BILL Bored
KILL BILL VOL. 2
I didn't want to think about KILL BILL VOL. 2 anymore. I wrote reviews of it and its predecessor; I wrote 16 mini columns once a week between the theatrical releases of 1 and 2; and wrote a review of the first DVD. Plus, I am also writing a book about KILL BILL for Creation Books, and have just finished a general survey on Tarantino for Pocket Essentials. Both are due for publication (if the publishers accept them) at Christmas. So I'm a little Tarantinoed out right now.
Or at least I thought I was. I popped in the DVD for KILL BILL VOL. 2 just to check the image and sound and damn if I didn't end up watching the whole thing again.. Fortunately it was fruitfully used time.
The Miramax DVD of KB2 looks great and sounds fantastic. But it doesn't have much in the way of extras. The most important supplement is a deleted scene, shots of which appeared in an early trailer, in which The Bride and Bill run into one of Bill's nemeses in a market.
The point of this scene originally was, I guess, to show the scary, formidable side of Bill (as was a scene in the script that's not in the film, in which Bill takes down a gambling house).
This is Carradine's most "Caine" moment in the film, showing him walking through a village, slowly, peacefully, nodding to the marketers he knows. But though the fight itself proves to be well-edited, it's inconsistent with the tone of the other Bill parts of the film. It's played for laughs, with Bill here a somewhat comical or at least sardonic figure.
This deleted scene has two good elements, however. One is the usually ignored idea of pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders trying to get around the dueling groups. The other is the shot of the Bride looking at the scene and obviously turned on by Bill's competence and bloodletting.
The second of the three extras is a 20+ minute "making of" that is almost strictly promotional. Except for a few shots of a couple of movies with Gordon Liu that influenced Tarantino, there is really not much to recommend this segment. It provides little insight and information. For example, why were the films split in two? Will they be rejoined at some future point? There are numerous cruxes connected with KILL BILL (such as why the Bride is killed, but Vernita is allowed to leave and start a family).
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Finally, there is a foot-stomping performance by Robert Rodriguez and his band, doing two few tunes used in the movie, with candid shots of Tarantino grooving on the vibes, and interview snippets with both RR and QT. It's pretty good concert footage and you come away thinking that this Rodriguez cat can do it all, that he is a God of Cinema. He can direct, shoot, edit, compose, and create the special effects. more than Tarantino can do. Tarantino and Rodriguez are friends probably the way boxers or gang leaders are "friends": natural antagonists of near-equal strength who adopt the social device of "friendship" in order not to have to try and kill each other.
KILL BILL VOL. 2 hit the streets on Tuesday, August 10th and retails for $29.99.
The Kids Are Not Alright
VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED
When I was a kid the two movies that scared me the most were INVADERS FROM MARS and VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. And I didn't even see DAMNED. I'd only seen the trailer on television.
And the part of the trailer that scared me the most was the moment when the little blonde kid looks at the family dog and, with the power of his mind, makes the animal cower. I have no idea why that moment should be so scary, but it was.
Now, thanks to the Warner Home Entertainment package of four key horror films from the '30s, '50s and '60s, I learn that my memory had played tricks on me. Even though, right this second, I can visualize that moment in the trailer, it doesn't exist. I conflated the VILLAGE trailer with the CHILDREN trailer. That's the one where the dog cowers. Except that he doesn't cower quite the way I remember.
That's just one reason I'm grateful for this film finally to appear on DVD in a clean, crisp transfer. VILLAGE proves on re-viewing decades later (I caught up with it on TV a long time after) to be a typical slow-paced, brainy, British sci-fi thriller of its era (based on the novel THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS by the pseudonymous John Wyndham). It trudges along. Yet somehow, thanks to the occasionally scary moment, and the overcast British weather that makes the black and white world of the village dingy and depressing, it's still engrossing. It also helps if, the first time you view it, you don't actually know what's happening. Thanks to John Carpenter's remake, and the sheer volume of critical prose on everything, nothing is a secret. But a lot of the first half of the film follows the characters as they try to piece together the source of all these kids being born at the same time (via virgin births) while the villagers had mysterious, temporarily induced comas.
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Another good reason to watch the film is George Sanders as the scientist father of one of the kids. The excellent audio commentary track by Steve Haberman also points out how good Barbara Shelley is as his wife, slowly turning against her own offspring.
