Universal Pictures just provided IR with a new image of Benicio Del Toro in wolf form in “The Wolf Man” which is being released on February 10, 2010.
Archive | August, 2009
FIRST LOOK: The Wolf Man – Human Form
26 Aug
Universal Pictures just provided IR with a new image of Benicio Del Toro in human form in “The Wolf Man” which is being released on February 10, 2010.
The Last Starfighter: 25th Anniversary – Blu Ray Review
26 Aug
“The Last Starfighter” has always been a stalwart of youth. I remember seeing it at a birthday party celebration back in 1984. It had a magical quality and still has it now. A couple months ago I was able to go to the 25th Anniversary cast and crew screening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica with many of a principals in attendance. The theater was packed which shows the power still of the picture. It was there that director Nick Castle spoke that they were finishing up a remster of “Starfighter” for Blu Ray and also possibly prepping a possible sequel. This was this past April. Now as August comes to a close, the BR has finally arrived. While the commentary is an older one from 1999 when the DVD first came out, the transfer and sound mix has been completely redone. Universal has done a great job with this as the movie looks better than it ever has before. The key is also being, while they could have gone back and fixed the visual effects, they let it stand as it was (which was a technical achievement in its day). They simply made everything crisper and more rich. This by far is the best transfer on Blu Ray I have seen in a while in terms of a catalog film and shows what it is capable of. From this point you can see its transition to the 3D home format when that comes around.
In terms of the film itself, it is one of those B movie classics that has charm, some romance and adventure within a type of Spielbergian world but with a slightly different approach using two fairly unknown actors and a great cast of supporting characters. Catherine Mary Stewart is perfect as Maggie and still today looks great. Lance Guest brought a distinctive American patriotic quality to Alex Rogan with an ability to bring the audience along. for the ride. Dan O’Herlihy as Grig along with Robert Preston as Centauri really ground the film with heart and humor. And Chris Hebert as the young Louis creates those pure moments of just camped-up humor.
The commentary from 99 is alright but at many times doesn’t go too much into the story structure and casting. It does talk at length about technical framing but doesn’t explain it as much as it could have. The Q&A at the Aero was infinitely more in depth and it would have been great to have seen that on this release. Ron Cobb, the production designer, does bring up a point in the commentary that the landscapes were much more detailed in some of the original data but that it could not have been rendered in the time frame needed for release in 1984. It would be interesting to see some of that footage now but who knows in those days if you could even back up that kind of data. A lot of it simply might be lost. The simple themes of the picture are discussed as well as teases at a sequel. However a more current perspective would have been better.
The new 2009 documentary “Heroes Of The Screen” is a great new featurette that was made for the Blu Ray. It has exactly what you want in this release which is heart and feeling. The best lines of all come from Catherine Mary Stewart because you get how much she likes this movie as an audience member…and she was in it. The footage of the Cray wire frames and Ron Cobb drawing the actual schematics of the Gunstar is great. This is one of the better BR documentaries which isn’t too over the top but perfectly captures the work as well as the joy of making the movie which is what you always want to see.
“Crossing The Frontier: Making The Last Starfighter” is a documentary from 1999. Lance Guest hosts and looks much different than he does today. The aspects of how the technical is done goes much more in-depth than the new documentary which presupposes this initial material as inclusive which is really smart of the part of the creators of this Blu Ray. The inclusion of ILM people giving their perspective and even showing an X-wing vector test is really exceptional. The aspect of Jeff Okum also actually admitting (which he also did at the Aero) that he was wrong in terms of Digital Productions ompleting the picture on time is a role he has taken which some people of ego would have disclaimed. This point really triangulates the angle with which it took to make this film.
The image galleries are quite in depth (more than I have seen before). The cast elements are interlaced with many behind-the-scenes shots while the arcade version of the “Starfighter” game is planned out to the last detail. The Star Car and the GunStar are seen from conceptual drawings to blue prints to digital models and actual parts of the ships. Some of the elements shown on the soundstages at MGM are quite interesting. Starfighter Command shows the aspects of a lot of friends and families coming in to work on the picture. This was a bit of a independent picture at inception and later ended up at Universal once it got going. The Ko-Dan Armada was meant to be seen almost like a devil race that was overtaking the Rylans which the elements shown permeate to. The alternate ending was the original ending first shot which director Nick Castle didn’t think was big enough in scope (he was right). It is actually too reminiscent of the ending scene in the first “Star Wars”. The eventual ending they put in looking over the planet is much better and, probably in the way they shot it, not much more expensive. “Anatomy Of A Computer Generated Image” is a nice layman’s step-by-step construction of how in those days they created a CGI shot with the Cray Supercomputer which was the only device capable of doing this kind of work back then. “Promotion & Merchandise” in terms of images is most interesting when you see some of the action figures from Galoob which were not produced for whatever reason.
