It’s Monday night, do you know what you should be watching?
Check out how I spent the past weekend after the jump and be sure to fire up your Netflix queue or Amazon shopping cart!
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| WDHE / Released September 25th, 2012 |
The assembling of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, is an extremely fun, big popcorn movie.
Combining the various Marvel franchises (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Incredible Hulk), The Avengers is neither as clever or as exciting as it thinks it is, but it delivers nevertheless. Writer-director Joss Whedon’s greatest strength might be character verbal conflict (aka bickering) and the film had that in spades. The nonsensical plot really only presents itself as such if you get off the ride and examine it, and the film’s MacGuffin, The Tesseract, never really seems as threatening as the characters make it out to seem. In his third time at bat playing Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal has gone from refreshingly snarky to Earth’s Biggest Asshole. The majority of the cast are serviceable enough with the best performances coming from Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Ruffalo, who shines as the befuddled genius Bruce Banner, who reminds everyone it’s not so easy to be green.
Unfortunately, Jeremy Renner seems bored and Scarlett Johansson continues to the most severely miscast actor in the Marvel Studios panthenon. Extras include the short film, Item 47, commentary, featurettes, and a blooper reel (all of which seem light). The Avengers is the third highest grossing film of all time and one of the best comic book films yet. After seeing the characters finally teaming up and saving the world, it just kind of feels like a good place to stop, rather than begin. Recommended.
Rock Of Ages
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| Warner Bros. / Released on Blu-ray Combo pack, DVD and download October 9th, 2012 |
With it’s tongue planted firmly in cheek, Adam Shankman’s adaptation of the hit Broadway musical doesn’t forget it’s roots. It never reaches the artistic majesty of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, but instead, keeps the depth shallow, but nevertheless fun, incorporating many familiar rock songs. Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta are unfortunately the weakest elements of the film, with a storyline that seems to mine Coyote Ugly and Three’s Company for emotional wallop.
Fortunately, the rest of the cast is pretty entertaining as they mug for the camera, with a particularly dedicated performance by Tom Cruise as rock god, Stacee Jaxx, who mines Axl Rose and Jim Morrison and who’s only honest friendship is with his pet baboon, Hey Man.
The experience of screening the film at home versus the theatrical experience does, however, suffer. Without the the larger than life presentation, the film feels stilted. When characters burst into song on the silver screen, it created a grand theatrical feeling that doesn’t seem so grand. Extras include an extended cut, featurettes, and a music video. Rock of Ages might not be particularly great movie, but it is fun. Watch it with a group of friends on the largest screen possible and crank the music. Recommended.
Dark Shadows
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| Warner Bros. / Released on Blu-ray Combo pack, DVD and download October 2nd, 2012 |
Tim Burton directs the reimagining of Dan Curtis’ cult soap opera with regular leading man, Johnny Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins returning to his former home in the early Seventies. The film is pretty solid for the first half hour before it begins to suffer from Burton’s focus on style over story. The screenplay by Seth Grahme-Smith progressively gets more and more convoluted until the final act which abandons any kind of logic or plot. Visually the film is pretty dynamite and all of the performances were solid, with Depp’s performance in particular, his strongest in years. Extras include deleted scenes, and Maximum Movie Mode.
Dark Shadows, like many of Burton’s best films, focuses on the visuals, rather than the story. In this case, strong performances and a sense of fun, elevate the poorly executed screenplay. It drags a bit, but as a Burton fan, I found myself pleased with his return to form. Mildly recommended.
Ed Wood
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| BVHE/ Released September 18th, 2012 |
Tim Burton’s masterpiece, Ed Wood, is likely the closest the auteur will get to an autobiography. Considered to be the worst filmmaker of all time, the cross-dressing schlock filmmaker is portrayed by Burton favorite Johnny Depp. Like Wood, Burton employs a fairly regular group of collaborators, and both filmmakers are self-assured about their own particular visions. Filmed in gorgeous black & white, Ed Wood features some fantastic performances including Bill Murray, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jeffrey Jones and a cameo of Vincent D’Onofrio as Orson Welles. Martin Landau also won an Oscar with his performance as horror icon Bela Lugosi, who becomes Wood’s muse (reflecting in many ways the relationship between Burton and Depp). Extras include commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes and a trailer. Ed Wood is a love letter to both schlock cinema and the boundless enthusiasm that the director had to film his vision; and there could have been no better collaborators than Burton and Depp to bring that story to life. Highly recommended.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
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| Universal Studios / Released October 9th, 2012 |
One of cinema’s greatest fairy-tales, E.T. has made it to Blu-ray looking as new as it did when I saw it on opening day in 1982. An alien is left behind on Earth and befriends a boy and his siblings. While trying to engineer a device to contact his home, the military pursues the alien unaware that he has created a symbiotic relationship with the boy.
