Author: Robert Greenberger

When you name a thriller Stoker, you immediately have people concluding it has something to do with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and therefore maybe the movie involves vampires. The film’s characters address that at one point but let’s stipulate that there are no members of the undead here. Instead, we have a stylish, noirsh film that marks a mostly successful American debut for Korean director Chan-Wook Park. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, and Matthew Goode, it’s an uncomfortable story of family.

India Stoker (Wasikowska) has just lost her father, shattering their close bonds. Distraught, she is withdrawn, and initially shrinks further within Goth herself when Uncle Charlie (Goode) turns up and comes to live with her and her mother Evelyn (Kidman). In her eighteen years, India has never heard of an Uncle Charlie and more, what she begins to hear strikes her as fantastic and contradictory. Is he a rich adventurer, an ex-con, an opportunist? Maybe all of the above. But, as Charlie insinuates himself into their Tennessee home, life changes.

India is uncomfortable around Charlie until his charismatic personality begins to change how she acts and more, how she sees herself. There’s a hint of sexual desire pouring forth while her own mother, dealing with the loss in her own way, seems equally drawn, making dinner time more than a little awkward. There’s a piano duet that is nicely sexually charged and the film is filled with visual metaphors that make this a cut above most thrillers.

Wentworth Miller’s script was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt down to naming the mysterious stranger Uncle Charlie. There are plenty of structural ticks Miller picks up from the old master, successfully maintain the tension throughout the 99 minutes. Unfortunately, like Hitchcock, the characters are cold, never quite warming up to one another or the audience and undercuts the movie’s impact. And trust me, this film has plenty of impact, especially when things get violent and here Park exceeds Hitchcock, bringing his natural talents to the fore.

The performances are strong and should have been stronger and this might be a culturally issue as Park works with his Australia/English cast in an American setting. Goode (Watchmen) is nicely creepy while the women vie for coolest character.

This is a strong transfer to Blu-ray, out this week from 20^th Century Home Entertainment. Cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon’s imagery is well preserved, letting the atmosphere ooze into your home. The matching audio allows you to enjoy the splash of rain, the crack of a hardboiled egg and the eeriness of Clint Mansell’s excellent score.

The disc, which comes with an Ultraviolet digital copy, contains a handful of extras. There are three deleted/extended scenes (10:01), none of which are really missed; Stoker: A Filmmaker’s Journey (27:50), a Making Of mini-documentary that is cut above others of its ilk; Photography by Mary Ellen Mark (11:15), on-set photographs that can be auto-played or manually advanced;

London Theater Design (2:35), showing how a London theater was transformed for the film’s premiere; and,  Theatrical Behind-the-Scenes, seven short featurettes that were repurposed from the documentary and rehashes that material. You also get the theatrical trailers.

Tommysaurus Rex
By Doug TenNapel
Scholastic Graphix, 136 pages, $10.99

The concept of a boy and his canine best friend is nothing new at all and has provided us with countless heartwarming stories through the years. That the dog dies and is resurrected as a tyrannosaurus rex is a fresh spin on the story; one so fresh that in 2004 Universal bid $1million to preemptively option the property. I have no idea what happened with that, but it was based on an earlier version of Tommysaurus Rex, which Doug TenNapel released as a miniseries through Image in 2004 and then a collection in 2008. This month, though, a revised, expanded and apparently recolored version of the story is being released from Scholastic’s Graphix imprint.

Ely is shy, without a lot of friends, except for Tommy, the golden retriever who is his companion, friend, playmate and security blanket. Overenthusiastic in all ways, he pulls free from his leash one day and is hit by a car and dies. A distraught Ely is brought to Granpa’s nearby farm and in addition to learning about agriculture, he locates a nearby cave where, tucked behind some rocks, is a living T-Rex.

The dino-phenomena proves as loving and eager as a puppy and quickly Ely realizes its Tommy reincarnated. How Ely and Tommy win over a fearful and skeptical community forms the core of the story. Of course, there’s also antagonism in the form of Randy, lead bully but rather than be pure evil, we learn what causes him to act in such a terrible way.

Of the TenNapel works I’ve read and reviewed here – Ghostopolis, Bad Island, and Cardboard – this has the most heart and soul. It’s also his earliest work so the art style and storytelling is simpler. Everything is clear and the color adds a nice dimension with solid pacing, mixing pathos, drama, and humor. I’ve been usually critical of TenNapel’s story logic lapses and this has few of those although the fact that a dinosaur is wandering the world seems to attract minimal media attention and zero attention from scientists or the federal government. It doesn’t hurt that the Mayor, up for reelection and seeing the creature’s popularity, acts as a buffer.

Pare away the bullies and gawkers and this boils down to a boy loves dog story that can warm the heart and entertain. It’s an ideal volume for third through eighth graders and is well worth a look.

