BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Warner Home Video
MSRP: $19.98
RATED: G
RUNNING TIME: 89 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
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The Pitch

The delusional fantasies of Timothy Treadwell… without the tragically ironic finale.

Smarter than the Average Humans

Voices: Daws Butler, Don Messick, Mel Blanc
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera

The Nutshell

A hungry Yogi schemes to fill his bruin belly. A horny Cindy schemes to trap herself a bruin beau. A hapless Ranger schemes to keep bothersome bears out of Jellystone Park. What follows is the first theatrical feature produced by Hanna-Barbera and a musical road movie somewhere on the map between Hope/Crosby and Sesame Street’s Follow That Bird. Harold Perrineau is eaten another day.

“… and that’s why for the longest time we called him ‘Statutory’ Grape Ape. Now let me tell you how Quickdraw McGraw and Snagglepuss REALLY got their names…”

The Lowdown

During my luck-induced internship at Hanna-Barbera in the summer of ’93, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting both Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera … two Old-Hollywood cartoon moguls welcoming a fresh-face doodler into their world with grandfatherly wisdom, humor, and enthusiasm. Their legacy won’t be one of technical marvel or artistry like Disney, or of Oscar-worthy emotional storytelling like Pixar, but one of lightheartedness and beloved characters. It’s hard for me to review their product in an objective way, due to not only nostalgia, but the influence their properties have had on my career trajectory and personal art.

“Well THAT explains the ‘Hitler is My Co-Pilot’ bumper sticker!”

The studio’s move from theatrical short to television was an economic one (MGM shut down their animation division in 1957). There’s no denying that this shift in format (and increase in productivity) had affected the quality of their cartoons (animation frame-count in particular), but there’s also no denying how much of an impact their creations have had on children’s television and pop-culture in general. Through simple pleasing designs, terrific voice actors, and charming gags (and with a pinch of reliable formula), Scooby-Doo, Fred Flintstone, Johnny Quest, Tom & Jerry, Yogi Bear, and many others are still recognizable through decades of disposable kid entertainment.

The Manitou strikes again!

If you have no affection for Hanna-Barbera’s output or you’re not a fan of boob-tube fodder that distracted the Baby-Boom generation, this review probably won’t interest you. If you’re looking for a tear-down, you’ll be disappointed. But I’m always happy to revisit one of these light properties and share them with my less-discriminate daughter while we play and draw and chill. DVDs have been perfect for making old-school Saturday Morning fare available at any time. Let’s see how H-B’s 1st return to the big screen holds up…

“A conjugal visit with CinDEE is a bear necessiTEE! Hey hey HEEEEEY!”

Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear is essentially an extended version of the original TV segments (buy ‘em HERE). Same types of set ups and punchlines (Yogi stealin’ shit, while the supporting cast act as accessories or obstacles), with the added “benefit” (opinions may vary, here’s a taste) of songs and a wider scope. The mischievous ursine inspired by Art Carney is up to his old tricks while a mix up or 3 causes the characters to go on a cross-country adventure. Set pieces include (in addition to Jellystone) a circus, a farm, a bustling city, and every plane/train/automobile in between. Cartoon voice-over greats, Don Messick, Daws Butler, and Mel Blanc all bring their versatile vocal chords to the proceedings. Some ex-pats from the Warner Bros. studios (including Friz Freleng) lent their expertise in the animation department, further imbuing the characters with life.

At the end of his groin-grueling training in Thailand, Yogi knew he was ready to defeat Tong Po and avenge poor Boo Boo’s insulted bow-tie.

As someone who enjoys the vibrant world of Hanna-Barbera, the colors look a tad duller than what I’d expect in this format. The cover claims it’s been remastered, but doesn’t specify if that includes both audio and video. I’m going to have to assume that the original source materials are not in pristine shape. Considering the film’s over 40 years old. Armand Assante disguised as a Native American certainly wouldn’t shed a Katahdin-sized tear over this nitpick. Hey There’s never as catchy or honed as H-B’s Charlotte’s Web adaptation (released theatrically a decade later) or as exciting as the best DTV Scooby features seen in the past decade, but it’s fun, not too stressful for the younger kids, and possesses a time capsule 60s (spinning on the 50s) charm about it. .

Choose Your Own Caption!

A] “Dividing that little girl into small/medium/large portions and dunking her into our breakfast porridge WAS heavenly, but if the Ranger asks, we never saw a ‘Goldilocks’.”
B] Chasing Cindy was harmless enough, until the depraved “Animal Planet After Dark” ending made Kevin Smith’s more famous flick look like the Laff-A-Lympics.
C] “Boo Boo, buddy… Cindy and I were wondering something… Do you have a problem with scat sticking to your fur?”

