I saw a truly amazing performance last weekend at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA.  Before I tell you about it, let me share a bit of history:

If any of the topics that I have written about on this site appeal to you, then I probably don’t have to tell you about Mystery Science Theatre 3000.  Created by Joel Hodgson, the TV series ran from 1988 through 1999 on a variety of stations.  The plot is irrelevant, and is quickly dispensed with during the catchy opening theme for every episode.  In short, a man is trapped in space and forced to watch terrible movies.  To maintain his sanity, he constructs a bunch of robot buddies, and the three of them wisecrack their way through each film as it unfolds.  In each hour-and-a-half episode, the gang would take on a different, awful old film.  It was a riot.  Like many fans, I was deeply disappointed when the show took its final bow (making fun with the truly abysmal Danger: Diabolik on August 8, 1999).

But that was not the end!  Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett (the lead players of MST3K during its later years) reunited a few years back to form Rifftrax!   The project involved the three recording feature-length “riffs,” making fun of movies exactly as they did back with MST3K.  Except, this time, the films they’re making fun of are modern, well-known movies (everything from Star Wars to Star Trek to The Lord of the Rings to Indiana Jones, etc etc etc.).  The way the site works is that for a few bucks you can download one of their podcasts, for a movie whose DVD you either already own, or go out and rent.  Pop the DVD into your player, start the podcast, and you’re off!  I’ve downloaded a bunch of their Rifftrax over the past two years, and their over-all quality is stellar.  It’s the same joke-a-second format of MST3K, and it’s a lot of fun to listen the gang take on some of the big films from the past decade.  (If you’re looking for a place to start, I’d suggest downloading their Rifftrax for Batman and Robin.  Sure, making fun of that movie is like hitting the broad side of a barn, but still — the track is genius.)

Entirely separate from the Rifftrax project, five members of the ORIGINAL MST3K team have re-formed to create their own MST3K-type project: Cinematic Titanic.  Creator Joel Hodgson has teamed up with Trace Beaulieu (the original voice for Crow; he also played Dr. Forrester), Josh Elvis Weinstein (the original voice for Tom Servo), TV’s Frank Conniff, and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester).  Unlike Rifftrax, the Cinematic Titanic project continues the MST3K tradition of riffing on really old, really terrible movies that you’ve probably never heard of.  (Also unlike Rifftrax, these are available in DVDs with the original movie included.  That is convenient, but also makes each new installment a lot more expensive.)

At the Somerville Theatre this past weekend, my brother and I were lucky enough to see a live performance by the Cinematic Titanic team.  It was phenomenal.

The evening began with some warm-up entertainment by Dave “Gruber” Allen (who has a lengthy list of TV credits but who I recognized from his role as Guidance Counselor Jeff Rosso on Freaks and Geaks).  (As he came out to check the microphones, I kept thinking to myself “boy, that fellow sure looks a lot like the guy from Freaks and Geeks” — only to realize that he was, in fact, the guy from Freaks and Geeks!!)  One by one the Cinematic Titanic gang joined the stage, each one launching into a comedy routine of his/her own (working with whoever was on-stage already).  This was a blast and a great way to jazz up the audience.  Once Joel Hodgson came out, he and the gang took up positions to the left and right of the theatre’s large movie screen.  Each performer had a microphone and a lectern for their script.  (The riffs aren’t improvised.)  As the movie played out on the big screen, the gang barraged the audience with non-stop jokes and commentary.  

They chose a magnificent subject for their humor.  The film being mocked was called Blood of the Vampire.  It’s a Mexican Vampire story set in the 1920’s… that was made in the Philippines in the 1960’s.  It’s a film that is almost audacious in its bad taste (there are a bunch of characters who are supposed to be black, played by Philippinos covered with what looks like shoe polish), and the scary vampires are overwhelming in their silliness.  In short, the film is a perfect, ripe target, and the Cinematic Titanic gang did not drop the ball.

To say the performance was hysterical would be an understatement.  This was one of the funniest movie riffs I have ever seen.  The jokes came fast, and they came furious, and the hit-to-miss ratio was excellent.  Beyond that, it was a tremendous thrill to see in person all five of these talented performers, all of whom I have been watching on my TV screen for so many years.  

It was an amazing experience — and you can bet that when the Cinematic Titanic version of Blood of the Vampires becomes available (on-line information indicates that it is coming soon) I’ll be snapping up a copy.

In 1992, the groundbreaking Batman: The Animated Series premiered on Fox.  To this day, despite some mighty competition from the last two live-action Batman movies (especially the magnificent The Dark Knight), this show still stands as my favorite non-comic book depiction of Batman, the one that is most true to the character I have always pictured in my head.  Gorgeous animation combined with terrific stories that played Batman serious and scary made the show a knock-out right from the beginning (and ensured that the episodes would be as strong upon repeated viewings over 15 years later as they were when the show first launched).

But when considering all of the elements that made Batman: The Animated Series such a terrific success, we would be remiss in neglecting to mention the magnificent music.  In support of this point, La-La Land Records has recently released a phenomenal two-CD collection of the soundtrack from the show.  Unlike most cartoons of the time, which relied on a lot of recycled music, each episode of Batman: TAS had its own original score, performed by an orchestra.  The music was masterminded by Shirley Walker, ably assisted by a team that included Lolita Ritmanis and Michael McCuiston (all three of whom have a lot of work represented on this new CD collection).  Like the very best film score, the music from Batman: TAS was a critical element in creating the over-all tone of the piece, and it is strong enough to be tremendously enjoyable when listened to on its own.

The CD begins with a presentation of the Batman: TAS main title theme, which was composed by Danny Elfman (creating an interesting and catchy variation on his theme from Tim Burton’s Batman).  We are then presented with music from eleven notable episodes from the series’ early run.  

I am not a musician, so writing about music doesn’t come easily for me, but let me try to share how much I enjoyed listening to these CDs.  What is incredible is the way each episode has its own unique themes, composed to reflect the action and the characters (heroic and villainous) featured in that particular show.

