New on Blu-ray: OUTLAND (1981), ALTERED STATES (1980), and TWINS OF EVIL (1971)

OUTLAND
(UK - 1981)

Conceived by writer-director Peter Hyams (CAPRICORN ONE) as an outer-space western, OUTLAND finally gets a worthwhile home video presentation on Blu-ray.  The long out-of-print DVD was one of the first issued in the format and was utterly abysmal in quality.  OUTLAND did generally well at the box office in 1981 and has always been held in high regard by genre fans, and despite a couple of dubious effects shots late in the film, it's aged very well.  Sean Connery is O'Niel, a Federal Marshal assigned to a one-year tour heading the police force on Io, the third moon of Jupiter, where Con-Am runs a very profitable titanium ore mining facility. Sheppard (Peter Boyle), Con-Am's manager on Io, is very proud of his operation's increased productivity and profitability and politely tells O'Niel to just go with the flow.  O'Niel senses something fishy when two miners have psychotic episodes resulting in their deaths.  Sheppard orders the bodies sent back to the space station off Jupiter but O'Niel manages to get a blood sample from one and with the help of curmudgeonly, hard-drinking Dr. Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen), finds traces of a powerful experimental drug that allows users to stay up for days on end, thus increasing their furious work output.  The side effects, Lazarus says, are that continued use can cause complete psychotic breaks after 10 or 11 months.  Sheppard and some associates are running the drug operation into Io, and as long as productivity, profits, and bonuses are high, everyone, including O'Niel's deputy Montone (Hyams regular James B. Sikking), is content to look the other way.  When O'Niel doesn't back down, Sheppard and Con-Am execs decide to bring in three hit men from the space station to kill him, and it's here that OUTLAND turns into essentially a post-STAR WARS variation on HIGH NOON, complete with a large digital clock in a sleazy Io bar showing the countdown to the next shuttle arrival.  Like Gary Cooper's Will Kane, Connery's O'Niel is forced to face the killers alone (with a little help from Lazarus), as an entire work force of minors and even his own deputies prove unwilling to help him. 

OUTLAND is a top-notch sci-fi thriller and the miniatures and matte work still look superb and are more convincing today than most CGI.  The cast is terrific--Connery and Sternhagen make an unlikely and very likable team, and Boyle is memorably smug, telling Connery to "go home and polish your badge...you're dealing with grown-ups here."  It's a film that's fallen through the cracks over the years, but hopefully this proper HD presentation will allow it--and Hyams, a very underrated director and wonderfully snappy writer who was unstoppable in his 1974-1990 prime--to find a new audience.  Hyams provides a newly-recorded commentary that covers all elements of the production (he wanted to call it IO, but everyone kept mistaking it for 10), with a lot of interesting Connery stories (they also worked together on 1988's THE PRESIDIO).  Also with Clarke Peters (THE WIRE, TREME), Steven Berkoff, and John Ratzenberger as a freaked-out miner whose head explodes in the opening scene. (R, 109 mins)

ALTERED STATES
(US - 1980)

It's a testament to just how much filmmaking, marketing, and audiences have changed over the last 30 or so years when one considers that Ken Russell's surreal, philosophical, challenging, jargon-heavy, sensory-deprivation, devolution sci-fi/horror mindfuck was not only bankrolled by a major Hollywood studio (Warner Bros.) with an unknown (William Hurt in his debut) in the lead role, but it was released in theaters on Christmas Day 1980. ALTERED STATES tells the story of psych professor Eddie Jessup's (Hurt) search for the Ultimate Truth via isolation tank and a hallucinogenic mushroom-based solution concocted by an indigenous Mexican tribe that's purported to take one back to "first soul" and be "propelled into the void."  The more time he spends in the tank with himself as the experiment, monitored by a colleague (Bob Balaban), an endocrinologist (Charles Haid), and later, his estranged wife (Blair Brown), the more Jessup's genetic makeup devolves with horrifying results.  Written by Paddy Chayefsky (NETWORK), who fought with Russell and took his professional name off the finished film (going by his real name, Sidney Aaron), ALTERED STATES is pretty deep and heady stuff, filled with stunning (though a bit dated today) imagery and visual effects and room-shaking sound (which got an Oscar nod).  As ambitious and thought-provoking film as it is, it probably ranks as one of Russell's more strangely commercial films, and the one-sheet depicting Hurt upside-down in the flotation tank immediately became an iconic image.  The film (also featuring Drew Barrymore, in her first film as well, playing one of Hurt's young daughters) instantly put Hurt on the map as an actor to watch and he'd have an Oscar within five years for 1985's KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN.  Hurt is so familiar as a reliable character actor in supporting roles these days that it's easy to forget he was an A-list star in the 1980s.  The new HD transfer for the Blu-ray release is crystal clear and absolutely beautiful.  The only extra is a trailer, but at a relatively low price, this is the best ALTERED STATES has ever looked.  (R, 103 mins)

