FILM FRENZY

Robert De Niro in Casino (Photo: Universal)

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.)

CASINO (1995). Upon its release, Martin Scorsese’s three-hour epic was greeted with generally good but hardly revelatory reviews, and its presence on the awards circuit was muted, with its ultimate reward a single Oscar nomination for Best Actress (Sharon Stone). Of course, as with all Scorsese films of kinetic speed, heavy violence, and profanity saturation (“boring” period Scorseses like The Age of Innocence and The Last Temptation of Christ can safely be ignored), Internet-born-and-bred male reviewers and fanboy followers have now declared it a masterpiece, although more discerning types can see this is basically the filmmaker repeating himself. Scorsese has reteamed with GoodFellas writer Nicolas Pileggi and stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci for this tale in which mob guy “Ace” Rothstein (De Niro) has been chosen to run the Tangiers Casino in 1970s Las Vegas. All goes well until two individuals bulldoze their way into his life: Nicky Santoro (Pesci), a vicious thug who puts together his own crime cartel, and Ginger McKenna (Stone), a resourceful gold-digger who marries Ace but eventually turns to booze, drugs, a former pimp-boyfriend (James Woods at his sleaziest), and even Nicky for questionable comfort. The first half, which details the inner workings of the gambling industry, is compelling, but the human drama that takes over is noticeably lacking. Pesci is merely riffing off his GoodFellas psychopath, but Stone manages to score with an underwritten role.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Scorsese, Pileggi, and Stone; various making-of featurettes; and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★½

DE-LOVELY (2004). There’s a funny moment in De-Lovely when, after a screening of the 1946 Cole Porter biopic Night and Day (starring Cary Grant), Cole (Kevin Kline) turns to his wife Linda (Ashley Judd) and cracks, “If I can survive this movie, I can survive anything.” Despite its mixed reviews and soft box office, Cole Porter not only survived De-Lovely but even found some of his songs back on the Billboard charts. The movie is often as narratively suspect as Night and Day and shouldn’t be taken at face value — director Irwin Winkler even admitted, “The songs aren’t always chronologically presented or typically interpreted … The broad outlines of Porter’s life are here, but placed within the framework of imagination, not scholarship… we have followed feeling, not history.” Fair enough. As a musical, it’s a honey, using an innovative framing device and sharp cameos by contemporary music stars (Alanis Morissette, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, and more) to capture the passion that Cole poured into his tunes. Winkler and scripter Jay Cocks paint a rich picture of a life marked by both success and excess, and the focus on a composer’s marriage being disrupted by his homosexuality makes this similar to the recent (and superior) Maestro. Kline was the perfect choice to play Cole — not up to Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles in the same year’s Ray, but miles ahead of Kevin Spacey’s Bobby Darin in that year’s Beyond the Sea — and Judd’s sympathetic portrayal of Linda reminds us of her often overlooked talents.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1961-1966). “TV or Not TV?” was the name of this past December’s Holiday Gift Guide (go here to check it out), as approximately a dozen box sets of television series newly arrived on 4K, Blu-ray and/or DVD were showcased. While the FilmRise label’s DVD release of That Girl: The Complete Series arrived in time for inclusion, the outfit’s DVD set for The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series didn’t turn up until after deadline. No problem, as a show this wonderful deserves its solo spotlight here. A staple on any list of the greatest TV shows of all time, this warm and witty sitcom from comic legend Carl Reiner (who passed away in 2020 at the age of 98) stars Van Dyke as Rob Petrie, an affable guy who divides his time between being the head comedy writer on the variety series The Alan Brady Show (Reiner himself sporadically appears as the self-centered Brady) and being a loving family man to wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and son Ritchie (Larry Mathews). A slow starter, The Dick Van Dyke Show ranked #80 in the Nielsen ratings in its first season on CBS but was a Top 10 smash for the next three years (peaking at #3 in Season 3, behind only The Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza) and remained in the Top 20 for its fifth and final season. The series won 15 Emmy Awards over its run, including multiple victories for the lead performances by Van Dyke and Moore, for Reiner’s writing, and as Outstanding Comedy Series.

