MCN DVD Reviews: May 19, 2009

The Wrap Up ...

Valkyrie

Good Nazis … who knew? Valkyrie makes the case for those few officers in the regular German military who despised Hitler enough to devise a plan to kill him and take control of the central command in Berlin: heroic, yes; heroes … probably not.

Given the extraordinary media coverage accorded the unanticipated problems that beset Bryan Singer and Tom Cruise’s World War II drama, audiences would have been forgiven if they had avoided Valkyrie in its limited award-qualifying run. The movie may not have qualified as ideal Christmas week entertainment, exactly, but it probably beat most viewers’ expectations. After all, Valkyrie was the story of a failed coup and botched assassination. (In those days, assassins tended to avoid putting themselves directly in harm’s way, whenever possible.)

Cruise’s presence might have led people to believe that the movie would expose something about the coup that had ramifications far beyond Berlin – like to deceptions that doomed the Bay of Pigs invasion and led inexorably to the Cuban missile crisis – but, as it was, Valkyrie simply presented an accurate depiction of an interesting sidebar in the history of the war. As portrayed by Cruise, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was sufficiently dashing and courageous to be admired by audiences more than 60 years removed from the operation. Singer capably maintained a high degree tick-tock tension, even in the face of the story’s foregone conclusion. As such, Valkyrie works not as an epic drama, but as a very decent war movie. Indeed, the only truly negative notes are sounded when members of the impressive cast of actors -- Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard – are required to deliver their lines in a cacophony of distinctly non-Germanic dialects. It’s a small point, though.

If anything, I would have preferred learning more about fissures that split the aristocrats in the top ranks of the German military from the diabolical thugs in the SS and Gestapo, who had Hitler’s ear. At one point, Cruise states that his military government would shutter the concentration camps and seek an honorable armistice with the Allies. Capturing Gestapo and other Nazi party headquarters was essential to any takeover of government functions. Left unexplored, though, were the reasons why rank-and-file soldiers and a citizenry about to be devoured by the Red Army on one front and the Allies on the other wouldn’t want to see Hitler removed from power, as well.

Was it possible that these various counts and military academy graduates knew they couldn’t rely on the support of a citizenry that had turned a blind eye to the slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, Homosexuals and political dissidents? Moreover, did these conspirators object to the camps for moral reasons or because their discovery might impede a conditional surrender? We’re led to believe that Von Stauffenberg’s greatest problem with Hitler and the SS was that they hadn’t devised a winning strategy. Because the plotters were quickly rounded up and assassinated, it’s likely the answers to such questions were buried in a mass grave with them.

Still, another 20 minutes of informed debate and conjecture could have improved Valkyrie considerably. The Blu-ray version includes commentary by Cruise, Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie; the featurettes The Journey to Valkyrie, The Road to Resistance: A Visual Guide, The Valkyrie Legacy; several making-of shorts; and a digital copy.

- Gary Dretzka

Taken: Two-Disc Extended Edition

The conceit behind Pierre Morel and Luc Besson’s murder-a-minute thriller was simple: white-slavers abduct an American teenager, unaware not only that she’s the daughter of a CIA operative, but that a teensy-weensy clue left behind by an arrogant kidnapper would also seal their doom. Liam Neeson plays the well-traveled spook, who retired early to rekindle the relationship with his daughter that was denied them by the necessities of his job. No sooner would Neeson’s Bryan Mills get settled into his new digs, however, than his estranged wife would ignore his advice about allowing the girl to spend her vacation in Paris, without adult supervision.

When his worst fears were confirmed, Mills had no other option than to go nuclear. The only evidence available to him was a recording of the brief exchange he had with his daughter, before she was hauled away by the kidnapers, and an ill-advised taunt by one of them when he discovered the girl’s cellphone was working. Thanks to the assistance of friends still in the agency, Mills almost immediately established the thugs had come from the same tiny village in Albania and had been staking out Orly for potential victims. Mills’ only contact in the French government advised him to go back home and let the Parisian police handle the case, which, of course, was out of the question.

