The Wrap Up ...
Happy Feet	Not long ago, the odds against movies about Emperor penguins winning Academy Awards in successive years would charitably be put at a million-to-one. That a third one, Sony's animated Surf's Up, could be in contention for yet another Oscar next February is almost too bizarre to contemplate. Happy Feet surprised many observers by being named Best Animated Feature, over Disney's similarly excellent Cars. If the academy gave trophies for Best Choreography, Happy Feet might have won that distinction, as well. Weird, considering circus elephants are lighter on their feet than penguins. That the director of the Mad Max series could produce such a delightful musical comedy also is far less difficult to imagine when one remembers that George Miller also was responsible for the two Babe movies, either as writer, director or producer. Here, the misfit character is an irrepressible penguin named Mumble (voiced Elijah Woods), who is more likely to dance than waddle, and easily makes friends outside the close-knit community. The DVD package adds two new animated sequences, a private dance lesson with Savion Glover, a pair of music videos from Gia and Prince, and Tex Avery's 1936 cartoon parody of The Jazz Singer, I Love to Singa. -- Gary Dretzka
Pursuit of Happyness	Every time Will Smith plays a character with a bit more depth than, say, a robot hunter, alien killer or date doctor, academy voters are so filled with surprise and admiration they reward him with an Oscar nomination, as was the case with Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness. Critics and publicists also acted as if the Fresh Prince had emerged from a cocoon and ascended on gossamer wings to Hollywood. It's time to face facts, kids. Smith, who's approaching 40, is capable of acting with the best of 'em, and has been doing so for many years. Until The Pursuit of Happyness, however, Smith's so-called serious work has been rewarded with only lukewarm box-office support. (If his fans only want the kind of comedic action that opens on the 4th of July and is in video by Halloween, well, it's difficult to fault Smith for delivering it to them.) The Pursuit of Happyness tells the true story of a medical-appliance salesman, who, despite being homeless and nearly penniless, beats the odds by being accepted into an apprentice program at a prestigious brokerage firm. Succeeding in his business pursuits wouldn't mean anything to Smith's Chris Gardner if he wasn't also able to provide for the son he has committed to raising as a single parent. His struggle is, at once, heartbreaking, harrowing and completely uplifting. In other hands than those of the gifted Italian director Gabriele Muccino -- and on a lesser budget than Smith's presence typically accords -- Happyness might have packed all the emotional wallop of your average Hallmark Hall of Fame production. A good part of the reason for the film's success can be laid on the rapport between Smith and his real-life son, Jaden, who has all the markings of a natural talent. The extras include commentary by Muccino (Remember Me, One Last Kiss), and featurettes on the Smiths, Muccino, the actual Chris Gardner, An Italian Take on the American Dream and Inside the Rubik's Cube. -- Gary Dretzka
Children of Men	Alfonso Cuaron's terrifying vision of a world without children may have told one of the most disturbing socio-political stories of 2006, but it came disguised as one of the year's most exciting thrillers, as well. Based on a 1993 novel by P.D. James, Children of Men imagined a futuristic England that was so divided by race and culture, it might as well have been Lebanon at the height of its civil war or governed by the ultraviolent droogies of A Clockwork Orange. It is 2027, and the last time a baby was delivered was in 2009. In England, immigration has been outlawed and terrorism is a way of life for Londoners. The film's protagonist, Theo (Clive Owen), is a bureaucrat who finds himself enmeshed in a crusade by the radical Human Project to protect a woman who somehow managed to become pregnant, and, as such, holds the key to the future of mankind. Whether mankind is worth saving, however, is another question altogether. Theo's race to rendezvous with a ship commissioned by the Human Project to help the woman escape England is extremely exciting, violent and creatively rendered. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki leads us and them through a vast urban concentration camp, where government forces wage war on otherwise harmless immigrants and a vast array of terrorists and freedom fighters. As frightening as it, the chase also is fun to watch, as are the small, gemlike performances by Michael Caine and Julianne Moore. The DVD package adds deleted scenes, the featurettes The Possibility of Hope and Under Attack, the thoughts of social commentator Slavoj Zizek and discussions of the futuristic design and visual effects. -- Gary Dretzka Children of Men: With a vigorous, headlong visual style and an eagerness to dispense with explication, Alfonso Cuarón's canny present-tense futurism, a thriller set in the London of twenty years from now, is also about the present moment, dispenses with superficial science-fiction trappings to weave an enthralling fable about the issues of immigration presently facing both First and Third World nations.
