DVD Releases

The Weinstein Company will release Jet Li’s The Enforcer in a Special Collector’s Edition DVD on Tuesday, February 10, along with a variety of new bonus features including interviews with the producer, former child star Tse Miu and the villain of the picture, Ken Lo – as well as a feature commentary.

What The Weinstein Company really should have done instead is included a Cantonese audio track so I wouldn’t have had to sludge through a poorly dubbed English version.

Yes, this special collector’s edition is so special that it doesn’t even include the original audio. For someone who has never seen The Enforcer before, like me, it doesn’t do much to win me over by forcing me to listen to dubbed audio, something I vowed never to do after sitting through one too many cringe-inducing Jackie Chan dubs. Dubbing automatically pisses me off, especially when the voice-over actors speak non-accented English. At least have Chinese people with Chinese-accents do the voices!

In reaction to the lack of its original Cantonese track, The Weinstein Company released this statement:

Dragon Dynasty strives to provide fans with only the highest quality DVD releases, including restored video and audio and extensive never-before-seen bonus features created exclusively for the label.

Though no usable version of the original Cantonese-language track was available in time for this release, every effort was made to bring together the best elements in the world in creating the greatest version of The Enforcer ever experienced on DVD in the U.S.

My reaction to this: then don’t release the DVD until you have that audio track available. I thought we were well past the day of dubbing movies, or at least not giving the viewers a choice. Dubbing erases an actors’ performance and reduces the picture to a cheesy mockery of its former self. It’s preposterous that the studio would provide a version like this to Jet Li fans.

As for the movie itself, The Enforcer is just OK. Had I watched the original Cantonese version, I might have thought differently, but with a bunch of English actors providing their voices, most of the dialogue in the movie comes off as overly cheesy and ridiculous. Some of the dialogue, frankly, is painful to listen to.

Beyond the audio issues, however, the movie does suffer from a few unintentionally goofy moments. Some of the wire work at the end, where Jet Li is throwing his kung fu son at bad guys and then withdrawing him with a piece of rope, is funny but completely stupid. The son should also have been brain dead a few times over by the end, yet he always manages to come back to life even after being declared dead by a surgeon. My favorite is that after the boy “dies,” his dad’s first reaction is that, “We need to get him out of here!” rather than to set him down and give him immediate CPR. It’s just little things like this that add up to make the movie look sort of foolish.

That being said, there are some excellent action scenes. The final climax is non-stop and enjoyable, with some good, gritty fighting and stunts. For Jet Li fans, this is more than enough.

When all is said and done, The Enforcer comes off as a lesser version of Infernal Affairs (or The Departed, for that matter), with some good action but a plot full of holes. Unfortunately, without being able to watch a subtitled version of the picture, I can’t give a very good assessment. I’m still amazed that The Weinstein Company would release a movie on DVD without its original audio track.

Even though I am hesitant about how the new Sci-Fi Channel drama Caprica is going to be compared to Battlestar Galactica, I must say I’m starting to look forward to the new series. Luckily, we won’t have to wait long to find out if it’s any good, as Sci-Fi announced that the two-hour pilot will be released on DVD months before it is to premiere on television. Caprica isn’t scheduled to debut until 2010, but we’ll get to see what it’s like on April 21, 2009. It will also be available online through specific partners, for a fee.

This move makes sense in so many ways. While Caprica is already highly anticipated, releasing this movie so shortly after the end of Battlestar Galactica allows Sci-Fi to maximize the exposure to its new show, build hype and also make some money off it long before it was ever supposed to. Sci-Fi has done a wonderful job of taking advantage of its viewers’ wallets, as evidenced by their half-season releases of BSG (not to mention that they make advertising dollars off all the other crap they have on the station).

Soul Men comes to DVD next Tuesday, and of three big names in the film – Bernie Mac, Samuel L. Jackson and Isaac Hayes – only Jackson lived to see this comedy released to theaters.

I’m not sure that Jackson was the lucky one.

After all, Jackson most likely attended the premiere, which means that he had to be embarrased in front of everyone when he saw the final product. Soul Men is pretty disastrous, and is definitely not the way Bernie Mac would have wanted to go out.

Read my full Soul Men movie review here.

One of my most anticipated movies of 2008, Blindness is directed by Fernando Meirelles, the man behind such visually stimulating films as The Constant Gardener and City of God. Given his stunning resume, Blindness looked like a sure lock for one of the best movies of the year. Starring Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore, the movie is about a horrifying virus that spreads throughout the country, causing everyone – except for Moore’s character – to go blind. That’s pretty bad ass.

