One of my fondest memories is traveling 40 miles to a theatre that was selected to play the trailer for The Phantom Menace before Meet Joe Black. This was in the days where downloading a good looking trailer the size of a postage stamp took all night, so that 40 minute drive up to the capitol city was no skin off my nose.

They played the trailer before and after Meet Joe Black and the group of people I went with spent the entire time during the film discussing Star Wars and how mind blowing the trailer was. (“>You can watch it here. Say whatever you want about The Phantom Menace (quietly, please) this trailer was incredible.)

I know some people were disappointed, both in the trailer and the film, but for me it delivered with flying colors. It continues to do so, as well.

Another film I couldn’t care less about will be premiering the trailer for the 3D version of The Phantom Menace and I’ll be there to see it. It doesn’t hurt that my kids want to see it, but I’ve spent since Aliens Vs. Predator doing my best to avoid the crap Paul W.S. Anderson directs. In any case, there it is. The Three Musketeers hits theatres October 21st.

We also have this new poster for the film and it highlights all the things we love about the film. And with Darth Maul returning from the dead on The Clone Wars soon after the February release date of this re-release, it makes a lot of sense to get him out in the open.

Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, and Peter Sarsgaard is making its way to Blu-ray this Friday, October 14.

I originally reviewed this Martin Campbell-directed film when it hit theaters back in June, and you can read that fairly lengthy review here. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Perhaps where this film suffers the most is a rushed, and undeveloped story and a gross under-use of some potentially interesting characters. The film really jumps right in to bestowing the power ring to Hal Jordan who is shortly after inheriting a power ring from the dying alien, Abin Sur, is whisked away to the Green Lantern base-planet of Oa. Here we are introduced to three Green Lanterns we will see shockingly little of after they attempt to train Hal Jordan in the ways of being a member of the Green Lantern Corps. After becoming frustrated and beaten down by his would-be trainers Kilowog and Thaal Sinestro, Hal simply gives up and returns home. Yes, after less than one day spent traveling to Oa, learning about the Green Lanterns, and getting frustrated because he can’t immediately wield his ring as well as some the the Corps’ best members, Hal Jordan returns to Earth and gives up. Running parallel to Hal’s story, we have Hector Hammond, a scientist and son of a U.S. Senator, become exposed to some remnants of the yellow, physical manifistation of the power of Fear, Parallax, when he is summoned to study the body of the deceased Abin Sur. This of course putshim on track to becoming the film’s main – but relatively weak – antagonist. The film whisks along at a steady pace as it desperately attempts to set up some romance between Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris and present scenarios on Earth that forces Jordan to don his ring and become a hero – including a crashing helicopter and an increasingly crazy Hector Hammond drunk from the power and influence of Parallax. It’s not long before our hero prevails in a relatively anti-clamactic showdown with Parallax and he is accepted by the Green Lanterns as a formidable member.

Needless to say, I was not really impressed with this film the first time around, and my opinion has not changed much after a second viewing on Blu-ray. I of course watched the extended version of the film which added around ten minutes of extra material. These extra scenes do help the film out a bit by adding some back story the theatrical version merely hinted at. Most – if not all – of the extra material is at the beginning of the film where we see more of young Hal Jordan interacting with his parents, being a bit of a rebel and skipping class to watch his father fly. At the airfield Hal runs into a young Carol Ferris and Hector Hammond which I appreciated. In the theatrical version of the film it’s implied that these three have a history together, but implying is all the film does; it’s nice to see these relationships expanded on a little and makes the interactions of these characters later on in the film make more sense. These added scenes don’t necessarily make this a “better” film overall, but definitely improve it by providing some back story. Of course, visually the film is quite stunning on Blu-ray, but it does little in the way of hiding the fact it suffers from a rushed, bumbling script and poor character development.

There are a handful of deleted scenes included, but nothing terribly substantial. There’s an odd scene in which Hector Hammond uses his new found powers to levitate a hamster running in a wheel, a scene of Hal and Sinestro visiting a Green Lantern cemetery, and some other minor moments that were left on the cutting room floor. Perhaps the deleted scene that stood out the most was one in which Hal protects his nephew as Parallax attacks the city. It would have been nice to see Hal’s close relationship with his nephew expanded on in the film instead of having him essentially disappear about fifteen minutes in, never to be seen again. With this scene at least we see that this character wasn’t completely forgotten.

