FILM FRENZY

Rebecca Marder, Isabelle Huppert, and Nadia Tereszkiewicz in The Crime Is Mine (Photo: Music Box)

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.)

APPALOOSA (2008). Ed Harris’ second (and, to date, last) stint in the director’s chair — the first was 2000’s Pollock, reviewed here — Appaloosa bridges the gap between the old-fashioned Westerns from Hollywood’s distant past and the revisionist oaters that have been in vogue for the last half-century. It centers on the relationship between Virgil Cole (Harris) and his right-hand man Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), peacekeepers hired by the leading citizens of Appaloosa, New Mexico, to deal with the murderous rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons). Into their orbit comes Allison French (Renée Zellweger), a widow who catches the attention of both men. This, then, is a love triangle within a love story, but not in the traditional sense — the deep feelings aren’t so much between Allison and either or both of the heroes as much as it’s between the heroes themselves, two (heterosexual) men who have been together so long, they communicate with each other in the comfortable, jokey manner of a longtime married couple. How Virgil and Everett interact with each other as well as with Allison — a woman who’s more complicated than she initially appears — is far more interesting than the familiar material involving the feud with Bragg. Appaloosa is handsomely mounted by Harris and cinematographer Dean Semler, who’s probably shot more Westerns than any other post-’70s lenser (credits include Young Guns, The Ridiculous 6, and Dances With Wolves, the latter for which he won an Academy Award).

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by Harris and his co-scripter Robert Knott; four making-of pieces; and additional scenes.

Movie: ★★★

BLAZING SADDLES (1974). For Mel Brooks’ Western spoof, one of the most beloved comedies of all time, five writers (including Brooks and Richard Pryor) fashioned an uproarious screenplay that centers on Bart (Cleavon Little), a black man who becomes the unlikely sheriff of a Western town. The plan, concocted by sleazy politician Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) and Governor Lepetomane (Brooks), is for the racist townspeople to rise up against their lawman, but with the help of the genial Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), Bart manages to tame all adversaries, including the lumbering dimwit Mongo (Alex Karras) and the sultry saloon performer Lili Von Shtupp (a wonderful Madeline Kahn). Little is perfectly fine in the leading role, but I daresay the film would have been even better had Pryor played the part, as Brooks wanted; instead, Pryor was such a controversial figure at the time that Warner Bros. refused to finance the picture with him as the star. Nevertheless, the movie travels at a fast and furious clip, and the dialogue is endlessly quotable, whether it’s Bart threatening to “whip this out,” Mongo stating that “Mongo only pawn in game of life,” or Lily Von Shtupp declaring that “It’s twue! It’s twue!” This earned three Academy Award nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Kahn), Best Original Song (the title tune, written by Brooks and John Morris), and Best Film Editing. Brooks and Wilder also earned an Oscar nomination that same year for their adapted screenplay for Brooks’ other smash hit, Young Frankenstein.

Blu-ray extras include scene-specific audio commentary by Brooks; additional scenes; and Black Bart, the 1975 pilot episode of a proposed TV series spin-off starring Louis Gossett Jr. (who passed away earlier today, at the age of 87).

Movie: ★★★½

CHANGING LANES (2002). As first, it looks like it’ll take a few minutes to figure out who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy. After all, both protagonists — a rising lawyer portrayed by Ben Affleck and an insurance salesman played by Samuel L. Jackson — are initially revealed to be sensitive, caring men. But it soon becomes apparent that deep flaws will be found in both these individuals — they’re primed to become enemies, meaning that, by Hollywood standards, one of them has to earn the brunt of our contempt. Instead, Changing Lanes admirably manages to largely steer clear of black and white simplicity by adorning itself in an appealing shade of gray. A traffic accident involving both men is what sets off a chain of events that finds them constantly trying to one-up each other in a dangerous game rife with long-reaching implications. As the movie progresses, there’s genuine push-pull tension between these two characters, and the picture doesn’t squander its chance to make a point about the need for people to take responsibility for their own actions in a modern world that’s more about passing the buck to the next fellow. The film admittedly requires a few leaps of logic, but for the most part, it refuses to pull its punches, and, in this day and age, that qualifies as taking the road less travelled.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by director Roger Michell; a making-of featurette; and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★★

