The All-New DVD Theater Blog

Been a while...

2009-07-19T17:15:00.001-07:00

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.

Batman: Gotham Knight

2008-07-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

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.

As if that weren't enough...

2008-07-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-07-14T13:38:00.001-07:00

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.

A pretty good way to end the week...

2008-07-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

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!

The Metropolis mystery is finally complete!

2008-07-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

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.

What I believe...

2008-06-23T12:16:00.003-07:00

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.

Almost back to feeling normal again...

2008-06-23T11:57:00.001-07:00

While I'm awaiting the next DVD for review, I can't help but think about the accomplishments I've made since returning to Mississippi. For one, I got my teacher's license back. Second, I got a teaching job only a few minutes from where I'm living. Third, I'm getting back on track in some personal areas that I'd rather not discuss here. Let's just say that I'm on the road back to feeling normal once again.

But it's cost a lot in the process.

For one, I've lost a lot of DVDs and books in the process. Among them:

- ALL of the Star Trek and Star Wars DVDs
- the Alien and Matrix sets
- numerous Star Trek and Star Wars books and magazines I brought with me from MS to AL or picked up while in AL
- countless other DVDs that are too many to list here

All in all, it's thousands and thousands of dollars in DVDs, books, and magazines that I'll more than likely never see again. And if I'm even able to find them, it may take another 40 years before I can ever recoup what I lost that Sunday after Thanksgiving in November 2006. My only regret is that April never knew to share in those hobbies and interests of mine, as I did with hers. At least it's just stuff. That can be replaced.

What can never be restored is the trust and love that was the basis of my marriage. For all intents and purposes, it's over. All that awaits me now is perhaps the ugliest battle of my life, filing for divorce and getting Lily. But one way or another, that's a battle that I have no intention of losing.

Thoughts on Indy, more with Mike, and the last word on Superman IV...

2008-06-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while for me, and things have begun to move in the right direction in my life. I signed with the Clinton Public School District and completed the majority of my paperwork, and as of this writing all that awaits me is signing my final contract papers. I'm really excited to be making great money doing what I trained to do, and only five minues from my house! All that remains now at this point is beginning the process to get my daughter moved to Mississippi.

This past weekend I finally had the chance to go see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". It's not the most high-brow epic film entertainment in the universe, but it's a good solid two hours of leave your brain at the door, get a Coke and a bag of popcorn, and enjoy Harrison Ford once again returning to one of his most famous roles. There's nice little nods to his past film adventures (including an eyebrow-raising nod to the Ark of the Covenant, and even a tip of the brown felt fedora to "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", to boot!), while further setting up possible sequels to come in the future (you know this is going to be inevitable). And anytime Spielberg and Lucas manage to work in music from Elvis and the Everly Brothers into the film's ambience, amid another exciting John Williams musical score, you know you're in for a treat.

What I loved about the new "Indiana Jones" movie is that it did something for the first time since my broken return to Mississippi: it gave me a period of escape for two hours where I felt nothing but joy and happiness for a little while. That's a good sign indeed.

I've been talking more and more lately with Mike Matessino, the film and score restoration producer extraordinare who gave us his magnum opus soundtrack box set earlier this year with the "Superman" eight-disc CD set. If you rub him the wrong way, you better brace yourself for a cold, shivery feeling. However, go with the straightforward and friendly approach, and you've got a very trusted and reliable source who will accord you with the same respect and friendliness in turn. Anyway, Mike informed me that Film Score Monthly has reissued the "Superman" CD box set in a second edition of 3,000, so I wouldn't be surprised if that edition sells out quickly. Any plans for a third edition, perhaps?

Recently Mike told me of the passing of film and TV composer Alexander Courage, the man best known for giving the world the familiar "Star Trek" theme and some of the original series' most memorable cues. If for nothing else, he'll be remembered for that singular contribution. But Courage's work was not just limited to "Star Trek". Among his most magnificent scores was the complete score to "Superman IV", which made its world premiere release on the "Superman" box set. For years Courage maintained that he didn't feel the need to see the score released, since he had adapted the original John Williams themes for the new film - I know that for a fact because in 2000 I was part of an online chat including Courage, "Star Trek: TNG" composer Dennis McCarthy, and "Matrix" composer Don Davis - and yet the Courage score (which adapted Williams' original "Superman" themes along with three new themes composed by Williams for IV) was one of the most enjoyable and pleasurable aspects of the film.

Sadly, Courage passed away only a couple of months after the "Superman" box set was initially released. But it pleased not only Mike but also Courage himself to know that his score to "Superman IV" would now be enjoyed by legions of fans for years to come. So it makes not only the initial pressing but also the second edition of the box set a bittersweet release, with Courage's passing.

Speaking of "Superman IV", Mike has prepared a thorough article and interview which covers not only the troubled production but also the complexities of assembling the score from the German and British recording sessions. In addition, for the past 21 years, reports and comments of a 134-minute version of the film have continually surfaced, among them from screenwriter Mark Rosenthal and visual effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw. The first time I had heard of a 134-minute cut of "Superman IV", it was on Gregory Oshel's now-defunct "Superman" films website, the precursor to Superman Cinema, initially developed by GandalfDC of Great Britain, and Hiphats' Superman Web Central, which is also defunct at this time as well. Over the years reports surfaced of somebody obtaining a video of the 134-minute cut of the film from the SFM Holiday Network, but the variations to the story were always the same: "My uncle/aunt/brother/parents taped the film but lost the tape/recorded over it/can't find it anywhere." I tracked down one rumor that had it in Washington state, and the fellow's name and address were given. Another rumor I tracked all the way to the Netherlands, where it was reported that a 120-minute cut of the film was for sale at a Dutch video store, but the store owners confirmed that it only ran 88 minutes long (comparable to the 89- or 90-minute U.S. release). In 2004 someone from the U.K. tried to auction a bootleg workprint of the 134-minute cut on eBay, with very few details given. That turned out to be another red herring, too, and I'm thankful that I didn't lose any money from that phoney auction. And most recently on the Superman Cinema message board, it was reported that someone had gotten a VCD of the 134-minute cut. That turned out to be a joke went awry, another false sighting/red herring.

Let's look at the facts:

- Given the reports from Mike Matessino, Mark Rosenthal, and Harrison Ellenshaw, there was indeed a 134-minute cut of "Superman IV" that was initially screened. Based on the status of that print of the film, it was closer to completion than a lot of people assume, given the nearly completed quality of all visual effects and some of the lost music appearing in one of the cut scenes (the "Red Alert" sequence).
- The film was cut to 93 minutes for its international release from Cannon Films, with the tornado and Russian missile sequences intact (though the workprint versions of those scenes appeared on the 2006 DVD release), while those two scenes were cut from the film for its 89-minute U.S. release.
- Over the years dozens of film stills and production photos from the lost sequences continually surfaced on websites around the world, including Superman Cinema and CapedWonder.com, as well as on the initial 2001 DVD release.
- In 2005 confirmed reports placed the master negatives of the film in storage at Deluxe Film Labs in Denham, Middlesex, England.
- When the film was reissued on DVD in 2006, some 25-30 minutes of deleted scenes were issued for the first time.
- I constructed a series of three test reels that reassembled the film's components together into a more cohesive whole (with only two scenes unknowingly misplaced at the time). Based on that assembly, I came up with a running time of just under 116 minutes.
- A few further additional bits and pieces of unreleased footage surfaced on a couple of foreign theatrical trailers and one U.S. TV spot (most importantly a piece of footage of Lex Luthor asking Superman, "Isn't that adorable?", which Mike Matessino correctly identified in the CD box set as deleted from the final film).
- Based on these and other assessments from the DVD and the CD soundtrack release, some 18-19 minutes of footage remain unreleased to the public (if we go with the 134-minute figure).

So now the question is, where is that remaining footage, and does it still exist? For that matter, why does someone always surface on the Internet and claim to have a copy of that now-fabled 134-minute cut of "Superman IV" and yet never offer the proof itself? Not only is Mike Matessino a devoted Superman fan, he is quite possibly the most knowledgeable expert when it comes to the "Superman" films itself. Mike himself believes that the footage is possibly lost forever, and that a complete restoration of the film is impossible (given a chunk of footage from the opening of the Metro Club scene remains unreleased).

So here's my point: There needs to be a formal statement made that states once and for all whether or not the 134-minute cut of "Superman IV" exists (in my view, it more than likely doesn't), and that if it does exist, someone should step forward and offer the rock-solid proof for experts like Mike and independent analysts like me to once and for all confirm. If that person cannot produce the evidence, then he (or she) needs to keep quiet.

That's all I really have to say about it.

Good news and bad news...

2008-05-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Why is it that anytime somebody wants to share good news with another person, there's always bad news to go along with it? I'm not alone, thankfully.

The good news I have to share is that I have landed a job at last! I'll be teaching over at Sumner Hill High School in Clinton in the fall. I'll have four classes of English and a class of public speaking, so I'm excited about finally landing on my feet once again with a job! I'm now waiting for the paperwork to come in from the central office so I can complete it and be ready for the new school year.

In the meantime, I'll have to do some work in the interim through the summer months until the school year starts. Whatever that is, I'll be glad to get something, anything, to do until the school year begins.

Now the bad news... My wife said yesterday that she wants to file for legal separation and child support. This is not acceptable. I want to be able to get Lily moved from Alabama to Mississippi, and whatever it takes, I will do it. If it costs me my marriage, I can live with it - I think. I talked with a buddy of mine I've known for 20 years, and he made some practical suggestions. What I'll have to do is follow up with those suggestions and go from there.

Right now I'm at wits' end with this whole separation anxiety. All that matters to me is working once again and being with Lily once again.

The rumors are true...

2008-05-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you know it? Four days before the release of the highly anticipated "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", I happened to find the hardcover novelization of the film (along with reprints of the 12 Indy novels from the 1990's and the novelizations of the first three films) at Wal-Mart. Naturally, I couldn't resist taking a peek at some of the pages of the book, since it's going to be a while before I pick up the novel at all.

Of course, they (being, naturally, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg) kept the major surprises of the new film's story until the final quarter of the film. And then of course there were the rumors that were rampant for months. Now it can be told once and for all:

Mutt Williams IS indeed the son of Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood.

How he got the last name of Williams is beyond me. I can only surmise that Marion married someone sometime later whose last name was Williams, though she still kept her maiden name, while she kept the Williams surname for her and Indy's son.

Somehow I'm not too surprised, given all of the rampant rumors over the months. And then there was the mention that Mutt would be Indy's son reported months before in one of the teen tabloid magazines that my stepdaughter happened to pick up. Oh, and you'll get to see a wedding at the end of the film, too!

So those are the big things we'll get to see in this new movie, along with a rousing adventure from start to finish. Somehow I feel like I've let myself down in the same way that I ruined it for myself about the big spoilers in "Return of the Jedi" from 25 years ago.

So sue me. Then again, you can't sue something that's publicly out there for everyone to consume, especially this close to game time. Nickel give you a dollar that someone's already spoiled that information elsewhere by now.

See you this Thursday at the starting line!

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Not-so-"Special" Edition

2008-05-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

You knew it was inevitable. Paramount has a storied history of milking its franchises for multiple dips on every conceivable home video format known to man whenever something really big happens. They're especially bad when it comes to the "Star Trek" franchise - I can't tell you how many times it seemed inevitable to upgrade from VHS to laserdisc to DVD over the years. (BTW, I happened to find used copies of the Original Series' third season and Deep Space Nine's fifth and seventh seasons over at a local GameStop, along with an affordable used copy of Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0, so all that awaits me is scraping up enough money to get those DVD sets and begin rebuilding my DVD collections!) I remember shelling out $200 back in 1993 just to double-dip on getting the first six "Star Trek" films in a limited edition box set just to get a six-pack of trading cards and a watch - big whoop! And of course, I'm equally guilty of multi-dipping for the films and series on DVD.

So it should come as no surprise that Paramount is going the double-dip DVD route with the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, given its recent three-volume release of the "Young Indiana Jones" series and the upcoming theatrical release of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (man, is that film gonna rock or what!). Each of the first three Indy films have been released in newly-packaged and relabeled "special" editions, as well as a three-disc Adventure Collection.

The problem I have is that Paramount, as well as Wal-Mart and who knows how many other retail outlets, have publicly promoted that this is the "first" time that the "Indiana Jones" films have been released on DVD in a special edition. Let me see a show of hands out there... how many of you recall, say, about five years ago when the Indy trilogy was first released on DVD in a four-disc (or five-disc, if you got it at Best Buy) boxed set edition? How many of you went ape nuts over that DVD set? Count me among them - if my dad were still alive, he'd have loved that set (and the "Young Indy" volumes) as well. So why should Paramount publicly say that this is the "first" time these films are coming onto DVD? Makes no sense. I'll bet you that you could go into almost any video store and still find that four-disc box set on sale. Publicly promoting this trilogy as coming out "for the first time" is a major misnomer, and their PR department should know better than that.

As for the films themselves, each film's transfer is identical to the previous DVD set, in full anamorphic widescreen format, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and optional subtitles in English, Spanish, or French. So visually and sonically you're getting the same transfer that was afforded the films back in 2003.

What's new is the collection of extras included with each disc. Since I just picked up the "Raiders" disc, I'll go with the bonus content on this one (the "Temple of Doom" and "Last Crusade" DVDs were not available for review at this time). Starting off the disc is a preview trailer for the upcoming "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at the head of the disc. Remember how I griped about there being a lack of a trailer for the new film on the "Young Indy" sets? Well, this definitely satisfies my taste (along with the different TV spots I've been picking up along the way on USA, Sci-Fi, Spike, and other channels). Also included on this set is a new introduction to the film with series creators Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, which runs approximately 5-10 minutes. (Remember how, the last time that the trilogy was issued on DVD, it contained "new" interview segments with Spielberg, Lucas, and Harrison Ford? Here we go again...)

The remainder of the discs' supplements include a 12-minute feature called "The Indy Trilogy: A Crystal Clear Appreciation", which looks back at the first three films while offering some new interviews on the set of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Another feature is "Snakes Alive!" (10 minutes), which looks at the Well of Souls sequence, while "The Melting Face" (4 minutes) shows how actor Ronald Lacey's face was modeled to melt in the final film. Storyboards galore accompany this disc - for "Raiders" there's some 400 storyboards alone! Finally, we have a preview trailer for Lego's upcoming "Indiana Jones" game for Playstation 3 and XBox 360, along with a playable PC demo. (Just the thought of a Lego Indiana Jones game makes me want to shell out $400 to buy a system!)

Still missing in action from this DVD release are a pair of vintage documentaries from 1981 - "Great Movie Stunts" (narrated by Harrison Ford) and "The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark", both of which were issued on VHS from Paramount in the 1980's. For "Temple of Doom", there are two documentaries from 1984 - "Heroes and Sidekicks" (narrated by William Shatner) and "The Making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and a 60-second teaser trailer for "Temple of Doom" (first included on the very first VHS release of "Raiders") - that have never been released on VHS or DVD at all! Finally we have a 45-minute documentary, "Great Adventurers and their Quests" (narrated by Dennis Weaver), from 1989 that looks at the making of "The Last Crusade" and profiles some real-life Indys and their adventures. Where are all of these documentaries when the DVDs first came out? Where are they now? Still MIA, I'm afraid. (Thank goodness I recorded these onto DVD+R discs, turning my five-disc collection into an eight-disc box set blowout!)

So the bottom line is this: Is it worth shelling out the extra bucks to double-dip for around 30 minutes of extras on each disc? Well, if you got the set last time, then you could replace the film-only discs with these new releases. The main casualty from the original set is the bonus fourth disc of documentaries and featurettes on the making of the original trilogy. If you didn't get the set last time, it's worth getting the discs. It's really hard justifying the need to double-dip just to put a few extra bucks into Luca$'s cash-cow pockets to get a few new bonuses this time around. What would have made these new releases really worth it would have been to include feature-length running audio commentaries with Lucas and Ford (since Spielberg doesn't like audio commentaries) and much-ballyhooed deleted scenes (which we got hints at in the BTS footage on the first DVD set but still not represented at all, along with the remaining deleted footage from the original "Star Wars" trilogy), along with something extremely more substantial than what we get here in these new single-disc releases. Or maybe I should just hardwire my DVD player up to a computer and do my own podcast commentary on this film.

Indy may say, "It's not the years, it's the mileage," but in this case your mileage definitely varies.

Battlestar Galactica S3 - first thoughts

2008-05-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I just finished going through my DVD set of the third season of "Battlestar Galactica", and I'm just really stunned beyond belief. No wonder this show keeps getting better and better in its storytelling!

Of course, part of the problem I had with this set was the fact that, having watched the "Razor" spinoff film a few months back, then catching up with the series during its fourth season upon my return to Mississippi, some of the major plot points had already been spilled to me without my watching the third season in its entirety (sorry, guys!), especially with Baltar (James Callis) being let off the hook for his crimes against humanity; Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) mysteriously returning from the dead; and Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan), Kara's husband Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco), and presidential advisor Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) all revealed to be four of the final five Cylons! Add to it the suggestion that, between S3 and "Razor", Kara is allegedly destined to be the doom of the entire fleet, and you've got an interesting mix that leads into the final episodes of the series.

The six-disc set has more extras than the episodes themselves - more audio podcasts, deleted scenes galore, a 70-minute extended cut of the episode "Unfinished Business", original DVD audio commentaries, three bonus podcast commentaries with actor Mark Sheppard (who played Baltar's defense attorney in the final three episodes of the season), and no less than 20 video blogs from SciFi.com! Could you pack anything else onto this set that hasn't already been thought of?

Now we're approaching the final batch of episodes for the entire series. Still one question remains: Who is the final Cylon? There's not a lot of suspects left among the main cast. My choice is among the top three leading suspects - Kara Thrace (after all, she died and supposedly returned at the end of the third season); President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), who's currently dying of cancer; and, unbelievably, the big man himself, Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos). What would his agenda be? No doubt a surprise twist that would leave everyone saying, "Oh s---!" Or could it be someone else we haven't thought of?

Whatever your guess, the third season of BSG is a major addition to undoubtedly the best series on TV. Watching these final episodes on the SciFi Channel gives me that same feeling I had back in 1994 when I knew the end of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was approaching its end: I'm definitely gonna miss this series. That's why man made DVD.

Look for the full review soon!

Everything would happen on a Monday...

2008-05-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well, you know how much Mondays sometimes suck. That's only because everything that could possibly happen on a Monday has happened thus far today.

First off, I had a good interview with the principal at a middle school here in Mississippi for an English teacher's slot on staff. That would be a wonderful way for me to get my feet back on solid ground here, given my experience as a teacher (not to mention my work in Alabama in curriculum development and management). I'm supposed to hear something by the end of this week, so that would definitely be a step in the right direction.

But I was lucky enough to have even made it to the interview in the first place today. Earlier I'd been battling a serious case of diarrhea and had to go to the store to get some medicine to counteract it. On the way out of the driveway, my car died out on me for no uncertain reason. From what I could tell, the engine just up and died on me. I'm thinking and hoping that it's not the timing belt. That happened two years ago in Huntsville when I was on the way for a routine checkup - the car just up and died for no reason, and it turned out to be the timing belt as well. Anyway, it meant calling for a tow truck to haul my car over to the local Chevron station to find out what the problem is. No word on it yet.

As if that weren't enough, I got a callback from DirecTV asking me to come in for an interview this Wednesday - in Huntsville! This after putting in many months before for a job there, and only now after I've relocated back to Mississippi do I get a call to interview for DirecTV in Huntsville! Turns out that they called the house, April gave them my mother's phone number in Mississippi, and called me here for the job interview. I really don't know if I could go back to Alabama, knowing that it would give Lois many more opportunities to raise hell toward me and accuse me of a bunch of false malarky for no uncertain reason. I've already endured enough hell from Lois, not to mention feeling betrayed that April would support her every false accusation and not stick up for me one time. I'm not going back. My mother agrees with me.

And I've got another interview tomorrow with a temp staffing agency in Jackson, where I'm to bring my driver's license and Social Security card to fill out the I-9 paperwork and do the standard drug testing (which of course I"ll pass with flying colors). I'm hoping that I'll get something - anything - soon so I can get back on my feet working once again. Then I'll go back to Alabama and get Lily moved here.

And the "Indiana Jones" trilogy is being re-released on DVD tomorrow in separate discs to hype up the forthcoming "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" film on the 22nd. This past weekend channels left and right have been running a slew of Harrison Ford films to hype the new movie - "Witness", "Patriot Games", "Working Girl", and of course "Star Wars" and the "Indy" trilogy (the latter four just yesterday alone!). All they're doing is stripping the fourth disc off the previous box set release and including a few new featurettes, including a trailer for the upcoming Lego Indiana Jones game for XBox 360 and Playstation 3. I don't know if it's worth shelling out the bucks just to get a few new features. The original box set was pretty comprehensive. And still MIA are the original five TV documentaries from the 1980's on the making of the trilogy - oddly enough, the "Raiders" and "Last Crusade" documentaries were issued on VHS, but the "Temple of Doom" docs weren't, and none of them were released to DVD in an official capacity! To further add insult to injury, where's the original "Temple of Doom" teaser on the DVDs? Nowhere to be found but only on the head of the first VHS release of "Raiders". Thankfully I was able to transfer all of that material, as well as a collection of DVD trailers and a feature on soundtrack deconstruction (using "The Last Crusade" as an example) onto DVD+R for my collection, expanding that set to eight discs. And now there's several new TV spots for the new DVD releases and the upcoming film that I've got - looking forward to getting those burned to disc soon!

Gotta run for now... the dog's getting his vaccine shots. Maybe I'll get the "Indy" DVDs tomorrow, maybe I won't. Is it worth shelling out the buck again? Your guess is as good as mine. My buddy Andy Dursin at the Aisle Seat doesn't think so.

Young Indiana Jones, Volume 3 - final thoughts...

2008-05-08T08:58:00.001-07:00

Well, in preparation for the latest Indiana Jones feature film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", Paramount Home Video has completed the trilogy of DVD releases of its "Young Indiana Jones" series with the third and final volume, The Years of Change.

Having the chance to go back and revisit this series has been like a breath of fresh air to me, because it's been, like, 10 years or so since I last saw this on television, and at that it was in re-edited form on the USA Network. The final seven chapters of this volume - "Tales of Innocence", "Masks of Evil", "The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", "The Winds of Change", "The Mystery of the Blues", "The Scandal of 1920", and "The Hollywood Follies" - are shown in mostly re-edited form from their original 1990's broadcast versions. I say mostly, because of one important example I'll get to later. All of the episodes are presented in full-frame format, Dolby 2.0 surround sound, and optional English subtitles. That's all nice and good, which means you're getting crisp transfers that I have to admit look better than what I remember during the 90's broadcasts. Only two of the seven segments - "The Winds of Change" and "The Mystery of the Blues" - are presented in separate volumes with their respective documentaries ported over to separate discs.

The remaining discs contain a total of 31 all-new documentaries produced by CBS News producer David Schneider spotlighting the real stories of the incidents and people young Indy (Sean Patrick Flanery) encounters in his journeys around the world. Disc 1, as I have previous commented on, covers the lives of writers Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway and news broadcasting pioneer Lowell Thomas, as well as the history of the French Foreign Legion. Disc 2 spotlights the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Ataturk revolution that led to the creation of the independent nation of Turkey, the revolutionary work of Turkish writer Halide Edib, and the fact and fiction behind the real-life Vlad (the Impaler) Dracula (aka Dracula). Disc 3 covers the life and career of philosopher Bronislaw Malinowski, the history of anthropology, and the land and troubles of New Guinea. Disc 5, the companion disc to "The Winds of Change", profiles the Versailles Treaty conference, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, Iraqi leader Gertrude Bell, Chinese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, Paul Robeson (who fought to overcome racial barriers as an accomplished writer in his own right), and space pioneer Robert Goddard.

From there, Disc 7 (the companion disc to "The Mystery of the Blues") gives viewers a history of jazz and blues and one of its pioneering musicians, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong; the Untouchable Eliot Ness and his arch-enemy Al Capone; the history of the Prohibition era in the 1920's; a profile of screenwriter Ben Hecht; and a look at the Hellfighters, Harlem's unsung black heroes during World War I. Disc 8 further explores the musical scene with a history of Tin Pan Alley, the success of Broadway, and the Algonquin Round Table. Finally, Disc 9 profiles the pioneers of filmmaking with looks at the eccentric Erich von Stroheim, Hollywood's boy wonder Irving Thalberg, maverick Western director John Ford (who was recently spotlighted in a massive 21-disc box set from Fox Video), and the media moguls who transformed Hollywood from a small town in California into the glamour capitol of the world. On Disc 10 we're given "New Gods for Old", the third and final installment in Professor H.W. Brands' historical narratives, as well as DVD-ROM interactive programs of a third adventure game with young Indy and an interactive timeline of Indy's adventures and the people he encounters.

Overall, this is a nice addition to the previous two volumes. I only wish that they had preserved the original TV broadcasts intact with all of the original bookend segments as first shown on ABC... Wait a minute, did I say that mostly all of the segments were re-edited? I've got to clarify one point here. With the exception of tweaked main and end title credits, one segment has survived virtually intact from its original U.S. airing back in 1993, and it's the one that concerned Indy fans need not worry about...

In other words, HARRISON FORD IS ON THE SET!!!!!

To dismiss the original Indiana Jones' appearance in "The Mystery of the Blues" would be completely sacrilege, and Ford very rarely makes TV appearances, making this segment well worth the watch just for him alone. The only thing that would have made this set even just a little more sweeter would have been a preview for "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Oh well...

See you in the theaters on the 22nd!

Words of encouragement from Bob Greene

2008-05-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

The first time I encountered Bob Greene's writings was during the late 1980's. He wrote, and continues to write, funny and introspective columns for the Chicago Tribune about slices of everyday life. The earliest piece I recall was a funny piece he wrote about the rising prices of movie tickets and parking in 1989 at the time of the first "Batman" film's release. He said, and hopefully I'll get his words right, "I don't mind paying $10 a ticket to go see 'Batman'. It's the extra $2 for parking that bothers me."

He also authored a number of great books, among them "Be True to Your School: A Diary of 1964" (a funny and heartfelt poignant look at his life as a teenager during the 60's) and his fictional piece "All Summer Long" (about three 40-something men who take one last trip across America to recapture some of their carefree glory days of their long-gone youths). Many of the books he wrote were compilations of his newspaper columns, among them "He Was a Midwestern Boy on His Own", taken from a lyric in the Bob Seger song "Hollywood Nights".

I picked up "Midwestern Boy" just a couple of days ago for the first time in years and found myself enjoying the many colums that compile this book. Among the columns reprinted in the book is "A Father's Words", a piece about a father who wrote Greene to ask for his help in finding his 33-year-old son a job. Greene described how the father did everything he could to help him, how the son was intelligent and talented enough to land any job he would apply for, but the responses were always the same: either "No" or "We'll keep your resume on file." And the son sank into deeper and deeper depression over not being able to land a job. When Greene questioned the father why he was going to this extent, the father's response was very honest:

"Because he's the only son I've got."

At the end of the column Greene wrote an extremely touching final paragraph, which says as follows:

"Things might not be going so well, and you might believe that your life and your luck will never turn around. There are a lot of jobs in this world, though, and a lot of people who take their jobs for granted. You have something that some people don't have, and that no one should ever take for granted - you have a father who truly loves you. On your darkest nights, never forget that. It's something that no one can ever deny you, and no one can ever take away."

When I read that column, I see myself in that exact same position, because I'm there right now. The only thing that would need to be changed is the father to a mother.

I don't know why I'm not getting any calls, even though I'm plugging away left and right in applying for job after job, talking with one job agency after another. And I've just left an environment where I faced the most impossible form of hell I could ever face in one false accusation after another from my mother-in-law. And I don't know what has hurt worse, her accusations that drove me to the breaking point, or the fact that April didn't stand up to her in my defense even after I tried valiantly to defend myself.

All I know is that coming back to Mississippi, I have felt broken inside physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And I'm doing my best to pick up the pieces of my broken life by searching for a job so I can start over again. But I know this:

I've got a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and a mother who cares about her only son. Nobody can take that away from me, not even that damned Lois Howell with her false accusations.

And I will be going back to Alabama to bring my daughter Lily to live with me... mark my word.

More on BSG, jobs, etc.

2008-05-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

So I've started pouring into the latest BSG DVD set, and I continue to be impressed with this series! One quality episode after another, all in Dolby 5.1 digital sound, with multiple podcast commentaries, extended versions of episodes, webisodes, deleted scenes, video blogs, you name it - how much better could this series get? Well, they could have more BSG trailers on the set and not clutter it up with junky cross-promotional trailers for other series on DVD. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. Still, it continues to prove why "Battlestar Galactica" is, hands down, one of the top series on television today. The quality is that exceptional. When this series ends, I'm going to be really bummed. Now I'll have to go back and track down the first two seasons and the "Razor" spinoff movie my wife threw out of the house.

Still job-searching. Got a promising lead today from a contact of mine at my alma mater. He said that there's a good possibility of a job opening up, and once that job becomes available it would be the foot in the door for me to eventually teach a couple of English classes each semester. It wouldn't be the greatest work in the world, but at least I would be living a normal life once again. But things won't be normal until Lily's here with me.

I saw where John Langworthy's still at Morrison Heights. Lying two-faced bastard.

Battlestar Galactica S3 here at last!

2008-05-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Well, in the middle of checking out the second batch of documentaries on Young Indiana Jones, Volume 3, what happened to arrive at my doorstep today but none other than the third season of Battlestar Galactica! YES!!!!!

Since returning to Mississippi, I've been catching up on the current batch of fourth (and final) season episodes of this really terrific series that just seems to keep turning the notch up higher and higher in terms of storytelling quality (not to mention all of those realistic and impressive visual effects!). It's the first time since the DVD release of the BSG spinoff film "Razor" that I've been able to sit back down and watch anything BSG-related. And now with the series heading into its final hurrahs, I can now go back and check out the entire third season that saw, among other things, the series itself reset a year into its future; President Gaius Baltar (James Callis, who plays the most textured villain on TV this side of Michael Rosenbaum's portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville) on trial for betraying the fleet; the disappearance and return of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff); and the shocking revelation of four more Cylons within the fleet, among them engineering Chief Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) and Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) aboard the Galactica itself! Talk about missing out!

Now that I've got the six-disc DVD set, I can check out the entire third season for myself and find out everything that I've missed. That'll definitely prep me for when the fourth and final season hits DVD eventually. I only wish that I still had the first two seasons and the "Razor" spinoff movie with me, but they were unfortunate casualties along with all of the Star Trek and Star Wars DVDs that my wife saw to it were thrown out. Even a couple of recorded DVDs of extra BSG content, with stuff not on the season sets, thrown out and gone. The only good thing about it is, as opposed to Star Trek and Star Wars, there isn't as much to go back and attempt to regain. Perhaps Universal Home Video will be kind enough to issue the entire series down the road in a complete series package with some extra bonus content, as some series have been issued in recent years, among them MASH, Star Trek: TNG, and Miami Vice, among others.

Looking forward to tonight's all new episode! See you then... so say we all!

Quick note today...

2008-05-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd chime in with a little note to let you know that I should be able to review the "Blade Runner" Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD set very soon! This is one film that, with its myriad versions (the U.S. cut, the international cut, the 1990's Director's Cut, the recent Final Cut, and the seldom-seen workprint cut), I'm definitely interested in comparing. And you thought all of the myriad versions of "Superman" and "Superman II" were staggering!

Look for that review coming soon!

The French Foreign Legion

2008-04-30T11:23:00.001-07:00

Well, just after I last posted my thoughts on the documentaries on Disc 1 of Young Indiana Jones, Volume 3, I happened to remember the other documentary spotlighted on the disc. There is an excellent 30-minute piece on the history of the French Foreign Legion. Originally organized around 150 years ago, the French Foreign Legion originally consisted of outcasts from other societies who had no place else to go and wanted to get their lives back in order. Over a five-year tour of duty, those associated with the Foreign Legion put themselves through an extremely rigorous training where death is considered the ultimate way to go out - their mindset: "Today is a good day to die." (And you thought the Klingons first came up with it!)

Through the eyes of two surviving officers, we learn about the history of the French Foreign Legion and what drives people to pursue such aspirations of glorious, romantic adventures and dying for a cause. Hollywood had its hand in perpetuating the romantic myth of the Legion through numerous movies in the 1930's, the myth of which still continues to this day in the harsh guerrilla warfare of the 21st century. Desertion was the norm in the Foreign Legion, and if you returned, more often than not your punishment was to go back to your unit and start all over again. And if you survived five years of hell, you had a story to tell, as those soldiers interviewed for this documentary have to offer.

I'm currently getting started on the documentaries for Disc 2, which include a look at the formation of the Turkish Empire in the 20th century and an exploration of the myth of Dracula. See you then!

Documentaries on Young Indy, Volume 3, Disc 1...

2008-04-29T12:30:00.001-07:00

I've gotten through the first disc of documentaries on Volume 3 of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, which hit stores today, and I've got to admit I'm more than impressed with the substance of information and material on these and all of the documentaries on the previous two volumes. This isn't just simply talking head fluff, this is substantial commentaries on the people and places spotlighted in the entire Young Indy TV series that really gives you the most in-depth look this side of a history book.

Disc 1 starts off with a great 30-minute documentary on the life of Ernest Hemingway, the author of classic 20th century novels such as "The Sun Also Rises", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", and "The Old Man and the Sea". Here was a guy who found his passion through his writing because of the lack of love from his parents. When I read "The Sun Also Rises" in college, I found it extremely dull and boring, because in my college-age eyes it was about people partying, going to one cafe' after another in Paris, and going off to the bullfights in Spain. Not the most thrilling of tales in my book. But now I understand why Hemingway wrote in such sparse, "He said, she said" language. He wanted the accuracy of the description to take hold of the reader's attention. Now I wonder if I should go back and re-read his novels.

There's another interesting 30-minute documentary on the life and career of Edith Wharton, the author of works such as "Ethan Frome", another book I read in college. The reasoning for her frequently depressing works all stemmed back to the fact that Edith Jones started out trapped in that upper class society of the 19th to 20th centuries, and she didn't want to be a part of it. She saw herself as a revolutionary, writing to express her thoughts and feelings of being trapped in society and loveless marriages as a token trophy piece, the way most women of the time were. She was definitely a modern woman living decades before the term "women's liberation" became commonplace in America.

A third documentary on Disc 1 focuses on the life and career of journalist Lowell Thomas, who pioneered the craft of informational entertainment in traveling slideshow presentations, radio, newsreels, and television. He was one of those rare breed of reporters who, according to the legendary newsman Walter Cronkite, loved to get the human side of the story, not taking any sides in the progress, and accurately reporting on lands and peoples and conditions to a hungry American public. And to think this was way back in the day before CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and the Internet! With all of the tabloid-like media crap surrounding the current presidential races, every single reporter on the scene today could take a major lesson or 20 from the life and career of Lowell Thomas.

And to be honest, I completely forgot the other documentary on Disc 1. With the emphasis on this disc of writers and reporters, it completely slipped my mind! I'll comment on it soon.

The remainder of this 10-disc set is carved up mostly the same way, though the documentaries for "Winds of Change" and "The Mystery of the Blues" are separated from their respective films and placed on separate discs a la the first Young Indy volume. The final volume, as in the previous two sets, contains an hour-long commentary from Professor H.W. Brands on the progress of the 20th century in the years after World War II and the changes in the world's societies; an interactive timeline on the real-life people, places, and events depicted in this set; and an interactive video game where you can lead young Indy on an adventure through time, sort of like those old-school "choose your own path" books but set to DVD-ROM. That's the down side of this series - the final disc of each set requires DVD-ROM usage to access the interactive timelines and video games.

With the release next month of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", this is an excellent precursor to the film and a wonderful way to round out one of the most enjoyable and underappreciated series of the 1990's. My dad would have loved seeing this on DVD.

Something amiss here...

