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Tuesday, 25 Feb. 2003

In the Works: It's time to get a look at some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and DVDPlanet.com, and additional staff reports:

• Heads up, Beatlemaniacs (and you know who you are) — EMI Music has finally announced a DVD release of the 1996 television event The Beatles Anthology. Yes, we'll be getting all eight original programs on the five-disc set, as well as an additional 50 minutes of material that was not included in the original broadcast. Street date is set for April 1 with an SRP of $79.98.

• The folks at Warner are prepping last year's romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock, which will arrive in separate anamorphic (1.85:1) and full-frame editions. Count on a commentary track from the usual suspects and a pair of featurettes (April 29). Meanwhile, coming in a little further under the radar will be a complete accounting of The Ben Stiller Show, the cult hit that never crossed over and died an early death — fans who've been hoarding their videotapes for nearly a decade can look forward to a two-disc box on June 3. And coming out of Warner's vault on May 13 are the catalog items The In-Laws and The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

• Paramount is hoping to make up some lost ground with Star Trek: Nemesis, the final film with the NextGen crew that also was a box-office disappointment. Anamorphic (2.35:1) and pan-and-scan versions will reach the street, and on deck will be a yack-track from director Stuart Baird, a quartet of featurettes, and stills. It touches down on May 20.

• Director Todd Haynes will be adding a commentary track to his latest DVD release, the critical darling Far From Heaven starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid, and rounding off the Universal title will be both DTS and DD soundtracks, a Sundance "Anatomy of a Scene" featurette, and an interview with the director (April 1). Fans can also keep an eye open for an upcoming Collector's Edition release of Sea of Love starring Al Pacino, as well as catalog re-issues of Coal Miner's Daughter, The Electric Horseman, and Car Wash (all May 6).

• It wasn't a big hit with the critics, but Buena Vista's DVD release of The Hot Chick is looking to win over some new fans with a yuk-track from helmer Tom Brady, deleted scenes, a featurette, and a music vid (May 13), while other titles in store include the missionary drama The Other Side of Heaven (April 1), Kurt Wimmer's cautionary sci-fi Equilibrium starring Christian Bale and Emily Watson (May 13), and one of the great Jackie Chan films of all time, Project A 2 (May 20).

• Getting the double-dip from Columbia TriStar is one of their earliest DVD releases, 1996's The People vs. Larry Flynt. On-board booty will include a commentary from stars Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, and Edward Norton, a second track with the screenwriters, two featurettes, and deleted scenes (May 13).

• Finally, those of you who've been keeping your swords patiently sheathed can relax — Anchor Bay will release Xena: Warrior Princess: Season One on April 29.

On the Street: DreamWorks is on the board this week with three separate editions of Road to Perdition, which streets today in both widescreen and pan-and-scan boxes, in addition to a widescreen edition with DTS audio. Also new from DreamWorks' is The Tuxedo starring Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Criterion has an interesting double-feature out with the once-notorious I Am Curious films, while other art-house fare from Home Vision includes Drôle de Drame, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, and La Vallée. Columbia TriStar has a pair of classics out as well with George Stevens' The Talk of the Town and John Cassavetes' Gloria, while Otto Preminger's The Cardinal is a two-disc SE from Warner. Star Trek fans can start a whole new collection this week with the arrival of Paramount's first Deep Space Nine box. And if you're shopping for a friend (or just yourself), the latest Creative Design gift boxes include Amadeus, Ocean's Eleven, and Superman. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of DVDPlanet.com and Image Entertainment:

• All the Wrong Places
• Allie & Me
• Amadeus: The Director's Cut: Creative Design Gift Set
• Art of Revenge
• Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World
• The Bloody Dead: Special Edition
• Booby Trap/The Takers: Special Edition
• The Cardinal (2-disc set)
• Drive: My Life in Skateboarding: Mike Vallely
• Drôle de Drame
• Earth & Water
• Foreign Ghosts
• The Forsythe Saga (7-disc set)
• Gloria (1980)
• The Godson/Below the Belt: Special Edition
• I Am Curious...: The Criterion Collection
• King of Kings
• Knockaround Guys
• The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
• Man and Boy
• Michael Winslow: Comedy Sound Slapdown!
• Ocean's Eleven: Creative Design Gift Set (2001)
• Once Upon a Time
• Queer as Folk: Season Two (6-disc set)
• The Quickie
• Raiders of the Living Dead: Special Edition
• Red Dwarf: Series I (2-disc set)
• Red Dwarf: Series II (2-disc set)
• Rich Kids (Chicos Richos)
• Rich Little: The Presidents
• Road to Perdition (widescreen/DTS)
• Road to Perdition (widescreen/DD)
• Road to Perdition (pan-and-scan/DD)
• Sinful Deeds
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season One (6-disc set)
• Superman: The Movie: Creative Design Gift Set
• Talk of the Town
• The Tuxedo
• The Twilight Zone Collection #5 (9-disc set)
• La Vallée
• The Wicksboro Incident

— Ed.

Monday, 24 Feb. 2003

Disc of the Week: Try as he might, Cary Grant could not avoid typecasting. The Bristol-born Englishman arrived in New York City in 1920 as part of a British comedy troupe, and a few years later he embarked on a film career in California — which at first led to modest roles in Paramount features. However, as legend has it, the handsome Grant was "discovered" by Mae West, who saw him on a movie set one day and told her director "If he can talk, hire him." Grant was immediately cast opposite West in 1933's She Done Him Wrong, and it was to him that she uttered the immortal movie line "Why dontcha come up sometime and see me." Born Archibald Leach, the actor Cary Grant spent a lifetime pondering the distance he felt from his own screen persona — and in particular the many roles that cast him as the attractive leading man. Without question, he was a talented dramatic actor who also had a gift for light comedy, but one only has to look at the resume to understand Cary Grant the Hollywood commodity: In films such as His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, Notorious, To Catch a Thief, An Affair to Remember, North By Northwest, and Charade, Grant is the smoldering single man, somewhat elusive to women, and usually a bit of a scoundrel. But Grant occasionally looked for films that would cast him against type, such as None But the Lonely Heart and Father Goose. He always had a special affection for these projects, and his finest bit of improbable casting came in George Stevens' 1942 The Talk of the Town, one of the great romantic comedies of the golden era.

