DVD Releases

Eagle Eye is the perfect B-grade thriller, a fast-paced, excited and well budgeted picture with quality acting and enough chaos to satisfy most fans. It is also ridiculous at times, forcing you to stretch your imagination far beyond what you expected. Still, if you accept that, the movie is pretty damn entertaining.

The 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, however, is not. The Special Edition is not very special at all, as it contains just a few mediocre bonus features that no one really wants to see. The Alternate Ending, which is short and to-the-point, is okay – but thank God they didn’t use it in the theatrical release.  However, the series of featurettes included on the discs are dull, dull, dull.

There’s a making-of featurette, which is more promotional than anything else and only provides a few real glimpses at the actual production of the movie; another one looks at filming in Washington, D.C. That’s not very exotic at all. Yet another is about the reality of the world we live in, and how it’s not that farfetched that we can be tracked most of the time; interesting subject, but there’s just too little real content to make this worthwhile. There’s also an interview between the director and his mentor, but I lost interest early on. Ironically, this one may be the most authentic of all of the bonus features, though it was a mistake to have the two just talking in a room; instead, they should have had a moderator to help lead the men down a more interesting path.

There’s also a gag real and some deleted scenes, but both features are pretty standard.

Eagle Eye is a fun movie, but the DVD bonus features are completely worthless.

Of all the films to be released in 2008, Burn After Reading is one of the more divisive of the group. Some people loved the movie, some hated it, and a few, like me, were somewhere in the middle. It’s definitely a picture of extremes, as the humor and rather aimless story went right over some people’s heads, while others recognized it as pretty standard Coen Brothers comedy. Funny enough, while sitting in the theater, you could actually identify the sections of the theater who got it: while I was laughing, two-thirds of the theater was silent. Didn’t they know what they had gotten themselves into?

In their defense, Burn After Reading is a bit aimless and not always spot on in the humor department; there are stretches where the movie isn’t that funny, and others where it is. The thing is: this is how the Coen Brothers do comedy. They don’t write a film to have every line of dialogure be hilarious; they are very up-and-down comedic writers, and I have to imagine it’s intentional. If you can’t handle that, don’t watch the movie.

Of course, for those of you who didn’t see Burn After Reading in theaters, the movie comes to DVD this Sunday, December 21st. Unfortunately, the bonus features suck. There are only three, none of which are particularly good. Finding the Burn is called the “making-of Burn After Reading,” but it has to be one of the shortest making-of featurettes I’ve seen in a long time. In other words: there ain’t much here.

DC Insiders Run Amuck looks at each individual character and their nuances, et cetera. This featurette talks about Brad Pitt’s hairstyle, the efforts needed to make George Clooney (and Pitt) look like morons, and the reasons that the cast, including Frances McDormand and John Malkovich, took the roles. There are a few funny parts in here as the actors joke about their characters, but once again the featurette is short and not very valuable.

Lastly, we have Welcome Back, George, which interviews the Coen Brothers and George Clooney about his third movie with the directors. Basically, it talks about how they love to write stupid parts for him, and how Clooney just accepts that. The featurette is mildly funny, but once again way too short.

When it takes longer to write the DVD review than it does to watch the DVD bonus features, you know you have a lame DVD on your hands. And the Burn After Reading DVD is just that.

I received a copy of In Hell in the mail this last week, as the 2003 direct-to-DVD Jean-Claude Van Damme is being re-released in a new limited edition. Why such a film deserves a re-release only a few years later is beyond me, but then again, it gave me the opportunity to watch this incredible, incredible film.

Okay, “incredible” might be a bit of an overstatement. In Hell isn’t as bad as you’d expect for a post-career peak Van Damme, but it’s surprisingly dull and uninteresting for the most part. The movie is about a guy who sentenced to life in an Eastern European prison for killing his wife’s murderer, and in this prison, the warden pits prisoners against one another. It sounds like the perfect opportunity for Van Damme to kick some serious ass.

Or, spend half his time sitting in a crap-filled prison cell trying to kill himself – and then training his body – while watching a moth fly around his head. Van Damme doesn’t get a real fight in until an hour in, and there are only one or two good sequences after that. In Hell, despite its title and premise, is much more of a character drama than one would expect; and not a very good one.

