Mark Bourne,
Jan 22, 2008
It's a big week for the Criterion Collection (website, blog, Top 10s), with three titles from the celebrated company streeting today, and one of those is a four-film box set. First, though, stacked next to the Film.com DVD player are the latest from Paris Hilton, the Playboy Mansion and the Saw torture-porn franchise.
Saw IV - Unrated Director's Cut (Lionsgate)
That wacky old Jigsaw died in the previous film -- for real dead, not Freddy dead, 'cuz that's, whoa, so fake and lame -- and this latest entry opens with his autopsy, so we know he ain't rising from the slab. But the cutting reveals a microcassette in Jigsaw's stomach, and on it he says that his games have "just begun." Seems his apprentice aims to carry on with the good work. Oh. Great. What were sometimes rationalized as inventive torture scenarios in the previous films are now wheezy same old, same old, and now even more than before the franchise proves that torture never leads to useful intelligence. Some loose ends from previous titles are tied up, and the ending brings a little twist. It's still crap. This one's widely regarded as the worst of the series, yet for the Jigsaw fan base that's no doubt praising with faint damn.
Saw IV arrives on DVD and Blu-ray disc with DD 5.1 audio, two commentary tracks, a director's video journal, a music video, a couple of featurettes ("Traps" and "Props") and deleted scenes. The Blu-ray disc adds an interactive movie blog called MoLog, which allows users to share their own added value content via blog entries and create their own Special Edition of the movie.
The Simple Life Goes to Camp (Fox)
The fifth season of E!'s "reality" series (big, heavy irony quotes there) returns with the glambots Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie -- their creepy friendship reconciled and their DUI charges, like, so last year -- arriving by limo at fictitious Camp Shawnee. As counselors they're forced to interact (ooh, icky) with a Couples Camp, a Wellness Camp (they administer enemas to overweight folks, what a stitch!), a Pageant Camp, a Survival Camp and a Drama Camp (with Paris and Nicole: The Musical really begging for a fire in a crowded theater). Too bad just about every "camper" here is actually an actor, and even the show's fans (pardon me while I boggle) criticized how "fake" and "set up" it all was. (The Botox injections prevent Paris from looking surprised at this news.) These ten episodes of Goes to Camp are apparently the show's final season. Golly, we'll miss it. Yet for sheer inexplicable tenacity, Paris shall no doubt return to prove that, as one of the more visible symptoms of celebrity simplex, she's really not just a cold sore on American media's lower lip.
(Who's with me in imagining a Saw V-The Simple Life mash-up?)
The Girls Next Door: Season Three (Fox)
Further proof that at the E! network "reality" is defined very, very loosely. At the Playboy Mansion home movies show Hef's three live-in bunny girlfriends -- Holly, Bridget and Kendra -- building a Christmas snowman and it's 70 degrees outside! Bridget thinks the new Playboy-bunny-festooned golf cart is "cute." Wheeeee! Kendra sits in Holly's birthday cake! And uh-oh -- Holly forgot to make a wish when she blew out her birthday candles because "I guess that's what happens when your life is perfect." Yo, Hef -- love ya, man, and I owe you a lot, but wow. Just... wow. Three-disc set with 14 episodes. Extras: Insufferable commentaries from the girls on all episodes, a one-hour "behind the scenes" special, deleted scenes and Easter eggs. Giggle.
Three from Criterion:
This Sporting Life
One of the finest British films ever made, this benchmark of "kitchen-sink realism" follows the self-defeating professional and romantic pursuits of a miner turned rugby player eking out an existence in drab Yorkshire. With an astonishing, raging performance by a young Richard Harris, an equally blistering turn by fellow Oscar nominee Rachel Roberts as the widow with whom he lodges, and electrifying direction by Lindsay Anderson, in his feature-film debut following years of documentary work, This Sporting Life remains a dramatic powerhouse.
Criterion's release of The Sporting Life brings a new, restored high-definition digital transfer plus an audio commentary featuring Paul Ryan, editor of Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson, and David Storey, screenwriter and author of This Sporting Life. A short BBC Scotland documentary, Lindsay Anderson: Lucky Man? (2004), features interviews with many of the director's friends and collaborators. You can find even more recent material in a new video interview with Anderson's first producer and close friend Lois Sutcliffe Smith. We also get Meet the Pioneers (1948), Anderson's first film, a documentary short about a mining engineering firm; Wakefield Express (1952), an early documentary by Anderson about the town that later served as the setting for This Sporting Life; and Is That All There Is? (1992), Anderson's autobiographical final film. The theatrical trailer is here too, as is a booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Neil Sinyard and an article by Anderson from 1963.
