MCN DVD Reviews: July 28, 2009

The Wrap Up ...

The Saragossa Manuscript

Even by the standards set by such big-screen surrealists as Luis Buñuel, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Terry Gilliam, movies don’t come much trippier than The Saragossa Manuscript. The paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya likely influenced Wojciech Has’ adaptation of Jan Potocki's 1813 picaresque novel, which was distinguished by its audacious scope and unexpected zaniness.

Set at the intersection of Napoleon’s conquest of Spain and the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, The Saragossa Manuscript refers to a book discovered by rival groups of soldiers in the ruins of a war-ravaged city. It described the amazing adventures of one Alfonse Van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski), a roguish figure who managed to dodge the ambushes of priests and mercenaries by taking refuge in inns inhabited by the ghosts of bosomy Moorish woman and devious genies.

The stories unfold slowly and double-back on each other, not unlike those told in the Arabian Nights.Originally released in 1965, at the dawn of the worldwide psychedelic craze, The Saragossa Manuscript was embraced by hippies and foreign-film buffs, alike. Its non-linear format and fairy-tale aspects drew comparisons to Alice in Wonderland and other works that embraced an altered consciousness. It disappeared from view after distributors decided to trim its three-hour length by a third. Before he died, musician Jerry Garcia donated money for the movie’s restoration and re-release. Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola would also lend their names to the project. The Image edition of The Saragossa Manuscript looks great, even in black-and-white, and remains a gas to watch.– Gary Dretzka

Float

Much of Johnny Asuncion’s buoyant indie comedy is set in an ice-cream parlor, Float, in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale. Considering how much of the narrative is devoted to the lives and loves of characters of Armenian descent, Float could hardly have taken place anywhere else. Roughly 40 percent of the city’s 200,000 residents can trace their roots back to the old country, so it wouldn’t be unusual for them to converse in Armenian and embrace the traditions of their ancestors.

Not all of Float’s employees and customers are Armenian, but they naturally partake in the local customs and celebrations. When Gevorg isn’t filling cones and splitting bananas, he’s hustling stolen property, making book and looking for a girl with traditional values. Ironically, though, it’s his Hispanic buddy who is given a choice of Glendale’s most eligible bachelorettes. Also along for the ride is the owner of Float, a guy so obsessed with his business that he fails to notice his wife’s futile attempts to save their marriage.

In an effort to lighten his load, Gevorg drags him to parties full of kids the age of his daughter. Float contains several such awkward moments, but Asuncion’s primary emphasis is on building bridges between people of different backgrounds, ages and temperaments. One measure of his willingness to avoid the usual ethnic clichés is the casting of Ken Davitian – Sacha Baron Cohen’s fat, hairy sidekick in Borat – in a role not created specifically to add comic relief or exploit stereotypes. Float is very much a micro-budget enterprise, but what it lacks in production values, it makes up for in heart.- Gary Dretzka

Streets of Blood
One Way/The Butcher

In Streets of Blood, the only thing more difficult to understand than the characters’ phony N’awlins accents is the presence of such once-bankable stars as Val Kilmer, Sharon Stone and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Stranger still, it seems as if Robert DeNiro and Dylan McDermott once were attached to the post-Katrina shoot-’em-up, which must have had straight-to-video written all over it. Because the NOPD lived down to its reputation in the weeks-long crime spree, there was no good reason to muddy the waters with violence of a less coherent nature. But that seems to be what happened here.

Screenwriter Eugene Hess took a perfectly credible drug rip-off – as the flood waters were swiftly rising to rooftop level – and quickly compounded the mayhem by having a pair of renegade cops snuff an undercover DEA agent in pimp drag and adding a shrink (Stone) who would need a road map to find a sociopath in a rain barrel. Not all the news is bad here, though. Kilmer threw caution to the hurricane’s wind in his portrayal of a notoriously brutal cop, and 50-Cent is fun to watch as his freaked-out partner. Michael Biehn plays a FBI agent required to sort through the dirty cops’ many dirty drawers. What Stone saw in her character, besides a paycheck and all-expenses-paid trip to Louisiana, is anyone’s guess.

