Wizards of Waverly Place [TV Show] [Wizard School]

It was bound to happen. Given the runaway success of the Harry Potter franchise, eventually somebody was going to do a parody or develop a TV show featuring teen and pre-teen wizards. And the odds were that it would be somebody like Disney.

The Disney Channel added "Wizards of Waverly Place" to its line-up in the fall of 2007, and it's since become one of their most popular live-action sitcoms. The audience, of course, is the same age as the young wizards-in-training. Parents in this show are marginalized, as usual--perhaps even more so, because the kids' father, Jerry (David DeLouise) was once a wizard but had to give it up in order to marry a feisty Latina named Theresa (Maria Canals-Barrera). But Canals-Barrera and DeLouise, son of famed comedian Dom DeLouise, do a good job of keeping some semblance of parental authority despite their exceptional kids, and they make their limited air-time count. The show's twist (and the complication) comes because only one wizard can emerge from each family, and when the three Russo siblings reach adulthood they'll have to compete in order to see who gets to stay a wizard and who reverts to being mere mortals. In other words, they could have called this show "The Ultimate Sibling Rivalry."

The main character is Alex Russo (Selena Gomez), a pretty teen who's pretty good at slacking. She leaves her stuff all over the house, and spends more energy avoiding work than it would take to actually do it. Then there's her geekier older brother, Justin (David Henrie), who's as conscientious as can be, and the mischievous youngest sibling Max (Jake T. Austin), who's sometimes content to just sit back and watch with amusement.

Though "Wizard School" was a two-parter that aired as the 13th and 14th episodes the first season, it's probably appropriate that Disney decided to lead with it on this first DVD release. For one thing, the episode has a little fun with the Harry Potter films--right down to the geeky Harry Potter glasses that all of the students are required to wear with their "black bathrobes." It also establishes the kids as wizards just as quickly as the first episode, which found Alex replicating herself so she could get a shopping advantage. But it's also one of the broadest comedies from the first season. The other episodes included on this release are "Curb Your Dragon" (Episode 8) and "Disenchanted Evening" (Episode 5).

"Wizard School" Pts. 1&2
Justin is stoked to go to a summer school for wizards known as Wiz Tech, but when Alex does something irresponsible with magic again, their parents insist that she join her brother. This over-the-top two-part episode features Octavia Spencer as Dr. Evilini, a teacher who hopes to take promising wizard Justin to Volcanoland after he wins a 12-ball competition and somehow drain his powers and transfer them to herself, so she could be the most powerful wizard of all. The set looks like a Hogwart's send-off, complete with Dumbledore lookalike, and while the star-shaped ping-pong table is cool, there are more nerds here per square foot than anywhere on TV. No wonder it gives Alex the creeps just to be there.

"Curb Your Dragon"
Guilt over losing Justin's dog many years ago prompts Alex to try replacing it. But she buys an enchanted dragon that's disguised as a beagle, and because the little guy is a fire-breather they try to hide it and tell their parents it's a lost dog, which requires that they put up posters. Shades of "Air Bud," the dragon seller (Taylor Negron) claims the little guy and decides to enter it in a local dog show, which means, of course, that the kids have to find a way to get their dragon-dog back. Alex gets wind of the teacher's evil scheme and tries to foil her. Meanwhile, in a stupid subplot, a woman dressed like a salad (Robyn Moran) is handing out vegetarian leaflets in front of the Russo's Sub Station, driving away all their business.

"Disenchanted Evening"
Wizard powers become a barometer for that ever-popular game kids play: who's got the coolest (i.e., most permissive) parents. Alex gets jealous when she meets a young wizard named T.J. (Daryl Sabara) whose parents let him use magic anytime and anyplace he chooses. So she schemes to have him drop a hint or two, to maybe influence her parents. Max, meanwhile, struggles to complete a school project about Mars.

It's worth mentioning that the set is a cluttered nest of primary colors, and that distinctive scene segues involve a split-second music video style visual of the cast that has nothing to do with the plot. Other than that, "Wizards of Waverly Place" has the same three-act structure and pacing as most half-hour comedies. As kid-pitched sitcoms go, this one doesn't have the same level of writing or even acting as Disney's "Hannah Montana," but the characters grow on you, and the scripts will certainly appeal to the target audience on a number of levels.

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Heartbeat Detector

A corporate horror flick filmed in sharp angles and cool metallic tones, "Heartbeat Detector" (2007) oozes atmosphere while its narrative wobbles like a drunken sailor. And it works, more or less.

Company psychologist Simon Kessler (Mathieu Amalric) is tapped to investigate CEO Mathias Jüst (Michael Lonsdale) whose mood swings are beginning to worry investors and board members alike. Simon takes a rather circuitous route to his unwitting client, stopping along the way to party at nightclubs and hook up with a variety of women and men who apparently find him utterly irresistible. Once Simon starts digging deeper into Jüst´s psyche, he finds himself haunted by the same past that traps the tortured CEO, a past that begins in a Nazi concentration camp and ends with a steel glass headquarters.

