MattBrady
01-06-2008, 10:20 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/MonsterSquad.jpg" border="0" align="right"><i>by Steve Fritz</i>
<I>It’s a new year and a new batch of DVDs, including the following: </I>
<b>MONSTER SQUAD: The 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Lions Gate) (2 DVDs)</b>
Back in the 1980’s there was this young, up-and-coming director named Fred Dekker with two grade C horror movies under his belt, <I>Night of the Creeps</I> and <I>House</I>. Then he stumbled on a script by another up-and-comer named Shane Black who had one film under his belt, <I>Lethal Weapon</I>. Together they’d create one of the funniest and most underrated kids movies of all time.
The basic story line is simple. A century previous, Van Helsing nearly put Dracula out of our misery when he got his hands on a magic amulet and tried to perform a ritual that would rid the world of this undead evil. Things then go horribly wrong and the Lord of all Vampires is still out and about camping it up and keeping a steady supply of undead brides at his beck and call. Enter modern times and a group of horror movie loving kids realize they are the only ones who stands in the way of Drac taking his own bite out of the world. The former Vlad The Impaler’s not alone either, as he’s brought some of the meanest and maddest of the Universal monsters with him on this mission.
What sets this film apart is two things. First and foremost, Dekker and Black do a great job of not only casting a bunch of believable kids, but giving them great lines such as “Frankenstein ate my Twinkie!” and “the Wolfman DOES have nards!” Secondly, this dynamic duo know kids love a solid scare, and provide their viewers with a lot of good ones. Yet the only problem was this was 1987 folks, and the movie going audience of the time didn’t realize what a good thing they had. As cineastes of today will tell you, it would take cable services like HBO to help <I>The Monster Squad</I> find the audience it so truly deserves.
Lions Gate has done us a tremendous favor by not only providing us with a crisp and sweet restoration job, but also a whole second disk of interviews from Dekker, key actors and others who had paws, claws and whatever else on the job. While Dekker’s career these days seems to be relegated to the convention circuit, the IMDB lists his last major job as working on the <I>Enterprise</I> TV series, it’s nice to see that Black has at least become a solid provider of summer action fodder. It’s also nice to see that the film itself has a solid coterie of true believers who do all the right things such ilk do. Personally, it had been a long while since I last looked in on this film, and I was pleasantly surprised at remembering how much fun it really was. Do yourself a favor and check out a copy for yourself. Don’t be surprised if you come to the same conclusion.
<b>BOOGEYMAN 2 (Sony)</b>
Before I go on, let me say the following. This film has virtually nothing to do with the film it’s the sequel of. It also has absolutely nothing to do with the original <I>Boogeyman</I> or <I>Boogeyman II</I> of the 1980s.
Now stop reading this review as soon as it sounds too familiar.
A bunch of young adults/late teenagers attend a special asylum to come to terms with their personal phobias. One of them is a young girl (Danielle Savre) whose parents were brutally murdered. Her older brother (Matt Cohen) had already gone there and claimed it cured him of his fear of the dark and the monster that gutted their parents. Ah, but doctors are longtime actors Renee O’Connor and Tobin Bell. Would you check into a mental hospital headed by Gabrielle and Jigsaw?
The good news is the film doesn’t waste much time getting to the various murders. Some deaths are fairly routine for slasher films. Others, like a girl who’s a cutter or another who’s a purger, suffer particularly gruesome and heinous deaths. Still, this film virtually screams its ending, which as expected includes a twist, near the very beginning. This film has its moments, mainly in the middle, but in all it’s really one big cliché that has been done better.
Then again, one has to be hard pressed to find a single one of the various <I>Boogeyman</I> films that are really worth watching. Maybe that’s a warning to producers before doing an inevitable <I>B3</I>.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/War.jpg" border="0" align="left"><b>WAR (Lions Gate)</b>
You’d think finding the likes of Jet Li and Jason Statham in a no-holds-barred crime film would be a good thing. If so, then don’t see this film.
