DVD Watch

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2009-12-01T13:40:00.001-05:00

Please join me at Philip Booth's Scribe Life - movie-related content as well as discussion of music and books

New DVDs - Tuesday, June 5

2007-06-05T21:50:00.000-05:00

36 Hours
4 Musketeers
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert - Extra Frills Edition
Air Force
Alien
Alien vs. Predator
Big Bad Wolf
Big Bad Wolf
Bikini Bottom Adventures
Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band: Live In Dublin
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Cast Away
CHiPs - The Complete First Season
Combat Ready
Coming To America:
Command Decision
Cosby Show: Season 3
Cosby Show: Season 4
Dante's Cove: The Complete Second Season
Dark Angel: The Complete First Season
Dark Angel: The Complete Second Season
Dead Zone 5th Season
Deadly Voyage
The Derby Stallion
Desert Hearts
Die Hard
Doctor Who: Castrovalva - Episode 117
Doctor Who: Keeper of Traken - Episode 115
Doctor Who: Logopolis - Episode 116
Doctor Who: New Beginnings
Duck, You Sucker
Fail Safe
The Fall Guy: The Complete Season 1
The Fall Guy: The Complete Season 1, Vol. 1
The Fall Guy: The Complete Season 1, Vol. 2
Fantastic Four - Extended Cut
Fantastic Voyage
Fight Club - Collector's Edition Steelbook
Fired!
A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
H.O.T.S.
Harold Lloyds World of Comedy
Hell to Eternity
The Henry Rollins Show: Season One
Henry Rollins: Uncut from NYC
Hex - The Complete First Season
Highlander: Search for Vengeance
Hill
Hogan's Heroes:Sixth Season
I, Robot
Independence Day
Invasion of Astro Monster
Jaguar Lives
Kenny the Shark Vol 1:Feeding Frenzy
Kenny the Shark Vol 2:Good Guys Vs Ba
King of Late Night
Legends of Country:Classic Hits from
A Little Night Music
Loaded Guns
Martin & Lewis Vol 2
Maxed Out
Meatball Machine
Meatballs
The Messengers
Mission Impossible - The Second TV Season
Morning Constitutions
My Little Bride
The Neptune Factor
Norbit
Obsession
The Omen
The Outer Limits - Season 1, Volume 1
Platoon
The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
Rescue Me - The Complete Third Season
Robin Hood - Season 1
Robocop
Sand Pebbles
Secrets of the Code
Seinfeld - Season 8
Sergio Leone Anthology
Stand-Up Comedians
The Terminator
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Trading Places: "Looking Good, Feeling Good" Edition
Twelve O'Clock High - Special Edition
Von Ryan's Express - Special Edition
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Global Warming Edition
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: Comp First Season
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
Whats New Scooby-Doo-Complete 2nd Season
World War II Collection, Vol. 2 - Heroes Fight for Freedom

(courtesy of DVD Talk)

New DVDs - Tuesday, May 22

2007-05-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

3 Godfathers
40 Year Old Virgin
Adios, Sabata
Adventures of Marco Polo
Afro Samurai
Afro Samurai
Airwolf: Season Three
Alex Rider - Operation Stormbreaker
American Pastime
Apocalypto
Bad Movie Police: Crimewave!
Ball of Fire
Big Jim McLain
Black Test Car
Breaking Point
The Breed
Broken Arrow
Can-Can
Casanova Brown
Chipmunks Go to the Movies
Convict Stage
Dogfight Over Guadalcanal
Dorm
Epic Movie
Fay Grim
Flags of Our Fathers
Fort Courageous
Frankenstein's Bloody Nightmare
From Russia With Love
Fury at Furnace Creek
The Gary Cooper Giftset
Good German
Gun the Man Down
Gunfight
The Hard Easy
Hard Target & Sudden Death
Hell & High Water
Hills Run Red
Hombre
How the West Was Won
Instant Star - Season 1
The Italian
Jews in Space
The John Wayne Adventure Collection
The John Wayne Century Collection
The John Wayne Collection
The John Wayne Film Collection
The John Wayne Western Collection
Kelly's Heroes & Dirty Dozen
Kitchen Confidential - The Complete Series
Kyle Xy: Complete First Season
Letters from Iwo Jima
Living Daylights
The Long Voyage Home
Magnificent Seven: Complete Second Season
Man With the Golden Gun
The Mistress of Spices
Moonraker
The Murder of Fred Hampton
Mythbusters: Collection 1
No Man of Her Own
Oc: Complete Fourth Season
Peter Sellers Giftset
Pigskin Parade
Porkys One Size Fits All Edition
Prince of the City
Return of Sabata
Rio Bravo
The Road Warrior / Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Roots - 30th Anniversary Edition
Sabata
Sansho the Bailiff
Scarface
Scrubs - The Complete Fifth Season
Searchers
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
So Proudly We Hail
Stagecoach
Stay Until Tomorrow
Steelyard Blues
Straight Time
Summer School
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Season 1, Part 1
Third Man
The Third Secret
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Vol. 1 - Gathering of Fates
Venus
War Giftset
Wedding Night
White Feather
World Is Not Enough
WWE: Wrestlemania 23
You Only Live Twice

