Aisle Seat March Mania

by Andy Dursin
www.andyfilm.com
dursin.blogspot.com

The late '90s were a time of reflection for middle aged Americans. Movies like the Oscar-winning "American Beauty" surveyed the suburban malaise that enshrouded the culture along the same time that President Clinton went through his trials with Monica Lewinsky.

One film that turned its attention to the past in order to draw a parallel to the present was Ang Lee's hypnotic THE ICE STORM (***1/2, 1997, 113 mins., R; Criterion), which arrives this month as part of the Criterion Collection.

A marvelously written and multi-layered film that's now as noteworthy for the presence of its young cast (Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes) as it is for its veteran stars (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Jamey Sheridan), "The Ice Storm" was based on Rick Moody's novel about wealthy New Canaan, Connecticut socialites who opt -- with tragic consequences -- into clandestine relationships with one another, all the while neglecting their misguided children, who are fast getting into trouble of their own.

Set against the beginnings of the Watergate scandal, "The Ice Storm" was shot in authentic New England locales and boasts a natural, haunting feel courtesy of director Lee and cinematographer Frederick Elmes. Composer Mychael Danna's unconventional score incorporates Native American instrumentation, accentuating the natural setting of the story's surroundings while enhancing its protagonists' disillusionment and the downside of the '70s sexual revolution. This is a movie that examines cultural and societal change and the negative consequences of its era's mores, yet does so in such a compelling filmmaking manner that it's impossible not to get lost in the picture's subtle and melancholy atmosphere. I've always found it to be a far more interesting and satisfying piece than Sam Mendes' more overtly in-your-face "American Beauty," and rightly regarded on Criterion's jacket as one of the finest films of the 1990s.

Criterion's two-disc DVD set comes highly recommended. Lee and screenwriter James Schamus offer a new commentary during the film itself, while the trailer and a newly restored 16:9 transfer grace the first platter (audio is an okay 2.0 Dolby Stereo mix). Extras on Disc two include new interviews with Allen, Kline, Maguire, Ricci, Weaver and Wood, while author Moody participates in a recent video interview. Visual essays on the film (featuring additional interviews with crew members), footage from a New York Museum of the Moving Image gathering with Lee and Schamus, and deleted scenes make for a marvelous release all around.

GATTACA: Blu-Ray (***1/2, 106 mins., 1997, PG-13; Sony): Now, here's a change: a science-fiction movie with actual characters on-screen, and more than a few ideas in its head. Writer-director Andrew Niccol's 1997 film "Gattaca" remains a thoroughly compelling, still- relevant study of a "not too distant" future where DNA dictates the eventual outcomes of our lives.

As much an allegory for the direction our own society is headed in as it is a semi-futuristic sci-fi film, "Gattaca" stars Ethan Hawke as a young man "genetically challenged" to achieve greatness in his life, here symbolized by participating in a manned spaceflight into the heavens above. Hawke switches places with a crippled man with "superior" DNA, and begins to live his life with supposedly more gifted individuals in a technological workplace called Gattaca. The movie is leisurely paced, allowing for its characters to fully develop and their situations/relationships with one another to become fully engrossing. As for the setting, Niccol thankfully never goes overboard in his portrayal of an "Orwellian lite" future (we never know what exactly will happen to Hawke if he gets caught for impersonating a "valid" citizen), while a murder subplot is thrown in to try and throw us off from focusing on the main plot at hand.

Hawke is superb here in what's his finest performance for this critic, leading a solid cast consisting of Uma Thurman, Loren Dean, Alan Arkin, and especially Jude Law, who's tremendous as the physically handicapped "valid" inspired by Hawke's dream. The movie also greatly benefits from an atypically warm, humanistic score from Michael Nyman, who here abandons the surface-level artifice of his early, redundantly "arty" scores and provides a layer of emotion that only exists deep within the souls of some -- though definitely not all -- of the workers in Gattaca.

Sony's Blu Ray release of "Gattaca" boasts a superior new 1080p AVC-encoded 1080p transfer that's hugely satisfying throughout, as well as a crisp Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. Extras are likewise effective, including a new Making Of featurette with retrospective interviews from Hawke, Thurman, and Law, a science featurette hosted by Gore Vidal (who also appears in the film), the original promo featurette, and a handful of deleted scenes.

I, ROBOT: Blu-Ray (***, 114 mins., 2004, PG-13; Fox)
INDEPENDENCE DAY: Blu-Ray (**1/2, 145 mins., 1996, PG-13; Fox): Two of Fox's more successful sci-fi blockbusters finally hit Blu-Ray this week in a pair of satisfying new high- definition packages.