Right away a stand-out is the work on the series’ first episode, “On Leather Wings,” in which Batman is blamed for crimes committed by a mysterious and monstrous Man-Bat creature.  The Batman: The Animated Series theme is wondrously woven in to the adventurous, exciting score that the conveys the energy and action of Batman’s vertiginous mid-air battle with the Man-Bat while establishing the series’ dark, brooding tone.

Other stand-outs for me include the creepy, almost child-like theme for Harvey Dent, tracking his descent into madness as he becomes the creature Two-Face in the episodes “Two-Face” Parts I & II; the way the score  from “It’s Never Too Late” evokes the feel of the classic Warner Brothers gangster films; and the wonderfully ominous music from “Vendetta,” an episode that investigates the rather un-heroic Gotham City police officer Harvey Bullock.

I also particularly enjoyed the final track on the collection, “Music of the Bat 101.”  In this short piece, Shirley Walker gives an account of the different elements of the Batman: The Animated Series theme — how it breaks down, how the different musical components of the theme work together, and how they can be slightly varied to create wildly different effects.  This is a fascinating little bit of business, and a really fun surprise at the conclusion of the second CD.

If I have any complaint about this collection, it is that three of the eleven episodes are episodes that featured the Joker (”The Last Laugh,” “Christmas With the Joker,” and “Joker’s Favor”).  To me, those are decidedly lesser episodes of the series, and I never really cared for the carnival-esque musical themes that were used to depict the Joker and his gang.  But, on the other hand, I know some people who love those episodes, and those scores, so to each his own, I guess.

I could also complain that the episodes represented in these CDs are all from very early in the show’s run, leaving off the amazing music from so many later classic episodes (such as “Robin’s Reckoning,” “Feet of Clay,” and “The Demon’s Quest”).  But I can only hope that this means that we’ll be seeing additional, future collections, that might contain the fine work from those later episodes.

Please let it be so, La-La Land Records!  Listening to this set only confirms what I had known since 1992, that the music from Batman: The Animated Series is truly extraordinary work.  This soundtrack easily ranks among the best of the movie and TV soundtracks in my collection.

I love watching the Oscars.

Oh, don’t get me wrong — it’s a pretty ridiculous popularity contest, and I usually find that Hollywood’s choices (in terms of the nominations and the winners chosen) range from the bizarre to the absurd.  BUT I do enjoy the spectacle of the show — particularly when there’s a good host bringing a lot of comedy into the proceedings — and the night is a great excuse to gather with some friends and talk about movies for three-plus hours.

If I disagree with Hollywood’s selections, then what movies do I think should have been nominated?  So glad you asked!  If you missed it, click to read part 1 and part 2 of my Top Ten Movies of 2008 list.  It’s quite a different bunch than the films that you’ll hear mentioned at this weekend’s ceremony!

As for Hollywood’s choices, I have ranked the Best Picture nominees below, in order of my preference:

1.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — This is the film I’m pulling for.  I loved it, and I hope to have a chance to see it again before it leaves theatres.  I’ve been having some fun with this flick in my comics all week, and you can click here to read my full review of the film.

2.  Frost/Nixon — A fascinating slice of history, brought to life by a group of powerhouse actors.  Click here to read my full review.

3.  Milk — An important film that is powerful and terrifically entertaining at the same time.  It almost made my top 10.  Click here to read my full review.

4.  Slumdog Millionaire – You know that Seinfeld episode where Elaine feels like she’s the only person in the world who didn’t like The English Patient?  That’s me with this movie.  I didn’t HATE it — it’s a perfectly fine, entertaining movie.  I just didn’t think it was anything that special, and CERTAINLY nowhere even close to the best film I saw in 2008.  Click here to read my full review.

5.  The Reader — Despite some terrific acting performances, I found this film to be just a mess.  Click here to read my full review.  If the film is making the point that I think it is making — that is, that Michael Berg (David Kross/Ralph Fiennes) is just as much a victim of the Nazis as were the Jews — then I find that to be a rather objectionable idea.  A movie that addresses the conflicted feelings of modern Germans about the Holocaust is a fascinating idea for a film, and I feel that I can be very sympathetic for Germans who suffered during the Holocaust, or through its aftermath.  But EQUATING that suffering to the suffering of Jews who were killed goes a bit too far for me.  And I really can’t blame Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) for how Michael grows up to be such a prick.  Oh, and Hanna Schmitz’s deep, dark secret is really really stupid.  Click here to see my recent cartoons on the subject.

So those are my thoughts.  What are yours?

Enjoy the show, everyone!  See you back here next week!

A few months ago I wrote about some of the exciting Star Trek fiction that Pocket Books has released over the past several years, picking up story-lines left hanging by the now off-the-air 24th century Trek series (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager).  The over-all quality of these books has been terrific, and I have really been enjoying the sense of a coherent, connected universe that the novels have created.  Story-lines from one novel lead into the next, characters are growing and changing in ways they seldom did on the TV shows that needed to preserve the status quo from week-to-week, and there’s been a strong sense of the over-all narrative moving forward towards something really exciting.

That something exciting is Star Trek: Destiny, the three-novel series by David Mack that serves as a sort-of “season finale” for all of the Trek novels released recently.  Multiple characters from all of the Trek series, as well as a variety of new characters that have been introduced and developed in the novels, converge in this enormous storyline.

Half a decade after the end of the Dominion War, Captain Dax of the U.S.S. Aventine has discovered in the Gamma Quadrant the wreckage of Earth’s second Warp 5 starship, the U.S.S. Columbia NX-02, lost for centuries.  (The Columbia and its Captain, Erika Hernandez, were a big part of the fourth and final season of Star Trek: Enterprise.)  Meanwhile, the moment the Federation has long dreaded has arrived:  The Borg have launched a full-scale invasion of Federation territory, with hundreds of cubes.  Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise attempt to lead the remains of Starfleet in a last-ditch effort to protect the core systems and somehow halt the Borg advance, but as world after world falls, their struggle becomes increasingly hopeless.  