Mills easily identifies the team working the airport end of the scheme, but only succeeds in getting them killed before receiving any information. No matter, a brief encounter with a prostitute puts him in direct contact with an Albanian pimp, who leads Mills to a makeshift brothel at a construction site outside Paris. He destroys it, as well, but not before rescuing one of the doped-up prostitutes and getting a lead as to where the gang might be holed up. After killing everyone else in the cell, Mills uses electrical-shock techniques to get the leader into admitting that his daughter already had been sold and would be put up for auction that day. (Who says torture doesn’t work?)

Anyone who can’t guess what happens next hasn’t seen a movie or read a thriller in the last five years. And, yet, Taken rises above most other films in the genre by sheer force of Neeson’s savage will. Although it isn’t nearly as fresh and dynamic as his District 13, Morel leaves little time between the set pieces for viewers to get lost in the script’s many holes.

Taken went out theatrically PG-13, but it just as easily could have been rated “R.” The extended “unrated” cut has added even more violence and sexual abuse to the mix. The Blu-ray edition includes both the 91-minute theatrical cut of the film and the 93-minute unrated cut. The extended version contains two commentary tracks and a “Black Ops Field Manual,” with picture-in-picture windows that allow viewers to follow the progression of Mills’ mission with a body-count tracker, an injured-persons tracker, a time-remaining clock and distance calculator. Other DVD extras include a making-of short, clips from the premiere and a digital copy. - Gary Dretzka

A Bug’s Life: Blu-ray

With Up expected to dominate the international box-office throughout the summer of 2009, it should surprise no one to learn that Disney/Pixar will attempt to rock the Blu-ray charts, as well, with its release of A Bug’s Life. Pixar’s second animated feature is no stranger to DVD, of course. Watching it in hi-def, however, kicks the experience into another, much more pleasurable gear. It’s as if the boys and girls at Pixar added a new protagonist and set the critter on a new mission entirely. That didn’t happen, of course, but the sparkling facelift could hardly be more hypnotic.

Visually, A Bug’s Life literally sparkles with color and clarity. The buzz and hum of ground-level activity also is expertly captured. Among the features exclusive to the Blu-ray edition are an introduction by director John Lasseter; a "Filmmakers Round Table,” in which the advances in computer-animated technology since the film’s 1998 release are discussed; A Bug’s Life: The First Draft, with storyboards from Pixar’s original story treatment; and a digital copy. The Disney BD-Live Network also adds Movie Chat, Movie Mail, Movie Challenge and Movie Rewards. Otherwise, the package is similar to the material in the 2003 “Collector’s Edition.”

Also new to the Blu-ray shelves are The Man With the Golden Gun, with Roger Moore as 007, and License to Kill, Timothy Dalton in the same role; the Coen brothers’ Fargo; Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; the Tom Hanks’ comedy, Big; and the Farrellys’ There’s Something About Mary. Of these, the Bond pictures and Leone’s spaghetti-western offer the most new features and commentary. All benefit from the transfer to hi-def.

– Gary Dretzka

Peoples

Porn actor Ron Jeremy may be a living legend, but his presence in any mainstream movie that isn’t a raunchy comedy probably won’t help the film be taken seriously by anyone older than 19. Here, Jeremy plays the emcee at a strip club favored by a group of young men teetering on the cusp of adulthood in the horse country around Louisville.

The darkly handsome John Hensley (Nip/Tuck) plays a college student, Oliver, who’s returned home for the summer, but is in no hurry to continue his studies. He’d rather drink, smoke dope and carouse with his high school buddies, none of whom has the remotest clue as to what they might make of themselves in life. Only 19, they can be forgiven for being indecisive. Oliver’s conservative parents would prefer that he do something other than get toasted everyday -- a sentiment that viewers will share after an hour or so – and finally demand that he take a job caring for his sister’s horse. Eventually, Oliver even manages to screw up this meager assignment.