"I, Robot" was the satisfactory, if not especially inspired, summer of '04 hit with Will Smith as a detective in a future Chicago where a giant corporation plans a roll-out of household robots. On the eve of the greatest consumer event since Walmart decided to cut holiday shopping prices, scientist-inventor James Cromwell takes his own life, and sends Smith on a journey into the inner-workings of the corporation where our hero meets a human-like robot (articulated and voiced by Alan Tudyk) who seeks to find the answers to his existence. At the same time, Smith wonders if "Sunny" was the reason for Cromwell's death -- or if another conspiracy is involved.

Loosely based on Isaac Asimov's classic novel, "Dark City" and "The Crow" auteur Alex Proyas' film is a fast-paced, sometimes clever, and generally entertaining production. Smith gives a nicely dialed-down performance, which helps to compensate for Bridget Moynahan's D.O.A. female lead (is there some reason why filmmakers continually cast the uncharismatic Moynahan in these parts? Wasn't her invisibility in "The Sum Of All Fears" enough?).

The Digital Domain special effects, along with Patrick Tatopoulis' production design, help create a future world that, for once, isn't just another "Blade Runner" knock-off, while the motion-capture of Tudyk's performance is downright brilliant. "Sunny" truly feels like a main character in the movie, and the use of an actual actor to perform the role (even if it's digitized afterwards) gives the actors a sense of interaction with the character which translates to the viewer at home. The robot doesn't feel stiff, nor do the characters' interaction with him -- like Gollum, it's another technological triumph that obviously yields better results than the stick-figure stand-ins George Lucas mostly used to play off actors in his new "Star Wars" films.

If there's a problem in "I, Robot" (other than Moynahan), it's the movie's conventional finale. Despite some of the clever dialogue and interplay in the Jeff Vintar-Akiva Goldsman script, the picture ultimately turns into just another chase/shoot 'em up, with slow-motion gun battles and an army of robots looking suspiciously like the clones from Episode II. It's competently handled, but it makes the picture more ordinary and detracts from the film as a whole.

Fox's Blu Ray disc is a dual-layer 50GB release offering a good amount of extras from prior DVD editions, including three commentaries, deleted scenes, several Making Of featurettes, and a trivia track. The AVC-encoded transfer is excellent, as is the DTS-High Definition Master audio sound. A huge upgrade on the prior DVD release and a strongly recommended pick-up for all high-def sci-fi enthusiasts.

Also out from Fox is a Blu-Ray release of Smith's inaugural sci-fi effort, "Independence Day," Roland Emmerich's huge smash from the summer of '96 that needs little introduction for most viewers. Suffice to say that, even though the movie plays better with a loud, raucous audience, "ID4" has its pleasures, even if the Emmerich-Dean Devlin script is too calculated and pat -- the ultimate "pre-fab" blockbuster if you will -- to be accepted as anything more than a forgettable, popcorn-munching piece of escapism.

Fox's eagerly-awaited Blu-Ray disc is strongest in its presentation, with a 50GB dual-layer presentation presented in a strong (though not quite flawless) AVC-encoded MPEG4 transfer and a robust 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio track. Supplements, though, are a bit disappointing, offering two commentaries, a trivia track, trailers, and an interactive game, but none of the deleted scenes or other copious extras from the previous "Five Star Collection" double-DVD set.

Every once in a while someone other than Disney scores a huge hit with a family movie that manages to be sentimental without being overly saccharine and predictable. "Ice Age" was one of those gems -- a moving, smart, and funny adventure that captivated kids of all ages. The Michael Berg-Michael J. Wilson-Peter Ackerman script includes some Warner Bros.-like gags, mixed in with appealing and yet not overly cute characters.

With "Ice Age 2" having been available on Blu-Ray for some time, the release of the superior, original "Ice Age" in high-definition comes as a long overdue happening. Fox's single-layer 25GB disc proves to be a delight with its AVC-encoded transfer, while DTS-HD Master Audio makes for the perfect sonic compliment. Predictably with most Fox titles, supplements have been pared down from prior DVD editions, here including commentary, deleted scenes, and the "Scrat's Missing Adventure" animated short compiled alongside the original trailers in HD.

The HD-DVD format might be walking along in its final days, yet BCI has issued a pair of format exclusives that prove to be pleasant surprises for high-definition enthusiasts.

Previously available for years only in poor public domain transfers, BCI worked with the UCLA Film Archive to properly restore the later Bob Hope-Bing Crosby-Dorothy Lamour "Road" films ROAD TO BALI (1947) and ROAD TO RIO (1952) in the best transfers they've ever been screened in outside of their original release.

Granted, there are still some problems with the prints at times, but in general, the HD mastering of these two "Road" pictures -- combined in one, low-priced HD-DVD double feature -- proves to be enormously satisfying and a huge upgrade on prior editions, including BCI's standard- definition versions (which were the best of the budget label versions out there).

Slain Playboy playmate Dorothy Stratten's short-lived film career met a tragic end shortly after the release of this highly forgettable sci-fi spoof. Writer-director William Sachs' 1980 "comedy" isn't funny -- at all -- but the adequate model effects and widescreen frame at least create the illusion that you're watching a vintage, post-"Star Wars" spoof, years before Mel Brooks tried his own satire out with "Spaceballs."