The Pic-a-nic Basket

Yogi’s goofy (and great) shit-eating grin on the cover is iconic. That front image and the little Yogi and Boo Boo on the spine make me smile. No special features really. Just a few cartoon trailers on the disc and a brochure for Jellystone Park Campsites (I didn’t even know those were still around) in the amray. I really would have liked some extra H-B shorts on the disc as WB is the steward for the entire Hanna-Barbera catalog (since the Ted Turner buy out in ’96), but I was denied. Really makes me want to blast someone’s furry rump with a shotgun-lamp/lamp-shotgun. I guess I’ll finally have to pick myself up a collection of Magilla Gorilla or Hong Kong Phooey to get a bigger H-B fix.

Failing to connect with the amusement park crowd, “Mr. AssHat’s Wild Ride” was quickly turned into a frozen yogurt stand and gift shop.

Feature: 7.5 out of 10
Disc: 4.5 out of 10

Further proof of my Hanna-Barbera apologist tendencies:

DVD REVIEW: SCOOBY-DOO AND THE GOBLIN KING

DVD REVIEW: TOM AND JERRY TALES VOL. 5

There are a lot of big names releasing movies in 2009. Peter Jackson, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Quentin Tarantino, and many more have new films coming this year, meaning this could be a pretty darn good year for film nerds like us.

Out of the crop of filmmakers releasing movies in 09 I’ve picked out the ten who get me the most excited (in no particular order). Not because of the anticipation of seeing their films – I’ve seen a number of the 2009 films from these guys – but because of the filmmaker. Each of these filmmakers get me psyched because it feels like they still have something very new to show me. In some cases this is literally true – two of them are first time filmmakers. In some cases this is a reflection of careers that continue to surprise, change and mutate while offering an incredible consistency of vision.

Zack Snyder – By now it’s becoming obvious that Watchmen is going to divide the critical community, and that divide looks to be pretty sharply defined. You love or hate the movie, and to me that’s a sign of a special film. For Snyder third time’s the charm, and Watchmen will blow away the preconceived notions that 300 planted in so many people’s heads. It’s interesting seeing the thematic elements of his work take shape – Snyder seems very into groups of people coming together to fend off external threats to not just their lives but to their ways of life (although Watchmen flips that on its head by making the threat much less external than expected), and none of his films feature A lead. Although the argument could be made that the star of Snyder’s films is the director himself, and his strong visual sense of style. He’s beginning his next film, Sucker Punch, this year, and I’m fascinated to see that not only is it Snyder’s first ‘original’ film (although sort of based on Alice in Wonderland),. it’s his first film with a singular protagonist.

Steve McQueen – McQueen’s first feature film, Hunger, gutpunched me when I saw it late last year at a small screening. The movie is finally getting a (sort of ) proper release this year, and I think that the few people who see it are going to walk away shaken and wanting to know just who the hell this guy who shares a dead actor’s name is – and will he be making more movies? McQueen’s an English artist well known for his installation films, but Hunger marks a new step for the one-time winner of the prestigious Turner Prize. A searing, brutal examination of the 1981 hunger strike of Bobby Sands, McQueen’s film feels like an uplifting avant garde horror movie. It’s amazing to see a filmmaker emerge with a complete style and total control, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Robert Siegel – Not many people realize that the screenwriter of The Wrestler was once the senior editor of The Onion (during what may have been the paper’s very best period, no less). You can see a little bit of his comedy background in Big Fan, but like The Wrestler Siegel’s directing debut has funny bits in a movie that is otherwise not a comedy. I’ve called it the Taxi Driver of sports movies, and it’s a strange, tense, and honest film about the very nature of fandom. It’s a movie about how we invest ourselves and our identities completely in things that we love. Siegel’s style is lowkey and laid back; while the film I saw at Sundance could use a little bit of trimming, it’s Big Fan‘s slow burn that makes it really work. You can really see the thematic lines that connect Big Fan and The Wrestler, and not just because they’re both about fringe sports figures but because Siegel uses sports to examine the ways we define ourselves, and to look at men who are on the outside, trying to make some kind of connection to the world. And Siegel immediately proves himself great with actors, getting a most un-Patton performance out of comic genius Patton Oswalt. I’m curious where Siegel goes next, as he’s already proven himself to be a filmmaker who wants to put character before all else.

