How to Spend $20 This Week
By Kyle Kunitake
July 13, 2004
Editor's note: Les Winan is on vacation, so we will have guest writers the next couple of weeks.
Taking a look ahead at the week's DVD releases is always dicey for your wallet. Nearly every week, there's a disc that would fit nicely into any size collection. When it comes time to decide what to buy, there are really two determining factors: how much you love the content and the quality of the extra features on the disc.
As a result, decisions will be totally subjective (I bought the largely mocked Dude, Where’s My Car? DVD because the film cracks me up, no matter that I am subject to ridicule by fellow BOP staffers because of that fact). The massive unreleased studio (film and television) back-catalogue means that every week there's likely something for every film fan. So before you think to yourself, "My exhibitionist tendencies don’t extend to house cleaning on Kauai, but I’ll watch Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise more than once!" stop; ask yourself, "Why!?" and then check to see if Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (or your disc of choice) is one of the weekly BOP DVD recommendations.
For seeing that a CGI hip-hop kangaroo isn’t the geekiest thing Anthony Anderson could play sidekick to: Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)
Remember when Frankie Muniz was cute? Seems so long ago, doesn’t it? Anyway, in the grand Hollywood tradition of squeezing every last cent out of an idea that makes money, Frankie Muniz is back once again to reprise his role as kid super-spy, Cody Banks. In this sequel, teen starlet Hilary Duff isn’t back as Bank’s love interest, but UK pop singer Hannah Spearritt takes her place, portraying Banks’ British counterpart. Anthony Anderson plays Cody Banks’ handler, Derek, a “Q” to Muniz’s Bond, if you will. Banks is assigned to recover a stolen mind-control machine from those who would use it for world domination, all the while maintaining his cover as a boarding school student. The disc has quite a few extra features, including an in-movie interactive quiz, theatrical trailers, a visual commentary (not just audio commentary-the movie is paused so Muniz, Anderson and Spearritt can come onscreen to comment), a making-of featurette, deleted scenes and extended scenes. The disc also includes both the widescreen and fullscreen (pan & scan) versions of the film. The target audience for this movie skews much younger than I’ll even pretend to be, so I’m probably not the best judge of its entertainment value. It might be very enjoyable if viewed for what it is, so if you think Frankie Muniz gets a couple free passes for My Dog Skip, this might be a DVD you want to pick up.
For sightless sword-wielders everywhere: Zatoichi Meets the One Armed Swordsman (1971)
How can you not love an ass-kicking blind swordsman? I mean really, what part of lack of sight and sharp implements of death don’t go together? Not a one, if you ask me. But I digress, Zatoichi meets the One Armed Swordsman is the 22nd in a series that recounts the adventures of Zatoichi, the blind swordsman. In this DVD, Zatoichi meets a Chinese martial arts master, and because of a misunderstanding due to the language barrier, they end up confronting each other in battle. The stories of Zatoichi are a favorite of my wife’s, so I’d be in deeeeeeep trouble if I didn’t highlight its release.
For the comic book collection your mom threw out, even though you told her not to because they were important, and yet she still did because she doesn’t recognize the excellent writing and artwork, much less the monetary and cultural value, I mean why does she have to touch your stuff anyway, but you’re not bitter: Justice League: Star Crossed, The Movie (2004)
With the incredible recent success of franchises such as X-Men and Spider-Man (let’s not discuss The Hulk or Daredevil, ok?) the superhero genre is its highest in years. This DVD is an animated feature about DC Comics group of superheroes, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash, among others. The feature was actually originally broadcast in multiple episodes as part of the Justice League animated series. The story arc focuses on Hawkgirl and her relationship with The Green Lantern during an alien invasion of the planet. Some fans of the animated series contend this story arc to be the best of the series. The DVD contains very appealing bonus features, including deleted scenes, a couple of featurettes as well as interviews with both the cast and the filmmakers. Comic book geeks, rejoice!
For the text messaging craze, OU812, ROFL, LOL: 2LDK (2002)
Initially just a way to get that stupid title joke in, the subject of the film caught my eye. A Japanese film, 2LDK is a dark comedy about a pair of female roommates sharing an apartment in Tokyo. The film is shot entirely in the confines of the shared apartment. The somewhat ambiguous alphanumeric title is actually an abbreviation for the apartment listing (2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, and kitchen). Clever, no?
The two roommates, Kimi and Lana, one from a small town the other from the big city, share the place, and inevitably have their share of squabbles. However, when they find they are competing for the same job and the romantic attention from the same man…hilarity ensues. Keeping in mind that this is a dark comedy - emphasis on dark - said hilarity involves extreme violence and power tools. The disc is barren in terms of extra features, but hey, it’s got power tool ultra-violence.
