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Wonderland
(Lions Gate Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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February 10, 2004
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| Length:
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104 mins.
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| Rated:
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R
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| Format:
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Widescreen (1.85:1)
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| Audio:
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5.1 Dolby Digital
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| Subtitles:
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English and Spanish Subtitles, Closed Captioned
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| Extras:
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Commentary with James Cox and Captain Mauzner, Deleted Scenes, Crime Scene Footage, Production Photos, Hollywood At Large - Court TV, John Holmes Documentary "Wadd"
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It was the 1980's in LA - the decade of excess. Drugs were abundant, indiscriminate sex was still not taboo and John Holmes, the King of Porn, was making the rounds of the LA party scene. And people of all walks of life allowed him to seamlessly enter their world of decadence. After all, he was the man with the...well, you know.
Wonderland gives us a snapshot of the life of John Holmes, at a time when he had started to descend from an icon (albeit a seedy one) into the pathetic figure that he was at the time of his death. It chronicles, from a few different perspectives, Holmes' suspected involvement in the deaths of four people in what was known as the, "Wonderland Murders" or the "Laurel Canyon Murders".
The story is somewhat complex, and I will not go into it in any great detail here. Briefly, Holmes (Val Kilmer) becomes involved with a group of thugs. He frequents their residence for the drugs and they let him frequent because, well, because he is John Holmes and that is just kind of cool. They ask Holmes to fence some antique guns on their behalf. He does, but he returns, stoned, and with no money. In exchange for not killing him, Holmes leads them to his fence, who they violently rob. Unfortunately, the fence turns out to be Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian), one of the nastiest characters in LA's underground crime world. Hell-bent on revenge, Nash sends his own thugs to summarily execute the perpetrators. The film attempts to unravel what happened through police interviews with David Lind (Dylan McDermott) and Holmes.
The one thing that I really enjoyed about this film was the cast. Say what you will about Val Kilmer, I still consider him to be one of the more versatile actors in Hollywood today. I have heard that he is "difficult" to work with, but no-one can dispute that he turns out a quality product. Hopefully, he can learn to ease up a bit on the ego and directors can learn to look the other way and we will see more of him. This movie would not have been the same without him.
In addition to Kilmer's performance, we see some great work from Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson, Eric Bogosian and Dylan McDermott. Kudos to the directors for taking a chance on McDermott, who was definitely cast out of type here but did a great job - he was almost unrecognizable. There were also interesting supporting performances by Lisa Kudrow, Christina Applegate (again, virtually unrecognizable), Carrie Fisher and Janeane Garofalo.
What falls flat in this movie is the script. Although the subject-matter was interesting and had the potential to translate well to the big screen, something was missing here. I cannot put my finger on it, but the movie was just not gripping. It did not draw me in, and I found that it dragged. In some movies, jumping back and forth between past and present works (think Memento or 21 Grams), but here it did not. It just created one jumbled mess. And that is the movie's ultimate downfall.
This DVD has some extras that are unusual and intriguing. There is the original LAPD crime scene video footage. It is gory, but it is like a train wreck - you simply cannot look away. There is
also the Court TV blurb on the actual Wonderland murders.
There is a biography on the life of John Holmes which was particularly fascinating. It took us through Holmes' life, from his birth in hick-town USA to his death from AIDS in 1988. There are snippets from some of his films, but nothing x-rated. This was almost more interesting than the film, and just as long.
You will also see the "standard" extras. There is an audio commentary with director James Cox and writer Captain Mauzner, brief interviews with Val Kilmer, Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson and Eric Bogosian and some deleted scenes. They are interesting enough, but it was the other items that really made this DVD.
Although this movie is nothing spectacular, it is almost worth renting just for the extras. If nothing else, this movie is the perfect example of how a DVD based on true life events should be made.
| The Movie: |
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6/10 |
| The Extras: |
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9/10 |
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Erin Cullin - Senior Editor
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