Filmed in August 2005 around Western Pennsylvania -- with Beaver Falls playing a small town called Forge Hill -- "Graduation" never got much, if any, time on the big screen. But the film can finally be seen on DVD in time for graduation season.
Exceedingly earnest -- the film is unrated but feels like a PG-13 -- "Graduation" is a throwback to '80s teen movies. A group of friends band together to rob a bank during the town high school's graduation ceremony to collect funds to pay for medical treatment for the cancer-stricken mom of Carl (Chris Marquette, "Joan of Arcadia").
The friends include a smart guy who hides his intelligence (Chris Lowell, "Private Practice"), a jock (Riley Smith, "24") and the jock's girlfriend (Shannon Lucio, 'The O.C."), whose father (Adam Arkin, "Chicago Hope") manages the bank.
Filmed on a low budget, "Graduation" muffs some obvious details -- the college acceptance letter that comes in a thin envelope (only rejection letters are thin) and a bank security guard who's allowed to wear headphones while he's on duty -- but the bigger problem is underdeveloped character motivations and relationships. First-time feature film director Michael Mayer's attempts to blend conventions of the heist flick with high school drama, yielding a film that's a mutt -- too languidly paced in its first hour to build much tension in the final half-hour during the robbery.
Of local note: Farmers National Bank in Beaver Falls plays Forge Hill Bank & Trust, the Dollar Bank at Fourth and Smithfield streets in Downtown Pittsburgh is featured in the epilogue, local actor Bingo O'Malley plays a science teacher and the kids attend North Hills High School, which gets a "thank you" in the closing credits.
DVD extras include a lighter alternate opening to the film, a two-minute blooper reel, four deleted scenes, storyboard sequences, a two-minute behind-the-scenes slide show featuring Beaver Falls (nicely done) and commentary by the director and writer D. Cory Turner, who tout their love for Beaver Falls and reveal a lot of good intentions for the film that just don't show up on screen.
"Graduation" director Mayer will be at the Diesel Club Lounge, 1601 E. Carson St., South Side, Monday for a 6 p.m. reception and 7 p.m. showing of the movie. It's free and open to the public. For questions or to RSVP, call the Pittsburgh Film Office at 412-261-2744.
-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor
This new DVD box set exists for one primary reason: To promote the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
The people at Paramount Pictures are no dummies. The long-awaited fourth installment in the Indiana Jones saga, which arrives in theaters May 22, is a big deal to both blockbuster-movie lovers and the studio. Naturally, it makes good business sense for Paramount to issue this DVD ($50) -- which boasts a new slate of bonus features -- at a time when fans of Harrison Ford's fedora-wearing, snake-fearing hero are eager to revisit the first three movies as prep for Indy 4.
But the question all consumers must ask before plunking down that precious 50 bucks is: Do I already own the Indiana Jones collection released in 2003? If the answer is yes, then there is no reason to buy the new one.
All three of the movies -- "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" -- look exactly as they did on the previous collection; none of them has been remastered since then. And while the bonus features on the newer model are decent, they don't veer anywhere near the greatness of the two-hour making-of documentary found on the first Indy DVD, which boasted tons of behind-the-scenes material and footage of other actors (Tom Selleck! Sean Young!) auditioning for the leads in "Raiders."
The latest DVDs do boast one important benefit: Each can be bought individually ($27) outside of the box set. So if you don't want to own a copy of "Temple of Doom," you can buy "Raiders" or "Crusade" by themselves, a luxury the initial release did not allow. Each of the discs comes with three different featurettes, a look at a scene in storyboard form and photo galleries.
In the end, it's all about the marketing of the Indiana Jones brand. So if you're buying into the hype, do yourself a favor and spend that hard-earned cash on the box set that came first. Paramount has not removed it completely from the market, so it's still available at various online retailers and perhaps even in some of those old-fashioned brick-and-mortar stores.
Best bonus: My favorite extra on the new set is "The Melting Face!," a featurette that reveals how the filmmakers made one of the Nazis literally dissolve when the Ark of the Covenant is opened in "Raiders." Let's just say that gelatin and heat lamps were involved.
-- Jen Chaney, The Washington Post
"The time for justice, freedom and equality is always right now!"
That quote by Journee Smolett's character in "The Great Debaters" is soul-stirring.
The two-disc collector's edition of the Denzel Washington-directed film offers many more inspirational moments.
The special features on both discs give the history of the 1930s Wiley College debate team, the social construct of the times, the importance of the music, the cast and how Washington brought it all together. There's also a booklet that highlights some of these as well.
Also among the special features are interviews with several of the real-life debate team members on whom the film's characters are based. Washington conducts the interviews, and it's nothing less than inspiring to see these learned men and women talk about their lives and their beloved teacher, Prof. Melvin B. Tolson, portrayed by Washington.
-- Monica Haynes, Post-Gazette staff writer
"Youth Without Youth"
Francis Ford Coppola returns to directing with this tale, set primarily in Romania and Switzerland between 1938 and 1956, about an aging linguistics professor (Tim Roth) whose youth is restored after he is struck by lightning. Coppola's vision is sadly fragmented this time. The fantasy is too long, lumbering and farfetched. Roth saves him from complete disaster by making his pretentious dialogue believable.
"Untraceable"
A tech-savvy Internet predator and real-life killer is the target of an FBI special agent portrayed by Diane Lane. The technical mastermind posts images of his captives and the more hits his site gets, the faster his victims die. In exploring the way the Internet feeds an insatiable, sick appetite for disturbing or sordid images, "Untraceable" eagerly serves up those very images -- car wrecks, suicides, torture porn.
"Mad Money"
Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes star in this comic caper as women who strike up an unlikely friendship and concoct a robbery scheme. Unfortunately, it's as familiar as the money removed from circulation and intended for destruction.
• "Frank Sinatra Collections": The 10th anniversary of his death brings four new box sets of his movies: "The Early Years" (five discs, $39.92) includes "Double Dynamite," "It Happened in Brooklyn" and three other films; "The Golden Years" (five discs, $39.92) includes "The Man With the Golden Arm," "None but the Brave" and three other movies; "The Rat Pack Ultimate Collector's Edition" (three discs, $59.92) includes "Ocean's 11" and "Sergeants 3," plus two more; and "The Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly Collection" (three discs, $24.98) packages "Take Me out to the Ball Game," "On the Town" and "Anchors Away."
• TV on DVD: "Drawn Together -- Uncensored!," season 3; "Mission: Impossible," season 4; "Saturday Night Live," season 3"; "Stargate Infinity," complete; "Two and a Half Men," season 3.
First Published: May 15, 2008, 8:00 a.m.
