DVDFile Article Archive

The following articles were previously published on the now-defunct web site DVDFile.com between 2000-2005. They should be read in context of the time they were originally written. Technical standards may have risen in the meantime. Writing styles and tastes also may have evolved as the author matured.

INDEX:

The 6th Day

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 9, 2001.

I admit it. I have a soft spot for Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. There’s just something likable about the big oaf. He isn’t much of an actor, but he’s so eager to please his audience and give them the biggest bang for their buck that I have to respect his determination.

Arnold tried to take his career in new directions with his last couple of movies. He was a villain in Batman and Robin, and a foul-mouthed anti-hero in End of Days. Unfortunately, neither movie was very good and they both flopped at the box office. So here we are back to the tried and true formula of his past successes with The 6th Day, a big-budget science fiction action picture. This one didn’t do much better at the box office, but that’s not entirely the movie’s fault. It may not be Schwarzenegger’s best, but there’s nothing particularly wrong with it. Perhaps times have just changed and the audience for this kind of movie has moved on to newer types of thrills.

The 6th Day shoots itself in the foot with its first scene. We’re told that the story takes place “In the near future,” but then the movie opens at an XFL football game. Pity that the filmmakers couldn’t have foreseen what a flop the XFL turned out to be. If this near future doesn’t happen to be in the next few months, the movie has instantly dated itself.

Arnold plays Adam, a helicopter pilot for vacationing millionaires. Through an only halfway convincing plot contrivance, Adam finds himself at the center of a conspiracy involving human cloning and the mega-corporation trying to cover up their illegal activities. Naturally, lots of people are trying to kill him. Many chase and action scenes ensue, along with the requisite number of double crosses and plot twists.

As I said, there’s nothing particularly wrong with the movie. It tries very hard to be as slick and entertaining as some of Schwarzenegger’s most successful pictures, especially Total Recall and Terminator 2. It just never quite makes it into that same league and starts to feel stale before too long. Part of the problem is that although there are plenty of shootouts and stunt scenes, none of them are especially daring or innovative. There’s a leap-from-the-dam stolen directly out of The Fugitive, and an aerial rescue that doesn’t hold a candle to the one Arnold himself performed at the end of True Lies. The special effects are also surprisingly shoddy at times. The movie gets bogged down in its corny futurism, with silly-looking aircraft, improbable technology, and laser handguns borrowed from the old V miniseries. Why is it that movies like this have to make the future look so tacky?

Still, the movie delivers what it promises. The premise is intriguing, a few questions worth pondering get raised (but not too many), and it generates some solid excitement when it needs to. Much of the plot is highly unlikely, but at least it stays true to the rules of its own logic and doesn’t become as painfully stupid as many summer blockbusters. I’ll take a mediocre Schwarzenegger movie like this over an Independence Day or Armageddon anytime.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Columbia TriStar has a great track record with their DVD transfers and they haven’t dropped the ball here. The picture is properly letterboxed from a pristine print with good colors. The black level tends to vary, with some of the nighttime scenes never achieving a truly rich black, but I assume that’s an artifact of the original photography rather than a transfer flaw. It’s not overly distracting. If I had any complaint, despite anamorphic enhancement the image is rarely as sharp as some of the very best DVDs. In fact, in anamorphic mode it looks more like a good non-anamorphic disc.

Optional English or French subtitles are available through the menu.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The film has an energetic Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, loaded with almost constant separation effects zinging around the room. For an action movie of this type, though, I expected it to have a little more kick from the bass. This is a good-sounding disc, but as with the picture not quite up to reference standards.

Also available are a plain Dolby Surround mix and a French dub track in Dolby Surround.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Here we have the most disappointing aspect of the DVD. Originally, the disc was announced as a Special Edition with a number of interesting supplements. Then something happened before release and most of them were dropped. As if that weren’t enough of an insult, apparently the releases in other regions of the world will still contain the full assortment of bonus features. Only the United States is getting the short end of the stick this time.

We’re left with expanded versions of the RePet infomercial and TV spot seen in snippets within the movie. These are amusing but hardly substantial. There are trailers for Columbia TriStar movies, including this one and the upcoming Final Fantasy animated feature. Finally is an isolated music score with sporadic commentary from composer Trevor Rabin. The score is not the most exciting or original, but Rabin has a few interesting things to say about the motivations for each scene.

That’s it. Thanks for nothing, Columbia TriStar.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The 6th Day as a movie and as a DVD manages to be adequate but never exceptional. The film should please most Schwarzenegger fans but will probably not reach a wider audience. The disc delivers it fairly well, even though we’ve been blatantly cheated on some of the supplements. This one might only be worth a rental.

24: Season One

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 22, 2002.

One of the more inventive and exciting television series of recent years, 24 has enough thrills and suspense to sustain a franchise of successful feature films. Its construction is ingenious; taking place in “real time,” each episode makes up a single hour of narrative with the entire season forming the events of one complete, very hectic day. This allows the filmmakers to exploit typically mundane situations, such as getting from Point A to Point B, for dramatic tension whereas another show would probably just omit such fill-in activity through the magic of editing. (It does appear that in this fictional world everyone must have very strong bladders, though, because no one ever takes a break to use the bathroom.)

Admittedly, the real-time gimmick is just a hook to draw a viewer’s attention. The timer that appears sporadically on screen is not often precisely accurate, and in fact the episodes were constructed to take into account a few minutes for commercial breaks every quarter of an hour. Watching an episode straight through on DVD is a little disorienting, as the screen will fade to black and then immediately fade back in with a gap of several minutes on the timer. (Presumably this is when everyone hits the john.) Regardless, it doesn’t take very long to adjust to the format, and the show is so compelling that such minor lapses are hardly distracting.

Kiefer Sutherland stars as a federal agent attempting to foil an assassination attempt on a prominent black Presidential candidate. Along the way, he must deal with terrorist bombings, random murders, local police who believe that he’s actually the assassin himself, and at least one if not several potential traitors in his own organization. Meanwhile, his much put-upon wife spends the day chasing after their teenage daughter, who has a penchant for getting herself kidnapped. If all of that weren’t enough, the politician also has his own set of concerns, including deceptive advisors, a blackmail attempt against his son, and a Lady Macbeth-like wife who seems to be scheming for her own welfare rather than his. Over the course of the day, all of these storylines will criss-cross and intersect with one another at various points.

Sure, this is a lot to be going on in one single day. Isn’t it also awfully convenient the way that the assassination conspiracy is detected at midnight and can be wrapped up exactly 24 hours to the minute later? But when has plausibility ever been a strict requirement for great drama? 24 is a terrific show bolstered by a great cast, sharp writing, high production values, and a tightly-coiled plot that continually subverts your expectations and keeps you guessing at every moment. Who are the traitors? Who can you trust? Every time the viewer starts to develop attachments to a certain character, loyalties seem to switch, right up until the last minute.

The show scored respectable enough ratings to be renewed for a second season, but the serial nature of the storyline put off many potential viewers who were afraid of getting lost if they missed an episode. As such, it’s also rather difficult to run in syndication, where chronological order is difficult to maintain. In a bold move designed to recoup some of their expenses and increase awareness of the show before the second season, Fox Home Entertainment has rushed the series to DVD not long after the first season finished airing on television. It’s ideal programming for the format. The show is highly addictive and the structure invites marathon viewing sessions. (In the absence of commercial breaks, it should run about 16 hours from start to finish.) The plot also has so many twists and turns that, immediately after finishing the season for the first time, you’ll want to go back and rewatch all of the earlier episodes to catch the clues missed the first time around.

The show’s first airing was delayed due to the real-life terrorist activity in September of 2001, and the pilot episode was re-edited to tone down a scene involving an explosion on a commercial airliner. The DVD set reportedly contains the original un-edited version of that episode, but differences are so minor that I could hardly tell the difference. I’ve heard rumors that European DVD releases may contain slightly longer cuts of some of the later episodes (European television has shorter commercial breaks than American television, so the episodes can run longer), including one juicy plot twist that would make a certain character’s actions even more despicable than they already are, but on this Region 1 DVD set all of the other episodes appear exactly as they aired on American television. Each episode runs approximately 40 minutes with complete opening and closing credits. Annoyingly, individual episodes are not chapter encoded.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

On normal television, Fox aired the show in the standard 4:3 format. However, the series was photographed for dual aspect ratio compatibility and aired in 16:9 widescreen on the network’s digital channel where available. The DVD set contains the widescreen version, letterboxed to 1.78:1 with anamorphic enhancement. The show’s many split-screen sequences are framed to fit entirely within the 4:3-safe area with dead space on the sides. I found this rather annoying, and felt that the compartmentalized frames worked better when they filled the entire screen as they did in the 4:3 broadcast version. On the other hand, all of the remaining footage is well balanced and strongly composed for the widescreen ratio, lending the series a nice cinematic feel. Preference for one aspect ratio over the other is open for debate, but the version we get on DVD is perfectly acceptable.

Image quality is excellent in all other respects. The picture is very sharp and has a vivid, three-dimensional appearance with an almost surprising lack of distracting edge enhancement. Contrasts are rich and colors are bold. The digital compression work is good for the most part and at least decent throughout the entire season, although at times it may be imperfect. The show occasionally utilizes a stylized grainy appearance that’s very difficult to compress well, especially when you’re trying to cram four episodes onto each disc. This leads to some trouble, but nothing terrible. The worst I can say is that the show sometimes has a very “digital” appearance, instead of the film-like appearance generally preferred.

In rare instances, I detected minute, insignificant amounts of dirt or hair on the film elements, and it appears that the pilot episode may have been mis-registered in the telecine, because what looks like the bottom edge of the film frame comes into view at times. Regardless of these nit-picking points, for the most part this is a crisp and clean transfer that looks excellent.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Presented in Dolby Surround, this is a very energetic soundtrack for a television production. The track has a lot of activity in the front soundstage, with full-bodied musical presence that provides a nice wraparound ambience into the surround channel. The score has a fair amount of bass, and gunshots provide a nice kick, but this is not a full 5.1 mix and has the usual constraints and limitations of something designed to air on television. As a result, there’s no deep bass activity and explosions will not rock the room. It sounds quite good for what it is, though.

The disc offers English and Spanish subtitles, as well as English closed captions.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Since this box set was essentially rushed to market in order to promote the show’s second television season, not as many supplements have been compiled as may be typical for one of Fox’s other TV series box sets. Of most interest is the 2-minute alternate ending which puts a different spin on the season finale. Producer Joel Surnow provides an audio commentary over this footage explaining why it was shot (as a safety net in case the planned ending didn’t work) and why they went with their original plans instead. The clip is presented in anamorphic widescreen and looks just as good as the rest of the episodes.

Kiefer Sutherland appears in a very brief (1 ½ minute) video introduction to the season. Calling it an introduction is a little misleading as it seems to be directed towards viewers who have already seen the season and are about to watch it again. That may be why it appears on the last disc of the set rather than the first. More than anything, the piece functions as a teaser for the second season, but does not show any new footage.

The box set also includes a booklet with an episode guide that contains many plot spoilers and should not be referenced until after watching the entire season at least once.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I remember watching the series for the first time on television and thinking to myself, “This will make a great DVD box set one day.” Now Fox Home Entertainment has made that day come sooner than I could have ever expected. I dream of the day when every series is released this quickly, and I certainly hope that Fox follows through with the next season in the same manner. I’m thrilled to own this box set and can’t recommend it highly enough.

24: Season Two

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published October 14, 2003.

How many bad days can one guy have? Yes, TV fans, Jack Bauer is back in an all new season of 24, and contrary to some initial speculation the series retains its real-time structure: 24 episodes, 24 hours, 1 very busy day where nobody sleeps or goes to the bathroom. Although it requires some suspension of disbelief to think that this one federal agent could conveniently run into yet another terrorist plot that must be defused in exactly 24 hours to the minute, when you’ve got a gimmick that works, you stick with it. And yes, 24 still works. Matching feature film production values with an ambitious multi-part linear storyline that demands a viewer follow every episode, even though this second year has some notable drawbacks, the series remains one of the most inventive, suspenseful and entertaining dramas on television.

A little over one year has passed since the events of last season. Former Presidential candidate David Palmer has a new job; not to spoil things, let’s just say it involves working in a funny-shaped office. This being a show about a Counter Terrorist Unit, it’s safe to say that some terrorists may be afoot, and this time a single assassination won’t be enough to satisfy them. They’ve smuggled a live nuclear weapon into the country and plan to detonate it right in the heart of Los Angeles. Wouldn’t you know it, the only person who can save the day is our man Jack Bauer, and naturally he has very little time to do so. Meanwhile, the President has to contend with a trigger-happy cabinet ready to throw the country into a Middle Eastern war whether the Commander-in-Chief goes along with their plans or not. Along the way, both men will have to work with old friends, encounter new adversaries, and trace their ways through a labyrinthine plot filled with plenty of back-stabbing and political manipulations.

The second season of 24 has all of the action, suspense, intrigue, and twisty plotting that made the first season so enjoyable, but it can’t be denied that some of the efforts to keep the plot moving are even more hit-or-miss than last year. The show has both higher highs and lower lows this time around. The best parts of the season, including the premiere episode that kicks things off with quite a nice jolt, top anything from the first year. But the worst parts are much worse. Jack’s repeatedly-kidnapped daughter Kim is back, and the writers’ attempts to keep her involved in the story become painfully ridiculous. It seems like this girl is doomed to run into a new psycho each new hour for the rest of her life, continually at constant peril. At one point, this storyline becomes so bad that we watch her get lost in the woods and almost eaten by a cougar! Luckily, she’s rescued at the last second by a man who, yes, turns out to be another psycho. Eventually, she escapes and makes her way to a convenience store and winds up being held hostage by, you guessed it, another psycho. Hour after hour, it’s the same thing, and none of it has anything to do with the main storyline that we actually care about. It’s all filler, an excuse to keep her character on the show so that we can watch Elisha Cuthbert strut around in a series of admittedly wonderful tight shirts.

Early parts of the season also have a problem with one major storyline that’s too slowly developed and takes much too long to be integrated with the main plotline. Fortunately, its payoff turns out pretty well. Later on, Jack Bauer seems to transform from a fallible human being into an invincible and unkillable superhero, which strains the limits of credulity quite a bit, and a major deus-ex-machina plot twist in the middle of the season is extremely frustrating. The nuclear bomb conspiracy raises the stakes considerably over last year but also deflates some of the suspense. When the threat involved the assassination of one man, a viewer may legitimately question whether our hero can prevent the disaster, but I doubt many viewers will really expect the show’s producers to let the terrorists nuke Los Angeles. Then again, the series does have a go-for-broke reputation, and at a certain point you just never know whether they’d go through with it or not.

Despite these flaws, 24 is still a terrifically entertaining television series and anyone who enjoyed the first season deserves to take a look at Season Two. Kiefer Sutherland makes a fine action hero, and the rest of the cast is stellar. The show has a bit of a darker edge, with Jack seemingly left unhinged by the events of last season, and the political scheming in the President’s storyline is compelling, not to mention the eerie similarities between this fictional story and real-world events that were unfolding as the series aired. Juicy characters Nina Myers and Sherry Palmer return to steal a number of episodes. Supporting player Tony Almeida grows into a stoic leading man, and the morally ambiguous George Mason is developed into a fascinating, multi-dimensional character. I will suspend my disbelief through some of the weaker story elements when so many strong points remain. I can’t wait to see where the show goes in Season Three, though I do hope that maybe next year will be someone else’s bad day, perhaps Tony’s. Let Jack have some rest for a while. The guy deserves it. He’s been up for an awfully long time.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The second season of 24 is once again presented in the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio as the series airs on Fox’s digital broadcast channel (the standard analog broadcast is cropped to 4:3), and once again the show is cinematically composed to take advantage of the wider framing. The anamorphically enhanced image on these DVDs is very sharp with exemplary fine object detail, yet almost no noticeable edge enhancement artifacts. The heightened detail may even have one drawback for the actors, in that we can now see every pockmark in Dennis Haysbert’s complexion with vivid clarity. Colors are also strong and the contrast range has a rich black level which lends a nice sense of depth.

Where the picture quality falters is the appearance of grain. The show’s photography has some grain endemic to its shooting style, which was also plainly visible in the first season, but it seems more exaggerated this time around. Now even bright daylight scenes are often grainy, and it usually looks less like film grain than like digital compression-induced video noise. This is disappointing, and watching on a large screen I found it distracting for a while, but to be honest after an episode or two the otherwise slick and glossy production values won over and I stopped being bothered by the grain.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Stepping up a notch from last season is the quality of the soundtrack, now available in a full-blown Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Unlike some other television series DVDs, this show actually makes good use of the 5.1 encoding. The rear soundstage is very aggressive with many discrete surround effects such as helicopters circling from speaker to speaker. Although not officially an EX mix, the track will decode well if you activate a rear center channel. Dialogue is always perfectly clear, even when it shifts directionally across the front soundstage during the many split-screen scenes, and the music has a nice presence.

This is, however, still a television production and will have some expected limitations. Bass does not extend very deep beyond what’s heard in the musical score. Gunshots and explosions rarely have the kind of satisfying thump you get from a feature film soundtrack. Still, for a TV show this sounds great.

A Spanish dub track is also available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. The disc provides optional subtitles in either English for the Hearing Impaired or Spanish, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Because last year’s Season One box set was rather deficient in the bonus features department, the show’s producers went out of their way to create a nice selection of DVD supplements for Season Two while it was still in production. To start, it should be noted that every episode (aside from the premiere) begins with its original broadcast “Previously on…” story recap. This is something usually missing from TV series box sets, even the first season of this show, and it’s a nice inclusion here. Unfortunately, although the episodes do include chapter stops (another nice improvement over Season One), the chapters are not conveniently placed so that you can skip over the recap. That becomes slightly annoying during marathon viewings. Perhaps Fox can get it right in time for Season Three?

Of immediate interest are no less than six episode-specific audio commentaries, one per disc for the first six discs of the set. Participants include key members of the production crew such as creators Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, director Jon Cassar, and writer Howard Gordon, as well as a significant number of the primary cast members: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer), Dennis Haysbert (David Palmer), Carlos Bernard (Tony Almeida), Sarah Wynter (Kate Warner), Michelle Forbes (Lynne Kresge), Sarah Clarke (Nina Myers), Penny Johnson Jerald (Sherry Palmer), and Xander Berkeley (George Mason). These are all pretty good, interesting commentaries, but the most entertaining is the first one, featuring Carlos Bernard, Michelle Forbes and Sarah Wynter (who has a surprising Australian accent). This is more of a party track than truly informational, but it’s a lot of fun listening to the actors joke around about working on the show, especially since their three characters had very little interaction with one another in the series itself. Wynter starts a running joke where she comments on how “hot” all of the other actors in the show are, including those in the room with her.

After this we get a collection of not just one or two but 44 deleted scenes. The first 22 scenes have optional commentary by directors Jon Cassar and Rodney Charters, while for the next 22 scenes Charters is replaced by writer Howard Gordon. Most of the footage is very good and would have worked well in the show, but was cut for either pacing or time constraint issues. The scenes appear on the discs with the episodes they were deleted from, or again collected as a complete string of all 44 scenes on the final disc of the set (with a Play All option). The scenes are all presented in anamorphic widescreen and appear in presentable quality equal to the rest of the episodes. All told, the total footage runs about an hour.

All remaining supplements are found on Disc 7. Next is a 13-minute featurette that the included booklet calls “On the Button,” but the actual disc refers to with a different title that gives away a crucial plot spoiler. I will choose not to announce the spoiler, and will recommend that first-time viewers stay away from Disc 7 entirely until they’ve watched the full season. The featurette covers the filming of a major action set-piece and goes into a lot of interesting detail about how these things are staged so as to look very dangerous without killing all of the stunt people in the process.

Normally I expect these TV series box sets to be filled with a lot of Electronic Press Kit fluff, but that’s not the case at all here. One of the most impressive features is a 2-part documentary called 24 Exposed. The first half runs 45 minutes and the second half another 42 minutes. Part 1 begins with an amusing voiceover from Kiefer Sutherland announcing, “The following documentary takes place between March 24 and April 30 during the final two episodes of the season” in his most serious Jack Bauer tone. Technically, Part 1 is supposed to cover production and Part 2 post-production, but really they both concentrate on the actual location filming. The logistics of shooting a complex show like this are often astounding, and this very thorough documentary covers all the important bases in an interesting, entertaining fashion.

Last, and sadly least, is a Multi-Angle Scene Study from episode 6, which allows the viewer to use the remote control to toggle between different camera angles during a specific scene. It’s a good idea, but would have been better implemented if they had chosen a different scene, preferably one which didn’t involve two cameras shooting from almost the same position as one another. As it is, the feature is not terribly interesting.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I love seeing a show like this return to DVD in such a timely manner, especially one whose very nature invites marathon viewing sessions. The second season of 24 is somewhat mixed in quality, but this is still a great, thoroughly entertaining series. A little extra graininess in the picture quality notwithstanding, this second box set takes all of the best attributes from Season One and improves upon them. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is super and the selection of genuinely worthwhile supplements is pretty terrific. 24 fans are advised to snatch this one right up.

28 Days Later (UK Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 22, 2003.

(A note to readers: 28 Days Later was released theatrically in Europe in late 2002, and as such its official DVD release there hit stores before the movie even opened in theaters in the United States. The disc reviewed here is presented in the PAL video format with Region 2 coding, and is only playable on compatible DVD hardware. Content and specs for the eventual Region 1 release of this material are subject to change.)

“Danny Boyle Reinvents Zombie Horror,” the ads shamelessly overstate. I don’t know that I would go that far. Although I did enjoy his new horror thriller 28 Days Later quite a bit more than I’ve cared for any of his previous movies (including the overrated Trainspotting), the film is undeniably derivative of zombie movies past, from the famous Living Dead trilogy to Resident Evil to (come on, let’s be honest here) Night of the Comet. The picture it most closely resembles is The Omega Man, which finds Charlton Heston the lone uninfected survivor in a deserted metropolitan city after a viral plague has wiped out most of the population except for roaming bands of murderous zombies.

28 Days Later follows much the same concept. Jim, a London bicycle courier, is hit by a car and wakes up from a coma, you guessed it, 28 days later, in an empty hospital. While he’s been out, a genetically-engineered virus called Rage has gotten loose and infected almost the entire British populace, turning them into, yup, murderous zombies. Jim wanders through the eerily empty London streets trying to figure out where everyone has gone when he’s first attacked by the “Infected” and then narrowly saved by a small group of other survivors. Together they must improvise ways to keep themselves safe, and then eventually leave the city in the hope of finding more survivors at a nearby military base.

Does Boyle “reinvent” the genre? Not really, but 28 Days Later is an enormously fun horror picture that certainly at least revives it. It’s smartly scripted and tensely directed, which isn’t to say that there aren’t a few “Don’t go in there, you idiot!” moments, but the movie does at least stay true to its convictions and the logic of the rules that it lays down, even if the ending is something of a cop-out. Boyle manages to bring a few nice new spins to the old formula, including his use of handheld digital video to tell the story with a newfound sense of immediacy. The speed and ferocity of the “Infected” are even quite shocking. These aren’t your father’s lumbering zombies, slowly lurching forward towards their victims; these bastards will rush right in and tear you to pieces before you can even begin to react. Boyle also adds an intriguing twist in that once their blood is exposed to the virus, it’s only a matter of seconds before a person goes Romero and succumbs to the violent urges, leaving their friends with the need to make very quick decisions about how they will choose to survive. Are these new changes truly innovative or groundbreaking? Probably not, but they do keep the movie consistently interesting and suspenseful.

Like any story with a plague angle, the movie has a none-too-subtle subtext about human vulnerability to disease despite our advances in technology and culture. You can read into this a statement about AIDS, Anthrax, SARS, or what-have-you, depending on whatever new public health threat is featured on the news in a given week. I also appreciate that the characters in the movie give some thought as to how they should repopulate the Earth when, although this is never specifically spelled out, if you think about it that’s exactly what the Infected have been trying to do. They don’t eat their victims; the purpose of the virus seems to be to spread itself and reproduce. Thankfully, Boyle plays off of these themes skillfully without going overboard or laying down some heavy-handed message. 28 Days Later is at heart a good old-fashioned horror flick that’ll have you spilling your popcorn as you jump out of your seat every ten minutes or so. It may not be great art, but it is great fun.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Shot rather inexpensively on digital video, the movie has a deliberately grungy style that works to increase the sense of tension. The DVD very much has that distinctive video-to-film-back-to-video appearance, meaning that it doesn’t have the artificially sharp and vivid appearance of something transferred directly from a video camera source, nor does it look anything like film. It’s an intentionally processed image, with colors and other picture attributes manipulated digitally when necessary. It looks neither “realistic,” nor does it look like a glossy film production. It is its own thing, and for what it is, the 1.85:1 anamorphically-enhanced picture on the DVD is transferred accurately.

My only possible complaint is the presence of some edge enhancement, visible as halos ringing around objects. However, I’m honestly not sure whether this is the fault of the video transfer or if the artifact was introduced by the DV cameras used. I suppose if I got off my butt to see this in the theater while I still have the chance, I might be able to tell whether the problem is present in the theatrical prints. In the meantime, I will just note it. But, along with some jaggies and other video-source defects, the edge enhancement is not necessarily out of place in such a deliberately artificial-looking image.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Be warned, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has enormous dynamic range. The quiet parts of the movie are very quiet, to the point where you’ll want to crank up your volume to hear the whispered dialogue, but the loud parts of the movie are very, very loud and, like the zombies, come at you suddenly from out of nowhere. This one will have you jumping out of your seat more than a few times.

Directional effects are highly aggressive. The disc is not officially labeled a Dolby Digital EX mix, but the rear soundstage decodes well into a center channel without collapsing from the other speakers. Deep bass, as expected, can really rock the house. This is a great, fun horror movie soundtrack.

Also provided are optional subtitles either in English for the Hearing Impaired or Swedish, along with a nifty little feature that I certainly approve of, English subtitles for the audio commentary track so that you can read the director’s commentary while listening to the original movie soundtrack.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

When you start up the disc, a very annoying “Not for Rental” notice appears on screen that is not only unskippable, but even prevents you from stopping or ejecting the disc until it has finished. I find this irritating, as I do the batch of trailers that play before you can get to the menu. Fortunately, you can at least skip over the trailers by hitting the MENU button if you choose.

The audio commentary by director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland is a good listen. They relay a lot of useful information about the film’s production and their intentions for the story, and at least give small hints as to why they chose the ending that they did. Speaking of endings, two different versions of the film’s last scene are available in the supplement section. One is officially labeled an Alternate Ending, though honestly it’s not all that different from the theatrical version. After this is a selection of seven Deleted Scenes, and among them is another scene that, with a little alteration, could have made a fine ending for the picture. Sadly, this was not to be. Boyle and Garland continue their commentary over each of these scenes (the choice to listen to them is optional), informing the viewer of why each was ultimately cut.

Normally I tire quickly of still galleries in DVD supplements, but here the presentation is different enough to have kept me interested. The Production Gallery and Polaroid Gallery are both formatted as automated slide-show featurettes (18 min. and 4 min. respectively) with their own audio commentaries from Danny Boyle. I would not have guessed this to be interesting, but really it’s very informative about the process for keeping movie continuity and the importance of having a publicity photographer on set for as long as possible.

In the Marketing section of the disc we get two theatrical trailers, a presentation of animated storyboards from the movie’s official web site that basically amounts to another trailer, and a music video by Jacknife Lee. That last part is actually rather cool, not so much a music video as a condensation of the entire movie from start to finish into six minutes underscored by a hard-driving beat. This is fun, but it quite literally contains footage from every single important scene in the movie (ending and all) and is only to be watched after you’ve seen the film.

Now we get to the most frustrating supplement, the 24-minute EPK documentary Pure Rage: The Making of 28 Days Later, which disingenuously tries to play up the plausibility of the story’s disease angle as if it were really a threat. (Questionable medical science “experts” intone about the inevitability of a worldwide super-virus.) I’m sure the producers would like you to believe that a major virus is on its way right now and the only way to survive would be to watch their movie for tips. I find this reprehensible.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

28 Days Later is a terrifically entertaining horror picture, one that doesn’t condescend to its audience or turn incredibly stupid. That makes it truly a rarity these days. The movie is still playing in theaters in the U.S. but is available affordably from the UK in this Region 2 DVD edition that has a decent transfer (considering the source), great sound mix, and interesting batch of supplements. This is an easy recommendation, whether you choose to import from Region 2 or wait for the eventual Region 1 release, which probably won’t be much different.

28 Days Later

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 28, 2003.

“Danny Boyle Reinvents Zombie Horror,” the ads shamelessly overstate. I don’t know that I would go that far. Although I did enjoy his new horror thriller 28 Days Later quite a bit more than I’ve cared for any of his previous movies (including the overrated Trainspotting), the film is undeniably derivative of zombie movies past, from the famous Living Dead trilogy to Resident Evil to (come on, let’s be honest here) Night of the Comet. The picture it most closely resembles is The Omega Man, which finds Charlton Heston the lone uninfected survivor in a deserted metropolitan city after a viral plague has wiped out most of the population except for roaming bands of murderous zombies.

28 Days Later follows much the same concept. Jim, a London bicycle courier, is hit by a car and wakes up from a coma, you guessed it, 28 days later, in an empty hospital. While he’s been out, a genetically-engineered virus called Rage has gotten loose and infected almost the entire British populace, turning them into, yup, murderous zombies. Jim wanders through the eerily empty London streets trying to figure out where everyone has gone when he’s first attacked by the “Infected” and then narrowly saved by a small group of other survivors. Together they must improvise ways to keep themselves safe, and then eventually leave the city in the hope of finding more survivors at a nearby military base.

Does Boyle “reinvent” the genre? Not really, but 28 Days Later is an enormously fun horror picture that certainly at least revives it. It’s smartly scripted and tensely directed, which isn’t to say that there aren’t a few “Don’t go in there, you idiot!” moments, but the movie does at least stay true to its convictions and the logic of the rules that it lays down, even if the ending is something of a cop-out. Boyle manages to bring a few nice new spins to the old formula, including his use of handheld digital video to tell the story with a newfound sense of immediacy. The speed and ferocity of the “Infected” are even quite shocking. These aren’t your father’s lumbering zombies, slowly lurching forward towards their victims; these bastards will rush right in and tear you to pieces before you can even begin to react. Boyle also adds an intriguing twist in that once their blood is exposed to the virus, it’s only a matter of seconds before a person goes Romero and succumbs to the violent urges, leaving their friends with the need to make very quick decisions about how they will choose to survive. Are these new changes truly innovative or groundbreaking? Probably not, but they do keep the movie consistently interesting and suspenseful.

Like any story with a plague angle, the movie has a none-too-subtle subtext about human vulnerability to disease despite our advances in technology and culture. You can read into this a statement about AIDS, Anthrax, SARS, or what-have-you, depending on whatever new public health threat is featured on the news in a given week. I also appreciate that the characters in the movie give some thought as to how they should repopulate the Earth when, although this is never specifically spelled out, if you think about it that’s exactly what the Infected have been trying to do. They don’t eat their victims; the purpose of the virus seems to be to spread itself and reproduce. Thankfully, Boyle plays off of these themes skillfully without going overboard or laying down some heavy-handed message. 28 Days Later is at heart a good old-fashioned horror flick that’ll have you spilling your popcorn as you jump out of your seat every ten minutes or so. It may not be great art, but it is great fun.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Shot rather inexpensively on digital video, the movie has a deliberately grungy style that works to increase the sense of tension. The DVD very much has that distinctive video-to-film-back-to-video appearance, meaning that it doesn’t have the artificially sharp and vivid appearance of something transferred directly from a video camera source, nor does it look anything like film. It’s an intentionally processed image, with colors and other picture attributes manipulated digitally when necessary. It looks neither “realistic,” nor does it look like a glossy film production. It is its own thing, and for what it is, the 1.85:1 anamorphically-enhanced picture on the DVD is transferred accurately.

My only possible complaint is the presence of some edge enhancement, visible as halos ringing around objects. However, this is not the fault of the video transfer; the artifact was introduced by the DV cameras used and was present in the theatrical prints as well. However, along with some jaggies and other video-source defects, the edge enhancement is not necessarily out of place in such a deliberately artificial-looking image.

As near as I can tell, the Region 1 DVD looks almost identical to the UK Region 2 release reviewed previously. That import disc was slightly sharper, owing to its PAL video resolution, and runs 4% faster, but other picture attributes look the same to my eye.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Be warned, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has enormous dynamic range. The quiet parts of the movie are very quiet, to the point where you’ll want to crank up your volume to hear the whispered dialogue, but the loud parts of the movie are very, very loud and, like the zombies, come at you suddenly from out of nowhere. This one will have you jumping out of your seat more than a few times.

Directional effects are highly aggressive. The disc is not officially labeled a Dolby Digital EX mix, but the rear soundstage decodes well into a center channel without collapsing from the other speakers. Deep bass, as expected, can really rock the house. This is a great, fun horror movie soundtrack.

French and Spanish dub tracks are available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. Also provided are optional subtitles either in English for the Hearing Impaired or Spanish. Unfortunately, the disc loses the English subtitles for the audio commentary track that were found on the Region 2 release, which is too bad as that features was a pretty good idea.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

This new Region 1 DVD is for the most part a direct copy of the Region 2 edition released several months earlier, right down to the menus. The audio commentary by director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland is a good listen. They relay a lot of useful information about the film’s production and their intentions for the story, and at least give small hints as to why they chose the ending that they did.

Speaking of which, three different versions of the film’s last scene are available as Alternate Endings. The bleak “Alternative Theatrical Ending” was attached to theater prints after the end credits and would have made a much more fitting conclusion for the picture than what the filmmakers ultimately chose. I really wish the DVD producers had authored the disc to seamlessly branch this scene in with the picture so that viewers could decide which version to go with. Sadly, this was not to be. On the other had, on this Region 1 DVD, the scene has been fully post-produced with a completed sound mix, and is a significant improvement over the rough condition of the footage on the Region 2 edition. The next “Alternative Ending” is honestly is not all that different from the theatrical version. Finally is the “Radical Alternative Ending,” presented in storyboard format, which is indeed a radical departure from the direction the movie took. This last one is located on a second page of the Alternate Endings menu and could be easily overlooked if you didn’t know it was there. (In fact, I completely missed it when I reviewed the Region 2 release, but it’s on that copy as well.) After this is a selection of six Deleted Scenes. Boyle and Garland continue their commentary over each of these scenes and alternate endings, informing the viewer of why each was ultimately cut or changed. The choice to listen to the commentary is optional, except on the Radical Alternative Ending where it’s mandatory.

Normally I tire quickly of still galleries in DVD supplements, but here the presentation is different enough to have kept me interested. The Production Gallery and Polaroid Gallery are both formatted as automated slide-show featurettes (18 min. and 4 min. respectively) with their own audio commentaries from Danny Boyle. I would not have guessed this to be interesting, but really it’s very informative about the process for keeping movie continuity and the importance of having a publicity photographer on set for as long as possible.

In the Marketing section of the disc we get two theatrical trailers, a presentation of animated storyboards from the movie’s official web site that basically amounts to another trailer, and a music video by Jacknife Lee. That last part is actually rather cool, not so much a music video as a condensation of the entire movie from start to finish into six minutes underscored by a hard-driving beat. This is fun, but it quite literally contains footage from every single important scene in the movie (ending and all) and is only to be watched after you’ve seen the film.

Now we get to the most frustrating supplement, the 24-minute EPK documentary Pure Rage: The Making of 28 Days Later, which disingenuously tries to play up the plausibility of the story’s disease angle as if it were really a threat. (Questionable medical science “experts” intone about the inevitability of a worldwide super-virus.) I’m sure the producers would like you to believe that a major virus is on its way right now and the only way to survive would be to watch their movie for tips. I find this reprehensible.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

28 Days Later is a terrifically entertaining horror picture, one that doesn’t condescend to its audience or turn incredibly stupid. That makes it truly a rarity these days. The DVD has a decent transfer (considering the source), great sound mix, and interesting batch of supplements. The fully post-produced alternate ending is a special bonus for Region 1 viewers, though we do lose the subtitle stream for the commentary track found on the Region 2 release. This is an easy recommendation regardless of which region you live in, as other than these minor differences the two discs are almost exactly the same as one another.

Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published May 19, 2002.

The 1997 Spanish film Abre los ojos (retitled the much less evocative Open Your Eyes for the American market) is notable for two things. It was an early directorial effort from Alejandro Amenabar, who has since made an auspicious American debut with The Others, and it was the basis for the big-budget Tom Cruise remake Vanilla Sky. I saw the remake first and had a love/hate reaction to it, but remained intrigued enough to seek out the original. I was curious to see exactly how much American director Cameron Crowe had changed, watered down, or muddled from his source material. I suppose I was most surprised to see that he changed almost nothing. In fact, the two movies are almost shot-for-shot identical through most of their running times. Yet somehow, probably by virtue of its smaller budget, the Spanish film seems a little less overblown and pretentious.

Given that the two movies are so similar, it’s hard to talk about one without talking about the other. The story of both films is a pseudo-existential fantasy about a self-centered yuppie forced to re-evaluate his vanity and superficial lifestyle after being disfigured in a car wreck caused by a jealous lover. Elements of science fiction intrude as the story progresses, and it’s difficult to summarize any more of the plot without giving away some of its most interesting twists. The narrative is something of a mish-mash of borrowed themes and ideas from previous movies and TV shows, and plays overall like an extended Twilight Zone episode, but holds together well enough to keep the viewer interested throughout. The American version added a few layers of pop cultural references and was in my opinion better paced, with fewer of the plot twists seeming so telegraphed, but perhaps I feel this way only because I saw it first? The smaller scope of the Spanish production is streamlined in comparison, and often makes for a tighter film not burdened by the weight of a big name star and hefty budget.

Penelope Cruz appears in both films playing the same character. I’m not entirely sure how Cruz ever became a movie star, as I find her entirely charmless and unappealing. Her Spanish is at least a little more fluent than her English, which is a benefit to this film, and Amenabar directs her nude scenes in such a way that they might actually be misconstrued as sexy. This at least gives Abre los ojos a decided edge over Vanilla Sky, where the audience is left continually questioning why the Tom Cruise character would want her when he could have Cameron Diaz instead.

Were it to be judged entirely on its own merits, I think Abre los ojos would stand strongly as a flawed but intriguing science fiction/psychological thriller from a talented young Spanish director. Unfortunately, I fear that it has been tainted by the high-profile remake, whose presence only serves to emphasize the weaknesses in both films. Only time will tell which one develops a lasting legacy.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

This was a well-photographed movie and the DVD conveys it at least adequately. The film is letterboxed to approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. The disc has decent colors, good black level, and a fairly sharp focus. On the downside, the entire two-hour movie is spread over only one disc layer and does exhibit some noticeable compression artifacting at times. The picture also has a moderate amount of edge enhancement that may be distracting on larger video displays.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s original Spanish-language soundtrack is presented in plain Dolby Surround, though the film’s end credits indicate that is was released theatrically in Dolby Digital 5.1. This is a rather basic mix and I doubt it would be much improved by 5.1 encoding, so this lapse doesn’t terribly bother me. The stereo sound has reasonable strength and depth for the musical score, but the rest of the soundtrack exhibits the strains of a modest budget. The dialogue and effects tend to sound drab, with blatant ADR work, and are primarily anchored in the center channel. The surround channel is reserved mostly for music bleed, with only one or two genuinely aggressive passages (such as the night club scene). When they come, they sound great, but they’re few and far between, not that the movie really needs gimmicky separation effects to distinguish itself. In all, this is a decent though not exceptional soundtrack and is represented by the DVD about as well as can be expected.

The disc offers optional white English subtitles. While watching in 16:9 anamorphic mode, they often intrude far into the picture, obscuring the actors’ mouths during close-ups. No closed captioning or other language options have been provided.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The disc doesn’t come with much in the way of bonus features. A printed booklet included with the case contains a few brief words about the film from the director. On the disc itself are cast & crew bios and a short section of production notes. The notes spoil much of the plot and needlessly reprint the same text found in the booklet. Artisan has also thrown in some requisite previews for their other titles, but I don’t consider such things true supplements. They certainly don’t supplement the main film at all.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Abre los ojos is an interesting little film that many viewers may find more satisfying than its overproduced Hollywood remake. I advise against watching them back-to-back, however. Artisan’s DVD is nothing special, but its budget pricing (I picked up my copy for $9.99) is certainly attractive. I recommend it to those who are curious.

Adaptation

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 15, 2004.

“I’ve written myself into my screenplay.”

“That’s kinda weird, huh?”

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is a very strange guy, as his scripts will attest. He can’t do anything in a straightforward fashion. Given the chance to adapt a pleasant little non-fiction book about flowers called The Orchid Thief from Susan Orlean, a writer for the New Yorker, Kaufman instead uses the book as a springboard for a wild fantastical nightmare about purging his own personal demons. The result, Adaptation, is something Orlean could never have dreamed, and probably sat dumbfounded the first time she saw. Rather than just cut and paste the story from the book to the screen, Kaufman instead wrote a movie about himself, Charlie Kaufman, tormented screenwriter struggling to adapt Orlean’s book. Kaufman the screenwriter wrote a script about Kaufman the screenwriter writing a script, which in turn tells the story of Susan Orlean writing a book that features herself. Can a film get much more metatextual than that?

Did I mention that the movie stars Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman as well as his (fictional) identical twin brother Donald, who may or may not be a figment of his imagination? Donald is also a screenwriter, the less-struggling kind who’s having no trouble at all churning out a piece of genre hackwork called “The 3,” a cheesy thriller about a serial killer with multiple personalities. (And if you think his pitch sounds too laughably inane to ever get produced, check out a movie called Identity that was released a few months after this film.)

All this, and the movie still manages to be a real adaptation of the Susan Orlean book, cramming in all the key points of The Orchid Thief in a lyrical, literate fashion before spinning them off into all sorts of wild tangents. Meryl Streep plays Orlean in one of the few performances of her career that doesn’t call for her to put on an annoying fake accent. The ever-reliable Chris Cooper is also on hand in an enormously fun role as the white trash horticultural genius who is the basis for The Orchid Thief. And as the two Kaufmans, the self-loathing, cynical Charlie and the haplessly naïve Donald, Cage in turn delivers two of the best performances he’s ever likely to manage.

Adaptation is a fabulous, invigorating film, rich with meaning and interpretation. Yes, it’s even “psychologically taut.” No short plot summary can ever do justice to its crazy flights of imagination, that literally take us from the dawn of time up through to the very second that the script itself is being written. It’s a movie about adaptation in multiple senses of the word, from the way that plants adapt to their environment, the way that books are adapted into screenplays, or the way that people adapt to their circumstances or the expectations of others.

In one of my favorite nuances, Charlie is constantly complaining that film scripts rarely depict real life, that real people don’t change or go through dramatic character arcs. The movie in part reflects this. A character like Donald, for example, starts out as comic relief, a bumbling loser and the antithesis of all the values Charlie strives for. Yet over time, Charlie’s understanding of Donald grows and evolves. Although Donald himself doesn’t change much throughout the course of the movie, eventually we come to realize that he has been a thoughtful, intelligent, and even talented guy the whole time. Likewise, screenwriting guru Robert McKee (another terrific performance from Brian Cox, here playing another real person who was very brave to lend the use of his name in this movie) is initially introduced as an arrogant con artist, a charlatan bilking desperate writers with his simplistic rules about how to make it big. He certainly doesn’t change any in his few moments on screen, but eventually Charlie finds genuine help and insight in his guidance. The people don’t change, but our perceptions of them do.

Other things do change, of course, and as it sweeps into its last act, the movie turns into the very things it swears it won’t, namely a formula thriller with drugs, guns, car chases, plot twists, outrageous character shifts, and a monumental deus-ex-machina contrivance. It becomes exactly the kind of movie Donald would have wanted it to be. This is all done with great deliberation and irony, but Kaufman and director Spike Jonze resist the easy punchline. The more ridiculous the movie’s plot becomes, the straighter they play it, avoiding the expected big twist finale and leaving the ending a conundrum sure to frustrate as many viewers as it rewards those who have been paying attention.

I must admit that I’ve never considered Being John Malkovich, the first collaboration between Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, the most brilliant thing in the history of cinema, as some prominent critics called it. Although reasonably clever and fairly amusing, quite frankly the movie often felt like a desperate Terry Gilliam knockoff. Nonetheless, Adaptation, though it’s clearly the work of the same people who made Malkovich and shares much thematically and stylistically in common with that film, is also a work of tremendous growth and originality, and is in every way the better picture. In fact, it was easily the best picture released in 2002. If not the Greatest Thing Ever, it comes damn close.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Adaptation is, like Panic Room and Punch Drunk Love, one of Columbia TriStar’s fake SuperBit DVD releases. I call it a fake SuperBit because it’s perfectly apparent that this disc did not go into production under any pretense of being a genuine SuperBit release. When the studio realized that they weren’t going to have any “added value content” supplemental materials to put on the disc, they decided, “Hey, let’s slap a DTS track on there and call it a SuperBit.” Other than the presence of DTS audio, in most other respects the disc does not meet the criteria set by previous SuperBit releases. Its case artwork does not have the big silver border design, the disc has animated menus (a SuperBit no-no), and the compression quality of the picture transfer doesn’t seem to be much better than average.

The 1.85:1 anamorphically enhanced image is sharp with strong textural detail and vibrant colors. Like all Columbia TriStar discs, minor edge enhancement is present, most visible around printed text, though on the whole it’s less intrusive than on many Columbia titles. In its best scenes, the movie genuinely looks terrific. However, stylistically the film has patches of intentionally rough-looking footage, and there are a number of scenes with heavy visible grain. The digital compression is mostly adequate during these scenes, but there are surprising compression problems considering the disc’s SuperBit pedigree. Fine details in the image sometimes blur during complex images and some shots are swimming with compression grain (not real photographic grain).

I suppose if we want to argue semantics, all the SuperBit branding specifically promises is that the disc will have a high average bit-rate, but it has also always been implied that SuperBit discs would be mastered with more attention paid to the compression quality. The actual bit-rate number is meaningless; what’s important is the quality of the compression work. Adaptation may maintain a high average numerical rate, but the quality of the compression work still has noticeable flaws. This isn’t to say that it looks terrible by any means. In fact, for the most part, it looks great. But for a disc branded with the SuperBit logo, it does not live up to its potential. It’s barely better than average for the DVD format, and there are plenty of non-SuperBit titles from this studio or others that look as good or better.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

To qualify as a SuperBit, a DVD must have a DTS track, so Adaptation gets one by default. The film’s sound design is professionally done and has interesting elements, but it’s not a showy mix and there’s little audible difference between the provided Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 sound options.

In many scenes, especially those set in swamps, the movie has aggressive surround ambience, yet whiz-bang separation effects are few until the last half-hour, where the mix becomes a little more active. The track is well recorded and mixed, and is presented with good fidelity. The two car crash scenes have the deep bass hits you’d expect from them, and some of the musical score also digs deep into the lower registers. I have no problems with the way the soundtrack is presented in either 5.1 sound option. Still, there’s little here that begs for DTS. That track’s presence seems like more of a contractual obligation than a real necessity.

A Dolby 2.0 Surround option has also been provided, along with a French dub in Dolby 2.0, both in clear contradiction of the SuperBit mandate. (Ehy are they wasting valuable disc space with these?) English and French subtitles are available, as is true closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Also a violation of the SuperBit program’s rules is the fact that this disc contains two bonus features. They aren’t anything elaborate, just a Theatrical Trailer and some Filmographies, but their presence at all proves that the disc wasn’t always intended to be a SuperBit. For what it’s worth, the trailer is anamorphically enhanced and the filmographies include a bio for Donald Kaufman.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

As I see it, Adaptation is the type of movie best enjoyed from the comfort of home video. Unless you happened to catch it with a particularly open-minded audience in a small art theater, a film this quirky and original tends to provoke divisive reactions from many viewers. I recall hearing nothing but grumbling and complaints as I left the theater where I first saw it. This isn’t a movie likely to be enjoyed by the type of yokel who thought that, say, Troop Beverly Hills was some sort of cinematic masterwork. I’d rather watch it again at home than put up with that.

Columbia TriStar’s DVD is a no-frills affair that’s been given the SuperBit branding almost as an excuse. The quality is fine and, although not perfect, I have no serious complaints. Rumors persist that a special edition re-release may be in the works. If true, I can’t speculate about whether the picture or sound quality would take any kind of serious drop without the SuperBit moniker on the packaging. I’m skeptical about what kind of bonus materials such a disc would likely have, given Spike Jonze’s aversion to such things. (See the special features on the Being John Malkovich DVD for reference.) If you just care about the movie itself, this disc will suit nicely, but if you’re eager for supplemental content and are concerned about the prospect of repurchasing an already-owned title, it might be worth your while to hold on a little longer to see what develops.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 20, 2000.

German cinema underwent a brief revitalization in the 1970s with the emergence of three influential filmmakers: the intellectual Wim Wenders, the insane genius R.W. Fassbinder, and a cross between the best qualities of those other two, both contemplative and mad, Werner Herzog.

Herzog is most famous for his collaboration with tempestuous star Klaus Kinski. The two were close friends, clashed constantly in vicious feuds, and almost always brought out the best in each other. Aguirre: The Wrath of God was their first film together. It’s Herzog’s masterpiece and Kinski’s most remembered performance.

The story follows a group of Spanish Conquistadors who have broken ranks from their expedition and are travelling down the Amazon River to find the mythical city of El Dorado. The men are greedy for gold, but their leader Aguirre is not so short-sighted. He lusts for fame, glory, and an immortal place in history. The film is a Heart of Darkness tale in broad daylight. As the men travel further into the jungle and away from civilization, they stray deeper into despair and madness. As Herzog says in the audio commentary, Kinski was the only actor who could play Aguirre. Looking into his piercing blue eyes is like looking straight into the soul of a brilliant lunatic, which he very well may have been in real life.

The film is about many things: religion, slavery, greed, ambition, and the thin line separating civilized behavior from insanity. Herzog is a master of the cinematic metaphor, many of them unforgettable. His movies have brought us Fitzcarraldo trying to drag his steamship over a mountain, the rat-like Nosferatu spreading plague through the cities of Europe, and the sublime dancing chicken at the end of Stroszek. Aguirre is loaded with them as well, from the opening shot of soldiers descending through the clouds until the transcendent ending.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

To begin, I was expecting that this disc would be letterboxed at least somewhere around 1.66:1. Instead, the movie is presented full-frame. An Anchor Bay rep confirmed that, “This is as the film was originally presented and it is correctly framed at 1.37:1.” I will have to take his word for it. That said, the composition looks fine and the picture transfer is excellent. The image is crisp and well detailed. Gone is the fuzziness of previous video and Laserdisc editions, where all the green of the jungle blended together into an indistinct blur. Now every shade of green on every tree leaf is perfectly delineated. The intrusions of color from the Spaniards’ robes are vibrant and stable. There are almost no print-related artifacts. This is definitely the best I’ve seen the film look.

The photography often has a deliberately rough appearance suitable to the subject matter. There are sporadic water droplets or muddy smears on the lens, but these are obviously not related to the disc transfer, and frankly I would be upset had they attempted some sort of George Lucas-inspired digital revisionism. Photographic grain and the haziness of the environment lead to an occasionally digital look when the compression kicks in, but this is a minor quibble and I can’t fault them for it. This film will never look like a recent $100 million blockbuster production, but for a $360,000 German film shot with one camera in a South American jungle, it looks damn good.

For those poor souls like myself unfamiliar with the German language, removable English subtitles have been provided in a yellow electronic text font. Like many subtitled foreign films, there are a few typos and poor choices of slang (“…these poor guys who died so bravely”), but on the whole the translation appears adequate.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The disc offers three audio choices. The German soundtrack has undergone a Chace Digital Stereo remix into both 5.1 surround and 2.0 surround. The only way to hear the original mono mix is in a dubbed English track. I gave that one a listen for a few minutes before I couldn’t stand it anymore.

On the German tracks, the dialogue (mostly ADR anyway) is clear and intelligible. Sound effects, especially the horse trampling on the raft, often scream of foley work, but this comes with the territory on such a low-budget film and is to be expected. If you were hoping for zinging surround effects and deep rumbling bass, then you’re simply watching the wrong film. Fidelity and bass are often limited, most noticeably during the few cannon explosions or musket shots, but the ambient jungle noises and birdcalls sound fine. The sound design has an emphasis on the power of silence, and thankfully the background hiss has been largely cleaned up during those stretches of the film.

I’m less than impressed with the attempt to remix the musical score into fake stereo surround. The score is eerie and minimalist, with a rhythmic pulsing that ought to be centered like a heartbeat. Spreading it to multiple channels dilutes this effect and calls attention to the limited fidelity of the track. Frankly, it makes the music sound really annoying. This was, in my opinion, a big mistake. Given the age of the film and the lack of attention it has received until now, I’m sure the soundtrack needed quite a bit of cleaning up. If they were going to put the effort into remastering it, I would have preferred that it be left in the original mono. This trend of remixing old soundtracks just for the sake of doing it is starting to disturb me.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The most significant supplement is an audio commentary from Werner Herzog and interviewer Norman Hill. Herzog is concise and well spoken, and Hill is adept at prodding him along whenever it seems like the track might lag. We learn right away that the diary the story is based on was entirely fabricated, and there’s an interesting explanation for why Aguirre walks so strangely in the film. They also relay a number of anecdotes about shooting in such difficult locations and about Kinski’s unusual working methods. Herzog speaks of Kinski in fond terms, even though he admits that the man made his life miserable. What really comes across at the end of the track is just how much Herzog loves cinema and this film in particular.

Also included are some relatively informative talent bios for Herzog and Kinski. The most tedious theatrical trailer that I have ever seen in my life is presented not once but three times! It’s in German with English subtitles, German without subtitles, and an English dub. I’d say once was more than enough.

In a nice move that I would like to see other studios adopt, the disc defaults to playing the movie without going through obnoxious menus when you insert it into the player. You can access the menus through the remote, and they are tasteful and well designed.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Aguirre: The Wrath of God may not be for everyone. The pacing is slow and moody, with quietly surreal moments. Anyone who thought that the last half of Apocalypse Now was too boring might want to give this one a rental before committing to the slightly high retail price. Then there’s also the issue of why Spanish soldiers would be speaking German! Nevertheless, the film is an important masterwork of world cinema and this DVD presents it in great fashion.

Alias Declassified

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 12, 2003.

What’s this, a book review on DVDFile? Has the world gone all topsy-turvy? Fear not, confused reader, because when the book includes its own DVD, I figure it must be fair game for our coverage. And when the book’s content is about a TV series whose first season is coming to DVD shortly, that makes a review even more relevant.

Fans of Sydney Bristow, TV’s best female super-spy, can be an obsessive lot, scrutinizing each weekly episode of Alias for all the exotic locations, high-tech espionage gadgetry, and outrageous costumes with an attention to detail usually reserved for Trekkies. Who can blame them? The show is an outrageous mix of James Bond intrigue with the emotional turmoil of a relationship drama. It’s like Felicity, if Felicity could kick ass and save the world on a weekly basis. It’s a crazy combination, frequently ridiculous but enormously entertaining, and for those initiated with its charms, it’s sheer bliss. It’s also the type of show perfectly suited for an Official Companion Book. And so, for those fans who have been tracking Sydney’s adventures across the globe, memorizing each of her disguises (love that red wig!), and studying the impossible workings of the Rambaldi artifacts, now we’re given this wonderfully shameless merchandising tie-in, the Alias Declassified book.

Written by Mark Cotta Vaz, author of similar tomes about Star Wars and Spider-Man, Declassified is everything you’d expect and want from a companion book. Setting an unwaveringly positive and enthusiastic tone, Vaz systematically works his way through every aspect of the show, both its storyline and its behind-the-scenes production. From the show’s cast and writing staff, to its sets, costumes, props, and special effects, the book touches on a little of everything, going into no great amount of depth about anything in particular. It’s a slick, glossy publication fluffed up with large text and photos on just about every page. At over 200 pages in length, its actual content is a quick read that can be finished in a night or two. Regardless, it’s terrific, utterly shallow fun that fans of the show should appreciate. The costume sketches alone are worth savoring.

Published after the first season finale, Declassified contains a number of plot spoilers relating to the events up until that point (the expectation, after all, is that only fans of the show would bother to purchase it), but is left in the dark about subsequent events in the second season that radically changed the direction of the series. The book was released in the middle of 2002 and includes a bonus DVD that, according to the sticker on the cover, is limited to the first 100,000 copies. I have no idea about current availability for the disc, but if you can find a copy, it makes for a fine collectible.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The video features on the included DVD are all presented in 4:3 full-screen, which is unfortunate since the show is broadcast in the 16:9 ratio on ABC’s HDTV feed. The picture on the series clips is a little soft with fuzzy colors, and seems to be obviously mastered from a tape source a couple of generations removed from the original master. The interview footage shot on video is generally sharper and clearer. It doesn’t look great, but for what it is, the disc is perfectly adequate.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is suitably strong when it comes to the rockin’ electronica musical score. Some of the interview audio is a little bright, but again it gets the job done. That’s really all that can be said about that. There’s no feature presentation, so standards for the audio quality can be given a little slack.

No subtitles or captions have been provided.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Essentially, the entire DVD is all supplements, so we’ll list its contents here. Let’s get this right out of the way and admit that everything included here is pure Electronic Press Kit fluff. There are no features of any substance or keen insight into the making of the show. That doesn’t mean they’re not fun, though.

Case File 1.0 is a two-minute montage establishing the spy-girl premise for the show. Basically an extended commercial, it features a lot of cool action clips slickly edited together.

The Bristow Profile contains interview clips with Jennifer Garner discussing her favorite scenes and favorite costumes. It runs another two minutes. Garner comes across as a very likeable and sweet-natured girl with less of a hard edge than her character. When asked about the prospects for a romantic interest in Season 2, she responds, “We have cute enough guys on the show. I might as well be kissing one of them.” Given the recent rumors surrounding her divorce from actor husband Scott Foley, perhaps she took this advice a little too seriously.

The Interrogations are a group of seven interviews with other cast members: Victor Garber (Jack Bristow), Ron Rifkin (Sloane), Michael Vartan (Vaughn), Carl Lumbly (Dixon), Kevin Weisman (Marshall), Bradley Cooper (Will), and Merrin Dungey (Francie). They each run between 1 to 4 minutes.

The remaining supplements are all text-based. The Chain of Command is a series of character bios for all of the above mentioned roles. They provide a number of interesting little factoids, including an email address for Sydney. (Sorry, I haven’t tried it.) True Identities are then cast bios for the actors.

The menus for the disc play in an annoyingly short loop that can be frustrating, and the way the disc comes packaged in the book is not sound for long-term storage. I recommend finding an alternate DVD or CD case and keeping it there.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The Spy Game & Special Ops section of the disc takes you to the DVD-ROM content. Upon initially opening the application, it states: “Become an agent in training… Go underground on secret missions… Watch Alias on ABC for clues…” The options then are a trio of web links to the Random House (publisher of Alias juvenile fiction tie-in novels), Nokia (paid sponsor), and ABC web sites. On the ABC site you can download screensavers and wallpaper, or play an internet game called “Alias Underground” that will have you hopping between a series of web sites to gather clues. It’s kind of clever but also kind of annoying. I didn’t get very far.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Alias fans should have no hesitation in picking up this book, especially if their copy includes the bonus DVD. It may be light on substance, but is high on entertainment and possibly collectible value. I would not be surprised if some or all of the video features on the DVD wind up duplicated on the show’s first season DVD box set this fall, but the book is still an easy recommendation regardless.

Alias: The Complete First Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 1, 2003.

My vote for the single most purely entertaining television series of the past decade, Alias is an outrageous concoction mixing elements of James Bond intrigue with the emotional turmoil of a relationship drama. It’s like Felicity, if Felicity could kick ass and save the world on a weekly basis. Every episode is filled with shooting and explosions, high-tech spy gadgets, exciting adventure, exotic locations, high-flying martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, torture, revenge, chases, escapes, and even a little bit of kissing. What more could you possibly want from a television show?

The delectable Jennifer Garner stars as Sydney Bristow, college grad student by day/deadly super-spy by night. In between term papers and exams, Sydney works as an agent for SD-6, a top-secret branch of the CIA, so secret that the CIA has never heard of it. When she tries to tell her fiancé what she does for a living, her bosses have him executed, hardly a good way of ensuring employee job satisfaction. Sydney will soon come to learn that SD-6 isn’t everything it claims to be, and that many of the people in her life have been misleading her for years. Among those people is her estranged father, supposedly an airplane parts salesman, actually another agent for SD-6, and on top of that a double-agent working for the real CIA in order to report on SD-6. Or at least that’s the story he tells, if he could indeed be trusted, which isn’t entirely clear. It’s all enough to make a poor girl’s head spin, but Sydney is no ordinary girl. She has a genius-level IQ, a killer body, great fashion sense, the strength to take out an army of men with her bare hands, and the steely resolve to work as a double-agent herself and bring down the evil bastards that killed her boyfriend. Bad guys of the world look out!

Don’t worry, the above paragraph doesn’t spoil any important plotting that isn’t set up within the first episode. The joy of the show is the way things play out, as Sydney continues to work undercover with her old bosses, pretending that she still thinks they’re the good guys trying to save the world, meanwhile plotting to foil their plans with the help of the real CIA, and at the same time attempting to keep up the appearances of a normal life to her clueless friends who think she works in a bank. And you thought your job was tough!

The show works as well as it does because of the way it balances the deliriously silly action-adventure elements with the more emotionally-grounded domestic drama. Sydney has real friends she doesn’t enjoy lying to, and hopes someday to have a normal life, but the deeper she gets into the morass of national security intrigue, the further away that dream seems to recede. Some of the spy-girl storylines, especially those involving the search for a series of increasingly implausible contraptions made by a 15th Century inventor named Milo Rambaldi, cross well over the line into ridiculous fantasy, but the show remains compelling because it knows how to strike the perfect balance of earnest sincerity and camp entertainment.

The series has consistently sharp writing and witty dialogue. It has fun playing with genre conventions, especially in creating the character of Marshall, the bumbling and insecure SD-6 Op Tech specialist who steals every scene he appears in. And every episode manages to find a new excuse to slip Sydney into another delicious outfit for her undercover operations. Jennifer Garner fills the difficult role as star of such a complicated series perfectly. A stunningly beautiful woman with athletic grace and tremendous acting range, she manages to be convincing in any situation, whether dealing with the horror of finding her fiancé murdered or kick-boxing her way through a squad of Russian soldiers while wearing a tight party dress and stiletto heels. This, my friends, is television as sheer bliss.

Girls kick ass!

Episodes included in this Complete First Season are: Truth Be Told, So It Begins, Parity, A Broken Heart, Doppelganger, Reckoning, Color-Blind, Time Will Tell, Mea Culpa, Spirit, The Confession, The Box Parts 1-2, The Coup, Page 47, The Prophecy, Q&A, Masquerade, Snowman, The Solution, Rendezvous, and Almost Thirty Years. Each episode runs approximately 45 minutes without commercials, aside from the full-length pilot episode which was first broadcast in a special 65-minute commercial-free time slot, and is here presented in its entirety. (The show’s repeats and syndication broadcasts usually feature an edited-down version of the episode.)

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Hooray for widescreen! Contrary to initially published specs, all episodes in this DVD box set are presented in the 16:9 widescreen ratio of the show’s HDTV broadcasts, encoded with anamorphic enhancement. They look terrific for the most part. The show is flawlessly composed for the wide framing and the image quality is bright and colorful. In its best moments, it looks as close to high-definition as I’ve ever seen from a DVD. The picture has exemplary sharpness and detail; you can see all the textures of the skin tones in the actors’ faces. Colors are bold and vivid, and black levels attain an inky depth.

Keeping these discs from reaching the highest scores for quality is the continued presence of some low-amplitude edge enhancement. It is not a terrible distraction, but it’s certainly visible if you look for it. Many scenes also have a thin layer of grain (this is a television production, after all) whose appearance is often accentuated by the edge enhancement. The digital compression seems satisfactory for the most part, yet bizarrely in the first episode there are two scenes that exhibit a radical drop in compression quality, at the 22-minute and 56-minute marks, respectively. Everything looks fine at first until, suddenly, severe MPEG compression artifacts rear their heads and then, just as quickly, everything returns to normal. It’s enough to yank your attention out of the scene. I can’t say for sure what caused the problem (average bit-rate is fairly high in both instances), but aside from the pilot episode I didn’t notice anything like this happening again in any of the other episodes I sampled.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

A bit more schizophrenic in quality is the audio presentation. All episodes have been remastered into Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, a specification which sounds impressive but is essentially meaningless in actual practice. The first two episodes really don’t sound very good at all. Volume level on them is set very low by default, and even after raising the master volume on my receiver well above my standard settings, they still sounded flat, compressed and lifeless. They have almost no bass and very little surround presence. Gunshots have none of the expected punch and what surround activity does occur is entirely monaural, so those viewers with EX-capable equipment will want to disable the rear center channel or else the entire surround soundstage will collapse toward the middle. True, this is a television show and I don’t necessarily expect it to have a feature film quality soundtrack, but Alias does sound better in broadcast and a number of other TV show DVD sets have better audio quality, even without the 5.1 encoding.

However, by the third episode, we can already hear a significant improvement. The front soundstage dramatically opens up and volume level comes closer to normal (though is still a little low). Low-end fidelity finally improves and gunshots start to have the punch that was missing before. Things are still not perfect, though, as the high end of the signal now clips and distorts for at least a few episodes. Fortunately, audio quality continues to improve until the end of the season, which has a very dynamic soundtrack that’s more along the lines of what I expected from the entire season. The action scenes are alive and energetic with full-bodied sound, and we even start to get split-surround activity that takes better advantage of the 5.1 mixing. It’s just too bad that the whole season couldn’t have been consistent. If every episode sounded as good as the last couple do, I’d give this set a rave review. As it is, I have mixed feelings.

The only subtitle option is English captioning for the hearing impaired. True closed captioning is also available.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

I have to say, I was expecting Buena Vista to simply recycle the contents of the Alias Declassified bonus disc released last year for this box set. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you don’t have that disc), they have done no such thing and have instead thrown together a new batch of supplements with no carry-over from that other release.

The highlight of the set are the four episode-specific audio commentaries, the first and last of which are preceded by brief video introductions from their participants. Series creator J.J. Abrams and star Jennifer Garner discuss the pilot episode Truth Be Told. It’s a decent, very conversational track about what it’s like to work on the show, with interesting trivia factoids revealed throughout. Next are producers Michael Bonvillain, Sarah Caplan, and Ken Olin on the track for the second episode, So It Begins. This is a more technical commentary, focused on the production logistics of putting the show together. On Disc 5, we get another producer track from John Eisendrath, Alex Kurtzman-Counter, and Roberto Orci over episode Q&A. This is perhaps the best commentary in the set, an excellent talk about story construction and how the various elements that make up the show are balanced. Finally, over the last episode, Almost Thirty Years, is a cast party track featuring stars Jennifer Garner (Sydney), Michael Vartan (Vaughn), Victor Garber (Jack Bristow), Bradley Cooper (Will), Carl Lumbly (Dixon), Ron Rifkin (Sloane), Merrin Dungey (Francie), and Kevin Weisman (Marshall). Everyone seems to be having a fun time reminiscing about how the show got started, sharing production anecdotes, and making fun of one another.

A note of warning: the commentaries do spoil major plot elements from Season 2, so new viewers may wish to postpone listening to them.

The majority of the supplements are collected on the last disc. The Alias Production Diary (19 min.) is probably a recycled piece of Electronic Press Kit fluff, but it’s kind of fun and interesting, especially when it shows footage of Garner training for her fight scenes. Inside Stunts is a slick ten-minute featurette that focuses on exactly what you’d think from its title.

After this are six Deleted Scenes running a total of ten minutes, a Gag Reel with three minutes of actors flubbing their lines, five TV spots, an Alias Video Game Preview (just a one-minute commercial), and a Season 2 Sneak Peak commercial for the next upcoming box set. (Be warned: more plot spoilers are included.)

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The Alias ScriptScanner is a rather neat feature that allows you to read along the pilot episode script in sync with video of that episode displayed in a window to the side. If you want to jump to any point in the show, all you have to do is scroll to the appropriate part of the script and click on a line of dialogue to be taken directly to it.

Beyond that, the only other ROM feature is an option to register your DVD, I suppose in case it should need replacement (assuming that the disc isn’t so defective that you can’t play it in your computer to get to the registration feature in the first place). Whether this is worth anyone’s time is something I haven’t decided.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I really love this trend of issuing TV shows on DVD so quickly after their initial broadcast. I knew when I first watched the pilot episode of Alias that I couldn’t wait for the studio to put out a Season 1 box set, and here it is already, with Season 2 scheduled for just a few months down the line. This is a fabulous show that’s well worth owning. Picture quality is great and the supplements are worthwhile. Highly recommended.

Alias: The Complete Second Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published December 2, 2003.

“Truth takes time.”

Sensational super-spy Sydney Bristow returns for her second year of international intrigue and adventure in Season 2 of Alias, now available on DVD a mere three months after Season 1 debuted on the format. As far as I’m concerned, it couldn’t get here fast enough. This is the type of show that, as soon as I watch a new episode on broadcast, I ache for the chance to own the complete season on DVD as soon as possible. For their part, Buena Vista Home Entertainment has been doing their best to make that possible, bless their hearts.

Depending on whom you ask, Season Two of Alias is either superior to the already terrific first season, or it starts out great and then flails for awhile. Personally, I like both seasons about equally, and choosing between them is pointless when they’re both so damned entertaining. When we left off at the end of Season 1, Sydney had just discovered that her presumed-dead mother was not only still alive, but was head of one of the evil organizations that Sydney had sworn to destroy. We pick up the new year with the introduction of Lena Olin to the cast, and figuring out whether she’s really evil or not is just one of the fun guessing games that will be dragged out for the next 22 episodes. The casting of Olin is inspired, as not only does she share a vague physical resemblance to Jennifer Garner (enough, at least, to pass for TV relatives), but the role calls back memories of the crazy Russian hitwoman she played in Romeo Is Bleeding, still her most outrageous and memorable performance. Her position as Spy Mommy in the show’s constantly twisting plot gives the series exciting new avenues to explore and finally takes the pressure off poor beleaguered Jack as the object of everyone’s suspicion.

What Season 2 will really be remembered for, however, is the infamous “reboot” episode, Phase One. Offered the opportunity of a post-Super Bowl timeslot for the thirteenth episode, series creator J.J. Abrams crammed about ten episodes worth of plot into one hour, the result of which completely turns the show’s universe upside down, unwriting everything we thought we knew about the series. It’s a bold move, one that upset some of the show’s fans who were happy with the way things had been going, but frankly I think it was a brilliant decision that gave the concept a thorough shaking-up before it had the chance to grow stale. In my opinion, Phase One is the best episode the show has yet aired.

True, after the reboot, the series took a little while to re-establish its footing, but it does eventually find its new direction, and getting there is still a lot of fun. Even the most ardent naysayer must admit to relief that Sydney’s boring friend Francie was finally given something interesting to do! And, as much as the plot pulls the rug out from under us, some things will never change. No matter what else happens, we can always count on Sydney to wear a new sexy outfit every week, uncover new betrayals and double-crosses, and get tangled up in a little hand-to-hand combat, preferably while wearing the aforementioned sexy outfit. As the year winds down to its whopper of a season finale, Abrams gives us the most delicious cat-fight in the show’s history and a doozy of a cliffhanger to leave us wanting more.

I do want more, and once a week on television is hardly enough. Who needs to wait for the broadcast networks anymore, anyway? Can’t they crank out these DVD box sets any faster?

Episodes included in this Complete Second Season are: The Enemy Walks In, Trust Me, Cipher, Dead Drop, The Indicator, Salvation, The Counteragent, Passage Parts 1-2, The Abduction, A Higher Echelon, The Getaway, Phase One, Double Agent, A Free Agent, Firebomb, A Dark Turn, Truth Takes Time, Endgame, Countdown, Second Double, and The Telling.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Once again available in 16:9 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement, this second season of Alias looks just as good as the first. Sharpness and detail are again superb, especially the skin textures of the actors’ faces. Colors are also vividly reproduced and look great. Despite the presence of some grain, which is endemic to the show’s production and photographic style, compression quality across the season appears to be fine. I noticed no disturbing anomalies like those in the pilot episode of Season 1.

A slight improvement is found in the use of edge enhancement, which seems reduced over what was visible in the first box set. Although halo artifacts are still visible at times (mostly noticeable in the credit text), they appear more infrequently and usually of lesser amplitude. On the downside, the show is often shot in low-light situations, and the dark image on these DVDs tends to crush shadow detail. Still, this is a fine-looking television product and I have to give the DVDs high marks.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks on these episodes are, if nothing else, more consistent than in Season 1. In the first box set, audio quality started out very weak and slowly improved over the course of the season. Here, everything sounds pretty much the same from episode to episode, and all things considered it’s fairly decent. Volume is very low by default, unfortunately, and even after amplification tends to sound rather flat. Being a television show, these surround mixes are naturally front-heavy. However, when the surrounds are engaged, they’re usually put to better use than in most of Season 1, including at least a couple of discrete rear-channel directional effects per episode. Gunshots usually have a fair amount of punch to them, but in other respects bass aggressiveness remains limited, as expected.

Subtitle options include English for the hearing impaired or Spanish, and the discs are also encoded with true closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

We get four new episode-specific audio commentaries this season. On Disc 4, series creator J.J. Abrams joins director Jack Bender and stars Jennifer Garner (Sydney), Greg Grunberg (Weiss), Michael Vartan (Vaughn), and Victor Garber (Jack) to discuss the reboot episode, Phase One. With the commentary selected, during an early scene the video will actually pause and branch to an alternate take of the action. Moving on to Disc 5 is a rather dry, technical commentary for A Dark Turn by director Ken Olin (yeah, the guy from Thirtysomething now directs, and is no relation at all to Lena Olin), writer Jesse Alexander, and writer/producer Jeff Pinker. The disc menus list the presence of producer John Eisendrath as well, but he is not to be heard on the track. Disc 6 has two more commentaries, the first on episode Second Double by Ken Olin with stars Bradley Cooper (Will), Carl Lumbly (Dixon), and Terry O’Quinn (Kendall). Finally, J.J. Abrams returns for the finale episode The Telling, with Ken Olin again, Merrin Dungey (Francie), Ron Rifkin (Sloane), and Kevin Weisman (Marshall). This last one has another branch to an alternate take. Fans will find all four tracks worth a listen, but the two moderated by Abrams are definitely the best.

I don’t consider the stupid bonus trailers that play before the menu on Disc 1 to be real supplements, so therefore all remaining bonus features are found on Disc 6. The best feature in the set is The Making of The Telling, a very thorough 45-minute production diary about the finale episode. Not your usual EPK fluff, this piece covers in due course the various aspects of pre-production, production, stunts, editing, scoring, ADR, sound mixing, and special effects. Building on this is The Look of Alias, a 12-minute featurette about the wigs, costumes and makeup that make our girl Sydney so memorable in every episode.

Seven minutes of Deleted Scenes are presented with a short video introduction by J.J. Abrams. After this is a four-minute Blooper Reel that’s fairly amusing. More interesting than I expected were the collection of (audio-only) Radio Interviews with J.J. Abrams, Victor Garber, Kevin Weisman, and Jennifer Garner. All told, the four segments last 36 minutes. They’re pretty funny and not bad for fluffy radio promos.

Rounding off the set are seven TV Spots and a four-minute Making of the Alias Video Game promo piece.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

I thought the Alias ScriptScanner on the first box set was rather neat, and it returns here with the screenplay for The Telling. This feature allows you to read along the episode script in sync with video of that episode displayed in a window to the side.

The other returning ROM feature is the option to register your DVD, which seems entirely futile if you ask me, considering that if your disc was defective, you wouldn’t be able to use it to register for the replacement in the first place.

PARTING THOUGHTS

You might have thought that the studio would want to get both Alias Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD in time to promote the broadcast premiere of the third season, but for whatever reason they’ve decided to release Season 2 about three months later. That wouldn’t have been my choice, but I’m not a marketing guy, so what do I know? Regardless, a three-month window between two complete full-season box sets is still a remarkable turnaround, and I’m certainly not complaining. The show is still great and the DVD set is terrific, with excellent picture quality and some worthwhile supplements. Highly recommended.

Alias: The Complete Third Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 27, 2004.

Say it ain’t so, Sydney! How can a powerhouse entertainment juggernaut like Alias lose steam so quickly? For the first two years, the show was a tremendously entertaining mix of action-adventure spy thriller and relationship drama that played off the biggest strengths of both genres. Now, in only its third season, the series has already begun to lose direction and founder. There’s still good stuff here to enjoy, but clearly some big mistakes have also been made and the program is not living up to its potential.

As we last left her in the previous season finale, super-spy Sydney Bristow had just woken up from a good beating to discover that two years had passed and her memory of that time was missing. Her boyfriend Vaughn, assuming she was dead, had moved on and married another woman. Now that’s certainly a juicy set-up, and leaves the door wide open for another “reboot” like the famous Phase One episode from the middle of the second season that completely shook up the show. Unfortunately, that opportunity is not taken. Instead, aside from some superficial changes such as Dixon being promoted to Director status, basically not much has changed since Syd disappeared. Things pick up pretty much exactly where they left off and the writers hardly reference that any time has passed. Is this new season supposed to be set two years in the future, or were the previous seasons set two years behind the real present day? No one even thinks about addressing questions like that. Yes, Sydney spends the first half of the season trying to discover what happened to her missing time, but when the truth is finally revealed in the year’s worst episode, the talky and anticlimactic Full Disclosure, the answer is such an unsurprising “surprise twist” that we frankly can’t be forced to care.

The real problem with the season, however, is that by this point most of Sydney’s real friends are either dead or in hiding. As a result, the show is missing the dynamic tension between the character’s personal and professional lives. There’s no more personal drama to get invested in emotionally. Everything in Season 3 is all about the spying, and for some reason in this alternate future, Sydney and Vaughn appear to be the only field agents in the entire CIA, and are sent on every single mission across the globe, usually without any support or backup. Sure, there are still plenty of fun action scenes and enticing costume changes for our heroine, but it’s all just more of the same stuff we’ve seen before. Sydney jets in to some exotic locale that strangely looks exactly like Southern California, retrieves some hostage or super-secret doodad or Rambaldi artifact, finds herself in peril of death, and kickboxes her way back to Daddy’s arms. Repeat ad infinitum. The show worked best when Sydney had something worth returning to in her life outside of the CIA, but that’s all gone now. All she has to look forward to is the next mission.

Sadly, Lena Olin has chosen not to return to the series as Sydney’s evil (or is she?) mother, and her absence is painfully reflected in a number of scenes where father Jack supposedly has email conversations with her character. Attempting to make up for this, the producers bring in a string of celebrity cameo appearances from the likes of Djimon Hounsou, David Cronenberg (in a very loopy performance), Isabella Rossellini, Peggy Lipton, Vivica A. Fox, and Ricky Gervais. Most of them are entertaining, but they don’t quite fill the void left by one of the show’s most intriguing core characters.

Since SD-6 is now long gone, we’re given a new organization of baddies called The Covenant who are attempting to do, well, exactly the same thing that SD-6 did. The series also continues its forays into science fiction territory, and this time pushes things too far beyond suspension of disbelief with many of the silly plot turns involving 15th Century inventor Milo Rambaldi, who was apparently capable of mixing up some green liquid that could manipulate the DNA of one specific person born 500 years later in a way that makes her draw a map. Yeah, whatever. A couple of wacky mechanical boxes were one thing, but this goes way beyond the bounds of plausibility. Also problematic is a major plot twist halfway through the season that was clearly not planned from the beginning, which although taken in a fun direction, makes absolutely no sense in the context of what happened earlier.

What we’re left with for substantive storytelling in this season is Sydney’s increasingly antagonistic relationship with former lover Vaughn, whom she feels betrayed her by not waiting around for her to come back from the dead. Men are such inconsiderate pigs, aren’t they? Vaughn’s hottie new wife, who is conveniently also a spy, certainly doesn’t make things any easier for our Syd by being so darn nice all the time.

Of course, I still love Alias despite its flaws. There are specific things in certain episodes that I thought were terrific, including the dark turn that Vaughn takes later in the year, and there are one or two whole episodes that are quite good, but there’s an undeniable sense that the show is just treading water. The third season feels like a placeholder, as we wait for something better and more interesting to happen next year. In interviews, J.J. Abrams has been surprisingly frank in his assessment of the season’s strengths and weaknesses, and has indicated big changes for Season 4. I hope he follows through with them. Alias is just too wonderful a show to fall apart so soon.

Episodes included in this Complete Third Season are: The Two, Succession, Reunion, A Missing Link, Repercussions, The Nemesis, Prelude, Breaking Point, Conscious, Remnants, Full Disclosure, Crossings, After Six, Blowback, Façade, Taken, The Frame, Unveiled, Hourglass, Blood Ties, Legacy, and Resurrection.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The Alias production crew changed cinematographers in its third year, and for the first half of the season the new guy tends to favor photography that’s excessively dark, grainy, and soft. During its original broadcast, Season 3 was generously referred to as the worst looking show in high definition. If anything, I think the DVDs hold up a little better than I expected. No longer setting my expectations so high for a razor-sharp HD image, what we get here is about average for the DVD format.

Once again presented in 1.78:1 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement, the picture has very good colors and no significant digital compression problems. As mentioned, most of the early episodes are dim and grainy, and also have unimpressive textural details and some black crush that hurts shadow definition. The image lacks the depth and “snap” we’ve seen in past seasons. Things do tend to get better later on in the season, fortunately, as the new DP catches on to what the show is supposed to look like. By episode 9, Conscious, the show looks brighter and sharper, with a better sense of detail and depth.

