And speaking of Steve Carell, I caught up with THE OFFICE (Universal, 2005, $29.95, Tuesday, August 16, 2005), and, though I love the British version (everybody does), I have to say that I got into the Americanized version. Enough that I hope it comes back for a few more seasons.

I agree with most of the criticisms of the show: they should not have filmed the original scripts (though they did change a lot of it). The show definitely needs a dose of observed office life. And at first I didn't like Carell. He seemed like an overcooked sausage ready to burst. But as I watch all six together it grew on me. For one thing, Carell's boss is meaner, more selfish, more vain and the fact that he views himself as a student of comedy rings true.

The supporting cast is excellent and in many cases I like them better than their British equivalents. Rainn Wilson as Dwight, the suck up, is very much like some people I've known, a heavy, nerdy, gun nut fascist, super conscious of laws and orders and his own personal space. God, I've known so many people like him, and Wilson gets him. Jenna Fischer as the receptionist is heartbreaking, and Lord, the legs on Melora Hardin, as Jan, the supervisor.

Universal's disc is packed, somewhat justifying the high price for six half hour shows. The widescreen transfers (1.78:1, enhanced) are excellent and the sound (DD 2.0) is excellent. There are also English and Spanish subtitles.

The bulk of the disc is the six eps, three of which have yak tracks (the pilot gets two). The shows and tracks are the untitled pilot (with yakking from Steve Carell, actors John Krasinski and Rainn Wilson, and writer-actor BJ Novak, plus a second one with Krasinski, Wilson, Jenna Fischer, Novak, executive producer Greg Daniels and director Ken Kwapis); "Diversity Day" (with Carell, Krasinski, Wilson, Novak and Daniels); "Health Care"; "The Alliance" (with Krasinski, Wilson, Fischer, Novak, Daniels, consulting producer Larry Wilmore, and Paul Lieberstein, Mindy Kaling, and Michael Schur); "Basketball" (with Carell, Krasinski, Wilson, Novak and Daniels); and "Hot Girl." In the commentaries the actors address exactly the issues you'd expect them to, the ones on everyone's mind, but they do so with aplomb, and it is interesting to hear how the show was shot, which is unlike most programs. Some of the photographers were SURVIVOR vets and had a knack for creeping up on you unexpectedly. And there was a lot more improvisation than you'd think. The cast is especially thrilled over Carell's mispronunciation of the word "incalculable." And it is a brilliant moment. In addition there are deleted scenes for all six episodes, with a play all option.

And it is turning into an all Apatow month as the release of VIRGIN is followed hard upon by the special box set of UNDECLARED (Shout! Factory, 2001-2002, four discs, $49.98, Tuesday, August 23, 2005), the short-lived series he created after FREAKS AND GEEKS.

UNDECLARED is essentially what its promoters announce it to be: FREAKS AND GEEKS goes to college. It aired on Fox in the 2001-2002 season and was cancelled after its 16th episode. The first near-season follows the adventures of Steven Karp (Jay Baruchel), who has entered an obscure northern California college and confronts life with some challenging dorm mates and the unrestrained opportunities for sex. When I was a kid the elders of my village viewed college as the devil's work, that all it taught was drinking, sex, and atheism. Of course, this view made college even more attractive. Steven finds it to be the same today as back in the olden days. The first night on campus he has sex, and henceforth tries to forge a relationship with the girl (Carla Gallo), who also happens to live across the hall.

What's amazing about these few episodes is that Apatow and the writers are able to wring numerous variations on college life. There is a visit by Adam Sandler (an Apatow buddy). Steven briefly turns to Christ. An evil frat president makes their lives hell. Even more ideas were lined up for the second season.

Unfortunately, the series was to debut in mid-September. But Fox went 24-hour news after the 911 attacks, and in fact for a while, Apatow says, he lost his appetite for the show. But he soldiered on, and fans of F&G will be pleased to see some of the same cast members (in different guises) pop up here (as they also do in VIRGIN). It's a very funny show and should have gone on.

With typical enthusiasm, Shout! Factory has provided a fantastic set to commemorate the series. Every episode has a commentary track. There are deleted scenes. There is audition and rehearsal footage. There is a whole concert by Loudon Wainwright, who plays Steven's divorcing dad in the show. There is even an unshot script for an episode in the second season. The most heartbreaking extra is an hour long panel discussion at the broadcasting museum which begins with Apatow making jokes about cancellation, little knowing that the reality was right around the corner. Finally there is a 28-page booklet with intros by Apatow and Baruchel, and cast and crew and info on each episode.

