Alex Haley’s epic television miniseries is one of the many television epics I always meant to watch over the years, but never had the chance to. Finally being given the proper window by Warner, I was not surprised that “Roots” ended up being a very good epic drama about slavery, and the struggle for freedom. “Roots” is one of those great cinematic success stories, where in 1977, network ABC in America didn’t expect the mini-series to do very well. Due to its predominantly African American cast, and very strong content, the network pretty much dumped every episode over the course of eight nights, rather than spacing it out to create an audience.
Category Archives: Collector’s Den
The Crush (1993) [Blu-Ray]
There are a lot of allusions made to Nabakov’s “Lolita” with “The Crush.” Whether intentional or not, it’s interesting how the film parallels certain themes and scenes. When Nick decides to move in to a sort of run down house as he prepares to begin a new job at a magazine, his first look at fourteen year old stunner Adrian is almost beat for beat when Professor Humbert sees young Dolores for the first time. Rather than walking in on her in her yard, she’s in short shorts, a tee, and rollerblades. When we see Adrian, she’s dressed in about the kind of seductive attire she craftily saunters around in as a mode of luring in potential mates, and Nick is hooked.
Except unlike Humbert, he gains something of an awareness of what trouble he’s walking in to, as Adrian literally begins throwing herself at him. She shows up in his room while he’s showering, and does little to deflect sexual come ons and innuendo she’s not shy about giving him. By the time Nick realizes Adrian has taken their sexually playful relationship one step too far, he becomes his own worst enemy and digs himself in to a massive hole that seems inescapable by the finale.
“The Crush” is a very good look at the destruction of a simple man thanks to the wiles of a young girl, particularly a young Alicia Silverstone. Silverstone gives a very good performance, and handles her sexuality with pitch perfect precision making it an alluring trait, and a remarkable weapon that only hampers every and any attempt Nick makes to push her out of his life for good. Though its never explored outright, Nick almost finds the come ons and aggression by Adrian charming and even erotic.
One scene involving a botched attempt to steal back picture from her room that turns in to a strip tease clearly indicates Nick isn’t completely troubled by her fixation on him. Only when people begin getting seriously injured and nearly killed by Adrian’s manipulation and smart staging of events does Nick eventually have to ensure that he ends her obsession before it becomes all too fatal. “The Crush” is a solid thriller filled with strong turns by Cary Elwes and Alicia Silverstone. It’s also one of the stronger thrillers cut out of the cloth of “Fatal Attraction.”
The Blu-Ray release from Scream Factory includes the two minute theatrical trailer for the film, and a thirty second TV spot. There’s an audio commentary with writer and director Alan Shapiro who is joined by Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson. The pair of hosts trade questions with one another, and Shapiro discusses changing Silverstone’s characters name from Darian to Adrian.
If you watch the original trailer, you can hear Elwes calls the character Darian. “The Doting Father” is a ten minute interview with legendary character actor Kurtwood Smith, who plays Adrian’s father in the film. He discusses his large career and his experience working with Silverstone. “Stung by Love – An Interview with Jennifer Rubin” is a brand new thirteen minute sit down with with actress Jennifer Rubin who discusses how she was hired for the movie, and filming the infamous wasp sequence.
Zootopia (2016) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
Disney’s newest “Zootopia” is a very heavy and complex movie that can be appreciated by a broader audience. Sure, it has a lot of ideas about heroism, courage, and features a slew of really charming cute animals, but it’s also a tale about prejudice and stereotypes. It’s an inverted exploration of biases and conclusions we draw with others that can be dissected and analyzed by virtually anyone. I don’t think “Zootopia” is about a specific issue in the modern social and political climate, but it does hold an interesting function in helping us to take a second look at racism and the ideas of stereotyping a specific sub-set of individuals and how damaging it can be to us as a society and personally.
