TheBluraySource

Chronicle

Dan Deevy — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:27:18 +0000

Just when I thought I had seen every possible type of super hero movie along comes Chronicle to surprise the hell out of me. I had heard that this movie was very different in a really good way but I had no idea just how good it was until the final frame had rolled on screen and it was over.

‘Super hero’ movie is probably the wrong classification for this film; it’s more like a coming of age drama with super powers mixed in. What makes it unique though is that generally as soon as you add the sci-fi / fantasy element of special abilities into the mix, the drama and reality of the piece is lost. That’s not the case with Chronicle. For some reason it kept reminding me of a gritty British film like Trainspotting more than any kind of American made fluffier type of film.

The story is actually the classic birth of a villain tale that we’ve seen time and time again in comic books but with a modern spin on it. Dane DeHaan plays Andrew, a high school loner who has spent his entire life being bullied; by kids at school and also by his abusive alcoholic father at home. One day while out in a random field with his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and High School hero Steve (Michael B. Jordan) the trio stumble upon a strange sink hole with a mysterious light emanating from it. The boys climb down and investigate and when the emerge they all begin to slowly develop telekinetic abilities.

As you would guess Andrew is now able to defend himself for the first time in his life and eventually takes it too far. But that’s not the interesting part of the film. The most interesting thing about this movie is Andrews slow decent into embracing evil and how his new found best friends deal with and react to it.

The relationship between these guys is just fantastic to watch develop. There’s nothing stereotypical about their behavior. They aren’t perfect, they aren’t twisted, they are all very three dimensional and real. You feel a constant empathy for what Andrew is going through and more often than not you are rooting for him to use his powers to fight back, but then when he finally does and all of that anger is released you immediately want him to stop.

The style with which the film was shot was something that on paper I would have hated. It’s hand held throughout the entire film occasionally cutting to steady shots from security cameras that exist in the scene, but the majority of it is all hand held which I generally cannot stand.

Three things kept me from hating it here. First it was perhaps the most steady hand held work I’ve ever seen. You rarely felt like the camera shaking all over the place. Second, because of Andrews’s abilities he is eventually able to hold the camera up with his mind and make sweeping interesting shots with it and still have us believe that it’s all coming from only his camera. And finally, the style lends itself to the telling of the story. Part of the reason why this felt so real and so serious is because of the way it was shot. There was nothing fake or ‘Hollywood’ about this movie.

Yes, some of the green screen work was noticeable and some of the flying looked slightly off but it made absolutely no difference to me. I was never, not for one second taken out of the world of this movie.

We’ve all wished for super powers at one point or another in our lives and we’ve fantasized about all of the wrongs and injustices in the world we would be able to right if we had them; this is a movie that shows us just how wrong those seemingly good intentions can go in the hands of a trouble teenager.

The Blu-ray presentation of the film is as clean and sharp as I’ve ever seen on my TV. I loved the way this movie looked. The Blu-ray also contains two different versions of the film. There’s the original theatrical version of the film and also the Directors Cut. Given the choice, I always go directors cut!

There are also several special features including an early camera test with three different actors, the Pre-Viz stage which is several of the action sequences rendered in a computer before they were shot, there’s a theatrical trailer, and a sneak-peak at upcoming releases.

All of those are fine, but I honestly would have liked some interviews with cast talking about this unique filming process and also about their characters. That’s the heart of this movie and I think they should have paid some behind-the-scenes attention to that.

This is a movie best seen and appreciated in theaters on the big screen but assuming you have a decent home theater set up you’ll get the same effect. Just be sure to watch it with the lights out and don’t let anyone interrupt you!

Contraband

Jordan Nicholson — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:37:45 +0000

Contraband… what to say about Contraband? Well, of the pile of movies stacked in the corner of my room waiting to be watched and reviewed, I can honestly say I was looking forward to this one least. Call it a cinematic sixth sense if you like, but I have a knack for picking out the movies that will just… hurt. It’s not that this movie is all that terrible—I’ve seen worse—but every second of it felt wrong somehow, as if my body were rejecting it, like a bad organ transplant.

Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, a former smuggler who has gone straight. But his idyllic new life is shattered when a mobster (Giovanni Ribisi) threatens his family, and he has no choice but to do one last job. Sound familiar? The “one last job” premise is probably the most overused in all of cinema. You’ve seen this movie before a half a dozen times, and the past five viewings weren’t that great to begin with.

