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Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Burton and Reubens; three deleted scenes and one extended scene totalling 11 minutes; 12 minutes of production sketches and storyboards, with audio commentary by production designer David L. Snyder; and a music-only track with audio commentary by Elfman.
Movie: ****
Extras: **1/2
PULP FICTION (1994). One of the crowning achievements of 90s cinema was also one of its most influential, spawning a decade's worth of shameless rip-offs, resuscitating John Travolta's dormant career, heralding the arrival of Samuel L. Jackson as a consummate actor, handing Bruce Willis one of his best parts ever, and providing enough subtext to choke Internet chat rooms and message boards for years to come (most prevalent question: What exactly is in that glowing briefcase?). Quentin Tarantino's cause celebre immediately became a direct challenge to creative complacency: Intoxicated on the heady fumes of its own art form, it employs a nontraditional, nonlinear form of filmmaking to interweave several vignettes all involving various members of a seedy underworld. This won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival before enjoying a successful stateside run that culminated with seven Academy Award nominations (including nods for Best Picture, Travolta, Jackson and Uma Thurman); in the year of Forrest Gump, however, it managed to only win a solitary statue for Best Original Screenplay.
Blu-ray extras include a trivia track; 43 minutes of new interviews with cast members; a 21-minute roundtable discussion among critics about the film; six deleted and extended scenes; the Siskel & Ebert At the Movies episode titled "The Tarantino Generation"; footage from the film's triumphs at the Cannes Film Festival and the Independent Spirit Awards; and Tarantino's appearance on The Charlie Rose Show.
Movie: ****
Extras: ****
ZOOKEEPER (2011). Leave it to Zoolander to have the foresight to succinctly sum up Zookeeper. In that 2001 comedy, Owen Wilson's Hansel blares, "Taste my pain, bitch!" — a declaration that Kevin James was directing at me for the duration of this ghastly film's 100 minutes. I'm sure that taste will still be lingering in my mouth in December, when it's time to draw up the year-end "10 Worst" list. For now, I'm reduced to shedding a tear over our animal friends: Between this and Mr. Popper's Penguins, they had an especially bad summer. The screenplay cobbled together by five writers curiously spends a lot more time on the bland romantic woes of Kevin James's zookeeper than on the talking animals, although there is a protracted subplot in which Griffin bonds with a lonely gorilla named Bernie (Nick Nolte!) by taking him to TGI Friday's. James always projects a sincerity that's missing from too many of his lowbrow peers, but when all is said and done, he's still about as funny as head lice. Adam Sandler's monkey gets off a couple of good cracks, but otherwise, the animals (lions voiced by Sylvester Stallone and Cher, bears voiced by Jon Favreau and Faizon Love, etc.) prove to be even more dull than the humans, never doing anything remotely interesting or amusing. Replaying Zookeeper in my mind draws up another Zoolander quip: "I've got a prostate the size of a honeydew and a head full of bad memories." Nothing wrong with my prostate, but, man, does my brain need a detox.
Blu-ray extras include eight deleted scenes totalling 12 minutes; a 6-minute gag reel; a 9-minute piece on the actors; a 7-minute piece on the animals; and a 9-minute piece on the visual effects.
Movie: *
Extras: **
