Theater Hopper

Comic #825: DVD REVIEW - INDIANA JONES: THE ADVENTURE COLLECTION

theaterhopper@hotmail.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At this point, reveiwing the films in the Indiana Jones trilogy is a pointless exercise. For many of us, these films are woven into the tapestry of our lives - watched countless times on video and television. Enjoyed again and again with family and friends. They are omnipresent peaks in between the hills and valleys of the pop culture landscape. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have created a series of timeless films whose legacy expands in one week with the release of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - nearly 19 years since the intrepid archeologist's last adventure, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

So, to that end, what is the reason behind re-releasing the first three films on DVD? Especially when they were first released (to much fanfare in 2003)? Clearly it's a money grab on the part of Paramount, but a welcome one because included are several new bonus features that might be worth your while. Since the Indiana Jones trilogy set such a high water mark in the pop culture conciousness, we'll be highlighting the DVD extras in this review rather than the films themselves to help you determine if this box set is something you want to add to your DVD collection. The re-released films can be found in stores today, Tuesday, May 13.

Each of the three films contain an "introduction" featuring Lucas and Spielberg speaking about their respective films, but it's really more of a 20 minute retrospective than an introduction. These are the most revealing and insightful of the collections many extras specifically because they highlight something I've assumed for a long time.

George Lucas is an idiot.

Don't get me wrong. I owe George Lucas a lot. He's an amazing conceptualist who was able to envision whole galaxies and he has provided me a great deal of entertainment of the years. So I thank him for that.

But as an Executive Producer, he fails - and these featurettes prove it.

Talking about the casting decision to put Harrison Ford under Indy's famous fedora, Lucas wasn't for it. Savvy film fans know that the role was originally given to Tom Selleck who was unable to commit to the role due to his involvement with Magnum, P.I. For was Spielberg's first choice, but Lucas objected siting the success of Star Wars and his concerns that audiences would only be familiar with Ford has Han Solo.

Similarly, for The Last Crusade, Lucas did not want Sean Connery for the role of Indy's father - concerned that audiences would not accept him in the subordanant sidekick role. Additionally, he was concerned that audiences would only see Connery as 007 - despite the fact that he hadn't made a James Bond movie (not counting Never Say Never Again) since 1965. Speilberg actually had to convince Lucas that James Bond was the prototype for Indiana Jones in several ways and therefore having Connery play Indiana Jones's father made sense in a cinematic way.

Most damning, however, is the featurette on The Temple of Doom. Spielberg pretty much comes right out of the gate saying that the movie wasn't profitable, it wasn't well-liked by critics, is the most downbeat and least enjoyable of the original three films. Watching again for the first time ina few years, I myself had not noticed how bleak it actually is. Very violent and almost gory. Specifically, the scenes of child abuse in the temple strike a nerve in a way they haven't before. I guess being a parent now, a switch must have flipped.

But what gets revealed here is Lucas's insistence that The Temple of Doom go down a dark path. He insisted on it, in fact - siting the success of The Empire Strikes Back. In Lucas's mind, the second act of a trilogy needs to be downbeat so the hero can rally and come back stronger in the third installment. He actually says this in the featurette.

But there's a problem with this logic. The Indiana Jones trilogy was not written as one film like Star Wars was. They are episodic like the old Republic adventure serials. The second issue is that - chronologically - The Temple of Doom actually takes place one year before Radiers of The Lost Ark. So shouldn't the first movie be the downtrodden one.

Most outrageously of all, after Spielberg talks about his distaste for the film, Lucas admits that it is also his least favorite of the three because of it's dark tone. "I'm more of a humor guy," he says.

WHAT?! I actually had to pause the DVD and rewind it to make sure I heard him right.

It just goes to show that Lucas doesn't trust his actors or even his audience to interpret his films correctly. Points for professionalism go to Spielberg, however, who expresses that he was a director hired to execute Lucas's vision and performed the role he was hired to do.

For those of you hoping for an audio commentary on these movies, you're out of luck. The "introduction" featurettes are as close as you're going to get to listening to Spielberg and Lucas wax philosophical on their films.

Other featurettes on Radiers of The Lost Ark include "Indiana Jones: An Appreciation" where cast members from Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull talk about the first three movies and their memories of each. It's a fluff piece that will probably have greater context after The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull comes out on DVD, but, for now, feels highly promotional.

