FILM FRENZY

Timothée Chalamet in Wonka (Photo: Warner Bros.)

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.)

ANACONDA (1997). A throwback to the “When Natures Strikes!” cinema of the 1970s (Jaws, Grizzly, Piranha, Frogs, Bug, Squirm, Prophecy, and even a couple with more than one word in the title!), Anaconda brandishes its goofiness like a sword, ready to cut down any naysayer who dares utter a derogatory word. Sure, the thrills are minimal, the special effects are lacking, and the dialogue is clunky, but (as the filmmakers would doubtless be quick to tell us) that was intentional, people. Certainly, the daftness is part of the film’s charm — an unexpected wink might simultaneously be the stupidest and the smartest gag in many a moon — but it can never rise much above the level of a disposable lark. A documentary crew whose members include an anthropologist (Eric Stoltz), a director (Jennifer Lopez), a cameraman (Ice Cube), and various expendables heads down the Amazon River intending to shoot a movie about a lost indigenous tribe; along the way, they meet a crazed Paraguayan poacher (Jon Voight) who forces them to help him hunt a 25-foot anaconda (and, later, a 40-foot anaconda) that enjoys snacking on hapless humans. Not quite bad enough to be considered so-bad-it’s-good yet not quite good enough to be considered, well, good, this does contain several charismatic performers (some on the ascendancy, like Owen Wilson and Danny Trejo) as well as capable leads in Lopez and Ice Cube. And then there’s Voight, who delivers such a hammy performance — it matches Marlon Brando’s work in the previous year’s The Island of Dr. Moreau — that viewers constantly wait to see what he will do next. This modest box office hit was followed by four cheapie sequels between 2004 and 2015.

Anaconda has been reissued in a Blu-ray steelbook edition. The only extra is a new interview with director Luis Llosa.

Movie: ★★½

CONTAGION (2011). An entertaining if occasionally unwieldy cross between a PSA and one of those all-star epics from the 1970s — those disaster flicks involving hijacked planes, hurtling meteors or towering infernos — Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion tracks the entire cycle of a disease that begins with one person and ends with the deaths of millions of people worldwide. Episodic in the extreme, the film mostly follows the scientists and health officials (among them ones played by Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, and Laurence Fishburne) tasked with finding a cure. Representing Everyman is Matt Damon, an ordinary guy whose wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the first victim of the disease (that’s no spoiler, as she dies within the film’s first 10 minutes). And then there’s the online activist (Jude Law) who believes it’s all some government conspiracy and enjoys spreading fake news (sounds depressingly familiar). While it’s nice to see all these fine actors gathered in one place (the cast also includes Jennifer Ehle, Elliott Gould, and Bryan Cranston), the film simply doesn’t have enough time to properly devote to each of these characters, meaning we often only get broad strokes in their development. Yet the film grabs hold by detailing the oh-so-easy ways that germs — and diseases — can be spread throughout the global population. Where the film works best is in its condemnation of the almighty power of the Internet and its self-proclaimed prophets, as represented by Law’s opportunistic and misleading blogger. If nothing else, Contagion should at least be remembered for the great line uttered by one of its brainiac characters: “Blogging isn’t writing; it’s graffiti with punctuation!”

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Digital Code edition consist of a trio of archival, pre-COVID featurettes that examine not so much the making of the movie but the real-life threat of viruses.

Movie: ★★★

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957). John Ford’s 1946 Western classic My Darling Clementine, starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp and Victor Mature as Doc Holliday, remains far and away the best movie involving that famous 1881 shootout that took place in Tombstone, Arizona. Yet by virtue of its title and the continued merging over time of what was fact and what was legend (e.g. the Earps were hardly viewed by everyone in Tombstone as noble figures), it’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral that has emerged as the touchstone for this particular American saga and added a couple more heroes to our oral and visual (if not written) histories. In the second of their seven pictures together, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas are Wyatt and Doc, two dissimilar types whose paths keep crossing over the months and over the towns — they finally end up in Tombstone, where they join forces with Wyatt’s brothers to take down the vicious Clanton clan. This is a solid contribution to the genre, rarely soaring but always maintaining interest with its slow-and-steady approach to the story. The vibrant Technicolor pops off the screen, and the title tune, written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington and warbled by Frankie Lane, is particularly memorable, even better than the Western composition (High Noon’s “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’”)) that had earned the Tiomkin-Washington team Oscars five years prior. This itself earned a pair of Oscar nominations for Best Film Editing and Best Sound, both crafts working OT during the climactic gunfight.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition consists of audio commentary by authors C. Courtney Joyner (The Westerners: Interviews With Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers) and Henry Parke (The Greatest Westerns Ever Made and the People Who Made Them); the theatrical trailer; and trailers for 11 other Kino films.

