Release of the Week Coraline (DVD & Blu-ray) This Blu-ray features one of the best transfers I've seen all year, as I said in my previous review. Here's some more detail on the extras: The Behind the Scenes [HD 35:53] covers most aspects of the production, with the notable exception of the score. Most of the runtime of the featurette is devoted to all the painstaking work and design that went into making the movie happen, from tiny buttons and zippers to the armies of stop-motion puppets. Likewise brief and to the point is the Voicing the Characters [HD 10:46] bit. The reason they both go by so quickly is that the bulk of both topics are part of the U-Control Picture-in-Picture featurettes that play during the movie. You can choose to have one of three things running at all times (Storyboards, Behind the Scenes, or Voice Sessions) and push a button on the remote to activate another one. The most annoying thing about this is that I can't have it "auto-play" both the BTS and Voice Sessions. Also included are some Deleted Scenes [HD 8:37]. Creepy Coraline [HD 5:03] is a quick bit with Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman talking about fears that Coraline might be "too scary" from its initial form as a bedtime story to the completion of the movie. I think it wise of Universal to consolidate things by including the Digital Copy of the movie on the same disc as a standard DVD of the feature. The DVD 2-disc edition lacks the U-Control stuff but does have the BTS featurette and Deleted Scenes in standard def. New Releases (DVD & Blu-ray) Watchmen: Director's Cut (DVD & Blu-ray) The primary differences between the DVD and Blu-ray editions here are twofold: the Blu features the Picture-in-Picture Zack Snyder commentary and BD-Live extensions of various sorts. The Maximum Movie Mode (as the PiP is called) is ok, but didn't set me on fire. The second disc includes three featurettes. The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics [HD 28:46] is more for people unfamiliar with the source material than those who have their first printing issues vacuum-sealed and graded. Real Super Heroes: Real Vigilantes [HD 26:17] felt a bit of an odd fit, since I don't think anyone expected Watchmen to serve as some sort of call to arms for would-be real-life vigilantes. Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World [HD 16:49] has a physicist talking about just how much of the world of Watchmen is physically impossible at this point, or would have been in 1985. There's a Digital Copy on both the DVD and Blu-ray 2-disc editions, along with a $10 off coupon for the massive Ultimate Collector's set coming in December. Fans of the material who really want to own that mega-set and who can't go without buying it now may carefully consider whether to go Blu-ray or not. Either way, you get the $10 coupon, and you're forgoing the higher resolution and Maximum Movie Mode, which is ok but nothing to scream about. The Director's Cut is also available on iTunes and On Demand services nationwide. Echelon Conspiracy (Direct to Video) A lot of people may leap to the conclusion this DTV wonder was ripped off of Eagle Eye, but it actually completely pre-dates the LeBoeuf-starring "that was it?"-inducing thriller. The movie actually takes place during the Bush presidency, and comes off as some sort of liberal agitprop against warrant-less wiretapping and Big Brother-ization of the NSA. I love liberal propaganda, but this is a great example of how Republicans do "political/spy thriller" better than Dems in the same way Repubs are terrible with comedy. Shane West is some sort of brilliant "computer dude" who smirks a lot and gets caught up in some sort of "conspiracy" revolving around something called "Echelon." Ving Rhames is "FBI Dude" and Ed Burns plays "retired FBI guy who gets dragged back into everything." Martin Sheen plays the blatantly evil, Bush/Cheney-supporting NSA chief as well as the script allows. The female "lead" is little more than a waif who sleeps with West and promptly falls madly, boy-crazy in love with him for no good reason. The movie is watchable, but feels like a big-budget movie of the week. Re-Dips 300 They've finally gotten all the features in one place from the DVD, HD-DVD, and just previous Blu-ray. Anyone who's waited to buy all the sweaty men fighting in HD can finally pull the trigger. New to Blu Midnight Express I should be getting my hands on this one soon. It comes in the digibook packaging that's become all the rage with "prestige" releases. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry Okay, I'll admit it: I actually enjoyed this movie, and though no one would have believed it a year ago, it's more progressive than Bruno. The Blu-ray includes a Director's Commentary and one with him, Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Worth a rental. New to Region 1 (DVD only) Made in U.S.A Two or Three Things I Know About Her Two Godard films from Criterion that I've never seen and will catch up with as budget permits. The Empress and the Warriors More Dragon Dynasty swordman stuff from the Far East. I'd give it a second glance for rental or purchase if it were on Blu-ray. Imported TV The Mighty Boosh Seasons 1-3 2009 has been an excellent year for imported TV program(me)s from England. The I.T. Crowd, Gavin & Stacey, and Pulling are the ones that come off the top of my head, and this is another biggie. Rightly compared to surrealist Sid & Marty Krofft creations, The Mighty Boosh primarily concerns the lives of two zookeepers and a pile of misadventures that regularly include musical numbers and truly unpredictable narratives. