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Cinematical Seven: Down in New Orleans
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Cinematical Seven
It's been a long weekend in New Orleans. I traveled over here for reasons that have nothing to do with Mardi Gras or football, and ended up sucked into a weekend where the main -- the only -- activity in this city had to do with the Superbowl and parades. Oh, yeah, there was also a big mayoral election, but it rated only a small banner on the newspaper's front page above a giant photo of Drew Brees.
I've always felt New Orleans deserves better movies than the ones in which it's portrayed. In movies and on TV, "New Orleans" rarely strays from the French Quarter, which is about a foot away from swamps and Cajuns, where everyone talks in hideous accents and eats nothing but gumbo and beignets. Doesn't anyone realize that New Orleanians sound like they're from Brooklyn, not Georgia? The police force is nothing but corrupt, and the city is riddled with prostitution and drug lords. Also, Mardi Gras occurs practically every weekend.
But even though those stereotypes abound, the last couple of years have been good for "The City That Care Forgot" in feature films. I liked both The Princess and the Frog and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, admittedly for entirely different reasons. And while I wasn't much enamored with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for the most part I liked the way the city of New Orleans was portrayed in the film. I've found seven feature films set in the New Orleans area for you to enjoy -- I didn't include the 2009 movies mentioned above because they're not on DVD yet (though Ben Button is). I do believe the New Orleans Saints have never appeared in a film, but I suspect that will change fairly soon.
"Lost" John Williams Score Makes CD Debut
Filed under: Fandom, Home Entertainment
Assume for a moment that John Williams has sold more movie scores on CD than any other composer, though Maurice Jarre, James Horner and Ennio Morricone are certainly contenders too. Williams has on his resume all the Star Wars movies, all the Indiana Jones movies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra-terrestrial, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Jaws, Superman and Saving Private Ryan. He even has scored more obscure items like Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye and Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot. He has won five Oscars and has been nominated -- no kidding -- more than 40 times. Now, just imagine that this Elvis Presley of composers, this Beatles of composers, has had one major composition that was never released on CD. That would be like, say Rubber Soul or From Elvis in Memphis being unavailable.It's true. There's one elusive score in Williams' impressive discography that has previously escaped collectors, until now. It's understandable that the score for John Frankenheimer's thriller Black Sunday might have disappeared in that watershed year of 1977, when Williams also composed Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Now Film Score Monthly has announced the official release, available for order through their website. This is a limited release of only 10,000 copies, and the site warns against waiting. The CD runs 64 minutes and features the complete score in chronological order, plus some outtakes. There are audio samples available on the site, and it's a wonderfully ominous, suspenseful score, far more controlled than some of Williams' later works.
Making The (Up) Grade: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Filed under: Universal, Fandom, Home Entertainment
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas could easily have been a candidate for Cinematical's Shelf Life series, and I contemplated using it for this week's entry. After some consideration, however, I came to the realization that anyone who liked Terry Gilliam's Hunter S. Thompson adaptation in 1998, or ever, quite frankly, would probably still like it today, and anyone who didn't, well, wouldn't. (For the record, I've always been a huge fan of the film, and remain one today.) As such, it seemed more appropriate to let those fans know whether Universal's recent Blu-ray release was worth the money they would be taking away from their drug habits.
What's Already Available:
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Romance, New on DVD, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
A Serious Man
Coen Brothers. Academy Award-nominated. Need more? "The culmination of their lives, reminiscent both of their own suburban childhoods in the '60s, and of their cinematic successes over the last twenty-five years." Michael Stuhbarg stars as "a man utterly at a loss to explain his life's severe turn for the worse; he is a man desperate for answers." (Monika Bartyzel, Cinematical.) Buy it.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
Couples Retreat
Shameless it may be, but "you end up laughing more than expected," I wrote in my review. Vince Vaughan, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell and Kali Hawk star. The comedy is broad and silly, but harsher truths occasionally emerge. Rent it.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
The Time Traveler's Wife
Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in an adaptation of the novel by Audrey Niffenegger. "Adds up to a mildly successful time-passer, though one too concerned with trying to target its audience rather than with trying to figure out where it's actually coming from." (Jeffrey M. Anderson, Cinematical.) Rent it.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
The Stepfather
"The most intense Lifetime Channel Original Movie that the Lifetime Channel never made. ... [It] just isn't enough." (Peter Hall, Horror Squad.) Skip it.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
Also out: Serious Moonlight, Free Style, Emma, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic.
After the jump: Indies on DVD, library titles on Blu-ray, and Collector's Corner!
My Movie Crush: Michael Treanor in '3 Ninjas'
Filed under: Fandom, Home Entertainment, Stars in Rewind
This is the first entry in a new column reminiscing on my adolescent movie crushes, in which I explore my memories of the objects of my obsession. Join me.
Sometime in the early '90s, my young adolescent existence went from nerdy and tomboyish to boy-crazy, nerdy and tomboyish. Once it happened, I started noticing cute boys everywhere and I found that my girl friends did, too. We would have sleepovers and hang outs and talk for hours about the objects of our obsessions, pick which ones were our favorites (making sure to choose diplomatically, in case two girls picked the Justins and nobody picked the Lances), and replay particularly swoon-worthy scenes in our heads (i.e. "Remember that time Jonathan pretended to be a girl to get on the soccer team!?"). Only these boys weren't the cootie-carrying classmates we went to school with; they were the dreamy, pretty, charismatic nice boys the likes of which could only be found in fantasy land. These were our movie crushes.
To kick-off this new column celebrating our collective childhood movie crushes, I'm taking it back to the first onscreen boy that ever made my heart beat with (innocent!) romantic palpitations. (Check out Jessica Barnes' Michael Biehn post for a much more respectably nerdy first crush.) The year was 1992, his name was Michael Treanor, and he was one of the young stars of a major motion picture that had girls the world over swooning while simultaneously asking their parents to sign up for karate lessons: 3 Ninjas.