Movie: ★★★

LEVIATHAN (1989). Paraphrasing what I scribbled when reviewing the Blu-ray debut of DeepStar Six a few years ago, 1989 witnessed a rash of fantasy flicks with a nautical bent: James Cameron’s The Abyss, George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan, Sean S. Cunningham’s aforementioned DeepStar Six, Roger Corman’s Lords of the Deep, and two others that were seen only by their producers’ mothers. The Abyss (incidentally, debuting on Blu-ray and 4K March 12) was the cream of the crop, with the rest having to scramble for a distant second. While DeepStar Six has its champions, Leviathan would seem to hold the place position, even if it’s likewise an Alien rip-off like the other also-rans. In the near-future, the members of a deep-sea mining operation discover a sunken Russian ship on which scientific experiments were being carried out. Once it becomes clear that he and his crew are now in danger, the outfit’s captain (Peter Weller) must figure out a way to eliminate the threat. Cosmatos previously directed the mediocre Stallone actioners Rambo: First Blood Part II and Cobra, so no one expected any discernible style to be displayed on this film. But David Webb Peoples penned Unforgiven and co-wrote Blade Runner while Jeb Stuart co-scripted Die Hard and The Fugitive — surely these gents could have come up with something a wee bit less derivative, not only of Alien but also The Thing? Still, good work by a dependable cast (Richard Crenna, Hector Elizondo, Lisa Eilbacher, Ernie Hudson, and more) allows no room for any unintentional laughs, and the effects by Stan Winston are typically polished, even if the creature looks like the usual assemblage of teeth and tentacles.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include film historian audio commentary; a look at the visual effects with crew members who worked under Winston; and interviews with Elizondo and Hudson.

Movie: ★★½

OKLAHOMA! (1955) / SOUTH PACIFIC (1958) / THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965). There’s simply no way to overstate the contributions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to the American musical. Winners of the Pulitzer, the Oscar, the Tony, and the Grammy, the songwriting team revolutionized the theater and also contributed heavily to the silver screen. Three of their films have recently been reissued on Blu-ray, Oklahoma! in a so-called Platinum Edition and South Pacific for its 65th anniversary. As for The Sound of Music, it’s oddly a special (and expensive) set full of basically audio CDs but all placed on Blu-ray discs with home-page menus as the exciting visual. Let’s just focus on the movie itself, which has been released on Blu-ray in about 10 different versions thus far — the best is the 2010 limited edition box set, which I still possess since it comes with many goodies (like a music box that plays “My Favorite Things”).

Oklahoma! finds a delightful duo in Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones — they’re cast as lovebirds Curly and Laurey, wooing each other among the corn that’s “as high as an elephant’s eye” and doing their best to steer clear of surly farmhand Jud (Rod Steiger). The soundtrack, packed with such classics as “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” and the title tune, is exceptional, and Gloria Grahame swipes a few scenes as Ado Annie, the girl who just “cain’t say no.” Nominated for four Academy Awards, this copped a pair for Best Scoring of a Musical and Best Sound.

The stage version of South Pacific won the Pulitzer Prize, but no comparable honors were forthcoming for this so-so screen adaptation of one of the team’s most enduring works. It’s love WWII-style, as a nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) falls for a French landowner (Rossano Brazzi) while a lieutenant (John Kerr) woos an island girl (France Nuyen) — yet all romance is put on hold once the two men are tapped for a dangerous mission. None of the performers are especially memorable — and Brazzi is downright dull — but the score does include such catchy tunes as “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair” and “Happy Talk.” Nominated for three Oscars, this nabbed a statue for Best Sound.

A box office behemoth and still one of the most beloved movies of all time, The Sound of Music may be schmaltz, but it’s irresistible schmaltz. Julie Andrews, who had won the Best Actress Oscar the previous year for her one-note turn in Mary Poppins, should have earned it instead for her excellent performance here, as her Maria won’t allow anything to get her down (well, except maybe Nazis) as she serves as governess to the brood of the widowed Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Odds are that you know at least two of the many classics songs (“Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favorite Things,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” etc.) by heart. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Wood as the Mother Superior), this won five, including Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Wise), and Best Music Score Adaptation.

Extras include making-of pieces and trailers.