In Hell really isn’t that bad, but is it worth watching? No. It’s one of those many films that try to do too much and end up failing in every regard. Part of it wants to be a typical Van Damme action movie, but it lacks the amount of action, violence and gore to make it worth it. On the flip side, it also tries to be deeper than the typical prison fight, yet it just doesn’t have the script, actors or direction to pull it off. In other words, it’s an action movie without action, and a drama without drama.

Incredible.

A week from now, Jennifer Connelly and Keanu Reeves will storm onto theaters in the almost-expected remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. The 2008 version looks to be drastically different from the 1951 classic, but that might not be that bad of an idea.Smartly, 20th Century Fox is re-releasing the original in an all-new 2-Disc Special Edition, which includes director commentary and several new featurettes. However, I needed to watch the movie first. According to my roommate, I watched this movie once before in high school, but if I did, I must have been sleeping. In other words, I essentially watched The Day the Earth Stood Still for the first time tonight, and while I respected the quality of the film, it is definitely showing its age.

Aside from the super-cheap robot outfit, the 1951 film has surprisingly excellent visuals, as minimalistic as they are. The spaceship still looks great, as do the laser effects. Furthermore, the story still holds its own, supported by quality acting and a well-written screenplay.

Unfortunately, for a 26-year old, this sci-fi movie is just a tad boring. OK, maybe boring isn’t the right word, but the movie is so dialogue-driven that there isn’t much excitement. People who grew up loving this film – my mother included – will scoff at such rstrongarks, but The Day the Earth Stood Still was clearly made in a time before sci-fi films about aliens threatening to destroy the world needed to be rich with excitement. This is all fine and good, but I was expecting something a little more… animated.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a good movie, but if you didn’t grow up enjoying the film, it might come off as a little dated.

As an American, I have proudly watched hours upon hours of television my entire life. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was at least listening to television while still in the womb. From The Wonder Years to Darkwing Duck, from Happy Days to Mork and Mindy, from Law and Order to Matlock, I have seen some great shows over the years. In fact, when I look back on all the shows I have seen over the years (taking into consideration the ones I have completely forgotten about), I’m actually not sure how I was able to have a social life growing up gien all the hours I put into the tube.

The 21st century has brought a slew of great new shows, some which have been embraced by audiences, others that have not been. The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Carnivale, The Shield and many others are already classics in my opinion, but do you notice something about that trend? (hint: they all are on Cable TV) It’s true: Generally, cable channels are developing better television shows than the networks are, for a variety of reasons: expectations for audiences are less and, more importantly, there are less regulations as specified by the evil FCC.

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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian rides onto DVD today, and with it a good chunk of bonus features.

Prince Caspian moved the lucrative franchise out of its December time slot to May, where it stumbled mightily. A bit lost among bigger, more adult fare and lacking a major Christian holiday to play to churches, not to mention that many people, including myself, came away with mediocre reactions to the first film, the movie put the franchise on shaky ground – however, Voyage of the Dawn Treader is moving forward as planned.

Nevertheless, Prince Caspian is surprisingly entertaining and action-packed film that pushes its PG rating to the max while still holding true to its family roots. A vast improvement over the first film in terms of excitement and suspense, I highly recommend Prince Caspian. You can read my full Prince Caspian movie review here.

In other exciting news, I’m currently watching the bonus features for the movie as I fly home from Los Angeles. Having just reviewed the Wanted DVD, this one shows the difference between mediocre bonus features and good ones; the Prince Caspian bonus features are much more in-depth, informative and interesting.

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The Angelina Jolie/James McAvoy action flick Wanted comes to DVD this Tuesday. The hit film, which also stars Morgan Freeman, is an exciting, visually refreshing picture from the director of Night Watch, who’s not exactly known for stories entirely based in reality. Bullets curve, assassins drive cars at ridiculous angles and bodies fall freely, and it’s all a lot of fun.

The movie falters in the end as the story hits us with a less-than-satisfying twist ending (and a not-as-action-packed-as-expected climax), but overall, as a mindless action flick, it’s top notch. Based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar, Wanted has a unique blend of comedy and suspense, and the result is an entertaining story and screenplay. The beginning comes off as a mix between Office Space and The Matrix, and if you ever dreamed of such a combination, you’re not the only one.

OK, maybe you are, but it still works surprisingly well.

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The Longshots arrives on DVD on Tuesday, December 2nd. The movie stars Ice Cube and the girl from Akeelah and the Bee as a coach and female football quarterback respectively, who carry a rather crappy team to the playoffs. The family sports movie, directed by Fred Durst of all people, is based on a true story.