I never really noticed or paid attention to ReelzChannel, now just Reelz, an odd collection of off-network fare, cross-promoting what else is on cable and original programming. So, when Ring of Fire crossed my desk, I knew nothing about it. A miniseries that aired in the spring, it features a familiar cast headlined by Michael Vartan (Alias), Terry O’Quinn (Lost), and Lauren Lee Smith (The L Word). It’s a low budget disaster movie that traces how deep drilling for oil accidentally taps molten lava, triggering a chain reaction that brings the world close to an Extinction Level Event.

The small town is filled with the usual cookie-cutter assortment of characters with conflicts aplenty such as the oil rig worker who lost his son due to his brother’s carelessness and guess who’s out of jail in time to use his knowledge of the old mines? Or that the CEO behind the drilling is at odds with his daughter, whose son is trapped on a school bus when things go boom. It’s a finely stuffed recipe for disaster and it’s all competently assembled by writer Michael Vickerman. What’s missing is a shred of unique dialogue or interesting characterization. Under Paul Shapiro’s flat direction, the actors are surprisingly flat with the notable exception of Sanctuary’s Agam Darshi, who infuses her Audrey, a geologist, with some semblance of life.

Part one sets everything in motion and of course, those in control ignore the warnings from those who really know what’s going on under the ground. Then, when things go bad, they scramble to contain the damage until the entire world is threatened because a ring of volcanoes are all about to go kablooey. The catastrophe catches the town, the corporation and everyone but the federal government short.

In part two, we learn there’s a remote chance a sonic device can trigger a fault before the big eruption in just 24 hours. Surprisingly, the government can access the bomb and retrofit a test module for use on Venus in that narrow window so Vartan’s Dr. Michael Cooper can pilot it deep with and trigger the device. (In retrospect, this is more plausible than Spock going into a volcano to neutralize it using the cold generated by a cold fusion bomb.) The US Government is remarkably competent here so that’s something different for a change.

Still, Vickerman slows things down enough so Vartan and Smith can flirt and stare deeply into one another’s eyes, which feels out of left field. Similarly, he massages his temples to deal with the growing aneurysm that requires surgery, a plot point that comes up repeatedly but is never paid off making one wonder why it’s here at all.

There’s plenty of sermonizing and speech making and people running around but it’s passionless despite the pacing, which Shapiro handles nicely.

The miniseries is being released un Gaiam Vivendi’s Doomsday Series umbrella and is presented as it aired rather than be edited into a seamless home video experience. There are no extras to speak of, just a preview of their next entry Eve of Destruction (which I bet is a better song than movie).

Founded in 2007, Radical Studios  is a multimedia company that incubated comic books for exploitation in other forms. Among their earliest releases was Hercules, boasting a Steranko cover, and it came with high production values and a bit of a buzz., The character returned for a second miniseries in and this interpretation captured Hollywood’s fancy. After years in development, production on the movie adaptation began today. Thew film enters a crowded summer 2014, especially for super-hero films, coming after Captain America: The Winter Solider and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and just before X-Men: Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy (raising the question whether or not four Marvel Universe films in five months will reach the saturation point).

Here’s the formal release:

HOLLYWOOD, CA (June 10, 2013) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, a division of MGM Holdings, Inc., and Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., announced principal photography began today on “HERCULES,” starring Dwayne Johnson (“G.I. JOE: RETALIATION,” “FAST AND FURIOUS” franchise) and directed and produced by Brett Ratner (“RUSH HOUR” franchise, “X-MEN: THE LAST STAND”). Filming takes place in Budapest, Hungary.

“HERCULES” will be distributed worldwide by Paramount Pictures on July 25, 2014 with select international territories as well as all television distribution being handled by MGM.

“HERCULES” also stars Golden Globe-winner Ian McShane (“Deadwood,” “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES”), Rufus Sewell (“LEGEND OF ZORRO”), Joseph Fiennes (“SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE,” “American Horror Story”), Peter Mullan (“War Horse,” “Top of the Lake”) and Academy Award®-nominee John Hurt (“HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS”). Rounding out the main cast is Rebecca Ferguson (The BBC’s “The White Queen”), Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (“HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS”), Aksel Hennie (“HEADHUNTERS”) and Reece Ritchie (“PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME”).

“HERCULES” is produced by Beau Flynn (“JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND,” “HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS”), Barry Levine (“OBLIVION”) and Ratner. Executive producers are Peter Berg (“BATTLESHIP”), Sarah Aubrey (“BATTLESHIP”), Ross Fanger (“IRON MAN”) and Jesse Berger (“OBLIVION”).

Based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, the ensemble-action film is a revisionist take on the classic myth set in a grounded world where the supernatural does not exist. The screenplay is by Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos.