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that I can finally catch up with the whole series, but it's a lot to get through. Each season is split across two discs and contains featurettes, Commentaries, Outtakes, and Deleted Scenes. The original Pilot is on Season 2. All three seasons are highly recommended, and no, one need not be high to enjoy the show. TV New Releases This American Life Season 2 (DVD only) I'm a devoted fan of This American Life, one of the best shows still on the radio. Even though I had seen clips before, I didn't catch the first season of the Showtime-aired TV show. Combining two favorite things of mine (the radio show and documentary filmmaking), I had a ball with this thing. The second episode, "Two Wars," (pictured above) features an Iraqi having conversations with people, and the resulting chats are fascinating, the depth of ignorance and refreshing insight alike. Two interactions with soldiers in particular will stick with me for quite some time. It's priced to sell (less than $15) and includes the This American Life LIVE show, an extended episode, and a pair of commentaries. It's available on Netflix Watch Instantly, but of course that lacks the extras. Additionally, I don't want to connect to the internet to watch this when the mood strikes. Pushing Daisies Season 2 (Blu-ray & DVD) Cancelled before its time, but still cancelled. I'm told it looks great in HD. I'm waiting for a $$-saving two-pack of both seasons to drop in price. Monk Season 7 (DVD only) The insert on this denotes that this summer's will be the final season of Monk. I knew it had been on for a while, but seven years? Good for Tony Shalhoub! Psych Season 3 (DVD only) I haven't spent any real time with this show at all, but I enjoy the promos for Psych while I'm watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Prison Break: The Final Break I never watched this show, but apparently they shot it near where I grew up. Catalog TV The Lucy Show Season 1 Apparently, this has been the most vocally-requested show in CBS/Paramount DVD's history, and it's full of extras. Even though Lucy & Desi were divorced, they still worked together on her new show until the beginning of its second season. Lucy plays a widowed single mother of two, who's joined on all sorts of hijinks by her forever co-star Vivian Vance, who plays Vivian, a divorced mother of one. There are piles and piles of little interviews, promos, outtakes, and specials spread across its 4 discs. It misses the chemistry of the two couple dynamic so many best know Lucille Ball for, but she manages fine on her own. Hotel Season 1 Aaron Spelling's nighttime show from the year I was born is very indicative of its age, but I'm struck by the broad array of guest stars they had. James Brolin headlined the show, flanked by Connie Selleca as his assistant and Anne Baxter as the old lady who owns the St. Gregory Hotel, which is where most of each episode takes place. The show follows the lives, loves, and other quirks of the people who work and check-in at the hotel. Guest stars in the first season included Eva Gabor, Mel Torme, Scott Baio, Erin Moran (in a separate episode), Morgan Fairchild as a hooker, Heather Locklear, Martin Landau, Donald O'Connor, and a ton of others. I'm not certain that network TV has the balls to try a show like this one anymore, honestly. It's not my style, but it's extremely well-paced, shot, and written. Die-hard fans can finally have all 20 hours of this show's first season, including the movie of the week that served as its Pilot and first episode. I'd had more than enough after the first episode, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who miss this show for one reaosn or another, since it doesn't air syndicated anymore from what I can tell.

Disc Release of the Week The State: The Complete Series One of the most long-awaited catalog TV releases has finally arrived, after delay upon delay upon delay. This one sketch comedy series launched the careers of the stars of Wet Hot American Summer, Reno 911!, Stella, and countless other original, interesting movies and TV shows since. One of the things I and others of my generation loved it for was how gleefully inappropriate the subject matter was, along the lines of other successful sketch shows like Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Kids in the Hall. Like those shows, the sketches The State put together age really well. Some sketches were so controversial that they never re-aired. One from the first episode made Budweiser really angry because it depicted binge drinkers as depressed, angry people. The new controversy surrounding The State comes from the re-scoring of some sketches for DVD. They were cheap to shoot with famous songs back then, but they were never cleared for home video, so replacement cues had to be done. The millions of dollars it would cost to use the original music will never fall on MTV's doorstep, so this is the most definitive release anyone can hope for unless the music industry goes completely copyright-free. Each Season is contained on its own disc, with Commentary on every episode done by different members of the group along with some vintage interviews and outtakes. The interviews are culled from what seems like the same session, just chopped into easily-digested bites. The outtakes don't run more than ten minutes on any given disc. The Bonus Disc is where the bulk of the extras lie. First off is the original Pilot and a giant heap of unaired sketches from the Pilot and Seasons 1-3, all of which feature full commentary tracks. There are even outtakes from the unaired stuff. Next up are a series of special appearances the cast did, including a favorite of mine from The Jon Stewart Show. They also did MTV's "Shut Up & Laugh, Panama City," "Spring Break Safety Tips," and an MTV Christmas Party video. The Promos included are miniature sketches disguised as commercials. The show has never been available legally, and the extras have never appeared anywhere. Let's all hope the cast gets residuals from DVD sales and act like good consumers and buy it, shall we? Reissue For All Mankind Criterion has remastered and re-supplemented one of my favorites of their early DVDs in both Blu-ray and DVD. The new transfer is glorious, from what I've been told. DVD Only [REC] Spanish horror done well and remade under the title Quarantine. Haven't looked at the disc, but from all reports it