XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

 (Originally posted May 17, 2017)

Whatever you may think about Vin Diesel's brand new chapter in the "XXX" series, XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE (2016), it does serve a vital purpose. 

Namely, to give my DVDs of all those cool hardcore action flicks from the 80s and 90s a breather.  You know, back when they knew how to make kickass, uncomplicated, manly action epics that delivered the goods without taking themselves too seriously.

That's exactly what this--what's that word--"high octane" blast of damn-near nonstop action does from the very first minutes when Vin's Xander Cage character, whom we thought was dead but merely faked his death, starts out doing something wildly unbelievable which we know the movie's going to have to top.  And which it most definitely will, repeatedly.

 

With Xander's former boss Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) currently indisposed, it falls to icily efficient intelligence exec Jane Marke (Toni Collette, THE DEAD GIRL, THE SIXTH SENSE) to recruit the reluctant ex-agent to help stop a plot in which a stolen remote control device called "Pandora's Box" is sending satellites crashing into cities with devastating effect. 

Eschewing the brawny military types assigned to him in the most exquisitely dismissive manner imaginable, Xander gathers his own team of badasses, each with his or her own special skills.  They'll need them, too, because they're going up against an equally insane group of adversaries which includes the likes of both Tony Jaa (the ONG BOK series) and team leader Donnie Yen (KILL ZONE, IP MAN). 

Needless to say, this paves the way for some of the most intense, mind-blowing action sequences in years, with excellent fight and stunt choreography, and direction  (by D.J. Caruso, THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM, DISTURBIA) and editing that make things snap without using too much Shaky-cam or incomprehensibly quick cuts. 

 

The plot, which manages a few interesting surprises here and there, moves briskly along with few slow spots and a pleasant balance between "serious" and "comedy."  Vin, of course, is an old hand at this sort of thing and, knowing a good thing when he's in it, makes the most of this chance to be the ultimate Mr. Cool once again.

This means we might as well go into it knowing that (a) Xander is going to be unbelievably, superhumanly cool and able to do anything, including jumping out of a doomed airplane without a parachute, and (b) the situations and dialogue are going to be totally over-the-top and, at times, a little bit dumb.  But you know what?  Sometimes dumb is fun, and vice versa.

So okay, XXX is the toughest, the most badass, the most virile (he plows his way through a whole group of sex-starved babes and leaves them all slumbering contentedly in the morning), the most insanely resourceful S.O.B. when the chips are down--basically, the most everything. 

 

What makes this acceptable is the fact that the film knows it's over-the-top and even kind of silly, which it totally works like crazy because, in addition to being a straight action movie, it's also basically a giddy-fun, spoofy exaggeration of straight action movies. 

I'm sure some less enthusiastic viewers will be glad to point out all the ways in which this movie is unforgivably dumb.  As for me, I love the gritty, highly improbable action, the rogue's gallery of fascinating characters (played by a terrific international cast), the dazzling fight choreography, the amazing stunts, the Bond-level gadgets, and the cool special effects (including, fittingly enough, some "iffy" wirework). 

Mostly, I like XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE because it's just plain fun, and will make a worthy addition to my roster of "go-to" old-school action flicks.

-----------



Tech Specs 
 
This Paramount feature comes in a combo pack with Blu-ray and DVD discs along with a code to download a digital HD copy.  The Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. 

The DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

Bonuses on the Blu-ray consist of the featurettes "Third Time’s the Charm: Xander Returns", "Rebels, Tyrants & Ghosts: The Cast", "Opening Pandora’s Box: On Location", "I Live for This Sh#t!: Stunts", and a gag reel. The DVD contains the feature film in standard definition.

Street Date:            May 2, 2017 (Digital HD)
May 16, 2017 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD)   
U.S. Rating:       PG-13 for extended sequences of gunplay and violent action, and for sexual material and language
Canadian Rating:    14A violence, language may offend

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XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

SHIN GODZILLA -- Movie Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/8/16

 

I never was a huge kaiju fan, but I always thought GODZILLA and other Japanese monster movies from Toho Studios were pretty cool when I was a kid.  I remember titles like KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, RODAN, and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS showing at my local theater when they were new and the place being packed with happy, excited kids (we really loved our monster movies back then!) I rarely missed these and other such films as MOTHRA and GAMMERA on television as well.

