FILM FRENZY

Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy (Photo: Paramount & CBS)

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.)

BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (1989). After playing back-up to Oscar-winning turns by Paul Newman in 1986’s The Color of Money and Dustin Hoffman in 1988’s Rain Man, Tom Cruise made his own awards run by portraying real-life Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic in this powerful drama. The second of writer-director Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy, after 1986’s universally acclaimed Platoon and before 1993’s tepidly received Heaven & Earth (reviewed below, under From Screen To Stream), this traces the life of Kovic as he goes from being an idealistic young man eager to fight in Vietnam to a renowned anti-war activist who spoke at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. In between, he fights valiantly in Vietnam, only to return home as a paraplegic. He’s haunted by the horrors he witnessed in combat, appalled by the apathy displayed by most Americans, and outraged at the government’s treatment of veterans. Wallowing in drunken self-pity, he eventually pulls himself together and finds a renewed purpose in life. Cruise delivers a deeply committed performance — so committed, in fact, that Kovic presented him with his own Bronze Star when filming wrapped. The large supporting cast includes Platoon co-stars Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger and real-life activist Abbie Hoffman (who had already committed suicide by the time the film was released). This also features one of John Williams’ best scores. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Stone and Kovic, this earned Oscars for Best Director and Best Film Editing.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Stone; a new interview with Stone; and the music video for Edie Brickell’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.”

Movie: ★★★½

THE CROW (2024). The 1994 version of The Crow was by no means perfect, but it was perfect in achieving what it set out to do, whether it was creating a landscape as insular and distinctive as that of, say, Gotham City or Panem, establishing an eerie aura (unfortunately elevated by star Brandon Lee’s accidental on-set death) that hung over and permeated every scene, or offering one of the most badass — and one of the best — soundtracks of the decade. This new adaptation of James O’Barr’s comic book series isn’t perfect in any regard, although it is perfectly awful. It’s ugly both inside and out, a cynical and soul-sapping retelling without an ounce of humanity or humility. As before, Eric (Bill Skarsgård) seeks justice against the scumbags who murdered him and his girlfriend Shelley (FKA Twigs), but instead of fighting colorful killers like Top Dollar and T-Bird, he’s now battling — get this — a wealthy philanthropist (Danny Huston in a role not unlike the one he essayed in Wonder Woman) whose pact with the Devil spares him but requires him to send innocent souls to Hell. This switch is presumably meant to up the existential ante, but all it does is take away from the power of the central love-story-cum-revenge-fantasy. Not that this aspect of the film was strong in the first place, thanks to Skarsgård’s absolutely charisma-free performance (FKA Twigs fares a tad better). The climactic bloodbath, rendered with shaky CGI, makes any gore sequence from the Deadpool movies look as family-friendly as Maria traipsing across the Austrian Alps while declaring that the hills are alive, and the cheat of an ending suggests a sequel that will probably never get made… thank Heaven (and, given the premise, Hell).

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital edition include a making-of piece; deleted scenes; and a look at the main title sequence.

Movie: ★

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009). Torture porn was quite popular during the late 2000s, which made Drag Me to Hell such a welcome relief — it’s a funhouse freak show more interested in delivering old-fashioned chills than in wallowing in misogyny, masochism, and mutilation. The story is so thin that the screenplay could have been written on a bubble gum wrapper, yet the end result is so delirious in its desire to delight that viewers willing to be jerked around won’t mind. Director Sam Raimi regains the playful prankster attitude he exhibited back in his Evil Dead days, crafting (with brother Ivan) this yarn about sweet-natured loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), who, in an ill-advised attempt to show her boss (David Paymer) that she’s able to make the “tough decisions,” denies Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) a third extension on a loan, thus leaving the elderly woman homeless. Angered, the gypsy places a curse on Christine, a jinx that will expose her to three days of supernatural hauntings before she’s ultimately … well, check out that title. Drag Me to Hell isn’t exactly scary — the gotcha! moments and incessant use of loud noises don’t exactly build suspense — and the climactic twist, straight out of a vintage EC Comics horror publication, is telegraphed too early in the narrative. But Lohman is ideally cast as a basically decent person who must make some hard calls if she wants to survive, and the brothers Raimi get a lot of mileage out of Mrs. Ganush as a formidable adversary.

The 4K + Blu-ray edition contains both the PG-13 theatrical version and an unrated cut. Extras include a new behind-the-scenes retrospective; interviews with Lohman and Raver; behind-the-scenes production video diaries; and an image gallery.