Ginnifer Goodwin is fantastic as Judy Hopps, a rabbit who has been told all of her life that she’s incapable of being anything but a farmer. When she beats all the odds and tries for her role as a police officer, she eventually proves everyone wrong and ends up earning a job as an officer in Zootopia. Zootopia is a series of small communities and cities made up animals, most of which are prey. The predators are reserved for more side roles in the society that are influential but not totally intimidating. Judy is underestimated mainly for her size and gender, and is sadly relegated to being a Meter Maid.
After stopping a theft from a local flower shop, she begs her commander Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) for a chance, and volunteers to find a missing Otter. With only forty eight hours given by Bogo, Judy begins cracking the case and blackmails local con artist, Nick Wilde, a sly Fox who may be able to help her. With their uneasy pact, Hopps learns about a grander scheme involving other missing animals, and the unnerving idea that local predators may begin hunting prey and ruining the harmony of Zootopia. Goodwin is charming and fun as heroine Hopps, who manages to disprove a lot of assumptions about her from her department and fox Nick Wilde, who sees her as literally nothing more than a dumb bunny who’s bitten off more than she can chew.
With courage and old fashioned determination, Hoops paves her way in to the annals of Disney heroines with ease. The voice work is fantastic with folks like Idris Elba and JK Simmons lending their voice talents, while Jason Bateman is a wonderful foil to Hopps. With his calm and smug deliver, Bateman turns Wilde in to a complex anti-hero, who garners his own ideas about stereotypes and the often inescapable pigeonholes society can put us in to. Wile just accepts his fate as a lower class predator, while Hopps is eager to prove she’s so much more than prey destined to reproduce and farm. Like the former Disney smash “Frozen,” the writers take its audience seriously and offer complex and very adult overtones that will allow them to give second and third thoughts about what “Zootopia” is trying to convey.
Along the way there are some genuinely funny moments, including the visit to the DMV run by Sloths, the fun jabs at previous Disney films, and shockingly compelling dynamic between Nick and Judy. “Zootopia” is another stellar Disney film that begs for a second look thanks to its evocative overtones and commentary.
The Disney release of “Zootopia” comes with a DVD and Digital Copy alongside the Blu-Ray. Among the features, there’s “Research: A True-Life Adventure,” a ten minute look at how the filmmakers dropped themselves in to the animal kingdom to research wildlife and bring them to life for the film. “The Origin of an Animal Tale” is a nine minute look at filmmakers discussing ideas for the movie during development, along with inspirations, themes, and whatnot.
“Zoology: The Roundtable” is a three part feature clocking in at almost a half hour, covering various facets of the film. There’s “Characters” about the film’s primary characters, “Environments” about the bigger and more minute details that comprise the film, and “Animation” revolving around the film’s fantastic animated sequences. “Scoretopia” is a look at the film’s fun score, “Z.P.D. Forensic Files” is a three minute look a the Disney East Eggs throughout the movie. There’s a music video by Shakira, a look at the characters removed from the final film, and a slew of deleted scenes and an alternate opening with an optional commentary by Byron Howard and Rich Moore.
Jeepers Creepers 2: Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray] (2003)
With the follow up to the criminally overlooked “Jeepers Creepers,” director Victor Salva completely loses all sight of the potential for his first film and embraces the B movie roots of the Creeper. That’s not to say that’s a bad thing, but “Jeepers Creepers 2” ends up being a brutally silly movie that offers a solid diversion, even in spite of its massive flaws and lapses in logic. To add to the unusual experience, the follow up to the original is filled with so much homoeroticism and subtle sexual overtones, you’ll feel just as uncomfortable as the characters do while they’re being stalked by the Creeper.
Jeepers Creepers: Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray] (2001)
Victor Salva’s “Jeepers Creepers” is a pretty excellent and haunting horror gem in the early aughts when horror was pretty stagnant for a while. A mix of Duel and a genuine monster movie, director Salva presents a well paced and very scary film that only accentuates how terrifying films on the wide open road can be with the proper premise. Justin Long and Gina Phillips is top notch, keeping the film afloat with their memorable chemistry and fantastic interplay. They play siblings Trish and Darry, two college students tasked with delivering a car to their cousin across the country. Along the way as they bicker and deal with boredom, they’re confronted with a menacing truck that nearly runs them off the road.
