A Boy Named Charlie Brown/Snoopy Come Home | The Anniversary | Bee Season | Brokeback Mountain | Cale | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Films of Faith Collection | Free Enterprise | Get Rich or Die Tryin' | The Glamour Collection | How to Lose Your Lover | Left Behind DVD Collection | Liza With A Z | Love Me Tender | Mel Brooks Box Set Collection | Nine to Five: Sexist, Egotistical, Lying Hypocritical Bigot Edition | Planet of the Apes Ultimate | Project Enigma | Sliver: Unrated Edition | Stalin's Bride | Thank God It's Friday | TV to DVD | Ushpizin

The Trailer	Brokeback Mountain DVD Review: Now that the Sturm und Drang over Ang Lee’s critically lauded New Age western has finally died down, all the defenders of Hollywood virtue and genre purity – especially those academy members paralyzed by the thought of pansy cowpokes lassoing a Best Picture nod-- now can get a copy of the DVD mailed to their homes in a plain red Netflix envelope. Not that there’s anything in Brokeback Mountain that would shock the neighbors. After all, when the writers of Queer as Folk decided to “out” star quarterback Drew Boyd, no one demanded that all the closets in NFL locker-rooms be locked until the story arc ended, lest the Manning boys agree to endorse Capezio ballet slippers. MCN Review: Brokeback Mountain is not really much of a cowboy flick. The gay content of the film is the central issue (pretty much the only issue) in a shockingly conventional love story narrative that just happens to feature two cowboys (at least, both are cowboys early on) and little more that qualifies it as a western, revisionist or otherwise. The Hot Button: I returned to Brokeback Mountain on Thursday. And the movie was different for me. I wish I could say that I fell in love with it the way I did on a second viewing of Breakfast on Pluto (which makes me want a third viewing) or as Walk The Line grew on me on progressive viewings (I look forward to my fourth). This was not the case with Brokeback. In some areas, I was more engaged. In others, even less than the first time around.
The Map of Narnia Behind the Scenes The Narnia Primer	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The media made so much of the connections between Narnia and its roots in New Testament lore – as well as Disney’s desire to tap into The Passion of the Christ faithful -- it was easy to say “phooey,” and ignore its theatrical release completely. Nothing spoils a good time like a needlessly expensive niche marketing campaign and it attendant media feeding frenzy. Blessedly, director Andrew Adamson kept his focus in C.S. Lewis’ beloved story – siblings discover the portal to a fantasy wonderland while playing hide-and-seek in a dusty mansion in the English countryside -- and left the deep thinking to his audience, which, it turned out, was huge. As co-director of both Shrek triumphs, Adamson appears to be extremely comfortable around CGI animals, and his touch with humans isn’t bad, either. The young actors playing the Pevensie brood deliver nice performances, without drawing too much attention to themselves, while his casting of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch was inspired. (Is there any female role she can’t play?) Considering that the primary audience for this DVD will be kids who’ve already seen the movie, the obvious choice here would be the two-disc “Collector’s Edition,” which offers several hours worth of ancillary entertainment, literary background and making-of mini-docs. God knows, they might even be inspired to pick up the book and read it. -- Gary Dretzka
	Bee Season If the subtext of The Chronicles of Narnia derived from the New Testament, it's Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah that makes Bee Season something more than just a movie about kids who are good spellers (Akeelah and the Bee, starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, opens April 28). Bee Season was adapted by Jake and Maggie's mom, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, from the best-selling novel by Myla Goldberg. It starred Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche as the seriously mismatched parents of spelling whiz Eliza (a very good Flora Cross) and Aaron (Max Minghella), who's so ignored by his teaching-obsessed dad that he turns to the Hare Krishnas for support and guidance. Even though he's pals with the Dalai Lama and a prominent backer of humanitarian causes, Gere's good looks and faux intensity distracted me from his portrayal of a biblical scholar employed at UC-Berkeley (playing King David was enough of a stretch). As his tormented wife, who quickly devolves from MILF to junk collector, Binotte is even more unconvincing. Eliza's near-mystical ability to spell tough words is nicely handled, though. Fans of the source material likely will want to sample the DVD, which simply is too short to make sense of all of the questions raised in the novel.-- Gary Dretzka Pride, Unprejudiced: Bee Season is so visual, so joyous, in its gleaming craft, it may turn out to be suffocating to some filmgoers. It'll be interesting to discover how many (re)viewers demand a different sort of story instead of piecing together how each of the characters are alike in struggling to communicate what accelerated, frayed-wire associations play in their overworked brains.