COLT .45: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1957-1960). Although the earliest years of television relied on variety shows, sitcoms, and anthology series to maintain momentum, it wasn’t long before Westerns began to dominate the landscape. Led by such titles as Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, and Have Gun Will Travel, the genre produced hit after hit after hit — the 1958-59 season, for example, revealed a whopping eight of the 10 top-rated shows to be Westerns. Colt .45, on the other hand, proved to be one of the unlucky ones. Loosely based on the same-named 1950 movie starring Randolph Scott, it centers on Christopher Colt (Wayde Preston), a government agent who travels the West incognito, posing as a gun salesman while assisting the innocent, tangling with desperadoes, and running across such larger-than-life guest stars as Doc Holliday (Adam West), Judge Roy Bean (Frank Ferguson), and Billy the Kid (Robert Conrad). Behind-the-scenes drama doomed Colt .45 almost from the start, with Preston walking out on the series and being replaced for the third season by Donald May as Chris’ cousin Sam Colt. As for the show itself, its biggest liability was its leading man (Preston followed by May), who largely lacked charisma and acting chops. The plots weren’t bad, but the series paled next to other TV oaters, missing, for instance, the rich character relations found in Bonanza, the satisfying story structures of The Virginian, or the social dynamics of Gunsmoke. Among the future stars who turned up on the show were Charles Bronson, Leonard Nimoy, George Kennedy, Angie Dickinson, and Troy Donahue.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Series: ★★½

THE CONTENDER (2000). A crackling drama about a Vice Presidential candidate whose career is threatened by a sex scandal, The Contender stars Joan Allen (in a role written specifically for her) as Senator Laine Hanson, who gets tapped by Democratic President Jackson Evans (a playful Jeff Bridges) to step in after the VP passes away. Hopes for a smooth confirmation are dashed once it’s revealed that contentious Republican Congressman Shelly Runyon (Gary Oldman) will be the one in charge of the hearings — and that he’s already begun a smear campaign centered around the allegation that Hanson took part in a drunken orgy (i.e. had sex with two guys simultaneously) while in college. The film’s political posturing is frequently simplistic, and there’s a late-inning plot twist regarding Hanson that shows writer-director Rod Lurie (a former film critic) doesn’t trust his audience’s levels of maturity and morality. But the dialogue is often exceptional, and the big-name cast delivers, especially Allen (earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination), Bridges (up for Best Supporting Actor), and an imaginatively cast Sam Elliott as Kermit Newman, the White House Chief of Staff. At the time, Oldman seemed to be playing a caricature of a GOP politico, with his foaming-at-the-mouth attitude and fondness for lines like “Laine Hanson is a cancer! A cancer of liberalism! A cancer of disloyalty! A cancer of affirmative action!” But in the era of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Trump, Shelly Runyon now seems more believable — and, by comparison, about as menacing as a blind goldfish.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★

THE CRIME IS MINE (2023). George Cukor (1934’s Little Women, 1939’s The Women) was known as “a woman’s director,” and such a title could also be bestowed on French writer-director François Ozon, whose strong work with actresses can be seen in global hits like 8 Women and Swimming Pool. The Crime Is Mine (Mon crime) follows suit by showcasing lively performances by its three top-billed actresses, although the merriment is expansive enough to also provide good roles for the supporting males. In 1930s Paris, actress Madeleine Verdier (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) and lawyer Pauline Mauléon (Rebecca Marder) are roommates, best friends, and novices struggling to make ends meet. Madeleine takes a meeting with a slimy producer (Jean-Christophe Bouvet), only to learn he’s solely interested in sexual favors. She’s the prime suspect upon his murder, and once she claims to have killed him in self-defense, she becomes a media celebrity and her career takes off. This doesn’t sit well with faded silent-film star Odette Chaumette (Isabelle Huppert), whose secret could disrupt Madeleine’s turn of fortune. Working from a farcical play from the ‘30s, Ozon has patterned his film after the great screwball comedies of yesteryear — the madcap mayhem might be a bit muted, but it’s all awfully charming, with Fabrice Luchini, André Dussollier, and Dany Boon lending able support as a befuddled judge, a befuddled business owner, and a slick architect with an unexpectedly gentle soul.

Blu-ray extras include a making-of piece; interviews with Ozon, Tereszkiewicz, and Marder; deleted scenes; and bloopers.

