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Massawyrm digs into the new DVDs of GHOSTS OF MARS and PEARL HARBOR!
Hey folks, Harry here with Massawyrm's review of a pair of flawed flicks hitting DVD filled with extras and other stuff. I liked (with many reservations) both of these films, and on films that I don't love, but have problems with, I adore commentary tracks... You get a bit of an insight into what the filmmakers were intending, thinking or trying to do. And sometimes this changes or enhances one's feelings about the film in question. Personally I'm anxious to check out either of these... But I'm not allowed to buy myself any DVDs till after January 5th due to my birthday and Christmas... that way family and friends can look at my list and see what it is I have. Now I'll turn you over to the only man Bin Laden hates more than a tomahawk missile... Here's Massawyrm....
Hola all. Everyone's favorite Chain-smoking, Dr. Pepper swilling, indie schilling recluse of late here popping out of my hole to share with you some of the nuggets of entertainment I've found here in my self imposed solitude. It's dark
down here. Really dark. But the light of my television keeps me from teetering over the very brink of madness. This week on my tube I bear witness to two large DVD releases for this Tuesday: Pearl Harbor and Ghosts of Mars.
I have to honestly say that I was disappointed with both discs. Neither really lived up to what a DVD to Own should be. Now I enjoyed both films for what they were when I initially saw them. Pearl Harbor was a really entertaining, classic style war epic with one hell of a string of action sequences. I know many of you out there hate it and have your issues with it and don't get me wrong, its certainly not a perfect film. But I definitely enjoyed the hell out of it. Likewise, while I had fun with Ghosts of Mars, it was far from being perfect Carpenter. It was more Vampires than The Thing, but it definitely had it's moments.
So now that I've set up that I enjoyed both films, let me elaborate on why the DVD's let me down. It certainly wasn't because I expected a whole hell of a lot, it's just that I expected something more than I got.
Ghosts of Mars is the one that actually gave me something to chew on. The commentary is fairly entertaining (a one on one between Natasha Henstridge and John Carpenter) but fairly light on the technical play by play. It's mostly just a fun conversation between the two about the time they had making the film. The insight is not too heavy but its worth a listen.
Then there are three mini documentaries on the making of various aspects of the film. This is where the disc really falters. You see, while there is plenty of material there, there's no narration, commentary or explanation of any kind of what you're seeing save a tiny bit of title cards at the beginning. This leads to very dull sequences of watching animations at various stages without the benefit of technical or creative discussions on where the ideas came from and how they came to fruition and a particularly lifeless DV video diary of the making of the film essentially showing you the scenes you've just watched as shot on a simple DV camera mixed with some between the scenes tomfoolery. The one thing I can say about the Video diary is that it is a MUST SEE for indie horror directors thinking of saving cash on film and shooting that masterpiece on DV. Here is a perfect side by side comparison of what horror make up looks like with the depth of film and just how rubbery and fake it looks in the unforgiving medium of DV. Man what a difference. For those of you familiar with my indie column you know I am a big proponent of the widespread acceptance of DV...except when it comes to horror. DV simply doesn't give the right gloss necessary to make a good looking horror film, end of story. Here you see actors under the same lighting, from very similar angles, looking absolutely ridiculous compared to their final version film appearance. These unflattering images make for great cheapo film school, but poor entertainment for John Q. DVD Buyer.
The one shining moment on this disc comes in the form of a 6 minute documentary (also narrationless) on the scoring sessions. This part, of course, is only worthwhile if you're an old school metal head. As those of you regular readers may remember, I am indeed an old school metal head, one whose first concert was an Anthrax concert. Well the score was done by none other than Anthrax, Guitar legend Steve Vai and a mysterious mystery guest known only as Buckethead (he wears a mask and a bucket of KFC original recipe on his head to conceal his identity, I shit you not.) Seeing Scott Ian (who threw me my first used guitar pick) lay down some mean riffs and watching Steve Vai squeal out some serious licks made this old Wyrm's heart beat with joy. But alas no interviews with the band, no discussion on the direction of the music to creating the tone of the film, nothing that would interest anyone but diehard metal fans jonseing to see some masters in the studio.
All in all there's no real replay value to the DVD, and nothing Average Joe is gonna get excited about.
