Author: Robert Greenberger

When I tweeted that I was watching [[[Doctor Who the Movie]]], it provoked a spirited debate over the film’s merits. Apparently, the Paul McGann incarnation of the Doctor is beloved by many but far from all. Truth be told, I am a latecomer to the cult of The Doctor, arriving during the new series of adventures. I certainly know the history and previous incarnations but had never developed a taste for it. So, coming to his American telefilm from 1996 after the current era, gives me an unqiue perspective.

When Fox ordered the pilot film for a hoped-for series, they received the official blessing of the BBC plus the cameo participation of Sylvester McCoy, who was the previous incarnation when the series was finally canceled in 1989.

As discovered on the very detailed documentary accompanying the movie, the film took years to finally get made. And here’s the problem. While everyone involved dearly loved Doctor Who, notably Producer Philip Segal, and all desperately wanted to make a new series, no one seemed to possess a clear idea or vision of what it should be. Without that spark of creativity, the resulting film felt like Doctor Who, even looked like Doctor Who, but lacked the crackling fun and off-kilter storytelling that had been the series’ hallmark dating back to the beginning.

Additionally, the film had to stop and explain everything given that Doctor Who was new to the vast majority of Americans. As a result, the pacing has to adapt not only for American commercial breaks but stop to explain everything from the concept of a Time Lord to what a TARDIS can do. In many ways, the movie is a primer to the Doctor as he gains a companion, regenerates, fights The Master, and saves Earth from utter destruction. While not quite a cookie-cutter approach, it feels that way in watching the movie. Fox seemed to cool on the concept, dumping it on May 14, 1996, too late for pilot season and the DOA ratings didn’t help.

You can decide for yourself now that BBC Video has this week released Doctor Who the Movie in a two-disc Special Edition DVD. Disc one is the film, uncut, and with special features while the second disc is filled with features for the true Whovian. (more…)

There are few topics more interesting to explore through fiction than the human soul. Does everyone have one? Where do they come from and if you believe in reincarnation, how do you explain where souls for the growing world population come from? Do clones have souls?

The latter is the driving thread in Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel [[[Never Let me Go]]], faithfully reproduced on the screen in the 2010 film. The science fiction tale diverges from reality by the supposition that cloning was achieved in the early 1950s and by the 1970s, clone farms disguised as orphanages existed to raise donors. After three or four such donations, the clones’ lives “conclude” and that’s that.

Directed by Mark Romanek from Alex Garland’s somber screenplay, the film looks unlike the expected science fiction tale. Instead, in a color-drained palette, we focus on the lives of three such clones: Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield). The entire first act shows them as children (Isobel Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell, and Charlie Rowe) at the cusp of adolescence, living and learning at Hailsham, a slightly rundown, sober establishment where the truth is obscured from those living there. When they reach 18, the three friends and rivals leave the school for the Cottages where they engage with similar folk from other homes. By now, Ruth has edged out Kathy for Tommy’s affections even though it remains clear she is not the one for him.

In subtle ways, Garland shows how sheltered and unprepared for a “normal” life these clones are. When they engage with people from the real world, they’re shy and awkward, but he fails to give us any sense of what these people do until they are summoned for their donations. Instead, the story focuses on the notion of a “deferral” for those truly in love. It’s a myth to the Hailsham residents but it becomes something they can’t forget.

The story skips through the years so the final act picks up with the leads in their mid-20s as Ruth rapidly deteriorates after just two donations while Tommy seems stronger than ever. Kathy has become a carer, someone to look after those who donate and is content with her solitary life until she reconnects with Ruth.

The film is coming out Tuesday from 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment and is worth a look. Romanek gets terrific performances from his young and adult cast members. During the 30-minute making of featurette, we learn that he wisely had his adult and kid casts work together so the audience felt these were the same characters. The younger performers do a marvelous job getting us interested while the adults give haunting performances.

The entire notion of the soul is understated throughout the film until one of the final scenes and one wishes it was explored more deeply. Similarly, the film neglects to give us a sense of what the world is like now that people live longer thanks to the ready supply of vital organs. Is there a prejudice or even comprehension of who and what these clones are? It’s a bleak story, slowly told, that makes you want to learn more which can be a good sign for a book, less so for a film.

The DVD comes with a gallery of stills Romanek shot during production along with a detailed look at the artwork Tommy produced during his life, which furthers the story. Overall, the movie explores some new territory with mixed results but on screen it has a captivating look and feel worth sampling.

