(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what's new on Blu-ray and DVD.)
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1978). Director Michael Crichton based his script for The Great Train Robbery on his own bestselling novel, which in turn was based on a real historical event. Back in 1855, it was deemed impossible to rob a moving train, so a dapper con artist named Edward Pierce (Sean Connery) has quite the challenge ahead of him if he wants to steal a shipment of gold from an English train outfitted with security guards and all manner of locks. Enlisting the aid of his clever girlfriend Miriam (Lesley-Anne Down) and the jovial safecracker Agar (Donald Sutherland), he places his plan in motion, relying on the compromising bad habits of the English elite — one with a penchant for prostitutes, another who delights in betting on "ratting" (a heinous sport requiring dogs to kill as many rats as possible in an allotted time) — as well as on his own deceptive skills to allow him to achieve his goal. Crichton has mounted a handsome movie filled with authentic production values and attentive period detail (a hanging proves to be the most unsettling scene, with the gathered chanting, "Oh, my, think I'm gonna die" as a woman is led to the scaffold), but the picture never grabs viewers in the manner of the best heist flicks, sweat-inducing efforts like The Killing and The Asphalt Jungle. The primary problem rests in the characterizations: The three leads are all fine (and Connery even did some of his own dangerous stunts), but precious little is really learned about them, thereby keeping all at a distance. This was one of the final projects of the great cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth (Superman, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Oscars for Tess and Cabaret), who passed away shortly before the film's release — his lensing is typically noteworthy, as is the score by the reliable Jerry Goldsmith.
Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by Crichton and the theatrical trailer.
Movie: **1/2
THE INNOCENTS (1961). With apologies to such terrific works as The Uninvited, The Haunting and The Others, it's probably safe to say that The Innocents is the most revered of all cinematic ghost stories, with its legion of admirers including such luminaries as Martin Scorsese and the late François Truffaut. Of course, is it really a ghost story? That's the debate that has surrounded not only the film but also its literary antecedent, Henry James' classic novella The Turn of the Screw. Set in Victorian England, this stars an excellent Deborah Kerr as Miss Giddens, a minister's daughter who finds employment as governess to a pair of orphaned children banished to a remote estate by their disinterested uncle (Michael Redgrave). Miss Giddens finds the kids, perky Flora (Pamela Franklin) and polite Miles (Martin Stephens), to be absolute delights, but that changes once she comes to believe that a pair of specters are haunting the grounds. Are the children in cahoots with the ghosts, or are they actually being possessed by them? Or do the spirits only exist in the mind of a sheltered, repressed governess with no real-world experience to call her own? Everything works in this classic chiller, from the pungent atmosphere created by director Jack Clayton and director of photography Freddie Francis to the sexually steeped — and often morbidly amusing — script by William Archibald (who had earlier created a stage play based on the James tale) and Truman Capote. Kudos, also, to child actors Franklin and Stephens, who are able to switch from cuddly to creepy at a moment's notice. In 1971, a different set of filmmakers created The Nightcomers, a prequel (starring Marlon Brando) detailing the circumstances that led up to the events related in James' story and Clayton's movie.
Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by film and cultural historian Christopher Frayling; a making-of featurette; an interview with cinematographer John Bailey (The Big Chill, Groundhog Day) about Francis' work on the film; and an introduction by Frayling.
Movie: ***1/2
THE KILLER ELITE (1975). One of the most overlooked films in the Sam Peckinpah canon, The Killer Elite is ofttimes a mess, but it's an engaging mess all the same. Adapting Robert Rostand's novel Monkey in the Middle, Oscar-winning writers Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night) and Marc Norman (Shakespeare in Love) focus on Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall), two operatives who work for an outfit that takes its assignments from the CIA. Despite their standing as best friends, Hansen doesn't hesitate when it's time to betray Locken (and the agency) in order to collect from a better-paying source, although their camaraderie means he only wounds Locken rather than kill him. But what wounds! Locken largely loses an elbow and a knee, and he's told he's now only fit for desk jobs. Refusing to take that route — and determined to get his revenge — he undergoes an arduous physical regime that so impresses his superiors (Arthur Hill and Gig Young), he's placed back into rotation. Their edict: Protect an Asian leader (Mako) who's been targeted for extermination by a band of ninjas as well as by — yup — George Hansen. The stylized confrontations and the theme of honor among macho mavericks mark this as prime Peckinpah, yet the easygoing banter between the characters interestingly brings to mind the oeuvre of Howard Hawks, wherein the gift of gab is as integral as the flying of fists. This is especially evident in the scenes in which Locken interacts with his trusted colleagues: Miller (Bo Hopkins, an indispensable presence in 1970s cinema), tagged as trigger-happy but more shrewd than many believe, and Mac (Burt Young), a driver whose sage advice is frequently ignored by Locken. Young would soon become instantly recognizable (and earn an Oscar nomination) as Paulie in the following year's Rocky, but he's even better here. Caan may drive this film with his steely performance, but by playing a character who genuinely cares for Locken, Young provides the picture with its heart.
