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Film & TV on DVD - John Doe News & Reviews

 
Greetings Film Fiends and welcome to John Doe's Film Blog. 30 years of dedicated celluloid obsession has meant that I have seen a few films. Drawing attention to some of the lesser discussed gems that I love. Cult classics, obscure curios and quality genre pictures. This blogs purpose is to translate some of my passion for these films and with luck, inspire you the reader to go check em out.

Watchmen (2009) - Trailer Included

October 22nd 2009 00:00
The Extra Dimension to the Portrait of a Superhero


watchmen, dvd, super hero, comic book film, zack snyder, action film, alan moore
Watchmen DVD - Available in Australia

Director: Zack Snyder
Writers: David Hayter and Alex Tse
Starring: Billy Cruddup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Hayley, Mathew Goode, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer (Dawn of the Dead), Stephen Mchattie


“Rorschach's Journal: October 12th, 1985. Tonight, a comedian died in New York.” - Rorschach

Based on the idiosyncratic Graphic Novel by Alan Moore, The Watchmen is possibly the most esoteric of all superhero films. Deemed unfilmable by the ever imaginative Terry Gilliam back in a pre CGI 1989, passing through several hands including Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass before docking in the palm of Zack Snyder. The Watchmen’ s history of getting to the big screen is as much a struggle as any cinema venture ever has been.

The much lauded and revolutionary Watchmen comic forms its mighty spine around caped avengers being treated as human beings in a real world of ambiguous motivations.

Subverting the genre and deconstructing the myth. What kind of a normal person dons a costume and fights crime? The answer is no normal person. These are dark vigilantes, deluded souls and all of them have serious psychological disorders. There are no distinct lines between good and evil, right and wrong, hero and villain.

Cleverly rewriting history in the process the story takes place in a “parallel universe” 1985. In this timeline Nixon has been in power for 5 terms, Watergate never happened and the audience knows who assassinated JFK. Tricky Dicky has banned all superheroes and is faced with the threat of nuclear Armageddon from the Russians.

The murder/mystery plot opens with the brutal, balletic death of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) by an unknown assassin. Rorschach realizes immediately that one of his own is gone and begins an obsessive search for the truth along the way recruiting other ex heroes and forcing some to ponder their choices.

watchmen, minutemen, dvd, super hero, comic book film, zack snyder, action film, alan moore
The original Minutemen
The Watchmen at the centre of this struggle are a second generation of super heroes, taking over from the Minute men of the 1950’s.

There is Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), an inheritance rich geek deluded by idol worship who fights crime using expensive technology like Archie, his mechanical flying vehicle.

Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) is driven by serious mummy issues and is suffering an identity crisis as she uses her sexy figure as a weapon.

Rorschach (Jackie Earle Hayley) is a rage filled sociopath who only understands violence and leaves a trail of bloody carnage wherever he goes.
“I heard a joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life is harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world. Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor... I am Pagliacci." Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.” - Rorscach

The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a bigoted, racist happiest when taking lives and not opposed to raping and enjoying his work too much.

Olympidius (Matthew Goode) is the smartest man in the world with lighting fast reflexes. Cashing in on the fame afforded a hero, billionaire genius Ozymandias comes with questionable morality impaired by brutal logic.
“We can do so much more. We can save this world... with the right leadership.” - Ozymandias

The only one of the bunch with true Super powers is Dr Manhattan (Billy Cruddup). Arguably the most powerful being in any comic book universe he can manipulate all physical matter at a molecular level, experience his lifespan of time in non linear sequence and teleport. This omnipotent control and his scientifically wired brain have him detaching from humanity.

watchmen, rorschach, dvd, super hero, comic book film, zack snyder, action film, alan moore
Rorschach finds his motivation



John Doe says:

Startling CG FX are used in a nontraditional narrative structure to make the Watchmen as much a character piece as a grandly designed commentary on our self destructive nature. Jumping back and forth in time the main story is interspersed with graphic background or origin stories that give perspective on current events.

watchmen, zack snyder, the comedian, rorschach, super hero, comic book film, zack snyder, action film, alan moore
Zack Snyder directs The Comedian
Director Zack Snyder continues his experiments in visual technology that began with a worthy Dawn of the Dead remake and led to the visceral 300. There is a level of indulgence to the film’s style that may grate on some but there is no denying the impact of the screen imagery. Snyder’s familiar soundtrack choices purposefully conflict with the established tones that are meant to accompany certain types of scenes. For instance Jimi Hendrix wailing where a Hans Zimmer score may have felt appropriate.

In truth the whole film has a streak of a mischievous 13 year old eager for audience reaction. Sex scenes are glossy and seem to come out of a Playboy shoot, but isn’t that fitting for a pair of split personality sufferers dressed in latex who decide on mutual penetration within a giant owl ship above the city? The violence and carnage is equally excessive, the filmmakers seem to be having too good of a time making it appear on screen, there’s a streak of Paul Verhoven (Robocop, Starship Troopers) in this boy me thinks.

