Rick's Flicks Picks on AWN

CLERKS Review

Okay there is only so good a 16mm blown-up black & white film can look. For the 10th anniversary DVD, the film was restored and an HD version was made. Now we get the full extent of the restoration. It looks cleaner but most shots are still full of grain. None of the problems with the look of the film are part of the bare bones production not the transfer. The audio has also revamped for the 10th anniversary edition. It sounds as good as the source audio files can provide. The alternative and punk soundtrack takes advantage of the rear speakers. Otherwise, the sound is front speaker heavy, but what can one expect from a talky flick like this one?

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK Review

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK arrives on Blu-ray with little fan fare. Still Kevin Smith's most successful theatrical opening to date, this 1080p release in bare bones. For what amounts to one of the better shot films on Smith's resume the HD presentation here isn't perfect. Details don't pop. But one thing that Disney does well on most of their discs is color. The colors are rich and the blacks are deep. As for the sound, the 5.1 Dolby Digital track was disappointing. Of all of Smith's films, this should have been the one that could have best utilized the 5.1. Instead the track is front speaker heavy like CLERKS and CHASING AMY. The directionality is decent and the LFE track does resonate at times though.

Italian horror master Dario Argento followed up his classic debut film, THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, with his thriller, starring Oscar-winner Karl Malden. This who-done-it throws a lot of characters at the audience to keep us guessing and gives use two protagonists to keep us wondering who the main character is supposed to be. For Argento it's twofold, it often shows off his skills as a director, but also shows off his weaknesses as a screenwriter.

Franco Arno (Malden, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE) was a reporter before an accident turned him blind. Now he creates crossword puzzles and cares for a young orphan girl named Lori (Cinzia De Carolis, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE). On the walk home one night, they overhear two men arguing in a car. Franco hears a story. The next morning he learns of a break-in at a near-by genetics facility. The company has discovered that an extra chromosome is linked to criminal activity, which could turn criminal prosecution and genetic screening upside-down. Reporter Carlo Giodani (James Franciscus, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES) is assigned the story and Franco teams with him when murders start happening following the break-in.

Director Wes Anderson brings his quirky style to the quirky world of children's writer Roald Dahl. Brought to life in stop-motion puppet animation, the raw feel is just right. The precise cast handles the eccentricities perfectly. The mix is pretty fantastic.

Mr. Fox (George Clooney, THE MAN WHO STARE AT GOATS) was the most suave chicken thief around until one day, a life threatening incident made a pregnant Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep, ADAPTATION.) make him promise to give up his dangerous lifestyle. Years later Mr. Fox is a paper pusher and determined to move his family out of their foxhole and into a new tree house. The new digs happen to be across from the farms of the notoriously mean farmers Franklin Bean (Michael Gambon, HARRY POTTER), Walter Boggis (Robin Hurlstone) and Nathan Bunce (Hugo Guinness), so he enlists his handyman Kylie the possum (Wallace Wolodarsky, THE DARJEELING LIMITED) to help him steal once again.

Back in May when UP arrived in theaters, This Weekend's Film Festival celebrated with a look at films featuring young at heart characters. Now with UP on DVD and Blu-ray, TWFF is revisiting the theme once again. Besides the balloon-filled adventures of Carl Fredricksen, we have a story of a woman where aging is a detriment to her profession. We have a story of a recent retiree who finds that his golden years aren't turning out like he thought they'd would. We have a story of veteran performers who over the years have learned to hate each other. And to close, we have a story about an old man and his dog.

Monsters, Inc. Review

Pixar put a great deal of work into getting fur to work for this film and now we finally get to see the full extent of their effort at home. This Blu-ray captures the tiny hairs on Sulley and the tight fuzz of the Snowman perfectly. But it also captures the thick scaly skins of characters like Mike with a sense of density that wasn't apparent on the DVD. Also the brilliant color palette is eye-catching in 1080p, while the blacks are deep. Equally the Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround soundtrack is remarkable. The closet door warehouse sequence was a standout moment when I first saw the film in theaters, and the soundscape during that sequence on this disc is just as rousing. Being enveloped in that scene makes the moment even more intense.

This week sees new looks at some hot 2009 fall releases and the first looks at some big summer 2010 releases. What films for fall 2009 and summer 2010 are you excited about seeing?

Getting Buzzed
8) How to Train Your Dragon (March 26, 2010)
Trailer
On paper this one looks so promising, but the first trailer has dampened my excitement. I don't like Jay Baruchel as the voice of the lead character. It's distracting casting of a hot young star. I'm also not a fan of the salamander-looking dragon design. I'm still hoping there is more KUNG FU PANDA here than MONSTERS VS. ALIENS.

