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Capone Has Seen RINGS!!16-Minute DVD Short BridgesGap Between RING and RING 2!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
AICN’s Man In Chicago looks at a major major extra in the new “Ring” DVD!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. I’m not exactly known for being the guy on this site that reviews DVDs. In all the years I’ve been writing for AICN, you can probably count my DVD reviews on one hand. Not that I wouldn’t love all the Home Entertainment branches of all the big and little studios to send me crateloads of free DVDs for me to review, but they don’t do it that often, so I don’t review them. There are enough new films in theatres to keep me busy. However, every so often something cool drops in my mailbox. Case in point:
I honestly had no intention of buying THE RING Collector’s Set. I loved the movie, already had the originally released DVD, and that was good enough for me. But last week I received an unmarked VHS tape from Dreamworks. My heart went a-thumpin’. I didn’t even read the press release that came in the package. I just threw the tape in my player and let it roll. For a brief shining moment, I thought maybe they’d sent screeners of THE RING 2. Since I’m traveling the week of the Chicago screening of the film, I’ll have to miss the press screening, and that does not make this gangster a happy camper. But instead of a copy of the new film, a got something more unexpected and still, ultimately, kinda cool.
For those of you who ran out this week to buy the 2-disc Collector’s Set, you may not even realize that included on the second disc is something I can’t think of ever being done before (I’m sure someone will prove me wrong, but my mind is often fuzzy). There’s a 16-minute short film called RINGS, written by THE RING and THE RING 2’s Ehren Kruger and directed by Jonathan Liebesman (DARKNESS FALLS). Kind of like what some of the ANIMATRIX shorts did, this film attempts to bridge the gap between the two RING movies. A group of hyped-up, death-loving teens have formed a kind of club around the killer videotape. They, in turn, videotape whichever in their group has most recently watched the tape to see how long the person’s sanity lasts. Four or five days is usually as long as they let it go (remember, that seven days after watching the tape, you die), then they make a copy of the tape and someone else in the group watches it. RINGS focuses on one of the kids, whom the group decides to film for the full seven days to see what happens (as of yet, they don’t actually know; it’s all urban legend to them). Two of the cast members from THE RING 2 (Ryan Merriman and Emily VanCamp) are featured in the film, and I’ll admit, the thing creeped me out. It’s not as good as THE RING, but it’s still really good. But more than that, I simply appreciate the effort on the part of the filmmakers to give us a plausible between-films story that isn’t pure junk. It’s certainly a cut above the usual stale documentaries and filmmaker bios that pass for extras these days.
Remember how in the original film, how the faces of those “infected” by the videotape looked blurry in photographs? RINGS expands that effect onto videotape. The effect is very cool. And RINGS isn’t just a missed introduction to THE RING 2; it’s a fully realized work that features yet another attack by our favorite girl in the well and some bizarre visual effects involving water droplets that rock. But is RINGS alone worth shelling out the cash for the Collector’s Set? It really depends on how into RINGU/THE RING mythology you are. If I’d known about RINGS and not received a copy in the mail, I probably would have sought out the least expensive copy of the set I could, and paid to see it. There are plenty of other cool things on the second disc, but nothing that rivals RINGS. And I suppose I won’t know if the information in RINGS will enhance my enjoyment of THE RING 2, but I’m guessing it will. Stuff happens here that seems necessary and relevant to the overall plot of the two American films. The one thing I'm absolutely certain of is that RINGS makes me all the more desperate to see THE RING 2, and all the more pissed off I’m missing the screening. Excuse me, I think I’m going to cry...sniff.
email: Shoot Capone a line! He lives in a giant bucket!
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Requisite waters to be explored in this talkback: 1)The Americanization of Eastern Asian horror films has got to stop. It's neo-imperialism, dammit! 2)'Ringu' was better and if you haven't seen it then you're not an "intelligent" horror fan. 3)Hush, you! 'The Ring' was good and you're just trying to sound smart! Anyways I've never seen 'Ringu so don't hold that against me.' 4)I thought both of them sucked. 5)I thought both of them were good. 6)'Darkness Falls' sucked. 7)Naomi Watts is hot.
