LUCKY LUKE (2009) - Jean DuJardin, hero of the wild west

LUCKY LUKE

(2009, France/Argentina)

Cowboy spoof, action comedy, more fun than The Artist

Lucky Luke, cowboy, sharpshooter, drifter, do-gooder... Renowned for his heroics across the wild west, Luke is summoned by the President of the United States to help unite the country by clearing the last obstacle to the trans-American railroad - the lawless Daisy Town. But this may prove too big a job for just one cowboy...

Like Tintin, Lucky Luke started as a Belgian comic strip. First appearing in 1946, the character became hugely popular across Europe, but not so much in the UK or US. It spawned cartoon series, two live-action movies (1991) and a TV series (1992) aptly starring spaghetti western veteran Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity).

Also like Tintin, the cartoon character has had to move with the times. But the movie playfully references many of his earlier traits, like the cigarette that used to hang from his mouth... Writer/director James Huth also humorously turns many movie western cliches on their heads.

At times, he uses brash colour schemes, like early comic books, for certain scenes and even single shots, making it look almost experimental at times. Comic book humour extends to visual gags as wild as the silent movies. I loved the President's train carriage with it's thick, static ceiling of smoke, and the population of terrified townspeople hiding and moving around in upturned water barrels.

The range of bizarre characters and offbeat approach to the cowboy genre, where half the population (somehow) have hearts of gold, reminded me of Gore Verbinski's similarly enjoyable Rango. Calamity Jane looks more cowboy than cowgirl, Billy The Kid is a childish adult and Jesse James is a failed actor, with a magnificently overlong longcoat. Even Luke's horse is a character.

The desert location work (shot in Argentina) and impressive scale of the film makes this one very overlooked movie. For me it was a far more rewarding experience than The Artist, perhaps because that was overhyped and this was underhyped. This is funner, but not Jean DuJardin at his funniest. You need the two OSS 117 films, Cairo - Nest of Spies (2006) and Lost In Rio (2009) to see his full comic range.

The cover art for the UK DVD sneakily presents DuJardin in black and white, alluding to The Artist, but this movie is totally drenched in colour. It's presented in French with English subtitles and no extras. If Amazon.fr is to be trusted, the Blu-ray sold in France also has English subtitles on it.

Lucky Luke comics website (in  French).

THE HITCHER (1986) - road movie, horror movie

THE HITCHER

(1986, USA)

Memorable shocks in the intelligent, original road movie horror

A young man (C. Thomas Howell) is making some extra cash by delivering a new car by driving across several states. In a torrential downpour, he obligingly picks up a hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer). As they start chatting, the details of the hitcher's stranded story don't quite add up. So he ditches the stranger as soon as possible. But this chance meeting leads into a nightmare of murder and unrelenting paranoia...

While 1980s horror films were awash with breakthroughs in prosthetic gore and wise-cracking paedophiles from hell, the most shocking moments in those films were often censored for both the big screen and the small. Watching horror movies on home video rarely delivered shocks based on explicit violence because those moments had been edited down (or completely cut out).

One movie that still made an impression was The Hitcher. Despite being panned and scanned from 2.35 widescreen in the cinema down to 4:3 on videotape (the way I first saw it), the story's power was increased by deliberately avoiding always showing the gore while suggesting very violent scenes. Aided by the suspense and emotional impact on the characters, the film was memorably surprising and chilling without troubling the censors.

Between a truck and a hard place

The simple premise is elaborately crafted by scriptwriter Eric Red, who seemed to specialise in mixing the horror genre up with car action (see also Near Dark and Body Parts). Although he delivered a violent story with a high bodycount, director Robert Harmon then had to reassure ace cinematographer John Seale (Witness, The Perfect Storm) that he wasn't out to make gory exploitation, and intended to use a subtler approach to horror and an attempt to shoot action scenes in more unusual and original ways.

Revisiting this on DVD, an overdue chance to see it widescreen, I was rewarded with a horror film that was an old friend, as well as a worthy road movie, with dreamy atmospheric cinematography and suitably muted moody music (from Mark Isham) that befits the genre, beauty and isolation of wide open spaces.

In the cast, a sad reminder of the early promise of C. Thomas Howell (The Outsiders) before he became synonymous with direct-to-video. Rutger Hauer elevates the film as the enigmatic murderer - a villain of the most dangerous kind, fiercely intelligent. Anyone wanting more of the Hauer we got in Blade Runner will enjoy this.

Along the way, a young woman inevitably gets drawn up in the events, played by a young Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female, The Hudsucker Proxy) we benefit from getting a tough, cautious, realistic character rather than an annoying love interest.

