The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
The complementary “Art Of” volumes that have gone hand-in-hand with the release of every Pixar film since Monsters, Inc. are as beautiful and fascinating as the fully realized films whose visual development process they chronicle. Maintaining that high standard is the companion to director Brad Bird’s latest, The Art of Ratatouille (Chronicle Books, $40.00 SRP). Packed with sketches, design progressions, storyboards, character models, and more, it’s another top-notch volume to add to the shelf.
It’s bittersweet that just a few weeks after the untimely death of writer/director Bob Clark (killed, along with his son, by a drunk driver), Fox has released Porky’s : The Ultimate Collection (Fox, Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP), containing all 3 Porky’s films. The 2nd and 3rd installments are largely forgettable, but the first film is still a modern coming-of-age classic that has been continuously “homaged” by films ever since. The original Porky’s contains a commentary with Clark, and retrospective featurettes (the less said about the video game pitch, the better). Give Porky’s and Bob Clark’s other classic, A Christmas Story, a spin.
It got a bare-bones release last year, but Clint Eastwood’s first Iwo Jima film, Flags Of Our Fathers (Paramount, Rated R, DVD-$34.99 SRP), is being re-released as a feature-laden 2-disc affair. Those bonus materials include an introduction from Clint, featurettes (on casting, visual effects, the history, and the script) and the original theatrical trailer.
Let that be a prelude, however, to Eastwood’s far superior Letters From Iwo Jima (Warner Bros., Rated R, DVD-$34.99 SRP), which tells the exact same story as Flags, but from the Japanese perspective. Where Flags is very much a by-the-numbers, at times staid and tedious film, Letters is nuanced, powerful, and elegant – Eastwood just seems to be more energized by the material and the characters themselves. There are no caricatures to be found in the Japanese servicemen left on a suicide mission to defend the tiny island of Iwo Jima from the Allied troops, and that is the film’s greatest strength. The 2-disc special edition sports a behind-the-scenes documentary, a featurette of the cast discussing the real soldiers, premiere & press conference footage, and an image gallery.
The Good German (Warner Bros., Rated R, DVD-$27.98 SRP) is a noble cinematic experiment, of the kind that producer/star George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh seem to like to engage in periodically. Essentially a throwback to the Warner era of Casablanca, it’s a black & white nouveau-classic about an American journalist (Clooney) in postwar Berlin who encounters a former lover (Cate Blanchett) and her new military beau (Tobey Maguire), and a mysterious murder that only he seems interested in solving. It’s a largely successful throwback to Hollywood’s golden age.
Nostalgia is often a double-edged sword – equal parts joyful and depressing. Such I the case of my reaction to reading a pair of fine trade paperback releases from Marvel – Alpha Flight Classic: Volume 1 (Marvel, $24.99 SRP) and Fantastic Four Visionaries – Walt Simonson: Volume 1 ($19.99 SRP). Both collect the first batch of issues that launch memorably enjoyable runs on both titles… That’s the good part. The bad part is that both books remind me just how cruddy comics – and the characters I used to love – have become in the years since their original publication, corrupted by poor writing, wrongheaded editors, and visionless companies. It’s a damn shame.
John Wayne would have been 100-years-old this year, and to celebrate, film fans are getting some very nice special editions of his classic flicks. That includes a brand new fully remastered special edition of True Grit (Paramount, Rated G, DVD-$19.99 SRP), with an audio commentary, a quartet of retrospective featurettes, and the original theatrical trailer. Not to be outdone, Warner has pulled out a pair of big guns with special editions of Rio Bravo (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$20.98 SRP) and The Cowboys (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP). The 2-disc edition of Bravo features an audio commentary (with John Carpenter & Richard Schickel), 2 brand-new featurettes, a spotlight on director Howard Hawks, and a trailer gallery. Cowboys features a commentary from director Mark Rydell, a reunion featurette, a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette, and the theatrical trailer.
The occasion of the Duke’s 100th birthday has given studios the excuse to cull some new-to-DVD flicks from the vaults, and Warner has done that with the 6-disc John Wayne Film Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP). The films in question are Allegheny Uprising, Reunion In France, Without Reservations, Tycoon, Big Jim McLain, and Trouble Along The Way. Each disc features a classic contemporary short subject and cartoon.
