Scent of a Woman

The Asian horror market began as a welcome relief to the majority of Hollywood horror films which seemed to simply be spinning their wheels. Nigh-invulnerable murderers with some sort of gimmick slashing their way through a horde of sex-crazed, idiot teens grew tired years ago. The success of films like "Ringu" and "Ju-On" brought the shot in the arm the genre needed. However, the market has been deluged with knockoff and remakes that pale in comparison. We could really use another shot in the arm right now.

"Shutter" is another addition to the genre, a huge hit in its native Thailand. I guess it goes without saying that somebody is going to be haunted by a pale faced girl with long black hair. I realize the character is ingrained into Asian superstition, but you don't see dozens of movies in the States featuring the Grim Reaper. "Shutter" definitely draws elements from its more well-known predecessors. The DVD box art even resembles the art from "The Ring." Perhaps, the best way to describe "Shutter" would be "Ringu" meets Antonioni's "Blow-Up" with a starting point right out of "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

"Shutter" finds Tun (Ananda Everingham), a professional photographer, and his wife, Jane (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee), returning from a night of drinking with friends. On the road, they hit a woman crossing the street. Jane wants to check on her, but Tun insists that they drive off and forget the whole thing. Always a bad idea. The next day, Tun takes photos at a graduation only to discover a strange blur in almost all of the photographs. They're even present in the negatives.

Soon, Tun and Jane are haunted by strange visions of you-know-what. When Jane is locked inside Tun's development room, the ghoulish girl crawls out of an overflowing sink, a scene that calls back both "Ringu" and "Dark Water." Another scene shows her climbing down a ladder in a spider-like manner reminiscent of Kayako in "Ju-on." Investigating further, Jane learns that the girl was named Natre (Achita Sikamana) and she was Tun's girlfriend in their college days. The plot thickens when we discover Natre didn't take being dumped very well. Not to mention Tun's old college buddies have committed suicide one-by-one.

The story unfurls in a rather awkward and uninteresting manner. There are points when not much is happening, then we're suddenly given big chunks of exposition in the span of a few minutes. Tun and Jane's sleuthing consists of them talking with the editor of a tabloid specializing in photos that may have ghosts hidden in the background. He painfully spells out everything we need to know by explaining that the spirits are trying to contact the living, yadda, yadda, yadda. Even with so much exposition, the film still leaves a few questions unanswered.

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Shante (Vivica Fox) has moved to Atlanta and is now a relationship expert. In one of her case studies, we meet Byron (Jason Winston George), the new winner of a television game show which offers him the chance to work with project manager Carla (Kellita Smith). Trouble is, Carla makes a play for Byron and Byron's girlfriend Tiffany (Jazsmin Lewis) catches them. That's when her good friend Linda (Terri Vaughn) introduces her to Shante, who sets about to teach her how to fix her relationship. Meanwhile, Byron's good friend Gizzard (Tony Rock) is also giving him tips, which are vastly different from those Shante is giving Tiffany.

Lonely Lilia (Hiam Abass), a widow with a teenage daughter, Salma (Hend El Fahem) sews and sweeps and dresses drably, lives like an empty shell. Her life is going nowhere, and she is withdrawn, resigned. Reluctantly, she allows herself to be drawn into the world of the cabaret in her neighbourhood, where several women bellydance for the regular clientele. As she warms to the idea and begins to dance regularly, her enjoyment of bellydancing, the sensuality of the music, brings out her true self again, but she hides it from friends and neighbours. Meanwhile her daughter has secretly fallen in love with a musician, Cokri (Maher Kamoun) at the cabaret, who becomes infatuated with Lilia, not realising she’s his girlfriend’s mother.

‘That’s the final straw, you are going to England!’ belts out Malibu dad Aidan Quinn as he sends his brat daughter Emma Roberts across the Atlantic for yet another film set at a British boarding school. Roberts’s roller-coaster accent of rising vowels and spoiled ‘be-atch’ attitude don’t go down well among the jolly hockeysticks crowd, but those girls, led by uppity head Georgia King, aren’t so palatable either. It takes Roberts’s level-headed roommates to pesuade her of the benefits of a more agreeable approach to life.

