Hey folks, Harry here with today’s DVD Picks and Peeks. The Criterion stuff is the particular stand-outs this week, but this isn’t the strongest week of the year, though next week is REALLY good. As always if you click on the Box Art or Titles you’ll be taken to AMAZON where you can learn more on the title in question or if you’re feeling the urge, you can purchase the item with a small portion of the purchase price going to support this column. Also – I’d recommend this Friday checking out: The Amazon Black Friday Specials for some incredibly good deals. I seriously mean that, save on gas and crowd stress. Anyway, here’s the picks this week:

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

HANCOCK

A fantastic first hour, that gives way to an utterly forgettable load of shit in the second hour. The script just unravels – the film just completely loses focus and it just begins to drown in its own mediocrity. I loathe ever twist after the one hour mark. That said – that first act is so solid that I actually enjoy having this Blu-Ray – I just don’t think I ever would have paid for it. Perhaps traded for it at a second hand shop, but definitely not full retail.

A COLBERT CHRISTMAS: THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL!

At Christmas – my family has always celebrated 3 things… Our lord, Jesus Christ… The Great Santa Claus… and the Spirit of Materialism embodied in the mass of presents we gave to one another. This year – beyond Jesus, Santa and Presents… there is a new purpose for worship and it is in his name I praise this DVD… STEPHEN COLBERT. Watching this DVD shook me to the core. If you thought Scrooge or George Bailey or the Trial of Kris Kringle was a reason to tear up at Christmas… just wait till you see the drama and the amazement that comes with this fabulous Christmas program. Colbert reminds us all what Christmas is about… STEPHEN COLBERT – and ya know, I’d been so blinded by religion and my own sense of greed that I forgot the important secret meaning of Christmas… and that is that JC may have left us, but he also gave us SC. And for that, I am humbled. I plead with all of you to buy this DVD – to teach you and yours the meaning in Christmas that too many of us have forgot.

BOTTLE ROCKET – Criterion Collection – Blu-Ray

Today – the standard def Criterion edition comes out – but I just want to put this version in front of you, because… On December 16th – you’ll have the opportunity to get this film in BLU RAY! So if you’ve any interest in High Def – don’t pick up the standard def that’s out today. Here’s the features:

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL BLU-RAY EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson and director of photography Robert Yeoman
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack
Commentary by director/co-writer Anderson and co-writer/star Owen Wilson
The Making of Bottle Rocket : an original documentary by filmmaker Barry Braverman featuring Anderson, James L. Brooks, James Caan, Temple Nash Jr., Kumar Pallana, Polly Platt, Mark Mothersbaugh, Robert Musgrave, Richard Sakai, David and Sandy Wasco, Andrew and Luke and Owen Wilson, and Robert Yeoman
The original thirteen-minute black-and-white Bottle Rocket short film from 1992
Eleven deleted scenes
Anamorphic screen test, storyboards, location photos, and behind-the-scenes photographs by Laura Wilson
Murita Cycles, a 1978 short film by Braverman
The Shafrazi Lectures, no. 1: Bottle Rocket
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by executive producer James L. Brooks, an appreciation by Martin Scorsese, and original artwork by Ian Dingman

THE KINGDOM (Blu-Ray)

This is a vastly superior Peter Berg film to HANCOCK. I really do like this film and that end sequence – harrowing. I’m really glad to have this one in Blu-Ray!

SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD – Criterion Collection

I love Spy stories and this is a brutal, non-showy Spy film that just feels tragically real. Based on John Le Carre’s novel – and it still stands as the best adaptation of his work (with THE CONSTANT GARDENER coming in closely behind) This is a really great spy flick. Here’s the extras:

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
New interviews with author John Le Carré and cinematographer Oswald Morris
The Secret Center: John Le Carré (2000), a BBC documentary on the author s extraordinary life and work
Acting in the '60s: Richard Burton, a 1967 interview with the BBC s Kenneth Tynan examining the actor's performances
and accomplishments
Gallery of set designs
Theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic
Michael Sragow and a reprinted interview with Ritt

CHUNGKING EXPRESS – Criterion Collection

Wow. Again – there’s a standard Def release of this coming out today – but I’m putting the BLU-RAY in front of you – which doesn’t hit till December 16th. You have to be careful on these titles – there’s no visual give away that these releases are Blu Ray from the front cover – other than the box is shorter than the standard def box. That said – having both versions here – The Blu Ray – my first Criterion Blu Ray is just flat out amazing. Criterion brings their scholarly and loving impassioned treatment to High Def and boy oh boy can I not wait for the flood of titles to hit. The slow-motion and blurred action beauty of this film are absolutely hypnotic at 1080p. Truly exquisite visuals and audio. I know that’s nothing you don’t expect from a 1080p release of a Wong Kar-Wai title – but folks – flat out WOW!