The DVD box set includes the 1994 TV special The Dick Van Dyke Show Remembered.

Series: ★★★★

THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936). This sanitized biopic of theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. runs a full three hours (one of the longest films at the time of its release), cost over $2 million (one of the costliest films at the time of its release), employed over 1,000 cast and crew members (one of the most populous films at the time of its release), and grossed close to $5 million (one of the most profitable films at the time of its release). In other words, how could it not win the Academy Award for Best Picture? Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best production of the year as much as the most bloated and the most hyped (plus, 1936 was also the year of the non-nominated Charlie Chaplin classic Modern Times, merely my pick for the greatest comedy ever made), and it’s a mixed bag more than an out-and-out success. William Powell, who had a terrific 1936 — the leading role here, a Best Actor Oscar nomination for My Man Godfrey, and two more box office hits in Best Picture nominee Libeled Lady and After the Thin Man — is just fine as Ziegfeld, who devotes his life to producing extravagant stage shows filled with music, mirth, and beautiful women. Luise Rainer co-stars as his first wife, Anna Held, while Myrna Loy appears as his second spouse, Billie Burke. A real curio of a film, it soars in spots and staggers in others. Nominated for seven Oscars, it won three: the aforementioned Best Picture, Best Actress for Rainer (she would again win the very next year for The Good Earth, making her the Academy’s first back-to-back winner), and Best Dance Direction for the number “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (performed on and around a 70 ft. wedding cake).

Blu-ray extras include the 2004 retrospective short Ziegfeld on Film and vintage newsreel footage from the movie’s premiere.

Movie: ★★½

LAST MAN STANDING (1996). Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, in which a rōnin (Toshiro Mifune) gets involved in a bloody feud between two warring factions in the same town, is one of those properties that other filmmakers can’t resist updating for their own portfolios. The 1961 Samurai classic has been loosely remade as 1966’s Django and 1984’s The Warrior and the Princess, and elements of it can be found in flicks as disparate as Joe Kidd, Miller’s Crossing, and the Star Wars franchise. Of course, the most famous remake is 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars, which introduced Clint Eastwood’s The Man With No Name. Last Man Standing is another direct descendant — so much so that Kurosawa and Yojimbo co-writer Ryûzô Kikushima are acknowledged in the credits — but given the dour results, this is more like The Movie With No Pulse. This arid drama casts Bruce Willis (in full-on mumbly, sleepwalking mode) as a wanderer who stumbles across two rival mob gangs operating out of an underpopulated Texas town during the Depression and decides to make money by working both sides under the guise of working for both sides. This heavy-handed yarn from Walter Hill, who spent his early years making exciting, unpretentious fare (48 Hrs., The Warriors, recently reviewed here), appeared during that lamentable stretch when the writer-director lost control of his career by repeatedly turning promising material into bloated, arty efforts like 1993’s turgid Geronimo: An American Legend, 1995’s erratic Wild Bill, and this stylized slog.

The only Blu-ray extra is the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★½

LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR’S CHOICE: VOLUME TWO (1937-1963). Like last summer’s Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice: Volume One, this set focuses on lesser known titles from the storied toon stable — while there aren’t really any buried treasures as in the previous compilation, the batting average is still remarkably high when it comes to solid entertainment. This offers 25 cartoons (up from the first set’s 20) covering a 26-year span, and 10 of them feature A-list animated superstars: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, et al. The two toons featuring the wascally wabbit are particularly clever: 1955’s Rabbit Rampage finds Bugs arguing with the animator who’s drawing him (yes, it’s basically a reworking of the 1953 Daffy Duck classic Duck Amuck), while 1963’s Hare-Breadth Hurry finds Bugs coming off the bench to fill in for an injured Road Runner in a typical madcap chase with Wile E. Coyote. Tweety and Sylvester star in 1961’s Civil War yarn The Rebel Without Claws, Hollywood’s umpteenth attempt to paint the Confederacy as noble and upstanding, and Foghorn Leghorn headlines 1950’s The Leghorn Blows at Midnight (an amusing play on the 1945 Jack Benny comedy The Horn Blows at Midnight). And there’s one Oscar-nominated cartoon in the batch: 1943’s Greetings Bait, starring Wacky Worm. Will there be more Collector’s Choice editions in the future? Considering approximately 1,000 Looney Tunes / Merry Melodies shorts were created, I would say yeah.

