Category: Movies (Page 373 of 498)

Casablanca: Ultimate Collector’s Edition

December 2, 2008 /

“Hey, wait a minute,” you might be saying. “Didn’t Warner Bros. release a special edition of ‘Casablanca’ just five years ago, in celebration of the movie’s 60th birthday?”

The answer is yes, yes they did — but five years after “Casablanca” turned 60, wouldn’t you know it, Warner Bros. has turned 85, and since this is not only one of the studio’s finest films but one of the greatest movies ever made, it stands to reason that a silly old two-disc special edition is no longer enough. Now the true movie buff needs to get his hands on the brand new, three-DVD Ultimate Collector’s Edition.

Casablanca

Much as it might look like it, this isn’t simply a case of a studio soaking its customers with endless slightly different “deluxe” configurations of a film. For all intents and purposes, the latest version of “Casablanca” is the same as the Special Edition: Two of the three DVDs — the important ones, featuring the film and the special features — are holdovers from the 2003 release, and everything else that’s been added is nifty enough, but probably lacks the cool factor that’ll send “Casablanca” fans marching into their local Best Buys, red-faced with shame and anger.

The third DVD consists of “Jack Warner: The Last Mogul,” an hourlong documentary directed in 1993 by Warner’s grandson, Gregory Orr. It’s interesting enough, but relates to “Casablanca” only tangentially, as it covers Warner’s life and times more or less completely (albeit without a lot of depth, which is to be expected, given its abbreviated length). The rest of the Ultimate special features aren’t on the DVDs — they’re assorted bits of swag that have been bundled into the box, including a “Casablanca” passport and luggage tag, a 48-page book with tons of photos and an essay, seven replica posters, and a handful of studio letters and memos pertaining to the film. They’re all nicely made, and owning them will doubtless be appealing to hardcore fans of the movie, but they aren’t the sort of crucial, revelatory added content that would render the Special Edition irrelevant.

Of course, if you love “Casablanca” and don’t already own the Special Edition, this will be the version you want to buy; it looks damn handsome on the shelf, and the 2003 transfer and bonus features (which include everything from featurettes, deleted scenes and bloopers to the animated short “Carrotblanca”) are befitting of a legendary movie like this one. Best of all, it’s currently on sale at Amazon for just under $40, which probably isn’t much more than you paid for that Special Edition copy of “The Incredible Hulk” that’s being used as a coaster in your living room.

External Movie DVDs, Movie Dramas, Movie DVDs, Movies

A Chat with Robert Fuller (“Laramie,” “Wagon Train,” “Emergency”)

November 28, 2008 /

If you’re a Western fan, then you know him from his work on “Laramie” and “Wagon Train,” but if you grew up in the ’70s, then you’re more likely to recall him as Dr. Kelly Brackett on “Emergency.” Either way, you have to give it to Robert Fuller: the man had some of the best sideburns in the business. Although he’s since retired from acting in favor of a life of leisure, Fuller is hopping back on the publicity trail to offer his praise for the release of “Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season,” which gave us the opportunity to chat with him about the various films and television series he’s worked on throughout his career.

Get ready for…

Continue reading »

Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, External TV, Interviews, Movie Dramas, Movies, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

Day of the Dead

November 27, 2008 /

First Look Studios is one crafty little company. Attempting to piggyback on the success of Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead,” the indie label greenlit a remake of George A. Romero’s third zombie flick, “Day of the Dead,” and even went so far as to cast Ving Rhames in a supporting role. It was all done in the hope that fans would believe the film was a follow-up to the 2004 remake of “Dawn,” and since it’s a pretty shady move on their part, I have no problem spoiling the fact that Rhames (playing a completely different character) dies within the first 20 minutes. The rest of the film is spent following a group of soldiers (led by Mena Suvari and Nick Cannon) around a small Colorado town trying to escape a virus outbreak that has turned certain people into flesh-eating zombies. Passed around like a bad cold, the new virus angle may sound like an interesting twist to a familiar tale, but it’s actually much worse. Somehow, this outbreak is only affecting one city, and though some victims turn into zombies after being bitten, others don’t. WTF? As for the zombies themselves, director Steve Miner has decided to stick with the newer, faster versions, but in order to produce their superhuman speed, he resorts to amateurish tricks like speeding up the tape. It’s all pretty lame stuff, and though an action sequence midway through offers gory headshots aplenty, it’s the only shining moment in a poorly made cash grab more than deserving of the direct-to-video treatment.

Click to buy “Day of the Dead”

External Movie DVDs, Horror Movies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies

Fan Rant: “300: Limited Collector’s Edition”

November 20, 2008 /

When Zack Snyder’s “300” was released in March 2007, no one could have possibly predicted the success it would enjoy at the box office. $456 million later and Warner Brothers still isn’t done milking the property for all its worth. It’s been just over a year since the film first became available to buy in a number of different versions (ranging from the barebones single-disc effort to the two-disc special edition that came with a Spartan helmet or Immortals mask), but that hasn’t stopped the studio from putting out yet another version just in time for the holidays.

