If it weren't for Dimension, there may be no real revival in '70s style horror films. When the Weinstein boys were first getting started one their first films was a vintage example of the genre called THE BURNING, even set in a summer camp. Consistently over the years, the Dimension branch of Miramax has specialized not only in horror films but with the particular brand of them ever so associated with the 1970s and which is imprinted on the Weinsteinian brain like a duck walk. VENOM (Dimension Home Video, 85 minutes, 2.35:1 enhanced, DD 5.1 with a Spanish subtitles, one sheet insert, static musical menu with 12-chapter scene selection, keep case, one disc, $29.95, released on Tuesday, January 17, 2006) is only the latest horror film from the firm, and not to be confused with the Piers Haggard scenery-chewing cult classic from 1983. It appears the Dimension simply acquired it rather than producing it from the get go, but it folds neatly into the rest of the horror film company's output. If it weren't for the miscue of releasing a film about a demonically possessed man on the rampage in Louisiana in the vicinity of real, natural horrors ravaging the land, the film might have acquired a minor cult status.

There is usually a resilient female protagonist at the heart of these films, and in this case it is Eden (Agnes Bruckner), a girl on the outs with her boyfriend because one of them is getting out of town and moving on the college and the other isn't. Meanwhile, mysterious auto-repairman Ray ((Rick Cramer) is bitten by a suitcase-full of snakes, which transfer to his body the demonic souls of various murderers (imprisoned thus by a Cajun witch), who turn him into a cross between Jason and Freddy. As is also typical in such films, the last half of the movie is a prolonged chase scene cum battle of wits between the preternaturally mobile if irrational killer and the plucky, determined heroine.

Despite the presence of Kevin Williamson in the background somewhere as at least a producer, along with others who previously did I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, the film fails to deviate dramatically from the genre as we have come to know it, and even the dialogue among the kids, Williamson's strong suit, isn't particularly memorably, though it is realistic. The ending is routine as well as dragged out, and though it leaves the opening for a sequel feels perfunctory and flat.

Supplements are modest for a modest film. They start off with a conventional making of documentary, "Voodoo Nightmare: The Making of Venom," followed by a storyboard to film comparison for four scenes (Crash on Bridge, Towing the House, Rachel Gets Impaled, The Mausoleum), and cast video auditions for six of the actors (Rick Cramer, D.J. Cotrona, Laura Ramsey, Pawel Szajda, Davetta Sherwood, Bijou Phillips).

Meanwhile, Dimension's parent company, Miramax releases UNDERCLASSMAN (Dimension Home Video, 93 minutes, 2.35:1 enhanced, DD 5.1 and 2.0, French language track and Spanish subtitles, one sheet insert, static musical menu with 16-chapter scene selection, keep case, one disc, $29.95, released on Tuesday, January 17, 2006), which is a knock off of BEVERLY HILLS COP. In a twist on what Cameron Crowe went through when he researched and wrote FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, Tre Stokes (Nick Cannon of DRUMLINE) is a youthful looking cop must go undercover at an elite high school to determine what or who caused the death of a journalism student.

Tre turns out to be good at everything, from basketball, which he plays with a group of tough rich kids who are hostile to him and who are the main suspects, to Spanish, which inspires a potential, YENTL-like situation for him and the teacher (Roselyn Sanchez). Other eye candy exists in the form of Kelly Hu (X2), and Cheech Marin is Tre's boss. In the end, Tre forms a TV-commercial style alliance with one of the main good-kids-turned-bad and reveals the real plot behind the death.

For a supposed suspense thriller with "urban" accents this is a surprisingly upbeat, positive, and happy movie. In fact, the idea age of the viewer is probably six to eight and parents can reliably leave the room after popping the disc into the trap. It's the Miramax version of a Disney movie, which, now that I say that, isn't that much of a stretch. Some of the dialogue is funny, as when Tre's nemesis, the over-eating Ian Gomez says "Bite me," and Tre replies, "See, man, it's always about the food with you," but for the most part the film is bland, easily digested baby food.