Grant stars as Leopold Dilg, a mill laborer in a small New England town who discovers one day that he's a hunted man. A notorious rabble-rouser, Dilg had been protesting working conditions at the local woolen mill for years. But after it's destroyed by an arsonist and a man dies in the fire, the innocent Dilg is fingered by the authorities as the prime suspect. With an injured leg that won't let him flee very far, Dilg takes refuge in a rustic rental house owned by old friend Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur). However, the day Dilg arrives is also the day Nora is expecting Prof. Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman), a Supreme Court nominee who is looking for a quiet respite to finish writing a book. Dilg attempts to hide out in the attic, but soon after he's introduced to Lightcap as "Joseph" the gardener, and before long the two men form a friendship around a series of theoretical debates concerning the nature of law — Lightcap believes that the legal system only has use when it's applied in a cold, dispassionate matter, while Dilg insists that the law exists only to support the powerful, and that there are times when it's appropriate to take matters into one's own hands. It's after Dilg is exposed and finds himself once again on the run that both men are forced to examine the validity of their ideals.

A cinematic admixture of genres, The Talk of the Town could be faulted for trying to be too many things at once — a whodunit, a comedy of mistaken identity, a romantic tale with a love triangle, and a social commentary on the relationship between laws and justice, the story utilizes a handful of separate plotlines and several tone-shifts. But somehow it does work, and wonderfully. Certainly, Frank Capra's films from this era were also skillful blends of comedy and drama, and one could say that The Talk of the Town is the best Capra film the director never made (particularly with its three leads, who all appeared in Capra pictures over the years). But the man at the helm was George Stevens, one of the most renowned perfectionists of the studio era, a cinematographer who eventually became his own producer and refused to make movies on a hurried schedule. Here, he directs with quiet expertise, capturing a complex story about three people that primarily takes place in one house and an exterior garden. Despite the confined setting, Stevens' camera remains fluid and always arrives at dynamic compositions. Along with the script, the casting is another fundamental reason for the film's success (despite the fact that the two lead actors who debate the merits of American law have unmistakable British accents). Ronald Colman started out in silent films, but his mellifluous voice made him a major star after the arrival of sound, and his refined charm helps us accept the idea that Cary Grant is a common laborer. Grant apparently enjoyed playing the upstart opposite a polished gentleman (as evidenced in The Bishop's Wife, when he chose to trade roles with David Niven), and one soon gets the feeling that "Archibald Leach" should actually appear on the title-card. Between the two is Jean Arthur, who enlivened so many Capra movies (particularly opposite Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper), and her ongoing frustration with her two houseguests gives the film its levity. Thankfully, The Talk of the Town does not shy away from the social climate of its day — it was released in 1942, but it's clearly a product of Depression-era filmmaking and its concern for class distinctions. With Grant as the fervent liberal with his heart on his sleeve, and Colman as the solemn conservative who has lost touch with his youth, it's a story that has just as much relevance to some of today's political debates — especially when both men discover that neither position is entirely defensible.

Columbia TriStar's new DVD release of The Talk of the Town features a clean transfer in the original full-frame ratio (1.33:1) with monaural audio in Dolby Digital 2.0. Extras? Not on this one, unfortunately. But it's more than capable of standing on its own merits and is well worth a place in any film buff's personal collection. The Talk of the Town is on the street tomorrow.

Box Office: Fox's Daredevil starring Ben Affleck took a 53% tumble from its $44 million debut last weekend, but it still managed to hold off all challengers to retain the top spot on the box-office chart, adding $18.9 million to a $70 million 10-day gross. It was a disappointing weekend for a quartet of new films, although the DreamWorks comedy Old School starring Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson, managed to reach second place with $17.5 million, going head-to-head with Daredevil for the young-male demographic. Appearing further down the list was Universal's The Life of David Gale starring Kevin Spacey, which managed $7.1 million, while Warner's Civil War epic Gods and Generals drummed up $4.7 million, and MGM's cop drama Deep Blue managed just $3.7 million in wide release. Both Old School and Dark Blue earned mixed notices, while most critics dismissed Gale and Generals outright.

In continuing release, the rom-com How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days continues to perform well, holding on to third place in its third weekend with a $64.9 million total. The kiddie-crowd managed to keep Buena Vista's Jungle Book 2 in the top five, and Miramax's Chicago is doing rock-steady business, adding $8.5 million to a $94.3 million cume. Meanwhile, both Shanghai Knights and The Recruit are slipping away with $44 million apiece. And we can say goodbye to Kangaroo Jack, at least for now — its surprise $60 million finish means we're bound to get both a packed DVD and a sequel.

New in theaters this Friday is Cradle 2 the Grave starring Jet Li and DMX. Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

1. Daredevil (Fox)
   $18,925,000 ($70,300,000 through 2 weeks)
2. Old School (DreamWorks SKG)
   $17,500,000 ($17,500,000 through 1 week)
3. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Paramount)
   $11,875,000 ($64,906,000 through 3 weeks)
4. The Jungle Book 2 (Buena Vista)
   $8,600,000 ($25,100,000 through 2 weeks)
5. Chicago (Miramax)
   $8,500,000 ($94,353,478 through 9 weeks)
6. The Life of David Gale (Universal)
   $7,167,000 ($7,167,000 through 1 week)
7. Shanghai Knights (Buena Vista)
   $6,400,000 ($44,400,000 through 3 weeks)
8. Gods and Generals (Warner Bros.)
   $4,775,000 ($4,775,000 through 1 week)
9. Dark Blue (MGM)
   $3,750,000 ($3,750,000 through 1 week)
10. The Recruit (Buena Vista)
    $3,500,000 ($44,400,000 through 4 weeks)
11. Final Destination 2 (New Line)
    $2,850,000 ($40,776,000 through 4 weeks)
12. The Hours (Paramount)
    $2,400,000 ($30,004,000 through 9 weeks)