I’ve written a movie review for the film, so the only logical next step is to… read my Longshots movie review.

Alternatively, if you’re too lazy to read, you can instead enter to win a Longshots DVD.

In my quest to watch all things Audrey Hepburn, I have moved onto Sabrina, another widely known classic. A big fan of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Roman Holiday, I went into Sabrina, a rather silly romantic comedy, with high expectations… and unfortunately, Sabrina didn’t quite meet them.

Sabrina is still a good movie, and how could it not be starring Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn and William Holden. Bogart and Holden play two rich brothers who, for most of their life, have all but ignored the existence of young Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn), the daughter of their family’s chauffeur. Bogart is all work and Holden all play, but both find a commonality when Sabrina returns from Paris suddenly all grown up and sophisticated – and gorgeous – and realize that they are both head over heels in love with her. Family tension and crazy antics ensue as the two brothers fight to win her love.

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The sure-fire victor of the 2009 Academy Awards, Pixar’s Wall-E flies onto DVD this Tuesday, bringing with it one of the most ambitious, creative and visually stunning films ever made. Last year’s Oscar-winner Ratatouille was downright amazing for these same reasons (my roommate prefers the rat film), but

Wall-E managed to make a likable character and a smart, entertaining story with minimal dialogue. For a big budget film – a kid’s movie, no less – to feature almost no English is downright risky, but if there’s any studio that would take on such a task, it is Pixar.

As you can tell, I’m a huge fan of Wall-E; I doubt it will receive a Best Picture nomination as has been rumored, but we shall see. You can read my full Wall-E movie review here.

As for the three-disc DVD, it’s pretty good. The third disc is a digital copy of the film, so that doesn’t count, but the second disc is loaded with a good amount of interviews, making-of featurettes, deleted scenes and some family friendly features as well (the disc is split into Humans, for film fans, and Robots, for families).

I am currently watching The Pixar Story, an hour-and-a-half documentary that explores the creation of Pixar and computer animation in general. It’s quite interesting, as the lead animator began at Disney, was fired, and then moved to Lucasarts. From Star Wars to Young Sherlock Holmes (one of my favorites), computer animation begin to grow. Of course, money was an issue, and so Steve Jobs of Apple helped finance the spin-off company Pixar. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, but it’s pretty interesting.

Other features include:

• Deleted scenes
  There’s no real animation here, other than crudely drawn storyboards with music and audio added in for effect. I’m not a big fan of these, but as far as faux deleted scenes go, these are pretty good. It’s interesting to see that the ship’s computer was originally a stand alone robot, not something that is in fact connected to the ship itself.
• BnL Shorts
  This is a video designed for the ship’s captain that explains the brilliance of BnL, the reason for leaving Earth and the responsibilities the captain has for controlling the ship. His hardest task is that he has to clap his hands twice to get his morning coffee. This is pretty funny.
• Featurettes
  There are several behind-the-scenes featurettes that explore various aspects of the film. While each one is short (thankfully), these are pretty insightful as we get to see the thought processes put into the level of detail, the style of animation and so on and so forth. We get to see how Wall-E is inspired after bomb-detonating robots and many others, and, most interesting, the original plans for the film, which involved aliens (no humans) and eventually humans that had digressed into blobs. I’m glad they finally settled on overweight humans, however.
• Family-friendly features. I didn’t explore these too much, but there is one snippet that involves Wall-E being “attacked” by a variety of items including a magnet and vaccuum cleaner. It’s pretty funny, and I’m sure kids will have a blast wth it. There is also a feature where children can select from 30-40 robots seen in the movie and learn a bit more about them.

I also give Disney props for displaying the running time of each feature, so I knew how much time commitment I was putting in. All DVDs should do this.

The Wall-E DVD isn’t anything amazing, but insightful featurettes and a great movie make this a must-buy for all DVD fans.

The Ben Stiller-directed action-comedy Tropic Thunder arrives on DVD this week and is sure to be a big hit. The movie, which got off to a shockingly slow start in theaters, quickly developed into a sleeper hit, based on pretty good word of mouth and a great cast that includes Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise, in the longest and most inspired cameo in years. Still, studio executives had to be expecting more – but DVD sales should make up for some of that.

