Rewatched a couple of films that I picked up for my GF for her Bday amongst other various gifts. These are a couple of her favorite films.
Interview With the Vampire - 8.5 / 10 : One of the best vampire movies yet made, before Twilight came and f'ed it up probably for at least a decade. The BD transfer was severely lacking, I was really hoping that it would shine in HD, but the picture was pretty muddy and looked just like a DVD. Extra features were pretty lacking, but at least there was something, a kind of shoddy 'documentary' and an old intro. This film could really use restoring and new features. Okay, on to the actual review :
In lesser hands this could have been an outright disaster. In the capable direction of Neil Jordan, it's something of a guilty pleasure. It has moments of surprising genius, and the frenetic, ballsy performance by Tom Cruise is pretty underrated. The sets, costumes, and particularly the music is very very well done. There were moments of homoeroticism, but that's in the source material and I'm not a homophobe so it didn't really bother me, those moments passed quickly. Brad Pitt did as well as he could have with the character of Louis, but I think the audience generally feels as Lestat declares at the close of the film "Louis, still whining after two hundred years .." (paraphrased of course).
The best thing about it was that the vampires were complex characters, with realized motives, flaws, insanity, and humor. For the most part it was a story of loss and confronting oneself if you survive ceaselessly on the death of others for interminable decades.
Bonus points for a delightfully humorous and malevolent appearance by the all too rarely seen Stephen Rea.
It's a damned shame that the Vampire Chronicles couldn't have been continued with this level of quality, attention to detail, and general respect for the source material. Sequels from this same team would have been something to see. Instead we got horribad direct-to-DVD quality brainless mush such as the Aaliyah vehicle 'Queen of the Damned'. Sigh.
Edward Scissorhands - 9/10 : I will preface this by declaring that I'm not a Tim Burton junkie. I moderately liked the first Batman film, mostly for Keaton and Nicholson, loathed the second, was only moderately entertained by Sweeney Todd, and in general find his work repetitive to a large degree. I think his finest work though is probably this film, and the Nightmare Before Christmas, both of which I expect to be classics for decades to come.
Burton steals liberally from the style of Robert Smith of The Cure for the title character, but he is brought wonderfully to life by the young Johnny Depp, whose earnest and sincere performance avoids the pitfalls of being too sappy or exaggerated. His character is nearly silent for the duration of the film, and his strongest scenes are literally soundless. The visuals are superb, and the lack of CGI is sometimes amazing considering the complexity of some of the shots. Truly a remarkable piece of work. The supporting cast is very decent, Vincent Price's final film role is a bit eerie and sad in context of his impending death at the time, but he fits perfectly into this weird universe. The music is absolutely perfect for this fairy tale with a touch of blood to it. The ending seems a shade happier than the material seems to dictate, but overall I'd say this is a magnificent piece, and arguably the finest thing Tim Burton has ever filmed in live action.
The transfer to BD/1080p is absolutely stellar, particularly when compared to the useless transfer of IWTV described above.