FILM FRENZY

Maria Conchita Alonso and Christopher Walken in the poster art for McBain (Photo: Synapse Films)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER (2023). Perhaps the best thing that can be said about Book Club: The Next Chapter is that there’s nary a Tom Brady in sight. Otherwise, this follows the game plan of this past February’s 80 for Brady (to say nothing of dozens of earlier films) by gathering four sensational and seasoned actresses (with one Venn diagram crossover participant, Jane Fonda) and allowing them to comfortably coast in pablum that doubtless didn’t tax even a single thespian muscle on any of their bodies. The 2018 Book Club introduced best buddies Vivian (Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) and focused on their relationships with various gents (Don Johnson paired with Fonda, Andy Garcia with Keaton, Richard Dreyfuss with Bergen, and Craig T. Nelson with Steenburgen) — as an afterthought, there were also a few interludes where they actually discussed a couple of books (mostly Fifty Shades of Grey). The literary connection in the title is even less pronounced this time, as the plot deals almost exclusively with a girls’ trip to Italy. Save for Dreyfuss, everyone returns from the first film, with more romantic revelry taking place and Sharon occasionally taking time out to get into arguments with a local police chief (Giancarlo Giannini). The first film’s strain of serious social commentary regarding attitudes toward the elderly has been hammered out of this one, but the lame sexual double entendres remain, and Bergen again gets the few good lines.

Blu-ray extras consist of a behind-the-scenes featurette; a look at the costumes; and a piece on the location shooting in Italy.

Movie: ★★

DIARY OF A HITMAN (1992). A mere year before he died of AIDS at the age of 50, beloved acting coach Roy London — his students included Brad Pitt, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Swayze, and Geena Davis (who thanked him in her Oscar acceptance speech for 1988’s The Accidental Tourist) — directed his only feature film, choosing to hire writer Kenneth Pressman to adapt his own play Insider’s Price and renaming it Diary of a Hitman. The shame isn’t that this influential individual’s movie has been largely forgotten over time — it’s that it deserved to be largely forgotten over time. In practically every facet, this film is never able to escape its stage roots, and it plays like a particularly amateurish off-Broadway (make that off-off-off-OFF-Broadway) production. At least London could call upon some of his students to populate the cast, as Forest Whitaker, Sherilyn Fenn, and Sharon Stone were among those who had taken his class. Whitaker stars as Dekker, a hitman who (of course) plans to retire after one last hit. But the final assignment is a nasty one, even by assassination standards: A nutjob named Zidzyck (Lewis Smith) wants Dekker to brutally kill his sweet-natured wife Jain (Fenn, fresh off her star-making turn as Audrey Horne on TV’s Twin Peaks) and her newborn baby. Dekker tries to carry out the task, but some timely interruptions, including a visit from Jain’s sister (Stone), allows him the opportunity to reconsider. Whitaker’s eccentric approach adds some spark to the proceedings, but he and Fenn are both defeated by poorly defined characters in this bumptious bore.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★½

HUMAN DESIRE (1954). The protagonist in Émile Zola’s 1890 novel La Bête humaine is a potential rapist and serial killer, and French filmmaker Jean Renoir’s 1938 adaptation did little to tone down that interpretation. The heads at Columbia, on the other hand, frowned on such a character, and so he was reborn in this Hollywood version as Jeff Warren, a Korean War veteran played by the perennially heroic Glenn Ford as a nice guy adored by everyone and not above dallying with an unhappily married woman but probably not likely to murder her husband, either. It isn’t the defanging of the material that makes Human Desire a rare noir disappointment from the masterful Fritz Lang (The Big Heat, The Woman in the Window) — given the era, that was to be expected — it’s that neither Jeff Warren nor his predicament is particularly interesting. It’s Jeff’s burly co-worker Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford) who harbors killer instincts, ones that surface whenever he suspects another man of being with his sexy wife Vicki (Gloria Grahame). After fatally stabbing her suspected sugar daddy, Carl becomes paranoid, failing to notice that Vicki is now having an affair with Jeff. The inconsistencies in Vicki seem less to do with being rooted in the noir tradition of keeping the leading lady in the shadows (is she good girl or femme fatale?) and more to do with sloppy writing. Grahame, however, is typically excellent, and Lang’s artful touches help disguise the story’s hollowness.

Blu-ray extras consist of an interview with actress (and fan) Emily Mortimer (Mary Poppins Returns); the theatrical trailer; and trailers for other films on the Kino label.

