As I teased yesterday, this week’s MSN DVD column is all about Gotz Spielmann’s “Revanche”, an entirely excellent Austrian spin on the worlds of James M. Cain and Jim Thompson rescued from import-only obscurity by the fine folks at the Criterion Collection, which so badly wanted to release a special edition of the film that they bought the North American distribution rights themselves.
You should see it, is my ultimate point. And don’t let anybody describe the plot to you beforehand.
This morning on The Auteurs, Glenn Kenny uses the British Blu-ray release of Godard’s “Une Femme Mariee” as the locus of a fascinating reverie of the various ways he’s watched that film — and by extension, all cinema — over three decades.
His conclusion is that Blu-ray rocks (which is the same conclusion I’ve reached over the last couple of years), and that the format also enables the appreciation and experience of cinema on a scale not previously possible in home theater.
I’d go so far as to argue that it may now be preferable to have one’s first viewing experience of a given film at home, watching a pristine BD projected in 1080p/24 on a reasonably large screen. This hypothetical situation would require the available 35mm prints of said film to be old and scratchy; we’re not talking about “2001” or “Lawrence of Arabia” here. But if it’s a tough film to find, and one that rarely screens in repertory … well, hell, my basement has a better sound system than the Bloor these days.
I mention this because my own DVD column this week will be devoted to “Revanche”, a film that most Canadians — and most Americans, for that matter — didn’t get the chance to see on the big screen at all, because the theatrical prospects for anything that isn’t “Valentine’s Day” or “Avatar” are growing ever more slender.
You might as well buy that new projector now, is all I’m saying.
Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day” dominated the box-office this weekend with a three-day gross of $52.4 million — and of course it did. You release a movie called “Valentine’s Day” on Valentine’s Day weekend, you’re going to come out on top, even if the movie is horrible.
(Rad’s exasperated take on it is representative of the general critical reaction.)
Bottom line? People like romantic comedies, especially in the middle of February, and Garry Marshall will keep making simplistic, pandering movies until they take his viewfinder from his cold, dead hands.
And then there’s the other tragic story that broke this weekend: Kevin Smith was ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight over the weekend for being, as he puts it, “too fat to fly”. He has responded to this insult with characteristic grace and wit, marshalling his 1.6 million Twitter followers to … I dunno, overload Southwest’s e-mail server or something.
Anyway, the story’s hit the AP wire now, so maybe this will turn into a teachable moment. We can always hope.
My latest MSN Movies gallery considers the various studio attempts to launch another young-adult literary franchise in the wake of the “Harry Potter” series — the better to, uh, expose young minds to literature, and also maybe get in on some of that phenomenal box-office.
Results have been mixed. Sure, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was surprisingly satisfying, but does anyone remember “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising”?
I do. And that’s why I write galleries like this one. To remind people, and warn them …
This weekend brings a whopping three major-studio releases to the megaplexes — the most since Christmas, I believe. And what a wide selection for Valentine’s Day!
“Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief“: Chris Columbus brings Rob Riordan’s young-adult adventure to the big screen in a naked attempt to launch another “Harry Potter” franchise … and it’s actually sort of okay. Uma Thurman is Medusa, Steve Coogan is Hades, Catherine Keener is the hero’s mom and Pierce Brosnan plays a helpful centaur. The man is up for anything, isn’t he?
“Valentine’s Day”: Garry Marshall casts his net, drags in everyone who’s hot right now — Bradley Cooper! The “Gray’s Anatomy” fellas! Two whole Taylors! — and throws ’em all in a multicharacter salute to the wonderfulness of love. As I’m contractually excused from watching Marshall’s movies after “Georgia Rule”, I will catch up to this some other time.
“The Wolfman“: Universal remakes a beloved monster classic with too much money and too little sense. And really, why shorten the title from “Wolf Man” to “Wolfman”? A Wolf Man is a scary, hairy monster; a Wolfman is your periodontist. Actually, I’d pay to watch Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt in “Sheldon Wolfman, D.D.S.” Someone get on that!
You may notice something a little different in the film section of NOW this week — specifically, my piece on the increasing sophistication of American television, in contrast to the dumbed-down movies that clog the megaplexes this time of year.
Basically, I’ll take any excuse to tell people how great “Lost” is. What, you want to fight about it? I’ll be down at the Dharma docks.
Sorry for the late post this morning — I’ve been tangled up in the AV Club’s always essential “Lost” recap and comment thread. (I know, it was another Kate episode, but the left-field return of Mac from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” made the whole thing worthwhile.)
Anyway, today’s new thing is my latest MSN Movies gallery, which should have gone up last weekend but somehow didn’t — a look at Luc Besson’s legacy of European action movies to tie into the release of “From Paris with Love”, which I quite enjoyed but no one else did, apparently.
Ah, well. Chacun a son gout, right?
My latest MSN DVD column is up, spotlighting left-field Best Picture nominee and my #1 film of 2009, Joel and Ethan Coen’s “A Serious Man”.
You should see it. Whether you think you’ll like it or not, you should see it. How many other movies will you ever see that feature a stand-alone prologue in subtitled Yiddish?
Sure, maybe the next “Transformers” movie if Michael Bay is feeling especially perverse. But how many other movies?
First things first: Yay for the New Orleans Saints on the occasion of their very first Super Bowl win, which brings some joy to their still-struggling town four and a half years after the levees broke. (Somewhere in Dallas, Bush probably thinks he’s responsible for the victory.)
And boo to the viewers of Puppy Bowl VI for choosing bug-eyed freak Jake as the event’s Most Valuable Puppy. That’s just not right — did they feel nothing for Kiva? She tried so hard!
Turning to newer stuff, the A.V. Club has two excellent pieces up for your consideration: A Valentine’s Day-themed Inventory of 22 romantic-comedy characters who don’t actually deserve love — they remembered Jada Pinkett Smith in “Woo”, which is kind of awesome — and Nathan Rabin’s latest My Year of Flops case file, dedicated to Alec Baldwin’s lost feature “Shortcut to Happiness” … the adaptation of “The Devil and Daniel Webster” where Jennifer Love-Hewitt played the devil.
Sometimes, a movie gets lost for a reason …
Sure, we could talk about “Dear John” finally knocking “Avatar” out of the top spot at the domestic box-office this weekend, and the significance of James Cameron’s movies only being vulnerable to critically panned genre exercises.
But a story in today’s New York Times is much more interesting: Apparently, people in the Philippines are being attacked and even murdered after performing a karaoke version of “My Way”.
Seriously.
Doesn’t that make you want to talk about nothing else for the rest of the day? Never mind the prospects for the Super Bowl; what other songs might get a performer marked for death? (According to the piece, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” has a body count of eight in Thailand — and all from the same performance.)
My last karaoke performance was a duet of “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before”. Sure, I barely escaped with my life, but I figured that’s just what happens when you take the Julio Iglesias part …