	Get Rich or Die Tryin' Irish director Jim Sheridan might have seemed an unlikely choice to tell the rags-to-riches story of rapper 50 Cent, but his affinity for families living under extreme conditions proves valuable, here. Before making it big as a recording artist, 50 Cent – a.k.a., Curtis Jackson – lost his drug-addicted mother to street violence, and embarked on a career as a drug dealer while still in his early teens. As good as he was at his business, it was impossible for Jackson to avoid the pitfalls of the trade. Sound familiar? Like the musical pimp in Hustle & Flow, he turns to music as a way to work out his anxieties and stress. Sheridan was able to take a worldly view of life in America's criminal underworld, and take it out of the arena of low-budget exploitation in which such films are typically found. The violence is real and profoundly disturbing … no way around that. It's also difficult to empathize with nearly anyone here, including the protagonist. Still, for what it is, Get Rich or Die Tryin is darn good. -- Gary Dretzka
	Love Me Tender By most critical standards, Elvis Presley only made a half-dozen movies that mattered, and, with the exception of Don Siegel's Flaming Star and Philip Dunne's Wild in the Country, they all were completed before he was drafted into the army. The others were Love Me Tender, Loving You, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. After these, Hollywood and/or Col. Tom Parker decided that turning out two uninspired, cookie-cutter musicals a year meant far less wear and tear on their bread-winner, and much more money for them. Hard to argue with the reality that Presley would never become the next James Dean, Marlon Brando or Steve McQueen, but, somewhere along the way, the real Elvis was lost, as well … not that he seemed to mind. Love Me Tender, a post-Civil War drama with a couple of strummed songs, arrives in DVD with such goodies as commentary by Elvis historian Jerry Schilling, lobby cards, stills and the featurettes, Elvis Hits Hollywood, The King and the Colonel and Love Me Tender: The Birth and Boom of the Elvis Hit. Not many of Elvis' movies warrant much more than a discography, but the ones that do ought to get similar treatment. -- Gary Dretzka
Planet of the Apes: The Ultimate DVD Collection Planet of the Apes Legacy Boxset King Kong: 2-Disc Widescreen Special Edition This is a great week to be a primate. Not only has Peter Jackson's epic King Kong hit the streets in a bonus-filled two-disc set, but the vast entirety of Fox's Planet of the Apes sci-fi franchise has also been given the one-stop treatment in a pair of collectors' editions, one more elaborate than the other. In the 14-disc "Ultimate" edition ($180 MSRP, as they say in the car biz), all of the movies, spin-off TV and animated series, and Tim Burton's 2001 re-imagining of the original, arrive inside a furry bust of Cornelius, the ape so memorably played in 1968 by Roddy McDowell (the snippy character actor would morph into Caesar and Galen in follow-up projects). The "Legacy" collection arrives sans ape head, the Burton re-make and quite a few of the featurettes included in the "Ultimate" package (but, at a significantly lower MSRP). When Universal unleashed a stand-alone DVD package of making-of features, just ahead of the theatrical release of King Kong, it was difficult to imagine what more could be added to a super-duper DVD collector's edition. Never fear, the two-disc set adds an introduction by Jackson, an infomercial for the Volkswagen Toureg, post-production diaries, a documentary on New York's skyscraper boom of the '30s and a "natural history" of Skull Island. The critics were generally impressed by Jackson's re-make, even though it was difficult to ignore the 3-hour-plus length and needlessly elaborate backstory, and it was among this writer's top-10 titles of 2005. Watching it on the small-screen, however, almost certainly will reduce the impact of the visual experience for first-time viewers. Parents will notice an odd quirk in the rating given the Planet of the Apes package. On Amazon, both are labeled G – the rating for the Charlton Heston version and two of its sequels – while one other title is listed PG. If Planet of the Apes were to go through the MPAA process today, as did Burton's version and Jackson's King Kong, it likely would get at least a PG. Go figure. -- Gary Dretzka
