6WH: Oct 29
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (commentary by Don Coscarelli, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm) (2005)And, that's it. My unofficial Phantasm Halloween celebration has come to its conclusion. I've exhausted every piece of Tall Man-related video I've got in the house. While The Thing may be my favorite individual movie of all time, the Phantasm series is my favorite series of films. The same writer/director for every movie, (nearly) the same family of actors for every movie, hell, even the guy doing the voices for the dwarf creatures was the same for all four movies. All of this spanning twenty years. This is something special. Thank you, Don, Reg, Bill, Mike and Angus.
More than likely recorded after their P2 commentary session, so they were good and warmed up (or, it was just that their memories were a decade fresher and easier to recall). Angus doesn't have too much to say in this one, but I think that's because he's too polite to interrupt and Don and Reggie, who have a constant stream of anecdotes to discuss. In fact, sometimes they're so busy talking about one story, they will neglect to comment on something cool happening in the movie at that moment... but that's a minor complaint. Few silences, good background info and a trio a buddies hanging out talking about something they love. Yep, this is how it's done. (8/10)
Phantasm IV: Oblivion: Behind the Scenes (2008)
Phantasm: Actors Having a Ball (2005)
Phantasmagorical Mystery Tour (2005)
Phantasm: Genesis (2005)
Phandom (2005)
Phantasmagoria directed by Jake West (2005)
Pretty much all I wanted in a feature-length documentary about the series. All of the major players are interviewed: two Coscarellis, all four main actors and even Kathy "Lady in Lavender" Lester. The first half is spent discussing P1 with the remaining 45 minutes giving equal shakes to the three sequel. For me, there was a lot of repeat information -- having just watched all of the commentaries and every featurette of the series that exists -- but it's always nice to have everything collected into one, definite spot.
Poor Mike. You can tell he's still pissed off about P2. It's not that he gets angry, but he starts to blink a lot and look away while talking about it. Poor Bill. He was pained that his character turned evil in P4. The brotherly love between the two actors is real, thanks to the fun of filming P1, and he enjoyed that it showed in the movies. Poor Reg. All of his songs got cut from P1. Not that this is, in any way, a whoa-is-me documentary. But, those were three things I hadn't known about before.
Hopefully, if P5 ever gets made, the same crew will update this documentary to include it. It's just too bad the North American DVD release of P1 only got an edited version of this. (8/10)
A grown man with toys?
