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Comedy-drama hopes to capitalize on politics, Obama's inauguration
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Jan 11, 2009
During the summer, the movie Swing Vote tried to take advantage of the presidential campaign by hitting theaters with a politically themed comedy-drama.
I can see the logic. Swing Vote not only had politics, it also had a likable star in Kevin Costner, there were plenty of promo-friendly scenes and the supporting cast included familiar faces like Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper and Nathan Lane.
But the movie itself was not very good. Costner played a beer-swilling loser who, through a series of events, becomes the one guy whose vote will decide a presidential campaign. And five minutes in — if not already from the trailers — you rightly suspected that the frenzy around the guy would help make him a better man.
It isn't all bad — and Costner's big speech near the end is effective for about half its length — but you have seen plenty of movies with this kind of uplift before. And moviegoers apparently decided they had seen it enough, as Swing Vote faded at the box office, and continued a recent Costner streak of indifferently received films.
But with the inauguration of a new president not far off, Swing Vote tries yet again to capitalize on politics, hitting video stores Tuesday on DVD (Touchstone, $29.99) and high-definition Blu-ray ($34.99).
It comes with extras like a making-of piece, deleted and extended scenes and an audio commentary by Joshua Michael Stern, who directed and co-wrote the film, and writer Jason Richman. But it still doesn't work. (And elsewhere in this section, you can find my suggestions for other political movies more worth your time.)
Speaking of things more worth your time, when I dipped into the recent big-screen version of Brideshead Revisited (Miramax, $29.99), all I could think about was the much superior television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, which also is on DVD (Acorn Media, $59.99).
The 1981 TV version of the story of a young man drawn into an upper-class family is about five times as long as the theatrical production, but that gives it more time to tell the story and to probe the characters. And, while the film has impressive players like Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon, the TV series stars a young Jeremy Irons (also available on the DVD commentary on the series premiere) and Anthony Andrews, along with a supporting cast including John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Claire Bloom.
Of course, you could get both and compare them. But in the end I think you will still prefer the TV production.
Fans of the early years of Saturday Night Live should remember the name Michael O'Donoghue, both a writer on the show and an on-camera presence as the unnerving Mr. Mike. During his tenure with the show, he also did a special, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video, an extended satire featuring a lot of Saturday Night Live players in sketches (a cat-swimming school, the church of Jack Lord) and musical performances by Sid Vicious and the late, great Root Boy Slim. The bits were often unsettling and occasionally funny. NBC declined to air the show; it was shown in some movie theaters and released on videocassette — although Paul Anka's publishing company declined to let the cassette include My Way, written by Anka and performed by Vicious. The tape retained the Vicious video with a screen note explaining the lack of audio.
You can see this all for yourself when Shout! Factory brings Mr. Mike's Mondo Video to DVD on Tuesday ($19.99). The DVD version also omits the Vicious audio. But it adds some of O'Donoghue's ''Least Loved Bedtime Tales'' from SNL, as well as Bill Murray's SNL tribute to O'Donoghue following his death in 1994. And it has some intermittently interesting commentary by Mitch Glazer, a writer on Mondo.
Also of DVD note is Skins: Volume 1 (BBC Video, nine episodes, three discs, $39.99), the first collection of episodes from the highly praised BBC series about alienated contemporary teens. I liked the series quite a bit when watching it on BBC America. It had a strong cast, an unblinking view of what young people do, and solid storytelling. Skins also put aside the glossiness infecting American teen-soaps like 90210 and Gossip Girl in favor of a more natural and grimy look.
And the new DVD release presents the series uncut, while BBC America edited some of the rawer content and language.
Briefly noted: HBO Video on Tuesday releases Little Britain USA (six episodes, two discs, $29.98), a collection of the American journeys of the British sketch-comedy show; a BBC Video publicist nicely asked me to point out that the original Little Britain: The Complete Collection also is on DVD.
Ed Harris is a reliable and often-seen actor, who can move easily from character parts to leads and back again. But he has directed, including the acclaimed Pollock and the recent western Appaloosa (Warner, $28.98 on standard DVD, $35.99 on Blu-ray). Harris also co-wrote and stars in the western, reteaming onscreen with Viggo Mortensen; both also were in the wonderful A History of Violence.
In last week's DVD column, I mentioned a PBS production hitting DVD before telecast. Here we go again: On Tuesday, you can get comedy history Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America (Rhino, six episodes, three discs, $34.95). The series begins airing on PBS on Wednesday.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://heldenfels.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
During the summer, the movie Swing Vote tried to take advantage of the presidential campaign by hitting theaters with a politically themed comedy-drama.
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