Some fairly interesting featurettes are included that cover the creation of the alien Green Lanterns, how Hector Hammond’s disfigured look was achieved, Ryan Reynolds’ “transformation” into Hal Jordan, and how the CG Green Lantern costumes were created among other things. Fans of the Green Lantern comic book universe will probably most enjoy the “The Universe According to Green Lantern” featurette in which Hal Jordan’s comic book history is explored in quite a bit of depth by DC writers, artists, etc.

Green Lantern is by no means an awful film, but when you have other superhero films like Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and X-Men: First Class setting such a high bar this year it just doesn’t compare. It’s a good looking film, but the script just doesn’t hold up. For those of you on the fence about seeing this movie that passed on it while it was in theaters, I do think it’s worth a viewing on Blu-ray but perhaps as a rental.

You can pick up Green Lantern over at Amazon.

I recently had the incredible opportunity to spend some time chatting with some of the greatest visual effects artists in the industry to discuss Jurassic Park, which will be released on Blu-ray in an ultimate trilogy set on October 25.

Even if you don’t know their names, you know their work.  Dennis Muren began his career with George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in the early days of the Star Wars saga.  Phil Tippett also worked at ILM and worked on stop-motion scenes.  John Rosengrant worked closely with Stan Winston on the animatronic dinosaurs and has even performed as a puppeteer for movies (including performing as one of the velociraptors in the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park).  He is now with Legacy Effects.

I began by asking them if they thought CGI was overused by filmmakers today, since part of the success of Jurassic Park comes from the seamless blending of multiple effects techniques (animatronic dinosaurs from Stan Winston, and the collaboration between Tippet’s stop motion and Muren’s CGI).

Muren:  “Yeah, absolutely.  I think it’s overused.  Movies should be about people, not about effects, and there’s a tendency to just do sort of everything CG and what they’re actually doing is delaying making the decision.”

Rosengrant:  “It’s lazy film-making.  I hate to be that blunt but I really feel like it is, because movies were made with decisions and planning for years and now you get to set and they just don’t want to make a decision . . . they don’t want to do their homework or be locked in.”

Muren:  “[Jurassic Park] very well planned.  It was a mixture of real dinosaur props on the set that could move realistically mixed with post-production effects that ended up being computer graphics as opposed to just doing all one or all the other.”

Tippett:  “And to add to that note there was the Winston Studios that did all the practical on-set stuff which contributed a significant amount of shots to it whereas Dennis and I worked primarily on the . . . more ambulatory shots . . . I think there was only something like 55 dinosaur shots and it was so well laid out by Steven [Spielberg] and cut together seamlessly that it was almost a perfect amount of what you needed to do to tell the story and kind of left you wanting more . . .

Muren:  “You felt like there were a heck of a lot more dinosaurs in that movie than really were.  It’s so funny, but Steven did the same thing in Jaws and he did the same thing in E.T. You’d think the people would learn from him how to make these movies, but they don’t.  So many people just throw in a thousand shots, 2000 shots and think that’s how you do it.  It’s too bad.”

Next, I asked them what they thought about filmmakers going back to earlier works and updating the visual effects (as we have most recently seen with the Star Wars Saga.  Again)

Tippett:  “It’s their business.  Artists throughout all history have gone back in and re-worked stuff, and that could be for a number of different reasons, so you know, it’s their call to do that.”

Muren:  “I agree with Phil.  I wish the original versions were always available, but I think it’s fine to update a movie if it means you’re going to have an audience later watching that movie that otherwise might turn it off because of something that you could fix.  It’s a shame, people were talking about a shot in Raiders of the Lost Ark where there’s a reflection in a piece of glass between Indy and the snake . . . I would hate to have people turn that movie off . . . because of that reflection looking fake.”

