MCN DVD Reviews: November 3, 2009

..MCN Weekend

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Watch Tony Scott’s highly stylized thriller, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, alongside Joseph Sargent’s low-tech The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and it quickly will become obvious how much has changed in the course of 35 years of genre filmmaking.

Both were adapted from the same novel by John Godey and both took full advantage of the New York subway system, which is as much a part of the city’s identity as Rockefeller Center, soft pretzels and Donald Trump’s hairdo.

Who doesn’t dread the thought of being trapped or held hostage within the bowels of the city? Having to cope with the noise, grime, pervs and hooligans can be a daily nightmare, without also having to deal with a gun-toting terrorist (a pre-“Jaws” Robert Shaw) or former employee with an ax to grind (a thoroughly menacing John Travolta). Denzel Washington and Walter Matthau may not look as if they’d belong in the same movie, even 35 years apart, but they both created perfectly believable negotiators.

Technologically speaking, where the original One Two Three was analog, 1 2 3 is digital. All of Scott’s trademark audio, visual and pyrotechnic flourishes are on display in 1 2 3, leaving far less time for us to empathize with individual hostages, as was the case in the original. In, 1974, too, there weren’t many adult viewers who weren’t already aware of New York’s dire financial situation, and how difficult it would be to come up with a million-dollar ransom. In 1 2 3, though, it only took a call from the scandle-racked mayor (James Gandolfini) to raise $10 million. Both movies were representative of their times and the state of the filmmaking art.

As such, I doubt that most home-theater systems will be able to replicate the big-screen excitement inherent in Scott’s tick-tock drama, even in its Blu-ray incarnation. The original hasn’t lost any speed, though. Special features on the Blu-ray edition include commentary with Scott, writer Brian Helgeland and producer Todd Black; features on the film’s creation, the New York subway system and the marketing campaign; and a “cineChat” option. – Gary Dretzka

..MCN Weekend

Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro

American kids who grew up in the ’50s weren’t nearly as exposed to the Spanish language as their counterparts today. Most couldn’t tell the difference between a taco and a tourniquet, let alone a taco and a tamale. One thing almost every child could agree on, though, was that the Spanish word for “fox” was “zorro.” They knew this because it also was the nom de guerre of one of the most memorable characters in the early history of prime-time television: Zorro.

Like many other superheroes, the masked swordsman walked among mere mortals in disguise. Zorro doubled as Don Diego de la Vega, a wealthy nobleman more interested in seducing the local lovelies than protecting peasants from Spanish colonialists. When necessary, though, Don Diego would don his fashionably black crime-fighting outfit – which included a cape, mask and a very cool hat – and use his many skills to out-think and out-duel the ruling powers.

To their even greater embarrassment, the sly fox would use his sword or bullwhip to brand them with a “Z.” The latest additions to Disney’s terrific Treasures collection are boxed sets of the first and second seasons of Zorro, which ran from 1957 to 1959 and starred Guy Williams in the dual role. The episodes have been restored and remastered in the show’s original black-and-white format. The sets also include the hourlong specials, The Postponed Wedding and Auld Acqaintance; a profile of Williams; a chat with the star’s stunt double, Buddy Van Horn; and introductions by Leonard Maltin. . – Gary Dretzka

The Shield: Complete Series

When the FX cable channel began showing original programming, instead of wall-to-wall reruns and old movies, it couldn’t have picked a better series than The Shield. Michael Chiklis already was a known quantity among critics and fans for his work in The Commish and playing John Belushi in Wired, a biopic condemned by the late comedian’s friends and family. Moreover, the series’ creator, Shawn Ryan, was inspired by the actions of a notorious gang-crimes unit in the LAPD’s Ramparts Division.

Unlike every other cop show on television, the titular heroes of The Shield were as ruthless and driven by the lure of easy money as the gang-bangers they were assigned to monitor, engage and arrest. There was so much crime on their home turf that it would have been difficult for the team not to amass a formidable record. It bought them the time and distance from headquarters they would need to extort money from the gangs and recycle evidence seized from drug dealers and thieves. Chiklis’ Vic Mackey may have been the worst apple in the bunch, but he had more charisma than all of the clean cops in the division put together. Then, too, his fatal flaws were substantially more interesting than the motivations of his superiors to put him in a cage.