Park Chan-Wook – I was happy when Park Chan-Wook made a bad movie. I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK won’t be the movie for which this South Korean auteur will be remembered, but it’s the kind of bad movie I appreciate. Sure, I didn’t like the film, and it didn’t work for me at all, but I appreciated what the director was doing, and I appreciated that even as a film I didn’t like it was fascinating and took chances. The thing is that every director will eventually make a bad film, but only the great ones will make interesting bad films. Now that Park has done his stumble, I’m hoping that Thirst, the vampire movie he’s bringing to Cannes, is back on par with his Vengeance Trilogy. Park’s casual visual elegance forces you to watch his films multiple times, since you may be missing subtitles while drinking in the sumptious images. Intriguingly, despite the fact that he’s been embraced by the horror community, Thirst is Park’s first real horror feature and I really want to see what he does with the supernatural. Something tells me it’ll be nothing that we expect.

Rian Johnson – Here’s what’s cool about Rian Johnson: The Brothers Bloom looks and feels nothing like Brick. I think you could tell that the same guy made the films, but Bloom isn’t Brick 2 or Back to Brick or anything that you might have thought would happen when a guy makes a big splash with a very stylized first feature. Instead of coming back with more of the same, Rian made a movie that is completely different and really completely wonderful. He’s definitely of the film geek moviemaker contingent, but unlike some of his contemporaries, Rian’s influences feel digested, not regurgitated back onto the screen. There are touchstones for his work, but he’s not restaging whole scenes or stealing music cues as shorthand. And he’s not done changing things up; his next film is Looper, a violent time travel sci-fi movie. First he did noir, then a con man movie and next science fiction. I can’t wait to see where else Rian’s career takes him.

Lynn Shelton – Where has this director been all of my life? Shelton’s 2009 Sundance movie, Humpday, really synthesizes a lot of things I like about comedy and a lot of my own aesthetic tastes into something that has one foot in the arthouse and one foot in the multiplex. Her mumblecorish movie about two straight friends who decide to make a gay porno together is hilarious and honest and raunchy. I said it at the time, and I’ll say it again – Humpday is like looking into an alternate universe where Kevin Smith learned how to make movies. Shelton’s learning curve has been amazing; while I like her 2008 film My Effortless Brilliance, Humpday is so much better and shows so much growth. Shelton’s great with comedy and with her actors, and I’m pretty excited to see where she goes next. Is it wrong to hope that her budgets don’t get that much bigger, since she’s already amazing with so little?

Paul Greengrass – It’s possible that Greengrass is the most singular director in Hollywood. He makes movies exactly the way that you’re not supposed to make them – he shoots footage, finds the movie as he goes and in editing, and then goes back to pick up whatever he needs to patch the holes. It’s the filmmaking equivalent of a jam, but unlike a hippie band, Greengrass’ movies are watertight. Greengrass condenses chaos into order, and if you didn’t know how he worked you’d probably never even begin to guess. The chaos on screen – that famously shaky cam, the realism of sequences and reactions – might clue you in, but you’d never really figure just what a Promethean task Greengrass sets for himself. His next film, Green Zone, is set to surprise a lot of people who think they know what they’re in for, and it’s that surprise factor that Greengrass brings even to his big studio action movies, that makes him so damn exciting to follow.

Michael Haneke – Everybody else on this list excites me. Haneke scares me a little bit. His films, more than almost any other filmmaker, have a tendency to get really under my skin, to live with me long after the screen goes dark. In fact, I’d argue that both Funny Games, Cache and Time of the Wolf all become more powerful as time goes on and as you think about them. I always find myself lumping Haneke and Gaspar Noe together – they’re the edgy European filmmakers, I guess – but Noe’s films don’t walk out of the theater with me the way that Haneke’s do. And Haneke’s next, The White Ribbon, which premieres at Cannes, promises to be another take home movie. Set in a small town in Germany in 1913, the film follows a schoolteacher as he investigates a series of strange, sometimes violent events that are tied in to ritual punishment. At least, I think that’s what it’s about. But check out this picture from production company Wega (I’m not 100% sure it’s a still or publicity shot from the movie, but I think it’s the concept that matters here), and tell me this doesn’t look at least more than a little creepy:

I’m excited to see what Haneke is exploring this time, and what huge concepts and themes he’ll have me chewing on as I’m freaked out for days.

Steven Soderbergh – I can’t really say I’m a ‘fan’ of Soderbergh. Which is weird, since I have him on this list of the most exciting directors of 2009. But what excites me about Soderbergh isn’t his work itself – so much of it is hit or miss for me (sometimes in the same film, like in the alternately fascinating and infuriating Che) – but the rate at which he produces it and the sheer variety of what he turns out. He premiered an early cut of The Girlfriend Experience at Sundance, and I have to say that I really loved that one; on a totally different end of the spectrum he has The Informant, a big budget, mainstream Hollywood comedic take on The Insider (sort of), and then he might move on to Moneyball, a movie about baseball. But in between who knows what sort of no budget movie he’ll make, edit and release straight to cable and DVD? That’s the excitement of Soderbergh: a filmmaker who is on the cutting edge not of the toys of filmmaking (like the exceptionally boring James Cameron) but the TOOLS of filmmaking and distribution. Che convinced me that the future of film is indeed digital, and The Girlfriend Experience might convince a lot of people that the future of film distribution is outside of the current channels. All the while, Soderbergh is out there making movies, not being content to let the way big studios make them dictate the terms. Sure, he makes movies for them, but he really makes many more for himself. How can you not be excited about the guy who is right out there at the frontlines, dragging everybody else with him… while still turning out more movies than almost every one of his contemporaries?