In <I>War</I>, Statham plays a FBI agent out for revenge against the literally “rogue” killer who took out his partner and partner’s family. Li plays said rogue killer, but is also putting a Yakuza and Triad gang on a path of wiping each other out. The film then goes through a series of bloody twists and turns, in fact a few too many for its own good.
If that isn’t bad enough, one knows that both these leading men can really throw down, and it honestly looks like they are both pulling their punches here. I mean, OK, Jet is formally retired from doing full bore stunts like he used to do in his Hong Kong salad days but here he plays too much smirking wise guy than serious threat. Statham also feels incredibly restrained. Given this is the man who has scared the heck out of us with the likes of <I>Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels</I> and <I>The Transporter </I>, we fans have a right to expect better. To top it, the rest of the cast includes some sterling actors like John Lone, Devon Aoki and others capable of interesting performances in their own right. The only one who really caught my attention is Aoki, whose daughter of a Yakuza leader and blade freak could be seriously scary at times.
So file this one under disappointing. Even on a dull afternoon this film isn’t really anything to get worked up over.
<b>THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (BBC)</b>
If this made-for-TV project proves one thing, it’s that you don’t need a gigantic budget to do a taut, suspenseful science fiction film.
Based on the classic sf book by John Wyndham, the triffids are a strange plant that could have been bio-genetically engineered by the Russians. They can walk, have a nasty and lethal stinger as well as what appears to be a primitive collective intelligence. They also feed on somewhat rotted meat. When it appears another human based experiment blinds the bulk of the planet, the man-eaters make their move.
What Wyndham did that made the original book so successful was made us forget the weak scientific underpinning of the plants and the blinding and made us concentrate on what the world was like after the events. This original Australian miniseries picked up on this and turned it into a very human drama. Even the extreme low budget soundtrack works because it’s done so well. Yes, the triffids look like Dr. Who wannabes, but their threat is still felt. As for the inevitable human “monsters,” they are even more imposing than the plants, which is the way it should have been.
In all, a nice catch if you’re a fan of solid sci-fi. Further, it proves if you have a solid story, you really don’t need the budget of a third world country to do it right.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/Dragonlance.jpg" border="0" align="right"><b>DRAGONLANCE: DRAGONS OF AUTUMN TWILIGHT (Paramount)</b>
Now if this film was released in the early 1990s, it would now be considered a groundbreaking classic. Even if it came out at the beginning of the new century, it probably would have found a nice niche. But considering where the world have animation has moved to, it’s kind of sad to say that <I>Dragonlance </I> has to now be looked at as an interesting relic.
Featuring a pretty top notch voice cast (including Kiefer Sutherland, Lucy Lawless, Phil LaMarr, Michael Rosenbaum, Jason Marsden among others), and solid character and traditional background design, the plot is based on the classic D&D RPG offshoot. You have your typical role playing characters including a mage, thief, knight, cleric, dwarf, etc. on a quest to retrieve various artifacts in order to save their world from unholy doom and destruction. What’s annoying is the film just borrows way too much of its plot from <b>Lord of the Rings</B>, especially the first book <b>Fellowship of the Ring</b> for my comfort. Another thing is while some of the cast do sound like they are trying their darndest to give their characters some life, especially Marsden and Rosenbaum, others sound like they are just mailing it in. Then again, with some of the dialogue they’d been handed, one really can’t blame them either.
As for the production values? Let’s say many of the best animators in the U.S., Japan and Europe won’t be losing any sleep over this. The motion of the characters in particular is seriously stiff. Also, the CGI work that’s been done here is about as smooth and flowing as a poorly done Machinima project. For those who don’t know, this is the first major domestic release of an Indian studio called Toonz, and I know that there’s a lot better work being done over in the subcontinent than what’s done here (check out the <I>Chipmunks</I> movie if you need more proof).
All this film really makes me want to do is unearth my <I>Dungeons & Dragons</I> animated series one more time. At least with that series I know those guys were doing the best they could with what they had. As for <I>Dragonlance</I>? I think it’s just rolled a huge series of 1’s on my enchantment scale.
