THE SPECIAL EDITION – 10.22.07

There are a ton of releases this week that would make almost any movie lover happy. I’ll start off with the basic ones and then get into the meat and potatoes of the week’s premiere releases. There are a number of recent films being released this week that would satisfy any type of movie fans. Meet the Robinsons, Mr. Brooks and Hostel Part II are the genre picks that start the week’s releases.

NEW RELEASES

Meet the Robinsons will include deleted scenes, Keep Moving Forward: Inventions that Shaped the World featurette, 2 Music Videos: “Little Wonders” by Rob Thomas and “Kids of the Future” by the Jonas Brothers, a Family Function 5000: Family Tree Game, an Inventing the Robinsons featurette and Audio Commentary by Director Stephen Anderson (with a special guest appearance). It is available in both DVD and Blu-Ray versions.

Mr. Brooks will include Commentary by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, Deleted Scenes with optional commentary, The Birth of a Serial Killer: A Look at the Writing of Mr. Brooks featurette, On the Set of Mr. Brooks featurette, Murder On Their Minds: Mr. Brooks, Marshall & Mr. Smith featurette and the Theatrical Trailers.

Hostel Part II will be available in an unrated director’s cut and include 4 Featurettes (“Hostel Part II: The Next Level” Behind the Scenes, “The Art of KNB Effects”, Set Design and an International Television Special), Blood and Guts Montage, Deleted Scenes, Director’s Commentary with Eli Roth, Director and Producers’ Commentary with Gabriel Roth and Quentin Tarantino, Cast and Crew Commentary with Eli Roth, Lauren German, Richard Burgi and Vera Jordanova, Elvis Mitchell of “The Treatment” Interview with Eli Roth and Factory Torture Cams (exclusive to the Blu-Ray). It is available in both DVD and Blu-Ray versions. For those interested in this type of film, the week also brings you the original Hostel in a director’s cut. It is jam packed with special features including Director and Executive Producers’ Commentary with Roth, Tarantino, Boaz Yakin and Scott Spiegel, Director and Guests’ Commentary with Roth, actors Barbara Nedeljakova and Eythor Gudjonsson, editor George Folsey, Jr. and journalist Harry Knowles, Director and Producers’ Commentary with Roth, producer Chris Biggs and documentarian Gabriel Roth, Director’s Commentary with Roth, Five new featurettes (Music and Sound, Set Design, KNB Effects, An Icelandic Meal with Actor Eythor Gudjonsson, and a Takashi Miike Interview), “Hostel Dismembered” – International TV special, “The Treatment” – KCRW radio interview with Roth by Elvis Mitchell, “Kill The Car” multi-angle featurette, “Hostel Dissected” – A three part behind-the-scenes featurette, Ten deleted scenes, Four photo galleries hand-picked by Roth, and an Option to choose between the theatrical or Director’s Cut endings.

Along the same lines, we get the Saw III Director’s Cut 2-Disc Special Edition as well as Saw Trilogy, a box set with the three special edition versions of the movie, just in time for Saw IV to be released. Doesn’t that mean it’s not really a trilogy? The Saw III Director’s Cut will include Audio commentary with producer/co-writer Leigh Whannell, Audio commentary with director Darren Lynn Bousman and J Larose, Exclusive “villains” audio commentary with actors Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell, Jigsaw’s Plan trivia game, Hydrovibe music video: “Killer Inside – Messed Up World remix” – featuring Shawnee Smith, Choose the Death – Select a ‘death’ plan from one of Jigsaw’s blueprints and learn how the terror trap was laid out!, Looking Tortured Make-up: An FX How-To, Filmmaker Faves – The cast and crew of the Saw films pick out their favorite scenes from the films, and a Sneak Peek: SAW IV – Get a first-hand look at the new movie!

Ok, now that we have those out of he way, here are the releases that really matter.