Unfortunately, both films have rather pedestrian direction, VILLAGE (1960) by Wolf Rilla and CHILDREN (1963) by Anton Leader. CHILDREN is much, much different from its predecessor. It's more like ON THE BEACH, a protest film against nuclear escalation and international tensions. I remember seeing it at the drive-in the weekend it came out and falling asleep in the back seat of my mom's car.
Both films come in excellent wide screen black and white transfers (1.85:1, enhanced) with mono DD tracks. Besides the commentaries by Haberman and screenwriter John Briley for CHILDREN, this single sided disc (both movies are on the same side) offers the theatrical trailers, and in a keep-case (instead of the usual Warner snap-case). VILLAGE, along with its three companion discs, all hit the street on Tuesday, August 10th, and sell individually for $19.97.
What a Dump
DEAD RINGER
The second unit in the package is this Bette Davis vehicle from 1964, riding the crest of the wave caused by Robert Aldrich's WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, which resurrected two old stars for a gothic tale set in sunny Los Angeles. Here Davis plays twins who haven't seen each other since the mean one stole the nice one's boyfriend numerous decades earlier. The mean one became rich, while the nice one runs a bar in Los Angeles, and has an ostensible boyfriend in cop Karl Malden. But when the mean one's rich husband dies, the nice one moves forward with a daring scheme. Naturally, it goes awry in numerous unpredictable ways.
DEAD RINGER is not bad for what it is, another entry in a minor if serviceable and short-lived genre, Aging Star Horror Films, but not as scary as HUSH … HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE (and probably wasn't meant to be).
But the best thing about the disc is the audio commentary track by writer Boze Hadleigh and playwright and actor Charles Busch. Leave it to two gay guys to know everything about this movie. For example, they inform the listener that it was in reality 20 years in the making, and based on a Mexican film called LA OTRA. It's also directed by Paul Henreid, the former leading man, and Davis co-star in NOW, VOYAGER. They even happen to know why Henreid cast his daughter in a minor role, and what happened to her after the movie. It is an hilarious and entertaining track, punctuated occasionally by Busch's Davis impersonation.
Again, Warner offers a good transfer of the film (1.85:1, enhanced) with a mono DD track. There is also, along with the trailer, a short contemporaneous "making of" feature about the Doheny Mansion, which served as the main location for the film.
FREAKS; THE BAD SEED
Frankly I was a lot less interested in the other two films in the set, FREAKS, and THE BAD SEED. The first is an important and interesting film in cinematic history that leaves me cold, and the second is a camp classic, that, in its numerous versions (novel, play, move) raised the interesting notion of evil children at a time when kids were sacrosanct.
Directed by Tod Browning with much more vigor than what he brought to Dracula, FREAKS was released in 1932 and has been controversial ever since. The film is only 64 minutes long, but Warner has done well by it with this excellent transfer (full frame, with windowboxed credits). It sports a mono DD track that is probably the best that it can be.
The extras are the stand out. One is the alternate "happy" ending, another is a commentary track by David Skal, author of a bio of Browning, and the third is FREAKS: SIDESHOW CINEMA, a one hour plus documentary about the real lives of the movies freaks. There is also a special prologue, about two and a half minutes long, and Skal's video account of the alternate endings.
THE BAD SEED (1954) is fun if you are in a campy mood. It's based on Maxwell Anderson's play derived from William March's source novel, and is directed by Mervyn LeRoy with television level enthusiasm. Once again, Warner offers THE BAD SEED in an excellent transfer (1.33:1) with mono DD audio. The audio commentary track by star Patty McCormack and, once again, Charles Busch, is very good, and there is a 15-minute interview with McCormack, along with the film's trailer.
Home Boy
HELLBOY
I think I've changed my views on HELLBOY slightly. I think that it has a very strong first hour, but a boring second half, one that reiterates the dull fight scenes that we've seen in SPIDER-MAN and other comic adaptations. But still, that first hour is amazing.
Now, thanks to the two-disc DVD of the film from Columbia Tri-Star, you can know more about that first hour than you ever thought you could. HELLBOY features one of the most extensive and detailed "making of" docs ever put on disc.
But that's not the only feature. Disc One has, after a 30-second intro from director Del Toro, two audio commentaries, the first with Del Toro and comic book artist Mike Mignola, the second with Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor and Rupert Evans, plus a third "storyboard" track. This first disc also features infinifilm-style pop up tracks, one with eight bits of on-set footage, the second with eight "DVD comics" by Mignola. Finally there are four UPA cartoons, apparently an Easter egg, and some DVD-ROM material.