Adult co-stars Shirley Henderson and Natasha Richardson struggle valiantly as a matron and headmistress and Daisy Donovan and Nick Frost have amusing small roles as a teacher and a hairdresser, but young Alex Pettyfer (‘Stormbreaker’) as the headmistress’s dishy son is as wooden as Gordon Brown at a Southwold photocall. The directing by Working Title’s longtime editor Nick Moore (‘Notting Hill’, ‘Love Actually’) shows little knack for comic timing – but the script offers few gags beyond fart jokes and the basest of cultural-clash observations. This celebration of mid-Atlantic compromise is one for the youngest and most forgiving of teenage girls.

‘That’s the final straw, you are going to England!’ belts out Malibu dad Aidan Quinn as he sends his brat daughter Emma Roberts across the Atlantic for yet another film set at a British boarding school. Roberts’s roller-coaster accent of rising vowels and spoiled ‘be-atch’ attitude don’t go down well among the jolly hockeysticks crowd, but those girls, led by uppity head Georgia King, aren’t so palatable either. It takes Roberts’s level-headed roommates to pesuade her of the benefits of a more agreeable approach to life.

Adult co-stars Shirley Henderson and Natasha Richardson struggle valiantly as a matron and headmistress and Daisy Donovan and Nick Frost have amusing small roles as a teacher and a hairdresser, but young Alex Pettyfer (‘Stormbreaker’) as the headmistress’s dishy son is as wooden as Gordon Brown at a Southwold photocall. The directing by Working Title’s longtime editor Nick Moore (‘Notting Hill’, ‘Love Actually’) shows little knack for comic timing – but the script offers few gags beyond fart jokes and the basest of cultural-clash observations. This celebration of mid-Atlantic compromise is one for the youngest and most forgiving of teenage girls.

An enchanting triptych of romantic mishaps set in the City of Lights from the French New Wave's moralistic majordomo, Eric Rohmer (MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S). Three angst-ridden couples struggle with insecurities, infidelities, misunderstandings, and mistakes while traversing the landscape of sidewalk cafes, museums, and markets.

A delightful, visually inventive fantasy concerning a bored Roman housewife who finds relief from the mundane and from her philandering husband through sensual escapades in the spirit realm–her own subconscious. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best (Color) Art Direction-Set Decoration.

Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) is on top of the world, having just been promoted in the job she loves, by her wholesome food store guru boss (Steve Martin), and is enjoying her beautiful Philadelphia apartment and financial security. Unmarried, with no immediate prospects for a husband, Kate is 37 and desperate to have a baby – to the delight of her sister Caroline (Maura Tierney). When told by a fertility specialist she has a million-to-one chance of falling pregnant, she visits Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver) head of a surrogacy centre, who introduces her to Angie (Amy Poehler), a potential surrogate. The now-pregnant Angie has a bust up with her man Carl (Dax Shepard) and turns up at Kate's doorstep with nowhere to live. Meanwhile, Kate finds romance with local juice-bar owner Rob (Greg Kinnear).

Okay, alright. Maybe I was a tad harsh with the Chipmunks. My recent review of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Alvinnn!!! Edition left little room for reevaluation of the artistic merit of the '80s TV reboot of the venerable little vermin (I've since learned that words like "stink," hurt), but after watching Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set, I'm embarrassed to write…it wasn't so bad. God, it hurts to write that! Three titles are included here in this boxed set: Trick or Treason, Alvin's Thanksgiving Celebration, and A Chipmunk Christmas, which includes the 1981 Chuck Jones-produced TV special. My own little vermin had what used to be commonly referred to as "the vapors" when they saw the holiday-themed offerings here, and I have little doubt your own kids will feel the same way.

