WTH....APRIL DVD IN REVIEW

THE PINK PANTHER CLASSIC CARTOON COLLECTION, VOLUME 5- ANT AARDVARK
MGM Home Entertainment

Some thought the exclusion of the Ant/Aardvark cartoons from the supposedly complete Pink Panther set was a travesty. But whatever your feelings the nice thing is to see them all made available in this cheap format. I didn’t realize there were only 17? Wow, just goes to show that really good things can come in small packages. Besides being great cartoons these feature the voice work of the inimitable standup John Byner who did a ton of great TV and film character work, hosted his own highly popular HBO comedy sketch series in the early eighties, and made memorable appearances on The Carol Burnett Show, and The Steve Allen Comedy Hour series. The lack of extras here is a crying shame especially considering that Byner is still alive but this is essential stuff for any Panther or Saturday morning carton enthusiast.

S*P*Y*S
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Donald Sutherland has been in so much fluff in his later years it’s easy to forget how many truly great films he lent his talents too early on. MASH, Klute, Don’t Look Now, The Day of the Locust, Ordinary People. Well he did some fluff early on as well but most of it much more enjoyable than recent affairs like An American Haunting and Backdraft. SPYS is a good example. It also features Sutherlands MASH costar Elliott Gould who has also faded from memory in spite of appearing in such great gems as The Silent Partner, Little Murders and The Long Goodbye. SPYS is worth your time especially if you were burned by the similar Spies Like Us in the nineties. It’s a zany antiwar spoof that features two rogue agents and not much plot. Still they have a chemistry that has drawn many fans back to this film again and again. Gould, Kershner and producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff participate in a solid featurette and the DVD also offers a U.S. Information Service doc The Road of a Hundred Days, that Kershner did camera for.

TWIN PEAKS SEASON TWO
Paramount Home Entertainment

If ever a TV show deserved to be made available in its entirety, so that it could be watched over and over again, it was Twin Peaks. Say what you will about first season vs. last Peaks is simply one of the very best TV shows ever. Of course the heartbreaker is the rather exorbitant cost of Season One which is now a highly sought after collectible item having gone out of print. I hung on to mine like grim death and even had it autographed by series co-creator Mark Frost and have been going back through the series only to discover that, yet again, I’m finding new things to love about it. Beyond its dynamic plotting, constant twists and turns and surreal character development TP offers a vision of a world worth retreating to and heroes worth emulating. Dale Cooper, Sherriff Truman, Andy, The Bunkhouse Boys even Albert stand tall, even mythic against a landscape where real definable evil upsets not only the balance of the universe but contaminates it. Lynch, to his credit, has always realized that you can have good without evil offering us characters who transcend as well as those who become trapped. There are some interviews offered here but fans still haven’t been offered anything as extensive in the way of Special Features as the series popularity would seem to demand. Maybe Criterion should start doing classic television.

JONESTOWN- THE LIFE & DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE
PBS

By far the best of the documentaries I’ve seen on this sad, sad event Jonestowns major strength is the all too human face it puts on the personalities and events that shaped the largest mass suicide in modern times. Jones comes across as a classic example of someone who slips through the cracks of society learning to take the wrong sort of advantage at every turn. His particular spin on Christian faith is understood from the get go to be just another power grab however enticing his multi-denominational interracial message was to a generation hungry for answers.

Told through eyes of survivors (in the whole compound there were astonishingly few) the story is riveting, absolutely heart breaking. Yet as a cautionary tale about the dark places man winds up when he plays God this doc offers an indispensable history lesson. There are unused interviews and footage included but anymore would be almost debilitating to sit through.

MAJOR LEAGUE (Wild Thing Edition w/ Turf Cover)
Paramount Home Entertainment

When it comes to baseball movies I’m a Field of Dreams guy myself but then I’m told that it isn’t really a baseball movie anyway. I can live with that label. Bull Durham, Eight Men Out, Bang the Drum Slowly, Fear Strikes Out, all take their own liberties with the past time and come out shining cinematically speaking. What makes Major League work isn’t just the astroturf on the new SE slipcase (although that is a hoot). Instead Charlie Sheen shows the beginnings of what made comedy so important to his career later on. He has a real gift for self parody. I’m a fan of the first Hot Shots and have enjoyed Two and Half Men occasionally and Sheen is the best thing here. Special Features include Commentary by: Writer/Director David S. Ward and Producer Chris and the featurettes My Kinda Team which includes interviews with the cast, A Major League Look at Major League, Bob Ueker: Just A Bit Outside, an Alternate Ending with filmmaker intro and A Tour of Cerrano's Locker. You also get a photo gallery.