Curse of the Golden Flower	Zhang Yimou's visually stunning follow-up to the vastly entertaining House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will provide the perfect test for anyone's home-theater system. The color scheme ranges from ultra-vivid reds, yellows and gold, to inky black, which stands in discreet contrast to flat black in scenes involving ninja attacks. The palette speaks to the opulence and majesty of the court of Emperor Ping (Chow Yun Fat), who reigned during the Tang Dynasty. Curse of the Golden Flower describes the treachery surrounding the emperor's plans for his succession. In a series of conspiratorial events best described as Shakespearean, Ping's fanatical grip of medieval China is tested by his wife, children, a former lover and the imperial physician. Meanwhile, for his part, Ping is slowly poisoning the Empress Phoenix (Gong Li), who's the daughter of a onetime rival and engaged in an affair with her stepson. All of the meshugaas comes to head on the eve of the Chysanthemum Festival, 928 A.D., when her army of gold-armored soldiers confronts the black ninjas and silver-suited soldiers of her husband in courtyard of the palace, which has been transformed into a carpet of brilliant yellow flowers. It would be interesting to know how much Zhang paid the thousands of extras for their work in the calamitous battle sequences (or, were they recruited from the army, as often happens?). In Hollwyood, 90 percent of the combatants would have been computer-generated. Chung Man Yee's costume designs, which deserved the Oscar that went to Marie Antoinette, are nothing short of amazing. The informative making-of extras also add greatly to the enjoyment of Curse of the Golden Flower. -- Gary Dretzka
Casino Royale	Before the release last fall of the latest edition to the Bond canon, the venerable MGM franchise was sorely in need of resuscitation. Although the movies never lacked for action and guilty pleasure, they rarely left audiences panting for more … or, for that matter, able to remember what transpired between chases. Despite Daniel Craig's excellent credentials as an appealingly rugged leading man, the entertainment press took it upon itself to raise as many doubts as possible about his ability to fill the shows of Sean Connery, if not every 007 in between. The ecstatic reviews that greeted Casino Royale -- and Craig -- quickly forced the parasitic rabble-rousers in the tabloids to eat their words. The series has always required of viewers an abnormally large suspension of disbelief, and that remains the case here. What's different, besides Bond's light-brown hair, is Craig's ability to convince us of Bond's vulnerability to pain; an inability to control all of his inner demons, all the time; a tendency to treat women badly; and an explosive temper. Neither did the star of Layer Cake and Munich look as if he stepped out of pages of GQ, circa 1960. In Casino Royale, his mission involved plugging a pipeline that linked terrorists to amoral financiers. This isn't to say Casino Royale is without cheeky humor or romance. Bond-obsessives had plenty of fun with the screenplay's sly tweaking of 007 clichés and iconography, an activity made easier by their DVD players' ability to rewind and freeze images. A second disc includes featurettes, Becoming Bond, in which Craig's acting mission is laid out; James Bond: For Real, which explores the action sequences and stunts; the self-explanatory, Bond Girls Are Forever; and a video of Chris Cornell's, You Know My Name. -- Gary Dretzka
Rocky Balboa	Considering that almost everyone not named Sylvester Stallone probably saw the word bomb written all over the posters for Rocky Balboa, it's remarkable just how entertaining the sixth film in the franchise series turned out to be. I'm guessing that's because the writer-director-star has a far greater sense of humor about himself and broader perspective on his primary meal ticket than anyone gave him credit for possessing. On the face of it, the prospect of Rocky launching a George Foreman-like comeback against a clearly more dominant athlete is preposterous. Instead, Stallone conjured a scenario that's relatively believable. A cable sports show commissioned a software company to stage a computer dream match between an in-his-prime Rocky versus the current champ, a boxer who many experts feel may not be as good as his record would lead anyone to believe. Despite the fact Rocky emerges as the cyber-winner -- in a classic test of raw power over skill and athleticism -- the pugilist-turned-restaurateur dismisses the results as nonsense. Champ Mason Dixon, however, is convinced by his handlers that a real bout between the two would boost his profile and dispel speculation he's ducking formidable foes. No reputable boxing commission would approve such a bout, despite Rocky being in great shape. But, when promoted as an exhibition that would benefit charity, it became exactly the kind of pre-sold hype-fest Las Vegas promoters drool over in their dreams. The match itself, of course, is every bit as preposterous as it is beside the point. Rocky has always been a fairy tale, and Rocky Balboa is the biggest fantasy of them all … for the boxer, Stallone and any aging Boomer who wants one last shoot at a title. The set adds commentary by Stallone, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, bloopers and making-of featurettes on the staging of both the movie fight and computer simulation. -- Gary Dretzka