Their responses to the most challenging parts of working on Jurassic Park:

Rosengrant:  “For Stan Winston Studio I think it was coming up with moving these giant dinosaurs hydraulically and getting them to move naturally because the hydraulics had been used in theme parks for years but they didn’t have the compliant servos and the computer technology to stop them from kind of looking very fake and mechanical so that was a huge groundbreaking thing for us and of course you’re also strapped with skins of Tyrannosaurus Rexes that are 24 feet long and Brachiosaur heads which technically oh that’s a big deal the mold-making process for something like that we turned to aerospace.  Used a lot of products for the mold-making, epoxy molds and things that would be very light and strong compared to the other techniques of the past. that was daunting I mean, obviously the scope of work as well.”

Muren:  “From our point of view on the CG stuff, is that we didn’t even know if we could to it at the start of the project because it just hadn’t been done before.  I looked at a lot of footage that had been done by universities and all these attempts to make animal skin to look like real computer graphic creatures.  Nobody got even close to it, and it was the best stuff from the finest minds. Fortunately at ILM we had a lot of people who really cared about it and we had some science people that we brought in and computer scientists to sort of help solve problems the way the light should hit the detail on it different detail on it and how we could get the apparent look of all the different detail on the skins of the dinosaurs without actually having to make all that because computers of that time couldn’t have ever handled it.  There was an awful lot of cheating compared to what we do now in CG.  We didn’t know what we were doing.  We didn’t know if we could do it.”

And they are currently working on:

Muren:  “I just did some work on Super 8 but now I’m onto this book I’ve been working on for a long time on and it’s on observation and inspiration for films.”

Phil Tippett is working on the final two chapters of the Twilight saga.

Rosengrant:  “And Legacy Effects is working on Pacific Rim which is the Guillermo Del Toro movie and we’re also doing a smaller movie . . .  called Neighborhood Watch where aliens have invaded the neighborhood.”

It was a treat to speak to these masters of visual effects, and you can see and hear more about the behind-the-scenes magic on the documentaries included in the Jurassic Park Blu-Ray set.  I’ve viewed some of them already, and they’re full of movie clips, interviews, and information about all three Jurassic Park films.

With The Presence writer/director Tom Provost is trying to something different within the realm of ghost stories. The story itself isn’t unusual, but the premise is. The central plot revolves around a woman (Mira Sorvino) who has returned to an isolated cabin that she visited frequently as a child to work on her writing. But the house isn’t as empty as it appears. A ghost (Shane West) lingers in the shadows, bound to the place by some sense of guilt or requirement. When the woman’s boyfriend (Justin Kirk) arrives the ghost’s somber influence causes the woman’s behavior to become unpredictable and irrational.

Where The Presence attempts to set itself apart is that the ghost is presented living alone in the cabin long before the woman (she isn’t given a name) arrives. In fact there isn’t any dialogue in the film for the first 15 or so minutes and through out the movie there are stretches of silence. Fortunately the film features some stunning cinematography. Still, there are times when the film moves so slowly that even the gorgeous landscape can’t keep the film from feeling a bit boring. It’s never quite as psychologically intriguing as it needs to be and Provosts deliberate commitment to being vague doesn’t help the situation. It’s one of those rare occasions where the director might be trusting his audience’s ability to fill in the gaps a bit too much. Still, there are some good ideas at work here. If you’re looking for a different kind of ghost story The Presence is worth a look.

The DVD release includes an insightful audio commentary by Provost. He’s a little to eager to point out his mistakes but his candid honesty is nonetheless appreciated. There is also a nice making-of featurette and a collection of storyboards with commentary from Provost and editor Cecily Rhett.

There’s been a lot of well-deserved buzz surrounding the Roger Corman documentary Corman’s World , but without Herschell Gordon Lewis there might not have ever been a Roger Corman in the first place.

Lewis started out making nudie-cutie films in the early 1960s before single handedly launching the splatter horror subgenre with his trilogy of horror films Blood Feast (1963), Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965). In the coming years he’d release a handful of gore features The Gruesome Twosome (1967), The Wizard of Gore (1970) and The Gore Gore Girls (1973). In between his various horror efforts he also released a variety of other exploitation films before retiring from the film industry in 1973. Only, like a good horror monster, he came back with a vengeance some 20 years later.

Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore is a fantastic ride through Lewis’ career featuring interviews with cast and crewmembers from his various films as well as the ever-quotable John Waters and infamous B-movie critic Joe Bob Briggs.

The Godfather of Gore is an incredibly funny and often bizarre look at the early days of independent filmmaking where the only thing better than a good film was a bad film that made money.

Afterwards you might want to give the Blu-ray release of the “Blood Trilogy” a look. Despite their extremely low-budget roots the three films look remarkably better on Blu-ray than they do on DVD. The prints show a fair amount of wear but that’s all part of the charm. The films themselves aren’t exactly high art, not even for the horror genre, but they’re so over the top that you can’t help but enjoy them. Lewis even provides a commentary for each of the films (which are a bit dry but interesting nonetheless). Bonus features include over an hour of outtakes, a vintage instructional film directed by Lewis that explains how to carve a  turkey as well as a short film about a voyeuristic-cross-dressing killer.

Paul Reubens is an interesting creature. He’s famous for a mug shot taken after a sticky arrest and for playing, if not actually being, Pee-wee Herman. To be completely honest, I don’t care about the arrest. I never did. I’ve always, or at least since seeing Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, been a fan of Pee-wee. I watched Pee-Wee’s Playhouse religiously, vividly remember going to see Big Top Pee-Wee on opening day (which makes me personally responsible for half of the film’s box office take) and not walking away feeling like I’d been fleeced. So, it should be no surprise that watching the Blu-ray of the recent HBO special The Pee-wee Show on Broadway was something I was more than happy to do.

The show is a taped version (a mixture of a live performance and a closed set recording that allowed the cameras a bit more freedom) of Pee-wee’s newest show The Pee-Wee Herman Show: The Return. The script is a combination of old material from the original stage show from 1980, bits from the CBS series Pee-wee’s Playhouse as well as newly written material.

It’s an enjoyable nostalgic romp with a few new characters and modern twists to go along with the same Pee-wee Herman that many of us grew up on. Along with Reubens the cast also includes a trio of performers reprising their roles from the 1980 production: John Moody as Mailman Mike, John Paragon as Jambi and Lynne Stewart as Miss Yvonne. Unfortunately Laurence Fishburne doesn’t return as Cowboy Curtis but Phil LaMarr does a fine job with the role (which is essentially the role that Phil Hartman’s Captain Carl had in the original stage show). Some of the puppets included in the show show include Chairry, Magic Screen, Pterri, Mr. Window, Clocley, Globey and Conky. There are also a handful of new characters including an electrician named Sergio (Jesse Garcia), a firefighter (Josh Meyers) and a silent dancing bear (Drew Powell).

The puppet work is amazing and Reubens is still able to channel Pee-Wee’s school-boy behavior with gusto and the supporting cast does a good job keeping up with his pace. I wish I could have seen it live.

The Blu-ray release includes an insightful and occasionally hillarious audio commentary featuring the entire cast (minus the silent puppeteers). The show itself is kid-friendly. The audio commentary isn’t. It would have been nice if a backstage tour was included so that audiences could get a better idea of how all the puppets worked. Maybe they didn’t want to demystify the magic.

If you’ve ever loved Pee-wee you’ll most certainly love The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway.

Released in 1996 Scream not only resurrected Wes Craven’s career as a horror director it also launched the career of Kevin Williamson and revitalized the horror genre at mainstream cinemas. The film was essentially a celebration of clichés that had become the standard plot devices in horror films. It was self-aware, witty and more fun than it was mean spirited. Scream spawned a pair of successful, but increasingly watered-down, sequels before waltzing off into its blood-soaked skyline. The joke, despite all its initial originality, just wasn’t funny or necessary anymore.

In Scream’s wake audiences were offered a decade of Scary Movie, a host of re-makes and torture porn. A decade of nonsense that was ripe for dissection. So, Williamson and Craven, along with series regulars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette, dusted off the Ghostface Killer for another round of murderous behavior.

