DVD Releases: December 16, 2005


	Frank Miller's Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated Seems like only yesterday that we brought you news of the arrival of Robert Rodriguez‘ dark and edgy digital mystery, Sin City. Hot on its heels comes Recut, Extended, Unrated, which makes it sound a lot like a sequel to South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut. It’s not, of course. Those fans of the movie who weren’t suckered into buying the first DVD edition will relish the treasure chest of bonus material provided by the director, who started preparing this generous two-disc package before the movie had entered theaters. Among the extras are commentaries from Rodriguez, creator Frank Miller and Quentin Tarantino; an extended and re-cut version of the theatrical release (as well as the original); an audio track, featuring a recording of the Austin premiere audience reaction; a film-school seminar and cooking lesson with Rodriguez; 17 uninterrupted minutes of Tarantino's contribution to the film; the Sin-Chroni-City interactive game; the graphic novel, “The Hard Goodbye”; and all sorts of making-of material. As with the “uncut” versions of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Dukes of Hazzard and American Wedding, none of the added material warrants anything harder than a R-rating. -- Gary Dretzka "Walk down the right alley in Sin City and you can find anything." Who's Who In Sin City Posters, Posters, Posters

	The 40-Year-Old Virgin The surprise summer hit arrives in an “unrated” edition, which adds 17 minutes to the length of the film, as well as several more breasts. This will come as wonderful news to the legions of young males who embraced the film’s balletic mix of boys-will-be-pigs dialogue and can-you-top-this gross-out sessions. Steve Carell deserves most of the credit for making The 40-Year-Old Virgin succeed, where some recent efforts by the Farrelly brothers have failed. But, it’s the women in the cast -- Catherine Keener, Jane Lynch, Leslie Mann, Elizabeth Banks, among them -- who elevate “Virgin” into something akin to a mutually acceptable date movie. Anyone who loved the movie in its theatrical release, will think they died and went to heaven when they see the bonus features. They include some sexy outtakes, goofy commentary, featurettes on the infamous waxing scene and “You Know How I Know You're Gay?” exchange, and a gag reel.-- Gary Dretzka The Hot Button: The 40 Year Old Virgin is the funniest of the summer films. If you can't laugh at this, go see your proctologist for a stickectomy. You'll know very quickly as 40 year old Steve Carrell wakes up and heads to his morning urination with a protruding organ known to all of us who were once teenaged boys. Judd Apatow shows the good taste of not showing his star wrestle to hit the target which lies in the opposite direction of the morning wood. But as he trudges back to his bedroom, he's still pointing north. If you at least giggle at this, you are in good shape. If you yawn, go find another theater in the multiplex. -- David Poland

	King Kong: Peter Jackson's Production Diaries Talk about putting the cart before the horse -- or, in this case, the organ grinder ahead of the monkey -- Universal has just released into DVD a package of King Kong-related material, which normally would have been reserved for a special collector’s edition, somewhere down the road. Seems like a bizarre marketing strategy, especially considering that the big studios already are the recipients of all sorts of free pre-release publicity from celebrity starved newsmagazines, reports from the junket press and faux documentaries that appear on HBO and Showtime. But, Jackson’s King Kong is so awe-inspiring, its visual wonders could actually encourage audiences to make a beeline to the closest store selling “Production Diaries.“ If successful, the strategy might take hold, and filmmakers and distributors will have discovered an entirely new revenue stream. The two-disc “Production Diaries” comes with a 52-page production memoir and art prints, which cover the six-month shoot. In addition to Jackson’s commentary, there are contributions from nearly single other contributor, from the actors to the animal trainers. The entry, The Making of a Shot: The T-Rex Fight, reveals the magic behind one of the movies most exciting scenes, without spoiling a thing.-- Gary Dretzka

	Gallipoli: Special Edition Although Gallipoli was made after the first Mad Max, it was the movie that first introduced Americans to Mel Gibson (Mad Max enjoyed more of a cult following). In Peter Weir’s gripping World War I drama, the ruggedly handsome actor played one of the many idealistic young soldiers who enlisted in the Australian army, in large part, to see the world. Too many would return home physically or emotionally damaged … if they made it back at all. The strategic debacle at Gallipoli is what’s chiefly remembered of the Aussies’ participation in the Great War, and, even today, it resonates as a great and inexplicable tragedy. Gallipoli stands as powerful anti-war statement, as well as a stirring drama. Whatever happened to Gibson? -- Gary Dretzka

