DvdReview Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I just knew Jonesy would love Hellboy 2, not just because the flick is full of wild visuals and trippy sounds ... but also because Hellboy loves the kitties. And Jonesy respects that in a bad-ass superhero. And here's some great news for the non-feline readers: Not only is Hellboy 2: The Golden Army a wild, warm, sweet and smart mixture of action, sci-fi, horror and fantasy -- but the movie really gets better with a second and third visit. I initally stood my ground and insisted that the first Hellboy was the (slightly) better film, but I've reversed that opinion recently. And I don't mind admitting it.

Probably my favorite thing about HB2: TGA is the logical-yet-ironic motivation of the main baddie. Watch the movie closely (and listen carefully) and you'd be hard-pressed to actually call him a villain. (Well, at first, anyway. What Prince Nuada does to his own dad is really not cool.) And that awesome sequence with the forest elemental? Very cool on a surface level, but once Del Toro gives Hellboy something to chew on -- that he'll be destroying the last of a powerful species -- the movie transcends simple escapism. Plus there's tons of action, some strong comedy, loads of colorful characters, some really dazzling locations, and tons of meowing cats. Oh, and an animated puppet war that's breathtaking and a Barry Manilow homage that's hilarious.

But here comes the icing: Think of the Guillermo del Toro DVDs that you have in your collection. (Or should!) Virtually every single one is packed to the gills with extra goodies as insightful as they are plentiful. And as far as commentaries go, Guillermo is always a treat to listen to. But there's a LOT more in this package than just a director's chat-track. Keep on reading for a breakdown of the extras and (if you're good) a few nifty clips, just to keep you warm until the DVD hits next Tuesday.

Name a trilogy with no weak link: OK, Star Wars, sure. Lord of the Rings, obviously. Back to the Future? Sure, I dig the third one too. But as the years go by I really hope that Universal's Bourne trilogy achieves that sort of shelf life, because after the last several hours rediscovering the movies, I'm convinced it's one of the best trilogies ever made. The first (The Bourne Identity) was damn good, the second one (The Bourne Supremacy) was even better, and this third one (The Bourne Ultimatum) is now my favorite of the bunch!

Here's some thoughts from my theatrical release review:

Keeping things brief and spoiler-free, here's the plot: We pick up mere seconds after the conclusion of Supremacy, and if you thought the treachery ended with the demise of Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), then you probably haven't seen that many spy movies. Bourne's latest pursuer is CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), who gives chase once Bourne is located trying to give a sympathetic reporter some crucial information. From there it's another supremely satisfying series of chases, escapes, brawls and betrayals. (And of course the filmmakers were smart enough to find something interesting for series regulars Joan Allen and Julia Stiles to do. Both women are quite excellent here.) For his part, Strathairn is as great as always, here displaying a Dustin Hoffman-ish weasel in authority. Other newcomers to the series (Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney) add a lot to the mix, but I don't want to give too much away here...

As you're no doubt aware by now, I'm a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. At this point, you either love the series or you're completely disinterested in the franchise, so I'm guessing this DVD review is meant for the "already fans." We'll start off with some material from my original review of the film, then some thoughts after my second third time with the flick, and then we'll finish off with a blow-by-blow on the DVD goodies. (The DVD hits the shelves on December 4 in a solo-disc or dual-platter format. This review covers the two-disc special edition, which is scheduled to go "into Disney moratorium" as of September 2008.)

Sometimes the big-time franchise makers are damned if they do and damned if they don't: Churn out a skimpy "Part 3" that just rehashes what was offered in Parts 1 & 2 and you've got something vaguely entertaining but clearly inferior like Shrek the Third. Try too hard to jam too many arbitrary plot threads and flimsy characters into your third entry and you're stuck with a lurching behemoth like Spider-Man 3. And then you have the middle ground: The sprawling, gorgeous and massive adventure epic Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which while far from a flawless film, aims to stay faithful to its predecessors while still upping the ante (a lot) with a boat-load of new plot developments, characters and surprisingly nifty subtext. Yep, this particular popcorn movie runs almost three full hours, but if producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski had produced a quick-buck 92-minute third chapter, then the complaints would be legion. You can't win. Except at the box office, obviously.

