Sunday, July 19, 2009

Been a while...

It's been a while since I've blogged on any DVD releases - or about anything, for that matter. Lots has happened... lots. And I have nowhere to begin.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Batman: Gotham Knight

With "The Dark Knight" performing beyond everyone's expectations - over $155 million in its first three days of release - now is as good a time as any to review the latest direct-to-DVD DC Universe title from Warner Home Video, "Batman: Gotham Knight". This new release has been served up in a single-disc release, a two-disc special edition, and a Blu-Ray version, the latter two of which include additional features including a biography of "Batman" creator Bob Kane and several episodes of the 1990's "Batman" animated series. Only the single-disc release was provided for review.

Set in between the events of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight", "Gotham Knight" is a six-part story of Batman's pursuit of a Russian mob king while continuing to be seen by both the police and the citizens of Gotham City as either its hero or its worst nightmare come to life. What makes "Gotham Knight" unique is the combination of Japanese-style anime and the storytelling method employed to the film, whereby you can view each segment individually or in its complete feature-length form. Each installment stands on its own merit while contributing to the overall complete picture to form the larger story in hand. The anime approach, which I last saw employed in the "Animatrix" spinoff DVD release, far exceeds anything and everything employed in the animated Batman series of the 1990's, lending an added hand to the stories conveyed in this new film.

First off is "Have I Got a Story for You". In this tale, teenagers put their own different spins on how they each view Batman, from a mysterious spirit to a human-like bat to an automated machine, but only one sees the Batman for who he really is. Next up is "Crossfire", in which two of Gotham City's finest get caught in the middle of a gangland shootout gone wrong. This tale sets up the thread of the Russian mafia's involvement in organized crime that pays off in "The Dark Knight". In "Field Test", Bruce Wayne (who artfully looks a lot like Christian Bale) is given a new weapon that can render him invulnerable to enemy attack.

It then dovetails into "In Darkness Dwells". This tale, written by David Goyer (who also penned "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight"), sees Batman in pursuit of the mysterious Scarecrow who has kidnapped a city priest. Batman is injured in the process, and in "Working Through Pain" he carries that injury with him while awaiting rescue from his faithful butler Alfred, while recalling his early days of training in an Asian land. Finally, in "Deadshot", Batman must stop an assassin bent on taking out Lieutenant Jim Gordon while searching for the head of the Russian mafia.

The 76-minute film is presented in anamorphic widescreen format in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, with subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Thai. Unusually, the Dolby surround tracks are presented in your choice of English, Japanese, or Thai 5.1 mixes, as well as Spanish and Portuguese 2.0 mixes. The 5.1 mix is definitely the way to go, lending to the same ambience and mystery given the recent feature films. The print is crisp and vividly full of details. The film is rated PG-13 for stylized violence.

In addition, "Gotham Knight" carries with it several interesting bonus features. First off is a full-length audio commentary with DC Comics vice-president Gregory Noveck, longtime DC Comics editor and Batman writer Dennis O'Neil, and actor Kevin Conroy (who has voiced the character since the first animated incarnations of the 1990's). Each participant lends their thoughts on presenting Batman in an anime style while serving to bridge the events of the feature films.

Next up is a behind-the-scenes look (10:30) at the next DC Universe direct-to-DVD release, "Wonder Woman", coming in 2009. In this segment, DC president/publisher Paul Levitz, editor Dan DiDio, producer Bruce Timm, and actors Keri Russell, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, and Virginia Madsen provide their thoughts on putting a new animated spin to the character first created in 1940.

There is also a trailer gallery on this disc, which includes, naturally, a preview trailer for the just-released "Dark Knight" (which even in two-minute form gets me hyped up for the film for a second viewing, which I'll discuss later); a theatrical trailer for "Journey to the Center of the Earth"; a promo spot for the upcoming Lego "Batman" video game (from the creators of the Lego-themed "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" games) coming in September; and the DVD release of the second "Popeye the Sailor" collection. In addition, at the head of the disc there are preview spots for the DVD releases of "10,000 B.C." and "Appleseed: Ex Machina", as well as an anti-piracy spot utilizing clips from "The Wizard of Oz".

"Gotham Knight" is by far the best animated adaptation of the Batman character, far exceeding any other animated take I have seen over the years. While it's not required viewing prior to seeing "The Dark Knight", it sure helps understanding the opening moments of the new film.

Monday, July 14, 2008

As if that weren't enough...

Before I call it a day, I've got a few things to get off my chest, so permit me to blow some steam...