It’s easy to make light of Eric Roberts’ career, post-Runaway Train. His trademark intensity and quirky mannerisms may have grown tiresome, but he’s never been at a loss for work, especially in movies targeted for international sales. Indeed, he currently has 13 projects in various forms of post-production. That’s more than can be said of most actors in Hollywood. In The Butcher, Roberts plays a mob henchman improbably named Merle Hench. He’s teamed with Robert Davi, who’s as recognizable in straight-to-DVD circles as any other Hollywood hard-ass, including Roberts. Lots of people get killed.

Roberts isn’t at the forefront of the action in One Way, although his defense-lawyer character is accorded the film’s best name, Nick Swell. That distinction belongs to Til Schweiger, a big star in his native Germany and an increasingly familiar face here. (Look for him next in Inglourious Basterds.) Here, Schweiger plays an amoral business executive who chooses expediency over friendship when called upon to reveal the identity of a rapist. Once that happens, One Way becomes a movie about revenge and retribution.- Gary Dretzka

Bart Got a Room
Miss March: Unrated

Wig wranglers never get enough credit in Hollywood. If the hairpiece worn by William H. Macy in Bart Got a Room had an agent, by now it would have landed a series of its own on the Comedy Channel … or Animal Planet. The ever-delightful Macy plays the overly supportive father of a sex-starved teenager, looking to break his cherry at the senior formal. First, however, Danny Stein must convince a young lady that he’s prom-worthy, and that’s no easy task.

Like George Costanza on Seinfeld, Danny is at once desperate and ridiculously picky. His search for a proper date parallels his dad’s frustrating pursuit of a woman capable of filling the void left when he and his wife (a similarly dorked-out Cheryl Hines) separated. Writer-director Brian Hecker gives Danny (Steven J. Kaplan) an easy out, in the person of a lifelong friend (Alia Shawkat) who’d be a perfect fit for the prom. Danny thinks he can do better, however, first with a blond cheerleader, who he chauffeurs to school every morning, and, failing there, a series of more eccentric candidates.

If this description of Bart Got a Room makes it sound like an American Pie wannabe, well … what freshman filmmaker wouldn’t want to approximate that raunchy teen comedy’s success? The primary difference between the two movies is the relative lack of overtly gross behavior among the teenagers in Bart and its willingness to forgo the sexuality that would have given it a R-rating. Instead of portraying Danny and his buddies as outright slobbering horn-dogs, Hecker accentuated the stunted emotional growth that afflicts anyone forced to navigate life in the slow lane. Whenever this smart little indie gets bogged down in the familiarity of its premise, Danny’s hapless father magically appears to kick the story back into a higher gear. I’d love to see Macy’s Ernie Stein and Eugene Levy’s "Jim’s dad” in American Pie in the same movie.

Despite a much larger production and advertising budget, Miss March fails to deliver anywhere near the smarts and heart of Bart Got a Room. If anything, the boy obsessed with losing his virginity in Miss March is dealt a much crueler hand.

Just as he and his girlfriend are about to break ther “Abstinence Now!” vows, Eugene (Zach Cregger) falls down a flight of stairs and gets clunked on the head by a heavy metal toolbox. When, four years later, he emerges from a coma, he is stunned to learn that his pure-as-the-driven-snow sweetheart, Cindi (Raquel Alessi), not only posed as a Playboy centerfold but is reputed to be one of Hollywood’s easiest lays. Eugene’s sex-fiend best friend, Tucker (Trevor Moore), insists they make a pilgrimage to the Playboy Mansion to rescue Cindi and, incidentally, hang out with Hef and his bunny harem. To this end, they enlist the help of a rich and famous hip-hop artist they ran with before he changed his name to Horsedick.