Ghost: Special Collector's Edition The financial success of a movie is seldom based on the impact of a single moment. But, Jerry Zucker's paranormal romantic-fantasy Ghost is still recalled for the scene in which the ghost of a New York financier manifests his sexual longing for the woman he left behind, as she massages a ceramic phallus … er, sculpture. By all rights, it should have been Whoopi Goldberg -- the medium through whom Patrick Swayze's ghost relates to Demi Moore's grieving widow -- who tickles the sculptor's fancy. But, then, the scene would be as romantic as your average Three Stooges short, and would have no resonance today. As far-fetched as critics in 1990 considered the genre-bending film to be, word-of-mouth publicity helped Ghost score one of the largest box-off hauls of the '90s. This collector's edition adds commentary by Zucker and writer Bruce Joel Rubin; a trio of featurettes, a photo gallery and updated soundtrack. -- Gary Dretzka
Harsh Times You never know what kind of movie in which Christian Bale will turn up, next. The Welch native seems capable of portraying characters that run the gamut from selfless superhero to Jesus Christ, from vain yuppie psychopath to emaciated machinist. In Harsh Times, he plays a former U.S. Ranger who returns to the U.S. with more than one screw loose. After his dream of becoming a L.A. cop evaporates, his Jim Davis lands a job with the feds. (Apparently, Homeland Security values the services of a hell-bent sociopath more than the LAPD.) Before that happens, however, Smith decides to make one last ill-advised visit to his girlfriend in Mexico in the company of a pair of his homeys (Freddie Rodriguez, Chaka Forman). Smith is a gringo, but, apparently, was raised in the barrio, where he assimilated the local cholo culture and language. It's a tough role for a Brit, but Bale doesn't embarrass himself. It's been a long haul for writer-director David Ayers, who wrote Harsh Times before he penned the similarly volcanic Training Day, for which Denzel Washington won a Best Picture Oscar (and Ethan Hawke was nominated in the supporting category). Harsh Times proved to be too much of a downer to warrant more than a brief theatrical release, but it should find an audience in DVD among young males who don't mind a little blood mixed in with their popcorn. Eva Longoria also has a featured role, as a homegirl-with-a-future, but it isn't nearly as hot as the one she plays in Desperate Housewives. The extras are limited to commentary and deleted scenes. -- Gary Dretzka
Comic Legends: Groucho Marx & Redd Foxx Dick Van Dyke: In Rare Form Larger than life in so many ways, Redd Foxx and Groucho Marx were two of the most beloved and influential comedians of the 20th Century. While the Marx Brothers were famous as vaudevillians, movie actors, television stars and outrageous personalities, Foxx toiled out of the spotlight of the media for most of his career. He was an underground legend for his uninhibited nightclub act and many raunchy party albums. In 1972, Foxx played an irascible junk dealer in Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin's hit sitcom, Sanford and Son. The material on Comic Legends appears to have been taken from a TV series recorded sometime in the early '70s. The material isn't great, but it easily serves as an entry-level introduction to both men's techniques and anti-establishment points of view. Before he became a major sitcom star and actor in such popular movies as Bye-Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dick Van Dyke performed regularly as a guest on television panel and variety shows. The material in In Rare Form, is taken from the 1958-59 season of The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, in which he performed monologues, pantomime and song-and-dance routines. Boone introduces some of the sketches here, as well. -- Gary Dretzka