Destiny is an ambitious, far-reaching story that tells several (interconnected) tales simultaneously.  We follow Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise as they fight to find some way to defeat the Borg, as they have so many times in the past.  Meanwhile, far outside of Federation space on a mission of deep-space exploration, the hopelessness of Captain William Riker and the crew of the U.S.S. Titan at being too far away to help their friends and family is compounded when they find themselves in an impossible situation, trapped by the highly advanced species called the Caeliar.  This long-lived race is connected to the mystery of the Columbia, which Dax and the Aventine are investigating in the Gamma Quadrant.  (And, not surprising, both stories are connected to the Borg’s invasion of the Federation — although what IS surprising is the remarkable nature of the ultimately-discovered revelations about the Borg.)  We also follow events on the political side of the Federation — President Nan Bacco (from the novel Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido) as she struggles to hold together the surviving members of the Federation, as well as several of their former enemies, in some sort of coalition in the face of annihilation by the Borg.  Finally, there is the sad tale of the terrible fate of Captain Hernandez and the crew of the Columbia, whose story slowly unfolds over the course of the trilogy and is connected in surprising ways to all of the terrible events unfolding.

Mack tells a ripping yarn, no question.  The trilogy follows the stories of scores of characters (each starship featured has a host of major and minor characters, all of whom get face-time over the course of the story), and it is to his credit that there were only one or two times when I had any confusion over who exactly was where.  Mack is able to give each character his or her own distinctive voice, which brings life to the tale and also helps the reader keep everyone straight.

I have waxed poetic before, and I will certainly do so again, about the terrific continuity between the recent Trek novels.  It has been very exciting to see the familiar Trek TV characters grow and change over the course of the recent series (Picard and Crusher finally moving forward with their long-simmering relationship which had been hinted at ever since the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation — and same goes for Riker and Troi).  It’s also been neat seeing all of the new characters introduced in the novels become integrated into the over-all story-line — characters like Sam Bowers (Dax’s executive officer on the Aventine), Christine Vale (Riker’s second on the Titan), Federation President Nan Bacco, and many others.  The novels have also been great at bringing back and breathing life into obscure characters from the various TV shows, characters like Melora Pazlar (the woman from an extremely low-gravity planet featured in one early episode of Deep Space Nine) and Simon Tarses (the young Enterprise officer put through the wringer in the Next Gen episode “The Drumhead”), all of whom are now important members of the over-all ensemble.

Freed from the constraints of having to leave their toys in exactly the same place that they found them, recent Trek authors have made some dramatic changes to the characters and to the status quo — but none more-so than Mack, who really turns over the apple cart with this trilogy.  It’s safe to say that our heroes aren’t all annihilated at the end, but the Federation suffers some shocking defeats over the course of the story, and there’s no magic reset button at the end to set everything back to normal.  In addition to some enormous changes to the galactic situation, many of the characters go through some pretty interesting personal journeys over the course of the story, and find themselves in very different places at its end than they were at its beginning.

I wish they were making huge, epic Star Trek stories like this for TV or the movies!!  Failing that, though, I couldn’t be happier with the recent Trek fiction by Pocket Books, and David Mack’s Destiny trilogy is a major achievement.  I cannot wait for the next novel!!  (That’d be Keith R.A. DeCandido’s A Singular Destiny, charged with picking up some of the pieces left by Mack’s epic.  I’ll let you know how it is…)

Haven’t done one of these in a while…

Here’s some of the fun stuff floating around the interwebs these days:

The Simpsons has moved to HD!  This has apparently necessitated a change in the show’s iconic opening credits sequence, which has remained constant for 19 years.  (Can you believe it’s been that long??)  Fear not, fans, the new credits sequence is quite spectacular.  It follows the general pattern of the old opening, bringing us through Springfield — from Bart writing on the blackboard to Homer working in the plant to Lisa in band class to Marge shopping with Maggie, etc etc.  But there are a LOT of great new gags, and new appearances by many of the popular characters who weren’t around when the show originally launched (Groundskeeper Willie, Otto, Ralph Wiggum, Pattie & Selma, Sideshow Bob, Apu and his Octuplets, and many more).  And the new animation is terrific.  If you missed yesterday’s episode, check out the new opening by clicking here.  Note that the couch gag is, of course, just this week’s version — that ending joke will continue to change every week.  By the way, after watching this clip, do you find yourself missing Bleeding Gums Murphy?  (He’s one of the characters Bart used to skateboard past, who has now been removed.)  Don’t worry, he’s still there!  Check out the pictures on the wall behind the kids in Lisa’s band class…

Just like the year when there were two asteroid-hitting-the-earth movies (Deep Impact and Armageddon) or the year when there were two volcano movies (Dante’s Peak and Volcano), this year there are two Mall Cop flicks coming out.  Perhaps you, like me, chose to pass on Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James.  But you might still be interested in Seth Rogen’s much, much darker take on the idea.  Click here to see a trailer for Observe and Report.

Speaking of trailers, Quentin Tarantino’s let’s-go-kill-some-Nazis flick Inglourious Basterds (yes, that is how the title is spelled) has a teaser trailer that was just released.  Click here to check it out.

Is Joaquin Phoenix melting down before our eyes, or is this all some kind of hoax for the documentary that Casey Affleck is apparently filming about Phoenix’s attempt at a rap career?  I have no idea, but click here to watch his truly bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, and judge for yourself.

If you’re a Watchmen fan who is chomping at the bit for the movie to be released (Match 6th is coming!!), then you definitely need to click here to watch the teaser for the Tales of the Black Freighter direct-to-DVD release. 

Finally, I encourage you all to bid a last farewell to the great Ricardo Montalban, who passed away last month, by clicking here to watch Robot Chicken’s Star Trek II: The Opera.  Brilliant.