Now, I'm not backtracking on the aesthetic value of these animated shorts. I still fail to see anything here that's really of any lasting value (except for the Chuck Jones effort). These are disposable cartoon filler: innocuous to kids, entirely forgettable to adults. But there is something about gathering together four or five of these shorts under a common theme – holidays, in this case – that does offer a bit more viewing "weight," if you will. Obviously, that certain something "extra" in the Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set comes from our nostalgic "good times" associations with those holidays, and with holiday animated TV fare in general. Do the shorts in Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set match up with the celebrated Rankin/Bass or Chuck Jones holiday efforts? Hmmm…not at all (even the Chuck Jones-designed A Chipmunk Christmas is decidedly thin). But kids in the mood for an early start to their holiday obsessions won't care about venerability.

That being said, a couple of the shorts here do provide a bit of a diversion from the pap that dominated the Alvin and the Chipmunks reboot when it ran on NBC back in the '80s – and that's because these three examples weren't produced for that particular '80s run. On the Trick or Treason disc, the self-titled short, which was actually produced as a special in 1994, has a rather mature theme of the boys getting to know a handicapped child who is taunted and teased for his appearance. It's a predictable little story, but it is handled with taste and surprising honesty (someone asks the boy directly about his appearance, and he doesn't shy away from discussing it – unusual for this type of a short), which is in its favor. A Chipmunk Celebration, also produced in 1994, has a predictable story, as well (the Chipmunks perform in a community play, while Dave organizes a family reunion), but somebody took the time to add some fun elements (a Fantasia-like dream sequence, as well as a surprising Ship of Fools reference – how did that get in there?), giving the short a bit of distinction.

And finally, A Chipmunk Christmas, while not a classic in the sense of perennial favorites like Frosty the Snowman or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, does have the Chipmunks looking quite vintage and quirkily shaped by character designer Chuck Jones, while the evocative, densely detailed backgrounds come courtesy of Toby Bluth (who has his own specially designed calligraphy for his single name, "Toby," in the credits – nice). This Christmas special, which aired on NBC in December of 1981, was the first official Chipmunks venture after original Chipmunks creator Ross Bagdasarian died in 1972, and its success set into motion the TV reboot of the series in 1983. It's also the last time the Chipmunks really act like the Chipmunks of old, with Alvin getting quite cross from time to time, and Dave – grumpy and ticked off – coming off miles away from the version of the lobotomized sitcom dad of the Saturday morning edition. Even though it was produced in '81, it has the feel of something from the late '60s or early '70s, and its inclusion here – along with some of their biggest holiday songs on the soundtrack – on the Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set is a welcome addition.

Here are the 9 shorts included on the three-disc boxed set, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set.

TRICK OR TREASON

Trick or Treason (1994)
Alvin is desperate to join the Monster Club, a gang of mean boys who ridicule the new kid, Michael, because he's handicapped. Alvin will do anything to get one of those flashy club jackets, but after Theodore tells Alvin Michael is his new best friend, Alvin has second thoughts.

Babysitter Fright Night (1988)
The boys have a new babysitter…who's so ugly and mean that the boys are convinced she's a witch.

Theodore's Life as a Dog (1988)
After Alvin plays a mean trick on Theodore, making him eat a dog biscuit, Simon and Theodore plot revenge, with Theodore pretending to be a dog.

Nightmare on Seville Street (1989)
Alvin disobeys Dave and sees a scary movie…and now he thinks Dave's "Hideous Harold."

No Chipmunk is an Island (1988)
Dave's solution for the boys fighting constantly? They all get their own rooms…and scary dreams to go along with them.

ALVIN'S THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION

A Chipmunk Celebration (1994)
Things don't work out quite the way the boys planned when they're given different assignments for the local community play, than they hoped for. Too bad they invited all their family over for a reunion and after-play celebration.

Food for Thought (1988)
Theodore is having trouble remembering his American history…including the first Thanksgiving. So Simon comes up with a novel approach: learning through food.

Cookie Chomper III (1989)
The boys adopt a stray kitten…who then gets run over by a car.

Dave's Getting Married (1988)
Dave's getting married…to a woman who has three little boys of her own. And they don't like chipmunks.

