Articles by ric-meyers
Sun Sep 9, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Saturday Night Valet
DVD Xtra #16
“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” That deathbed sentiment, most often attributed to either actor Edmund Kean or actor/director Sir Donald Wolfit, was much on my mind as I enjoyed this week’s offerings.
Actual dying, as well as the comic derivative (in which a stand-up delivers his routine to an unamused audience), has long been the purview of NBC’s Saturday Night, a.k.a. and n.k.a. (now known as) Saturday Night Live. There have been entire seasons during its thirty-two year run where an honest laugh was hard to come by, but, given its longevity, its influence and success far outweigh the flop-sweat.
So it was with a small amount of caffeinated anticipation that I watched Starbucks Entertainment’s initial toe-in-the-exclusive-DVD-waters -- Saturday Night Live: The Best of ‘06/’07, which resulted from a strategic alliance with NBC and Broadway Video, which, in turn, resulted with an enclosed, promotional, extra DVD featuring a free episode (complete with deleted scenes and a “Bonus Featurette”) of the spin-off series 30 Rock.
I’ll admit to being a veteran fan of SNL, even during the eras when every uninspired wag declared it “Saturday Night Dead.” Even at its worst (and that gets really bad), it was interesting, from an instructional sense, at the very least. Thankfully, recent seasons – being the head writer Tina Fey era, closely followed by the present head writer Seth Meyers (no relation) era – have been as fitfully entertaining as some of the glory years featuring Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Martin Short, Mike Myers (also no relation), Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, and, oh, so many others.
Having seen virtually every episode on TV, my usual DVD meat here were the extras, which went some distance in communicating the particular problems and triumphs only available to SNL. First, there were two comedy sketches that were taped during their dress rehearsal that were cut from the telecast show – one from the Peyton Manning episode and the other from a Justin Timberlake installment. The one thing both had in common is that they really only worked because of the featured players’ talents – those players being, respectively, Kenan Thompson and Timberlake himself.
In fact, one of the only quibbles I had was the lack of Thompson, who started his career on the Nickelodeon Channel’s SNL knock-off All That, on the audio commentary – especially during his recurring “Deep House Dish” bit. I would have liked to hear what he had to say about his lone minority status amongst the present SNL men. Otherwise I was gratified to hear many of the writers and actors describing what life is like trying to put together the show and be funny in the kill-or-be-killed comedy gladiator environment producer Lorne Michaels has maintained.
My only other quibble was with the idea of what constitutes “The Best.” I’m not sure in what stratosphere it’s okay that the obvious, redundant, predictable, uninspired “Julia Louis Dreyfuss being persecuted by an insane boom mike guy” sketch is included while the hilarious, beautifully performed Alec Baldwin/Kristen Wiig “Car Pool” sketch is omitted. I can understand it, however, given that, truth be told, the best of ‘06/’07 would simply be the Alec Baldwin and Justin Timberlake episodes alone (with one or two of the SNL Digital Shorts thrown in – especially Peyton Manning’s United Way piece and the “Dick in a Box” music video, which is shown uncensored on this DVD).
But all was forgiven when I saw the disc’s final special feature: the jokes that were cut from SNL’s Weekend Update news satire between dress rehearsal and broadcast. The jokes themselves were funny (almost all showcasing Seth Meyers’ [still no relation] more daring, sadistic, side), but what really had me laughing aloud was Seth and co-anchor Amy Poehler’s reactions to the audience’s groans, disbelief, or gasps.
After that, the 30 Rock disc was all pleasure, despite the featurette being a glorified commercial for the Season 1 DVD and up-coming Season 2. 30 Rock deserves its enshrinement as one of TV’s best comedies, since it’s obvious that even its deleted scenes are cut because of time concerns, not humor content. Each display the wit of the scripting as well as the exceptional skill of the performers.
Speaking of wit and skill, remember this name: Francis Veber. If you’re a true fan of comedy cinema, you probably already know it, along with the names Neil Simon and Richard Curtis. After all, he’s been writing and directing some of the screen’s greatest comedies since the 1970s. Okay, so you may not know his more than a dozen international screen hits, but you’re bound to know the fairly lousy American remakes of his French films, which were directed by everyone from Billy Wilder to Richard Donner and starred the likes of Jackie Gleason, Richard Pryor, Tom Hanks, and Martin Short, among many others.
Well, screw them. Just about the only decent Anglicized spin-off from Veber’s delightful work was The Bird Cage starring Nathan Lane and Robin Williams (as the “straight” man!) and the Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles. So forget Hollywood. Thanks to DVD, we can go right to the source and see the original French films. Hollywood makes pancakes, and not always very well. Veber makes light, delicious, airy, soufflés – and very funny ones at that.
