The Movie:

Bret McCormick was a pretty prolific producer and director of low budget B-movies starting in the late eighties and stretching well into the late nineties. Along the way, he’s worked with notable performers such as Jeffrey Combs (in Cyberstalker) and Richard Harrison (in Highway To Hell) but oddly enough one of the movies that he’s best known for is the 1996 film Repligator, featuring top billed stars Brinke Stevens and Gunnar Hansen. Now, through the magic of DVD, this legitimately screwy entry in the annals of B-moviedom can now be enjoyed time and time again, without the need to rewind when you’re done!

So yeah, what the Hell is Repligator all about, anyway That’s a very good question, let’s try to answer that. When the movie begins, Dr. Goodbody (Brinke Stevens) is conducting an experiment that allows her to see the fantasies of a soldier she’s connected some wires to on a screen. Not surprisingly, he’s imagining her naked, and then imaging her taking him to bed to join up with her and her friend. From there, Stevens is more or less out of the picture and we meet a fat, bald scientist who, along with his female assistant (who sports a mole that would make Motorhead’s Lemmy blush), has designed a device called the Replicator. What this does is transport matter from one place to antoher, it doesn’t actually replicate anything, but regardless they have this device and they test it out for top brass military man Colonel Sanders. When they put poor Private Libo through the machine, however, he comes out a horny red headed female who can’t keep her hands off of the many men around her.

When this happens, Sanders is annoyed and he takes the project from the fat bald scientist and gives it to a thinner scientist with a beard and an effeminate male assistant. They try to Replicator again on the assistant and then on the previous assistant with the mole – she comes out hotter than ever in black lingerie and he comes out a brunette with giant fake knockers, now completely turned on by the bearded guy. From here, the females who have experienced the Replicator start to enjoy sexual pleasure and their primitive orgasms turn them into alligators that actually look more like dinosaurs. These alligators that look like dinosaurs bite people and those people turn into zombies – thankfully Gunnar Hansen is around, if only for a gratuitous cameo that adds nothing to the plot. But hey, he’s got X-Ray glasses, so that’s kind of cool.

Repligator is horrible but if you’ve read this far then you probably figured that out on your own by this point. There is some enjoyment to be had here, so long as you go in with the right expectations and in the right frame of mind. This isn’t a movie made for the serious cineaste, but rather for those who enjoy the simple things bad, low budget movies can and so often do provide instead of any sort of artistic merit: cheap lingerie, fake boobs, real boobs, dinosaur alligator face masks, zombies (), horrible optical effects, bad science, characters with horrible names like Dr. Goodbody and Colonel Sanders, and bad, trashy jokes galore. Nobody involved in this project was taking it seriously, that much is obvious, so there’s no need for anyone else to take it seriously either – because once you do that, the movie becomes an endurance test.

So yeah, go into this cinematic turd knowing full well how truly turdy it is and it’s hard to get too upset by it. Sure, none of it makes any sense and the script seems to be made up on the fly seemingly with the only intention of showing off some kind of cool dinosaur masks that are not alligator masks, but hey, it’s Repligator. Seriously, what do you expect Just look at the cover, that pretty much tells you exactly what you’re in for.

The DVD:

Video:

Repligator was shot on 8mm and then, we can guess, transferred to tape and edited, so this DVD image is probably about as good as it’s going to get. For the most part the picture is stable – noticed only one tape roll during playback and it was very quick – offering pretty good color and okay looking black levels. There are no compression issues to note and the picture is clean. Detail is nothing to write home about but given the origins and source material here, it’s not bad. This is not an amazing transfer by any stretch but it is perfectly watchable.

Sound:

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is on par with the video in that it’s not anything to write home about but it gets the job done. There are a few spots where dialogue is a little bit muffled, but the levels are generally balanced well. Hiss and distortion is never really an issue, though not so surprisingly things lean a bit towards the flat side. There are no alternate language options or subtitles provided.

Extras:

Outside of static menus and chapter selection we get two supplements, the first of which is a four minute interview with director Bret McCormick who notes that Roger Corman was the inspiration for this movie and who talks about where the idea for the film came from. The second supplement is a six minute featurette that is made up of some behind the scenes information and some quick cast and crew interviews. This isn’t a jam packed special edition but honestly ,the fact that there are any supplements included for a movie this obscure is kind of amazing in and of itself.

