Happy Birthday Superman

If you didn't know (and until today, I didn't know, so if you feel bad, don't), today, February 29th, is Superman's birthday. A big Superman fan I know was having a get-together tonight to celebrate and I couldn't attend so I figured I would, at the very least, post something here on the blog, especially since I've been silent on here for roughly two months. I wish I could have been there to celebrate big blue but in lieu of actually being there and debating whether or not the New 52 Superman is better or worse than the previous incarnation, I did do something Superman related today; I picked up the first season of the 1950s television show The Adventures of Superman on DVD for $10. A little less camraderie involved, sure, but I did my part. I'll probably watch an episode or two and maybe some features before bed, I'm sure.

mike

Boxing Day Shop-a-Thon

As per usual on Boxing Day, I and the rest of the family head out and grab some decent bargains on the kinds of things we enjoy: DVD/BD for me, electronics for the wife, games for the boy, and clothes for the girls.

Among my many other acquisitions, I finally managed to complete the Star Wars saga on DVD for very cheap. I have always had the prequel trilogy and the box set for the original trilogy, but when they last released the original trilogy in the two-disc packs with the theatrical releases included as a bonus disc, I only bought Episode IV. I felt the whole 'Han shot first' thing was important to have since the Special Edition version of events drive me batshit crazy. I passed on the other two, however, due to their few alterations and figured I would pick them up when they became available for a reasonable price (reasonable for a double or triple dip, anyway). Four years later, here we are.

One thing I have enjoyed about the box set and these discs is the fact that they are covered with different kinds of Star Wars art, poster or otherwise. The covers are photo mash-ups of the original poster art, then there is different poster art, or possibly production art, on the sleeve inside, and more art on the discs themselves. I remember there being a very expressionist style to the inserts on the box set. Just very nice efforts on the packaging, overall.

So, I now have one set of original trilogy on VHS and two on DVD, but I have a strong suspicion that the BD release in the next year or two will not include the theatricals as a bonus feature since George would rather they be forgotten, hence my desire to grab these while I still can.

Among my other boxing day treasures, I mostly upgraded many of my DVDs to BD versions. I always make sure there is something different about the BD before I do so, otherwise I just feel like a tool for spending money again. There has to be new features, or exclusive features or being totally remastered or something to justify it. So, I grabbed the X-Men trilogy, the first 30 Days of Night, Star Trek II, IV, VI & First Contact, V For Vendetta, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Chocolat, Hellboy II, Terminator Salvation and a couple others I'm probably forgetting.

Also grabbed some books over the holiday season like Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza, the second book in Stefan Petrucha's Timetripper series, and George Lucas' Blockbusting, which I've had my eye on for a while.

Oh, and Jen bought me Homicide: Life on the Street as my Christmas present this year. A good haul, overall.

Until next year!

mike

Wilder on DVD

For a few years now I have been building my Billy Wilder collection on DVD. I think it started in earnest when I watched Almost Famous for the first time and discovered how much of a fan of Wilder Cameron Crowe was. Almost Famous led me to The Apartment (which was pure cinematic brilliance), and that led to Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, The Front Page, Some Like it Hot, Irma la Douce and the list goes on.

Today I was at a local discount store picking up some things when I ran across The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. I had never heard of this movie before, and I was a little surprised to see Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's names on it. For $6.88 I couldn't say no and I bought it without hesitation.

After bringing it home, I did an internet search to see where exactly it falls in the Wilder canon. I also do the instant search with an unfamiliar DVD because of the off chance that there may be a special edition or some other version which may be preferable to the copy I just purchased. It's happened a few times where I've discovered that I had bought the 'wrong' version.

Anyway, all the reviews seem to speak well of it and this is currently the only version MGM has out there (with the exception of the Laserdisc which has some minor differences that the collector in me has to bite my tongue over) and I look forward to cracking this one open and giving it a watch. I'll come back on and post about it after, maybe give some thoughts on the film.

Cheers!

mike

The Spirit DVD Announced

So they've finally announced the DVD release date for Frank Miller's The Spirit (landing April 14th) and it was accompanied by the cover art for the disc which is no less embarrassing than the film itself:





The first thing I noticed is that Gabriel Macht (the film's lead) is squished up in the top third of the image. The next thing I noticed is that Lionsgate would rather sell you this movie based on trashy women with extremely supportive undergarments and Sam Jackson looking like a transgendered hitman, not entirely dissimilar to how they marketed the movie to theatres (which clearly worked so well for them).