TWINS OF EVIL
(UK - 1971)

Hammer's box office appeal may have been in decline by the early 1970s, but some of the studio's best films were being made in this period, as evidenced by John Hough's TWINS OF EVIL, just out on Blu-ray from Synapse Films.  The third in the studio's "Karnstein" trilogy (after 1970's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and 1971's LUST FOR A VAMPIRE), based on the works of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, TWINS OF EVIL has twin Playboy playmates Mary and Madeleine Collinson as orphans sent to live with their puritanical, cold-hearted uncle Gustav (Peter Cushing), a local witchfinder who leads a group of religious fanatics called The Brotherhood, finding presumed witches and burning them at the stake.  One of the twins falls under the spell of Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas, who has a strange resemblance to Jimmy Fallon), a wealthy, well-connected Satanist whose activities have awakened undead vampire Mircalla (Katya Wyeth).  Written by Tudor Gates and featuring David Warbeck and Dennis Price, TWINS OF EVIL is a highly enjoyable cult horror classic that showcases elements of the newly-explicit vampire genre (Hammer was taking advantage of the increasing demand for gore and nudity) and gave Cushing an opportunity to take part in the then-trendy "witchfinder" films popularized by 1968's THE WITCHFINDER GENERAL (with Vincent Price), 1970's THE BLOODY JUDGE (with Christopher Lee), and 1970's MARK OF THE DEVIL (with Herbert Lom).  Cushing turns in one of his all-time great performances here, showing the complexities of noble intentions gone horrifically awry.  Cushing's wife died unexpectedly shortly before filming began, and he's bringing a wide range of emotions to his role here as his Gustav is ultimately both terrifying and tragic.  Synapse's Blu-ray transfer is absolutely impeccable, and it's loaded with bonus features, including the feature-length documentary THE FLESH AND THE FURY, which explores the works of Le Fanu, the "Karnstein" trilogy, and the making of TWINS OF EVIL, with appearances by genre luminaries and historians like Joe Dante, Kim Newman, Tim Lucas, Ted Newsom, David J. Skal, and Sir Christopher Frayling, in addition to TWINS co-star Thomas and director Hough.  One of 2012's best Blu-ray releases.  (Unrated, 87 mins)

On DVD/Blu-ray: MACHINE GUN PREACHER (2011) and SOME GUY WHO KILLS PEOPLE (2012)

MACHINE GUN PREACHER
(US - 2011)

Gerard Butler delivers a committed, convincing performance in this noble but overly Cliffs Notesy biopic of Sam Childers, an ex-con biker and drug dealer from Pennsylvania who found God, turned his life around, and worked to provide food, shelter, and clothing for Sudanese orphans living under the threat of warlord Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army.  Based on Childers' book, the film glosses over a lot of material and skips ahead with no real regard for a time element (other than Childers' young daughter suddenly played by a different actress who looks like she's 15, but still needs to be tucked in and have a story read to her before bed).  Childers is introduced getting out of prison, being a general asshole to his born-again, ex-stripper wife Lynn (Michelle Monaghan) and storming out of their trailer to shoot heroin with his junkie buddy Donnie (Michael Shannon).  Childers turns his life over to God after mistakenly thinking he's murdered someone, and becomes aware of the plight of the Sudanese kids during a church trip to build houses in Uganda.  His commitment to the children becomes his top priority, investing everything he has, including his construction business, into funding their needs.  And of course, this causes friction back home with the patient Lynn and his daughter ("You care more about those little black kids than you do about me!").  Despite the many contrivances, MACHINE GUN PREACHER generally works thanks to Butler, and when the film stays focused on how a very bad man can be redeemed, it's quite good.  It loses a little credibility when director Marc Forster (MONSTER'S BALL, QUANTUM OF SOLACE) occasionally depicts Childers as a fearless, Rambo-esque killing machine, and it suffers from a frustratingly weak ending, but even with its flaws, it's a powerful story with numerous moving moments (Childers presenting the kids with a playground, for instance). 