(courtesy of DVD Talk)

2006 Oscar Nominated Short Films

2007-05-18T23:39:00.000-05:00

Ari Sandel makes references to Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story and, of course, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in the clever, relentlessly silly West Bank Story, one of several shorts included in A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films, released earlier this month.

The American-made West Bank Story, an equal opportunity offender when it comes to gently ribbing Israeli and Palestinian cultural traditions -- war breaks out between the owners of Kosher King and rival fast-food join Hummus Hut -- won the live-action Oscar, while the Norwegian-Canadian The Danish Poet, a sweet love story, won for best animated short.

Also included in the live-action category is Australian entry The Savior, a seriously quirky story concerning the foibles of a Mormon missionary; Helmer & Son (Denmark), detailing one oldster's refusal to go quietly into a nursing home; warm and fuzzy Spanish-made, UNICEF-funded short Binta and the Great Idea, about a Senegalese man with a simple but profound plan to improve the world.

The DVD (Magnolia, $29.98) also features animation nominee Maestro, capped with a great punch line, and one of six "bonus" shorts -- Bill Plympton's Guide Dog is very funny, twisted and gruesome, and the highly inventive One Rat Short tells the story of true love between a street rodent and a lab rat.

Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?

2007-05-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

Teri Horton, a former long-haul truck driver, comes off as something of a folk hero, caught up in a mad quest, in Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?. The documentary details Horton's relentless efforts to prove that the painting she picked up for $5 at a SoCal thrift store is a Pollock original worth upwards of $50 million.

The film, a favorite on the film-festival circuit last year, was released earlier this month on DVD (New Line, $27.98).

Director Harry Moses, a former "60 Minutes" producer, follows the funny, profane and potentially self-destructive Horton as she tracks down art critics, lawyers and, finally, forensic scientists.

Horton nominally is on a mission to determine the value of her find, which could potentially bring a life-changing windfall.

But there's something more at work here: The retired blue-collar laborer has only an eighth-grade education and has weathered all kinds of personal struggles, including single motherhood. And she seems determined to prove her own worth in the face of those who reject her claims out of hand simply because of the person making the case, rather than any legitimate system of validating the authenticity of the Pollock.

It's easy to sympathize with Horton's quest, particularly when Moses' camera offers an unflattering view of such self-proclaimed Pollock experts as Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hoving, perhaps one of the most pretentious and condescending humans caught by a documentarian, practically leans upside down, contorting his body to view the painting, as part of his "assessment" of the work's authenticity. He makes no efforts to hide his contempt for Horton and her efforts.

Want a make a case for American elitists' casual disdain for -- if not open bias against -- those who don't have the benefit of advanced degrees or the kind of income that allows one entree to high society? Here's Exhibit A.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that all the real-world scientific evidence -- including matching fingerprints and a chemical mix that matches the mix found on the floor of Pollock's studio on Long Island -- points to the truth of Horton's claim.

It's equally clear that the art-world experts aren't going to give an inch, in terms of conceding the authenticity of the painting, short of provenance, a history of the work's ownership that can be verified. Provenance, though, itself can be faked, and has been faked, as several scholars admit.

A post-script offers the information that Horton rejected a foreign collector's offer of $9 million for the painting. Her friends, at the trailer park where she lives, are perplexed.

Viewers won't be, though: This grandmother is one tough customer, and she isn't willing to give up quite that easily.

