by Jeremy Lassen
Hello to all you movie fans out there. Sorry I missed you last month. There’s a couple of months worth of DVD’s to get caught up on, and a few specific things I want to point out to you.
First up, if you were anywhere in the US in June, the 6.6.06 ad campaign for the new Omen remake was everywhere. Oddly enough, just as that cynical exercise in numerology was in the theaters, the original Omen was nowhere to be found on video store shelves. The studios, in their infinite wisdom re-released a “special edition” version of the classic movie, and of course, it didn’t come out until June 26th, so when everyone was scrambling around to get a copy of the original, it wasn’t anywhere to be found. I don’t know if this so that people couldn’t compare the turgid remake to the original, or if they simply didn’t realize that when remakes come out, sizable number of people beat the bush looking for the original. Anyway, the original Omen movie was a classic of the horror genre, and an incredibly good piece of film making, with an A-list cast, and a score that is absolutely brilliant. If you haven’t seen it in a while, be sure to check out the new Special Edition DVD, which is available now.
Sticking to the horror side of the fence, the latest Korean horror movie from Tartan DVD, Cello, hits the shelves this month, and it's pretty damn good. It goes for the mood and atmosphere and is a bit more complex and slower then your average k-horror film, but what it lacks in pacing it makes up for with a stylish, brooding tension. Mi-ju is a brilliant cellist who craves peace and stability after surviving a car crash, which killed her best friend. Haunted by terrifying memories of the accident, she forgos a career in music, in favor of teaching college students and her daughter how to play. Things start to go wrong, and there is something strange and horrible about the music coming from her daughters cello.
Sticking to the horror side of the fence, the latest Korean horror movie from Tartan DVD hits the shelves this month, and it's pretty damn good. It goes for the mood and atmosphere and is a bit more complex and slower then your average k-horror film, but what it lacks in pacing it makes up for with a stylish, brooding tension. Mi-ju is a brilliant cellist who craves peace and stability after surviving a car crash, which killed her best friend. Haunted by terrifying memories of the accident, she forgos a career in music, in favor of teaching college students and her daughter how to play. Things start to go wrong, and there is something strange and horrible about the music coming from her daughters cello.
Another stylish horror/fantasy movie that shouldn’t be missed is the Russian film, Night Watch. It received a limited theatrical release, and is now out on DVD. Based on a Russian novel of the same name, this movie is the first of a trilogy. Night Watch has non-stop pacing, a gritty, interesting setting (contemporary Russia) and a pretty kick-ass cosmology that is part “blade,” part “buffy the vampire slayer” and part Jim Butcher. This one is totally fun, and I can’t wait to see It’s sequal, Day Watch.
For those of you with a strong constitution, the recent trend in 21st century grindhouse/exploitation homages are all pretty much on DVD now. This trend in horror . . . of grueling “torture” based movies that are endurance tests for the audience . . . movies that take sadistic glee in making you as uncomfortable as possible . . . has been dominating the horror box-office for the last year. The movie that pre-dated the current crop of commercial releases is Rob Zombies House of a Thousand Corpses. Proof that Zombie is a man ahead of his time -- House failed miserably at the box office after Universal Pictures refused to even distribute it because it was too grim. Apparently all that was needed to make this type of picture commercially viable was the cultural back drop of Abu Ghraib and the torture scandals that have wracked the country. Because nasty, flawed little movies like High Tension (an French entry into the genre) found a place in the art-house circuit, and its first time director was hired by Hollywood to helm the remake of one of the original exploitation films, The Hills Have Eyes. Another first time director got into the mix with Saw, and this tiny little movie with a micro budget and trick ending found a HUGE audience… So huge that the studios rushed a sequel into production within a week or two of the Saw’s theatrical release. Even Quentin Tarantino, the original grind house auteur, got on the torture train, producing Eli “Cabin Fever” Roth’s Hostel. Another copy cat that followed the wake of Hostel was Wolf Creek.
Taken together, these films (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes Remake, Hostel, Wolf Creek, Saw, and Saw II), and their box office successes, provide an interesting, albeit unflattering look at the American psyche. And they are all available now on DVD for your viewing pleasure(?).
Of course, the original Hills Have Eyes, directed by Wes Craven, is also available, as is Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses.
For another interesting peak into the American psyche, I’m going to recommend a movie that is only peripherally Fantasy . . . it’s a big budget A-list foray into the sword and sandal genre called The Kingdom of Heaven. If you heard anything about this movie, I want you to forget it. When it was released theatrically in the late summer of ’05, Troy and Alexander had already beaten it to the market and both of those sword and sandal epics had bombed. So the studio panicked, and had 45 minutes of the movie excised. They removed an entire (and I think important) subplot and totally undermined the film. I myself didn’t bother seeing it in the theaters or when it came out on DVD because I had heard so many bad things about it. But I got curious when I heard about a 4 disk “directors cut” of the movie. Ridley Scott is the director and he’s been kind of hit or miss for me lately. I figured this four-disk version of the movie would vindicate him, or completely cement his reputation as a egotistical creator of bloated, overwrought movies.
I gotta say, the directors cut totally vindicates him. This movie was truly spectacular. Its got an brilliant cast that deliver some wonderful performances. Its got a smart, savy, socially relevant and at least semi-historically accurate script. Its got battle scenes that rival the Lord of the Rings. Its got everything a movie should have. And it’s two-and-a-half hours long. And unlike SOME 2.5 hour long movies I could name (cough-King Kong cough-Dead Man’s Chest-cough), this one feels like its half the length. There’s not an ounce of fat on this movie.
If I still haven’t convinced you to pick it up, Let me try some more . . . . It’s about the Crusades . . . . It chronicles the Siege of Jerusalem . . . . It stars Orlando Bloom in the best performance of his career (not saying much, I know . . . but he really delivers in this one) . . . . Liam Neeson, showing off his acting talents in a way that demonstrates why he was the best part of certain Star Wars/Bat Man Movies . . . . And pay attention or you might not recognize them but its got Jeremy Irons and Edward Norton turning in some very spiffy performances . . . . And most importantly, its got a cast of dozens of character actors you’ve never heard of before that deliver the goods in spades. Damn good stuff. Required viewing for any film buff, and a perfect example that, despite their efforts to the contrary, good movies can occasionally emerge from the bloated Hollywood studio system.
On a completely different note, all you Borderlands customers seem to be eating up the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki, so we are slowly expanding our line of feature length anime titles. Some titles to look for include Akira, Steamboy, Jin-Roh The Wolf Brigade, KITE, Blood the last vampire, Perfect Blue, R.O.D, Ghost in the Shell, and a host of others. If you’ve got a favorite anime movie that you think we should carry, be sure and drop me a note.
Until next time..
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