Miss Julie
Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg's visually innovative, Cannes Grand Prix-winning adaptation of August Strindberg's renowned 1888 play brings to scalding life the excoriating words of the stage's preeminent surveyor of all things rotten in the state of male-female relations. Miss Julie vividly depicts the battle of the sexes and classes that ensues when a wealthy businessman's daughter (Anita Björk, in a fiercely emotional performance) falls for her father's bitter servant. Celebrated for its unique cinematic style (and censored upon its first release in the United States for its adult content), Sjöberg's film was an important turning point in Scandinavian cinema.
Along with a new and improved English subtitle translation, Criterion's edition of Miss Julie comes with these special features: A new video essay by film historian Peter Cowie, an archival television interview with director Alf Sjöberg, a 2006 television documentary about the play Miss Julie and dramatist August Strindberg, the theatrical trailer. The case also holds a booklet featuring new essays by film scholars Peter Matthews (a regular contributor to Sight and Sound) and Birgitta Steene (University of Washington).
4 by Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda used the skills she honed early in her career as a photographer to create some of the most nuanced, thought-provoking films of the past fifty years. She is widely believed to have presaged the French new wave with her first film, La Pointe Courte, long before creating one of the movement's benchmarks, Cléo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7). Later, with Le bonheur and Vagabond (Sans toi ni loi), Varda further shook up art-house audiences, challenging bourgeois codes with her inscrutable characters and offering effortlessly beautiful compositions and editing. Now working largely as a documentarian, Varda remains one of the essential cinematic poets of our time and a true visionary.
In today's New York Times, Dave Kehr's article on this "superbly produced box set" praises Varda as an "extraordinarily gifted, restlessly inventive filmmaker."
Criterion's four-disc 4 by Agnès Varda set brings together these individually cased titles, each with its own extensive extras (links go to Criterion's pages):
Le bonheur
Cléo from 5 to 7
La Pointe Courte
Vagabond
Also out this week:
Adrift in Manhattan (Official site)
In intersecting stories of alienation in the big city, Heather Graham plays a beautiful doctor and Victor Rasuk is a young photographer infatuated with her. William Baldwin and Dominic "Uncle Junior" Chianese co-star. Available in separate R-rated (91 minutes) and unrated (93 minutes) editions with deleted scenes. (Universal)
America: The Complete Series (2000-01)
This inspiring series documents the lives and accomplishments of everyday Americans, from Broadway dancer Savion Glover to a dedicated Indian canoe maker. Depicting an America not often portrayed on television, the program is a welcome reprieve from the horrors of the daily news, reflecting the experiences and diversity that make up the country's heart and soul. Four-disc set. Extras: Interview with cinematographer/director Louis Schwartzberg, extra episode, "Where Are They Now?" (Genius Products)
Blonde Ambition (2008)
Jessica Simpson, Luke Wilson, Rachel Leigh Cook, Penelope Ann Miller, Andy Dick, Willie Nelson. A nearly straight-to-video release after the film died a fast death in eight Texas theaters just four weeks ago. In this vanity project produced by Jessica Simpson's father Joe, a young professional woman (Simpson) unwittingly becomes the pawn of two business executives in their bid to oust the head of a mega-conglomerate. Extras: Behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes. (Sony)
Confessions of a Superhero (Official site)
Documentary explores the fascination, obsession and allure of fame through the eyes of some very unique people struggling to make it in Tinseltown: three mortal men and one woman who make their living working as superhero characters on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard. (Arts Alliance America)
The Game Plan
Here's that lovable lug, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, in a feel-good family film with kids and dogs for Disney. What, you haven't been TiVo'ing his appearances on Hannah Montana? Superstar quarterback and "serial bachelor" Joe Kingman (Mr. Rock) plays for a Boston football team competing for the championship. But when he discovers an 8-year-old daughter (Madison Pettis) he never knew about, will he learn that there's more to life than product endorsements and adoring fans? On the edge of your seat, aren't you? Still, it's a good family film, and word on the street is that this is the last time he'll come billed as "The Rock." Even if he's hanging up the big R, we'll go on loving the big palooka. Would you believe we'll soon be seeing him opposite Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway in the big-screen adaptation of the TV spy spoof Get Smart?
