Dr. Moreau: What is the law?

Sayer of the Law: Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men?

 

"Are we not men?" That question is at the heart of the 1932 "Island of Lost Souls" (Criterion), the first adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel and (for all the changes from the novel) still the defining one. It's also been the hardest to see. Though it was released on VHS and on laserdisc, it rarely showed on TV or cable and its arrival on DVD comes decades after the classic horrors of the thirties -- "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "Freaks," "The Mummy," "The Black Cat" and so on -- have been released. As a result it's more known about than seen, more often a footnote in conversations about the early days of horror, when in fact it's one of the most transgressive films of its era.

 

Charles Laughton enters the film as Dr. Moreau in the white linen suit of a plantation owner or a southern slaver. Once he cracks his ever-present whip to send the "natives" scurrying in fear, the resemblance is sealed, but that's just the beginning of his brutal identity.

 

"Do you know what it means to feel like God?" he boasts, but he's more a demon in the devil's workshop transforming beasts into human-like creatures. Whether they are men is an open question, but they certainly aspire to manhood in their creation of community and adherence to laws. Whether Dr. Moreau, a vivisectionist who seems to enjoy the pain he inflicts, has sacrificed his humanity is more to the point.

 

Arrogant and unfeeling, he's the proto Dr. Mengele, the master-race scientist who operates on his subjects without anesthesia or compassion in an operating room he calls "The House of Pain." (In the era before DNA and genetic engineering, his operations are all grafts and transplants.) "This time I'll burn out all the animal in her," he swears as his prized project Lota (Kathleen Burke) reverts back to her feline roots. It's as much a threat as it is a statement of purpose, a promise of terrible pain that evokes torture and hellfire. And as he plots to pair off Panther Woman Lota to his castaway guest (Richard Arlen) to procreate, he's essentially experimenting with bestiality. No wonder this was banned in Britain for decades.

 

With big screen horror films routinely returning to familiar paradigms, whether it be psychotic killers stalking teens or the post-"Blair Witch Project" video "reality" strain (like "Paranormal Activity 3," last week's box-office monster), it's always a treat to find filmmakers reviving old genres with new attitude and hacking their way through new territory. This week, two recent horror imports show that ingenuity and creativity are alive and well in the horror genre: "Attack the Block" (Sony) from Britain and "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" (Oscilloscope) from Finland.

 

"Attack the Block" (Sony), an alien invasion movie set in the gang-run projects of South London, is both far smarter than it looks on the surface, and more indebted to the drive-in horror movie culture than has been acknowledged.

 

While fireworks fill the sky, meteors pelt the streets, unleashing inky-black predators on an unsuspecting gang of teen thugs and a young nurse (Jodie Whittaker) who they just mugged. Most monsters have eyes that glow in the dark. These inky-black furry predators are all teeth and they glow in the dark with a threat they can't ignore. Part of the pleasure of the film is the way filmmaker Joe Cornish gives these memorable creatures, smudgy "wolf-monkey" fur balls that disappear in the shadows and leap out like all-mouthy eating machines, a startling physicality. As unreal as they look, they are insistently present and threatening.

 

But even more impressive is the way he brings us into the social culture of the neighborhood and past the first impressions of these young gang members. John Boyega, a remarkable young actor who portrays Moses, the glaring leader of the group, is a performer to watch; the volatile mix of anger and toughened  attitude he brings to the role covers a vulnerable young man beneath the pose. Plus, how can you not like a film where a dazed and confused stoner (Nick Frost) figures out how to fight these aliens because he watches a lot of natural history TV. More reviews here.

 

There is something very appealing in the gee-whiz earnestness and plucky patriotism of "Captain America: The First Avenger" (Paramount), a red, white and blue superhero journey wrapped up in the nostalgia of the World War II era, where American pluck and moral certainty made the battle.

 

MSN has an exclusive clip from the making of the film below, after the jump

 

As the title hints, it is something of a feature-length prologue to the upcoming superhero extravaganza "The Avengers," showing us exactly why the star-spangled Captain is the standard bearer of superhero ideals. Next to the psychotic obsession of Batman and the wisecracking, fun-loving spirit of Spiderman, Cap is the boy scout of the genre: brave, virtuous, earnest, so square he's almost hip. And the film owes all due credit to Chris Evans, who brings a convincing mix of pluck, modesty and duty to the role, embodying an icon without turning it into parody. He's the guy who steps up at every challenge, whether he's the scrawny, sickly, 4-F Brooklyn kid constantly scrapping with bullies while trying every trick to enlist or the super soldier leading a squad of howling commandos against greater numbers to take out The Red Skull, Hitler's madman of a freelance mini-Fuhrer.