The story finds Sidney (Campbell) finishing off a successful book tour in her hometown of Woodsboro. But Sidney isn’t the only person returning to Woodsboro. After an extended absence Ghostface returns to terrorize a new group of teenagers including Sidney’s cousin Jill (Emma Roberts).

A decade of silence did wonders for the franchise in terms of material but the film failed to recapture its box-office glory. Scream 4 came and went like a whimper (it did have a fairly impressive run internationally). A shame, considering the film was the second best entry in the series.

The Blu-ray release of Scream 4 is fairly impressive. The audio and video faithfully recreate the look and feel of the theatrical presentation. The supplement material is a bit on the fluffy side but offers a decent look behind the scenes. The best bonus being the collection of deleted and extended scenes (including an alternate opening and extended ending) with commentary from Craven. Here Craven gives some insight to the production process and how the film changed at the request of the film’s producers. Some of this material is also covered in the film’s audio commentary but in that commentary Craven tends to be pushed aside as stars Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere ramble on and on without ever actually saying anything. Neve Campbell does chime in from time to time but because she is on the phone, rather than actually being in the room with the others, she tends to be mute. There’s also a fairly decent making-of featurette.

If you missed Scream 4 in theaters (which most of you did) I’d highly recommend giving the film a chance this Halloween season. It’s far better than most of the schlock that I’ve been digging through the last few weeks.

I think this trailer just melted my brain.

This movie is going to be incredible.

Here’s the link, be sure to watch it over and over again in glorious quicktime at 1080p… Jeez.

My only beef with this trailer is the music. It didn’t work for me. I wanted something more epic and less “rock.” Maybe it’s just me that always wants more John Williams or Kronos Quartet for my movies than cut rate rock bands that’ll make the movie (and the trailer) seem dated a decade from now. “>Remember that terrible song from Spider-Man? Ugh.

But this trailer was ultimately satisfying to me.

I’m DYING for May to come along.

UPDATE: I’m told the music is Nine Inch Nails. For the Record: I am in NO WAY comparing Nine Inch Nails to Nickelback. I just didn’t think this piece of music worked in the trailer as well as an orchestral piece would have.

There has been a steady stream of Coen Brothers movies coming out on Blu-ray lately and I think this is a great thing for film buffs.

I’ve received a whole pile of them and want to take this opportunity to remind you why the Coen Brothers have one of the most unique voices in film history. I’d like to open this up by saying that my favorite Coen Brothers film might be Miller’s Crossing, just so you know where I’m coming from. It’s screenplay is like a fine Swiss watch, with every gear and motor in just the right place.

First we have Blood Simple, which is also their first film. It stars Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, and M. Emmet Walsh and is as tight a modern noir as I’ve ever seen. Even though it’s dark and brutal at times, the Coen brothers manage to infuse it with humour. (Seriously, the bit with the dead end at the end of the street is hilarious.) Aside from the incredibly smart screenplay and razor sharp acting from the cast, the cinematography in this movie is both gorgeous and careful. It takes all of the classic noir visual conventions and bleeds into them the sparest bits of color. On this new Blu-ray edition, Barry Sonnenfeld’s camera work sparkles.

This is a tense, taut noir thriller and a surprising first film. It might be one of the best first films from a filmmaker since Citizen Kane. And as a noir, it has a story that resonates as much or more as classics like Double Indemnity or The Maltese Falcon.

It’s a very impressive film and one that is, for some reason, lesser known among the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre. Seek it out. It’s a no brainer, especially since it’s less than $15 on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Next up is O Brother, Where Art Thou. Starring George Clooney, John Turturro, John Goodman, and Tim Blake Nelson, this is their 1930s Americana adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Few films have as much heart and laughs in such a tight package. It’s brilliantly acted, in fact, this was the first time after the abysmal Batman and Robin travesty that I thought George Clooney could act. It’s disgustingly adorable and charming, infinitely quotable and all around a great movie. The reason you should be picking up the Blu-ray, though, aside from all of these things is the incredible visual achievement this film represents.

This was an early use of digital color correcting in film and they tweaked every frame of color in this film to tell a story with that alone. It’s gorgeous and seeing it on Blu-ray is phenomenal. But more than that? This film is one of best musicals to have ever come along. The music is integral to the story and you watch it and don’t even realize you’re watching a musical.