Given its poor reputation, it's no surprise that "Galaxina" really IS awful (and not in a good way, either), but BCI Eclipse's HD-DVD presentation is exceptionally good: the high-def transfer is as potent as you would anticipate, the 5.1Dolby Digital soundtrack is also solid, and extras include not just a commentary with director Sachs and co-star Stephen Macht, but an audio interview with Sachs, four still galleries, and additional footage from the International release print.

Those will make you recall the good old days of growing up in the "golden age" of '80s sci-fi...at least until you put the movie on. Kudos to BCI Eclipse for putting a splendid package together that's a lot more substantive than the movie itself deserved.

THE MIST (**, 126 mins., 2007, R; Genius): Heavy-handed, languid adaptation of Stephen King's story from writer-director Frank Darabont, focusing on a group of Maine residents who hole up in a grocery store while a mist enshrouds them outside...and various creatures begin to appear around them. King's original story might have been on the bleak side, but that's nothing compared to the endless narcissism of Darabont's film, which clearly thinks it's being more high- minded than it turns out to be. Thomas Jane is fine in what turns out to be a somewhat thankless role as the everyman single father trying to protect his young son, but other characterizations are one-dimensional at every turn, especially Marcia Gay Harden as the requisite religious fanatic in a role that might have you reaching for the remote long before the end credits roll. A few suspenseful moments do pop up intermittently, but they're negated by a hysterically downbeat finale that turned most audiences en mass against it. Suffice to say it's been a while since we've seen such a self-indulgent conclusion to any film, making one question what the point of the preceding two hours was. Genius' two-disc DVD set includes commentary from Darabont -- who seems overly satisfied with his work -- plus deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes "webisodes," a trailer gallery, and featurette on artist Drew Struzan.

Josh Brolin plays a hunter in rural Texas who comes across a group of dead bodies, drugs and a bag stuffed with some $2 million in cash. Brolin takes the cash but soon wishes he didn't once a stoic psycho (Javier Bardem) soon comes calling to collect it -- wiping out nearly anyone and everyone that stands in his way. Even though the young married man is in over his head, that doesn't stop him from trying to beat Bardem at his own game, all the while a veteran, aging Texas sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) looks on from afar, trying to make sense of it all.

Layered, as most Coen films are, with memorable dialogue, superb performances, a haunting sense of time and place, and dark humor, "No Country For Old Men" is like a symphony of great filmmaking. Individual scenes retain their potency long after the film has concluded, while the film poses a fascinating portrait of characters bound by their ethics, or lack thereof, and the consequences that entail -- both good and bad -- from their decisions. Roger Deakins' cinematography is another huge asset to the film, vividly capturing the surroundings and staging the preceding with a sense of foreboding that lingers after the credits have finished. It's a marvelous picture, one graced with so many superb elements that it virtually demands repeat viewing, especially in lieu of its unconventional but somehow satisfying last few scenes.

Buena Vista's DVD release is excellent, offering a splendid 16:9 (2.35) transfer that nicely replicates Deakins' outstanding photography. The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is equally superb, while a brief assortment of extras include several short, promotional featurettes. High-def enthusiasts should check out the Blu-Ray release, which we reviewed in our last Aisle Seat column.

The acclaimed and successful WALK THE LINE (***, 2005, 153 mins., PG-13; Fox) is back on DVD this month in a new extended cut, restoring just under 20 minutes of previously cut footage. This layered, compelling account of the life and times of Johnny Cash, as brilliantly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, makes for an entertaining biopic, with Reese Witherspoon copping a deserved Oscar for her role as June Carter, who eventually marries Cash and the fame that surrounds him -- and threatens at times to engulf them both.

Director James Mangold has directed some fine movies over the years (the under-rated "Copland" being one of my favorites), and "Walk The Line" offers an authentic, "you are there" cinematic approach courtesy of Phedon Papamichael's cinematography and the performances of both Phoenix and Witherspoon, who carry the movie through its somewhat predictable bio-pic paces (yes, the joke that this is "Ray" for white people is true in some regards: the movie has the same scenes of domestic turbulence and depicts the protagonist's inner-demons in a similar, formulaic fashion). The production of the musical numbers, though, is superlative (kudos to soundtrack producer/supervisor T Bone Burnett), and what's even more amazing is that the stars did their own vocals, adding to the authenticity of their individual performances. The movie may only be a bit above average but it's the performances of the leads that makes "Walk The Line" well worth viewing, whether or not you're a fan of Johnny Cash or his music.

Fox's double-disc extended cut includes commentary from Mangold plus a full second disc of extras, many of which were included in the prior two-disc Special Edition, including extended musical sequences, more deleted scenes, trailers and numerous featurettes.