Bosom Buddies: The First Season Mile High: The Complete First Season Robin of Sherwood: Set 1 Hard Times I Love Lucy: The Complete Seasons 7-9 Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t: The Complete Fourth Season Without a Trace: The Complete Second Season If anyone comes up with the money to finance a remake of Some Like It Hot -- and, in no way am I suggesting that would be a good idea -- the temptation to cast Tom Hanks in one of the roles immortalized by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis would be irresistible. It was in the early-'80s, in the dopey short-lived sitcom, Bosom Buddies, that Hanks would demonstrate his ability to act in drag. His co-star, Peter Scolari, probably wouldn't be considered a big enough name to work in such a re-make, but, at the time, their Kip and Henry were inseparable. In the show, the boys are evicted from their apartment and can only find cheap digs in a rooming house for women. It was in the characters' interest -- and that of the show -- for them to keep their fellow lodgers from discovering the truth. Bosom Buddies was as amusing as most of the schlock passing for comedy on the networks, but that's not saying much. Scolari went on to be nominated three times for his work in Newhart, while Hanks … well … was rarely seen again in prime-time television. The sexy British series Mile High may not be great television, but, as guilty pleasures go, it's terrific. Like that other salacious BBC America dramedy, Footballers Wives, it balances soap-opera romance with all manner of bad behavior. Unlike Footballers Wives and The Office, however, Mile High isn't likely to re-imagined for American consumption. The politically incorrect representation of flight crews for a small British airline as being universally beautiful, conspicuously bosomy and insatiably horny -- if entirely capable of acting heroically in emergency situations -- was deemed taboo years ago in the U.S. Here, the cliché has been updated to include gay and bi-sexual pilots and flight attendants, and women who are just as capable of exploiting their assets as the athletes and businessmen who once famously preyed upon stews on cross-country flights and in the bars of Marina Del Ray. Typical of European imports and American cable series, the show also featured gratuitous nudity, drug use and naughty language. Filmed partially in the sun-drenched resort towns of Spain, Mile High provided plenty of opportunities for shots of flight attendants shedding their uniforms for the comfort of bikinis. God bless 'em. The boxed set includes all 13 episodes of the show's inaugural season. Another newly released British import is Robin of Sherwood, which, in the mid-'80s, re-told the legend of Robin Hood for European audiences. In addition to the adventure and swashbuckling typically associated with Robin of Loxley, Alex Kirby's mini-series addsed large dollops of magic and mysticism to the realistic medieval settings. Look for such actors as Michael Praed (Dynasty) as Robin of Loxley, Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) and Nickolas Grace (Brideshead Revisted). The Irish band Clannad provided the musical soundtrack. John Irvin directed Granada Television's classy 1977 adaptation of Charles Dickins' Hard Times. The novel pits wealthy industrialists against impoverished workers, in a classic battle between greed and humanism. The latest addition to the I Love Lucy canon on DVD comes from the years, 1957-60, and focuses on the hour-long specials that CBS offered audiences as compensation for the discontinuation of the weekly series. Although the Ricardos and Mertzes are living in Connecticut, Ricky's work gives them plenty of opportunities to travel near and far, and come in contact with stars upon whom Lucy loves to impose herself. The package adds the rarely seen, uncut version of Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana, deleted scenes, outtakes, vintage commercials and color footage taken during the course of the show's run. During the fourth season of the award-winning Bullshit! Penn & Teller -- along with the folks who actually interviewed various bunko artists and their debunkers -- took on such weighty subjects as the Boy Scouts, prostitution, abstinence, the death penalty and the restoration of Ground Zero. Although P&T never tire of ridiculing those who disagree with the results of their investigative reporting -- it's always easier to preach to the already converted, even on cable TV -- the presentations are never short of provocative (as well as being consistently entertaining). The biggest mystery contained in the second-season set of Without a Trace is what took CBS so long to release it. The show's been on the air since 2002, after all, and many lesser series have already been compiled for posterity. Here, some of this company's most competent FBI agents tackle cases involving the hijacking of a school bus, murderous twins, fake kidnappings and other disappearances. The ensemble cast, led by Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery, is one of the best on TV. - Gary Dretzka