On the plus side, these DVDs finally seem to have licked the edge enhancement problem that was present throughout the first two seasons of the show. I find this particularly surprising given Buena Vista’s track record for other recent A-list titles (Pirates of the Caribbean, Cold Mountain, Kill Bill) that were plagued by severe ringing. Nonetheless, edge halos are hardly ever visible here.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a slight but noticeable improvement over the first two years. Volume is still set rather low by default (the DVD menus are several decibels louder), but once you compensate for this, the sound mixes are quite aggressive for a television production. Split surround activity is better utilized than in the previous seasons. The low-end is also put to better use, with some nice bass during explosions and plenty of kick during gunfire.

A strange glitch has been discovered during the season’s second episode, Succession. At the 6:45 mark, the sound mysteriously drops out for a second when Jack should be saying the word “group.” This problem has been confirmed on multiple copies of the set. I don’t remember the original network broadcast clearly enough to tell if this was an inherent flaw in the episode’s sound mix or specifically a DVD mastering error.

A Spanish dub track is available in Dolby 2.0 Surround on the first four discs, but bizarrely goes away starting on Disc 5. Either this is an oversight or the studio stopped doing the dub. Also provided are English captions for the hearing impaired encoded as a subtitle stream, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

We knew something like this was going to happen eventually, and here it is. The season premiere episode of the show is supplemented by a fan commentary. The potential for disaster here is huge. Mercifully, the two participants (Television without Pity recapper Erin Dailey and contest-winner Jennifer Wong) are funny, sarcastic, bright, and engaging. They both love the show, but aren’t afraid to point out logical inconsistencies and goofy writing. The tone of the track may not appeal to every viewer, but I thought they did a great job and honestly wouldn’t mind having them come back next year.

Three more traditional audio commentaries are also available. Jennifer Garner, Melissa George, and director Ken Olin are all pretty blasé about episode Conscious. They sound tired and are not very talkative. This is a disappointing track. Director Lawrence Trilling, writer Jesse Alexander, and producer Scott Chamblis are more animated in their talk about episode Full Disclosure. This is a very good commentary about the logistics of planning out a season-long story arc, but unfortunately none of the three seem to realize just how bad the episode they’re discussing really turned out. Finally, J.J. Abrams joins Jesse Alexander and actor Greg Grunberg for episode Façade. This one is something of a love-fest for guest star Ricky Gervais, but Abrams in particular is very open and honest about the failings of the season, and gives us hope for a revamp in Season 4.

On Disc 5 is found the ten-minute Museum of Television and Radio: Creating Characters featurette. Excerpts are presented from a panel discussion attended by J.J. Abrams and Jennifer Garner, along with Felicity co-creator Matthew Reeves and star Keri Russell. The piece has some interesting talk about how both series were conceived, but is too edited and choppy.

Since prequel tie-in cartoons are the new big fad in Hollywood these days (see: The Animatrix, Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, and Van Helsing: The London Assignment), Alias gets one as well. The Animated Alias is a very brief seven-minute short about a mission Sydney engaged in during her missing two years. Presented in non-anamorphic widescreen (it was likely animated in 4:3 letterbox as a cost-cutting move), the piece has a cheap anime-knockoff style and an inconsequential storyline. It’s pretty lame and useless overall. Jennifer Garner voices about three lines of dialogue.

One of the best supplements in the set is the 56-minute Alias Close-Up production documentary. The documentary is divided into segments about guest stars, what an Assistant Director does, stunts (car chases), effects (stuff blowin’ up real good), props (mostly Rambaldi artifacts), and sets.

Burbank to Barcelona is a ten-minute segment about locations and set dressings, and how Los Angeles is disguised as many foreign locales. Honestly, considering how most of Season 3 turned out, this isn’t something the show should be bragging about.

Rounding off the final disc are seven deleted scenes (there’s one good one with Marshall that should have stayed in) running a total of seven minutes, an eight-minute blooper reel that’s mildly amusing, a really dumb Monday Night Football teaser commercial starring Jennifer Garner, and three minutes of behind-the-scenes outtakes of Michael Vartan shooting a commercial for the Stanley Cup finals.

Buena Vista has changed their packaging configuration for Season 4. It looks consistent in outer style, but is thinner and slightly shorter, and holds the discs in a binder-like contraption. Aside from the height difference, I like it and think it was a good idea. Disc 1 begins with some annoying forced trailers for other Disney junk, and also includes a section of Sneak Peeks. Finally, it should be noted that all episodes in the season contain the original “Previously On…” trailers.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The Alias ScriptScanner program is back again in Season 3, this time covering the episode Conscious. I really like this feature. It allows you to read the script in sync with the episode playing in a window on the side. What’s happening on screen is highlighted in the text, and changes that didn’t make the final cut are noted as well. By scrolling down and clicking on a later piece of text, the episode will jump directly to that part of the episode. Season 2 augmented this with an online production schedule, but that piece unfortunately did not return here. Maybe next season?

What I did find to be an improvement in the ScriptScanner this year is that the program will actually launch directly from the DVD menu screen in the InterActual player, rather than forcing you to start the program from your disc drive, as happened in the past two box sets.

The other returning ROM feature is the option to Register Your DVD for replacement in case of future defect. Considering how expensive it would be to re-buy the entire box set if one disc were damaged, this is a generous idea for Disney to implement.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I’m saddened to see my favorite TV show take a little dip in quality, but there’s still much to enjoy here and I hold out hope for a return to glory in Season 4. Episode-quality aside, Buena Vista’s third box set is as great a package as the first two and I highly recommend it regardless.

Amélie

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 14, 2002.

On the 16th of April, 1974, Joshua Zyber arrives into the world and is immediately disappointed because his mother refuses to take him to see the movie Chinatown, owing to his age. Joshua becomes despondent and cries, but his mother mistakes this for a simple fit of colic and burps him over her shoulder. He spits up on her new dress in protest. Joshua Zyber dislikes: Peeling layers of security stickers from the movies he buys, people who say “should of” rather than “should have,” and film reviews that are nothing but tedious plot synopses with no trace of opinion. Joshua likes: Free DVDs, the crunch of potato chips placed inside his ham and cheese sandwich, his cat Sophie’s petulant whine when she has been disturbed from a good nap, French films with a twisted sense of humor, and the guilty smile on Audrey Tautou’s face as she slips her hand into a sack of grain. Sophie likes: Sleeping on her master’s pillow and shedding hair all over it just before he comes to bed.

If the above paragraph sounds strange, clearly you have never seen or been caught up in the infectious spirit of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s comedic masterwork, Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain. (The DVD’s English subtitles wildly mistranslate the title as Amélie from Montmartre, while the film was actually released in English-speaking countries under the even simpler title Amélie. I expect that if the movie is ever re-released it will be called merely “A.”) Jeunet is known for his early collaborations with filmmaker Marc Caro, including the blackly comic cult fantasies Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children. With Amélie, he goes it alone, dropping most of the dark overtones but retaining the outrageous storytelling style and the sly humor to create a most unconventional romantic comedy, one that’s less concerned with the trappings of romantic formula as it is infatuated with making connections between unrelated events that have significance in unexpected ways.

The film is practically a catalog listing of every funny story or anecdote that Jeunet has ever heard, linked together into a delirious chain of coincidences and fate. At the center of this is the character Amélie Poulain, a cute-as-a-button dreamer and do-gooder obsessed with finding happiness for others even though she’s too socially inept to find it for herself. She’s a prankster, manipulating people’s lives, correcting perceived injustices, and attempting to bring some sense of order and balance to the universe. All the while, her efforts at exerting control backfire when it comes to her own life, and she lives a self-imposed solitary existence, taking comfort in the simple pleasures of life, finding sensuality in things that others take for granted.

Jeunet is a master of painstaking formalist technique, and he knows well how to use magnificent imagery, dazzling camerawork, and flawless special effects to actually enhance rather than distract from the storytelling. The movie is consistently clever, frequently hilarious, and utterly beguiling in every respect. I’m convinced that lead actress Audrey Tautou must be possessed by the spirit of Audrey Hepburn; her frail waif-like figure disguises a coy sex appeal, and her performance balances naivety with an almost limitless amount of charm. She can light up the screen with a mere glance or expression like no other actress I’ve seen since Hepburn’s heyday in films like Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Tautou would have made a marvelous silent film star, as we’re reminded by her Louise Brooks hairdo.

On first viewing, I found myself wishing for some of those darker elements from Jeunet’s previous films, but on subsequent screenings (and there have been several), I’ve realized that they’re neither needed nor appropriate for this particular story. Amélie is a delightful fantasy, an ode to mementos thrown away and a celebration of anything unnoticed or misunderstood. The film is infused with a love for the power of pure cinematic expression, and there’s not a single imperfect frame in its entire running length. This is a film to be cherished and rewatched, each new viewing revealing some small detail previously missed. At just a fraction over two hours, I almost wish the movie would last forever, because I would certainly continue to watch it. 

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Letterboxed to its 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement, the DVD picture quality is fairly sharp and as colorful as it’s intended to be. Objective comparison of the picture to other DVDs is a little difficult due to the movie’s highly stylized appearance. Just as the Coen brothers had done with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Jeunet photographed Amélie on 35mm film but then had the entire movie scanned into a computer file where it could be digitally color-timed and output back onto film. The advantage to this process is that it allows for precise image manipulation not possible through traditional photochemical processing. The primary disadvantage is that the computer file stores the movie at only a 2K resolution, which is significantly less sharp than a film print is capable of achieving, and the movie appeared softer on theater screens than most other films without extensive digital tinkering. However, the 2K file is still a much higher resolution than DVD allows, and this should make little to no difference as far as home video is concerned.

My point to this is that Jeunet uses his digital toolkit to paint the picture in unusual washes of color. Much of the film has a deliberately greenish hue to it, and flesh tones are rarely natural even in scenes of bright daylight. Meanwhile, specific points within a frame will burst forward in vibrant patches of color. What was intended is well conveyed, and in all I’d say this is an excellent transfer. I detected no compression artifacts and edge-enhancement seemed pretty minimal.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Just about every other region of the world will be getting a DTS soundtrack on their Amélie DVDs, but here in Region 1 we have to make due with only a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Fortunately, it’s a good one. Not at all burdened with the typically flat romantic comedy type of soundtrack, Amélie has an extremely energetic sound design. Director Jeunet is something of a sound freak, and he has given the movie an aggressive surround mix buzzing with crisply recorded sound effects, lively directional steering, and a healthy amount of deep bass, all to create an enveloping soundfield that wraps you up in its presence. Dialogue is always perfectly intelligible and fidelity is excellent across the board.

I’m sure a DTS track may have been even better and I can’t help feeling a little disappointed at its absence (in light of every other country getting one), but my complaints are tempered by the high quality of what we do get.

English or Spanish subtitles appear in a yellow font below the letterboxed picture if watching on a standard 4:3 television, but will move up into the picture in 16:9 anamorphic mode. The English subtitles are decent as far as coherence goes, but it’s obvious that they’re not translating all of the subtle nuances of language as well as they could. (In his audio commentary, Jeunet jokingly recommends that English-speaking audiences learn French to fully appreciate the film.) English captions for the hearing impaired as well as true closed captions are also available. No alternate language tracks have been provided, nor are they needed.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Though not mentioned anywhere on the packaging, Disc 1 contains two audio commentaries by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, one in French and one in English. Sadly, Miramax has neglected to provide subtitles for the French commentary, so I have no idea how significantly the two tracks differ. I would assume that the director probably talks about similar things on each. On the English track, Jeunet has a thick accent, but this shouldn’t deter anyone from listening. This is a really great commentary filled with both technical insight and plenty of anecdotes about the production. Jeunet has a winning personality and is often quite funny. His enthusiasm for the film is boundless. (Every scene seems to be his favorite.) He begins the talk by saying, “If you prefer to keep the poetry and the spirit of the film, don’t listen. I’m going to destroy everything.” There may be a little bit of truth in that, as he does systematically lay out all of the elements that make the film, but any real fan of the movie will certainly want to listen anyway.

Disc 2 has a number of interesting featurettes, starting with The Look of Amélie, a 13-minute piece in English about the film’s cinematography. Discussed are the difficulties of shooting on location with a control-freak director who prefers studio sets, as well as the use of digital color correction in post-production. Fantasies of Audrey Tautou is a short two minutes of outtakes, flubs, and funny faces made by the lead actress, who’s never less than adorable, even when she swears. Three Screen Tests appear after that, one each for Audrey Tautou, Urbain Cancelier, and Yolande Moreau. None are more than a couple of minutes long, and all show these actors nailing their characters right from the beginning.

At 24 minutes, the Q & A with Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of the longest pieces on the disc. This English-language interview was conducted in California after a screening of the movie. Jeunet answers questions from the audience about both this film and his career in general. He has some blunt words to say about comparisons of his film to the so-called French New Wave from the 1950’s. Similarly, the shorter Q & A with Director and Cast (six minutes) was conducted after a French screening. Jeunet is joined by the movie’s principal stars, including Mathieu Kassovitz (a filmmaker himself), who teases him about their wholly different directing styles. Anything you ever wanted to know about the movie that wasn’t covered in these two featurettes or the commentary will be found in An Intimate Chat with Jean-Pierre Jeunet (21 minutes), in which the director walks the viewer through the entire production process, from conception through to release. He also discusses the minor controversy that erupted when the film was dismissed out of hand at the Cannes Film Festival, much to the consternation of the French public. (The movie was the highest-grossing French film of the year and went on to win just about every other major European film award except Cannes.)

A brief Storyboard Comparison (just one minute long) takes a look at the funhouse ride scene. “Home Movies” Inside the Making of Amélie (13 minutes) is much as it sounds, a compilation of behind-the-scene footage presented without narration in home-movie style. The filming of the orgasm montage sequence is quite hilarious. The Amélie Scrapbook contains a series of still galleries covering behind-the-scenes photos, French poster concepts, storyboards, and (my favorite) a journal of the garden gnome’s travels. We also get one each of the American and French theatrical trailers, followed by a string of TV spots. The twelve American spots are annoyingly repetitive, but the five French spots are very clever and do a much better job of selling the film. Finally, to wrap things up we get some Cast & Crew Filmographies.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A great movie, solid transfer, and a lot of interesting supplements make for a highly recommended purchase. DTS audio is missed but probably not essential. If I have one complaint, it’s that Miramax has marred some perfectly good poster art with a stupid peek-a-boo slipcover and an obnoxious “5 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS” banner that appears on both the outside and inside of the packaging.

Obsessive fans should probably note that the movie was released in France in a limited edition metal tin reminiscent of the one Amélie finds behind her bathroom wall. It has already gone long out of print, but a similar set is scheduled for release in Japan. Unfortunately, neither of these foreign DVDs contain English subtitles or translation, and both are coded for playback only in Region 2 DVD players. (The French disc is also in PAL format.)

Angel: Season One

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 20, 2003.

“You’re gonna have to face your demons sometime.”

After three seasons skulking around as the mysterious undead lover of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the brooding vampire hunk played by David Boreanaz was spun-off into his own show, Angel. The title is not just his name; it’s his job. For 200 years, Angel was a vicious, evil monster preying on the weak and innocent of the world, until a Gypsy curse restored his soul, removing the evil but not the memories of what he had done. Now he has the rest of eternity to atone for his sins. These days, he seeks redemption by way of helping those in need, by stepping in when no one else can assist and being, well, a guardian angel. The gimmick of the show is that this turns into a little business for the character, as he opens an agency to investigate supernatural activity and, as their motto goes, to “help the hopeless.” Yes, he’s an undead detective. Call him Vampire, P.I.

As you’d expect from a spinoff, the first season of the series spends some time establishing its identity as a separate show while maintaining ties to the original. New viewers are given a helpful recap of the major story points, and longtime Buffy fans get to see some familiar faces. Tagging onto the new cast almost immediately is Cordelia Chase, Buffy’s shallow high school rival. Arriving a little later in the season will be Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, the uptight Watcher whose inexperience and cowardice led to some disastrous plot developments back in Sunnydale. These were secondary characters on Buffy, but here they take prominence and their personalities are substantially fleshed-out and deepened. Cordelia, especially, has been made into a much richer, multi-dimensional character than she ever was on the original show.

The first season of Angel takes place concurrently with the fourth season of Buffy. Ideally, viewers should watch episodes of each back-to-back. As a rather standard ratings ploy, the two shows had several cross-over episodes where a story that started on one show would finish on the other, and each would feature special guest appearances by members of the opposite cast. Over the course of the year, Angel will be visited by the likes of Oz, Spike, and of course Buffy herself. We’ll also see very important developments in the Faith storyline that began in Buffy‘s third season. Fortunately, the shows are written well enough that viewers who only watch one half of the crossover will be able to keep up. It’s perfectly possible to watch Angel as a self-sufficient entity, which is very helpful when the mood for marathon viewing sessions strikes.

Like any new show, the first year is a time of adjustment as the production gets on its feet. There are many emotionally complex storylines, but also some episodes that sport a healthy amount of cheese. The vampire makeup in the first few episodes is rather goofy. The show’s creators were experimenting with a new look and, as they admit themselves, soon realized their failure and switched back to a more traditional appearance. The monster at the end of Expecting is likewise more comical than intimidating. The series also commits what I consider a cardinal sin for spinoffs, casting an actor who had previously appeared on the original show in a different role (Star Trek is the worst offender of this crime), as happens with one of the actors in The Bachelor Party, who was last seen at the beginning of Buffy‘s third season playing someone else. That’s a pet peeve of mine.

Nevertheless, in its first year, Angel is perhaps not the powerhouse of a show that Buffy turned out to be, but it’s a fun side-trip through the same universe. The show is smartly written and filled with slick action sequences. It’s somewhat darker in tone than Buffy, but has a very dry sense of humor well played by Boreanaz. The series expands upon the interesting demon mythology from the original show, establishing a complex and varied monster society living just parallel to our own. It also features a fascinating dynamic in Angel himself, a hero burdened by responsibility, willing to sacrifice his own happiness, and yet who has the fearsome potential to turn evil again should the curse that restored his soul be broken.

Mix all this up with the thrills, strongly developed characters, and witty dialogue that were a staple of the Buffy formula, and you’ve got a very entertaining, compulsively watchable show that will easily appeal to Buffy fans and can also build its own core audience. Angel has certainly proven worthy of holding his own series.

Episodes included in this Season One box set are: City of, Lonely Hearts, In the Dark, I Fall to Pieces, Rm w/ a Vu, Sense and Sensitivity, The Bachelor Party, I Will Remember You, Hero, Parting Gift, Somnambulist, Expecting, She, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, The Prodigal, The Ring, Eternity, Five by Five, Sanctuary, War Zone, Blind Date, and To Sanshu in L.A.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Presented in its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (though the menus are 16:9 enhanced for no particular reason), the first season of Angel looks very good except for one significant flaw. The episodes on the first disc suffer from the same smearing and image judder problems that afflicted the last disc of the Buffy Season 3 box set. It’s very distracting on large displays and doesn’t leave a good first impression. Fortunately, whatever mastering error it is that causes this was corrected by the second disc and none of the other episodes are affected.

In other respects, this is a great-looking image. Unlike Buffy‘s first couple of rough seasons, Angel has always been photographed on 35mm film and has had very slick production values from the start. The picture is sharp, with strong colors and very little grain despite its frequent nighttime setting. Since this is a dark show by nature, black level is rich and solid, although at times shadow detail is a little crushed. Aside from that first disc, video compression and mastering quality is reasonably good. Minor problems with image shimmer pop up now and again, but nothing that’s significantly distracting. All in all, this is a very good if imperfect transfer.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby 2.0 Surround track is excellent for a television production. The audio is loud, clean and aggressive. There’s a strong musical presence that is rendered with pleasing fidelity, and the score at times has a satisfying amount of bass. The surround channel is kept active with music and ambience, as well as the occasional directional effect. The soundtrack’s dynamic range is limited by its television origins, but overall it sounds quite nice.

French and Spanish dub tracks are also available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. English and Spanish subtitles have been provided, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Fox Home Entertainment has given us the standard batch of perfunctory bonus features that owners of their previous TV show box sets will recognize. As has been a problem with all of the Buffy box sets thus far, all of the supplements here contain substantial plot spoilers and should not be watched until after the entire season has been viewed.

The best and most interesting supplements are the two episode-specific audio commentaries. Show creators Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt discuss the pilot episode, City of. Whedon is very good at the commentary format, relaying a steady stream of production anecdotes and witty insights into the writing process. Greenwalt, unfortunately, is not good at commentaries at all and only seems interested in describing the action we see on screen. This makes for a frustrating pairing, but Whedon takes the lead in the conversation and manages to keep it consistently listenable. Later, writer Jane Espenson comments on the episode Rm w/ a Vu. She’s a reasonably engaging speaker, and this is a worthwhile if not terribly exciting commentary that’s heavy on the plot spoilers. (Early in the track, Espenson points out that a certain character will be killed off in a few episodes, saving us the bother of all that unpleasant suspense and stress related to being surprised by this development.)

On Disc 3 is the 12-minute Season 1 Featurette, summarizing the story arc of the year’s episodes. There isn’t much new information or insight here, just a recap of what we’ve already watched. I suppose this might be useful for someone who wants a quick refresher without having to watch all 22 episodes. Otherwise, it doesn’t serve much purpose. Following this is an Art Gallery with production stills and blueprints, and a selection of Cast & Crew Bios that are sadly already outdated. The bio for actor Glenn Quinn neglects to mention that he passed away in 2002.

Three more featurettes are found on Disc 6. Introducing Angel is a four-minute promo piece giving a brief overview of the character and concept. Similarly, I’m Cordelia (six minutes) does the same for her character. Lastly, The Demons is an eight-minute look at the show’s many monsters and villains. None of these pieces are particularly fascinating or enlightening, not that I expected much from them.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on these discs.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Angel proves that he can move out of Buffy’s shadow and carry his own TV show. Fans of Buffy should definitely enjoy it, and the series is sufficiently self-contained that even new viewers will be able to keep up without knowing all of the back-story. This box set is a generally great presentation, even though the bonus features are nothing special. I recommend it heartily. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Angel: Season Two

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 16, 2003.

“Numfar, do the dance of joy.”

Having proven himself capable of leading his own series outside of Buffy, our vampire detective Angel is back for his second season of supernatural sleuthing, defending the innocent, helping the hopeless and, god save us, singing karaoke! Yes, Angel has returned for 22 more episodes, and this time around the show’s monster-of-the-week story structure has been abandoned in favor of the type of season-long story arc that marked the best years of Buffy. In fact, the storylines begun in this second year will require a couple of seasons to play themselves out, a trait that’s highly ambitious if a little frustrating in the short term. Nonetheless, in this batch of episodes are some of the show’s best.

One of the most interesting new developments we see is the return of Darla, Angel’s former vampire companion, newly resurrected and put in the heart of a complex moral quandary. The evil law firm Wolfram & Hart is still up to their devious tricks, with lawyers Lindsay and Lilah allowed to explore some of the deeper facets of their characters. Angel Investigations gets some new digs (their old offices being no longer suitable after last season’s finale), the team gets shaken up a bit due to various story elements that take a dark turn, and a couple of former Buffy recurring characters make delicious surprise appearances. We’re introduced to The Host, owner of a demon karaoke bar that’s the source of most of the season’s dark humor, and series creator Joss Whedon makes an unusual cameo appearance that I can’t possibly describe. (You may need to look for his name in the credits to realize that it was him.)

On the downside, the show takes a bizarre turn at the end of the season. Certain storylines that have been developing are simply dropped when the team makes a multi-episode visit to the alternate dimension of Pylea, a sort of Planet of the Apes world where demons rule over human slaves in a medieval society. Judged on their own, the Pylea episodes aren’t terrible, per se. The writers and cast seem to know that they were doing something very silly and decided to have fun with it. There are a number of highly amusing scenes, and Angel’s reactions to seeing his reflection for the first time and being able to walk around in sunlight are priceless. However, as an end to the season, these episodes are rather unsatisfying in the way that they leave most of the important storylines hanging. Reportedly, the show’s producers had more ambitious plans in mind, but due to budgetary constraints and network interference were forced to delay them until the third season, a fact which will make the long wait until that next box set’s release almost unbearable for new viewers.

Despite this one annoyance, the series experiences a decided amount of growth over its formative first season. The major story arc is extremely compelling, and terrific episodes like the double-bill of Reprise and Epiphany (a deliberate echo of the episodes Surprise and Innocence from the third season of Buffy) are truly riveting. Even during some of the weaker episodes, like the unnecessary sci-fi diversion in Happy Anniversary, the show exhibits an unpredictable streak of humor that keeps you on your toes, such as when the episode suddenly breaks from the A plotline to a scene of Wesley and Gunn in the middle of an Agatha Christie whodunit parlor mystery. Enough moments like that are sprinkled throughout to bring even the bleakest episodes to life.

Among the other trivia to note: One of the season’s producers and lead writers was Shawn Ryan, who would later leave to create The Shield, one of television’s best cop dramas. The episodes in this box set are meant to take place concurrently with the fifth season of Buffy. Although there are a couple of crossover storylines (notably the one in Fool for Love / Darla), both sides are deliberately handled in such a way that you don’t need to see the other to follow along; in fact, you could watch the entire season without even realizing there was supposed to be a crossover.

Anyone who enjoyed the first season of Angel will be well served by this second set. It’s here that the show really gets cracking. The episodes are compulsively watchable, and the lengthy story arc makes this box set the best way to sit for marathon viewings. Season 3 can’t get here quickly enough!

Episodes included in this Season Two box set are: Judgement, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?, First Impressions, Untouched, Dear Boy, Guise Will Be Guise, Darla, The Shroud of Rahmon, The Trial, Reunion, Redefinition, Blood Money, Happy Anniversary, The Thin Dead Line, Reprise, Epiphany, Disharmony, Dead End, Belonging, Over the Rainbow, Through the Looking Glass, and There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Well now, this is very interesting. After all of the controversy regarding the choice of widescreen aspect ratio on overseas releases of the later Buffy seasons, Angel‘s second season is presented on DVD in 16:9 widescreen anyway. The show did not switch to airing in widescreen on television until its third season, and past interviews with Executive Producer Tim Minear indicated that the second season was composed for only 4:3 and (kiddingly) that, “Don’t be surprised if when the frames go wider for some of our eps you see grips and teamsters scratching themselves unappetizingly on the frame’s edge.” But now that this new box set has come out, Executive Producer Joss Whedon contradicts him by stating in a separate interview that, “Angel is a widescreen show, starting with the second season.”

So how does it look in widescreen? It looks great. (So does Buffy, but we’ll try to set that controversy aside for the time being.) Angel is elegantly framed for the wider ratio, and in fact, by the time the Pylea episodes come around, the dynamic composition of the shots would be noticeably compromised in a narrower 4:3 cropping. Characters are often spread across the entire frame and the extra space on the sides is used effectively. As for the infamous widescreen flubs found in Buffy’s fourth season (and which Minear assumed we’d see more of here), I spotted precisely two in the entire season. In episode The Trial, Cordelia’s lips don’t move when she speaks a line, and in the final episode there’ one matte effect shot that appears with pillarbox bars on the sides. That’s it, and they pass by so quickly that I dare say most viewers would probably not even notice them. As far as I’m concerned, widescreen is the way to go with this season. Viewers who consider themselves purists and want to see the season in the exact way that it was originally broadcast will note that the Region 4 edition from Australia is presented in 4:3 full frame (though the Region 2 editions from Europe are widescreen).

Beyond that issue, the anamorphically enhanced picture has strong colors and rich, inky black levels. This is a very dark show, and visible shadow detail is fairly good throughout, rarely appearing crushed. The picture appears a slight bit soft, especially when looking at credit text, but fine object detail is generally well resolved and the image has a nice sense of depth. The Pylea episodes at the end of the season are a significant change for the show, taking place primarily in daylight, and have a bright, vibrant picture that really pops off the screen. There’s next to no edge enhancement applied in any of the episodes, and I noticed no significant compression artifacting. These are great-looking discs. This is the way to do a TV series on DVD.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby 2.0 Surround track is just about the same in quality as the first season, which is to say pretty good for a television production. The show has a boisterous and very active surround mix, with many directional effects moving to the rear soundstage. The musical score is rich and enveloping, and the cello used in the theme music delivers some satisfying bass. It might be nice if it were encoded at a higher bit rate, but with discs this crowded I suppose some compromises have to be made.

Just like the first season, French and Spanish dub tracks are also available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. English and Spanish subtitles have been provided, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Unfortunately, in terms of its bonus material, the second season of Angel is one of the skimpiest of all the Buffyverse box sets released so far. We get only two episode-specific audio commentaries, one from Executive Producer Tim Minear on Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? and another from director Fred Keller on Over the Rainbow. Minear’s talk is pretty interesting, but Keller’s is a bit on the dull side and focuses almost exclusively on the cast’s performances. Keller repeatedly refers to Cordelia as Angel’s “lost love,” which makes no sense in the context of this season and would seem to imply that Keller doesn’t really follow the show’s story too closely outside of the episodes he works on directly. Sadly, there are no Joss Whedon commentaries at all this season.

On Disc 3 we get the five-minute Making Up the Monsters featurette (it seems like they do this exact same thing on every season of both Buffy and Angel) and the 15-minute Inside the Agency, which is about the show’s sets. There’s also an Art Gallery section with photo stills and blueprints.

On Disc 6 is found the 14-minute Season 2 Overview featurette, which is heavy on plot spoilers and light on useful information. It’s mostly just a recap of the season’s storylines without much new insight to add. It does not, for instance, go into any detail at all about why the season’s story arc was dropped in favor of the Pylea storyline. After this is a five-minute Stunts featurette that is exactly what you’d think it would be.

Scripts are provided in text format for episodes Darla and Disharmony, and that’s it for the entire box set.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Reservations about the concluding episodes aside, Angel is a stronger series in its second season and this box set contains some of the show’s best episodes. Bonus features this time around are a little skimpy, but the widescreen picture quality is great and anyone who enjoyed the first season would be crazy to pass this one up. The only frustrating thing is the long wait for Season Three. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Angel: Season Three (UK Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 3, 2004.

The second season of Angel is generally regarded as the show’s best, even though it ends on something of a disappointing note. The side-trip to Pylea was kind of amusing but completely dropped the ball on the major story arc that had been developing that year. Fortunately, Season 3 picks right back up where we should have left off. If the season as a whole is a little shaky and takes some turns that don’t work as well as planned, it nonetheless contains a number of fantastic episodes that any Angel fan would just about die over.

Yes, Angel’s former flame Darla is back, and does she ever have a big surprise for our vampire hero. It seems that the one night stand she and Angel shared last year had some unexpected consequences. The build-up of that storyline, and Darla’s quasi-redemption culminating in the episode Dad, are among the most compelling developments the show has ever seen. We’re also introduced to a fascinating new villain, the former vampire hunter Holtz, who holds quite a grudge against Angel. His sidekick Justine is also an interesting, conflicted character. Wolfram & Hart are still causing plenty of trouble, spearheaded by the conniving Lilah. And because you just can’t have enough good villains, also appearing is the demon Sahjhan, who announces himself as Angel’s mortal enemy, even if Angel can’t figure out why exactly.

The show still has plenty of light, funny moments, such as the return of Cordelia’s hunky but dumb boyfriend Groosalugg and her continual mistreatment of him. Poor Groo is always taken for granted and just can’t stand in Angel’s shadow. His character’s entire existence is practically one long, involved set-up for his inevitable decision to go wandering at the end of the season (a reference only the geekiest of the geeky will ever pick up). Also a lot of fun is the Joss Whedon-directed episode Waiting in the Wings, in which the gang discovers the joy of Evil Ballet.

For the most part, however, Season 3 is when the show turns its darkest. Duplicity and betrayal are in store our characters, most of whom have changed significantly since they were first introduced. Wesley is no longer the effete and incompetent crybaby he started out as. By the time this season is over, he’ll have completed an almost radical transformation into a brooding and dangerous badass, finally becoming the “rogue demon hunter” he used to only pretend at being. Angel himself hardly fares much better, pushed to desperation by Holtz’s actions. The triumvirate of episodes Loyalty, Sleep Tight, and Forgiving reach a fever pitch that provides the show some of its most intense and riveting moments, the final scene in Forgiving a particular jaw-dropper.

So where do things go wrong? It’s hard to point to anything specific, but little problems here and there are sprinkled throughout the season. There are not one but two misconceived attempts to spark romances among the core characters. The introduction of a certain teenager towards the end of the year proves annoying, as does the tedious overuse of cheesy “bullet-time” special effects in episode A New World. The character of Fred, who was added to the cast late last year, is partially endearing but also partially irritating, especially in that she completely forgets her thick Texas accent about halfway through the season and never picks it up again. Yet mostly what happens is that events in the last half of the year feel too obviously scripted, as though the writers were playing out certain plot points that they thought were interesting but forgot to pay attention to the characters in the process. It feels like they had a big meeting around a boardroom table and said, “How can we make all the characters hate each other? Let’s do that.”

Still, there’s plenty of good stuff here. Although the last act is flawed, the season still goes out on a pretty strong note. Holtz’s final retribution is deliciously planned and unveiled. Although some fans may quibble about the final twist, at the very least it actually follows through on the story that had been developing the whole season, which cannot be said of the final episodes in Season 2. There’s much more good than bad in Season 3, and when it’s good, it’s damn good. Angel is still in fighting shape and this third season is a necessary purchase for fans.

Episodes included in this Season Three box set are: Heartthrob, That Vision Thing, That Old Gang of Mine, Carpe Noctum, Fredless, Billy, Offspring, Quickening, Lullaby, Dad, Birthday, Provider, Waiting in the Wings, Couplet, Loyalty, Sleep Tight, Forgiving, Double or Nothing, The Price, A New World, Benediction, and Tomorrow. All episodes are complete and uncut (earlier Buffy and Angel releases in the UK have not been so lucky). The discs reviewed here are presented in PAL video format with Region 2 coding, and are only playable on compatible DVD hardware. A similar set of discs is available in Australia, Region 4. Content and specs for the eventual Region 1 release of this material are subject to change.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Finally, Angel‘s third season is officially the first of any show in the Buffyverse to be indisputably composed for widescreen. The show switched to broadcasting in letterbox format for its third year, and is presented here on disc in its original 16:9 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. The framing looks great, and I hope that, for once, no one would argue against that.

In addition to the compositional shift, the show also changed cinematographers this year. The new DP, Ross Berryman, likes things dark. Very dark. I’m sure that looks great when they screen their dailies in the studio, but by the time the episodes make it to broadcast and now DVD, the image has a significant black crush that renders shadow detail very difficult to discern. Contrast range as a whole is a bit flat, with even the brighter parts of the picture looking a touch dull. It’s not terribly different from previous seasons, but is slightly harder on the eyes.

The image appears to have been filtered to reduce compression artifacts, which are rarely distracting, though this leaves the picture a little soft. Only minor instances of edge enhancement are noticeable, and even then infrequently. On the whole, this is a solid presentation with just a few flaws. 

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

I’ve been watching a lot of Buffy and Angel DVD box sets, many of them from the UK. I can’t quite pin down what the difference is, exactly, but I was left less impressed this time around. I’m not sure if it’s the PAL speedup, some sort of misapplied pitch-correction, the low 192 kb/s bit-rate, or just that I’m worn out from too much of the same, but I developed a case of listening fatigue with this box set. The Dolby 2.0 Surround track has a dull character, with neither crisp highs nor deep lows. It’s obviously still a TV production, and like previous years has moderate surround activity and stereo envelopment from the score, but something is a little off. I suppose if I compared it to previous box sets I wouldn’t notice anything significantly different, so maybe this is just a personal reaction. Take it for what it’s worth.

Several different subtitle options have been provided: English for the hearing impaired, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The Season Two box was a disappointment in the bonus features area, a flaw that has been at least somewhat amended here. We start with three episode-specific Audio Commentaries. Producers Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell discuss the episode Billy. It’s a jovial, funny track in which Minear makes an active attempt to learn from mistakes in past commentaries (such as reciting on-screen action). Minear then joins writer Mere Smith for Lullaby. They have a good, almost flirtatious byplay and the commentary is pretty amusing. Series creator Joss Whedon (who was absent from last season’s supplements) returns for a solo commentary on Waiting in the Wings, which is of course excellent though mysteriously ends five minutes before the episode is over.

Two Deleted Scenes are available. The first is a four-minute extension of the “Cordy!” sit-com scene in episode Birthday, which drags on for much too long and desperately needed cutting. Tim Minear and Mere Smith provide optional commentary. Much better is a ballet dream sequence from Waiting in the Wings with optional commentary by Joss Whedon. This scene is riotously funny but unfortunately just didn’t fit into the episode. Its inclusion here is priceless.

On Disc 3 we have the 12-minute Darla: Deliver Us from Evil featurette with much insight into the character from actress Julie Benz. After this are five minutes of awful-quality Outtakes from the entire season, and then a batch of Trailers for previous Buffy and Angel DVD box sets.

Disc 6 has the meat of the supplements, beginning with the 34-minute Season Three Overview, which is sadly just a recitation of stuff we already knew and is barely worth watching. The 14-minute Page to Screen featurette is much more interesting, a nuts & bolts breakdown of what it takes to get an hour-long television episode on the air. The Screen-tests for Amy Acker and Vincent Kartheiser last about two minutes each. Written solely for audition purposes and having little to do with the show’s story continuity, these scenes are very bizarre (Acker’s is hilarious). A Still Gallery of 30 photos wraps up the disc. Unlike previous DVD sets, no episode scripts were provided this time.

It’s worth noting that again every episode in this Region 2 set contains the original “Previously on…” teaser, something that always gets dropped in Region 1.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Given that there are no more controversies about aspect ratio, this Region 2 box set should not be too different from what we will eventually get in Region 1. Its primary advantage is that it was released much earlier. By the time I write this, release of the Region 1 set is imminent, making this UK set less necessary from a content standpoint, but still collectible for continuity with previous boxes. (The Region 2 packaging is much nicer than what we get in the U.S.)

This is another great season of Angel and another fine box set. You can’t go wrong whichever DVD region you choose. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Angel: Season Three

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 11, 2004.

The second season of Angel is generally regarded as the show’s best, even though it ends on something of a disappointing note. The side-trip to Pylea was kind of amusing but completely dropped the ball on the major story arc that had been developing that year. Fortunately, Season 3 picks right back up where we should have left off. If the season as a whole is a little shaky and takes some turns that don’t work as well as planned, it nonetheless contains a number of fantastic episodes that any Angel fan would just about die over.

Yes, Angel’s former flame Darla is back, and does she ever have a big surprise for our vampire hero. It seems that the one night stand she and Angel shared last year had some unexpected consequences. The build-up of that storyline, and Darla’s quasi-redemption culminating in the episode Dad, are among the most compelling developments the show has ever seen. We’re also introduced to a fascinating new villain, the former vampire hunter Holtz, who holds quite a grudge against Angel. His sidekick Justine is also an interesting, conflicted character. Wolfram & Hart are still causing plenty of trouble, spearheaded by the conniving Lilah. And because you just can’t have enough good villains, also appearing is the demon Sahjhan, who announces himself as Angel’s mortal enemy, even if Angel can’t figure out why exactly.

The show still has plenty of light, funny moments, such as the return of Cordelia’s hunky but dumb boyfriend Groosalugg and her continual mistreatment of him. Poor Groo is always taken for granted and just can’t stand in Angel’s shadow. His character’s entire existence is practically one long, involved set-up for his inevitable decision to go wandering at the end of the season (a reference only the geekiest of the geeky will ever pick up). Also a lot of fun is the Joss Whedon-directed episode Waiting in the Wings, in which the gang discovers the joy of Evil Ballet.

For the most part, however, Season 3 is when the show turns its darkest. Duplicity and betrayal are in store our characters, most of whom have changed significantly since they were first introduced. Wesley is no longer the effete and incompetent crybaby he started out as. By the time this season is over, he’ll have completed an almost radical transformation into a brooding and dangerous badass, finally becoming the “rogue demon hunter” he used to only pretend at being. Angel himself hardly fares much better, pushed to desperation by Holtz’s actions. The triumvirate of episodes Loyalty, Sleep Tight, and Forgiving reach a fever pitch that provides the show some of its most intense and riveting moments, the final scene in Forgiving a particular jaw-dropper.

So where do things go wrong? It’s hard to point to anything specific, but little problems here and there are sprinkled throughout the season. There are not one but two misconceived attempts to spark romances among the core characters. The introduction of a certain teenager towards the end of the year proves annoying, as does the tedious overuse of cheesy “bullet-time” special effects in episode A New World. The character of Fred, who was added to the cast late last year, is partially endearing but also partially irritating, especially in that she completely forgets her thick Texas accent about halfway through the season and never picks it up again. Yet mostly what happens is that events in the last half of the year feel too obviously scripted, as though the writers were playing out certain plot points that they thought were interesting but forgot to pay attention to the characters in the process. It feels like they had a big meeting around a boardroom table and said, “How can we make all the characters hate each other? Let’s do that.”

Still, there’s plenty of good stuff here. Although the last act is flawed, the season still goes out on a pretty strong note. Holtz’s final retribution is deliciously planned and unveiled. Although some fans may quibble about the final twist, at the very least it actually follows through on the story that had been developing the whole season, which cannot be said of the final episodes in Season 2. There’s much more good than bad in Season 3, and when it’s good, it’s damn good. Angel is still in fighting shape and this third season is a necessary purchase for fans.

Episodes included in this Season Three box set are: Heartthrob, That Vision Thing, That Old Gang of Mine, Carpe Noctum, Fredless, Billy, Offspring, Quickening, Lullaby, Dad, Birthday, Provider, Waiting in the Wings, Couplet, Loyalty, Sleep Tight, Forgiving, Double or Nothing, The Price, A New World, Benediction, and Tomorrow.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Finally, Angel‘s third season is officially the first of any show in the Buffyverse to be indisputably composed for widescreen. The show switched to broadcasting in letterbox format for its third year, and is presented here on disc in its original 16:9 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. The framing looks great, and I hope that, for once, no one would argue against that.

In addition to the compositional shift, the show also changed cinematographers this year. The new DP, Ross Berryman, likes things dark. Very dark. I’m sure that looks great when they screen their dailies in the studio, but by the time the episodes make it to broadcast and now DVD, the image has a significant black crush that renders shadow detail very difficult to discern. Contrast range as a whole is a bit flat, with even the brighter parts of the picture looking a touch dull. It’s not terribly different from previous seasons, but is slightly harder on the eyes.

The image appears to have been filtered to reduce compression artifacts, which are rarely distracting, though this leaves the picture a little soft. Only minor instances of edge enhancement are noticeable, and even then infrequently. On the whole, this is a solid presentation with just a few flaws. 

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

When I reviewed the previously-released Region 2 box set for this season, I felt disappointed in the soundtrack and developed a case of listening fatigue. I wasn’t sure if that was an inherent problem in the audio track or just the result of the pitch change associated with PAL speedup. Comparing to this NTSC Region 1 set, the problem definitely wasn’t just PAL. Although the NTSC version plays back at the proper speed and pitch, and is perhaps slightly better than the PAL edition, the Dolby 2.0 Surround track still has a dull character, with neither crisp highs nor deep lows. It’s obviously a TV production, and like previous years has moderate surround activity and stereo envelopment from the score, but something is a little off. I popped in a couple of random episodes from Season 2 and indeed they sounded better, even though they were similarly encoded at the low 192 kb/s bit-rate. Apparently there’s just something lacking with the audio master tapes for Season 3.

The DVD provides Spanish and French dub tracks in Dolby 2.0 Surround. Optional English or Spanish subtitles are included, as is true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The Season Two box was a disappointment in the bonus features area, a flaw that has been at least somewhat amended here. We start with three episode-specific Audio Commentaries. Producers Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell discuss the episode Billy. It’s a jovial, funny track in which Minear makes an active attempt to learn from mistakes in past commentaries (such as reciting on-screen action). Minear then joins writer Mere Smith for Lullaby. They have a good, almost flirtatious byplay and the commentary is pretty amusing. Series creator Joss Whedon (who was absent from last season’s supplements) returns for a solo commentary on Waiting in the Wings, which is of course excellent though mysteriously ends five minutes before the episode is over.

Two Deleted Scenes are available. The first is a four-minute extension of the “Cordy!” sit-com scene in episode Birthday, which drags on for much too long and desperately needed cutting. Tim Minear and Mere Smith provide optional commentary. Much better is a ballet dream sequence from Waiting in the Wings with optional commentary by Joss Whedon. This scene is riotously funny but unfortunately just didn’t fit into the episode. Its inclusion here is priceless.

On Disc 3 we have the 12-minute Darla: Deliver Us from Evil featurette with much insight into the character from actress Julie Benz. After this are five minutes of awful-quality Outtakes from the entire season.

Disc 6 has the meat of the supplements, beginning with the 34-minute Season Three Overview, which is sadly just a recitation of stuff we already knew and is barely worth watching. The 14-minute Page to Screen featurette is much more interesting, a nuts & bolts breakdown of what it takes to get an hour-long television episode on the air. The Screen-tests for Amy Acker and Vincent Kartheiser last about two minutes each. Written solely for audition purposes and having little to do with the show’s story continuity, these scenes are very bizarre (Acker’s is hilarious). A Still Gallery of 30 photos wraps up the disc. Unlike previous DVD sets, no episode scripts were provided this time.

Like previous season boxes, we do get another handy booklet with episode summaries. It’s worth noting that again every episode in this Region 1 set is missing the original “Previously on…” teaser, something that other DVD regions consistently provide.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Given that there are no more controversies about aspect ratio, this Region 1 box set is not too different from what Region 2 got some months back, although I really have to say that I prefer the Region 2 packaging design. In the US, Fox Home Entertainment has once again put the discs in an elaborate fold-out contraption, which looks pretty enough (this one is perhaps their most handsomely-designed yet), but is extremely fragile and has a high rate of discs popping off their hubs. (The set I received has one disc scratched beyond the point of playability, and this is certainly not the first time that has happened.) It also bugs me that Fox has taken to printing dialogue quotes with significant plot spoilers in them all over the box and the discs. Nevertheless, this is another great season of Angel and another fine box set. You can’t go wrong whichever DVD region you choose. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Ararat

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 22, 2004.

Atom Egoyan is a talented guy. Exotica is an excellent film and The Sweet Hereafter is, in my estimation, a masterpiece. If not all of his films rise to the level of those two, even when they fail they’re usually at least interesting failures. So why is it that Ararat, a project that in all respects ought to be his most personal and passionate, comes across as his most detached and, frankly, dull?

In 1915, under the pretense of World War I, the Turkish army slaughtered over a million Armenians living within their borders, a genocide that should rank among the most notorious of the last century. Yet somehow this event has been largely forgotten by history. Hitler supposedly said something to the effect of, “Who remembers the Armenians?” as one of the justifications for his Jewish holocaust, and to this day the Turkish government denies that it ever happened. However, when you try (and fail) to systematically wipe out an entire race of people, those people tend not to forget. Egoyan, a Canadian filmmaker of Armenian descent, certainly remembers and believed it was time to give the issue the kind of attention a major motion picture from an Oscar-nominated director would bring.

If you’ve ever seen one of Egoyan’s films, you know that he can’t do anything in a straight-forward fashion. Rather than make a standard Schindler’s List-type historical picture, instead he wrapped the history of the Armenian genocide into one of his patented multi-layer character dramas. The resulting film, set in present day Canada, involves a large number of characters and several distinct storylines that intersect in unexpected ways. A boy finds himself in love with his emotionally troubled step-sister, and in conflict with his mother. The mother has written a biography of a famous Armenian painter, and is hired as a consultant on a film about the 1915 genocide. A customs agent (in a plotline basically recycled from Exotica) winds up interrogating the son on his way back from Turkey, supposedly returning from a research trip for the film. The customs agent has a son of his own, whose gay lifestyle he disapproves. The gay son’s partner is an actor, who of course gets hired for the Armenian film. And so everything comes around full-circle.

You can see already that this is a complicated mix, and Egoyan structures it, as is his tendency, into a complex series of flashbacks within flashbacks within a movie within a movie. He continually blurs the line between actual history and the fictional film’s re-enactment of it. This may sound terribly confusing in print, but Egoyan is skilled at this sort of thing and keeps it all clear and understandable while watching. Nonetheless, the burden of such a convoluted narrative prevents the film from achieving a real emotional drive. The languorous pacing that Egoyan uses effectively in his other movies here only serves to emphasize how deadeningly serious he takes this subject. There are many potentially compelling intellectual ideas expressed (the importance of truth, fact vs. poetic license, whether history can ever be recorded accurately), but somehow they don’t pull together as well as hoped. What we wind up with is a well-meaning, serious-minded film about the making of a well-meaning, serious-minded film. Unfortunately, one is almost as boring as the other.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Ararat played in theaters matted to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but is presented on DVD in a slightly modified 16:9 transfer, presumably with the director’s permission. It will fill a widescreen television with no letterbox bars. This is a well-photographed movie and a good-looking disc. The anamorphically enhanced picture is fairly sharp with reasonably detailed textures in the close-ups and accurately rendered (if not overly vivid) colors. Some edge enhancement intrudes over the opening and closing credit text, but is generally not a significant distraction during the movie itself. The film’s photography frequently has a thin layer of grain, which sometimes interferes with the disc’s mediocre digital compression quality, but does not cause too many serious problems. 

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

In a surprising move considering the movie’s box office disappointment, Miramax has elected to give the DVD both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio options. Both have a spacious, airy musical presence and active surrounds. The movie’s battle scenes (flashbacks to the war) are very aggressive and dynamic, boosting the average volume level significantly higher than the rest of the film, which can come as a shock after so many talky, dialogue-driven scenes. Rifle and machine gun fire provide a satisfying, visceral kick. The DTS track is set by default much louder than the Dolby Digital. After volume compensation, the DTS still sounds richer and fuller, with better clarity of subtle details.

A blander Dolby 2.0 option is also available. The movie automatically prompts mandatory subtitles for non-English scenes, and the disc additionally includes optional English subtitles for the hearing impaired, as well as closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Also a pleasant surprise is the wealth of supplemental material on this impressively-loaded 2-disc set. To start, director Atom Egoyan delivers a feature-length audio commentary that is honestly a lot more interesting than the film itself. Egoyan obviously has a passion for the subject matter and came well-prepared to discuss the themes he was trying to convey. His discussion very much enhances an understanding of the subject’s history and an appreciation of his artistic intentions, although it still more or less leaves you wondering why the movie didn’t turn out better.

Disc 2 begins with the two-minute Arsinee Khanjian on Ararat interview, in which the lead actress (and Egoyan’s wife) discusses her participation in the film. The Portrait of Arshile is a four-minute short film that Egoyan made for BBC Television in 1995, about his infant son, who was named after the painter Arshile Gorky featured prominently in the Ararat narrative. The Historical Information section presents us with a text scroll delving into the history and politics of the Armenian genocide. 

The Making of Ararat featurette runs 30 minutes and goes into thorough detail about many aspects of the production including music, photography, costumes, sets, editing, sound design, and the film’s reception at the Cannes Film Festival. Raffi’s Video Footage is a nine-minute chunk of the raw videotape recordings that are seen in the movie, presented with commentary by the person who shot it. We also get the perfunctory theatrical trailer.

Eight deleted scenes with optional commentary by Atom Egoyan run just under 20 minutes. This is followed by a section of cast and crew interviews lasting about ten more minutes total.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

Just a minor inclusion here, but loading up Disc 2’s DVD-ROM section leads to a number of web links to internet sites with further information on the Armenian genocide.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Maybe it’s just that I’m not Armenian and don’t have a vested interest in seeing this subject matter brought to public attention, but Ararat plays like it’s preaching to the converted, a film that may be embraced by its narrow target audience but will fail to spark the interest of a general viewership. It’s certainly not Atom Egoyan’s worst film (it’s miles better than Felicia’s Journey), but despite some potent themes and ideas, it never hits the marks that his best works do. Nonetheless, Miramax’s DVD makes up for the movie’s deficiencies with fine picture quality, a nice DTS track, and quite a lot of worthwhile supplements that are often more interesting than the film they support. I would have to rate this disc a qualified recommendation for Egoyan fans or those with an inherent interest in the topic.

Auto Focus

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 10, 2003.

Meet Bob Crane, star of TV’s Hogan’s Heroes. A charming and likeable guy, devoted family man, and straight-edge non-drinker and non-smoker, Crane also just happened to be an unrepentant sex addict whose slide into the depths of depravity led to his eventual violent murder in a seedy Arizona motel room. This is the stuff of great Hollywood scandal, the potential basis for a searing expose of the dark side of fame. TV producers seem to know this, hence the countless number of E! True Hollywood Story and similar programs about Crane’s death. So now it’s time to make a movie. Attach Paul Schrader, the man whose scripts for films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull have shown an innate understanding of the schizophrenic division between public persona and insecure private personality, and whose directing efforts such as Affliction have certainly not shied away from depressing subject matter about a character’s downfall. This could be the formula for a great movie, and yet something here just doesn’t work. The movie never gels and we’re left with a lot of interesting elements that never form a compelling whole.

The fault is mostly in the writing. Schrader is an acclaimed screenwriter who could have probably done a bang-up job with this material, but he didn’t tackle this script himself. Instead, first-timer Michael Gerbosi adapts from the book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith. Gerbosi seems to be influenced a little too much by the producing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, a pair of terrible screenwriters whose lousy scripts have sunk previous potentially great bio-pics about fascinating subjects like Larry Flynt and Andy Kaufman. They take a shallow and superficial approach to their scripts, never plumbing the true depths of the material, and Gerbosi follows right in their footsteps. What we get here is an incessant parade of all of Bob Crane’s depravities, but we never find out why he engaged in them, what drew his personality to need this kind of attention. “A day without sex is a day wasted,” Bob says, but why was he so unfulfilled in his normal life that he had to take this attitude? The movie never asks. It just assumes that, well, he’s famous so he must be a sicko deep down. Aren’t all celebrities? Of course they are.

Worse yet, as anyone who has heard the basics of the story knows, Bob Crane’s death was the most interesting aspect of his life. Found bludgeoned to death in his bed, it’s presumed by most familiar with the case that Bob’s best friend and fellow pervert John Carpenter (no, not the movie director, another guy named John Carpenter) did the deed. But a motive was never clearly established, the investigation was botched by the local authorities, and Carpenter was acquitted at trial. Is any of this mentioned in the movie? No, not a word of it. Also ignored is the fact that Bob, in desperate financial straits throughout most of his later years, was (unbeknownst to him) about to come into a sizeable fortune through his ownership stake in the Hogan’s Heroes syndication contract. Surely a supreme irony of this nature deserves mention in the story of his death? I guess not.

The movie doesn’t even follow through on half the tangents that it sets up for itself. We’re given the basis for a rivalry between Crane and his TV co-star Richard Dawson. Then later, when his career is in the toilet, Bob begs his agent to get him anything, even a game show appearance. Could there be some jealousy brewing over Dawson’s success on Family Feud? We’ll never know, because it didn’t occur to the writers to develop that theme.

Still, there’s much material in this film that is genuinely interesting. Bob has a fixation not just on sex, but also on technology, on the cameras and video equipment that allow him to relive and embellish his fantasies. He’s a voyeur who enjoys spying on himself, and this provides a decidedly twisted slant to the usual whores-and-bimbos pickup routine. His relationship with Carpenter, two heterosexual men using each other to build their sexual fantasies, is a bizarre symbiosis; Carpenter (creepily played by Willem Dafoe) is an enabler, a pusher driving on Bob’s addictions, and essentially the embodiment of that understanding wife Bob always wished he could find. Greg Kinnear’s performance captures that smug, cocky charm that made Crane successful on TV and successful with the ladies. He portrays Bob as a man incapable of seeing his own flaws. He insists, even as his life and career break down around him, that he’s perfectly healthy and normal, and that people who can’t see that are the ones who have the problem. The movie’s title, Auto Focus, is of course a reference to the cameras that Bob uses in his activities, but it also means “to focus on one self,” which is something that Bob simply could not do, and is the cause of his downfall.

And yet… and yet…. The movie just doesn’t pull together. Schrader’s direction builds off a nice, jazzy 60’s lounge groove, the kind that the perfect Playboy man should live his life to, but the movie lacks energy and, frankly, focus. All of the pieces to the puzzle of this man’s life are on the table, but someone decided to skip a few and form only half the picture. The material deserves better. Auto Focus amounts to a lot of wasted potential.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Letterboxed to its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement, this is a very sharp and detailed image with outstanding, eye-poppingly vibrant colors. The red of Bob’s sweater in the opening scene practically leaps off the screen. The film moves in time from the bright and colorful 1960s through the drab ’70s, and the color transfer captures every nuance in the photography with precision. The picture also has a solid black level with very good shadow detail visibility. The only downside is the nearly constant presence of artificial edge enhancement forming small ringing halos around most objects in the frame. The artifact is not as severe as I’ve seen on discs from other studios, but it will be a distraction on large screen sizes.

Please note that the movie has a few instances of blatant optical censorship obscuring parts of the frame during some of Bob’s home movies. The worst example occurs at approximately the 32-minute mark (and another around 1hr. 18 min.). The issue is addressed during the director’s commentary found on the disc. Apparently having problems passing the film through the MPAA with an R-rating, Schrader decided not to cut any footage, rather to add the obvious digital blocking as a statement against censorship (much as Todd Solondz had done with his film, Storytelling). It’s unfortunate that Columbia TriStar wouldn’t release an unrated version of the film on home video, but what we get here is an accurate reproduction of the film’s theatrical presentation. 

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Although officially credited with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the majority of the movie’s sound design is basic stereo. There’s limited surround activity other than selected scenes such as Bob’s dream sequences, which do feature brief instances of split surround directionality before reverting back to simple stereo when the dreams end. The movie has some jazzy music by Angelo Badalamenti as well as a number of period tunes, which are well reproduced with reasonable dynamic range and fidelity. The overall volume seems to be set a little low, but in all this is a faithful presentation of this rather subdued soundtrack.

A French dub track is available in Dolby 2.0 Surround, along with optional English and French subtitles and true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Considering that the movie was a box office disappointment, a fair number of bonus features are available, perhaps in a bid to make the disc more attractive to buyers who are unsure about wanting to own the movie itself.

To start, we get not one but three audio commentaries. In the first, director Paul Schrader discusses the technical logistics of the actual production and his intentions for the film. He admits at the beginning that he has recorded the track one month before the film’s theatrical release, so his knowledge of the movie’s critical reaction is limited and his acknowledgements of the film’s weaknesses are few. On the next track, writer Michael Gerbosi is joined by producers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski for a lively chat about the origins of the project and the development of the story. They also seem to be oblivious to the flaws in their writing. On the last commentary, stars Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe talk a little bit about their performances, but have come to the recording completely unprepared and basically try to wing it with mixed results. This is the least interesting of the three tracks.

A Making-Of Featurette is seven minutes of pure promotional fluff, with everyone praising the genius of the director and the amazing depth of the script. Following this are five deleted scenes with optional commentary from the director. They are presented in lousy quality non-anamorphic letterbox taken straight off the editing deck. Most of this footage was wisely cut, but there’s one good scene fragment involving the Hogan’s Heroes cast in their makeup chairs that probably should have stayed in the film. (“Who better to play Nazis than us Jews?” “Sellout or revenge? You be the judge.”)

The most interesting supplement on the disc is the hour-long documentary Murder in Scottsdale, which appears to be recycled from some Unsolved Mysteries-type of TV program. Presenting the facts of Bob Crane’s death and the investigation (and eventual acquittal) of John Carpenter as prime suspect, we learn a lot more about the murder here than in the movie itself, and generally get a better sense of why this mystery has retained its scandalous allure. This is the type of elaboration that Auto Focus desperately needs.

Lastly, we get a pair of theatrical trailers for Auto Focus, one PG and one R-rated, both in anamorphic widescreen, and a selection of six other trailers for random Sony Classics films that have absolutely no relation to this one.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The only ROM supplement is a web link to the official Auto Focus web site, which I’m sure Sony has every intention of keeping active for years and years to come, and are not at all planning to pull down a couple of weeks after this DVD’s sales start to taper off.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A disappointing movie about a potentially fascinating subject, Auto Focus has enough interesting elements to merit a rental, but the decision to purchase should be held off until a viewer has seen the film. A nice transfer marred only by some moderate edge enhancement is complemented by a decent selection of supplements, one of which greatly enhances an understanding of the controversy surrounding Bob Crane’s death better than the movie biography itself. The film is a mixed bag, but the disc serves it well.

Baraka

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 15, 2002.

A sort of half-sister to Godfrey Reggio’s “Qatsi” movies (Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi), Baraka was photographed and directed by Ron Fricke, the cinematographer who helped Reggio develop his non-narrative style in the first film of that series. Photographed in 65mm in locations spanning 24 different countries, this was his attempt to outdo Reggio and create the ultimate film in this very small subgenre. The movie has all of the strengths of its two predecessors, but little of the heavy-handedness that weighed down Powaqqatsi and even parts of the first film. I give credit to Koyaanisqatsi for its innovation, but Baraka is a successful refinement of the formula.

I was fortunate enough to see Baraka during its original theatrical run. There are few words to adequately describe the power of its images projected on 70mm film. The movie is gorgeously photographed, very well paced, and features a masterful use of time-lapse photography that exceeds even that in Koyaanisqatsi, culminating in an awe-inspiring display of celestial fireworks. Fricke’s overriding theme is that of spirituality and its application throughout the world. His movie is also an examination of cultures not often captured on film outside the confines of a National Geographic special. He treats them neither with Western condescension nor with the overly blatant reverence that plagued Powaqqatsi. There are times when the film becomes a tad preachy, but much more subtly so than Reggio’s work.

One thing missing here, unfortunately, is Philip Glass to provide the soundtrack. Instead we get a rather new-agey score by Michael Stearns that effectively supports the images but never stands out as brilliantly or majestically as Glass’ music. Nevertheless, from the Pygmy tribes of Africa to the stone statues in China’s Forbidden City, from the Kuwaiti oil fires to a particularly haunting sequence in a former Nazi concentration camp, Baraka is a wondrous exploration of places other films never take us. It’s a work of dazzling, exceptional filmmaking.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Released twice now on DVD, the first edition of Baraka was a straight transplant of the non-anamorphic letterbox transfer used for the original Laserdisc release. The Laserdisc looked pretty good but had some issues with chroma noise that were exacerbated by poor digital compression quality on the DVD. Finally remastered, MPI Home Video’s current “Special Collector’s Edition” DVD of the film sports an all new anamorphically-enhanced transfer letterboxed to an approximately 2.2:1 aspect ratio (appropriate for a 65mm production). The picture is mastered at a consistently high video bit rate and does indeed look much better than the previous DVD, but still seems a little soft and flat. Colors are vividly delineated and the picture is at least reasonably sharp for a DVD, but I feel like it could use stronger contrasts to add depth to the image.

Perhaps I’m being unfair; no DVD will ever fully duplicate the amazing clarity of a 70mm theatrical screening, but on the whole it just doesn’t seem to me that this new remastered DVD is all that much of a remarkable improvement over the old Laserdisc. It’s acceptable, and those who’ve never seen the movie before will likely think it looks very good indeed, but I’m still hoping to one day relive that “wow” factor about the movie that first bowled me over.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Just as the video has been remastered, so has the audio. The Collector’s Edition features soundtrack options in the flavors of Dolby Digital 5.1 or basic Dolby Surround. I would love to say that the 5.1 mix sounds terrific, if not for one very serious caveat. As the movie opens, the pan flute music played over the first few scenes is extremely shrill, with the high end of the signal badly distorting. I double-checked and this problem is present on both DVD soundtrack options. It is not, however, a problem at all on the Laserdisc’s PCM digital track, which maintains its clarity even at very loud volumes. (I no longer have the old DVD to compare.)

This is a shame, because otherwise the audio mix is quite good. The track has a nice low end with some thunderous drumming. Envelopment is terrific throughout the soundstage, including plenty of surround activity and a number of discrete rear-channel effects. I didn’t notice too much of a problem with distortion aside from that pan flute. Regardless, the Laserdisc soundtrack continues to be the preferable way to listen to the movie, even without 5.1 encoding.

No subtitles or closed captioning have been provided, nor are they needed given that the movie has not one line of dialogue.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Other than the video remastering, the only thing that makes this “Special Collector’s Edition” a collector’s edition is the behind-the-scenes featurette. This is a brief seven-minute affair in 4:3 full-frame with interviews from director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson. This piece is very obviously recycled from the movie’s original Electronic Press Kit, and the non-anamorphic letterbox clips from the film look terrible, probably transferred from a work print. It’s really nothing special, and except for one tidbit about blowing flies away from the camera while in Africa, contributes little useful knowledge about the making of the film. It may be better than nothing, but just barely.

Inside the disc case is also a booklet with a map of all the filming locations. (The Laserdisc came with a similar map on a card.)

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A nice spin-off from the famous “Qatsi” movies, Baraka is a great film and is my favorite of the bunch. This new DVD is an improvement on the original edition, though is still imperfect. Still, I recommend it heartily. Try to watch it on the biggest screen you possibly can.

Before Night Falls

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published May 20, 2001.

Before Night Falls begins with the infant Reinaldo Arenas, a child so poor that his only toys are an empty soda bottle and mud, playing at the bottom of what appears to be a freshly dug grave. This is the story of his life, and this state of “absolute poverty and absolute freedom” is as happy as it gets. A few years later, a schoolteacher pays a visit to inform his family that young Reinaldo has a talent for poetry. His grandfather promptly grabs a hatchet, takes the boy outside, and chops down a tree that he has carved a poem onto as punishment for his uselessness. As his work is destroyed, the camera follows the motion of the hatchet, swinging back and forth and losing focus until the leaves of the trees take on the texture of an Impressionist painting swirling with color. This is an apt metaphor for the course of his life, brief moments of inspiration and beauty brought about through pain and humiliation.

I was very impressed with painter-turned-filmmaker Julian Schnabel’s first film, a biography of fellow artist Jean Michel Basquiat, whose sudden rise to fame couldn’t prevent him from slipping into mental illness and despair. Schnabel covers similar territory with this film. Arenas was not mentally ill, but his refusal to follow societal rules left him equally misunderstood and unappreciated, and even his artistic outlet could not completely fill the void. Before Night Falls is a more ambitious film than Basquiat. It deals not only with the creative process and the emotional turmoil of its characters, but also with the larger political backdrop of the Cuban Revolution. Arenas tried to join the revolution when he was young, but later found himself persecuted for being both an intellectual and a homosexual, two things that Fidel Castro least wanted in his country. Schnabel’s film paints a convincing historical portrait of the times and of the country. Never once do we question its authenticity, even though the movie was filmed in Mexico for practical reasons.

The film is rich in atmosphere and has a number of remarkable scenes, including an attempted escape to Miami by hot-air balloon. Javier Bardem’s portrayal of Arenas is compelling and believable, even after we see (in the DVD supplements) how little he physically resembles the man. Johnny Depp makes appearances in two small but absolutely unforgettable roles. Sean Penn has a less successful cameo that’s frankly a little embarrassing. If the film falters, it’s not until the last act. The movie comes to something of a dead halt in its last twenty minutes, which is probably meant to be representative of Arenas’s life but nonetheless deflates the film’s climax. The end of his life was not without its share of irony, but the movie’s momentum is lost by that point and the segue to the end credits would probably work a lot better if Bardem had been allowed a few extra tries at the final bit of voiceover narration. Even so, the film’s strengths are much greater than its weaknesses, and it’s a fascinating look at a culture not often seen in other American films.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

New Line Home Video’s reputation for quality DVD transfers hasn’t been let down by this disc. The movie has intentionally varied photography, with some shots looking faded and grainy while other look vivid and striking. The contrast is well replicated here. The colors are bold when they’re supposed to be, often artificially heightened through the use of photographic filters (and perhaps some digital enhancement as well). Black level is deep and the image is sharply focused. The picture is properly letterboxed to the 1.85:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement.

The disc offers optional subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. There are, however, permanent English subtitles always on screen during the Spanish language portions of the movie, regardless of which other subtitles you may also choose. (The optional subtitles appear at the top of the frame during these scenes.)

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Three soundtracks are available. The English 5.1 and 2.0 tracks are largely similar. The movie doesn’t have a very aggressive surround presence, but it’s accurately conveyed. Activity in the rear speakers is confined mainly to music and ambient sounds. Dialogue is crisp and mostly intelligible. (Some of the accents get really thick, but that’s not a fault of the disc.) The quality of the music recordings is even more varied than the photography, but the best pieces come across as richly enveloping with satisfying bass extension. Attentive viewers may notice that the music cue during Reinaldo’s failed attempt to float to Florida by innertube was borrowed from the score to Aguirre: The Wrath of God, another tale of a doomed voyage.

A Spanish 5.1 track is also included. I’m generally opposed of the practice of dubbing, but movies like this pose an interesting conundrum. Logically speaking, the characters in the film should be speaking Spanish, but due to movie conventions (and the dictates of the producers) the actors were filmed mostly in English. So does that make the Spanish track or the English track more valid? Bardem and a number of the other actors do their own dubbing, and the track is well produced to feel mostly seamless, but in the end the movie was shot in English and the lip sync only fully matches the original dialogue.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The most important supplement is the audio commentary with Julian Schnabel, Javier Bardem, screenwriter Lazaro Gomez-Carriles, composer Carter Burwell, and Co-Director of Photography Xavier Perez Grobet. The participants were recorded separately and edited together with some gaps and many dry spots, but the track provides a worthwhile amount of information about the life of Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban culture, and the technical specifics of this film’s production.

An excerpt from the documentary Improper Conduct provides a brief 1983 interview with the real Reinaldo Arenas discussing life under the Castro regime. Behind the Scenes is a seven-minute short by Lola Schnabel, the director’s daughter. As implied by the title, this is a collection of home movies taken on location in Mexico. The narration has been phoned in (literally). There isn’t anything particularly informative about it, but some of the footage is amusing. The longest supplemental program is a fourteen-minute segment called Little Notes on Painting. This is a disorganized tour of Schnabel’s art studio. Schnabel tends to ramble, and little of the discussion involves the film in any way, but it provides interesting insight into his background as a painter. All of the video supplements are windowboxed in the center of the frame to accommodate anamorphic enhancement.

Cast and crew filmographies and a theatrical trailer round out the supplements.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Before Night Falls is a flawed but intriguing film that was probably more deserving of some of the high profile acting awards that it lost to a certain overwrought gladiator epic. It had only a limited theatrical release, but New Line has seen fit to give it a fine DVD treatment. The disc is heartily recommended.

Better Off Dead

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 19, 2002.

Forget John Hughes and his saccharine melodramas. For my money, there was no better chronicle of 1980s teen angst than the double-bill of Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer from a lunatic calling himself Savage Steve Holland. Both films are darkly comic and goofily surreal, but Better Off Dead is probably the superior of the two if only for the genius of its signature set-piece, in which the main character contemplates suicide by jumping off a highway overpass but then changes his mind, only to accidentally slip and fall directly into the bed of a passing garbage truck: “Man, that’s a real shame when folks be throwin’ away a perfectly good white boy like that.”

Everyone remembers the film for that scene even if they never actually saw the movie itself. Even so, the joke never gets stale or tired no matter how familiar it becomes. This is one of those rare comedies whose gags get funnier with anticipation. With repeated viewings, you know exactly what the jokes are and when they occur, and the build-up waiting for them becomes even funnier than the execution.

An impossibly young John Cusack stars as a high school slacker obsessed with his picture-perfect girlfriend. When she dumps him for a studlier ski jock, he becomes despondent and suicidal, but eventually decides to win her back with the help of his goofball friend (’80s geek icon Curtis Armstrong, who will alternately be remembered as Booger or Herbert Viola) and a foreign exchange student he can’t see is also in love with him. Of course, some valuable life lessons will be learned along the way. This has got to be the flimsiest excuse for a plot the movie could possibly have chosen, but that’s half the fun. The movie is self-aware of the lameness of its own set-up and functions as one of the earliest parodies of the feel-good schmaltz that John Hughes inflicted on us with his brat-pack movies. At the same time, it takes the emotions of the characters seriously and allows the audience to build up genuine sympathy for them despite their obviously caricatured behavior.

Where the movie really shines is in the outrageousness of its humor and the sheer volume of jokes. Where else could you find an Asian drag-racer who speaks like Howard Cossell, a mother’s horrible cooking that literally crawls away from the plate, an evil paperboy who will do anything to get his two dollars, and a dancing hamburger that can rock out to Van Halen? The movie is also endlessly quotable:

“Buck up, little camper.”

“Gee, I’m real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.”

“Have you any idea what the street value of this mountain is?”

Time has not been kind to very many movies from the ’80s. With its big hair and loud fashion sense, Better Off Dead is unmistakably an artifact of an era long past. For all its jokes, the film’s comedic timing is sometimes a little slow and it may not capture the attention of younger viewers. It perhaps holds up best as a piece of nostalgia and as a predecessor for the jaded cynicism of the 1990s. For those who remember it with fondness, the movie will continue to entertain, and its datedness will actually contribute to the appeal. I know that I’m glad to finally add it to my collection.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

It’s nice to see the movie in widescreen for the first time on home video, letterboxed with anamorphic enhancement to an aspect ratio of around 1.78:1. Unfortunately, the transfer quality is rather mediocre. Colors are decent but the image tends to be dull and grainy. There are patches of noticeable film damage and portions of the disc where compression shimmer is evident. To be sure, this is a low-budget movie almost 20-years-old and it will never look as nice as a recent blockbuster, but a little bit of clean-up work could have gone a long way. I’ve certainly seen a lot worse on DVD, but I’ve also seen films from the same era looking a lot better.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The sound quality is quite horrible, actually. Presented in basic stereo only, the soundtrack has poor fidelity and a totally lifeless audio presence. Dynamic range is limited and the track is lacking any sense of auditory depth. Some of the ’80s pop tunes sound OK, but the cheesy synthesizer score sounds hollow and dialogue is flat. I realize much of this may be a fault of the original recording, but I don’t recall the old VHS release sounding quite so awful. I think the sound quality may have improved when I played the disc on my tiny computer speakers rather than my full-range home theater system. Make of that what you will.

The disc includes English subtitles as well as closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

This is a Paramount catalog title. According to the case packaging, “English Subtitles” are a special feature. I suppose the little card with the printed chapter listings should be considered a supplement. How considerate of them to spoil every joke in the movie by titling the chapters after the punchlines.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

Are you kidding? There are no ROM supplements. Even the disc menus are cheap and boring.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I love the movie but this is a pretty shoddy DVD all around. I wasn’t expecting terribly much from a catalog release like this, and Paramount sure didn’t put much effort into exceeding those expectations. I probably wouldn’t mind so much if they had priced the disc accordingly. Fans of the movie will want it anyway, but with the inflated MSRP, make sure you get it at discount. Let’s hope that whatever studio currently owns One Crazy Summer will do better when it eventually comes to DVD as well.

Bowling for Columbine

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published August 14, 2003.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a long and distinguished history of choosing for their prestigious Best Documentary award a selection of candidates that no one has ever heard of, and that no paying audience would ever want to see. This is a tradition that goes back decades. Under normal circumstances, the Academy’s unspoken rule of thumb has been that, when in doubt, the picture about World War II should always win (four of the last ten winners have been about WWII), and that any film with even the slightest chance of achieving public recognition on its own should be dismissed out of hand. It’s a rare and amazing day indeed when a popular, crowd-pleasing movie like When We Were Kings (1996) is recognized with a trophy. So it was with no small amount of jaw-dropping shock that, for their 2003 awards ceremony, they nominated political rabble-rouser and bad boy of nonfiction filmmaking Michael Moore for the prize. Worse yet, come awards night, he actually won the damned thing, a surprise even Moore himself couldn’t have foreseen, taking the stage to both a standing ovation and vehement booing from various segments of the audience. What has happened to our precious Oscar telecast?

Perhaps the most divisive movie in recent memory, Bowling for Columbine stirred up quite a controversy, attracting legions of supporters and just as many detractors. I’m not going to pussyfoot around when I say that I’m mostly in the former camp. Bowling for Columbine is a flawed movie, but dammit it’s exactly the type of movie we need to see made more often, one that asks hard questions about where our society is heading that no one else is brave enough to ask, and that has some fun doing it. Michael Moore is a wicked satirist and a good old-fashioned muckraker, unashamed of slinging dirt without fear of offending an apathetic public or being persecuted by political extremists. Yes, he has a biased viewpoint. He has unabashed Leftist political views, some of which are pretty far off-center, and he admits this openly up front in everything he does. Unlike those who disingenuously complain about his biases as though they expected something else, Moore doesn’t hide who he is or what he’s trying to achieve.

There, now that I’ve gotten my own dirty little biases out of the way, let’s talk about Bowling for Columbine‘s merits as a film. To be honest, I don’t think it’s Moore’s best work. He attempts a different approach here than he usually takes, sometimes to mixed results. In Roger & Me, still his best film, or TV Nation, his brilliantly subversive sketch comedy/newsmagazine program, Moore pointed his camera at a target and went after it with the tenacity of a rabid bulldog, never letting up until he had thoroughly ridiculed and humiliated his subject into defeat. But here in this film, he doesn’t actually have a clear target. Instead, Moore tries to use his skills as a satirist to take a look at what makes the United States as a society such a violent culture, and why other countries around the world with histories even bloodier than our own manage to avoid this predicament. He doesn’t actually expect to find any answers, and frankly he doesn’t, but he knows a good hot-button topic when he sees one and how to milk it for some great material. If nothing else, Moore has an unfailing eye for spotting and pointing out all the little ironies in life, and the hypocrisies people live in order to justify their actions.

The problem is that the film comes across as unfocused, and not as biting in its criticisms as we expect from Moore. In fact, at one point he does pick a target, the K-Mart Corporation for their sale of handgun ammunition, and just after he’s started to go after them with his usual zeal, they fold, completely giving into his demands. Since this has never happened to him before, it leaves Moore flabbergasted, unsure of what to do next. Should he celebrate? Should he make more demands or pick another corporation to attack? What is the appropriate reaction to a success that he knows was born out of misfortune? Where do you go next?

This isn’t to say that Michael Moore fails to exploit his trademark humor. He manages to take some good swipes at the media for promoting our culture of fear, but is smart enough to realize that he is himself part of that media machine and they can’t solely be to blame. He makes fun of bigots, nutcases, and corporate America, and he continues to demonstrate his amazing ability to get complete wackos (like Terry Nichols’ brother) to talk on camera and essentially crucify themselves in front of the world. There’s also a riotously funny five-minute cartoon called “A Brief History of the United States of America” in the middle of the picture that is alone well worth the price of owning the movie.

So what’s so controversial about Bowling for Columbine, anyway? If anything, this ought to be Michael Moore’s least controversial film. The movie says that murdering people is bad, and we shouldn’t do it. Is that really a controversial message? Who would argue against that? No, what really rankles people is Michael Moore himself. The mere fact of being himself is more than enough to get people to denounce anything he has to say. Such it is with any strong-willed personality, especially one who so defiantly pits himself against the political majority (he has no kind words for either the Democratic or Republican parties) and the hypocrites who proclaim themselves our moral guardians.

The National Rifle Association in particular hates him. Although Moore does criticize the NRA for its behavior in light of not one but two school shootings, he doesn’t vilify the basic tenets of their organization (a citizen’s right to bear arms); in fact, he’s even a long-time member! However, by the time he faces off against Charlton Heston, there’s no spin that Heston could ever put on his comments that will make him seem other than a despicably insensitive monster. Things like that tend not to go over well with political hardliners or their supporters.

But there’s something more to it than that, isn’t there? There’s the matter of how he makes his arguments. Does Moore lie in order to promote his agenda? He has been accused of staging the circumstances of his ambush interviews, misquoting his sources, and using tricky editing to take his subjects’ words out of context. Moore addresses many of these claims on his official web site, but some of the charges would seem harder to defend, if true. Is the film even really a “documentary,” by the strictest definition of the term? A documentary is supposed to be about recording an event, not using it as a forum for voicing one’s own agenda. Really, the film is less a documentary than it is a political broadside, but unfortunately the Academy doesn’t have a neat little category for things like that, so they labeled it the closest thing they could find.

Yet it’s impossible to deny the power of the film. More than anything else, the movie has a strongly melancholy tone, mournful of tragedies that have occurred in this country like the Oklahoma City bombing, World Trade Center disaster, and of course the school shooting at Columbine. Footage he managed to obtain from the security cameras in the school is horrifying, emotional, and sad. And his return to these locations after the fact to interview survivors about how they’ve gone on with their lives is often downright wrenching.

The fact of the matter is that Bowling for Columbine isn’t an Anti-Gun movie as people would have you believe, nor is it an Anti-NRA movie. Bowling for Columbine is really an Anti-Stupid People Using Guns to Shoot Other People movie, and frankly anyone who’s genuinely offended by a message like that ought to stop reading this article and do something more productive with their time, like basket-weaving, or yoga, or some other quiet and peaceful activity that doesn’t involve any sharp objects. This isn’t a movie for those people, and personally I don’t want to know what is.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Bowling for Columbine was shot with broadcast quality video equipment and then transferred to film for theatrical exhibition. I’m not absolutely certain, but at a guess I’d say this DVD is a probably direct video-to-video transfer without using the intermediary film step. For what it is, the picture quality is fair enough. A number of scenes are sharp and clear, with vibrant colors and rich black level. Then there are other scenes that are soft, murky, and heavily grainy. That’s just the nature of the movie, and the shifts are neither unexpected nor distracting. Digital compression quality is acceptable, and although a very small amount of edge enhancement does appear on occasion, it rarely proves irritating and will likely only be visible on the largest of video displays.

The movie is presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. Sometimes the top and bottom matting looks overly tight; no doubt the cameraman was used to composing for television. The many TV news clips used throughout the movie often look noticeably cropped. On the whole, though, the 1.85:1 framing is workable. Perfect composition was not exactly a high priority for the production, so I’m sure it would look equally fine were it to be unmatted.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The specs say this is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and my receiver’s front panel lights up accordingly, but the movie still sounds like a documentary. You should know what to expect. The film is mostly dialogue, with only the few songs on the soundtrack providing any sense of dimensionality or surround use. Even some of the songs don’t exactly sound right. The number playing over the opening credits sounds strangely hollow and inferior to the version of the same tune used for the DVD’s menus. But no matter. It is what it is, and it’s fine.

