Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
Let’s do a little math. If a film comes out in 1992, and its 10th-anniversary Special Edition DVD arrives in 2002, what year should the 15th Anniversary Edition DVD be released? Granted, I was an English major, but even I can count to five—something Lionsgate apparently cannot do. How else do you explain the October 2006 release of this two-disc set? Perhaps the more relevant question is, do we need a 15th-anniversary DVD of Reservoir Dogs?
Video: 2
Audio: 4
Extras: 0
Over his long career, Van Morrison has recorded close to 40 albums, but his video appearances are rare. That’s why I so fondly remember the Van Morrison: The Concert VHS tape, a stellar show recorded in 1989. But it never came out on DVD. Long-deprived fans will relish Live at Montreux 1980/1974, a two-disc set with both complete shows (selected by the man himself).
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
Based on a comic strip by Michael Fry and T. Lewis, Over the Hedge follows a group of critters who, after a long winter’s sleep, wake up to find a housing development in their backyard. Enter RJ, a self-serving raccoon who introduces them to the glory of potato chips, cookies, and other human scraps—and dupes the nave foragers into helping him repay a food debt to an ominous black bear. The film serves up likable characters, some laugh-out-loud moments, and a script that cleverly lampoons humans’ tendency to overdo, well, everything—yet it doesn’t quite possess the allure and enduring charm of a Shrek or Finding Nemo.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
The massive reconstruction of Ground Zero for Oliver Stone’s tribute to the heroes of 9/11 is one of the more fascinating DVD extras I’ve seen in a while. The set had to resemble the actual site and be flexible enough to allow for lighting and shooting in tight spaces—all while being safe for the crew to work on and around.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Anne Hathaway trades in her Brokeback boots for a pair of Pradas in Fox’s release la mode, The Devil Wears Prada. Andy Sachs (Hathaway) maneuvers through the stiletto-infested waters of Runway magazine as the newest assistant to editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly. While Andy maintains she’s only in it for the fringe benefits, she soon discovers she’s just a manipulation away from becoming a dragon lady herself. Hathaway has come a long way from her pretty princess role, but she’s still got a thing or two to learn from the ever-talented Meryl Streep, whose performance as the venerable Priestly screams Oscar, or so the rumor mill says.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
A 1950s sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet is a futuristic spin on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Fifty years later, it remains a fun and frightening cautionary tale of fathers, daughters, and hubris, replete with flying saucers, ray guns, and other technology far beyond our own.
Five-Star 007
A new Bond benchmark has been set.
James Bond has saved the world time and again, but where has the appreciation gone? True, MGM Home Entertainment released those three comprehensive boxed sets a few years ago. They worked from the best possible masters available at the time and added a host of special features. But even those discs went on moratorium, relegated to big price hikes on eBay. But, now, as the culmination of two-and-a-half years of audio and video restoration by DTS, the 20 Bond films from 1962 to 2002 are available again as part of The James Bond Ultimate Edition. The four volumes include Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, The World Is Not Enough, Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, A View to a Kill, Licence to Kill (sic), Die Another Day, GoldenEye, Live and Let Die, From Russia with Love, For Your Eyes Only, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Tomorrow Never Dies, You Only Live Twice, Dr. No, Octopussy, and Moonraker. Working from the original camera negatives, John Lowry’s process has reduced the grain and generally removed dirt, in addition to digitally repairing scratches and other incidents of damage. The color has also been retimed under expert supervision. The goal was to remain authentic while making the films as visually appealing as possible to the modern eye. The discs include new DTS tracks, along with Dolby Digital 5.1, plus the original audio in most cases, although Spy is missing its theatrical mix.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 5
Bloggers across the globe have said so much about Snakes on a Plane—even months before the film was released—except for the one thing that matters. Is the movie any good? The short answer is, no, it’s not good. Not by a long shot.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
Many a time have I listened to friends lament that a movie isn’t as good as the book on which it’s based. I just smile and nod, thinking smugly to myself that, if these poor people would just stop reading, they’d be much happier moviegoers. Then one of these friends gave me the novel The Da Vinci Code as a gift. I knew full well that Dan Brown’s insanely popular religious-themed murder mystery would someday become a film, yet I foolishly read it anyhow. And now here I am, forced to utter the same five words I once so smugly dismissed: “Eh, the book was better.”
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 5
As with most Robert Altman films, A Prairie Home Companion isn’t easy to summarize. It’s an oddly ethereal little film that’s about nothing in particular and yet explores the cosmic everythings of life, love, and death. Written by Garrison Keillor, the man behind the real Prairie Home Companion radio show, the story chronicles the final performance of a radio show much like PHC, as its cast and crew struggle to say goodbye.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
Aaron Eckhart owns the screen as tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor in Jason Reitman’s Thank You for Smoking, an acerbic and wickedly funny view of spin control in the modern age. A star-studded cast fills out this comedy, but it’s Eckhart who commands your attention as Naylor tries to soften the image of tobacco in this health-conscious day and age. Whether convincing Hollywood to embrace smoking again, raising his young son, or going up against the U.S. Senate, Eckhart keeps the film together in a delicious performance.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
Talented teenage artist Jerome (Max Minghella, son of Oscar-winning director Anthony) enrolls in a small New York City art college, and his world opens up in this bitingly original, funny, and scathing film from director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World, Bad Santa). Set against the backdrop of a campus murderer who’s tallying up victims at a quick rate, Jerome becomes increasingly confused and angry at his overcritical classmates and his own insecurities. Worse yet, Jerome finds himself in a love triangle with fellow artist Jonah (Matt Keeslar) and the stunning model Audrey (Sophia Myles). This desperation and self-doubt lead him to consider extreme measures to win the affection and admiration of all.
Super Hero
Christopher Reeve flies again.
Perhaps never before in the history of home video has a studio crafted months of releases upon a single theme, as Warner has in 2006, “the year Superman returns.” No doubt tying into that new feature film, all manner of Super movies and TV shows have been issued on DVD, some for the first time—new seasons of Smallville, the classic Adventures of Superman, Lois & Clark, Superboy, The Animated Series, and even the cartoon adventures of the Dog of Steel, Krypto. But we can never give enough credit to Christopher Reeve and his dual role as the impossibly awkward Clark Kent and a gentlemanly savior in a red cape. Reeve’s electric screen presence was born of classical acting training, an understanding of how to fly under his own power—from his experience as a glider pilot—and a willingness to bulk up his lean frame under the tutelage of Darth Vader himself, trainer David Prowse. The later of Reeve’s four franchise films were not an ideal stage for his inspired thespian stylings, but his characterization was a high-water mark for the timeless hero, as celebrated in Warner’s new boxed set, The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection.
Dream Street
Welcome to their Nightmare…again.
This new and greatly improved infinifilm edition of A Nightmare on Elm Street reminds me that New Line had other blockbuster franchises before the reign of hobbits and snaggletoothed British spies. Director Wes Craven’s imaginative script struck a nerve with audiences who were growing tired of contemporary horror flicks. He introduced us to the iconic Freddy Krueger, a supernatural murderer relegated to attacking his young victims in their sleep, where no one can protect them from his knife-enhanced fingers. Elm Street also marked the big-screen debut of a baby-faced boy next door named Johnny Depp.
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