February 01, 2005
Wednesday, February 2 Oooh! It' Grrrroundhog Day!

Savant's new reviews today are

Thieves' Highway Criterion
October Sky Universal
La commare secca Criterion and
La Ciénaga Home Vision Entertainment

"Rise and Shine, Campers, 'cause it's Coooold out there!" After looking at the weather reports I think an awful lot of New Englanders and New Yorkers aren't going to be seeing their shadows today, and are therefore doomed to experience six more weeks of winter. Being in Los Angeles, I'd say tough luck, but my own kids (sniff!) are back (sniff! sniff!) there, freezing their earlobes off in the subzero temperatures. Hopefully things will get better for them before we change the family name to De Blochamps. (Arcane film reference, there, to let you know Savant is still the same immature fellow you expect to read!)

The Warner gangster box set arrived ... a day after street date, so once again Savant will endeavor to make up in quality what he lacks in timeliness. I have to review these one at a time; they're too much fun to just slough off with a blanket review.

Saw THE AVIATOR last night, and I have to tell you although the picture was interesting, I'm sick to the gills of action scenes (in this case aerial shots) that are simply animated cartoons given a realistic sheen through computer graphics. Again and again we had a long-zoom shot from infinity, through the nose of a flying aircraft, right up to Leonardo DiCaprio's blue eyes ... and we know we're looking at a digital sandwich and nothing to get excited about. I almost prefer sloppy rear projection or travelling mattes - at least you know somebody went up in an airplane. Gripe gripe gripe. Frankly, the creaky shots of zooming biplanes in Hell's Angels were twice as exciting, even when they were models.

Also got a mess-o Fox dramas in, and a Barbra Streisand serio-comedy that I actually think is terrific, so it will be a busy viewing weekend. Thanks for all the fun! Glenn Erickson

Posted by DVD Savant at February 01, 2005 05:44 PM