Clerks X

Clerks X

 

Synopsis

Dante Hicks is a clerk at a local convenience store in New Jersey. On one particular Saturday morning, he gets called in on his day off. Once there, he must deal with multiple problems. The shutters outside won’t open. His ex-girlfriend, whom he is still in love with, is getting married. His girlfriend, who bugs him about starting college, has revealed certain, uh…stuff about her past. His boss hasn’t come in to take his place. He has a hockey game at 2 o’clock. Another ex has died, and today’s the last day he can go to her wake. He must deal with customers that aren’t so intelligent. His friend, Randal, a clerk at the video store next door, is even less dedicated to his job than Dante, and is always bothering Dante’s customers. And the biggest problem of them all: HE’S NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE THERE TODAY!! Can Dante manage it all?

(From IMDB)
Cast:

Brian O’Halloran
Jeff Anderson
Marilyn Gjigliotti
Jason Mewes
Kevin Smith
Scott Mosier
Walter Flanagan
Scott Schiaffo
Al Berkowitz

Director:

Kevin Smith

DVD features

Disk 1:Theatrical Version

• cast & crew commentary
• Enhanced playback track
• “Clerks”: The Lost Scene
• “The Flying Car” Short film
• MTV spots: With Jay & Silent Bob
• Theatrical Trailer
• Music Video
• “Clerks” Restoration Intros
• Original “Clerks” Auditions

Disk 2: “Clerks”: The First Cut

• new cast & crew commentary

Disk 3: “The Snowball Effect: The Story Of ‘Clerks’

• “Mae Day: The crumbling of a documentary”
• 10th Aneniversary Q&A
• Outakes from “Snowball Effect”
• Still photo gallery
• Original Kevin Smith journals
• Articles & Reviews (8 of them)

Great selection of extras, most quite interesting, but some a little dull, I wont go into a full blown extra by extra review as this would be boreing, If you can find this on the shelf or the net for a good price, then its worth looking at if your a fan of the film and want to know more about the movie.

Movie:

Well I came to this movie back in ‘95 (I was only 13 & yes I was into movies then) when it hit the streets in the US, and I read good things about it, and saw a trailer which intrigued me even more, but unfortunatly It slipped by and whent under my radar since, until I watched a programme on BBC 2 called “Talking Movies” which did a preview of “Clerks II” which then shunnted my memory to the back of my brain and pulled out the memories of “Clerks”, then while browsing my local HMV I found the 10th Anniversary Edition for £7.99, and I had to have it.

I had mixed feelings about this film, as I had only seen Jay and Silent Bob in “Dogma” and had only knwo Kevin smith for this film, the thing was I loved “Dogma” and liked the look of this movie, but I had heard from a friend who knows his movie stuff, and he mentioned that it wasnt that good, so I had to watch it with an open mind. The first 15 to 20 minutes were a little dull and un eventfull, but I presisted (I gave up watching “Troy” the first time around at this point, But I still hate it).

later on the film picked up and I liked some of the jokes and capers they got into, but I didnt like the vulger side of this movie, and had a hard time swallowing some of the diologue due to the amount of swearing. This side of the film let it down, and seemed to be in there just to prove that they could, rarther than severing a purpose. I wasnt sure what the film was trying to get across, and maybe that was the point, maybe there wasnt a punchline to the film or a morale of the story, but this just let the film down even further for me.

Due to its lack of substance this film was an average movie, the acting was good, some of the script was good, but the way in which it was filmed let if down, black and white didnt work it just made it even more like it was trying to be something it wasn’t, I think this film is a bit too, I dont know… and maybe that was the problem.

To sum it up, I would have to say, if you havent seen it, rent it dont go out and buy it, and then if you like it, get the version I got, as its got loads of extras, this film had good acting and a up and down script. The music and sound were ok but I didnt like most of the music, but this didnt detract from the film, which was a good thing, I think that I may have missed the point of the movie, maybe there are some of the stuff was too American and it didnt translate to me too well, who knows.

DVD Extras: /

Movie: /

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Plot Outline

In LA, while escaping from the police after an unsuccessful robbery, the small time thief Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is accidentally submitted to an audition for a role of detective in a movie, and invited to a party. He meets the homosexual private eye Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), who suggests him to participate of an investigation to develop his character. He also meets the gorgeous aspirant actress Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), and finds that she was a friend of his childhood for whom he had a crush. Harry and Perry get involved in an intricate murder case with many leads. With the support of Harmony, they find the sordid truth of the case.

