THE WEEK OF JULY 20th 2010
GROUP EDITED by: TROY ANDERSON
SECTION by: Troy Anderson
THE LOSERS
Director: Sylvain White
Warner Brothers
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Special Features
- Zoe and the Losers
- Band of Buddies: OPS Training
- The Losers:
Action-Style Storytelling - A First Look at Batman: Under the Red
Hood - Deleted scene
The Losers was a decent flick that had an average theatrical bow. I feel that most of its potential audience will be discovered on Home Video, as most people saw it just to see a flick in the Spring season. The original comic work from Andy Diggle and Jock is handled pretty well by Sylvain White and company. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Chris Evans steal the show, as both actors are showing increasing promise as action leads. However, the same can’t be said for Jason Patric. I can’t think of a mainstream Hollywood villain that has been as full of fail as Patric was in this flick. If you pick up the flick this week, Target is advertising the Blu-Ray combo pack as a 19.99 featured buy. Seeing as how Warner Brothers is starting to package a DVD copy in with their Blu-Ray offerings, it’s a value. I’d recommend giving it a shot. If you’re more into the E-tailer thing, Amazon is sporting a similar deal.
BLACK NARCISSUS: CRITERION COLLECTION
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
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Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, created with the
participation of cinematographer Jack Cardiff and director Michael
Powell’s widow, editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell (with uncompressed
monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition) - Video introduction by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier
- Audio commentary featuring Powell and director Martin Scorsese
- The Audacious Adventurer, a video piece in which Tavernier
discusses the film and Powell - Profile of “Black Narcissus,” a documentary featuring
members of the Archers’ production team - Painting with Light, a documentary on Cardiff’s
Oscar-winning work on Black Narcissus - Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by
critic Kent Jones
Black Narcissus is
about Catholic nuns and their intolerance to local religion. It’s also about Jack Cardiff nailing shots that belong in the realm of Old World Art, rather than Post-War cinema. Hell, it’s also about Deborah Kerr working against all sense of what is to be expected and offering up something beautiful. Shot entirely in a British studio, the Archers take the viewer to another world. A world where the weary British are starting to lose their grasp on the Empire, while the natives rise up. But, they’re not aggressively rising up. The local prince a.k.a. Black Narcissus stands up against these authority figures and reminds them of their failings. Christ was a man, not a perfect figure. The prince wants these nuns to forget about their ties to the Western world and open their minds to the truths found in the forgotten corners of an Old Palace.
THE RUNAWAYS
d.
Floria Sigismondi
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SPECIAL FEATURES
- Commentary with Joan Jett, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning
- Plugged In: Making the Film
The Runaways is this weird sort of white-washing that people have come to expect from rock bio-pics. Still, no one could’ve prepared me for how well Michael Shannon nailed his performance as Kim Fowley. Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Maeby Funke and the others did well as the titular band. But, it’s not like I’m going to head out and buy CDs from the girls. It’s really kind of hard to put a finger on the movie. It was full of these semi-cool moments that never really went anywhere. Elvis’s granddaughter also shows up as Dakota Fanning’s twin sister. I found to be quite distracting, as any descendant of Elvis is never going to resemble Dakota Fanning. It would be like putting a Lincoln impersonator in blackface and calling them 19th Century Obama. It doesn’t work.
THE RED SHOES: CRITERION COLLECTION
d. Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger
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Special
Features
- New high-definition master from the award-winning 2009 digital
restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
edition) - Introductory restoration demonstration with filmmaker Martin
Scorsese - Audio commentary by film historian Ian Christie, featuring
interviews with stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer
Jack Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale, and Scorsese - Profile of “The Red Shoes,” a documentary on the making of
the film, featuring interviews with members of the production team - Video interview with director Michael Powell’s widow, Thelma
Schoonmaker Powell, from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, in which she
discusses Powell, the film, and the restoration - Audio recording of actor Jeremy Irons reading excerpts from Powell
and Pressburger’s novelization of The Red Shoes - Collection of rare publicity stills and behind-the-scenes photos
- Gallery of items from Scorsese’s personal collection of The Red
Shoes memorabilia - The “Red Shoes” Sketches, an animated film of Hein
Heckroth’s painted storyboards, with the Red Shoes ballet as an
alternate angle - Audio recording of Irons reading the original Hans Christian
Andersen fairy tale “The Red Shoes” - Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by
critic David Ehrenstein and a description of the restoration by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt
The Red Shoes was one of the first Criterion DVDs that I ever bought. Now, they have decided to revisit the older title with a Blu-Ray edition. Gone is the non-anamorphic transfer and slight edge enhancement from the past disc. I’m a huge fan of the Archers, so I’m quite familiar with the love shown to The Red Shoes. However, I still feel that The Tales of Hoffmann is the better directed movie. A lot of the special features are ported over from the DVD, but there’s still some new material. A lot of it has to do with the Scorsese efforts to remaster the film and his personal connection to Thelma Schoonmaker Powell. If you haven’t seen the film before, I can’t recommend running out to blind buy it. The ballet sequences require a lot from the casual viewer and I feel it might be too taxing on the B-Movie Action crowd.
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