Inspired by those wacky geeks over at TWIT I have decided that instead of putting off and putting off and putting off my vow to somehow market my first book I would let people download and read it for free. Give it a preview, read the whole thing or, if you like what you see, send me some kind words or money for the actual book. Download and read my first book “Thank You, Goodnight” for FREE.
Quick shout out this week and then you’ll be free to ignore the rest of the column.
One of the biggest drags about living in this personal wasteland of hell on earth, known as Arizona, where you could not only be savaged by roaming rattlesnakes or impaled by any number of succulents that not only steal and store whatever water was intended for my consumption but you also run the risk, as happened to a friend of mine who lives here, get stung by scorpions that see your bed as a cool nest in which to lie in wait for you to fall asleep, forever haunting your ability to relax even under your own covers. Son a bitch walked around his bedroom with a black light for weeks following, just hoping to catch one of those venomous bastards and beat it with the business end of his Hush Puppies.
No, one of the biggest drags was that I wasn’t here when U2 recorded their hallmark concert film, RATTLE AND HUM.
The concert film never really took a toehold in American cinemas but with the success of this film and then a popular entry like Madonna’s TRUTH OR DARE you would have thought someone could have monetized this genre into something profitable like the scads of crap kids films that can be made on the cheap and then only really having to pull in the band’s estimated fan base.
In recent years there has been a smattering of corporations trying to make this a success once more, Regal Entertainment Group offering the turd-in-the-mediocre-punchbowl opportunity to see Matchbox Twenty perform live to all of their adoring pre-menstruating female fans and then you had even them testing out what would happen if you gave people the chance to see Prince shake his ambiguously sexual groove thing in the comfort of their own movie house. Even with Aerosmith getting into the act there still wasn’t the same vibe as when the boys from Ireland rattled some cages for the people of Sun Devil Stadium and only charged them $5, a far cry from the embarrassingly ridiculous amount of money I spent to see them during their recent tour.
One of the great things about U2, though, was their ability to see that people enjoyed tossing them the extra cash to get a copy of their show on video, now on DVD. They’ve always padded the concert films with a little something extra and for all the talk about them being more of a brand than a band, all valid concerns, they’ve wanted to feed the fan frenzy with the bread and circuses that they know will sell. Hot off the heels of their latest DVD venture, VERTIGO 05 LIVE, the boys are bringing something to Cannes this year and I can’t help but feel like this project just helps to push things forward in capturing an experience that has long eluded filmmakers’ grasps in being faithful adapters.
For my money U2 3D would be far and away one of the best films that is being screened there out-of-competition. Yeah, you have what hopefully will be one the best reasons to feel good about cream puff cinema, OCEAN’S THIRTEEN, and one that will also hopefully be the death knell for many of the unscrupulous bastards out there working in the health care industry, Michael Moore’s SICKO, but having the chance to mainline some of that same adrenaline you reserve for a good rock concert (and I realize that there are lots and lots and lots of U2 haters out there for one reason or another, in which case, get your own blog and talk about it) and seeing whether this experiment actually delivers is enough for me to actually pay attention to some of the talk that comes out of there in the coming days.
For more on what this film is about, here is part of the press release:
“NY-based editorial powerhouse Bluerock announces the 2007 Cannes Film Festival presentation of the film, “U2 3D,” billed as the first live-action concert film shot entirely in 3D and starring the renowned Grammy-winning band, U2. The 55-minute preview is intended to garner buzz for the upcoming full-length feature, and will screen at midnight on May 19th at the Palais des Festivals. Bluerock’s Olivier Wicki edited both the preview and the full-length versions of the film in 2D and it was then put through the 3D process. The film is the latest in a long-standing collaboration between Bluerock and U2’s Bono.
Bluerock President Ethel Rubinstein praises the film, “Bono and the band set the bar for dynamic performance, and Olivier Wicki used his creative and technical genius to ensure the film portrayed every bit of their awesome talent. We were honored to be chosen as a creative partner.”
“U2 3D” documents U2’s wildly successful “Vertigo” World tour. Armed with 3D glasses, viewers will now have the opportunity to see U2 in a concert atmosphere without enduring sweaty crowds and high ticket prices. The full-length version of “U2 3D,” featuring 15 songs drawn from over 700 hours of footage, will debut in the fall of 2007. The film was directed by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington and produced by 3ality Digital, Los Angeles.”
There is very little I still find enjoyable that I enjoyed throughout high school and U2 is certainly worthy enough of the cred they’re trying to hold onto.
Check the trailer for U2 3D right here.