Mel Brooks Box Set Collection Investing 777 minutes of time and nearly $100 (MSRP) to the comedies of Mel Brooks may appear at first blush to be a dubious proposition to those who weren't even born when the zany auteur introduced the fart joke to the cinematic vernacular in 1974's Blazing Saddles. The genres satirized in Brooks' films have little currency today – except on cable's classic movie channels – while the taboos he shattered now feel rather insignificant compared to the ones obliterated each week on South Park. (It should be noted, however, that his gay cowboys pre-dated the ones in Brokeback Mountain by 30 years.) This set from Fox would be valuable, though, if only for finally making High Anxiety, To Be or Not to Be, The Twelve Chairs, History of the World: Part 1, Silent Movie and Robin Hood: Men In Tights available in DVD, in addition to more familiar Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (Spaceballs and The Producers were MGM titles). Brooks' earliest and least known film, The Twelve Chairs, may be the best of bunch. Set in 1927, just after the Soviet Revolution, the un-typically low-key comedy follows an aristocrat-turned-clerk and a trio of opportunists as they search for jewels sewn into one of 12 dining room chairs appropriated by the state and scattered around Russia. The boxed set, which offers lots of entertaining interviews and commentaries, has gone out unrated, but the individual grades range from G to R.-- Gary Dretzka
Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection Mae West: The Glamour Collection Carole Lombard: The Glamour Collection The Anniversary Universal's Glamour Collection series continues with highly affordable DVD packages comprised of classics culled from the cache of pre-1948 Paramount titles the studio purchased in 1957, for $50 million. Almost nothing needs to be said about the actresses saluted in these sets, as they are among the most beloved and gifted of all Hollywood stars. The Dietrich set includes Morocco, Blonde Venus, The Devil Is a Woman, Flame of New Orleans and Golden Earrings; West's has Go West Young Man, Goin' To Town, I'm No Angel, My Little Chickadee and Night After Night; and Lombard's offers Hands Across the Table, Love Before Breakfast, Man of the World, The Princess Comes Across, True Confession and We're Not Dressing. Because the films have been recorded on double-sided discs, without many frills, the cost of the individual packages could be kept at $26.98, MSRP. DVD geeks expect more, but those willing to settle for a bargain will find plenty to like here. In The Anniversary, 60-year-old Bette Davis stars as a one-eyed matriarch who demands the presence of her three hapless sons at a 40th-anniversary party, even though her despised husband is long and gratefully dead. One's a cross-dresser, another is a henpecked weakling and the youngest has a pregnant wife in tow. It may not be among Ms. Davis' proudest moments, but it makes most other movies about family gatherings look like Easter-egg hunts, by comparison.-- Gary Dretzka
Ushpizin After embarking on a decade-long spiritual journey, Shuli Rand returned to the Israeli cinema to write and star in this fable about guests who wear out their welcome by refusing to leave. What distinguishes Ushpizin from a dozen other worthy films employing the same conceit is the story's religious context and its genesis as a collaboration between secular and Ultra Orthodox Jews. It was one of the first movies shot in the insular Jerusalem neighborhood Mea Shearim, with actors whose beliefs might otherwise have precluded them from participating. The drama unwinds during the weeklong Succoth holiday, when temporary dwellings are set up outside a household and food is laid out for guests, in celebration of the fall harvest. Moshe (Rand) and his wife, Malli (Michal Bat Sheva Rand, his real-life spouse), are a childless couple unable to afford such a shelter. Almost miraculously, a gift of money arrives at about the same time as a pair of escaped convicts – one, an acquaintance from Moshe's less-than-religious past – who get on the couple's last nerve, seriously testing their faith, generosity and marriage. Given how little most of us know about Ultra Orthodox communities in Israel and U.S., Ushpizin often feels as if it were a documentary. Yet, as with all such fables, there are lessons to be learned and gifts large and small for which to be thankful. -- Gary Dretzka
