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King Hu's 1966 Hong Kong wuxia pian ("martial chivalry" genre)
classic stars Cheng Pei-Pei as the avenging Golden Swallow, on a mission to save
her kidnapped brother, and Yueh Hua as an amiable beggar with a chorus of
scruffy orphans, who plays guardian angel to the warrior woman, his drunken
front hiding his true identity. Together they take on the pale and powdered Jade
Faced Tiger and his bandit army, in wild battles with magnificent action
choreography and comic flourishes. Hua makes a charming rogue with a genuine
modesty and easygoing quality in contrast to the cool intensity of Pei-Pei,
whose control becomes a sexy fierceness in the heat of battle. The film soars on
a lyrical mix of scruffy singing heroes, cross-dressing heroines, narcissistic
villains and fantastical action choreographed like dance. The film launched a
new wave of Hong Kong filmmaking, and you can feel its influence in everything
from Bruce Lee's martial arts thrillers of the 1970s to Jackie Chan's " Drunken Master" films to the Tsui Hark-led new wave of
high-energy, special-effects-laden adventures in 1980s Hong Kong, and, of
course, the Oscar-winning " Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Ang Lee's tribute to the
magical, colorful genre that King Hu reinvented with this film. The DVD
features a detailed commentary with Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan and lead
actress Pei-Pei (who is amazed at Logan's knowledge and fills in his gaps with
her own remembrances). Logan pays tribute to the film in "A Classic Remembered:
A Retrospective With Hong Kong Cinema Expert Bey Logan," and the disc features
new interview featurettes with stars Pei-Pei and Hua and a remembrance of King
Hu by Hong Kong director/producer Hark. |
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| Rambo: The Complete Collector's Set |
The new "Rambo" film (reviewed in New Releases) is boxed up with
Sylvester Stallone's original Reagan-era warrior trilogy in this box set. "First
Blood" (1982), a rugged survivalist thriller turned on its head, draws its
resonance directly from the wounds left by Vietnam, and indirectly on the
collective guilt over the mistreatment of the American vets. Directed with a
tough, visceral snap by Ted Kotcheff, this tale of a wandering Vietnam vet
(Stallone) pushed into a deadly flashback by an unsympathetic sheriff (Brian
Dennehy) is a brutal action fantasy version of what many other films of the era
approached more cerebrally. A big theatrical hit and a huge video favorite, it
led to the cartoonish sequel " Rambo: First Blood Part II" (1985), a veritable do-over of the
Vietnam War in which Rambo asks the question: "Do we get to win this time?"
This hysterically jingoistic thriller transformed the angry vet into an
avenging, one-man American army and righteous cold warrior. This veritable
American Hercules in fatigue green with a honking big knife took the battle
right to the Russkies in " Rambo III" (1988), where he fights side by side with Afghan
guerrillas (the same ones who later spawned al-Qaida) to save his mentor and
symbolic father, Richard Crenna (the stern, utterly professional Green Beret
authority figure of all three films). Each disc features commentary and
interactive features, and the set includes a bonus disc with 10 featurettes and
trailers to all four films. The "Rambo: I-III Blu-Ray Box Set" comes without the
new " Rambo" film or the bonus disc and includes only three
featurettes, but each disc features an exclusive "Out of the Blu" trivia
track. |
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| The Thief of Bagdad |
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This lavish 1940 "Arabian Nights" fantasy, produced by British
mogul Alexander Korda, stars Sabu as the vagabond street kid who fights the evil
Grand Vizier (Conrad Veidt in high villain mode) with the help of his giant
genie in the bottle (Rex Ingram, joyfully hamming it up). Romantic leads John
Justin and June Duprez feel like dull afterthoughts next to the flamboyant fun
had by these three. At least four directors helmed pieces of the film, including
Michael Powell. It was his color film debut, which is held together by the
glorious art direction by William Cameron Menzies, who creates an amazing world
for the fantastical wonders of flying carpets, mechanical horses and a 50-foot
genie with a bellowing laugh. Criterion's new two-disc edition features two
commentary tracks (one by film directors/fans Francis Ford Coppola and Martin
Scorsese, the other by film historian Bruce Eder), a documentary on the film's
visual effects (featuring interviews with FX legends Ray Harryhausen and Dennis
Muren) and Korda's propaganda feature "The Lion Has Wings" (1940), which he
produced when "Thief" went into production hiatus (Powell directed pieces of
this as well). Also includes interviews and a booklet among the
supplements.
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| 5 Films by Dario Argento |
In the 1970s and '80s, Dario Argento was the master of a
distinctly Italian twist on the stalk-and-kill horror genre known as "giallo."
His cinematic marriage of lurid violence (perpetuated primarily upon beautiful,
often scantily clad women), spectacular sequences of sheer cinematic bravura and
beauty, and gorgeous images sculpted in light and color, turned the horror film
into a dreamlike spectacle. This box set features two classics of the genre. " Tenebre" (1982) is a homicidal freak-out starring Anthony
Franciosa, but the real star is Argento's direction: His camera takes flight in
astounding long takes and jumps in to terrified close-ups with razor-sharp
precision. " Phenomena" (1985), starring Jennifer Connelly, opens with
the dreamy grace of a fairy tale and then plunges into a strange, supernaturally
tinged nightmare of a psychopath loose in an exclusive school for girls.
Argento's lyrical cinematography and lovingly choreographed violence give it all
a kind of dream logic. Both feature commentary by Argento, composer Claudio
Simonetti and others, plus all-new featurettes and other supplements. The set
also includes his 1993 American feature debut, " Trauma," " The Card Player" (2004) and " Do You Like Hitchcock?" (2005). Five discs in a tin case the
same dimensions as a standard case. "Tenebre" and "Phenomena" are also available
separately in new special editions. |
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| Marvel Heroes |
Fox boxes up seven of its recent big-budget superhero films and
more in this nine-disc box set, a kind of grab-bag comic-book movie collection.
Bryan Singer's "X-Men" and "X2: X-Men United" are among the best of this new
wave of superpowered action fantasy, films that balance the splashy spectacle,
pulp tales of good guys and villains, and the alienation of being different. By
comparison, Brett Ratner plods through " X-Men: The Last Stand," the third in the series. Ben
Affleck was much maligned for " Daredevil," which is far superior to the tepid spin-off " Elektra," starring Jennifer Garner. " Fantastic Four" and " Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" are
colorful, loud and busy but rather tone-deaf adventures, though I admit the
screen incarnation of the tormented Silver Surfer is magnificent. These are all
single-disc editions of the films in thinpak cases, and the set is filled out
with four episodes of the 2006 "Fantastic Four" animated series and an exclusive
disc with a digital comic book, plus X-Men mini-comics. |
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In addition to his regular contributions to MSN Movies, Sean Axmaker is a
film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a DVD columnist for MSN
Entertainment, and a contributing writer to GreenCine.com, Turner Classic Movies
Online, and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications.
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On the RocksWith 'Iron Man' and 'Hancock' featuring
heavy-drinking protagonists, we reflect on the most memorable drunks in movie
history UnclassicsThough they may be listed among the
greatest films of all time, these 10 movies deserve to be
downgraded Surveying Coen CountryAs 'No Country for Old
Men' arrives on DVD, we celebrate two of America's most original filmmaking
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