PAYBACK THE DIRECTORS CUT (Special Collector's Edition)
Paramount Home Entertainment

I consider Payback a necessary part of any modern noir film library not just because it has all the elements but because its such a smart take on the revenge action pic offering a pretty likeable pre-arrest record star doing unexpectedly despicable things while at the same time catching us off guard with its sense of humor. And tonal consistency aside has Gibson’s wild yet weary eyed action hero persona ever been put to better use? This is far better than any of the lethal Weapon films. The new edition includes a new cut of the film that some find drawn out and lacking in the energy of the original. But on the bright side you get some great special features including a Commentary by Brian Heglund and the featurettes "Same Story, Different Movie - Creating Payback: The Director's Cut," "The Hunter: A Conversation with Author Donald Westlake, " On Location In Chicago, and On Set In Los Angeles.

THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO- SEASON ONE VOL. ONE
Paramount Home Entertainment

Anyone else watch this growing up? Me neither. But I remember the commercials. The combination of veteran Karl Malden and the emerging star Michael Douglas is the most interesting aspect of this early seventies cop TV show. But on first viewing there’s little to distinguish it from other contemporary shows of its kind. Streets offers the buddy formula up in a homicide investigation context adding the usual car chases. Not much in the way of special features here but there are some. You get the original pilot episode and the pilot presentation, an interview with Army Archerd and a short on set interview with Douglas and Malden.

THE UNTOUCHABLES- SEASON ONE, VOL. ONE
Paramount Home Entertainment

Now this is reaching back farther than almost any of us go but it‘s worth the effort. After the Golden age of gangster cinema passed this was about as close as you could get to the mean liquor free streets of prohibition era America. A real plus here is commentary on episodes by the one and only Walter Winchell but you also get the feature length 2 part pilot, and the first fourteen episodes of the shows first season on four discs. Robert Stack spoofed his Ness persona in the movie Airplane, but here he plays it for keeps. It's interesting how really well this has aged despite the Dragnet like simplicity and obvious noir rehash that it occasionally sinks to. As older cop shows go this was absolutely one of the best.

THE TOWER
Koch Vision

My wife and I have enjoyed this so much. Its not quite as slick as many of its brethren but this two-disc set will have you enthralled with the history of one of Europes most famous structures. Each hour lone episode, and you get all 6 of them here, conjures up a different aspect of the Tower of Londons 900 year history. One covers it as a fortress, another as prison, another as a temporary throne and still another as the vault for the famed Crown Jewels. This is absolutely fascinating stuff and you get a good look at the staff who are all extremely knowledgeable about the roles their forbearers played out and the many centuries old traditions that have helped create the mystery and history of the Tower.

JOHN CLEESE COMEDY COLLECTION/ How To Irritate People, Romance With A Double Bass, Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization
White Vision

So what’s to sell? Go get this immediately. Mildly amusing Cleese is better than guffaws from anyone else in my book. And this contains two little seen gems. How To Irritate People was produced during a time when Cleese made his first foray into becoming a motivational speaker. He made millions more than he did off Python doing short comedic videos. How To Irritate is one of the best but you should be forewarned it is an actual training video. How to Romance a Double Bass stars Cleese and his Fawlty Towers costar Connie Booth as a double bass player and a princess who find that a thief, a lack of clothes and a desperate need to get back to the palace conspires to make them a couple. In the much more well known but very hard to get The Strange Case of Civilization as we know it Cleese plays a descendant of Sherlock Holmes who is pressed into service by a Police Chief desperate to stop Moriarty from taking over the world. Joined by the bionic grandson of Dr. Watson and a Mrs. Hudson played like (trust me) you’ve never seen before by Connie Booth. Nothing here is feature length and there are no extras but I can’t imagine a Python collection being complete without these titles.