GOOD LUCK CHUCK (2007)
Director: Mark Helfrich
Cast: Jessica Alba, Dane Cook, Dan Fogler
Release: August 24, 2007
Synopsis: It all started when Charlie Kagan was ten years old. Breaking the cardinal rules of spin-the-bottle, Charlie refused to lip-lock with a demented Goth girl ““ and she put a hex on him. Now, twenty-five years later, Charlie (Dane Cook) is a successful dentist”¦and still cursed. While his plastic surgeon best friend, Stu (Dan Fogler), pursues as many of his patients as possible, Charlie can’t seem to find the right girl. Even worse, he discovers at an ex-girlfriend’s wedding that every woman he’s ever slept with has found true love ““ with the next guy after him. Before he knows it, Charlie’s reputation as a “good luck charm” has women ““ from sexy strangers to his overweight receptionist ““ lining up for a quickie. But a life filled with all sex and no love has Charlie lonelier than ever ““ that is, until he meets Cam (Jessica Alba). An accident-prone penguin specialist, Cam is as hard-to-get as she is beautiful. But when a genuine romance develops, Charlie realizes he’s got to find a way to break his good-luck curse”¦before the girl of his dreams winds up with the next guy she meets..
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. Just Wicked Awful. A pitch meeting, one afternoon. Two men in shirts that are rolled up from their wrists to their elbows. The office of someone with access to a large checkbook.
“Hear us out!”
“Yeah, hear us out!”
“An amazing comedy!”
“Amazing”¦”
“You’ve got a guy”¦”
“One guy”¦”
“Who, every time he sleeps with someone”¦”
“Like sex, not really sleeping you see”¦”
“They just happen to find their real true love after they do it and dump the guy who they slept with.”
“Just had sex with, not sleeping.”
“It’s like a cross between WEST SIDE STORY, AMERICAN BEAUTY and UP THE CREEK.”
Sold.
So, I can’t really tell with any degree of accuracy how the pitch meeting actually went for this film but I can say with some degree of possibility that it was the premise, not the script, that was put out there at first and everything else was built around that What-If nugget.
Dane Cook could really have parlayed his juggernaut success with his second album and crafted a entry into motion pictures that could have further penetrated the American zeitgeist with his own self-made vehicle but it’s kind of telling that, so far, all we’ve been allowed to see of his filmic greatness has been in EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH and now a movie where his dong is supposed to be the lighting rod of divinity for any woman to find their true happiness after he’s worked that cooter for all it’s worth.
The mechanics of the trailer are a bit jarring, though.
When we open, and when we don’t really get that his wang has been infused with some kind of mystery ability, it’s probably some kind of STD that hasn’t been identified but hey it’s not my movie, we’re at a wedding and the bride thanks Cook for being her lucky charm. We’re not sure what that’s supposed to mean and it’s not until some old looking lady, I’m kind of shocked they couldn’t find someone a little easier on the eyes, attacks Cook in his parked car, rips her shirt off and explains the whole plot to us. “Ah,” we’re supposed to collectively sigh, “his dork helps women find their true, albeit at the expense of his own happiness and sense of purpose in the world, love!” How funny!
Cue Scorpions’ “Rock You Like A Hurricane”
Cook goes on a f*ck spree with tons of women. Wow, this spell he has is really awesome. 120 messages on his voice mail, all from chicks wanting to spread their peanut butter sandwiches open wide for his man-jelly! This is totally my dream! Never mind that real overt homosexual male voice on his VM that says, in a way that some might consider real stereotypical, and damn near insulting, “Thissss is Bob. Juusssth hear me oooouuut”¦”
Ooo, and then Jessica Alba walks into his life. What savage irony! The one woman who he would want to probably have a relationship with, and who are we kidding, this would be an excellent addition to the Hit-It and Quit-It club, he’s going to destroy it if he sticks it in her! Oh, noes.
Besides, and I think someone felt like going after another group of people that’s easily insulted, when Cook tries to stave off having actual sex with Alba and puts his curse to the test even though I thought all his other conquests were supposed to be proof of his ability, we’re subjected to an overdrawn clip of Dane preparing to be mounted by a woman who’s large enough that I guess social decorum gets lost after a certain poundage.
For those keeping score, Alba gets down to her skivvies twice, and remember that’s as close any of you geeks will ever see because she will never ever release the hounds for you to look at. It’s all a bit like 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS tossed in with a real skeevy sidekick who just grates on the senses by the end of this thing.
It’s all a bit jumbled feels slapped together with a bucket of paste and spit.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (2007)
Director: David Yates
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Jason Isaacs Release: July 13, 2007
Synopsis: In HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts and discovers that much of the wizarding community has been denied the truth about the teenager’s recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort. Fearing that Hogwarts’ venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about Voldemort’s return in order to undermine his power and take his job, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the Hogwarts students.
But Professor Dolores Umbridge’s Ministry-approved course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the dark forces threatening them and the entire wizarding community, so at the prompting of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry takes matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves “Dumbledore’s Army,” Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that lies ahead…
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Yeah, It’ll Do. You’re either a reader or you’re not.