Budgeted at $30 million, MACHINE GUN PREACHER was on 93 screens at its widest release last fall, and grossed just $530,000.  Perhaps the film could've gained some renewed interest in March 2012 with "Kony 2012," had that viral YouTube sensation not immediately been associated with its creator having a meltdown, stripping nude, and jerking off at a streetcorner.  (R, 129 mins)


SOME GUY WHO KILLS PEOPLE
(US - 2012)

This horror comedy gets off to a promising start with some twisted humor and over-the-top splatter reminiscent of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson.  Unfortunately, it quickly loses its focus and vacillates between being a gore spoof, a live-action comic book, a revenge thriller, and a maudlin feel-good movie, and ultimately succeeds at none of them.  A well-cast Kevin Corrigan is Ken Boyd, recently released from a mental institution after a failed suicide attempt.  He works in an ice-cream shop with his friend Irv (former Larry Clark regular Leo Fitzpatrick) and lives with his chain-smoking, harridan mother Ruth (Karen Black).  Ken's problems stem from a horrific high-school bullying incident at the hands of the basketball team, and soon, members of that team start turning up dead in a variety of amusingly grisly ways. At the same time, Ken cautiously begins dating Stephanie (Lucy Davis of SHAUN OF THE DEAD and the UK version of THE OFFICE) and starts spending time with his 11-year-old daughter Amy (Ariel Gade, best known as Jennifer Connelly's daughter in 2005's DARK WATER), who only recently became aware of his existence.  Despite some nice work by the cast, writer Ryan Levin (the Disney Channel series I'M IN THE BAND) and director Jack Perez (MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT OCTOPUS) really struggle to find a tone here and it's detrimental to the whole project.  It's nice to see veteran character actor Corrigan (usually cast as dumb criminals or dim-witted sidekicks) in a rare leading role, Gade is very charming (when told by Black's Ruth "Call me Ruth...Grandma makes me sound old," she deadpans "So does Ruth"), and Barry Bostwick gets some laughs as the folksy, boozing sheriff, but it's just very directionless and filled with missed opportunities, set-ups that go nowhere, and an obligatory dumb twist ending. Perhaps executive producer John Landis, an expert at effectively fusing horror and comedy (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON), should've directed.  Also with Lindsay Hollister (BLUBBERELLA), Laura Kightlinger, and Ahmed "Jar Jar Binks" Best as the useless mayor. (R, 98 mins)

New on Netflix Streaming: THE WILD GEESE (1978) and ZULU DAWN (1979)

Some months back, Severin Films announced Blu-ray releases of three late '70s adventure epics:  THE WILD GEESE, ZULU DAWN, and ASHANTI, all previously released on DVD in disappointing presentations by the mercifully short-lived Tango Entertainment.  Release dates for the Severin upgrades have yet to be announced, but HD prints of two of the films--THE WILD GEESE and ZULU DAWN--turned up this week as Netflix streaming titles.


THE WILD GEESE
(UK/Switzerland - 1978)

This classic mercenary adventure was a big hit everywhere but the US, where distributor Allied Artists was in its final days and wasn't able to give it much of a push.  That's surprising, considering its big-name cast headed by Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Kruger.  Burton is an aging mercenary hired by powerful financial magnate Stewart Granger to rescue the imprisoned leader (Winston Ntshona) of the fictional African country of Zembela, where Granger has significant interest in the copper mining industry.  Burton assembles a crack team of expert soldiers-for-hire (Moore, Harris, Kruger, etc) and they pull off a daring rescue, only to get double-crossed by Granger and left stranded in Zembala, pursued by the rebels who were holding Ntshona, and forced to fight their way out of the country.  Directed by longtime John Wayne associate Andrew V. McLaglen (who made the MST3K favorite MITCHELL a couple years earlier), THE WILD GEESE is a terrific action film, with four enthusiastic lead performances (Burton, in particular, has a number of dryly funny lines), plus a memorable supporting turn by Jack Watson (a last-minute replacement for Stephen Boyd, who died shortly before filming began) as a foul-mouthed Sergeant Major hired by Burton to whip the troops into shape ("On your feet, you fucking abortion!" Watson yells to one exhausted soldier).  Some of the character bits haven't aged very well--especially the way a mincing, sachaying, flamboyantly gay mercenary (Kenneth Griffith) is played for comic relief--and Kruger's metamorphosis from South African racist to sympathetic nice guy happens entirely too quickly to be plausible. 