In his defense, though, the kid’s fallen for a dancer at Jeremy’s club. Like every other stripper in the movies these days, she’s only performing there to support a child, afford college tuition and because she enjoys it, sort of. Unlike strippers in real life, this one agrees to spend some time away from the club with one of her customers, Oliver, who convinces himself that she digs him in the same pathetic way.

As summer’s end nears, Oliver comes face-to-face with the realities that confront most other college kids who try to go home, again, but can’t. As such, Peoples isn’t all that much different than most other coming-of-age dramas and comedies. What Joseph Ardery’s debut feature does have going for it, though, are enthusiastic performances by a fresh-faced cast, an attractive rural backdrop and a keen eye for boys-will-be-morons humor.- Gary Dretzka

The Town That Was
Crips and Bloods: Made in America
Gods of Football: The Making of the 2009 Calendar
Black Hollywood: Blaxploitation and Advancing an Independent Black Cinema
Apollo 11: The Eagle Has Landed

The Town That Was is the kind of movie that would be impossible to accept as anything other than urban legend, if you hadn’t already read somewhere that it was true. Once a thriving Pennsylvania mining town, Centralia became a chapter in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” in 1962, for being the first American town to be threatened with destruction by a slowly creeping underground coal fire. The seam of nearly pure anthracite coal, ignited by a trash fire, has since resisted all efforts to extinguish it.

By 1983, high carbon monoxide levels forced all but a few stubborn residents from their homes. Like Chicago’s crippling underground flood of the 1990s, it was difficult for outsiders to appreciate the devastation, unless they knew where to look. The charred earth and abandoned buildings made Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland’s documentary feel like a cautionary tale told at a gathering of paranoid environmentalists. The interviews with past and current residents revealed a stubborn strain not only of American grit, but also the disillusionment that comes when one’s past is erased by forces beyond anyone’s control.

Stacy Peralta moved from skate-boarding and big-wave surfing, to that other popular SoCal pastime, gang-banging, in Crips and Bloods: Made in America. In a style not all that dissimilar to Dogtown and Z-Boys, the documentary traces the roots of thug life in Los Angeles from the period immediately after World War II, when blacks from the rural south emigrated to the city in large numbers, to today’s virtual state of emergency. Fearful white political and commercial interests had concocted a strategy to create the ghettos, which, two decades later, would become pressure cookers.

The emergence of militaristic gangs, the documentary argues, was inevitable. Naturally, hopelessness and despair among unemployed youths became extremely effective recruitment tools for the gangs, even as the ready availability of guns, drugs and addicted customers fueled the inexcusable black-on-black violence and destruction of neighborhoods.

Gods of Football documents the controversy surrounding the creation of a calendar, featuring naked Australian rugby and football players, to benefit breast-cancer research. More to the point, the DVD also went behind the scenes at the photo shoot, as more than three dozen totally buff athletes were transformed into pin-up models. Needless to say, the doc’s appeal crosses gender lines and the borders of sexual preference.

Made in 1984, and, thus, more than a few years out of date in certain discussion threads, Black Hollywood is best when it looks back at the history of African-American participation in the movie industry. The material is fascinating, and the images rarely seen. Less relevant, if only because so many things have changed in the last quarter-century, is the debate among black producers and entertainers as to how they could affect change in the studio system.

In 1984, black entertainers were reeling over the loss of opportunities left to them when the Blaxploitation trend collapsed. The producers and actors providing testimony rightly argued that nothing would change unless rich African-Americans seeded projects and theaters were built in the inner city – a theory Magic Johnson proved to be accurate – even the most influential artists would be reduced to accepting cliché roles and subordinate executive positions. Also necessarily missing was any discussion of the impact hip-hop money would have on the studio system and audience demographics.

Even so, these sorts of discussions are too rare a commodity, and Black Hollywood makes many still-valid observations. It would have been nice to find an updated panel discussion included in the DVD package.

Apollo 11: The Eagle Has Landed gets a headstart on the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s historic stroll on the lunar surface. The documentary is narrated by Tom Baker (Dr Who). At least, one generation of Americans has grown up without experiencing the thrill of looking up at the moon and knowing human beings are working there. Films like The Eagle Has Landed will be important tools in any discussion about investing tax dollars into further space research and exploration.