(From IMDB)

Cast:

Robert Downey Jr.
Val Kilmer
Michelle Monaghan
Corbin Bernsen
Dash Mihok
Larry Miller
Rockmond Dunbar
Shannyn Sossamon
Angela Lindvall
Indio Falconer Downey
Ariel Winter
Harrison Young

Director:

Shane Black (creator of the “Lethal Weapon” movies)

DVD feature:

Nothing, Nada, Ziltch.

I purchased the basic DVD, it has nothing exept for the standard, interactive menu’s and sene selection stuff like that.

Movie:

I dont know what I was expecting from this film, I wasnt sure if it was going to be bad or good, but one this I was sure of and that was the Direcotrs credability, the “Lethal Weapon” films are great and my type of action movie, I like buddy cop/PI movies too like “Midnight Run”. So with this in mind I watched this film.

The overall film was very good, every little bit from cinematography to the editing and special effects were good, nothing really stood out as exceptional or stunning, but they all seemed to be working along the same lines and made this film feel homely.

The acting in this film was also very good, but nothing oscar worthy (even if that is a mark of good acting,which im not sure it is anymore) but nobody tried to outperform each other and the on-screen bond of the characters was good, almost like you knew the character from a 70’s TV show.

The comic parts were done with a nice finess and made them quite a breath of fresh air compared to the more common and quite tiersome stuff of Vince Vaughn or Ben Stiller. The jokes and one liners were fast and not too elaborated on, which will make for re-watching quite a pleasure, as im sure I missed a few jokes along the way, also the comic timing was spot on and the actors played the jokes well and said the one liners with nice touches in facial and body movements that make those jokes that much more lifelike.

Allot could be said for the direction and wrighting of this movie, and Im going to, because I think its worth bringing it up, that while films are being turned out in hollywood, allot seem to tyr to hark back to the good old action flick mold, but always seem to miss the point and make a really poor movie, but seeing as Shane Black actually wrote one of the best action movies of the late 80’s he has the credentials to make a good movie in the same fashion as those movies but also has had the sense to make this movie a little more up-todate and fresh, but not stray too far from the winning formula.

I would also like to applaude Joel Silver for backing this film, as in recent times he has backed some real let downs like “Matrix Reloade & Revelutions” and “V for Vandetta”, but because of his history with Shane Black he had to make this movie and im glad he did.

To sum up the film, I persoanlly liked it, it filled me with a warm and knowing feeling, from the direction and acting straight through to the standard cinematography and editing, the only thing that had small suprises was the story and script, I didnt know how the stry was going to end and what was coming next, which in todays movie scene is a big change indeed. I also would like to point out the soundtrack, it was very inconspicuous and didnt detract from the movie.

This film was a breath of fresh air in the action/comedy genre and made a change to the stale wannabes of truly poor quaity, for me this is how movies should be made, and I can see myself watching the DVD many times to come.

DVD extras: /

Movie: /

Broken Flowers

Broken Flowers

Plot Outline

The resolutely single Don Johnson has just been dumped by his latest lover, Sherry. Don resigns himself to being alone yet again and left to his own devices. Instead, he is compelled to reflect on his past when he receives by mail a mysterious pink letter. It is from an anonymous former lover and informs him that he has a 19-year-old son who may now be looking for his father. Don is urged to investigate this “mystery” by his closest friend and neighbor, Winston, an amateur sleuth and family man. Hesitant to travel at all, Don nonetheless embarks on a cross-country trek in search of clues from four former flames. Unannounced visits to each of these unique women hold new surprises for Don as he haphazardly confronts both his past and, consequently, his present.

Cast:

Bill Murray
Julie Delpy
Brea Frazier
Heather Simms
Jeffrey Wright
Jessica Lange
Christopher McDonald
Sharon Stone
Chloe Sevigny
Tilda Swinton
Francis Conroy

Director:

Jim Jarmusch

DVD Features:

• Extended scene
• ‘Start To Finish’: outtakes with Bill Murray
• ‘Farmhouse’: behind the scene with audio commentary from director Jim Jarmusch
• Trailers

The Features arn’t that extensive or great if im honest, but I don’t think the Film or the DVD needed or warented lots of in depth interviews or documentarys. What is included dosn’t lend much to the film and are pretty much the standard of films of this claiber, like “Sideways” or “Lost In Translation”.

