Help!
D: Richard Lester
MPI Home Video In this compelling rock comedy, the Beatles get squashed by international intrigue when a mystical Eastern cult cartoonishly plots to reseize their sacrificial ring from Ringo’s ring finger. Not surprisingly, the uninteresting plot line exists purely as a vehicle for the Beatles to be cute, and crack funny, pointed jokes. The soundtrack, with seven songs from their record of the same name, continues to stand the test of time, and this rerelease of Help! has eight additional minutes of footage, including the original trailer and radio clips backed by stills from the movie. –Taylor Holland
A Hard Day’s Night
D: Richard Lester
MPI Home Video This first Beatles’ movie is a shameless attempt to pander to gaga fans, with the boys breaking into song at every possible opportunity as their manager tries to keep them in line for an appearance on an Ed Sullivan-like TV show. And in a subplot that might seem offensive in these days of powerful elderly lobbies, the boys must in turn keep track of Paul’s “cheeky” grandfather, a “mixer” who nearly succeeds in talking Ringo into quitting the band. Despite all this, A Hard Day’s Night still works as a very funny film — it’s easy to see why the lads drew early comparisons to the Marx brothers, as they exchange subtle barbs and deadpan lines with style and comedic flair. And oh, yeah, this rerelease contains the experimental Peter Sellers film that turned the boys on to director Lester in the first place. — Dave Cook
Blockbuster Video Guide
CD-ROM for Windows
Creative Multimedia Blockbuster Video has come up with an alternative to those giant annual movie and video books, an interactive CD-ROM with the ability to update its contents monthly or yearly, for a small fee. The CD’s main menu is a grand style movie theatre, complete with curtain and usher. From this point, one can read about a favorite star, learn the histories of different movie genres, or challenge a friend’s knowledge of movies in general. All these options are improvements on the video guide books, which offer only list biographies of actors and directors. On a few movies (40 or so) the CD offers a short clip played with Quicktime — software the CD installs for you. I found myself craving more, and I can only assume that the “small fee” updates download even more short clips. If using a movie guide is something you do before running down to the video store, this CD-ROM is for you. — Nisa Sharma
Dogs
CD-ROM for Windows
Microsoft Panels of text and pictures explain breeding, care, and origin of about 150
dogs while human-voiced guides (sometimes annoyingly) narrate doggie facts and
stories. The panels offer click points for facts, ownership tips, quizzes, and
film clips. Unfortunately, the click points frequently invoke unrelated
information, none of which is in-depth. Dogs does include plenty of
nifty video clips, dog biscuit-shaped menu buttons that crunch, screen savers,
and wallpaper. Play the doggie piano, and hear dogs bark your tunes — way
cool! –Sarah Hamlin
Virtua Fighter
Videogame
Sega Genesis 32-X The Sega Genesis 32-X (an add-on to the original Genesis) has been treated as
the ugly stepchild of next-generation game platforms during the past year. Now,
it finally has a piece of software to crow about. Virtua Fighter 32-X has all
eight fighters, all 700 moves, and (if you play like me) all the humiliation of
the arcade and Saturn versions. Thankfully, the difficulty of the computer
opponent is adjustable, or you can just beat up on a friend. This is an
outstanding 3-D polygon fighter.
— Bud Simons
What Price Survival
D: Lee Yan-kong; with Ng Hing-kwok, Charlie Yueng Choi-nee, David Chiang
Ta-wei, Damian Lau, Tsui Sui-kueng.
Long Shong Video An overlooked gem that deserves discovery, What Price Survival is a
coolly melodramatic, carefully paced swordplay picture that recalls the
old-school nihilism of early Chang Cheh. This tale of warring martial arts
clans, set in a surrealistic world dominated by a sword-wielding underworld
straight out of any 1970s “Black Belt Theatre” epic, is given power by the
uniformly excellent performances from the talented cast, as well as Lee
Yan-kong’s intense direction. This was one of the best Hong Kong films of last
year, and well worth seeking out. — Joey O’Bryan
This article appears in November 3 • 1995 and November 3 • 1995 (Cover).