Supplements include a cozy audio commentary track by director Marcos Siega and writers David T. Wagner and Brent Goldberg, a large patch of deleted scenes (O.G. Opening, Hummer Kids, Strong and Black, Lose My Number, Important Police Business, I Named My Son After You, Powers Fired, Inner City Food Drive, Kid Rock's Daddy, Talk to Me, You Got Pressure?, Very Guapo, I Have a Wrench, Passion for Trees And..., Oral Exam), with an optional commentary by the same trio, a conventional making of literally called, "The Making of Underclassman," and a selection of cast auditions, Finally, there is a selection of trailers (PROOF, THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED, THE BROTHERS GRIMM, DARK WATER, BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON).

Like MAD magazine Disney wants to sell you the same content over and over, but unlike MAD, with its annuals, its mass market paperbacks, and, now, its trade paperback decade retrospectives, Disney has not yet quite figured out how, definitively, to manipulate their content and their customers.

This year, Disney introduces a new series, with two entries, FUNNY FACTORY WITH MICKEY, VOLUME 1 (Disney DVD, 61 minutes, full frame, DD mono in English and French, one sheet insert, animated musical menu with 8-chapter selection, white keep case, one disc, "Mickey and the Seal"[1948], "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip" [1940], "Moose Hunters" [1937], "Mickey's Parrot" [1938], "The Pointer" [1939], "Magician Mickey" [1937], "Tugboat Mickey" [1940], "R'Coon Dawg" [1951], $14.95, released on Tuesday, January 17, 2006) and FUNNY FACTORY WITH DONALD, VOLUME 2 (Disney DVD, 54 minutes, full frame, DD mono in English and French, one sheet insert, animated musical menu with 7-chapter selection, white keep case, one disc, "Canvas Back Duck" [1953], "Donald's Cousin Gus" [1939], "Daddy Duck" [1948], "Window Cleaners [1940], "Self Control" [1938], "Contrary Condor" [1944], Donald's Golf Game [1938], $14.95, released on Tuesday, January 17, 2006). As far as I can tell the selection of the cartoons for these two discs is random (rather than thematic). But moreover, almost all the cartoons are available elsewhere, either on last year's inexpensive cartoon anthologies offer under the title CLASSIC CARTOON FAVORITES or the tin packaged TREASURES series, which has released most of the color Mickey Mouse cartoons and a sizable chunk of the Donald Duck cartoons (two of the DD cartoons are new to DVD).

The question then is who would want to buy these discs. They may be designed to inspire impulse buys in the shopping line, or perhaps they are for completists who want a piece of everything that comes out of the Disney factory (an unfortunate name, that). The issue becomes more complex because in addition Mickey is not necessarily the hero of his own cartoon disc: Pluto has just as much screen time, and Donald even shows up. Curiously, also, the discs go for almost $15 dollars, but contain only eight and seven cartoons respectively; that's about two dollars a cartoon. By contrast, the recent CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD, VOL. 2 has 32 cartoons, for an average of $1 at the suggested retail price of $32.99 — but since most places sell it for $25, it really comes to 78 cents. I guess it's the difference between going to CostCo, or going to a bodega.

A phenomenon that has always fascinated me is the pack mentality among movie reviewers. JUNEBUG (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 106 minutes, 1.78:1 enhanced, DD 5.0 with French subtitles, one sheet insert, static musical menu with 28-chapter selection, keep case, one disc, $26.96, released on Tuesday, January 17, 2006) strikes me as a beneficiary of the pack mentality. At best a modest, if condescending, film, JUNEBUG has been hailed as a masterpiece.

In the old days, it was the NEW YORK TIMES that set the tone for all subsequent daily reviews, especially back when movies open slowly instead of on the same day everywhere in the world. At the same time THE VILLAGE VOICE set the tone for alternative papers, and in fact still does, as writers for weeklies gauge their reaction to art films against the VOICE's review as a test for personal hipness. Today it is probably Roger Ebert, or maybe random quotes on Rotten Tomatoes. In any case, once the pack hath spake, the critical judgment trickles down to the masses who then parrot the view as if it is their own. The tone can go both ways, either total disparagement, even the mere assumption that a movie such as YEAR OF THE DRAGON has to be shit because Michael Cimino directed it, or toward worship, as in the current hosannas over BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, even by people who haven't seen it. Because JUNEBUG is small, indie, about the South, and a tragic-comedy of "observed life," it must be good, and the imprimatur of Ebert's positive review, based partially on his liking the film's reflections of aspects of farm life he knew as a kid, is enough to warrant an 86 % approval rating.

