EW review: 'Kinsey' lacks passion
But documentary extra on DVD is downright fantastic
By Dalton Ross
Entertainment Weekly
(Entertainment Weekly) -- For a movie completely about sex, it's surprising that what "Kinsey" lacks most is passion.
Not to imply that the film should be all about insane orgies and booty-starved horndogs, but this depiction of Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his work as a sex researcher is so cold and clinical, it's difficult to get too excited -- no, not in that way -- by anything you see.
Outside of some occasional sniping with a colleague and begging for money to finance his project, Liam Neeson is rather robotic as the driven scientist. Even his prickly relationship with his preacher father (John Lithgow) and first act of infidelity/homosexuality come across as sort of ho-hum.
Maybe that's the point, but it makes it pretty damn hard to attach yourself emotionally to either the characters or the plot.
Where some of that passion is expressed is in the bonus materials. While the 21 deleted scenes (including some that play up Kinsey's gruff side, as well as a rather limp -- again, not in that way -- alternate ending) are moderately interesting and the interactive sex questionnaire is ... um, revealing, the 80-minute "Kinsey Report: Sex on Film" documentary is downright fantastic.
Covering the sexual histories of cast and crew, the film's relationship with the Kinsey Institute (which, maintaining its strict confidentiality code, refused to share the doctor's research videos with writer-director Bill Condon), how to deal with protesters on set (give 'em coffee and doughnuts) and bamboozle the studio into getting an extra day of filming (tell 'em you need to shoot a teaser), the doc showcases all the unbridled enthusiasm that went into making the movie.
Too bad more of it didn't spill onto the screen.
'Seinfeld: Season 4'
Reviewed by Jeff Labrecque
In "Seinfeld: Season 4," ''a lot of crazy ideas started to make sense,'' says Jerry Seinfeld, as the quirky show with a cult following became a cultural phenomenon after moving to must-see Thursday.
Once Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine tested their self-control in ''The Contest,'' there was no going back, since, as writer Peter Mehlman points out in an Inside Look at ''The Implant,'' ''If you can do 22 minutes on masturbation, you can pretty much do anything.''
When the network tried to rein in verboten story lines, the gang boomeranged their stale suggestions into dialogue and parodied their corporate likenesses in a season-long arc about Jerry's sitcom pilot. ''The network's kind of like your aunts and uncles,'' Seinfeld says in the pop-up notes for ''The Shoes.'' ''They are superiors, but we don't really have to listen to them.'' (Uncle Leo must be crushed.)
Extras: An assortment of riches, including commentaries, outtakes, interviews, deleted scenes, promos, a double-dip of ''The Handicap Spot'' (one with the original Mr. Costanza, John Randolph) and an Easter egg revisiting Julia Louis-Dreyfus' parking space tiff with Tom Arnold.
'Team America: World Police'
Reviewed by Mandi Bierly
"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone make movies no one else would, like "Team America: World Police," a marionette musical that follows an ''elite'' commando force battling, in no particular order: the threat of a Kim Jong Il-sponsored worldwide terrorist attack, the misguided members of the Film Actors Guild (F.A.G.) and the Jerry Bruckheimer school of action-movie cliches.
(Yes, America is the only nation smart enough to solve the world's problems, and nothing beats a montage. Well, save a sex scene between two wooden actors -- extended here to include showers both golden and of a darker color.)
Extras: We might have traded the test footage, deleted/extended scenes and outtakes for a (tragically missing) trademark drunken commentary from Parker and Stone, but the nine behind-the-scenes featurettes are keepers.
The duo -- joined by their crew, including "Matrix" cinematographer Bill Pope and "Independence Day" pyro Joe Viskocil -- reveal their laborious process, attention to detail (the Panama Canal set foliage is made of pot leaves), and newfound respect for Bruckheimer.
''As much as we rip on his movies,'' Parker says, after referring to him as ''a turd'' who doesn't realize he produces comedies, ''the dude can do some action.''
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