Disc of the Week Lonely Are the Brave From my earlier review: "Not only one of the great "death of the West" pictures, Lonely Are the Brave is by many accounts one of the best westerns ever made. Its star, Kirk Douglas, rates it as his favorite film he's worked on. It broke the blacklist with Dalton Trumbo's full credit for writing. Aside from a VHS that is long out of print and the occasional Turner Classic Movies airing, the movie has been impossible to find for a long time. "Douglas plays Jack Burns, a man with no government-issued ID or car. All Jack has is the shirt on his back, a horse, and the bare necessities. He has a friend he finds out has been put in prison. The friend's wife, Jerry, is played by Gena Rowlands. She and Jack have some sort of unrequited chemistry that becomes immediately apparent in Jerry's first moments on-screen. Walter Matthau appears later on as the sheriff tasked with tracking Jack down. "The two extras are more than I ever expected I'd see on this release. Lonely Are The Brave: A Tribute [19:13] features new interview footage with Kirk Douglas, his son Michael, Gena Rowlands, and Steven Spielberg. It may mark me as a sap, but I've felt for a while now that it would be a terrible injustice to allow the movie to go without a DVD release before Kirk Douglas leaves us. Spielberg's presence as anything other than a fan is only explained toward the end when he reveals his role in getting the DVD out. Rowlands refers to her director son as "Nicky," which made me chuckle. The Music of Lonely Are The Brave [9:46] examines the scoring done by Jerry Goldsmith, and how his work and ingenuity here is reflected throughout his later work. I most enjoyed getting to hear clips of unused cues, the buried treasure of great composers." This is the rare DVD worth $15 these days. Free to Stream Storefront Hitchcock Watch now on Hulu. Jonathan Demme's concert doc featuring Robyn Hitchcock can now be viewed for free online. Highly recommended for Demme and concert doc fans. At only 77 minutes long, it's difficult to come up with a decent excuse not to see it now. Catalog New to DVD The Trail of the Lonesome Pine Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Beau Geste I'm happy to see these entries in Universal's Backlot Series in addition to Lonely Are the Brave, even though they lack any extras aside from the odd trailer. Trail of the Lonesome Pine stars Fred MacMurray and Henry Fonda, and commits one of the Great Mistakes a movie can make (unapologetically, I might add), and I love it for that. I didn't see it coming at all, especially from a movie made in 1936. The movie centers on a Hatfields-and-McCoys-style feud between two mountain families. MacMurray plays an "outsider" (called a foreigner by the mountain folk) who works for a railroad company. Fonda plays the son of one of the warring patriarchs who's been bred to hate and fight. Sylvia Sidney plays Fonda's cousin and wife-to-be, a barefoot mountain girl who has none of that book-learnin' the city folk have. Yes, Henry Fonda once played a definitely-inbred hillbilly engaged to his cousin. The back of the box accurately proclaims it a melodrama, so expect some wonderful over-acting. The most notable technological achievement of the movie is that it was the first Technicolor film shot outdoors in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it looks gorgeous. No extras, but I'm glad to finally be able to watch the movie. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves could definitely support a studio remake with actual middle eastern actors. Jon Hall is tolerable in brownface, and Maria Montez's latin accent passes for "1944 Hollywood Iraqi," but I'd love to see an Iraqi or at least Muslim director's take on the legend. In terms of actors, put Kingdom of Heaven and Syriana's Alexander Siddig in it. Put Oded Fehr in there. Hire some of the actors form Mongol to play the Mongolians. I'm posting some more screencaps for it and other Backlot titles where I'll elaborate a bit more. The 1944 classic's Technicolor transfer is gorgeous, and its cast of thousands upon thousands is a reminder of when CGI didn't give studios excuses for not using live humans. Beau Geste is one of the many cinema classics from 1939 that everyone should see at some point. This is it's solo premiere, since the movie was previously only available as part of a 2005 Gary Cooper box set that includes Geste, Design for Living, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Peter Ibbetson, and The General Died at Dawn. It was a two-double-sided-disc set, with Beau Geste on it's own dual-layer side of disc two with the exact same transfer present on this individual disc. The kicker: that set is now $14.99 on Amazon, the same price as this individual disc. This transfer has a lot of noticeable grain in it, but that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I don't think that even a little DNR would have helped at all. The