I did pretty much miss out on the middle period in Japanese monster movie history, namely the updated stuff from the 80s and beyond.  I had the misfortune of seeing the Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin GODZILLA remake in 1998, the less said about which the better except that it was, in two words, horribly ill-conceived. 

With that in mind, I must say that I found Toho's latest 2016 remake, SHIN GODZILLA (or "Godzilla Resurgence"), to be a welcome throwback to those old-fashioned kaiju epics of my childhood which I recall most fondly.

 

For one thing, even though the giant green lizard is purely a modern-day CGI creation, he's designed to resemble the man-in-a-monster-suit Godzilla of old.  I find this both delightfully nostalgic and somehow just plain right.  He sounds the same too, and his appearance is usually heralded by the familiar strains of his original theme music. 

What I found intriguingly different this time around is that the beast is in a state of accelerated evolutionary flux.  When we first see him, he's a purely amphibious fish-eyed creature--sort of a cross between a turtle and a seahorse--whose intense body heat causes a steam cloud to erupt in Tokyo Harbor and inflict extreme tsunami-style damage on the coastline.  After it makes its way out of the water, it morphs into a being that can exist on land. 

After its initial rampage and a brief return to the sea for its final stage of evolution, the monster returns fully transformed (more or less) into the Godzilla we've always known and loved.  At this point the movie kicks into high gear with scenes of devastation that are absolutely breathtaking and, this time, completely convincing.  (No more cardboard buildings and flimsy pagodas with wind-up toy military vehicles skittering around, as endearing as they were.)

 

In his third of three major appearances, Godzilla lets loose all of his radioactive fury with both heat breath and photon beams from his tail and dorsal fins that slice right through buildings and blow military craft out of the sky. 

There's one sequence in particular in which several skyscrapers surrounding Godzilla are detonated and brought down upon him all at once, resulting in a scene so utterly catastrophic yet realistically rendered that I found it strangely exhilarating.  If you have a sweet tooth for scenes of full-scale destruction, this movie should satisfy it and then some.

That said, SHIN GODZILLA resembles the Godzilla movies of old in another, less positive way--it's often incredibly boring.  Remember all those long, talky scenes they'd always put between the monster action to pad out the movie?  This one has those in abundance, and they're talkier than ever. 

Much of the talk consists of a lot of overwrought political and scientific chatter spouted by an endless succession of uninteresting and resolutely unmemorable characters.  The only two who make any sort of lasting impression are young Mr. Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa), who assembles a crack team of geniuses to figure out how to neutralize the radioactive beast before it has to be nuked along with the rest of Tokyo, and Miss Patterson (Satomi Ishihara), a winsome, headstrong Japanese-American woman acting as liason for the American President.

But even these two characters are too busy yakking about boring stuff (Mr. Yaguchi seems particularly stiff-necked) to develop much interesting character interaction, and the rest of the old fogies do nothing but sit at long tables endlessly gnawing on all the political knots with an almost comical nationalistic fervor.

These scenes with all their rapid-fire exposition really are a calcified bore despite attempts by co-directors Hideaki Anno (EVANGELION) and Shinji Higuchi to make things interesting by keeping the camera moving a lot. 

The only time the non-Godzilla scenes liven up is when the monster's approach throws all of the earlier formality into utter chaos during the mad scramble to evacuate in time.  Some suspense is also generated late in the film with the impending decision whether or not to use nukes as the Americans (natch) and UN are urging the Japanese to do. 

But all of this is forgotten during the three major monster sequences in the film, the third of which begins with 15-20 minutes of the 120-minute running time left and features some of the film's most amazing SPFX including several explosive-laden commuter trains crashing into Godzilla, a missile attack involving jet planes and ground-based vehicles, and a nail-biting attempt by Yaguchi's team to defeat the beast via their own highly unorthodox scientific methods. 

After the dust has settled over Tokyo, SHIN GODZILLA emerges as both a modern update and a welcome throwback.  Just like the old Godzilla movies, it's boring as hell between the monster stuff.  But when Godzilla starts stomping his way through downtown Tokyo as millions of terrified civilians flee for their lives, with the added benefit of today's state-of-the-art effects making the massive devastation all the more perversely thrilling, it makes me feel like a little Monster Kid again.


