DVD Releases: May 18, 2005


The Trailer Kim Jong Il and Hans Blix	Team America: World Police Domestic Gross - $32.8 million At 98 minutes, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's anti-everything puppet show, Team America: World Police (Uncensored and Unrated Special Collector's Edition), will test the patience of almost any viewer not already toasted on drugs, booze, Krispy Kremes, mega-doses of caffeine or any combination, thereof. They'll enjoy every minute of it. Others will have to settle for the more-than-occasional howl of laughter. Among the targets of the South Park creators' toxic scorn are George W. Bush, Kim Jong Il, Al Qaeda operatives, Jerry Brukheimer, the creators of Rent and cutie-pie action stars. All are involved in a vast conspiracy to destroy the planet and keep our multiplexes safe from bleeding-heart Hollywood liberals. If Team America were sliced and diced into 22-minute segments, like most half-hour sitcoms, the anarchic mayhem and Punch-and-Judy satire would be much easier to absorb. The many bonus features will delight Parker and Stone's many fans, as well as enthusiasts of deviant puppetry (yes, the full notorious marionette sex scene is included in all its scatological glory). -- Gary Dretzka MCN Review: Team America beneath its jokes and jibes is a rather scathing "what if" brought on by the changes in America since September 11th. So, what if the sundry international terrorist networks somehow managed to hook up with a potentially malevolent nuclear power? In this instance the egomaniacal Kim Jong Il of North Korea who's up to no good but has extended an olive branch that the radical peaceniks of the movie acting community have accepted. The Hot Button: But as odd as this seems to me even as I write it, the movie suffers because the guys laid back on the content. The idea of satirizing Jerry Bruckheimer movies with puppets is funny… on paper. But those movies are so far beyond reality already that they are almost beyond satire. The MPAA gave this film an R rating, accompanied with the specific explanation "For graphic crude and sexual behavior, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets."

A life without freedom is not a life.	The Sea Inside US/Canada Gross - $2.1 million The Sea Inside, Alejandro Amenábar's provocative portrait of a quadriplegic who wants to die, won this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It can be argued that its star, Javier Bardem, deserved one, too. Not nearly as bleak as that synopsis might suggest, the story follows the final days of Spanish poet Ramón Sampedro, who, for 30 years, was denied the legal right to arrange his own assisted suicide. Through Bardem, Sampedro intelligently argues that his is a life not worth living to its natural fruition, even as he encourages others to make the most of their own difficult situations. The true dilemma here, then, requires determining whether representatives of a government can demand another person accept a situation they, themselves, would never voluntarily choose to endure, simply to ease their own consciences and advance the teachings of their church. Sampedro's great humanity and wisdom make strong points for both sides of the argument, forcing viewers to come to a grips as much with their own views of personal morality and ethical responsibility as Sampedro's. One gets the feeling that Amenabar and Bardem will be making great movies -- together and separately -- for many years to come. The bonus features are valuable mostly in introducing the creative team to audiences unfamiliar with the contemporary Spanish cinema. -- Gary Dretzka The Hot Button: The Sea Inside - A powerful, beautiful movie about living, as expressed by a man who wants to die. Alejandro Amenabar is a fine young director who will be giving us great films for a long time to come. But it is Javier Bardem that is the story here. Perhaps the finest actor of this generation, the fact that he is Spanish has kept him the most underappreciated of gems. But his performance here is the stuff of legend.

	Kinsey US/Canada Gross - $10.2 million MCN Review: Kinsey is, remarkably, not about sex. Don't get me wrong. There is lots of sex in Kinsey and lots and lots of talk about sex. But as laid out by Bill Condon, Alfred Kinsey's quest to quantify sex inevitably led to and from the human heart, that rugged anthropomorphized engine which always seems to make mincemeat out of the alleged great divider between the human being and all other species on earth… the intellect. What Condon does so remarkably in this film is to balance the micro and the macro view of the world that is the truth of Kinsey's work. It is so hard to keep in mind, in this world of now-now-now media, that people like Kinsey - people like film critics and journalists - are not creating the world… they are just reporting on what already exists. Kinsey did not invent or promote homosexuality, pedophilia, extramarital relations, masturbation, foreplay or the missionary position. But he let a lot of people who hadn't thought about what was happening outside of their bedrooms (or across the street) know what the score was. But in his effort to coolly transcribe the sex lives of thousands, he also opened a Pandora's Box of questions that he (and those around him) had to consider for the first time in his life.

