Paramount / 2011 / 107 min. / PG

THE FILM:
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN is the first of a proposed trilogy of films based on the long running and very popular adventure comic strip by Belgian artist Georges Remi (aka Herge) which began life in the 1920’s and continued through to the artists’ death in the early 1980’s. The series followed the exploits of the young (approximately 17 years old) boy reporter Tintin and his fox terrier Milou (renamed Snowy in the English translation) as they uncovered plots, searched for treasure and found excitement all over the world (and in some stories even off world.) As the series progressed, Tintin was aided by several friends and allies, most famously the bombastic Captain Haddock and the comedic and bumbling (but not twin) detectives Thomson and Thompson.

Gathering together the combined talents of director Steven Spielberg (arguably the most successful motion picture director of all time), producer Peter Jackson (the mastermind behind THE LORD OF THE RINGS film trilogy), writer Edgar Wright (of SHAUN OF THE DEAD fame) and writer Steven Moffat (the current show runner of DOCTOR WHO), THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN should have been a blockbuster on par with a STAR WARS or an Indiana Jones film regardless of whether you were familiar with Herge’s comic strip character or not. And it was a critical and box office success everywhere in the world… except North America.

For this first film outing, Spielberg and company combined three different comic book adventures (1941’s “The Crab with the Golden Claws,” 1944’s “Red Rackham’s Treasure” and primarily 1943’s “The Secret of the Unicorn”) to introduce the character to the silver screen. In it, we are introduced to Tintin (Jamie Bell) as he purchases a model of the triple-masted sailing vessel The Unicorn, a legendary lost galleon that was said to be carrying a valuable but unknown cargo. Shortly after getting his prize home, Tintin discovers that his model also holds a valuable treasure of its own: a cylinder that contains one of three pieces of parchment that when put together unravels a greater mystery. However, the wealthy and sinister Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (Daniel Craig) also knows what secrets the model ship holds and will do anything to get it, including kidnapping and murder. Soon Tintin and Snowy are caught up in a globe-trotting adventure with the proper owner of the model, the constantly drunk Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), as the heroes race to stop Sakharine from obtaining the final pieces of the puzzle.

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN’s failure at the (North American at least) box office is a mystery on par with the failure of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. They were both well done, very enjoyable and highly anticipated films that for some reason just didn’t catch on with the public. Perhaps audiences were still creeped out by the full motion capture animated film THE POLAR EXPRESS and stayed away? If that was the reason you didn’t go see it, let me assure you that the technique has been improved exponentially since that 2004 film. The characters and environments in TINTIN are on par with the work of Pixar and the latest DreamWorks animated fare; stunningly beautiful.

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN has been compared to the Indiana Jones films with its globe-trotting, swashbuckling adventure feel and huge action set pieces. This is a very fair comparison. Tintin is a likeable never-say-die action hero very much like Indy and this film could easily have been adapted to our whip-cracking archeologist. If you didn’t see it at theaters, you owe it to yourself to check out one of last years best family films on this gorgeous Blu-ray.

THE DISC:
As one would expect from a new animated film, the anamorphic 2.35 transfer is beautiful. There isn’t a single aspect of the transfer that isn’t perfect. The clarity of the images, even things that are far away or small items in the background of a shot are stunning and can stand up to the most minute scrutiny. Color saturation is rich and full. Everything from the red of Tin Tin’s hair to the blues and yellows on the model of the Unicorn pop brilliantly. Put this next to the Pixar Blu-rays as the discs to marvel at their beauty for hours.

Likewise, the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is an audio adventure for your ears. Astonishing clarity and an active and spacious soundscape await you here. Technically, this is another reference quality disc.

THE EXTRAS:
Depending on how you look at it, there are either one or eleven supplements. The eleven featurettes are:

“Toasting Tintin: Part 1” is the toast Spielberg traditionally gives to his cast and crew on the first day of filming.

“The Journey of Tintin” looks at how Spielberg has been trying to get a Tintin movie off the ground since he first became aware of the character while reading a French review of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

“The World of Tintin” is a great history of the character from Herges’ original cartoon strip through the inception of this film.

“The Who’s Who of Tintin” looks at the characters in a little more depth.

“Tintin: Conceptual Design” looks at the many incarnations the main characters went through in an attempt to capture Herges’ original look but also be practical in a feature film.

“Tintin: In the Volume.” “The Volume” is the name of the motion capture arena that was used to film all of the actors and this (the longest of the featurettes) looks at it in detail.

“Snowy: From Beginning to End” examines the great amount of work that went into not only giving the canine character his look, but his voice as well.

“Animating Tintin” looks at all the other aspects apart from motion capture that went into creating the film.

“Tintin: The Score” has Spielberg’s primary composer John Williams discussing the score.

“Collecting Tintin” is a brief look at the new models WETA created to sell for this film.

“Toasting Tintin: Part 2” comes full circle with Spielberg toasting his cast and crew on the final day of filming.

However, the handy dandy “Play All” feature allows you to view all of these as a single 90-odd minute documentary, which is what it appears to have been designed as.

MY SAY:
Hopefully, this charming ode to Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock will find its North American audience through this fantastic Blu-ray release, because it is Highly Recommended.