Dated, late '70s political incorrectness aside, THE WILD GEESE is a rousing, entertaining and very nicely shot large-scale actioner with suspenseful battle sequences, gratuitous bloodletting, and a cast that's impossible to dislike.  Also with Frank Finlay, Patrick Allen, Barry Foster, David Ladd, Ian Yule, Ken Gampu, Jeff Corey, and the really out of place theme song "Flight of the Wild Geese," by Joan Armatrading.  Burton was set to return for 1985's WILD GEESE II, but died before filming began and was replaced by Edward Fox.  THE WILD GEESE was successful enough in foreign markets for Antonio Margheriti to make a trilogy of German-Italian WILD GEESE ripoffs with British TV star Lewis Collins:  CODENAME: WILDGEESE (1984, released in the US in 1986), COMMANDO LEOPARD (1985), and THE COMMANDER (1988).

The Netflix print of THE WILD GEESE is HD, and framed at 1.78:1 (close enough to the original 1.85:1), and has some consistent instances of "jerky" movements, almost like it's skipping frames. The audio is never affected, and the film is perfectly watchable as a streaming title, but it's a noticeable distraction throughout, even though there are stretches where it ceases.  Also, multiple sources list the film as 134 minutes, but the Netflix print comes in at 129 minutes. (R, 129 mins).


ZULU DAWN
(UK - 1979)

The 1964 epic ZULU chronicled the British Empire's victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Rorke's Drift in the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War.  This 1979 prequel examines the Battle of Isandhlwana, which took place earlier in the day, and the results weren't so good for the British forces, numbering around 1800 and led by the overly confident Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole), who doesn't take the Zulus seriously with their spears and shields.  Needless to say, the British (or more specifically, Chelmsford and his yes-men), fueled by colonial arrogance and entitlement, are blissfully ignorant of what they're up against and don't bother coming up with an effective game plan.  As a result, they're almost instantly overwhelmed by 20,000 Zulu warriors and suffer over 1300 casualties in what went down as the worst defeat ever inflicted upon a modern army by native troops (by contrast, with better leadership, the British won Rorke's Drift with just over 150 officers going against 4000 Zulu warriors).  Reportedly a troubled production, ZULU DAWN didn't get much of a release and was nowhere near ZULU's level of success.  It takes forever to get going and juggles too many characters, many of whom disappear for long stretches of the film, but it steps up where it counts with some truly stunning, expertly-choreographed battle scenes in the last half hour, with thousands of extras (this is pre-CGI, folks) filling the 2.35:1 image.

The large ensemble cast includes many familiar faces:  Simon Ward, John Mills, Nigel Davenport, Michael Jayston, Bob Hoskins, Denholm Elliott, Peter Vaughan, Christopher Cazenove, Freddie Jones, James Faulkner, Ronald Lacey, Ronald Pickup, Nicholas Clay, Dai Bradley, Ian Yule, Ken Gampu, Simon Sabela as the Zulu leader Cetshwayo, and top-billed Burt Lancaster as Col. Durnford, the nominal second-in-command, who would die alongside his fellow officers in the final battle and eventually be scapegoated for the disaster by the incompetent Chelmsford.  The performances are fine, but Lancaster's having a rare off-day here, sporting a wildly inconsistent Irish brogue that comes and goes at random.  I don't know if this is Lancaster's worst performance, but it's the only bad Lancaster performance I've seen.  Directed by Douglas Hickox (THEATER OF BLOOD) and co-written by ZULU director Cy Endfield.  The US theatrical release was cut down to 98 minutes, but this is the uncut 117 minute version.  (PG, 117 mins)

Summer of 1982: TRON (July 9, 1982)

