Ask 411 Movies for 12.17.07: How This Column Stole Christmas!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 12.17.2007

The Departed, the Sixth Sense, 3D innovations, laserdisc, Leslie Nielsen as an amnesiac Santa Claus and Halloween at Christmas with Paul Lynde

I was supposed to be at Armageddon in Pittsburgh Sunday, but due to bad weather I was unable to go. The vexing thing was that it wasn't flat out bad. It would be really bad, then get clear, then get bad again, then clear up, then the weather report said more bad weather was coming. Eh, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Most of the time I'm sorry though.

A few people posted comments last week that weren't questions and that's fine. One corrected me on the spelling of Santa Claus, which I spelled as Clause. Just a typo on my part. Yes, Tim Allen has infected my brain like he has countless others.

Since Too Cool for Christmas last week garnered some interest, this week I give you Leslie Nielsen and Tommy Davidson in Santa Who? If you want to check this one out, Family Channel will be airing it at 3 pm on December 23rd. Don't say I didn't warn you though.



NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: PAUL LYNDE'S HALLOWEEN SPECIAL



This should tell you how far behind I am on my Netflix list. This special from 1976 was only shown once and I can see why. There is nothing quite so awful as variety specials from the seventies. In the loose storyline hung on proceedings, Lynde is held hostage by Billie Hayes as Witchiepoo and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West. They want Lynde to serve as the spokesman for witches to improve their image. In exchange they give him three wishes. In the first wish he becomes the Rhinestone Trucker and competes with Tim Conway for the affections of Roz Kelly, Pinky Tescadaro of "Happy Days." In the second wish, Lynde is a sheik in the desert who woos Florence Henderson. Throw in that Robert Reed from "the Brady Bunch" was gay too and Henderson has atrocious gaydar. In the third, Lynde turns the witches' haunted house into a swinging discotheque. The witches keep KISS locked in the attic and release them to do a few songs. Donnie and Marie Osmond make a cameo. Betty White is the queen of Halloween. The disc is filled out with some cheap extras, like a Lynde quote trivia game, an audio interview with Peter Marshall of "Hollywood Squares" and personal photos. Just check out the clip.



Q: thanks for the info on ST. I did read that it sucked, but I wanted to see it anyways. I've finished the first GN, reading the second one right now. They're kinda slow, but this might help make the movie make more sense. Lets hope its one of those movies that gets put on dvd relatively quickly.
-m

A: I'm glad I was of some help with the information. That is why I do the column for after all. I would imagine the DVD will be released by summer. The quicker they get the DVD out, the more money they will bring in and the films hasn't brought in much swag to date.

Q: I'm also not sure on outright bad films with good endings. But how about an ok film? I remember sitting in the theater watching "The Sixth Sense" and kinda being bored by it. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't enthralled by it either. Then all of the sudden it's famous twist ending hits and it immediately upped my opinion of it. It was now a good movie. I do think it's legendary status has been heightened due to it's ending.

Speaking of a sorta confusing ending, why does Matt Damon's character kill Jack Nicholson's character in "The Departed"? He spends the entire move protecting him, then almost non-chalantly kills him near the end. Why?

Also, do you think we'll ever get to experience true 3-D at home? I just watched "Beowulf 3-D" and was blown away by the experience. I want to experience this at home when it comes out on DVD. I know 3-D movies have been released before, to various degrees of success. But I also noticed that Disney didn't put out a DVD 3-D version of "Meet the Robinsons" and most IMAX movies are released in regular 2-D when they come out on DVD. Do you think great 3-D is possible in a home setting?
-JLAJRC

A: Most people would call The Sixth Sense a good movie with an amazing ending. I already knew the twist when I saw the film, so for me it was interesting just to see how the ending was built up to. Certainly a good twist can put everything together at the end, but a good twist can be hard to come by.

In The Departed Matt Damon's Colin Sullivan discovered that Frank Costello was a secret informant to the FBI from information that Billy gathered and gave to Captain Queenan. When he confronted him about it in the parking garage, Costello admitted it but said he never gave up Colin. Colin, of course, didn't believe him. Even if he did, there was no assurance he wouldn't give him up in the future especially with it almost being certain that Costello was going to get arrested right then and there. Protecting himself was more important to him than protecting Costello in the end.