I’m one of the latter if for the simple reason that I have scads and scads of more pressing pieces of fiction, and comic books, to consume. Maybe some day I will finally be able to see what has caused such a stir within the collective zeitgeist of this world’s young’uns but, for now, I’m only concerned with how this film presents itself.
And, for another installment, the trailer is remarkable.
Who cares that I don’t really get what’s going on here. I applaud the marketers, and trailer maker, for forgoing some lame half-assed attempt to try and fit years of history into the first few moments of the trailer.
No, instead we get a strange and eerie introduction that lets us know that this is, thankfully, not the land that Chris Columbus built. Maturity seems to reign here and the inclusion of a ghastly looking spirit that seems hell bent on acquiring Harry for some nefarious purpose. What’s more is the use of dark hues to further illustrate that this is not really a jaunty trip into Oz but, rather, another silly movie that will integrate some awfully heady material into the mix.
Yes, it’s amusing that we’re given the Eragon, flying dragon shot, it’s enough to give you a wicked case of déjà vu, and that the Grand Wizard or whatever the hell these people call themselves without accidentally stepping into KKK territory, but there’s a real attempt to balance the dark and light with an even hand. It works insofar that we see what we’re dealing with in this movie is not so much Harry, Harry, Harry but that there are still other people that inhabit this world.
From boys riding witches brooms to Hans Gruber whacking some young lad with a book in a really silly manner to a real thunderous crescendo of young wizards coming together to fight what seems to be an upcoming battle between”¦other”¦wizards”¦that”¦seem to exist in this world as well.
It’s all very silly and, by the end, the use of modern day machine guns and bullets are exchanged for archaic latin-like spell casting and X-Men Jubilee style fireworks that I am to assume really are supposed to be shocking in some manner. It’s dark, yes. It’s foreboding, sure. Is it really as heart-thumping as these actors posture it is? Not so much. I do believe that what we have here is something that will really speak to the core audience in ways that I can imagine a lot of people felt when X-MEN or SPIDER-MAN was done right. Since I can’t fault any kid who found Harry on their way through adolescence I can say though, for me, the ADD style in which we’re shoved through series after series of special effects is a little too much for my taste.
Maybe if I read the book it would be but, for now, this is all quite just another addition to young boys and girls playing around with special effects.
Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez
Release: August 3, 2007
Synopsis: All he wanted was to disappear. Instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was.
Now, in the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne–all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Fu$k Yeah! Doug Liman is a man among men.
What some people would write off as needless popcorn flicks I would call indispensable. To have action movies that further the case as to why it’s so pretty so see shit blow up, why it’s exciting to watch dudes get their trachea strangled with phone cord and why car chases that end in spectacular collisions, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing this series is even better than appreciators of the films would have you believe.
Action is Liman’s wheelhouse and for him to have not only hand delivered some of the most remarkable action sequences (Who didn’t yell “Fuck yeah!” as Matt Damon rode a dead body down the center of an open staircase, getting off a gunshot to a man’s forehead that could only happen in Hollywood?) in recent years. Even in the case of MR. AND MRS. SMITH, if you can just look beyond the 4th wall of craziness that surrounds Jolie like the vaporized plague, you have a film that you can watch over and over and over again and find something there to like. I do and, even though I don’t boast about it, I even give props to Liman for finding and creating the kind of chemistry that woeful matchups on the screen have a hard time bottling. However, with the addition of Paul Greengrass, the man who added his films as to things you shouldn’t experience if you get motion sickness easily, I wonder if these films will be less relevant under the power of another man.
I’m going to emphatically say no for the very reasons that his other films did so well as narratives: they feel real in ways that a static camera shot can’t capture. Greengrass is able to harness the thought that if you’re watching an event unravel before your real eyes you’re not especially going to be focused on any one thing for too long. You’re going to drift a little bit and it’s that drifting effect that lends itself, oddly, to this film’s power in a way that’s captivating.
Now, while I really dig it, I really do, when we seem Damon’s silhouette against the backdrop of a very snowy street, the sense that something bad is going to happen very quickly is communicated loud and clear without a single word or voiceover. The problem, then, is the copious flashbacks to the other films.
Yes, they’re great and add a lot of context and this is a teaser trailer after all and it’s way too early to get a substantial bead of everything because you want to whet people’s interest, et al, I would argue that the flashbacks are kind of a puss way out to those of us who stayed awake for the first two films.
Yes, “His memory erased.” Yes, (gack) “His loved one murdered.” Yeah, I get it, moron, “His past stolen.” All just very unimportant and needless for fans of this franchise.
It’s not until the nicely done statement that Damon is going to find the people that did all this to his life where I get the goose bumps that just seal the moment that Damon, to me, is really the kind of action star that many people easily overlook; the kid is just threatening in ways that Leonardo couldn’t pull off in THE DEPARTED. Damon does look like he’s capable of bad things.
