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Bless The Child
Paramount // R // February 13, 2001
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
If the casting wizards behind "Bless The Child" made one smart move, it was to keep Freddie Prinze Jr. out of the film. I'm rather doubtful he was even up for a part, but Prinze has successfully managed to star in each of my least favorite movies of the past few years. '98 brought us the return of Ray Bronson in the severely-mistitled "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer", followed by the second Prinze/Matthew Lillard team-up of '99 with "Wing Commander". (Read my "Get Carter" review to help you guess why "She's All That" didn't get under my skin to quite the same degree; maybe the trick is leading ladies who also have three names. Hmmm.) I was fairly certain after walking out of the theater that Freddie would go for three in a row with "Boys and Girls", but friends, that's before I saw "Bless The Child". I'm not sure I'd say that "Bless The Child" is better than "Boys and Girls", but it doesn't feature Freddie Prinze Jr. in any capacity, which is enough to save it from having the admittedly-rather-meaningless "Worst of 2000" label applied.
Crack-baby Cody O'Connor is, unbeknownst to her aunt/foster mother Maggie, Christ reincarnated. Or a saint. Or...something. I'm not really sure what, but apparently, it's a pretty big deal -- big enough that an infamous, omnipresent Scientology-style group/secret Satanic cult led by Rufus Sewell (well, his character leads them; what Sewell does on his personal time is his business) wants to woo her to the dark side. Maggie (oh, Kim Basinger, by the way) alternates between chasing after the uncaring, evil-for-evil's-sake Satanists and being chased by them, along with "NYPD Blue" veteran Jimmy Smits, playing against type as a cop. Yes, if the most-excellent Rufus successfully subverts young Cody, then it's the end of the world as we know it, and if he's not, she dies. One underlying problem -- none of these characters are at all interesting, so I really didn't care if any of them die.
So, what's not to like? The acting is unilaterally wooden and unemotional, feeling more like I'm watching a local amateur theater group than an Academy Award winner and the star of one of my favorite films, "Dark City". The religious overtones are, well, overbearing, making "Bless The Child" feel as heavy-handed and preachy as "The Omega Code" and "Left Behind". As for the special effects, if there were ever a case to use to show why CGI is overused and ineffective, this is it. Take a gander at the rat dream sequence -- the mouse in "Stuart Little" looked more realistic. I half-expected Mario to come out of a green tube in the back and start whacking the CG-rats with a monkeywrench or something. The plot is cliched, and anyone who sees the first 10 minutes knows precisely what the ending's going to be. A failure on nearly every front, there's not really anything about "Bless The Child" that warrants a positive comment.
Video/Audio: Paramount seems to get a lot of flak on the bulletin boards I read for too high a price point and too few extras, but I don't see much discussion about the outstanding transfers the studio puts out. The amazing job done on "The Dead Zone" alone put Paramount in my good graces, and "Bless The Child" follows along much of those same lines. Presented at 2.35:1 and enhanced for widescreen televisions, the image is simply flawless, with the possible (and extraordinarily minor) exception of a small bit of dust in the last reel that I'm only mentioning because I didn't notice it at any other point in the film. As much of a nitpicker as I tend to be, I have nothing but praise for the remarkable transfer and skilled authoring. Though the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix didn't grab my interest in quite the same way as the video, I didn't find much to complain about. All too many DVDs nowadays seem to go for a really flashy approach, overusing surrounds and trying harder to stand out as a reference disc rather than complement a film. More realistic, natural mixes like "Bless The Child" tend to fall by the wayside, and as a side-effect of their frequent subtlety, they're often harder to review. The score sounds wonderful and roars from all of the speakers, though never at the expense of the clean, always discernable dialogue. Surrounds are used in such a way to be enveloping without feeling fake or gimmicky.
Supplements: Perhaps this is a stupid question, but does a featurette produced exclusively for a DVD really need to include that much footage from the film? The nine minutes of "Bless The Child: A Look Inside" alternate between fluff interviews, extensive clips from the feature, and a smidgen of on-set footage. "A Look Inside" only really offers a passing glance, with the interviews seeming a bit too self-congratulatory and repetitive (count the number of times the word 'scary' is used in the first few minutes). "A Look Inside" would be more apt if used to describe the commentary with director Chuck Russell and Joel Hynek, "Bless The Child"'s special effects supervisor. Neither offer much in the way of anecdotes (or apologies, for that matter), focusing on the technical rather than the artistic. I didn't find it too compelling, but then again, a commentary for a film I particularly disliked has strikes against it well before I put it on. Finally, there's a letterboxed, stereo trailer.