	Kronk's New Groove Valiant The voices of David Spade and John Goodman are back in the new direct-to-DVD sequel to The Emperor's New Groove, Kronk’s New Groove, but it’s the emperor’s former henchman who brings Patrick Warburton’s woofer-friendly tones to the forefront of the story. Kronk has begun a new life as head chef in a local restaurant and camp counselor at Camp Chippamuka. Now, his demanding father (John Mahoney) is coming for a visit, and he wants to put on a good show. Bonus features include a pair of interactive games, and a making-of featurette. Valiant, last summer’s theatrical release from Disney, didn’t exactly knock anyone dead at the box-office, but its easy charm should translate into decent DVD sales. If nothing else, it’s fun to listen to several of Britain’s leading actors give voice to a flock of winged characters doing their best for the Allied cause in World War II. Ewan MacGregor is Valiant, the little RAF carrier pigeon who could. He’s joined by John Cleese, Tim Curry, Ricky Gervais, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Laurie and John Hurt. It comes with a blooper reel and themed game. -- Gary Dretzka

Walt Disney Treasures: Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox -- Legendary Heroes Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Spin & Marty -- The Mickey Mouse Club Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities -- Celebrated Shorts, 1920s - 1960s Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Two (1942-1946) It would be interesting to learn the demographic profile of the average owner of titles in the Walt Disney Treasures series. If I were to guess, it would a white, male Baby Boomer, with an-above decent income, who ostensibly bought the DVD package for his children, but really wanted it for himself. The new entries. Elfego Baca and the Swamp Fox and The Adventures of Spin & Marty, would make great presents for just such a gentleman. The stories told of Elfego Baca and Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion -- Robert Loggia and Leslie Nielsen, respectively -- were historically based and loaded with the kind of action and adventure that appealed to pre-teens in the Eisenhower era. The Mickey Mouse Club‘s “Spin & Marty” serial appealed to boys and girls, alike, as stars Tim Considine and David Stollery were both handsome and resourceful. More serious students of Walt Disney’s contributions to the cinema will be drawn to “Disney Rarities -- Celebrated Shorts,” which catalogues five decades worth of short films that combined live-action and animation. The titles include Alice's Wonderland, which pre-dated the feature-length adaptation; Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, which traces the history of musical instruments; From Kansas City to Hollywood, a timeline of Disney’s silent era; and A Feather in His Collar a rarely seen short supporting the Community Chest. Then, of course, there’s the second edition of The Chronological Donald, which will appeal to anyone who needs a good laugh.-- Gary Dretzka

Bad News Bears The original version of The Bad News Bears came along at a time when America was experiencing a general revulsion with organized sports, and the teams they entrusted with their loyalty and devotion. Conglomerates were absorbing family-owned franchises, and in the wake of free agency came a new variety of athlete, one less interested in becoming a role model than a multi-millionaire. Baseball players grew facial hair and started wearing jewelry to work; football players donned white shoes and talked back to their coaches; basketball players engaged in brawls at mid-court. With the increases in salaries and vast wealth associated with endorsement deals, middle-class parents saw in professional sports a new route to the promised land. In such books and movies as Semi-Tough, North Dallas 40, Slap Shot and The Bad News Bears, Hollywood’s Young Turks were able to deliver an anti-establishment message by mocking the conventions of the sporting mainstream, which, then, as now, resembled the Republican Party. At the same time, they created unlikely heroes of misfits and non-conformists who succeeded under the guidance of born-again coaches (in the generic, non-religious sense of the term). The Bad News Bears commented on America’s addiction to take-no-prisoners competition, by pitting a motley collection of runts-of-the-litter against the cream of southern California Little Leaguer youth. In Richard Linklater’s faithful re-make of the 1976 original, very little has changed in the nature of competition and parental ambition, except that the Bears are a bit more representative of L.A.‘s broad ethnic range. Off his twin triumphs in Bad Santa and Friday Night Lights, Billy Bob Thornton was the obvious choice to fill Walter Matthau’s shoes as the Bears’ sad-sack coach. His performance didn’t make me forget Matthau’s boozy interpretation, but it’s never less than interesting, and often quite moving. Marcia Gay Harden, Greg Kinnear and newcomer Sammi Kane Kraft are fine in supporting roles.-- Gary Dretzka