And then there's the Double Disc extravaganza that is Pearl Harbor. Okay, so extravaganza is being used in the loosest, most sarcastic of terms, but it is a double disc. Yes, double disc prices, single disc value. This disc lacks so much it's embarrassing that they call it the 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition.
You sound buffs will love it. Dolby 5.1. Dolby Headphone track. DTS 5.1. THX. The whole freaking kit and caboodle. But for all you special feature nuts there is very little to be had. There's One making of Documentary that has the look and feel of an HBO first look. Cool enough for a viewing, but probably not two. And a history channel documentary on the Attack that has all the effectiveness of Nyquil. Sure it does the job, but your ass will be out cold in 20 minutes guaranteed. Now I love the history channel, but this documentary is treated with such solemn remorse while covering all the same ground that they explain in the film that you really can get bored quickly. The upside is that there is some great archival footage and photographs that make it worth watching if you're willing to have the movie repeated back to you. And what DVD would be complete without a Faith Hill music video. This one sure wouldn't. Throw in the teaser and the trailer and you've got yourself a double disc DVD set.
Yep. That's it. No, really. That's it. And no, the second disc isn't the movie in Full Screen format. It's the third act and the special features. Yes, Virginia. There is a disc change intermission.
Now I must say that the disc change has it's merits. Disney's had it's problems with DVDs in the past not playing on all players. And rather than risk another "Disney's The Kid" (which failed to work at all on many lower generation DVD players; including mine which was only six months old at the time) I'm assuming they wanted to ensure that one and all would be able to watch the film hassle free. They wanted it so much there's actually a number on the disc to call if you experience issues. Props for that. And I have to say that the change is very well timed. It comes just after the attack when Roosevelt gives his rousing call to action speech. It then picks up in the White House with the beginning of the third act (The Doolittle mission). Perfect Bathroom/Snack break timing while being able to come back without feeling like you've lost the mood of the film. Well done on that front.
And now we come to the big, enormous, why didn't someone think of this earlier problem. This one's a doozy folks. You know those great scenes where the Japanese do this silly little thing called talking to one another? And you
know how they added to the realism of the film by actually having them speak
Japanese, requiring you to either speak the language or read the subtitles? Well brush up on your language skills my friends, because if you have a TV of average size (19"-21") and you sit an average distance away from the set (about 8' - 10') you ain't reading shit. Oh, the subtitles are there. They're just not legible. You see, the film is a 2.35:1 transfer and the subtitles were the perfect size when projected on 30' theatre screens. But on your home set, unless you're close or sporting a big screen expect to have your whole family scratching their heads wondering what crazy antics those wacky Japanese are up to this time. This may however, improve your enjoyment of the film as you make up the conversation as they go along. If done correctly, this will no doubt lead to one commander begging another for the attack to succeed so he won't have to make an appearance in Mortal Kombat 3.
Now what upset me about the subtitles wasn't that they were just too small, but that no one thought to correct the measure with a feature not unlike Snatch's Pikey subtitles, which only subtitled sections spoken by Brad Pitt and his unintelligible buddies. I checked; it's all or nothing subtitles on this bad boy.
It's my hope that the lagging studios wise up soon and realize just how important interesting features are to the sale of their DVD's. It's no secret that many of us collectors make our buying decisions based just as much on how many features a disc has as we do upon how much we love a film. New Line's new Infinifilm series (which if you haven't checked out any of their titles do so now; Thirteen Days in particular is one hell of a treat), Universal's (and DreamWorks through them) current aggressive strategy of loading their DVD's with every possible extra imaginable and Fox's Occasional really freaking impressive DVD's are simply blowing everything else out of the water. Simple commentary and a First Look won't cut it any more. We want more. We want to watch the movie several times over before we finish seeing everything the DVD has to offer. Studios, please, for the love of all that's holy, stop skimping on content and calling your DVD's special editions when there's nothing at all special about them. We want to buy your product. Give us something worth our green.
The soapbox is now closed.
Until next time friends, smoke 'em if ya got 'em. I know I will.
Mail me a cartoon of the most nicotine filled cancer sticks you can find! Feed my Addiction. Please!
