Lawrence of Arabia DVD Review

Not Very Lean

Movie and DVD Review

Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia is not the first two-disc DVD set I have bought for my collection; it is, however, the first two-disc set on which the movie takes up both discs. David Lean's 1962 epic is nearly four hours long (so not very lean says you), but it is still a lovingly crafted, brilliantly acted masterpiece.

The story is basically a biopic. It details the life of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), a British army officer stationed in the Middle East during World War I. He doesn't fit in with the army brass, so he requests an assignment in the desert assessing the Arab chances of staging a successful uprising against the Turks. Lawrence likes the desert, and seemingly has a slightly sadomasochistic side, because he soon earns a reputation of being able to withstand hardships. He leads a raid on a Turkish controlled town called Aqaba, crossing the hellish Nefud desert in the process. From this his legend grows, until he is in danger of being swallowed by his own ego. Lawrence, it seems, thought of himself as a deity who would shine his love upon the Arab people, giving them control of their native lands as a thank you for their help during the war. The only problem is that the choice may not be his to make. There's a lot going on besides that, but if the summary goes on any longer, there will be no room left for a review.

The seventeen month-long shoot was made even more arduous by O'Toole's constant flatulence.

Lawrence of Arabia was David Lean's follow up to the hugely successful (and long) Bridge on the River Kwai. Lean was on a roll; Kwai had made over nine times its three million budget and the film walked away with a slew of Oscars. Lean secured a budget five times as large and set about making his desert epic.

Filming was notoriously long and arduous. Principal photography lasted for over a year; there were a number of reasons for this, but perhaps the most interesting offered on the DVD is that if a desert scene needed to be reshot, all visible sand which had been stepped on needed to be raked smooth. Now, with that in mind, go and watch the film again (or for the first time), counting every time there is a wide shot of a character walking across endless desert, and marvel at how mind-bogglingly frustrating filming must have been.

Lean really hit the spot here. This is a jaw-droppingly, drool-drawingly gorgeous film, and it's easy to see why directors like Steven Spielberg rave about it. Surprisingly the plot stays on message and rarely tapers off throughout the mammoth runtime, and even though I could make cuts to the film's massive girth, I would rather not.

Peter O'Toole deserved the Oscar for Lawrence. He lost out to Gregory Peck, who got the golden man for To Kill a Mockingbird. It was the first of currently eight losses for the eternal runner up, a record of the wrong kind. Omar Sharif built a career on the back of this film, and deserves a mention in a review rapidly running out of room. His character embodies all of the contradictions of Arab society and, in continually jousting with O'Toole, helps to create a welcome sense of sustained tension throughout what could have been a whole heap of dead screen time.

The two discs of the DVD lack an audio commentary, but atone somewhat with a detailed making of.

Even though I walked away feeling as though I had lived - never mind watched - Lawrence's life, I can't help but recommend this sprawling, immense, but ultimately inspired epic. And we might all get a chance to see it soon, because Lawrence is a perennial Christmas favourite; but don't have your turkey beforehand or you won't last five minutes.

Movie: 8.5/10

Extras: 7/10

Die Hard With a Vengeance Movie and DVD Review

Die Hard With A Vengeance

Movie and DVD Review

It seems that the Die Hard franchise has taken a cue from its lead character, John McClane; this is a series of actioners which will lay down for no man. Four parts have been filmed - with an increasing gap between each installment - and while the original is still the standard bearer, the franchise as a whole holds up surprisingly well, particularly the third film, Die Hard With a Vengeance.

Released in 1995, Die Hard With a Vengeance was in many ways the spiritual successor to the first movie. Director John McTiernan returned to the helm for a second time, having been absent from the sequel. The plot neatly dovetails with the events of the first movie, as John McClane struggles to solve riddles set by a bomber calling himself Simon, who has threatened to blow up large parts of New York if McClane won’t dance to his tune.

Bruce Willis is again excellent as John McClane, a role which will surely occupy the first line of his obituary. He plays his character with just the right amount of self assuredness, and seeing him come back from a beating is the guiltiest of pleasures.

Willis shared the screen with a recent co-star from another movie; fresh from filming Pulp Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson gave a terrific turn as Zeus Carver, a staunchly pro-black electrician from Harlem. His relationship with McClane is the heart of the movie, and never feels mishandled by either actor.

Proving that English actors will eternally be cast as butlers or villains, Jeremy Irons gives an astoundingly sophisticated performance as Simon Gruber, brother to Alan Rickman’s Hans from the original film.