Their road trip west provides much fodder for the kind of perverted scatological and sexual humor even Howard Stern’s listeners would find juvenile. When they finally do get to the Playboy Mansion, Eugene and Tucker act as if they’ve arrived in the Promised Land with a pre-paid credit card and lifetime supply of condoms. The most astounding thing about Miss March is that this unholy mess was perpetrated by members of the otherwise inventive comedy troupe, the Whitest Kids You Know. - Gary Dretzka

Bill Plympton's Dog Days: A Collection of Short Films 2004-2008
Guns on the Clackamas: A Documentary

That Bill Plympton is one of our most gifted illustrators and humorists is hardly a secret. Still, it’s nice to be reminded of just how talented he is in collections such as Dog Days, which not only showcases to his animated Dog Trilogy, but also features such gems as The Fan and the Flower, Shuteye Hotel, Santa, The Fascist Years and Spiral. The generous collection adds videos of Kanye West’s Heard 'Em Say, Weird Al Yankovic's Don't Download This Song, trailers, commercials, commentary, pencil tests, storyboards and an interview with the artist.

Also newly available is Plympton's 1995 takedown of Hollywood-studio politics and movie nerds, Guns on the Clackamas. The spirited mockumentary focuses on the cult of personality surrounding mega-producer Holton P. Jeffers Jr. and his latest contribution to the Western genre. Fact is, though, Jeffers has exhausted his studio cred and can’t raise the money needed to finance Clackamas.

British filmmaker Nigel Nado’s homage resembles one of those puffy making-of featurettes that air on HBO and are added to a DVD’s bonus package. Clackamas, Plympton's first live-action film, shows its age and naiveté, especially when considered alongside 15 years’ worth of mockumentaries, such as Best of Show, Waiting for Guffman and For Your Consideration.- Gary Dretzka

Combat Shock: 2-Disc Uncut 25th Anniversary Edition
Inglorious Bastards: Blu-ray
A River Runs Through It: Blu-ray
This Is Spinal Tap: Blu-ray

Troma has been the driving force behind some of the most depraved – delightfully and otherwise – movies of our time. Many of the crimes against humanity perpetrated in its titles can be traced to avoidable ecological disasters and scientific experiments gone awry, just as several of the great Japanese monsters of the 1950s were energized by the radiation released in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Entombed after its brief release in 1986, Combat Shock tells a similar story.

Frankie Dunlan, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, is back home in Staten Island after witnessing an atrocity and being held captive and tortured by the Viet Cong. He lives in squalor with his unhappy wife and a child deformed, we have to assume, by Dunlan’s exposure to Agent Orange. He owes money to everyone, including the local loan shark/pimp/pusher. Even if there were any jobs available to him, Dunlan would have to undergo a combination makeover and detox before he could fit back into polite society. Thus, the question raised by writer-director Buddy Giovinazzo is: has Dunlan’s life improved since returning home or would he have been better off locked in a tiger cage in Vietnam?

Not knowing exactly how the still-traumatized veteran’s life devolved after his discharge, it’s a tough question to answer. Even more perplexing is the decision made by the Dunlans to attempt to raise a child who resembles something out of E.T. and Edvard Munch’s painting, The Scream. Neither is it made clear if Dunlan was merely a witness to a Mai Lai type atrocity or the perpetrator. It was probably better, however, that Giovinazzo left this question unanswered. This two-disc DVD package treats Combat Shock as if it had won the Best Picture Oscar taken home by Michael Cimino for The Deer Hunter. What’s most interesting is comparing the original director’s cut version, American Nightmares, with the trimmed and re-edited theatrical version.

The bonus features also include commentary, with Giovinazzo and Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromantik); a documentary exploring the influence of Combat Shock, featuring such purveyors of mayhem as John McNaughton, William Lustig, Richard Stanley and Jim Van Bebber; eight short films and music videos by Giovinazzo; an interview with star, Rick Giovinazzo; a location piece; new liner notes; and material from various international festivals.

The original, grammatically correct Inglorious Bastards arrives in its hi-def incarnation ahead of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. The action-packed 1978 war movie found a far better reception in Europe than in the U.S., even though the cast included such exploitation stars as Bo Svenson (Walking Tall) and Fred “The Hammer” Williamson.

Here, a gang of condemned criminals escape from an Allied prison convoy, hoping to find refuge in Switzerland. Instead, they’re forced to accept a suicide mission inside Nazi-occupied France … The Dirty Dozen Italian-style. I don’t suppose it will matter to genre buffs in which order they watch the two movies. Chances are, however, anyone who didn’t like the original probably won’t care for the Tarantino-ized re-make. The Blu-ray package adds plenty of new material to the mix, including a “conversation” with Tarantino and the director of the original, Enzo G. Castellari, who also supplies commentary; a couple of making-of and reunion documentaries; and
U.S., Italian, and German theatrical trailers.