Boom, some cars crash into each other, Damon does some hand-to-hand, and then uses a book (!) to crush the windpipe of some asshole, Joan Allen is back to deliver the kind of quarterbacking that I hope gets her killed in the end, we even get a treat of Damon doing some wheelies through some real tight quarters on a dirt bike and then, as a little treat, we get Damon’s stunt double jumping from a building into the window of another just across the way. Good, good stuff.
And the best part? It all feels very verite in ways that other directors only wish they could capture, if for the only reason that it gives the moment on the screen more weight. Now, the average action movie consumer could perhaps be blind to all these elements but I’m feeling respected as a donator to these kinds of productions and that means something.
Director: Julia Loktev
Cast: Luisa Williams, Josh P. Weinstein, Gareth Saxe, Nyambi Nyambi, Frank Dattolo
Release: May 11, 2007 (Limited), Coming Soon Near You
Synopsis: A 19-year-old girl prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. She speaks with no accent; it’s impossible to pinpoint her ethnicity. We never learn why she made her decision – she has made it already. We don’t know whom she represents, what she believes in – we only know she believes it absolutely.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Very Positive. Inches away from giving up on this trailer, I was.
Sometimes it’s all about art for art sake and, while that’s fine for some French, impressionistic work that bleeds pomposity, this trailer scales it back and justifies its artistic feel. It’s in the justification and that’s what makes this movie noteworthy. When I saw YOU CAN COUNT ON ME it felt like it drifted more to the side of artistic imagination than it did reality but the subject matter here is made relevant by what many will be dealing with as Baby Boomers creep toward old age. COUNT ON ME didn’t really inform as it did just ramble. There seems to be a real point here.
One of the best things the trailer does here in order to disarm any notion that the film will be a fetid affair of hardcore seriousness is the exchange Hoffman and Linney have regarding the entire theme of the movie without saying it outright; comparing the seriousness of the situation with their ailing father to Bush’s color-coded threat warning system is just funny. It’s amusing and it contextualizes the nature and relationship this brother and sister have with one another. The graphics that display Hoffman and Linney’s name, with the aforementioned color bars, is a nice touch.
And, big ups for the brief and almost blink-you-missed-it graphic that states the movie was at the Sundance Film Festival; the red color matte behind the Sundance graphic takes the joke one step further and it was appreciated.
The siblings meet. They’ve been away from one another for quite some time, Hoffman makes a self-deprecating comment about his own weight, and the sense of place we’re brought into, where geezers get to ride the streets in their golf carts, feels genuine.
The ailing father that brought these kids together feels like he’s serving a perfunctory role, because it’s all about Linney and Hoffman, but the situation they find themselves in is where the real magic starts to brew. The cheeky music that plays behind Philip’s suggestion they stick pop in a nursing home, and Linney’s reaction to the comment, feels smooth and funny at the same time.
Eventually, the nursing home is the option that’s going to have to be the right one and the two trying to connect, like fingers of opposite hands coming together, is less absurd than it is illuminating. I like these people and they’re likeable.
The moment where the two of them play a game of indoor tennis? It lasts all of three seconds but it’s a succinct, telling piece of comedic drama that what follows, their reticence in actually sticking pop in a nursing home, he thinking it’s a hotel, just feels genuine.
In this age of fractured families, ripped apart by ever increasing numbers of divorce, it’s a curious thing to see how those who have drifted apart deal with having to come back together. It has sold itself well.
It’s been a long time coming, but animation fans can rejoice in the unexpurgated Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$26.98 SRP). The 2-disc set features all 24 manic adventures of Tex Avery’s low-key delight (including anamorphic transfers of the 7 Cinemascope shorts). Bonus materials include a retrospective featurette on Avery and the character of Droopy, and a gag compilation.
Don Rosa’s undersea mini-epic, “Treasure Under Glass,” is the spotlight story of this month’s issue of Uncle Scrooge (Gemstone, $7.50) – that’s issue #365, to be exact – and it shows to what lengths… or depths… McDuck will go to secure the treasure contained in a sunken ship.
Even the most well-written, well-acted show runs the risk of becoming creatively worn out if it goes on long enough, and by the ninth season of Frasier (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$38.99 SRP), the cracks were beginning to show. Thankfully, by the next season (and the final 11th season), things improved, and the series was able to go out on a high note, even if it still felt like they were pushing it. Despite its overall blasé feel, this season did manage to include a pair of keeper episodes – specifically Frasier’s subconscious confrontation with his past loves (“Don Juan From Hell”) and a reunion of 3/4 of the cast of Cheers, assembled for the occasion of Cliff’s retirement party in Boston (“Cheerful Goodbyes”). Unfortunately, they still insist on delivering zero bonus features, and have also neglected to give us our complementary fix of another season of Cheers, as they had in the past with concurrent releases. What’s up with that?
For those of us foolish to pick up the massive Martinis & Medicine collection last year just for the exclusive bonus materials, Fox slaps us across the face by releasing those selfsame bonus features in a separate 3-disc set. M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) contains the legendary series finale, as well as those aforementioned bonus materials. Damn you, Fox.