Everyone was just sort of going through the motions on this film. There is no character development or even establishment really. The film just started and then ended, and nothing really happened. Sure there was a lot of plot going on, some fist fights and explosions, but in terms of characterization it was about as eventful as a trip to the grocery store. Even after just seeing the movie, I can’t think of a single adjective to describe any of the characters. The film relies on your having seen the movies it’s ripping off to understand its empty, archetypal characters. Without that prior knowledge you will be completely lost in this film.

The acting is sufficient but utterly lifeless. It’s always frustrating to see good actors in such two-dimensional roles when you know they can do better. Wahlberg seemed bored and at times even a little smug, as if he knows he’s better than this. I thought Ribisi was completely over-the-top and wondered why he was the only character in the movie with the location-appropriate New Orleans accent. And Beckinsale was just annoying, crying every other scene, continually being threatened and beat up but still never managing to make me care enough to not want the bad guys to just kill her.

To be fair, there have been plenty of movies with stories just as tired and actors just as bored. What really sets this movie apart is tricky to pin down. A big problem is that the filmmakers didn’t really seem to know what kind of movie they wanted to make. It was billed as an action-thriller, but there isn’t much action in it (and even less suspense). If anything it’s more akin to a heist movie than an action movie, which will disappoint anyone going to see it for the intricate gun battles promised in the trailer.

Another problem is the lack of any sort of moral in the story, no lesson to take away from the viewing experience. This is a film about smuggling, where both the protagonist and antagonist are criminals who partake in illegal activities. And yet we’re supposed to root for one and wish harm on the other, effectually picking one criminal over another. At the end of the film we’re expected to rejoice that Wahlberg gets away with committing a crime, breaking countless laws in the process, and are shown that his life is bettered for it. In addition, the film makes no indication that Wahlberg has any intention of ending his criminal activities. And why would he? According to this film, crime is not only acceptable but profitable as well. Now I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this message was intentional on the filmmakers’ part—that would be giving them way too much credit. What I mean to say is that through their sloppy storytelling they have made a completely unintentional message to their audience.

So, to make a long story short: this movie was not good. It is lacking in every category and reeks of mediocrity in ways I would not have thought possible. It is compelling enough to keep you from turning off the TV if there’s nothing else on late at night, but not enough to remember the next morning.

Surprisingly, I thought the special features were really well done. The feature about the film’s stunts to be fascinating and informative, and the “making of” feature explained the director’s vision much better than the film itself did. In fact, if you do rent the movie, I might even recommend just watching the special features. They are vastly more compelling than the film.

We Bought a Zoo

Jordan Nicholson — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:45:38 +0000

People have become more cynical in recent years and, consequently, so have our movies. Today’s movies are darker, reflecting our own mind shift towards the world we live in. Some genres have evolved, even bettered in many ways, while others have not kept up with the times and have been largely forgotten. Probably the worst of these “genre fatalities” are the family movies. Now when I say “family movie” I don’t mean Kung Fu Panda or Madagascar or Ice Age. Those are kids movies, aimed at the age 3-10 demographic. While I have nothing against such movies I do not consider them to be family movies, ones that I can enjoy as much as my mother and younger siblings. These are getting harder and harder to find and as a result I don’t watch many movies with my mother anymore.

That is probably what I liked most about We Bought a Zoo. Here is a movie so squeaky clean that I cannot imagine anyone taking offense to it. Matt Damon plays Benjamin Mee, a widower who quits his job and moves his family to a rundown zoo. As he prepares the zoo for re-opening, he struggles to connect with his children and to deal the loss of his beloved wife. Taken at face value, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, and likely the only reason anyone went to see it was because of director Cameron Crowe. Knowing that the film is safe in his able hands, people didn’t think of it as a kid movie but as “Jerry Maguire with animals”. I’m sure the marketing team was very grateful.

The acting was good, and felt authentic. The cast was careful to keep things light and simple, and though I appreciated that overall, I found that this often worked against the film. It seriously underutilizes its main actors, Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. Damon nails the part of the single father, and Johansson plays a quirky love interest that would put Zooey Deschanel to shame, but when the film ends you find yourself wanting something more from them. You want more character development, more flaws in them to overcome. There was potential for the both of them to be amazing, but it just wasn’t quite there.

Another problem I had was the lack of animals in this movie about a zoo. I was curious going in to see how a zoo is run, maybe even learn some zoo secrets, but honestly there were hardly any animals in it. Instead the zoo (and the animals that live there) act as more of a backdrop, one that could easily have been switched out with another. Honestly, they could have called it We Bought a Burger King and changed almost nothing about the story. Now one could convincingly argue that the film is not about the zoo, but the family that buys it and their struggle to overcome a family tragedy. I disagree: the word “zoo” is in the title; therefore there should be some freaking animals! I don’t even like zoos (I got lost in one when I was little and was never really been the same) but I was extremely frustrated by the lack of zoo-related elements in the film.