It’s fairly commonplace to throw around the term “movie magic” and it has never been quite as applicable as it is in this film. Henry Thomas gives a genuine and emotional performance as Elliot, with excellent work from Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore as siblings Michael and Gertie. Dee Wallace and Peter Coyote anchor the film as Mary, the Mom and government operative “Keys,” respectively.
The greatest achievement in the film might be E.T. himself, a creation of a number of filmmaking tricks including a person in a suit and a puppet operated by technicians, that bring the extra-terrestrial believably to life. The score by John Williams is iconic and Spielberg’s work is some of the finest in his career. Extras include featurettes, documentaries, reunions, deleted scenes, image galleries and trailers. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial belongs in every Blu-ray library. Highest recommendation.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1
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| Warner Bros / Released September 25, 2012 |
Based on the groundbreaking comic by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, The Dark Knight Returns focuses on a Bruce Wayne ten years retired, who’s suffocating in the decaying Gotham City around him. When Harvey Dent who, through the miracle of modern plastic surgery, has had his face restored and given a “Two-Face” free diagnosis from his psychiatrist is released; things only get worse and Bruce dons his costume once again to rid Gotham from the criminal element which includes a mutant street gang. Oh yeah, we finally get Robin, The Girl Wonder.
As elements of this story have found themselves incorporated through both Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan’s Bat-films, The Dark Knight Returns doesn’t feel as fresh as I expected. The film which divides the story in two parts (part two arrives in early 2013) is the first miss. The second, which I also experienced when watching the earlier Batman: Year One (my favorite story of all time) release, is that some things don’t necessarily work when adapted to another medium. Voice work is strong as always, with Peter Weller quite possibly out-Batman-ing iconic Kevin Conroy as the definitive voice of the Caped Crusader. The animation, while trying to be reverent to the original work feels more clunky than it should. Extras include featurettes, two episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, 4 pages of the original comic (?!) and a sneak preview of Part 2. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 is realistically going to be checked out by most comic and Batman fans, but personally this latest departure from original movies to adaptations might be reason enough to give the fans something fresh. Mildly recommended.
Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures
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| Paramount / Released September 18th, 2012 |
A must have for any cinegeek, this box set contains four films of varying success all starring Harrison Ford, produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg.
Included is the great, iconic, incredible Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film that introduced audiences to the Professor of Archeology, expert on the occult, and obtainer of rare antiquities. In Raiders, Jones travels across the world to beat the Nazis from uncovering the Lost Ark of The Covenant, the container which holds the remains of the Ten Commandments, which will grant power to whoever controls it. In the second film, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, Jones finds himself helping an Indian village save it’s children from a cult determined to rule the world. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sends Jones to save his missing father and find the Holy Grail before it winds up in the clutches of the Nazi’s. Finally, is the twenty year later addition, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, which has Jones reuniting with lost love Marion Ravenwood and meeting his son, Mutt Williams, for the first time, while trying to prevent an antique of possible extra-terrestrial origin from falling in the wrong hands.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a perfect film and the other three have their moments, but don’t ever come close to matching the magic of the initial installment. That being said, all four installments have some entertainment value and Paramount was wise to release them all in a single set. Extras are plentiful and include trailers, over five hours of making of documentaries, and over a dozen featurettes. Picture and sound are top notch as well. Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures is a perfect example of a release that’s whole is better than it’s parts. The three sequels differ on quality primarily depending on the taste of the viewer, but all are very entertaining with the original Raiders of the Lost Ark being one of the most satisfyingly entertaining films of all time. Highest recommendation.
