My latest MSN DVD column does what it can to get people to pick up “MacGruber” — sadly, I couldn’t describe the funniest moments, as they were a little too vulgar for our audience’s delicate mainstream sensibilities.
Spin up the unrated version when you watch it, and see ‘em all for yourself. I won’t tell a soul …
This week’s MSN DVD column hopes to draw some attention to the “Red Riding” trilogy, which is going straight to video in Canada this week.
That’s kind of shameful, really; the three features (produced for the UK’s Channel Four) constitute one epic theatrical experience — or at least they did in the U.S. earlier this year. They should have been given the same shot at becoming an art-house sensation here.
Sadly, Alliance chose to go with the DVD route, probably because selling three separate titles to consumers (and the few remaining video stores) is far more lucrative than any art-house run might have been. Of course, that art-house run wouldn’t necessarily have taken any revenue away from the DVD release; in fact, the theatrical publicity surely would have helped raise awareness for the title in the right corners. Whaddaya gonna do, right?
It occurs to me that this is precisely the sort of thing that shiny new TIFF venue should be doing — the three films could be staggered to run daily within an hour of one another, with breaks strategically timed so you could run down to grab a snack in the canteen. Maybe there’ll be a revival down the road.
In the meantime, just see them. They’re solid, even if Anand Tucker’s final chapter buggers up the cumulative impact.
… well, it’s all previously, isn’t it? And now, with the show’s sixth and final season arriving on disc, there’s no better time to mull it over once more and piss off everyone who thought the ending was weak. So check out my latest MSN DVD column … if you dare!
Ah, who am I kidding? You totally dare.
Also, saying “Desmond is the bomb” just confuses people after season five.
This week’s MSN DVD column aims to direct my readers’ attention to three films that deserve to be discovered on disc: Kim Ji-woon’s “The Good, the Bad, the Weird”, Rob Stefaniuk’s “Suck” and Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s “Cemetery Junction”.
I reviewed “The Good, the Bad …” for NOW two weeks ago, and I wrote about “Suck” at length last year around TIFF time. “Cemetery Junction”, though, that’s all new, since it bypassed Canadian theatres entirely.
Pity Sony wasn’t willing to hold the DVD release back a few weeks; certainly they’d have been happy to have it at TIFF 2010, where Gervais is always welcome. Ah, well. Now you can see it at your convenience. That’s sort of a happy ending.
My latest MSN DVD column is up, exploring the missed opportunities both major and minor in two of this spring’s shouldn’t-have-missed comedies, “Date Night” and “Death at a Funeral”.
Yes, we know, people like disposable comedies. But when you’re dealing with talent as indispensible as Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and, yes, Peter Dinklage, shouldn’t people demand something a little more … well, better?
It is my belief that they should. Heed my warning.
And here we have this week’s MSN DVD column, in which I consider “The Ghost Writer” and “A Prophet” as examples of smarter-than-average moviemaking. I’d only recommend one of them as essential cinema, but you’ll have to read the piece to find out which one …
… unless, you know, happened to be reading this blog back when both films were playing theatrically. I kinda gave it away then.
Also, remember when I went to the Hart House Craft Beer BBQ last year, and wrote about it? Well, I’ve done it again for the 2010 edition. It took a few days to put the piece together, but in my defense, on the night I was only really capable of scrawling “glug glug glug, nom nom nom” in my notebook. Do enjoy my more sophistimacated observations.
I tweeted about this yesterday, but figured everyone else should know about it as well: Lionsgate (distributed by Maple up here in has announced the Blu-ray release of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”, in a three-disc “Full Disclosure” special edition that will include both the original 1979 theatrical version and Coppola’s 2004 “Redux” edition, and also throw in Eleanor Coppola’s essential documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse”.
The Digital Bits has all the details, as well as confirmation of the one element that makes this release an absolute must-buy for anyone who loves Coppola’s hallucinatory war epic: For the first time on any home-video format, “Apocalypse Now” will be presented in its intended aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
Previously, all widescreen transfers of the film — the laserdisc, both of Paramount’s DVD releases and the letterboxed television master — were framed at 2:1, the “ideal” aspect ratio cinematographer Vittorio Storaro calls Univisium. The idea of a single universal aspect ratio for television and film isn’t inherently terrible, but Storaro insists on retrofitting his earlier scope films to 2:1 whenever someone asks him to approve a transfer. (The only other one of which I’m aware is Paramount’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”.) And since “Apocalypse Now” wasn’t shot at 2:1, the image has to be cropped (or panned) to fill the taller frame. That’s insane, someone else needs to stop him.
When I interviewed Coppola last year, he was kind enough to indulge me in a few fanboy/gearhead questions about the restoration of “The Godfather” and “One from the Heart”. Finally, we turned to “Apocalypse Now”, and I’m not ashamed to admit I literally begged him to make sure any future HD transfers were framed appropriately. A year later, it looks like I got my wish — and on October 19, we’ll finally be able to see Coppola’s purest cinematic work the way it was always supposed to be seen.
My latest MSN DVD column looks at the unabashed, unapologetic entertainment of “Clash of the Titans” and “Operation: Endgame” — two movies that are just the right kind of dumb fun.
Join me, won’t you? And keep your head down; that Kraken’s got quite a reach on him.
This week’s MSN DVD column looks at television — specifically, British television, much of which is awfully good and some of which may be entirely new to you.
“Being Human”. “Look Around You”. “Last Chance to See”. “Stephen Fry in America”. I heartily recommend them all, and can suggest still others if you’re curious. The complete runs of “Spaced” and “Black Books”, for instance. Or “Coupling”, created by the same Steven Moffat who’s now doing such wonderful things with “Doctor Who”. And the wonderful panel show “QI”, which is not yet on disc over here but is viewable on the BBC’s website — though you might have to reconfigure your browser for that one.
Anyway, read the piece. And bring something home tonight. Or if you’re feeling like taking advantage of the weather, join Ali and me at Harbourfront at 9 pm for a screening of Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me“, the third in this summer’s Free Flicks series.
It’s guaranteed to be the only one where someone barfs a burger out a car window … unless my memories of “In the Mood for Love” are blurrier than I think.
My latest MSN DVD column is up, in which I finally weigh in on Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe”. I can’t figure out whether I’m more disappointed in Egoyan for making yet another empty, airless affair … or in myself, for hoping he might finally return to the artful mystery of “Exotica” or even “The Sweet Hereafter” when it’s clear after more than a decade that he has no interest in venturing outside his comfortable ennui zone.
I mean, to be fair, “Chloe” is a modest improvement over “Adoration”, but that’s probably because my expectations were so low when I finally saw it …