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Audio commentary by noted Asian cinema critic Tony Rayns
U.S. theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Amy Taubin and excerpts from a 1996 Sight and Sound interview with Wong by Rayns
More!

BECKET (Blu Ray)

Now… I would’ve sworn on a stack of Bibles that I’d seen BECKET, but when I put this Blu-Ray in this past week and I watched this film… there was not a single frame or a single line that I was familiar with. BUT Holy Shit… this film is fan-fucking-tastic! As great as Richard Burton is as the title character… it is the brilliant performance by Peter O’Toole as Henry II that just blew me away.

God I wish we had an actor today that revealed so much through his eyes and face – strength, insecurity, love, hatred, pettiness and a feeling of being cursed – in a matter of moments, the way O’Toole does here. Yes, I know… he’s fucking Peter O’Toole – but you know. Sitting her watching this brilliant film for the first time… watching it 9’ by 12’ in 1080p… his performance just humbled me.

And Burton? Burton is fantastic as BECKET – but Peter has the better role, the juicier role. But Burton is the anchor of the film. If you didn’t love Becket, O’Toole’s HENRY II would make no sense. Thus is the brilliance of this incredibly intimate character piece of an epic. Just brilliant.

SUPERMAN – DOOMSDAY (Blu-Ray)

I already owned this in HD-DVD, but now the surviving High Def format has finally added it. This film is brutal. Bruce Timm definitely does not pull punches in this brutal brutal fight of titans in the streets and concrete canyons of Metropolis. When I showed SUPERMAN DOOMSDAY to my nephew – during the ill-fated initial fight with Doomsday – as Superman was beaten to death… it made him cry and when Supes returns… He cheers. It is truly an animated film that can motivate one to laugh, cheer and cry – that’s remarkable.

JARHEAD (Blu-Ray)

I really love Mendes’ JARHEAD and in particular – Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance, along with that of Jamie Foxx. This IRAQ war tale… is hauntingly beautiful and that scene of the troops watching APOCALYPSE NOW… a movie I always considered to be a film meant to make people want to steer clear of the madness of war… being viewed as a movie to FIRE one up for war. Well, it kinda shocked my fragile liberal commie pinko pacifist thoughts. I like that. Well done Sam! The oil field fire sequence on Blu Ray is just beautiful!

BLACK NARCISSUS (Blu-Ray)

One of the most stunning works of motion picture cinematography – Powell & Pressburger’s classic BLACK NARCISSUS is an absolute must see in 1080p for serious cinephiles. This is an All-Region disc, so it will play in your machine! A really great release for the format.

GIRLS IN CHAINS

I don’t believe I’ve seen this exploitation title – it doesn’t sound familiar, but the box art and the following description on AMAZON have me anxious to give it a look. Here’s what they say:

In a remote country house, a malevolent form of sleaze and terror is being bred. A crazy mother encourages her two sons raving lunatic Frank and his not-all-there brother Johnny to kidnap young women and chain them up in the basement. The girls are treated like animals and then subjected to games that grow increasingly sinister and depraved. When the brothers tire of their playthings, the girls must be replaced. This lost exploitation classic is every bit as morally corrupt as you've heard.

THE ATOMIC CAFÉ

I first saw this film at the age of 10. We were still having “Duck & Cover” drills in my elementary school – and I remember telling my friends after I saw this film, that it didn’t matter if we “Ducked and Covered” because if an A-Bomb hit Austin, we were all vapor and ash. That’s a sobering thought for a child, but it is what kept us in the Cold War era shivering that extra bit. I love the sardonic jet black humor of this film and this is a great release of the film. A real classic.

