Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
First of all, I just have to say... I don’t like STAR TREK, especially, but I can acknowledge that this might be the coolest f’ing DVD package I’ve ever seen...
CHECK THIS THING OUT!!A Borg megacube with 48 DVDs in it?!? That’s insane. Might well be the biggest special edition DVD package I’ve ever seen.
Anyway... you can blame Harry for no new column yesterday. I ran up against the logistics of either writing a DVD column or putting up the Monday morning update. Even so, I didn’t finish the job. I didn’t have the heart to write obits for Elia Kazan and Donald O’Connor. I confess... I never like writing those pieces. It’s so hard to sum up a life or someone’s accomplishments without sounding fawning or cheesy or even insincere. So often, TalkBackers make fun of Father Geek or Harry for professing affection for such a diverse group of people. “You weren’t really a fan” is a common cry. But the thing about being a film freak... someone who really loves movies as a whole, and who revels in all of it, is that you have attachments to stars and bit players and writers and musicians and cinematographers and all sorts of cast and crew, and it’s all for different reasons. You might not even know the names of some of the people responsible for your favorite movie moments, but you have those connections. You have those feelings about those films and those things in those films, and one of the reasons film preservation and DVD is so important, in my opinion, is so that even when Kazan dies, we can go to the shelf and take down ON THE WATERFRONT or EAST OF EDEN, or we can pull out SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN today and celebrate Donald O’Connor, and we can enjoy the hiccup of immortality that film affords all those who work in it.
I’m going to try to rip through today’s column and pack it with as much stuff as possible. We’ll get started with a quick summary of some of the best news we’ve heard in the past few days...
BROWSING
If you head over to The Digital Bits to read Bill Hunt’s column, he has a look at some cool cover art for BABYLON 5’s next box set and the upcoming 2-disc BAD BOYS II. More importantly, though, he runs a link to a story about the development of ultra high-definition video. Do yourself a favor...
CLICK HERE NOW!!
Absolutely fascinating, and a little freaky. 4000 lines of resolution sounds like it’ll be almost too intense. That’s a radical jump in picture quality, and the reports of people getting nauseous of the reality of the image make me think of reports of people diving to the ground during THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY back in the silent days, convinced they were about to be hit by an oncoming locomotive. The leaps and bounds that technology seems to be making these days just blows me away, and I’m starting to wonder if I’m ever actually going to shoot film at all, or if I’ve already missed that age completely...
Meanwhile, our friends over at DVD File have been running specs on all sorts of great titles, including BUFFY Season Five, NAQOYQATSI, the work that Paramount is doing on the FRIDAY THE 13TH titles, and Anchor Bay’s upcoming release of their THREE’S COMPANY first season box set, quite sadly but opportunely timed.
There’s some great stuff from Ron Epstein in this thread over at Home Theater Forum. Most exciting is the news that Fox just got in their check disc for THE ALIEN QUADRILOGY. That means they’re getting close to having it ready. That box set sounds amazing, the more I hear about it, and I’m itching for the final and complete spec list to finally break online. Any day now... I just know it...
NEW RELEASE TUESDAY
You do realize that you’re only encouraging me, right? I just mentioned DREAMCATCHER, and I got hammered with e-mail like this:
”Moriarty, why don’t you throw your wallet in the trash and stick forks in your eyes just instead of watching the WORST MOVIE THE YEAR dumass!”
If this movie is still pissing this guy off that much six months later, how can I not pick it up for a look? I know I’ll find it used. Good thing, too. There’s a lot today. Warner Bros. with ROBIN HOOD, TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, and YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. Universal’s SCARFACE box. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, RUDY, BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, THE TICK.
At least next week’s a little slower. The original ITALIAN JOB. THE LION KING, about which I’ve always been of mixed opinion. THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST, which I’ve never seen, but which comes recommended. HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE, which I’ve never seen, and which no one recommended. Never seen THE OFFICE, but I’ve read enough about it to pick up that Season One Box. And I’ll take the excuse that it’s October to justify picking up those new anamorphic transfers of PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS and PRINCE OF DARKNESS, unless I decide to get that Region 2 PRINCE OF DARKNESS that people keep e-mailing me about...
Anyway... off to the stores now...