First off, who gives a rip about Angelina Jolie's twins being born? She's nothing but a damn homewrecker, and she knows it. For that matter, she's not all that attractive, and since the first time I even heard of her, I thought she was flippin' ugly. And she's too damn overrated for that matter.

Second, who wants to buy a piece of crap from that loudmouth Billy Mays? Who in the hell is he, where did he come from, and why doesn't he go back to where he came from and stay there? Who wants to buy anything from somebody who yells all the time? I sure don't. I wouldn't waste my money in buying a toothbrush from that loudmouth jerk.

Finally, how come it's so hot in the summer? I think extremely hot weather should be outlawed.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog already in progress.

Right and wrong in this world...

Sometimes there are things that go incredibly wrong in this world. For example, take my outing this afternoon to mail a simple letter to my wife.

First of all, traffic through town is horrendous enough as it already it is without having to wait for one car after another after another before you can even friggin' turn left! Not to mention multiple cars you have to wait on before you can even cross a stoplight or turn onto a single road! And how many police cars does it take to patrol one small stretch of road? Within five minutes it probably takes seven, because that's how many were out there between my house and the post office! Utterly ridiculous, if you ask me.

Second, there's the post office. It's bad enough that the post office rates to mail a simple piece of ordinary mail keeps going up and up and up. Forty-two cents right now, this time last year forty-one, and the year before that thirty-nine, and before then thirty-seven. My wife says, "Why don't they just raise it to a dollar and get it all over with?" She can't be closer to the truth, I tell you. Because to mail a simple, regular piece of mail cost - now get this - sixty-two cents! Damn post office clerk ripped me off over twenty lousy cents! For what reason? Makes no sense.

And then, as if that weren't enough, every time I come to the library to use one of the computers - and I've been so much to the library since returning to Mississippi, I'm on a recognizable first name face basis - that some punk kid who doesn't have bat brains to use the bathroom cards adults and old people! Why is that? Sometimes there isn't any justice in this world for regular ordinary people, you know?

Then again, sometimes things go right for a reason. Take this... between last Thursday and yesterday I managed to connect with two people, one by phone and one in Madison, who are helping me get back a lot of the "Star Trek" books and magazines that got thrown out a couple of years ago. Talk about a miracle! It'll take a while, but it should get nearly everything that I lost restored to me, with the exception of the DVDs, which will take time and money, like everything else. When that happens, I don't plan on letting any of it go once I've got it all back again. I'm taking out an insurance policy on my things in case of fire, flood damage, theft, or loss into the garbage.

And then there's this morning.

My wife calls me just to talk, and I hear my three-year-old daughter's voice on the phone. She tells me about her new Dora swimsuit Mommy got for her and about watching "Spongebob Squarepants" on one of the channels, and I tell my wife that my daughter doesn't need to be watching it because of some crude humor that she doesn't need to be listening to at this age.

Then I hear the three words that I've missed hearing from my wife for the longest time since my return... "I love you."

This now changes the entire picture as I know it in my life.

Maybe there's hope after all in this world.

Friday, July 11, 2008

A pretty good way to end the week...

While things are still running a bit frazzled on the homefront, it looks like it'll be the first part of September before I'm able to make it back to Alabama to see my daughter. The reason: money - or more specifically, lack of money. Because I won't get my first paycheck until sometime in August, I won't be able to drive over to see my family again. Oh well, it happens that way at times, I guess.

As if that weren't enough, both my mother and I are getting mixed messages from my wife. While I'm still frustrated enough not to go into any of the details, it makes the thought of divorce all the more an unbearable possibility. But all that matters to me is being with Lily once again.

In the meantime, though, there is a bit of good news to report. First up, I just got a copy of the new "Batman: Gotham Knight" DVD in its general single-disc issue, in time for next week's highly anticipated theatrical release of "The Dark Knight". Look for that review very soon.

Second, and this is an immensely huge break for me, it looks like I'll be getting back quite a bit of my "Star Trek" collection that got unceremoniously tossed into the garbage a couple of years ago by my wife. Without going into specifics, I'll be getting back a number of the novels that I lost, along with the comic strip CDs, and quite possibly the comic books themselves! That would only leave more recent books and the DVDs to obtain. It's nothing short of a blessing for this Trek fan.

And on that note, I'll see you again soon!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

The Metropolis mystery is finally complete!