The teaser and theatrical trailer show the progression from what was done to what became available. The first teaser was very light and almost didn’t give a perception of the film while the actual trailer had some of the theme music and some of the visual elements that made the movie a good bet. The trailer today would get people into the theater. The main menus is also very slick and enables Universal’s screensaver at times to conserve the player’s power.
This release of “The Last Starfighter ” on Blu Ray is a near perfect disc in terms of its construction both in terms of technical, inclusions, exclusions and extras. Out of 5, I give it a 4.
Ghostbusters – Blu Ray Review
26 Aug
“Ghostbusters”, as part of the lexicon, has always been that kind of concept that was just ripe for making but only comes along once. It was written (as Harold Ramis explained while I was at the Nantucket Film Festival) originally as a vehicle for Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as another type of “Blues Brothers” film. Sadly that was not to be. Instead it became the conceptual milestone it is because of other players involved. Revisiting it now seems right because the technology is finally able to do what it needed to do back then. That said, in the new Blu Ray transfer, the progression especially the showdown with Gozer at the end looks exceptional. You can tell some of it is set but not much. And, to give props, as some of the filmmaking people involved do on the commentary, Elmer Bernstein’s score gives the film an added weight that most sometimes do not talk about.
In terms of story and performance, that all has been covered before and nit picked. I remember acting out the capturing of the ghost in the beginning when I was 10. Since then I have had a chance, either directly or indirectly to meet Aykroyd, Ramis, director Ivan Reitman and even the elusive Bill Murray. Like some of the story that Ramis related at Nantucket a couple months ago, the team come together when Aykroyd started shoppinmg around the script. Ivan and Ramis came in off Second City and had made “Stripes” with Bill Murray. The aspects of Ramis’ exceptional writing and confluence with structure balanced Aykroyd’s roving imagination.
Some other elements on the disc, like the Slimer Mode, gives an effective in-depth screen-within- screen capture of different set designs concept art, work well. Murray is not featured which has become a mainstay even for this film which should be one of his big successes. There is also the refitting of the original Ectomobile which when I saw it parked outside E3. I didn’t think it was the original but indeed it was. This refit shop rebuilt it from the ground up which is detailed on the disc. They used as much of the original materials as possible but souped it when it fit into the original design. This made sense for Sony as they were prepping this for release along with a video game (which we also review) in addition to a possible third Ghostbusters film.
Aykroyd had been pitching Sony on the aspect of doing a CG Ghostbusters since the technology was there. A young executive probably said “Why don’t we do a video game?” and then of course “Why not do a movie since all the prep work is already started?” It was simply a co-existence of general paths converging.
The aspects of the video game especially with Ramis and Aykroyd writing it give it a sense of style and consistency. The aspects and interaction obviously make it the best adaptation so far in terms of that kind of material as the small behind-the-scenes interviews suggest.
The “Ecto 1 Gallery” is an extension of the refit material which is fine but seems almost to be grasping at extras which aren’t necessarily there. The video game trailer bases a lot of its fuel on the personas of the original cast which come through in a way that couldn’t be captured live action as they have all gotten older.
The “Scene Cemetery” has some old bits in low resolution from the DVD release although the best moment is a little comic bit with Aykroyd and Murray with Bill recreating his golf character from “Caddyshack” as a homeless guy on the edge of Central Park. This pair alone are great but not enough for a movie on its own…but still great fun.
The older material (some from the DVD and some from the Criterion laserdisc) are still interesting to watch. The original 1984 featurette shows the story angle that they building on especially with the comedy team. The special effects featurette made in 1999 for the original DVD release has Richard Edlund actually making reference to Dan Aykroyd’s original script which had the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man emerging from the East River which didn’t make much effects sense in terms of budget. Harold Ramis was instrumental in helping hone down the budget of Dan’s original idea to make it doable for 5 million dollars total budget instead of the original 40 million it might have cost.
