Viewtopia 03/02/10: Top 5 DVDs of the Week (With Video!)
By Carl Davis
It's amazing that a children's picture book clocking in at a mere 338 words could still be the subject of such devotion and criticism almost 50 years after it was published, but that's the enduring legacy, and some might say magic, of Maurice Sendak's 1963 classic Where the Wild Things Are. Spike Jonze, the visionary music video director and co-creator of Jackass, may not have been the first choice to helm this $100 million live-action adaptation, but looking at the finished film he, along with screenwriter Dave Eggers, was the perfect choice to chronicle young Max's journey. Jonze combined traditional actors, animatronics by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and CGI to film Where the Wild Things Are's elaborate scenes.
Extras include:
* Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More To Life - New live-action/animated adaptation of Maurice Sendak's book produced by Jonze
* "HBO First Look: Where The Wild Things Are"
* Series of Where The Wild Things Are Shorts by Lance Bangs
2012 Two-Disc Special Edition (2009)
It's official, Roland Emmerich has topped über-producer Irwin Allen as the Master of Cinematic Disaster with his latest magnum opus, 2012. The film is based on the misunderstood belief that the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar used by the Mayans shows the world ending in December, 2012. Since no one can seem to agree on just how the world will end, Emmerich looked to Graham Hancock's non-fiction book Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization which theorizes that Earth Crustal Displacement was responsible for the destruction of the fabled Atlantis. When a solar flare rapidly heats up the Earth's core, the world's governments secretly build massive arks to insure the survival of the human race.
* Commentary with Writer/Director Roland Emmerich and Co-Writer Harald Kloser
* "Countdown to the Future"
* "Designing The End Of The World"
* "Roland Emmerich: The Master of the Modern Epic"
* "Science Behind The Destruction"
* "The End Of The World: The Actor's Perspective"
* Picture-In-Picture: Roland's Vision
* Interactive Mayan Calendar
* Alternate Ending
* Deleted Scenes
* "Time For Miracles" Music Video by Adam Lambert
* Making the "Time For Mircales" Music Video with Adam Lambert
Cold Souls (2008)
We've been eagerly awaiting Sophie Barthes existential black-comedy on DVD since PM caught a screening of it at last year's Sundance Film Festival. Paul Giamatti (who, in a Charlie Kaufman-esque twist, is played by none other than Paul Giamatti) is an actor struggling with his latest performance. In order to relieve himself of the burden of playing the title character in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya he has his soul put in cold storage. However, this leaves him feeling empty of emotion, but when he attempts to retrieve his soul he finds it's in the hands of Russian soul traffickers.
* Soul Extractor featurette
Gentlemen Broncos (2009)
Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), along with wife and co-screenwriter Jerusha, have delivered yet another hilarious slice of middle-Americana. Gentlemen Broncos is cast in the same mold as the Hess' other films, but was all but buried by distributors Fox Searchlight for no reason. Benjamin Purvis (Michael Angarano) is an aspiring young science fiction writer whose novel Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years is stolen at a writer's workshop by legendary author Ronald Chevalier (Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement) desperate for an idea to save his career. To add to the film's insane genius, Sam Rockwell plays BOTH Ben and Ron's version of Bronco (while Mike White plays him in the film within the film).
* "One Nutty Movie: Behind The Scenes"
* Outtakes
* Web Spots
Ninja (2009))
Not to be confused with the Wachowski's recent Ninja Assassin, starring Speed Racer's Rain and greatly benefitting from state-of-the-art digital enhancements, Isaac Florentine's Ninja is a straight-up, old-school martial arts flick in the American Ninja vein. Anyone familiar with that staple of '80s action cinema will enjoy watching Scott Adkins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) fend off vicious yakuza. Casey (Adkins) is an American ninjutsu student entrusted by his Sensei to protect the Yoroi Bitsu containing the ancient weapons of the Koga Ninja.
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