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

BBC / 1972 - 73 / 100 mins / NR

THE EPISODE:
With the 50^th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO right around the corner, now is the perfect time to go back and check out how the series celebrated its ten year milestone all the way back in 1973. Then script editor Terrance Dicks recalls, in one of the supplements on this new set, that fans of the show would often ask why there wasn’t an adventure where The Doctor met his other selves. After all, by this time there were three different actors who have played the Time Lord: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and the current incarnation, Jon Pertwee. Dicks said that he and the producers had always shrugged off the idea as silly, but with the tenth anniversary coming up he went back and gave it a second thought. After a phone call to Troughton and Hartnell to see if they would be up for the challenge, the first adventure of Season Ten was announced. For the first time all three actors would unite in “The Three Doctors” setting a precedence which would be revisited a decade later for the twentieth anniversary extravaganza “The Five Doctors.”

“The Three Doctors” is one of the most rollicking and pure fun adventures of the entire classic era. It has everything you could ask for: The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) and the soldiers of UNIT in full combat mode, the Time Lords (which were constantly referenced but rarely seen) going to The Doctor for help, Bessie (yay!), ancient Time Lord history coming to life, Jo Grant in yet another mini skirt, and the absolutely glorious and constant bickering between Troughton and Pertwee. As great and fun as this episode still is today, it had to be pure Doctor Who nirvana for the fans back in 1973.

Gallifrey is being attacked. A black hole has opened up and is draining all the power from the planet of the Time Lords. Basically trapped and helpless, they decide to break the First Law of Time and summon enough energy to lift the first two incarnations of The Doctor out of their natural time streams and have them join the Third Doctor to discover what is happening and how to stop it. Unfortunately, the First Doctor becomes trapped and can only advise every now and then through the TARDIS’ scanner, but The Second and Third Doctor join up and eventually travel through the black hole. Once there, they discover one of the most important Time Lords in Gallifrey’s history is behind everything, the powerful Omega (Stephen Thorne). But can even the combined strength of the Three Doctors overcome the power of this legendary entity?

“The Three Doctors” has gone down in DOCTOR WHO history as one of the brightest moments from arguably the best era of the classic series. Not only is it just a blast of story, it is an important one in the mythology of the series and finally brings to an end The Doctor’s exile on Earth. Omega is an excellent creation and a popular villain who would return to battle Peter Davison’s Doctor a decade later and would reappear in the Big Finish audio adventures. But the real joy of this episode is the chemistry between Troughton and Pertwee. Their constant bickering and trying to one-up each other is priceless and is still hysterical forty years later. If you are a fan of the new series and haven’t quite found a story to see what the classic series was like, this is the one to see.

THE DISC:
Like all the classic DOCTOR WHO episodes coming to DVD, this one looks as good if not better (I’m skewing toward the better on this one) than it did when it originally aired. The Doctor Who Restoration Team went back and cleaned it up as best they could and the results are quite nice with a bright and colorful picture that will please all of the fans.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack has likewise been cleaned up and sounds great. Dialogue is all clear and the delicate, fairy tale-like sound track in Omega’s domain comes through very nicely.

THE EXTRAS:
The Special Edition of "The Three Doctors" features most (but not all) of the supplements from the original 2004 DVD release with a good batch of new goodies.

First up is the commentary track with Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney and Producer Barry Letts ported over from the 2004 DVD.

Also from the original DVD is the “Pebble Mill at One” piece featuring an interview with a seemingly very disinterested Patrick Troughton; the "Blue Peter 5/11/73" segment featuring Pertwee, the Whomobile and nice if short 10 year retrospective. "BSB Highlights" are filmed pieces from the "31 Who" weekend and features interviews with Pertwee, Courtney, Terrance Dicks, writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin all introduced by John Nathan-Turner. The three promotional pieces (the "Five Face of Doctor Who" Trail, the "BBC1 Trail" and the "40th Anniversary Promo") are all here as well as the "Photo Gallery" and always fun "Production Notes."

New to the set are the big making of documentary, "Happy Birthday to Who" that is worth the price of the double dip alone.

"Was Doctor Who Rubbish?" has fans arguing the criticisms the classic series faced during most of its run.

"Girls, Girls, Girls - 1970s" is another excellent look back at the series from the companions point of view, this time with Caroline John, Katy Manning and Louise Jameson.

For you die-hard Whovians, the one piece that was not ported over from the original DVD is the "Panopticon '93" featurette.

MY SAY:
One of the best classic adventures of DOCTOR WHO just got better. “The Three Doctors” is a must see for all Whovians and this Special Edition is definitely worth the double dip.

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

BBC / 1977 / 100 mins / NR

THE EPISODE:
With the departure of Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith at the end of “The Hand of Fear” the future of The Doctor’s companion (or of him even having a companion) was up in the air. Sarah Jane was The Perfect Companion; smart and saavy, inquisitive and adventurous, beloved by the child and adult audience alike. How does a new companion follow her? Well, if it were up to the then Doctor, Tom Baker, she wouldn’t. Baker was heavily lobbying for the series to not replace her and have The Doctor travel alone. He got his wish… for one story. The story following “The Hand of Fear,” “The Deadly Assassin,” is one of the very few adventures in the classic series where The Doctor had no travelling companion. But all that would change in the next story, “The Face of Evil,” where he would team up with a companion whose first instinct when confronted with a monster isn’t to scream and run, it’s to pull out her knife and Janus Thorns and kill it!

The Doctor arrives on a jungle planet and is immediately captured by the warriors of the Tribe of the Sevateem. He is accused of being “The Evil One,” the powerful being who holds their god Xoanon prisoner in the mountain fortress that bears the effigy of The Doctor’s face along with the militarist “Tesh.” Befriending the outcast warrior Leela (Louise Jameson), The Doctor begins to unravel the mystery of Xoanon and why his likeness is on the side of a mountain.