Movie:

Where to start with this film? I could start with the fact that Bill Murry is awsome in this film, and put on a show that much like “Lost In Translation” (which he should have won the Oscar) or I could start with the fact that this film is a truly great film in my eyes. Jim Jarmusch proves once again to be a director of boat loads of tallent and quite a delicate touch, “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” being another of his movies and a great favourite of mine is on the same par as this film in this review, its a slow but well paced film with great small and delicate touches that make the film a pleasure to watch, but also the fact that Bill Murry is a very dry comedian proves to be a great match for this film, the rest of the cast are great too and all put 100% in to this qurky road trip type movie.

For those who love Bill, you are guaranteed to love him in this film, his mannerisms and the way he looks and smiles make it fun to watch, and the little comic touches he brings to the role of Don really make this film for me.

Now for the downsides to this film, for some it may be a little slow, but if you have patiance to stick with it its a great watch. Editing is pretty shabby for me, and makes the movie even slower than it needed to be, the editor had the chance to put in some pace to the film but failed, and left the whole film feeling a little rough around the edges, but again if you can get past this, then you will be rewared.

I dont want to spoil the film by giving away the plot or storie too much, but the ending left a bitter taste in my mouth, I was expecting more for it and it will make the less patiant or none movie fans a little upset and short changed. I on the other hand actully found the ending quite nice and probably the best way to end the film.

I could go on about the other things that go into making a film, but none stand out in this film, onl the directing and acting make the film a good film if not a great film.

On the music front, some people will like the soundtrack like I did, or will hate it like the people that I watched the film with did. But get past it and move on and you should enjoy this movie, I think the final remark for this film will be “you either hate it or love it” and I know this like sitting on the bench and not sticking my neck out, but it proves to be the correct way to view this film, see it with an open mind and with people who enjoy murry and you should have an enjoyable movie experiance.

DVD Extras: /

Movie: /

Ghost In The Shell DVD Review

Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

Welcome to my DVD review of Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, this review is from the PAL Europe 2 Disk DVD.

Genral Film Info

Manga UK
Production IG
Bandai Ent.
Website
Website 2

Director:
Mamoru Oshii

Cast:
Akio Otsuka – Bato
Atsuko Tanaka – Major Motoko Kusanagi
Koichi Yamadera – Togusa
Tamio Oki – Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki
Yutaka Nakano – Ishikawa
Naoto Takenaka – Kim

Genral DVD Info

Run Time:

96 Minutes approx

Aspect Ratio:

1.85:1

Sound – Disk 1:

Japanese or English (dubbed) Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio track *English Subs
Japanese or English (dubbed) Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo audio track *English Subs

Sound – Disk 2:

Japanese or English (dubbed) DTS 5.1 Surround *English Subs

Synopsis:

It is the year 2032 and Earth is a world where the few remaining humans coexist with cyborgs, human spirits inhabiting mechanized bodies, and dolls, robots with no human elements whatsoever. A cyborg detective for the government’s covert anti-terrorist unit Public Security Section 9, Batou is charged with investigating the bizarre case of a malfunctioning gynoid – a hyper-realistic female robot created specifically for sexual companionship – responsible for slaughtering its owner.

Delving deeper and deeper into the investigation, Batou and his partner, Togusa, are forced to confront violent Yakuza thugs, devious hackers, influential government bureaucrats and powerful corporate criminals. As they move closer to uncovering the mystery, it slowly becomes apparent that the truth behind the crime is far more shocking than anyone dared imagine…

Disk 1 – Special features

Audio commentary: from director Mamoru Oshii and animation director Toshihiko Nishikubo

As far as audio commentary’s go this was ok I guess, but I never finished listerning to it as I was trying to watch the film and people talking in Japanese with sub’s and trying to watch the film was a bit hard. But over all if your into commentary’s then this is an ok one (only if you can keep up )

The Making Of: Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

The making of documentary was ok nothing special, just your regulare clips from the film with various people talking about the techniques used. I found the subtitles to be a pain in the ar*e when viewing this documentary, as they shift from the top of the screen to the bottom, and when they are at the top the clash with the picture and sometimes can be hard to read, this wouldn’t be a problem if they had a dubbed soundtrack for it but they dont.