But please don’t listen to me. I over analyze these things way too much (it’s why I’m good at my job). The important thing for you as a reader to know is that everyone can enjoy this movie. It is easy to watch and to understand, and you won’t have to worry about language or thematic material for any younger viewers. Even better, you won’t be trying to claw your eyes out the whole time because it’s actually a good movie. So you should see it, even if you think you might hate it, because you won’t.

The special features are numerous but lack substance. I didn’t find them to be very compelling, but at least it doesn’t have any of those god-awful kid’s games. There’s a commentary you’re not going to watch (I know I didn’t), some deleted scenes, a behind the scenes feature and a look at all the animals that show up occasionally in the movie. Enjoy.

Hop

Jordan Nicholson — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:46:06 +0000

Of all the major American holidays, the mythology of Easter is easily the least explored. As a little kid I never really understood the holiday and found it confusing. Who is this Easter Bunny? Where does he get his eggs from? What does any of this have to do with Jesus? Unlike Christmas or Halloween, there was no explanation, no attempts to connect the way we see Easter now with its Pagan roots. All I knew was that I got candy out of it, and that was enough to keep me quietly content. But I never went crazy over Easter, never counted the days or made a list the way that I did for Christmas.

So it seems only natural that someone should make a movie that tries to answer all of these questions and really get kids excited about the holiday the way that The Santa Clause movies did. This is the thinking behind Hop, a light-hearted children’s film from the creators of Horton Hears a Who and Despicable Me.

It tells the story of E.B. (voiced by Russell Brand), the son of the current Easter Bunny (Hugh Laurie), who rejects his title and runs away to become a rock n’ roll drummer. He meets up with Fred (James Marsden), an out-of-work-slacker who has just been ousted by his family and can’t seem to find his life’s purpose. Also there’s a borderline offensive Hispanic chick (Hank Azaria) who stages a coup to overthrow the current Easter Bunny. Through a series of improbable events Fred comes to realize that what he really wants is to be the Easter Bunny (he’s human, I might add) and E.B. learns the importance of not following your dreams and not just taking the job that’s been forced upon you… wait what?!

This story is all over the place, and at times makes no sense at all. Much of it feels forced and largely superfluous to the story trying to be told. The narrative is unbalanced and hard to follow. The burgeoning friendship between E.B. and Fred is given most of the focus, but changes direction so often that I cannot imagine any child being able to follow what was going on. On the other hand, Hank Azaria’s story arc is completely underdeveloped. You know he is going to be a bad guy right from the beginning, but you can’t really accept it when he reveals himself to be. You really need to give your antagonist more than ten minutes of screen time if you want anyone to give a damn.

The acting wasn’t bad considering the material they were working with. Brand turns in an acceptable performance, managing to separate himself from his public image. With most of his movies you either love him or hate him, but here he manages to disappear into the role, which no doubt improves the viewing experience for any non-fans. But really it’s Marsden who steals the show here. Brand gets the majority of the jokes aimed at kids and exists mainly for merchandising purchases. Marsden, however, plays the straight man to the talking bunny and is there to call out the lunacy of the situation and be relatable to older viewers. Granted, his character progression is stupid and comes out of nowhere, but Marsden himself is enjoyable every second he is onscreen and from an acting standpoint is the strongest in the cast.

The film’s greatest weakness comes from its failure to successfully deliver on an unspoken promise. As stated earlier, the goal of this film was to get kids excited about Easter by any means necessary, even if it meant recounting its entire whacked out mythology. I was genuinely curious to see what their take would be on the holiday, but in truth this isn’t really an Easter movie. In fact, Easter is hardly mentioned, much less explained. You don’t see the inner-workings of the “Easter machine”, nor is any meaning supplied to the holiday. This film treats Easter with the same apathetic disinterest the rest of us do. All in all, the film is a disappointment and left me even more confused about this odd holiday than I was before.

If your child enjoyed the movie they will be more than happy with the special features. There is a “making of” feature, a short film, and several interviews with both the actors and characters. If nothing else, it will keep them busy a little longer and give you a solid hour to do whatever you want without them interfering. What more can you ask for?

The Three Musketeers

Dan Deevy — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:35:21 +0000

Anyone who read my theatrical review of this film knows that I did not care for it. In fact, I vehemently opposed its very existence; which is out of character for me as a critic.