Nine to Five: Sexist, Egotistical, Lying Hypocritical Bigot Edition This entertaining revenge-comedy was released in 1980 – not exactly at the apex of the women's liberation movement – but it feels like something much older … almost archival. Directed by the late Colin Higgins, who also wrote Harold and Maude (but, wisely, didn't direct it), Nine to Five describes what happens when an unlikely trio of co-conspirators discover a clever way to make their sexist boss pay for his many sins. It starred Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, but freshman actor Dolly Parton stole the show (she also wrote the theme song, which became a hit). This special edition contains commentary by the lead actors, deleted scenes, gag reel, retrospective featurettes and a karaoke video. - Gary Dretzka
Cake How to Lose Your Lover These formulaic romantic comedies are exactly the kinds of movies that emerging TV stars and once-promising screen actors make as favors to a friend, while on hiatus from their regular television gigs or because no one has offered them anything better to do, lately. They couldn't have required much effort, and, with some judicious editing, look OK on a performance reel. Even if most of them go straight to DVD, the recognizable names and faces on the jackets often attract the attention of browsers in rental stores. They aren't bad, necessarily, but they're a light year or two from good. In Cake, the lovely Heather Graham – whose career may never recover from the debacle of Emily's Reasons Why Not -- plays free-spirited travel-writer Pippa McGee, who, while contemptuous of marriage, is handed the reins to her father's failing magazine, Wedding Bells. Hilarity ensues after Pippa clashes with her father's conservative right-hand man (David Sutcliffe, of Gilmore Girls) and an uptight business manager (Cheryl Hines, of Curb Your Enthusiasm). Not. Her allies include, naturally, an overtly gay assistant (Keram Malicki-Sánchez, The L Word), a hunky staff photographer (Taye Diggs, Will & Grace) and a sarcastic booger-buddy (Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy). Of all these characters, which two will be hearing wedding bells by the time the end-credits begin to roll? Duh. In How to Lose Your Lover (a.k.a., 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover), Paul Schneider, of All the Real Girls, plays one of those unlucky-in-love writers who's too nice for his own good. You know the type. Madness ensues when he decides he's had enough of the L.A. dating scene, and attempts to burn all of his bridges before leaving town. Not. Just in the nick of time, Owen runs-cute into the crush-worthy Val (Jennifer Westfeldt, Kissing Jessica Stein), and he must revise his plans. Because no romantic comedy these days can exist without a gay subplot, viewers are left to wonder, as well, if Owen's bisexual roommate (Poppy Montgomery, Without a Trace) will score with a suitably cute lesbian (Tori Spelling, of … well … you know). As also seems mandatory these days, Fred Willard makes an appearance as Owen's frazzled boss. Both are rated R" for no reason that I can determine, beyond some naughty language. -- Gary Dretzka
Free Enterprise It's difficult to tell exactly which act of William Shatner's long career is represented by his irresistible work in ABC's Boston Legal. Few remember that he began his TV career as Ranger Bob, on Howdy Doody, and, before assuming the role of Captain James T. Kirk, was a fixture in dozens of medical, legal, PI, western, thriller series. After Star Trek went off the air for the first time, in 1969, Shatner remained a familiar face in television, as either a guest star or lead character. For many of us, though, whatever he accomplished in Star Trek was eclipsed in Roger Corman's drive-in classic, Big Bad Mama, during which he was required to get jiggy with Angie Dickinson. (Wouldn't it be wonderful if they rekindled their lust affair, however briefly, in Boston Legal?) Then, came the theatrical features spun off the success of Trekreruns; a brief, notorious singing career; and T.J. Hooker. Having OD'd on the antics of trekkies after the mass suicide in San Diego, I didn't pay much attention to Free Enterprise during its first couple of go-rounds. Too bad, for me. What looked, at first glance, to be yet another faux-doc parody of cult fanaticism was, in fact, a fresh and delightful comedy about breaking into the Hollywood mainstream under the guidance of a kooky mentor. Shatner played himself, much in the same way Marlon Brando reprised Vito Corleone in The Freshman. He's wonderful as the self-aware muse to a pair of young filmmakers (Rafer Weigel, Eric McCormack), who are trying to sell a flick in which a serial killer targets women named after characters in The Brady Bunch. The extended-cut version of Free Enterprise has been given an extensive tune-up, as well as commentary from the principals, featurettes, a music video, interviews with trekkies who inspired the screenwriter, screen tests and deleted scenes.-- Gary Dretzka