Final Thoughts:

For better or worse, Repligator lives again. Brain fryingly horrible in every possible way, it’s hard not to laugh along with this one. With that said, it takes a certain kind of movie fan to properly enjoy this one, this is not a film for the masses or one to be taken in the least bit seriously. It’s bizarre, it’s poorly acted, it’s devoid of logic and it is more or less a complete waste of time. So we can’t really recommend it in the traditional sense, but at the same time we can’t hate on it enough to say skip it. So, with the dilemma in mind, rent it. Decide for yourself where you stand on this one, but do it without investing a lot of money until you know for sure that you need Repligator in your life.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.

THE PROGRAM

Earlier this year I proclaimed a match between Daniel Bryan and CM Punk at Over the Limit to be the best match of 2012 in WWE. I still stand by that proclamation, but now, only slightly. I can’t say I’d have ever guessed a six-man TLC match featuring a hoss who some might call the modern day second coming of Goldberg to be one of the strongest offerings in a year of pro-wrestling, but expectations are to be defied and even better, “TLC 2012” emerges as one of the better minor pay-per-view events of the year; even with the original Main Event scrapped due to injury.

The event has its fair share of mediocrity, with the opening tag team bout between Team Rhodes Scholars and a combo of Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara tedious, even at less than ten minutes, being only slightly better than an equally long Intercontinental bout between Kofi Kingston and Wade Barrett. Sadly, as usual, the time-filling Divas match is three-minutes best skipped over. However, that is the extend of pay-per-view matches that would be mediocre on TV.

Antonio Cesaro facing R-Truth is a short match, but both men give it 100%, with Cesaro showing why he’s future main event material yet again. The penultimate match, a six-man tag of The Mix, Alberto Del Rio and The Brooklyn Brawler vs. 3MB is nothing technically accomplished, coming together at the last minute after a mid-event segment involving The Miz and 3MB, but the nostalgia factor and conclusion, all due to the inclusion of perennial jobber and hometown favorite, The Brooklyn Brawler will make the most jaded fan smile. However, the real goods come in three specific matches.

The Big Show and Sheamus lock up in a real brutal chairs match for the World Heavyweight Belt; it’s every bit the definition of a brawl and the size of both men give the stakes a subtle enhancement. The conclusion manages to defy definition, capturing sheer brutality with a visual sight gag that will be remembered for a long time. Despite his age, Big Show can still entertain a crowd and will forever be a foreboding presence and Sheamus sells this convincingly while still establishing dominance. The other match between Dolph Ziggler and John Cena was thrown together following an injury by CM Punk; what should have been a ladder match for the WWE Title turns into a ladder match for Ziggler’s Money in the Bank briefcase. Any knowledgeable fan knows the outcome beforehand and on paper the match has no meaning, but Ziggler and Cena entertain the crowd to the limit and justifiably Ziggler gains some further credibility in the process.

The highlight of the disc and easily the second best match of 2012, is the six-man TLC match between Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) with Ryback and The Shield (Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins). The Shield has been a much-needed boost to the WWE main event storyline and all three men bring down the house in their debut, showing a level of team cooperation we haven’t seen in years. Their opponents are crowd pleasers and all get a chance to shine, even if the end result is The Shield going over, proving their dominance and place in the WWE. The match is just shy of 25-minutes, but it never drags, balancing some technical wrestling at times (mainly stuff involving Daniel Bryan) with team synergy and good old-fashioned brawling. There are some excitement inducing spots that make both sides come out looking great and the bottom line is, the fans got their moneys worth from this match alone; the rest of the very solid evening is sheer icing on the cake.

THE DVD

The Video

The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer sports brilliant, rich color reproduction of the event itself. Detail levels are not as strong as something sourced from a modern HD broadcast should be, possibly due to some minor compression artifacts that seems to be the standard for WWE DVD releases (it’s much better than a few years back).

The Audio

The Dolby Digital English 5.1 audio is a solid, albeit non-mind-blowing experience. Commentary is front and center, but never mixed to overpower the sounds of the arena, nor do the mics focused on the in-ring action feel off-balance. A few matches in, and the sound isn’t as immersive as being live (simply due to the constant commentary), but there’s nothing to detract from the experience. A Spanish 5.1 track is also included.

The Extras

The lone extra is an interview with Dolph Ziggler conducted by Matt Striker.

