Tag: movie

Categories
Disliked

The Wizard DVD Sucks

Ladies and gentlemen, I come to you with important news.

For a number of people in my generation – plus those generations one above and one below me; people roughly between the ages of 18 and 30 – the impending DVD release of [The Wizard](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0098663/), the 1989 video game opus was welcome news.

I came across a copy of the DVD today, and I nearly squealed in joy to pick it up. The actual release isn’t scheduled until August 29th, and while the store is notorious for breaking street dates, there’s always a rush to get your hands on something early. But something struck me oddly: why was it only $11.99? I turned the DVD over, and noticed very quickly: *there were no extra features listed on the back*.

I bought it anyhow. Hey, $12 for a piece of my youth is chump change – and besides, there might be features on it and they just didn’t list it.

I inserted the disc when I returned home a short while ago and was greated with this menu:

My jaw dropped. Okay, fine, no special features, but…no scene select?

I clicked Languages with the slightest hint of hope. It was quickly eliminated.

So congratulations, Universal Studios Home Video – you had a chance to do some serious cult-market long-tail sales with this film. People wanted commentaries with Jenny Lewis and Fred Savage, making-of information, **anything**. And you blew it. You didn’t get the star.

And if you don’t believe me and my screenshots, Rotten Tomatoes confirms it.

I cannot love this DVD. It’s so bad – in the exact opposite way of the Power Glove. Fellow gamers, heed this warning well – The Wizard DVD will break your heart.

Categories
Recommended

Oldboy

Katie and I had a chance to see a private pre-screening of [Old Boy](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/ “IMDB listing”) tonight, thanks to our lovely friends at [Gothamist](http://www.gothamist.com/).

Short synopsis before I get going: Oh Dae-Su, a man with a reputation for getting drunk and womanizing, is mysteriously imprisoned in a fake hotel room for 15 years, living on fried dumplings and TV only. After the 15 years are up, he finds himself awake on a roof. He is given fancy clothes, a cell, and money. But what his captor has waiting for him after his release – while Oh Dae-Su plots his revenge – may be far worse than his imprisonment.

I can’t remember the last time I came out of a movie feeling so emotionally drained – it’s like my soul got in a fight with the movie and lost.

The acting was fantastic for all the key characters, especially the two leads. Choi Min-sik, who plays Oh Dae-su, has *huge* range, and the acting muscle he shows in the last 20 minutes leaves me unable to even find one person in US cinema to compare him to. Yu Ji-Tae, playing his captor/tormentor, comes off as genuinely evil without descending into camp to get the point across.

Somewhere in here is the single best fight scene I’ve ever witnessed that wasn’t boosted by special effects. There’s also some well-timed black humor, more than sufficient character development, and more than enough twists and turns that you’ll get slack-jawed at least once. (And in the good-for-Dan department, there weren’t enough plot holes to make me deconstruct the whole thing after the fact.)

People who have been reading my blog for long enough know I don’t write a lot of movie reviews. I save the indivudual movie posts for one of two cases – a [really good movie](https://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/09/aim_for_the_hea.php), or a [really poor movie](https://vjarmy.com/archives/2003/09/the_occasional.php). Oldboy completely falls on the side of the good movies, and until further notice is my Favorite Movie Of 2005.

Check out [the trailer](http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/old_boy.html), and be sure to catch it when it opens in the immediate future.

Categories
Enjoyed

In The Struggle For My Attention, Porn Wins

Today, most of the New Yorkers I know were out taking pictures of The Gates.

We, on the other hand, were taking in a movie. A documentary, actually. A porno documentary.
Yes, we trekked to the one screen in NYC – the Sunshine Landmark Cinema – showing Inside Deep Throat. (There seems to be this issue in NYC where high-publicity indy films – Closer, Assassination Of Richard Nixon, and the one today – are only playing on one screen. I still don’t quite understand why.)

The movie covered here, Deep Throat, remains one of the most notorious porno films of all time – made at a time while such movies regularly had to feature doctors giving sexual instruction, so the film could be passed off as “educational”. For those really unfamiliar with the plot of the movie, Linda Lovelace’s character allegedly has her clitoris oddly located at the back of her throat, and the only way she can find full satisfaction is…well, you can guess from the title.

The documentary focuses on the whole progression of how Deep Throat affected culture, from the mainstreaming of porn to the many indecency trials revolving around the movie. It’s a pretty remarkable story, where hundreds of regular people were lining up around the block in Times Square (and the country) for a porno flick.

As a documentary, it’s very well grounded. Narration by Dennis Hopper is minimal, and there are no occasions where you hear the interviewer posing questions; the monologues from the key players and celebrity commentators really drive the story along. They are often allowed to play off each other, leading to some amusing quasi-dialog. Everyone gets their licks in on both sides, including a number of FBI agents and prosecutors.

All in all, it does what a documentary should – it informs, it pulls you through all the major emotions (amusement/joy/sorrow/anger), and it entertains. Katie and I both enjoyed it a lot, and recommend it if it’s playing in your area. I should note though, that the movie IS rated NC-17 for some full frontal nudity as well as a good 30 seconds of the deed described in the movie title; it would’ve been a bit of a cheat not to show it after so many of the people involved in the movie described it as an amazing act.