Conclusion: A spectacular presentation with the major extras most consumers seem to desire. A shame Paramount's DVD group wasn't given a better film... Skip it.
Crack-baby Cody O'Connor is, unbeknownst to her aunt/foster mother Maggie, Christ reincarnated. Or a saint. Or...something. I'm not really sure what, but apparently, it's a pretty big deal -- big enough that an infamous, omnipresent Scientology-style group/secret Satanic cult led by Rufus Sewell (well, his character leads them; what Sewell does on his personal time is his business) wants to woo her to the dark side. Maggie (oh, Kim Basinger, by the way) alternates between chasing after the uncaring, evil-for-evil's-sake Satanists and being chased by them, along with "NYPD Blue" veteran Jimmy Smits, playing against type as a cop. Yes, if the most-excellent Rufus successfully subverts young Cody, then it's the end of the world as we know it, and if he's not, she dies. One underlying problem -- none of these characters are at all interesting, so I really didn't care if any of them die.
So, what's not to like? The acting is unilaterally wooden and unemotional, feeling more like I'm watching a local amateur theater group than an Academy Award winner and the star of one of my favorite films, "Dark City". The religious overtones are, well, overbearing, making "Bless The Child" feel as heavy-handed and preachy as "The Omega Code" and "Left Behind". As for the special effects, if there were ever a case to use to show why CGI is overused and ineffective, this is it. Take a gander at the rat dream sequence -- the mouse in "Stuart Little" looked more realistic. I half-expected Mario to come out of a green tube in the back and start whacking the CG-rats with a monkeywrench or something. The plot is cliched, and anyone who sees the first 10 minutes knows precisely what the ending's going to be. A failure on nearly every front, there's not really anything about "Bless The Child" that warrants a positive comment.
Video/Audio: Paramount seems to get a lot of flak on the bulletin boards I read for too high a price point and too few extras, but I don't see much discussion about the outstanding transfers the studio puts out. The amazing job done on "The Dead Zone" alone put Paramount in my good graces, and "Bless The Child" follows along much of those same lines. Presented at 2.35:1 and enhanced for widescreen televisions, the image is simply flawless, with the possible (and extraordinarily minor) exception of a small bit of dust in the last reel that I'm only mentioning because I didn't notice it at any other point in the film. As much of a nitpicker as I tend to be, I have nothing but praise for the remarkable transfer and skilled authoring. Though the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix didn't grab my interest in quite the same way as the video, I didn't find much to complain about. All too many DVDs nowadays seem to go for a really flashy approach, overusing surrounds and trying harder to stand out as a reference disc rather than complement a film. More realistic, natural mixes like "Bless The Child" tend to fall by the wayside, and as a side-effect of their frequent subtlety, they're often harder to review. The score sounds wonderful and roars from all of the speakers, though never at the expense of the clean, always discernable dialogue. Surrounds are used in such a way to be enveloping without feeling fake or gimmicky.
Supplements: Perhaps this is a stupid question, but does a featurette produced exclusively for a DVD really need to include that much footage from the film? The nine minutes of "Bless The Child: A Look Inside" alternate between fluff interviews, extensive clips from the feature, and a smidgen of on-set footage. "A Look Inside" only really offers a passing glance, with the interviews seeming a bit too self-congratulatory and repetitive (count the number of times the word 'scary' is used in the first few minutes). "A Look Inside" would be more apt if used to describe the commentary with director Chuck Russell and Joel Hynek, "Bless The Child"'s special effects supervisor. Neither offer much in the way of anecdotes (or apologies, for that matter), focusing on the technical rather than the artistic. I didn't find it too compelling, but then again, a commentary for a film I particularly disliked has strikes against it well before I put it on. Finally, there's a letterboxed, stereo trailer.
Conclusion: A spectacular presentation with the major extras most consumers seem to desire. A shame Paramount's DVD group wasn't given a better film... Skip it.
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