Final Thoughts

I still wouldn’t put it anywhere near Attitude Era levels of quality, but “TLC 2012” is one of the best minor pay-per-view events of last year. Even in the face of a replacement, meaningless (from the storyline) main event, there’s something for everyone here and the balance of quality matches is greatly appreciated. Come for the big six-man tag and enjoy the rest while you’re at it. Highly Recommended.

Classic stop-motion Christmas fun, SpongeBob style. Nickelodeon has released SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!, the 2012 stop-motion special that’s set to air on CBS on November 23rd, 2012, the day after Thanksgiving. I’m sure there’s some kind of marketing logic to releasing this rather elaborate, funny little special on DVD weeks before it airs on network television, but it escapes me (early jump on Christmas buying? Promo for the network airing? Promo for games and toy tie-ins?). Luckily, SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! is on par with your better-than-average SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, with the seasonal background and particularly the sensational real (not computer-faked) stop-motion work here making this a must-buy for some lucky kid this Christmas. Fun extras help make SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! a cinch, you Grinch.

Patchy the Pirate (voice talent of Tom Kenny), hijacking a Christmas mail truck, hosts and narrates this SpongeBob Christmas special. While SpongeBob SquarePants (voice talent of Tom Kenny) greets a new Christmas morning with a song (Santa’s Eyes), Plankton (voice talent of Mr. Lawrence) has a much less benign plan to ring in the New Year. Plankton has discovered a new element, Jerktonium, which he plans on feeding into his Jerk Maker 9000, a combination fruitcake oven/shooter, lacing the delectable cakes with Jt, which should cause everyone to become a jerk. That way, by simple process of elimination, Plankton and his previous year’s evil deeds won’t look so bad, and Santa will have to bring him some presents…instead of the coal Plankton always gets in his stocking. There’s only one problem: the Jerk Maker 9000 doesn’t seem to work. Plankton shot SpongeBob with several laced fruitcakes, but he remained as sunny and kind as always, prompting Plankton to give SpongeBob the keys to the 9000 in disgust. Naturally, clueless SpongeBob carries out Plankton’s plan anyway, turning the whole of Bikini Bottom into a chaotic, rioting jerk-fest, so Plankton has to turn to Plan B: MechaSpongeBob, a clanking metal robot ready to destroy Christmas.

 An affectionate take-off on all those beloved Rankin/Bass Christmas stop-motion TV specials, filtered through the silly/sick humor of SpongeBob SquarePants, SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! is a welcome return to form for those fans of the Nickelodeon toon series who lament the sometimes scattershot feel of the last few seasons. I’ve written way too many reviews for SpongeBob DVDs (you can read those here), so I won’t go into any background on the show’s aesthetics or format, but I must write that I was more than a little apprehensive when it came to sitting down to review this entry (since so many of these new Christmas TV specials, quite frankly, stink)…and more than pleasantly surprised at how well SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! came off.

 Like any SpongeBob toon, SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! has its share of expected juvenile silliness; throwaway jokes that are so stupid they make the kids groan and laugh at the same time. When Patchy pilots that mail truck down the icy road and hollers, “There’s a fork in the road!”, that’s exactly what pops his tire and sends him hilariously spinning out of control: a three-tined fork (the stop-motion effect here is beautiful). And when completely brainless Patrick (voice talent of Bill Fagerbakke) wants to set a trap for Santa Claus to keep Christmas going all year long, you can be assured that Patrick will fall into his own snare. Those kinds of childish-but-funny gags are de rigueur for SpongeBob…as are the sly, smart, deadpan jabs that still make this 15-year-old toon adult-friendly viewing. Critically, SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!‘s central gag―fruit cake is so hateful a Christmas tradition it literally turns people into jerks―is clever enough (“Hot from the oven and full of lovin!” Plankton booms), topped by the hilarious transformation of the poisoned fruitcake victims, their heads momentarily dazzled by a furious whirl of Christmas lights, accompanied by a loud Bronx cheer.