I told my wife just a couple of weeks ago while we were in the car and discussing how the movie quietly slipped out of the second run theatres in town, that after all the venom and bile I've spouted regarding this movie, they're gonna sucker me into the DVD purchase anyway because of the inevitable Will Eisner doc they will include, likely on a 2-disc collector's set. Apparently, they're only including the Eisner doc on the Blu-Ray release, though, so I may escape giving them any real money after all.

Later!

mike

The Quest Continues

I'll come back and speak more on this later, but I just wanted to put it out there that Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures Season 1 Volume 1 was released on DVD this week and, while not the strongest Jonny Quest material out there, I still kind of like the show for what it is and it doesn't really diminish the old series one bit, so what's the harm?



Later!

mike

Audio Commentary Commentary

As anyone who has spent any time around me will attest, I love audio commentaries. Good or bad, I listen to them all. Not only do I listen to them, I judge a DVDs worth by them all the time. Sure, there may be 3 hours of documentary footage and EPK this and that, but if there isn't an audio commentary, I get a bit chafed. In fact, if a seven minute EPK style featurette is the only thing on a disc, and you just know there should be a commentary, I won't even buy the thing. There are several witnesses who will give a sworn statement to that effect.

I just don't think there is an excuse for not having one. I mean, sure there are cases as with Steven Spielberg who refuses to do them so as not to colour the viewers experience of the film, but come on, those Indiana Jones DVDs could have had George Lucas, Robert Watts, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and any number of cast members chiming in with thoughts on the movies, their experiences making them, and giving a more personal touch to the, admittedly, very good documentaries on the 'bonus disc' of the set. Something like what George did with the Star Wars movies. He is co-creator of the darn franchise, am I right?

I just can't help myself when there is an opportunity to hear a great director discuss the choices he made in his film or, in some cases, defending them. Those instances where the movie is 'bad' or indecipherable are almost the ones I enjoy the best, too. Really, I watch the 'bad' movies more than I watch the good because I can't help but try and figure out specifically what went wrong with them. Good ideas gone bad mean someone screwed up somewhere, right? Is it the filmmakers fault? Is it an accountants fault somewhere further up the studio chain? Alien 3 remains one of my favourite films of all time, so if that doesn't spell it out for you, I don't know what will.

Anyway, getting closer to the point of the whole thing, here, what a lot of people don't realize is that commentaries are an art unto themselves. Not everyone can do them, and most can't do them well. There are giants in the 'field' like Soderbergh, Fincher, Raimi, Campbell, Meyer and Cameron (to name a few) who all do entertaining, informational, anecdotal and educational (is that the same as informational) commentaries, and there is everybody else. On the one hand, you have a group of talented people home schooling you in the craft, and then there is the everybody else category which usually includes people who tell you what is going on in the movie as you watch, are a bunch of actors who can only remember if it was hot or cold that day, and people who get so wrapped up in the movie they're watching that they fail to commentate. Sometimes at all.

To be fair, some of the 'greats' even slip into that bottom category from time to time. William Friedkin can do a mean commentary but his Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen track is like listening to stage direction. John Carpenter is another guy who goes from brilliant commentator (with Kurt Russell on Escape From New York and The Thing) to casual bystander (like on In the Mouth of Madness and Ghosts of Mars). And educational isn't always a great thing either. Some of the Criterion 'historical' commentaries are B-O-R-I-N-G, and I'm a history major. I like to hear about this stuff.

So when I find a good one...no, a great commentary, I like to let people know. Apparently, so does 'The New Cult Canon' from The Onion's A.V. Club. Last week they shone the spotlight on Steven Soderbergh's lean, mean, revenge picture, The Limey, and it's sparklingly brilliant audio commentary. Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs share the track and spend the movie's 90 minute running time sparring over choices made and scenes dropped. Anyone who looks at Soderbergh's films knows he's a director that tends to favour economy, and often trims his films down to a razors edge. I remember in the commentary for 2002's Solaris John Cameron recalled a conversation he had with Soderbergh where he told him to stop cutting and to start putting things back in the movie. He had made it lean to the point where it began to hurt the storytelling. Well, Dobbs takes him to task for every cut, every change, every missed characterization and it is entertaining as all hell to listen to. Not only does Soderbergh take the hits, but he gets in some playful, but well executed, shots of his own and which are just as valid because if you've ever seen The Limey, you know there is little to fault it with. To have two guys arguing over a movie you find to be perfect is worth the price of admission.

