MCN DVD Reviews: August 18, 2009

The Wrap Up ...

	..MCN Review - Wilmington
	..MCN Weekend

Tyson

When Mike Tyson came to the attention of fans of the sweet science, it was as famed trainer Cus D'Amato's heroic reclamation project. By the time his reign was over, the onetime undisputed heavyweight champ was feared and reviled as a thug and convicted rapist. In his fascinating biodoc, Tyson, James Toback makes a convincing case for the possibility that the Brooklyn-born brawler and reform-school graduate might have stayed on the straight-and-narrow if it weren't for the loss of father-figure D'Amato early in his career. Instead, Tyson fell prey to an arguably more sinister ex-con, promoter Don King, who simply waved money in front of him and left him to his own devices. Fearing no one in the ring, Iron Mike became his own worst enemy. Besides ditching longtime mentor Kevin Rooney as trainer, Tyson opened up the gates to the paparazzi and celebrity press by marrying actress Robin Givens; a sexual-assault conviction he still disputes caused him to be thrown back into a cage; any good faith he had left with fans was lost when he bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear; and other, more-minor scrapes with the law would keep his name in the newspapers. And, yet, the Tyson we've seen in two previous Toback movies and occasional TV appearances suggests he can feel as vulnerable, sad and lonely as any of us. His reaction to the recent loss of his 4-year-old daughter in a home-gym accident also has helped dilute negative images from his past. Tyson doesn't gloss over the sins of its subject, but it does argue very much in favor of redemption for an athlete, who, like Marlon Brando's Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, grew up trusting pigeons more than he did people. The Blu-ray features add Toback's commentary, A Day with James Toback, Iron Mike: Toback talks Tyson and another mak ing-of piece, The Big Picture Show. Toback's no shrinking violet, so expect a Tyson-like barrage of self-praise. – Gary Dretzka

Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection

Toho has given more joy to sci-fi and horror geeks than almost any other movie studio on Earth. It's distributed many of Japan's most revered cinematic treasures, as well, but it's famous primarily for such post-nuclear monster flicks (kaiju eiga) as Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, The Mysterians and Vampire Moth. A trio of director Ishiro Honda and special-effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya's collaborations has been released in both their Japanese and American incarnations in their original Tohoscope aspect ratio (2.35:1). Apart from their value as guilty pleasures, The H-Man (1958), Battle in Outer Space (1959) and Mothra (1961) could demonstrate to today's generation of filmgoers how far special-effects technology has come in the last half-century. - Gary Dretzka

Hannah Montana: The Movie
Shirley Temple and Friends

Teen phenomenon Miley Cyrus may be the most over-exposed entertainer on the planet. If there isn't anything we don't already know about the nearly 17-year-old performer, Disney's publicity department has yet to invent it. At the ripe old age of 16, the Miley has indicated that she'd like to try her hand at more mature material. (Her agent has dismissed rumors Cyrus will appear in the next Sex and the City movie.) Hannah Montana: The Movie takes a step in that direction by acknowledging both the pitfalls and allure of superstardom. When Hannah begins mimicking some of the self-indulgent behavior of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, father Robbie Ray (Billy Ray Cyrus) forces her to join him at her grandmother's house in rural Tennessee. Compared to Crowley Corners, downtown Burbank might as well b e Paris … and not the one in Texas. Resistance to a simple, family-oriented lifestyle eventually proves futile, as it must in all Disney pictures. She reconnects with old friends and joins grannie in a crusade to stall the commercialization of Crowley Corners. Here, any resemblance to the rehabilitation of Miley's Hannah Montana persona is strictly intentional. The lively soundtrack includes such popular songs as Best of Both Worlds and Let's Get Crazy, alongside Hoedown Throwdown, Butterfly Fly Away and The Climb. Supplementary material includes a Hoedown Throwdown dance-along; a DisneyFile digital copy; seven music videos; bloopers, deleted scenes and commentary; a Find Your Way Back Home feature, in which the film's stars tour the own hometowns; and a behind-the-scenes piece with Jason Earles. At $17.4 million, Hannah Montana: The Movie reportedly had the best opening-day gross of any live-action G-rated movie, so expect a crush at the video store.