Optional English or Spanish subtitles are available, along with true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The movie was originally scheduled for an early spring DVD release, but with its Oscar buzz and eventual win, the disc was postponed so that Michael Moore could produce some supplemental content. What we get is mostly a very good and interesting selection of material. If I have one disappointment, it’s that really the content on this disc isn’t very much fun. I guess I was expecting that the first Michael Moore special edition disc would be loaded with lots of satirical comedy material like we usually see in his TV shows. Instead, what’s presented is mostly in keeping with the tone of the movie: sad, mournful, sometimes angry, and only rarely jokey. I say this not as a criticism, but must note it as a matter of setting expectations.

The DVD is dual-sided, with the movie and three features appearing on Side 1. The first feature is a four-minute audio introduction from Michael Moore, in which he sets the tone for the movie (i.e. very somber) and explains why he chose not to record an audio commentary. (His explanation sounds rather like a cop-out, to be honest.)

After this is one of the disc’s few attempts at comedy, the first-ever Receptionists’ and Interns’ Audio Commentary. The track begins with another brief introduction from Moore to explain what it’s all about, basically that he thought it might be fun to listen to people from the low rungs of the production chain who usually never get to be heard. The concept sounds potentially intriguing or at least entertaining, but sadly it’s mostly just annoying. Listening to a group of college-age production assistants sit around and laugh at the movie’s jokes while chattering inanely away about their insights into the film gets very old very fast. I made it about 15 minutes before giving up. Maybe it gets better after that. My life is too short to waste finding out. To me, this joke commentary feels like a waste of disc space. I’m disappointed that Moore chose not to record his own commentary track, where he might directly address some of the criticisms laid out against the movie and his filmmaking techniques. Perhaps that’s exactly what he was trying to avoid?

Wrapping up Side 1 is a theatrical trailer. The bulk of the supplements are on Side 2. We start with the Interview with Michael Moore on his Oscar Win and Acceptance Speech, which lasts about 15 minutes. The Academy wouldn’t let Moore use the footage from the actual telecast on this DVD, so instead he describes what happened there (mostly accurately) and recites the speech, or at least as much of it as he was allowed to give at the ceremony before being forced off the stage. As he astutely puts it, “At the end of the day, I’m Michael Moore. What else was I gonna do?”

Then the 25-minute Return to Denver/Littleton featurette is an edited version of a speech Moore gave at the University of Denver six months after Bowling for Columbine was released. He speaks to a packed house, delivering a lecture that was highly politically charged. Hey, he’s Michael Moore. What else is he gonna do?

The Film Festival Scrapbook is a 16-minute assemblage of footage from the activities at the Cannes, Toronto, and London festivals. The Marilyn Manson music video “Fight Song” lasts only three minutes, but with Manson a little bit goes a long way. The video is presented in full-frame video and Dolby 2.0 audio.

One of the best features on the disc is the 21-minute Michael Moore Interview by Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, which was conducted at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. This is a very good, funny interview in front of a live audience, and fans of Moore should be entertained. The Charlie Rose Interview lasts 24 minutes and is a little more serious, but a typically good Rose interview that viewers of his show will appreciate. There’s a reason so many of Rose’s interviews wind up in DVD supplements.

Finally in the realm of the just plain funny is the “Corporate Cops” segment from Moore’s TV show The Awful Truth. Clips from the segment are briefly seen in the movie, but here’s the full seven-minute version, complete with appearance by Crackers the Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken. Now this is the sort of thing that Moore does best.

The last feature on the disc is the cast & crew photo gallery. Ever wonder who those people are you see listed in the movie’s end credits scroll? Well, here they are, all of them. Believe it or not, I thought this was a surprisingly nice touch and a fine way to end the disc.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The packaging and disc menus announce that the disc has two primary ROM supplements, but frankly they both seem to be tied together as just one big feature. The Teacher’s Guide and Michael Moore’s Action Guide present a series of questions that teachers might ask students if viewing the film in class, along with essay topics and suggestions for how young people can become politically active. I’m divided as to how I feel about this. Is this an earnest attempt to spark discussion and debate about topics presented in the film, or is it a disingenuous attempt to legitimize Moore’s highly biased political views in an educational context? I can’t quite decide.

Some web links to michaelmoore.com and mgm.com are the only other ROM content available.

PARTING THOUGHTS

It’s a foregone conclusion that no matter what I’ve written in this column, I’ll be greeted with volumes of hate mail, either from the political Right Wing for liking anything at all about the film, or the Left Wing for not liking it nearly enough for their satisfaction. Whichever side you stand on, you’ve likely already decided whether you’re going to purchase the movie before reading this article, even if only to buy up all of the copies in your local area and publicly burn them in a giant bonfire. So my review of the disc’s contents is mainly just perfunctory, I suppose. For what it’s worth, the picture and sound quality are fine. The supplements are interesting, though they probably won’t change the views of anyone who has already locked their opinions in place.

I do wish that, if the disc producers couldn’t secure footage from the Oscar telecast, that they had at least tried to present Moore’s acceptance speech from the previous night’s Independent Spirit Awards instead, where he managed to deliver the full version of the speech that he was forced to shorten at the Oscars. That might have been interesting. I also wish that Moore had taken more of a stance to counter the claims of his detractors. But I suppose we can’t have everything.

It’s a good disc. Love it or hate it, the movie deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. God bless Michael Moore. He may not come up with any answers, but he knows exactly the right questions to ask. May he continue to make as many movies as he wants for as long as he wants, even if only so that everyone who hates him can have something to continue screaming their bloody heads off about. Now that he’s got an Oscar and is eligible to vote for future awards, I have a feeling we’ll start seeing a much more interesting selection of Best Documentary nominees. That can only be a good thing.

Brotherhood of the Wolf: Director’s Cut (Canadian Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published October 22, 2002.

Apparently inspired by the success of Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, French filmmaker Christophe Gans decided that if the Americans can do something well, he could do it even better. Adapting loosely from the local legend of “the Beast of Gevaudan,” what Gans came up with was Le pacte des loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf), a giddy concoction mixing elements of fairy tale, monster movie, period piece, drama, romance, conspiracy thriller, and rocking kung-fu action picture. The movie has a beastie of supernatural origins, buxom wenches in tight corsets, pompous aristocrats, beautiful French whores, papal spies, and an American Indian sidekick who can commune with the animal spirits (or some such ridiculous nonsense) and more importantly kick everybody’s ass. Holy crap, if this isn’t one of the best movies ever made, then I’ll be damned if it isn’t at least one of the most entertaining!

It’s the middle of the 18th Century and the French countryside is being terrorized by what is officially described as a really really big wolf. No ordinary canine, this nasty monster stalks only women and children and has been smart enough to evade capture from widespread hunting parties. It doesn’t just tear up or eat its victims; it lures them into booby traps then picks them up and smashes them repeatedly against rocks until there’s nothing left but a bloody pulp of a human shell. This sucker isn’t just hungry; it’s downright mean. Enter the royal naturalist Sir Gregoire de Fronsac and his ass-kicking Native American bodyguard/best friend, who are sent by the king to investigate the source of the trouble and wind up uncovering a convoluted conspiracy of Oliver Stone-ian proportions.

Gans takes an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach to the material, throwing in many disparate elements in the attempt to provide a little something for everyone. Some viewers have rejected the style and have complained about the movie’s long running time, but personally I loved every minute of it. Some of the CGI special effects could use improvement; otherwise the film has stunning production values and is ceaselessly inventive. This is a violent, sexy, funny, and ravishingly beautiful movie with extremely high repeat viewing potential. Brotherhood of the Wolf is great silly fun of the highest order.

Released already on DVD in the United States by Universal Studios Home Video, that disc has now been trumped by a new 3-disc special edition from TVA Films in Canada. (TVA has also released a single-disc edition that’s equivalent to the first disc in their box set.) The Canadian disc is encoded for Region 1 NTSC playback and will function in any American DVD player. The movie itself is a Director’s Cut that runs seven minutes longer than the American release. The extra footage extends some elements of the love triangle in the plot. It’s not entirely necessary to the flow of the movie, but it does provide a better transition between two segments of the narrative (Fronsac’s departure and return) and any extra footage of the exquisite Monica Bellucci or the lovely Emilie Duquenne is a welcome addition.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Although the source elements used for this Canadian DVD contain a longer version of the movie, the quality of the color transfer looks very similar to that on the American disc from Universal. The picture has been letterboxed to the 2.35:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. Colors are rich and vibrant with precise delineation of various shades. The contrast range is excellent and there’s a strong sense of texture in the fine details of the image.

This isn’t to say that the two discs are equal in all respects. In fact, they’re quite different in several important areas. The American disc would seem to have much better digital compression quality. I say “seem to have” because it appears to achieve this look through the use of high-pass filtering that softens the image and reduces the visibility of compression artifacts. The Canadian disc has not been filtered and features a sharper picture, sometimes dramatically so. The downside to this is that edge enhancement (which was present but subdued on the Universal disc) is more pronounced and compression artifacts are much more frequent. The picture is rather edgy, dark scenes tend to be grainier, and shots that include a complex amount of cluttered picture information (such as the overhead shot at 1:12:42) are marred by mosquito noise.

The problem is no doubt exacerbated by the fact that the Canadian disc has a longer running time and has been crammed with space-hogging animated menus and soundtrack options, including two audio commentaries and a DTS track (more on these below). In all, I still think this is a good picture, but it’s notably inferior to the Universal disc, which although softer has a smoother and more film-like image. I don’t think the TVA disc is terrible by any means, but the larger your screen size, the more likely you will find these flaws distracting.

Viewers watching the disc on a traditional 4:3 (non-widescreen) television should please take note: The disc has been encoded with the Pan-and-Scan-on-the-Fly feature, perhaps mistakenly. Your DVD player must be set for “4:3 LETTERBOX” mode, not “4:3 STANDARD.” The picture will be cropped to approximately 1.78:1 with magnified grain if watching in the wrong mode.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

This has got to be the loudest DVD I’ve ever owned. Even the menus are nearly deafening. (Note to DVD producers: Please stop doing that.) After adjusting the volume, the French Dolby Digital 5.1 track is the equal of that found on the Universal disc, which is to say that it’s truly outstanding. This is an amazingly aggressive soundtrack with deep and luscious sound. There’s nearly constant full-range activity coming from every channel. As fists and swords whip through the air, the sounds swish discretely between all speakers. Bass is thunderous and sharp; during the fight scenes, you can almost feel yourself being kicked in the gut. If I have one tiny complaint, it’s that the ADR work does stand out at times. There’s a noticeable lack of lip sync during some dialogue passages, even with the original French soundtrack. I noticed the same problem when I saw the movie theatrically, so this is certainly not a flaw with the disc mastering.

Also copied from the Universal release is the laughable English dub in Dolby Digital 5.1. Even though the sound quality is identical to the other 5.1 mix in all ways other than the dialogue, the voices are utterly ridiculous and the English rescripting is very poor. The inclusion of this track is a useless feature that would have been best left off to conserve disc space. 

Even better than either of these Dolby Digital options is the DTS track (only available in the original French, thank you very much). Although the two sound options are more similar than not, I found the DTS to be slightly more refined. Surround usage is more defined with smoother directional imaging, and bass is just a bit cleaner and tighter. Is this small improvement worthy of the considerable amount of disc space that it takes up? That’s debatable, especially considering the compression flaws visible in the picture. Regardless, this is reference quality audio, every bit as impressive as the largest-budgeted of Hollywood movies.

English or French subtitles are available, but no closed captioning. The English subtitles are different than and much superior to those on the Universal disc, which are actually “dubtitles” (a transcription of the English dubbing script). The essence of the information conveyed is the same, but the wording of the translation reads much better on the TVA disc. For example, during an early scene, the voiceover narration is translated as, “As for the man who followed him like a shadow he was a foreigner and you knew nothing about him” on the Universal disc, but is much more simply and eloquently stated as, “The man who shadowed him was a mysterious foreigner” on the TVA.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Unlike the relatively barren Universal release, this 3-disc special edition from TVA Films is loaded with bonus features and is practically a direct port of the lavish collector’s set released in France last year. Disc 1 has two audio commentaries, one from director Christophe Gans and the other from stars Samuel Le Bihan and Vincent Cassell. Unfortunately, both commentaries are conducted in French and the disc offers no English subtitles for them. The remaining supplements are found on the next two discs, and those viewers who don’t speak French will be relieved to discover that everything else has indeed been subtitled in English when necessary.

The biggest inclusion on Disc 2 is the 1hr. 18min. “The Guts of the Beast” documentary. This is a very thorough making-of piece that covers all aspects of filmmaking from the acting and production design to the fight choreography and special effects. Some of the talk about the movie’s ambitions may sound a little pretentious, but this is a highly informative and worthwhile feature. Following this is the deleted scenes featurette, which runs 43 minutes and is identical to the one found on the Universal DVD. Five scenes are included with video interviews and explanations from director Gans. Next is “The Legend,” a 17-minute interview with naturalist Michel Louis, who talks about the real legend of the Gevaudan Beast that inspired the movie. Louis has his own theories about where the Beast really came from. He talks fast but provides a lot of interesting information and is rather entertaining. (A warning: This video supplement froze up on my Malata DVD player, however it played through without incident on my Denon player.) Lastly on this disc is the theatrical trailer in non-anamorphic letterbox (cropped to 1.85:1) with an English narrator.

In case those supplements weren’t thorough enough, Disc 3 has a further 1hr. 17min. documentary called “Brotherhood of the Wolf: Behind the Scenes.” As expected from its title, this one provides on-set production footage and describes a number of problems the crew had on the shoot. Better than your average Electronic Press Kit filler, there’s some genuinely interesting material here. After that, a section of storyboards contain artwork for 12 scenes. Each scene is presented as an animated montage, preventing you from stepping through the drawings manually. Wrapping up the on-disc content, we have a still gallery with a healthy selection of production art, advertising materials, and on-set photos.

The disc case has better artwork than the Universal release and includes a 14-page booklet with four essays about the production of the film. One essay claims that the movie was “one of the first conventional films to be shot directly in digital form before being transferred onto 35mm film.” I believe this must be a translation error because other sources have confirmed that the movie was actually shot in the Super 35 film format and then scanned into a computer file for digital manipulation, much as had been done previously on O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Amélie. Each disc in the set has alternate French or English animated menus. They are handsomely designed, but are obnoxiously, even frighteningly loud and the long transition time between screens becomes frustrating very quickly.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The disc menus claim that, if inserted into your DVD-ROM drive, Disc 2 will contain the French and English press kits as well as an internet link to the movie’s web site. Disc 3 supposedly has a copy of the script with writer’s notes and descriptions of scenes cut before filming. Sadly, I wasn’t able to access any of these features on my computer. Perhaps I have a software compatibility problem or perhaps TVA forgot to actually encode them onto the discs.

PARTING THOUGHTS

If not for the video compression issues, this wonderful 3-disc collector’s edition beats the American release in just about every other respect. Better case art, better subtitles, a Director’s Cut of the movie, DTS sound, and a substantial number of excellent supplements makes this a must-own for any fan of the movie. Unfortunately, I can’t help but think that the picture quality might have been improved had some of the disc’s extraneous contents been streamlined, especially the useless dub track and the annoying menus. As it is, though, I still highly recommend it for purchase despite these flaws. Hardcore fans may want to own both versions, but the Canadian disc is the preferred method of watching the movie. In my opinion, the longer running time, DTS sound, and improved subtitles outweigh the picture quality differences between the two releases.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 23, 2002.

Everyone’s favorite demon-hunting cheerleader has finally come to DVD in Region 1, and it’s certainly about time. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is that most unusual of properties, a television series spun off from an unsuccessful feature film that has managed to outshine its source material in both quality and popularity. Buffy started out (in the movie) as an airhead cheerleader played by Kristy Swanson who’s anointed as the Slayer, the chosen one who must protect the world (or, more specifically, Los Angeles) from vampires. The film played out with mixed results as a straight parody of other horror movies. Screenwriter Joss Whedon didn’t feel that this fully lived up to his intended concept, so he reconfigured it as a television series and cast Sara Michelle Gellar to take over as the lead character, now smartened up a little and made less of a ditz. Technically, the show follows the movie’s continuity (Buffy is already initiated as the Slayer when the series begins), but has moved to the fictional town of Sunnydale and basically jettisoned any remaining similarities. Buffy has even given up cheerleading, though she does return to it for one amusing episode. A viewer doesn’t need to have seen the film to follow the show. All of the essential information about Buffy’s past is recapped for us within the first few episodes, making the series entirely self-sufficient.

As its title implies, Buffy is a tongue-in-cheek riff on the stagnating vampire genre. It’s self-aware of horror movie conventions and has some fun with them. This kind of postmodern twist is hardly innovative by itself these days; I’m reminded as much of the recent Scream franchise as of Roman Polanski’s 1967 comedy The Fearless Vampire Killers. Where Buffy really succeeds is in its strong writing, snappy dialogue, and appealing characters you genuinely want to see survive and grow. It also adds a compelling mixture of awkward teenage angst, transforming the monsters and demons into a hyperbolic metaphor for all the usual horrors of adolescence. As Buffy’s mother tells her, every teenager thinks it’s the end of the world when things go wrong.

During its first season, the show was still getting on its feet and the results are a little uneven. Some of the storylines are hit or miss, and the faux-teen dialogue is laid on a little too thick. To be sure, there are some great episodes here like Never Kill a Boy on the First Date or the season finale Prophecy Girl, but there are also some real stinkers like Teacher’s Pet or I Robot… You Jane. Mostly, we’re given an entertaining introduction to the concept that hints at greater things to come as the show progresses. Even the weakest episodes have their pleasures, though, and the whole show is easily repeatable. I must say, the girls in my high school were never allowed to dress like this!

Due to legal entanglements involving its television syndication contract, the disc release for the series was delayed in the United States even though it has been available overseas for some time. We’re just now starting from the first episode, while DVD viewers in Europe and Australia are several seasons ahead of us. The included episodes in this first season are: Welcome to the Hellmouth, The Harvest, Witch, Teacher’s Pet, Never Kill a Boy on the First Date, The Pack, Angel, I Robot… You Jane, The Puppet Show, Nightmares, Out of Mind Out of Sight, and Prophecy Girl.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Buffy‘s first season was shot on 16mm film under tight budget constraints. It’s a well-photographed show, but the image tends to be grainy and too dark with poor shadow detail. This is an artifact of the cinematography, not the DVD mastering, and is mentioned a few times in Joss Whedon’s commentary track. The picture is not particularly sharp and colors are often oversaturated, leading to orange fleshtones and exaggerated primary colors. Print artifacts are not problematic except, oddly, on the Witch episode, which has sporadic speckling. The episodes appear to have been transferred from the original broadcast masters, and in all look about the same quality as they do in television syndication, but unfortunately no better.

The digital compression was handled by DVCC, who have also worked on Fox’s X Files DVDs. Viewers expecting the same level of quality will likely be disappointed. Either DVCC has not taken the weaker condition of these source elements into account, or there was simply nothing they could do with them to maintain a high quality image while still fitting four episodes onto each disc. The episodes regularly suffer from compression artifacts, including blocky irregular grain patterns and the smearing of fine details in motion. The problem varies from episode to episode, with some looking perfectly fine and others (notably Never Kill a Boy) being very distracting. They’re certainly not unwatchable, but will seem especially unattractive on large displays.

In all honesty, despite the compression issues, this is most likely the best that the material can look under the circumstances. I would expect that later seasons, when the show’s production switched to 35mm film and a decent budget, will look better.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The show has a reasonably active stereo soundtrack reproduced here in Dolby 2.0 Surround, but the production budget limits its dynamic range and aggressiveness. Surround activity, when it occurs at all, is mostly restricted to music and ambience. Only the final episode, Prophecy Girl, has any directional sound effects that stand out. There were one or two instances where an effect would sound like it ought to be phased for steering to the rear speakers, and yet, at least as my receiver processed the signal, remained in the front channels. I hadn’t encountered that problem before. Like the video, the audio quality varies a little among episodes; Teacher’s Pet sounds very constrained in comparison to the episodes around it.

A French 2.0 Surround soundtrack has been included, along with subtitles in both English and Spanish, as well as English closed captions.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Joss Whedon has recorded a screen-specific audio commentary for both halves of the two-part pilot episode, Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest. He has obviously listened to a few commentaries in the past and knows enough to avoid simply describing the action on screen. It’s a good talk filled with information about his intentions for the show, the difference between working in film and television, and the production difficulties of having such a small budget on an upstart television network. During the second episode, he also gets in an amusing dig against the silly Wesley Snipes vampire movie Blade.

The remaining supplements will feel familiar to anyone who has seen some of Fox’s previous TV series box sets. Disc 1 has a mostly useless four-minute Interview with Joss Whedon and David Boreanz, and another four-minute Interview with Joss Whedon about episodes Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest. These were probably prepared originally either for a television time-filler or for the videocassette releases. The second interview is somewhat better, but it repeats information from the first interview. We also have a Buffy trailer (really just an average TV commercial) and the Pilot Script in text form. The script is the standard Welcome to the Hellmouth version, not the unaired half-hour prototype pilot (more on that below).

Disc 2 has another short Interview with Joss Whedon about episodes Witch and Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (even though the episode Witch appears on the first disc), as well as a photo gallery of 27 images. Again, some of the information in the interview repeats what is heard elsewhere. Disc 3, annoyingly, opens with a stupid commercial for Fox DVDs before the menu. (I hate that!) We get the final Interview with Joss Whedon about episodes Angel and The Puppet Show (Angel actually appears on the second disc) and some cast bios.

Other than the commentary, this is all your typical promotional fluff. The interviews are repetitive, and worse they contain plot spoilers for this and later seasons. Fox seemingly threw in anything that was sitting around.

Not found anywhere on these discs is mention of the prototype half-hour pilot episode that Whedon shot while shopping the series around to prospective networks. The unaired pilot plays mostly similar to Welcome to the Hellmouth, but had an even smaller budget and some significantly different casting choices. It would’ve been nice to include that here, but we have no such good fortune. Perhaps if we’re lucky, Fox will dig it up for one of the later box sets, or at least allow Whedon to talk about it.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

Accessible by computer are a link to the official Buffy web site and a screensaver. It’s a little less than exciting.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Nothing I’ve said here should dissuade interested viewers from buying this set. When all is said and done, the advantages of owning an entire season of Buffy in one slender package outweigh any nit-picking qualms about not having reference-quality demo material. Like the slayer herself, this box set kicks much ass.

As fans of the series know, there is only one appropriate way to end this review:

“Grrrrrr… Arrgghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Second Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 23, 2002.

Buffy is back! Not even a slight case of death at the end of the first season can keep a good Slayer down. After taking the summer off, she may come back a little sulky and despondent at first, but it isn’t long before the Buffy we know is back in action defending the world from demons, werewolves, Incan mummies, giant snake-men, evil robots, and of course vampires.

Kendra (the other vampire slayer): “This is my lucky stake. I’ve killed many vampires with it. I call it Mr. Pointy.”

The show’s shortened first season was a great deal of fun despite being a little uneven in the quality of its episodes. Returning here for its first full 22-episode season, things really start to pick up and there’s a palpable sense that the series has found its footing. We take all of the elements that made the first season so entertaining (the humor, the scares, the witty dialogue and likeable characters), and add to them layers of character development and story complexity. Big things are happening in Sunnydale this year. The vampires start to organize again, Willow finds a boyfriend, Buffy and Angel’s relationship takes an unexpected turn, characters who don’t belong together form an unusual bond, other major characters who seem essential to the show are killed off, and we meet the second Slayer. Yes, it’s true that there’s only supposed to be one Slayer per generation, but a clever technicality involving the previous season finale allows the introduction of a new one to mix things up. Best of all, Spike and Drusilla, perhaps the show’s two most fascinating characters, come to town to wreak some havoc.

This isn’t to say that the second season has nothing but great episodes. We’re still in a state of transition and there are several turkeys like Inca Mummy Girl, Reptile Boy, Bad Eggs, or Ted. Truth be told, I don’t care as much for any of the monster-of-the-week episodes as I do for the continuing vampire storyline. Spike and Drusilla are such juicy characters that we don’t need a Ted to distract us with some silliness. Nevertheless, the worst episodes in this season are better than the worst episodes from the first season, which must be some form of progress. I also don’t think that any of these episodes are totally disposable, as I do some from the previous year. Even a real stinker like the Ted episode contains a striking moral complexity that furthers Buffy’s character arc. Mixed in with genuinely great episodes like Lie to Me, Passion, and the two parts of What’s My Line?, we’ve got the makings for Buffy‘s first truly great season. However, just in case all of that weren’t enough, series creator Joss Whedon throws in an enormous plot twist starting with the absolutely pivotal episodes Surprise and Innocence, leading through to the stellar season finale, that will redefine the series. It’s here that Buffy transcends that boundary from being just a guilty pleasure to becoming, without reservation, one of the best shows on television.

Episodes included in this Complete Second Season are: When She Was Bad, Some Assembly Required, School Hard, Inca Mummy Girl, Reptile Boy, Halloween, Lie to Me, The Dark Age, What’s My Line? Parts 1 & 2, Ted, Bad Eggs, Surprise, Innocence, Phases, Bewitched Bothered & Bewildered, Passion, Killed by Death, I Only Have Eyes For You, Go Fish, and Becoming Parts 1 & 2.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The quality of the show’s scripts may have improved with this second season, but the budget and production values didn’t change much. Still shot on 16mm film, night scenes are dark and grainy with weak shadow detail while day scenes are often flat and washed out. The image is occasionally fuzzy, and a few episodes (such as Some Assembly Required) have patches where the footage appears in absolutely horrible shape, looking like a multi-generation dupe print.

This isn’t to say that the series is poorly made or produced. Far from it, every dollar is put to creative use on screen and the direction is consistently tight and inspired. However, in the path from its less expensive cameras and film stock through to the editing and special effects that were completed in the video realm, the photographic image suffers from a chain of quality degradation prior to the show’s broadcast masters. By necessity, these DVDs were transferred from those broadcast masters and cannot be remastered from the original film elements without redoing all of the post production work from scratch.

Exacerbating these problems is the DVD’s digital compression. Overall, most episodes look similar in quality to those from the first season box set, which is to say pretty mediocre. There are also many instances when it looks noticeably worse. The entire first disc is just terrible, really. There are rampant problems with macroblocking, pixel breakup, and smeared details. Some scenes, notably the very first scene in the very first episode, are so poorly compressed they look no better than a VCD. I’m not sure why the first disc caused such a problem, but things tend to even out after that for the majority of the other episodes. Compression problems are still noticeable and never entirely go away, but they seem less distracting in light of other visual deficiencies with the image. Then, unfortunately, things go wrong again in the final two episodes, portions of which are so soft and smeary they’re indistinguishable from VHS.

The show’s difficult photography, coupled with the need to cram four episodes to a disc with fancy animated menus (that are very repetitive and annoying), seem to have crippled the DVCC mastering facility, who have done better work with Fox’s X Files box sets. I don’t think they took the quality of the source material into enough account when applying the video compression, and the entire picture suffers as a result. This is very disappointing, but again I must hold out hope for later seasons, when the show switched to 35mm film (in the third season) and underwent a significant budget increase (starting primarily in Season 4).

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The audio quality here is just about identical to that from the first season. The Dolby Surround soundtrack has a fairly boisterous stereo presence but fidelity and dynamic range are constrained, as expected from a television production. Early episodes tend not to have much surround use beyond the occasional music bleed or ambiance. Surround activity increases a bit as the season progresses, but I don’t recall anything resembling an actual directional effect. On the whole, the audio track is perfectly satisfying even if the sound intensity may vary a little between episodes.

A French dub in Dolby Surround has also been provided. English and Spanish subtitles are available, along with true closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The assortment of bonus features is mostly a repeat of what we saw in the last season set. Series creator Joss Whedon appears in short interviews for the episodes Surprise, Innocence, Passion, I Only Have Eyes for You, and Becoming Parts 1 & 2. The interviews are loaded with spoilers and should only be watched after the episodes, not before. In fact, it would be better if you waited until after the entire season before watching any of them. Episode scripts for Reptile Boy and What’s My Line? Parts 1 & 2 are also provided as still frame text.

Joss Whedon starts his audio commentary for the episode Innocence by saying, “If you’re looking for the wacky details of the crazy behavior of my funky stars, you probably won’t hear any. The show is incredibly hard to make and everybody works really hard, and there isn’t a lot of time for the wacky anecdotes. Everybody on the cast is extremely professional, except for Tony Head who is frequently without pants.” Now this is a man who knows how to give a proper audio commentary. Whedon’s talk is detail-oriented and full of insight into his intentions for the series and the message he’s trying to convey. He also demonstrates the sparkling wit that infuses all of the show’s writing. His bit about how the series Party of Five might have been improved by the inclusion of rocket launchers is priceless.

Falling in stark contrast to this is co-producer David Greenwalt’s commentary for Reptile Boy. This is one of the worst commentaries I’ve had to endure in recent months. Greenwalt is a dull speaker and does absolutely nothing other than describe the action we can see on screen. It’s simply terrible and doesn’t provide much of any useful information. Somewhere in between these two extremes is the commentary that writer Marti Noxon gives for the episodes What’s My Line? Parts 1 & 2. Noxon is a more engaging speaker than Greenwalt and does relay some useful trivia, but at times she also falls into the same trap of narrating on-screen action.

On the final disc of the set we get a host of TV spots, some cast bios, and a decent still gallery selection of production photos, monster sketches, set designs, and blueprints. More interesting are the three featurettes. Designing Buffy is a 15-minute guided tour of the sets and production design. A Buffy Bestiary (about 30 minutes) profiles of all the show’s major villains. Members of the cast and crew are interviewed. Seeing James Marsters speak out of character is quite surprising. Beauty and the Beasts is back in the 15 minute range and features a closer look at the elaborate monster makeup.

I believe all of the video supplements are recycled from previous appearances either on television or in the videocassette releases, so die-hard fans won’t see very much new in this DVD set. New viewers may be put off by the extensive amount of plot spoilers, for both this season and later seasons, in all of the supplements. Marti Noxon mentions that her commentary was recorded during production of the show’s fifth season, and she feels free to fill us in on everything that has happened in between. I find this irritating, and viewers unfamiliar with the later seasons should be warned.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I can’t help but feel that this Season 2 set could have been better than it is. Having an entire season of episodes in one compact box is a tremendous convenience, but I have no doubt that the quality would have been improved by splitting it up into smaller boxes and allowing more room on each disc for just two episodes, rather than four.

Even so, the show is so compelling and addictive that I have no choice but to recommend it. Fans already know this is an essential purchase, and despite its dodgy picture quality the DVD set is certainly worth owning for anyone who has ever enjoyed an episode of the series.

“Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…” How long until Season 3?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published Feburary 3, 2003.

Welcome to Slayerfest! Yes, Buffy has returned for her third season of vampire slaying fun, and there’s certainly never a dull day in Sunnydale. As the season begins, what seemed at first to be mildly coincidental has now developed into a full-fledged trend. Buffy begins her third year in a row in a despondent funk. First she was annoyed at moving to a new town, then she was depressed after being dead for a little while, and now of course she’s having trouble getting over that thing where she had to kill her boyfriend, the one true love of her life. I suppose that would be enough to bring anyone down. Fortunately for viewers, things pick up very quickly. Monsters, mayhem, and a little bit of dating ensue, all very helpful in getting our Slayer back into the swing of things.

If Season 2 was a turning point for the series, marking its change from fun guilty pleasure into really amazing television, Season 3 is the year it uses that foundation to build its greatness. So many big things happen in this year that it’s difficult to even summarize them all. Buffy starts dating another boy, both Willow and Xander go through relationship turmoil, Giles is replaced as Watcher, new baddies the Mayor and Mr. Trick plot their evil scheme, and some characters we thought were gone make interesting surprise reappearances. Let’s not forget Faith, the bad-girl Slayer who will shake up all of Buffy’s feelings about her chosen profession. And, since this is her senior year of high school after all, Buffy may even get to go to the Prom and graduate. Assuming she lives that long, of course.

Everything about Buffy has been getting better as the series progresses. The technical production values improve, the stunt and fight choreography get more refined, the actors settle into their roles, and even the writing, always the show’s strongest asset, just gets better and better. Unlike previous years, there are no turkeys or filler episodes in Season 3. There’s a clear, strong story arc being developed throughout the entire season and every episode is vital to support it. The characters all experience tremendous development as the show, despite its superficially silly horror movie trappings and campy humor, explores very real, mature themes like heartache, loss, grief, guilt, friendship, and betrayal. Faith, for example, is an incredibly complex character layered with conflicting emotions and feelings beneath her tough-girl exterior. Even the Mayor, the season’s primary villain, has many interesting facets to his personality that prevent him from being written off as a mere loony (which he also is, no doubt). He truly and deeply believes in the values he stands for, and is capable of showing tremendous fatherly love and affection, even though he basically wants to take over the world and slaughter his enemies like any great evil tyrant.

With so many strong episodes, it’s almost impossible to pick a favorite. Certainly, the double whammy of Bad Girls and Consequences cements the moral dichotomy at the heart of the season. Earshot, also, is a stunning episode that tackles the difficult subject of school violence, and was unfortunate enough to have been produced just prior to the Columbine shootings. I’m also fond of The Wish, the episode that introduces us to Anya, a character who will take on greater importance in later seasons, and presents a very fun alternate universe concept with vampire versions of Xander and Willow. If I have to pick, though, my personal favorite episode is The Zeppo, a terrifically entertaining romp in which Xander gets to prove his worth as a man, even if nobody else ever knows about it.

If there’s anything to complain about in Season 3, I felt that the Faith storyline was insufficiently padded out between the episodes Consequences and Doppelgangland. The former episode ends with Faith on the run, while the next episode begins with her back as though everything were fine. It’s not impossible for a viewer to put the pieces together, but the story could use to be fleshed out a little better. Also, the big season finale, although thematically sound, is a bit cheesier than it really ought to be. And while we’re being picky, Buffy has really bad hair in The Zeppo. (I suppose that’s petty to mention.) These are, however, minor complaints in what is indisputably an outstanding season of a great TV show. This is Buffy at her finest. Season 3 is essential owning for any fan.

Episodes included in this Complete Third Season are: Anne, Dead Man’s Party, Faith Hope & Trick, Beauty & the Beasts, Homecoming, Band Candy, Revelations, Lover’s Walk, The Wish, Amends, Gingerbread, Helpless, The Zeppo, Bad Girls, Consequences, Doppelgangland, Enemies, Earshot, Choices, The Prom, and Graduation Day Parts 1 & 2.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The show had proven to be enough of a popular success in its first two years that, in the third season, the production finally switched from inexpensive 16mm film stock to the higher quality 35mm. The picture on this DVD box set is vastly improved over the previous two. Still composed for the 1.33:1 aspect ratio and mostly filmed at night, there continue to be some problems with grain and crushed shadow detail, but on the whole the image is much more stable and consistent. Colors are strongly defined and there’s thankfully little edge enhancement processing. Unlike Season 2, there are no radical swings in picture quality from episode to episode. This is the first Buffy season that holds up reasonably well to large screen magnification.

It’s not perfect, unfortunately. As noted, black level detail is often difficult to make out, and even bright scenes often look too dark. The compression and DNR issues which plagued the first two box sets have mostly evened out and are much less distracting, but do rear their heads from time to time in the form of frozen grain patterns or fine object detail that smears while in motion. Oddly, disc 6 seems to suffer the worst problems. All three episodes on that disc are particularly smeary and exhibit rampant displacement artifacts, which are completely unacceptable. At the beginning of chapter 3 on episode The Prom, look closely at Anya’s chest. (Please, no dirty old man jokes!) As she walks, a layer of the image lags a half-step behind the rest of the motion, causing a very distracting judder effect. The whole episode is affected, as are the following two. It’s most disconcerting in close-up shots of the actors, to the point where even my wife, who’s normally not sensitive to picture quality problems, was questioning why people’s faces were moving so strangely.

Again, despite these sporadic problems, I have to emphasize that the quality of this box set is overall quite satisfying and is a big improvement over the previous two. In fact, even the worst of these complaints will probably only prove distracting to viewers with very large screen displays. Fans of the show shouldn’t hesitate in their purchase on these accounts.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Also stepping up in quality is the sound mix on this new season. The Dolby 2.0 Surround soundtrack still exhibits the restraint of a television production, but sounds more energetic and professional than before. Dynamic range is modestly expanded and some episodes have quite a bit of bass. The surround channel is much more active as well, featuring a great many directional effects in nearly every episode. The episode Earshot, especially, has a terrific surround mix with mind-reading voiceovers that fill the entire room. As in the past, there’s some minor fluctuation from episode to episode, both in volume level and fidelity, and the dialogue recording in a couple of episodes sounds overly bright, but generally speaking, the whole season sounds great.

The band Nerf Herder (yes, Star Wars geeks, that’s a reference for you) re-recorded the opening theme music for this season to punch it up a little and tighten the rhythm. However, for some reason the old track still plays over the first two episodes, leaving the montage in the opening credit sequences slightly out of sync. The new music kicks in by the third episode. I’m not sure whether the first two episodes originally aired this way (perhaps the band hadn’t finished in time?) or if this is specifically a problem with the DVD. Nonetheless, this is by no means a big deal and most viewers probably wouldn’t even notice without being told about it.

French and Spanish dub tracks are also available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. English and Spanish subtitles have been provided, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

If you’ve bought the first two box sets, what you’ll see here is a lot more of the same. Once again, I must warn first-time viewers that all of the supplements in the Buffy DVDs contain numerous plot spoilers. Regardless of the disc organization, which often prompts a viewer to watch a certain interview or featurette before an episode, all of the bonus features should be saved until the whole season has been seen in its entirety. In fact, some of the supplements also discuss the plot of later seasons. The material here has been compiled primarily for the benefit of long-time fans who are already familiar with the show. Consider this your warning.

Buffy creator Joss Whedon appears in another series of short interviews for episodes Bad Girls, Consequences, Enemies, Earshot, and Graduation Day Parts 1 & 2. The discs would have you believe that these are six separate interviews, when in fact there are really only three. The interview that appears with Consequences is the exact same one that plays with Bad Girls. Likewise, the Earshot interview is a duplicate of the one from Enemies, and each of those on the two parts of Graduation Day are the same. This is frustrating, to say the least.

On Disc 3 you’ll find the six-minute featurette Buffy Speak, in which the series writers, all of whom are in their 30s, discuss the challenges in both reflecting and leading teen slang vernacular. After this is the 30-minute Season 3 Overview. Despite its presence on the middle disc of the set, it of course covers the entire season and is loaded with plot spoilers. Save this for last no matter what.

Other featurettes are found on the last disc, including the four-minute Interview with Monster Maker John Vulich, who creates all of the unusual creature and makeup effects so prominent in every episode. The titles of the pieces Wardrobe (7 minutes), Weapons (5 minutes) and Special Effects (13 minutes) speak for themselves.

This season we get four episode-specific audio commentaries. Writer David Fury speaks over the episode Helpless. It’s a decent enough discussion about the writing process, but Fury isn’t a particularly engaging speaker and the track is rather unexciting. Much better is writer Doug Petrie talking about Bad Girls. This is the most entertaining commentary of the set. Petrie is a relaxed, funny speaker who just loves talking about all that lesbian subtext. He’s a lot of fun. Director Michael Gershman provides a very technical and frankly dry talk about the episode Consequences. To be honest, I didn’t listen to the whole thing. Maybe he gets better after a few more minutes, but I was bored and moved onto the commentary from writer Jane Espenson about Earshot. This track starts off pretty well, but then for a few minutes Espenson seems like she’s running out of things to say and starts describing the action on screen. Then, fortunately, the commentary picks up again and she does a good job talking about how the episode’s broadcast was delayed after the events of the Columbine school massacre. She’s a good speaker and the historical significance of this discussion makes it one of the most interesting supplements in the set.

Disappointingly, Joss Whedon has not provided any commentaries of his own this season. He’s a terrific speaker and his commentaries are always highly rewarding. I’m hoping that he returns for the next box set.

Copies of the original scripts for episodes Faith Hope & Trick, Band Candy, Lover’s Walk, and The Wish are available as still frame text. Finally, on Disc 3 is a short art gallery with 30 production stills. If you can believe it, even in this seemingly harmless supplement section there are significant plot spoilers.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on any of these discs.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Another season of Buffy arrives on DVD and I can’t recommend it highly enough. This is probably the most important and arguably the best season the show has ever had. The picture and sound feature big improvements over the previous box sets, and that alone is cause for celebration, even if the supplements are still a mixed bag.

Fox Home Entertainment has packaged up the season in another stylish but impractical cardboard contraption. I must warn buyers that there seems to be a manufacturing problem regarding the size of the disc hubs. When I opened my set for the first time, several of the discs had come loose and one was significantly scratched, causing playback glitches. This appears to be a common complaint, with reports of people exchanging their box sets for new copies that only wound up having the exact same problem. I should hope that Fox Home Entertainment will address the issue and implement a replacement policy for disgruntled consumers. In the meantime, those who haven’t yet purchased a copy would be advised to seek out a retailer with a lenient exchange policy. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Four (UK Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 23, 2003.

(A note to readers: I finally tired of waiting for Fox Home Entertainment’s belated Buffy DVD releases in Region 1. In desperate need of a Buffy fix, I broke down and ordered from the UK, where the show’s DVD release schedule is several seasons ahead of us. The discs reviewed here are presented in PAL video format with Region 2 coding, and are only playable on compatible DVD hardware. A similar set of discs is available in Australia, Region 4. Content and specs for the eventual Region 1 release of this material are subject to change.)

Our little Slayer is growing up. After finally graduating from the hell that was high school, Buffy Summers packs up and moves away for her first year at college. She can’t go very far, however, since she still has to stay close to the Hellmouth to continue her sacred Slayer duties and all. So for Buffy, “moving away” means living in a dorm room at UC Sunnydale, a mere five miles from home. Still, as any college freshman knows, it isn’t the physical distance that matters so much as the independence gained from leaving your parents’ control. The first year of college is like a fresh start, a breaking away from the childishness of youth and a step towards adulthood. But it’s also a time of transition, where old habits need confronting and new responsibilities await at every turn. She may have defeated countless vampires, ghouls and demons in her day, but no amount of training could prepare Buffy for the challenge of living with a Roommate from Hell.

Momentous things continue to happen for our characters this year. In addition to the general trials of college freshman life, Buffy finds herself involved with a studly yet sensitive new boyfriend who has the kind of secret life only a Slayer can understand. Friends start to drift apart, each seeking new directions for themselves. Giles, now unemployed, struggles to find his relevance in Buffy’s newly independent life. Xander, unable to attend college, searches for his own place in the world and continues to form a deeper relationship with Anya, the former vengeance demon. The tactless Anya, in turn, proves to be one of the show’s most fun characters, always speaking the first thing that comes to her mind. Buffy’s nemesis Spike returns and undergoes a very interesting plot twist that completely mixes up his position in the greater struggle. Willow discovers the difficulties of maintaining a romantic relationship during such a turbulent time. We’re introduced to the perpetually-sleepy Tara, who will unwittingly cause a drastic life change for one of the Scooby gang. And of course, there are the usual bevy of monsters and megalomaniacal villains out to destroy the world, just the sort of thing to keep a Slayer busy.

Buffy’s ex-boyfriend Angel left the series at the end of Season 3 to start his own spinoff show. There are several crossover episodes between this series and that one, including the important Faith storyline, but fortunately both shows are well-written enough to be self-sufficient.

After the perfection of Season 3, it would have been nearly impossible for the producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to top themselves again so soon. And really they don’t. The show’s fourth year is regarded by many fans to be a mixed bag, a season with several standout episodes but also a few of the clunkers like those from the first two years. The soldier-boy storyline that dominates most of the season seems in some ways to be a wrong move, setting up a simplistic conflict between science and magic that really doesn’t teach us anything new. The year’s primary villain, a Frankenstein monster called Adam, is also not nearly as interesting a character as the Mayor from last year. We know from the start that Buffy is going to defeat him and win the day, as she always does, and there’s none of the moral conflict that we felt when witnessing the Mayor’s human side shine through with his love for Faith. Adam is just a big tough, smarter and stronger than most, but nothing more than another baddie that Buffy must knock down just like she has knocked down many others before him.

However, the way I see it, Season 4 is a lot like the time of life it depicts, often messy, chaotic, and confusing but an important and necessary turning point. Mistakes are made but breakthroughs are also achieved. Corny episodes like Beer Bad and Pangs (both cheesy morality plays that would have been suited for the show’s first season) are counter-balanced by outstanding episodes like The Harsh Light of Day, This Year’s Girl, and Who Are You? The Halloween episode Fear Itself is one of my favorites, a perfect mix of the scary plotting and shining wit that have defined the series since its beginning. (Who out there could not love Fiesta Giles and Anya the Bunny?) And let’s not forget that it’s Season 4 that brings us Hush, perhaps the show’s most innovative hour, a stellar episode that took a series famous for its snappy dialogue and turned it into a silent movie.

Viewers who complain about the storyline in Season 4 are missing the point. Buffy is not great because of its plotting. It’s great because its characters are great, and we want to watch them learn and grow through any situation they’re placed in. That’s exactly what Season 4 is, a time of important learning and growth. The plot must lead to its inevitable showdown (culminating in a disappointing, over-the-top Matrix ripoff finale), yet the season ends not with a bang, but with the remarkable anticlimax episode Restless, which brings us back to those core characters. Hush and Restless are the type of episodes that proves that Buffy‘s greatness is more than the sum of its parts; its brilliance is transcendent. Season 4 is an essential step in the series’ continuing evolution.

“I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.”

Episodes included in this Season Four box set are: The Freshman, Living Conditions, The Harsh Light of Day, Fear Itself, Beer Bad, Wild at Heart, The Initiative, Pangs, Something Blue, Hush, Doomed, A New Man, The I in Team, Goodbye Iowa, This Year’s Girl, Who Are You?, Superstar, Where the Wild Things Are, New Moon Rising, The Yoko Factor, Primeval, and Restless. All episodes are complete and uncut. (Earlier Buffy releases in the UK have not been so lucky.)

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

In its Region 2 and Region 4 releases, this is the first season of Buffy to be presented on disc in 1.78:1 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement. The choice of aspect ratio is actually somewhat controversial. Although photographed for 16:9 compatibility as “future-proofing,” the show has been aired on television in the United States and most other countries only in the 1.33:1 ratio. The UK is one of the few markets to air the show in widescreen, starting with this fourth season. Series creator Joss Whedon has stated that Buffy is composed for 4:3 and that he prefers it at that ratio, and so one would suppose that it ought to be presented that way on DVD. However, actually watching the episodes on these discs gives the opposite impression. Buffy in widescreen is practically a revelation. I have to wonder if the show’s Director of Photography is on the same page with Whedon.

In comparison to the television broadcasts, the DVDs have more picture on both sides of the frame, indicating that the 4:3 version is taken as a center-extraction from the middle of the 16:9 area. Although it’s true that sometimes the extra image is unessential dead space, more often than not the wider framing really opens up the image, providing a nice sense of balance and a cinematic feel, and it makes the 4:3 version looks positively cramped and uncomfortable. Additionally, the special effects are often rendered to extend to the sides of the screen during things like vampire dustings, so someone was obviously actively thinking about using the whole 16:9 frame.

However, just to make things more complicated, the show’s editors are known to cut the series using only the 4:3 footage. As a result, production flubs are visible at the sides of the widescreen picture in a few episodes, where they’re not visible at all in 4:3. A camera gate intrudes into an early shot in the first episode, The Freshman, for example. During Wild at Heart, a brief stock footage shot of a full moon is pillarboxed into the center of the frame with black bars on the sides, and in Who Are You? we can see Willow standing off to the side with her mouth not moving even though she speaks a line of dialogue on the soundtrack. These are the worst offending examples, though, and in all there are barely more than half a dozen problems during the course of the whole season. They’re at most a minor inconvenience. Production gaffes like these are hardly an uncommon occurrence in any TV series. It certainly isn’t as if earlier years (in 4:3) were free from errors like boom mics dipping into the frame or obvious stunt doubles. Flubs aside, I still find the widescreen framing of this season vastly preferable to that which has aired on television. Joss Whedon’s opinion certainly deserves to carry some weight on the matter, but having seen both versions, I’m forced to respectfully disagree with him. In fact, I can’t imagine why he would feel the way he does. Buffy just looks better in widescreen. Anyone with an eye for photographic composition should be able to recognize that.

In other respects, the show’s picture quality has been progressively improving as the budget increased from season to season. Although not as significant a jump as the quality of Season 3 over those before it, Season 4 has very strong colors, contrast, and black level, better than anything seen previously. It all contributes to that slick, cinematic feeling emphasized by the widescreen framing. There are occasional shots that look fuzzy (especially one stock shot of the campus quad area that’s reused throughout the season) and a slight bit of edge enhancement intrudes from time to time, but I can’t claim to have noticed any distracting compression problems during the entire season, which is much more than can be said about the first three Region 1 boxes.

The UK uses the PAL video format, which has an inherently higher resolution than the NTSC we use here in the United States. If viewed on a display capable of resolving that extra resolution, the slight boost in sharpness is indeed nice. Whether the lack of compression problems is attributable to the PAL resolution, to better video authoring by the UK studio, or simply by improved source elements this season, I cannot say. Perhaps all three contributed to the outcome. Regardless, this is the best Buffy has looked up to this point, and it’s even better in widescreen. Sorry, Joss.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

One of the downsides of the PAL format is that it runs at 25 frames-per-second (film is only 24fps), and unlike NTSC, there’s no pulldown scheme in place to compensate for the frame rate speedup. Consequently, PAL runs approximately 4% too fast. This is rarely noticeable in the visual image, but it may affect the pitch of the audio. That is indeed the case here. Anyone accustomed to watching Buffy in NTSC will definitely notice a pitch shift in the actor’s voices, especially Alyson Hannigan, who sounds even squeakier than usual. I dare say that anyone who has been watching the show in PAL all along has no idea what Willow really sounds like. That said, this is the sort of thing that you get used to fairly quickly. It ceases to be distracting before the first episode is over. Otherwise, the Dolby 2.0 Surround track sounds pretty much exactly like Season 3 before it, with some bassy music, reasonable dynamic range for a TV show, and a fair bit of surround activity.

Several different subtitle options have been provided: English for the hearing impaired, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Before we get to the meat of the actual bonus features, let me mention a couple of odds and ends. The discs’ menu structure is set up differently than the three Region 1 box sets I had watched previously. The progression of episode titles runs from top to bottom, rather than left to right. This is certainly not a big deal, but it may be momentarily confusing for someone trying to navigate the season for the first time. The packaging configuration used in the UK is also very different than what we’ve gotten in the US. The book-like design is quite unique, but is also rather fragile and must be treated delicately to avoid creases. Finally, it’s worth mentioning that every episode in the season contains the original “Previously on…” story recap, something that has been omitted from earlier box sets.

After a complete absence from Season 3, Joss Whedon returns to deliver two new audio commentaries here in Season 4. A Whedon commentary is always a fun listen, and his two tracks for Hush and Restless are filled with the type of humor and insight we expect from him. Both are great commentaries, required listening for fans. We also get four more commentaries from others on the production staff: Doug Petrie on The Initiative and This Year’s Girl, Jane Espenson on Superstar, and David Fury & James A. Contner on Primeval. Petrie is an absolute riot. A funny, engaging speaker, he has a knack for pointing out exactly the things that I most wanted pointed out (like that “girly” chocolate poster in Buffy’s room), and his talk contains many laugh-out-loud moments: “You know, we do Shakespeare with ray-guns and shit.” Espenson also delivers a decent talk about her episode, with only the Fury/Contner track on Primeval being fairly dull and easily skipped over.

Next we get the usual batch of Buffy supplements, all filled, as always, with many plot spoilers. Don’t watch anything until the entire season is done. The Hush Featurette (5 minutes), Sets of Sunnydale (9 minutes), Buffy – Inside the Music (13 minutes), and Introducing Spike (11 minutes) featurettes are all vaguely informative but highly promotional in nature. Nothing really special is learned in any of them, as usual. The Season 4 Overview (35 minutes), on the other hand, seems to be better than the one from Season 3. Whedon admits to some of the mistakes made in the year, and this program gives more useful analysis than what we’ve gotten before. This overview may actually serve a purpose.

The episode scripts for Fear Itself, Hush, Who Are You?, and Restless are provided in text format, along with a still gallery, cast bios, and a couple of trailers (really just commercials for the DVD).

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I admit to jumping the gun a bit in the purchase of this box set, especially since the price is significantly higher in the UK than we’ve seen here in the United States. However, with word that the upcoming Region 1 release of this Buffy season will be presented in 4:3 format, I don’t feel too guilty. It will at the very least make for an interesting compare/contrast.

Season 4 has been the target of some grumbling by fans, but don’t listen to them. This is still great television and is well worth owning. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fourth Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 30, 2003.

Our little Slayer is growing up. After finally graduating from the hell that was high school, Buffy Summers packs up and moves away for her first year at college. She can’t go very far, however, since she still has to stay close to the Hellmouth to continue her sacred Slayer duties and all. So for Buffy, “moving away” means living in a dorm room at UC Sunnydale, a mere five miles from home. Still, as any college freshman knows, it isn’t the physical distance that matters so much as the independence gained from leaving your parents’ control. The first year of college is like a fresh start, a breaking away from the childishness of youth and a step towards adulthood. But it’s also a time of transition, where old habits need confronting and new responsibilities await at every turn. She may have defeated countless vampires, ghouls and demons in her day, but no amount of training could prepare Buffy for the challenge of living with a Roommate from Hell.

Momentous things continue to happen for our characters this year. In addition to the general trials of college freshman life, Buffy finds herself involved with a studly yet sensitive new boyfriend who has the kind of secret life only a Slayer can understand. Friends start to drift apart, each seeking new directions for themselves. Giles, now unemployed, struggles to find his relevance in Buffy’s newly independent life. Xander, unable to attend college, searches for his own place in the world and continues to form a deeper relationship with Anya, the former vengeance demon. The tactless Anya, in turn, proves to be one of the show’s most fun characters, always speaking the first thing that comes to her mind. Buffy’s nemesis Spike returns and undergoes a very interesting plot twist that completely mixes up his position in the greater struggle. Willow discovers the difficulties of maintaining a romantic relationship during such a turbulent time. We’re introduced to the perpetually-sleepy Tara, who will unwittingly cause a drastic life change for one of the Scooby gang. And of course, there are the usual bevy of monsters and megalomaniacal villains out to destroy the world, just the sort of thing to keep a Slayer busy.

Buffy’s ex-boyfriend Angel left the series at the end of Season 3 to start his own spinoff show. There are several crossover episodes between this series and that one, including the important Faith storyline, but fortunately both shows are well-written enough to be self-sufficient.

After the perfection of Season 3, it would have been nearly impossible for the producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to top themselves again so soon. And really they don’t. The show’s fourth year is regarded by many fans to be a mixed bag, a season with several standout episodes but also a few of the clunkers like those from the first two years. The soldier-boy storyline that dominates most of the season seems in some ways to be a wrong move, setting up a simplistic conflict between science and magic that really doesn’t teach us anything new. The year’s primary villain, a Frankenstein monster called Adam, is also not nearly as interesting a character as the Mayor from last year. We know from the start that Buffy is going to defeat him and win the day, as she always does, and there’s none of the moral conflict that we felt when witnessing the Mayor’s human side shine through with his love for Faith. Adam is just a big tough, smarter and stronger than most, but nothing more than another baddie that Buffy must knock down just like she has knocked down many others before him.

However, the way I see it, Season 4 is a lot like the time of life it depicts, often messy, chaotic, and confusing but an important and necessary turning point. Mistakes are made but breakthroughs are also achieved. Corny episodes like Beer Bad and Pangs (both cheesy morality plays that would have been suited for the show’s first season) are counter-balanced by outstanding episodes like The Harsh Light of Day, This Year’s Girl, and Who Are You? The Halloween episode Fear Itself is one of my favorites, a perfect mix of the scary plotting and shining wit that have defined the series since its beginning. (Who out there could not love Fiesta Giles and Anya the Bunny?) And let’s not forget that it’s Season 4 that brings us Hush, perhaps the show’s most innovative hour, a stellar episode that took a series famous for its snappy dialogue and turned it into a silent movie.

Viewers who complain about the storyline in Season 4 are missing the point. Buffy is not great because of its plotting. It’s great because its characters are great, and we want to watch them learn and grow through any situation they’re placed in. That’s exactly what Season 4 is, a time of important learning and growth. The plot must lead to its inevitable showdown (culminating in a disappointing, over-the-top Matrix ripoff finale), yet the season ends not with a bang, but with the remarkable anticlimax episode Restless, which brings us back to those core characters. Hush and Restless are the type of episodes that proves that Buffy‘s greatness is more than the sum of its parts; its brilliance is transcendent. Season 4 is an essential step in the series’ continuing evolution.

“I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.”

Episodes included in this Series Four box set are: The Freshman, Living Conditions, The Harsh Light of Day, Fear Itself, Beer Bad, Wild at Heart, The Initiative, Pangs, Something Blue, Hush, Doomed, A New Man, The I in Team, Goodbye Iowa, This Year’s Girl, Who Are You?, Superstar, Where the Wild Things Are, New Moon Rising, The Yoko Factor, Primeval, and Restless.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

In my review of the Region 2 DVD release of this Buffy season, I argued in favor of the widescreen framing offered on those discs, which adds picture on the sides of the image and opens up the framing for a more cinematic feeling. Series creator Joss Whedon disagrees on this matter, and has specifically included a printed note in the Region 1 box set explaining the choice of standard 4:3 aspect ratio. He claims that the episodes were not composed for widescreen and are meant to be seen as they aired on American television. In other sources, he has also stated that if any particular shots happen to look better in widescreen that’s purely by accident or coincidence, and that the production staff was not planning for it. Well, if that is truly the case, I have to say that to my eye about 90% of the show’s shots just happen to accidentally look better in widescreen. Maybe that’s coincidence, but I won’t belabor the matter. The show’s composition is perfectly functional at 1.33:1, and in most cases only appears needlessly cramped if watched in direct comparison to the widescreen version. This is the way the show aired on television and is a fully legitimate and valid presentation for the series.

In other respects, the show’s picture quality has been progressively improving as the budget increased from season to season. Although not as significant a jump as the quality of Season 3 over those before it, Season 4 has very strong colors, contrast, and black level, better than anything seen previously. There are occasional shots that look fuzzy (especially one stock shot of the campus quad area that’s reused throughout the season) and a slight bit of edge enhancement intrudes from time to time, but I can’t claim to have noticed any distracting compression problems, which is much more than can be said about the first three boxes. This is the best Buffy has looked up to this point, even if it would be even better in widescreen. Sorry, Joss.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Since I’ve been watching a lot of the series episodes on the Region 2 DVDs, I’ve more or less gotten used to the 4% speedup inherent to the PAL video format. But I must say that it’s nice to switch back to NTSC and hear the characters’ voices (especially Willow’s) and music in their proper pitch. The Dolby 2.0 Surround track sounds pretty much exactly like Season 3 before it, with some bassy music, reasonable dynamic range for a TV show, and a fair bit of surround activity.

French and Spanish dub tracks have also been provided in Dolby 2.0 Surround, along with optional English or Spanish subtitles.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Before we get to the meat of the actual bonus features, let me mention a couple of odds and ends. The discs’ menu structure is set up differently than the first three box sets. The progression of episode titles runs from top to bottom, rather than left to right. This is certainly not a big deal, but it may be momentarily confusing for someone trying to navigate the season for the first time. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the episodes in this Region 1 collection do not contain the original “Previously on…” story recaps that are found on the Region 2 and 4 releases. This is important to note because some of the audio commentaries actually began with talk over those sequences, and in this set the opening comments have simply been cut off. It doesn’t appear that anything too important has been lost other than the speaker introductions, but this is certainly a disconcerting change.

After a complete absence from Season 3, Joss Whedon returns to deliver three new audio commentaries here in Season 4. A Whedon commentary is always a fun listen, and his tracks for Hush and Restless are filled with the type of humor and insight we expect from him. Both are great commentaries, required listening for fans. Exclusive to Region 1 is a brand new commentary track on the episode Wild at Heart featuring Whedon, writer Marti Noxon, and actor Seth Green. They seem to be having a great deal of fun and continue to talk after the end credits. (Fortunately, Fox did not cut them off this time.) Be warned that the speakers do drop a couple of large plot spoilers for the show’s sixth season.

We also get four more commentaries from others on the production staff: Doug Petrie on The Initiative and This Year’s Girl, Jane Espenson on Superstar, and David Fury & James A. Contner on Primeval. Petrie is an absolute riot. A funny, engaging speaker, he has a knack for pointing out exactly the things that I most wanted pointed out (like that “girly” chocolate poster in Buffy’s room), and his talk contains many laugh-out-loud moments: “You know, we do Shakespeare with ray-guns and shit.” Espenson also delivers a decent talk about her episode, with only the Fury/Contner track on Primeval being fairly dull and easily skipped over.

Next we get the usual batch of Buffy supplements, all filled, as always, with many plot spoilers. Don’t watch anything until the entire season is done. The Hush Featurette (5 minutes), Sets of Sunnydale (9 minutes), Buffy – Inside the Music (13 minutes), and Introducing Spike (11 minutes) featurettes are all vaguely informative but highly promotional in nature. Nothing really special is learned in any of them, as usual. The Season 4 Overview (35 minutes), on the other hand, seems to be better than the one from Season 3. Whedon admits to some of the mistakes made in the year, and this program gives more useful analysis than what we’ve gotten before. This overview may actually serve a purpose.

Another new exclusive for Region 1 is the Oz – Revelations of a Full Moon featurette, a 10-minute Seth Green love-fest. (Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.)

The episode scripts for Fear Itself, Hush, Who Are You? and Restless are provided in text format, along with a still gallery, cast bios, and a couple of trailers (really just commercials for the DVD).

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I admit to jumping the gun a bit in the purchase of the Region 2 box set earlier in the year, especially since the price is higher in the UK than we’ve seen here in the United States. However, with the significant differences in aspect ratio between those discs and this Region 1 release, I don’t feel too guilty about owning both copies. At the very least, it makes for an interesting compare/contrast. Although I personally favor the widescreen version, this 4:3 edition is equally valid (or more so, depending on your stance), and with a new commentary and featurette included, Region 1 buyers have no reason to feel cheated.

Season 4 has been the target of some grumbling by fans, but don’t listen to them. Buffy fans tend to be a fickle group, and sometimes it seems like 9/10ths of them have never liked anything about the show at all. This is still great television and is well worth owning. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Five (UK Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published November 24, 2003.

(Please note: The discs reviewed here are presented in PAL video format with Region 2 coding, and are only playable on compatible DVD hardware. A similar set of discs is available in Australia, Region 4. Content and specs for the eventual Region 1 release of this material are subject to change.)

Although it can be argued that the show’s season premiere episodes are rarely among its best, Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins her fifth season not with a bang, but with a fizzle, in the ridiculous Buffy vs. Dracula episode, surely one of the worst the series has yet produced. I’m sure someone on the writing staff thought this was high concept stuff and a fun opportunity to play with the old Dracula mythos, but really it’s just jokey and stupid, like a script that was rejected during the series’ first season and somehow got kicked around until somebody finally said, “What the hell, why not?” It’s a shame, really, because the next episode, Real Me, is much better and would have made a terrific premiere. In fact, aside from Dracula, this fifth season is one of the show’s strongest.

Credit where it’s due, the very last scene in the premiere drops a bombshell that’s sure to confuse long-time viewers watching this season for the first time. It’s a simple enough, almost banal scene in which Buffy and her teenage sister Dawn have a bit of whiny sibling rivalry. Hold on a second, “Since when does Buffy have a sister?” you may be asking. Well, she always has, apparently. Dawn has been there the whole time, getting in Buffy’s way, making a nuisance of herself, and generally doing all things a little sister does. Yes, I warned you it would be confusing. Don’t worry, the writers haven’t thrown out four years of story continuity. There’s a legitimate explanation for these strange goings-on that will be made clear within a few episodes.

If Season 4 was a mixed-bag with some less interesting storylines and a handful of weak episodes, Season 5 picks right back up and charges ahead with all cylinders firing. Dawn herself may be a bit annoying, as a little sister should be, but the mystery behind her presence is intriguing. A fantastic new villain, Glory, is introduced to keep the Scooby gang hopping, and she’s a much more dangerous and charismatic “Big Bad” than the disappointing Adam. This new year brings us higher emotional stakes, where every character has a significant arc. Giles finds that his mid-life crisis leads to an unexpected new career opportunity. Xander has a personal revelation after the turmoil of being split in two. (It’s less painful than it sounds.) Tara, still in desperate need of a good nap, just doesn’t feel like she’s fitting in. And Buffy’s boyfriend Riley, perhaps the show’s most unfairly maligned character, experiences feelings of inadequacy after suffering from super-soldier withdrawal. Special mention must also be made of Spike’s ongoing personality transformation and the reappearance of ditzy Harmony, complete with her own set of minions.

My pick for favorite episode goes to Fool for Love, which gives us a look at Spike’s origin and backstory. (The episode is technically a crossover with Angel: Season Two, but if you didn’t know it in advance, you wouldn’t feel you were missing anything.) That said, the year is filled with winners. Into the Woods is a great, emotional episode. I Was Made to Love You takes a deliberately cheesy concept (evil robot girlfriend) yet achieves real pathos and poignancy. And the season finale, The Gift, is so terrific that some fans still argue it should have ended the entire series. (Those people are bitter crybabies for the most part, I have to say.)

Then we have The Body, about which there isn’t much to say because it speaks so well for itself. The Body is indisputably, by wide margin, the series’ finest episode, a perfectly conceived and executed hour of television that transcends the mere boundaries of the series that contains it and speaks directly to the human condition. Anyone who would express surprise that a show featuring so many lighthearted stories about undead things could so seriously and profoundly deal with the subject of mortality simply doesn’t understand Buffy at all. The Body and its following episode Forever are shocking, disturbing, and utterly heartbreaking. They are the heart of what this show is all about.

Throughout the season are little things here and there that could or should have been done better, such as the Dracula episode, the rubbery CGI snake monster in Shadow, or the silly alien in Listening to Fear. Nonetheless, Buffy’s fifth season is one of its most compelling and is likely the most significant in the show’s forward development. Only a soulless, despicable monster could say otherwise.

Episodes included in this Season Five box set are: Buffy vs. Dracula, Real Me, The Replacement, Out of My Mind, No Place Like Home, Family, Fool for Love, Shadow, Listening to Fear, Into the Woods, Triangle, Checkpoint, Blood Ties, Crush, I Was Made to Love You, The Body, Forever, Intervention, Tough Love, Spiral, The Weight of the World, and The Gift. All episodes are complete and uncut. (Earlier Buffy releases in the UK have not been so lucky.)

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

My review of the Season Four box set from the UK generated a fair number of “Joss says it’s supposed to be full-frame, you stupid jackass” responses after I expressed preference for the widescreen framing on those discs. Well, here we go again. The Region 2 box set for Season Five is once again presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen despite the supposed intentions of the show’s creators, and once again I’ve got to say that it just looks better that way. All of my comments in that last review hold true for this season as well, so I won’t belabor the point by repeating myself.

As far as the infamous widescreen flubs, in which the rare shot or two will expose production equipment on the sides of the frame that isn’t visible in the full-frame transfer (argued by many as proof that the show is not meant to be seen in widescreen), these are even more infrequent in Season 5 than they already were in Season 4. I spotted only 3 instances, each of which went by so quickly as to be mostly unnoticeable. On the other hand, there’s a very blatant boom microphone that dips down from the top of the frame, perfectly visible within the 4:3 “safe zone,” in the episode Real Me at time-code 18:43 on this PAL-format disc. So it would seem that neither a widescreen nor full-frame transfer would be immune from such problems. Sometimes a flub is just a flub. They happen in television production, sometimes a lot.

All that aside, these are a nice looking transfers, continuing along the lines of what we saw in Season 4. The picture is sharp and has great colors, although there’s some grain in a number of shots. A slight bit of edge enhancement intrudes every so often, and there are minor compression problems, but on the whole these episodes are very stable and exhibit a nice sense of depth. All in all, they are very impressive for television product.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The audio quality is a case of more of the same, which is perfectly fine considering that I’ve had no problems with the show’s soundtrack since Season 3. The sound mixes are adequate for a television show, with a nice stereo presence in the theme music and decent amount of surround activity throughout the season. Like previous seasons, and in fact most TV series DVDs, the Dolby 2.0 Surround tracks are encoded at a rather lowly 192 kb/s, which is disappointing and likely prevents them from sounding as full-bodied as they might, but I suppose you have to make some compromises when cramming so much content onto each disc.

The Region 2 DVDs are presented in the PAL video format, which runs 4% too fast and does slightly affect the pitch of the audio, especially voices. But once again, anyone who has ever watched a PAL video can tell you that this is something you grow accustomed to very quickly, and is hardly distracting for very long at all.

Several different subtitle options have been provided: English for the hearing impaired, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The Region 2 box sets have been consistent so far in providing the “Previously on…” trailers before each episode, a nice touch inexplicably missing from the Region 1 editions.

Season 5 brings us four new episode-specific audio commentaries. Writer David Fury and director David Grossman discuss episode Real Me on the first disc. The track is adequate but a little on the dull side. Much better is writer Doug Petrie on episode Fool for Love on Disc 2. Petrie’s commentaries are always a treat. He’s a great speaker and this track is tremendously entertaining. (“See, we actually do know what we’re doing… most of the time.”) Writer Jane Espenson discusses I Was Made to Love You, and as she always does, drops a great many plot spoilers for later episodes. Don’t listen to this one if you don’t want to know which characters live, which characters die, which buildings get blown up, and the like in Season 6. Finally, series creator Joss Whedon delivers an appropriately somber commentary for The Body. In it, he points out the composition for one shot in particular that will again spark the debate about whether the show should be presented in widescreen or full-frame. (All right, I’ll concede that this one specific shot looks better in full-frame, but on the whole every other shot looks better in widescreen.) Later in the track, he outs himself as both an atheist and a Paul Thomas Anderson fan. I’m not sure which of the two is likely to piss off the most people.

Located on Disc 3 are four featurettes: Buffy Abroad (4 minutes, with talk of the show’s international appeal), Demonology – A Slayer’s Guide (11 minutes, very silly and hosted by series character Jonathan), Casting Buffy (6 minutes, self-explanatory), and Action Heroes! The Stunts of Buffy (11 minutes, also self-explanatory). After this are 2 minutes of funny Buffy Outtakes spanning several seasons, and trailers for the DVD releases of Seasons 2, 3, and 4.

Disc 6 contains the 27-minute The Story of Season 5 overview, continuing a trend we’ve seen in previous boxes. Then we get the 9-minute Natural Causes featurette, with an analysis of episode The Body, and the 7-minute Spotlight on Dawn. Wrapping up the disc is a brief still gallery.

Each of the first five discs also contains episode scripts in text format: The Replacement, Fool for Love, Listening to Fear, Checkpoint, and The Body.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Again Buffy fans have the choice to make of whether they want to watch the show in widescreen, as found on this Region 2 box set, or in the “purer” full-frame that Region 1 will have. Personally, I’ll wind up owning both.

Season 5 is one of Buffy’s best. If you’ve come this far, there’s no sense stopping now. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fifth Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 26, 2004.

Although it can be argued that the show’s season premiere episodes are rarely among its best, Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins her fifth season not with a bang, but with a fizzle, in the ridiculous Buffy vs. Dracula episode, surely one of the worst the series has yet produced. I’m sure someone on the writing staff thought this was high concept stuff and a fun opportunity to play with the old Dracula mythos, but really it’s just jokey and stupid, like a script that was rejected during the series’ first season and somehow got kicked around until somebody finally said, “What the hell, why not?” It’s a shame, really, because the next episode, Real Me, is much better and would have made a terrific premiere. In fact, aside from Dracula, this fifth season is one of the show’s strongest.

Credit where it’s due, the very last scene in the premiere drops a bombshell that’s sure to confuse long-time viewers watching this season for the first time. It’s a simple enough, almost banal scene in which Buffy and her teenage sister Dawn have a bit of whiny sibling rivalry. Hold on a second, “Since when does Buffy have a sister?” you may be asking. Well, she always has, apparently. Dawn has been there the whole time, getting in Buffy’s way, making a nuisance of herself, and generally doing all things a little sister does. Yes, I warned you it would be confusing. Don’t worry, the writers haven’t thrown out four years of story continuity. There’s a legitimate explanation for these strange goings-on that will be made clear within a few episodes.

If Season 4 was a mixed-bag with some less interesting storylines and a handful of weak episodes, Season 5 picks right back up and charges ahead with all cylinders firing. Dawn herself may be a bit annoying, as a little sister should be, but the mystery behind her presence is intriguing. A fantastic new villain, Glory, is introduced to keep the Scooby gang hopping, and she’s a much more dangerous and charismatic “Big Bad” than the disappointing Adam. This new year brings us higher emotional stakes, where every character has a significant arc. Giles finds that his mid-life crisis leads to an unexpected new career opportunity. Xander has a personal revelation after the turmoil of being split in two. (It’s less painful than it sounds.) Tara, still in desperate need of a good nap, just doesn’t feel like she’s fitting in. And Buffy’s boyfriend Riley, perhaps the show’s most unfairly maligned character, experiences feelings of inadequacy after suffering from super-soldier withdrawal. Special mention must also be made of Spike’s ongoing personality transformation and the reappearance of ditzy Harmony, complete with her own set of minions.

My pick for favorite episode goes to Fool for Love, which gives us a look at Spike’s origin and backstory. (The episode is technically a crossover with Angel: Season Two, but if you didn’t know it in advance, you wouldn’t feel you were missing anything.) That said, the year is filled with winners. Into the Woods is a great, emotional episode. I Was Made to Love You takes a deliberately cheesy concept (evil robot girlfriend) yet achieves real pathos and poignancy. And the season finale, The Gift, is so terrific that some fans still argue it should have ended the entire series. (Those people are bitter crybabies for the most part, I have to say.)

Then we have The Body, about which there isn’t much to say because it speaks so well for itself. The Body is indisputably, by wide margin, the series’ finest episode, a perfectly conceived and executed hour of television that transcends the mere boundaries of the series that contains it and speaks directly to the human condition. Anyone who would express surprise that a show featuring so many lighthearted stories about undead things could so seriously and profoundly deal with the subject of mortality simply doesn’t understand Buffy at all. The Body and its following episode Forever are shocking, disturbing, and utterly heartbreaking. They are the heart of what this show is all about.

Throughout the season are little things here and there that could or should have been done better, such as the Dracula episode, the rubbery CGI snake monster in Shadow, or the silly alien in Listening to Fear. Nonetheless, Buffy’s fifth season is one of its most compelling and is likely the most significant in the show’s forward development. Only a soulless, despicable monster could say otherwise.

Episodes included in this Complete Fifth Season box set are: Buffy vs. Dracula, Real Me, The Replacement, Out of My Mind, No Place Like Home, Family, Fool for Love, Shadow, Listening to Fear, Into the Woods, Triangle, Checkpoint, Blood Ties, Crush, I Was Made to Love You, The Body, Forever, Intervention, Tough Love, Spiral, The Weight of the World, and The Gift.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

As with Season 4, this Region 1 edition of the fifth season is presented in Joss Whedon’s preferred 4:3 full-frame aspect ratio, even though the previously-released Region 2 and Region 4 box sets in Europe and Australia contained widescreen transfers. I’ve stated my preference for the widescreen framing in my review of the Region 2 set to the consternation of fans who consider themselves purists, but I’ve got to go with what my eyes are telling me. Regardless, the full-frame transfers are true to the way the show originally aired on American television and are a legitimate presentation for the series.

As far as the infamous production flubs that many have pointed out in the widescreen transfers, there’s also a very blatant boom microphone that dips down from the top of the frame, perfectly visible within the 4:3 “safe zone,” in the episode Real Me at time-code 18:26 on this NTSC-format disc. So it would seem that neither a widescreen nor full-frame transfer is immune from such problems. Sometimes a flub is just a flub. They happen in television production, sometimes a lot.

All that aside, these are a nice looking transfers, continuing along the lines of what we saw in Season 4. The picture is sharp and has great colors, although there’s some grain in a number of shots. A slight bit of edge enhancement intrudes every so often, and there are minor compression problems, but on the whole these episodes are very stable and exhibit a nice sense of depth. All in all, they’re very impressive for television product.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The audio quality is a case of more of the same, which is perfectly fine considering that I’ve had no problems with the show’s soundtrack since Season 3. The sound mixes are adequate for a television show, with a nice stereo presence in the theme music and decent amount of surround activity throughout the season. Like previous seasons, and in fact most TV series DVDs, the Dolby 2.0 Surround tracks are encoded at a rather lowly 192 kb/s, which is disappointing and likely prevents them from sounding as full-bodied as they might, but I suppose you have to make some compromises when cramming so much content onto each disc.

French and Spanish dub tracks are also available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. The discs offer optional English or Spanish subtitles, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Unlike those releases in other DVD regions, the Buffy box sets in the United States inexplicably do not contain any of the “Previously on….” trailers before the episodes. This is a real problem when it comes to episode The Gift, which had a specially-edited teaser that ran directly into the opening scene and should be considered a legitimate part of the episode. It has not been provided here. This is a serious oversight that mars an otherwise fine package.

Season 5 brings us four new episode-specific Audio Commentaries. Writer David Fury and director David Grossman discuss episode Real Me on the first disc. The track is adequate but a little on the dull side. Much better is writer Doug Petrie on episode Fool for Love on Disc 2. Petrie’s commentaries are always a treat. He’s a great speaker and this track is tremendously entertaining. (“See, we actually do know what we’re doing… most of the time.”) Writer Jane Espenson discusses I Was Made to Love You, and as she always does, drops a great many plot spoilers for later episodes. Don’t listen to this one if you don’t want to know which characters live, which characters die, which buildings get blown up, and the like in Season 6. Finally, series creator Joss Whedon delivers an appropriately somber commentary for The Body. In it, he points out the composition for one shot in particular that will again spark the debate about whether the show should be presented in widescreen or full-frame. (All right, I’ll concede that this one specific shot looks better in full-frame, but on the whole every other shot looks better in widescreen.) Later in the track, he outs himself as both an atheist and a Paul Thomas Anderson fan. I’m not sure which of the two is likely to piss off the most people.

Located on Disc 3 are four featurettes: Buffy Abroad (4 minutes, with talk of the show’s international appeal), Demonology – A Slayer’s Guide (11 minutes, very silly and hosted by series character Jonathan), Casting Buffy (6 minutes, self-explanatory), and Action Heroes! The Stunts of Buffy (11 minutes, also self-explanatory). After this are 2 minutes of funny Buffy Outtakes spanning several seasons.

Disc 6 contains the 27-minute The Story of Season 5 overview, continuing a trend we’ve seen in previous boxes. Then we get the 9-minute Natural Causes featurette, with an analysis of episode The Body, and the 7-minute Spotlight on Dawn. New to Region 1 is a 20-second Buffy Video Game Trailer (whoop-de-doo!). Wrapping up the disc is a brief Still Gallery.

Each of the first five discs also contains Episode Scripts in text format: The Replacement, Fool for Love, Into the Woods, Checkpoint, and The Body.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The box set’s packaging and menus on Disc 6 claim that a ROM supplement called the “Buffy Demon Guide” is provided. Playing it on my computer, I located a file titled “Willow’s Demon Database” on that last disc, but unfortunately I was unable to get it to function despite a good amount of effort.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Again Buffy fans have the choice to make of whether they want to watch the show in widescreen, as found on the Region 2 box set, or in the “purer” full-frame that Region 1 gets. Personally, I’ll take both.

Season 5 is one of Buffy’s best. If you’ve come this far, there’s no sense stopping now. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Six (UK Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 25, 2004.

Returning for a sixth season, Sarah Michelle Gellar continues to star and the title of the show is still Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That should tell you everything you need to know about the permanence of Season 5’s finale episode. Not to spoil things too much, but come on, it was pretty obvious she was going to come back from the dead. Again. Poor Buffy’s life is so rough that even in death she can’t get away from it.

Season Six is a time of rebirth in more than one way. Aside from Buffy clawing her way out of the ground, contract disputes forced the entire show to change networks from its original home on the WB to new digs at UPN. With the change in location comes a change in attitude. Its characters aging beyond their teen years, the series itself must also mature, and so this new season makes a concerted effort to tackle darker, more adult subject matter. Right off the bat, the writers make clear their intention that Buffy’s comeback will not be a cheap gimmick. She’s going to pay a real price for her resurrection, its consequences haunting her throughout the year, and her emotional distress driving her into an unhealthy new relationship. Other characters will also suffer. Bonds that seemed unbreakable are ripped apart; the fatherly bond Giles has for the Scooby gang is strained when he leaves for England, returns, and then leaves again. Not even true love is safe, between either Xander and Anya or Tara and Willow. Dawn turns out to be a little klepto, Willow develops a dangerous addiction to dark magic, and Xander gains a whole lot of weight. (This last one may not have actually been scripted.)

Not that there aren’t some lighter moments. Sarah Michelle Gellar gets to goof around in a brief stint as the returning Buffybot. Her later trials and tribulations at finding a job in the real world are also pretty amusing. There’s a very funny recurring gag about kitten poker. (I can’t explain it.) In the most fun episode of the season, Tabula Rasa, the entire gang have their memories erased and must try to piece together their personalities from the clues around them. (“Randy” and “Joan” don’t have much luck at it.) And, significantly, our primary villains for the season are a lot less vicious and diabolical than years past: the geek trio of Andrew, Warren, and Jonathan, who spend as much time bickering about which actor was the best James Bond as they do plotting world domination.

Notable episodes include the double-length premiere Bargaining, the emotionally intense Dead Things, the bizarre Older and Far Away (which borrows a plot device from the Luis Bunuel film The Exterminating Angel), the uncomfortably ambiguous Normal Again, and of course the infamous musical “Once More, with Feeling.”