Unfortunately, Blindness isn’t nearly as good as I was expecting. Decent, yes, but the film never fully clicks. Some of the character reactions and plot points don’t make sense. Most shockingly, the film is visually dull. Maybe all of those protesters outside the theater stating, “Blindness is not bad,” or something could have saved their breath. While I’d still recommend the movie to people who want something different, it’s not nearly as good as it could have been.

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I love movies. I really love movies. I love watching them, I love playing them, and I love stroking them. Wait, what? Ignore that last part. Getting back on track, as much as I love movies, I’m really not a huge fan of bonus features. It’s not that there aren’t some really good bonus features that get packaged with DVDs – it’s just that the movies themselves are enough for me. The only reason bonus features are included on discs are to sell more – which is fine – but they are, in fact, bonus. And unlike bonus questions on a test that can raise your grade from a B+ to an A-, bonus questions don’t elevate a movie from one plateau to the next.

Given that, I was actually happy to see that W., the George Bush docu-drama from famed director Oliver Stone, had only one real bonus feature. That’s not to say I’m going to recommend the DVD, but when I can knock off a DVD review in a matter of minutes… that’s just awesome.

W. itself is a decent movie, with strong performances from some of the actors (Josh Brolin and Richard Dreyfuss as Bush and Cheney, respectively) and others that are just plain strange (Thandie Newton as a nasally Condoleeza). The movie works for the most part, even though it clips over some important aspects of the Bush presidency and would probably have worked better had it been made a couple years from now, when the taste of Bush is more of a nagging thought than a cringing reminder of what has happened to our country. You can read my full W. movie review here.

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It’s funny: of all the successful comedies of the year, one of the funniest, which combined the likes of Seth Rogen with the director who made his kind of comedy possible in the first place – Kevin Smith – flopped. One shouldn’t have been surprised, given that Kevin Smith has hardly been a box office phenom and that The Weinstein Company wasn’t even allowed to market its film title in many venues, but given that Seth Rogen has been in one hit after another – the sudden failure of Zack and Miri Make a Porno struck me by surprise.

And, given that it is one of the most hilarious movies of 2008, I was disappointed. Nevertheless, the movie should make plenty of money this week as it spins its way onto DVD. Those who haven’t seen this movie should, and those who have already seen it should definitely consider buying the 2-Disc Edition, as it is packed with bonus features.

Most notably, Zack and Miri Make a Porno includes over an hour and a half of deleted scenes. Some of them are alternates, but these deleted scenes give you a sense of just how much improv was conducted by the cast. There are plenty of hilarious lines (“what do scrotums taste like?”) and exchanges, especially between Rogen and Justin Long. An entire movie could be made just around Justin Long’s character – if you liked his brief involvement in Zack and Miri, you’ll definitely get a kick out of the deleted scenes.

Beyond those, there’s a pretty strong making-of featurette, which goes through every stage of filming, from casting to filming to getting the film past the MPAA. The making-of documentary is impressively in-depth and honest, and well worth watching.

A series of webisodes are included, some of which are better than others. One with Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen exchanging barbs is pretty good (“What’s Jersey Girl?” “Let’s not talk about it.”).

Some footage from Comic-Con 2008 puts the cast altogether in an audience-driven interview setting. There are no major takeaways here, but it’s not worthless, either.

The outtakes and bloopers are surprisingly disappointing.

Lastly, Seth Rogen and Justin Long face off in an improvisation battle. Most of this can be found in the deleted scenes, but it’s still pretty disappointing.

Between the hours of deleted scenes and the making-of featurette, Zack and Miri Make a Porno 2-Disc Edition is well worth buying. The movie itself is hilarious and surprisingly sweet, so the combination of the film and bonus features make for one of the first great packages of 2009.

Back in 2006, when A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints was first released, the movie was a surprisingly decent flick with a recognizable but not-staggering cast. Flash forward three years and the movie has changed significantly: it’s a surprisingly decent flick with an A-list cast.

Back in 2006, the movie starred Robert Downey, Jr., who was still was looking for his comeback role, and Shia LaBeouf, whose biggest film to date was a role in Bobby. Channing Tatum was a force to be reckoned with, but the only place you would have seen him was a dance movie called Step Up. Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Disturbia and Eagle Eye later, however, and you suddenly have two A-list actors who have strung together a series of massive hits. Tatum still hasn’t broken out, but most people know who he is.

In other words, given the quality of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, this movie may actually have received some promotional backing had it been released more recently. It’s amazing what a few years make.

