Dayton's Blog: A pimple on the ass of the Internet.

This isn't a movie review. It's just me rambling as I continue to consider the film I watched last night.

Taking Chance was but one on a stack of DVD's I've purchased over the past couple of months, but until recently haven't had time to watch. I knew it was a film I was going to want to watch, rather than simply let play in the background while I tended to other things. I also knew that watching it would bring back memories I had not revisited in quite some time, and to be honest I was reluctant to go down that road. So, on the stack of DVDs it sat, waiting for me to have an evening where I could dedicate my full attention to it.

Last night was the night.

I spent a good bit of time after the film concluded just sorting out what I'd watched, trying to make sense of the chaotic blur of memories as well as scenes from the film which were rushing around and past each other in my head. Beyond simply laughing at a joke, smiling or throwing out the occasional "Yeah!" at cool action, or flinching when something intense or even scary happens, it's a rare occasion for me to have any sort of true emotional reaction to a movie.

Simply put, Taking Chance knocked me on my ass.

It's not a war movie, nor a military propaganda piece. Based on actual events, it's simply the story of one young man and the impact he made on those around him, in death as well as throughout his all-too brief life. The story focuses on Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl (as portrayed by Kevin Bacon), a Marine officer stationed at Quantico in 2004 who volunteers to escort home the remains of Private First Class Chance Phelps, a young Marine killed in Iraq. Strobl is at first drawn to Phelps upon learning they both hail from the same town in Colorado. Though he's later told Phelps will be transported to Dubois, Wyoming, because that's where his family resides, Strobl still opts to act as the fallen Marine's escort. The balance of the film covers Strobl's journey from the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to Dubois, accompanying the casket containing Phelps' remains every step of the way.

I've performed escort duty, so I can attest to the care -- even reverence -- with which the body of a fallen service member is handled throughout the process of preparing the remains for transport home. No detail is overlooked, no task performed in perfunctory fashion. It is a solemn undertaking, carried out with precision and respect. In this and many other areas, the film's accuracy is to be praised.

The scenes depicting PFC Phelps' journey were difficult to watch. Unlike LtCol Strobl, I knew the Marine I escorted; he was one of mine. I got the call about his death on Easter Sunday in 1996, and I spent the next eight days inventorying his personal effects, overseeing every aspect of the preparations to take him home, and accompanying his casket. Except for the actual flight, I spent every moment of the journey from Kansas City to his home town in arm's reach of his casket, to include sitting with it in a cargo hangar at the airport. I spent three days with his family and friends, listening to their stories and attending his funeral. I was struck by how loved and respected he was by the countless people I encountered. It was one of the most emotionally-taxing experiences of my life, and it naturally was nothing compared to what the family was enduring.

As I watched the movie, I couldn't stop those recollections from coming forth, but it wasn't until I got to the scenes of Strobl standing vigil alongside Phelps' casket that they all just seemed to push forward and hammer at me. I had to pause the film more than once and just sit there, processing long-dormant memories. Easter never passes without me pausing to remember the young Marine (I do the same thing on Halloween, owing to an unrelated yet similarly tragic incident involving another Marine), though this was something I hadn't really pondered for years. In my head, it was 1996 again, and I had just returned home, drained from the heart-wrenching duty I'd completed.

It may well be the oddest damned thing that's ever happened to me while watching a movie; the closest thing to a "flashback" I've experienced. When it was over, I just let the thoughts and memories roam at will, sorting themselves out. This blog entry was originally going to be about something completely unrelated to the movie or my reactions, but once I started typing it all just came out.

Weird.

During my lunch break, I ran to the store and now I have in my possession Madagascar: The Complete Collection, which features both movies as well as The Penguins of Madagascar. I'm gettin' my Madagascar on well ahead of the forthcoming Nickelodeon series featuring said Penguins. I bought the set for the kids, you understand, and I will in no way derive any enjoyment of my own from the forthcoming viewing experience.