“The Face of Evil” in many ways foreshadows some of the themes the new series embraces with a vengeance: that The Doctors’ actions have consequences. This is something the classic series only rarely touched upon (most notably in the William Hartnell adventure “The Ark,” and that was all taken care of in the same story) but the new series returns to time and again. While we didn’t see the original story that brought the Fourth Doctor to the planet, we are seeing the consequences of his actions. What he thought he was doing to help the colonists, actually had a far more serious and unforeseen outcome.

While “The Face of Evil” is a solid story that questions the foundations of religion and civilized society, what it is probably most remembered for is the introduction of one of the sexiest and least clothed companions in the series’ entire history, Leela of the very small and very tight leather dress. While DOCTOR WHO had started to embrace empowered female characters all the way back in the early 1970’s (THE AVENGERS’ Cathy Gale and Emma Peel proved to have serious audience drawing power so DOCTOR WHO followed suit), Leela was really the first to add sex appeal specifically aimed at the older male audience members. Remember, DOCTOR WHO was classified as a children’s show all through the classic era. Even when the show started to have more adult themes (usually thinly veiled political commentary) it was still a show aimed at young children and aired at a traditional children’s themed time slot. Leela would prove to be popular with everyone (male and female, young and old) and the Pygmalion-like Civilized Man culturing the Savage Woman rapport between she and The Doctor, while rarely addressed specifically, would prove to be a winning one that was sufficiently different yet politically similar to the popular Sarah Jane Smith.

THE DISC:
Like all the classic DOCTOR WHO DVDs, the picture looks as good as or better than it did when it originally aired. The full frame 1.33 picture looks very bright and clear on the studio bound segments and a little grainy but very moody on the filmed portions. Fans will not be disappointed.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is likewise nice and clean with clear dialogue, sound effects and music. It’s not the new series, but it looks great for the classic series.

THE EXTRAS:
The supplements for "The Face of Evil" are all quite enjoyable and plentiful.

They kick off with an excellent commentary track with actors Louise Jameson, Leslie Schofield, David Garfield, Mike Elles, Harry H. Fielder, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and cameraman John McGlashan all moderated by Toby Hadoke.

"Into the Wild" is the title of our making of featurette this time out.

"From the Cutting Room Floor" is about nine minutes of rare B-roll.

"Tomorrow's Times - The Fourth Doctor" is the Tom Baker installment of this popular series featuring a look back at what the critics of the time were saying about the show.

"Doctor Who Stories: Louise Jameson" are must see interview snippets from 2003's "The Story of Doctor Who."

"Swap Shop" is a segment from the television series introducing Jameson as the new companion.

A great commercial for the Deny Fisher 12 inch Doctor Who action figures of Baker, Jameson, the TARDIS and a trio of villains is also must see fun.

A "Photo Gallery" and the always highly recommended "Production Notes" round out the goodies here.

MY SAY:
A decent story more fondly remembered for the introduction of one of the most popular companions of the classic series than for its story. “The Face of Evil” is still great, Golden Age DOCTOR WHO and comes recommended!

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

The Asylum Home Entertainment / 2012 / 90 mins / UR

THE FILM:
Snow White is going to invade movie theaters this summer with two highly anticipated, big budgeted Hollywood productions: MIRROR, MIRROR with Julia Roberts and SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN with Kristen Stewart. With all the publicity, hype and public awareness of one of the most popular fairy tale characters of all time starting to peak, that can only mean one thing… The Asylum is going to whip out a cheap and quick direct-to-video movie to ride the coattails of the big movies!

What they came up with is GRIMM’S SNOW WHITE, but it seems Jacob and Wilhelm’s 1812 story about the wickedly vain queen out to be “the fairest in the land” wasn’t enough for modern audiences. This story is enhanced with giant dragon-creatures, monster hyena-ish looking dogs and no dwarves but magical elves to add that extra dash of computer generated spice The Asylum seems to think we need.

The story has our evil Queen Gwendolyn (Jane March) having her husband killed (by a giant dragon-like creature) and her stepdaughter Snow (Eliza Bennett) sent into the woods to also be killed so she can rule the kingdom and wage a war against the elves, who are in possession of a source of great magical power. Naturally Snow escapes to befriend the elves but she also must save her Prince Charming (Jamie Thomas King) whom the Queen is out to marry (and then immediately dispose of) so she can control his kingdom, which includes the land of the elves.

For an Asylum film, GRIMM’S SNOW WHITE is an audacious attempt at an epic fantasy. Granted the effects are weak. The CG monsters look horrible but poor special effects are something that can be overcome by a compelling story and engaging characters. March seems to be relishing her time as the manipulating and wicked monarch but too many times has nothing to really do. Bennett certainly doesn’t look like Snow White at all. While her skin may be as white as snow and her makeup gives her lips as red as blood, her long golden blonde curls are nowhere near ebony not to mention her Alice in Wonderland hand-me-down dress really makes her look like she is in the wrong fairy tale. However, she does a decent job as our titular heroine. She’s not very dynamic and spends most of the movie (ok, all of the movie) looking more than a little lost, but for a low budget film she is engaging enough.

GRIMM’S SNOW WHITE is pretty good and better than most of the output from The Asylum. No, it will probably not hold a candle to the big Hollywood Snow Whites coming out, but for a direct to video cheapie it is a decent night’s rental.

