MCN DVD Reviews: March 24, 2009

The Wrap Up ...

Quantum of Solace

	..The MCN Review
	..The MCN Reviews Vault
	..The MCN Critics Roundup

Quantum of Solace

Just as Ian Fleming’s original series of James Bond adventures were best read back-to-back, it only made sense to watch Quantum of Solace after first seeing Casino Royale. Otherwise, instead of a revenge thriller, the second Daniel Craig entry resembles one very long, albeit extremely well choreographed chase.

References to Bond’s duplicitous gal pal, Vesper Lynd, are more circumspect than blatant, and the existence of the dangerous international syndicate responsible for his anguish isn’t revealed until the opening scenes of this sequel. In the post-9/11 world, where oil, water and mineral assets trump ideology and ethical behavior, QUANTUM serves roughly the same purpose as SPECTRE did in early 007 tales.

If Che Guevara and Fidel Castro had been cutthroat capitalists, instead of communist revolutionaries, they might not have been required to hide from their enemies in the Sierra Maestra. They would have sat on the board of SPECTRE, whose tacticians wouldn’t have dreamed of hiding Soviet missiles in plain sight of American spy planes. Fifty years later, QUANTUM might have conspired to bring down governments around the world by serving as advisers to the swine in charge of AIG, Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. Why prop up a paper tiger like Saddam Hussein or Hugo Chavez, when the real enemies of freedom are walking around freely on Wall Street?

If anyone could find the billions of dollars stolen from investors by Enron, Bernie Madoff and the Stanford International Bank – conceivably, all pawns of QUANTUM -- it would be Craig’s 007. It explains why the evil villain of Quantum of Solace, played by Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), looks every bit as sinister as Jimmy Buffet. What doesn’t change in a world controlled by QUANTUM, the CIA and KGB is the exploitation of Third World nations (represented, here, by Bolivia) and easy purchase of their military, political and business leaders.

In Quantum of Solace, it takes a while for Bond to fully understand the nature of the organization’s scope and goals. A mysterious Bolivian beauty, who we only know as Camille, inadvertently leads 007 to the criminal mastermind, Dominic Greene, as he’s transacting an illicit deal in a Haitian harbor. Even then, however, we’re as clueless as Bond as to the nature of Greene’s conspiracy and how he might have been involved in Vesper’s death. It’s clear, however, that M is being pressured by her bosses to get her top agent’s mind focused on something other than revenge, if only because the CIA is playing a game of its own.

To this end, she assigns a sexy redheaded aide, Strawberry Fields, to fly down to South America and fetch 007. (The new “Bond girls” are perfectly played feisty Olga Kurylenko and luscious Gemma Arterton.) If Strawberry’s motivation is duty to God and country, Camille is driven by the same thing as Bond: revenge. Although the character’s usual cheekiness is absent here, the many wonderfully exciting chase sequences remind us that we’re in a world created for James Bond, not Bruce Willis. They involve boats, cars, airplanes and motorcycles, and play out over rooftops, on a floating opera stage, inside medieval aqueducts and subterranean caverns, through exploding hallways and across barren deserts. If they bear a certain resemblance to those in the “Bourne” trilogy, it’s explained by the presence of second-unit directors from that franchise. The DVD extras include several making-off and on-location featurettes, a music video and background clips filmed by crew members. While informative, none tells the whole story, though.

MGM also has bundled already-released Blu-ray versions of Goldfinger, Moonraker and The World Is Not Enough, all of which starred Sean Connery. The original 007 reprised his character in 1983’s Never Say Never Again, also newly available in Blu-ray. The not-bad/not-great reimagining of Thunderball was made separately from the usual Eon/Broccoli-family channels, and competed almost head-on with Roger Moore and the decidedly mediocre Octopussy. The extras here include commentary from director Irvin Kershner and historian Steven Jay Rubin; the featurettes, The Big Gamble, Sean Is Back and The Girls of ‘Never Say Never Again’; and a still gallery. - Gary Dretzka

Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood

For those whose craving for all-things-Watchmen borders on the insatiable, Warner has wasted no time sending out Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood. The comic-inside-a-comic Freighter describes what’s being read by the boy huddled by the newsstand in several scenes. At 20 minutes, the hand-drawn, full-screen sequence was supposed to be used in the movie to tie up some loose ends. Instead of adding more length to the 162-minute movie, however, the producers decided to excise it entirely.