Everyone knows the legend of Hercules and his twelve labors. Our story begins after the labors, and after the legend…

Haunted by a sin from his past, Hercules has become a mercenary.  Along with five faithful companions, he travels ancient Greece selling his services for gold and using his legendary reputation to intimidate enemies.  But when the benevolent ruler of Thrace and his daughter seek Hercules’ help to defeat a savage and terrifying warlord, Hercules finds that in order for good to triumph and justice to prevail… he must again become the hero he once was… he must embrace his own myth… he must be Hercules.

The behind-the-scenes creative team led by Ratner includes: Academy Award®-nominee director of photography Dante Spinotti (“THE INSIDER,” “LA CONFIDENTIAL”), editor Mark Helfrich  (“X-MEN: THE LAST STAND”), production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos (“10,000 B.C.”),  costume designer Jany Temime (“SKYFALL”), 2^nd Unit director Alexander Witt (“SKYFALL”), VFX supervisor John Bruno (“AVATAR”), SFX Supervisor Neil Corbould (“BLACK HAWK DOWN”) and stunt coordinator Greg Powell (“FAST & FURIOUS 6,” “HARRY POTTER” franchise).

MGM and Paramount most recently partnered on the release of the blockbuster “G.I. JOE: RETALIATION,” also starring Dwayne Johnson, as well as the global box office hit “HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS.”

Even at his worst, Aaron Sorkin’s television work is at least trying to say something. He may have crashed with Studio 60 after soaring to heights unimagined with Sports Night and The West Wing, but his first series for premium cable, The Newsroom, hews closer to success than failure regardless of its unevenness.

The series debuted on HBO last summer to mixed reviews and is coming to home video in a handsome box set on Tuesday. Lacking the blood, nudity, and shock value of True Blood and Game of Thrones, it nonetheless makes for compelling watching because these are idealized journalists trying to honor the traditions of journalism they were raised on. The series is set in the recent past, allowing the viewers watch as these reporters cover already familiar events, which lets you invest a little more in the characters and not the story.

There’s little doubt that this is a biased newscast and an equally biased production out to skewer the Tea Party and the radical right as seen through the prism of the disillusioned news anchor Will McAvoy. He and the other reporters on News Night ask all the tough questions that viewers realize all too often do not get asked in the real world. Pundits and politicians all too often get away with making outrageous statements on the air because few challenge them and fewer fact-check the claims. Thanks to hindsight, Sorkin does just that, exposing the Republican party and others for the feckless, thoughtless hacks they are, forgetting entirely about American exceptionalism or the fact that they were elected to lead.

So yeah, I like the show. Will McAvoy’s opening monologue about why the USA is not the greatest power in the world is a brilliant info dump that clearly tells you in the pilot’s first ten minutes that there’s an agenda informing the series. But, like Sorkin’s other shows, it’s also a work place dramedy with rich characters and unrequited romance. Led by Jeff Daniels’ McAvoy, who has been floundering until the new executive producer is introduced, who just happens to be his former lover MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer), who cheated on him and broke his heart. He still loves her and has been carrying an engagement ring ever since but can’t bring himself to forgive her. But there’s also Alison Pill and John Gallagher Jr. as staffers who are romantically linked yet drawn to others. Even socially awkward financial journalist Sloan (Olivia Munn) reveals herself to have a heart.

Their trials and triumphs are overshadowed by the ratings chase with corporate, represented by an imperious Jane Fonda, looking for profits. Defending McAvoy from the “suits” is Charlie (Sam Waterston), the old school journalist who brought McHale in to jumpstart thigns and sits back to enjoy the ride, glass of scotch always in his grip.

The ten episode box set comes complete with five Blu-ray discs chock full of episodes, commentaries, and special features. There’s an additional sleeve with double-sided DVD editions of the first season and there’s also an Ultraviolet option. They look and sound as one would expect and make for good viewing.

The five commentaries highlight Sorkin but also include various cast and crew. They’re worth a listen as you learn about how the production works and how the actors view their characters down to whether or not the necklaces worn by Mortimer work with her bust. The recaps and previews that accompanied the broadcast versions are included along with the brief Inside the Story segments. You also get treated to five deleted scenes from four different episodes which are said to have been cut for time, which is odd on premium cable, but it’s nice to have them here. You also get Mission Control (5:17) providing you with a look at the amazing newsroom set that just needed a console by console tour to explain what they do. Better is the roundtable conversation with Sorkin, Daniels, Mortimer, Waterston, director Greg Mottola, and executive producer Alan Poul where they reflect on the first season with some funny anecdotes.

Season two is coming in July so this is a good opportunity to introduce yourself to the show or refresh your memories so you know who is entangled with who when the cameras go live once more. For those who don’t like smart writing and smarter reflections on the state of American politics, there are other options.