Normally, I can find some silver lining, something redeemable in a movie but after the screening of this latest version of The Three Musketeers I was left with nothing. Aside from thinking that a lot of the visual effects looked great on a big screen there was nothing at all positive about that viewing experience for me.

I thought perhaps upon a second viewing, this time at home and on Blu-ray, that maybe something new would come to light… sadly that was not the case. I was once again disappointed by the miscasting, annoyed by the implausible leaps in technology and ultimately sad to see such an amazing story from a classic work of literature destroyed by the over mining of material that Hollywood has become famous for.

Much like the original story we see a young, eager D’Artagnan this time played by relative newcomer and Percy Jackson star Logan Lerman making the journey to Paris to become a member of the King’s Royal Guard, The Musketeers. Once there he has various run in’s with three men all of whom he challenges to a duel to atone for the offense he perceived. Of course they turn out to be Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Porthos (Ray Stevenson) and Aramis (Luke Evans) and rather than kill each other they join forces against the evil Cardinal Richelieu’s (Christoph Waltz) guards.

From there the story is supposed to be about the Three Musketeers struggling to save the King and their country from a war with England instigated by the power hungry Cardinal who is intent on seizing power and deposing the young, naïve King. D’Artagnan, while determined to assist the Musketeers in their struggle also faces the challenge of avenging his fathers’ murder and proving himself worthy of the blue tunic he so desires.

That’s not what happens in this version. Instead, it becomes a weird 17th century combination of anOcean’s Eleven film with a planned heist and stolen diamonds, a James Bond movie with impressive new technology and gadgets and finally a bit of a Rom-Com version of Othello with a love sick King needing proof that he shouldn’t murder his wife for supposedly having been unfaithful. And oh yeah occasionally the Three Musketeers show up. They don’t have much to do or really any interest in being there, but I guess they figured, ‘since we’re in the title we might as well at least be seen once or twice.’

This movie is beyond ridiculous folks. I can’t stomach attacking it any further so please for a more detail character assassination please refer to my original theatrical review.

Special features are always a movies last chance to impress an audience or to explain what their original vision was. The idea being that if they haven’t quite achieved it, at least if people understand what they were going for, maybe they’d be slightly more forgiving. Well, once again this would be swashbuckling film fails to score a touch.

Features on this Bu-ray disc are limited to a few very, very brief features discussing the building of some sets, Orlando Bloom talking about playing the Duke of Buckingham, and some other general behind-the-scenes stuff; none of which was that interesting.

We also have a host of deleted and extended scenes which to be honest I couldn’t even sit all the way through and commentaries that I most certainly did not take the time to listen to.

As much as I challenged myself to find something new and redeemable in this second viewing I was unable to do so. My original opinions only became all the more cemented in my mind. There is just no reason to ever see this movie.

If you haven’t seen the 1993 version with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt, Rebecca De Mornay, Tim Curry and Chris O’Donnell though, that’s what you should be racing out to the stores to buy or searching Netflix to download! To this day it’s still one of my favorite action adventure films.

Fireflies in the Garden

Sean Stroub — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:02:53 +0000

Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hayden Panettiere, and Julia Roberts all in one film sounds pretty good, right? Wrong. Most of you have probably never even heard of Fireflies in the Garden, a drama about a highly dysfunctional family, and there are plenty of reasons why. It premiered at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival, but didn’t get released in the U.S. until this past October and is now coming out on DVD. It took years to reach an audience (granted, a very small one) beyond the festival, but to be honest, it never should have made it anywhere. This will end up being one of those movies you see on these actors’ filmographies and go, “Huh, what’s that?”

The film begins with a flashback in which Willem Dafoe’s character, Charles Taylor, is flipping out at his son Michael (at a young age, played by ) while driving with his wife, Lisa (Julia Roberts) in the front seat. Immediately, we bear witness to an extremely harsh father-son relationship. When I first saw that Willem Dafoe would be playing a father in a dramatic role I thought, “Wow, good for him. For once he’s not a psychotic villain.” Of course I was proven wrong right at the start. But I mean, that is what he does best.

