THE SPECIAL EDITION: 03.10.08

No Country for Old Men
d. Joel and Ethan Coen
c. Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones

• Working with the Coens: Reflections of Cast and Crew – Learn more about Joel and Ethan Coen from the perspective of their collaborators, cast and crew
• The Making of No Country For Old Men – Take a journey through the Coen Brothers’ process and back to their roots as storytellers with a unique voice and vision
• Diary of a Country Sheriff – Explore the relationship between the compassion of Sheriff Bell and the brutality of Anton Chigurh

There is not much more to be said about the Coen brother’s recent masterpiece. It won Best Picture at the Oscars, surprisingly awarding a great film for the second year in a row. Javier Bardem swept just about every awards ceremony he appeared at for his role as the psychotic Anton Chigurth. Joel and Ethan Coen won the award for Best Director in a year that provided two great performances (the second would of course be P.T. Anderson) by young auteurs that are usually only allowed to stand just on the outside looking in. Cormac McCarthy would receive vindication after his last novel to receive an adaptation was the uninspiring All the Pretty Horses. I don’t need to recap the storyline. All I need to say is that it is coming out this Tuesday on regular DVD and Blu-Ray and you need to go buy it.

Fox Film Noir
Dangerous Crossing (Fox Film Noir)
Daisy Kenyon (Fox Film Noir)
Black Widow (Fox Film Noir)

This is the next wave in the Fox Film Noir releases and from what I understand will be the last films in the series, and that might be a good thing as they are kind of stretching the idea of film noir with these three releases. Daisy Kenyon is a romantic drama starring Joan Crawford as a woman torn between two men, a married attorney (Dana Andrews) and unmarried Peter Fonda. When the attorney divorces his wife, Daisy must decide whether she will stay Fonda, who she had already married or go to the attorney, who she still carries a flame for. Black Widow seems more like a film noir, although it never really dives into the genre convincingly and is shot in color instead of black and white. When a young actress is found murdered, the prime suspects are a Broadway producer and the neglected husband of another Broadway actress (Ginger Rogers), who had been dallying with the murdered actress. In Dangerous Crossing, Jeanne Crain is Ruth Bowman, formerly Stanton, a newlywed who boards an ocean liner with new husband John (Carl Betz) to honeymoon abroad. Once the ship has sailed, however, John is nowhere to be found, and no one but Ruth remembers seeing him. Sounds like Flightplan to me. Each of the films released in the Film Noir series have a nice batch of extras and booklets, so if you are so inclined, you can add three more to your collection.

Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913)

It’s time for a history lesson kids. George Melies invented movies. Yeah, yeah, I know all about Thomas Edison and the Lumiere brothers. But while those guys invented the technology to record the film, it was Melies that showed what could be accomplished with those tools. In 1896, the Lumiere brothers invited Melies to show him their new toy and after refusing to sell it to him, he set out to make his own. While many of the Lumiere films showed actual events taking place, Melies would use his camera to tell stories of magic and wonder. As I said, George Melies invented the moves. Legend has it, Melies was filming on a street one day and his camera jammed up. Minutes were wasted trying to get it fixed and once it started again, traffic had moved on. When the film was projected later a hearse was seen crossing the screen and then suddenly transformed into a bus. Melies, a commercial magician prior to his career as a filmmaker, found he could use this new technology to create special effects he could never have accomplished on stage. This box set includes more than 170 of Melies’ films including his first (Partie de Cartes) and his last (Voyage de la Famille Bourrichon).  Also included on the 5-disc set is his masterpiece A Trip to the Moon.

Michael Palin – New Europe
d. John Paul Davidson, Roger Mills
c. Michael Palin

• Deleted Scenes
• Interviews

In the early 1970s, Michael Palin was a founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. You might remember him from the line “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” or you might know him from one of the numerous roles he played in each of Python’s films. In 1989, Palin’s career made a left turn as he was involved in the BBC Television special Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days. The special was influenced by Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days and would go on to become a huge success. In the original, Palin agreed to travel the world in the same time frame as the novel and would not use any kind of transportation that did not exist in Jules Verne’s time. Michael Palin’s New Europe is Palin’s seventh travel documentary and sends him on a trip through areas of Europe that were at one time impossible to travel through. In this documentary he visits such countries as Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Poland, Germany, and many other countries in between.

Bobby Deerfield
…And Justice for All
d. Sydney Pollack / Norman Jewison
c. Al Pacino

• AND JUSTICE FOR ALL SPECIAL FEATURES
• Commentary with Director Norman Jewison
• Norman Jewison: The Testimony of the Director
• Barry Levinson: Cross Examining the Screenwriter
• Deleted Scenes
• 88 Minutes Sneak Peek
• ”Damages” TV Pilot Episode

Sydney Pollack received his sixth Oscar nomination this year for producing Michael Clayton, but is best known for his mid-eighties one-two punch of Tootsie and Out of Africa. Go back into the 70s though and you will find some real gems on his resume such as Three Days of the Condor and Jeremiah Johnson. Norman Jewison provided his best output in the 60s and 70s as well. From 1967-1971, he released In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair and Fiddler on the Roof. While many know him from his work on Moonstruck, his true days as an important filmmaker had passed him by. Someone else provided some real gems in the 70s as well with movies such as The Godfather and Serpico. In Bobby Deerfield, Pollack teamed up with Al Pacino to tell the story of an emotionally stunted racecar driver who falls in love with a terminally ill girl. In …And Justice for All, Jewison teamed up with Pacino to create a political satire where Pacino plays an attorney who is blackmailed into represent a corrupt judge accused of rape.