Spike Jonze – I’m not excited because Spike Jonze is making a kid’s movie. I’m not excited because it looks beautiful. I’m excited because Where the Wild Things Are feels like it might be the first film where Spike lets go of the irony and the post-modernism and addresses – dead on – the emotions that have always been in his work. There’s always been an element of obfuscation about Jonze, whether it be his name or the personas he uses in his interviews or the very nature of his movies, but the idea of going to this book, one which certainly spoke to him when he was young, and bringing it to such beautiful life makes me think that maybe there’s going to be a bit of personal revelation going on. I look at Where the Wild Things Are and I hope that it’s a film that’s going to be viewed as the next step in Jonze’s career (and god knows with seven years between films it’s easy to divide that career up into phases). I also hope that it marks a new period of cinematic productivity; while Jonze has certainly not been slacking in the last seven years, he’s still been absent from cinemas for most of the decade. And seven years is a long time; after he has Wild Things out of his system, who will he be and what will be the kind of work that speaks to him? I want to find out where he goes from here.

l

Spoilers.

Battlestar Galactica Official Site

The Time: Fridays, 9:00 PM, Sci-Fi Channel

The Show

In
this reimagining of the 1978 space epic, the human survivors of the
Cylon massacre of the Twelve Colonies struggle to survive in a ragtag
fleet of ships led by the last human warship, the Battlestar
Galactica.  Shepherded by Admiral William Adama and President
Laura Roslin, the Colonial Fleet are under constant threat of attack by
the Cylon Armada, who seek nothing short of their
extermination.  Adding to the danger is the fact the Cylons
have infiltrated the fleet with twelve models that look
human.  Eleven of those models have been discovered, but one
still remains.  The quest to find Earth, the mythical
thirteenth colony, has just been fulfilled, with devastating
results.  As the joint human / renegade Cylon alliance
discovers a destroyed planet, the question remains of what to do next
as this storied television series counts down its final ten episodes.

The Stars

•  Edward James Olmos – Admiral William Adama
•  Mary McDonell – President Laura Roslin
•  Katee Sackhoff – Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
•  Jamie Bamber – Lee “Apollo” Adama
•  James Callis – Dr. Gaius Baltar
•  Michael Hogan – Colonel Saul Tigh
•  Tricia Helfer – Cylon Model Six / Caprica / Natalie / Head 6
•  Grace Park – Cylon Model Eight / Sharon Agathon / Boomer
•  Aaron Douglas – Galen Tyrol / Cylon Final Five
•  Tahmoh Penikett – Captain Karl “Helo” Agathon
•  Allessandro Juliani – Felix Gaeta
•  Lucy Lawless – Cylon Model #3 / Deanna
•  Dean Stockwell – Cylon Model One / Cavil
•  Richard Hatch – Vice President Tom Zarek
•  Kate Vernon – Ellen Tigh / Final Cylon

The Episode: “Someone To Watch Over Me”

The issue of who or what Starbuck really is, as well the terium of routine on Galactica continues to weigh heavily on her.  She has disturbing nightmares and visions of her dead self from Earth.  As an escape, she begins hanging with the local piano player from the bar and reminiscing about her father.  Meanwhile, the Rebel Cylons want to punish Boomer for her actions during the recent Cylon civil war and Tyrol, who discovers he still loves her, can’t let that happen. 

The Lowdown

I’m starting to think there was some kind of budget crunch this season as this is the umpteenth Galactica internal episode.  They must be saving up for the big finale, in which Cavil is certainly coming to wipe everybody out, especially once he knows Galactica’s location and that she’s not doing so hot.  But when that episode comes, will Galactica even be there?  She looked like she was deteriorating faster than a Hybrid’s coherency.

Two major stories going on this week, one with Starbuck and the piano man and Tyrol and Boomer.  Starbuck is continuing to have visions of the blonde skeleton in the crashed viper on Earth, during the day and night.  Plus, as the weeks have gone on, Starbuck’s job as CAG has become such routine she can recite it from memory.  She goes to the bar to drown her sorrows and is at first annoyed by the piano player, who continually plays the same song over and over as he is composing it.  Starbuck mouths off to him, but eventually mellows and engages him in conversation.  She even confides in him about her dead other and her father, who taught her to play piano before abandoning her and her mother, the latter subject still very painful. 