Every so often, we get to witness a magical synthesis between actor and role that takes a quality piece of material and elevates it to something really special.  Mickey Rourke burst onto the movie scene in the early eighties in films such as Body Heat and Diner.  But if you’ve heard or read anything about The Wrestler, then you probably know all about his subsequent fall from grace.  He started to gain a reputation for mis-behaving on set — showing up late, not learning his lines — and then he quit acting in order to become a professional boxer.  After a brutal four years (which resulted in the destruction of his movie-star good lucks) he returned to acting, only to appear in bomb after bomb.  (You can visit his imdb profile to check out the long list of films he appeared in in the nineties and early aughts that I guarantee you’ve never heard of.)

In The Wrestler, Rourke stars as Randy “the Ram” Robinson.  In the eighties, he was an enormously successful wrestler.  But those days are long past, and when we meet Randy in the opening scenes of The Wrestler, he has become “an old, broken-down piece of meat” (as he describes himself later in the film).  His face and his body have been battered by decades of wrestling, he needs a hear-ing aid to hear properly, and he devours pain-killers to manage his constant-pain.  He still wrestles, but mostly before light crowds in school gymnasiums.  His days of glory are just a memory.

What we know of Rourke’s life over the past two decades inevitably colors our perspective of the Ram.  Rourke doesn’t even need to say anything — just a look at his broken face says it all.  Although the details are different, in many ways Rourke’s story IS that of the Ram’s, to such a degree that it is impossible to imagine any other actor in the role.  This gives a powerful, additional level of resonance to the story.

But Rourke doesn’t rest on his personal similarities with his character.  In every scene, in every moment, in every little look and gesture, he uses his acting abilities — which are still quite formidable — to create an iconic performance.  The Ram is an enormous mountain of a man — yet also a figure of surprising gentleness, which we see in the way he interacts with the neighborhood kids, in his kindness to his fans, and in the way he reaches out to his estranged daughter.  But he is also prone to making bad decisions, and consistently tripping up his own good efforts at creating or maintaining relationships with others.

The Ram’s closest personal connection in the film is with a stripper, Cassidy, played by Marisa Tomei.  Although at first they seem to be polar opposites, people from different worlds, but as we get to know them both we discover that the two characters are alike in many ways.  Both are looking for a real connection with someone (as opposed to the  shows they put on for their fans and clients, whether in the ring or in the strip club).  In many ways, The Wrestler is a film about loneliness.  It is about the ways in which imperfect people react to living past their prime, and feeling trapped in a life that is not the one they dreamed of.  I must confess to never having been a big fan of Marisa Tomei, but after having seen her fierce performances in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead last year and now The Wrestler, I am eager to see what she does next.  I hope she is able to find some equally substantial parts.

I loved Darren Aronofsky’s last film, The Fountain.  Although I was a bit befuddled by its twisty story-line, it was clearly the work of a confident director with an interesting visual style and a great way with his actors.  The Wrestler is filmed in a much different style — it has a grittier, more hand-held look to it, which perfect suits the tale being told.  In many scenes the camera seems to perch right on the Ram’s shoulder, putting us right in the middle of his circumstances.  I love the slow visual way in which Aronofsky introduces us to the Ram — for the first several minutes of the film, we follow the Ram around without ever seeing his face.  Aronofsky teases us — we see a glance here, an almost-turn there — before we finally get a look at his weary, beaten-up visage.  It is great fun to watch such a talented, confident director at work.  

The Wrestler is a brutal film.  It is a sad story, and the glimpses we get of the Ram’s life in the ring are  visceral and unpleasant.  There are three major fights in the film, and the middle one is the most horrible — it made me rather nauseous, in fact!  So be warned about that.  But don’t let that discourage you from seeing the film, either.  I was really shaken by this little story of a broken-down old wrestler, and I found myself often thinking about it in the days after seeing the film.  It is a well-crafted, well-acted story.  Can’t ask for too much more than that.

I have just seen the definitive version of Star Wars.

And it wasn’t created by George Lucas or anyone at ILM.  It was made by one fan.

For years I have been reading about the variety of “fan-edits” of the six Star Wars movies that have been floating around the internet.  Last month I finally got ahold of the famous Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I, which I wrote about last week.

I was so blown away by the high quality of that edit that I decided to check out some of the other fan-edits that are out there.  I am eager to watch the Phantom Editor’s take on Episode II (and I’ll certainly write about that here once I see it), but after perusing various sites such as fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com, it became clear that people were very excited about a fellow called Adywan’s special edition re-edit of Star Wars: Episode IV, titled Star Wars: Revisited.  I decided to track it down and take a look.

Wow.

Let me say again: Wow.

This one fan has produced an astounding re-edit of Star Wars that is, in my mind, by far the best presentation this film has ever received on any home video format.

Before I go into detail about what Adywan has done, let me give you a brief history of the many versions of Star Wars.  Even in the earliest years of its existence, George Lucas had a habit of fiddling around with it (adding in the Episode IV: A New Hope subtitle, for instance, or the brief scene on the Death Star where Chewie growls at the little black droid).  In 1995, Lucas returned the original three Star Wars films to the big-screen with the Special Editions.  In addition to giving a whole new generation of folks (like me) a chance to enjoy the Star Wars films on the big screen, these versions contained a number of CGI enhancements.  Some of these changes were very cool (particularly many of the snazzy new space-ship shots, like the Millennium Falcon blasting out of Mos Eisley and some action-packed additions to the Death Star battle).  Some were controversial (the re-insertion of a scene between Han Solo and Jabba the Hut; the many new creatures added into the background of Mos Eisley).  Some were down-right stupid (Greedo shooting at Han and somehow missing at point-blank range, before Han shoots and kills him).  In 2004, the Star Wars Original Trilogy was finally released to DVD.  Sadly, it was a mess.  There were additional changes to the film that were not for the better (the Han-Greedo scene was further mucked with, with Han and Greedo now shooting at one another practically simultaneously), and all sorts of other things in the film just were, well, wrong.  In the opening crawl, the “Star Wars” title seemed to recede into the background at warp speed, way faster than in any of the other films.  There was some bizarre color-correction that resulted in shots where the lightsabers seemed to be the wrong color (with Luke’s blue saber looking green, and Vader’s red saber looking pink).  There were some instances where bits of dialogue had been replaced with alternative takes, and where John Williams’ score had mysteriously vanished.  (I am focusing on the changes made to A New Hope — I could rant on for days about the annoying changes made to Empire and Jedi…!)  Now, I am not a fan who is resistant to new versions of Star Wars!  I have been (and continue to be) excited about changes made to the films to correct errors and to enhance the visual effects.  It is when the changes seem foolish or careless that I get upset.