While mistakenly crossing its path, they find the truck and its menacing driver seemingly sliding corpses down a storm drain. Deciding to investigate it, the pair arouses the anger and obsession of the truck’s driver, who slowly reveals himself to be anything but a simple psychopath. Quite obviously working on a limited budget, director Salva keeps a lot of the elements of the villain ambiguous and left wildly up to speculation by the viewer. Rather than piling on a lot of knowledge, our characters literally drop right in to the lair of our villain and slowly realize the severity of their discovery and how it will greatly affect their lives if they don’t get off the road and back to civilization.
The terror is amped up minute by minute, as both protagonists slowly run out of options in their efforts to get home, and try to outwit the monstrous driver who reveals himself to be much more clever and vicious than they ever imagined. Long is especially very good as his sanity slowly dwindles the deeper in to this nightmare he and his sister drop. Phillips plays well alongside Long, keeping up with his strong turn as a very strong heroine. A lot of “Jeepers Creepers” is beautifully paced and well edited, allowing for a ton of simple but brutally creepy moments. Some of the best scenes involve an attack on two beat cops in the background as our characters drive ahead of them, and the final reveal of our villain which is both jarring and shocking.
What would have been a simple “Duel” knock off spirals out of control in to a bonafide tense monster movie that keeps its pace pretty brisk and introduces us to a twisted new horror fiend with survival instincts that make it relentless, vicious and remorseless. What’s more is that many elements are introduced that are very supernatural and out of the ordinary with ideas about premonitions and fate that either favor this being’s hunt for prey, or ultimately work against it. “Jeepers Creepers” is a fine horror yarn, and one that goes criminally under appreciated mainly for Salva’s very public sordid criminal past, and the sub-par sequel.
Disc One from Scream Factory includes an audio commentary with director Victor Salva, whose work on this feature is informative, if kind of tedious. The second commentary features Salva with cast members Justin Long and Gina Phillips. It’s a fun little reunion, as the trio seems very casual and friendly toward one another. On Disc Two, there’s the thirty seven minute “Jeepers Creepers: Then And Now” a collection of interviews with the cast and crew. “From Critters To Creepers” is a twenty minute interview with producer Barry Opper, who discusses in length his career, working with legends of horror, and his involvement with the film.
“The Town Psychic” is a seventeen minute interview with Patricia Belcher who plays the town psychic introduced in the second half. “Behind the Peepers” is an hour long HD transfer of the original Standard Definition documentary. It’s a six part making of for “Jeepers Creepers,” with cast and crew interviews, video clips, production stills, the creature designs, and so much more. There’s a seventeen minute “Deleted Scenes” reel containing extended scenes and alternate openings and ending. There’s also the original trailer, a radio spot, and a trailer gallery with production stills, on set photos, and concept designs for the creature.
X-Rated Alley: 42nd Street Forever The Peepshow Collection Vol. 15 & 16
For folks that have been following “The Peep Show Collection” for the last few years, Impulse Pictures is back with two new volumes of loops on DVD. Porn and erotica aficionados will enjoy what Impulse has to offer followers of the vintage material, as it’s all still rough and poorly directed, but has a charm to it that’s hard to ignore. Impulse isn’t just about adult film, they also offer up hard to find material and these two volumes continue he tradition of “42nd Street Forever.”
Bad, Bad, Gang! (1972) (DVD)
Back then hippies must have seemed like dirty go nowhere weirdos prone to smoking pot and having a lot of wild sex; because, well, they kind of were. But they were also prone to being the predators and sometimes prey for much of the seventies and early eighties horror and exploitation cinema. “Bad, Bad, Gang!” is a pretty solid porn film right out of the summer of love where bikers and goofy hippies clash to engage in a free for all of sex and rape.