THE DISC:
The anamorphic 1.78 picture is on par with other Asylum releases, decent enough to get the job done but don’t look for anything beyond. Color is well saturated but never really pops like it could. All the CGI beasties look like mostly rendered videogame characters (the hyena-dog things look the worst and come across as only partially completed.) Detail is good but fine detail lacks.

The soundtrack is available in both a Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 mix. Again, it gets the job done and the 5.1 mix comes through a little better than the fine detail on the picture front (an effort for an immersive soundscape was made, you can hear things popping out from various speakers but fine sounds like background ambience that would give it a spacious sound just isn’t there.

THE EXTRAS:
The standard batch of supplements for an Asylum release is included:

“Grimm’s Snow White: Behind the Scenes” is a fairly fluffy look at the production with the Director of Photography (Alexander Yellen) hosting with input from Bennett and King.

If you’ve seen one “Gag Reel” you know what to expect here.

Trailers for a bunch of other Asylum releases round out the goodies.

MY SAY:
The low budget and cheap effects didn’t help GRIMM’S SNOW WHITE, but a decent script makes it a better than usual film from The Asylum. Recommended as a rental.

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

FUNimation Entertainment / 2010 / 300 mins / TV-14

THE SERIES:
Hey gang! Ready for some more FAIRY TAIL? Be sure to turn on the lights and don’t sit too close to the television!

FAIRY TAIL: PART FOUR concludes the 48 episode run of Season One and for once doesn’t leave us on a cliffhanger! Much of the series up until now has been comprised of little mini story arcs and a few stand alone episodes however this volume is comprised of two massive arcs: the wrapping up of Ezra’s story that was begun on Part Three and the season ending seven-episode, “Battle of Fairy Tail” arc.

After the dramatic grand battle with Jellal and Trinity Raven, our heroes return home to their newly rebuilt guild hall and begin preparations for Magnolia’s annual Harvest Festival. However, just as the Miss Fairy Tail beauty pageant is about to begin, Laxus and the Raijin Tribe enter the hall and turn the contestants into stone. He then confronts his grandfather, Master Makarov, demanding all the members of the Guild fight each other or the girls will be broken into dust, unless the Master concedes his position of leader of Fairy Tail and appoints Laxus as the guilds’ new master. Having set mystic rune traps all around the city, locking Natsu and Gajeel in the guild hall and encircling all of Magnolia with the Thunder Palace, a massive circle of floating lightning orbs that will fry the town to ash in three hours, the wizards of Fairy Tail have their work cut out for them!

There is really not much more to say about FAIRY TAIL than has already been said in our past reviews of the previous volumes. The climax of Season One perfectly keeps in tune with the tone and themes set up in the previous episodes. Our heroine, Lucy Heartfilia, sits most of this volume out, giving the spotlight to Natsu and Ezra for the two story arcs, not to mention building up several of the second tier characters. That has really been this series’ greatest strength: allowing characters other than Natsu and Lucy to be really fleshed out. The Fairy Tail Guild is packed with many other characters and while Natsu and Lucy remain the main hero and heroine of the series, several other characters have been given very deep and complex stories for themselves really broadening the scope of what could have been a single character-focused series.

FAIRY TAIL has been a great series and one that I would heartily recommend to the hard core anime fan and the new to anime viewer alike. The series is currently in its third season in Japan and hopefully FUNimation will continue to be able to use their magic and release future volumes with the same love and attention they have to Season One (the last information I’ve been able to find states that FUNimation only licensed the first season.) Until the announcement of a North American release of seasons two and three, there are 48 half hours of delirious fun, beautiful animation and character design and adventures with the greatest guild in all of Magnolia, Fairy Tail!

THE DISC:
The tech specs on Part Four continue the very high quality FUNimation has delivered on the previous volumes. What I said about Part Three remains true to this release: The anamorphic 1.78 picture is amazingly bright and colorful. The detail is as sharp as looking at the original hand painted cells themselves. The rich background detail is so clear you can see the smallest of line strokes with no distortion or blurring at all.

Once again FUNimation offers FAIRY TAIL in your choice of two audio options: the original Japanese in Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and an excellent English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround. Once again, I can’t honestly put one above the other. The Japanese track has excellent fidelity and a surprisingly full sound despite its 2.0 origins. The English track features one heck of a fun dub that surpasses some of the Japanese voices. To sum up again, this is a gorgeous looking and sounding package.

THE EXTRAS:
Sadly, this volume contains the least amount of supplements of the entire lot.

Commentary with some of the voice cast and FUNimation team is available on episodes 39 (“Give Our Prayers to the Sacred Light”) and 45 (Advent of Satan.)

Textless versions of the opening song (“R.P.G.: Rockin’ Playing Game” by SuG) and the closing song (“Kimi Ga Iru Kara” or “”Because You Are Here” by Mikuni Shimokawa) have been brought over from Volume Three.

MY SAY:
FAIRY TAIL PART FOUR continues to deliver the goods and wraps up the season with a grand Battle Royal. Fingers crossed that future volumes are not too far behind! Highly Recommended!