Which brings me (at last) to Star Wars: Revisited.  What Adywan has done is as follows:  he has taken the 2004 DVD version of A New Hope and a) corrected many of the problems of that version, bringing the visuals, the color-timing, and the audio in-line with the original version of the film while maintaining the high-quality of the DVD image, b) preserved the best of the changes made by Lucas and ILM for the 1995 Special Editions and the 2004 DVDs, while removing the foolish ones, and c) added in a whole host of new changes of his own, things that he (and many fans) had been HOPING to see in the Special Editions or the 2004 DVDs.

The result is nothing short of MAGNIFICENT.

I could go on for DAYS trying to list all of the changes that he has made.  Literally almost every scene has been tweaked in some way.  (For an exhaustive list, click here.)  And I wouldn’t want to spoil all of the fun surprises that Adywan has added in.  But let me note some of my favorite things:

The opening crawl has been fixed and Star Wars now recedes into the background at the proper speed.

You can see a wrecked Battle Droid in the Jawa transport with R2-D2 & C-3PO!

Threepio’s line “there’ll be no escape for the Princess this time” has been changed to “there’ll be no escape this time.”  This fixes a large continuity problem, since when R2 plays the “help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi” hologram, Threepio has no idea who she is, and is unclear who the special passengers on the Blockade Runner were.

There is an awesome new series of special effects shots that introduce the Death Star (showing it in orbit of a planet — very cool) that includes the Imperial March!  (True Star Wars fans know that this classic bad-guy theme has always been missing from A New Hope, since John Williams didn’t write it until he was scoring Empire!)  Also, in the scene on the Death Star that follows, when Tarkin is discussing the Emperor’s dissolution of the Senate, William’s Emperor theme (which was used a lot in Return of the Jedi and the Prequel Trilogy) plays softly in the background.

While a lot of the new creature effects added into the Mos Eisley sequence for the Special Editions have been preserved, they have been trimmed to cut out the juvenile humor (such as one droid punching another, or a Jawa falling off one of the large creatures).

When Obi-Wan slices off the arm of the creature menacing Luke in the Cantina (that’d be Ponda Baba.  Yes, I am a Star Wars geek), we see in the next shot that the arm actually looks cauterized (the way light-saber wounds look in all the other films) as opposed to bloody.

The moment where Han is surprised by Greedo was ruined in the 2004 DVDs because Greedo’s subtitles appear on screen too early, BEFORE Han sees Greedo.  This has been fixed.  Also, during the scene between Han and Greedo, Adywan has added some subtle facial articulation to Greedo’s face (his eyes blink, his mouth moves more), bringing the rubber mask to life.

HAN SHOOTS FIRST!!!

The effects shot of Alderaan being destroyed has been beautifully re-done, making this a much more powerful moment.

I don’t know how he did it, but somehow Adywan has totally re-worked the Vader/Obi-Wan duel to be both longer and much more fast-paced and intense.  In a really clever touch, he also added in music from Revenge of the Sith, specifically John Williams’ “Duel of the Fates” track that played behind the Anakin/Obi-Wan duel in that film.  The combination really elevates this scene, and connects the Original Trilogy to the Prequel Trilogy in a powerful way.  (He also used CGI to subtly touch up the moment when Vader actually strikes down Obi-Wan — we now see Vader’s saber burn through Obi-Wan’s cloak.  Very cool.)

The battle between the Falcon and the Tie Fighters after they escape from the Death Star has been greatly enhanced, so that it no longer seems as if the Falcon is sitting still while the Tie Fighters buzz around it.

When Han and Leia and then Han and Luke chat in the Falcon’s cockpit after the fight, the hyperspace effect has been added in to the cock-pit windows.  It was always ridiculous that there were un-moving stars in the cockpit during that scene, when they’re supposed to be racing to the rebel base!  

The graphics of the Death Star used during the rebels’ briefing have been nicely enhanced, and when Leia and the rebel leaders monitor the Death Star battle in their base, the huge circular panel that they gather around has been enhanced with a beautiful 3-D hologram of the Death Star and all the fighters.

Oh my lord the final Death Star battle has been tremendously enhanced.  There are a variety of entirely new shots that are just amazing — particularly a stunning shot of the fleet of TIE fighters engaging the rebel X-Wings (scored to the Imperial March, which has once again been inserted here).  There are a TON of tweaks to this whole sequence.  Almost every shot has had a lot of extra ships and explosions added in to the background, making the battle seem a whole lot more visceral and chaotic.  The big red planet Yavin has been added in to the background of many of the shots, emphasizing the Death Star’s increasing proximity to the Rebel Base.  When the X-Wings are being chased down the trench by Vader and his TIE fighters, you can now see the TIEs chasing behind the X-Wings in many of the shots.  (In all of the many versions of Star Wars, this has never been the case.  You’d always see a shot of the X-Wings and then cut to a shot of the TIE fighters.)

Chewie gets a medal at the end!  He’s no longer excluded!!

Wow, I listed more of the changes than I’d thought I would — but this should indicate how excited I was by all of the changes and updates!!  (And believe me when I say that there are literally hundreds of other changes, both large and small, that I have not mentioned at all.)  With only one or two tiny exceptions, all of the changes are amazingly seamless.  The new CGI enhancements are incredibly professional, ILM-quality work.  If you had never seen the film before, there is absolutely no way that you’d know that ANY of the many changes and additions were not done by Lucas’ team.