- Gary Dretzka

Fugitive Girls
In the Sign of the Gemini/Lion/Scorpio
Reflections of Light

In the wake of the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s, filmmakers around the world began to test the limits of legal and community standards by creating entertainments that combined traditional storytelling with male and female nudity. U.S. Customs agents inadvertently helped launch the new hard- and soft-core sub-genres by seizing the pseudo-scientific Swedish yawn-fest I Am Curious (Yellow) and putting it on trial, thus ensuring a box-office bonanza. (A few years later, Deep Throat and Hustler magazine would be similarly tested by government censors, whose batting average was closing in on .000.).

After successfully importing I, A Woman, Radley Metzger would begin churning out such gauzy fare as Therese and Isabelle, Camille 2000, Carmen, Baby and The Lickerish Quartet, films that essentially paved the road for the hard-core Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door. Soft-core went arthouse two years later, with the fabulously successful French travelogue, Emmanuelle. The rest is cinematic history. Through the miracle of DVD, early specimens of soft-core filmmaking have begun to surface via niche distributors, such as MVD Visual, S’More and Severin, looking nearly as fresh as they did 30-some years ago.

Fugitive Girls (1974) is noteworthy primarily – OK, exclusively – for being one of the final collaborations between cult icons Edward D. Wood Jr. and Stephen C. Apostolof (a.k.a., A.C. Stephen). Artistically and commercially, their projects were aimed directly at the lowest common denominator of movie-goers. Indeed, considering how such prominent displays of giant boobies might impact motorists passing by outdoor theaters, even most drive-ins were out of the question for their bargain-basement Roger Corman rip-offs. Here, a buxom beauty is incarcerated for a crime she didn’t commit. (Sound familiar, yet?) Desperate, she breaks out of the joint with four other women, all sexy and of the bi-sexual persuasion. While on the lam, they have a ball tormenting hippies, beating up guys and mixing sex with cat fights. Compared to earlier Wood efforts, Fugitive Girls (a.k.a., Five Loose Women, Hot on the Trail and Women’s Penitentiary VIII) looks like Last Tango in Paris. Wood even has a pair of cameos, as the sheriff and Pops, the gas station attendant.

By 1969, Denmark legalized all forms of pornography, awaiting a report that ultimately would show an increase in consumption didn’t necessarily result in a boost in sexually based violence. Thus cleared of Original Sin, filmmakers were free to produce entertainments that addressed the particular interests of a wide spectrum of viewers, and they could do so without hiding behind aliases and phony “scientific” motivations.

One popular series, In the Sign of the … Gemini/Lion/Scorpio/Virgin … demonstrated just how playful and entertaining adult-oriented fare could be when treated as if it were as credible as the titles in any other genre. The series of six films, directed by Finn Carlsson and Werner Hedman, represented spoofs of spy pictures, period romances and other familiar subjects. Unlike the soft-core movies of the time, In the Sign of the … supplemented its frontal nudity and heavy petting with male and female genitalia, insertion and, rarely, ejaculation. While the women are beautiful, a few of the male actors are on the homely side. It hardly matters. Fans of vintage, non-gonzo porn probably would enjoy sampling the delightfully bawdy installments in the series.

Italy also has a rich tradition of soft-core filmmaking, producing international sex symbols at approximately the same frequency as Ferrari turned out F1 champions. Sophia Loren went topless in the early 1950s, then pretty much covered up for the rest of her career. She would be followed by such bombshells as Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Laura Antonelli, Mariangela Melato, Clio Goldsmith, Monica Belluci and Asia Argento. Although Tinto Brass is the most widely recognized brand name in Italian erotica, there was no shortage of capable directors who found ways to inject some spice into the country’s various horror, crime and comedy niches. Mario Bianchi contributed some new twists to the Emmanuelle saga and added a bit of trademark depravity to Reflections of Light (1988), in which a wheelchair-bound composer treats his son, wife and secretary so badly that they turn to each for comfort. Laura Gemser, one of the most prominent of the era’s sex stars, plays the musician’s irreplaceable first wife.