The fan is going to come away from this set knowing far more about UNDECLARED than they thought possible, and with all the deleted footage each show is more like 35 minutes long, It's a treasure trove for devotees of the series and for those increasingly among us who are beginning to view Apatow as a god among filmmakers.

The short-lived series LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (Touchstone, 2004, three discs, $39.95, Tuesday, August 23, 2005) contained references to teen drinking, teen sex, reckless driving, lying to parents, masturbation, horniness, losing virginity, teen drinking, and sexual relations between a teacher and a high school sophomore.

It was also a Disney show, airing on ABC starting in October of 2004 for its short life. Yet it doesn't appear in James Stewart's THE DISNEY WARS. You'd think that, given its licentious nature that the Disney board would be outraged over a program that sullied in every way imaginable the "purity" of the Disney line. But then, so much else was going on at the time maybe LIFE escaped noticed (on the other hand, it was cancelled.

From the producers, as they say, of FREAKS AND GEEKS, LIFE takes several lewd steps forward in frankness and sexual obsession. The series concerns three Seattle high school friends who are all eager to lose their virginity.

The main kid is Dino Whitman (Sean Faris), a Tom Cruise look-alike who is the rake of the bunch but who has not yet exploited his easy access to women. He is in love with Jackie Bradford (Missy Peregrym), the school's popular girljock, but the writers contrive to have they break up over a misunderstanding for the majority of the episodes. Second is Ben Conner (Jon Foster), the "intellectual" of the bunch, who is the first to pop his cherry, but with his sophomore class English teacher (Marguerite Moreau). This is the most "shocking" aspect of the show, that it presented as a major story arc a precocious student's slow sexual involvement with a flirty self-destructive teacher. Having sex on every desk or in every closet on the campus, the couple embraces high comedy as they seek to hide their affair, but the writers couldn't sustain the comedy, or were responding to protests, because the story arc was abruptly terminated well before the end of the series.

The third friend is Jonathan Fields (Chris Lowell), who is the butt of the other two, and is the class nerd. He is so insignificant that mention of him is left off the DVD box. But he and his girlfriend are why the show failed, in my interpretation. But more about that in a second.

Besides its sexual obsession, the show was modestly innovative in having the three main characters turn to the camera and reveal their secret thoughts. I'm sure that this was the selling point to the ABC executives. But like most originating premises, such as SEINFELD's stand up bits shown to be "inspired" by real life, the confessional scenes diminished as the show went along, even in its first aborted season.

Though made by the FREAKS AND GEEKS producers, the show does not enjoy the participation of Judd Apatow. Thus it ends up being more about the cool guys in school and less about the geeks. There is one minor story thread about a geek kid trying to befriend Dino, but since the show was cancelled we don't know where that one was going. Also, though, and F&G the show was just as much if not more so about the parents. Dino's parents break up, causing him much distress, and Ben's parent's reaction to the news of his sexual proclivities are amusing even as they defy reality.

In formula, LIFE AS WE KNOW IT should have been a hit (surprisingly, it was based on a British novel, DOING IT, by Melvin Burgess. It pushed the "envelope" of what a teen show could present; it had a little bit for everyone, parents, jocks, nerds. It had sex. It had a host of pop tunes. But it flopped. Why? I can offer two reasons.

Kelly. Osbourne.

Yes, we live in a society in which anyone can be a star, no matter how atrocious your taste in attire, no matter how ugly your hairdo, no matter how fake your accent, nor no matter how talentless and visually offensive you are. The daughter of an incomprehensible rock star, Osbourne sprang to fame thanks to a reality TV show about her family. Otherwise she simply could not have got in the door to this program. Or could she? Our culture is becoming so ugly, so appalling, that it seems more likely that she could have been hired simply for her "street cred" though it is hard to imagine a child of privilege having knowledge of real life.

Though she is presumably English, her accent sounds faked, as if she were consciously trying to hold on to her heritage because it's cooler (there is a line of dialogue in an episode that seeks to explain away her mother's lack of an accent). She doesn't say, "I can't believe you, " she says, I kant believe you." It sounds affected, like a valley girl accent. She has this iron jawed underbite, and a lisp. It's rather ridiculous to hear on the audio commentary tracks the cast and crew and execs bending over backwards to praise Osbourne as a great addition to the show, with her I can't have been the only one repelled by Osbourne. Excuse me, I kant have been.