<b>DEATH SENTENCE (Fox)</b>
You’d think the team up of the James Wan, writer/director of the <I>Saw</I> movies, and Kevin Bacon would lead to interesting screen time. Guess again.
For some reason, Wan decided he wanted to do a revenge flick. Now the concept of a bloody payback film in the nature of <I>Death Wish</I> or even something like <I>Outlaw</I>, from the man who thought up Jigsaw should give the subgenre the kickstart it needs. Instead we get some of the most plebian scripting in Wan’s entire career. Bacon also acts like he’s pretty damned bored with the whole affair. The only guy who comes across with anything interesting is John Goodman, who plays the father of the thugs who got Bacon all riled up in the first place. He plays one truly nasty, drug dealing, gun running lowlife with some real menace.
Otherwise, give this one a serious pass.
<b>DEEP WATER (IFC)</b>
The 60s were a great time to be British. You had the Beatles, Stones and a number of others shaking up the music world. There was some incredible television ranging from <I>The Avengers</I> to <I>Doctor Who</I>. Then there were the scandals. John Profumo and Christine Keeler were only the tip of the ice berg.
Deep Water tells the tale of Donald Crowhurst, the captain of one of nine ships that tried to circumnavigate the world without stopping on dry land a single time. The nine included some of the top sailors of the world, of which Crowhurst wasn’t one. A hustler who eventually outconned even himself? A fool who got in so deep it made the Marinas Trench look like a back alley puddle? This documentary explores a number of different angles about the rise and fall of this very strange but true tale.
Is it the most interesting documentary ever made? Hardly. Still, it has its moments of fascination and in its own way the final fate of Crowhurst is the stuff of legend. <I>Deep Water</I> is not everyone’s cuppa, but still is an interesting brew.
<b>HE WAS A QUIET MAN (Anchor Bay)</b>
With this interesting little film, the first shock is seeing former teen bad boy Christian Slater. He’s shed his former ruffled mane for the look of a high domed, balding mensch named Bob Maconel, the kind of guy probably would spend the rest of his life in his office cubicle and talking to his goldfish. There’s only one very important kink, the little bug eyed carp talk back…and what they’re telling Maconel to do is not what one expects from such a nebbish.
Then the black comedy takes a wonderful twist by having the guy in the next cubicle go ballistic while Maconel is contemplating loading his own gun. From there we are plunged into a very black comedy where Slater’s character falls through the looking glass and becomes a hero with a heart, even if he has former Vampirella model Sophia Knopf ready to do the wild thing with him at a moment’s notice. The film also gets nice performances out former <I>24</I> star Elisha Cuthbert and the superlative William Macy to boot.
Still, even though the ending is a big disappointment, one has to admit that Slater does a great job of trying to keep us interested in his interesting hybrid of Travis Bickell and Peter Gibbons. It sure is making me forget he once was JD in the film <I>Heathers</I>. I’d suggest renting this one and come to your own opinion about the movie. Just don’t be surprised if you do end up liking it.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/Kissologyv3.jpg" border="0" align="left"><b>KISSOLOGY VOL 3 (1992-2000) (VH1) (5 DVDs)</b>
Purportedly the last set in the series, this release sees Mssrs. Simmons and Stanley with and without makeup, with and without Peter Criss and Ace Frehley and with and without their legendary costumes, flame pots and other props. What we never see them without is the drive to entertain their audience as well as maintain their rep as the most humongous rock’n roll psycho circus acts in the universe.
Primary concerts include a rather poorly recorded show in Detroit in 1992, their legendary <I>MTV Unplugged</I> date which brought back Criss and Frehley, returning to Motor City for the true reunion tour of 1996, and then a series of dates in NYC and L.A. bringing the band to the end of the millenium. Believe me when I say you’re going to hear “Rock and Roll All Night,” “Cold Gin,” “Doctor Love” and “Love Gun” on each and every one of these concerts. Then again, if Kiss didn’t it would kind of be like Led Zeppelin not doing “Stairway to Heaven” or the Eagles skipping on “Hotel California.” Always one of the shrewdest outfits in rock’n roll, Kiss is smart enough to keep its fans happy even if they’ve played the same song for three decades.