 But plenty of other jokes and gags keep the pace up here―something that doesn’t always happen in these later SpongeBob special episodes. Plankton’s “Naughty Deeds” list has “littering” at number one, followed by “world domination,” “puppy taunting,” “‘mispelling’ words,” and “neglect grooming.” A SpongeBob trademark, the bystanders throwaway gag, has Frankie wishing Johnnie a ‘Merry Christmas,’ before he whips an iceball in his face. Patchy steals a mail truck and trusses up the postal worker (“I gave Mr. Mailman the day off!” he offers as we briefly see the frightened worker gagged in the back). Starving Patchy sees Potty as a plate of buffalo wings (starving Potty sees Patchy’s head as a birdseed cone), before he hallucinates meeting with Santa (it’s actually a vicious polar bear, salting Patchy). No Christmas TV special would be complete without Santa (voice talent of John Goodman), so when he shows up, he’s right out of the sick SpongeBob playbook: possibly the grossest kids’ movie Santa ever, with a bald head covered in liver spots, rubbery, grouper balloon lips, and baggy, goggling eyes that look like hard-boiled eggs. Santa’s no hero saving the day here, either; when the marauding tin SpongeBob breathes fire like MechaGodzilla, Santa is the first to deadpan, “I’m outta here,” before he skedaddles. Best of all, the makers of SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! deliver all of these funny situations in first-rate puppet stop-motion, getting the Rankin/Bass look down pat (they even drop in some cell animation-looking snow effect that’s R/B letter-perfect). In the included bonus featurette detailing SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!‘s production, they don’t specify how long this animation took (the parade sequence is especially good, as SpongeBob walks by transforming jerks), but it’s nice to see such an elaborate effort backed up by a steady stream of jokes worthy of the process.

 The DVD:

The Video:
Beautiful. The anamorphically-enhanced, 1.78:1 widescreen transfer for SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! is digital perfection: bright, vibrant colors; a razor-sharp image, and absolutely no compression issues whatsoever.

The Audio:
Same for the Dolby Digital 5.1 stereo audio mix, which has discreet separation effects, and crystal clarity (and a healthy recording level). English close-captions are available.

The Extras:
First, there’s a behind-the-scenes featurette of the making of SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!, where the crew discusses the thinking that went behind the decision to utilize stop-motion, as well as the technical problems encountered. It runs 7:19. Next, you can run a full animatic of the special alongside the finished product (fun for animation buffs). Next, two of the featured songs, Santa’s Eyes and Hot Fruitcake can be accessed via MP3, and finally, a Yule Log loop is available (I love the old-timey animation of it…but couldn’t someone have put a good 10 or 15 minutes worth of music on it, instead of the same 45-second loop? It defeats the whole purpose of the gag, and it ticked off the kids fast…unless that was the point).

Final Thoughts:
I don’t know if SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! will become the TV classic watched year after year that the production teams hopes it will be…but it’s good enough for right now. Plenty of funny gags and beautiful stop-motion animation add up to a Christmas winner here. I’m highly recommending SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!.

Paul Mavis is an internationally published film and television historian, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, and the author of The Espionage Filmography.

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THE MOVIE:

The Vertical Ray of the Sun, the 2000 drama from Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung (Norwegian Wood), is an artfully conceived, beautifully realized cinematic poem, a story of life that could be compared to Wong Kar-Wai or Hou Hsiao-hsien, both masters of the blithe rhythms that Hung so effortlessly dances to. Yet, The Vertical Ray of the Sun is also very much representative of a singular voice, of a tone that indicates the artist’s assurance of his own perceptions and his willingness to trust his instincts.

The film is the story of three sisters: Suong (Nhu Quyn Nguyen, The Chinese Botanist’s Daughter), the eldest, a mother and cafe owner, who is married to a photographer; Khanh (Le Khanh) is in the middle, the wife of a writer, secretly a mother-to-be; and Lien (Tran Nu Yên-Khê, Cyclo), the baby, ostensibly the film’s star, a student of life, a girl in the state of becoming. Lien lives with her half-brother, Hai (Quang Hai Ngo), who was born on the same day as her, though the hour is unknown, meaning there is no older or younger here, they are almost a single being. Lien and Hai are close, possibly too close, living like lovers yet without the lovemaking. Lien crawls into his bed every night when she gets cold; Hai pretends to be annoyed. The Vertical Ray of the Sun‘s narrative shifts are punctuated by lovely, languorous scenes of this girl and boy waking up in the morning, leisurely attending to their routine, buoyed by the sounds of the Velvet Underground and Arab Strap. To complete the triumvirate of artistic men, Hai is a film actor. He and Lien playfully practice a scene he will shoot later that night, two lovers silently parting.