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he isn't a mysterious creation for Ghosts but rather a known kick ass guitarist. I believe Les Claypool gave him his start as he would come out and jam with the bucket on with Primus. I believe the word was he was a rhodey who just kicked ass on guitar. Word was I think he was gonna be in Guns and Roses new line up if it ever took off. The guy is an awesome guitarist and worthy of being up there with Vai who is a Jedi Master... surprised you hadn't heard of him...
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I heard there were super freaky box set version coming out with R cut of violence and tons of extras and there are supposed to be 2 other versions other than that. Forgive me if I missed it but do you know exactly how many there are or will be and what the differences are? Maybe they will solve some of your problems in later releases. Personally it pisses me off to no end! Put one out and do it right damn it! As it is I am gonna have to sump my R RATED Requiem for a Dream..I mean why would anyone want a cut version of that film??? I can't believe I was snookered... How about DVD updates on this sites with warning of what NOT to buy?
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Where's the outrage people? I thought no one liked Bay? I only got a userid so I could make fun of him.
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Just when you thought Pearl harbor couldn't be much worse next year the wonderful director's cut comes out giving you an extra 15 mins of bordem for about
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Nice article massawyrm, but I've got 2 counterpoints for you: horror on DV has been done right, at least once so far. Session 9, Brad Anderson's haunted-insane asylum film, fucking blew me away with its overwhelmingly creepy atmosphere, and a tidy little performance by David Caruso. Was not hindered by the DV heritage, but there were no latex F/X to mask either. As far as subtitles go, the home theater community goes ape-shit whenever burned in subtitles are removed from a movie and replaced by player generated subtitles, in a movie that is primarily english with a few spoken parts in other languages. The player generated subtitles are very intrusive, especially if it's just for 1 line or 2. Buena Vista would've caught hell if they had used player generated subititles, even if you cannot read it well on a small TV.
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Buckethead rules. Plain and simple. Easily the most technical guitarist on the "shredder scene". Excellent technique, and interesting music.
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Yes, I stand corrected. No DV, but the Panavision hybrid was used (like Jason X I think). I still think the format isn't the limiting aspect in horror, it's who is behind the camera. and Buckethead is the greatest guitarist ever, period. He should be given $100 million for a movie and complete creative control, which would result in a masterpiece. I'm going to listen to his solo on Praxis Transumatation Live again now.
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I suffered this the other day.{It's only just opened in Britain}What a piss weak film.poorly structured , dated , tiresome action scenes and zero thrills.What was going on with the flash backs.? At one point we had a flash back , within a flashback , within a flashback!!!???Their were just too many scenes that were laff out loud silly.
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Isn't "Buckethead" either Nick Castle, Tommy Wallace, or John Carpenter himself? The trio has done music for their films as far back as ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and THE BOY WHO COULD FLY... seems likely if there's backup work to be done, Carpenter would hand it to one of his own. They're all technically proficient rockers. Just wondering...
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don't know about the other musicians you mentioned that help Carpenter but Buckethead isn't just one of them with a Bucket over his head he is an accomplished guitarist who started with PRIMUS and is probably much younger than those guys and definetly NOT Carpenter. He is a rock guitarist plain and simple and unconnected to Carpenter as far as I know except for this movie. This entity WASN'T created for this movie. And like I wrote he will probably be in Guns if they ever reform.
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in case it looked that way I was only asking out of curiousity if they made 3 versions of the DVD. It is a big deal film and its sad they keep releasing these things like this over and over. Why do we have to wait through 9 releases for the 'definitive' DVD? As a movie Pearl was barely passable B type stuff nothing of major import. Not as bad as some make it but not good by any stretch. Enemy at the Gates beat its ass... But I think they're 2 dvds of that out as well!!! So you're screwed either way.
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Wanna know why the double disc of Pearl Harbor sucks so much (aside from the movie being a passionless collection of cliches?) Why there are barely any extras? It's because there's a TRIPLE DISC SET of the bastard coming out in the summer! Is that nerve or WHAT?
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The Vista Series 3 DVD set of Pearl Harbor hits in March(or May I forget). It's the Director's "R" rated version, more violence and all, along with a commentary missing from this current release.
