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The
Omega Man
1971 (2003) - Warner Bros.
Matthias: "One creature, caught. Caught in a place he cannot
stir from in the dark, alone, outnumbered hundreds to one, nothing
to live for but his memories, nothing to live with but his gadgets,
his cars, his guns, gimmicks... and yet the whole family can't bring
him down from that, that..."
Zachary: "Honky paradise, brother?"
Matthias: "Forget the old ways, brother, all the old hatreds."
I'm a big fan of Richard Matheson's I Am
Legend. Brilliant book. I'm not a big fan of the film
adaptations thus far. The Omega Man
is a very fast and loose adaptation, focusing on the last man on
Earth aspect more than the why or philosophical climax of what it
all means to be first at something and then find yourself the last
at that same thing. Omega Man
falls more in the classification of so-called "blaxpoitation",
which is slightly unfair, but obvious nonetheless. If you keep from
lending any true social/cultural significance to it,
Omega Man is a fun little
flick.
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In
the near future, a bio-weapon wipes out most of the Earth, leaving
the "survivors" stricken with a mysterious disease that
kills them and brings them back as albino zombies. Chuck Heston
plays Dr. Robert Neville - aka "the last man on Earth" - a
scientist who helped develop the disease. Because of a serum he took
before the "attack," he is immune to this disease. Now
that he is the last living man on Earth, Neville spends his days
hunting the dead down as he looks for supplies, and his nights
hiding from them in his compound. That is his life, at least until
he stumbles onto a small cache of living humans who reawaken his
urge to develop a cure and re-start society. Of course, the dead
like their new life and will do anything to stop him.
What's fun about this film is the fact that the world as we know it
ends in the early 70s. The flared clothes are fun. The huge afros on
the undead are a nice touch. Even the fact that the last film Heston
has access to for the rest of his life is Woodstock,
which he knows word-for-word, is cute. Actually, that last part is
just sad. But everything else is a lot of fun. The
Omega Man is certainly not a great film, but it's a good
enough film and a DVD we've waited a long time for.
Warner's treatment of The Omega Man
is pretty damn good. They cleaned it up real nice and present it in
a nice anamorphic widescreen with good color representation and
solid blacks. The audio is in standard Dolby Digital mono, and
sounds good in its original format. There are no pops, hisses or any
distractions of any sort.
The extras are good as well. We get an introduction to the film
from actor-turned-director Eric "Richie" Laneuville, as
well as actor Paul "Butch" Koslo and screenwriter Joyce
Corrington. It's less an intro and more a very short interview
featurette, with short talking head stuff and clips. There's also an
archival documentary entitled The Last
Man Alive: The Omega Man where Chuck discusses the film
and his character with anthropologist Dr. Ashley Montagu, between
behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the film. It's a very well
done featurette, better than most you will find for older films like
this. There's also an essay on Heston and his sci-fi films, a
trailer and a non-interactive cast and crew index.
Doogan Says:
The Omega Man is a nice slice
of dated sci-fi. It's not a good adaptation of the classic novel,
but it tries to be its own thing so it gets points from me. The
production design is what really lifts it up where it belongs, which
is in the hearts of film fans everywhere. Check it out if you
haven't already.B
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Day
of the Dead
1985 (2003) - Anchor Bay
"People today, looking back on the three zombie films... I
think that there are really split camps. There are some people that
you can't get 'em away from the first film, you know, that's their
love. And there are some people that just sort of celebrate and
party with Dawn of the Dead.
It's sort of the wildest of the three. It was also the most popular.