Disk 2 – Special features

Trailers

Just standard trailers, nothing to go crazy about

Sneak peek: at episode 5 of ‘Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG

Again this is nothing special, its just a 10 minute intro to the TV spinoff and 5 of those minutes are the opening sequence.

‘Face To Face’: interview with director Mamoru Oshii

This is a little better but from a fan’s point of view only, as for adding anything to the film… Not a sausage, just a bunch of boring questions cooked up by Manga UK and he just replys, I even turned it off after question #4. talk about dull.

Manga Trailers

Various trailers for up and coming films from Manga UK.

Round up & overall thoughts

Well for the special features side of the DVD package, it sucks. The amount packed onto these disks is very minimal (but there is a reason) and the quality of these features is low and even downright dull, Ive always found this to be the case with foreign films especially the ones from Asia, maybe they dont see the point of them and dont bother making or adding them to the DVD’s.

Special Features: /

Now for the main feature. The film is one of the best Anime of all time and is not just a Tour De Force in the image department, but has a compeling and awsome storyline, maybe its been done with Bladerunner and more recent The Matrix, but A.I.’s, Robots & Cyborgs still manage to capture my imagination and fule my need to watch films that follow in line.

GITS 2: Innocence is a remarkable piece of film making, not only are the voice actors supurb (Japanese & American) but the animation on show here is the best ive seen since Akira and Patlabor, and the mix of 3D and 2D are stunning, alot better than Appleseed.

Now for the reason behind the scant features. On the second disk the film is repeated but with DTS only. Now for anyone who has surround knows that DTS is the best of the best and having it all alone seperate on the other disk makes for better quality viewing wich is well thought out, if they were going to try and squeeze it onto the first disk along with the DD 2.0 & 5.1 its would have been virtually impossible without compramising the picture and sound quality all round, so to have it on its own disk is a great idea.

Main Feature /

Ronin DVD Review

Ronin 2 Disk Special Edition DVD Review

Welcome to my review of the Ronin Special Edition 2 disk set (PAL / R-2).

Director:
John Frankenheimer

Cast:
Robert De Niro – Sam
Jean Reno – Vincent
Natascha McElhone – Deirdre
Stellan Skarsgård – Gregor
Sean Bean – Spence
Skipp Sudduth – Larry
Jonathan Pryce – Seamus O’Rourke

DVD Genral Info
Sound: DD 5.1 – DTS
Subtitles: Dutch – Swedish – Finnish – Norwegian – Danish
HOH: English
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Run Time Approx: 1hr 56mins

Plot Outline:
In a world where loyalty is earned and betrayal is a way of life, a new and deadlier terrorist threat has emerged – the freelance killer!

The Cold War may be over but at the forefront of the New World is a group of covert mercenaries whose skills in surveillance, reconnaissance and attack are for sale to the highest bidder. A mysterious client for a dangerous mission assembles five of these operatives, known as `Ronin’, in Paris: steal a top-secret briefcase.

Featuring some of the most exciting, stomach-churning car chases ever committed to film, ‘Ronin’ is a tough, uncompromising thriller that will leave you breathless.

Disk 1:
Feature
Audio commentary By John Frankenheimer

/

Disk 2:
In The Cutting Room With Tony Gibbs: A Featurette On Editing The Film

I wasn’t expecting much from this documentary but it was actually insightful and enjoyable to watch, alot of information is given about the look of the film and how editing is done. It actually adds to the enjoyment of the film by pointing out small things I didn’t notice before and when I watched the film again it made me look harder for others (which I like to do )

Natasha McElhone: An Actor’s Process Featurette

Definatly the worst on the disk, but it give’s an impression of what its like to work on a film with De Niro and Jean Reno so thats cool, but it dosnt add much in the way of value to the disk or the movie so in that respect its a poor addition to the special features.

Composing The Ronin Score Featurette

Again not the most interesting of items to add to a DVD, but if your into score wrighting then its quite interesting (I guess), it add’s nothing to the film and not much value.

The Driving of Ronin: A Featurette On Action Stunts In Movie With Stunt Co-ordinator Jean-Claude Lagniez

One of the best on the DVD (to be expected), and probably the one people want to watch the most, this documentary goes in-depth to the sunt co-ordination and car scenes, showing how they made it look like the stars were driving the cars and all the cool stuff, top notch and lots of info and definatly add to the film.

