Month: June 2023

This is not a review of Evil Dead Rise.  I haven’t reviewed it as of yet, and I may at some point.  No, this post is about the home video release of the film on DVD/Blu-Ray/4K.  For some background info, Evil Dead Rise was initially intended to be a direct-to-HBO Max release.  This was before Warner Bros. got bought out by Discovery.  The new heads of Warner Bros. loved the movie so much they decided to give it a full-blown theatrical release.  As an die-hard fan of the Evil Dead franchise, I was really excited about this movie.  So, I went and saw it, and I LOVED it.  So, when the home video release was announced, I couldn’t wait to get my demonic claws on the Blu-Ray.  Then, I started seeing reviews of the 4k and Blu-Ray.  The picture and audio quality of the film were uniformly excellent, but there were no special features.  Sooo,  I went to Walmart after work and bought a copy of the film on Blu-Ray for 26 bucks, which includes tax.  I can confirm that there are NO special features whatsoever.  No trailers, no sneak previews, NOTHING, except the menu and the movie itself.  As someone who collects movies on physical media, be it DVD, Blu-Ray, or 4K, this is unacceptable.  Now, I understand that the initial decision to go straight to HBO Max made it so that there was really no press done for the flick.  No EPK(electrionic press kit), no commentaries, and no interviews with the cast and crew.  For the first time in the history of the franchise, Evil Dead gets a release that is completely bare-bones.  Why? WB has been pretty good about giving their movies extra features for us collectors.  That’s why we collect these things.

Every film in the franchise up until this one has had multiple releases, with each one featuring a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes featurettes.  Army of Darkness, the third film in the series, got a brilliant collector’s edition from Scream Factory which featured no less than FOUR versions of the film, including the edited-for-TV version.  That’s the kind of care that I expect for cult movies like these.  I don’t know if Warner Bros. will revisit this film with a special edition release that includes interviews, commentaries, trailers, and/or other information.  But as it stands, I can’t recommend fans of this movie to buy the Blu-Ray/4K at full price.  No way.  You can buy a digital copy on Amazon Prime for about 13 bucks, which is a better deal, in my opinion, especially if all you want is the movie.  We’ve been seeing studios cut back on special features for discs over the last few years.  I get it, it’s expensive, but the value that’s provided to the customer allows them to come back and buy more of your movies on physical media.  This release is baffling to me, especially for the price that I paid.  I recommend the movie itself, hands down, but I can’t recommend buying the physical home video release until there’s a version that includes everything that collectors come to expect.  Now, if WB wants to let Scream Factory handle the release, I’d be okay with that, because THEY would be getting my money as well, and I support Scream/Shout Factory, as well as the other boutique media companies.  So, I think this would probably be one of the most disappointing home video releases of the year.  Come on, WB, you can do better than this.

Released: June 2023

Director: Andy Muschietti

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 144 Minutes

Distributor: Warner Bros.

Genre: Action/Adventure

Cast:
Ezra Miller: Barry Allen/The Flash
Michael Keaton: Bruce Wayne/Batman
Ben Affleck: Bruce Wayne/Batman
Sasha Calle: Kara Zor-El/Supergirl
Kiersey Clemons: Iris West
Michael Shannon: General Zod

As I sit here, listening to Danny Elfman’s Batman soundtrack from 1989, I’m looking at the state of DC movies from Warner Bros.  It’s not good.  The last 5 movies set in DC’s Expanded Universe have flopped.  Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, The Suicide Squad, Black Adam, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods have all flopped.  Why?  People have often suggested that it’s “superhero fatigue.”  I disagree.  It’s not “superhero fatigue,” it’s “mediocre movie fatigue.”  The last really great superhero movie that we got was Matt Reeve’s The Batman which was released last year.  It was a very successful film, despite it’s 3-hour runtime, and incredibly dark tone.  People also flocked to go see The Joker with Joaquin Phoenix.  But those two movies were not part of the DCEU.  Well, we can now add The Flash to the list of box-office disasters that’s been plaguing DC for the last few years.  The movie didn’t even break 140 million world-wide, and the movie is projected to earn less than Black Adam, which didn’t even bring home 400 million.  Why?  From a personal perspective, these movies aren’t very good.  They’re not written very well, and the influence of the old WB regime can be felt on these movies.