The truth is there really isn’t THAT much difference between all of these sets except for the inclusion or not of one song or another. Gene Simmons is going to play a truly monstrous gut bucket bass, spit blood and occasionally fire. Paul Stanley is going to preen and play the rock god to the max. Whoever is on lead guitar is going to make his guitar smoke and every so also often do a smoking solo. The sets are going to be huge and elaborate. Kiss Nation likes it that way. At least it’s not that damned reality show or the latest version of <I>The Apprentice</I>.
Still, the real treat is the last disc, where we get to see the band in their first-ever performance as Kiss. Set in 1973 in an unnamed part of Queens, the makeup is there, the rude and crude noise is too. And guess what? Criss, Frehley, Simmons and Stanley were already pretty tight, even though they didn’t have the budget for the spandex, jackboots and lame at that time.
Personally, I find five discs of this stuff a bit excessive, but I’m sure Mssrs. Stanley and Simmons will point a finger at me stating that a major part of what rock is about. They will also point out it doesn’t really matter, they have enough fans out there who’ll gladly put cold cash on the table and walk off happily for a few days, weeks, months of entertainment derived from this collection. So be it.
As for me? I’m anxiously awaiting the DVD from Tool. Then I’m going to rock all night in my own particular way.
<b>SOLSTICE (Genius)</b>
Here’s another review you can stop reading if you heard it before.
Some kids decide to celebrate graduating from high school by going to a remote place in the swamps of Louisiana. One of the girls in the crew starts having savage flashbacks about the death of her twin sister and it isn’t long before the other kids start suffering all manner of supernatural mischief, too. Yes, there is a dark secret. You can figure out the rest.
OK. Original ideas in the horror field are a fairly rare thing to begin with, but that isn’t what horror fans are really looking for anyway. The idea is to get a few good chills and a couple of laughs. <I>Solstice</I> truly fails in this department. The acting portraying the living are acting more deadened and wooden than those doing the undead. The overall shooting of this film is workmanlike and plain boring. You can even see the dark secret coming before you’re halfway through the darn thing.
To put it nicely, this film is like an incredibly hot and stifling August day in the bayou. You’re really glad when it’s over.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/UltAnimation.jpg" border="0" align="right"><b>ULTIMATE ANIMATION: F8 ETERNAL GAZE (MediaLink) (2 DVDs)</b>
For me, nothing is more fun than learning about two young animation talents with a lot of potential in them. That’s exactly what you are getting in this incredible reasonably priced set.
<I>f8</I> was the 2001 short subject debut of rising talent Jason Wen (who’s since moved on to work on films like <I>Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azhkaban</I> and <I>Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit</I>). It’s set in a future where the title character literally steals a face and then has to run for his life from those trying to get it back. Barely 11 minutes, the film is a visual feast on the eyes and well deserving of the SIGGRAPH and Hollywood Discovery awards it won that year.
Even more impressive is <I>Eternal Gaze</I>. Created by Sam Chen, who now appears to be doing quite well at Pixar, thank you, it reinterprets a dream by the incredible and iconoclastic sculptor Alberto Giacometti and is the real tour-de-force here. If anyone ever tells you that computer generated animation is stiff and unexpressive, have them take a look at this way-too-short film and watch them shut the hell up.
My only gripe about this collection is it doesn’t include any other works by these two young artists. Wen does have another short entitled <I>Cherie</I> that I would love to see. I also remember Chen worked on a really funny short involving a wily cat whose ability to hunt animals turns around to truly bite him back. On the other hand, each disk comes packed to the gills with interesting commentary, making of docs, and other bits of trivia to make one feel they’re getting their moneys worth. Besides, at $14.98 list, you really can’t go wrong if you are looking for some pioneering animation from talents whose names you should remember for the future. I know I will.
