Parallel storylines converge as Cécile de France and Matt Damon exchange a fateful book in Clint Eastwood’s HEREAFTER.


THE WILD WILD WEST’s Ross Martin stars as a brilliant scien- tist beloved by his father (Otto Kruger) and envied by his brother (John Baragrey), an equally bril- liant engineer—but no match for Martin in his father’s eyes. When Martin is killed, Kruger bullies the pathetic Baragrey into building a robot, a new home for Martin’s brain (Kruger’s low rent Rotwang, combining Frankenstein’s fanati- cism with Im-Ho-Tep’s desire to resurrect his loved one, would have been a better fit for Karloff). The result is a metal monster with the shoulders of a Rock-em- Sock-em Robot and the vacant stare of the robotrix from ME- TROPOLIS. Speaking in a threat- ening, gutteral yawp punctuated by electric pops and snaps, it’s clear the Robo-Martin has under- gone a mood-swing... the jovial


demeanor of the flesh-and-blood scientist has vanished inside this vengeful killing machine. Lourié’s painterly use of shadow and space gives the film a spare, formal look: bargain- basement expressionism. And Van Cleave’s music abets the film’s somber mood; comprised of sternly declamatory notes pounded out by a solo piano, it keeps any ray of sunshine at bay, particularly in the eerie se- quences of the robot trodding underwater and the final confron- tation between the two warring brothers.


Olive Film’s DVD presents THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK in its original aspect ratio (1:78) with excellent detail and a vivid mono soundtrack. The ominous, crackling voice of the Colossus is particularly intimidating.


HEREAFTER 2010, Warner,


$28.98, 128m 50s, DVD By Michael Barrett


Scene by scene, this latest film from director Clint Eastwood spins a yarn with calm mastery from three parallel and alternat- ing threads. It begins with a French TV reporter (Cécile de France) who survives a stunningly executed CGI tsunami with a glimpse of au-delà—the beyond, the hereafter. When she decides to write a book about it, a conve- nient scientist named Rousseau (Marthe Keller) hands her every- thing she needs, saying “It’s irre- futable.” The second thread follows twin boys (Frankie and George McLaren) who suffer a loss in London, while the third focuses on George (Matt Damon),


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