Meanwhile, the Fleet Cylons want to extradite Boomer for trial for siding with Cavil during the civil war.  Considering that she also shot Adama twice, things aren’t looking good for Boomer.  Tyrol makes regular visits to see her and discovers her little getaway place, an idyllic house on Picon that she projects into his mind.  This brings them closer to what they were and Tyrol realizes that he can’t lose her again and helps her escape by replacing her with another Eight in the brig.  But what Tyrol doesn’t know is that Boomer takes Hera with her as she plans to escape Galactica.  If that had been a plot to get Hera, it was pretty damn intricate.

All in all this was another low key episode.  On the Starbuck story, I’m pretty done with the subject of what she is.  I have a sinking suspicion that her father might have been Daniel, which makes her part Cylon perhaps, or she’s related to that final Cylon in some way.  Way back when I thought it might have been a take on the original series’ light beings that showed Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba the way to Earth.  But it doesn’t look like that’s the case anymore.  So still not sure how that plays into her resurrection, visions, destiny, etc.  She does articulate that she’s been drifting ever since they found Earth, but hell, I think she’s been drifting longer than that.  I used to really like Starbuck, but with all of the soul searching crap they’ve had her do for the entire run of the show, it  had worn thin long ago.  She’s been consistently the most inconsistent character on the show.

On the flipside with Tyrol, he’s also been through a hell of an arc to get back to loving Boomer.  I kind of figured he’d set her free once Roslin essentially signed her death warrant.  I’d nearly forgotten about Cylon projection because we haven’t seen it in so long.  Really liked Boomer doing whatever it took to make her escape, including beating Athena’s brains out and frakking Helo’s out.  You know he’s going to be in deep shit when Sharon collects her wits and grills him about “what do you mean you didn’t know it wasn’t me?”  Helo probably should have gotten on that Raptor with Boomer, it might have been safer for him.  We also get back to Hera’s specialness, which had also gone by the wayside long ago.

Finally, Galactica.  Wow, looks like she might not make it to the end, or if she does she’ll more than likely be destroyed in the impending battle.  I almost consider these final ten episodes Season 5 because Season 4 was so long ago.  But the show isn’t going out as good quite as other series.  The entire season is an exercise in the tedium and hopelessness of the fleet since Earth turned out to be a goose egg.  And also drawing out the last few secrets – namely Starbuck – as much as possible, and vomiting out the rest.  We know there’s a final battle coming, but this season is a sedate attempt to wrap up a few loose ends and meander to the finale.   

WARNING: Spoilers galore!!

The advantage –and most often, the disadvantage – of being unemployed or having “casual employment” is the ridiculous amount of spare time you have to cope with. More often than not, you feel like you want to die, but if you have something good to read or something good to watch, the pain lessens considerably.

In my case, I’ve spent the last two weeks going from studying “things” (or “researching stuff”) to watching Murphy’s Law – the british tv series, not the Charles Bronson film – as part of what can only be considered as a marathon.

I finished watching the whole series four days ago. I now find myself happily stuck in a never ending loop of watching random episodes of the series over, and over, and over.

Murphy’s Law is brilliant in every sense of the word. Series 1 was funny and compelling. Series 2 started to get progressively darker. From series 3 to 5 it goes dark. VERY DARK. And, in my opinion, it fully reaches its potential, something not many series manage to achieve.

Tommy Murphy, the title character, wonderfully played by James Nesbitt, evolves as the series does. Here’s a quick rundown, with visual aid:

Murphy, Pilot – Series 1: Efficient, talkative, sarcastic undercover cop hunted by the death of his daughter by the hands of the IRA, an event he blames himself for; the sadness of his loss is loosely explored through his encounters with his estranged wife. Although at this point his life is a bit of a mess, the comedic moments are a direct product of Murphy’s personality. His excessive banter is clearly a coping mechanism and a distraction technique in confrontations with “the bad guys”.

Murphy, Series 2: He’s still funny, he’s still witty, he’s still good at his job. At this point, the cases he works on begin to affect his personal life. The nice surprise is that by the end of this series, the man gets some closure in regards to his daughter’s death, something that would normally be left to the very end of the show.

Murphy, Series 3: “You’ll be going deeper than you’ve ever gone before”, says Murphy’s boss, and he sure does. At this point the show shifts from being episodic to having a single storyline, which allows a deeper exploration of the life of an undercover cop. It also marks the birth of the 70’s porn star mustache, which works well in transforming the character’s physical appearance into something more consistent with the isolation and constant danger of the job. From dismemberment to Murphy’s realization that his whole life is based solely on lies, the effects of the case on his personal life and psyche are vastly more evident. He is no longer the funny man from before. He’s still witty and flirty, but he’s mostly damaged.