Left Behind DVD Collection Several years before Mel Gibson introduced Hollywood to this country's huge, rapidly expanding born-again Christian demographic, the producers of movies in the Left Behind series not only were tapping into this underserved market, but they also were creating franchise titles. The first of the titles adapted from the novels of Jerry B. Jenkins and the Rev. Tim LaHaye was sent out on video in 2000, along with a free pass to watch the film in its limited theatrical release the next year early. Employing well-trod sci-fi and disaster-movie conventions, the creative teams behind the three films included in this box set – Left Behind: The Movie, Tribulation Force and World at War – worked off a template provided by the Book of Revelations, which anticipates a great war between the forces of God and the Anti-Christ. The storylines for these Canadian-made pot-boilers are filled with mystery, betrayals, hidden identities and, yes, even thoughts of adultery … just like most of the action films allowed to ooze out of Hollywood. If one believes the bible, however, the stakes are quite a bit higher. The DVD collection offers several behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as commentary, deleted scenes, interviews, music videos and bloopers. -- Gary Dretzka
Stalin's Bride Somewhere in Europe Capricious Summer Just Beyond This Forest Project Enigma Twilight So many movies, so little time … that's how I feel whenever I get the monthly new-release package from Facets Video. Terrific films I never guessed existed, representing cinemas from around the globe, transform otherwise ordinary afternoons into explorations into distant cultures and unstudied histories. The most exciting discovery this time around was Somewhere in Europe, a remarkable work of neo-realism from post-war Hungary that was completed at about the same time as Vittorio De Sica's Shoeshine, and two years before his revered The Bicycle Thief. Directed by Geza Radvanyi and co-written by Bela Balazs, the film follows an expanding gang of children, orphaned and made homeless by the war, who must live by their wits or die of starvation. After breaking into the home of an elderly pianist and composer, and nearly hanging him just for fun, the wise old man convinces the hooligans to form a community of peers and work together for a common good. Local authorities, however, conspire to punish the tramp children and run them out of town. Having absorbed the old man's advice, the gang proves a formidable foe to the men who replaced the Nazi occupiers, but were similarly oppressive. It truly is a remarkable film, if, perhaps, a bit too communal for export to an America consumed with fear of anything left of Harry Truman. Stalin's Bride, by Hungarian filmmaker Peter Bacso, looks back at the summer of 1937 in a rural town in the Soviet Union beleaguered by the demands of insatiable Moscow bureaucrats. Juli Basti gives an astonishing performance as a dimwitted young woman who's become convinced that Stalin is personally protecting her from persecution from the local lay-abouts. His image floats above the collective farms on a large poster, and some local officials fear her story might be true, even in a metaphysical sort of way. Their paranoia speaks volumes about the pervasive state of terror and repression of the time. From the Czech New Wave comes Jiri Menzel's charming comedy, Capricious Summer. Set in a riverside resort at the turn of the century, the film eavesdrops on three middle-aged friends as they contemplate the limitations imposed on them by growing old. A spark of hope for returned youth arrives in the form of a caravan carrying an assertive acrobat and his flirtatious blond assistant. Tables get turned, and hearts broken, but Capricious Summer will leave viewers smiling. Other