On the Board: Mark Bourne has posted a new review of Fox's limited edition of Sunrise, while new stuff from the rest of the team this week includes Tuck Everlasting, Full Frontal, Knockaround Guys, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season One, All or Nothing, The Tuxedo, Gloria, The Talk of the Town, and the Keaton and Arbuckle shorts The Cook and Other Treasures. We'll be back tomorrow with the rundown on this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 18 Feb. 2003

In the Works: Here's some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and DVDPlanet.com, and additional staff reports:

• Those who sorely miss the out-of-print The 400 Blows under the Criterion folio are about to get a treat — five François Truffaut films are due to arrive in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel, a five-disc set that will feature The 400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run, and Antoine and Colette. Each film will come with a new digital transfer, and we will get commentaries with Blows and the Truffaut short film "Les Mistons," as well as several other supplements. It's on the street April 29, where it will by joined by Federico Fellini's 1956 The White Sheik starring Giulietta Masina — included will be a new transfer, interviews, and an essay by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.

• In prep at Warner is the latest Robert De Niro/Billy Crystal teaming, last year's Analyze That, which will arrive in widescreen and full-frame boxes. Features will include a commentary from director Harold Ramis, two behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a trailer. Those looking for something a little more highbrow can expect Michael Caton-Jones' 1993 This Boy's Life starring Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin, and a young Leo DiCaprio. Both are here May 13.

• Coming from Fox is Denzel Washington's Antwone Fisher, which will arrive in both anamorphic widescreen and pan-and-scan editions — count on a commentary from director/star Washington, three featurettes, and a trailer (May 20).

• Paramount is set to release The Wild Thornberrys Movie, the latest feature film from the Nickelodeon network — both widescreen and full-frame transfers will be on board, as well as an interactive game and a Paul Simon music vid (April 1). Also watch for last year's acclaimed Bloody Sunday from writer/director Paul Greengrass, which follows events leading up to the infamous January 1972 conflict in Northern Ireland (April 22).

• Getting a double-dip from Artisan is 1989's Young Guns, which will offer a new transfer, both DTS and Dolby Digital mixes, a yack-track from stars Dermot Mulroney, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Casey Siemaszko, a fact-track, and a featurette (April 22).

On the Street: Two new titles are on the shelves this morning from Criterion, a double-feature of The Killers and a two-disc special edition of Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Also not to be missed is the long-awaited Kino release of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which features a restoration that literally has been years and years in the making. New from Buena Vista is last year's fantasy film Tuck Everlasting, as well as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version, while little-seen treats can be had with Fox's One Hour Photo, Paramount's The Four Feathers, and New Line's The Sleeping Dictionary. And the latest in a long line of double-dips comes from Artisan today with a new special edition of Stargate. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of DVDPlanet.com and Image Entertainment:

• AC/DC: Rock Masters
• All or Nothing
• Another Heaven
• Bank Shot
• Barocco
• Basic Training
• Biggie and Tupac
• Bloody Murder 2
• Cinema Paradiso: The New Version
• City by the Sea (widescreen)
• City by the Sea (pan-and-scan)
• The Color Purple
• Come and Take It Day
• Cradle of Fear
• The Cure: Rock Masters
• DVX: Digital Video X: Hardcore Sports and Music
• Edie and Pen: Special Edition
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: The Criterion Collection (2-disc set)
• The Four Feathers (widescreen)
• Grandmother's House
• Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy-Tale
• How to Beat the High Cost of Living
• I'll Do Anything
• Island of Death
• Jack Movez
• The Killers: The Criterion Collection (double feature) (2-disc set)
• Lady Jane
• Life Stinks
• M*A*S*H: Season Three
• Maxie
• The Meteor Man
• Metropolis (1927) (Kino edition)
• Mr. North
• Nightmare at Noon
• One Hour Photo
• Play'd: A Hip-Hop Story
• The Return of Swamp Thing: Special Edition
• The Rules of Attraction
• The Sleeping Dictionary
• Stargate: Ultimate Edition
• Stealing Harvard
• Swirl
• Taboo
• The Time Traveller
• The Three Stooges: Stop! Look! and Laugh
• Trouble Bound
• Tuck Everlasting
• Waiting for the Light
• Wannabes
• Wes Craven's Summer of Fear
• You Can't Take It With You (1938)

— Ed.

Monday, 17 Feb. 2003

Disc of the Week: Watch a substantial amount of stand-up comedy, and you'll soon realize that there's a very fine line between funny and scary. The same manic energy that gives many of the best comics their edge — think Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman, Sam Kinison, and, of course, Robin Williams — often seems just one or two responsive audiences away from degenerating into frantic desperation. That deep-seated need to please, to be appreciated and in the spotlight, can produce peerless performers... or, for those lacking a constructive outlet, something a lot darker. Perhaps because of that risk, many comics seem compelled to explore the dark-side dynamic, gleefully tapping into their inner psychos on the big screen. Carrey did it memorably in The Cable Guy, and in 2002, Williams did it in both Insomnia and, indelibly, in One Hour Photo. A character study masquerading as a chilling psychological thriller, the latter offers the hirsute funny man one of his best roles to date — and the chance to prove that even when he's not "on," he's still on.