Nope. Not. At All.

Oh, and I really can't leave this entry without typing Madagascar again.

So....Madagascar.

Bought Kung Fu Panda earlier this week on a whim, having missed it in theaters (a recurring theme with regard to movies and parenthood). I figured Addy might get a kick (HA!) out of it. I'm secure enough in my masculinity that I can say I thought it was a lot of fun. There were several sequences that had me laughing out loud. Well worth the coin I plunked down for it.

So far, I've been 3 for 3 on recent DVD purchases for movies we missed over the summer (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk being the other two).

In other DVD news, I finally got to sit down and reward myself with a screening of the L.A. Confidential special edition DVD, which along with the third season of The Unit I'd forced myself not to dork with until after I'd finished the Vanguard novel. Well worth the wait. This is one of my favorite movies, and I'd bypassed the bare-bones edition that came out a few years ago (opting to hold onto my LaserDisc version).

Waiting in the wings: Heat, which I picked up for a steal, and Futurama: Bender's Game, if only so I can hear George Takei say, "Way to kill the franchise, Bakula!"

Who was the Pezhead who decided that in the midst of these troubled economic times, when consumers are forced to curtail much in the way of their discretionary entertainment spending, that the one thing the home video market needed was a two-disc special extended edition of Waterworld?

I can't get The D.I. with Jack Webb released on DVD, to say nothing of The Six Million Dollar Man, much less an un-butchered release of WKRP in Cinncinnati, but some taint-pimple thought it was cool to release Waterworld TWICE? Yes, because the one thing which can help that movie is more of it.

That person, wherever they are, deserves a boot right in the anus. Somebody get that for me, would ya?

Due to not having much in the way of an outside life, this was one of the movies Michi and I missed during the summer. Everybody I know ranted and raved about it, and I offered the most polite middle fingers I could muster every time the subject came up. Needless to say, I wanted to see this one, and bought it pretty much the microsecond it came out on DVD this past week.

Good Christ, what a fun movie.

Robert Downey, Jr. has long been one of my favorite actors, and he totally owns the role of Tony Stark. Jeff Bridges is another longtime favorite, and he does pretty well with what in most respects is a standard-issue "friend who stabs you in the back" role.

(Speaking of Bridges, anybody else checking out that bootleg TR2N trailer floating around the internet? Can you say "nerdgasm?" I thought you could.)

CGI effects were pretty good without going too far over the line of believability (Yes, I just said that with a straight face), and the story didn't drag much at all. In fact, after watching all of the deleted/extended scenes on the DVD, I really can't take issue with any of the cuts Favreau made, with one possible exception: the scene during the fire fight where we're shown that Stark's Air Force buddy doesn't die. I was wondering about that during the "Stark in captivity" scenes.

(By the way, if those had been Marines escorting Stark, that fire fight would've gone much, much differently. I'm just sayin'.)

Anyway, a fun flick, and one I'll watch again in the not-so distant future.

....but Shoot 'Em Up is the most ridiculous, shamelessly over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall mindless action flick I've seen in years.

And I loved every minute of it.

Just sayin'.

This apparently has been news for at least a few weeks, but I'm just now finding out about it, thanks to The Digital Bits:

"We first mentioned that this title was coming way back in April, and we've known it was in the works for some time. But Warner Home Video has finally officially unveiled the details: The studio will release an L.A. Confidential: Two-Disc Special Edition on both DVD (SRP $20.97) and Blu-ray Disc ($28.99) on 9/23. Extras on both will include audio commentary by film critic Andrew Sarris, an isolated music-only track, 14 deleted scenes, the 2000 L.A. Confidential TV pilot, the Whatever You Desire: Making L.A. Confidential documentary, 7 featurettes (Sunlight and Shadow: The Visual Style of L.A. Confidential, A True Ensemble: The Cast of L.A. Confidential, L.A. Confidential: From Book to Screen, Off the Record, Photo Pitch, The L.A. of L.A. Confidential and Hollywood Center Motel), trailers and TV spots, and the film's soundtrack promo. Additional details and specs are TBA."

