Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 2 House of Flying Daggers is, in many ways, similar to many other martial-arts movies you've seen (most notably, the crazily popular Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). It has all of the action and incredible fight sequences we've come to expect from the best Hong Kong exports. From a visual standpoint, though, it has more in common with the stylized color works of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. And what visuals they are. In Hero, director Yimou Zhang used massive amounts of color. Sometimes entire shots would be one color. Here, that is rarely the case, but color is no smaller a tool—just a more finely honed one. The story is of a love affair between an assassin and a policeman as a war builds around them.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
They made a Miami Vice movie with no pastel colors or Jan Hammer? I’m sorry, you lost me. At least there is a Ferrari (a gray one). Michael Mann fashioned this movie like his “gritty” past few movies, such as Heat and Collateral, enough so that it has very little in common with the TV show (at least the good years). Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell do passable jobs as Rico and Sonny, but they can’t save this movie. After 20 minutes, I had no idea what was going on, and not in the way that would make me want to watch more.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
Fox bungled the short run of Firefly by showing the episodes out of sequence—and in the worst possible time slot it could find. What a surprise—they canceled it. On the strength of word of mouth, the DVD set of the series sold so well that a movie was green-lit. Would the movie be as good as the TV show? Would it work on the big screen? Would anyone see it? Well, yes, yes, and no.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Oddly enough, I’ve seen this movie a bunch of times, at least in its original form. Kneel before Zod! Most of this movie was shot concurrently with the original Superman, but the producers took it away from director Richard Donner and made it more comic-bookish by putting it into the hands of a new and mostly disliked director, Richard Lester. The punished trio from the beginning of the first movie break free and decide to take over Earth. Superman does what he does and makes Terrence Stamp cry.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Amazingly, the first time I saw this movie was just a few months ago. What can I say? I’m a Batman kind of guy. Superman is campier than many of the more serious comic-book adaptations of late, but, compared with other comic-book movies of the time (and for many years after), it’s downright somber. It holds up well and is still the quintessential Superman movie. Covering the last days of Krypton to the time when Superman saves Earth from a toupeed Gene Hackman, it’s quite a film. It’s not least recognizable for its excellent score, which earned John Williams one of his 4,383 Oscar nominations.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
I have a pretty low opinion of remakes of classic TV shows. But I loved The Dukes of Hazzard when I was a kid, and the cast and crew on this one seemed like they could reproduce the stupid fun of the TV show. Well, I think they did a great job. That’s right—I think this movie is fun and funny. To anyone expecting more, I have to ask, “Did you ever see the TV show?” It stars Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott, who have made careers of having fun in bad movies, and Jessica Simpson, who allegedly has a career doing something. The plot revolves around the Duke boys needing to save Uncle Jesse’s farm (duh). An oddly cast Burt Reynolds is pretty good as Boss Hogg, and a simply odd Willie Nelson is surprisingly funny.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
Yes, I know it’s stupid, sophomoric, and about two dumb guys doing some fancy driving in an old muscle car, but that’s what makes it great! OK, maybe “great” is too strong a word. It makes me laugh and has some of the best precision driving since Ronin. I wrote the DVD review for this movie a few months ago, and I really can’t think of anything else to say about it. Bo and Luke have to—I don’t know—save Uncle Jesse’s farm or something.
Video: 3
Audio: 2
Extras: 4
Rarely before this movie had such bad people been seen getting away with bad things. You love Steve McQueen’s Carter despite the fact that he’s a bank robber and he kills people. Add in Ali MacGraw, explosions, and the fact that this is one of the only movies made almost entirely in sequence (as in the first scene was shot first, the last one last), and you have a classic of American cinema.
Geoffrey Morrison
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