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Out on November 27 and December 4
Andy Serkis’ Caesar seeks revenge on mankind. James Cameron’s sci-fi classic gets a 4K restoration.
Yes, here’s the new DVD and Blu-Ray releases coming out in the next two weeks. Click on for our reviews of War for the Planet of the Apes, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Party, Scars of Dracula, Transformers: The Last Knight, The Wages of Fear, A Fish Called Wanda, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Life Is Sweet, Don’t Torture a Duckling, and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
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War for the Planet of the Apes
The rebooted Apes trilogy climaxes with a finale that reaches a satisfying end point without adding much substance to what’s gone before. Yes, Andy Serkis’ Caesar – here seeking revenge on mankind – remains a masterly combo of VFX and soulful emoting, while Woody Harrelson fumes as his Kurtz-like nemesis.
From a storytelling standpoint, alas, it’s more snore than war, with a solemnity absent from Rise and Dawn.
The Party
“Tonight is one big round of laughter!” beams Hrundi V. Bakshi (Peter Sellers, in brownface) in Blake Edwards’ cult comedy. Sadly, 1968’s audiences disagreed: while harking back to the silents and Jacques Tati, perhaps its technically brilliant, heavily improvisational style was also just too far ahead of its time.
Scars of Dracula
The film that most Hammer purists pretend to ignore, Christopher Lee’s sixth outing as the sun-shy count is generally considered the moment when the horror house started to crumble. A plastic bat conveniently resurrects a dead Drac in the opening scene and the following 90 minutes are all cheap sets, awful acting and Hammer’s first R-rated levels of gore.
It’s hardly a classic, but still worth a watch for Lee, who sinks his fangs into a juicier amount of screen time than usual.
Transformers: The Last Knight
Michael Bay ends his Transformers tenure not with a bang but a whimper, albeit an ear-blistering one. First-time viewers shouldn’t worry about the mangled mythology; none of it adds up, even if you’ve seen the previous four movies. Mark Wahlberg returns as inventor-warrior Cade Yeager, but ham of the match is Anthony Hopkins.
Our wild-eyed guide to the story’s attempts at rewriting history (all of it), he looks like he’s having a blast. Shame it’s not contagious. Extras feature Bay directing via loudhailer and not taking any crap, even from his own frickin’ mother.
The Wages of Fear
Four desperados, including a grizzled Yves Montand, embark on a near-certain suicide mission in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic existential thriller. The goal: ferry truckloads of volatile nitro-glycerine (“One bump and you’re a goner”) across the South American jungle to put out a blazing oil well fire for $2,000 each – the titular wages.
With no let-up in suspense, it’s a bleak and brilliant action-noir – as black as the oil spills that their “coffins on wheels” slip through, amid crumbling bridges and rocky landslides.
A Fish Called Wanda
On release, critics wondered whether A Fish Called Wanda owed more to its writer/star, Monty Python maestro John Cleese, or its director, Ealing Studios’ Charles Crichton. In 2017, Python is older now than Ealing was then, so it’s easier to see that this unique creative marriage birthed one of the greatest British comedies of any era.
The set-up is pure caper, a successor to Crichton’s The Lavender Hill Mob, as American moll Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), her deranged ‘brother’ Otto (Kevin Kline) and stuttering henchman Ken (Michael Palin) double-cross each other after a heist. As the plot ensnares Cleese’s barrister Archie Leach, the film gathers comic momentum via Fawlty Towers-level farce, Cleese’s oh-so quotable screenplay and some blackly comic post-Python business involving a tragic trio of dogs.
Long before Richard Curtis brought the Yanks over to boost the box office, the film pits British reserve against American vulgarity. It’s a brilliant duel that proved a partisan triumph on both sides of the Atlantic.
Impressive extras include tons of archive material shot and presented by Cleese, who perhaps sensed – rightly – that Wanda would stand the test of time. After all, what else is ‘don’t call him’ stupid Otto but a prototypical Trump supporter?
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
“Lord of the Rings meets Lock Stock” is the elevator pitch for Guy Ritchie’s King Ar-fur. Inevitably, the pair go together like Lembas bread and bacon. Charlie Hunnam stars as the once and future king, a cheeky chappie raised on the streets who – would you Adam and Eve it! – is the rightful heir to the throne.
Director: Guy Ritchie; Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Jude Law; DVD, BD, Digital HD, 4K release: September 18, 2017
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Whether you choose the restored, 197-minute roadshow version or the marginally sprightlier, 163-minute wide-release edit (both here), Stanley Kramer’s comedy is a long, long, long, long movie.
While the story’s madcap chase could probably be chopped down further, there’s an undeniable fascination to Kramer’s raucous maximalism. The destructive glee of the stunt work is outdone only by the audacious ‘spot the cameo’ casting, including Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton and the Three Stooges.
