The Shadow (1994)

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?".

The Shadow from 1994 was the first big budget Hollywood attempt to make a film about the classic pulp anti-hero. Did they succeed? We investigate. The film was directed by Russell Mulcahy, written by David Koepp, based on the work of Walter B. Gibson, and produced by Martin Bregman.

On this track we cover:

- Creating a modern retro action adventure
- The origin of The Shadow
- The pulps and the radioplays
- Visual effects
- The utter implausibility of being able to cloud men's minds.
- And David talks about Alec Baldwin's hair

DOWNLOAD

Download the mp3 file here. Link.

Subscribe to the commentary podcast in iTunes. Link.

STATS

Participants: David Bjerre and Dennis Rosenfeld.
Day of recording: December 8th, 2011.
Version: German Bluray version, Netflix, or Fullscreen NTSC DVD.
Movie runtime: 1.47.25.

SCREENSHOTS

Tibet matte painting by Matte World.

Green screen Alec Baldwin in front of a model hut and model mountain in this Matte World shot.

The horrible painted backdrop.

Matte painting by Illusion Arts.

Aaaaw! I saw her first!

The split-focus shot.

The spectacular Illusion Arts matte painting, using the same street set twice.

Early CGI face by R/Greenberg Associates.

9 out of 10 megalomaniacs now recommend smoking.

You wouldn't like me when I'm William.

LITERATURE

Cinefantastique, No. 25, vol. 4 (August 1994)
- Article by Mark A. Altman
- Additional text by George Zebrowski, Tim Prokop, and Dan Scapperotti

Cinefex, No. 60 (December 1994), article by Mark Cotta Vaz
Starlog, Issue #205 (August 1994), article by Will Murray
Starburst, Issue #195 (November 1994), article by Alan Jones

Walter B. Gibson and The Shadow, by Thomas J Shimeld
The Shadow Scrapbook, by Walter B Gibson
The Shadow novelization, by James Luceno

The Pulps.
- A complete list of stories. Link.
- Reviews of the stories. Link.

AUDIO/VIDEO

Bluray special features.

The radioplays. Link 1. Link 2.

The Shadow Strikes (1937). Download.

International Crime (1938). Download.

LINKS

Shadow Fan Site. Link.

IMDb. Link.

Wikipedia. Link.

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

It's time to go into space, with another classic 80's movie, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. An attempt to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made. The movie is written, produced and directed by Peter Hyams, based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke.

On this track we cover:

- The differences between the book and the film
- 2001 vs. 2010
- Visual effects
- The demise of Boss Film studios
- Design and the look of space
- And Dennis attempts to pronouce Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai

DOWNLOAD

Download the mp3 file here. Link.

Subscribe to the commentary podcast in iTunes. Link.

STATS

Participants: David Bjerre and Dennis Rosenfeld.
Day of recording: October 27th, 2011.
Version: Bluray version, or NTSC DVD.
Movie runtime: 1:55:54.

SCREENSHOTS

The VLA.

Slobby Chandra. Clarke wouldn't approve.

Epic effect shot from EEG aka Boss Film.

You may leave the lavatory if...

It's so big! That's why they call it space.

Are you dead? Or can I open my helmet too?

Fire torpedos captain!

The ships are two different sized models, the starfield is paint on paper,
the monolith is a matte painting, Jupiter is a digital effect, and Richard Edlund is God.

The original pod-bay from 2001, recreated for this film.

Another gorgeous effect shot.

LITERATURE

2010: Odyssey Two, novel by Arthur C. Clarke.
The Odyssey File, novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Peter Hyams.

Cinefex No. 20 (January 1985), article by Adam Eisenberg and Don Shay.
2010: The Official Movie Magazine.
Fantastic Films #43, article by Jessie Horsting.
Cinefantastique Vol. 15 - No. 1, article by Kyle Counts and Charlotte Wolter.
American Cinematographer (January 1985), articles by Nora Lee & Bob Fisher.
Starlog No. 80 (April 1985), article by Richard Hollis.
Cinefex No. 73 (April 1998), article by Mark Cotta Vaz.
Cinefatastique, Vol. 28 - No. 9, article by Ben Herndon.

AUDIO/VIDEO

Watch a trailer for this commentary. Link.

Extended Making Of featurette. Part 1. Part 2.

Arthur C. Clarke says goodbye. Link.

Boss Film's United Airlines commercial. Link.

Dennis can in fact pronounce Chandra's name. Link.

LINKS

Richard Edlund interview. Link.

Peter Hyams interview. Link.

Cinefex. Link.

IMDb. Link.

Wikipedia. Link.

CORRECTIONS

The measurements of the monolith would be 0.5:4:9, not 1.5:4:9, like David accidentally says.

The medical show with Candice Bergen, which Dennis can't remember is Murphy Brown, where she plays a journalist.

There are 300+ effect shots in Star Wars, Empire has about 600 and Jedi 900+.

Tremors (1990)

On our third commentary track we venture into the 90's, with this classic monster B-movie, directed by Ron Underwood, written by S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock and Ron Underwood, and executive produced by Gale Anne Hurd.