Gerard Butler (300) voices the Mariner, who, after having his ship destroyed by pirates, is forced to return home on a raft made of corpses. A second short, Under the Hood, employs live-action and CGI techniques to record Nite Owl’s recollections of the formation of Watchmen. Other bonus features include a separate film that connects Freighter and Hood to each other and Adrian Veldt/Ozymandias; the first chapter of The Watchmen Motion Comic; a sneak preview of the animated Green Lantern DVD; and other material, via BDLive. - Gary Dretzka

The 400 Blows: Criterion Collection: Blu-ray
The Last Metro
Dodes’ka-den

François Truffaut’s highly influential debut is no stranger to the DVD marketplace, having already been released three times in well-rendered versions. Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray rendition of the French master’s most personal film adds even more goodies. In addition to a sterling hi-def digital transfer, 400 Blows arrives with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack; commentaries by professor Brian Stonehill and Truffaut friend Robert Lachenay; audition footage of Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay and Richard Kanayan; newsreel footage from the Cannes screening of movie; excerpts from TV programs in which Truffaut discussed his youth, his critical writings, the origins of Antoine Doinel, the reception given his work abroad and his own feelings about it; and an essay by Annette Insdorf.

Criterion/Image also has accorded the Blu-ray treatment to Truffaut’s The Last Metro, a romantic drama set within the theater community in occupied France. The ever-radiant Catherine Deneuve plays the actor-wife of a Jewish stage manager (Heinz Bennent), who’s vanished from obvious view. As if the Nazi presence isn’t frightening enough, tension and the possibility of personal danger mount when a charismatic actor and resistance fighter (Gérard Depardieu) is cast in a role that requires close interaction with the manager’s wife.

Among the extras are commentaries with Insdorf, Depardieu, historian Jean-Pierre Azéma and Truffaut biographer Serge Toubiana; a deleted scene; excerpts from chats with Truffaut, Deneuve, Depardieu and Jean Poiret; new video interviews with actresses Andréa Ferréol, Sabine Haudepin and Paulette Dubost, assistant director Alain Tasma and cinematographer Nestor Almendros; Une histoire d’eau, Truffaut’s 1958 short film co-directed by Jean-Luc Godard; and a new essay by Armond White.

Also new from Criterion is Dodes’ka-den, Akira Kurosawa’s first color film. It examines the lives of people attempting to scrap by on what they can find in a garbage dump on outskirts of Tokyo. The company’s Eclipse Series 15: Travels With Hiroshi Shimizu introduces American audiences to one of Japan’s leading lights from the pre-war era. – Gary Dretzka

Big Stan
New York Serenade

Apparently, Rob Schneider has a far more loyal following outside the United States than, here, in country of his birth. His directorial debut, Big Stan, seems to have enjoyed a theatrical release in every country but the U.S. Somehow, the action comedy already has managed to recoup nearly half of its $10 million outlay, before even debuting here on DVD. It nearly grossed $1 million in Russia, alone, on 245 screens. (Draw your own conclusions, thank you.)

Anyone who’s seen Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour will recognize the conceit behind Big Stan. Schneider’s character is a rip-off artist who’s been convicted of fraud and ordered to serve hard time in prison. Fearful of being attacked (a.k.a., turned into someone’s bitch), he uses his time before incarceration to study martial arts and/or have his face re-arranged into something even a desperate jailbird would consider to be unappealing. Long story short, Stan is given a crash course in the martial arts by, natch, David Carradine, who plays an old-school hippie sensei. Armed with the guidance of his Master, Stan is able to defend himself from harm, while also uniting warring gangs against the schemes of the evil warden. If none of that sounds familiar, you might find something humorous in Big Stan. Others might want to re-rent The Longest Yard, instead. Even the 2005 remake, in which Schneider also appears, would be a better investment in time.

Likeable young stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris Klein and Jamie-Lynn Sigler get top billing in this anemic bromance, which was directed by familiar acting face, Frank Whaley (Swimming With Sharks). Their names, alone, should provide sufficient reason for some young browsers to pick up New York Serenade for a trial rental. (Older folks, however, might confuse the title with any number of Woody Allen movies or a Bruce Springsteen song.) Prinze plays an aspiring filmmaker, while Klein plays a boozy drummer, who lacks the inclination to grow up and face such adult responsibilities as attending to a fiancée and young daughter. In an effort to get their respective acts together, the boys embark on a road trip to a film festival in Kansas. Bromance ensues, if not outright laughter. - Gary Dretzka

Fling

Originally titled Lie to Me, Fling tells the story of an attractive twenty-something couple whose commitment to an “open” marriage is challenged by all the usual stumbling blocks of the swingers’ lifestyle: jealousy, boredom, the resurfacing of old lovers and a fear of communicable disease. Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was the first Hollywood movie to address the then-revolutionary notion that “nice” people were as likely as hippies, commies and trailer trash to “swap wives” (never husbands) and enjoy the company of anonymous partners.