FREAKS & GEEKS: YEARBOOK EDITION

I have still never seen an episode of this Apatow produced series. I don’t know a single thing about the show – other than it is apparently brilliant – and I’m an idiot for having never seen it. A fact that I fully intend to rectify. And I believe this is the set to do it with. Here’s what is so special about this edition:

Previously available only via the Freaks and Geeks website, and now long out of print, this special edition contains all the original episodes, commentaries and special features of the Complete Season set, plus two bonus discs all housed in a loving recreation of a 40-page yearbook, chock-full of exclusive photos, memorabilia and essays.
_Special Features on the the Yearkbook Edition's Two Exclusive Bonus Discs__* Museum of Television & Radio Panel__* Table Read__* Deleted Scenes__* Original Cast Auditions__* Raw Footage__* Mr. Rosso Live In Concert__* Photo Galleries__* NBC Promos__* Behind the Scenes footage

THE RON HOWARD SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION ( BACKDRAFT / APOLLO 13 / A BEAUTIFUL MIND / CINDERELLA MAN )

I watched FROST/NIXON earlier tonight… That is very possibly the very best film of Ron Howard’s career. I feel my personal favorite film of his is probably SPLASH – and I miss that silly side of Howard from that film and PARENTHOOD, but as I look upon this set – you can’t deny the quality of these 4 films and how great they are. That said – I’d recommend holding off for Blu-Ray – as these 4 films absolutely deserve to be enjoyed that way. Unless you have no intention of joining the Blu Ray cult of visual perfection.

That’s it for this week, but as you’re thinking about gifts and the future this Black Friday – if I may suggest a few gifts… I suggest the following upcoming jewels…

THE DARK KNIGHT: Limited Edition With BATPOD – Blu-Ray!!!

Ya know – I love toys and sculptures with highend cool movies – and well, this Batpod is pretty nifty to have. It’s sweet as hell looking too. And this is the best geek movie of the year, right? And some people feel it is just flat out the best film of the year.

Criterion Collection’s THE THIRD MAN Blu-Ray

This is easily one of my very favorite films of all time and on December 16th, this beauty of light and shadow and zither music is just exquisite. Here’s the features:

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
Restored high-definition digital transfer
Uncompressed mono soundtrack
Video introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich
Two audio commentaries: one by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and one by by film scholar Dana Polan
Shadowing The Third Man (2005), a ninety-minute feature documentary on the making of the film
Abridged recording of Graham Greene s treatment, read by actor Richard Clarke
Graham Greene: The Hunted Man, an hour-long, 1968 episode of the BBC s Omnibus series, featuring a rare interview with the novelist
Who Was the Third Man? (2000), a thirty-minute Austrian documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
The Third Man on the radio: the 1951 A Ticket to Tangiers episode of The Lives of Harry Lime series, written and performed by Orson Welles, and the 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Third Man
Illustrated production history with rare behind-the-scenes photos, original UK press book, and U.S. trailer
Actor Joseph Cotten s alternate opening voice-over narration for the U.S. version
Archival footage of postwar Vienna
A look at the untranslated foreign dialogue in the film
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by Luc Sante

FROM DUSK TIL DAWN Blu Ray

This doesn’t hit til December 9th, but I’m dying for it to hit. This is my favorite Robert Rodriguez film. I just love that Titty Twister. I love Keitel, Clooney, Salma, Cheech, Juliette Lewis and Quentin’s sick sick character. I love Sex Machine and Fred Williamson – and I just love everything about the film. This all region pressing will be a delight to own, till whenever a stateside release is finally done.

Anyway – that’s all I got for this week, I’ll see you next week with: PRINCE CASPIAN, WANTED, the real FROST/NIXON tapes, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE, Season 2 of METALOCALYPSE, STEP BROTHERS, SNL 4th Season, original DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Blu Ray, Austin Powers collection Blu Ray, CASABLANCA Blu Ray, HOME ALONE Blu, LA FEMME NIKITA Blu, SIN CITY Blu, WHITE DOG – Criterion, THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE, THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC Blu, TEENAGE ANGST, original ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 Blu, RAPE OF EUROPA, DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS: A MODERN MUSKETEER, 12 MONKEYS Blu, TALES OF THE UNEXPLAINED and much more…