2008-04-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

I just noticed this on my copy of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Volume 2: The War Years. Does that documentary "Colonel Lawrence's War" on Disc 8 look awfully familiar? It should - that's because it was included on the first disc of Volume 1: The Early Years!

You would have thought that somewhere along the way during the review process, the QA people at Lucasfilm and/or CBS/Paramount Video would have picked up on the fact that the same documentary was included in Volumes 1 and 2! But it went by completely unnoticed, and so the same documentary appears twice across two sets! Is there any more overlapping between the three sets, in terms of duplicating the same documentaries, that we should be aware of? I certainly hope not...

BTW, I've just started into the documentaries for Volume 3 and have gotten thus far with the docs on Disc 1. Really informative information on Ernest Hemingway, Lowell Thomas, and Edith Wharton. I only wish that somewhere along the way they could have included a little teaser for the fourth Indiana Jones feature film, though I'm thinking it'll be included on the upcoming reissues of the first three films.

For some unusual reason I have yet to receive my review copy of Battlestar Galactica, Season 3. I've requested it for review here and on TrekWeb.com like only three times (or is it four?), and I've not received it at all. Why? I've missed the entire third season, and already I'm in the middle of watching the latest fourth season episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel. That just really chaffs my hide for some reason.

Now that I'm back in Mississippi, I can now start looking at picking up all, if not as many, of the Star Trek DVDs, books, and comics that April made me throw out of the house back in 2006, not to mention all of the Star Wars and BSG DVDs as well. Thank goodness I got back here with all of the Superman and Indiana Jones DVDs intact! I've got a contact here who said he would help me track down as many of the ST comics as possible. Again, I don't know how many of them I can find and locate, or how long it'll take, if I can ever get them completely replaced again. All that matters right now is getting back on my feet with a good job and getting back to Alabama long enough to get my daughter relocated to Mississippi so she and I can be together again.

Oh, and I'm finally getting ahold of the Blade Runner Ultimate Collector's Edition! I missed out on it this past Christmas when it came out, but I should be getting it soon. Now I'll be able to check out all five of the different editions, especially the final cut and the treasured work print version that I've heard much about. I wish I had come back with my DVD+R recorder, though. Oh well, the next return trip I'll see to it.

Separation sucks, especially when there's children involved.

Sometimes things happen...

2008-04-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things happen for a reason. Call it God-inspired direction, serendipity, being in the right place at the right time, you name it.

Today I went to my alma mater, where I got my bachelor's and master's degrees, to apply for a student recruitment position and also for a position in the registrar's office. It turns out that the lady in HR referred me to the vice-president of academic affairs, who was one of my former teachers as an undergraduate student. She suggested I put in for an adjunct teacher's slot, and my former teacher recommended I put in for an assistant webmaster's position as well. Both of those, where I did web work by day and taught classes by night, would be wonderful opportunities for me to get back on my feet at my former college once again.

This comes on the heels of a pretty productive day yesterday that saw my teacher's license renewed until 2013, as well as a job interview scheduled for Friday afternoon after another job interview that same day. I have to admit, for being back only a few days, I've made some serious progress in my job search that's yielding some pretty decent results.

I don't know what's happening or why, all I know is that God's directing my footsteps now for a reason, and I want to find out what that reason is. I mean, it's obvious, I need a position so I can get back on my feet and take care of my daughter and family. Even if it does wind up in divorce, at least I'd be able to provide for my daughter. All I know is that I'm ready to go back to work...very soon.

Branching out, or returning to familiar territory...

2008-04-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Before and even after I moved to Alabama, one thing that I enjoyed doing in my free time was reviewing all of the latest Star Trek titles from Pocket Books. From 2002 to 2006 I was the regular book and media reviewer for TrekWeb.com, one of the largest Star Trek fan-maintained websites on the Internet. Part of its success came because of my many contributions to the site in the forms of regular book reviews (sometimes I would have as many as three or four per week, that's how up to date I was!); DVD reviews of many of the different Star Trek season sets, Battlestar Galactica, and miscellaneous films and TV series; and on occasion interviews with writers (when my schedule permitted it).

Unfortunately, I had been forced into a corner by my wife where I had to give it up. In her words, she said, "It's either me or Star Trek." So she forced me to throw it all out, and I walked away from it by the end of 2006. All of the DVDs, not to mention the books and magazines that were in the house, even the Starship Creator CD-ROMs and the CD collections of Rich Handley's excellent comic strip compilations - all gone. On rare occasion I would return for an occasional DVD product review, but otherwise that was the extent of it. I had been pretty much forced to give it all up.

Flash forward to 2008. My wife and I are going through a separation at this time, one that I wish I could say could be peacefully resolved and result in us getting back together, but at this point it doesn't look like that's going to be the case. As a result of a job loss that was beyond my control, months of struggling to make ends meet, and a mother-in-law who had repeatedly made false accusations against me (all of which my wife believed and wouldn't stand with me to oppose), I returned to Mississippi to start job-searching once again, which has resulted in a number of good leads through job agencies and direct applications, and I haven't stopped. I'm also making plans to return to Alabama to bring my three-year-old daughter to live with me here in Mississippi. My mother and I have been in contact with our attorneys, one here and one in Alabama, and both have indicated that I have an equal right as my daughter's father and that I can move her to Mississippi. When that will be, I don't know.

In the meantime, I've been reconnecting with some old friends... namely, the crews of the starships Enterprise and Voyager, among others. I've caught a few episodes on TV, and the majority of the novels are still at my mother's house. There's also a few comics, I would say about ten percent of the complete collection, still intact. I'm in the process of trading other comics out for the remaining Star Trek comics to rebuild my collection. I'm also looking at getting the series and films on DVD once again, which I know will be costly and will take a long time to reacquire. Not to mention getting hold of those missing books and keeping up with the current and upcoming titles.

Which brings me to this... since launching this website last year I've been thinking about branching out into conducting book reviews as well as DVD and CD reviews. Make it all three of those forms of media. I think it would only be a natural progression to expand my reviewing skills on this blog site. I'm hoping to get in contact with someone in the PR department at Pocket Books to get me back on the mailing list to get all of the latest and current Star Trek titles for review here - hopefully I'll be successful. If that happens, then look for book reviews here in the near future, along of course with the latest DVD product reviews.

All I can do is try. When you've got nothing much left, all you can do is pick up and start over again. We'll see what happens.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Volume 3: The Years of Change - first thoughts

2008-04-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday I happened to find at my doorstep the third and final volume of "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones", entitled "The Years of Change". This 10-disc set contains the final seven chapters of the series in mostly re-edited form from their original broadcast versions, along with 31 all-new historial documentaries and a historical commentary on Disc 10. All of the discs are reproduced in their original full-frame broadcast aspect ratio in Dolby Digital 2.0 sound with optional English subtitles, and the discs look and sound great.

All good and fine and dandy, yada yada yada. Enough said of that. Now for the really big news about this set that will please all of the Indy fans out there:

HARRISON FORD IS IN THE SET!

That's right, the original Indy's cameo appearance in "The Mystery of the Blues" is preserved intact from the original ABC telecast from 1992-93. The only minor edits to this segment are in a slight re-editing of the main title credits and cleaner bridgings from one segment to another (as opposed to its original telecast, with the commercial break fade-ins and fade-outs included). Other than that, this remains the sole "Young Indy" segment with the original bridging bookends preserved for DVD.

YES!!!!!! I knew it would be sacrilege to edit out Ford's bookend segments from the episode. Good thing I was wrong about the editing on this one! Hopefully I'll have a more complete review of the set in a few days.

Somewhere in transition...

2008-04-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

I wish I had better and more enjoyable news to share with you, but this is much more serious than any DVD review commentary I could ever do...

April and I have separated.

Things finally reached the breaking point with us because of her mother's repeated accusations of reproach, passing it down to my daughter Lily, not actively job searching when in fact I had been looking for better work to take care of my family, and one repeated accusation after another that I know in the bottom of my heart and spirit are completely false and inaccurate. And instead of standing with me, as she should have, April chose to believe the lies and spin her mother was creating just to get me out of the house. Needless to say, this has hurt me more than anything in my life, more than even my dad's death.

Right now I have relocated back to Mississippi to get the pieces of my life back together into some form. This means looking for work here and doing what I can to bring Lily here to live with me. April had said on Tuesday, if not on multiple occasions, that I could bring Lily to live with me and my mother. But when I left on Tuesday, I had no more room in the car for anything, much less my three-year-old daughter.

So now I'm having to start all over, look for a new job, and do all I can to get Lily out of Alabama. My mother has said that Lily shouldn't be without her mother, but right now she's without her father. Which is the lesser of the two evils? I have no idea.

I don't know when I'll be back on to report on new DVD releases. Right now my main focus is getting my life back together and being with my daughter again.

This hurts like hell... no, worse than hell itself. And all I can do is cry and mourn.

My interview with Mike Matessino...

2008-04-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've known and talked with film and music restorationist Mike Matessino off and on for nearly a decade, and I have to admit he is one of the top go-to guys when it comes to restoring and preserving film and music scores. He's extremely knowledgable in his field, especially when it comes to films like "Alien", the original "Star Wars" trilogy, "The Sound of Music", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", and, of course, "Superman". I first had the pleasure of talking with Mike back in 2000 in hosting a special online chat with him upon the release of Rhino Records' 2-CD release of John Williams' "Superman" musical score, then at the time the most complete version released to the public.

Flash forward to 2008. Mike, Lukas Kendall, and the guys at Film Score Monthly and Screen Archives Entertainment have significantly raised the bar when it comes to film score sets with their magnum opus, the eight-disc "Superman: The Music (1978-1988) soundtrack set. Far and away, it is extremely light years ahead in terms of completeness and sound quality, definitely unparalleled to anything I've heard - and I've followed film music for 30 years now!

In addition to his credentials, Mike is one of the nicest and friendliest guys you could ever talk to, not to mention a serious film fan like the rest of us. What began as an e-mail of congratulations to him on the FSM set has turned into a great interview with him that's now posted at CapedWonder.com. Here, he answers my questions on the eight-disc set, as well as reflections on his beginnings, his thoughts on a possible "Superman IV" restoration (look for a separate article by him coming soon on the FSM web site), and possible future projects down the pike. Check out the interview, along with the latest information on the eight-disc set!

Just to let you know, the original first edition pressing of 3,000 has sold out, and it looks like it'll be before the end of May before a second edition pressing is made available. That's how hot the set is!

Thanks to Jim Bowers for posting and hosting the interview, and a big special thanks to Mike for all of the hard work and fun he's given to everyone!

Superman: The Music - 1978-1988 (first thoughts)...

2008-03-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, believe it or not, when I got to work yesterday, what was waiting for me was none other than the queen mother of all music CD box sets, the long-awaited eight-disc "Superman" soundtrack box set of all the music from the four feature films and the 1988 Ruby-Spears animated series. Just looking at this box set makes my mouth water with excitement!

I've got to tell you, I've only sampled a few tracks from the set thus far. I started out with some of the action-oriented pieces from "Superman IV", then checked out some of the variations on the Main Title theme as heard in II and III, followed by the long-awaited alternate version of "The Dome Opens" from STM (which was adapted as the villains' theme music and some of the action music from SII) and the Main and End Title themes from STM. All I can say is this...

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The music thus far is solid and clear, reproduced from the very best elements around! Mike Matessino, Lukas Kendall, and the guys at Film Score Monthly have completely outdone themselves with this CD box set! Everyone needs to stand up and take notice, this is how the game is played, and this will no doubt be the benchmark for all soundtrack CD sets for years to come in terms of sound reproduction, extensive research and liner notes, and all-around fun and excitement in just listening to the music. And not only that, but with "Superman IV" you get the complete score to the original 120-minute cut of the film that was in progress but never completed after the Orange County sneak preview, which in my opinion could have benefitted from another 6-8 months of completion on the visual effects. With this score, coupled with the 2006 Deluxe Edition DVD and the 93-minute international print (which should have been released on DVD), you get a very clear picture of how the film would have turned out, and it would have been much broader in scope than the B-picture budget revealed.

Hands down, this is the CD soundtrack set of the year to beat, and it's going to be completely impossible to top this set with any other release from any studio. Once I have a chance to listen to the complete set, I'll provide a further detailed review, so look for that soon.

Congrats to Mike, Lukas, and everyone for a job well done!

Indy returns, Superman flies, etc.

2008-03-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

With the release of the fourth "Indiana Jones" film Memorial Day weekend, Paramount Home Video is re-releasing the first three films on DVD in all-new special editions. Apparently none of the extras from the original four-disc box set will be on these new re-releases, though it looks like there will be a host of exclusive bonus features including a preview of the upcoming "Lego Indiana Jones" videogame. Will it be worth the double-dip? Hopefully I'll be able to provide a review soon.

The latest word on the "Superman" score box set is that there are fewer than 600 copies left from Film Score Monthly's initial pressing of 3,000. According to Lukas Kendall, there should be a second pressing down the road in a few months. From everything I've read thus far, it's been an extremely big hit with Superman and music fans. I'm trying to get a copy for review, but it's been no luck at all with nearly all of my leads. Hopefully I won't get left out of the party.

On a side note, I'm in early talks with album producer Mike Matessino to conduct an interview for one of the Superman-based web sites. I had the privilege of hosting a special online chat with him back in 2000 upon the release of Rhino's 2-CD "Superman" set, and he and I have kept in touch on occasion since then on different things. He's quite knowledgeable about the material he's worked on, and he's quite a nice guy to boot. Look for that interview soon.

Finally, I heard this morning that with the upcoming release of "The Dark Knight", the late Heath Ledger has delivered such an extremely powerful performance as the Joker that talks are in the works of considering him for a posthumous Oscar nomination. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that happens.

On that note, I'll touch base again soon. Take care!

It's official!

2008-02-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

Last month I reported the "officially unconfirmed" news about the eight-disc Superman movie soundtrack collection. Well, it's now official! Next Thursday, February 21, is the day the set goes on sale through Film Score Monthly's website, with a limited ediiton pressing of only 3,000 copies. Click here to read the full report on FSM's website, along with detailed articles on some of the behind-the-scenes goodness.

This is definitely going to be THE soundtrack release to beat this year! And it's definitely well-timed, considered that this year marks both the 30th anniversary of the release of the first "Superman" film (1978) and also the 70th anniversary of Superman's debut in the first issue of Action Comics (1938). Talk about a way to celebrate!

When I'm able to get a copy of the CD set, I'll provide a blow-by-blow review for everyone, so hopefully that'll be soon.

On a different note, the first trailer for this summer's long-awaited "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is now online at the official Indiana Jones website. Check it out! This one's been 19 years in the making!

Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you again soon!

Battlestar Galactica - Razor (Unrated Extended Edition)

2008-02-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that over a year has gone by since I've caught up with the continuing saga of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, Ronald D. Moore's hard-hitting revision of the campy 1970's series. Since the time between the second and third seasons many fans had heard rumors of a spinoff TV project set either before or during the events of the series. And during that spectacular second season, with the return of the Battlestar Pegasus, many fans asked, "What happened to the Pegasus during the Cylons' attack at the start of the series?" With RAZOR, the Sci-Fi Channel has presented an epic lost chapter of the saga that answers many of the fans' questions and more.

Divided between present-day events and flashbacks, RAZOR tells the story of one Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobson), a young officer newly transferred to the Pegasus under the command of Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes). During her tenure she learns of Cain's ways of command while discovering her own edge and fearlessness in dealing with enemies both external and internal. Shaw soon exposes the secretive plots by Gina Inviere (Tricia Helfer) to lure the Cylons into attacking the Pegasus, eventually leading to her rise in command and to adopting Cain's ruthless nature as her own.

Meanwhile, Commander Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber), newly assigned as commander of the Pegasus in present-day times, orders an assault raid on a secret Cylon regeneration factory, one which brings back haunting memories of his father Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) during the first Cylon war.

RAZOR effectively converges the two storylines into a strong cohesive whole, making for one extremely intense chapter of the BSG saga. Of course, it's been no surprise that during the film we get to see the old-school Cylons and their Raiders during the first Cylon war - hearing that classic "By your command!" brings back smiles and laughs from 30 years before! - which definitely more than pleases classic BSG fans. On the other hand, RAZOR offers some tantalizing hints of what we can expect in the upcoming fourth and final season of the series, with a possible plot hint that we may see developed by the series' end.

Universal Home Video has released RAZOR on DVD with not just one version presented but two - both the original 87-minute broadcast version and an unrated extended version with an additional 16 minutes of footage not seen in the U.S. While the disc package only advertises the unrated extended cut, it's quite a pleasant surprise that both versions are presented on this disc! You are given this option when you press Play, so it's quite the surprise indeed! I checked out the original broadcast version first, followed by the extended cut, and I've got to admit I prefer the extended cut more because of some of its additional substance that permeates RAZOR. Granted, the extended cut contains a bit more graphic violence and language not present in the broadcast version, so it plays more like a theatrical release. Both versions of RAZOR are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format and in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound with optional English subtitles.

The visuals are tightly packed with substance, though during the presentation I did notice some digital artifacting present. This is because of the disc's contents with both versions of RAZOR as well as its varied extras. Thankfully, the artifacting is minor overall, at least what I noticed, and the colors and blacks are rich and balanced. The sound mix is another tour de force for your 5.1 set-up, with explosions and dialog nicely balanced all around. How they continually manage to accomplish this with each successive BSG installment, I have no idea, because it keeps looking and sounding better and better!

The DVD release of RAZOR also contains a wonderful array of supplements. First off is a newly recorded audio commentary with series creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, as they discuss the origins of the telefilm and the intentions to present multiple storylines that bounce between present and past. As with their past commentaries, Moore and Eick are an enjoyable listen, and they continue to be extremely knowledgeable about their production and cast selections. The only caveat here is that the audio commentary is accessible only with the extended cut and not the broadcast version.

In "The Look of Battlestar Galactica", director of photography Stephen McNutt discusses how the series achieves its gritty, in-your-face look with each installment. Through a combination of handheld cameras, tightly developed set constructions, strong storylines, and realistic visual effects, we see how each episode looks more like a realistic drama than something clean and neat. We also get to see some on-set production footage from RAZOR as well. Running time: 10:00.

In "My Favorite Episode So Far", cast and crew members discuss, well, their favorite episodes to date. Moore, Eick, Olmos, Bamber, Helfer, Katee Sackhoff, Mary McDonnell, Grace Park, and others select some of the episodes that they found extremely memorable over the past three seasons, ranging from the first season premiere "33" to the second season finale to the third-season two-parter. Olmos' comments are most interesting, because he notes that perhaps the series' best episode may not be until the series' finale. For those of you who have not seen the third season at all (like me), beware that there are spoilers abound in this one! Running time: 7:00.

We also have two deleted scenes cut from RAZOR, running all of three and a half minutes in length, both presented in anamorphic widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound. Here, we witness Lee Adama preparing to depart for Galactica at the same time as Kendra Shaw's departure for Pegasus, while in the other scene we have Lee and Kara sitting in the conference room drinking and reviewing old mission tapes (from earlier in the series).

In addition we have a fourth season sneak peek (4:30) and preview trailer (45 seconds) which give us more tantalizing glimpses into what we can expect in the upcoming final season. Once again, for those of you who have not seen the third season, look out for big spoilers! (Of course, by the time you read this review, you'll already know what some of those big spoilers are, thanks to TV Guide.)

Finally, we have a series of wasted preview trailers, promoting upcoming Universal movies and DVDs, at the head of the disc that you can easily skip past in order to get to RAZOR.

Once again Universal has delivered another solid BATTLESTAR GALACTICA DVD release with their unrated extended cut of RAZOR, making for another excellent complement to the entire series. It's got me looking forward to the final two seasons of the series! Originally I had intended to have this review ready back in December, but when life changes affect you, sometimes DVD reviews become less important in the overall scheme of things. Oh well, better later than never!

And now for some good news...

2008-01-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well, on the heels of such a downer note about the death of Heath Ledger, the John Williams Fan Network, jwfan.com, has just posted some officially unconfirmed news that coming this February is a massive eight-disc box set of the complete scores to all four of Christopher Reeve's "Superman" films, with a newly remastered version of John Williams' score to "Superman: The Movie", the complete Ken Thorne scores to "Superman II" and "Superman III", and for the first time ever the complete Williams/Alexander Courage score to "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace"!

All I can say is...

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

As soon as I'm able to get a review copy of this set, I'll be posting my thoughts on it here. I'll keep you posted!

Heath Ledger R.I.P.

2008-01-25T07:15:00.000-08:00

It's been three days since I first heard the shocking news of the untimely death of actor Heath Ledger at the age of 28 due to a drug overdose and possible pneumonia (the full details are still coming together at this point, but that's what I've heard thus far). It really saddens me, because here was a young man whose career was blossoming because of some really high profile appearances in films such as "A Knight's Tale", "The Patriot", and his Oscar-nominated performance in the 2006 film "Brokeback Mountain" (aka the gay cowboy movie). It saddens me even more that, as a parent myself, he too had an infant daughter who's only two and will now have to grow up without getting to know her daddy. I just don't have more words about that part.

But here's what really is sad. Obviously you know about his high profile portrayal of the Joker in Christopher Nolan's upcoming Batman sequel "The Dark Knight", which is scheduled for release this July. I was looking forward to his take on one of comicdom's most sinister villains ever, which from the few video and audio glimpses I've seen thus far was going to be even more intense than Jack Nicholson's portrayal 20 years ago in Tim Burton's big-screen adaptation. On one of Warner's promotional sites for the film, WhySoSerious.com, it's got a very ironic and chilling message that says something to the effect of, "The only way to live in this world is without rules." On the film's official website, in place of the usual film-related promotions they have a single touching memorial page to Ledger.

And last night I shared this with my wife... Jack Nicholson had talked with Ledger some time recently and warned him of the dangers of drugs and fame. It's extremely eerie that the actor who portrayed the Joker two decades before had warned the actor who would have made his mark as the Joker in this decade of this danger. Even eerier is the fact that in Burton's original "Batman" film, the Joker dies. Apparently, in some earlier promotional teases for "The Dark Knight", a mock police dossier appeared online stating that the Joker was dead. Now Heath Ledger is dead in real life. This is too eerie, if you ask me.

How many more actors, musicians, and Hollywood celebrities have to die from drugs before people stand up and take notice? Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, John Belushi, Chris Farley (who idolized Belushi to the point of boasting that he wanted to live and die like him - don't ask for it, you may get it), Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix, and now Heath Ledger - granted I've only mentioned some of the more notable examples, but who else has to die before everyone gets the message? If Britney Spears doesn't get her act together inside and out, she'll be gone before she's 30, mark my word.

In any event, when "The Dark Knight" hits theaters in July, we'll have the opportunity to see Heath Ledger's last fully completed performance on the big screen. As for his unfinished work on Terry Gilliam's current film project, nobody really knows what'll happen there - probably Gilliam will have to recast the role and reshoot everything. Really sad.

I know this is a bit of a downer compared to my reviews, but somehow I just had to get this out of my system.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones - Volume 2: The War Years

2007-12-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

Well, just as quickly as the first volume of "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones" was issued on DVD, CBS/Paramount Home Video has just come out with the second volume, "The War Years". In this new, stunning nine-disc set, the curtain continues to be unveiled on young Indy's (Sean Patrick Flanery) adventures during World War I.

When we last left our young adventurer-to-be, he had left behind the girl of his dreams and retreated to the Belgian army with a broken heart. Now, as Indy goes into battle, he soon faces dangers too immeasurable to consider. In Chapter 8, "The Trenches of Hell", Indy and his friend Remy face certain danger in the battle of the Somme, which claimed over a million casualties on both sides. Indy, however, is captured and imprisoned in a German prison camp that makes Alcatraz look like a Sunday school picnic. Indy soon finds himself plotting his escape with the help of a young visionary officer named Charles de Gaulle. In Chapter 9, "Demons of Deception", Indy finds himself as a messenger in Verdun carrying messages between two sides of the army, only to discover that senseless death in war need not occur. From there Indy journeys to France where, in the second portion written by Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia of "Star Wars" fame), Indy has a torrid romance with the infamous Mata Hari.

In Chapter 10, "The Phantom Train of Doom", Indy encounters a group of aging soldiers in Africa seeking to take out and destroy the Germans' latest superweapon, the Big Bertha. Later, in Chapter 11, "Oganga, the Giver and Taker of Life", Indy's mission through Africa brings him face to face with a deadly epidemic in a small village with only a single child as the lone survivor. As his troops fall one by one to the epidemic, Indy eventually encounters Dr. Howard Schweitzer and relearns his humanity in the process. From there, in Chapter 12, "Attack of the Hawkmen", Indy engages in battle against the German force's legendary pilot, the infamous Red Baron.

Chapter 13, "Adventures in the Secret Service", finds Indy as a spy to bring two brothers to the emperor of Habsburg, then later Indy must choose between friendship and war as he comes face to face with the growing Bolshevik rebellion in Russia. The lighter-hearted Chapter 14, "Espionage Escapades", finds Indy in Barcelona meeting up with his old friend Pablo Picasso and caught up in a humorous spy mission in, of all places, the opera! Indy then finds himself in Prague caught up in the most perilous of situations - hoping to get his telephone turned on to find out his next assignment! - until he is aided by Franz Kafka. Finally, in Chapter 15, "Daredevils of the Desert", Indy is sent to assist the Australians as they attack the ancient town of Beersheba. He enlists the help of a belly dancer (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in a suspenseful mission to defuse the explosives with which the occupying Turks have booby-trapped the city's water supply. Look for future 007 star Daniel Craig in a supporting role in this installment.

As with the first volume, executive producer George Lucas has reedited many of the original one-hour segments into two-hour telefilms, eliminating all of the old Indy (George Hall) bookend segments and filming new footage to bridge the gaps where needed. Each segment is presented in full-frame format in English Dolby 2.0 surround sound, with optional English subtitles. For "The Trenches of Hell", an elderly Indy's encounter with a rude donut worker lands him in jail. In "Demons of Deception", the elderly Indy recounts his tale as a courier, then later finds himself in line at a grocery store spinning his tabloid-like romance with Mata Hari to shoppers. These and many other bookend segments were completely omitted from the DVD release, and it's a real shame, since only those like me who remember the original broadcasts remember these bookends quite well. Only "The Phantom Train of Doom" remains virtually untouched from its original two-hour broadcast, with only a few minor changes in the credits sequences. That credit on the package, "Some episodes have been re-edited from their original TV broadcasts" should really read, "All...", if you ask me.

Accompanying each chapter are a total of 26 new documentaries produced by Lucas and Rick McCallum that further explore the real characters, locations, and themes conveyed in each chapter. Unlike the first volume, which had some of the documentaries occupying a single disc, all of the documentaries are contained with each respective chapter, thereby streamlining the set by three discs. The final disc contains a new 40-minute discussion on history and war, as well as a DVD-ROM interactive game and interactive timeline. If only we had had more meaty information on the making of the series itself, as with the 11 VHS releases, then I would have found it more satisfying, along with the original broadcast versions of these episodes.

What a wonderful Christmas present this made! The second volume of "Young Indiana Jones" is another great addition to the Indy canon, and I've got to admit, I'm ready for the third and final volume to come in the new year (not to mention the fourth "Indiana Jones" feature film - maybe they'll do a cross-promotion for the film with a trailer on the final set). If only my dad were alive to enjoy this series once again as he did during the early 90's.

How about that for a nice surprise review! With that I wish you a blessed and prosperous Happy New Year, and I'll see you again in 2008!

Long time, no blog...

2007-12-15T10:09:00.001-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since I've blogged with the latest DVD reviews. To be perfectly honest, the past two and a half weeks have been an extremely stressful time in my life. I've been juggling between 3-4 jobs just to make ends meet for me and my family, working an exhausting night job until 1 a.m. in the morning, going between a weekend part-time job that I had to give up because the hours conflicted with my wife's work schedule, and two seasonal jobs that will end Christmas Eve. It's been staggering, to say the least, and, as my long-time boyhood friend Jeff Henson (whom I owe so many thanks that I cannot begin to say the words) has said, I'm in a season of gazelle intensity, to quote Dave Ramsey.

Needless to say, all of this job juggling and searching has left me with little time to sleep and no time to even watch and review DVDs. But that's not to say I'm completely giving it up. As soon as my life stabilizes again to a point where I can review some of the latest DVDs, I'll be back online. There are a number of recent titles that I want to post my thoughts on, among them the recent Disney-Pixar offering "Ratatouille", the extended DVD release of "High School Musical 2", Sony's recent release of "Spider-Man 3", Universal's extended unrated cut of "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" (which would have been the last review I would have posted here and on TrekWeb.com and was 99% complete with it but for some unusual reason it got deleted, which gripes me to no end), Paramount's new two-disc SE of Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning epic "Braveheart", and my continuing analysis of the first volume of "Young Indiana Jones".

Don't forget that next week marks the release of two long-awaited DVD sets that I've got my eye on that would make awesome Christmas gifts, the second volume of "Young Indy" and the mega-awesome five-disc "Blade Runner" Ultimate Collector's Edition (which I will go on record and say that for the upcoming Bitsy Awards will be selected as THE DVD release of 2007). I don't know if I'll be able to score review copies of either, or even if they'll be under my Christmas tree this year, but we'll wait and see.

That's all for now. Unless I blog again in the next few weeks, have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I'll see you again in 2008!

Young Indy glitch, Razor, and Thanksgiving...

2007-11-21T09:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know last time that I promised you the second part of my "Young Indiana Jones" review. I had it all written out, stored on disc, and ready to post. But somehow along the way to posting the review, for some unusual reason the computer would not read my file at all, and it came out looking like symbolic gibberish. You know how recently in Superman lore how sometimes they revert to those unusual Kryptonian symbols to replace dialog? That's how the remains of my text looked. Why it did that, I have no idea. Can we honestly say that the computer ate my homework? (It wouldn't be the first time that happened!) Unfortunately, that means having to rewrite my entire review from scratch - ugh! That means pushing back the second part of my review until sometime next week, I don't know when. But I promise, once it's rewritten, I'll have it posted for you, along with the third part of my review.

In the meantime, I just received my review copy of the upcoming Universal DVD release of "Battlestar Galactica: Razor". The TV movie is set to premiere this Friday on the Sci-Fi Channel, and the unrated extended DVD will hit stores Tuesday, December 4th. But I've got my copy in hand right now, even before the movie has premiered! It's got running audio commentary with series creator Ronald D. Moore, three and a half minutes of deleted scenes, 19 minutes of mini episodes, two featurettes, and two previews for the upcoming fourth (and unfortunately final) season set for premiere next year, among the bonus features. This will make the first BSG review I'll be working on in about a year, so hopefully I'll have shaken off the ring rust enough to do a good review (which will simultaneously appear on TrekWeb.com as well). Look for it coming soon!

Well, this will make the last time I'll be able to blog for the rest of the week because of Thanksgiving holidays. Stay safe, don't spend too much money on gasoline (it's already too high enough as it is!), and don't eat too much turkey, ham, and dressing (like that'll happen!). If you're in the Alabama area, look for the Albertville High School band in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade tomorrow! And Guntersville moves into the third round of the Division 4 football playoffs against Brooks this Friday night - go, Marshall County!

See you again soon!

A quick note on a Friday...

2007-11-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

This will be a quickie for you today... First off, I posted my recent review of "Star Trek" Season 1 (DVD/HD-DVD) on TrekWeb.com, which was my main outlet for DVD reviews prior to my blog site. Click here to read both the review and reader comments on the review and the set.

Second, I should have my second part of my "Young Indy" review ready to go next week, so be on the lookout for it! It'll cover Discs 2 and 3 of all the content pertaining to "Passion for Life".

Finally, to change gears, how hard is it to get a job? Half of these places don't ever respond, and those who do give you the polite "no, thank you, we're not interested" line. And those who say they're going to call you back and follow up with you don't ever follow up. What's the point of it all? It's just frustrating, which explains why I haven't been blogging as much lately as I should be. Job searching is a full-time job in and of itself, but it doesn't pay the bills, the gasoline for the car, and the food on the table. When will someone say, "We want you for the job, when can you start?" I'm tired of playing the bridesmaid in this dance. I'm always the one with the impressive resume, but... (and there's that dangling "but" again that I've despised since I was in junior high school). I'm so more than ready for a breakthrough, but nothing's happening. And time's running out.

I'll touch base again with my latest blog when I can. See you again soon...

Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 (DVD/HD-DVD combo)

2007-11-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know that this was to have been the second part of my continuing series of analyses on the first volume of "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones". But when this baby arrived on my doorstep, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So away we go!

In 2006 it seemed that the "Star Trek" franchise was, for all intents and purposes, dead. The fifth series "Enterprise" died in the ratings at the end of its fourth season. All of the series (including the animated incarnation from the 1970's) had been released on DVD, and Paramount was attempting something new with the first of five different Fan Collectives, which were nothing more than selected repackagings of episodes from the different series in cost-friendly sets. The only way to get new adventures was to either pick up the latest Pocket Books novels or surf the Internet for different fan-based productions. Even then, rumblings were abound of yet another feature film project. It looked like the franchise would go quietly into its 40th anniversary with nothing significant.

But someone asked the question, "What if we brought the Original Series back to television but with updated visual effects?" Several years before, fans had done a series of video tests with the second season episode "The Doomsday Machine", giving the special effects a much-needed makeover to compete with all of the current crops of television series and movies that were laden with spectacular visuals. In 2001, Paramount Home Video released the acclaimed Director's Edition of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" with many completed visual effects. In addition, the then-recent slate of "Star Trek" series and movies, most notably "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager", "Enterprise", and the four "Next Generation" spinoff films, utilized state-of-the-art CGI effects to the max. One of the most celebrated DS9 episodes, "Trials and Tribble-ations", revisited the Original Series' "The Trouble with Tribbles", complete with many fresh visual effects and an equal number of subtle trickeries a la "Forrest Gump" that caught many fans off guard. The two series that needed the heaviest visual effects makeovers were the Original Series and TNG. Could such an attempt be accomplished? Could the original "Trek" return but with a fresh facelift?

This immediately sent shockwaves throughout Trekdom. To some it seemed like the perfect way to celebrate the Original Series' 40th anniversary. To others it seemed sacrilege. How dare they screw up the original 79 episodes we all grew up with and know so well? What would happen to the original masters of the episodes? Would they go by the wayside a la the original theatrical versions of the first three "Star Wars" films, long forgotten by the creators and discarded like yesterday's trash?

When the first remastered episodes came out in the fall of 2006, fans immediately sought out the major and minor makeovers to the classic Treks they knew by heart. Many of the effects were done as outright replacements to the original effects created in the 1960's, which were at the time state-of-the-art. Some of the effects were quite subtle, in the same way that some of the subtle makeovers in the Director's Edition of TMP were accomplished. Even the original Alexander Courage theme was given a new makeover, complete with a new orchestral adaptation and a digitized version of William Shatner's classic opening monologue. It was akin to putting a fresh coat of paint and a new engine into a '57 Chevy. But could this 2006 version of the Original Series ever replace the original episodes in fans' hearts? The debate continues to this day.

Now comes the first season of "Star Trek: The Original Series" from CBS Video in a new 10-disc combination standard DVD and HD-DVD set. I won't go back and comment on the episodes themselves, having already reviewed the first season in the complete season set back in 2004. Click here to read my original review on TrekWeb for a detailed look at the episodes and its content. While I'm not able to discuss or extol the HD-DVD features, my review is limited to the standard DVD presentation, though I will reference the HD-DVD information for completion's sake.

As with the previous 2004 DVD release, all 29 episodes of the first season of "Star Trek" are presented in their original 1966 airdates, in 1.33:1 full screen format. Sonically, this fresh update is a treat, with the standard DVD sound in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, LAS Mono (whatever that means), and French mono, with optional English, LAS, and French subtitles. The HD-DVD presentation features English Dolby True HD and LAS mono sound, with optional English and LAS subtitles.