There are a couple of other noteworthy movies arriving this week in Blu-ray. The Robert Redford-directed family drama, A River Runs Through It– adapted from Norman Maclean's prize-winning memoir – looks and sounds terrific in hi-def, while the story of an atypical rural family remains fascinating. Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt play brothers who chose divergent paths as they stepped out of the shadow of their stern minister father (Tom Skerrit).

As different as they all are, though, each of the men has a love of trout fishing as a common denominator. The new DVD package offers a 33-page essay on the adaptation by Jean Maclean Snyder; a lovely making-of featurette; an interview with Redford; an excerpt from the shooting script;, and cast and crew biographies. The Blu-ray disc adds a separate making-of doc; a profile of Norman Maclean and his novella; a piece on the environmental difficulties surrounding the restoration of the Blackfoot River; an introduction to fly fishing; a hi-def survey of the Montana wilderness, with optional music from the film; and 17 deleted scenes.

This Is Spinal Tap certainly needs no re-introduction collectors of videos and DVDs. The two-disc Blu-ray edition adds an in-character commentary track with the members of the group; funny recollections from the shoot and subsequent tours; Catching Up With Marty DiBergi, allows Rob Reiner to tell the director’s side of the story; 14 extensive deleted scenes; faux in-character press conferences and TV appearances; four music videos; the “Stonehenge” performance at the 2007 Live Earth Concert; and a National Geographic Stonehenge interview With Nigel Tufnel. Not all of the supplemental material is in hi-def, so it’s worth checking out the box before committing to it. - Gary Dretzka

The Fifth Commandment

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A youngster witnesses the murder of his parents and is adopted by someone who threatens to turn him into a perpetrator of evil. Eventually, as a young man, the lad’s given an opportunity to choose the high or low road to his future calling. Rick Yune (The Fast and the Furious) plays Chance, the young man who was raised to become an assassin, while his adoptive brother, Miles, portrayed by Bokeem Woodbine (Saving Grace), stands at the crucial fork in the road. Dania Ramirez (Heroes) plays the pop star one brother is assigned to kill and the other is assigned to protect. If Chance alerts Miles to the plot, he almost certainly will face the wrath of his mentor. There are no easy choices in this Bangkok-set martial-arts thriller.- Gary Dretzka

The Alzheimer's Project
Dollhouse: Season One
Life on Mars: Series 1
The Mafia DVD Set
Ancient Aliens
Aleister Crowley: In Search of the Great Beast 666
Spectacular Spider-Man: Complete First Season

HBO deserves a lot of credit for giving the red-carpet treatment to documentaries that aren’t nearly as sexy as the usual shows that fill its prime-time schedule. A multi-part series about Alzheimer’s disease isn’t the kind of thing viewers in the 18-34 demographic would turn to first while relaxing in front of the TV. And, yet, it is a subject that everyone will have to face, one way or another, during their lifetimes. The Alzheimer’s Project consisted of four films about the modern plague. The series investigates possible breakthroughs in treatment and prevention, and describes what life is like for someone who’s lost memory and cognitive skills. It may not be as entertaining as The Sopranos, but Uncle Junior’s relatives – especially Tony -- probably would have benefitted from the information contained here.

The Fox’s mid-season replacement series, Dollhouse, failed to take the ratings world by storm when it debuted last winter. Network executives decided they wouldn’t panic, however, and the show wound up on the up-tick. The presence of Eliza Dushko certainly didn’t hurt its chances for survival, and neither did the leaked topless movie-grab photos of her in the weeks leading to its premiere. The supplements include commentary by exec-producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, cast and crew members; the unaired pilot, "Echo"; a making-of piece; deleted scenes and other related Dollhouse ephemera.