Never as clever as the show its creators hailed from (Cheers), Wings was always just a fun, funny, traditional workhorse of a sitcom – providing plenty of character-based laughs, without being too intellectually stimulating. By the fourth season (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$38.99 SRP), the formula was firmly in place, you had decided which of the two brother/proprietors of tiny Sandpiper Air, Joe & Brian (Tim Daly & Steven Weber), you were rooting for, you had already fallen in love with quirky bumblings of cabbie Antonio (Tony Shalhoub) and dim mechanic Lowell (Thomas Haden Church), and all was right with the world. The 4-disc set features all 22 episodes, but not a single bonus feature. Is it that hard to book Daly & Weber?
In 1981, Tucson journalist Ellen Adelstein journeyed to Beverly Hills to do an in-depth, one-on-one interview with Gene Roddenberry. For almost 90 minutes, Adelstein and Roddenberry talked of Roddenberry’s past, the creation of Star Trek, and much more. That interview is now available on DVD as Gene Roddenberry: Up Close and Personal (Bashert Productions, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95) and can be purchased at 
Now relegated to cable or pay-per-view, did you know there was a time when you could actually find Hugh Hefner and the original hip Playboy aesthetic on regular TV? That’s exactly what you had with the late 60’s “lounge”-fest Playboy After Dark (Morada Vision, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP each). The show was essentially a mellow, free-wheeling “night at Hef’s,” where the guests would mingle with the audience in a party atmosphere that mixed the martini and smoking jacket ethos of the 50’s with the swinging 60’s. Two collections of the show are currently available, with each 3-disc set featuring guests such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Ike & Tina Turner, Lenny Bruce, Sid Caesar, Linda Ronstadt, Jerry Lewis, Count Basie, George Carlin, Tommy Smothers, and many more. Definitely give it a spin. I do have a request for volume 3, though – can you please release the complete appearance of Harry Nilsson, who was on with Otto Preminger to promote Skidoo?
Sporting an incredible Machine Man cover, the 48th oversize issue of The Jack Kirby Collector (Twomorrows, $9.95 SRP) packs the usual complement of stunning art and insightful articles we’ve come to expect from this must-have “King” chronicle.
They might otherwise slip through the cracks, but thankfully Digital Classics has been rescuing a clutch of obscure comedy films from the very back of the vault, dusting them off, and allowing audiences to rediscover them. These include films like San Ferry Ann and a pair of Ronnie Barker pictures – Futtock’s End & A Home Of Your Own – plus a cameo filled flick called Simon Simon, in which you see everyone from Peter Sellers and Michael Caine to Eric Morecombe and Ernie Wise (Digital Classics DVD, Not Rated, DVD-£6.99 SRP each). By all means, snap these up and pop some corn.
I find it hard to believe that we already to Memorial Day (where has this year gone??), but Sony has completely remastered and special edition-ized a pair of military classics worth picking up for the holiday weekend. First up is the 2-disc special edition of The Guns of Navarone (Columbia Pictures, Not Rated, DVD-$24.96 SRP), starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn as a trio of Allied soldiers tasked with a spectacularly dangerous (yes, impossible!) mission to infiltrate a Nazi fortress and take out a pair of massive artillery pieces. Bonus features include audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, a featurette on the restoration process, a quartet of vintage featurettes, and more. The other flick that should be on your shopping list is Humphrey Bogart’s maniacal, ball-bearing loving turn as the monstrous Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (Columbia Pictures, Not Rated, DVD-$24.96 SRP). In addition to a newly remastered print, bonus features include an audio commentary and a brand new retrospective documentary.
There are plenty of new faces and challenges during the complete seventh season of ER (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP). While the staff cope with everything from a busload of poisoned kids to man in opossum costume who bites a man in a kangaroo costume, the personal drama of the medics themselves increases, particularly in the case of the arrival of Abby’s mother. The 6-disc set features all 22 episodes, plus aired scenes and the now customary gag reel.
In this age of cheap camcorders, it should be no surprise that today’s soldier has replaced the instamatics of days past with palm-sized camcorders that they’ve trekked to Iraq with. Some of those candid, often disturbing videos – and the stories of the soldiers behind them – have been culled to produce The War Tapes (Docurama, Not Rated, DVD-$26.95 SRP), a powerful documentary that should be required viewing no matter what side of the political fence you fall on. Bonus materials include additional footage, outtakes & extended scenes, follow-up interviews with the soldiers, and the theatrical trailer.
