7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD - body heat - the visitor

THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD: Ray Harryhausen credits King Kong and its creator Willis O’Brien with inspiring him to create his stop-motion masterpieces. But ironically Harryhausen himself influenced an entire generation with movies like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, painstaking crafting a menagerie of monsters from lifeless lumps of clay. The sort of fantasy film that previously existed only in an 8-year-old boy’s imagination, 7th Voyage sends its swashbuckling hero across the ocean to the island of Colossa to battle a one-eyed Cyclops, two-headed birds and a fire-breathing dragon. You might think that Blu-ray would find fault in much of Harryhausen’s work, but if anything the high definition makes the amount of detail put into the model monsters even more impressive. Sony’s slate of extras is impressive too, with Harryhausen joined on a commentary track with several of his effects contemporaries, new featurettes and a hilarious music video for the vintage single “Sinbad May Have Been Bad, But He’s Been Good To Me” released to support the film. BODY HEAT: She may not leave the same legacy as Lauren Bacall, but for one glorious year in 1981 Kathleen Turner was the femme fatale of every man’s dreams. With a near perfect mix of nostalgic tough talk and edgy sex scenes, writer/director Lawrence Kasdan set the box-office on fire with his new-age film noir. William Hurt plays the chump who falls for Turner’s damsel-in-distress act hook, line and sinker then winds up being reeled in for her husband’s murder. A pre-Cheers Ted Danson plays Hurt’s buddy who tries to head off the inevitable, but Body Heat has so much fun watching the scam play-out you almost root for the bad guy...or girl, in this case. The Warner Bros. Blu-ray looks particularly good and features a three-part documentary, including insight into composer John Barry magnificently sultry score, plus a number of lifted scenes. THE VISITOR: Although it wears its politics on its sleeve, writer / director Tom McCarthy’s humanistic drama is a nice companion piece to his well-received debut feature, The Station Agent. Both films focus on uncommon relationships between people who, on the surface, have nothing in common, yet make incredibly strong emotional connections. Walter Parkes (Richard Jenkins) is a reserved college professor who discovers an illegal immigrant couple living in his NYC apartment. But rather than call the police, Walter develops a friendship with his new adopted family, a friendship which is put to the test when one of its members is threatened with deportation. A different take on immigration in post-9/11 America, McCarthy’s film works best when it avoids the rather obvious message behind it. All the cross-cultural politicking in the world can’t compete with a heartbreaking love story, which ultimately is what The Visitor comes down to. Anchor Bay’s Blu-ray presentation is sparklingly clear, with a commentary; deleted scenes and an inside look at the film.