This is the version of Star Wars that I have always wanted to see.  I can’t wait to see it again.  And until and unless Lucas and his team step up to the plate, I truly believe that this will be the version of A New Hope that I’ll be watching from now on.  Amazing.

Back on September 9th I wrote about Star Trek: Phase 2, by far the most interesting of the many fan-made Star Trek projects that have sprung up over the past few years, in the absence of any new official Star Trek material on TV or at the movies.  The goal of Phase 2 is to create the fourth season of the Original Series (which was cancelled at the end of its third season).  Each installment of Phase 2 (there have been five episodes so far, counting their “pilot”) is an hour in length, and what is astounding about the endeavor (betcha thought I’d say enterprise) is the degree of professionalism involved in the production.  While the episodes don’t QUITE look like actual broadcast-able Star Trek episodes, they come pretty damn close.

The fifth episode was just released on-line:  ”Blood and Fire Part I.”  This is the first installment of the series’ first two-part episode.  The episode opens with a fierce battle between the Enterprise and a Klingon warship.  Although the Klingons are ultimately defeated, the Big E sustains Star Trek II level damage.  However, before the Enterprise can return to a starbase to be repaired, they receive a distress call from another Starfleet vessel, the USS Copernicus, which appears to be locked on course directly into a dying star.  When Spock leads an away team over to the Copernicus to try to figure out what happened to the ship and its crew, they soon find themselves in quite a lot of jeopardy.  ”Blood and and Fire” also re-introduces us to Captain Kirk’s young nephew Peter (introduced in one episode of the Original Series, “Operation — Annihilate!”), who has transfered over to the Enterprise to be closer to his husband-to-be, who is already an Enterprise officer.

“Blood and Fire” was written and directed by David Gerrold, who is only the lastest industry professional (and someone involved with the production of the original Star Trek) to have gotten involved with this fan-made series.  Mr. Gerrold was a key writer for the Original Series, and he wrote what many consider to be one of the finest Original Series episodes ever produced: “The Trouble With Tribbles.”  This story, “Blood and Fire,” was actually written by Mr. Gerrold for the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it was never produced.  (According to the Phase 2 web-site, the episode was shelved because of its mention of a gay crewman on the Enterprise.)  Mr. Gerrold re-worked the story for Phase 2.

Over-all, “Blood and Fire Part I” is another winner from the Phase 2 team.  The production values are incredible.  The sets, the costumes, the make-up, the lighting — everything looks just about perfect, totally capturing the feel of the Original Series.  (If anything, the bridge looks even BETTER than it did during the actual Original Series, with the inclusion for the first time in this episode of moving computer graphics on the bridge control screens.)  And the starship visual effects are astonishing.  The intense space combat with the Klingons in the episode’s teaser is the most eye-catching sequence, with action far beyond anything we ever saw in the Original Series, but I thought that the visuals later in the episode of the Enterprise and the Copernicus in close proximity to the dying star were even more marvelous.  I should also note the deign of the Copernicus.  As opposed to being a ship that looks just like The Enterprise, the special effects artists have created a ship that has the lay-out of the USS Reliant from Star Trek II (with the nacelles underneath the saucer section), but that has the look and feel of an Original Series-era starship.  In Paramount’s Star Trek: Remastered project, in which the hokey, models-on-sticks special effects of the Original Series were replaced by new CGI effects, there were a few instances in which the effects team replaced shots of other starships with this type of Original Series Reliant design.  But I always thought those attempts looked awkward and unconvincing.  In “Blood and Fire,” though, the Copernicus is a beautifully realized vessel.

The revelation in this episode that Peter Kirk is gay has caused quite a stir on-line, but personally I am thrilled to see this story-line make it to the screen.  I love the way his homosexuality is handled in the episode.  There are several “do people know” moments between Peter and his husband-to-be, and some bemused reactions from Enterprise crewmen.  But in every case the scenes could be interpreted to indicate that people are either wondering about the homosexual nature of their relationship OR just about the fact that they’re so young, and trying so poorly to keep their relationship a secret.  In the context of the episode, it’s almost certainly the latter, but the audience watching the episode might read in the former, which adds resonance to the story.

If I’m able to accept the re-casting of all the Original Series characters in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek film, then I’ll need to thank James Cawley (who plays Kirk and is the mastermind of this Phase 2 effort).  Over the course of the five Phase 2 episodes, I have come to accept and really enjoy these different actors’ interpretations of the characters.  Cawley’s Kirk is a lot of fun, capturing the energy of William Shatner’s iconic performance while avoiding falling into mimicry (at least most of the time.  The only scene of Cawley’s in “Blood and Fire” that doesn’t work for me is his sort of overblown reaction to the news of his nephew Peter’s engagement.  Later in the episode there is a moment when young Peter imitates his uncle’s reaction, so I assume Cawley over-did it in his scene to make the latter scene make sense.  Still, that moment of Shatner-imitation is the only tiny flaw in what is over-all a great performance.)  Other stand-outs include Ben Tolpin as Spock (replacing Phase 2’s previous Spock, Jeffery Quinn, who was also excellent) and Andy Bray as Checkov.  Kim Stinger is also great as Uhura, although she hasn’t had a lot to do in the series so far.

If there’s a weakness to this installment, it’s that Peter Kirk’s relationship with Enterprise crewman Alex Freeman takes up way too much of the focus of the episode, particularly in the first half.  I think it’s a mistake to shift the story too far away from our main characters (and it helps that I’ve been enjoying the main cast’s performances so much).  It was one thing in the last two episodes for the focus to not be on Phase 2’s Kirk and Spock, because the guest stars were Walter FREAKING Koenig (reprising his role from the Original Series as Pavel Chekov) and George FREAKING Takei (reprising his role from the Original Series as Hikaru Sulu).  But in “Blood and Fire” the guest star isn’t anyone famous, and Bobby Rice as Peter Kirk just isn’ t that compelling.  In fact, there are occasions where he reaches Peter Preston levels of annoying.  (Come on Star Trek fans, you get the reference, right??)  His husband-to be Freeman, played by Evan Fowler, does a better job, but still, these two guest stars get way too much screen time.