Fido
The first time I heard about this movie was when Dan Vinton talked about it earlier this year on Chud. The plot is pretty inventive: “it envisions a town trapped in the 50s where zombies act as pets and servants. Carrie-Anne is a mom who buys a zombie – played by the great Billy Connelly – for her son. The two create a unique bond, but when the zombie’s control collar goes on the fritz, things get hairy.” It apparently hit theaters on June 15 and played pretty much nowhere that I knew of. It did play at the Toronto International Film Festival and Sundance and both Devin and Dan told you to go see it. I would assume most did not. Here is your chance. It’s even got some pretty nice extras on the disc: “The Making of FIDO” featurette, Audio Commentary with Director Andrew Currie, Producer Mary Anne Waterhouse and Actress Carrie-Anne Moss, Deleted Scenes with Optional Director Audio Commentary, Storyboard, Makeup and Concept Art Galleries, Composer Select Scene Audio Commentary Track, and a Zomcon “Zombie Me” Creator Exclusive DVD-Rom Feature

Criterion is bringing Christmas early this year!

Three releases from Criterion hit this month and they are some damn good cinema. First up is Breathless (A bout de soufflé). If you are a film connoisseur, you know the film. If you don’t, you need to know the film. The debut film by master filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard is a French new wave crime film in which A young car thief kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him. For those who only know Godard from the fact that Quentin Tarantino named his production company (A Band Apart) after one of his films (Band of Outsiders), you need to get out there and watch this movie, one of the most influential in the history of the French new wave. It will be released in a double-disc Cirterion edition and include a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard, Archival interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard, and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Jean-Pierre Melville, New video interviews with Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, New video essays: filmmaker and critic Mark Rappaport’s "Jean Seberg" and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s "Breathless as Film Criticism", Chambre 12, Hotel de suede, an eighty-minute French documentary about the making of Breathless, with members of the cast and crew, Charlotte et son Jules, a 1959 short film by Godard, starring Belmondo, the French theatrical trailer, a New and improved English subtitle translation plus A booklet featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, Francois Truffaut’s original film treatment, and Godard’s scenario.

Days of Heaven is a 1978 film, directed by Terrance Malick (Badlands, The Thin Red Line), that stars Richard Gere as a man who flees the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to escape a murder charge. Malick would win the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival and the film would go on to win an Oscar for its amazing cinematography. The film reportedly had major problems during production with Malick clashing with both Gere and his own producers and then spending two years editing it. The final result deleted much of the dialogue in favor of a haunting voice over track by actress Linda Manz, who played Gere’s younger sister in the film. I am interested to see if anything is mentioned about the turmoil in the commentary track, although Malick is not involved. It will be a single disc release with a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Terrence Malick, editor Billy Weber, and camera operator John Bailey, New Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, Audio commentary featuring Weber, art director Jack Fisk, costume designer Patricia Norris, and casting director Dianne Crittenden, New video interviews with cinematographers Haskell Wexler and Bailey and a booklet featuring essays by critic Adrian Martin and director of photography Nestor Almendros.

The third release from Criterion is Under the Volcano. Quoting Criterion: It follows the final day in the life of self-destructive British consul Geoffrey Firmin (Albert Finney) on the eve of World War II. Withering from alcoholism, Firmin stumbles through a small Mexican village amidst the Day of the Dead fiesta, attempting to reconnect with his estranged wife (Jacqueline Bisset) but only further alienating himself. John Huston’s ambitious tackling of Malcolm Lowry’s towering "unadaptable" novel gave the incomparable Finney one of his grandest roles and was the legendary The Treasure of the Sierra Madre director’s triumphant return to filmmaking in Mexico. This is another double disc Criterion release and will include a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by film editor Roberto Silvi, Audio commentary featuring executive producer Michael Fitzgerald and producers Wieland Schulz-Keil and Moritz Borman, Theatrical trailers, New video interview with Jacqueline Bisset, New audio interview with screenwriter Guy Gallo, 1984 audio interview with John Huston conducted by French film critic Michel Ciment, Notes from "Under the Volcano" (1984), a 59-minute documentary by Gary Conklin shot on the set during the film’s production, featuring interviews with Huston, cast, and crew, Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976), filmmaker Donald Brittain’s 99-minute, Academy Award–nominated documentary, narrated by Richard Burton, examining the connections between Under the Volcano author Malcolm Lowry’s life and that of his novel’s main character plus A new essay by film critic Christian Viviani.

