Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES
I, II, III & IV • February 20, 2013 Middle-Eastern and Oriental splendor. The first movie to be budgeted at $1 million, it also stands as the best of Fairbanks’ many swashbucklers. Bonuses on the color-tinted Blu-ray and DVD editions include a behind-the-scenes featurette and audio commentary by Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance. “Sinister” (Summit Entertainment) draws upon the “found footage” horror sub-genre. Ten years ago, true crime writer Ellison Oswald (Ethan Hawke) made his reputation with a best-selling account of a notorious murder. Now, desperate to replicate the success of his first book, he moves his family into a house where the previous occupants were brutally executed and a child disappeared. He hopes to be inspired by living in the crime scene. In the house, Ellison discovers a batch of home movies, unwittingly opening the door to a nightmarish mystery. It is hard to warm to Hawke’s Ellison. He lies to his family, endangers them, fails to report evidence to the police, and seems thoroughly self-absorbed. The film is creepy, but never works up to a truly frightening sequence. Extras on the Blu-ray release include deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, and the short film, “True Crime Authors.”
DVD releases
(continued from Restaurant page) performances are dull and lack conviction. Little effort is made to provide decent characterization, so it is difficult for viewers to become involved. The unrated movie, available in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, comes with deleted scenes, a featurette on its special effects, and a digital copy. “The Thief of Bagdad” (Cohen Media Group), one of the most popular movies of the silent era, is an elaborate Arabian Nights adventure fantasy. The acrobatic, energetic Douglas Fairbanks is at his best as Ahmed, who leads a carefree life in old Bagdad as a thief with a magic rope to climb high walls and steal at will. When he sees the lovely Princess (Julanne Johnston), he is smitten and disguises himself as one of her four suitors. The one who will bring her the rarest treasure will become her husband. This 1924 fantasy epic marked a new peak for action cinema. Visually extravagant, “The Thief of Bagdad” features sets by William Cameron Menzies that combine