Director John McTiernan has found hits hard to come by since this movie. He once again got the most from the Die Hard franchise, but 2002’s Rollerball and – as crazy as it sounds - a conviction for wiretapping, have mothballed his career for the foreseeable future.

The real star of Vengeance is the script, written by Jonathan Hensleigh. Based on an earlier, unfilmed screenplay called Simon Says, Hensleigh was just coming to prominence as the screenwriter who would later write Jumanji and Armageddon.

The DVD which I own is a two-disc special edition, with copious extras. An alternate ending and some top-class making-ofs are the highlight of the second disc, while the audio commentary on disc one deserves more than one listen, despite John McTiernan’s boring voice.

There’s only one way to sign off this review, so, as John McClane would say “Yippee ki-yay!,… (Don’t even dare finish that sentence – Ed.).”

Movie: 9/10
Extras: 8/10

The Blues Brothers DVD and Movie Review

The Blues Brothers

DVD and Movie Review

Why isn't Blues Brothers mentioned in the same breath as other great musicals? I'm no fan of the genre, but I feel somewhat aggrieved that Dan Aykroyd's 1980 masterpiece isn't recognised as both a comedic and sonic tour de force.

The Blues Brothers grew from a Saturday Night Live skit. The band, also fronted by the late John Belushi, appeared as a musical act during the 1978 season. They released an album the same year, and then, prompted that there was interest in producing a feature film, Aykroyd set to work on a script.

What resulted was pure gold, from a writer who has since lost his touch. “Joliet” Jake Blues (Belushi) has just been released from Joliet prison, Illinois, into the waiting arms of his brother Elwood (Aykroyd). They attend the orphanage where they grew up, and are told by one of the nuns that the institution will close unless the boys can procure – by lawful means - $5,000 which is owed in back taxes. Jake and Elwood decide to get their band – The Blues Brothers – back together, and earn the money by performing. Throw in some Illinois Nazis, a crazy stalker played by Carrie “Princess Leia” Fisher and a heaping helping of musical cameos, and you've got yourself one enduring musical comedy.

The term “musical comedy” makes me cringe, because it brings to mind movies so disconnected from reality that the viewer may as well be watching a cartoon. The comedy lighter than air, a liberal helping of awkwardly telegraphed musical numbers only serving to make any offering in the genre seem dated from the moment of production. Blues Brothers manages to avoid this pitfall; it helps though that the script was co-written by an SNL alum, and that gritty Rhythm and Blues lines the soundtrack.

The cast is a plethora of perfection. Belushi and Aykroyd are the only main players, the rest of the ensemble being confined to cameos of varying length. But what cameos; no less than Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown and John Lee Hooker contribute songs to the production. John Candy, Frank “Yoda” Oz, and the aforementioned Carrie Fisher line out for the actors. Thankfully none of Jake and Elwood's backing band have too many lines; they keep to their strengths, concerning themselves with their instruments for a large part of the movie.

I will again go on record as disliking John Landis as a director. I feel that his successful projects have always benefited from powerhouse scripts (some of which, I should fairly point out, he also wrote), and that his direction has ruined a number of potentially decent movies; cases in point Beverly Hills Cop 3.

The DVD I watched was a single-disc affair with scant extras. The one gem I carried away was Dan Aykroyd's story about writing the first draft of his script. Most screenplays are approximately 100-120 pages long (one page of script equates to about one minute of screen time). When Aykroyd turned in his treatment, it was 324 pages in length. Rather than shy away from this fact, he decided to have the script bound to look like a yellow pages book.

So there you have it; Blues Brothers combined comedy and musicality and was equally adept at doing both. Avoid the 1998 sequel; even though it starred the often-excellent John Goodman and Aretha finally got to sing the more popular Respect, it isn't a patch on the original.

Movie: 9/10

Extras: 4/10

High Fidelity Movie and DVD Review

High Fidelity

Movie and DVD Review

Remember when Nick Hornby used to write good books? I read a compendium containing Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy back in the early 2000's, and I was floored. The three novels display a remarkable sense of humour and inventiveness and are only second in comedic value per square pound to Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy compilation. Since then though, Hornby's output has encountered more of a cliff-top fall off than downhill turn and I gave up after 2005's exercise in mediocirty, A Long Way Down.

I think the only reason I went back to read the books was that I had recently watched the movie adaptation of High Fidelity for the first time, and wanted to check out the source material.

Released in 2000, High Fidelity is a film that seems to live exclusively on DVD in my mind, as I missed the original theatrical release. It was developed by John Cusack, with the same writing team he used on Grosse Pointe Blank (another DVD you should check out). Apart from changing the setting from London, Cusack left most of the book intact.

Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a music aficionado who, as the movie opens, has just broken up with his girlfriend, Laura (played by Danish actress Iben Hjejle, who learned her American accent for the part). He runs a record shop, Championship Vinyl, with his two employees Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black in a career-launching role). He struggles to get Laura back whilst trying to discern why all his relationships end in misery.

Why is this film so good? A host of reasons, including a stellar script which tampers just enough with the novel, great direction from Frears (who coincidentally also helmed two-thirds of the aforementioned Barrytown trilogy), a brilliant soundtrack which introduced me to several new bands, a not-too-saggy second act and a bravura performance by Jack Black. All that packed into a movie which is probably located in the €4.99 rack in your local HMV. In fact, why are you still reading this review? Go out and own this piece of brilliance right now.

The extras on my one-disc copy contain some better-than-average deleted scenes, and conversations with Cusack and Frears. The lack of audio commentary is what holds the package as a whole back from a five-star rating.

High Fidelity is a movie which I will dig out of my collection every few years for the foreseeable future. The Stevie Wonder song which rounds out the film is so beautiful that you will want to watch the end credits all the way through.

8.5/10

Its A Wonderful Life Movie and DVD Review

Its A Wonderful Life

Movie and DVD Review

When the end credits of Its A Wonderful Life rolled (well i say rolled, but they were static), I imagined that I was sitting in a smoke filled movie theatre beside a zoot suited man puffing on a cigar. He turns to me and says, his voice full of gravel and New York “Kid, they don't make 'em like that anymore”. And, after wondering what a zoot suit is, I agree with him.

Films as genuinely heartwarming and life affirming as IAWL are thin on the ground at the moment and its a compliment to Capra's classic that all movies touching this subject matter (the value of the individual) feel like clones of this classic. The most recent that springs to mind is “The Pursuit of Happyness” which, despite being a powerful statement of the American Dream, is one capful of Capra wallowing in a litre of the pursuit of wealthyness.

The story concerns the life of George Bailey, as viewed in flashback by two angels discussing his upcoming “big night”. You see, George has always done the right thing, regardless of the impact upon his own life. The flashbacks show that he saves his brother's life as a young boy, at the cost of the hearing in one ear. When his father dies, George steps up again and delays first a much anticipated trip to Europe, and then college, to keep the Bailey savings and loan from being closed down. His life continually gives him lemons and he drinks down the bitter lemonade which seems destined to be his lot.

When George's big night arrives (which culminates in an attempt to throw himself off of a bridge), his guardian angel is sent down to intervene and shows him what his hometown would be like if, as George wishes, he hadn't been born.

“Your money's not here, its at Bill's house, and Fred's house”

Fresh out of uniform as a World War II pilot, Jimmy Stewart turns in an achingly brilliant performance as George Bailey, the young man who wants nothing more than to spread his wings and fly away from a small town which slowly and inexorably digs its claws into him.

Capra was looking for a new actor to star in his first post war picture, having used Cary Grant and Clark Gable in his previous pictures, and in Jimmy Stewart he said he had found his quintessential leading man.

Stewart adeptly flits from comedy to tragedy to romance and back again. The scene in which he and Mary, his future wife (played by Donna Reed) share a telephone receiver to talk to her current boyfriend, is my personal favourite. Between them, they melt the screen with unenunciated longing.

The supporting cast is excellent. Donna Reed is by turns funny, heartbreaking and palpitation inducing and Lionel Barrymore is aptly repugnant as the small town Machiavelli, Henry F. Potter.

Capra's not a fancy director. If you see one of his movies expecting Hitchcockian use of camera and film technology, you will be disappointed. Rather his talent lies in the sheer strength of his scripts, the quality of his casting, and his ability to get every last emotion up on screen.

The extras on the one disc version I watched were slight but reasonably interesting. There's an introduction by the underwhelming Frank Capra Jr, who brought the phrase “Capra-corn” to my attention (used to describe Capra's movies, which were deemed schmaltzy and saccharin by some critics) and a making-of featurette hosted by Happy Days' Tom Bosley. Bosley details the usual rundown of people who declined parts, stars recounting their time on set and some “Did you knows?” (for instance, did you know that most of the snow filled scenes featured in the movie were shot in the midst of a heat wave?).

The most interesting tidbit is that IAWL was not incredibly popular during its initial theatrical run. Its popularity has stemmed from the fact that the films copyright expired accidentally in the seventies, which meant that TV stations could run the movie while avoiding some royalties, something which they have been doing ever since (although I can't remember a Christmas screening on Irish TV despite the monotonous regularity with which Santa Claus: The Movie is replayed).