In the present day, we see Michael all grown up played by Ryan Reynolds and learn that he is a successful author. He’s on his way to a family reunion in honor of his mother’s college graduation, taking place decades after leaving school to raise her children. After we meet the adult Michael, we see Charles and Lisa on their way to Lisa’s much younger sister Jane’s house. This character also takes part in the flashbacks and is played by Hayden Panettiere as a child and Emily Watson as an adult. Then, Jane’s son, Christopher (Chase Ellison) runs carelessly out into the street to retrieve a baseball, causing Charles to swerve off the road and crash into a tree. This accident results in Lisa’s death. Now this family has to deal with the tragedy as well as each other even though almost everybody hates one another. Jane doesn’t trust Michael, Michael and Charles are at each other’s throats, the children are cursing, Christopher blames himself for the accident, and everyone is just uncomfortable, including the audience.

Fireflies doesn’t follow the normal story arc like rising action, climax, and all that, but instead stays consistently dull for almost the full hour and a half running time. Charles snaps at Michael in both the past and the present, but it’s never very interesting except for one brief moment. My eyes widened when young Michael tackled his father to the ground. Right after it happened, however, I was back to basically falling asleep. There are more scenes involving them fighting afterwards, but none as startling. Those much less intense quarrels are repeated over and over so there’s no actual value to any of them.

The title comes from Robert Frost’s poem of the same name, which comes up in one scene involving young Michael reading it to Charles’ colleagues. He was supposed to come up with an original poem though so Charles is extremely embarrassed and forces Michael to hold his arms out with paint cans in each hand for quite some time. Later on, he can’t even bring a fork to his mouth to eat dinner. We get it. Poor Michael.

Carrie-Anne Moss also shows up as Michael’s ex-wife and Ioan Gruffudd plays the professor that Lisa had an affair with and would have left Charles for after her graduation. Why she never left before shocks me, although one flashback reveals that she tried to and that’s also the scene in which Michael picks a fight with his father. Anyway, there are a ton of celebrities in this movie. It’s not like a Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve movie where everyone is in it for the paycheck, but it’s still not good. It’s just so boring and goes absolutely nowhere. The tagline is “For one family, a chance to start again” and the ending that involves the Taylors watching home movies alludes to this possibility. However, in no way did anyone actually solve any issues or ongoing problems. They may have been realizing that they’ve actually had good times before, but that doesn’t mean much after experiencing all of the truly horrible things that have happened too.

As for special features, this DVD only has one and that’s the “making of” content entitled “A Flash of Life.” In it, you’ll learn that the writer and director Dennis Lee lost his mother the same way as these characters. The actors, who did a good job for the most part, also talk about why they were attracted to this movie. If you want answers after sitting through this beyond boring film, there you go. They may have their reasons and although this cast includes some of my favorite actors, especially Ryan Reynolds, nothing can save this bland movie. At the end, Michael burns his manuscript with the same title as Frost’s poem (stealing from it again). Instead, I think Lee should’ve burned his script.

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

Sean Stroub — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:47:01 +0000

The stoner duo returns in yet another installment of the Harold & Kumar franchise, but this time they’re not seeking to satisfy their munchies for one particular fast food meal or attempting to escape a major detention camp. Nope, this time these vulgar, goofy fellas are celebrating Christmas. John Cho and Kal Penn reprise their roles, but their characters are not as close to each other as we have seen them before. It takes some time for them to become buddies again, but luckily, the audience makes friends with the two right from the start.

It’s been years since Harold and Kumar have lived together. Now we see that Harold works on Wall Street and has a lovely home with his wife Maria (Paula Garces), and Kumar, well…he hasn’t changed much. He lives in the same apartment and has recently been dumped by Vanessa (Danneel Harris). He soon finds out that she is pregnant with his child, but Kumar is too childish to be a good father. Right after hearing the news from Vanessa, he discovers a strange package at his door that’s meant for his old roommate. When Kumar’s annoying neighbor Adrian, played by Amir Blumenfeld, asks him to tag along on a trip to New York City so he can deflower a virgin he met online (yes, at times it is still as crude and ridiculous as you’d expect), Kumar decides to ride shotgun and drop off the package at Harold’s house on the way.

When our favorite gang of stoners meet up on the screen for the first time since Guantanamo Bay, of course things start to go wrong. The package for Harold contains a magical joint that sets Maria’s father’s Christmas tree ablaze. Now Harold and Kumar must join forces to find the perfect tree that matches the one that the angry and disapproving Mr. Perez (perfectly played by Danny Trejo )

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas was originally released in 3D and was known as a “3D Christmas,” but on this Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, you won’t see that third dimension. That’s not too big of a deal since 3D TVs aren’t insanely popular or affordable right now, but it’s a shame since a lot of the jokes deal with the original theatrical format. Things fly at the screen in slow motion and make you wish you had the glasses and the TV to see them, but unfortunately that’s not an option. Sometimes it’s okay though, like when claymation penises pop out, so I can’t complain about the missing dimension too much. I’m sure the clouds of smoke looked cool in the theater and made you feel like you could reach the same state of mind as Kumar (because, surprisingly, Harold does not take one hit from any weed paraphernalia throughout the whole movie), if you had not already achieved that prior to finding your seat. That being said, you might feel a bit left out at home especially when characters break the fourth wall and address the fact that the viewers are experiencing the movie in 3D.

