There are a lot of great titles coming to DVD, Blu-ray and Digital on September 9 including one of Marvel’s biggest hits (pre-Guardians of the Galaxy), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and two films that feature some of the last performances of Paul Walker (Brick Mansions) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (God’s Pocket). Films getting early Digital releases include an unrated version of Seth McFarlane’s A Million Way To Die in the West, the under-appreciated Edge of Tomorrow, and Think Like a Man Too. Older films getting spiffed up for Blu-ray this week include a 15th anniversary edition of Any Given Sunday, the original Flowers in the Attic, classic comedy The Great Race, classic horror films Pumpkinhead and Prom Night, and a collection of Godzilla and Mothra films.

To see all of the week’s highlights, have a look at our alphabetical listing and click on a link to get more information or to make a purchase. Making any purchase through our Amazon links helps support our efforts here at CliqueClack, and for that we thank you!

So here’s what’s going to happen in this post:

You might learn a few things about me. Maybe some revealing, eye-opening things. It might help explain why I like some of the things I like. At least … I think it will. You may not agree. And that’s okay. I can’t please everyone. And I can’t put stuff out there that makes sense to me but might confuse you. I figure so long as there’s that basic  understanding — possible revelations which may not make sense to you — then I’m pretty certain you can at least wrap your head around some of what I’m going to say.

By nature, I’m not a comedy-watching kind of guy; that might come as a surprise. I shy away from comedy films and I routinely avoid comedy television programs. The Big Bang Theory? Puzzles me to no end. I don’t get it. Brainiacs who make fools of themselves or who find themselves out of their element socially. Not funny to me in the least. Adam Sandler films? Will Ferrel movies? I don’t watch them and wouldn’t voluntarily go to one. You couldn’t entice me to one of these men’s flicks with free popcorn, soda and Jujubees. They’re inane and pointless to me. (The films, not the Jujubees.)

Comedy I like? Hit me up with The Blues Brothers. Sixteen Candles. Dark Star. Bob’s Burgers. Even the Charlie Sheen years of Two And A Half Men in small doses. (I don’t care what anyone says about Sheen or the show back in those days; there was some smart writing goin’ on.)

I like dark humor, too. Six Feet Under. Leaving Las Vegas. Breaking Bad. Classic humor I like: Young Frankenstein. Laurel & Hardy. The Marx Brothers. Robert DeNiro in Midnight Run, Jeff Bridges in Starman. Comedic plays such as Man Of La Mancha.

And I know what you’re saying right about now: “Michael? I happen to know you’re a funny guy. Don’t give me guff and don’t make me put on boots to wade through your bullshit. You like comedy! ” I am funny. And I do like comedy. But I don’t like watching comedy as a rule. “Hogwash! You reviewed the entire first season of New Girl a couple years ago! If that’s not comedy, what is?!?” And you would be right. I stepped out of my viewing element (and I called myself out for doing so many a time) and watched that premiere season. I’ll admit: It had its moments. I was completely on board with The Douchebag Jar. I was hit and miss (often “miss”) with Zooey Deschanel’s Jess, mostly on board with Jake Johnson’s Nick and often vacillated with Max Greenfield’s Schmidt. But after a season of the show, I was done. I don’t believe I’ve watched a single episode of New Girl since. And I don’t feel as if I’ve missed anything in spurning it.

I’d like to like a comedy television programs … really, I would. A lot of friends (no comments from the peanut gallery, Ivey) and associates say there are some worthy things out there in TV Land. I would dig giving myself whole-heartedly to something guffaw-inducing, slapstick-ish or sly. But picky me, I haven’t found anything yet.

Now? Here comes FOX’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

And — surprise wowzah! — with one of my favorite actors, Andre Braugher! Loved, loved, loved his underlying snark in Homicide: Life On The Street. Dug him (mostly) in Men Of A Certain Age. As an actor of stature and command, I was thrilled to tune in to the too-short Last Resort with Braugher as the obstinate Captain Marcus Chaplin. And in House as Dr. Darryl Nolan? You betcha. (There’s another show with dark and not-so-dark comedy elements I enjoyed.)

But, sorry to say, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is lacking in some basic elements … “comedy” being one of them. At least, sustaining comedy by its star that will weather it through an initial season. There’s of course the mandatory set-up to get us familiar with the characters, but it feels forced, like someone is shoving it down our throats or waved before our eyes when it doesn’t need to be. Especially in the case of Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg (as extremely smart/smart alec Detective Jake Peralta) who steam rolls along in the pilot, any obstacles in his way be damned. And it doesn’t sit well within the context of the show. Instead of letting Peralta sway us with his charms while tossing yucks at us, we’re force-fed sarcasm and shenanigans when there is no need for them. And it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. The viewing audience isn’t dumb, for Pete’s sake … why do the producers of Brooklyn Nine-Nine feel the need to bombard us as if we need an 800-pound gorilla hovering over us making sure we get the joke? Samberg overplays the role. For example: When we see Peralta giving in to his new captain’s demand that ties be worn by the men of his command, it’s just dumb to see Samberg lift his shirt, his tie wrapped around his mid-section. It’s so contrived it isn’t even funny. In fact, it’s stupid … and not in a good way. It’s not even “good” stupid comedy. It’s just dumb.

