DVD Releases: June 17, 2005


	A Dirty Shame US/Canada Gross - $1.34 million John Waters' musings on the world of Baltimorian fetish culture, A Dirty Shame, arrives on DVD in both R- and NC-17-rated version. I suppose that means that Blockbuster now will be able to stock the outrageous comedy in mass quantities, but where's the fun in experiencing watered-down Waters? A Dirty Shame is closer in scatological tone to the maestro's earliest works, than any of his last half-dozen pictures. In it, Waters imagines a working-class neighborhood in which a cultural war is brewing between the local Taliban and an insurgent army of the most extreme fetishists you're likely to encounter this side of the Internet. After the leader of the prudes, Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman), suffers a head injury during a traffic accident, she's rescued by sexual missionary Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville), and is transformed into a nymphomaniac. It's the tamest and most commonplace of the fetishes described in the movie. A Dirty Shame is one of those way-offbeat exercises one either buys into, or they don't. There's very little middle ground. Personally, I found it hilarious. But, then, I'm a sucker for any picture with Patty Hearst in it. -- Gary Dretzka My name is Ray-Ray and I'm here to service you.

	The Bette Davis Collection The Joan Crawford Collection Thanks to the general inability of celebrity journalists to find new words to describe tired patterns of bad behavior, any actor -- female or male -- who throws a temper tantrum in public is said to be suffering from incipient diva-hood. For evidence of genuine diva attitude and presence, one need only turn to Warners' essential The Bette Davis Collection and The Joan Crawford Collection, both of which include several of their most celebrated pictures. Miss Davis is represented with new-to-DVD editions of Mr. Skeffington and The Star, as well as a fresh striking of Dark Victory and re-formatted versions of Now Voyager and The Letter. In turn, Miss Crawford can be seen three new-to-DVD releases, The Damned Don't Cry, Humoresque and Possessed, as well as re-packaged editions of Mildred Pierce and The Women. The featurettes and commentaries provide a treasure trove of treats for fans, buffs and drag queens, all of whom can distinguish a diva from a flash in the pan. If any further evidence is needed, there's Robert Aldrich's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, a thriller that played off Davis and Crawford's antagonism towards each other, and proved to be a great success for both at the twilight of their monumental careers. -- Gary Dretzka
	Casino: 10th Anniversary Edition In Casino: 10th Anniversary Edition, Martin Scorsese is given the comfort of distance to make the case for the worthiness of his study of hubris among rank-and-file mobsters, and how they affected their own exile from paradise. Critics were hardly unanimous in their praise of this precise and often very exciting adaptation of Nick Pileggi's non-fiction account of the same period, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. At the time, Casino was criticized primarily for its similarity to Goodfellas, without allowing Scorsese the conceit of it being the concluding chapter in a gangsters-are-people-too trilogy, which began 20 years earlier with Mean Streets. Moreover, Las Vegas had yet to be re-discovered by swingers, hotties and Rat Pack-wannabes. In the eyes of the critical community, it remained a place where bad clothes and worse acts went to die. Today, of course, it's easy to see how the decisions and mistakes made in Casino have paid off for a new generation of casino moguls, all of whom take their orders from Wall Street, not the Gambino crime family or some mook in Kansas City. For some odd reason, the commentary track doesn't follow what's being shown on the screen, and is repeated in interviews on Side 2 of the discs. Other features are cribbed from cable news specials. The movie is great, the extras aren't up to snuff for an anniversary edition. -- Gary Dretzka

	Jaws: 30th Anniversary Edition Jaws completists caution there really isn't much that's special or new in Universal's 30th Anniversary Edition of the landmark thriller. Apart from a two-hour The Making of Jaws and a fresh interview with Steven Spielberg, it's the same old kettle of fish. That said, anyone who's yet to experience the movie that changed forever the way Hollywood would make and market tent-pole projects will find this version as good as any a place to start. It's a terrific movie, and the added behind-the-scenes material is well worth perusing. -- Gary Dretzka This was the first movie to reach the $100 million mark.

