MCN DVD Reviews: June 30, 2009

The Wrap Up ...

Do the Right Thing: Blu-ray
Spaceballs: Blu-ray

Few movies released in the last 50 years have inspired as much debate as Do the Right Thing, which lands this week in a special 20th anniversary Blu-ray edition. Spike Lee’s third feature was controversial in the best possible way. It generated discussion for something other than explicit sexuality, gratuitous violence or deliberate provocation. Everything about the movie was fair game, including Lee’s motives and credentials. Not only did DTRT approach the still-taboo subject of race relations in a surprisingly direct, if morally ambiguous fashion, but it let audiences come to their own conclusions about what they’d just seen. Lee hadn’t graduated from the Stanley Kramer School of Liberal Filmmaking and his character, Mooky, wasn’t created to deliver a message on integration or tolerance. Set on a single block in Brooklyn on the hottest day of the summer, DTRT described how individual examples of garden-variety racism could boil over into something ugly and unexpected. The Bed-Sty neighborhood described by Lee didn’t resemble any ghetto setting viewers were used to seeing in the movies. The walls weren’t strewn with gang-signifying graffiti, the streets were devoid of litter, the drunks and slackers seemed harmless -- even to themselves -- and the color scheme might have been inspired by Sesame Street. And, yet, we’re told, the people who lived here had real reasons to feel cheated by society. On a cooler day, Buggin’ Out might not have accosted a white resident for accidentally tarnishing his Jordan sneakers or felt slighted by the photographs of Italian celebrities on the walls of the corner pizzeria. On a less humid day, the owner of the pizzeria might not have freaked out when Radio Raheem refused to turn down his music box, which was about the same size as a Volkswagen. If the sun weren’t shining so intensely, Mookie’s Puerto Rican girlfriend – and the mother of his son – might not have busted his balls for working all hours at the pizzeria. But, then, on a normal day, the street wouldn’t have been filled with people escaping their stifling apartments. And, because cooler heads didn’t prevail, and all hell did break loose, many critics and distribution executives wondered if Lee was arguing that violence was an inevitable by-product of such combustible situations and, in fact, he was condoning it by continually repeating the Public Enemy rap, "Fight the Power." Listen carefully to Lee’s commentary and it seems entirely possible that he wasn’t making the same movie that his audience was seeing. He demanded of his viewers that they determine for themselves if the characters were doing the right thing, while constructing a scenario in which they weren’t acting rationally. Several lifetimes’ worth of frustrations and anger had erupted in a flash, but they dissipated overnight. The police employed an extreme measure to end the fight between Radio Raheem and the pizzeria owner, but the violence it engendered was limited to a corner of a block in a notoriously depressed neighborhood. The terrific thing about DTRT, though, was that it inspired so much discussion and genuine emotions, despite such lingering questions. It established Lee as a filmmaker to be taken seriously and, in some corners, feared and hated. It’s difficult to say how DTRT would play today, if, instead of a single pizzeria and Korean grocery, the block’s sanctity was threatened by developers and yuppies of all ethnic backgrounds. I very much enjoyed listening to Lee recall the details of the shoot, finding new things to say about the actors, characters, cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, his creative choices and working with family members. Moreover, it was a joy to re-discover in a pristine Blu-ray edition.

Prior to watching the Blu-ray version of Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs, I was sure that I’d watched it in one form or another sometime during the last 20-plus years. After about 10 minutes, though, it became clear that I hadn’t. I was a big fan of Brooks’ comedy, but six years had passed between the undisciplined History of the World, Part 1 and Spaceballs. By then, the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises had become parodies of themselves and hardly worth more ridicule. That said, I came away from watching the Blu-ray edition of Spaceballs thinking that it had probably hadn’t lost much in 22 years, and the intervening release of three tepid prequels to George Lucas’ original gem actually made the parody that much sharper. True, most of the gags have grown whiskers, but even the most obvious of them -- Pizza the Hutt, the droid Dot Matrix – carried a warm nostalgic glow. It also was great to see the talents of SCTV vets John Candy and Rick Moranis used properly on the big screen. The extras, some of which are retreads, include Brooks’ commentary; Spaceballs: The Documentary; In Conversation: Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, which focuses on the writing; the biodoc, John Candy: Comic Spirit; the hi-def, Watch the Movie in Ludicrous Speed, which recaps the movie in 29 seconds; outtakes and goof-ups; a pair of trailers; a other making-of material. - Gary Dretzka