The picture format is just absolutely stunning and breathtaking! It was like looking at the last couple of seasons of "Enterprise", particularly with all of the new digital effects in place. The picture is that crisp and clear - imagine what it looks like in HD-DVD format! Having grown up with the original 79 episodes over the years, seeing the newly minted visual effects seemed jarring at first. Still, this is the original "Star Trek" we're talking here, and with the advancements in DVD and HD-DVD technology, the only way it can look is better than ever.

The DVD packaging is reminiscent of the four "Enterprise" sets, with the set packaged in a clear plastic case that is smaller than the other series' packages, which means it'll take up less space on your DVD shelves. Housed inside the clear plastic case is the DVD package itself, with the discs in a clear plastic bookcase tray and banded with a yellow sleeve a la the 2004 DVD set. Inside is an insert for the other "Star Trek" DVD releases currently available, as well as an offer for a "Star Trek" phaser remote control.

The majority of the extras on this DVD set have been ported over from the previous 2004 set. This includes "The Birth of a Timeless Legacy", which discussed the series' origins; "Reflections on Spock", a new interview with Leonard Nimoy; "Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner", which profiled the actor's writings and involvement with horses; "To Boldly Go: Season One", a look at the first season's most memorable moments; "Sci-Fi Visionaries", which looked at the many noted science fiction writers who contributed to the series; and the series' episode preview trailers. In addition, the two bonus features that were included in the Best Buy bonus disc - "Kiss and Tell: Romance in the 24th Century" and "Trek Connections" - have also been brought over to this new DVD/HD-DVD combo set. There's no need for me to rehash my thoughts on these additional features, so all I'll say is go back and read my original review.

What is new does have interest to both long-time "Trek" fans and newcomers to the series. First off is "Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century". This interesting feature explores the debated and controversial aspects of returning the series to television and updating all of the visual effects and sound to 2006 standards. You get to see rough animatics of the new visual effects, as well as comparisons between the original 1966-67 visual effects and their modern-day counterparts. It's definitely jarring, to say the least, but I will give credit to the CGI artists who made these effects both major and subtle happen.

We also have something that is quite unique when it comes to "Star Trek": outtakes and home movies! In "Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories", this program spotlights actor Billy Blackburn, who was featured as a background extra in many episodes of the series. During the series' production, Blackburn shot a number of eight-millimeter home movies on the "Star Trek" sets, showing the stars in more relaxed moments and preparing to shoot scenes from different episodes. Now this is a treat! Fans have long clamored for any vintage outtakes and behind-the-scenes films to be included on DVD, and seeing these home movies makes it all the more interesting yet poignant, considering that DeForest Kelley and James Doohan are no longer with us. Kudos to Mr. Blackburn for bringing these vintage films to DVD!

In addition, Perpetual Entertainment has a preview of its upcoming "Star Trek Online" MMO game, which takes the saga into the 25th century. There is also a new feature entitled "Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier" - whatever that means. All of these above features can be found on both the standard DVD and HD-DVD sides of the discs.

As if that weren't enough, HD-DVD owners will be in for even more treats. First of all, there is a new on-screen graphic interface program entitled "Starflet Access" on seven episodes - "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Menagerie, Parts 1 and 2", "Balance of Terror", "The Galileo Seven", "Space Seed", and "Errand of Mercy". In this interactive feature, viewers can access Picture-in-Picture video commentaries with surviving cast members and writers, comparisons of the remastered episodes with their original visual effects, episode trivia, and encyclopedic information used in the series. This is definitely a step or seven up from the text commentaries from Michael and Denise Okuda!

From there we have the "Interactive Enterprise Tour", in which viewers can explore the interior and exterior of the U.S.S. Enterprise in detail as they pilot their own shuttlecraft in this spectacular 3-D feature.

Obviously, as I said earlier, the majority of the bonus features from the 2004 DVD set were ported over to this new combo set. That means the Okuda text commentaries are the only significant extras that were left off this new set. For that matter, the previous set had a series of "Red Shirt Logs", a series of bonus hidden Easter eggs that contained additional interview segments - I don't know if these have also been ported over from the previous 2004 set.

As with the previous sets, missing in action are a wealth of additional extras that could have greatly enhanced the overall completeness of "Star Trek" on DVD. Of course, I'm talking about the two direct-to-VHS documentaries, "William Shatner's Star Trek Memories" and "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story", both of which feature interviews with cast and production members no longer with us (among them De Kelley, Jimmy Doohan, director James Goldstone, and makeup artist Wah Chang). Furthermore, vintage TV spots promoting the series during its premiere and first two seasons are missing, as well as the infamous blooper reels, production outtakes (can we say Jeffrey Hunter outtakes from "The Cage"?), and deleted scenes that we know exist and have been well documented all across the Internet.

Most conspicuously, the original versions of the first season episodes have been left off. This means forcing the consumer to double-dip to get not only this newly enhanced "Trek" but also the additional bonus features. Not many people are going to enjoy the fact that the original episodes we all grew up with and know so well have been omitted from this DVD/HD combo set. Remember Fox's "Star Wars Trilogy" debacle from 2004, leaving off the original versions of the trilogy? (Of course, it would take another couple of years before getting the originals onto DVD, but in really crappy form, but that's another argument for another place and time.)

Finally, who in their right or left mind is going to spend $217 to get this 10-disc set? When the price tag for this set was announced at this past summer's Comic-Con, how many people didn't mind wanting to pay the high price tag for this set? A grand total of three people. The rest of the hundreds and thousands in attendance gave it a good ol' Stone Cold "Hell, no!" Why didn't CBS and Paramount listen to the fans for once? It's a no-brainer that you'll find this set for probably $150 in stores. For that matter, you can go to your local Wal-Mart and pick up all three seasons of the original "Trek" (in their original forms!) for about the same price as you would spend for this remastered version. Which sounds like the better deal? You do the math.

Yes, "Star Trek" is back and in remastered form, with newly improved picture and sound. So why am I giving it only three stars out of five? It's hard for me to give this set a firmly satisfied recommendation, given all that was left off the new release. But since this is like buying a vintage car with a fresh paint job and high-tech engine, it does merit a decent recommendation. Of course, long-time fans will bemoan the loss of the original versions of their beloved episodes in this new set. As with everything, your mileage may vary.

Okay, next time, I promise, will be my second part of the "Young Indy" review. See you then!

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume 1 - Part 1

2007-11-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally getting down to the good stuff that is on CBS/Paramount's long-awaited first DVD volume of "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones". While you know by now my stance on the decision of CBS, Paramount, and one Mr. George Lucas to release the series on DVD in its re-edited form from the late 1990's and not include the original telecasts with the original bookend segments intact (as seen on ABC during the series' initial run in the early to mid 1990's) - still a crime in my book - I'm going to focus on each respective chapter and the documentaries that complement the first seven chapters of the series.

(Before I go into my thoughts on those documentaries, I just want to put the word out there that if anyone has any of the original one-hour telecasts on video, send me an e-mail. Of this first set I have chapters 1, 2, 4, and 7 preserved to DVD+R, and I know that along the way I missed some of the other segments. I'd like to have all of the original telecasts, as well as the behind-the-scenes segments from the original 11 VHS tapes, preserved and archived on disc, so let's talk!)

Disc 1, "My First Adventure", is just that, young Indiana Jones' first adventures from birth and traveling the world. In the first five chapters, young Corey Carrier portrays Henry Jones, Jr., growing up just as any typical boy would. We learn of young Indy's humble beginnings and the journeys he undertakes with his parents Henry and Anna Jones (Alex Hyde-White, trying for all the world to channel Sean Connery, and Ruth deSosa, in an ineffective role that all but fulfills the perfunctory purpose of Indy's worrysome mother being around in his early years). Joining them on their travels is the crusty Miss Helen Seymour (Margaret Tyzack), Indy's tutor with an iron will all her own. The first half of "My First Adventure" centers on Indy's first trip to Egypt, encountering T.E. (Ned) Lawrence and Howard Carter, while exploring a possible curse centered around an Egyptian jackal - this has been lifted from the first half of the series' premiere "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal", which had a much more effective second half that tied in well with the first. The story then abruptly shifts gears to Cairo, where Indy learns of slavery and nearly winds up a slave as well. This second part of "My First Adventure", which was obviously filmed a few years after the first part, doesn't work as well. Why Luca$ decided to completely forego the original TV broadcasts still baffles many, including me, to this day. But the first part of the story does have a fun charm of its own that parents and Indiana Jones fans should enjoy.

Okay, onto the first four documentaries on Disc 1. First off is "Archaeology", a 16-minute feature that takes a look at how the real-life science of archaeology differs from the fascinating, adventurous, and sometimes romantic notions conveyed in the three (soon to be four) "Indiana Jones" theatrical films. According to modern-day scientists, archaeology is tedious and unsung, as the documentary profiles two such expeditions into remote parts of the world. For generations it was seen merely as looting and graverobbing, but it was not until 1922 that Howard Carter emerged as the benchmark by which archaeology is measured. This is continued in the 22-minute documentary "Howard Carter and and the Tomb of Tutankhamen", which profiles Carter's life-long love for archaeology and Egyptian history, the discovery and research of King Tut's tomb, and the meticulous and precise methods Carter used to archive and document every detail of the mysterious boy king's life and death. Carter's methods continue to be seen as the standard by which all modern archaeology must be measured.

From there we turn to the 36-minute program "Colonel Lawrence's War", a look at the life of British soldier Thomas Edward Lawrence, best known to many as Lawrence of Arabia. This documentary reveals untold aspects to Lawrence's life that, if you're only familiar with the 1960's David Lean epic with Peter O'Toole in the title role, you're in for a rude awakening. Ever in love with the Arabian way of life, Lawrence studied the Arab culture in the early 1900's and lived among them years before his service in the British military and his revolutionary methods of uniting the Arabs against the Turkish Empire in the closing years of World War I. But Lawrence's actions led to unforeseen circumstances that continue to reverberate in today's times, with all of the current troubles in Iraq and Pakistan. Others saw Lawrence as a romantic war hero and leader; Lawrence saw himself as a failure. In his epic chronicle Seven Pillars of Wisdom, how much of what Lawrence writes is truth and how much is fiction?

Finally we have the 30-minute program "From Slavery to Freedom", which looks at many cultures' attempts to enslave people of seemingly lesser quality into a lifetime of slavery. No mention is made of the Egyptians' enslavement of the Israelites, as seen in the Book of Exodus, which is a shame. The program, however, traces the roots of slavery back to ancient China and looks at the brief enslavement of the Greek philosopher Plato; the Roman execution of 400 slaves as the result of the murder of a prominent Roman official; Pope Gregory's desire to use slaves to till his fields in the 6th century; and, of course, the British and American slave movements from 300-400 years ago. However, slavery still continues to occur in parts of the world today, though in more brutal and horrific forms than we can conceive. But the program, which includes interviews with historians and people dedicated to educating and ending slavery, does give a positive note: this could be the generation that finally sees the end of slavery.

So ends my look at the first disc of "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones". Next time I'll take a look at Disc 2, "Passion for Life", which cobbles together young Indy's adventures in 1908 and 1909, and the six documentaries that comprise Disc 3. See you then!

The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians

2007-10-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe how over the course of 12-13 years animation could change. As a boy one of the mainstay staples of Saturday morning television was the ever-reliable "Super Friends", one of ABC's longest-running and most successful Saturday morning animated series. Beginning in 1972, the "Super Friends" - which initially consisted of Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and their teenage sidekicks Wendy and Marvin - went through numerous incarnations and expansions, taking from the numerous DC Comics titles of the era. By the late 1970's the series began to get a little more mature in its storytelling, with more sophisticated plots and adventures that excited kids of all ages. I was definitely one of them. I grew up with this series. It began when I entered first grade, and it ended during my freshman year of college. How time flies.

By the 1980's the "Super Friends" seemed almost passe' in the realm of animation. While the "Superman" feature films were taking off, and plans were in the works for a "Batman" feature film, the animated series was winding down. As animation began to move from traditional hand-drawn cels into the very new realm of realistic animation and the then-experimental form of computer animation (first seen in "Star Trek II" and "Tron"), traditional animiation and simplistic flights of fancy no longer interested young viewers. They wanted newer heroes with more elaborate powers and strengths, with internal issues and problems.

By 1984 ABC took another stab in revamping the "Super Friends" with "The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians", which would be the final animated incarnation of the long-running series. By this time Firestorm was already a part of the team, having been introduced into the series the previous year as part of "Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show", along with original creations such as Apache Chief, El Dorado, Samurai, and Black Vulcan (no relation to Tuvok, of course!) which were designed to bring in a more diverse ethnic culture to the series. With the addition of Firestorm the year before, another hero made his animated debut in the form of Cyborg, a character from the popular "Teen Titans" comic book series of the 1980's. More machine than man, Victor (Cyborg) Stone became a valuable addition to the Super Powers Team.

But things didn't stop there. Along with the addition of new cast members to the series, the look of the series drastically changed. For years Hanna-Barbera relied on the same tried and true look of the characters to drive the series. But animation, like comic books, were entering into a new era of more graphically realistic animation. To this end they turned to DC artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez to redesign all of the characters for the series, giving them incredible facelifts and providing a fresh look to the heroes and villains of the series, bringing them closer to their comic-book counterparts. And this was shortly before DC Comics itself was to experience a true makeover of its own with "Crisis on Infinite Earths", "The Dark Knight Returns", and "Superman: The Man of Steel".

Over the course of the ten segments produced in 1984 the Super Powers Team battled classic villains such as Lex Luthor, the Joker, the Penguin, the Scarecrow, Bizarro, and intergalactic space baddie Darkseid. And in one of its penultimate segments, "The Death of Superman", the series took a very mature theme and brought it to life (years before Doomsday did the unthinkable). But with the series on its last legs, even this fresh revamp wasn't enough to bring it back for another season. With this final incarnation, the Super Friends passed into history.

Now Warner Home Video has brought the entire "Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians" series to DVD in a two-disc set that presents each animated segment in its original broadcast aspect ratio and in Dolby 2.0 sound. The animation is clean and crisp, and for a 20-year-old series it looks pretty good, better than I remember catching it on Saturday mornings. Bonus features are limited to just a single featurette - "Super Powers Redux: Galactic Guardians Retrospective", which profiles the making of the series with DC writers and artists and also shows some vintage storyboards and even a copy of the ABC mandate regarding "The Death of Superman" - and a pair of trailers for other animated products.

"The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians", which followed the earlier "Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Team" release, is a great way to remember the final years of one of ABC's most popular and successful animated series. I'm looking forward to seeing the remainder of the "Super Friends" series arrive on DVD in coming months!

Spider-Man 3 out today - in multiple forms...

2007-10-30T09:00:00.001-07:00

Well, the year's biggest box-office moneymaker, "Spider-Man 3", has now arrived on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. It's out in no less than four different versions - single-disc full frame, single-disc widescreen, two-disc widescreen, and two-disc Blu-Ray format - so this should be a visual treat for the eyes. From what I have heard, the film's story is not up to snuff as the far superior "Spider-Man 2", but it made a boatload of money, so it should be worth checking out.

As if the above weren't enough to mention, Wal-Mart has an exclusive bonus disc with over 30 minutes of additional interviews and content not found in any of the other versions of the film. To add insult to injury, this bonus disc is packaged with the single-disc widescreen and full-frame versions of the film. That means if you want every last little bit of info on SM3, you're going to have to pony up the bucks to get the two-disc SE and the Wal-Mart release.

(This follows on the heels of Disney's reissue of "Cars" with yet another Wal-Mart exclusive bonus disc of 60 additional minutes of content. That's the second one in less than a year! What gives with these multiple dips of the same movie just to get every last bonus disc? Why couldn't Disney and Pixar do it right the first time and give everyone a two-disc set with the content from both of these bonus discs included as the second disc? It's all about one thing... money, money, money.)

In any event, as soon as I have my copy of "Spider-Man 3" in hand, I'll have the full review posted for everyone. (Oh, and don't forget to get your copy of the "Twin Peaks" Definitive Gold Box Edition today - 10 discs with all the episodes, the original TV pilot, the European theatrical cut with the alternate ending, and lots of exclusive bonus features! Of course, you'll have to hold onto your copies of the two previous season sets in order to have every last bonus feature that's not been ported over to the Gold Box - another head-scratcher of a multi-dip, but one that's worth getting for all the "Twin Peaks" goodness that's included.)

See you again soon!

And now for something completely different...

2007-10-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

As the week is fast coming to a close, I now turn my attention to something that's quite a bit unusual. As you may know from my earlier posts, I have a great concern for altered TV programs surfacing on DVD. That seems to be the bane for many a TV-on-DVD fan who likes to have his/her TV shows kept intact on DVD. Of course, there are many titles that have appeared over the last few years that have been altered. This includes no less than...

WKRP in Cincinnati
The Adventures of Superman (specifically, the episode "Crime Wave")
The Adventures of Superboy (the episode "Countdown to Nowhere")
The New Adventures of Superman (minus all the Superboy segments)
Star Trek: Captain's Log Fan Collective (an altered edition of the two-part "Chain of Command")
Soul Food: Season 2
The Odd Couple: Season 2
Jericho: Season 1
The Real World: New York, Season 1 (really bad!)
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (the entire series!)

...and who knows how many countless other TV series with significant alterations. As more and more series continue to be released on DVD, the casualties mount.

But have you ever heard of a DVD release that, upon its TV broadcast, has been greatly altered for television? Believe it or not, there is one such direct-to-video series that has been altered for its TV broadcasts, and that is the long-running animated family series "Veggie Tales", nearing its 15th year of production.

Over the last 15 years Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki, and the people at Big Idea Productions have produced 27 separate animated tales for VHS and DVD releases, as well as two big-screen feature films, "Jonah" and the upcoming release "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". In each of these hilarious animated stories and films, Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber host a series of stories geared toward families that present significant Biblical truths and Scripture references tied in to the stories. Sometimes they even go to the edge and spoof different pop-culture references, including "Star Trek", the Beatles, "Gilligan's Island", "The Lone Ranger", "Bonanza", the "Batman" and "Spider-Man" films, "Indiana Jones", Sherlock Holmes, "Rocky", the WWF/WWE, "The Wizard of Oz", and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy, among others. But in every tale they mention an active presence of God in their lives.

Last year NBC picked up the broadcast rights to "Veggie Tales", but for obvious reasons each of the segments were greatly altered from their original video presentations. In short, they wanted all references to God eliminated from the shows. That reduces the tales to little more than silliness without a message. For that matter, they also got a different opening credits sequence that has never been included on any DVD or VHS release of the series! Last week I happened to catch on the Guardian Television Network a broadcast of "The Ballad of Little Joe" that had a completely different main title sequence and introduction that was never featured on the DVD, and it was something I'd never seen before as well. At first I thought it was something from the earlier release "God Made You Special", but it quickly turned out that I was wrong.

I can understand having to edit one of these segments for time constraints, not to mention shadowboxing the end credits. That's fine and dandy when you're trying to squeeze something into a 30-minute time slot, and as the "Veggie Tales" series have gotten longer and longer it becomes a necessary hazard. But to create a different main title sequence for the TV broadcast and feature footage that's not available on the DVDs? I don't get it.

For that matter, I don't get Phil Vischer's decision to make necessary edits for television. To do that, he's robbing the series of that special something extra that makes "Veggie Tales" stand out head and shoulders above all other animated series. If I were in Vischer's shoes, I wouldn't have compromised for one second. I would have either held out for the message to be maintained in each episode, or I wouldn't have brought the series to TV in the first place. While I like the idea of appealing to a broader audience, dumbing down the message and completely cutting it out of the different segments is wrong. Had that been the case, then older series such as "Touched by an Angel" and "Doc" wouldn't have stood a chance on television, and look how popular those series were. For that matter, ABC wouldn't have stood a chance of even airing its yearly ratings spectacular, "The Ten Commandments" (the 1956 version with Charlton Heston), uncut.

Recently I saw on TBN that filmmaker Tyler Perry (who just released "Why Did I Get Married?" to blockbuster status last weekend) was offered a lucrative deal to bring his stage concepts of Madea (the character he made famous in "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" and "Madea's Family Reunion") and company to television. However, he refused because he did not agree with pushing the envelope to television's edgier standards and watering down his Christian witness all for the sake of money. He rejected the big network deal, took it to a smaller network, and presented it uncompromised and with his Christian themes intact. I have to give Perry credit for standing firm for his faith amid his businessman's beliefs. Phil Vischer could learn a thing or two from Perry.

Bottom line, if you like your veggies uncut and in its original format, then stick with the original DVD (or VHS) releases. But at the very least Vischer and company should give us the alternate TV credits and monologues with each DVD release for completion's sake. That way everyone is satisfied.

Have a good weekend!

Are you ready to go back to "Titanic"?

2007-10-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that ten years have passed since the release of "Titanic", James Cameron's mega-blockbuster that sailed to a staggering $600 million in U.S. box office receipts and 11 well-deserved Academy Awards (joining "Ben-Hur" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" on the list of films with the most Oscars). And yet, for all it's worth, "Titanic" is a simple love story set aboard the most famous luxury liner that faced disaster on its maiden voyage.

I remember seeing it over the Christmas weekend at the end of 1997. My ex-fiancee had just broken up with me, and it was a way of dealing with the catharsis of the end of the engagement. We had planned to see it together the weekend I was going to see her and her family; little did I know that it would never happen. Since that time I've only seen the film a grand total of...

...drum roll, please...

One time.

Not the VHS release, the HBO and NBC telecasts, or the DVD releases would add up to even a second time. Go figure.

In the dawning days of DVD, Paramount Home Video issued "Titanic" as a single-disc release in non-anamorphic format complete with a single theatrical trailer. For a long time it remained a top seller, but as DVD technology progressed fans clamored for a more elaborate deluxe edition. Cameron saw to it that said deluxe edition would be prepared, and in 2005 we were issued a three-disc collector's edition that was seemingly packed to the brim with tons of extras - three audio commentaries, branching pod featurettes, deleted and alternate scenes, the Celine Dion music video, the entire shooting script (I have a large trade paperback of this which I picked up in 1998), a Fox TV special, more behind-the-scenes production footage, even three hidden Easter eggs, you name it.

But for some reason the DVD release failed to carry a proposed feature-length DVD documentary produced by Ed Marsh on the making of the film. This is because Cameron had killed the Marsh documentary late in the game - go figure. That would be like Ridley Scott killing off any full-length Charles deLauzirika documentary off the "Alien" and "Gladiator" discs. Such documentaries really pull the curtain back on how films are made.

As if that weren't enough, while the U.S. market got the three-disc release, the overseas market got an even more elaborate four-disc set. On the fourth disc, it contained three short parodies (which were ultimately ported to the third disc on the U.S. set as hidden Easter eggs), a 25-minute HBO First Look special (with some additional outtakes not included in the film or the deleted scenes), and an extensive trailer gallery with U.S. and international trailers for the film. Why the fourth disc got killed off from release in the U.S. is beyond me. To this day I have yet to locate that fourth disc, particularly the trailer gallery.

Now for the film's 10th anniversary, Paramount Home Video is planning its third release of "Titanic" in a two-disc collector's edition. Apparently the two-disc set contains everything that's on the first two discs of the previous release. They're killing off the third disc! This is not the first time that something like this has happened. A few years back Warner Home Video released an awesome four-disc set of "Gone With the Wind" that had all the perks to it, then a couple of years later they re-released the DVD as a two-disc "special" edition minus the third and fourth discs. Who did this fool? Not me. Neither does this new two-disc "special" edition of "Titanic". It's just another way to milk the money machine even further. Even more so, you can still find the three-disc set at stores for a reasonable price.

My advice: stick with the three-disc set. If anyone has the trailer gallery on DVD, get in touch with me and let's talk.

On a personal note, Laura B., if you're out there reading this up north, send me an e-mail. I'd like to know how you're doing.

Indy without Indy?

2007-10-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Next week marks the release of the first volume of "Young Indiana Jones" on DVD. This incredible 12-disc set, which will encompass the first seven chapters of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", is highly anticipated by many fans, including me. (I know if my dad were still alive, he would have looked forward to this set, as this was one of his favorite series.) This will be followed by the second volume on December 18th (the same day as THE DVD release of the year, the awesome five-disc "Blade Runner" set), with Chapters 8-15 included in the set. And next spring, the third volume with Chapters 16-22 will appear in stores in time for the highly anticipated "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls" (say that one three times fast!).

But there is a big concern I have with the third and final volume. As you know, we're only getting the re-edited movie-length stories that George Lucas tinkered with in the late 1990's, though the official Indiana Jones web site references information from the original ABC-TV broadcasts from the early 1990's. Can we all say, "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal", with three incarnations of Indy in the two-hour premiere? So of course, no George Hall bookends are in this set.

But there's one that's got me extremely concerned, and if you're an Indy fan, you should definitely be concerned as well. From the earliest news on the press release for the third and final set, "The Mystery of the Blues" has apparently been re-edited from its original broadcast. There is no mention of Harrison Ford's bookend segments in the press release description provided by TV Shows on DVD. If that's the case, then you should definitely be angry about this one.

If you recall, in 1993 the series was experiencing a serious slump in the ratings. While "Young Indy" was very well produced, it just lost the kick along the way. In order to provide a boost in the ratings, Harrison Ford came back to film bookend segments for "The Mystery of the Blues" in which he explains his love for jazz music. The bookends were also complimented by a return of the classic John Williams Indy fanfare and portions of cues heard in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". These segments were shot around the time Ford worked on his big-screen version of "The Fugitive" - the tipoff is the beard. There's been only two times Ford has acted onscreen with a full beard, the "Young Indy" bookend segments and "The Fugitive".

And yet apparently the third set will, for some reason, omit the Harrison Ford segments from the episode. If you ask me, that's a slap in the face to the man who for our generation is the one and only Indiana Jones, as the episode marked not only one of Ford's very rare TV appearances (along with the classic ill-fated "Star Wars Holiday Special" - how many of you out there remember that one?), but also his fourth time out as the man with the hat. I've got only one question to ask Mr. Lucas at this point: why is Harrison Ford's footage being cut out from the DVD? If you ask me, that's an insult to all the Indy fans out there, and it's just going to cause fans to seek out the original TV broadcasts in some unofficial (read: bootleg) format all the more.

Mind you, I'm not advocating bootlegging, I'm simply speaking the facts of what's going to happen if this is allowed. The thing to do is press Lucasfilm and Paramount to go back and repress "The Mystery of the Blues" with the Harrison Ford bookends included in the movie.

One more thought to share before I close: lately on all of CBS/Paramount Video's DVD box sets, there's been a running disclaimer that reads to the effect of, "Some of the episodes have been re-edited from their original television broadcasts." In the case of "Young Indiana Jones", they should reword it to accurately read, "ALL of the episodes have been re-edited from their original television broadcasts." That's the only way to truthfully tell the consumer what they're really getting on DVD.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to find my hat, leather jacket, and bullwhip and start searching for those buried treasures in my video collection...

A bit of a delay...

2007-10-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been able to post any new reviews in the last several days. Sometimes, when you get an unexpected curveball thrown at you in your life, there's not much else you can do except deal with things one day at a time. Rest assured, I'll be back with more full-length reviews as soon as my time permits.

In the meantime, I've just gotten a review copy of the upcoming DVD release of this past summer's box-office blockbuster, "Transformers". Guys and gals, if you enjoyed the original series, you'll more than likely enjoy this movie. Word is that Michael Bay is planning an Imax version of the film with even more exclusive footage than in the original theatrical or DVD releases (what's up with that?), so if you live near an Imax theater, be sure to check it out soon.

Be sure to check out the new animated version of "The Ten Commandments" coming to theaters in the next week or two! My wife and I saw the preview trailer for this on TBN last night, and I have to say I was impressed with it! Think of "The Prince of Egypt" with "Shrek"-like animation.

And the good people at TVShowsonDVD.com have posted specs for the second "Young Indiana Jones" set, entitled "The War Years", set to come out December 18th. Looks like Christmas is going to be sweet for DVD fans! I hope I'm able to enjoy as well - we'll see.

And that's all from my neck of the woods at this time. Take care, and I'll see you again soon!

The War

2007-09-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

This review is dedicated with love and respect to the memory of my dad, William Cauthen Williams (1915-2002), and all of the heroes of the greatest generation in our history.

When I think about my dad, I think about the times he shared with me how he became involved in World War II. He told me how, as a student at Mississippi State University, he heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio in the library and how he decided to enlist in the Army as a result of the attack. As a youth I would see yearbooks and pictures of him and his military unit as they ventured throughout Germany and France in those years, and to this day I have a couple of pictures of him in Germany from 1945.

As the saying goes, everyone has a story to tell. While my dad is no longer around to share more of those stories with me, there are still some left today who share their tales of their involvements in World War II either on the front lines or back home. It’s been over 60 years since the end of the war, and as each day passes we lose more and more of those precious souls to time, at an average of a thousand a day, so it becomes more and more critical to preserve these stories for future generations before all of these survivors are lost to history. Filmmaker Ken Burns has accomplished such a task in “The War”, a 15-hour, seven-part documentary (currently running on PBS) that looks at the four darkest years of the United States’ involvement in World War II through the accounts of not only those involved in the war but also of the effects back home.

Burns, whose accomplishments include the PBS documentaries “Baseball”, “Jazz”, and the highly acclaimed groundbreaking “Civil War” series, spent six years with co-director and co-producer Lynn Novick researching and documenting the personal accounts of 50 such individuals from four different locales – Sacramento, California; Mobile, Alabama; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota – and getting the right feel for what happened both at home and overseas. In the first chapter “A Necessary War”, lives across these towns and the nation are shattered on December 7, 1941 as the United States is thrust into the deadly conflict. In the second chapter “When Things Get Tough”, Americans mobilize for war, factories work around the clock, inexperienced soldiers learn how to fight, and thousands of U.S. airmen gamble their lives against deadly odds in a series of dangerous daylight bombing raids. The third chapter “A Deadly Calling” analyzes the shocking losses suffered at Tarawa, the stalling of Allied forces at Monte Cassino, and the failure of a risky landing at Anzio; while at home things begin to get ugly with racial violence and confrontations as a result of economic growth.

In the fourth chapter “Pride of Our Nation”, over 1.5 million Allied troops participate in the incredible D-Day surge at Normandy, only to become bogged down in the Norman hedges for weeks at a time. Saipan proves to be one of the deadliest Pacific battles to date, while back home concerned citizens begin receiving telegrams from the War Department at an alarming rate. In the fifth chapter “Fubar”, over several different war fronts, American and Allied troops learn the deadly truth that sometimes mistakes happen in war, while on the island of Peleliu the Marines fight one of the bloodiest and most unnecessary battles of the war. In the sixth chapter “The Ghost Front” Americans are shocked at Adolf Hitler’s massive counterattack, but by the spring of 1945 they have the German and Russian forces on the run. Iwo Jima is secured, and American bombers begin their air assault on Japan. In the final chapter “A World without War”, President Franklin Roosevelt passes away, Germany surrenders, American soldiers and sailors endure the Okinawa attack, and Japan ultimately surrenders after American bomber pilots unleash the most terrifying weapon of destruction upon them. With the war now over, millions of military forces return home and attempt to learn to live without war.

In “The War”, Burns pulls no punches. He mixes up documentary footage from the various battles and war fronts with personal stories of the soldiers involved in each conflict and of those back home affected by war in both great and small ways. World War II was a deadly conflict that affected millions on every continent, and just when it seemed hopeless at times, things bounced back for the U.S. military. You see the atrocities perpetrated by the enemies on both military forces and innocent civilians in all its horror and intensity. If you think any slasher flick out there could exceed what actually happened 60-65 years ago, this documentary will make you re-think your definition of what horror and death is truly like. It is a sobering, somber, stark, and touching reminder of where we were as a nation back in the 1940’s and a stark parallel to where we are now in the 21st century. The original music provided by Wynton Marsalis and Norah Jones, coupled with era pieces from Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Nat “King” Cole, provide the beautiful and longing musical backdrop for this spectacular program.

Burns also looks at two very overlooked aspects of the war that many Americans of this generation are typically unaware of: the African-American aspect, which experienced further racism and neglect (seen in films like “A Soldier’s Story”), and the Japanese-American aspect, which saw many American-born citizens of Japanese heritage impounded and imprisoned in a labor camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. As the saying goes, those who will not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.

However, as with all documentaries, there is some obvious material left out. Instead of the all-encompassing documentary of a world at war and its beginnings in 1939, the focus is on the effects of the war on the small American towns profiled and the firsthand accounts from those veterans involved during America’s four-year involvement. Furthermore, Burns had received a number of concerns that the Latin American experience had not been adequately profiled, which forced him to include an additional 28 minutes of footage and stories from the Latin perspective. This footage, while a nice addition, feels a bit shoehorned into and distracted from an otherwise outstanding documentary film.

PBS Home Video and Paramount Home Video have issued “The War” in a stunning six-disc collection that takes advantage of the DVD format and brings the horrors and heroism of World War II to the viewer in a fresh and yet personal way. This in itself is a first, at least in my opinion, releasing the DVD before the TV premiere (if there’s been any other disc that can lay claim to it, I certainly don’t know about it). Each chapter of the 15-hour film is presented in its original 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen format and in your choice of English Dolby 5.1 digital or 2.0 surround tracks, with optional English subtitles. Each chapter is presented on its own individual disc, with Disc Two containing the second and third chapters. To watch this series is to step back in time to what our nation endured as a whole, and what entire families and communities would hear and endure. Their generation didn’t have the benefit of 24-hour news channels or the Internet to inform them of the latest reports; all they had were the radio and movie newsreels, so the wait for any word from the government was just as strenuous and painful as it was a century before during the Civil War. The sound and images fully engross you in this horror and stress, more than any visually graphic movie of today’s time. While some of the actual war footage is referenced from the best possible existing sources, the soundtracks are newly remixed in 5.1 digital sound with an intensity similar to the opening Normandy reenactment in “Saving Private Ryan”.

In addition, PBS and Paramount have included a nice collection of supplements to “The War” that further expand upon the viewing experience. First off we have audio commentaries from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on Discs 1 and 3, which further analyze the making of the documentary, the “less is more” approach to the storytelling, and the horrors of the war that everyone endured in the 1940’s. The only problem with the audio commentaries is that by listening to these commentaries, you know what’s coming up in later installments. My advice is to listen to these commentaries after you’ve watched the documentary in its entirety.

On Disc 1 there is a 36-minute feature entitled “Making ‘The War’”, which attempts to answer the question of how necessary it was to chronicle these accounts. Burns mentions that at first he had no intention of pursuing another war documentary after “The Civil War”, but he kept hearing story after story from people of their fathers, mothers, siblings, and relatives and their participation in World War II. The question that looms over this feature, as well as the entire documentary, is a sobering one: why do 18-year-olds go to war? This is what Burns and Novick attempt to answer in both “The War” and this production feature. Also on Disc 1 we have a photo gallery of 28 different pictures from 1941-1945 showing various aspects of the war and its effect back home, as well as text biographies of those participants profiled in the documentary.

On Disc 6 we have a 24-minute collection of deleted scenes cut from the documentary. These deleted scenes, culled from a work print version of the documentary, looks at additional aspects of World War II from the news correspondents’ points of view, among them Andy Rooney (of “60 Minutes” fame); further insights from the war veterans interviewed for the documentary, including thoughts on sacrifice, attacks on Aachen and Metz, and battling through the hedgerows in Normandy, among others; and other tales to be told. In addition, on Disc 6 we have 55 minutes of additional, uncensored interviews with many of the participants profiled, also culled from a work print version of the documentary. Both the deleted scenes and the additional documentary could easily form another chapter for this program. Kudos to PBS Video for including this insightful information!

Finally, because this is a historical documentary, PBS and Ken Burns have prepared a list of educational resources for utilizing this DVD set in the classroom. This includes a brief video from Burns, who offers his thoughts on using “The War” and the many PBS resources as tools in the classroom; a collection of still photographs and their credited sources; PDF access to episode descriptions and further comments from Burns and Novick; information on the Veterans History Project; and PBS web links to lesson plans and instructional curriculum. As a former high school teacher, had this came out a decade before, I would have referenced those online sources and materials exhaustively. References to these educational resources can be found on Discs 1 and 6 of the set.