 

But the film is also an old-fashioned piece of two-fisted comic-book heroism with a patina of nostalgia and World War II patriotism. It's a big film with sturdy production values, great forties costumes and sets and technology, terrific World War II Europe settings and Tommy Lee Jones as the flinty but dedicated American Colonel who is all about the men and the practical approach to winning the war and protecting his soldiers from reckless harm.

"It's light and bright and brisk, but never glib: It's a layer cake made of one part Indiana Jones, one part James Bond and one part "Inglourious Basterds," with the bright colors, tone and style of a four-color comic book as the icing holding it all together," writes MSN film critic James Rocchi. "With director Joe Johnston hitting the same tones of retro-styled high adventure he did in 1991's "The Rocketeer," "Captain America" is not high art, but it is so unabashedly fun -- and such well-made fun -- that it is hard to not like and admire it for so steadfastly being what it is."

 

While not the best superhero movie in the recent cycle of big-screen comic books, it's far from the worst and at times endearing in its sense of honor, decency and responsibility. It's more of a live-action graphic novel than a fully-realized movie, a retelling of a pulp myth or a chapter in a superhero saga rather than a stand-alone movie experience, but that in a way makes it an even more appropriate home video experience. Just file that disc alongside the other stories in the tales from the Marvel Universe.

 

 

Warner Home Video announced that as of December 29, 2011, it will stop shipping all home video editions of the "Harry Potter" films: DVDs and Blu-rays, standard and special editions, single discs and box sets.

That doesn't mean they will all suddenly disappear -- now that would be a magic trick worthy of special credit at Hogwarts -- but that all discs will be limited to stock on hand on store shelves and stockrooms. When those are sold, there will be no more.


But don't panic. This is clearly timed to make the most of the holiday season and encourage anyone thinking of picking up a "Harry Potter" movie for a gift or complete their DVD library to take the lunge now.

And don't expect this to last forever. Disney has for decades taken their animated classics out of circulation and then, after a break of a few years, re-released them in theaters and on home video in new editions for a new generation.

And according to the press release, the film will still be available through video on demand and digital delivery.

Here's the full text of the press release, after the jump:
 

New Releases:

"Captain America: The First Avenger" (Paramount) is, as the title hints, something of a prologue to the upcoming superhero extravaganza "The Avenger," but it's also an old-fashioned piece of two-fisted comic-book heroism with a patina of nostalgia and World War II patriotism. And the film owes all due credit to Chris Evans, who brings a convincing mix of pluck, modesty and duty to the role, embodying an icon without turning it into parody. While not the best superhero movie in the recent cycle of big-screen comic books, it's far from the worst and at times endearing in its sense of honor, decency and responsibility. Available on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Winnie the Pooh" (Disney) is the new animated feature starring the silly old bear of A.A. Milne's children's stories, and Disney's first hand-drawn animated feature in some time.

 

The lead-up to Halloween also brings a few choice titles out for the season, the most choice being "Attack the Block" (Sony), a British invasion-in-the-hood​ thriller with both a palpable social subtext and a great B-movie energy. And from Finland comes the twisted Santa Claus tale "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" (Oscilloscope). Videodrone reviews them here.

 

Kevin Spacey is "Father of Invention" (Anchor Bay), an inventor and TV pitchman on hard times, Jenna Fischer needs "A Little Help" (Image) in this comedy and "The People Vs. George Lucas" (Lionsgate) explores the complicated relationship between "Star Wars" fans and the film's creator.

 

From China comes "City of Life and Death" (Kino Lorber), an epic recreation of the Rape of Nanking in 1937, plus the costume action thriller "Shaolin" (Well Go) with Andy Lau, both on DVD and Blu-ray. "Fire of Conscience" (Vivendi) is a contemporary Hong Kong crime thriller.