new Facets releases include Just Beyond This Forest, from Poland, in which a washerwoman reluctantly agrees to help the daughter of her former employer, a Jew, escape from the Warsaw ghetto to the relative security of the countryside; Project Enigma explains how a trio of Polish mathematicians helped the Brits crack the Nazi secret code machine; El Compadre Mendoza, the second installment in Fernando de Fuentes' trilogy of the Mexican revolution; Twilight, a recent Iranian export in which a veteran police inspector is confronted with a mystery that tests his will to survive; and Waiting for the Moon, which takes us back to 1936, when Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas opened their home to Ernest Hemingway and other noteworthy writers of the time. -- Gary Dretzka
A Boy Named Charlie Brown/Snoopy Come Home The Little Colonel/Dimples/The Littlest Rebel Four years after successfully transitioning from the funny pages to TV, Charles Schulz, Bill Melendez and the rest of the animated Peanuts gang made another substantial leap, this time to the big screen, with A Boy Named Charlie Brown. It would be followed three years later by Snoopy Come Home. The feature-length comedies took their own sweet time getting the DVD, but Schulz' creations never grow old. In addition to the familiar piano styling of Vince Guaraldi, the 1969 movie featured words and music by Rod McKuen. Richard and Robert Sherman took over the same chores on Snoopy Come Home. The growing Peanuts gang carries most of the load here, though … delightfully so. In the mid-'30s, Shirley Temple was America's darling, and The Little Colonel, Dimples and The Littlest Rebel were a big part of her early fame. What distinguishes these titles in the continuing series of Fox re-releases is the estimable presence of pre-GWTW Hattie McDaniel and the great hoofer, Bill Robinson. Their stairway dance in The Little Colonel is one of the most memorable moments in film history. These pictures were re-submitted for ratings, and somehow got a PG. The only conceivable reason why these would require parental guidance is in the stereotypical depictions of blacks in the ante-bellum South, which occasionally border on the heinous, and might need some explanation. How about: Well, kids, studio executives of the time were only slightly less racist than the Grand Poobahs of the KKK, and were equal-opportunity exploiters of minority entertainers (you should see how Arabs were depicted!). -- Gary Dretzka
Films of Faith Collection DVD buyers of the Roman Catholic persuasion will have to make do with The Nun's Story, The Shoes of the Fisherman and The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, which, while inspirational, feel dreadfully anachronistic at a time when American archdiocese are confronted with such tough issues as sexual abuse, a shortage of priests and church closings. Films like these, from Warner Bros., once had the same impact as recruiting posters during times of war. Now, however, movies about priests and nuns – their transgressions, certainly, but also the great sacrifices demanded by their callings -- have had the opposite effect. In Fred Zinnemann's The Nun's Story, Audrey Hepburn plays a nun whose medical training and humanitarian instincts clash with Rome's decision to remain neutral in World War II. In The Shoes of the Fisherman, Anthony Quinn plays a the archbishop of Lvov, who, after spending 20 years in a Siberian labor camp, goes to Rome to be groomed as a future pope. The cast also includes Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Vittorio De Sica, Oskar Werner, David Janssen and Leo McKern. The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima takes a no-frills approach to retelling the story of three young Portuguese shepherds, who, at the height of World War I, were visited by the Virgin Mary, and withstood pressure from government officials to recant the miracle. Today, these sorts of visions only come to us on tortillas, in window reflections and weeping statues. .-- Gary Dretzka
