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Tom Von Malder of Owls Head has been critical of music since graduating from Northwestern University's Medier School of Journalism in 1972. He has been reviewing videos/DVDs since 1988.
"Candy Man" (Universal, Blu-ray or DVD, R, 91 minutes). This 1992 "Candy Man" adapted from the story of Clive Barker (the most popular writer) "Forbidden Land" does have some contact with the original film, but ignores the two sequels of 1995 and 1999. In the first three movies, Tony starred Todd playing Candy Man, and Todd appeared in the extras here. The connection to the original movie is the role of Virginia Madsen, played by Helen Lyle, whose voice is heard in the movie.
The film once again set in the Cabrini Green area of Chicago, but when Lyle met her fate, the slum-style housing development had undergone a fundamental change, the tower was demolished, the area was gentrified, and there were obviously many artists. Type lives there, such as the Central African American painter Anthony McCoy and his wife His other half has the painter’s obstacles, and his other half Brianna Cartwright ("If Beale Street can talk," "Miracle"), who arranges the art gallery exhibition.
The film was directed and co-written by Nia DaCosta, and co-written by Jordan Peele ("Going Out", "We") and Win Rosenfeld. It did a very good job in some aspects, while others were too harsh. The result is a movie without the horror it deserves, and it loses its logic in the end. The two things I like most about this movie are John Guleserian's photography and Manual Cinema's use of shadow puppets to depict the historical scenes of Candyman. These include scenes showing Lyle's terrible ending and the history depicted by Candy Man in the credits.
What I don't like is that this movie promotes an agenda that is almost absent due to horror. The role talked about gentrification many times. One of the many examples is Brianna telling her brother Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarret): "White people built slums and then wiped them out when they realized they built slums." By the way, Troy There is a white boyfriend (Kyle Kaminsky as Grady Greenberg), who seems to exist only to show how free filmmakers are. If Grady really contributed to the plot, it would be different. Troy is the first person in the Candy Man story, and this is the beginning of repeated examples of how whites and whites create systems to continue violence on blacks.
The film opens with the classic "Candy Man" (Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley) by Sammy Davis Jr., but for some reason all the logos are upside down (maybe because the mirror is in the film Played an important role). Then flashed back to 1977 in the project. A young black boy named Billy was frightened by a black man. Holding a hook in one hand, he came out of a hole in the wall of the basement laundry room and gave him candy. , Before the police rushed in and killed the man.
After listening to Troy's Candyman story, Anthony decided to investigate Cabrini Green. He got the inspiration for the next wave of paintings, including an installation, putting some of his new paintings in a mirror box called "Say My Name". The myth of the Candy Man is that if you say his name in the mirror five times, he will appear in the reflection and kill you. In Cabrini Green, Anthony met an adult Billy (Coleman Domingo of the TV "The Walking Dead"), and interestingly, he now runs a laundromat.
The first modern murder case was done calmly in an art gallery, and there is also a crazy elevator scene, because Anthony was stung by a bee, which made his hands rough-this is a reflection of the transformation of the original film s inception. The panic started to go downhill from there, and a buzzing bathroom massacre occurred in a college preparatory school and the chaos that followed.
Additional content includes an alternative ending (2:38), an art exhibition showing Anthony's work; four deleted or expanded scenes (5:52); a feature film including Todd (6:46); watching the body Transfiguration horror (6:22), painting and other art in film (7:17), director (4:48), music by Robert Aiki Aubrey Low (4:54) and manual theater of shadow puppets (4:09); and Roundtable discussion on black terror (20:24). Rating: Movie 2.75 stars; additional 2.5 stars
Grading guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it
Vanilla Sky (2001, Paramount Gift, Blue Light, R, 135 minutes). "Vanilla Sky" is a movie that will surprise you even after repeated viewing. The film was written and directed by Cameron Crowe ("Almost Fame", "Jerry Maguire", and Tom Cruise), using Cruise's famous face and the beauty of his smile to make His character went through a disfigured car accident, and then for most of the film, the character wore a blank white mask. This film is adapted from the Spanish film "Abre Los Ojos", written by Alejandro Amenabar and Mateo Gil, star Penelope Cruz (Penelope Cruz) repeats her role in the Krau film.