It is a moment that will be repeated further down the line, when Lien has a tough talk with a legitimate suitor, and it’s one of many such redos. The Vertical Ray of the Sun is a film that is full of echoes and overlapping, parallel experiences. Actions reverberate, and similar instances emerge in the ripples, crossing over one another until the connections and cohesions create a perfect whole. The script is built from an occasio where the sisters gather to prepare a memorial for their dead mother, a woman whom they have recently discovered had a secret love buried deep in her past. Their desire to know about her becomes our gateway to know about them, an invitation to peer into their secret lives. Is Suon as happily married as people imagine, or does she have a lost romance like her mother Will Khanh’s husband (Manh Cuong Tran) succumb to temptation like the protagonist of his novel How will this all affect Lien, who reverberates with desire, but who hasn’t the practical knowledge to do anything about it In the role, Tran Nu Yên-Khê is both innocent and seductive, absorbing experience but also radiating it. She is like a tuning fork reacting to all emotional stimulus, while being careful to give up what she feels herself. Yên-Khê is mesmerizing to watch, as complex as her sisters, yet without the externalized drama.

I am somehow not surprised to discover that cinematographer Ping Bin Lee (a.k.a. Mark Lee), one of the cameraman on In The Mood for Love and also Hou Hsiao-hsien’s cinematographer on Three Times and Flight of the Red Balloon, among others, is the man behind the lens here. His photography is gorgeous, like Edward Hopper painting with neon pens. It was by no accident, then, that I had flashbacks to Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung waiting out a rainstorm while watching Yên-Khê and Ngo do the same. There is a shared tradition connecting the films by all of these filmmakers. Lien could just as easily be a stand-in for Shu Qi in Millennium Mambo (shot by Lee, as well), a young woman both out of her time and very present in it.

Of course, all this beauty would be useless if channeled into disparate melodies and aimless improvisation. The remarkable thing about The Vertical Ray of the Sun, where it derives its considerable impact, is how Hung pulls it all together. The girls who were brought closer by their mother’s covert passions are further bonded by their own passions, and specifically by their desire to create new life themselves, to continue the tradition of mother and daughter (or son). It’s in the shared, alleviating moment when pregnancies, both actual and imagined, are revealed that we see all three women for their different facets, how they represent roots of the same tree, growing from the same source, yet divergent, emblematic of the possibilities inherent in all things. No matter how differently they may travel, their paths are still wending their way through the same soil. And so it is that a cycle passes, a year turns, and the next phase begins.

THE DVD

Video:
The Sony Choice Collection, the studio’s manufacture-on-demand label, brings The Vertical Ray of the Sun to DVD as a color, widescreen transfer. The image quality is average. Lines and edges tend to be soft, but the colors are warm and lovely and there are no blemishes on the screen. Honestly, I like this movie way more than The Scent of Green Papaya, Tran Anh Hung’s most popular film, which I previously reviewed on Blu-Ray, and find it sad that it can’t get the same kind of love and attention paid to this. I’d watch this again a million times more than I’d watch Green Papaya.

Sound:
The 5.1 original language soundtrack is surprisingly good, with lots of ambient effects that create a realistic atmosphere that moves gently throughout the room. There are no dropouts or glitches. The subtitles are yellow and, though easy to read, slightly pixilated. I should note, I hate it when movies like The Vertical Ray of the Sun don’t translate the songs that characters sing onscreen, somehow assuming they aren’t integral to the film’s plot.

Extras:
Just a trailer.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Highly Recommended. This turn-of-the-century effort from Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung is a moving story of three sisters at different stages of life, struggling with their relationships and the harsh lessons of age. Beautifully shot and lyrically composed, The Vertical Ray of the Sun is a film that is all about feeling, about human connections and the way we touch each other’s lives, both to the good and bad. Led by three remarkable actresses, the film weaves multiple stories together, letting each influence and comment on the others. It’s a lovely piece of cinema.

Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Joëlle Jones, including the hardboiled crime comic book You Have Killed Me, the challenging romance 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and the 2007 prose novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately, for which Jones did the cover. All three were published by Oni Press. His most recent project is the comedy series Spell Checkers, again with Jones and artist Nicolas Hitori de. Follow Rich’s blog at Confessions123.com.

The Movies:

Isn’t the American judicial system supposed to stand by the motto “innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?” If that’s the case, why are Jessie Miskelly, Jason Baldwin, Damien Wayne Echols sitting prison, Damien on death row? That’s the question posed by the Emmy Award winning Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills, a 1996 documentary from Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (who would later go on to make Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster) originally made for HBO. The film makes a pretty damn good case that these three kids got screwed by their community.

