An Afro with Power !

Our next set of reviews begins with a stellar treat from MVD Visual.

What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party Library is perhaps the first real effort to bring archival documents, oral histories, and vintage films from the politically-charged group to the home video market, and while the recent interviews are very much of archival quality, the whole 4-disc package is a treasure trove of info that should present a far clearer picture of who the Black Panthers were and are today.

The hair is huge, the argot is vintage, and the politics are way up front, and those curious about the BPP will find the set from AK Press and the Roz Payne Archives to be a real treat. Yup, it runs 10+ hours, but where else can one find contemporary interviews with Bobby Seale, Kathleen Cleaver, and Donald Cox, plus some of the FBI agents involved in COINTELPRO?

From Maple, there’s the latest Lions Gate effort to further the Saw franchise. The third film amps up the torture porn factor, and should please fans who felt the rated theatrical version skimped on fetid pig viscera and super-chilled skin. A little longer and nastier, the DVD’s uncut version comes with dual commentary tracks, and detailed making-of featurettes.

Saw III is also the first in our new capsule review format, which focuses on the actual film instead of the extras. Just look for the shiny happy red and yellow pill icon.

Also new to the site are occasional film reviews (denoted by a little film strip icon), which enables us to integrate supplemental film reviews covered for related DVD & CD reviews, interviews, or profiles. At the time of writing, these titles were not yet available on DVD, and we’ve had to use ye olde VHS, Betamax (oh, stop laughing), laserdisc, and broadcast airings as review sources. The first titles to be integrated into our standard A-Z DVD review index are the propaganda films Wunschkonzert (1940), and Wort und Tat / Word and Deed (1938).

Also from Maple is Crank, which proved there are people with talent who can create a visually bonkers nouveau noir entry without being pretentious. Crank is a brilliantly nuts cartoon that unabashedly indulges in violence, sexism, and music by Twisted Sister and Billy Ray Cyrus in a wholly appropriate manor.

Really.

Film fans will probably recall the 1950 version of D.O.A. that nicely milked the concept of a poisoned man running through a city in search of his killer while his biological clock runs at hyper-speed, but another variation from the boob tube comes to mind: Strange World.

This 1999 show offered a really neat spin, and was co-created by Tim Kring, the genius behind one of the best shows on network TV right now: Heroes. Kring and co-creator Howard Gordon (co-executive producer of TV’s 24) tweaked the concept so that Our Hero, played by Tim Guinee, was always near death’s door until a stranger left a vile of medicine to keep him alive a little bit longer. Each act of servitude was rewarded by a dose of life. Guinee’s hot girlfriend was trying to find the medicine’s makeup when the show was turffed by the ABC network.

These plot basics are all from memory, as the show was given a good dose of advance promotion before it died after 3 episodes. Apparently a version of the show was resuscitated in 2002 for the Sci-Fi Channel for about a year, but it’s another example of a clever series stomped out before it had a chance to grow. Maybe with Kring’s Heroes passing the sleeper hit series mark, Strange World might get a new life on DVD.

Of course, I could go on with other favourite dead series deserving their own DVD set – the limited show Maximum Bob that vastly improved upon Elmore Leonard’s large print novel, the wry and dry Orleans, John Herzfeld’s The Fifth Corner, UPN’s seminal episodic series Live Shot, the cult favourite Max Headroom (which did get a laserdisc release in Japan, with isolated music & effects tracks) – but then we’d be getting into a rant.

Anyhoo, with a month of titles packed under the desk, check in regularly for more reviews, and several new interviews (and while I’m still a few feet away from a rant, you can check the aforementioned network casualties at www.epguides.com, and note how some even had unaired episodes. Ha-rumpf).

- MRH



Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

NOT A TRUE BAGEL

If you haven’t had a cold or flu in a long, long time, it’s easy to fall prey to the vain assumption that a special invisible shield is protecting your vessel, and no virus can possibly infiltrate your well-run system.

Well, the same holds true when a few years go by, and one’s anti-virus software and firewall have either kept marauding demons away, or caught infiltrators before they could enact any serious system damage.

First rule: never become heady, complacent, or self-assure.

Second rule: back up files on an independent format regularly

Third rule: do NOT click on the smiley face .exe file TWICE, and become a class A dope.

