FilmRoar

Writer Barrie Keeffe in his only produced film script delivers an intelligent and engaging gangster film in The Long Good Friday (1980). The movie, best known for bringing film notoriety to then TV actor Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Nixon (1995), Felicia’s Journey (1999)) spans a period of two days during which London crime boss Harold (Hoskins) is trying to secure a business deal with backing from the American Mafia. His efforts to woo his New York counterpart, Charlie (Eddie Constantine (Europa (1991))) are put into jeopardy by the unexplained assassination of Harold’s right hand man Colin (Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981))) and bombing of one of his restaurants. Eager to not loose the business opportunity and to find and punish those responsible for the attacks on his organization. To make matters worse one of the bombs has exploded in the car that took Harold’s mother to Good Friday mass leaving her traumatized and in the hospital. As Harold states later in the film “You don’t crucify people! Not on Good Friday!”

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It’s kind of like Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) meets Gremlins (1984)… no wait, better make that Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) meets Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). In this Alex Winter / Tim Burns (An American Werewolf in Paris (1997)) / Tom Stern creation, Ricky (Winters) is coerced to promote an evil corporation’s plans to use a toxic chemical in South America. While en route our hero and his best friend runs into an environmentalist protestor and winds up prisoner of a mad scientist/freak show baker (played with no reservations by Randy Quaid) and is turned into a side-show freak. Weirded out yet? Wait, it gets better! Rounding our the cast are Brooke Shields, Mr. T, Bob Goldthwait, Joe Baker and (in an uncredited role Keanu Reeves. Now there is a gold-mine for playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

With the new 2-disc DVD release, Freaked (1993) is hoping to become a cult favorite, and it is quirky and imaginative enough that it just might make it. The discs are well crafted and rich with extras, some of which (like hours of rehersal footage) are more filler than content. I did greatly enjoy though an early Tom Stern / Alex Winter short ‘Squeal of Death’ shot in a Tex Avery over the top style.

I doubt the movie will ever realize any wide appeal, simply because there are only so many people out there who go for leading men that keep squirting puss out of facial eruptions and a string of sight gags and puns. The reason it might hit big on a small audience though is that the squirting puss and other costumes are all terribly well crafted and the sight puns and gags are, for the most part, quite funny in an early ’80s Bob Goldthwait movie kind of way. I personally enjoyed parts of the movie, mostly marveling at the rich sets and design on what was obviously a small budget but honestly I think you have to do a lot more drugs to really get Freaked.

I just got done re-watching Joss Whedon’s Sci-Fi masterpiece “Firefly” (2002) from the first to the last episode and I feel I must re-iterate my previous advice and recommend the series to anyone that enjoys good writing, good acting and great directing. It baffles the mind how this singularly tremendous television series got the boot while crap-as-usual was kept on the air. Now more that ever I am terribly excited for the upcoming movie adaptation Serenity due out on Sept 30, 2005. Really, if you have not yet, do take the time to watch the TV show before the movie comes out.

Ever wonder what the quality of those cheap pirate DVDs for current movies is like? Well check it out. You will laugh.. oh yes, you WILL laugh!

LordOfTheRings.net has posted a new teaser trailer for the Return of the King Extended Edition DVD that includes some interesting samples from the DVDs. The extended edition DVD set will be available starting December 14.

New Line Cinema has announced the release date for the Lord of the Rings Return of the King Special Extended Edition as December 14. The four DVD set will add an additional fifty minutes to the movie as well as two discs of extra material:

Disc Three: Appendices Part V The War of the Ring
# Disc Introduction by Director Peter Jackson
# J.R.R. Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle-Earth Documentary
# From Book to Script: Forging the Final Chapter Documentary
# Abandoned Concept: Aragorn Battles Sauron
# Designing and Building Middle-earth Documentary
# Documentary on the Films ‘Big-atures’
# Documentary on ever popular Weta Workshop
# The Costume Design of Return of the King Documentary
# The Peoples of Middle-earth Gallery with docent audio
# The Realms of Middle-earth Gallery with docent audio
# Miniatures Gallery with Docent Audio
# Home of the Horse Lords Documentary
# Middle-earth Atlas: Tracing the Journeys of the Fellowship Interactive Map
# New Zealand as Middle-earth” Interactive Map with On Location Footage

Disc Four: Appendices Part VI The Passing of an Age
# Disc Introduction by Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan
# Filming ROTK: Cameras in Middle-earth Documentary
# Production Photos containing around 69 Images
# Documentary on the wizards at Weta Digital
# The Mumakil Battle Demonstration / Multi-Angle Interactive feature
# Journey’s End “Editorial: Completing the Trilogy” Documentary
# The Music for Middle-earth Documentary
# The Soundscapes of Middle-earth Documentary
# The End of All Things Documentary
# The Passing of an Age Documentary
# Cameron Duncan: The Inspiration for “Into the West” Documentary
# Two Short Films: “DFK6498″ and “Strike Zone”
# DVD-ROM Features: Access to Exclusive Online Features

For more information on the release see: DVDAnswers.com - Return of the King

Previously on GeekRoar.com:
Film Roar: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Film Roar: Reports on Return of the King Extended Edition Added Scenes

So you own the complete DVD set of Star Trek The Next Generation. You have watched the series chronologically, watched all the extras and had a chance to see Marina Sirtis learn to act, Gates McFadden get sexier and sexier as the years go by, seen in interviews what an outstanding individual LeVar Burton is and just how much of a dick Brent Spiner can be. Obviously what you need now is the new Star Trek The Next Generation - Jean-Luc Picard Collection (1987) yours for the discounted price of $23 plus shipping and handling! Wait, what? Lets double-check the box contents… seven next generation episodes and a short documentary hosted by Stewart. No new material, nothing that you don’t already have. So why would you want to buy this thing? I guess if what you really want is just a few of the TV episodes with focus on one (very excellent) actor/character this could be good for you… but honestly how many people really want to own just a few episodes in a series? I would venture to guess that the fans are already collecting the complete set and the causal viewers are going to save their $23 for feature films. Then again, this is probably very cheap for Paramount to produce so from their perspective even if they only sell a few hundred copies they will make their money back. Still seems weird to me though.