Jonas Brothers:
The 3D Concert Experience: Deluxe Extended Edition
Princess Protection Program

In concert and on CD, the Jonas Brothers never could be mistaken for the Beatles – or, for that matter, the Monkees, whose best songs were written by some of the top pop tunesmiths of their day – but that didn’t prevent the producers of The Concert Experience from comparing the madness surrounding Disney’s darlings to Beatlemania. By sampling images from A Hard Day’s Night, and lingering on the group’s screaming fans, the link between Boomers and their tween-age daughters was firmly established. Both films wink, at least, at the absurdity of musicians having to fear the hormonal urges of their fans and performing songs whose lyrics are indecipherable over their shrieking. But, where A Hard Day’s Night was less a concert film than a fully realized madcap comedy, The Concert Experience is pretty much just that … a concert. In theaters, The Concert Experience was shown in 3D. On disc, only owners of Blu-ray equipment will be permitted the same experience. And, technically, it’s a darn good show. The venue was brilliantly lit and miked to capture every syllable of the Jonas’ playlist, regardless of the screams. Hi-def cameras surveyed every inch of the stage, capturing every bump, grind and come-hither look. (In 3D, the separation between audience and what’s transpiring on-stage feels genuine, while hyper-realistic moments are judiciously limited to the times when sunglasses are thrown into the crowd or fans in the front rows are hosed down with, yes, spumes of white foam.) The three-disc Blu-ray edition offers both 2D and 3D versions of the performance; four pairs of 3D glasses; an extended 89-minute cut of the movie itself (with two additional songs: "Can't Have You" and "A Little Bit Longer"); two bonus songs, in hi-def; the film, Up Close and Personal; a 2D version of the extended concert; and a portable digital copy.

The target audience for Princess Protection Program, a made-for-cable movie that arrives on DVD a mere four days after its debut on the Disney Channel, are the same kids who flock to the concerts of the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana. In it, cutie-patootie Demi Lovato (who also contributes a song to the JBs’ movie) plays a princess marked for assassination by an ambitious general in a mythical nation. After a failed attempt on her life, the princess enters the PPP, a program established to protect royalty when their own security details can’t be trusted to contain the threat. She’s assigned to an agent, whose daughter (Selena Gomez, of Wizards of Waverly Place) is a Louisiana tomboy. Not surprisingly, the more time the girls spend together, the more they begin to act like each other. The Royal B.F.F. Extended Edition includes a pair of featurettes, in which an actual princess discusses her life and responsibilities, and the stars describe their off-screen friendship; a music video; and a few more minutes of the movie than the TV airing allowed. - Gary Dretzka

Two Lovers

What prompted James Gray to look for romance in the lives of the son and daughter of Jewish dry cleaners in New York's Brighton Beach neighborhood? A rom-com, perhaps … a drama? Not likely. Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard, a deeply depressed young man who falls in love with Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of the man who's investing in his father's business. They met about a year after Leonard had been jilted by his fiancé and he made a feeble attempt at suicide by jumping off a pier. Their coming together symbolized not only the rekindling of Leonard's libido, but also the merger of two family enterprises, however mundane. It's at this precise moment of pre-marital bliss that Gray insinuates the dreaded shiksa next-door, Michelle, into Leonard's life. At first, she's a sunny, positive influence on Leonard. The more he's exposed to Michelle's dark side, however, the closer Leonard's drawn into her twisted personal life. Eventually … well … there's really no point in spoiling a story that refuses to fall back on clichés, follow well-trod paths or make cheap jokes at the expense of dry cleaners. Gray and Phoenix have worked together previously on We Own the Night and The Yards, and they make a good team. Shaw and Paltrow, could hardly be better as the women whose only common thread is their affection for Leonard. In Two Lovers, Gray also demonstrates that he can tell a story, set in the less fashionable boroughs of New York, in which violence, corruption and disreputable immigrants aren't key elements. - Gary Dretzka

