Over a decade ago, Bryan Singer’s adaptation of the “X-Men” comic book franchise gave the modern superhero genre a kick in the pants, seeding action thrills with deeper ethical conflicts, and laying the groundwork for both the grander commercial success (think “Spider-Man”) and some of the more artistic-minded noodling of a wide variety of genre followers (see also: Ang Lee’s “Hulk”). A prequel to the original trilogy, director Matthew Vaughn’s ”X-Men: First Class” is a slick piece of pop entertainment marked by smarter than average characterizations and some solid performances, and it confirms that mainstream Hollywood studio films can indeed – with some effort, and the oversight of a savvy producer – still accommodate grey morality and muddied heroic intentions.
The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, as factions with various mutant abilities square off against Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a mutated genetic scientist with plans to trigger a third World War that will rid Earth of humankind and allow mutants to thrive. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) lends his extraordinary telepathic gifts to the United States government, who assemble a sort of special ops unit of mostly young mutants to go after Shaw. Last into the fold, and reluctantly so, is Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), who is driven by a much more personal vendetta against Shaw.
January Jones (whose amply displayed cleavage throughout really should receive its own screen credit) is mildly terrible, but even her robotic presence can’t submarine the class and gravitas that especially McAvoy and Fassbender bring this project. The action and special effects are all well done, but the base-level thrills also feed a deeper understanding of the characters, and the very real and unsalvageable differences in personality and mindset that ultimately result in a splintering of the burgeoning “X-Men” team, with Xavier and Lehnsherr adopting their alter ego monikers and ultimately getting ready to clash as enemies. With these actors and the same production team in place, “X-Men: First Class” is first class popcorn entertainment that actually whets one’s appetite for future franchise installments — no small feat amongst Hollywood studio would-be blockbusters (cough cough, “Green Lantern”).
The home video release of the movie occasions a couple different DVD and Blu-ray versions, but the streamlined, few-frills DVD offering is certainly passable for those looking only to add a copy of the movie itself to their “X-Men” collectible canon. Appearing in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio mix on a dual layer disc, the movie comes with motion menu chapter stops and an unbilled anti-smoking public service announcement, as well as a two-part making-of documentary (somewhat arbitrarily partitioned into “Second Genesis” and “Band of Brothers” segments) that runs a little under 25 minutes. Far from an anonymous, make-nice EPK-style love-in, this featurette includes interspersed interview tidbits with co-producer Singer (plus allusions to his “hold-option” contract dispute with Warner Bros., which prevented him from directing the movie), the writers, and director Vaughn — who acknowledges bad blood and tension between he and 20th Century Fox after he abandoned “X-Men: Last Stand” late in its pre-production cycle. The glue holding the entire thing together, though, is uber-producer Lauren Shuler Donner, a class act who isn’t above a little self-analysis and admission of wrong.
FX sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is sort of like Dijon mustard; it’s an acquired taste that certainly isn’t going to play well with a wide, mainstream audience. Myself, I’d heard raves from a couple friends whose opinions I don’t entirely distrust, so several years back I grabbed a couple episodes on TiVo and… nothing. I have little recollection of the specifics, but I just wasn’t feeling it. The series centered around a band of misfit/miscreant friends who gathered at the serially uninhabited Paddy’s Pub, and treated each other (and everyone else) pretty horribly. The tone struck me as at once spiteful and manic, and the comedy seemed forced – driven by doggedly persistent overlapping patter that augured a snappish screwball sensibility that really wasn’t there in the jokes.
And yet, some time later, I returned, maybe lured into giving it another chance by an off-season promo that favorably stacked up a bunch of clips. When I tried it again… well, I wasn’t hooked, per se, but I certainly did appreciate its wonked, preening and entirely narcissistic style of deadpan humor. I embraced and laughed at its outrageousness, some of it approaching the absurdist sensibility of a live-action “South Park,” only except with multiple Cartmans instead of just one. Especially brilliant was the episode “D.E.N.N.I.S.,” in which Dennis (Glenn Howerton) presents and takes a bet regarding his sociopathic method of seducing vulnerable members of the opposite sex, only to find Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Frank (Danny DeVito) doing battle with their own systematic schemes to feast on his “sloppy seconds” (or thirds).
The Blu-ray version of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 6″ collects a dozen episodes of this type of serial inappropriateness, including what has to be the season’s high point — an extended, unrated cut of Charlie (Charlie Day) and Mac’s self-financed production of “Lethal Weapon 5″ (don’t ask). Another highlight is definitely the gang’s quest to find out who knocked up Dee (Kaitlin Olson). Housed on 50GB dual layer discs stored in a standard Blu-ray snap-case, the two-disc set comes with a blooper reel, anarchic audio commentaries on select episodes, a clutch of deleted and extended scenes, special podcasts featuring Dennis and Dee, and a special “Flip Cup” trivia challenge. A DVD version is also available, and a new season starts on FX this week.
Less a mere TV show than a phenomenon, “Glee” is an Emmy-minted multi-media juggernaut and cross-platform victory for its producer and distributor, 20th Century Fox. In addition to the small screen hit itself, there’s already been a live tour and 3-D concert movie of accompaniment, a young adult book series, a Wii karaoke game, all manner of other merchandising and — in an era when legit music sales are dwindling — a couple albums and an array of hit singles. All this spawned from a late pilot pick-up about a high school glee club? I, for one, certainly didn’t see it coming. Co-creator Ryan Murphy had “Nip/Tuck” under his belt, as well as the adaptation of “Running With Scissors,” but “Glee” — especially in its opening barrage of advertisements — seemed sunny yet obvious, a charm offensive destined to run out of energy in short order.
On the eve of its third season debut, “Glee: The Complete Second Season” hits DVD. Set in small town Ohio, the series follows the club through local and regional choir competitions, as its loquacious, ahead-of-the-curve kids grapple with both conventional teenagedom and various social issues. In this regard, the show is basically a mash-up of “Beverly Hills 90210″ and “High School Musical,” with a pinch of the shorter-lived “Popular” thrown in for good measure. It’s an up-with-kids, heightened portrayal of adolescent life, with tracksuit-clad cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) lobbing snippy grenades at everyone. Guest stars this cycle include John Stamos, Carol Burnett and the lovely Kristin Chenoweth, but of course the a cappella musical numbers are what most gets fans hot and bothered.
Spread out over six discs, this “Glee” set comes in a clear Amaray case in turn housed in a complementary cardboard slipcover. Presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, the show’s 22 episodes are presented in Dolby digital 5.1, with optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. DVD extras include a jukebox, a making-of featurette that focuses on “The Rocky Horror Glee Show,” a couple character-based day-in-the-life-type featurettes, a production featurette on New York City, a mess of related-product coupons, and more. Fans will be pleased, no doubt.
A bit less contemporary but still rather timeless is “Blood Simple,” the superb 1984 debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, which just made its Blu-ray bow. For neophytes and diehard fans alike, it’s definitely worth a look. Convinced that his wife Abby (Frances McDormand, in her first screen role) is having an affair with bartender Ray (John Getz), the owner of a dusty, out-of-the-way Texas bar, Julian (Dan Hedaya), hires a slovenly private investigator, Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh), to kill them both. When Visser attempts to double-cross Julian, all sorts of lies, backstabbing and violence ensues. It’s easiest to call “Blood Simple” a slice of neo-noir, but the vagueness of that descriptive handle (and the poor quality of all sorts of knock-offs that have followed over the last two-plus decades) doesn’t do it justice. The performances here are uniformly fantastic, and the level of tension and suspense here — leavened, of course, with the Coens’ signature dark humor — is wildly effective.
Imported over from the film’s 2001 special edition DVD release is an audio commentary track with film historian “Kenneth Loring.” His zonked-out observations (that scenes were filmed upside down and backwards so that the actors’ lines would coincide with the headlights of passing cars, for instance) are off the wall, and completely false. Of course, Loring also doesn’t really exist; he’s actually an actor friend of the Coens, Jim Piddock, working from a script penned by the brothers, since they otherwise have a disdain for commentary tracks. There’s also a two-minute (and similarly comedic) introduction to the movie, and the film’s trailer. The chief selling point, though, is quite clearly the audio-visual upgrade of the Blu-ray format. With a 1080p AVC MPEG-4 encoding and a 2.0 DTS-HD master audio mix that cleanly and crisply balances the film’s dialogue and music tracks, “Blood Simple” has quite simply never looked this good.
Considerably less ambitious and heady a mixture of genres is “Just Peck,” a coming-of-age tale in which the title character, a gangly sophomore (Keir Gilchrist) is forced into competing in the high school science fair by his overbearing parents (Alan Arkin and Marcia Cross), which also risks compromising the attention of popular senior Emily (Brie Larson). This sort of low-stakes tale sings or sinks based on charisma and snappish writing, and unfortunately Marc Arneson’s screenplay just doesn’t carve out enough of a sense of standout personality to get very much excited about. Cross, as always, trades in that clenched-jaw air-quote expressiveness she’s virtually trademarked since “Melrose Place” (certainly on “Desperate Housewives”) while Gilchrist, who was so much more interesting and engaging in the offbeat “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” opposite Zach Galifianakis, just kind of treads water. Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, “Just Peck” comes to DVD presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16×9 televisions, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track and optional Spanish and English subtitles. Apart from some courtesy trailers, there are unfortunately no supplemental materials.