<I>It’s a new year and a new batch of DVDs, including the following: </I>
<b>MONSTER SQUAD: The 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Lions Gate) (2 DVDs)</b>
Back in the 1980’s there was this young, up-and-coming director named Fred Dekker with two grade C horror movies under his belt, <I>Night of the Creeps</I> and <I>House</I>. Then he stumbled on a script by another up-and-comer named Shane Black who had one film under his belt, <I>Lethal Weapon</I>. Together they’d create one of the funniest and most underrated kids movies of all time.
The basic story line is simple. A century previous, Van Helsing nearly put Dracula out of our misery when he got his hands on a magic amulet and tried to perform a ritual that would rid the world of this undead evil. Things then go horribly wrong and the Lord of all Vampires is still out and about camping it up and keeping a steady supply of undead brides at his beck and call. Enter modern times and a group of horror movie loving kids realize they are the only ones who stands in the way of Drac taking his own bite out of the world. The former Vlad The Impaler’s not alone either, as he’s brought some of the meanest and maddest of the Universal monsters with him on this mission.
What sets this film apart is two things. First and foremost, Dekker and Black do a great job of not only casting a bunch of believable kids, but giving them great lines such as “Frankenstein ate my Twinkie!” and “the Wolfman DOES have nards!” Secondly, this dynamic duo know kids love a solid scare, and provide their viewers with a lot of good ones. Yet the only problem was this was 1987 folks, and the movie going audience of the time didn’t realize what a good thing they had. As cineastes of today will tell you, it would take cable services like HBO to help <I>The Monster Squad</I> find the audience it so truly deserves.
Lions Gate has done us a tremendous favor by not only providing us with a crisp and sweet restoration job, but also a whole second disk of interviews from Dekker, key actors and others who had paws, claws and whatever else on the job. While Dekker’s career these days seems to be relegated to the convention circuit, the IMDB lists his last major job as working on the <I>Enterprise</I> TV series, it’s nice to see that Black has at least become a solid provider of summer action fodder. It’s also nice to see that the film itself has a solid coterie of true believers who do all the right things such ilk do. Personally, it had been a long while since I last looked in on this film, and I was pleasantly surprised at remembering how much fun it really was. Do yourself a favor and check out a copy for yourself. Don’t be surprised if you come to the same conclusion.
<b>BOOGEYMAN 2 (Sony)</b>
Before I go on, let me say the following. This film has virtually nothing to do with the film it’s the sequel of. It also has absolutely nothing to do with the original <I>Boogeyman</I> or <I>Boogeyman II</I> of the 1980s.
Now stop reading this review as soon as it sounds too familiar.
A bunch of young adults/late teenagers attend a special asylum to come to terms with their personal phobias. One of them is a young girl (Danielle Savre) whose parents were brutally murdered. Her older brother (Matt Cohen) had already gone there and claimed it cured him of his fear of the dark and the monster that gutted their parents. Ah, but doctors are longtime actors Renee O’Connor and Tobin Bell. Would you check into a mental hospital headed by Gabrielle and Jigsaw?
The good news is the film doesn’t waste much time getting to the various murders. Some deaths are fairly routine for slasher films. Others, like a girl who’s a cutter or another who’s a purger, suffer particularly gruesome and heinous deaths. Still, this film virtually screams its ending, which as expected includes a twist, near the very beginning. This film has its moments, mainly in the middle, but in all it’s really one big cliché that has been done better.
Then again, one has to be hard pressed to find a single one of the various <I>Boogeyman</I> films that are really worth watching. Maybe that’s a warning to producers before doing an inevitable <I>B3</I>.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/War.jpg" border="0" align="left"><b>WAR (Lions Gate)</b>
You’d think finding the likes of Jet Li and Jason Statham in a no-holds-barred crime film would be a good thing. If so, then don’t see this film.