A CHIPMUNK CHRISTMAS

A Chipmunk Christmas (1981)
A sick little boy, who may not live to see Christmas, spurs the boys to raise enough money to buy the little boy's favorite toy.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Carroll (1989)
Alvin is in the middle of A Christmas Carol reboot when he acts selfishly right before Christmas.

Dave's Wonderful Life (1988)
Dave's in the middle of a It's a Wonderful Life reboot when money becomes tight, and he starts to believe that the Chipmunks would be better off without him.

The DVD:

The Video:
The full-screen, 1.33:1 video transfers for Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set look about the same as the other disc I reviewed for The Chipmunks, although these transfers did seem to be a tad brighter and cleaner (perhaps because they weren't as old?). Interlacing is still a problem, but not a major one.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 2.0 stereo audio track is agreeably strong, with all songs heard to much better advantage than the previous mono tracks. Close-captioning is available.

The Extras:
There are no extras for Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set.

Final Thoughts:
Okay. So I stand not corrected, but perhaps…more in the upcoming holiday spirit. Gathering together holiday-related episodes from the final two seasons of Alvin and the Chipmunks (when it was produced by DIC), as well as a vintage 1981 Christmas short, and two 1994 shorts, helped bring me around to these later incarnations of the group I grew up with on The Alvin Show. A couple of these shorts, particularly the Chuck Jones-designed A Chipmunk Christmas, were actually enjoyable. I'm…recommending the Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set (jesus).

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.

"Cynical look at America during
the 1950s."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Jayne Mansfield appeared in George Axelrod's Broadway play which
Frank Tashlin ("The Girl Can't Help It") adapts for film by writing the
screenplay and directing. Tashlin made it into a sharp satire about sex,
money and fame. He connects TV and advertising as being one and the same.
It's a lush Technicolor (showing what movies can do, but TV can't) cynical
look at America during the 1950s. It makes its point that talent doesn't
matter as much for success as appearance, luck, nerve and having the right
connections. Going a step further, it says the success ethic and climbing
the company ladder is bogus. When the big boss of the ad agency tells the
average man who made it to the top, "Success will fit you like a shroud,"
the poison dart message is delivered as if it were a lethal blow. In the
end, the 'average joe' learns that "success is the art of being happy."

The plot is basic. It has Jayne Mansfield as squeaky-voiced, flamboyant
dressing and bosomy Hollywood starlet Rita Marlowe, a Marilyn Monroe type,
seeking seclusion in New York from her fans and her Jungle Boy TV actor
boyfriend Bobo, played by Mansfield's real-life muscleman husband Mickey
Hargitay. Failing television commercial writer Rock Hunter (Tony Randall)
recruits Rita to endorse Stay-Put Lipstick, whose motto is "For those oh-so-kissable
lips!", in order to save the account for his advertising company and his
own job. Rock gets Rita's hotel address through his teenager niece April,
who is president of Rita's New York fan club. Since Rita's boyfriend Bobo
was seen with a blonde, prompting the vain actress to go in a snit, she
uses Rock by letting on he's her new boyfriend and is a great lover. The
stunt makes Bobo jealous and lands Rock her endorsement of his product
(using the familiar business mantra, I'll scratch your back if you scratch
mine), but upsets Rock's nice girl secretary fiancée Jenny Wells
(Betsy Drake) when it's learned the star and the hot executive plan to
announce their engagement on TV as a publicity stunt. Joan Blondell as
Violet is the secretary, confidante and travelling companion of Rita, who
has a fine ear for comedy as she plays straightwoman for Jayne. Groucho
Marx has a cameo near the concluding scene.

Besides being hilarious, Tashlin cuts deepest into the wrongs of
the society, taking potshots at everyone he could that's a phony (which
includes Hollywood, television, the business world, the gullible consumerist
public and those who bought into the Eisenhower era's age of indifference).
The film bombed at the box office, but has come to be regarded by some
critics and Jean-Luc Godard as a great film.