Havoc If it weren’t for all the heat being generated by the big-screen debut of G-rated Anne Hathaway’s R-rated boobies, this rich-teens-in-jeopardy melodrama would be noteworthy primarily as documentarian Barbara Kopple’s entry into the world of fictive filmmaking. Essentially, the story revolves around Hathaway and Bijou Phillips, who play the molls to a gang of rich “wiggers” from Pacific Palisades. The real fun begins when the ladies slum their way into the East L.A. turf of a group of drug-dealing homeboys, who read into their flirtations an opportunity for a ménage-a-twat. Naturally, things turn ugly when the white boys endeavor to win back the girls’ affections by throwing down with the heavily tattooed Hispanic gangstas. Even though the gringo teens’ mimicking of inner-city culture made me grind my teeth, Havoc looks great and moves at a steady-enough pace for this sort of picture, which also benefited from being scripted by Stephen Gaghan (Traffic). As for Hathaway, who made her bones in The Princess Diaries, it’s safe to say that she’ll never go broke in Hollywood as long as she’s willing to doff her top for fans of straight-to-DVD actioners. -- Gary Dretzka

Big Bad Mama: Special Edition Death Race 2000: Special Edition Rock ’n’ Roll High School: Special Edition Roger Corman’s name has long been synonymous with the kind of low-brow exploitation films that were made cheap and fast, and kept operators of drive-in theaters thriving for years. Such representative fare as “Big Bad Mama,” “Death Race 2000” and “Rock ’n’ Roll High School” overflowed with fast-paced action, mindless violence, gritty dialogue and a carefully measured amount of T&A. In “Big Bad Mama,” Angie Dickinson played the bank-robbing mother of a pair of daughters who’ve dedicated themselves to seducing men (including William Shatner) and playing them for suckers. “Death Race 2000” imagined a futuristic sporting event in which contestants scored points for running down people as they sped across the country. “Rock ’n’ Roll High School,” a.k.a. the Ramones movie, appears to have been influenced as much “Zabriskie Point,” as any one of a dozen ’50s-era juvenile-delinquent movies. They’re a hoot, and the commentary and other bonuses only add to the silliness. -- Gary Dretzka

Airplane!: The Don't Call Me Shirley Edition Before rewriting the book on parodies of Hollywood movies and TV genres, Jerry Zucker, David Zucker and Jim Abrahams created a sketch-comedy troupe at the University of Wisconsin called Kentucky Fried Theater. More SCTV than Second City, KFT took direct aim at the pop-culture icons worshipped by their fellow Baby Boomers. A zany Kentucky Fried Movie followed in the comic wake of The Groove Tube and National Lampoon’s Lemmings, with Amazon Women on the Moon and Hollywood Shuffle to follow a decade later. With Airplane!, the Kentucky-fried cheeseheads moved from sketch comedy to feature-length parodies, a la Mad magazine. The film stood every possible disaster-movie cliché on its head, and spun each and every one of them around a few times for good measure. This included peppering the cast with dozens of familiar faces and providing them with dialogue that flew in the face of everything we expected to hear from them in other roles. It also resuscitated the careers of Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges. The commentary track and subtitles offer interesting information about the movie, and the deleted scenes provide several more hardy laughs.-- Gary Dretzka


Saint Ralph For many amateur athletes, running (not to be confused with jogging) is as close to a religious experience as they’re ever likely to enjoy. For 14-year-old Ralph Walker, a Canadian lad whose mother lies in a coma, running could mean the difference between life and death. Set in Hamilton in 1954, Saint Ralph is one of those faith-based concoctions that asks audiences to question their own beliefs, while being manipulated by all manner of contradictory evidence. After being told that only a miracle will bring his mother out of her deep sleep, the Catholic-tutored Walker sets his sights on an impossible task: winning the Boston Marathon. That’s a heavy load for a schoolboy to carry over the course of 26 miles, especially if God is cheering for the Ethiopian runner.-- Gary Dretzka

Fox in a Box: Featuring Pam Grier It seems impossible, given her still-amazing looks and physique, but Pam Grier has been making movies for 35 years. Her first appearance was in Russ Meyers and Roger Ebert’s cheeseball classic, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, while her most recent have been as a recurring character in The L Word. The films included in Fox in a Box -- Foxy Brown, Coffy, Sheba Baby -- represent Grier’s most productive period, the early ’70s, when she was the undisputed queen of the blaxploitation genre. It isn’t cool to use such terminology today, but these and other urban-adventures fed off the then-thriving Black Power movement, even finding an audience among suburban whites drawn to the wonderful soundtracks and fast-paced action. Eventually, political correctness killed the genre, leaving dozens of African-American actors and filmmakers unemployed. Much like her character in Quentin Tarantino‘s Jackie Brown, however, Grier would persevere and blossom into America’s answer to Sophia Loren. This box includes commentary and cleaned-up audio and video tracks. -- Gary Dretzka