The Education of Charlie Banks

Fred Durst, lead vocalist of Limp Bizkit, started directing movies after the bank members took a break from each other. The Education of Charlie Banks was completed well before the boys' recent reunion tour and Durst's second directorial effort, the inspirational sports story, The Longshots. It stars that fine, if fidgety young actor Jesse Eisenberg as a middle class New Yorker, who, after graduating from high school, falls into the orbit of vastly more wealthy Ivy Leaguers. We're made aware of Charlie's tough ethical fiber after he snitches on an acquaintance, Mick, who nearly killed a pair of arrogant jocks in a fight. He reconsiders his decision to testify, however, providing Mick not only the opportunity to sin again, but also a reason for him to re-enter his life at most inopportune time. Happily ensconced in a university favored by privileged snots, Charlie can't believe his eyes when Mick turns up in his dorm room, a guest of his roommate. Although Charlie knows that a loud heartbeat could cause Mick to detonate, the trust-fund babies can't get enough of the bad boy. To his credit, Durst doesn't rush the inevitable. Neither does he take the easy way out by turning Peter Elkoff's class-conscious coming-of-age drama - it even dares reference The Great Gatsby and Hannah Arendt -- into something suited to the Fangoria crowd. - Gary Dretzka

Dark Streets

You don't see many floor shows, anymore. In the movies of the 1930s, every swell gent would don his top hat and tails, before heading for the Copa to impress his girl or pick out a new one from the chorus line. Rachel Samuels' splashy noir musical Dark Streets, based on a stage musical by Glenn M. Stewart, is a throwback to that era. Alas, it's no Cotton Club or Kansas City, both of which had a story to back up the music. In Dark Streets, the playboy who's inherited the nightclub is feeling heat over some nasty business his father and uncle got into with the conglomerate controlling the city's electric utility. None of it makes much sense, but the singing and dancing of Bijou Phillips, Izabella Miko and the other gilded ladies is fun to watch. The soundtrack also includes songs by Solomon Burke, Natalie Cole, Etta James, Dr. John, Aaron Neville, Bijou Phillips, Richie Sambora and Toledo. - Gary Dretzka

Tunnel Rats

Not having seen any of Uwe Boll's previous movies, I have no way of knowing why he's one of the most reviled filmmakers in the world, at least according to what passes for discourse on the Internet. AlI I know is that Tunnel Rats is a very decent war movie … well made and tightly focused on a chapter in the history of the Vietnam War hitherto left mostly undocumented. The fighting in Boll's film takes place in and around the vast network of tunnels in the Cu Chi region, just north of Saigon. First, though, he introduces us to the American soldiers ordered to infiltrate the tunnel system and kill or capture anyone found inhabiting it … a task far easier assigned than accomplished. As the Yanks would learn the hard way, these tunnels provided shelter from air strikes and search-and-destroy missions for thousands of enemy combatants. The network also was devised in a way that Viet Cong could disappear into one hole and reappear seemingly within seconds in another position, ready to ambush the Americans. Some of the underground rooms were large enough to accommodate strategy sessions among officers and makeshift hospitals. Compounding the difficulty for our tunnel rats were the booby traps set to ensnare any enemy combatant who tread too heavily upon them. The soldiers chosen for this duty were small in stature, but long in courage. So, too, were the Viet Cong and NVA fighters who lived in the tunnels for months at a time and were more likely than any of their above-ground peers to come down with serious diseases and be bitten by rats and other toxic creatures. Tunnel Rats plays the drama straight down the middle, accentuating the horror and futility of war, while also emphasizing the courage of the combatants. Given the intimacy and ferocious nature of the fighting, Boll spares no one in the audience the sight of men and women dying in the most grotesque ways possible. He claims to have researched every detail of this aspect of the war, so I'm not willing to say that any of the depictions were exaggerated. The action, both above and below the surface, is expertly paced and undeniably exciting. The bonus features explain how Boll and his crew re-created the tunnel system in a South African sound stage. The actual tunnels of Cu Chi have become a tourist attraction in Vietnam. - Gary Dretzka