One of the greatest film mysteries of all time has to be the whereabouts of the missing footage to one of the great silent classics, Fritz Lang's 1927 German masterpiece "Metropolis". For years the film had been released in many different cut versions from its original 153-minute master print. In the 1980's I remember record producer Giorgio Moroder releasing a controversial 87-minute edited version of the film complete with a then-modern rock score accompanying the film. During that time I remember seeing at a friend's house a 120-minute re-edit using classic rock and roll songs as the underscore, among them Percy Faith's "When a Man Loves a Woman" underscoring the first appearance of the female robot Hel. But the whereabouts of the remaining footage always remained a mystery.

In 2002 German film restoration producer Martin Koerber gave the world a completely restored version of "Metropolis" compiled from all of the then-available resources from prints accessible at that time. The film looked incredibly better than ever, but at 124 minutes in length (based on an upscaling of 30 frames per second, followed by a downscale transfer to 24 fps in NTSC format), there still remained some 25 minutes of footage missing. When the DVD was released by Kino Video, it was hailed as a marvelous, though flawed, attempt to reconstruct a classic, and the liner notes sadly stated that (if I remember correctly), "Until a more complete print surfaces, we must believe the missing footage to be irretrievably lost forever."

Welcome to forever.

Over on the Digital Bits website, Bill Hunt (one of the most rabid "Star Trek" fans you'll ever meet), proudly announced that the missing footage to "Metropolis" had finally been located!!!!! I can almost hear Marlon Brando's voice by now: "This is no fantasy, no careless product of wild imagination..."

According to a report on TDB, a 16-millimeter print of "Metropolis" containing the lost scenes was located in Buenos Aires, Argentina recently. The film was studied and analyzed, and believe it or not, the missing scenes were in fact there, complete and unedited!!! According to the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, who, along with Koerber, oversaw and produced the previous restoration for the 2002 DVD release, the key missing scenes are scratchy but complete. This now opens the door for the film's complete, and hopefully final, restoration, which has film fans and serious film students hoping that it will be on the Blu-Ray DVD release next year. In all fairness, the extra footage belongs only in one place: IN THE FILM ITSELF, completely restored and cleaned up, and not in some silly supplemental section.

Now THIS is a wonderful surprise indeed! While I haven't converted to Blu-Ray, I do have the capacity to watch Blu-Ray discs, thanks to my PlayStation 3 unit. But the 2009 release of "Metropolis" may finally push me over the edge and become a convert. We shall wait and see.

(Now if someone would just do the same for that other famous lost missing footage, from the original preview print of "Superman IV", then the world will be a perfect place once again.)

UPDATE: Yesterday on CNN they showed during one of the news programs several seconds of footage from the missing footage from "Metropolis", and I have to admit, I am positively stunned beyond belief! This is like the Holy Grail of film! While the footage is not in good condition due to its age, the print is nonetheless complete and the scenes are watchable. Granted, it'll take some time for Martin Koerber and his team to clean up all of that lost footage and restore them to as good a condition as possible so it can be finally placed with the remaining footage. All I can say is that I believe it will be done, and done right. Home theater buffs and serious film students definitely deserve it.

Monday, June 23, 2008

What I believe...

Looks like death is bringing more and more well-known people home in the past month and a half alone. We've lost too many popular, productive people since May. Among them:

Earle Hagen (who composed the famous "whistle" theme to "The Andy Griffith Show")
Alexander Courage (composer of the original "Star Trek" theme and the score to "Superman IV", which was finally released earlier this year)
Joseph Pevney (director of many original "Star Trek" episodes)
Robert H. Justman (co-producer on the original "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation")
Harvey Korman (longtime member of the Carol Burnett show during the 1960's and 1970's, and who can forget his tongue-in-cheek hilarious role as Hedley Lamarr in "Blazing Saddles"?)
director Sydney Pollack (who directed one of my favorite 1980's comedies, "Tootsie")
Stan Winston (makeup artist who helped design and create the looks for the Terminator and the dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park")
Tim Russert (political analyst and host of NBC's "Meet the Press")

And now George Carlin's gone, too. Somehow I'm not surprised, because Carlin was a professed atheist.

This is really starting to creep me out more than you know. It just goes to prove the old adage that the mortality rate in this world is 10 out of every 10.

I guess what really matters most is how we live our lives; how we take care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually; and how we serve, honor, and live before the Lord God. It shouldn't be any of this Universalist philosophy of, "If I do good, I am good. If I do bad, I am bad. That's my religion." Nor should it be, "We should try to behave as though God were watching," because that statement is hogwash - God is ALWAYS watching. It should be following the Biblical precepts and in accepting God's son Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives.

That's what I believe.