Thank God It's Friday Liza with a "Z": A Concert for Television: Collector's Edition There's no evidence to suggest that Thank God It's Friday was responsible for the infamous Disco Demolition night at Chicago's Comiskey Park, in 1979. It did nothing to prevent it, however. Set during a single night at a Los Angeles disco, it follows nearly a dozen different characters – including those played by Donna Summer, Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger – as they struggle to make the most of the most important single evening of their young lives. It plays a whole lot better as a camp classic than a movie to be taken seriously this or any year. And, that's really no great sin. No one personified the excesses of the disco crowd than Studio 54 regular Liza Minnelli, but the music of Gloria Gaynor, the Commodores and KC and the Sunshine is as distant from that in Liza With a Z, as choreographer Bob Fosse's dances were to those of Tony Manero. The TV special was taped in 1972, the same year as Minnelli and Fosse came to national prominence with Cabaret. The Collector's Edition arrives with the Grammy-winning soundtrack on a separate CD, commentary by Minnelli, a fan Q&A at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, her performance at the 2005 GLAAD Awards, interviews with Cabaret, New York, New York and Chicago composer John Kander, and "Biography: Liza Minnelli" from A&E Network. - Gary Dretzka
Sliver: Unrated Edition Early reviews haven't been kind to Sharon Stone's effort to re-capture lightning in a bottle with Basic Instinct 2. Neither were they especially favorable for her first follow-up psycho-thriller to Basic Instinct, Sliver, which was directed by Phillip Noyce and written by Joe Eszterhas. Set in a posh Manhattan high-rise apartment building, it imagines what might happen if the building's perverted owner (William Baldwin) had hidden-camera access to the residences of all of his tenants. In 1993, the premise felt as if it were a bit of a stretch, but, of course, the Golden Age of voyeurism wouldn't begin for another five years (by then, he'd sell access to his in-house network on the Internet, and make a second fortune). Now, it's almost quaint. The flashy whodunit has its moments, certainly, but the abundance of nudity – and this unrated edition offers only a few more thrusts and butt-shots – often gets in the way of a coherent storyline. Polly Walker (Rome) plays Stone's next-door neighbor, but her intense sexuality and voluptuous body are wasted … in consideration, perhaps, of the diva. - Gary Dretzka
TV-to-DVD Knots Landing: The Complete First Season Masters of Horror: Stuart Gordon/John Carpenter Sleeper Cell I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete First Season (Black & White) Blue Collar TV: Season 1, Volume 2 Robot Chicken: Volume 1 HBO Documentaries Wire in the Blood: The Complete Third Season Six Feet Under: The Complete Fifth Season The nighttime soap, Knot's Landing, first appeared on CBS in 1979, two years before Dynasty and Falcon Crest. A spin-off of the network's wildly successful Dallas, it followed Ewing-kinfolk Gary and Valene to a cul-de-sac in a SoCal community. The neighborhood was comprised of five families that did all sorts of dastardly things to each other for 344 episodes and a reunion special. Even if it didn't have the sardonic bite of a Desperate Housewives, Knot's Landing was bitchy to the core … and glamorous to a fault. Showtime provided a showcase for some of today's most respected practitioners of edge-of-your-seat thrillers with its Masters of Horror anthology series. For the most part, the directors and writers lived up to their reputations, as the entries helmed by Stuart Gordan (Re-Animator) and John Carpenter (The Fog, Halloween) can fully attest. Based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, "Dreams in the Witch House" speculates on what might happen to a stressed-out student who rents a room in a house haunted by she-devils and hungry rats. Carpenter's Cigarette Burns is an ode to the power of movies not only to enchant, but to also bore under one's skin and devour the soul. These are the first two entries in a series that promises to be very popular among horror fanatics. The extras are very generous, including some neat DVD-ROM features, as well as the usual interviews and making-of material. Showtime's frighteningly topical mini-series Sleeper Cell took an episode or two to get into high gear, but, once it did, it was impossible not to be hooked by the tick-tock drama. In this way, it resembled 24 … and the stakes were equally high. The focus of the drama is a deep-cover agent for the FBI (Michael Ealy), a devout Muslim, who infiltrates a cell of terrorists intent on pulling off a mass murder of Americans. The group's leader, played