Free Flick of the Day: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Filed under: Action, Classics, Comedy, Home Entertainment
In honor of Jeff Bridges' Oscar nomination for Crazy Heart, I was going to write up a favorite scene from one of his first nominations, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. But thanks to SlashControl, I've got something even better -- the entire movie! Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is currently available, and I'm thrilled for us all. Don't let Michael Cimino's name fool you. Thunderbolt is one of the funniest slices of 1970s cinema you will ever come across. It really doesn't get any better (or sexier) than Bridges and Clint Eastwood in one movie, but throw George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis into the mix and you have a classic that needs to be dusted off and rediscovered. It's best enjoyed cold, but if I promise you unlucky redheads, awkward sex, bromance, leather pants, crossdressing, car chases, rabbits, nudity, and a young Gary Busey, can you resist? Not if you're a film fan.
The DVD is currently out of print in the U.S. (you can get it in the UK for some odd reason), so this is the easiest and cheapest way to watch it unless you have a local theater that regularly airs out this classic. I keep hoping that enough online clamor will cause it to be re-released properly. Until then, you can watch it right here. It'll make your week. I promise.
Cinematical On Demand: Pontypool
Filed under: Horror, Independent, Thrillers, Fandom, Home Entertainment
Welcome to Cinematical's new On Demand, where we review the latest in home entertainment -- on demand, on disc, on the web -- and detail the must-sees, maybe-sees, and never-sees available from the comfort of your own home.
Pontypool is the best recent film you haven't seen.
Adapted from Tony Burgess' novel by Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald, Pontypool arrived on the scene during the Toronto International Film Festival of 2008. It slowly hit markets and enjoyed a limited release last Spring, while slipping onto IFC Midnight, Canadian DVD last July, and finally U.S. DVD just last week. It dances just out of reach of the mass movie-going conscious, but it's a terrible shame. This psychological thriller offers thrills and bloody viral chaos for the horror folks, verbal banter and literary cues for the linguists and English fiends, tensions and oddities for those who like to think and question, and the irreplaceable Stephen McHattie to entertain us all.
TOLDJA! Hollywood Looks to Blogs for TV and Film Projects
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense, Dreamworks, Home Entertainment
"It's only a matter of time before the 2010s do for blogging what the 1930s did for newspapers." That's what I wrote yesterday in a Pitch of the Day post, and I didn't realize how immediately prophetic it was. Only hours later The Hollywood Reporter announced a new HBO series in the works centered on a character who is ... a blogger. Specifically the show, titled Tilda, will be about a "no-holds-barred" entertainment journalist who works online. And she's female, so she's being compared to real-life Hollywood bloggers Nikki Finke, Sharon Waxman and Anne Thompson.Given the clear Finke connection, I just had to use her signature "TOLDJA!" in the headline, but in all honesty I had no idea anything like this was on the way, nor did I truly want it to be. It might be interesting, though, given that I can't imagine it resembling my own bloggery life at all. Coming from wrier/director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls; Gods and Monsters -- which would be a fitting title for a show about bloggers, IMHO) and writer/producer Cynthia Mort (The Brave One; HBO series Tell Me You Love Me), I expect something a little more glamorous than is the reality for most entertainment bloggers.
Sony Converts Old Movies to 3D for Blu-ray - When Will it Stop?
Filed under: Sony, Tech Stuff, Exhibition, Home Entertainment
Someone really has to explain this addiction to 3D. Years ago, it was a novelty that no one took seriously. Random images would fly towards viewers eyes, and a squeal or two would escape, but no one wanted to wear those annoying glasses all the time. It was a nice little cinematic trinket used for the random feature. Now, however, it's everywhere. And not just everywhere like everyone is making 3D movies, but everything is getting converted to 3D, whether it be Harry Potter and Clash of the Titans, or Sony's old library.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Sony is looking to sell Blu-rays with 3D versions of its catalogue in the next year. Joe Nakata, a deputy general manager in Sony's 3D unit says: "We'll probably be able to start next fiscal year, if we can convert them into 3D with good effects." Conversion companies are popping up all over the place to process these films into new 3D monsters, and PS3 is looking to get into 3D gaming in the near future.
Poll: Will You Buy or Rent 'Avatar' on DVD/Blu-ray?
Filed under: Home Entertainment
During their recent quarterly earnings call, News Corp. revealed that Avatar will arrive on DVD and Blu-ray by June 30th of this year, though it won't be in 3D yet because they feel the technology still isn't there for that. So while there will most definitely be a 3D version available at some point down the line (maybe even by Christmas), this first release will be of the old run-of-the-mill variety. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course, as we've been watching movies in 2D at home for a long, long time now, but when a film is made so much greater (and more worthwhile) by a certain piece of technology that won't be available to consumers when said film arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, you have to ask yourself whether it's even worth a rental.
I'm sure most will agree that the big sell on Avatar is the moviegoing experience, and not the intricate story. But if that experience cannot be partially re-created at home, is the film still worthy of a rental or purchase? I personally don't know if I have to watch this film again, and I think that if I did, I'd want it to be in 3D because that's what really sucked me in when I saw it in the theater. Then again, I could see the people who didn't see it in the theater or who don't care about 3D Netflix-ing the hell out of this thing because of how many awards it's won and how many box office records it's broken.
Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams Reunite for 'Mission Impossible 4'
'Big Top Pee-Wee': The Original Benicio Del Toro Wolfman
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short 'Logorama'
Chris Nolan to Lead 'Superman' Reboot!?
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