In <I>War</I>, Statham plays a FBI agent out for revenge against the literally “rogue” killer who took out his partner and partner’s family. Li plays said rogue killer, but is also putting a Yakuza and Triad gang on a path of wiping each other out. The film then goes through a series of bloody twists and turns, in fact a few too many for its own good.
If that isn’t bad enough, one knows that both these leading men can really throw down, and it honestly looks like they are both pulling their punches here. I mean, OK, Jet is formally retired from doing full bore stunts like he used to do in his Hong Kong salad days but here he plays too much smirking wise guy than serious threat. Statham also feels incredibly restrained. Given this is the man who has scared the heck out of us with the likes of <I>Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels</I> and <I>The Transporter </I>, we fans have a right to expect better. To top it, the rest of the cast includes some sterling actors like John Lone, Devon Aoki and others capable of interesting performances in their own right. The only one who really caught my attention is Aoki, whose daughter of a Yakuza leader and blade freak could be seriously scary at times.
So file this one under disappointing. Even on a dull afternoon this film isn’t really anything to get worked up over.
<b>THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (BBC)</b>
If this made-for-TV project proves one thing, it’s that you don’t need a gigantic budget to do a taut, suspenseful science fiction film.
Based on the classic sf book by John Wyndham, the triffids are a strange plant that could have been bio-genetically engineered by the Russians. They can walk, have a nasty and lethal stinger as well as what appears to be a primitive collective intelligence. They also feed on somewhat rotted meat. When it appears another human based experiment blinds the bulk of the planet, the man-eaters make their move.
What Wyndham did that made the original book so successful was made us forget the weak scientific underpinning of the plants and the blinding and made us concentrate on what the world was like after the events. This original Australian miniseries picked up on this and turned it into a very human drama. Even the extreme low budget soundtrack works because it’s done so well. Yes, the triffids look like Dr. Who wannabes, but their threat is still felt. As for the inevitable human “monsters,” they are even more imposing than the plants, which is the way it should have been.
In all, a nice catch if you’re a fan of solid sci-fi. Further, it proves if you have a solid story, you really don’t need the budget of a third world country to do it right.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/Dragonlance.jpg" border="0" align="right"><b>DRAGONLANCE: DRAGONS OF AUTUMN TWILIGHT (Paramount)</b>
Now if this film was released in the early 1990s, it would now be considered a groundbreaking classic. Even if it came out at the beginning of the new century, it probably would have found a nice niche. But considering where the world have animation has moved to, it’s kind of sad to say that <I>Dragonlance </I> has to now be looked at as an interesting relic.
Featuring a pretty top notch voice cast (including Kiefer Sutherland, Lucy Lawless, Phil LaMarr, Michael Rosenbaum, Jason Marsden among others), and solid character and traditional background design, the plot is based on the classic D&D RPG offshoot. You have your typical role playing characters including a mage, thief, knight, cleric, dwarf, etc. on a quest to retrieve various artifacts in order to save their world from unholy doom and destruction. What’s annoying is the film just borrows way too much of its plot from <b>Lord of the Rings</B>, especially the first book <b>Fellowship of the Ring</b> for my comfort. Another thing is while some of the cast do sound like they are trying their darndest to give their characters some life, especially Marsden and Rosenbaum, others sound like they are just mailing it in. Then again, with some of the dialogue they’d been handed, one really can’t blame them either.
As for the production values? Let’s say many of the best animators in the U.S., Japan and Europe won’t be losing any sleep over this. The motion of the characters in particular is seriously stiff. Also, the CGI work that’s been done here is about as smooth and flowing as a poorly done Machinima project. For those who don’t know, this is the first major domestic release of an Indian studio called Toonz, and I know that there’s a lot better work being done over in the subcontinent than what’s done here (check out the <I>Chipmunks</I> movie if you need more proof).
All this film really makes me want to do is unearth my <I>Dungeons & Dragons</I> animated series one more time. At least with that series I know those guys were doing the best they could with what they had. As for <I>Dragonlance</I>? I think it’s just rolled a huge series of 1’s on my enchantment scale.