What's worse is that in a movie like MEAN GIRLS she would have been the crypto-lesbian fag hag hanging out with the official gay character. Here, she is the girlfriend of the character who is essentially the gay character but who is presented as just as straight and horny and busy in the sack as his two pals. Her unrelenting ugliness and the disconnect between what the scenes with the two characters show and appear to really be about and what they convey is probably more likely the cause of the show's demise than the explicit sexuality which, after all, was flooding the airwaves on every other channel and in nearly every other show. Osbourne's presence in this show is like a big scratch down the center of the DVD and it wasn't long before I was fast-forwarding through all her scenes just to escape that face and voice.

This Touchstone (Disney) release has all the originally aired eps, plus two that didn't make it. All the transfers are fine, with good sound. The first of the three discs has the first four episodes (the pilot, a show called "Pilot Junior," then "The Best Laid Plans" and "Partly Cloudy, Chance of Sex" with a play all option). There are crowded commentaries on the first and last of these. In addition there are five deleted scenes and a short gag reel. There are captions, a "register your DVD" scam, and trailers for THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, HERBIE FULLY LOADED, LOST, BOY MEETS WORLD, THE GILMORE GIRLS.

The episodes on the second disc are "Secrets and Lies," "Natural Disasters" (with yak track), "With a Kiss, I Die," "Family Hard-Ships" (with yak track), and "A Little Problem." Disc three offers "Breaking Away" and "You Must be Trippin'" (with yak track), and the two unaired shows, "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Junk" (with yak track), and "Papa Wheelie." In addition there is a photo gallery.

The British gangster film won't take no for an answer. The American appetite for such films appears to have lessened dramatically since SNATCH, but they keep on coming, probably thanks to high powered producers who like the genre, actors who dig playing tough guys, and lottery money. LAYER CAKE (Sony Pictures Classics, 2004, $26.95, Tuesday, August 23, 2005) is the latest, and its pedigree is high, being directed by Matthew Vaughn, the producer of Guy Ritchie's films. Like Ritchie, Vaughn ended up marrying a high profile blonde, in his case one-time Valkyrie sized model Claudia Schiffer.

Based on a novel, LAYER CAKE tells of a few days in the life of an unnamed cocaine dealer (Daniel Craig) who is summoned to sort out some difficulties between some original gangsters higher up in the "layer cake" of crime society. I have to say I wasn't always clear on what was going on, but then I was only able to view the film twice, once with the commentary track. It's visually distinctive, like a Ritchie film, and you being to wonder where Ritchie's dynamic visual style really came from. Unfortunately, it has a ending that cast and crew were adamant about including, and in my view it is arbitrary, predictable, and coarse. But more about that in a second.

Speaking of statuesque blondes, Sienna Miller has a small part in the film, just as she was on the brink of tabloid fame. But the film is rife with great actors, including Michael Gambon, the capo di tutti capi.

The widescreen presentation is excellent (2.40:1, enhanced) and the DD 5.1 is good (there is also a DD 2.0 track in French, and English, Chinese, French, Korean, Thai subtitles).

Supplements kick off with a commentary by Vaughn and the scriptwriter, J. J. Connolly, adapting his book. I have to say that Vaughn doesn't come across as a very nice guy. He seems to show a certain amount of contempt for his writer. But it appears that to be a producer, one must be aggressive and intolerant. There are 14 deleted scenes, with optional director commentary, and a couple of alternative endings, one with Craig surviving, and the other with his death only implied. That he has to die at all strikes me as both untrue to life and imposed on the material. In a reversal of old style studio habit, the studio wanted the bad guy to get away with it, and the filmmakers wanted him to pay for his sins.

There are also two storyboard comparisons, a post screening Q&A session with Vaughn and Craig, in which I fear that Vaughn continues to come off as unpleasant. There is a brief making of, and a poster gallery, which finds the designers struggling to insert images of Miller in her undies. Finally, there are trailers for DAVE CHAPPELLE: FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, KUNG FU HUSTLE and SNATCH — but not for LAYER CAKE, even though the trailer is one of the most interesting aspects of its production history. For being a relatively unsuccessful film here, Sony has loaded the disc with supplements. The musical, animated menu offers 19-chapter scene selection. It also comes in a pan and scan version, as well as in a package with SNATCH, and finally in UMD.

The appearance of two of Peter Weir's most successful American films in special editions is cause for contemplation of his identity as a filmmaker.

