FILM FRENZY

Martin Sheen in The West Wing (Photo: Warner Bros.)

By Matt Brunson

(For a review of the new 4K release of A Nightmare on Elm Street as well as reviews of the other films in the franchise, go here. For a review of the new Blu-ray release of both 1980’s Caligula and 2023’s Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, go here.)

(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.)

BRICK (2005). Taking a break from whiny fanboys after the release of 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, writer-director Rian Johnson switched it up by masterminding the 2019 murder-mystery Knives Out and its 2022 follow-up Glass Onion, earning Oscar nominations for both films’ scripts. Yet his vibrant imagination has been on display since Brick, his startling debut feature. Johnson boldly decided to mash together a high school flick and a neo-noir, and the result is surprisingly good. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Brendan, who learns that his former girlfriend (Emilie De Ravin) is in some kind of trouble — shortly thereafter, he discovers her corpse, further sparking him to get to the bottom of the sordid shenanigans. As he tangles with a pothead named Dode (Noah Segan) and a bruiser named Tugger (Noah Fleiss), he realizes that all roads lead to a local drug czar known as The Pin (Lukas Haas, the little boy in Witness two decades removed). As befits any noir worth its salt, Brick contains an anti-hero, hard-boiled dialogue straight out of pulpy novels and classic films, ineffectual authority figures (here represented by an assistant vice principal played by Richard Roundtree), a trusty sidekick (Matt O’Leary as Brain), and a beauty (Nora Zehetner) who’s either a potential lover or a potential femme fatale — or possibly both.

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Johnson, Zehetner, Segan, producer Ram Bergman, production designer Jodie Tillen, and costume designer Michele Posch; film scholar audio commentary; deleted and extended scenes; and a piece on the casting of the characters played by Zehetner and Segan.

Movie: ★★★

CAPTAIN PLANET: THE COMPLETE FRANCHISE (1990-1996). Had the monstrous MAGA movement existed in the 1990s, it’s guaranteed that its groupies would have perpetually lambasted the back-to-back series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (from Ted Turner and TBS, 1990-1992) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (from Hanna-Barbera, 1993-1996) for being too “woke.” After all, here was a bunch of conscientious kids (most of them foreigners!) doing their best to make everyone aware of the fragility of Mother Earth and working their hardest to keep pollution and other planetary hazards at bay. That’s not to say there hasn’t been some conservative criticism of the show, but it’s mostly drowned out by the progressive positivity. What no one on either side of the great divide can dispute, though, is the fact that the program’s execution is often lacking. The show posits that Gaia (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg in early seasons, Margot Kidder in later ones), the personification of Earth, has awakened after an eons-long nap only to discover that we meddling humans have all but destroyed the planet. She therefore chooses five teenagers from around the globe to use the specific powers she grants them (representing earth, wind, fire, water, and heart) to combat environmental evildoers — if the task proves too difficult, they can pool their powers and call upon Captain Planet (David Coburn) to serve as their own eco-conscious Superman. The animation is generally uninspired and the storylines variations on a theme, but the series admirably tackles all sorts of issues beyond pollution (AIDS, homelessness, etc.), and those portraying villains vocally include Martin Sheen, Ed Asner, Meg Ryan, Malcolm McDowell, James Coburn, and Jeff Goldblum. The B-52’s’ Fred Schneider sings the theme song (“Eco Rap”) for the last season and voices the character of Danny Dazzleduff in one episode.

The DVD box set contains all 113 episodes; there are no extras.