The angle comparisons and storyboard comparisons seem to be lifted from the laserdisc but are still very interesting. The angle comparison uses some pencil sketches for the effects which are quite literally at times animation. The storyboard are pre-motion animatics but are interesting in many facets in terms that the actual representations within the structure are not the actors who are playing them. This is truly a movie made on set as the storyboards don’t give credence to the eventual blocking which is, at times, inspired.
In terms of the trailers on the disc, there is none for the original “Ghostbusters” which I sometimes miss. The one for Adam Sandler’s “Zohan” is pretty funny (and ironic) since it was originally discussed about him becoming a Ghostbuster along with Chris Farley and David Spade back in the 90s.
In conclusion, it is great seeing “Ghostbusters” on Blu Ray but overall the remaster doesn’t look a whole lot different than the DVD release in terms of popping more of the elements (which will eventually have to be done for a 3D home release). The extras have possibility but a lot are from previous releases (and the disc was obviously done to coincide with the PS3 release of the video game). While the game is exciting, this rush to pair it might have been rushed in the overall scheme. Despite this, the BR is still great to see and hear. Because of all of this, out of 5, I give it a 3.
I Love You Man – Blu Ray Review
26 Aug
The necessity of “I Love You Man”, which I did not see during its theatrical run, is that it takes an uncomfortable subject and literally makes it more uncomfortable. Now this is done in no way in part to the presence of Paul Rudd, who has become the unlikely anti-hero of the Judd Apatow sect. Now granted Seth Rogen has the underdog situation down pat but he has a brother-in-arms in the form of Jason Segel who takes on a much more engaging role than his feature starring debut in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”. The essence of the story revolves around the fact that Rudd’s character is getting married to a girl whom he seems good with but the odd thing is that he doesn’t have any guy friends. He has always related more to women. Now while usually when this happens, it simply speaks to a simple emotional situation of being only able to relate to one person at a time (the ability not to multi-task if you will), here it is played for laughs in the texture that Rudd’s character goes on “Man Dates” to find some guy friends.
All sorts of shenanigans ensue (including many involving Lou Ferrigno) but ultimately things work out nice and soft after much carnage including lewd billboards of Rudd’s real estate character. The comedy is brisk but is never as funny as it thinks it is. The girls in “Spring Breakdown” (in terms of a recent comparison) went much more out on a limb. But the key here is that the filmmakers are also trying to appeal to a female audience which this picture definitely admits to.
The commentary by Rudd, Segel and director John Hamburg is self reflexive in its ability even pointing to the fact that Rudd gave everyone gifts on set but Segel didn’t give him one back until months later. It was a good one though: a signed bass from rock band Rush who figures prominently into the movie’s storyline. As the commentary continues, the aspect of what their humor is actually becomes self effacing which at times sort of throws off the aspect of whether the comedy elements are thought out or even funny in the first place. The aspect of not being able to stop laughing when shooting does happen as the extra improvs later in the disc show. This team however seem to have played these element out to the point of beating a dead horse. However they seem to understand that the movie that they are making needs to be loose but still have its heart focused.
“The Making Of I Love You Man” paints in this direction as well. The self effacing humor plays through everyone, even J.K. Simmons who gets into a little bashing. Jon Favreau is the best because he is playing Mr. Big Shot which is not him in person truly. His fellow actors play up the whole “Iron Man” thing but Fav still plays his angle. In the Extras section with all the improv, it is actually his and Jamie Pressly’s pieces that are fun to watch because they are so cruel. He outpowers her to a point at which she just goes quiet and almost starts laughing. It is interesting.
Paul Rudd’s two improv heavy scenes: on the phone in the office and in bed with his fiance show the amount of different permeations the guy goes through when the thinking is steady. But it is the Vespa riding sequence, especially with the “Facts Of Life” theme song, that goes a little long. In terms of extended and deleted scenes, the “ladies night” piece gets in a tad more with how graphic the girls get but by comparison the Johnny Depp elements at the wedding go on way too long. The deleted scenes don’t really add anything to the mix although the groomsmen photos are amusing. However it slows down the story.
The red band trailer adds some bits and lets the “fucks” fly but it is Jon Favreau’s last line that isn’t in the movie that has the most punch. The gag reel is usually used for the wrap party and highlights the fact that Paul Rudd finds himself funny sometimes more than anyone else and likes to laugh although the rubbing scene in Segel’s apartment set is a little much. But that is the movie through and through. Out of 5, I give it a 2 1/2.
