Essential Paperback & Audiobooks to Own : Feb 2024 Edition – The Essential Marc Olden!

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you new to this blog I am a huge fan of men’s adventure pulps/paperbacks of the 70s and 80s. The 70s and 80s explosion of Men’s adventure mags was a revival of sorts of the pulp craze of the 30s and 40s that featured such characters as THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, and THE SPIDER; but the 70s replaced the more costumed and fantastical elements, with a more militarized protagonist. Gone was the rich self-directed playboy vigilante, and instead you had these built weapons, these blunt weapons, conscripted into various agencies and their hidden shadow wars against enemies beyond the reach of traditional law enforcement.

Ian Fleming’s 14 book series James Bond, is in many ways its own age and genre of pulp, running from 1953 to 1967, it bridges the gap from the 30-40s pulps, and its success gives birth and creates the mold for the 70s/80s pulps.

Of these 70s, 80s pulps, I was introduced to the genre with THE EXECUTIONER MACK BOLAN (A long lived series starting in 1969, Don Pendleton wrote 37 of the first books before selling the series, which has continued into the 21st century) followed by the DESTROYER: REMO WILLIAMS books (one of my favorites, this series started in 1971 by the prolific and talented Warren Murphy. Arguably one of the most successful and longest running men’s adventure pulps, it continues to this day in various formats ) and have sampled many other takes on this genre since, but without doubt my favorite of this bunch is one of  the shortest lived… Marc Olden’s BLACK SAMURAI.

Marc Olden’s BLACK SAMURAI which ran for only eight books. But my gosh, what an eight books! What is amazing about these books, besides how great each one is, is how prolific Marc Olden was. He wrote and had published the first five books in THE SAME YEAR!!! And then the last three books in the next year. Eight books running from 1974 to 1975, The books by all reports sold well, before the publication inexplicably ended.

But despite their relatively short publishing life, these books stand out as the height of the medium; brilliantly written, with a veracity in terms of the action scenes (Marc Olden in addition to being a great writer was a life-long martial artist) and an empathy in terms of the characters, that was novel in a Men’s Action genre that dealt typically in stereotypes.

I had the great pleasure to do an interview with Diane Crafford (Marc’s Partner) regarding Marc Olden, I direct you to that earlier interview on this blog, but suffice to say he was a fantastic writer, and would go on to write several works outside of the BLACK SAMURAI franchise, two of which I consider absolute masterpieces, POE MUST DIE and BOOK OF SHADOWS.

However his BLACK SAMURAI series for me stands as some of the best and most beautiful of a very specific period of time; and those original Signet paperbacks, with those beautiful painted covers, are woefully and criminally out of print. And yes you can still pick these up in ebook form, and even in a newer trade format, but you really need to read that book with that Signet Art, that Signet aesthetic, as it properly sets the stage for the work within.

I hope this series gets a new printing that will do what those original Signet paperbacks did, be works of art inside and out. But till that happens I HIGHLY recommend using the links to pick up these Signet paperbacks while you can. Purchasing thru the links earn this Blog a few appreciated pennies, but whether you use the links or get these offline, I strongly urge getting them. These books are like the protagonist of the series, Robert Sands, the best of a time and a place.

 

In addition to picking up the SIGNET paperbacks from 1974 and 1975, the eight audio books are fantastic! With a great voice actor bring to life the escapades of Robert Sand’s BLACK SAMURAI. Don’t let the audio books disappear on you like the paperbacks have, Pick them up today! And you can also pic up the aforementioned POE MUST DIE and BOOK OF SHADOWS in their original paperback versions and in audio-book form. Voice actor is brilliant here as well, so these are must own. I’ll put links to those up as well. (There seems to be various audio book versions, so I can’t speak on the quality of the new ones. I’ll provide a link to the ones I have checked out and recommend.)

 

 

 

Most Disappointing Movie of 2024?? The acclaimed WHEN EVIL LURKS???

 

 

So yes WHEN EVIL LURKS is a 2023 Horror Movie that made MANY Best of the year lists. Directed by Demian Rugna who got on my radar I think in 2021 or  2022 when his 2017 film TERRIFIED finally made it on to SHUDDER. Not the crappy Torture Porn clown films called TERRIFIER, I’m talking about Rugna’s beautifully made, sensationally performed, and actully scary masterpiece TERRIFIED.