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

PAL JOEY

Twilight Time / 1957 / 111 min. / NR

Before Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein joined forces to become the most successful team in musical theater history, they had thriving careers with other collaborators.  Lyricist and librettist Hammerstein most notably partnered with composer Jerome Kern on a string of musicals, highlighted by the groundbreaking classic, SHOW BOAT.  Rodgers' lyric-writing partner was Lorenz Hart.  Their fruitful collaboration resulted in 28 stage musicals and over 500 songs, many American Songbook standards.  But when Rodgers wanted to adapt the play, GREEN GROW THE LILACS into a musical, Hart’s alcoholism was running rampant, and the material didn’t resonate with him.  So, Richard Rodgers ended the partnership and hooked up with Hammerstein to write the revolutionary OKLAHOMA! in 1943.  But three years prior to that, one of Rodgers and Hart’s final Broadway shows was the unusually dark and cynical, PAL JOEY.

The show originated in a series of New Yorker short stories, written as letters, by novelist John O’Hara, who created the character of Joey Evans, a nightclub performer whose misanthropic, calculating core is masked by an amiable persona.  O’Hara wrote the book for the musical, while Rodgers and Hart came up with a great score, including two of their classics: I Could Write a Book and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.  Gene Kelly became a star playing Joey in the original 1940 production.  But it took 17 years to bring PAL JOEY to the screen, partly because of its dark tone.

When Columbia Pictures finally made PAL JOEY, it was with Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak in the leads.  At this point in Sinatra’s career, he was riding high, both in the movies and on record.  He had made his comeback, turning out his greatest records on Capitol and winning an acting Oscar for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.  At this period in his career, you get the feeling he took acting at least somewhat seriously.  With Joey’s character considerably softened from the stage version, Sinatra is the heart and soul of this loose adaptation.  Playing a heartless, womanizing cad wasn’t a huge leap from the publicly known Frank Sinatra, and with the venerable George Sidney directing and Nelson Riddle handling the musical arrangements, the film is practically tailored to him. 

As for the two women in Joey’s life, Hayworth played Vera Simpson, a wealthy society widow (bizarrely transformed into an ex-stripper, allowing the fiery redhead to do the number Zip).  Joey romances Vera in order to get her to put up the money so he can open his own club.  Novak was Linda English, the innocent Midwest chorus girl with a heart of gold.  Though both were certainly movie stars, neither was a particularly compelling actress.  Kim Novak, in particular, never seemed to come close to embodying a character.  Hitchcock knew what to do with her in VERTIGO, letting Jimmy Stewart’s Scotty project his own idealized image onto the sheer blankness of her.  But she is completely unbelievable in PAL JOEY, posing, tilting her head and saying her lines like she’s from another world.  Add the fact that Novak and Hayworth both had their singing voices dubbed (badly), and skinny, 41-year-old Sinatra easily becomes the most compelling presence on the screen, naturally delivering his dialogue, while giving us a sense of Ol’ Blue Eyes, the nightclub performer, in his prime.

It should also be noted that PAL JOEY is released on Blu-ray by Twilight Time, a company that prints limited editions (3000 units, in this case) of specialty films, and you pretty much have to order it from their website. 

THE DISC

Considering the niche label, Twilight Time, is at the mercy of the best prints the studios have to offer, PAL JOEY looks pretty damn good.  The 1080p transfer in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio is a little soft at times, but the vibrant Technicolor palette is vibrant and fun to watch.

The DTS-HD Master Audio tracks are available in either a 5.1 surround or 2.0 stereo mix.  The surround track sounds terrific, with side and rear channels well-used for music arrangements and atmospherics.

EXTRAS

“Kim Novak Backstage” is a 9-minute featurette with the plain spoken actress looking back at the movie from the vantage point of her Oregon home, where she devotes her time to painting.

A fun trailer, with Frankie educating us as to the hip lingo in the pic.

MY SAY

The movie is blander and safer than the stage musical, and the female leads are less than compelling.  But PAL JOEY is worth watching for the great Rodgers and Hart score and to see the 20^th Century’s greatest popular singer at the height of his singing and acting powers.

--Reviewed by David Newman

Echo Bridge Home Entertainment / 2000 - 2002 / 1717 mins / NR

THE SERIES:
Four fugitives steal a massive living spaceship and try to survive in a galaxy filled with ruthless villains and very sexually active aliens. Sound familiar? That synopsis can be used to describe two different genre-changing science fiction series that aired at the end of the 1990’s and the beginning of the 2000’s. They also comprised the one-two punch of one of Sci-Fi Channel’s most popular Friday night line ups.

FARSCAPE and LEXX were two of THE television series science fiction fans talked about at the turn of the 21^st century and both series have earned a special place in the hearts of fans around the world. Sadly, though, only FARSCAPE has been given a glorious Blu-ray release, packed with a massive drenload of supplements. LEXX, on the other hand, received a limited DVD release from Acorn Media, complete with a decent batch of supplements, back in the early 2000’s but those are out of print. For years LEXX floated in limbo, mostly available only on the second hand market, much like Xev (Xenia Seeberg), Stanley (Brian Downey), Kai (Michael McManus) and 790 (voiced by Jeffrey Hirschfield) did in between seasons two and three. Now that Echo Bridge has managed to get the rights to two more seasons, a little more LEXX is readily available on the home video market (as of now, only Season Two is MIA from Echo Bridge as they currently have Season One out.)

The final two seasons of LEXX, however, are the lion’s share of the series with 37 out of the entire 61 episodes presented here. These are also the seasons where the show and the actors have found their groove and started experimenting. The series didn’t have the luxury of a large budget like FARSCAPE did, and it shows in the special effects and very few sets each episode happens in, but they made up for these deficiencies in other ways.  The primary thrust of most of the episodes is lust and hunger and the German/Canadian production company had no problem showing the former with frequent onscreen nudity (which is all here as these appear to be the international edits of the episodes.)