- Gary Dretzka

True Blood: The Complete First Season: Blu-ray
Infected

There were plenty of critics who despaired of HBO ever finding an hour-long drama to replace The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. Deadwood and Rome looked promising, but they were prohibitively expensive to produce. Carnivale and John From Cincinnati proved too intellectually taxing for the average subscriber, while the sexy Tell Me You Love Me was far too whiny to find any traction among otherwise mature adults.

The initial reaction to Alan Ball’s grueling vampire soup opera, True Blood, was less than encouraging, as well. By the third or fourth week, however, viewers became accustomed to the blood-letting and started to embrace the characters. The love lines, which entangled the living and undead, also began to make sense. The color palette was dominated by dark and moody tones, as befit the bayou-at-night backgrounds, as well as the frequent splashes of blood. Blu-ray was created for just such textures.

The made-for-TV thriller Infected arrives at an auspicious time, given the amount of coverage given to the swine-flu epidemic (or, is it a pandemic … or neither one?). Gil Bellows and Maxim Roy play a pair of investigative reporters for a newspaper in Boston, where someone or something is killing the city’s leading politicians. Before long, the hunters become the hunted. Judd Nelson and Isabella Rossellini also appear in featured roles.

Also new to the TV-to-DVD scene this week is Sister, Sister: The Second Season. It would be the final season on ABC, before being picked up by the WB.

- Gary Dretzka

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
El Dorado

John Ford’s closing-of-the-frontier Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, would be worthy of repeat viewings, even if it hadn’t given us the great line about Old West newspapering, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart represented two different sides of the same American coin: one hanging on to the memories of a wide-open frontier and unpublished code of behavior; and the other looking ahead to a more structured future. Lee Marvin’s demented outlaw, Liberty Valance, tests both men’s ability to stay true to their natures. El Dorado couldn’t make anyone forget Howard Hawks’ other great Westerns, Red River and Rio Bravo (which it resembled), but, then, it wasn’t created to do any such thing. Mostly, it remains an entertaining blend of old and yet-to-become archtypes, with Wayne and Robert Mitchum playing a veteran gunslinger and drunken lawman, respectively, and newcomer James Caan as the brash kid.

As the newest two-disc entries to Paramount’s Centennial Collection, both films benefit from additional features and commentary by Peter Bogdanovich, Richard Schickel and participants in the productions. The second discs add several interesting historical featurettes and galleries. – Gary Dretzka

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale: Blu-ray
Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts

On any lists of movies that didn’t warrant a sequel, Donnie Darko would be near the top, if for no other reason than it’s nearly impossible to catch two bolts of lightning in the same bottle. It took several months for the original to find the path to pop-cultural iconization, and, even then, it was largely a function of the vagaries of the DVD marketplace. It also helped that the soundtrack album caught fire.

Creating a new straight-to-DVD franchise, which I imagine is the intention of the producers, is an even more difficult proposition. S. Darko takes place seven years after the events depicted in the original. Daveigh Chase returns as Samantha, who has grown up and hit the road to new adventures. After her car breaks down in a small Utah town -- where she and a friend are required to wait for a new water pump -- Samantha begins experiencing bizarre visions, voices and apocalyptic notions. They’re the least of her worries. Filmed in hi-def, the visual quality of the Blu-ray version is excellent.

Movies based on the Dr. Doolittle books by Hugh Lofting have shown great resilience over the years. Million Dollar Mutts is the second installment to take the straight-to-DVD route. Once again, Kyla Pratt plays the daughter of Dr. Dolittle -- Eddie Murphy, not Rex Harrison – who, we’re told, is in China talking to pandas. Maya is about to enter college, where she hopes to use the family gift to follow in her dad’s footsteps. Her animal friends hope to convince her that she already possesses the tools necessary to be a good vet, and she needn’t leave town. – Gary Dretzka