There are also some instances of inconsistencies with the Treknology of the sort that also bugs me in so many ACTUAL Star Trek episodes.  Towards the end of the battle during the teaser, the Klingon ship cloaks in order to get away.  First of all, it’s surprising to me that the ship could cloak after having sustained so much damage, as so often in actual Trek episodes the cloaking device was portrayed as a very delicate piece of equipment, and it was always the first thing to fail once a ship got even the tiniest bit damaged (see almost any episode of DS9 that featured the Defiant in combat as support of this).  But whatever.  The ship cloaks, and we see what looks like an Enterprise phaser blast go right through the spot where the Klingon ship was, just a second before.  This is silly, because a cloaking device doesn’t make the ship intangible, it just hides it from sensors.  So even invisible, a phaser blast would still HIT IT and cause damage.  Then, in the next scene, Spock reports that the ship has changed course and moved outside of weapons range.  Well how the heck would he know that, if the ship is cloaked and thus invisible to sensors???  These are minor quibbles, and as I wrote above they happened ALL THE TIME in actual Trek episodes, so I can’t judge Phase 2 too harshly.

Bottom line: If you’re a Star Trek fan who has been having to do without the weekly dose of new adventures that we enjoyed for 18 years (from the launch of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 until the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005), I highly encourage you to check out Star Trek: Phase 2.  The episodes aren’t perfect, but there is so much love and effort on display that I defy you not to find a lot of enjoyment in their episodes.

My brother Dave had the great idea, recently, to start a Double Feature Club.  This is a movie-version of a book club, in which a group of friends will gather, approximately once a month, to enjoy a Double Feature on a certain theme.

Dave hosted the first installment last week — two movies starring Jeff Bridges: Arlington Road and The Big Lebowski.

Arlington Road (1999) — Jeff Bridges plays Michael Faraday (no connection to the time-traveling Daniel Faraday on Lost), a widowed college history professor who teaches courses on terrorism in America.  He becomes friends with new neighbors, Oliver and Cheryl Lang (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack).  However, he grows increasingly suspicious of Oliver, and when he begins looking into Oliver’s background he becomes convinced that Oliver is plotting a terrorist act on American soil.

Arlington Road is a nice taught thriller that has a dynamite twist ending.  It really stunned me when I first saw it in theatres back in ‘99.  Because movies like these, with twist endings, tend to lose something upon repeat viewings… and also because the film is, frankly, quite a downer, I’d never re-watched it in the years since.  I was very curious, now, to see how the film held up.  

No surprise, it loses a lot of its power once you know the ending.  However, there is still fun to be had in watching the film through while knowing the end, and seeing how that knowledge colors scenes that you’d previously thought of differently.  The plot holds up pretty well to scrutiny.  In a post 9-11 world, this story about the fear of terrorism, and possibility of hidden dangers even among our suburban neighbors, has a lot of extra weight.  The film is completely colored by that now, but I don’t think that’s altogether a bad thing.

The main joy of the film is watching Bridges slowly unravel as Faraday becomes more and more obsessed with his neighbors.  Robbins and Cusack are also a blast, alternately playing friendly & gregarious and very, very creepy.  

The Big Lebowski (1998) — Jeff Bridges is Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a stoned LA lay-about who gets mixed up in a Chandler-esque tale of intrigue and mistaken identity.  I’d loved this film back in college, but it had been years since I’d seen it last.  As with Arlington Road, I was eager to see how well this film held up.  

Well, I am pleased to say that it remains ferociously entertaining.  Bridges is just terrific as The Dude, conveying an eminently likable slacker/stoner without laying on the shtick too thickly.  As always in a film by the Coen Brothers, our lead is surrounded by an ensemble of wonderfully bizarre characters.  There’s John Goodman as The Dude’s bowling buddy Walter, a gun-toting Vietnam vet who takes his Judaism very seriously.  Steve Buscemi is Donny, another bowling buddy who, as always seems to happen to Buscemi in Coen Brothers movies, meets an unfortunate end.  David Huddleston is the rich, “Big” Lebowski with whom the Dude is confused in the opening of the film.  Philip Seymour Hoffman gives great sycophant as the Big Lebowski’s aide, Grant.  Julianne Moore is Maude Lebowski — even after seeing this film several times I’m still not exactly certain what her story is.  John Turturro makes the most of just a few scenes as scary bowler Jesus Quintana, as does the great Sam Elliott (sporting one of the best mustaches ever to grace the silver screen) as The Stranger.

The plot of the film is wonderfully complex and, in the end, also pretty much irrelevant.  The fun of this film is watching all of these crazy characters careen off of one another in increasingly bizarre ways.  The dream sequences are also a hoot.

All in all, our first meeting of the Double Feature Club was a great success.  After watching the intense, very serious Arlington Road it was a pleasure to relax and enjoy the nuttiness of The Big Lebowski.  Two great films that have both aged well.  (Though it will be Lebowski that I will re-watch more often in the future, I am sure.)  

I will, of course, continue to report on future Double Feature Club installments as they happen!

I have been reading, for years now, about the mysterious Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I.  Apparently, some time after Episode I was released, a fan who was as dissatisfied as all the rest of us were decided to take matters into his own hands and re-edit Episode I in an attempt to address some of its many flaws.  Word of this Phantom Edit spread, and it wasn’t long before I was reading about in on-line and even in some mainstream magazines.  (For example, here is an interesting piece on the Phantom Edit from Salon.com from back in November, 2001.)  Kevin Smith had to publicly deny being responsible for this re-edit.  (Eventually the Phantom Editor was revealed to be Mike J. Nichols from California.)

Finally, after many years and a little help from one of my friends (you know who you are — THANK YOU!) I have finally had a chance to watch the Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I myself.

It is a revelation.

