A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR CHRISTMAS
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
Back in November, when “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas” came out in theaters in smoke-filled 3D, I declared it was the best holiday-themed movie of the season. And I was right. Part of this was because there were relatively few holiday-themed movies out there, but part was also because it was a damned funny movie.
On the heels of the raunchy pair escaping from Guantanamo Bay, this feature-length version of a twisted Christmas special finds Harold and Kumar estranged in their relationship. Harold has joined the 1% to live in the suburbs and try to start a family while Kumar is still slacking after his girlfriend left him. They are brought together again by a mysterious package that ends up sending them on a hunt for the last fraser fir Christmas tree in New York City. Oh, and there’s a lot of weed and sex jokes in there too.
Not being a big fan of pot-humor movies, I was skeptical. But “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas” was a laugh riot. Rather than working too hard to make a political point like the previous film, this threequel just went back to the roots of the first film, which is to have some fun. There’s plenty of inappropriate humor, including a baby high on a whole assortment of drugs with racial and religious taboos thrown around. But the film also thinks outside of the box, adding a weird claymation element to the story and bringing both Santa and Jesus into the mix.
Finally, what “Harold & Kumar” movie would be complete without Neil Patrick Harris. Where in the first film he hadn’t quite come into a full groove with his sense of humor, he lays it on thick and hilarious here. He’s the highlight of the film, which is plenty full of comedy highlights. (No pun intended.)
The Blu-ray comes with some extra content from what you’ve seen in the theaters, but it’s not exactly loaded. There is the extended cut, which has six extra minutes in the film. Nothing too amazing in terms of added scenes, but there are a couple more laughs. There’s also a spotlight on Tom Lennon, who hosts a handful of featurettes about the production of the film.
Additional bonus content on the Blu-ray includes a featurette on the claymation process (which is actually quite cool) and a slate of deleted scenes. As with most of the big releases from Warner Bros., the Blu-ray includes access to UltraViolet Digital Copy, which allows users to stream the movie via wifi.
TOWER HEIST
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
Even though “Tower Heist” feels like its been through the development hell wringer, it’s still an entertaining flick. The movie tells the story of a luxury apartment building staff whose pensions have been raided by a Bernie Madoff type of Wall Street crook. Upon his arrest, several key staff members decide to find his nest egg of money amounting to approximately $20 million.
The cast is impressive and solid in this film. Ben Stiller leads the fray, keeping his standard Ben Stillerisms to a minimum in the film. The most refreshing aspect of the movie is the return of Eddie Murphy as the fast-talking criminal brought to consult on the job. There’s a lot going on in the movie, which is expected with a cast of this size (which amounts to eight names on the Blu-ray cover box). In spite of his unappealing nature as a person in the behind-the-scenes interviews, director Brett Ratner manages to weave together a smooth heist film that covers familiar ground but still seems fresh.
The Blu-ray includes a nice assortment of special features, including two alternative endings (which aren’t as much alternative as they are extended from the rest of the movie). There’s a slate of deleted and alternate scenes, a gag reel and a commentary featuring director Brett Ratner, editors Mark Helfrich and co-writers Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson.
Ratner also includes a long-form selection of his “Tower Heist Video Diaries,” which offer a fly-on-the-wall perspective throughout the shoot. Another longer bonus feature that is pretty nice is “Plotting Tower Heist,” which gives the relatively comprehensive story of how the movie came to be.
Like most larger Blu-ray releases from Universal, “Tower Heist” includes Universal’s Second Screen which allows for interactive viewing with the pocketBLU app. There’s also additional picture-in-picture bonus content available through the Blu-ray menu.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars)
As part of Universal celebrating its 100th anniversary as a studio, it has released the classic anti-war film “All Quiet on the Western Front” from 1930. Based on a German novel, the film tells the story of young German men who join the fight in World War I. Initially brought into the service with a promise of heroism and a duty of patriotism, the young German soldiers soon learn the horrors of war.
Like many films made more than 80 years ago, “All Quiet on the Western Front” takes a little time to get used to. The opening scenes are hard to resolve simply because while the characters are Germans, they are portrayed as wide-eyed Americans, using common American slang and wearing common American fashions. Not that speaking in German accents give them any more credibility, but it would help because the American slang and American accents make it difficult to see them from a American-centric view.
I understand that young Germans enlisting into the military face the same challenges and fears as the Americans did, but the characters prior to their service didn’t even feel vaguely European.
However, these problems faded away once the movie moved into the war itself. Throwing the soldiers on the front lines was the great equalizer. It was a daring movie to be made, especially in its day, sandwiched between two world wars. It was daring because it dared to show the humanity of the German soldier. It was also daring because it showed extremely realistic battlefield violence, which soon went away after the Motion Picture Production Code took effect a few years later.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” took an opportunity to question warfare and its civility long before the war protest film became popular in the 70s. It’s dated, obviously, but still powerful. And it’s a great example of powerful and epic filmmaking from many decades ago.
