Fantastic
Flesh: The Art of Make-Up EFX (2008/Anchor Bay/Starz! DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B
Fantastic
Flesh is an excellent documentary on of Cinema's greatest assets
- the practical visual effects world. Part history lesson, part
insight from some of Hollywood's best and brightest, this documentary
is a must see for anyone interested in becoming a Special Effects
artist or even just your causal admirer of the art form.
Focusing
for just under an hour on the history of Make-up design, the Kevin
VanHook-directed documentary touches on forebears like Lon Chaney Sr.
(Phantom of the Opera) and Jack Pierce (Universal Monsters)
before turning itself into something of a KNB EFX demo reel. While I
am a fan of the company, the documentary does tend to stray away from
history lessons and more about highlights of films that KNB worked
on, along with a sprinkling of Rob Bottin's The Thing, a touch
of Rick Baker's An American Werewolf in London and a dash of
Dick Smith's work in The Exorcist - all of which are hard to
resist mentioning when on this subject matter.
While
the length of the telefilm is under an hour, what it truly lacks is a
definitive narrator that pushes the story of the art along instead of
a series of talking heads discussing appliances and techniques that
they love and the history of make-up only as it correlates to the
specific person relating the tale. Lucky for us, some of the
filmmakers interviewed are the best including Joe Dante, John Landis,
Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Frank Darabont, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin
Tarantino, Eli Roth, Frank Darabont, Mick Garris, George Romero and
effects gurus including the late Dick Smith, Tom Savini, Greg
Nicotero, Howard Berger and Rob Bottin. Noticeably missing however
is Rick Baker - to whom you would think would be a natural shoe in
for a film of this subject.
While
it could be longer and more expansive, the little doc works as an
introduction piece to the art form and makes for a nice, easy watch
that will suck you in. For someone like me who loves the artform and
the people that are interviewed on this, its hard to not enjoy it.
For DVD, the standard definition displays the 16 X 9/1.78 X 1
anamorphic widescreen production of the original broadcast. The
sound mix is a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track that is average for the
format. Total run time for the feature is 58 minutes.
No
additional extras.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv