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Disc Two has another 30-second intro, this one by Blair, and a section called "Egg Chamber" where you can find three deleted scenes with optional commentary by Del Toro, "Hellboy: The Seeds of Creation," a two-and-a-half hour documentary on the making of the film, with an internal "film diary" inside, plus cast, crew, and character bios. In "Kroenen's Lair" you find a brief storyboard section called "Scene Progression Ogdru Jahad" and a handful of features about the computer animation, followed by "Storyboard Comparisons," with four multi-angle segments. There's a video "gallery," a stills gallery for conceptual art, two trailers, nine TV spots, and several additional trailers for other Columbia pix. It's a lot of work, and then you learn that Del Toro is eventually coming out with a director's cut! The film comes in a beautiful widescreen transfer (1.85:1, enhanced) and excellent DD 5.1 audio.
Boys Town
THE LOST BOYS: SPECIAL EDITION
When is the Jami Gertz cult going to take off? Despite the myth that she is a box office hex, she has been in a few hits (TWISTER, for one), and the lost boys, perhaps the quintessential Gertz movie, certainly has a cult, despite its low early release intake. She is one of those "joke" celebrities just waiting for her Kim Morgan to come along and prove that she was actually good in SOLARBABIES, QUICKSILVER, CROSSROADS, LESS THAN ZERO, and JERSEY GIRL (the first one).
This is puffy haired Gertz, of course, and in fact everyone has puff hair. In fact, the whole cast is amazing, knowing what we know now about all of their fates. The stars know it too, and one whole supplement is dedicated to the Two Coreys phenomenon. For a while they were the new Abbott and Costello, or maybe Robby Benson - Glynnis O'Connor.
A movie not quite as bad as it seemed at the time, and with a great punchline for an ending, it is still, today, more interesting for its "promise" than its achievement, the promise being the roster of young studs, including Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Winter, and others. The film either came too early, or too late, for the whole goth-vampire thing.
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The Warner SPECIAL EDITION two-disc set comes in a gorgeous widescreen transfer (2.35:1, enhanced) with an excellent DD 5.1 audio track. Extras on this two-disc special edition start on Disc One bears only a commentary to the movie by director Joel Schumacher, but Disc Two features "THE LOST BOYS: A Retrospective," a new making of that is just under 30 minutes. There's also "Inside the Vampire's Cave," four more making ofs, "The Return of Sam and the Frog Brothers: The Two Coreys and Jamison Newlander" a commentary by the three Thespians, and "Haimster & Feldog: The Story of the Two Coreys" a short feature about their inability to escape each other. "Vamping Out: The Undead Creations of Greg Cannom" focuses on the makeup effects. Finally, there is an "interactive map" a photo gallery, the theatrical trailer, and, the music video "Lost in the Shadows" by Lou Gramm. The lost boys special edition hit the street August 10th, and retails for $26.99.
Still Going
13 GOING ON 30
My views on Jennifer Garner — Tarantino muse and action heroine — and her performance in 13 GOING ON 30 are on record. For an averagely OK film the disc that goes with it is larded with extras, so much that it almost makes you like the movie more.
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First there is a commentary track by the producers, Donna Arkoff Roth, Susan Arnold, and Gina Matthews, with another one by director Gary Winick). There is a whopping 18 deleted or extended scenes (mostly extended), a "making-of" featurette, the unusual "I Was a Teenage Geek" featurette in which Garner and the others dwell on their high school years, a blooper reel, two interactive games (which gives you an idea of what the producers think is the age bracket for the film), music videos for Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" and Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl," which I really enjoyed watching again, an animated stills gallery, and trailers for this film, SEINFELD, ANACONDAS, HELLBOY, LITTLE BLACK BOOK, SECRET WINDOW, THE FORGOTTEN, and WHITE CHICKS.
The transfer is a spotless widescreen image (1.85:1, enhanced) with good DD 5.1 audio track, with an alternative French track, and English and French subtitles. 13 GOING ON 30 hit the streets on August 3, and retails for $28.95.
Insignificant
SIGNIFICANT OTHERS
Meanwhile, who would want to buy or rent a television series that didn't make it past episode six? Well, I guess if it stars Jennifer Garner a lot of people who missed the show the first time around, people who ignored the program because Garner hadn't yet become a somebody, might want to play catch up. Still, at six hours, SIGNIFICANT OTHERS is truncated stuff. The only redeeming feature is that apparently the first six hours were conceived as one story arc, so that there is a conclusion of sorts, though it is still ending on a note that leaves it poised to take off in more directions.