I highly and unquestionably recommend “The War” as essential viewing for all families, not only for the production and storytelling qualities Ken Burns brings to the documentary, but also for the way it paints a portrait of Americana and the world in the 1940’s. It’s a chilling parallel into our times today and what we can and may possibly face if we don’t get our act together. While this is certainly intended for mature audiences because of the violence, profanity, and disturbing content, it is nonetheless as educational a chronicle as “Schindler’s List” or the Naudet brothers’ 9/11 documentary, and it is must viewing for all students in high schools and colleges everywhere. While my wife doesn’t get into material like this, it’s important for our daughters and future generations to learn from the past. I only wish my dad were alive to share more accounts from this period in his life as the participants do here. Very seldom does it get better than this.

Hasta la vista, HTF...

2007-09-24T14:54:00.001-07:00

For some reason I can't figure out, the Home Theater Forum - which in my opinion has had some of the best reader participation online over the years - doesn't want any other competition/promotion of reviews on other sites out there. Apparently someone got pissed off because I've got my DVD review blog site going, and they don't like it. But yet they'll let other people promote their own personally run web sites, blogs, etc. on there and not say anything to them about it? There's who knows how many out there, and I get singled out for no reason? And on my birthday, no less? Smacks of a hypocritical double standard, if you ask me.

Remember that old "Andy Griffith" episode where the little sales guy with the stand was trying to make a living, and the skinflint businessman was continually trying to run him off because he felt the little guy was "treading" on his property? Well, I feel like the little guy right now. Look around you and you'll see who knows how much competition is going on in our society, with X number of gas stations, clothing stores, and fast food restaurants all in the same territory competing for business, and nobody's giving in to some corporate muscle. There's room for everyone.

And yet someone whines and gripes about how I'm reviewing DVDs on my blog site and threatens me not to cross their territory? Yet they let other people do who knows what on their forum and promote their other web sites and not say anything? Well, that's why I've got my own site going, where I can review the latest film and TV DVDs, without a bunch of snobby double-minded people moderating it and saying "We can have this person on there but not that one." I've never violated any rules on HTF, I've always been respectful with my thoughts on there, and this is the thanks I get? If the holier-than-thous at HTF don't like it, screw 'em. I used to have a lot of respect for them... not anymore. It's their loss, not mine.

Happy birthday to me!

2007-09-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that I'm now 41. I only wonder what's going to happen as I now move into the fifth decade of my life - ouch, that's gotta hurt! - but I can only hope that things will continue to improve in my life and get better as I move through my 40's.

Quick note... I'm in the middle of reviewing the DVD release of Ken Burns' documentary film "The War", which just premiered last night on PBS. This is one extremely powerful and important documentary on World War II that is a must-view (and for the DVD release, a must-own) for every family and every school. Part 2 airs tonight, so check it out, and look for the DVD (and my review) very soon.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy my 41st birthday! Take care!

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Series

2007-09-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since the next great modern phase of STAR TREK began. I remember September 30, 1987 all too well. I had just turned 21 a few days before and was in my senior year at Mississippi College. The two-hour premiere of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was set for debut on my local Fox affiliate station. However, I had the upper hand in knowing what to expect in the premiere episode as I had obtained a rare 20-minute preview reel and satellite briefing several weeks prior (and to think this was back in the day before downloading videos on YouTube or before there was even a StarTrek.com!).

But there was a bit of a problem. The series premiere fell on the same night that MC had a swap (translated: dance – at MC, you could call a dance anything but a dance, go figure) at the Cascades lodge. Of course, I decided to videotape the premiere, and my dad and I had caught the first 45 minutes of the show, which I found to be quite interesting. I then left for the swap at the Cascades lodge and soon found myself on the dance floor with Laura Ann King, the girl whom I had an on-again, off-again crush on throughout my four years at MC. Some priorities are more important than others, you know. The following day, after classes, I played back my videotape of the TNG premiere and caught up with the rest of the show, looking forward to each episode soon afterwards.

Flash forward 20 years. That so-called “next great modern phase” of STAR TREK had long since passed into the record books. TNG had begat DEEP SPACE NINE, which begat VOYAGER, each series of which ran for seven years apiece (with DS9 concurrently with TNG and VOYAGER), which also begat four spin-off feature films (the most successful of which was FIRST CONTACT), an ill-fated prequel series in ENTERPRISE which lasted four years, and who knows how many spin-off books, comics, multimedia products, toys, cards, fan-based web sites, and the list goes on and on. TNG also spawned something new called first-run syndication, with many other series following in its footsteps over the next several years. I went from advertising to teaching to education management, to editing and eventually to my current vocation of curriculum training and management. Challenger and Columbia exploded. I returned to MC to get my graduate degree in English education. The Internet took off and became a household word. NASA finally landed satellite probes on Mars. TITANIC and THE LORD OF THE RINGS ruled. VHS and laserdiscs fell by the wayside thanks to a little thing called DVD. 9/11 occurred. We got Saddam Hussein. My two greatest heroes growing up – my dad and Christopher Reeve – died. Laura Ann King got married in the early 1990’s, and like a coward I skipped town and got as far away from the wedding as I could. I finally married in 2004 and moved a year later from Mississippi to Alabama with my wife April, stepdaughter Rachel, and infant daughter Lily Grace. How times change.

If I seem to wax nostalgic more than I usually do, it’s because STAR TREK: TNG holds a special place in my heart. It was the first TREK series I really attached myself to. Oh, I’d seen reruns of the original TREK on the local Fox affiliate and picked up a number of episodes on VHS during my college years, and I had gotten into the feature films from my teen years forward. But there was something about TNG that was, in a word, unique. I can’t put my finger exactly on what it was. Perhaps it was that attempt by Gene Roddenberry to, as he put it, “catch lightning in a bottle a second time”. Perhaps it was the then-flashy visual effects which, by today’s standards, come off quite cheesy when compared to many of today’s top CGI effects in film and television. Perhaps it was the level of storytelling, which started out bumpy in the first two years and really hit its stride in the third season, thanks to the creative talent of the late Michael Piller. Maybe it was the music. I don’t really know. All I know is that TNG was something special.

In 2002 Paramount Home Video released all seven seasons of STAR TREK: TNG in a relatively bold new home video concept – complete season sets – on DVD. Over the course of the year I could catch up on all those episodes, digitally remastered, presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound, and complete with a number of additional bonus features. A few years later Paramount issued the first TNG-themed DVD spin-off, THE JEAN-LUC PICARD COLLECTION, which was basically a sampler set of seven episodes from the popular series. This later begat the STAR TREK Fan Collective sets, which were compilations of different episodes from all five series into cost-effective sampler sets. Of course, TNG was prominently present in each set. Now, for the series’ 20th anniversary, Paramount has gone back to the well and reissued the entire series in one complete box set, which comes out in early October. That’s right, all 176 episodes of the groundbreaking series that set the standard for other TREK series to meet, sometimes with success, sometimes with failure.

Right away I can tell you that the bulk of the set is comprised of exactly the same material that was present in the initial sets from 2002, with none of the DVD content lost. That means you’re getting the same episodes, the same bonus features, and the same 5.1 and 2.0 tracks as before. Only this time, it’s not in seven bulky foldout sets. That’s one of the good things about this new complete series set. It’s housed in a large plastic case with a plastic green slipcover, which means it takes up less shelf space on your cabinet. It also contains an exclusive TNG poster as well, complete with artwork and episode descriptions.

The only new material that is included in this complete series set is an all-new bonus disc with exclusive content newly produced for the box set. First off is “Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Impact – 2007”, a new 25-minute documentary hosted by Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), which takes a look at the many contributions TNG made not only to the world of science fiction but also to the world of science fact. In this new documentary Wheaton talks with scientists, writers, engineers, and fans who were inspired by TNG to further their careers and dreams in the same way the original TREK did back in the 1960’s. We see glimpses of how fictional props used in the series, such as the PADD, inspired today’s PDA devices and the recent iPhone. We see developments in satellite technology and space probes, including the recent probes that carried the ashes of both Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan into outer space. We also see how TNG inspired the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington and the annual open house event sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

One of the most popular recurring guest stars on the modern incarnations of TREK, John deLancie (Q), hosts the second exclusive 25-minute documentary, “Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Legacy – 20 Years Later”, which takes another look back at how the series has held up over the past 20 years. He teases us with the Q-like question, “What if TNG never existed? How would that have affected the future of television?” (See my earlier comments for my answer to that question.) Participating in this documentary are new interviews with series contributors Ronald D. Moore, Naren Shankar, and Brannon Braga, among others, who reflect on their time writing and producing numerous episodes of TNG. (Moore would go on to revisit BATTLESTAR GALACTICA for the Sci-Fi Channel, while Braga would become the scorn of TREK fans everywhere by co-creating [with Rick Berman] and screwing up a lot of episodes of ENTERPRISE during its run.) The third and final exclusive documentary, the 25-minute “Star Trek Visual Effects Magic: A Roundtable Discussion”, looks back at the then-groundbreaking visual effects produced initially by Industrial Light and Magic on a weekly basis. Among those interviewed are Dan Curry, Rob Legato, Ron Moore, and Howard Anderson (who created the original transporter effect for the first "Trek" series). Like the special effects produced 40 years ago for the Original Series, some of the special effects produced for TNG are, unfortunately, dated because we’ve become spoiled with flashy CGI effects in many different series and films. Recently comments were made about a possible “TNG Remastered” series with updated visual effects, a la the recent “Original Series Remastered” efforts – as of this writing, nothing has been officially confirmed.

But we’re not done yet. Since its initial announcement many people have wondered about the fate of the additional bonus features that were incorporated into the Region 2 DVD releases overseas and featured as exclusive bonus discs you could only find at Best Buy. Not to worry, those eight bonus features – “Select Historical Data: Part 1” and “Inside the Star Trek Archive” (from the fourth season set), “Intergalactic Guest Stars” and “Alien Speak” (from the fifth season set), “Select Historical Data: Part 2” and “Inside the Starfleet Archives: Sets and Props” (from the sixth season set), and “Special Profiles” and “Dressing the Future” (from the seventh season set) are all included in their entirety on this additional bonus disc and presented in their original formats. This means you can safely sell off not only your individual season sets but also the respective bonus discs from seasons 4-7. There's even an Easter egg on the set that is a tip of the hat to producer Stephen R. Wolcott, who supervised the new documentaries for this set.

Missing in action are quite a number of additional features that could have enhanced this complete set all the more. First of all, there are at least two documentaries that have previously appeared on VHS – “From Here to Infinity: The Ultimate Voyage”, hosted by Patrick Stewart (which also appeared in the two-disc JEAN-LUC PICARD COLLECTION), and “Journey’s End – The Saga of Star Trek: The Next Generation”, hosted by Jonathan Frakes (the latter of which has never been released on DVD) – which could have helped flesh this set out all the more. Then there are all of the series’ generic preview trailers promoting the series prior to its release, before the start of the second season, during the nightly syndication runs, prior to the start of the fourth season, and toward the end of the series, as well as the preview trailers for each episode (which were included in the TNG Companion CD-ROM and are also on StarTrek.com). I figured that these would have been featured in the same way that the vintage preview trailers for the Original Series were included on their VHS, laserdisc, and DVD releases. We also know of many outtakes, bloopers, and raw footage clips that have surfaced over the years, including the infamously raw and ribald first season blooper reel that has appeared at conventions and on who knows how many bootleg videos over the past two decades. Finally, I would have enjoyed seeing the original preview reel and satellite briefing from the summer of 1987 in which many tie-in products were promoted, among them the General Mills’ cereal contest for a walk-on role on TNG and the Associates’ Star Trek credit card.

At a retail price of $440 (with some stores selling the series for a bit less), I have a bit of a problem with the pricing of this complete series set. After purchasing and tracking down all seven seasons and the respective bonus discs at Best Buy, it seems like a bit of a waste to plunk down $440 just to obtain an additional disc with three more documentaries on it. You could go into any Wal-Mart and pick up the seven sets for less than what you would pay for the entire series set, and still get the bulk of the same content. Even my wife agrees with me that this is an extreme waste of money. Still, there are some fans out there who have already purchased the seven sets and the bonus discs who will ultimately shell out the money to get that additional disc – I’m not one of them.

But if you’ve not picked up any of the season sets at all, this is a good way to get everything all in one shot at a fairly reasonable price. Seeing this reissue in a complete box set is more than just all seven seasons with a new wrapper around it and a new disc in it. For me it’s like stepping back into a time capsule to 1987, when all that mattered was school and dances and unrequited crushes on girls and not knowing what the future held for me. Part of me is glad I’m not 21 anymore. Part of me wishes I could have my own Guardian of Forever to go back there and tell myself what to look forward to, and part of me wishes I could go back and change things. (Only in things like TNG does that exist; not in the real world.) And part of me wishes for another day with my dad and another dance with Laura Ann King. I guess we all have to grow up eventually and put things behind us, don’t we?

Another Young Indy update...

2007-09-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everyone! Buzz word from the guys at TV Shows on DVD is that Paramount Home Entertainment has formally announced December 18, 2007 as the release date for the second volume of "Young Indiana Jones" on DVD!

Not much has been mentioned other than the running time on the set is 12 hours, 6 minutes. Based on this information, and a little mathematical deduction, I can conclude that Chapters 8-15 will constitute this next set, followed by Chapters 16-22 on the third and final volume to come in the spring of 2008. As soon as the latest information on extras comes in, I'll post it for you to enjoy.

Between Young Indy and that awesome five-disc "Blade Runner" Ultimate Collector's Edition, it looks like a lot of us will be in store for one spectacular Christmas! More to come later!

Superman: Doomsday

2007-09-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Where were you on November 18, 1992?

For some people that day may not have as hugely significant an impact as, say, November 22, 1963 or September 11, 2001, but for others it was quite a dark day – at least in the world of comic books. For those like me who remember it well, it was the day that Superman died.

Of course, it was all part of a ploy on the part of DC Comics writers, artists, and editors working on four separate titles – “Superman”, “The Adventures of Superman”, the then-recently launched “Superman: The Man of Steel”, and the flagship title of the comics industry, “Action Comics” – who were looking to breathe new life into a franchise that for many intents and purposes had started to grow a little stale. The film series was in a state of limbo after four big-screen installments, and the television incarnations were also in a period of dormancy at this time (it would be another year before "Lois and Clark" would hit the airwaves). So the question was posed: what if Superman actually died? The end result was a seven-part storyline entitled “The Death of Superman”, which saw the Man of Steel fall at the hands of an unstoppable monster of unknown origin dubbed Doomsday, culminating in the landmark 75th issue of “Superman” which, as a result of numerous printings and limited edition versions, sold over four million copies alone. The growing anticipation of the storyline made headlines worldwide over the months leading up to the event and dominated the news over anything else at the time.

This led to two continued storylines over the next year, “Funeral for a Friend” (which dealt with Superman’s funeral and burial, repackaged as “World Without a Superman”) and “The Return of Superman” (which, after several months on hiatus, saw the Last Son of Krypton return to discover four separate and distinct offshoots in the world, each one claiming to be Superman reborn). Note the Christ-like similarities in this tale, which are further explored in the paperback book “The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero”, written by Stephen Skelton – I highly recommend this book.

From there the Superman line would be re-energized, bringing in new readers as well as bringing back long-time readers. Eventually writer/artist Dan Jurgens returned to familiar territory with “Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey”, a three-part sequel to the “Death of Superman” trilogy which explored Doomsday’s horrific origins on Superman’s home world of Krypton and pitted the two beings against each other in an epic return bout.

As a result of the success of the “Death of Superman” trilogy, word soon began to buzz about a possible return to television, culminating in September 1993 with the premiere of “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”. BBC Radio faithfully adapted the trilogy into a three-hour radio drama entitled “Superman Lives”. DC writer Roger Stern penned an epic novelization called “The Death and Life of Superman”, which became a New York Times bestseller for a number of weeks. Skybox cards reprinted the artwork from the tale into two limited edition trading card sets, “Doomsday: The Death of Superman” and “The Return of Superman”. Warner Bros. and producer Jon Peters began considering a film adaptation of the story, with numerous script treatments penned and none of them meeting muster with studio executives and fans alike. (The worst of the lot, a complete and heartless piece of s--t entitled “Superman Lives” [no relation to the well-made radio drama], written by that damn moronic idiot Smith [who needs to go back to his mother’s basement and smoke pot with his girlfriend], almost got made by director Tim Burton with Nicolas Cage in the title role, and the studio actually spent [translated: blew] $30 million in pre-production on this piece of crap? No wonder it got shelved – thank goodness for Bryan Singer!)

Warner Home Video and DC Comics has launched a series of direct-to-DVD “DC Universe” animated productions, and the first installment in the series is none other than “Superman: Doomsday”, a 75-minute adaptation of the “Death of Superman” trilogy that gets to the heart of the story itself. Right now I can tell you that it’s not the most letter-perfect adaptation of the tale, as many events had to be abridged or even eliminated in favor of the main tale, but it’s certainly a decent attempt.

In this new animated feature film, employees of LexCorp accidentally uncover a mysterious vault and unleash the destructive might of Doomsday upon the world. Of course, it’s up to the Man of Steel to stop Doomsday at all costs, but as the fight gets more and more intense, Doomsday’s strength grows at an alarming rate. As with the multi-chapter storyline, the battle winds up on the streets of Metropolis, where Superman makes the ultimate sacrifice in stopping Doomsday’s rampage at the cost of his own life. As the world mourns its fallen champion, Superman’s enemies rejoice, all but Lex Luthor, who unknowingly sets off a chain of events that even he couldn’t have foreseen.

Certainly, the “Death of Superman” storyline is one of epic storytelling, which makes it extremely difficult to condense the entire saga into a single 75-minute film. As I stated earlier, many story elements had to be condensed or even outright eliminated in favor of a story that stayed true to the essence of the original tale. Gone from this tale are many of the repercussions that followed Superman’s death, among them the emergence of four separate Superman impersonators, each claiming to be the Man of Steel reincarnated. Instead, we now have only one Superman impersonator – and it’s not who you think it is – and it’s this good Superman/bad Superman battle reminiscent of the showdown in “Superman III” that takes up the latter part of the film. Also gone are many of the wonderful personal moments that made up the “Death of Superman”, “Funeral for a Friend”, and “Return of Superman” storylines, including Superman’s journey to save his dying adopted father Jonathan Kent (who's mysteriously absent from this adaptation), a young family affected by Doomsday’s rampage, and some of the epic events in the final third of the trilogy. For that matter, the issue of Lois and Clark’s engagement (which was put on hold for the duration of the trilogy) is also eliminated from the film, leaving her romantic attraction toward the Man of Steel intact. Rather than a single 75-minute movie, this epic tale should have been adapted into three separate animated films a la the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to get everything appropriately covered.

The voice talents behind the scenes bring a new sense of perspective to the Superman characters not previously seen on the WB animated series. Adam Baldwin (from “Independence Day”) brings a new sense of vulnerability and strength to the Man of Steel and delivers a pitch-perfect balance between the good Superman and the evil Superman in the latter part of the film. Anne Heche (of such films as “Volcano” but most notably known as Ellen DeGeneres’ ex-girlfriend) brings a combination of strength and personal vulnerability to Lois Lane. James Marsters (of “Buffy”, “Angel”, and “Smallville” fame) brings an even more sinister sense to Lex Luthor than we’ve seen previously in the many film and TV incarnations.

However, that's where the praise ends and the rant begins. Halfway through the film, someone with a lack of brain smarts not only decided to stick a Smith in-joke in the film, they also got that bottom-feeder to do a voiceover as well! Who in the hell is responsible for that crappy decision? And why does he think he has to stick his nose in Superman's business - and everyone else's business - for that matter? Why doesn't he go back where he came from and stay there? That alone was enough for me to get turned off on "Superman: Doomsday" right then and there.

But just because this is an animated film, which was produced, co-written, and co-directed by Bruce Timm (of the “Superman”, “Batman”, and “Justice League” animated series), don’t think for a second that this is standard kid fare – it’s far from it. This is an extremely intense animated film with a lion’s share of action violence, particularly in Doomsday's rampage and mindless killings, the titanic battle, and the dark Superman's penchant for murder, which earned the film a PG-13 rating, so it’s definitely not for the kids. Also, while much of the look of the film is played off the “Superman” animated series format, it’s separate from the animated continuity.

The DVD presentation of “Superman: Doomsday” is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format and in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, with optional English subtitles. The print is crisp and free of blemishes, and the 5.1 track is hard-hitting all around, especially in the battle scenes throughout the film.

Also included on the single-disc release are a nice collection of extras that take viewers further into the storyline. First off we have a running audio commentary with Timm, writer Duane Capizzi, voice director Andrea Romano, and executive producer Gregory Noveck, who discuss the problems in adapting the “Death of Superman” storyline into animated form and the creative decisions they made in abridging the epic tale into a single film. This was a decent listen, right up until Timm decided to mention the crappy-ass Smith in-joke. I had to check it three times to make sure, and then I went, "Oh no you didn't!"

From there we have “Requiem and Rebirth: Superman Lives”, which is a 43-minute retrospective documentary on how the DC Comics team decided Superman’s fate. We have new interviews with the key participants who all collaborated to pull the trigger – including writer/artist Dan Jurgens (who penned and illustrated the landmark 75th issue of “Superman”) and collaborator Brett Breeding; writer/artist Jerry Ordway (who worked on “The Adventures of Superman”); writer Roger Stern (who eventually adapted the trilogy into his bestselling novel); writer Louise Simonson and artists Jon Bogdanove and Tom Grummett (from “Superman: The Man of Steel”); DC editor Mike Carlin; current DC president and publisher Paul Levitz; and former DC president/publisher Jenette Kahn – and made comic book and news history in the process. Included in the documentary are scenes from the DC Comics trilogy and their animated comparisons, which bear startling similarities to each other at times and no resemblance at other times. Most interesting is vintage video footage from the early 1990’s of the “Super-Summit” meeting, which at the time was a standard regular meeting with all the creative talents of the Superman titles to keep the storylines consistent from one book to the next, since at the time the books were interconnected with one another (it’s a shame that in this current trend the books are not interconnected at all). You get to see the plotting and scripting process each writer, artist, and editor brought to the tale, and how all played a part in making this the most important event in comic book history. We also have vintage footage and news reports from November 1992, where fans lined up in droves to turn out for the landmark event. Clearly, this seemed to be far from the gimmick designed to increase reader turnout due to sagging sales; this event took on a life of its own. It’s quite a fascinating look inside the comic book industry, to say the least. The documentary is divided into five chapters and can be viewed in its full-length form or through the individual chapters.

We also have “Behind the Voice”, which is a quick five-minute look at the voice talent of “Superman: Doomsday”. Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano, as well as Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, Ray Wise (Perry White), Swoosie Kurtz (Martha Kent), and Adam Wylie (Jimmy Olsen), discuss how they contributed to the development of each character’s vocal portrayal. There is also “Superman’s Last Challenge”, a set-top interactive game where viewers can play as the Man of Steel in stopping Doomsday. We also have a 10-minute preview reel for the next DC Universe animated film “Justice League: The New Frontier” (adapted from the graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke) which stars Kyle MacLachlan (“Twin Peaks”) as Superman, Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess”) as Wonder Woman (one of my perfect choices for a live-action feature film version of the character), and David Boreanz (“Angel” and “Bones”) as Green Lantern – no formal release date has been announced yet, but look for it later this year. Finally, we have a trailer gallery for different film and DVD projects, including “The Last Mimzy”, “Spawn: The Animated Series”, the “Blade” TV pilot, all six seasons of “Smallville” on DVD, and the “Dangerous Days” teaser for the upcoming “Blade Runner” 25th anniversary edition on DVD, among others.

In addition, for Best Buy customers Warner Home Video has included a miniature comic book of "Justice League: New Frontier" in select copies of the DVD. A copy of this bonus book was unavailable for review.

“Superman: Doomsday” is not the most perfect adaptation of the landmark comic book tale. Attempting to squeeze a year’s worth of tales into a single 75-minute film is definitely problematic, which is why various script adaptations in the past have always missed the mark. Squeezing everything out until all you have left is the bare bones of the story doesn’t always work, and that’s one of the main problems going into “Superman: Doomsday”. I only wish that, like the comics trilogy, this was the first installment of an animated Superman trilogy to follow in coming months, with each installment running much longer than 75 minutes apiece. While it doesn’t stay exactly true to the original comics, at least the essential core is intact. And the extremely excessive violence and that crappy-assed Smith cameo was enough for me to turn it off completely. I can't give it the most wholehearted recommendation, and that's saying a lot for me as a Superman fan - even my wife was turned off by the idea - and I remind you that this is not for younger kids to watch. I know I won't be watching this again.

Smallville - Season 6

2007-09-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, as much of a Superman fan as I am, it took me nearly a year before I could really get into “Smallville”, the WB’s weekly series (now a part of the revamped CW) that began in October 2001 and is now heading into its seventh season. It’s not that I wasn’t excited about the series concept – I was. The premise of a young Clark Kent as he matures into the Man of Steel he is destined to become was a definitely exciting concept. The two reasons I couldn’t latch onto “Smallville” at first is because I had already latched onto “Enterprise” (the fifth “Star Trek” incarnation) at that time, and between traveling for my job and caring for my ailing dad I couldn’t find the time to watch the series. I had wound up catching the series’ pilot episode while my dad was in the hospital during one of his many bouts with dehydration due to his strokes and Parkinson’s disease. In the months to come I would catch the occasional episode intermittently during my work travels. It was only in the summer of 2002, when the first season went into reruns that I began to really watch and get into “Smallville”. This followed up with the Canadian DVD release of the first two episodes, and by the time of the second season’s premiere I was hooked.

Flash forward to today. Since moving from Mississippi to Alabama, the only way I’ve been able to catch any episodes of any recent TV series has been solely on DVD. As the series now prepares to enter into its seventh (and possibly final) season, Warner Home Video has issued the sixth season of “Smallville” as a six-disc set across standard DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray formats. Just catching up on everything that I’ve missed over the past year is exciting in and of itself! But whether you’re going into this latest DVD release blindly or just brushing up for the seventh season premiere, this latest set is a nice addition to your “Smallville” and Superman DVD collections.

As if things weren’t already heated up at the end of the fifth season, things went even higher and farther than before. At the end of the fifth season, Clark Kent (Tom Welling) found himself trapped in the mysterious Phantom Zone, as the mysterious Zod wreaked havoc upon Metropolis. Both Lionel Luthor (John Glover) and fledgling Daily Planet reporter Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) found themselves at the mercy of a throng of attackers. Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) found himself the human vessel of Zod, while his new girlfriend Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) vowed to join him on whatever transpired from there. The sixth season premiere, aptly titled “Zod”, in which Clark must find a way out of the Phantom Zone, confront Zod, and save Metropolis from certain disaster. (If you notice very carefully, you’ll be able to spot Zod – it’s none other than Terence Stamp, in footage borrowed from “Superman II” and integrated into the episode!)

But that’s not the first surprise for you right there. In “Sneeze”, as Clark develops a cold and accidentally uses his super-breath whenever he sneezes (oops!), we are introduced to a new cast member to the series: Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), who has his own secret identity as the mysterious Green Arrow. Clearly, as the series matured and developed throughout the season, series creators and producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar sought to integrate more DC Comics elements into the series. In “Wither” we are treated to Clark’s battle with a Poison Ivy-like villainess, while we see romantic couplings occur between Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and Oliver, Lana and Lex, and Chloe and Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen. Aaron Ashmore (the twin brother of “X-Men” star Shawn Ashmore, who had appeared in a few “Smallville” episodes earlier in the series) brings a freshness and sense of humor to Jimmy’s character, providing a fun enjoyable balance to the series.

Of course, throughout the season we learn more about Green Arrow and his involvement with both Clark and Lois. In “Arrow” Oliver and Clark learn of each other’s secret identities and abilities, while “Rage” focuses on what happens when Oliver takes an experimental drug and seemingly becomes invincible. Things culminate in the season’s midway episode, the popular segment “Justice”, as Clark is invited to join Oliver’s super-group which also includes Arthur “AC” Curry (Aquaman), Bart Allen (Impulse), and Victor Stone (Cyborg) to thwart Lex’s mysterious 33.1 project. Sounds like a job for the neophyte Justice League! They’re not the only heroes in town, as the Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris) made a couple of memorable appearances in the season.

While all this is going on, Clark must repeatedly contend with numerous escapees from the Phantom Zone, in “Fallout”, “Static”, and “Combat” (the latter two of which featured WWE wrestlers Dave Batista, Ashley Massaro, and Glenn “Kane” Jacobs as the Phantom Zone villains Clark – and even Lois – squared off against). But the WWE superstars weren’t the only surprise guest stars this season. Lucas Grabeel (of the two “High School Musical” movies) appeared as a teenaged Lex Luthor in “Reunion”, which further explored the rivalry between Lex and Oliver Queen. If you were to define clueless, before Jessica Simpson there was Tori Spelling (of “Beverly Hills 90210”) – she made a memorable guest star turn in “Hydro” as a venomous Daily Planet gossip columnist. And Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, appeared as Chloe’s mysterious mother in “Progeny”, which explored the possibility that Chloe may have also been affected by the meteor shower that brought Clark to Earth two decades before.

Some of the more interesting episodes put unique spins on what we’ve been familiar with. Of course, there was “Justice”, which teased fans about the possibility of the JLA in Clark’s future. In “Noir” Jimmy takes a bump to the head that plunges him into a 1940’s era dream. And then there’s “Labyrinth”, which took both Clark and viewers on a wild ride where nothing in his world was what it appeared. We even see a hint of things to come between Lois and Clark in “Crimson”, where an aphrodisiac lipstick makes Lois fall in love with the first man she sees – none other than her future partner in news (and marriage).

But as Clark’s future began to take shape, so did the dramatic turn of events that led Lex and Lana to the altar in “Promise” and set forth a tragic turn of events that led to the end of the season (and would continue into the new season). As a result, Lana finds out the truth of why she married Lex, while he and Clark (now head-deep into their explosive rivalry) must work together to escape from certain death in “Nemesis”. Everything came to a head in the season finale “Phantom”, which led to the shocking arrival of a Clark Kent from another dimension (can we all say “Bizarro”?)

All 22 episodes of the series’ sixth season are presented in their original broadcast aspect ratio in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format, which makes the visual presentation of each episode look as stellar as their original HD broadcasts. Sound-wise, the series’ DVD presentation has finally graduated from ordinary Dolby 2.0 surround sound to full-fledged Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, the first time since the Canadian single-disc release from 2002. While other then-current series were treated to wonderful 5.1 tracks, it always seemed a travesty to give “Smallville” a lousy 2.0 track. All I can say is this: for a series such as this, it’s about time this incarnation of the Man of Steel (to be) got a 5.1 track!

In terms of extras, we are given the requisite series of behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and online content that further explore the “Smallville” mythology. As opposed to the previous sets, the majority of the extra features (sans deleted scenes) are included on Discs 1 and 2 (where they had been mostly on Discs 5 and 6 in previous sets). First off, on Disc 1, is “Smallville: Big Fans”, a 30-minute look at the many fans from around the world who are devoted to the series. Fans are shown at home having “Smallville” parties, attending conventions, meeting the stars, writing their own original fan fiction, and developing their own fan websites. Among those profiled is Craig Byrne, the webmaster of Kryptonsite.com and the editor of the monthly “Smallville” magazine from Titan Books, who regularly keeps up with the latest information and reviews of episodes, and who over the years has emerged as one of the top fans of the series. John Glover, Erica Durance, Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar, among others, are also profiled. This feature is the result of an online search for the ultimate series fan, and it’s fun at times to see how this series has grown on Superman fans and become the success it is.

Also on Disc 1 is “Green Arrow: The History of the Emerald Archer”, which is a look at the creation of the character in the 1940’s as a second string hero, his evolvement over the decades, and his updated revision for “Smallville”. A number of comic-book writers and artists are profiled, including Dennis O’Neil (who with the late artist Neal Adams took Green Arrow to new heights in the 1970’s), as well as Gough and Millar. Now this is one feature that I could have done completely without, and this is where I have a serious problem with it, so forgive me if I shift into explosive mode here – will somebody please tell me what in the hell is Kevin Smith doing in this profile? Doesn’t this bottom-feeding piece of scum have anything worth living to do with his time? For some reason he and others around him think he’s the cat’s meow, but let’s face it, he can’t write, act, direct, or do anything without having to continually stick his face and his crap agenda of subversion in front of everyone and say “How do you like me now?” He needs to get out of the business, go back to his mother’s basement, and resume smoking his crack, or for that matter get a real haircut and job like the majority of America. As my dad would say, give him a bath, a shave, a haircut, and a new suit and send him home to mama. Whoever decided to interview this twerp for the DVD ought to be flogged alongside him – and that’s just for starters. At the very least someone should have the smarts to either cut the feature off the disc entirely or cut all of that useless Smith footage out of the featurette to make it flow better. (Okay, enough of rant mode, back to the review.)

Disc 2 contains three more unique features. First off is “Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles”, which is a six-part collection of computer-animated tales (or “mobisodes”, as they should be properly called) that graced the small screens of cell phone users everywhere but can now be enjoyed in all their glory. Next is “The Making of Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles”, which looks behind the scenes at how each of the mobisodes were created. Finally there is a collection of five “Smallville Content Wraps”, which are an animated series of comic books that explored the events in between the sixth season’s episodes. Like the “Chloe Chronicles” and the “Vengeance Chronicles” before them, these mobisodes and content wraps are wonderful additions to the “Smallville” family.

The remainder of the DVD set contains numerous deleted scenes from “Sneeze”, “Wither”, “Arrow”, “Fallout”, “Hydro”, “Labyrinth”, “Crimson”, “Freak”, “Combat”, “Progeny”, “Nemesis”, and “Phantom”. All of these deleted scenes are presented in Dolby 2.0 surround sound and anamorphic widescreen format and can be viewed in tandem with each respective episode on each disc. These additional scenes, cut from each of the episodes for time or story constraints, lift the curtain back on more of the worlds of Smallville and Metropolis and are a nice touch to round out this set. Finally, on Disc 6, there is a lone trailer for the direct-to-DVD release of “Superman: Doomsday”.

As an added bonus, for Best Buy customers Warner Home Video has thrown in a bonus book covering the series' sixth season, which is packaged in select copies of the set. A copy of this bonus book was unavailable for review.

Surprisingly, there are no audio commentaries on this latest set. This is definitely a change of pace, as we’ve had some commentaries from writers, producers, directors, and stars on past sets over the years. I guess having only two commentaries per set seemed like a bit of a short shrift, when other sets like “Battlestar Galactica” and “Heroes” have a generous amount of audio commentaries included on their respective sets.

With the sole exception of the Green Arrow retrospective featurette on Disc 1, the sixth season of “Smallville” on DVD could have been a winner, had it been left off the set or edited. This is the only major blemish on what is otherwise a good season set to get you ready for the upcoming seventh season on the CW.

Next time, if all goes well, I’m hoping to have my review of “Superman: Doomsday” for you. See you then!

The latest news

2007-09-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I hope all of you took time yesterday to reflect on the events of 9/11 and remember all of the families who lost loved ones on that horrific day in your prayers and thoughts. It's times like these that remind us why we're Americans and how we should never lose hope in the face of tragedy.

Recently Paramount Home Video had announced their plans to re-release the epic blockbuster “Titanic” on DVD in a new two-disc 10th anniversary edition. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this make the third time that this film has been issued on DVD?

In the early days of the DVD format we got a single-disc version of the film (as well as one of the theatrical trailers) on disc. And it was just a couple of years ago that we got a really nice-looking three-disc special edition that was close to the cat’s meow as you could get. The only thing of it is, that set was missing some significant added content. First, James Cameron pulled the feature-length documentary produced and directed by Ed Marsh late in the game, which for a lot of “Titanic” fans was a shame, despite all of the wonderful production supplements the set had. Second, and this is where the real insult occurs, while the U.S. got a three-disc version, overseas markets got a four-disc set that included a whole slew of trailers promoting the film. (I’m still miffed at whoever made that lamebrain decision to withhold that fourth disc from the U.S. market!)

