FILM FRENZY

Cole Sprouse and Kathryn Newton in Lisa Frankenstein (Photo: Universal & Focus)

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.)

EASTER PARADE (1948). Gene Kelly was supposed to headline Easter Parade with his frequent screen partner Judy Garland, but a sporting accident placed him out of commission, thereby leading him to implore his friend Fred Astaire to take the role. It was a fortuitous mishap in that it allowed two of our greatest stars their only opportunity to make movie magic together. Astaire plays Don Hewes, a (what else?) dancer who’s incensed when his partner Nadine (Ann Miller) leaves their act for a more lucrative contract. In true Pygmalion fashion, he’s convinced that he can pluck anybody out of a chorus line and make her a star replacement for Nadine; he nabs Hannah Brown (Garland), who’s slow to start but eventually blossoms into a top talent. Easter Parade earned Johnny Green and Roger Edens an Oscar for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, and small wonder: It’s packed with well over a dozen Irving Berlin tunes, performed with gusto by the stars. The most famous act finds Garland and Astaire dressed as bums for the stage number “A Couple of Swells,” but there’s also Miller knocking “Shakin’ the Blues Away” out of the park, the clever design of “The Girl on the Magazine Cover,” Astaire taking over a toy store for “Drum Crazy,” Garland and Astaire tackling the title tune, and — my favorite — Astaire showing off his incomparable tap-dancing prowess in the fabulously choreographed “Steppin’ Out with My Baby.”

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Ava Astaire McKenzie (Fred’s daughter) and John Fricke (author and authority on all things Judy Garland); a making-of featurette; and the deleted musical number “Mr. Monotony.”

Movie: ★★★½

KING KONG (1976). “Everybody love the monkey!” producer Dino de Laurentiis would chirp, explaining why he decided to remake a classic that had long been hailed as one of cinema’s finest achievements. But his King Kong turned out to be a ham-fisted version of the venerable yarn, replacing the excitement and gravitas of the 1933 original with a jokey attitude that bordered on camp. The only area in which it improves upon its predecessor is in delineating the relationship between the ape and the woman he loves, and even this was subsequently handled better in Peter Jackson’s 2005 update. Jeff Bridges, appearing almost as hirsute as Kong, gamely tries to lift the proceedings as a paleontologist, with Charles Grodin doing his part as a greedy oil company executive. But in the central role of Dwan, newcomer Jessica Lange fights a losing battle against a script that transforms her into a New Age ninny (when first encountering Kong, she inquires about his zodiac sign) — her performance led to withering reviews that kept her off the screen for three years. King Kong absurdly earned an Oscar for its visual effects, sharing that year’s honor with the far more accomplished Logan’s Run (it also earned nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Sound). Considering the shoddiness of the visuals — especially in the close-up shots when Kong unconvincingly leers at Dwan as if he were auditioning for a Benny Hill skit ­— there might be some truth to the long-standing rumor that some Academy members resigned in disgust after their colleagues voted for this dubious distinction.

The 4K + Blu-ray edition contains both the 134-minute theatrical cut and the 192-minute television cut. The only extra is the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★

LISA FRANKENSTEIN (2024). A horror rom-com cobbled together from the body parts of other, better movies, Lisa Frankenstein feels like its main frame was stitched together from Warm Bodies and Heathers, but crucially missing the sweetness of the former and the smarts of the latter. And because it’s set in 1989, it also attempts a John Hughes vibe (Weird Science in particular), although the movie is so inept at recreating that era that it might as well be taking place in the same year as, say, All Quiet on the Western Front or Quest for Fire. Kathryn Newton plays Lisa Swallows, a socially awkward teen whose mom was hacked up by an axe murderer and whose dad (Joe Chrest) is now married to Janet (Carla Gugino), a control freak whose own daughter Taffy (Liza Soberano) is beloved but not too bright. When lightning strikes a nearby cemetery and revives the corpse of a Victorian-era man (Cole Sprouse), Lisa finds herself with a new friend and confidante. Peopled with exceptionally unsympathetic leads and brandishing a myopic mean-spiritedness (Janet may be a pill, but she’s not always wrong in her reasoning), this suffers from flatline direction by Zelda Williams (Robin’s daughter, making her feature debut) and a sloppy, shallow script from the erratic Diablo Cody. The limitations of Sprouse’s role means he’s reduced to copying Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands, but the other cast members are fine — that’s especially true of Soberano, whose wholehearted embrace of her character provides the movie with its only flashes of complexity. For a far superior film mixing feminist ideals with the Frankenstein legend, just go watch Poor Things again.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Williams; a discussion with Cody; deleted scenes; and a gag reel.