When titans stumble. Up until the fifth season of Scrubs (Buena Vista, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP), I thought the show to be one of those rare comedies that could balance both humor and poignancy, never betraying the reality of its characters and situation for the sake of a cheap gag. Then came the 5th season, when reality was shoved aside, the characters became caricatures, and the humor played like a second rate live action interpretation of Family Guy. It’s not that the humor became sophomoric – Scrubs always had a touch of that, because its main character was a geeky 20-something intern/doctor – it’s that I just lost any and all respect for the characters that had been so nicely fleshed out over the preceding 4 seasons, often betraying every bit of nuance and verisimilitude that made the comedy that much sweeter. It’s a shame when titans stumble – but worse was to come, if you’ve been watching season 6. This 3-disc set features all 24 mixed bag episodes, plus deleted scenes, featurettes, and audio commentaries (but not a single bit of the blog material the producers put together last year).
As sequels go, Fay Grim (Magnolia, Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP) is exactly the uniquely odd follow-up you’d expect from filmmaker Hal Hartley. Continuing the lives of the characters from Henry Fool, the focus this time is on Parker Posey’s Fay Grim, who is asked by a CIA agent (Jeff Goldblum) to aid in locating Henry’s notebooks and turn them over in exchange for her brother Simon’s freedom (he was jailed after helping the escaped Henry – who broke out of prison – flee the country). Bonus features include a making-of featurette, a Fay Grim episode, deleted scenes, and Hartley’s trailer for the film.
I enjoyed his stand-up DVD from a few years back, and I enjoyed Joe Rogan’s new comedy CD, Shiny Happy Jihad (Comedy Central Records, $12.98 SRP). He’s just as outspoken and no-holds-barred as he’s always been, but here’s hoping this more widely distributed release gets him more fans than that untalented hack Dane Cook.
There’s over three decades worth of shakin’ going on in Jerry Lee Lewis: Greatest Live Performances of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP), a DVD that more than lives up to its title with some choice vintage footage full of piano playin’ fire and brimstone.
It was inevitable that there would be yet another dip into Virgin territory with the new 2-disc unrated edition of The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). In addition to the unrated cut, the set features cast auditions, 17 minutes of deleted scenes, a cast roundtable discussion, unedited Steve Carell takes, rehearsal footage, plus a sneak peek at producer/director Judd Apatow’s upcoming Knocked Up (a free ticket for which is included in the set).
I never knew that HBO aired the full Broadway revival of Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Leowe’s Camelot (Acorn, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP) in 1982, which starred a vibrant Richard Harris in the lead. Well, 25 years later, you can now get that special on DVD.
Based on the New York City police corruption investigations of the early 70’s, Sidney Lumet’s gritty Prince of the City (Warner Bros., Rated R, DVD-$19.98 SRP) is a grim, dirty look at dirty cops and the dirty city they inhabited during the Big Apple’s darkest days. A sprawling epic, it could easily have been a miniseries – with 130 locations and 126 speaking parts – but deserves its big screen canvass. The 2-disc special edition features a newly-produced retrospective featurette, and the original theatrical trailer.
It’s nice to see blue-eyed Peter O’Toole aging into the loveable geriatric leach of the silver screen in Venus (Miramax, Rated R, DVD-$29.99 SRP), but I can see why this otherwise slight role garnered him only an Academy Award nomination, but no win. As an aging actor smitten with the grandniece of his closest friend, the material is not really strong enough to support the performance, which is a true shame. Still, I’m sure there are more parts to come. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
If there’s one thing that Epic Movie (Fox, Not Rated DVD-$29.99 SRP) proves – beyond a doubt – it’s that films should not be made that are essentially an extended MadTV sketch. Skewering Hollywood blockbusters like Scary Movie took on the horror franchises of the 90’s, the jokes are one-note, and based largely on visual approximations of the parody targets. It’s hard to make fun of already-ludicrous popcorn flicks… And this attempt falls flat. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, outtakes, and more.