TRON, released by Disney on July 9, 1982, had been in various states of development by writer/director Steven Lisberger since 1976, when the animator was inspired by the game Pong to create a story that fused film and computer animation.  While CGI effects and visuals are commonplace today, the very idea was revolutionary in 1982 and no studio took Lisberger seriously until Disney decided to give him a shot.  Lisberger worked on other projects during that time period (TV shows, commercials, directing the 1980 animated film ANIMALYMPICS), but by 1982, the video game and arcade craze was in full swing, and it only seemed natural that a movie would syngergistically combine the two.  Many critics and prognosticators were wary of TRON, thinking it would change the way movies were made and that everything could just be computer-animated from that point on.  It didn't quite turn out that way, and while it grossed $33 million and made back its budget, it was far from a blockbuster and regarded more as a novelty than the wave of the future.  Critics praised the visuals but panned the storyline, but today, TRON is held in a generally positive light.  Everyone is quick to point out how 1982 it is (and there's songs by Journey!), and by today's standards, the effects in Lisberger's film are primitively retro but the imagination is there, regardless of how badly they've aged.

Jeff Bridges as Flynn

Bruce Boxleitner as Tron

David Warner as Sark

With all the hype about TRON's groundbreaking use of computer animation, that style was really only used for landscapes and vehicles for the scenes inside the mainframe where software designer Flynn (Jeff Bridges) finds himself teaming with Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) in battle against Sark (David Warner).  Most of the imagery involving the actors was achieved with a combination of backlit animation and depth cueing (shooting the actors in high-contrast black & white on a black set), with rotoscoping and other animation techniques to color the actors and fill in the backgrounds of the computer world.  According to Lisberger, this technique was more costly and time-consuming than it would've been to simply animate the whole film.  But for better or worse, TRON is an important film in the evolution of visual effects and CGI.  CGI has made obviously huge strides in the ensuing decades, but many--myself included--feel it isn't quite where it should be considering the extent to which filmmakers rely on it.  But at least with TRON, it was supposed to be in the context of a sci-fi/fantasy world and was justified in looking the way it did.  And it's hard to disregard a film whose look was designed in part by contributions from French comic book artist Moebius and BLADE RUNNER "visual futurist" Syd Mead.

TRON led to numerous product tie-ins, including video games and toys, and led to the belated 2010 sequel TRON: LEGACY, made at a time when CGI technology was finally capable of being used to the extent Lisberger intended in 1982.  Lisberger was only onboard as a producer for TRON: LEGACY (Joseph Kosinski directed it), and has only made two films since TRON:  the John Cusack romantic comedy/adventure HOT PURSUIT (1987), and SLIPSTREAM (1989), a big-budget British-made sci-fi epic with an interesting cast (Ben Kingsley, Mark Hamill, Bill Paxton, and F. Murray Abraham) that ended up bankrupting producer Gary Kurtz, a former Lucasfilm executive (hence the casting of Hamill) who went off on his own after a falling out with George Lucas during the making of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.  Kurtz used his plentiful but apparently not limitless STAR WARS profits to finance SLIPSTREAM, but got divorced in the meantime and lost everything.  SLIPSTREAM ended up going straight to video in the US and has since fallen into the public domain and can be found on numerous $9.99 "50 Sci-Fi Hits!" collections that you find at Wal-Mart.  SLIPSTREAM is no classic, but it really does deserve a little more dignity than that. 

Lisberger hasn't directed a film since SLIPSTREAM, and other than a 2010 Comic Con appearance to promote TRON: LEGACY and doing Q&A's at occasional TRON screenings, he maintains a pretty low profile.  Still, even if he isn't a household name, Steven Lisberger is held in high regard by visual effects artists and technicians for his envelope-pushing work on TRON 30 years ago.  Even the Pixar folks have name-checked him as a major influence and gone on the record in saying that Pixar wouldn't be what it is had TRON not helped pave the way.

TRON director Steven Lisberger being interviewed by Walter Cronkite in 1982.

TOP 10 FILMS FOR THE WEEKEND OF JULY 9, 1982 (from www.boxofficemojo.com):

1.   E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
2.   TRON
3.   ROCKY III
4.   FIREFOX
5.   POLTERGEIST
6.   ANNIE
7.   STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
8.   BLADE RUNNER
9.   THE THING
10. THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER

In Theaters: SAVAGES (2012)

SAVAGES
(US - 2012)

Directed by Oliver Stone.  Written by Shane Salerno, Don Winslow, and Oliver Stone.  Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Shea Whigham, Sandra Echeverria, Joel David Moore, Amber Dixon.  (R, 130 mins)