I have the two-disc Director’s Cut version of Tropic Thunder on my desk, and with it comes several entertaining special features. I haven’t actually watched this new unrated director’s cut just yet (it adds 13 minutes to the film), but I will let you know when I do. Meanwhile, many of the special features are worth seeing, if only for their entertainment value.

Those looking for insightful behind-the-scenes examinations of the making of Tropic Thunder may be disappointed, as the DVD is less concerned with delivering something insightful as it is with being funny. For the most part, the Tropic Thunder features try to make you laugh, and some even interview the cast in character.

Since Tropic Thunder is a movie about a movie, this makes sense. Most of the features are about the making of the movie inside the movie, not about the movie we all went to see. This plays out well. For instance, The Hot LZ Blowing S#%t Up interviews Danny McBride as his character Cody, and he talks about how amazing it was for the crew to just blow into the untouched jungle, remove all the trees and destroy everything in sight in a matter of days.

The Cast of Tropic Thunder is also played out as partially in-character, and at the very least the actors play along in a laugh-out-loud way.

I watched Before the Thunder and Designing the Thunder, but for the life of me cannot remember what those featurettes were about. I believe this were more legit ones, and includes some script readings, casting choices and so on and so forth. There are some good nuggets in here.

Rain of Madness is a particularly funny documentary that plays out like a tragic, behind-the-scenes documentary that looks at what went wrong with the filming of the movie within the movie (did that make sense?). Directed by some British dude (because British narrators are better than anything else), the documentary looks at the problems of the picture and the events that led up to the tragic circumstances to follow. This mockumentary is downright funny at times, as one who didn’t know better could actually take it seriously.

There are some decent deleted and extended scenes as well, and an alternate ending that adds just a little more to the one seen in theaters. Of course, those of you who liked the viral videos that emerged from the MTV Movie Awards, they are included here.

Some of the video rehearsals are quite interesting as well.

The Tropic Thunder bonus features look to make you laugh more than teach you about film, and if that’s your cup of tea, you should find plenty to enjoy here. As for the movie itself, feel free to read my Tropic Thunder movie review.

I’m 26 years old, which means as I watch the movies of the future, I slowly delve into the pictures of the past. A wave of classics arrived in new Centennial Edition DVD packages this week, including Roman Holiday, and it has given me the chance to watch the Gregory Peck/Audrey Hepburn film for the first time.

I’ve only seen a spattering of Hepburn films in my lifetime, but I have realized while she was one of the most sought after actresses in the late 50′s and early 60′s. She was gorgeous, likable and entertaining, and had a knack for picking quality projects. Between Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Roman Holiday, Hepburn set the stage for the modern romantic comedy. It’s absolutely intriguing watching a picture like Roman Holiday, which has a simple, almost ludicrous plot, an unlikely relationship and forced conflict that is reminiscent of today’s romantic comedies. At the same time, it feels fresh and is consistently enjoyable from beginning to end. The same formula that has been duplicated time and time again – and continues to be so – works wondrously well. And this is a movie that was made in the year both my parents were born.

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An entertaining yet strangely sad classic from 1950, Sunset Boulevard is ranked #26 on IMDB’s Top 250. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three others, including Best Writing. IMDB’s extremely high rating is a little surprising to me, but Sunset Boulevard is still a well-done and memorable picture about Hollywood, fading fame and ultimate murder – it’s no surprise that it was nominated for Best Picture.

Sunset Boulevard stars William Holden as a struggling screenwriter who is behind on his payments. Upon eluding some collection agents, he finds himself at the secluded mansion of silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), who was the best of her era. Unfortunately, her era is past, but the hermit doesn’t realize it. Accompanied by her butler (Erich von Stroheim, who along with the other actors in the film was nominated for an Oscar), she lives as though she’s still in high demand, throwing parties for herself and driving around a classic but antique car. With the sudden presence of a newcomer – especially one who has ties to the industry – she takes profound interest in him, but will her psychological issues spell downfall?

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OK. I am going to start with a rant that has nothing specifically to do with The Incredible Hulk (2008) or its DVD. Well, maybe there is some relation. The box boasts that it is a 3-Disc Special Edition, which sounds pretty damn good by anyone’s standards. Three discs, huh? The movie is two hours long, which means that the other two discs must be reserved for special features, right? Wrong, biotch!