Now we’re getting a repurposed release of the film yet again, but this time it’s just the first two discs only from that really nice three-disc (or four-disc, depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on) set, with all the same content from those two discs, only now they’re holding back the third disc? Give me a break!

I’m not falling for this needless triple-dip. Unless you’ve got something really substantial and up your sleeve to make me warrant wanting to get this disc again (i.e. the Ed Marsh documentary and all of the trailers), I’m not even giving it the once-over. I know that’s pretty harsh to say, but sometimes you’ve got to know where to draw the line, and where this re-release is concerned I’ve drawn the line. My final word on the subject: stick with the 2005 release.

In the meantime, I’ve got a really wonderful review of the three-disc set which I wrote up and submitted to the Digital Bits for possible inclusion on their site, but for some reason Bill Hunt (who I have a lot of respect for as a film, DVD, and “Star Trek” buff) went with a longer rewrite of his own earlier review. I still have that review file on a disc somewhere, which hopefully I can pull up and share on this blog soon, perhaps in time for the film’s 10th anniversary.

Oh, lest I forget, on November 6th the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation will release a two-hour documentary DVD entitled “Hope in Motion”, which chronicles the late actor’s efforts to rebuild his life and overcome his paralysis. Directed by Chris’ son Matthew Reeve, the documentary will contain the original 2002 documentary (shown on ABC-TV as “Christopher Reeve: Courageous Steps”) and a never-before-seen second documentary further exploring Reeve’s life and efforts to walk again after his tragic 1995 accident. It sounds like a wonderful DVD, and I hope to have a review of this DVD when it becomes available. (Thanks to Jim Bowers of CapedWonder.com for sharing the information with everyone!)

Next time (if all goes well), I hope to have a review of one of this month’s two big Superman-themed DVD releases, either “Superman: Doomsday” or the sixth season of “Smallville”. See you then!

Heroes - Season 1

2007-09-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

What if you suddenly found yourself with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men and were able to change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in your bare hands, survive bullet or bomb blasts, or leap tall buildings in a single bound? What would your life be like from that point? If you think I’m talking about Superman, think again. From this decades-old premise comes the concept of “Heroes”, which after only its first season on NBC in 2006-07 has found itself to be a highly entertaining series and a major surprise hit for the Peacock Network.

Created by Tim Kring, who had previously worked on the series “Providence” and “Crossing Jordan”, “Heroes” brings together ordinary people from different walks of life into contact with one another, all of whom have different concerns that are addressed throughout the series. Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), a genetics professor from Chenmai, continues with the research begun by his late father and discovers that people across the world are developing superpowers. A drug-addicted artist (Santiago Cabrera) is able to predict the future through his incredible paintings. A politician (Adrian Pasdar) is blessed with the ability to fly like a certain Man of Steel. A New York police officer (Greg Grunberg) can hear and read other people’s thoughts. A shy Japanese computer programmer (Masi Oka) finds himself with the ability to distort the space-time continuum. A single mother (Ali Larter) who raises her son by working as a prostitute now finds herself with a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality split. A high school cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere, who made “Save the cheerleader, save the world” a household phrase) finds herself with the gift of invulnerability. And that’s just for starters. These and other ordinary people are linked together with a mysterious helix that brings them into contact with one another at different points, but are their lives changed for the better? To further complicate matters, they are all pursued by the mysterious villain Sylar (Zachary Quinto, who will inherit the role of Mr. Spock in the next “Star Trek” feature film) as well as a mysterious billionaire businessman (Malcolm McDowell), who has a few super-abilities of his own. And you thought keeping up with the “freak of the week” over the years on “Smallville” was complicated enough?

Until the DVD release, I’ve not seen a single episode of “Heroes”, but I’ve heard about how it’s become the hot “in” series right now on television. With lots of plot twists and turns, some of the best visual effects done for a TV series, and one of the most diverse ensemble casts this side of “Twin Peaks”, there’s lots for everyone to enjoy about “Heroes”. Given its comic book-style look and appearance, it’s one of the best comics-style live-action series to grace the TV screen this side of “Smallville”. Even more appealing is the fact that it’s not so much about the special effects as it is about the characters themselves and their quirks. (Of course, the only way I’ve been able to keep up with any recent TV series has been through DVD, since we don’t have cable or satellite TV in our house.) Now as the series prepares to launch into its sophomore year in September (and on my birthday, no less!), Universal Home Video has issued the complete first season of “Heroes” in a seven-disc set on simultaneous standard DVD and HD-DVD formats with lots of generous content that not only brings the excitement home but also expands upon the phenomenon by immersing the viewer into the mysterious realm.

Please note that this review will cover only the standard DVD version of “Heroes”, as I do not have a HD-DVD player in my home (see my earlier blog for the reasons why). I will, however, reference the exclusive HD-DVD features within the context of this review for completion’s sake.

All 23 episodes of the series’ first season are presented in this seven-disc set that takes advantage of the high-quality features only DVD (and I’m sure HD-DVD and even Blu-Ray) can offer. Each episode is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format and English Dolby 5.1 Surround sound, with optional English, Spanish, and French subtitles. The 5.1 track really does this series justice! First off we have an extended version of the series’ premiere episode “Genesis”, running 73 minutes in length, with a lot of footage not shown on television. This version really does justice by introducing all of the characters and setting up the scenario for the season to come. Also accompanying the extended pilot is a running audio commentary with Tim Kring on how he developed the idea for “Heroes” and some of the substantial and nuanced changes from the broadcast version of the pilot to the extended version. It becomes very clear that this is his preferred cut that he wanted to see air on television but never got the chance. Thanks to DVD, he (like the rest of us) now has that chance. Since I missed out on the series’ run, I’m not able to compare the broadcast version to the DVD version (as with the broadcast and extended versions of “Pegasus” on the second season sets of “Battlestar Galactica”), though I would have liked to have seen an optional footage marker (similar to the “Gladiator” Extended Edition DVD) on the episode indicating where the extra footage was restored into the pilot episode. From what I understand, this extended pilot presents an alternate look at character and plot developments, including an interesting subplot that was ultimately cut from the broadcast version.

In addition, we have no less than 50 deleted and extended scenes from “Genesis”, “Don’t Look Back”, “One Giant Leap”, “Collision”, “Hiros”, “Nothing to Hide”, “Seven Minutes to Midnight”, “Homecoming”, “Six Months Ago", “Fallout”, “Godsend”, “The Fix”, “Distractions”, “Run”, “Company Man”, “Parasite”, “.07%”, “Five Years Gone”, and “Landslide” spread out across the seven-disc set. Most of these moments are cut bits of dialog and extensions that didn’t make the final telecast versions, but some of these lost moments add further bits of character development that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise, while others were cut simply for broadcast pacing. Having these deleted and extended scenes together on the set is a nice touch.

Along with the deleted scenes, there are selected audio commentaries on the extended pilot and many of the episodes on the set. These audio commentaries with Kring, executive producer Dennis Hammer, and various cast members and episode directors provide further insight into the creation of “Heroes” and the challenges this series brings to the table. On Disc 5 we have an interesting interactive bonus feature entitled “Mind Reader”, in which Matt Parkman’s mind-reading abilities reveal the viewer’s inner hero with a series of simple mathematical tests. It’s not too complex, just a fun little look at what kind of hero you are. I’ve taken it three times thus far, and each time he’s guessed my choices accurately! There’s no way you can fool him!

The remaining bonus features are located on Disc 7. Leading the block off is “The Making of Heroes”, which is a behind-the-scenes look at how the series went from concept to pop culture phenomenon. Next is “Special Effects”, a featurette on the secrets behind the spectacular visuals that give the heroes their amazing powers. This is followed by “The Stunts”, which is a backstage look at the many different stunts seen in the series. We also have a profile on comics artist Tim Sale, best known for his work on the DC Comics series “Batman: The Long Halloween”, among others, who discusses how his manga-style artwork influenced the look of the series. Finally, “The Score” is a 10-minute interview with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman (yes, that Wendy and Lisa from Prince’s band The Revolution), as they discuss the creation of the award-winning musical score and discuss their influence on the main hero theme for the series. They’ve come a long way since the days of “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry”, I’ll tell you that!

The DVD set is rounded out with two trailer galleries on Discs 1 and 7. The gallery on Disc 1 contains a teaser trailer for NBC’s upcoming remake of “The Bionic Woman”, DVD trailers for “Hot Fuzz” and “Knocked Up”, a Nissan spot, and a generic spot promoting the wonders of HD-DVD. This trailer gallery can be completely bypassed using the menu button on your DVD remote in order to get to the main menu. The gallery on Disc 7 contains DVD trailers for “House”, “30 Rock”, “Friday Night Lights”, “The Office”, and “Miami Vice”, among others, as well as another Nissan spot.

As if that weren’t enough to wet your whistle, the HD-DVD version of “Heroes” features even more exclusive interactive content that will further immerse yourself into the series. Each disc contains three exclusive features – “Character Connections”, which allows you to follow your favorite heroes throughout the series; “The Helix Revealed”, an interactive guide to the mysterious helix symbol that appears throughout the series; and “Artwork Presentation”, in which you can further study Tim Sale’s artwork that appears in the series. Disc 2 contains two more exclusive features – “Download Center”, where you can download exclusive content, trailers, and updates to your HD-DVD player; and the “Genetic Abilities Test”, which allows you not only to determine what kind of hero you are but also upload the test results to NBC.com and receive a unique access code to unlock even more exclusive media content. Finally, there is a running Picture-in-Picture cast and crew video commentary on Discs 4, 6, and 7 with the episodes “Godsend”, “The Fix”, “Distractions”, “.07%”, “Five Years Gone”, “The Hard Part”, “Landslide”, and “How to Stop an Exploding Man”. These PIP commentaries allow you to view exclusive running commentaries during the respective episodes. Since I’m not familiar with HD-DVD usage, this sounds like running video commentaries I’ve seen on “The Scorpion King” and “Superman: The Animated Series” in years past. For those of you who have HD-DVD access, these additional features only enhance the enjoyment of the series.

But we’re not done yet. Target has included a bonus eighth disc that includes 45 minutes of additional content not found on either the standard or HD set. From what I have heard, the additional content includes bonus interviews with creator Tim Kring and the cast members, as well as a series of character profiles. There’s also an exclusive deluxe collector’s edition available at Target that contains bonus foldout artwork and postcards. Even more so, Best Buy has included a free “Heroes” comic book with its standard DVD release. None of these bonuses were provided for review.

I’ve got to admit, just the concept of the series alone had me hooked from the beginning. Even my wife seems to like the concept just based on the premise alone, and for me that’s saying quite a bit. And bringing the first season of “Heroes” to DVD and HD-DVD is a great way to relive your favorite moments and catch up for the forthcoming second season, which I’m sure is going to be even bigger and better than the first season. Couple that with the absolutely staggering amount of bonus content on both the standard DVD and HD-DVD releases, and you’ve got a winning set that I’m sure will be one of the top TV-on-DVD sets of the year to beat. With Universal’s commitment to quality DVD presentations (as with their recent “Battlestar Galactica” sets), this is a nice addition to any DVD collection. I only wish I had been able to watch it from the beginning – oh well, better late than never. Time to save the world!

Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume 1

2007-08-31T09:13:00.001-07:00

While I’m awaiting the arrival of my review copy of “Heroes” Season 1 (which I’m more than anxious to review, based on hearing how good this series is), I’ve prepared this little review of the latest WB animated offering and the latest entry in the Superman/DC Comics DVD canon.

I’ve got to admit, one of my favorite comic books I enjoyed reading as a boy was “The Legion of Super-Heroes”. Created in 1958, “Legion” centered around a group of super-powered teenagers from a thousand years in the future and their efforts to protect not only the world but also the universe from the forces of evil. Originally the team focused on Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5 (a descendant of Superman’s modern-day foe), and Triplicate Girl, among others, as they recruited the then-teenaged Superboy to join their team. It was another title that added an extended bit of fun to the Superboy/Superman canon, as the Legion traveled back and forth in time embarking on one adventure after another. On occasion they’d come back to the 20th century and have adventures with the teenage Clark Kent in Smallville, fitting in as normal teenagers with the rest of the crowd. As the title grew and matured, so did the teenagers become adults, as in the 1980’s the title focused on the now-adult Legion and even more sophisticated threats to their survival. But through numerous revamps and additional characters, the title has continued to survive and thrive into the new millennium.

Ultimately, with the success of the animated incarnations of Superman, Batman, the Teen Titans, and the Justice League, DC Comics and Warner Bros. looked for another successful franchise to bring to the animated front. Naturally, the Legion of Super-Heroes was just such a franchise. Given the current penchant for anime-style series and a kid-friendly environment, everything locked in place for the “Legion of Super-Heroes” animated series to arrive. The premise is essentially the same as in the comics, but with its own unique twist. This time, the Legion is focused on adding 17-year-old Clark Kent, who’s not quite Superman, to their ranks. Clark’s still finding out more about himself, yet in the 31st century he’s seen not as Superboy but as Superman. This to me is a logical extension of the current trend that dates back to the original 1938 story (and the classic 1978 feature film) that shows Superman emerging as an adult, not as a teenager. Because of the current legal proceedings between DC Comics and the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster over the rights to the Superboy character, this has further resulted in the Legion referring to Clark’s character as Superman, which definitely makes sense.

This first volume of “Legion of Super-Heroes” contains four episodes from the animated series’ first season. In the premiere segment “Man of Tomorrow”, the story focuses on an updated version of the Legion’s efforts to recruit Clark Kent as a member of their team. Here, Lightning Lad is seen as the de facto leader of the group with a cocky edge to him and a jealousy toward the teenaged Superman because of his strength and abilities. This is followed up with “Timber Wolf”, centering around one of the later additions to the team (in the comics, that is), as the Legion investigates the rumors of a mad scientist pursuing a lycanthropic boy, only to discover the scientist’s terrible secret. In “Legacy” we see an interesting spin on one of comicdom’s classic love-hate stories, as Superman is pursued by a spoiled rich girl named Alexis who wants him as her friend, and if he won’t be her friend, then no one else will, either. The ending of the tale harkens back to one of the most classic Superboy tales of the 1940’s and 1950’s, with its own unique twist. (And be sure to look for a quick blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from the main man himself, Lobo! Now that would make for an interesting animated series – definitely not for the Kids’ WB, I assure you!) Finally, in “Phantoms”, Clark accidentally unleashes a dangerous villain from the Phantom Zone with powers similar to his own.

“Legion of Super-Heroes” is presented on DVD in its original full-frame aspect ratio in your choice of English or French Dolby surround stereo with optional English, French, or Spanish subtitles. The DVD format is a perfect presentation for the series, as it gives you a chance to check out all of the detail that went into this anime-style series. In addition, the DVD contains a nine-minute behind-the-scenes segment entitled “We are Legion”, featuring interviews with DC Comics vice-president Paul Levitz, series producer James Tucker (who also produced the two “Justice League” animated series), and different writers and producers as they discuss the challenges of translating the 50-year-old comic book into animated form. The DVD is rounded out with a trailer gallery for various DVD products, including “Scooby-Doo”, the third seasons of “The Batman” and “Teen Titans”, and “Tom and Jerry”, among others. Also unadvertised but included is a preview trailer for the upcoming “Scooby-Doo” direct-to-DVD animated movie.

The first volume of “Legion of Super-Heroes” is a nice addition to the WB and DC animated canon, and like past Kids WB animated series I’m sure we’ll see not only a second volume of episodes but also a full season set down the road in the near future.

Hopefully next time I’ll have that review of “Heroes” for you. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and I’ll see you again soon!

Young Indy update...

2007-08-27T13:38:00.001-07:00

Well, to follow up on my earlier post about the first volume of "Young Indiana Jones" coming on DVD October 23rd, DVD Times has posted a list of the specs of what exactly will be on that first set. Here's what's been announced:

The first of three comprehensive collections, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Volume 1 is a 12-disc set presented in full screen with Dolby Digital English Stereo and English subtitles.

The DVD disc breakdown is as follows:

Disc One:
-- My First Adventure
While on an archeological dig in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Indy uncovers an ancient mummy and fresh corpse. With the help of T.E. Lawrence, the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, Indy solves an intriguing murder mystery only to find himself thrust right back into danger when he is kidnapped by slave-trading brigands. Dragged on a terrifying journey across the burning sands of North Africa to the slave markets of Marrakech, Indy finds that he must rely on his courage and wits to survive the brutal ordeal.

Companion Historical Documentaries:
-- Archaeology: Unearthing Our Past
-- Howard Carter and the Tomb of Tutankhamun
-- Colonel Lawrence's War: T.E. Lawrence and Arabia
-- From Slavery to Freedom

Disc Two:
-- Passion For Life
The beautiful Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya is the locale as Indy goes on safari with former President Teddy Roosevelt. When he becomes lost in the savage African bush, Indy finds that he must fight for his life against all manner of exotic and dangerous wildlife. Exotic wildlife of another kind await him in Paris when he accompanies a young Norman Rockwell on a rollicking tour through the bohemian world of Parisian fine art. Wild parties, wilder women and artist temperament are on full display as Pablo Picasso and Edgar Degas clash over their contrasting styles of painting, while painting the town red at a gaudy late-night soiree.

Disc Three (Passion For Life bonus disc):
Companion Historical Documentaries:
-- Theodore Roosevelt and The American Century
-- Ecology: Pulse of the Planet
-- American Dreams: Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post
-- Art Rebellion: The Making of the Modern
-- Edgar Degas: Reluctant Rebel
-- Braque + Picasso: A Collaboration Cubed

Disc Four:
-- The Perils of Cupid
In beautiful Vienna, Indy falls for the lovely young daughter of soon-to-be assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. But the course of true love does not run smoothly and he must seek advice from two of the founding fathers of psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Romantic complications of another kind turn up in Florence, Italy, when Indy and his mother meet the great opera composer Giacomo Puccini. Dismayed to find his lonely mother succumbing to the sensuous charms of the charismatic Puccini, Indy frantically looks for a way to reunite his parents and rekindle their love before it's too late.

Disc Five (The Perils of Cupid bonus disc):
Companion Historical Documentaries:
-- Giacomo Puccini--Music of the Heart
-- It's Opera!
-- The Archduke's Last Journey--End of an Era
-- Powder Keg--Europe 1900 to 1914
-- Sigmund Freud--Exploring the Unconscious
-- Carl Jung and the Journey of Self Discovery
-- Psychology--Charting the Human Mind

Disc Six:
-- Travels with Father
A trip to Russia takes Indy from the opulent palaces of the aristocracy to the fetid villages of the peasant class when he runs away from home after an argument with his parents. Joining up with novelist Leo Tolstoy, the two go on the road, engaging in philosophical discussions and clashing with colorful Gypsies and ferocious Cossacks. Realizing that there's no place like home, Indy rejoins his mom and dad and travels with his father to an isolated Greek monastery perched high on the peak of a mountain. The arduous journey, including a harrowing trip in a tiny cage up a thousand-foot mountainside, brings father and son closer together.

Companion Historical Documentaries:
-- Seeking Truth--The Life of Leo Tolstoy
-- Unquiet Voices--Russian Writers and the State
-- Aristotle--Creating Foundations
-- Ancient Questions--Philosophy and Our Search for Meaning

Disc Seven:
-- Journey of Radiance
A jaunt through the mystical Far East takes Indy to the Holy City of Benares where he befriends the lonely and isolated young leader of the Theosophy movement, Jiddu Krishnamurti. Surrounded by supplicants and hangers-on, Krishnamurti struggles to have faith in himself and to fulfill the destiny decreed for him by his worshippers. In the process he shows Indy just how strong the power of faith can be. Indy's mother also learns a lesson in faith and trust when she must rely on some poor Chinese villagers and their traditional medical techniques to save the life of her son who lies perilously close to death with typhoid fever.

Companion Historical Documentaries:
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti--The Reluctant Messiah
-- Annie Besant--An Unlikely Rebel
-- Medicine in the Middle Kingdom
-- Eastern Spirituality--The Road to Enlightenment

Disc Eight:
-- Spring Break Adventure
Indy and his girlfriend Nancy Stratemeyer, whose father created the Nancy Drew mystery series, visit the fascinating laboratory of inventor Thomas Edison. The two must contend with dangerous German spies as they struggle to keep Edison's top secret new invention out of the hands of hostile enemy agents. To keep him from getting into any more trouble, Indy is sent to visit his Aunt in New Mexico. While there, he is kidnapped by Pancho Villa and swept up into the Mexican Revolution. Chaotic, free-wheeling border towns, a "Wild Bunch" style train robbery and a colorful barroom encounter with a young George Patton make for thrilling entertainment in this action-packed movie.

Disc Nine (Spring Break Adventure bonus disc):
Companion Historical Documentaries:
-- Thomas Alva Edison--Lighting up the World
-- Invention and Innovation--What's Behind a Good Idea?
-- The Mystery of Edward Stratemeyer
-- Wanted: Dead or Alive--Pancho Villa and the American Invasion of Mexico
-- General John J. Pershing and his American Army
-- George S. Patton--American Achilles

Disc Ten:
-- Love's Sweet Song
Landing in Ireland right before the Easter Rebellion, Indy mixes romance and revolutionary politics when he falls for a beautiful young colleen whose brother is mixed up in the Irish resistance movement. Across the waters in England he encounters a similar problem when his love affair with a strong-willed young woman is derailed by her fervent belief in the women's suffrage movement and her need for independence. Violent street brawls, a terrifying Zeppelin raid and a seriocomic dinner party with Winston Churchill provide plenty of thrills in this exciting, romantic adventure.

Disc Eleven (Love's Sweet Song bonus disc):
Companion Historical Documentaries:
-- Easter Rising--The Poets' Rebellion
-- The Passions of William Butler Yeats
-- Sean O'Casey vs. Ireland
-- Ireland--The Power of the Poets
-- Winston Churchill--The Lion's Roar
-- Demanding the Vote--The Pankhursts and British Suffrage
-- Fighting for the Vote--Women's Suffrage in America

Disc Twelve: (Interactive Disc)
Special Features:
-- "Revolution" Interactive Game, based on Spring Break Adventure allows players to become Indy and make their own decisions based on Indy's adventures. As well as entertaining, this game has educational elements.
-- Extensive Interactive Timeline that details the history and locations of Indy's adventures and previews footage of the companion documentaries.
-- Historical Lecture: The Promise of Progress is an exploration of the people and events of the Industrial Revolution, spanning the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

It looks like I was right in predicting that the first seven segments would be on Volume 1, and this listing seems to confirm it. And the specs - sweet! I only wish that the original broadcast versions were included, though. But with all this extra material, this should be one of the top TV-on-DVD sets of the year to beat. Later!

What to expect from Young Indiana Jones…

2007-08-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

As we head into the fall season, one of the most eagerly anticipated sets I, like many others, am looking forward to is the first of the three volumes of Young Indiana Jones on DVD. With these three releases, alongside the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones feature film, it looks like we’re in for a real revival of the man with the hat!

Of course, I’m still bothered that George Lucas isn’t giving us the original broadcast versions of the episodes from the early 1990’s, and apparently there’s nothing that can be done to change that. However, let’s take a more positive approach and look at the good stuff that we can expect from this first volume…

First of all, Paramount has released the cover artwork for Volume 1, which to me looks pretty awesome right then and there! Based on this artwork, we can therefore make the following conclusions about what will be included in Volume 1:

- From the artwork alone, we’re getting all of the Corey Carrier segments in the set, and that accounts for the first five of the segments.
- If you notice very carefully, on the left side of the artwork, you’ll see Elizabeth Hurley’s picture included in the artwork. Based on this assumption, we can therefore conclude that we’re getting at least seven chapters.
- With 22 two-hour movies to account for, and given the amount of generous supplements included in the three volumes, we can assume that this first volume will be comprised of at least the first seven movies. It’s simple math when you think about it, so I’m thinking that the first two sets could have seven segments apiece and the third set will have eight segments. Also, when you divide the running time of the main content, which is 649 minutes, by the approximate amount of run time per segment (93 minutes), you get pretty close to seven, which would justify having seven segments in this debut volume.

With that established, what’s left to explore? How about all of those generous supplements that Lucas and Rick McCallum have promised? First of all, there are a number of historical documentaries which look at the real-life events and people referenced in the series. Reportedly there are going to be 100 such documentaries in the three sets, so that’s a huge chunk of meat right there for you! In addition, there’s something called “Revolutions Interactive Game”, whatever that is, followed by an “Interactive Timeline” and “Professor Video” (which may or may not be the historical documentaries).

And all this on 12 discs? That’s a lotta meat and potatoes right there for you! I hope that the final package is worthy of the years of development that have gone into this set. I also hope that somewhere in one of these volumes, Sean Patrick Flanery’s original screen test is also included, since it was featured on one of the VHS releases during the late 1990’s.

October 23rd cannot come soon enough! Stay tuned for my extensive review of the first volume of Young Indiana Jones when it happens! See you next time!

HD-DVD or Blu-Ray? My decision...

2007-08-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

Typically I look forward to launching into reviews of the latest DVD titles, and recently I’ve been considering going back and reviewing older titles that I’ve always wanted to review but for some reason or another didn’t get the chance, or for that matter got overlooked – and goodness knows there are quite a few of those out there. Thank goodness I’ve got a blog site where I can do that now! However, I have to sidetrack for a while and offer my own thoughts on the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war.

It’s been extremely interesting to read all of the comments lately about this studio siding with HD-DVD, that studio siding with Blu-Ray. It’s similar to everyone taking sides on the war on terrorism in Iraq, with Americans siding either for or against President Bush. Yesterday CBS/Paramount and Dreamworks announced that they threw in a lot of money to exclusively support HD-DVD, joining Universal in favoring HD-DVD. On the other side you have Disney and Buena Vista Home Video, who are supporting Blu-Ray exclusively. This isn’t some little schoolyard squabble here; this is now bringing in the big guns from all sides, and earlier today director Michael Bay (“The Rock” and this summer’s “Transformers”) publicly expressed his frustration about Paramount’s decision. I can’t say that I blame him.

What should the average consumer do? If he or she shells out X amount of big bucks to get a HD-DVD player and get HD titles only, or should he/she go with Blu-Ray? It really hurts the pocketbook, because you’re getting only certain titles on a certain format at the expense of other titles you may be interested in not being accessible to the other format.

Then there is the issue of HD and Blu-Ray releases with exclusive features. Take for example the upcoming “Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 1” Remastered set, set to come this October. This is certain to turn off a lot of people just because of the price tag alone, when you can spend around $180 to pick up all three seasons that were released in 2004. While having the remastered set is nice, there are exclusive features to the set, including several interactive features that cannot be accessed on standard DVD format. First of all, why should I shell out over $200 just to get exclusive features on the HD-DVD side that I can’t view on the standard DVD format? That’s ridiculous. My wife would agree with me on that. Somehow, seeing that it would be released on a DVD/HD combo set got me suspicious.

Then there’s the upcoming first season release of “Heroes” next week (which I’m hoping to have a review of soon, should I get a review copy of the set – please, Universal?). In addition to all of the DVD features, there’s a wealth of HD-DVD exclusive features that I wouldn’t be able to view on any of my standard DVD players, much less a Blu-Ray player (if I had one), to begin with. That would pretty much kill the HD version right then and there for me. How many of us have bought the cart before buying the horse too often? I think a lot of us are guilty of that.

And then you have Disney and Buena Vista. Having spent $20 picking up “Cars” last Christmas, only to find out that their Blu-Ray release will have all sorts of interactive features on it, why would I want to shell out more money for an upgraded disc that I can’t even watch?

I’ve got to hand it to Warner Home Video, who has made themselves accessible to all consumers with releases of catalog and new titles in all formats across the board, like their upcoming “Blade Runner” five-disc Ultimate Collection. Their decision to cater to everyone is a smart one, if you ask me.

So what’s my decision? I’m not going with either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. I’m sticking with good old standard DVD. First of all, it’s extremely frustrating to see studios lining up and doing format-exclusive releases at the expense of the consumer, who ultimately winds up the loser in this battle, because that’s going to cost a lot more money in siding off with one format or the other. I’d rather have something that’s going to be cost-effective and all-inclusive that is easily accessible. Second of all, why should one format or the other have exclusive features on their HD or Blu-Ray versions that aren’t available on standard DVD? Why should I have to shell out even more money for something that is all-encompassing on one disc? And why should I have to upgrade to a format that can’t support the opposing format? And you think Democrats and Republicans have a hard time getting along! As my wife and financial advisor would say, that’s stupid tax for you (go, Dave Ramsey!), and my wife and I will not allow our pocketbook to become a casualty of this war. Third and finally, as the format war heats up, we’re going to see more and more casualties in both camps, and that’s going to be a sad day when we see losers on every side of this format war.

It took me over three years before I decided to upgrade from VHS and laserdisc to DVD, and I’m not planning on converting to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray any time soon either. (If you give me a combination player and a number of discs absolutely debt-free and cost-free, however, then I’ll be happy to talk with you.) Besides, when you have to live on a budget, sometimes the best way to stay out of a war is not to get involved in it to begin with.

And there’s my two cents on it right there. More reviews next time – see you soon!

Hamlet (1996) - 2-Disc Special Edition

2007-08-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

This review is dedicated with love and respect to Dr. George Pittman of Clinton, Mississippi.

I’ve got to admit a bit of a personal bias here: I am a sucker for William Shakespeare. Ever since my college and graduate school days, I have been intrigued with the many different ways Shakespeare has been interpreted and integrated into our culture. Whether it’s been through subtle integrations of various phrases and thoughts into our lexicon, or numerous variations that have appeared in print, TV, or film in everything from “Star Trek” to “Gilligan’s Island”, or even the recent wave of Shakespearean film and stage adaptations over the past 20 years, it’s no wonder that the works of a writer from 400 years ago continue to enthrall and spark passion in many a film or theatergoer. My earliest memories of Shakespeare go back to my junior high days, when the teacher would pull out the old reel-to-reel projector and show Franco Zeffirelli’s 1960’s version of “Romeo and Juliet” on the wall of our school. And who could ever forget Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd’s tip of the hat to “The Taming of the Shrew” in one of the most popular and riotous segments ever of their 1980’s series “Moonlighting”?

If I had to pick one Shakespeare play above all others that is my absolute favorite, it would have to be “Hamlet”. I have to credit three people in particular for birthing a love of Shakespeare and “Hamlet” in me that continues to this day, and they are Zeffirelli; director/actor Mel Gibson; and Dr. George Pittman, my Shakespeare teacher at Mississippi College (who’s now retired). It was Dr. Pittman who got me into studying “Hamlet” at the time Zeffirelli’s 1990 adaptation of “Hamlet” with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close came out in the theaters, so naturally I was assigned this play because of the then-timely release of the Zeffirelli film with my studies. Prior to this, the only actor I (and many others) had associated with Shakespeare was Laurence Olivier, possibly the greatest actor of the 20th century. At that time it was hard for anyone to associate the star of “Mad Max” and “Lethal Weapon”, an actor with a passion for practical joking on his film sets and playing crazy characters on screen, with the most emotionally and psychologically mixed-up characters in all of popular culture. But Gibson pulled it off extremely well, giving us a definitive Hamlet for the 1990’s. It caused me to study and analyze every aspect of “Hamlet” that could be explored – all of the dysfunctional relationships within the Hamlet family, the psychological motivations for revenge after the death of Hamlet’s father, who comes onto whom (Hamlet to his mother, or his mother onto Hamlet? Those were some pretty serious mother/son kisses on screen right there, I’ll tell you that!), pinpointing the exact moment when Hamlet goes crazy (or was it all an act to begin with?), and the ruminations of death that man must eventually explore in the course of his life. And I still have my Shakespeare notes and research from graduate school to this day.

From that time on I continued to explore the many interpretations of “Hamlet” that I came across, including a Mississippi College-produced adaptation Dr. Pittman directed that took the “play within a play” concept to the next level; a New York Shakespearean Festival modern-dress production with Kevin Kline; a 30-minute segment of the HBO series “Shakespeare: The Animated Tales” hosted by Robin Williams (now there’s a series I would enjoy seeing released on DVD!); and perhaps the most offbeat print adaptation that has ever surfaced, the “Klingon Hamlet” trade paperback from Pocket Books written by the Klingon Language Institute that borrowed a line from “Star Trek VI” and explored the notion that Shakespeare’s works were originally written in the Klingon language, that Hamlet’s murderer would have been exposed within 10 minutes, and that the play was later translated into the “debased” English language! Most recently there was a 2000 film adaptation with Ethan Hawke in the title role performing the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy while checking out videos at the local Blockbuster Video – this version I admit I have not seen. But anything and everything that could further explore the very nature of Hamlet is worth studying and analyzing to understand all of the psychological themes Shakespeare posed 400 years ago.

If any one actor over the last 20 years has done an extremely successful job in making Shakespeare’s works accessible to the modern culture (other than Patrick Stewart), I would have to choose Kenneth Branagh. His groundbreaking adaptation of “Henry V” brought Shakespeare to the masses the same way Shakespeare’s plays did so to the English culture four centuries before. He also did the same with his comic adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing”, which featured Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, and Branagh’s then-wife Emma Thompson. But it was Branagh’s 1996 adaptation of “Hamlet” which was extremely lavish in production and scale that has awed and astounded filmgoers since its release. Many prior (and recent) film adaptations, including “Hamlet”, “Henry V”, “Much Ado About Nothing”, and even Baz Luhrmann’s modern take on “Romeo and Juliet”, have always been abridged, simply because of the film audience’s attention span of sitting in a darkened theater for two hours – anything beyond that would have to be of epic scope and yet pass very seemingly quickly. And yet that’s been the key thing, making Shakespeare accessible to the modern audience yet staying true to the letter of the Bard’s works himself.

Branagh’s four-hour adaptation of “Hamlet” is especially distinctive because it marks the first time ever that the complete play has been adapted to the cinema screen. At the time of its release, a 150-minute cut version of the film was also released to theaters to allow for more showings. I’ve not seen this cut version, having only associated myself with the original four-hour cut. For years the only way to have seen Branagh’s adaptation of “Hamlet” has been on VHS, and with the advent of DVD many fans have wondered when this film would be released. Warner Home Video has just released “Hamlet” in a nice two-disc special edition, and I’ve got to admit this is one title that is long overdue and yet is well done.

Forget the cut version; the complete four-hour cut is the way to go. Every shot of every moment of this film is painstakingly created with the scope of the widescreen in mind. It’s meant to be seen as a large canvas, which the 2.35:1 aspect ratio perfectly delivers. There’s just no way of wanting to watch this in a cropped 1.33:1 full-frame presentation. Every little detail stands out as it’s meant to, which is the way Branagh intended. It’s extremely absorbing. Instead of the rough and crumbly 17th century atmosphere of Denmark, which Zeffirelli brought to the screen based on Shakespeare’s original intentions, Branagh’s interpretation posits the Hamlet family empire in the 19th century in a state of elegance that echoes the fall of the Russian Empire a hundred years ago. The delivery of the famous soliloquy, as Hamlet stands before a mirror looking at himself, echoes that very nature of man looking at himself and pondering his own fate. Do we feel for Hamlet? Certainly. Who couldn’t relate to the loss of a father figure, as Branagh so effectively portrays? Who couldn’t relate to dealing with betrayal, heartbreak, motivations for vengeance, plotting to expose the real reason for his father’s death for all to see? And, of course, it doesn’t hurt to have high caliber stars like Richard Attenborough, Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, Gerard Depardieu, Sir John Gielgud, Charlton Heston, Derek Jacobi, the late Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, and the ever beautiful Kate Winslet (why in the world after seeing her in “Hamlet” and “Titanic” didn’t I marry her?) associated with a stunning film adaptation like this. Their involvement harkens back to their roots of classical acting and never one time detracts from the overall story, despite their marquee name quality. The print is extremely beautiful and colorful, and the Dolby 5.1 surround mix is rich and absorbing. This film has never looked or sounded better. English, Spanish, and French subtitles are also included.

