Click to purchase

Tuesday, October 5 is overflowing with horror, fantasy, and science fiction titles of all shapes and sizes arriving on home video in various formats: DVD, Blu-ray, and iTunes downloads. The best of the new releases is SPLICE, which arrives in two versions, DVD and Blu-ray. When it hit theatres earlier this year, Vincenzo Natali’s sci-fi horror opus was a bit misrepresented by its advertising campaign, which suggested a SPECIES-type monster movie. Instead, audiences got a thoughtful science fiction film with an overlay of dark satire.

Also out this week is A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, the unnecessary (and unnecessarily dull) remake of writer-director Wes Craven’s 1984 classic. The new version is slickly made but typically soulless. Somewhat less typically, it is also almost entirely devoid of shocks and suspense. Give this one a pass.

click to purchase

This is one of those rare weeks when classic titles are overwhelming new releases, thanks to some deluxe editions that surpass and eclipse previous home video versions. Horror fans disappointed by the ELM STREET remake can take solace in Warner Brothers Home Video release a two-disc Blu-ray of THE EXORCIST (1973), which includes the original theatrical cut and the so-called “Extended Director’s Cut,” plus three new documentaries. The film is also being made available for download via iTunes for the first time. The extended cut is just a new name for the 2000 theatrical re-issue of the film, which at the time was dubbed “The Version You ‘ve Never Seen” – a sobriquet that hardly makes sense ten years later. Even if (like me) you have previously purchased both versions of the film on DVD (including the excellent 25th anniversary edition), you will find much worth viewing on this disc, thanks to previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage that provides an amazing glimpse at the making of this horror classic.

Click to purchase

If your tastes run more toward fairy tale fantasy, you are in luck: Walt Disney Home Video is releasing a 3-disc Diamond Edition of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, their 1991 Oscar-nominated blockbuster, which has been unavailable in any form since 2003. (This combo pack will be followed seven weeks later by a 2-Disc standard definition DVD on November 23.) The 3-disc set includes one DVD and two Blu-rays. The DVD features an all-new digital restoration, three versions of the film, sing-along mode (with subtitles for the lyrics), and an audio commentary. The first Blu-ray disc includes the DVD bonus features and the three versions of the film (in high-def, of course), plus more extras, including previously unseen alternate opening and a deleted scene. The second Blu-ray disc offers the bonus features from the old Platinum Edition DVD, plus some new Blu-ray extras, including “Beyond Beauty – The Untold Stories,” “Enchanted Musical Challenge Game,” and “Bonjour, Who is This” – a game in which you use your phone to receive secret messages and guess players’ identities before they guess yours.

In a move no one could ever have expected, the abysmal TROLL 2 receives a Blu-ray release this week; the format seems altogether too refined by the cheezy little movie, which has gained some cult notoriety this year, thanks to the art house release of BEST WORST MOVIE, the documentary tracing the lives and reunion of some of the TROLL 2 cast members.

MGM Home Video offers the MGM Sci-Fi Movie Collection. Unfortunately, the company’s 1956 classic FORBIDDEN PLANET is nowhere to be seen. Instead, we get one  (WAR GAMES) and a bunch of forgettable duds (SOLAR BABIES, ALIEN FROM L.A. with Kathy Ireland, HACKERS with a  young Angelina Jolie film, SPACE CAMP, and a WAR GAMES sequel).

Apparently, bargain days have arrived this week, with several previous available titles re-released in two-packs: GROUNDHOG DAY and SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER, HANCOCK and GHOST RIDER, THE GRUDGE and SILENT HILL, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA and WOLF, FANTASTIC FOUR and X-MEN, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and I ROBOT, plus several others.

But wait, there’s more! Also on store shelves this week:

• CAPRICA: SEASON 1.0 on DVD
• SGU: STARGATE UNIVERS – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON on DVD and Blu-ray
• THE SECRET OF KELLS on DVD and Blu-ray
• GRINDHOUSE two-disc collector’s edition on Blu-ray
• THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE COLLECTION on DVD
• DOCTOR WHO: DREAMLAND on DVD
• DELGO on DVD and two-disc Blu-ray and DVD combo
• THE EVIL/TWICE DEAD, a two-pack of Roger Corman Cult Classics
• FINGERPRINTS on Blu-ray
• THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS, a deluxe edition
• THE RIG
• SISTERS on Blu-ray (no not the Brian DePalma original but an unnecessary remake)

And the list goes on and on… All are available in the Cinefantastique Online Store. Click the links below to check them out, or go here.

Deadline.com announced that model-turned-actress Brooklyn Decker  has been cast by director Peter Berg (HANCOCK) to join the cast of BATTLESHIP.

Yes, Battleship — Hasbro’s long-popular boardgame, is being set up as a big-budget (rumored in the $200 million range) science fiction film by Universal Studios. Don’t remember a SF aspect to the venerable two-player game of hidden, but stationary battle fleets? Neither do I.

It seems that  screenwriters Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber re-envisioned the mundane premise of two terrestial forces in a wargame into a scenario in which a Earthly naval fleet must combat an armada of ships of extraterrestrial origins.