Movie: ★★★

I LOVE LUCY: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1951-1957). How to even begin to describe I Love Lucy’s impact on television, on culture, on American history itself? One of the pioneering TV series in the early years of the medium, this sitcom immediately rewrote the rules on how shows were staged, filmed, and marketed. But beyond its influence and innovations, the program endures simply because it’s one of the funniest series ever produced, with the stars and their characters — Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo, Desi Arnaz as her husband Ricky, and Vivian Vance and William Frawley as their best friends Ethel and Fred Mertz — all becoming household names. The number of classic episodes is an unwieldy one, and everyone has their own personal faves: Lucy hawking “Vitameatavegamin” on TV; the birth of Little Ricky (still one of the most watched TV episodes of all time); Lucy stomping grapes in Italy; Lucy and Ethel working at a candy factory; John Wayne (nuff said); Lucy and Superman; and on and on and on. I Love Lucy was a colossal success, ranking #1 in the Nielsen ratings for four of its six seasons (it was #2 and #3 in the remaining two). It won two Emmy Awards for Best Situation Comedy, one for Ball as Best Actress, and one for Vance as Best Supporting Actress. And of course it’s routinely at or near the top whenever some publication offers its list of the greatest TV shows of all time — as but two examples, Variety ranked it #1 while TV Guide placed it #2, under Seinfeld (gimme a break…).

The Blu-ray set is phenomenal in every way but one: Rather than break up the episodes in separate seasonal cases, all 33 discs are just stacked on top of each other in one lumpy case. But the bonus content is A+. Extras include all 13 episodes of the subsequent The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour; audio commentaries on select episodes; the original pilot episode; flubs; vintage sponsor spots; and more.

Series: ★★★★

THE LADYKILLERS (1955). Perhaps the best of all the celebrated Ealing Studios comedies (although 1949’s Kind Hearts and Coronets provides formidable competition), this uproarious picture finds Alec Guinness cast as Professor Marcus, a gentleman who rents a room from the sweet septuagenarian Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson). He informs her that he and his friends are amateur musicians and will be using the space for rehearsal; in truth, he’s a seasoned criminal, and he and his “friends” — the dapper Claude (Cecil Parker), the dim-witted One-Round (Danny Green), the nervous Harry (Peter Sellers), and the ruthless Louis (Herbert Lom) — are using the jam sessions as a cover for plotting a robbery. The heist goes off as planned, but after Mrs. Wilberforce realizes their true intentions, the crooks decide that she must be permanently silenced. It’s amusing that this veddy British comedy was put together by two Americans, albeit ones who had lived in the United Kingdom for years: scripter William Rose (earning a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination) and director Alexander Mackendrick (who would then hoof it back to America to make the scintillating Sweet Smell of Success with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis). Guinness and Johnson are marvelous in the central roles, and Sellers and Lom would later co-star as Inspector Clouseau and Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the highly successful Pink Panther series. The Coen Brothers remade this in 2004 with Tom Hanks in the lead role; while it’s better than its mangy reputation, it’s certainly no match for this droll comic gem.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include two film historian audio commentaries; the 2002 documentary Forever Ealing, narrated by Daniel Day-Lewis; and a look at the film’s restoration.

Movie: ★★★½

MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL & PRESSBURGER (2024). Martin Scorsese is rightly revered as one of the all-time great directors, but honestly, I’m equally impressed with his achievements as a film preservationist and his musings as a film lover. Running nearly four hours, the 1995 documentary A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies was a remarkable work, infused throughout with the filmmaker’s passion and insights. Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger (far shorter at 130 minutes) is charged with the same sort of purpose, filtering cinema through a prism that’s both personal for Scorsese and universal for everyone else. Scorsese’s lifelong love of the films made by the team of Englishman Michael Powell and Hungarian Emeric Pressburger is known by any self-respecting critic, and it’s also common knowledge that he and Powell became friends late in Powell’s life (Powell also married Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker). That’s touched upon in this picture, but the focus remains on The Archers (their nickname, derived from their production company) and their movies, classics like A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes, but also late-career flops like The Elusive Pimpernel and Gone to Earth. And, of course, there’s also a look at Powell’s 1960 solo effort Peeping Tom, which basically killed his career but later emerged as a cult favorite. Scorsese not only offers a crash course on the motion pictures but also provides plenty of insights and explains how certain scenes inspired sequences in his own movies, including Raging Bull and The Age of Innocence.

The only Blu-ray extra is the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★½

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958) / ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959). The latest double feature release from Film Masters offers more Roger Corman, this time producing a pair of movies directed by Bernard Kolwalski. Although Kowalski spent the vast majority of his 44-year career in television (series included Rawhide, Columbo, and Baywatch Nights), he did make it onto movie sets for eight features. I’m actually a fan of 1973’s Sssssss (reviewed below in From Screen To Stream), although he’s best known for these two Corman cheapies.