For its DVD presentation, Warner Home Video has presented a nice amount of supplements that complement the film. First off, on Disc 1 is a new eight-minute introduction to the film by Branagh, which is a nice touch. Here he talks about revisiting the film after 10 years and giving the fans a high-caliber DVD. Some people have claimed some difficulty in watching the introduction, but I experienced no such problems on any of my DVD players at home. From there we have an accompanying audio commentary with Branagh and Shakespeare scholar Russell Jackson that is split over both discs. Listening to this audio commentary is a treasure trove in itself, and over the course of the film it becomes very obvious that both Branagh and Jackson are true Shakespearean buffs to the nines. Their appreciation for the great Bard and for “Hamlet” is more than well worth it, and it’s easily one of the best and most enjoyable audio commentaries I’ve heard in a long time.

The remaining the bonus features are found on Disc 2. Leading off, we have “To Be on Camera: A History with Hamlet”, which is a 25-minute documentary feature on the making of the 1996 adaptation. We have interviews with Branagh and the cast members on how they became involved in Branagh’s adaptation, how Branagh chose to adapt the entire script for the film, and the challenge of bringing Shakespeare’s words to life. Don’t let the title mislead you into thinking this is a history of the many different film and stage adaptations of the play; there are too many of them. From there we are treated to a 12-minute promo reel that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and was included on a number of Castle Rock VHS releases during the 1990’s. This is a nice touch, since a promo reel of this nature is hard to come by, and for me personally I am glad that Warner Home Video included it on the DVD, since it was my first introduction to Branagh’s “Hamlet”. The disc is rounded out with a Shakespeare-based trailer gallery of seven different adaptations, including the 1990 and 1996 film versions of “Hamlet”, the 1935 adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with James Cagney and Mickey Rooney, the 1965 and 1995 film adaptations of “Othello” (the former with Laurence Olivier, the latter with Branagh and Laurence Fishburne), the 1937 adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer, and the 1953 adaptation of “Julius Caesar” with Marlon Brando – quite a nice touch indeed to those who are either extremely familiar with Shakespeare’s works or who are wanting to examine his plays and various film adaptations for the first time.

In addition, “Hamlet” is part of Warner’s four-film Shakespeare Collection box set, which also includes “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1935), Olivier’s “Othello” (1936), and “Romeo and Juliet” (1937). As if that weren’t enough, Borders has a special offer where if you buy the film there, you also get an accompanying 28-page color booklet of still photos from the film. It’s a nice little complement to the DVD, but I wouldn’t knock myself out just to get this exclusive Borders item. If you want a real treasure trove, find a copy of the 1996 trade paperback of the “Hamlet” screenplay adapted by Branagh. I have a copy of this back in Mississippi – at least I think I still do – and I can tell you, this is where the real meat of the production occurs. Here you will find many anecdotes and thoughts that went into the making of the film, some of Branagh’s wit and humor that permeates throughout the script notes, and personal stories that occurred during the production, one of which I still get a laugh out of reading about Glenn Close visiting the set in full black-and-white regalia and makeup that at first made her stand out like the worst fashion victim in the history of cinema (this was because she was filming “101 Dalmatians” at the time). If you can find this paperback in your local bookstore, pick it up. It’s more than well worth the read.

Bottom line, Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” is an attractive presentation on DVD and one that is a must-add to any serious film collection or Shakespearean study. It’s definitely welcome in my home and one that my wife will agree with me on. Granted, Branagh’s “Hamlet” is vastly different from Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet” (which I must admit is my one of my personal favorite Shakespeare-on-film adaptations, along with Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet”, which I taught in high school during the 1990’s). But whether you like it rough and rugged, or grand and opulent, both versions have it going for them. Seeing this DVD brings back fond memories of my days of graduate school and George Pittman – I wonder what he thinks of this film adaptation and which version he prefers. It would be nice to discuss this play (and film) again with him over a weekend.

The state of altered TV on DVD...

2007-08-15T14:59:00.001-07:00

You know, as the DVD industry moves into its second decade, the rash of altered DVDs continues to increase at an alarming rate. Sometimes the changes are minor, while at other times the changes are extremely significant. Of course, we’re all aware that one of the most notorious culprits of any kind of film, TV, or DVD alteration is George Lucas. Nothing he has made has been preserved as originally released (though he did finally give in and release the original theatrical versions of the “Star Wars” trilogy in a cheapjack unmastered format). However, my emphasis here is the recent rash of altered TV programs released on DVD over the last few years. Let’s look at some of the more notable culprits of this alteration process:

The Real World: Season 1, New York – This was my first experience with an altered TV product on DVD and an especially ugly example of major DVD alterations that disrespects the fans. In this, the granddaddy of the modern-day reality TV show craze, many of the episodes’ teasers and main titles have been removed, and the titles appear every 3-4 segments. In addition, all of the end credits and outtake footage have been cut from their original broadcasts, and, worst of all, the rock music underscore has been replaced with a non-descript generic instrumental score. No wonder piss-poor sales and major alteration issues have prevented the other seasons (which I think the second and third, along with the first, are still the best) from being issued on DVD.

Smallville: The Complete Fourth Season – As the fourth season started, Allison Mack’s credit was removed from the main title credits for the first two episodes. This was to preserve the illusion that her character of Chloe Sullivan had been supposedly killed off at the end of the third season. It was not until the third episode that her cast credit was restored, and reruns of the first two episodes, as well as its DVD representations, later restored her cast credit. I for one found it more interesting to have her cast credit removed from those first two episodes because it maintained the illusion, and I wish Warner Home Video would have kept it that way when they did the DVDs. It’s a minor alteration, to be sure, but an alternation nonetheless.

The Adventures of Superman: The Complete First Season – In the segment “Crime Wave”, pay particular attention to the end of the segment. As the segment ends with George Reeves saying, “There’s no more number one crime boss in Metropolis anymore,” the music swells up and goes into an explosion, followed by the end credits. Apparently, the version used in this set incorporated part of the syndicated broadcast when Kellogg’s originally sponsored the series back in the 1950’s. I’ve got this episode on VHS when it originally came out in 1988, and the version on the VHS is the unedited master without the music and the syndicated end credits. Is there a reason why some studios resort to using syndicated versions of episodes and not the original masters, especially when the unedited masters are out there to begin with? Hold onto that VHS tape at all costs.

Superman: The Animated Series, Volume One – When this first came out, the 60-minute pilot episode “Last Son of Krypton” was divided into three parts and presented as such on the first collected volume. Yet a few years before Warner Home Video had issued the original broadcast pilot of “Last Son of Krypton” unedited on a single-disc release. This is one time where you should hold onto that single-disc release.

WKRP in Cincinnati: Season One – This one was a really ugly monster. When one of the most popular series of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s premiered on television, it used a heavy amount of then-popular rock music underscore in its episodes. However, it took quite a while for a lot of music clearance rights to occur before part of the rock songs were retained in the DVD versions of the episodes. Some music, however, was missing, thereby robbing the series of some of its charm. Music clearance is an ugly monster, to be sure.

Star Trek: Captain’s Log Fan Collective – On Disc 2 the two-part “Chain of Command” has been re-edited into a movie-length feature and not retained as originally presented in 1992 and on the sixth season TNG box set back in 2002. In this release, the episode title credits have all been condensed and included at the start of Part 1; the end credits from Part 1 have been removed; and the Part 2 recap, main titles, and episode credits have all been removed from the episode. This is one that in some cases could easily slip under some people’s radars, but any Trek fan who knows the franchise well can spot this alteration right away. Why did this alteration have to happen to begin with?

That’s not the only Star Trek DVD alteration that occurred. In the third season set of Star Trek: Enterprise, a few alterations appeared. In the first two episodes, the series was still referred to as “Enterprise”; it didn’t include the “Star Trek” label until the third episode of the season. Later reruns of those first two episodes used the “Star Trek: Enterprise” title card. Also, in the episode “Harbinger”, the segment was shown as originally shot and produced, though it was altered for U.S. broadcast. Finally, in the second season Enterprise set, the season opener “Shockwave – Part II” ran a minute longer than in its initial airing, which was edited for some unknown. The rerun and the DVD version retained the unedited version. Sometimes slight changes do occur for the better, and the “Enterprise” sets are two of the very few exceptions to the norm.

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Season 1 – This is another rare exception where an alteration is actually a significant improvement. When the original pilot episode aired in 1993, it ran 78 minutes in length. The two-part rerun had some additional footage not seen in the original pilot broadcast, while the DVD version has even more footage not shown in the U.S. For once, this is a very good alteration that benefits the series.

Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology – When I got this one this past Christmas, I noticed that during the Hogan/Ultimate Warrior title match from Wrestlemania VI, part of the audio commentary from Jesse “The Body” Ventura was removed from the video. I know this for a fact because I’ve got a VHS of the unedited telecast of the complete WM VI at home, and the audio commentary is there intact. Not to mention that on every WWE DVD, anything you see the 90’s WWF “Attitude” logo, it’s digitally erased. Somebody slap a headlock on them and tell them to quit messing around with our cheesy memories from the 80’s and 90’s.

The New Adventures of Superman – In this recent release, none of the Superboy segments have been included in this two-disc set, though the cast credits for the Superboy segments are retained from their original broadcasts. This is because of continuing legal problems between DC Comics and the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster over media broadcast rights to the Superboy character. And yet a number of these segments were issued on VHS back in 1988? This DVD omission is a real shame, and I wish everyone would get their act together and clear this problem up sooner or later. If you’ve got the 1988 VHS, hang onto it.

Hawaii Five-0: The Second Season – Here’s another serious case for you. In this new set, quite a bit of musical underscore has been replaced from the original telecasts. In addition, one segment from the series, “Bored, She Hung Herself,” was not included. Reportedly, this episode was shown only one time in January 1970 and never aired again because somebody apparently duplicated the hanging shown in the episode. And yet 16-millimeter prints of the episode exist. Go figure.

This is not the only recent CBS/Paramount DVD release that has had a number of music and footage alterations from their original broadcast versions. Recent DVD releases of Soul Food: The Second Season; Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: The Second Season; Dynasty – Season Two; The Fugitive – Season One, Volume One; JAG – Season Four; and The Odd Couple – Season Two have all had footage removed from their original broadcast versions, and in the case of Soul Food, some musical cues have been replaced with non-descript generic cues. My only question I have to ask is this: why?

And then we have the upcoming Volume One release of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles on DVD in October. Remember at the start of this commentary when I said that George Lucas is one of the most notorious culprits of movie/TV/DVD alterations? Well, here’s an insult that’ll make you want to slap your mama – or at the very least Lucas’ mama, for that matter. Before the DVD industry took off he was already at work altering our memories of this great underrated series from the 1990’s. As you already know, many of the original hour-long episodes utilized bookend scenes directed by Carl Schultz and featuring George Hall as an elderly Indy. However, during the late 90’s Luca$ (as I like to put it) decided to re-edit all of the hour-long episodes together into two-hour movies, with many of the segments not properly connecting from one to the next, resulting in new bridging footage being shot. Now I don’t mind having new footage shot; that’s one thing, but cutting out all of the bookend footage to begin with? As if that weren’t enough, two episodes set in 1908 and 1909, respectively, were sewn together into the second chapter, “Passion for Life”, and reversed in chronological sequence for the two-hour movie version – huh? The last time I saw a higher numbered year coming before a lower numbered year, it usually had the abbreviation B.C. attached to the year. Furthermore, a great segment showing Indy in love with a British suffragette (the exquisite Elizabeth Hurley, who never looked more beautiful than here), had bookend footage that also featured the late Jane Wyatt in it. And here’s another one for you: “Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal”, with three incarnations of Indy and all tied together to a significant plot thread running through the segments. Yet that’s gone, too. But the worst insult of it all? The official Indiana Jones web site prominently mentions all the original bookend segments, yet Luca$ doesn’t respect the fans enough to preserve the episodes as originally shown and intended? And all we’re going to get is just the re-edited movie-length versions on DVD over the next year? If he really cared about the fans, he’d do us all a favor and make us forget that “Howard the Duck” ever existed on film to begin with.

And the list goes on and on. What I’ve presented is only a small sampling of the alterations that I’ve come across, though there’s quite a bit more out there that I haven’t seen at all. The good people at TVShowsonDVD.com used to keep up with a comprehensive list of such alterations, each listed as a positive, negative, or neutral alteration. Recently, though, they haven’t been keeping up with that list, and the Home Theater Forum also has an additional number of such alterations on its board. How many more of our memories must be altered, changed, re-edited, etc. like this? Enough with the madness already!!!

To change gears, here’s a big title to keep track of… Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition, which is set for release October 30th from CBS/Paramount Video. You’ll definitely want to hold onto your previous individual season sets, since much of the additional bonus content is substantially different this time around – the only thing it looks like that’ll be ported over from those two sets will be all of the Log Lady introductions. Otherwise, this is one set you’ll definitely want to grab hold of!

Star Trek: Captain's Log Fan Collective

2007-08-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

I found it a bit of a surprise that what happened to arrive in my mailbox was none other than the fifth installment in the Fan Collective DVD sets, CAPTAIN’S LOG. With all of the different series and films now on DVD in complete sets, what else could be done to further mine the TREK property? Enter the Fan Collectives, where fans could vote on StarTrek.com for their favorite episodes. When I reviewed BORG, the first of the Fan Collective sets, I wasn’t too happy with the concept to begin with. To simply rehash common threads from the different series into sampler sets just didn’t thrill me at all. It didn’t thrill me a few years back with the release of the JEAN-LUC PICARD COLLECTION (while technically not a Fan Collective but still a sampler set), and it still doesn’t thrill me to this day. The only perk it does have in its favor is that it does provide a nice cost-effective way for fans to sample the different series without having to shell out hundreds of dollars for each set.

CAPTAIN’S LOG has a unique twist to it, in that all five captains from the different series – William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula – have chosen their personal favorite episodes, in addition to commenting on the fans’ picks for the preferred episodes for inclusion in this new set. It’s a novel concept, to be sure.

CAPTAIN’S LOG presents 17 different episodes spread out over five discs. Representing the Original Series on Disc One is Shatner’s pick “The City on the Edge of Forever”, along with the fan choices “The Enterprise Incident” and “Balance of Terror”. On Disc Two, representing THE NEXT GENERATION, are Stewart’s choice “In Theory” (his directorial debut), along with the intense two-parter “Chain of Command” and the moving tale “Darmok”. DEEP SPACE NINE dominates Disc Three with Brooks’ selection “Far Beyond the Stars” (one of his directorial segments for the series), along with the rule-breaking segment “In the Pale Moonlight” and the series finale “What You Leave Behind”. On Disc Four, VOYAGER is represented with Mulgrew’s pick “Counterpoint”, along with the fan picks “The Omega Directive” and the popular segment “Flashback” (with George Takei returning as Captain Sulu). Finally, Bakula leads off Disc Five with his favorite ENTERPRISE segment “Judgment”, along with the fan picks “First Flight” and the series finale “These are the Voyages”.

All of the episodes are reproduced from their original masters and presented in their original broadcast aspect ratios, with the first four series in full-frame format and the ENTERPRISE segments in 1.78:1 widescreen format. Sound-wise, all of the episodes are presented in English Dolby 5.1 surround, English and Spanish 2.0 sound, and, in the case of DS9, Brazilian Portuguese 2.0 sound, with optional English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles and optional English closed captions. All of the episodes are crisp and sharp-looking, though I have to admit that in watching the Original Series, and looking back at the early seasons of TNG, the visual effects are severely dated. Call me spoiled on modern-day CGI effects that became prominent in later series and films. That’s one of the reasons why the thought of “TREK Remastered” interested me, though I’ve never seen a single segment.

Furthermore, all of the episodes presented have better chapter marks placed at appropriate points throughout each episode. While there is no specific chapter selection process on the set, you can access each individual chapter during the respective episodes. This is definitely a step up from their original presentations on each individual season set, which haphazardly placed chapter stops in random places throughout the episodes. This way, the chapters fall into very logical places during an episode.

The packaging of the CAPTAIN’S LOG set is presented in three dual-disc slim-case packages with two discs per case and the ENTERPRISE disc in a single-disc case. These slim-disc cases seem to be the norm with a lot of series on DVD these days. All of the packages have the specifics on each disc’s content, with colorful artwork on the inside.

The menus, however, are extremely static and uninspired, with only three menu screens available for the main episode selection, sound and subtitle options, and extra features selections. Having seen all of the CGI-animated menu screens for each of the different series and films, this is quite a bit of a step back if you ask me.

The only significant extras in CAPTAIN’S LOG are new interviews with Shatner, Stewart, Brooks, Mulgrew, and Bakula, respectively, on each disc. All of the actors offer their thoughts on working on TREK and remembering what they brought the table as Captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and Archer, respectively.

Beginning with Disc One, we have a 16-second introduction by Shatner to the Fan Collective. We then proceed into the introduction to “City on the Edge of Forever”, which is the longest of the interview segments at 12:45 in length. Shatner discusses the complexities Kirk, like any of us, faced in making one decision over another. He also discusses how the time travel element worked in this episode because of the elements of emotion and regret over terrible things happening at some point in life. The introduction continues as Shatner and surprise guest Joan Collins discuss working together on the episode, as they recall how Collins brought an understated sensuality to the simplistic appearance of Edith Keeler. Collins also reflects how she brought a back story to her character, how Edith had no interest in men until Kirk arrived on the scene.

Continuing on Disc One, we also have the first installment of WHAT MAKES A GOOD CAPTAIN? At 3:40 in length, Shatner discusses how a captain should not have the appearance of doubt in his command decisions, trusting in the decisions he makes and relying on intuition, fearlessness, and working around dilemmas to make the right choices. Next is the first installment of THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CAPTAIN’S LOG (1:41), as Shatner describes it as a good dramatic device for recording his inner personal thoughts and command decisions. Finally, Shatner reflects on CAPTAIN KIRK’S LEGACY (2:27), about how he wanted to play Kirk’s death scene in GENERATIONS. He recalls the restless night before the shoot, asking questions about what happens when people die, and ultimately giving Kirk the same qualities of awe and wonder about death as he did throughout life.

Moving to Disc Two, we have Stewart’s introduction to “In Theory” (2:48), in which he owns up to a bit of personal bias toward this episode because it marked his directorial debut on TNG. He gives high praise to Brent Spiner’s work as Data in the episode and to the complex story about how Data was ill-equipped to handle a romantic relationship with a female crewmember. Stewart also provides introductions to “Chain of Command” and “Darmok”, each running 1:17 apiece. He recalls how he relished working with Amnesty International in studying how prisoners are brutally and sometimes wrongfully tortured and incarcerated without trial, something that is still extremely relevant in today’s times in the recent light of Iraqi prisoners freed from al Qaeda torture chambers, making “Chain of Command” just as timely today as it was back in 1992. He also recalls how “Darmok” helped reenergize interest in the mythical tale of Gilgamesh on the academic scene, and how the episode focused on the relationship between two men who are unable to understand one another because of the lack of common communication grounds.

From there Stewart goes into the second installment of THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CAPTAIN’S LOG (1:06), reflecting how it was a good thematic device of moving the story forward without having to shoot lots of scenes. In PLAYING A CAPTAIN (1:32), he recalls his father and how he was the only one of the three sons who did not pursue the military as a career. Stewart also comments on how, 20 years after TNG, he doesn’t mind being called “Captain”, and he also shares how, during a recent stage production of ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, he got lots of laughs from the audience after referring to his sidekick as “Captain”. In LOOKING BACK (2:15), he reflects on the friendships he made with his cast members over the course of the series and the four films, cherishing those friendships all the more since his recent move from Los Angeles to the U.K., seeing those friendships drift further away as he gets older, and finding himself missing Jonathan Frakes at a recent Christmas party that reunited him with his TNG cast mates. Next, in STAR TREK AND THE STAGE (2:06), Stewart comments on how he always viewed TREK as a sidestep in his career in classical theater, and how in between matinee performances of THE TEMPEST he received cheers and applause from his co-workers because of his work in the campy “Q-Pid”. Finally, he reflects on PICARD’S FUTURE (:51), musing how Picard needed more human connections in his life and how he probably never made admiral.

On Disc Three, in his introduction to “Far Beyond the Stars” (1:46), Brooks comments on how he got the script from Ira Steven Behr and wanted to direct the episode but also had to find the connection between directing and acting on screen. He also enjoyed the chance to direct his DS9 cast mates without makeup, and he relished how the episode dealt with the timeliness of racism and sexism in the 20th century, something not implausible in the world of writing. In A CAPTAIN AND A FATHER (1:05), Brooks briefly discusses the importance of juggling his responsibilities as a Starfleet captain and as a single father, nothing how in today’s society many young black boys and girls don’t have that father figure in their lives. In SISKO AS EMISSARY (1:10), he comments on how uncomfortable Sisko was in being seen as a religious figure, but he also notes the relationship between the spiritual and the divine in many African Americans’ lives. Brooks also notes in DIRECTING (1:21) how he wanted to direct in earlier series he had appeared in, among them SPENSER FOR HIRE and HAWK, but never had the chance until DS9 came along. He also comments that he doesn’t find directing and acting, not only other cast members but also himself, that much of a stretch, since he has a MFA in directing and acting.

Brooks muses on IMAGINING THE FUTURE (:45) how if mankind can imagine it, it will happen, and he’s all for it. Brooks further adds in SOCIAL COMMENTARY (1:04) how all of the different incarnations in TREK are infused with allegories about real life, and how the overall riding theme in the franchise is peace on Earth. He further reflects on these themes in ASPIRATIONS (:58), nothing that he wants to be remembered not so much for his work on DS9 but for something bigger in this world, the chance to be part of the equation of saving and giving life to those around him. Finally, in STAR TREK’S IMPACT (1:57), Brooks notes how he’s done fewer conventions than his counterparts, but he also notes how during a dinner date with an actress friend, he found that people around him connected more with the roles they as actors essayed on television than with themselves as individuals.

Moving to Disc Four, in her introduction to “Counterpoint” (1:59), Mulgrew talks about how she had dealt with being the first female captain to lead a TREK series, and how the fifth season VOYAGER episode was her personal favorite because Kathryn Janeway found herself torn between love and duty. In her introduction to “The Omega Directive” (:48), Mulgrew discusses how Janeway worked well with Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) because of their mutual appreciation for science. Finally, in her introduction to “Flashback” (:59), she comments on the fun factor it was in working with both Tim Russ and George Takei.

In the next installment of THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CAPTAIN’S LOG (1:13), Mulgrew comments on Janeway’s necessity to record everything that happened thousands of light-years away from Starfleet territory. In CAPTAIN JANEWAY’S BEST QUALITIES (1:47) and the next installment of WHAT MAKES A GOOD CAPTAIN (1:35), she explores the woman’s perspective of being a woman, a strong leader, and a starship captain. In JANEWAY’S FUTURE (1:11) she notes how Janeway made a career for herself as a Starfleet admiral. Finally, in the second part of LOOKING BACK (:46), Mulgrew reflects on her seven years on VOYAGER and the friendships she made during the series’ production.

On Disc Five, Bakula introduces his personal pick “Judgment” (2:47), talking about working with J.G. Hertzler and delivering a solid performance as Jonathan Archer in the segment. From there he adds an introduction (1:40) to the fan-picked episode “These are the Voyages”, but I have to strongly disagree with his comments that final episodes are often disappointing but that the fans warmed up to the final ENTERPRISE segment. DUH!!!!! How sorely misinformed he is! Wake up, Scott! You had your chance to be completely honest about what you really felt about the segment, and you royally blew it!

From there Bakula muses on the final segment of WHAT MAKES A GOOD CAPTAIN? (3:26) and CAPTAIN ARCHER’S BEST QUALITIES (3:30), noting that a captain like Archer should be accessible to his crew but also strong and determined in his command, in addition to his no-nonsense attitude of taking no prisoners in getting the mission accomplished. In the last segment of THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CAPTAIN’S LOG (1:36) Bakula adds his two cents’ worth on the necessity of recording his thoughts and actions at any given point during a mission. In the final segment of LOOKING BACK (3:16) Bakula reflects on the friendships with his fellow cast members and notes that he didn’t get a solid grasp of the STAR TREK franchise and universe until he was a part of it. Finally, the set is rounded out with a 39-second closing statement to the fans.

In addition, while unadvertised, we have two DVD trailers at the star of Disc One. The first is a generic spot for all of the TREK series and the first four Fan Collectives on DVD, while the other is a generic spot for MACGYVER, WALKER TEXAS RANGER, and THE SENTINEL on DVD. Thankfully, these are not forced trailers, so you have the option of skipping through these promos and getting to the main menu screen.

I’ve got two major concerns with the CAPTAIN’S LOG set. First, “Chain of Command” has been altered from their original TV presentations for this DVD release. For the first time the main title credits have been condensed and isolated to the start of Part 1, while the end credits for Part 1 have been removed, along with the Part 1 recap, main titles, and episode credits for Part 2. The result is one seamless movie-length segment. This is certain to bother some fans, who clearly remember “Chain of Command” airing as a two-part episode back in 1992 and appearing intact on the sixth season TNG set. Yet nowhere on the packaging is this alteration listed. I hope this is not a sign of things to come in any future condensed re-releases.

Second, if memory serves, didn’t “These are the Voyages” tarnish a lot of fans’ mindsets when it came to the end of ENTERPRISE and the TREK franchise at that point? As bad as it was, and following such a wonderful two-part tale in “Demons” and “Terra Prime” that could have effectively ended the series, why in the world was this episode chosen for the Fan Collective to begin with? All this episode serves is to remind us of the big middle finger that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga gave to the fans who had loyally stuck through a declining series, not to mention franchise, with a mediocre subplot, piss-poor generic thugs, and an ineffective end for one of the main cast members (which Michael Martin and Andy Mangels have seen fit to correct in recent Pocket Books novels). If anything, I would have chosen a far better episode like “Zero Hour” or the highly entertaining two-part “In a Mirror, Darkly”, anything that was infinitely better than this major clunker.

My initial thoughts on the Fan Collective sets remain consistent with this latest release. I for one am not impressed with the concept of the Fan Collectives, since it seems pointless to continually re-release the respective STAR TREK series’ episodes on DVD. As I said earlier, the only benefit of this set is to provide a cost-effective way to introduce a newcomer to the franchise without having to break his or her pocketbook. Furthermore, with just new interview segments as the only significant extras on this set, not to mention an altered version of one of the most acclaimed TNG segments, and the inclusion of the worst clunker in TREK history this side of “Spock’s Brain” or “Shades of Gray”, there’s not much else to interest me. Your mileage, however, may vary.

Popeye the Sailor - Volume 1: 1933-1938

2007-08-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that last time I promised I'd have that "Star Trek: Captain's Log" DVD review ready for today, and I was all prepared to divide it into two parts and post it. But between the time I wrote the bulk of it out and today, for some reason I just can't lay my hands on the blasted thing. So it looks like it's on hold yet again 'til who knows when. But, in its place I've got a commentary on a new release that I'm sure when the DVD review boards select their top releases for 2007, this will most certainly be the animated release of the year.

Way back in my youth, I recall that the first time I ever saw "Popeye the Sailor" on TV was in an animated half-hour program each day on one of the local syndicated stations. These were a series of three or four color cartoons each, selected mostly from the 1960's and some from the 1950's, all of them variants on the same theme of Popeye the do-gooder in the scenario fighting off the big bully Brutus to win the honor of long-time girlfriend Olive Oyl. These segments were cheesy and for the most part good clean fun. Then, of course, there was the big 1980 live-action feature film directed by the late Robert Altman with Robin Williams (seemingly miscast) as Popeye and Shelley Duvall (perfectly cast, though) as Olive Oyl - I thought that was the biggest thing to come down the pike since sliced cheese. Not to mention all of those Saturday morning cartoon series throughout the 1980's. Who would have thought that there was so much history to Popeye that came decades before? Certainly not me!

Believe it or not, Popeye has been around since the early 1930's, when he made his debut in E.C. Segar's comic strip "Thimble Theater". For that matter, when the strip began, he wasn't even the star at first - that honor went to Olive Oyl and her family. Popeye didn't come onto the scene until at least a full year later, and at that time he was a supporting player. But once he arrived, things fell in place, and "Thimble Theater" really took off with Popeye as the star. Then, in 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer brought Popeye to life as the star of a series of aniimated theatrical shorts released by Paramount Pictures that ran for at least the next two decades. From time to time I would catch portions of these segments on TV, thinking how cheesy and amateurish they were - how little I knew. But at the time of their release, animation was emerging and growing as a thriving theatrical form in the 1930's.

Now, Warner Home Video has brought together 60 of these classic shorts from the 1930's together into the new four-disc "Popeye the Sailor - Volume 1: 1933-1938". And before I go any further, I've got to say this - if you've never seen Popeye before, or even if you're a long-time fan, you're going to be absolutely blown away by this new set!

All 60 of these segments represented in this new set have been lovingly restored and mastered from the best nitrate sources available and presented in chronological order of release, so what you're getting are seven hours of cartoons that look incredibly crisp and full of detail. Granted, we're talking animated films that are 70-75 years old, and there's some obvious age and grain present at times, but overall the crispness and clarity in each segment is beyond belief! Over the past decade we've seen a lot of cheapjack releases slapped together from poor prints, looking and sounding questionable at times - not so with Warner's release. While the sound is English mono soun, it's perfectly acceptable when given the stunning visual quality here!

The set starts off with the initial installment from 1933, entitled, aptly enough, "Popeye the Sailor", which features Popeye singing his signature theme song and even appearing alongside long-time cartoon star Betty Boop for a number. If that weren't enough, it's got lyrics to it that I've never heard before! How's that for initiation? Now someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I clearly remember seeing in print these lyrics:

"I'm Popeye the sailor man,
I live in a garbage can.
I love to go swimmin' with bow-legged women,
I'm Popeye the sailor man."

Can anyone confirm if these lyrics were ever recorded and used in one of the cartoons?

From there the set just gets better and better with each successive segment across the four discs. As if that weren't enough, in addition to the black-and-white one-reelers, Warner has included two of its most stunning Popeye efforts to date, the Academy Award-nominated "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor" on Disc 3 and "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" on Disc 4. Both of these impressive Technicolor two-reel entries, running nearly 20 minutes each, were at the time of their releases the pinnacles of the Fleischer Studios, and at many theaters at the top of the marquees - and this was before the overwhelming success of Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and the Fleischers' own adaptation of "Superman" in the 1940's! If you think the black-and-white segments are something, just wait until you see how beautiful these two color segments look!

Another thing that Warner has done that earns big points in my eyes is that they have kept all of these segments intact and unedited as originally shown in theaters in the 1930's, complete with a disclaimer at the start of each disc stating these views. In this day and age of political correctness, it would have taken a miracle to get these cartoons released in the theaters or on television with the amount of racial, ethnic, and sexual connotations that were obviously present in these entries. Case in point: check out the entry with Popeye and Betty Boop - as Betty dances hula style, it becomes clearly obvious that all she has on is a grass skirt and lei and nothing else! For that matter, in "The Twisker Pitcher", they've clearly kept in a bit where once a baseball is hit, it jumps up in black face and says, "Mammy!" which is not only a tip of the hat to Al Jolson but also a poke at black stereotypes at the time. (And you thought that Disney was the only one who got away with some of this sneakiness!) Furthermore, with the recent rash of TV series and movies released on DVD with alterations left and right, it's refreshing to see a DVD release that is preserved as it was originally intended, despite its sometimes controversial content.

As if that weren't enough, Warner has seen fit to include quite a generous amount of supplement on this four-disc "Popeye" set. First off, it has interview segments and no less than 22 different audio commentaries from numerous contributors to the set, among them historians Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, Daniel Goldmark, and Glenn Mitchell; animators Dave Tendlar, Mark Kausler, Jorge Gutierrez, and Sandra Equihua; filmmaker Greg Ford; directors Eric Goldberg, John Kricfalusi, Eddie Fitzgerald, and Terry Gilliam (yes, that Terry Gilliam of "Monty Python" fame!); "Superman" and "Batman" writer/producer Paul Dini; film producer Michael E. Uslan (who produced the first four "Batman" theatrical films); actor Jack Mercer; and cartoonist Kali Fontecchio, among others. Now how's that for an impressive line-up! All of the above participants also contributed to two retrospective documentaries - "I Yam What I Yam: The Story of Popeye the Sailor" on Disc 1 and "Forging the Frame: The Roots of Animation 1900-1920" on Disc 2 - and no less than eight brief yet separate "Popumentaries" on the set, including "Mining the Strip: Elzie Segar and Thimble Theater" and "Me Fickle Goyl, Olive Oyl: The World's Least Likely Sex Symbol" on Disc 1; "Wimpy the Moocher: Ode to the Burgermeister" and "Sailor's Hornpipes: The Voices of Popeye" on Disc 2; "Blow Me Down! The Music of Popeye" and "Popeye in Living Color: A Look at the Color Two-Reelers" on Disc 3; and "Me Lil' Swee'pea: Whose Kid is He Anyway?" and "Et Tu, Bluto? Cartoondom's Heaviest Heavy" on Disc 4.

"I Yam What I Yam" covers the history of Popeye's origins in "Thimble Theater" and his growth throughout the 1930's cartoons. "Forging the Frame" is extremely interesting, as it takes a look back at the origins of animation in film, providing viewers with some extremely vintage animation footage from the first 20 years of film, something that as time passes becomes harder and harder to preserve - thank goodness for studios like Warner! "Mining the Strip" takes a look at how the cast from "Thimble Theater" was translated from comic strip to screen, as well as Segar's involvement in the creation of the Popeye cartoons with the Fleischers. "Me Fickle Goyl" is a humorous look at how the beanpole-thin Olive Oyl became the center of Popeye's affections over the decades. "Wimpy the Moocher" is an equally humorous look at the lovable character who made "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" a household slogan.

"Sailor's Hornpipes" is a look at the different voices for the Popeye character, while "Blow Me Down" looks at the creation of Popeye's signature theme for the series. "Popeye in Living Color" analyzes the Fleischers' first attempts at bringing the cast to life in both of the two-reel segments, the combination of animation and physical sets, the entries' overwhelming success, and their inspiration for the "Superman" segments of the 1940's. "Me Lil' Swee'pea" is an affectionate look at the series' youngest cast member and puts to rest once and for all just who the baby's parent really is. Finally, "Et Tu, Bluto?" looks at Popeye's frequent nemesis and competition for Olive Oyl's hand. All of these documentaries and featurettes can be accessed either through the main episode menu or through the separate bonus features menu on each retrospective disc.

If you think all that material is enough to make you want to pick your jaw off the floor, think again. Warner has taken the extra step in giving viewers a look at no less than 16 vintage animated reels from Hollywood's golden years! On Disc 1 we have a look at three silent shorts from Bray Productions - "Colonel Heeza Liar at the Bat" (1915), "Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing" (1916), and the Mutt and Jeff short "Domestic Difficulties" (1916). Disc 2 contains three more Bray Productions shorts - "Bobby Bumps Puts a Beanery on the Bum" (1918), "Feline Follies" (1919), and "The Tantalizing Fly" (1919). Disc 3 has six short subjects from its "Out of the Inkwell" series - "Modeling" and "Invisible Ink" (1921), "Bubbles" and "Jumping Beans" (1922), and "Bedtime" and "Trapped" (1923). Finally, on Disc 4, we have three more "Out of the Inkwell" shorts - "A Trip to Mars" (1924), "Koko Trains 'Em" (1925), and "Koko Back Tracks" (1927) - along with a Fleischer short subject from 1933, "Let's Sing With Popeye", which is basically a short pre-music video/karaoke sing-along segment lifted from the opening moments of the first Popeye segment.

