Author: Robert Greenberger

There’s no question that Clint Eastwood is a strong director. He wrings emotion out of character and picks compelling material to use as his canvass. Each of his films becomes events to anticipate and they are usually fare to savor. As a result, [[[Hereafter]]], out last year, proved to be so disappointing. This time his canvass was the great beyond, or what we think Heaven might be like, so that’s a huge starting point with great potential. A man like Eastwood, who acts and directs with economy, probably has some interesting ideas on the concept.

Somehow, though, there’s nothing at all interesting here. Eastwood directs from Peter Morgan’s script and this was a man who made the making of the Frost/Nixon interviews compelling material. He is given a gifted cast headed by Matt Damon, who immediately hooks his audience and is a sympathetic hero. He heads one of three storylines that propels the movie along but nothing concludes or intertwines as you expect and you wind up feeling disappointed by the entire experience.

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[[Batman: The Brave and the Bold]]] is just a fun television series that pays homage not only to the joyful comic books of the 1960s but  crams in both story and characterization with a verve that is all too often missing from animated fare. Out this week is Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season One Part Two featuring episodes 14-26, which ran on the Cartoon Network between March and October 2009.

Clearly, the highlight of the two-disc collection is “[[[Mayhem of the Music Meister]]]!” with Neil Patrick Harris as the singing villain. The music is fun and bouncy and the story fresh. It was so well-regarded by the producers that they rushed out an eight-track CD soundtrack within a week of the episode’s debut.

The show is a romp through the DC Universe with most of the characters recognizable although they have been given some modern-day reimagining so Aquaman is a pompous doofus and Green Arrow is out to one-up his counterpart. My complaints about the show which I aired when the first set was released remain. Batman has too many gimmicks that fit the needs of the script and his cape converts to a jet-pack (I’d sooner have the dreaded Whirly-Bat). These are really quibbles as the show entertains with amazing consistency.

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[[[The Comics: The Complete Collection]]]
By Brian Walker
Abrams ComicsArts, 672 pages, $40

Growing up the son of cartoonist Mort Walker, Brian Walker clearly had four-color ink flowing through his veins. Learning at his father’s side, the boy absorbed folklore, myth, and legend; not just about the characters Mort wrote and drew in Hi & Lois or Beetle Bailey, but the creators who preceded his fathers and Brian’s own peers who practiced the craft.

Over the years, Brian used that knowledge to curate museum exhibits around the country and even work with his dad in the short-loved Museum of Cartoon Art. He’s also written extensively about the field, including the noteworthy collections [[[The Comics: Before 1945]]] and[[[The Comics: Since 1945]]]. In April, both volumes will be combined for the mammoth Comics: The Complete Collection.

For those who own the two books already, you won’t need this book. Not a thing has been changed or updated, which is a shame really, since the field has moved further since the second book saw print in 2004. If you don’t have these books, then this edition is for you.

Walker organizes the events by periods of time with an overview that details the evolution of the newspapers that printed the comic strips, the syndicates that grew from the successful strips, the merchandise that flowed from the most popular features and the men and women who executed these daily flights of fancy. Once the overview is done, we move into biographical sketches of the cartoonists, beginning, naturally, with the father of the American comic strip, Richard F. Outcault. After all, it was his Hogan’s Alley, taking advantage of the advent of color printing that gave the world the Yellow Kid, the first recurring newspaper character and a sensation. His success led to not only merchandise but within two years, a collection of strips, which can be argued to be the first graphic novel following the modern definition.

The greats and near greats, the well-known and the forgotten turn up here with a bountiful assortment of sample strips, many reproduced in their original colors. The book’s 9.25” x 12.5” size allows the art to be reproduced at a legible sixe, reminding us what it was like back in our parents’ or grandparents’ days when newspaper comic strip merited a sizeable section, letting the art and color breathe.

Paging through the book, you get to watch the artform mature as the gag-a-days added continuity followed by serials. You’re reminded of Blondie’s fast to protest her family refusing to let her marry Dagwood Bumstead, considered beneath her. You watch the dramatic strip arrive followed in 1929 by the dual arrival of [[[Buck Rogers]]] and [[[Tarzan]]] that in many ways set the stage for comic books.