Tokyo! BluRay

Michel Gondry, one of the world's most enigmatic filmmakers, is the most prominent of three celebrated fantasists recruited to contribute to this triptych on contemporary life in Tokyo. He was joined by fellow Frenchman Leos Carax (The Lovers on the Bridge) and South Korea's Bong Joon-ho (The Host). Each discovered aspects of the culture most people outside Japan couldn't imagine possible. The general working order was to address the question of whether people shape cities or if it's the cities that shape their residents. Gondry's Interior Design follows an experimental filmmaker and his timid girlfriend around Tokyo in search of a place to live. The choices they're given range from simply unusual to extremely bizarre and downright uninhabitable, and, after a certain point, the places take on a life of their own. Carax contributes an urban legend about a troll who inhabits the sewer system and comes out to terrorize pedestrians and disrupt the status quo. Once captured, this grotesque creature develops a cult-like following. Bong's Shaking Tokyo describes the real social phenomenon of people, hikikomori, who refuse to leave their apartments for fear of, well, everything. Surreal and generally off-putting, these stories certainly don't reflect the Chamber of Commerce vision of Tokyo. - Gary Dretzka

The Betrayed
Hide
12 Rounds: Extreme Cut
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li: 3-Disc Special Edition
Sea Beast
Back Woods

I would be hard-pressed to put a timeline on the evolution (de-volution?) of exploitation films over the last 70-80 years, so I'll leave the fine points to the folks at Wikipedia. Faux cautionary tales, such as Reefer Madness, Sex Madness and 'Child Bride, begat all manner of B-movies that tweaked the Production Code by raising public awareness of space aliens and vampires, juvenile delinquents, rock 'n' roll, blonds, booze, bikers and bank robbers. In the 1970s, the decline of the drive-in theater business brought grindhouse to the boonies, and blaxploitation fare filled downtown movie palaces once reserved for gala premieres. The popularity of premium cable services and affordability of DVRs opened the door for budget-minded producers of slasher, splatter, torture, kung-fu, women-in-prison, T&A and zombie pictures. Digital production technology reduced the costs and hassle associated with the filmmaking process to the point we're at today, where anyone with a cellphone and a Mac can make a feature film. Although one in a hundred of these pictures actually is based on a fresh idea, some actors, writers and directors find ways to put fresh twists on ancient formulas. Sorting through the hundreds of new titles that arrive on DVD each year is no easy task. Someone has to do it, though, and, some weeks, it's me.

Written and directed by Amanda Gusack, The Betrayed is a reasonably entertaining thriller that overlaps several tried-and-true sub-genres in telling the story of a Philadelphia housewife (Melissa George) who's being punished for something her husband might or might not have done. After surviving a car accident, she wakes up in an empty warehouse, separated from her 7-year-old son. Soon enough, a masked thug arrives on the scene to inform her of her husband's side business as a heroin dealer. If the attractive blond wants to save her life and that of her son, she'll help her captors discover where her spouse is hiding $40 million in stolen drug money. Since she had no idea of her husband's crime - or, even, if her kidnapers grabbed the right dame - this proves to be a difficult, if not impossible challenge. Meanwhile, her attempts to escape result in gallons of shed blood, gratuitously and otherwise. Gusack supplies quite a few interesting plot twists along the way.