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After seeing Alexandra DuPont get medieval on "Willow," via a sheer dislike of the film that carried over to affect the objectivity of the overall review, I would have liked to have seen her go off on these two pieces of dog shit. This is not to say that Wyrm wasn't true and honest with the above reviews, or that Ms. DuPont isn't pretty accurate and even-handed 99.99% of the time. It's just that after seeing a nice little (though of course flawed) film like Willow get battered six ways from Sunday, I would like to have seen that kind of review for John Carpenter's worst movie in many a day and Bay/Bruckheimer's latest overblown crapfest, particularly with such weak DVD presentations. At least Willow had the excuse of being a 15 year old film.
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If you have the SSX snowboarding game for the PS2, turn off the game music and instead put on Buckethead's "Monsters and Robots" album. It's an absolutely perfect fit.
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Dec 04, 2001 8:15:17 AM CST
I'm with the poster above -- hey, Alexandra, peel this rotte
by roguewriter
Would truly love to see Miz Dupont tear Bay & Co. a new one in regard to PEARL HARBOR. She's the best reviewer on the site, and her DVD reviews honestly help make or break some of my purchasing decisions. And she was really dead on the money re: WILLOW, I'm afraid. I still love the crappy little flick too, but c'mon... LOTR it ain't. STAR WARS it ain't. And the worst legacy of it is that apparently we're gonna have to see non-actor Warwick Davis somewhere in every Lucas film from now til the end of time...
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I don't care if the director's cut has more violence in or if there are more versions of the film. There could be 2,3 even 100 different versions and there would still be no improvment in the film. There will still be the problem of the crappy 2 1/2 hour love trangle story which seems to be quickly solved due to either time restraints or the fact that even the director could see that thie film was shit and not really going anywhere other than to make a joke of one of America's greatest tragedies.
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How could you Americans let fellow Americans mock one of the worse tragedies to hit your shores? Christ, if Michael Bay makes September 11th a 3 hr fucking love story, you gonna go see that too and like it? Jesus.
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A Plot for Michael Bay's new film entitled. "Between Two Towers" IT's the story about the love of two people. This love is tested on September 11th. Good old Ben Affleck is on one of the planes that crashes into the tower. His love, who works in the tower, thinks he dead and so decided to go off with his best friend who just happens to work with her. They start to try to escape and while doing this Ben affleck appears back from the dead. He isn't happy but all this is quickly sorted when the towers start to fall. Ben affleck holds up the towers with his own hands and rescues everyone except his best friend who convenitently dies so Ben affleck can get back to his love and bring up the child that was created during the Disney edited love scene about an hour earlier. Ben then goes and single handedly defeats the terrorists and saves the day. The End
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Tom Sizemore could be fireman, but he would have a hose, not a shotgun.
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IT would be good old Cuba that would use the hose. His fire chief would die and after an very emotional death, Cuba, the trainee, would pick up the hose and spray alot of water, put out one flame and think he saved the world. Tom Sizemore would be an office worker helping people out of the building He would put out all the flames in the building with one extinguisher.
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And of course we'll get the standard four hours of footage for a movie nobody saw or felt any nostalgia for. Meanwhile, there's no immediate hope for even a bare bones DVD of any of the Indiana Jones movies.
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The scary part is a lot of people loved Pearl Harbour, and I mean loved it. What was there to love? Can anyone help me "love" what I feel was a gigantic shit cloud that engulfed the Box Office? Anyone? Anywhere?
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A positive PEARL HARBOR review from the estimable Miz Dupont. Was it the pretty pretty boys, Alexandra? One supposes you might be forgiven for falling prey to the spell of the pretty pretty boys... ;)
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I remember one of the first times I came to this site, I read an article (forgot what it was about) but it started out with Harry gushing about buckethead's latest, Monsters and Robots. That's when I realized this site might be alright. And BH has been around for a while now, way before Primus discovered him. I believe he has a band called Praxis (or something similar to that). He's done a lot of recording with Bootsy Collins. Back in 8th grade (and yes, I are a colledge graduit now) my guitar teacher gave me a tape with Buckethead on one side, and John McLaughlin on the other. It warped my fragile little mind.
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The bad news with DVDs is that the extra features (directors commentary, deleted scenes and all)seduce you into buying a film you didn't like. Yes, I should be stronger, but when I see great DVD packages of lacklustre crapola like PHANTOM MENACE, PLANET OF THE APES and STAR TREK-TMP, I'm whipping out my credit card as fast as I can. Anybody else share this affliction ?!
