dvd

Roger Corman's Cult Classics: The Nurses Collection

NOTWITHSTANDING any lingering affection for some of the starlets who appeared in Roger Corman's B-movie productions of the '70s (you are missed, Candice Rialson), the best reason to invest in this two-disc retro-sexploitation collection are the docs accompanying the four films: Candy Stripe Nurses, Private Duty Nurses, Night Call Nurses, and Young Nurses.

Two docs, Paging Dr. Corman and Anatomy of a Nurse Movie delineate the amusing and amazing history of cheapskate producer Roger Corman's so-called "nurse cycle" of exploitation classics. It turns out Corman had watched the tawdry hit studio film Valley of the Dolls (1967) and decided to copy the dramatic structure, following three different women in their professional/erotic lives. Corman perfected the formula to the extent that in each movie, the blond woman would anchor the comic story, the dark-haired woman would become embroiled in a kinkier plot, and a woman of colour would anchor the movie in a '70s-contemporary political story.

Director Jonathan Kaplan would go on to directing Oscar bait films such as the Jodie Foster movie The Accused, but he got his feature filmmaking start with Corman on Night Call Nurses (1972). In a rollicking interview, he recalls how Corman suggested he deal with a recalcitrant actress who rebelled when it came time to shooting a nude scene, telling him to drive down Sunset Boulevard and hire the skankiest prostitute he could find to fill in as a body double, thus compelling the actress to doff her duds. (Kaplan didn't take that advice, and in the end just resorted to wheedling.)

For his part, Corman insists the films were basically feminist because each of the heroines managed to take control of their own problems, which must be the ultimate example of having your cheesecake and eating it too. 'Ö'Ö'Ö

The Divide

THIS shot-in-Winnipeg film by French filmmaker Xavier Gens brings the bleak in a microcosmic tale of the breakdown of civilization.

Almost entirely set in the basement bomb shelter of a New York apartment building, it begins with an impressive shock sequence with bombs dropping on the Big Apple. A handful of tenants manage to invade the private bomb shelter of the block's dyspeptic caretaker Mickey (Michael Biehn). They include the sketchy semi-hoodlum Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and his pal Bobby (Canadian actor Michael Eklund); a terrified mom (Rosanna Arquette) of a young daughter (Winnipeg actress Abbey Thickson), a prickly tenant (Courtney B. Vance), and an estranged couple, Eva (Lauren German) and her bookish boyfriend Sam (Ivan Gonzalez).

Establishing himself as the alpha male, Mickey complains about the intrusion onto his property, but opens up his bountiful stores of hoarded food and water to his guests. But a mysterious threat from outside manifests itself. Before long, the survivors commence to self-destruct from within.

Biehn plays an interesting variation of the other alpha males he has portrayed in past films, adding streaks or bigotry and rage to a character that might otherwise be regarded as a reluctant hero.

The real villainy comes courtesy of Eklund and Ventimiglia, who offer up fearlessly toxic portrayals of unchecked degeneracy, in both a moral and physical sense.

It is strong stuff, not recommended for frail sensibilities ... although the most bothersome aspect of the movie is an unresolved mystery regarding the aforementioned external threat. It's a loose thread that goes maddeningly unplucked.

Sparse Blu-ray extras include a commentary track by Gens, Biehn, Ventimiglia and Eklund, and the theatrical trailer. 'Ö'Ö'Ö

Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol

Tom Cruise is going to the well with this fourth Mission Impossible movie. When the former box office champ is not playing superspy Ethan Hunt, he seems to be doing oddball variations in films such as 2010's Knight and Day and the 2008 thriller Valkyrie (Mission Impossible in Nazi Germany).

Those two films bombed, of course. But if Cruise here is retreating to the safety of a franchise, one can not deny the pleasures of this movie's action movie spectacle under the direction of Brad Bird (The Incredibles). The movie opens to follow Hunt escaping a Soviet prison, joining newly minted field agent Benji (Simon Pegg) and the more seasoned operative Jane (Paula Patton) in breaking into the Kremlin to steal some nuclear launch codes before they end up in the hands of a suspected nuclear terrorist known as Cobalt (Mikael Nyqvist).

But Cobalt, a mad genius bent on world destruction, has arrived first and bombs the place, leaving behind the impression that Hunt's team has gone rogue.

After Knight and Day, Cruise's return to the solemn agent character seems a touch stale. But one cannot fault his commitment, especially when it gets him out on the sheer glass face of the tallest building in the world in the film's most gripping sequence.

Still, Bird's foray into live-action has less soul than his animated films, especially his excellent nuclear fable The Iron Giant (1999). Much like the title character of that film, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a big, beautiful, shiny machine with only a tenuous grasp on human interaction.

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randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

1. We Bought a Zoo (left)

2. War Horse

3. The Darkest Hour

4. The Iron Lady

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

6. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

7. The Descendants

8. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

9. The Sitter

10. A Dangerous Method

-- Rogers Video, week ending April 15

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 19, 2012 E4