4K-UHD/Movie Review: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - 40th Anniversary Edition

 

E.T. is the iconic 1982 film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg about an alien who becomes stranded on Earth and befriends a young boy and his family. It stars Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton, Dee Wallace, and Peter Coyote in the main roles. The supporting cast includes C. Thomas Howell, K.C Martel, Sean Frye, and future original Baywatch babe, Erika Eleniak. In the film, an alien becomes stranded on Earth after his ship leaves without him. He hides in the shed of a family who live near where he was stranded and is discovered by a young boy named Elliot (played by Thomas), who befriends E.T. and helps him attempt to contact his species so he can get back home. 

The 40th Anniversary 4k set is a two-disc set with a UHD disc and a standard blu-ray disc. Both contain the same content. The original theatrical edition of the film, and several hours of bonus features. Note that this release does not include the 2002 re-release with the additional footage and the CGI enhancements, which is the only thing that knocks it down a star for me. The bonus content includes two new featurettes made for this release, original making-of and behind-the-scenes footage filmed during production, and content created for the film's 20th Anniversary. The bonus content also includes the trailer and promotional content, as well as multiple picture galleries featuring photos taken during the film's production and promotional stills. The A/V quality is very good, and the movie looks and sounds great in UHD. Neither the audio nor the video transfers are quite reference-quality, but if you have a large screen and/or a multi-channel surround-sound system, you will probably not be disappointed.

This is an extremely good, but not great, release. Of course, the movie is wonderful and holds up well even (as of this writing) 44 years after it was made. Some of the cultural references in the movie are dated; however, the overall story holds up very well. It does have a little swearing and includes things that probably would not be included (like the teenagers smoking at the beginning of the movie) if it were made today, but overall it is very family-friendly, mixing drama, humor, and action. And, of course, John Williams' score is outstanding. The bonus content is excellent. The highlight of the archival material is a young Drew Barrymore (who was six when the film was shot) hamming it up on set and being interviewed at the movie's premiere. If this release had included both versions of the film, it would absolutely be a five-star set. Hopefully, when Universal releases a 45th- and/or 50th-anniversary edition, they will include both versions of the film. That is the only thing that would get me to double-dip for a new edition. Ultimately, it is a wonderful film that takes you on an emotional roller coaster, going from suspenseful to funny to dramatic to sad to uplifting. It is well-written, very well-acted, and absolutely worth watching.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

 

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is a 2003 action/comedy film that is the direct sequel to the 2000 film Charlie's Angels. McG returned to direct the film, which brought back Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu to reprise their roles as the Angels Dylan, Natalie, and Alex. Crispin Glover, Luke Wilson, and Matt LeBlanc also reprised their roles from the first movie. The additions to the cast included Demi Moore, Robert Patrick, John Cleese, Shia LeBeouf, Justin Theroux, Bernie Mac, and Ja'Net Dubois. The film also features several cameo appearances, including Carrie Fisher, Pink, Robert Forester, Bruce Willis, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Jaclyn Smith, reprising her role as Kelly Garrett from the TV series. 

The plot involves a pair of rings that contain and unlock a list of people in the witness protection program. The list is stolen and set to be sold to various criminal organizations. A couple of revenge plots are intertwined within the story, and we get a bit more backstory about Crispin Glover's character. 

This is a single-disc release containing both the theatrical version of the film and an unrated version that adds a few more minutes to the runtime, mostly by adding more violence to a couple of the big fight scenes. The extras include several commentary tracks on the film. There is an audio and a telestrator commentary by McG. The audio tracks are exactly the same, but the telestrator commentary is annotated with things being circled in the background of some of the scenes while McG talks. Then, there is a commentary track by a couple of the writers. The theatrical version can also be played with a trivia track similar to the old show, Pop-Up Video, where information about the movie is displayed in pop-up boxes while it plays. Then there are several different making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, a preview for the 2019 reboot, and the music video for Pink's song Feel Good Time. 

Ultimately, the movie is a fun action-comedy. It is similar in style and tone to the first movie. It does have a lot of adult humor that skirts the bounds of what can be included in a PG-13 film. There is also a scene where the Angels are nude in shadow so you cannot really see anything except for a brief flash of sideboob from Drew Barrymore. Of course, the big draw when the movie came out was that this was Demi Moore's return to movies after a hiatus of about six years. She was phenomenal in the role and looked fantastic. It seems all the actors had fun in their respective roles and did not take themselves too seriously. The big change from the first film is that Bill Murray did not return. The writer's commentary track touched on Murray's absence, stating that they knew they would have to go in a different direction with the Bosley character when it was clear that Murray would not be back. There was no mention in any of the bonus content of the conflict between him and Lucy Liu in the first movie. They came up with a good way to have Bernie Mac be the new Bosley and did include a picture of Murray in one of the scenes. If you liked the first movie, you will probably like this one. Like the first film, this one takes a lot of suspension of disbelief and has some plot holes, but if you do not overthink it and just enjoy it for what it is, it is worth watching.   

