This week: Go all the way with 'Guardians' again, Michael Fassbender goes under the mask in 'Frank,' everyone else is still 'Under the Dome.'
► Oh those long ago days of July, when people were actually wondering if GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY was going to end Marvel's hot streak. Instead, it trounced the latest Transformers fecal matter to rightfully become the biggest movie of the year. How did director James Gunn do it? With a stealthy mix of nostalgia (the music, the western themes) and spunk (Chris Pratt-instant star, Rocket freakin' Raccoon) for a flick that stands strong on its own and fits seamlessly into Marvel's movie universe. Oh, and it was big-time fun. Not a sequel, not a remake, a throwback to the big summer movies of the “80s. Extras include a Gunn commentary, deleted scenes and an extended look at Avengers: Age of Ultron.
► In Lenny Abrahamson's weird musical comedy FRANK, Domhnall Gleason is an aspiring songwriter who comes upon a man trying to drown himself, and learns he's the keyboardist in an indie band. To prove their weird cred, the singer Frank (Michael Fassbender) wears a paper mache head at all times. When the group starts getting popular, the band's fiercely protective theramin player (Maggie Gyllenhaal) worries about selling out. The initial comedy gives way to a sad character study by the end.
► That whole gang returns for DOLPHIN TALE 2, in which bottlenose dolphin Winter and her prosthetic tale lose a friend at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. With the facility getting reprimanded for keeping her in isolation, a new rescued dolphin keeps her company. But once she's rehabilitated, the aquarium is obligated to release her back into the ocean. Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr. and Kris Kristofferson are back.
► Look, I'm not proud of it, but like every kid of the '70s I watched any and everything related to Happy Days. In 1978, that meant the perfectly awful spin-off show MORK & MINDY, based on the alien who challenged Fonz in the official "this show now sucks" Season 5 episode. The only reason this was remotely watchable was the obvious comic brilliance of Robin Williams, who powered through every episode with more coked-up energy than we could handle. Seriously, he was so great here it took him more than a decade to get out of Mork's shadow. The Complete Series gathers all 95 episodes, and Season One – clunky as it is – is a nostalgic revisit of what passed for “must see" TV in the late '70s (it finished #3 in the ratings). The downfall in Season 2 is jarring, not helped by ABC's idiotic decision to move the show from Thursday to Sunday. Season 3 tries righting the ship (the premiere is even called “Putting the Ork Back in Mork), and things got so desperate in Season 4, Jonathan Winters joins the cast as Mork and Mindy's backward aging son. Boxed set includes gag reels (and with Williams, you can just imagine) and the two Mork episodes of “Happy Days."
► Herzog and his Nazi Zombies return for DEAD SNOW 2: RED vs. DEAD. Martin (Vegar Hoel) wakes up in a hospital after escaping the undead, but discovers the arm he sawed off to prevent infection has been replaced with one of Colonel Herzog's limbs. Naturally, it has a mind of its own. Soon enough, the zombie horde is back to finish its business of wiping out an entire Norwegian town. Some old Russian POWs will have none of that. Second serving of splatter comedy from director Tommy Wirkola.
► And speaking of Nazis, Criterion serves up a dandy this week with THE NIGHT PORTER (1974), Italian director Liliana Cavani's artful story of a former SS officer (Dirk Bogarde) and his sadomasochistic relationship with a concentration camp survivor (Charlotte Rampling). Roger Ebert called it "…despicable" at the time, and the film's infatuation with humiliation and suffering can be tough to endure. Cavani provides some insight with a newly filmed interview. Also included is “Women of the Resistance," his 1965 documentary on partisans who survived the German invasion of Italy.
► Showrunner Neal Baer has said five season of UNDER THE DOME is needed to tell the story, but that's unlikely after ratings for Season 2 dipped sharply. And maybe it's best to wrap this up, since it should have been a mini-series to begin with. There's only so much middling around and “near escapes" viewers can take before things get as stale as the air under that mysterious dome. Things stray further from Stephen King's book in the 13-episode second season, as the environment and depleted resources make things even more miserable for the trapped townsfolk of Chester Mills.
► Criterion also doles out Todd Haynes woefully overlooked SAFE (1995) this week, featuring a killer performance by Julianne Moore as a San Fernando homemaker who suffers a condition called MCS, or “Twentieth Century Disease." Basically, she develops strange symptoms from everyday life and she's convinced it's from the chemicals in products around her. In these Ebola-sensitive times, this one will leave you afraid to touch anything for days.
Also out this week:
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