More interesting in the featurette "The Melting Face" where we go behind-the-scenes and talk to the effects supervisor who created the most nightmare-inducing effect of the early 80's with Toht's melting face after the Ark of the Convenant is opened. They show you how it's done from start to finish, providing side-by-side comparisions to the original effect with a recreation developed specifically for release.

The featurettes on The Temple of Doom include "Creepy Crawlies" where critter wranglers on all three films discuss how they corralled all of the various snakes, bugs and rats to hit their marks and terrify the actors. They also hint at the tradtion continuing in the fourth film, but don't give away specifics as to what.

"Locations" highlight all of the remote areas around the globe that Indiana Jones shot to give the series it's globetrotting vibe. Everywhere from Sri Lanka to Jordan, Vencie and Utah. Even the same canyon in Tunisia where R2-D2 was captured by Jawas in the first Star Wars!

Finally, The Last Crusade has a featurette called "Friends and Enemies" that provides an overview of the supporting characters in the Indiana Jones films and an exerpt from a sit down discussion with Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody called "The Women: The American Fim Institute Tribute" which was originally recorded in conjunction with the film's release on DVD five years ago.

The discussion starts out slow with each of the actresses talking more about how great Indiana Jones is as a character and less about their own contributions to the films.

Eventaully, as things pick up, interesting tidbits about the actresses themselves are revealed. Alison Doody admit to being intimidated on set due to it being an early acting job and the most high profile one of her career. She talks about how Sean Connery "stole" her role as the sidekick of the picture and how she was offered several films featuring characters with Austrian accents after the film was released - even though she is Irish and had great trouble performing the accent in the film. She doesn't come off as bitter, exactly. But more overwhelmed and maybe even slightly disinterested in the fame the film brought her.

Kate Capshaw spends a great deal of time talking about how critics ravaged the character of Willie Scott as annoying and grating and had very few kind things to say about her as well. In the way that she talks, you get the sense that she's disassociated her performance and blames the critical response to how the character was written. "I told Stephen during filming," Capshaw says, "that there was too much screaming!" Turns out she was right.

Interestingly enough, Spielberg goes on endlessly about Capshaw in the "introduction" featurette for The Temple of Doom. Despite the difficulties he had with the film, he says he can't be too dissapointed with the experience because it introduced him to Capshaw (they married in 1991). Spielberg talks at length about how enthralled he was with Capshaw's performance, praising her comedic timing and gift for physical comedy. Nepotism runs pretty deep here.

It turns out that Karen Allen emerges as the most well-adjusted of Indy's former flames. Still as effervescent as she was in the first film, it's no doubt that same spunk brought her back to the role she left behind nearly 30 years in The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull.

Beyond that, each of the three films contain a storyboard sequence that compares drawings to the completed footage as well as multiple photo galleries featuring photos and props, prduction photography and portraits, effects and marketing materials. Some of the galleries are more interesting than others, specifically the effects and marketing sets. It's kind of interested to see how Indiana Jones is repackaged for Japanese audiences.

Overall I don't know if there is enough material here to warrant a repurchase of the DVDs if you already own the 2003 release. But if you don't already own them and are looking for an excuse to get even MORE excited about The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you can't go wrong here. The films continue to entertain and they are simply a must for any serious DVD collection.

Comic #824: FANBOY GRUDGE

theaterhopper@hotmail.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It would be petty and small to hold against The Wachowski's and refuse to see Speed Racer based on the mismanagement of The Matrix trillogy.

Still - I have to wonder if some of that was in play this weekend consider the movie's second place finish at the box office. It's share of the pie was $20.2 million. Under normal circumstances, that would be quite respectable. Even in the face of Iron Man's $100 million bow a week ago (and it's 50% drop off this week) you wouldn't fault Speed Racer for making an honest attempt.

The clencher is that the Cameron Diaz / Ashton Kutcher romantic comedy boiler plate What Happens In Vegas... was nipping at their heels wth $20 million. Long term, this can't be good for Speed Racer.

When I first saw the trailer for Speed Racer, visually I thought it was a marvel. If anything, the extensive and experimental CG work is what was going to get me through the door. The Wachowski's pedigree in this era has already been firmly established. What would they come up with next?

But as time went on, my enthusiasm for the film faltered. The marketing of the film couldn't seem to decide if it was a kids movie or a straight up action picture. As reviews started filtering in, the concensus was that it was a kids film - which is fine. But we were also being told that it was over two hours long - entirely too long for a film with a threadbear plot. After that, the bottom fell out and I lost interest.