FROM THE SHELF
Impulse buys are weird. If something’s dirt cheap and looks crazy enough, I’ll pick it up. That’s the only way I can explain how I own HOOLIGANS & THUGS: SOCCER’S MOST VIOLENT FAN FIGHTS, INTRODUCED BY STEVE JONES. Yeah, that Steve Jones. The cover’s cheap, like something that took four minutes to Photoshop together. You have to really search to even find the name of the releasing company. BBF Media, whoever that is. The disc is one step above BUMFIGHTS. Maybe. I’m not actually convinced that I’m going to manage to avoid eternal damnation for sitting through this. The title is exactly correct. This is over an hour’s worth of riots and violence and close-up of blunt force head trauma, all of it set to driving techno beats. And, occasionally, Steve Jones shows up in some crazy fucking outfit and rants incoherently. It’s amazing how quickly the novelty wears off, and about the thirty-sixth time you watch someone get kicked in the head, the romance sort of goes out of it. So, remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re from the UK, Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Poland, Romania, the Czech Repulic, or Mexico, Argentina, or Brazil... there’s plenty of national shame to go around in this compellingly slimy little disc.
I’m equally annoyed by the addition of POOLHALL JUNKIES to my shelves. There’s a blurb on the back from some shithole called “Ain’t It Cool News,” but those guys must be on crack, because this is one of the phoniest of the many phony con guy/scam/hustler movies I’ve seen in a long time. Played wrong, a film like this is insufferable and smug and, worst of all, predictable. The biggest problem with the film is an unavoidable one. Co-writer/director Mars Callahan is also the film’s star, and there’s no polite way to say it: the dude’s a dud. He’s Jason Lee without the burden of comic timing or charm. Because he’s such a dead spot in every scene, it doesn’t matter how hard Michael Rosenbaum or Rick Schroder or Chazz Palminteri or Chris Walken work. The film just doesn’t work. We don’t care for a second if he makes his relationship with Alison Eastwood work or not, because he’s written and played as a passive jerk, and she’s barely written at all. She exists just to complain and misunderstand him for the first two-thirds of the film, then conveniently forgive him because the film’s ending. Everything about the script is convenient and perfunctory. Rosenbaum, used to excellent effect as Lex Luthor on SMALLVILLE, is stranded here as Callahan’s baby brother. He and his friends mg through scenes stolen directly out of DINER and every shitty ripoff since, while Callahan staggers through his storyline with all the grace of Lurch from THE ADDAMS FAMILY starring in THE COLOR OF MONEY.
I haven’t listened to the audio commentary with Callahan and his co-writer Chris Corso. Maybe Callahan grew up around real pool hustlers. Maybe he sees this as an autobiographical statement of some sort. It plays totally fake, though. There’s not a narrative move here that we haven’t seen a dozen times before and better. Two moments stand out, one involving some old pool hustlers who feel authentic in a way Callahan never manages, and the other being the introduction of Walken. Aside from that, the film’s a wash. If you disagree and want to own the film, the disc from HBO Films is nicely mastered. I’m willing to bet it didn’t look that good in most of its theatrical dates. Also, if you’re a Rod Steiger fan and you want to pick this up to see his last film role, spare yourself. This is Steiger ham, thick sliced, and he’s given agonizingly dopey inspirational dialogue as Callahan’s mentor. Problem is, he’s no Mickey, and POOLHALL JUNKIES is no ROCKY, no matter how much it wants to be.
It’s always a strange proposition, capturing a live event on home video, and three recent releases attempt the feat in different ways. I was so pleased when Eagle Vision recently released SINEAD O’CONNOR: GOOD NIGHT, THANK YOU, YOU’VE BEEN A LOVELY AUDIENCE. Recorded in Dublin at the end of her final tour, the first she did in six years. Thinking of this as the end of her career is too depressing, so I prefer to view this as a summation of her journey as a performer. My own fascination with her began when one of her songs appeared on the MARRIED TO THE MOB soundtrack, still one of the best song collection style soundtracks I’ve ever owned. “Jump In The River” sent me scrambling to see what else she’d recorded, and I fell head over heels with her first album. THE LION & THE COBRA. “Troy,” in particular, got played over and over. Then the video for “Nothing Compares 2U” hit MTV, and there was a face to go with that voice, and I was just smitten. Smote. Besmiteified. She’s always sung with her whole soul at once, full force, and watching how she both attracted and even encouraged controversy was just as much a part of being a fan as listening to her music. She retreated from the mainstream with a vengeance, and part of this disc is her performing traditional Irish music. She even goes for “Molly Malone,” an impossibly cloying choice. And somehow, she pulls it off. She does what any truly great singer does: she makes even the oldest song fresh by forging a real emotional connection both to the material and the audience.