Williams steps into a sterile, washed-out existence to play One Hour Photo's central character, Seymour "Sy the Photo Guy" Parrish — the reigning king of the photo-processing counter at the Savmart mega-drugstore. Lonely and unnoticed in his personal life, Sy takes an inordinate amount of pride in his work, treating each of the prints he makes as a minor work of art. He lives vicariously through his customers, particularly the Yorkin family: mom Nina, (Connie Nielsen), dad Will (Alias eye-candy Michael Vartan), and their son Jake (Dylan Smith). Entranced by 10 years' worth of the Yorkins' happy snapshots, Sy imagines their life as a Norman Rockwell-like ideal; they have all the love, fulfillment, and togetherness he's always wanted and has never had. As his fantasies get out of hand, Sy's interest in the Yorkins becomes an obsession — and when he discovers a crack in their cheerful façade, his heart breaks. Unfortunately, his feelings of betrayal lead to anger and resentment, which is when the film gets really creepy....

In crafting Sy's decline into madness, writer/director Mark Romanek, a music-video veteran, proves equally adept at structuring a larger, more complex story. The way he doles out bits and pieces of information about both Sy and the Yorkins, slowly building up to the film's big revelations, is a lesson in suspense; like M. Night Shyamalan, Romanek knows that the smallest, most mundane props and details can offer the biggest shocks and inspire the greatest fear. The audience doesn't decide that Sy is scary because they're told he is — they just gradually realize that anyone so hungry for recognition and significance who goes home to a hamster futilely sprinting on its wheel is bound to go postal sooner or later (and then they see the photo wall, but that's something else entirely...). Credit should go to Williams for making Sy's transition into lunacy an almost sympathetic event. For most of the movie, Sy isn't nearly as threatening as he is pathetic; Williams prevents him from becoming truly pitiable by allowing the audience well-timed glimpses of his character's inner delusions. But most notably, as Sy, Williams successfully does something he's never really been able to accomplish before: He disappears. And not just because his dyed-blond hair and pale skin blend into the carefully stylized (and wonderfully ominous) sets; Williams becomes Sy, letting the photo clerk's quiet desperation and determination subdue the motor-mouthed mania he's known for. Yes, the erstwhile Mork has done plenty of other serious roles, but he's never quite made us forget his inner Morkness before. For that alone, One Hour Photo would be worth watching; the fact that it's a thoroughly chilling modern thriller is like getting a second set of prints for free.

Almost as nice is Fox's DVD treatment of the film; the anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) is beautiful and lends to the movie's stark palette, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio showcases Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek's spooky score nicely, and the extras list is fairly meaty. Highlights include a low-key, informative commentary track with Romanek and Williams, two "making-of' featurettes (one from Cinemax, the other part of the Sundance "Anatomy of a Scene" series), Romanek and Williams' appearance on "The Charlie Rose Show," trailers, and TV spots. One Hour Photo is on the street tomorrow.

Box Office: To no one's surprise, Fox's latest superhero movie Daredevil opened at the top of the box-office chart — the Valentine's Day debut scored $43.5 million for star Ben Affleck, making it the second-best opening of any February movie behind $58 million for Hannibal in 2001. Also new in theaters was Disney's animated The Jungle Book 2, which arrived in fourth place with $11.9 million. Critics were mixed on Daredevil, while JB2 earned several negative notices.

In continuing release, last week's winner How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson slipped to second place, but with a strong $19 million weekend, pushing its ten-day cume to $47.7 million. Thirteen Oscar nominations means that Miramax's Chicago is still humming along, crossing $80 million in eight weeks. Buena Vista's Shanghai Knights charmed a lot of critics, but it dropped to fifth place in its second weekend with $34.6 million so far. And Paramount's The Hours can be found at the bottom of the deck — despite the Oscar nods it's still in semi-limited release, where it's taken in $25.9 million over the past two months. Meanwhile, on the fast track to DVD prep is DreamWorks' Biker Boyz, which hit the skids before reaching $20 million.

Plenty of new films will go wide this Friday, including Dark Blue starring Kurt Russell and Ving Rhames, Gods and Generals featuring Robert Duvall, The Life of David Gale starring Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet, and Old School with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson. Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

1. Daredevil (Fox)
   $43,500,000 ($43,500,000 through 1 week)
2. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Paramount)
   $19,000,000 ($47,706,000 through 2 weeks)
3. Chicago (Miramax)
   $12,600,000 ($80,700,000 through 8 weeks)
4. The Jungle Book 2 (Buena Vista)
   $11,900,000 ($11,900,000 through 1 week)
5. Shanghai Knights (Buena Vista)
   $11,400,000 ($34,600,000 through 2 weeks)
6. The Recruit (Buena Vista)
   $6,800,000 ($38,800,000 through 3 weeks)
7. Final Destination 2 (New Line)
   $6,225,000 ($36,130,000 through 3 weeks)
8. Deliver Us from Eva (Focus)
   $4,362,066 ($12,228,147 through 2 weeks)
9. Kangaroo Jack (Warner Bros.)
   $4,015,000 ($57,934,000 through 5 weeks)
10. About Schmidt (New Line)
    $3,550,000 ($53,090,000 through 10 weeks)
11. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line)
    $3,450,000 ($325,299,000 through 9 weeks)
12. The Hours (Paramount)
    $3,300,000 ($25,973,000 through 8 weeks)

On the Board: Greg Dorr has posted a sneak-preview of Criterion's double-feature of The Killers, while Mark Bourne is on the board with a look at Criterion's restored Beauty and the Beast. New stuff this week from the rest of the gang includes Stealing Harvard, The Four Feathers, City by the Sea, Stargate: Ultimate Edition, The Sleeping Dictionary, I'll Do Anything, One Hour Photo, and Mostly Martha. It's all under our New Reviews menu here on the front page.