The latest is The Valet, coming out on DVD September 18th. The title and cover illustration display the awkwardness with which America approaches his work, given that the film’s original title could be better translated as “The Stand-in,” and whoever poorly photoshopped the picture felt the need to stick an gawky “Parking” patch on the title character’s jacket.
Once beyond the awkward airbrushing, the brisk, entertaining film is sweet, as are the few, but prime, special features. For Veber fans, “The making of” featurette is a rare pleasure – a subtitled French TV documentary that goes behind the scenes at every production point. For Veber novices, it’s a tad tricky, since they reference his past classics and on-going themes with the reverence he justly deserves. For instance, anyone who doesn’t know that he repeatedly gives his leading character the name Francois Pignon, no matter who the actor playing him is, may have a rough patch during the doc. The other treasure for Veber fans is the audio commentary, in which the imaginative writer/director performs his chore for the first time in English.
So, naturellement, if you’re a Veber fan, The Valet is a must. If you’re not, The Valet is a good place to start. It, like most of his other farces is fast, witty, informed, observant, sweet, and satisfying, not to mention funny in an appreciative ha-ha, not a knee-slapping haw-haw kind of way. Quel pleasure!
Ric Meyers is the author of Murder On The Air, Doomstar, The Great Science-Fiction Films, Murder in Halruua, For One Week Only: The World of Exploitation Films, Fear Itself, and numerous other books and has (and sometimes still is) on the editorial staff of such publications as Famous Monsters of Filmland, Starlog, Fangoria, Inside Kung-Fu, The Armchair Detective and Asian Cult Cinema. He's also a television and motion picture consultant whose credits include The Twilight Zone, Columbo, A&E's Biography and The Incredibly Strange Film Show.
Sun Sep 2, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Nights from the City of Violence
DVD Xtra #15
I love action movies. So does Korean film director Ryoo Seung-wan, which is made abundantly clear in the ample extras for the Dragon Dynasty two-disc Ultimate Edition release of The City of Violence. Originally I wasn’t going to review another Dragon Dynasty DVD so soon after my praise of their Hard Boiled and Crime Story remasterings, but I was overwhelmed by the sheer mass of action movie analysis available for this South Korean labor of love.
Ryoo is an award-winning director of such international cult favorites as Arahan and Crying Fist, but even after those successes, and others, he was dissatisfied with the compromises he felt inclined to make because of producer and studio collaboration. Sitting down with friend and co-worker Jung Doo-han – the stunt coordinator and action director for such Asian classics as The Foul King, Legend of Gingko, Fighter in the Wind, and A Bittersweet Life – they formulated a compromise-free concept.
Or, as Ryoo himself put it: “What if we made a film for under a million dollars with characters like those from John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, who go to a place like Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, have to struggle and fight like in Jackie Chan’s Police Story, I film it like Martin Scorcese’s Raging Bull, edit it like Sam Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch, and set it to something like Sergio Leone’s soundtrack for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?” The result is The City of Violence, a well-named film if ever there was one.
Upon setting eyes on the kinetic movie poster I had no idea that the charismatic stars were also the director and fight choreographer, but to dodge more compromise by having to train out-of-shape actors to take on the roles of childhood friends investigating, and taking vengeance for, the murder of a colleague, Ryoo and Jung co-star themselves – a sticking point throughout production. The movie itself is a linear, lean, mean, and exciting thriller which plays like a Japanese yakuza film filled with golden age of Hong Kong kung-fu battles, but, thanks to the hours and hours of special features, it plays like an action film tutorial.
Continue reading RIC MEYERS: Nights from the City of Violence ›
Sun Aug 26, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Backward Crime
DVD Xtra #14
Way back in the late 1980s, a few film producers thought it was interesting that “comedians,” like the late Andy Kaufman, amused themselves rather than entertained their audiences. After all, if people would pay actual money to be goaded and/or irritated, that might create a much simpler genre of filmmaking. This sentiment set the stage for 1991’s The Dark Backward, a cult curiosity (rather than a cult classic) that a small percentage of viewers who prize the bizarre clutch to their breasts.
This week, in “celebration” of its fifteenth anniversary screening last year, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a Special Edition DVD, perhaps hoping that the Shakespearean quote that serves as its title, or its muttered reputation of being in the same general category as Tim Burton, David Lynch, or Terry Gilliam movies, will entice a new generation to give it a try.
To his credit, writer/director Adam Rifkin would probably be extremely flattered that this dismal little film is mentioned within the same stratosphere as even the worst of the aforementioned directors’ efforts. On the DVD’s special features, he repeatedly contends that the film was only financed because then-hot Judd Nelson was attached and the budget was so small. He figures that the production company probably didn’t even read the script.