Murphy, Series 4: The damage continues as once again Murphy’s job affects his family. This time, the victims are his parents. At the same time, his mother’s illness and his father’s desperate attempt at continuing to look after her deeply affect Murphy as he realizes it’s probably too late to mend his relationship with them.

Murphy, Series 5: A case involving the death and disappearance of two of his colleagues marks the point where Murphy begins to question his efficiency as an undercover cop and his worth as a human being due to the case’s terrible outcome. Murphy is now completely damaged by his job and its corresponding lifestyle. This is the darkest of all the storylines presented. I must admit it brought me to tears.

The supporting characters are three dimensional and very well performed, as are all the villains. The stories vastly improved once the show focused on a single storyline. Over all, I must say this is one of the very best television shows I’ve ever seen.

I hope there’s another series of Murphy’s Law. But as it hasn’t been recommissioned by the BBC and it’s been about a year since series 5 aired, who knows if there’s a future for this wonderful show.

A LONG time ago, my screenwriting tutor told me to not be afraid of going as dark as I could with my writing. I don’t think I’ve managed to get there quite yet but watching a series like Murphy’s Law makes me truly understand what my tutor said. I can only hope one day my writing will reach that level.

Working at the New Beverly Cinema is, to be sure, a pretty sweet ass job. I get to watch movies at work (and get paid!), eat all of the free candy and popcorn I like, and get to program festivals with film makers I admire.

Let me just start off by saying that every single person who has done a festival with me, or even just come to do a Q&A for a film has been incredibly rad. I have loved everyone.

But Rian Johnson is just NICE. Really nice.

Tomorrow night is the last night in his Festival of Fakery, and I shall be sad to see him go. He has been so dedicated, showing up for every night of his fest and putting together a kick ass slide show for every double. He even arranged for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and friends to play a Tom Waits song on stage before F for Fake! (And he did a silly dance! And played the cowbell! And let me play tambourine!) Awesome.

Besides being nice, Rian is also very talented. Anyone who saw Brick knows this. We got to sneak preview his new film, The Brothers Bloom, at his festival and it is a super duper film. Highly recommended.

The long and short of it is, support this man. He’s good people.

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Walt Disney Home Video
MSRP: $39.99
RATED: PG
RUNNING TIME: 149 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Audio Commentary with director Andrew Adamson and actors
• The Bloopers of Narnia
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes: Inside Narnia: The Adventure Returns; Sets of Narnia: A Classic Comes To Life; Big Movie Comes To A Small Town; Previsualizing Narnia; Talking Animals; Walking Trees: The Magical World Of Narnia; Secrets of the Duel; Becoming Trumpkin; Warwick Davis: The Man Behind Nikabrik

The Pitch

Narnia in the Age Of Reason. But we still love Jesus and all that.

The Humans

Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Peter Dinklage, Warwick Davis, Eddie Izzard, and Liam Neeson

The Nutshell

The Pevensie children return to Narnia, and find it a very different, more dangerous, and cynical place than when the left it, and quickly set out to return it to its former glory, with the help of the new outcast heir to the throne, Prince Caspian.

The Lowdown

For what it’s worth, Prince Caspian makes a damn strong case for letting go of the grudge I’ve harbored towards The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe for coasting along to the tune of $300m domestic box office while a Lemony Snicket sequel is stuck in development purgatory, and finding a Stardust fan in the wild is as likely as finding human dignity at Wal*Mart. I can forgive the success of a film so bland, inoffensive and toothless when it’s able to provide a solid foundation for a vastly more interesting, more mature, and just plain better film. Caspian‘s still very much a film crippled by its convictions, however. The film asks some difficult questions in the end, and to its detriment, it doesn’t really have any good answers to go with them, but there’s plenty of grown-up films that ask the same questions, come to more valid conclusions, and none of them had Eddie Izzard voicing a mouse who likes to cut soldiers down at the knees, now, did they?

“Did I mention I go to a magical school where they teach us how to do spells and potions, and–“
“Hogwarts?”
“Yeah! How do you–“
“Hufflepuff?”
“….yes.”
“Jog on.”

Where TLTWATW (still worst initialism ever, by the way) came off more like a Narnian travelogue than an actual story, Caspian starts by tearing down everything we know from that first film, and replacing it with honest-to-God tension. In the 1300 Narnian years the Pevensie children have been gone from Narnia (only about 1 of our Earth years), a tribe of people called Telmarines have moved in, and in that typical European bastardly way, ethnically and magically cleansed Narnia, ushering in a new age of science and reason, while anything that so much as reeks of fairy dust or sparkles gets its throat cut. Aslan is back to being nothing more than a myth, the Pevensies’ reign as rulers of Narnia is ancient history, the remaining mythical creatures in the world can only lament their fate in exile, and the one human willing to atone for humanity’s slights against the Narnians, Prince Caspian, is being denied the throne, and hunted by his scheming uncle, Miraz.