Lake of Fire
d. Tony Kaye
c. Noam Chomsky

Those who know the history of American History X, understand that director Tony Kaye had the film taken away from him by Edward Norton, who then presided over it in the editing room. Kaye, who also served as the cinematographer for that movie, proved to have a great visual eye but the question of his skills as a director remained in question thanks to the mutiny by his lead actor. It would seem that we would never see anything else from Kaye after the fiasco that prompted him to sue the DGA for violating his first amendment right to free speech (he placed an ad in Variety attacking American History X and as a result was not allowed to use the pseudonym Humpty Dumpty as the director’s credit). He also called Edward Norton a narcissistic dilettante. This Tuesday, we do get to see his next film, ten years after the release of American History X. Lake of Fire is a self financed documentary that graphically depicts abortion in the United States. Despite the documentary being over a hot button topic, Kaye himself says he does not have a stance one way or the other on the subject matter.

Wrestlemaniac
d. Jesse Baget
c. Rey Misterio Sr.

• Audio commentary with Co-Executive Producer/Writer/Editor/Director Jesse Baget, Director of Photography Tabbert Fiiller and Actor Adam Huss
• Wrestling the Maniac: Behind-The-Scenes of Wrestlemaniac
• Trailer

Professional Wrestling in the United States is almost a joke. Thanks to ridiculous storylines and the jacked up steroid bodies that pollute much of American sports today, it gets more bad publicity than good. However, the popularity of the “sports-entertainment” is still high and the industry makes more money than most actual true sports leagues outside of the Big 3. Outside of the United States, wrestling has a little more integrity. Japan has a sincere respect for the sport and Mexico treats its wrestlers almost like national heroes. Many people know about the Lucha Libres of Latin America through the ridiculous cartoon Mucha Lucha or more recently in the film Nacho Libre, but the basis of the Luchadores has always seemed an important part of Latino culture. With the masks and the flamboyant costumes, they have always held a spot in the world of cinema such as the movies starring Libre legend El Santo and his battles with classic horror monsters such as Dracula and Frankenstein. While this movie will never reach the wonderful cheese of those Santo movies, Wrestlemaniac adds to the legend of the Libre wrestler in a more generic horror film. Rey Misterio Sr. (the father of WWE superstar Rey Mysterio Jr.) stars as insane Luchador, El Mascarado, who begins to kill a group of young amateur porn filmmakers in a small Mexican town. Crazy Luchador Slasher Killer? Check. Porn Filmmakers? Check. Low Budget Friday Night Rental Fare? Hell yeah!

Sands of Oblivion
d. David Flores
c. Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Victor Webster, George Kennedy, Richard Kind, John Aniston

In my ongoing desire to somehow help make Adam Baldwin a superstar, I bring you his newest DVD release, Sands of Oblivion. I know from reading the name of the movie, I have no idea what it is supposed to be about. The cover also gives no clue what the movie is supposed to be about. It looks like some kind of discovery channel documentary to me. While I question any talent the publicity department of this movie might possess, I can at least tell you what you can expect if you give this a rent. Amazon tells us that the movie takes place in the present day where two archeologists and an Iraq War combat vet uncover the secret Cecil B. DeMille covered up when he ordered his entire set for the film The Ten Commandments to be buried following that film’s wrap. According to Amazon, they uncover a horror that cannot be stopped!!!!!  And, hey it stars both Baldwin and his Firefly cast mate Morena Baccarin. It’s also got Victor Webster (Coop from Charmed) and Jennifer Aniston’s dad! It’s also the 2-hour director’s cut that was not seen on TV. On the bad side, it is directed by the guy who directed the HORRIBLE Lake Placid 2.

New Blu-Ray Releases
 
 

OTHER MAINSTREAM RELEASES

Bee Movie (Jerry’s Two-Disc Special Edition)

• Jerry Seinfeld & Filmmaker Commentary
• TV Juniors – Hilarious “behind the scenes” segments with Jerry Seinfeld that aired on NBeeC
• Live Action Trailers – Early trailers for Bee Movie that only Jerry Seinfeld and his friends–including Chris Rock and Steven Spielberg–could have come up with
• Alternate Endings – Find out how the film could have ended with special commentary
• Jerry’s Flight Over Cannes – Jerry’s famous entrance to the world-renowned festival created international buzz
• Inside The Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie – A close-up look at the all-star cast of voice talent
• Lost Scenes with Commentary
• “We Got The Bee” Music Video
• DreamWorks Animation Jukebox
• DreamWorks Animation Kids:
• The Buzz On Bees
• The Ow! Meter
• That’s Un-BEE-lievable!
• Pollination Practice
• Be A Bee

Hitman (Two-Disc Special Edition)

• 4 Deleted Scenes (Blu-Ray)
• Alternate Ending
• In the Crosshairs Featurette
• Digital Hits Featurette
• Instruments of Destruction Featurette
• Para-Ordinance P18.9 Featurette
• Blaser R93 LRS2 Featurette
• MM16 Featurette
• FN F2000 Featurette
• Micro Uzi Featurette
• M240 Featurette
• Settling The Score Featurette
• Gag Reel
• Digital Copy (Standard Definition) – Includes a digital copy of the film which you can transfer to your Mac or Windows based computer, as well as portable media such as your iPod, iPhone and Microsoft Windows PLAYFORSURE enabled portable video devices.