We'll be back tomorrow to let you know about this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 11 Feb. 2003

In the Works: Here's some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and DVDPlanet.com, and additional staff reports:

• The folks at Warner are pretty sure most folks know The Matrix Reloaded is about to arrive in theaters, but just the same, they're sending along a little DVD reminder — The Matrix Special Edition DVD will arrive on April 29 in a two-disc set that essentially pairs the original Matrix platter with the Matrix Revisited supplements-only release. The checklist includes commentary from star Carrie-Anne Moss, visual effects supervisor John Gaeta, and editor Zach Staenberg; a 26-min. behind-the-scenes doc; a music-only track with composer Don Davis; the "white rabbit" featurettes; and the hidden docs "What Is the Concept?" and "What Is Bullet Time?", while Disc Two will offer a preview of The Matrix Reloaded (which arrives in theaters May 15), a Marilyn Manson video, the movie's website, the two-hour Revisited doc, six featurettes, and plenty more. Following up on June 3 will be The Anamatrix, a DVD comprising nine short films produced by the creators of the Matrix trilogy, all blending CG-animation with anime aesthetics, and featuring the voices of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in two features. Supplements will include commentaries, featurettes, interviews, and more.

• The gang at Paramount is doing a little reloading of their own — the "Jack Ryan" films The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger are about to street in new special editions. These will be the first Paramount DVDs to offer DTS audio, and we can expect some new add-ons: Red October will offer a commentary from director John McTiernan, and all three titles will sport retrospective featurettes with new cast/crew interviews. Also on tap will be a four-disc Tom Clancy Collection box-set with the previously released The Sum of All Fears in the slipcase. It's all here on May 6.

• Coming from Fox is last year's surprise hit Drumline, which will offer a yack-track from director Charles Stone III, a featurette, deleted scenes, and music vids (April 15).

• Arriving from Lion's Gate are two recent independent films — Secretary starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal will offer two commentaries, one from the stars, the other from director Steven Shainberg, as well as deleted scenes (April 1), while the Nazi skinhead drama The Believer starring Ryan Gosling and Summer Phoenix will include a track from director/co-writer Henry Bean, an "Anatomy of a Scene" spot, and an interview with the director (April 22).

• Finally, Universal is digging a stack of westerns out of the vault — look for Bend of the River, Destry Rides Again, The Duel at Silver Creek, The Far Country, Law and Order , Night Passage, The Rare Breed, The Redhead from Wyoming, Two Mules for Sister Sara, and Winchester '73, all due on May 6.

On the Street: If you've been saving your pennies over the past few weeks waiting for a disc-positive Tuesday, this one just might be it. Fox gets things going with the new two-disc release of X-Men 1.5, and the studio also has the romantic comedy Brown Sugar and the six-disc Angel: Season One on the shelves. Criterion's re-release of Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast in a restored edition will be a sight for sore eyes. Fresh from Buena Vista is Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams: Collector's Series, as well as Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal. It's awfully hard to miss the arrival of My Big Fat Greek Wedding on DVD after its $230 million theatrical run. Meanwhile, Columbia TriStar's list today includes The Fast Runner, Living in Oblivion, Wasabi, and Swept Away. Neil LaBute's Possession starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart is on the board from Universal. And fans of the silents can look for the Keaton/Arbuckle collection The Cook and Other Treasures, fresh from the folks at Image. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of DVDPlanet.com and Image Entertainment:

• 8 Women
• Angel: Season One
• Arsenal: Special Edition
• Beauty and the Beast: The Criterion Collection (1947)
• Bliss
• Brown Sugar
• Contamination
• The Cook and Other Treasures: Keaton and Arbuckle: Milestone Collection
• Daredevil vs. Spider Man
• The Edge of the World
• The Fast Runner
• Fritz Lang's Indian Epic: The Tiger of Eschnapur/The Indian Tomb
• Full Frontal
• The Glass Menagerie
• Glory Daze
• King of the Streets
• Legend of the Phantom Rider
• Living in Oblivion
• The Mind Snatchers
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding
• Pass the Mic!
• Possession
• The Shape of Things to Come (1979)
• Sordid Lives
• Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams: Collector's Series
• Swept Away
• The Thin Blue Lie
• Wasabi
• Women vs. Men
• X-Men 1.5 (2-disc set)

Reader talkback: Thanks to a few folks yesterday who dropped us a line to let us know that The Fast Runner has been released on DVD in Canada by Alliance Atlantis, and in a spiffy two-disc set. For those looking to sample this unique movie, the Columbia TriStar DVD released Stateside is more than adequate, but serious fans might want to visit a few Canadian e-tailers to learn what's available up north.

— Ed.

Monday, 10 Feb. 2003

Disc of the Week: So you bought yourself a digital video camera, know a few actors, and maybe can get your hands on some funding. You're thinking of shooting an indie and perhaps launching a production company. No small task — but then again, you aren't Zacharias Kunuk. One of the founders of Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc., Kunuk and his colleagues established their company in order to preserve Inuit culture and language, educate people on Inuit history, and stimulate the economy of the Igloolik/Nunavut regions of Arctic Canada, which have been long-burdened by both high unemployment and suicide rates. Igloolik Isuma has been successful since its inception, founding a television centre, a dramatic workshop, and producing local television programming, short films, and the 1994 Canadian miniseries Nunavut. A full-length theatrical film must have seemed inevitable, and became realized with Atanarjuat, which was released in most venues as The Fast Runner. The first film ever scripted and shot entirely in the Aboriginal Inuktitut language, it was one of the most discussed art-house releases of 2002, and for good reason — a mythic story from another era, it also conveys a timeless drama that reinforces the universality of our shared human condition.

Adapted from an intricate Inuit folk-tale that stretches back as far as 1,000 years, The Fast Runner concerns three clans in a primitive Igloolik camp. At the story's outset, a shaman visits the village and places a curse upon the people — tribal leader Kumaglak is murdered, while another elder is banished. The ceremonial leader's necklace is then awarded to Kumaglak's son Sauri, who uses his newfound power to humiliate rival Tulimaq. Jumping ahead a few decades, Tulimaq's two sons have become grown men: Amaqjuaq (Pakkak Innushuk) is known as the "The Strong One," while the younger Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq) is "The Fast Runner," and both men harbor a rivalry with Sauri's son Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq). And the rivalry is palpable — beautiful young Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu) has been promised to Oki, but she is in love with Atanarjuat, forcing both men to face each other in a traditional tribal battle to win the woman's hand. Atanarjuat prevails, and later he takes a second wife, Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk), who is Oki's sister. Stung by Atanarjuat's two marriages, Oki plans a murderous revenge, which drives Atanarjuat away from Igloolik for several months. He is assumed dead, but the loyal Atuat waits for her husband, hoping someday he will return and restore order to the cursed community.