Movie: ★★

MONSTER (2023). Widowed Saori (Sakura Andô) is shocked when her son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) informs her that his teacher Hori (Eita Nagayama) has been physically and verbally abusing him, yet the instructor isn’t really a monster. It’s then believed that Minato has been picking on his classmate Yori (Hinata Hiiragi) and even cold-bloodedly killed a cat, but the preteen lad isn’t a monster, either. Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu (the Oscar-nominated Shoplifters), written by Sakamoto Yuji, and featuring the final score by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor), this powerful picture can be viewed as a variation on another acclaimed Japanese import, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. In that 1950 classic, the same event is described by different, and duplicitous, people, resulting in conflicting narratives; here, the same events are observed by different people, with each innocently if erroneously filtering it through their own sensibilities. Thematically rich, Monster explores a number of weighty issues, with the evils of bullying, the horrors of homophobia, the specter of toxic masculinity, and the unfairness of shifted responsibility all forced to step up to the plate. Viewers who enjoy movies whose layers can be peeled like an onion will particularly take to this, given the revelations introduced around every new corner. Conversely, viewers who disdain ambiguity will balk at the ending, the sort that can lead to heated post-screening arguments as well as reasonable and rational minds agreeing to disagree.

The Blu-ray offers Monster in its original Japanese or in an English-language dub. The only extras are theatrical trailers.

Movie: ★★★½

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD MONSTER (1970). It’s bad enough that the Italian-Spanish-West German period drama The Bloody Judge was originally released in the U.S. under the misleading title Night of the Blood Monster — it’s even worse that the theatrical poster leaned into the deception by showcasing a creature that’s nowhere to be found in the film! (See below.) Then again, perhaps it was just following the lead of its obvious influence: the 1968 British gem Witchfinder General, the Vincent Price starrer that was retitled stateside as The Conqueror Worm in a feeble effort to tie it to Price’s earlier Edgar Allan Poe offerings. Like its predecessor, this is more of a historical drama sporting some sensationalistic elements, and the monster is a human one. Christopher Lee stars as Judge Jeffries (like Price’s Matthew Hopkins, a real-life figure), the 17th century magistrate who used his position of power to execute scores of people, both the men who were guilty of conspiring against King James II and the women who were innocent of the charges of witchcraft brought against them. On the sliding scale of movies helmed by Jess Franco, this feels less exploitative than most of his oeuvre — or at least when the writer-director isn’t breaking away from the judiciary chitchat or the robust battle scenes to focus on voluptuous women having their teeth ripped out or their backs raked with sharp instruments. The youthful leads are about as bland as expected, but Lee is as imposing and authoritative as always.

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentaries; interviews with Franco and Lee; an interview with author Stephen Thrower (Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco); deleted and alternate scenes; and still galleries.

Movie: ★★½

NIGHT SWIM (2024). Adapted from a 2014 short film he co-created, director Bryce McGuire turns to a somewhat unexpected source for his horror: the swimming pool. It may sound silly — what’s next, a haunted kitchen sink? — but, despite its limitations, this oasis of H20 can serve as a cinematic terror trap, as evidenced by a key sequence in 1976’s Burnt Offerings (recently reissued on Blu-ray and reviewed here). But to build and sustain a 99-minute movie around such a premise is a tall order, and, ultimately, there isn’t anything in Night Swim that’s even half as frightening as my neighborhood’s community pool during the waning weeks of every summer, when the useless HOA has stopped paying for its upkeep and has allowed all manner of dead insects and unidentified fungi to blanket the surface. In Night Swim, the source of the supernatural shenanigans emanating from underneath the pool isn’t a Poltergeist-esque burial ground but something more ancient and insidious. On the plus side, it does offer healing powers, which benefits ailing baseball player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) after he moves into the accompanying house with his wife (The Banshees of Inisherin Oscar nominee Kerry Condon) and teenage kids (Amélie Hoeferle and Gavin Warren). On the negative side, it has a nasty habit of trying to drown people, and it eventually turns Ray into Jack Torrance in his “Here’s Johnny!” phase. Aside from Condon’s performance, everything passes as utterly routine with this soggy endeavor, from the generic characters to the spooky backstory to the expected jump scares. Short of a floating Baby Ruth candy bar, it’s hard to imagine what could have goosed the proceedings.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by McGuire; a look at the visual effects; and a scene breakdown.

Movie: ★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982). During my two high school years living in Nairobi, Kenya (1982-1984), no movie was more popular — or played at the local theater longer — than An Officer and a Gentleman. The reason was obvious, as evidenced by the predominantly black audiences’ roars of approval and bursts of applause whenever Louis Gossett, Jr. (RIP) appeared on — and took command of — the screen. Which just goes to prove the filmmakers were correct in interviews when they stated that the movie was an international success that spoke to different people on different levels. Decades later, this sleeper box office hit — #3 for ’82, under only E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Tootsie — holds up as a prime example of old-fashioned (some would say corny) romantic melodrama, as troubled naval officer candidate Zack Mayo (Richard Gere, in a role famously turned down by John Travolta) falls for factory worker Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger) while butting heads with demanding drill instructor Foley (Gossett). Winger and Gossett nabbed most of the critical acclaim for their work in this vastly entertaining picture — indeed, they’re both excellent — yet it’s Gere’s superb performance, the finest of his lengthy career, that propels the film toward its hankie-saturating finale. Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Winger and Best Original Screenplay for Douglas Day Stewart, it won two: Best Supporting Actor for Gossett and Best Original Song (“Up Where We Belong”).

Movie: ★★★½