The Lexx (a massive living spaceship that looks like a wingless dragonfly and is capable of destroying an entire planet) is always hungry. After destroying The Light Universe at the end of Season Two, The Lexx is not only starving, but has run out of food to feed its starving crew. It has also run out of fuel to fly to a planet to reequip itself. So the ship and the crew go into cryostasis for thousands of years until they drift close enough to a source of power and food.

Season Three finds our heroes in orbit around the twin warring planets of Fire and Water. Prince (Nigel Bennett), ruler of the desert world Fire, has boarded the ship in hopes of winning the crew over to help him take over the cool and water abundant neighboring planet. The season’s highlights include Kai finding his soul essence and one of our crew members meeting their untimely end. The final season is a darkly satiric one as Lexx and her crew end up orbiting a planet that looks exactly like Earth in the year 2000 populated by most of their old enemies.

LEXX hasn’t aged quite as gracefully as FARSCAPE, but this is due almost entirely to its small budget origins. The stories are filled with great ideas and interesting visuals but are often slowly paced with very deliberate line readings from the actors. Had the series been afforded a budget, I have no doubt LEXX would have matched the Jim Henson’s based FARSCAPE in looks and action. As it stands, LEXX is as darkly humorous and original as its one-time Friday Night partner and still a wickedly fun series. Here’s hoping Echo Bridge attains the rights to Series Two so the entire saga of Xev, Kai and Stanley H. Tweedle will again be in print.

THE DISC:
Echo Bridge has yet to deliver a stunning transfer on anything they have released. They are the company you go to for bargain priced releases of a surprisingly excellent catalog of titles. As such the source prints used for LEXX are solid and blemish free. You’re not going to find any scratches or any print related damage on any of the episodes. However, the full frame 1.33 transfers are weak on color saturation, there is no color popping on this set. Nor will you find very deep blacks; the darkest they get is a digital black-ish on the special effect portions; black on anything live action is a muddy dark-grey. Also, the transfer has a blocky look to it upon close inspection. Titles and credits have almost a double image look to them when seen close up or on a large screen and the overall clarity suffers as well.

Likewise, the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is just there. The “Yo Way Yo” of the theme song should be a deep and full sounding entrance to the world of LEXX but comes through as weak and a bit tinny. Dialogue is always clear but the limited ambience is flat. Even though LEXX is sometimes compared to FARSCAPE, don’t go looking for the love and attention Crichton and Officer Sun received on their Blu-ray release here. Xev, Stanley and Kai were simply collected and released at a bargain price.

THE EXTRAS:
Not a single, solitary thing.

MY SAY:
A fun and very sexy sci-fi series, LEXX is a welcome addition to any fan boy or girls’ library and comes recommended!

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

Summit Entertainment / 2011 / 111 min. / PG-13

THE FILM:
The first few seasons of “Saturday Night Live” back in the mid-1970’s had a sketch called “What If?” that popped up from time to time. Jane Curtain (as Joan Face) would host a panel of experts and they would give their opinions and then do a “What If” re-enactment of a scenario sent in by Mr. Kevin O’Donnell, age 10. They tackled such hypothetical questions as “what if Superman grew up in Nazi Germany instead of America” and “what if Napoleon had a B-52 at the Battle of Waterloo.” Paul W. S. Anderson’s recent take on THE THREE MUSKETEERS could easily have been an elaborate, big budgeted, big screen version of a “What If?” sketch: what if the Three Musketeers had access to giant flying steampunk war machines?

The core of Andrew Davies and Alex Litvak’s script pretty much stays true to Alexandre Dumas’ original story. Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich) and Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) plan to cause France to go to war with England by framing Queen Anne (Juno Temple) as having an affair with the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom.) Once exposed, the scandal would cause a chain of events that should lead to Richelieu taking the throne from the very young King Louis XIII (Freddie Fox.) Only the king’s musketeers, Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Porthos (Ray Stevenson) and Aramis (Luke Evans) together with the eager young musketeer wannabe D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman) can buckle the swash and do the derring to save the Queen and the country.

The basic story may be the same, but the gadgets and gizmos the heroes and villains use are straight out of the latest Hollywood action flick. Buckingham has a massive PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN looking dirigible, loaded with flamethrowers and all sorts of guns and cannons. Milady de Winter seems to have gotten her accessories from Ye Olde MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE outlet store and the Musketeers themselves have the latest in fashionable underwater gear and self-retracting and folding weapons. Not to mention they all fight in slow motion, just like if they were in THE MATIRX. Yeah baby! This really is The Three Steampunk Musketeers!

Other aspects seem to be borrowed from other movies as well. Jovovich is pretty much playing her RESIDENT EVIL character, Alice, in fancy dress. Bloom looked to be having the time of his life playing the Duck of Buckingham as a classic, mustachio-twirling villain out of vaudeville or a silent-era serial. Anderson seems to be trying to capture the light, romantic and comedic tone of Richard Lester’s definitive take on THE THREE MUSKETEERS but keeps shifting gears directly recalling other films like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN series specifically.

