..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
Incident at Loch Ness
Directed by Werner Herzog
It's a cross between Spinal Tap and Blair Witch, to use the Hollywood parlance. The marvelous 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment comedy, Incident at Loch Ness (2223947, $28), is a pretend production documentary about a movie the German director, Werner Herzog, is supposedly making about the Loch Ness monster. If that doesn't get you giggling right there, then the antics of his duplicitous producer, played by the real director of the 2004 movie, Zak Penn, and the other members of his crew, soon will. We only laughed aloud once, but we were charmed and smiling throughout the film by its many in-jokes and clever conceits. Herzog's performance is wonderfully self-effacing, and Penn and the others, most playing themselves, are equally game. Since it takes one viewing to really find out where the movie is going and what it is up to, multiple viewings are almost a necessity, and the film gets funnier with each pass. But that's not all. The DVD has included 24 minutes of deleted scenes, and almost every one is a gem-don't miss Herzog's performance in the clip identified as, 'Nude Sunbathing.'
The picture is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The color transfer looks okay. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound has a basic dimensionality and is satisfying. The 94-minute program has optional English and Spanish subtitles. There is a gag commentary track with Penn, lasting about an hour and pretending the movie is real. First, he talks with Herzog for about 15 minutes, with Herzog 'leaving' in a huff. Then he has a production assistant talking with him for another 10 minutes or so and they get into a fight. That is followed by yet another production assistant and again they start fighting. He lasts for about 7 minutes, and so it goes, in similar increments, including Penn's wife, (she reminds him that they're getting a divorce and she doesn't want to help him, even if it means higher DVD sales, "I'm over you, I'm over it.").
On 'hidden' menu options, however, there are two legitimate commentaries (or reasonably legitimate-in one, they still claim that they dropped a whale in the lake for the monster scenes), one with Penn and Herzog, and one with Penn and several cast and crew members. The Penn and Herzog talk gives you a good overview of how the film was staged, while the other talk gets into more specific details about each scene. Although you might prefer to sustain the illusion of the film as it stands, the two talks provide a thorough breakdown of how it was executed and what the thinking was behind it. For the Penn and Herzog talk, go left and then up from the 'On' option on the regular commentary menu ('Special Features'). For the other commentary, go to the 'Languages' option and go up from the 'Resume Feature' option.
The deleted scenes appear on the flip side of the DVD. Like the commentary on the first side, the material on the flip side that talks about how the film was really made is all accessed by fairly
easy-to-locate ‘hidden’ menus. There is a 22-minute production documentary, in which Penn and others gloat over the phony stories about Herzog’s filmmaking that they managed to plant with the entertainment press. The segment also shows some real ‘behind-the-scenes’ footage, explaining how the actors approached their parts, demonstrating how the real special effects were pulled off and otherwise drawing every veil yhere was away from the gag. Also included is a 2-minute segment on how one specific effect shot was achieved, 4 minutes of Penn explaining to
the camera what is really going on with various members of the cast, a minute’s worth of test footage of the monster head, a couple of other brief clips, a collection of still photos, and two versions of the film’s real shooting script. To reach the hidden options, just move to the left or the right of the various menu selections and, if nothing appears when you move left or right, combine that move with an up or down move.
March 22, 2005
DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
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