Upon consideration, he’s probably right, because if they had, they would have joined the dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of others who eschewed it. The truly amazing thing about its creation is that Rifkin had the innocence of the naïve, and managed to get backing for a film he was allowed to both write and direct, yet this is what he chose to do with that freedom.
It’s not surprising that Nelson would latch onto the leading role of miserable, geeky, garbage man Marty Malt as a way of breaking his identification as a “brat packer,” but it’s wondrous that his participation lured the likes of Bill Paxton (energetically/hysterically playing what the director termed a “human cockroach”), Lara Flynn Boyle, Wayne Newton, Rob Lowe, and James Caan to also pitch in intemperate performances.
The plot is simplicity itself: a socially-inept idiot’s dreams of becoming a stand-up comic are given hope when a third arm grows out of his back -- allowing his strident, insane, compost-chewing, corpse-molesting, fellow trashman to put together a joke/accordion nightclub act. Sadly, the film cannot even claim to be “original.” How to Get Ahead in Advertising took on the same sort of alienation (this time with a separate cranium growing out of the protagonist’s shoulder) to much better effect a full two years earlier.
Staggeringly, the extras on this “challenging” DVD are quirky, to say the most, and amateurish, to say the least. The cast and crew make excuses or rationalizations on the audio commentary, a 15th anniversary Q&A reveals that Judd Nelson doesn’t seem to understand what a microphone does, and the deleted scenes add garish insult to self-indulgent injury. The outtakes are interesting, however, because, like the film, they are diametrically opposed to most other movies. The latter usually contain much mirth as the actors laugh over screwed-up lines and unscripted behavior. The Dark Backward “bloopers” are largely indistinguishable from the rest of the film, with hardly a chuckle.
Sun Aug 19, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: The Dark Labyrinth
DVD Xtra #13
Twenty-five years ago, the late, great Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, tried to beat Lord of the Rings to the cinematic punch by co-writing and co-directing a similar and derivative, yet pioneering and daring, “adult” fantasy. Four years after that, approximately twenty-one years ago, he tried to combine Star Wars, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Where the Wild Things Are, and M.C. Escher, among other things, to create a new coming of age teen tale.
This week, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing handsomely packaged, two-disc, special editions of both these cult classics – The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. In each, Henson managed to find a mature theme to impart (that living beings are a combination of good and bad, not one or the other, and that teens should choose their own path and not put themselves in others’ power, be they loves or peers), but, unfortunately, communicated them in a stagy, plasticky, Las Vegas/ DisneyWorld/ Universal Studios Theme Park kind of way.
He seemed to have little choice, of course, since his chosen medium was the puppet, and, back in the 80s he was limited to what those puppets could achieve, no matter how hard he pushed their envelope. What these new DVDs have over his old movies is that very knowledge. Once a viewer knows how hard he tried and how much work was put into pulling the difficult concepts off, new admiration for the attempts, if not the finished products, is hard to suppress.
It’s little wonder that both special editions were released at the same time, since the extras for both were obviously made at the same time. Both include the original, Henson-produced “making of” documentaries released back in the 80’s, as well as two new behind-the-scenes featurettes incorporating “rediscovered” test footage and 21st century interviews with those involved – most of whom worked on both movies. Entertaining discoveries can be enjoyed on both.
For The Dark Crystal, co-directed by Henson (Kermit) and Frank Oz (Miss Piggy/Yoda), it becomes clear that Henson was the level-headed yin to Oz’s more forceful yang, and, like the team of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder before them, never were quite as good separate as they were with each other.
The biggest kick on Labyrinth is the discovery that Star Trek the Next Generation’s doctor, Cynthia “Gates” McFadden, was the film’s dance choreographer. She expresses admiration for the project and love for Henson, as does the likes of conceptual artist Brian Froud, scriptwriter and Monty Python member Terry Jones, and producer George Lucas.
Wed Aug 15, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Vacancy of Honor
DVD Xtra #12
ItÂ’'s autumn.
Yes, I know you look out the window, check the weather, glance at the calendar. It’'s still summer out there. But for the fine folk who work the service industries, it’s already fall, and their stores, movie theaters, and DVD shelves reflect that “fact” – filling ever fuller of loss leaders and also-rans.
Thankfully, this pre-school/pre-new TV season/pre-Halloween period allows at least this columnist to ruminate on the similarities and differences between how diverse countries and cultures see this era. For example, Vacancy –Screen GemsÂ’ attempt to create a top shelf slasher film – oops, I mean “grade A torture porn” -- which, like “military intelligence,” is a contradiction in terms.