	Chappelle's Show: Season Two With Dave Chappell laying low in South Africa, instead of taping fresh material for Season Three, Chappelle's Show: Season Two might be the closest we come to anything new from comic for a good, long while. Fortunately, there's enough extended, unblurred and newly uncensored material in this generous set to sate the appetites of fans who have tired of watching the same old reruns on Comedy Central. Anyone without a clue as to the media's fascination with Chappell -- and, of course, his $50 million contract -- will want to check out this generous multi-disc package, which also includes extra stand-up comedy, bloopers and deleted scenes, two unaired Charlie Murphy stories, commentary from Chappelle and series co-creator Neal Brennan, and an extended version of the insanely funny Rick James sketch. Chappelle's gift was being able to take a scalpel not only to thorny race relations and bad behavior among people of all colors and income groups, but also to lampoon the media, politicians and pop-culturists who continue to deny that some racial stereotypes have a basis in fact. Sensitive liberals, for example, might find much of the material extremely offensive, where more street-level viewers would howl in recognition of the craziness that surrounds them. Racists of all stripe emerge from the parodies and sketches as the morons and simpletons they are. The first season's DVD collection was a huge hit -- which explains why $50 million isn't such an absurd number -- and this package should prove every bit as popular. Like almost every other comedian under 50 years of age, Chappelle has been influenced greatly by Richard Pryor. For the uninitiated, Columbia has repackaged Richard Pryor: Here and Now and Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip, into a single package, Richard Pryor: Stand-Up Comedy Double Feature. Both are hilarious, and surprisingly moving. Sunset Strip is the most revelatory, in that it offers a showcase for his musings on his abuse of the N-word, cocaine and his recent near-death experience. Shot about a year later, Here and Now offered the comedian a bit more time to reflect on his chaotic life and times. -- Gary Dretzka
Assault on Precinct 13 US/Canada Gross - $20 million In the original 1976 edition of Assault on Precinct 13, star-on-the-rise filmmaker John Carpenter -- successfully merged the siege mentality of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, with the non-stop zombie dread of Night of the Living Dead. Set in a police station on the outskirts of L.A., it played off of middle-class America's growing fear of urban paramilitary units, and well-publicized speculation over the balance of power between gang-bangers and cops. Jean-François Richet's similarly violent re-make moves the beleaguered outpost to Detroit, and substitutes renegade cops for the gang-bangers. Why? Because today's gangs are less dangerous to police than they are to each other and those innocent children caught in the crossfire of drive-by shootings. Corrupt cops, on the other hand, apparently will be with us forever. Here, the bad cops are desperate to capture and kill a recently arrested mobster (Laurence Fishburne), who was in cahoots with his attackers. Standing between the opposing forces are a small handful of cops, including Ethan Hawke and Brian Dennehy; a pair of bombshell babes, played by Maria Bello and Drea De Matteo; and a few other prisoners spending New Year's Eve in jail. Apparently, the filmmakers chose Detroit, so that the assault on the soon-to-be-shuttered police station could take place during a snowstorm (Buffalo probably was closed for the weekend). In any case, while the action is fairly well represented, it's impossible to suspend the amount of disbelief necessary to give the remake a pass. -- Gary Dretzka

The TV Releases Seinfeld: Season Four Scrubs: The Complete First Season Most critics agree that it took at least three years for the Seinfeld ensemble to gel as a unit, and for mainstream audiences to come to terms with co-creator Larry David's wickedly misanthropic sense of humor. As Season Four progressed, it became clear to everyone else in America that Seinfeld was destined to become a bona-fide classic -- must-see TV, to borrow a no-longer-irrelevant marketing slogan -- and worthy of being poked, prodded and dissected by pundits, academics and other observers of pop-cultural phenomena. As before, the four-disc Fourth Season package includes nearly 13 hours of bonus material, including new interviews, pop-up notes, Easter eggs and behind-the-scenes exclusives. Among the classic episodes included are The Contest, Mulva, Bubble Boy and The Junior Mint. -- Gary Dretzka The kooky medical-workplace comedy, Scrubs, was one of only a very small handful of NBC sitcoms able to survive in the estimable wake left behind by Seinfeld, Frasier and Friends. It, too, though, took a lot of getting used to, and barely made the cut. Creator Bill Lawrence wisely enlisted little-known Zach Braff (Garden State) to play the unlucky-in-love newbie doctor, J.D., who provides viewers with an entry point into a hospital overflowing with impossibly cute interns, wise-cracking nurses, their cynical bosses (John C. McGinley and Ken Jenkins are especially good), cranky janitors and oddball patients. All of the doctors and nurses could very well be the offspring of Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John McIntyre and Hot Lips Houlihan from the TV version of *MASH. When they're not all trying to get laid, the yuppie doctors learn lessons in humanity from overworked nurses and their most-desperate patients, not all of whom will be saved. The bonus material in Scrubs: The Complete First Season** includes interviews and commentary, as well as a look at the actors, before they were cast, and a demonstration of the cast's ability to improvise. -- Gary Dretzka

The Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks Flaming Lips, a rock band that defies easy classification, has survived long enough to have enjoyed several creative metamorphoses. When it emerged from Oklahoma City in the late-'80s, the Lips more closely resembled a Midwestern version of the Sex Pistols than a band that could make a dent with audiences not already addicted to noise, 40s and crystal meth. As is demonstrated in the thorough and very likable documentary, The Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks, the Lips not only were capable of putting on a wildly entertaining show, but also creating music that evolved organically with their own maturation as artists. The movie's easy intimacy derives primarily from the fact that filmmaker Bradley Beesely grew up in the same neighborhood as singer-guitarist Wayne Coyne, who emerges as a creative force and genuinely nice guy. Beesely also was given the opportunity to document Steven Drozd's love affair with heroin, along with their eventual divorce. This two-disc package stands right up there with Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. -- Gary Dretzka

Green Butchers Movies in which people are made to dine unwittingly, or otherwise, on meat of the human variety are few and far between … thank goodness, for small favors. Sweeney Todd, Delicatessen, Eating Raoul and Blood Feast come to mind, but not many more titles. Fanciers of this decidedly unappetizing sub-genre likely will relish Danish export, Green Butchers, a very dark comedy about a pair of creepy butchers who go from rags to riches on the secret ingredients of their chickie-wickies. The delicacy, produced from the meat of locals who found themselves trapped in the store's meat locker, threatens the livelihood of their former employer, whose butcher shop was known far and wide for his deer sausages. Green Butchers was written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, a veteran of the Dogma 95 group and writer of Mifune, The King Is Alive and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. His latest movie isn't for everyone, but, then, neither are deer sausages. -- Gary Dretzka

White Noise The Grudge: Director's Cut The Nameless The Darkness This is a very good week, indeed, for the kind of psycho-thrillers that make any investment in a sophisticated 5.1 home-audio system look prescient. Moreover, the current crop makes one wonder what Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann might have done, knowing that every theater in the nation, and most homes, were equipped with systems with sub-woofers the size of Volkswagens. Alas, there are very few Hitchcocks in the pipeline, and today's Herrmanns too often substitute thunderous jolts of computer-enhanced noise for versatility and style. But, I'm guessing, that's the way the studios and exhibitors want it. Geoffrey Sax's White Noise, which isn't to be confused with the Don DeLillo novel currently being adapted by Barry Sonnenfeld, is a perfect example of a movie that's full of sound and fury, signifying almost nothing. The premise is relatively simple, and not at all unlike the surprise 2000 hit, Frequency, in that both films suggest that our dead relatives can speak to us through electrical appliances. Nothing wrong with that, of course … would that we could … anything's better than sitting around the Sony, mourning the passing of Everybody Loves Raymond. Anyway, in this case, it's Michael Keaton who not only hears but also sees dead people, who, in turn, warn him of dire deeds to come. It is what it is. The critics hated it -- the loud noises probably kept them from dozing off -- but younger viewers supported it with their box-office dollars. No matter, White Noise surely will appeal to investors in new home-theater systems. (More essentially, the disc includes a guide to Recording the Afterlife at Home.) Takashi Shimizu's The Grudge: Director's Cut will give home systems a similarly vigorous workout. Essentially, Shimizu took a ghost story -- Ju-On: The Grudge -- he'd already made into a successful thriller in Japan, and re-jiggered for American audiences. Among the actors Shimizu imported to Tokyo were a post-Buffy Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Pullman, who's always game for this sort of thing. The extras include an unrated, extended director's cut of The Grudge and two shorts that provided a template for the movie. Japan isn't the only country turning out horror flicks that appeal to international audiences. Spain's Jaume Balaguero now is represented on DVD here with two exceedingly creepy thrillers -- The Nameless and The Darkness -- from the seemingly inexhaustible catalogue of Miramax/Dimension titles. Because The Darkness starred Anna Paquin and Lena Olin and Giancarlo Giannini, the 2-year-old film did receive a perfunctory release in the states last Christmas, but with a PG-13 rating. It's now coming out in a more appropriate -- for horror geeks, anyway -- Unrated version. Meanwhile, Balaguero is putting the finishing touches on another potential Spanish export, Fragile, this time starring Calista Flockhart (who needs a hit more than most baseball players). -- Gary Dretzka

MCN's 2004 DVD Year In Review
Doug Pratt's Ten Best - Multiplatter And Single Platter
Digital Nation: Gary Dretzka's Best DVDs of the Year
Ray Pride's Five Best DVDs And Five Best Boxed Sets