All of these vintage cartoons are taken from the best surviving elements out there, including some prints preserved by the George Eastman House. The quality is obviously rough and in not the best of shape, given the age of these elements, but at least we should be glad that these animated segments were preserved to begin with. Without them, a major piece of cinematic history would be forever lost. But through these short subjects we see the genesis of film animation and its influences not only on the Fleischers but also Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and many more over the generations.

But we're still not yet done. Disc 4 also contains a trailer gallery for upcoming animated DVD releases, such as "Tom and Jerry" and the first season release of "The Smurfs", among others. In addition, at the head of Disc 4, are unadvertised trailers for the net "Looney Tunes" compilation and the forthcoming "Superman: Doomsday" direct-to-DVD project coming in September. Furthermore, Best Buy customers can also pick up this four-disc set in an exclusive collector's tin.

Whew! Now how's that for a DVD feast? Simply put, Warner Home Video has done an extremely outstanding job in producing a very high quality release with an equally staggering amount of main and supplemental content for Popeye and classic film and animation fans alike, and they have reset the bar to a higher level than ever for preserving a major slice of film history. Other studios, take notice - this is how the game is played. Don't be surprised that this set walks away with a slew of major DVD awards next year from different review boards and web sites! To everyone at Warner Home Video, take a bow, ladies and gentlement, for a DVD well done - you deserve it!

Hannah Montana - Pop Star Profile

2007-07-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I said a while back that I was going to have this review (or the Star Trek review) completed pretty quickly, and that was at least two weeks ago, but it seems like I've taken a bit of a step back for a while. (That and a top-secret project or two that I'm working on, not to mention home, family, work, etc. took center stage.) I guess you can chalk it up to that chronic thing we all suffer from that's called attention-deficit lazy butt disorder. Hopefully this won't last too much longer!

I have to tip my hat to my 11-year-old stepdaughter for getting me into this Disney Channel original series called "Hannah Montana", which has now become one of the really hot properties on Disney today. Even my younger daughter, who's only two, likes to watch the show - go figure! For those of you who have obviously lived under a rock over the past year or so, "Hannah Montana" chronicles the comic mishaps of Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus), who leads a double life of middle school student by day and tween pop star Hannah Montana by night, all with a change of clothes, makeup, and hair to keep her true identity a secret. Miley is aided, abetted, and often annoyed by her best buds Lilly (Emily Osment) and Oliver (Mitchell Musso), her older brother Jackson (Jason Earles), and her father/manager Robby (Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley's real-life father), who do all they can to maintain her dual identity a secret. And you thought Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne had it bad!

In "Pop Star Profile", the second compilation of episodes from the popular series, Miley's life is turned upside down when Jake Ryan (Cody Linley), teen heartthrob and star of "Zombie High", starts going to her school. In the first segment "New Kid in School", everyone in the school falls all over him, the teachers give him extra perks that other students aren't allowed, and even Tony the janitor gives him his own customized locker - all at Miley's expense and overall annoyance at his self-aggrandizing ego, which turns her off. And when an air-headed tabloid reporter milks Jake's life at school for all it's worth, Miley threatens to reveal her secret identity of Hannah Montana to the world. Of course, guess who steps in to save the day but dear old Dad, who's got enough troubles of his own at keeping the new love in his life - his brand new car, no less! - clean and out of the hands of his teenage son.

In "More Than a Zombie to Me", Miley finds herself torn between fighting off any feelings for Jake when she repeatedly turns him down to go to the school dance with him, competing with Lilly over Jake, and giving in when, as Hannah Montana, she does a guest turn on "Zombie High". Meanwhile, Robby and Jackson go to war against each other to see who is the king of practical jokes. In "Good Golly, Miss Dolly", Miley's godmother (Dolly Parton) tries to get back a camcorder tape of Miley opening up and revealing to her that, despite his ego, she's falling for Jake. Finally, in "People Who Use People", when Miley spots Jake with another girl, she uses a younger boy to prove how much she doesn't like Jake, which of course backfires, while Jackson tries to play matchmaker by fixing Robby up with his science teacher just so he can a good grade in her class.

I've got to admit, I'm really growing to like "Hannah Montana" a lot. It's a half-hour of good, clean fun with lots of laughs and plenty of love in the family. As a father, I have to give kudos to the Cyrus family, especially Billy Ray and Miley. Any father who would allow his teenage daughter to star in her own series would have to know what kind of content it presents and approve (or disapprove) of such content presented on screen. Furthermore, it's also wonderful to see a father like Billy Ray Cyrus want to star in a series with his own daughter. That speaks volumes of his commitment to his family and also his personal walk. (Of course, he even takes a hilarious tongue-in-cheek potshot at his "Achy Breaky Heart" beginnings in "New Kind in School" - complete with a faux wig of his hair from the early 90's! - to show that he's not afraid to laugh at his own roots, which shows how far he's come from being seen as a one-hit wonder.)

All four episodes on "Pop Star Profile" are presented on a single dual-layered disc in their original broadcast aspect ratio and in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, with optional English subtitles and closed captions. For a current series like "Hannah Montana", it's good to see this series get a 5.1 track, given its pop-inspired score. You have the option of viewing each episode individually or in a "play all" block.

As for extras, there are only two bonus features included on this disc. The first is a Hannah Montana concert performance of "Nobody's Perfect" (3:31), which was previously featured on the DVD portion of the first two-disc soundtrack release, also presented in 5.1 sound. The other is a brief behind-the-scenes featurette entitled "Backstage with the Real Miley Cyrus" (5:24), in which she talks about working on the series with her father and co-stars and having as normal a life as possible while juggling acting and music. For some reason this featurette is presented in Dolby 2.0 sound, which is baffling, considered that everything else is in 5.1 sound.

The disc is rounded out with a series of DVD and theatrical preview trailers for "Meet the Robinsons", "Bridge to Terabithia", "Peter Pan: Return to Neverland", the highly-anticipated upcoming TV movie "High School Musical 2", "High School Musical Concert - Extreme Access Pass", the "Superman"-inspired theatrical release "Underdog", the "Jungle Book" 40th anniversary Platinum Edition DVD, "Return to Halloweentown", "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody", and a Disney Movie Rewards spot, all of which can be viewed prior to the start of the program or in its own separate trailer gallery. The good thing about this DVD is that you have the option of skipping over the trailers and heading straight for the main menu without having to worry about forced trailers.

If I have one issue to pic, it's that for some reason Disney tends to release some of its TV series in these individual volumes. While the family-friendly affordability is good, many other series (including numerous other Disney-released titles shown on other networks) go the way of full-season or -series sets. It's a shame that Disney hasn't fully jumped on the full-season bandwagon with "Hannah Montana" and other numerous Disney Channel series. They really should.

It's no surprise that the third volume, "Life's What You Make It", is coming in October. That'll certainly appease all of the tweeners in your family - I know it will mine. So if you're a fan of this series, chances are this and future volumes will make its way into your family's DVD collection. What else can I say?

Okay, next time I promise that it'll be that long-awaited "Star Trek" review. Maybe by then I'll be completely over this chronic attention-deficit lazy butt disorder thing. See you again soon!

Miscellaneous notes today...

2007-07-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

After a staggering series of recent commentaries on the "Superman" UCE, as well as last month's release of "The New Adventures of Superman", not to mention the 4th of July holiday smack in the middle of last week, I'm not really prepared with any new reviews at this point. I do have two I'm currently in the middle of working on and should have them available in the very near future, both of which I will briefly allude to in my commentary this week.

First off, let's get to some good release news, one I'm extremely happy about. Mark your calendars for October 23rd, because that's when "Young Indiana Jones" will finally hit DVD! Yes!!! According to TV Shows on DVD, this will be the first of three DVD volumes of the series, so it's quite possible we may see the second and third volumes in 2008, around the time of the release of the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie and its subsequent DVD release, if not sooner. That's definitely good news for me! Unfortunately, that still does not change the fact that Mr. George Luca$ has plans to issue only the re-edited TV-movie versions of the series and not the original broadcast versions with the old Indy bookend segments. Fans just can't catch a break sometimes, you know? Better archive those broadcasts to discs for your personal collections!

Lately, for some reason I've been getting into something my just-turned 11-year-old stepdaughter Rachel really likes: "Hannah Montana". As parents, April and I find this Disney series to be cute, harmless, and overall quite funny with a lot of positive values. Any series in which a father - in this case, Billy Ray Cyrus - would star in and allow his teenage daughter (Miley Cyrus) to star in as well must be an extremely clean show to begin with, and that's a rarity in the world of TV these days. It's good to see the Cyrus' morals standing front and center in this series. I'm currently going through the latest release, "Pop Star Profile", and it's a nice quality release. I'll have my full review ready for posting as soon as I finish watching the last of the episode. The third volume is slated for release October 9th, but I wonder when/if Disney and Buena Vista Home Video will follow all of the other major studios and issue "Hannah Montana" and its other series in season sets. They really should.

I'm also currently going through the latest "Star Trek" DVD release from CBS/Paramount Video, the "Captain's Log Fan Collective", which comes out on 7/24. This is the first "Trek" DVD I've gone through in nearly a year and the first one in nearly two years that I'll be reviewing, so I'm having to shake the ring rust and take a dip back into some familiar waters. Look for that review soon. On one hand, I've pretty much sworn off everything "Trek" related and done away with it all in my house. And there's a part of me that doesn't want to get back onto that particular wagon. On the other hand, I do have this set for review, so it's only polite for me to conduct my review and be done with it, since I have no plans to keep this set.

Just to give you a quick heads-up about the "Captain's Log Fan Collective", there is one pretty significant alteration in the set. On Disc 2 the two-part "Chain of Command" has been re-edited from the original TV broadcasts. If you recall, TNG aired "Chain of Command" as two individual episodes in late 1992, which was duplicated as such on the sixth season set back in 2002. For this release, the episodes have been re-edited a bit. The episodes' production credits have been condensed at the start of Part 1; the end credits for Part 1 have been removed; and the Part 1 recap, main titles, and Part 2 episode credits have been removed entirely from the beginning of Part 2, making this a movie-length story. Why couldn't they leave well enough alone? I hope this does not signal the start of a trend with future "Trek" releases. Go figure.

That's all I've got at this time, boys and girls. Be sure to check back soon for my reviews of "Hannah Montana" and the newest "Star Trek" release, whichever one gets done first. See you then!

Superman - Ultimate Collector's Edition, Part VII

2007-07-03T15:13:00.001-07:00

Finally, I'm coming to the end of the road in my series of analyses on Warner's awesome 14-disc "Superman" Ultimate Collector's Edition. So far I have looked at the first 11 discs in the set, which covered all of the major films in the set. As I conclude these analyses, I now turn my attention to the three documentary discs from the set, two of which are exclusive to the UCE.

LOOK! UP IN THE SKY - THE AMAZING STORY OF SUPERMAN

I originally reviewed this disc for Jim Bowers' website CapedWonder.com shortly after its release last year. The only difference is that this time around, "Look! Up in the Sky" is featured as Disc 12 of the UCE. For some reason, in my copy of the set the disc art is the same as the single-disc release and not the half-text, half-art template that was used for the other discs in the UCE. That little minor quibble aside, it's still a great documentary produced by Bryan Singer and Kevin Burns that reveals some new perspectives on the history of Superman and, of course, served as a tease for "Superman Returns". Click here to read my original 2006 review of the documentary (and its Best Buy-exclusive companion disc, which I'll discuss in further detail later).

YOU WILL BELIEVE: THE CINEMATIC SAGA OF SUPERMAN

Now we come to Disc 13, which is quite arguably one of the best new documentary features in the entire set, the all-new retrospective documentary "You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman". In this new five-part feature, produced by New Wave Entertainment (which also produced the documentary features for the first four "Batman" films for their 2005 DVD releases), we get a more balanced look at the creation of the four Christopher Reeve "Superman" films and the ill-fated spinoff "Supergirl". Featuring new interview segments with Richard Donner, Ilya Salkind, Pierre Spengler, Tom Mankiewicz, Margot Kidder, Marc McClure, Jeff East, Terence Stamp, Jack O'Halloran, Sarah Douglas (hey Jacob Rubenstein, if you're out there reading this, I'm sure you're loving those new interviews!), Helen Slater, Mark Rosenthal, Yoram Globus, and Menahem Golam, among others, we are treated to what is a more honest look at bringing "Superman" to life, more than what was previously covered in the original 2001 documentaries.

The documentary, which runs approximately 90 minutes in length, is divided into five sections - "Origin", "Vision", "Ascent" (which primarily cover on filming the first film), "Crisis", and "Redemption" - which can be viewed in one continuous feature-length piece or individually. There are quite a number of surprising new comments and perspectives that hadn't been seen or heard before, and many key players involved in the production of these films in front of or behind the camer has a say in expressing his or her views. What's wonderful about this documentary is the inclusion of newly discovered production footage from the Warner archives during the making of the first two films during the Donner years and during Richard Lester's tenure on "Superman II", including some never-before-seen vintage test clips, outtakes, and production footage featuring the late Christopher Reeve, which is especially a treat to see. During "Crisis" there is an additional outtake segment from the extended version of II that was not included in the "Superman II" Special Edition, presented in widescreen format, of a further moment during the Phantom Zone villains' attack in East Houston. This additional cut scene is a treat to see in this set, though why it was split up and intercut with an interview segment from Ilya Salkind, not to mention included on the "Superman II" disc, baffles me. Everyone is candid and open about their thoughts on shooting "Superman", with Douglas commenting on how she was one of the few cast members available to tour the world in promoting the films during their theatrical releases, and Stamp even shares a wonderfully humorous quip about how, after the release of II, a group of vicious gang members confronted him, asked, "Are you Zod?" and ran in fear from him!

Where the documentaries on the "Superman" Special Edition tend to be skewered in favor of Donner and Mankiewicz, here it's a more evenly balanced presentation, and that's really the way to go. This way it leaves you with more insight and the ball in your court on who's right and who's not. (My take is running with what's been established in all forms of the press - i.e., Donner and Mankiewicz.) Unfortunately, by the time the documentary gets to "Crisis" and "Redemption", everything feels extremely rushed, as Salkind, Spengler, Globus, Golam, Rosenthal, and the various cast members quickly want to get through in expressing their thoughts on III, IV, and "Supergirl" without an equally balanced look as given to the first two films. There isn't any production footage at all from these films, which is a shame, since we know that it's out there, and except for some very brief on-set photos from III and IV, we are left with very little as the result. Certainly, if New Wave had taken their time researching and assembling material from the first two films for this documentary, they could have equally devoted themselves to doing the same for the other films in the franchise. There are, after all, some fans who don't want to see them dismissed from the film canon. Then again, as with the Singer/Burns documentary on Disc 12, given those films' poor critical and/or commercial receptions at the box office, it's not really a surprise that the participants wanted to spend very little time discussing the films at all.

Which brings me to another concern about the disc. Obviously, attempts were made to contact Richard Lester and Mark Pillow for comments for the documentary, and that didn't come through at all. Somehow, I'm not surprised. Given Lester's public penchant for claiming "Superman II" as his film and not Donner's, not to mention any public acknowledgment about Donner's contribution to the saga, it's easily seen why some fans hold him in scorn. With Pillow, I'm not surprised that he disassociated himself with filmmaking after this huge misfire (I read just last night that he had given up bartending to pursue acting - why am I not surprised that that's what he probably returned to?) For that matter, I'm surprised that Sidney J. Furie wasn't contacted for a commentary. Then again, given his stand that if IV was a hit or a failure, it didn't matter to him. I tried contacting him about 10 years ago for some comments about the missing footage to IV, but got no response from him. All these years later, I'm still not surprised that his view hasn't apparently changed.

Furthermore, this documentary could have benefited from more outtakes, production footage, and even some rare TV spots and trailers for the other films that have not been issued on DVD (though you'll easily find many of them on CapedWonder.com). Still, this is quite the documentary to see, and it makes for a perfect companion to the UCE. And the best thing about it... there's no damn Kevin Smith in sight anywhere! His "appearances" on the "Batman" and "Spider-Man" DVDs ruined what could have been two really awesome discs - why that talentless no-class loser keeps getting work in anything is beyond me. (Wake up, Hollywood!)

Also on Disc 13 we have a new 20-minute program entitled "The Mythology of Superman", narrated by Stamp, which explores the world's culture and influences over the millennia that led to development of the Superman character in the 1930's. The Greek gods Hercules and Atlas, as well as the Biblical account of Samson, and fictional creations like Doc Savage, were certainly among the influences. Historians and psychologists examine all of the various influences that led to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's landmark creation.

We also have a very touching 18-minute program entitled "The Heart of a Hero: The Legacy of Christopher Reeve". Donner, Kidder, Jane Seymour (Reeve's long-time friend and co-star of "Somewhere in Time"), Kathy Lewis (the current president of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation), famed comics painter Alex Ross (who draws the most beautiful painted illustrations of the Man of Steel), "Smallville" co-creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and Brooke Ellison (the subject of Reeve's final solo directorial project "The Brooke Ellison Story"), among others, reflect back on Reeve's life and remember him not only for his contribution as Superman but also for the impact he made in the final decade of his life following his tragic horse-riding accident. We also get to see some behind-the-scenes production footage and an interview segment with Reeve from early 2004 during a break in filming his second stint as Dr. Virgil Swann on "Smallville" (which would turn out to be his final on-screen acting appearance ever). Words cannot express the poignancy and understatement brought to this program - simply put, it's well worth the disc alone. I only wish this had run much longer.

But that's not all. We have three vintage Warner Bros. cartoons - "Super Rabbit" with Bugs Bunny, "Stupor Duck" with Daffy Duck, and the rarely seen black-and-white World War II parody "Snafuperman" (originally issued to U.S. military troops during the 1940's) - which spoof the Superman character in affectionate humor. Culled from mint 35-millimeter prints, these cartoons look and sound as wonderful as the 17 Fleischer/Famous Studios "Superman" segments from 1941-43! There is even a rare color version of the 1958 TV pilot "Superpup", produced by Whitney Ellsworth, filmed after production ended on the sixth season of "The Adventures of Superman", and shot on the same sets as the series, but with midgets in dog suits. Black-and-white versions of this pilot have circulated over the years in the bootleg market, so it's nice that Warner issued it formally, and in color, no less! (I only wish they had included the unreleased 1961 "Superboy" pilot as well - unfortunately, this has to do with the legal issues involving Siegel and Shuster's heirs suing Warner Bros. and DC Comics over the rights to the Superboy character.) The disc is rounded out with a DVD trailer for the Kirk Alyn "Superman" serial collection.

BRYAN SINGER'S VIDEO JOURNALS

We now come to the end of the UCE with a look at Disc 14, showcasing all 29 of Bryan Singer's video blogs shot during production of "Superman Returns". Last year, Warner Home Video had included a bonus second disc of 12 of these segments, originally featured online at SupermanReturns.com, as a bonus disc to the Singer/Burns documentary for Best Buy fans. I must admit, this seemed a bit unfair on the part of Warner to issue this bonus disc as a Best Buy exclusive, since some buyers elsewhere may not have access to a Best Buy near them, leaving them to track down the 2-disc "Look! Up in the Sky" documentary on eBay or Amazon. But here we have all of the original 27 online segments, along with two brand-new segments issued exclusively to the UCE, "Outre" and "KR 83.80".

All of these segments are presented in their original aspect ratio and in Dolby 2.0 surround sound, and the quality is quite a bit better than their online presentations. All of the fun moments are here, including Singer scouting out Sydney, Australia prior to the start of filming; shooting Eva Marie Saint's scenes with Brandon Routh; Clark's baseball pitch at the Kent farm; Singer and company on the partially completed Fortress set overlooking a giant green screen; and the highly popular "The Call", in which Singer jetted over to New Zealand for a day to hijack the directorial reigns of "King Kong" from a sleeping Peter Jackson (look for quick appearances from Naomi Watts and longtime Jackson player Andy "Gollum" Serkis!). As if that weren't enough, the exclusive sequel "Outre" is an equally humorous look at how Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption") was tapped to replace Singer!

I have to admit, while this compilation is great, it really should have been included as the proper third disc for the "Superman Returns" Special Edition DVD release, as it further enhances the behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film. While this disc is another nice addition to the UCE, like Disc 13 it is also exclusive to the set and available nowhere else, which means fans would have to get the whole UCE just to obtain Discs 13 and 14. Then again, considering my initial argument at the beginning of these commentaries, getting everything in one shot is well worth the bonuses.

In addition, the entire package is housed in a booklet-style case with a beautiful lenticular art cover on the front. There's also a 16-page booklet done in the style of the Daily Planet newspaper and detailing the set's contents, a miniature reproduction of the seventh issue of "Superman" from 1986-87, and a mail-in offer for reproductions of the film posert to the five feature films. ALl of this is packaged in a large collective tin embossed with the S logo. To quote Lex Luthor, what more could anyone ask?

I wonly wish taht more vintage supplements had been included in this set - specifically, more trailers and TV spots, more production footage, more outtakes that didn't make the films, and more footage involving Christopher Reeve (whose presence is still sorely missed). But when you consider the generous amount of content presented in one collection, not to mention two versions of the first two films and all the staggering amount of extras included, anything beyond that is simply nit-picking. Hands down, this is one of the most spectacular DVD sets ever produced, well worth all of the accolades it's been given, and if you're a Superman fan like me, you won't be able to resist it. To borrow from the good people at DVDReview.com, put this together with the "Alien", "Lord of the Rings", and "Matrix" mega collections, and nobody will ever see you again. :)

Whew! Now how's that for a review? :)

Have a safe and enjoyable 4th of July holiday, and I will see you again soon!

Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition - Part VI

2007-06-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

Had it really been nearly 20 years since Superman was last seen on movie screens everywhere? During that time, so much had changed both in the Man of Steel's world and in our own. Superman died in battle, was reborn, finally got married to Lois Lane after a 60-year courtship, and experienced numerous revamps and restarts in the comics and television fields. Several different incarnations, both live-action and animated, came and went. Its most recognizable portrayer faced his greatest battle ever which ultimately claimed his life, but not without becoming a real-life hero in the process. And then there was the Internet, which spawned many fan web sites across the world. Still, one question remained: when would we see Superman return to the big screen? So many attempts both low-budget and big-budget tried and failed without getting anywhere, to the delight of some fans (like me) and concern of others.

Enter Bryan Singer. The director of the critically acclaimed "The Usual Suspects" and the hugely popular "X-Men" and "X2: X-Men United" had wanted to see a new version of Superman brought to the screen, one that was faithful in sprit to both the comics and to Richard Donner's classic first film. It took three years and an epic budget of almost titanic proportions, but when "Superman Returns" arrived in June of last year, the anticipation was more than well worth it.

I have to admit my biases here, seeing "Superman Returns" through 40-year-old eyes is a whole lot different than seeing the first "Superman" film through 12-year-old eyes. Back in 1978, it became THE film that made its indelible mark on me. While Kirk Alyn and George Reeves came before me, nobody it seemed would ever replace Christopher Reeve in my eyes as the definitive Man of Steel. Of course, as with Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Batman, each generation would have its own interpretation of Superman both successful and failed. Quite simply, Donner and Reeve set the bar extremely high as to how Superman should be presented, and prior to Singer's interpretation only one version ("Smallville") seemed to come close. So I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying "Superman Returns" more than I thought I would.

Singer and screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris kept the film on track with what had been established in Donner's work on the first two "Superman" films (sending the failed third and fourth entries into an alternate universe of their own), remaining truthful yet taking things in different directions. Five years had passed since Superman's disappearance from Earth. The world had changed and moved forward without him. So did Lois Lane (now portrayed by Kate Bosworth), who is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with a fiance' in Richard White (James Marsden) and a young son named Jason. So did Lex Luthor (perfectly played by Kevin Spacey), who went through five years of his own personal hell in seeking vengeance against Superman and, now a free man, seeks to renew his stake of the world's real estate for his own personal agenda.

Of course, all that changed with Superman's return to Earth. Now portrayed by Brandon Routh, Superman and Clark Kent both came back to Metropolis to find a world in need of a hero. And what better way to re-emerge in spectacular fashion than a daring airborne rescue of NASA's latest space shuttle and a 767 jetliner? From there things continue to escalate, as Luthor seeks to use the one thing closest to Superman as the very weapon against him in his continuing vendetta against the Man of Steel. Not to mention a number of interesting twists and surprises that Singer and company bring to the table.

Visually, this is the most stunning Superman project ever, even more stunning than Donner's own film, which was done before the advent of CGI. The effects are simply breathtaking, and the flying is more believable than ever. The music from composer John Ottman (who also edited the film) is true to the spirit of the original John Williams score and not a rehash of the same music over and over (as Ken Thorne and Alexander Courage did before him); though Ottman reuses some of the essential Superman fanfares from three decades prior, he imbues the score with its own newness of direction and original themes for Superman, Lois, and Luthor. And there are signature moments right out of the Superman comics themselves. It's really hard to pigeonhole this film into one particular era, there are so many elements from different decades that make it work. It's part art deco, part futuristic, and altogether wonderful for the most part.

Everyone is almost perfectly cast in this film - notice I said almost, which I'll get to in a moment. The most perfect bit of casting in this film is with Spacey. Ten years prior, when Tim Burton had been in the running to direct a new Superman film, rumors went left and right that Space would take on Lex Luthor. Had that film come to fruition, Spacey's involvement would have been the only thing good about it - everything else would have been pure crap. (And to think we almost had Nicolas Cage and Courteney Cox as Superman and Lois!) Here, he holds his own weight against Routh. Parker Posey gives her character of Kitty Kowalski a run for Miss Teschmacher's money. Veteran character actor Frank Langella brings a confident presence in his portrayal of Perry White, and young Sam Huntington gives Jimmy Olsen a new wrinkle or two. Of course, no Superman project would be complete without appearances from past stars, as Jack Larson and Noel Neill return once again in a pair of interesting cameos. We even see a return from the late Marlon Brando as Jor-El, in footage taken from 30-year-old outtakes. Of course, I was a bit hesitant about Kate Bosworth as Lois at first, but her maturity as an actress qualifies her portrayal as a very effective one.

The reason I said the casting was almost perfect was for two reasons. One, Brandon Routh has to have more time to develop Superman and Clark Kent into his own portrayal. At times it seems he's borrowing from Reeve's portrayal to make it work. At other times we see Routh's own personality emerge. It's this latter quality that I would like to see Routh bring forth in full blossom in future film entries. Two, and this is where I have a real problem with the film - what in the hell is Kal Penn doing slumming around in this film (or any film, for that matter)? Couldn't we have done without this guy to begin with? He brings absolutely nothing to the table as one of Luthor's minions, and when his demise occurs toward the film's climax we couldn't care at all. Hey Kumar, it's back to the White Castle for you! Why this guy continues to get work is beyond me.

Warner Home Video's DVD release of "Superman Returns" is quite an attractive presentation. The film itself is presented on Disc 10 in the Ultimate Collector's Edition, in anamorphic widescreen format in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. There is some slight image artifacting that occurs, but nothing overall that detracts from the presentation. The colors are vibrant, at times subdues, and the blacks are rich and deep. In terms of extras, there is only a sole Easter egg feature of a hidden code that will allow you to unlock a bonus level of EA's "Superman Returns" video game - it's nice if you have a gaming system, pointless if you don't. (The film is also available in separate full-screen, widescreen, and 2-disc special editions, as well as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions, the latter two of which were unavailable for review.)

It's on the second disc (Disc 11 of the UCE) that things begin to come forth. First of all, we have a collection of 10 deleted scenes and one extended scene, all presented in anamorphic widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound. Most of these cut scenes add wonderful character quality to Clark's return in Smallville, and we see some glimpses of moments that made it into the preview trailers, TV spots, and TV documentaries but not the final film. One extended scene of the teenage Clark Kent (Stephan Bender) is obviously in unfinished form, but we get the essence of the moment. Some of the other extended clips are a waste of time and contribute nothing to the story.

Next up we have a brief music video-style feature called "The Resurrection of Jor-El", showing how the 30-year-old Brando footage was re-edited and used for "Superman Returns" through the use of CGI digital effects. While this is a great visual narrative, I for one would have preferred a narrative commentary to accompany the video.

We also have a collection of different preview trailers, including the teaser and second theatrical trailer for the film, along with two EA Games previews for the "Superman Returns" and "Justice League" game releases, and a trailer for the Christopher Reeve "Superman" Collection and "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut". Why the first theatrical trailer or the different TV spots were not included in this set is beyond me. There's also a little Easter egg on this disc of outtakes from the film featuring Kevin Spacey.

But the most important extra is the documentary "Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns". This three-hour piece, directed by Robert Meyer Burnett ("Free Enterprise") and divided into seven chapters, is where the real meat can be found. Here we go behind the scenes for a real in-depth look at the making of the film. Unlike a lot of behind-the-scenes features, many of which is interview fluff, this has actual substantial material to it. We see how serious Bryan Singer is in honoring Donner's film by intending a similar opening prologue to his film. We see the origins of the film, with Singer's proposal and treatment before approaching Warner Bros. executives about it. We get a seat at the production table with Singer and his crew, which sometimes gets a little heated. We see how Brandon Routh was chosen for the fole in a very funny runabout way. We have set construction and rehearsals, discussions with the cast and crew about what to bring to the film, scenes of Routh in physical and stunt training for the role, dress rehearsals with the cast - the list goes on and on. We even have another cut scene that didn't make the film, of a conversation between Superman and Perry White, and some really funny bloopers from the film's production. This is one of the best making-of documentaries produced for DVD that's come down the pike in quite a while.

Granted, there's some requisite stuff that's been left off this DVD set, including director and cast audio commentaries, as well as a major deleted scene from the film's opening, of Superman's return to Krypton, that's been well documented in other sources. There's also all of Bryan Singer's video blogs, which was included on Disc 14 of the UCE - this disc should have been utilized as the proper third disc for the set (I'll comment on the video blogs next time). Furthermore, different stores have featured different bonus extras with their individual releases. Best Buy included a booklet on the comprehensive guide to Superman; Circuit City featured a bonus National Geographic special entitled "The Science of Superman"; Target had a couple of vintage radio shows from the 1940's; and Wal-Mart offered buyers a $2 download of the film with the purchase of the separate DVD. These incentives really baffle me - I mean, who would want to buy a download of the film for their computer when they already have the DVD to begin with? For that matter, why track everything down to have all of the store-exclusive bonuses? That doesn't make any sense at all.

Still, this is a good DVD release with a wonderful documentary feature. Don't be surprised if Warner Bros. double-dips this title down the road in an expanded version in anticipation of the forthcoming sequel.

Next time I'll conclude my analysis with looks at the remaining extras of the UCE. See you then!

Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition - Part V

2007-06-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the release of "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace", the fourth cinematic installment in the Superman franchise and the final installment featuring the late Christopher Reeve in the title role. Of course, we are all aware of the turbulent production history this film had, the brutal sabotage and butchering of 45 minutes of footage from the film prior to its theatrical release, and the endless debates over the remaining footage, all of the archival production footage, and the many different theatrical trailers and TV spots containing numerous additional clips not shown in the final 89-minute U.S. theatrical version or the 93-minute European release. And yet, for what it's worth, with all of its bumps, bruises, and scabs along the way, "Superman IV" has generated a following of its own because of the film's sincere, if awkward and cheapjack, attempt to return to the spirit of the first film and because of its huge gaps in logic, storytelling, and, most importantly, footage.

The film's plot is simple and straightforward: Superman chooses to get involved in worldwide nuclear disarmament and manages to rid the world of its nuclear weapons. But his nemesis Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) has come up with a way that he believes will not only eliminate the Man of Steel but also keep the nuclear threat alive and profitable. Had this been handled by Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, who were initially approached to consider bringing the franchise back on track after the critically drummed "Superman III", this film probably would have been successful. (Donner, of course, would go on to direct the first installment of the "Lethal Weapon" series, while Mankiewicz would helm a big-screen comic version of the long-running TV staple "Dragnet".) Instead, the film's story - conceived by Reeve and co-writers Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal ("The Jewel of the Nile" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country"), directed by Sidney J. Furie ("The Ipcress File" and "Iron Eagle"), and produced by Menahem Golem and Yoran Globus of Cannon Films (who purchased the rights from Alexander and Ilya Salkind) - was produced as cheaply as you can get on a shoestring budget. The film's budget was slashed all across the board, including the all-important visual effects that netted the first "Superman" film the coveted Oscar. It further had very little promotion in the media. And after the disastrous sneak preview screening prior to the film's release, the film itself was butchered, the remaining 89 (or 93, depending on which side of the Atlantic you lived) minutes slapped together, and the remaining footage shelved or quite possibly destroyed. The eventual result was an awkward, haphazard mess that drew viewers out of the story all too much, resulting in little to no character motivation or development at all. If the first three films were cinematic marvels, IV looked like the equivalent of a TV movie of the week. Despite its sincere attempt, "Superman IV" failed critically and commercially at the box office.

Yet there were some good elements about the film: Reeve back in the role, the interaction between Reeve and Hackman, Margot Kidder's return as Lois Lane, a new love interest for Clark Kent in Lacy Warfield (Mariel Hemingway), an interesting double-date scenario, and the musical score adapted by Alexander Courage from John Williams' original themes. Had this film been given a chance, and with the right amount of promotion and production values, it could have done well. But in the hands of a failing B-film studio who had too many irons in the fire at one time, "Superman IV" was never given top priority over any of Cannon's other projects, despite Reeve's attempt to keep everyone's morale alive.

Since that time many people, including Reeve, Furie, and Bryan Singer, among others, have relegated "Superman IV" to an alternate cinematic history (especially in the light of "Superman Returns", which also disavowed III in the process). Furie has refused to comment on it since then, even two decades after the fact. I know this for a fact; I tried to personally contact the man myself and never got a response. Reeve, in his later years, would admit to the problems with IV from storytelling, financial, and personal standpoints and refuse watching the 93-minute European cut of the film. But fans would not give up on it, nor would they give up on the whereabouts of the remainder of the film's footage. In 2005 hopes were elevated when it was discovered that the film's original camera negatives were in storage at Deluxe Film Labs in Denham, Middlesex, England. (Road trip!) Now with the release of the Deluxe Edition of "Superman IV" on DVD, issued as Disc 9 in the Ultimate Collector's Edition, Warner Home Video has opened up a huge door for the fans, giving them a glimpse into what might have been. However, like the final released product itself, this new DVD release lends very little support to the designated "Deluxe Edition" label and falls far short of fan expectations.

The film's transfer is identical to the previous 2001 DVD release, presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen format and your choice of English or French Dolby 2.0 sond. The picture itself is generally crisp and clean - almost too crisp, if you ask me, because of all the obvious scabs and wonds given to the final treatment of the film. In other words, too many matte lines covering (or not covering) lots of wires, wires, and still more wires all over the place. It's absolutely horrendous, and it doesn't make you believe anyone can fly. At times the visual effects cause the film's image to be washed out - this is not the fault of the film's DVD transfer but the film assembly itself. A whole lot of CGI love could be given to this film to at least make it look a little more believable.

In terms of supplements, there are very few supplements overall, but what we have here really does shed a light onto what might have been. First off, the film's U.S. theatrical trailer is recycled from the previous DVD release, with finished versions of two additional scenes not featured in the theatrical cut (which I'll discuss in further detail later).

One of the two major new supplements to this disc is a new running audio commentary with Mark Rosenthal, who discusses many of the film's production problems and story elements. Rosenthal is honest and to the point about the many issues Cannon Films and Warner Bros. had to face during its production, including the poor planning of many of the film's shot and confirming that Reeve unjustly bore the brunt of the negative backlash the film received and the problems that led to the cutting of 45 minutes of footage from the fiml's original 134-minute running time (which he confirms several times throughout the commentary). Rosenthal also points out interesting story elements that come into play throughout the film, including homages to "Dr. Strangelove", the then-current Cold War between the U.S. and Russia, and even a possible AIDS allusion to the film. (Of course, there's one thing that Reeve, Rosenthal, and Konner may have overlooked, and that's the fact that Lacy Warfield's obvious seduction of Clark Kent, despite its Cary Grant-like comic overtones, at times borders on workplace sexual harrassment, which upon recently viewing the film I finally picked up on - has anyone else noticed this element at all?) Rosenthal further posits an interesting question: in the post-9/11 world, would Superman have gotten involved in protecting Metropolis/New York City from terrorist attacks? And there's also an interesting point about who was initially considered for the part of the Nuclear Man, but I guess they thought fans wouldn't have wanted to see Christopher Reeve in a good Superman/bad Superman confrontation once again. Unfortunately, there are gaps at times in Rosenthal's commentary which could have been filled with more information about the film's production. Still, I have to give Rosenthal credit for delivering a decent commentary that sheds some interesting light.