WITNESS (Paramount, 1985, $19.95, Tuesday, August 23, 2005) is, like, the original "fish out of water" story, with Harrison Ford's John Book ending up hiding out in an Amish community. This wasn't the first fish out of water movie but its success led to scores of imitators, the most ridiculous having Melanie Griffith in A STRANGE AMONG US going undercover in a Hasidic society. But Weir is drawn to tales of closed societies. But here, as in MOSQUITO COAST, DEAD POETS SOCIETY, and of course THE TRUMAN SHOW, Weir is truly interested in closed societies and how interlopers deal with their values.

At the time, WITNESS was deemed a thorough Reaganite film, one pining for simpler times when the ways of people were uncomplicated. The movie is not uncritical of the Amish, however, and yet also the one moment of Stallone-esque revenge violence actually has bad consequences for Book, since it leads to his discovery by the bad guys he is in hiding from. This may have been the ultimate extraneous final shoot out scene, also, and from the sounds of it in the making of material, no one could ever figure out how to end the thing. What always puzzles me, however, is why bad guys stick around to shoot? Why aren't just dropping their guns and going, "I'm outta here," and shown taking the next plane to Mexico? I had a similar problem with the end of the INSOMNIA remake. Why does he keep shooting? Once he has been identified as the killer, it's over. He should run, not stay to fight. Same here.

In any case, WITNESS remains a good movie. It has a great "reveal" of the villain at the start of the film; the dance scene is still cool (I still get teary eyed at it and I don't even like these people). And Ford the former professional carpenter is allowed to do some wood work. Ford, as in other films of the time, is always denying himself to women (in movies anyway) like some crazier version of Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper.

Paramount has issued a new special edition of the film, but the transfer is as muddy and brown as the earlier one, and I am not entirely confident that it is a new transfer, which is especially sad since in the supplements DP John Seale is focused upon for his good work on the film.

On the other hand, the supplements are quite good, here as also on the TRUMAN SHOW disc. The making of here is long and detailed and basically answers all the questions one might have. I especially like the fact that Seale is given a prominent platform and his remarks are highly informative. The making of comes in five parts, and has a play all option. There is also a very good deleted scene (apparently included in the TV broadcast) that sets up something that happens a little later in the film and expands the character of Book's sister. There are also three TV spots, the theatrical trailer, and three commercials for other Paramount product.

I had something akin to a religious experience of another order while watching THE TRUMAN SHOW: SPECIAL EDITION (Paramount, 1998, $19.95, Tuesday, August 23, 2005). It really is a great film, and I was struck by its interesting narrative structure. There are so many ways that one could approach this premise and yet the one the filmmakers settled on really works.

But the film has a problem. Jim Carrey. I happen to revere Carrey, but most of my critic friends despise him. I've never read a good reason why. One local critic, I recall, cast his review in a form of attack on TRUMAN for being a religious allegory, pointing out that Christof was the "god" on high, and Truman the True Man (a pre-Neo?). This was all clever stuff, but the reviewer was presenting the ideas as if they proved that the movie stank. And it was all because this reviewer loathed Carrey (but then this reviewer, of troglodyte mien, went on record nearly every week with his loathing of good looking movie stars, from Cruise to Pitt).

TRUMAN has gained in political importance since its release in 1998, not only because of the advent of "reality TV" (that paradoxical phrase) but also because of the advances in societal spying (though they seemed to have failed in London, recently). TRUMAN is a beautiful movie that perfectly balances politics, social comment, a love story, and a fish out of water who doesn't even know he is in the bowl. The supplements on this disc are just as good as on WITNESS, with the addition of more material on the special effects.

A pair of discs that coincidentally celebrate the skills of great British actors appear in geosynchronous orbit. One is DOCTOR FAUSTUS (Columbia, 1968, $24.96, Tuesday, March 2, 2004), followed by THE RED TENT (Paramount, 1969, $14.95, Tuesday, August 23, 2005).

The first is an anomaly; the only film directed by Richard Burton, in which he stars in an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's play, utilizing actors from Oxford University, Burton's own college. It is quite possibly the most boring movie every made; most certainly the most boring film Burton ever made, which is saying a lot. And as his solo helmer flight, nor does it attain the heights of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Charles Laughton's only film as a director. The film attracted some small bit of misdirected attention because of the "scandal" surrounding Burton and his wife Elizabeth Taylor, whom he casts in a virtually wordless part as the equivalent character that Raquel Welch played in BEDAZZLED.