As the series progressed, however, Mackey’s foes within the department were drawn with far more texture and depth. Among them were Glenn Close, Anthony Anderson, Forest Whitaker and season regular CCH Pounder. The roles played by other members of the Strike Force also became more nuanced. Besides the 88 episodes, the “Complete Series” package includes a 34-page anthology with photos, quotes and a letter from Ryan, and several featurettes.

Other new TV-to-DVD packages include, Spin City: Season Three, during which Michael J. Fox and Richard Kind were joined by guest stars Conan OBrien, Heidi Klum, Joe Torre, Lou Diamond Phillips and Courtney Thorne-Smith.

Ruby-Spears Superman recalls the animated series, based on DC Comics’ Man of Steel, which aired in 1988 as part of CBS’ Saturday-morning cartoon bloc. (Ruby-Spears refers to the show’s executive producers.) The series reflected changes made to the character by a new generation of comic-book artists and a re-definition of Lex Luther’s evil empire. Each Superman episode ended with brief biographical segments. – Gary Dretzka

I Love You, Beth Cooper
Say Anything …: 20th Anniversary Edition

If Chris Columbus and Hayden Panettiere weren’t involved with I Love You, Beth Cooper, it might have gone straight to DVD and found a small, loyal following among love-starved teenagers. Writer-director Columbus, though, has made a very decent living making movies that appeal to kids and teens – Gremlins, the first two Harry Potter and Home Alone flicks, and Mrs. Doubtfire -- while Heroes star Panettiere is attempting to rise above her overwhelming, 20-year-old blondness to land roles more fitting to an adult … and a sexy one, at that.

Here, working off a script and story by Larry Doyle, Columbus plays homage to a dozen previous teen rom-coms, without creating a fully developed identity of its own. Paul Rust plays a geek, who, like Tom Cruise in Anything Goes, takes the “What the fuck” approach to landing the girl of dreams. In his valedictory speech, Denis Cooverman declares his long-suppressed love for Beth Cooper, setting off a chain of events that’s as unlikely as it is predictable.

That said, however, I Love You is saved by the genuine likability of supporting characters who take a lot of the weight off the stars to carry the picture. The “popular” girls who take Denis up on his very public challenge to the teen queen provide a nice counterbalance both to the awkward approaches of the geek squad and tiresome chest thumping of the jocks. The Blu-ray features add a very different alternate ending; deleted scenes; making-of and behind-the-scenes material; an improvised song, by Paul Rust; and character studies with Panettiere and Rust.

Among the classic movies referenced in I Love You, Beth Cooper is Say Anything …, in which a befuddled slacker (John Cusack) stands outside the home of his impossible-dream girlfriend (Ione Skye), hoisting a boom box over his head. The song he played was Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes, and gawky teenage boys have been attempting to re-create the moment ever since then. They might as well have hired a mariachi band and a John Cusack impersonator for all the good it did most of them. Nevertheless, it was a great movie moment. The Blu-ray “20th Anniversary Edition” picks up all of the bonus material already available and adds a trivia track and the featurettes, An Iconic Film Revisited: Say Anything... 20 Years Later, A Conversation with Cameron Crowe and I Love Say Anything ...! - Gary Dretzka

Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1

The term “noir,” has been used and abused in so many different ways that it now seems to apply to any crime thriller that was shot under overcast skies and whose protagonist is a heavy smoker. The movies included in Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics may not fit the traditional definition of “classic,” but they are the real deal when it comes to “noir.” While relegated to B-movie status in the U.S., any or all of them might have influenced Jean-Luc Godard or Francois Truffaut, in Breathless and Shoot the Piano. Martin Scorsese admits as much about his own work in his introductions to the films. The stories feature hard-boiled cops and crooks; a pronounced pulp sensability; molls with a heart of gold, in tight evening gowns; extremely deviant behavior; and crimes that were an affront to decent society in the Eisenhower era … oh, yeah, also lots of shady camera set-ups and cigarette smoke.