FOXWORTHY’S BIG NIGHT OUT THE COMPLETE SERIES
Paramount Home Entertainment

I confess to a big weakness for this style of comedy. My wife and I enjoy Bill E. a lot, Foxworthy himself a lot and I even have a soft spot for Larry the Cable Guy. You a get a lot of all of them on this DVD set showcasing episodes from the first season of Foxworthys sketch comedy show. The truth is this stuff is easier to make of than do right and these guys are the cream of the crop in their style. You get All 12 episodes on 2 discs
As well as Bloopers, the Best of Jeff’s Monologues feature, Behind The Scenes material and the very funny The Homewreckers and Fitness With The Cast.

HAPPY DAYS COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
Paramount Home Entertainment

Was this the nadir of American TV? I grew up on the Fonz and friends but, even though I have fond memories of the dance competition episode, the shark jumping episode and the Guinness book of world records episode, going back to watch them again was like having my teeth pulled. It’s just awful stuff even if it did spawn Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy….wait a minute, that isn’t exactly a compliment either. Suffice to say I’m boycotting the whole thing until they release the early eighties cartoon Happy Days in the widescreen format. And Joanie Loves Chachie still hasn't been released in HD yet. It's enough to make the bad taste within me shrivel up and start in on my old Gilligans Island set again. And whatever happened to these people. Besides Henry Winkler and Opie I'm not aware of any other career high points.

LA HAINE
The Criterion Collection

La Haine provoked a firestorm of debate in its homeland of France due mainly to a devastatingly stark portrait of a country struggling to find itself even as its torn apart by politics, racism and economics. By focusing on the poor wretches trapped in the poverty ridden banlieue districts the filmmaker no doubt set himself a difficult task but he tackles it head on and there’s no doubt that whatever your political leanings the emotions of this curiously beautiful film ring true. Starring a then unknown Vincent Cassel this release will no doubt draw fans and Cassel does indeed display an inner chaos that he’s used to channel other characters. Here he plays a Jew named Vinz, who, together with his African pal Hubert and Arab pal Said, must struggle against the bigotry that shuts off every possible escape route.

As with any Criterion multi-disc set this is the only one you’ll ever likely need. Special Features include director commentary, a film intro by Jodie Foster , a retrospective doc, a featurette on the setting of the film, behind the scenes footage, deleted and extended scenes and a new essay and photo gallery.

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
20TH Century Fox Home Entertainment

A great double feature with Criterions Barbet Schroeder doc General Idi Amin, this film boasts Forest Whitakers Oscar Winning portrayal but it also boasts smart, suspenseful direction and a screenplay that leaves us to ponder the luck of so many tyrants despots and monomaniacs as it points out Amin died a relatively peaceful death after assuming his place as one of world historys many tin pan Hitlers. Yet it also reminds us to draw back from the legend. Here we see Amin fully humanized and like other great bio pics, and I’m thinking here of Downfall, or Capote or Monster, that humanizing does not excuse the horrific aspect of his crimes but puts it masterfully in context. This is the true terror of Amin, that his grand dream or his homeland eventually led him to the conclusion that achieving them was worthwhile at any human cost.

There are scads of extras here including, a commentary by director Kevin Macdonald on the feature film and the deleted scenes. A documentary on creating the character of Amin for the film, a featurette on the career of Whitaker and Fox Movie Channel Presents: Casting Session- The Last King of Scotland. You also get both the US and International trailers for the film.

LAVERNE & SHIRLEY- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.
Paramount Home Entertainment

What’s to say except that as time has gone on the soap opera behind the scenes has proved more interesting than the show. I say it with some sadness because at their best Penny Marshall and Cindy Morgan had a powerful chemistry and great gift for physical comedy. This show has aged better than Happy Days or Mork and Mindy but I’m not sure that’s saying much. The lack of extras seems a bit of shame considering the interesting and varied careers cast members have enjoyed since the show went into syndication. Michael McKean went on to help form Spinal Tap and become a regular with Christopher Guests projects while David Lander became a well known voice over actor and lots of character work even as he struggled with a degenerative illness. Of course penny Marshall became a world famous director and Cindy Williams went on to do The First Nudie Musical.

