Blu-rays of the Week
C.H.U.D.
(Arrow)
Beware of the CHUDs (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers), hiding in
Manhattan’s sewers and fatally mauling their victims in this dopey but guilty-pleasure
1984 horror flick by director Douglas Cheek, who knows that he has silly
material but runs with it, resulting in a mindless entertainment strongly aided
by its cast. Then-unknown actors John Heard, Daniel Stern, Kim Geist, John
Goodman and Jay Thomas do their best. The hi-def transfer is excellent; extras
comprise two commentaries, new crew interviews, extended shower scene and NYC
locations featurette.
(Eagle Rock)
Ann Wilson’s magnificent voice is a freak of nature, as she proves throughout
the 90-minute concert she and sister Nancy’s band played in June at London’s
fabled Royal Albert Hall, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra sitting in for some
tunes, giving depth and elegance to “Dreamboat Annie” and “Sweet Darlin’,”
among others; but it’s Ann’s pipes on “Alone,” “Beautiful Broken” and
“Barracuda” that really propel the show. The audio and video are superb, the
Wilson sisters interview is interesting, but director James Russell botches it
by continually cutting away from Ann singing to pointless glimpses of views
from the cheap seats or to audience members—whom we don’t care about—singing
along.
Poldark—Complete 2nd Season
(PBS)
Ross Poldark knows all about drama, and the series’ second season finds him
in so many near-fatal—or at least life-changing—scrapes that it becomes second
nature for him to squeeze his way out of them in this ravishing-looking remake
of the classic BBC drama series based on Winston Graham’s books. Aidan Turner is
a dashing Poldark, Heida Reed a bewitching Elizabeth—Ross’s ex-fiancée who’s
still dangerously nearby—and Eleanor Tomlinson a spunky, feisty Demelza,
Poldark’s wife. The 10 episodes have been given top-notch hi-def transfers;
extras include interviews and featurettes.
Private Vices, Public Virtues
(Mondo Macabro)
Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó, who died in 2014 at age 92, made this
visually unique Italian-Yugoslav co-production in 1976, featuring his
customarily lyrical cinematography, with gorgeous colors and stunningly
choreographed movement. There’s not much else to tempt non-Jancsó fans, unless
you count plentiful nudity—it’s of a piece with the rest of his singular
artistry, although it does wear out its welcome before its 105 minutes finish.
The hi-def transfer looks exquisite; the film soundtrack is in Italian or
English, and contextual extras are interviews with co-writer Giovanna
Gagliardo, actress Pamela Villoresi and historian Michael Brooke.
Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow—Memories in Rock
(Eagle Rock)
As part of last year’s Monsters of Rock festival at two sites in Germany,
guitarist extraordinaire Ritchie Blackmore brought the latest incarnation of
his band Rainbow for a fervid two-hour concert featuring such Rainbow favorites
as “Since You Been Gone” and “Man on the Silver Mountain” along with Deep
Purple classics like the ubiquitous finale, “Smoke on the Water.” Blackmore’s playing
is inspired, while vocalist Ronnie Romero does great impersonations of Ian Gillan,
Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonne). Audio and video are first-rate; two CDs provide
an audio recording of the entire concert.
(RLJ/Athena)
Throughout its eight one-hour episodes, director Jeff Dupre and Maro
Chermayeff’s series explores how recording, video and other technical
innovations have changed the way music is created and how we absorb it. Even if
such a format inevitably makes it more of a general overview than an in-depth
examination, the historical performance clips and interviews with luminaries
from George Martin and Paul McCartney to Rick Rubin and Tom Petty are something
to see, especially in the first two (and best) parts, The Art of Recording and Painting
with Sound. The Blu-ray looks fine; extras include even more interviews,
including Ringo demonstrating rock’n’roll drumming.
Time After Time
(Warner Archive)
In Nicholas Meyer’s sensationally entertaining 1979 time-travel adventure,
Malcom McDowell makes a witty and sympathetic H.G. Wells, who lands in
modern-day San Francisco in his own time machine—chasing Jack the Ripper (a
perfectly creepy David Warner), who loves the chaotic 20th century.
A terrifically clever premise and undeniable if offbeat chemistry between
McDowell and Mary Steenburgen as the woman who aids Wells make this a grand diversion.
There’s a superior hi-def transfer; lone extra is a Meyer and McDowell
commentary.
True New York
When Two Worlds Collide
(First Run)
Anthologies don’t come more absorbing than True New York, comprising five documentary shorts about some
incredible characters living in a New York City not usually shown: teens cliff-jumping
in the Harlem River; workers at a Queens yellow-cab depot; an artist who draws
interiors of all of New York’s subway stations; a financial whiz who takes over
his father’s halal slaughterhouse; and a Harlem street performer who regales
drivers on the FDR Drive. In Heidi Brandenburg & Mathew Orzel’s astonishing
documentary When Two Worlds Collide,
Peruvian indigenous people and government forces clash over the destruction of
valuable rainforest by companies that those in power have given the green light
to. Angry rhetoric soon devolves into violent, fatal clashes—it’s a timely and
depressing look at authoritarian control. True
extras include filmmaker interviews.
CDs of the Week
Gidon Kremer—Complete Concerto Recordings
(Deutsche Grammophon)
One of the great violinists of the late 20th—and early 21st—century,
Gidon Kremer is best known as a remarkably agile and inspired interpreter of
modernist composers like Alfred Schnittke and Sofia Gubaidulina (both of whom
are generously represented here), but this 22-CD set—which collects all of
Kremer’s concerto recordings for DG since his 1979 Beethoven/Schubert disc—shows
Kremer’s versatility as well as his virtuosity. So we get his extraordinarily
expressive readings of works by Bartok, Berg and Shostakovich as well as Bach,
Mozart and Mendelssohn; Tchaikovsky, Bernstein and Rorem along with Vivaldi,
Schumann and Paganini. Even in the occasional dud, like Philip Glass’s repetitious
and unmusical concerto, Kremer gives a scalding performance that almost makes
one believe it is worthy of his talent. 
No comments:
Post a Comment