The show’s new direction, with its darker tone and ramped-up sexuality, continues to be very controversial among fans. Buffy’s self-loathing throughout the season, and her blatant use of sex to mask the pain of her emotional troubles, marks a very bleak and uncompromising turn for this previously perky character. The obvious drug subtext in Willow’s behavior, especially the gruesome actions she takes at the end of the year, almost seems like a betrayal of what we know about her, even though the seeds of this storyline had been growing for a couple of years prior. Some viewers couldn’t take it, and have written off the entire season as a disaster, a rather asinine attitude to take just because the show refuses to be exactly what some people want from it.

Season 6 may be imperfect, its overwrought finale (the only season capper in the show’s run not written or directed by Joss Whedon) a particular disappointment, but the series and its characters are clearly growing and expanding into psychologically complex new areas. I’ll gladly take that over other shows that grow stale with the repetition of formula. Buffy is still masterful television, exciting and unpredictable. In perhaps its greatest irony, Season 6 returns the show to its original status before the burden of popularity and hype; it’s once again the most underrated series on television, and its quality far exceeds the expectations placed upon it.

Episodes included in this Season 6 box set are: Bargaining Parts 1-2, Afterlife, Flooded, Life Serial, All the Way, “Once More, with Feeling,” Tabula Rasa, Smashed, Wrecked, Gone, Doublemeat Palace, Dead Things, Older and Far Away, As You Were, Hell’s Bells, Normal Again, Entropy, Seeing Red, Villains, Two to Go, and Grave. All episodes are complete and uncut (earlier Buffy releases in the UK have not been so lucky), including the full-length musical which originally ran in a slightly extended time slot.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Fox continues their pattern of releasing the Region 2 and 4 DVD editions of the series in widescreen format against Joss Whedon’s wishes, and I thank them for it. I’ve covered this before in previous season reviews, but I think the show looks great in widescreen. Yes, there are a couple of flubs along the edges of the frame in one or two shots (a corner of the set visible at 40:10 in Hell’s Bells being perhaps the most obvious), but there are also a lot of flubs in the 4:3 portion of the frame as well. The boom microphone just about bumping into one of the character’s faces at 37:40 in As You Were is going to be distracting no matter what aspect ratio you crop the picture to. Even the musical “Once More, with Feeling,” the one episode indisputably composed for (and originally aired in) widescreen format, has a camera shadow intruding into the picture at 6:23. At this point, I think the show’s crew basically just stinks at keeping their production equipment off-screen.

All episodes are presented in the 16:9 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. The picture is sharp and bright with great colors and contrasts. Dark scenes have excellent shadow detail. There’s some grain, generally well compressed, and only rare instances of edge enhancement ringing. This is a terrific, film-like picture, subtly improving on the already great work we’ve seen in the past couple of seasons.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

To reiterate what I’ve said before, the Region 2 DVDs are presented in the PAL video format, which runs 4% too fast and does slightly affect the pitch of the audio, especially voices. Once again, however, this is something you grow accustomed to very quickly, and is hardly distracting for very long at all.

The show has a lot of music with good stereo separation and some boisterous surrounds. The Dolby 2.0 Surround audio is encoded at a low 192 kb/s bit rate and continues to have just about the same character as previous seasons. It sounds a little thin, but it adequate for a television production on DVD.

Several different subtitle options have been provided: English for the hearing impaired, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish, as well as English subtitles for the audio commentary tracks. (Why can’t more DVDs do this?)

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The Region 2 box sets continue to get all of the “Previously on…” trailers before each episode, something Fox inevitably drops for the Region 1 editions. In other respects, the list of bonus features might seem like just more of the same things we’ve seen in previous seasons. Although true, the quality of material here has been bumped up a notch.

We start with six episode-specific audio commentaries. The least interesting is definitely the first by Marti Noxon and David Fury over both parts of the season premiere Bargaining. The track has a lot of gaps and much time spent merely reciting the action on-screen, but does contain a few worthwhile parts if you stick around for them. Much better is the (of course excellent) Joss Whedon commentary for his favorite episode, “Once More, with Feeling.” The talk begins during the “Previously on…” trailer, and will almost certainly be cut if the Region 1 edition loses this part of the show. Writer Drew Z. Greenberg’s commentary for Smashed is fairly interesting. On the other hand, David Solomon and Rebecca Rand Kirshner’s discussion of Hell’s Bells is quite dull overall. The Normal Again track by Rick Rosenthal and Diego Gutierrez is decent if a bit repetitive. Finally, James Contner and David Fury discuss the finale, Grave, in a fairly good commentary.

On Disc 2, the musical gets its own set of episode-specific supplements in addition to its audio commentary. The three karaoke sing-alongs are kind of fun, I admit guiltily. Very interesting is the 28-minute Behind the Scenes Featurette, a production diary from David Fury that covers all aspects of the episode’s creation including recording the songs and planning the dance choreography. There’s also an Easter Egg hidden in the Subtitles menu, a fluffy 2-minute clip in which fans gush enthusiastically about the episode.

Moving to Disc 3 is the hour-long American Television Arts & Sciences Panel Discussion. The piece is very entertaining, but filled with plot spoilers and shouldn’t be watched until after viewing the entire season. Some trailers for other Buffy and Angel DVD releases are also found on this disc.

Disc 4 has the 5-minute Buffy Goes to Work Featurette, a surprisingly fun piece in which the show’s staff talk about their first job experiences. There’s also another Easter Egg in the Subtitles menu, a DVD-ROM call-sheet for the episode Normal Again.

Two more major supplements are found on Disc 6. The 30-minute Life Is the Big Bad: Season Six Overview is a good recap of the year’s events without becoming boring or pointless. Much discussion is had about how the character arcs were developed. After this is the 43-minute Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Television with a Bite. This one seems to start out as an annoying promo piece, but fortunately gets much better. It’s a decent look at the show’s origins, including mention of the original prototype pilot episode that Whedon shot before recasting several major roles. Sadly, no footage from this pilot is seen.

Three minutes of outtakes finish off the set. The clips are presented in 1.78:1 non-anamorphic letterbox, which I’m sure must drive Joss Whedon nuts.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The only ROM supplement is the Easter Egg found on Disc 4, the production call-sheet for episode Normal Again.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Buffy‘s sixth season divides many fans. If you’re one of those who absolutely loathes everything about it, what can I tell you? Don’t buy it. Save your money for the inevitable Charmed DVD box sets or something. For those who will be sticking with the show, the new set has great picture quality and the best assortment of bonus features yet. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Sixth Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published May 26, 2004.

Returning for a sixth season, Sarah Michelle Gellar continues to star and the title of the show is still Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That should tell you everything you need to know about the permanence of Season 5’s finale episode. Not to spoil things too much, but come on, it was pretty obvious she was going to come back from the dead. Again. Poor Buffy’s life is so rough that even in death she can’t get away from it.

Season Six is a time of rebirth in more than one way. Aside from Buffy clawing her way out of the ground, contract disputes forced the entire show to change networks from its original home on the WB to new digs at UPN. With the change in location comes a change in attitude. Its characters aging beyond their teen years, the series itself must also mature, and so this new season makes a concerted effort to tackle darker, more adult subject matter. Right off the bat, the writers make clear their intention that Buffy’s comeback will not be a cheap gimmick. She’s going to pay a real price for her resurrection, its consequences haunting her throughout the year, and her emotional distress driving her into an unhealthy new relationship. Other characters will also suffer. Bonds that seemed unbreakable are ripped apart; the fatherly bond Giles has for the Scooby gang is strained when he leaves for England, returns, and then leaves again. Not even true love is safe, between either Xander and Anya or Tara and Willow. Dawn turns out to be a little klepto, Willow develops a dangerous addiction to dark magic, and Xander gains a whole lot of weight. (This last one may not have actually been scripted.)

Not that there aren’t some lighter moments. Sarah Michelle Gellar gets to goof around in a brief stint as the returning Buffybot. Her later trials and tribulations at finding a job in the real world are also pretty amusing. There’s a very funny recurring gag about kitten poker. (I can’t explain it.) In the most fun episode of the season, Tabula Rasa, the entire gang have their memories erased and must try to piece together their personalities from the clues around them. (“Randy” and “Joan” don’t have much luck at it.) And, significantly, our primary villains for the season are a lot less vicious and diabolical than years past: the geek trio of Andrew, Warren, and Jonathan, who spend as much time bickering about which actor was the best James Bond as they do plotting world domination.

Notable episodes include the double-length premiere Bargaining, the emotionally intense Dead Things, the bizarre Older and Far Away (which borrows a plot device from the Luis Bunuel film The Exterminating Angel), the uncomfortably ambiguous Normal Again, and of course the infamous musical “Once More, with Feeling.”

The show’s new direction, with its darker tone and ramped-up sexuality, continues to be very controversial among fans. Buffy’s self-loathing throughout the season, and her blatant use of sex to mask the pain of her emotional troubles, marks a very bleak and uncompromising turn for this previously perky character. The obvious drug subtext in Willow’s behavior, especially the gruesome actions she takes at the end of the year, almost seems like a betrayal of what we know about her, even though the seeds of this storyline had been growing for a couple of years prior. Some viewers couldn’t take it, and have written off the entire season as a disaster, a rather asinine attitude to take just because the show refuses to be exactly what some people want from it.

Season 6 may be imperfect, its overwrought finale (the only season capper in the show’s run not written or directed by Joss Whedon) a particular disappointment, but the series and its characters are clearly growing and expanding into psychologically complex new areas. I’ll gladly take that over other shows that grow stale with the repetition of formula. Buffy is still masterful television, exciting and unpredictable. In perhaps its greatest irony, Season 6 returns the show to its original status before the burden of popularity and hype; it’s once again the most underrated series on television, and its quality far exceeds the expectations placed upon it.

Episodes included in this Complete Sixth Season box set are: Bargaining Parts 1-2, Afterlife, Flooded, Life Serial, All the Way, “Once More, with Feeling,” Tabula Rasa, Smashed, Wrecked, Gone, Doublemeat Palace, Dead Things, Older and Far Away, As You Were, Hell’s Bells, Normal Again, Entropy, Seeing Red, Villains, Two to Go, and Grave. All episodes are complete and uncut, including the full-length musical which originally ran in a slightly extended time slot.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Well, Fox Home Entertainment has certainly screwed the pooch on this one. I’ve written previously of my preference for the widescreen Buffy box sets from Europe. Joss Whedon and some fans disagree, so Fox has released all of their American Buffy DVDs in the standard 4:3 aspect ratio as they aired on television here. Honestly, I have no problem with that. As far as I’m concerned, both ratios are legitimate. Where we run into a problem is with the presentation of the Season 6 musical episode, “Once More, with Feeling.” The only series episode indisputably composed for and aired in 1.78:1 widescreen, Fox has indeed preserved that ratio for the Region 1 DVD (with a significant amount of windowboxing on all four sides of the frame for some reason), but mastered it on disc without anamorphic enhancement. Viewers watching on non-widescreen televisions probably won’t notice the difference; it looks the same quality as all the other episodes, just with black bars on top and bottom. However, viewers who zoom the picture up to fill a 16:9 television will get a disappointingly soft, low-resolution image with magnified grain and compression artifacts. The anamorphic editions of the episode in Region 2 (both in the Season Six box set and the episode’s separate DVD release) look much better. This is an inexcusable mistake. Fox should be ashamed of their laziness, and frankly ought to remaster the disc and offer a replacement program for buyers.

All other episodes are presented in the 4:3 aspect ratio, and look fine as far as that goes. The picture is sharp and bright with great colors and contrasts. Dark scenes have excellent shadow detail. There’s some grain, generally well compressed, and only rare instances of edge enhancement ringing. This is a good, film-like picture, subtly improving on the already great work we’ve seen in the past couple of seasons.

Flub-watchers take note: A boom microphone just about bumps into one of the character’s faces at 38:42 in As You Were, even in this 4:3 transfer. Even the musical episode (the one supposedly composed for widescreen), has a camera shadow intruding into the picture at 6:10. At this point, I think the show’s crew basically just stinks at keeping their production equipment off-screen.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The show has a lot of music with good stereo separation and some boisterous surrounds. The Dolby 2.0 Surround audio is encoded at a low 192 kb/s bit rate and continues to have just about the same character as previous seasons. It sounds a little thin, but it’s adequate for a television production on DVD.

Spanish and French dub tracks are also available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. Subtitles have been provided in English for the hearing impaired or Spanish, as well as English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Way to go, Fox. Not content to just let the show’s producers spoil major plot developments in their audio commentaries, the studio’s marketing department plasters them all over the box art packaging as well. How classy.

The Region 2 box sets continue to get all of the “Previously on…” trailers before each episode, which Fox again drops for the Region 1 editions. Thanks for nothing. In other respects, the list of bonus features might seem like just more of the same things we’ve seen in previous seasons. Although true, the quality of material here has been bumped up a notch.

We start with six episode-specific audio commentaries. The least interesting is definitely the first by Marti Noxon and David Fury over both parts of the season premiere Bargaining. The track has a lot of gaps and much time spent merely reciting the action on-screen, but does contain a few worthwhile parts if you stick around for them. Much better is the (of course excellent) Joss Whedon commentary for his favorite episode, “Once More, with Feeling.” Unfortunately, the talk originally began during the “Previously on…” trailer, and has been cut because the Region 1 edition loses this part of the show. Whedon’s first comments are the same, but a few sentences have been cut before and during the opening credits to compress time. (The editing is actually quite seamless if you didn’t know to listen for it.) Writer Drew Z. Greenberg’s commentary for Smashed is fairly interesting. On the other hand, David Solomon and Rebecca Rand Kirshner’s discussion of Hell’s Bells is quite dull overall. The Normal Again track by Rick Rosenthal and Diego Gutierrez is decent if a bit repetitive. Finally, James Contner and David Fury discuss the finale, Grave, in a fairly good commentary.

On Disc 2, the musical gets its own set of episode-specific supplements in addition to its audio commentary. The three karaoke sing-alongs are kind of fun, I admit guiltily. Very interesting is the 28-minute Behind the Scenes Featurette, a production diary from David Fury that covers all aspects of the episode’s creation including recording the songs and planning the dance choreography. There’s also an Easter Egg hidden in the Subtitles menu, a fluffy 2-minute clip in which fans gush enthusiastically about the episode.

Moving to Disc 3 is the hour-long American Television Arts & Sciences Panel Discussion. The piece is very entertaining, but filled with plot spoilers and should not be watched until after viewing the entire season. Disc 4 has the 5-minute Buffy Goes to Work Featurette, a surprisingly fun piece in which the show’s staff talk about their first job experiences. The Easter Egg found on Region 2 copies of this disc has apparently been dropped.

Two more major supplements are found on Disc 6. The 30-minute Life Is the Big Bad: Season Six Overview is a good recap of the year’s events without becoming boring or pointless. Much discussion is had about how the character arcs were developed. After this is the 43-minute Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Television with a Bite. This one seems to start out as an annoying promo piece, but fortunately gets much better. It’s a decent look at the show’s origins, including mention of the original prototype pilot episode that Whedon shot before recasting several major roles. Sadly, no footage from this pilot is seen.

Three minutes of outtakes finish off the set. The clips are presented in 1.78:1 non-anamorphic letterbox, which I’m sure must drive Joss Whedon nuts.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

Fox’s Season 5 box set claimed to contain a ROM feature called “Willow’s Demon Database” that I couldn’t get to work on my computer. They try again in Season 6, and although I get a different error message this time, I still can’t get it to work. Better luck in Season 7, Fox.

The ROM supplement on Disc 4 of the Region 2 edition, a production call-sheet for episode Normal Again, is nowhere to be found.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Buffy‘s sixth season divides many fans. If you’re one of those who absolutely loathes everything about it, what can I tell you? Don’t buy it. Save your money for the inevitable Charmed DVD box sets or something. For those who will be sticking with the show, the new set has fine picture quality (aside from the musical episode screw-up) and the best assortment of bonus features yet. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Once More, with Feeling” (UK Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 25, 2004.

There’s a good reason the creators of Buffy the Vampire Slayer waited until the show’s sixth season to spring their long-planned musical episode on us. It takes at least six years of getting to know the characters before we’re ready to accept them bursting into song. Even then, it’s kind of hard to swallow, much less listen to. The episode, “Once More, with Feeling,” is said to be Joss Whedon’s proudest achievement as guiding force behind the series. It certainly is just about the most audacious thing the show’s ever done. Among fans, it’s either regarded with loving affection as utterly brilliant, or it’s despised as the Worst Episode Ever. To be perfectly frank, it’s actually a little bit of both.

So why is it that everyone starts to sing all of a sudden? That part’s easy; the show’s basic concept can accommodate any strange situation the writers come up with. Quite simply, a new demon comes to town who makes everyone sing and dance, until the heroes banish it, at which point they can stop. In the meantime, we’re treated to Buffy wailing angstfully about her Slayer destiny, Spike pouring his unbeating heart into rock ballads, Tara and Willow gazing doe-eyed at each other through love songs, and Xander and Anya delivering a little Rock Hudson/Doris Day comic relief ditty.

All of the actors perform their own songs. Only four of them (Anthony Stewart Head, James Marsters, Amber Benson, and Emma Caulfield) have even the faintest hint of vocal talent. Most of the others, including lead Sarah Michelle Gellar, who’s naturally required to carry the main burden of the episode, should never be allowed to sing outside of a shower. Ever. Even then, lock the bathroom door and run screaming from that wing of the house. Darling Alyson Hannigan is so ear-bleedingly awful that the producers took mercy on her (and us) by reducing her song-time to about three excruciating lines. Whedon takes the same approach that failed so miserably for Woody Allen in his flop musical Everybody Says I Love You, believing that it’s all right for the actors to be bad singers because the characters they play wouldn’t be very good when put in that situation. He forgets that musicals are all about artifice, and that all of the classic pictures he so lovingly references had their actors lip sync to professional singing voices. There may be something noble about sticking to your concept, but in this case it would’ve been much easier on the audience to just fake it.

Then we have the songs. As fine a screenwriter as Joss Whedon is, he isn’t much of a songwriter. A few of the numbers are fairly effective (if simplistic), including the rock anthem “Walk through the Fire” and the refrain “Where Do We Go from Here?” Others are corny and trite, or annoyingly jokey like the back-and-forth parody of “I’ve Got a Theory/Bunnies/If We’re Together” or the Hudson/Day wannabe number “I’ll Never Tell.” Whedon too often goes for an easy gag when he should concentrate on the emotional center of the songs. Serious moments are distracted by gimmick lyrics or slapstick interludes.

There isn’t much connection among the songs themselves, either. The best musicals always have a clear thematic through-line that carries the viewer from one song to the next. “Once More, with Feeling” is a pastiche, mixing little bits of Whedon’s favorite genres willy-nilly, a little power ballad here, some fizzy showtunes there, a touch of Lilith Fair flower-pop in between for good measure. Sure, you can rationalize an explanation for this about how the characters are singing from their own peculiar interests, but the piece as a whole still comes across disjointed and awkward, so absorbed in its own supposed cleverness that it forgets to be any good.

All this negativity, and yet even I can’t deny that there’s something strangely compelling about the episode. Half his songs may be lousy, but Whedon pulls out all the stops in his bravura presentation of them. The episode’s direction is filled with stylistic flourishes, most of them cribbed with fanatical devotion from favorite musicals past. Perhaps the best moment in the show is a brief but wonderful ballet number between Dawn and some dancing baddies. And main demon Sweet, thankfully played by professional song-and-dance man Hinton Battle, is a terrific one-off villain. Though the episode does lend itself to standalone status, its storyline is thematically important to the Season 6 arc and includes a couple of emotional bombshells. Aside from a final revelation predicated on one of the main characters having acted like a complete moron when he ought to have known better, the script is well-plotted and features plenty of the show’s patented wit and charm. It also plays better with repeat viewings, your expectations tempered by a foreknowledge of the episode’s strengths and weaknesses.

What do I know, anyway? My own wife thinks I’m a jackass for not loving the musical and insists that it’s the best episode the show ever had. She incessantly plays the soundtrack CD and sings along to every tune, the lyrics of course memorized by heart.

“Once More, with Feeling” is the only episode of the series to merit its own separate DVD release in the UK, containing the original full-length version. (Syndicated reruns have been trimmed of a few scenes.) Since the episode is also contained within the Season Six box set, this disc holds value only for completist collectors or those viewers who hate the rest of the sixth season and only want to watch the musical. At this time, no similar release is planned for the U.S. The disc is coded for Region 2 playback in the PAL video format and will require compatible hardware to operate.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Having watched the episode both on this standalone release and the (Region 2) Season Six box set, both look identical to my eye. This is the one episode of the series indisputably composed for 16:9 widescreen and is presented with anamorphic enhancement. Whedon makes full use of the wider frame, moving his dancers all over the place. The picture is sharp and has bold, vibrant colors. Flesh tones are a little hot, but that’s a side effect of the other colors having been pumped up in post-production to make the musical more surreal and vivid than the show’s other episodes. There are a few grainy dark shots that look a little spotty, but compression quality is good overall. This is a fine-looking disc.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Also identical to its release within the Season Six box set is the episode’s Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, encoded for both at the lowly 192 kb/s bit rate. Given that this standalone release has a lot more disc space available, it would have been nice to see the audio bit rate increased a level or two, but Fox Home Entertainment didn’t bother.

The Region 2 DVD is presented in the PAL video format, which runs 4% too fast and slightly affects the pitch of the audio, especially voices. Normally I say this isn’t too noticeable, but in the case of a musical, any variation in pitch does tend to stand out. Regardless, the soundtrack is fairly rich and full with good musical separation, though it doesn’t sound nearly as good as the soundtrack CD.

English subtitles for the hearing impaired have been provided, but no other language options.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The separate issue for the musical was released a few months prior to the full Season Six set in the UK, and disappointingly doesn’t contain any of the episode-specific supplements found in the box set. It has a couple of minor bonus features, but all are recycled from other sources and none have anything to do with this episode.

You’d think that the 13-minute Buffy: Inside the Music featurette would have something about the musical in it, but no. It was instead a carryover from the old Season Four box set. Likewise, the 11-minute Angel Season One Overview was just thrown in for filler.

The Dark Angel – Interview with Jessica Alba was included as a desperate cross-promotion. (It didn’t help; the show got cancelled anyway.) Some trailers for Buffy, Angel, and Dark Angel wrap it up.

If you want the audio commentary, karaoke sing-alongs, or the half-hour production diary about the musical’s creation, you have to buy the full Season Six box set. Even the soundtrack CD at least came with some liner notes.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Sometimes it seems like I’m in a desperate minority on this, but as much as I admire the audacity of the Buffy musical episode, I just can’t love it. It’s clearly a work created not by true musical talents, but by very enthusiastic amateurs, and frankly it just doesn’t do anything for me. Plenty of others disagree. Still, it’s obviously an important episode to the series and the completist collector in me must own this standalone release even though the same episode comes in the Season Six box set. “Grrrrrr… Arrggghhh…”

The Business of Strangers

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published August 12, 2002.

If David Mamet could write for women, he might turn out a film like The Business of Strangers, a tightly-coiled drama about gender politics in corporate America. Stockard Channing is perhaps typecast as the always-in-control power executive (it seems a natural extension of her character on The West Wing), but the movie plays to her strengths as an actress and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Her character has a career built on determination and paranoia, on always knowing every angle to a situation and never letting anyone else throw her for a loop. She’s so absorbed in the politics of her career, in the constant struggle for strategic advancement, that she has no idea how to react when finally offered the dream promotion she’d ostensibly wanted; she can feel nothing but disappointment because she knows no other response.

Julia Stiles is the brash, take-no-shit young assistant fired on her first assignment when a delayed flight causes her to miss a big sales presentation. When the boss later tries to make nice by rescinding the termination, she seems to brush it off, not caring one way or the other. She may have ulterior motives, though, and it isn’t long before she forces her way into the older woman’s life. What starts at first as female bonding twists into a complicated series of mind games played with men and with each other, leading to a battle of wills to see which of the two women has the stronger nerves.

This might sound like the setup for an Assistant-from-Hell psycho thriller destined for late night cable TV, but writer-director Patrick Stettner instead fashions an intriguing look at different sides of modern business women surviving in a traditionally male-dominated field. The older woman is a seasoned warrior and has tried to beat men at their own game. Hers has been a mobile life, spent mostly in airports and hotels, jetting from client to client in order to jockey for position within her company, often to the detriment of any personal relationships she may have formed. The younger woman refuses to follow that mold, determined to expose the hypocrisy of playing the game on those terms, but her uncompromising stance seems no less wrong-headed in its approach.

The Business of Strangers is a surprisingly short film and some of its plot turns are a little too predictable, but it’s anchored by a pair of terrific performances and has some potent writing. I’ll be interested to see this filmmaker develop in future projects.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

MGM offers two transfers of the film on one disc side, an anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen version and a 1.33:1 full-frame version. The menu screen shows an example of the difference between the two, suggesting that the letterboxed transfer contains substantially more picture on the sides of the screen. I appreciate their enthusiasm in promoting the widescreen format, but in truth the two transfers have nearly identical horizontal picture information. The full-frame edition is an open-matte presentation with excess picture exposed at the top and bottom. The framing on both versions is acceptable, but the composition is more elegant with letterboxing.

I would have preferred that MGM do away with the full-frame transfer altogether. The movie is so short it can be compressed onto one disc layer without too many problems, but it would certainly benefit if given some space to breathe spread across both layers. As it is, picture quality is decent. This is a sharp image with good colors and flesh tones. Compression problems do occur, but they’re rarely significant or distracting. The picture is a little contrasty; the deep blacks create a nice sense of depth, but shadow detail is sometimes lacking. All in all, this is a satisfying if not exemplary transfer.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Officially, the movie is credited with a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, though I’d be hard pressed to recall an example where it takes advantage of the discrete surround or subwoofer channels. Surround envelopment is put to good use creating an airport ambience, and there are sporadic directional effects during airplane flyovers, but this is primarily a dialogue-driven film. To that end, dialogue is surprisingly a little hard to discern at times. Whether this is a deficiency in the DVD’s sound mix or the original recording, I’m not sure. Sound effects like slamming car doors tend to be well recorded and there’s a moderate amount of low end activity from the rumble of jet engines. Music comes across well and, for the most part, the dialogue track is fine, even if occasionally it could use a slight boost to the center speaker volume. This isn’t a showy sound mix, and the DVD’s delivery of it is adequate.

The disc contains optional English or Spanish subtitles, as well as English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

All we have in the way of supplements is a theatrical trailer. Like the movie, it’s available in full-frame or widescreen editions. The letterboxed version is not anamorphically enhanced.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The Business of Strangers is an interesting movie and this DVD is a decent presentation of it. The $26.98 MSRP is surprisingly high for a no-frills MGM disc, so I would probably recommend that first-time viewers give it a rental before committing to purchase.

Capturing the Friedmans

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 12, 2004.

If 2003 wasn’t a year of very many great (or frankly even good) fiction films, it may instead be remembered as an excellent year for documentary features. Both Spellbound (technically a 2002 film, though it didn’t receive any sort of general release until 2003) and The Fog of War were standouts, and will hopefully be remembered and embraced for years after all the multiplex dreck has faded from collective memory. The real surprise winner of the year, however, was a film with the unassuming title Capturing the Friedmans, a phrase with a considerably loaded double-meaning. The documentary captures a portrait of what would seem on the surface to be an average middle-class American family, but the story told also happens to be about literally capturing the family, two members of which were arrested and charged with truly detestable crimes.

Amazingly, first-time director Andrew Jarecki originally set out to make a pleasant little movie about professional birthday clowns. During the process of conducting interviews, Jarecki noticed that one of his main subjects, David “Silly Billy” Friedman, the top birthday clown in New York, seemed to harbor some resentment toward his mother and had an aversion to talking about his family. When the subject of his father came up, “There’s a lot I…. well, whatever,” he began to say, “There’s some things I don’t want to talk about.” Those are not the kind of words you ever want to tell a documentary filmmaker. Sensing a story behind David’s reluctance to talk, Jarecki began digging deeper into the story of David’s father, Arnold Friedman, and once he got to the meat of the story, his little film about clowns snowballed into something much larger and more fascinating.

Arnold Friedman was a man of many contradictions. A devoted father of three, honored schoolteacher, one-time mambo bandleader and, chillingly, admitted pedophile, Arnold lived a peaceful suburban life with his family, teaching computer classes out of his home, until the day postal inspectors caught him in a sting operation for sending and receiving child pornography. Once the story got out to the press, mass hysteria broke out in the community, especially among the parents whose children he had taught. An aggressive, and highly controversial, police investigation ensued, which led to accusations of molestation. Both Arnold and his 19-year-old son Jessie (David’s brother) were then arrested and charged with leading a child abuse sex ring, the indictments against them numbering in the hundreds. Both plead guilty and were sentenced to long prison terms, Arnold eventually committing suicide in 1995 and Jessie serving 13 years.

Capturing the Friedmans is certainly not your standard true crime tell-all. The film manages to tell the story from the Friedmans’ point of view. The family, it turns out, were quite obsessive about documenting themselves. Home movies from their early years are seen throughout the film, and during the crisis, David Friedman actually bought a video camera and recorded just about every family discussion and argument. We’re put right in the middle of the action as the family disintegrates before our eyes from all the internal conflicts, the sons all immediately siding with their father and believing his innocence, their mother (his own wife of many years) not so sure. Yet, despite this intimate view of the family, the film remains even-handed in its telling of the story. What’s most amazing about Capturing the Friedmans is that for every new twist the story takes, the deeper we dig into it, the more complex and riveting it becomes.

The Friedmans are allowed to present their case; both accused men insisted that they only plead guilty out of desperation, fearing that they’d been railroaded due to the irrational hysteria in the community and would serve lifetime sentences if they went to trial. We see evidence that seems to support some parts of this. Honestly, the prosecution’s case isn’t entirely convincing. Their depiction of the crimes is so outrageous as to be implausible, based on a complete lack of physical evidence and the testimony of unreliable witnesses with inconsistent stories. (Their chief witness was a boy with obvious mental health problems and little credibility.) Their methods of convincing the children to admit being molested are also highly suspect, relying on coercive tactics and suggestive hypnotherapy.

On the other hand, Arnold Friedman was not particularly good at defending himself. Every time he laid down his story of the way things really happened, slowly it would chip apart as little by little Arnold would let slip little revelations to throw doubt on the matter, such as his admitted fixation on child pornography, confessions to having molested two children years earlier, and his fears about inappropriate feelings for his own sons. He’s a slippery, elusive character, and it seems impossible to get a good fix on what’s really going on in his head.

Son Jessie’s position is no less complicated. For a long while, it seems as though, even if Arnold were guilty, Jessie must have been accused of participating strictly to destroy Arnold’s alibi. He’s an appealing character with a sympathetic story. When we see him immediately before pleading guilty, he talks directly into the camera, explaining why he has chosen this course and what he plans to do in court. And yet, the footage taken inside the courtroom is disturbing, as we see Jessie put on a show for the judge, tears running down his eyes while he begs sympathy and forgiveness for his crimes. It’s all an act, and if he’s this good at putting on a show-face for court, what else has he been acting at?

Considering the great number of people involved (the family, the police, the expert witnesses, the children allegedly molested, and the community at large), it’s stunning to realize that we may never really know what happened those years ago in Great Neck, Long Island. The film makes the case that memory is unreliable, and is shaped by opinions formed after the fact. The Friedman sons are clearly in denial about the extent of their father’s perversions, and the police investigators are equally biased against him and desperate to make the facts of the case fit their agenda. Will the truth ever be known? Is the truth even knowable after this much time? Does it exist anymore? Can there ever be healing without it? These are the questions asked in Capturing the Friedmans, a remarkable film with a story richer and more engrossing than any fiction movie that Hollywood has churned out in years. If the vaunted Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had any convictions at all, they might some day realize that it’s finally time to stop ghettoizing documentaries into their own little-heralded category, time to recognize that a documentary may even be the best picture of the year. Capturing the Friedmans was the best picture released in 2003, no contest.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The movie appears to have been shot primarily on broadcast-quality video, which has been interspersed with many old 8mm home movies, camcorder recordings, and TV news clips. The footage shot new for the documentary looks largely as expected, sharp and clear with good colors. The archival material, also as expected, varies wildly in quality. The entire film is presented in a 16:9 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. This means of course that the older footage is mostly cropped on the top and bottom to fit the frame, but this isn’t exactly a movie overly concerned with the art of photographic composition, and everything is seamlessly integrated, rarely looking too compromised. The entire picture is also mildly windowboxed on all four sides of the frame, though overscan will surely hide that on most consumer televisions.

This is a documentary, and we set our expectations accordingly. However, there are a couple of serious flaws in the DVD transfer that are not likely the fault of the original production. The first is a very distracting amount of edge enhancement apparent almost constantly throughout the film, especially noticeable whenever text appears on screen (which is a lot). The disc also has some rather poor digital compression quality, resulting in noisy grain, pixelation, and smeary details in all sections of the movie, new and old. Still, it’s a documentary and we can cut it some slack. Viewers watching on average size televisions probably won’t even notice or care, but those with large displays may be disappointed.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby 2.0 Surround soundtrack is, again, fine for a documentary. The score by Andrea Morricone (Ennio’s son) sounds very rich and full. The rest of the movie is all dialogue, most of which is perfectly clear and intelligible. When a rough recording patch comes up, helpful subtitles appear on screen. That’s about all you could ask.

The disc provides optional English, Spanish, or French subtitles, along with true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Here’s where HBO Video has done everything right. Capturing the Friedmans is the type of movie that leaves you desperate for more once it’s over, and the DVD provides an abundance of supplemental features. By volume, it may not be the most extensive special edition ever produced, but in terms of content, this 2-disc set is just about perfect. Absolutely no EPK or promotional fluff is found here. Instead, the disc producers have given us material that enhances our understanding of the subject matter and enriches the experience of watching the movie. I wish every DVD could be this good.

To start, Disc 1 has an excellent audio commentary by director Andrew Jarecki and editor/producer Richard Hankin. Their talk is as fascinating and detailed as the movie itself, and is a must-listen for anyone who wants to know more about the story and about how the film was put together. The only other piece found on the first disc is a theatrical trailer. Everything else appears on the second disc.

Disc 2 is divided into five sections:

“The Discussion” presents material videotaped at the post-film question-and-answer sessions following the movie’s theatrical premieres in New York City and Great Neck, Long Island. These screenings were attended by numerous participants who appeared in the film on both sides of the case, and the debate afterwards sometimes got a little heated. An Altercation at the New York Premiere runs 9 minutes and is pretty stunning. The detective who ran the investigation against the Friedmans had a bit of a shouting match with the family and their supporters. The Judge Speaks Out at the Great Neck Premiere (6 minutes) went much the same way. Tensions still run high on all sides even 13 years after the case was officially closed. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions does exactly what it claims, and in fact does answer six important questions that many viewers are sure to be wondering (such as how the film came to be, and why Seth Friedman didn’t participate). Next is an 18-minute Charlie Rose Interview with director Andrew Jarecki. Rose comes across even smarmier than usual, but Jarecki (who bears a frightening resemblance to comedian Howie Mandel) is extremely articulate and well-prepared. It’s a compelling watch.

The “Unseen Home Movies” section is, as it says, a collection of additional home movie footage that didn’t make it into the documentary. Three pieces are found here: Passover Seder (2 minutes), Grandma Speaks (30 seconds), and Jessie’s Last Night (3 minutes).

“The Case” contains four deleted sequences from the movie that pertain to the way the police investigation was conducted. They were all cut because they unbalance the film’s even-handed viewpoint, leading the viewer too strongly to conclude that Jessie Friedman was innocent of all charges. The filmmakers were wise enough to realize that turning the film into a political action piece would be a tremendous mistake, especially since they can’t be sure of the truth themselves. The material is available here as an additional resource and an insight into the type of hysteria that the case caused at the time. The four scenes are: The Investigation (8 minutes), Additional Suspects (7 minutes), Great Neck Outraged (4 minutes), and A Principal Witness for the Prosecution (4 minutes). This last scene, especially, throws the entire movie into a stance against the prosecution case, which is both unfair and misleading.

“The Family” is further broken down into sub-sections for each family member: Arnold, Elaine, Jesse, David, and Seth. The first three sub-sections each contain three video clips apiece featuring interviews and home movies not seen in the film. The Seth section has no content, other than an explanation that he chose not to participate in the film. Most interesting is the David section, which gives us the original 20-minute “Just a Clown” short film (in non-anamorphic widescreen) by Andrew Jarecki, the project he was working on when he started digging deeper into David’s past and the story began to snowball. It is itself a rather fascinating look into a segment of society that most people don’t give much thought to. The last sub-section in this part of the disc is the intriguing Audio Scrapbook, which is sort of a still gallery of family photos, each accompanied by a brief audio snippet from the movie. There’s one 30-second audio clip of Arnold having a panic attack, located over the photograph titled “The Gang,” which is not found in the movie and is a bit disturbing.

Finally, “The Score” is a 7-minute featurette about Andrea Morricone recording the musical track.

Despite what’s listed on the disc label, the contents of Disc 2 are not 16:9 enhanced. All material is either 4:3 full-frame or non-anamorphic letterbox. Regardless of this packaging misprint, the DVD menus are smartly designed and easy to navigate, and the entire disc is laid out in a user-friendly fashion. The case also provides a nice booklet with a detailed list of the disc contents (including running times) and a lengthy review of the film from The New Yorker. All told, this is an excellent package.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

So you’ve watched the movie, listened to the full commentary, and dug through all of the video supplements. Still you want more? Just pop the second disc into your computer’s DVD-ROM drive for a selection of additional text material about the story.

Most significant here is the entire 15-page “My Story” letter from Arnold Friedman to his lawyer, in which he admits to some sexual perversions but lays out his insistent defense against the molestation charges. Arnold’s perspective is just about the only one not seen in the movie (owing to his death), and this document is an essential part of the story whether you believe anything he says or not.

The Police Inventory of the Friedman House Search provides a 4-page listing of all the child pornography found in the Friedman home. Also from the police archives is a one-page Blueprint of the Lower Floor of the Friedman House.

The Friedman Family Contract was a one-page document that Arnold drafted in the hopes of holding his family together during their divisive arguments. The Letter to Arnold from a Former Computer Student gives us evidence that not every child who took Arnold’s class supported the molestation accusations.

The Psychologists’ Presentation about Alleged Victims (6 pages) is a little disturbing in its clinically detached recommendations for methods of retrieving supposedly repressed memories from uncooperative children. Scary stuff.

Lastly, we get the full original recording of the Arnito Rey classic “Jazzbo Mambo,” and a weblink to the movie’s official web site.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I wish I didn’t have concerns about the video quality of the disc (which is flawed beyond even the constraints of the source material), but forget all that. It doesn’t matter. Capturing the Friedmans is a remarkable film and this tremendous 2-disc edition from HBO Video is one of the finest DVD releases I’ve come across in a long time. Despite being released in January, I can guarantee that come year-end this disc will make the short-list of Best DVDs of 2004. Highly recommended.

Casino Royale (1967)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published October 16, 2002.

Long before Austin Powers spoofed James Bond, James Bond spoofed James Bond in Casino Royale. The only of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels to escape the grasp of film producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, Casino Royale (the first book in the series) somehow wound up in the hands of Charles K. Feldman. Realizing that there was little chance of producing a serious spy movie that could compete with the enormously successful Sean Connery pictures, Feldman decided instead to turn the title into a madcap parody. The film he came up with has no less than five different directors (including John Huston!), seven James Bonds, dozens of celebrity cameos, go-go girls, flying robot bird-bombs, American Indian paratroopers (who of course yell “Geronimo!” when leaping from their airplane and have parachutes shaped like teepees), more bad puns than whole season of Laugh-In, and barely half a dozen funny jokes in the whole damn thing.

David Niven stars as the “original” James Bond, an old-fashioned gentleman spy now in retirement and lamenting the fact that his reputation has been soiled by “that bandit whom you gave my name and number.” It seems that the title of James Bond 007 is a role passed on from spy to spy, and the current flamboyant playboy (I think we all know who he’s talking about) is not up to the standards of the original. Well, of course the old Bond gets pulled out of retirement to foil some evil scheme or other by a criminal mastermind, or a global terrorist organization, or something. Along the way, he has to recruit several more James Bond 007s to help confuse the enemy. Or something like that. To be honest, the movie’s plot doesn’t make a whit of sense and there’s no point trying to keep track of it.

Feldman originally conceived of the film as four unrelated sketches, each by a different director: John Huston, Ken Hughes, Val Guest, Robert Parrish, and Joe McGrath. Yes, I realize that there are five names in that list and I have no idea why. Eventually, Feldman changed his mind about the movie’s structure and asked Val Guest to shoot some additional linking footage between the segments. By that point, unfortunately, it was much too late and the finished product is completely nonsensical. None of this would matter, of course, if the movie were funny. Sadly, as hard as it tries to be funny, it just is not. At all. It’s almost remarkable how far from funny the whole thing is, actually.

Niven is certainly game and blithely waltzes through the movie as though he expects it to turn out all right in the end. Peter Sellers also shows up as one of the later Bonds and is given absolutely nothing to work with, even as he tries desperately to charm Ursula Andress with a costume dress-up session. Orson Welles even makes an appearance to cash a paycheck, and frankly it’s rather embarrassing to watch an actor of his caliber demean himself in the role. At 2 hours and 17 minutes, the movie is long and dull with only a small handful of amusing gags or set-pieces popping up infrequently. There’s a clever sequence set inside a German Expressionist spy school (love those crazy sets!) and Woody Allen does his classic neurotic guy schtick as Niven’s nephew, Little Jimmy Bond, which is good for a laugh or two. It isn’t until the last half hour that the movie becomes the moderately inventive psychedelic fantasy that it wanted to be all along, but it’s too little too late. Part of me wonders if the movie has just not aged well, but the rest of me realizes that it was never very good to begin with.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The disc has been letterboxed to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement and the movie makes constant use of the entire cluttered widescreen frame. The source elements are in good shape but have a fair amount of speckling and dirt appearing sporadically. The old optically composited special effects are especially dirty and grainy, but this is an artifact of the production and cannot be overcome short of digitally manipulating the image. Many of the special effects are supposed to look cheap anyway, so an extensive touchup effort was likely deemed inappropriate.

The picture is very sharp and has bold, deep colors that are often surprising in their vibrancy. Some of the psychedelic scenes at the end of the movie practically pop off the screen. The image is a little too dark, though, and has recurring compression problems (Peter Sellers’ black & white striped jammies are a mess) that sometimes leave the picture jittery or give it a “digital” appearance. All in all, however, I think MGM has done a very satisfying job with the transfer.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The new Dolby Digital 5.1 remix tries to bring some life to the old monaural soundtrack. Burt Bacharach’s dreadful yet disturbingly catchy musical score is the primary beneficiary, having been spread out across the front soundstage. Bass has been pumped up during a few scenes, notably the explosions in the movie’s first segment, but the results are a little too boomy. Directional sound effects are occasionally applied and are usually tastefully integrated, with some aggressive passages during the film’s “trippy” sequences, but the person who supervised the remix must have gotten bored as the movie went along, because the track seems to fade out and collapse to practically mono by the time of the otherwise frenzied climax.

Most of the problems with the soundtrack stem from the original recording. ADR work is apparent in the thin-sounding dialogue which is sometimes difficult to discern, and overall dynamic range is lacking. The high end can also be rather shrill. Still, for a remix of a 1967 soundtrack, it’s not too bad.

Purists need not fear; MGM has also graciously provided the original mono track for reference. A Spanish mono dub track is available for those interested, as are English closed captions and optional subtitles in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

A much better reason to own this DVD than the film itself would be for its inclusion of the original 1954 Casino Royale TV movie. Prior to Sean Connery making the role famous, American actor Barry Nelson played “Jimmy Bond” in a live broadcast of Climax! Mystery Theater. Peter Lorre stars opposite him as the evil Le Chiffre in this relatively straight adaptation of Fleming’s novel. Nelson makes an absolutely terrible Bond, and the movie’s scripting and other acting are not particularly good either, but there’s a certain thrill in seeing a Bond story performed live. It’s a fascinating look at the evolution of the character, and as a historical artifact, this TV movie should be a necessary part of any Bond fan’s collection. The black & white picture has been mastered from a “Kinescope preservation” and looks really awful, but that’s to be expected of material from such origins. The monaural sound is also scratchy and shrill. The program runs 50 minutes, divided into three acts undoubtedly to facilitate commercial breaks.

Following this is a new 19-minute featurette called Psychedelic Cinema hosted by Val Guest, one of the 1967 film’s many directors. Guest is a personable enough speaker, but the piece is not terribly informative except for a juicy story about how much Orson Welles hated Peter Sellers. Lastly, a theatrical trailer in non-anamorphic letterbox finishes off the disc.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The movie may not be very good, but the DVD is highly recommended for any and all James Bond fans. Although not a full-fledged special edition like MGM’s official Bond discs, the 1954 TV movie makes this an essential purchase. Viewers who actually find the film entertaining will also be well served by its picture and sound transfers. Dare I say it, this is also one of those rare MGM DVD’s that has appropriate, maybe even good cover art. They have done well to make this crappy movie worth owning.

Castle in the Sky

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 26, 2003.

Rounding off the triptych of Hayao Miyazaki cartoons released by Disney comes the Japanese animator’s 1986 film Castle in the Sky. At least, that’s the Disneyfied version of the title; the movie would be more correctly referred to as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, but I suppose that sounded too “foreign” or something. It’s ironic, then, that the title Laputa is in fact a direct reference to Gulliver’s Travels by that most English of writers, Jonathan Swift. (To give Disney some credit, perhaps they were trying to avoid offending Hispanic viewers, who are likely to notice Swift’s rather crude pun: La puta means “the whore” in Spanish). The travel to Laputa was Gulliver’s third voyage, and to many readers his least interesting or compelling. Miyazaki, on the other hand, was inspired by the notion of a flying island, and crafted this marvelous homage that few would deny is a fascinating journey.

To be honest, at first I was least interested by the prospects of Castle in the Sky. One of the director’s older films, a glance at the character designs and trailer had me convinced that it was aimed at very young children and would likely have little to hold my attention. This was a foolish misconception soon proven wrong. Within just a few minutes, I was captivated by the crazy Jules Verneian universe that Miyazaki had created, a fabulously retro vision of 19th Century futurism. The story is set in an Industrial Revolution wonderland driven by endless gears and mechanical pulleys, powered by steam, where seemingly any contraption can be built to fly, even entire islands floating in the sky. The movie is a fantastic combination of magic, science, and myth rolled together into a rousing adventure. It has action, intrigue, comedy, romance, and beautiful imagery to spare.

I’m reminded of Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which clearly drew upon this film for inspiration. (Both owe a significant debt to Jules Verne, I will note.) If you took all of the strongest elements from Atlantis, removed the burden of Disney formula that weighed that film down, and added great characters, a great story, and a healthy dose of Miyazaki’s skewed imagination, you might have some idea of the pure bliss that Castle in the Sky delivers. It’s a rather silly film at times, where pirates in outlandish pink outfits chase after a magical crystal, but does contain a few action scenes that younger children may find scary, and has a two-hour running time that will probably put some ADHD attention spans to the test. Nonetheless, this is a thrilling escapade that’s sure to excite viewers of all ages. What I expected to be the least interesting of Miyazaki’s films turned out to be my favorite of his works that I’ve seen so far.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Disney’s Castle in the Sky DVD is very much of a piece with their disc for Kiki’s Delivery Service released on the same day. Both movies feature similar-looking transfers and nearly identical bonus material.

The source print Disney used for the disc is clean and sports popping colors, but the transfer is marred by obscene amounts of artificial edge enhancement that leave the picture looking needlessly edgy and “digital.” The image is presented at approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement, and save for all the ringing halos around every line in the artwork, is otherwise nice. I noticed fewer compression problems than on Kiki, though oddly the disc’s authoring tripped up my progressive scan DVD player, causing several brief cases of combing artifacts. This very much surprised me, as my Denon player normally has excellent video deinterlacing and almost never combs like that. The problem was fleeting, at least, and may or may not be an issue for other viewers depending on the type of display and DVD player used, but I felt it was worth noting.

The original Japanese screen credits are available should you choose that language option through the menu.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Unlike the Kiki disc, only the English dub here has been provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. The original Japanese-language soundtrack is available solely in a Dolby 2.0 Surround mix. This isn’t much bother, though, as the movie is not very heavy on surround activity anyway. The Japanese track sounds rather thin and hollow for about the first half of the movie, but improves in clarity as the film progresses. By the time the characters enter the big storm to get to Laputa, the mix has built sufficient force to be fairly engaging. It’s not reference quality, but it gets the job done. The musical score comes across well and achieves a nice swell.

The English dub tampers significantly with the movie, laying on music over every silent moment and adding dialogue where there was none before. There’s barely a single movement or action in the film that isn’t accompanied by speaking in this version: Oh!, Ah!, Look out!, Hey! The performances are also pretty terrible. The two lead characters never sound like children, and James Van Der Beek is even worse behind the microphone than when he performs in front of cameras. I suppose if you’re watching the movie with kids, the dub will do, but adult viewers will likely find it unbearable. Dubs like this are the reason most Americans look down on Japanese animation.

The disc also includes a French dub in Dolby 2.0 Surround, optional English subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired, along with true English closed captions.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Here we have another 2-disc set that’s remarkably devoid of extras. Playing before the movie is the perfunctory 1-minute John Lasseter introduction in which he tells us that Castle in the Sky is his favorite movie ever, just like he told us for the other two Miyazaki movies that he introduced. I guess everything is his favorite. The introduction is also found in the supplement section after the movie. Next we go Behind the Microphone for another 4-minute piece of promo junk introducing us to the English voice actors. Mark Hamill obviously put way too much thought into his characterization, while James Van Der Beek obviously not so much. The original Japanese trailers last another 4 minutes, and the disc has some other random Sneak Peak trailers, some of which annoyingly play before the main menu.

Disc 2 contains the entire movie in storyboard format with your choice of English or Japanese audio options, but no subtitles. If storyboards are your thing, you’ll love it. If not, you’ll wonder why they bothered including a second disc at all. Personally, I’m in the latter camp.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

Disney’s custom interface with its frustrating set of controls is the only ROM content available.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Here we have another DVD featuring a mediocre transfer and a worthless set of supplements, marked up to Disney’s high retail price. This is disappointing, but the movie is so good I must recommend it anyway. It’s definitely worth the purchase.

Children of Paradise

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 29, 2002.

Often regarded as the greatest French film of all time, Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) is an opulent costume drama about the lives and loves of a troupe of theatrical performers in early 19th Century Paris. Not content with the plot dynamics of the conventional love triangle, Carne centers the story around one iconic woman, no less than four men in love with her, and the other woman in love with one of those men. It may sound terribly complicated, but as told in the film, the story flows beautifully.

Each of the characters is designed as a specific archetype: Garance the free-spirited beauty, Baptiste the naïve dreamer, Frederick the smooth talker with big ambitions, Lacenaire the schemer and criminal, Count Eduoard de Montray the pompous aristocrat, and Nathalie the ever-hopeful but perpetually downtrodden proletariat whose love for Baptiste is not equally reciprocated. The movie can be enjoyed for the story on its own terms, or can be read as a political allegory for the time it was made. The film was shot during the German occupation of France in World War II, and was crafted as a period piece in order to slip its political criticisms past the eyes of those in power. As such, Garance can be seen as a symbol for France itself, and the others as the various factions vying for control. A viewer doesn’t necessarily need to read the film this way in order to enjoy it, but that it can be interpreted is a sign of the movie’s greater depth.

The story is told in a broad style of melodrama that’s no longer fashionable in filmmaking these days, but that shouldn’t detract from an appreciation of its charms. The lavish production values create a convincing portrait of Paris in the time period. Of particular fascination are the dazzling pantomime sequences performed by the Baptiste character. Pantomime is an art form rarely taken seriously in film, but here they’re recreated as works of great beauty accessible to the common man, not unlike the best movies themselves. The plays-within-the-film have the dual effect of mirroring the main plotline and propelling it forward.

Children of Paradise runs just over three hours long and is divided into two distinct halves, each with their own opening and closing credits, on separate discs of the DVD set. During its original theatrical run, the two parts of the movie were released simultaneously but played in separate screenings. The first half sets up the basics of the characters and plotting, while the second half reinforces the themes that had been brewing beneath the surface. Among other things, the movie is about the conflicts of comedy versus tragedy, and life versus drama. The struggle between class divisions runs strongly throughout the film, as do the repercussions of fame, deception, power, and pride.

As a matter of coincidence, I’ve noticed that Children of Paradise sits on my DVD shelf right next to Citizen Kane. This seems like a fitting spot for it. The film lives up to its reputation as a classic.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The Criterion Collection has given Children of Paradise a thorough restoration, easily surpassing the quality of their previous Laserdisc edition. The circumstances of the film’s age and treatment over the years prevent a flawless presentation, unfortunately. The picture is sometimes jumpy (especially around splices and dissolves) and there are rough patches with damaged footage collected from several different prints, but on the whole this is a very crisp and clean transfer that restores more of the film’s original luster than has likely been seen in decades. The sparkling black & white image has an excellent gray scale, and though the contrast range sometimes feels a little flattened, I get the impression that this was due to the original photography and is not the result of print fading.

The picture is presented in 1.33:1 full-frame. During the opening credits it appears that there has been a miniscule amount of cropping from the 1.37:1 camera negative. The frilly border around the sides of the credit text has been slightly trimmed, beyond even the effects of television overscan. Regardless, the difference is insignificant and not at all noticeable while watching the body of the movie.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s monaural French soundtrack has likewise been cleaned up, but the limitations of its age are readily apparent. Of primary importance, the dialogue is always clear and understandable, sometimes to the point where the ADR work calls attention to itself. Analog tape hiss has been reduced, but is still often audible. As expected of a movie from this vintage, the recording quality has a bright character and the music sounds tinny. Nonetheless, this ceases to be distracting more than a few minutes into the film if the volume is kept to a reasonable level.

The disc defaults to displaying white English subtitles in a text font that thankfully doesn’t get lost during bright parts of the picture. The subtitles are removable, but one of my two DVD players (the Toshiba) was unable to toggle them on or off without going back to the main menu; my other DVD player didn’t have this problem. The subtitle translation seems adequate given my limited knowledge of the French language. The dialogue reads coherently, but there are a few translation discrepancies that I question. For instance, the theater’s upper balcony is referred to as “the gods” in the subtitles, which is explained in the audio commentary as a dated theatrical slang term. However, the interview with Marcel Carne (in the booklet accompanying the DVD) specifically states that the upper balcony was called “Paradise.” This alteration completely negates the pun in the movie’s title.

No other subtitle or closed captioning options are available.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The story of the movie’s production is just as interesting as the film itself, and that topic is well covered in the disc’s bonus materials. Many of the supplements are carried over from the Laserdisc release, but they’ve been rearranged and reformatted for the DVD.

Missing entirely on the DVD is the approximately two-hour interview with Marcel Carne that played over one of the Laserdisc’s alternate audio channels. The interview was conducted in French, and on the LD was partially translated and summarized during the second half of the other audio commentary (also removed here). This was rather awkward and I can see why it would be dropped, but it seems to me that the DVD format’s availability of multiple subtitle tracks could have been put to good use here. To compensate, Criterion has included a 26-page booklet with the DVD that reprints the highlights of that interview in text form. The booklet also contains a decent essay about the movie and some cast & crew bios.

Just as the movie is split into two halves, so is the audio commentary. During the movie’s first half, the commentary from film scholar Brian Stonehill has been carried over from the Laserdisc. The best word to describe his talk is “scholarly.” The track is fairly informative, but Stonehill has a dry speaking voice and tends to lapse into long explanations for things that are perfectly evident within the movie. He also speaks too fast and reminds me of a self-important college lecturer. I found that this was best listened to by playing it in the background while doing something else (like writing a DVD review). As noted above, the second half of Stonehill’s original commentary (the summary of the Carne interview) is missing. Replacing that is a new commentary from another film scholar, Charles Affron, who has much the same general tone and in fact repeats a good deal of information we already heard from Stonehill. Affron has a monotonous speaking voice and his talk is incredibly dull. To be honest, I didn’t listen to the whole thing.

New to the DVD is a five-minute video introduction from filmmaker Terry Gilliam, who is quite witty but I think talks too much here. Personally, I would rather watch his intro after the movie rather than before. Also new is a four-minute restoration demonstration, explaining how much work was needed for the clean-up process.

The remaining supplements are found on Disc 2. The original film treatment from director Marcel Carne and writer Jacques Prevert is reproduced as still-frame text. The piece is very poetic and fanciful, but the white-on-black text is hard on the eyes and I would have preferred this to appear in the booklet rather than on the disc. We’re given an extensive still gallery and a section of very nice production design sketches. A couple of filmographies for Carne and Prevert are also provided, and the American theatrical trailer reminds us how lousy the film usually looks.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Criterion has once again worked wonders restoring another mistreated classic. Children of Paradise belongs in the collection of any fan of French cinema, and this disc is the ideal way to own it. Easily recommended.

City of God

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 22, 2004.

Presenting a very different side of Brazilian society than we usually see in the movies, City of God has none of the tourist-filled beaches, festive nightlife, or joyous Carnivale atmosphere usually associated with the more glamorous side of Rio de Janeiro. Set in the Cidade de Deus, one of the poorest neighborhoods just minutes from the heart of the city, the film is a violent, tense, and often horrifying tale of life in the favelas (slums). The movie is also a piece of electrifying filmmaking, thriving with urgency, energy, and the power of narrative storytelling to make a difference in people’s lives.

Narrated by young Buscape (“Rocket”), a boy too timid to get involved with the crime gangs that dominate his neighborhood but too smart to settle for the menial labor jobs that are available to him, the story traces the history of the drug trade and gang life in the slums from the 1960s through the early 1980s. Rocket has an interest in photography and documenting the things around him, and through his eyes as a child we witness relatively disorganized bands of unruly kids stealing to alleviate their poverty. Jumping forward to their teenage years, what started with a little marijuana peddling and a few stick-ups has evolved into a group of fearsome gangs that rule the slums through murder and intimidation. Corrupt police and a general disinterest from the middle and upper classes outside the favelas only perpetuates a cycle of violence and mayhem.

The film was primarily directed by Fernando Meirelles, with a Co-Director credit given to documentary filmmaker Katia Lund. Lund’s role in the production is a little ambiguous, but apparently she dealt primarily with the actors, most of whom are non-professionals recruited from the real favelas. Meirelles has taken most of the credit for the film, so I have to assume that most of the stylistic and narrative choices were his. If so, he’s a real filmmaking force to be reckoned with. Although City of God seems on the surface thematically similar to many previous gang and ghetto movies, anything from Goodfellas to Boyz N the Hood, it skillfully manages to avoid all of the clichés of those genres, never feeling anything but totally fresh and relevant. Meirelles demonstrates tremendous directorial flair. He incorporates elements from the works of Scorsese, Tarantino, and others, but merges them into something entirely his own. His storytelling sense is assured, even cocky. The movie covers a lot of ground and has a great multitude of characters, but each personality and plot point is precisely defined and vividly memorable. Despite the use of narrative back-tracking, multiple perspectives, and a circular structure, the story flows with perfect clarity. In his hands, no matter how complex the plot becomes, it’s almost impossible to lose track of whom each character is and where things are going.

City of God is raw, brutal, and real, yet remains hopeful in its outlook that there’s an escape from this lifestyle for those willing to take it. It’s a powerful, riveting work of filmmaking art that deserves to rank among the best films of the past decade.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The DVD case claims that the movie is presented in its theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but it looks more like the mattes have been opened to 16:9 and a small amount of windowboxing applied on all four sides of the frame. The difference is negligible and the compositional intent remains sound. Overscan on most consumer televisions will likely cut off the black bars, filling the screen on a 16:9 display.

The color transfer looks fantastic. The anamorphically-enhanced image is very sharp with only minor amounts of edge enhancement ringing on the credits and in a few scenes. Colors are bold and vibrant, with flesh tones burnished bronze from years in the sun. Black levels are solid and exhibit excellent shadow detail. This is a fine-looking disc with a vivid three-dimensional appearance.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s original Portuguese-language soundtrack is available in an aggressive Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that matrixes well to a center rear channel if you have EX decoding. The soundtrack is made up of a mix of samba, soul, and funk music that fills the entire soundstage. Sound effects are highly directional and the mix has a fair amount of bass. Gunshots have more of a pop to them than a thunderous boom, but that’s probably intentional and more realistic. A couple of big gunfights toward the end of the movie are extremely enveloping, with bullets whizzing through every speaker. I wouldn’t call this a reference quality demo track, but the disc’s audio sounds great and supports the movie well.

English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Spanish, or French subtitles have been provided. The disc also has English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Miramax still being a Buena Vista company at this point in time, the DVD begins with a forced trailer for an unrelated movie. Fortunately, you can skip past it using the Menu button. Some other Sneak Peaks are also available in the supplement section.

Other DVD regions have gotten more elaborate special editions for the film. Miramax’s disc contains only one bonus feature related to the movie, but it’s a very good one. News from a Personal War is the 56-minute documentary (presented in non-anamorphic letterbox) by Katia Lund that inspired City of God. Filmed from 1997 to 1998, the film is an unflinching look at contemporary life in the Brazilian favelas. It even-handedly examines all points of view of the daily struggle there, from the police to the gangsters to the residents just trying to stay out of the way. The movie is more depressing and sad than City of God, and a lot less hopeful in its outlook, but is essential viewing for a look at how much further the situation in Brazil has deteriorated since the events of the movie.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I can’t recommend City of God highly enough. The movie is outstanding and the DVD has very nice picture and sound. Bonus feature aren’t elaborate, but the documentary is an insightful addendum to the film. Buy this one immediately.

The Clearing

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published December 2, 2004.

Producer-turned-director Pieter Jan Brugge’s kidnapping thriller The Clearing is probably most notable for just how old Robert Redford looks in it. Certainly, the film trades on his iconic screen presence, but the actor has almost shockingly let his hair down and is no longer trying to play either the pretty boy of his youth nor the ruggedly handsome leading man of his middle age. As the movie opens with Redford pulling himself out of bed, he just looks haggard and worn, a man who has lived a full life and now must groan through the indignities of age. For the first time in a long while, he has allowed himself to focus on delivering a genuinely nuanced performance rather than just furthering his movie star image, as he has been desperately trying to maintain in other recent vanity projects such as Spy Game or The Last Castle.

The picture is ostensibly a thriller, in which Redford’s retired millionaire corporate executive is abducted at gunpoint in his own front driveway by down-on-his-luck working class schlub Willem Dafoe. Suspense builds as the hostage is forced through a hike in the woods to a planned rendezvous with those who supposedly hired the kidnapper. Back at home, Redford’s wife (Helen Mirren) endures many probing questions from the FBI as they wait for the ransom demands.

In truth, the movie is less focused on thrills and chills than on developing its three-dimensional characters. It’s an understated, subdued character drama with more talk than action. Since they have such a long walk in front of them, Redford and Dafoe eventually begin a lengthy conversation, each trying to control or manipulate the other, and through this we learn all about their lives and what brought each of them to this point in time. Redford has been an astute businessman, famous for his way of making every employee he talked to feel special and important, a talent he must now put to use negotiating for his life. Dafoe’s miserable wretch Arnold is shrewder than he first appears, and can hold his own against these tactics.

The script has an intriguing structure that first seems to be something very familiar and obvious, but slowly reveals itself to be more complicated than expected. The three principals in the cast deliver astute, if rather somber, performances. The movie is smartly written and directed with a sensitivity to character development. It’s nice to see a film in this genre more concerned with its characters than with an overly intricate and twisty plot. On the other hand, the picture doesn’t really go anywhere that other, more compelling movies before it haven’t been. The Clearing is a solidly diverting thriller, but unfortunately nothing more. As much as it tries to separate itself from so many other overcooked potboilers, it never truly transcends the formula of its genre. I suppose not every movie needs to reinvent the wheel, but where there was some potential for greatness, settling for merely pretty good feels like a disappointment.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen picture is sharp but suffers from minor edge enhancement in contrasty shots. The digital compression quality is adequate, but there’s some grain in the photography that comes out looking noisy. Flesh tones look a little bland, though other colors are fine. The image is also rather flat, lacking depth. This is a decent, acceptable video transfer that will neither amaze nor disappoint anyone who watches it.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Likewise, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is hardly wow-inducing. This is a quiet, dialogue-driven movie. The score is occasionally bassy, but surround use is limited to only ambience and music bleed. Dialogue is set a little low and will require amplification.

French and Spanish dub tracks have been provided in Dolby 2.0 Surround. English and Spanish subtitles are available, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The audio commentary by director Pieter Jan Brugge, writer Justin Haythe, and editor Kevin Tent is, like the movie, rather low-key. They explain the film’s thematics as well as many of the directorial and editorial choices. It’s a decent discussion, but frankly they don’t say anything that a viewer couldn’t figure out on his or her own, and by the end of it, a couple of the participants sound a little bored.

Six deleted scenes with optional commentary by the same three participants are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen, with some of the very worst digital compression I’ve ever seen on a DVD. I realize that the picture quality of deleted scenes isn’t nearly as important as that for the feature, but these look like a really bad VCD. The scenes themselves are mildly interesting but nothing terribly missed.

A theatrical trailer (in non-anamorphic widescreen) and the film’s screenplay in text format round off the disc. I don’t consider the “Inside Look” at some other upcoming crappy movie from the same studio to be a real supplement.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The Clearing is an interesting but low-key thriller that some viewers will find more engrossing than others. I doubt many will find it to be repeatable entertainment, and the DVD itself is merely average across the board. Considering its high list price, this one rates a recommendation for rental, not purchase.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 9, 2001.

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover opens with a man being dragged into a parking lot, stripped naked, beaten, smeared with something disgusting (for peace of mind, we’ll call it food), and urinated on. If by this point in the review it doesn’t sound like your type of movie, just wait until you see the ending.

Peter Greenaway is an extremely prolific filmmaker who had already directed numerous films and television productions in the United Kingdom by 1989. It wasn’t until this movie, however, that he achieved much notoriety in the United States. Released here the following year, it was one of the earliest films to be slapped with the then-new NC-17 rating for its abundant nudity, sex, violence, and generally grotesque behavior of its characters. These days, that description fits your average teen comedy, but what keeps Greenaway’s film fresh and still shocking a decade later are the talent, artistry, and deviously sadistic sense of humor he brings to the production.

The movie is a gleefully wicked black comedy. The story follows the four title characters through a week’s worth of dining at the posh restaurant run by the first character but owned by the second. Albert, the thief, is a boorish lout, the embodiment of all seven deadly sins in one abusive package. He believes that the money from his extortion racket puts him on equal social standing with the more respectable members of society, and if anyone doesn’t agree, he’ll beat some sense into them. His wife Georgina is a bit more cultured but, fed up with Albert’s behavior, begins an affair with a bookish restaurant patron right under his nose, sneaking off to the kitchen for her liaisons while he dines with his crew of thugs. Of course, no good can come of this. Eventually Albert will have to discover the truth, and that’s when the more controversial parts of the movie start to kick in.

Here we have many of Peter Greenaway’s trademark obsessions on display: his fixation with list-making, his fascination with the human body, his belief in the power of literature and art to transcend the pain of existence, the theatrical staging, cluttered production design, elaborate lateral tracking shots, and his refusal to play by the rules of established film form. Greenaway’s productions are more than just movies. They’re a fusion of film, theater, opera, painting, and sometimes dance. The latter takes a more prominent role in his next film, Prospero’s Books, but even here, watch the way the camera delicately moves in time with the actions of the actors, sometimes leading them and other times being led. In some of his films, especially the early ones, his intellectual theories become a burden, overstimulating the audience without providing enough narrative cohesion to hold the film together. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover holds together very nicely. The film’s structure is one of a traditional revenge fantasy that can be enjoyed on its own terms, while its richness comes from the social satire and the artistry that no other filmmaker would attempt to bring to such seemingly depraved material. Some of its subject matter is downright repulsive, but the movie is never less than thoroughly fascinating and repeatable.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Peter Greenaway suffers from what I like to call Bad Video Karma. Though his movies are beautifully photographed, when released to home video they usually wind up cropped, censored, badly transferred, or some combination of all three. Until now, this particular film was a prime example. The previous Laserdisc edition from Vidmark Entertainment had only one saving grace, that it was fully letterboxed. In all other respects it was a disaster. The image had washed-out contrasts, dull colors, weak focus, and a generally hazy appearance. The worst of its sins, however, was that it had a two minute stretch of film where the wrong footage (duplicated from a later scene) was played over the correct soundtrack. A better-looking Laserdisc was released in Japan, but due to the strict regulations in that country, all below-the-waist nudity (of which there’s quite a bit!) was optically censored. These travesties have finally been corrected and Anchor Bay has broken the curse with their new DVD release of the film.

The first thing that struck me when I put in the new DVD was that it appeared to be transferred at a less-wide ratio than the old Laserdisc. Greenaway has a painterly sense of composition and likes to fill every available centimeter of screen space, so the prospect of cropping had me concerned. Doing a direct frame-for-frame comparison between the two transfers revealed that both have exactly the same amount of visible information. On top of all of its other crimes, it turns out that the Laserdisc also suffered a mild amount of horizontal compression. The LD’s ratio looks somewhat wider than 2.35:1, while the DVD’s looks somewhat narrower. It’s possible that the DVD might be slightly stretched in the opposite direction, but the facial proportions on the DVD look more natural than the LD and it is, as in all other ways, the superior presentation.

The next most obvious difference is the black level. The DVD has one while the Laserdisc practically does not. Blacks are deep and rich, with strong contrasts and excellent shadow detail. The Laserdisc was lacking in sharpness, which was detrimental to the deep focus cinematography, but the DVD is quite crisp. Viewed with anamorphic enhancement, the amount of detail is very satisfying. Just watch as the kitchen is filled with billowing duck feathers early in the film. You can actually see the individual feathers now, while they were just a vaguely defined blur before. Best of all, the colors are much stronger. The photography plays off the juxtaposition of sinful reds, verdant greens, icy blues, and an assortment of other vibrant colors. It’s great fun to watch the actors’ wardrobes change color in mid-shot as they pass through doorways, and here it’s much easier to appreciate than in the previous faded presentation. This is the way the movie was always meant to look, but it has only now been transferred accurately.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s soundtrack is presented in Dolby 2.0 surround. The sound design is primarily anchored in the center channel, with only the music and occasional sound effects spread across the front soundstage or into the surrounds. This isn’t a terribly aggressive soundtrack, but the staccato rhythms of Michael Nyman’s score and the high-pitched singing of the alto-voiced albino child (those who’ve seen the movie know what I mean) are well reproduced. For my money, this is one of Nyman’s best musical scores. At once jagged and discordant yet playfully repetitive and strangely melodic, it propels the movie forward and lodges itself in the listener’s brain well after the film has ended.

Some of the British accents can get a little thick, but unfortunately the disc has no subtitle options or closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

We’re given a minimum of supplements here, which is disappointing since Greenaway is known for obsessively documenting everything he does. On the disc itself are two theatrical trailers, and inside the case is a printed booklet with some brief cast bios and production notes.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover will definitely not be to everyone’s taste, but those tuned to Peter Greenaway’s wavelength will certainly appreciate the excellent transfer given to his most famous film. The suggested retail price is a little steep for a movie-only release, but fans of the film shouldn’t hesitate in their purchasing decision. Now I must desperately plead for Anchor Bay to give the same treatment to Prospero’s Books, another Greenaway title that has been sorely neglected.

Crime Story: Pilot Episode

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 29, 2000.

When thinking of stylish cop shows from the 1980s, what comes to mind faster than Miami Vice? Well, riding high from the success of that program, Vice‘s executive producer Michael Mann created two new series in 1986. We’ll try to forget that the awful Band of the Hand ever existed. Audiences certainly had no problem doing that. His other new series, however, was the riveting 1960s cops & robbers drama Crime Story, which may have only lasted two years compared to Miami Vice‘s five, but was in many respects the better program.

Crime Story is Mann’s ode to fedora hats, wingtip shoes, cars with tail fins, and rock & roll. The story is populated with crooks who talk smooth and fight dirty, and cops who talk tough and fight dirtier. At the center is Lieutenant Mike Torello of the Major Crimes Unit, as played by Dennis Farina in a manner that evokes the spirit of Mickey Spillane much better than the official Mike Hammer program with Stacy Keach. He’s a hard-boiled cop who makes no excuses for bending the law if it serves his purposes, but he’s also tortured by the way his job affects those around him. In a theme that recurs throughout Mann’s feature film projects, we’re witness to the way that men on both sides of the story are driven to obsession by their careers even to the detriment of their marriages and relationships.

Package this all up with sleek photography, expensive production values, and a terrific assortment of early ’60s rock tunes, it makes for fabulous television.

The pilot episode was directed by cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara, notorious for the brutality of many of his films but on his best behavior here. The episode begins with a tense hostage crisis that puts us immediately into Torello’s mindset, and ends with a great action sequence that leaves us craving more. Since this was just the first episode of many others to come, it spends most of the time setting up a conflict that cannot be resolved at the end of two hours. That one caveat aside, the pilot is the perfect introduction to a larger story, but also holds up reasonably well on its own.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

In reviewing this DVD, I compared it to the excellent Japanese Laserdisc box set of the show’s entire first season. That box set is a testament to fan appreciation for the series. I regard it as one of my favorite releases on the Laserdisc format. Watching the pilot episode on both discs, the DVD is a noticeable improvement in picture quality. The image is sharper, brighter, and has better contrasts. There has also been a considerable reduction in grain. I’ve always thought the Laser’s graininess was fitting for the show’s film noir style, but I can’t deny that the DVD looks much better without it. The colors of the art deco production design are vibrant and resolution detail is excellent. I found myself transfixed by the textures of the characters’ period clothes. The disc looks more like a feature film from last year than a television pilot from 1986.

That said, there’s one very disturbing aspect to this new DVD. The two discs have completely different opening credits! Approximately 12 minutes into the program, the DVD freezes on a still image of the MCU officers spread out in an Untouchables-style group pose while the theme song plays. This is the same style used for the end credits. However, on the LD, this image only freezes for a few seconds before it segues into a terrific montage of clips from the series, also played to the same theme song. This montage opens every other episode and I never questioned its presence on the pilot. Anchor Bay informs me that the DVD contains the title sequence from the original broadcast, while the Laser must contain the newer titles that were added for the show’s later run in syndication. I guess that makes sense, especially since many of the clips in the montage come from much later in the show’s run. I suppose that in the grand scheme of things, this is a minor gripe and that it’s better to preserve the original version, but I was quite shocked to sit down with this DVD and find one of my favorite parts of the show so different now.

The picture is composed for the full-frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio, as befitting its television origins. There’s the tiniest sliver of picture missing off the left side of the screen in comparison to the old Laserdisc, but I never would have noticed if I hadn’t been watching the two discs side by side.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Both the new DVD and the previous Laserdisc are presented in mono. This is disappointing, as I’m fairly certain that the show was originally broadcast in stereo. I’m left to assume that the original stereo elements must be lost. Comparing the two releases, I’d say that the Laserdisc audio is a little stronger, but the DVD a little cleaner. They’re both reasonably good.

On the DVD, dialogue is clear but the sound effects often lack presence. Gunshots sound hollow and devoid of bass, but we must be reminded that this was a television program from the mid-’80s and was simply recorded that way. The show’s sound mix is filled with great period songs. Some of them sound fine in mono while others are a little flat. In all, this is a clean track and gets the job done, but would probably sound more dynamic in stereo.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

There are no supplements to speak of, except a short section of liner notes in the booklet that comes with the DVD case. I appreciate a nice feature-packed Special Edition as much as the next guy does, but not every release really needs one, after all. The artwork from the case also appears on the disc itself. It looks decent, with generic head shots of the two leads, but cannot approach the classy packaging of that Japanese Laserdisc set.

In a move that I appreciate more and more with each Anchor Bay release, the disc defaults to playing without going through a menu once you insert it in the player. You can access the menus through the remote. The primary screen is a recreation of the freeze-frame version of the opening credits complete with the theme song at full blast, which is kind of annoying. There’s a very nice transition to the Chapter Selections screen, however.

The disc offers neither closed captioning nor English subtitles. Hearing impaired viewers should consider themselves warned.

PARTING THOUGHTS

This disc is a bit pricey for a no-frills release, but the show is so fantastic and the DVD presents it so well that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. Now all we need is for Anchor Bay to start releasing the remainder of the show’s two seasons!

Crime Story: Season One

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 4, 2004.

Riding high from the success of his blockbuster cop show Miami Vice, executive producer Michael Mann tried his hand at further reinventing the genre with the riveting 1960s cops & robbers drama Crime Story in 1986. Though it was never the breakout hit of his previous show and only lasted two years compared to Vice‘s five, the series was in many respects the more ambitious artistic accomplishment and has remained a cult favorite well-respected and remembered by its fans.

Crime Story is Mann’s ode to fedora hats, wingtip shoes, cars with tail fins, swinging jazz, and rock & roll. The story is populated with crooks who talk smooth and fight dirty, and cops who talk tough and fight dirtier. At the center is Lieutenant Mike Torello of the Major Crimes Unit, as played by Dennis Farina in a manner that evokes the spirit of Mickey Spillane much better than the official Mike Hammer program with Stacy Keach. He’s a hard-boiled cop who makes no excuses for bending the law if it serves his purposes, but he’s also tortured by the way his job affects those around him. His nemesis is Ray Luca (Anthony Denison), a pompadour-sporting slickster on the rise through the ranks of the Mob. In a theme that recurs throughout Mann’s feature film projects, we’re witness to the way that men on both sides of the conflict are driven to obsession by their careers, even to the detriment of their marriages and relationships. Package this all up with sleek photography, expensive production values (dig that mod furniture, baby!), and a terrific assortment of early ’60s rock tunes, it makes for fabulous television.

The pilot episode was directed by indie filmmaking bad-boy Abel Ferrara, notorious for the brutality of many of his movies but on his best behavior here. The episode begins with a tense hostage crisis that puts us immediately into Torello’s mindset, and ends with a great action sequence that leaves us craving more. It’s an outstanding opener for the series. Subsequent episodes, mostly directed by TV hands without quite the stylistic verve that Ferrara brought to the pilot, slack off a little and do often exhibit flaws common to older television series. The first half of the season takes a while to find its footing, many of the episodes having weak pacing and too many filler scenes. Since shows had fewer commercials back in the ’80s than today, they lasted between 45-50 minutes each. (These days a typical “hour-long” show runs approximately 42-45 minutes.) Over a season, this adds up to a couple of extra hours of material, and in this case you can really feel the length. The season’s most frustrating episode, Crime Pays, went unaired during the original broadcast run. It’s mostly a recap clip-show episode, reiterating the story for those who didn’t bother to watch, yet it does contain about 15 minutes of important new footage beginning around the 33-minute mark, and so shouldn’t be skipped over entirely.

There are plenty of great storylines and strongly-developed characters throughout, and fortunately things pick up in the latter half of the season once the show moves from Chicago to Las Vegas. The series has an ongoing serial narrative, and is structured more like an elongated mini-series with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end than a standard weekly drama. The scripts and direction are tighter in the second half, as the major story arc builds up steam for the big finish. The final two episodes, directed by Michael Mann and Peter Medak respectively, are both excellent, perhaps rivaling the pilot for action, suspense, and gripping drama, even if the very final scene is something of a cheap-shot gag and an unworthy (though admittedly very amusing) wrap-up for some of the characters.

Farina and Denison are supported by a fine cast of then-unknowns including Billy Campbell, Jon Polito, Eric Bogosian, and Andrew Dice Clay (who’s really good in the role, honest!). Ted Levine and John Santucci deliver sublimely eccentric performances as Mob henchman (Levine’s character fancies himself the greatest lounge singer in the world), and though you’ll probably never see his face clearly in any scene, a 10-year-old Fred Savage is credited as the main villain’s son. Stephen Lang plays an ambitious defense attorney trying to keep to the straight-and-narrow despite his father’s ties to the Mob, and who sparks a controversial interracial affair with Pam Grier. (Come on, who wouldn’t want to get with Foxy Brown?) The season is also populated with guest spots from such complete nobodies as Ving Rhames, David Caruso, Lorraine Braco, Michael Madsen, Gary Sinise, Vincent Gallo, Stanley Tucci, and some teenage girl by the name of Julia Roberts. I wonder what they ever made of themselves?

Episodes included in this Season One DVD Collection are: Pilot, Final Transmission, Shadow Dancer, St. Louis Book of Blues, The War, Abrams for the Defense, Pursuit of a Wanted Felon, Old Friends and Dead Ends, Justice Hits the Skids, For Love or Money, Crime Pays, Hide and Go Thief, Strange Bedfellows, Fatal Crossroads, Torello on Trial, The Kingdom of Money, The Battle of Las Vegas, The Survivor, The Pinnacle, Top of the World, and Ground Zero.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Anchor Bay had previously released the show’s pilot episode to DVD in September of 2000. Remastered from the original film elements, that disc’s full-screen 1.33:1 image quality received high marks at the time, and even after three years of advances in DVD authoring and higher viewing standards, it still holds up as a clean, sharp, and colorful picture with excellent fine-object detail and no edge enhancement artifacts. That very same disc, with a new label, has been included to start off the season.

Unfortunately, subsequent episodes were not remastered in the same way, and have been instead transferred from their 1980s-era broadcast masters. As a result, there’s an immediate and unmistakable drop-off in picture quality. The rest of the season looks soft and grainy, with dull colors and pale flesh tones. Black level and contrast are weak, causing crushed shadow detail and a flat picture lacking any sense of depth. In addition, the original commercial edit points are often very abrupt and crudely slammed together.

Anchor Bay has also taken the controversial measure of trying to cram five episodes to each dual-layered disc. The layer change points are badly selected, occurring mid-scene in the third episode of each disc. Most TV show box sets limit themselves to four episodes. The result is the recurring appearance of compression artifacts, exacerbated by the grain in the image. The compression quality is actually not as bad as I was expecting, but there are problems that can be distracting.