Everybody knows (or should) that slasher films can be enjoyed en masse –with crowds screaming and jumping in unison, while torture porn is best appreciated in the privacy of the home. Because, really, there’s no surprises or shocks in torture porn, just gross-outs. And, while it can be fun to go “ewwwww” in unison, many t.p.’s don'’t even have that kind of sadistic imagination involved.
So, hedging their bets, Screen Gems found a suitable prozacritic* quote: “It’'s Psycho meets Saw,” and went from there with the DVD release of Vacancy -- the Luke Wilson/Kate Beckinsale suspense vehicle that borrows Norman Bates'’ motel, the Two Thousand Maniacs’ town, the Snuff blueprint, and mashed them all together under the watchful eye of the unfortunately named Hungarian director Nimrod Antal.
There are really two kinds of t.p. flicks: the murder movie and the conflict film. In my book, For One Week Only: The World of Exploitation Films, I explained the difference between scripts that debased their characters and the ones that degraded them. The conflict film (Scream, Saw, etc.) degrades the characters with repeated abuses, but then the antagonists learn and fight back (sometimes successfully, sometimes not). The murder movie (Wolf Creek, Friday the 13th sequels, et al) debases their characters – that is, robs them of even their basest humanity to render them as mere victims ripe for the slaughter which comes like clockwork every seven minutes.
Vacancy, thankfully, is a conflict film, and not a terrible one. The disc’s special features start with an extra that is unheralded on the packaging: an alternate opening which immediately clues you to where the filmmakers’ hearts were. Because, even in a conflict film, an audience has two basic choices: hope they live or hope they don’t. You can enjoy their torment and/or enjoy their fight. The alternate opening starts at the end of the story, cluing you in that the bad guys didn’t “get away with it” but leaving the pretty protagonists’ fates as yet unknown.
The real fun starts with the “making of” featurette, in which handsome, pretty, accomplished, slick, professional Hollywood A-listers attempt to rationalize, with straight faces, why they are catering to the nasty niche. They don’t succeed, but, personally, I found their squirming far more entertaining than the actual film. I shrieked, I jumped, I “ewwwwww”ed.
Thu Aug 9, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
Smallville's In The Bag
Will SDCC coverage ever end?
At the San Diego Comic Con, Warner Bros. gave out canvas bags that were so large, I, only slightly exaggerating, said "it's nice of Warners to give everyone sleeping bags." For some of the people carrying them, they could have been. They're gigantic. Larger by far than any canvas bag you've ever seen.
ICv2.com is a website that covers, among other things, comics news. They've had, as you might expect, extensive coverage of the SDCC. Here's some of their coverage:
And by the last day of the show, the over-size Smallville bags had been converted to clothing by at least one attendee. Of course, veteran con- goers were unsurprised by this outcome; on Wednesday night, we heard the prediction, and on Sunday saw the reality of the Smallville Bagdress.
Sun Aug 5, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: 36th Chamber of Rome
DVD Xtra #11
Well, I’m back from the San Diego Comic-Con, and if you’ve been reading ComicMix’s coverage, you can probably guess that it was no place to actually write a DVD review column. Get info, acquire more product, see what’s happening, sure, but actually write reviews of other DVD special features? Fergettaboutit.
Between my 8th Annual San Diego Comic Con Superhero Kung-Fu Extravaganza there, which takes up three hours of prime time for a couple thousand hard-core martial art movie fans, and the many DVD companies/people I hobnobbed with, I had no time to tell you that the discs to grab this week are the 300 Special Edition and Hot Fuzz. But I’m hoping you already figured that out.
So too late there. But since I was up to here as the “kung-fu guy” at the con, I can use this space to clue you in on some discs I should’ve mentioned weeks ago, as well as letting a monumental box set being released next week bring other recent travels into pretentious, self-absorbed focus.
First off, head to your sales place of choice and get the Dragon Dynasty editions of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and My Young Auntie. When I began this column almost three months ago, I promised myself not to inundate you with kung-fu, samurai, or other such Asian titles. But what can I do? I originally discovered these films thirty years ago, because, to my eyes, they were comic book come to life -- with actual people doing Daredevilly and Spidermanny things without the benefit of wires or sfx.
Since then, I’ve discovered, through research, that they’re much more than that, yet the original exhilaration I felt is still being revealed to fresh eyes … hopefully like yours. Especially since companies like Dragon Dynasty, controlled by the Weinsteins, are finally revealing the glory of timeless 1970’s classics in a manner befitting their excellence.