None of this is actually too bad; Anderson and his cast make it work. This is clearly all supposed to be over the top, silly fun and if you can get in that mindset, this version can be a great ride (unlike the last attempt to update the story, 2001’s atrocious THE MUSKETEER). The one aspect that really annoys in this film is that the three actors playing The Musketeers are really good. They are nailing the characters from Dumas’ novel and are a ton of fun to be around. Unfortunately, the script is so focused on action action action, that it never really gives much time to properly develop the characters. We get quick sketches of who they are (Athos the spurned lover; Portos the partier and Aramis the devout) in the beginning scenes and that is about it. These are their roles and we are denied learning much more about them. Sadly, this film bombed at the box office so the sequel that is set up at the end will probably never come to fruition and this will be the last we see of these Musketeers.

THE DISC:
THE THREE MUSKETEERS is another spectacular looking Blu-ray. The anamorphic 2.35 picture is simply stunning. One of the reasons this disc probably looks so magnificent is that there is so much that begs to look great: incredibly intricate costumes, bold and bright colors everywhere, richly detailed backgrounds and sets… this is a visual feast for the eyes and Summits’ Blu-ray transfer perfectly brings it all to vibrant life.

Likewise, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is a sonic blast to the ears. This disc boasts an amazingly immersive soundscape with vast echo-y chambers, air battles that sound sufficiently… air-y, clanging swords and explosions coming from every speaker. No matter what your take on the movie itself is, there is no denying that this is a top shelf presentation.

THE EXTRAS:
The list of supplements looks short, but don’t let that fool you, this is one loaded disc.

First up is an audio commentary with Anderson and producers Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer. It’s a technically driven track focusing on the nuts and bolts of making a period film in the digital age. Enjoyable and worth a listen.

“Access: Three Musketeers” is the main supplement and it is a big one. Similar to Warner Bros’. “Maximum Movie Mode,” this is an option that runs with the film itself with numerous featurettes delving into detail about the scene currently playing, only this time there is a PIP box that allows you to control things much better like instantly skipping to the next featurette.

Four mini-featurettes (“Paul W. S. Anderson’s Musketeers,” “Orlando Bloom Takes on the Duke,” “17^th Century Air Travel” and “Uncovering France in Germany”) run for a couple of minutes each and appear to be little more than promos for the “Access: Three Musketeers” feature.

A dozen “Deleted and Extended Scenes” are mostly just excised jokes and longer fight scenes, but the “Queen Anne and Constance” clip should never have been cut from the finished film as it adds great depth and clarity to the Queen’s relationship with her husband.

MY SAY:
A silly mismash of scenes and characters from other films, this THREE MUSKETEERS was not for everyone (as its huge failure at the box office attests), but if you look at it from the right angle can be loads of fun. I can’t really recommend it as a good film, but I can certainly say it was enjoyably dumb.

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

eOne Entertainment / 2011 / 290 mins / NR

THE SERIES:
TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL began life in 2003 as a short film by Craig David Wallace that toured the film festival circuit and was eventually developed into a television series that is currently airing on the Canadian channel, Space. While the show can easily be seen as a successor to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, TODD is a distinctly cruder and lower budgeted animal, a trait it seems to revel and thrive in. Not hindered by American censorship, TODD and his Scoobie Gang have no problems screaming profanity like it was going out of style, showing loads of blood, bile and all sorts of gloppy, gooey demonic fluids and while not showing nudity per se, making the best use of bananas and silhouettes as they can.

Crowley High School is the home of The Book of Pure Evil; a Necronomicon-like tome of spells and enchantments that will grant your deepest wish usually with the gravest of costs. Todd Smith (Alex House) is your typical heavy metal loving, social outcast high school student. He quietly lusts after Jenny (Maggie Castle), the hot Goth girl with the tragic past linked to the Book who has zero interest in him. He spends his days with his similarly skewed outcast friend Curtis (Billy Turnbull) and is completely oblivious to the charms of brainy science nerd Hannah (Melanie Leishman) who secretly longs for him. As the series opens, he learns about the existence of The Book of Pure Evil, finds it and uses it to become school’s basketball champ and best guitar player, a position formerly held by Jenny’s jock boyfriend. Learning the horrible consequences of using the book, our quartet teams up to try to prevent its further use. Like the clever tag line of the series says, they are “fighting evil with mixed results.”

While there is nothing particularly new in TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL, the show benefits from having two of the most important aspects needed for a successful television series: a great cast with excellent chemistry and solid, engaging stories. The dynamic of the core cast is perfect and the actors clearly relish the role they are undertaking. It is really difficult to single out any one performer as being a stand out as they each are components of a perfect entity; if any of the cast (House, Castle, Turnbull or Leishman) was either better or weaker than the others, the harmony and balance of the series would suffer for it. Watching them play off each other is immensely fun and enjoyment they have playing these characters is completely infectious to us, the audience.

The stories are all simple and have been done on any number of supernatural themed television shows, but they all deal with timeless themes that resonate with everyone (the desire to get the girl/guy who couldn’t care less about you, wanting to change something about your appearance, etc.) You could tell these stories a million times and they would still work. On TODD, they are told with their tongue firmly in their cheeks and their minds happily in the gutter.

While the show is set in high school and deals with high school problems, it would definitely have an R rating were it a movie. While a “clean” version was shown in America with all the language redubbed by the original cast, this DVD is the full on, expletive filled original version. So be warned, TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL is hysterical, gory and fun, but it may not be for everyone.