Ever since one-reelers gave way to feature-length films, cheating characters have been a staple ingredient in the screenwriters’ recipe book. The Hayes Office was so concerned that Hollywood would be perceived as encouraging infidelity that it only allowed cheating if, 1) one or both of the parties returned to their partners, 2) they admitted the error in their ways and sought redemption, 3) were driven to madness by guilt or syphilis, or, 4) were ostracized by polite society.

While these restrictions were tested mightily in the ’50s, it took the sexual revolution of the ’60s – and competition from arthouse titles – to break the chains of the Production Code and Legion of Decency. Even today, though, it’s the rare movie about the “lifestyle” that doesn’t attempt to teach one moral lesson or another. Even though it’s definitely of the moment, “Fling” is no different. The characters looks as if they’d just stepped out of a Michelob Light commercial and the closest they might have come to organized swinging was watching an episode of Real Sex on HBO. In reality, folks, the lifestyle isn’t always such a pretty sight.

By casting former Superman Brandon Routh, along with up-and-coming hotties Courtney Ford, Steve Sandvoss, Shoshana Bush, Nick Wechsler and Ellen Hollman, the creative team of John Stewart Muller and Laura Boersma merely were perpetuating the Hollywood myth that sex is only practiced by attractive men and women. The actors here flash no much more skin than was on display in B&C&T&A, 40 years ago. The openly married couple in Fling finds their convictions tested by old and new flames, neither of whom is nearly as willing to swing as they were assumed to be. Lacking anything new to say on the subject, the moral tug of war engaged in by the participants quickly becomes tedious. Muller and Boersma have mounted a good-looking canvas, though, so it’s fair to expect better things from them in the future.- Gary Dretzka

Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five

After making its prime-time, network debut last month, this amusing sequel – addendum, really – to DreamWorks’ summer hit, Kung Fu Panda, finally is being made available to owners of DVD and Blu-ray equipment in a single package. While it was included in the DVD “Two Pack” released last November, Secrets of the Furious Five wasn’t part of the hi-def set. This marketing scheme prompted consumers, many of whom had been coaxed into buying a Blu-ray player by promises of abundant bonus material, filled the video-centric blogs with charges of being ripped off. The decision, I assume, was made to take full advantage of the ancillary HDTV window provided by NBC, even though the network didn’t expend much effort promoting it. (It wasn’t even included in my cable grid.) There’s nothing wrong with the story, though.- Gary Dretzka

The Odd Couple/To Catch a Thief: Centennial Collection
The Princess Bride: Blu-ray

No strangers to the DVD marketplace, The Odd Couple and To Catch a Thief are the latest recipients of a Paramount “Centennial Collection” makeover. The upgrade to the classic Neil Simon comedy was longer in coming than the retooling of Hitchcock’s romantic caper flick, which was released in a “Special Collector’s Edition” less than two years ago. Both pictures have been re-mastered in hi-def (not to be confused with Blu-ray) and arrive in two-disc packages. The Odd Couple adds commentary by Charlie Matthau and Chris Lemmon, both of whom followed their dads into the family business, as well as vintage video recollections of the film’s stage roots and the Hollywood creation process.

In addition to commentary by historian Dr. Drew Casper, To Catch a Thief offers several new featurettes, including A Night With the Hitchcocks; a discussion of censorship and self-policing under the Production Code; Edith Head: the Paramount Years; Behind the Gates: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly; and a pair of making-of shorts.

It’s been 15 years since Rob Reiner directed anything resembling an inarguably entertaining movie. For a while there, though, he was knocking the ball out of the park with regularity. Made in 1987, The Princess Bride remains a favorite of many fans of romantic, if slightly fractured fairy tales. William Goldman's clever screenplay was adapted from his novel, which imagined a scenario in which a pair of star-crossed lovers (Cary Elwes, Robin Wright) is required to overcome several outrageous obstacles before living happily ever after. The Blu-ray edition offers commentaries by Reiner and Goldman; Elwes’ “video diary”; and featurettes on various aspects of the filmmaking process, including fencing, makeup and interpreting folk tales and fantasy for the screen.

Also newly released are Blu-ray editions of splendid Afghan film, The Kite Runner; A Mighty Heart, with a terrific performance by Angelina Jolie as slain reporter Daniel Pearl’s wife; and emotionally wrought, Things We Lost in the Fire. - Gary Dretzka