It may end up growing on you. But audiences expecting traditional setups and punchlines should look elsewhere.
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May13
DVD REVIEW – INDIANA JONES: THE ADVENTURE COLLECTION
May 13th, 2008 |
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 10)
At this point, reviewing the films in the Indiana Jones trilogy is a pointless exercise. For many of us, these films are woven into the tapestry of our lives – watched countless times on video and television. Enjoyed again and again with family and friends. They are omnipresent peaks in between the hills and valleys of the pop culture landscape. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have created a series of timeless films whose legacy expands in one week with the release of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – nearly 19 years since the intrepid archeologist’s last adventure, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
So, to that end, what is the reason behind re-releasing the first three films on DVD? Especially when they were first released (to much fanfare in 2003)? Clearly it’s a money grab on the part of Paramount, but a welcome one because included are several new bonus features that might be worth your while. Since the Indiana Jones trilogy set such a high water mark in the pop culture consciousness, we’ll be highlighting the DVD extras in this review rather than the films themselves to help you determine if this box set is something you want to add to your DVD collection. The re-released films can be found in stores today, Tuesday, May 13.
Each of the three films contain an “introduction” featuring Lucas and Spielberg speaking about their respective films, but it’s really more of a 20 minute retrospective than an introduction. These are the most revealing and insightful of the collections many extras specifically because they highlight something I’ve assumed for a long time.
George Lucas is an idiot.
Don’t get me wrong. I owe George Lucas a lot. He’s an amazing conceptualist who was able to envision whole galaxies and he has provided me a great deal of entertainment of the years. So I thank him for that.
But as an Executive Producer, he fails – and these featurettes prove it.
Talking about the casting decision to put Harrison Ford under Indy’s famous fedora, Lucas wasn’t for it. Savvy film fans know that the role was originally given to Tom Selleck who was unable to commit to the role due to his involvement with Magnum, P.I. For was Spielberg’s first choice, but Lucas objected siting the success of Star Wars and his concerns that audiences would only be familiar with Ford has Han Solo.
Similarly, for The Last Crusade, Lucas did not want Sean Connery for the role of Indy’s father – concerned that audiences would not accept him in the subordinate sidekick role. Additionally, he was concerned that audiences would only see Connery as 007 – despite the fact that he hadn’t made a James Bond movie (not counting Never Say Never Again) since 1965. Speilberg actually had to convince Lucas that James Bond was the prototype for Indiana Jones in several ways and therefore having Connery play Indiana Jones’s father made sense in a cinematic way.
Most damning, however, is the featurette on The Temple of Doom. Spielberg pretty much comes right out of the gate saying that the movie wasn’t profitable, it wasn’t well-liked by critics, is the most downbeat and least enjoyable of the original three films. Watching again for the first time in a few years, I myself had not noticed how bleak it actually is. Very violent and almost gory. Specifically, the scenes of child abuse in the temple strike a nerve in a way they haven’t before. I guess being a parent now, a switch must have flipped.
But what gets revealed here is Lucas’s insistence that The Temple of Doom go down a dark path. He insisted on it, in fact – siting the success of The Empire Strikes Back. In Lucas’s mind, the second act of a trilogy needs to be downbeat so the hero can rally and come back stronger in the third installment. He actually says this in the featurette.
But there’s a problem with this logic. The Indiana Jones trilogy was not written as one film like Star Wars was. They are episodic like the old Republic adventure serials. The second issue is that – chronologically – The Temple of Doom actually takes place one year before Raiders of The Lost Ark. So shouldn’t the first movie be the downtrodden one.
Most outrageously of all, after Spielberg talks about his distaste for the film, Lucas admits that it is also his least favorite of the three because of it’s dark tone. “I’m more of a humor guy,” he says.
WHAT?! I actually had to pause the DVD and rewind it to make sure I heard him right.
It just goes to show that Lucas doesn’t trust his actors or even his audience to interpret his films correctly. Points for professionalism go to Spielberg, however, who expresses that he was a director hired to execute Lucas’s vision and performed the role he was hired to do.
For those of you hoping for an audio commentary on these movies, you’re out of luck. The “introduction” featurettes are as close as you’re going to get to listening to Spielberg and Lucas wax philosophical on their films.
Other featurettes on Raiders of The Lost Ark include “Indiana Jones: An Appreciation” where cast members from Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull talk about the first three movies and their memories of each. It’s a fluff piece that will probably have greater context after The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull comes out on DVD, but, for now, feels highly promotional.
More interesting in the featurette “The Melting Face” where we go behind-the-scenes and talk to the effects supervisor who created the most nightmare-inducing effect of the early 80’s with Toht’s melting face after the Ark of the Covenant is opened. They show you how it’s done from start to finish, providing side-by-side comparisons to the original effect with a recreation developed specifically for release.
The featurettes on The Temple of Doom include “Creepy Crawlies” where critter wranglers on all three films discuss how they corralled all of the various snakes, bugs and rats to hit their marks and terrify the actors. They also hint at the tradition continuing in the fourth film, but don’t give away specifics as to what.