Sun Jul 22, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Kung Fu Popeye
DVD Xtras #10
I suppose I could have titled this pre-San Diego Comic Con installment “Popeye Hustle,” but I think that would’ve given the improper connotation. The new four-DVD boxed set from Warner – Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938 – (available July 31st) is anything but a hustle. And, in fact, the present column title is all the more apt because there’s some of the best kung-fu I’ve seen recently within these first sixty Popeye cartoons.
“Kung Fu” actually means “hard work,” not “martial arts,” but there’s a lot of both on display here – from the labor the Max (and Dave) Fleischer Studios lavished on these cartoons to the more than ample martial arts expended by the Sailor Man and all his antagonists (especially Bluto) in every minute of these more than three hundred and sixty animated minutes.
I say “more than,” because, in addition to the dozens of remastered black & white original cartoons, the set also includes two of the justifiably famous “two-reel” color mini-movies: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad (sic) the Sailor, and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves. If the Fleischer Studios had only made a feature length Popeye (as well as a feature version of their beautifully made Superman cartoons), they might have remained as eminent as the Disney Studio.
But this handsome, reverent, and exhilarating set will hopefully go a long way to returning them to their rightful pantheon, despite the hundreds of inferior Popeye cartoons made by other studios since 1941. These almost pristine (the remastering process retains the rough edges of the cartoons as they were originally released) nuggets of aggressive mayhem are a welcome blast of fresh air in the fog of politically correct nonsense, which elicits waves of nostalgic pleasure with each spinach swallow and successive bout of frenzied fisticuffs.
Popeye’s legendary theme song, and oft-repeated quotes of “I yam what I yam,” and “that’s all I can stand, I can’t stand no mores,” clearly marks him as an inspiration for Bugs Bunny’s later feistiness (not to mention “this calls for a little stragedy,” and “don’t go up dere, it’s dark”) -- and the set’s extras make that ultra clear. To say that there’s a wealth of featurettes and pleasant surprises is putting it mildly. Each disc has at least two engrossing docs detailing Popeye’s (and animation’s) extraordinary history, voices, music, and characters, as well as audio commentaries and mini-docs that they call “Popumentaries.”
The icing on the cake are a whole bunch of other Fleischer Studio cartoons “From the Vaults” – that is, the era before the 1930s, when cartoons were just starting and fascination, if not delight, could be found in inventive silence. At first these ancient animations seem too crude to be bothered with, but watching the just-drawn likes of Koko the Clown dealing with an animated “live-action” fly soon leads to many minutes of amazed viewing.
Sun Jul 15, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Hard Dorm
DVD Xtra #9
It’s about time I got around to Tartan – specifically Tartan Asia Extreme, since they’ve been inundating the DVD market with every Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai “horror” movie they can get their well-manicured hands on. I put horror in quotes, because, in reality, many of their releases are actually episodes of The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt with delusions of cinematic grandeur – essentially familiar ghost revenge sagas pumped and/or padded to feature length. I also say “well-manicured,” because, whatever the overall quality of the film they’re presenting, Tartan’s packaging is uniformly classy.
On the one hand, if you’ve yet to have Tartan’s special editions of South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s “Vengeance” trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and Old Boy), acquire them with all speed (and watch them in the aforementioned order, despite their actual release dates). On the other hand, I showed eighteen hours of Tartan’s other Asia Extreme releases at last year’s World Science Fiction Convention and didn’t see a single film that rated above “okay.”
So warned, let’s judge some of their latest releases from the special features perspective. First, there’s Dorm, a Thai award winner that strives to be like Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone. Both concern what happens to a young man in a creepy private school, and while del Toro connects the ghosts to the Spanish Civil War, director Songyos Sugmakanan weaves it within the universal loneliness of an outcast new student. It’s a well-made mood piece more than anything else, and a fine one, but, as previously mentioned, it would have been well-served as a ninety minute (or less) chiller, rather than the 110 minute saga it is.
Tartan attaches an interesting audio commentary with Songyos and some of his cast, in addition to a “making of” (which is really a ten minute on-set home movie of the complications that come of making a film with a pre-teen cast), a “behind the scenes” (which are actually a bunch of short prevue pieces detailing the cast and plot), fittingly eerie deleted scenes, a special effect featurette, and a welcome “character introduction,” which is like a visual program book. All in all, it’s a satisfying job.
Sun Jul 8, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Slings and Extras
DVD Xtra #8
Another week, another pair of good examples as to how DVD extras can enhance, deepen, and illuminate a previous viewing experience...especially when the subject matter is show business itself.
First stop, north of the border, and one of Canada’s best television series. For years I’ve been enjoying Slings & Arrows, the tragicomedic travails of a Shakespearean Festival Theatrical Troupe. Created by some of the same folk who made the hit Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone, and The Kids in the Hall, it has been consistently engrossing in its three seasons (of six episodes each).