We’re now starting to upload the bulk of articles that have been idling on the hard drive for almost a month because four ugly Trojans – the evil Bagel branch – devastated the main computer that held, well, everything.

The first pair of reviews are up – Wendy O Williams and the Plasmatics, and The Wreck of the Mary Deare – and each day we’re gonna plop another handful until we’re up to speed again, along with three interviews that were held hostage by the Bagel quartet.

For the benefit of those curious or perhaps suffering from the same evil, here are some pointers:

1) if a software patch or plug-in is available gratis from the author or manufacturer’s site, don’t get it elsewhere, particularly if the file size is bigger than what’s available from its actual creator. Bigger means a potentially malevolent strain of cyber-DNA that waiting to hurt your computer

2) if you suddenly discover your antivirus software won’t load or displays an error message, you may have the sneakiest version of Bagel. Here’s what this non-poppy seed Bagel does:

- it knocks out your resident antivirus software
- it prevents the re-installation of the software and installation of any new software by corrupting the installation process as it nears completion
- it places an entry in your boot.ini file preventing you from rebooting in Windows Safe Mode
- it hijacks the browser by immediately loading it after a reboot, and forces it to go to a diverse array of junk sites mostly in Germany and the Czech Republic

In terms of your data, it seems to attack just the system files, and not your personal data (which you can still save before you decide to reinstall the whole operating system (as we did, over an entire week, due to software and antivirus re-runs for added safety and redundancy) or begin a Google search.

Type in the symptoms your system is experiencing, any error messages when the antivirus software fails, or the names of those sites you’re being hijacked to, and some primary tips should pop up from various sources.

We found info at the following links

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/virus.aspx?id=56690

http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/read.php?4,27725,backpage=

http://www.kirupa.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-215572.html


but there’s a major caveat we gotta impart: some help posts will name other antivirus software that might fix your problem, and you’ll note you’ve never heard of them before. Some offer free scaled-down versions and might find one facet of the infected files or infiltrators, but the results may not help. Some of these companies you may not recognize, and your radar should go up if you notice they don’t offer precise steps to fix a problem, or offer to scan but don’t really describe what you have. In the latter case, they take the hopeful one (you) through various hoops and laborious scans that will either find a problem but not offer the ability to address it, or they will end the scan on a subscription page for further assistance. Worse, some may force a Yahoo toolbar into your browser, as some online scanners mandate the use of ActiveX. HomeSite’s online scanner is safe, but others tend to take advantage of those with infected machines.

Lastly, the main problem often lies in the registry, and while even a handful of programs might find one or two traces of the virus, the registry entries will ensure it will re-propagate after a reboot, so any changes to the registry should be made with great care.

And lastly, if you have XP, do not manually force the computer to reboot in Safe Mode, because the virus prevents it from following through the boot stages and running in Safe Mode. All that happens is your computer gets stuck in a perpetual reboot, and you can’t return to your desktop. Without Administrative privileges or the exact password, you’re screwed. If you attempt an XP reinstall or repair, it has a good chance of failing because that manual by-pass still stands, and the reinstall can’t complete because the system is still being forced to boot in Safe Mode courtesy of your manual fiddling; XP can’t install or re-install in Safe Mode, so, well, you’re screwed.

If you use XP, and your hard drive was formatted in NTFS, Windows 98 (either FAT16 or FAT32) will NOT see that drive, so you can only retrieve data using a system with NTFS. Our decision was to buy another hard drive and reinstall everything, as our decision to force a Safe Mode reboot made it impossible to access the damaged operating system.

We hope the above info will help others who have succumbed to the ills of the smiley face Bagel, and wish them luck, because boy, you’re gonna need it!

Coming next: A 4-disc doc on the Black Panthers, Crank, Saw III, and more!


Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Bava-Bava-Bava!

That's the alliteration for when another zoom-happy shot in a Mario Bava film (okay, in his later films) stop the narrative dead so we can revel in the excess of a zoom lens cranked back-and-forth, and so the cult director can tell us the lava is hot-Hot-HOT! or the evil Baron is bad-Bad-BAD!

Unlike the visual touches in Bava's films, the music scores tend to reflect a peculiar mélange of horror, black humour, and cheeky melodrama that often make it clear Bava knew his work was supposed to be fun and shocking, and that we should celebrate some of the ridiculous horror conventions.