A lot of that breaking of the fourth wall happens like Adrian saying to Kumar that he lied to the girl he wants to hook up with, stating that Kumar works in the White House, to which he responds, “Like anyone would believe that.” Then later, Neil Patrick Harris says “We’ll see you in the fourth one,” alluding to another sequel. It’s during jokes like these that the movie shines brightest. Although I was let down to see that NPH is not in as much of the film as you might think. He dominates the posters and DVD boxes, standing in the center with a giant candy cane, but he’s really only in one scene. It’s a pretty funny one in which he plays himself and admits that he only announced being gay in order to score easier with chicks. His alternate self is just his How I Met Your Mother character, but on crack…literally. And that’s fine by me.

The movie’s politically incorrect jokes that we’ve seen in all the previous films are also quite funny as long as you realize that that’s all they are. Not meant to be harmful. And of course there’s some nudity and drugs. They even go so far as to have the baby of Tom Lennon’s character experience exaggerated effects of marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy. It’s all in good fun though.

As for the special features, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas has quite a few. This combo pack is known as the “Extra Dope Edition.” You’ll find everything on the one disc that holds both the Blu-ray and DVD versions (as well as a downloadable digital copy) including an extended cut with six extra minutes, one feature entirely devoted to the hilarious Tom Lennon (who actually could’ve had better lines in the film), an exploration of the claymation scene, and a handful of deleted scenes. I wouldn’t say all of this bonus content makes the DVD “extra” dope, but it’s still pretty dope.

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas isn’t as funny as the original, but it’s better than the second film and actually has some heart. That doesn’t mean the kids can watch it (not only because of the drugs and nudity but because of the scene in which Santa gets shot in the head), but it’ll still provide some yuletide cheer. And I’m really glad it didn’t get too gross especially since its subject matter pertains to my favorite holiday. Believe it or not, this will have you wishing you could go back in time two months and celebrate the holidays all over again. You’ll just have to keep this dopey movie in mind next season.

Lady and the Tramp: Diamond Edition

Sean Stroub — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:27:26 +0000

Disney is opening up its vault once again! Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes the animated love story Lady and the Tramp. Now I’m not sure what warrants a 3D theatrical release for some Disney movies, but just a rerelease on DVD for others, but I’m glad to see some of the classics coming back. Last year, I worked in the Disney store in Times Square and couldn’t go one day without someone asking me about a particular movie, praying that it was no longer kept hidden from the public in a big silver Disney vault we all imagine. I normally had to be the bearer of bad news, but from the looks of the pamphlet in this DVD case, the timeless classics such as this film along with Beauty and the Beast and Bambi are available until April 30th. Then they’ll be locked away again. Although Beauty and the Beast was just released in theaters in 3D, it still has a Diamond Edition combo pack similar to this copy of Lady and the Tramp. Anything to make a buck over at Disney, I guess. But you can’t get too mad at those guys or the legend Walt who made it all happen. You can experience some of the ol’ magic he was involved in around the time of Disneyland’s construction in the 50s with this beloved classic.

I’m sure most of you reading this have already seen the movie and know the story, but let me refresh your memory just in case. The film follows a female American Cocker Spaniel named Lady (voiced by Barbara Luddy) who lives with a wealthy family and enjoys her safe life in a lovely home in the early 1900s. She is friends with two other dogs in the upper middle-class neighborhood named Jock (Bill Thompson) and Trusty (Bill Baucom). One day, she notices that her owners are acting weird and she eventually finds out that they are expecting a baby. Lady has no idea what a baby is, but comes to love the little boy and will do anything to protect him. When the parents go away, however, Lady is forbidden to go near the child due to the demands of Aunt Sarah (Verna Felton). Soon she finds herself out in the streets with a muzzle being chased by angry dogs, only to be rescued by the Tramp (voiced by Larry Roberts). As all love stories go, these two pups fall in love. But this is certainly no formulaic romantic movie because for one, it’s a cartoon, and this classic has the unforgettable spaghetti scene.