All that said, honestly I feel much of the criticism against this box set has been exaggerated out of proportion. To re-transfer all 20 episodes, assuming the film elements are even still available, would have been understandably cost-prohibitive for the studio considering the show’s relatively small fan-base (compared to, say, Battlestar Galactica, whose fans will eagerly shell out $120 for one season of episodes, and so justify a complete restoration). The Crime Story episodes are sub-par by current DVD standards, but are about as good as the show looked during its original broadcast run. I compared them to my old Japanese Laserdisc box set for the season (still an elaborate fan-crazy tribute to the show), and the DVDs look a lot less noisy and more watchable. I certainly would have appreciated a full remaster with every episode looking as good as the pilot, but with lowered expectations, I managed to enjoy the show regardless. I did find that it helped when I stopped trying to watch the episodes on my projection screen and switched down to my old 27″ TV instead.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Crime Story‘s original broadcast was in stereo, but somewhere between there and its syndication run, the stereo master tracks were lost. Unfortunately, the best Anchor Bay could do was a Dolby 2.0 mono soundtrack. (The Laserdisc and VHS releases were also monaural.) The tracks are clean but dull and require a lot of amplification. Dialogue is clear but the sound effects often lack presence. Gunshots sound hollow and devoid of bass, however we must be reminded that this was a television program from the mid-’80s and was simply recorded that way.

The show’s sound mix is filled with many great period songs. The issue of licensing rights has come up and fans have questioned whether any of the songs were replaced with less-expensive alternates. Honestly, I’m not familiar enough with the show’s original broadcast to know. Some pieces of music are annoyingly repeated between episodes, but I can’t be sure whether this was a later change or there from the start. I compared a couple of episodes to the Japanese Laserdiscs and didn’t find any discrepancies, though this doesn’t necessarily prove anything. If the songs were replaced for the syndication run, all home video releases likely have the altered version.

To its credit, even after 21 separate episodes and innumerable times hearing it over the irritating DVD menus, the use of Del Shannon’s “Runaway” as theme song remains infectious and I never tired of listening to it.

There are no subtitles or captioning options because Anchor Bay continues their frustrating policy of not including such things if the program is in English. Thanks for nothing.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Bonus features on the set are pretty slim. Anchor Bay’s packaging calls the pilot episode a bonus, which from a marketing person’s line of thinking probably makes some sort of twisted sense. There’s a nice booklet with an essay about the film, different than the essay included with the original separately-sold pilot episode DVD. The package art is also cleverly designed to look like an old police case file.

Episodes in the set include their original “Previously on…” trailers when appropriate. The early trailers are supposed to emulate old Dragnet episodes or something and are very annoying. They seem to drag on forever, some of them lasting up to five minutes, repeating whole scenes from the previous episode without any sort of editing. Viewers must have reacted negatively to this, because use of the trailers is hit or miss in the second half of the season. For a couple of episodes the producers experimented with incorporating footage from the previous week as a flashback at the beginning of the new episode, but this subsides quickly. When the trailers do return at the end of the season, they’ve been greatly streamlined and are less irritating.

Maddeningly, Anchor Bay hasn’t encoded any chapter stops onto the discs at all. If you’re the type of viewer who prefers to skip the trailers or the credits sequence, you’ll have to use the Fast Forward button instead.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Crime Story was a great show and I’m thrilled to have this complete first season box set on DVD. The picture and sound quality have some drawbacks, and the set has next to no bonus features, but I still heartily recommend it. I hope the second season comes along soon.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Hong Kong Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 12, 2001.

Ahhh, the joys of being region-free. I was pleased to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on a nice theater screen for my first viewing, but given my aversion to obnoxious crowds and cineplexes, I would much rather have subsequent viewings take place in the comfort of my own home. So now, while many other Americans are waiting patiently for the movie to expand from its limited theatrical release and come to their town in the first place, here I am already watching an excellent DVD copy of the film, courtesy of Columbia TriStar Home Video and the prompt international shipment from a Hong Kong retailer.

It goes without saying that this will be entirely irrelevant in a few months, when the film is officially released on DVD in the United States, but in the meantime I’m more than happy with my investment in a regionless DVD player. It helps, of course, that the movie is a good one. I wouldn’t have much cause for bragging if all I could get was an advanced copy of the latest Freddy Prinze, Jr. debacle.

Ang Lee, the director of several wonderful films (The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman) and a couple of less-wonderful but still worthy films (Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm) is setting a fascinating course for himself, testing out new styles and genres of film, each different from the one before. His last movie was the underrated American Civil War drama Ride with the Devil, one of several films making 1999 the best year for cinema in decades. Here, he expands into the realm of historical drama and martial arts action movie, doing so with considerable grace and style.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stars international action hero Chow Yun-Fat, moving away from his typecast role in police and gangster pictures and into his first martial arts movie. The transition is a smooth one. He plays Li Mu Bai, a warrior monk and master of the Wudan mysticism. Wudan is a strict discipline that allows its practitioners to transcend earthly limitations through focus and meditation, to seemingly change the very density of their bodies and become weightless when necessary. Upon his retirement from fighting, Li Mu Bai presents his prized sword, the Green Destiny, as a gift to his mentor, but finds it soon stolen by a young rival and in need of retrieval as a matter of honor.

The movie is also graced by a strong female center in the presence of Michelle Yeoh, herself a renowned action hero and veteran of many martial arts pictures, and Zhang Zi Yi, a superstar in the making if ever there were one. They carry large portions of the movie, and the strength and commitment of their characters puts to shame the pseudo-feminism of Hollywood dreck like Charlie’s Angels.

To be honest, the “Give back my sword!” motivation seems like a thin propellant for the story, but we must think of the sword as a symbol of the life that Li Mu Bai wishes to put behind him. First it must be properly retired before he may move on, and he must teach his young protégé the purpose and meaning beyond its outward appearance. The movie also has some structural problems involving an extended flashback that takes us away from the main plot for too long. However, that said, it’s a thoroughly engrossing tale mixing elements of myth, romance, consuming dedication, generational strife, melodrama, and fabulous displays of martial arts prowess. The secret to its success is in the skillful balance of these disparate parts. Had it been a straight action movie, it would have been ghettoized to a limited viewership of genre fans. Had it been a straight historical epic, it would have been relegated to the art-house circuit and forgotten in a few months’ time. By blending these genres together, the film rises above all of them and pushes forth into something newer and better.

The movie is also, it should be noted, a fantasy. The movement and actions of the characters during the fight scenes willfully defy the laws of physics and nature. Unlike common convention in Western films, no attempt is made to give a rational explanation for how this is achieved. The characters can, for lack of a better word, fly. Director Ang Lee says in his commentary that he prefers the term “weightless leap,” which suggest something more graceful, and I do as well. The first time this is presented may be a bit off-putting for a Western audience expecting some feigned sense of “realism,” but if they allow themselves to be carried by the film, they’ll find the action and stunt choreography to be a beautiful dance of precision movement between actor and camera, much more skillfully integrated and certainly no more “unrealistic” than the heavy-handed special effects in most Hollywood action films.

The year 2000 was not a great one for movies, but a few small gems stand out. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was absolutely one of its strongest entries. If any other movie managed to be so lyrical, so wonderfully entertaining, and so invigorated with the power and potential of cinema, I certainly didn’t see it.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The anamorphically enhanced picture is letterboxed to the appropriate 2.35:1 aspect ratio and looks terrific. The image is clean and sharp with a palette of delicate, subtle colors conveyed effectively. This is a fine-looking disc from Columbia TriStar and I doubt that the eventual Region 1 release will be any different.

American viewers will find English-language subtitles available through the menu system. They’re printed in a garish yellow electronic font. If viewed in standard 4:3 mode, the subtitles appear beneath the picture in the lower letterbox bar, but if viewed in 16:9 mode, the subtitles are moved up, intruding a little into the picture so as not to be cut off on widescreen monitors. I have no familiarity with the Mandarin language, but the translation appears effective, at least in that there are no obvious grammatical flaws or incoherent dialogue passages.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Even better than the picture is the wonderful Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The drumming musical score is rich and enveloping with crisp, deep bass. During the fight scenes, swords swing and fists fly from every speaker in the house. It’s a highly engaging audio track and the directional effects always flow naturally without descending into gimmicky ping-pong effects bouncing between speakers.

Dumbing down the movie so that even illiterate Americans might give it a chance, the DVD also contains an English-language dub in 5.1 surround. Dubbing is a crime against art, and I couldn’t bring myself to listen to much of it. It’s good for a few minutes worth of amusement, though, especially since the voice given to Chow Yun-Fat is quite laughable. Cantonese and Thai dubs are also provided in flat Dolby Surround.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The disc has a few noteworthy extra features. The primary supplement is a screen-specific audio commentary by director Ang Lee and screenwriter James Schamus. The tone is a little jokey, but some useful information is conveyed about the nature of selling this film to a Western audience unfamiliar with the traditions of the genre. Schamus plays the foil, asking dumb questions for the benefit of the audience. He’s a little obnoxious and this routine grows stale before long. I would very much have liked to hear more… or any at all… detail about how the breathtaking stunts were achieved, but the two commentators hardly broach the subject. The short printed interview that comes in the DVD case helps to fill in some of the gaps from their conversation here.

Next we have a 13-minute interview with Michelle Yeoh. Her appearance is shocking, and she’s hardly recognizable behind some tarted-up makeup and big hair. I should hope that this look was adopted for an upcoming movie role and not her real-life appearance. She’s infinitely more appealing in the film itself. The interview covers a little bit of her career and why she enjoys action movies, but goes into no great depth about anything. Yeoh gives away a couple of plot spoilers, so this clip is best viewed after the feature.

The remaining supplements are pure promotional filler. There’s the cheesy American theatrical trailer that tries to turn the movie into Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, an overlong photo montage (not a still gallery) played to music from the film, and some requisite talent files for the cast and crew. We also have a music video for the wretched Coco Lee song “A Love Before Time,” which was obviously tacked onto the movie’s end credits at the insistence of the marketing people and is completely inappropriate for the film. Though Lee may be an Asian singer, she sounds frighteningly like a generic cross between LeAnn Rymes and Celine Dion. The song is so awful it’s been placed on the disc twice, once in English and once in Mandarin, to prolong the torture. It appears that the video was actually shot in both languages, rather than a simple dub, since the lip sync matches in both versions.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The movie is great. The disc looks and sounds great. The bonus features are weak, but present and worth at least a cursory glance. I would be very surprised if the Region 1 release winds up being any different than this disc. Perhaps they’ll throw in an HBO First Look special or some other worthless supplement. That hardly seems worth waiting for when this disc is available now at a reasonable price. Those with region-free DVD players are advised to scoop this disc up and taunt their friends still waiting in line at the multiplex.

Dead Like Me: The Complete First Season

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published May 20, 2004.

Did you ever watch that show Ally McBeal? Did you ever watch Ally McBeal and think to yourself that it had a couple of clever ideas that might have been entertaining if only the rest of the show didn’t completely suck and didn’t feature such annoying, hateful characters that just deserved to be punched in the face? Did you ever think that? Yeah, me too. I bet that’s the exact thought that went through the minds of the creators of Dead Like Me, the irreverent Showtime cable series that, for a change, makes quirky humor work in the service of a good story and interesting characters.

Poor Georgia (she prefers “George”) Lass, just a mere 18-years-old, recently dropped out of college, and dead so soon. The afterlife isn’t quite what she thought it would be. Forced from the comfort of childhood to the responsibilities of the adult working world, this teenage slacker’s first attempt at holding a real job is met with the reward of an instant death too bizarre to describe. Standing beside herself (or what was left), about the time when most people should see bright lights and a path to those pearly gates, George instead learns that a quirk of fate requires her to be recruited to stay on Earth and work as a Grim Reaper, collecting the souls of others just before they die, as had been done for her. It seems that even in death, it’s not so easy to get out of holding a damn day job.

Helping George in this mission are her middle-management supervisor (Mandy Patinkin) and a team of three other Reapers from the Accidental Deaths Division. Not quite as grim as the job title implies, these Reapers are just average stiffs working a job they don’t particularly care for and trying to make the best of it. They don’t wear dark robes or carry scythes either. Given a new identity, George is returned to the land of the living, where she must blend in as inconspicuously as possible while learning the ropes of her new trade. The universe has all sorts of peculiar rules, you see, and figuring them out is not an easy task.

Dead Like Me thrives on the strength of its hip, witty, and sardonic humor. It embraces a mix of bitter sarcasm and wistful fantasy. Unlike other shows that have attempted this formula (such as the aforementioned Ally McBeal), it manages to be clever and quirky without turning cutesy or annoying. Surreal, oddball humor is balanced with genuine emotional pathos. The dead may wind up in a better place, but the living are left behind to suffer. Throughout the season, we return to George’s family, watching them disintegrate from their failure to cope with their loss.

Before you start thinking this sounds like a total downer, it must be emphasized that the show is primarily a comedy, and a damn funny one. The outlandish Rube Goldberg-style chain reactions that cause each victim’s death are a riot. And how nice is it to have Mandy Patinkin back on television? The TV landscape just hasn’t been the same since Chicago Hope went down the tubes. Jasmine Guy also nicely plays against type as a surly, disgruntled Reaper who works a second job as a meter maid to pay the bills.

The season is a short 14 episodes. Unfortunately, one of them is a dog. For some reason, a funny premise in Nighthawks (the Reapers must take self-evaluation exams) is strained when the episode turns into a tedious clip-show. Why the producers felt the need for a clip-show just 12 episodes into the series run is a mystery, unless some originally-planned subplots were abandoned and replaced with filler. Luckily, the season bounces back with the last two episodes and finishes up with a nice finale. One flawed episode aside, the show is a real winner.

Episodes included in this Complete First Season are: Pilot, Dead Girl Walking, Curious George, Reapercussions, Reaping Havoc, My Room, Reaper Madness, A Cook, Sunday Mornings, Business Unfinished, The Bicycle Thief, Nighthawks, Vacation, and Rest in Peace. Most episodes run approximately 40-45 minutes, aside from the 74-minute pilot episode.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

One of the finest presentations for a TV show on the DVD format yet, MGM’s Dead Like Me box set features exceptional picture quality. The 1.78:1 anamorphically-enhanced image is very sharp and colorful, with rich contrasts and excellent shadow detail. Textures and fine object detail are resolved extremely well without artificial electronic sharpening. Aside from some noticeable ringing around the opening credit text of every episode, there are no other appearances of edge enhancement during the body of any of the 14 episodes. Digital compression quality is also just fine, with no significant problems that will distract. Short of the obvious differences in format resolution, this is about as close to a high-definition broadcast as I’ve seen a TV series on DVD look. I wish I could say the same for every show I review.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are also very satisfying. The show has frequent use of the surround channels, including discrete split-surround effects, and a fun musical score that sounds great. There’s a moderate amount of bass that gives some body to the sound, although it doesn’t ever hit the lowest registers. (You wish for more during the train crash in the pilot episode.) It’s perhaps not reference quality show-off material, but for a TV show it’s pretty terrific and a lot of fun.

The discs are encoded with English closed captions, but unfortunately no other subtitle or language options.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

MGM may not have splurged for too many bonus features, but there are a couple of good ones. To start, I have to say nice things about the clever and amusing package art and design. The DVD menus are also blissfully simple to navigate, without any annoying animated screen transitions. How nice it would be if every DVD followed this example. My only complaint here would be the aggressively loud MGM lion roar before every single episode.

All supplements are located on the first disc with the pilot episode. Nonetheless, they contain extensive plot spoilers for the whole season and should be saved until the end.

The pilot episode includes an audio commentary by cast members Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, Jasmine Guy, Callum Blue, and Cynthia Stephenson. It’s a party track and a big love-fest. Everyone constantly proclaims how much they loved working on the show, and how happy they are with the way it turned out. If you can get past that it’s an entertaining listen. Although they don’t go into too much detail about the actual production, towards the end there’s some interesting speculation about where the show might head in future seasons

The best feature is the collection of no less than 33 deleted scenes. Most of them are short, and played together they total about 30 minutes. The picture is sadly in poor-quality non-anamorphic widescreen, and one of them is missing a patch of audio. Still, there’s some great material here, including a couple of fascinating subplots about the nitty-gritty of Reaper life that were cut for time. George’s visit to collect her new identity at the DMV is very funny, and there’s an explanation (“You reap what you sow”) for why Reapers are assigned to particular types of death. (The writers obviously changed their minds about this after they cut the scene. Later in the season. we see that Roxie’s flashback doesn’t follow this rule.) Some pieces of footage are small scene extensions, and others are just alternate voiceover narration, but it’s all welcome and enjoyable.

The rest of the supplements are mostly Electronic Press Kit promotional fluff, including the 6-minute Behind the Scenes featurette and the 4-minute Music of Dead Like Me interview with producer John Masius and composer Stewart Copeland. (The two seem to talk about everything except the music, which is hardly mentioned.) The Season 2 Promo is really just a Showtime subscription commercial, and features no new footage or any hints at all about what will happen in the next season.

The photo gallery is neither too extensive nor too interesting. A little more amusing is the Dead Like Us Weekly: “A Journal for the Recently Deceased.” Laid out like a tabloid magazine, this is a short still and text gallery of humorous bios for the show’s many victims and a list of the Top 10 Deaths.

Some trailers for other MGM releases finish off the disc.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A very entertaining series with high repeat potential, Dead Like Me is also a terrific DVD set with great picture quality, very good sound, a fun commentary and selection of deleted scenes, and nice package art. MGM did right by this show. Highly recommended.

The Devil’s Backbone

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 30, 2002.

Guillermo del Toro has had a rather schizophrenic career directing horror genre films. He alternates between small yet intriguing foreign productions and big Hollywood schlock. American audiences may recognize his name for Mimic and Blade II, both of which had some interesting elements but were mostly pure crapola. On the other hand, del Toro first caught my eye with his 1993 Mexican feature, Cronos, a fascinating twist on vampire mythology involving an elderly man “bitten” by an antique mechanical scarab. El espinazo del diablo (The Devil’s Backbone) was his third picture, produced in Spain between the two Hollywood fizzles, and returns to some of those early roots to tell an eerie and effective ghost story.

Toward the end of the Spanish Civil War, a 12-year-old boy is deposited at a remote orphanage miles from the nearest town. In the center of the facility sits an unexploded bomb that fell from the sky one night, said now to be defused but apparently still ticking if you listen closely enough. The boy’s father was a rebel fighter killed in the struggle against the Franco regime. Though already overburdened with too many children and too little money, the headmaster is sympathetic to the cause and agrees to take in young Carlos. While there, Carlos discovers that the orphanage and its staff have some dark secrets, one of which may involve “The One Who Sighs,” the restless spirit of another boy who had recently gone missing.

Ghost stories seem to be fashionable at the moment, after the back-to-back successes of The Sixth Sense and The Others. This film almost can’t help being compared to those two, but I think it stands firmly on its own. The Devil’s Backbone is a classy production, tightly scripted and stylishly directed. One of the things I most admire about it is that the story doesn’t fall back onto any sort of twist ending to fool the audience into thinking that the plot is deeper than it really is. There are no last minute revelations or final sudden shocks here. The movie sets up a chain of events and follows them through to their inevitable conclusion. The narrative obviously has some political overtones, and the metaphor of that unexploded bomb is pretty unavoidable, but primarily this is a simple story, elegantly told, and there can be great pleasure in that.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

For the most part, this is a stunning, almost reference quality transfer. Letterboxed to its correct 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement, the image is incredibly sharp and has a strong sense of three-dimensional depth. Colors from steely blues to warm amber tones are perfectly reproduced without oversaturation or bleeding. The contrast range is also terrific; blacks are deep and rich yet maintain strong shadow detail when appropriate.

I have only one caveat to note. The picture often achieves it sharp appearance through the use of artificial edge enhancement. There’s quite a lot of it, actually, leading to some jaginess and ringing around strongly contrasted images. Some viewers will be more sensitive to this artifact than others, especially those with large-screen displays.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

I have no qualms about recommending this soundtrack. The movie has a very active and well-produced Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Recording fidelity is excellent with a broad dynamic range extending from quiet whispers to powerful explosions. Discrete separation effects are put to constant use for many creepy, localized sounds spread throughout the listening space. The director’s time spent in Hollywood has taught him the importance of intricate sound design, and he does good work here. This could have been an obnoxious mass of noise, but like the rest of the film, the soundtrack is carefully measured and refined, giving us just what we need at just the right times.

A Spanish dub track is also available in Dolby Digital 5.1. The disc offers optional English subtitles but no closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Director Guillermo del Toro and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro contribute a screen-specific audio commentary. This is the first commentary for both and they do a fine job of it. The talk is lively and interesting with a good mix of anecdotes and production information.

The Making-of featurette runs about 13 minutes in Spanish with English subtitles. This is a fairly standard promotional affair, focusing on how the actors approached their characters. The piece contains a number of plot spoilers and should certainly not be watched before the movie. The disc also includes several animated storyboard-to-screen comparisons and a theatrical trailer.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed this stylish spook-show. The Devil’s Backbone is the type of movie that reminds me why Guillermo del Toro keeps getting hired to make big Hollywood scare pictures (he’s been signed on to adapt the Hellboy comic book next), but why is it that he does so much better with these little foreign productions?

Aside from the edge enhancement issues, the DVD does an excellent job delivering the film to home video. A slick transfer and a small but interesting assortment of supplements makes this a solid recommendation.

Dirty Pretty Things

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 21, 2004.

A hotel night porter, trying to unclog a toilet, discovers a human heart plugging the drain. The man, an illegal immigrant, cannot go to the police himself, and finds the hotel’s crooked night manager particularly unconcerned about the discovery. What more delicious set-up could a movie ask for? I doubt anyone complained too strenuously that all of the poster art and promotional material for Dirty Pretty Things focused almost exclusively on the lovely face of Audrey Tautou (Amélie), even though she technically has just a supporting role. Those captivating doe-eyes of hers are irresistible. The film is actually carried with great dignity and presence by Chiwetel Ejiofor (difficult-to-pronounce names rarely sell tickets) at the center of this cracking little thriller from director Stephen Frears.

Nigerian exile Okwe was a doctor in his native land before fleeing to London. Living in the country illegally, he now works as a cab driver by day and a hotel desk clerk by night. “I do not care to sleep,” he explains. Okwe has become part of the country’s so-called invisible working class, forced into menial labor while trying to stay under the radar of Immigration officials. His manager is a shady fellow who has no problem hiring illegals, their secrets a measure of control he holds over them. This is how Okwe meets the shy and guarded Turkish girl, Senay (Tautou, about as Turkish as Gwyneth Paltrow is British, but hey that’s what the magic of movies is all about), who’s afraid of letting anyone into her life. After his gruesome discovery, Okwe will be unwillingly pulled into a mystery involving the exploitation of other immigrants, illegal organ smuggling, and many other things that polite civilization prefers to turn its back to. His medical training and his desire to help Senay will of course also cause a moral dilemma for this honorable man.

The movie did practically no business at all at the box office, which is a shame because Frears has masterful control over the material (this is the guy who once upon a time made The Grifters, remember) and the tightly-plotted script by Steven Knight features well-developed, interesting characters. Both Ejiofor and Tautou deliver appealing performances, and the story’s complex, ambiguous morality is fascinating. The picture deserved better than its quick dismissal, and will hopefully find some new viewers on home video.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

This is a very fine-looking disc indeed. The 1.85:1 anamorphically enhanced picture is extremely sharp with exceptional fine object detail and almost no trace of edge enhancement artifacts to be found (rare for a Miramax release). Colors are very vividly reproduced for a nicely stylized appearance. Digital compression quality is spot-on and the image is free of distracting grain or noise. The contrast range is also excellent, as is visible shadow detail. Truly, this is a nearly perfect picture transfer. High marks all around.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is crisp and clean, but not terribly dynamic and lacks much of a “Wow” factor. Volume is set very low by default and will require significant amplification. The movie’s sound mix is heavily biased to the front soundstage with little more than faint ambience in the surround channels, aside from one particular directional pan towards the end of the picture where the score moves discretely across the back of the room (including through the rear center channel if you have EX decoding engaged). The film has an interesting, jangly score that sounds fine. This isn’t a demo-quality soundtrack, but it serves the movie as well as needed.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Miramax hasn’t given us much in the way of supplements. The only item of any consequence is a rather sparse Audio Commentary from director Stephen Frears, who admits right off the bat that he has no idea what the movie’s title means. Frears is an amiable enough speaker and tries to be informative, but the talk is filled with gaps and lacks significant insight.

The Behind the Scenes Featurette runs just six minutes and is pure EPK fluff. It’s hardly even worth watching. The Sneak Peaks for other Miramax products bear no relation to his movie whatsoever, aside from the fact that one of them is for Amélie, which also stars Audrey Tautou. The disc has bland menus and doesn’t include any sort of printed insert.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The $29.99 list price is a bit steep for a disc with so few special features, but Dirty Pretty Things is a first-rate thriller and the DVD has terrific picture quality. Though perhaps not a candidate for an automatic purchase, it’s at least worth a rental.

Donnie Darko

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 18, 2002.

“You call this clarity?”

I can’t help getting excited when I see a new filmmaker burst out of the gate with a truly noteworthy and auspicious debut, as first-time director Richard Kelly has done with Donnie Darko. The film is a clever sci-fi tale about time travel, mental illness, apocalypse, religion, child exploitation, paranoia, and one evil bunny. It’s challenging, complex, surreal, funny, creepy, at times frustrating, and utterly unique. This is a filmmaker to keep your eyes on.

Donnie Darko would seem to be an average high school kid, except for his self-described “emotional problems.” As it happens, Donnie has a problem sleepwalking, and has been seeing visions of a six-foot bunny who fills his head with stories of the impending end of the world, which will happen in just less than a month’s time. This is the sort of thing one seeks therapy and medication for, and Donnie has plenty of both, but things take a strange turn one night when his imaginary friend lures him out of the house just before a jet engine crashes into his bedroom. If that weren’t odd enough, no one can quite explain where this engine came from, as there were no planes flying nearby at the time. Perhaps the bunny has a point after all? Only Donnie can know for sure.

The story is set during the fall of the 1988 presidential election, for reasons I cannot determine, and has great fun satirizing 1980s suburban life. Drew Barrymore has a small role as Donnie’s English teacher, and this gives Kelly opportunity to make a couple of unsubtle references to E.T. The movie has a terrific supporting cast, including Mary McDonnell, Katherine Ross, Noah Wyle, and Jena Malone. Look also for Patrick Swayze in a blatant bid at a career comeback with his cameo appearance as a dishonest motivational speaker.

Kelly has a distinct and original vision, and the film is certainly ambitious. By the end, you may wonder if he was a little too ambitious. Though the great interlocking puzzle of the narrative is brought to a tight circular conclusion, even after a couple of viewings I’m still unclear on how (or if) all of the pieces fit. There are one or two plot developments toward the end, which I will not spoil here, that I’m not entirely convinced work as well as they were intended to. Still, the movie has more positive attributes than negative, and if I’m left scratching my head at the end, that’s just all the more reason to watch it again and figure it out.

The film was originally scheduled to open in late 2001. Unfortunately, after the terrorist activities in New York, suddenly a movie about airplane parts falling from the sky didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. The movie had next to no theatrical screenings outside of film festivals, and for all intents is going direct to video. It deserves better. With proper marketing, this could have been a cult hit along the lines of Being John Malkovich from a few years ago. I’m eager to see what Richard Kelly does next.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The movie is presented at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. You can tell from the composition of shots and the usage of color in the production design that the filmmakers had some very interesting visual ideas, but they’re not conveyed well on this DVD at all. Despite the anamorphic enhancement, the sharpness and resolution of the picture rarely match that of a mediocre Laserdisc, much less a good DVD. This is a very dull and hazy image, with washed-out black level and flat colors. I was left wondering whether the movie’s appearance was an artifact of its tight budget, a video transfer problem, or was somehow intentional. This may have been the director’s first feature, but his cinematographer is an experienced veteran who has worked with Ridley Scott. I would assume that he could shoot a better looking movie than what we see here even within his budget. (Despite what some pretentious indie filmmakers would have you believe, it really doesn’t cost anything extra to focus the camera lens or adjust the aperture setting.)

The film begs for a more vibrant and stylized appearance (which seems to be hiding just below the surface, struggling to get out) and this look doesn’t work well for it at all, so I’m doubtful that this was a deliberate stylistic choice. The movie also has a couple of impressive special effects sequences, demonstrating that the filmmakers were attempting to overcome that traditional “low budget” look. I can’t say for certain because I never saw the movie theatrically, but I have to question the DVD transfer quality. Or maybe the crew just got shafted with some lousy film stock? I wish I knew the answer.

(Addendum: Since first writing this review, I have received the following interesting email. “The reason the picture looks flat and low in contrast is due to the film stock, Kodak Vision 800ASA, which was used to photograph the entire picture. Usually this film is used for extreme low light situations, but the film had a very distinct look which the DP really loved so he used it for the whole picture in order to ensure the same texture throughout the movie. This particular stock has technically more silver in it which gives the DP a large amount of shadow detail, but because it has a large amount of silver this causes the film to not be as sharp as the slower ASA films, not as rich in color, and also not to have the richest blacks possible.” My thanks to “Sorro5” for this information. I guess I just don’t care for the look as much as the Director of Photography did. At the very least, it doesn’t translate to home video very well.)

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The video may be disappointing, but the audio certainly isn’t. This is a very active Dolby Digital 5.1 mix with a lot of rumble and numerous well-integrated separation effects. The bunny’s voice coming from the rear speakers is particularly unnerving. The ’80s pop tunes on the soundtrack are very expansive, and the electronic musical score is suitably creepy. Again I wonder, how could they afford such a slick and professional sound mix but not decent picture quality?

A basic Dolby Surround mix is also available, as is a French dub in Dolby Surround. The disc offers optional subtitles in English for the hearing impaired or Spanish (but no French), along with true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

I suspect that someone at Fox Home Entertainment was feeling guilty about the movie’s truncated theatrical release, because this DVD is loaded with a number of great supplemental features.

First off, we have two screen-specific audio commentaries. In the first, writer/director Richard Kelly and star Jake Gyllenhaal discuss the intentions for the story and many of the practical logistics of shooting it. Kelly has a great anecdote about getting permission to tell a lewd joke about The Smurfs, and Gyllenhaal does a hilarious Christopher Walken impersonation about halfway through. Kelly returns for the second Cast & Crew group commentary. He’s joined by producers Sean McKittrick and Nancy Juvonen, along with most of the remaining primary cast members: Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Jena Malone, Beth Grant, Holmes Osborne, Katherine Ross, and James Duval. This one is more of a party track; everyone seems to be having a great time reminiscing about the shoot and what drew them to the project in the first place. Barrymore tends to dominate the conversation, but everyone has something to contribute and it’s a fun listen. On both commentaries, Kelly attempts to explain many of the meanings behind the story. This does help to clarify some of the confusion in the plot, but personally I don’t feel that all of his conclusions are actually supported by evidence within the film.

Next we have no fewer than 20 deleted scenes, practically every extra scrap of footage that was shot for the film, each with optional commentary from Richard Kelly. Most of these were cut for time, and Kelly expresses much regret about losing several important subplots (including the identity of the sister’s boyfriend) and some significant character development. The majority of these scenes are indeed worthy of inclusion in the movie, but not many of them clear up the ending. All scenes are presented in very poor quality non-anamorphic widescreen, apparently transferred directly from digital editing files.

My favorite supplement is the full version of the Cunning Visions infomercial seen in the movie. The clip itself is very repetitive, but try watching it with the optional joke audio commentary. It starts off as a straight parody of DVD commentaries, but becomes increasingly bizarre as it progresses. In this section we also get the brief “His Name is Frank” slide show and some stills of Jim Cunningham book covers.

The Cast & Crew Information section gives us filmographies for the actors and short bios for the filmmakers. A Web Site Gallery contains, obviously enough, screens shots from the movie’s official web site. These have some clever extensions of the film’s narrative, and reminded me of similar material done for the Memento web site. We also get a still gallery, soundtrack album liner notes, and excerpts from “The Philosophy of Time Travel” book seen in the film. The book and the web site pages may be difficult to read on a television monitor unless your DVD player offers a zoom function.

Finishing off the disc are the Mad World music video, an excellent theatrical trailer and five television spots. Did any of these actually run?

PARTING THOUGHTS

Donnie Darko is an intriguing movie worthy of repeat viewing. Don’t pay any attention to the text on the disc case that compares it to “edgy” teen crap like Urban Legends and Final Destination. Any similarities are entirely superficial. Darko is a much more interesting film.

I wish I had better things to say about this DVD’s video quality, but the disc excels in all other respects. Two terrific commentaries and a load of comprehensive supplements make this DVD a great value, even at Fox’s typically inflated prices. Buy this DVD and no one will doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Donnie Darko: Director’s Cut

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 26, 2005.

Donnie Darko is a clever sci-fi tale about time travel, mental illness, apocalypse, religion, child exploitation, paranoia, and one evil bunny. It’s challenging, complex, surreal, funny, creepy, at times frustrating, and utterly unique. The film was originally scheduled to open in late 2001, but after the events of September 11th, suddenly it didn’t seem like such a good idea to release a movie in which airplane parts fall from the sky. In its first go-round, the movie hardly saw any distribution in the United States, yet eventually managed to build an avid cult audience through home video anyway. Now that a few years have passed, the studio has been gracious enough to give the movie another push with this all new “Director’s Cut” that adds about 20 minutes of new footage and rejiggers some of the previous scenes. As has happened with too many other cases where filmmakers are allowed to tinker with their completed works, sadly, director Richard Kelly really should have left well enough alone.

The previous theatrical cut of Donnie Darko left a lot of questions unanswered and its ending didn’t make totally coherent sense. I’m sure that some of its most vocal fans had no idea what it all really meant. Listening to the audio commentaries on the initial DVD, I had serious doubts that even the writer/director knew what it meant. That was never much of a detriment, however. This is the type of film that thrives on ambiguity, that allows each viewer to read his or her own interpretation into the material. Did Donnie really turn back time, or was he just mentally ill? Or are those two possibilities inherently linked? How did certain characters in the end have memories of things that hadn’t yet happened to them? What made the movie special was the way it connected with its audience, speaking directly to feelings of alienation or mistrust that almost anyone who was ever a teenager remembers vividly. The story may not entirely work narratively or even logically, but it definitely works emotionally. It speaks to deeper truths at the heart of the human condition, and it reaches them with such clarity that tying up all the loose ends in the plot would not only be unnecessary, but almost insulting.

This is where the Director’s Cut fails. The original DVD release of the film had a number of deleted scenes in the supplement section. Some of them were pretty good, and adding them back into the film does help to flesh out the family dynamic. The problem is that we also get some brand new footage never before seen, several new special effects sequences, and various tweaks to the sound mix that are all designed to straighten out some of the confusion in the plot and make literal many things that were previously metaphorical. As he tried to explain in his audio commentaries the first time around (and goes into greater detail in the commentary on this disc), director Kelly always had a very specific and unambiguous idea of how everything in the movie was supposed to work. Unfortunately, his attempts to emphasize the science fiction and superhero aspects of the film only serve to diminish the more interesting elements of mental illness and schizophrenia. There’s still some minor amount of ambiguity left in the Director’s Cut, but much less than in the theatrical cut, and the film is lesser for it. Moreover, if we’re to believe that everything happens exactly as we see it in the Director’s Cut, Kelly has opened up more plot holes and inconsistencies than were present before. With an open ending, we must fill in the gaps ourselves however we see fit, but with a closed, locked-in conclusion, we’re left perplexed at how certain things could make any sense.

Some pieces of the old version of the movie have also been rearranged or removed. The music, so important to the movie’s style and atmosphere, has been shuffled around. The original opening song by Echo and the Bunnymen has been moved to later in the film and replaced with a less effective INXS tune. Kelly claims this was always his original intention, but it worked better the last time; his literal reading of the song lyrics is less crucial than the tone and mood set by the music itself. My favorite line of dialogue from the theatrical cut (Drew Barrymore’s exasperated “You call this clarity?”) is gone. More importantly, Kelly has also taken out a major audio cue, the jeers yelled out to the Cherita character during her talent show performance. Without them, the token applause from the teachers and parents is less sympathetic, her following scene crying in the courtyard doesn’t make any sense, and a key part of her character arc is lost.

What surprises me most, perhaps, is that despite these changes, the movie does still mostly work. Even with 20 minutes of new footage, I came out feeling that the movie hadn’t been changed all that radically. That speaks to the strength of the original concept and execution. I prefer the theatrical cut, but nothing in the Director’s Cut is severe enough to hamper my enjoyment or appreciation of the film (as, for example, the changes George Lucas has made to the Star Wars Trilogy will prevent me from ever watching those movies again). Unlike some other pretentious filmmakers, Kelly doesn’t insist that the Director’s Cut is meant to be a final, definitive edition of the movie that should replace the theatrical cut; he calls it an “extended remix” and is willing to concede that the two versions of the movie should coexist. That’s how I prefer to see it as well. I will surely default to watching the old theatrical cut, but I don’t mind having the new Director’s Cut around as an interesting variation and a curiosity.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The first time Donnie Darko was released on DVD, I made a few complaints about the visual appearance and consequently took some heat from those knowledgeable about the production that the soft, hazy, and downright dull look was an intentional stylistic choice. That may be true, but I still doubt the merits of this decision, because it really doesn’t work for the film and stands at odds with the creative use of colors in the production design. I also still feel that the old DVD was further harmed by too much digital compression and filtering necessitated by the large number of bonus features crammed onto the same disc as the movie.

So now Donnie Darko is being re-released in what must be a new video transfer (given that the movie itself is different), as part of a 2-disc set with most of the supplements separated from the movie. And the result is…. OK, it looks almost exactly the same. Maybe I’m just wrong, or maybe whomever keeps supervising the transfers of this movie is consistent in their bad choices.

As I mentioned in my previous review, the 2.35:1 anamorphically enhanced picture has extremely poor resolution of fine details in the image. Black level is at best a foggy gray and colors are very muted and washed-out. I may concede that this is what the director and cinematographer wanted (whether it looks any good or not), but there are other aspects of the video transfer that are problematic for reasons other than the film stock used.

For example, the source elements for the new transfer exhibit occasional sparklies and other pieces of debris. It’s not an overwhelmingly bad problem, but it’s noticeable, and was not present before. There’s some minor edge ringing visible from time to time, notably around the mountains during the opening scene, but again this isn’t generally a big deal. (The soft image masks most of them.) The digital compression quality, on the other hand, is still quite poor. Film grain is certainly not compressed adequately and takes on a noisy electronic appearance that’s quite unattractive. Complex areas of fine detail in the picture also have a tendency to break up into an ugly mess, such as the grass in the background of the scene around the 33-minute mark. These are very obviously digital problems, not an artifact of the photographic style, even though strangely both DVDs have the same issues in approximately the same spots. I guess this is just a difficult movie to compress, and it hasn’t been done well in either attempt.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The new sound design has a number of changes, including switching up some songs and adding new sound effects here and there. Regardless, the overall quality of the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is similar to the previous DVD release, which is to say quite good. The ’80s tunes sound rich and expansive, surround channels get an active workout (the bunny’s voice coming from the rear soundstage is very disconcerting), and bass reaches into the deeper registers. All in all, a great mix.

A basic Dolby 2.0 Surround mix is also available. English and Spanish subtitles have been provided, along with true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The old DVD was quite a packed disc; it had two audio commentaries, 20 deleted scenes, and a few other odds and ends. The new Director’s Cut DVD doesn’t recycle any of that material, but does give us a number of brand new and fairly worthwhile features.

We start with a completely new audio commentary by director Richard Kelly and, of all people, filmmaker Kevin Smith. Smith had no involvement whatsoever with the production of this movie, but is apparently a friend of Kelly’s and a big supporter of the movie. Personally, I’m not a fan of any of Smith’s films (I outright despise most of them, in fact), but I can’t deny that he’s an intelligent guy capable of expressing himself coherently. Kelly uses the track to point out the differences between the theatrical cut and the Director’s Cut, and goes into quite a lot of detail about his specific ideas for what the movie’s mythology is all about. Smith helps talk him through some of the gaps in the conversation (this is Kelly’s third commentary for the feature, after all) and acts as a useful foil not afraid to bust Kelly’s chops about some of his more pretentious ideas. Towards the end of the track, Smith asks Kelly a series of questions posed by fans.

The Donnie Darko Production Diary consists of approximately 52 minutes of behind the scenes footage of the filmmakers transforming Southern California into a Virginia suburb. There’s no narration and very little sense of structure, but you can fairly easily follow the ordeals the crew had to overcome. It’s a little dry on its own, but the entire piece is also supported by an optional audio commentary by Director of Photography Steven Poster, who goes into more detail about the technical logistics of the shoot.

They Made Me Do It Too: The Cult of Donnie Darko is a half-hour documentary about the fan base that has developed around the film. Fans and critics comment on what they get out of the movie and why it has such a strong appeal to its cult audience. The piece appears to have been created for the European market, as almost all of the interview subjects are British, and tend to take on a snobby attitude about why European audiences are so much smarter than American audiences, which can be rather irritating.

If I had the power to go back in time the way Donnie does, I would go back and prevent myself from ever watching #1 Fan: A Darkomentary, which is 13 minutes of pure hell. Apparently, the production company held a contest for fans to make their own short subject featurettes, and the winner would appear on the DVD. The painfully awkward social outcast who won is basically a scary freak and stalker, and I fear that validating his behavior by letting him win the contest will only encourage his profound psychosis. This guy is frightening, and if he’s the best of the lot that entered, I would hate to see the losers.

Finishing off the disc are an 8-minute Storyboard to Screen Comparison featuring four scenes from the movie and the theatrical trailer for the Director’s Cut, presented in its original aspect ratio and anamorphically enhanced. It’s a really good trailer too, truth be told.

Not found on either the original DVD or this new release, unfortunately, is the Sundance Channel Anatomy of a Scene special, which Kelly references several times in the audio commentary as something he hopes can be included.

EXCLUSIVE DVD-ROM FEATURES: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU POP THE DISC INTO YOUR PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Although I feel that Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut is decisively inferior to the original theatrical cut, either version stands as an astounding achievement from a promising filmmaker. I hope that both editions can coexist peacefully. The picture and sound quality of the new Director’s Cut DVD are about the same as the old disc, but we also get a good selection of (mostly) worthwhile new supplements. Those who’ve never seen the film I recommend stick with the original DVD, which had plenty of bonus features on its own, but fans will find value in both.

Don’t Look Now

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 16, 2002.

The blurb on the packaging describes Don’t Look Now as “a psychic thriller.” That’s a fair description, I suppose, but the movie is much richer and more ambitious than such a simple categorization. The film is a horror picture, an erotic drama, an exploration of loss and grief, and a fairy tale. From its opening frames, a little girl in a red coat wanders through the woods, a white horse gallops past, and a mirror shatters. This is not, however, one of those happy-ended fairy tales that gets made into an animated musical. No, this is one of the dark, old-fashioned tales from the times before history sanitized the genre, the type where the granddaughter gets eaten by the wolf or the brother and sister get baked into a pie. Within minutes, that red-coated little girl will have drowned and her parents’ lives will be torn apart with irrevocable anguish.

Nicolas Roeg is a director known for his enigmatic, sometimes incomprehensible films, such as Performance and The Man who Fell to Earth. Don’t Look Now, though equally complex and ambiguous, is perhaps his most accessible film. At its heart, the movie is a thriller about two parents who’ve lost a daughter, trying to move on with their lives but drawn back by mysterious signs that her spirit is still with them. They visit Venice, he for business and she to tag along for the scenery and atmosphere. The husband restores churches but is not a spiritual man; he sees only the craft and artistry in the work. The wife is more open to the possibilities of the extraordinary. She becomes caught up in a spiral of conflicting emotions after meeting a pair of elderly ladies in a restaurant, one blind and seemingly psychic who insists that she’s seen the woman’s daughter standing beside their dinner table. The mother wants to put the girl’s death behind her, to move beyond her grief, but she also loves her daughter deeply and wants to believe that she can connect with her again. The husband is skeptical, even after a series of ominous portents and unexplainable events, yet is eventually drawn into the intrigue as though manipulated by forces beyond his control.

Based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier, the story in itself is compelling. What makes it a stunning piece of art is Roeg’s mastery of the film medium. He layers an intricate web of symbolism and stylistic devices into the narrative. Repeated images and themes of religious iconography, pagan mysticism, water, and blindness barrage the characters. The old women are perhaps witches, the city of Venice both a maze and a tomb. The gorgeous photography (Roeg was an accomplished cinematographer before directing his own works) paints the city in tones of the atmospheric, the alluring, and the menacing all at the same time. The story moves in odd spurts, elliptically edited with events often cross-cut so that the past and future all seem to happen at once. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie deliver fine performances in the leads, developing a striking chemistry which climaxes in a protracted moment of intimacy (presented in an uncut form on this DVD, slightly different than previously released in America) that is sensual, surprisingly explicit, and saddening in its reminder of their love and heartbreak.

Don’t Look Now is a remarkable film, a combination of elements from different styles and genres that culminates in a singularly personal vision. This is not a cookie-cutter supernatural thriller; it’s the product of a genuine artist working at the peak of his profession.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

This is a remarkably good-looking transfer for the film and the best that I have ever seen it appear. Presented for the first time on video in its theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement, the picture has been mastered from sparkling clean source elements. The image is at times a little too dark, but has a sharp focus, a strong level of detail in the textures of the photography, and great colors for a ’70s movie. Portions of the film are grainy and there are instances where the digital compression stands out, but many other scenes look very slick. On the whole, I’m impressed with the work done here and feel that it’s an accurate representation of the original cinematography.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The audio quality has not been as impressively restored as the video but seems perfectly adequate considering its origins. Fidelity and dynamic range are certainly limited, as expected from a monaural soundtrack produced in the 1970s. Dialogue is thin and occasionally harsh, and sound effects are too often obviously foleyed. Music, however, sounds very rich, especially the bassy cello. (Pino Donaggio seems to be emulating Bernard Herrmann, as though in practice for all of the Hitchcock imitations he would score for Brian DePalma.) The track has little hiss or distortion, though I do recommend keeping it at a reasonable volume.

The disc also offers an optional French dub track, as well as English subtitles and closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The theatrical trailer on the disc looks terrible even with anamorphic enhancement. That’s the only bonus feature. DVD fans in Europe get a nice interview featurette on their copies of the movie, but for some reason Paramount has neglected to import that supplement here to Region 1.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

This is an outstanding movie and a fine video transfer. I feel a little cheated that we don’t get the supplements found in other DVD regions, but regardless I don’t hesitate to recommend this disc. Don’t wait now; this is a title worth owning.

Eat Drink Man Woman

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 15, 2002.

Some movies can make you laugh, some can make you cry, and some movies just make you very hungry. Ang Lee’s marvelous Eat Drink Man Woman accomplishes a delicate balance of all three. The film is a good old-fashioned melodrama about generational conflicts and familial strife, told with endearing characters and no small amount of sly humor.

The family at the center of the film is headed by an aging master chef who, in one of life’s great ironies, is losing his sense of taste. Cooking is his art, and like Beethoven gone deaf, he must rely on his skill and his memories to continue creating, even though the original joy and passion for his work are fading. The chef has three willful daughters: the strictly religious schoolteacher fancies herself the responsible one and often acts the martyr; the career-minded daughter places her independence ahead of her relationships or family; and the youngest daughter is impetuous, leaping ahead in life without forethought or planning. The young one also works at an American fast food franchise, which must surely cause her father to cringe. These characters are obviously archetypes, standing in as symbols for generalized personality traits, but the movie warmly embraces each of them, exploring their lives with great attention to nuance and detail. The story is also filled with many wonderful twists and surprises as each character attempts to manipulate the lives of the others. Each time the family meets for Sunday dinner, we await the inevitable sudden announcement, some of which take us where we knew the plot was heading and some pulling the rug out from under our expectations.

Ang Lee directs the film with restraint and an obvious affection for the characters. He also spends a considerable amount of time basking in the details of the father’s work, showcasing a tantalizing display of Chinese cuisine that’s sure to leave any viewer craving for a good meal. Eat Drink Man Woman is itself, to use something of a hoary cliché, a cinematic feast. It tempts us with its charms, and by the end satisfies us with its substance.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

For the first time on home video, Eat Drink Man Woman has been letterboxed to its theatrical aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. The composition is generally well balanced, though a little tight at the top and bottom of the frame on occasion. Picture quality overall is decent, with good colors and a sharp focus, but the picture is a little too dark with muddy shadow detail and it never seemed as warm as I had remembered the film looking from my last viewing. The image has a moderate amount of artificial edge enhancement and I noticed some fleeting compression artifacting, which leads to a distracting “digital” look at times, especially in scenes with visible film grain. It’s not a poor transfer by any means, and it serves the movie well enough, but the DVD will hardly set any new reference standards.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The disc’s only audio option is the movie’s original Mandarin soundtrack in Dolby Surround. Thankfully, no bastardized English dub was included. To be sure, this is primarily a dialogue-oriented domestic drama, but the cooking scenes are alive with many enveloping separation effects as the sounds of chopping, dicing, and simmering pots wrap around the soundstage. The musical score is fairly expansive and the sound effects are crisply recorded, but the dialogue sometimes sounds a slight bit strident and the audio as a whole often feels compressed, like it ought to have more life but is being constrained.

Optional English, French, or Spanish subtitles are available through the menu.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The disc has a minimal number of supplements. Of primary interest is a 14-minute interview featurette with director Ang Lee and writer James Schamus. Lee has some interesting things to say about directing a traditional “women’s film,” and Schamus explains that his difficulty writing for Chinese characters forced him to rename them all as Jewish until he had finished. Some stories, he reasons, are universal. The segment contains numerous plot spoilers and should not be watched before the film.

Other than that, all we get are an American theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer, both presented in anamorphically encoded widescreen, neither of which does a very good job of selling the film.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Eat Drink Man Woman is a wonderful little gem whose emotions and humor invite repeated viewings. The DVD, like many others from MGM’s budget lines, is a perfectly serviceable method of delivering it, with satisfactory picture and sound but little in the way of added bells or whistles.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published October 27, 2004.

French music video director Michel Gondry has done the impossible, something that not even Peter Weir or Milos Forman could manage. He has elicited a fully sympathetic, engaging and even nuanced dramatic performance from Jim Carrey. The rubber-faced comedian has tried his hand at serious drama a few times before, usually either unable to suppress his obnoxious tendencies or (much like Robin Williams) going overboard by confusing somber rigidity with subtlety. It’s truly amazing, therefore, that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind proves to be such a perfect star vehicle that overcomes all of the actor’s deficiencies and creates an overwhelmingly sophisticated, imaginative, and emotional cinematic journey.

Gondry and wildcard screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) had collaborated once before on an awful little comedy called Human Nature that tried to be whimsical but turned out painfully contrived. Although Kaufman showed much growth in his work with Spike Jonze on Adaptation, pairing up with Gondry again and then throwing Jim Carrey into the mix sounded like potential trouble. Fortunately, the Eternal Sunshine script is his most mature and complex yet, and Gondry was able to rise to the challenge, bringing superb visualization skills and a real talent for working with actors. Together, they’ve created a work that combines the trappings of romantic comedy with some mild science fiction elements to form a unique and visionary look at the way human beings fall into and out of love.

The basic premise borrows a page from Philip K. Dick. On the heels of a devastating breakup with his girlfriend, sad sack Joel Barish discovers that his ex was so desperate to be rid of him that she visited a crackpot doctor who offered the chance to have Joel completely erased from her memory. Wounded and resentful, Joel signs up for the procedure himself. The idea is that by purging all reference to the relationship, he’ll also undo all of the pain associated with its bitter end. Unfortunately, only after the procedure has begun, does he realize that he’s also deleting all the good memories, the happier times and the real love they shared, memories that enrich his life and that he’d really rather not be without. It’s both the good and the bad experiences in life that define us as human beings, and to casually discard those things is to kill a part of who we are.

What follows is a fantastical trip through Joel’s brain as he hops from memory to memory, hoping to stay ahead of the erasure procedure and save those bits and pieces that are most precious to him. Meanwhile, the entire fabric of his life seems to be falling apart around him as the relentless mind-wipe sucks pieces of his world away bit by bit. Memories of all different times in his life smash into one another and Joel keeps retreating back further into the deepest recesses of his psyche, where the distant past is stored along with the most humiliating moments he’s tried to suppress.

Kaufman tells this story in a non-linear fashion that follows Joel’s emotional arc rather than a chronological timeline. Gondry brings some wonderful imagery that blends innovative digital effects with a Fellini-esque sense of magic and absurdity. The picture has layers of meaning and symbolism that will take many viewings to fully uncover. The result is a remarkably ambitious achievement that’s funny, romantic, scary, confounding, tragic, uplifting, and heartbreaking all at the same time. I never thought I’d find myself calling a Jim Carrey movie the best film of the year, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is exactly that.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The movie’s cinematography has a deliberately off-kilter appearance to it, with contrasts that are pushed a little too much and a white balance the leans to being too blue. I remember it looking this way in the theater as well. Grain is sometimes used for artistic purposes and black level varies from scene to scene. Once you get used to the stylization, it has an interesting look and works well for the movie. The color palette is wonderfully vivid and looks terrific.

The movie is presented in its 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. (A full-screen 4:3 edition is available separately for those who don’t know any better.) The picture appears sharp, but edge enhancement artifacts are problematic. The halos are usually of low amplitude and not too distracting in most shots, but are present throughout the movie. The image also feels overly “processed,” as though it were filtered to reduce compression artifacts and then electronically sharpened. This leads to only mediocre fine object detail and closing credit text that’s almost blurry. All in all, this is a fairly decent transfer, but falls short of what it might have been.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The soundtrack is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 options. The DTS has an edge in musicality and body to the sound, but both feel a bit muddy in the mid range with dialogue that’s not as crisp as it ought to be. The movie has a creative sound mix that starts off subtly with a soundstage primarily limited to the front, and then slowly expands in envelopment until becoming very aggressive during the mind-wipe scenes. Bass action reaches surprisingly deep as well.

A French dub track is also provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. The disc offers English and French subtitles, as well as English captions for the hearing impaired.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

I was hoping for more from the audio commentary by director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman. They’re both friendly and talkative enough, but rarely delve into the substantive issues behind the movie’s premise. The track doesn’t offer the kind of insights I was really expecting.

A Look Inside Eternal Sunshine is ten minutes of pure Electronic Press Kit Fluff. Nothing of interest there. The 15-minute Conversation with Jim Carrey and Director Michel Gondry, however, is more interesting and funny even though it was also EPK-based.

Four deleted scenes lasting about seven minutes total are presented in non-anamorphic letterbox with time code markings. They’re all fairly good but not necessary, and the movie doesn’t suffer without them.

The Polyphonic “Light & Day” music video features scenes from the movie with the actors’ mouths digitally morphed (in cartoonishly exaggerated fashion) to sing the lyrics to the song. It’s kind of funny, but also pretty creepy and weird. Finally, wrapping up the disc is a jokey Lacuna commercial not seen in the movie, which is mildly amusing.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Eternal Sunshine may not appeal to the usual Jim Carrey audience who expect silly faces and fart jokes every 15 seconds, but it’s a dazzling piece of filmmaking that serious movie lovers should not hesitate to catch. The DVD from Focus Features and Universal has okay picture and sound quality, and a small handful of mediocre supplements, but is more than enough to get the job done. A “Special Edition” re-release with a photo book and rumored extra bonus features has already been announced, so those desperate for “added value content” may want to hold out for that.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Collector’s Edition)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 6, 2005.

French music video director Michel Gondry has done the impossible, something that not even Peter Weir or Milos Forman could manage. He has elicited a fully sympathetic, engaging and even nuanced dramatic performance from Jim Carrey. The rubber-faced comedian has tried his hand at serious drama a few times before, usually either unable to suppress his obnoxious tendencies or (much like Robin Williams) going overboard by confusing somber rigidity with subtlety. It’s truly amazing, therefore, that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind proves to be such a perfect star vehicle that overcomes all of the actor’s deficiencies and creates an overwhelmingly sophisticated, imaginative, and emotional cinematic journey.

Gondry and wildcard screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) had collaborated once before on an awful little comedy called Human Nature that tried to be whimsical but turned out painfully contrived. Although Kaufman showed much growth in his work with Spike Jonze on Adaptation, pairing up with Gondry again and then throwing Jim Carrey into the mix sounded like potential trouble. Fortunately, the Eternal Sunshine script is his most mature and complex yet, and Gondry was able to rise to the challenge, bringing superb visualization skills and a real talent for working with actors. Together, they’ve created a work that combines the trappings of romantic comedy with some mild science fiction elements to form a unique and visionary look at the way human beings fall into and out of love.

The basic premise borrows a page from Philip K. Dick. On the heels of a devastating breakup with his girlfriend, sad sack Joel Barish discovers that his ex was so desperate to be rid of him that she visited a crackpot doctor who offered the chance to have Joel completely erased from her memory. Wounded and resentful, Joel signs up for the procedure himself. The idea is that by purging all reference to the relationship, he’ll also undo all of the pain associated with its bitter end. Unfortunately, only after the procedure has begun, does he realize that he’s also deleting all the good memories, the happier times and the real love they shared, memories that enrich his life and that he’d really rather not be without. It’s both the good and the bad experiences in life that define us as human beings, and to casually discard those things is to kill a part of who we are.

What follows is a fantastical trip through Joel’s brain as he hops from memory to memory, hoping to stay ahead of the erasure procedure and save those bits and pieces that are most precious to him. Meanwhile, the entire fabric of his life seems to be falling apart around him as the relentless mind-wipe sucks pieces of his world away bit by bit. Memories of all different times in his life smash into one another and Joel keeps retreating back further into the deepest recesses of his psyche, where the distant past is stored along with the most humiliating moments he’s tried to suppress.

Kaufman tells this story in a non-linear fashion that follows Joel’s emotional arc rather than a chronological timeline. Gondry brings some wonderful imagery that blends innovative digital effects with a Fellini-esque sense of magic and absurdity. The picture has layers of meaning and symbolism that will take many viewings to fully uncover. The result is a remarkably ambitious achievement that’s funny, romantic, scary, confounding, tragic, uplifting, and heartbreaking all at the same time. I never thought I’d find myself calling a Jim Carrey movie the best film of the year, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is exactly that.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The movie’s cinematography has a deliberately off-kilter appearance to it, with contrasts that are pushed a little too much and a white balance the leans to being too blue. I remember it looking this way in the theater as well. Grain is sometimes used for artistic purposes and black level varies from scene to scene. Once you get used to the stylization, it has an interesting look and works well for the movie. The color palette is wonderfully vivid and looks terrific.

The movie is presented in its 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. (A full-screen 4::3 edition is available separately for those who don’t know any better.) The picture appears sharp, but edge enhancement artifacts are problematic. The halos are usually of low amplitude and not too distracting in most shots, but are present throughout the movie. The image also feels overly “processed,” as though it were filtered to reduce compression artifacts and then electronically sharpened. This leads to only mediocre fine object detail and closing credit text that’s almost blurry. All in all, this is a fairly decent transfer, but falls short of what it might have been.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The soundtrack is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 options. The DTS has an edge in musicality and body to the sound, but both feel a bit muddy in the mid range with dialogue that’s not as crisp as it ought to be. The movie has a creative sound mix that starts off subtly with a soundstage primarily limited to the front, and then slowly expands in envelopment until becoming very aggressive during the mind-wipe scenes. Bass action reaches surprisingly deep as well.

A French dub track is also provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. The disc offers English and French subtitles, as well as English captions for the hearing impaired.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Released once already in a basic single-disc affair, the new 2-disc Collector’s Edition from Focus Features repackages the original movie DVD into a new case. The first disc in the set is identical to that issued previously.

I was hoping for more from the audio commentary by director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman. They’re both friendly and talkative enough, but rarely delve into the substantive issues behind the movie’s premise. The track doesn’t offer the kind of insights I was really expecting.

A Look Inside Eternal Sunshine is ten minutes of pure Electronic Press Kit Fluff. Nothing of interest there. The 15-minute Conversation with Jim Carrey and Director Michel Gondry, however, is more interesting and funny even though it was also EPK-based. Four deleted scenes lasting about seven minutes total are presented in non-anamorphic letterbox with time code markings. They’re all fairly good but not necessary, and the movie doesn’t suffer without them.

The Polyphonic “Light & Day” music video features scenes from the movie with the actors’ mouths digitally morphed (in cartoonishly exaggerated fashion) to sing the lyrics to the song. It’s kind of funny, but also pretty creepy and weird. Finally, wrapping up the first disc is a jokey Lacuna commercial not seen in the movie, which is mildly amusing.

Brand new content is found on the second disc, exclusive to the Collector’s package. Located here is the 20-minute Inside the Mind of Michel Gondry featurette, which is a little puffy but fairly enlightening look at the movie’s development process. In it, we learn about the various visual experiments the director played with while crafting the movie’s design. We also get a look at footage that never made it into the film.

Anatomy of a Scene: Saratoga Avenue delves into the creation of one of the movie’s most memorable moments. The piece runs 17 minutes and focuses mostly on the use of visual effects and the musical score. The 14-minute Conversation with Kate Winslet and Michel Gondry was taped after the film’s release. Winslet does most of the talking, discussing her actor’s process and how Gondry encouraged spontaneity on set. This conversation is not quite as interesting as the one with Jim Carrey on the previous disc and seems to go on a little too long, but is better than your average EPK fluff.

Lastly we get a collection of seven new deleted scenes, completely different than those on the first disc. The combined running time comes to about 20 minutes. Most of the new footage consists of scenes with Joel’s previous girlfriend, a character who was completely cut from the finished film. Also provided is the full-length, intentionally awkward seduction scene between Joel and Clem.

Inside the case you’ll also find a 26-page photo booklet plastered with critic’s quotes on almost every page.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Eternal Sunshine was my favorite film of 2004, but I hesitate to recommend the new Collector’s Edition DVD. Although the new bonus features are somewhat interesting, owners of the original release will have little reason to upgrade. The new set will really only appeal to completists and devoted fans, or those who never bought the first edition. Even the fancy packaging disappoints; the interior digipak looks nice, but the outer slipcover is obnoxiously designed, and the photo booklet is marred by too much heavy-handed promotional advertising. (If we’ve already bought the damn thing, why the hard sell?) There’s really no reason why the second disc of bonus features couldn’t have been included in the original DVD package. This Collector’s Edition is one of the most shameless and least successful “double dips” in memory. Shame on Focus Features and Universal for not getting it right the first time, or just leaving well enough alone until they could put together a deluxe package with a little more substance to it.

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published October 3, 2002.

Errol Morris doesn’t make documentaries; he makes non-fiction films. What does that mean, exactly? A single viewing of a movie like Fast, Cheap & Out of Control will clarify that distinction right away. This is not an educational film bound for public television, with a stuffy British narrator and boring talking-head interviews. This is something else entirely, a broad stroke in the creation of an entirely new cinematic form.

The movie is a lyrical and highly stylized piece of visual poetry about real people using their own words to explain what makes their lives meaningful, and in the process to shed some light on what it is that ties us together as human beings.

The cast of characters include a topiary gardener, a lion tamer, a mole-rat scientist, and a robotic engineer. These are people who seem to have nothing in common except a shared passion for their respective careers. If they don’t sound like the most fascinating personalities you could choose to spotlight in a movie, you’ll feel differently before the end. Morris uses the lion tamer’s story as an excuse to structure the entire movie like a gigantic circus with himself as ringmaster. The four storylines are all constantly in action, and he weaves the narrative back and forth between them until the stories overlap and intertwine. When any one particular character speaks, he could almost be talking about anyone else in the film. There are certain universal truths about the intersection of nature and technology that this format uncovers, and through it Morris traces the evolution of man, animal, plant, and machine.

Morris conducts his interviews via a unique device that he calls the Interrotron. While he sits in a separate room, his face is projected onto a screen in front of the camera lens, so that the person being interviewed will speak directly into the camera for an enhanced sense of intimacy and urgency. The movie was photographed by Robert Richardson, Oliver Stone’s longtime cinematographer. Although not released until 1997, the film was shot a couple of years earlier and Richardson used it as a testing ground for most of the cinematic devices he later played with in Natural Born Killers. This is a crazily stylized movie that mixes film, video, color, black & white, stock footage, dutch angles, slow motion, and time lapse into a wild phantasmagoria of bizarre sights unlike anything you’ve ever seen in a non-fiction film.

Judging by its title, you might think that Fast, Cheap & Out of Control would be a Russ Meyer movie about hellraisin’ biker chicks with enormous breasts. While that might have been fun, what we get is much more interesting. Enormously entertaining and laced with keen insight, the movie is an amazing piece of work that will shatter any preconceptions you may have about documentary filmmaking.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Never released on Laserdisc (I held out hope for a copy for a very long time) and long delayed on DVD as well, this new release marks the first home video appearance for the film in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. The many old movie clips are matted on top and bottom to achieve this ratio, leading to some awkward reframing at times. However, rarely is anything important lost, and the footage shot specifically for the film is dynamically composed for the wider ratio.

Picture quality runs the gamut from old and grainy stock footage to fresh and strikingly vivid new images, all as intended in the visual design of the film. Colors and contrasts are great when they’re supposed to be (the movie features the most beautiful footage of hairless African mole-rats you’ll ever see in your life), with a strong sense of texture and detail in things like lion hair and shrubbery trimmings. Grain and compression artifacts do intrude at times, unfortunately, and for some reason the source material exhibits an unexpected amount of dirt and speckling in the interview segments that I assume should be cleaner. Still, on the whole, this is a solid, satisfying transfer.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Presented in Dolby Surround, the movie’s soundtrack has a playful circus-themed musical presence with a healthy amount of bass-note activity. The soundstage is broadly defined with many separation effects and active surround envelopment as music wraps around the listener. Dialogue is clear at all times and sound effects are sharply recorded. (Having a lion tamer in the story provides many excuses for cracking whips.) The audio track has plenty of vibrancy and, considering that it doesn’t go so far as to be remixed into 5.1, sounds terrific.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

There are no supplements on this disc. Technically, I suppose, there are some random promos for unrelated movies, but nothing that has anything to do with this film itself.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

As you can imagine, a project like this is amazingly difficult to structure and edit. I was first introduced to the film when I was fortunate enough to sit in on a test screening of an early rough cut. At that time, the movie was running long and Morris was struggling to find a way to tie the four stories together for an ending. It also featured way too much of the gardener character, who in my opinion was becoming boring and starting to grate on my nerves. I don’t expect that Mr. Morris would remember me specifically, but when he asked for comments, my suggestion was that he lose the gardener entirely. He didn’t go that far, fortunately, but compared to the rough cut, he did substantially pare down that character’s screen time, making him both more enigmatic and more sympathetic, and frankly turning him into the most endearing of the four personalities. At the same time, he restructured much of the existing footage and found a fitting way to conclude the film.

 “Cut and wait. Cut and wait,” indeed.

The Fearless Vampire Killers

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published December 2, 2004.

As the rest of her Carpathian village sleeps, a comely virgin cowers in her bed watching a menacing figure enter through the window. Terrified, the girl grabs a crucifix from the wall and holds it before her to ward off the fearsome creature. The monster replies, in a ridiculously thick Yiddish accent:

“Oy vey, have you got the wrong vam-pire!”

Such is the state of comedy in Roman Polanski’s 1967 horror movie farce The Fearless Vampire Killers, Or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck. Veteran character actor Jack MacGowran stars as crackpot Professor Abronsius on a quest to research undead creatures of the night, and maybe stake a few while he’s at it. In tow is his bumbling assistant Alfred, played by Polanski himself, more fascinated with buxom village wenches than fighting evil. The primary object of Alfred’s attention is the lovely Sarah (Polanski’s wife Sharon Tate). Soon enough, Sarah is whisked away by the resident lord of the dead, and our foolhardy heroes make their way to the vampire’s castle to rescue her.

That’s about as much story as there is in the picture. A spoof of the Hammer horror films popular at the time, Polanski’s movie suffers the same flaws as most other comedies of the period. It has a handful of good gags, including the Jewish vampire bit mentioned above and a very politically-incorrect running joke about the master vampire’s son Herbert, a “gentle, sensitive youth” with the hots for Alfred, but its pacing is slow as molasses and most of the bawdy humor has not dated well. Polanski’s skills as an artist prevent it from lapsing into utter tedium, but just barely. The sets and production design are terrific, every bit as elaborately gothic as the movies it’s parodying. And although the movie indulges in silly slapstick, it actually has a full narrative, rather than just a series of Laugh-In sketches like, say, Casino Royale. Polanski attempts to juggle real horror elements with the comedy, and even works in a little bit of social satire. (The rich are blood-suckers feeding on the lower classes.)

It must have seemed a lot funnier and more daring at the time. People who saw the movie when they were young tend to remember it fondly. Unfortunately, looking back on it from a modern perspective, the film just isn’t particularly funny or exciting. The 107-minute movie takes about 100 minutes to build up any kind of steam. It finally lets loose with an uproarious sequence involving a vampire’s ball that climaxes with a superb visual gag, and then just as quickly deflates again as it draws to a close.

The picture was produced for MGM, who were expecting something more madcap and didn’t much care for Polanski’s insistence on putting in so much story. For its American theatrical release, they cut the running time to 90 minutes and added an alternate animated credits sequence with the long title. The DVD (now in the hands of Warner Home Video) provides the European cut of the film under its original shorter title, just The Fearless Vampire Killers. To be honest, I’m curious to see the short version. It may not be what Polanski wanted, but trimming some fat from the storyline probably isn’t a bad idea.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Warner Home Video has dusted off the film but not quite scrubbed it clean. The movie is presented in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement, and all things considered looks pretty good for a picture from the mid ’60s. The disc transfer’s biggest fault is that the source elements exhibit quite a bit of errant speckling and age-related debris. They aren’t severe enough to be too distracting, fortunately. Colors appear accurate if a little dull, and the black level isn’t too deep, but these seem reflective of the original photography. Shadow detail is excellent.

The image is reasonably sharp, though does suffer from moderate edge enhancement. Edge halos are often visible when dark objects such as the characters’ clothes are contrasted against the white snow. However, this problem shouldn’t be confused with the color bleed and haloing associated with the rear projection and composited effects shots, which also happen occasionally throughout the movie and are artifacts of the original production.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Most disappointing is the quality of the English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtrack, encoded at a pathetically low 192 kb/s. The audio is dull, flat, and shrill. Dialogue (mostly ADR) is indistinct and will require considerable amplification to discern with any clarity. (It doesn’t help that most of the actors mumble their lines.) The musical score is amusingly melodic, but the entire soundtrack has such poor fidelity that it will lead to listening fatigue. Even for a mono sound mix of its age, this track hasn’t been preserved well or remastered with appropriate care.

French, German, and Italian dub tracks are also available in Dolby Digital 1.0, and they all sound pretty much the same. Polanski and several of the other actors dubbed their own lines in the French version. English, French, and Spanish subtitles have been provided, as well as English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The Fearless Vampire Killers: Vampires 101 is a vintage theatrical promo in which an actor pretending to be a vampire expert cracks a few lame jokes and shows clips from the movie’s trailer. It lasts ten interminable minutes. There was once a time when an audience might get a chuckle from something like this, but those days are long past. As a piece of memorabilia from the movie, however, it’s nice to have.

Speaking of the theatrical trailer, that has been provided as well, and is nearly as painful. On the plus side, it has been preserved in its full 2.35:1 ratio and is even anamorphically enhanced.

Unfortunately missing here is the piece on Sharon Tate that MGM/UA included on their Laserdisc release. Also not found is any mention of the movie’s production history, its shorter American release version, or its alternate title sequence.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

If The Fearless Vampire Killers holds a special place in your memory, Warner’s DVD should be plenty acceptable. New viewers will probably not be as entranced by the movie’s limited charms, which haven’t dated all that well. Buy or rent as appropriate to the category you fit into.

Fellini’s Roma

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 13, 2001.

At the time Federico Fellini made Roma, the film was not greeted as enthusiastically as most of his previous movies had ben. It contains many of the signature elements that he was famous for: wildly surreal set-pieces, elaborate visuals and production design, a playful Nino Rota score, jarring imagery, unattractive yet strangely beautiful women, and a warmly nostalgic autobiographical look at the Italy of his youth. What put most people off was the film’s structure. The movie doesn’t follow any one particular storyline or set of characters. It’s the story of Rome itself, told in episodic fashion through a series of slice-of-life vignettes that jump in time between the 1930s and 1970s. Part of the movie simply follows Fellini’s film crew as they roam through the city trying to photograph the things that define it.

The lack of a central plot is a little disconcerting on first viewing. It makes the movie seem aimless and meandering. There are, however, too many good things in it to dismiss outright. It’s one of Fellini’s most heartfelt movies, a loving valentine to his favorite city. With repeated viewings, it becomes easier to appreciate what the film does accomplish, its rich atmosphere and attention to detail. Roma also contains two sequences that rank among the finest that Fellini ever put to film:

In the first, a construction crew digging a subway tunnel beneath the city accidentally excavates an ancient Roman catacomb, a pre-Christian structure lined with elaborate frescoes on the walls. As they explore the space, the crew discovers that the exposure to modern air and light causes all the paintings to fade away before their eyes. It’s a stunning reminder of the temporal nature of art and beauty.

Later we visit an old woman as she fantasizes that she’s the hostess of an ecclesiastical fashion show. This is pure Fellini, a moment so outrageously surreal that it begs the audience to surrender to the artifice and embrace it. The scene is both a joyous celebration of life and faith, and also a cunning criticism of the pompous and superficial pretensions of the modern Catholic Church. The truly remarkable thing is that it manages to achieve both of these objectives without making them seem to contradict one another.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The picture is presented at a 1.66:1 letterboxed aspect ratio without anamorphic enhancement. Things don’t start off well with the film’s opening credits, which are awash in white speckles all over the source material. The speckles calm down at the transition to the body of the movie. In fact, the rest of the movie is so clean that I have to wonder whether the speckled look of the credits might have been an intentional device. (Every copy I’ve ever seen had them.) I never had the benefit of seeing Roma theatrically, certainly not during its original run, so this is just speculation.

Frankly, the movie looks surprisingly good for a foreign film of its age. Black level is strong, colors are rich, and print artifacts are kept to a minimum (though not quite eliminated entirely). The only thing missing is anamorphic enhancement.

The disc offers optional subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. The electronic text font is large and ugly. The English translation is intelligible and seems decent, except for one glaring error at the beginning of the film. During a staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the betrayed emperor blurts out, “You too, Brutus?” Technically correct, yes, but missing the nuance of the language change in the correct line.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The audio on the disc is less pleasing than the picture, but that has as much to do with the original recording as with the disc transfer. The sound is strictly mono, with weak fidelity, limited depth, and an often muddy feel to it. To be fair, though, I’ve never heard it sounding much better. Fellini was a filmmaker more concerned with his visuals than with sound design, and it’s not uncommon for that aspect of his films to come across unflatteringly. There are sections of the movie that play with overlapping dialogue, music, and background sounds, all coming as a mass of noise from one speaker. Had Roma been made more recently, much of its audio would have greatly benefited from a surround sound mix, but it wasn’t recorded that way and I respect that it was preserved in its original mix for this DVD.

As was the working method with all of Fellini’s films, and with most Italian cinema at the time, all of the dialogue was recorded in post-production rather than on location. In fact, Fellini was notorious for yelling instructions to his actors in mid-take and changing the dialogue during editing regardless of what the actors spoke on camera. As a result, there’s very little attempt to create an accurate lip-sync. (Fellini wasn’t concerned with such things, preferring the artificial feel of dubbed dialogue.) The author Gore Vidal makes a cameo appearance at the end of the movie, clearly speaking English but dubbed by an Italian actor. The dialogue and sound design rarely feels connected to the picture on screen, but this isn’t something that can be held against the DVD transfer.

Fellini also created an English language version of the movie with even more disconnected dialogue, but only the more commonly accepted Italian version is available on this disc. I’m not sure which would be more distracting, Gore Vidal dubbed in Italian or Anna Magnani dubbed in English.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

A psychedelic theatrical trailer is the only bonus feature provided.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Roma is a fine film, and though I feel that it’s probably worthy of a full-blown Special Edition treatment, what we’re given here is certainly acceptable. I recommend it to fans of Federico Fellini, and consequently anyone with a serious interest in cinema.

Firefly: The Complete Series

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published December 8, 2003.

As a fan of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel, I can’t deny having mixed feelings when it comes to Joss Whedon’s foray into sci-fi television, Firefly. I was initially excited about prospects for the show, until it actually aired, at which point the whole thing seemed like a terrible miscalculation by everyone involved. Admittedly, I didn’t give it much of a fair chance, watching only a few episodes when they originally aired, never seeing them in their proper order or context. So I was eager to give Firefly another shot on DVD, which Fox Home Entertainment has graciously provided by way of this Complete Series box set. In fact, the show does play a lot better on DVD than it did on television, and did start to grow on even this bitter reviewer’s good side, though on the whole I’m still not sure that it deserved to last much longer than it did.

A mish-mash of the science fiction and Western genres, Firefly was overwritten, traded on cheesy clichés from both genres, and featured a lousy theme song (written by Whedon himself). The basic concept, that of old fashioned Western outlaws carousing through outer space, was neither as strong nor as original as its creators seemed to think. Back in the ’80s, practically every third after-school cartoon show (Bravestarr, Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, etc.) played with much the same mix of genres, not to mention a number of popular Japanese animated programs. The debt to Star Wars is also quite significant, especially in the Han Solo-type scoundrel that captained the rag-tag band of rebels constantly on the run from Alliance (read: Imperial) authorities. The show’s lead actor, cast no doubt based on his resemblance to Dirk Benedict of Battlestar Galactica, often sounded unconvincing when trying to deliver the homespun dialogue, and although the production values were fairly high for a television series, they relied too heavily on fuzzy low-resolution CGI special effects. Further, and this is perhaps the source of most of my bitterness, Whedon’s participation in the show distracted his attention away from both of his other running series, each of which greatly suffered in quality that year as a result of his absence. I realize this last one is probably not a fair criticism, but I can’t help feeling that it’s true.

Yet despite all this, while watching it again, Firefly really did grow on me. The show has some interesting characters (the mechanic Kaylee is a favorite), witty dialogue, and occasional genre-busting moments, like the fate of the evil henchman at the end of The Train Job. The producers held true to their conviction to have no sound in the vacuum of outer space, a rare and appreciated trait in a science fiction program, and at no point did any human-looking aliens with bumpy prosthetic foreheads appear. A number of running gags were particularly clever, such as the facts that in this strange future prostitution is an honorable profession and every white trash citizen can swear in Chinese.

The pilot episode, Serenity, is actually quite good, and when viewed in proper sequential order, the ongoing story arc makes a lot more sense and seems to have been leading toward something interesting. My favorite episode of the season, Our Mrs. Reynolds, is terrifically entertaining and filled with the patented Joss Whedon humor that infuses his other two series, while Out of Gas is a tightly-wound thriller with some nifty structural devices. The final episode, Objects in Space, is one of the show’s strongest and showed potential for the series to transcend the burden of its concept. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for much of a finale, leaving a number of storylines hanging without any sort of resolution.

The Fox network never gave Firefly much of a chance at survival. After screening the completed pilot, network executives disliked it and gave Joss Whedon one weekend to deliver a completed script for something different. As such, the second produced episode, The Train Job, was aired as the new series premiere, and was something of a bumpy introduction to the story. Later episodes were shown out of their original intended order (the pilot did eventually make it to air, broadcast last as though it were a flashback), and finally the network axed the series after half a season, with only 14 episodes completed, four of them unaired. With all that in mind, it’s no wonder the show had such a difficultly finding an audience. That, and of course the fact that nobody likes Westerns anymore.

So now this incomplete series has been given a Complete Series DVD box set in the hope of finding some re-evaluation and a new audience through home video. I guess I’m a convert, having enjoyed watching the whole series through and now appreciating the chance to own it for posterity, even though I still don’t particularly miss it from the weekly television schedule. Is Firefly the misunderstood work of genius some of its most ardent fans might insist? Probably not, but it’s entertaining and holds up better than I expected. If Joss Whedon gets his chance to complete the story as a feature film, as he’s expressed interest in doing, I’m sure I’d go to see it. In the meantime, owning these DVDs will have to do.

Episodes included in this Complete Series box set are: Serenity, The Train Job, Bushwhacked, Shindig, Safe, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Jaynestown, Out of Gas, Ariel, War Stories, Trash, The Message, Heart of Gold, and Objects in Space. The disc packaging identifies Serenity as being a two-part episode, but it aired in one two-hour time slot and is presented on disc without interruption.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Every episode in this DVD box set is presented in the 16:9 widescreen ratio as the show aired on Fox’s digital broadcast channel. (The standard analog channel was inconsistent when it came to whether episodes would air in widescreen.) The show’s photography uses the full width of the frame effectively, often placing characters on opposite sides of the screen to face one another. Save for the overuse of low-res CGI effects, the anamorphically-enhanced image is quite sharp in its textures and details with only rare appearances of intrusive edge enhancement (mostly noticeable on titles). Color reproduction is excellent, as are black levels and visible shadow detail, making for a vivid, pleasing picture.

Compression quality is generally adequate if unexceptional. Instances of streaking or smeariness in the fine details do occur. The episodes Jaynestown and Out of Gas have grainy sections that fare especially bad with compression problems. On the whole, fortunately, the picture holds together well enough and is only sporadically distracting.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

This seems like the type of show that ought to have had a full-blown 5.1 soundtrack, but unfortunately Fox has opted instead for an undistinguished Dolby 2.0 Surround mix encoded at a lowly 192 kb/s bit-rate. The audio is fairly aggressive with a reasonable amount of surround activity and mid-range bass for a 2.0 track, but lacks dynamic range and flattens out during important auditory sequences. Action scenes are usually unimpressive, collapsing into a muddle of unclear details and cheesy sound effects. The opening theme music sounds pretty rich, though the song takes some getting used to.

Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired are available, along with true closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Fox has decided not to provide the original “Previously on….” trailers for any of these episodes. The DVD menus, identical on all four discs, are kind of annoying and much too loud.