I’ve bought the soundtrack so many times (CD, iTunes, Vinyl, etc.) that buying the best new version of the film is a no-brainer. This also might be the Coen Brothers film I’ve seen theatrically the most. For $20 on Amazon, you really can’t go wrong picking this movie up.

The first Coen Brothers film I think I saw in the theatres that I knew I was seeing a Coen Brothers film was our last film here, The Big Lebowski.

In the years since The Big Lebowski has come out it’s become a cult hit, but that first showing on opening night was empty. I was there with two friends and we laughed hysterically through the entire thing. I had no idea what we were getting into and we’re treated with the funniest take on a noir film ever. It was odd seeing a movie that was so much a period piece released so close to the period it was set in. Now that there’s been a full decade and a half between the release of the film and over twenty since it’s set it ages like a fine wine. Comedy is always very hard to keep relevant over years, but making this a period piece in a time where no one believes in anything somehow makes the comedy timeless.

This might be one of the funniest and most enduring comedies I’ve ever seen. I know some people have backlashed against it since it’s too “popular” or “trendy” but this film is pretty flawless. It bends time and space, contains consistent belly laughs over and over again, and might be one of the most gorgeous looking comedy’s I’ve ever seen.

In fact, think about most comedies. They’re disposable and are shot with over saturated lights and ham fisted sitcom cinematography. They shoot them as easily as possible because they know no one will care about watching them five years on. The Big Lebowski is different in that it has a truly unique cinematography style and color palette. It’s brilliant colors and use of shadow adds elements of the story not present in your average, every-day comedy. It’s timeless because it’s shot knowing it’ll be a timeless piece of art.

It’s never too late to visit the film for the first time and it’s never a waste of time to revisit it. On Blu-ray, the colors sparkle and the sound pops. Add to that the fact that the Blu-ray comes with a booklet with pictures from the film and other information it makes it a no-brainer. This is definitely one you want to upgrade.

Remember that infamous apology letterNetflix customers received from CEO Reed Hastings announcing the birth of the Netflix spin-off company, Qwikster? Turns out they were “JK”-ing.

About three weeks ago, Netflix customers received an e-mail that, among other things, announced that Netflix would be splitting into two companies; Netflix would now only be a streaming service and they would spin-off a new company called Qwikster to handle all of the DVD/Blu-ray-by-mail service and expand that service to video games. Reception to this idea was almost universally negative and seemed counter productive. How would this split be a benefit to the consumer? Now instead of one account to manage your DVD mailing and instant streaming queues, we would need two. Two separate accounts with two separate queues, two separate logins, and two separate bills with no connection between them seems like the exact opposite of making a better customer experience.

Before even becoming a functional site, Qwikster has ceased to exist. Netflix has decided to keep both its services under one roof and Reed Hastings has once again issued an apologetic-esque statement on the matter:

“Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that,there is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”

With their consecutive missteps as of late and these ridiculous statements from Reed Hastings I’m seriously beginning to doubt Netflix as a company has any idea what they are doing – something I and the other robots from the Big Shiny Podcast talk about in length in last month’s episode. The idea of splitting you popular, easy to use, convenient DVD mailing and instant streaming site into twoseparate service seems like a step backwards, no matter if that happens now or in the future. Yes, Mr. Hastings, your customers were upset because the idea of splitting Netflix into two companies making a far lesser user experience for your millions of customers was just too progressive for us to handle; it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s just a bad idea, period.

It’s unclear if Netflix will still be expanding its mailing service to include video games. Personally, I think for now Netflix needs to get their feet back underneath them and get back to the basics of offering a DVD-by-mail rental service and a decent streaming service at a reasonable price – hell, go ahead and look into expanding your service to include video games, but keep it all under one roof.

Netflix seems to have a long ways to go in regaining customer trust and confidence and showing that they are a company that can adapt well moving into the future of home entertainment. Lately it just seems they are grasping at straws.

What do you think of this latest move by Netflix? Have you cancelled any Netflix services in light of these missteps by the company? Have you moved on to a competitor? Sound off in the comments below!