Yep, there's actually a movie called Transmorphers, and it slides into "select" video stores just in time for the theatrical release of Transformers. Some call it copy-catting at its most shameless, some opt to call it fortuitous timing ... and most people will never even hear of Transmorphers, aside from the hardcore movie geeks and the curious 14-year-olds of the world. Produced by the outfit that gave you The Da Vinci Treasure, Pirates of Treasure Island and Snakes on a Train, Leigh Scott's low-low-budget Transmorphers is (of course) unquestionably, obviously and in all ways blatantly BAD ... but here's the key question: Is it any fun?

Everyone has several different definitions of "fun" and one of mine is this: A cheap knock-off turkey that mixes the giant robots of Transformers, the sexual politics (and uniforms) of Starship Troopers, the hero of Pitch Black, the subterranean existence of The Matrix, the post-apocalyptic struggle of The Terminator, a whole bunch of arbitrary emo angst borrowed from Battlestar Galactica, and about fifteen other components from sci-fi flicks as varied as Serenity and Jason X. It's a weird and grungy little concoction, but between the florid bouts of soap opera whatnot and the special effects that fondly remind one of Land of the Lost -- there's definitely enough here to warrant an 83-minute visit, but (seriously) only if you're well-versed in the art of bad cinema. There's enough bad acting, ripe writing and chintzy production design to fill three Uwe Boll movies, but like the works of that particular master, there's something brain-twistingly amusing about the whole goofy affair.

Bob Clark was really all over the place as a director. The guy who brought us the likes of The Christmas Story, Black Christmas and Porky's is the same man who later gave us a helping of Baby Geniuses. Go figure! Today marks the bittersweet release of Porky's: The Ultimate Collection, a box set of Clark's sexy, adolescent look at the fifties. While it has been nearly two months since his death at the hands of an errant car, it has been twenty-five years since the boys brought Porky down.

The crowning glory of the set is the original Porky's -- an interesting mixture of laughs, sexiness and social consciousness. Clark wiped away the sappy, sugary sweet world that the 50's was usually painted in, and revealed an innocently risqué center that sometimes soars with goofy hilarity and sometimes seems aged and dated. On the one hand, it's hard not to laugh as you see the beginnings of Samantha in Kim Cattrall's sex shouts, eager boys sitting naked butt cheek to naked butt cheek in hopes to get a taste of Cherry Forever and Balbricker grabbing on to the penis with a mole. On the other hand, there are the tired scenes in between, many of which happen when the film dips into its namesake. I wonder how much funnier this film would've been without the whole Porky revenge scenario. In these moments, the film unfortunately flounders like an old, aged dud.

If you're a big fan of superhero movies, you better have a little extra cash to spend on certain Tuesdays, because one of the studios' favorite marketing gimmicks is this: They'll release a well-stocked DVD of, say, Spider-Man 2 a few months after its theatrical run -- but they'll leave some of the cooler "deleted scenes" back in the vault. Then a few years later when, oh I dunno, Spider-Man 3 is about to hit theaters, they'll jam those deleted scenes back into the movie, and then release a DVD with a label like "Director's Cut," "Extended Edition," or (if they're really clever) "Spider-Man 2.1." It sounds like a pretty tacky way for a movie studio to wring a few extra clams out of its loyal fans, doesn't it? Perhaps. But what if the new version actually ... makes a damn good movie even better?

You have to take these things on a movie-by-movie basis, of course, but in the case of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2.1, the eight extra minutes of "new" footage does a lot for the flick: It strengthens the relationships between Peter Parker and his two best friends, it adds a few moments of levity to the proceedings, and (yay!) it actually adds a few fresh moments of high-end mayhem! (I won't spoil the specifics, but if you liked the "train battle" and the "bank robbery brawl," then you're going to really enjoy the new extensions.)

Masturbation makes you drool and eventually go blind. Well, it did, until Alfred Kinsey came along.

For a film with a budget of ten million dollars, I'd say they pulled this one off exceptionally well, and the DVD is no exception (excuse the pun). Despite the drama surrounding Alfred Kinsey—he's been called a child-molester and a Nazi—by all indications, film-wise, he was a remarkable fellow, and as Karina has already stated, could very well be responsible for the sexual development of our society, leading all the way to Paris Hilton.