Brian Koppelman and David Levien are said to be currently at work on re-writes.

BATTLESHIP will star Talyor Kitsch (X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE) as a naval officer, Decker as his love interest,  Alexander Skarsgard (TRUE BLOOD ) and singer Rihanna. 

 Production is expected to begin in September in  Hawaii, with an intended release date of  May 18th, 2012.

Note: Battleship was orginally a Milton Bradley game. The company was absorbed by Hasbro in 1984.

The basic idea – a superhero who is actively disliked by the populace he protects, because he acts like an ungracious bum in his personal life – is a funny starting point, and the script takes off fairly quickly when a young idealistic public relations man (a concept far more fanciful than a superhero) decides to rehabilitate Hancock’s image. Unfortunately, Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman)’s strategy is so effective that this plot thread has been resolved midway through the film, so the script has to find something else to do for the final act. This leads to a plot twist of the kind that only works in a comedy.

SPOILERS AHEAD

It turns out that amnesiac Hancock is not the only one of his kind; one of the other major characters is also endowed with superpowers – and immortality. As a jokey surprise revelation, this is good for a few chuckles, and it does give the film something else to do, but it undermines much of what was initially interesting about the film.

We are no longer dealing with a superhero who is just an ordinary guy; he is an immortal who has lived for thousands of years. Co-producer Michael Mann dealt with a similar idea in THE KEEP (1983), but this feels more like a trip through HIGHLANDER territory, along with a set of rules that feel about as convoluted and ill-thought-out as the Supreme Court’s Bush vs. Gore decision (the result of deciding on the outcome first, then retroactively making up the rules to reach that outcome).

The idea is developed poorly. We simply have to take to accept these two rather obviously modern characters as if they were people who had existed for thousands of years. Nothing in the writing or the performances offers the least suggestion of a personality formed from millennia of experience. (We might also question whether people thousands of years ago look exactly like Will Smith and Charlize Theron, but let that one slide.)

This leads to a fairly wimpy special effects duel of the titans, in which Hancock and his unhappy female counterpart carry on like a couple badly in need of anger management therapy. The scene, which drags the film down to the level of MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND, lacks punch because we do not really care about the outcome. As if this were not bad enough, this spectacular special effects set piece upstages the actual climax, which comes later in the film and involves only an ordinary (if somewhat charismatic) human villain.

HANCOCK touches on some interesting ideas. Are actual heroics (such as saving lives) enough to earn public acclaim, or do you need to look good at the press conference afterward? How much collateral damage can be added up before it outweighs the good that is achieved? Is the concept of a superhero really so appealing, or should we be frightened by the thought of someone so far beyond any power of law to restrain their actions?

None of these concepts is developed or resolved. Ultimately, HANCOCK is a typical coming of age story, about someone who finally comes to terms with who he really is. It is a bit funny to think it took him this many centuries to achieve something so fundamental, but that’s Hollywood, isn’t it?

On the plus side, it is amusing to see Bateman cast in what is essentially the “Magic Negro” role. This is usually a plucky and resourceful black supporting character whose skills exist only so that they may help the Great White Hero achieve his rightful destiny. Smith himself essayed a variation on this character as the golf caddy in THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE, so it is only karmic justic that the tables should now be turned in his favor, with the racial roles reversed.

Well, not completely reversed. In BAGGER VANCE, I don’t think Matt Damon’s golf star had to resign himself to the thought of his love interest being married to his caddy. In setting up sequels, HANCOCK opts for a tragic sublimation scenario, in which Hancock realizes he can never be together with his immortal beloved, who has found domestic happiness with a mortal. I won’t bore you with the messy details of why; I’ll just point out that the attempt to pluck the heartstrings barely sounds a note. Although one would like to be colorblind, it is impossible not to notice that this outcome very conveniently prevents the black leading man and the blond leading lady from hooking up – it’s like a punchline from Dave Chappelle’s tirade about blacks in the media from UNDERCOVER BROTHER.

We must take solace in the fact that, although HANCOCK begins by presenting the idea of a black superhero as a joke (rather like the much worse METEOR MAN), by the end the rude and crude reprobate has reformed and assumed the mantel of superhero in all his glory. One hopes that any future films will stick to telling a single story through to its conclusion, instead of haphazardly splicing two together.

TRIVIA

In the film, Hancock is peculiarly sensitive to the insult “asshole,” which at one point provokes him to toss an obnoxious pre-teen bully a mile high into the air. For the film’s commercial TV spots, alternate takes of this scene were filmed, in which the overconfident kid calls Hancock a “jerk.” As for why the kid had to speak in a French accent: presumably the filmmakers thought American audiences (at least those Bush supporters still smarting over French resistance to the Iraq War) would more thoroughly enjoy the humiliation of a French child.

HANCOCK (2008). Directed by Peter Berg. Written by Vincent Ngo & Vince Gilligan. Cast: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Jae Head, Eddie Marsan, David Mattey, Maetrix Fitten, Thomas Lemmon, Johnny Galecki, Hayley Marie Norman.