Although the American version of Life on Mars grew on me after a while, it lacked the rough edges and surprise elements that made British original so engrossing. Set in Manchester, the story revolved around police detective Sam Tyler (John Simm), who, after being hit by a car during a criminal investigation, woke up to find himself alive and well in 1973, 23 years before the accident. Tyler was still a cop, but most of the modern forensics tools – and restrictions on beating up suspects – had yet to be introduced, including evidence gathering procedures related to DNA. Before long, clues are dropped as to the true nature of Tyler’s mission, helping the cop and viewers get a better handle on his predicament.

Regular viewers of the History Channel and A&E no doubt have had their fill of the Mafia and its iconic leaders. Those needing a larger dose of death, corruption and backstabbing can find it in History’s four-disc retrospective of gangster culture in the 20th Century, “The Mafia,” from the Black Hand to the death in prison of John Gotti. Sadly, we may all go to our graves without knowing what happened to Jimmy Hoffa or who really killed John F. Kennedy.

In Ancient Aliens, the possibility that aliens from somewhere helped humans in remote parts of the world construct several of the miracles of ancient architecture, and left clues to behind them as to their presence. The 94-minute History special explores the various theories, while offering a few of its own. How likely is it that aliens kidnapped Jimmy Hoffa in an effort to create a master race of crooked labor leaders?

In Search of the Great Beast 666 chronicles the intriguing life and times of Aleister Crowley, an international man of mystery still remembered as as The Wickedest Man in the World. Born into affluence, Crowley was alternately renowned as an occultist, spy, poet, dark magician, hedonist, writer and mountaineer. He made no secret of his depraved desires and willingness to sympathize with the devil. Conspiracy buffs also have had a field day connecting him to the presidents Bush, with who he could have been related, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Jack the Ripper, Winston Churchill, Adolph Hitler and Ian Fleming. This documentary re-creates key episodes in his life, including his many and varied sexual exploits.

A superhero’s work is never done. In the freshman season of Spectacular Spider-Man, the burgeoning crime-fighter encountered such meanies as Chameleon, Venom and the Sinister Six (Electro, Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Sandman, Rhino and Shocker). Being young, Spidey is given the space to learn from his mistakes.

Also new to the TV-to-DVD scene are, Prison Break: The Final Break: Blu-ray, which wraps up one the most unusual storylines in television history; the exhaustive 17-disc set, Agatha Christie’s Poirot & Marple Crime Anthology Collection; Early Edition: The Second Season, in which a Chicago commodities trader is made privy to newspaper headlines a day before the stories are written; and, from England, A Touch of Frost: Season 14.”
- Gary Dretzka

Comic Legends: Four Discs Collection
Jim Breuer Let's Clear the Air

To qualify as a comic legend, an entertainer has to have more than a high-rated sitcom to his or credit. They will have had to create a recognizable persona and influenced future generations of comedians. It would be difficult to argue that Dick Van Dyke, Phyllis Diller, Tom Conway, Groucho Marx and Redd Foxx don’t qualify as legends. The proof is in the pudding, though, and the routines collected here were pulled from the top shelf. Also fun to watch are guest appearances by such stars as Pat Boone, Shirley Jones, Don Rickles, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Phil Harris, David Janssen and Steve Lawrence.

Groucho’s highlights include chats with audience members about his amazing career.
The publicity material for Jim Breuer’s performance DVD claims he was voted one of the “100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.” He’s certainly a funny fellow, but I’d need a lot more convincing to include him in my top 100. Here, Breuer shares his opinions on the maturation process most, if not all men experience when committing to family life.
– Gary Dretzka

Liberace: Greatest Songs
Chess in Concert

Only Elton John and Cher come close to approximating the stage presence of Liberace, a splendid musician and delightful host. He defined the term, “flamboyant,” before it became a code word for “gay.” The material on “Greatest Songs” was collected from his extremely popular 1950s variety show, on which he performed music from genres ranging from classical to ragtime. The collection includes 5½ hours of digitally re-mastered showmanship.

Recorded in 2008 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Chess in Concert features Josh Groban, Idina Menzel and Adam Pascal performing the songs of Tim Rice and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. They were backed by the City of London Philharmonic and 100-voice West End Chorus. Chess, a concept album inspired by a famous championship match, was released in 1984 to less than universal acclaim. It has since gained a loyal cult following.