DVD Roundup for August 26, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

This week’s bumper crop of Westerns necessitates a temporary name change for this column.

DVD of the Week: 1962’s How the West Was Won may not have been the greatest classic Western ever made, but it was almost certainly the biggest, boasting three directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) and an all-star cast (led by John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, and Richard Widmark) to tell a Western family saga spanning half a century. In addition, the film boasting some stunning Western vistas designed to fully exploit the three-screen Cinerama process- this was one of only two narrative features to be exhibited using honest-to-goodness Cinerama. The biggest advantage of this week’s new Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner, also Blu-Ray) of the film is that it comes closer than any DVD edition to date to replicating the look of Cinerama in digital form. Instead of the “join lines” and standard 2.35:1 ‘Scope framing of previous editions, this new edition of the film features a new technology that effectively unifies the three Cinerama frames into the original aspect ratio of 2.89:1. There are also a number of special features, notably the 2002 documentary Cinerama Adventure that explores the famed camera process, as well as a trailer, archival featurette, audio commentary, and plenty of collectible memorabilia about the film and its stars. Nothing will be quite like watching How the West Was Won in Cinerama, but this new edition makes the home viewing experience better than ever.

In other oater news, this week also brings the Warner Home Video Western Classics Collection, which includes the 1960 remake Cimarron, Escape From Fort Bravo, Many Rivers to Cross, Saddle the Wind, The Law and Jake Wade, and The Stalking Moon, with each film also sold individually. In addition, Warner is also releasing the Errol Flynn Westerns Box Set (Warner), which contains Montana, Rocky Mountain, San Antonio, and Virginia City. And don’t overlook the Blu-Ray only release of Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider (Warner).

Meanwhile, this week’s recent releases coming to DVD include: Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher in What Happens in Vegas (Fox, also Blu-Ray); David Mamet MMA drama Redbelt (Sony, also Blu-Ray); the acclaimed documentary Chicago 10 (Paramount), Lynch (Ryko Entertainment), a documentary about the ever-popular David Lynch; Uwe Boll’s must-see Postal (Universal Music & Video Distribution), costarring former DVD Digest contributor David Huddleston; and the latest release from our pals at Benten Films, Team Picture.

Other classics coming to DVD this week include: a new pressing of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notorious final film Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Criterion); the Henry Selick-directed The Nightmare Before Christmas Collector’s Edition (Disney); Jeunet and Caro’s Delicatessen Special Edition (First Look); and Monica Bellucci’s nude body transforming into a rolling landscape for your enjoyment in Brotherhood of the Wolf: Director’s Cut (Universal).

In TV on DVD, there’s Entourage Season 4 (HBO), Everybody Hates Chris Season 3 (Warner), Heroes Season 2 (Universal, also Blu-Ray), NCIS Season 5 (Paramount), and The Shield Season 6 (Sony).

Finally, this week’s action-packed lineup of Blu-Ray only releases includes: Errol Flynn (again) in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner); Gov. Schwarzenegger fighting Satan in End of Days (Universal); the first season of NBC’s Heroes (Universal); Crockett and Tubbs hitting the big screen in Michael Mann’s Miami Vice (Universal), and the submarine thriller U-571 (Universal).

When Good Directors Go Bad: She Hate Me (2004, Spike Lee)

Paul Clark — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:00:00 GMT

In addition to being one of America’s most celebrated directors, Spike Lee is one of its most productive, with more than two dozen feature films, documentaries, and television films to his credit along with innumerable shorts, commercials and music videos. Unfortunately, sometimes this productivity has led to a decrease in consistency. Lee has made a number of masterpieces in his career, but he’s also made his share of stinkers, the most notorious of which was 2004’s She Hate Me.

Now, if there’s one word that would never be used to describe Spike Lee, it’s timid. After all, he’s the man who in only his second feature made a campus musical about skin color (School Daze), who made a racially-motivated riot the climactic sequence of Do the Right Thing, and who made the first Hollywood film to actually address 9/11 (25th Hour). In addition, Lee has always been driven by current events. In the words of another Lee, the late Arthur, “the news today will be the movies of tomorrow,” and with She Hate Me, Spike Lee addressed many hot topics of the day- same-sex parenting, Enron, corrupt pharmaceuticals companies, the stereotype of the sexually-powerful black man, the then-recently-disbanded XFL, and the declining state of African-American families.

Sounds like a lot, right? The trouble is that Lee doesn’t quite know how to deal with it all. As a result, She Hate Me is all over the map, not only story-wise, but tonally as well. In one scene, the film’s protagonist, Jack (Anthony Mackie), might be having a heartfelt conversation about values with his father or his best friend. In the next, the film will become an outrageous sex comedy in which Jack beds down the entire starting five of a woman’s basketball team, powered only by Viagra and Red Bull. For long portions of the film, Lee seems to almost forget about the insider-trading scandal in which his former boss has implicated him. The film has no real direction or momentum, so it devolves into one damn thing after another, and by the time Jack has been called before a Senate subcommittee, we’ve long since thrown up our hands.

Another problem is that the comedic moments don’t work. There’s nothing inherently funny about the film’s edgiest and most infamous plot strand- Jack’s side job as a hired stud paid to impregnate rich lesbians (including characters played by Kerry Washington and Monica Bellucci, among others) at $10,000 a pop. So it falls to Lee to make these scenes work, and he’s not up to the task. Looking back at Lee’s career, I can’t help but notice that many of his worst-reviewed films (She Hate Me, Girl 6, the better-than-its-rep Bamboozled) are comedies. That seems a little strange, considering how wonderful She’s Gotta Have It is, and how funny his non-comedy films can be- remember the old guys on the corner in Do the Right Thing or Denzel Washington’s unconventional detective in Inside Man?

So why does Lee have such a problem with outright comedy? In She Hate Me, it just feels like he’s trying too hard. It’s not enough that Jack sleeps with five lesbians in one night- Lee goes overboard to make these scenes as outrageous as possible, crafting quick-cutting montages of Jack’s conquests, turning the women into overpowering stereotypes who call him “bitch boy” (among other things), and then showing Jack and his “magic wand dick” giving them all massive screaming orgasms in spite of the fact that they're supposed to be lesbians. If that’s not enough, Lee includes several animated sequences in which a sea of sperm (all bearing Jack’s face) race toward a waiting egg. It all gets to be too much after a while.

In the end, what’s the point that Lee is trying to make? I think Lee’s message is a simple one, and not a new one for him- “do the right thing.” Trouble is, it takes roughly 2 ¼ hours (!) to get to that point, by which time we’ve long since gotten lost amid all the zany sex antics and the whistleblowing scandal and the wacked-out digressions in the plot (John Turturro riffing on Don Corleone, anyone?). As sprawling and ambitious as Lee’s best films can be, they always maintain a clear focus, but that focus escaped him in She Hate Me, and this as much as anything else is what sinks it. Yet, as bad as it is, it’s certainly never boring. Given the ill-fitting parts of the story, it’s hard to imagine it working at all, but most filmmakers would have tried to rein it in and play it with a straight face. Lee goes in the opposite direction, and while it still doesn’t work, I’ll have a hard time forgetting it. Whether that’s a good thing, I’ll leave for you to decide.

The Screengrab : monica bellucci

DVD Roundup for August 26, 2008

When Good Directors Go Bad: She Hate Me (2004, Spike Lee)