The DVD Report #30

John Waters’ 1988 film, Hairspray, was the director’s first mainstream film, albeit one with enough bizarre edges to appeal to his avant-garde following as well as the masses. A hilarious take on the TV dance show phenomenon of the early 1960s, the film catapulted Rikki Lake to stardom as forthright “fat” girl Tracy Turnblad and gave new starts to the flagging careers of Deborah Harry, Ruth Brown, Jerry Stiller, Sonny Bono and Divine, though the latter died before he could reap the benefits of his new-found success.

The 2002 Broadway musical revival of Hairspray provided, Marissa Jaret Winoker, Harvey Fierstein and Dick Latessa with Tony awards in respectively the Rikki Lake, Divine and Jerry Stiller roles of Tracy and her parents.

The 2007 film version of the musical Hairspray both preserves the fundamental naïve charm of the previous projects and infuses it with a dollop of reality. Whereas the original film utilized outlandish costumes and garish colors to make the era appear more bizarre than it really was, and the Broadway musical maintained a larger-than-life persona in the playing of the lead character’s mother by a man obviously in drag, the film version of the musical uses vintage costumes and hairstyles and tones down the playing of the mother to make her seem more like a “real” woman. That I think is the film’s only real flaw. John Travolta, hell bent on making the mother as feminine as possible, comes across as too coquettish and smaller than life despite his/her oversized measurements. His wince inducing faux Baltimore accent is totally at odds with the rest of the cast who speak in their natural voices. The character needs to be larger than life, the better to sock it to them in the end.

The rest of the cast, however, is pure gold. Nikki Blonsky, the 17-year-old ice cream slinger from Long Island, is a real find. Short, sassy and imbued with a killer singing voice, she is the best Tracy since Rikki Lake, who has a cameo as a talent scout. Christopher Walken, who started out as a song and dance man in the off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward opposite Liza Minnelli, returns to his roots here with ease. Michelle Pfeiffer, singing on screen for the first time since The Fabulous Baker Boys, is marvelously bitchy as the film’s chief villainess. James Marsden is wonderfully self-deprecating as the TV show’s vain but humane host. Queen Latifah has her best showcase since Chicago or maybe even Living Out Loud. Zac Efron demonstrates why he is considered a heartthrob by the teen audiences of TV’s High School Musical. Amanda Bynes, Brittany Snow and Elijah Kelley are also fine in other pivotal roles and original cast member Jerry Stiller has an amusing cameo as the owner of a shop for big girls.

The score includes the jubilant opening number, “Good Morning Baltimore”, the love song “(You’re) Timeless to Me”, the civil rights anthem “I Know Where I’ve Been”, the heartfelt “Without Love”, and the seemingly never ending “You Can’t Stop the Beat”. “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now” is sung over the end credits by the three actresses best known for having played Tracy, the original’s Rikki Lake, Broadway’s Marissa Jaret Winoker and the new version’s Nikki Blonsky.

There are at least three DVD versions available, the best of which is the two-DVD shake and shimmy edition, which includes documentaries on the original film, the Broadway production and the making of the new film, which was directed by Adam Shankman.

Ten years ago, Werner Herzog wrote and directed a documentary called Little Dieter Needs to Fly about German-born American pilot Dieter Dengler who was captured by the Viet Cong when his plane was shot down over Laos in 1966 and escaped six months later when his weight was down to 85 pounds. The film was shown mostly at film festivals, but was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding non-fiction special when shown on TV during the 1998-1999 season.

Herzog has now directed a dramatic feature-length film of Dengler’s ordeal, called Rescue Dawn. Ranking right up there with such classics of the P.O.W. escape movie genre as Stalag 17 and The Great Escape, the film benefits from Herzog’s uncanny eye for detail and his deep appreciation of the environment which is so vivid it ought to get co-star billing.

Christian Bale, who became an international star as a child with his acclaimed performance as a Japanese prison camp detainee in Steven Spielberg’s 20-year-old Empire of the Sun,has come full circle. In between, he has played everything from child hoofers in Newsies and Swing Kids to Jesus in TV’s Mary, Mother of Jesus toa serial killer in American Psycho to Batman in Batman Begins. He dropped 63 pounds to appear almost skeletal in The Machinist. Although his weight loss for this film was not as dramatic, the dedicated actor really did eat maggots and other disgusting things his character does in Rescue Dawn.

Complimenting Bale are Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies as fellow captured pilots. Davies is unremarkable playing his umpteenth weirdo, but Zahn is a revelation eschewing his usually smarmy roles to play it close to the heart as a frightened, yet brave fellow escapee.

