Fall of the Roman Empire - Buy from Amazon: Two-Disc Deluxe Edition or Two-Disc Limited Edition
For the first time on the home market since the laser disc edition.
Fall of the Roman Empire was one of the last, and the most expensive historical epics made, and unfortunately one of the biggest bombs as well. The film was released shortly after the assassination of JFK and the moviegoers at the time were looking for escapist entertainment and not a rather dark look at an Empire in decline. Not only were moviegoers turned-off by the darkness, but critics at the time were as well. But has it aged well? That is the real question.
On a side note, I have the Limited Edition to review, however, it is the same as the Deluxe Edition, except for the fancier packaging, the reproduction of the original collector's program, and six production stills. It says the third disc is also only on the Limited Edition, but it comes in the sale case as the Deluxe Edition comes in. In fact, Amazon says there are two discs in the Limited Edition, which adds to the confusion.
Right now the film is earning a perfect score over on Rotten Tomatoes, but that's deceptive. While all of the reviews compiled on the site are positive, individually, they reviews are not overwhelmingly positive. The film does have the spectacle one has come to expect from the genre, and it has a story to match the pageantry. That said, There are some issues that hold back the movie. The writing is not as strong as I would have liked and outside of Marcus Aurelius, played by Alec Guinness, and Commodus, played by Christopher Plummer, most of the characters didn't feel fully developed. Combined with Stephen Boyd sadly wooden performance left the hero of the movie, Livius, to be less compelling than he should have been. Overall, the film is still an easy recommendation, in fact, it is probably better suited for the tastes of today's audiences than those of when it was first released.
The movie is being released as a Two-Disc Deluxe Edition, but that's partly marketing. Fall of the Roman Empire runs 195 minutes (including overture and intermission) and takes up most of the two discs. There are extras on both discs, but one should not think there's one disc for the movie and one disc full of extras. The extras start with an audio commentary track with Bill Bronston, son of the producer, and Mel Martin, biographer of the producer. There are a number of dead spots, especially early on, but once they get going, they provide enough information to make listening to the track worthwhile. Also on disc one is a vintage featurette on the making of the movie that runs just over 22 minutes, which should interest any fan of epic films. Moving onto disc two we have several new featurettes on subjects like the making of the movie (29 minutes), the real history of the Roman Empire (11 minutes), the differences between history and what we see in movies (10 minutes), and finally the last featurette is on the composer, Dimitri Tiomkin (20 minutes). All have replay value. The final disc, which may or may not be exclusive to the Two-Disc Limited Edition, there are three vintage educational documentary shorts that were shot on the sets of the movie. They include both a new and the old introduction and talk about life in the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar, and Claudius. The video is quite poor, but that's to be expected. It is nonetheless fascinating to watch, even if the knowledge of the Roman Empire has changed dramatically in the past 40 years. (Check out Barbarians for a more contemporary look at the Roman Empire.) Also coming with the Two-Disc Limited Edition is a reproduction of the collectible program that was sold during the movie's original release and six color stills.
They don't make movies like Fall of the Roman Empire anymore, and with good reason. The economics have changed so much that a film of this scope would be prohibitively expensive to make. Instead of sets, everything would be built virtually inside a computer. And the practice of the roadshow tour is completely alien to today's audiences. This makes Fall of the Roman Empire almost like a lost art form. For this, and other reasons, it is easily worth checking out while the collection of extras compliments the movie well. Of the two versions that are coming out, the Two-Disc Limited Edition has more extras, including better packaging and physical extras, but I'm not sure it is worth the $10 more. That depends on how big of a fan you are of the movie, and how much vintage educational shorts interest you.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Buy from Amazon
A 'before they were famous' triple-shot. This movie stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt, and Shannen Doherty. It's a bad movie, but one that has some guilty pleasure / nostalgia appeal to some and for these people, they will be happy it is out on DVD. However, rent first because the years have not been kind to the movie.
Gojira - Buy from Amazon: All Monsters Attack and Terror of Mechagodzilla
Two more entries in the Gojira series come out on DVD this week. All Monsters Attack has Gojira taking revenge for all the people killed in the Pacific battle of World War II. While in Terror of Mechagodzilla aliens use two giant robots to try and take over the Earth. Not sure why. Terror of Mechagodzilla is the better of the two film, it is also the last of the original series and is a worthy installment. All Monsters Attack, on the other hand, has been called the worst film in the franchise and it is only worth picking up for completists.