MORK & MINDY- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
Paramount Home Entertainment

Why hasn’t this aged better? Williams rapid fire delivery worked better on me when I was twelve and his off color comedy albums carried me through my teens along with those of Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Steve Martin. But going back to visit Williams in his comedic prime uncovers an awful lot of shtick. The worst of this show is the inexorable descent into the cute. I’d rather watch the Sound of Music. Williams is at his best when he tones down and syncs up with the child actors who had some great scenes with him. Is this the same guy that made One Hour Photo, The Fisher King and Insomnia? Oh, that’s right those films were all made by directors whose strong sense of vision helped Williams reign in his insanity. I wonder if anyone will remember this show at all. A good exercise would be watching this and then watching Third Rock From The Sun.

NOTES ON A SCANDAL
20TH Century Home Entertainment

If you like human monsters you will want to get this film and watch it while it’s still fresh on your mind. Forget the awards hype everyone onscreen in this film is given ample opportunity to bring this truly creepy story to life. A colder spinster was never seen than Dame Judi Dench and youthful naïve te is personified by Cate Blanchett. The duo plays against type as characters dowdy and dimwitted in one of last years best dramas.

Blanchett plays a young teacher whose dalliance with one of her high school students is seen and held in confidence by the much older and creepily wily Dench. At first Dench’ character only seems to want to help but slowly se reveals herself as a sort of psychic vampire whose own desperate need for friendship has made her into a monster.

I love the title here which suggests its own scandal. The real reason Denchs character is a monster is taking notes is all she’s good at. The kind, or compassionate or even appropriate thing to do with the information at hand is beyond her. In this way Notes on a Scandal is a cautionary tale for all of us. As sad as it is to watch the Cate Blanchett character make her selfish choices Dench’ are somehow sadder and certainly more sinister. She calculates all according to, not right or wrong, but emotional profit. In the end she learns nothing, and exits as empty as when she first entered our story.

OVERLORD
The Criterion Collection

This is a film I will definitely watch again. It offers a resolutely human portrait of war revealing it as a series of little banalities that wind up in cataclysm, and it follows those banalities to their end the way most soldiers have in countless wars, with a shuffling obedience that seems quite surprised at where it ends up. It startles us by the moments it chooses to wax poetic, as on the cover of the DVD where we see a character in mid fall after being shot down but only see it in the reflection of another’s eyes. The mix of fictional narrative and real war footage is uncanny in the way it lulls the viewer between a history lived and a history imagined.

Extra features abound here including a commentary featuring director Stuart Cooper and actor Brian Stirner, a doc detailing the war footage used in the film, Coopers short about Spanish Artist Juan Genoves, a Robert Capa photo essay, a 1941 BMI propaganda film and a vintage BMI tribute to war cameramen and photogs. Brian Stirner reads from two actual D-day journals and critic Kent Jones offers a new essay.

BIOGRAPHY: MAFIA LEGENDS
A & E Home Entertainment

This dynamite box set contains three episodes of Biography and one episode of the American Justice covering criminal legends Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano and the man himself Al Capone the original Scarface. The bonus episode is titled "Mob Hitmen.” I was fascinated by this stuff growing up and think I have a different take on it than most. In my naiveté’ I believed that somehow these men were misunderstood, even somewhat heroic, certainly they were entertaining- especially in death. Just goes to show how sick kids can be. Adults too. These guys deserve to live in infamy and one only hopes that there 15 minutes of fame helps keep them there.

FLIPPER THE ORIGINAL SERIES SEASON ONE
MGM Home Entertainment

I have an acquaintance named Tripper and at every opportunity I sing the Flipper theme song to him substituting the word Flipper with Tripper. It has the desired effect. So does this surprisingly well aged TV show. Spinning off the successful 1963 film of the same name Flipper (1964) was basically an aquatic answer to Lassie. It was followed by Gentle Ben a show about a tame bear, BJ and The Bear a show about a tame chimpanzee and Knightrider a show about a giant crustacean who drove a car and became famous for being famous. There are no real special features here which is probably Fox’s way of dodging the homosexual rumors that dogged Flippers career after he was discovered el flagrante with Charley the Tuna during the shows decline.

JANE EYRE
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

The number of extras included here is simply amazing. That two audio commentaries, one featuring Welles biographer Joseph McBride and actress Margaret O’Brien, the other; film historians Nick Redman, Julie Kirgo and Steven Smith, are included seems natural as this is a stunning adaptation of one of the great gothic novels. But you also get a fully restored version of the film, isolated score and FX soundtrack, a restoration comparison, storyboard and poster galleries and a featurette, Locked in the Tower: The Men Behind Jane Eyre. Also included are screenwriter Robert Stevensons US War Dept. film Know Your Ally.