The script was always going to be a tough hone and David Hayter (X Men 2) and Alex Tse do a pretty admirable job. There is substance to be found in their loyal adaptation of the cantankerous Alan Moore source. Sure the ending is changed, but it works for the medium. The “Black Freight” sub plot was not needed in the big picture way and the film would have been about 4 hours long with it all back in.

Those unfamiliar with the original may struggle to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but if you pay attention it is clear. The comic was presented in a similar order and never gave all the answers either making it equally thoughtful.

The acting is variable from the excellent to the abysmal. As the Edward Blake/Comedian Jeffery Dean Morgan (Taking Woodstock, Weeds) is vibrant and charismatic embracing all his characters faults (and there are many) to make a very entertaining performance.

Former child star Jackie Earle Hayley (Breaking Away, Bad news Bears, Little Children, Remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street ) is a violent, ticking-time-bomb presence that makes us feel Walter Kovacs/Rorschach’s ceaseless rage.

In the part of Dr. Manhattan / Jon Osterman actor/computer tracking device Billy Cruddup (Jesus Son, Waking the Dead, Almost Famous) had the thankless task of giving a god genuine emotions. Limited by the fact Dr Manhattan is a completely CGI creation, there are only two scenes where we actually see the unaltered actor.

Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Little Children) plays Nite Owl II with appropriately gawky competence. The Mr-Nice-Guy of the bunch still manages to interest next to the more intriguing members.

Sure Malin Akerman (Entourage) looks great in her Silk Spectre II costume but she is certainly the weak link where performance is questioned. Occasionally showing potential, but mostly she seems self conscious and fake in the more demanding scenes and other times is just wooden and disappears. Maybe it the urge to see what Carla Gugino (Sin City) would have looked like in that skin tight disguise that makes this verdict.

Incidentally Carla does bring the damaged melancholy of Silk Spectre I and sells the aging make up. Matthew Goode (The Lookout, Match Point) as Adrien Veidt /Ozymandias encompasses the quintessential superhero type ala Superman in looks while gleefully exposing the darker side of the propaganda image.

John Doe agrees Watchmen is not a perfect film, but it is a fantastic comic book experience for those sick of by the numbers big budget predictability and sentimentality. There is something very fresh feeling about competent adult subversion of the genre. Compared to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta this is the first worthwhile interpretation of Alan Moore’s seminal work. Remembering to have fun while captivating with cunning awareness, the kids had The Incredibles (which John Doe loves) and the big kids get Watchmen, it is that simple.


Trailer for The Watchmen



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The Rise or Fall of a Civilized Man?


naked prey, criterion DVD, cornel wilde, adventure films, action movies, cinema classics, africa, jungle
The Naked Prey - Criterion DVD available in the U.S.

Director: Cornel Wilde
Writer: Don peters and Clint Johnston
Starring; Cornel Wilde, gert Van Den Bergh, Ken Gampu, Bella Randles, Morrison Gampu

Considered one of the original American mountain men, “John Colter ’s Escape” from a tribe of territorial Blackfeet Indians in Montana 1908 is the true life inspiration for this savage adventure film. Transferring the production from the western wilderness to the jungles of Africa because of logistical costs, this is a savage pursuit through a brutal landscape.

naked prey, criterion DVD, cornel wilde, adventure films, action movies, cinema classics, africa, jungle, poster
Poster for The Naked Prey
As a child, Actor / Director / Olympian Cornel Wilde had been deeply affected by the 1933 classic The Most Dangerous Game and it served as another influence for The Naked Prey. Baring a resemblance to Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, the film is more Lord of the Flies than it is Tarzan. Elements of Hearts of Darkness are never far from view.

A group of Ivory poachers on a hunting expedition are confronted by natives. Leading the group is Man #2 , (Kurt Van den Burg) an arrogant alcoholic who disrespects the customs of the tribe despite a warning from his more seasoned companion (Cornel Wilde).

Captured a short time later the group are all inventively tortured and killed except for “the Man”. Stripped naked and unarmed, a tribal warrior shoots an arrow to serve as a head start and then signals that the hunt has begun.

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Start the engine Jacque..Little Indiana Jones humour there folks


John Doe says:

The Naked Prey is intensely realized through an unflinching lens. Immediately paced this survival story is a leanly executed chunk of meat, with all hindering fat eliminated. The minimalist script has little to no dialogue beyond the opening minutes. The cinematic medium is the teller of this yarn and it is up to the raw, brazen images to lure us into its primal lair.