The Flash follows Barry Allen as he tries his best to prove that his father didn’t murder his mother when he was a child.  Disappointed at every turn, Barry decides that he can go fast enough to travel back in time to prevent the murder of his mother.  By doing so, he inadvertantly changes history in which no meta-humans exist.  Facing the invasion of General Zod, he, along with 18-year old Barry, decided to look up Bruce Wayne/Batman for help to set things right. They discover that a Kryptonian is being held prisoner in a Russian gulag, so they go there to free the Kryptonian, discovering that it’s not Kal-El, a.k.a Superman, but his cousin Kara Zor-El.  Together, they try to fight off Zod while Barry tries to set the time-line right.  The Flashpoint Paradox is one of the most iconic storylines in DC’s comic book history.  It deals with the consequences of what happens when you try to change a single piece of history.  It’s a fantastic story, but the execution in this film leaves a lot to be desired.  It’s been adapted in an animated movie and the recent Flash TV show.  Honestly, with MCU trying IT’S multiverse thing…and failing, The Flash strikes me as a last-ditch effort to try and reboot the entire DCEU, before it’s actually rebooted by James Gunn.

There’s stuff in this movie that I absolutely love.  First of all, Michael Keaton returns as the best Batman ever.  He’s always been great as Batman, even though he only had two Batman movies to his name.  But he’s just so much fun to watch, and the character is very much like the one in Tim Burton’s movies.  His Batman suit looks fantastic.  Sasha Calle makes her feature-film debut as Kara Zor-El, or Supergirl.  She’s not the bubbly blonde-haired Girl of Steel played by Helen Slater.  No, she’s got more in common with Henry Cavill’s Superman.  Honestly, I really hope that James Gunn gives Sasha a more meaty role to play in future DC movies, because she’s great.  It’s just a shame that the film didn’t really use her very well.  Ezra Miller’s performance is fine, especially as Barry Prime, the main one, but the younger Barry is incredibly irritating.  I imagine that was on purpose, but it didn’t help matters any.  Michael Shannon as Zod, is also wasted.  Aside from the opening scenes in this film, what saves the movie is the final act.  It’s absolutely bonkers.  I loved it.  Obviously, dealing with Zod is fun, but getting to see different universes collide is wild.  It’s just a shame that the road leading to the good stuff is rough.

Everything else about the movie is a total mess.  Narratively, it’s all over the place, and the visual effects are really bad.  They’ve had five years to work on the effects of this movie, and this is the best they could do?  There’s no excuse for a movie like this looking this bad.  Andy Muschietti has come out in defense of the effects, saying they look that weird on purpose.  I’ll be honest, it feels like this movie was unfinished when it was released.  That’s what it feels like.  The effects in Man of Steel were better and that movie’s ten years old.  Honestly, the fact that when Michael Keaton shows up, he take command of the film.  He’s the real star of the show.  Nobody actually cares about the Flash.  He’s a second-tier DC superhero.  Always has been.  There were decisions made with this movie that didn’t help it at all and it you can see it on screen.

The movie tanking over the holiday weekend sends a pretty strong message to WB/DC.  It says that people aren’t really willing to settle for mediocre superhero movies anymore.  Honestly, I don’t think that’s the only reason.  I’m sure that the issues surrounding Ezra Miller’s legal problems aren’t helping, but I won’t get into those.  People were still burned by WB canceling the Batgirl movie and using it as a tax write-off, which means we’ll never see that movie in ANY incarnation.  People are NOT liking what David Zaslav is doing with WB, and that’s also keeping people away.  There’s a lot of issues which led to The Flash bombing over the weekend.  It’s a very clear indication that a hard reboot is necessary, which means that the movie is NOT getting a sequel, nor is Ezra Miller returning in ANY capacity.  I didn’t really have high hopes for this movie, and that’s how it panned out.  Again, I think there’s some really good stuff in here, but it’s hard to get to because the movie is badly-written.  I almost walked out of the movie early on, because it was cringy.  I’m glad I stuck with it, because I did have fun with it, and I think that’s what counts, but I can’t help but think this movie could’ve been so much better.