In the first season, we were introduced to the core cast as they tried to get the theater on its feet and mount a memorable production of Hamlet. Season two saw more complications amid the cast and crew as they battled the “Scottish Play (Macbeth).” Arriving on DVD this week is the third (and most say, last) season, in which a production of King Lear is the focal point.
The first two seasons set the bar high in terms of Shakespearean drama and human comedy, but this third season does not disappoint in any way. In fact, it manages to resonate the first two seasons as well as cap off the tales of once-institutionalized artistic director Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross), the love of his life Anna Conroy (Susan Coyne), the troupe’s financial director Richard Smith-Jones (former Hall Kid Mark McKinney), and the ghost of the former artistic director Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette) … and, yes, you read that right.
In addition, each season features a new cast of actors who play actors who are brought in to star in the season’s featured play, and, if anything, the third time’s the charm. William Hutt, a beloved Canadian actor, stars as Charles Kingman, a beloved Canadian actor who takes on Lear in more ways than one (in fact, Hutt died shortly after completing his role as a dying actor playing a dying King). Playing the actress playing Lear’s honorable daughter is Sarah Polley, the luminous star of such movies as The Sweet Hereafter and director of the recent art house film success Away From Her (she’s also the daughter of Mark Polley, who has been featured in all three seasons of the show as one of the troupe’s supporting players).
Suffice to say that all three box sets of the series are worthwhile. Now, onto the extras on this latest, and reportedly, last season. There’s interviews with star Paul Gross (who you might remember from the Canadian Mountie at large CBS series Due South) and co-writer/co-star Susan Coyne. In addition, there’s bloopers, outtakes, deleted scenes, photo galleries, and even song lyrics, but what makes the extras extra special are uninterrupted, unedited, and extended sequences from the “final” production of King Lear itself, which take on additional dimension once you’ve seen the backstage drama that went into creating them.
Sun Jul 1, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Fantastic Fantastic Clock
DVD Xtra #7
I’'m spoiled already. Seven weeks into this column, and I yawn when I see a DVD with “only” one audio commentary. It wasn'’t even seven weeks when I succumbed to the “Critic’s Disease,”– judging each new entertainment against the one I had seen the day, week, month, or year before.
For the most part, the illnessÂ’ symptoms aren'Â’t as egregious for DVDs as they are for films, since itÂ’'s likely most people see more DVDs than go to the movies, and therefore have touches of the malady themselves. Besides, as I pointed out before, expectations are far lower for films seen on TV than they are in the cinemas.
Even so, some worthy discs (or double discs) can slip through the cracks while IÂ’'m la-di-dahing. Such is the case for Fantastic Four Extended Edition I first mentioned a column or two back. DonÂ’'t get me wrong: the actual film, despite the twenty minutes of reinstated footage, still isnÂ’'t as good as it could or should have been. But in the weeks since reviewing it, my memory keeps going back to the special features.
So now I feel I could have been a bit more adamant about the edition’s charms, especially with this site’s readers. Maybe I should have mentioned that the extras come in two categories: the film, and the comic book. And it is in this latter category where the glory of this version truly lies. There are new, lovingly created docs –each more than an hour long – on the history of the comic from the 1960’s until today, and on co-creator/artist supreme Jack Kirby.
Each features the cream of the comic worldÂ’s crop (Stan Lee, Jim Lee, George Perez, Marv Wolfman, Walt Simonson, Len Wein, Alex Ross, and many others) waxing enthusiastically about their writing and artistic contribution to the series (save for John Byrne, whose absence is accusatory, though his input is lauded) as well as the man who inspired them. Remember, grasshoppers, that the climatic locale for the first season of Heroes was called Kirby Plaza for a reason. The docs do a nifty, pleasing job of balancing art images with talking heads, and the overall effect is a warm and fuzzy feeling for a film that wasnÂ’t that rousing to begin with.
The first Fantastic Four film should be so lucky as to be remembered with the same fondness as it’s “fantastic” predecessor, Fantastic Voyage. In addition to sharing an adjective (or is that an adverb?), 20th Century Fox has released special editions of their respective DVDs at the same time. But Voyage, incongruously, is part of Fox’'s “Cinema Classics Collection.”
Sun Jun 24, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Miami Sand Fox
DVD Xtra #6
A few weeks back I was waxing enthusiastic about Sony Home Entertainment'Â’s line of Columbia Classics CollectorÂ’s Editions, especially The Guns of Navarone two-disc set. Well, it turns out that 20th Century Fox wasnÂ’t going to take that lying down, so they started peppering me with flicks young and old for the old ultra-violence (yes, that'Â’s A Clockwork Orange reference, what of it?).