We watch a civilized man reduced to the essential primordial imperatives. Unfaltering obedience to the genetic command that demands we stay alive. Fight or flee, the simplest of psychological programming dictating action.

An urgent tone of authentic danger looms, but never does the film slip into exploitation. Once you accept that a white man is able to outlast the indigenous inhabitants even for 5 minutes there is much to savour and digest within this economic concept.

Jungle drums drive the soundtrack with the same assured power as the unforgiving predatory truth of existence that’s shown through the stark cinematography and inserts hungry location shots of wildlife as punctuation.

“The man” feeds off the land pushing body and mind beyond the thresholds of pain and endurance. On camera “The man” gnaws a freshly slaughtered snake immediately after skinning it, forming a forced symbiosis with environment. Murder and law are dismissed. The morality of killing becomes a ‘him or me” spear driven combat scenario.

There is a respect for the tribal hunters who track “the man”. Embodying the full compliment of emotions beyond nobility, mourning and rage these are not typical transparent caricatures of “ignorant evil” that inhabited other Hollywood productions of the era.

Cornel Wilde (Beach Red, No Blade of Grass) was in his 50’s when he Directed The Naked Prey. Already a 20 year acting veteran whose Olympic level fencing skills saw him rise as a swashbuckling hero (At Swords Point)and also make his mark in the noir genre (Leave her to Heaven, The Big Combo). While on set he was struck with exhaustion from the demands of shooting and because of it his physical performance is all the more convincing. Even with his illness and age Cornel is still a fit figure against the adversarial backdrop.

This is a film that John Doe’s Dad would talk about and one that he could never find in Australia. Seeing it for the first time care of the Criterion DVD made for a superb, uncut experience. Living up to expectation, it has instantly become a personal favourite, if it is action and escapism you seek then this can be touted as a benchmark.


Criterion Collection DVD available in the US only

The Opening 10 minutes of The Naked Prey

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Sorcerer (1977) - Footage Included

April 21st 2009 00:01
Monumental Sabotage and the Price of Fearful Desire

sorcerer poster, dvd, roy sheider, william friedkin, cult film, driving film, famous directors
Poster for Sorcerer - Available on DVD in the U.S.A


Director: William Friedkin
Writer: Walon Green
Starring: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou

"There were not any effects or optical’s in those days. It was extremely difficult and hazardous. If I knew it would be such a hassle – endanger people’s lives and my own – and then meet the sort of fate that it met in some parts of the world I wouldn’t have done it. But it is the favourite of all my films”
William Friedkin

Fuelled by excessive accolades and monumental receipts for The Exorcist and The French Connection, to discuss William Friedkin’s epic remake Sorcerer it is tough to not get bogged down in a loss of traction analysis and examination of its production and place in the lexicon of pop culture.

One must first acknowledge George Annauds intense source novel "Le Salaire de la Peur” translated to Wages of Fear. The inspiration for the revered French classic of the same name helmed by recognized maestro Henri-Georges Clouzot. (The Film is dedicated to the instrumental filmmaker)

Shot on location in Paris, Jerusalem, New Jersey and in the military dictatorship of the Dominican Republic with its unforgiving jungle. Sorcerer like Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, the war of attrition, logistical nightmares of production and its subsequent box office failure has become the stuff of cinema legend.

Harsh weather destroyed sets. Friedkin’s stubborn perfectionism elevated the budget. Cast and crew were pushed to breaking point. The sum of all these parts echoes many of the films key themes and tone. For instance a perilous bridge crossing which is one of the films centre pieces was destroyed or unsuccessful a trio of times at a price tag of a million dollars a pop.

See what I mean, JD is 220 words in to his review and hasn’t even scratched the chassis of what the movie is about or began critiquing.

Insert Jump cut.

Sorcerer is a harrowing journey into the obsessive bowels of madness.
Here’s a high concept pitch, this is the thrilling tale of 4 men who must navigate the perilous mountain terrain of South America driving trucks laden with volatile nitroglycerin. One bump or wrong move will cause explosive consequences.

"We're carrying three cases each. One is enough to blow out your fire, six cases will blow out the whole field. That means you don't think all the trucks will make it, one of us is a backup." - Dominguez

The story begins with extended character prologues. A petty crook (Roy Scheider), a terrorist (Amidou), a corrupt banker (Bruno Cremer) and an enigmatic slime (Franciso Rabal) with no links, all from different corners of the globe end up fleeing punishments to an isolated, impoverished South American Village.

These are desperate men trapped in a world they want no part of. Cornered, forced to work together despite personal animosity or they will die. The only way out is to take on the suicidal task of transporting explosives to rescue an oil refinery under attack.