 

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

 

TV on DVD:

"Barney Miller: The Complete Series" (Shout! Factory) collects all eight seasons of the iconic seventies sitcom -- 168 episodes altogether -- plus complete half-season of the spin-off "Fish" in a hefty 25-disc box set. Set entirely in the precinct house, it's still considered the most realistic portrayal of cops on television by real-life law officers. The set is also packed with supplements: commentary tracks, cast interviews and the original pilot. Videodrone's review is here.

 

The Emmy-winning 1977 holiday drama "The Gathering" (Warner) stars Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton.

With the new feature film set for release, the original 1980 British TV mini-series "Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy" (Acorn), starring Sir Alec Guinness is George Smiley, is back out on DVD. More from Videodrone here. Also from Britain comes "Luther 2" (BBC), the second round of the dark Idris Elba crime series, plus "Justice" (BFS) with Robert Pugh and "A Passionate Woman" (BFS), a romantic drama with Billie Piper.

 

"Nazi Hunters" (MVD) is an award-winning Canadian nonfiction series about the missions to hunt down some of the most wanted men in the 20th Century. Also new: "Thunder Cats: Season One, Book One" (Warner) with the first episodes of the new incarnation of the animated series, and "Robot Chicken: Season 5" (Warner) from the Cartoon Network.

Flip through the TV on DVD Channel Guide here

Cool, Classic and Cult:

"Are we not men?" That's the question at the heart of "Island of Lost Souls" (Criterion), the first adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel starring Charles Laughton as a heartless scientist who plays God in his jungle laboratory. Though not as famous as the original "Frankenstein" and "Dracula," this early-thirties horror is one of the greats and makes its long-awaited debut on DVD and Blu-ray. Just in time for Halloween. Videodrone's review is here.

 

And speaking of horror, two Lucio Fulci films arrive this week in new editions for DVD and Blu-ray: "Zombie: 2-Disc Ultimate Edition" (Blue Underground) and "House By the Cemetery" (Blue Underground) both add new supplements to newly-remastered editions of the grotesque Italian horrors. More from Videodrone here.

 

"Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection" (Vivendi) is an impressive ten-disc set featuring newly-remastered editions of ten features and dozens of shorts from their Hal Roach period, from their first sound short to "A Chump at Oxford" and "Saps at Sea" in 1940. A whole disc of supplements plus alternate versions of some shorts and feature films. "Nine Nation Animation" (New Yorker) showcases new animated shorts from around the world.

 

All of the Cool, Classic and Cult here

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

"Jurassic Park: Ultimate Trilogy" (Universal) brings all three of Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur adventures to Blu-ray in box set filled with old and new supplements. And, of course, lots of prehistoric predators. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Dazed and Confused" (Criterion), the "American Graffiti" for the other end of the baby boom generation, gets its Criterion Blu-ray release mere months after its Universal Blu-ray release. Needless to say, the supplements are impressive. Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" (Lionsgate) debuts on Blu with new supplements and "Tom and Jerry: Golden Collection, Volume One" (Warner) presents 37 classic cartoons remastered for DVD and Blu-ray.

 

Peruse all the new Blu-rays here

 

The complete calendar of releases this week is after the jump:

 

Fritz Lang arrived in Hollywood as an artist in exile and, as the creator of some of Germany's most famous and most successful films, accorded all due respect. Unlike a lot of artist refugees from Hitler's Germany, he was offered prestige assignments, "important" subjects and major stars. At least at first. Without major hits or awards to his credit, and with a reputation for autocratic methods (there's nothing a studio hates more than a "difficult" director), he very slowly slipped down the ladder into smaller budgets and increasingly turned to independent productions.

 

Fritz Lang's final three American productions were released through the Warner Archive Collection this year. And while they never reach the heights of his greatest American films -- "You Only Live Once" (1937), "Man Hunt" (1941), "Scarlet Street"  (1945), "The Big Heat" (1953) -- they have their pleasures and rewards.

 

"Moonfleet" (1955) was Lang's last film for one of the Hollywood majors. The budget-minded MGM production set in 18th century England, it's like "Great Expectations" by way of a gothic film noir, in this case a world of smugglers, knaves and decadent, corrupt gentry  on the rocky, foggy British coast. Jon Whitely is the film's answer to Pip, a plucky young orphan sent to live with the dark criminal aristocrat Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger), a brigand with money and status torn between his mercenary instincts and his growing sense of responsibility for the innocent and unfailingly loyal boy, the son of the woman he loved and in many ways the symbol of the road not taken.