It´s tempting to describe the trajectory of the film as a descent into hell, but Simon isn´t exactly starting off in paradise. The utterly amoral world of the modern corporation has all but swallowed him whole, and Simon suffers from indeterminate problems of his own perhaps partly fueled by drugs or a more deep-seated physiological source. Simon is a fully alienated laborer, a capitalist cog in a not so well-greased machine that grinds up souls with the sort of ruthless logic and efficiency that also makes the trains run on schedule in another place and time. As Simon gets dragged inexorably into Jüst´s world, he loses his bearings and his confidence with jarring results.

Amalric is a perfect choice for the lead role. His sallow sunken eyes provide testament to the horror of the present and the past, but there´s not a damned thing he can do about any of it. Even as the quadriplegic Jean-Do in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007) he was more empowered than he is here. It will be interesting to see which Amalric shows up to take on James Bond in "Quantum of Solace."

Director Nicolas Klotz, working from a story by François Emmanuel and a script by Elisabeth Perceval, relates a story that is full of portent but never really leads anywhere which is at least partially the point. Simon explores multiple avenues that provide no real satisfaction or insight into Jüst´s predicament: a classical music quartet, a dead child, a father with a possible criminal past. Klotz also doesn´t seem particularly interested in immersing the audience in the mystery either.

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Vengeance

I don't get a chance to review many films from Thailand. Now that I think about it, I haven't actually seen all that many productions from the country, to tell you the truth. In fact if my memory serves me well, the only other Thai movie I've sat through was titled "Sick Nurses," and with a name like that I guess I should state for the record that no, it isn't a porno.

My second encounter with Thai movie-making is the Blu-ray version of "Vengeance," a bizarre film directed by Preaw Sirisuwan that doesn't really fill any niche by cramming in practically every theme under the sun. We have elements of mystery, action, horror, fantasy, drama, romance, and even a little bit of sci-fi, but none really emerge as the solid backbone for the script. This mishmash approach usually doesn't work and tends to turn viewers off, yet somehow I was thoroughly entertained with this film. I'll even go as far as saying that my enjoyment had absolutely nothing to do with the kinky sex scene with forest nymphs, either, although you wouldn't catch me putting my hand on a Bible for that one.

The picture opens with a haunting prologue taking place roughly twenty years ago somewhere in one of the exotic jungles close to Burma. Two men, one who also has his young boy in tow, are trudging through the bush desperately trying to escape from something that has them spooked. The trio eventually reaches the outskirts of the forest, and once the boy's father has escorted his son to safety, he turns around and dashes back into the trees. The other man runs in after him, and not wanting to be left alone, so does the boy. By the time the boy finds them, though, he witnesses a tragic scene of horror. Standing over his father's lifeless body is the other man, now holding a set of peculiar artifacts with a "this isn't what it looks like" expression on his face. If you're a bit confused, so was I at first to be perfectly honest. The key things here to remember are the boy, the strange sense of foreboding brought on by the jungle, and the ancient artifacts that are of significant importance to the story.

Flashing forward to the present, an urban gunfight erupts between law enforcement officials and a small group of thieves, murderers, and other vile criminals that have recently busted out of prison. Most of the convicts disappear without a trace, except for one that ends up wounded in the crossfire. Captain Wut (Andy Tungkaprasert), the rookie commander of the police task force, interrogates the prisoner to learn that their goal is to secure their freedom by crossing over into Myanmar. Wut and his team track the lowlifes down to a small village near the Payamek Mountains.

It turns out that that the young boy from the beginning of the movie grew up to be the leader of the escaped convicts named Naso (Chalad Na Songkhla). It also turns out that a monk living in the village is a link that somehow connects the lives of Naso with Wut. In their own way, both men are fueled by revenge, with Naso being put on the darker path from what happened to his father and Wut wants nothing more than to bring these evildoers to justice.

Naso and his crew trail off into the jungle, and the police continue after them, unaware that there is a terrible curse on the place. This is where things really pick up as we see the jungle come alive with a host of mythical creatures that became terrifying legends to the locals. There's a killer colony of tiger wasps, but don't bother with the epi-pen as they'll just shred meat from bone within an instant. Fruit tree maidens sing under the moonlight to seduce men into having sex with them, only the catch is that they use intercourse as a means to literally suck the life out of their horny victims. Then there are swarms of man-eating gecko-gators, a giant serpent, and a few other nasty surprises.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [Digibook Edition]

"One flew East, one flew West,
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest."

"Five Easy Pieces," "Carnal Knowledge," "The Last Detail," and "Chinatown" had already made Jack Nicholson a star. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" made him a superstar. Now, to do justice to a genuine masterpiece, Warner Bros. make the movie available in a new, high-definition, Blu-ray Digibook edition. While it's true that neither the picture quality nor the sound shows a lot of improvement in the new format, we can be thankful for even a minor upgrade to such an esteemed product.

The easy interpretation of Ken Kesey's popular 1962 counterculture novel, upon which producers later based the stage play and the Oscar-winning movie, is to say that only crazies are able to see the world clearly. However, the book's protagonist, Randall Patrick McMurphy, is not crazy. Like Paul Newman's "Cool Hand Luke," McMurphy is an emblem of determined individualism in a world of conformity, a symbol of people's capacity to overcome odds and accomplish whatever goals they set for themselves no matter the circumstances. McMurphy shows people how to stand up for themselves and be themselves, and the story in its various guises has been an inspiration for several generations of dedicated fans.