Movie: ★★½

INVADERS FROM MARS (1953). Once considered one of the defining “alien invasion” flicks of the 1950s, Invaders From Mars is rarely accorded the lofty status that still greets cinematic stablemates like 1951’s The Thing From Another World, 1953’s The War of the Worlds, and 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. No matter: While it’s not as consistently potent as those pictures, it was certainly as influential, and even today it retains its kicky charm. Jimmy Hunt is appealing as David MacLean, a young boy trying to convince the adults around him that a spaceship has landed in his backyard and its extra-terrestrial inhabitants are taking control of all humans. David’s parents (Leif Erickson and Hilary Brooke) are among the first to fall victim, so his only potential allies are a health official (Helena Carter) and an astronomer (Arthur Franz). The first stretch of the film is the best, with audiences sharing in the fears and frustrations of a kid who just can’t get the grown-ups to listen to him. The midsection turns repetitive with its military fetishism, but the picture recovers in time for the thrilling climax set in the aliens’ underground lair. William Cameron Menzies not only directed the film but, as production designer, was also responsible for its unique look. A terrible remake followed in 1986.

Previously available only through its website, Ignite Films has now made its first label title available for retail purchase in 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD editions. 4K UHD extras include an interview with Hunt; the alternate international ending; and a before & after restoration featurette.

Movie: ★★★

MCBAIN (1991). It’s neither here nor there that there exists a Rifftrax episode devoted to McBain — unlike older stepbrother MST3K, this show has gone after genuinely good movies (e.g. Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls) on such a regular basis that I expect Lawrence of Arabia and Schindler’s List to be future targets. But McBain is indeed one lousy movie, and, fortunately, it’s the sort of so-bad-it’s-enjoyably-bad film that allows viewers to create their own in-house riff tracks. Christopher Walken, who won a deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar for portraying a Vietnam War POW in 1978’s The Deer Hunter, seemed more in line for a Razzie with his shockingly stiff and one-note performance as another Nam vet — seemingly bored (or annoyed) beyond compare, he schleps through this dopey yarn as Bobby McBain, indebted to a fellow soldier (Chick Vennera) who rescues him from a POW camp. Two decades later, that soldier is now a Colombian revolutionary seeking to take down the tyrannical El Presidente (Victor Argo); when he fails, his sister (Maria Conchita Alonso) calls on McBain to topple the government himself. Luiz Guzman nails his sole sequence as a drug dealer who delivers a sobering speech — everything else is painted by writer-director James Glickenhaus (who also did the equally trashy The Soldier) in broad, cartoonish strokes likely to earn some unintentional guffaws (I love the arm’s-length self-groupie of seven people stretched 6-7 feet across; I’m sure that photo came out fine). For a far superior actioner in which Walken’s character attempts to overthrow another country’s corrupt government, check out 1980’s The Dogs of War.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by Glickenhaus and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★½

A PRAYER FOR THE DYING (1987). This adaptation of Jack Higgins’ bestselling novel so displeased its director (Mike Hodges) and star (Mickey Rourke) after the studio took an ax to it that they both distanced themselves from the final product. Truth be told, it’s hard to envision this critical and commercial dud ever being a good movie (reportedly, there’s a director’s cut that in all likelihood will never see the light of day, particularly since Hodges died in 2022), since so much of what’s wrong with it can be found in both the casting and the major narrative turns. For his part, Rourke is just fine (despite struggling with an Irish accent), bringing the proper measure of weary resignation to his role as Martin Fallon, an Irish Republican Army foot soldier who turns his back on all the killing after a bomb meant for British troops instead blows up a busload of young schoolgirls. He escapes to England, where gangster Jack Meehan (a ridiculous Alan Bates) promises him safe passage to America if he performs one last hit. That assassination ends up being witnessed by Father Da Costa (Bob Hoskins, spirited yet miscast), but — shades of Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess — Fallon uses the confessional booth to prevent the priest from fingering him as the killer. That’s not good enough for Meehan, and it all ends with a ludicrous scenario involving the priest, his blind niece (Sammi Davis), and a ticking bomb. Liam Neeson appears as Fallon’s IRA comrade, but he doesn’t rack up nearly as much screen time as the contrivances, coincidences, and clichés.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★½

THE RUNNING MAN (1987). Based on the novel by Richard Bachman at a time when many (including the filmmakers) didn’t know that Bachman was a pseudonym for Stephen King, this Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle is a particular kitschy piece of 80s Arnie action, with a great premise and some potent underlying themes limply handled by scripter Steven E. de Souza and especially director Paul Michael Glaser. Set in 2017, it takes place in an oppressive United States where the most popular TV show is The Running Man, in which enemies of the state must flee for their lives without being killed by the show’s colorful “Stalkers.” Ben Richards (Schwarzenegger), falsely convicted of slaying women and children, is the ratings boost that show creator and host Damon Killian (Richard Dawson) has been seeking, but he gets more than he bargained for when Richards proves to be every bit as resourceful and deadly as the Stalkers. Glaser, best known as Starsky from TV’s Starsky and Hutch, helmed a handful of theatrical releases before wisely returning to the small screen — this is the best of a bunch that also includes Shaquille O’Neal’s Kazaam, but, given its potential, it’s also the most disappointing, as the drab visuals and poor pacing rob it of much of the excitement. It’s not without some entertainment value, but it could have been much better. Dawson, the affable host of the long-running game show Family Feud, is smartly cast as Killian; look also for appearances by Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood and Frank’s kid Dweezil Zappa as revolutionaries.