HD DVD Releases - Buy from Amazon: La Boheme
Just one HD DVD release this week, and it's an opera performance. I can't imagine this will be a big seller.
Hero Wanted - Buy from Amazon
A film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr that's being dumped direct-to-DVD. Strangely, it's not nearly as bad as Daddy Day Camp or Boat Trip, and both of those earned wide releases. It's not particularly good either; it's just your average revenge flick with perhaps one or two too many twists, which will cause more than a few audience members to stop caring before the final reveal is given. That said, it is still worth checking out, but a rental will do.
His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass - Buy from Amazon: Single-Disc Edition, Two-Disc Platinum Edition, Blu-ray
This movie was dogged by mediocre reviews and controversy over its alleged atheistic views. Personally, I think the former was a legitimate complaint while the latter was rubbish. First of all, all atheistic views were scrubbed from the movie to avoiding offending people. However, the producers should not have bothered, as doing so had zero impact on the complaints levied against the film. This is not surprising since the same people who complained about this movie also complained about the pro-evolution views of The X-Men franchise. If mutants started popping up in real life like they did in those movies, it would be proof that evolution was wrong. In fact, we learn in the comics that the number of mutants was due to an alien called the High Evolutionary who was trying to help humans grow to the level of the Byonders. (Although I think that story has been retro-conned.) ... I probably should have prefaced that part with a Nerd Alert. Moving on... The misguided attacks against the movie aside, the real problem here is less theological and more substantive. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass is simply a mediocre movie. It aims for grand adventure, and never quite reaches there as they've taken a truly epic story and compressed it into a 2-hour movie. This squeezed out so much that the movie never really makes sense to most people. Those that enjoyed the movie will be happy with the Two-Disc Platinum Edition, which includes an audio commentary track, and several making-of featurettes. The featurettes cover the author, Philip Pullman; the director, Chris Weitz; the star, Dakota Blue Richards, as well as the sets, the props, the special effects, etc. Overall there's nearly 3 hours of material on the 2-disc set. The Blu-ray includes all of these features and has a Picture-in-Picture commentary track (although it is not true PiP and is just a brute force work-around) and it is 4 pennies less expensive than the DVD. For fans of the movie, there's more than enough to warrant purchasing over just renting. In fact, there are more than enough extras here that it is worth picking up over just renting if you haven't seen the movie. And if the movie was more comprehensive and earned positive reviews that were even just at the overall positive level, it would have been a clear contender for DVD Pick of the Week.
How She Move - Buy from Amazon
A Canadian movie about a young lady whose family is hit by financial troubles so she turns to a dance competition to get to where she fell from, and learns a little bit about herself in the process. Okay, yes, there are plenty of clichés thrown around in this movie. However, it is still effective and there are more than enough dance scenes to carry the movie. However, the movie bombed at the box office, which explains why the DVD only had a trio of featurettes to support the film. There's one on the origins of the movie, one on the cast, and one on the dance practices. They are not fluff and are worth checking out, but I would have liked more. Even so, it is worth picking up for fans of the genre or the dance style, and worth checking out for the rest.
I Spy - Buy from Amazon: Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3
A secret agent series from the 60s starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp. This was the first American dramatic TV series to feature a black actor in a lead role, and that alone makes its quite interesting to watch. However, it is also a great show without the historical significance. (Those who have never seen the series but saw the movie, don't be scared off. That movie was atrocious and deserved to bomb, but the show is infinitely better and won four Emmys during its three year run.) Strangely, all three years are being released tomorrow in three separate box sets. This is great news for fans of the show who won't have to wait a year to complete their collection. On the other hand, there are no extras on any of the DVDs, which is terrible news. However, given its short run and the age of the show this is not unexpected and I can still recommend them for fans of the genre.
In The Blood - Buy from Amazon
A movie about a closeted gay man who learns he has psychic powers after getting visions of his sisters being killed by a serial killer. The catch, it only works when he has sex with men. ... To be fair, I'm sure there are straight movies that have used a similar plot device to inject as much sex into a movie as possible and the movie is not as exploitive as the premise sounds. It's a low-budget, niche market film, but it should be worth checking out for its target audience (although some have said the appeal is purely camp). However, the featureless DVD is only worth a rental.