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Hi,
I just finished watching Pearl Harbor and while I was able to take off the stupid subtitles, every time something that contained words (ie- newspaper, building sign, japanese english subtitles in film) it would pop up as French captioned throughout the whole damn film and drove me nuts, no matter how many times I turned it off. Does anyone have the same problem and how did you solve it? If it helps I have an APEX 660 player. Thanks,
-Erik -
Dec 05, 2001 5:01:22 PM CST
Hey ReindeerFlotilla, I know what you mean dude, this is what I
by charlie b.
I've been falling victim to that myself, most recently was "Star Wars Ep I" and "Planet of the Apes" and am not shittin' you when I say I almost did get "Star Trek: The Director's Cut". I bought it, but I realized "hey, I'm not a Trekkie!" and so I got my refund, good thing I didn't open the bastard. I know what you mean when you can't help yourself. After you finish reading: Over 20 hours of content including director and actor commentary, 10 behind the scenes vignettes, deleted scenes with optional commentary, extended scenes, movie script, trailers, tv spots, music videos, DVD ROM special features, THX optimizer, DTS and Dolby Digital 6.1 surround, conceptual artwork, storyboards and more!!, you're going "Ahh, fuck it, it's only $16.99, so what if it's a shitty film." To tell you the truth dude, I'm getting stronger by the minute, it seems that every film nowadays is getting the "everything but the kitchen sink" treatment on DVD no matter how shitty. So now am going "Ahh, fuck it, I've got 50 DVD titles at home and I still haven't gotten past hour 1 on every one of them." Like every other product maker in our dieseased culture, these studio people feed on consumer weaknesses by packaging every one of their films with thousands of extras. YOU MUST BE STRONG. YOU MUST SAY "I HAVE A LIFE! I DON'T NEED TO BUY ANY OF THIS SHIT ANY LONGER"! I'm doing that myself, after I purchase "Moulin Rouge", "Kiss of the Dragon" and "The Simpsons: The First Season". Hey, their X-MAS gifts, except "Kiss"! I did get "Almost Famous: Untitled" (my favorite film) but am certainly turning in "Pearl Harbor" after I what I just heard: the disc change!! SO BE STRONG MY SON, BE STRONG!!
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I remember seeing the advertisments but don't ever remember it in the theatre. I live in the Boston area, anyone know?
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Dec 05, 2001 9:24:54 PM CST
Hey Roguewriter, did you ever post on the official "Millennium"
by charlie b.
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Were/are you among the MM faithful? Drop me an email!
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Saw an earlier post about this Sony / Panavision "hybrid" video format. It's called High Def video (HD for short) and it's not really a hybrid format. Lucas is using a Sony 24p HD cam with a Panavision lens package, that's all. DV cannot be compared to HD; the resolution and quality difference is remarkable. HD works at a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, slightly less than your standard 2048 x 1556 35mm frame. DV, on the other hand, works at NTSC res (720 x 486) While it may look bearable on your TV, it can't hold a candle to HD or 35mm when projected in a theater. Another important feature of the Sony HD cam Lucas is using is the ability to shoot at 24 frames per second, mimicking the framerate of regular 35mm projectors/cameras. This is SO important when trying to get that film look. Your average video camera works at 60 fields per second, giving the footage a too-smooth, cheap video look. It's funny to say, but the strobier 24 fps looks way more expensive. Even 30fps HD cameras tend to look like video simply because of the extra 6 frames per second.
For your info, Jason X was NOT shot on HD. It was shot on 35mm like most films and the entire film was transferred to HD for the FX work and colour correct. That HD footage was then sent to the film lab and printed back onto 35mm film for projection in your neighbourhood theater. Having shot both HD and 35mm, I can honestly say that HD is the way of the future. My Cinematographer couldn't believe his eyes when he saw our footage, it looked so much like film. There are some limitations at this point (depth of field issues, no high-speed shooting for slo mo footage, etc.), but give it time. The great thing was, we had an HD monitor on set so we could see EXACTLY what the final product was gonna look like. No light meters. Saved us a lot of time, which equals big bucks in the long run.
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