Easy: By sending it to us. For the most part, we are out of the CD reviewing game – partly from lack of time, partly from lack of desire after being beaten down by so many terrible discs. You’ll still see the occasional album reviewed here, but it’ll likely be something we’ve bought, rather than the unsolicited “check us out on MySpace!” junk. Apologies if that sounds harsh, but I’m throwing in the towel.
For all the hype being spilled on this year’s crop of Oscar front-runners, I think much of it is misplaced, having now seen Christopher Nolan’s THE PRESTIGE, an outstanding adaptation of Christopher Priest’s outstanding 1995 novel. Not only is the film visual storytelling at its best, but also a sterling example of a seemingly-impossible-to-adapt novel making a triumphant journey to the big screen without artistic compromise.
Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale star as warring Victorian magicians, both two-bit tricksters whose rise to fame is marked by constant one-upsmanship and sabotage. At first, they’re friends, until an onstage mistake by one results in the tragic death of the other’s loved one. From then, they’re bitter enemies, and the stakes are raised when one conjures the ultimate illusion – one with which the other become obsessed.
If any more plot was revealed – for the film or the book – it’d be all but ruined. The joy is in letting its labyrinthian turns twist your brain every which way. If you thought Nolan’s MEMENTO was an enigma, it’s a kindergartener’s board puzzle compared to this giant jigsaw.
Nolan adheres closely to Priest’s narrative, even if it jettisons the modern-day wraparound and the progressive weakening of one magician; neither are missed. As with Priest’s telling in print, the way the story unfolds onscreen is nothing short of masterful. And once you see it, you’re going to want to see it again just to see if the clues were there all along. I’d read the book less than two years ago, and I still couldn’t completely predict what was coming.
But don’t think it’s a one-trick pony; this is no M. Night Shyamalan gimmick where the emperor has no clothes. There’s a real richness to the plot – inherent in the novel and elevated with the sumptuous visuals. Jackman and Bale wear their roles quite well; Jackman actually gets to act for a change and Bale strengthens his rep as one of our more intense but under-the-radar thespians. As a woman who comes between them, Scarlett Johansson doesn’t have much to do but serve as window dressing, but what nice-looking window dressing it is.
Ready-made for endless discussions and unjustly ignored upon its release – not to mention awards season – THE PRESTIGE is one of the very best films from 2006, spurring from the pages of one the very best novels I’ve read in this decade. –Rod Lott
More often than not, H.P Lovecraft gets the short end of the stick when it comes to movies made from his work. Most take only the briefest thread of a story and go with it, likely butchering the text to the point that it resides in the world of B movies. That is, until now.
In THE CALL OF CTHULHU, the fine folks of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society have done something big studios have failed to do countless times: Stick to the actual text and make it great. Plus, they do it as a black-and-white silent picture – top that!
Not straying from the actual plot of the original story, which is mainly the retelling of a investigation of a unnamed man into his great uncle’s research, the film first show us his uncle’s encounters with a strange man from Providence, R.I., who is having strange nocturnal visions of a dreamlike city.
Then the man reads about his uncle relaying a tale of a policemen from New Orleans who broke up a weird cult deep in the swamps. Finally, he comes across a old newspaper article, which leads our “hero” all the way to Oslo to find out about a sailor’s experiences with these cults.
The HPLHS has done a phenomenal job with this movie, making it so enthralling and with so little money. Even though the film is low-budget, it does not show. They went to the actual location that Lovecraft wrote about; the house still stands today and looks exactly like it did back in Lovecraft’s day.
What gave me a chuckle is how they pulled off some effects to hide the all-around fact that it now is very much a modern city. The Cthulhu effect alone would make Ray Harryhausen proud. The music in the film is just so spot-on it sucks you into the story even further, matching well with the action taking place onscreen. And if you have foreign friends who can’t read English, there are 24 other languages to choose from in the title cards.
Diving into the extras, we’re treated to a highly informative behind-the-scenes feature, which goes into the processes used to making the film, admitting they had no idea as to how certain things were going to look since they had no idea themselves. Now that’s love for a project.
You also get deleted footage, of which the first two minutes is test footage of the Cthulhu-like puppet. It’s great unto itself to see this creepy little thing move. Then, if you’ve ever wondered what actors say in a silent film, the deleted scenes will reveal all: You can see the actors didn’t take themselves too seriously and had a blast during the shoot. In addition, there are two different sets of still photos that automatically play with music from the movie behind them and a downloadable prop of a news article featured in the movie.
This is a DVD for Lovecraft fans to display proudly in their collection next to their copies of RE-ANIMATOR. –Bruce Grossman
As for HITCH #37, while it held my attention start to finish as usual, the shift to a ’straighter’ tone (especially in the movie reviews) was hyper-noticeable. Was the decision to dump the funny, right or wrong, a conscious one?
Doug Moench
Ottsville, PA
Doug: We were unconscious, and mostly remain that way.
I love Hitch. It’s quite possibly one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. The POLICE ACADEMY issue still makes me laugh my ass off. Is it still around? The Tower I frequent seems to have stopped stocking it. Then again, they stopped stocking all the magazines I like.
Michael Sulllivan
Mountaintop, PA
Michael: Know what else Tower’s not stocking anymore, too? EVERYTHING! They’ve gone out of business and just hit me with a huge bill for unsold issues, like that’s going reverse their bankruptcy or something.
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