THE DISC:
The 16:9 transfer is pretty good. No noticeable aliasing and color is fairly well saturated. The copious amounts of blood and other colorful fluids we get every episode look sufficiently gross. Clarity is also good but not particularly great with detail diminishing substantially the darker a scene gets. This disc looks about as good as a standard def television broadcast. Hopefully a high def Blu-ray will be announced in the not too distant future.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix does its best to rock the house. The musical stings are bold and loud with extremely active bass pounding throughout each episode. Dialogue is clear and while the ambience is not so immersive, the sound mix is pleasing on the whole.

THE EXTRAS:
A nice supplement package has been ported over from the Canadian release and is as fun as the series itself:  

First up are a trio of commentary tracks on the episodes “Monster Fat,” “The Phantom of Crowley High” and “A Farewell to Curtis’ Arm” featuring the entire main cast and most of the key behind the cameras talent in various combinations on each episode. While fun and informative, the only downside to these tracks is that there are so many participants that often time several people don’t get to say very much in the 20-odd minutes each episode runs. Regardless, if you love the series, these tracks are well worth checking out.

“Pure Evil is All Sh*ts and Giggles: Blooper Reel” is mostly rather tame but does have several priceless blunders.

“Outtakes & Deleted Scenes” offers eight mediocre clips from four episodes. Kinda nothing much to see here.

“The Bowels of Hell: Extended Musical Scenes” is exactly what it says it is and loads of fun.

“Q&A with the Quixotic and Awesome Cast” can only be viewed as a single 14 minute segment, but there is some great stuff in here fans will definitely want to see.

“Short Promotional Clips” are literally seconds long, but are some of the funniest promos I’ve ever seen to a series.

“TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL: The Original Short Film” is not quite as good as the series it spawned, but is required viewing.

“Next Time of TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL Promos” are the tags usually put on the end of the episodes. Why there weren’t incorporated into the episodes where they should be is a mystery. I suspect it has something to do with The Book.

MY SAY:
TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL is one of the happiest and most enjoyable discoveries that have come across this review desk in a while. Totally Recommended!

Reviewed by Jeff Allen

RaroVideo US / 1974 / 125 mins / NR

THE FILM:
Luchino Visconti de Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo belongs to that rarified realm of filmmakers whose output was relatively small (including shorts and episodes of anthologies he directed only 20 films) but whose impact on international cinema was huge. His first feature film, 1943’s Ossessione (Obsession) is credited as starting the Italian neo-realism movement. This style of filmmaking was brought about by the end of World War II when most of Italy’s film studios had been destroyed in the war and a group of film critics (including Michelangelo Antonioni) were veering away from glossy, Hollywood style product in favor of gritty, shot on the streets stories about real people trying to survive in the broken world of Italy. After several neo-realist films, Visconti tried his hand at romanticism, but the cynical and politically minded director eventually found his way back to the streets and the stories of regular people at the end of his career.

CONVERSATION PIECE is Visconti’s penultimate film, made just two years before his death in 1976. It reunited him with actors Burt Lancaster (star of arguably the directors’ finest film, THE LEOPARD) and then international screen heartthrob Helmut Berger (who starred in Visconti’s highly acclaimed THE DAMNED as well as being the directors’ real life lover at the time.) The story follows the nameless, retired professor of art (Lancaster) as he plans to finish out his years surrounded by his extensive library of rare books and fine art in his beautiful Roman palazzo. However, fate has other plans in store as the bombastic marchesa Bianca Brumonti (Silvana Mangano) literally bullies the elderly man into renting her the upstairs apartment. Reluctantly agreeing to a one year contract, the professor is soon accosted by Brumonti’s entourage: her lover Konrad (Berger), her daughter Lietta (Claudia Marsani) and her daughter’s boyfriend Stefano (Stefano Patrizi.) Within hours of moving in, the group starts destroying the apartment (and the professor’s home) and treating their landlord like an intrusive pest. However, discourtesy and rudeness are only the beginning as the professor will be forced to witness drug fueled orgies and bloody murder by the time the year is out.

CONVERSATION PIECE is considered a minor masterpiece in Visconti’s oeuvre and upon its original release was met with very polarized reviews from the critics. If taken literally, the premise doesn’t hold up for a second. Why on Earth would this cultured and distinguished professor ever agree to have these obnoxious creeps in his house for five minutes let alone a year? Figuratively, the film can be seen as a comment on the new generation overtaking the old (this was the era of Flower Power after all), and more than likely this was Visconti’s aim. In 2012, CONVERSATION PIECE is little more than its title or a footnote in the career of some of international cinemas biggest names of the era. It plays very slowly, a bit pretentiously and very “Arty” (and not in the good use of the term.)  While there is much to enjoy in the film (beautifully designed shots by cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis, fantastic sets by Production Designer Mario Garbuglia and excellent performances from the cast), it feels stuffy and pompous by today’s standards. Hardcore film fans will want to see it, but the casual moviegoer will find it tough to get through.

THE DISC:
The anamorphic 2.35 transfer is another beauty from RaroVideo. Colors are well saturated and lean toward having a pastel-ish hue but that is due to the film stock used at the time. Detail is very good with strong clarity even in the darkest scenes.

Likewise the Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is very clean and probably sounds better than it did upon the films original release. Most of the dialogue was shot in English but the characters who were dubbed into English do have that tinny dubbed sound. Overall there is nothing to complain about in this latest excellent delivery from RaroVideo.

THE EXTRAS:
Not much on the supplement front this time around. Only the original theatrical trailer and a short but informative interview with film critic and screenwriter Alessandro Benccivenni are here. Not a whole lot but well worth checking out.  

MY SAY:
For hardcore Italian film lovers only.

Reviewed by Jeff Allen