Cruise plays the 33-year-old magazine publisher David Aames (David Aames), he inherited a lucrative business after his parents were killed. He was left with a 51% controlling stake, but he felt that the board, which he called the Seven Dwarfs, was for him to participate. In his personal life, he had a casual sex partner (Cameron Diaz played Julie), who actually felt that it was not just casual, he started to build a relationship with Sofia Serrano (Cruz), The latter arrived at his birthday party as a date with his friend Brian (Jason Lee in many Kevin Smith movies), even though Brian said he just met Sophia that afternoon. David and Sofia chatted all night, but when he went to work, Julie ambushed him.
In a sense, it is a spoiler, but it sets the rest of the movie. An angry Julie persuaded David to go for a ride with her, which ended when she got off the bridge. When Julie died, David "only" had his arm and face broken, his jaw broken in all directions, and he was in a coma for three and a half weeks. At the same time, through the broadcast, we saw the masked David being interrogated for the murder by psychologist McCabe (Kurt Russell of "Fleeing New York"). At this point, the audience is confused. I even doubt whether the car accident is a dream, because the film begins with a perfectly realized dream involving Times Square.
Along the way, director Crowe paid a lot of tribute to iconic images and events-for example, David and his girlfriend Sophia walking down the street, which reflected the cover of Bob Dylan's 1963 album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" . Other clues can be found in TV commercials and interviews, as well as the extraordinary bar scene with Noah Taylor ("almost famous"). The film also includes Timothy Spall as David's business lawyer, and Michael Sheen as the grumpy guard.
The movie was remade from the new 4K movie transfer under Crow's supervision. The only new episode is the focus of the filmmaker and Crowe, who discussed the accident and the sequence of Times Square (8:54). Imported the audio commentary of Crow and Heart’s Nancy Wilson from the early Blu-ray version, and they made the music; the other ending-the original ending-includes a wonderful dialogue scene between David and McCabe in the bathroom, and Optional Crowe review (29:45); Crowe talks about this Spanish film and how he mainly uses the same crew as the one used in "Almost Famous" (6:13). The press conference of the 2001-02 film (10:04) had a close-up-basically a video montage, and a short interview with Paul McCartney about how he wrote the title song. This song won Nominated for Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards (1:34). There is also an exciting and rhythmic "Afrika Shox" video created by Leftfield and Afrika Bambaataa in the music category. This is the number of the music played in the dance club scene (3:57). There is a photo gallery (18:15) with an introduction by photographer Neal Preston (2:43) and a mask test with optional Crowe comments (3:23). There is a prank scroll (5:30; this is an Easter egg), 13 deleted scenes and optional Crowe comments (34:16); and a single shot version of the Russell rooftop scene, with optional Crowe comments (6:08). Rating: 4 stars for movies and extras
Legend (1985, Arrow Video, 2 Blu-ray, NR, 89/113 minutes). "Legend" is best known for Tom Cruise’s early films-he filmed "Adventure Business" in 1983, and made a breakthrough with "High Aspirations" in 1986-as well as works by Rob Botting and Peter Robkin Oscar nominated makeup-in particular the Dark Lord (Tim Curry) and Meg Mookburns (Robert Picardo). This is also director Ridley Scott's first foray into the fantasy field after his back-to-back science fiction masterpieces "Blade Runner" (1982) and "Alien" (1979). This film is a beautifully shot fairy tale, set in the Eden-like forest on the ground and the dark nest underground.
In the film, Cruise plays Jack, a simple young man in contact with nature, without any tricks in his heart. He fell in love with Princess Lily (Mia Sarah, who was 15 years old at the time, starred in the "Ferris Buhler’s Holiday") and decided to show her the wonders of their world, a pair of unicorns, except for the beauty. Besides, it also helped her keep the darkness in the bay. (Please note that this 2-disc compilation includes a longer director's cut version (the version reviewed here) and an American drama version. One of the differences is that Lily is not called a princess in the American cut version.)