by an icy Oded Fehr, couldn't be any more calculating, cold-blooded or convincing. The other members, of course, provide a more diverse representation of worldwide Islam, as do the peace-loving members of the agent's mosque. NBC's I Dream of Jeannie was less a spin-off of ABC's Bewitched than a direct knock-off of the popular sitcom, which debuted in 1964. Barbara Eden played the gorgeous blond genie discovered by an astronaut (Larry Hagman, who would later star in Dallas) stranded on a tropical island. Once back home, Jeannie elects to move in with Captain Tony and mess with his mind for the next five years. Launched a year or two before the women's-liberation movement would make its presence felt, I Dream of Jeannie was defended as yet another example of how sitcom women – however subservient on the surface – could always turn the tables on their easily duped husbands. The shows in the freshman season were shot in black and white, but the The Complete First Season comes in a colorized version, too. Eden, Hagman and the show's creator, Sidney Sheldon, provide interviews. The redneck sketch-comedy show, Blue Collar TV, reunited three members of the original Blue Collar Comedy Tour -- Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and Jeff Foxworthy – all of whom are wildly inventive, supremely goofy and fully aware of what their fans expect of them (and where they draw the line on taste). If you don't already know if you might be a redneck, these guys will let you know in a hurry. The only problem with this DVD set is that it goes a step further toward confusing consumers about what they're getting for their money. By dividing this first-season collection into two volumes, instead of waiting to send out all 33 episodes in one package (now, also available as Blue Collar TV: Season 1, Volumes 1& 2) it forces potential buyers to put too much effort into the process. That's never a good thing when dealing with convenience products, which is essentially what DVDs were meant to be. Created by Seth Green and Matt Senreich, Robot Chicken uses stop-motion animation, puppets and action figures to skewer popular TV shows, movies and celebrities. Naturally, it emerged from the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming bloc, where no bar is too low or cow too sacred. And, that's exactly the way it should be at 11:30 at night. There's no more convenient place to find high-quality documentaries than on premium cable/satellite. The best in non-fiction originals compete extremely well with the theatrical films, original biopics and first-run series, proving on a weekly basis that the truth can be as entertaining and provocative as fiction. The latest batch from HBO includes, Twist of Faith, about sexual abuse in the priesthood; Death in Gaza, which describes the spiral of violence in the West Bank and Gaza; Naked World, in which artist Spencer Tunick spans the globe to photograph ensembles of disrobed people; Left of the Dial, which chronicles Air America Radio's early struggles; conversations with Kirk and Michael Douglas, in A Father … A Son: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; and Soldiers in the Army of God, about the radical anti-abortion group. BBC America has reserved Monday nights for its darkest crime series, and Wire in the Blood – based on a novel by Val McDermid -- fits right in with the rest of the gritty procedurals. Robson Green may not have much of a presence on American television, but he's the real deal. Green's intense clinical psychologist, Dr. Tony Hill, empathizes with victims and perpetrators, to the point where he can re-create the crimes in his head. Now, on American television, such a cop would also be required to be something of a goofball, like Adrian Monk, or be surrounded by cutesy-pie actors. Hill and his most-regular partner, Carol Jordon (Hermione Norris), reflect the serious of the crimes they investigate and cloudy skies of northern England. HBO's amazing dramatic series Six Feet Under may be dead and buried, but, as long as these DVD collections are available, it won't be forgotten any time soon. The new boxed set collects the show's final season, including the haunting finale, during which the whole cycle of a family's life comes together in 75 minutes. There can be no spin-offs and sequels, just memories of high-quality work. As usual, the featurettes are interesting and entertaining. - Gary Dretzka