There's not a weak link in the cast, and I retrospectively recognised Jeffrey DeMunn from The Walking Dead as the confused Police Captain trying to pick through the carnage.

I watched this on a US DVD (pictured at the very top) and then checked the UK 2-disc Special Edition (above) which added a great making-of documentary, with interviews with most of the principal cast and crew. But this newer transfer was marred by a standards-conversion that kept adding annoying 'kicks' in the long smooth camera moves. It looked like the film had also had some 'restoration' - so now there are compression problems from digital video noise reduction fighting against the film grain, as well as the rain and smoke in some low-light scenes. Until a Blu-ray happens, I'd favour the older US release, which happily is also anamorphic widescreen.

THE HITCHER II: I'VE BEEN WAITING

(2003, USA)

I was interested in seeing the grown-up C. Thomas Howell in the belated sequel, but was immediately was daunted by the opening credit 'Home Entertainment Production', indicating that this was primarily made for home video. The very opening scene with a CGI plane in a CGI rainstorm also unimpressed. 

C. Thomas Howell's character is now an adult, obviously haunted by his bad experiences with road trips. Despite the lesson he learned the hard way, he winds up picking up another hitcher with plenty of baggage.

The story adds some new twists, racks up a high bodycount and some impressively staged stunts. But with a story that keeps quitting the road, and a numbing fast-edit approach to action scenes, it's more action than horror. It should be so very easy to make Jake Busey into a memorable psycho, but this somehow doesn't manage it.

THE HITCHER

(2007, USA)

Won over by Sean Bean's rounded performance in Game of Thrones, I even tried out the recent remake.

Whereas the original movie took a more oblique approach to the gore and the stunts, the remake takes a hard line on getting the most violence and suffering out of the plot, but only as far as the 'R' rating will allow. The action and momentum of the story is more straightforward than the meandering sequel, but less complex and less mystical than the original. And Sean Bean is no Rutger Hauer. He a plot device propelling the movie, rather than a believable antagonist.

There's still much to enjoy, with new twists and turns in the road, and some fantastic shock moments that ejected me from my seat. Great to see the amazing car stunts being done for real rather than cheated with CGI.

 

The underused Neal McDonough carves an interesting role out of very little as the police captain in charge of the chase. When he gets angry, it occurred to me he'd have made a far more interesting Hitcher than Sean Bean.

But! It took a while to impress. For the sake of an elaborate long tracking shot, the opening shot uses CGI animals. I then didn't connect very well with the two young leading actors. Perhaps I was distracted by the opening half hour of the movie using a barrage of forgettable soft rock music.

Worse still, using that Nine Inch Nails track that backed the opening titles to Se7en is the clunkiest way to spoil the best action scene in the film. The soundtrack abruptly opts out of Steve Jablonsky's score like a bad playlist.

Also, the editing and staging of two of the stunts sequences included shots that completely 'crossed the line' (a basic rule of visual editing). I was so confused about 'who was going where' that I had to backtrack to get my bearings. Action on a long straight road shouldn't be that hard to follow.

Overall, a good-looking, action-packed shocker. A very different film, less elaborate, less atmospheric than the original. But more brutal rather than more cleverer.
I watched the US version on an HD/DVD combo disc. Looked good, with some interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Saving for September

In my previous blog I mentioned my excitement about a few blurays being released in August, especially my all time favorite movie Jaws. Since then I have signed up for amazon prime account and have been getting a lot of emails from them about upcoming releases and I have come to a conclusion that September may personally be the best bluray release month ever. Check out all these titles that I would buy if I had the means (not to say I do not plan on buying all of these, maybe just at a later date).

Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection - Hitchcock has long been one of if not my all time favorite directors and I have eagerly been awaiting many of his classic films on bluray. This set features 15 of his films: Saboteur, Shadow Of A Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marine, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, and Family Plot. At least 6 of these are my all time favorites and the set has even a few I have yet to see but am eager to watch. I have somehow managed to not buy any Hitchcock blurays yet (I've been really close though) so this set would be really worth if for me or any Hitchcock fan that wants to upgrade their collection. The set is also limited (not sure what that entails) so you may have to get it sooner rather then later. It retails for $300 but is on amazon right now for $225 with a release date of September 25, 2012.

Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures - I love the adventures of Dr. Jones so this set is a must have for me. Sure the latest movie really didn't live up to my expectations  but the first three are some of the best action/adventure films ever made. I have recently been watching some of the films on cable (TBS or TNT...I think) and the movies already look like bluray quality, so I am interested to see if these will just be the same quality or even look better. I am really eager to see what extras come in the set as well. One thing I was hoping for was the original poster artwork on each individual casing in the set. So far it seems that this is not the case, I still think this is a head scratcher why they don't use those posters on the blurays, they are amazing pieces of artwork. The set retails for $100 but can be found on amazon for $75 right now and the set will be out on September 18!