Sony Pictures and the Film Foundation have combined their resources to breathe new life into five wonderfully entertaining and unrepentantly nasty pictures from the Golden Age of noir. In Edward Dmytrik and Stanley Kramer’s thriller with a message, The Sniper (1952), police in hot pursuit of a killer with serious women issues pull a dragnet over the streets of San Francisco. The city also provides an interesting backdrop for crime in Don Siegel’s The Lineup (1958), in which Eli Wallach terrorizes a woman and her young daughter over a bungled heroin transaction.

In Murder by Contract (1958), things begin to go sideways for a cocky and extremely accomplished assassin (Vince Edwards) after he arrives in sunny L.A. and begins to go native. It’s as funny as it is frightening, and Lucien Ballard’s cinematography is a treat to watch. Five Against the House (1955) also alternates its approach to crime and psychosis: funny, one moment; nutzo, the next. Four college buddies, all Korean War vets struggling to adjust to “normal” life back home, conspire to rob a Reno casino in the company of sultry songbird Kim Novak. If Ocean’s Eleven wasn’t inspired directly by Five Against the House, neither was Steven Soderbergh’s Las Vegas trilogy.

In Fritz Lang’s inky black The Big Heat (1953), Glenn Ford plays an honest copy in a thoroughly corrupt city. His attempts to expose and eradicate the local mob inadvertently lead to the murder of his wife. This only puts more pressure on the cop to bring the perpetrators – including a deliciously evil Lee Marvin – to justice. Along the way, he forms an unlikely alliance with a tasty former moll, who has her own ax to grind against the mob. The movie is elevated the questioning of America’s justice-conquers-all mythology and Hollywood’s unease with tarnished role models and heroes drawn in shades of gray (until Dirty Harry came along and blew the doors off box-offices, anyway). In addition to Scorsese’s introductions, the set includes commentary by Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan, James Ellroy and screenwriter Eddie Muller. – Gary Dretzka

Forrest Gump: Chocolate Box Giftset: Blu-ray

The remarkable story of a gangly Southern simpleton, who insinuates himself into some of the most important events of the 20th Century, was one of the true cinematic sensations of our time. Despite lethal doses of cornball sentimentality and outrageous plot contrivances, Forrest Gump triggered strong emotional responses in even the most jaded of filmgoers. It also was the rare movie that continued to pick up steam well after its opening weekend.

Its Blu-ray debut allows fans to choose between a standard single-disc “Sapphire Series” edition and two-disc “Chocolate Box” gift set. Both come with plenty of bonus features, but diehard fans will enjoy the novelty of the boxed set, with carries a chocolate scent, photo book and feather book mark. Commentary is provided by director Robert Zemeckis, producers Steve Starkey and Wendy Finerman, and production designer Rick Carter. There also are featurettes on the visual effects; makeup, sound and set design; the adaptation of Winston Groom’s quite different novel; and screen tests. – Gary Dretzka

Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart
Expedition Africa
Munyurangabo

Many people consider the banjo to be the most American of musical instruments, possibly because its sound defines bluegrass and other indigenous genres. Virtuoso stringman Bela Fleck suspected that the banjo’s roots ran deeper than the American South and set out for Africa to prove it. “Throw Down Your Heart" documents Fleck’s search, which took him to Tanzania, Uganda, Gambia and Mali and put him in direct contact with the region’s top native and popular artists. Among other things, Fleck was able to see how slaves transported from western Africa to America might have brought rudimentary intruments similar to today’s bright and shiny banjos with them. It made for a fascinating, music-filled journey for Fleck and the local musicians with whom he jammed. The DVD adds commentary by Fleck and director Sascha Paladino, along with bonus scenes and performances.

There are few creatures on Earth more incidious than a television producer with a concept to exploit. In the History Channel’s Expedition Africa, Survivor creator Mark Burnett saw an opportunity to merge adventure, academia and pop psychology into one tidy package. The show’s hook required a tempermentally mismatched quartet of experienced explorers to re-trace the route taken by Henry Morton Stanley to find Dr. David Livingston, who, in 1871, was presumed lost in the heart of Africa.