Starting with the young (and time-relevant): out this week is Reno 911!: Miami: The Movie (Unrated),– a fittingly jaunty title for a fitfully hilarious film. In the spirit of complete disclosure, I’'ve been a fan of this group’'s creative core (Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, and Kerri Kenney-Silver) since seeing them on MTV’s The State, and have been appreciating their work through their abortive CBS/Disney stint, Viva Variety, and their contributions to the screenplays of The Pacifist, Herbie Fully Loaded, and A Night at the Museum.
The yoks start in earnest at the menu page where Kerri, in character as passive-aggressive Deputy Trudy Wiegel, lets you know in no uncertain terms that this is the unrated version by unleashing the kind of words you didn'Â’t hear in the rated edition. Then there'Â’s the film itself, which benefits from its unratedness with elaborately salty vernacular, not to mention some of the finest looking natural breasts recently put on video (as well as some of the unfinest [Kerri was quick to point out on one audio commentary that she had just had a baby at the time of filming]).
The Reno 911 squad is not through with you yet, however. There are three audio commentaries: an entertainingly informative one with director Garant and writers Lennon and Kenney-Silver, and then two more with the cast in character as the hapless Nevada cops they play on TV. ItÂ’'s like watching three different takes of the same movie. The group then go on to make it clear that they probably could'Â’ve actually made three different movies, or more, with the extended deleted/alternate scenes, which, as is their wont, last fifteen minutes or more, until the improv runs out or the cameraman drops from exhaustion.
The disc also includes the Fox Movie Channel’s special, covering the film’s premiere, but probably my favorite extra is the series of Public Service Announcements in which the characters address various problems plaguing today’'s cineplexes (as Kenney-Silver so succinctly puts it: “shut up or I’'ll shoot you and blame it on a crack addict”). This DVD will give you hours o’' cringey fun.
Speaking of favorite, now starts our coverage of the Fox Cinema Classics Collection with one of the best DVDs IÂ’'ve ever seen in terms of this columnÂ’'s theme. The Sand Pebbles two-disc special edition looks innocuous enough on the shelf. The only hint of the riches within comes with its weight and heft. No wonder: the package is literally bulging with stuff: illuminating liner notes, a recreation of the releaseÂ’s original souvenir book, and even an envelope of postcard-sized, full-color, lobby cards.
Then there’s the discs: three sides containing the 183 minute theatrical version, the 196 minute “Roadshow” version, and so many new featurettes (nine in all), as well as six original docs from the Fox vault, that I wish I could roll around in them. Back in the department of full disclosure, I’'ll admit I’m a big fan of star Steve McQueen, but especially underrated director Robert Wise, who could, and did, do everything.
Fri Jun 22, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
MICRO-REVIEW: Live Free Or Die Hard
The ten second version
This is not actually a sequel to the Bruce Willis films where he stars as John McClane. This is actually a secret sequel to Unbreakable, where Willis stars as invulnerable hero David Dunn. Somewhere between Die Hard 2 and 3, the characters switched places.
We encourage Live Free viewers to comment.
Sun Jun 17, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Fantastic Ghost Who?
DVD Xtra #5
Yes, yes, I know. This is the week both the extended versions of the original Fantastic 4 movie and Ghost Rider are in stores. Fine, great, more power to them. And, yes, I realize that this website is called ComicMix, so, by all rights, what follows should be an in-depth, all-inclusive examination of every extra, Easter egg, and digital particle on both these comic book inspired phantasmagoricals.
But I really donÂ’t feel like it. First, because, even to be extremely kind, neither film rates the kind of slavish devotion that the Richard Donner Superman, Tim Burton Batman, or Sam Raimi Spider-Man elicits in me (this, of course, does not include the sequels, except the second Spidey [by no stretch of the imagination, the third!]).
Second, even these filmsÂ’ most devoted proponents would have to accept that the extended versions of these adventures aren'Â’t what one could call revelatory. While rumors remain that the original FF film was disemboweled to create the anti-climatic one seen in theaters, thereÂ’'s no hint of that in the ultimately unnecessary extra scenes regrafted here.
IÂ’ll admit, however, that there are hardly two films that benefit more from DVD performance. Both flix, in fact, are more enjoyable to watch on TV. There, according to film expert Chris Gore (and I agree), there aren'Â’t as many expectations as there are in the theater. What may have been annoying, even intolerable, on the big screen become humorously camp and acceptable on the small.