To say that IAWL is a great Christmas movie is to sell it short. Its a great movie regardless of setting or the time of year its watched. If you don't feel at least a little emotional during the final scene you need to buy a stethoscope and check whether the thumping in your chest has ceased.

Movie: 9/10

Extras: 5/10

Lord of the Rings Trilogy Movie and DVD Review

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Movie and DVD Review

Sure, what else would you be doing on New Years eve apart from watching all three Rings movies back to back? I mean, it just makes sense doesn't it? I shot back that in the time it took to watch three movies which I had already seen, we could view at least seven which I hadn't. However, I could feel myself being sucked into an eleven-plus hour Whirlpool of Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves during which I feared that I would Frodo-like lose my grip on reality. I was outvoted two to one and our little Fellowship of the DVD was struck.

I was reticent from the outset and almost determined not enjoy myself. I remembered the scene in Clerks 2 where Randal Graves describes the three movies as dreary walking, and that seemed to be how I remembered them. If the films were this bad then I was going to need the Clockwork Orange eye openers to make it through all three.

I'm convinced that Peter Jackson must have put some kind of subliminal messaging into these films because by the time Cate Blanchett had finished her Elvish peth-eth-eth-eth through the opening monologue, I was ready to go on a sightseeing tour of New Zealand wearing Hobbit feet and the One Ring.

The First movie, Fellowship of the Ring, is played on a smaller scale than the two which follow. Apart from a brief trip to the land of men, Jackson keeps the backdrops distinctly unpanoramic. This gives the film a more parochial feel, which allows the other two thirds, with their massive battle scenes to really open up the trilogy. It reminded me of a Middle Earth Magnificent Seven; a band of gunslingers who come to the aid of a village in trouble. It's a character piece that invests the audience in the other two battle infested installments.

I realise now the reason why I didn't enjoy Two Towers first time out. Eighteen months had passed since the first movie, and rather than watch Fellowship again, I rented Two Towers and watched it cold. There's no recap at the start of any of the movies. Instead, you're throw straight in to the current story again. This is fair enough given that there's so much story to tell, but Two Towers doesn't have a definitive start or end and so can be disappointing if watched in isolation. Not so this time, because we whacked straight into it immediately after Fellowship.

We called it an early morning half way through the second movie and although I agreed, I secretly wanted to continue, but was brought round by the realisation that it was 2AM and there still remained some six odd hours of film.

Helm's Deep is the single best set piece in the trilogy. The only downside is that it's mostly intercut with Tree Beard scenes. Although these scenes tend to stop the pacing from becoming too frenetic, they can also be quite boring when placed alongside an Elf shooting arrows whilst sliding down a flight of stairs on a shield.

Return of the King is undoubtedly the fortunate son of the trilogy (there's a "jewel in the crown" pun just waiting to be made here). It gets all the plot resolutions, the Shelob sequence (containing my favourite trilogy camera shot of the upside down spider), Mount Doom, and, barring Helm's Deep contains all the grand battles. Even though the movie flicks through them all in whirlwind style, I would echo the "too many endings" criticism. The movie finishes too far after its climax. Viggo Mortensen must be some actor to have come away from this film seeming manly, given that in one scene he's wearing an effeminate crown and signing a musical number. I almost expected a bluebird to alight on his arm and sing along with him.

The DVD extras are top drawer. Each movie contains about five hours of documentaries, as well as writer, director, cast and crew commentaries (four in all). The cast commentaries are the best, but don't expect an even experience since the whole ensemble contribute. The highlights are Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who are genuinely funny while Sean Astin and, to a lesser extent Elijah Wood give the usual bland sentiments about "the craft" and how us normal people don't realise what a difficult process an actor goes through to create a character.

The documentaries are plentiful, but unless you're a die hard, certain parts can be skipped. The portions dealing with the adaptation of the source material and the filming process are excellent, but once I reached the WETA workshop and big-atures sections, I found myself hitting the chapter button on my remote more frequently, especially given the nasal monotony of WETA creator Richard Taylor's voice.

Now the real test. How to make it through the final paragraph with relying on the use of Gollum's "P" word? Just consider this; when you take the extras into account, there's well over twenty four hours of material in the complete box set of DVDs, not to mention that the films are some of the best made in recent years. When you factor in that the set costs less than €50 in most shops, I think you'll find that there's precious little you can do, but buy these fine DVDs. Oh...

8.5/10