{"id":18719,"date":"2019-07-15T17:09:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T00:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18719"},"modified":"2019-07-15T17:09:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T00:09:54","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-shortcut-to-happiness-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18719","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray release from the MVD Visual Marquee\nCollection will be available for purchase on <\/strong>July 16th, 2019<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Way back in 2001, actor Alec Baldwin began work on his feature\ndirectorial debut with The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>, an all-star\nadaptation of the 1936 award-winning short story by Stephen Vincent Benet.\nUnfortunately, a series of unfortunate mishaps hampered the shoot.\nSpecifically, the production company financing the picture went bankrupt. Baldwin\nalso states that the movie was wrestled away from him in post-production. This\ncalamity resulted in a rough, unfinished cut of the comedy\/drama sitting on the\nshelf for two years while the firm’s assets were sold off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, the movie was sold in a bankruptcy court to the Yari Film Group, who decided to complete post-production themselves. They heavily re-edited the film, completed the visual effects and added a new score… all without the input of Baldwin. The disappointed performer asked for his directing and co-producing credit to removed and replaced with a pseudonym. If that wasn’t enough, the new owners changed the film’s moniker to Shortcut to Happiness<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Yari Group eventually put the movie out in a theater or\ntwo in 2007, and then it aired on Showtime and Starz. Soon after, the film\ncompletely disappeared into obscurity. In fact, it was never even released on DVD\nin North America. Some 18 years after being made, the\nMVD Marquee Collection is finally debuting the feature on disc with a spiffy\nand sharp new Blu-ray. No one is going to mistake this particular film for a\nclassic, as one can readily see the tinkering and bizarre choices made by the new\nowners in finishing it. Yet, for movie fans, it’s peculiar history and technical\nissues might be what makes this previously “lost” movie a fascinating\nwatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bez Stone (Alec Baldwin) is a poor, struggling New York writer yearning to get his stories out to the world. First, he is fired from his day job. Soon after, he gets mugged and has his computer stolen, and then hits rock bottom when friend Julius Jensen (Dan Aykroyd) signs a huge writing contract. After Bez mutters that he’d to sell his soul to trade places with Julius, The Devil (Jennifer Love Hewitt), suddenly appears and offers to make him a success. He agrees, but the consequences of fame and fortune are severe. His work is critically reviled, he loses touch with friends Mike (Barry Miller) and Molly (Amy Poehler), and finds himself under the thumb of book editor Constance (Kim Cattrall). Thankfully, Bez makes a friend in the form of company president Daniel Webster (Anthony Hopkins), who attempts to get the lead out of his contract with Satan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First things first. It is clear that there has been some\nsignificant tinkering that does not help the overall film. The movie opens with\na very unfortunate an ineffective animated credit sequence that looks quite bad.\nWhile some of the movie’s musical score is effective, there are also additional\npieces of music used here and there that tonally inappropriate. And, of course,\nthe big issue is the reediting done by the new producers. It’s choppy, and\nseveral sequences end with strange wipes and transitions. An iris wipe can<\/em>\nwork once in a while, but here it’s used constantly and these unnecessary flourishes\nsimply don’t work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the cutting also hurts the story. Some characters\nare introduced but disappear for significant periods of time, and in one case\nnever returns. The middle act of the movie in which Bez deals with success over\na period of years seems significantly condensed. If one were to remove the\nopening and closing credits, this version of the movie would clock in at just\nover 90 minutes. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that a good quarter of the\npicture may have been removed (and done so clumsily). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The concept is a good one and the movie does feature an\nexceptional cast. Even with the strange editing, a few of the conversations\nbetween Bez and his friends, as well as material in which he confides in Daniel\nWebster, make an impression. In fact, the final act of the film is quite strong.\nAs the protagonist decides to fight for his soul in court under the\nrepresentation of Webster, one can really begin to see how effective the movie\ncould have been. The hero’s fictional characters appear and departed friends\ngive evidence in the trail. Bez is forced into answering questions about his lift\nchoices and stand before a jury of famous writers like Ernest Hemingway, Truman\nCapote and, amusingly enough, Mario Puzo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In particular, it is Anthony Hopkins who really shines\nduring the final act, delivering his case and giving a final argument and that\nsounds as if it belongs in a far better film. The character describes a\nwriter’s need and desire for an audience and effectively asserts that the Devil\nnever delivered anything that  her client\nhad truly desired. The actor’s performance in the extended deliberation are so\nengaging and compelling, that it makes the film’s villain look a bit out of her\nelement by comparison. Still, the more measured pacing and editing of the final\ntwenty minutes suggest a much better film hidden somewhere in all the excised footage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As always, MVD present a nice widescreen Blu-ray image.\nThere’s a bit of image shimmying here and there, but this is as good as the\nmovie has ever looked and the best treatment it will likely ever receive. Some\nof the later sequences are nicely shot and overall the film has a clean appearance.\nNaturally, since the feature was barely finished and released to begin with,\nthere aren’t a lot of extras besides a group of trailers for other titles in\nthe MVD Marquee line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eventual tagline for Shortcut to Happiness<\/em> was\n“The Devil is in the details,” and that applies to the movie itself,\nhaving been wrestled away from it creator, losing significant information by\nway of new editors, and having ineffective elements added that don’t suit the\nstory. Still, it’s remarkable to see this movie be rescued before it\ndisappeared permanently. There are some terrific performances in spite of the\ncuts, and Hopkins fans will likely\nenjoy seeing the star deliver at least one commendable speech in a movie they\nwould otherwise have probably never even heard of. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Blu-ray release from the MVD Visual Marquee Collection will be available for purchase on July 16th, 2019. Way back in 2001, actor Alec Baldwin began work on his feature directorial debut with The Devil and Daniel Webster, an all-star adaptation of the 1936 award-winning short story by Stephen Vincent Benet. Unfortunately, a series of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[150,156,741,938,1293,1584,2923,3073,4660,5089,6251,10581,11744,13284,14442,18323,20475],"class_list":["post-18719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-150","tag-156","tag-adaptation","tag-alec-baldwin","tag-amy-poehler","tag-anthony-hopkins","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-comedy","tag-dan-aykroyd","tag-drama","tag-jennifer-love-hewitt","tag-kim-cattrall","tag-marquee-collection","tag-mvd","tag-shortcut-to-happiness","tag-the-devil-and-daniel-webster"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}