Movie: ★★★

THE FRESHMAN (1925). This comic masterpiece finds silent-cinema legend Harold Lloyd playing Harold Lamb, a young kid who’s thrilled to be heading off to college (the star was 32 when this was made, but never mind). Nicknaming himself Speedy, he seeks the approval and friendship of every single individual on campus, not realizing that all of them — with the exception of pretty Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) — are mocking him behind his back. Convinced that he can only become the most popular student by joining the football team, he’s proud when he reaches his goal … little realizing that he’s actually been picked to serve as the team’s water boy. But Harold gets his chance to shine in the climactic football game, a gridiron gut-buster that rivals and perhaps even surpasses the football sequence in the Marx Brothers’ 1932 Horse Feathers (wherein the fellows somehow introduce a chariot to the sport). As always, Lloyd has managed to create a character who’s so cheerful and so optimistic — I absolutely love the dance he performs when meeting people! — that it’s impossible not to fully throw one’s loyalty and sympathy behind him. Combine the actor’s appeal with some hysterical gags, and the result is not only his best film but also the biggest box office hit of his career.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★★

K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER (2002). Not to be confused with K-9 (a Jim Belushi bow-wow), K-2 (a mountain-climbing dud) or even K-PAX (a Kevin Spacey disaster), the fact-based K-19 is nevertheless strictly DOA and should be KO’d ASAP. Despite the efforts of director Kathryn Bigelow and writers Christopher Kyle and Louis Nowra, this adds little to the sub-genre of sub flicks, preferring instead to trot out a creaky vessel that seems stitched together, Frankenstein-style, from past underwater adventures. Sean Connery was smart enough not to bother to attempt to don a Russian accent in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, but here are Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson limply using now-you-hear-dem-now-you-don’t accents as the two top dogs on a Soviet submarine sent out to sea under perilous conditions during the height of the Cold War. What ensues is a half-hearted Mutiny On the Bounty, with the no-nonsense captain (Ford) squaring off against his more compassionate second-in-command (Neeson) as they both profess to do what’s best for the sailors under their command. The usual themes pertaining to honor among men and courage under fire are repeatedly brought to the surface, along with the expected scenes featuring malfunctioning machinery, unsettling water leaks, and a bombastic score that tries to bully our emotions at every turn. It’s all too familiar to be even remotely effective.

Extras in the 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Bigelow and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth; a making-of piece; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004). This risky remake isn’t a 4-star classic like the 1962 version. Meryl Streep, frequently overripe, can’t begin to touch Oscar-nominated Angela Lansbury’s bone-chilling portrayal of evil disguised as matronly concern; likewise, solid Liev Schreiber doesn’t match Lawrence Harvey’s multilayered performance as her tortured son. And a newly added plot twist may leave viewers pleasantly startled, but it leads to a conclusion that doesn’t quite make sense. But in most other respects, this is that rare do-over that paves its own way without exploiting or cheapening its predecessor. No longer a Cold War product, this updated thriller finds Denzel Washington in Frank Sinatra’s old role as a career army officer who realizes that a former comrade (Schreiber), now a politician running for his party’s Vice Presidential slot, might be the unwitting pawn of a major corporation (Manchurian Global) that’s trying to seize control of this country. The topicality didn’t hurt — this could easily have been called The Halliburton Candidate, since the company in the film is accused of price gouging and war profiteering — yet any political posturing is vague enough that it will only register with viewers looking for it. At any rate, social commentary places a distant second to the film’s standing as a taut and largely efficient thriller.

Extras in the 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by director Jonathan Demme and co-scripter Daniel Pyne; a piece on the cast; deleted scenes; and Schreiber’s screen test.

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

S.O.B. (1981). Writer-director Blake Edwards’ outrageous S.O.B. will never be held in the same regard as Sunset Boulevard or The Player, but as a searing satire about the underbelly of the Hollywood lifestyle, it still ranks as one of the best. Julie Andrews (Edwards’ wife from 1969 until his death in 2010) and William Holden head an all-star cast that gamely throws itself into the vicious story of Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan), a producer who decides the only way to turn his mega-flop into a mega-hit is by juicing it up with softcore porn sequences — and having Sally Miles (Andrews), the wholesome leading lady, bare her breasts for the camera. Edwards, who had been working in the movie business for decades and knew it inside and out, delivers a hilarious picture that’s dripping with cynicism and venom, and he assembled a terrific ensemble that includes Holden (in his final film appearance, passing away later in ’81) as a sympathetic director, Robert Webber as a nervous press agent, and two then-hot TV stars, Dallas’ Larry Hagman and M*A*S*H’s Loretta Swit, as, respectively, a studio toadie and a gossip columnist. Best of all, though, is Robert Preston, whose performance as Dr. Irving Finegarten, a sardonic doctor who’s never caught off-guard, remains one of my all-time favorite comic turns (when asked if Sally is well enough to perform after receiving a shot, he replies, “Is Batman a transvestite? Who knows?”). Preston deservedly received Best Supporting Actor honors from the National Society of Film Critics, although the Academy failed to follow suit — the group did, however, nominate him and Andrews for their work in Edwards’ next picture, 1982’s Victor/Victoria.

Movie: ★★★½