The Twilight Time Blu-ray also contains Peckinpah's 1966 TV-movie Noon Wine, starring Jason Robards and Olivia de Havilland. Extras on The Killer Elite include audio commentary by film historians Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and Nick Redman; a pair of making-of featurettes; and the theatrical trailer. Seydor, Simmons and Redman also provide an audio commentary track on Noon Wine.
Movie: ***
THE PARTY (1968). Taking a break from their string of uproarious Pink Panther films, writer-director Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers pooled their talents for this picture that was designed as both a homage to silent comedy as well as an exercise in improvisation. Working from a screenplay that barely cleared 60 pages, Edwards (scripting with siblings Frank and Tom Waldman) filmed the project sequentially, thus allowing the humor to build naturally and also giving his actors plenty of room to experiment. Sellers stars as Hrundi V. Bakshi, a sweet-natured Indian actor imported by Hollywood to appear in an adventure flick not unlike Gunga Din. After Bakshi's bumbling shenanigans result in the destruction of an expensive set, he's supposed to be banned from the movie industry; instead, his name accidentally ends up on the guest list of a lavish party being thrown by studio mogul Fred Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley). And that's all the plot needed for what's basically a string of potent comic set-pieces, with Bakshi causing ample mayhem at the shindig. Particularly noteworthy are his encounters with a faulty toilet, a chatty bird ("Birdie num num") and a wayward shoe, and the whole affair ends with the appearance of a baby elephant and bubbles, bubbles everywhere. Steve Franken has many choice moments as an inebriated waiter who causes almost as much destruction as Bakshi, while McKinley nicely underplays as the insensate Clutterbuck ("Sir, your wife fell in the pool!" "Get her jewelry.").
Blu-ray extras include a making-of featurette; interviews with Edwards, producer Walter Mirisch and associate producer Ken Wales; and the theatrical trailer.
Movie: ***
TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (2014). As evidenced by this latest endurance test, Michael Bay's contempt for his audience continues to be matched only by his contempt for the medium of film itself. Here, then, are seven random bullet points that popped into my head during my T:AoE experience. 1) First, the good news: The fourth in the series created by the dream team of Bay, Hasbro and Mephistopheles, this is better than the previous Transformers sequels, Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon. Now for the sobering afterthought: Even a case of syphilis is preferable to that torturous twofer. 2) In addition to replacing the insufferable Shia LaBeouf with the charismatic Mark Wahlberg, another reason this one is marginally easier to take is because the attempts at comic relief aren't as grotesque as in past installments. Sure, there are some lame gags, but at least there are no Amos'n'Andy robots on hand to showcase Bay's racial insensitivity — and no shot of John Turturro's bare buttocks, either. 3) The new trend is for accomplished performers to accept hefty paychecks for whoring themselves out in Transformers flicks. Now joining the past likes of Turturro, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich is Stanley Tucci, who hams it up as a scientist creating his own line of Transformers. 4) According to this film, dinosaurs were wiped off the earth by aliens, and this somehow also led to the creation of Transformer dinosaurs known as Dinobots. I gotta confess, I do like it when movies teach me something new about history. 5) No one goes to a Transformers flick expecting to hear immortal dialogue along the lines of "Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown" or "What we have here is failure to communicate" or even "Yo, Adrian!" but the banter concocted by scripter Ehren Kruger has the ability to make ears bleed. "Where's your warrant?" asks Wahlberg's character of a black-ops creep (Titus Welliver). "My face is my warrant!" comes the ingenious reply. Wait, what? 6) As expected, product placements run rampant in this film, with one of the primary offenders being Bud Light. That's OK by me: A crappy American beer deserves to be partnered with a crappy American movie. 7) Transformers: Age of Extinction lasts 164 minutes. In this case, that's not a running time. That's a prison sentence.
Blu-ray extras include over two hours of behind-the-scenes featurettes; an interview with Bay; a look at a new Hasbro action figure inspired by the movie; and trailers.
Movie: *1/2
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