grain in this movie is part of the constitution of a lot of the picture. The above screen capture links to a higher-resolution version, but as I always advise with older B&W presentations, one should see it in motion to get a good idea of what the grain looks like. The presentation is very film-print-like to me, but that may not be what different viewers are looking for. For comparison's sake, the theatrical trailer is on the disc, and that, my friends, is a swirling, cataclysmic grainstorm. The John Barrymore Collection Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) Sherlock Holmes (1922) Beloved Rogue (1927) Tempest (1928) Kino's new set includes the DVD premiere of Barrymore's turn in Sherlock Holmes. Breaking down to around $13 a disc, this is a great value compared to paying over $20 apiece for Image Entertainment's Beloved Rogue and Tempest and $18 for Kino's 2001 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They're available individually, but are priced such ($22.98 each) that if you want two of them, you might as well get the whole set for $45 from Kino directly. I haven't gotten my eyes on any of these, but I always trust Kino's track record. Catalog DVD Re-issue Peanuts 1960's Collection Includes: A Charlie Brown Christmas Charlie Brown's All-Stars It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown You're In Love, Charlie Brown He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown (New to DVD) It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown (New to DVD) Warner Bros. has collected six of the Peanuts TV specials from the 60's, with the latter two coming to DVD for the first time. If you ask me, It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown sounds like a horror movie. I'll dig into the quality of the transfers and the included featurette on Vince Guaraldi's music (The Maestro of Menlo Park) in the coming days. Catalog New to Blu-ray Grumpy Old Men The transfer on this movie looks great, and the only extra is the original trailer. This was one of my favorite movies from childhood. Yes, my childhood. I was 10 when it was in theaters. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margaret, Ossie Davis, and Burgess Meredith are all perfect. Kevin Pollak and Darryl Hannah likewise. Christopher MacDonald shows up long enough to reinforce his talent for playing condescending, dickheaded bullies to perfection. If I didn't already have it, this would be the perfect gift to give me. I start the movie and I can't bring myself to just watch part of it. The Deep A fun post-Jaws "danger in the water" movie starring Robert Shaw and Jacqueline Bisset. I figure fewer people will buy this than want to rent it in HD. New Releases (DVD & Blu-ray) Knowing I skipped it, but will eventually give it a look on Alex Proyas' name alone. The Unborn I watched this one through (the Unrated version), and I didn't take to the jump-scares it relies upon. The only extra on it is a set of Deleted (and Alternate) Scenes. Push I can't dedicate any more time of my life to watching this than I did seeing a few minutes of footage last December at BNAT. TV New Releases Reno 911! Season 6 This show started while I was in college, and it took meeting my wife to have her introduce me to it. I have been a longtime fan of The State, which is where principals Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, and Kerri Kenney-Silver made their start. Coincidentally, this DVD set opens with a forced ad for MTV's complete series set for The State (coming next week). UCB veteran Ian Roberts and State alum Joe Lo Truglio join the cast after the departure of Garcia (Carlos Alazraqui), Clementine (Wendi McClendon-Covey), and Cherisha Kimball (Mary Birdsong). The show is still really funny, with the two-part Murder Mystery episode being particularly hilarious. Extras include Audio Commentary by the cast on selected episodes as well as Extended and Deleted Scenes, the first of which is a great example of how difficult it must be to edit this show. Profiles in Valor: Deputy Frank Rizzo and Sergeant Jack Declan are character moments with the two new officers. The only beef I have with this set is that it advertises a Digital Copy of the whole season and some extras, but there's a huge catch. Said Digital Copy is Windows Media-only, and is not compatible with iPods, iPhones, PSPs, Macs, or Zunes...but is allegedly compatible with PlaysForSure-enabled devices. PlaysForSure as a brand was discontinued in late 2007 and rolled into Certified for Windows Vista. The Microsoft Zune never supported MS's PlaysForSure standard, only working with their Zune Marketplace media. So, if you have one of the few remaining devices that support this dead standard, there is indeed a way to take the media on the go! If this Digital Copy followed the compatibility of that on so many DVDs and Blu-rays these days, sales of TV sets would go up and piracy would go down. Aside from that, this is a great