Both the DVD and Blu-ray editions come with a commentary by Johnson and director Andy Fickman, a "making of" featurette, deleted scenes, and bloopers narrated by sportscaster Marv Albert. ESPN personalities interview The Rock on his football training and his character's "biography." (Disney)
The Hunting Party
Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Jesse Eisenberg, James Brolin, Diane Kruger, Joy Bryant. A young journalist, a seasoned cameraman and a discredited journalist embark on an unauthorized mission to find the No. 1 war criminal in Bosnia; they find themselves in serious jeopardy when they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad and their target decides to come after them. Extras: Deleted Scenes, commentary by director Richard Shepard, "Making The Hunting Party," "From Journalism to Film: Director Richard Shepard Interviews The Writers of the Original Esquire Article," "What I Did on My Summer Vacation: The Original Esquire Article." (Weinstein Co./Genius Products)
Hustle: The Complete Season 4
Robert Vaughn, Marie Murray, Marc Warren, Robert Glenister, Ashley Walters. Set in London, Hustle is a TV drama about the exploits of five con artists and their often-ingenious scams. These seasoned grifters -- four men and one woman -- all have their heads filled with lofty ambition, crafting spectacular schemes as they work their way to riches. In this season, "Mickey Bricks" is away for an overseas score and is replaced as leader by Danny (Marc Warren). To fill out the team's roster, they welcome newcomer Billy Bond (Ashley Walters), a street hustler anxious to prove himself to the group. There are, as always, plenty of marks who are greedy, rude or simply nasty enough to be parted from their cash. Targets include a porn baron, a ruthless nursing home owner and a charity crook -- and that's just for starters. The crew also hit L.A. and Las Vegas, but when they're not on their home turf, will their audacious attempts catch up with them in the end? Two-disc set with six episodes. (Warner/BBC)
The John Frankenheimer Collection
A four-disc set gathering The Young Savages (1961) with Burt Lancaster, The Train (1964) also starring Lancaster, The Manchurian Candidate (1962) with Frank Sinatra, and Ronin (1998) with Robert De Niro.
The Young Savages, based on Evan Hunter's novel A Matter of Conviction, was an early film about racial tension and gang violence. Lancaster plays an assistant district attorney assigned to prosecute three teens charged with the murder of a blind 15-year-old. Set in 1944, The Train is a rugged World War II drama featuring Paul Scofield as a German colonel out to steal a vast collection of rare French paintings. Lancaster portrays the Resistance member committed to preventing the theft. The Manchurian Candidate is Frankenheimer's best-known achievement, a chilling drama about assassinations, politics and greed. The thriller Ronin, which never found an audience in theaters, has been discovered thanks to DVD. The gritty film, which features a breathtaking old-school car chase, follows mercenaries who assemble in France and plot to steal a briefcase containing sensitive political material. (MGM)
(Pity we didn't get a five-film set that adds Seconds, a riveting 1966 collaboration between Frankenheimer and cinematographer James Wong Howe. This downbeat sci-fi thriller gave Rock Hudson the role of his life, and gave audiences one of the most chilling endings in all American cinema.)
Moliere
An "elaborate historical fiction," this unrated French import traces several lost months in the life of one of France's greatest playwrights, the father and true master of comic satire, author of "The Misanthrope" and "Tartuffe," and a dramatist to rank alongside Shakespeare and Sophocles. Extras: Commentary by director Laurence Tirard, "making of" featurette. (Sony)
Reservation Road
After a motorist kills his son, a college professor (Joaquin Phoenix) obsessively tracks the driver in the hit-and-run accident, not knowing the man (Mark Ruffalo) is closer than he thinks. Co-stars Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino. Directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda). Extras include deleted scenes, featurette Looking Back on Reservation Road, and a cross-promotional episode of TV's Friday Night Lights ("Last Days of Summer").
Sex and Breakfast (Official site)
Macaulay Culkin, Eliza Dushku, Kuno Becker, Alexis Dziena. Intertwines the lives of two couples that experiment with group sex as a way to sort out the rudiments of a successful relationship -- sex, love and communication. (First Look Home Entertainment)
Sydney White
Amanda Bynes (Hairspray) stars in this wholesome teen comedy -- a clever variation on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" -- about an offbeat college coed and her friendship with seven misfit guys who are rejected from the campus fraternities. Extras are a gag reel, deleted scenes, and a half-dozen featurettes with cast interviews. (Universal)
Thunderbirds: 40th Anniversary Megaset
Producer Gerry Anderson's puppet action series gets the digitally remastered DVD treatment in a 12-disc set with all 32 episodes. Extras: Photo gallery of production stills, two original 1965 "making of" featurettes, "The History of the Thunderbirds" featurette, character biographies, Gerry Anderson biography and filmography. (A&E Home Video)
Torchwood: The Complete First Season
This hit BBC series -- a spin-off of the new Doctor Who -- follows the adventures of an edgy young team of alien hunters out to protect humanity from menacing forces from assorted planets, dimensions and sexual proclivities. Season one is hit or miss, but the second season has just started on British TV and it's already looking like they learned the good lessons from this first trial year. A seven-disc set has the first 13 episodes, along with deleted scenes, commentary and a huge range of featurettes. (Warner/BBC)
