For the week of May 6th, Warner Home Entertainment is bringing the Veronica Mars movie to Blu-ray. The Kickstarter-funded revival of the much loved teen-detective procedural, this full-length Veronica Mars feature is a curious beast. On one hand, it's a very ungainly standalone adventure. Though it has a hardy setup – on the cusp of receiving a job from a prestigious NYC law firm, former teenage PI Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) finds herself drawn back into her seedy Neptune, CA, hometown when her ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring, doing that Edward Norton-lite thing he does so well) is accused of murder – the movie makes almost no attempts to ingratiate itself with Veronica Mars newbies. Once Veronica returns home, the fan service begins, and the onslaught of in-jokes and character-relationship references and assumed backstory is dizzying for anyone who isn't a super-fan of the cult TV show; a notable offender is the film's big high-school reunion sequence, which is borderline incomprehensible in its beyond-fleet asides to other characters in the Veronica Mars universe. Furthermore, the film's undercooked central mystery doesn't help matters, particularly given its reliance on previous genre favorites (the big climax rips off a key scene in Blood Simple) and clichéd twists (Roger Ebert's sturdy Law of Economy of Characters is in full force here).
On the other hand, fellow marshmellows (look it up) aren't likely to care about Veronica Mars' shortcomings as a movie because it makes getting reacquainted with this world such a pleasure. Director Rob Thomas (who created the series and co-wrote the script with former Veronica Mars staff-writer Diane Ruggiero) hasn't lost a step capturing his characters' voices in the seven years since the show's premature cancellation – more than even Joss Whedon's spirited Firefly continuation Serenity, the new Veronica Mars does a pitch-perfect job of recreating the original series' sense of place and wit. Veronica's developing relationships with her father (Enrico Colantoni) and Logan feel incredibly natural, and it's great to see people like Mac (Tina Majorino), Wallace (Percy Daggs III), and Weevil (Francis Capra), even if they don't get all that much to do. Better still are the implications that this Veronica Mars leaves for the future: while the main plotline is a dramatic bust, a subplot involving mass police and political corruption in Neptune has loads of potential to be developed in another movie...or in a second iteration of the TV show. Maybe that's the approach that fans should take, that this is a flawed but fun pilot episode for a new Veronica Mars series. One can dream.
In his Blu-ray review, Kenneth Brown wrote that "Thomas' film sometimes flirts with made-for-TV chintziness, the supporting cast is hit or miss, and the script and story are more television extension than big screen transcendence (a la Serenity, a masterclass in expanding a cult-favorite television show into a feature film easily enjoyed by newcomers and lifers alike). There are a few too many plot holes as well, with Veronica's penchant for lucky breaks testing the limits of plausibility. Worse - mild spoilers ahead - a particular surge of libido deep in the second act inadvertently casts Veronica in an impulsive, selfish light as a not-so-mature woman of almost thirty who gives up a good thing to chase her bad-boy boy-toy. There's a reason most screenwriters go out of their way to make a heroine's temp boyfriend a bit of a jerk. Audiences will excuse just about any behavior if a character parts ways from an emotionally inert significant other... unless she neglects, ditches then completely abandons an intensely sweet guy for a temperamental lover. Thomas goes against convention, of course; presumably at the demand of the show's fanbase. But it's to his muse's detriment. Most of you will cheer Veronica's choice of risk-laced true love over stability and good sense. Rah rah rah! Goooo destiny! The Mars reunion's central reunion is, after all, what so many of you have been waiting for (My wife included. Not sure how far to look into that one). I was less thrilled. All I could think was, 'poor Piz.' But I guess dreamy and hunky only come along once in a future divorcee's life. Better to embrace it while there's still time to eventually apologize and win back the sweet guy you once so casually scorned. Right, Veronica? Right? But we proverbial beggars can't be choosers. I'd rather live in a world with a less-than-perfect, crowd-funded Veronica Mars movie than no Veronica Mars at all. If nothing else, the film brings the life and times of its titular detective to a more satisfying close than the series' third season, indulges in enough fan service to give fans the fix they've been waiting for, leaves room for a sequel (or even a sequel series or spin-off), and delivers a steady stream of nostalgia with intravenous precision. What more could a Veronica Mars devotee want? Other than more, more, more of everything that makes the movie work? Maybe a more accessible introduction to the character and her world for those who haven't sampled the series... but let's just stick with more, more, more for now."