There are no extras on the Blu-ray.

Collection: ★★★

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1998). Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel is transformed into a sporadically entertaining motion picture by writer-director Randall Wallace, the Oscar-nominated scripter behind Braveheart. Once again, Wallace tells a story of how lusty men seek to battle the tyranny that disrupts their lives — in this case, it’s the aging musketeers Aramis (Jeremy Irons), Athos (John Malkovich), and Porthos (Gerard Depardieu) who valiantly try to overthrow the cruel King Louis XIV (Leonardo DiCaprio) and replace him with his twin brother (also Leo), a sensitive soul who has been kept locked away for years in the palace dungeons. But the heroes’ best-laid plans encounter some resistance from their old ally D’Artagnan (Gabriel Byrne), who, as captain of the king’s guard, is determined to protect the crown at any cost. It’s an irresistible story, but the movie suffers from clunky dialogue and mismatched performances that represent just about every school of acting known to man. The Yankees (DiCaprio and Malkovich) fare the worst, while the best emoting comes courtesy of Byrne, who ably carries the bulk of the narrative shifts. Visually, this well-crafted film is pleasing to the eye — Depardieu’s occasionally bare buttocks notwithstanding.

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Wallace; a vintage behind-the-scenes piece; and interviews with producer Paul Hitchcock and production designer Anthony Pratt.

Movie: ★★½

THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE (1983). Here’s one of those movies that you just sense didn’t turn out as initially planned, and a quick bout of research backs that up. Originally released in 3-D when that fad made a brief comeback in the early 1980s (see: Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, Parasite, etc.), The Man Who Wasn’t There was clearly meant to be a PG confection, with its silly plotline, vanilla cast, and general air of congeniality. But as the movie unwinds, there’s so much rampant nudity (including full-frontal) and such a nasty, aggressive edge at play that I finally had to check the case and was greeted with that R rating — it had indeed been conceived as a PG film but the producers opted to go darker once filming began. But whether G, PG, R or X, this movie would be dreadful under any circumstances. Dull Steve Guttenberg stars as a State Department flunky who comes into contact with an invisibility serum that’s desired by Americans and Russians alike. When he’s not on the run, he ogles women taking showers. This is awful, abysmal, atrocious, agonizing, appalling, abominable, abhorrent … and I haven’t even left the A’s yet.

This has been released in a Blu-ray edition that offers the film in 2-D as well as two different types of 3-D. The “BD3D Polarized” version requires no glasses but does require a 3-D television set and player. The “Anaglyphic 3-D” version requires those spectacles with a red lens and a blue lens, and one is handily included with the film. I donned the paper glasses and was surprised to note that the depth of the 3-D was fairly decent. Alas, using the glasses stripped the visuals of all color, and I was left watching a color movie in black-and-white. A film historian audio commentary is also included.