In some ways, I’m sure Darren Aranofsky’s stripped down version of his millennia-spanning The Fountain (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$27.95 SRP) is better served by the reduced budget brought on by the departure of star Brad Pitt, who was replaced by Hugh Jackman as the man whose love for a single woman (played by Aranofsky’s own wife, Rachel Weisz) leads him on the ultimate quest to protect her. Still, I’m curious to see what that major blockbuster version would have been like. The final version, though, is an interesting – if dense – artistic vision that’s much more palatable on the small screen, with time for reflective pausing. Bonus features include 6 behind-the-scenes featurettes and the theatrical trailer.
It’s not nearly as lavish as the average Pixar “Art Of” book, but there’s still plenty of wonderful conceptual designs to be found in The Art Of Meet The Robinsons (Disney Editions, $17.99 SRP). It’s just a shame that the film came and went from theaters with nary a blip, as it’s a much better flick than the dreadful Chicken Little, and has a nice, inventive charm befitting the tale.
Never a classic, I always got a nice chuckle out of Craig T. Nelson and Coach, the complete second season of which is out now (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$26.98 SRP). Who could possibly look into the face of Jerry Van Dyke and not crack a smile?
James Garner is back is Jim Rockford in the fourth season of The Rockford Files (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), featuring 21 episodes of the mobile-home based ex-con sleuth with the memorable car and theme song. In addition, the set features a bonus episode from the fifth season – “White on White and Nearly Perfect” – guest-starring Tom Selleck in a role that eventually led to Magnum.
The adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow are coming to a close (unless Disney decides the cow has more milk to give), so that means the final score from Hans Zimmer, this time for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Walt Disney Records, $18.98 SRP).
It’s harmless, innocuous, channel-surfing comedy, and once you’ve seen one episode of the show, you really and truly have seen them all. Home Improvement: The Complete Sixth Season (Buena Vista, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP) features all 25 episodes, plus the season 6 blooper reel.
Try as I might, I’ve never been able to wring a laugh for Seth MacFarlane’s attempt at a Family Guy follow-up, American Dad. For those of you who can stomach the show, the 3-disc Volume Two (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) features another 19 episodes, plus audio commentaries, featurettes, and multi-angle scene studies.
While watching The War At Home (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), I couldn’t shake the feeling that what I was viewing was just the warmed over bastard child of Married With Children and Roseanne. It’s a shame, because Michael Rappaport – here the beleaguered father of 3 kids with a soul-sucking insurance job -deserves a much better showcase. The 3-disc set features all 22 first season episodes, plus cast & crew interviews, unaired scenes, and a gag reel.
Apparently not everyone is happy with the new Spider-Man film. Peter Parker’s transformation into an emo-kid has 
Love World War II first person shooters, but just wish you could play them on the road? Well, wish no longer, as the mother series of them all makes it’s way to PSP with CALL OF DUTY: ROADS TO VICTORY. Taking the familiar format from the previous entries in the series and scaling it down for the PSP, things move fairly smoothly as you take on the role of three different Allied soldiers; American, Canadian and British.
Modified Air Combat Heroes sounds like a weird acronym, but since planes fly at mach speeds, then M.A.C.H. seems to fit”¦sort of. Under the idea that unmanned ships will save lives, these no jobless pilots take their ships to the black market where they”¦well, fight and race each other. Sure, that sounds good for a game.
For eight seasons (1 on local Minneapolis station KTMA, 1 on the old Comedy Channel, and 6 on Comedy Central), Trace Beaulieu filled triple duty on the cult favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 – as a writer, the voice/performer of one Crow T. Robot, and as the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester (the mad scientist who stranded hapless Joel Robinson – then Mike Nelson – on the Satellite of Love and subjected them to those awful, awful movies).
BEAULIEU: I was looking at a site on the web the other day – “
BEAULIEU: Yeah I think so. Mostly we were playing to, like, eight people. And there would be a decision whether or not we would have a show or order pizza. We’d ask the audience what they wanted to do.
BEAULIEU: Oh really?
BEAULIEU: Yes, he did. We had this grand finale in the show, and I would be backstage prepping scenery or some props while the pyrotechnicians were loading up the flash pots with powder. And I’d be there watching them, and Mickey would skate up to me, and he’s, like, looking up and down and I go, “You know, this monkey – if he wanted to – could crush my testicles.”
BEAULIEU: Yeah, exactly. But I was much more comfortable when we had worked through the bits and we finally got onto Comedy Central, where we had time to develop the lines and the writing, and script everything out. I think the hit rate was higher, and it still had that improvisational element in the way we riffed and wrote initially, but then you could pick the best lines out of all of that and make it a better viewing experience.
BEAULIEU: Not riffing. Not movie mocking or anything like that. Joel and Josh and I did a little thing… what was it… Star Wait… And we were riffing on footage that a guy had shot of these Star Wars fans waiting for the movie to open. At first it was kind of weird being back with Joel and Josh and mocking something. That had its own strangeness to it. But I realized that without that character, I really didn’t have a reason to mock anything. I actually kinda like stuff. People have talked about, “Oh, you know you should do that again.” It’s like, “Well we did it.” I mean, that’s kind of why I left, was like, “I got it. I did that thing already.” And I haven’t seen what Mike and those guys have done.