The Fast Runner is an enormously challenging film to absorb, but at the same time a richly rewarding experience. It should be noted that it asks an investment from the viewer that is unlike most American films — at first it's not easy to understand the nature of the curse that the shaman has placed upon the camp, and for most viewers it will take time to understand the characters' familial relationships with each other. The movie also proceeds at a methodical pace, content to tell its story, but also taking the time to examine the daily life of the Inuit — they hunt, fish, follow caribou herds, build igloos, light fires, and occasionally share themselves through songs. We see how they skin their prey and prepare food, and witness the brutal way they can treat unruly dogs (animal lovers have been warned). It all lends to a richness of the overall experience, if not always the efficiency of a film that clocks in just under three hours. But The Fast Runner will be worth the effort for those who are willing to enjoy a change of pace: For a production that's clearly meant to educate viewers on Intuit culture, it's wonderfully free of Hollywood's taste for political correctness — taking place well before Inuit contact with white people (anywhere from 200 to 2,000 years ago, depending on whom you ask), this is not a story of Aboriginal oppression, but instead an inclusive, universal drama. The realism is unflinching, from gutted animals to bloody corpses to illicit late-night sex in a seal-skin tent. The plot has all of the tension and energy of a great cultural myth, and enough homicide and patricide to make Shakespeare blush. And perhaps above all, The Fast Runner transports us to another time and place, lulling us into believing that we are watching real people who somehow survive and procreate and sustain families and communities and a culture in the most inhospitable region on earth. The Fast Runner simply is unlike any other film ever made.

Columbia TriStar's new DVD release of The Fast Runner features a clean anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) of the movie's digital Betacam source. Shooting on DV wasn't just an economic choice for director Zacharias Kunuk — traditional film cameras are notoriously difficult to operate in sub-freezing temperatures, and this digital source was transferred to 35mm for theatrical viewing. However, on this DVD, The Fast Runner clearly has a videotape quality with a high sheen and no hint of film grain whatsoever. At first one might wish to see some classic 35mm images, particularly with the many stunning, barren landscapes captured in the movie. But the video source does have a verité appeal, which lends to the building drama. Unfortunately the DVD has nothing in the way of extras — a few shots of the actors and crew during the closing credits gives one the idea of just how difficult this production must have been, and, for whatever reason, it's grossly unfortunate that Columbia could not get some value-add on this disc. However, for those wanting to know more about the film, Igloolik Isuma has an informative website at www.atanarjuat.com. The Fast Runner is on the street tomorrow.

Box Office: Three new films arrived in American cineplexes over the weekend, and yet another rom-com wound up in first place — Paramount's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson took in a three-day gross of $24.1 million, easily beating runner-up Shanghai Knights starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, which still managed a respectable $19.7 million for Buena Vista. Charting a little further down the list was the comedy Deliver Us from Eva with L.L. Cool J and Gabrielle Union, which snagged $7 million for Focus Features. Knights earned many positive reviews from critics, while notices were mixed for 10 Days and Eva.

In continuing release, Miramax finally expanded their critical darling Chicago to more theaters, allowing it to reach third place — its highest ranking so far — and push its total to $63.7 million. Last week's winner, The Recruit starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell, dropped to the fourth spot, adding $9.5 million to a $30.1 million cume. Slipping a bit further was DreamWorks' Biker Boyz, which managed just $4 million in its second weekend and eighth place on the chart. Meanwhile, the lack of kids' features out there has been a boon to Warner's Kangaroo Jack, which has cleared $50 million after one month. And on the way to a cheap theater near you is DreamWorks' Catch Me If You Can, which heads for the exits with more than $150 million.

New movies arriving on screens this Friday include Daredevil starring Ben Affleck, as well as The Jungle Book 2 featuring the voices of Haley Joel Osment and John Goodman. Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

1. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Paramount)
   $24,100,000 ($24,100,000 through 1 week)
2. Shanghai Knights (Buena Vista)
   $19,770,000 ($19,770,000 through 1 week)
3. Chicago (Miramax)
   $10,722,000 ($63,738,620 through 7 weeks)
4. The Recruit (Buena Vista)
   $9,500,000 ($30,100,000 through 2 weeks)
5. Final Destination 2 (New Line)
   $8,650,000 ($28,137,000 through 2 weeks)
6. Deliver Us from Eva (Focus)
   $7,079,590 ($7,079,590 through 1 week)
7. Kangaroo Jack (Warner Bros.)
   $5,890,000 ($52,820,000 through 4 weeks)
8. Biker Boyz (DreamWorks SKG)
   $4,000,000 ($15,500,000 through 2 weeks)
9. Darkness Falls (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
   $3,800,000 ($26,786,000 through 3 weeks)
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line)
    $3,375,000 ($320,715,000 through 8 weeks)
11. Catch Me If You Can (DreamWorks SKG)
    $3,100,000 ($156,500,000 through 7 weeks)
11. About Schmidt (New Line)
    $3,100,000 ($48,566,000 through 9 weeks)

On the Board: Damon Houx has posted a sneak preview of Fox's X-Men 1.5 (with additional comments from Alexandra DuPont), while new reviews this week from the rest of the team include My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Living in Oblivion, Sweet Home Alabama, Brown Sugar, Angel: Season One, Bliss, Wasabi, Predator 2, Glory Daze, The Fast Runner, and Swept Away. It's all fresh under the New Reviews menu here on the front page.