We’re told the team’s tools were limited to a compass, maps and archival journals, but, just as on Survivor, certain liberties probably were taken. The Blu-ray edition enhances the visual splendors, some of which might have been lost in the television presentation. The bonus package includes the biographical, Stanley and Livingstone; The Maasai, a short feature on the tribe; Wild Beasts, Disease and the Elements, about the obstacles that confront the team; Survival Strategies, with survivalist author Richard Wiese; and Dangers of the Wild, a longer collection of clips describing the challenge.

Lee Isaac Chung’s deeply humanistic Munyurangabo reminds us of a different African reality, the one that doesn’t include tourists, game-show producers or cultural anthropologists. Set and filmed in genocide-torn Rwanda, while Chung was teaching filmmaking at a relief mission, Munyurangabo took 11 days to shoot, using a Super 16 camera. The actors were amateurs, who spoke in the native Kinyarwanda language. The story follows a pair of boys who embark on a trek from the city of Kigali, into the country where they hope to re-connect with relatives who survived the genocide and re-kindle doused hopes for the future. Because they are from different tribes, their visit is wrought with tension.

Laura Waters Hinson’s documentary, As We Forgive, provides another look at the same harrowing subject. It describes what happened when two Rwandan women confronted the men responsible for the slaughter of their families in 1994 genocide. It followed in the wake of the country’s controversial reconciliation program, during which 50,000 killers and other criminals were released from overcrowded prisons and told to return to their former homes. The film was narrated by Mia Farrow.

In Lili and the Baobab, a French freelance photographer takes an assignment in the Senegal desert. The two locations could hardly be more different from each other, but Lili develops an affinity for the place and its people. One woman, especially, connects with Lili, and, together, they solve a problem that transcends borders, languages and customs. The DVD comes with a 52-minute background featurette.

The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins and I Am Because We Are are linked by a common theme, international adoption. One describes Madonna’s effort to adopt Malian children, while the other follows conceptual artist Vanessa Beecroft as she attempts to adopt twins she met while on a photo shoot in the Sudan. One received maximum media, while the other … well, not so much. It’s a delicate subject for a half-dozen valid reasons and one that deserves to be considered outside the light of the paparazzi cameras. – Gary Dretzka

Who Is KK Downey?

This often-hilarious send-up of hipster culture and trend-hopping culture vultures was shown only at a handful of festivals, before being sent out on DVD. That Who Is KK Downey? couldn’t find traction in big-city arthouses and campus theaters speaks volumes about the state of indie distribution. Darren Curtis and Pat Kiley’s story appears to have been inspired by JT LeRoy, the pseudonym of writer Laura Albert, who perpetrated a similar hoax on the publishing establishment and other media interests.

Here, a nerdy novelist convinces his best friend, a failed rock musician, to assume the identity of a drug-addicted male prostitute who trolls truck stops, when in need of cash. The lurid memoir, “Truck Stop Hustler,” captures the fancy of readers, who desperately want to know more about him. Readings are staged and readers demand more information of his past.

When the musician decides to come clean to a former girlfriend, who really digs Downey’s vulnerability, the ruse collapses. It also reveals a far more interesting truth, however. As performed by members of Montreal’s Kidnaper comedy troupe,”Downey” is simultaneously funny, sad and highly observant. The set adds deleted scenes. – Gary Dretzka

Lemon Tree

It times of crisis, the truth always is among the first casualties. Sometimes, in movies, the truth can be re-discovered in the faces of the characters. Lemon Tree, which chronicles a border skirmish in a much greater war, reveals more about what’s happening in Israel and Palestine than a thousand newspaper headlines. The premise is simple. Israeli defense minister Israel Navon and wife move into a house deemed perfect for their relatively modest needs. Perhaps, it was dark when they went house hunting, because they didn’t seem to notice the large grove of lemon trees tended by the Palestinian widow next door.

What Mrs. Navon sees as a pleasant break in the monotonous landscape outside her window, her husband regards as a possible threat to his security and orders the grove destroyed. This argument might have held water if the Palestinian woman had planted the trees after the minister’s arrival. As it is, however, her new neighbors brought the threat with them in the moving van, along with their other belongings. Instead of acquiescing to the demand, Salma Zidane decides to fight the decision in the Israeli courts, alongside her young recently divorced Palestinian attorney.