To Jack’s frustration, Lily approached the unicorns and tried to touch one of them, which was enough to distract the three of Daknis’ minions, including the goblin Blix (Alice Pleaton), and shoot at the animal A drugged dart. Blix then cut off its unicorn. The result was that winter came suddenly, but the darkness needed two lycras to prevent the sun from rising again. (Interestingly, in the new Showtime series "Dexter: New Blood", a near-mythical creature, a white deer, that was suddenly killed is almost within reach.)
Jack eventually forms an alliance with Oona the Firefly, who is actually a fairy in disguise played by Annabel Lannion, and A-Gump (played by David Bennett), an elf like a child. Una leads Jack to find the sword of magic—for "a champion of brave hearts and pure goals"—he will need it to fight the darkness. In the process of retrieving the sword, Jack encounters the threatening Meg Mookburns, a creature that looks very slimy. This action eventually led to Darkness's underground lair. In the director's cut version, Daknis, played by Curry ("Rocky Horror Movie Show"), wore a particularly eye-catching full-body makeup and did not fully appear until 76 minutes.
Another major change between the two versions is that the director’s cut version has a wonderful soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, while the American version is more rock and roll with a Tangerine Dream synthesizer soundtrack (the German band also features Cruise’s "Risky Business") and a song Yes, Jon Anderson and Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music. There is also a third, the European version of the movie-not included-only cut 20 minutes of the movie, while the American version cut 25 minutes and changed some scenes.
CD two, the director's cut version, has Scott's audio commentary and a documentary about film production in 2000 (51:03). The production actually built a forest on the huge "Bond" sound field of Pinewood Studios, which contained living trees and animals, which was unfortunately burned down late in the shooting process. For the unicorn, six Andalusian horses from Spain were used. Curry puts on makeup for five hours a day, and Daknis’ horns resemble the shape of a buffalo, and his whole body is red like a satyr. The prototype of Blix is Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.
There is also an archive behind-the-scenes function (9:44); two lost scenes (10:35), including the alternate opening of the four goblins rediscovered in 2001, and a dance of elves (with storyboard and photos) (Audio); eight storyboard sequences; two draft scripts by William Hjortsberg; nine minutes of alternating shots and angles to make up for the editing in the director’s cut; and three photo galleries.
Disc one, with the new 2K scan of the US version, including two new two-part documentaries. One is about two scores. Jeff Bond discussed Goldsmith’s score (15:12) and said that some topics were not used, and the other editors were a bit rough. Part of Goldsmith’s "Psychology 2" score was used Kitchen scene, and Daniel Schweiger and Electric Youth members Austin Garrish and Bronwyn Griffin discuss Tangerine Dream's score (13:09). In addition, there is an independent music and effects track and an independent score rebuilt by Tangerine Dream in 2002. The other two-part documentary is about biological illustrations in collaboration with illustrator Martin A. Kline (10:28) and Bottin makeup effects in collaboration with makeup effect artist Nick Dudman (16:15).
The American edition also comes with a new audio commentary by Paul M. Sammon, author of the book Ridley Scott: The Making of His Movies. Critic Travis Crawford (20:47; he pointed out that there are different versions of Scott’s 10 films) published a new visual article comparing different incarnations of the film, and a new, very interesting close-up , Tells the production process of the movie, which is in charge of David Cadwallader, costume designer Charles Knode, actress Lanyon, camera operator Peter MacDonald, set designer Ann Mollo and draftsman John Ralph (30:45), covering the sound field fire. Ferry’s "Is your love strong enough" music video-his clothes make me feel a little weird, or, at least, very 80s-was included (5:23) and featured Pink Floyd Featured by De's David Gilmore's guitar.
