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Home Entertainment Putting On Your DVD's Variety is this week’s DVD theme — Film noir, horror, action, Insomnia and Ben Stiller
Variety is this week’s DVD theme — Film noir, horror, action, Insomnia and Ben Stiller PDF Print E-mail
Entertainment
Thursday, 08 July 2010 15:07

Entertainment Editor

So many Blu-rays — so little time.

Add to that a continuous variety of standard DVDs, it’s no wonder I never leave the house.

Who am I kidding? It is summer, the temperature outside seems like it never dips below 90, so why should I leave the sofa?

But it is another great week at the movies — in your living room.

 

 

Coming to both Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday is Greenberg (Universal Studios Home Entertainment), one of 2010’s better offerings thus far (it was released in late March) features Ben Stiller in a more serious role, even if it is still a comedy, combined with the writing/directing skills of Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale).

Stiller takes a serious side to the movie-making business as Roger Greenberg, a 40-year-old guy who is seeking a bit of peace after having a mental breakdown.

Greenberg is not particularly likable, but he will grow on you. He is a former musician who has managed to alienate most of the people he was close to in the 1990s. And now he has moved into his brother’s upper middle class home in Los Angeles while bro and the family are on vacation in Vietnam.

Don’t expect the silly slapstick or broad laughs from the routine Stiller films. Greenberg has a lot of problems — he is surrounded by failed friends hips and relationships, but there is still lots of comedy as well.

Greenberg includes a behind-the-scenes look a the film with Stiller; Greenberg Loves Los Angeles, director/writer Noah Baumbach shares his aspirations for making the film as well as a feature on how Baumbach wrote the screenplay.

Blu-ray exclusives include Universal’s pocket Blu app which works with iphone, ipod, iPad, etc. and unlocks options such as a video timeline and social Blu, a social network to talk and share information about your favorite movies.

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It’s a good week for director  Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento). His latest film Inception, with Leonardo DiCaprio opens in theaters Friday and Insomia (2002), a thriller starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank makes its Blu-ray debut Tuesday.

It was worth the wait for the Blu-ray of  Insomnia (Warner Home Video), a fine, edgy film with good performances by all. Pacino plays a detective with something to hide as he is called on a case in small-town  Alaska where the sun never sets in summer.

As the case unfolds, Pacino slowly unravels as well as the days and nights without sleep (both from guilt and that all-day sun) take its toll. Williams is the guy accused of murder and Swank is a young cop in the town who admires the big city visitor and also begins to learn the truth behind the  insomnia.

A great addition to any Blu-ray collection, the DVD also includes several bonus features including commentaries by Nolan and Swank; and featurettes A Conversation with Christopher Nolan and Al Pacino; Day for Night: Making the Movie and In the Fog: Cinematography and Production Design Eyes Wide Open: The Insomniac’s World.

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Double your pleasure, double you fun and without sounding like an old chewing gum commercial  stock up on some of the new Warner Home Video Blu-ray double features, just released this week.

The “two-for” offers include some popular titles from the recent past in different genres including Chevy Chase in the comedy features Funny Farm and Spies Like Us; action films with Bruce Willis, Last Man Standing and The Last Boy Scout; and witchy comedies Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock and The Witches of Eastwick  with Jack Nicholson.

If you like horror films you might want to try out the horror duo, Dr. Giggles and Otis. Both of these comedies are more shlock than shock. The black comedy horror films feature a dangerous mental patient (Dr. Giggles) masquerading as a doctor with the worst bedside manners imaginable. I really didn’t like Dr. Giggles when it was first released in the 1990s, but it definitely does have some comic value. The bad doctor has some ingenious ways of treating (and killing) his patients, but the gore level itself  is relatively mild.

In the same vein (oh yes, pun intended) is Otis, another mentally disturbed man who wants to relive his high school years by dating the girl of his dreams and taking  her to the prom. But he always kills his date before prom night.

Don’t take this one seriously even if the gore factor is higher here than in Dr. Giggles. Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas play the parents of the latest victim who decide to get revenge on Otis after he kidnaps their daughter, only they slice and dice the wrong guy, Otis’ brother (played by Kevin Pollack).

There are no bonus features included with any of the titles, but at a suggested price of $24.98, they are a bargain.

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If you like real classic films, that haven’t been overplayed, try out the latest Film Noir Classic Collection (Vol. 5) from Warner  Home Video.

The July 13 DVD debuts include eight suspense films on four discs.

There is something for just about everybody in the collection, particularly if you like this genre, which has influenced modern filmmakers such as Roman Polanski in Chinatown and Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver.

The features include:

Cornered (1945) — Dick Powell plays an ex British pilot traveling Europe and Buenos Aires to find the Nazi collaborater who murdered his new bride.

Desperate (1947) — Director Anthony Mann helmed this postwar film about a truck driver (Steve Brodie) who finds his trucking job was only a front for a heist. Raymond Burr is the main bad guy.

The Phenix City Story (1955) — A semi-documentary that looks at the real-life events in Phenix City, Alabama called Sin City USA, a city with 100 years of corruption and brutality.

Dial 1119 (1950) — William Conrad, Leon Ames and Mashall Thompson are some of the stars in this film about an asylum inmate who takes hostages at a bar and tells authorities he will kill his captives if the doctor who put him away doesn’t arrive within the hour. The film includes one of the first uses of TV news coverage in a movie.

Armored Car Robbery (1950) — The Los Angeles of the early 1950s, as well as “modern detective work” such as hidden microphones and lab work are the highlights of this film about yes, an armored car robbery. William Talman of Perry Mason is the main bad guy and Adele Jergens is his stripper girlfriend.

Crime in the Streets (1956) — A young John Cassavetes (Rosemary’s Baby) stars as a gang leader who is venturing down a very dark path when he tells his gang to kill a snitch. The Don Siegel-directed film also stars Sal Mineo and James Whitmore.

Deadline at Dawn (1946) — Susan Hayward is featured as a ten-cents-a- dance girl who befriends a sailor wrongfully accused of killing a gangster’s sister.

Backfire (1950) — Gordon MacRae plays a recovering war veteran trying to prove his buddy Edmond O’Brien is innocent of murder. Virginia Mayo is the  nurse who aids him on his quest.

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I have been a Kinks fan for almost as long as I can remember. The oh-so British Kinks have always stuck to their roots, so I was really excited when MVD Visual announced the release of You Really Got Me: The Story of The Kinks.

But even fans may be disappointed by this disjointed effort which features a lot of Kinks songs, but some disjointed narrative and ultimately doesn’t deliver enough music or history by the band.

The sound quality is not the best either.

There are samples of some of their better songs — Waterloo Sunset, Celluloid Heroes and, of course, You Really Got Me, but mostly they are just samples.

You don’t learn much about Ray Davies, brother  Dave and Mick Avory, so one viewing of You Really Got Me: The Story of the Kinks is more than enough.

Listen to one of their CDs instead.

The DVD is available online at www.amazon.com  and other retailers.

 

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