This is all very sad, because Burton's voice is a natural theatrical instrument. More and more I come to believe that actors are born not made, that some people just have the right jaws and tongues and teeth and propensity for sounding convincing and being able to understand what they read and convey it out loud. At least that is what I think when I take up the odd Shakespeare play for a few minutes of reading out loud, or follow along the subtitles of a movie I like, as if I were a teen lip-syncing to a pop tune. Burton definitely merits a revival; I think he is greater than Olivier, greater than all of them. But they would have to leave out DOCTOR FAUSTUS.

The then Columbia's disc comes in a fine transfer for a film that aspires to the look of one of Corman's Poe films. It has a silent, static menu with 28-chapter scene selection and subtitles in English, French, and Korean. Supplements consist of the trailers for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, which also stars Taylor, and THE EDDY DUCHIN STORY.

THE RED TENT is equally tedious (I still don't know what the title means). It's the story of Umberto Nobile, who, in 1928, attempted to conquer the North Pole via a dirigible (he'd already flown over it once). Naturally it crashed, and when the conqueror of the South Pole, Roald Amundsen, went up to fetch him, he vanished in the effort and presumably died. Eventually, Nobile was rescued, and as the movie opens Nobile (Peter Finch) is watching a documentary about himself on television, presumably on the Roman 1968 version of the History Channel. Unable to sleep, he rises and invites the ghosts of those who died to come and debate with him again the errors of his ways, like the world thinkers from the past who used to gather around Steve Allen on his PBS show.

Finch enacts his part as if he were pinching a loaf. His face is all steely stern but apparently that is the only expression he has. He seems utterly uninterested in anyone and anything going on around him, which I don't think is his interpretation of the part. Sean Connery also appears, briefly, as Amundsen, and Claudia Cardinale is irrelevant as a love interest.

Paramount's transfer is adequate. The English DD 5.1 Surround attempts to do justice to Ennio Morricone's score, which is the only reason to buy this disc (there is also English 2.0 Surround). There are also English subtitles, and the silent, static menu offers 16-chapter scene selection.

Letters

From Pavan S. Shamdasani:

"In regard to Alfred Ramirez's comments on SIN CITY in your latest article, I have to admit that I completely agree with everything he stated. I read the three SIN CITY stories around five years ago, loving every glorious panel of them and was anxiously awaiting the release of the movie only to be rather disappointed at the final product. But I think the problem seems to stem, not from the actual material itself which, is quite brilliant, but from Robert Rodriguez. I have to admit that he's a great one-man show, being able to edit, score, write, produce, and direct movies, but it's in the very latter that he fails. It's why ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO failed, why the SPY KIDS movies were awful, why he messed up Tarantino's script for FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, why THE FACULTY was just another teen movie. And, as Mr. Ramirez mentioned, Tarantino's scene only proved that with a worthy director, Frank Miller's books can be faithfully and cinematically adapted to the screen. It also must've been Rodriguez choice to cast someone as stereotyped as Bruce Willis into the role of retired cop Hartigan — who, I might add, is in his late 60's in the original graphic novel. While someone like Tarantino pulled a great performance out of the actor in PULP FICTION, Rodriguez seems to have just told him to do his old DIE HARD role. It seems to me that Rodriguez is respected as a director for only two reasons: 1), that he's a one-man show who can shoot a film quick and on the cheap, and 2), he's saved from producing absolute crap from his actor buddies and Quentin Tarantino (Banderas in DESPERADO, Johnny Depp in MEXICO, Mickey Rourke in SIN CITY). In that regard, I'm quite interested in seeing Tarantino and Rodriguez' latest joint venture GRIND HOUSE if only finally to prove that Rodriguez is nothing more than a talent leech. And thank god A DAME TO KILL FOR (the source material for SIN CITY 2) doesn't include any appearances by Hartigan."

And incidentally, if you are interested in KILL BILL, you might find my new book, KILL BILL: AN UNOFFICIAL CASEBOOK useful. It is now available in fine bookstores everywhere, or from Amazon.

Not only that, I've got a new book coming out in October (fingers crossed) on an aspect of film noir I call film soleil, titled simply FILM SOLEIL. It is sure to alter film criticism as we know it to its very core. Order it now!

And if you are interested in what I sound like, I can be heard on KBOO radio (90.7 FM) the second and the fourth Wednesday of the month, at 9 AM in the morning (Pacific Standard Time) on Ed Goldberg's show MOVIE TALK along with Dawn Taylor. It's available via streaming audio (in 20 Kbps Stereo). The next broadcast is Wednesday, August 24th, at 9 AM.

COMING SOON:RED EYE, MY SUMMER OF LOVE, REMINGTON STEEL and other TV mystery shows, many STAR TREKS, and more!

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