Now for the biggest release so far this year:

Warner Directors Series is presenting a box set of Stanley Kubrick (2001 – A Space Odyssey/ A Clockwork Orange/ The Shining/ Eyes Wide Shut/ Full Metal Jacket/ A Life in Pictures – Documentary). All the movies will be 2-Disc Special Editions and are packed. You can buy them in the box set (for around $54) or get them separately. However, if you buy your stuff on DVD, you won’t find Full Metal Jacket out of the actual box set. Also, they are available in Blu-Ray and HD DVD, but only individually (for around $24 each), as no high definition box set is available. Also available, separate from the box set, is Lolita and Barry Lyndon. Now, new releases of The Killing and Paths of Glory is all it would take to make me completely satisfied.

2001: A Space Odyssey SPECIAL FEATURES
Commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood
Channel 4 documentary: 2001: The Making of a Myth
Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001
Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001
2001: A Space Odyssey – A Look Behind the Future
What Is Out There?
2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork
Look: Stanley Kubrick!
Audio-Only Bonus: 1966 Kubrick Interview conducted by Jeremy Bernstein
Theatrical trailer

A Clockwork Orange SPECIAL FEATURES
Commentary by Malcolm McDowell and historian Nick Redman
Theatrical trailer
Channel 4 documentary: Still Tickin’: The Return of Clockwork Orange
New featurette: Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making A Clockwork Orange
Career profile: O Lucky Malcolm!

Eyes Wide Shut SPECIAL FEATURES
Rated and Unrated versions of the Main Feature
Scene specific commentary by Sydney Pollack and historian Peter Loewenberg
Theatrical trailer and TV spots
Channel 4 documentary: The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut
Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick’s 1998 DGA D.W Griffith Award acceptance speech
Interview gallery featuring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Steven Spielberg

Full Metal Jacket SPECIAL FEATURES
Commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and Jay Cocks
New Featurette: Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil
Theatrical trailer

The Shining SPECIAL FEATURES
Commentary by Garrett Brown and John Baxter
Theatrical trailer
Documentary The Making of the Shining, with optional commentary by Vivian Kubrick
View from The Overlook: Crafting the Shining
The Visions of Stanley Kubrick
Wendy Carlos, Composer

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
Produced and directed by longtime Kubrick associate Jan Harlan, this full-length documentary includes footage and personal photographs made available by Christiane Kubrick, the director’s wife of more than 42 years.

Battleship Potemkin (The Ultimate Edition)
One of the most important silent films ever created is finally being released in an HD-transferred release that replaces many missing shots and includes all 146 title cards per director Sergei Eisenstein’s specifications. Edmund Meisel’s 1926 score has been rendered by the 55-piece Deutches Filmorchestra in 5.1 Stereo Surround, and returns Eisenstein’s masterwork to the closest it has been since it was originally released. Most people are familiar with the most popular scene in the film, the massacre of civilians on the Odessa Steps, and the sight of a mother being shot to death as her baby rolls down the steps amongst the carnage in its carriage. This 2-Disc edition is fully restored and includes the following features: "Tracing Battleship Potemkin," a 42-minute documentary on the making and restoration of the film, newly-translated English intertitles, original Russian intertitles (and optional English subtitles), The original 1926 Edmund Meisel score, performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra, presented in 5.1 Stereo Surround and a Photo gallery.