set. Kath & Kim Season 1 A now-cancelled remake of a wildly-successful Australian sitcom, Kath & Kim was not as bad as some made it out to be. It's about a mother and daughter pox on humanity pair that have no idea how intolerable they really are. Molly Shannon and Selma Blair played off each other really well, and frankly did such a good job playing absolutely worthless wastes of humanity that I ended up watching a lot of the show as it aired. Their repellant personalities made me want to vomit like when I ingest grain alcohol, but I just kept drinking like an idiot. John Michael Higgins is in the show enough to make it watchable all on his own, and Mikey Day as Kim's husband Craig was enjoyable enough that I'd like to see him do some other stuff. There are two sets of Deleted Scenes [1:47 and 2:13 respectively] split to go with the episodes on each disc. The Gag Reel [9:13] has some good bits on it, including the crew thanks videos from the cast that usually only the crew sees. There are also commentary tracks on a good chunk of the episodes.

Disc of the Week Do The Right Thing Anyone who owns the Criterion Collection DVD from a few years ago can go ahead and sell it. That is, unless they are conforted by the the spine number physically on their shelf. The most underreported thing since Universal released this Blu-ray (and DVD) last week is that it retains every last supplement from the Criterion disc with the exception of the "Fight the Power" music video. Not only are those hours of extras held over, but they've added a Spike Lee-directed 20 Years Later [HD 35:47] retrospective composed of interviews with cast and collaborators from the Lincoln Center 20th Anniversary event in February of this year. Also new are 11 Deleted and Extended Scenes [HD 14:14] that have not been cleaned up and restored, but are in full 1080p. Spike also contributed a recently-recorded Feature Commentary. For the sake of saving readers a trip to Criterion's page, the carried-over extras include the following: Feature Commentary with Lee, cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, Production Designer Wynn Thomas, and actor Joie Lee; Behind the Scenes footage shot by director Lee [57:58]; St. Clair Bourne's The Making of Do the Right Thing [1:01:01] and companion featurette Back to Bed-Stuy [4:49], where Spike and Producer John Kilik revisit locations; the Cannes 1989 Press Conference [42:22] featuring Spike, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, and Joie Lee; a 2001 interview with Editor Barry Brown [9:38]; a Spike-introduced look at the storyboarding of the Riot Sequence; and finally, the Trailers and TV Spots round things out. Even the week after release, you can nab the Blu-ray on Amazon for $19.99. An in-depth review will follow soon. Fresh from Theaters (DVD & Blu-ray) Two Lovers This movie is solid work from all concerned, though I'd stop short from the box quote claim that it was "the best American Drama of the year!" This is a more barebones release than I'd expect from Joaquin Phoenix's "final film." Picture and audio are great, as has been the case on previous Magnolia releases. A Behind-the-Scenes featurette [7:00] that includes the above and below images. This featurette is as close as we get to a commentary in miniature bites. Also included are three Deleted Scenes [9:22] with contextual title cards and the Magnolia-standard HDNet promo HDNet: A Look at Two Lovers [4:32]. The Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience This movie so underperformed on 3D screens, the movie it replaced (Coraline) in turn replaced The Jonas Brothers a couple weeks into its run. I tried watching it, I did. I got a little ways into it and I actually fell asleep. When I woke up, my dog was sitting next to the Blu-ray player, staring at me. She begged me with her eyes to turn off the tween music noise. This "movie" is really nothing more than a tween-centric concert movie that really belonged on TV in the first place. They're talented guys, but their music is decidedly not for me. The Blu-ray includes 2D and 3D versions of the movie, two pairs of 3D glasses, a Behind-the-Scenes [HD 15:00] narrated by the wunderkids, and a pile of trailers and sneak peeks. In addition to a Digital Copy, the Blu-ray edition also includes the DVD edition as well, so you can be obsessed with these guys no matter what kind of player you are in front of. 12 Rounds: Extreme Cut My wish finally came true: template-based 80's and 90's action movies have returned thanks to Fox, WWE Entertainment, and wrestler-turned-actor John Cena. To top it all off, 12 Rounds is billed as "A Renny Harlin Film." This is no mere movie, it's a film, motherfuckers, and don't you forget it. The movie's plot in 140 characters: musclebound cop's girlfriend is kidnapped, kidnapper puts guy through 12 EXTREME puzzles (this is how they used to make videogames). The Blu-ray has more special features than bona fide classics get or that this movie merits. The front of the box promises two Alternative Endings, whereas the back calls them Alternate Endings with Optional Commentaries. I couldn't tell you which it really is, because I was too distracted by all of the Extreme Pulse-Pounding Thrill-Riding. The Gag Reel is hilariously referred to as Never-Before Cena (get it? lolz!). There are a couple featurettes about Stunts and Action, one that is a Harlin and Cena lovefest, one about The Score of 12 Rounds (Jesus H everloving Christ, really?), and some Viral Videos (I never caught them). A Digital Copy resides on Disc 2. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Didn't see it, but I don't know if I ever will. Flawless (Blu-ray only, DVD released 6/3) I never saw this Michael Caine/Demi Moore heist team-up, but will give it a shot sometime soon, if only to hear Moore's English accent. New Releases Only on DVD The Betrayed This one is a thriller that takes pace largely on a single set starring Melissa George (Dark City, 30 Days of Night) as a mother/wife of a guy with a past she doesn't know about. She and her son are violently kidnapped and sequestered in a warehouse. Oded Fehr plays her usually-masked captor and Christian Campbell, who I loved in Reefer Madness, appears in flashbacks at first as her husband. The movie isn't great, but the actors have some decent character work to do and the whole thing reflects a fair amount of chops on the director's part. The presence of a female writer thankfully provides a perspective that doesn't bury this kidnapping movie in torture, exploitation, or gratuitous nudity. The characterization of Alice Krige's character and her henchboys is a little bizarre verging on cartoonish in places, but otherwise, the movie's not bad at all. Writer/Director Amanda Gusack has done a couple other movies, and I can't find much biographical info on her. The DVD contains no extras. I wish there had been some sort of thing with Gusack talking about how it developed, how it was made, and so on. Catalog New to DVD Lookin' to Get Out From my review posted earlier: Jon Voight and Burt Young play a couple guys who get mixed up owing some tough guys money. They high-tail it from New York City to Las Vegas to try their hand at winning it at the card tables. Alex (Voight) runs into Patti (Ann-Margaret), an ex who just happens to be the kept woman of the guy who owns the MGM Grand. Though the movies are different in more ways than they're similar, I wonder if that bit inspired the Danny-Tess Ocean dynamic in Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven. Angelina Jolie (credited with Voight tagged at the end of her name) appears briefly as Alex & Patti's kid. The original trailer, poster, and now the DVD cover make this look more like a zany, slapstick farce set in a casino than it turns out to be. If a viewer goes in thinking that's what they're gonna get, they'll be sorely disappointed. It makes more sense to go in expecting it's about two not-so smart guys who get into trouble and then get into more trouble by flying cross-country to enact some sort of scheme. It's a studio-funded Hal Ashby art movie set in Vegas. There's nothing wrong with that. Included are the original trailer and Lookin' to Get Out: The Cast Looks Back [16:12], which includes new interviews with co-writer Al Schwartz, Voight & Ann-Margaret, with an archival interview with Burt Young. It's mostly about how the project came together, but it also touches on how this cut and the DVD happened in the first place. TV Release of the Week The IT Crowd Season 2 (also on Netflix Watch Instantly) I love this show. It airs on the IFC cable channel here in the US (Channel 4 in the UK, where they just finished up airing Season 3). Season Two brought the best parody of the "when you pirate a movie, it is a CRIME" ad that even anti-piracy types openly ridicule. The geektastic menus (depicted below) are, as on Season One before it, duplicated from the original UK release. Extras (also carried over) most prominently include Commentary on the entire season by Creator/Writer/Director Graham Linehan. Also in there are some great Outtakes [7:12] and a featurette that gives a look at how the show is made called Recording The IT Crowd [7:39]. New TV Releases Eastbound and Down Season 1 Some absolutely perfect work from Danny McBride that I'm glad is getting a second season pickup. Jockeys Season 1 One of the better reality series on Animal Planet, Jockeys gives people a look at all the stuff behind all those jockey movies they watch and races they see on TV. I didn't think I'd get into it, but I watched all of these as they aired. The Queens of Country I can't come up with words to describe how much I detest "modern" country music. MPI has put together a set dedicated to televised performances from Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Patsy Cline. Dolly's disc also features joint performances with Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Kenny