Series: ★★½

COWBOYS & ALIENS (2011). This hybrid of two genres beloved by Old Hollywood (Westerns) and New Hollywood (science fiction) was based on a graphic novel, and even at that, director Jon Favreau and his army of writers elected to toss out almost everything except the bare bones premise of, yes, cowboys and aliens. The movie works best toward the beginning, before potential gives way to actual execution. In the New Mexico Territory of 1875, Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up with no memory of his identity or what led him to this spot; all he knows is that there’s an unusual metallic contraption wrapped around his left wrist. He stumbles into a nearby town, where he meets the powerful Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) — and then the aliens show up to wreak havoc. Any movie teaming James Bond with Han Solo certainly sounds like a can’t-miss, and the two stars ably fill their roles. But the picture rarely finds imaginative ways to merge its disparate trappings — the same year’s animated yarn Rango did a far superior job of placing fantastical characters in a Western setting — and it soon settles into a deadening, repetitive pattern of one character about to be offed by a generic alien before being saved at the last millisecond by someone else. By the time Jake and company are tangling with e.t.’s in cavernous surroundings, it’s apparent that the writers merely plugged in conventional story devices that would have worked just as well in a movie named Cops & Barracudas or Doctors & Hornets or even Accountants & Amoebas.

The 4K + Blu-ray edition contains both the 119-minute theatrical cut and the 135-minute extended version. Extras include audio commentary by Favreau; a making-of piece; and conversations between Favreau and Craig, Ford, producer Ron Howard, executive producer Steven Spielberg, and others.

Movie: ★★

MAXXXINE (2024). Writer-director Ti West’s 2022 twofer of X and Pearl proved to be so potent that they collectively filled a slot on my year-end 10 Best list (for the complete roster of 2022’s 10 Best, go here). So where does that put MaXXXine, the final film in the trilogy? Way back in the caboose, alas. A major disappointment compared to the first two installments, this one actually gets off to a roaring start and maintains momentum until its cockamamie third act. Whereas X was set in 1979, MaXXXine takes place in 1985 — having survived the bloodbath from that previous picture, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) has landed in Hollywood and continues to appear in porno flicks. But her dream of becoming a world-famous star has never waned, and when she lands the lead role in a mainstream movie, a horror yarn titled The Puritan II, she believes her moment has arrived. She’s distracted, however, by a sleazy private investigator (Kevin Bacon) who’s working for a mysterious figure seeking to derail her life — on top of this, a serial killer is loose in LA and his victims include some of her friends. West gets many ‘80s details right — any director can show a marquee advertising St. Elmo’s Fire to capture the year, but West is clever enough to also include Casey Kasem heard on American Top 40 noting that the #1 song in the land is John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” — and Goth again excels as Maxine, with the character the same take-no-prisoners survivor as before. But the last stretch of the film — perhaps a nod to giallo, but one that doesn’t work at all — grows ever more ridiculous and outrageous, with a dopey denouement to the mystery, poorly inserted gags, and a terrible, and terribly hammy, performance by Simon Prast as … well, no fair telling.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital edition include a behind-the-scenes featurette; a Q&A with West; and trailers.

Movie: ★★½

THE PROJECT A COLLECTION (1983-1987). “Fast-paced” doesn’t even begin to describe the action scenes featured in two Hong Kong hits that find Jackie Chan serving as actor, director, co-writer, and superhuman dynamo. Both are offered together in an excellent new 4K + Blu-ray set.

Set in the latter part of the 19th century, Project A (1983) stars Chan as Dragon Ma, a member of the naval branch of the Hong Kong police force. Local pirates have always been able to maintain the upper hand and avoid capture by the authorities; sick and tired of the constant defeats, Dragon reluctantly works with the cheerful and portly thief Fei (regular Chan co-star Sammo Hung) in an effort to finally bring down his nautical nemeses. The humor is of the broad variety that results in some very funny moments as well as some very awkward ones. But who comes to this sort of film primarily for the comedy quotient? The nyuks rank a distant second to the action scenes (the plodding plot, of course, places third), which are frequently spectacular. There’s a lengthy stretch where it’s impossible for anyone — viewers, actors, or stuntmen — to catch their breath, with highlights including a nifty bicycle trick and a plunge from a high tower, the latter the sort of scene that makes me wonder how the hell Chan is still alive. (Performing the scene, the actor landed on his neck. His neck!) Both Chan and Hung are as ingratiating as always, and the films climaxes with a satisfying set-piece inside a pirate lair.