This isn’t exactly a topic that I was hoping to cover, as I would assume that most people would understand what censorship is, and what kind of slippery slope that it represents.  Let’s define the word.  The definition of censorship is the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are deemed “offensive.”  Censorship is happening all over the world, but the last place it should be happening is in the United States.  However, we’ve seen over the last couple of years that certain conservative elements have decided to ban books of varying types because some chickenshit idiot doesn’t like them.  Yet, these same conservatives scream “censorship” when we call them out for their racist and abusive behavior.  The hypocrisy is strong with these people.  Let me tell you why censorship is ultimately a bad thing.  We’ve seen throughout history that the suppression of ideas and certain imagery lead to tyrannical styles of government.  After all, uneducated people are easier to control than those that embrace education.  When you oppress an idea or an image to keep the “vulnerable” safe, it leads to a nanny-state.  There have been many movies and stories about dystopian futures where people are not allowed to think or feel for themselves.  If they did, it would lead to people rising up against an oppressive state, which is what censorship comes down to: Power.

I bring this up because earlier this week, it was revealed that the movie The French Connection was released to streaming with certain elements cut out.  The scene in question is when Roy Scheider’s character and Gene Hackman are about to head out for a drink, when Hackman’s character lets loose a few…colorful words.  The French Connection is a gritty crime thriller that was published by 20th Century Fox in 1971.  Disney bought 20th Century Fox some years ago, so they gained access to all of Fox’s catalog titles, which included The French Connection.  This edited version of the film has been released on ALL streaming services including Criterion’s streaming service.  Fans of the original movie noticed the scene missing when they tried watching it on various streaming services.  That has led to a massive backlash against Disney, which includes allegations of censorship.  Disney is on a very slippery slope here, indeed.  Why?  If they did it without William Friedkin’s approval and said that he did approve it, that puts Disney in a very bad spot.  It’s one thing to have multiple cuts of a single movie.  It happens all the time.  It’s not necessarily censorship when there’s multiple cuts of the film available.  The idea that a company would censor a movie because it contained some questionable dialogue is troubling, especially when the film was made during a time in which a lot of this stuff was common place.  The fact that companies would act as gatekeepers and parents is beyond reprehensible.  While it is well within their rights to make modifications to films in their catalog, Disney really shouldn’t be doing that.  They did it before in a movie called Splash, in which Darryl Hannah appeared in the nude, from the back, of course.  Disney decided to use CG to cover up her…derriere, and the results were…awful.  It’s not Disney’s place to determine what’s appropriate for people and what’s not.

Censorship is a tool of the oppressor.  This is one of the main reasons why I collect DVDs and Blu-Rays.  Movies are hard copied into a physical format that can’t be modified.  Not unless the movie comes with an option to view a different version of the film, and that happens more often than you think.  Options.  Give people an option to watch whichever version of the film there is and you’re less likely to be confronted with accusations of censorship.  It’s not just movies that this happens to.  It happens to all forms of art, whether it’s paintings, sculptures, music, or writing.  Certain people in power really don’t like it when others get ideas in their head that can threaten one’s power over others.  There are certain films that I have that could and have offended a lot of people.  I have a copy of Triumph of the Will and D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation on Blu-Ray.  Why?  Preservation.  These films might be public domain, but that’s not going to stop certain parties from altering those films to suit their own agenda.  I get it, if you don’t like a movie like say…Cannibal Holocaust, you don’t have to watch it.  In fact, I would actually encourage most people of weak constitutions to avoid it, especially if you love animals.  The copy of that film I got has an alternate cut of the film where the animal stuff was cut out entirely, which is the version I personally prefer.  Censorship should only be a personal choice, not a corporate or government mandate, especially when it comes to the arts.  It sets a very bad precedent for future artists.  Not only does it give people the idea that corporations can do whatever they want, but it’s more likely to drive people to pirate movies, something I’ve been very much against…until this week.  Also, censorship is clearly a violation of the 1st Amendment.  But private companies have a lot more legal lee-way when it comes to that sort of thing.

Ultimately, censorship is a bad thing, especially large-scale censorship.  On a personal level, it’s a matter of preference, and that’s okay.  It’s not okay to force that on others, which is what Disney is doing with The French Connection.  They think they can appeal to more people if it’s censored, but all they’re actually doing is driving people to illegally pirate the film.  Censorship leads to tyranny and people rebelling against said tyranny.  It always has.  It’s the one thing that remains constant.  It shouldn’t matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on or what spiritual/religious organization you subscribe to, censorship affects EVERYONE in a very negative way.  The worst part?  The people who want censorship are harming themselves and their children in the long run.  Censorship handicaps freedom.  To Disney, I say this: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.  Release The French Connection in it’s unedited format for everyone in the United States, since you are apparently letting other countries watch it with the aforementioned scene intact.  Fuck your double-standards, and let people make the choice for themselves.