ACED Magazine

Rated: R, R, R, R and G
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Malcolm McDowell, Matthew Modine
Director: Stanley Kubrick

Synopsis: This 10-disc classic collection features five films by director Stanley Kubrick—totally remastered, in wide screen format. A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket Deluxe Edition, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and a full-length documentary, A Life in Pictures.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Stomping, whopping, stealing, singing, tap-dancing, violating. Derby-topped hooligan Alex (Malcolm McDowell) has a good time – at the tragic expense of others. His journey from amoral punk to brainwashed proper citizen and back again forms the dynamic arc of Kubrick’s future-shock vision of Anthony Burgess’ novel. Controversial when first released, the film garnered three Academy Award nominations – Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Its power still entices, shocks and mesmerizes today.

DVD Special Features:

Disc One

• Commentary by Malcolm McDowell and historian Nick Redman

• Theatrical trailer

Disc Two

• Channel 4 documentary: Still Tickin’: The Return of Clockwork Orange

• New featurette: Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making A Clockwork Orange

• Career profile: O Lucky Malcolm!

• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Kubrick’s daring and controversial last film is a bracing psychosexual journey through a haunting dreamscape, a riveting suspense tale and a career milestone for stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Cruise plays a doctor who plunges into an erotic foray that threatens his marriage – and may ensnare him in a murder mystery – after his wife’s (Kidman) admission of sexual longings. As the story sweeps from doubt and fear to self-discovery and reconciliation, Kubrick orchestrates it with masterful flourishes. His graceful tracking shots, rich colors and startling images are some of the bravura traits that show Kubrick as a filmmaker for the ages.

DVD Special Features:

Disc One

• Scene specific commentary by Sydney Pollack and historian Peter Loewenberg

• Theatrical trailer and TV spots

Disc Two

• Channel 4 documentary: The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut

• Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick

• Kubrick’s 1998 DGA D.W Griffith Award acceptance speech

• Interview gallery featuring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Steven Spielberg

• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

T he Shining (1980)

From a script he co-adapted from the Stephen King novel, Kubrick melds vivid performances, menacing settings, dreamlike tracking shots and shock after shock into a milestone of the macabre. The Shining is the director’s epic tale of a man in a snowbound hotel descending into murderous delusions. In a signature role, Jack Nicholson (“Heeeere’s Johnny!”) stars as Jack Torrance, who’s come to the elegant, isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd).

DVD Special Features:

Disc One

• Commentary by Garrett Brown and John Baxter

• Theatrical trailer

Disc Two

• Documentary The Making of the Shining, with optional commentary by Vivian Kubrick

• Three new featurettes: View from The Overlook: Crafting the Shining, The Visions of Stanley Kubrick, and Wendy Carlos, Composer

• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

A superb ensemble falls in for Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant saga about the Vietnam War and the dehumanizing process that turns people into trained killers. The scathing indictment of a film was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Screenplay. Joker (Matthew Modine), Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin), Gomer (Vincent D’Onofrio), Eightball (Dorian Harewood) and Cowboy (Arliss Howard) are some of the Marine recruits experiencing boot-camp hell under the punishing command of the foul-mouthed Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermy). The action is savage, the story unsparing, and the dialogue is spiked with scathing humor.

DVD Special Features:

• Commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and Jay Cocks

• New Featurette: Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil

• Theatrical trailer

• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Stanley Kubrick’s dazzling, Academy AwardÒ-winning achievement (Special Visual Effects) is an allegorical puzzle on the evolution of man and a compelling drama of man vs. machine. Featuring a stunning meld of music and motion, the film was also Oscar® nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay. Kubrick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke) first visits the prehistoric age-ancestry past, then leaps millennia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted space, perhaps even into immortality.

DVD Special Features:

Disc One

• Commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood

• Theatrical trailer

Disc Two

• Channel 4 documentary: 2001: The Making of a Myth

• Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001

• Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001

• 2001: A Space Odyssey- A Look Behind the Future

• 2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork

• Look: Stanley Kubrick!

• Audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick

• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stanley Kubrick – A Life in Pictures

Produced and directed by longtime Kubrick associate Jan Harlan, this full-length documentary includes footage and personal photographs made available by Christiane Kubrick, the director’s wife of more than 42 years. The film paints a surprisingly accessible portrait of Kubrick, giving a strikingly different view of the man and what influenced him as a filmmaker. Among the long list of actors, friends and colleagues paying tribute are Woody Allen, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Shelley Duvall, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Christiane Kubrick, Paul Mazursky, Malcolm McDowell, Matthew Modine, Jack Nicholson, Alan Parker, Sydney Pollack, Richard Schickel, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Douglas Trumbull and Sir Peter Ustinov.

Critique:

Did you actually make it through all of the movie synopses and DVD feature lists for this collection up there? Bravo! Kubrick created a massive amount of inventive, smart films. Whether they thrilled, appalled or inspired—they were always entertaining and unique.

The extras in this 10-disc DVD set are nice compliments to the entire body of work featured, although, I would have liked to see Dr. Strangelove included as that was another excellent example of his abilities.

Although Mr. Kubrick is gone—his work remains and will not be soon forgotten.

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