While watching this for the first time since childhood, I noticed a lot of things I never had before and came to appreciate this as more than just a movie for kids. I laughed at the fact that Lady calls her owners Jim Dear and Darling because of what she hears them call each other most. I started to really think about what a dog must feel when going from a test run for future parents to a sort of protector of this strange new creature they soon come to understand as a baby. Then there’s the wonderful soundtrack. Walt Disney certainly knew what he was doing and could really make the magic happen.

As I said, this is no standard DVD package. This has the Blu-ray version that features “Disney enhanced high definition picture and sound” as well as the regular DVD copy. And this has bonus content galore. It has one feature that seems to be getting more and more popular which is the Second Screen application that allows you to sync your laptop or iPad with the Blu-ray and partake in all sorts of activities including: becoming an artist, exploring Walt’s Disneyland apartment, and hearing the legend’s story meetings. There’s a separate feature in which Walt’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller reminisces about her time in the apartment that her father worked in at the time of Lady and the Tramp’s production and Disneyland’s construction. There are never-before-seen deleted scenes and a song and one feature that’ll have dog lovers drooling. “Puppypedia: Going to the Dogs,” featuring Fred Willard, explores the characters’ real-life breeds. The list of wonderful bonus material goes on and on.

Lady and the Tramp has never been one of my favorite Disney films, but it’s a classic nonetheless and I’ve grown to love it with time. I’m still a huge fan of everything Pixar has done (besides Cars 2 of course) but it’s really nice to look back at the films that started it all. What began as the first animated motion picture filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen process is now on Blu-ray High Definition. Lady and the Tramp will continue to captivate audiences and bring families together for generations to come.

Limelight

Sean Stroub — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:50:32 +0000

Like many young adults living in New York City, I’ve had my experience with the club scene this town has to offer. I haven’t excessively taken part in the nightlife beyond sports bars and the occasional small club, but I’ve attended enough of the big venues to develop a bit of a hatred for the whole thing. God only knows how I would have felt about it twenty years ago. The events I’ve been to have certainly not been as wild and crazy as the happenings at Peter Gatien’s hotspots like Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium, and Club USA, but they were still pretty wacky. The current NYC clubs can get the beats bumpin’ and the party started for those who are into that sort of thing but they clearly don’t compare to what went on under Gatien’s ownership in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Limelight, named after Peter Gatien’s legendary club that opened up in an old church, follows this Ontario native who entered the United States and altered the nightlife not just in NYC, but throughout the country. Sporting an eye patch in old footage, as a result of a hockey accident, but cool shades in recent interviews, Gatien recounts his effect on Manhattan, the abundance of drugs during the time period of his dominance, his legal battles that resulted from Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s determination to reduce the city’s crime rate, all the way up to his deportation to Canada. There are several interesting points and discussions throughout the documentary, such as the casualness of using ecstasy, the number of celebrities that would attend these clubs alongside ordinary people, and just hearing everything from the point of view of those previously depicted as the bad guys, but all of this is still not enough to make it fully entertaining and interesting.

The entire documentary comes across as a random E! True Hollywood Story you’d find on the channel when there’s absolutely nothing else on television. Documents appear on the screen with highlights, old clips and images get thrown at you, etc. There’s certainly some entertainment value to that, but that type of production is expected on television, not in the movies. When we hear from Gatien and those he associated with during his reign in recent interviews held for the film, the audience is distracted by neon lights in the background and bright, cheap animation. The filmmakers try to force us to wish we could take part in the dance parties of the past. They also serve as a bit of a distraction from what the people are actually saying.

A lot of stories come up that get a little confusing, but no matter what is being discussed, Peter Gatien is supposed to come across as the victim. We should feel bad about everything that’s happened to him. And his daughter Jen Gatien, on board as one of the producers, makes sure of it.

I’m not trying to come across as a nark, but I feel that an owner of multiple clubs in the ‘80s must have known that illegal activities, especially the sale and consumption of drugs, were taking place in his/her various hotspots. Peter Gatien may come across as the victim, but with the other interviewees describing the times they’ve screwed over and have even killed others, how are we supposed to think he’s just a normal guy wanting to give people a place to party? Granted, his only guilty crime was tax evasion, but Colin Quinn of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update said, “Gatien claimed that if there was any drug dealing in his club, it must have happened on his left side,” which obviously serves as a joke alluding to his missing eye, but also hints at the many excuses made by the club promoter throughout his trial.