The movie is a flashback/flashforward story of three friends who grew up in a tough neighborhood in Queens. All troublemakers as teenagers, they diverged at adulthood – one was able to escape the neighborhood, while the others fell victim to it. Chazz Palminteri, Dianne Wiest and Rosario Dawson also star.

You can read my original A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints movie review here (in which I say, it “offer[s] some fine performances from some up-and-coming stars”).

This Tuesday, February 3, 2009, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is re-released in an all-new Limited Edition DVD set. By set, I mean one disc, but it sounds better that way. Usually I criticize studios for re-releasing films for the umpteenth time just to make a buck, but given the suddenly changed star power of many of its stars, it makes sense to try to get this picture in front of a larger audience – after all, most people haven’t heard of this film, let alone seen it.

The Limited Edition includes these bonus features:

• Commentary with director Dito Montiel and editor Jake Pushinsky
• The Making-Of Documentary
  The making-of featurette primarily revolves around writer/director Dito Montiel (who is played by LaBeouf and Downey, Jr.) and how he came to make this movie. It also involves several interviews with the casting director, and their determination to cast on acting ability rather than star power. There are some interesting moments, and the featurette feels authentic (not promotional), but there’s nothing spellbinding her. The featurette just moves along without providing us an “a-ha” moment or even any stimulating interviews.
• Alternate Endings and Openings
  There are about ten alternate endings and openings provided here, all of them of considerable quality. This is an impressive collection.
• Deleted Scenes
  There are also several very good deleted scenes; I haven’t seen this many well-done deleted scenes packaged together in a long time. They were apparently cut for pacing and storytelling reasons, and not due to lack of quality.
• Rooftop Scene
  Dito Montiel directs and acts in this alternate scene with actress Helen Dallas; it’s a riveting little piece of stagework, and well worth watching.
• Full Monty Interview
  Well worth your time. Just kidding. 30 seconds with an old guy. Stimulating.
• Young Laurie Audition played by Diana Carcamo
  A pretty good screen test further exemplifies the raw talent that can be found in this film.
• Trailers and Previews

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is a pretty good movie with intense performances and a worthwhile, gritty story. Certainly recommended.

OK, I’ll admit it: I’d never seen Mary Poppins. In fact, I didn’t even know what it was about. I knew that some lady named Julie Andrews was the star – and of course I know who Dick Van Dyke is – but other than that, I heard something about it being a cheesy combination of live-action musical and cartoons. It sounded pretty damn stupid, and when I actually watched this so-called classic Disney film, it confirmed my beliefs: completely – and I mean completely – overrated. I don’t get what people like about this film, and will never watch it again. When I will have children, I will ensure they never, ever see Mary Poppins.

OK, I’ll admit it: that first paragraph is a complete lie. Mary Poppins is one of the biggest family classics of all time, and it deserves to be. It stands the test of time incredibly well, thanks to the enjoyable songs and overall goofiness picture, combined with authentic performances from everyone involved – including the child actors.

To go on raving about Mary Poppins is rather wasteful, so I’ll shift my attention to the 45th Anniversary 2-Disc set that came to DVD earlier this week. The DVD contains a variety of bonus features, and I’ll admit it (for real this time): it’s a pretty good collection of items.

The quantity is good, and the quality is good, and both kids and adults should find something to enjoy here. The one that stands out the most to me is a “musical reunion with Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Richard Sherman.” While there’s nothing remarkable here, it’s nice to see Van Dyke and Andrews back together again, singing songs and talking about their experiences.

Speaking of Van Dyke and Andrews, it’s nice to see actors not completely consumed with themselves, even after all these years. These days, if an actor does a big film and is asked to do a reunion interview some years later, I would expect that 50% of the time they would turn it down. In this collection, both Van Dyke and Andrews show up in a variety of special features in their modern-day forms (still looking surprisingly good) – whether it be a new Mary Poppins short (yes, Julie Andrews is back as Mary Poppins!) or a making-of featurette.

Extending from my complaint about modern actors, it’s also impressive to see footage from the original premiere. The interviews seem like something straight out of a Disney movie, and yet they’re sincere. Van Dyke especially just seems happy to be there, and he waves at his baby girl like a goofball. Compare this to modern day premiere or red carpet events and… well, it’s hard to see the similarities.

Less interesting to me were the featurettes about the Broadway version. I didn’t find these all that stimulating, though people with more interest in theater should find something to enjoy. The Broadway elements are extensive – they just didn’t do it for me.