On this track we cover:

• The art of the B-movie
• Monster and miniature effects
• The sequels and the TV-series
• What's the deal with Melvin?
• And how to win at Rock-Paper-Scissors every time!

DOWNLOAD

Download the mp3 file here. Link.

Subscribe to the commentary podcast in iTunes. Link.

STATS

Participants: David Bjerre and Dennis Rosenfeld.
Day of recording: September 8th, 2011.
Version: Tremors US DVD (Also works with Bluray versions).
Movie runtime: 1:35:42.

SCREENSHOTS

Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon.

Town meeting.

Welcome to Perfection.

Miniature graboid shot.

Full-size graboid.

The in-camera effect shot, with a pan from the full-size gun...

... to a quarter scale graboid.

Is this where Melvin lives?

LITERATURE

Cinefex No. 42 (May 1990), article by Jody Duncan Shannon.

SFX #213 (October 2011), article by Jonathan Melville.

AUDIO/VIDEO

Special Features from the Collector's Edition DVD or Bluray.

LINKS

Cinefex. Link.

IMDb. Link.

Wikipedia. Link.

Rock Paper Scissors. Link.

Poltergeist (1982)

On our second audio commentary we tackle yet another classic movie from the 80's. Poltergeist from 1982, directed by Tobe Hooper, written by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais & Mark Victor, and produced by Frank Marshall & Steven Spielberg.

On this track we cover:

• 80's movies
• Makeup and visual effects
• Controversy surrounding the director
• Controversy surrounding the script
• The Poltergeist curse

DOWNLOAD

Download the mp3 file here. Link.

Subscribe to the commentary podcast in iTunes. Link.

STATS

Participants: David Bjerre and Dennis Rosenfeld
Day of recording: August 18th, 2011.
Version: Poltergeist Bluray (also works with 25th Anniversary US DVD)
Movie runtime: 1:54:28

SCREENSHOTS

Gorgeous cloud tank shot.

A combonation of cloud tank elements and matte painting.

The most difficult bluescreen sequence ever.

Sometimes you just don't like what you see in the mirror.

The spirit on the stairs

Another epic matte painting.

The beast in a beautiful forced perspective shot.

The beast, shot as a water tank element.

The $250.000 sentence.

LITERATURE

Cinefex No. 10 (October 1982), article by Paul Mandell.

Cinefantastique, Vol. 13 No 2 & 3, article by James Van Hise.

Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects, by Thomas G. Smith.

Poltergeist (The Novelization), by James Kahn.

LINKS

Poltergeist fan site. Link.

American Cinematographer Podcast - Episode 03. Link.

The Making of Poltergeist - Original 1982 Featurette. Link.

The Poltergeist location. Link.

Single-Minded Movie Blog, Cloud tank effect. Link.

Cinefex. Link.

IMDb. Link.

Wikipedia. Link.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Welcome to our first attempt at doing an unofficial audio commentary in English. Our subject is the 1985 movie Young Sherlock Holmes, directed by Barry Levinson, written by Chris Columbus and produced by Steven Spielberg.

On this track we cover:

• The visual effects
• Steven Spielberg's involvement
• Our love of 80's movies
• CGI vs. doing things practically
• The creation of the Sherlock Holmes character
• And David reveals his dying words

DOWNLOAD

Download the mp3 file here. Link.

Subscribe to the commentary podcast in iTunes. Link.

STATS

Participants: David Bjerre and Dennis Rosenfeld
Day of recording: June 8th, 2011.
Version: Young Sherlock Holmes NTSC DVD
Movie runtime: 1.48:48.

SCREENSHOTS

To illustrate some of the things we talk about in specific shots, we have a few screenshots from the film.

Painted figures slide down a painted pyramid.

A clever combination of matte painting, models, and live-action.

Another outstanding matte paining.

LITERATURE

Cinefex, no. 26. (May 1986)

LINKS

Wikipedia's Young Sherlock Holmes page. Link.

Cinefex, no. 26. Link.

New York Times review. Link.

Young Sherlock Homes reunion. Link.

Review: Event Horizon (1997)

One of those classic "they-sound-nice-but-I-wish-they-had-a-bit-more-to-say"-tracks.

Director Paul Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt get off to a fairly good start, even though Anderson often sounds like he thinks Bolt is an idiot. They cover a lot of ground - differences in acting styles, deleted scenes, technical details - and especially Anderson is very honest about the movie's shortcomings.

The pair provide a lot of information, but they don't have time to get into enough details. There are too many breaks and they often point of obvious stuff ("this is Sam Neill"). After a while they get caught up in the action scenes, making it quite clear they haven't seen the film for a while.

All in all, you'll probably be better off watching the feature length documentary.

Availability: The Special Edition version of the film, on both DVD and Blu-ray.

Review: Stir of Echoes (1999)

Director David Koepp does the commentary track for the film alone. Koepp is a good talker and the track is both entertaining and informative. The director manages to talk about the technical aspects of making the film, working with the actors, and the script. Although Koepp is the only one doing the talking on the track he manages to keep a nice flow going and never runs out of subjects. He also throws in some funny anecdotes making this a great commentary track for fans of the film.

Availability: The track seems to be included on every DVD and Blu-ray we've come across.