We'll be back tomorrow with news on this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 4 Feb. 2003

In the Works: Here's some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and DVDPlanet.com, and additional staff reports:

• Buena Vista is winning smiles from overgrown kids everywhere with their recent announcement of 1954's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason. The remastered film will arrive on two discs, and features will include a commentary from director Richard Fleischer; the doc "The Making of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"; additional shorts "Jules Verne & Walt Disney: Explorers of the Imagination," "The Humboldt Squid: A Real Sea Monster," and "Lost Treasures: The Sunset Squid"; a tour of the Nautilus; a storyboard-to-scene comparison; unused animation; the animated short "Grand Canyonscope"; and tons more (May 13). Also set to go is last year's box-office bomb Treasure Planet with both audio and visual commentaries from the filmmakers, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a tour of the ship, stills, a music video, and plenty of other tidbits (April 29).

• Just announced from Universal is Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile starring Eminem, which will be loaded with features, as expected. Two separate versions will reach the street, including one with "uncensored bonus footage" that will offer five "Rap Battles" shot during the making of the film. Also expect a "making-of" featurette, and the music video of "Superman." It's like totally dope on March 18.

• It's been on DVD in Region 2 for some time, and now Warner will finally release Roland Joffe's 1986 The Mission on these shores. The double-disc set will include a commentary from Joffe and a new, hour-long production documentary (May 13). Also keep your eyes peeled for 1956's High Society starring Bing, Frank, and Grace (April 22), as well as Savage Steve Holland's One Crazy Summer starring John Cusack (April 1).

• Columbia TriStar is due to release Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love on April 22, but it appears that's too soon for the director to assemble his preferred DVD, so we are expecting a second version to replace this bone-stock platter. Also in prep is the highest-grossing picture in Mexican film history, last year's The Crime of Padre Amaro starring Gael Garcia Bernal, and we're expecting a yaq-track from Bernal and director Carlos Carrera, a featurette, and notes (April 1).

• The folks at Fox have decided it's time to double-dip the Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary, the (literally) seminal movie that has guided the course of American film comedy since its 1998 debut. The upcoming two-disc Collector's Edition will feature the original DVD commentary from the Farrellys as well as a new yuk-yuk track from the boys, yet another track from the screenwriters, deleted/extended scenes, several featurettes, a music vid, outttakes, and a few extra goodies as well (May 13). Also watch for several new catalog titles — 13 Rue Madeleine, The Blue Max, Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, The Enemy Below, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, and Sink the Bismark! — as well as Dark Angel; Season One, all streeting on May 20.

• Our friends at Paramount are digging into the vault as well, and coming out on April 22 will be The Carpetbaggers, Copper Canyon, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Lonely Man, and Nevada Smith, followed on April 29 by Big Jake, Le Mans, Rio Lobo, Little Big Man, and A Man Called Horse.

On the Street: MGM is topping our charts this morning with two excellent DVDs on the street, both featuring Susan Sarandon — indie fave Igby Goes Down starring Kieran Culkin, and a new special edition of Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise, while this month's catalog dump from the Lion includes Road House, Larger Than Life, and such Chuck Bronson potboilers as Assassination, Mr. Majestyk, and Murphy's Law. Fresh from Buena Vista is the popular comedy Sweet Home Alabama starring Reese Witherspoon, while Fox has some classic romance on the board with 1957's An Affair to Remember starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. And just in time for Oscar season is a new release of Driving Miss Daisy, out from Warner. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of DVDPlanet.com and Image Entertainment:

• 10 to Midnight
• All in the Family: Season Two (3-disc set)
• An Affair to Remember
• Assassination
• Bedtime Story/A Countess from Hong Kong (2-disc set)
• Cold Comfort Farm/Casual Sex (2-disc set)
• Citizen Ruth
• Come September/Send Me No Flowers (2-disc set)
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Formula 51
• Good Times: Season One (2-disc set)
• Hansel and Gretel
• Here Comes Cookie / Love in Bloom / Six of a Kind
• Igby Goes Down
• Into the West
• Invasion of the Killer Bugs
• Jane Eyre (1996)
• Joey
• Kintje: Forbidden Subjects
• Larger Than Life
• Little Secrets
• A Little Sex
• Man's Favorite Sport?/Strange Bedfellows (2-disc set)
• Married....With Children: The Most Outrageous Episodes! Volume One
• Messenger of Death
• Mildred Pierce
• Mr. Majestyk
• The Money Pit
• Murphy's Law
• The Newcomers
• The Night and the Moment
• No Man's Land (1987)
• A Patch of Blue
• A Prayer for the Dying
• Predator 2
• The Red Badge of Courage
• Road House
• Sanford and Son: Season Two (3-disc set)
• Six Feet Under: Season One
• Star Maker
• Sweet Home Alabama
• Thelma and Louise: Special Edition
• The Thrill of It All!
• Ultimate X: The Movie

— Ed.

Monday, 3 Feb. 2003

Disc of the Week: A decade ago, who'd have guessed that the new millennium's "It Culkin" would turn out to be Kieran? Back then, big brother Macaulay was the cute-as-a-button towhead everyone loved in Home Alone, and Kieran was just one of the many interchangeable siblings the Culkin parents shepherded around Hollywood. But fast forward a few years, and while Mac is scrambling for a comeback in Party Monster and recovering from a failed marriage at the ripe old age of 22, Kieran is continuing to prove that he's the Culkin with the real goods. Even in small parts in Steve Martin's two Father of the Bride movies, Culkin's clear-eyed pragmatism shone through, and in The Cider House Rules he deftly played the orphaned Buster, a stoic character who had to learn how to protect himself against the world's cruelty. In other words, he'd already honed just the characteristics he'd need to play Igby Slocumb.