Project A Part II (1987) is that rare sequel that nearly matches its predecessor beat for beat. If the action isn’t quite as astonishing, I daresay the comic bits are more fluidly staged — there’s one sequence that seems straight out of a screwball comedy, with Chan replacing Cary Grant. In this one, Chan’s Dragon Ma has been sent to a different district to keep an eye on Superintendant Chun (David Lam), who, it’s suspected, is so successful because he stages his own busts (and then kills the perpetrators so they can’t rat him out). While dealing with Chun, Dragon also has to contend with powerful gangsters, feisty revolutionaries, and pirates seeking revenge for his actions in the first flick. If the final stunt (the falling lattice structure) looks familiar, that’s because Chan borrowed it from the 1928 Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill Jr.

This offers both the 106-minute Hong Kong cut and 115-minute Taiwanese cut of Project A and both the 107-minute Hong Kong cut and 98-minute export version of Project A Part II. Extras include film historian audio commentaries on both films; a making-of piece on Project A; several individual interviews with key cast and crew members from one or both pictures; outtakes; and international trailers. The set also comes with such goodies as a 100-page booklet, six double-sided postcards, and double-sided posters for both movies.

Project A: ★★★

Project A Part II: ★★★

TOP CAT: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1961-1962). Hailing from Hanna-Barbera Productions, Top Cat earns its trivial pursuit chops for being the second animated series to ever air on U.S. prime-time television. The first? That would be The Flintstones, whose immediate success when it premiered in 1960 is what led the H-B outfit to follow up one year later with another TV toon. But Top Cat wasn’t an immediate hit like its predecessor (which lasted six seasons and 166 episodes), and it only made it through one season and 30 episodes. Its afterlife, however, has been impressive, starting with the fact that it was an enduring smash in most Latin American countries. (It was popular in some European nations as well: As a child living in Portugal throughout most of the 1970s, I possessed notebooks featuring all manner of Hanna-Barbera characters — not only Top Cat and The Flintstones but also Yogi Bear, Magilla Gorilla, and even Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har.) Top Cat also enjoyed a lengthy stay (via syndication) on Saturday morning TV, his own comic book (from Dell, natch), a soundtrack album, two Mexican-produced movies, and even a co-starring comic-book appearance with Batman. Like The Flintstones, this amusing series (modeled after The Phil Silvers Show/Sergeant Bilko) appealed to kids and adults alike, with Top Cat (voiced by Arnold Stang) always on the prowl for the latest scam alongside his fellow NYC felines Benny the Ball, Choo-Choo, Brain, Spook, and Fancy Fancy. Always trying to put a lid on his shenanigans is Officer Dibble (Allen Jenkins), who’s usually ineffective thanks to Top Cat’s trickery and flattery (“Gregory Peck should be grateful that you have chosen the profession of civil servant instead of acting. Why, he’d be starving today. Starving!”).

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary on three episodes by series veterans and animation historians; a making-of featurette; and interviews with select voice actors from the series.

Series: ★★★

THE WEST WING: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1999-2006). Director Rob Reiner’s 1995 film The American President found Michael Douglas cast as the title character, with Martin Sheen playing his Chief of Staff. Sheen apparently handled his duties well, since the movie’s writer, Aaron Sorkin, chose him as the American President for one of his subsequent projects. Premiering on NBC in September 1999, The West Wing was an instant hit, and with good reason. An absorbing, honest, and, yes, occasionally idealized show set inside the White House, this centers on the tenure of Democratic President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet and follows both the professional and personal lives of the prez and his many advisors, including communications director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney), and chief of staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer, particularly good). It’s a fictional series that draws upon real-life incidents, and it’s rather remarkable how often it does that without ever feeling exploitative toward the subject matter or condescending toward the audience. Sorkin’s long been known for his way with words (he later won an Oscar for penning The Social Network), and his penchant for dialogue that’s witty, fast-paced, and often overlapping (the latter doubtless borrowed from Robert Altman) is on full view. The earlier years are overall stronger than the later ones (Sorkin leaving after four seasons certainly had something to do with that), but the series rarely fumbled the ball … or, more accurately, the plotlines. Nominated for 98 Emmy Awards over its seven seasons and 155 episodes, it won 27, including Outstanding Drama Series for its first four seasons, four wins for Janney, and one apiece for Spencer, primary cast members Richard Schiff and Bradley Whitford, and recurring players Stockard Channing (as the First Lady), and Alan Alda.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentaries on approximately 20 episodes by Sorkin and various cast and crew members; a number of behind-the-scenes featurettes; deleted scenes; and outtakes.