<b>DEATH SENTENCE (Fox)</b>
You’d think the team up of the James Wan, writer/director of the <I>Saw</I> movies, and Kevin Bacon would lead to interesting screen time. Guess again.
For some reason, Wan decided he wanted to do a revenge flick. Now the concept of a bloody payback film in the nature of <I>Death Wish</I> or even something like <I>Outlaw</I>, from the man who thought up Jigsaw should give the subgenre the kickstart it needs. Instead we get some of the most plebian scripting in Wan’s entire career. Bacon also acts like he’s pretty damned bored with the whole affair. The only guy who comes across with anything interesting is John Goodman, who plays the father of the thugs who got Bacon all riled up in the first place. He plays one truly nasty, drug dealing, gun running lowlife with some real menace.
Otherwise, give this one a serious pass.
<b>DEEP WATER (IFC)</b>
The 60s were a great time to be British. You had the Beatles, Stones and a number of others shaking up the music world. There was some incredible television ranging from <I>The Avengers</I> to <I>Doctor Who</I>. Then there were the scandals. John Profumo and Christine Keeler were only the tip of the ice berg.
Deep Water tells the tale of Donald Crowhurst, the captain of one of nine ships that tried to circumnavigate the world without stopping on dry land a single time. The nine included some of the top sailors of the world, of which Crowhurst wasn’t one. A hustler who eventually outconned even himself? A fool who got in so deep it made the Marinas Trench look like a back alley puddle? This documentary explores a number of different angles about the rise and fall of this very strange but true tale.
Is it the most interesting documentary ever made? Hardly. Still, it has its moments of fascination and in its own way the final fate of Crowhurst is the stuff of legend. <I>Deep Water</I> is not everyone’s cuppa, but still is an interesting brew.
<b>HE WAS A QUIET MAN (Anchor Bay)</b>
With this interesting little film, the first shock is seeing former teen bad boy Christian Slater. He’s shed his former ruffled mane for the look of a high domed, balding mensch named Bob Maconel, the kind of guy probably would spend the rest of his life in his office cubicle and talking to his goldfish. There’s only one very important kink, the little bug eyed carp talk back…and what they’re telling Maconel to do is not what one expects from such a nebbish.
Then the black comedy takes a wonderful twist by having the guy in the next cubicle go ballistic while Maconel is contemplating loading his own gun. From there we are plunged into a very black comedy where Slater’s character falls through the looking glass and becomes a hero with a heart, even if he has former Vampirella model Sophia Knopf ready to do the wild thing with him at a moment’s notice. The film also gets nice performances out former <I>24</I> star Elisha Cuthbert and the superlative William Macy to boot.
Still, even though the ending is a big disappointment, one has to admit that Slater does a great job of trying to keep us interested in his interesting hybrid of Travis Bickell and Peter Gibbons. It sure is making me forget he once was JD in the film <I>Heathers</I>. I’d suggest renting this one and come to your own opinion about the movie. Just don’t be surprised if you do end up liking it.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/Kissologyv3.jpg" border="0" align="left"><b>KISSOLOGY VOL 3 (1992-2000) (VH1) (5 DVDs)</b>
Purportedly the last set in the series, this release sees Mssrs. Simmons and Stanley with and without makeup, with and without Peter Criss and Ace Frehley and with and without their legendary costumes, flame pots and other props. What we never see them without is the drive to entertain their audience as well as maintain their rep as the most humongous rock’n roll psycho circus acts in the universe.
Primary concerts include a rather poorly recorded show in Detroit in 1992, their legendary <I>MTV Unplugged</I> date which brought back Criss and Frehley, returning to Motor City for the true reunion tour of 1996, and then a series of dates in NYC and L.A. bringing the band to the end of the millenium. Believe me when I say you’re going to hear “Rock and Roll All Night,” “Cold Gin,” “Doctor Love” and “Love Gun” on each and every one of these concerts. Then again, if Kiss didn’t it would kind of be like Led Zeppelin not doing “Stairway to Heaven” or the Eagles skipping on “Hotel California.” Always one of the shrewdest outfits in rock’n roll, Kiss is smart enough to keep its fans happy even if they’ve played the same song for three decades.