The long and complicated history of the United States and Cuba has received increased attention under the Obama administration, ever since as part of the 2008 campaign cycle he made clear that he would be of his own mind in opening dialogues with international leaders. This led many to think that there might be a thawing or marked shift in our policy of quasi-hostile non-engagement toward the country less than 100 miles off the Florida Keys, a fact which hasn’t really come to fruition. Saul Landau’s documentary “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up” (sans question mark, it’s worth noting) offers up a compelling snapshot of our unusual, decades-long obsession with this tiny island nation, inclusive of the story of five (now imprisoned) Cuban intelligence agents sent to penetrate anti-Castro terrorist groups based in Florida and carry out bombing missions in an effort to cripple the country’s tourism industry. An undeniable activist work, this nonfiction piece is the minority report, if you will, to the official government position on just about all things Cuban. Still, it’s interestingly presented, and certainly useful as a conversation-starter. Presented on a region-free disc in a standard plastic Amaray case, Landau’s movie comes with extended interview clips. For more information, visit www.CinemaLibreStudio.com.
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” is as unique and elliptically mesmerizing a movie as one might see all year. The Palme D’Or winner at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival (an award this year bestowed upon Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life”), the genre-defying movie unfolds in rural Thailand, and centers on a middle-aged woman, Jen (Jenjira Pongpas), who cares for her ailing brother-in-law Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar), along with some recruited cooking assistance from her nephew Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee). Ho-hum domesticity gives way to realistically rooted spookiness when the trio are visited by a series of ghosts, including Boonmee’s deceased wife and missing son. The latter, it’s worth noting, takes the form of a red-eyed, upright-walking monkey – seemingly the first of many homages within the film, in this case a nod to the famous alleged photo of Bigfoot.
Portions of it would seem to be the set up for a more straightforward study of the elemental nature of fear, but “Uncle Boonmee” is as much a metaphorical story about the intractable truth of aging as it is a movie about reincarnation, even though it entertains certain thoughts there as well. At almost two hours, it certainly drags some, but it’s moving in unusual ways and sometimes even darkly amusing. As the film’s supplemental material makes even clearer, Weerasethakul (“Tropical Malady,” “Syndromes and a Century”) is as interested in an extra-textual reading of his work as any strict interpretation of the narrative proper. A montage of stills in the middle of the movie gives a tip of the cap to Chris Marker’s “La Jetee,” and the filmmaker notes in a 16-minute interview segment that he also wanted to evoke memories of bygone classic cinema. An additional 25 minutes of additional deleted material showcase Jen and Tong traveling in urban environments, and a showering Jen overhearing a group of lurking monkey ghosts outside her window, seemingly indicating the framework of a larger but simultaneously concrete narrative structure. Trailers for Weerasethakul’s other movies, as well as other Strand releases, round out the DVD.
Finally, Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman has, arguably apart from only Roger Corman, been the most successful long-term peddler of — how to put this delicately — artistically uninterested cinematic product. A manic huckster to his core, he birthed the “Toxic Avenger” franchise and a whole slew of schlocky films that were purposefully designed to push envelopes and buttons, attack sacred cows and generally cause most women to wince while looking at the screen of his movies, and say, “Oh, no, no, no.” All within a certain (super-low) budget, of course. Sex and violence and gore and stupid comedy and wild genre mash-ups, that’s his specialty.
And Debbie Rochon, a sort of Goth/riot grrrl version of Parker Posey, has qualities that Kaufman appreciates — namely a strong sense of humor, a nice set of scream-queen-worthy lungs, and the ability to shamelessly promote with the best of them (which is to say Kaufman himself). Of course, she’s also willing to go topless, which helps account for at least some of her frequent appearances in Troma’s many, many films. Clocking in at almost two-and-a-half hours, “Debbie Rochon Confidential: My Years in Tromaville Exposed” collects performance footage from “Tromeo & Juliet,” “Terror Firmer,” “Troma Cafe” and “Troma’s Edge TV,” among other works, making it a one-stop repository for those wishing to see Rochon naked. Oh, and it also includes a very special episode of “Fangoria Trailer Park.” Well… not a “very special episode” in the “Cosby Show” sense, like where Theo Huxtable gets some tough love when his dad Cliff thinks the spliff that he was holding for his friend Roach in his textbook is actually his. But, you know, another type of “very special.” One a bit more gleefully trashy.
Written by: Brent Simon