The current 3D being used is known as Real D. It uses one digital camera alternating clockwise and counterclockwise polarized images at 144 frames per second. You then wear glasses that diffuse the polarizations and produce the 3D effect. A new process is also being worked on that allows 2D images to be converted to 3D. Superman Returns was put out into IMAX theaters with some 3D sections using this method. George Lucas has said that he is considering re-releasing all of the Star Wars films in 3D once the new conversion method is fully perfected. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. Lucas' buddy Stephen Spielberg in 2005 announced that he was working on a 3D method that did not involve glasses, but rather plasma screen projections. I predict that within ten years sophisticated 3D will be available for home theaters as HD television and DVD technology is perfected and made more widespread. The future of 3D seems to be in high definition as is home entertainment systems.

Q: Hey, Just a couple of quick questions.

1. I read the wikipedia article on laserdiscs and it stated to this day there are still movies and specials released only on laser disc and not VHS or DVD. Any idea what these are and why they aren't on DVD yet?

2. Also apparently there are some laserdiscs that are superior to their DVD "upgrades" that are sought after for better picture, commentaries or special features. I was wondering if these special features are made by the laserdisc publisher, are they the property of the publisher and not the movie company, which then re-releases the DVD with new features?

3. I understand that if a movie star dies, the rights to their likeness passes on to their family or they can sell them, etc. But what if a movie star has no children, wife, parents. Do the rights to their likeness become property of the movie company they were in?

4. Many of video games have set themselves in between movies to fill in the gaps. A good example being Shadows of the Empire falling between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. While many of these games set everything to the status quo, some characters not used again may die. Has any movie ever acknowledged something that happened only in the video game. Kind of like the editor boxes in marvel comics. To find out what happened to our hero play this video game, something like that.
-Kevin

A: The rights of a person's likeness would go to whomever they dictate in their will. If no one is dictated, then it would be the executor of their estate. If they would not have a will or an executor then it would naturally fall to whoever the next kin of is, no matter how distant. This would go for just about all assets. If no next kin would come forward or exert their authority then the likeness of the person would pretty much be considered public domain, meaning that anyone could use the likeness without having to pay. Many times a person's agent will continue to represent them after they're dead in order to market and protect their image. Some agencies even have post death stipulations in contracts.

Laserdiscs, much like DVDs, were often made by independent companies. They would purchase the rights to make the laserdisc from the copyright holder. Eventually those rights would expire. Some laserdisc companies converted to DVD, some did not. Sometimes the laserdisc sales were not strong, so it was felt doing a new DVD wasn't warranted. Or it could be that they just never got around to reissuing them in the DVD format. Some DVD and laserdisc bonus features are produced by the manufacturing and distributing companies. Therefore they own the rights to these features exclusively. However, they can be tied to the original feature if footage from the movie in question is used. Basically it all boils down to wading through the quagmire of who owns what and what they can do with it. I couldn't find a list of what films exist on laserdisc that are not out on DVD, but I would assume it's probably numerous titles. There have been movies that were out on VHS that haven't been put on DVD. Hell, there were even movies on Beta that didn't hit VHS. As I said, it all comes down to rights, who has the money and who thinks they can make money.

I couldn't find any instances where something that happened in a video game set between sequels affected the sequel. I would say probably nothing. In researching the Star Wars games you mentioned, I did find that music inspired by Shadow of the Empire did find its way into Revenge of the Sith. The Star Wars special edition also features some newly added vehicles and equipment that were first seen in that game. Prince Xizor also has a cameo at the pod race in The Phantom Menace. Keep in mind that Shadows of the Empire was a book and comic too. Various characters from the comics, cartoons and books have found their way into Star Wars. In fact, Bobba Fett's first appearance was in an animated short that was part of the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special." Aayla Secura was originally created for the comics, but found her way into the new trilogy when George Lucas was taken by her image in a painting and decided to add her to Phantom Menace.



Don't die.

"I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me."