300: LEThe “300: Limited Collector’s Edition” is supposed to be the ultimate DVD release for fans of the film, but with an even bigger and better Blu-ray released scheduled for early 2009, is it really worth it? Sadly, no. Most people already own multiple versions of the movie, and the exclusive goodies included in this edition simply aren’t exclusive enough to warrant a double-dip. For starters, all of the bonus material (save for the new 30-minute documentary, “To the Hot Gates: A Legend Retold”) can be found on the original two-disc release. The new featurette is actually pretty interesting, as it covers some aspects of the film in more detail, but it should have been included the first time around. The fact that it gets its own disc only makes its appearance here even more ridiculous.

The presentation of the set itself is pretty nice (the three discs are housed inside of a 52-page hardcover art book), but the included goodies leave much to be desired. The art book is little more than an abbreviated version of 300: The Art of Film (which most diehard fans probably already have), while the “lucite display with motion film image” is essentially a glorified paper weight. Why they didn’t include the actual graphic novel in is beyond me, but that seems like something that any fan would want to own, and it would have fit perfectly inside the elongated packaging. Unfortunately, that simply isn’t the case, which only makes the “300: Limited Collector’s Edition” seem less like a must-have collector’s item and more like a shady cash grab by Warner Brothers. I thought the studios were finally done with this silly double-dipping, but apparently not.

Action Movies, External Movie DVDs, Movie DVDs, Movies

10 Vampire Films That Should Be Made In The Wake Of The Success of “Twilight”

November 19, 2008 /

“Twilight” is shaping up to be a full-fledged film phenomenon…and whenever there’s a phenomenon, you can count on Hollywood trying to reproduce it quickly and in sub-par fashion, so prepare for a huge glut of new vampire-themed movies in the very near future.

The good news in this case, however, is that there’s a lot of great source material out there already, so let’s hope at least a few of the suits have good taste when it comes to buying up the rights to adapt certain books to film form…but since we have a really bad feeling that they don’t, we figured we’d throw a few suggestions their way for vampire flicks we’d like to see made. And, yes, we know that our #1 pick isn’t a book, but it’s so far ahead of the pack when it comes to the must-make vampire movies that we put it there, anyway.

(P.S. The movie adaptation of Darren Shan’s “Cirque de Freak” is finished and due for release in February 2009, or else it’d be on this list for sure.)

10. “Bloodsucking Fiends,” by Christopher Moore. Not only is this a solid mixture of horror and humor, focusing on a hot young redhead who moves to San Francisco, is promptly bitten by a vampire, and has to learn to adapt to her new lifestyle, but it already has a sequel ready to roll. Better yet, it’s called “You Suck”!
9. “Fevre Dream,” by George R.R. Martin. Are you kidding? I’m a fan of pretty much anything written by the guy who created the “Wild Cards” series, but this novel about vampires on a steamboat has earned reviews which feature the phrase “Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain,” which is high praise by most people’s standards.
8. “Lost Souls,” by Poppy Z. Brite. Maybe it’s just because I enjoy pretty much any film revolving around a band, but I’d love to see the adventures of Lost Souls? make it to the big screen.
7. “Jonathan Barrett, Gentleman Vampire,” by P.N. Elrod. It’s set during the American Revolution, with Barrett on the side of the British. Surely the success of HBO’s “John Adams” has made history cool again, and what better way to make it even cooler than to add vampires to it?
6. “Riley Jensen, Guardian,” by Keri Arthur. A half-vampire, half-werewolf in Australia who works for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races. “Underworld” meets “Torchwood,” anyone? I’m sold already.
5. “Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter,” by Laurell K. Hamilton. It’s already got a huge fan base between the sixteen novels and various comic books, but for those who don’t know Ms. Baker, she can re-animate the dead, licensed vampire hunter/executioner, and she has a lot of sex. I’m simplifying, of course, but, hey, it got your attention, didn’t it?
4. “They Thirst,” by Robert R. McCammon. The dastardly Prince Vulkan, master of the vampires, is hell bent on taking over Los Angeles as part of his quest to transform the entire population of the planet into the undead. Their opposition? A police captain, a comedian, a reporter, a junior high school student, and a Catholic priest who’s a former heroin addict and has just been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
3. “Carrion Comfort,” by Dan Simmons. Actually, this is such an epic tale that it might warrant a full-fledged mini-series rather than just a film.
2. “Vampire Academy,” by Richelle Mead. Rose Hathaway is a half-vampire / half-human teenager who’s simultaneously finishing high school and training to fight evil vampires determined to destroy the Moroi vampire race, a.k.a. the good vampires. Bonus superhero-ish aspect: each Moroi can control an element, either fire, earth, water, air, or – on rare occasions – spirit.There are two other books in the saga, with a fourth set for release next year. Surely someone has already started work on a script, because it seems tailor-made for a film.
1. “Angel.” Come on, Joss, you and I both know that the time couldn’t be more right. The kids love the vampires, and although David Boreanaz is on his fourth season of “Bones” and has now officially escaped permanent typecasting, he ain’t getting any younger, so if he’s going to play the immortal undead, it’s time to make your move and make an “Angel” movie. In fact, while you’re at it, you might as well go ahead and make it a big ol’ epic that incorporates “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as well. We’re really excited about “Dollhouse,” Mr. Whedon, but, c’mon, it’s Fox. Your schedule will be free and clear within a few weeks of its premiere, so let’s go ahead and get this ball rolling right now.

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

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