We get no less than seven episode-specific audio commentaries. Joss Whedon and actor Nathan Fillion (Malcolm Reynolds) discuss the double-length pilot episode, Serenity. They have a good rapport and seem to be having fun. Whedon and producer Tim Minear then talk about The Train Job, focusing mainly on the development of the series and how they were forced to write this episode as a new premiere (in one weekend!) when Fox rejected their original pilot. The commentary for Shindig by writer Jane Espenson, actress Morena Baccarin (Inara) and costume designer Shawna Trpcic is full of girl-talk and is frankly a little dull. Tim Minear and director David Solomon deliver a good, informative talk about Out of Gas. Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk (Wash) have a fairly jokey, laid back chat about War Stories, followed by Tudyk and Jewel Staite (Kaylee) doing much the same for The Message. Finally, Joss Whedon returns for a solo commentary on Objects in Space, the best track of the bunch, in which he goes into much detail about his intentions for the episode and the series.

Here’s How It Was: The Making of Firefly begins with Joss Whedon saying, “Firefly is the source of probably more joy and pain than anything I’ve done.” The 28-minute documentary is an excellent exploration of the series from conception through to cancellation, and provides an honest look at the difficulties the producers faced from the network, though everyone tries not to sound too bitter. (Whedon still has a dream of resurrecting the story as a feature film, and wants to keep on good terms with the studio.) There’s some speculation of where the story would have gone, but no conclusive answers are given.

Serenity: The 10th Character is a ten-minute look at the production design and special effects. Along similar lines is a two-minute EPK piece where Joss Tours the Set.

Four Deleted Scenes are available in poor-quality non-anamorphic widescreen. The first is an alternate opening for the pilot episode that was too much of a downer and was wisely replaced. The second is a better scene from the same episode that had to be cut because it references the original opening. A funny but strangely uncomfortable scene from Our Mrs. Reynolds was dropped for length and pacing. The fourth clip (from Objects in Space) is really just a short snippet of alternate dialogue from one of the scenes that is in the episode.

On the funny side are a one-minute clip from Alan Tudyk’s Audition, a two-minute Gag Reel, and a scary audio clip where Joss Sings the Firefly Theme.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Sales of this set are likely to be used to determine whether Fox gives Joss Whedon the chance to finish off the story in a feature film as he’d like. The show was more enjoyable the second time around than I expected, and the DVD set has nice picture quality with several good commentaries and a handful of other decent bonus features. I might have liked to see the supplements go into more detail and analysis of why the show failed, but it seems like everyone was on their best behavior trying to make nice with the studio, which is perhaps a little frustrating if understandable.

Was Firefly cut short unfairly, or put out of its misery just in time? With this Complete Series box set, now you can have the chance to judge for yourself. “Grrrrrr… Arrgghhh…”

The Fourth Man

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 11, 2001.

Before Paul Verhoeven came to the United States to make science fiction movies and trashy erotic thrillers, he was busy in Holland making war movies and trashy erotic thrillers. If the image of Renee Soutendijk on the DVD case art for De vierde man (The Fourth Man) seems reminiscent of the Sharon Stone character in Basic Instinct, the similarity is hardly a coincidence. The two movies are very much of the same mold. We’ve got an alcoholic main character, a sultry woman with a shadowy past, a novelist whose vividly imagined writings have a tendency to come true, and a string of mysterious deaths. Throw in a lot of steamy sex and a few too many sharp metallic objects, and the formula is nearly complete.

The Fourth Man is less hot and heavy than Basic Instinct. It has more graphic nudity (unrestricted by the MPAA’s aversion to the male penis), but the sex isn’t the sole focal point of the story. The movie is overflowing with the use of heavy-handed symbolism, from crosses to nooses to Black Widow spiders and dead birds falling from the sky. Just about every scene has some ominous portent for the main character. This was a self-conscious decision by the filmmakers to overplay the mock-serious “arty” aspects of the story as a form of retribution against the critics who had attacked some of Verhoeven’s previous movies. Parts of the film play almost as a parody of Nicolas Roeg’s intellectual thriller Don’t Look Now. Yet the movie stops short of lapsing into farce because its various parts actually do add up into a coherent whole. There’s a satisfying conclusion to the mystery that both ties things up neatly and leaves a clever open-ended twist.

Of course, coming from Paul Verhoeven, the movie has to include a little something to offend just about everyone. He’s a maestro of exploitation trash, after all. Castrations, gore, graphic homoeroticism, religious blasphemy… The Fourth Man has got it all. But the movie remains playful in its degenerate immorality, and those not inherently repulsed by this type of material will surely be entertained.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The film is presented on disc in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. To accommodate anamorphic enhancement, the picture has been windowboxed in the frame with small black bars on both sides of the image. The bars are very small, however, and will probably not be visible on most monitors. My own television has been calibrated for minimal overscan and I can still barely see them, so I can’t imagine that anyone would find them distracting.

The print is very clean, with a sharp focus and decent black level. There’s a mild amount of graininess throughout, but nothing unexpected for a European film from 1983. The picture is a bit aged but still looks great. The movie was slickly photographed by Jan de Bont, and further demonstrates that he was a better cinematographer than a director. His bold use of color is vividly rendered without fading or distortion.

The DVD offers optional yellow English subtitles. In standard letterbox mode, they appear at the very bottom edge of the frame, but in anamorphic mode they’re pushed up further into the picture, often obscuring the actors’ mouths during close-up shots.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s soundtrack is reproduced in Dolby 1.0 mono. The track is clean but unexceptional. Overall fidelity is a bit thin, as expected for a film with such a low budget. The only notable characteristic of this audio track is that the volume is very low and will require pushing.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The DVD’s primary supplement is a screen-specific audio commentary by Paul Verhoeven. He has a thick accent and talks fast. By this point, Verhoeven has done commentaries for most of his films. He usually does better when there’s someone else with him to moderate the discussion. Here, he goes it solo, and tends to simply describe the action that’s happening on screen. He goes on a lot about the use of symbolism, most of which is quite obvious from watching the movie on its own. Still, every Verhoeven commentary has at least one hysterically funny moment, and this one happens when he describes the method needed to prod Jeroen Krabbe into acting out the scene where he spies on his girlfriend through the keyhole.

An overlong theatrical trailer, and assortment of storyboards, and some quite detailed talent files (some of which are duplicated from the Soldier of Orange DVD) round out the bonus features.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Anchor Bay continues to release quality editions of eclectic cult movies. What other studio would have the audacity to create a “Paul Verhoeven Collection” and treat it seriously? The Fourth Man is an intriguing movie and a fine disc. I can’t imagine that it has ever been presented so well on home video before, or will be bettered anytime soon.

Freaks

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published August 16, 2004.

Most movies about physically deformed or even just unattractive characters operate with a certain safety net in place. Whether watching the gruesome monsters of a horror movie or more compassionate dramas like The Elephant Man or Mask, the audience always knows that there’s a real, normal-looking actor behind the makeup. Even in something like Monster, the recent bio-pic of the cosmetically-challenged murderess Eileen Wournos, there’s a constant subconscious understanding that a beautiful fashion model like Charlize Theron is under there beneath all the latex facial prosthetics, acting her little heart out. It takes the edge off. As viewers, we don’t have to feel guilty about our innate revulsion against those who look different than we do. But then we come across a movie like Freaks, Tod Browning’s 1932 cult film about circus sideshow performers, and it forces us to confront our instincts. How should we feel about a movie like this? Is it exploitative, or does it merely make us feel better about ourselves to think so?

Fresh off the success of Dracula, Browning was still a bankable commodity in Hollywood before he made Freaks, even though he wasn’t a particular favorite of the studio bosses. He even turned down the opportunity to direct a sizably-budgeted star vehicle drama because he wanted to tackle darker material closer to his personal interests. What he found was a short story called “Spurs” about circus freaks, and his decision to adapt it to film would effectively destroy his career. At first, it seemed like a perfect fit for the man who had previously directed Lon Chaney in several roles as disfigured monsters and murderers. Yet when it opened, his new picture shocked audiences in the wrong ways. There was no artistry of illusion to applaud for its technical accomplishments. Instead, what Browning gave them was a parade of genuine human oddities: midgets, pinheads, Siamese twins, bird ladies, half-men, and the completely limbless. The one thing not found in the film was a special effect.

The movie horrified audiences of the time, who still widely associated those with physical abnormalities as being sub-human. It was one thing to visit such abominations of nature in a carnival sideshow, which always held the seedy allure of doing something wrong and usually stunk of trickery anyway, but it was something else entirely to bring these creatures into the movie houses of respectable cities and towns. Critics on the one hand decried the film as a disgusting spectacle of godless depravity. Those on the other hand chastised Browning for exploiting the misery of such pitiful unfortunates. The movie flopped and the studio, not knowing what to do with it, imposed a number of changes to make it more palatable. A preachy prologue was added to some releases explaining the purpose and merits of the film, and the original dark ending was truncated in favor of a silly epilogue that attempted to redeem some of the characters for their seemingly monstrous behavior. It still didn’t work, and Browning’s career never recovered. He didn’t live long enough to see the movie re-evaluated and embraced by the counter-culture of the 1960s.

Is the movie depraved? Certainly not. Is it exploitative? No more than the circus sideshows where these performers spent most of their careers. In truth, the movie is just a simple Hollywood revenge melodrama about jealous lovers and a deceitful vixen, made more exotic by the carnival setting. If anything, the movie presents a humanizing portrait of its characters, who find solidarity amongst each other when the world turns against them. These “freaks” aren’t monsters, the film explicitly tells us; they have the same feelings and emotions as the so-called normal people who look down on them.

Freaks is, objectively, perhaps not a great movie. The plotting is corny, the ending too abrupt, and the circus performers in the lead roles are not particularly good actors. Many of their line-readings are painfully amateurish, not helped at all by their thick Eastern European accents. Even most of the professional actors in the cast aren’t all that good. It is, however, a strangely compelling and unique picture, buoyed by Browning’s skilled weaving of mood and atmosphere. If nothing else, it will forever be remembered for the “One of us… One of us…” chanting during the pivotal wedding reception scene, which has earned its place as an indelible pop culture landmark.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Warner Home Video has given this movie about unsightly people a remarkably attractive restoration. For a film originally produced in 1932, it looks pretty terrific for its age. The 1.33:1 black & white picture (the opening credits are windowboxed on all sides but the image reverts to full-screen soon afterwards) has sparkling contrasts, rich black levels, and excellent shadow detail. Gray scale rendition looks superb. There’s a fair amount of grain, as you’ll have to expect from a film of this age, but the source elements are very clean. Minor scratches and splices are only sporadically visible and hardly enough to be distracting.

The movie’s photography uses a lot of soft focus, as was the style at the time. The DVD picture is not as detailed as modern movies, but is reasonably sharp with no apparent edge enhancement artifacts. Warner has not provided any production notes to indicate whether they’ve put the movie through a full film restoration or just a digital video clean-up (I expect probably the latter), but for the purposes of this DVD, the results are very pleasing.

It should be noted that the epilogue scene is obviously tacked onto the end of the film and comes from poorer-quality source materials, probably a 16mm dupe print. It looks faded and has blown-out contrasts, as opposed to the rest of the film which looks great.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtrack is unfortunately a greater victim of age. Although pops and hiss have been cleaned up, the audio is very shrill and lacking in detail. Dialogue is quite muddy, and combined with the actors’ thick European accents, will require subtitles to understand what’s being said most of the time.

English, French and Spanish subtitles are available, along with English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Considering that the movie itself runs only a brief 62 minutes, Warner has put together an impressive selection of supplements to make ownership of the DVD worthwhile.

It’s best to start with the excellent audio commentary by David Skal, author and Tod Browning biographer. Skal is a good talker, and the track is informative and insightful, though he does tend to focus on trivia about the various cast members. He also offers many detailed comparisons of the different versions of the film and original script.

The Special Message Prologue was tacked onto the film for one of its early re-releases. It’s a very long-winded and (for lack of a better term) “politically correct” spiel designed to ease moviegoers into the horrors they’re about to witness. The movie is certainly better off without it. Following this is a section of Alternate Endings, none of them particularly satisfying, hosted by Skal, who also describes the original filmed ending which has unfortunately been lost to time.

The best feature is the 63-minute documentary Freaks: Sideshow Cinema. Running just as long as the movie it covers, the documentary gives us in-depth analysis of the film’s production, biographies of the featured performers, and various viewpoints about the controversy surrounding it. The piece may have some repetition with the commentary, but is essential for placing the movie in its proper historical context.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Love it, hate it, or just misunderstand it, Freaks is an important film in cinema history. Warner Home Video’s DVD presents it in fine fashion, with a sparkling picture transfer and nice bevy of supplements. The movie won’t appeal to everyone, but if you’re interested, it’s highly recommended.

From Hell

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 29, 2002.

Great horror films rarely get the respect they deserve. From Hell, the Hughes brothers’ surprisingly literate slasher movie version of the Jack the Ripper story, was released theatrically in 2001 to unenthusiastic reviews (many of which took easy pot shots at its title that practically begs for a bad pun) and quickly fading box office. Personally, it was one of my favorites of the year and I’m glad to see it get a second chance at life with Fox Home Video’s terrific special edition DVD.

Although the Ripper murders were obviously a true historical event, the facts of the case have become so confused over the years that they lend themselves naturally to fictional embellishment. Many previous literary and movie adaptations have done a half-assed job taking a crack at the story, but the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell struck a particular chord with its evocative black & white sketch drawings and convoluted conspiracy theory about the killer’s identity. The movie is based on that comic, but is faithful more in spirit than in detail. The comic, for example, wastes little time revealing the killer and is told primarily from his point of view. That would pretty much deflate the suspense in a movie, so the plotting has been substantially reworked while attempting to remain true in intention and tone.

Albert and Allen Hughes, the twin brothers famous for directing Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, may not sound like the first choice for this type of material (there isn’t a single black character in the film), but they treat it as a natural extension of their ‘hood movies. Stripping away the period costumes and British accents, this is a story about inner city poverty, violence, drug abuse, oppression, and crime. It’s right up their alley. They had already proven themselves accomplished film stylists and they take enthusiastic delight crafting a flashy B horror picture with a lot of gore and some devilish thrills. The movie is much more than that, though. It’s also a clever police procedural that plays with themes of racism, sexism, class warfare, and mental illness.

Unfortunately, the film takes two significant missteps. The first involves Johnny Depp’s police inspector having drug-fueled clairvoyant visions of the killer. This device may provide the directors with an excuse for some stylish visual shorthand, but it’s a bit of a hackneyed cliché at this point. The other weak link in the chain is the presence of Heather Graham, both as an actress and a character. Her Mary Kelley is a misconceived character, and the love story aspect of the plot is never convincing. Kelley is supposed to be a prostitute, yet unlike all of the other girls, she’s never shown at work. She’s also much better looking than any of the other whores, has better skin, better hair, and dresses in much nicer clothes. I call this the Pretty Woman Syndrome. The filmmakers assume that the audience will not develop sympathy for her as a romantic lead unless they soften the edges. As such, she’s completely out of place in this movie. It doesn’t help that Graham isn’t much of an actress. She proves here yet again that she only ever had one good performance in her. Rollergirl, may you rest in peace, wherever you are.

Nevertheless, the film’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Robbie Coltrane is a strong benefit as Depp’s Shakespeare-quoting partner, and I have yet to see a movie with Ian Holm in the cast that isn’t at least a little interesting. From Hell is scary, smart, and a lot of fun. Is the movie’s elaborate conspiracy plotline historically accurate? Probably not. Does it make a great movie? Absolutely. This is one of the best horror films I’ve seen in years.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Peter Deming’s photography is a complex layering of darkness upon darkness. The film often sports a drab, almost monochromatic look in homage to its black & white source material (and the story’s dingy settings), with sudden bursts of shocking color that break through at key moments. This could easily have been muddled in the transition from film to video, but fortunately the THX-mastered disc transfer is exquisite. Letterboxed to 2.35:1 with anamorphic enhancement, the DVD features a sharp image with well-realized colors and strong shadow detail during even the murkiest of scenes. I noticed little in the way of visual artifacts or excessive edge enhancement. Fox has performed an excellent transfer that captures the nuances of this difficult cinematography.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The soundtrack comes in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 flavors. The disc’s authoring prevents you from switching between the two tracks without going back to the menu each time. This is annoying, and I’ve been seeing it on a lot of DTS discs lately, no doubt to make a direct comparison difficult. I watched the entire film through with the DTS soundtrack, which was very nice, and later rewatched certain scenes in Dolby Digital. To be honest, I think I liked the Dolby Digital a little better. It had crisper sound effects and more aggressively defined separation effects, providing a seemingly more expansive soundstage. The DTS track, on the other hand, had smoother sounding dialogue and more swell to the music. They’re both terrific. Choose based on your natural inclination.

This is a great soundtrack, with lots of swishing knife blades and other sharp sound effects coming from every direction, as well as a robust amount of bass. Both audio options deliver it nicely. No matter which you select, it will surely give your sound system a workout and, in my case, have the wife screaming bloody murder about turning down the volume.

Also available are French and Spanish dub tracks in plain Dolby Surround. The disc has English subtitles for the hearing impaired (sound effects are spelled out) as well as true closed captions, but no other subtitle options.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Fox has put together a great two-disc special edition loaded with genuinely worthwhile bonus features. The supplements start on Disc 1 with the audio commentary from Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, cinematographer Peter Deming, and actor Robbie Coltrane. Each was recorded separately and the sessions have been spliced together into one well-focused track. This is the third commentary effort for the Hughes brothers (the first two appearing on Criterion Laserdisc but not yet on DVD), but they start it off by admitting that they were tired of the commentary format and didn’t initially want to do one for this film. As a result, their presence on the track is understated and Yglesias dominates the majority of the discussion. Regardless, it’s a very good commentary with a great amount of information about the story’s intentions and the changes made from the historical facts for the purposes of artistic license. Albert (or is it Allen? Their voices are nearly indistinguishable) comes back at the end for a very funny and frank rant about movie studio politics that may leave you almost as depressed as he seems to be.

Following this are no fewer than 20 deleted scenes and an alternate ending. There’s some good stuff here, most of which doesn’t really need to be in the movie and was wisely cut. The alternate ending is visually striking but doesn’t work nearly as well as the one eventually used. Albert Hughes provides an optional commentary over all of these scenes describing why each was cut, and provides some insight into the editing process. As he explains, most filmmakers hit a stage in post-production where they become dissatisfied with their work and want to cut it to pieces, only to slowly add things back as they go.

Rounding off Disc 1 are some THX Optimizer test patterns. The animated menus for the disc are very stylish, but the text is small and often difficult to read. Disc 2 contains the rest of the bonus features and has more legible menus. Offered here are six featurettes (each in 4:3 full-frame) and the theatrical trailer, which doesn’t sell the film particularly well.

Jack the Ripper: 6 Degrees of Separation is an examination of the real Ripper case evidence and how it conflicts with the fictional treatment of it in the film. All of the key suspects, including several not used in the movie, are introduced. I’m sure that dedicated “Ripperologists” may not find much new here, but novice sleuths will learn some fascinating information. The featurette itself runs 30 minutes, but activating the magnifying glass icon that pops up on screen regularly will take you to excerpts from an older television documentary that presents an alternate theory (supporting that used in the movie) about the killer’s identity. All told, there’s close to an hour’s worth of material in this section of the disc. A warning for the squeamish: At several points we’re shown extremely graphic autopsy photos of the actual victims. These are the real thing, not Hollywood prosthetic effects.

The Production Design featurette runs 12 minutes and describes the hard work needed to recreate Victorian London from scratch on the outskirts of Prague. I recommend jumping from this to the 8-minute Tour of the Murder Sites, since the two programs work nicely together. The Hughes Brothers walk us through the elaborate street sets and point out many details only glimpsed in the movie. The Graphic Novel Comparison is a 10-minute look at the Alan Moore source comic and how much of it was changed for the movie. We’re allowed a good peek at the original artwork, including some sexually explicit images that were not retained in the film. Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (also 10 minutes) is a romanticized historical lesson about the illicit drink, as explained by two aficionados who have undoubtedly partaken in their share of it. Unfortunately, even great special editions sometimes throw in a little bit of worthless crap. In this case, we’ve got the 15-minute A View from Hell featurette. This is pure promotional junk designed for cable TV filler. Heather Graham hosts, annoyingly. It’s barely worth one viewing.

I’m sure that the disc will also include some form of booklet in the case, but Fox doesn’t bother to provide such things with their screener copies. Thanks for nothing.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The movie may have been unjustly overlooked last year, but Fox Home Video has given it a fabulous special edition DVD. Great picture, great sound, and a lot of supplements actually worth watching (unlike the majority of DVD supplements these days). This is an easy recommendation. I hope the film achieves a longer life on video than it did in theaters.

Full Frontal

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 29, 2003.

“What’s your philosophy on release?”

After three consecutive $100 million-grossing blockbusters in a row (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and Ocean’s Eleven) and an Academy Award win to validate his position on the Hollywood A-list, Steven Soderbergh needed a release. The man who had originally earned a reputation making deeply personal and often obscure artsy movies needed to prove to himself that he wasn’t a total sell-out, that he was still capable of churning out a movie that would leave audiences scratching their heads wondering what the hell he was thinking. And so, immediately after the high-gloss glitz of Ocean’s Eleven, he segued right into Full Frontal, a bizarre ultra-low-budget, biting-the-hand-that-feeds-him satire of the Hollywood fame machine. Headlined by an impressive list of notable celebrity actors including Julia Roberts and David Duchovny, Full Frontal is nonetheless a movie specifically designed to have no chance of mass public appeal or box office returns. And it certainly lived up to those intentions, flopping with often resentful audiences and receiving scathing reviews from critics who conveniently forgot that the Soderbergh who was on his best behavior in his last few movies was the same man who had previously made such incomprehensible cult oddities as Kafka and Schizopolis.

Full Frontal is as obscure and weird as anything Soderbergh had done before. A multi-layered film-within-a-film-within-a-film (and there’s a play somewhere in there too), the story jumps around in fits and spurts between various overlapping levels of reality. In the outermost layer, what is presumed to be the “real world,” we follow a pair of writers (David Hyde Piece and Enrico Colantoni) in a sort of cinema verite confessional documentary as they struggle through challenges in their personal lives; Pierce is having marital troubles and loses his job at a high-profile magazine, and Colantoni tries to balance an internet romance with his duties producing a truly awful play about Adolf Hitler. Meanwhile, they’re also trying to work together on a screenplay called “Rendezvous.” The movie then jumps right into the middle of “Rendezvous,” a sappy love story starring Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood. Within that, even, is another movie, a cop-buddy picture that Underwood’s character, an actor, is making with Brad Pitt and directed by David Fincher!

Following all of this so far? You’re sure to be truly lost when you see how the different storylines fit together, or rather don’t fit together. There are about a dozen more characters with their own tangential subplots, and we’re witness to the constant breakdown of barriers between the different story levels, as autobiographical bits and pieces from the writers’ lives wind up within the movie they’re making. It all makes for an utterly confounding viewing experience that’s sure to alienate more of its audience than it attracts. Undoubtedly, anyone expecting a typical Julia Roberts date movie will be sorely disappointed, if they even make it through more than the first half hour. Yet, for those viewers open to such things, the movie has plenty of rewards. In fact, the entire movie makes perfectly coherent sense if you watch it a second time. Having seen but not necessarily understood all the elements the first time through, the puzzle pieces start falling into place when you rewatch from the beginning.

The picture is shamelessly, unapologetically pretentious. What its critics failed to recognize is that it’s supposed to be. Full Frontal is, believe it or not, actually a parody of pretentious art movies with their pseudo-deep intellectual posturing. The movie is really damned funny if you give it a chance. Catherine Keener is wickedly hilarious as a corporate HR lackey who abuses the power of her position during a series of layoff interviews. Nicky Katt, doing the very worst Hitler impersonation ever captured on film, simply has to be seen to be believed. (Even Mel Brooks would find his production of “The Sound and the Fuhrer” a riot.) Brad Pitt makes an amusing cameo appearance, and Blair Underwood proves to have a surprisingly charismatic leading-man screen presence. The movie features a number of knowing digs against the conceitedness of actors, celebrities, and their various hangers-on. Then of course is Duchovny’s “Everybody needs a release” philosophizing, proof that all the Hollywood power players really want is some masturbatory ego-stroking.

About half the movie is shot on awful quality digital video to give it a rough edge and an air of documentary-like immediacy. Even within this, though, there are some strangely beautiful images created by the bad picture, pixelated messes that form into abstract blurs of color and light, and one particular innovatively filmed sex scene that could not have been accomplished with traditional photography. The rest of the picture, those scenes that take place within the “Rendezvous” movie, were shot on luxurious 35mm film, and we often find ourselves transfixed with the flawlessly clear and vibrant quality of the image in place of its intentionally vapid storyline. The point Soderbergh is making will all of this, I suppose, is that all film is artifice and half of life is too. What matters isn’t figuring out the real from the fake, but learning to embrace the interesting qualities we find in either.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Yes, it’s supposed to look like that. While the “Rendezvous” portions of the movie, including the opening scenes, were shot on beautiful 35mm film, the production quickly switches to cruddy digital video for all of the “real world” scenes. Shot on consumer-grade handheld cameras, even for DV these scenes look awful, deliberately so. The footage was run through all sort of nasty post-production processing to degrade the image, making it as soft, grainy, blown-out, and just plain ugly and “video” as possible.

In stark contrast to this, the switch to 35mm seems like a revelation. The filmed portions of the movie are amazingly sharp, with rich contrasts that create a terrific sense of three-dimensional depth. Colors are bold and deep, strikingly defined in their subtle shadings. In his commentary track, Soderbergh claims that he didn’t want to make “Rendezvous” too pretty, that he wanted it to look like a cheap TV movie. If that’s true, he failed. Or perhaps the ugly video scenes just make this footage look a lot better in comparison. Either way, “Rendezvous” looks exactly like a glossy, big-budget Hollywood romance.

The entire movie has been letterboxed to its theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. The color transfer captures the wildly erratic shifts in picture quality as well as is required, except for one significant flaw, the presence of artificial edge enhancement. For the ugly video scenes, this isn’t so much of a detriment, but the ringing and halos do call attention to themselves during the “Rendezvous” scenes, where they’re clearly out of place.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Officially encoded with a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, the sound design here is really nothing of the sort. All of the “real world” scenes have a strictly monaural, documentary-like center channel presence comprised of on-location recordings. The “Rendezvous” scenes feature a more professional, Hollywood sound mix with a stereo musical score, foleyed sound effects, and processed ambient noises. Even here, however, the audio is restricted to the front soundstage. I couldn’t detect surround channel activity at any point in the movie. The dialogue in all scenes is crisply recorded and perfectly intelligible, if a little edgy in the “real” scenes and smoother in the fake movie scenes.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The disc begins with some rather simple menus that make me thankful for the lack of annoying animated screen transitions. The supplemental section has a fair amount of content considering the movie’s box-office failure. Some items are more interesting than others.

Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Coleman Hough (Coleman is a she, in case you were wondering) deliver a screen-specific audio commentary over the feature. Soderbergh is an engaging speaker and he keeps the conversation lively and interesting throughout, continually prompting Hough through their production stories and on-set anecdotes. This is a worthwhile track for fans of the movie, though it’s unlikely to change the attitude of anyone who dislikes it.

Next we have a section of deleted scenes presented in non-anamorphic letterbox with optional commentary by Coleman Hough. The menu credits eight selections, but there are actually 18 distinct scene changes in all. Most of the footage is kind of amusing if unnecessary, but one pair of cross-cut scenes between Catherine Keener and David Hyde Pierce is hilarious and definitely should have remained in the movie. Hough’s solo commentary is entirely worthless. She has next to nothing to say here and leaves many dead gaps of silence.

The In-Character Interviews are rather interesting little improvisational exercises where we get to know more about the characters, but generally speaking, a couple minutes of each is more than enough. There are six interviews total, for a combined running time of about an hour.

The Director’s Spy Cam captures the actors on set trying to figure out the movie and just goofing around. It runs three minutes and is a complete waste of time.

The Rules is a seven-minute promotional featurette explaining the tongue-in-cheek set of restrictions that Soderbergh placed on his actors (things like forcing them to bring their own wardrobes and do their own makeup). The piece is just recycled Electronic Press Kit material, but we do get a glimpse of Soderbergh in action shooting some scenes. Also standard EPK filler is the Conversation with Steven Soderbergh, a seven-minute interview that’s your typical publicity fluff.

Last and, yes, probably least is the theatrical trailer, a minimalist affair with just disjointed snippets of dialogue over a black screen listing the actors’ names.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Full Frontal is not for everyone. The movie is certain to polarize viewers with preformed expectations for what they want out of it. Those who understand that an uplifting picture like Erin Brockovich was actually an anomaly in the career of its director will probably find the most interest in it. For them, this DVD is a nice presentation with a handful of mixed quality bonus features, and is worthy of a qualified recommendation.

G.I. Joe: The Movie

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published October 26, 2000.

The scope and impact of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line of the 1980s can hardly be described. Every boy who attended either elementary or middle school during that decade, almost without exception, owned a selection of those little military action figures at some point. A spinoff of the doll-sized army figures of the 1960s, shrunken down to the same scale as Kenner’s popular Star Wars toys, the new G.I. Joe was a blatant ploy to cash in on the pseudo-patriotism of the Reagan era.

It worked. These action figures were enormously popular, helped in no small part by the fact that they were easily the coolest toys ever made. Each figure was highly detailed, extremely poseable, and came with a small arsenal of personalized weaponry based on real military equipment or speculative futuristic designs. They even had hundreds of vehicles in their motor pool, from the smallest motorcycle to a gigantic aircraft carrier. Most importantly, each character had a distinctly scripted personality for kids to act out.

To ensure the line’s success, Hasbro cross-promoted it like crazy. There were G.I. Joe coloring books, sticker albums, lunchboxes, Halloween costumes, comic books, and a memorable cartoon series that ran in syndication every day after school. G.I. Joe was everywhere you looked, and it was irresistibly appealing to boys of any age.

That cartoon even earned a little notoriety. Putting aside the crass commercialism inherent in a television series designed to convince children to beg their parents for money to buy toys, there was also the issue of violent content, which was as much the hot-button topic in the ’80s as it is today. Naturally, when you’ve got a TV show about the army, somebody’s going to have to do some shooting. To get around the guidelines of the FCC and the protests of parents, the cartoon creators scripted a few ways out. The first was that the guns in the series didn’t shoot bullets. They shot lasers, which supposedly removed a level of reality from the action. Secondly, real people were never killed in the cartoon. If ever someone was shot, it invariably turned out to be a robot soldier or an android disguised as a human. The last concession was the fact that every single aircraft that was shot down had to show the pilot parachuting to safety. How the helicopter pilots avoided being sliced to pieces by rotor blades will remain an eternal mystery.

Despite all this, the show was great fun. It was pure cartoon fantasy, filled with loopy humor and enough explosive devastation to satisfy the demands of any over-stimulated child’s attention span. This half-hour daily commercial was so successful at selling plastic joy to children that, in 1987, it led inevitably to G.I. Joe: The Movie.

Originally conceived as an animated feature film, G.I. Joe never made it to theatres. After the whopping box office failure of both the My Little Pony and Transformers movies, studio executives decided to send our Real American Heroes directly back to TV syndication. To be fair, it was probably for the best. Although still filled with many of the aspects that made the cartoon popular, the animated movie is saddled with an unfortunately weak concept and several poorly written new characters. Whereas children had been delighting for years in watching the Joes trounce the evil Cobra terrorist organization, here we’re faced with a supposedly greater menace, an ancient race of bio-mechanical freaks who want to wipe out mankind with space-borne mutant spores. Much yawning ensues as this lame science fiction premise plays itself out. Almost as egregious is the addition of ’80s mega-star Don Johnson to the vocal talent pool. He plays the suave playboy (hey kids, can you say “typecast”?) Lt. Falcon, whose careless bumbling gets the Joes into much trouble. How such an irresponsible loser could ever become an officer in an elite military unit is not addressed.

Still, the movie has its good points too. The budget is obviously higher here, and we’re treated to some more elaborate than usual action scenes. (Yes, the helicopter pilots still eject to safety.) Enough of our favorite familiar characters return to move the plot along, and the simpering villainy of arch-nemesis Cobra Commander is so deliciously campy that it livens up just about any scene. As a feature film, it probably would have failed miserably, but truth be told, if taken as just another of the cartoon’s frequent five-part miniseries, G.I. Joe: The Movie gets by as middle-of-the-road. If the show has to be represented on DVD by just one program, I suppose we could do worse.

And really, when all is said and done, how could anyone not love a movie audacious enough to open with a musical number set to military combat on the arms of the Statue of Liberty?

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Since this program never got the theatrical run it was originally meant to have, we may never know the correct aspect ratio. The disc is presented in full-frame 4:3 as it appeared on television. The compositional balance is mostly fine, but feels a little cramped some of the time. Other than that, this DVD looks great. The image is sharp and free of blemishes. Colors are very strong through Component Video connection and the contrasts are smooth. There are times, especially during the opening sequence, when the animation movement looks a bit stilted, but that was more of a budgetary problem than anything related to this disc transfer or compression. I’ve never seen the show look this good.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The cartoon’s soundtrack has been given a Dolby Digital 5.1 remaster to mixed results. The audio is crisp and clear, but it seems like the surround channels were created simply by directing music and effects meant for the front channels to the rears. I found them distractingly loud and had to reduce the volume to the surrounds. Even then, the resulting soundfield felt hollow and poorly balanced. The need to have this program in 5.1 is pretty dubious to begin with. If there were any split-surround effects or deep bass activity, I certainly didn’t hear it, and the ambient noises from the back speakers felt forced and unnatural. I much preferred the results when I switched my receiver to Stereo mode and bypassed the pretense of surround sound altogether.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

For a budget release like this, Rhino really didn’t have to provide any supplements at all. Fortunately for fans, a little something has been provided anyway. First off, we have two television commercials for the syndicated cartoon that are mistakenly labeled as theatrical trailers for this movie. Then there are a couple of commercials for the 1960s G.I. Joe toy line. It would have been nice if they could have dug up something related to the 1980s toys or this movie, but we take what we can get. Finally, and most impressively, are a series of 25 of the public service announcements that were tacked onto the end of every cartoon episode to appease FCC regulators. These things are a hoot, and I’m glad to have them collected together like this.

PARTING THOUGHTS

By and large, Joe fans have much reason to rejoice in the year 2000. Hasbro has started releasing collector’s editions of the old action figures, and Rhino has put out this nice-looking DVD of the animated movie. I have some issues with the surround mix, but it sounds fine in basic stereo and is a terrific value all around. I urge everyone to snatch up this disc right away so that we may convince Rhino to release the rest of the cartoon episodes on DVD as well.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. Yo Joe!!

Ghost World

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 1, 2002.

“I liked her so much better when she was an alcoholic crack addict. She gets in one car wreck and all of a sudden she’s Little Miss Perfect and everyone loves her.”

This one line from the beginning of Ghost World is a perfect example of the film’s cynical yet insightful look at the trials of adolescence. It reminds me of my own high school experience, where I found myself disgusted that the school paper was running glowing tributes to the “kind-hearted” and “sensitive” suicide case who just days earlier was a rotten jackass bully and a lousy excuse for a human being. It’s funny how the group perception of a person changes after something bad happens to them, even though the person does not. There are always a few who see through the charade, and are usually ostracized for their perception.

Movies about misunderstood teenagers are nothing new (I’m sure that Rebel Without a Cause will remain the defining example), but it’s always refreshing to see a film that can explore this particularly awkward time of life with such keen observation and a total lack of condescension. Ghost World is about that one specific moment when adolescence is just about to end but adulthood hasn’t yet begun. Its two heroines, freshly graduated from high school, banded together because they never quite fit in with the crowd in their pasts, but are now drifting apart because they’re missing direction for their futures. These were the kids who never wanted to be normal, who embraced all things weird and dysfunctional as some statement of outsider rebellion, but are starting to realize that this attitude was itself a predefined cliché. One of them, Rebecca, is a little faster to understand this and wants to settle down into productive life with a paying job and an apartment that will give her some independence; she sees the end goal and is willing to be flexible in order to achieve it. Enid, the more uncompromising of the two, considers her a sellout. Rebecca knows that to get a nice apartment, they should present themselves as respectable middle class young adults, but Enid would rather dye her hair green and dress up like a punk. And not just some modern punk but, “obviously a 1977 original punk rock look.”

The movie is mostly Enid’s story. Another film would have turned her into a joke, some exaggerated stereotype of everything a parent fears their child will turn into. Worse yet, it could have taken her on a formulaic “journey of discovery” where she learns how much nicer it is to conform and act normal than to be so stubborn and weird. (Witness the Christine Lahti film My First Mister if you’re desperate to apply that type of pat moral lesson to this material.) Ghost World is, thankfully, not either of those movies. It’s simply the story of a smart girl trying to find her place in a world that she rejects, because she believes that it has rejected her. She uses her sarcasm and wit as weapons to fight off the superficiality and banality around her. She may encounter people who force her to adjust her perceptions, but the revelations she has are mostly small ones, and if she changes at all in the end, that’s because she was heading in that direction all along.

Terry Zwigoff’s last movie was the documentary Crumb, about a reclusive comic artist. He hasn’t really strayed too far off that path. His first narrative feature is based on a comic book by Daniel Clowes (who co-wrote the screenplay) about another sort of disaffected loner. The sketches in Enid’s journal were even drawn by R. Crumb’s daughter, to bring things full-circle. Zwigoff’s documentary background makes him attentive to character and detail, a trait that serves the story well. Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson are given enough room to develop terrific performances for the leads. The movie is also graced by marvelous supporting turns from Steve Buscemi, Illeana Douglas, and Bob Balaban. Buscemi’s role as an obsessive record collector is so perfectly realized that it may almost hit too close to home for some movie buffs. During the scene where he allows Enid into his private record room, I found myself looking over at my own shelving unit full of video discs and feeling an uncomfortable similarity. Be sure to stick around all the way through the end credits for a special surprise.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The film is letterboxed to approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. I could have sworn that the movie was projected at 2.35:1 when I saw it theatrically, but that seems to be my memory playing tricks on me. An impartial source confirmed for me the narrower theatrical ratio, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with the composition as seen on this disc.

This is a recent film, so naturally the source elements are in flawless condition, free of distracting scratches or artifacts. The DVD transfer is also excellent, with deep colors and at least a reasonable sharpness. What stands out to me on second viewing is that the film utilizes a palette of vibrant comic book colors without drawing attention to the fact that it’s doing so. They’re all replicated to perfection. A few scenes are grainy, but this is more a side effect of the production’s modest budget than any sort of transfer error. The movie doesn’t have a flashy photographic style, so the DVD will probably never be demo material, but I have no objections about its quality.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Like its photography, the movie’s sound design is fairly subdued. Though presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, this is a dialogue driven sound mix with restrained musical envelopment and only a few noteworthy directional effects, mostly restricted to the front soundstage. That’s appropriate for the material, of course, and should not be taken as a complaint. The Dolby Digital track is more than satisfactory for its needs. Dialogue is crisp, sound effects are sharp, and the musical presence feels well balanced.

Optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles have been provided, along with English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

MGM didn’t go out of their way to load this disc with extra features, but they have thrown together a few perfunctory supplements that are a little amusing.

It would sound like the four deleted/alternate scenes should be the highlight of the disc, but they each run barely a minute or less in length, and two of the clips are variations on the same scene. They’re pretty funny, though: “I’ve been on Cops!”

The 11-minute Making of Ghost World featurette is, as expected, a bland puff-piece produced for the movie’s press kit and recycled here simply because it was available. The clips from the movie look terrible, and there’s nothing in the content worth watching more than once.

The one supplement I find myself rewatching is the “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” music video, actually a 5-minute scene from the 1965 Indian film Gumnaam, clips of which are seen on a television at the beginning of Ghost World. If you thought the clips were surreal, wait until you see the whole sequence. This is a very bizarre musical number, featuring a woman who appears to be having an epileptic seizure and is loving every minute of it. I can’t describe it, but the piece is strangely addictive.

Finishing off the disc are a theatrical trailer for this film, a commercial for the soundtrack album, and two more trailers for other MGM titles. Most of the supplements on the DVD are letterboxed, but none of them are anamorphically enhanced.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Ghost World was my favorite film from the year 2001. This DVD is a fine presentation for the movie, even if it’s a bit light on supplements. As always, MGM’s marketing department has no idea how to package their product. The artwork on the DVD case looks like a PhotoShop beginner’s class project, and the back cover text was apparently written by someone who hasn’t even seen the movie. No matter, the film is a gem and is definitely worth owning despite these minor reservations.

Ghosts of the Abyss

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 27, 2004.

What the heck has James Cameron been up to since 1997? How does the man who made the highest grossing movie of all time top himself? Apparently, he just sort of hangs around for a while waiting for inspiration. Disregarding his passive involvement with the crappy Dark Angel TV series, Cameron’s first project of any significance in six years is…. what, another movie about the Titanic? Yes, it’s true; he just can’t get that damn boat out of his head.

Rather than even attempt to face the high expectations of his fans and general moviegoing audiences, Cameron instead remained in the north Atlantic skulking around that famous shipwreck. The resulting product is the IMAX documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, an excuse to show us more footage of barnacle-covered boat hulls. As terribly exciting as this may sound, if you were fortunate enough to see it in an IMAX presentation, at least it was projected on a very large theater screen, and in 3D no less! Alas, translated to DVD, we’ll have to settle for whatever screen size we normally watch at home, downgraded to boring old 2D.

Here’s the fundamental problem with the movie: we already know this stuff. The Titanic story is so famous and so well documented, the events covered in exhausting detail in Cameron’s own bloated blockbuster, there isn’t much more to say. The excuse for this project was to show us new footage from new submersible vehicles that can penetrate deeper into the wreck than we’ve seen before, but once they get inside, we discover that everything there is covered in 90 years of crud. It just isn’t as visually interesting as it sounded on paper. We spend most of the movie listening to scientists trying to figure out what they’re looking at. Is that a car in the ship’s hold? How exciting. Oh wait, no, it kind of looks like a big pile of barnacles instead. Maybe it’s a table.

I’m sure it must have been more fun in 3D. Cameron stages a lot of blatant “Comin’ at Ya!” shots that look a little comical without the 3D effect. He also attempts to tell the history of the disaster through what he calls “ghost echoes,” footage of actors in costume re-enacting the events overlaid onto the same location in the ship as seen today (covered in crud). It’s a nifty conceit that I’m sure was more effective in 3D, but not quite enough to keep us interested for the whole picture.

James Cameron may be a fine action movie director, but he’s not a documentarian. He pads the movie with obviously scripted dialogue and badly staged scenes of actor Bill Paxton (the layman observer brought along to act as audience surrogate, asking dumb questions the researchers wouldn’t otherwise think to explain) looking out his submarine window in awe of the spectacle in front of him. Except that the camera angle on his face is taken from outside the tiny window looking in. So what was he looking at so raptly? He’s looking at the camera, of course, undoubtedly shot in a studio water tank many months after the voyage was over.

Cameron has a reputation as an anal-retentive jerk, and makes the sore mistake of putting himself on camera. This gives us the opportunity to watch him micro-manage research scientists that he assumes don’t know their own jobs nearly as well as he does. For their part, the scientists mostly just stand by wondering when these Hollywood bozos will get out of their way and allow them to do some real work.

The IMAX presentation ran just over an hour. The DVD provides that same theatrical cut or an alternate 92-minute extended version available via seamless branching. (Cameron just doesn’t know when to stop adding stuff to his movies, does he?) Both are in 2D. IMAX junkies, Titanic buffs, and Cameron completists will have a ball, I’m sure. Those expecting something substantive may want to look elsewhere.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The DVD begins with a disclaimer that warns, “This film has been significantly altered from its original 3D presentation. Many images have been reformatted for 2D viewing.”

Unlike traditional IMAX movies, Ghosts of the Abyss was not shot on large-format film. In order to facilitate the 3D effect, and also due to space constraints within the remote-operated submarine vehicles, the movie was instead shot primarily with high-definition video cameras. This explains why the picture has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 rather than the usual IMAX 1.43:1 ratio. All post-production work was done in HD video, which was then upscaled to IMAX resolution and printed in letterbox format onto the IMAX theatrical film prints. The 3D effect was achieved by shooting each viewing angle stereo-optically with two side-by-side camera lenses simultaneously. To reformat for 2D viewing, the DVD has been mastered from the video feed of just one camera for each shot. (My thanks to Mark Spatny of Modern VideoFilm for clarifying these technical details.)

For its part, the anamorphically-enhanced DVD image is very sharp and colorful, at least for those scenes that take place in daylight above water. Things get a little murkier at the bottom of the ocean. At its best, the picture is very vivid and, despite the absence of 3D, has a nice sense of depth. Contrast levels and shadow detail are excellent even during the darkest scenes, so long as we understand that there’s a limit to what can be lit and photographed around the boat.

Sadly, because this is a Buena Vista disc (not to mention that it’s also credited with THX mastering) that means it must have edge enhancement. Indeed, there are plenty of halos and ringing all over the place. The problem is most noticeable in the daylight scenes, but is an annoyance throughout and mars an otherwise decent video transfer.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is your typical IMAX production. It’s loud and aggressive, with plenty of enveloping surround activity (mostly from artificially foleyed sound effects) and lots of bass. Submarine movies almost always have fun sound design, with unexpected creaking and banging noises from all parts of the listening space. The DVD’s bass tends to be boomy rather than as clean as you’d expect from a theatrical presentation, and dialogue is sometimes a little muddy. It’s a very good track all in all, just not reference quality.

A French dub track has also been provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles are available in either English for the hard of hearing or French. The disc also has traditional English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Although this is a 2-disc set, there are only two bonus features of any consequence. The most significant is the 32-minute Reflections from the Deep. This is a pretty good making-of piece with relatively interesting information about the shoot and how the “ghost images” were created. It also manages to fill in details about the voyage that the movie itself glosses over.

The Mir Experience is a little multi-angle demonstration that turned out to be more fun than I was expecting. A 7-minute scene from the movie is presented, and the interface allows you to toggle among six camera angles along the top of the screen. It’s an entertaining way to explore the Titanic, jumping back and forth from the perspectives of the two manned submarines and their remote-operated vehicles, though to be honest, once you get into the important parts of the scene there are only two angles you’ll want to switch between.

The first disc also includes some unrelated Disney trailers and the THX Optimizer calibration tool.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

The only ROM feature is Disney’s DVD registration program.

PARTING THOUGHTS

IMAX movies always lose a little something when translated from the super-huge movie screen to home video. Taking away the 3D gimmick certainly doesn’t help. Viewers who remain fans of the picture will be relatively satisfied with Disney’s DVD, which has fairly nice picture and sound, and a couple of decent bonus features. For those interested, the Japanese Region 2 release of the film is stated to contain a 3D version of the movie, though which cut of the film is provided and which 3D process is used are unclear at present.

Ghosts of the Abyss 3D (Japan Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published August 15, 2004.

What the heck has James Cameron been up to since 1997? How does the man who made the highest grossing movie of all time top himself? Apparently, he just sort of hangs around for a while waiting for inspiration. Disregarding his passive involvement with the crappy Dark Angel TV series, Cameron’s first project of any significance in six years is…. what, another movie about the Titanic? Yes, it’s true; he just can’t get that damn boat out of his head.

Rather than even attempt to face the high expectations of his fans and general moviegoing audiences, Cameron instead remained in the north Atlantic skulking around that famous shipwreck. The resulting product is the IMAX documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, an excuse to show us more footage of barnacle-covered boat hulls. As terribly exciting as this may sound, if you were fortunate enough to see it in an IMAX presentation, at least it was projected on a very large theater screen, and in 3D no less! Alas, translated to DVD, we’ll have to settle for whatever screen size we normally watch at home, downgraded to boring old 2D.

Here’s the fundamental problem with the movie: we already know this stuff. The Titanic story is so famous and so well documented, the events covered in exhausting detail in Cameron’s own bloated blockbuster, there isn’t much more to say. The excuse for this project was to show us new footage from new submersible vehicles that can penetrate deeper into the wreck than we’ve seen before, but once they get inside, we discover that everything there is covered in 90 years of crud. It just isn’t as visually interesting as it sounded on paper. We spend most of the movie listening to scientists trying to figure out what they’re looking at. Is that a car in the ship’s hold? How exciting. Oh wait, no, it kind of looks like a big pile of barnacles instead. Maybe it’s a table.

I’m sure it must have been more fun in 3D. Cameron stages a lot of blatant “Comin’ at Ya!” shots that look a little comical without the 3D effect. He also attempts to tell the history of the disaster through what he calls “ghost echoes,” footage of actors in costume re-enacting the events overlaid onto the same location in the ship as seen today (covered in crud). It’s a nifty conceit that I’m sure was more effective in 3D, but not quite enough to keep us interested for the whole picture.

James Cameron may be a fine action movie director, but he’s not a documentarian. He pads the movie with obviously scripted dialogue and badly staged scenes of actor Bill Paxton (the layman observer brought along to act as audience surrogate, asking dumb questions the researchers wouldn’t otherwise think to explain) looking out his submarine window in awe of the spectacle in front of him. Except that the camera angle on his face is taken from outside the tiny window looking in. So what was he looking at so raptly? He’s looking at the camera, of course, undoubtedly shot in a studio water tank many months after the voyage was over.

Cameron has a reputation as an anal-retentive jerk, and makes the sore mistake of putting himself on camera. This gives us the opportunity to watch him micro-manage research scientists that he assumes don’t know their own jobs nearly as well as he does. For their part, the scientists mostly just stand by wondering when these Hollywood bozos will get out of their way and allow them to do some real work.

The IMAX presentation ran just over an hour. The DVD provides that same theatrical cut or an alternate 92-minute extended version. (Cameron just doesn’t know when to stop adding stuff to his movies, does he?) On the Region 1 DVD, both were in 2D. This Region 2 NTSC disc from Japan is a notable improvement, providing both a 2D version of the extended edition and a 3D version of the original theatrical cut. (The DVD comes with special glasses and everything.) Talk about having your cake and eating it too. As for the movie, IMAX junkies, Titanic buffs, and Cameron completists will have a ball, I’m sure. Those expecting something substantive may want to look elsewhere.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The 2D version begins with a disclaimer that warns, “This film has been significantly altered from its original 3D presentation. Many images have been reformatted for 2D viewing.” Unlike traditional IMAX movies, Ghosts of the Abyss was not shot on large-format film. In order to facilitate the 3D effect, and also due to space constraints within the remote-operated submarine vehicles, the movie was instead shot primarily with high-definition video cameras. This explains why the picture has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 rather than the usual IMAX 1.43:1 ratio. All post-production work was done in HD video, which was then upscaled to IMAX resolution and printed in letterbox format onto the IMAX theatrical film prints. The 3D effect was achieved by shooting each viewing angle stereo-optically with two side-by-side camera lenses simultaneously. To reformat for 2D viewing, the DVD has been mastered from the video feed of just one camera for each shot. (My thanks to Mark Spatny of Modern VideoFilm for clarifying these technical details.)

Although it lacks the THX seal of approval, the 2D extended edition on this Japanese disc appears visually identical to its Region 1 counterpart. The anamorphically-enhanced DVD image is very sharp and colorful, at least for those scenes that take place in daylight above water. Things get a little murkier at the bottom of the ocean. At its best, the picture is very vivid and, despite the absence of 3D, has a nice sense of depth. Contrast levels and shadow detail are excellent even during the darkest scenes, so long as we understand that there’s a limit to what can be lit and photographed around the boat. Sadly, the picture is flawed by edge enhancement. The problem is most noticeable in the daylight scenes, but is an annoyance throughout and mars an otherwise decent video transfer.

The 3D theatrical cut on Disc 2 is a more complicated story. IMAX theatrical venues use two synchronized projectors to display both parts of the stereo-optic image simultaneously. The audience wears either polarized or LCD glasses to make sure that each eye sees the appropriate image and the brain combines them into 3D. This is an advanced process that creates a full-color, bright, and vibrant picture in vivid three dimensions. Unfortunately, what we get on DVD has been downgraded quite a bit.

The 3D version of the movie on DVD is mastered in a process called ColorCode, which is a variation on the old red/blue anaglyph 3D we remember from so many old B-movies (and recently Spy Kids 3-D), except that the lenses in the glasses are yellow and blue instead. In theory, this is supposed to offer an improvement in color reproduction. In practice, at least as it’s implemented on this DVD, not so much. Putting on the provided yellow/blue glasses (which are a bit small and uncomfortable, and decidedly not designed to be worn over regular eyeglasses), the movie image is cut in brightness so much as to be unwatchable, and colors are basically non-existent. The only way to get a watchable image on my display was to crank the Brightness, Contrast, and Color settings to normally obscene levels, not far from the maximum limits. Even then, what I saw was not terribly pretty. No matter how much fiddling with the picture controls I tried, the result was dim and murky, and dark scenes within the shipwreck basically impenetrable. Only the boldest of most basic colors come through with any clarity; the rest just look flat and dull. What’s more, because of the way ColorCode combines the two colors to simulate depth, images on screen often wind up with colored ghostly halos surrounding them. The 3D glasses are supposed to filter this out, but I couldn’t get it to totally eliminate the problem.

As for the 3D effect, during the brightest of daylight scenes above water, the illusion of depth was sometimes surprisingly effective. Once we go underwater, though, the 3D is basically limited to only random brightly-lit shots within the submarines. Footage of the ocean bottom or the boat hardly ever appear in 3D, if what you’re looking at is bright enough to be made out in the first place. Frankly, I’m amazed I got the 3D to work at all. It’s clearly just a gimmick, and sometimes a fun one, but in no way duplicates a true IMAX 3D experience.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is a direct port of the one found on the Region 1 disc, and is your typical IMAX production. It’s loud and aggressive, with plenty of enveloping surround activity (mostly from artificially foleyed sound effects) and lots of bass. Submarine movies almost always have fun sound design, with unexpected creaking and banging noises from all parts of the listening space. The Dolby Digital’s bass tends to be boomy rather than as clean as you’d expect from a theatrical presentation, and dialogue is sometimes a little muddy. It’s a very good track all in all, just not reference quality.

Bettering this is the full bit-rate 1509 kb/s DTS 5.1 track found exclusively on the Japanese disc. It offers the usual improvements in clarity and fidelity, including smoother directional pans and more tightly controlled bass. Dialogue is cleaner, and overall it offers a more convincing and immersive surround experience. The difference may not be night and day (the DD track isn’t so bad itself), but in direct comparison the DTS is definitely the preferred audio option.

A Japanese dub track has also been provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. The disc defaults to displaying Japanese subtitles, which can be easily disabled by the remote. English subtitles are also available.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The Japanese menus may be a little difficult to navigate for English speakers, but once you figure them out, you’ll find most of the same material the Region 1 disc offered, plus a couple of little surprises.

The most significant supplement is the 32-minute Reflections from the Deep. This is a pretty good making-of piece with relatively interesting information about the shoot and how the “ghost images” were created. It also manages to fill in details about the voyage that the movie itself glosses over. The Mir Experience is a little multi-angle demonstration that turned out to be more fun than I was expecting. A 7-minute scene from the movie is presented, and the interface allows you to toggle among six camera angles along the top of the screen. It’s an entertaining way to explore the Titanic, jumping back and forth from the perspectives of the two manned submarines and their remote-operated vehicles, though to be honest, once you get into the important parts of the scene there are only two angles you’ll want to switch between.

As for new material, we get a couple pages of Japanese text notes, a Japanese dubbed theatrical trailer, and a strange one-minute excerpt of footage that almost seems like it could be a trailer but doesn’t ever tell you the movie’s name. Disc 2 also contains what appear to be instructions for calibrating the 3D settings, but they’re provided only in Japanese text and will be little help to English speakers.

Both the American and Japanese discs contain a two-minute Easter Egg of outtakes from the “Goats of the Abyss” crew video, though ironically it’s much easier to find on the Japanese copy. I had to go back and play around with the menus on the American disc for a few minutes to verify that it was there as well.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

IMAX movies always lose a little something when translated from the super-huge movie screen to home video. Viewers who remain fans of the picture will find the Region 2 Japanese DVD a substantial improvement over the plain 2D American copy. It contains both the extended cut in 2D and the original theatrical cut in 3D, plus a full-rate DTS track on both versions. Even though the 3D gimmick isn’t as effective as a real IMAX 3D experience, this DVD set is the definitive home video edition of Ghosts of the Abyss (sad as that may be) and is definitely recommended for fans and Jim Cameron completists who are region-free.

Glengarry Glen Ross

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published November 19, 2002.

“Let me have your attention for a moment. You’re talking about what? You’re talking about — bitching about that sale you shot, some son of a bitch don’t want to buy land, somebody don’t want what you’re selling, some broad you’re trying to screw, so forth. Let’s talk about something important…”

Glengarry Glen Ross is a sort of modern Death of a Salesman, in which the Willy Lo-men are not so angst-ridden with thoughts of spiritual redemption because they’ve already sold their souls for the power of the dollar, for the careers that they willingly place before their lives and families, for the chance to be bigger than the next guy and to cut that son of a bitch down to size. David Mamet’s stage play is a searing morality tale about the dark side of the Capitalist system, where the concept of that mythical “honest dollar” is dismissed out of hand by people whose business it is to sell lies. The more the customer resists, the harder you push. The less they want your product, the more you force them to want it at all cost.

Mamet’s play, set in the most miserable real estate office in the world, won a Pulitzer Prize for its hard-bitten depiction of morally-bankrupt characters lying, cheating, and stabbing each other in the back. More importantly, it won for Mamet’s ingenious reinvention of character dialogue. This is a writer whose plays, spoken in a modern tongue, are harder to perform than Shakespeare. Every stammer, every pause, every “ah,” “oh,” or “umm” is carefully scripted to flow with a specific cadence like a piece of music; actor improvisation is strictly forbidden. All of Mamet’s plays are about the failure of language to actually communicate, the way a person can say one thing but mean another, or speak volumes but say really nothing at all. Glengarry Glen Ross, even its title a cryptic puzzle, pushes that concept to its limit with characters whose very livelihood is based around talking in circles. They sell not a product but a dream, the false dream that a worthless piece of marsh in Florida could be a lovely retirement property or the key to financial success. They lie so well to everyone else that of course it must extend to self-delusion, convincing themselves that they can get ahead in the face of cutthroat competition and impossibly punishing expectations.

The film adaptation, capably directed by James Foley, captures every beat of Mamet’s writing perfectly. The dream cast he assembled is one of the greatest power ensembles ever put to film. Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, and an improbably scene-stealing performance from Alec Baldwin all in one movie! The film belongs, however, to Jack Lemmon as the one-time top-dog now trapped in a losing streak that brings out a frightening desperation. It’s one of the actor’s finest performances.

This is, in my experience, the type of movie that women hate. While I consider the film to be wickedly entertaining and brilliant in ways I can barely put to words, my wife despises it for reasons I have never fully understood. “There’s not a single female character,” she says as though that should be a mandatory requirement. Maybe I’m reinforcing a negative stereotype; I’m sure there must be women out there somewhere who like the film, but I have yet to meet one. Men, on the other hand, seem to instantly identify with it. It must be all the testosterone in the dialogue. But man, that dialogue! Every line is a scorcher:

“I’ve been in this business 15 years.”

“What’s your name?”

“Fuck you, that’s my name! You know why, mister? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an $80,000 BMW. That’s my name… And your name is ‘You’re wanting.’ You can’t play in the man’s game? You can’t close them? Then go home and tell your wife your troubles. Because only one thing counts in this life — Get them to sign on the line which is dotted!”

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Artisan Home Entertainment has seen fit to provide two different video transfers in this DVD release. Disc One contains a 2.35:1 letterbox version with anamorphic enhancement spread over two layers, while Disc Two has a 4:3 full-frame reformatted version instead. The movie was shot in the Super 35 process to facilitate both aspect ratios. The 4:3 edition has more picture at the top and bottom of the screen but less on the sides; it’s a boxier framing but is adequate to convey the drama. However, the movie’s theatrical widescreen composition was conscientiously and artfully designed to increase the dynamic tension within each shot, and is certainly the preferred way to watch the film. I actually think that this is a case where I appreciate having both versions available for comparison, even if I will rarely ever watch the movie in full-frame.

Artisan has had a spotty track record with some of their DVD releases. The terrible video transfer on their recent Reservoir Dogs remaster had me worried for this “10 Year Anniversary Special Edition” as well. Thankfully, they seem to have gotten this one right. Glengarry Glen Ross looks very sharp and has perfect black levels, quite good colors, and no distracting compression problems. I compared the letterboxed version to my older Pioneer Special Edition Laserdisc, which had an excellent transfer itself. I was surprised to see how different the two looked, yet I can’t pin down which one is supposedly more accurate. The LD has a more harshly contrasted image with paler flesh tones and a bluish hue to the office interior; meanwhile, other colors are often more vibrantly saturated and eye-popping. This “steely” look does feel appropriate for the stylized tone of the movie. The DVD, on the other hand, is a little less contrasty and has a more subtle range of colors. The office interior is more of a soft green and flesh tones look more natural. Other colors are still vibrant when appropriate, but not as garish.

I would say that the DVD has a smoother, more film-like appearance and in direct comparison I probably prefer it. If I were to pull the Laserdisc off my shelf on its own, though, I’m sure I’d be perfectly satisfied with its image as well. If one is supposed to be more accurate than the other, I’m unsure which is which. They’re both good in their own individual respects, and DVD-only viewers will surely find the new disc pleasing.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Both editions of the movie have been remastered into Dolby Digital 5.1. They also contain additional Dolby Surround 2.0 tracks as well as a French dub (also in Dolby 2.0). The widescreen version has a DTS track, as if there weren’t already enough good reasons to watch that one. How much does the film benefit from the 5.1 remix? This isn’t a movie with much surround usage or deep bass (David Mamet is all about the dialogue), but James Newton Howard’s jazzy score is nicely resolved by the DTS track. Switching back and forth between the two, I didn’t detect much of any difference between the Dolby Digital and DTS. I appreciate that Artisan went to the trouble of creating a DTS track for the disc, though it really didn’t need one. Dialogue is always clear and intelligible on both, and overall fidelity sounds decent considering that the mix isn’t terribly dynamic. It sounds as good as it needs to, and that’s all that matters.

English and Spanish subtitles are available on both versions of the movie, as is English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Its DVD release having been long delayed, Artisan finally brings Glengarry Glen Ross to the format as a modest special edition with a few halfway decent bonus features to note. Let’s start by discussing what’s not available. Completely missing are both of the feature-length audio commentary tracks originally produced for the Pioneer Laserdisc, the first of which was from director James Foley and the second (more significantly) from Jack Lemmon. It was Lemmon’s only attempt at the commentary format prior to his death, and was a very insightful discussion of not just this film but his entire career and the acting process. I assume that the legal rights to these commentaries could not be obtained for DVD, and that’s truly a disappointing loss. The LD also included a printed copy of David Mamet’s original play, again not in any way replicated here.

What do we get instead? Disc One contains a selected-scenes audio commentary by James Foley. In all, he talks for only about 25 minutes as the disc seamlessly jumps to specific scenes that he wants to discuss. At the time Foley recorded his original Laserdisc commentary, he was still something of a hotshot young director, but these days he’s pretty much washed-up and has little of interest to say as he rambles aimlessly through the track. Following this is a 30-minute video featurette called Magic Time: A Tribute to Jack Lemon that’s not nearly as interesting as it could or should have been. Lemmon’s son Chris (there’s no doubting that family resemblance), actor Peter Gallagher, and a small handful of assorted others who worked with Lemmon over the years reminisce about his life and career. It tries valiantly to achieve poignancy, but feels perfunctory instead.

Disc Two includes another 30-minute featurette: ABC – Always Be Closing. Described as “an exploration of the facts and fictions behind Glengarry Glen Ross,” this one is comprised of talking-head interviews with real salesmen mixed with cast and crew trying to validate the movie’s depiction of that trade. Again, it sounds fascinating and relevant in theory, but is less so in execution; some parts are more interesting than others. Both this and the Jack Lemmon tribute are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and have a contrasty, overly edge-enhanced appearance that’s very hard on the eyes.

J. Roy: New and Used Furniture is apparently a very old 10-minute student film documentary of some sort. The scratchy black & white footage seems to come from sometime in the late ’60s or early ’70s and chronicles the training of salesmen for a flea market in a run-down town. The piece has a very melancholy tone, but I’m not entirely certain that this thing is for real or what its point is. Either this is a piece of found art that someone had been trying to find a good DVD home for and this seemed as good as any, or it’s a big sham placed on this disc as a joke.

Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia, actors Alec Baldwin and Alan Arkin, and production designer Jane Mursky contribute about 20 minutes each of bonus audio commentary, again with seamless branching that jumps around the movie. Since these audio tracks are contained on Disc 2, they unfortunately play over only the 4:3 version of the film. Anchia’s talk is tedious and I found myself straining to listen to the movie playing under it instead. Arkin blathers for about 6 minutes on an unrelated topic before remembering what he’s there for, contributes about 5 minutes of useful information, and then has several minutes of talk that’s actually repeated from his interview in one of the video featurettes. Better are Alec Balwin, who’s eager to talk not only about his own scene in the movie but about how much he admired everyone else in the cast, and Mursky, who actually has some enlightening things to say about the movie-making process, which makes her commentary the only supplement on this DVD that can take that credit.

Two Clip Archives are also available here. The first, from the Charlie Rose Show, spends about 10 minutes with Jack Lemmon talking about this movie. My favorite supplement of all, though, is the hilarious 2-minute clip from Inside the Actors Studio with Kevin Spacey, as one eager fan corners him into revisiting one of his character’s scenes. Finally, finishing off the disc are some typical cast & crew bios and a few text pages of production notes.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

This great movie gets a pretty good DVD premiere. The picture and sound are very nice indeed, although I can’t help feeling that none of the supplements are as interesting or relevant as those found on the old Laserdisc special edition. Still, fans will appreciate the package that Artisan has put together. Definitely recommended.

The Good Thief

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 29, 2003.

“There’s a thing called the law. I don’t see it being broken.”

“Use your imagination”

A film that really ought to have rejuvenated the careers of both star Nick Nolte and director Neil Jordan, The Good Thief is a slick and entertaining European caper flick that managed to slip right past the attention of most viewers during its brief theatrical run. Strangely, even a slight bit of notoriety didn’t do anything for its box office returns. This is the movie during which, in preparation for his role as a heroin addict, Nick Nolte became a heroin junkie himself until being pulled over by police one day and finding his shockingly disheveled mug shot all over the news. “Just a little taste,” he insisted, “I tried just a little taste.” Method acting really ought to have its limits. Regardless, this is probably Nolte’s best role in years, a great showcase for his star charisma that allows a touch of vulnerability beneath his gruff exterior.

The picture is a loose remake of the 1955 French classic Bob le flambeur (available on DVD from the Criterion Collection, should viewers be curious to compare the two), though obviously it was equally inspired by the success of another heist movie remake, Steven Soderbergh’s blockbuster reworking of Ocean’s Eleven. Perhaps not as broadly appealing as that crowd-pleaser, Jordan’s film is nonetheless his most purely enjoyable project in years, a movie with a strong plot and character development that’s neither as deadeningly serious as his Michael Collins nor as preposterously silly as In Dreams. Nolte plays Bob, a retired thief currently wasting his days with the dual addictions of heroin and gambling. He’s a likeable fellow, even the local police inspector wants to help him stay out of trouble, but like all retired criminals in movies he must eventually be pulled back in for that “one last job.” Sure, it’s a hoary enough plot device, yet it always seems to work.

As the director explains in his DVD commentary, the secret to a successful caper movie isn’t in detailing how the job is going to work, but in keeping the audience guessing how it will go wrong, because the audience already knows that in a caper movie the job always goes wrong. Sure enough, The Good Thief provides an intricately plotted plan to pull off two capers in one, both a casino safe heist and an art robbery, one acting as a diversion to keep police occupied while the other occurs. And of course, something must go wrong, the details of which will keep the audience on their toes. More importantly, the film is a character study of Bob himself, and even as the plot comes crashing down, the movie stops for a little moment of personal revelation that’s much more meaningful than all the noise going on around him.

Under Jordan’s hand, this is a stylish, moody picture largely carried by Nolte and an impeccable supporting cast. I may not be able to pronounce her name, but costar Nutsa Kukhianidze is a standout as the teenage runaway that Bob takes under his wing, another story thread that could have been terribly predictable if it weren’t so enlivened by the sharp writing and excellent performances. The remaining cast, made up of European character actors, a few fellow directors, and an uncredited guest appearance by Ralph Fiennes, is also terrific. The Good Thief is good fun, and deserves to find a larger audience on home video.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The DVD is a dual-sided release with a useless full-frame transfer on one side and an anamorphically enhanced widescreen transfer on the other. The widescreen version is presented in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1. (It’s close, but seems to be opened up a slight bit.) The picture quality is good if somewhat short of perfect. The movie was photographed in many smoky interiors under neon lighting. The result is a very slick and stylized appearance. Some colors come across a bit flat and garish, as was surely intended, while other colors are vibrant and pop off the screen. The transfer seems to be accurate in both cases.

The image is reasonably sharp with almost no visible edge enhancement and surprisingly little grain, but digital compression problems do occur. Deeply saturated reds (and there are a lot of scenes under red lighting) exhibit occasional pixel breakup in the chroma portion of the signal, which is likely to bother people with large screen displays. It isn’t terrible, and many viewers may not even notice, but the disc could have been improved.

The movie is edited so that many shots end with a brief, nearly subliminal motion freeze. The effect is so short that it may be mistaken for a DVD playback problem, but it’s fully intentional. Steven Soderbergh has used the same technique in some movies to better effect, understanding that the device should punctuate the end of a scene, whereas Jordan attempts to use it to end shots within the middle of scenes. As a result, it feels inconsistently applied and frankly becomes a little annoying.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is mostly constrained to the front soundstage without too many showy directional effects. The music sounds great, with a lot of bass, and gunshots have a nice punch to them. If I have one complaint, it’s that Nick Nolte mumbles most of his dialogue in his hoarse voice, usually with a cigarette in his mouth, and I found myself backing up certain scenes and eventually turning on subtitles to comprehend what he was saying. Most of the other European cast members have thick accents which can also be difficult to decipher.

An alternate Spanish dub track is provided in Dolby 2.0 surround. The disc offers English and Spanish subtitles (the English subtitles are actually captions for the hearing impaired) as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Director Neil Jordan provides a Screen-Specific Audio Commentary discussing the challenges in updating a classic film while attempting to make it his own. He talks a little about filmmaking technique (“I dutched the camera here. ‘Dutch’ is a British term… Well, ‘dutch’ is probably a Dutch term… It just refers to an angled camera”) and spends a lot of time going over the themes he was trying to work with. He also points out the fellow movie directors he cast as characters in the movie. The commentary is available on both sides of the disc, whichever aspect ratio you choose.

Strictly on the widescreen side are found seven Deleted Scenes with optional director commentary. Pretty much all of the scenes would have worked fine if they’d been left in the movie. Flip over to the full-frame side for the To Film a Thief featurette, a 6-minute fluff piece that’s straight out of the movie’s Electronic Press Kit. It’s hardly worth watching, so you can safely avoid the full-frame side of the disc entirely if you choose.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The Good Thief is a fun movie that was unjustly overlooked. The DVD is pretty solid in most respects, if not necessarily reference quality. Give it a rent. You just might like it.

Grave of the Fireflies

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 8, 2003.

One of the treasured landmarks of Japanese animation, Grave of the Fireflies easily dispels any notion that anime is all about ditzy magical girlfriends or buxom teenage robot pilots. Here’s a film that depicts the aftermath of World War II from the perspective of the non-combatant Japanese civilian populace. A young boy and his sister, unable to fully understand what the war is about in the first place, find their small village firebombed during an American campaign to demoralize the Japanese public. Their home destroyed and their mother killed, the children first seek shelter with a relative in another town. When this rather bitter old woman proves unsympathetic to their plight, the siblings are left to fend for themselves and bide their time until the return of their father, who’s away at war.

This is not a cartoon for young children. The film deals with difficult themes like death, abandonment, poverty, and starvation, and is quite depressing. It uses animation as a form of heightened realism to illustrate events that would be difficult to capture with live actors, especially children. Regardless, it’s a compelling piece of drama that’s sure to provoke an emotional reaction from almost all viewers mature enough to understand its subject matter. The story is sometimes sentimental but never sloppy or maudlin. Its portrayal of children struggling to survive on their own once society has turned a blind eye to them is unnervingly realistic and times almost unbearable to watch. The movie is a cruel reminder of the real human losses behind war, the innocent bystanders who have no interest in fighting for ambiguous ideological goals. Yet it never descends to the level of propaganda. The Japanese struggle is hardly seen as noble or heroic, and the enemy in this battle is not some evil menace; it’s an unseen, incomprehensible force reaching down from the sky like the hand of God. The children don’t know who the Americans are or understand why their village has been destroyed. They just know that something bad has happened and they must rely on each other for strength.

An ideal introduction to the world of anime for viewers who are skeptical about its merits, Grave of the Fireflies is an excellent film sure to have plenty of resonance in these days as world governments are attempting to drum up support for a new war. The lessons it teaches will remain timeless so long as we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Grave of the Fireflies was released once before on DVD in a non-anamorphic letterbox transfer. I don’t have that disc for comparison, but judged on its own, this new anamorphically-enhanced remaster, framed at approximately 1.85:1, looks decent. The film has an intentionally soft, painted look that comes across well for the most part. Some colors are fuzzy, especially the pinkish reds at the beginning of the movie, but “flesh” tones are generally accurate and the majority of the color palette seems well rendered if not particularly flashy. There are moments when the middle of the screen appears to be slightly out of focus despite a moderate amount of artificial edge enhancement. Compression quality is adequate but imperfect, with artifacting visible at various points throughout the movie. This may not be a reference quality image, but it supports the film well enough and will please most fans.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s soundtrack is available in its original Japanese language or in a lousy English dub that loses the nuance and realism of the original Japanese performances and sounds decidedly like it was cast with adult actors playing children. Both are presented in Dolby 2.0 Stereo. If run through Pro Logic decoding, there’s next to no surround activity, even during the most active firebombing sequences. (I think I may have noticed a little bit of ambience bleed in some scenes.) The Japanese track is rather dull-sounding, with little dynamic range and practically no bass. Although mostly free of hiss or distortion, some of the dialogue is a little shrill. Given the age, origin, and budget of the film, the sound quality is acceptable and rarely distracting, but I was perhaps hoping for a little more.

One of the featurettes in the disc’s supplement section makes the specific claim that the Japanese and English soundtracks should sound identical in all respects except for the dialogue, and that unlike many anime DVDs ,the English track has not been “sweetened” to sound better. Nonetheless, when switching between the two, the English track here is indeed slightly louder and clearer than its Japanese counterpart. After volume adjustment it’s not a dramatic improvement, but there’s still a difference. Make of that what you will.

Optional English subtitles have been provided, but no other translation options or closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

On Disc 1, a storyboard track can be accessed by using the Alternate Angle function. The black & white sketches are anamorphically enhanced and run for the entire length of the feature. Depending on one’s patience for watching storyboards, this is an interesting application for presenting them. I would personally not choose to watch the entire movie this way, but I did flip back and forth to them for some of the biggest scenes.

The remaining supplements are found on Disc 2. We start with a 12-minute Interview with Roger Ebert, expressing his admiration for the film. As always, Ebert is an eloquent speaker, but the conversation here is quite low-key. Following this is a 17-minute Interview with Isao Takahata, the director of the movie. His talk is also interesting if not terribly exciting. Next we have a pair of text supplements, a Bio for Author Akiyuki Nosaka and a Bio for Director Isao Takahata, both of which automatically progress from page to page on a fixed timer and don’t allow manually stepping through the pages; I found this frustrating.

A six-minute Japanese Release Promo features interviews with the author and director. It appears to be a typical Electronic Press Kit affair. The DVNR Featurette runs only four minutes but is one of the most interesting supplements. Here, the technical staff from Central Park Media demonstrate the video clean-up and remastering process that they applied to the movie, including one point where they actually boast about adding edge enhancement to the picture, as if this were a good thing. Perhaps someone should enlighten them as to how annoying edge halos are on a large screen.

The most informative supplement on the disc is the 11-minute Historical Perspective featurette. Two history book authors, one American and one Japanese, discuss the point in time depicted by the film and the effect of the war on Japanese society. The American author seems completely oblivious to the fact that the “brilliant” campaign to demoralize the Japanese public entailed the destruction and loss of thousands of innocent lives.

The Art Gallery is a three-minute montage of stills from the movie, and the even-shorter Locations: Then and Now piece compares artwork from the film with photographs of how the same locations currently look. Bonus Storyboards showcase black & white sketches from scenes that didn’t make it through the production stage. Finally, a pair of U.S. and Japanese trailers finishes off the disc. (The U.S. trailer is for the DVD.)

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

A small number of DVD-ROM supplements have been included, most of them text-based. The ROM content is not InterActual compatible and will require launching through alternate software; it may not be compatible with some operating systems.

Found here are the movie’s Script, credits for the Vocal Cast, a list of Reviews and Awards, a thorough Still Gallery, Production Credits, and a series of links to Central Park Media and related web sites. An annoying music loop plays continuously while you access this material; I found it necessary to turn off my computer’s volume.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A great movie that has been reasonably spruced up and given some satisfying supplements for this new Collector’s Series release, Grave of the Fireflies may not be reference home theater demo material, but it’s still highly recommended. Those who own the previous release may find it worthwhile to upgrade, and new viewers are certainly encouraged to go straight for this new version.

Harsh Realm: The Complete Series

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published August 29, 2004.

Remember when “Virtual Reality” was all the buzz back in the late ’90s? Something about the idea of computer simulations successfully duplicating all the sensations of living in the real world must have appealed to some pre-millennial, technophobic, apocalyptic fears that were circulating in the collective unconscious around that time. Or something like that. Maybe too many young Hollywood executives are just big video game geeks. Anyway, a bunch of movies and TV shows exploiting basically the same concept all came out in the latter half of the decade, from Hackers to VR.5 to eXistenZ and, to a lesser extent, Dark City. Some were reasonably successful, and others not so lucky. Then of course came The Matrix, whichblew the lid off this whole cyberpunk subgenre and effectively made anything that came after it look like a ripoff. Sadly, right about then was when X Files creator Chris Carter tried to latch onto the tail end of this fad. His new series Harsh Realm had been in development for a couple of years, but the timing of its release couldn’t have been worse. Premiering several months post-Matrix, the show looked like a quick cash-in and flopped hard.

Scott Bairstow (a dead ringer for Nick Stahl of Terminator 3 and Carnivale) stars as a young soldier assigned to plug into a VR combat simulation. His mission: to defeat the reigning champ, get a high score, and return home to his perky fiancée. Unfortunately, once he gets inside the program called Harsh Realm, he discovers what his orders left deliberately vague, that there is no way out of the game short of total success or death, and that there are no extra lives, either in the program or in the real world. Losing the game means dying for real. Maybe somebody should have mentioned that before he stuck his quarter in the slot.

So our good Lt. Hobbes sets about tracking his target, General Santiago, a rogue military genius who has gone all Col. Kurtz and hijacked the entire game, setting himself up as supreme dictator of the realm. He’s not going to be such an easy man to defeat, even with the help of a former soldier previously sent in on the same mission and now living permanently in the program as a free agent. D.B. Sweeney plays the Han Solo-ish scoundrel, improbably named Mike Pinocchio. I suppose that’s meant to be symbolic or something, though it never amounts to anything and frankly just sounds ridiculous when characters run around yelling things like, “Pinocchio, duck!!.”

Right off the bat, the show’s basic premise is a little too silly to be taken very seriously. The Harsh Realm program is said to have been created “using the 1990 census, satellite cartography, and other classified data,” forming a perfect replica of the real world down to every man, woman, and child. Apparently, this extends to ridiculously specific details, such as when the main character visits the bombed-out shell of his parents’ house and finds his favorite childhood snow-globe. I bet if he looked for them, all the porn magazines he hid in his closet as a teen and never told anybody about would be there as well. Computer-generated “Virtual Characters,” based on the likenesses of real people, even seem to share their real world counterparts’ thoughts and memories. Who knew Big Brother was watching so closely, and could read minds? Even after suspending this much disbelief, episodes are loaded with inconsistencies. Early on, we’re explicitly told that there is no such thing as religion in the Harsh Realm program, yet a later episode is centered on a Catholic priest. And let’s ask ourselves the obvious question: if this General Santiago is such a menace that has got the real U.S. military so concerned about what he’s doing in the program, why don’t they just unplug the damn game?

Honestly, despite all these problems, as well as some stiff acting and stilted dialogue that are hallmarks of the Chris Carter formula, the series really wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t as good as it could have been. As expected of a Carter production, the show was stylish, moody and paranoid, and had a workable X Files conspiracy vibe. If you could set aside some flaws in basic logic, the writing had a handful of decent ideas, some of which were a little Max Headroom and others more The Twilight Zone. I wouldn’t say it was ever a great show, or even that it had the potential to become one, but it was solidly diverting enough that it at least deserved a little resolution and closure, which it sadly never got.

By 1999, Chris Carter’s golden boy status at the Fox network was fading fast. His Millennium had just been cancelled, and The X Files, then starting its seventh season, was in obvious artistic decline. Harsh Realm didn’t exactly put him in better standing. The show scored dismal ratings and the network pulled the plug after just three episodes, six left unaired. (They eventually found play on the FX cable channel.) Nonetheless, it had a small base of fans, and now all nine produced episodes are available on DVD for posterity.

Episodes included in this Complete Series box set are: Pilot, Leviathan, Inga Fossa, Kein Ausgang, Reunion, Three Percenters, Manus Domini, Cincinnati, and Camera Obscura.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Regardless of what it says on the packaging, Harsh Realm was a widescreen production and the episodes on DVD are presented in the 16:9 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. (Only the opening title sequences of every episode are 4:3 pillarboxed in the center of the frame.) Don’t be concerned by the start of the pilot episode, which is meant to have a grainy and washed-out Saving Private Ryan look to it. Picture quality from the next scene onward is generally excellent. The photography is bright and colorful, with very good shadow detail and almost no visible edge enhancement artifacts. The image mostly looks pretty sharp, but there are alternating patches of footage that are softer or lacking in detail. Still, this is a very good TV on DVD presentation, and well replicates the sleek photography and production values of the show.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby 2.0 Surround soundtrack is less exciting but gets the job done. A full 5.1 remixing might have been welcome on an action show of this type, but I suppose we’ll take what we’re given. The first episode sounds a little dull and has no boom to the shooting or explosions. Things improve in later episodes. There’s a fair amount of surround ambience and Mark Snow’s score has decent bass, especially in the opening theme. Gunshots are reasonably crisp even if they don’t have the kick that a feature film might have given them.