This new Blu-ray book release includes an introduction to the film by Robert Osborn, along with the featurettes celebrating Universal’s 100th anniversary: “Restoring the Classics” and “Academy Award Winners.” For a unique perspective, the Blu-ray also includes the rarely seen silent version of the film from the Library of Congress archives.
Additional features are available through the pocketBLU app and BD-Live access. The set also includes a DVD of the feature, packaged with a collectable booklet offering insight into the film.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars)
Aside from it being mentioned in the two Truman Capote movies a few years back (which would be “Capote” and “Infamous”), I really hadn’t thought much about “To Kill a Mockingbird” since I was in high school. It was required reading for us in our American Literature class, and they also showed us the movie after we read the book.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a classic example of why forcing high school kids to read great American literature doesn’t always have the intended effect. I fiercely hated the book in high school (not as much as I hated “Catcher in the Rye,” but close). And making us watch the VHS of the movie on a 19-inch television from the back of a classroom was a bore.
As an adult, however, coming at the movie with a fresh eye and 24 more years of life under my belt, it was a different story. Ironically, this movie was required viewing for me because it was sent to me for review. However, I could appreciate it so much more. It also helps to have come to the movie with my innocence long-since shattered rather than my blissfully ignorant days of being a sixteen-year-old suburban kid whose greatest worry was whether I’d have enough walking-around money to buy my next batch of comic books.
Based on Harper Lee’s classic novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” tells the story of two children, Scout and Jem, who live with their widowed father in the south during the Depression. Their father Atticus (Gregory Peck) is a lawyer in town who has been chosen to defend a young black man accused of rape. As the trial looms and the townsfolk attempt to enact street justice against the accused, Atticus stands fast to do the right thing, both legally and ethically.
There’s a lot of things happening in the movie, though not as complex as the novel. One of the greater themes is the loss of innocence, which we see from Scout’s point of view. Over the course of the trial, they see their father fighting against injustice and not always winning the fight. There’s also the revelation of gross racial injustice and the power of slanderous rumors against their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley.
I got so much more from this story as an adult, and it’s a shame that my adolescent stubbornness kept me from the movie for so many years. I’m glad I’ve seen it again in a better light and with a more mature head.
As part of Universal’s celebration of 100 years as a studio, this movie has been released in digitally remastered and restored Blu-ray high definition. For the most part, the picture looks great, though the noise reduction on a few of the magnified shots don’t quite play right. Still, it’s a beautiful looking black and white film in high definition.
The Blu-ray comes bundled with the DVD in book packaging, which includes an introduction by Peck’s widow along with historic elements like script pages with Peck’s notes and promotional cards. The Blu-ray includes two feature-length bonus movies. “Fearful Symmetry” examines the making of the film, and “A Conversation with Gregory Peck” is a full-length documentary celebrating the actor.
Additional bonus features on the Blu-ray include Peck’s Oscar speech, him accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFI, an excerpt from the Academy’s tribute to Peck, a 1999 interview with Scout actress Mary Badham, the theatrical trailer, an audio commentary and a look at the restoration process.
THE OTHER F WORD
DVD Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars)
I may not be into punk rock, but I am a father, and my job necessitates me to not be the mainstream normal guy. I’ve never wanted to be that. I remember telling my wife before we had kids that I didn’t think I could stomach being a corporate paper-pusher, running around to ballet recitals, wearing khakis, loafers and a polo shirt as I videotaped our kid on stage. I was always a bit of a maverick, for better or for worse. I may not have been the kind of guy to screech punk rock music on stage and give the finger to the world, but I suppose I’ve done something milder like that for much of my adult life.
This is why “The Other F Word” intrigued me so. This is not your standard rockumentary. Instead, it’s a fathermentary. “The Other F Word” looks at the aging punk rockers who were all about anti-authority trying to be the authority figure in their children’s lives. It examines how these artists continue to make a living with their music while raising children, and how sometimes these things clash uncontrollably but other times mesh perfectly.
The strength of this film is its ability to root out different punk rock musicians for a wide variety of stories. There is not one type of punk rock dad shown. There are many, and each one deals with fatherhood in a different way. We also see how this role changes whether the kids are boys or girls, and whether they are just toddlers or teenagers.
But even beyond the punk dads struggling to get their kids to obey their authority while their music screams, “Fuck Authority,” “The Other F Word” shows how hard it is for any musician to live a life on the road and still be a family man. In particular, Jim Lindberg from Pennywise faces bigger struggles because he cannot devote all his time to the band. Whether it’s another career, a woman or his kids, this is a distraction that drills a painful rift between him and his bandmates.
If you ever listened to punk rock from the 80s or 90s and thought how hard it’s going to be for these guys to deal with their own kids, this documentary reveals that truth. But it does so in a touching and not-at-all preachy way.
The DVD includes a feature commentary with documentary subjects Jim Lindberg and Art Alexakis, along with director Andrea Blaugrund Nevins and producer Cristan Reilly. Additional features include outtakes, exclusive acoustic performances, music videos, the original theatrical trailer and the post-screening Q&A at the SXSW Film Festival from last year.