Series: ★★★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM TO SCREAM (Films for Halloween)

COUNT DRACULA (1970). In some respects one of the more faithful screen adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this English-language co-production from Spain, Italy, and West Germany finds the prolific Jess Franco (with nearly 200 directing credits to his name) toning down his commonplace sex ‘n’ gore to present a stately version of the vampire classic. It’s a good effort by all, even if it does fall short of complete success. Christopher Lee, who spent many years playing Dracula in Hammer’s successful franchise, forsakes the animal magnetism and portrays the Count as a stuffy aristocrat who becomes visibly younger the more he drinks the blood of innocents. Franco provides an appropriately somber atmosphere for the proceedings, but an obvious low budget (the pack of wolves patrolling the terrain outside Dracula’s castle is played by a pack of German shepherds) and wretched performances by the no-name actors in the supporting ranks damage the picture’s pedigree. Herbert Lom, best known as the twitching Chief Inspector Dreyfus in The Pink Panther series, is an interesting choice to play Professor Van Helsing (Franco originally tried to snag Vincent Price), while it’s amusing to see Klaus Kinski as the insect-munching Renfield, nine years before he graduated to the role of bloodsucker in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu remake. The cast also includes cult figure Soledad Miranda as Lucy — a rising actress who gained further exposure as Franco cast her in more films (including Vampyros Lesbos), she was killed in a car accident at the age of 27.

Movie: ★★½

HOUSE (1977). Barely making a ripple when it debuted stateside in 1977, Japan’s House (Hausu) required an NYC re-release in 2010 to finally achieve wider recognition. A gonzo horror flick that surely must have influenced Sam Raimi as he prepped The Evil Dead, this dizzying extravaganza centers on seven school girls (with such character-appropriate names as Gorgeous, Fantasy, and Melody) who elect to vacation at a remote residence inhabited by a malevolent matriarch. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi establishes his schizophrenic style from the start, employing everything from sped-up slapstick sequences to matte shots to bleeding color schemes. It takes a full half-hour before the house unleashes its horrors, but what a delirious ride it proves to be, with the mansion throwing a demonic cat, a carnivorous piano, and much more at our plucky heroines. The seven teens are a winsome bunch, although my favorite is the one named Kung Fu — energetic and courageous, she’s like the missing Spice Girl. Despite the ceaseless visual assault, the picture does have its slow spots, but any film savvy enough to include a visual shout-out to Denis Gifford’s superb book A Pictorial History of Horror Movies (my Bible as a teen) gets a hearty recommendation from me.

Movie: ★★★

THE UNINVITED (1944). Have you seen The Haunting? The Innocents? The Conjuring? It all began with The Uninvited, which was reportedly the first dramatic movie about a haunted house (previous pictures had all been heavy on the comedy). That’s not to say the film lacks humor — Ray Milland’s engaging performance makes sure of that — but when it comes to its supernatural shenanigans, it takes its business quite seriously. Milland and Ruth Hussey star as Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald, siblings who on a whim decide to buy a sprawling, cliffside house located in Cornwall. The owner (Donald Crisp), whose grown daughter died there, is only too happy to sell the property; that’s not the case with his 20-year-old granddaughter Stella (Gail Russell), who lived there as a child and loves the house because it reminds her of her mother. Roderick and Pamela quickly settle in, but it isn’t long before they notice strange occurrences, beginning with the sounds of a woman sobbing in the period just before dawn breaks. The Uninvited proves to be more than just a ghost story, as the twists turn it into a full-blown mystery that stirs up memories of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Charles Lang’s black-and-white cinematography deservedly earned an Academy Award nomination, while Victor Young contributed a first-rate score that includes the haunting melody “Stella by Starlight.” Later outfitted with lyrics by Ned Washington, the song became a huge hit and today stands as a classic standard, having been performed by (among others) Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Tony Bennett, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Movie: ★★★½