The studios have found their latest trick to market things that aren’t nearly as good as they sound. First there was “Collector’s Editions” and “Special Editions” when in fact they were just normal DVD packages. Then there was Unrated DVDs which rarely contained any new, “unrated” material. And now, we have the DVD that contains the digital copy. The digital copy. Who the f**k cares about a digital copy? What percent of people actually give a damn about getting The Incredible Hulk in digital format so they can watch this action movie on their three-inch iPod screen? Five percent? Three percent? Give me the damn digital copy, but don’t market to me that I’m getting three discs of goodness. The digital disc doesn’t give me anything new; it just saves me a step of ripping the movie from the normal DVD. Come on, studios, don’t go down that path!

Anyway, now that that’s out of my system, let’s take a look at The Incredible Hulk special features from its single bonus disc.  To be fair, the first disc – with the movie on it – contains a few deleted scenes and a feature commentary as well, but essentially all of the special features reside on a single disc. Here they are:

• Deleted scenes
  A pretty good amount of deleted scenes that were generally cut for pacing reasons. Some of the scenes go into a little more detail than what was seen in the movie, though there were none that stood out to me as being good enough that they should have avoided the cutting room floor.
• An alternate opening
  You can watch the original opening sequence to the movie. Let’s just say that thank God this one wasn’t used in theaters, because it really isn’t good at all.
• The Making of Incredible
  Your standard making-of featurette. Like the rest of the featurettes on the DVD, it isn’t too promotional at all; at the same time, there’s nothing new or particularly interesting here. Compared to such documentaries as the making of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, it just doesn’t offer anything original. Still, fans of the Hulk should find some tidbits of interest here.
• Becoming the Hulk
  This is an exploration of the creature design, from the models to the special effects to the involvement of Ed Norton. Norton’s insistence that he actually get to play the Hulk in his green transformation is a bit odd, and one makes me think that director Louis Letterier was quite annoyed with the actor by the end of the picture.
• Becoming the Abomination
  Slightly more interesting than “Becoming the Hulk,” this one has Tim Roth doing motion capture and making fun of the suit he has to wear, completely unaware that the guy doing motion capture with him wears that suit for a living. When all is said and done, this one has some value because you get to hear about the intentional differences between the Abomination and the Hulk; though a lot of the effects talk is, for obvious reasons, pretty ambiguous.
• Anatomy of a Hulk-Out
  I never quite figured out what these chaptered segments were for, as they seem to rehash other featurettes on the DVD. Still, for the Hulk fan, the more the merrier.
• From Comic Book to Screen
  These are the kind of featurettes I hate, where some animator is brought on to draw a bunch of semi-static comic book/storyboard friends to make a mini-movie. What a waste of time; I only sat through a couple of minutes of this one.
• Digital copy of the film
  Everything I wanted and more on its very own disc!

All in all, there are a good amount of bonus features to be had on The Incredible Hulk: 3-Disc Special Edition DVD. Of course, none of these really matter to me. The quality of the film matters to me. And it was good enough (read my The Incredible Hulk movie review).

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull rolled onto DVD on Tuesday, and with it the crushed dreams of children-past who were hoping for a flawless, action-packed adventure. Indiana Jones 4 came to theaters amidst a torrent of mixed reviews, and mixed reviews it deserved. The most highly anticipated adventure film was, as it turned out, about aliens. Aliens with big, shiny, plastic-looking skulls. Combine that plot with unnecessary supporting characters and so-so CGI and you get… the latest Steven Spielberg fine?

Frustrations aside, I’m happy Paramount sent me the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, because I will watch this movie again, and hopefully with dampened expectations I’ll be able to enjoy the picture more. In the mean time, though, I watched the special features. With further special editions inevitably coming in the future, the 2-Disc Special Edition is not jam packed as one might expect; there are no deleted scenes, bloopers or even a commentary. However, the discs do contain some in-depth production featurettes, which take you from pre-production through post-production.

These featurettes are pretty good and rather lenthy, though I compare all of these to the best I’ve seen, those from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and they don’t really compare. While detailed, the Indiana Jones featurettes have an air of promotion to them; the interviews with the actors are very sanitized and not particularly insightful. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the exploration of some of the film’s more eleaborate sequences.

Other than that, there’s nothing but a couple of the movie’s trailers. Oh, and if you have an XBox 360, you can play a demo of LEGO Indiana Jones. However, I don’t, so I didn’t.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull has some decent DVD features, but if you aren’t sold on the movie alone and want some superstrong DVD features, you may want to wait until the next edition comes out.