In 2003, Scott also conducted wonderful documentary interviews on all his films, until then and later, but only a few minutes were about the "Legend" of the "Director" series (58:33). The set comes with illustrated, perfectly bound books, including new works by Nicholas Clement and Kat Ellinger, and archival materials, including production notes and a 2002 interview with Charles de Lauzirika on the director’s cut restoration. In addition, there are six double-sided postcard-sized replicas of the lobby card, a glossy full-color portrait of the actor Annie Leibowitz, and a new copy of Neil Davies. Large double-sided poster of artwork and original theatrical artwork by John Alvin. Rating: 4 stars for movies; additional 4.5 stars
Raging Fire (Hong Kong, Well Go USA, NR, 126 minutes). Donnie Yen (in the "Ip Man" series of films) plays a highly regarded tough police detective with a long history of success in dangerous cases. However, on one occasion, he had to testify in court and accused his five disciples of murdering a suspect during the interrogation. Now the sting operation has become very bad, you guessed it, the bad guys and the good guys were both attacked by the same group of five, and are now out of prison and seeking revenge. They are led by Qiu Jiangwu (Nicholas Tse of "New Police Story", "Youth and Danger: The Prequel").
Most importantly, this is the last movie of the director and action film director William Chen ("Shaolin", "New Police Story"). This action thriller includes some incredible stunts that seem to put the actor's life in danger, explores police corruption and violent regret, as well as a lot of bloodshed.
The first massacre occurred in a shopping mall, where the police stabbed. In a botched raid, one of his colleagues and friends was killed. Zhang Chengbang (played by Donnie Yen) went to his memorial service, only to meet Wu and his remaining crew members. They were all jailed for many years for murder and Bong. . witness. After that, there were some extreme stunts involving cars, and battles between Ngo driving a motorcycle and Bong driving a car. The massive gun battle on the street led to the last brutal one-on-one battle between Ngo and Bong, which appeared to be an abandoned church. The action is often fanatical, but sometimes, especially in the early days, the film is confusing, and it is not until an hour later that people realize that some of the previous scenes are flashbacks.
The extra content is very small and consists of four parts, including the set structure, the use of CGI cars, street gunfights, Yen's talk about the movie and his characters, and a Tse interview (7 minutes and 31 seconds total). Rating: Movie 3.25 stars; extra ½ star
Sailor suit and machine gun (Japan, 1981, Arrow Video, Blu-ray, NR, 112/131 minutes). The title is a joke that Japanese audiences will hear, because most junior and high school girls in Japan wear sailor-like costumes as uniforms. Indeed, this movie merges a teenage girl into the new leader of a gang, which is hilarious and unbelievable, even if there are only four members left in the gang. The film is directed by Shinji Samai ("Typhoon Club", "Waiting") and adapted from the best-selling novel by Akagawa Jiro. This movie and book eventually led to two TV series. Somai is an extremely influential figure in the Japanese film industry, but his work is rarely seen outside of his home country.
Blu-ray contains two versions of this movie, and the extended version is reviewed here. It opens with a close-up shot of two men driving to the dying hideout of their gang leader. He instructed the group of four to make his nephew the next chairman of the gang. Soon after, we learned that our nephew had refused, so the chairmanship fell to his unknowing daughter Izumi Hoshi (pop singer idol Yakumaru Hiroko, who does own the hit single of the movie's title song). The young Izumi had three potential suitors as her friends, and they were also stunned when a large group of men showed up at the school to take her to the new duties of the Medaka family chairperson. Interestingly, most people who show up at school are hired for this occasion, while the real people have a car that hardly drives.
Izumi’s new gang members eventually fell in love with her to some extent, including Hiko (Masaaki Hayashi), Masa (Masaaki Daimon), Makoto Sakuma (Tsunehiko Watase) and Akira (Toshiya Sakai). Izumi needs to meet other gang leaders-some meetings are humorous, some are dangerous, and some are deadly. Her home was destroyed, Medaka's office was bombed, and detective Kuroki (played by Ming Jiang) claimed that her father was a drug dealer. Most of the malice was due to the disappearance of Fatso (Rentaro Mikuni) heroin shipments. A strange scene involving Fatso reminded me of the "Rocky Horror Show". The core of this movie is an unusual growth story.
