Special Effects

LOS ANGELES -- Arthur Widmer, who developed some of the most widely used special-effects technology in films and earned an Academy Award last year for lifetime achievement, has died. He was 92. Mr. Widmer died of cancer May 28, his publicist said. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Mr. Widmer the award for his work in developing Ultra Violet and "blue screen" special-effects processes. "Art's pioneering work has had a profound impact on the film industry," said Richard Edlund of the academy's Scientific and Technical Awards Committee when the award was...

DVD viewers have certainly seen effects movies where the filmmakers' rhapsodizing about the technological paradigm shift on display sounds quaint a couple of decades after the fact. Not the case with "Jurassic Park" (1993), which makes its Blu-ray debut this week. (The movie is bundled with its 1997 and 2001 sequels in the "Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy" set.) The original's mix of pioneering digital work and judiciously used high-level puppetry still looks dazzling today, even under the higher-resolution scrutiny that comes with hi-def treatment.

DVD viewers have certainly seen effects movies where the filmmakers' rhapsodizing about the technological paradigm shift on display sounds quaint a couple of decades after the fact. Not the case with "Jurassic Park" (1993), which makes its Blu-ray debut this week. (The movie is bundled with its 1997 and 2001 sequels in the "Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy" set.) The original's mix of pioneering digital work and judiciously used high-level puppetry still looks dazzling today, even under the higher-resolution scrutiny that comes with hi-def treatment.

SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK Musical with music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge. Book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Original direction by Taymor. Creative consultant, Philip William McKinley. Sets, George Tsypin. Lights, Donald Holder. Costumes, Eiko Ishioka. Sound, Jonathan Deans. Choreography and aerial choreography, Daniel Ezralow. At: Foxwoods Theatre, New York. Tickets: 877-250-2929, www.ticketmaster.com NEW YORK — In the end, all the hullabaloo surrounding “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’’ proves to be more...

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (MAX on Comcast) From Anjelica Huston’s deadly nightshade Morticia to Raul Julia’s fezzed, smoking-jacketed Gomez to their dilapidated Victorian mansion, this one looks great. When it comes to content, though, it’s pretty empty. (PG-13; runs through Feb. 17) DANTE’S PEAK (MAX on Comcast) Nice special effects in this volcano movie. You even feel they’ve got some of the science right. But the natural disaster is eclipsed by a man-made disaster — a dumb script that traps Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton in cardboard heroics.

ARMAGEDDON (MAX on Demand) Bruce Willis (above) and his gang trying to destroy a Texas-size asteroid before it destroys us. Big, noisy, stupid, and shameless - but Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, and Steve Buscemi almost persuade us we're watching something that matters. That's more than can be said for the amped-up directing style and special effects. (PG-13; runs through Feb. 26) BABE (Starz on Demand)

SAN FRANCISCO -- After filming the first "Star Wars" movie with special effects that were far from special, George Lucas spent millions to develop a complete digital editing system to populate his sequels with armies of X-wing fighters and Gungan warriors. Then, he virtually gave it away. "We were 10 years ahead of the commercial reality," said Bob Doris, who helped run Lucas's computer division in the '80s. "He inspired some worthwhile ventures . . . but the innovations weren't close to paying for themselves.

ASHFIELD - The whimsy and wonder of “The Arabian Nights’’ come to vivid life in Double Edge Theatre’s annual outdoor spectacle. With several oversize reproductions of the airy, evocative lithographs of artist Marc Chagall placed to orient the audience to the story and setting, nearly a dozen of Scheherazade’s intoxicating tales unfold in various locations on the company’s farm. In a delightfully family-friendly excursion, the audience travels to a brook, a garden, a barn, a field, and finally to a pond where the evening culminates in a joyous chorus sung by the entire company,...

NEW YORK - We beamed to the land mass known as Manhattan. Our mission: Probe for something, anything, to divert the children and give vacationing parents a break. The perfect destination? Mars. More precisely, Mars 2112, the restaurant and bar cleverly masquerading as the Red Planet for the last dozen years in Times Square. Toting our 4-year-old Earth child for lunch (they also serve dinner), we saw that everything from decor to menu to special effects serves the theme. Yes, we said special effects.

The ambition to be a teen with special powers is older than Harry Potter, older than "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," older than the hills. So how to make a show about magic feel fresh? "Wizards of Waverly Place," the newest live-action sitcom from the Disney Channel, doesn't have a lot of answers. It dabbles in a New York setting, a formerly magical dad, and an example of sibling rivalry extraordinaire: Wizard Jerry Russo (David DeLuise) is training his kids in the sorcery craft, but only one will be allowed to keep the powers.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (MAX on Comcast) From Anjelica Huston’s deadly nightshade Morticia to Raul Julia’s fezzed, smoking-jacketed Gomez to their dilapidated Victorian mansion, this one looks great. When it comes to content, though, it’s pretty empty. (PG-13; runs through Feb. 17) DANTE’S PEAK (MAX on Comcast) Nice special effects in this volcano movie. You even feel they’ve got some of the science right. But the natural disaster is eclipsed by a man-made disaster — a dumb script that traps Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton in cardboard heroics.

NEW YORK - We beamed to the land mass known as Manhattan. Our mission: Probe for something, anything, to divert the children and give vacationing parents a break. The perfect destination? Mars. More precisely, Mars 2112, the restaurant and bar cleverly masquerading as the Red Planet for the last dozen years in Times Square. Toting our 4-year-old Earth child for lunch (they also serve dinner), we saw that everything from decor to menu to special effects serves the theme. Yes, we said special effects.

ASHFIELD - The whimsy and wonder of “The Arabian Nights’’ come to vivid life in Double Edge Theatre’s annual outdoor spectacle. With several oversize reproductions of the airy, evocative lithographs of artist Marc Chagall placed to orient the audience to the story and setting, nearly a dozen of Scheherazade’s intoxicating tales unfold in various locations on the company’s farm. In a delightfully family-friendly excursion, the audience travels to a brook, a garden, a barn, a field, and finally to a pond where the evening culminates in a joyous chorus sung by the...

ARMAGEDDON (MAX on Demand) Bruce Willis (above) and his gang trying to destroy a Texas-size asteroid before it destroys us. Big, noisy, stupid, and shameless - but Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, and Steve Buscemi almost persuade us we're watching something that matters. That's more than can be said for the amped-up directing style and special effects. (PG-13; runs through Feb. 26) BABE (Starz on Demand)

The ambition to be a teen with special powers is older than Harry Potter, older than "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," older than the hills. So how to make a show about magic feel fresh? "Wizards of Waverly Place," the newest live-action sitcom from the Disney Channel, doesn't have a lot of answers. It dabbles in a New York setting, a formerly magical dad, and an example of sibling rivalry extraordinaire: Wizard Jerry Russo (David DeLuise) is training his kids in the sorcery craft, but only one will be allowed to keep the powers.

LOS ANGELES -- Arthur Widmer, who developed some of the most widely used special-effects technology in films and earned an Academy Award last year for lifetime achievement, has died. He was 92. Mr. Widmer died of cancer May 28, his publicist said. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Mr. Widmer the award for his work in developing Ultra Violet and "blue screen" special-effects processes. "Art's pioneering work has had a profound impact on the film industry," said Richard Edlund of the academy's Scientific and...