These two-disc DVD setsÂ’ other extras -- audio commentary, behind-the-scenes, making-of, and a nifty character history for Ghost Rider; three audio commentaries, scads of featurettes (including one on comic artist Jack Kirby), loads of concept art, and even more stuff like that there for FF are squeaky clean and informative, but donÂ’t make these pics resonate the way the two-disc PanÂ’s Labyrinth DVD did. To paraphrase Monty Python, these discs wouldnÂ’t resonate if you put 5000 volts through them.
So, if youÂ’'re wondering whether to get the single disc or double disc editions of either of these fine, though hardly spectacularly great, films, take to your heart the DVD Xtra Rules of Purchase: Always Widescreen, Always Subtitled, Always, Always, ALWAYS the Special Platinum Collectors Extended Ultimate Edition. If you'Â’re going to buy, buy the best. Otherwise, Netflix.
So what shall we talk about now? Well, the Rider and FF bring to mind a particularly beloved aspect of DVD collecting and/or watching. That which does not start out great can become great with a judicious use of extras (as evidenced by last columnÂ’'s Frankenstein Conquers the World). That which was shaky in production becomes illuminating in retrospect. Nowhere is this more true than in the next new release under scrutiny: the Dr. Who New Beginnings box set.
Sun Jun 10, 2007 — by Ric Meyers
RIC MEYERS: Dragon Dynasty Mutiny!
DVD Xtra #4
Poor Cynthia Rothrock. She’'s the first “gweilo (white devil)” woman to become a major star in the golden age of the Hong Kong kung-fu film, then gets relegated to such sad junk as the China O’'Brien and Lady Dragon series in America. But for anybody who wants to know what the fuss was about, and those, like me, who want to see Cynthia regain her rightful place in the top echelon of action stars, the two newest Dragon Dynasty DVDs are the ones for you.
Dragon Dynasty is the new home for the many martial art movies the Weinstein Company has been hoarding for years. They'Â’re finally releasing these amazing, literally unmatchable, adventures with enough worthy whistles and beguiling bells to make them worthwhile for even a pioneering kung-fu flick fan such as myself. Still, some of their decisions and missteps are indicative of the seeming disdain they previously displayed for these bogarted milestones.
Take, for example, Above the Law, RothrockÂ’s' second HK film (following the classic Yes Madam, which also introduced Michelle Yeoh to an awed Chinese audience) and Dragon DynastyÂ’'s ninth DVD release. What, say you, I don'Â’t remember Cynthia Rothrock in that fine, first, 1988, Steven Seagal movie!? ThatÂ’s because Cynthia was in the 1986 like-named Hong Kong film, which was more generally known as Righting Wrongs, which would have made a much less confusing, more easily ordered, title for this new DVD.
Under any name, this combination of Death Wish and Enter the Dragon adds to its list of firsts, in that it’s the first major action starring vehicle for the impressive Yuen Baio away from his “big brothers,” directors, and co-stars Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung (late of CBS-TV’s Martial Law series). But rather than showcase Baio'’s sweet, lovable, easy-going nature, director Corey Yuen Kwai (who went on to choreograph the action in Jet Li’s' Kiss of the Dragon, among others) decided to make Righting Wrong a monument to paranoia, fear, brutality and some of the most savage kung-fu ever put on celluloid.
The return of Hong Kong to ChinaÂ’'s rule was more than a decade away at the time, but action directors such as Corey were already reflecting their concerns with films that featured corruption as a murderous way of life. Baio plays a lawyer who moonlights as a vigilante after his beloved mentor is mown down. Rothrock is the Interpol agent sent to arrest him, while everyone around them is unleashing assassins to kill everyone they can get their hands, knives, guns, construction tools, planes, garrotes, and bombs on.
The fights Corey crams this movie with are boldly conceived, incredibly played, and well worth watching, even studying, repeatedly, which is a good thing since clips of them are shown repeatedly during the interesting “Special Feature” interviews with Rothrock, Baio, and Canadian kickboxing champ Peter “Sugarfoot” Cunningham (who co-stars as one of the many killers). The packaging copy isn’t through with you at just the confusing title, however. The good news is that the disc also features alternate scenes (although not one Rothrock mentions in her interview) and endings, which aren'’t listed on the box. The bad news is that, while the copy maintains that the film is letterboxed widescreen, it ain’'t.
Which is a shame, because Dragon DynastyÂ’'s tenth release, and the next piece of Rothrock proof, is Shanghai Express, which is beautifully restored and letterboxed, capturing every millimeter of the astonishing stunts and scintillating fights director/star Sammo Hung piles on his international cast-of-hundreds. Like Righting Wrongs/Above the Law before it, this DVD features a pandering alternate title for a film that is better known (even on the opening credits) as The MillionairesÂ’' Express.