The 6-disc Highlander: The Ultimate Collection set (Starz Home Entertainment, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP) features 15 of what it terms the “Best of the Best” episodes from the surprisingly long-running TV adventures of the immortal Duncan MacLeod. In addition to those episodes – spanning all 6 seasons – the set also contains a featurette on the Parisian locations of “The City of Lights,” a spotlight on the show’s swordfights, a celebration of the show’s fans, a preview of the upcoming videogame, and a trip to the Spanish facility that makes the show’s weapons.
The OC proved to be one of those radiant zeitgeist shows that burned incredibly hot for its first two seasons, then plunged to Earth, eventually limping along to a bitter finale. There was an element of course correction during what turned out to be its final season, but you can see for yourself that the show’s fourth season (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP) had a lot of ground to make up to get things back on track, and they ultimately were not given the chance to see if it all worked. The 5-disc set features all 16 episodes, plus an audio commentary on the finale, unaried scenes, a Chrismukkah featurette, and a Summer Roberts featurette.
For over 50 years, the CIA has attempted to eliminate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro – who, as you may know, is very much alive and still with us. If you’d like to view an excellent documentary detailing all of the near-misses, ludicrous plots, bad luck, and failure after failure, check out 638 Ways To Kill Castro (Starz Home Entertainment, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP). Bonus features include additional interviews.
Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (Touchstone, Rated R, DVD-$29.99 SRP) is just as powerful, bombastic, and overblown as its troubled auteur, and becomes largely exhausting on the small screen. It doesn’t help that the entire affair is overshadowed by the feeling that Gibson – high on horse – is just trying too hard. If Braveheart was a pretentious statement, then this is full blown egomaniacal filmmaking at both its best and worst – it’s sometimes beautiful to behold, and there’s some admirable cinema, but it’s all just too overwhelming. Bonus features include audio commentary, a deleted scene (with optional commentary), and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
It’s amazing – and somewhat disturbing – that BCI’s releases from the Filmation library has now gotten to the point where it seems everything one of Hollywood’s most mediocre animation studios ever produced. The two latest blasts from the past is the complete series of Hero High (BCI, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP), about a high school for superheroes, and an animated Rick Springfield in the complete series of Mission: Magic! (BCI, Not Rated, DVD-$ SRP), which is some kind of weird mash-up of Harry Potter and School of Rock. Both sets feature copious amounts of bonus materials, including commentaries, featurettes, interviews, galleries, and more.
Even if I were just judging it on its appealing design sensibility, and not its equally fun storytelling, Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender would be worth checking out. Give it a spin and see if you agree, with the third volume of the show’s second season, Book 2: Earth (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP). Bonus materials include audio commentary from the creators and cast on the 5 episodes featured in this volume.
Learn the awesome power of duct tape via Canada’s biggest advocate for this modern marvel, Red Green. The 3-disc Red Green Show: 1998 Season set (Acorn, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP) features all 14 episodes of the canuck comedy, but we get short shrift on extras.
The 80’s really were a glorious era of bombastic TV. I mean, a series focusing on an attack helicopter and its renegade pilot righting wrongs and saving the day? Priceless. Airwolf: Season Three (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) features an additional 22 episodes of rotored brilliance.
It’s the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, so I thought we’d part with a look at a pair of collectibles that you will probably be hard-pressed to resist shelling out the necessary cash for in order to add them to your collection. First up is Gentle Giant’s animated-style Luke Skywalker maquette ($80.00). The piece stands approx. 8″ tall and is limited to an edition size of 4,500.
And, just because it seems right, lets finish things off with a bounty hunter. Which bounty hunter? Well, it’s certainly not Dog. No, it’s the one and only Boba Fett, brought to startling scale life from Sideshow Collectibles. The 1/4-scale Premium Format Boba Fett ($324.99) stands approx. 19″ tall, and is limited to an edition size of 2,000. From the scale clothing and armor reproduction to the iconic pose, it’s a stunning piece that’s right at home next to the rest of Sideshow’s must-have Star Wars Premium Format line.
So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…
-Ken Plume
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