Video/ DVD
video@list.co.uk
(15) 98min (Redbus VHS/DVD rental/retail) O...
Day/vi (Lrone'ttrerg tulle/f
t eff ‘.'.'rtt‘ .K'rketi/ .J."r;/"_
then ()ras"? ‘t.".'rt" t‘§,'t'u'e'.
the ()anarirar‘ auteur mores a hat tnek of f;1l(;(;(:f,‘,lrl| atlaptatronf, of supposedly unlerrtable nozels llere. l’alnrk Mttflrath'f‘, book about a mentally tirsttrrberl r'ran. ‘.'.rhose release front a psyeltratne hospital and return to hrs ehrrdhood home unloeks suppressed mernorres. ehallenges the frlrnrnaker wrtlr the (leerdedly unernernalre. fratitured rnlerror monologue of rts protagonrst.
()ronenber'g (:ar'efully (:horeographs seenes so that a full grown Sprder rl'talph l rennesl rnterattts With hrs long dead rnolher and father erranda Hrehardson and (‘rabrrel Byrner. brrngrng about a personal revelation. Srmple. wheh you thrnk about rt. but a stroke of genius nevertheless. (Miles l reltler‘r
A(1l|()N DAREDEVIL
(15) 99 min (Twentieth Century Fox VHS/DVD rental/retail) 00
1,)
Dar‘etiet rl rs one of
Man el‘s greatest Superheroes: OSSCl‘ilitM it's Batman. yet more brutal and m‘h the added ‘he's blmd' t‘.'.’rst. Atte' Solder-Mae and X’- rtr'en, you'd think you
108 THE LIST 5 " “
In“. rr‘ “hf;
nww,
.‘(,f,‘£ilft.
N’.’Tt"l"t,l(,"
Q" “4:5,!
i “K;
GANGS OF NEW YORK
(18) 160min (Entertainment VHS/DVD rental/retail) .0.
. , «91h r;r\‘r;\'ur\rrr' lllltli »
Seersese's dark tale of l(?‘.()ll()() sees the young Amsterdam Vallon rDr Capnor seekrng the ultrrnate redress from gang leader Brll the Butcher :l)ay l.(?‘.‘~.’l:3l for the murder of hrs lather. It's set between lB-iti and ltfiiiit arnrd the sgualor and (:rxrl unrest that led to the Draft Riots :n New York's l‘rxe Points Seorsese wanted to make thrs trlm :30 years age if he had we mrght hate got the frlrn thrs could and should haxe been.
But its not \.'.'rthout lltti'tII. The sets and (:osturr‘es are superb and (?\(}t\lltlltg you'xe heard about Day ~Le\.'.‘rs' performance rs true. But wth a lt—Xltlllfltttti lone interest 'Dram brought to the fore and the rising anger on the streets pushed so far to the bat‘k bur‘r‘er. you wonder how the dots are lterr‘g joined rEddre F-‘elsen
fit: niacin? SfiécrAL
EDITIO
(18) 93min (Momentum DVD Retail) (extras)
0... /O..
The 19805 might have seen the splatterfest American horror movie go mainstream, but by the latter half of that decade. the murderous antics of Michael Myers. Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kreuger were edging towards camp self-parody. Looking back at that period. two movies appeared out of nowhere, to walk that sorely missed razor's edge: the modern-day vampire flick
Near Dark (1987) and the psychological thriller The Hitcher (1986).
A man named Eric Red wrote both films. His inspiration for The Hitcher was The Doors song about a killer on the road, Rider on the Storm. The Hitcher's killer is John Ryder (geddit?). a psychopath without a past who wants no future and who terrorises a young kid named Jim Halsey (C Thomas Howell) along the empty desert roads of
Nevada.
Is the unspeakably evil Ryder (Rutger Hauer) a serial killer or a supernatural apparition? Red and. then first time director. Robert Harmon (Jeeper's Creepers) waste no time dwelling on that question. Instead, from the riveting opening in which Halsey unwittineg gives Ryder a lift, only to discover he is next in line for dismemberment, the tension never eases off. Plenty of people get wasted during the course of the film, but screen time isn’t. The Hitcher is a brutal movie in more
ways than one.