The truth is there really isn’t THAT much difference between all of these sets except for the inclusion or not of one song or another. Gene Simmons is going to play a truly monstrous gut bucket bass, spit blood and occasionally fire. Paul Stanley is going to preen and play the rock god to the max. Whoever is on lead guitar is going to make his guitar smoke and every so also often do a smoking solo. The sets are going to be huge and elaborate. Kiss Nation likes it that way. At least it’s not that damned reality show or the latest version of <I>The Apprentice</I>.
Still, the real treat is the last disc, where we get to see the band in their first-ever performance as Kiss. Set in 1973 in an unnamed part of Queens, the makeup is there, the rude and crude noise is too. And guess what? Criss, Frehley, Simmons and Stanley were already pretty tight, even though they didn’t have the budget for the spandex, jackboots and lame at that time.
Personally, I find five discs of this stuff a bit excessive, but I’m sure Mssrs. Stanley and Simmons will point a finger at me stating that a major part of what rock is about. They will also point out it doesn’t really matter, they have enough fans out there who’ll gladly put cold cash on the table and walk off happily for a few days, weeks, months of entertainment derived from this collection. So be it.
As for me? I’m anxiously awaiting the DVD from Tool. Then I’m going to rock all night in my own particular way.
<b>SOLSTICE (Genius)</b>
Here’s another review you can stop reading if you heard it before.
Some kids decide to celebrate graduating from high school by going to a remote place in the swamps of Louisiana. One of the girls in the crew starts having savage flashbacks about the death of her twin sister and it isn’t long before the other kids start suffering all manner of supernatural mischief, too. Yes, there is a dark secret. You can figure out the rest.
OK. Original ideas in the horror field are a fairly rare thing to begin with, but that isn’t what horror fans are really looking for anyway. The idea is to get a few good chills and a couple of laughs. <I>Solstice</I> truly fails in this department. The acting portraying the living are acting more deadened and wooden than those doing the undead. The overall shooting of this film is workmanlike and plain boring. You can even see the dark secret coming before you’re halfway through the darn thing.
To put it nicely, this film is like an incredibly hot and stifling August day in the bayou. You’re really glad when it’s over.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dvdreview/Jan08/UltAnimation.jpg" border="0" align="right"><b>ULTIMATE ANIMATION: F8 ETERNAL GAZE (MediaLink) (2 DVDs)</b>
For me, nothing is more fun than learning about two young animation talents with a lot of potential in them. That’s exactly what you are getting in this incredible reasonably priced set.
<I>f8</I> was the 2001 short subject debut of rising talent Jason Wen (who’s since moved on to work on films like <I>Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azhkaban</I> and <I>Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit</I>). It’s set in a future where the title character literally steals a face and then has to run for his life from those trying to get it back. Barely 11 minutes, the film is a visual feast on the eyes and well deserving of the SIGGRAPH and Hollywood Discovery awards it won that year.
Even more impressive is <I>Eternal Gaze</I>. Created by Sam Chen, who now appears to be doing quite well at Pixar, thank you, it reinterprets a dream by the incredible and iconoclastic sculptor Alberto Giacometti and is the real tour-de-force here. If anyone ever tells you that computer generated animation is stiff and unexpressive, have them take a look at this way-too-short film and watch them shut the hell up.
My only gripe about this collection is it doesn’t include any other works by these two young artists. Wen does have another short entitled <I>Cherie</I> that I would love to see. I also remember Chen worked on a really funny short involving a wily cat whose ability to hunt animals turns around to truly bite him back. On the other hand, each disk comes packed to the gills with interesting commentary, making of docs, and other bits of trivia to make one feel they’re getting their moneys worth. Besides, at $14.98 list, you really can’t go wrong if you are looking for some pioneering animation from talents whose names you should remember for the future. I know I will.