Indie fave Igby Goes Down is the Catcher in the Rye-esque story of a wealthy, cynical teenager (Culkin) who doesn't defy authority so much as consistently prove he has no use for it — nor it for him. Like J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Igby is fed up with the phony people around him, from his venomous, high-strung mother Mimi (Susan Sarandon in all her glory) to his rich, hypocritical godfather D.H. (Jeff Goldblum). He learns nothing from the series of schools he's forced to attend (and subsequently escapes), and he looks at the world with one eyebrow permanently raised. But although he's old before his time in many ways, at heart Igby is also a scared kid longing for stability and affection. After he ditches his latest educational institution and sets up camp in a Manhattan artist's loft, he finds the latter, at least temporarily, in the form of sharp-tongued college student Sookie Saperstein (Claire Danes). But even their bohemian idyll can't stave off Igby's family forever (besides his mother, there's his rigidly perfect brother Oliver, played with cold acuity by Ryan Phillippe). Before Igby can really become his own person, he has to face Mimi, as well as the living ghost of his father, Jason (Bill Pullman), an intelligent, sophisticated man who disintegrated in the face of mental illness when Igby was a child.

Not exactly the stuff of comedy, on the face of it. But thanks to writer/director Burr Steers' sharp script and Culkin's cynically nonchalant performance, Igby Goes Down is laced with dark, witty humor and plenty of pointed zingers. ("His creation was an act of animosity," Mimi says of her black-sheep son at one point. "Why shouldn't his life be one?") Steers' characters may speak with the kind of verbal dexterity only found on screen (and in Aaron Sorkin's TV shows), but the words they use as they fight to find genuine feelings and connections in a world obsessed with superficiality are worth listening to. And while the film deals with the sort of tony Upper East Side existence most of us can't exactly relate to, because of the way he sees the world and expresses himself, Igby is never at risk of being dismissed as a poor little rich boy. As Igby, Culkin is both carefully detached and impetuously passionate — sort of a cross between Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr.'s characters in Wonder Boys. And he holds his own, even amidst stellar supporting turns by Sarandon, Goldblum, Danes, and Amanda Peet (as the self-destructive resident of the aforementioned artist's loft), anchoring the movie with the kind of vivid, heartbreaking performance his big brother could only dream of. It isn't a perfect film — Steers occasionally indulges in a bit of quirkiness for quirkiness' sake — but Culkin delivers the perfect Igby.

MGM's new DVD release of Igby Goes Down offers a clean anamorphic transfer (2.35:1) that vividly portrays both the crisp wistfulness of a Manhattan autumn and the carefree breeziness of a Hamptons summer. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio never falters, while other options include French and Spanish 2.0 Surround tracks and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. The features list is healthy for a smaller film — in addition to a 16-min. "making-of" featurette (which, thanks to the folks involved, is a bit more compelling than the average talking-head-fest), there's an Igby trailer, a bevy of MGM trailers, a behind-the-scenes photo gallery (40+ stills), a conversational (if not exactly scintillating) commentary by Culkin and Steers, and a 10-min. deleted scenes reel. That last extra is probably the most interesting — the cut sequences offer more insights into the story's major characters and put some of the film's moments into better context. Igby Goes Down is on the street tomorrow.

Box Office: Three new films arrived in North American cineplexes over the weekend and snared the top three spots on the chart — but the battle for first place was a close one. Buena Vista's The Recruit starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell took the week's honors with a $16.5 million break, giving the studio its first win in three months and Pacino's first number-one movie in three years. Arriving in second place with $16.2 million was New Line's Final Destination 2, which capitalized on the success of the original film, while DreamWorks' Biker Boyz — more or less The Fast and the Furious on motorcycles — was good for $10.1 million. All three new arrivals earned mixed-to-negative reviews from critics.

In continuing release, last week's winner Darkness Falls slipped to fifth place with a $22 million total for Sony, while Warner's Kangaroo Jack is doing well with the kiddies, adding $9 million to a $45 million gross. Still in semi-limited release, Miramax's Chicago has broken $50 million, and it's certain to garner some Oscar nominations later this month. Meanwhile, DreamWorks' Catch Me If You Can is starting to fade with a $151 million tally. And on the way to DVD prep is Miramax's Gangs of New York, which will close in the $70 million neighborhood.

Arriving in theaters this Friday are Shanghai Knights starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, and Deliver Us from Eva starring LL Cool J and Gabrielle Union. Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

1. The Recruit (Buena Vista)
   $16,500,000 ($16,500,000 through 1 week)
2. Final Destination 2 (New Line)
   $16,200,000 ($16,200,000 through 1 week)
3. Biker Boyz (DreamWorks SKG)
   $10,100,000 ($10,100,000 through 1 week)
4. Kangaroo Jack (Warner Bros.)
   $9,035,000 ($45,873,000 through 3 weeks)
5. Darkness Falls (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
   $7,500,000 ($22,284,000 through 2 weeks)
6. Chicago (Miramax)
   $7,140,000 ($50,718,517 through 6 weeks)
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line)
   $5,000,000 ($315,938,000 through 7 weeks)
8. Just Married (Fox)
   $4,900,000 ($49,800,000 through 4 weeks)
9. Catch Me If You Can (DreamWorks SKG)
   $4,800,000 ($151,900,000 through 6 weeks)
10. About Schmidt (New Line)
    $4,700,000 ($44,378,000 through 8 weeks)
11. National Security (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
    $4,500,000 ($32,538,000 through 3 weeks)
12. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Miramax)
    $4,300,000 ($12,390,828 through 5 weeks)

On the Board: Dawn Taylor has posted a sneak preview of MGM's new special edition release of Thelma and Louise, while new reviews this week from the rest of the gang include Formula 51, The Master of Disguise, An Affair to Remember: Fox Studio Classics, Pursued, The Magic Christian, Igby Goes Down, and Copacabana. It's all under our New Reviews menu here on the front page.

We'll be back tomorrow to let you know about this week's street discs.

— Ed.

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