July 30th, 2006
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
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or what I watched this week.
White Comanche
William Shatner as half-breed Comanche twins. Isn’t that sentence enough to make you want to see this? It did me.
Unfortunately, what we get is a cheap Spanish (a paella western?) production that not only wastes the talents of Shatner (in his prime between seasons of Star Trek) but those of Joseph Cotton as well.
The story is a simple one - good twin, bad twin, only one will live to see the end credits. The film isn’t helped by a DVD that has obviously been made from a video master and not just any video but one that’s been chewed up in several places. There also seems to be something wrong with the score, it sound like it’s a replacement not the original as it doesn’t fit with the onscreen action, sometimes going for comedy in dramatic moments. It’s either the wrong music or one of worst score I’ve ever heard.
On the plus side Shat’s looks good in cowboy gear (although less convincing as the bad brother in Indian getup) and it’s a shame he never got a better chance to show what he could really do in a western.
The American West of John Ford
This was on the same disc as White Comanche and came as a nice bonus as the front cover only lists it as The American West and I’d assumed it was just another old western (there are four films on the disc in total).
July 26th, 2006
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Ian W |
Rants & Raves |
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This is the first in a planned series about lost classics not yet released on DVD.
I was introduced to Rituals by Stephen King; not personally you understand but via his book Danse Macabre. It’s an excellent read and highly recommended for anyone with a love of horror, be it cinematic or the printed word. One of the many films he referred to was this low budget Canadian shocker and he also included in his top 100 horror films at the back of the book.
Now in the early eighties I was a King fanatic (I’m still a big fan) so if the big guy rated it that highly then I wanted to see it. And I did, on a poor quality video cassette rented from the local video emporium, this was in the pre video nasties era when any Tom, Dick or Harry could set up their own video rental business and Blockbuster had yet to invade these shores.
I was impressed or as impressed as I could be with what I could see on-screen and that wasn’t much. The video had been in a lot of machines before ours and at least a few of them must have found it tasty enough to have a chew on, added to this was the fact that a lot of the film takes place at night and the film was low budget to start with so we’re not talking high production values here.
July 26th, 2006
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Ian W |
Film & TV News |
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Subversive Cinema have announced the specs for there Region 1 DVD release of Richard Stanley’s Dust Devil. To say they sound good is a bit of an understatement. See what I mean -
Disc One:
• Dust Devil :The Final Cut: 107-minute version with 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Stereo sound
• Audio commentary by Stanley and Hill
• Stanley’s production diaries
• A Demon Reborn: The Final Dust Devil featurette
• Making of Dust Devil featurette
• Trailer for the long-lost 16mm version of Dust Devil
Disc Two:
• Bonus CD: Dust Devil soundtrack by Simon Boswell
Disc Three:
• 114-minute reconstruction of the Dust Devil work print, in non-anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen with 2.0 stereo sound
• New Dust Devil comic book by Phil Avelli, story approved by Stanley
Disc Four:
• ‘Voice Of The Moon’ documentary about Afghanistan, with commentary with Stanley and Hill
• ‘The White Darkness’ documentary about Haitian Voodoo, with commentary by Stanley and his production diaries
Disc Five:
• ‘Secret Glory’ documentary about the search for the Grail and the neo-Nazi movement, with commentary by Stanley and Hill and Stanley’s production diaries
This release easily tops the current Region 2 DVD and must rank as one of the best Special Edition releases ever put out. I’ve never seen any of Stanley’s documentaries before but ‘The White Darkness’ and ‘Secret Glory’ sound fascinating. I’m glad I held off buying the current UK release as this is a must have.
July 23rd, 2006
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Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
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Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (Region 1)
Or as it was no doubt pitched to the studio execs Jason meets Carrie as Jason comes up against a girl with telekinetic powers. Sticking to the rule (even good, odd bad) this is a pretty poor entry in the series, it may be called The New Blood but there’s precious little on display. Even the showdown between Jason and Car…sorry, Tina isn’t really up to much and the surprise ending runs part three a close second in the dumb idea stakes.
On the plus side this did give us the commanding presence of Kane Hodder as Jason for the first time and the make up when his mask is removed is pretty good.
Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (Region 1)
This breaks the trend of even numbered films being the good ones although I suppose it deserves some credit for trying something different. The title is a misnomer really; Jason Takes A Cruise would be a more fitting one as he takes an hour to arrive in New York. Even when he does finally arrive it wastes good opportunities for action; when confronted by a street gang, instead of killing them, Jason just shows them his face under the hockey mask and they run away. It’s a moderately amusing moment but hardly what the film needs. There are a couple of funny scenes, the best coming when Jason arrives in Manhattan and finds himself confronted by a billboard featuring a hockey mask.
July 23rd, 2006
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Ian W |
Film & TV News |
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Dark Horizons have reported some interesting news on the Batman and Hulk sequels-
Batman
The big Batman news is that Heath Ledger has allegedly been offered the part of the Joker in the next film.