Intelligence - Season 1 - Buy from Amazon
A Canadian TV series about the head of the Organized Crime Unit who is hoping to work her way into a key position at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Yes, Canada has a spy agency and apparently we spend a lot of time spying on the United States. Seriously. I remember a few years ago there was a scandal when we were caught doing it and if I remember correctly the excuse given was, "We don't have any real enemies to spy on and we needed the practice." That seemed to satisfy most people on both sides of the border. Back to the show... Intelligence earned excellent reviews, a ton of Gemini nominations, and more than a few wins. (The Gemini Awards are like the Canadian Emmys.) So naturally, not enough people were tuning in each week and it was canceled at the end of the second season. (We tend to create high quality programs up here, but we tend to have troubles promoting them.) Fortunately, the show is coming out on DVD and this 4-disc set includes the pilot movie, the first season, and a 30-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. Easily worth picking up and hopefully the second season won't take too long to come out.
Joey - The Complete Second Season - Buy from Amazon.ca
The second season of the Friends spin-off comes out on DVD this week, but only in Canada. Nope, I don't know why. Doesn’t really matter, as it was a terrible show. I always found Joey Tribbinai to be the least interesting character on Friends while Matt LeBlanc was the weakest actor out of the main six, so I was always a little confused why they based a show around him. Perhaps it is because he had the least amount of success outside of the series and was the one whose career needed to help to survive. Regardless, the show is dead, and, possibly, so is his career.
Joseph Campbell - Mythos II - Buy from Amazon
The second series of lectures given by Joseph Campbell on mythology and the human condition. This time he focuses on those from eastern Asia including Hinduism and Buddhism. There are no extras on this 2-disc set, but the program is nearly 5 hours long and that is a lot of information and for those who saw the program when it was on TV, or the earlier program from the 1980s, will certainly want to pick up this DVD.
Keyshia Cole - The Way It Is - The Complete Second Season - Buy from Amazon
A
Reality TV series that follows the day-to-day life of
R&B artist Keyshia Cole. This season Keyshia had to deal with her family, including her mother who has just gotten out of jail, a move to Atlanta, her second album, the possible return of her biological father, and a whole lot more.
First of all, it is Reality TV, but not the really soul-crushing kind where there's a group of people who are willing to sell their dignity for 15 minutes of fame. Here, Keyshia Cole is already famous. However, there is a definitely voyeuristic feel to the show, which is obviously one of the main selling points, but it kind of creeps me out. It's like listening in on strangers' therapy sessions, which actually happens on the show. There's a reason there's Doctor / Patient confidentiality rules; people need to be able to say anything knowing it won't be made public, so showing them on TV is counter-productive. Watching them felt like I was contributing in some way to what could be harmful for these people's mental health. On the other hand, I did like how they dealt with some important social issues including STD, abortion, drug addiction, and others. I'm impressed that they dealt with difficult subjects in a head on way, which is something most scripted shows avoid like the plague.
The single-disc set as all six episodes, or seven if you count the double-length season finale as two episodes plus a featurette on Keyshia's Glam Team that runs just 2:35. There's a 9-minute interview with an interview with Frankie, Keyshia Cole's mother. Finally, there are nearly 14 minutes of deleted scenes. However, you have to watch them in one big block. You can't choose individual deleted scenes, nor are there any chapter breaks.
Keyshia Cole - The Way It Is - The Complete Second Season set ratings records on BET and the season finale is the highest rated broadcast in the network's history. So it's clear there are a lot of fans out there. However, the DVD package is on the light side and for most fans a rental will do while waiting for next year when season 3 will start.
King Corn - Buy from Amazon
A documentary about farming in the United States, specifically the connection between farm subsidies and the fast food industry. On a side note, I do feel the need to point out that corn is very good for you, as long as you treat it like a starch, as you would potatoes or pasta, and not like a vegetable like peas or cauliflower. On the other hand, turn it into high fructose corn syrup, and it is one of the worst things you can eat. You could literally take butter and sugar, blend them together, and eat it straight of the mixing bowl and it would be healthier for you that high fructose corn syrup. (I'm still on my diet, so I probably shouldn't be talking about butter and sugar cause now I'm hungry.) Moving on... The movie earned amazing reviews and should be seen by more people. The DVD is better than most limited releases with some deleted scenes, additional information, and even a featurette on the movie tour and a music video. Easily worth picking up.
