The Mask

[yoloswegmaster]

Arrow have hinted at a future release of The Mask on Twitter

[domino harvey]

Include the clip of Siskel saying Cameron Diaz should get an Oscar nom for getting him hard

[colinr0380]

I quite like that story that Lodge Kerrigan has on his commentary for Clean, Shaven, which stars Peter Greene, where he hired this unknown actor early in his career so that he would be a completely blank slate for audiences but by the time the film had finished its lengthy stop and start production and festival distribution process, he'd seen Greene appear in Laws of Gravity, play the main bad guy in The Mask and pop up in Pulp Fiction (with Clean, Shaven and Pulp Fiction both in the same years 1994 Cannes Festival, but Clean, Shaven took until mid-1995 for its general US release)

[yoloswegmaster]

The last time I saw this was like 20 years ago and that's only because they used to give away DVD's of it by adding it to boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

[brundlefly]

Only getting this if it includes the Conner O'Malley short.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Loved this movie as a child, but rewatched it maybe five years ago recalling nothing from it and being horrified that

Spoiler

Stanley Ipkiss shoves a tail pipe up someone's ass.

Not to be that sort of guy, but this sort of release is sort of indicative of what's wrong with modern media companies and the decline of Arrow. Sad thing is that there's probably a lot of people clamoring for Cuban Pete in 4K. Wish they'd go back to releasing oddball Italian genre films.

[knives]

Nah, this is a pretty good film and even if you disagree I’d say this has a great opportunity for special features. You could give a look at Diaz given that this was the beginning of her star turns plus an analysis of this as adaptation through the Hollywood machine would be fascinating given how many remnants of each step remain such as its director. Even, though I recognize this as a likely rights impossibility, an episode or two of the cartoon would be fun.

[MichaelB]

Wish they'd go back to releasing oddball Italian genre films.

Less need, surely, now that 88 Films, Radiance and most recently Indicator are putting out loads?

And in the case of Radiance and Indicator they often involve the same people who used to curate Arrow's oddball Italian genre-film releases.

(I'm loving working on Indicator's oddball Italian genre films, which is just as well as they've licensed loads!)

[domino harvey]

Get Jared Gilman to do commentary for when they release the sequel

[hearthesilence]

Include the clip of Siskel saying Cameron Diaz should get an Oscar nom for getting him hard

I didn't know Siskel was a regular at the Playboy mansion until the Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself - kind of explained all the awkward sexual remarks that would occasionally pop up in his reviews.

[colinr0380]

The main titbit I learned from the commentary over The Mask back in the day is that the main character's job at a Bank (where Cameron Diaz gets her famous first introduction into the film) is the same location as the Ghostbusters HQ!

[domino harvey]

Include the clip of Siskel saying Cameron Diaz should get an Oscar nom for getting him hard

I didn't know Siskel was a regular at the Playboy mansion until the Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself - kind of explained all the awkward sexual remarks that would occasionally pop up in his reviews.

I’m teasing him on this but I actually respect that he’s one of the few mainstream critics who would admit when an erotic film turned him on— it’s a valid reason for praise and he didn’t cloak it in something else to pretend he liked it for other reasons. It’s honest! Plus it shows he wasn’t as moralistic as his detractors claim on the strength of some of his criticisms of horror movies— he didn’t like movies that put kids in danger for cheap thrills and he was rarely interested in special effects or action sequences. Fair enough, he was upfront about that. But the man liked sex, as do most of us in some way or another, and he admitted that what he found sexy a viewer may not because it’s not debatable. Fair enough, I think

[ryannichols7]

Ebert was also a A+ horny poster, it must be noted (there are other examples too!)

[hearthesilence]

The guy wrote a movie for Russ Meyer - no surprise he's got a deep love for mammaries!

[Murdoch]

It's disappointing to see Arrow's slide into 90s nostalgia releases but I'm hoping it helps fund some more risky endeavors like the Rivette box set.

I rewatched this recently and it feels so flat to me. While the visuals ape Looney Tunes' energy and the CG hasn't aged as poorly as I expected it would, the whole movie is just slogging through the zero chemistry of Carrey and Diaz to get to the next sight gag, of which the novelty of cartoon physics in the real world was far better explored in Roger Rabbit. It's yet another bargain bin movie being given the primo treatment to capitalize on the growing novelty physical media market.

[JamesF]

It's disappointing to see Arrow's slide into 90s nostalgia releases but I'm hoping it helps fund some more risky endeavors like the Rivette box set.

Asian genre films aside, I wouldn't hold your breath for any foreign-language boxsets from Arrow in the future, and certainly not any arthouse ones. The Rivette box was eight years ago, and an awful lot has changed since then, not least the shuttering of Arrow Academy and Fran leaving to start Radiance. Love it or leave it, this is what Arrow Video is now.

[MichaelB]

The guy wrote a movie for Russ Meyer - no surprise he's got a deep love for mammaries!

He wrote three!

Although only Beyond the Valley of the Dolls credited him by his real name - presumably by the time of Up! and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens he decided that that name needed protecting. In fact, he used different pseudonyms each time - Reinhold Timme and R. Hyde.

It's disappointing to see Arrow's slide into 90s nostalgia releases but I'm hoping it helps fund some more risky endeavors like the Rivette box set.

The chances of Arrow releasing more Jacques Rivette titles must be vanishingly nonexistent.