Sequels make lots of money for filmmakers, which is why the studios continue to make them, but shouldn’t the producers be required to employ decent enough writers to make the scripts interesting enough to live up to audiences’ expectations? While Shrek 2 and Ocean’s Twelve were disappointments for fans of the original Shrek and Ocean’s Eleven, the filmmakers did manage to give their audiences something better with their third installments, Shrek the Third and Ocean’s Thirteen. The producers of the charmingly-made Spider-Man exceeded expectations with the glorious Spider-Man 2, but couldn’t sustain the momentum with Spider-Man 3, which while it is certainly watchable it is far from the masterpiece we were hoping for. Then there is Live Free or Die Hard.

The first two films in the Die Hard franchise, Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder, were over the top, but fun. The third, Die Hard With a Vengeance, stretched credulity even further but was still engaging. Bruce Willis, who was 33 when he made the first film, and 35 when he made the second, appeared agile enough to do the running, jumping, ducking and other stunts required of his character. At 40 when he made the third, a greater suspension of disbelief was necessary to enjoy the film. This time around, the 52 year-old actor’s character is as ridiculous as the plot about a disgruntled government worker’s plan to bring the country to a standstill.

Early on in the film, he and Justin Long (TV’s laid back Apple guy) not only manage not to be killed by five assassins who in reality would have killed them ten times over, Willis manages to off most of the attackers. Later on, he outruns a helicopter that blows up freeways and bridges and manages to bring another plane down by making a rocket out of a car in a tunnel. Even the ordinary mayhem that ensues after that is hard to swallow.

Timothy Olyphant is totally unbelievable as the arch villain. He’s okay barking orders at his henchmen, but when he picks up a weapon himself he looks totally out of place. Director Len Wiseman, who started out in the art department, was in charge of the props for the ridiculous 1998 version of Godzilla in which the props also outclassed the actors. Maybe that’s why he was chosen.

One series that improves with age is the Harry Potter franchise. The fifth of the five books to be filmed, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is already out in region two and releases in two weeks in region one. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and friends (Rupert Grint, Emma Watson) are a little older, a little wiser this time around and the story they are given reflects their growing maturity. To say more would spoil the fun.

As with previous editions, the film is loaded with stalwart British stars, most of whom having less to do than they would normally. The women are especially shortchanged with Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson and Julie Walters apparently pleased as punch just to be asked to do the film, not that Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman have that much to do either. One who does is Imelda Staunton as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Dolores Umbridge. David Yates (TV’s The Girl in the Café) directed.

Also out in region two, but currently without a scheduled release date in region one is Oliver! The 1968 Oscar winner, directed by Sir Carol Reed, has been released twice in region one on a double-sided non-anamorphic disc and is more than due for an overhaul. The new region two disc is still non-anamorphic, but it does present the entire film on one side of the disc. It is also loaded with extras including sing-alongs and recently-filmed on-screen interviews with stars Mark Lester and Ron Moody. Lester is now a successful osteopath and looks nothing like his once-adorable self. Moody has aged as well, but can still sing and dance delightfully. Like Yul Brynner with The King and I, he could probably go on playing Fagin in Oliver! until he drops, if only they would ask him.

Yet another Sony DVD released in region 2 that doesn’t have a region one release date is Hellzapoppin’, the zany 1941 Olson and Johnson transfer of their riotous stage show. The first twelve or so minutes of this film are so laugh out loud funny that if you don’t find yourself rolling in the aisles you should probably have your funny bone checked out at the nearest emergency room. For one thing you will never look at a game of tic tac toe in the same light again. For another, you’ll think twice about telling a cab driver to go to the devil!

Changing gears completely, In the Land of Women is a chick flick, albeit a good one, from actor/writer and first-time director, Jonathan Kasdan. Kasdan is the son and younger brother of directors Lawrence and Jake Kasdan. One could say he has connections allowing him to get stars for his film most young directors would not have access to.

Adam Brody (TV’s The O.C.) stars as a young writer whose actress girlfriend has just dumped him. Against the advice of mother JoBeth Williams he goes to suburban Michigan to spend time with ailing grandmother Olympia Dukakis. There he becomes emotionally involved with mother and daughter neighbors Meg Ryan and Kristen Stewart (Cold Creek Manor). Kasdan’s script avoids clichés and provides the actors, especially Brody, Ryan, Stewart and Dustin Milligan, as Stewart’s childhood best friend, with memorable scenes and dialogue. Dukakis has one of her most sympathetic roles in years, as well as the film’s best line, “I’ll be dead soon, and you’ll still be alive, so stop complaining.”

I’ll be back next week with a few thoughts on the mammoth Ford at Fox collection.

Peter J. Patrick (November 27, 2007)