Optional English or Spanish subtitles are available, along with English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The show’s pilot episode is offered with two separate audio commentaries. The first track by series creator Chris Carter is exceedingly dull. He comes unprepared, sounds bored, and leaves many long gaps in the conversation where he just lets the episode’s soundtrack play. Even when he does speak, all he manages to do is point out the obvious. This commentary is an utter waste of time and I recommend that no one ever listen to it. Fortunately, the second track by producer/director Daniel Sackheim is much better. I wouldn’t say it’s a fabulous commentary, but he at least talks consistently and has a few intelligent things to say.

The Inside Harsh Realm featurette runs about 25 minutes and is actually very good. Consisting of new interviews with the show’s creators and some relevant vintage EPK material, the program discusses what everyone was trying to accomplish with the show and why they think it failed to catch on.

Creating the Logo and Title Sequence runs just 8 minutes but is a pretty interesting look at the art design theory that goes into marketing a television series.

Lastly, there are a handful of TV spots, three from the Fox network run and two more from the later FX syndication broadcasts. None of them are very good, and demonstrate how miserably the networks failed to promote the series.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Harsh Realm was a watchable but not great series from Chris Carter that was frustratingly cut short without any resolution to the main plot. X Files junkies may get a kick out of it, but I find it harder to recommend for purchase to general interest viewers.

Heart of Glass

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 6, 2002.

You have to be in a particular frame of mind to watch a movie like Herz aus Glas (Heart of Glass). Like most of Werner Herzog’s movies, it has a slow and deliberate pacing that’s antithetical to the American template for filmmaking, but in this case he goes a step even further. In order to capture the appropriate trance-like mood of the characters, all but one of the actors appear on camera while actually under hypnosis. This is almost the absolute opposite of Herzog’s most famous work with the maniacal Klaus Kinski in movies like Aguirre: The Wrath of God or Fitzcarraldo.

The film is a fable about a 19th Century Bavarian village whose chief glassmaker has died without passing on the secrets of his Ruby Glass, which is the town’s biggest source of income and seems to be the symbolic life center that holds everyone together. Without it, the community starts to fall apart and the people slip into madness. The superstitious master of the glasswork factory becomes desperate and tries to convince a local prophet (portrayed by the only actor not hypnotized) to help him, but this seer has only visions of collapse and apocalypse.

I wish that I could provide more details to flesh out the storyline, but to be honest, there isn’t much more to it than that. This is a movie built entirely upon its extended dreamlike tone. Long, drawn-out passages seem to drift by without anything happening, and even at a short 94 minutes, the movie feels padded with numerous landscape shots and a lengthy sequence where we just watch the glassmakers at work. As an intellectual experiment, the film is fascinating, but I’m afraid that it doesn’t work well as a narrative on its own. The viewer is constantly aware of the artifice of the hypnotized actors, to the point where you can’t think about anything else. Even though very little plot occurs, by the end I found myself confused as to what it was about or what any of it was supposed to mean.

This will, I’m sure, be a frustrating experience for some impatient viewers. Those already attuned to Herzog’s style may find it more interesting. It’s a haunting, poetic piece, and the behavior of the hypnotized actors makes it utterly unique. Their affected mannerisms, delayed reactions, and zombie movements are so bizarre that they become strangely transfixing, even humorous at times. This is certainly a film unlike any other ever made, and for that it’s a notable achievement in Werner Herzog’s career.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The film is presented in its 1.66:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. There’s an almost imperceptible amount of windowboxing on the sides of the picture to fit the image into the 16:9 frame. The transfer quality is excellent for a low-budget German film from 1977. The picture was mastered from lovely source elements that have almost no dirt or age-related blemishes. Black level is a little too light during some of the night scenes, but the intentionally muted colors are delicate yet striking, as intended.

Though anamorphically enhanced, the picture is a bit soft and details are sometimes hard to discern. There are also a number of landscape shots in the film that appear to be taken from absolutely terrible quality footage. These are set in such contrast with the rest of the film that I must assume this was a deliberate stylistic choice rather than a problem with the disc transfer. My first assumption was that these shots represented the visions of the prophet, but the application of this effect is inconsistent throughout the film. Some of the images in his visions are perfectly clear, and the excessively grainy shots appear at other times that may not be part of a vision. Unfortunately, this issue is not addressed in the DVD’s audio commentary. Nonetheless, I can’t imagine that the film has ever looked as nice as it does here. Obvious care has been taken in the presentation.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s German-language soundtrack is represented on disc in Dolby Digital 1.0 mono. As expected from the age and origin of the film, this is a constrained sound mix with limited fidelity. As a matter of fact, there’s almost more silence in this film than there is sound. For that reason, it’s a blessing that the track has been cleansed of the tape hiss usually associated with this type of movie. There’s really nothing more to say about it. The track gets its job done adequately.

The disc defaults to displaying removable English subtitles, but no other language options or closed captions have been provided.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The best reason to own this disc is the screen-specific audio commentary by Werner Herzog and interviewer Norman Hill. Herzog provides some much-needed context for the film’s story and his intentions in adapting it with such an unusual stylistic technique. This is an insightful talk, but it’s occasionally frustrating that Herzog neglects to talk about certain issues that would seem to need the most clarification. My favorite part of the track is his comment that storyboarding is “a disease of moviemaking.”

A tedious theatrical trailer is available in anamorphically enhanced widescreen with optional English subtitles. The disc also contains some of Anchor Bay’s typically excellent production notes and a Herzog bio. The booklet included with the disc has a short but useful essay about the film.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I recommend Heart of Glass only for devoted Herzog fans. I doubt that casual viewers would find much interest in it. For those already inclined to purchase the film, Anchor Bay has created another fine disc transfer for an obscure film.

Hero (Hong Kong Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published October 24, 2003.

(Please note: Hero was released theatrically in Asia in late 2002, and as such its official DVD release there hit stores well before the movie has even opened in theaters for general release in the United States. The disc reviewed here is coded for Region 3 NTSC playback and is only playable on compatible DVD hardware. Content and specs for the eventual Region 1 release of this material are subject to change.)

High-flying kung-fu action may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou. Renowned for his humanist, political dramas such as Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, and To Live (many starring former girlfriend Gong Li), about the last thing one might expect from him is a big-budget martial arts fantasy. The timing of such a project may even sound a little suspicious, coming not long after Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon created a worldwide sensation. Zhang is a significant filmmaking force in China, his movies often banned by the government for their subversive political content, and such a blatant cash-in ploy seems out of character. In fact, although superficial comparisons to Crouching Tiger are inevitable for a Western audience, his new feature Hero follows a long tradition of Wuxia fiction that has been popular in Chinese culture for generations, and the film manages to be a rousing success in its own right.

Starring action movie superstars Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Donnie Yen, and Zhang ZiYi (in a role not dissimilar to the one she played in Crouching Tiger), Hero is the tale of a nameless countryside official in feudal China who’s granted an audience with the Emperor after single-handedly dispatching the greatest threats to his throne. The Emperor is fascinated that any one man of such humble origins could defeat the deadly trio of assassins Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword, who had devastated armies of his soldiers and nearly murdered him in his own castle. Demanding to hear how the nameless man accomplished this feat leads into a series of Rashomon-like flashbacks where the story is told multiple times from different perspectives: the nameless man’s version, the Emperor’s supposition of what actually happened, and another version that may be the real truth, although that also seems rather pliant. As the story grows, it continues to double-back on itself, contradicting what we had previously learned and becoming more outrageous and fantastical the closer we come to the truth.

The nameless hero of course brings to mind Clint Eastwood’s famous Man with No Name, likely an intentional reference, though in general the film makes a lot fewer concessions to a Western audience than did Crouching Tiger, which was actually not particularly popular in Asia. Hero is a Chinese movie through and through, though that shouldn’t stop anyone from appreciating it as a piece of pure cinema magic regardless of cultural background. Wuxia stories are tales of sheer fantasy, and as a matter of course, their characters can fly, walk on water, move with superhuman speed and athletic grace, or other crazy things that defy all known laws of physics. Over the decades, Chinese filmmakers have perfected the genre into a precision ballet of flying feet and swooshing swords. The combat scenes in Hero are fabulously choreographed, and Zhang uses them as an excuse to demonstrate his skills as a superb visual stylist. The movie features some of the most breathtakingly beautiful images I’ve ever seen, from an artillery barrage of thousands of arrows launched in unison on a tiny village, to the forest duel between two characters whose every sword swing creates a swirling vortex of flying leaves. The film delivers a series of one stunning visual after another, backed by an intriguingly complex plot and Zhang’s skills as a storyteller. This is a beautiful, lyrical film with plenty of exciting action and an engaging story. What more could you want in a movie?

Rumor has it that Hero was partially financed by Miramax (although there’s no reference to it on this particular DVD case) and, simply for being a foreign-language production, the Weinstein brothers insisted that the filmmakers cut a chunk of original footage from its runtime. This sounds plausible enough, given that they’ve done likewise with every other foreign-language film they’ve ever acquired, lauding themselves for their skill at streamlining out all the parts an American audience just won’t “get.” Shame on them. The film’s theatrical cut runs a brisk 98 minutes. Reportedly, the director’s original cut was about 10-15 minutes longer, and you can tell which portions of the current film could use a little more elaboration. The movie still makes coherent sense, but some parts may seem a little jumpy and it will take some concentration to follow the plot the first time through. The Director’s Cut will supposedly make its way to DVD in Asia eventually, but so far that hasn’t happened. Every announced release has been pushed back or indefinitely postponed. In the meantime, those viewers with region-free hardware can enjoy the theatrical cut on this official 2-disc special edition Hong Kong release from Edko Films, coded for Region 3 playback in the NTSC video format.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The DVD is presented in the film’s theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and the full widescreen framing is essential to preserve the scope of the visuals. This isn’t a movie you want to watch cropped. The photography is lovely, but the DVD quality could probably be better. Although anamorphically enhanced, the picture is a bit on the soft side. A faint bit of edge enhancement is unfortunately visible, though the effect is lessened by the softness of the transfer and isn’t all that distracting. Colors look a little dull at times when you expect them to be popping and vibrant, and flesh tones run into pink during several scenes.

The digital compression quality is only mediocre. There are repeated instances where compression artifacts such as macro-blocking and mosquito noise become obvious. Still, despite all of the complaints I’ve just listed, the DVD remains a pleasing visual experience, due more than anything else to the beauty of the movie’s photography, which manages to outshine any flaws in the presentation. I can hope for better from the eventual Region 1 release, but for the time being this disc is still satisfying.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Wow! Excuse me for a moment while I get up off the floor because this DVD’s DTS soundtrack just knocked me on my ass! The disc has a Dolby Digital-EX 5.1 track that is all well and good on its own but seems positively sleepy in comparison to the full bit-rate 1509 kb/s DTS-ES Matrix soundtrack that is quite simply the best-sounding thing I’ve ever heard in my home. Say what you will about DTS sweetening the masters, or pumping up the bass, or that it’s all just a volume level discrepancy, but I don’t care. All I know is that this track sounds phenomenal and that the Dolby Digital, although fine enough for most purposes, can’t hold a candle to it even after matching the volume.

This is an extremely aggressive sound mix with constant separation effects coming from every speaker, including the center rear. Fists fly, swords swing, and arrows cut through the air all around you. Fidelity is exceptional from the high-end scrape of steel on steel to the low-end thundering bass of marching armies. Sound effects are sharply recorded and the lush musical score exudes a wonderful presence that fills the room and wraps around the listener.

I previously liked to use the half bit-rate DTS track on the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon SuperBit DVD as a demo piece for showing off my home theater, but even my favorite scene in that movie (the sparring face-off between Michelle Yeoh and Zhang ZiYi) is sonically dead compared to just about any scene on this disc. I recommend the Golden Forest duel in Chapter 5 as a new reference piece. It’s guaranteed to knock the socks off just about anyone you demo it for.

While picture quality on this disc may be a little disappointing, the sound quality certainly isn’t. If true, it’s a shame that Miramax has the domestic distribution rights, because their DTS support is pretty slim. Of course, in a few months I may have to eat my words; in fact, I hope that I have to, but for the time being I’m not holding out much hope that we’ll see the DTS track carried over for us here in Region 1.

The disc offers optional English or Traditional Chinese subtitles for the Mandarin soundtrack. Sorry, illiterate clods, no English dub for you.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Edko has sprung for the deluxe 2-disc treatment. The first disc is reserved exclusively for the movie (you’d think they might’ve been able to improve the mastering quality), while all supplements appear on Disc 2. Many of the bonus features offer English translation, though others don’t. The menus are divided into four sections:

THE HEROES – Here you’ll find simple character bios (in Chinese or English) and a couple of animated still galleries featuring the movie’s weapons and costumes. There are also cast & crew bios that include several video interviews (with optional English subs available through the remote).

THE JOURNEY TO HERO – This section provides information about the filming locations (in Chinese or English again) interspersed with clips from the movie.

SOMETHING ABOUT HERO – Unfortunately, none of the content in this section offers English translation. Video footage from a seminar of some sort called Heroes Behind Hero has been broken into four short featurettes without subtitles. There’s also a 1-minute piece called Colors Behind Hero that analyzes the use of color symbolism in the movie (red for passion, blue for romantic love, green for memory, and white for truth), though it also has no subtitles.

BEHIND THE HERO – Here we get a Making-Of featurette that has been broken into six 3-minute segments without subtitles. NG Shots are two minutes of bloopers that require no translation. Behind the Scenes is a 6-minute piece of production footage showing the wire work being staged. Storyboards with video comparison to the actual movie footage are available for four scenes. Finally are the Drafts, which are animated still galleries for weapons, costumes, vehicles, props, and sets.

The way the menus are laid out may lead one to believe that the disc is just chocked full of goodies, but in the final analysis, there isn’t a whole lot of real content here. What we do get is pretty insubstantial, when we’re even lucky enough to get subtitles. I don’t think I gained much of any insight into the making of the movie, and honestly wouldn’t have missed out on much if the second disc hadn’t been provided at all.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

There are some all-region DVD copies of questionable legality and quality floating around for this movie, but if you have a DVD player capable of supporting Region 3 playback, I heartily recommend purchasing this official disc from Edko. The picture and supplements are only satisfactory, but the stellar DTS soundtrack is a new reference piece. I have my fingers crossed that the eventual Region 1 release retains the DTS, hopefully with better picture quality as well, but this disc will more than suffice until then.

High Spirits

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 14, 2002.

“This is the most pitiful supernatural show I’ve ever encountered.”

“We’ll get better, I assure you.”

How can so many talented people come together and create such a mediocre movie? Writer-director Neil Jordan would not find his biggest success with The Crying Game for a few years yet, but by 1988 he’d already created a couple of minor masterpieces with The Company of Wolves and Mona Lisa. Oscar-winner and grand ham Peter O’Toole has a way of lighting up any role he appears in, Beverly D’Angelo proved to be a skilled comedienne in the Vacation movies, and the film is backed by a supporting cast of seasoned veterans and on-the-cusp-of-stardom actors like Peter Gallagher, Liam Neeson, and Jennifer Tilly. Daryl Hannah has never been much of an actress, but she did manage to bring some fair amount of charm to Splash, as well as giving credible performances in Blade Runner and Wall Street. Yet put them all together and you wind up with High Spirits, a fizzled supernatural comedy four years too late to cash in on the success of Ghostbusters.

Then it hits me like a lightning bolt to the chest, the weak link in this chain: Steve Guttenberg. How did he wind up in this cast? Was there an aborted Police Academy Goes to Ireland sequel shooting nearby and he wandered onto the wrong set? Admittedly, it’s almost too easy to take pot-shots at Guttenberg (by sheer volume, the man has contributed more crap to the cinematic landscape than Pauly Shore and Jim Carrey combined), and to be honest, he delivers a perfectly competent performance here, but there’s just something profoundly wrong with putting Peter O’Toole and Steve Guttenberg in the same movie together.

No, what really kills High Spirits is a lack of inspiration. The concept had only a moderate amount of potential to begin with: On the verge of losing his family castle to bankruptcy, flamboyant con-artist Peter Plunkett (O’Toole) devises a scheme to lure gullible American tourists there by claiming that the estate is haunted. He plans to turn the entire compound into a hotel rigged with elaborate hoaxes involving locals wearing sheets and fright wigs dangling from pulley contraptions outside the guest windows. Problems develop when the stupid Americans debunk his scam, and things get even worse when the real ghosts who have actually been haunting the castle come out to play.

The movie does have some clever dialogue (“If I get murdered one more time, I’ll scream.”), some incredibly nice production design, and a few genuinely funny gags. (Renaldo the Talking Horse and a group of evil nuns had me laughing out loud.) Sadly, there are as many lame jokes as good ones. Poor Peter Gallagher and Daryl Hannah are saddled with horribly fake accents that neither of them is capable of pulling off, Tilly is annoying, and the production is marred by choppy editing, an unconvincing love story, and some horribly dated ’80s special effects. Peter O’Toole may give it his all playing Plunkett to the hilt, but despite his efforts and the film’s pedigree, this ghostly comedy is D.O.A.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Considering that they must have dug this minimal-interest catalog title out from the deepest recesses of their vault, the folks at MGM have given the film a surprisingly impressive transfer. Letterboxed to 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement, the picture sports strong colors, a sharp focus, and good contrast range. The source elements are in remarkably clean condition, with nary a speckle or scratch anywhere in sight. Flesh tones on all of the fair-skinned actresses are consistently perfect, and the picture has almost no grain. The lovely Ireland landscape shots are also flatteringly rendered. There might be a very small amount of image shimmer on rare occasion, but otherwise I detected no significant compression problems.

On the flip-side of the disc is a full-frame 4:3 transfer for those viewers who have yet to comprehend what the black bars are for. The opening credits are mildly letterboxed, but the rest of the movie is primarily an open-matte presentation with more picture on the top and bottom of the frame and some slight cropping on the sides. The photography is better composed in the widescreen ratio, and I advocate watching that version instead, but in other respects the quality of the transfer is about the same.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Unfortunately, the sound quality is less impressive. The overall volume of the Dolby Surround soundtrack is set very low and must be boosted above normal default settings. Even so, dialogue tends to be murky and I had to additionally raise the volume of my center channel speaker several notches to hear it with any clarity. The thick Irish brogue of some actors probably doesn’t help much. When you can hear it, the sound quality is often shrill in character.

On the other hand, the music is fairly expansive and does have some rather aggressive surround envelopment, including a good number of directional effects. There’s at least one instance of a shock effect panning from front speakers to rear that I swear almost sounds like it swished discretely between the rear speakers, even though I know this isn’t possible with the monaural surround channel.

Optional English, French, or Spanish subtitles are available, as well as true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The disc contains a theatrical trailer. That’s it for supplements. Just like the movie, the trailer is letterboxed with anamorphic enhancement on the widescreen side of the disc or full-frame on the other.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Fans of Peter O’Toole or Neil Jordan may want the disc for completist purposes (does Steve Guttenberg have fans?), but I doubt that either group has been banging down MGM’s door for this particular catalog release. Still, a nice transfer and bargain pricing make this a good purchase for those interested. All others may want to save it for a rental when Halloween comes around.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 18, 2002.

The universe became a much less interesting place when Douglas Adams passed away in 2001, his life taken short at the age of 49 by a heart attack. Fortunately, his hoopy science fiction comedy masterpiece, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, will likely survive him for several millennia to come.

Ford: “How would you react if I told you I’m not from Guildford after all, but from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse?”

Arthur: “I don’t know. Why? Do you think it’s the sort of thing you’re likely to say?”

Arthur Dent just wants to have a cup of tea in peace when he learns that his house has been scheduled for demolition that morning in order to make room for a highway bypass. The plans, you see, have been on public display in the local planning department for months, locked in a filing cabinet in the darkened cellar behind a sign that says, “Beware of the Leopard.” This leads, as these things inevitably do, to the revelation that his best friend is actually a space alien and that the Earth itself has been similarly scheduled for demolition in order to make room for a hyperspace bypass. The plans, you see, have been on public display for 50 years in the local planning department on Alpha Centauri. Well, poor Arthur’s day doesn’t get much better from there. He soon finds himself trudging across the galaxy in his bathrobe, in the company of his loopy alien friend, a two-headed hippie, and a paranoid android. He must learn to properly use a Babel Fish, master the complexities of an Infinite Improbability Drive, steal a stunt ship from the loudest rock band in existence, endure a reading of the third worst poetry in the known universe, and discover the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All this, and wouldn’t you know it, but he just can’t find a decent cup of tea anywhere. It’s almost enough to make a fellow throw in the towel, literally.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide started life originally as a BBC Radio program in the late 1970s. It proved to be such a popular success that Adams soon spun it off into a stage play, record albums, a very early computer game, a wonderful five-part trilogy of novels, a bath towel, and an extraordinarily low-budget television production. They are all pure, unadulterated genius. (Well, the towel is fairly clever, at least.) Adams was heavily involved with every incarnation of the Guide story, and his script for the television series managed to cram almost all of the events from the first two novels into six half-hour episodes. That’s quite a remarkable achievement when you consider his fragmented and thoroughly chaotic writing style. The show perfectly captures Adams’ droll wit, his cluttered humor, his throwaway jokes that continually loop back around one another, and all of his seemingly random philosophical digressions, stray tangents, and messy loose ends. Somehow, it accomplishes all of this for almost no money whatsoever.

Simon Jones reprises his lead role from the radio production and is a perfect fit for Arthur. The vocal casting for Marvin the android is also flawless, though I’m less thrilled with the actors chosen to play Ford Prefect or Trillian, neither of whom fit my preconceived notions of the characters. Not to worry, they function well enough within the television series itself. There are so many good things working in the show’s favor that you can hardly be bothered quibbling over its faithfulness to previous versions of the story. Even its shockingly low budget becomes an asset. The show was produced in 1981 for BBC Television, and they seem to have spent somewhat less on it than a typical episode of Doctor Who, to give you some indication of what its production values look like. This show is C-H-E-A-P. Adams and company have great fun within their limitations, though. There’s something charming about deliberately hokey costumes and special effects, especially when they’re used so playfully.

Each episode runs somewhere between 30 to 34 minutes with full opening and closing credits. Previous video editions tended to drop the credits on middle episodes and run the whole thing in one or two longer pieces, which got confusing during all of the plot recap segments that were retained. The episodes here are unedited and in a few cases contain brief additional material not seen during the original broadcasts.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a parody of science fiction, both literary and cinematic, but is also laced with keen social commentary and a legitimate concern for the progression of the human race. Most importantly, it’s hilarious and utterly sublime in all of its forms from radio to page to television. That the TV show could work so well under its severe production constrictions is a testament to the brilliance of its creator. So long, Douglas Adams, and thanks for all the fish.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The show’s incredibly inexpensive production values make objective criticism of the DVD picture quality difficult. The Hitchhiker’s Guide will simply never be mistaken for Star Wars. Like most BBC programs, the show’s interior scenes were shot on videotape while the exteriors were shot on grainy and washed-out 16mm film. With that in mind, the disc transfer is pretty good indeed. I dug out my old Laserdisc copy for comparison. The Laserdisc, I felt, never looked particularly great nor terrible given the source material. This DVD’s colors are a bit duller than the LD’s, but as compensation the picture is much cleaner, with little of the dirt or scratches that were previously evident. Colors also bleed less, and the disc as a whole has a slightly less smeary appearance. PAL-to-NTSC conversion artifacts aren’t as blatant, and surprisingly (considering the clean-up work) the picture looks less heavily DNR’ed. The show still looks cheap and it always will, but within those limitations, the DVD is perfectly satisfying.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Don’t panic! Although someone has seen fit to tinker with the show’s soundtrack by remixing it into stereo, the original mono sound mix is also available on the DVD’s secondary audio channel. As far as revisionist sound design remixes go, the stereo track on this disc is fairly tasteful. Music has been given added dimensionality and there are some notable separation effects across the front soundstage. Thankfully, there are no obnoxious or gimmicky surround effects (just a very faint bit of music or ambience bleed on rare occasion), and none of the original audio elements have been replaced or reworked. Every blip, blurp, or bleep sound effect remains as cheesy as ever.

The stereo mix does have a few oddities, however. The voiceover narration from the Guide seems to come only from the right speaker channel most of the time. I’m not sure why, exactly. I would have expected it to come from the center channel along with the rest of the dialogue. The Laserdisc also had a stereo remix, but it was more centered. I’m not prepared to make a judgement on whether one is necessarily better than the other. Where the DVD offers definite improvement is in the volume balance of music to dialogue. The music on the LD blared much too loudly, causing me to ride the volume control throughout the show. Both discs have sporadic problems when a deliberate echo effect, such as the Vogon captain’s voice or the supercomputer Deep Thought, are exaggerated and make the dialogue unintelligible. In these cases the original mono mix found on the DVD is much clearer. I want to savor every excruciating syllable of that Vogonese poetry, thank you very much.

The disc has optional English subtitles, but no true closed captions.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

I remember now my initial disappointment when I bought the old Laserdisc and saw a “Contains Exclusive Unseen Material!” banner on the front cover, only to find that the disc had no supplements of any kind. It turned out that the LD jacket was referring to the slightly longer running time of the episodes. That was such a letdown, especially since even the VHS tapes included an interview or two. The new Warner Bros. DVD has a similar frustration, its listing of an “audio interview with Douglas Adams” among the supplements. If this is actually present somewhere on these discs, I was unable to find it, even among the easter eggs. Nonetheless, this is a minor complaint in an otherwise great two-disc DVD package.

Disc 1 contains all six episodes plus a terrific subtitle trivia track. This is one of my favorite types of supplements, as it allows you to watch the show with its soundtrack playing and learn about its production at the same time. Unlike an audio commentary, if you get bored you can just focus on the program itself for a little while and then bring your attention back to the trivia when you feel like it. The track is loaded with information, from the mundane (original air dates) to the hilarious (one actor’s intestinal problems from eating all of the strangely colored foods).

Disc 2 is loaded up with the rest of the bonus features. Most of these have appeared previously either on television or on other video releases, but their collection together here makes the DVD an invaluable reference. I only wish that the disc’s menu navigation were less confusing and didn’t spread apart supplements that ought to be grouped together. I recommend starting with the Douglas Adams Omnibus, a 49-minute tribute program for the late author that’s both warm and moving. His entire career is covered along with elaboration on the origins of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. From here, The Making of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (58 min.) is a natural next stop. This 1993 BBC documentary is very thorough and very funny, and has lots of swearing. There’s some repetition of clips between the two programs, but both are worth watching. Several years later, the producers of the Making-of went through some of their unused interview footage and compiled Don’t Panic (26 min.), which functions as an extension of that documentary. Yet, as noted above, the DVD menus spread apart these two supplements and actually lead a viewer toward watching Don’t Panic first. That organization makes no sense to me.

Behind the Scenes is a 7-minute clip from the filming of one particularly stressful scene. Watch the timer at the bottom of the screen count to the studio shutdown cut-off time while the cast struggles desperately to complete their scene. Outtakes showcases nine less-stressful minutes of funny flubs from the set. The Deleted Scene from Episode 2 runs a mere two minutes and is actually rather redundant since it’s seen for the most part in one of the other documentaries. Communicate brings us back in time a little bit for a look at the recording of the original radio program. The disc also has a couple of vintage TV segments. Pebble Mill at One is a 1981 interview with the director and the animator talking about the famous “computer animation” for the Guide book scenes (actually all traditional hand-drawn artwork). Then the Tomorrow’s World Sequence features a 2-minute blurb from a science program running a story about the Zaphod Beeblebrox animatronic head. Like the deleted scene mentioned above, this clip is also found elsewhere within one of the other programs on the disc.

A strange curiosity, the Peter Jones Introduction is an 8-minute gag video that was run before a screening of the series for a prospective laugh-track audience recording. Plans for the laugh track were later fortunately dropped. The piece is slightly amusing but runs way too long. Rounding out the clearly marked supplements are a trailer for the show and a lengthy photo gallery.

To my knowledge, there are at least three hidden easter eggs on these discs. I’m proud to say that I found the first one entirely on my own, but did need to cheat with help from a rival DVD site [insert editorial bickering here] to find the others. On the main menu for Disc 1, highlight the Set-Up option and press left on your remote. You’ll be taken to a number keypad. Enter 1146 (the scheduled time for the Earth’s demolition) to see a brief clip of this event followed by a recipe for a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. The other two eggs are on Disc 2. On the Inner Planets menu page, turn Subtitles off and then highlight Communicate. Press left and a graphic of the Earth will appear. Hit enter to see the show’s opening credits scene without its superimposed text. Next, go to the Outer Planets page and turn Subtitles on. Highlight the Inner Planets tab and press left to display a Don’t Panic logo. Press enter for an extended look at the animation from one of the spaceship control screens.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Warner Bros. has a reputation for making bone-headed decisions when it comes to releasing TV product on DVD (their preference for theme compilation discs being chief among my complaints), but I can hardly fault them at all for their treatment of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A fine transfer and a load of interesting supplements make for not only an excellent archive edition of the series, but also a terrific tribute to the genius of Douglas Adams. They’ve even foregone their usual cardboard snapper packaging for a decent keepcase. Several million points out of 10 for style.

The Human Stain

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 20, 2004.

I honestly never expected to find myself complaining that a movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman would be sunk by its terrible casting, but that’s exactly what happens to The Human Stain, an adaptation of the celebrated novel by Philip Roth. Robert Benton, a filmmaker who once knew how to put together a quality movie but has been coasting on his reputation for the past couple of decades, directs and largely misses the point of the book.

Hopkins stars as Coleman Silk, professor of literature and classics at a snooty college in New England. He’s a man obsessed with the precision of words who, ironically, becomes embroiled in controversy over the use of a single word: “Spooks.” Taken out of context, his description of two mysteriously vanished students is decried as a racial epithet. This leads to the loss of his position and, due to related stress, the death of his wife. Kidman later enters his life as an unlikely romantic interest who brings a whole new set of problems with her.

The two leads are obviously both fine actors with plenty of major award wins and nominations to their credit. Nonetheless, they’re both woefully, almost absurdly miscast here. Kidman is simply way too glamorous to play the white trash farmhand Faunia. (In the novel, she’s even illiterate.) I would have to reveal a gigantic plot twist to explain why Hopkins doesn’t belong in his role; suffice it to say that although he at first seems right at home playing an uptight college professor, when we learn more about Silk’s backstory, it becomes patently ridiculous for Hopkins to possibly be that character.

Set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal in 1998, Roth’s novel was a biting satire of political correctness gone amok. The screenplay by Nicholas Meyer basically eviscerates that entire aspect of the story, using it only as the set-up and focusing entirely on the Hopkins/Kidman relationship instead. Even here, he guts out important character details like Faunia’s illiteracy, which served as ironic counterpoint to Coleman’s obsession with language. You’d think something like that might be important, but I suspect that the producers and studio demanded that her character be softened up for the audience. I generally don’t complain when movies deviate from their source novels, because the two media really ought to be judged separately, but in a case like this it seems like everyone involved had no idea what the book was even about.

Despite their obvious inappropriateness, Hopkins and Kidman both do the best with what they’ve got and deliver fine, mostly appealing performances. Gary Sinise and Ed Harris also do decent work in supporting roles (though Sinise is much too young for his part), and the actor playing the young Coleman is quite good even though he shares no physical resemblance to Hopkins whatsoever. The film is well put together and, considering how much it alters from the book, competently-scripted for what it is, but just has no juice. It tries to plumb some emotional depths with serious issues like denying one’s own identity, but doesn’t go anywhere that better movies haven’t already been. The picture didn’t attract much attention at the box office, probably because a title like The Human Stain doesn’t exactly appeal to the moviegoing instinct. Even with all the talent involved, I don’t foresee it doing much better on home video.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Contrary to what it says on the disc case, the DVD preserves the movie’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with anamorphic enhancement. The picture has good colors and contrasts, with nice black level and plenty of visible shadow detail. Unfortunately, it also has a lot of edge enhancement ringing and sometimes poor digital compression quality. Close-up shots exhibit a nice sense of textural detail, but medium and wide shots don’t fare as well and often look indistinct. Overall, Miramax’s transfer is thoroughly mediocre.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is also unexceptional. Volume is set very low by default, and when amplified won’t exactly bowl anyone over with its dynamic range. The movie is almost all dialogue, which is often hard to make out without cranking the volume. There is a moderate amount of depth to the musical score and the occasional sound effect (Ed Harris’s truck engine gets a good revving), but has no discernable usage of the surround or LFE channels. It’s a restrained sound mix for a restrained movie.

A French dub is also provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. The disc offers optional subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired, French, or Spanish, as well as English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The forced trailer before the menu and other sneak peaks for unrelated crap shouldn’t really count as “bonus features,” but when a disc is as feature-starved as this one, you have to make mention of everything.

Miramax didn’t go out of their way to do anything special for the movie. The Behind the Scenes Special is seven minutes of Electronic Press Kit fluff that tells you nothing new or exciting about making the movie. After this is the Tribute to Jean-Yves Escoffier, a two-minute compilation of unidentified clips from the late cinematographer’s work. The tribute conveniently only covers those titles he worked on for Miramax, which (Good Will Hunting perhaps excepted) weren’t exactly the highlights of his career. Something makes me think he may have even left The Crow: City of Angels off his résumé.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A mediocre movie gets a mediocre DVD. The Human Stain wants to be a better movie than it is, but the DVD hardly even tries. So-so picture and sound quality and worthless supplements don’t add to the appeal. Save this one for a rental rather than purchase, or just wait for it on cable.

I Am Curious (Yellow) / I Am Curious (Blue)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 10, 2003.

Since their inception in 1984 when they pioneered the art of the home video special edition on the Laserdisc format, the Criterion Collection has released movies from just about every conceivable genre, from classic foreign films to recent Hollywood science-fiction blockbusters. Yet in all of that time, there was one genre they never touched: porn. This seems like a grievous oversight to me. Just imagine the possibilities for a Criterion edition of Deep Throat! You could argue that some of their more controversial entries like Damage or Crash were nothing more than softcore titillation in the guise of art film pretentiousness, but never had they approached a movie with as much stigma or baggage as the infamous Swedish sensation I Am Curious (Yellow), its mere title forever associated with seedy hardcore depravity and the corruption of Christian American morals. Alternately called “one of the most important pictures I have ever seen in my life” (Norman Mailer) or “vile and disgusting” (Rex Reed), this little Swedish art movie sparked a firestorm of controversy upon its 1969 release in America, catapulting it to become the highest-grossing foreign film release of its day. For better or worse, it broke down the last vestiges of the Hollywood production code and paved the way for the mainstreaming of actual hardcore porn like Deep Throat and Caligula in the ’70s.

To look back on them now, I Am Curious (Yellow) and its lesser-seen sister film I Am Curious (Blue) are curiosities indeed, neither as shocking or depraved as they once seemed nor as socially relevant as they may have been at the time. Really, there isn’t very much dirty about them at all. Yes, both films contain quite a bit of full-frontal nudity and a very frank and honest look at human sexuality still rare in cinema (including one scene where the main character plays with her lover’s flaccid penis), but for the most part, the nude scenes in each movie are of the emotionally raw “I shall bare my soul to the camera” sort, not the “Let’s put on some funky music and get it on!” variety. In fact, Blue shies away entirely from depicting a lesbian encounter, almost prudishly leaving its action implied rather than shown. The main actress/character Lena Nyman is far from an idealized representation of the female body; she’s a real woman, shapely and attractive but not without physical imperfections that we see in plenty of detail. But she’s brave, completely unafraid to put herself before the camera and the world.

As director Vilgot Sjoman describes it, I Am Curious is really just one film broken into two halves, Yellow and Blue, representative of the colors of the Swedish flag. Each is a bizarre amalgamation of cinema verite, documentary, and fiction, mixing real interviews with actual Swedish citizens, politicians, and celebrities with a fictional (or is it?) storyline about the process of its own making. This is a movie about itself, starring its own director as himself having an affair with his real leading lady and becoming jealous of her relationship with her co-star. The story constantly moves between the different layers of reality, from the outermost shell about Vilgot making a movie starring Lena, into Lena’s story in which she’s filming a documentary about Swedish society, and then into the documentary itself and back again, often in confusing spurts that blur the line between reality and fiction.

I have no doubt that American audiences in 1969 who went to the theater expecting kinky titillation were confounded and disappointed by what they got instead, a subtitled art film featuring lengthy diatribes about Swedish politics. I Am Curious is at times almost as metaphysically bleak as an Ingmar Bergman film (Sjoman was a disciple of Bergman), but it also has a dry sense of humor about itself that many viewers are apt to miss if they take the story at face value. Lena is a radical Socialist reformer, shoving her microphone into people’s faces and demanding that they take action to break down the class structure in Swedish society. The movie seems to side with her views, but looked at a different way, it’s actually a satire about her youthful arrogance. She’s an annoying college-age girl who thinks that she has the answers to everything in life, quick to take action and protest anything and everything that bothers her. Meanwhile, the director helping her to air her views on film is really only interested in boinking her. Soon enough, we see that societal politics are less important than personal politics, as Lena all but ignores her social activism when she becomes obsessed with her boyfriend cheating on her.

I Am Curious (Yellow) has a number of very funny moments during Lena’s journey of self-discovery. Her hypocrisy is exposed when she becomes violent with jealousy, and the movie has fun parodying the absurdity of many of her views. Lena wins one of her battles when the government implements a policy of non-violence and demands that the armed forces be trained to resist an invading army by making friends with the enemy soldiers and subversively slipping them propaganda. This is certainly not a work that believes in all of the views it espouses. I Am Curious (Blue), filmed concurrently with Yellow, doubles back and intertwines with the first film. It has a little less humor and a little less sex, making it perhaps more cryptically obscure and less entertaining overall, but it’s a valid continuation of Lena’s journey and is worth seeing for those who find interest in Yellow beyond the nudity or the historical curiosity value.

As a whole, I Am Curious has perhaps earned an unfair place in film history, often associated more with pornography than art, its real merits as a film forgotten or obscured behind the controversy of its release. I’m sure that if you were to run a poll, most movie viewers wouldn’t be able to distinguish the difference between I Am Curious (Yellow) or the equally infamous hardcore sex film Behind the Green Door. To most minds, one color is as good as another.

Regardless of this, and perhaps despite its original intentions, I Am Curious is an important historical artifact for the way it broke down barriers of censorship in the late ’60s. Certainly not a film that will appeal to all, or even most viewers, this new Criterion Collection DVD edition nonetheless gives the film its first legitimate home video release that will allow those interested to judge the movie on its own merits and with proper context. In such a light, it should become obvious that I Am Curious is as far removed from pornography as a picture like Deep Throat is removed from being an art film. Not, mind you, that I think Deep Throat is unworthy of its own Criterion edition. In fact, maybe they should get to work on that next!

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, I Am Curious (Yellow) has a simply gorgeous black & white transfer. The source elements are very clean with only small amounts of age-related film damage that are never distracting. The picture is sharp and detailed, with perfect gray scale and contrast range. Grain is present in the picture, but the digital compression work is flawless. The grain doesn’t turn into video signal noise, and in fact when viewed on a large screen, it forms a lovely texture that exposes the beauty of the process by which minute particles of grain form a photographic image. This is a stunning, film-like picture.

The transfer on I Am Curious (Blue) is in most respects identical in quality to that on Yellow, but for some reason I noticed the intrusion of artificial edge enhancement in a number of scenes, whereas I didn’t spot any in the first film. This is a rare and disappointing occurrence for a Criterion release, and I’m not sure why they felt it was necessary. Fortunately, for such a flaw at least it’s relatively moderate in its usage and may not be too distracting except on large screen sizes.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The original Swedish soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 1.0 mono. There isn’t much to be said for the sound quality, except that it’s clear and perfectly intelligible. This is an accurate representation of the original “documentary-like” recording quality. Camera noise is occasionally audible, but intentionally so. Fidelity can be a bit strident and dynamic range is practically non-existent, but this is part of the original sound design and shouldn’t be judged as a flaw of the disc mastering.

Optional English subtitles are available through the disc menu, but no other language or subtitle options have been provided. Neither film has true closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The story behind the release of I Am Curious is in some respects more interesting than the movie itself, as Criterion has thoroughly documented in the supplements on these discs. Never a studio to engage in the practice of “fluffing” their special edition releases with worthless promotional filler, all of the bonus features are highly informative and worthwhile. To start, the two booklets contained in the packaging provide an interesting essay (included with the Yellow disc) about the two films and an interview with director Vilgot Sjoman (included with the Blue disc).

On-screen video content begins with a 5-minute Introduction by Vilgot Sjoman before the first film, describing his intentions when working on each. The Director’s Diary amounts to a selected-scenes audio commentary, wherein Sjoman reads from his production diary and comments on the action in 12 scenes on the Yellow disc.

The 12-minute featurette called Rosset/de Grazia features an interview with the publisher Barney Rosset, who made it his cause to distribute the film in America, and the attorney Edward de Grazia, who defended him in court as a result of it. They describe in some detail the seizure of the film by U.S. Customs and the ensuing court battle about its supposed pornographic content. Another featurette, the 9-minute piece entitled The Battle for I Am Curious (Yellow) further elaborates on the controversy that led to the movie becoming the highest-grossing foreign film release of its day.

The Trial Transcripts are text documents of the court testimony presented in defense of the film by celebrity experts such as film critics Stanley Kaufman and John Simon, as well as novelist Norman Mailer and others. A trailer that was never used and features footage not in the movies themselves is presented here with a brief introduction by director Sjoman.

On the Blue disc, we get another set of entries from the Director’s Diary, this time for 11 more scenes. Following the movie are a fascinating deleted scene with introduction by Sjoman and an 18-minute excerpt from a Swedish TV program called Self Portrait ’92 that provides an overview of Sjoman’s career and displays a surprising number of film clips with extensive nudity.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Reviled, despised, and in time just plain forgotten, I Am Curious is due for critical re-evaluation. Enter the Criterion Collection with their lovely new video transfer and small but fascinating selection of bonus features. Not everyone will appreciate this film, but there’s no denying that it has earned its place among “a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films.” This new DVD release is recommended… for those who are curious, of course.

Interview with the Assassin

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published May 27, 2003.

“You kill the most powerful man in the world, that makes you the most powerful, don’t you think?”

What if that creepy old guy who lives across the street decided to tell you all of his deepest, darkest secrets? Would you want to hear them? That’s the premise behind director Neil Burger’s intriguing two-character thriller Interview with the Assassin. An unemployed TV news cameraman receives exactly that kind of offer from his neighbor across the way, and oh boy does the old man have a doozy of a story to tell. He claims to be the second gunman behind the grassy knoll in Dallas, November of 1963, and says that it was his bullet that killed JFK. Now would you be interested to hear?

The assassin is former Marine sniper Walter Ohlinger, and his tale is eerily compelling. Riddled with cancer and wanting a record of his story before he dies, Ohlinger insists that he can prove his claims. He drags the cameraman on a journey to collect old evidence, revisiting the famous scene and demonstrating where he stood and how he got away. Played by veteran character actor Raymond J. Barry, the Marine has a coldly aloof, unemotional demeanor that’s very convincing. But underlying all of his stories is the growing suspicion that the old man is making the whole thing up. Is he crazy? Is he lying? Could he be dangerous?

The movie is seen entirely from the point of view of a video camera that the main character carries around with him, Blair Witch-style. (Man Bites Dog would be an even more accurate comparison.) This gives the film an underlying sense of realism that helps to sell the concept. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t nearly as innovative as it seems to think it is. Although Barry delivers a fine, chilling performance, and the direction sustains a strong tone of paranoia and dread, the conspiracy angle to the story isn’t developed as well as it could have been (Burger is no Oliver Stone) and the secondary performance of the interviewer is nowhere near as good as Barry’s; he’s better off-camera than in those scenes where we have to see his face. The movie is also burdened by a plainly ridiculous ending that makes no sense when you consider that the main character has all of the events of the drama recorded on videotape.

In the end, Interview with the Assassin is an interesting but unsatisfying little experiment in indie filmmaking. It takes an old story and puts a slightly different spin on it, but it could have been better with just a little more work. It has all the makings of a terrific 2-minute trailer, but not quite enough for a full 85-minute film.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Don’t worry, it’s supposed to look this bad. Shot on a consumer-grade digital video camera, the picture is intentionally rough and slipshod. Although anamorphically enhanced to the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the image is soft, pasty, and washed-out. Contrast range is all over the map with muddy blacks and blown-out whites, and pixel structure is frequently visible in close-ups. This is all well and good, since the look is obviously deliberate. The picture is so ugly that it becomes strangely compelling. In fact, the movie actually won a cinematography prize at the Independent Spirit Awards. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it deserves that kind of acclaim, but what we see on disc is an accurate reproduction of what we’re meant to see.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is all dialogue and diegetic sounds with no music or obvious sound effects. It’s meant to sound like it was entirely recorded with the in-camera microphone, and for the most part it does (though I’m sure the filmmakers probably used a boom mic for the dialogue). Volume is set low by default and will require amplification, especially during the whispered conversations. The dull thud of rifle and gunshots makes a striking contrast to the pumped-up effects we usually hear in movies, and therefore enhances the sense of realism. Be sure to listen carefully to the very faint audio over the end credits.

The disc offers English closed captioning, but no other subtitle or language options.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The DVD may or may not contain an audio commentary from director Neil Burger. The menus on the screener disc provided by the studio claim that one will be present on sale copies, but it wasn’t available for review and the disc packaging makes no mention of it.

What we do get for sure are two sets of text supplements, one consisting of a few pages of production notes and the other a list of “Suspicious Deaths.” The latter is somehow meant to tie into the conspiracy angle in the film, but the movie never fully develops this aspect of the story, and the few notes provided here don’t provide enough context to be meaningful.

The disc also has a non-anamorphic theatrical trailer that automatically plays at the beginning of the movie.

Update: Sale copies of this disc do indeed contain the rather unexciting audio commentary, and the menu structure has been corrected so that the theatrical trailer is found in the supplement portion of the disc rather than automatically playing in front of the movie.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Interview with the Assassin has a very interesting hook that could probably use better development. The DVD offers a satisfactory presentation that gets the job done even if it won’t knock anyone’s socks off. I’d probably save this one for a rental.

Invincible

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 1, 2003.

Invincible is meant to be a comeback of sorts for legendary German director Werner Herzog. It’s his first narrative film in over a decade, having concentrated on documentaries in these later stages of his career. Unfortunately, although the film shares thematic concerns that seem right up his alley, it’s not one of his stronger works and is nowhere in the same league as his past classics such as Aguirre, Stroszek, or Nosferatu.

Although supposedly based on a true story (Herzog has lied to us about things like this in the past, so one can never be too sure), the film is structured as a fable and begins with a marvelous allegory about a rooster that will obviously foreshadow the events to come. The story concerns a Jewish strongman living in a Polish shtetl in the years between the two World Wars. “Jews should never be as strong as you,” he’s told. Searching for his purpose in life, he believes that God must have made him strong for a reason. When a promoter approaches him with the offer of fashioning a career as an entertainer, he grudgingly accepts in the hope that he will be able to send some money back to his family. From there, he travels to Berlin, where he will first encounter the rising anti-Semitism of the Nazis.

Our strongman Zishe becomes the side act in a nightclub run by Hanussen, a famous illusionist and Nazi appeaser whose smoke-and-mirrors show about the mysteries of the occult has drawn the attention of some of the Socialist party’s higher-ups. Hanussen forces Zishe to surrender his Jewish identity, putting him in a very fake blonde wig and dubbing him Sigfried, pride of the Aryan race. But this doesn’t sit well with the big oaf, who eventually reveals the deception and in turn becomes the de-facto symbol for Jewish resistance.

This is potentially interesting material to work with, and one might think that Herzog would be the perfect filmmaker to tackle it. Sadly, the film is dramatically inert, hampered by stilted dialogue that forces the actors to speechify and proclaim their motivations at every turn rather than behave like real people. Jouko Ahola, the Finnish bodybuilder in the lead, is certainly beefcake enough to qualify for the strongman role, but as an actor…. well, let’s just say he’s no Lou Ferrigno. And lead actress Anna Gourari is quite lovely but perfectly dull. Even Tim Roth, who can normally be counted on to pull off a flamboyant performance, here underplays Hanussen to such a degree that it seems his greatest power as a magician is in putting his audience to sleep. Only Udo Kier manages to brighten up the proceedings in his few scenes as a daft German Count who cares less about politics than in keeping himself entertained.

Herzog’s films have always moved at their own dreamlike pace, and this one is no different in that respect, but something here just doesn’t click. Maybe the picture might have played better had it been filmed in German? In English, the poor acting and dialogue call too much attention to themselves. More likely, though, Herzog needs more of a warm-up before he can reclaim his former glory as a narrative storyteller. I still admire the man and find some elements to respect even in this particular film, and I hope that he gives it another shot, but this isn’t the triumphant return to cinema screens that he may have been hoping.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

New Line always seems to deliver some of the best video transfers, and this is certainly a lovely presentation that they have conjured up for Invincible. Presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement, the picture is bright, sharp, colorful, and full of detail with no noticeable edge enhancement artifacts. Black level is also strongly reproduced without crushing the subtle shadings. The movie has very naturalistic photography, with some scenes shot in a deliberate soft focus to emphasize the dreamy tone, but in close-ups the level of detail in the various shades of skin complexion is superbly rendered. Film grain appears (it was shot that way) and is well compressed for the digital media, only rarely exhibiting any compression artifacts, and probably none that will be noticeable to the majority of viewers. This is an excellent, film-like transfer. I wish they could all look this good.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround tracks are offered, along with a generic Dolby 2.0 mix. The Dolby Digital track is pretty good, but the DTS has more body, richer bass, and crisper sound effects. This isn’t a particularly busy sound mix; surround use is quite infrequent and even the Hans Zimmer score is only used sporadically. But it has a light, airy feel that can envelop the listener during key auditory moments such as Zishe’s first experience on the hectic streets of Berlin, or the jazz tunes performed at the nightclub.

Optional English subtitles have been provided, but the disc contains no other language options.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

An anamorphically enhanced theatrical trailer is all we get. I was expecting a commentary, as Herzog has been recording them for a number of his older movies, but that was not to be.

Before owners of projection televisions start to freak out, yes the menus are supposed to come in and out of focus like that after you start up the disc. It’s deliberate, not something wrong with your display.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

Just some typical New Line web links are all we’re given in the way of DVD-ROM content.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I really wanted to like Invincible more than I did. As it is, the film is a curiosity for Herzog fans but isn’t likely to achieve any sort of greater recognition. A nice transfer and sound mix make it a decent rental item, but I find it harder to recommend for purchase.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 9, 2002.

“The hunters kill the wolves in the end only in the tales humans tell.”

The film Jin-Roh may have been directed by first-timer Hiroyuki Okiura, but it prominently bears the stamp of anime mastermind Mamoru Oshii, who both wrote and produced it. Oshii is perhaps best known in the United States for Ghost in the Shell, one of the few high-profile anime movies to reach any sort of crossover audience among Americans. Jin-Roh is a very different sort of movie than Ghost in the Shell, but it shares that film’s mix of gritty action with philosophical underpinnings. Although not science fiction, Jin-Roh also presents us with a completely fictionalized setting that remains convincing through its attention to detail and realism. (Unlike many anime programs, the characters here actually look Japanese.)

Set during what is described as an alternate history of Japan, taking place approximately in the mid-1960s, the film places us into the middle of its world with only a brief prologue sequence to explain itself. Once the story begins, very little mention is made of this alternate universe setting, and the characters behave in a manner that doesn’t draw attention to it, enacting a story that occupies only a small fraction of this fictional world. In this time, the major cities of Japan are under the thumb of an extensive paramilitary police force. Within the police force is a squad of heavily-armed stormtroopers called the Special Unit, equipped with full suits of body armor that strike me as a cross between a robot, a demon, and a samurai warrior. The Special Unit was created to crack down on a sect of rebel separatists (much like the IRA). However, inside their own ranks is a smaller subset of vigilantes known as Jin-Roh (the so-called “wolf brigade”) that achieve their results by working outside the authority of the government or official police channels. The identities of the Jin-Roh members are unknown to their superiors, and in fact may be only a myth.

I fear that the movie’s publicity campaign and poster art may mislead viewers into thinking that it will be an action packed police/military thriller. That’s really not the case at all. More than anything else, the film is a character study of one member from this Special Unit and the former rebel terrorist that he forms an unlikely bond with. Although there’s a healthy amount of shooting and gore, Jin-Roh doesn’t contain the type of hyperkinetic action sequences that many anime fans may expect. In fact, it’s a rather somber and meditative piece exploring the themes of fanaticism, loyalty, and duty. By the time the film builds to its operatic, bloody conclusion, the violence is no longer a matter of suspense, but is an unfortunate inevitability.

Woven throughout the film is a Little Red Riding Hood motif, which extends so far as having the characters read passages from a particularly gruesome version of the original tale. The metaphor is artfully developed, and reminded me of a similar device in The Sweet Hereafter, of all things. This allows the filmmakers time to reflect on the differences between man and beast, and the bestial nature within man. By the time of the climax, we must ask who really is the wolf in this story. Is it the main character, the friend who betrays him, his terrorist girlfriend, or the police organization itself? A case can be made for all of the above. I admire the way the film depicts the police objectifying terrorists as “these people,” but when it comes time to list their fanatical criminal activities, the description isn’t far removed from what the police themselves do in the name of order and control. There seems to be a bit of the beast on all sides.

If I have one disappointment with the film, it’s that the alternate universe doesn’t always feel fully developed. Outside of the presence of a militarized police force and some rebels, I was rarely certain how the Japan in this world differed from the real timeline, or why this story needed to be told in an alternate history at all. It almost could have been transplanted to a futuristic setting with very little change. Perhaps this is the result of my lack of knowledge about Japanese history, but I feel some more time could have been spent exploring the rest of the world outside of these characters’ largely insulated lives. We’re never shown, for instance, how the state of affairs affects the remaining civilian populace. The emotional payoff to the main storyline is already quite devastating, but I think it could have been even more powerful with a better sense of context.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Befitting the film’s thematic tone, the animation in Jin-Roh is impressive but not flashy. The artwork emphasizes realism over style, and is drawn entirely in traditional animation without CGI augmentation. The picture often has a deliberately soft and delicate appearance, with muted colors and some intentional haziness. The DVD’s video transfer may not be as eye-popping or vibrant as some of the most famous anime films available on disc (like Akira), but is an excellent reproduction of this intended look. I detected no compression artifacts or noticeable edge enhancement.

The image is letterboxed to approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement, and is also mildly windowboxed with small black bars on the sides of the image, presumably to compensate for television overscan.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Like the picture, the sound design maintains a fairly subdued atmosphere for most of the film, with many periods of introspective silence. It does come roaring to life when it really needs to, though, and the opening riot scene makes good use of the digital surround sound. The blazing machine guns fired periodically throughout the movie will also put the subwoofer to work.

The Japanese soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 or, for those viewers incapable of reading subtitles, there’s also an English dub in Dolby Digital 5.1. I’m not a fan of the practice of dubbing, but for the few minutes I listened to the English track, it seemed to be a decent job, better than many others I’ve heard. Best yet is the DTS 5.1 track (only in Japanese, thank you). I believe this is actually the first domestically released anime title to sport a DTS track. (Columbia TriStar’s Metropolis disc will be the second.) Both Dolby Digital or DTS will get the job done nicely, but I felt that the DTS track resolved the music a little better and had a more naturally enveloping surround presence than the Dolby Digital, which seemed to ping-pong between speakers more. Overall, they’re both excellent.

Optional yellow English subtitles can be accessed through the menu, but no other language or subtitle options have been provided.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Bandai Entertainment has released two separate DVD editions of Jin-Roh. The single-disc copy contains only the movie itself and some promos for other unrelated programs. For substantially more money, however, you can purchase the deluxe 3-disc package. The first disc is identical to the separately released version and the last disc is a copy of the soundtrack CD. The music is quite good and it’s nice to listen to it isolated from the feature if you’re into that sort of thing.

The middle disc is where the real supplements are found. Of primary interest is the 38-minute interview featurette with comments from writer/producer Mamoru Oshii, director Hiroyuki Okiura, music composer Hajime Mizoguchi, and art director Hiromasa Ogura. This is generally an informative piece, but in the spirit of the movie, it’s very low-key. Oshii, being the real creative force behind the project, has the most to say, including a few instances where he seems to wish that he had directed it himself and done things differently. The video is presented in 4:3 full-frame and offers optional English subtitles. (All of the interviews were conducted in Japanese.)

Beyond that, the remaining features are pretty slim. There are five trailers for the movie: a Japanese theatrical trailer, and English dub for that same trailer, and three Japanese TV commercials that appear to be identical to one another. I honestly don’t see the slightest difference between the three commercials, unless I’m missing something subtle. We also have an extensive production art still gallery broken into four sections: characters, vehicles, weapons, and backgrounds.

That’s it for the disc-based content. Included in the case is a 14-page booklet with an essay about the career of Mamoru Oshii. The essay sounds like it was written by a raving fanboy; it’s a little too gushing and not objective enough for my taste. The package itself is a handsome foldout contraption with a clear plastic slipcover.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The real question most DVD buyers will want answered is whether to purchase the single-disc copy or the Special Edition. Honestly, I think the single disc will be more than sufficient for most fans or casual-interest viewers. The box set should be reserved for the die-hard fans. It’s considerably more expensive than the standard edition, and frankly doesn’t contain enough content to justify the price unless you happen to really enjoy soundtrack CDs. I suspect that obtaining the rights to the music is the true cause for the high retail price anyway.

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 26, 2003.

Let this be said: That Harry Potter copycat has got nothing on Kiki the witch. Produced in 1989, a good eight years before J.K. Rowling made a billion dollars off her precocious little wizard, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a charming anime film about a 13-year-old witch who leaves home for the first time to discover her purpose in life and the true potential of her magical powers. Sound familiar at all? Well, the two stories are substantially different enough that I wouldn’t necessarily claim that one borrowed from the other. In fact, my wife thinks that I’m making entirely too much of the mater, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if Rowling had seen the film at some point and was, shall we say, inspired by it.

The tale of a young witch who, per tradition, must leave home at age 13 to discover the workings of the world, what separates a movie like Kiki’s Delivery Service from American animation and makes it quite remarkable is the fact that the story remains compelling even though very little action happens in it from a narrative standpoint. Kiki and her snooty cat JiJi make their way to a big city where she must set up shop and choose a special skill that will help her become a valuable member of the community. Realizing that her ability to fly allows her to zip across town faster than anyone else, Kiki decides that package delivery is to be her game, and she goes about introducing herself to the town and figuring out how it is that she can help people. And that’s about it, really. Of course, at some point she must lose her witchy powers so that she can learn a valuable lesson, and in the end there will be a big event that forces her to regain them to save the day, but the movie is never dependent on its plot. Kiki lives in a simple world without irony. Everyone she meets is friendly and helpful. Even as a witch, no one fears or misunderstands her, and her powers are treated matter-of-factly.

Yet the movie is never boring. The characters are so well drawn (and by that I mean well developed and given personality, not just the way they’re animated) and the story is told with so much humor and warmth that it transcends the need for complicated plotting. Renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) directed the film, which has become one of his more beloved classics in most parts of the world, except the United States, where audiences fear anything “foreign” and it has gone completely unnoticed. The movie is actually perfectly Western in its storytelling approach and has no dark elements that might scare younger viewers. It’s well suited to children of any age, and is thoughtful and intelligent enough to entertain older viewers and parents as well.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The 1.85:1 anamorphically enhanced picture is bright and colorful, but exhibits several problems that will prove distracting to viewers with large displays. Artificial edge enhancement has been liberally applied, causing halos around lines in the artwork, most noticeable in the characters’ faces. Strangely, objects in the background of the frame seem less affected than the foreground characters. The image also suffers from recurring compression problems and looks noisy at times when the artwork should be clean.

Because the quality of the animation is so attractive, overall the disc is decent enough to be relatively satisfying. The source print itself looks to be in fine shape with lots of detail and vibrant colors, but the video image certainly could have been improved had more attention been paid to the transfer and disc mastering.

Thankfully, the movie’s original Japanese screen credits are available if you choose that language option through the menu.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The original Japanese soundtrack and the English dub are both presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The 5.1 encoding is something of a cheat, however, as the movie has next to no surround activity and is mostly plain stereo. Still, the musical score comes across with strong dimensionality and a nice sense of depth, and the dialogue is always crisp and intelligible.

I’m not a fan of dubbing, but I do recognize the need for it in an animated program likely to be viewed by children who can’t follow subtitles while watching a movie. To that end, the English track on this disc is competently enough produced and has several famous names in the cast, including Kirsten Dunst in the lead and Phil Hartman as her cat. (Yes, the dub was recorded several years ago.) What’s interesting is just how different the English track is from the Japanese original. The dialogue has been considerably altered, including adding quite a bit of talking where there was none before. Even the score has been re-recorded (by the original artist, at least) to smother any moment of silence with music. The English track basically Disneyfies the movie in the attempt to coddle American audiences with short attention spans. Heaven forbid there should be a few seconds of screen time without music or dialogue telling us how to feel. Worse yet, the songs used in the film have been replaced with vastly inferior, smarmy American substitutes.

A Spanish-language dub is also available in Dolby 2.0 surround. The disc offers English subtitles or English captions for the hearing impaired.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Like the other Miyazaki films being released by Disney at the same time, Kiki’s Delivery Service has been disingenuously awarded a 2-disc Special Edition DVD, even though the actual supplemental content is hardly enough to merit such treatment.

The first disc starts, as usual for a Disney release, with trailers that play before you even get to the menu. When the movie begins, we get a 1-minute John Lasseter introduction, in which he informs us that Hayao Miyazaki is just his best friend in the whole wide world. The introduction can also be selected from the Bonus Features menu after the movie. The Behind the Microphone featurette is a standard piece of promotional fluff celebrating the cast assembled for the English dub. It features celebrity interviews from Kirsten Dunst and Phil Hartman, the latter looking surprisingly spry considering that he died in 1998. Gee, could this featurette possibly be recycled from a very old press kit? I wonder….

After that we get ten minutes worth of the original Japanese trailers with optional subtitles. Finally a section of bonus trailers for other Disney junk finishes off the first disc.

The second disc has just one single supplement on it, a presentation of the film’s complete selection of storyboards run in sync with the movie’s soundtrack from start to finish. The soundtrack is available in either English or Japanese, but no subtitles have been provided should you select the Japanese option. I made a snide remark in my Spirited Away review about my disinterest in watching storyboards, and was promptly chastised by a reader who informed me that they can be quite fascinating. To each their own. If you enjoy watching rough sketches of the movie’s shot list, this disc will be pure nirvana.

That’s it. That’s all we get, two discs with only four notable supplements between them, all terribly unexciting.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

A custom Disney interface with a web link to their official site is the only ROM supplement included. I want to note that the interface they’ve chosen is simply terrible. It only offers one speed option for fast forward or reverse, something in the vicinity of 1.0000001% normal playback speed. Given that the movie has only a small handful of chapter stops, this slow fast forward function is incredibly frustrating. Don’t make the mistake I did, trying to look up something in the movie by popping the disc in your computer for quick reference. You won’t get anywhere.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a fine little movie that I recommend for ownership even if the DVD itself is nothing special. A mediocre transfer and poor selection of supplements hardly merit the $29.99 list price, but if found at discount, it’s definitely worth a purchase anyway.

The King of Comedy

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 6, 2003.

“Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.”

Could Travis Bickle cut it as a stand-up comedian? That’s the question brought to mind in The King of Comedy, the fifth motion picture collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. The film has enough unique and interesting elements to stand on its own, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that the movie is attempting to tread much of the same ground that the pair had covered in Taxi Driver a few years earlier.

De Niro stars as the unlikely-named Rupert Pupkin, a wannabe comedian and obsessed fan of Jerry Langford (the deliciously typecast Jerry Lewis), a Johnny Carson-style talk show host with an almost implausibly rabid fan base. Rupert doesn’t just idolize Jerry, he studies his every move, his timing, his delivery, and believes that with enough persistence he can duplicate the formula and break into show business. And Rupert is nothing if not persistent. He’s also desperately geeky, needy, not terribly funny in the slightest, and when denied his shot at the top, borderline psychotic. Eventually, he formulates a plan to force his way onto national television by kidnapping Jerry and extorting the show’s producers into introducing him on air as “The Next King of Comedy.”

De Niro exudes his characteristic intensity and plays the role to the hilt, but the movie lacks the expected energy and has little of Scorsese’s trademark auteurism on display. Even Jerry Lewis, who seems perfectly poised to play off his real-life persona (the film was supposed to launch a career comeback for the comedian), has been instructed to underplay his role so much that it’s hard to understand why his character should be such a beloved celebrity in the first place. Numerous opportunities for him to really go wild toe-to-toe with De Niro are passed over, as though Scorsese were trying to restrain himself in an attempt to appear more mature with the subject matter. As far as I’m concerned, the real breakthrough performance here came from Sandra Bernhardt as the competing psycho stalker. She delivers a marvelous stream of consciousness monologue towards the end of the movie that upstages both of the big name actors she was playing against.

The story does raise some interesting issues about the nature of public fame and the way our society treats criminals as celebrities. It also seems shockingly prescient in its depiction of a celebrity stalker, having been made a number of years before the phenomenon was much understood. (The murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer wouldn’t bring the problem to public attention for another six years.) Nonetheless, the material just never quite seems to pull together, and most of these themes it develops are not entirely dissimilar to those found in Taxi Driver, albeit presented in a substantially less bloody fashion. A rare misfire for the director, The King of Comedy seems to line up all the pieces to make a really great movie, but just never gets there.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Fox Home Entertainment has delivered a sparkling new widescreen transfer for the film, letterboxed to approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. A number of scenes, including the very opening, were shot on video and look like hell, but of course they’re supposed to be this way. The rest of the actual film photography looks great. The image is fairly sharp and has robust, clean colors. Shadow detail is fine and there’s little to no visible edge enhancement. Some scenes are dark and others are grainy, but the disc provides an accurate representation of the original photography. Only the rare compression or interlacing artifact distracts from an otherwise excellent transfer, and even those are highly infrequent and not likely to be bothersome.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The brand new Dolby Stereo sound mix is essentially still monaural, with the majority of the mix centered in the middle of the front soundstage except for occasional music passages. There’s no surround activity. Typical for a movie of its age, the soundtrack exhibits limited dynamic range and feels constrained in its bandwidth. It’s cleanly recorded and gets the job done, but is not a particularly innovative or involving auditory experience. I find this a little disappointing, as Scorsese’s Raging Bull, made three years earlier, had a great sound design. This film is rather minimalist in comparison.

For the purists out there, Fox has graciously provided the original mono mix on an alternate audio track. During certain passages, I felt that this track was slightly richer and more alive. For the most part, they sound nearly identical. To be honest, I’m not sure which one I’ll default to for future viewings.

A French mono track is also available. The DVD case claims that there’s a Spanish dub as well, but this is not to be found on the disc. Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired can be accessed through the menus, and the disc also includes true English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Although not exactly loaded with hours of special edition content, the DVD does sport a few interesting bonus features. Most notable is the 18-minute A Shot at the Top featurette. Comprised of recent interviews with Martin Scorsese and Sandra Bernhardt reflecting on what the movie means to them and how it was received upon its original release, this is a cut above the usual EPK fluff found on most DVDs and is actually worth watching.

After that we get two deleted scenes, both featuring Jerry Lewis. The first runs only 37 seconds in anamorphic widescreen. The second, more interesting clip was shot on 4:3 video and presents the full version of his character’s opening monologue. Lasting almost six minutes, this scene allows Lewis to strut his stuff (rather offensive humor and all), and shows us what he was actually hired for.

Finally are an anamorphic theatrical trailer and a Canadian TV spot. A short still gallery of 35 photos finishes off the disc.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Not one of Martin Scorsese’s strongest pictures, The King of Comedy nonetheless has plenty of interesting elements that make it worth watching at least once. A splendid transfer and small handful of worthwhile supplements sweeten the deal. Scorsese and De Niro fans could do worse than to pick it up. Others may want to rent first.

Koyaanisqatsi

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 15, 2002.

What is Koyaanisqatsi? The word itself comes for the Hopi language meaning “life out of balance.” Godfrey Reggio’s film is best described as a collision of images, an elaborate wordless montage depicting the flow of modern life. From the beautiful austerity of the desert to the frantic bustle of the city, the camera has a way of capturing patterns in nature and human life, transforming familiar objects and scenes before our eyes, and forcing us to question how we think of them. Seen in time-lapse, the movement of traffic through busy streets becomes an arterial flow of blood; clouds roll and crash like waves in the ocean; a satellite view of Earth changes into a computer chip. It’s like opening your eyes fresh to the world for the first time. The film has enough visual poetry for 20 movies. It’s haunting, majestic, riveting, intoxicating.

Reggio has a message to all of this, about the advance of technology onto nature. He sees it as an intrusion, a conflict. Unfortunately, he’s not a very subtle filmmaker in this regard, and parts of the movie can be terribly preachy. Although some images are undeniably powerful, as when we see sunbathers relaxing on a beach in front of a power plant, at other times his juxtaposition of man and nature is just too heavy-handed. What redeems the work is the fact that he also seems to celebrate man and his achievements while criticizing them. He shows the beauty and ugliness of both sides, and through many scenes of ugliness transforming into beauty (car tail lights at night blur into a lovely abstract painting of colors and shapes), he leaves just enough ambiguity that the message hardly ever becomes too tiresome. Some injections of sublime humor, such as the marvelous sequences set in hot dog and Twinkie factories, also liven up the proceedings.

Of course, what people most remember about the film is the remarkable score by Philip Glass. A mix of driving electronic rhythms and full-blown orchestral compositions blending seamlessly into one another, the music is melodic, hypnotic, playful at times (some scenes evoke a wonderful fairy tale mood), and bombastic at others. It gives life to the images and is utterly unforgettable.

The movie has a deliberately slow build until, by its end, it explodes in an orgasmic frenzy. The scenes that have always left the biggest impression on me, however, are those that capture people’s faces in slow motion. Without word or dialogue, the camera picks individuals out of large crowds and provides them with distinction and personality. A simple face of a random stranger has rarely been so compelling. That’s the power of Koyaaniqatsi, its ability to surprise us with those things that we most take for granted.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The film has been letterboxed to an anamorphically-enhanced 1.85:1 aspect ratio for the first time on home video, which is a legitimate reproduction of its theatrical presentation. However, this widescreen framing is a matter of some controversy. Previous video editions, including a very limited no-frills DVD that was available after making a $300 charitable donation to the official Koyaanisqatsi web site, were transferred at 4:3 full-frame, exposing additional picture information at the top and bottom of the picture. There has been some debate about which framing Reggio was actually composing his shots for and which he prefers on home video. Since this is a movie all about the power of the photographed image, and since Reggio tends to frame his shots loosely, often from a distance to maximize a sense of scale, seeing more picture may at times be preferable. The matting on this DVD does seem a little tight, trimming objects right at their very tops without any “headroom” above them, but in all this isn’t terribly distracting, and the letterboxing provides width to the image that enhances the panoramic nature of the film.

The source elements used for this video transfer are not as clean as I would have hoped. Dirt, speckles, and grain intrude regularly into the picture. Some of this is due to the fact that stock footage was used during parts of the movie, but some of it is simply due to the age and condition of the film. Colors are decent but a little drab. The picture is also soft and might have benefited from a higher video bit rate. This isn’t to say that the disc looks awful. Far from it, more often than not the beauty of the movie’s photography is sufficient to overcome any deficiencies in the transfer. The larger your screen, the more impact it will have. Many parts of the movie look very slick, and nighttime scenes have strong contrast and black levels.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The film’s soundtrack is composed almost exclusively of the Philip Glass score with a few sound effects interspersed at various points. (Be sure to stick around for the end credits, which are played to an interesting aural montage of ambient noises.) Glass has been known to perform the score as live accompaniment to screenings of the film over the years, and just recently the soundtrack was reissued as a DVD-Audio remaster. I’m not certain whether the Dolby Digital 5.1 track on this DVD has been remixed from the original audio elements or if the entire piece was newly re-recorded. It does sound very good, though not perfect.

The track has a fairly wide front soundstage with restrained surround usage. The rear channels pick up in activity during the more frenetic sequences in the film, but discrete effects are rare. The audio doesn’t seem to fill the room as well as I had expected. Bass notes tend to be overly boomy, and although the soundtrack can really get rocking when it needs to, often it sounds a little thin, without as much aural depth as it should have. All told, this is a good remix, falling just a bit short of greatness.

Someone at MGM apparently has a sense of humor because the DVD is encoded with optional French or Spanish subtitles. The movie has, I should emphasize, not a single line of dialogue. On a lark, I left the Spanish subtitles running while I watched the movie. They popped up on screen in precisely three instances, twice to translate the writing on random city billboards (many similar advertisements go untranslated), and finally for the text that appears on screen just before the end credits.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The 25-minute “Essence of Life” featurette contains new interviews with Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass. Reggio bears a striking resemblance to George Carlin. His talk is rather pretentious but interesting nonetheless. Like the movie, the featurette has been letterboxed with anamorphic enhancement.

The disc also has three theatrical trailers for the films in Reggio’s “Qatsi Trilogy.” The trailer for Koyaanisqatsi is presented in anamorphic widescreen, Powaqqatsi in 4:3 full-frame, and the upcoming Naqoyqatsi in non-anamorphic letterbox. Viewers with widescreen televisions may be annoyed at the need to constantly change screen formats.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Koyaanisqatsi is a marvelous movie and I can’t help but recommend this disc. Long a collector’s item on Laserdisc, MGM is making the film available either on its own or packaged together with Reggio’s sequel, Powaqqatsi, for a remarkably low retail price. Most shocking of all, this is probably also the only MGM DVD whose cover art I’ve actually liked. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your film horizons.

If you enjoy these two films, be sure to also check out their interesting spinoff, Baraka, available on DVD from a separate label.

L.I.E.

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 9, 2002.

The acronym may stand for Long Island Expressway, but the title L.I.E. obviously had a poetic resonance that inspired director Michael Cuesta. Just about every major character in his film is living a lie, either one they tell others or one they tell themselves. The movie plays almost as a cross between Happiness and Kids, two of the more disturbing films from the past decade. The story starts with a group of listless high-schoolers who cut class every day to break into houses, not because they’re poor or needy but because they’re bored. One boy boasts about having sex with his own pre-teen sister, and bets the others $20 to see for themselves if they don’t believe him. Some combination of abusive social treatment from others their age, confused sexuality, and parental indifference has left these kids with no feelings for life, no sense of morality, and no real reason to live. They do what they feel in the moment, without concern for how it affects anyone else or what might happen to themselves in more than a day’s time.

On top of this, what makes the film truly memorable and intriguing is the introduction of the Brian Cox character, Big John, an overt pedophile drawn to troubled young boys. Not your typical movie villain, Big John is filled with contradictions. He presents, and seems to truly have, an affable personality that elicits many friends in the community. He dotes on his elderly mother and is chummy with the local police force. If anyone were to take an even perfunctory look into his life, they couldn’t miss the evidence of what he does, yet he inspires them not to look, by his charisma and genuine charm. He uses and, yes, abuses children, which is reprehensible no matter how you look at it, but he also has a tender side and actually cares for these boys he brings into his life.

Cuesta takes a very complicated moral stance with regard to Big John. He leaves no question that John is wrong, possibly dangerous beyond even the molestation, but he also presents him as sympathetic, a man who isn’t trying to harm children and believes that he can form a symbiotic relationship with them. Brian Cox delivers a nuanced performance, eminently creepy one moment and fatherly the next, never veering into stereotype or swinging too wildly from one extreme to the other. The boy at the center of the film, Howie, is equally complex. He and John are both smart characters who can see through each other’s most convincing charades. They use each other, and in turn need each other, no matter how wrong that may be.

The movie is, needless to say, often uncomfortable to watch. However, for all of its controversial subject matter, it doesn’t really push the envelope the way that either Kids or Happiness did, nor do I believe it was meant to. This isn’t an explicit film. It doesn’t shock the audience so much as force them to explore a moral dilemma. There are moments of black comedy (some played perhaps a little too broadly), but none quite as devious as the Todd Solondz film, and there are few scenes as bluntly in-your-face as the Larry Clark film. The movie stumbles a little with its pat conclusion that steps too far in the direction of casting heavy-handed judgment, but L.I.E. is still a challenging and rewarding film that’s worthy of attention for those with an open mind.

New Yorker Video has released L.I.E. on DVD in two separate editions, the “Original Uncut Version” or an R-rated version, no doubt toned down to appease the major rental chains who would prefer to carry a family-friendly movie about pedophiles. As noted above, this isn’t a very explicit film, but I noticed at least one scene likely to be trimmed. I can’t imagine anyone interested in seeing this movie who would want a censored version of it, so please be aware that both editions exist and be sure to check the packaging before purchase or rental.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Letterboxed to 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement, this is a very sharp picture with just a small amount of edge enhancement to occasionally distract. The movie’s striking photography uses many bold, saturated colors that come across well on disc. Black level is strong, and there’s a solid sense of depth to the image. Grain is rather minimal for such a low-budget production. I wouldn’t call it reference quality, but the color transfer is well rendered and serves the film nicely.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s sound design isn’t exactly elaborate, but the DVD’s Dolby Surround mix gets the job done with reasonable strength. The film is obviously dialogue-driven and has little to no use of the surround channel. Directional effects tend to be limited to traffic noises panning across the front soundstage. The location recording of the dialogue is sometimes a little hard to discern but is usually clear enough. The musical score and the songs chosen for the soundtrack generally sound great. The audio track is perfectly adequate even though it may not inspire anyone to crank up the volume on their home theater.

No alternate language tracks, subtitles, or closed captions have been provided.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The disc contains two audio commentaries, one from director Michael Cuesta and another from actor Brian Cox. Unfortunately, neither is terribly interesting. Cuesta has surprisingly little to say about his very controversial first film and he sounds bored to tears recording the track; his heart is clearly not in it. I was hoping that Cox might provide some insight into his character, but the solo commentary calls attention to the fact that he’s only in about half the scenes in the movie. His character first appears on screen a good ten minutes or more into the film, and Cox doesn’t talk about much during all of those other scenes without him. Both tracks are filled with long, tedious gaps where nothing is spoken. Perhaps if both participants had been recorded together in one session where they could interact with one another, some interesting discussion might have developed. As it is, I couldn’t make it all the way through either commentary.

Three deleted scenes are presented in non-anamorphic letterbox without any chapter encoding to separate them. All are relatively short and none were substantial enough to remain in the movie, though we do get a look at one sad character who’s mentioned but not shown in the finished film. The theatrical trailer and several promos for other releases from the same studio finish off the disc.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

L.I.E. is a difficult film whose subject matter will repulse as many people as would be interested in seeing it. It is, however, a complex piece of art and I recommend it to viewers who appreciate films that are thought-provoking rather than merely entertaining. The DVD’s supplements are pretty much worthless, so the disc is all about the movie rather than the bonus features. Just be sure to pick up the correct edition.

The Long Goodbye

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published September 3, 2002.

Robert Altman and Raymond Chandler certainly make strange bedfellows. The director of movies like M*A*S*H or McCabe and Mrs. Miller hardly seems suited to adapting one of Chandler’s hard-boiled detective novels, and his casting of Elliott Gould in the lead is counter-intuitive to say the least. Nonetheless, Altman’s revisionist film noir, The Long Goodbye, helped to establish his career as a major artistic force in American filmmaking. It’s also one of the handful of titles that people usually name among the best films of the 1970s, even though at the time it was little seen due to United Artists’ mishandling of its marketing.

Constantly mumbling to himself, more concerned with his cat than with flashy dames or shady crooks, Gould is indeed an unlikely Philip Marlowe. Altman re-imagines Chandler’s legendary investigator as a bumbling wuss and a smartass drunk. When a friend starts acting suspiciously and begging for a middle-of-the-night ride to the Mexican border, Marlowe doesn’t ask questions because he doesn’t want to know the answers. The movie is set in the “modern day” (it’s very firmly fixed in the ’70s), but Marlowe is a man trapped in another time. He wears a suit every day even though no one else in sunny California seems to, and drives an old ’40s car practically lifted off the set of The Big Sleep (the original, not the remake). He drifts through his days barely making an impression and never stops smoking, even when chasing a car on foot, because that vice is just about the only sense of constancy he has in his life.

Soon dragged into investigating his friend’s apparent suicide, Marlowe will face the usual bevy of Chandlerian twists and turns: a mysterious blonde who knows more than she lets on, a tough-talking gangster, and some crooked public officials who are easily bribed. A series of clues and coincidences lead him to an abusive Hemmingway-esque author, well played by Sterling Hayden, whose gambling problem may be somehow involved. Altman turns these classic crime movie devices on their ear with his staging. The film is both an old-fashioned detective thriller and a commentary on old-fashioned detective thrillers. In a theme he would develop further years later with The Player, Altman is fixated on Hollywood’s cultural significance and the bizarre lives of the people who reside there. As is his method, even the smallest of throwaway background characters are given enough room to develop unique personalities, such as the security guard who spends more time working on his celebrity impersonations than actually guarding anything. Keen-sighted viewers will also notice a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in a bit part as a thug with no lines, who nevertheless manages to draw attention to himself by continually flexing his pectoral muscles at an unlikely moment.