Paramount and Dreamworks are finally giving HD upgrades to two Steven Spielberg pictures, Amistad and The Terminal. In terms of their respective placements in the director's canon, both films are admittedly lesser Spielberg, though neither is without merit. Of the two, Amistad is the stronger feature, a retelling of the brutal 1839 slave uprising on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad. Whenever Spielberg concentrates on the actual uprising – which remains one of the grisliest things Spielberg has ever filmed – or the horrific conditions that motivated such violent actions, Amistad is as uncompromisingly powerful as anything in Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan. The scope of the injustices on-screen remains larger than even Steve McQueen's Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave. However, Spielberg's handling of the ensuing trial to decide the fate of the slaves proves more problematic. He indulges in some of his most sentimental instincts, like presenting Djimon Hounsou's charismatic slave leader Cinqué as a beatific, dewy-eyed saint and Anthony Hopkins's John Quincy Adams as a crazy-like-a-fox litigator while giving the meatiest character arc to Matthew McConaughey's callow young attorney, a decision that turns Amistad into something like the 1800s edition of A Time to Kill. None of this material is bad – the biggest problem with Amistad is that it is good but not great – but it does feel less compelling that the harrowing slave narrative.
Of Amistad, Martin Liebman wrote that the film "develops around a rather standard Courtroom Drama structure that's defined not simply by a drive to prove guilt or innocence but to decide the fate of individuals enslaved for profit and claimed as cargo or goods under a number of maritime acts, international treaty, and longstanding practice. The film refuses to draw its strength from sentimentality, however, and constructs its narrative, on one hand, in a straightforward pursuit of justice seen through the eyes of men brought together by a shared desire not for glory in the spotlight of a very public proceeding and to rub elbows with revered elite but instead to fight for that in which they deeply believe, even as it runs contrary to both laws and perceptions pertaining to the institution of slavery. On the other hand, the story takes on the added weight of not simply right and wrong and justice and injustice but tackles the very real ramifications of the final decision, examining everything from severed international ties to the threat of civil war. The film's rather detailed study of the complications beyond the moral questions that drive the narrative are necessary and commendable, and the attention paid to them helps to broaden the perspective and drive home the point that even where no, or little, moral ambiguity exists, there remains a much more complex haze of past, present, and future considerations at play that do not outweigh the highest moral authority but that do rightly or wrongly drag it down into a murky purgatory of sorts constructed of man's innate follies and frequent inability to escape them."
The Terminal, on the other hand, has the reverse problem: this Frank Capra-esque fable about what happens when European immigrant Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) gets stranded at JFK airport is one of the slightest and most inconsequential films of Spielberg's career. Catch Me If You Can aside, light comedy isn't really his forte (as the Indiana Jones movies have demonstrated time and time again, Spielberg is a slapstick man through and through), and there's a big disconnect between between the goofy antics of his supporting cast (which includes Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Barry Shabaka Henley, Kumar Pallana, and a pre-Star Trek Zoë Saldana) and the mammoth, Play Time-inspired design of the central airport set. Furthermoe, Spielberg isn't helped by a subplot where Hanks' character ends up smitten with Catherine Zeta-Jones' unhappy flight attendant; as talented as Hanks and Zeta-Jones are, they lack any kind of romantic chemistry. What The Terminal has going for it, though, is Hanks, who gives the project the same commitment as his great Cast Away and Captain Phillips turns. He gets what the tone of the movie should be – Hanks is certainly comfortable going broad, but he also gives Viktor all sorts of wonderful grace notes, particularly in the opening half-hour where Viktor has to shrewdly negotiate around his unfamiliarity with the English language. It's a great performance in an okay film. Now, let's get 1941 and Munich on Blu-ray!
Liebman's Blu-ray review of The Terminal was far more complimentary, noting that "The Terminal may very well be the hidden gem in Steven Spielberg's canon, a film that doesn't enjoy quite the notoriety of his others, that didn't win many awards or earn many nominations, and that doesn't spring immediately to mind like Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, or Jurassic Park. Yet it is, arguably, the most quintessential feel-good film he's made, an experience quite unlike anything else, an externally simple but inwardly robust jaunt through the life of a man whose sidetracked existence becomes a winding road towards greater self-understanding, self-control, friendship, and destiny. the film captures not just that unmissable Spielberg magic but that unmistakable cinema magic. It's a true work of art, depicting the human spirit embodied in a tale of isolation juxtaposed against crowded chaos through which the character discovers or reaffirms the values of genuine integrity, friendship, and love. Through these things, the film further examines the modern world of complex globalism, politics, rules and regulations, and the skills necessary to both survive and even thrive as a small piece in a much larger and inescapable, but not completely immutable, world."
