Theatrical Films

 

In his first directorial effort J.J. Abrams failed to reboot one TV-based movie franchise (Mission Impossible), but he hit the mark with Star Trek (Single-Disc $29.98, Double-Disc $34.95, Blu-ray $39.95, “PG-13”), which was the best-reviewed (95% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) live action blockbuster of the summer.  Star Trek earned nearly $258 million at the domestic box office, and with a built-in coterie of devoted fans, this 11th Star Trek movie will likely set a franchise record in DVD sales and easily take the weekly DVD sales crown.

 

The secret to the success of the Star Trek reboot is the screenplay by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.  Like the writers who are responsible for the most popular contemporary comic book-based films, Orci and Kurtzman are fans who really understand the nature and appeal of the Star Trek property. There are plenty of insider references, but they never get in the way of the ingenious plot or delightful sense of fun that carries the film through its two-hour and seven-minutes running time.  Credit should also be given to Abrams’ astute direction and a talented young cast.  The deleted scenes, which are available on the Double-Disc and Blu-ray versions, are a must.

 

Also due out this week is Bruno (Universal, $29.98, BD $39.98, “R”), Sacha Baron Cohen’s sophomore effort.  This time the chameleon-like actor portrays a gay Austrian male model, which provides an often troubling erotic edge to these faux interviews in which the flamboyant Bruno elicits homophobic reactions from the unwitting subjects including erstwhile Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who calls his Austrian tormentor “queer as blazes.”  Along the way Cohen also manages to satirize Christian “gay cures,” high-profile celebrity charity songfests, and uber-macho mixed martial arts cage-fight matches.  Fans of hipster comedy will enjoy the heck out of Bruno, which is every bit as good as Borat, though it lacks the easy humor at the expense of backward ex-Soviet republics.

 

A number of indie films are being released on DVD this week including Humpday (Magnolia, $26.98, “R”), a high concept comedy written and directed by Lynn Shelton in which two heterosexual college cut-ups reunite a decade later at a wild party and decide on a “dare” to make a gay porno film as an art project and submit it to the HUMP erotic film festival.  Expired (Asylum, $24.98) is an anti-romantic comedy about a  twisted relationship between two “meter maids” starring Samantha Morton and Jason Patric that is in some ways the ultimate “Sundance” film. Written and directed by Cecilia Miniucchi, Expired’s protagonists are complete opposite.  Morton is shy, gentle, and polite, while Patric is gruff, rough, and aggressive. Opposites may attract, but this is far from your typical romantic comedy.  Also out on Tuesday is The Limits of Control (Universal, $29.98, “R”), the most recent film from tyro indie director Jim Jarmusch (Stranger than Paradise, Down By Law, Broken Flowers), who created a stripped-down version of his American road movies in Control in which Isaach de Bankole plays a lone assassin wandering through Spain.

 

Anime

 

This is a big week for anime releases starting with Neon Genesis Evangelion Movie 1.01 You Are [Not] Alone (Funimation, $29.98, “PG-13”), the first of a four-film “rebuild” of the NGE TV anime, which defined the apocalyptic mecha genre for the decade of the 1990s.  This boiled down version of the first six episodes of the TV anime features greatly enhanced animation as well as a few narrative changes that make the symbol-heavy original series much less opaque and easier to follow.  The new Evangelion looks great and moves like an express train.  The only reason for an anime fan not to buy it is the fact that it is slated to come out on Blu-ray (where it should look even better) next spring.

 

This week Funimation is releasing the FMA movie, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala ($34.98, “TV PG”) on Blu-ray. Set two years after the conclusion of the original series, The Conqueror of Shambala continues the saga of the Elric brothers, and it looks fantastic on Blu-ray.  Extras include a 40-minute documentary on the making of the film and a “talk session” with director Seiji Mizushima.

 

Sentai Filmworks is coming out with two interesting new titles this week including the Blue Drop Complete Collection ($39.98, “TV 14”), which contains all 13 episodes of the series based on the groundbreaking science fiction yuri (“lesbian-themed”) manga by Akihito Yoshitomi.  The traumatized heroine of Blue Drop is sent to a girl’s boarding school where she becomes involved with the school idol, who is actually the commander of an alien space battleship.  Sentai is also releasing Polyphonica: The Complete Collection ($39.98, “TV 14”), which is based on a series of video games produced by Ocelot.  In the 12-episode anime, which was broadcast in Japan in 2007, the emphasis is on the relationships between humans and spirits in the world of Polyphonica where the spirits survive on the music played by humans.

