THE WEEK OF JUNE 8th 2010
GROUP EDITED by: TROY ANDERSON
DVD/BR SECTION by: Troy Anderson
SHUTTER ISLAND
Director: Martin Scorsese
Paramount
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Special Features
Featurettes
Shutter Island was this odd holdover from last year. A lot of internet film enthusiasts cast doubt on the quality of the film after the bump to 2010. It turns out they were right to a point. Scorsese’s latest didn’t have a shot in Hell during last year’s Oscar season. The only hope that one could have was that it would’ve kept The Blind Side from a Best Picture nomination. Hindsight is always fun.
Back to the DVD/Blu-Ray release, we get to see if the film had legs. Four months after the initial viewing, it’s still the same movie. Imagine if Samuel Fuller was still alive and got the chance to do a Silent Hill movie. Litter that concept with some solid character actors and sketchy Dennis Lehane original material. You don’t get a commentary or anything that informative on the supplemental material. I would’ve liked to have heard Scorsese explain himself, but I guess that’ll be left for some future Schickel documentary.
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON
hatched by: Larry David and others
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Special Features
Interviews
Curb Your Enthusiasm fired a shot into the mainstream by staging a Seinfeld reunion. Throughout the seventh season, you get to see how desperate Larry has become in a series defined by futility. The season started off strong with Jeff Garlin mounting Super Dave’s mentally challenged relative. We learned why bare midriffs are bad business. Hell, there was an even a clear-cut correlation between Larry and the creation of George Costanza. The stuff with Cheryl doesn’t even matter that much anymore. Who cares if she makes Larry more human? I want television’s greatest miserly misanthrope to live forever on HBO.
CADDYSHACK
d. Harold Ramis
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Caddyshack means more to me than Citizen Kane. The cinephiles that take fault with that can shove their copies of Empire up their ass sideways. I don’t speak a lot about dreams and hopes for Caddyshack, but it represents a better time in America. A time when the Irish got off the boats and went to Illinois to work as country club waitstaff. There was a time when Chevy Chase was funny and could actually bag young women. Hell, Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight were still alive. More importantly, it was right before Bill Murray blew up. That moment in time when he was still finding his cinematic niche. Most of the supplemental material are ports from the DVD, but you get a new Biography Channel documentary about the film’s 30th Anniversary.
NOT THE MESSIAH
d. Aubrey Powell
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Special Features
- The Road to the Albert Hall
- Showtime!
- The Bright Side…
- 6 Sing-Along Songs!
Not the Messiah is proof that Eric Idle is the George Lucas of the Monty Python troupe. Sure, it’s fun to revisit classic moments and share bits with friends. It’s just that it’s time to move the fuck on. Idle leads some friends in a delightful oratorio of the Python troupe’s best film. It’s a delightful attempt to cash in on the Python 40th Anniversary Spectacular, but it leaves me wondering about genre material overload. I can’t really say that I remember when it used to be a geek badge of honor to dig Python. By the time I hit High School, the Python films were required viewing among the cinegeek crowd. When you had 10-15 years to that, you’ve got a generation that’s now seeing Python as this nostalgic commodity. A property that has been traded in for cool until it becomes tired material for the old. A good portion of the CHUD community will check it out, but it doesn’t add up to anything important. This film just happens.
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