As popular as Miley Cyrus is right now, it's possible she'll never know what it means to be adored and cherished as a national treasure. Shirley Temple was both. Like Miley, little Shirley could sing, dance and act up a storm. If Miley had continued to date Nick Jonas - and not a underwear model five years her senior - the duo might have rivaled Temple and Mickey Rooney as beloved G-rated superstars. It's inconceivable, however, that Temple's handlers would have allowed her to pose in the nearly altogether for a sleazy photo spread in Vanity Fair, at the ages of 15 or 51. Shirley Temple and Friends is a collection of 16 shorts and 8 features she made from 4 to 11 in age. They include, Dora's Dunkin' Doughnuts, Glad Rags to Riches, The Little Princess, Managed Money, The Red-Haired Alibi and War Babies. - Gary Dretzka

These Old Broads
The Golden Boys

The word diva has been used to describe everything from an actress with an unhealthy appetite for expensive jewelry to show-dogs with attitudes … and expensive jewelry. True divas are entertainers - opera singers, originally - who demand to be treated as if they were of royal blood, even if their greatest claims to fame were a few blockbuster movies, a baseball team's worth of rich husbands and semi-famous boyfriends, and an insatiable taste for expensive jewelry. The stars of These Old Broads -- Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins and, briefly, Elizabeth Taylor - easily qualify for diva-hood. As written by Reynolds' daughter, Carrie Fisher, These Old Broads is a catty journey back to Old Hollywood, where stars of their stature made grand entrances, without everyone being able to see up their skirts, and never appeared in public without a thick layer of makeup, shellacked hair and a shiny bauble or two around their necks. Taylor plays a bed-ridden agent charged with re-assembling the old dolls' act after their 1960s movie musical caught fire as a cult hit. Naturally, the women fight for every inch of the spotlight, while also dredging up old feuds and headlines. (Some based on real incidents in the actors' lives.) It's fun, if imminently forgettable.

Instead of being revered as divas, venerable male entertainers - with the possible exception of Marlon Brando and Liberace -- tend to be cast in movies about grouchy old men and dinner-theater productions of The Odd Couple. In Daniel Adams' The Golden Boys, a trio of retired sea captains is portrayed by Rip Torn, Bruce Dern and David Carradine, with Charles Durning adding a bit of his bark and bite, as well. The geezers concoct a scheme involving a mail-order bride from Nantucket - Mariel Hemingway, no spring chicken, herself - and rooming house, where they all can live out their days. The Golden Boys was released briefly in April, but failed to make a dent in the box office. It was re-released into a handful of theaters shortly after Carradine s accidental suicide in Thailand. It made even less money in the second go-round. If someone at the local video store insists this was Carradine's last film, know that he made and/or starred in some 20 other picture after The Golden Boys. The Cape Cod settings are splendid. - Gary Dretzka

Terror at Blood Fart Lake

If they gave Academy Awards for titles, Terror at Blood Fart Lake would be this year's hands-down winner. Hell, if the Three 6 Mafia could take home an Oscar for their song, It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp, anything's possible. The silly thriller itself isn't all that different from a thousand other teenagers-in-jeopardy gore-fests, but, once inside a video store, titles can mean the difference between a rental and a reject. Blood Fart Lake is best appreciated by those fans of the genre who can take a good ribbing, along with generous quantities of gore and a smidgen of nudity. If nothing else, admitting to having rented Terror at Blood Fart Lake is an instant conversation-starter - or killer -- at any garden party. - Gary Dretzka

Just Love Me

Who says that foreign rom-coms can't be just as sappy and manipulative as those popped out by Hollywood's popcorn machine? From Poland, Just Love Me describes what happens when an incredibly charming little girl arrives at the door of a notorious lady's man - who bears a passing resemblance to Brad Pitt - and declares she's his daughter. Well, the same thing that normally happens when such surprises occur in accidental-parent movies, of course. The new father doesn't have the slightest clue as to who the mother could be, among the hundreds of women he's bedded, and neither do we. Even though Just Love Me employs all of the clichés associated with this sort of rom-com, the fresh faces and setting makes it tolerable. - Gary Dretzka