Movie: ★

ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1959). Here’s a nifty slice of noir that not only was filmed in black-and-white but also focuses on black and white. Working from a script by Nelson Gidding and then-blacklisted Abraham Polonsky, the remarkably versatile Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, The Day the Earth Stood Still) directed a taut drama in which a black man and a bigot are forced to work side by side in an attempt to pull off a daring robbery. The leader is the kindly Dave Burke (Ed Begley), a former (and disgraced) police officer who comes up with a scheme to rob a bank after hours. He tags two down-and-outers to help him pull it off: Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte), a black musician with a mountain of gambling debts, and Earle Slater (Robert Ryan), an ex-con who has nothing but contempt for most people, especially minorities. Odds Against Tomorrow is as much of a character study as a heist flick, further embellished by its attention to social themes. The climax turns conventional with a shootout, but even this is required in order to set up that piercing zinger of a closing line. The three male leads are exceptional, and there’s added marquee value from Oscar winners Shelley Winters as Slater’s devoted girlfriend and Gloria Grahame as his flirtatious neighbor. The excellent score was composed by The Modern Jazz Quartet head honcho John Lewis.

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentary; a 2009 post-screening Q&A with Belafonte; and a 2007 post-screening Q&A with supporting player Kim Hamilton.

Movie: ★★★½

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM (2023). It’s the Bumblebee effect all over again. Michael Bay’s Transformers sequels were so godawful that when other hands made a franchise film that was at least watchable, it resulted in rampant overpraise for what was essentially a mediocrity bathed in soothing waves of nostalgia. Similarly, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flicks to date have been so terrible that it’s a shock to finally get one that doesn’t offend with its incompetence. But not being bad isn’t necessarily the same thing as being good, and this animated entry, co-written by Seth Rogen, might boast an innovative visual style (albeit one that initially intrigues but eventually annoys) but feels utterly rote both in its conceptualization of its heroes in a half-shell and in its doling out of the usual kid-facing messages of harmony and understanding. Having actual teenagers voice the turtles was a good idea, and these youngsters are surrounded by plenty of coasting all-stars: Jackie Chan as TMNT mentor Splinter, Ice Cube as the villainous Superfly, Rogen and John Cena as the tag team of Bebop and Rocksteady, and Rose Byrne, Paul Rudd, Hannbal Buress, and Post Malone as various malformed critters. Die-hard fans of the TMNT franchise should definitely add a couple of additional stars to my rating, but others not particularly well-versed in “turtle power” might prefer to stay the shell away.

Extras in the 4K + Digital Code edition consist of a piece on the teen leads; a look at the various mutant characters; an examination of the film’s visual design; and a lesson on how to draw Leonardo.

Movie: ★★

UNDERWORLD (1985). Before there was Nightbreed… before there was Hellraiser… heck, even before there was Rawhead Rex… there was Underworld, which marked Clive Barker’s first foray into feature filmmaking. Barker is credited with the story and (with James Caplin) the screenplay, which anticipates Nightbreed in its sympathetic look at a gang of misshapen mutants. These sewer dwellers were created by your friendly neighborhood mad scientist (a twitchy Denholm Elliott, in the same year he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Merchant-Ivory’s A Room With a View); they’ve kidnapped a young prostitute (Nicola Cowper) for unknown reasons, and it’s up to her former boyfriend (stiff Larry Lamb) to rescue her. For a movie that barely saw the inside of a theater, this showcases a cast that’s pretty stacked: In addition to Elliott, there’s Miranda Richardson (about to embark on that great ‘90s run that included Enchanted April, The Crying Game, and Sleepy Hollow) as a cackling mutant, popular ‘80s villain Steven Berkoff (Octopussy, Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo: First Blood Part II) as a crime lord, character actor Art Malik (The Living Daylights, True Lies, the live-action The Little Mermaid) as a mob enforcer, and horror superstar Ingrid Pitt (nuff said) as a brothel madam. Alas, they’re all put to poor use in a jumbled mess that harbors some interesting ideas but doesn’t know what to do with them.

The Blu-ray edition contains the original 92-minute cut and a 103-minute version called Transmutations. Extras include archival behind-the-scenes footage and a look at some of Barker’s designs.