A stranger comes to your door. He makes you an offer. You have 24 hours to decide whether to push a button inside a box. If you push the button, someone you do not know will die and you will receive one million dollars. What would you do? What would you think or feel? What would you feel if you pushed the button? Too bad this film isn't interested in these moral dilemmas.

Norma and Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, & James Marsden, X-MEN) are given this proposition from Arlington Steward (Frank Langella, FROST/NIXON), a mysterious man with a severally burned face. The Lewises are living above their means. They're sending their son Walter (Sam Oz Stone) to the private school Norma teaches at, but they can't really afford it. Just like they can't afford the sports car Arthur drives. He's spending his astronaut paycheck before NASA even approves him.



With these problems floating over their heads, they contemplate the ramifications of pushing the button. But not enough time. Director/writer Richard Kelly (DONNIE DARKO) is far more interested in the mystery of where the box came from. This plot heavy thriller borrows from many sci-fi flicks, especially INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. As the plot gets more complicated, the less we care about Norma and Arthur.

Too many of the plot elements that had potential are just red herrings. Norma has a deformed foot, which gives her a unique perspective on Mr. Steward's scarred face. This is supposed to pay off in an emotional scene that ultimately amounts to nothing. So does Arthur's obsession with Mars. So many of the elements seem like padding. I've not read the Richard Matheson short story on which the film is based, but I'm sure it had to be expanded on to make a feature film. Because this is the case, what seems poignant in a short tight story seems anticlimactic after nearly two hours of sci-fi mumbo jumbo.

So often when a story stops working, elements that might have worked in a better told story become comical. Overly menacing extras elicit chuckles instead of chills. Awe inspiring science elicits eye rolls. Ominous music makes everything seem so overwrought, especially when the ending leads to nothing new. At one point Arthur takes the box apart to see how it works. He finds nothing inside. I know how he feels.

The death of so many TV to film adaptations is that what works as a half hour on TV feels padded and drawn out as a feature film. Trey Parker and Matt Stone took the essence of their button pushing television series and expanded on it. Filled with hilarious songs, the film allowed Parker and Stone to be even more outrageous than they could be on TV. And they get to stick it to their critics real good.

Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny are dying to see the big screen debut of their favorite Canadian comedy duo, Terrance and Phillip. Titled "Asses of Fire," the foul-mouthed feature influences the children of South Park to use the worst language thinkable. I can't even write the title of the big song from the film. Irate, Kyle's mother Shelia Broflovski (Mary Kay Bergman) wages war against Canada. And when I mean war, I literally mean war.

In conjunction with the very good ROSE RED, Stephen King and Ridley Pearson concocted this gimmicky prequel story based on the backstory of the TV miniseries. The novel was published as "real life" diaries from Ellen Rambauer who lived in a haunted house. Two of the characters in ROSE RED are credited with editing and writing the afterward for the book. This neutered TV movie version of the diary lacks the scares of the miniseries and the sexual tension of the book.

In 1907, Ellen Gilcrest (Lisa Brenner, THE LIBRARIAN) married the charming John Rimbauer (Steven Brand, THE SCORPION KING), a wealth man who built her a mansion for their engagement gift. But as her husband, he becomes domineering, especially in the bedroom. During their honeymoon to Africa he takes other women into bed with them. On the trip, she gets very ill and is nursed back to health by Sukeena (Tsidii Leloka, ROSE RED), who becomes her best friend and travels back to the States with the Rimbauers. Back in Seattle, Ellen is plagued by deadly supernatural run-ins at the house and becomes convinced that she must keep building onto the mansion in order to beat the spirits.

Italian horror master Dario Argento teamed up with Lamberto Bava, the son of the Italian horror master Mario Bava, to craft what Bravo named one of the 100 scariest films of all time. With one single scary moment, this gore fest simply puts a new tag on zombies as an excuse to fill the screen with blood and neon green puss. From the first example of his work, Lamberto is not his father, who is credited as the creator of the modern slasher film.

Director Bava, producer Argento and co-writer Franco Ferrini based the film on a story by Dardano Sacchetti. As is the case with so many films, the premise had potential, but its execution ends up simply being an excuse to exploit oozing viscera. Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) is a conservative young woman who receives a ticket for a movie premiere from a guy who looks like an extra from MAD MAX. She urges her friend Kathy (Paola Cozzo, DEMONIA) to ditch class and attend the show. At the theater, they meet the cute guys George (Urbano Barberini, CASINO ROYALE) and Ken (Karl Zinny). The film they see is a gruesome tale involving a prediction from Nostradamus regarding demons taking over the world. The root of the curse lies in a mask that makes the wearer bleed and soon transform those unfortunate souls into puss-spewing demons. When the movie patrons try to flee they discover that the doors have been bricked over since they entered.