The other major new supplement is the inclusion of some 30 minutes of deleted scenes from the film, presented in widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound. These cut scenes can be viewed either individually or in one continuous "play all" feature. All of these cut scenes were taken from a workprint version of the film, complete with temporary music and, in many places, incomplete visual effects, so the film's quality is obviously not as good as the remainder of the film. In these deleted scenes we get more footage of Reeve as Superman, which is always a good thing. We have more footage of Hackman, who at times is comic brilliant, at other times very shrewd and serious about his intention in playing the U.S. and Russian governments against each other - this significant scene could have beefed up the dramatic, yet ironically comic, element of the film.

A huge chunk of the film's most important scenes, which could have added about 15 minutes back into the film, are moments that flesh out some of the film's supporting characters, including Jeremy (Damien Maclawhorn) and Lacy, particularly in her growing attraction toward Clark. Two of the most important deleted scenes featured in this block involve Luthor's creation of the prototype Nuclear Man Mark I (played in these scenes by Clive Mantle). Portions of this sequence included in the U.S. theatrical trailer and one of the TV spots are obviously of finished quality, leads me to conclude that the scenes were cut after completion. While the first of Mantle's scenes is a very welcome addition, I for one have to admit that this scene was rightfully cut from the film. Given Mantle's "Bizarro"-like campy performance, not to mention the worst-looking codpiece in the history of cinema this side of Sting's metal thong in "Dune", this scene alone would have probably caused the film to be laughed off the screen right then and there. Had it been played with more seriousness, it could have been a big plus but instead winds up a big waste. This scene's deletion also affected the cutting of the second of Mantle's scenes, involving Superman's confrontation with Nuclear Man Mark I outside the Metro Club. Reports gave the budget for this battle at over six million dollars alone, which if handled properly could have been a big winner for the film. Of course, we go back to the problem once again of wires, wires, and more wires, and in one clip we can clearly see Reeve's stunt double being tossed through the sky in a poorly executed shot reminiscent of those not-so-hidden stunt doubles in the original "Star Trek" series. For some reason Warner Home Video chose to include the second portion of this sequence while omitting the humorous and romantic set-up involving Clark and Lacy's date at the Metro Club - I for one wish they could have included the rest of this sequence in its entirety. These deletions also affected the cutting of another scene involving Luthor afterwards.

Another major subplot involving the second Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) attempting to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, and Superman's successful diversion, is included. Again this is another scene that upon viewing was obviously near completion, as many of the visual effects and flying shots are of finished quality. With a little more love given to the visual effects, and a few more insert shots, this five-minutes scene could have remained in the final film and been a winner. (Portions of this scene were included in the Australian theatrical trailer for the film.) In addition, the film's final optimistic scene of Superman and Jeremy flying over the skies of the Earth could have remained in the film, giving the appropriate coda this film so badly deserved.

Furthermore, we have workprint versions of two scenes familiar to American viewers since 1990: Superman averting a tornado in the Midwest (identified on the DVD as "Smallville") and saving Russia from a potential nuclear disaster. Both of these scenes were first shown in syndication courtesy of Viacom, which sourced the original 1988 VHS release of the film and the two cut scenes for the basis of the broadcast. These cut scenes were also included in Tohokushinsha Home Video's Japanese laserdisc of the 93-minute European theatrical cut issued by Cannon Films. Yet all we get on this DVD are their incomplete workprint counterparts - why is that? Everyone knows fully well that the finished versions of these scenes exist in one form or another, and on the Japanese laserdisc the Dolby audio and widescreen video quality is far superior to their workprint counterparts. At the very least Warner Home Video could have sourced the European version for these scenes and restored them into the context of the film.

For that matter, completed versions of other snippets from cut scenes have appeared in different trailers and TV spots for the film but were not included on the DVD. For example, in both the Australian trailer and one of the U.S. TV spots, there is a prominent clip of Luthor asking Superman, "Isn't that (the second Nuclear Man) adorable?" This leads to the question of the existence of the master camera negatives for all of the cut footage included on the DVD as well as the remaining cut scenes that have yet to see the light of day. It's just baffling. I have to give Warner Home Video credit for releasing a lot of the cut scenes to begin with, though the quality and quantity could have been a lot more than what we received. And why only 30 minutes of cut scenes, why not all 45 minutes? In addition, Warner really took a huge step back in not featuring all of the different domestic and international trailers and TV spots on the new DVD, though we know for a fact that a number of them exist.

In addition, any and all production footage filmed in 1986-87, which exists in various sources and forms, could have formed the basis for a production documentary on the making of the film, complete with interviews with cast and production team members, which this DVD sorely needed. (Attempts were made to contact Mark Pillow for his participation in the "You Will Believe" documentary, which were unsuccessful. Whatever happened to him, by the way?) Not to mention that the international version of this release reportedly contained a joint audio commentary with Konner and Rosenthal, as well as a featurette on what the film could have been like had the 134-minute version been given a chance - as of this writing, nothing has been confirmed on either of these features.

To call this new version of "Superman IV" a Deluxe Edition isn't warranted here. To be honest, this is no more deluxe than any single-disc release of a typical DVD title with just a couple of extras thrown in, especially when we know of the wealth of material that's out there pertaining to this film. With the first two films, "Superman Returns", and the Richard Donner Cut of "Superman II" receiving great DVD treatment, this new version of IV is a major missed attempt at giving the fans what they have longed for over the past 20 years, a more complete picture. There's still a number of missing pieces to the puzzle, most notably the lost 15 minutes of footage, the master camera negatives to all of these scenes, and, sadly, Christopher Reeve himself. And my opinion of this DVD is the same as my first opinion when I first saw the film on that hot summer day in July 1987: that's it? I can only hope that down the road someone - whether Michael Thau, Mike Matessino, Robert Harris, WETA Digital, Digital Domain, or whomever - will give this film the proper love and treatment it rightfully deserves and writes the final fitting chapter to this troubled film. Superman and Christopher Reeve fans everywhere really deserve that release and not this one.

Next time around: Bryan Singer brings the Man of Steel back after a 19-year hiatus, with my thoughts on "Superman Returns" on Discs 10 and 11. See you then!

The New Adventures of Superman

2007-06-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that in my last installment I said I would continue my analysis on the "Superman" Ultimate Collector's Edition with a look at the deluxe version of "Superman IV". But today I have to steer off track a bit, because what happened to arrive in my mailbox yesterday but Warner's DVD release of "The New Adventures of Superman" (MSRP $26.99), slated for release June 26!

September 1966 was a pretty good time, if you ask me. The original "Star Trek" premiered on NBC, and toward the end of the month I was born (that's showing my age right there!). The Beatles had just completed its last live concert tour and went into the studio to begin work on an unprecedented project that would come to be known as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". America was caught up in the outrage over the Vietnam War. And on the airwaves America was just getting into the campy but enjoyable new series of the time, "Batman". But in September 1966 there was another new series that hit the air with almost little fanfare, a new half-hour Saturday morning animated series called "The New Adventures of Superman".

After nearly 30 years in the comic book industry, with an equal amount of success in the newspapers with a long-running comic strip, 17 animated installments produced in the 1940's, a successful radio show, two theatrical serials, and a long-running television series in the 1950's, Superman seemed almost passe' during the 1960's. By that time the comic strip was winding down, its most notable portrayer George Reeves had been tragically killed, and Broadway had tried to put its own mark on the character with a musical adaptation. That just left the comic books as the sole domain at the time for the Man of Steel. But Filmation Studios, which would produce many seminal cartoon series of the 60's and 70's with "Scooby Doo", "The Flintstones", "The Jetsons", and "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids", among others, took its own spin on the last son of Krypton and scored a major hit with Superman fans and young viewers everywhere.

What made "The New Adventures of Superman" a success was that producer Lou Scheimer and director Hal Sutherland treated the Superman material with respect, going back to the original comic book source to produce each animated installment, which ran 6-7 minutes apiece, in the style of the Curt Swan look of the character at the time. That's not a lot of room for character development, but for Saturday morning not a lot of depth was needed, just a straightforward simplicity and respect for the comics themselves. Still, they could pack in two segments (along with a Superboy segment) in each half-hour and keep things interesting. Even more so, Scheimer and Sutherland recruited two veteran Superman actors to help bring the series to life - Clayton "Bud" Collyer and Joan Alexander, who voiced the characters of Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, respectively, in the Fleischer cartoons and the radio series.

In each of these segments Superman would routinely encounter villains familiar to long-time readers: Lex Luthor, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Brainiac, the Toyman, and the Parasite were among the villains who would give the Man of Steel his fair share of trouble. Another running thread throughout the series was Superman's encounter with gorillas in several installments, as well as battles against time-traveling magicians, an aquatic race of mermen living in the Earth's core, and energy-controlling aliens, among others. In addition, long-time supporting character Jimmy Olsen made his animated debut in this series. To keep the series fresh and running for young viewers, the series would feature two Superman segments and one Superboy segment per each half-hour. In all, a total of 36 animated Superman segments and 18 Superboy segments were produced in 1966. By the fall of 1967, Superman would later be featured as part of Filmaton's "The Superman/Aquaman Hour", which would also bring the Justice League of America to animation for the first time. All of these cartoons, along with a 1960's "Batman" animated series (which has yet to be released on DVD) and the 1970's "The New Adventures of Batman" (releasing on DVD at the same time as the "Superman" set), would later be recycled into daily syndication through the 1980's as part of a DC Comics-themed animated series.

Through it all, "The New Adventures of Superman" continued to thrill fans. I remember routinely catching these segments during the 70's and 80's, always remembering how goofy and fun these cartoons were. Previously Warner Home Video had issued 60-minute compilations of several of the Superman and Superboy segments in respective individual VHS releases in 1988 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Superman character. Last year we got our first hint at a possible DVD release, thanks to clips surfacing in Bryan Singer and Kevin Burns' documentary "Look! Up in the Sky - The Amazing Story of Superman". Now Warner Home Video has brought "The New Adventures of Superman" to DVD in a new two-disc set, and I've got to admit, it's like stepping back in time!

Each of the 36 segments are spread across two discs, 18 episodes per disc, reproduced in their original full frame format and Dolby 2.0 sound, with optional closed captions. For some reason the packaging indicates a 5.1 track for this set, but as simple as this series is, you don't really need to go any further than a 2.0 track. While these segments are arranged in production order, for some reason Superman's first encounter with Brainiac, the 33rd segment "Superman Meets Brainiac" appears after the 12th segment, "The Return of Brainiac". This makes it a little confusing continuity-wise, but aside from this misstep it's nonethless a nice arrangement.

The only extras on this set can be found on Disc 2, limited to just one featurette and a trailer gallery. The sole featurette on the set, "Superman in '66", is a 15-minute look at how the Man of Steel was brought to life in animated form for the first time since the 1940's. Interviews with DC Comics writers and artists look back at the 1960's and how the era influenced the look of this latest Superman series, leading to his debut in animated form from Filmation.

The trailer gallery includes preview trailers for the season sets of "Justice League Unlimited", "Batman Beyond", "Teen Titans", and "The Batman"; and the upcoming DVD releases of 60 vintage "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios in the 1930's (now this ought to be a treat indeed!), as well as the complete DVD collections of "Space Ghost", "Birdman", and Tex Avery's "Droopy" (Now let's not get nosy, bub!) Also on Disc 2, while unadvertised, is a teaser for the upcoming direct-to-DVD release of "Superman: Doomsday", adapted from the phenomenal 1992-93 "Death of Superman" comics trilogy and the first of the new DC Universe-themed original animated film series. Now this I have got to see!

If there is one significant caveat about this new DVD release, it's that all of the Superboy segments have been left off the set, despite the fact that the end credits sequences retain the Superboy voice credit on screen. This loss is due to the continuing legal issues between DC Comics and the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster over the legal rights to the Superboy character. This continuing legal problem has kept the Superboy segments, the 1961 Superboy pilot with John Rockwell, and (along with poor DVD sales) the remaining seasons of "The Adventures of Superboy" from 1989-92 with Gerard Christopher, from appearing on DVD in an official format. This is really a shame, if you ask me. I hope that one day soon these issues are cleared up and the Superboy character is given the love he rightfully deserves.

Watching "The New Adventures of Superman" on DVD is like stepping into a time capsule back to my youth. And just a few days ago, my daughter, who's 2 1/2, can now identify Superman and Batman by name just by looking at them - what can I say? She takes after Daddy! This is a fun and enjoyable addition to the Superman canon. I hope Warner steps up to the plate and issues the 1988 Ruby-Spears Superman animated series, as well as all of the unreleased Superboy material, on DVD down the road soon.

Okay, as promised, next time I'll be back with my thoughts on "Superman IV". See you then! :)

Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition - Part IV

2007-06-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

After the critical and commercial successes of the first two "Superman" films, it seemed nothing could possibly go wrong with Warner Bros.' successful film franchise. But after the troubling debacle that ensued during the production of the first two films and affected the eventual development of "Superman II", producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind were determined to steer the franchise back on course (read: in their own direction). Their intention: to produce "Superman III" with elements that then-contemporary audiences could relate to. Working with writers David and Leslie Newman, they conceived the elements of hostile corporate businessmen and computers gone haywire. In today's times, these threats are all too commonplace. Back in the early 1980's not many people thought this was possible.

The Salkinds also wanted more emphasis on comedy and humor to steer the third film to the big screen and bring in a larger audience, but who would fill that role? Enter the late Richard Pryor, at that time the hottest comedian in America. Pryor had just emerged from a near-death experience and sought diverse, interesting roles that stretched him as an actor - in other words, something safe and not so risky as the work he produced in the 1970's that brought him recognition and popularity. Pryor's role of the bumbling Gus Gorman, a down and out computer genuis, took center stage away from the Superman character, a sign that things were in trouble for the Man of Steel. (This blend of comedy and adventure seemed to threaten other film franchises, most notably in 1985-86 when at one point Eddie Murphy was considered for a supporting role in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", which to the delight of Trek fans everywhere didn't come to light.)

Despite a fairly respectable $65 million domestic gross, "Superman III" premiered in the summer of 1983 but was hampered from the start with a weak script, recycled elements from the first two films that never made it to the screen, and too much comic emphasis on Pryor's mugging and director Richard Lester's flair for camp comedy that made his films of the 1960's successful. Add to it the fact that Christopher Reeve had begun to grow tired of the Superman role and vowed never to return, and you have a recipe for certain disaster.

Over the years I had viewed "Superman III" as an uneven mesh of elements both good and bad, and my thoughts hold true now as they have in the past. In some cases the good really comes forth. Reeve brought a needed maturity to Clark Kent that was severely lacking in the first two films; he no longer needed to put on an act, especially back home in Smallville. While Margot Kidder's part of Lois Lane was reduced to a mere two-scene quickie, no thanks to the Salkinds, Annette O'Toole brought quite a pleasing counterbalance as the now-adult Lana Lang, a divorcee and single mom who brings out Clark's heart of gold in a bittersweet romance that never fully develops. And while the action this time around is more pedestrian in presentation than epic in quality, the showdown between Clark and the evil Superman is an interesting study of man wrestling with his dual nature that comes right out of the Superman comics. However, the bad elements threaten to outweigh the good more often than not. With Pryor, Robert Vaughn, Annie Ross, and Pamela Stephenson as the film's villains du jour, their actions take center stage through much of the film, unfortunately shepherding Reeve to the middle of the group as a featured player instead of a leading man. In any James Bond film the main character is Bond himself, not the villain. The same is expected in a Superman film. Not so with this weak effort.

Now we come to the Deluxe Edition of "Superman III" from Warner Home Video, issued as Disc 8 of the 14-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition and also in a separate release. Right away I can tell you that compared to the previous DVD release, this new version is better in terms of some of its content and presentation, though overall the release itself needed quite a bit more effort put into it in some areas. (More on this later.)

The film itself is presented in a crisp anamorphic widescreen transfer conforming to the fiml's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, with your choice of English or French Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. This transfer is the same as on the previous DVD release from 2001. Colors and blacks are solid, and the image quality is quite good - a little too good, if you ask me. That's because as with the previous DVD, some of the elements that hid the illusion of a man flying are gone - in other words, lots of wires, wires, and more wires. No wonder Ilya Salkind was upset about this alteration from the original film masters. Compare this DVD to your old laserdisc or VHS copies of the film, and you'll see what I mean. If anything, Warner Home Video should have fixed the wire problem for this release (and for that matter with all of the Reeve Superman films) with a little CGI love that would have preserved the effect. The serious presence of wires all over the place simply draws me out of the film - where's the verisimilitude that Richard Donner worked so hard to maintain in the first two films? Gone with that little "You're fired!" telegram the Salkinds sent to him back in 1979.

Where this new DVD release shines is with the inclusion of a number of fairly decent supplements. First off, Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler provide an optional audio commentary for the film, as they did with the first two films. Here they discuss their insights into bringing "Superman III" to life, working with Pryor, Lester's comic touches, and so forth. It's a decent commentary from start to finish, though I still have trouble with some of their spin statements. In addition, the film's theatrical trailer (with the spoiler-filled ending, no less!) is recycled from the previous DVD and laserdisc releases, presented in widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound. You know it's an ominous feeling for a film's box office release when its ending is heavily spoiled in the preview trailer(s).

New to this DVD release is the vintage TV special "The Making of Superman III", narrated by Al Matthews (who portrayed the fire chief in the film). This 48-minute documentary pulls the curtain back on some of the production elements in making this third film come to life, including the construction of Ross Webster's elaborate skyscraper ski slope, the construction and destruction of the ultimate computer, shooting the elaborate opening sequence of comic mishaps, the junkyard fight, and other scenes throughout the film. Reeve, Lester, and O'Toole, among others, offer their thoughts on this latest installment, and it turns out that the biggest Superman junkie on the block this time around is not Reeve, Pryor, or Lester, but O'Toole! I had never known this program had aired on ABC during the 1980's, though I had suspected it so, and it's only been in the last few years that I found out it indeed aired on ABC. How I missed it, I have no idea. It's presented in full frame format and Dolby 2.0 sound, and the image quality is fairly good for a 20-year-old documentary. While it's far less technical than the other documentaries on the Superman DVDs, there are some nice little technical nuggets to glean here.

We also have a series of deleted and extended scenes, pulled from the film's extended TV broadcasts. All of these added scenes are presented in full frame format and Dolby 2.0 sound. Unfortunately, all of these cut scenes, along with those that didn't make this DVD release, add no story value at all to the film are not relevant to or missed in the final theatrical version. They still don't. Except for the brief snippets involving Reeve, I wouldn't have missed them at all. Furthermore, the selected clips included on this DVD are taken from a filthy-looking print with lots of dirt throughout the footage. That's really careless if you ask me. It's possible that the full frame print may be the only source in existence in referencing these cut scenes, and if that's the case, then that's one thing. Obviously the Salkinds had to reference a widescreen print of the film and its cut scenes to prepare it for broadcast (as with the first two films), didn't they? So where are the widescreen versions of these clips? Somebody fumbled the ball in a big way, if you ask me.

Furthermore, to call this DVD release a "Deluxe Version" is a misnomer. Seriously, a single-disc DVD release like this is far from earning the title deluxe anything. Had this been a true deluxe edition, Warner would have gone all out and included vintage interviews with Reeve and Pryor, a commentary with Lester (though every effort was made to obtain his participation in the creation of the new DVD releases), additional production features, TV spots for the film (including at least one with some alternate footage that never made it into the film), and the extended version in its entirety, all spread out over a two-disc set. This DVD is no more deluxe than a single-disc release of a standard DVD with the film, a trailer, and a few extras.

In preparing the Ultimate Collector's Edition, initial pressings of the set erroneously included the 2001 DVD pressing of the film sans extras. This turned out to be an honest production error that affected only the 14-disc set. Thankfully, Warner stepped up to the plate and corrected that problem, and while the recent reissue of the 14-disc set contains the corrected disc, fans who purchased the set back in November can still send in the original disc for a replacement. At least that's one good point in Warner's favor for this film.

"Superman III" is a disappointing film from start to finish. As a so-called "Deluxe Edition" DVD, it's still disappointing. But the documentary and Reeve's presence are probably the sole things that keep me from forgetting about this release altogether. As with IV (which I will review next time), Warner dropped the ball in a number of areas with this one. Unless a proper two-disc special edition comes along (something I honestly don't see happening), this is probably all we're going to get. And with Bryan Singer's 2006 revamp of the Superman franchise many have cast off III (and IV) into alternate universe continuity. I can't say that I blame them. Otherwise, this one's really for the hardcore Superman fans.

Next time around, it's Disc 9, "Superman IV" and the quest for the complete picture. See you then!

(Oh, lest I forget, happy 25th anniversary, "Star Trek II!" They don't make 'em like that anymore!)

Miscellaneous musings at the end of the week...

2007-06-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I managed to find the HBO Video 2002 DVD release of "Above Suspicion", with the late Christopher Reeve, at a discount store for all of three bucks! It's really hard watching this film now, knowing that this was shown at the same time as Chris' tragic accident. Still, finding this for only three dollars is a deal indeed! I hope I'm as lucky in finding the rest of Chris' films on DVD (or VHS) down the road.

Which reminds me... Question to Warner Home Video: When's "In the Gloaming" coming out? This is the second year in a row that The Digital Bits has announced it, yet it's not on DVD. It's been 10 years since this excellent film, which marked Chris' directorial debut, premiered on HBO. Somebody needs to get on the stick about it.

The guys at TVShowsonDVD.com confirmed some time back the release of "Young Indiana Jones" on DVD by the end of this year, in time for Christmas and several months before the release of the fourth film with Harrison Ford. While that's good news for many, it still bums me out because these will be the 22 re-edited movie versions with additional footage, completely neglecting the original TV broadcast versions of many of these episodes featuring actor George Hall as an elderly Indy in the opening and closing bookend segments. That includes the first telecast from 1992, "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal", with three incarnations of Indy; the original broadcast version of "Travels with Father" (with the Sean Patrick Flanery footage ported over to the second half of the re-edited "Winds of Change"); and numerous other changes throughout the series. (And for those of you keeping track, the second half of "Passion for Life" chronologically occurs in 1908, before the first half, set in 1909, though George Lucas reversed the order for the re-edited version.) And yet, IndianaJones.com (the official Lucasfilm web site for Indy) references all of the original adventures! For that matter, there's no word on whether or not Flanery's screen test (which was included on one of the 1999 VHS releases) will be included in its entirety on the DVD set. Luca$ apparently has no respect for our memories. Better hold onto those original TV broadcasts, because they won't be on the big DVD set apparently. And while you're at it, let Luca$ know your thoughts about it.

I'm kind of wondering about that big "Star Trek: The Next Generation" complete box set coming out in September just in time for the series' 20th anniversary. Like the MASH "Martinis and Medicine" box set, will it have some exclusive extras to it - maybe, perhaps, the bonus DVD features that were included on the Best Buy bonus discs for seasons 4-7? Maybe the text commentaries from the different "Fan Collective" sets? "From Here to Infinity: The Ultimate Voyage", on the Jean-Luc Picard Collection a few years back? Maybe even some new features, like hidden Easter eggs, deleted scenes (yes, there are some out there for TNG!), more outtakes, the Patrick Stewart A&E Biography, the "Journey's End" special from 1994 (which has never been issued on DVD), episode trailers? Who knows? Maybe like the MASH box set, they'll throw in the four TNG feature films (hopefully with all of the bonus features). In any event, this is one set worth keeping an eye on, not to mention getting as an early birthday present! (Hint hint out there!)

For that matter, will Paramount do likewise for the other "Star Trek" series - issue them in new complete series box set with all-new extras? More documentaries, deleted scenes, outtakes, bloopers, episode trailers, etc.? Time will only tell. Maybe by then we can see the recent remastered versions of "Trek" classic (with all those neat new CGI effects) on DVD as well. Hey, some of us (like me) don't have cable or TiVo!

And that's a wrap for this week! Next time I'll get back to continuing my commentary on the "Superman" Ultimate Collector's Edition with a look at the "Superman III" Deluxe Edition. See you then!

Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition - Part 3

2007-06-05T15:20:00.001-07:00

It's extremely difficult to comment on "Superman II" without having to divide it into two camps, the original theatrical version credited to Richard Lester and the original version helmed by Richard Donner (the latter of which finally saw the light of day in 2006). Of course, there's the many different versions of the extended telecasts, most notably represented by the fan-created Restored International Cut - but that's a different story for another time.

In the Ultimate Collector's Edition, the "Superman II: Richard Donner Cut" is presented as Disc 6. To read my original review on that release, click here. To borrow from the excellent graphic novel "Kingdom Come" (now why doesn't Warner Bros. turn that into a movie? That would absolutely rock!), now it's time for the democratic response, and to that I have to go back in time to the film's release.

I remember the summer of 1981 like the back of my hand. I had attended a YMCA youth camp in North Carolina when the bus I rode in passed by a movie theater. There, in large letters on the marquee sign, read the announcement "Now Showing: Superman - Part II". Little did I know at the time that whoever put that information on the marquee actually got it right.

"Superman II" was originally intended to continue the story begun in the first film and wound up one of those rare sequels that exceeded the first film's tradition and spirit. This time, however, there would be no slow build-up, no lengthy backstory to preface the events; things would start off with a bang - literally. From the freeing of the Phantom Zone villains to Lois Lane's attempts to expose Clark Kent's secret identity of Superman, to the battles in Metropolis and the Fortress of Solitude, "Superman II" offered plenty of action. Of course, I had read in David Michael Petrou's book "The Making of Superman: The Movie" that Donner had filmed most of II simultaneously with the first film and that the footage was already in the can. Even the final credit at the end of the first film touted that II would be here "next year". So what took so long?

Unknown to me, a lot of movie politics and conspiracies changed the look and tone of "Superman II". Over the next 25 years I, like many others, analyzed everything that took place during the production of both films, chief among them the many conflicts involving Donner, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler, which resulted in Lester coming aboard as an uncredited associate producer (read: go-between to Donner and the Salkinds). With the first "Superman" a success, one of the great injustices in the history of cinema occurred, as Donner was fired from the project in the summer of 1979, and Lester (along with George Macdonald Fraser) was brought in to do an uncredited rewrite on the shooting script and to reshoot many key sequences, thereby earning him sole directorial credit on II. Along the way I glimpsed scenes from Donner's version in the final theatrical version and the extended TV broadcasts throughout the 1980's. Sometimes the scenes were as sincere and believable as the footage in the first film; at other times it was more comical and disjointed. Even the father-son relationship that set up the first film was gone, as all of Marlon Brando's scenes were jettisoned in favor of Susannah York as Lara, thereby setting up an awkward (though certainly plausible) mother-son dynamic.

"Superman II" wound up one of the big hits in the summer of 1981, earning a respectable $110 million at the box office (which in today's terms rounds off to an estimated $225 million) and coming in second behind the surprise hit of the year, "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Above the surface, you couldn't tell what was going on. Beneath the scabs that permeated the final film, however, the firing of Donner, the lawsuits forced onto the Salkinds by Brando from the cutting of his scenes from II and his profits from both films, the lawsuits by Margot Kidder over delinquent salary promises (note to Pierre: you can't refute what is publicly established in print! Liar liar, pants on fire!), and the chunking of most of Donner's footage took its toll on everyone. While "Superman III" was certainly a guarantee at the time, no one knew that the franchise would soon be steered into shaky waters. Over the years "Superman II" has become a study of what can go right and wrong during a film production, and like the Donner Cut it is not, and never will be, a perfect film. Still, in all fairness to Donner, some of Lester's footage is actually quite good and has held up fairly well over time.

Now we have the "Superman II" Special Edition, issued as Discs 5 and 7 in the Ultimate Collector's Edition and individually as a 2-disc set. I wish I could say that Warner pulled out all the stops in giving much care and consideration to "Superman II", but after looking at this film I have my doubts.

First off, the film itself is presented on Disc 5 in anamorphic widescreen format and your choice of English Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 sound, or French 2.0 mono sound with optional English, Spanish, or French subtitles. This is a fairly decent step up from the previous DVD release, which offered the film only in 2.0. The sound balance is much better this time, though there's still one thing that bothers me: even in 5.1, the sound is still tinny at times. This is not Warner's fault, which did the best job it could in reproducing the sound in 5.1 from the original source material. The problem is the source material itself. Except for the extended TV broadcasts, "Superman II" has always sounded tinny, particularly in the music. This is because of the usage of one of two prints for every home video release from the initial VHS tapes of the 1980's to today. (The other version, with slightly different end credits and a richer sound to the music, especially in the main title credits, remains unreleased in any home video format beyond the extended TV broadcasts. I know this for a fact because when I saw the film in 1981, I remember this version being shown in my local theater - the key is the Howard R. Schuster and Zoptic logo title cards, which were not in the initial release but were in later releases; neither of these title cards are in the end credits in the extended versions.) A film like "Superman" is supposed to sound broad and bombastic, not tinny and almost rinky-dink. The Donner Cut got the sound right, with a richer, fuller remixed sound all the way through.

The visual print, however, is another story. It's still the same source print for the 2001 DVD release, and the visuals look almost horrible at times. There's quite a bit of color bleed-out in many places, particularly in the opening prologue and main title credits, and at times the film looks almost hazy. Add to it the fact that the visual scabs are all over the place - from the poor airbrushing of Brando out of the borrowed STM shot in the prologue, to the wires clearly evident not only throughout a good portion of the Lester footage but also in the Donner clips as well! (Check out the scene of the Russian cosmonaut just before Zod pulls him away, and you'll clearly see the wires in the film print.) So much for verisimilitude, if you ask me. In this day and age, when so many films from the past get top-notch digital restoration treatment, there's clearly been no love given to the theatrical cut of "Superman II". Warner should know better than this.

Also on Disc 5 we have a new audio commentary with Salkind and Spengler. Like their commentary on the first "Superman" film, and in juxtaposition with the Donner-Tom Mankiewicz commentary on the Donner Cut, Salkind and Spengler discuss their views on Donner's dismissal; Lester's completion of the film; the replacement of John Williams (who refused to score II without Donner there) with Ken Thorne (who at the Salkinds' request restructured all of Williams' themes for II); the many production problems and logistics in completing the film; and the reverse release scheduling of the film for the foreign markets first and the U.S. market last. Some of the thoughts Salkind and Spengler offer in this commentary are fairly valid and spot-on with established documentation; however, other comments sound nothing more like spin, basically boiling down to a "we said, he said" argument over Donner's firing, which is contrary to the facts. At times I couldn't help but laugh at their spin stories and wanted to say, "Get your facts right!" Granted, with the passage of time people's memories do become hazy, and we sometimes forget some things, and that's a given, but when a film the caliber of "Superman II" has this much documentation, sometimes it's best to get every fact straight, which is what Salkind and Spengler should have done in the first place.

In addition, on Disc 5 we have the film's second theatrical trailer, recycled from the previous DVD and laserdisc releases, presented in widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound. Why the first teaser trailer, which remains unreleased on DVD, was not included is beyond me (go to CapedWonder.com to view that teaser trailer and other trailers not included on the DVD releases). Furthermore, we are given one lone deleted scene from the Lester footage, an almost sexually suggestive scene of Superman and Lois talking about it being his first time... cooking a souffle'! This scene, one of many included in the extended TV broadcasts, is presented here in anamorphic widescreen format and Dolby 2.0 sound, sourced from a widescreen print of the extended version (I wonder why the extended Salkind cuts have yet to appear on DVD?) and complete with visual effects and music. At least it looks and sounds good on DVD. I only wish more Lester outtakes were included on this DVD (though another outtake is included elsewhere in the Ultimate Collector's Edition) - then again, having one outtake (or two) may be enough; all you have to do is compare this DVD and the Donner Cut to your VHS copies of the extended TV broadcasts, and you'll see just how many campy and unnecessary outtakes there are! Sometimes less is enough, and in some cases it's more than enough.

Moving onto Disc 7 we have the vintage TV documentary "The Making of Superman II", which originally aired in 1983 and was hosted by Christopher Reeve and narrated by Ernie Anderson. This program, presented in full frame format and Dolby 2.0 sound, focuses primarily on Lester's direction for the film, the staging of a number of visual effects and stunts, and interviews with the cast and crew, though there are some production clips from the Donner era included - like the final film Donner was never mentioned by name in the documentary, obviously, to keep any production problems hidden from the viewers, though serious film fans know better. As good as the documentary is content-wise, there is one very glaring problem with it: the documentary's transfer is sourced from NTSC into PAL and slowed down to compensate for the PAL speed increase (go to http://www.supermancinema.co.uk/daily_planet/dvd2006/2006_disc_issues_qa.asp for more detailed explanations). The final result looks and sounds slower and blurrier than normal. That's not good, and Warner should definitely know better than that. It's also unfortunate that while corrected pressings of the original "Superman" cut with the corrected 1978 sound mix and the Deluxe Version of "Superman III" (which I'll discuss next time) were issued, there are no plans to reissue the "Superman II" DVD with a corrected NTSC transfer of the documentary. Why isn't everything run by QA prior to release?

Also on Disc 7 is another TV special, "Superman's 50th Anniversary: A Celebration of the Man of Steel", produced by Lorne Michaels of "Saturday Night Live" fame. This strange piece, hosted by Dana Carvey and featuring clips from different incarnations of the franchise and a plethora of comedians, plays up Superman's 50th birthday in 1988 mostly for laughs, though there are some truly sincere segments with Reeve, Jack Larson (remembering George Reeves' work on "The Adventures of Superman"), and writer/artist John Byrne (who spearheaded the revamp of the Superman comics line in 1986).

But the real treasure of this set is the final eight segments of the animated Superman series produced in 1942-43. By this time Famous Studios had taken over the production reigns from Max and Dave Fleischer, but they nonetheless handled these cartoons with lots of action and excitement, with some segments featuring Superman battling the Nazis and Japanese during World War II. Pulled from mint 35-millimeter prints, these transfers look and sound absoultely sparkling for 65-year-old cartoons! Now this is a treat indeed! We even get a 13-minute feature entitled "First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series", which features interviews with film and comic historians and the late Richard Fleischer on the creation of these segments. You get to see some of the extremely rare production sketches for the series, explanations for the film noir-like visual flair for the segments (inspired by "Citizen Kane"), and a few clips of even more rare animation from cinema's early days. Simply put, short of a HD or Blu-Ray release, this is the best these cartoons have ever looked!

If I have a few concerns with this DVD release, it's that I would have wanted to see more outtakes from Lester's production, as well as Lester's involvement on the DVD in a commentary or interview format (as it turns out, Lester was invited to contribute to the new DVD releases, though why he didn't participate is a mystery) and any other publicity materials or production footage for the film. Still, this is a fairly nice complement to the "Superman" Special Edition and the Donner Cut just for the animated segments and commentaries alone, as well as for comparing both versions of II, and like the Donner Cut it makes for a good study of problematic filmmaking at its best and worst.

While both versions of II are included together in the Ultimate Collector's Edition and overseas in a complete 3-disc set, for some reason they were issued separately in the U.S., and I think this had to do with marketing. Like Warner's dual versions of the "Exorcist" prequel from Renny Harlin (the released theatrical version) and Paul Schraeder (his original cut), both versions of "Superman II" were issued individually in the U.S. for home viewing and analysis. Is this the last word on the film(s)? For that matter, which version is considerably better? Pick your poison wisely before going to the debates!

Next time I'll look at Disc 8 of the set, "Superman III", where the problems just keep on rolling. See you next time!