The brainchild of Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman, who are probably being "autobiographical" is some vague yet self-serving way, SIGNIFICANT OTHERS (not to be confused with the Bravo series), is like FRIENDS on a K-Mart budget. It's about a trio of whinny, self-involved, uninteresting failures who go from one uninteresting entanglement to another.
The main character is Cam (boy do I hate that name), the son of man in the garment industry. I suppose the show is really meant to be set in New York, but it is all Los Angeles, probably for budgetary reasons. Cam is played by Eion "Timothy Bottoms-Paul Rudd" Bailey, who has one of those cracking helpless voices that has you taking a bead on the tube by episode three. Cam's conflict is that he wants to make a career for himself on his own (he's failed at three already), and fears being sucked into his father's business (dad is played, by Richard Masur, as if he is the villain of the piece).
The second character is Henry, played by Scott " Peter Sarsgaard- Brad Dourif" Bairstow. He is an aspiring "writer" who is stuck at a men's magazine something like HUSTLER. He ends up having an affair with the wife of the publisher, a rather stolid guy who doesn't look much like a smut peddler. Like all the other characters his mood swings are determined by plot expediency, and he acts, as the others do, as if he never really knows the motivation of others, even though it is apparent to us. He is willfully (or conveniently) dumb, and it's irritating. He is also one of those guys who stretches his arms out in huge sweeping gestures as he walks down the street talking to people.
And then of course there is Jennifer, who is playing Nell, and whose gestalt is that she has never been able to commit to anything in her life. As the series opens, she is caught in bed with Henry by Cam, who is shocked to learn that his two best friends have been secretly dating for a few weeks. It's a disorienting way to open a series, since it feels more like the middle of the fourth hour, but in addition to that the dialogue is fairly horrible. Worst, the show quickly devolves after that into the DAWSON'S CREEK template.
It's like a mirror reflection of DC. Cam has "issues" with his father. He is in love with Nell the way Dawson has always been in love with Joey, and vice versa. Best friend Henry has an affair with an older woman (like Pacey, only in DC it was a teacher). There is also the "trouble" brother. There would be more, but as I say, this is cut rate stuff.
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment has issued SIGNIFICANT OTHERS in a two-disc package (four shows on disc one, the final two on the second), with a modicum of extras. There is an eight minute video interview with Garner who talks about how important the show appears to be to people of her generation, who frequently bring it up to her in conversation. Then there are trailers for other Garner movies or other CTHE movies. The transfers (full frame) are reasonably clean, with DD stereo. SIGNIFICANT OTHERS retails for $24.95 and hit the street August 3.
Up the Creek
DAWSON'S CREEK: SEASON THREE
And speaking of Dawson's CREEK, it's third season has just come out on DVD. Now, only three more sets to go, and we'll be done with it. The third season is the first one without Kevin Williamson, the SCREAM guy, who conceived the show, and he didn't like the direction they took it. Apparently, its new managers agreed, as they dropped a major new character half way through.
Frankly, I don't see how the show lasted for six years, unless it was due to an obsession with Katie Holmes, which I do understand. The show's managers did have a knack for casting. Unfortunately, its writers lacked imagination (or the producers beat it out of them), and so the series feels static, people breaking up then getting together and breaking up again. It's kind of clever that the episodes are named after, and often parody movies, given that Dawson is a Spielberg fanatic, but they don't seem to do much deep with the idea.
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So among the highlights of the season are parodies of RISKY BUSINESS and the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Also, Dawson, who has broken up with Joey, and whose mother is out of the picture, has a new girlfriend, a mysterious sexual blonde who won't even tell him her real name. This season also further pursues the whole gay angle also though I never understood the running gag of Pacey (God, the names in this show are awful) teasing his brother about being gay. I mean, I really don't get that gag. But I could go on and be hypercritical. I just wouldn't be funny, unlike the writers over there at TelevisionWithoutPity.com.
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This four-disc set from Columbia Tristar contains the 23 episodes from season three, in full frame transfers (1.33:1), and DD 2.0. Extras are minimal but interesting: two audio commentary tracks by the unusually frank executive producer Paul Stupin (on eps 10 and 23), with actor Kerr Smith. There is also an interactive map of Capeside, the show's mysteriously located setting. By the way, if one of the reasons you like the show is the music, you are apt to be disappointed. The theme song by Paula Cole ("I Don't Want to Wait") and a bunch of other songs have been replaced with cheaper substitutes. Don't toss out those videotapes. DC3 hit the street on June 29th and retails for $49.95.
NEXT TIME: Scorsese, Hitchcock, and more!
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