Not to be confused with the 1968 Peter Cushing starrer The Blood Beast Terror, Night of the Blood Beast is the marquee attraction on the Film Masters Blu-ray cover, and it’s arguably a tad better than Attack of the Giant Leeches. That’s largely due to its plot, which offers some interesting twists. When astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) returns from space, he’s killed upon reentry. But after his colleagues take possession of the body, they discover that not only has he somehow returned from the dead but he’s now carrying (as in Alien 21 years later) tiny creatures inside himself. The immediate threat, however, is the oversized alien that Corcoran insists has good intentions despite its destructive tendencies. The storyline deserved a bigger budget and more interesting actors, but, hey, it’s Corman.

Attack of the Giant Leeches is not without interest, although, like Night of the Blood Beast, it’s severely compromised by a lack of funds. That’s most apparent in the costumes employed for the giant leeches, which basically look like black Hefty trash bags with, I dunno, thick drapery ropes attached to them. In this one, it’s a bunch of backwater rednecks having to contend with the critters. The leech lair is the most interesting element of the picture; everything else is forgettable.

Extras include film historian audio commentary on both movies; the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes that individually featured the films; a piece on Kowalski; and an 8mm silent short version of Night of the Blood Beast. A booklet is also part of the package.

Night of the Blood Beast: ★★

Attack of the Giant Leeches: ★½

SCARFACE (1932). A Molotov cocktail of a movie, Scarface was one of the most controversial films of its era. Loosely based by scripter (and former Chicago reporter) Ben Hecht on the mob activities of Al Capone and other Windy City hoodlums, this film so agitated the Hays Office censorship board that they insisted producer Howard Hughes and director Howard Hawks make numerous changes; when those edits failed to satisfy the naysayers, the two Howards opted to go back to their original cut and release the film without official approval. Paul Muni gives a dynamic, animalistic performance as Tony Camonte, a natural born killer who rises from mob flunky to crime kingpin. Unlike most of the gangsters played by Cagney, Bogart, and Robinson, Muni’s Camonte isn’t particularly smart, brave or self-aware; instead, he’s a simple-minded ape who succeeds by pure force and is eventually exposed as a coward when the chips are down. The film’s violence drew the bulk of the protests, although it’s difficult to believe anyone could have missed Tony’s incestuous feelings toward his teenage sister (Ann Dvorak). George Raft, who counted numerous gangsters among his real-life pals, is effective as Tony’s coin-flipping henchman, while Boris Karloff, a year after attaining stardom in Frankenstein, pops up as a rival crime lord. This was remade in 1983 by director Brian De Palma and scripter Oliver Stone; that version is solid (not to mention longer, running 170 minutes compared to the original’s 95 minutes), but this is the superior take.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray include an alternate ending that was created for the censored version of the film, and a discussion of Hawks’ use of sound and editing.

Movie: ★★★½

TRAP (2024). While M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan was off making her feature directorial and scripting debuts with this year’s The Watchers, one of his other daughters, singer Saleka Night Shyamalan, was making her acting debut in the latest from her writer-director dad. Trap is better than most of the Shyamalan nonsense routinely foisted on us over the past quarter-century, although its entertainment value doubtless increases if one enters the arena completely clueless. So no spoilers ahead, but it can be revealed  that it’s a thriller in which dedicated firefighter and loving father Cooper Abbott (Josh Hartnett) takes his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see a concert by her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka). But soon after arrival, Cooper senses there’s something off, and he soon learns that the FBI and local law enforcement are on the premises hoping to nab an elusive serial killer known as “The Butcher.” The most surprising element in Trap, even more than the plot’s twists and turns? Seeing Hayley Mills in a supporting role as an FBI profiler — I hadn’t seen her on screen since the 20th century and assumed she was no longer with us (it turns out the 78-year-old actress has been busy on television, mainly in England). As for the storyline, it’s cleverly concocted most of the way, taking occasional breaks for nepotism and vanity to flourish (Saleka performs 16 of her own songs over the course of the film), and only spiraling out of control with a series of increasingly feeble denouements. Hartnett, unbearably stiff as a young actor, has certainly improved over the years and here delivers a strong performance.

Extras in the 4K + Digital Code edition include a making-of featurette; deleted scenes; and an extended concert scene.