Tom Hanks also galvanizes the 1984 cult comedy Bachelor Party, one of two raunchy 1980s farces that Twentieth Century Fox is bringing to Blu-ray this week. These days, it'd be inconceivable that Hanks would appear in this kind of movie, which centers on the increasingly wild bachelor party of Hanks' affable soon-to-be married man; the film is loaded with nudity and anti-P.C. behavior, and even features the kind of stock '80s villain (Robert Prescott, who was also the bad guy in 1985's great Real Genius and is probably tied with William Zabka for Most Iconic 1980s Douchebag) that tended to distinguish the most disreputable examples of this genre. That said, Bachelor Party is actually far more charming than it should be. Director Neal Israel worked on Real Genius and Police Academy, and he keeps things moving so fast that the proceedings feel light rather than prurient (compared to the seedy Porky's, Bachelor Party is practically Citizen Kane). And Hanks, to his credit, never tries to distance himself from the material. This is the kind of wild-and-crazy-guy part that might normally go to Bill Murray or Steve Martin, but Hanks proves just as charmingly infectious as overseer of the madness – we'd get just one more of this sort of performance from him in 1987's underrated Dragnet, and then he'd transition into the Great American Statesman of the screen.
Casting works a similar magic in the other ribald Fox comedy getting a Blu-ray release this week. Revenge of the Nerds doesn't have the same manic pacing as Bachelor Party, and as such, it does threaten to become a wallow in bad behavior. The nudity is gratuitous, the stereotypes are offensive (case in point: Brian Tochi's Toshiro and Larry B. Scott's Lamar Latrelle), and the sexual politics are...well, the less said about head nerd Lewis' seduction of cheerleader Betty Childs, the better. But the cast makes most of the unsavory stuff a little more bearable. Part of the fun is playing spot-the-celebrity: Revenge of the Nerds has early work from the likes of Timothy Busfield, James Cromwell, and John Goodman. More importantly, leads Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards are genuinely winning as the head nerds. Carradine's laugh and demeanor are already legendary among fans of the film, and Edwards brings genuine pathos to his part – his Gilbert just wants to be accepted, and all the shenanigans that he helps to perpetuate spring from that desire.
Finally, Criterion is bringing Ace in the Hole to HD. This 1951 satire is the unsung gem in filmmaker Billy Wilder's body of work. One of the biggest flops of Wilder's career – the American viewing public rejected it at the time of its release – contemporary audiences have rediscovered and embraced Ace in the Hole as a frighteningly prescient look at the news media's ills, here personified by Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas, in his best performance), an opportunistic journalist who parlays a local man's confinement at the bottom of a collapsed cave into a 24/7 media circus. People from around the country flock to get a first-row seat to the developing story; the man's unfaithful wife (Jan Sterling) uses her husband's situation as a springboard to fame and fortune; and as Tatum increases his own national exposure, he becomes increasingly set on prolonging the tragedy by any means necessary. On one hand, it's hard to fathom why Ace in the Hole flopped as badly as it did. This is one of Wilder's best pictures, the equal of Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, or The Apartment. Then again, maybe audiences weren't ready for something that hit so close to home. Like Martin Scorsese did with his brilliant Wolf of Wall Street, Wilder doesn't just want to crucify his self-serving, fame-hungry protagonist – he's just as pissed at us for encouraging the worst instincts of the news cycle. Then again, maybe it's for the best that Ace in the Hole plays so rough. It never goes soft, never cops out, and never lets anyone off the hook, least of all the viewer.
Svet Atanasov's Blu-ray review commented that the film "is a visionary noir film that predicted the arrival of the American media circus with such precision that it is hard to believe that it was made some sixty-three years ago. It is an unusually cynical, at times quite disturbing film, but also a damn honest one. Douglas' character is a vicious, amoral alcoholic who would do anything to crawl back out of the pit he has fallen into. He gets the chance he has been waiting for and goes to work - first he chooses his targets, then he makes them believe that they need him to accomplish their goals. By the time they realize that they have been used to further his agenda it is already too late; they are so compromised that the only way to retain some of their dignity is to manipulate everyone else around them as badly as they were. The whole thing is downright repulsive - or maybe not. So long as one does the manipulating and is handsomely rewarded for one's work, the circus could be great to have. Wilder understood its 'benefits' and then realized how difficult it would be for America to ignore them. There was a winning formula and everyone would get a chance to be a winner. How could America not embrace it? Wilder and co-writers Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels' script is superb. The dialog is swift and razor-sharp, hitting all sorts of different targets with a style to die for. Instead of being nominated for an Oscar, the trio should have won one."