Much more appealing is the easily swallowed Captain Ray Holt (Braugher). His demeanor is infinitely more comfortable than Peralta’s. It comes effortlessly without the in-your-face bombast. It helps that all Braugher has to do is shoot a look someone’s way and you know exactly what he’s conveying. Comedy without words. The show’s writers should know better, being they’re obviously doing this for Braugher.

Yet … there’s hope. Hope in that the rest of the cast gels together to overshadow some of the daftness Samberg showcases. Their “straight man” roles help soften the harsh edges of Samberg’s character and give me at least a little optimism that the current circus doesn’t revolve around the stark and glaring clown-star. (Stephanie Beatriz‘ strong Detective Rosa Diaz is a welcome relief.) There’s hope in Braugher reining in some of the stupidity of Samberg’s antics and working an uneasy but better pairing of the two. This could yield a more cohesive comedy that doesn’t rely completely on dippiness for laughs. Because right now? Out of the gate? It’s not working.

So … did you learn anything about me? Maybe that my comedy likes are too high-falutin’? Too picky? (Nah. Hello! Blues Brothers! Two And A Half Men! Bob’s Burgers!)

Maybe my expectations are too high. Maybe my love for Andre Braugher comes with blinders and a notion of hopeful trust that smartness will eventually come out of this new show instead of an insipid 24 minutes of slough. As with my previous New Girl “adventure” a few seasons back, I’ll stymie my judgment and go along for the ride and see what comes out the other end.

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Let’s talk Hollywood before the rules kicked in before we get to some of the down and dirty about John Gilbert’s Downstairs … shall we? Trust me — it’s going to help make things a bit understandable.

Per Wikipedia’s Pre-Code Hollywood: “… films in the late 1920s and early 1930s included sexual innuendo, miscegenation, profanity, illegal drug use, promiscuity, prostitution, infidelity, abortion, intense violence and homosexuality … Nefarious characters were seen to profit from their deeds, in some cases without significant repercussions …” (There’s quite the lengthy read at that link. Take a visit — it’s really quite interesting.)

Of the 10 mentions in the above quotation, we get a healthy dose of sexual innuendo, promiscuity, infidelity and intense violence feeding Downstairs, much of it rather shocking if you don’t know what’s coming. And, honestly, I didn’t know what was coming as the film unfolded.

Starring a debonair John Gilbert (who also wrote and hocked the film) as a newly hired chauffeur, the film begins with Gilbert traipsing into his new digs at the vast, bustling estate of the Baron Von Burgen (Reginald Owen, Ebenezer Scrooge in 1938’s A Christmas Carol). There’s a wedding going on, the nuptials of The Baron’s head butler Albert (Paul Lukas) and one of the young maids of the estate, Anna (Virginia Bruce). And right away, after a traditional stomping of grapes to bring good luck to the newly wedded couple, the lascivious Karl greets the bride with a big wet one right smack dab on the kisser. (Video below.) With that big wet one, we’re off to the races and hungry for what other sorts of mischief Karl gets involved with.

And it doesn’t take long for this heel’s true colors to come shining through. He bumps into a former lover at the wedding celebration who is none too pleased to see him fraternizing with the guests. He begins an affair with one of the cooks on the estate and sleeps with her. Chauffeuring The Baroness to a shopping excursion one day that turns into a rendezvous for good lovin’ monkey business, Karl is in just the right position to gather enough information to hold over her head for later use. Meanwhile, he continues his pursuit of newly wed Anna who he’s got a thing for, turning on the suspicions of her rather stuffy husband Albert. (Karl’s seductions of Anna are pretty effective. She’s naive enough to sleep with him — finding out he’s one hell of a lover — and ends up carrying that torch despite being a new bride. After all, why settle for the plain vanilla of Albert when she can have Karl, too, with all tasty sprinkles and a cherry on top?)

And … what? I didn’t mention the year this film was made, did I? 1932. Yep. This little gem got in right under the period where Hollywood ultimately got pressured into cleaning up its act and having to censor the raciness running rampant in the industry. And here I thought I was getting a little treat of a flick featuring Reginald Owen. Hardly! My jaw dropped all over the place watching this thing! It dropped at Sophie the cook swiping flour off Karl’s backside in the kitchen! At Karl arranging a room at an inn for a bit of hanky-panky with Anna! And at Anna confessing to her husband what a great piece of ass Karl is! Zounds!