After a while, however, I started to feel guilty about not wanting to see Speed Racer. It seemed unfair to hold it up against the last two Matrix movies. Maybe they were going in another direction? Maybe I would kick myself for missing it. The 35% positive score at Rotton Tomatoes seemed to reflect a williness for critics to hate this movie out of the gate and, admittedly, I saw a lot of that reaction online as well. I became convinced that Speed Racer wasn't getting a fair shake.

I wasn't able to make it to Speed Racer this weekend. Instead I saw Iron Man for the second time with a friend I hadn't seen for a while. By the time I was weighing my options and considered going on Sunday night, box office reports were in and things looked dire.

I feel somewhat lame admitting that I was influenced by Rotten Tomatoes and box office figures, but I never felt a strong affinity for Speed Racer and - if I went at all - it would be more out of some sort of geek-cred obligation. The stats and figures eventually supported my decision in a way that I felt was fair. You can't argue with the numbers.

I know some people will dispute me. After all, I'm the guy who was ready to follow Iron Man into hell. If the movie sucked, I would have denied it to my dying day. I'm sure there are some people who feel the same way about Speed Racer. Personally, I would love to hear that perspective. It may not be too late to change my mind. But we'll see.

Tonight on The Triple Feature talkcast, we'll be talking about Speed Racer and - from what I've heard - Joe loved it. Joe can sometimes be a little sensitive about explaining why he liked a film when he's in the minority, so we'll have to see if we can coax it out of him. I'm really most interested in understanding what I'm missing. Barring that, you can always go to his site and read his review.

We'll also be talking about next week's big release Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. More specifically, I will be talking about the re-release of the original films on DVD in stores tomorrow. I received advanced copies and Cami and I watched all three films last week. I have some particular insights about the extras included with this release and plan on sharing them tonight. There will also be a full review here on the site tomorrow.

Remember, the show starts at 9:00 PM CST and you can participate LIVE. So if you saw Speed Racer over the weekend and want to chime in, please do so! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

See you then!

News: CLARIFICATION

theaterhopper@hotmail.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Something I just wanted to clarify - because it sticks out to me in my first post... I am not blowing off the comic to see Iron Man. I want to let you know that it's more of a social obligation than me ducking responsibility. I'm going with a friend I haven't seen in months and we've had it planned for a while. If it was just me, I would do the comic and see Iron Man another time. I've already seen it once. I live 5 minutes from a theater. No big deal. But for my friend... I need to be there.

I should have been more specific about that.

So far the feedback you guys have been giving me is great. I'm getting a lot of comments saying "don't beat yourself up about it." But... I kind of have to. I've been in this game for nearly 6 years and that's due in large part to having disciplined myself. I don't want to cut myself slack because if I miss a deadline here or miss a deadline there, then it might become a habit and I don't want that. More accurately, you guys don't deserve that.

So if I miss an update, the least I can do is tell you guys what happened and promise to do better next time. You've shown me a great deal of support over the years. I want to demonstrate my appreciation for that. If I screw up, I own up to it because I respect you guys as my audience. That's the long and short of it.

If anyone wants to chat me up in absence of today's comic, we're trading messages on the Theater Hopper LiveJournal page. Check it out, if you're so inclined.

Comic #823: I'M A DUMBASS

theaterhopper@hotmail.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I'm not having much luck getting these Friday comics out the door, am I? It happened last week and now it's happened again.

Here's the story:

In an effort to stay ahead of deadlines, I took my drawing pad, pens and all my materials to work. During my lunch hour, I drew and inked the strip - man, you would have loved it. I have my sights set on Speed Racer. Good stuff.

Here's the problem, I left my stupid bookbag at work! My bookbag with the comic in it. The bookbag with my pens in it. The bookbag with the drawing pad. Everything.

You'd think a guy who produces a web comic three times a week would be a little more... aware, wouldn't you? Well, I guess there's a first time for everything.

I probably won't have the comic ready for you today. After work, I'm going with a friend to see Iron Man again. I've got a busy weekend with Mother's Day on Sunday and everything. So it's probably best if I just take a mulligan on this one and post the comic I intended for today on Monday.

Is that cool with you?

Sorry for being a moron. Hope you have a nice weekend.