BEAULIEU: I’m sorry to hear that.
BEAULIEU: You’re kidding!? I am looking at my Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band album as we speak.
When I left off last week, I was being dazzled by the vast array of vintage comic books on display at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (
Summer is fast approaching, and if you’ve yet to discover the novels of John Swartzwelder (writer, as the cover of each book will tell you, of 59 episodes of The Simpsons), you will have a far duller time during the sweltering months ahead. If you’re bright enough to navigate the web towards that massive cyber-emporium Amazon, you have at least enough intelligence to order all 4 of Swartzwelder’s forays into sublime sci-fi comic storytelling. The latest entry in the adventures of the rather dim detective Frank Burly is The Exploding Detective (Kennydale Books, $15.95), and it merely whets the appetite for more adventures. Think of it as a palate cleanser for your life.
Speaking of titles to snag, another to add to the list is Berkeley Breathed’s latest children’s book, Mars Needs Moms! (Philomel, $16.99 SRP). As the title pretty clearly indicates, the denizens of the red planet are in desperate need of mothers, and hatch a plan to acquire them from Earth – an Earth were a young boy named Milo doesn’t fully appreciate his own mother. Beautifully illustrated, funny, and poignant, it’s just as wonderful as all of Breathed’s other excursions into juvenile fiction.
Rather than the magnificent, comprehensive box set they got in the UK, here in the US the BBC has been trickling out the releases of Michael Palin’s wonderful travel documentaries. The latest to finally hit the colonies is Palin’s Around The World In 80 Days (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$4.98 SRP) which – as the title suggests – takes Palin on a circumnavigational race in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg. The 3-disc set features a new interview with Palin, reflecting on his rather insane journey. Now, where are the rest of Palin’s adventures? Come on, already!
A staple move of most modern sketch comedy acts in the UK, Matt Lucas & David Walliams decided to take their hit Little Britain on the road in a live show, featuring new material starring their now-iconic cast of characters. Everyone from Lou & Andy to Vicky Pollard and Marjorie Dawes make it onto the stage in the document of that tour, Little Britain Live (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). Bonus features include behind-the-scenes featurettes, commentary from Matt & David, and exclusive “Lou & Andy in Blackpool” sketch, deleted scenes, and David’s Comic Relief swim across the English Channel. If that weren’t enough, a miniature replica of the official tour program is also included. Yeah no but yeah.
Plug one of the very few gaping holes in your Alfred Hitchock collection with the new special edition release of the director’s To Catch A Thief (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$14.99 SRP), which stars Cary Grant as a reformed jewel thief who must clear his name when he’s blamed for a rash of thefts along the French Riviera, using the family jewels of an heiress (Grace Kelly) to bait a trap for the real thief. In addition to a quartet of newly-produced featurettes, the disc also features an audio commentary with Peter Bogdanovich & Laurent Bouzereau, and the original theatrical trailer.
My good friend Glen will be utterly delighted to know that his long quest to own a non-pirated, legitimately released, bonus-feature filled set of the complete Jason of Star Command (BCI, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) has finally reached an end, as the low-rent-but-fun Filmation-produced 70’s series. Featuring both Jimmy Doohan and Sid Haig, you know you can’t pass it up. The 3-disc set features all 28 episodes, plus a trio of commentary tracks, a brand-new documentary, a special effects demo reel, and galleries.
Previously available separately, you can now pick up a trio of obscure – but must-have – John Cleese projects via the John Cleese Comedy Collection (White Star, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP). The set features How To Irritate People, The Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization As We Know It, and Romance With a Double Bass. Get it.
Until I saw the DVD set, I wasn’t even aware that The 4400 had made it to a 3rd season (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$38.99 SRP). I guess it’s just like The Pretender once was – just plugging along in the background, beloved by its core fanbase, and unrecognized by the rest of humanity. But good on them for making it that far, and the 4-disc set features all 12 episodes, plus audio commentaries, a quartet of behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a gag reel.
It’s post-graduation, and the sixth season of That 70’s Show (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP) found itself in that always awkward position for any show that featured high-schoolers – namely, how do you contrive to keep them all together when they’ve gotten their diplomas? All those gymnastics are to be found here, but overall the strength of the characters and writing holds the whole thing together. Bonus features include audio commentary on select episodes, promo spots, interviews with Debra Jo Rupp & Kurtwood Smith, and a “Six Minutes of Season Six” featurette.
Tom Hanks-aholics will have two reasons to visit their local (or online) DVD emporiums, with the release of not only a new 2-disc extended edition of Big (featuring 25 minutes of additional footage), but also a director’s cut of his own That Thing You Do! (Fox, Rated PG/Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP each). Big features an audio commentary, deleted scenes, 4 behind-the-scenes featurettes, TV spots, trailers, and an AMC Backstory, while That Thing You Do! sports both the original and extended cuts of the film, 4 behind-the-scenes featurettes, a TV spot, the theatrical trailer, the HBO First Look, and a music video.