The Beautiful Country Hans Petter Moland’s emotionally charged drama traces one mixed-race teenager’s epic journey from a rural village in Vietnam to a desolate ranch in Texas, in search of the father he never knew. As portrayed by Damien Nguyen, Binh is a study in dogged dedication to a single passionate pursuit. In his escape to America, he and a much-younger half-brother endure a stay in a Malaysian detention camp, passage aboard a fetid refugee ship and forced labor in New York City. The scenes in which he learns the full story of his GI dad’s time in Vietnam are among the most poignant and heartfelt in recent memory. Nick Nolte’s brief appearance couldn’t be more touching. -- Gary Dretzka

Pretty Persuasion Here’s a movie that borrows freely from Heathers, Jawbreakers and Wild Things, but not nearly enough to have provided much traction outside its core constituency of mid-teen girls and dirty old men attracted by naughty-coed movies. Even so, they may enjoy watching a trio of 15-years-old try to get even with a handsome, if moderately pervy English teacher who exerted a tad to much pressure on them to be better students. Evan Rachel Wood is convincing as the Lolita-wannabe leader of the pack, who even manages to seduce a blondly ambitious TV reporter, played with verve by Jane Krakowski. James Woods wastes his time playing a coke-snorting anti-Semite dad, who’s provided his daughter with a stepmom who could double as her playmate. Pretty Persuasion has its moments of guilty pleasure, but Marco Siega and Skander Halim needed to add a few more layers of polish to distinguish it from other inky-black teen comedies.-- Gary Dretzka

East Of Sunset Little seen outside of the festival circuit, East of Sunset demonstrated just how easily a hyper-neurotic Silverlake hipster chick -- with legs way up to heeeerrrrreee -- could transform her good-natured lover from a casual drug user into a heroin addict with a death wish … all to the accompaniment of music that would make the Cowboy Junkies sound peppy. Emily Stiles plays Carley, a fairly typical young resident of this trendy Los Angeles neighborhood, which also is home to Jimmy Wayne Farley‘s not-untalented bartender/artist, Jim. He‘s an extremely likeable guy, but Carley prefers immediate physical gratification to the kind of emotional intimacy that might lead to another tearful breakup. That’s about it. Despite an annoyingly whiny voice, Stiles could emerge as a real star someday soon, and the DVD package also benefits from the addition of soundtrack CD. It features recordings of early Tom Waits songs by various local bands. -- Gary Dretzka

The Five Pennies Made in 1959, this quaint musical biopic of Loring Red Nichols features two of the most beloved entertainers of the last century, Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong. Therein, lies its principle charm. Kaye plays the popular cornetist, whose Dixieland jazz ensemble -- the Five Pennies -- also included his wife, Bobbie, as vocalist. After their daughter, Dorothy, developed polio, they quit the music business and moved to Los Angeles. Later, at Dorothy’s urging, Nichols struggled to regain his chops and make a living as a nightclub owner. Satchmo and other jazz greats, like the Dorsey brothers -- portrayed by prominent west-coast musicians -- come to his aid when the business starts failing.-- Gary Dretzka


Family Bonds: The Complete First Season One reality-based series about a family of bounty hunters probably would have satisfied America’s appetite for such dubious fare for a decade or two, at least. In 2004, we got two of them. “Family Bonds” was HBO’s contribution to our understanding of the trials of tribulations of the everyday skip-tracer. It would be difficult to find more fearsome group than the Evangelista clan of Long Island, N.Y., which was deemed representative of the profession, at large. Like most bounty hunters, the crew from All City Bail Bonds could easily be mistaken for the very fugitives they were hired to bring to justice. They look mean, and aren’t afraid to enter the belly of the beast to collect their next paycheck. The series’ creators would like us to believe, however, that under all of those muscles, piercings, tattoos and body armor beat the hearts of middle-class suburbanites like you and me. Apart from the occasional rumble of motorcycles, I can’t imagine a safer neighborhood in which to reside than one in which the Evangelistas reside. The captures recorded by the HBO cameras were fun to watch, too. It was the Evangelista women who frightened me a heck of a lot more than the male behemoths in the family. If you could drag these manicured mamas out of their beauty parlor long enough to pit them against a planeload of Raider fans, the odds would heavy against anyone making it back to Oakland alive. I‘d rather go to jail than be held captive in their kitchens, after the coffee kicked into gear.-- Gary Dretzka

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