I really have very little interest in movies about humans being horrible to each other, there is enough of that in our nightly news. Of my fiction, I want it to be even in the genre of Horror, especially in the genre of Horror… I want it to (and I guess this comes from my UNIVERSAL MONSTER, HAMMER HORROR TV marathon roots) be tinged with the fantastic.

And TERRIFIED Does that but more, it is a genuinely masterful film. It joins a small handful of films such as IT FOLLOWS and THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE, REC, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (like REC don’t let the diminishing returns of the sequels blind you to just how game changing and impactful the first film was), THE DESCENT, HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, MANDY, BONE TOMAHAWK, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, PONTY POOL, GINGER SNAPS 3 (Best of the series), WOLFMAN as true cinematic marvels and gifts of this still young century. And all of them share this common theme of mortal man and their brushes with the other, with the Fantastic.

So I LOVE Demian Runga’s TERRIFIED (ATERRADOS). As soon as it came to Bluray I purchased it. And was always on the lookout for anything new by this filmmaker. Last year WHEN EVIL LURKS  was all the talk on the streaming channels, and the talk was all glowing, I almost bought the film sight unseen.

But I waited. Here in 2024 I found the film on Amazon Prime to rent at a good price (only $3.99, I typically never rent films anymore. I figure that rental fee could go toward purchase of the actual Dvd, Bluray or UHD) and I watched the film.

 

And the film starts well, is well shot, and the premise, the conceit of the movie, of this particular brush with the fantastic,is very rich. I can see world of film around this concept, it is that provocative of a concept. Where the film goes wrong for me is in the execution. For such a smart concept, the protagonist is progressively stupider and stupider, until it actual becomes annoying. He is told repeatedly don’t do this or people will die, and repeatedly he does exactly what he is told not to… and people die. Over and over again. And whereas in TERRIFIED the Horror snuck up on you, and live up to its name. Here every scene, with a couple exceptions you see coming. It’s all very telegraphed, so you are closing in on the end, stuck watching a character, you have lost all empathy for, he should be the one dying not those around him.

By the ending I felt let down by the movie. By the writing, by ultimately the story and inept story beats (Why are you splitting up, why leave mom alone with you know what?). And I really wanted to like this film. From writing to direction to editing the team behind TERRIFIED is the same as WHEN EVIL LURKS, but unfortunately the former is one of my favorite films of the last few years, and the latter is so far my biggest disappointment of 2024.

Grade: C-/D+.

Graphic Novel Read of the Month : MILES DAVIS AND SEARCH FOR THE SOUND by DAVE CHISHOLM

This is a relatively pricey book for what is a very slight hardcover. I was unfamiliar with the writer/artist and had only the very cursory understanding of Miles Davis that most of us over a certain age have. But based on praise for this book by a streaming channel I watched, I gave this book a chance.

Bloody Hell. This book is phenomenal, and worth every penny I paid for it. The art is not just beautiful, it is conceptual.

It strives in its wonderful construction and flow of images, to give a sense of Miles grasping toward this sound he was continually pushing toward and evolving from. And Chisholm’s inroad into this story, bits of Miles’ own autobiography, is genius. Chisolm’s storytelling of this larger than life visionary whose orbit is some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century…  is compulsive and addictive and brilliant. And Chisholm himself being a life long musician, imbues into his storytelling and his art, that love for music, and that ephemeral sense… of the sound.

The highest praise I can give this book, is  I am now on the hunt for everything by Dave Chisholm as writer/artist. And I am on a hunt for the music highlighted in this book. The book brings into relief the monumental effort to conceive this sound, and that we have it available on Cds is a gift. That it was recorded at all is a gift, and having read this book I have to add to my anemic Miles Davis collection ( I only have KIND OF BLUE) and get everything by Miles Davis and many of the other geniuses highlighted in this book. On CD of course. LPs are not my thing ( I don’t mind getting the odd one for the album art, or liner notes, or because it is not available on CD, but otherwise CD all the way), I grew up in the age of LPs, and I thank heaven for the improvements of CDs. I am not one of those who confuse nostalgia with the truth. LPs sucked. It is like cassettes… a degenerative medium, the more you play it, the worse the sound gets. Optical drives freed us of that. Let us not toss them out, in favor of nostalgia that lies… that has always lied.