The Sons of Anarchy: Season One
The Beast: Season One
Total Drama Island: The Complete Series
Bakugan, Vol. 4: Heroes Rise
The Secret Saturdays
Armchair Thriller: Set 1

Anti-heroes don't come any more despicable than the outlaw bikers of Sons of Anarchy. Even the gang members' old ladies are unscrupulous. Some of the same people responsible for The Shield and The Sopranos worked on this improbable FX series, which takes place as much inside the bikers' homes as their clubhouse and favorite bar. Ron Perlman, who's played more than his fair share of humanoid monsters, plays the ruthless head of the gang, while Katey Sagal (Married … With Children) is his pragmatic wife. The rest of the characters aren't nearly as interesting, but the actors look appropriately skuzzy and there's lots of action. The package adds 40 minutes of unaired scenes and a making-of featurette.

At about the same time as the tabloids were predicting the imminent death of Patrick Swayze, the dancer-turned-actor began his tenure as a maverick FBI agent in The Beast. Swayze's looking better than he has in a long time, so it's possible that the A&E series could be around for a while, as well. Swayze's Charles Barker works undercover with a rookie, who, while he admires his partner, is being required to create a dossier on him and other rogue agents by FBI brass.

Cartoon Network keeps churning out series that are wildly imaginative, impossible to synopsize and more than a teensy bit twisted. Three recent hits have been collected for fans and folks who don't have cable. Total Drama Island is a take-off on Survivor, in which a group of Canadian teens are required to endure a series of insane tests in a rundown camp in northern Ontario. Among the archetypal participants are Jock, Hipster, Sista, Valley Girl, Dork, Goth and Delinquent.

The Bakugan series is a joint venture between Del Rey Manga and Cartoon Network Enterprises, based on Bakugan Battle Brawlers and Ben 10 Alien Force. Essentially, the hybrid was conceived as a toy store disguised as a cartoon, with product options too numerous to mention. The fourth installment, Heroes Rise, chronicles the battles between the Brawlers and Masquerade. (Don't ask.) It's difficult to imagination anyone over 10 having the patience to grasp the basic premise, let alone all the double-crosses and intrigue in between them.

In The Secret Saturdays, a family of crypto-zoologists travels the world with a collection of cryptids - animals of legend and folklore --including a gorilla-cat, a genetically-modified Komodo dragon and flying dinosaur. The Saturdays and other crypto-zoologists endeavor to keep the presence of such scary animals from the general public and other cryptids, lest they freak out or organize a rebellion. The dialogue is sharp, witty and hip … in a 1960s sort of way.

In episodes that might have been informed by The Twilight Zone, the Armchair Thriller box is comprised of a quartet of stories that required ordinary folks to react to extraordinary circumstances in unexpected ways. They were shown here as part of PBS' Mystery! The episodes include, Dying Day, The Limbo Connection, Rachel in Danger and The Victim, all of which. Among the stars of the late-'60s series were Ian McKellen, John Shrapnel and James Bolam.

There are some interesting additions to this week's TV-to-DVD scene: The Donna Reed Show: The Complete Second Season, in which the prototypical suburban family of the 1950s continued to solve problems with a smile on their lips and a song in their hearts; the third stanza of ABC Family's popular collegiate series, Greek, arrives with commentary, bloopers and 20 Questions With the Cast; the bonus-filled final-season packages of Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money beg the question as to whether American audiences will accept offbeat depictions of eccentric people in the final hour of prime-time. Both shows had loyal followers, but not enough to keep them on the air. Sadly, it's unlikely anything significantly better will fill their timeslots. (By booking Jay Leno's comparatively inexpensive variety show in that timeslot, NBC's given up on scripted material entirely.) Showtime's Dexter: Third Season follows television's most lovable serial killer as he approaches the likelihood of marriage and develops a bromance with Miguel Prado; the CW and Chris Rock's terrific sitcom wraps itself up in Everybody Hates Chris: The Final Season. - Gary Dretzka