Peter Gatien may not have deserved something as harsh as deportation, but it’s just a little hard to feel sorry for a club owner that attracted tens of thousands of customers a night during the peak of his empire. He may have been a nice guy in his personal life, but in this documentary that focuses almost entirely on his career, he doesn’t come across as one who deserves much sympathy. Just before the credits, images of those who have screwed him over are followed by a sentence saying they refused to be interviewed for the documentary. We’re supposed to feel bad until the very end. It’s moderately interesting for a little while, but it could have been presented in a better way. It’d be awesome if someone could take all of the interviewee’s stories to create a crime drama, but for now we just have this documentary.

As for the special features on this DVD, all we get are deleted scenes, the trailer, and some previews. For a documentary DVD, you really can’t ask for a lot more, but maybe they could have incorporated some clips of the current nightlife or gotten interviews with those in the club scene now. Although this is to be taken seriously, the obsession with NYC hotspots has always been quite humorous to me. I think this could have benefited from an interview with another Saturday Night Live Weekend Update star, it’s city correspondent Stefon (played by Bill Hader), who knows everything about the nightlife. He’d say, “And this club has everything…” but, unfortunately, this DVD does not.

Real Steel

Sean Stroub — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:28:44 +0000

A movie about boxing robots sounds like something that would come from the director of the Night at the Museum films, doesn’t it? It may seem incredibly corny, and the script is indeed filled with a plethora of clichés, but it is actually not as bad as you’d think. Sure you might find yourself laughing at the characters and their emotional connection to heaps of metal made strictly to destroy other heaps of metal, but eventually you’ll find yourself attached in a very similar way.

Real Steel follows a washed-up fighter named Charlie Kenton, played by Hugh Jackman who simply can do no wrong, in the year 2020, a high-tech time period when humans no longer face off in the ring. Taking their place are giant 2000-pound steel robots that operate under the control of their promoters. This is what Charlie finds himself doing nowadays, desperately seeking venues for his bot, and very unsuccessfully I might add. After losing yet another fight and watching his robot get obliterated, Charlie needs a way to get a hold of some money.

Then he learns that a girlfriend of his from over ten years ago, with whom he had a son named Max, has died. Charlie reluctantly allows Max (Dakota Goyo) to tag along to his matches. As stubborn as they both are, they learn a little something from each other as they train an old-fashioned robot together and grow closer in the process. Luckily for Charlie, they also make some money.

As I said, Jackman does everything he can with this movie and entertains throughout, but his character’s relationship with the child gets to be a bit annoying. He and Max bicker in a way that is supposed to show their similar attitudes and irritation towards each other, but sometimes it’s a little too much. And I hate to rip on child actors, but Dakota Goyo overacts in a way that instead of making the audience understand his troubles kind of makes us view him as a snobby kid. Evangeline Lilly also stars as Charlie’s love interest and all I can say is that it’s great to see her getting more work after Lost. She had a small role in The Hurt Locker, but other than that we haven’t seen much of her in motion pictures.

Now the film may make you roll your eyes every now and then, but along with a bunch of clichés comes the ending everyone looks for in a sports movie. So hold out for that. And if you do really enjoy the film, you simply can’t go wrong with the Blu-Ray + DVD combo pack. It has everything you could ask for in a movie whose most entertaining component is a group of huge Transformer-like robots (although with much more heart and gladly no ability to talk). Of course there are your standard special features like deleted and extended scenes, bloopers, and audio commentary that you would expect in a combo pack, but this bundle goes above and beyond.

There’s one feature completely devoted to the main character entitled “Countdown To The Fight: The Charlie Kenton Story” as well as bonus content about the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard. Then there are some very interesting “Making Of” features. One focuses on the construction of the metal valley for the scene in which Max finds the robot Atom, while the other shows the crew building the bots. In that clip you’ll learn that executive producer Steven Spielberg recommended building robots to help the effects team make the graphics look as real as possible (he knows best from Jurassic Park), earning them a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects this year. And lastly, is if all of these features weren’t enough, the Blu-Ray/DVD collection also contains a way for the consumer to access Real Steel Second Screen, which allows you to explore exclusive interactive content on your computer or iPad. There is even a way to sync the Blu-Ray to your device as you watch the movie. That enough for ya? Everything is as technically advanced as the robots on the screen.

In conclusion, Real Steel is by no means an excellent movie, but it is quite entertaining if you don’t think too much about it and just let it all happen. “Check your brain at the door” as my father would say, but you should keep your heart there. For those of you who have already seen the movie and enjoyed it, but are now debating whether or not you need to add it to your Blu-Ray or DVD collection, I highly recommend you pick it up. The bounty of bonus features makes this a real steal.