The Long Goodbye is partly a satire (Marlowe’s interaction with the half-nude hippie girls who live across from him is very funny) and partly a serious drama with dark overtones, some of which are darker than anything Chandler intended. The movie, like its hero, balances an odd mixture of awkward and cool. It’s captivating to watch and lives up to its reputation as one of Robert Altman’s best films.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The movie has been letterboxed to 2.35:1 with anamorphic enhancement. Its composition makes consistently excellent use of the full widescreen frame and is essential to enjoyment of the film. MGM has once again located nearly pristine source elements for their video transfer. The print used is almost spotless with next to none of the age-related damage common to a film this old. However, at approximately the 1hr. 14min. mark, there’s one particular dissolve effect that does have a small pin-prick hole at the top of the frame lasting from the beginning of the shot that starts the dissolve to the end of the shot that finishes it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were an artifact of the original production rather than the video transfer.

Altman and cinematographer Vilos Zigmond used a technique known as flashing to expose excess light onto the film frame after the original photography. This gives the film muted colors and softer, almost washed-out contrasts. The intention was to evoke a hazy, nostalgic feeling. The effect works well enough, but viewers may be reminded more of that typical drab ’70s look rather than something intentional. Daytime scenes have crisp whites, but dark scenes rarely have pure blacks and often exhibit noticeable compression flaws. The image is soft and a little grainy, neither of which is detrimental to the look of the film, but I found myself wishing for more resolution in some of the deep focus scenes, especially whenever there were topless yoga girls in the background of a shot.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital mono and sounds pretty good, all things considered. The track has poor dynamic range, as expected, and ADR work stands out rather blatantly in the mix, but Altman’s use of overlapping dialogue keeps your interest on the sound design. The film sports an early John Williams musical score whose fidelity does sound quite good despite the constrained mono presence. Unfortunately, it’s not one of Williams’ better efforts; the score is comprised almost entirely of numerous variations on the medley from the awful Johnny Mercer theme song and is quite annoying.

An alternate French mono track is also available. The disc contains subtitles in English, French, and Spanish as well as English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The Rip Van Marlowe featurette opens with a plot spoiler for the film’s ending and should not be watched before the movie under any circumstances. This 24-minute retrospective consists of new interviews with Altman and Gould about this film and their careers, and contains still photos from a deleted scene. Safer to watch first would be Vilos Zigmond Flashes The Long Goodbye (14 minutes), a fascinating technical discussion about the movie’s photography. This works nicely hand-in-hand with the reprint of a 1973 American Cinematographer article. The magazine piece provides extensive insight into Zigmond’s flashing technique, but the white-on-black text is very hard on the eyes when viewed on a television monitor. I recommend that viewers who are able to play DVDs on their computer read the article that way instead.

A very bad theatrical trailer is letterboxed to 1.85:1 (cropped from the original ratio) without anamorphic enhancement. Finally, five repetitive radio spots finish off the disc.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The Long Goodbye is a terrific movie and this is a satisfying DVD presentation for it. A fine transfer and a small handful of decent supplements make it a worthy purchase. I still think that the people who design MGM’s DVD cover art should be handed their walking papers, of course (the publicity still chosen for the cover doesn’t even appear in the film), but this is something I have resigned myself to expect from them.

Love Liza

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published May 7, 2003.

The promotional tagline describes Love Liza as a “comic tragedy” in a half-successful attempt to sell the movie’s mix of depressing pathos and dark humor. The problem with this approach is that it places the emphasis on the adjective, as if to say, “Yes, it’s a tragedy, but it’s a funny one!” This is really the opposite of the approach taken by the movie, which has some profoundly funny moments but leaves the overwhelming feeling of sadness and despair. If it were my decision, I’d call it a “bleak comedy,” but I suppose that isn’t likely to boost its sales numbers either. I guess this is why I’m not a marketing guy.

The film is a starring vehicle for Philip Seymour Hoffman and was written by his brother Gordy, who certainly understands the nature of the actor’s schlubby charm and appeal. The movie puts Hoffman the actor through his paces, building off his established screen persona playing developmentally-stunted characters in movies like Boogie Nights and Happiness, but plumbing new emotional depths. Here, he plays Wilson, a wreck of a man whose life is in a shambles. His wife has committed suicide, leaving behind a note that Wilson refuses to read, under the assumption that her last words will place blame on him for her actions. He never even suspected that anything was wrong, and this belief that he didn’t pay enough attention to her leaves him feeling responsible. As his life falls apart, Wilson reverts to a near-childlike mentality, as if he had never fully developed into a man. He behaves selfishly, acting insistent, despondent, and unable to express himself, all of which seem to support that understanding of his responsibility. He runs away from emotional confrontation and is quick to lash out at others. His increasingly erratic behavior makes everyone uncomfortable to be around him, and he becomes so incapable of holding himself together that he can’t even get the flowers that he leaves on his wife’s grave to stand up straight.

Soon, Wilson tries to take comfort by numbing himself. Never much of a drinker, he discovers the intoxicating effects of huffing gasoline fumes, no doubt partly drawn to this by the fact that his wife offed herself in the garage, a piece of him also suicidal in his grief. When a co-worker mentions the smell of gas on his clothes, he’s forced to make up a lie about building radio control airplanes as a hobby, which leads to hilarious complications when he’s drawn into the world of radio control enthusiasts in order to keep up the lie. The more he loses himself in the gas fumes, the harder it becomes for him to maintain a perspective on reality, and the more darkly comical the movie’s narrative becomes.

Some time ago, I complained about the sophomoric Italian melodrama The Son’s Room, which pretended to take a hard look at the grieving process but was instead a trite and heavy-handed mess. Love Liza is, thankfully, the complete opposite. This is the film The Son’s Room wanted to be, an astute character study that understands a thing or two about grief and how it really fucks a person up. The movie offers no easy catharsis that cures everybody’s pain. This is a story of real suffering, where family members who have tried to be supportive break down and scream, revealing that they do in fact place blame even though they try not to, and where the final revelation offers a dual note of both hope and hopelessness, of relief and intense sadness all at the same time. It’s at times uncomfortable to watch, but it’s also, yes, very funny, even at times inappropriately so. That’s the depth of its understanding, that it’s unafraid to stare into difficult subject matter and find something blackly comical in it.

Kathy Bates provides a strong supporting role as the mother-in-law, but this is Hoffman’s movie all the way. He delivers an enormously complicated performance, his portrayal so vivid that you can practically smell the gasoline on his clothes. This certainly isn’t a laugh-out-loud type of comedy. I hesitate to call it entertaining, but it’s a very good film in a wholly depressing kind of way. Sometimes that’s exactly the type of film we need to see.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The 1.85:1 anamorphically enhanced picture has a constant presence of grain. Sometimes this is done for artistic effect (certain sequences were shot on 16mm film or digital video), while at other times it’s a consequence of the movie’s low budget. The DVD’s digital compression quality is mediocre, with some noticeable artifacting over the opening and end credits, but on the whole the image holds together acceptably well. Colors are fairly good, as are contrast and black level. The picture is reasonably sharp without distracting edge enhancement. The movie has some visually expressive moments during Hoffman’s gas huffing scenes, and the deliberate smeary haze achieves a suitably dreamy atmosphere.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby 2.0 Surround track is predominantly quiet in character, with many periods of drawn-out silences punctuated by loud bursts of music. The moody songs on the soundtrack, most by Jim O’Rourke, are terrific, and are recorded and mixed with pleasing fidelity. This isn’t a showy sound mix; it’s primarily stereo with only bleed to the surround channel, but there are some effective separation effects as the annoying buzz of radio control vehicles zips across the front soundstage.

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hindi (yes, really) subtitles have been provided, along with English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The main supplement here is a low-key but interesting audio commentary by director Todd Louiso, writer Gordy Hoffman, and star Philip Seymour Hoffman. The three are fairly amused with themselves and some of the humor in the movie, and spend their time discussing the dramatic elements of the story.

Two filmographies are included, for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Bates, and we get a set of trailers, one for this film in anamorphic widescreen and three for other unrelated titles.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Love Liza is a highly affecting film that is certainly worth a look. Its depressing subject matter may preclude an instant purchase for most viewers, but a rental at the very least is recommended.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 11, 2005.

Jonathan Demme’s 2004 reworking of The Manchurian Candidate is a movie that has no business being as good as it is. The original John Frankenheimer film is a classic of Cold War paranoia that neither needed a remake nor opens itself to the possibilities of one. The 1962 production holds up extremely well as a suspense thriller, but is so rooted in the politics of its day that the idea of transplanting the story to modern times seems almost absurd. Add to this a director whose last attempt to update a classic (Charade into The Truth About Charlie) turned into a misguided mess, and you’ve got the makings of an instantly forgettable misfire, a curiosity item filed away in the dustbin of movie history with the likes of Gus van Sant’s needless Psycho and Guy Ritchie’s outright despicable Swept Away. And yet, the new Manchurian Candidate does something those other films don’t: Against all odds and common sense to the contrary, it works; it really does.

The basics of the plot remain the same in the new version, though some of the details have been tweaked. Army Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington now) returns from war (Desert Storm this time, rather than Korea) with a clear memory of his combat experience that he’s able to recite word-for-word whenever asked about it. Yet Marco is troubled by strange recurring dreams that suggest something happened to him that he isn’t quite able to recall. In the ensuing years since his time in battle, the rest of his squad has either died under suspiciously convenient circumstances or turned mentally unstable due to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Gulf War Syndrome. Even Marco himself may not be as clear-headed as he initially seems. The only unaffected soldier that served with Marco is Raymond Shaw, now a Vice Presidential candidate in the midst of a big election. In trying to get to the bottom of his personal troubles, Marco is sucked into the world of high-level politics and discovers what he believes to be a massive conspiracy to take over the American government.

The brainwashing angle from the original film is still present, spruced up with a modern sci-fi twist that’s a little outlandish but stays just this side of plausible. Shaw’s domineering stage mother of course remains a vital component, played with deliciously evil glee by Meryl Streep; she may never fully replace Angela Lansbury’s diabolical villainess, but Streep makes the role her own and has fun with it. Little turns here and there in the story have been changed, but the overriding structure of the original is the same, as are the final big twist and the climax. Having over 40 years of popular consciousness of the movie’s ending may undercut some of the suspense, but Demme makes up for it in other ways.

What makes the new Manchurian Candidate so much fun are the ways that Demme and his screenwriters have infused the film with up-to-the-minute political topicality. It’s certainly no coincidence that the glasses Denzel wears make him look more than a little like Colin Powell, or that Meryl Streep seems to be channeling Hillary Clinton. The conspiracy of the title no longer refers to a Communist Chinese plot to take over the country, but to a Haliburton-like multinational conglomerate called Manchurian Global with its grubby fingers in every aspect of American government. The danger now comes from within rather than external forces. Timed to coincide with the real 2004 Presidential election, the movie plays with fears circulating in the public consciousness about how our elections are rigged and our leaders are all in the pocket of big business interests.

Considering that the movie must have been in production for a few years and was finally released a good four months before the actual election, it’s almost amazing how prescient some of its criticisms of current politics are. Demme overloads the film with a bombardment of media saturation. The constant advertisements, slogans, and debating pundits chattering in the background of so many scenes make for a sly parody of the real election process. They’re also a frightening reminder that in this day and age all political spin is its own form of mass brainwashing.

While it’s true that, all things considered, a remake of The Manchurian Candidate was not really needed, and that the resulting product may never be considered the enduring classic that the original has, nonetheless what Demme has given us is a surprisingly worthy update. The film is a smart, exciting thriller that builds a creepy sense of paranoia and makes knowing digs at the state of the modern world. It’s a much better movie than it might have been, or even should have been, and is a terrific piece of entertainment in its own right.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Paramount’s DVD delivers a fine presentation for the movie. The theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio has been slightly opened up to fill a 16:9 screen, with a negligible impact on framing or composition. The anamorphically enhanced picture is sharp and detailed, with next to no grain or edge enhancement artifacts. (I think I only spotted two shots with noticeable edge halos.) The movie’s photography isn’t very flashy, but colors are strong and black level, contrast, and shadow detail all contribute to a nice sense of three-dimensional depth.

My only complaint is that the DVD is loaded with bonus features on the same disc as the movie, and this occasionally taxes the digital compression bit-rate. As a result, some wide shots look a little filtered and lack the sense of detail found in the close-ups. Regardless, overall it’s a great-looking disc.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is likewise first-rate. The audio is full-bodied and rich, with subtle but effective use of surround envelopment. Combat scenes at the beginning of the movie feature aggressive gunfire and bassy explosions. Dialogue, unfortunately, is set a little too low throughout the film, sometimes drowned out by music and sound effects, which forces amplification of the whole soundtrack to compensate.

A French dub is also available in Dolby Digital 5.1. English and Spanish subtitles have been provided.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The disc annoyingly opens with a series of forced trailers for other unrelated titles from Paramount. The MENU command doesn’t work to skip past them, however hitting STOP and then MENU should do the trick on most DVD players.

The audio commentary by Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Daniel Pyne is an intelligent discussion of the changes the movie made to the original sources and the struggle the production crew had in staying ahead of current events. It’s worth a listen.

Two short featurettes appear to have been recycled from the movie’s Electronic Press Kit. The 15-minute The Enemy Within: Inside the Manchurian Candidate is a pretty good look at the movie’s production, though some of the “behind the scenes” footage was obviously staged. The Cast of The Manchurian Candidate runs 12 minutes and is primarily a self-congratulatory love-fest for Denzel and Meryl.

Five deleted and extended scenes run a total of approximately 10 minutes. They’re presented in non-anamorphic letterbox and feature optional commentary by Demme and Pyne. Some of the scenes are interesting, but none needed to stay in the movie. The DVD then has a section for what it calls outtakes, but would more accurately be described as more deleted or extended scenes. There are two scenes here running a total of three minutes, including the full Al Franken interview with Meryl Streep’s character, which is kind of funny but definitely not needed to be included in full as part of the movie. Demme and Pyne again offer commentary.

For some reason, the Liev Schreiber screen test is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement. It runs about three minutes and is most notable for the very different take that Meryl Streep had on her character at the time. She was trying out a heavy Virginia accent that got toned down in the actual movie.

Lastly, we get about ten minutes of extended footage from the political pundits glimpsed only in soundbites throughout the film. Offering their views on current politics are such diverse voices as Roy Blount Jr., Fab 5 Freddy, and Sydney Lumet. Unfortunately, Paramount made the decision to smother most of their comments with music from the movie’s soundtrack. Jonathan Demme again offers optional commentary, though it only runs for just over a minute in length.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I must admit that I approached the prospect of a Manchurian Candidate remake with skepticism, but Jonathan Demme’s reworking of the classic holds its own ground as a potent and thoroughly modern political thriller. Paramount’s DVD features excellent picture and sound, and a moderate selection of at least somewhat interesting supplements. Recommended.

Manhunter: Restored Director’s Cut

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 18, 2003.

“You’re so sly… But so am I.”

For those who’ve lost track, Michael Mann’s gripping suspense thriller Manhunter, an adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon, marked the first screen appearance of the brilliant psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter (here spelled “Lecktor” for no specific reason and played by British actor Brian Cox). The film was only a modest box office success in 1986, the victim of financial difficulties suffered by its releasing studio, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, which ceased to exist not long afterwards. However, the movie did make a strong impression on those who saw it and continued to build an audience through home video and television. Nonetheless, Manhunter has long been overshadowed by the commercial and awards success of its overrated sequel, The Silence of the Lambs (which largely recycled many of the same themes and plot elements), and recently by a needless remake (Red Dragon) whose sole purpose for existing was to give Anthony Hopkins another chance to ham it up in the Lecter role. These days, Hopkins has parlayed his portrayal of Lecter into what amounts to a high-gloss slasher movie franchise, in each successive picture going further over-the-top in the role and continuing to lose his grasp of what the character was originally meant to be. Yet his Lecter is popular and no doubt another sequel will soon be in the works.

Personally, I’ve always preferred Manhunter, a movie that exists not to spawn a franchise but just to be a damn good thriller, a tight police procedural that’s keenly tied into the psychology of its characters. Younger and impatient viewers often complain that the film is “dated,” failing to realize that every movie is a product of the time it was made and that their favorite movies from any given year rarely seem as new and original 20 years later. There’s no denying that Manhunter is a film of the mid-1980s and that its skinny ties and loud colors were the work of the same man who created Miami Vice. But Michael Mann is an expressive visual stylist who has an unparalleled way of marrying style and content so that each comments on and builds off of the other. Every element of the production design, the wardrobe, the cinematography, and the obscure pop songs on the soundtrack reflect and emphasize the mental states of the characters. It’s for this reason that I honestly feel that the movie is not dated, but continues to be fresh and invigorating. And it’s this same reason that the workmanlike remake fails, its director Brett Ratner having no personal vision for the material, just a desire to cash in on the success of his predecessors.

Anchor Bay previously released Manhunter on DVD in a 2-disc Limited Edition that contained both a “Theatrical Cut” and a “Director’s Cut.” Neither version was quite what it was advertised to be. The so-called Theatrical Cut was in fact not the original theatrical cut at all, but rather a strange workprint variant that was inexplicably missing several small but important pieces of dialogue and had an altered pre-credits sequence. Among the footage missing was a crucial bit of dialogue pertaining to the “Tooth Fairy” killer’s childhood. The DVD looked and sounded nice, but was highly unsatisfying in its variations from the real theatrical cut, which was more coherent and tightly-structured.

Meanwhile, the Director’s Cut on disc 2 was actually a longer version of the movie that Michael Mann put together for The Movie Channel cable network in the late ’80s. Although it has a number of new scenes that reinforce our understanding of the characters, it’s also missing some footage from the theatrical cut because Mann was obligated to condense parts of the movie so that it would fit into a specific time slot. One of those scenes missing was, again, that piece of dialogue about the killer’s childhood. You might then think that if this dialogue didn’t make it into the “Director’s Cut” that the director must not want it in the movie. But judging from the new commentary track that Michael Mann has now recorded, it appears that he doesn’t realize it’s missing, as he refers specifically to the line and its implications when talking about the character.

In terms of running time, the Director’s Cut is 3 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, but this is misleading because in truth it does contain more than 3 minutes of new footage; it’s just that it’s also missing a few minutes of old footage and they average out to a 3 minute difference. Of the various existing versions, Mann has stated that the TV edition is his preferred cut, but I would think that ideally a true “Director’s Cut” ought to include the best parts of all versions, and so far such a thing has not been assembled. Perhaps someone should tell Mr. Mann about the omissions that he seems to have overlooked. The quality of this Director’s Cut disc was also rather terrible, transferred from a videotape source and cropped on all four sides of the frame. It was one of the worst-looking DVDs ever released.

So now Anchor Bay is releasing a new “Restored Director’s Cut” disc. The movie itself appears to be identical in content to the previous TV Director’s Cut, but with a new video transfer that rectifies some (but not all) of the problems from the last disc. I appreciate some of the new footage that’s in this longer cut, but to be honest none of the changes were really necessary and I think that on balance the best version of the movie remains the real original theatrical cut, which is as yet not available on DVD in the United States. With Anchor Bay in control of its fate, though, I have no doubt that the movie will be reworked, remastered, and repackaged a dozen times more before we see the last of it.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

This copy of Manhunter is the first disc to be mastered under Anchor Bay’s new DiViMax transfer process. Judging by the results, the purpose of DiViMax is to add tons of artificial edge enhancement to the picture. Many scenes in the movie are now burdened by thick and distracting edge halos, much worse than anything on their previous THX-certified release of the film’s Theatrical Cut. The older disc did have some edge enhancement, but nowhere near as much as this one. The new edginess also has an adverse effect on grain in the image, which appears a lot noisier and less film-like.

The sticker attached to the packaging swears that the new transfer was “Personally Supervised by Michael Mann.” And before the movie begins, a (non-skippable) caveat is displayed on screen to warn viewers that unfortunately some of the film elements were of less than optimal quality and that portions of the movie may jump back and forth in appearance. This is in fact the case. As a general rule, those scenes from the movie’s theatrical cut have a fairly good and consistent quality of appearance, while those scenes added for the Director’s Cut look noticeably worn down, grainier, faded, and often damaged. Many times, the quality will even jump from shot to shot within a scene. On top of that, there are also times when footage not new to the Director’s Cut, that appeared just fine in the old Theatrical Cut DVD, will look damaged as well. So, the transfer is certainly not very consistent.

Viewers unfamiliar with the many different versions of the movie might think that the opening pre-credits scene is one of those “less than optimal quality” patches of footage. Actually, it’s not. The murky, solarized look of the scene was fully intentional and appeared that way in the original theatrical prints as well as past home video editions of the film on VHS and Laserdisc. That the previous Theatrical Cut DVD had a sparkling clean version of this scene is just one of the alterations that separate it from the real theatrical cut. (For the record, the clean version frankly works a lot better than the cheesy, primitive solarization effect, but I’m sure at the time it must have seemed like a good idea.)

Rough spots aside, when comparing the “clean” portions of this new Restored Director’s Cut to the previous Theatrical Cut DVD, the older edition is clearly superior. That THX disc had less edge enhancement and a brighter picture with more vivid colors, less grain, and less apparent compression artifacting. There are some scenes on this new disc that are very sharp, colorful, and lovely, but also many others that are not. Flesh tones are paler, colors are less vivid, and the image is a bit darker, almost totally obscuring the squib effects during the climactic shoot-out. As noted above, the edge enhancement makes grain stand out more, and compression quality on this new disc has some flaws evident in frozen grain patterns.

All that said, the Restored Director’s Cut is a tremendous improvement over the last Director’s Cut DVD, which was almost totally unwatchable. The worst, most damaged scenes in this disc may look like crap, but they’re an eminently more palatable flavor of crap than the last disc. And a number of scenes look OK, which can’t be said at all about the old version. By that token, when talking about the Director’s Cut, this DVD is a big improvement and is the best that this version of the movie has ever looked on home video. But comparisons to the Theatrical Cut DVD remind us of how much better the footage could and probably should look under ideal circumstances.

Like the Theatrical Cut DVD, this disc is letterboxed to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. The movie was shot in the Super 35 film process, so the top and bottom of the frame have been masked off in comparison to full-frame transfers of the film that have appeared on VHS and television. But Mann has an artful sense of composition and the letterboxing is essential to convey his intended designs for the geometry of shots and the arrangement of objects within the frame, which are often meticulously planned out. Among the other things that have been restored, this disc corrects the framing errors from the last Director’s Cut DVD, which was overly cropped on all four sides of the frame.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

Unfortunately, in the sound department, we have another downgrade in quality from the Theatrical Cut DVD. That disc gave the film a Dolby Digital 5.1 overhaul, while here we’re returned to a bland Dolby 2.0 Surround mix. True, the movie was made in the mid-1980s, but it did have some 70mm release prints which would have featured a 6-track audio mix, the kind that usually translates pretty well to 5.1 reworking.

The 2.0 track on this disc is occasionally very loud and at times features very full surround envelopment, especially with Dolby Pro Logic II decoding. But the dialogue is hollow and overall the track sounds dull and lacks dynamic range. The old 5.1 mix, on the other hand, was cleaner and more dynamic, with clear dialogue and crisp sound effects. The music was also a lot better in 5.1. The Theatrical Cut DVD sounds like, well, a genuine theatrical production. The Director’s Cut DVD sounds like the way you’d listen to the movie on a television airing.

The disc offers English closed captioning but has no other subtitle options. Anchor Bay has a frustrating policy of not paying to have subtitles added unless the movie is in a language other than English. Consider this a complaint.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

What’s new here? Well, the Restored Director’s Cut shares only one bonus feature in common with the Limited Edition 2-disc set, an excellent theatrical trailer in anamorphic widescreen. The interesting featurettes on the movie’s production remain exclusive to that older release.

Newly recorded is the audio commentary by Michael Mann, which sounds to have been cut together from two different recording sessions and often has the movie soundtrack blaring much too loudly in between comments. On the one hand, Mann delivers an engaging and frequently fascinating talk about what appealed to him in the project, about the story motivations, and about adapting the Thomas Harris novel. On the other hand, the commentary is quite frustrating for the things that Mann doesn’t talk about. Although he discusses how the Director’s Cut came into being and points out which footage is new to this version of the film, he neglects to mention anything about the footage from the theatrical cut that has been omitted here, and as mentioned earlier doesn’t seem to be aware that the pivotal dialogue about the Francis Dollarhyde character’s childhood isn’t in the movie anymore. He only briefly mentions that the film was originally shot with Dollarhyde in elaborate full-body tattoos and was later reshot without them, but doesn’t go into detail about why this change was made or what has happened to that footage in the ensuing years. He also chooses not to discuss how he feels about any of the Hannibal Lecter sequels, either in novel or movie form, or the cash-in remake.

Also on the disc are three extensive still galleries with many images from the production, including photos of Tom Noonan in his tattoo makeup and other deleted and alternate scenes. Regrettably, no explanation or context is given for them.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

A copy of Michael Mann’s screenplay (titled “Red Dragon“) is available for download in PDF format. That is the only ROM supplement on the disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

So what is a Manhunter fan to do, keep the old 2-disc set or “upgrade” to this new copy? Frankly, you’re going to have to keep both discs. The new edition of the Restored Director’s Cut is miles better than the old copy of this film version, yet the previous Theatrical Cut was better still (in quality, if not in content). Personally, what I’m waiting for is a copy of the real theatrical cut, remastered into the same quality or better than Anchor Bay’s fake “Theatrical Cut” DVD. For me, that would trump everything else. The Director’s Cut itself is an interesting curiosity, but I feel that the added scenes don’t add significantly to the film and that the benefit of having them is outweighed by the disadvantage of their poor presentation quality. I also greatly miss the footage that has been lost from the real theatrical cut in this version. I’m glad to have this Restored Director’s Cut, but the definitive release of Manhunter has not yet been produced.

Manhunter (Japan Release)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published February 4, 2004.

“If one does what God does enough times, one will become as God is.”

For a little movie that didn’t do much box office business during its 1986 theatrical run, Michael Mann’s superlative serial killer thriller Manhunter has certainly proven to have some legs. Building up an audience on television and home video, the film spawned one arguably overrated sequel, one generally despised but arguably underrated second sequel, and one completely pointless remake. All three of those latter pictures earned blockbuster grosses and one of them even won a slew of Oscars, but to many fans, Manhunter is still regarded as the best of the Hannibal Lecter movies, even without Anthony Hopkins hamming it up as the good doctor. In the United States, Anchor Bay Entertainment has attempted to appease (or exploit, depending on how you view it) the film’s cult audience by issuing several different editions of Manhunter on DVD. Unfortunately, for all their best intentions, they have yet to satisfy the obsessive and knowledgeable fans, who will have to extend their searches beyond the limits of Region 1.

Of those discs currently available from Anchor Bay, including a “Theatrical Cut,” a “Director’s Cut,” and finally a “Restored Director’s Cut,” none is quite what it was advertised to be. The so-called Theatrical Cut is no such thing at all, having been mastered from an incomplete hybrid workprint missing several important pieces of dialogue and including a few other bits that were cut before release (such as a new scene with a real estate agent and several other small scene extensions). Then we have the Director’s Cut, actually a longer version of the movie that Michael Mann prepared for cable TV in the late ’80s. The Director’s Cut contains a number of new scenes that reinforce our understanding of the characters, but is also condensed in some areas and is missing footage from the real theatrical cut in order to fit into a specific time slot. Their initial Director’s Cut DVD being of shamefully poor quality, Anchor Bay later remastered it with a better picture transfer for the “Restored Director’s Cut,” mostly the same version of the film as their previous DC, except for one scene involving Graham’s meeting with Dr. Chilton which has mysteriously gone missing.

Of the various existing versions, Mann has stated that the TV edition is his preferred cut. Personally, although I appreciate some of the new footage that’s in the longer cut, I can’t help feeling that none of the changes were really necessary, and that on balance the best version of the movie remains the real original theatrical cut. Naturally, this is the one version Anchor Bay has never given us.

Luckily, the picture is not so bleak in other countries. Back in 1999, Region 2 viewers in Europe had their choice of discs from Pioneer in France or BMG in the United Kingdom, both containing the real theatrical cut but neither being of particularly great quality. (The UK disc was even non-anamorphic widescreen.) Now in 2003, the complex tangle of international distribution rights has allowed the film to fall into the hands of MGM Home Entertainment, who have entered the fray with their own editions of the movie in Europe and Japan that are, remarkably, the real theatrical cut and are of pretty good quality. Of these new MGM releases, the disc from Japan is the most appealing due to its inclusion of a DTS soundtrack not found in any other region. Also, being encoded for the NTSC video format, it has the advantage of playing back at its proper running speed without PAL speedup problems, though I really don’t mean to stir up the old PAL vs. NTSC debate here.

Finally, all those little bits of footage frustratingly altered in the North American DVD releases have been restored, including Graham’s “My heart bleeds for him as a child” speech, possibly the single most important piece of character dialogue in the entire movie. That speech was missing from both the “Fake Theatrical Cut” (my designation for it) and the Director’s Cut, even though director Mann refers to it in his commentary track on the Restored Director’s Cut disc as though he wasn’t aware it had been removed from the film. The squib effects during the final shootout are visible again (they were obscured in the Director’s Cut) and we can clearly hear William Petersen’s “I’m Will Graham” line, affirmation that he’s once again in control of his own mindset.

The only minor changes that I could detect between the Japanese DVD and my old Warner Bros. Laserdisc copy of the movie are that the opening credits are now white in color (like the Director’s Cut) rather than the original green, and the color washes that played behind them just before transitioning to the beach scene have been replaced with a solid blue field. Neither alteration has any significant effect on the film as a whole and are only noted as a piece of trivia. Everything else here is as it originally started before the director, the studio, the video transfer facilities, and seemingly everyone and their brother began tinkering with the movie and consequently diluting its effectiveness.

The disc is coded for Region 2 playback in the NTSC video format and will require compatible hardware to operate. Manhunter fans with region-free DVD capability should embrace this disc. Viewers limited to Region 1 will just have to hope that Anchor Bay gets their act together and eventually releases a comparable edition themselves.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

From the looks of it, MGM was apparently working from the same source materials that Anchor Bay used for their DiViMax transfer of the “Restored Director’s Cut,” however they have not instituted any of the content changes to create that version of the movie. A prominent green scratch runs down the right-hand portion of the screen during the Hannibal Lecter interrogation on both discs (approximately 27 minutes in). The anamorphically-enhanced 2.35:1 framing is identical on both copies, and has a slightly different balance in some shots than the THX-mastered edition of Anchor Bay’s original Fake Theatrical Cut disc. The movie was shot in the Super 35 process and minor framing variations like these are not unexpected, but the DiViMax and MGM discs tend to look better composed in those instances where the framing differs from the THX copy.

The DiViMax edition was burdened with terrible edge enhancement, which thankfully seems reduced here. It isn’t completely gone, but it’s nowhere near as bad. Since they didn’t have to worry about splicing in inferior-quality elements relating to the Director’s Cut version of the movie, MGM’s disc is also more consistent in its print quality, aside from that scratch in the Lecter scene. In other respects, MGM’s video transfer is very similar in appearance to the DiViMax edition, perhaps looking slightly brighter and less dull in a few scenes, but overall still not in the same ballpark as the vibrant, sharp and colorful transfer of the original THX disc.

The Japanese disc has a very brief (barely noticeable) jump cut at approximately 17 minutes, but this isn’t a transfer flaw. It’s a problem inherent to the theatrical cut, and appears in the exact same spot on both the Fake Theatrical Cut DVD and the old Warner Bros. Laserdisc (which was mastered from very different source materials and looks like garbage in comparison to any of these DVDs). The whole scene runs longer in the Director’s Cut, so it seems obvious that Mann must have tried to remove a few lines of dialogue for the theatrical cut and was hoping that no one would notice the jump.

Compression quality on the MGM disc is pretty good overall, but the film does have patches of heavy grain and there are notable compression artifacts during the police station scene about 19 minutes into the movie. The green blinds hanging down in the back of that scene are rife with MPEG problems and look better in both the DiViMax and THX transfers. Overall, though, I give a slight edge to the Japanese disc over the DiViMax copy, but the THX edition remains the best-looking copy of the movie released to date. It’s just a shame that the THX disc is by far the least satisfying cut of the film.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

MGM in Japan has seen fit to spruce up Manhunter with a new DTS 5.1 audio track in addition to a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Both are superior to the dull-sounding Dolby 2.0 mix on the Restored Director’s Cut DVD and are approximately equal in quality to the better Dolby 5.1 track on the Fake Theatrical Cut THX disc. Still, this isn’t a movie with a terribly intricate sound design. Surround envelopment is limited, and in fact the Director’s Cut 2.0 track probably features more music and ambience bleed to the rear channels. I noticed precisely one discrete split-surround effect towards the end of the movie.

Dialogue is clear and sound effects are crisp, however, and the music sounds very good in 5.1, especially when it hits the low bass tones. The DTS is a half bit-rate 768 kb/s track, and to be perfectly honest I couldn’t tell much difference between it and the Dolby 5.1 mix, as much I was hoping to hear one. The disc defaults to displaying Japanese subtitles, but they’re removable. Optional English subtitles are also available.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The only supplement provided is an anamorphically-enhanced Theatrical Trailer, the same one found on all of Anchor Bay’s previous DVDs. The disc’s menus are in Japanese text and may be difficult at first for an English speaker to navigate, so I suppose it’s fortunate that there aren’t too many options to select.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A Manhunter completist will need to own this disc; that’s the long and the short of it. The real theatrical cut, in my opinion the best of all the various versions of this film, has finally been restored for a pretty good DVD edition. The picture transfer of Anchor Bay’s original THX disc still hasn’t been met or surpassed, but the quality here is at least a bit better than their Restored Director’s Cut disc and is satisfying overall. I’m glad to finally have a legitimate reason to retire the crappy-looking Warner Bros. Laserdisc. Personally, this is the Manhunter DVD that I will default to watching from now on.

Metropolis (2001)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 6, 2002.

Not to be confused with the classic Fritz Lang silent film, the noisy 2001 feature Metropolis is the product of three prominent forces in Japanese animation. The film was directed by Rintaro (veteran of many anime movies including Galaxy Express 999 and Harmagedon), scripted by Katsuhiro Otomo (writer and director of Akira), and based on a manga (comic book) from the late Osamu Tezuka (a prolific comic artist and animator best known to Americans for his involvement with the Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion cartoons). Metropolis was one of Tezuka’s early works, and was in turn inspired by the Lang film. Like Lang’s famous distopian vision, the new Metropolis is set in a sprawling futuristic city-state rigidly separated along class lines. At the top of the social spectrum, the wealthy and powerful reside in the upper reaches of the city’s skyscrapers. Below them, the city is divided into descending zones for its lower classes, workers, and robots. Also cribbed directly from Lang is the basic plot device of a mad scientist who has created a female super-robot that threatens to disrupt the order of things.

Rintaro’s film is a big-budget visual extravaganza blending state-of-the-art computer generated imagery with traditional animation. Almost every shot is crammed to the brink with layers of detail and movement, including a few production design nods to the original Metropolis, Akira, and other notable works of science fiction. The mix, however, is not entirely seamless. The character artwork, adapted from Tezuka’s original drawings, is designed in an intentionally old-fashioned anime style featuring large-eyed Caucasians with exaggerated childlike appearances. This may be off-putting for Western audiences, and to be honest I found it distracting at times when it shouldn’t have been. There’s basically no attempt made to place realistic characters into the heightened realism of the film’s setting. I understand that the objective was to contrast an old style with a new style, much as the film’s story plays with the motif of old versus new, but this doesn’t always work as well as it’s intended to.

It doesn’t help that the movie is hampered by a simplistic storyline and some naïve political beliefs. (Rich people are bad; the proletariat is always oppressed.) These are traits it shares in common with the Fritz Lang film, of course, but one might have hoped that in 80 years filmmakers could learn from past mistakes rather than repeat them. Metropolis gives you much to look at, but there isn’t a lot of story here. The film has more spectacle than substance. Otomo tries to work in themes of class warfare, man versus technology, and a none-too-subtle religious metaphor, all of which have been handled better in previous science fiction films. The robot struggling to establish its identity as a being rather than a machine was tackled more effectively in Blade Runner back in 1982, with just as much visual expressiveness and more philosophical depth.

What does work for Metropolis is its decidedly retro feel, seeming like a 1920s vision of the future as recreated with modern technology. This is a bright, jazzy fantasy loaded with verve and style, one that moves along at a steady clip right up until its gorgeous, apocalyptic climax. The movie’s most impressive set-piece works so well that one might even forgive that it, like much else in the film, was copied from elsewhere (and even mix of Dr. Strangelove and End of Evangelion). I enjoyed much of Metropolis and I would certainly watch it again, but it could have been more than it is. Like the robot at the center of its story, the film feels like an artificial creation masquerading as something real. It comes close to transcending that boundary from one to the other, but doesn’t quite get there in time.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The picture is letterboxed to its theatrical aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. The opening scene may seem a hair too dark, but other than that, the transfer is fine. The color palette is vivid and I detected no artifacting or compression flaws. Despite its cluttered and multi-layered art direction, there’s something about the overuse of CGI backgrounds that flattens the depth of the animation. As a result, the image isn’t quite as vivid or striking as the Akira DVD, which I use as a standard of measure, but Metropolis has its own share of visual razzle-dazzle and the disc serves it well.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The DVD has a variety of language options. The original Japanese soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, making it only the second domestically released anime title to sport a DTS track. (The first was Jin-Roh.) For those unable to watch a movie and read subtitles at the same time, there’s an English dub in Dolby Digital 5.1 and a French dub in basic Dolby Surround.

We get not one but two sets of English subtitles (both yellow), one labeled “Original Japanese Translation” and the other called “U.S. Theatrical.” This is confusing and rather misleading. I’m not sure which subtitles the movie had when it played in American theaters (in a rare move, the film was released with its Japanese soundtrack instead of the English dub), but I suspect it was the actually Original Translation, not the other. The essence of the information conveyed by the two tracks is the same, but the wording is quite different. The so-called U.S. Theatrical track appears to be a literal translation of the Japanese words, meaning that its English is often awkward, while the Original Translation seems to have been adapted by a native English speaker and reads much more intelligibly. I recommend sticking with the Original Translation. My first suspicion was that one of the subtitle tracks would actually be a “dubtitle” (a transcription of the English dubbing script), but when I compared them to the English soundtrack, neither set of subtitles matched it at all. I have no idea what happened to the dub script, but as recorded it’s completely different than anything else on the disc. As if all of that weren’t confusing enough, the disc is also encoded with true English closed captions from the same translation as the “U.S. Theatrical” subtitles and has additional subtitles in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai.

Now, getting all of that out of the way, we can finally discuss the actual audio quality. The Dolby Digital is very nice indeed with lots of active separation effects and rocking bass, but the DTS track is even more spectacular. It has so much power and depth that I feared my speakers might blow apart at any second. The DTS has an amazingly broad soundstage with thunderous bass and crisp highs. Subwoofers will get a workout, but the bass is very clean, not boomy at all. Luscious music seems to float in the air and creates a richly enveloping soundfield that comes at you from all directions without ping-ponging between speakers. This is a reference quality soundtrack that effectively balances quiet passages with intense action scenes, and it’s delivered magnificently on the DVD.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Columbia TriStar has released Metropolis as the first 1 ½-disc special edition. After the movie, the only supplements on Disc 1 are the American theatrical trailer in non-anamorphic letterbox and some promos for other unrelated titles. Disc 2, however, is the first ever 3-inch “pocket DVD” and contains the rest of the supplements. So, what exactly does a pocket DVD do? Well, about half as much as a regular DVD.

The largest bonus feature on the tiny disc is the 33-minute Animax Special: The Making of Metropolis. This is essentially the Japanese equivalent of an HBO First Look program. There’s a bit of interesting technical talk with the animators and some tantalizing stills from the original manga, but overall this is a very promotional piece that’s light on substance. The special itself really only runs 20 minutes, but another 13 minutes of cast & crew interviews have been tacked onto the end. I have no idea why they were arranged this way, because elsewhere on the disc is a dedicated section for Filmmaker Interviews. This second section of interviews runs only 8 minutes and has comments from director Rintaro and screenwriter Otomo. Repeated several times throughout both the Animax special and the interviews is the claim that Osamu Tezuka specifically forbid this comic from being adapted into a movie while he was alive. It was only after his death that the film could go into production, and no one involved seems to feel particularly guilty about that. Both of these supplemental programs were recorded in Japanese and offer optional English subtitles.

The most informative supplement is the History of Metropolis still-frame text document, which provides a good deal of background about Osamu Tezuka and this specific work. Following this is a very short Photo Gallery of character design sketches and art direction storyboards. Finally, there’s a section of Animation Comparisons where you can view various stages of animation individually, or toggle between them using the DVD player’s multi-angle function. Two scenes are available.

The 3-inch disc worked perfectly fine in both of my DVD players. It has animated menus like a regular disc and offers the normal range of DVD functions, but is undoubtedly just a marketing gimmick designed to disguise the fact that we get half as many supplements as a normal special edition. At least it’s cute.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Metropolis may not be the best anime film I’ve ever seen, but it remains moderately thought-provoking, high in spectacle, and reasonably entertaining. The DVD has a solid picture, an outstanding DTS track, and a couple of decent supplements. I recommend it to anime fans, though I doubt the movie will convert very many people not inherently interested in the genre.

Mulholland Drive

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published April 9, 2002.

“A man’s attitude goes some ways toward how a man’s life will be.”

I suspect that most reviews of Mulholland Drive, David Lynch’s latest surreal mind-fuck of a movie, will spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to explain what the hell the thing is about. I don’t see much point in that. The way I see it, some movies are beyond rational explanation. They should be approached like a good song whose lyrics, if you were to write them out on paper, don’t make any sense at all, but when performed by the right singer in the right tone with just the right music, form a greater emotional truth that’s more important than the conventions of traditional narrative storytelling. The audience will either respond to such a thing or they won’t, and that’s all that can be said about it. As such, I’m not going to try to explain or interpret the multi-layered, twisty plot about the amnesiac brunette and the naïve Hollywood starlet who stumble into a bizarre Nancy-Drew-meets-Blue Velvet psychosexual mystery in the city of dreams. Nor will I try to convert those people who adamantly hate this type of movie into changing their minds. What I can do, however, is provide a little background context for the piece.

To understand what Mulholland Drive is, you must first understand what it was originally intended to be. David Lynch created the story as the beginning of a primetime television series for the ABC network. Despite their shoddy treatment of him after the cancellation of Twin Peaks, ABC executives somehow managed to lure Lynch back with promises of more freedom. Inspired by the possibilities of another long-form narrative, Lynch acquiesced and shot a two-hour pilot episode. When he screened the finished pilot, ABC hated it and instantly cancelled all plans for future episodes. The official reason was that the program was “too violent” for television (this is the network that brings us NYPD Blue, mind you), but industry buzz claimed that it was actually too weird and the folks at ABC just didn’t understand it. ABC attempted to re-edit the episode behind Lynch’s back with the intention of airing it as a TV movie of the week, but even those plans were scrapped and the whole project fell into limbo.

Jumping ahead a couple of years, Lynch regained the rights to his work and secured funding from a European production company to shoot a new ending that would wrap up the story. The new footage was decidedly R-rated in nature, and this reworked theatrical version of the movie played to positive response at the Cannes film festival, where it won Lynch an award for Best Director, followed later by an Oscar nomination for the same title. ABC has no comment on the matter, but I suspect that someone is kicking themselves for their timidity.

How exactly did Lynch change the television episode into a feature film? Having seen the original TV pilot on a bootleg…. uhhhh… private copy, I think I can point out some of the differences without spoiling any plot. The first 90 minutes are essentially identical to the original version. The jitterbug prologue before the opening credits is new, the credits themselves are presented in a different font and style (the old ones were better), and there are several minor additions and deletions spread throughout various scenes, but little of considerable consequence. The biggest single change in this portion of the movie is the reinsertion of the Winkie’s diner sequence and the introduction of the scary guy hanging out at the dumpster. These scenes appear in the script for the TV pilot, and I assume were shot during the original production, but were presumably cut for time. I’m glad to finally see this footage. Its absence was a significant loss; it clarifies some of the story’s themes, and without it the scary guy’s appearance later doesn’t make any sense. (Not that he makes much sense anyway.) The movie’s first act ends almost precisely where the pilot did (two brief shots have been shuffled to later in the film), followed by 45 minutes of all new footage. Even a first-time viewer can distinguish the breaking-off point. It’s marked by a very graphic sex scene that would obviously never air on television.

So, knowing all of this history behind the project, how did the movie turn out? As a longtime Lynch fan, I have to admit to some mixed feelings. I honestly think this could have made a fabulous television series had the network not chickened out, but Lynch’s efforts to finish the story are somewhat uneven. The TV pilot was clearly not intended for a quick resolution. All of the characters are just starting the first part of their arcs and numerous plot strands are introduced but never followed up, obviously requiring significantly more time to play out. Rather than even attempt to tie up all of the loose ends, Lynch’s solution is to yank the rug out from under the viewer and take the entire story in a radically different direction. The transition is more than a little jarring. At first, it seems as though the second half of the movie has nothing at all to do with the first half, and the whole thing will leave a viewer scratching their head trying to figure it out.

Lynch is famous for this sort of thing, of course, so his existing fans shouldn’t be too surprised. In fact, if I have any serious disappointment with the movie, it’s that the wildly surreal ending is largely recycled from Lynch’s own Lost Highway. He grafts the prominent themes from that movie onto this one (whereas they were barely hinted at during the first half of the film), and spells them out using the exact same symbolism and cinematic language. It seems as though Lynch, in his desperate attempt to complete the film, merely reached back into his old bag of tricks to throw something together. I can’t help feeling at least a little sense of redundancy at the effort.

I also think that, in making the transition to feature film, Lynch should have trimmed more footage from the TV pilot. The movie could stand to lose at least half an hour off its beginning. Robert Forster originally had two scenes in the pilot, but here has been reduced to a one-scene cameo that’s really quite irrelevant to the overall story. There’s no reason for his role to remain in the film at all. There are several other examples like this, scenes whose removal might have strengthened the film, but which Lynch became attached to and couldn’t let go.

That said, this is still a fascinating movie from one of our most consistently innovative filmmakers. Even if not Lynch’s best work, it’s still a solid effort with more ambition and genuine vision than any other film that came out in the same year. The movie’s first half is a slow but intriguing mystery drama that’s certainly less alienating in tone than the likes of Lost Highway, and although the second half may throw many viewers for a loop, when given thought, it does make some sense. Analyzing it too closely can drive you mad with frustration, but that’s half the fun in this type of movie. Every seemingly valid interpretation will have at least a few loopholes. I see the film as broken into three distinct parts, not just two, and feel that the woman from Apartment 12 is a much more important character than we would believe at first. Others may disagree, and strong cases can be made for multiple theories.

What Lynch does better than just about any other filmmaker working today is create startling images with the power to indelibly burn themselves into the viewer’s subconscious. Mulholland Drive has a number of such scenes. The “Llorando” sequence, for one, is the most achingly beautiful piece of film I’ve seen in years. And Betty’s first audition manages to outdo the similar Bobby Peru scene in Wild at Heart for sheer creepiness and dark eroticism, something I thought no movie could accomplish. For those, and for the many other striking moments that transcend the boundaries of conventional filmmaking, Mulholland Drive is indeed a minor masterpiece that I foresee myself returning to repeatedly, hoping to learn something new each time, as I do with Lynch’s best movies. I wish I could say as much for every film that I see.

“Silencio.”

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Even though Mulholland Drive was originally produced for television, it was shot with 16:9 HDTV broadcast in mind. As a result, it translated to the widescreen theatrical format fairly well. Compared directly to my full-frame pilot episode tape, the approximately 1.78:1 anamorphically enhanced DVD has noticeably more picture information on the sides of the frame, with a smidgen cropped off the top and bottom. However, it seems to me that the photography was primarily composed for the 4:3 ratio, with the 16:9 area protected as an afterthought. The majority of the extra picture information appears on the right side of the picture, often leaving the framing awkward and unbalanced. The vertical matting is also a bit tight at the top and bottom of the image, but not nearly as bad as the 1.85:1 theatrical screening that I saw.

Although Lynch is an exceptional visual stylist, he was working with a TV production budget for most of the filming, and that sometimes shows through in the photography. The DVD transfer has nice textures and terrific color quality, especially the luscious red of painted fingernails and lipstick, but the image is rather contrasty and has unimpressive shadow detail. It looks good overall, certainly leagues better than the multi-generational VHS copy of the pilot I’d seen, but doesn’t have as much vibrancy or depth as many other feature films.

A note of warning: As confirmed from a chat on his web site, Lynch instructed that one scene in the film, at the 99 minute mark, be censored with optical blurring to obscure Laura Harring’s nether regions. I find this news disturbing, but in practice the blockage is barely visible unless you have the Brightness on your display turned up to obscenely high levels. The scene in question is cloaked in heavy shadows anyway, so really there wasn’t much need for this action in the first place. I have to ask who Lynch thought he was protecting. Did Harring ask him to do this, and if so why did she get naked for the film in the first place? Or was Lynch just feeling guilty about shooting the scene that way gratuitously? Is one brief glimpse of her pubic hair really more objectionable than the extensive breast exposure we see here and elsewhere? I just don’t get it.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s soundtrack is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 surround. Neither is exactly reference quality. Surround usage is limited if present at all. The audio varies between dull-sounding periods to crisply recorded and extremely well mixed passages. The fidelity of the “Sixteen Reasons” scene is outstanding, while elsewhere the sound mix is a little murky with some harsh dialogue. Again, this seems to be more an artifact of the production circumstances than a disc transfer problem. I’d even say that the soundtrack improves when we switch to the latter half of the movie.

The jitterbug opening is extremely loud, much more so than the rest of the movie, with rocking deep bass. There are other portions of the movie as well with extensive use of the low-end. Some of it requires a better subwoofer than I have available. Other parts sound overly thumpy and artificially pumped up. Does a single fist punch really need that much bass? Perhaps in a Die Hard movie, but not really here. Lynch has always paid keen attention to sound design and there’s some good work here (the intense ending will have you climbing over the back of your chair), but he has done better in previous films.

Spanish and French subtitles are available, along with English captions for the hearing impaired. The disc does not have true closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

David Lynch is known to dislike DVD supplemental material, so we don’t get much of anything here. There’s an excellent theatrical trailer in non-anamorphic letterbox, and a few pages of cast & crew bios on the disc. (Lynch’s bio is particularly revealing.) That’s about it. The case also includes a printed card with “David Lynch’s 10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller.” The clues are things like, “Notice the appearances of the red lampshade” and “Where is Aunt Ruth?” They’re vague and cryptic, and frankly a little condescending. I’d rather have done without them at all.

Nowhere is the history of the project even mentioned, much less analyzed. Most annoying, the disc doesn’t even have chapter stops. Lynch has some half-baked theory about film being “a continuum” that should not be stopped or broken into pieces. While that may sound all well and good to him, it’s rather insulting to those of us who want to study his films. Thanks for nothing, Mr. Lynch. Literally.

In a move clearly inspired by the movie’s themes, Universal is releasing two separate editions of the film with different sets of cover art, each featuring a different lead actress. The discs themselves are identical, only the cover art varies. Had they been really smart, they would have made the case’s paper insert reversible so that a buyer could switch it at their choosing. I guess doing it that way wouldn’t sucker collectors into buying the movie twice, though.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Mulholland Drive is certain to divide viewers between those who have a taste for experimental cinema and those who don’t. The film has, oddly, managed to convert some notable David Lynch detractors (read: Roger Ebert) into its favor, but in my experience it plays best to those who are already part of Lynch’s camp. In fact, some of the people I’ve spoken to about the movie have gotten downright indignant in their hatred for it, as though a story that doesn’t explain itself in no uncertain terms were somehow insulting them. Not to sound too snobbish, but honestly this attitude saddens me. Personally, I feel exactly the opposite.

The DVD, priced at a $32.98 MSRP, will likewise divide DVD fans between those who genuinely care only for having the movie in its best audio and video quality, and those who expect all of their DVDs to be loaded with so-called “added value content.”

In both situations, you know who you are and have likely already made up your mind by the time you get to this part of the review. To those who are still interested, I wholehearted recommend the disc.

My Life as a Dog

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 18, 2003.

Before coming to America to be a star player on the Miramax Oscar nomination team, Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström started out by directing ABBA music videos. A strange thought, isn’t it, that one man could go from Dancing Queen to The Cider House Rules? Somewhere in between, Hallström made his reputation with small, personal films such as Mitt liv som hund (My Life as a Dog), an adaptation of the novel by Reidar Jonsson about a Swedish boy coming of age as his mother wastes away from tuberculosis.

Young Ingemar has a rough life. As his mother becomes progressively ill, she retreats away from her children into a world of books, where she can pass her time without the strain of emotional attachments. Ingemar has only his brother and his dog as friends, but is soon separated from both when he’s sent to live with his uncle, a glassmaker in a rural community far away, in order to give his mother some peace. His relatives have affection for him, and the town is filled with charming eccentric types that keep him amused, but eventually Ingemar will have to come to terms with his loss, and in doing so retreats into his own emotional shell, the personality and behavior of his dog Sickan. As a dog, he knows only to bark, unwilling to be phased by such human weaknesses as grief or despair.

Cheerful stuff, this is, but it gave Hallström a chance to develop his signature style, a mixture of benign humanism with gentle humor. He directs lead child actor Anton Glanzelius into an impressively naturalistic performance and gives all of the secondary characters their moments to shine. Ingemar’s life is faced with much sadness, but, perhaps because he simply isn’t old enough to know any better, he tries to stay optimistic. His litany of “It could have been worse” scenarios is a humorous way of keeping things in perspective. My Life as a Dog is a touching, sentimental film that fortunately manages to avoid the traps of cloying melodrama through Hallström’s sure hand as a storyteller. You can see the themes that would carry through to his later American films like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and The Cider House Rules: the close-knit small community, the well-developed personalities of minor background characters, and the journey to maturity and self-reliance that the main character must take.

My Life as a Dog was produced in 1985 but not released in the United States until 1987, whereupon it earned Hallström his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. It seems that most of his films since then have been nominated for some award or other. But it was more than just a stepping-stone work for the filmmaker; it’s a fully-formed little gem that continues to resonate with audiences today and is a fine inclusion in the Criterion Collection, for whose mission statement in support of “a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films” it’s perfectly suited.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Available previously as an old full-frame DVD from Fox Lorbar (now Wellspring), My Life as a Dog has been cleaned up and remastered for this nice new Criterion edition. The 1.66:1 picture has been mildly windowboxed in order to accommodate anamorphic enhancement, but the black bars on the sides of the picture will likely not be noticeable on most television monitors due to overscan. The image is very sharp and clear with no visible edge enhancement artifacts. The movie has a deliberately drab style fitting the tone of the story, and the transfer has appropriately flat but well-defined colors. Film grain is apparent in many scenes, but it has been very well digitally compressed and never looks noisy. This is an understated yet impressive color transfer that’s a decided improvement over the older DVD release.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

There’s not much to be said about the Swedish Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtrack. The movie doesn’t have a showy sound mix. This is a quiet but clean audio track that delivers the dialogue and musical score with adequate clarity. It does its job well enough without calling attention to itself.

Removable English subtitles have been provided, but the disc offers no other language or captioning options.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

Starting the supplement section of the disc is an Interview with Lasse Hallström conducted in the spring of 2002. Hallström discusses everything from his early career working with ABBA up through his approach for adapting this particular novel to film. Unfortunately, he’s a slow talker and this 18-minute segment seems to go on forever.

The most significant bonus feature on the disc is Hallström’s 1973 television film, Shall We Go to My or Your Place or Each Go Home Alone. Running 52 minutes and presented in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, the picture and monaural soundtrack are both in rather worn-out condition. The movie is largely improvisational in manner and follows three guys as they explore the Swedish nightlife while trying to pick up chicks. The style of the film is painfully dated and the plot meanders with seemingly no purpose whatsoever. After the movie is another two-minute interview with Hallström about it.

The theatrical trailer is also needlessly lengthy and dull. Finally, the disc comes with a booklet that includes an essay about the film by Michael Atkinson and a short but quite humorous Afterword by Kurt Vonnegut.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A fine film that’s well preserved here by Criterion, My Life as a Dog features a lovely new transfer and a small array of bonus features that are nice to have for archival purposes if not particularly interesting to watch on their own. The disc gets a solid recommendation for fans of the film and is worth checking out for anyone else interested.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published June 30, 2001.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is a charming anime program produced by Gainax Studios under the direction of Hideaki Anno, the same creative team that would later work on the brooding and existential Neon Genesis Evangelion. This show is not quite as dark as that one. The two lead children, though of the same age as the characters in Eva, are at least relatively well-adjusted as the story starts. The series maintains a high level of intelligence and style, but should appeal to a broader cross section of viewers.

Jean, a precocious 14-year-old boy with a talent for inventing, visits the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, where he becomes quickly smitten with a mysterious girl his own age named Nadia. Jean soon discovers that the girl is being chased by a trio of bandits eager to capture the precious stone she wears on a necklace. The jewel may be the only link that Nadia has to her forgotten past, so she and Jean take off on an adventure to escape their pursuers and discover the secrets to a broader mystery involving Nadia’s origins and (as the story progresses) possible ties to the lost kingdom of Atlantis.

The DVD Volume 1 contains the first four episodes of the series. They’re almost entirely exposition with only a few teasing hints of what shall come. They do, however, provide an engrossing introduction to the story and a strong hook to sustain interest for future episodes.

Nadia is based loosely on the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It’s less faithful in plot than in theme and style. Captain Nemo (looking suspiciously like the captain of the SDF-1 from Macross) and the Nautilus make an appearance, but the show is more concerned with the trappings of its late 19th Century setting. It was a time in which great technological advances seemed like they could make anything possible, and yet so much of the world was still unknown. This is the heart of what fascinated Jules Verne, and this is the real foundation upon which the Nadia story is based.

Comparisons to the Disney animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire are almost inevitable. While it’s true that the two programs have some striking similarities, many of these can be traced back to their mutual Jules Verne influence. A couple of the characters share a passing resemblance to one another, but arguments can be made for or against Disney’s “theft” of anime material. In the end, these are two very different programs. Though fans of one may have an inherent interest in the other, they shouldn’t expect identical content.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The show has been slightly altered from its original presentation in order to replace the opening and closing titles with English text. No other intrusive video overlays (a controversial procedure that AD Vision has implemented on other anime series) have been added to this program to my knowledge.

The video image looks fairly good. The focus is sharp, the source materials are clean, and the colors are bold. Unfortunately, the picture is marred by a distracting amount of artificial edge enhancement that gives a halo to major objects in the frame. This is probably the best the series has looked on American home video, but it could certainly be improved if the unnecessary edge enhancement were reduced. I hope that this is kept in mind for future volumes.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The DVD offers two soundtrack options, either the original Japanese with optional subtitles or a new English dub. Unfortunately, an English-speaking viewer will probably find either choice only half-satisfying. The Japanese track has the most appropriate voices for each of the characters (well, as appropriate as French characters speaking Japanese can sound), but the subtitle translation is often awkward. The prologue segment before the first episode, for instance, is nearly incomprehensible. Most of the episode translation isn’t that bad, but the language can feel stilted and unnatural at times.

It’s obvious that a lot of work was put into the dub, providing an altogether better-sounding translation and making sure that the dialogue follows the mouth movements. Most of the new voices fit the characters, with one major exception (actually two, since I’m not thrilled with the grandmotherly voice the narrator now has). The lead character of Jean has been given a terribly fake French accent that’s highly irritating. This may bother some people more than others, but since Jean has most of the dialogue, I gave up after trying one episode and switched back to the Japanese track. Neither language track provides much of a convincing growl from King, the lion cub.

Both soundtracks present the opening and closing theme songs in stereo, but the remainder of each episode is primarily monaural in focus. The audio is clear and intelligible, but the sound design is no more elaborate than your typical animated television program.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

ADV has a reputation for being a cheapskate anime distributor. The supplements on this disc don’t put up much of an argument for them. The only noteworthy bonus items here are the textless opening and closing credit sequences. It’s nice to see the opening to the show without the tacky English credits burned in, but I would have much preferred to see the original Japanese text rather than this barren version. A pair of American trailers, a preview for Volume 2 of the series, and a host of trailers for other ADV-distributed programs are the only other items we get.

Noticeably missing are the Omake Theaters, the teaser segments at the end of episodes that recap the plot and set up the next episode. Some fans of the series are up in arms about this exclusion, since the Omake Theaters for Nadia apparently fill in plot and character details not in the episodes themselves. At this early point in the series, it’s hard to tell whether anything important is missing.

The disc’s menu system repeats the show’s theme song endlessly. The interface is also poorly designed, treating all four episodes as one long program and forcing the viewer to go through the Chapter Selections menu if they wish to jump directly to a later episode.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Nadia is a terrific show that’s well worth inclusion in any anime fan’s collection. While mostly satisfying, the DVD presentation doesn’t provide it with the careful attention that it deserves. Perhaps in the hands of a better studio such as AnimEigo this could have turned into a very special release. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose we should be grateful that the program is available on DVD at all. In that light, I don’t hesitate to recommend it.

Needful Things

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published August 25, 2002.

We all know the rule of thumb that Stephen King stories rarely make good movies. The small handful of exceptions (Carrie, The Shining, Stand by Me) are dwarfed by a long list of best-forgotten turkeys like Children of the Corn, Graveyard Shift, or any of the dreadful made-for-TV miniseries that the ABC network has been foisting on us in recent years. Judging by the negative reviews it received and its terrible box office performance, at first glance one might lump Needful Things in with the latter category. Nonetheless, I remember seeing the film in a (mostly empty) theater in its second weekend of release and enjoying it more than I expected. It has been a good number of years since then, of course, and I look back skeptically on my tastes from that period in my life, so it was with some amount of apprehension that I spun up this new DVD. What was it that made me want to review this movie, anyway? Would it hold up to my modest expectations, or would I have the sinking realization that everyone else was right the first time around?

Exactly two hours pass and, surprisingly, I still think it’s a fun movie that has been badly underrated by audiences who were expecting a straight horror picture instead of the wickedly dark comedy they got instead. Ed Harris capably toplines an impressive cast of supporting actors (Bonnie Bedelia, Amanda Plummer, and J.T. Walsh, among others). Max von Sydow, though undoubtedly typecast, hams it up beautifully as the devilish Mr. Gaunt, proprietor of a charming antique shop that turns the quaint little town of Castle Rock upside down. Gaunt has an uncanny knack for knowing exactly what each resident of the town most desperately craves, and he requires some unconventional forms of payment. Soon enough, he’s set the townspeople against one another by manipulating them into playing a series of pranks with horrible consequences. My favorite storyline involves the bitter rivalry between the Baptist minister and the Catholic priest, neither of whom takes terribly much prompting to be driven to the brink of murder.

The movie is, admittedly, not the kind of thing that wins awards. As is typical for a Stephen King story, the “be careful what you wish for” theme and blatant Faustian overtones are heavy-handedly applied and go a bit too far over the top by the story’s climax. The attempt to condense one of King’s typical 800,000 page novels into a two-hour movie leaves out a lot of character development that could have fleshed out most of the town’s residents into more than just the stereotypes they are now. Amanda Plummer also noticeably gives up her erratic attempt at a Maine accent about halfway through the movie. Regardless, the script by W.D. Richter (former director of the oddball cult comedy The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai) is well-plotted to keep track of the multitude of characters and their motivations, and Fraser Heston (Chuck’s son) directs with a sure hand. I can’t help but wonder how much the movie could have really crackled had Heston convinced his father to play Gaunt, but I can’t deny that von Sydow is probably a safer choice and he seems to be having a lot of fun with the role, especially when delivering so many juicy lines of devilish dialogue: “You’re disgusting. I like that in a person.”

In the end, I genuinely enjoyed Needful Things and believe it deserves to rate better than the category of “one of those bad Stephen King movies” where it has fallen. It’s at least better-than-average for the genre and is certainly repeatable entertainment.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

I’ve got to hand one thing to MGM. I’ve written reviews in the past criticizing their unexceptional DVDs for catalog titles, but while watching this one, it occurs to me that of all the major studios they seem to have the most consistency in finding quality source elements for their video transfers, even for movies like this one that were acquired from rival film studios. (Needful Things was originally a Columbia Pictures release.) The source print used for this 1993 movie is free of dirt or blemishes and boasts terrific, vivid colors. I wish other studios would put as much effort into locating the best elements for their back catalog movies. (Are you listening, Paramount?)

Presented for the first time on home video in its theatrical aspect ratio, the film has been letterboxed to 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement. This was a nicely photographed movie, and as mentioned the transfer has excellent colors and flesh tones. There’s a moderate amount of grain in some scenes but nothing too distracting. On the downside, the picture has a tendency to be overly dark, even more than intended by the production. At its best, scenes have nice contrasts and crisp whites, while at other times shadow detail is lost in the murkiness. Most disappointing is the authoring and compression quality of the disc, areas that are often MGM’s failing. There’s a noticeable amount of edge enhancement ringing in some scenes, and the disc as a whole has quite a bit of shimmer and aliasing in the fine details of the image. The end credits, in particular, are practically unreadable.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The movie’s soundtrack is available in basic Dolby Surround. Patrick Doyle’s bombastic score achieves some of the operatic swell that it strives for, and there are a number of scenes with jolting surround usage. Low-end activity is decent, although when the explosions come they lack the much-needed punch they deserve. Highs often sound clipped and the soundtrack feels compressed, without as much “snap” as it should have. This is a serviceable, unremarkable audio track.

The disc contains optional subtitles in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese, as well as English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The only bonus feature we get is a theatrical trailer in anamorphically-enhanced widescreen.

MGM has missed a prime opportunity to include deleted scenes on this disc, almost an extra hour of which were re-added to the film in 1996 when it was broadcast on the TBS cable station as a two-part miniseries. Since the movie tends not to be the most popular of King adaptations, the chances of a later Special Edition re-issue seem pretty slim.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

There are no ROM supplements on this disc.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Is this DVD a needful thing? That depends on how much a fan you are of the film or of Stephen King in general. I enjoyed the movie, but to be honest I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to purchase it had I not been sent a screener copy for review. Inclusion of the deleted scenes would undoubtedly have made it more attractive. Still, it’s hard to argue with MGM’s $14.95 list price. This disc is at least a worthy rental and will reasonably satisfy most fans.

Normal

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published March 16, 2004.

He stripped for us in The Full Monty, and now Tom Wilkinson goes in drag for Normal, an HBO telefilm about an aging Midwesterner having a sexual identity crisis. Well, it’s not really a crisis, per se. He’s already certain of his need to surgically change genders. The problem is convincing his wife of 25 years, two children, church-going neighbors, and his “meat and potatoes” coworkers at the tractor factory. As the song goes, “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman.”

Wilkinson’s character, Roy, loves his wife Irma deeply and has never had a homosexual attraction to men in his entire life. At the same time, he’s known for decades that he was born the wrong sex, and now is the time to take care of it. For her part, wire Irma naturally enough feels betrayed, which leads to strain on the marriage, despite the real love they have always shared.

The movie was adapted by writer/director Jane Anderson from her stage play Looking for Normal. Anderson, who had previously racked up a long list of award nominations for such memorable TV productions as the blackly comic The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom and the very entertaining When Billie Beat Bobby, has a sure hand with smart, funny dialogue and endearing characterizations. What makes her work here remarkable, however, is that she manages to indulge in wicked satire without going overboard into camp. As comical as it is to watch such a manly actor as Tom Wilkinson put on a wig and frumpy dress, the film remains rooted in true empathy for the characters. Anderson refuses to patronize her characters; she treats them with respect, even while others in the film do not.

Wilkinson and Jessica Lange deliver terrific performances. Lange’s reactive acting is a perfect window to her character’s bewilderment, anger, and ultimate forgiveness and acceptance. Also of note are a strong supporting turn from Clancy Brown and an amusing storyline about the local church pastor’s good-natured befuddlement at Roy and Irma’s dilemma. Normal is not a laugh-out-loud gender-bender comedy, exactly. It’s more an exploration of marriage and the way that some relationships manage to survive even the most extraordinary of circumstances. In these tumultuous times where windbag politicians debate the morality of gay marriage, it’s nice to see such a message of hope and understanding, a reminder that marriage isn’t about gender or politics; it’s about love. Beyond the awkwardness, confusion, passive aggression, and divisiveness of their situation, Roy and Irma’s love transcends. If only the same could be said of too many other “normal” relationships.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The movie is presented in the 16:9 aspect ratio of its HBO broadcast and has been encoded for anamorphic enhancement. Anderson makes very effective use of the widescreen framing, allowing the actors to play off one another in lengthy two-shots. The picture is quite sharp but unfortunately suffers from noticeable edge enhancement halos, especially whenever objects are contrasted against that expansive Midwestern sky. Colors are bold and well-rendered, and in other respects the DVD presents a nice-looking image without any serious compression flaws.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The disc includes both Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 surround options. I don’t see much need for both, as neither has much bass or more than a subtle surround ambience. The 5.1 track is encoded at a higher bit rate and sounds richer musically. The song played over the opening credits is a tinny older recording (likely chosen deliberately), but the other standards on the soundtrack come across very nicely indeed. Dialogue fidelity is excellent throughout the movie, closely recorded so that every subtle breath is audible.

 A Spanish dub track in Dolby 2.0 Surround is also available. The disc contains English, French and Spanish subtitles, as well as English closed captioning.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

The only bonus feature of any significance is an enthusiastic audio commentary by writer/director Jane Anderson, who talks at length about the challenges of adapting theater to film. She also discusses her approach to directing with as much simplicity as possible, allowing the performances to drive the film.

Aside from that, all we get are perfunctory Cast & Director Bios.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

A surprisingly engaging TV movie with excellent performances from its leads, Normal is another feather in its cap for HBO, the network whose dismal selection of theatrical movies in rotation is mitigated by the high quality of its original programming. The film was nominated for a few Emmy awards, though it did lose out on most of them to HBO’s Angels in America steamroller. Whether the movie is worthy of a purchase or just a rental is hard to say, but the DVD has fairly nice picture and sound, and a good commentary.

The Office: The Complete First Series (UK)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published January 12, 2004.

The concept may not be all that original, a situation comedy set in a workplace office. We’ve seen it before in many permutations, from movies like Office Space and Clockwatchers, comic strips like Dilbert, or TV shows ranging from NewsRadio to Drew Carey to, well, Dilbert again. It’s all been done. What fresh or compelling new twist could yet another workplace sitcom bring to the formula? And then in slips an unassuming little British series like The Office and we realize that, yes, this is still fertile ground. Comedic brilliance can develop in even the most well-trodden of footsteps.

Here’s how The Office is different from your typical sitcom: It doesn’t have jokes. Shot in a quasi-documentary style (think Christopher Guest) with a roving handheld camera that stops for direct interviews with the characters, the show doesn’t rely on lame setups or ridiculous gags. There are no wacky but lovable goofballs here, and not every piece of dialogue is an obvious wind-up for a one-liner. Instead, it’s about recreating the actual flavor of working in an office day after day with people who you can’t help but grow to resent. And yet, the show is extremely funny. It captures all the little moments between people that make the monotony of worktime bearable, or unbearable. Anyone who has ever worked in an office will recognize the petty rivalries, the co-worker flirtations, the cheesy seminars, and awkward social interactions. (When you spend eight hours a day with these people five days a week, do you really want to go out on the town with them as well?) What’s funny about life are the small ironies that we put up with every day, and The Office appears entirely authentic in its portrayal of them. It feels far more real than any of the so-called “Reality” shows that clutter the airwaves.

The genius of the show, however, is its creation of David Brent, played by series co-creator Ricky Gervais. Regional Manager of the Wernham Hogg paper company, Brent is the sleazy boss we’ve all worked for at some point. A completely oblivious, obnoxious cad with no sense of propriety or rational behavior, he’s deluded enough to believe himself well-loved and admired. Naturally, such utter incompetence has propelled him into a position of leadership. That’s how corporate politics work, after all. Strutting around with a cocky grin on his face, every word from Brent’s mouth (especially his ragingly hypocritical speeches about political correctness), every step he takes into a room, makes those around him uncomfortable, except perhaps Gareth, the office suck-up who actually holds him in respect. But of course Brent thinks of himself as everyone’s best friend, a man whose mission is to boost morale with his lame jokes and, god help us, occasional rock ballads.

The Office is the type of British comedy that will never, ever translate well to an American setting should some bozo network executive decide that the remake of Coupling wasn’t hellish enough for one lifetime. Its humor is much too dry and sardonic to work coming from a cast of perky twenty-somethings. Like many British series, it also knows how to stop short of wearing out its welcome. Although the show is very popular in England (and in the U.S., where it airs on BBC America), this Complete First Series runs for only six half-hour episodes. It’s enough to leave you wanting more from the next season, but not too much to run the concept into the ground.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Shot on videotape, the look of The Office is a little soft and flat, as expected. It’s supposed to look like a makeshift documentary. The show airs in widescreen in England (the American broadcasts are cropped), and the DVD presents the picture in its original 16:9 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. For videotape, it doesn’t look too bad at all. Judging by raw production footage in the supplements, I’m guessing that they run the image through some sort of FilmLook program to make it appear smoother and less video-ish. The picture has good textures and no distracting edge enhancement or compression artifacts. I ran into some very slight combing shimmer while running the disc in progressive scan (even with excellent Faroudja deinterlacing in my DVD player), but it was very minor, and otherwise the PAL-to-NTSC conversion quality is just fine. The show isn’t a visual extravaganza, yet this DVD presentation is quite admirable.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

There isn’t much to say about the Dolby 2.0 audio track. Again, the show is meant to emulate a documentary, so what we get is primarily monaural with a faint stereo presence to the theme music and no surround activity.

There is, thankfully, no obnoxious laugh track over this particular sitcom. The show has a relatively interesting sound design emphasizing the ambient noises of the office and it sounds just like being in a real one. Dialogue is always clear and intelligible, other than a couple of characters with very thick accents. English subtitles for the hard of hearing are provided, and are occasionally helpful even for those of us with good hearing.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

In an inspired move, the booklet included in the disc packaging is designed to look and read like a company newsletter, “written and edited by David Brent.” After some amusing news items on the front page, the interior has character bios and a helpful glossary of British slang.

The 39-minute documentary How I Made The Office is a riot, at some points even funnier than the show itself. Series creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are interviewed, and although it seems at first like Gervais is playing around in character, after a few minutes the realization sinks in that he really is like that! All of the other interviewed cast members also concur; Gervais is just as irritating in real life as the character he plays. The documentary contains footage from early demos of the material and a preliminary pilot episode, as well as a good number of acting flubs, most of them caused by Gervais trying deliberately to spoil everyone else’s lines. This feature is hilarious and may even inspire repeated viewings.

Six Deleted Scenes with text introductions are also available. Some of them are rather funny but most were cut for time. The supplement disc starts up with some dumb trailers for other unrelated programs that can only be bypassed by pressing the SKIP button several times.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Just when you thought that the workplace sitcom genre had run its course, The Office makes you take another look. It’s a great show and the DVD comes with a very funny documentary and some deleted scenes. It’s all you could hope for, short of a CD single for “Free Love on the Freelove Freeway.” Then again, perhaps we’re better off without that. Strongly recommended.

The Office: The Complete Second Series (UK)

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published May 8, 2004.

David Brent and associates return for six more episodes of The Office, and oh the indignities they will suffer. Now manager of both his old Slough staff and a new team of employees from the defunct Swindon branch, Brent has twice as much responsibility and half as much tact. His desperate ploys for attention and popularity fail to win over the new crew, who much prefer their old manager (now Brent’s boss), a man nicer, more capable and funnier than he. You can imagine how well this sits with the petulant jackass.

Season 2 of The Office continues its incisive look at the horrors of workaday life. The petty feuds, secret romances, inappropriate behavior, and general tedium of the daily grind are analyzed in excruciating, hilarious detail. How can a show be so funny and entertaining, yet so gut-twistingly uncomfortable to watch all at the same time? It’s a delicate balancing act other series have attempted but few have gotten right.

The second season is a little more uneven than the first and doesn’t quite hit the same heights of brilliance. The humor is a bit bluer, with Brent often going over the top in his frequent humiliations. It feels like there’s just a bit too much Brent all around. His obnoxious bumbling obviously a hit with viewers, the show starts to use it as a crutch, pushing him to behave in ways even the most laissez-faire business could never tolerate. Fortunately, the supporting cast is also given more to do and their storylines make up the best parts of the season. Gareth still believes himself to be second-in-command, Tim’s flirtation with the new girl in the office makes Dawn jealous, and Keith from Accounting doesn’t even need any lines to get a laugh with his non-reactive reaction shots.

If not perfect, all six new episodes have their share of classic moments. Brent’s job as motivational speaker is so mortifying you practically need to turn away from the screen while watching. The year also ends strongly, the second-to-last episode (the Comic Relief Day storyline) being one of the show’s best, and the finale unexpectedly bittersweet and emotional. It’s still an excellent show, and with such a short season, any minor flaws aren’t enough to wear out its welcome.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

Season 2 looks much like the DVD release for Season 1, save for one primary difference. The picture is noticeably sharper and more detailed. I also felt that there were somewhat more instances of shimmer and aliasing artifacts. Even in progressive scan with my DVD player’s excellent Faroudja deinterlacing, Venetian blinds on the office windows didn’t hold together very well. This may be due to the PAL-to-NTSC conversion, or perhaps less filtering was applied to the image (which may also account for the slightly sharper picture). In either case, the problem isn’t severe, and looks basically just like the last season.

To reiterate what I said last time, the shot-on-video picture is presented in 16:9 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement. The image has strong textural detail with no edge enhancement ringing or halos that I could detect. The show is meant to look like a makeshift documentary, not a visual feast, and to that end the DVD conveys it just fine.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The sound quality is exactly the same as Season 1. Since nothing at all has changed, here’s the exact text I wrote in my previous review:

There isn’t much to say about the Dolby 2.0 audio track. Again, the show is meant to emulate a documentary, so what we get is primarily monaural with a faint stereo presence to the theme music and no surround activity.

There is, thankfully, no obnoxious laugh track over this particular sitcom. The show has a relatively interesting sound design emphasizing the ambient noises of the office and sounds just like being in a real one. Dialogue is always clear and intelligible, other than a couple of characters with very thick accents. English subtitles for the hard of hearing are provided, and are occasionally helpful even for those of us with good hearing.

SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT GOODIES ARE THERE?

BBC Video has included another amusing booklet with a glossary of British slang. The design this time is of a floor plan for the offices.

Slimmed down to a single-disc edition, the second season DVD begins with some annoying forced trailers. (The Menu command has been disabled; only Skip works.) In the disc’s supplement section are 13 minutes of deleted scenes and 8 minutes of outtakes. Both feature introductions by Ricky Gervais, and most of the footage is very funny. The 20-minute Video Diary is primarily a document of what major goofballs creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are.

DVD-ROM EXCLUSIVES: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU POP THE DISC IN YOUR PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

PARTING THOUGHTS

The second season of The Office isn’t quite up to the levels of genius of the first, but it has plenty of wildly funny scenes and is recommended to anyone who enjoyed the previous season. It’s a little sad to believe that after this, all we have left of the show is the 2-part Christmas Special from 2003. Bring it on, BBC Video!

Out of the Past

Reviewed by Joshua Zyber. Published July 12, 2004.

The quintessential film noir, Out of the Past has all of the elements that make a movie of its type so entertaining: a lead character with a mysterious past, flashbacks explained in voiceover, deep menacing shadows, brooding music, gorgeous dames and femme fatales, a convoluted plot, murder, blackmail, fedora hats, trench coats, a nearly constant cloud of cigarette smoke, and plenty of snappy dialogue delivered in a staccato fashion. The 1947 movie has got them all in spades, plus a terrific star turn from Robert Mitchum and a wonderfully slimy villain in Kirk Douglas. The film deserves its status as a classic, one of the defining examples of its genre.

Mitchum stars as Jeff Bailey, owner of a gas station in the small town of Bridgeport. He’s got a straight-laced life and gal who loves him, and not too many complications aside from some harmless romantic rivalry. At least, that’s how we first meet him. When an imposing stranger comes to town claiming to know him, soon enough the revelations about Jeff’s past and his previous identity start coming out. We learn about his former existence as a big city P.I. hired by a slick gangster to track down his girl on the lam. Taking the job was his first mistake. Jeff finds her all right, but instead of bringing her back, he falls for the broad. This leads to complications and double-crosses, a couple of murders and Jeff caught in the middle of a big frame-up. Having high-tailed it and hid out for a few years, naturally his past will come back to haunt him.

Jacques Tourneur directs with plenty of stylistic flair. Like many great film noirs, the plot is nearly impenetrable but almost incidental to the movie’s greater pleasures: its style and atmosphere, and the hard-boiled performances of its leads. In one of his early star-making roles, Kirk Douglas is both smarmy and intimidating as the gangster Whit Sterling. Jane Greer also makes a fine femme fatale, initially sweet and alluring but later a duplicitous back-stabbing bitch. The movie, however, belongs to Mitchum all the way. He’s a dapper leading man, handsome but rough around the edges, smart enough to see through most of the deception around him and burdened with a sarcastic tongue. The actor had built a solid career and even won an Oscar prior to this film, but Out of the Past is the movie that took him to that next level of stardom and made him a film legend. It’s his definitive role, and a tremendously entertaining movie to boot.

VIDEO: HOW DOES THE DISC LOOK?

The Warner Bros. DVD transfer looks good but not great. The full-frame 4:3 black and white picture has an excellent gray scale and sparkling contrast range, with plenty of visible shadow detail. However, it also has a steady appearance of noticeable damage such as speckles and scratches. Film grain is endemic to the photography, and is fortunately well handled here without much in the way of compression artifacts. The picture has no edge enhancement ringing, but looks soft overall and lacking in detail. Some of this is due to the soft focus nature of the photography, but much of it is also likely due to digital noise reduction processing and filtering to hide compression problems.

AUDIO: HOW DOES THE DISC SOUND?

The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtrack also sounds its age. The track is set very low in volume and lacks dynamic range. There’s some occasional deep cello in the score that comes across decently, but the high end is brittle and the entire sound mix sounds compressed. Possibly it was filtered to reduce hiss, and the result is a thin and flat sound that’s unimpressive even by the standards of other films this old on