Movie: ★½

Short And Sweet:

THE BLUE JEAN MONSTER (1991). This Hong Kong phooey centers on a cop (supporting player Shing Fui-on in the only starring role of his career) who’s killed following a bank robbery. Through supernatural (and electrical) means, he’s resuscitated (with no one the wiser that he’s a walking corpse), and he has only two goals: to catch his killers and to witness his pregnant wife (Wong Siu-Fung) deliver him a child. Far more interested in laughs than scares, this broad comedy begins promisingly but never expands the premise in particularly interesting ways. Still, much of the humor is effective, even if just as much of it is overbearing.

Blu-ray extras consist of an interview with assistant director Sam Leong; a stills gallery; and the original Hong Kong trailer.

Movie: ★★½

GENTLEMAN JIM (1942). Errol Flynn is just jim-dandy in this entertaining film about James J. Corbett, the Irish-American boxer who largely introduced science-based discipline, a rigorous training regimen, and a grand sense of showmanship to what at the time (the 1890s) was an illegal sport often staged surreptitiously in obscure locations. Alexis Smith offers solid support as Corbett’s romantic sparring partner, while Ward Bond is alternately thundering and touching as John L. Sullivan, the heavyweight champion who senses his career might be winding down.

Blu-ray extras consist of an audio-only radio broadcast with Flynn and Smith; the 1942 cartoons The Dover Boys at Pimento University, or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall, Foney Fables, and Hobby Horse-Laffs; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★

MADAME BOVARY (1949). An unusual framing device — French author Gustave Flaubert (James Mason) in court defending his controversial 1857 novel Madame Bovary — kicks off this sturdy adaptation starring Jennifer Jones as the woman whose comatose marriage to a country doctor (Van Heflin) leads to infidelity and tragedy. Director Vincente Minnelli’s superb staging of the ballroom sequence is a movie-seeing must. This earned an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, although its greatest technical asset is the excellent score by Miklós Rózsa.

Blu-ray extras include the 1949 promotional piece Some of the Best: Twenty-Five Years of Motion Picture Leadership, with clips from major MGM productions over the decades (including Madame Bovary), and the 1949 Tom & Jerry cartoon Love That Pup.

Movie: ★★★

FESTIVAL FLICK PICK

BLOODY BRIDGET (2023). It’s unlikely the character will be co-opted by Marvel or DC any time soon, but the title figure in Bloody Bridget is almost as much of a superheroine as Black Widow, Wonder Woman or any of the other high-profile women seen frequently cavorting with Supes, Spidey, and the rest. Bridget is even given a name that could easily work as a super-moniker: Valentine Vampire. Never mind that her modus operandi involves ripping open the chests of evildoers and gorging on their still-beating hearts — hey, I’m sure Carol Danvers and Sue Richards have their dirty little secrets as well. Bloody Bridget, the latest film from the devilishly demented writer-director Richard Elfman, might feel more conventional than his past oddities Forbidden Zone and Aliens, Clowns & Geeks, but compared to the usual multiplex fare, it’s still out there enough to satisfy the curious and the cultists. Anastasia Elfman (Richard’s wife) delivers a winsome performance as Bridget O’Brian, a burlesque dancer perpetually having to deal with an abusive and adulterous British boyfriend (Christian Prentice) and a boss (Tom Ayers) who’s as sexist as he is racist as he is homophobic. As if having her employer constantly grabbing her ass isn’t enough, she ends up getting assaulted first by a high-powered lawyer (Adam J. Smith) and, after his lies land her in jail, then by a hefty guard (Kristin West) straight out of a ‘70s women’s prison movie. But when Bridget tries to hang herself, she’s summoned by Baron Samedi (Jean Charles), the Haitian voodoo practitioner — believing Bridget to be his long-lost wife, he imbues her with vampiric powers. But this Valentine Vampire isn’t exactly a fearsome creature of the night, since she only uses her supernatural skills to take down the bad people. The gonzo filmmaking results in a bizarro experience, although even vanilla viewers should get some cathartic satisfaction from Bridget’s bloody deeds. (Bloody Bridget is currently playing the festival circuit, with future plans TBD.)

Movie: ★★★