Oklahoma!: ★★★½

South Pacific: ★★½

The Sound of Music: ★★★½

THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939). Yet one more exemplary gangster flick produced by Warner Bros. during the 1930s, this one closed the decade in style by focusing on the turbulent decade that had preceded it. After an opening set at the end of World War I in 1918 — an establishing kickoff that finds New Yorkers Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney), George Hally (Humphrey Bogart), and Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn) getting acquainted while squatting in a foxhole — the rest of the story takes place during the Prohibition era that ran from 1920 to 1933, with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression (also 1929) contributing to the tale’s sky-high dramatic stakes. While Lloyd practices law and George practices bootlegging, Eddie finds his career options limited and reluctantly turns to driving a cab. A case of mistaken identity lands the innocent Eddie behind bars and changes the trajectory of his life — he becomes a successful bootlegger, hiring Lloyd as his lawyer for the legal aspects of his business dealings and George as his right-hand man for the illegal activities. Journalist-turned-Hollywood-player Mark Hellinger provided the fodder for the screenplay while Raoul Walsh provided the robust direction; the result is another triumph for Cagney, who wouldn’t return to the gangster genre until Walsh’s 1949 masterpiece White Heat. What’s particularly surprising about the picture is its unshakable sadness, with Cagney’s Eddie Bartlett a decent guy who just doesn’t get any of the breaks that would have allowed him to enjoy a normal, crime-free existence.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include film historian audio commentary; an interview with author Gary Giddins (Warning Shadows: Home Alone With Classic Cinema); and an interview with Walsh from the 1973 PBS series The Men Who Made the Movies.

Movie: ★★★½

WONKA (2023). One of the major raisons d’être of a prequel is to show how a popular character at a younger age was able to grow into the person that audiences love or hate or fear or desire or what-have-you. For all their faults, the Star Wars prequels convincingly laid down the groundwork and presented the circumstances that led sweet moppet Anakin Skywalker to eventually morph into the fearsome Darth Vader. Other franchises haven’t been as patient. For all its methodical pacing, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes queerly rushed through the moments when Coriolanus Snow went to the dark side. And Cruella made the mistake of presenting its title character as too soft and likable, making it hard to believe this woman would eventually want to kill puppies for their pelts. In Wonka, designed to connect to 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (starring Gene Wilder) rather than 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (starring Johnny Depp), the aspiring chocolatier (created on paper by Roald Dahl and played here by Timothée Chalamet) is a complete innocent, a really nice kid … and a bit of a dullard. There’s no method to his madness as seen in the ’71 flick — in fact, there’s no madness at all, and it’s difficult to see this guileless lad transform into the warped genius wonderfully played by Wilder. Granted, the issue might be resolved in a sequel to this prequel, but here it renders his adventures toothless, with the enterprise only partially elevated by the efforts of a game supporting cast and some impressive achievements in the set and costume designs. The awkward casting of Hugh Grant as an all-CGI Oompa-Loompa is a major debit, every bit as glaring as the use of name actors for the dwarfs in 2012’s Snow White & the Huntsman.

Blu-ray extras include a handful of making-of featurettes examining various aspects of the production, including the songs, the sets, the costumes, and the chocolates created specifically for the film.

Movie: ★★½

Short And Sweet:

THE LUZHIN DEFENCE (2000). John Turturro and Emily Watson deliver exquisite performances in this film (based on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel The Defense) about an eccentric chess player who finds romance with a society lady while competing in a tournament in 1920s Italy. This is a worthy effort for most of its running time, although a cardboard villain (Stuart Wilson as Turturro’s former mentor) and an improbable ending damage its overall impact.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by director Marleen Gorris; a making-of featurette; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND (2021). This post-apocalyptic putridity from director Sion Sono showcases Nicolas Cage in the sort of nonsense that repeatedly found his dignity gone in 60 seconds. He plays Hero, a captured bank robber whose body is wired with explosives as he’s sent into the wastelands to rescue the favorite sex slave (Sofia Boutella) of the corrupt Governor (Bill Moseley) of Samurai Town. Yes, it’s a combination of Escape From New York, Mad Max: Fury Road, and any given samurai flick, only minus any traces of entertainment value. The pits.

The only extra in this 4K steelbook edition is a making-of featurette.

Movie: ★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM 

DUNE (2021). With Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 reigning as two of the best science fiction films of recent vintage, director Denis Villeneuve attempted to go 3-for-3 with his ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert’s spice-world saga — or at least the first chunk of the hefty novel, as evidenced by the movie’s alternate title of Dune: Part One. (Part Two opened today.) Unlike Villeneuve’s previous pair, both of which are truly immersive experiences (particularly Arrival, the best picture of 2016 as shown here), this achievement produces a distancing effect that encourages respect rather than revelry. Its stateliness is both an asset and a detriment, as the picture looks absolutely stunning but occasionally feels too antiseptic for its own good. If nothing else, it stands head and shoulders over David Lynch’s 1984 dud (reviewed here), with a stronger cast, headier visual effects, and a more coherent storyline. Timothée Chalamet handles the pivotal role of Paul Atreides, believed to be “the chosen one” by the various factions jockeying for control of the spice-producing planet Arrakis. Paul’s parents are the noble Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and the devoted Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson, arguably first among equals with a full-fledged performance), while his mentors include warriors Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) and Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa). On the other side of the conflict reside the evil Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and his crew, while more ambiguous in their intentions are Arrakis inhabitants Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Chani (Zendaya). Oh, yes, there are also sandworms on hand to devour the scenery. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay), this won six in various technical categories.

Movie: ★★★