Marvel's The Avengers - A recent movie but still one that really was worth the hype and did justice what was some of the highest expectation put on a movie in the last 5 years. I call this The Avengers but I guess it is now being released as Marvel's The Avengers, just in case you had no idea Marvel was in charge. There is  5 different releases of this on bluray/dvd. If you don't have any marvel comic movies on bluray but loved them all their is a huge set called Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One -- Avengers Assembled, this set includes: The Avengers 3D bluray, Captain American 3D, Thor 3D, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and the Incredible Hulk plus a few extra discs which total 10 for the set. I personally am not into the 3D gimmick as much as everyone else, especially 3D at home. So I am going for the Avengers set in the bluray packaging. This set has a lot of the extras I am looking for and is $25 right now on amazon, down from the retail pricing of $40. Marvel's The Avengers will be released the same day as the Hitchcock set, September 25th!

The Game - Since my first cinematic viewing in 1997 I have loved this David Fincher film, which I still feel is very underrated. I am so happy to see The Game not only come out on bluray but get the Criterion label on it. The Criterion Collection pretty much guarantees the best special features and that the director has approved everything in the set (not some studio head). I am eager to see the commentary track and delve into the extras. If you haven't seen The Game please go out and do that ASAP, or wait to watch the bluray and see it in all of its glory. The set priced at $40 but can be found at amazon for $28 and the release date is set for September 25th as well. 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch - Long known as the Halloween movie without Michael Myers that no one likes, Halloween III has become sort of a an underground success. After Halloween and Halloween II John Carpenter was looking to get out of just making Michael Myers movies and tried to keep the Halloween series going, but in a new direction. I remember thinking, like everyone else, no Michael Myers no way this will be good. But having revisited this movie a few years back I started to enjoy it for what it was and now its a personal favorite and a must watch every October. The set also features commentary with the director as well as fan favorite actor Tom Atkins! The set also has many other extras that I will love to see! Another really cool little extra is that they have some new artwork on the cover, personally I love the look of this artwork but if you want to have the original movie poster artwork you can simply turn over the wrap and have the original poster as your bluray cover! I find that a really cool little extra in an already impressive set. They are also releasing Halloween II in a similar set on the same day, September 18th is the day you can find both Halloween II & III on bluray in these special editions. Each bluray is priced at $30 but can be found at amazon for $20 or you can directly order from Shout and get an extra bonus if you are one of the first 500 people to order the bluray, act fast!

Ed Wood - A great movie by Tim Burton, Ed Wood should not be missed by lovers of Burton/Depp or people who love movies about movies. The cast is impressive, my guess is that if this movie was released after Johnny Depp did Pirates of the Carribean he would have easily been nominated for an Oscar. At least Martin Landau won an oscar for his roll as Bela Legosi and it pulled in a best make-up oscar as well!  I am excited to add this to my list of great dvd's that need a bluray replacement, of course it might take me a long time to add this after buying so many of the other titles you see on this list. Ed Wood is being relased September 18th with a listed price of only $20 and is on sale for $15 right now!

..so that is why I am saving for September!

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE (1958) a choice of DVDs

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE(1958, UK)

Hammer films opened the bloodgates of sadistic melodrama!


A sadistic doctor is using 'lunatic asylum' patients for his merciless experiments – trying to separate human bloodtypes into categories in order to aid successful transfusions, utter madness!

This doesn't rate as a horror movie by modern standards, but pushed the boundaries in a different era. It's a useful indicator of the changing perception of violence. This was once a censors' nightmare but now appears on DVD uncensored and PG rated. Does this mean that in fifty years time the gory shock value of Hostel and Saw will be treated just as lightly?


For fans of early Hammer films, this is a must-see, especially as it's written by Jimmy Sangster who also scripted many of the first successful Hammer horrors, helping launch the studio worldwide. While this doesn't have the supernatural atmosphere, it's interesting for a story which concentrates more on the sex and violence that Hammer was vilified for.

Dr Callistratus is forced to eat at his desk

This could be classified as an Eros Film, the distributor used by this production team (Monty Berman and Bob Baker) who also made lower budget horrors The Trollenberg Terror, Jack The Ripper (1959) and The Flesh and the Fiends before successfully producing most of the jewels of ITC's TV hits like The Saint, The Champions and The Persuaders.


