Ahoy, squirts! Quint here.

I’m going to look over some DVDs that I’ve received for review over the last 2 weeks. Two have yet to see release and the rest hit last week. Let’s look at the new ones first.

I had never seen David Mamet’s HOUSE OF GAMES. Criterion sent me a review copy. Anything Criterion gets put in the Must Watch Now stack and it helped that the cover showed a poker table under the title and David Mamet’s name. I do love my poker and my Mamet, so it jumped to the front of the stack.

This is, in fact, David Mamet’s directorial debut. It’s a con man movie about a psychiatrist (played by Mamet’s then wife Lindsay Crouse) who enters into a world of confidence games when she investigates one of her patients’ troubled stories.

She finds herself entangled with Mike, played by Joe Mantegna, and his group of con men. They teach her the ropes and at first she thinks she’s interested in their line of work as material for her next book, but she slowly comes to find there’s a deeper fascination with this than she wants to believe.

Of course, like all con artist movies, it’s full of twists and turns. Who is being played? What is real?

Mamet’s character work is definitely on display here, but I couldn’t help but find a lot of the delivery and staging very choppy and more than a little forced. It felt very stagy to me, so I wasn’t surprised that this was Mamet’s first job directing his material considering he began on the stage.

That’s not to take anything away from the finished product. It’s an entertaining and multi-layered movie. I was involved all the way through, so it definitely did its job.

It was also great seeing some of Mamet’s stable of actors show up. Great character actors like JT Walsh and William H. Macy and Ricky Jay (also a magician and expert at cons… he consulted on the project with Mamet and in turn got a small role as one of the members of this con artist gang).

The extras: You get a commentary track with Mamet and Ricky Jay, a new transfer overseen by DP Juan Ruiz Anchia, recent interviews with Crouse and Montegna looking back on the movie (about 10 mins each) and a 25 minute documentary filmed during the making.

The commentary is surprisingly entertaining. I don’t know what I was expecting, but Ricky Jay and Mamet kept it from being the “and here is when she runs… because Montegna is chasing her…” type stuff. In fact, they start off with Mamet saying he’s figured out George Bush’s tell when he’s lying and that it’s 100% accurate. He says that he respects Bush for being a bad liar. It’d be one thing if he’s done what he’s done, but was able to cover it up well, but he can’t because he’s a bad liar.

It’s also one of those commentaries that are really interesting because the filmmaker hasn’t seen the movie since it (kinda) came out. So there’s literally a moment where Mamet had forgotten he had done something and was shocked.

It’s a flashback scene. He’s talking about something wholly unrelated and then it happens and he stops dead in his tracks. “Did I film a goddamn flashback scene? I’m going to hell… oh well, at least I’ll be there with all my friends…”

I loved that. He also takes Orion to task many times for fucking the distribution of the film… apparently, they only ever released it on 6 screens, even though it was their best reviewed film in the history of the company.

Also, the 25 minute documentary from the ‘80s is pretty fascinating. You get a lot of Mamet playing poker with his buddies in-between takes. Fascinating stuff for me, a poker nerd, but also the way he deals with his close friends… you start seeing a little where his writing comes from.

All together, a worthy package from Criterion. It sees release NEXT Tuesday, the 21st.

I missed this film when it played SXSW this year. Funnily enough, it was playing against the AICN premiere screening of the next DVD I’m looking at.

I like Scott Frank’s work on MINORITY REPORT, GET SHORTY and, in particular, OUT OF SIGHT. With this film he actually directs one of his scripts.

I’m also a big fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Isla Fisher and Jeff Daniels’ work, so I don’t know how I missed this on its theatrical release.

I remember some of the wind was taken out of my sail by the lukewarm reaction it got from trusted friends at SXSW, so that might have had something to do with it.

Now that I’ve seen the movie, I have to ask why no one mentioned Isla Fisher has a butt-shot in the movie to me? Now I’m angry I didn’t see the full theatrical experience!

I found I really, really, really wanted to like the movie a little more than I actually did.

The performances are actually pretty good all around. Jeff Daniels steals the show as Gordon-Levitt’s blind friend, his rock. He’s got the best character, full of smart-ass humor and true heart.

If you haven’t seen it, the flick is about a young man (Gordon-Levitt) who is in a horrible car accident and is banged up to the point that he has some very serious brain injuries. He survived, but he is still trying to get back to par. He’ll occasionally speak what’s on his mind, his brain not sending the signal to his mouth to not say exactly what he’s thinking. He has trouble remembering things. He’s still fucked up about the accident, which killed two of his friends and drove a wedge between him and the love of his life.

His forgetful qualities are noticed by a group of bank-robbers. Gordon-Levitt works nights cleaning up a small town bank, so he’s a perfect accomplice. The problem is he’s also a good person and wouldn’t do it without the right set-up, so the group begins the seduction of this poor kid.

Daniels is his roommate and really his voice of reason, his Jiminy Cricket… albeit a little hornier and crude… and blind.

I can’t really put my finger on it. All the performances were great, the plot was detailed and layered… but there was something off, some disconnect I had with the movie. It’s not a bad movie or a great movie for me… it rests comfortably in that “I liked it” category in-between.