We now live in the age of streaming and Itunes and Spotify, and those are all great for finding music, but once you find that album you love, there is no substitute for really enjoying it then owning it in a well mastered, mp3 free, CD. Mp3s are great for finding music, however full wav cds are great for actually experiencing the music.

I have a great portable CD player, great headphones, and thanks to this book and a few other things, I start 2024 with a MASSIVE CD buying spree.

Because a lot of people are short sighted, and are letting the best format consumers have ever had, CDs (optical drives), dry up. Not me. I will always have an optical drive in my car, my house, my laptop, and a portable player to listen to when in the mood.

I would urge you to pick up these CDs while they are in print, and while you can.

Get two, one to keep, and one to sell when they go out of print and others are looking to hear this music, not on degenerative, scratchy LPs, or compressed to death MP3s, but in the best fidelity possible. The CD.

Enough with the praise. Here are the links:

 

 

This is a relatively affordable selection of some of Miles’ musical high-points. Click on the images, grab yourself a Cd if moved to. All purchases through the links earn this blog a few much appreciated pennies, and you get great music and reads. A win-win!

Currently watching : THE STRANGER (1946) Movie of the Day!

I have recently purchased the Kino Lorber LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Release of this film, and if ever a movie deserved to be preserved it is this one. That said this release needs some remastering, has noticeable frame drops, and syncing issues, and occasional small picture degradation in places, but nothing that effects the enjoyability of this film, and this is an extremely enjoyable Orson Welles film.

I am on record as calling Orson Welles my favorite director of the sound era, and I have a lot of favorite Directors from David Lean to Carl Franklin to Gordon Parks to Raoul Walsh to Diop Mambety to Johnnie To to John Woo to the Russo Brothers to Alfred Hitchcock to Fritz Lang to Masaki Kobayashi to Haille Gerima , but if I had the unenviable task of only saving one Director’s body of work, for me it word be Orson Welles.

His work is foundational to what cinema is for me, not only the sublime look of his work (which is a huge part of it, those Wellsian perspectives, deep focus, and shadows), but the themes of existential angst, unfocused dread regarding the state of the world or the human condition, that is at the heart of his films. There is a romantic, dark poetry that suffuses his work, and how he crafts his work, that for me is deeply resonant, and is the Alpha from which much of sound based cinema must launch from, to craft their Omegas.

 

Even what is a generally under mentioned, and I think overlooked film, THE STRANGER. Released August of 1946, when this started production World War II had just ended several months ago, in summer of 1945. People were still counting their dead, the damaged living trying to integrate from war back into peace. The process of dealing with war criminals and hunting down war criminals, was not just topical, it was being formulated and ironed out as this movie was in production.

It was the first film to use concentration camp footage. This is just seen as a thriller today, but upon release this was a very sensitive , and explosive topic, especially considering there were elements in the United States that were denying Germany’s concentration camps and extermination programs. The same elements in the United States that were against the US entering the war.

So for Welles to make a film, still in the tumult of a time of war, that warned of the unfinished business of war, was and to some extent remains… ground breaking.

And Welles was critical of this movie, but outside of Citizen Kane he was critical of all his films due to various levels of Studio Interference. Much like the writer Alan Moore, the negative connotations he had with the producers of the work, would  sour his outlook on the work. Welles, was akin to a butcher too close to the slaughtering of the lambs, to enjoy the final meal.

Also while I love Welles as both Director and Actor, he liked to be the star in his films, and liked to work with actors that he was familiar with and could, if not overshadow, to some extent dictate to,  and the casting of Edward G. Robinson that was forced on him by the studios, flew in the face of this.

But in this small case the Studios were… right (I balk to say that because they were typically wrong in their choices to neuter Welles), Edward G. Robinson is brilliant in this role, and a worthy equal to hold his own, in scenes with Welles. THE STRANGER begins with Edward G. Robinson and ends with Edward G. Robinson, making this arguably more his film… than Welles may have been comfortable with.

Going along with that, I cannot see this film being improved, by having Welles’ choice… Agnes Moorehead as the Detective, with all due respect to Ms. Moorehead. It would have been a vastly different film, but arguably per the audio commentary by Bret Wood, that is what Welles was striving for.