The Mary Poppins: 45th Anniversary DVD has a variety of other features, including the original theatrical trailer, makeup tests with Dick Van Dyke, some additional music numbers, among other things.  All in all, it’s an impressive set of bonus features – and while I have a pile of other movies sitting around waiting to be reviewed, I couldn’t help but stick this movie in. The music is great, the visuals stand up surprisingly well and it’s just an all-around entertaining movie.

To be honest, I just had a single glass of wine and for some reason it’s hitting me harder than I would expect… so I’m going to glaze over the rest of the features. In all fairness, big fans of the movie -

This will be a short movie review, simply because there is little to say. For those of you who have been reading my blog with some consistency, you’ve noticed that I’ve been slowly working my way through the many classic Audrey Hepburn movies, that I, as a 20-something male, never got around to seeing. This series of reviews is no coincidence, of course, because Paramount has been releasing Hepburn’s works in the form of new Centennial Collection DVDs.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the fifth DVD release in this line, and it didn’t come a moment too soon. After all, I hold Breakfast at Tiffany’s as one of the best romantic comedies ever made, and one that all future films should be compared against.

The movie works on many levels: Hepburn is fantastic and super hot in it; the chemistry between her and George Peppard is great; the story is fun and more than stands the test of time; the movie is romantic and funny all at once; and so on and so forth.

I told you this was going to be a short review. Analysing films that I really like is always rather boring, because anything you write in attempt to fill out the review ends up being filler for the baseline fact: the movie is damn good. So, why waste words?

I’m done.

Seriously.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is great, and if you’re young like me and haven’t seen the movie, you should check it out. Especially you ladies, because then maybe you wouldn’t go flocking to such pictures as Bride Wars, which looked funny but rather disparaging to the fairer sex from the previews.

God, you’re still here? The 2-disc DVD set includes commentary by producer Richard Shepherd and a variety of featurettes, including:

• A Golightly Gathering
• Henry Mancini: More Than Music
• Mr. Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective
• The Making of a Classic
• It’s So Audrey: A Style Icon
• Behind the Gates: The Tour
• Brilliance in a Blue Box
• Audrey’s Letter to Tiffany
• Original Theatrical Trailer

So, if you’re an Audrey Hepburn fan, this new DVD version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s may be worth purchasing.

Kate Beckinsale. Kate Beckinsale in tight, black leather. Kate Beckinsale sucking blood and making nooky with a hairy vampire. This stuff sells tickets, folks.

The first Underworld is the perfect example of glitz over substance, but a fast-paced storyline, lots of action, R-rated gore and yes, Kate Beckinsale in black leather, made it a worthwhile entry in the action-horror genre, if there is such a thing. Unfortunately, such a film inevitably led to a sequel, which tried to be bigger and better but suffered from the typical sequel issues. Underworld: Evolution was entertaining, but overblown.

Now, with the release of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – which replaces Kate Beckinsale with Rhona Mitra – Sony is bringing Underworld and Underworld: Evolution back to DVD in an all-new Double Feature DVD set, which includes the unrated director’s cut of the original film (15 extra minutes, give or take) and its sequel.

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Fox’s hit TV show 24 starts today, January 11th, so it’s no surprise that its main character, Jack Bauer, is getting three straight days of action. Two hours of 24 on Sunday, two more hours on Monday, and then, on Tuesday, Kiefer Sutherland’s horror movie Mirrors arrives on DVD.

Mirrors is a creepy movie, for obvious reasons. Think of all of the horror movies you’ve watched in your lifetime, of the good ones and the bad ones: one of the most reliable scare tactic in any of these films is the predictable yet effective mirror sequence… you know, where the character goes to pop a couple pills in the bathroom, closes the cabinet door and – bam! – something is behind the character, waiting to strike. You know it’s coming, yet is scares you nonetheless.

The first horror movie I ever remember watching – in elementary school – was Candyman. Say his name six times into the mirror and you are one dead bastard. For years, I never went into the bathroom when the lights were off – I snaked my hand inside to find the light switch. I finally overcame this fear when I went to college.

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This February, audiences will be greeted to an all-new 3D adventure in the form of My Bloody Valentine 3D, a remake of the 1981 horror film My Bloody Valentine, which is about a crazy miner who goes around murdering people.

In anticipation of the new 3D film, it’s no surprise that Paramount and Lionsgate have released a new Special Edition version of the original “classic.” Having never seen the film before, I didn’t know what to expect. After all, it looks and sounds like a rather cheesy and unoriginal slasher flick… and, guess what? It is!