I will qualify that, although heated, the discussion never gets ugly and the feeling I have is that these are two guys who have different sensibilities but ultimately respect each others work. I could be wrong, but it never feels like they genuinely dislike each other. I mean, this is the second time they have worked together, the first being 1991's Kafka, so there was an obvious draw, there. Then again, they haven't worked since, so...

Anyway, I just wanted to send some props out to 'The New Cult Canon' for covering this cool little bit of cinema that some people may not know about and for giving me a chance to talk, yet again, about my love for the Audio Commentary. If you have time to browse around, there are some good articles up on that site with some good commentary of their own that is worth checking out. I'd also be curious if any of you have any commentary that you just loved hearing.

Cheers!

mike

Sorting Out the DVDs

Okay, so I have to reorganize all of my DVDs because of some new shelving units that we're putting in. Previous to this, I had them all out of their respective cases and put into paper sleeves which were organized in four drawers at the bottom of a shelving unit we've had in the living room for a while. The system worked well for some time but things have been getting a bit tight in recent weeks, and with Jen freaking out over the way my collectible stuff has been spilling over into every room, I couldn't say no to the shift.

What I didn't expect was 1)the sheer volume of DVD cases I had to pull out of boxes and stuff onto shelves, 2)the staggering prospect of having to go through all those paper sleeves and put the discs all back in their respective cases, and 3)all of this inspiring me to download a DVD database program and getting caught up in it for the last 3 or 4 hours.

One of the features on this software that will come in useful for me is the 'lending' tag. I have such a large collection that I'm always lending movies and season sets to friends (you know who you are). Lately, I've lent so many out that I'm finding it hard to keep track of them all, and it would never occur to me to just write them down on paper before sending them out. With this program, I can search all the lent out movies and it will give me a list along with the names of those people whom I've lent them to. Pretty happy about my new toy, if you can't tell.

Anyway, I should probably take one more spin at the logging and then hit the sack before I stay up all night.

Cheers!

mike

Audio Commentary Cliché

I've been listening to a lot of audio commentaries since I started working from home (I'm listening to Undeclared commentaries as I write this) and something I've really come to hate is when the commentators introduce themselves as the other person. I'm sure it's sometimes awkward for people to sit in a room and talk about an episode of a show or a feature film but, man alive, if I hear that stupid ass joke one more time I think I'm going to shoot someone, or possibly myself.

Another thing that bugs me about the aforementioned style of commentary is that it is most often a room full of actors who will do it. Sometimes it'll be a director and actor, or writer and actor, but if it's a room full of crew, you never hear that. Directors, DPs, writers, producers, they all say their names and start talking about the process, the story, the lighting, the film. Actors (not all of them, I know) make the funny ha-ha I'm you and you're me gag then giggle to themselves like they're the first people to ever think of that joke.

Sigh.

I think I've hit my rant quota for the week.

Later!

mike

Iron Man Stuff

It's a little funny because I wasn't consciously winding up for the Iron Man premiere, but in the last few weeks I've read the "Extremis" storyline written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Adi Granov that launched the new monthly a while back. This week, I've been reading Iron Man: The Inevitable, by Joe Casey and Frazer Irving, and tonight, I showed the animated The Invincible Iron Man movie to my kids.

Then I find out that the live-action movie was sneak previewing tonight and I'm thinking synchronicity city, here. That, or I've been at this kind of thing for so long that I can't even tell any more when I'm ramping up for something. I just go into automatic pilot, or something.

Personally, I think it was because I started picking up and reading the "Enter the Mandarin" mini-series for Eric Canete's art, but I'm not going to argue the point.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop on and say that I enjoyed theanimated version a lot more this time than when I first watched it. There are still a lot of things that irk me about these Marvel D2DVD movies (voice casting is a BIIIIIIG one) but, overall, TIIM was entertaining, did a decent job of giving an updated take on the ol' origin story, showed a couple of versions of the armour, and managed to add a little depth by doing the east vs. west/technology vs. mysticism bit.