Finally! I've had the LaserDisc since it came out, but I held off buying the bare-bones DVD in the hopes that a special edition would be coming. Took 'em long enough, eh?

"Effin' A, Cotton! Effin' A!!"

Two acts of geekdom today:

Picked up the Stargate SG-1 Season 10 DVD set along with The Ark of Truth. Those'll help fill the voids between late night feedings.

Received in today's mail my copy of The Reckoning by Janet Walker, which I won in an eBay auction for a reasonable price. It's a fanfic Star Trek novel and a sequel to Pocket's The Prometheus Design. I've been chasing this book for several years now, ever since I read about it on Steve Roby's Complete Starfleet Library.

As Steve wrote:

"This is an unauthorized, self-published Star Trek novel. Unlike most fan fiction, however, this is not in fanzine format, but instead in trade paperback format, printed by Metropole Litho, who print books for a number of publishers. That's why it's listed here.

The Reckoning is a sequel to Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath's Pocket novel The Prometheus Design. After this book was published, Walker was advised by Pocket and/or Paramount not to try this again, and she returned to standard fanzine format for her subsequent fanfic.I don't know whether Walker ever tried selling the book through retail channels (there's no price or UPC bar code on the cover), but she did sell a number of the books at conventions. Copies are hard to find now, though I know at least one fellow collector found a copy in late 2002 or early 2003."

Call me curious but I've been wanting to see what all the fuss was about.

So, yeah, I was more than a bit of a nerd today.

The latest in DVD geekness has made its way to Stately Ward Manor.

That would be the first season of Torchwood, just in time for me to devour before the second series begins airing on BBC America this weekend. I knew as soon as I watched the first episode last year that I was in. This show frikkin' rocks.

Nootch.

Also in the house and in the queue: Seasons 8 and 9 of Stargate SG-1. At $20 a pop, I couldn't very well pass those by.

Nootch, again.

One of the more interesting DVD features I've come across in a while is included in the fourth season set of NCIS.

It's called "Cast Roundtable," and is essentially the entire cast sitting around a table in a restaurant, eating their dinner and answering questions as sent in by fans. It's a casual atmosphere, with lots of joking as well as reminiscing between the actors as they respond to the questions they've been given. Some of the queries are for individual cast members, while others are aimed at the entire group ("What was your first professional acting job?" and "Have you ever passed on a role and later regretted it?" generate some funny as well as insightful answers, for example).

And while it shouldn't need to be said, David McCallum is and remains The Shit.

The piece reminded me a bit of Jon Favreau's Dinner for Five on the Independent Film Channel, though it's not even that structured, and I suppose the main reason I enjoyed it is because I dig NCIS not so much for the storylines as the characters and - by extension - the actors who portray them. Also, this piece doesn't seem forced or obligatory, like a lot of the commentary tracks, interviews and other behind-the-scenes featurettes you normally find as DVD special features.

Anyway, I thought it was fun. :)

Take a look at the box art for the forthcoming second season DVD set of seaQuest DSV, and tell me the horribly-PhotoShop'd pic of Roy Schieder doesn't make him look like one of those old-school 12" GI Joe dolls. Go on, I dare ya.

Update for terri_osborne:

I've re-screened the first 8 eps of Jericho thanks to the new DVD set. Except for the pilot, it's the first time I've seen them since they aired last year. While I remember liking the characters more than some of the actual plotlines of those first episodes, I still think the shows are pretty good. It's fun to go back and watch the "layering" of certain characters - with Hawkins being the obvious example - now that I know how things will progress throughout the season.

One other thing I didn't know until I started poking around the 'net...the Morse code that accompanies the title card at the start of each episode is a different message. Those sly bastards. :)

Note to terri_osborne:

"Jericho Season 1 is in the hizhouse!"