Hide shamelessly borrows the central us-against-the-world conceits of Bonnie & Clyde and Natural Born Killers, and inserts the matching pair of desperate criminals into situations that incorporate elements of horror, revenge and nutso religiousity . Scream queen Rachel Miner and grungy Christian Kane are perfectly suited to play psycho-killers on the run from the cops, God and a well-disguised adversary. Director K.C. Bascombe and writer writer Greg Rosati keep the action moving in a forwardly direction throughout, while leaving space for the requisite amount of psycho-babble to explain the killers' motivations. More than anything else, though, they were able to make Argentina look very much like some of the more interesting parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Hide also benefits from a soundtrack that incorporates some original American roots-rock.

John Cena's reputation as a WWE superstar didn't do much for 12 Rounds in its theatrical release a couple of months ago. He plays a New Orleans police detective who is forced to complete a dozen Herculean tasks, before a much-feared terrorist will agree to release his kidnapped girlfriend. The real star of the movie is the Big Easy. It was directed by Rennie Harlin, who, once upon a time, had a career to be envied. The generous array of bonus features on Blu-ray leads me to believe that the producers of 12 Rounds foresaw greater profit in the DVD marketplace than in theaters, but decided the exposure wouldn't hurt. They include rated and unrated versions of the film; a gag reel; several making-of featurettes; commentary; and round-by-round action breakdowns.

Ditto, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. It stars Kristin Kreuk as a world-class pianist and martial-arts expert in pursuit of the criminals who kidnapped her father and forced him to open doors for an international cabal of, well, real estate speculators. While in Bangkok for a concert, she's recruited into a cell of fighters out to destroy the same organization. Kreuk's hot, but the rest of the Street Fighter was constructed using a paint-by-numbers kit. The cast also includes Chris Klein, Neal McDonough, Robin Shou and Michael Clarke Duncan. Besides looking good in Blu-ray, the edition boasts theatrical and unrated versions; commentary; deleted scenes; making-of shorts; and several featurettes on the conversion from video game to film.

RHI Entertainment churns out thrillers for the made-for-TV and DVD marketplace the way AIP once filled the screens of drive-ins in the '60s. The movies are formulaic, but generally not without some redeeming entertainment value. There are so many cable channels out there now looking for original programming -- featuring B-, C- and no-list stars -- the company's business appears to be thriving. Then, too, the same pictures can be re-purposed for international TV and theatrical markets, as well as video stores and pay-per-view. In Backwoods, Hayley Duff and Ryan Merriman are sent to a remote forest to participate in the type of team-building exercises that require candy-ass executive to don camouflage gear and fire paint guns at each other. Here, however, the in-bred rustics respond with weapons of their own.

Corin Nemec and Meriam McDonald are the featured players in Sea Beast, a run-of-the-mill monster picture, in which hungry amphibians - or troglodytes, as its former title describes them - attack fishermen and residents of a seaside village with equal zest. They enjoy a convenient superpower that allows them to go from visible to invisible, whenever the mood fits. The best part of the film is the beautiful British Columbia location. - Gary Dretzka

RIP: A Remix Manifesto

Internet activist Brett Gaylor makes a convincing argument against limiting the free flow of music and ideas, based on copyright laws favored by international media conglomerates. Using Walt Disney as an example of a mogul who freely adapted ideas from other artists and writers - Pinocchio, Cinderella -- but, once rich, worked feverishly to keep others from borrowing his creations. The movie also decries how record labels have engaged school children and housewives in expensive legal battles to discourage file sharing. There's no question where Gaylor's sympathies lie, but R.I.P. does leave room for the viewpoints of artists who would prefer their fans to pay for their intellectual property. The film is presented in a lively enough manner that the legalese never overwhelms the many examples of creativity under fire. - Gary Dretzka