Moondance Alexander - Buy from Amazon
A movie about a girl and her horse. After Flicka bombed, I'm not sure why they thought making this movie was a good idea. Reviews were nearly nonexistent and mostly negative. Critics complain that the movie tries way too hard to be wholesome and comes across as artificial instead. Moviegoers likely agreed as it opened poorly and crashed quickly. The DVD should perform better, mainly because it would be nearly impossible for it to perform worse, but also because the extras are better than average for a limited release. (Making of featurette, featurette on the movie, interviews, and music video.)
Nanking - Buy from Amazon
Actors read the words of missionaries and businessmen who helped save the lives of countless Chinese peasants who were unable to flea Japan's invading armies during World War II. This is an incredibly important film, but it is an incredibly difficult subject to handle. Extras are limited to an audio commentary track, but that's on par with more limited releases and it is enough to lift the value to a purchase.
Paddle to the Sea - Buy from Amazon
An Oscar nominated short film from Canada. The movie is about a boy who wants to visit the sea and so he carves a small wooden boat and puts it in a river so it can float to the Atlantic Ocean. It's a very simple story, but it is incredibly well done. That said, it's a short film and without any extras on the DVD (and just a small booklet in total), it is hard to justify the cost of the DVD. Janus Films is putting out three short films this week, this one, The Red Balloon and The White Mane below, all on featureless DVDs. Had they put them on one DVD, hired a film historian to talk about the shorts on an audio commentary track, and set the MSRP of $30, it would have been a clear contender for DVD Pick of the Week. As it is, it is still worth picking up, but I can't be enthusiastic about that recommendation.
Paranormal State - Season 1 - Buy from Amazon
A Reality TV series about the Penn State University Paranormal Research Society and their search for the paranormal. That might sound interesting, but as some have pointed out, the show is a fake. Of course it's a fake, if it wasn't a fake, they wouldn't find anything. "Oh look, we found an EM field. That must mean there's a ghost here. The EM field couldn't possibly be because of all the electrical equipment around. The lights, the camera, etc. All of which have EM fields." For that matter, who decided ghosts have EM fields associated with them? A show for people who know just enough about the scientific method to be dangerous. Drives me nuts.
The Red Balloon - Buy from Amazon
The only short film to win an Oscar outside of the three short film categories, and it is easy to see why. This movie is finally coming out on DVD and is being released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection, but it is not a Criterion release. This is obvious from the total lack of extras on the DVD while the price is just under $10 on Amazon, that's really not that cheap since the movie is only 50 minutes long. That said, It is still worth picking up because the movie is just that good. However, it could have been a contender for DVD Pick of the Week if they had included an audio commentary track, making-of featurette, and look at the historical significance, etc. Also coming out tomorrow is The White Mane on DVD. From the same director, it too is an amazing short film coming out on a featureless DVD.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch - The Complete Animated Series - Buy from Amazon
The Filmation cartoon series from the 1970s and was one of many Archie spin-offs they produced. Probably the most famous Archie property thanks to the Melissa Joan Hart TV series that was based on the same comic book series. Fans of Filmation's work will be happy it is coming out on DVD, but looking back, the animation looks cheap and the writing is not particularly strong. If you are interesting in checking it out for nostalgia reasons, rent it first.
A Touch of Frost Season 13: Endangered Species - Buy from Amazon
... There really was no season 13 of this British murder mystery. After the sixth season, there were first a series of two-part specials and then a series of TV movies, this being the last of them. Frankly, releasing the movies separately seems like a cash grab and they should have released them as one package at a more reasonable price.
The Waltons - The Complete Seventh Season - Buy from Amazon
Old-fashioned to the point that most people who didn't grow up watching the show will simply be unable to get emotionally involved. Fans of the show have been supporting the DVD releases for a while now, but they don't have a lot of reasons to be enthusiastic over the near featureless DVDs that have come out. Given the show's long run, I'm sure they could have come up with something substantive. As it is, I can't recommend more than a rental.
- C.S.Strowbridge
Date posted: 2008-04-28
Sunday, November 22, 2009