A smart script, sharp direction and handsome cinematography (by the great Australian DP John Seale) might a well-crafted movie make, but this film would not be the enduring chiller it is without Hauer’s mesmerising performance. To think that according to a documentary on the extras disc of this two-disc special edition, the first choice for Ryder was foppish
Terence Stamp.
Documentary aside, the most interesting of the extras are two short films: China Lake. a thriller directed by Harmon as a calling card that foreshadows The Hitcher, and the somewhat static The Room, directed by Hauer. (Miles Fielder)
ltllllitlSlitl VERSUS
(18) 120min (Metro Tartan Asia Extreme VHS/DVD rental retail) 0..
lmagrne the young Peter Jackson makrng a film rn Japan with aetron ehr)reographed by We Ping Yuen he ."vr’atrrx‘. £1lt:l‘,()tltl‘.l(}lti have some idea of what drveetor Hyuhe; Krtamtrr'a has sewed up. People are running around a forest thong to krll each other. Some of them are Yaku/a. some of them are dead and at least one of them rs rrrrmortal, You will be confounded by some atria/ingry poor Subtitlrng but essentially this rs as read as a bag
of spiders. lf krek arse frght scenes and stomaet‘-(:hur‘r:rng /ombre gore rs your thrng then. my (Sod. thrs rs the frlrn for you. to hell wrth makrng sense. lEddre Felsonr
lllllll l E it
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS
(15) 93min (Miramax VHS/DVD rental/retail) 0..
The fasernatrng prern:se of D/r'tv Pretty [lungs :s weakened by (lll()(:i()" Stephen l-- rears and wrrter‘ Steven Knight's eve-"tartrelrrxrng sense of their fslrn's topreal rmrx)rtar‘.<:e.
Question: what happens to those asylum seekers who slrp through the net and end up working outside the law’? Answer: therr Erues are so marginalised that they are at the pre, of e\.'en.'one. espeerally krdney threves
Chrw :tel Errofor steals the show as Okwe. the yOung doctor on the run who falls for Sena; rAudrey Tautour at the very point she becomes
ernbro.le(l 1.'t :levrlrsr:
schemes. li a bat e|r<ghed and far inferior to the reeent Korean thriller. fi‘.’/7".’)(1l/:t'r‘()l Mr l./er:_<;ear7<:e. \xxhreh covered the same ground. rPaul [)aler
IX )ME-[H {JR/«MA ABOUT SCHMIDT (15) 125min (Entertainment VHS/DVD rental) 0...
Alexander Payne's follow-up to hrs supert, [)UlliiCEtt satrre. Elem/or). rs r:!e.e,'e' than !t rnrtlall, seems. That's r‘ot because Payne gets Jack Nicholson to detect: his rmprsh seree".
persona to play a
mean f;[)lllft:'j retired bus;net,srnan whe undertakes a lift".‘rl1.tl wiyssrr. areurtrl r'rrvlrtr- Antenna after hzs .‘xrfe tires. Rather. Payne eleverl, has i3e’vnrrlt meeting a ser-es of (,‘harahters. ‘iiltrlttlw'H and lit'ltrl‘,’_ who, (,rurrrall,, are all extr'errrr;l‘,' unlikeatle 'lhzs an": the sent.rrwr=tal why. of an olrl {)Ll(}()(:' who rs put right by HM: tetra. t, .t an tinserrtrrrmntar story, about al'l bugger manages to r10 ' ’Jtt‘. l). hr'nselt, in spite at (3‘."jr‘,’().'l4: ne rneet‘, It", a sl, angle, .‘alll’flt sazt', the rnrxdentar r‘atare at the f2irr-'s rr.an,g ,‘Llll[)(l')lll’_} l;tllf)'1',.
erle‘, l relrler,