The DVD isn’t really packed, but it has a few basics, like a Making Of documentary and a look at issues the main character has to deal with due to his brain injuries. There’s also a commentary with Scott Frank and cinematographer Alar Kivilo.

I know this is out on Blu-Ray as well, but I was neither sent the disc nor did I have the ability to play it. I don’t think the high def disc has any different features, though.

The commentary runs well. Frank is pretty open about his greenness as a director, pointing out his perceived flaws as a first time director. I think he’s a bit too hard on himself, but I’d say this commentary is a pretty good tool for aspiring directors to get an idea of the traps he fell in to his first time out.

I have three copies of this DVD to give away, so I’m going to make it simple. You have to live in the continental US to get these discs… and you have to email me at quint@aintitcool.com with the subject line HAND OVER THAT LOOKOUT DVD, YOU FAT BASTARD! with your name and mailing address in the body of the email. First three get it.

I’ll update it around here when they’re spoken for. UPDATE! That didn't take long. All three are given away... congrats to Ron Martin, Joey Ernand and Max Brody!!!

Out today on SD and Blu-Ray.

This came out last week and I meant to get a review out then, but I got a bit behind. I won’t focus too much on the released titles, but I will go into the disc a bit.

I watched the HD-DVD version of this disc, but a quick look-up on Amazon tells me that there aren’t any high def exclusive materials on this DVD, so the standard def is the same (in terms of extras) as the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray editions… it’s just the high def versions have the film and most of the features (including deleted scenes, the Making Of, the Gag Reel, Trailer and Music Video).

I really liked this flick, but I reviewed it way back when I missed THE LOOKOUT to see it opening night of SXSW at the original Alamo Downtown, so you can read my larger review there.

The transfer was nice, but it didn’t really blow me away with high def awesomeness. I’ve noticed most of the older films I have in high def look the best. THE STING looks incredible, but both KING KONG and BLACK SNAKE MOAN also look fantastic. I just finally saw some of the HD HOT FUZZ and that’s a brilliant transfer, too. I didn’t notice anything spectacular or distracting about the DISTURBIA high def disc, so I won’t dwell on it.

The blooper reel could have been longer. You can tell LaBeouf and Caruso really got along well and it was a fun set, but there’s under 2 minutes of bloopers. I’m sure there were more… maybe the PG-13 rating on the disc screwed us out of some really funny stuff.

The commentary track was very entertaining. It featured LaBeouf (on a protein diet because he has to bulk up for “his next movie” meaning INDIANA JONES 4), Caruso and Sarah Roemer. The guys keep it light and the lady keeps it sexy. Nice combination.

Caruso spends much of the commentary shedding light on how he shot multiple locations for the same set (exterior of the house, real house location, set, different real house location to see into Roemer’s backyard, etc) and the actors talk a lot about their scene to scene work. Everybody takes the piss outta the others on the commentary. I wasn’t bored during the track.

The Making Of is pretty typical and I must confess I had no desire to watch the Music Video.

Not a bad disc, but it won’t blow you away. It’s not one of those releases that’s worth buying just on its own, regardless if you’ve seen or really, really like the movie involved. If you dig the movie, then there’s no reason not to pick up this DVD.

Ah, beautiful, beautiful ‘80s cheese. I really do love this movie.

But I must warn you. This really does fall into the category of all the other lame double dips that have the movie tie-in name “Edition” subhead… Like the “Don’t Call Me Shirley Edition” of Airplane. This one is “The Savior of the Universe Edition.” I can't remember if FLASH GORDON had seen a US DVD release... it's hard for me to believe it hadn't, but it wasn't in my DVD library and I'm pretty sure it would have been a must-buy... So, it might not technically be a double-dip, but it feels like it...

Honestly, the best special feature on this disc is that Alex Ross cover. There is almost nothing else to the disc other than a 10 minute piece of Alex Ross talking about how much he loves the movie and a 10 minute interview with the screenwriter, Lorenzo Semple Jr.

I’ve heard of a European disc that has commentary by Mike Hodges and Brian MotherFucking Blessed (his legal middle name). Why the fuck is that not on this disc? I looked it up, too… thinking it was one of those discs that came out really super cheap… like $9.99 or something… but it’s not. Even discounted it’s $19.99! What the shit is that?

So, boo at the special features. Praise to the packaging, fantastic work by Ross and I love the flip open cover for the DVD and the pencil insert, a second piece from Ross. But bad form on the lack of special features.

I will say the transfer is the best I’ve ever seen of this film and I’ve seen it projected at least 3 times in my life… Beautiful and Queen’s score sound fantastic coming out of my speakers.

If you have an HD-DVD player I’d hold out to see if Universal releases it HD. They might pull a HOT FUZZ and include all the European extras exclusively on the disc. If you don’t want to wait (for either the HD-DVD announcement or the white flag from Universal as they go neutral for you Blu-ray readers), then just know you’re buying the DVD for the film only, nothing else.

That’s it from me on these DVDs. Thanks for reading!

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com