Rogers, and poet Rod McKuen. The most noteworthy part of the set is that it includes Cline's last televised performance, done just a few days before she died. After starting to get sucked into the whole thing, I can say this is a must-own for fans of any of these three women. The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky & 3 for 2 Another MPI release, this one features two Lucille Ball TV specials. The first, with Dean Martin, is all about Lucy trying to go see him in Vegas. The second co-stars Jackie Gleason and is split into three vignettes about marriage. Both are more fun to watch than the millionth I Love Lucy rerun on TV Land. Muhammed Ali: In His Own Words This 40ish-minute TV-special style documentary short collects a lot of footage of Ali talking to the press throughout his career. Video quality isn't remarkable or anything, but it's the most comprehensive, concentrated look at The Greatest talking about himself in front of the press. Non-Cable VOD Melvin Goes to Dinner One of my favorites from SXSW 2003, Bob Odenkirk's directorial debut was an adaptation of a stage play written by star Michael Blieden. Blieden has gone on to direct docs The Comedians of Comedy and Super High Me. Melvin centers around four people of varying acquaintance who find themselves at dinner together, including Stephanie Courtney, who many now know as the brunette Progressive Insurance commercial girl. The movie is almost all talk, but it moves right along and keeps the pace up. There are appearances from folks like David Cross and Fred Armisen,who weren't quite as well-known when the movie was out on the festival circuit. There's a surprise cameo I won't spoil here. This is worth your few bucks to rent at the least, I promise. Rent or buy it on iTunes here. The Order of Myths An Oscar-shortlisted doc about the continuing racial divide surrounding Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. If you can find it anywhere, Bama Girl makes a perfect pairing. Rent or buy it on iTunes here. Streaming for Free Jazz on a Summer's Day A Jazz doc from 1960 that covers the Newport Jazz Festival of 1958. There's virtually no narration, and it's almost exclusively music. Watch at SnagFilms. We Are Wizards A documentary about the Harry Potter-themed Wizard Rock bands popping up all over. Watch on Hulu. Run Granny Run In another SXSW doc, a 90-year-old woman's husband dies and she takes up the cause of campaigning against all the money keeping regular people out of running a campaign for office. At the age of 94, she decides to run against Judd Gregg for Senator. It starts airing on HBO in October. Watch on Hulu.

Release of the Week Last Year at Marienbad I went into my first viewing (while in college at a friend's house) as blind as possible. After having seen it twice more, I'm not sure I've gotten much more out of it than I did on my initial viewing. Then and now it feels to me like a feverish explosion of repressed memories and trauma, which has become a popular opinion over the years. If you're looking for a linear narrative, this is the wrong movie. The dynamic nature of Alain Robbe-Grillet's script leaves the viewer unable to predict what will come next with any degree of certainty. It's hard to imagine this film finding an audience in an age before home video, where re-watching the film would require another trip to the cinema. Not a single other release this month features the amount and quality of immersive supplemental material as Marienbad, as one could easily expect of Criterion. The centerpiece of the extras is a new audio interview with director Resnais [33:04]. It's complimented by two additional featurettes, Unraveling the Enigma: The Making of Marienbad [32:36] and Ginette Vincendeau on Last Year at Marienbad [22:59]. The former includes interviews with Assistant Directors, the Script Girl (how progressive), and various Resnais collaborators. Film scholar Ginette Vincendeau piece is frank about the movie's reputation as possibly the most overhyped, over-praised art film in history. It also makes some interesting observations about possible interpretations. My favorite extras are two Resnais-directed documentary shorts. Toute la Memoire Du Monde (1956) [20:57] is a gorgeous, though brief tour through the French National Archives. The photography makes it look like some sort of heist thriller, and it made me wish the director of Taken would craft something like that in the modern-day archives. Le Chant Du Styrene (1958) [13:40] is a more playful look at the production of polystyrene-based (plastic) goods in France. It's the kind of short educational film I wish I'd seen in school, subtitles and all, instead of the really lousy stuff we were stuck with. A more fleshed-out review overflowing with screencaps will follow later today. New Releases (DVD & Blu-ray) Waltz With Bashir Last year's odds-on favorite for Best Foreign Language Film arrives on the