There are no extras on the 4K.

Movie: ★★½

THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA (1969). One of the best actors when it came to serving up ham on wry, Anthony Quinn is at his most animated — and endearing — in this adaptation of Robert Crichton’s WWII-set novel. He stars as the bombastic Bombolini, widely dismissed as the town buffoon in the Italian village of Santa Vittoria. Mussolini may be out of the picture, but the Germans are still on the march — and an outfit led by Captain von Prum (Hardy Kruger) is heading straight for Santa Vittoria with the intent of hauling off its prize possession of over one million bottles of locally produced wine. Bombolini, chosen as the village’s ersatz mayor, is finally given a chance to prove his worth — to himself and everyone else (including his estranged wife, played by a fire-breathing Anna Magnani) — by heading up the near-impossible task of concealing the majority of the vino from the approaching army. Quinn could often be counted on to whip up an acting storm and play to the rafters in at least one scene during the course of a picture — such as when his heroic commando pretends to be a coward in front of Nazi interrogators in 1961’s The Guns of Navarone, or pretty much any given sequence in 1964’s Zorba the Greek — and his grandstanding moment in this film arrives when he’s being given directives by von Prum as they converse in the wine cellar. It’s classic Quinn, placed into even greater contrast by the underplaying of Kruger as the erudite Nazi. A Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), this earned Oscar nominations for Best Original Score (Ernest Gold) and Best Film Editing.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★

WHITE NOISE (2005). White Noise asks viewers to accept Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) — the method by which the dead communicate with the living through household devices like televisions and radios — as cold, hard fact, and then proceeds to spin a fantasy yarn that flubs its own narrative constraints. Michael Keaton stars as Jonathan Rivers, a successful architect whose pregnant wife (Chandra West) dies in a car accident. A fuzzy figure soon starts appearing through the snowy static on Jonathan’s TV set, but rather than assume (as most of us would) that he’s illegally receiving HBO or Cinemax without a subscription, he’s led to believe by a portly stranger (Ian MacNeice) that it’s actually his deceased wife trying to communicate with him. As Jonathan becomes increasingly obsessed with trying to decipher messages through all the static, he finds that he’s being stalked by three shadowy figures that are meant to be malevolent spirits but which, truth be told, look like the Sean Penn-Tim Robbins-Kevin Bacon silhouettes that graced the poster for Mystic River. It’s a toss-up whether this shameless movie cribs mostly from Poltergeist, The Ring or The Sixth Sense; in any case, its inconsistencies prove to be the primary culprit, as this silly film never plays fair even within the parameters of its own supernatural milieu.

White Noise is offered as a Blu-ray double feature with its 2007 sequel: White Noise 2 (aka White Noise: The Light) , starring Nathan Fillion. Extras on the first film include audio commentary by Keaton and director Geoffrey Sax, and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

UNDER THE VOLCANO (1984). Malcolm Lowry’s cult novel had long been deemed “unfilmable,” yet that didn’t stop director John Huston from filming it anyway. The result is a powerful character study featuring a mesmerizing turn by Albert Finney as a drunken Brit whiling away the time down in Mexico. Set amidst the country’s Day of the Dead celebrations, the movie finds Geoffrey Firmin, a former British diplomat, drinking himself into a stupor as he mourns the fact that his wife Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset) has left him. But Yvonne ends up returning to him — partly to beg forgiveness for sleeping with his brother Hugh (Anthony Andrews), mainly because she truly loves Geoffrey, even when he’s plastered — and although the pair seem headed toward a possible reconciliation, Geoffrey’s demons won’t stay still long enough for him to straighten himself out. The quickest way to a bushel of accolades and awards is to portray an alcoholic, but Finney’s performance is truly remarkable, not a collection of exaggerated tics but a lived-in inebriety that seemingly seeps through every pore on the actor’s body. Kudos, also, to Guy Gallo’s script, Alex North’s music, and Gabriel Figueroa’s camerawork. This earned a pair of Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Score.

Movie: ★★★½

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Review links for movies referenced in this column (all links open in new window):
The Accidental Tourist
Book Club
Carnival of Souls
The Deer Hunter
The Dogs of War
80 for Brady
The Guns of Navarone
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Lawrence of Arabia
Mary Poppins Returns
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Night of the Living Dead
Poltergeist
The Soldier
The Thing From Another World
The War of the Worlds
The Woman in the Window