Welles was deeply shaken by his exposure in 1945 to the newsreel footage of the liberation of German Concentration camps, footage that would not be disseminated in many American circles, American circles that still sought to downplay this talk of German atrocities as fake news.

This film, true to the wunderkind that Welles always was, was Welles turning outrage to action. While the mass of men did nothing or ignored the news, Welles turned around and in months from seeing that footage had gotten a film into production that touched upon the world of atrocities, that small-town America USA was being kept from, was oblivious to. But his film, based on the story beats that did not make it into the film, was going to be something more harsh and brutal, and far reaching than the film we got.

Possibly Welles, left to his devices and with Agnes Moorhead in the role of the Detective, would have given us something more akin to COME SEE or SHINDLER’S LIST. We will never know. And arguably it is the film he did not make, that is all Welles could see when he looked at THE STRANGER. However the film he did make was successful, did reach audiences, and was impactful. For the time it was made I think the film was as impactful as could have been made, and anything more impactful would not have made it to audiences… not in a 1946, trying to put the horrors of a just won war… behind them.

So it wasn’t his complete vision, but the film that is there I would argue, compromises and all, is like most of Welles’ films… transcendent and says something about who we were, who we are, and who we strive to be. I have watched THE STRANGER easily over a half dozen times now, and every-time it strikes me deeply, in the shots, and the speeches, and the language and the performances, and the direction, it strikes me as… the work of a master visionary and humanist. It strikes me as moving and worthy.

And Loretta Young rounds out the major players in this film, delivering one of the standout lines in a film replete with them, but also a standout line in cinema. When you hear it you’ll know it. It is for me her finest and most memorable role and performance by far.

Movies like CITIZEN KANE and MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS may get the accolades (and deservedly so) but for sheer cinema and rewatchability, for me THIRD MAN (credited to Carol Reed, the uncredited direction is by Orson Welles), LADY OF SHANGHAI and THE STRANGER go at the top of any list.

An overlooked classic. Love this film, and it does deserve a quality restoration. Highly Recommended!

 

Buy your copy here!

 

FOUR Button-Lock Must Own Knives of the Day!

Civivi has made me a Button-Lock fan, and at their price point their knives are all must own tools and collectibles. Really smooth and addictive deployment, beautifully designed, Gentleman’s carry (or Gentlewoman’s carry). All of these make great letter or package openers and are really just a nice office desk knife, tactile fidget, zone-in knife. They are the Rubix Cube of knives, the addictive deployment making them perfect for giving your hands something repetitive to do while your mind is working on a problem or processing.

Today’s pick for the best civivi knives are AS FOLLOWS.

Click the images below for more information or to pick up one for yourself or as a gift.

 

My first Button Lock knife, I absolutely LOVE this knife. Own multiple copies of this specific variation with its color, blade material and handle material. Essential.

This one is great for gals and guys.

A sub $100 Damascus folding knife? A no-brainer of a purchase.

And Another Damascus blade, but a whole different model and blade shape/design. Another must own.

So that’s it guys. My list of today’s 4 MUST OWN Civivi Button Lock knives! Click on the images to find out more. And purchase via the links and you get a great item, and earn this blog a few pennies to keep the proverbial lights on.

 

A win-win!

 

Till next time, be well.

New Time Radio/Podcast and OTR (Old Time Radio) Recommendations of the Day!

1948 an America just coming out of the war to end all wars, and this series played to a generation that had unleashed the atom. ESCAPE sported the best voice actors in the world, names like Paul Frees, William Conrad, Jack Webb and many more, to give life to some of the most thrilling stories.

This is one of the stories that kept captivated a world that needed… Escape.

How Love Came to Professor Guildea.

 

Movie of the Day : SLAYGROUND (1983)

“You come highly recommended.”

“I know I do.”

“Do you know what is required?”

“Vengeance, I believe.”

With those lines, balefully delivered, you know everything you need to know about why you should run out and watch or buy the 1983 film SLAYGROUND, right now.

I picked up this film on a bit of a whim, during the recent Kino Lorber sale. Kino Lorber introducing me to this almost 40 year old film, that I had never heard of. The price was right, and the cover and blurb… caught my eye.

Boy am I glad I purchased this film.

From the opening scene, with that wonderful soundtrack, it grabs and does not let go. Peter Coyote has never been better, and it is masterfully directed by a director, that like the film, I was unfamiliar with, Terry Bedford.