[[[Pilot & Huxley: The First Adventure
]]]By Dan McGuinness
Scholastic/Graphix, 64 pages, $7.99

Australian cartoonist Dan McGuinness could draw from childhood but it wasn’t until he began working for a comic shop and a skateboard company that he began parodying is friends and life in a series of sketchbooks. Out of these doodles and daydreams evolved best friends Pilot and Huxley who are everykids, prone to take risks, obsessed with the gross, and dedicated to a life of videogame playing. When they’re late returning [[[Alien vs. Terminator vs. Predator vs. Robocop vs. Jim Carry]]] to the store, panicked aliens send the Grim Reaper to collect it since that copy contained the secret password to activate their secret weapon.

And so begins the fast-paced, uproariously silly antics of the two boys, whisked far from home and seeking a way back without letting the aliens conquer their homeworld. The new series is coming out in rapid fashion with book three scheduled for release in a matter of weeks. The colorful pages are filled with the outrageous and the gross as the boys need to obtain the golden nose hair from a Mountain Giant or duck blasts from a snot gun.  The boys sound like boys on the cusp of adolescence and McGuinness does a nice job with different character voices.

Not everyone is out to kill them as they met Brett, a girl who can also turn into a giant pink beast.  And then there’s Tuppence McFrilly, who the boys freed from a monster. The pirate boy had been trapped for 40 years without aging a day and also has the odd ability to transform himself in an armored tank – just what they need for protection.

Younger readers will love the slime and snot along with the absurdist approach the subject matter. The alien environments and threats are far from scary since the danger is tempered with doses of a wacky humor (the Grim Reaper pursues the boys but has to take the bus).

While the main threat is ended as the book ends, the boys’ attempt to return home hits a snag so they, and Brett, find themselves in yet another absurd environment, leading readers to the second volume.

This is fresh and fun and ideal for the younger readers. McGuinness is off to a strong start and based on the positive reviews this series is already receiving; it’s likely these boys will be having many more adventures in the years to come.

You never know when magic will happen. You tell a friend to go write a story. He goes and does his research, getting very excited by the prospects and writes. He reads to you the finished novel and it moves you in unexpected ways. Since you’re a film producer, you decide you want to adapt this to the screen. Somehow, you convince someone to publish the book while you go out and raise the $132 million you know in your heart it will take to make the film. Along the way, a third friend, equally moved by the book, convinces everyone that he not only wants to star in the film, but make his directorial debut. Everyone agrees and suddenly, you’re shooting in South Dakota. A year or so later, the movie tests through the roof. Audiences have responded with enthusiasm. Your peers honor you with twelve Academy Award nominations and you win seven. When you weren’t looking, you not only conjured up magic but you made an important film.

And that is what happened with [[[Dances With Wolves]]], the three-hour long story of John Jay Dunbar, a wounded Civil War veteran who asks for a remote assignment out in the frontier, noting he wants to see it before it’s all gone. While out in the wild, he slowly recognizes the beauty of America and the nobility of the Native Americans, many (including Wind in his Hair [Rodney A. Grant] and Kicking Bird [Graham Greene]) who cautiously befriends him. Dunbar also discovers a white woman, who was raised by the Lakota and renamed Stands with a Fist (Mary McDonnell). She serves as his guide to a world he falls in love with, making him unique among his fellow man.

Kevin Costner did a marvelous job taking his friend Michael Blake’s novel and turning it into a movie that reminded Americans of those who dwelt here first and still linger on their reservations. He let the story unfold slowly, with marvelous cinematography, making American the Beautiful once more. He filled the cast with many Native Americans, many who needed to relearn their native tongue. Coupled with John Barry’s stirring score, the movie transports you to another time and another way of life. When it was released 20 years ago, it also sparked a new dialogue over the plight of the Native Americans and just how cruel the settlers were. The Library of Congress thought it significant enough to add it in 2007 as one of the culturally significant films to be preserved.

In case you missed this excellent movie, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released it as a 20th Anniversary two-disc Blu-ray event. The first disc is an extended version of the film, now running 3:54 and frankly the extra 55 minutes Costner tucked back in doesn’t necessarily make it a better story. Instead, we are treated to lots of extended views of the land and the people moving across the land. It’s all beautiful but doesn’t necessarily add to our enjoyment of the story.  The film is brilliantly transferred to high-definition with rich colors. The new DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 is also most welcome.

(more…)