Christine Miguel's Blog
Posted by Christine Miguel
A couple of new Christmas releases on DVD for family viewing:
Deck the Halls - the battle of the light show as two neighbours attempt to out do each other's Christmas light display in this over the top comedy. Special Feature include Audio Commentary and 3 featurettes showing the construction of the houses, the design and execution of the finished lighting display and how cast and crew shot a winter Christmas film in the middle of July.
Jingle All the Way - if those recall the craze of Tickle Me Elmo may appreciate the lengths 2 fathers go to get the perfect gift, Turbo man. In the newly released Family Fun Edition, Special Features include the extended Director's cut not seen in theatres, 2 featurettes showing the making of the film and the Turbo Man: Behind the Mask mini-documentary, plus two Set Top Games: Christmas Rush and Guess The Gift.
Also, may I also suggest some other Christmas classics available on DVD:
The Muppets Christmas Carol - it's a tradition in my house to always watch this film and sing along with Kermit and Michael Cain in this hilarious adaptation of the Dickens classic.
Love Actually - I know the film is kind of all over the place and may confuse the children a wee bit, there is enough entertainment for everyone to enjoy.
For some reason, I think the Sound of Music is also a Christmas film - but I know it really isn't.
Posted by Christine Miguel
Vincent Price Collection - 7 films starring horror classic legend Vincent Price. This 8 disc set includes the films: Tales of Terror, Theater of Blood, Twice Told Tale, Madhouse, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Dr. Phibes rises Again, and Witchfinder General. Also included is a bonus disc with behind the scenes featurettes.
Roger Corman Collection - If 'B movies' are more your thing then this collection may just be right up your alley. 8 classic thrillers from the guy who gave some of Hollywood's greatest their first starts in the business. Films included in this collection: GAS-S-S-S-S!, The Trip, The Young Racers, The Wild Angels, Bloody Mary, A Bucket of Blood, The Premature Burial and X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes.
The Fly Collection - for those who can't get enough of Vincent Price, they've now released The Fly, Return of the Fly and the Curse of the Fly in a boxed set including a collection disc with the A&E Biography of Vincent Price and Fly Trap: Catching a Classic Featurette.
If slasher films are what you're looking for, The Burning, H.G.Well's The Food of the Gods and Scarecrows have all been released as part of MGM's recent releases.
Posted by Christine Miguel
For the last year as Suite101's Feature DVD reviewer, I've since cut my theatre-going habit by half ... and for all I know, it could be more. This also means, that aside from the movie posters I see on my way to work, I don't know about or have any pre-existing biases towards any film that lands on my front doorstep waiting to be screened.
So when the UPS delivery man brought a screener for a film called, "I Think I Love My Wife" for me, I looked at it and went, "Huh?" He replied that it was a Chris Rock film. You can read my review of it here.
Later, I spoke to a friend of mine about what I thought of the movie, and how I was pleasantly surprised by its maturity given that it's a Chris Rock film. She looked at me perplexed (as she's a film critic herself) and remarked that the film was panned by the critics because "It was not funny."
I remarked, "I don't think it was meant to be funny at all. There were humourous moments, but overall, the humour was meant to be light and certainly not the driving purpose of the film. It was really Chris Rock self-reflecting on the boredom of marriage."
Certainly a film that attracted the acting talents of Steve Buscemi, Gina Torres and Kerry Washington had to have something.
Posted by Christine Miguel
This is just a short note on some DVDs that were released this week.
The Darwin Awards - star-studded cast lead by Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder about a guy obsessed with the psychological profile of people who become Darwin Cases.
- it's an amusing film that get more and more tedious as it progresses - or doesn't because it's mediocre Hollywood fare.
300 - gritty, testosterone filled eye candy to delight any fan of graphic novels. It gets released in 3 editions
1. Standard Letterbox with only Audio Commentary,
2. Widescreen presentation with only Audio Commentary and
3. a 2 disc DVD edition that is only $5 extra than the previous 2 editions mentioned.
Choose wisely.
Kung Fu Hustle - the Looney Tunes meets Enter the Dragon Stephen Chow martial arts comedy masterpiece finally gets an authorized North American DVD package care of Sony Pictures in an 'Ass Kicking Edition' with a bunch load of Special Features, featurettes and outtakes.
Posted by Christine Miguel
Pre-ordering DVDs can save you money especially if you know what you want to get -
Releases that may interest you coming July 24, 2007
Raise The Red Lantern - MGM is now releasing the official North American version of the classic 1991 film starring Gong Li as the 4th concubine struggling to make her place among her husband's other wives.
Stargate SG-1 - Season 10 - gets released with Behind the Scenes Featurettes, Audio Commentaries and SG-1 Directors Series.