Brother to Brother In his impressive feature debut, Brother to Brother, director Rodney Evans describes what it's like to be young, gifted and black -- and gay -- in New York City. That's the high-concept synopsis, anyway. The Spirits-nominated film, which is being released by Wolfe Video after a tour of the festival circuit, extends the conceit by observing what it must have been like being young, gifted, black and gay during the Harlem Renaissance. It's viewed through the aging eyes of a character based on based on the late Richard Bruce Nugent, who was the first African-American to publish a fictional story on homosexuality. We learn that many of the same prejudices, including those fostered within the American-American community, are no different today than they were in the '30s. The challenge still comes in being able to recognize one's voice, and using as a declaration of freedom and creativity. -- Gary Dretzka

The Nomi Song: The Klaus Nomi Odyssey Try to imagine Maria Callas and Elvis Presley performing a duet on Lou Christie's golden-oldie, Lightning Strikes, and you'll have some concept of the unique vocal styling of Klaus Nomi, a performance artist who looked like a UFO pilot and sang like an angel. Andrew Horn's splendid documentary portrait, The Nomi Song: The Klaus Nomi Odyssey, not only examines the German-born singer's brief period of stardom among New York's terminally hip glitterati in the late '70s and early '80s, but it also allows us to see the man hidden behind the makeup and costumes. The bonus material includes much archival performance, including Nomi's appearance with fellow space-oddity David Bowie on Saturday Night Live in 1979. -- Gary Dretzka

The Reivers For those who want to experience another side of Steve McQueen's on-screen charisma and range, there's The Reivers. William Faulkner, in one of his lighter moments, penned this period homage to life in the rural South, circa 1905. This on-the-road romp through Faulkner's northern Mississippi in a stolen car -- a four-day trip to the brothels of Memphis -- also features fine work by Robert Crosse, Will Geer and the memorable narration by Burgess Meredith. This mostly forgotten treasure is great fun, and a reminder of how good a Hollywood comedy can be when done right. -- Gary Dretzka

Tarzan II Tarzan II, from Disney, is a prequel to its hit animated feature, set in an Africa absent any black faces. OK, despite that nagging detail, it was a lot of fun. This version employs many traditional Disney formulas in its portrait of an ape-boy coming to grips with the fact that he's not actually related by blood to his simian foster parents. George Carlin, Brad Garrett, Glenn Close, Lance Henrikson and Estelle Harris have lent their voices to the project, and there are three original songs by Phil Collins. The kids should love it. -- Gary Dretzka

The Robert Greenwald Documentary Collection The Robert Greenwald Documentary Collection is comprised of the paranoia-inducing trio of Uncovered, Outfoxed, Unconstitutional and bonus disc, with the filmmaker's observations on his methodology and up-dates on their impact. Each is a stimulating exercise in politicized documentary making -- especially, at a time when American was coming apart at its red- and blue-state seams -- but, perhaps, their greatest impact will come in the marketing strategy by which they were launched. All were commercially released in 2004 but, before hitting the DVD and international theatrical trail, were made available by MoveOn.org and the Center for American Progress via the Internet. Detractors of Fox News and its cadre of right-wing opportunists will especially enjoy the extra material on Outfoxed. -- Gary Dretzka

Mary Pickford's Through The Back Door Suds & Hearto O' The Hills Milestone Film continues its heroic work in presenting essential silent-era classics in newly restored editions, with lots of neat extras. It recently delighted fans of the great Mary Pickford with the concurrent release of Suds, with three different final scenes; Through the Back Door, in which Mary scrubs a muddy floor by strapping brushes to her feet and skating around the room; and, the hillbilly drama Heart O' The Hills, which pitted Mary against evil industrialists hoping to profit from the bounty of them thar' hills. Nice stuff. -- Gary Dretzka

The Television Updates Tilt: Season One Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman The King of Queens The highlight of this week's outpouring of TV-to-DVD titles comes in the form of Tilt: Season One, the eight-episode series from ESPN that examined life of big-time poker players. What, you didn't know ESPN featured original programming not of a game-day variety? You're not alone. Tilt, which arrives with plenty of poker-related extras, came to the all-sports netwok from the creators of Rounders, and features Michael Madsen, and several other faces familiar to TV viewers. Like ESPN's previous foray into original series, Playmakers, this one offered insights into the world of big-money players -- in the broadest sense -- who don't always behave in heroic ways. Also noteworthy is Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, in which desperate-housewife Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain offered a contemporary take on both the classic superhero and the ground-breaking series, Moonlighting. The hybrid worked pretty well, for a while, and set the stage for Smallville. Next year will be crucial for the creators and stars of CBS' The King of Queens, as they will learn first-hand how much the show benefited from its proximity to Everyone Loves Raymond. This collection of fourth season episodes is for those to wait for syndicated reruns, or are very big fans of men-are-lovable-swine sitcom. Then, too, come the mini-series sequel, The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years, Wonder Woman: The Complete Third Season, Home Improvement: The Complete Second Season and The Dukes of Hazzard: The Complete Third Season, with a discount coupon for the upcoming theatrical version. . -- 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