New DVDs - Tuesday, May 15

2007-05-14T15:25:00.000-05:00

(courtesy of DVD Talk)

May 15, 2007

American Dad!, Vol. 2
Army of Shadows
Arthur & the Invisibles
Banacek - Season 1
Battle of the Bulge
Becket
Black Kiss
Casi Casi
Coach: Second Season
Creepshow 3
Curse of the Zodiac
The Dead Girl
Er: Complete Seventh Season
The Fountain
Frasier-9th Season Complete
Half Past Dead 2
Home Improvement - The Complete Sixth Season
The Last Detective - Series 3
M*A*S*H - Goodbye, Farewell & Amen
Martin Scorsese Collection, Vol. 2
Martin: Complete Second Season
Masters of Horror: Right to Die
Monarch of the Glen: Complete Series Six
The Omega Man
Pan's Labyrinth: 2-Disc Special Edition
Perfect Marriage
Playboy After Dark, Vol. 2
Pup Named Scooby Doo 6
Red Green Show:1998 Season
Rent
Robson Arms:Complete First Season
Rock Milestones: High Tide Green
Rockford Files: Season Four
The Seige - Martial Law Edition
Seraphim Falls
Shaolin Family Soccer
Spark
Stomp the Yard
Tex Avery's Droopy:Complete Theatrica
Tom & Jerry: Tales 2
Vengeance Is Mine - Criterion Collection
Wanted: Dead Or Alive - Season One
Wanted: Dead Or Alive - Season Two
War at Home:Complete First Season
The War Tapes: Director's Edition
Whispering Moon
Wings-4th Season Complete

Becket - Back From Beyond

2007-05-11T14:49:00.000-05:00

Thank you, DVD format.

Becket, the acclaimed 1965 period piece starring the great Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton, was almost lost to history when the original negative disappeared in Europe in the 1980s, said Michael Pogorzelski, director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences film archive, for a story in the Wall Street Journal.

The film, though, was restored, beginning in 1998 "when a collector brought Mr. Pogorzelski what appeared to be the movie's original sound mix on magnetic film. It was deteriorating so badly that bits of the recording medium were flaking off and repeatedly clogged the machine that read it," according to the unbylined news item.

The budget for the restoration was $90,000, so the project was done "old school," Pogorzelski said. According to the piece, "The restorers reassembled the film from its three color-restoration masters, using existing color prints of the film as reference points."

And voila! The DVD (MPI, $24.98) will be released Tuesday.

Burton plays the title character, Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, while O'Toole is Henry II, who comes to regret his appointment of his old friend to the high religious office. The cast also includes John Gielgud, yet another Brit acting royal.

Special features on the DVD:
• Commentary by: Peter O'Toole
• Theatrical trailer
• Still gallery
• Interviews with editor Anne V. Coats and composer Laurence Rosenthal
• Archival interviews with Richard Burton
• TV spot

O'Toole and Burton both won Oscar nominations, and the film, shot on location in England, won an Oscar for best screenplay. Four years later, O'Toole reprised his role as Henry II in The Lion in Winter.

Big & That Thing You Do!

2007-05-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

A younger Tom Hanks and a guy who somewhat resembles the young Tom Hanks star in two DVDs released this week. Both are funny and worth watching.

Hanks was just four years past his twin (significant) feature-film debuts* in Bachelor Party and Splash when he connected with television-bred director Penny Marshall for Big.

Marshall's commercial instincts are surefire, and the 1988 sleeper hit is certainly glossy and slick, but it's impossible not to admire Hanks' work, alternately goofy and tender, in the comedy. He's dead-on as the grown-up version of Josh, a 12-year-old kid, aching to exit childhood, who has a life-changing encounter with a creepy carnival wish machine: Overnight, his mind and soul are transported into the body of a man nearly three times his age.

Big seems to cross several genres: It's a buddy movie with a romantic comedy set in an office environment straight from the '80s -- you gotta love the comeuppance experienced by the mean, arrogant corporate honcho played by John Heard, and the way that Josh's childlike innocence wins the favor of the crusty but lovable big boss (Robert Loggia). Yes, it's fun again seeing Hanks and Loggia play chopsticks on the giant keyboard mat in FAO Schwarz, the famous upscale toy store facing Central Park.

