The Screengrab : x-files 2

DVD Digest for December 2, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:00:00 GMT

This week, the big studios continue to roll out their summer releases, and the holiday DVD cash grab continues.

DVD of the Week: While it certainly isn’t the most revered movie getting a DVD release this week, I’d say that the new Criterion Collection edition of Sam Fuller’s White Dog is almost certainly the biggest DVD news. A controversial indictment of violence and racism, Fuller’s adaptation of Romain Gary’s story was withheld from theatrical release in 1982 due to its subject matter and violence, which essentially killed Fuller’s career in the U.S. Now, after more than a quarter of a century, White Dog is finally getting a home video release for the first time, in Fuller’s original “uncut” version. Criterion has included a handful of special features on this DVD, but really- isn’t the fact that the film is out there for everyone to see enough?

This week’s recent releases coming to DVD include: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney, also Blu-Ray), the second installment of the C.S. Lewis-penned fantasy series; James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie in Wanted (Universal, also Blu-Ray); Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s sibling rivalry writ large in Step Brothers (Sony, also Blu-Ray); Mulder and Scully’s return to the big screen in The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Fox, also Blu-Ray); Ice Cube in The Longshots (Weinstein Company), a film by Fred Durst; and Bam Margera Presents: Where the #$&% Is Santa? (Warner, also Blu-Ray), a title I’d say speaks for itself.

Aside from White Dog, the highlights of the week’s classics on DVD are: The Day The Earth Stood Still Special Edition (Fox, also Blu-Ray), a tie-in with the upcoming remake, featuring numerous new extras; and Casablanca Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner, also Blu-Ray), which is basically the same old edition in a snazzy new package.

Only one major TV on DVD release, but it’s a doozy: Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season (Universal).

Finally, plenty of Blu-Ray only releases this week. There’s Mike Myers telling the same half dozen jokes again and again in Austin Powers Collection (Warner)! The Christmas mayhem double feature of Home Alone (Fox) and Jingle All the Way (Fox)! A double dose of Luc Besson with La Femme Nikita (Sony) and Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Sony)! The first installment of the would-be X-Files movie franchise, The X-Files: Fight the Future (Fox), coincidentally released the same day as the DVD of the second movie! And finally, the perennial IMDb favorite and TNT standby, The Shawshank Redemption (Sony)!

Trailer Review: The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Paul Clark — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT

I was a regular, but not obsessive, viewer of The X-Files for years, up until the time Mulder disappeared from the scene. But what attracted me to the show wasn’t so much the complicated mythology or the genre elements, but how low-key and even quiet it often was. That’s why most of this trailer feels wrong to me- whoever cut this is hard-selling this as a big-budget thriller, which has never really been what I’ve found that X-Files is about. There are a few moments here that intrigue me- none more than the initial exchange between Mulder and Scully, which says volumes about their dynamic- but whenever the music pounding at my eardrums and the editing gets more rapid-fire, my heart sinks a bit. Perhaps the film would have been better-served if it was released sometime other than July- had Fox gone with a March/April release for the movie, there would have been less pressure to compete with big, loud blockbusters with a property that doesn’t really lend itself to that kind of treatment. Of course, maybe it’s just a ploy on the studio’s part to get the asses of non-fans in the seats opening weekend. When it comes to this movie’s potential, I want to… well, you know.

Trailer Review: X-Files 2 Wondercon Leak

John Constantine — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:09:00 GMT

About four years ago, shortly after I started working for Nerve and long before the illustrious Screengrab was born, I had one of my first bona fide celebrity sightings in New York. I was walking out of a music shop when I turned and saw David Duchovny briskly walking with a female companion on 4th street. We made eye contact and the look on Duchovny’s face will forever remain in my mind as one that screamed, “DEAR GOD, DON’T LET THE X-FILES FREAK TALK TO ME! NOT TODAY!” I held my tongue in a way that the audience watching this leaked teaser for the X-Files’ return to the silver screen would find impossible. There’s not much to it. A nice hint of mystery, a whole lot of my personal buddy Billy Connolly looking like the abominable snowman, and some quick shots of Mulder and Scully looking like Mulder and Scully. If you’re anything like these screaming fans though, that’s more than enough. This movie will have nothing to do with the show and first film’s ongoing mythology-aliens plotline and will be a standalone supernatural thriller. If this turns out to be as good as it looks at this point, I probably won’t be able to keep my mouth shut the next DD and I cross paths.