 

Lang shot in CinemaScope entirely in the studio and still creates a claustrophobic world of craggy moors and bleak architecture. Even the stony church is a bleak sanctuary where cold statues seem to judge, if not outright threaten, the parishioners. Visually it anticipates the look of the Hammer Gothic horrors and Corman's Poe films, with its studio moors and gloomy sets of stone gray and rough wood and costumes of royal purple and soldier crimson, all shrouded in fog and mist like a perpetual purgatory. Granger delivers a perfectly sardonic and arrogant performance while George Sanders purrs pure aristocratic decadence and moral bankruptcy, relishing his easy corruption with wry looks and cheerfully greedy behavior. "You're cheating," accuses one man at a card game. He fixes a weary smirk and replies: "Even if I were, I'd consider it grossly impolite to say so in my own house." Sure, there's a redemption in the offing, but the brigands are a lot more fun.

 

After this low-end studio assignment, Lang ended his Hollywood career at RKO, once a major studio slowly withering under the capricious command of Howard Hughes, working with falling stars and budget-starved productions in black and white that he did his best to turn into an asset.

"While the City Sleeps" (1956) is less an all-star cast than a veteran line-up of studio pros: Dana Andrews as the ostensible lead, a TV newscaster in a multi-media news company that encompasses a metropolitan daily paper and a wire service, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price and Ida Lupino as the newspaper columnist whose nose for office politics is her greatest survival skill. Ostensibly a thriller about a serial killer (John Drew Barrymore) and the media circus around the investigation, there isn't much tension or crime movie thriller energy, but it does offer a thoroughly corrupt portrait of life: while a psychotic leatherboy kills girls and blames his mom, the staff of a new organization plays politics to maneuver themselves into a promotion when the playboy son (Vincent Price) of the deceased owner takes over and essentially pits his employees against one another to vie from promotion.

 

Here's what's new on DVD and Blu-ray this week as featured on Videodrone

 

Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for the Week

 

New Releases:

Arrrgh! Johnny Depp and the 'Pirates' are Back 'On Stranger Tides'!

True Stories: 'Page One' plus 'You Got to Move,' 'The Shock Doctrine,' hip-hop 'Beats' and Star Trek 'Captains'

Foreign Affairs: 'Aftershock' from China, plus 'The Last Circus,' 'The Names of Love,' 'The Robber' and more

The New Release Rack: Cameron Diaz is a 'Bad Teacher,' plus 'A Better Life,' 'Red State,' 'Monte Carlo' and more

 

TV on DVD:

'V' Leaves the Skies. Or at Least the Network Schedule

TV on DVD Channel Guide: Margaret Thatcher and J.K. Rowling via TV Movies

 

The Cool and the Collectible:

Cult Watch: 'Batman: Year One'

Classics: 'Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys' – Rock and Roll Deadpan

The Angry Ghosts of 'Kuroneko,' plus the 'Trancers' Chronicles, classic Hong Kong action and more Kevin Smith

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

'Willy Wonka' and the Ultimate Collector's Edition – with an exclusive clip

Blu-ray Round-up: 'The Crow,' 'The Guns of Navarone,' Fellini's 'I Clowns' and Martin Scorsese's 'Cape Fear' remake

Coming up next week:

"Captain America: The First Avenger" (Paramount)

"Winnie the Pooh" (Disney)

"Attack the Block" (Sony)

"Father of Invention" (Anchor Bay)

"The People Vs. George Lucas" (Lionsgate)

"City of Life and Death" (Kino Lorber)

"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" (Oscilloscope)

"Identification of a Woman" (Criterion)

"Island of Lost Souls" (Criterion)

"Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection" (Vivendi)

"Zombie: 2-Disc Ultimate Edition" (Blue Underground)

"Barney Miller: The Complete Series" (Shout! Factory)

"Jurassic Park: Ultimate Trilogy" (Blu-ray) (Universal)

"Dazed and Confused" (Blu-ray) (Criterion)

"The Conversation" (Blu-ray) (Lionsgate)

 

For calendar of upcoming releases, click here

 

