Film DVD Reviews
COMEDY YELLOWBEARD (12) 96min (Optimum) ●●●●●
On paper, Mel Damski’s 1983 comedy has everything going for it. With a cast that includes four of the Monty Python crew, as well as Marty Feldman, Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Peter Boyle and a host of other comedy greats, bolstered by the likes of James Mason, Michael Hordern and Susannah York for straight-acting ballast, it’s hard to see how it fails.
But somehow, between the endless star-spotting, the film, which concerns Graham Chapman’s risibly ferocious pirate being pursued across the world for a buried treasure by a menagerie of self-interested parties, just isn’t that funny. This is perhaps because it pulls back from the dangerous taboo- breaking of the likes of Holy Grail and Life of Brian, hinting occasionally at something more adventurous, but always resolving into bland slapstick. The endless jokes about rape, too, are hardly likely to play well with a modern audience. Ultimately, the faces in the cast make it a bit collectible, but the ‘making of’ film, which this package lacks might have been more interesting. (Steve Cramer)
TV BOX SET THE AVENGERS SERIES 1&2 (PG) 1520min (Optimum) ●●●●● What joy! Every surviving episode from all six series of the marvelous cult British television show The Avengers, originally broadcast between 1961 and 1969, are to be released on DVD over the course of the next year. But also
damn and blast! Only two-and-a-bit episodes of the first series remain in existence. Still, hurrah! The rest are being reissued fully restored for the first time and accompanied by a plethora of extras.
This first set collects series one and two, made between 1961 and 1964, and while the show had yet to become the camp spy-fi romp fondly remembered today, its gradual transformation makes for fascinating viewing. Originally conceived as a follow- up to the crime show Police Surgeon, the first series stars Ian Hendry as the titular copper
medic who’s assisted by Patrick Macnee’s trench coat-wearing secret agent. By the beginning of series two, Steed has taken charge – and would soon become the quintessential English gent – and he’s joined by Honor Blackman’s black leather-clad, judo- wielding sidekick, Cathy Gale. The science- fiction storylines and eccentric humour would arrive with Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel in the fourth series, but otherwise the template was set. Extras include a new Honor Blackman interview, a series one guide, the Police Surgeon intro, promo material, scripts, commentaries and an Easter egg. (Miles Fielder) EXPERIMENTAL DYNAMIC: 01 — THE BEST OF DAVIDLYNCH.COM (15) 116min (Scanbox) ●●●●●
Watching these sketches and skits that were first shown on David Lynch’s subscription-based website, we might think he is the Francis Bacon of film. In his features Lynch is the master of the tension between figuration and
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abstraction, between telling a story and creating an atmosphere. But where Bacon would destroy a painting when it moved too far into the abstract, Lynch here offers up the vignette that is probably best seen as more like an artist’s notebook than a self-supporting series of works. Lynch gives us six short films including The Darkened Room and the amusing Out Yonder Neighbor Boy, as well as three time- lapse experiments, but this feels like a useful peek into the mind of a working artist, and not quite the art itself. Minimal extras. (Tony McKibbin) THRILLER/HORROR AMSTERDAMNED (18) 105min (Nouveaux Pictures) ●●●●●
Dick Maas’ 1988 Dutch thriller with elements of gory horror has the great merit of not taking itself too seriously as it bops along, and adds to that an admirable visual inventiveness about its striking locales.
In it, a wetsuited serial killer emerges from the canals of Amsterdam to kill a number of folk living in the margins, from a prostitute to a fake Salvation Army swindler to two vegetarian hippies. An almost absurdly archetypal Dirty Harry- style Dutch detective (Huub Stapel) is assigned the job of catching the frogman, sparking a series of action sequences climaxing in a
DVD BOX SETS
www.list.co.uk/film Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina
Let’s hear it for the girls. The East Ham-born ‘Forces Sweetheart’ Vera Lynn was not really known for her work in cinema, but such is the power of nostalgia capitalism that here comes The Vera Lynn Collection (Sony) ●●●●● featuring three patriotic wartime musicals — Rhythm Serenade, We’ll Meet Again, and One Exciting Night. The first is a romance, the second a drama and the third a farce. All three were made quickly and cheaply to coincide with Lynn’s star rising after her single ‘We’ll Meet Again’ was a huge hit with the allied troops. None of them stands the test of time and the extras on this disc are surprisingly poor, but this could make a nice present for an elderly relative or a WWII enthusiast. The Audrey Hepburn 80th Anniversary Collection (Paramount) ●●●●● is a better bet even if it is the same repackaged collection from two years ago featuring Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sabrina, Roman Holiday, Funny Face and Paris When it Sizzles. Keeping things on the vaguely feminine side Grease and Grease 2
(Paramount) ●●●●● arrive in a bargain-priced double-film set and, even if the disappointing sequel is likely to remain unwatched, it’s certainly a film worth having to hand for those party nights in. Ladies and gents may also enjoy the Paul Newman Collection Volume 2 (Warner) ●●●●● featuring some of the late great actor’s less well-known but very interesting films, including his big-screen debut, The Silver Chalice, Martin Ritt’s overlooked Rashomon remake The Outrage and Newman’s first directorial outing, Rachel, Rachel starring his much-loved wife Joanne Woodward.
It’s a bumper month for comedy fans with the Monty Python 40th Anniversary Collection (Columbia) ●●●●● featuring all their films including their early And Now For Something Completely Different plus a record of their stadium comedy performance Monty Python Live at Hollywood Bowl. The Naked Gun Collection (Paramount) ●●●●● brings together the three films starring bungling Los Angeles police lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) and for adults of a certain age the trippiest nostalgic delight of the fortnight has to be the complete first series of the 1960s American children’s show The Banana Splits (Warner). A psychedelia-influenced show featuring men in animal suits interspersed with some of the best cartoons ever shown on television — Arabian Knights, The Three Musketeers and Danger Island. Altogether now, ‘Size of an elephant!’ (Paul Dale)
speedboat chase through the fleshpot grandeurs of the city’s waterways. There’s enough wit to this unashamedly American- style actioner to keep
you watching, and some subtle digs at 80s fads to bring a vague social commentary to proceedings. Whether the film deserves its cult status is a moot point (Maas’ earlier The Lift is surely a more interesting film) but a ‘making of’ documentary adds to the effect of something you can enjoy, then forget. (Steve Cramer)