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels

 

Charlie's Angels is a 2000 action-comedy based on the 1970s TV series of the same name. It stars Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, Bill Murray, Sam Rockwell, Kelly Lynch, and Crispin Glover in the main roles. Tim Curry, Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson, Melissa McCarthy, Tom Green, LL Cool J, and Alex Trebek have smaller roles (or cameos). John Forsythe reprised his role from the TV series playing the voice of Charlie, while Barrymore, Liu, and Diaz played the Angels. Murray plays Bosley, who is the go-between the Angels and Charlie. The plot involves misdirection about who the true bad guys are, but the meat of the storyline is that someone is trying to track down Charlie as a part of a revenge scheme, using the Angels and Bosley as unwitting pawns in the plan.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular blu-ray disc. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is outstanding and is a massive upgrade over the DVD release and a decent upgrade over the 1080p release. Most of the extras are on the regular blu-ray, but the UHD disc has the teaser and theatrical trailers for the movie and a sneak peek at the 2019 reboot/quasi-sequel written and directed by Elizabeth Banks. The extras on the regular blu-ray were carried over from the prior physical media releases and include a commentary track by director McG and cinematographer Russell Carpenter, several behind-the-scenes featurettes featuring cast interviews, a blooper reel (which are the same bloopers shown in the end credits), deleted scenes, and two music videos.

The movie is a bit dated, but it holds up pretty well even after 25 years (as of this writing). It has a good blend of action and humor, and Barrymore, Diaz, and Liu had no qualms about looking silly. They did work their asses off to do a lot of the stunts. And, they were all hot as fire. Some of the humor is a bit cheesy, and Tom Green is annoying, as always. While Barrymore, Diaz, and Lui seemed to have great chemistry, there was no mention in any of the bonus material of the tension between Murray and Liu that would lead to the role of Bosley being recast in the direct sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Ultimately, this combines a good action movie and a silly comedy. If you can accept it for what it is and what it is not, it is worth watching. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Firestarter

 

Firestarter was the other movie made in 1984 starring a young Drew Barrymore (Irreconcilable Differences, being the other one) who was two-years removed from her breakout role in E.T. and just being her third movie as a child star. This movie was adapted from one of Stephen King's novels. While King is known for the Horror genre, I would classify this movie more as a thriller than a horror movie. The basic plot involves a young girl named Charlie (played by Barrymore) whose parents participated in what they thought was a drug trial when they were in college. The drug they were given gave Charlie's mother, Vicky (played by Heather Locklear) the ability to read minds, and her father, Andy (played by David Keith) the ability to control people's actions. And Charlie developed the ability to start fires with her mind. They are pursued by a shadowy government agency called the Department of Scientific Intelligence (or "The Shop"), led by Martin Sheen's character Captain Hollister. The department wants to capture Charlie so that they can study and weaponize her power. The other central character in the movie is John Rainbird, played by George C. Scott, who is a member of The Shop that pretends to befriend Charlie and encourages her to use her powers. 

For those who get the blu-ray, the A/V quality is okay, but it is not an extremely high-quality transfer. Given the age of the movie, I think that the transfer looks good and it is probably better that the look of the movie was not messed with too much. For extras, there is a commentary track on the movie by the director, Mark Lester, a 52-minute making-of documentary that includes new interviews with some of the minor cast members and members of the crew, along with some archival footage. Then there is a 17-minute featurette on the music of the movie, and a stills gallery. It would have been nice if they could have got Barrymore and Sheen to participate in the new interviews or be included on the commentary track (George C. Scott had already passed away by the time the new material was shot), but the material is still good if you like watching the extras.

Overall, the movie is good, but I don't think it is the best movie adaptation of King's work. Barrymore definitely carries the movie, which is something given that she was just 8 or 9 when it was filmed. Certainly, in the action scenes, she just has to stare intensely and cry, but in the scenes that required her to act, she does a really good job and had great chemistry with George C. Scott. They did make a curious choice of having Scott portray a Native American character as opposed to rewriting the part, but that is really just a minor point. So, while it is not as good as movies like The Shining, Christine, or It that were adapted from King's novels, it is still worth watching and holds up well even after almost 40 years.

DVD/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels (Special Edition)

 

Charlie's Angels is an action/comedy from 2000 and a reboot of the 1970s TV Show. It starred Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu (as the titular angels), Bill Murray as Bosley, and Tim Curry, Crispin Glover, Kelly Lynch, Luke Wilson, Sam Rockwell, and John Forsythe in a small cameo role. It is a movie that very much has its tongue firmly planted in cheek. There is a lot of over-the-top action and some sexual innuendo. There is no nudity, just some tight outfits and cleavage shots (especially from Drew Barrymore). The movie is primarily an action film with a plot that is mostly there to have something to fill between the action sequences. It involves a plot to kidnap a software developer (played by Rockwell), which is really a plot to get Charlie (who, of course, is only heard, not seen). 

The DVD has a ton of extras, including several behind-the-scenes and making-of features, a commentary track on the movie with director McG, deleted scenes, bloopers, production notes, trailers, and a couple of music videos. The film has been released on blu-ray, but I am not sure if there are any new extras that were created just for the blu-ray. 

The movie is not great, but it is fun. That was really the point of it. It was never intended to be an award-winner and does not try to be. The movie's production was not without controversy because of the heat (or possible outright hatred) between Bill Murray and Lucy Liu, but that did not seem to bleed over into the movie itself. And, of course, because Barrymore was married to Tom Green at the time, you have to endure a few minutes of him, which is great if you find him funny. Not so much if he makes your ears and eyes bleed anything he is on screen. Overall, it is a good action movie with a lot of so-so comedy in it. Some of the comedy is very good, and some of it is very bad. But, I do think it is worth checking out.