It’s no secret that everyone here at ScreenGeeks absolutely adores the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In.  We even devoted an episode to this gem of a film.  I was absolutely psyched to see it at WalMart for $15 on DVD.  I haven’t picked it up yet, and it looks like that’s a good thing.

Icons Of Fright just recently posted that the subtitles for the US DVD release of Let the Right One In are significantly different from what was seen in the theatrical cut.  Specifically, the subtitles are dumbed down to the point that humor and depth was lost so people with a low IQ can keep up with the film.  Seeing some of the changes, it’s entirely appropriate that many around the web are calling these “Twilight subtitles”.  The move has been dumbed down just for people who actually thought that Twilight was an insightful movie and a unique take on the vampire genre.  Essentially, the theatrical cut is Robert De Niro in Awakenings when the chemicals work, and the DVD cut is De Niro in his catatonic state.

Yesterday, Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits did a little more digging and found out more news that is equally satisfying and frustrating.  DVD distributor Magnet had heard the film geek outcry and will be releasing the DVD with the theatrical subtitles intact.  You’ll be able to tell as on the back of the case, the subtitles will be labeled “English (Theatrical)”.

I’m sure that those who bought the crappy version are wondering how to go about exchanging for the version that should have been release in the first place.  Well, this is where the frustrating part comes into play.  To quote Magnet in the Digital Bits column, “There are no exchanges”.  Yeah, thanks for nothing, tools.  Essentially, Magnet has screwed over the people who wanted to support this movie from the beginning to show that there’s an audience for this kind of intelligent film in the US.  They’re saying that you need to buy it again.  Oh, and the subtitle issue is on the BluRay version, too.

Seeing the niche films that Magnet releases, this just doesn’t make sense.  Why in the world would you ever want to enrage your customer base?  At this point, I really think that people who bought the original release should wait until a good rip is made available with the correct subtitles at various BitTorrent sites, and just download it that way.  Those of you who purchased this dvd in good faith that this would be what was released are being milked.  There’s no reason to give these jokers another dime of your money.

Should you have purchased the dvd and want to share your displeasure with this situation, you can e-mail them at dvd@magpictures.com.

This week, we tackle Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve.  If romantic comedies would turn out like this today, they would be taken seriously as films.  This film is available in two editions that we can recommend.  First, there’s the obligatory Criterion edition that packed with extras.  Secondly, this is available as part of the Preston Sturges Filmmaker Collection.  There are no extras to be had, but you can get 7 films (including Sullivan’s Travels) for $47 shipped.  Actual notes will appear after the jump.

 

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It’s with great sadness that I write this, a brief mention that Natasha Richardson, a wonderful actress of film and and stage, the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and wife of Liam Neeson, died on Wednesday. As a stage actress, her work was astonishing, and she arguably received the most acclaim from her work on the London and New York theater scene. As a film actress, she is probably and sadly best known to American audiences as Ralph Fiennes’ annoying fiance in Main in Manhattan and the love interest in the remake of The Parent Trap. If you really want to see why she was such a remarkable actress, look at her playing the title role in Paul Schrader’s Patty Hearst, in which she embodied a complex and widely unloved public figure. Or, watch her in The Handmaid’s Tale, an equally controversial film that, like Patty Hearst, received mixed reviews from critics but her performances in both films were widely and deservedly praised. Finally, in the thriller The Comfort of Strangers, also by director Schrader, cast opposite Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren and Rupert Everett, Richardson is outstanding once again in one of the creepiest and most underrated cinematic mind games of the ’90’s. She is survived by her husband, Liam and their two children, Micheal and Daniel Neeson. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

We start our director filmogaphy series again.  We’ll be talking Preston Sturges for the next four episodes.  This week, we start with Unfaithfully Yours.  Of course, it’s been released as a Criterion edition, and we still love those guys.

After a long delay, here’s our discussion on Watchmen.  It involved fairly heavy spoilers, so you’ve been warned.  If you want to skip the discussion, jump to 1:01:09 into the show once we warn you that we’re starting.

 

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Find out more about J.C. Hutchins’ Personal Effects:  Dark Art

Ethan’s Score : ZERO/10

There comes a time in a film aficionado’s life where he sees something so utterly inept, ill-advised and unenjoyable. Something so flat-out puzzlingly bad that you spend hours wondering “How did that happen? How could something turn out that bad?” And my friends I have come across that movie, and it’s name is Dragonball Evolution.

This “film” (which I would rather refer to as a cinematic crime against humanity) is of course an adaptation of the popular Japanese-anime series, Dragonball (or Dragonball Z). Now, I should tell you something, I’m a fan of the show. Or at least I was when I was a kid. I had plenty of action figures and would go over to my friends’ houses to play with them as we created dozens of scenarios for epic hyper-kung fu battles. So would turning off my film critic mode and setting into 9-year old mode help me enjoy this particular cinematic abomination? No, probably not. And this is a major problem. It’s simply not fun. The action scenes are so dull, cluttered and poorly shot that nobody could get any enjoyment out of it. Sure, there’s copious amounts of slow-motion (that would make Zack Snyder blush) but after it a while it just settles into self-parody, just like the rest of the movie. (more…)

Dave’s score: 6.5/10

Before starting this loaded gun of a review, I have to make an admission. Ideally, any review would look at a film based solely on the merits of the film. Unfortunately, due to whatever personal flaw I may have, I was unable to do this. This review is going to be influenced by the original book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and how the changes in the film altered the story itself. I just want to warn everyone before we get into this. By necessity, this review will have PLENTY of spoilers, so don’t read on if you haven’t seen the film.

Watchmen is a story that explores what would happen if masked heroes actually existed and explores the dark side of humanity from there. I know, I know. The actual story is about a hero, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), investigating the murder of The Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan) and uncovering a darker plot. Honestly, the story is more about my first sentence than the second sentence. If it sounds dense and complex, it most certainly is.

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Dave’s Note:  I’m proud to introduce a new contributor to ScreenGeeks.  Melissa comes to us with an impressive knowledge of film and her first piece for us is a character review of Watchmen.  I’m excited to present a view of the film from someone who isn’t that familiar with the source material.  Spoilers are ahead, so I’ve put the article after the jump.  Enjoy!

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We finally have everyone back together to talk about the week’s news.  This has been in RSS feed most of the week, but Dave forgot to post it.  Sorry.

 

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Chris Stipp from Quick Stop Entertainment joins Dave and Ethan in discussing bad movies we defend and fess up to some stinkers

 

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