LES MISERABLES (1935 & 1952 Two-Disc Set)
20TH Century Fox Home Entertainment

What really recommends this is the fact that you get two different film versions of the story and that neither of them is a musical. The 1935 version stars Frederic March as Valjean and the pre Hunchbacked Charles Laughton as his tormentor Javert. The 1952 version stars a just Klattued Michael Rennie as Valjean. Both versions are very good although most will probably prefer the 35. There aren’t much in the way of special features except for a brief featurette and a pair of restoration comparisons.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM two disc set
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

I really enjoyed this for the throwaway flick it was even as I realized how good it could have been had some serious effort been put into telling a good story and not just telling a story good enough. Ben Stiller manages (as always) to be funnier than anyone, or in this case anything, around him and that includes the venerable supporting cast of Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney. One senses there could have been greatness here but the source material, a children’s book by Milan Trenc wasn’t exactly brimming with narrative. File it on the shelf under the much better Jumanji. Lots of extras on the two disc set including a director commentary, writer commentary, multiple featurettes, deleted and extended scenes with commentary, and bloopers.

THE QUEEN
Miramax

Helen Mirren not only deserved her Oscar for this film but the film itself offers a remarkably nuanced and intimate portrait of a leaders struggle to find her role changing moving past tradition and into an uncertain future. You never doubt for a moment that Queen Elizabeth II wants to do what is best for her fellow countrymen and you feel the crushing weight and self doubt that plague her following the death of Diana. The Making of The Queen and the audio commentary by director Stephen Frears and writer Peter Morgan would seem to complete the package but Miramax goes an important step further offering an additional commentary by British Historian and Royal Expert Robert Lacey.

NCIS THE THIRD SEASON
Paramount Home Entertainment

What with Summer School just being released in a Special Edition I feel a little silly reviewing this instead. But Mark Harmon was bound to wind up here wasn’t he? And the plain truth is NCIS is a lot more fun than other CSI imitators that have come and gone. It features a quirky cast, and also offers a meaty role to genre veteran David McCallum. McCallum, whose credits include the 1975-76 TV show The Invisible Man, the very popular The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV show and film, two of the best episodes of The Outer Limits The Forms of Things Unknown (1964) and The Sixth Finger, is a genre fixture by virtue of having been in some great stuff not simply appearing in everything and anything.

WKRP IN CINCINNATI: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
20Th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Boooooooooger! If that doesn’t mean anything to you then neither does the news that WKRP is finally out on DVD. I was a fan of the show growing up even before I was old enough to stop looking Loni Anderson in the eyes. As sitcom ensemble comedies go this one has aged well, you could feel comfortable thinking of it as a minor gem. Genre fans will have fond memories of Herb played by Frank Bonner who starred in the legendary fan film Equinox which was recently released as a deluxe two disc set by The Criterion Collection. The bottom line is this was an incredibly talented cast supported in no small part by Loni Anderson who went on to fame as the girlfriend of Burt Reynolds.

PACINO BOX SET
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

This is one great boxset that any serious film fan should take a good look at purchasing. For one thing it contains Pacinos compelling, and criminally underseen, Looking For Richard, a look behind the scenes of a theatrical mounting of Richard the III. Included in the cast are James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder, Aidan Quinn and Pacino in the title role. Pacino also directs the film which moves back and forth through the world of stage and backstage, rehearsal and production to reveal that all the world is indeed a stage.

Chinese Coffee stars Pacino as a struggling writer named Harry Levine who wants feedback from his best friend about a book manuscript. Left shaken when the friend claims Levine has betrayed him with the book Pacino's character struggles with what to do next. Opposite Pacino is Jerry Orbach as the best friend. Orbach is best known for his work in TV but he was a truly adept actor who recently passed away.

My favorite of the bunch is The Local Stigmatic which has Pacino playing opposite Paul Guilfoyle as a pair of snarling cynics who ambush a celebrity midst a delerious day of dog racing, bad tips and bitterness at the luck of the famous figures they follow in the press. There are commentaries on Stigmatic and Coffee and epilogues and prologues on all three films in the set. Also included is a dynamite hour long documentary directed by Pacino about his own career titled Babbleonia that is only available as part of the box set.