Our previous coverage of the film

SHIN GODZILLA -- Movie Review by Porfle

GHOST IN THE SHELL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/27/14

 

Visually stunning and thematically complex, 1995's intensely cinematic GHOST IN THE SHELL (Anchor Bay, 25th Anniversary Edition) is the kind of dazzling, "hard" sci-fi that doesn't hit the screen very often, and when it does it's often in the form of anime.

While obviously influenced by such films as BLADE RUNNER and that other anime classic AKIRA, GHOST has its own style and ambience that are often mesmerizing. After a pre-titles action sequence that's like something out of a futuristic Bond movie, the main titles show our young heroine, Major Motoko Kusanagi, during the laboratory creation of her cybernetic body in a womblike pool of chemicals.

She then rises naked from it as a sort of placental crust cracks off her body, while Kenji Kawai's ethereal musical score begins to weave its web. And thus we're given a preview of the mind-expanding artistic potential the film will go on to almost effortlessly fulfill.

As with a lot of serious anime, the overly-complicated and sometimes hard to follow plot is mainly a springboard for wildly imaginative, often impressionistic flights of artistic fancy along with some thought-provoking ideas. Set in 2029, the story concerns two secret government agencies whose conflicting agendas will clash in potentially devastating ways.

Major Kusanagi of the Internal Bureau of Investigations is tasked to track down a mysterious villain known as the Puppet Master, a kind of sentient computer virus who can infiltrate the mind of any human whose cyber-enhanced brain is hooked into the system, taking over their will and giving them false memories.

Major Kusanagi is aided in her mission by a hulking, gray-haired mentor named Batou and brawny but easygoing Togusa, who all take part in a frentic chase scene early on which explores just how imaginatively this medium can be used in depicting bullet-riddled vehicular mayhem with the power to thrill in ways that live-action films rarely can. (THE MATRIX and THE FIFTH ELEMENT, on which this film is a distinct influence, come close.)

As the secrets behind the Puppet Master unfold (which I can't reveal without spoiling some of the film's most compelling surprises), GHOST IN THE SHELL offers a seemingly endless procession of eye-pleasing and mind-expanding sci-fi sights, sounds, and concepts. Every once in a while, there's a montage of images that the viewer gets lost in, or a deep, intimate conversation about mortality that can only be engaged in by a couple of cyborgs whose consciousness resides within cybernetic brains.

Kusanagi is particularly contemplative regarding identity since both her body and brain are almost entirely synthetic. Is she even human at all anymore? And since she's connected to the 'net like any other computer, her mind is vulnerable to being hacked by the Puppet Master at any time--if it hasn't been already.

How does she know her memories are real, or that what's she is experiencing at present is really happening? Her potential invasion and subjugation by an unseen force is one of the film's major dramatic concerns, which will eventually lead to an ending which, while somewhat unexpectedly low-key, is intellectually stimulating to say the least.

Directed by Mamoru Oshii (AVALON, ASSAULT GIRLS), the visuals are the work of animators from Production I.G. (BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE, KAIDOHMARU, KILL BILL). The story is based upon Masamune Shirow's original manga. While I usually prefer straight cel animation to a cel-CGI mixture, the digital stuff is used sparingly--mainly for computer readouts and such--and the overall effect is just so eye-pleasing and finely-rendered that it's visually irresistible.

The Blu-ray disc from Anchor Bay and Starz is in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 English and 2.0 Japanese audio and English subtitles. The disc is barebones with no bonus features. The disc case contains an illustrated booklet with a Mamoru Oshii interview and two essays, "The World of Ghost in the Shell" and "The Impact of Ghost in the Shell."

Not a children's "cartoon" by any means (it, as they say, "contains violence, nudity, and adult themes"), GHOST IN THE SHELL lavishes the viewer with moments of beauty and contemplation which explore the emotional limits of animation while also generating explosive, edge-of-your-seat action. Like all really good science-fiction, it's both visceral and sublime.

GHOST IN THE SHELL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

Originally posted in 2017

 

Futuristic sci-fi thrillers such as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER, and the more recent THE FIFTH ELEMENT used to amaze and astound us with their eye-popping visuals and stunning practical effects. Nowadays, such fare is so overloaded with CGI-generated artificial wonders jam-packed into every frame that we tend to get numbed by it all. 

GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)--a live-action adaptation of the original manga by way of the excellent 1995 animated version--starts out that way, cluttered with too many whiz-bang visuals that don't always seem to exist in the real world, with the ever-present advertising motif of BLADE RUNNER taken to new extremes and a sort of architectural imagination gone mad.

As the film progresses, however, we settle in and adapt to this frenetic, plastic vision of the future, mainly because the theme of the story is technology gone too far--people becoming willing cyborgs for vanity and convenience and all connected body and mind to a central core--and the main characters are meant to feel alienated by it as well. 

Our heroine, Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) of the anti-terrorist group Section 9, is especially attuned to such feelings, being that she is the first successful fusion of a human brain with an entirely robotic body (i.e., a "ghost in the shell") and thus constantly conflicted as to how much of her humanity remains and what percent of her is pure machine connected to the company mainframe. 

Her inner conflict is heightened when her group's newest nemesis is a cyber-criminal named Kuze who can hack into any system including all cyborgs--meaning just about everybody to one degree or another--and service robots. 

His goal is revenge, which he wreaks to the extreme in some explosive action setpieces.  But exactly why remains a mystery until Mira and her team manage to fight their way right into his sinister clutches and discover the truth behind not only Kuze but their own organization.

Scarlett Johansson strikes the right balance between robotic demeanor and inner conflict, which she underplays until it's time to delve headlong into her action scenes.  These lack the angular inventiveness and quirky choreography of, say, THE MATRIX, but are still packed with satisfying excitement in their own way, replete with gunplay and hand-to-hand combat with sci-fi elements such as invisibility and advanced weaponry. 

"Beat" Takeshi Kitano (BATTLE ROYALE, VIOLENT COP) lends his considerable presence as Mira's boss, Aramaki, as does Juliette Binoche--who will always be Catherine Earnshaw of 1992's WUTHERING HEIGHTS to me--as Dr. Ouelet, the head scientist who created Mira and regards her as a daughter.  Pilou Asbæk is also good as Mira's partner Batou, a gruff, bearlike agent who's just a regular guy beneath it all. 

Mira's quest to find herself, to uncover suppressed memories of her former life and get to the truth of why and how she was created, eventually takes GHOST IN THE SHELL to a place that's both powerful and tragic, lending emotional depth to its final chaotic showdown between good and evil (traits which will shift their meaning considerably before it's over). 

The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD set from Paramount is in 1080p high definition (DVD is widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs) with Dolby 5.1 stereo and subtitles in multiple languages.  The DVD contains the feature film only.  The Blu-ray disc contains the feature plus three bonus behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Visually and emotionally compelling, the live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL never quite reaches the sublime beauty of its animated predecessor but tries its damndest to do so.  In this, it succeeds in being a lively, thought-provoking, and often dazzling entry in the dystopian-future sci-fi genre which fans won't want to miss.


Street Date:      July 7, 2017 (Digital HD) July 25, 2017 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD) 
U.S. Rating:    PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content and some disturbing images
Canadian Rating: PG, not recommended for young children, violence


Read our original coverage

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

PRIME SUSPECT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/07/10

 

Sometimes a TV series comes along which transcends the "cop show" genre, and in fact just about anything else you could classify it as, reaching a level of excellence that makes it more of a life experience than a simple entertainment.  "Prime Suspect" with Helen Mirren is just such a show.  Like a glutton wolfing down a seven-course meal, I went through Acorn Media's PRIME SUSPECT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION with voracious speed while not wanting it to end.

Mirren's "Jane Tennison" is a fascinating, complex character whom we follow from her early days as a Detective Chief Inspector for London's Metropolitan Police, through her promotion to Detective Superintendent in charge of multiple units, and finally to her final turbulent days on the force.  Brilliant and strong-willed, Tennison is also subject to various foibles and human weaknesses that complicate both her personal and professional lives.  Often she wonders if she's chosen the right path, especially when plagued by loneliness, self-doubt, and regret. 

Series 1, which debuted in 1991 and consists of two feature-length parts, finds Tennison knee-deep in sexist resentment and derision while heading her first major murder investigation.  Scripter Lynda La Plante based much of the character's difficulty in winning over her skeptical male team members on the real-life experiences of technical advisor Jackie Malton, one of the first female DCIs, and the dramatic tension never fails to ring true.  Only after proving herself worthy does Tennison begin to gradually gain the respect of her male colleagues.