Thankfully, My Bloody Valentine is also entertaining. There isn’t a clever moment in the entire picture, save for the ending; people get picked off one by one, the local sheriff runs around like an idiot and a bunch of young people sneak off to screw around only to get impaled in one way or another (or get their faces boiled out or their hearts ripped out). The movie isn’t suspenseful or scary, as it’s quite clear who will live and who will die. The direction bears the traits of typical B-grade 80′s horror films; not very crisp, not very gritty and not very deep.

Still, if you don’t expect much, you may be pleasantly surprised. There isn’t any nudity, which was a bit of a shocker, but there is a fair amount of gore – and the gore is pretty decent. Furthermore, I really liked one of the final scenes of the movie, where the killer lurks off into the depths of the mines, cackling away. It’s a creepy moment that resonated well.

Compared to the classic slasher films we all know and love, My Bloody Valentine doesn’t stand out in any way or form, but it’s fast-paced, entertaining and relatively gory.

The DVD allows you to watch either the regular theatrical version or the extended version. However, please take note: the DVD did not, for some reason, work in my Denon DVD player; I had to watch this on my computer.

In my continued case to see all things Audrey Hepburn, I popped Funny Face into my DVD player today. Thankfully, Paramount Pictures has been releasing Hepburn films over the last few months under its Centennial Edition banner, and Funny Face is the latest to be re-released. Having just watched Sabrina, Roman Holiday and, of course, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, my expectations were set pretty high – little did I know that Funny Face was an annoying musical that definitely does not stand the test of time.

Funny Face is about a fashion magazine photographer (Fred Astaire) who, in order to get a perfect shot, storms into an old bookstore to perform a photo shoot – taking the poor bookkeeper (Hepburn) by surprise. Though she has a “funny face,” Mr. Astaire sees something in the young women and selects her to be his next model. Hepburn is swept away to Paris for her big premiere, though her intentions are more to philosophize with Parisians than walk down a runway. At the same time, an awkward relationship forms between the two.

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The funny Judd Apatow action-comedy Pineapple Express arrives on DVD this Tuesday, and comes packed with more than just a dime bag of bonus features.

Seth Rogen and James Franco star as two potheads who become involved in a murder plot, forcing them to go on the run and, eventually, to attack the drugdealers who are hunting them head on. The pairing is a match made in heaven, as Rogen once again shows he has great comic timing and Franco turns in a Golden Globe-nominated performance (no kidding) with stupid grins and paranoid delusions. A great supporting cast also helps.

The movie itself benefits from the influence of an indie director, as it doesn’t become an idiotic pothead movie a la Dude, Where’s My Car? Instead, Pineapple Express is an authentic action-comedy that just happens to be about a bunch of idiotic characters. You can read Robert Bell’s Pineapple Express movie review, though I liked the picture a little more than he did.

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On January 16th, Battlestar Galactica returns with its final season, the end of a glorious run. BSG is easily one of the best sci-fi shows ever made, and one of the best dramas, too. It’s had its ups and downs, of course, but even it’s worst episode is better than the best episodes of some pretty decent shows.

If you can’t wait that long, Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0 comes to DVD on January 6th.

Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0 begins with the return of Starbuck, who was assumed dead. Her return is regarded with suspicion, as her death was witnessed and the logical assumption is that she is indeed a Cylon. But Adama puts his faith in her anyway, and lets her set out with a crew of dedicated soldiers to search for Earth, something she realizes she has been dreaming about since she was a child.

Other storylines continue the revelation of the Final Five Cylons, whose destinies are yet to be determined. The defintion of what it is to be human is explored in greater detail, especially when the Cylons fraction, causing a civil war. Adama, President Roslin and others find themselves forced to make a huge leap of faith: join forces with one faction to eliminate the other, all in the quest to discover Earth.

BSG: Season 4.0 is as rich as the other seasons, and its character and story developments continue to expand our expectations and make us question what is right and what is wrong. At the same time, the show also presses further on its ideas of destiny and fate, something I’ve never really liked, at least not when the production is otherwise grounded in reality. While it works, the show’s mysticism continues to irk me some.

Every episode comes with a series of deleted scenes, and also included is the one-off BSG movie Razor (strangely with different, rather rudimentary font and packaging compared to the rest of the discs). Special features include those previously included on the Razor disc that was available to own last year, and a bunch of featurettes and video blogs. The featurettes found on disc four are pretty interesting and include each actor’s perspective on their characters. The Music of Battlestar Galactica is surprisingly funny. I didn’t watch all of the video blogs.

This DVD review is pretty useless, as fans of the show no doubt already have preordered Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0 to own. If you haven’t watched the show, you have to start from Season One, Episode One. BSG is one of the best shows ever made.