There's some inspired flashes of the Oliver Stone of old throughout SAVAGES, and while it's not on the level of his finest work, it's his most entertaining film in years.  Doing away with the maudlin, Hallmark sentimentality of WORLD TRADE CENTER, the SNL-level caricatures of W, and the perfunctory clock-punching of the awful WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS, Stone may not be hitting the heights of PLATOON or JFK with SAVAGES, but he at least brings his A-game.  Pre-release buzz seemed to indicate that he was back in NATURAL BORN KILLERS territory, but SAVAGES is perhaps most reminiscent of his neglected 1997 film U-TURN, at least in terms of tone and style. U-TURN is usually dismissed as minor Stone, but it's one of his most entertaining films, and SAVAGES has that same loose, freewheeling, occasionally dark-humored, anything-goes feel to it and between the nonstop profanity, sadistic villains, splattered brains, decapitations, torture scenes with dangling eyeballs, and a few fairly graphic sex scenes, it's a hard-R of the highest order.

Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson) are two Laguna Beach pot entrepreneurs who have built a reputable independent business selling product with the highest THC levels in SoCal.  They've been friends since high school and share everything, including Ophelia, or O (Blake Lively), an airheaded beach bunny who lives with and loves both of them (as O puts it in her likely intentionally spacy narration, "Chon fucks...Ben makes love" and the two of them "make one complete man").  Their paradise is invaded by a Mexican drug cartel that wants to take them on as partners.  Already looking to get out of the business, Chon and Ben turn them down, which leads to cartel head Elena (a ferocious Salma Hayek) sending her goons, led by the ruthless, repugnant Lado (Benicio Del Toro), to kidnap O.  Battle-hardened (and scarred) Iraq War vet Chon convinces the laid-back, pacifist do-gooder Ben (who builds water systems in third world countries and donates laptops to impoverished African children) to put his Buddhist ideals aside (Chon: "Who cares what some fat Jap thinks?"  Ben: "Actually, he's a fat Indian") and head in to battle with the cartel to rescue O, leading to some over-the-top, Peckinpah levels of bloodbathing.  Complicating matters are shifting loyalties in Elena's organization as well as the involvement of the duplicitous Dennis (John Travolta), a corrupt DEA agent with a cancer-stricken wife and a stake in both sides of the conflict.

Chon (Taylor Kitsch), O (Blake Lively), and
Ben (Aaron Johnson) before all hell breaks loose.

Based on a novel by Don Winslow (who co-wrote the script with Stone and Shane Salerno), SAVAGES isn't a message film for Stone, which may explain why it succeeds.  Tackling subjects as monumental as 9/11, the Bush White House, and the stock market in recent years, and for the most part, botching them (W was alright, though it doesn't really hold up that well on a repeat viewing), it's nice to see Stone being able to just make a good movie and not succumb to the pressure of the expectations of being "Oliver Stone."  In other words, SAVAGES isn't TRAFFIC, and it isn't trying to be.  

Salma Hayek as the ruthless cartel boss Elena

Benicio Del Toro as the depraved henchman Lado

John Travolta as corrupt DEA agent Dennis, with Kitsch.

The three leads acquit themselves well (and good for JOHN CARTER and BATTLESHIP star Kitsch, who's not having the best year), and I kept imagining Lively's O as a ten-years-younger version of Bridget Fonda's Melanie in JACKIE BROWN (1997).  But it's the veteran actors who steal the show from the kids.  Hayek and Travolta (who previously appeared together in the barely-released 2006 thriller LONELY HEARTS) have their best roles in years, with the script providing some interesting bits of characterization (Dennis' terminally-ill wife, and Elena's concern over her fractured relationship with her grown daughter) that give the actors some space to work and more to do beyond being stock cardboard villains.  And Del Toro is very memorable as one of the most repulsive bad guys to ooze down the pike in some time (it's a quick action on Del Toro's part, but watch for the almost unspeakably vile act he commits while forcing a young cohort to shoot a woman in the head). Also with recent Oscar-nominee Demian Bichir (A BETTER LIFE) as a top cartel representative, and Emile Hirsch as Chon and Ben's money launderer (why is the INTO THE WILD and MILK star doing bad horror movies like THE DARKEST HOUR and taking on a buried-in-the-credits role here that barely qualifies as "sidekick"?  Four years ago, he would've been starring in this; was SPEED RACER that much of a career-killer for him?).  The biggest problem with the film is that Stone can't seem to settle on an ending, so he provides two, and it's almost like he's saying "Here's the ending I want, and I'll just throw in the ending they'll make me use."  It's a gimmicky finale that doesn't really work, but for the most part, SAVAGES is a brutal, blood-soaked, and unrepentantly scuzzy thriller that finds a great filmmaker not hitting his prior heights of glory, but checking his agendas at the door and appearing to be enjoying his work for the first time in a while.