format more people will discover it on than ever would theatrically. Features include a Making-of, Director's Commentary, Director Q&A, and Animatics. At the Death House Door A SXSW 2008 doc reviewed by Cinematical's Eric D Snider last year. Snider called it the "poignant, heart-rending story of Rev. Carroll Pickett, a soft-spoken Texas man who served for 13 years as chaplain at the notoriously execution-happy Huntsville Prison." Confessions of a Shopaholic From my review posted last night: I've already forgotten the name of the protagonist of Shopaholic played by Isla Fisher. I skipped it in theaters but promised myself I'd watch this woulda-been-funnier-in-2006 consumerist comedy if only to marvel at its advanced aging. The movie isn't horrible by any stretch, but I couldn't bring myself to find any of the Girl in the Green Scarf's pathological lies and betrayals even mildly humorous. The Bloopers are pretty good, as are the Deleted Scenes. Blu-ray exclusives include a Behind-the-Scenes featurette that spends more time on costume design than I ever thought I would ever put up with. Considering the subject of the movie, I suppose it makes sense, but I kept drifting. There are also a couple Blu-exclusive music videos I didn't watch featuring singers I've never heard of. A Digital Copy is provided with the Blu-ray so that you can selectively learn portions of life lessons on the go. Pink Panther 2 What an amazing cast and what a disappointing effort overall. It's every bit as dreadful as you think and reeks of paychecks all round. A single bit of business that John Cleese does was the only time I laughed instead of groan. I should note that I didn't see the first one, but I don't think that would have helped. I thought the highlight would be the 27 Pink Panther Theatrical Shorts included as "Disc 3," but I was a bit let down to find it was a DVD and not a Blu-ray. They all look fine, and 1964 Oscar-winning Animated Short The Pink Phink is first on the list. The Gag Reel is funnier than the entire movie by a longshot, even though in the interest of being family-friendly, it's censored. Featurettes include Drama is Easy...Comedy is Dangerous (stunts & gags), A Dream Team Like No Other (interviews with the brilliant actors in the cast). There's a BD-Java game called Master Thief-Global Crime Showdown! that, similar to every other BD-Java game, bored the life out of me. It's little more than a dumb trivia game. There's a Digital Copy included, as one expects on Blu releases from MGM. Inkheart Skipped it entirely. I might rent it at some point. The Code (Direct to DVD/Blu-ray) Colleagues say this was much better than the stigma of "direct to video" connotes. I'll give it a rent sometime. Catalog New to DVD My Dinner With Andre The movie that defines "talky and philosophical" for many, Criterion's new Andre disc replaces a long-out of print and difficult to find DVD from years ago. Supplements include new video interviews with actors André Gregory and Wallace Shawn by Noah Baumbach (with cameraman Joe Swanberg), and "My Dinner with Louis" (an episode of the BBC's Arena), in which Shawn interviews director Louis Malle. A Criterion-standard booklet is also in the case, featuring a critical essay by critic Amy Taubin and the prefaces written by Gregory and Shawn for the published version of the script. As usual, worth every penny. Catlow From my 6/24 review: The last thing I expected to encounter today was a movie with Leonard Nimoy fighting in the nude. Two years after the original Star Trek series and just before his appearance in one of my favorite episodes of Night Gallery, Nimoy played a snarling bounty hunter baddie in Catlow. His presence and the fact the movie is based on a book by Louis L'Amour are likely the reasons why this wasn't made a Warner Archive title. The movie is really quite enjoyable and a welcome alternative to the crap clogging the multiplexes. Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection From my review posted yesterday: In 1962, MGM hired Chuck Jones to do a series of Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts. Jones, best known for his work on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, produced some real classics. The shorts would go on to be aired during the now-extinct Saturday morning cartoon block for decades. The end of the production run on this 34-short series also signaled the closing of MGM's animation department. Warner Bros. fully remastered these shorts, but there are still artifacts present throughout. That being said, they look a lot better than other formats I've seen them in, from TV airings to VHS, which usually pan-and-scanned them. Streaming Free Last of the Mohicans Watch Here Some people would allege this to have been Michael Mann's last good movie. Mohicans is very good, but those aforementioned people are idiots. Hell on Wheels Watch Here A really solid doc about the modern Roller Derby. It's free! No more excuses!