DVD Review: Appaloosa

I really, really like Appaloosa and even began, shortly after watching it, that it might be my second favorite modern Western, behind only Unforgiven.

Appaloosa is the story of two lawmen-for-hire, played by Ed Harris (who also directed) and Viggo Mortenson. The pair come to the small town of Appaloosa to help the locals with the problems they’re having with a local powerful rancher, played by the fantastic Jeremy Irons. One complication after another comes into the story (including a few that involve a woman who moves to town shortly after them and who’s played by Renee Zellweger) but the two come through as partners despite being the only morally clear people in the entire story.

What I dug about Appaloosa was the stoic attitudes displayed by the two stars. While everyone is getting all emotional around them these two lawmen just shrug and move along, never betraying any emotion they don’t need to and meeting every challenge with a quiet certainty. The performances by these two are simply pitch-perfect without being showy or anything like that. Even Irons doesn’t go over the edge in his role as the “villain” of the film, a role that he easily could have hammed up.

The single-disc edition of the movie comes with a handful of bonus features, including a batch of deleted scenes that you can view with or without commentary by director and star Ed Harris and screenwriter/producer Robert Knott. Both Knott and Harris also provide commentary on the feature film itself. The disc also has a few featurettes that dive into the production of the film and the recreation of the titular town.

DVD Review: Quantum of Solace

For some reason Quantum of Solace, the most-recent outing of super-spy James Bond, got lukewarm reviews when it came out in theaters. I’m not sure why that was since I actually quite enjoyed it and even thought it was an improvement over 2006’s Casino Royale.

Picking up right, more or less, where that previous movie left off, Daniel Craig once again stars as the new stripped-down and highly intense version of Bond the first movie introduced us to. He’s on a mission to not only uncover some shadowy, nebulous organization that specializes is toppling governments and exploiting natural resources but also to – although he doesn’t admit as much – to avenge the death of Vesper, the girlfriend he lost in the previous installment.

The nature of the plot doesn’t really matter though. Quantum of Solace needs to be viewed as the second half of a single film, one who’s primary purpose is to introduce this version of James Bond and give him a mythos of his own as someone who is emotionally damaged and brutal in pursuit of his goals, which often seem personal but which also have the advantage of meshing nicely with those of Queen and country.

Watching Craig as Bond is even more enjoyable this time than it was in Casino Royale. We know better who this guy is now and can read more into his aggressively passive expressions. It’s also more interesting to see him in the movie’s series of chases and action sequences. I found myself thinking over the course of the movie that he reminded me of Indiana Jones in how he escapes not because of some master plan he’s worked out, but instead because he just happened to survive from one moment to the next, not thinking about anything beyond the next ledge he’s going to leap to and he’ll figure out the next move once he’s there.

There’s never really a moment that doesn’t work in Quantum of Solace. Not only are the action scenes great to watch but the quieter moments (if you can call them that) – especially the ones with Dame Judy Dench as M – are pretty good as well. Dench is basically given the same two things to do over and over again – scold Bond and remind him of his duties or look up information based on Bond’s latest discovery – but she sells them with her usual class and talent.

Quantum of Solace comes with a host of bonus features on the two-disc special edition DVD, including:

• Bond on Location: All about the exotic locales and how they play into the story of the movie.
• Start of Shooting: Very brief featurette about the shooting of the movie.
• On Location: More about the settings. Not sure why this wasn’t just rolled into the 20+ minute first bit.
• Olga Kurylenko and the Boat Chase: Covering one of the key action sequences in the film.
• Director Marc Forster: How the man behind the camera did on his first time out.
• The Music: Self-explanitory
• Crew Files: Likewise.

As I said, Quantum of Solace needs to be viewed as the second half of a single story and it works as just that. Well worth checking out.

DVD Review: Being There

Have you ever watched an acrobat and marveled at the control they have over their bodies? Just sat there and been amazed at how they can move their limbs in ways that you just can’t considering you count every time you don’t trip while walking up the stairs as a massive, massive success?

That’s kind of what it’s like watching Peter Sellers in Being There.

If you’re unfamiliar with Being There here’s a quick synopsis: A simple man named Chance serves as the gardener for an old man in Washington, DC. Chance has never left the house and has the intellect of a child, as well as being able to neither read nor write. One day the old man dies and Chance is cast out, only to find himself taken in by another rich old man who thinks Chance is some sort of nuts-and-bolts genius who’s able to take the most complex situation and reduce it down to its core elements. As part of that Chance winds up meeting the President, being quoted in newspapers he can’t read and making lots of influential friends who don’t realize he’s that slow.

The movie, in all honesty, kind of hits that same joke over and over again. With anyone else playing the role of Chance it likely wouldn’t work nearly as well as it does with Sellers there. He brings it an incredible amount of genuine emotion that other actors simply couldn’t. It turns the character from someone to be pitied into someone you come to respect and root for.

Being There received a bare-bones DVD release back in the early days of the format but now it’s gotten a Deluxe Edition release as well as appearing on Blu-ray. Even so, the only new addition to the disc is a “Memories of Being There” featurette that has interviews with the cast and crew. It’s worth watching but it might not be up to a “Deluxe” labeling.

Still, Being There is a classic film that deserved a better release on disc and I’m glad Warner Bros. has provided just that. Definitely recommended.

Movie Journal: The Manhattan Project

I don’t know about you but I always think of The Manhattan Project in the same vein as Wargames. You know, two movies about some kid in the mid-80s who’s smarter than adults around him and who uses those smarts to blow up the world, or at least Ithaca, New York and the surrounding states.

