Quite a batch for you today; a beautiful anime, two Eighties classics, an amazing documentary, the worst film of the year and more!
Let’s start with one of the good ones….
Gremlins: Special Edition
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Warner Bros. / Released May 8th, 2012
Joe Dante’s Gremlins might be the quintessential Christmas movie. It’s funny, scary, outrageous and touching; an underrated gem in the history of cinema. The film introduces inventor Rand Peltzer, who comes across a small shop in Chinatown, USA and discovers a Mogwai, a small, furry creature that Peltzer wants to buy as a Christmas gift for his son, Billy. The shop owner refuses, but his grandson sells him the Mogwai with three important rules: keep it out of sunlight, don’t get it wet and never, ever feed it after midnight. Billy is overjoyed with the gift, who he names “Gizmo” and as two of the three rules are broken, chaos reigns. The Mogwai multiplies and mutates into Gremlins, small reptilian creatures of destruction and mayhem. And as the town of Kingston Falls finds itself under attack by the monsters, Billy, his parents, his girlfriend Kate and his neighbors, the Futtermans struggle to save themselves.
Gremlins is a classic and the talent and cleverness of Dante’s work almost pales in comparison to the brilliance of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, a sequel that takes the ridiculousness of the original film and mocks it unmercilessly. Picking up several years later, Billy and Kate live in New York City and work together at Clamp Industries, a media conglomerate owned by the Donald Trump-esque Daniel Clamp. As with most media companies, they also do their fair share of genetic engineering; the perfect location for Gizmo to resurface; and of course, an ever more perfect venue for Gremlins to take over.
Both films contain a fair amount of extras; Gremlins features two commentary tracks, a featurette and additional scenes and the sequel includes a commentary track, a vintage featurette, a gag reel, deleted scenes, an alternate home video sequence, and a trailer. Sound quality on both releases are solid, without much to brag about, but it’s the image quality that’s quite varied. Gremlins looks probably better than it ever has on home video, but overall is grainy and not too impressive. Gremlins 2, however, looks great. Unfortunately, neither is impressive enough (or has any new extras) to make this a must have upgrade. Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch are both extremely entertaining films, though Gremlins needs and deserves a remastering.
This Means War
20th Century Fox / Released May 22nd, 2012
This is a bad film. Not a fun “bad movie” or a potential cult masterpiece. It’s just bad; a completely uninteresting cliche filled travesty that will likely remain an embarrassment on the filmography of it’s participants for many years to come. Chris Pine and Tom Hardy play best friends and secret agents who botch a job, and are assigned desk duty. They both become involved with Reese Witherspoon without the other knowing and once this coincidence is revealed, pledge never to let her come between them. They then spend millions of dollars trying to survey and sabotage the other’s relationship until the bad guy resurfaces in the closing twenty minutes for an atypical kidnapping and resolution.
The film offers little in terms of actual characterization and the structureless plot often feels like a series of bad improvisations set between dull and redundant action sequences. I like the three leads as actors, but if you were unfamiliar with their work and saw this you’d be hesitant to believe that there was any talent between them. At worst, for a romantic comedy, there’s absolutely nothing humorous and there was zero chemistry between the players who portray their stereotypical characters with little conviction. Extras include deleted scenes, three alternate endings, commentary, featurettes, trailer and gag reel. Video and audio are fantastic, it’s just the content that’s rotten.
The Grey
Open Road Films / Released May 15th, 2012
Liam Neeson stars in this primal version of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. Neeson is Ottway, a man still grieving over the loss of his wife who has signed up to work with oil-rig workers up North. It’s Ottway’s job to patrol
the area’s outer perimeter and kill the threatening marauder wolves who are a little too comfortable around humans. When their plane crashes in the remote Alaskan wilderness, the workers, led by Neeson, battle mortal injuries, the brutal weather and the hungry wolves. It’s a classic man versus nature scenario, with one caveat, it was tough to care. The entire cast (including Neeson) portrayed uninteresting and underdeveloped characters. As the wolves begin assaulting the men, the mortality of the various characters is fairly uninteresting. I didn’t care who died because I didn’t care about any of them. The film also includes a creepy number of dream? sequences with Neeson and his wife under the sheets as she repeatedly is plucked from his life. Knowing Neeson lost his wife very suddenly only makes these scenes voyeuristic and inappropriate.
Visually, the film is stunning with perfect sound. Extras include a commentary track and deleted scenes. The Grey follows a classic template, and the cast does the best they can with the material, which feels criminally underwritten. Watching characters being picked off by predatory wolves might not be what you consider entertaining, but writer/director Joe Carnahan delivers a solid thriller that didn’t live up to the potential of what could have been. Mildly recommended.
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Oscilloscope Pictures / Released May 29th, 2012
Tilda Swinton has always been a bit of an unnerving presence on screen. In We Need To Talk About Kevin, that presence is taken to a new level, as we watch this non-linear progression of her character going from a free spirit to an unhappy mother to a survivor. To give away details of the story would do a disservice, but this truly is a remarkable and disturbing film on a number of levels. By the time you begin to make sense of the various timelines, you begin to dread what’s coming. Ezra Miller plays the teenage version of Kevin, Swinton’s son, who has had a number of challenges since his childhood (also played by Rocky Duer and Jasper Newell at other ages), when we first discover that there is an unspoken hatred between mother and son. John C. Reilly plays her hapless husband who never truly understands Swinton’s uncomfortable rapport with their son. The film is unsettling, but truly fascinating. Extras include featurettes, deleted scenes, interviews, a trailer and more. We Need To Talk About Kevin is a hauntingly uncomfortable effort that features two amazing performances by Swinton and Miller and is a must see.
The Cold War: The Complete Series
Warner Bros. Home Video / Released May 8th, 2012
History lovers and students have quite a bit to celebrate with the release of The Cold War: The Complete Series, an exhaustive and comprehensive look at the complicated relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Edited from over 1,000 hours of footage, this 24-part Peabody Award winning masterpiece features narration by Kenneth Branagh and is a truly illuminating look at one of the most complicated international political relationships in the history of the world. The 1120 minute feature begins at the conclusion of World War II and concludes with collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. No extras are included, but The Cold War is an absorbing experience and a must see for everyone. Highly recommended.
The Secret World of Arrietty
Buena Vista Home Video / Released May 22nd, 2012
Based on Mary Norton’s 1952 novel The Borrowers, this latest effort from Studio Ghibli, is yet another masterpiece. The straightforward plot centers around Sho, a sick boy who befriends Arrietty, who stands a a few inches tall and who lives in secret with those like her underneath the
floorboards. As suspicions of the existence of the Borrowers grows, Sho and Arrietty work together to preserve the secret and their friendship.
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Arrietty is an appealing story for all ages, but never panders to it’s audience. Lush and colorful animation and suburb characterization makes this a must see. Ghibli has yet to make a bad film, which is reason along to purchase it immediately. Extras include music videos, a feature length Japanese animatic, trailers and both Japanese and English audio tracks (unlike most voice casts, Ghibli does an impeccable job with their English speaking casting). The Secret World of Arrietty is a wonderful film and a testament to the power of traditional 2D animation. Highly recommended.
