Peter Bogdanovich's AT LONG LAST LOVE (1975) at NYC's Anthology Film Archives for the first time. Bogdanovich tries to do for 30's musicals what his "What's Up, Doc?" did with screwball comedies from the same era, minus the wit and humor that Buck Henry and David Newman brought to that movie's screenplay. Despite its bad reputation and lack of home video release (Bogdanovich even wrote a letter apologizing for making the movie after it bombed) this isn't a half-bad attempt at using then-modern tools and techniques (i.e. live recording the sound from the musical numbers' performances) to give an old movie format a contemporary/loving/winking/new spin. You can't go wrong with Cole Porter tunes in your soundtrack (classics like 'Let's Misbehave' and more obscure tunes) along with production values comparable to those of the movies "At Long Last Love" is paying homage to. Hearing and seeing Cybill Shepherd and Burt Reynolds flub their musical numbers' lyrics is actually endearing to their shallow-but-well played characters. A talented supporting cast (Madeline Khan, Duilio Del Prete and John Hillerman) steals the movie from under the leads, but a deathly-dull third act derails the whole thing and it struggles to barely-recover before it all ends abruptly. A curiosity piece that marked the beginning of the end of Bogdanovich as a Hollywood A-lister, "At Long Last Love" is harmless.
Clint Eastwood's THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976) on Blu-ray. Loved this one growing up (one of the first westerns I remember catching on TV) and, seeing/hearing it in high-def for the first time in years, has made me both fall in love with it all over again and notice that, good as it is, "Josey Wales" has a few flaws. The movie falls into a repetitive pattern (people recognize Josey, he spits tobacco juice, firefight ensues, repeat) and, like the aforementioned "At Long Last Love," there's a descent into nothingness 3/4 of the way into the movie that is barely-saved by a last-reel action finale that ends the film on an underwhelming note. Sondra Locke is essentially playing a then-contemporary hippie character that stands at odds with pretty much every other character in the flick. Bill McKinney's Terrill makes a poor main main baddie for Josey to take down (John Vernon's Fletcher makes for a more interesting antagonist) but that frees the many supporting actors (Chief Dan George, Sam Bottoms, etc.) to make good impressions.
And I just love how, as with "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," the movie's narrative and bad-assery makes you forget it's happening during the Civil War because you're so wrapped into Josey's personal revenge crusade. I expected an underwhelming and repetitive Richard Schieckel commentary track and damn it, my expectation was sadly met.
THE SOPRANOS: SEASON 3 (2001) on DVD. After a very rough first couple of episodes (including a season opener so pretentious and borderline-atrocious HBO had to show it with the 2nd episode, featuring the freaky head of then-deceased Nancy Marchand attached to a double's body, as a two-hour season opener) the third season of "The Sopranos" settles down and begins its irrevocable march toward soap opera antics that characterized the rest of its run. While we still get classic standalone episodes ("Employee of the Month," "Pine Barrens," etc.), experimentation (music mixed/dubbed in peculiar ways, on-screen rewind action, etc.) and colorful guest performances (Joe Pantoliano, Annabella Sciorra, Burt Young, etc.) you can feel creator/writer David Chase beginning to sour on his family of gangsters by making us, as viewers, partake in some of the most uncomfortable and off-putting scenes ever committed to celluloid. Janice's wake for Livia Soprano in 'Proshai, Livushka' is literally nails-on-a-chalkboard unwatchable, but Chase chooses not to cut away and plunge us face-first into the Soprano sibling's moral bankruptcy. And even though this is the only season where AJ (Robert Idler) and Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) feature prominently in the season's main plot they're still largely relegated to background filler. For the life of me I still cannot belive it took SEVEN WRITERS to spit out such an underwhelming teleplay as 'University.' Warts and all, even mediocre "Sopranos" is still better than most TV out there and the writing/acting/directing as a whole is still some of the best. It's just not Season 1-or-2 "Sopranos" good.
CHARLES LAUGHTON DIRECTS THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (2002) on Criterion Blu-ray for the first time. Perhaps the best bonus feature ever made about a classic movie, this assembly of outtakes/deleted scenes/alternate takes from the principal photography of the 1955 motion picture directed by Charles Laughton shows the colorful Brit thespian to be his own movie's biggest fan. Arranged in the same order as the main feature's narrative, even laymen who don't know or care to know how movies are put together (but happen to like "Night of the Hunter" a lot) will delight at the way Laughton plays off-camera the characters that his on-screen actors are interacting with. You can feel the entire movie already existing inside Charles' mind, and struggling to put it together as a visually/acting package that lives up to his own standards. On top of the thrill cinephiles will get at seeing "The Night of the Hunter's" well-known performances from a new light (more Mitchum!) the presence of Laughton throughout the footage is like getting a whole new performance from one of the world's best character actors of the 20th century.
LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT - SEASON 2 (2002-03) on DVD. My favorite season of the now-concluded Dick Wolf procedural. So what if it's 4x3 full-screen and only comes with deleted scenes as a bonus feature? Olivia d'Abo's Nicole Wallace (the Dr. Moriarty to Robert Goren's Sherlock Holmes) was introduced this season, back when the cases were still anchored in a semblance of reality (while still embracing the theatricality of the "Columbo"-patented final reveal) and the show still had (barely) enough plot for the Major Case Captain (James Sheridan's Deakins) and A.D.A. (cool-as-f*** Courtney B. Vance's Ron Carver) to spew a few lines here and there. Vincent D'Onofrio's all-knowing Detective Goren is still young, full of weird eccentricities and in almost every scene in this Box Set (love his intrusion into the perp's eyesight space by leaning over all weird); D'Onofrio is the show, and if you don't like or care for him then too freaking bad. Though seemingly doing nothing important Det. Eames (Kathy Erbe) nods, rolls her eyes and spews dry wisecracks along with (and at) Goren. For my money "Cherry Red" and "Probability" have yet to be bettered as standalone, classic "L&O: CI" formula operating at the peak of the formula's format.
THUMBSUCKER (2005) on Sundance Channel for the first time. The aforementioned D'Onofrio and a talented cast (Tilda Swinton, Kelli Garner, Vince Vaughn, etc.) struggle to make anything interesting out of the plight of a teenager (Lou Taylor Pucci) that can't give up his oral fixation, and the social/family repercussions such behavior brings from those around him. It's as if somebody made a check list of what ingredients a low-budget indie movie from the mid-2000's should have (hip alternative music, angst-ridden brooding protagonist, sex/drug scenes, etc.) and then went about mechanically assembling them in front of the camera. Only Benjamin Bratt (practicing for his then-future role on A&E's "The Cleaner") and Keanu Reeves (hilarious as a deadpan hippie dentist who thinks can help Justin with his problem) stand out in an otherwise assembly-line manufactured filmmaking environment.
GAME OF THRONES (2011) on HBO-HD for the first time. The first half of the season's 10 episodes are set-up and getting-to-know-you backstory (it's "Lord of The Rings" meets a meth-infused McBeth-gone-King Lear narrative), which results in a cascade of 'WOW' and 'WTF!?' moments in the concluding episodes. While this makes for an unbalanced viewing there is an ever-present feeling that grown-ups (a lot of them veterans from "The Sopranos" and "Mad Men") are in charge of writing, directing, shooting and bringing to life George R.R. Martin's fantasy-anchored narrative. This knowledge, along with HBO's committment to a second season and growing ratings, makes viewing the incomplete-but-riveting first season of "Game of Thrones" an exercise in managing expectations. And while Sean Bean gets top billing an army of lesser-known actors (particularly "The Station Agent's" Peter Dinklage) keep "Game of Thrones" humming and going even when nothing seems to be happening, when in fact it's all a set-up for seasons to come. Belive the hype, this one's a winner across the board.
GREEN LANTERN (2011) in theaters for the first time. A friend invited me to see this and, since I had no intention to ever see it, said what the hay... yikes! If "Superman: The Movie" is the gold standard for myth-introducing superhero movies then "Green Lantern" is the opposite. A bloated, humor-less (but not for lack of trying, and failing, to crack lame jokes), underwhelming (almost no action scenes until the very end) and chemistry-free (seriously, nobody interacts well with one another... Mark Strong and Peter Sarsgaard are good in their roles but they're pretty much on their own little worlds) assembly-line summer blockbuster with a vapid pretty boy & girl (Reylonds and Lively) failing to ignite any sparks, "Green Lantern" is just plain awful. Somehow Martin Campbell manages to make the training sequence at planet Oa simultaneously too short, too long, too underwhelming and awe-inspiring (the best SFX work happens here). Warner suits are out of their friggin' mind if they OK a sequel with the same creative team/cast.
) and fun as an "X-Men" prequel could possibly be after the last two entries stunk-up the joint. Setting the movie in the thick of 1960's Cold War paranoia gives "X-Men: First Class" a James-Bond-meets-The Avengers vibe that Matthew Vaughn exploits beautifully. As long as Bryan Singer is involved with this franchise you can count on the movie he produces/writes to at least be good. 