In a year of outstanding films, JUNEBUG would be praised for its competence but that's about it. Sure, it would have a few fanatical fans, but it would not unite the critical community in goosestep. The film begins with a premise we have seen frequently of late such as in THE FAMILY STONE, of an outsider, in this case the art dealer wife (Embeth Davidtz) who visits her husband's family for the first time and finds a strange and hostile culture. The critics, but also the cast on the audio commentary track, praise the film for not putting down the husband's Southern family and their middleclass culture, but his family consists of some pretty awful people. The director, Phil Morrison, a former music video helmer, and the writer, Angus MacLachlan, are praised for their understanding of the milieu (and the otherwise creditless MacLachlan appears to be writing from within the community, so to speak), but I don't perceive them as really getting into the heads of the characters, especially the passive, cowed patriarch played by Scott Wilson. And sure the film is reasonably well acted and all that, but that is what actors are suppose to do; one rather wearies of actors being praised or overpraised for simply doing their job. Awards should be reserved for performaces of transcendent beauty and uniqueness.

Take the scene in which Wilson more or less explains his difficult wife to Davidtz. He is a man of few words and barely uses any, and the critics have gone nuts in isolating this scene as one that "understands" the way Southern folk speak, their few words laden with great meanings. To me it's oblique and easily open to misinterpretation, if what he says has any meaning at all. There is also the scene where the neglected pregnant wife (Amy Adams) of the family's son (Ben McKenzie, of THE OC), masturbates to a photo of her with her husband. I won't lay claim to being an expert in universal masturbation practices, but this strikes me as very unlikely, more of a statement of her yearning than of sexual inducements.

But because of all this, JUNEBUG became a critic's favorite and the darling of the Sundance festival. As I write this, another Sundance is about to get underway, and I have every expectation that the same dense, middlebrow pabulum will be celebrated this year as it was last year.

The disc comes with numerous features, including a commentary by the two female leads, Amy Adams and Davidtz, who are kind and girlish toward the film, and in awe of the writer and director. Their support is almost convincing. There are also 10 deleted scenes ("I Don't Think That Was Confusing," "Here's How You Get Back at It," "Things Are Going Off," "That's the Way Dreams Are," Madeleine Watches George Sing, "That's Not Funny," "We Could Wake Sissy," "I've Still Got Something I Want to Say," "We'll Just See," "I Just Need to Pour It"), a clutch of short making ofs (Places and Faces, Singing a Hymn, Meerkats Gone Wild, Ashley, All About Peg), video audition tapes with Amy Adams, doing the "Morning Scene," and Ben McKenzie ("Meerkats"), an outsider art gallery, and finally some trailers (CAPOTE, BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, THE MEMORY OF A KILLER, THUMBSUCKER, 2046, HEIGHTS, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, THE TENANTS).

D. K. Holm's 2006 Film Diary (Otherwise Known as a Blog)

Tuesday, 10 January, 2006

Thanks to a tip from a friend, Cynthia Lopez, I walk down the street in the rain to Video Underground, a rental shop located in a house and attached garage that have been turned into a commercial space. The store is going out of business and selling off its entire inventory. I've lived down the street from the shop for six years and yet never visited it, unthinkingly favoring Movie Madness, the world famous video shop that resides in the opposite direction, up Southeast Belmont Street.

Once I'm inside, I realize how lucky I've been. I trip going through the garage door, and later almost tumble into the well of steps leading to more video rooms in the "house" part of the shop. The premises are dim, moldy, and the TV in the corner played ELLEN instead of the latest movie release. Apparently now that the shop is going out of business, the real cultural interests of the owner or employees come to the fore. By the time I get a chance to participate in the sale, nearly all the DVDs are gone. Certainly all the Criterions have been picked up. However, I did manage to pick up a few rarities at fire sale prices: the uncut THE DREAMERS, CQ, 8MM 2, ELECTIVE AFFINITIES, tapes of two Bresson films (L'ARGENT, UN FEMME DOUCE), and a hard-to-find tape of CRUISING.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 : To KBOO radio for our biweekly show at 9 AM. Unlike every other episode of the year, it's an hour long call in show in which the three of us (Ed Goldberg, author of such novels as DEAD AIR, and Dawn Taylor, of the PORTLAND TRIBUNE, and myself), offer up our year's worth of best and worst. Ed's list, by the way, is a masterpiece of excrement, from BEWITCHED to CHICKEN LITTLE.