For marketing synergy taking advantage of completionists: The Bourne Identity, Explosive Extended Edition (2002)
The Bourne Identity: Explosive Extended Edition is Hollywood’s latest example of marketing synergy gone mad. The DVD is being released just prior to the theatrical release of The Bourne Supremacy, Identity’s sequel. Not just a happy coincidence, it’s a great way for Universal to make a couple bucks off the first Bourne movie, and use it as a showcase to market the coming soon sequel.
Director Doug Liman, whose résumé includes the films Swingers and Go, helms this adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. Ludlum actually penned a trilogy of Bourne books, Identity, the aforementioned Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. The series’ titular (hee hee, I said titular) character is former CIA agent Jason Bourne, who suffers from amnesia and must undergo a process of rediscovery to find out who he is. This first installment of the series recounts Bourne’s memory loss and his attempt to escape the government that is trying to recover the killer it has lost. Bourne’s process of recovering both identity and memories, allows him to reject the mercenary life he once lead and attempt to begin anew in a “normal” life. Matt Damon portrays the super-spy wonderfully, and Franka Potente plays Marie, a woman sucked into Bourne’s journey to regain his lost memories. Other prominent performances include Oscar-winner Chris Cooper playing a government agent who must recover his rouge agent, Clive Owen as an assassin sent to bring Bourne down, and Brian Cox as the Senator who oversees Bourne’s former agency. Julia Stiles is also in the movie, but her role is a half step up above a cameo in terms of screen time.
The performances are great, and Liman does a spectacular job weaving them together to craft a magnificent film. While The Bourne Identity fulfills the excitement of an action-filled popcorn flick, it’s also wonderfully paced and intelligently done so it works on levels beyond your run-of-the-mill-cookie-cutter-other-similar-cliches-action-adventure movie.
Before I go further, I have to qualify this recommendation. While I’m a huge fan of the movie, it’s already been released once on DVD as a “Collector’s Edition”. Unaware that this latest Super-Duper DVD version was coming, I already bought the Collectors Edition. The newer release - according to its title - is apparently much more Explosive, and though I’m a big fan of Explosiveness in general, it may be bit hard to justify buying a second DVD of this film, in order to obtain the new bonus feature.
That being said, the new features that jazz up the Explosive Edition are a grab bag of Good News, Bad News.
Good News: The extra features on this latest release of The Bourne Identity are numerous: (1) A never-before-seen opening and an alternate ending (that was on the previous DVD release), which includes an introduction to the scenes by producer Frank Marshall, screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and actor Brian Cox. (2) The Bourne Mastermind: Robert Ludlum, a featurette about the author of the Bourne novels. (3) An interview with Tony Gilroy. (4) From Identity to Supremacy: Jason & Marie – an interview with Damon and Potente, and a brazen shill for the new Bourne Supremacy film. (5) The Bourne Diagnosis, a featurette about amnesia. (6) Cloak & Dagger: Covert Ops a featurette on the CIA. (7) The Speed of Sound discusses the sound design of the film and includes an interactive demo of the sound elements of a scene. (8) Declassified Information, a set of deleted scenes that were also on the previous DVD release. (9) Inside a Fight Sequence, you can guess what this one is. (10) A music video by Moby, some DVD-ROM features and some text production notes that were part of the previous DVD release.
Bad News: Some of the bonus features of the first DVD release were dropped to make room for the new material, most notably the film commentary by Doug Liman.
So while I am not a fan in general of repackaging of extras the way they have with this film, I am enough of a fan of the feature material that I can wholeheartedly recommend this DVD to those who haven’t yet picked up the older Collectors Edition. If you, like me, have already picked up the earlier version, you may just want to check out this one at your local DVD rental joint.
July 13, 2004
1918 (1985)
2LDK (2002)
Against the Ropes (2003)
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)
Assassination Bureau (1969)
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
The Bourne Identity (Full Frame Explosive Extended Edition) (2002)
The Bourne Identity (Widescreen Explosive Extended Edition) (2002)
Box 507 (2002)
Counterfeit Terror (1962)
Courtship (1987)
The Deviants (2004)
Double Indemnity (1944)
The Dreamers (Rated NC-17) (2003)
The Dreamers (Rated R) (2003)
Dying of Laughter (1999)
Evilspeak (1981)
Farscape Season 4, Vol. 5 (2003)
The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
Hell High (1989)
I Like it Like That (1994)
Justice League: Starcrossed the Movie (2004)
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
Love Object (2003)
The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition) (1962)
Megalodon (2004)
Never Die Alone (2004)
On Valentine's Day (1986)
Paul the Apostle (2000)
Red Siren (2002)
Roadkill (1989)
Shelter Island (2003)
Slasher (2004)
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965)
Tempo (2003)
Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2001)
Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971)
Print this column