By lifting out lines of dialogue, re-arranging moments, and even deleting entire sequences, Mr. Nichols has worked to excavate the core of a decent story buried under the bloated two hour and twenty minute run-time of George Lucas’ original film.  (The Phantom Edit runs just a hair under an hour and fifty minutes.)  

So what has changed?

Nichols has removed many of the more juvenile (and, let’s say it, stupid) elements of the film.  The main focus of his deletions is, surprise surprise, on Jar Jar.  Now, Jar Jar is still in the movie, don’t get me wrong.  There is no way to have the story be coherent without his presence.  But Nichols has trimmed Jar Jar’s presence in the film WAY back.  No longer does he step in poodoo, or get his face numbed and start talking like Bill Cosby doing his dentist routine, etc.  Nichols has even, in many places, reduced the volume of Jar Jar’s dialogue, subtly shifting the viewers’ focus away from his antics in the background to the things we SHOULD be paying attention to that are going on in the foreground.

Nichols actually gives Jar Jar something of an “arc” in the film, mainly by cutting the scene during the end-battle on Naboo where Jar Jar surrenders to the battle droids.  On the commentary (yes, there is even a commentary, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how well-spoken Nichols was, and the straight-forward way in which he laid out his rationale for all the changes he made), Nichols argues quite persuasively about how ridiculous it was to have Jar Jar on the podium celebrating with everyone at the end of the movie.  Wouldn’t the other Gungans be pretty pissed at that, seeing as how Jar Jar abandoned the cause at a critical moment by surrendering to the droids!  By taking that surrender moment out, Jar Jar now actually has a little bit of a journey over the course of the film.  He’s still an idiot by the end, but perhaps he’s a bit more of a heroic idiot.  (Nichols has clearly thought a LOT more about Jar Jar Binks than I ever want to consider, but I was intrigued by his point on this issue!)

The character who got the second-most amount of attention from Mr. Nichols was Jake Lloyd’s performance as young Anakin Skywalker.  Nichols did something really fascinating in order to improve Lloyd’s performance — he simply removed a large amount of his dialogue.  No more “yippees!” or “oopses!” or any of that.  Now Anakin becomes more of a quiet, introspective character — this allows us to read a bit more into his internal life, adding layers to his character.  Now it seems as if there’s some depth there, as opposed to his just being a fun-loving kid without any hint of darkness whatsoever.  Nichols also corrected one of the things that bugged me the most about Anakin in Episode I –  his blowing up the droid command ship by ACCIDENT.  Since we’d spent the whole film getting beat over the head about what a savant the kid was when it comes to machines and piloting, I always thought it was a HUGE missed opportunity on Lucas’ part to not make Anakin more heroic at the end, using his knowledge and skills to figure out what needed to be done (instead of becoming, as Nichols points out on his commentary, essentially a mirror of Jar Jar who only accomplishes his heroic deeds by complete accident).  Well, by trimming a few of Anakin’s scenes during the climactic space battle, and by removing much of his dialogue, it now seems like Anakin knows EXACTLY what he’s doing when he flies into that command ship and blows it up.  That culmination of Anakin’s story now plays MUCH better.

Nichols has also removed almost all of the Battle Droids’ dialogue.  Gone are all the inspid “roger roger”s.  This seemingly simple change restores danger and menace to the droids.  Now they are a THREAT, rather than pathetic and ridiculous characters.  

In addition to trimming back on all of that juvenalia, Nichols also focused on improving the pacing of the film.  Episode I is a very, very talky film.  (You might have noticed!)  I have read writers refer to it as “a movie of many meetings.”  As Nichols mentions in his commentary, one of the first rules of editing is to jump in to a scene already in progress, and then get out before it’s done — this maintains the audience’s attention and interest.  So, in a number of places throughout the film, Nichols has cut the opening few lines and the closing few lines of various scenes.  This is particularly noticeable in the film’s first act, which now moves at a much more brisk pace than it did before, and feels much more action-packed.  Gone are a lot of the conversations between Queen Amidala and her advisors.  Gone are a lot of the dumb jokes.  Gone are most of the instances where one character tells another about events that we, the viewers, JUST SAW five minutes previously.  Now, you almost feel as if you’re watching a Star Wars film!

Let me mention a few other changes that I really enjoyed:  Gone is the yawn-inducing (and totally unnecessary) opening crawl.  Gone is the whole time-wasting journey through the core of Naboo.  Although there is still one moment in which Qui-Gon mentions the existence of midichlorians, gone are all the other scenes that explain them and try to ground the Force in science instead of mysticism.  (Nichols explained that he left that one moment in because, since Episodes II and III hadn’t yet been released when he created this edit, he thought the existence of Midicholrians would play a strong part in those later movies and so felt it appropriate to leave in at least one reference to them.)

This re-edit is a masterful job.  With only one or two exceptions, the edits are amazingly seamless.  Unless you know the film really well, you’d never know that things had been lifted out.  It looks completely professional.  The over-all result really elevates the quality of the film.

Now, let’s not kid ourselves, re-edited or not, Star Wars: Episode I is still not a great movie.  Ultimately, many of the flaws of Episode I lie in the very basis of the story, which Mr. Nichols couldn’t do anything about.  I just don’t care too much about Jar Jar or the rest of the Gungans or any of the goings-on on Naboo.  The middle hour on Tatooine is dreadfully boring and is really only there to hook Anakin up with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.  Darth Maul has WAY too tiny a role in the movie.

I could go on.

Obviously, The Phantom Edit cannot address those concerns.  However, despite those limitations, Mr. Nichols worked wonders on the material.  His Phantom Edit is a fascinating study in film editing, and how judicious cutting can truly affect the viewer’s reaction to a film, for the better.  It powerfully illuminates the many places where Lucas’ cut of Episode I went very, very wrong.  

My hat is off to Mr. Nichols for the incredible amount of time and effort that clearly went in to this project.  It is quite a professional-looking piece of work.  The film still can’t hold a candle to any installment of the Original Trilogy, but I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed Star Wars: Episode I as much!