Movie: ★★½

SHORT AND SWEET

CROSS CREEK (1983). Based on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ same-named memoir, this pleasing and picturesque film casts Mary Steenburgen as the aspiring author, who leaves her comfortable life in New York for the backwoods of Florida. Having no luck writing Gothic stories as she planned, she’s instead inspired by the people and places around her, eventually leading her to write her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling. Peter Coyote co-stars as the hotel owner who woos her, Alfre Woodard is her outspoken maid, Rip Torn plays the patriarch of the family upon which The Yearling is based, and Malcolm McDowell, then Steenburgen’s husband, cameos as influential publisher Maxwell Perkins. This earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor (Torn) and Best Supporting Actress (Woodard).

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentary; a discussion of the movie with Steenburgen; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★

TO CATCH A THIEF (1955). This engaging bit of fluff from Alfred Hitchcock and scripter John Michael Hayes (who penned four of the director’s 11 films from that decade) stars Cary Grant as a former cat burglar who becomes the prime suspect when a string of jewel robberies hits the French Riviera. The identity of the burglar is easy to figure out, but it’s the sparkling dialogue, the gorgeous location shooting, and the chemistry between Grant and co-star Grace Kelly that make this go down smoothly. This earned Robert Burks the Oscar for Best Color Cinematography, with additional nominations for Best Color Costume Design and Best Color Art Direction-Set Decoration.

Extras in the 4K + DVD edition include film historian audio commentary; a making-of piece; and a featurette on censorship (not surprising given the film’s ample double entendres, from a spewing champagne bottle to a fireworks display).

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

49TH PARALLEL (1941). One of the earliest efforts from the Powell & Pressburger team, 49th Parallel was a major hit in the U.K. and also did well stateside, where it was released as The Invaders. Created under the auspices of Britain’s Ministry of Information with the purpose of gaining sympathy for the war effort from both the U.S. and Canada, it follows the six survivors of a downed German submarine as they navigate their way across Canada. Their ruthless leader (Eric Portman) wholeheartedly subscribes to his country’s fascist principles, but one of his subordinates (Niall MacGinnis) begins to question the Nazi doctrine; meanwhile, their journey is hampered by various representatives of democracy, including a seemingly twee Brit (Leslie Howard), a cynical Canadian soldier (Raymond Massey), the philosophical head of a Hutterite colony (Anton Walbrock), and a feisty French-Canadian trapper (a hammy Laurence Olivier, the weak link in an otherwise sturdy cast). Complex shadings (such as allowing one of the Nazis to emerge as a sympathetic figure) compensate for the heavy dose of expected speeches engineered to boost Allied pride. This earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Pressburger and Rodney Ackland) and won for Best Original Story (Pressburger).

Movie: ★★★

HEAVEN & EARTH (1993). Oliver Stone’s 1986 Platoon grossed $138 million stateside and earned four Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), while his 1989 Born on the Fourth of July scored $70 million and took two Oscars (including Best Director). And Heaven & Earth? It made a paltry $5 million and received zero Oscar nominations, let alone any awards. Yet while the third film in Stone’s Vietnam War trilogy is easily the weakest, it nevertheless deserved a better fate than it received. The writer-director and Vietnam War veteran here elects to relate the conflict from the vantage point of a real-life Vietnamese woman: Le Ly Hayslip, a villager forced to endure one punishing hardship after another, including (but not limited to) torture, rape, and family disownment. Will the American G.I. (Tommy Lee Jones) who appears on the scene be her white knight or will he contribute to her miseries? Stone’s touch is more heavy-handed than usual, but newcomer Hiep Thi Le is quite good as Le Ly, while The Killing Fields Oscar winner Haing S. Ngor lends enormous dignity to his role as her father.

Movie: ★★★

SSSSSSS (1973). From Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, the same producing team that made 1975’s Jaws, comes Sssssss, an earlier picture involving a toothy terror. Character actor Strother Martin (Cool Hand Luke’s utterer of “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate”) stars as Dr. Carl Stoner, a scientist obsessed with turning a man into a snake. His lab assistant David (Dirk Benedict, Battlestar Galactica’s Starbuck) is the unlucky recipient of the injections that will lead to this transformation, but complications ensue when Stoner’s daughter Kristina (Heather Menzies) falls for David. Martin offers an interesting variation on the usual mad scientist: He’s a genuinely sweet, considerate, and kind man, with his heinous blind spots due to an unhealthy dedication to science rather than any inherent evil. With rare exception, all of the snakes shown in the film are real and not created in the effects workshop, which lends an authenticity to the picture. The excellent makeup designs were created by John Chambers, best known for his work on Planet of the Apes and for being portrayed by John Goodman in the Oscar-winning Argo.

Movie: ★★★