I'm a quality whore. My opinion of the film has changed now that I've seen a decent remastering of the film. It looks better than it ever has, less seedy, badly-shot and grainy than on tape and TV. Now it looks closer to an expensive, quality production, with lavish sets (far roomier than Hammer) and impressive matte paintings. The amount of sex and bloody violence for the mid-fifties makes this a worthy companion to Hammer's Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula, whose violent thrills it carefully emulates (a shot in the eye and a head in a jar, like Curse, a bloody staking like Dracula), presumably to sneak past the censors as much as possible ('well you allowed this when they did it').

The story is even a mix of Frankenstein and Dracula, a crossbreed of elements which is by definition supernatural but plays mainly as a nasty adventure in medical experimentation. OK, now we know he wasn't a mad doctor, he was on the right track. But his methods are a little unorthodox...



Sir Donald Wolfit (who you can also see in Lawrence of Arabia!) took a break from performing Shakespeare in British repertory, but still plays to the back of the movie theatre as the obsessive Dr Callistratus. He’s far better here than he was in the first colour version of Svengali (1956) and certainly makes this more enjoyable.

He's upstaged by his psychotic hunchbacked assistant, providing comedy actor Victor Maddern with a chance to both evoke sympathy and overact wildly. The hunchback provides a chronological bridge between between Bela Lugosi’s Ygor (Son of Frankenstein, 1939), and Richard O’ Brien’s Riff Raff (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975).

Besides Wolfit, the best reason to see this is Barbara Shelley, one of the most accomplished actresses to appear in Hammer Films. Particularly Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966) and Quatermass and the Pit. She hasn't much of a character, but ably endures many difficult scenes, being ravished and ogled by the bad guys.

The original publicity photographs have long teased followers of this film since appearing in sixties monster mags. The photo of the flogging victim was strong stuff even in black and white. But some of these images used in the UK and US were of scenes specifically shot to spice up the film for the less censorious countries of continental Europe, like France, Italy and Germany. Extra scenes that would only have been included in their versions. Cheeky to use these photos to push the film elsewhere.

Hand-coloured lobby card - a scene still missing from all versions

As a result, we're still waiting to see these missing scenes and characters, though I think the US and UK DVDs now represent what was submitted to the censors back in 1958. Any cuts have been reinstated and I don't think we'll see any new footage until the 'Continental Version' is unearthed. Even then, they won't have English audio tracks.

Blood of the Vampire first surfaced on DVD in thisregion 1 release (from Dark Sky) as a double-bill with The Hellfire Club. Itincludes the censor cuts, but they are jumpily integrated into this print. Besides film weave and an unavoidably grainy image, this version is compromised by a zoomed-in image on several scenes,cropping off the bottom and sides of the picture. For the most part, the framing is acceptably tightened to 16:9 from 1.66 (the original ratio shown in the opening titles).

Some of the additional shots (that I hadn't seen on earlier TV screenings) reinstated here are of a head in a jar, and some spurting blood being decanted during a transfusion (this last glimpse is still cross-faded out in the UK DVD).

There's a jovial and informative commentary track, Hammer historian Marcus Hearn getting the most out of writer Jimmy Sangster and producer Bob Baker.

A young Barbara Shelley and Sir Donald Wolfit

While the comparison review (below) sides with the region 1 release, I really prefer the UK DVD from Simply Home Entertainment. The image is similarly grainy but has slightly more depth to both detail and colour. I'm not suggesting anyone double-dips as the difference is subtle, but certainly don't opt for the US version if you live in the UK. While the image suffers too much digitalscratch-reduction on both discs, I'm not expecting a practically unknown film to look any better without a ton of far more expensive restoration work.


The UK version is better framed overall, with none of the strangely zoomed-in scenes of the US DVD. The visual composition is a little tight at the head of the frame (on both), but is edge-matted throughout to better approximate 1.66. The opening scene and titles are better presented, full height and less cropped, on the US disc. Both DVDs are presented anamorphically for 16:9 screens.

Barbara Burke on the slab - a scene seen only in the UK DVD

The UK DVD has an entire extra scene with the housekeeper strapped to the operating table, though nothing scandalous happens. As far as I could tell, the other censor cuts have been restored, apart from the blood spurting into the jar!


The UK disc lacks any extras, sadly missing the commentary track. But most of the information that was discussed is included in a packed colour 16-page booklet of information, posters and photos.






For frame grabs and an alternate opinon of the DVD comparisons, see this page from Mondo Esoterica...



More examples of the fantastic lobby cards,here on Four Color Comics...



(Updated to include a review of the UK Simply Home Entertainment DVD - my initial review of the Dark Sky US DVD first went online on 30/03/2007).