Filming in the Fast Lane: The Original ‘Making Of’ Featurette Re-Edited For This Special Edition Release

This along with The Driving of Ronin make the best insight to movie car chase’s and how they are filmed, makes for interseting watch and adds to the film loads, also if has lot of cool car action (which is why we are all on this forum in the first place) for lovers of cars or the film this is a good watch.

Through the Lens: An Interview With Director Of Photography Robert Fraisse

Not great but is complimentary to the In The Cutting Room With Tony Gibbs documentary and explains the way in which the film was shot and why certin colours were banned from the cosumes and sets, it also gives an incite to the way in which the director John Frankenheimer wanted the film to be from the start.

Venice Interviews Featurette

Just a bunch of interviews from the Venice film festival (im guessing the film was previewed there back in 1997/8) just your basic collection of interviews from the stars of the film, not that much in the way of goods here if your watching movie stars giving the old hard sell about then new film then this is the ticket.

Alternate Ending

I wont spoil it for ya , its definatly interesting.

Animated Photo Gallery

Not that good TBH

Theatrical Trailer

Standard feat.

To Sum Up

Again like the heat DVD the special featurettes that shine are the ones most people who watch the film want to see, the rest seem to have been added to fill up the second disk, two very nice features The Driving of Ronin & Filming in the Fast Lane work together to shead a good light into the making of car chase scenes, and provide some cool car footage aswell, the other nice but not so good featurettes In The Cutting Room With Tony Gibbs & Through the Lens make for interesting watch and add some small bits to the overall Ronin experiance, but the rest fall short of the quality and informative aspect of the mentioned featurettes.

/

Heat DVD Review

Heat – Two Disk Special Edition

Cast

Al Pacino
Robert De Niro
Val Kilmer
Jon Voight
Tom Sizemore
Diane Venora
Amy Brenneman
Ashley Judd
Mykelti Williamson
Wes Studi
Ted Levine
Dennis Haysbert
William Fichtner
Natalie Portman
Tom Noonan

Director

Michael Mann

Disk 1:

Feature
Commentary by Writer – Producer – Director Michael Mann
3 Trailers

The film is obviously the main item on this disk and we all know its a great movie so i see no need to go into depth about the film, except i didn’t see anything added or taken away from it compared to the VHS version, and the trailers and commentary are standard fair for most DVD’s these days.

/

Disk 2:

11 Additional scenes

Theses extra scenes are nothing special and dont add any extra depth to the film, infact most of them are obvious to why they were cut from the final film.

True Crime Documentary:“Recalling the real-life Chicargo cop and criminal whose exploits inspired the movie.”

This Documentary is not the best of the five on the disk, but it give a real face to the names in the movie but they are old time gangsta types and it bears only a passing resemblance to the film characters.

For those who want to know more about the characters development in movies then this quite interesting, but as far as adding extra value to the movie then its only slight.

Crime Stories Documentary:“The screenplay’s 20-year history and how the movie finally got made.”

This is quite interesting to watch as it tells the story of the script and how many times it was re-written and all the messing about with funding and so on, it also mentions L.A. Takedown which is basically Heat in a poorer guise, as far as the info tells you about the film and how it had problems being made, it dosnt add to the film… but taking this into account it dose make and good watch.

Into The Fire Documentary:“Filming in L.A., how the cast trained for their roles, shooting the climatic downtown heist and post-production.”

This is the best documentary on the second disk and is very interesting and lends alot to the insite of the best shootout on film. I wont go into details just incase it spoils it for you, but it show the actors training with live guns on a police shooting range and lets you into the actual way in which they made the whole shootout, it also shows other big scenes from the film.

Pacino & De Niro: The Conversation Documentary:“Anatomy of this historic on-screen showdown.”

The one people are probably more interested in is actually here, this documentary goes into the whole scene and shows how it was all filmed down to how the cammera angles were chosen. Its very good docu and lets you in on one of the most memorable scenes between two big heavy weights of movies.

Alot of nice information to be had in this documentary, and lends to the movie as a whole.

Return To The Scene Of The Crime Documentary:“Revisiting the film’s real-life locations 10 years later.”

Not much in this documentary and seemed like an after thought compared to the others, lends no real value to the experiance of heat and isnt worth the time watching.

over all there is some nice bits of trivia and information to get from the second disc but if your not too bothered by extras, there is nothing to attract the dissering dvd buyer, if you get a chance to watch the dvd either rent, buy cheap (like i did) or borrow off a friend then its worth a look, but its not worth paying full price for.
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