This would be his first and only film. What a debut and what a denouement. The 1980s was very much the age of the iconic boogeymen, from halloween’s michael  myers to nightmare on elm streets freddy kreuger, to friday the 13th’s jason, to the end of the cycle with 1992’s candyman. slayground is a far more mature, complex and both sophisticated and convoluted, laconic film which explains why it flew under the radar and the tastes of the ‘get to the point, show me’ 80s.

however this film very much creates an iconic boogeyman for the ages, an implacable shadowman, played by philip sayer, once heard, once glimpsed… is every bit as terrifying and arguably more disturbing, than the more supernatural tinged monsters of the 80s.

there are good movies that are pushed over into great, by that exact perfect voice casting. james earl jones in star wars, his voice is pivotal in establishing the character of darth vader as iconic, and establishing that character is essential in establishing the film as iconic. the same with his voice in CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Other examples of great voices that helped carry/elevate movies are liam neesen in dark man, stephen mchattie in ponty pool, aDRIENNE BARBEAU IN THE FOG, And virtually anything orson welles has starred in.

to that list you can add philip sayer‘s voice acting in slayground. he creates an iconic villain, largely with his voice, and kudos to the filmmakers for their top notch direction and decision, to create their villain largely by suggestion.

and Praises to boutique Bluray Label KINO LORBER for rescuing this film from obscurity. I would have preferred more special features, but I am happy just to have this wonderful slice of period Americana available on Bluray.

 

The interview by Peter Coyote (done when he was 77, and we should all look as good as Mr. Coyote does at 77) is as essential as the film. It is a film class in one informative and engaging interview. A great special feature.

“Well I mean Terry’s {the Director] a really genial guy, you know I liked these guys… he was easy to get along with, … he made it fun, but there is such … the English have such class consciousness that the actor is one step above a peon, unless he is banking the film. And I certainly wasn’t banking the film. I was a Jew with an animal name, that they hired from somewhere…probably because I was cheap. So, you know, I was frustrated oftentimes being asked to do things that made no sense whatsoever… they just defied logic. And, you know, at a certain point it’s like you can fight everyday and get fired, or throw it in. I didn’t care, I tried my best, I gave it my 2 cents.”

Get your copy by clicking the image below:

 

 

 

Best of the 2nd Quarter 2022 : Best Classic TV Show – ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR’s ‘RIDE THE NIGHTMARE’

ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR was a followup to the far more well known ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, except true to this revival’s name it offered hour long tales of mystery and suspense.

Rarely seen, or referenced, this series tends to languish in obscurity in comparison to its far more popular and well remembered sibling, AHP. Which is unfortunate because, for the most part I am finding the hour long time-frame (that could easily feel padded) being effectively used by the host of talented writers, directors and stars involved. Not in all cases of course, some episodes do fail or feel overlong, but so far the majority of the ones I have seen, are satisfying and compelling additions to the output of the great Alfred Hitchcock.  

While few of these are directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the best of them live up to the high bar of cinematic mystery and suspense that Alfred Hitchcock helped set.

Case in point, RIDE THE NIGHTMARE.

Directed by Bernard Girard (an unknown to me Director, who seemingly spent the bulk of his career directing various Television shows, the movies that are credited to him at the end of his directing career, seem poorly received critic wise, but all sound intriguing to me, and worth a look, especially based on how impressed I am with the visuals in RIDE THE NIGHTMARE) and with a screenplay by the great Richard Matheson, that he adapted form his own novel, RIDE THE NIGHTMARE is a gripping, exciting, amazingly directed episode of television.

Beautifully lensed by cinematographer William Marguiles (a relatively prolific DP in late 50s thru the early 70s, primarily in television) , from the first shot I was asking myself, “who the heck directed this? It looks stunning!”

From evocative low angle shots, that make the ceilings loom above us like the hand of doom, to 270degree close-up pan around an embracing couple, to a series of doorways the character walk through as they quietly discuss their relationship’s immolation (the doorways at dutch angles to represent a world no longer reliable and steadfast, but rather menacing and predatory)… the episode enthralls.

And for an unknown tv episode from 1962, to invoke those impressions on someone watching it for the first time, 60 years later in 2022… I think says much about the visual language of the episode. It also says much about its star, Gena Rowlands.