“Locations” highlight all of the remote areas around the globe that Indiana Jones shot to give the series it’s globetrotting vibe. Everywhere from Sri Lanka to Jordan, Vencie and Utah. Even the same canyon in Tunisia where R2-D2 was captured by Jawas in the first Star Wars!
Finally, The Last Crusade has a featurette called “Friends and Enemies” that provides an overview of the supporting characters in the Indiana Jones films and an exerpt from a sit down discussion with Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody called “The Women: The American Fim Institute Tribute” which was originally recorded in conjunction with the film’s release on DVD five years ago.
The discussion starts out slow with each of the actresses talking more about how great Indiana Jones is as a character and less about their own contributions to the films.
Eventually, as things pick up, interesting tidbits about the actresses themselves are revealed. Alison Doody admit to being intimidated on set due to it being an early acting job and the most high profile one of her career. She talks about how Sean Connery “stole” her role as the sidekick of the picture and how she was offered several films featuring characters with Austrian accents after the film was released – even though she is Irish and had great trouble performing the accent in the film. She doesn’t come off as bitter, exactly. But more overwhelmed and maybe even slightly disinterested in the fame the film brought her.
Kate Capshaw spends a great deal of time talking about how critics ravaged the character of Willie Scott as annoying and grating and had very few kind things to say about her as well. In the way that she talks, you get the sense that she’s disassociated her performance and blames the critical response to how the character was written. “I told Stephen during filming,” Capshaw says, “that there was too much screaming!” Turns out she was right.
Interestingly enough, Spielberg goes on endlessly about Capshaw in the “introduction” featurette for The Temple of Doom. Despite the difficulties he had with the film, he says he can’t be too disappointed with the experience because it introduced him to Capshaw (they married in 1991). Spielberg talks at length about how enthralled he was with Capshaw’s performance, praising her comedic timing and gift for physical comedy. Nepotism runs pretty deep here.
It turns out that Karen Allen emerges as the most well-adjusted of Indy’s former flames. Still as effervescent as she was in the first film, it’s no doubt that same spunk brought her back to the role she left behind nearly 30 years in The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull.
Beyond that, each of the three films contain a storyboard sequence that compares drawings to the completed footage as well as multiple photo galleries featuring photos and props, production photography and portraits, effects and marketing materials. Some of the galleries are more interesting than others, specifically the effects and marketing sets. It’s kind of interested to see how Indiana Jones is repackaged for Japanese audiences.
Overall I don’t know if there is enough material here to warrant a repurchase of the DVDs if you already own the 2003 release. But if you don’t already own them and are looking for an excuse to get even MORE excited about The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you can’t go wrong here. The films continue to entertain and they are simply a must for any serious DVD collection.
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As far as R-rated comedies go, I Love You, Man is kind of like a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Sure, it tries to convince you that it’s a raunchy sex farce with it’s jokes about masturbation stations, oral sex and grandma’s riding Sybian machines. But in actuality, it’s an adorable little film about the difficulties of making friends in your 30’s.
I Love You, Man tries frequently to shock you into laughing, but is undercut by the sweetness and likability of it’s principal players.
After proposing to his girlfriend, real estate agent Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) realizes that he doesn’t have a lot of guy friends and goes on a series of “man dates” in an effort to make friends. After a series of set-ups and disasters, Peter meets the enigmatic Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) and hijinks ensue.
The ever-agile Rudd takes his character’s earnestness and propensity for inventing half-cooked slang and nicknames (“See you later, Joben!”) beyond the socially awkward situations he finds himself in. Rudd’s character is pathetic in a way that you root for, not laugh at.
Segel as Sydney is meant to come off like some kind of latter-day hippie. We don’t know what he does for a living or why he dresses like a pawn shop refugee. Later, when Sydney asks Peter for an $8,000 loan, we’re meant to question if his intentions are honorable. But Segel’s sincerity as a performer shines through. And even though Sydney is a bit of an odd duck, he operates within the parameters of a very specific, laid back personal philosophy. He’s never really as outrageous or dangerous as the movie wants you to think he is.
These are not criticisms meant to convince you that I Love You, Man is a bad movie. In fact, it is a very tidy, effective and humorous examination of making friends later in life and the importance of male bonding.
Certainly it is buoyed by the strength of it’s phenomenal supporting cast. Writer/Director John Hamburg did an excellent job of gathering talent. Everyone from the adorable Rashida Jones as Rudd’s fiance, Andy Samberg, Jaime Pressly, Jon Favreau, J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtain, Human Giant’s Rob Huebel and The State’s Thomas Lennon and Joe Lo Truglio make appearances.
On Blu-ray, the movie looks spectacular. You can see every last freckle on Jason Segel’s face. Although, I’m starting to become concerned that between this movie and Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Blu-ray, I’m becoming a little too knowledgeable about Segel’s dermatological landscape.
Extras on the disc are everything you would expect. Deleted scenes, extended scenes, a gag reel, a “making-of” documentary and audio commentary from Hamburg, Rudd and Segel.
The extended scenes and gag reel demonstrate not only the large amount of quick-fire improvising that was happening during production, but also Rudd’s aparant inability to keep a straight face at any given time.
Then again, when you have Rob Huebell (as Peter’s real estate rival) sitting across from you ad-libbing all of the celebrities he’s sold homes to, it’s kind of hard not to laugh “Gary Coleman, Emmanuel Lewis, Jaleel White, Donald Sutherland…”
In fact, everything about these extras seems to indicate that the production of I Love You, Man was one of the most loose, playful, happiest experiences ever captured on film. And there’s nothing wrong with that! Next time, don’t try to compete with Bruno for shock value. There’s nothing wrong with making a sweet natured comedy and playing to those strengths.
For people looking for some relaxed laughs with a couple of sex jokes thrown in, I Love You, Man fits the bill.
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I remember being bummed that I wasn’t able to catch the coming-of-age comedy film Adventureland when it was in theaters last April, so it was a real treat to finally catch up with it when it was released on Blu-ray last Tuesday.
Writer / director Greg Mottola’s semi-autobiographical tale about a recent college grad languishing away at the “worst job on Earth” at Adventureland Amusement Park in 1987 doesn’t exactly benefit visually from the Blu-ray format. But the movie has an intentional, gritty feel – as if it’s been filtered through someone’s memory.
The movie does a good job setting itself within the time period without pushing too many “Hey, it’s the 80’s!” cultural touchstones. Yuppies and Madonna are mentioned here and there, but the protagonists in this movie are far, far away from the mainstream. For the most part, they’re grossly over-educated, analytical and sarcastic shoe-gazing romantics with a Lou Reed obsession. I guess the comedy is supposed to come from the contrast of otherwise smart people doing what Martin Starr’s supporting character called “the work of pathetic, lazy morons.”
Falling somewhere between Shia LaBeouf and Michael Cera on the Geeky/Sensitive Leading Man Scale, Jesse Eisenberg plays James Brennan – a recent college grad whose plans to travel Europe with a friend are dashed when his Father loses his job. As things get worse for James’s family and his future in grad school at Columbia University is threatened, he’s forced to take a summer job. Overqualified for every job he applies for, James is forced to take a job at the local, run-down amusement park Adventureland.
The movie serves James a romantic interest in the form of Kristen Stewart’s Em Lewin. I have to admit that I was prepared to hate Stewart going into the movie by virtue of her preening, posturing, sneering performance in Twilight. But in Adventureland, she’s fascinating to watch. Em has a lot of problems at home and despite her cool and friendly exterior, she doesn’t really want to be known by anyone. Her performance really made me reconsider my previous negative attitude toward her as an actress.
James’s confidant at Adventureland is Joel, played by Martin Starr. A sarcastic and somewhat lonely intellectual who shows James the ropes at the park. Mottola gives Joel the pretentious habit of smoking a pipe, but makes him self-aware enough to know that it’s obnoxious. “It’s a revolting affection,” he acknowledges. “But it relaxes me.”
The rest of the cast is rounded out by Ryan Reynolds as the park’s mechanic and Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the park’s managers.
Reynolds finally does something very interesting with his innate charm and makes his character a little sleazy for once. Hader and Wiig aren’t in the movie as much as the advertising for the film would have led you to believe. But they are used effectively throughout the movie to add comedic punch between scenes.
There really isn’t anything in Adventureland that hasn’t been done by a thousand other coming-of-age movies. But the film is very relaxed and sure about itself. More than anything, it seems to be about hanging out, getting high and letting relationships unfold. Watching it, I was actually reminded of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused – another period piece about hanging out, getting high and letting relationships unfold. The only difference here is that the jocks and popular kids have been completely replaced by the intellectuals and misfits.
Similar to Dazed and Confused, however, is the film’s excellent soundtrack. David Bowie, Big Star, The Cure, Crowded House, The New York Dolls, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Replacements, The Velvet Underground and, of course, Lou Reed wrap the film in a perfect period time capsule.
Inventively, in addition to skipping ahead to specific scenes, one of the menu features on the Blu-ray lets you skip to scenes using specific songs from the soundtrack. Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” appears as a menu option no less than 4 times – a funny callback to a running joke throughout the film.
Additional bonus features include audio commentary with Greg Mottola and actor Jesse Eisenberg and the requisite deleted scenes. There’s a 17-minute making-of documentary and a few interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes utilizing some of the supporting cast members. “Lisa P’s Guide To Style” instructs you on all the “latest” 80’s fashion. “Welcome to Adventureland” gathers a couple of commercials promoting the park, the employee orientation kit and a peek at the official drug policy. “Frigo’s Ball Tap” instructs you on the proper technique and variety that is the art of tapping your friends in the balls.
Adventureland didn’t set the world on fire at the box office last April, pulling in $16 million domestically during its theatrical run. That’s a shame. The movie is confidently told and competently performed. It deserves a bigger audience and hopefully it will find it on DVD.
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