And then there are the trolls, you know, who like Day
of the Dead." - George A. Romero
More and more, as time goes by and with countless repeated
viewings, Day of the Dead has
shown itself to be the very best Dead
movie of Romero's career. Night of the
Living Dead was the classic, a pinnacle title for horror
fans everywhere. And Dawn of the Dead
is the hands down fan favorite, no doubt about that. But in terms of
pace, storytelling and filmmaking talent, Day
is the film to look at. The acting is much better than the other
two, Tom Savini's effects are much more realistic and sophisticated
and, because of it's limited environment, the film hasn't aged much
at all. This could have been filmed today. But when it first came
out, fans turned their backs on Day of
the Dead. We all read the epic script and we were
expecting a glorious film. Thanks to money constraints, that glory
became a whimper as far as we were concerned. But I think we were
wrong. And hopefully this new DVD will give us all a chance to look
at this film differently.
Day of the Dead occurs
underground, in a limestone mine where a scientific team and a
military group have set up shop to research their situation. But
some time has passed since they set-up shop and, slowly but surely,
it's Lord of the Flies time.
Without a real leader, the military group has splintered away from
the medical research team and big problems have arisen. Stress has
caused most of the occupants in the mines to loose whatever grasp on
reality they ever had. Tensions are high as the new military leader
chooses pointing guns at heads over talking situations through. What
we witness is the last 4 or 5 days of this little camp. And it isn't
pretty.
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Day is a slow burning pot, but
when it gets to boiling it's mmm-mmm good. As stated about, Romero
has crafted a glorious story. Forced to rethink his original script,
he ended up making choices that served the story and made it more
internal. Does it kick Dawn's
frenetic style? No, but it becomes better for it. I started liking
Day over the other two about
eight or so years ago ,when I was researching a magazine article
about zombie movies. I found that if I tossed my fan boy allegiance
to Dawn, Day
easily emerges as the better film.
This two-disc set of Day
helps bring the film up to that other level. It's one of Anchor
Bay's new "Divimax" titles, so expect a luscious
anamorphic widescreen transfer with nice muted colors in the caves,
minimal but appropriate grain and solid blacks. It's presented with
three soundtracks: Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby 5.1 EX and, best of all,
a rich and full DTS 6.1 ES track. Now there's been some bubbles
popping up here and there about the "wrong" soundtrack
being used, and something about a few looped sound bits that don't
belong, but of the three times I watched the film in the last couple
of days, I didn't notice anything "wrong." So do with that
info what you will.
The extras are vast and very fun. First up are two commentary
tracks. Filmmaker Roger Avery discusses Day
from a fan's point of view and does a great job of it. This is the
type of track you would have found on a laserdisc, less these days
on DVD. It's a nice change of pace. The other track is a filmmaker
commentary with Romero, Savini, actress Lori Cardille and production
designer Cletus Anderson. This a great track as well, but it's much
more laid back and casual, something pretty common with Romero
tracks on DVD. He doesn't get all worked up, just leans back and
talks, which is nice because he's fun to listen to.
Those tracks are on Disc One. Disc Two is packed with additional
extras, starting with two documentaries. The
Many Days of Day of the Dead is filled with nice, current
interviews from the cast and crew, as they talk about the making of
the film and its place in film history. Day
of the Dead: Behind the Scenes, features archival video
footage, starting with the folks in Savini's workshop torturing
unsuspecting people with zombie appliances and spirit gum, and
heading into "making of" fare on the set focusing on the
more fascinating gore effects. Next, there's some promotional
footage from the Gateway Commerce Center
(the limestone mine the film was shot in) just to give you an idea
of what the location looks like when it's not filled with zombies.
There's also an audio interview with Dr. Logan (aka Richard
Liberty), three trailers, three TV spots, Romero's bio and, on
DVD-ROM, the legendary first draft of the script. Anchor Bay really
did us proud with this one.
Hopefully the Bay's upcoming Dawn of the
Dead set will either match the level of greatness seen
with this DVD or kick it's ass. Either way, I can't wait to see what
they have planned. For now though, I'm going to pop this one in my
player and watch it one more time. Go zombies!
Doogan Says:
Day of the Dead rocks as a
flick and rocks as a DVD. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up
now. A+
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