Known for her later lauded pairings with her husband and paramour (their relationship had that type of oxymoronic duality, and iconoclastic fire, both on and off screen, that he could at once be her husband, and at once be the seducer who swept her away) John Cassavetes; Gena Rowlands, who at the time of this writing is still with us, in this episode (the first of three yearly episodes she would do for ALFRED HITHCHCOCK HOUR) commands the screen with her beauty and her presence. In RIDE THE NIGHTMARE she offers a beguiling performance, that well foreshadows, while giving us a less damaged version, of those later legendary pairings with Cassavetes.

Also with great performances by genre stalwarts Hugh O’Brian and John Anderson — this is a brutal little bit of unheralded television noir, that builds to a [mild spoiler, skip to next paragraph to avoid it] surprisingly near apocalyptic ending.[end spoiler]

The plot has in the 60 years from there to here, been reused countless times, even in 1962 was slightly formulaic, but what was not and is not formulaic… is the craft that it is told with. That had, and still has, the power to rivet.

These shows can be viewed via streaming. Either free if you can deal with the criminal # of commercials (I can not), or via purchase on (typically) an episode by episode basis. I chose neither of those routes and purchased the entire series on DVD to watch at my leisure.

To get your copies go here:

Thanks for looking, and click the image above to purchase. you get a great item, and this blog earns a few appreciated pennies to keep the proverbial lights on.

a win, win!

that’s it for this segment. Oh, and for those of you staying for my rant… read on. The rest of you come back next time, and be well!!

 

*********

“What did he say “DVD”? HaHa!! What a geezer!! Wake up Grand-pa! There’s this thing called streaming!! Ha! Ha!”

Yes, thank You.

Very enlightening. I happen to be a big fan of digital and streaming… In its place.

I like streaming for discovering things I want to revisit or own (if ownership by individuals is not a forbidden word in this new age of solely corporate ownership and corporate freedoms), however for revisiting these things, or owning these things, or enjoying these things, I want it in a format where I can enjoy it whether or not I have an internet collection, whether of not a corporate site is down, whether or not that corporate gatekeeper has decided to stop serving that particular show or episode or album or video game.

As the whole world races to embrace ever more gatekeepers on everything the individual touches, it increasingly becomes clear that you can not buy, or sell, or read, or watch, or listen to something whether in your house or your car, without a log of what you have consumed and when you consumed it being stored somewhere, approved somewhere. Something about that does not agree with me.

Something about not being able to buy or sell without having the mark, whether the mark digital or the mark proverbial, something biblically off-putting about that :).

I tend to like being off grid for my entertainment when I can, when I choose. It is the iconoclast in me. I resist the religion of hegemony and the glory of social media in all things.

 

Here Endeth the Recommendation and the Rant!

 

:).

 

Essential Films for Black History (or any) Month : Today’s Entry… EL BENNY!

 

Based on the life of Benny Moré, the film concentrates on a period in the early 1950s when Moré leaves the orchestra of Duany and starts his own ‘Banda Gigante’. In flashback we learn of his success in Mexico. Moré is caught in the events connected to Batista’s coup in Cuba. Also, he tours Venezuela, where he suffers the machinations of a vengeful businessman.

• Director
  • Jorge Luis Sánchez
• Writers
  • Abrahán Rodríguez
  • Jorge Luis Sánchez
• Stars
  • Rakel Adriana
  • Ulyk Anello

  • Renny Arozarena

  I had the great pleasure to see this film at a film festival, nearly 15 years ago, and the memory of this film, the texture of this film, has not left me in all that time.

  The fact this film is completely unavailable on physical media (no in-production feature rich  DVDs exist, No Blu-rays exist, no UHD discs exist) is a crime against cinema and art, that greatly needs to be rectified.

  CRITERION I am looking at you. VINEGAR SYNDROME I am looking at you. INDICATOR I am looking at you. This is a film that should be available not just for Black History month, but for every month.

Movie Diary : 2022 Day 1- 01012022- UNDERWORLD AWAKENING 3D and PINA 3D from Criterion!

 

 

 

So my first movie viewing of 2022 is one that came into my 3D collection in the last couple of weeks of 2021, and I am just now getting a chance to give it a spin on my 3D projection system.