Hellraiser: 20th Anniversary Edition
Nowhere near as influential as the previous releases, this one is still a nice release for fans of the horror genre. Clive Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart was adapted into a pretty solid horror movie that made Pinhead a horror icon and spawned seven sequels. Written and directed by Barker, Hellraiser tells the story of a puzzle cube that releases a horde of demons into our world who inflicts a sadomasochistic style of torture to their victims. This DVD, celebrating the movie’s 20th Anniversary of its release, will include a director/writer commentary with Clive Barker and Ashley Laurence (moderated by Screenwriter Peter Atkins), an interview with composer Christopher Young, Hellraiser Resurrection, an interview with star Andrew Robinson, poster and still galleries, an interview with star Ashley Laurence, theatrical trailers, TV spots and screenplays via DVD-ROM.

A Christmas Carol – Ultimate Collector’s Edition
The 1951 version of the classic Charles Dickens Christmas story will hit shelves this week in a nice special edition. You know the story. Ebenezer Scrooge meets the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and learns that he needs to straighten up or else. It has been made over and over so many times that everyone knows a version of the story, but this one is one of the best, and most faithful to the source material (no offense to Bill Murray). The Ultimate Edition will include audio commentary by Marcus Hearn and George Cole, a short bio of George Mintner, the film’s executive producer who would go on to found his own successful distribution company, Renown Pictures. There’s a mini-bio of Dickens, the colorized version of this film, cast bios, original trailers, and an optional narration for the blind.

O Lucky Man! (Two-Disc Special Edition)
A Clockwork Orange is not the only Malcolm McDowell movie to be released this week. McDowell stars as wide-eyed innocent Mick Travis in Lindsay Anderson’s epic comedy O Lucky Man! Armed with ambition and a work ethic, coffee salesman Mick hits the road and finds that desire alone can’t bring wealth and status. He meets rich and poor alike…and finds cunning and cruelty across the social spectrum. The DVD will include Commentary by Malcolm McDowell, Alan Price and Screenwriter David Sherwin, New Feature-Length Career Profile O Lucky Malcolm! Produced/Directed by Jan Harlan, Edited by Katia de Vidas, Vintage Featurette O Lucky Man! Innovations in Entertainment and the Theatrical Trailer.

TELEVISION ON DVD

Sopranos, Season 6 – Part 2
The L Word – The Complete Fourth Season
Veronica Mars – The Complete Third Season
NCIS – The Fourth Season
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones – Volume One
Tales from the Crypt – The Complete Seventh Season
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea – Season Three, Volume Two
Mind Of Mencia: Uncensored Season 3
I Love Lucy: The Complete Series
Harcastle And McCormick (The Complete Third and Final Season)
American Gangster – The Complete First Season

THE HD REVOLUTION

The Jack Ryan Collection [HD DVD]
Inside Man [HD DVD]
Carlito’s Way [HD DVD]
The Company [Blu-ray]
Scary Movie [Blu-ray]
King Of New York [Blu-ray]
The Hills Have Eyes 2: Unrated [Blu-ray]
Seed of Chucky [HD DVD]
Carlito’s Way: Rise To Power [HD DVD]

OTHER DVDs TO SPEND YOUR DOUGH ON

Into Great Silence (2-Disc Set), The Christmas Card, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (DC Comics Classic Collection), The Company, Executive Action, Home of the Brave, Burt Lancaster – The Signature Collection (The Flame and the Arrow / Jim Thorpe All-American / His Majesty O’Keefe / South Sea Woman / Executive Action), War & Peace (1972), The Flame and the Arrow, Rey Mysterio: Biggest Little Man, The Tripper, Buried Alive, Nearing Grace, Black Sabbath, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Presents: The Best of Christian Cage: the Instant Classic, Dog Bite Dog, Marx Brothers Collection, Cutting Class (Unrated Version), Gag, Kaw, I Was Nineteen, Black Sunday, Dark Storm, Meet Market, Almost Beautiful

THE BARGAIN BIN