Highlights here include a creepy and still disturbing “I Will Stretch On Your Grave,” a piercing rendition of “Nothing Compares 2U,” and an almost dizzying read of “Thank You For Hearing Me.” If I have any complaints, it would be that several of her best songs aren’t here, and if she’s really retiring, then that means we’ve been robbed of any record of some of those gems like “Black Boys On Mopeds” or “Daddy I’m Fine.” The last song of the show is incredibly powerful in context, and “The Last Days Of Our Acquaintance” has never seemed sadder or harder to accept. There are six additional videos here, all traditional Irish songs, but the concert is great enough on its own. At 150 minutes, this is well worth the money, and both sound and picture on the disc are incredible.
As much as I like Eddie Izzard’s work, I’m not sure I’d say CIRCLE is worth picking up unless you find it substantially discounted. It’s a good show... don’t get me wrong. All of Izzard’s live work is interesting, and it’s always amazing to try and figure out how Izzard’s brain works, leaping from subject to subject at the slightest provocation. But when the largest extra on the disc is both impossible to enjoy (it’s a performance in Paris in French) and recycled (it also appears on the DRESS TO KILL DVD), this really shouldn’t be more than $14 or $15. It’s just over an hour’s running time, and there is some very good material here, including a great and silly riff on Darth Vader that any STAR WARS fan will enjoy. It feels a bit aimless, though, and there’s no real spine to the piece. If you’re at all squeamish about the cross-dressing thing, the opening credit sequence is sure to send you scrambling for the STOP button, but to be honest, the outfit Izzard wears during the show is no more flamboyant than the purple leather Eddie Murphy wore in RAW, so chances are all but the most pathetically homophobic will be able to handle this “executive transvestite” in his full plumage. In the end, this is one of those titles that really only hardcore fans need to pick up.
Finally, there’s Neil LaBute’s THE SHAPE OF THINGS, which went from workshop to theater piece to movie in around a year, with the same actors attached all the way through. Interesting idea, and I went into it ready for anything. I like LaBute, but he’s one of those sporadically gifted guys who can either connect or miss completely, both in equal measure. I think I liked NURSE BETTY more than most people, and even though I heard some rough reactions to this film, I hoped I’d get something out of it.
Instead, this is just another cruelty game, the least interesting thing LaBute does. I thought IN THE COMPANY OF MEN worked primarily because of Aaron Eckhart’s ferocious performance, and the same can be said about YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS and Jason Patrick. This time out, there’s no anchor, and the result is a film in which the viewer drifts unconnected, unable to empathize with any of the pretty hate machines on display.
I think there might be potent material in here somewhere, but it’s handled as polemic instead of drama. Rachel Weisz is an intense and attractive artist who meets nerdy Paul Rudd in an art gallery where he works. She’s there to deface a statue, and he’s supposed to stop her. Something happens between the two of them, and she ends up going out with him. Their relationship is complicated by her reaction to his friends, played by Gretchen Mol and Fred Weller. Instant friction causes Rudd to choose... her or them.
It all comes down to the idea that relationships change us, and there’s a lot of truth to the notion. How often does a girlfriend try to dress her boyfriend better or help him lose a few pounds, even as he tries to turn her on to kung-fu movies and video games? I mean... not that I’d know anything about that. Because I wouldn’t. Ahem. There’s just no room for reality in LaBute’s script. If you just watch for the arch dialogue, the venal little zingers back and forth, there are a few pleasures to be had. Rudd and Weisz are much better than Mol and Weller, and in a film with only four actors, it’s probably not a good thing that half your cast is uninteresting to the point of invisibility.
I’ll say this for the Universal DVD... sound and picture quality is amazing. The Elvis Costello songs that are packed onto the soundtrack sound incredible, and I’ll commend LaBute for shooting in a full 2.53:1. Normally, I wouldn’t go back to watch a commentary for a film I had this mixed a reaction to, but I read an interview on CHUD with LaBute and Rudd together that was flatout hilarious. It might prove to be more entertaining hat the film itself.
Anyway... gotta get up in just a few hours. Time to wrap it up. I’ll be back with more later in the week. For now, though, I’ll leave you today with “Vroom Socko’s © ™ ® QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION,” which is "What special edition has most let you down when you finally got hold of it?" Thanks to Harry Lime for his help with today's column.
"Moriarty" out.