Complicating matters for the prime minister is the lack of sympathy he finds in his own home. His wife, Mira, who rarely sees her husband, begins to feel as if she’s been imprisoned within the white walls of her home, just as the lemon trees have been fenced in by the Secret Service and a giant wall separates Palestinians and Israelis. It’s a fascinating story, based, no doubt, on dozens of such intrusions and confiscations. Director Eran Riklis and writer Suha Arraf previously collaborated on The Syrian Bride, in which a marriage is stalled by bureaucratic wrangling so complex and absurd, it makes Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 seem reasonable, by comparison. Meanwhile, the lemon grower and minister’s wife both are forced to maintain their dignity in the face of controlling male authority figures, who would have prefered they stayed in the kitchen and made tea for the guests. Hiam Abbass, who you might remember from The Visitor, is terrific as the embattled lemon grower, as is Doron Tavory, whose privileged character ultimately becomes just another bird in a gilded cage. – Gary Dretzka

Aliens in the Attic

In this harmless sci-fi adventure for kids, a pack of expansionist space aliens crash land on the roof of the Pearson family’s summer home (New Zealand for Michigan) and make themselve at home, not unlike a brood of racoons. The children are the first to make the acquaintance of the toothy critters, whose mind-control strengths have less affect on kids than their parents. Rather than panic, the kids use their limited skills -- endless video-game playing has its benefits -- to prevent the aliens from destroying the planet. If it reminds parents of Joe Dante’s Gremlins, well, that’s no crime, I suppose. Ashley Tisdale is the most recognizable of the Pearson kids, while Andy Richter, Kevin Nealon, Tim Meadows and a feisty Doris Roberts represent the grown-ups. The DVD adds deleted scenes, a gag reel, Tisley’s introduction and a look at the creation of the Zirkonian aliens.

Pageant
Love in Siam

It’s been almost 20 years since Paris Is Burning introduced straight audiences to Harlem’s gay “fashion ball” circuit and and the art of “voguing." The Birdcage, Mike Nichols’ adaptation of the bittersweet French comedy Les Cage aux Folles, would arrive in American multiplexes six years later. By comparison to Jennie Livingston’s remarkably intimate and highly entertaining documentary – and Edouard Molinaro’s less uptight Les Cage -- The Birdcage felt almost as outdated as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Even though it did very well at the box office, Hollywood continued steer away from gay-themed movies, unless their stars were undeniably heterosexual. Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern’s, Pageant provides a small reminder of how far the rest of the world has come in the last two decades. It takes a behind-the-scenes look at the 2006 Miss Gay America finals, which were held in Memphis in a respectable concert hall. If crusaders from the Christian right and Bush White House were outraged by the spectacle, there weren’t enough of them in Memphis that weekend to spoil the fun.

Even if a few had managed to find the auditorium, though, they would have been outnumbered by the contestants’ parents, siblings and, yes, spouses. Like every other beauty/talent competition, this one required of the contestants that they look good in an evening gown, remain poised and composed on stage, and answer generic questions about self-esteem and world peace. Unlike Miss America, however, these female impersonators also had to be confident enough of their manhood to field eight minutes’ worth of questions in a business suit and tie.

And, even if the songs were mostly lip-synched, the talent showcases were far more entertaining than anything on Miss Universe. That’s not saying much, though. The filmmakers treat the event and participants – a half-dozen of whom were followed closer than the rest of the pack -- with utmost respect and courtesy. It goes without saying that all 52 of the “illusionists” had diva complexes, to one degree or another, but the pageant is portrayed as being remarkably free of meltdowns, passion plays and catfights. Neither were the contestants in any dire need of compassion or pity. They were going to follow their dream, whether or not the cameras were rolling.

Thailand’s entry in last year’s competition for Best Foreign Language Oscar, Love of Siam is the story of childhood friends who re-unite after a several years of separation caused by a family trauma. Still in their teens, one of the boys is a rising star in a popular Bangkok boy band, while the other continues to search for ways to help his family deal with the disappearance of his sister. Although both have girlfriends, their feelings for each other reached the fish-or-cut-bait stage. The Thai cinema is nothing if not eccentric, and Love of Siam also has some gorgeous cinematography going for it.