Film

Reviews

HORROR CLASSIC HOUSE OF WAX (PG) 84min .000

This fine piece of Grand Guignol. about a waxworks proprietor who takes realism in modelling a bit too far, is also one of the better examples of the 3D cinema craze of the 1950s (and was remade for the current Paris Hilton vehicle). Unfortunately. it's not in BD on DVD. But directed

TH EATRICAL

BECKETT ON FILM

(E) 647min OOOO

by that one-eyed maverick Andre de Toth and starring Vincent Price (in the mad genius role that typecast him)

and Carolyn Jones (later Morticia Addams), it's an effective. atmospheric chiller.

More importantly, the film of which House of Wax is virtually a word- for-word remake. 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum, is even better and it's included on this disc as an extra. Directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros (which was looking for a horror franchise to rival Universal's Dracula and Frankenstein creature features). Mystery. . .

With characteristic human perversity, we’re apt to make ourselves look clever with the odd contradiction of commonly held beliefs. A good example is the one about the old miserymeister, Samuel Beckett. We’re told his work is actually very joyful and we nod sagely, rather than replying:

“Yeah, right.’

There may be a certain comfort in the idea that Beckett’s entrapped characters, caught in the various surrealistic physical and psychological apocalypses he designs for them, still seek to live and communicate, and there is some humour. But joyful? Come on. His work is one of the unchallengeable sacred cow of 20th century theatre.That which is boring and self indulgent nihilism in other work is a universal insight to the human condition in Beckett. A shame, because some is work that is truly great, but to weed out the goats from the sheep is seen as an admission of ignorance and philistinism.

What they are, though, good and bad, are purpose built pieces designed to be played in a room with real people. So why transpose them into film? Some of the answer lies in this box set of all 19 Beckett pieces. In some cases, such as the unworkable and, frankly, not very good in the first place What Where, which is given a kind of sci-fi makeover by director Damien O’Donnell, things go from bad to worse. On the other hand, Anthony Minghella’s Play, which is interestingly cinematically at its climax, is beautifully narrated by the director, and nicely performed by Alan Rickman, Juliet Stephenson and Kristin Scott-Thomas. This ultimately rather banal piece about imperfect recollections of a marital infidelity from the trio involved is given a poetic and existential edge, its setting in three massive urns is ‘opened out’ effectively.

But ‘opening out’ is a temptation to generally resist in theatre pieces directed by filmmakers, and failure to abide to the claustrophobic setting of Happy Days in Patricia Rozema’s film gives the piece a vacuous feel it doesn’t deserve. The rules of the theatre are more closely approximated by Richard Ayre’s Rockaby, with greater success, while Atom Egoyen’s Krapp’s Last Tape with John Hurt is a delight for similar reasons. Not so Connor McPherson’s slightly tedious version of Beckett’s greatest play, Endgame, a surprise given both the play and director’s specialisation in the processes of storytelling and subjectivity. And Waiting For Godot? Who cares about that anyway? (Steve Cramer)

17‘ J LOUd

3b 0 Clear

' stars creepy Lionel Atwill

in the Price role and scream-queen Fay Wray. who gets some free follicle removal. The two-colour Technicolor process is gorgeous. and the macabre Poe- like theme engrossing. Minimal extras.

(Miles Fielder)

SCI FI EPIC CASSHERN

(1 5) 141 min (Momentum Asia DVD retail) m

C3 j... Epic in scale and length, this work from first-time director Kazuaki Kiriya succeeds in recreating the grandiose silent movie era spectacles of DW Griffith and Fritz Lang on a reputed budget of £25m. Like the Jude Law flop Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Casshern features real actors against entirely computer-generated locations and effects.

3 with a distinctive retro- futuristic look.

Geneticist Dr Azuma. (Akira Terao) has his work on regenerative 'neo-cells' funded by a military junta that rules the Asian continent. When lightning strikes a batch of these cells. they grow into 'neo- sapiens'. clones with super strength, speed and agility.

While most of these are murdered. a small group escapes to lead a revolution. Dr Azurna's dead son is then resurrected using the cells. taking on the mantle of Casshern, an ancient protective deity. to fight back against the neo-sapiens.

The anti-war message seems a little trite while the camera Iavishes attention on mass warfare and mecha- destruction. and the story can be so dynamic as to be

incomprehensible at times. leaving Casshern, for all its sound and fury. an ultimately soulless. albeit visually stunning expenence.

Abundant extras include 11 deleted scenes with director's commentary, extra 16mm footage with commentary and subtitled cast and crew interviews. (Dave Martin)

MUSIC DOCUMENTARY MOOG

(E) 70min

(Plexifilm) 0000 ‘Don't you feel guilty about what you've done?‘ Robert Moog was asked at a Canadian music conference in the early 19708 regarding his invention of a device which hand—wringing traditionalists feared would bring about the collapse of modern music.

That machine was the inventors self-named synthesiser. and as we now know it became modern music. Hans Fjellestad's documentary is as much a homage to. as a

record of, the instrument

and its creator. following the silver-haired. gardening-inspired Moog as he tells his story and meets fellow Moog obsessives.

The film is by geeks. about geeks and for geeks. Witness Moog and sometime Beastie Boy Money Mark getting hugely excited about the device. or Yes' Rick Wakeman telling of his first Mini- Moog. bought on the cheap because the owner thought the whirring. bleeping contraption was on the blink. As the philosophically minded Moog serenades us out

_____ _ ._ __

with ‘Old Man River' on the Theremin, however,

it‘s also testament to one man's odd but

' influential legacy.

(David Pollock)

THRILLER

WANTED: DEAD

: OR ALIVE

(15) 104min

(Anchor Bay DVD retail) 0..

What's better than a foul-mouthed. savagely violent and amoral action movie starring Rutger Hauer? A foul- mouthed. savager violent and amoral action movie starring Rutger Hauer. KISS

frontman Gene

Simmons and William

; Guillaume (the voice of , Rafiki in Disney's The

Lion King). Hauer plays CIA agent

i turned bounty hunter

Nick Randall, a descendant of Josh Randall, the bounty hunter played by Steve

McQueen in the 503 TV

series of the same name. Although

i originally recruited by his old colleague Philmore

Walker (Guillaume) to

track down Malak Al ; Rahim (Simmons). a

terrorist operating on American soil, Randall soon becomes the hunted one.

Despite such a pre-24

; scenario and a

committed performance

. from probably the finest colour-blind Dutch

action hero ever to grace the screen the

' dingy sets,one-

dimensional terrorists and generally po-faced demeanour of the

participants fail to raise

this above the standard

of this straight-to-video , fare. Still, an explosive finale and some nice

one-liners will reward

those who persevere. Minimal extras. (Dave Martin)

ALL DVDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD & CLEAR

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