A genre pioneer, a clever and instinctive editor (just watch the breakneck pacing of Caltiki), and master cameraman, even a lesser film like Five Dolls for an August Moon is worth a peek because there's always a moment that's clever, and transcends the ridiculousness for a short few beats.

The sound of Bava's world was conveyed by a large body of composers, many some of the finest Italian underdogs who never reached international acclaim, but whose musical contributions couldn't be separated from their films. Some ideas might not have worked too well, but their scores are great little horror gems that deserve a release for connoisseurs of horror film music.

To close out 2006, we've assembled an eclectic mix of titles, with Bava as the sonic headliner. In the revamped soundtrack section, we've added reviews for DigitMovies' must-have volumes in their Mario Bava Soundtrack Anthology: Volume 1 (La Mashera del demonio / Black Sunday + La ragazza che sapeva tropp / The Evil Eye), Volume 2 (La Frusta Ell Corpo / Whip and the Body + Sei Donne per l'assassino / Blood and Black Lace), Volume 3 (Ecologia del Delitto / Bay of Blood + Gli orrori del castello di norimberga / Baron Blood + Cani arrabbiati / Rabid Dogs), and Volume 4 (I Vampiri + Caltiki + Lisa e il Diavolo / Lisa and the Devil "To Mirna" theme).

To enhance these titles, we've also added DVD reviews of The Girl Who Knew Too Much, and I Vampiri to our archives, with more Bava titles to follow.

Additionally, to contrast my recent MFTM column regarding Stelvio Cipriani films on DVD, a review of Gianni Ferrio's score for Luciano Ercoli's nutty Death Walks at Midnight / La Morte accarezza a mezzanotte (1972) has also been added. Ferrio's music, released by Easy Tempo/Right Tempo on CD and LP, matches Ercoli's crazy giallo to a T, and the composer's work has slowly crept into the soundtrack market, albeit a bit too quietly. Ferrio's Midnight theme shares some striking similarities with the Quincy Jones-Alan & Marilyn Bergman song "Maybe Tomorrow," written for the 1969 Peter Yates drama, so we've added a review of the original LP to our archives.

We've also added a CD review for David Julyan's chilling score for The Descent (released by Cooking Vinyl) to compliment our DVD review of Maple's special edition DVD, which features all of the goodies from the 2-disc UK release of Neil Marshall's terrifying cave-CHUD film from 2005.

Also newly uploaded are reviews for the funny buddy cop riff Bon Cop, Bad Cop, which Alliance-Atlantic released on DVD in a 'bilingual version'. (The soundtrack has the actors exchanging surreal theories, semantics, and insults in chunks of English and Quebecois argot, which elevated Eric Canuel's actioner from mundane to pretty fun.)

Hopefully the success of Bon Cop, Bad Cop will convince distributors to make French-language films more widely available in Canada, since the country's peppered with film fans, Anglophone and bilinguals, who get pretty annoyed when a title that's generated some buzz beyond la belle province is ignored. The search for a French language flick becomes equally frustrating when it's available online in the U.S., and local merchants haven't a clue as to who carries it in Canada. (Oh, it happens.)

Sometimes, however, it's Alliance-Atlantis, Christal, or Maple that carry some of the high-profile titles, and Maple's recent disc of Luc Jacquet's dual penguin docs in Once Upon a Time in Antarctica pairs two titles even the IMDB hasn't yet listed.

Jacquet, whose March of the Penguins became a hit doc in 2005 (and ignited a wave of penguin-themed flicks), also directed a series of shorter docs set in the planet's freezer, and Maple's DVD contains Rush Hour in Antarctica/ Antarctic Printemps Express, and Topsy-Turvy Penguin, both of which we've covered.

Also in tune for the Christmas holiday season is the Raymond Briggs classic, The Snowman, which Sony fleetingly released as a standalone DVD. Featuring a depressingly beautiful score by Howard Blake, it'll either move or annoy viewers with its charm and cutesiness, and the gorgeous animation that earned it an Oscar Nomination in 1982.

Coming shortly: Part 2 of our detailed profile of filmmakers Carl Schmitt & Mark Cairns, and their doc Das Leben geht weiter/Life Goes On !


Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews, Soundtrack Reviews

Das Leben geht weiter / Life Goes On

A few months ago, we reviewed Kolberg (1945), the last completed film that made it to the theatres during the final months of the Third Reich. Linked to that production was Das Leben geht weiter/Life Goes On (1945), another epic that would have been the first attempt by the Ministry of Propaganda to actually show the country suffering from Allied bombing, and surviving long enough to see victory - which of course, didn't really happen.

Leben was never completed, and the film has become a kind of Magnificent Ambersons for some German film historians, except it's every frame instead of a series of missing reels that's at the top of their list, because the footage disappeared during the post-war chaos.

Curious? Intrigued? Of course you are! The best thing to do is read our review of the German DVD of Carl Schmitt and Mark Cairns' Emmy Award-winning documentary (filmed in German, but accompanied by optional English subtitles), and then check out the first part of our really long & detailed interview with the filmmakers. It's a great mystery, and our discussion covers several aspects of propaganda filmmaking during WWII.

Part 2 will debut Jan. 1st, and will be larded with several mini-reviews of iconic propaganda flicks that appear in the 2002 documentary. The Leben DVD also includes some intriguing interviews with Wilfried von Oven, former Personal Assistant to Dr. Goebbels, and one of the last Q&A's with Dr. Fritz Hippler (yes, him), who discusses the ins and outs of working at the Ministry of Propaganda, and some of Goebbels' favourite films. As an added bonus, we've included a sidebar review of Hippler's first film, Wort und Tat / Word and Deed (1938), a newsreel/documentary that wields its message of national progress with an indelicate sledgehammer.

Also newly uploaded is Dante Tomaselli's latest horror film, Satan's Playground, which integrates the legend of the Jersey Devil into a linear tale of bickering folks trapped on an isolated forest road, and a creepy old lady who lures them into her home of death. Tomaselli's prior works include Desecration, and Horror - the latter released by Elite Entertainment, which we also reviewed.

Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

The New Rock Docs

Back in the fifties, indie studios and film producers realized that dropping a hot rock n' roll act into a wafer-thin, romantic teen narrative was a great means of creating a concept film for the youth market, and in the sixties, studio AIP picked up the baton and featured guest appearances by names such as 'Little' Stevie Wonder in their Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon Beach franchise, but it took filmmakers like D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysles brothers to show us that rock bands, as feature-length subjects, could drive a film's dramatic line instead of being reduced to peppy filler material in low-concept teen vehicles.

From concert documentaries like Don't Look Back and Gimme Shelter, it became clear - even to the Rolling Stones, who often funded their own productions - that the lifestyle and personalities of a band offered another kind of compelling drama that could be more interesting than the concert itself.

Eighties band Mission of Burma folded after four years on the road, and just footsteps from what critics and fans contend would've been a great, creative wave; the Pixies closed shop after bickering and frustrations drained the fun and pleasure from performing and writing as a group.

In both cases, band members didn't end up as clichés, and when they reunited, the cameras were there to capture a wholly different view of iconic musicians living under, or far away from, the shadows of their intense music careers.

There's something heartwarming about aging rockers who've matured into great musicians, and because of the demands of a family life and secondary careers, treat their musical performances with a level of sobriety and discipline younger bands are likely to eschew. Not a Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story, and loudQUIETloud - a film about the Pixies, are significant documents from MVD Visual that show music icons as accessible personalities experiencing the same challenges and roadblocks of downsized professionals; it's not the careers and music that's up-front, but the private lives, except without the usual sensationalism and sleaze.

Also reviewed this week is the film debut of WWF headliner Kane (Glen Jacobs) in the youth slasher flick See No Evil (2006), released by Maple in Canada, and Lions Gate in the U.S., and featuring a hook, a chain, and very wet gore.

Also of note is DigitMovies' CD of Ennio Morricone's complete score for Addio fratello crudele / Tis a Pity She's a Whore (1971). Based on a play by Shakespeare's contemporary, John Ford, the film (still unavailable on DVD) is much more than a sleazy tale of incest during the Middle Ages (although Charlotte Rampling and her hunky lovers do get very nekkid). Photographed by Vittorio Storaro, and featuring art direction that must have inspired Julie Taymor's stylistic design of Titus, Addio features an extraordinary, beautiful score by Morricone, written during one of the composer's busiest periods.

Stay tuned for more goodies!


Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews, Mission of Burma, The Pixies, Kane, Soundtrack Reviews, Ennio Morricone