 

 

TV on DVD

 

Fans of Farscape, the science fiction TV series that combined live action, puppetry, prosthetics, and CGI, will now be able to purchase all 88 episodes in a new 25-disc Farscape: The Complete Collection Megaset released by A&E ($149.98).  Extras include more than 90 minutes of deleted scenes, commentaries on 29 different episodes, and numerous documentaries about the series.

 

Conan O’Brien devotees will no doubt rejoice at the release of Andy Barker, P.I.: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, $24.99), which features Conan sidekick Andy Richter in the starring role.  Two discs are all that are required to include all six episodes of this quirky comedy series about a CPA turned reluctant sleuth. Episode titles such as “Fairway, My Lovely,” “Dial M for Laptop,” “Three Days of the Chicken,” and “The Lady Varnishes” demonstrate the involvement of Exec Producer O’Brien and provide a sort of litmus test for potential devotees—either you get it or you don’t.

 

Anyone with a nostalgic yen for the 1950s should enjoy Wagon Train: The Complete First Season (Timeless Media Group, $79.98), which contains all 39 episodes of the hour-long western, which debuted on NBC in 1957 and was actually the #1 Nielsen-rated show during the 1961 TV season.  Ward Bond starred as Major Seth Adams who led a parade of Conestogas from the Mississippi to the Pacific in this series, which typified the ascendancy of westerns in late 1950s primetime TV dramas.  Wagon Train was loosely based on John Ford’s 1950 film, Wagon Master, which also starred Ward Bond.  Ford actually directed one episode of the series, “The Coulter Craven Story,” in which John Wayne appears briefly in longshot as William Tecumseh Sherman.

 

Also out this week are the fifth volumes of Spectacular Spider-Man (Sony, $19.94) and Ben 10: Alien Force (Warner Home Video, $14.98). 

 

Blu-ray Re-Releases

 

The Kevin Smith Collection (Buena Vista, $89.98) includes three key films from the Smith canon, Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, all of which are presented in glorious high definition.  Clerks, which was made for $27,575 in 1994, won prizes at both Sundance and Cannes.  With the low budget Clerks, it’s the soundtrack and in particular Smith’s sharply written dialogue, rather than the visuals, that benefit most from the hi-def treatment.  Along with Quentin Tarantino, who is also a master of profane realistic dialogue, Kevin Smith was one of the first directors to inject large amounts of fanboy consciousness into the Hollywood bloodstream.  Ironically, Smith who has written several high profile comic book series, has backed away from directing potential blockbusters such as The Green Hornet, preferring to make smaller, realistic, ensemble pieces that are more like the German Kammerspiel films of the 1920s.

 

Chasing Amy is arguably Smith’s best work.  Set effortlessly in the world of indie comic books, it involves a complicated relationship between a heterosexual male comic book artist (played by Ben Affleck) and a lesbian female artist.  It deals frankly with the difficulties of relationships, both artistic and romantic, and the poisonous effects of jealousy. It was clearly one of the best films of 1997.

 

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) returns to the pot-skewed world of Clerks as Smith takes his characters on a stoned road trip across the country from their native New Jersey to Hollywood.  Disjointed though it may be, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back remains a very funny movie that anyone who enjoyed Clerks will surely like.

 

Foreign Films

 

The rise of independent productions has been a real positive for the American cinema (see the trio of indie DVDs launching this week described in “Theatrical Films”), but the downside is that, given the limited amount of art house screens available, American audiences don’t get enough opportunities to see foreign films such as Luxury Car (First Run Pictures, $24.95) the final movie in director’s Wang Chao’s trilogy of films about modern China that also includes The Orphan of Anfang (2001) and Day and Night (2004).  Luxury Car examines how, in the wide open, growth-fueled modern Chinese economy parents have lost contact with their children who travel to distant parts of the country to find work.  A retired schoolteacher whose wife is dying visits his daughter in Wuhan hoping that she can help him locate his son, only to find that she is working in an escort service and that her gangster boss may be involved in the son’s disappearance.  Luxury Car, which portrays a China in which ordinary, garden variety materialism has replaced “dialectical materialism” with different, but no less pernicious and soul-deadening effects, was the deserving winner of the 2006 Prix de un certain regard at the Cannes film festival.