The most amusing moment occurred half way through. At the half hour mark, Ed unleashed the callers onto the airwaves. The very first call was from a guy who wanted to discuss DOWNFALL, the Bruno Ganz starrer about the last days of Hitler. He wanted to nitpick the movie for its inaccuracies, such as that Hitler had brilliant black hair and steel blue eyes, while Ganz had a mere mortal's brown eyes. Worse, the movie had Hitler in disarray, whereas throughout his life the man dressed impeccably. His coat buttons were polished to a gleaming …at this point, Ed cut him off, while I was inwardly laughing. Either this guy was pulling a prank, or he was KBOO's sole neo-Nazi listener. If you would like to hear this part of the show, Here is my click here.

Thursday, January 12, 2006 : Finally I catch up with the season debut of THE SHIELD. I can tell from the start that the show is back in control. Though I liked last season well enough, and thought that Glenn Close did a fine job in the adrenaline-driven atmosphere of the Barn, something was missing, and it took this season opener to remind me of it.

Like BSG, 24, and a few other shows, THE SHIELD works best when Vic Mackey is corner, when he has a flank of enemies on all sides. Also, when he has one primo enemy, in this case Forest Whitaker. He's the internal affairs man out to finally get Mackey. And he makes a great nemesis. He's ruthless, cunning, sly. You instantly hate him. And the funny thing is, in a regular cop show, he'd be the good guy. And that's the genius of THE SHIELD when it's hot: completely disrupting your usual, common, middlebrow values, morals, and expectations.

Friday, January 13, 2006 : To a bar called The Gypsy, which is right across the street from the Cinema 21, where FILM GEEK is making its premiere. The cast, crew, and friends party is going on inside, and I have to say that it is a rare treat to be in a bar where you didn't have to pay for everything. Though I only stay about an hour, it is enough time to talk to the director himself, James Westby, and to continue my pressure on him to let me to an audio commentary track for the film's DVD, as well as chat with Westby's and my mutual friend Patti Lewis, and with local celebrities such as OREGONIAN writer Kristi Turnquist and the cartoon and filmmaking brothers Jacob and Arnold Pander.

I also get an insta-bar crush on a woman sitting nearby with a group of equally intimating elite types. She turned out to be Jana Lee Hamblin, the star of an earlier Westby film, and she has appeared in the first season of WEST WING, and some other Hollywood endeavors. What she is doing here I have no idea, as I never talked to her. Westby said he would be happy to introduce us, adding that she has a most incredible voice, but I declined the offer, being absolutely terrified of women, to a degree that Scotty Pelk would find puzzling.

And incidentally, if you are interested in KILL BILL, you might find my new book, KILL BILL: AN UNOFFICIAL CASEBOOK useful. It is now available in fine bookstores everywhere, or from Amazon.

Not only that, I've got a new book out on an aspect of film noir I call film soleil, titled simply FILM SOLEIL. It is sure to alter film criticism as we know it to its very core. Order it now!

And if you are interested in what I sound like, I can be heard on KBOO radio (90.7 FM) the second and the fourth Wednesday of the month, at 9 AM in the morning (Pacific Standard Time) on Ed Goldberg's show MOVIE TALK along with Dawn Taylor. It's available via streaming audio (in 20 Kbps Stereo). The next broadcast is Wednesday, January 25, at 9 AM, with the critics' ten best lists.

COMING SOON: A package of Hitchcock movies and TV shows, FLIGHTPLAN and REDEYE, DEAD AND BREAKFAST, REMINGTON STEEL and other TV mystery shows, many STAR TREKS, the third annual DVD Tray of Horror, and more!

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