By 1945, the comic strips had become fixtures not only in America but around the world. The Allies beat the Axis and the soldiers came home and the world seemed a brighter place. A new generation of homegrown characters took their place next to the aging greats. As a new era began, so does Walker open volume two which begins with Milt Caniff. He was the popular and influential so his move from [[[Terry and the Pirates]]] to a new strip, [[[Steve Canyon]]], was a good way to show changes in the field. We rocket through the 1950s through the 1990s before the book screeches to a halt with a profile on Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman who are the geniuses behind the delightful Zits. Our current decade gets half a page, ignoring the explosion of web strips, the shrinking of the strips and their gradual demise.  Several of the longest running strips have recently closed shop, such as Brenda Starr filing her last story in January and many of the survivors are showing their age.

While I wish this were repaginated and organized into a single whole rather than two volumes slapped together, the book is a delightful celebration of the comics, their characters, and the creators.

Romantic comedies have become such a formula that filmmakers either follow the dots or strain to find a new spin on the concept. We all now the routine: establish your characters, give them oddball sidekicks, have the couple meet cute, begin to fall in love, have some complication that separates them then reunite them for the finale. Done well, it can be a terrific film-going experience and make for a fine night out with your significant other. Done less well, you feel like you wasted your time and money.

Then, there’s [[[Love and Other Drugs]]], which is out this week on DVD from 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It follows the formula for the most part, but varies it enough to keep you interested but doesn’t give you that uplifting feeling you want. A valiant effort, it fails to transcend the form when the cast and crew’s pedigree led you to expect it.

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A breakthrough performance can be indelibly imprinted in the collective memory but it can also be easily imitated to the point where it becomes parody. Unfortunately, that has happened with strong work by actors portraying the mental disabled. The arrival of [[[Rain Man]]] on Blu-ray reminds us of how good Dustin Hoffman was and how important spotlighting the needs of these people and their impact on families has been in our society.

For those who barely remember, the 1988 movie earned four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor.  After Hoffman won, actors were taking similar roles and mocked for it as their bid for an easy Oscar nomination, forgetting that this is a segment of the population without a voice and with a desperate need for understanding and compassion.

You see that from the beginning as Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise) is anything but a cuddly younger brother, willing to take on his the burden of caring for his afflicted brother Raymond (Hoffman). Being a 1980s film, Cruise is at wonderfully smarmy best, a yuppie without a conscience, until he spends time with Raymond and learns the kind of man he has become and is humbled by the experience. Interestingly, Charlie grew up a spoiled, morally bankrupt man totally unaware of his older brother’s existence. Just as he was broke and desperate, his father died and the bulk of the wealth, the inheritance he salivated for, was left to someone else. As he followed the trail, he found the Walbrook Institution and finally met Raymond. On the one hand, you can’t blame Charlie for being who he is and on the other, you can blame the father for not preparing the younger sibling for his familial obligations.

Along the way, though, the film takes the characters and the audience on a six day road trip as Charlie tries to exploits his brother’s gifts in Las Vegas. We witness all the odd quirks and tics that make Raymond an amusing presence and an irresistible character for an actor. Hoffman wears Raymond’s skin comfortably and you buy the affliction without question.

You watch two incredibly unalike people grow closer and the audience gets to see how similar they truly are. Raymond can’t relate to people but neither can Charlie as witnessed by how cavalierly he deals with others, including his girlfriend Susana (Valeria Golino). Director Barry Levinson does a terrific job with the characters and the glimpse of an America that has since grown a little tarnished.

The video transfer is clean and unspectacular accompanied by good sound. There are a bunch of extras starting with three audio commentaries: Levinson, writer Barry Morrow, and the other writer Ronald Bass.  Together, they would have been incredibly informative; separately, they are a little tedious. “The Journey of Rain Man” (22:07) is the usual making-of featurette spotlight the audio commentators. “Lifting the Fog: A Look at the Mysteries of Autism” (20:13) is a strong, useful look at the affliction. There’s one deleted Scene (2:13) and that’s about it.