Shakespeare Retold - BBC Video finally releases the critically acclaimed mini-dramas of Shakespeare plays set in contemporary settings that showed Billie Piper (Doctor Who) could actually act. (I've been waiting for this for years!)
Weeds Season 2 - HBO series starring Mary Lou Parker as a drug dealer in suburbia USA.
The Host - Widescreen Special Edition - the Korean monster movie that was a box office winner last year is now released care of Alliance. Witty and clever, it's the most Hollywood Korean film I've seen yet.
Posted by Christine Miguel
Where do I begin?
For whatever reason, I seem to be inundated with a number of horror DVD releases. There is everything from slasher flicks to ghost stories - enough to make you walk slowly through an empty corridor and pay really close attention to the crickets at night.
Among them, aside from the upcoming release of The Hills Have Eyes 2 - the most interesting of them come from Tartan Video's Asia Extreme label with their release of Silk. For the review click here.
Silk premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 and stars Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Eros) as a rather dead-eyed cop and one of my favorite Hong Kong actresses (and also a Canadian) Karena Lam (KOMA) as his loyal girlfriend. It barely made a buzz at Cannes as it was screened out of competition, but it certainly is a film that is more than meets the eye.
I screened it with a fellow film critic friend of mine who also enjoyed its greater attention to story, rather than the BOO-scare factor most other releases rely on. It certainly is a quieter film, which perhaps makes it even more creepy as it plays on the psychological aspect of day to day life - which is far scarier when you think about it.
Posted by Christine Miguel
If you didn't already know, one of the 'known' groups of movie pirates aren't the ones with camcorders in Montreal theatres but actually from within the industry itself. In fact, when I receive an advanced screening DVD of title from a major distribution company- it's generally without artwork and had this disclaimer written on the DVD itself in bold black, (I believe) Times New Roman font.
SPECIAL SCREENING COPY.
PROMOTIONAL DVD ONLY. SALE OR RENTAL PROHIBITED.
I also sometimes recieve a letter along with the disc basically telling me that if I pirate this copy, it can be traced back to me and they will prosecute. On the back, it's sealed with a sticker that has the name of a post-production company based in Toronto. And just like a warning on vacuum sealed containers it states:
IF THIS SEAL IS BROKEN CALL
I never really thought too much of it until I came across an article in Playback - the Canadian Film and Television Industry Trade magazine stating that they recently arrested a "twenty-something in LA" for piracy.
Deluxe, a Toronto-based post-production company has developed a way to not only encode DVD screeners to be sent out - but actually have it traceable in a way where pirates are unable to detect them.
Quoting from the article:
"We have a department called Web Watch," says Dewolde proudly. "We have about 10 people here who scour the globe looking for the content that we watermark. We're into private server channels, Internet, newsgroups and the YouTubes."
So pirates out there beware:
"Can we find it and recover the code? To date, we've had 100% success and multiple prosecutions."
Posted by Christine Miguel
The Big Valley - Second Season Volume One is now available on a 3 disc boxed set. The Emmy Award Winning Classic TV Western stars Lee Majors and Linda Evans.
" ... Follow the Barkley as they contiue to face the dangers and challenges of life in the Old West."
Anything But Love starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis is also released in Volume One containing 28 episodes with Audio Commentary and Behind the Scenes stories from the set.
Doctor Who Season Two is now available (I already made my purchase). Follow the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Rose (Billie Piper) in their 15 episode adventure through time and space. Comes with audio commentary on all episodes plus Doctor Confidential Behind the Scenes featurettes.
Beauty and the Beast - Season One is also available for pre-order (Feb 13th) watch the softer side of Linda Hamilton tame the sewer dwelling beast Vincent (Ron Perlman) in all 22 episodes of Season one.
Posted by Christine Miguel
Months ago, I went on a DVD classic TV splurged and picked up Wonder Woman Seasons 1 and 2. I mused to myself watching just how the ideals from that TV series made decades ago are very much in keeping with what's happenning in the world today.
For those of you unbeknownst to the Wonder Woman mythology here's a briefer: Wonder Woman, an amazonian like goddess with superstrength and agility helps out Steve Trevor who works as a general for the military in 1911 in season 1 and as a government agent combatting terrorism in 1970 in season 2.
It's amazing how little advances have been made in world peace and equality not so much amongst men and women but between women in general. As a scene that plays out in Diana Prince's apartment when she comes across a burglar she says; "You're a woman, we shouldn't be fighting." This deeply contrasts a scene seen previously with her cousin challenging her to a competition of Bullets and Bracelets on Paradise Island before leaving to America.
Classic Television ... but very timeless ...