Three rather big films today: one Science Fiction bomb, a gigantic dramatic masterpiece from Poland, and a great Science Fiction thriller from the Watergate years that looks better than ever. Or is it just because the general quality of films has gone downhill ...?
Home Vision Entertainment comes out on top with Mike Nichols' absorbing, entertaining The Day of the Dolphin, a superior pulp thriller with some deep ideas nicely folded into Buck Henry's clever screenplay. Tough biologist George C. Scott can teach dolphins to talk, but can't protect them from ruthless humans.
Facets Video's reissue of Kieslowski's The Decalogue is a marginal improvement on the 2000 disc set, with some useful extras and what I think is a slightly-better encoding of the same good transfer.
Fox's Solaris proves that trains wrecks can happen in space. Savvy director Steven Soderberg's decision to stress the intimate romantic aspects of the Stanislaw Lem story, and ditch most of the rest, gives us a space movie about a downer relationship that's irritating and unsatisfying. At least, that's the best sense Savant can make of it.
Next up: another new picture (two in one week?), and interesting oldies from MGM, Fox, and Columbia, with a sprinkle of Criterion. Thanks for all the friendly letters. Glenn
Posted by DVD Savant at July 22, 2003 05:53 PM