On DVD/Blu-ray: GOD BLESS AMERICA (2012), THE HUNTER (2012)

GOD BLESS AMERICA
(US - 2012)

This blistering, brutally misanthropic comedy is the latest directing effort from Bobcat Goldthwait, who's quietly fostered a new career as a filmmaker unafraid to go to the darkest places imaginable.  1991's SHAKES THE CLOWN was just a warm-up for 2006's SLEEPING DOGS LIE (about what happens when a woman confesses an instance of bestiality in her past), and 2009's WORLD'S GREATEST DAD (where grieving dad Robin Williams tries to perfect the image of his late teenage son, an awful, loathsome brat who died during a botched bout of autoerotic asphyxiation), and now there's the enraged, confrontational GOD BLESS AMERICA.  Divorced Frank (Joel Murray) suffers from migraines and can't sleep.  He watches TV and can't stomach the garbage on every channel:  banal reality shows, loudmouth political commentators, inane commercials, tabloid talk shows, YouTube clips of teenagers setting a homeless guy on fire, etc.  He's hated by his spoiled daughter, gets fired for a kind gesture that's misconstrued as harassment, and finds out he has a malignant, inoperable brain tumor.  Frank is about to kill himself when he sees a clip of teen reality TV star Chloe throwing a fit that the expensive sports car she got for her 16th birthday wasn't the Escalade that she wanted.  This moment is an epiphany for Frank, who drives to Chloe's school and kills her in the parking lot.  This is witnessed by Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), who then tags along with Frank and convinces him that they should just kill all the bad people in the world:  people like Chloe, people like hatemongering talk show hosts, people who talk on cell phones in movie theaters, etc. Roxy also wants to kill Diablo Cody: "She's the only former stripper with too much self-esteem!"

Comparisons were drawn with Mike Judge's IDIOCRACY, but a major difference is that the boorish societal atrocities seen in GOD BLESS AMERICA are happening--for real--every day.  Frank is particularly irked by an AMERICAN IDOL-type show called AMERICAN SUPERSTARZ, where an obviously mentally challenged contestant (Aris Alvarado), clearly patterned on William Hung (remember him?,) is mercilessly mocked and booed by the audience and laughed at by the hosts for butchering Diana Ross' "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)."  Frank is sick of it all:

"America has become a cruel and vicious place. We reward the shallowest, the dumbest, the meanest and the loudest. We no longer have any common sense of decency. No sense of shame. There is no right and wrong. The worst qualities in people are looked up to and celebrated." 

GOD BLESS AMERICA finishes big, but doesn't quite have enough to sustain its entire running time (some excess could've been trimmed from the middle and it could've been even more potent at around 85 minutes), and some of Frank's diatribes can come off as a bit overwritten.  However, Goldthwait's message is loud and clear in this fearless, incendiary indictment of modern American culture.  (R, 104 mins)



THE HUNTER
(Australia - 2012)

Willem Dafoe delivers one of his best performances as mercenary hunter Martin David, who's hired by a top-secret bio-tech facility to venture deep into the Tasmanian wilderness to investigate a reported sighting of a Tasmanian tiger, thought extinct since the 1930s.  He rents a room at the home of Lucy (Frances O'Connor), whose husband went in search of the tiger and never returned.  Martin bonds with Lucy's young children, Sass (Morgana Davies), and Bike (Finn Woodlock), while the depressed Lucy usually sleeps days away with prescription meds brought by local guide Jack (Sam Neill).  Martin isn't welcomed by the local loggers, who think he's with some environmentalists trying to put them out of work.  It doesn't take long for Martin to realize that something sinister and more powerful than he initially thought is in play here and that Lucy's husband may not have fallen victim to nature, especially once he discovers his employer's reason for wanting the Tasmanian tiger.  Based on a novel by Julia Leigh, and directed by longtime Australian TV vet Daniel Nettheim, THE HUNTER showcases stunning cinematography by Robert Humphreys and outstanding work by the cast.  Martin's arc from cold, all-business hired gun to getting involved and taking a moral stand (after a tragic turn of events) is predictable, yes, but Dafoe's expertise at just the right moments really makes it work.  The leisurely pace of this environmental drama maybe make it too much of a slow burner for some, but THE HUNTER rewards the patient viewer.  I can see this developing a LAST OF THE DOGMEN-type following over time.  (R, 102 mins)