Our appreciation of the film may be different today given how many other media portrayals have heightened our overall awareness of autism and its colorful spectrum. Still, the story and performances make this well worth discovering for the first time or watching again with a little more wisdom and experience.

By 1972, a revolution in moviemaking had taken hold and rewritten the rules. 1968 was the pivotal year, but it led to filmmakers around the world trying new ways to tell stories that felt more like the world the audience inhabited. As a result, Bernardo Bertolucci was emboldened to cross several screen taboos and tell a brutally honest story about relationships, loss, and yes, sex. People were stunned when his [[[Last Tango in Paris]]] opened that November.

Starring Marlon Brando, resurgent after [[[The Godfather]]]’s smash success, it was stunning for adults to see the great actor in a frank relationship complete with full-frontal nudity. But the story required someone of Brando’s age and stature to be compelling and for audiences to take the subject matter seriously. He plays Paul, an American living in Paris, whose wife has just committed suicide with no explanation. Stunned, he finds himself wandering to check out an apartment for rent, where he meets Jeanne (Maria Schneider), a young woman about to marry her filmmaker husband. As the two explore the empty rooms, they can’t deny the instantaneous attraction. And for someone as young and attractive as the unhappy Jeanne to find anything remotely interesting in Paul requires the raw animal magnetism that Brando displayed in most of his films to date.

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Some movies offer us incredible performances or great stories and then there are those that combine the elements with the right cast telling the right story for the right audience at the right time. That’s movie magic at its purest and can describe the enduring appeal of [[[Moonstruck]]], The 1987 film is finally out on a bare-bones Blu-ray disc courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Starring Cher at the height of her film popularity, it also featured Nicholas Cage as her lover and we’re reminded once more that this is a man of strong talent, who has chosen a career path that negates stretching himself as a performer. Bulking up for Con Air may have been the worst choice he ever made.

Directed by Norman Jewison, the story is a romantic comedy when the formula still worked. Cher, who won an Oscar as bookkeeper Loretta Castrorini, and her budding relationship with Cage’s younger and winning Ronny Cammareri forms the core of the story. John Patrick Shanley’s screenplay is a valentine to life in Manhattan and Jewison brings it to life with a strong supporting cast including Olympia Dukakis (who also won a Supporting Actress Oscar), Vincent Gardenia, and Danny Aiello. Shot in Brooklyn and around Little Italy, it is as lush to watch as it is fun to listen to. Scenes set at the Metropolitan Opera House give the city is glitz and grandeur.

The bookkeeper has been unlucky at love – and marriage – but wants to try again with Aiello’s unassuming Johnny Cammareri, until she realizes she can’t take her eyes off the younger brother. Her parents disapprove of their daughter’s choices, thinking she was better on her own. As they plan their wedding, things go awry and the estranged brother comes more into focus and his winning ways melts Loretta’s damaged heart. Cher is at first hard to believe as a nerdy accountant unlucky at love but she makes the character feel real and you can believe Gardenia and Dukakis as her Greek Chorus parents.

The acting is strong, led by Cher but also shows how good Cage can be when he wants to. The transfer was well handled so it looks great and sounds good. Extras include the original commentary from Jewison, Shanley, and Cher. Also carried over from the original DVD release is Moonstruck: At the Heart of an Italian Family, a look at the roots of the culture that led to the film.

There’s also the six-part[[[Pastas to Pastries: The Art of Fine Italian Food]]], which offer us looks at restaurants in Little Italy, including Grotta Azzurra (18:47); Italian Food Center (2:31); Ferrara Pastries (2:28); Piemonte Ravioli Co. (2:07); a gelato stand (1:02) and Florio’s Restaurant (1:24). New and fun to have are recipe cards for spadini Romana, bucatini all’Amatriciana and lamb de Elvino. “[[[The Music of Moonstruck]]]” (6:00) minute featurette that covers how important the score was and how a disastrous screening led to the original music being scrapped.