To say the least, Narnia ain’t exactly a place where a kid can be a kid anymore, which is bound to shock the hell out of any parent looking for the same sterile mess the first Narnia turned out to be. Where the Pevensies were led by the hand through all Narnia’s troubles in the first film, shielded in some way or another from any real danger, the kids are waist deep in peril from minute one this time around, a peril only compounded a few minutes later when they join up with Prince Caspian and the remaining exiles to try and take Narnia back during a nighttime raid on the Telmarines. It’s around here that a body count starts up, and it’s impressive not just for how brutal it is for a PG film, but how none of it seems gratuitous for the sake of dragging more teenagers into the seats. We see through the the scheming of Miraz’ cabinet and the mercilessness of his army that Narnia simply *must* be taken back by force. While the warfare is mostly bloodless, the film doesn’t flinch on it, either, leading to some of the strongest, and most unsettling images in the film. Later on, the film takes that same steady hand when it comes to the moral issues. After the raid fails, some genuinely tough decisions regarding the needs of the many/few are made on the heroes’ part, weighed against blind belief that Aslan will/won’t return to fight all Narnia’s battles for them, in particular during an encounter with the White Queen (Tilda Swinton, milking her 2 minutes in this movie for all they’re worth), and for the vast majority of the film’s running time, it seems like a truly great fantasy film is in the making here.

The problems arise when the film tries to wrap up that subtext. The running question in the film is the extent to which people can rely on their logic and intellect at the expense of faith, and the circumstances in which people can be shifted one way or another. Once again, the film relies on Aslan to personify this entire argument, not in such a heavy handed manner as its predecessor, but arguably in a much more annoying one. A thread is established early in the film that for some half-assed reason, Lucy Pevensie is the only one who can see and hear Aslan moving in the forest, and it later comes down to her to find him, alert him to all that’s happening, and bring him and some of his forest friends to the final battle. I’m not sure if there was any other way to end a film about faith and magic on anything less than a Deus Ex Machina, but it still undercuts the film from the spiritual ambiguity that kept it interesting through most of its running time.

Of course, this is a big budget blockbuster fantasy film, and on that level and many others, it succeeds in so many ways The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe didn’t, it’s harder to let that affect how much more positive I am on the film as a whole. Andrew Adamson’s direction is far less stunted this time around, giving his environment and his actors, real and digital, some much needed breathing room. The action takes a drastic leap from the first film, not just because of the brutality, though that certainly helps, but some actual technical chops that make me wonder if Adamson went back to film school for a semester before making this flick. There’s an intense one on one sword fight at the film’s climax that stunned me at how much it kept me biting my nails. The effects are definitely more consistent this time, a much better mix of CG and practical effects that, a few minor weak spots aside (the Water God in particular is Mummy Returns terrible), makes Narnia feel alive, and not just an Best Effects Oscar consideration reel.

Prince Caspian‘s a solid, enjoyable film, in the end. The monsters more memorable, the stakes higher, the tone engaging. The film’s overall moral being very distinctly Christian in the end is not the film’s fault in particular, and in the heat of the moment, it’s easy enough to just take the Judeo-Christian allegory and just run with it as the only logical place the film could go. That’s probably the film’s true statement on religion right there. Long as you don’t think about it TOO much, there’s plenty to love.

“Narnia was once beautiful, magical country, Cornelius. It is shameful what has become of it.”
“I remember its glory well, my prince. It is heartbreaking.”
“……”
“……”
“….this used to be my playgroooound.”
“This used to be my childhood dreeeeam…..”

The Package

On the presentation side, the audio and video are both top notch. It’s a darker film than its predecessor most of the time, for sure, but watching the two films back to back, there’s a noticeable jump in video quality from the first film to this one thats just impressive for a standard DVD these days.

As for the bonus features, this is the one aspect of the filmed Narnia series where it’s NOT an insult to be called LOTR-lite. Unlike most non-animated Disney DVDs, the features in this set eschew the happy-go-lucky fluff in favor of some actual substance, with a tone and structure highly reminiscent of the LOTR Extended Editions. The commentary is an easy listen, with Andrew Adamson and the kids striking a good balance between the technical side of things, and set anecdotes/teasing. The rest of the bonuses are broken down on the second disc and here, you get a real sense of the scale, the comeraderie on set, and the genuine good vibes just radiating off every minute. There’s some occasional pandering while people explain what pre-viz is, and a featurette that should’ve been a more indepth look at the underlying themes of this movie, but really comes off as typical, Disney, “power of magic” hokiness. Another featurette skirts with the idea of going in depth as to why certain changes were made from the book, even going so far as to have C.S. Lewis’ stepson step in as a kind of tour guide, but it’s focused more on production design than anything else.