(Side Note: Universal’s Frankenstein was pre-code, too, having been released in 1931. There was plenty of controversy in that film at the time as well as deleted scenes, not the least of which was Frankenstein’s monster killing that little village girl by tossing her into the drink. Still, Hollywood had the wherewithal to delete the scene. It’s since been reinstated into the classic.)

At the film’s conclusion, Karl almost gets strangled to death by by the uber-jealous Albert, but he’s unceremoniously kicked out of the Baron’s employ instead … only to wind up at yet another employer, another hottie ripe for his seductive pickings.

Karl: A nefarious character always at the ready to reap the profits of his philandering ways and with nary a repercussion, indeed.

I confess this was a guilty pleasure akin to stealing glances at your father’s Playboy collection as a kid. With Downstairs under my belt, I’m primed and ready for additional Forbidden Hollywood titles from the Warner Archive Collection.

As a remastered print, I was duly impressed with the quality — extremely clean for something originally produced in 1932, impressively so. A few extras would have been a nice compliment. Hey … I can dream, can’t I?

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNzIAkX2Y40

Downstairs is part of the Forbidden Hollywood Collection: Volume 6 provided to CliqueClack by the Warner Archive Collection.

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If there was any movie I was really looking forward to this year (besides Les Miserables), it was Tim Burton’s animated remake/expansion of his delightful short film Frankenweenie. That film was a classic boy and his dog story with a bit of tragedy, sci-fi and horror mixed in. Basically an homage to the great Universal monster movies of the 1930s. The story was simple: Sparky, the beloved pet of a young boy named Victor Frankenstein, is hit by a car and dies. Heartbroken, Victor tries to revive his dog in much the same way the movie Frankenstein monster was brought to life. The operation is a success, but the townspeople are horrified to see the newly reanimated pooch roaming the streets, leading to a climactic showdown at a windmill (reminiscent of the original Frankenstein movie).

The film was shot in black and white, and used the same expressionistic style of the Universal classics, and had a running time of about 28 minutes. So how do you expand a perfectly constructed short film by nearly an hour without tearing the heart out of the story? The short answer is you really can’t, and that’s what makes the new Frankenweenie a bit of a disappointment.

The new film starts out with the same basic structure of the short, and really manages to pull on your heartstrings as Sparky runs into the road and is hit by a passing car. You never see the accident, but you know what happened, and Victor’s reaction tells you everything you need to know. I confess, I had a huge tear roll down my face as I thought about my own dog at home. From this point, the film has to really open up the story, so we’re introduced to Victor’s classmates at school including Elsa Van Helsing (Winona Ryder), Edgar “E” Gore (Atticus Shaffer), Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao), Nassor (Martin Short), and the delightfully macabre Weird Girl (Catherine O’Hara), who believes that her cat, Mr. Whiskers, has prophetic dreams about her classmates. There is also a substitute teacher, Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau), who gives the children a hilarious lesson on lightning and electricity which triggers the idea in Victor that Sparky can be reanimated with the right voltage. Besides Weird Girl, the Vincent Price-esque Mr. Rzykruski is one of the best characters in the film … unfortunately he’s only on screen for a few brief moments.

After Victor brings Sparky back to life, the film really begins to drag as his classmates are all trying to come up with ideas for the science fair. Naturally, once they discover Sparky, they all decide to resuscitate their own deceased pets with unexpected results. After the science experiments go awry, the film regains some energy but almost becomes a totally different movie — more like Monsters vs Aliens — until the final scene which basically brings us back to the ending of the live-action short. And I shed a few more tears here as well.

While the sagging middle section of the movie is a bummer, there are still many things to enjoy about Frankenweenie. The character design is terrific with each character having its own personality. The set design and scenery is also stunning (and lends itself very well to the 3D process), but the only set piece that has that Gothic feel to it is the pet cemetery. The rest of the town is a conglomeration of 1950s sitcom with modern references. I think had they stayed with the total 1950s feel, people wouldn’t be pointing out things like the June Cleaver-ish mother as oddly anachronistic. Major kudos, though, to everyone involved for keeping the film in classic black and white.

Fans of classic horror films will also be happy with many of the homages, from Frankenstein to Gremlins, as well as the nods to authors famous for their works of horror. Now I’m not certain of one particular reference to ‘Shelly’ — it could have just been a nod to the author of Frankenstein – but I would love to think that it was a sly reference to the great twisted TV comedy Strangers With Candy. I won’t ruin, but fans of the show will know exactly what I’m talking about.

I really, really wanted to love Frankenweenie, but the excessive padding dampened my enthusiasm a bit. It still tugged at my heart, at least the parts of the movie that were recreations of the original, but I needed my own jolt of lightning midway through. Anyone who hasn’t seen the original, however, may still find this a fun film to take the kids to for Halloween (be warned, though, that there are some moments and images during the film’s climax that could scare younger children). In the end, though, it just misses capturing the total charm of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

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