Michael Douglas brought "Cuckoo's Nest" to the screen in 1975 after a long and inexplicably arduous battle to get it made. Douglas's father, Kirk, obtained the rights to the novel in the early 1960s and starred in a stage adaptation by Dale Wasserman, but the actor could never get a studio interested in producing it. His son took over trying to get it to the screen in the early 1970s, finally succeeding (by which time his father had grown too old, or too obstreperous, for the main role). Even given that Wasserman's play was initially altered considerably by Douglas and that the eventual screenplay gutted Kesey's novel of its point of view, changing it from Chief Bromden's to McMurphy's, the movie's history is remarkably saddening when you consider the sheer quantity of junk that finds its way into motion-picture theaters every year. I mean, Kesey's story should have been a natural for the rebellious nature of young moviegoers in the '60s and early '70s, but Hollywood must have thought a nuthouse setting was too far outside the norm for its mainstream audiences. It makes you wonder if Hollywood itself isn't being run by the inmates of the asylum.

Anyway, the younger Douglas found his financing in Saul Zaentz, the head of Fantasy Records in Berkeley, CA. Together, Douglas and Zaentz spotted their director in Milos Forman, the Czechoslovakian filmmaker whose "Fireman's Ball" caught their attention for its sharp-edged humor. Zaentz and Forman would collaborate again on "Amadeus" a few years later and share their second Academy Award for Best Picture.

The main character in "Cuckoo's Nest" is R.P. McMurphy, a boisterous, initially self-absorbed roustabout serving time for antisocial behavior, fighting, and statutory rape. But it occurs to McMurphy that he might be able to get out of doing hard labor by pretending to be crazy and being sent to a relatively cushy mental institution for "observation and evaluation." The movie, set in 1963, begins with his admittance to the hospital and moves on through his experiences with the patients there and his eventual endeavors to get them to help themselves.

His nemesis at the hospital is the hard-nosed, self-assured Nurse Mildred Ratched. She's the authority figure, more important than the head of the institution because she directly controls the conduct and activity of the patients on her floor. And that includes McMurphy, who finds her exacting regime demeaning, depriving the men on her ward of their very souls. The plot becomes a battle of wills between the tyrannical Big Nurse and the free-spirited McMurphy, with McMurphy betting the other patients that he can eventually get under her skin and make her lose her cool.

From the outset the filmmakers agreed they wanted only the best possible actors for the movie's characters, rather than big-name stars. Director Forman says on the disc's accompanying documentary that he always wanted Jack Nicholson for the character of McMurphy, the actor having impressed him after he saw his energetic performance in "The Last Detail." The filmmakers also discussed the possibility of Gene Hackman as McMurphy, Hackman having recently made an impression in "The French Connection." In any case, Nicholson, initially unavailable, got the job, and he proved the perfect combination of extroverted rabble rouser, con artist, and sympathetic motivator the movie needed. Likewise, the filmmakers made an inspired decision to use Louise Fletcher as the frigid Nurse Ratched. Like Nicholson, she was not the only choice for the part, but she brings to the role an icy calm that makes her presence all the more threatening and her evil all the more insidious.

Also from the beginning director Forman wanted actors who looked as distinctly different from one another as possible. He has said he doesn't like to watch movies where an actor enters the story, goes away for a while, and when he returns you've forgotten who he is. Consequently, for supporting roles Forman chose relatively unknown actors with unusual physical makeups, most of whom we now know well. There's Danny DeVito as Martini, Sydney Lassick as Cheswick, Christopher Lloyd as Taber, Vincent Schiavelli as Fredrickson, and in pivotal roles William Redfield as Harding and Brad Dourif as Billy Bibbit. Finally, Scatman Crothers plays the night orderly, Turkle, and Will Sampson plays the huge Native American, Chief Bromden. In the novel, the Chief narrated the story, but the movie relegates him to a lesser job, that of trusted friend to McMurphy, a change that infuriated the book's author, Ken Kesey.

For the sake of authenticity, the filmmakers chose to shoot the entire movie on location in a real mental institution, the Oregon State Hospital being the only one they could find that would allow them the privilege. For an added note of authenticity, Dr. Dean R. Brooks, the head of the real hospital, plays Dr. John Spivey, the head of the fictional one. Furthermore, the filmmakers insisted that all the actors spend as much time as possible with the real patients at the institution, and that they try to remain in character even away from the camera. Obviously, the hard work and dedication paid off.

The book, the play, and the movie have all been accused over the years of misogyny, a hatred of or disrespect for women, which seems a little unfair. The story focuses on a group of men living together under trying circumstances, so we might expect for all practical purposes that they would often refer to women as sexual objects. And most films center on a male as the bad guy, so it only seems equitable that an occasional film like this one use a female as the antagonist. Besides, there are still more female nurses in the world, and symbolically the female authority figure is a convenient representation of the matriarch against whom the boys rebel.

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