I admit to be a bit teary-eyed seeing a still-vibrant Peter Boyle cavorting about in the eight season of Everybody Loves Raymond (HBO, Not Rated, DVD-$44.98 SRP), and I can only hope everyone misses him as much as I do. The 5-disc set features all 23 episodes, plus 8 audio commentaries (kudos for having a commentary with Chris Elliott), deleted scenes, bloopers, and the Museum of Television & Radio panel with executive producer Phil Rosenthal and the show’s writers.
Saccharine sweet and terribly predictable, Hugh Grant stars as a washed-up 80’s pop star whose only chance at a return to stardom is to team up with a bubble gum pop star (played in bubble gum mode by Drew Barrymore) and try to write a hit song together in the rom-com Music & Lyrics (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.98 SRP). Would you guess they fall in love? Would ya? Bonus materials include a making-of featurette, additional scenes, a music video, and a gag reel.
Scaled back and wonderfully intimate, writer-director Anthony Minghella managed to hold my attention with Breaking and Entering (Genius, Rated R, DVD-$28.95 SRP), a low-key drama – starring Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, & Robin Wright Penn – about a pair of Londoners brought together by a string robberies, whose affair threatens to destroy the lives of those around them (you know how it is with those pesky affairs). Bonus features include an audio commentary with Minghella, a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, and the theatrical trailer.
Adapted from the W. Somerset Maugham’s novel, Edward Norton & Naomi Watts star in The Painted Veil (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$27.95 SRP), about a wealthy socialite who embarks on a journey of self-discovery following a traumatic event, removing herself from the bustle and party-life of the big city for a cholera-ravaged village deep in the Chinese countryside. It’s evocative of the sweeping Hollywood romances of the 40’s, with the vistas found in the 50’s and 60’s, making for a nice throwback to that bygone age of filmmaking.
Diane Keaton plays an overly-intrusive mother keen on making sure her daughter doesn’t wind up a spinster in Because I Said So (Universal, Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.98 SRP), an amiable rom-com made better by the sparkle-fresh presence of Mandy Moore as the daughter in question. Bonus features include a pair of behind-the-scenes featurettes, and more.
Completely groundbreaking and, to this day, never-repeated, Cagney & Lacey (MGM/UA, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) was the first cop show that dared to ask, “Why can’t Starsky & Hutch be two female police officers?” And it worked. The complete first season features 4-discs (unfortunately, those s***ty double-sided ones) with all 22 episodes, plus a two-part retrospective documentary.
Originally aired in the UK as Jam & Jerusalem, Clatterford (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP) is the new sitcom from Jennifer Saunders, reuniting her with both Dawn French and Joanna Lumley. The series focuses around Sal Vine (Sue Johnston), a practice nurse whose small-town doctor husband suddenly dies of a heart attack, leaving her jobless when her son decides to replace her with his own wife. With her newly freed time, Sal decides to join the local Women’s guild – a collection of rather unique characters in an even more eccentric setting. The 2-disc set features all 6 episodes, plus the 2006 Christmas special.
John-Boy and the massive Walton family return to DVD in the complete fifth season of The Waltons (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), as John-Boy launches The Blue Ridge Chronicle and covers a series of brutal murders in their sleepy little hamlet. Okay, not really – it’s The Waltons… Nothing like that happens. But imagine if it did. The 5-disc set features all 24 episodes.
Try as I might, I can’t keep thinking of “They call me Mr. Tibbs” jokes while trying to come up with a line about the first season release of everyone’s favorite dolphin (take that, SeaQuest fans!), Flipper (MGM/UA, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP). They don’t call me Flipper, but you can guarantee your own strange looks if you dig through all 30 episodes in this 4-disc set.
It seems – even though we didn’t know it – that we must have needed another special edition of Dirty Dancing. This time, it’s the 2-disc Dirty Dancing: 20th Anniversary Edition (Lionsgate, Rated PG-13, DVD-$19.98 SRP), featuring newly-remastered audio, audio commentary with writer/co-producer Eleanor Bergstein, a trivia track, an interview with Patrick Swayze, a tribute to Jerry Orbach, deleted/alternate/extended scenes, outtakes, screen tests, multiangle dance sequences, cast interviews, music videos, and more. Whew! Please say this is the final, ultimate edition.
ATLANTIC CITY – Dennis Hof called the other day to remind me that the next episode of Cathouse will be on HBO. “Why They Come” starts airing on Friday (May 12) and hits HBO OnDemand shortly thereafter. “The popularity of the show is so huge that rather than giving an 11 week series, they’re giving one show a month,” Hof said.
Director: Greg Mottola
Director: Hal Hartley
Director: Mike White 
Director: Tamara Jenkins
