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Craft - Special Edition
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"The Craft" is a moderately successful teen film from director Andrew Fleming, who also made another "girl" film with the Nixon satire "Dick". In "The Craft", a new girl moves into Los Angeles and tries to get along with the local teens, only to find herself part of a much smaller group. Three local girls - Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True) all believe that they need a fourth witch to complete their circle and they find her in Sarah(Robin Tunney), the new girl.
The movie is lucky to have 4 solid actresses to liven up material that sometimes offers some thin dialogue. Balk does a fine job with her usual punky role, and Campbell and Tunney seem natural and down-to-earth, while True is entertaining and solid as usual. Of course, the plot does begin to spin out of control as the magic becomes too powerful for the girls to contain. They plot their revenge on those who have tormented them in the school, and even turn on each other.
There's not much to it besides the main plot, but what's impressive is that it's entertaining while capturing just the right tone of seriousness. It's not art, but it really also could have been a lot worse than the final product is. Also look for a funny minor role from Breckin Meyer, recently seen in "Go". One final thing that I enjoyed were how solid the effects were; the film could have been an "effects-fest", but the few major effects scenes are done just right.
The DVD
VIDEO: The video quality is exactly the same as the previous release. As with the rest of the Columbia/Tristar re-releases, the video quality of their first time out with the movie on DVD is already good enough to go with again.Images are remarkably sharp, with consistently good detail. Colors are pleasing and bold, looking nicely saturated. The main flaw is simply shimmering - there are a couple of instances where slight shimmering makes an appearance. No pixelation, and the print is in excellent condition with no flaws.
SOUND: Generally very good, with surrounds being used for some spooky sounds. The score, full of alternative rock, fills the room nicely and sounds well-recorded. Chapter 29 is the major highlight as the girls "invoke the spirit" and sounds begin to swirl about the room. Rounding it off is good, clean sounding dialogue that's easily understood. Sound is also the same as the previous edition of the film.
MENUS::Fantastic new animated menus start off with a clip from the movie into a remarkably well-done main menu that perfectly introduces the movie. Some sub-menus are also animated, but those that aren't are filled with such nicely put-together and wild images that they're interesting to look at anyways.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Andrew Fleming, and this discussion is noticably better than the one that he provided for "Dick". Here, he serves as tour guide for the movie, and points out little details for almost every scene in the film, and talks about some larger details of the movie, such as the reality of the witchcraft talked about in the film - they had a "technical advisor" for those scenes.
The most interesting detail that Fleming offers is that when he submitted the film to the MPAA, he thought that the film would simply be PG-13, because there isn't that much in the way of language. They told him that the film would be R because simply it involved teens and witchcraft. I enjoyed listening to his commentary, and Fleming has a lot to say with a minimum of pauses.
Trailers: Trailers for "The Craft" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" in 5.1; also trailers for "John Carpenter's Vampires" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula".
Documentaries: There is the original short, promotional featurette included, and there is also "Conjuring The Craft". "Conjuring" is a newly done 24 minute documentary that combines some older interviews with many new ones, with participants such as the film's writer, director, producer and some of the actors including Tunney. As with most of the newly prepared documentaries that the studio produces, this is an excellent feature; it tells us exactly what we need to know about the elements of the production without much filler.
I generally dislike documentaries that seem longer only due to the fact that they have tons of clips from the movie in-between. Thankfully, this documentary realizes that we've already seen the film and want to know more about it - keeping the clips to what's needed. It's a very good documentary, and I felt that the interviews were very informative and insightful about what happened during filming.
Deleted Scenes: 3 short deleted scenes that are interesting but not something that probably should have gotten into the film. Each of the scenes offers commentary from director Fleming.
Final Thoughts: Another great re-release from Columbia. A good movie and certainly worth a rental, or a replacement if you own the first edition.
"The Craft" is a moderately successful teen film from director Andrew Fleming, who also made another "girl" film with the Nixon satire "Dick". In "The Craft", a new girl moves into Los Angeles and tries to get along with the local teens, only to find herself part of a much smaller group. Three local girls - Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True) all believe that they need a fourth witch to complete their circle and they find her in Sarah(Robin Tunney), the new girl.
The movie is lucky to have 4 solid actresses to liven up material that sometimes offers some thin dialogue. Balk does a fine job with her usual punky role, and Campbell and Tunney seem natural and down-to-earth, while True is entertaining and solid as usual. Of course, the plot does begin to spin out of control as the magic becomes too powerful for the girls to contain. They plot their revenge on those who have tormented them in the school, and even turn on each other.
There's not much to it besides the main plot, but what's impressive is that it's entertaining while capturing just the right tone of seriousness. It's not art, but it really also could have been a lot worse than the final product is. Also look for a funny minor role from Breckin Meyer, recently seen in "Go". One final thing that I enjoyed were how solid the effects were; the film could have been an "effects-fest", but the few major effects scenes are done just right.
The DVD
VIDEO: The video quality is exactly the same as the previous release. As with the rest of the Columbia/Tristar re-releases, the video quality of their first time out with the movie on DVD is already good enough to go with again.Images are remarkably sharp, with consistently good detail. Colors are pleasing and bold, looking nicely saturated. The main flaw is simply shimmering - there are a couple of instances where slight shimmering makes an appearance. No pixelation, and the print is in excellent condition with no flaws.
SOUND: Generally very good, with surrounds being used for some spooky sounds. The score, full of alternative rock, fills the room nicely and sounds well-recorded. Chapter 29 is the major highlight as the girls "invoke the spirit" and sounds begin to swirl about the room. Rounding it off is good, clean sounding dialogue that's easily understood. Sound is also the same as the previous edition of the film.
MENUS::Fantastic new animated menus start off with a clip from the movie into a remarkably well-done main menu that perfectly introduces the movie. Some sub-menus are also animated, but those that aren't are filled with such nicely put-together and wild images that they're interesting to look at anyways.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Andrew Fleming, and this discussion is noticably better than the one that he provided for "Dick". Here, he serves as tour guide for the movie, and points out little details for almost every scene in the film, and talks about some larger details of the movie, such as the reality of the witchcraft talked about in the film - they had a "technical advisor" for those scenes.
The most interesting detail that Fleming offers is that when he submitted the film to the MPAA, he thought that the film would simply be PG-13, because there isn't that much in the way of language. They told him that the film would be R because simply it involved teens and witchcraft. I enjoyed listening to his commentary, and Fleming has a lot to say with a minimum of pauses.
Trailers: Trailers for "The Craft" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" in 5.1; also trailers for "John Carpenter's Vampires" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula".
Documentaries: There is the original short, promotional featurette included, and there is also "Conjuring The Craft". "Conjuring" is a newly done 24 minute documentary that combines some older interviews with many new ones, with participants such as the film's writer, director, producer and some of the actors including Tunney. As with most of the newly prepared documentaries that the studio produces, this is an excellent feature; it tells us exactly what we need to know about the elements of the production without much filler.
I generally dislike documentaries that seem longer only due to the fact that they have tons of clips from the movie in-between. Thankfully, this documentary realizes that we've already seen the film and want to know more about it - keeping the clips to what's needed. It's a very good documentary, and I felt that the interviews were very informative and insightful about what happened during filming.
Deleted Scenes: 3 short deleted scenes that are interesting but not something that probably should have gotten into the film. Each of the scenes offers commentary from director Fleming.
Final Thoughts: Another great re-release from Columbia. A good movie and certainly worth a rental, or a replacement if you own the first edition.
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