In Theaters: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012)

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
(US - 2012)

Directed by Marc Webb.  Written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves.  Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Sally Field, Martin Sheen, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Irrfan Khan, C. Thomas Howell. (PG-13, 137 mins)

Rebooting the SPIDER-MAN franchise just ten years after it began and five years after the last installment, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN exists only so Sony could hold on to the rights and not lose them to Marvel's deal with Disney. To its credit, the film has some good elements and is not overtly cynical in its execution, but really, it only exists as a contractual clause obligation.  Director Marc Webb (500 DAYS OF SUMMER, and music videos by No Doubt, Green Day, and 3 Doors Down) and screenwriters James Vanderbilt (ZODIAC), Alvin Sargent (SPIDER-MAN 2, SPIDER-MAN 3), and Steve Kloves (several HARRY POTTER screenplays) hit all the expected building blocks of Spidey's origins, often glossing over them in a way that suggests even they know how familiar we are with the whole thing, because really, we just saw it, and it's still on TV all the time.  To put it another way, as I've gotten older, I've seen a number of films from my childhood remade, but a kid who saw Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN in theaters when he was five still isn't old enough to drive to the theater to see the reboot.  And we also need to retire the term "reboot," since it's no longer relevant.  BATMAN BEGINS was a reboot.  CASINO ROYALE was a reboot.  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is a $215 million legal document.

Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man

Having said that, it has a lot of positives.  Fashioning a Spidey for Generation Skinny Jeans, Andrew Garfield (THE SOCIAL NETWORK) turns in a believable, natural performance as outcast Peter Parker.  There's a bit more of a focus on the disappearance of Peter's parents (Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz) and his being raised by Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), but after that, Webb and the screenwriters are just running down a checklist:  Peter getting into Oscorp to meet his dad's old colleague, the one-armed Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans); being bitten by a radioactive spider; discovering and controlling his superhero powers; falling for classmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who's an intern at Oscorp;  Peter inadvertantly causing Uncle Ben to get killed in the wrong place at the wrong time, etc.  Dr. Connors is experimenting with a reptilian regeneration hormone for those with missing limbs, and suffers tragic consequences when he tests the drug on himself, bringing out his dark side and transforming him into the rampaging Lizard.

Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

Garfield, despite playing a high-school student at 28, is a good Peter/Spidey, but once the mayhem starts, it's all CGI and video-gamey set pieces.  When Sheen's Uncle Ben exits the film, so does the warmth and humanity, especially since you don't see much of Field's Aunt May afterwards (Sheen and Field are both superb here).  Through no fault of Ifans, Connors/The Lizard is a dull, one-dimensional villain that's just a retread of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin from SPIDER-MAN and Alfred Molina's Doc Ock from SPIDER-MAN 2.  Even the always-charming Stone is rendered somewhat inert here.  She doesn't even seem shocked by Peter's revelation that he's Spider-Man.  There's also supporting performances by Denis Leary as Gwen's police captain father, Irrfan Khan (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE), and even a rare big-screen C. Thomas Howell sighting (in addition to the usual Stan Lee cameo), but actors aren't really even important in films like this.  There's a few impressively-done action sequences and some nice bits of humor, but some of it falls flat, especially Spidey's Ratso Rizzo-ish "I'm swingin' here!" and his taunting "Somebody's been a bad lizard!"

Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors, soon to become The Lizard

Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May

It basically boils down to there being no reason beyond rights necessities for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN to exist.  It's reasonably entertaining and nothing about it is bad, but nothing's particularly great, either.  It's big, loud, colorful, and generally fast (even if it overstays its welcome a tad at a bloated 137 minutes), and hits as much as it misses.  It'll make a ton of money and there'll be two sequels, and in 2022, another "reboot," if we're still using that term by then.  It's OK, it's watchable, but you've seen it all before and there's just nothing here to really get excited about it.  The biggest achievement of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is that it took me to previously unforeseen levels of complete and utter ambivalence.  (2D version seen)