Now Ledger is a good actor (although I can’t think of anything he’s been in that I’ve really enjoyed) but he lacks the flamboyance needed to portray the Joker. I think Paul Bettany or even Adrien Brody would have been a better choice but after Batman Begins I’m willing to accept that Christopher Nolan knows what he’s doing.
He’s yet to make a bad film and I’m eagerly awaiting The Prestige due out later this year.
Hulk
Now this is very good news. Louis Leterrier the director behind The Transporter films and Jet Li’s Unleashed will be directing the sequel.
I’ve yet to see Transporter 2 but based on the other two films he’s a director who knows how to make an action movie, and that’s just what this film needs. Ang Lee is a great director but he was always a bad choice for Hulk, trying to make it fit his style of filmaking rather than fit his style to the film.
According to Leterrier the new film will do for Hulk what Spider-Man 2 did for Spider-Man. There’s no news if Eric Bana will return but I hope he does as it will give the film some sense of continuity. The budget is reported to be over $100 million and there will be a lot less CGI this time. And that may be a good thing.
July 22nd, 2006
Posted by
Ian W |
Movie Reviews |
one comment
I can’t say I went to see this with great expectations. Cautious optimism would probably be the best way to describe my frame of mind on entering the cinema.
The film starts with the familiar strains of John Williams rousing score and credits in the style of the 1978 Superman film and we’re informed that Superman’s destroyed home planet had been discovered by astronomers and that Sups had left earth in an attempt to find his roots (a bit dumb considering he’d been told by his father, Jor-El, that the planet had been destroyed, but then he never was that bright.)
We get introduced to Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor and find out how he got out of prison then we’re off to Smallville and the main man’s spectacular return to earth. He spends the night with his ‘Ma’ played by Eva Marie Saint (who gets nothing to do) does a spot of reminiscing about how he learned to fly before heading for Metropolis. So far so good…
July 21st, 2006
Posted by
Ian W |
Rants & Raves |
5 comments
My love affair with American TV shows began as a child. I remember watching Star Trek, sitting on the sofa with my younger brother, dodging the Enterprise as it flew towards the screen during the opening credits. There were a host of other SF series as well, mainly coming from the fertile mind of Irwin Allen. Luckily my Dad provided something to return my feet to terra firma. He was a huge western fan so other early viewing included The Virginian, The High Chaparral, Lancer, Cheyenne (and spin off Bronco) and the excellent Hondo that sadly only lasted one season. Not to mention Kung Fu that had me attempting to imitate David Carradine’s Kwai Chang Caine resulting in more than a few bruises, some my own!
As the 70’s progressed we saw the decline of the western show and a glut of detective series filled the void - Kojak, Cannon, McCloud, Colombo, Banachek, Starsky & Hutch to name just a few. My personal favourite was The Rockford Files, to the extent that my ambition when I grew up (sadly unachieved) was to be a detective and live in a trailer by the sea. And there were also other lesser known gems like Petrocelli, Manhunter (set during the American depression) and Baretta (starring the ill fated Robert Blake).
Then there were the SF shows trying to fill the gap left by Star Trek and Irwin Allen - The Six Million Dollar Man (and spin off The Bionic Woman),Logan’s Run, The Fantastic Journey, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica along and numerous others that are probably best forgotten (The Man From Atlantis anyone?)
July 16th, 2006
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Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
3 comments
A round up of the weeks viewing.
Cat People (Region 2)
Paul Schrader’s film is a good example of how to do a remake. While the core of the story is the same almost everything else has changed, with the addition of the brother character and the incest element being the biggest differences.
The casting is excellent, Malcolm McDowell and Nastassja Kinski actually look enough alike to be believable as brother and sister and both give great performances. As does John Heard as the zoo curator who falls in love with Irena, this was the time I though he was destined for major stardom having made the excellent Cutter’s Way the year before but he’s ended up a reliable character actor instead.
Possibly the best thing about the film is Giorgio Moroder’s score that, even though it’s very 80’s, still sounds great and there’s even my favorite David Bowie song to accompany the end credits. There are also some pretty good make-up effects by Tom Burman who’d worked his way up through the slasher films of the early 80’s
And we get Ed Begley Jr singing the correct song (What’s New Pussycat?) just before getting his arm ripped off unlike the old VHS release that had the song replaced for copyright reasons.
C.H.U.D (Region 1)
July 15th, 2006
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Ian W |
Site News |
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What will I find within these pages? I hear you ask. Or is that just the voice in my head again?
Well you’ll find reviews. Mostly film reviews but some of my other passions will creep in as well, namely books, comics and music. In the not too distant future you should be reading my views on Superman Returns, Don Siegel’s autobiography A Siegel Film and Kevin Smith’s first Green Arrow story Quiver plus lots more cool stuff.
You’ll also find comments rants on current movie related news and other things that bug me. The first of these already has a title - Disillusioned with American TV - and the rest should follow soon.
Lastly you’ll find my weekly viewing log complete with mini reviews. The first of these should be posted later today and will (hopefully) contain pretty pictures for you to look at.