I am speaking of UNDERWORLD:AWAKENING. The 3D Blu-ray reviews on it were mixed, so I thought I would find out for myself. Generally the 3D is very similar to the quality of the movie, okay but nothing great.

I am a fan of a good creature feature, and even CGI laden werewolf transformation scenes are always fun to watch. You kinda know what you are getting with this UNDERWORLD franchise and this one delivers what you would expect.

Regarding the 3D, a couple of things really work against stereo imaging, even for natively shot 3D. Dark or underlit/dreary/ low contrast scenes, particularly night scenes, being one of the nemesis of good stereoscopy and poor shot compositions that flatten out the depth rather than accentuating it, being the 2nd one. A film like the first DOCTOR STRANGE… people tend to confuse great visual effects with 3D, when in actuality DOCTOR STRANGE has (for the most part) deplorable 3D, sporting both dreary, underlit scenes and poor/flat compositions.

This film, UNDERWORLD AWAKENING, is not flawed to that degree; it actually has good shot composition– designed to make use of 3D, but is hampered by the fact that 90% of the film takes place at night or in low light situations, effectively undermining the very separation you are trying to get in a stereoscopic movie.

Still there is enough 3D to be noticeable and given the choice I would much rather watch this film in even muted 3D, then without. So worth a look. Grade: C- for the movie and C- for the 3D.

Now onto PINA.

 

I knew very little about the film PINA, before watching it today. I knew it was the only 3D release that seminal Boutique Blu-ray company Criterion has released. I knew it was in some way to deal with dance.

Now having seen it, I completely do not understand how this film is virtually never mentioned, even by die-hard Criterion experts and fans. This is clearly one of Criterion’s best and most essential releases.

PINA, by the great director Wim Wenders, is at once a love letter to a calling — a vocation, while also being as moving an eulogy as one person has ever had. It is a dance troupe’s love letter to their guiding star, choreographer Pina Bausch, and as great and effective and affecting a use of 3D as I am likely to see all year.

What LIFE OF PI was able to do for a fiction film, PINA does for documentaries/performance art, making the 3D more than a gimmick, but an indispensable part of the storytelling process.

The doorway sequence close to the end is one of numerous excellent uses of stereo imaging, but may be my favorite of the whole film, as they break rules in that shot, moving the camera, as the actors move, as all the layered doorways seem to move, it is a brief moment, but it helps your idea of reality tremble for a moment, and what more is magic but that.

As a fan of theatre, great theater is hard to translate to great film. While a fan of ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI the film, it pales to the power and immediacy of the theatrical presentation I saw. The same with nearly every version of RICHARD THE III I have seen, they pale to the experience of having attended a walking theatrical play of RICHARD III , conducted at night, in the rain, following the actors in an out of decaying edifices, with roofs gone, and nothing to stop the heavens to bearing witness. Great theater is hard to match.

Very rarely does that happen the other way, where the film can capture or surpass the theatrical presentation.

A few come quickly to mind, Branagh’s HENRY THE VTH (1989), Anthony Harvey’s THE LION IN WINTER (1968) and this film, Wim Wender’s PINA (2011) while not an adaption of any one performance, but rather the overview of a troupe’s body of work, offers an immediacy in how the camera is used, and the stereo imaging is used, that allow the artists to communicate with you in a way that transcends, perhaps by a little — perhaps by a lot, anything that you can experience sitting in the best seats of the best traditional theater.

PINA becomes therefore great film, and even rarer a great and essential 3D film. Grade: A. a film that must be experienced in 3D, and a must own film.

p.s. THE CRITERION RELEASE OFFERS A MAKING OF, THAT IS ALSO IN 3D (SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE), as WELL AS A COMMENTARY. THIS FILM HAS A WEALTH OF CONTENT FOR NUMEROUS VIEWINGS and REVISITS. A RELEASE I LOOK FORWARD TO ENJOYING FOR YEARS.

 

“Dance. Dance! Or otherwise we are lost.”

–Pina Bausch

 

These reviews were conducted using 3D Blu-rays, a region free 3D compatible Blu-ray player, and a short throw, full HD, 3D compatible short throw projector (Essential for a flexible/portable system) offering at least 3000 lumens, and high contrast, and active DLP glasses (one of the most important parts of any system)..

 

 

 

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