Looks like we'll be trying to hit a matinee with the kids for the live-action on Sunday so I may have more to say regarding Tony Stark in the very near future. The movie is getting rave reviews (yay, Jon Favreau) so expectations are high, now. Let's hope it's not a stinker.

mike

Finally Found the New Frontier

Picking up the kids yesterday and made a detour to the mall to check for The New Frontier, again. I managed to strike gold at Wal-Mart this time, apparently missing the two-disc edition when I was there two days ago. Maybe I was in a bit of a rush and missed it since I scooted over there on my coffee brake from work, but the important thing is I now have it, I have watched it, am listening to the audio commentary as I write this and I have the day off so I'm going to explore the discs and maybe watch one of the movies my friend Dale lent me that I have yet to get to.

But I digress.

The film itself was pretty good. It sticks incredibly close to the graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke with very few points where they left the source material totally behind. Design-wise, the art direction is incredible with the period of the 1950s in the United States being represented beautifully, both in background sets and clothing. The script, as I mentioned before, stayed as close to the book as possible and had Darwyn's stamp of approval with some bits actually written by the man himself.

In particular, there's a scene with Lois and Superman shortly after Superman has his discussion with Diana in Indo-China, and they're sitting on the Daily Planet globe talking about the state of America and McCarthyism. It was added to throw some exposition in that would help round out the period, helped justify expanding Lois' role in the film and, like I said, was added by the original creator himself so it carries a litlle added extra weight.

The voice cast was incredible with David Boreanaz doing a wonderful turn as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, Lucy Lawless is just the painfully obvious choice for Wonder Woman, Brooke Shields and Kyra Sedgewick do a surprisingly good Carol Ferris and Lois Lane, respectively, and Neil Patrick Harris is a surprising but inspired choice as Barry Allen/The Flash. And that's not the whole cast, by a long shot. I suppose Miguel Ferrer should get some props for his Martian Manhunter and while Darwyn loves Jeremy Sisto as Batman, I'm still wrapping my head around it, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

One of the things that really stood out for me on the picture was the animation used on The Flash and how he was written. I've never been happy with how the character is portrayed while running in TV or animation prior to this, but the guys who put this movie together got it absolutely right. The guy is the fastest man alive, he can circle the world 7 times in the space of a blink, you shouldn't see his arms and legs moving while he runs, not unless he's running a little slower, anyway. He should just be a blur and be able to do things you can't even see on-screen, and that's how he was here. When Captain Cold asks why his cold gun doesn't work and Barry says, "I rewired it on the way down," I was thrilled that someone finally got it right.

I'm not sure why Warners holds these movies to a 75 minute running time because New Frontier would have been so much better with another 5, 10 or 15 minutes of story added in. Seeing young Hal Jordan, The Losers on Dinosaur Island and, while I understand how the John Wilson story does little to advance the plot, it would have been nice to see it play out as more than a news bite in the middle of the film. Or even leaving some of that stuff out and just fleshing out some of the details at the end. The climactic ending, to me, did feel a bit rushed and was not as satisfying as the finale in the book. There are a lot of dialogue-less moments in the movie, and probably just as many slow cuts as quick ones, but I'm the kind of guy who likes to linger on characters and events to let them soak in a bit.

Still, these are minor nitpicks since a person could always go back to the source material if they really wanted to get some of that extra texture, and as a living, moving representation of the graphic novel goes, The New Frontier hits so many of the right notes that it is hard to complain about too much of it. My wish is that, because of the book it was based on, they would have done this movie a la Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and gave it a longer running time and a theatrical release, but you gotta take what you can get, where you can get it, right? And, really, I'm still viewing it as money well spent and that's before I've had a chance to scour through the special features and documentaries, so that should speak volumes to anyone who knows me.

All this Darwyn chatter is making me want to resurrect an old interview that I conducted with the man but never saw print in its full form. A segment of it was published as an article in my University newspaper which I've since posted on my website, if you care to check it out.

I remember calling Darwyn afterwards and wanting to do another interview that I would blend with the old one since it never saw print and I always felt bad about that. After making the request, though, he said, "What do you mean, I read the article already?" Somehow, he managed to get a copy of The Sheaf (through a friend, I think) checked out the piece and liked it, so I felt a little better about that, but I still always wished that I got the whole interview in print.

I'm going to see if I can dig it up, find out how much of it was transcribed and how much work it might be to post it on the blog.

Anyway, the second commentary track is almost done so I'm going to sign off here for the time being, grab some breakfast, take it easy.

Oh, and if you haven't been inspired to go out and check out The New Frontier yet, go do it. I urge you to do so.

Later!

mike