This film is why I'm such a hardcore Martin Campbell junkie. Everything about it just works. The action is full of real stunt work, and it's shot in long, fluid takes. The special effects are mainly practical and you can see the blood, dirt, and sweat on each and every actor. The swordplay is copious and varied. And while the film is pretty violent (especially in the first act), the body count is just low enough for it to be shocking whenever a life is lost (like all Martin Campbell action films, the violence stings and the dead are mourned).
Although there are four major action set pieces, the 135-minute film is long enough to have ample heapings of plot and character development. Even the villain (Stuart Wilson) is given shadings and moments of empathy, and his grand scheme is both brilliant and logical. Eleven-and-a-half years after its release, The Mask of Zorro is still Antonio Bandaras and Catherine Zeta Jones's finest hour, it contains one of Anthony Hopkins's best performances. If by some fluke you haven't seen this one yet, you now have absolutely no excuse. If you value my opinion at all, you'll buy or rent The Mask of Zorro today.
Also available today:
Terminator Salvation: The Director's Cut
2009
118 minutes
Rated R
Available Tuesday, December 1st on DVD, Blu Ray, On Demand, and ITunes Download
by Scott Mendelson
Terminator Salvation is arguably the closest thing to non-stop action since The Mummy Returns. It opens in the thick of a military operation and barely slows down for its 115 minutes. Character development is almost non-existent and the picture relies on our prior knowledge of the previous Terminator pictures. The characters are paper thin and the film has obvious signs of tinkering. Ironically, for a film that constantly opines about the strength of the human heart, the film lacks the very heart and soul that brought humanity to the first three pictures. It is occasionally a first-rate action spectacle, but it is only the spectacle that merits recommendation. Full Theatrical Review (the director's cut makes no difference to the film's quality).
The Blu Ray:
The film looked spectacularly bleak when I saw it in theaters, and that bleached, gray hopeless image is repeated on the Blu Ray. The kind of perfection from this image is very different from the colorful nirvana of Star Trek or a Spider-Man picture, but it's beautiful in its own way. Since I don't have surround sound, the best I can say for the audio is that it was loud and crisp, with dialogue properly separated from sound effects at all times. The biggest extra of note is a three-minute longer 'director's cut'. Considering the 45 minutes of footage that was cut prior to the theatrical release, this is a pretty shabby turn from Warner. Even Universal put the infamous deleted footage from The Incredible Hulk on the DVD/Blu Ray as a separate supplemental.
Frankly, aside from a couple extra splashes of blood, I couldn't tell you what was different in the two versions. The only other extras are two featurettes running about 30 minutes total and an In-Movie Experience, which is quickly taking the place of traditional commentaries at Warner Bros (unfortunately, this is available on the theatrical cut only). To be fair, it's actually a pretty solid movie-in-movie feature, as it runs pretty much nonstop with interviews, fly-on-the-wall footage, and director McG literally pausing the film and talking you through various sequences and reminding you that he's a pretty solid filmmaker (he loves long scenes that feel like a single take). And three cheers for Warner for providing English and French subtitles for the commentary portions as well as the feature. The total In-Movie gimmick runs about ten-minutes longer than the movie itself. The only portions available separately are the 'Focus Points', which run about 29 minutes combined. All in all, this smells like a candidate for an 'ultimate edition' double-dip within a couple years, hopefully with all of the missing footage either put back into the movie or offered as a bonus.
Shorts
2009
89 minutes
Rated PG (for mild action and rude humor - should have been a G)
Available Tuesday, December 1st on DVD, Blu Ray, On Demand, and ITunes Download
by Scott Mendelson
Shorts is a gloriously old-fashioned kids flick made with a knowing cleverness. The picture is fast-paced, funny, colorful, exciting, and absolutely appropriate for children while entertaining for adults. Shorts is no classic, but it clearly does not want to be. It aims purely to be a breezy and pulpy children's adventure film, no more and no less. Robert Rodriguez again proves himself a jack of all trades, as his family pictures (Shorts, the Spy Kids series) are every bit as imaginative and often more entertaining than his R-rated action pictures (the Mariachi trilogy, Planet Terror, From Dusk Till Dawn). Full Theatrical Review
The Blu Ray:
As is becoming the pattern these days, Shorts is presented in a double-disc collection which contains the Blu-Ray and a standard definition DVD also containing a digital copy. Both the DVD and the Blu-Ray contain Rodriguez's standard '10-Minute Film School' and '10-Minute Cooking School' featurettes (the latter features a recipe for chocolate chip volcano brownies). The Blu Ray contains those two bonus features plus two exclusives, "The Magic of Shorts" (a making-of which concentrates on the technical and fx aspects) and "Shorts Show and Tell" (a making-of which concentrates on the young cast). The combined extra load totals less than forty-minutes, which is unfortunate for fans of this under-seen gem. There is alleged BD-Live capabilities, so there may eventually be some kind of additional content at some point. The film looks and sounds lovely, although I'm not sure why Warner didn't think to include a Spanish 5.1 Dolby TrueHD to compliment the respective English track. Point being, unless you collect Rodriguez's films or have the kind of kids who like to watch the same movie over and over again, this disc is purely a rental.
Scott Mendelson
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