The Dead One - 2007
The good news? Billy Drago! In his first transgendered appearance. The bad news? Lots of Spanish with no subtitles. This movie has a novel plot, however. Unique superhero/comic character. It's almost a gentle superhero movie.
Commentary with " El Muerto" (the comic this movie is based on) creator Javier Hernandez and writer/director Brian Cox. It's a nice class on Aztec religion. Movie was made in "30 odd days". Interesting how different the development of characters is between comic and the movie. Alas, there's no technical details at all.
Other Extras include a Making Of, that's not really. More like "cast & crew explain the story". I hate that. Also Fun on the Set (outtakes & behind the scenes), and a featurette on the Day of the Dead.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Messengers - 2007
Produced by Sam Raimi, so I have high hopes. Budget of $16M, per IMDB. It's a haunted farm movie, instead of a haunted house. The high point is the Smoking Man from the X-Files (William B. Davis). SFX not so hot.
Commentary with Kristen Stewart (Jess) and guests. Interestingly enough, this was shot on the exact same location as Terry Gilliam's Tideland. Overall, this was a pretty dull commentary.
Other extras include Exhuming the Messengers, which was fairly interesting. East meets West. The Pang brothers vision changes the script.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Dark City - 1998
Ho, boy! This is Mind-F central. Good cast too. Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly. And the guy who's playing Mr Hand (Richard O'Brien) played Riff Raff in Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Very cool, very cerebral. An excellent movie. Thanks to Thomas Deja and Derrick Ferguson, from Better N The Dark (http://betterinthedark.podomatic.com/) for this recommendation.
Commentary #1 is by Roger Ebert, who obviously LOVES this movie. He spends half the movie interpreting the symbology of the movie, and the other half about it's technical excellence.
Commentary #2 is with Director Alex Proyas, writers Lem Dobbs & David S. Goyer, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski , and Prod Designer Patrick Tatopoulos . Much more technical.
Other extras a text review by Neil Gaimon of the movie. A comparison between the movie and Metropolis, also text. And a Filmography of cast.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Cat O' Nine Tails - 1971
Karl Malden as a blind investigator, and James Franciscus as a cop. I'll be honest, this was not the best Dario Argento movie I've seen. I'll take Suspiria or Creepers. No subtitles, no commentary, the only other extra is a set of intervies with Dario, writer Dardano Sacchetti , and composer Ennio Morricone. The writer would go on to write a TON of italian horror for Bava, Fulchi, Dario. 75 writing credits. These interviews were historical and fairly interesting.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Severance - 2006
Okay, I'm gonna guess this is a comedy, since the music is wildly inappropriate. And I have to admit that it's better than the beginning would lead one to believe. Basically, this is a humorous Hostel or High Tension. A pretty good offering from a German/UK co-production, even with subtitles.
Commentary features director Christopher Smith, actors Danny Dyer, Tim McInnerny, Andy Nyman, Babou Ceesay, and Production Designer John Frankish and writer James Moran . And boy, did all these folks have a great time. This is a good & fun commentary.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Phantasm III - 1994
An excellent continuation. Now I own all Phantasm movies except II, which everyone hates (mainly because someone different plays Mike.)
Commentary is just Angus Scrimm and A. Michael Baldwin. I sure wonder why director Don Coscarelli isn't involved. Baldwin is kinda of ass in the first half. Finally, towards the end, he talks a little tech.
Other extras include an unnarrated Behind the scenes (10 minutes of video footage actually from behind the scenes), Deleted Scenes (all of 12 seconds, no loss).
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - 2007
The first half is awful, the second half is pretty good. Plot has holes in it so large The Thing could do cartwheels through. (mostly from where they deviate from the comics. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would never allow this kind of crap into their comic). Everything up to and including the wedding scene is just embarrassing. Action scenes are well done, but that's not much, since every movie has decent action scenes.
Commentary #1 has director Tim Story by himself. Lots of nice Jack Kirby references. More philosophy of why choices were made. Not nearly as technical as I'd like.
Commentary #2 has producer Avi Arad, writer Don Payne, and editors Peter S. Elliot & William Hoy . Almost the exact same again. No technical, all why we changed this or that. Glad I only rented this one.
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