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"Matrix" was uttered in the article, which means we're opening *that* can of worms. One can't completely rule out a Hulk Hogan reference, either, or griping about Enterprise's cancellation. Anyway, I saw "Rings" as well, and thought it was pretty good for what it was. I especially dug the concept that American teenagers ever-so-resourcefully turn the tape into a drug of sorts. P.S. to Capone: the "face distortion on video" thing was seen in the first movie, when Martin Henderson's character sees himself in a liquor store's security monitor. And I might as well plug the best Ring site anywhere: www.theringworld.com.
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it has nowhere to go but down. Prove me wrong, Other Talkbackers!
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And I know Capone is travelling, but I thought the advertising for this collector's edition made it pretty clear that "Rings" was a big reason to buy it. ............. Oh, and by the way "waaah, waaah, waaaaaaaahhhhh, Buffy and Angel are still cancelled" .......... Just doing my part to lessen the quality of this Talkback, wouldn't want to prove Herc wrong.
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didn't the 24 season 3 dvd have a bridge segment to season 4 on it?
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Don't forget to call him a PLANT!
Star Wars Rocks and Star Wars Sucks -
they did it to bridge the gap between "The Fast and the Furious" and its sequel and they're putting out a director's cut version of "XXX" with a short film as a bonus with another actor taking over for Vin Diesel in which they kill off his character from the 1st movie.
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I think the thing on the 24 dvd was just footage from the season 4 premiere. One I can think of is I think the Alias season 3 dvd has an animated short that bridges season 2 to 3. JJ has said he'd like to do a short for the Lost dvd too. And I guess they don't count because they were their own product, but as Capone mentions, there's the Animatrix and Van Helsing and Riddick both had animated prequels.
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is right. They had that on season 3 to explain why Jack is no longer working for CTU. So yes, it's been done. Much as the Riddick Cartoon, Dark Fury, did for Pitch Black and Chronicles.
This is yet another way (much like the so-called Unrated Versions) to get you to buy another copy of a movie you've already bought.
To quote In Living Color "Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money!" -
I mean Plant, and Star Wars SUX, I mean ROCZ!
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star wars is shit/good. Your all PLANTS .Bush is a Cunt/Is Jesus . Vague unfunny comment regarding Hulk Hogan . Ringu was better ( no it was even though i haven't seen the remake). Finally Herc is clearly against Doctor Who . Any more cliches ?
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snarf
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Mar 10, 2005 6:25:31 AM CST
(INSERT NONSENSICAL UNFUNNY RANT HERE)... and thus speaketh Chic
by theallseeingeye
That's one cliche we haven't seen yet ScaryJim.
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Damn you to hell . It's really funny actually how in the coaxial section more people seem switched on to the absurdity of the talkback debates- Yet TV viewers are supposed to be inherently stupid ...
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..this is the first talkback i've seen in ages where the first imbecile doesn't go on about being 'FIRST'. TV viewers inherently stupid? Some of 'em maybe..thankfully the smart ones are here shitting all over the usual talkback diatribe.
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I thought the American version of The Ring was really good and bought the dvd the day it was released. So now the studio is rewarding people who were only lukewarm about it and need some extra incentive to buy it. In a perfect world, it would be the other way around: the inital release would be the super ultra deluxe extended version for the rabid fans, and then each re-release would have fewer and fewer features, until there's nothing left but the actual non-extended version of the movie. But the way it is now, the true fans gets screwed.
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What I've always wished some studio would do for a major release was produce something like this short--filling the blanks between sequels, or a prologue to the film--and buying a chunk of prime time on a network to air it. They did this in Japan with the Takashi Miike bubblegum flick "Andromedia." Here, we tend to get all these "making-of" specials instead, which I guess is a lot cheaper...but imagine how psyched one would be for The Ring Two if Dreamworks had run "Rings" (padded with extended trailers and commercials) on NBC (heavily promoted beforehand of course) right after, say, Fear Factor?
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And cheets on the bomb in his ribcage. Or something...
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I'm not going to buy this unless theirs some sort of rebate for the people who bought the first DVD when it came out. The free movie ticket for Ring 2 is nice but I just can't help feeling it's just a ploy to make more money from buying movies you already have.
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