Pedro

Before MTV's The Real World turned into a boring and mean-spirited celebration of consumer culture and pop iconography, it actually provided some memorable moments and interesting personalities. The Real World: Las Vegas captured a moment in time, when the tired, old Vegas was becoming the new, hip Vegas. Then there was Puck, a bicycle messenger who re-defined the word, obnoxious. More than anyone else on the long-running series, though, it was Pedro Zamora who personified what Real World could become, if MTV hadn't opted for the more profitable road to glory. Zamora learned he was HIV positive at 17, but he never let his condition preclude him from raising awareness of AIDS and its spread among teenagers and others in the MTV demographic. He would die shortly after he left the Real World, leaving millions of fans worldwide to honor his memory and mission. Newcomer Alex Loynaz plays Zamora in the biopic. The set also includes three episodes of Real World: San Francisco. - Gary Dretzka

Eastbound & Down: First Season
Jockeys
Extreme Trains: The Complete Season One
Nostradamus 2012
Apollo 11: A Night to Remember
The Lucille Ball Specials

In this six-episode HBO series, Eastbound & Down, a mulleted and mustachioed Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder) portrayed a former Major Leagues pitcher, reduced to teaching physical education - loosely defined, as that might be - at his hometown high school. Powers could hardly be a more boorish character … sexist, racist and self-delusional in the extreme. I'm guessing he was modeled after John Rocker, a talented pitcher who made comments to a magazine writer that might have gotten him elected Grand Wizard of the KKK. Powers does exhibit a soft side, but it's exposed mostly when he's trying to hit on a former girlfriend. It's funny, but not for the politically correct.

Animal Planet was a curious place to find the reality series, Jockeys, in that it focused mostly on the men who rode some of the most expensive horseflesh in the world, not specifically the animals themselves. The premiere season was set at Santa Anita, where the jockey colony is second to none. Although most people don't associate athleticism with the men and women who ride horses for a living -- with no guarantees of a steady income or safe return - how else to explain how someone weighing in the neighborhood of 110 pounds can steer a 1,200-pound animal around an oval racecourse? Jockeys provided an up-close-and-personal look at the sport and its participants on and off the track.

The History Channel's Extreme Trains follows Matt Brown, a conductor from New England, as he re-introduces Americans to our legacy as a railroading country and reminds us how we squandered such a great tradition. Among the rides we share with Brown are Amtrak's Empire Builder, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Freight Train, the Norfolk Southern Coal Train, the Ringling Bros. Circus Train and the Union Pacific Refrigeration Train.

Some people believe that Nostradamus will be proven correct in predicting that 2012 will end in an apocalyptic catastrophe, although it isn't clear what form it might take. The History Channel special, Nostradamus 2012 examines the purported vision, putting it into a contemporary context and reviewing past prophesies. Was the ancient seer the real deal or Chicken Little with a beard?

The BBC's Apollo 11 anticipates the 40th anniversary of the historic event, taking a sometime humorous approach to the minutiae that preceded the moon landing and scientific advancements that allowed it to happen. It's interesting to hear a recounting of the flight and moonwalk that isn't drenched in patriotic platitudes.

In 1975, after the completion of her run on Here's Lucy, Lucille Ball participated in a pair of television specials with fellow superstars Dean Martin and Jackie Gleason. In Lucy Gets Lucky, she takes a page from Lucy Ricardo's playbook by going to extreme lengths to see Martin perform in Las Vegas. In Three for Two, she and Gleason are featured in a trio of pieces examining marriage. The set adds radio interviews with Martin, bloopers, a featurette with guest actor Gino Conforti and other rare footage.

Number 10 uses the biodoc format to profile the men who worked behind the most famous door in England, from the Napoleonic era to the 1920s. Among the prime ministers whose legacies are examined are William Gladstone (Denis Quilley), Benjamin Disraeli (Richard Pasco), David Lloyd George (John Stride), Ramsay MacDonald (Ian Richardson) and William Pitt the Younger (Jeremy Brett). The set adds biographies of the prime ministers.

Also new to the TV-to-DVD scene: The IT Crowd: The Complete Second Season; MonsterQuest: Season Three, Set One; Blue Murder: Set 4; and just time for its new stanza on HBO, Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season. - Gary Dretzka