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) - Roger Corman's colour-coded Poe

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

(1964, UK)

Gorgeous, colourful, complex, bloody, Roger Corman adaption of Poe


The Masque of the Red Death is a costumed ball held in a castle fortress for the rich landowners, while all around the villagers are dying of a mysterious plague. With a captive audience, Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) can indulge in a wild party and even a little black magic without anyone complaining. Spurning his beautiful wife (Hazel Court), he kidnaps and attempts to lure a young christian (Jane Asher) to defect and worship Satan...


Roger Corman directed a series of the best ever adaptions of Edgar Allen Poe, while remaining true to his stringent budget guidelines. How he successfully managed to sell these movies to teenagers at the same time as the beach party films, I'm not sure. Poe's poems and short stories needed expert scriptwriters (such as Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont) to remain true to the gothic sensibility while expanding the material to feature-length. The themes of plague, evil, class and religion make for a rich set of subtexts for a period horror film.

For the first time, Corman increased his budgets in order to get colour cinematography for these Poe films. The rich look was complemented by Daniel Haller's imaginative and psychological production design. The casts were usually headed by Vincent Price, grateful for material with some literary kudos.


For newcomers to these films, I wouldn't start with Corman's first Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher. The Poe films shot in America are characterised by endless creeping around cobwebbed corridors waiting for Vincent's dead wife to pop up. The Pit and the Pendulum is my favourite of these, for the magnificent finale and the dark presence of Barbara Steele. But Corman shot two Poe films in England, resulting in lusher and more ambitious productions. The Tomb of Ligeia even has exterior locations, at odds with the usual claustrophobic atmosphere of the series. The Masque of the Red Death is therefore my recommended starting point.


It has intertwined subplots, making for repeated payoffs, gets more than a little violent and subtly focusses on the battle between satanism and christianity. Prospero's repeated blasphemies are veiled in fancy words, but even the current home video version is missing gobbets of dialogue based on past censorship cuts. The oblique references to the outrageous sexual behaviour of his guests remain.

The production is entirely set-bound, but this is the best-looking Roger Corman Poe. The colour-coded sets, costumes and death scenes still look gorgeous, in no small part due to cinematographer and future director Nicolas Roeg (Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell To Earth).

Vincent Price is once again matched by a strong female lead, the late Hazel Court  (The Curse of Frankenstein, who looks rudely ravishing, and relishing an evil role (rather than her usually cheerful romantic lead). She'd previously appeared opposite Ray Milland in Corman's gloomy adaption of The Premature Burial. and his Poe spoof, The Raven.

The rival of her affection is played by a young Jane Asher (here aged about 18) surrounded by professional thespians and having to do nude scenes. She'd later appear in Alfie (1966)and star in the recently restored Deep End (1970). She'd already been a child actress, unrecognisable as the little girl who meets the monster in The Quatermass Xperiment(1955).

The large cast is bolstered by many other British actors, best of all Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange, Tales From The Crypt) as the queasily curious Duke Alfredo. Skip Martin gets a meaty role as Hop-Toad the vengeful dwarf - who also appeared in a string of horror movies (Vampire Circus, Horror Hospital, Corridors of Blood). For added gravitas, there's Nigel Green(The Ipcress File, Jason and the Argonauts)in a too-small role.

 

For years I watched The Masque of the Red Death with the sexual and violent scenes cut out, with the 2,35 frame cropped savagely to fullframe 4:3. It's now on anamorphic widescreen DVDs in the UK and US, but it's been noticed that some older censor cuts are still in place. The film was last spotted uncut on TV in the 90s, with a couple of extra short scenes (the two little people discuss running away, and when Asher says she "slept badly"), extra blasphemy (Asher calls to God and Price assumes she's addressing him), as well as a glimpse of nudity (Asher being thrown in the bath). This BBC showing was of a print that started 'Anglo Amalgamated Presents' and had George Willoughby credited as producer, rather than Corman. To my eyes, the 'dream sequence' that Hazel Court endures was also a notably different colour, much more blue than the greener hues of the DVD transfers.


More details about the various versions here on the Classic Horror Film forum.

 

These cuts are annoying but negligible (Skip Martin's scenes with his love interest are unintentionally creepy as she's played by a little girl, her voice dubbed in by an adult (unconvincingly). The veiled, blasphemous dialogue remains mostly intact, as are the scenes of violence. Of the two DVDs, I'd recommend the US DVD (the MGM Midnite Movie double-bill) for having richer colours, which this movie definitely needs. The low-light scenes with mist and smoke still struggle desperately with the DVD compression and it screams for a Blu-ray release. The MGM UK 2005 DVD is also anamorphic but doesn't include the trailer.

Here's Jane Asher's own website!