Additional content includes actor Emoto, film scholar Kinoshita Chika, Sakae biographer Tatsuya Kimura, and assistant director Koji Enomoto (51:30; Japanese, except for Kinoshita) discussing the career of film and Saga; photo gallery; and original news Information bag. The extended version basically has 3 additional scenes: one in Medaka's hiding place; one in Medaka's hiding place; and two love scenes. Rating: movie 3 stars; extra 2 stars
The Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989, Arrow Video, 2 Blu-ray, R, 91/88 minutes). A humorous interpretation of Gaston Leroux's classic novel "The Phantom of the Opera"-after all, where did young Americans in the 1980s go to play in addition to local shopping malls- The movie is saddled with a stupid title, and it leaks the entire movie. When the title tells you that it is Eric (Derek Ledal, who later wrote 8 episodes of "Power Rangers Wild Force"), it makes no sense to hide who the phantom of the mall is in half of the movie.
Eric is the ex-boyfriend of Melody Austin (Kari Whitman) and he was with him the night Eric's house was burned down. She barely escaped, and presumably Eric did not. A year later, Melody just got a job in the new Midwood Shopping Center, which was built on the site of Eric's home. Yes, it was soon discovered that the fire was ordered by the mall developer because Eric's parents refused to sell their house. That developer was Huff Posner (Jonathan Goldsmith), and he was allied with Mayor Karen Wilton (Morgan Fairchild of the TV "Falcon Crest"). Posner’s muscle is mall guard Christopher Walker (Gregory Scott Cummins).
Although Eric is hiding in the ventilation shaft of the mall, but leaving Melody Orchid in her locker, the skirt should not be able to buy in her car, but he is also killing occasional mall employees, even Persian Na annoying a son like Feng Qi (Tom Fridley, Justin), and uses his reliable arrow to save Melody from the attacker in the parking lot. (To put it humorously, the attacker turned out to be a pianist in the mall.) However, Melody has moved on and started to fall in love with the local reporter Peter Baldwin (Rob Estes, then the TV "Days of Our Lives" and later "Silk Tracking" and "Melrose Square"), she was immediately taken away by her.
Another weird twist in the film is that Pauly Shore's performance is usually weird but very early), someone he wants to date. Shore will continue to star in "Encino Man", "Bio-Dome", "Pauly Shore is Dead" and "Son in Law".
Disc 1 contains a longer drama version, and Disc 2 contains a shorter TV version. However, the beginning of the TV version was different, Eric underwent arduous gymnastics training, including the iron cross. Disc 2 also has an additional composite third clip called "Phan Cut" (96 minutes).
The theater version is a brand new 2K restored version with two new audio comments: the first is director Richard Friedman (Richard Friedman); the second is by record producer Ewan Cant and film historian/ Produced by writer Amanda Rayes. There are also audio interview tracks by composer Stacy Wideletz and associate producer Robert J. Koster.
Also new is "Shop Til' You Drop!: The Making of'Phantom of the Mall'", a production documentary that interviews Friedman, screenwriter Scott Schneider and Tony Michelman , Actors Ridal and Cummins, filmmaker Tony Kayden, and special effects creator Matthew Mungle (42:22), this book has questions about all script creation and halved the budget The power provides a wealth of information. The screenwriter’s friend Kayden was fired. The screenwriter said that the original version had more comedies.
Interview with Joe Escalant of the punk band The Vandals (12:56). The Vandals wrote and sang the ending song "Are there ghosts in the mall?" The movie itself uses Stan Bush’s "Heart of Darkness" song twice. Finally, the alternative beginning (3:21) and the other five scenes in the TV version (3:56) can be accessed separately, including the alternative ending, and there is a picture library.