looks and sounds good. Worth renting if not buying to send the purchasing message that people want to watch this title. Grey Gardens HBO's Emmy-nominated dramatization of the Maysles doc Grey Gardens, which is also now a musical called Grey Gardens. Malkovich Malkovich? Malkovich Malkovich. It's supposed to be really well-done. Horsemen Skipped it by virtue of not knowing it existed. Van Wilder: Freshman Year Direct to DVD They made a sequel with Kal Penn whooping up the Indian stereotype character of Taj, which made no money, so they decided to do a prequel. Not that the original was any sort of masterpiece, but they've betrayed the nature of what does work about it: that you don't need to know the specifics of Van Wilder's seven debauched years that came before. People were interested in how Darth Vader became Darth Vader, but no one gives a shit about this "universe," so guys, stop trying to squeeze blood out of the turnip. Apparently someone from MTV is in this too and the campus ROTC organization is the bad guy. New to Blu Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Only available in a box set with Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower, I've heard good things about this transfer and should be seeing it soon. More then. The Towering Inferno Let's hear it for 1970's paycheck blockbusters starring people who were working beneath their quality grade! Haven't looked at it, but would like to at some point. Catalog TV The Transformers: 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Edition Complete Series Mail Order Only through Shout! Factory This set will hit major retailers, online and B&M, later in the year, and it's the best treatment the show has ever gotten on home video. Previous releases have featured flawed audio tracks with added sound effects and horrendous video transfers of various episodes. In addition to all 98 installments of The Transformers, the commercials, and PSAs, the package also includes a couple of magnets and a collectible booklet listing all the episodes with summaries. I grew up with this show. It originally premiered when I was a year old, so I saw the big rerun go of it they did later in the 80's. There are toys secreted away in some plastic tub somewhere in my parents' house that I haven't seen in years. And no, I don't have any interest in buying new toys from either the movie or the ones from the original shows that pushed my parents into more debt than I could comprehend at that point. I wasn't particularly interested in watching every episode of the show when it arrived, but I couldn't wait to look at the featurettes, of which there are nearly two hours included. That being said, I did hunt down a few episodes I had either forgotten or never saw. In particular, the one called Thief In The Night (just like a Christian propaganda film) would never get made today. I've still got to get through some of this and should have a full review up sometime this weekend. G.I. Joe Season 1.1 This is the first chunk of what's teased in an advertisement inside the Transformers set: a G.I. Joe mega-set that includes the entire series and all 78 costumes worn by Cobra Commander and Snake Eyes. Kidding about that last part. I've been watching and live-tweeting episodes from this set partly for comic relief. The more socio-political programming I see, the sicker it makes me to think most of my generation was conditioned with this stuff. This set includes the three miniseries (5 episodes each) that relaunched the toy line and the first 7 episodes of the first season proper. Extras include the "Knowing is Half the Battle" PSAs that have been unavailable since G.I. Joe: The Movie went out of print, the original 1963 Toy Fair presentation, and some commercials with the kids' faces blurred out. New Release TV Leverage Season 1 (DVD only) This show makes me want to actually pay attention to TNT, a network that has more than a passing familiarity with Drama (according to them). Timothy Hutton plays an ex-insurance industry investigator who is hired to work alongside the people he used to try to catch: thieves of various stripes. Nate (Hutton) got out of the corporate racket when the company he worked for deemed the treatment his terminal son needed to be "experimental" and let the kid die. Beth Riesgraf (mother of Jason Lee's kid Pilot Inspektor), Aldis Hodge, and Christian Kane play his new "teammates." I'm only really familiar with Kane from his acting in Secondhand Lions and Friday Night Lights. All three are fun to watch work. Gina Bellman, a favorite of mine from UK sitcom Coupling, plays a grifter who's a better actress off-stage than on. The show gets everything up to speed in lightning fashion in the first episode, and uses a great comedy/action dynamic overall. There is Episodic Commentary on the whole 13-episode season from the three Executive Producers and sometime writers and directors, who include Dean Devlin. Deleted Scenes are on each disc for episodes they pertain to, and Disc 4 has four Behind-the-Scenes featurettes and a short done for iF Magazine where Beth Riesgraf plays a crazed version of herself. Mad Men Season 2 (DVD & Blu-ray) The reviews for this show are so over the moon, I feel like the uncool kid at school for not having seen more than a few minutes of the first episode. I'll catch up, I promise. BBC Earth: Wild Pacific Capitalizing on the hours and hours of footage compiled by the BBC for their Planet Earth series, they've done a look at the Pacific Ocean that clocks in just seven minutes shy of 6 hours. I'll have something more in-depth on this once I have a chance to give it a look. On Demand New Orleans Mon Amour Watchable on FilmBuff VOD channel on some cable providers. I missed Michael Almereyda's New Orleans Mon Amour at SXSW when it played there. I'll have some more on this one next week. Fresh from the Cinema The Edge of Love The Haunting in Connecticut I had no time for either of these movies. Apologies if that bothers anyone.

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.