This story sets the dark, gritty tone for the series and raises the bar for all the other forensics-based cop shows to follow.  Character conflicts crackle with tension, as when Tennison butts heads with patronizing superiors who hamper her efforts or old-school detectives such as DS Bill Otley (Tom Bell).  The pressure of trying to track down a brutal serial killer devastates her home life with both her live-in fiance' (Tom Wilkinson) and her immediate family.  Time after time Tennison is forced to question her decision to sacrifice everything for her career. 

The camera stays close to the actors' faces and keeps up right in the middle of things at all times.  Without the usual quick editing, throbbing music, or adrenaline-charged action, the sober and languidly-paced story is given plenty of room to stretch out and develop its dramatic potential to the fullest.  Just when you think the plot is headed for the most likely conclusion, the script explores unexpected avenues that are consistently surprising and often shocking. 

Series 2 is another two-parter with racial overtones stemming from the discovery of a body buried in the garden of a house in a neighborhood filled with Jamaican immigrants.  Colin Salmon ("Tanner" of the Brosnan 007 films) guest stars as a black detective placed on Tennison's team after an unfortunate sexual encounter between the two.  Tensions rise when a teenage boy held in custody commits suicide in his cell and Tennison is blamed. 

Series 3 delves into the world of child prostitution with the murder of a "rent boy" and charges of long-term sexual abuse by a trusted social services director (Ciaran Hinds).  Tom Bell returns as Otley, and Jonny Lee Miller guests as one of the young victims.  Series 4 consists of three shorter episodes, and while the first two are more conventional stories that lack the depth of the previous shows, the third, "Scent of Darkness", is one of the series' finest.  Here, a new rash of serial murders similar to those in the first episode raise the question of whether or not Tennison may have imprisoned the wrong man in the original investigation. 

Series 5, "Errors of Judgment", finds Tennison locking horns with a cocky young drug dealer who rules the streets through terror and may have a powerful ally on the police force.  Of particular interest here is her prickly relationship with a new team dubious of her abilities, including a nice turn by David O'Hara (BRAVEHEART) as a seemingly slow-witted detective who turns out to be smarter than he looks.
 


After a six-year production gap (1997-2003), Series 6 finds Mirren playing an older and increasingly disillusioned character under pressure to retire.  The murder of a Bosnian woman thrusts Tennison into one of her most emotionally trying cases yet, as victims of war hiding out in London are stalked by a devilish figure from the past. This later episode is just as effective as earlier ones, but looks slicker and more streamlined.  With a faster pace and more emphasis on thriller elements, some sequences bristle with nerve-wracking suspense.

"The Final Act", which aired in 2006, brings "Prime Suspect" and the career of Jane Tennison to a close with the murder of a 14-year-old girl, the impending death of Jane's father (Frank Finlay), and the aging detective's battle with alcoholism.  Mirren is at peak form here as her character struggles to solve one last murder while her life is falling apart.  Tom Bell makes his final appearance as DS Otley, re-entering Jane's life in a surprising way.  Young actress Laura Greenwood gives an amazingly good performance as the murdered girl's troubled friend. 

The boxed set from Acorn Media contains nine discs in seven keepcases.  Series 1-5 are in 4:3 full screen while 6-7 are in 16:9 widescreen, all with Dolby Digital sound.  Each episode is subtitled except for Series 7, which is closed-captioned.  Series 6 contains a 23-minute featurette, while Series 7 extras include a 50-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, photo gallery, and cast filmographies.  Beside the actors already mentioned, familiar faces such as Ralph Fiennes and Kelly Reilly (EDEN LAKE) can be seen making early guest appearances in various episodes.

The great Helen Mirren is a neverending fount of awesome as Jane Tennison, always riveting to watch whenever she's onscreen.  Her character's arc binds this collection of engrossing police procedurals together.  Tennison is a great cop but hardly perfect, and we're not even sure she'll get through her last case without self-destructing.  A small grace note from an unexpected source comes at the very end, and we're left to wonder whether or not it makes her feel as though her life on the force has been worth the sacrifice.  One thing's for sure--PRIME SUSPECT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION is some of the most worthwhile viewing that cop show fans could possibly hope for. 


 

PRIME SUSPECT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle