Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Holy shit, it’s November already. That doesn’t seem possible. Of course, I just watched a month’s worth of titles in four days, so I’m not even sure what year it is right now. My entire skull seems to be filled with oatmeal. It’ll be nice to get away from movies today and go see U2 at the Staples Center. Gotta mix it up a bit. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m skipping my weekly run to Amoeba. Far from it. I’m just glad it’s a fairly light week for new releases. Last week just about killed me. I’ve got some other stuff I want to finish and put up for tomorrow, including Obi-Swan’s piece about SITH and his latest trip to Skywalker Ranch, so I’m going to hustle through the new releases today. If it’s already here at the Labs, it’s marked with an asterisk (*), but everything else, I’ll be wrassling for it at Amoeba later today.
And remember... you can find even more daily DVD content over at my DVD blog, so feel free to stop by. More and more of you do each week, and I’m really enjoying the interaction in a totally different setting. Right now, though, let’s kick things off with...
*ALIENS OF THE DEEP
Now that HorrorThon is finished, I’ve got a lot of stuff to catch up on, and this is at the top of the stack. I didn’t get a chance to see it when it played the giant screen 3D theaters this year, but if it’s a good documentary, it’ll be just as interesting in this format. There are two versions included here. One is the short version that played the IMAX screens, while the other expands the film out to feature length and evidently includes a lot more information about the scientists and explorers in the film. I plan to watch both, and I’m looking forward to seeing what I hear was some of the most unusual and interesting effects work done for any film released this year.
FAME: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
Oh, man, I know this one dates me, but I watched this show pretty much every week when it was on NBC. I’m a huge fan of the Alan Parker film, but I haven’t seen the series since its initial airing. I don’t know if I’ll buy every season of this, but seeing Erica Gimpel show up on VERONICA MARS while I was watching it last week only made me want to revisit this show more. It may be cheese, but it’s gonna get a spin at the Labs in the weeks ahead.
*HAMMETT
I love Dashiell Hammett’s novels and stories, and when I first saw this Wim Wenders adaptation of the Joe Gores book back in the early ‘80s, I had no idea what I was looking at. This is not a biopic, but is instead a Hammett adventure starring Hammett instead of his characters. It’s a clever conceit, especially considering when the film was made. Today, this sort of post-modern game is almost commonplace, but this handsomely mounted Zoetrope picture stood alone when it was released. Frederic Forrest stars as the author, and the supporting cast features Marliu Henner, Peter Boyle, Elijah Cook Jr. and more. Even better, there’s the surreal soundstage recreation of San Francisco and that amazing John Barry score that both make the film unforgettable. I’m not sure who’s responsible for the sudden glut of all the Zoetrope pictures on DVD, but I’m thrilled, and this is one that I’ve been looking forward to revisiting for a hell of a long time.
*MILLIONS
This one just showed up this morning, and I’m intensely curious to take a look at it. I’ve heard so many nice things about it that I’m actually going to try to dampen my expectations a bit so I’m not disappointed. The story of two brothers who find a big bag of money, this is the first children’s film by Danny Boyle, something I find intriguing. I’m curious to see how he is with child actors playing the leads, and I’m also curious to see how he handles sweet-natured material, something he’s not exactly known for so far. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the posters for this didn’t have “FROM THE DIRECTOR OF TRAINSPOTTING” splashed across them. I sincerely hope I love this as much as the people who keep urging me to see it did.
*OFFICE SPACE
I’m not a member of the “OHMYGODOFFICESPACEISTHEGREATESTFILMEVER!” cult, but I do admire the way Mike Judge stepped up to the bat for his first live-action comedy. It’s a small film, with a subtle sense of humor, and much of the pleasure of it is in the recognition that comes while watching it. Judge has obviously done his time in the trenches working shitty dead-end jobs, and he gets that stuff exactly right here. Just as Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant mined the malaise of the workplace for comic gold in their TV series THE OFFICE, the best material in Judge’s film comes from the mundane, the recognizable. I’m not as crazy about the Jennifer Aniston/Ron Livingston storyline, but I’m curious to see if time has softened my initial reaction at all, and I also want to get a look at whatever special features Fox put together for this long-in-development special edition.
STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH
So, uh... yeah. It’s STAR WARS. It’s the last one. And if you need to know more about it than that, you either don’t care, or you’ve just recently come out of a 30 year coma. I’m glad to finally be able to put all six STAR WARS films on a shelf and be able to revisit them the way I want, when I want, and I really enjoy most of SITH. Still, it’s odd that I’m not more excited by this release today, and all I can figure is that my emotional attachment to the franchise really concluded with the theatrical experience in May. That seemed like the culmination of all my personal hopes for the series, and this is just the afterthought. I’m more interested in the special features than I am in seeing the film itself, and for a better look at those features, check out the article I’m putting up by Obi-Swan this morning. He went to Skywalker Ranch for their final press day about this trilogy, and he’s written a passionate piece about that experience.
THE STEVE MCQUEEN BOX SET
Maybe it would be more accurate to call this “A Steve McQueen Box Set.” I mean, I’m a pretty big fan of the actor’s work, but this hardly qualifies as a definitive collection of any sort.
I’m intrigued because these are two of the McQueen films I haven’t seen. BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL, directed by Robert Mulligan (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD), sounds like a great character study, and considering how he was often undervalued as an actor, it’ll be nice to see him dig into something with some weight. THE WAR LOVER plays more into the daredevil stuntman tough guy side of McQueen’s image, as he stars as a guy who volunteers for all the most dangerous missions as a way of challenging death head-on. Since I’ve already got most of McQueen’s other films, it’ll be nice to add these to the collection, and to round out my appreciation of his work a little more.
*TWO FOR THE ROAD
Like McQueen, Audrey Hepburn was viewed more as a movie star than as an actor. Sometimes, even the best performers can find themselves sorted into narrow boxes over the course of their careers, through no fault of their own. The only way they can change that is by doing work that no one expects and reminding people of just what they can do. Directed by Stanley Donen (SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN) and written by Frederick Raphael (who co-wrote EYES WIDE SHUT with Stanley Kubrick), this is a beautiful, lyrical look at the way relationships evolve. It’s a very naturalistic film, experimental in a way. It hardly seems like the sort of big-studio fare that you’d expect in 1967, and it seems incredibly sophisticated when seen today. Albert Finney plays Hepburn’s husband, and the film follows them through the ups and downs of their marriage over many years, but focuses on the way they relate to each other when they’re traveling. It’s a really smart way into the characters, and both of the actors rise to the occasion. The film is neither a celebration of marriage or an indictment of it. Instead, it simply observes what it is that holds people together and drives them apart, and how often, they can be the same things. Hepburn was never better, and once again, Henry Mancini must have been inspired by her, because this is one of the best scores of his long and illustrious career. I can’t say enough good about this film and, in my opinion, this is the title that people should be freaking out about today. I can’t wait to see how the transfer looks, since the last VHS editions were pretty much boiled ass. It’s been a long wait, and it’s well worth your time to track it down.
*WARNING SHOT
One of my favorite little Kurosawa films is STRAY DOG, the story of a cop who loses his gun and what happens when it is found by someone other than him. That idea was also explored as a subplot in Paul Thomas Anderson’s MAGNOLIA. Those are some pretty great filmmakers who have tackled this idea, so I’m curious to see what Buzz Kulik did with it in 1967. And I’m not mocking Kulik. He made some pretty good movies for both theatrical release and for TV, like BRIAN’S SONG, BAD RONALD, and McQueen’s last film, THE HUNTER. Here, he’s got David Janssen starring, and the twist is that it’s not the cop who loses his gun... it’s the guy the cop shot. He had a weapon, which is why the cop fired on him, but it vanishes, and the cop is forced to figure out what happened and clear his own name. It looks like there’s a great supporting cast in the movie, and I sure do love tough guy films. I’m sure I’ll give this one a spin later in the week.
*WAR OF THE WORLDS
*WAR OF THE WORLDS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
I guess Paramount decided to get people all hyped up and even hopefully sell a few copies to confused consumers by releasing both of these titles three weeks in advance of the Spielberg/Cruise blockbuster hitting shelves. I can’t say enough good things about the George Pal film, but I’m sure I’ll try when I review it, and I’ve never seen the TV series, so I’ll be open-minded about it. I’ll hold off on writing full reviews of these discs until I can do them with the Spielberg version in a few weeks. For now, though, just know that if you love the Pal version, this disc will make you very, very happy.
And that’s it. Like I said... one of the lighter weeks in recent memory, and that’s just fine. I’m already worn out, and there’s still plenty to do. I’ll see you back here with another one of these columns in a week. Until then...
"Moriarty" out.
