Laserblast 12/7/10: Inception, Shrek Forever After, Videodrome

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Christmas is coming: time to start shopping for the cinefantastique fan in your life. What sort of horror horror, fantasy, and science fiction titles are available to stuff into stockings with care? Well, December 7’s big home video release is Christopher Nolan’s science fiction blockbuster INCEPTION, which is available to rent or own via Video on Demand and also for purchase as a single-disc DVD or in a 3-disc Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. The film itself is overblown and not nearly as satisfying as Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT, but the visuals are technically impressive, and film fans should be interested in all the behind the scenes featurettes.
Both the DVD and the Blu-ray offer the 148-minute theatrical cut of the film. The single-disc DVD offers a handful of bonus features, under the banner “Extraction Mode,” which focus on such topics as The Inception of Inception, The Japanese Castle: The Dream is Collapsing, Constructing Paradoxical Architecture, and The Freight Train. The Blu-ray disc offers all of these plus: Ambush on the City Streets, The Tilting Bar, The Rotating Corridor, The Mountain Fortress, Simulating Zero-G, Limbo: The Look of Unconstructed Dream Space, The Fortress Explosion, The Music of Dreams, The Dream-Share.
In addition, the 3-disc set contains a second Blu-ray disc, featuring even more bonus material:

  • Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious
  • Inception: The Cobol Job
  • Digital Motion Comic
  • 5.1 Inception Soundtrack (39 minutes, 10 tracks)
  • Conceptual Art Gallery
  • Promotional Art Archive
  • Inception Theatrical Trailers And Select Theatrical TV Spots
  • Project Somnacin: Confidential Files

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The week’s other major new home video release in the realm of horror, fantasy, and/or science fiction is SHREK FOREVER AFTER, the rather desperate attempt by DreamWorks to squeeze another sequel out of the moribund SHREK franchise. The films is available for purchase (not for rent) via Video on Demand; it is also available as a single-disc DVD and a two-disc Blu-ray and DVD combo. Additionally, the film has been wrapped in a “Holiday Double DVD Pack” with the direct-to-video spin-off, DONKEY’S CHRISTMAS SHREKTACULAR. And of course there is the inevitable box set, available in both DVD and Blu-ray format: SHREK: THE WHOLE STORY gathers together all four SHREK films.
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If the new stuff leaves you feeling unsatisfied, fear not. The Criterion Collection steps into the breach, offering another of their always superior presentations, in this case a director-approved edition of David Cronenberg’s VIDEODROME on Blu-ray. Features include:

  • High-definition digital transfer of the unrated version (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack)
  • Two audio commentaries: David Cronenberg and director of photography Mark Irwin, and actors James Woods and Deborah Harry
  • Camera (2000), a short film starring Videodrome’s Les Carlson, written and directed by Cronenberg
  • Forging the New Flesh, a new half-hour documentary featurette by filmmaker Michael Lennick about the creation of Videodrome’s video and prosthetic makeup effects
  • Effects Men, a new audio interview with special makeup effects creator Baker and video effects supervisor Lennick
  • Bootleg Video: the complete footage of Samurai Dreams and seven minutes of transmissions from “Videodrome,” presented in their original, unedited form with filmmaker commentary
  • Fear on Film, a 26-minute roundtable discussion from 1982 between filmmakers Cronenberg, John Carpenter, John Landis, and Mick Garris
  • Original theatrical trailers and promotional featurette
  • Stills galleries featuring hundreds of rare behind-the-scenes production photos, special effects makeup tests, and publicity photos
  • A booklet featuring essays by writers Carrie Rickey, Tim Lucas, and Gary Indiana

As for the rest of the weeks DVD and Blu-ray releases, December 7 offers a special edition DVD of COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE; a new Blu-ray disc of SHORT CIRCUIT 2, the disappointing sequel to SHORT CIRCUIT; re-issues of JOHNNY MNEMONIC and IDLE HANDS on Blu-ray; and a DVDTee package of Roger Corman’s THE WASP WOMAN (you get not only a DVD of the film but also a t-shirt with the outrageous poster art emblazoned on the front, in either larger or extra large).

As always, all of these items are available in the Cinefantastique Online Store. If you want to help keep a Sense of Wonder alive on the internet, please consider making a purchase.

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Sense of Wonder: Videodrome Remake – Re-Live the New Flesh

Videodrome (1983)Call me crazy, but why would anyone want to remake VIDEODROME? The 1983 original is an ambitious – but only partially successful – experiment that failed to wow general audiences and even put off many of David Cronenberg’s fans. Whatever it’s strengths and weaknesses, VIDEODROME is pure David Cronenberg – an expression of the distinctive sensibilities of the writer-director. It is simply not a marketable franchise that should be turned over to Hollywood hacks hoping to make a buck.
And yet, that is precisely what has happened, according to Variety. Ehren Kruger will script and produce a new version of the film, which will be distributed by Universal (which also released the original).  David Cronenberg, who is preparing THE MATARESE CIRCLE for stars Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington, is not expected to be involved.
The Variety article informs us:

The new picture will modernize the concept, infuse it with the possibilities of nano-technology and blow it up into a large-scale sci-fi action thriller.

The term “blow it up” seems weirdly appropriate – as in “reduce the project to a pile of worthless rubble.” Kruger has made a ton of money rehashing other people’s good work (scripting SCREAM 3, adapting THE RING for American consumption), but his more recent original screenplays have yielded weak box office (THE SKELETON KEY, THE BROTHERS GRIMM, BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE), and I don’t see evidence in any of his films of a sensbility qualified to take on Cronenberg.
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If this sounds a bit like an anti-remake rant, I guess it is to some extent. But there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a remake – Cronenberg himself proved that with his 1986 version of THE FLY. What I find dubious is the current penchant for taking fairly distinctive original works – films that, for better or worse,  had some sort of unique artistic sensibility – and turning them into fodder for the studio factory machine. When an artist as distinctive as David Cronenberg comes along and wants to remake VIDEODROME, then I’ll get excited.
Till then, I just have to shake my head and wonder why.