Any other day, Aslan might have laughed along with everyone else, but today, the fate of an entire kingdom lay in the balance, and now was NOT the time for Peter to belt out the opening notes to “Circle of Life”.

The deleted scenes are pretty inconsequential, though there are a few nice beats here and there (the dead dryad, Susan and Caspian’s archery, “Mom never had that talk with you?”). The bloopers are entertaining. There’s a featurette about the Peter/Miraz duel that doesn’t last long enough, but covers quite a bit of ground, and has a cameo from WETA’s Richard Taylor that reminded me how much I missed hearing that man’s voice on a DVD once a year. Both Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis get their own 5-6 minute featurettes, the kind of featurettes that ordinarily grate the nerves but come off light, breezy, and enjoyable here. Even with the weaker features, there’s not hint of the boredom or weariness that tends to permeate family films, even in the 3-Disc edition of the first film. It won’t answer every question you might have about production (I’d have killed for a breakdown of the Telmarine raid from storyboard to finished product), butthere’s nothing to regret watching either.

On a final, tangentally related note, since when did Michael Kamen’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves score become the Disney anthem??

Herschell Gordon Lewis is a man to whom many of us should bow. His films really helped pave the way for the kinds of gory delights that quite a few Chewers loved growing up; without HG Lewis I feel like we wouldn’t have a Peter Jackson, and Sam Raimi’s career might have been different. Lewis’ films may not be great in the most exacting use of the word, but they’re pretty wonderful.

Instead of remaking an HG Lewis film, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter director Lee Demarbre (who has a credit on the 2009 movie with my favorite title: Black Kissinger, starring Fred Williamson as Henry Kissinger. Sadly not that Kissinger) has made Smash Cut, an homage to Lewis and his films. Lewis apparently has a cameo in the movie about a filmmaker (played by the original Krug from the original Last House on the Left) who finds himself with an accidentally dead body on his hands. He realizes the best way to dispose of it is in pieces, all over the set of his latest gore picture. But of course things don’t end there. Also starring is Sasha Grey, porn starlet and star of Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, where she’s actually damn good. I’m not sure I expect as much out of her here.

Twitchfilm has some pictures from the movie; I’m looking forward to checking this one out myself. It’s always amazing to me that HG Lewis doesn’t show up at more things – has he even been to Comic Con? Dude could make a killing at autograph alley.

I’ll admit I haven’t really been following the development of Splice, the weird bio-mutant-horror movie produced by Guillermo del Toro, directed by Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. Which is weird, because I love the talent involved. Dawn of the Dead may not be the best example, but when Polley signs on to a genre flick, it’s usually worth paying attention.

But Splice sounds like it could be anything…I keep thinking I’ve seen two or three movies with that title already.

Now there are these production shots at Bloody Disgusting, which look fantastic. There’s a real Species vibe, and a twinge of classic horror, and a little Xtro, though that could just be in my mind. Now I’m excited for a trailer, and out of nowhere. See these images in full, and a few others, at Bloody Disgusting.

The plot:
Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named Dren, the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators – only to have that bond turn deadly.

There’s a new official still out for the JJ Abrams Star Trek redo, and it’s…like something from a twenty-third century Apple presentation. Nice that there’s still a webcam installed above every viewing screen in the Romulan ships of the period.

I’d like to see a better still of Eric Bana in costume and makeup as the Romulan bad guy Nero. Give us something that tops the glimpse in the teaser, at least. I know the marketing for this movie is going to ramp up sometime, and we’ll be waiting with something like interest when all involved decide it’s time for that to happen.

TotalFilm has the image in better quality, along with five magazine covers that basically recycle the character posters we’ve been looking at for months. How long can they recycle those shots of Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto? Until you die.

More a foregone conclusion than a story, New Line and Platinum Dunes are setting up talent to make another Friday the 13th picture. Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have been tapped to write a follow-up; Marcus Nispel probably won’t direct. This isn’t greenlit yet, but the best horror opening in history was bound to get a follow-up, even if it did drop off by 80% in week two. Could the fate of the Nightmare on Elm Street re-do, about to start production, help a green light? Almost certainly, assuming the fate is battered and fried in dollars.

It might not be a sequel, leaving Derek Mears the only actor we’re likely to see return. Which is fine, really. The only family tree we care about in these movies is Vorhees; if we learn what really happened after the credits rolled on the reboot only through a few throwaway lines of exposition, fine. More time for the killin’ that way.