The movie doesn’t hold up nearly as well as some others from that era, unfortunately. It’s still fun to watch, though mostly at this point simply for the memories it evokes of watching it on VHS countless times while spending summer days at my grandparents’ house. It’s especially bad when you realize that John Lithgow’s character basically causes his own problems when he gives the kid a tour of his lab – where he’s making highly unstable weapon’s grade plutonium – because he wants to sleep with the kid’s mother. Good job on that, big guy.

Movie Journal: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

For whatever reason I had never actually seen A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum before coming across it on Hulu a little while ago. I certainly knew of it but had just missed it time and time again.

Forum, though, is not to be missed, especially if you’re a fan of old-school comedy. Between Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton and a variety of other faces and names you’re likely to recognize if you know your comedic history, it’s a light little piece of entertainment that is funny and fresh and entirely enjoyable. There isn’t much physical comedy, at least not as much as I was expecting. Instead, as truly befits the talents of those involved, it’s mostly about the word play, about mistaken identities and about pulling one over on your neighbor because he’s probably about to pull one over on you.

If there’s one thing that comes through on watching this, it’s that Mostel truly was a force of nature. He blows through every scene like a whirlwind, leaving half-thought through schemes, confused servants and frustrated masters in his wake. It is, quite frankly, impossible to take your eyes off of him while he’s on screen, even more so than in The Producers, a role he’s well known for in most people’s minds. Maybe because ancient Rome is a bigger canvas for him to wreak havoc on than modern New York City. He’s extraordinary.

The movie is on Hulu for anther week or so so by all means carve out a couple hours or so and watch it while it’s there. If you don’t have the time then add it immediately to your Netflix queue and check it out.

Returning to the agency world

I’m back in the world of agencies, clients and all that good stuff:

We’re pleased to announce that Chris Thilk is now part of the Voce Nation. He’ll be working with our dedicated social media team, which now numbers eight full-time staff. Chris will continue to be based in the Chicago area, but will make trips to the mothership in Sunnyvale, CA as needed.

Officially, Chris started in early March and has already re-found the joys of agency life . He’ll be working on a variety of projects for Intel and Comcast to name a few.

So yeah. It’s all good and lots of fun so far. Lots of exciting stuff coming down the road.

Not a problem

One of the responsibilities I and my brethren have as members of the Board of Elders at Bethany Lutheran Church, Naperville IL is to keep tabs on the preaching of the pastors and make sure they’re bringing both Law and Gospel to the congregation in their purity. This bottom-up system of checks and balances is supposed to work in concert with the top-down oversight from the synod (in this case the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) but they seem more interested in blue-ribbon panels on reorganization than assuring the teaching of pure doctrine. But that’s a post for another time.

This part of our job is easy, though, with the pair of pastors we have at Bethany. This past Sunday’s service was a wonderful example of Lutheran church done right. The entire service, from the Old Testmament reading to the Epistle to the Gospel to the hymns to the sermon all focused around “Justification,” or how we are brought closer to God.

Old Testament Reading (Numbers 21, 4-9):

4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Gospel (John 3, 14 – 21):

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Epistle (Ephesians 2, 1-10):

2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body [1] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But [2] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Top all that off with a sermon that tied all three together and also featured a visual tool more powerful than any Nerf guns, water balloons or clown noses any “church growth” preacher has ever brought to the pulpit – namely the image of Christ crucified as the ultimate price paid for our sins – and you have a wonderful, wonderful Service of the Word.

How the internet will eat itself

Rex Sorgatz lays out just how disjointed our online communications are.

Whither Admiral Flagg?

A list of characters that I’d like to believe were in at least one draft of the script for G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra:

• Serpentor
• Flint
• Shipwreck
• Tomax/Xamot
• The Fridge
• Quick Kick
• Stalker
• Blowtorch
• Fred VII
• Major Bludd

Anyone?

DVD Review: Watchmen – The Complete Motion Comics

Months before the release of Watchmen into theaters, Warner Bros. – specifically their Warner Premiere division – made the first chapter of something called “Watchmen Motion Comics” available as a free download through iTunes.

The format of the video was just what is sounds like, literally the panels of the Watchmen graphic novel put in rudimentary motion and with voice work. It was quite interesting to watch but the future episodes, which weren’t released for quite a while after the first one, weren’t free and so I didn’t continue watching them.

But now Warner Premiere has released all 12 chapters on the two DVD set Watchmen – The Complete Motion Comic.

Unlike the big-screen movie adaptation there’s nothing new or altered from the source material here. Most every panel, including The Black Freighter sub-story and everything else, that appeared in the graphic novel is brought to motion. Dave Gibbons’ artwork is rendered faithfully, with moving limbs and objects being the only alteration.

It’s interesting to watch the whole story unfold like this. I can’t say it’s preferable to reading the printed novel. It’s not. But despite its exact duplication it does provide an alternate way to enjoy the story and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Occasionally things seem silly, but those are few and far between. For the most part it works and is certainly something that fulfills its primary duty as a promotional tool for the feature film.

More than anything, this “version” of the story makes it seem filmable. It’s one thing to look at the amazingly dense graphic novel and say it can’t be translated to film. But this does just that, without any interpretation. The five hour running time of the 12 episodes is just about how long the movie would need to be told. It doesn’t seem like so high a hurdle. While watching it hasn’t impacted my feelings about that feature film, it does make me view the opinions circulating around its making differently.

The two-disc DVD contains only one special feature, a 10-minute featurette on the making of Warner Premiere’s next DC Comics animated feature, Wonder Woman. There’s no finished footage in the segment (which is a bit surprising) but instead it’s made up of cast and crew interviews, with rough sketches from the film giving a glimpse of what it will look like as well as plenty of background on the history of Wonder Woman in the comics.