Better known as The West Memphis Three, Miskelly, Baldwin and Echols are currently incarcerated for the gruesome and horrifying murders of three boys in a rural section of West Memphis, Arkansas known as Robin Hood Hills. The three bodies were discovered on a river bank, mutilated and sexually abused in what appeared to be some sort of Satanic ritual. The film, shot over the span of a year during the time that the three accused murderers were on trial, goes about asking questions not only of the three suspects but also of the parents and families of the victims, members of the community, and members of the court including defense and prosecution attorneys. The picture it paints is horrifying not only because of the scope of the crimes they were put on trial for, but because of how shoddy the prosecution’s case was and the fact that they were able to convict them all guilty on all counts.

Make no mistake, Paradise Lost does not prove that the West Memphis Three are innocent, but that’s not what is important. What is important is that it sure as Hell looks like they’re not guilty – two very different things. Yes, it is possible that they did it but it has not been proven inconclusively that they did but now their lives are forever screwed up anyway. There are simply too many unanswered questions about the case for this to have been a fair trial. Why did the cops let a man seen near the murder scene on the night of the crime who was covered in blood at a restaurant just disappear without following up? Why wasn’t more thought put into the fact that one of the boys’ fathers gave the filmmakers a knife that may have contained his own son’s blood on it and that could have been used to make the wounds on the bodies? What about the witness testimony that conflicts with the actual proven events that took place that night? What about the fact that the first two hours of Jessie Miskelly, who has an IQ of only seventy two, were not recorded nor will any of those involved in said interrogation speak up about those two hours? Was Miskelly forced into speaking out against his friends under duress? It’s certainly possible.

In short, without wanting to sound like a wacko conspiracy theorist, it’s very possible and, dare I say it, very likely that these three kids were convicted not because they were guilty but because the local authorities screwed up and didn’t catch anyone and, under mounting pressure from an understandably upset public, pinned it on three kids who really didn’t fit in so well in the small Bible Belt community they had the luck of being born into. If that is the case, obviously that’s just wrong. Though I have nothing but the deepest of sympathies for the families of those who were killed and nothing but the utmost sadness at the completely unnecessary loss of three young lives, the families of those killed latched onto the idea of the three older boys being the guilty ones with such fervor and hatred that it’s literally frightening. Rage and anger over their children’s death is completely forgivable but to allow someone to film you using a pistol that leaves no marks on the bullet (rendering it impossible to identify with most ballistic testing) while practicing your target shooting on a pumpkin and calling out the names of the three accused doesn’t really do much to win anyone’s trust or compassion – it makes you look like a lunatic. It’s interesting to watch some of the parents pose for the cameras and add as much dramatic depth to their segments as they do, too. But that’s beside the point. The focus shouldn’t be on whether the parents are crazy or not but on the fact that there are three people in jail for something that it’s very possible they had no part in. They were linked to Satanic activities that none of them were proven to have partaken in and they were seen as outcasts because they listened to Slayer and wore black t-shirts (gasp!) in a community so closed minded that they couldn’t accept that.

Four years later, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky returned to familiar territory with their 2000 follow up film, Revelations: Paradise Lost 2. By this time, their initial film had helped to raise some needed attention to the events that had taken place and the case was quickly garnering support. The second film presents more evidence, catches us up on various investigations and legal issues that have come up since the first movie and more or less expands on what came before it.

The focus here is largely centered around Echols’ most recent (at the time) court date, scheduled as an appeal to get him off of death row. It doesn’t work, but the growing movement to free the West Memphis Three stars to gain national attention. We spend more time with John Mark Byers, who seems to be largely unhinged, and witness a load of interviews with various attorneys connected to the case. Like most ‘middle’ films, this one lacks the punch of the first and the closure of the third…

…which brings us to the third film in the series, Paradise Lost: Purgatory. Almost twenty years since the three were convicted, we once again head to Arkansas. By this point, the movement to reevaluate the case has gotten even bigger and new DNA evidence has arrived that goes a long way towards clearing the three. Testimony given under coercion is discussed and we spend a fair bit of time with Echols’ lawyer again. We also learn how Echols got married and more or less just catch up with the three accused, now fully grown men who have spent the majority of their collective lives behind bars.