Watching the movie with my two kids, though, I was surprised that the PG rating allowed for several risque conversations between Josh and his young best friend Billy (Jared Rushton) and a scene that has Hanks reaching out and touching the (fully occupied) bra of Elizabeth Perkins, who stars as Susan, the girlfriend of the "adult" Josh.

It's a tad creepy, too, seeing the 30-year-old version of Josh trying to explain to his frantic mom that he hasn't done anything to her son, and hanging out with Billy and their friends at the playground. And it's a bit odd watching Susan as she observes her age-appropriate beau shrink into a fifth grader. At that point, it seems as if Susan really ought to put the pedal to the metal, screech tires and flee the vicinity of Josh's childhood home as quickly as possible. Instead, she watches, all sad-eyed, as the suddenly small Josh trudges down the street to his home, wearing an oversized suit. Can you say "Debra Lafave"?

I've yet to plow through the extras on the two-disc extended edition, but here's what viewers get, in addition to the original theatrical cut and the extended edition: audio documentary with screenwriters Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg; deleted scenes with optional introductions by Marshall; three "featurettes" on the making of the movie; "AMC Backstory" special; and theatrical trailers and TV spots.

Here's how those extra 25 or so minutes, tacked on to the 104-minute original feature, play out, according to DVD Talk reviewer Brian Orndorf:

(4 minutes) - Josh's infant sister is moved into the young boy's room, to his great protest. We also see Billy's argumentative home life.

(19 minutes) - Josh's mother is shown telling her side of the "kidnapping" to the cops.

(32 minutes) - Susan is exposed as a much more icy lady than the theatrical cut touches on.

(43 minutes) - Josh calls home a second time trying to wrangle advice from his mother on how to best deal with a stomachache. Honestly, this is the finest scene of the bunch. I have no idea why this failed to make it into the theatrical cut.

(58 minutes) - Josh and Billy go tuxedo shopping.

(79 minutes) - Josh and toy company honcho MacMillan (Robert Loggia) discuss toys and the ways of women.

(92 minutes) - Susan is also revealed to be a changed person after her night of carnal bliss with a 13 year-ol...er, I mean our pal Josh.

(100 minutes) - Josh and Susan mess around with a musical toy prototype.

(110 minutes) - Susan goes through Josh's wallet, finding more evidence that he's telling the truth about his prepubescent origins. Also, Billy learns the whereabouts of a Zoltar machine over the phone.

The star of Big wrote and directed 1996's That Thing You Do! (Fox, $14.99), a musical dramedy featuring a title song that has to count as the best pop song never recorded in 1964, the year during which fictitious Pennsyvlania band The Wonders ride the tune up the pop charts.

Hank's sort-of doppelganger, Tom Everett Scott, plays Guy, the effervescent drummer who serves as the band's conscience. Liv Tyler is girl-next-door, all-American perfect as the loving girlfriend of the Wonders' egotistical singer (Johnathon Schaech), and the well-chosen cast also includes Steve Zahn, Charlize Theron, Giovanni Ribisi, Chris Isaak and Rita Wilson (Tom's wife). Hanks plays the part of a recording exec.

The two-disc "director's cut," with the theatrical version and the extended cut, includes the usual puffy making-of-the-movie features as well as a sequence on a cast/crew reunion and Josh Clayton's "Feel Alright" video.

The same year that That Thing You Do! was released, Big made its debut as a broadway musical. It won five Tonys, but was considered a commercial flop. The national tour, though, became a hit. Here's the story.

*Hanks' actual feature-film debut was in 1980, with a small role in the horror flick He Knows You're Alone.

Veteran TV and film actor Andy Griffith is gaining raves for his work as Old Joe, the octogenarian owner of a diner in Waitress, the last film directed by late young filmmaker Adrienne Shelly, also a co-star of the movie. Younger viewers curious to see Old Andy in his 1960s prime might want to check out "The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete Final Season," a five-disc set featuring 30 episodes plus extras. Don Knotts, Jack Nicholson, Harry Dean Stanton, Teri Garr, Ken Berry and Howard Hesseman all make guest appearances during the series' eighth season.

True story: There are two degrees of separation between me and Andy Griffith. Ask me how.

THIS POST IS CROSS-POSTED AT Scribe Life.

Houston, we have a DVD blog

2007-05-02T22:19:00.001-05:00

Yes