"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: 40th Anniversary Blu-ray+DVD Ultimate Collector's Edition" (Warner) is quite the deluxe edition of the fantasy classic. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"The Crow" (Lionsgate), a perennial cult favorite among the dark comic-book movies, finally arrives on Blu-ray after (and only months after the inferior sequel was released). Brandon Lee (who died in a production accident while making the film) makes a simmering hellion of a hero, a lean, ruthless dark angel with furious moves and an intensity that strikes terror in his victims before he kills them in often grotesque ways, his form of poetic justice. It's essentially a sadistic revenge fantasy, a humorless Dr. Phibes with a demonic twist set in some vague Goth-noir city of perpetual night, buy style monkey Alex Proyas sets a striking look and tone: unreal nightmare fantasy with a flamboyant style, exaggerated art direction, and a thundering pace. A real live action comic book, right down to its pulp characters. The disc features a new commentary track by director Alex Proyas plus supplements from previous editions: a behind-the-scenes featurette, a profile of “The Crow” comic strip creator James O’Barr, extended scenes and deleted footage among the supplements, plus a bonus digital copy.

 

"The Guns of Navarone" (Sony) helped kick off the fashion for muscular World War II mission thrillers. Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven are part of the covert Allied saboteurs charged with infiltrating a Nazi stronghold on a rocky Greek island and destroying the heavily-protected guns hidden in the craggy caves. J. Lee Thompson’s WWII high tension adventure, adapted from the Alistair MacLean novel by blacklisted writer Carl Foreman, is a cracking good cliffhanger of grit and grease, loyalty and suspicion, and heroism under fire. Features separate commentary tracks by director J. Lee Thompson and film historian Stephen J. Rubin and 11 featurettes (the disc says three documentaries and eight featurettes, but as the longest is under 30 minutes I don't think they qualify as features, only featurettes), including "Ironic Epic of Heroism" hosted by Sir Christopher Frayling and the 1999 "Memories of Navarone" with J. Lee Thompson and stars Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and James Darren. Notes on the restoration from archivist Robert Harris here.

 

Raro Video released Federico Fellini's "I Clowns" on DVD earlier this year. It now makes the Blu-ray debut for both the film and the company. Originally made for Italian television, the production is a first-person exploration/apprecia​tion of the art and culture of clowns made with the usual indulgence of its director. Reviewing the film in 1971, Roger Ebert wrote of this mix of fact and fancy: "This is artful and sometimes very amusing, but it doesn't work as fiction because Fellini is tied to facts, and it doesn't work as documentary because Fellini will not (cannot?) abandon his gift of giving the raw material an artistic shape." Like the DVD, the Blu-ray features Fellini's 1953 short "La Agenzia Matrimoniale" (made for the anthology film "Love in the City"/"L'amore in citta") and Adriano Arpa’s 45-minute visual essay "Fellini’s Circus." The disc is in a paperboard holder in a slipsleeve and accompanied by a handsome 50-page booklet. Gary Tooze reports that it is a marked improvement over the flawed DVD release, with none of the edge-enhancement issues that plagued the earlier release, at his essential site DVD Beaver.

 

The Blu-ray debut of "Cape Fear (1991)" (Universal) arrives for the 20th anniversary of Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 thriller. Nick Nolte stars as the lawyer that sadistic ex-con Robert DeNiro hunts along with the counsellor’s wife (Jessica Lange) and daughter (Juliette Lewis) in his violent campaign of revenge. It’s Scorsese’s ugliest film in human terms, with a compromised lawyer who reneges on his duty to a vicious client to put him behind bars, his splintered family living a life of lies and mistrust, and an inhuman killer preaching revenge like a righteous angel of vengeance. Illeana Douglas and Joe Don Baker co-star, and original stars Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, and Martin Balsam all make cameos. Includes all the supplements of the previous DVD special edition: the 80-minute documentary "The Making of Cape Fear," two short behind-the-scenes segments, nine minutes of deleted scenes (including one very nice moment between mother and daughter), a featurette about the Saul and Elaine Bass opening credits sequence, a montage of matte effects shots and more, plus the usual BD-Live supplements.

 

Also new on Blu-ray: "Darkness Falls" (Image), Jonathan Liebesman’s 2003 supernatural horror movie about a demonic spirit that returns to a sleepy seaside town (in the guise of the famous midnight spirit who trades loose teeth for hard cash) to take revenge on a lynching from 150 years ago. No supplements.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks for October 18