Additionally, without wanting to head too far into spoiler territory, this third film goes a good way towards discussing and making the case for a key character who is more likely the actual killer given his association with and proximity to the victims in the case. This aspect of the story remains open ended for now. As the film comes to a close, the accused are given the opportunity to opt for an Alford Plea – this essentially means that by admitting their guilt they’ll be sentenced to time served and let out of prison. Given that Echols remained on death row when this was brought about, it made sense that they’d go for it and they did. Despite the fact that Jason Baldwin wanted to continue to fight to completely clear his name, he gave in and accepted the plea simply to save Damian’s life. As the film draws to a close it makes it pretty clear that there really are no winners here. Three boys are still dead and it would appear that the three people originally convicted are innocent and while they’re now walking around free men for the first time in eighteen years, that doesn’t take away from the fact that they spent so much time in jail.

Watched back to back as a trilogy this is a lot to take in but it’s never less than fascinating. It’s grim subject matter to be sure, and very often quite depressing but at the same time inspiring in that these movies stand as a testament to how film can change lives. Had the first film never been made – and keep in mind the filmmakers went to the location assuming that the three were guilty and only changed their minds after they started investigating – they’d probably still be locked up or worse.

The DVD:

Video:

Both films were made for HBO and intended for a home video audience so the 1.33.1 fullframe format makes sense, which is how both of the first two films are presented on this four disc set. The third film was composed for 1.78.1 widescreen and is presented that way, with anamorphic enhancement. The bulk of the footage for the two documentaries was shot on video and as such it has some of the softness usually associated with the format but for the most part, both films do look very good here. The colors are lifelike and very natural looking, time was obviously taken to light the interviews and recorded footage as well as possible and the end result is quite a decent looking picture. There’s some mild edge enhancement but no problems with mpeg compression artifacts or print damage.

Sound:

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks on both films are just fine. Some of the footage shot outdoors or in less than ideal environments such as courtrooms and the like sounds a little on the hollow side but that’s to be expected, really. Dialogue and background music (most of which is supplied by Metallica – Sanitarium from Master Of Puppets gets a lot of airtime here) sound nice and clean and while this is hardly home theater demo material, it doesn’t need to be either. It works just fine as it is. Subtitles are provided in French, Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese.

Extras:

The first disc include some Deleted Scenes And Bonus Footage not used in the feature version of the film. The best of this is the forty-two minutes worth of material from Echols’ trial, it’s quite interesting. Additionally we get a time line of the events and a trailer for the feature, some biographies for the filmmakers, menus and chapter stops. The second disc includes a still gallery and filmmaker bios.

The extras for the third film include Press Day Panel Discussion With The West Memphis Three which is a seven minute collection of clips, four deleted scenes totaling just under half an hour, and a couple of quick interviews with the filmmakers. Biographies for the filmmakers and some menus are also included here.

The fourth disc in the set includes a never before seen Full Interview With Jason Baldwin recorded by the filmmakers on the first m after he was released from prison. As stated above, Baldwin went in on the plea to save Echols’ life and holds no grudge towards Echols for that. However, he obviously hopes to someday clear his name. As he sits in front of the camera, seemingly and understandably quite nervous, he talks about what it was like spending so much time behind bars and about his appreciation for finally being granted his freedom. It’s quite an interesting and lengthy interview and a very nice addition to this set. Also included here is ‘Lost” 1993 Footage from the Filmmakers’ Archives which includes bits where Jessie meets with his lawyer before the trial, segments with Echols and Jason Baldwin and then a segment with West Memphis Chief Prosecutor Gary Gitchell. Last but not least, the fourth disc also includes a collection of deleted scenes from Paradise Lost 3 – three scenes in total running just under ten minutes.

Additionally, inside the case is a new twenty-page booklet of photographs taken from the filmmakers’ ‘personal archives’ shot during the making of the three movies that populate this set. Some writing from the filmmakers is also included.

Final Thoughts:

The Paradise Lost Trilogy Collector’s Edition isn’t the type of thing you’ll watch over and over again nor is it something you put on in the background as simple entertainment. These are heavy, weighty and important films that deal very bluntly with some grim subject matter. With that said, all three movies need to be seen and while the quality of the presentation may occasionally be a bit rough around the edges, the content of the features and the supplements make up for that. Highly recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop! and has contributed to AV Maniacs. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.