"Listen Pancho, I've been clocking you every second you've been in this town. If you wanna pick your nose in this truck, you better clear it with me first, otherwise I'm taking you and this nitro right into a ditch! " - Dominguez


sorcerer poster, dvd, roy sheider, william friedkin, cult film, driving film, famous directors, trucks, famous trucks, adventure films
The toughest truck around, it's name Sorcerer


John Doe says:
A brooding, fatalistic tour deforce carried by brutally intense suspense drawn out to unbearable proportions. Balancing a verite attitude within a ludicrous conceit, the film replaces the adventurous tone of the original for a dark examination of humans pushed beyond the realm of sanity to survive.

Motivated by personal demons and manipulated by circumstance there is a palpable fear and surreal air to the end result.

Director Willaim Friedkin (To Live and Die in LA, Cruisin’) entered the project as glory boy and was expelled out the other side as a perceived failure. What was once a bright future forever tarnished to this day.

In his own words the title and its purpose are:
"The Sorcerer is an evil wizard and in this case the evil Wizard is fate, it’s more a film about fate and about the mystery of fate. The fact that somebody can walk out of their front door and a hurricane can take them away, an earthquake or something falling through the roof or something. And the idea that we don’t really have control over our own fates, neither our births nor our deaths, it’s something that has haunted me since I was intelligent enough to contemplate something like it."
(Quote from Wikipedia.com)

Admittedly there are faults to be found, the first half hour is disjointed much like the central figures. Audiences at the time did not adapt to the use of subtitles for the sequences on foreign shores. Let’s not forget 1977 was the year that Star Wars and Smokey and the Bandit became cultural phenomenon’s.

Damn. Again Mr Doe is diverted from the task at hand and indiscreetly attempts to defend the cult gem.

Adapted for the screen by Wild Bunch scribe Walon Green, the dialogue is tough and there is a no nonsense air to the action as written. The geographical set pieces and rampant symbolism astonish with dexterous staging.

Shot with manic energy, the Direction and Cinematography communicate a truth that seldom feels manufactured. Lacking special effects most of the major risks were done for real with the leading actors serving as stuntmen in most cases. As a result the element of realism and genuine danger is never far from the surface. There is a sense of awed wonderment in viewing some of the more intricate sequences like the annihilation of a log that blocks the drivers path.

The sound design of the film boosts the claustrophobic urgency and acting in conjunction with the surreal electronic score by Tangerine Dream.

Originally intended as a vehicle for Steve Mcqueen, Friedkin says :
“As good as I think Sorcerer is, it was really written for Steve McQueen and I will always have a soft spot in my heart that I never made it with him. But I think Roy Scheider did a fine job with it and it’s probably the one film of mine I can still watch.”
(Quote from The Directors Take Two by Robert J Emery)

Working together on The French Connection The Director and Brody himself Roy Scheider developed a short hand that brought out the best in the actor. Here he is at his deadly serious best. Tortured and determined with eyes of pained torment Scheider envelopes his damaged character.

The rest of the cast succeed in delivering naturalistic performances that never appear forced. There is a relentless tension always visible in the dynamics of the group that are as crooked as they are admirable. The numerous extras and smaller parts filled by authentic locals complete the illusion that makes every scene reek of 3rd world decay and pestilence.

Johnny D is obviously a fan of this misunderstood and over dissected work. Yet another example of genius muted. Punctuating the public’s insatiable need for generic distractions that exist in a one dimensional, disposable experience best left in the confines of an unlit cinema.


The oddly constructed trailer for Sorcerer


A themed montage of sequences set to the haunting tangerine Score
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The Many Sides of the Good Guys and the Bad Guys

Dark Knight DVD
Some early leaked concepts for the Dark Knight on DVD

[ Click here to read more ]
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The Crystals of Fond Memories Skeleton

Thank you to the wonderful people at Paramount Pictures who were nice enough to send me a red carpet ticket to the premiere. Seeing Cate Blanchett and Jack Thompson was a fun bonus
[ Click here to read more ]
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Iron Man (2008) - Trailer Included

April 30th 2008 00:00
Ore Mined and Polished


The nice people at Paramount sent John Doe a press invite for Iron Man on Monday night and he just has to thank them for their kindness. It is admittedly fun seeing a super-hyped movie before the global release and geek boys spoil the surprises.
[ Click here to read more ]
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – Latest Trailer

Indiana Jones 4 Poster
Teaser Poster released a few montsh ago

[ Click here to read more ]
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Winged Serpents in a cultural conflict

Dragon Wars Director
John Doe meets the Director of Dragon Wars plus a few hotties

[ Click here to read more ]
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300 - Released April 5th

Bryn over at Horrorphile got a preview ticket to see the record breaking 300 at the IMAX last night and was nice enough to ask John Doe along. Meaning that he can now treat Orbler’s to an early review for this highly anticipated release. Can’t thank you enough buddy.

[ Click here to read more ]
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