In addition to the CD-ROM, the set also comes with a 60-page fully illustrated booklet, which contains Brad Henderson's new work on the film and excerpts from original news materials; a large folding double-sided poster, There are original and newly commissioned works by Justin Osbourn; six postcard-sized replicas of the lobby card; the limited edition packaging is designed with double-sided sleeves and decorated with original and newly commissioned artworks by Osbourn. Rating: movie 2 stars; extra 4 stars
The Last of Sheila (1973, Warner Archives, Blu-ray, PG, 119 minutes). Except for the six episodes of the TV series "Topper" and one episode of "Rendezvous", the great Broadway composer/songwriter Stephen Sondheim, who died last week, wrote only one non-musical film. He co-wrote "The Last of Sheila" with his friend, actor Anthony Perkins, and its boring plot is full of puzzle elements that Sondheim loves so much. Hollywood also has a lot of irony, some of which are hidden versions of people in real life.
The film features a Bel-Air party and gossip columnist Sheila (Yvonne Roman, wife of composer Leslie Bricus, who died in October last year and was a music creation partner of Anthony Newley) At first, ran into some air, but was shot to death by an unknown driver. The movie went on for a year, when Hilla’s husband Clinton Green (James Cobain in The Great Escape) invited six people to the party for a week on his yacht named Sheila on the southern coast of France. Games and entertainment activities (where the movie was filmed).
Attendees included married couple Tony, screenwriter played by Richard Benjamin (the movie "Westworld") and Lee (Joan Hackett of "The Local Sheriff Supporting You"); talent agent Christine (Dai Dyan Cannon ("Heaven Can Wait", "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice"); Director Philip ("The Birth of a Star", "Lolita", "Northwest Part" James Mason in "North"; actor Anthony (Ian McShane of "John Wick", "Deadwood" of HBO); and Actress Alice (Racque of "The Three Musketeers") Welch, "Myra Brekingridge").
The audience quickly learned that one of the cruise ship guests was the hit-and-run murderer, and Clinton probably knew who it was. Clinton planned a very complicated game. He handed all the guests typed cards on which were written the secret, the secret of his other guest. The secret is that one is a thief, one is an alcoholic, one is a child molester, one is an informer during the communist witch hunt, one is a former criminal, and the other is a homosexual. Every night, different secrets will be revealed at the location on the shore, and those who find out the "criminal" that night will be rewarded with points.
The first night was in a port town, and the second night was in an abandoned island monastery. However, the second night ended in murder. This mystery is very interesting, there are many clues throughout the movie, and the characters may be very mean. Overall, this movie is a pleasing movie. The bonus feature is audio commentary by Benjamin, Cannon and Welch. Rating: Movie 3.5 stars; additional 2.5 stars
The Thin Man Goes Home (1944, Warner Archives, Blu-ray, NR, 101 minutes). The Warner Archives continues to release "Thin Man" movies on Blu-ray. This is the fifth film in the series. Nora Charles (Mana Lowe) finally meets her in-laws and detective husband Nick's parents (Harry Davenport and Lucille Watson) . The gentle detective leaves Nicky at the boarding school, grabs the dog Astar, and heads to Nick's childhood home, Wutong Spring. Of course, no matter where you go, murder will appear at the door.
When an artist is killed, Nick (William Powell) can show off his criminal talents to his parents, but he will do it without his usual liquid inspiration, because he is in a carriage and only drinks cider. Nora must try to sneak Astra into the cabin of the train (boy, is the train crowded), wrestle with folding lawn chairs, follow a presumed suspect through town, and ignite the rumble of the billiard hall. Nora could also dance a funny wild dance with a sailor, and Nick looked at it with surprised eyes.
Normally, all relevant personnel gather in a room to unmask the murderer. But this time, the ending is a bit long. The extras are Peter Bunchley’s short comedy "Why Dad?" and the cartoon "Screwball Squirrel" directed by Tex Avery. Rating: movie 3.5 stars; extra 2 stars
Tom Von Malder of Owls Head has been critical of music since graduating from Northwestern University's Medier School of Journalism in 1972. He has been reviewing videos/DVDs since 1988.
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