The fact is that most of the people who made up the Arrow production team in the 2010s are no longer there - Fran Simeoni founded Radiance (which is, to all intents and purposes, Arrow Academy V2), James Blackford and Anthony Nield ended up at Indicator (as did I, at least in terms of them being my major freelance client), Ewan Cant is with Vinegar Syndrome, and I think only Michael Mackenzie provides any production continuity from a decade ago. And his brother David, of course, but authoring is a slightly different matter; David's not involved with acquisitions or content, only its ultimate presentation.

Hence my point above about Indicator's Italian genre films - not only are they exactly the kind of things that Arrow used to put out, but in many cases they're put together by the same people!

Which is not to say that James Flower, Neil Snowdon et al aren't doing a superb job at Arrow right now, because they are - but the label's priorities have shifted. But this is always going to be the case, and sometimes it's reactive rather than proactive. For instance, Second Run (a rare example of a label that's been run by the same people since inception) was never originally going to be quite as dominated by eastern European films, but that turned out to be where the demand was. Similarly, Indicator has branched out into Australian, Mexican and Italian genre films, as well as the ongoing Jean Rollin project, at least in part because it's getting harder and harder to license major Hollywood studio titles, especially UHD rights.

[Orlac]

The Mask is definetly a fave of mine. In hindsight, it's weird seeing that deleted scene where

Spoiler

Amy Yasbeck gets pulversised, considering that she is the romantic lead of the subsequent cartoon series.

[jt938]

Kinda shocked by the negative reception this is getting, this is a title that's needed an upgrade (the Blu-ray is extremely mediocre) for a very long time and I'd gladly take it over stuff like TMNT and Spawn. Just my 2 cents though.

[Murdoch]

My reference to Rivette was only meant as an example of past risky releases rather than an expectation that more Rivette could be funded by this release.

Michael, I appreciate that information about the production team changes as I was unaware. That certainly does explain quite a lot about the shift in priorities. I think Arrow has done great work in the past few years, especially with the Shawscope boxes. My gripes are just the age-old physical media complaints of why are they releasing X when they could be releasing Y?!?

[bearcuborg]

I liked Jim Carrey enough during In Living Color, but never got around to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective or The Mask. I must admit I didn't appreciate the magic of Jim Carrey at the time this came out; it wasn't until The Cable Guy that I saw he could do more than frantically flail his limbs. I always associated his Chris Isaak kiss with an MTV Award for this film, but I just realized today that it was for Dumb and Dumber. If memory serves, Matt Pinfield credited this movie with making swing music popular again when he had Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on 120 Minutes. Ah...those were the days.

[hearthesilence]

IIRC, there were three, THREE Saturday morning cartoons based on Carrey's first three starring vehicles, including The Mask, all on the air at the same time, and of course his next movie was based on comic book characters already being presented in another cartoon for the umpteenth time. They may have been cash-ins, but they were hardly something they had to force - I can't think of another star actor who, for better or worse, was a better fit existing as a human cartoon, not even Robin Williams or Jerry Lewis.

[yoloswegmaster]

Zavvi has accidently leaked the release:



4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by Arrow Films approved by director Chuck Russell
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, lossless stereo audio and a brand new Dolby Atmos mix
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing • Archive audio commentary with Chuck Russell
• Archive audio commentary with Chuck Russell, New Line co-chairman Bob Shaye, screenwriter Mike Werb, executive producer Mike Richardson, producer Bob Engelman, ILM VFX supervisor Scott Squires, animation supervisor Tom Bertino and cinematographer John R. Leonetti
• The Man Behind the Mask, a newly filmed interview with Chuck Russell
• From Strip to Screen, a newly filmed interview with Mike Richardson, Mike Werb and Mark Verheiden
• Green Faces Blue Screens, a newly filmed interview with visual effects supervisor Scott Squires
• Sssssssplicin’!, a newly filmed interview with editor Arthur Coburn
• Ask Peggy, a newly filmed interview with actor Amy Yasbeck
• Toeing the Conga Line, a newly filmed interview with choreographer Jerry Evans featuring never-before-seen rehearsal footage
• Terriermania, a new video essay by critic Elizabeth Purchell on canine sidekick Milo
• Archival featurettes Return to Edge City, Introducing Cameron Diaz, Cartoon Logic, What Makes Fido Run, The Making Of, on-set interview bites with the cast and director and B-Roll footage
• Deleted scenes, with optional commentary by director Chuck Russell
• Theatrical trailer • Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and original production notes
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring two original artwork options
• Six postcard-sized reproduction artcards

[domino harvey]

• Archive audio commentary with Chuck Russell, New Line co-chairman Bob Shaye, screenwriter Mike Werb, executive producer Mike Richardson, producer Bob Engelman, ILM VFX supervisor Scott Squires, animation supervisor Tom Bertino and cinematographer John R. Leonetti

All these people being on a commentary track reminds me that this film’s DVD release was initially used as a marketing tool to sell the new technology of DVD players. I remember this film’s disc being given prominence in the infomercial that aired in the mid 90s hawking some studio’s player with such immediately discarded (and seemingly not carried over, even here) features as the alternate angles option being highlighted

[Finch]

Interestingly, they also listed the regular edition. If that wasn't another error on top of the early leak, I'd like Arrow to do that for all releases going forward. It doesn't seem to be hurting Second Sight's business to release both versions simultaneously.