Deep Sea: IMAX Hacking Democracy History Channel: Engineering an Empire Following Sean Originally released in large-format 3-D, Deep Sea: IMAX naturally loses something in the translation from the really big to small screen, but only in the most obvious ways. Otherwise, Howard Hall's undersea documentary retains much of what's kept it in theaters for more than a year. The disembodied voices of Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet describe Hall's mission and the wonders revealed by the submersible's cameras, while Danny Elfman interprets those images in music and sound effects. The real stars of the show, of course, are the giant turtles, multi-colored squid, ninja shrimp and oddly shaped fish that flash in front of the cameras. The 41-minute movie comes with both wide-screen and square formats. The HBO documentary Hacking Democracy describes the mechanical process through which America elects its leaders. Muck-racking may be an unattractive concept, but, at a time in American history when greed and corruption consistently trump ethical behavior and hard work, it is an essential journalistic pursuit and cog in the wheel of democracy. Unfortunately, most muck-racking occurs only after most of the animals have left the barn. Here, the subject is the unreliability of voting machines and the primary target is the Diebold company, which apparently isn't as concerned about accuracy as one would expect from a company being paid a great deal of money simply to count votes. Somewhere along the line, architecture was designated a form of art, while engineering was dismissed as a yawn-inducing blend of science, math and construction work. The practitioners know differently, of course. Architecture can be as boring, contrived and aesthetically unrewarding as any other pursuit. Building and problem-solving, as demonstrated in the History Channel's terrific series Engineering an Empire, can be as exciting as a Jackie Chan film festival. Host Peter Weller examines the effect of engineering on great civilizations, religions and history. The engineering marvels showcased here have served both despots and peasants, and influenced artists and fools in equal measure. In 1969, director Ralph Arlyck made a short documentary about a street urchin who lived in the apartment above his in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury and enjoyed smoking pot. Considering the location, this wouldn't be unusual, except for the fact that Sean was 4-years-old at the time. Arlyck's film became something of a sensation, as it seemed to represent the total collapse of flower power and rise of something far more sinister … the Charles Manson murders, for example. Legend has it that Francois Truffaut was so moved by Sean that it became part of a double-bill with The Wild Child, in France. In Following Sean, Arlyck attempts to retrace 35 years worth of footprints and discover what Sean's up to these days, if anything. Turns out, Sean grew up to lead a more or less normal existence, and is an electrician. How he and Arlyck got to this point in their lives, however, is a tale worth telling. -- Gary Dretzka
Tempest The predominantly comic works of writer-director-actor Paul Mazursky -- a writer who once had his finger securely on the pulse of the America dream -- effectively mined and occasionally skewered the experiences of immigrants, middle-class trendies, tenuously married couples and the pampered residents of Beverly Hills. As Hollywood became more interested in teenagers than adults, Mazursky was among those whose insights no longer were sought by studio brass. At the same time, his tendency to cast high-profile actors and surround them in the trappings of wealth or ambition became way too expensive for someone with an indie sensibility. Instead, he primarily focused on acting. Tempest contemporized Shakespeare's classic comedy/romance by populating a remote Greek island with John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Molly Ringwald, Raul Julia and Vittorio Gassman. At 140 minutes, Tempest proved too testing of most audiences' attention spans, as did his interpretation's loosey-goosey structure. Length is hardly a negative for lovers of Shakespeare, though, and Mazursky fans will enjoy re-acquainting themselves with a film late to the DVD boom. The opportunity to watch Cassavetes and Rowlands work together again is another huge plus. -- Gary Dretzka
Michael Shayne: Private Detective: Collection 1 In an extension of Fox's valuable Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto collections, the studio has released four titles in its Michael Shayne series, which starred Lloyd Nolan and ran from 1940-42. Based on Brett Halliday's pulp mysteries, the Shayne titles were churned out as B-movies … the cinematic equivalent of Hamburger Helper, at a time when double-features were fixtures on the exhibition scene. More often than not, however, movies that today are categorized as noir were less rooted in a definable genre, than in a studio policy that dictated spending less on lighting and patient cinematography. This didn't make these films any less entertaining than A features, just cheaper and more likely to be promoted. The situations are of the variety than can -- and have -- been recycled for most of the last 100 years. Even so, Nolan does a nice job as the no-nonsense Irish-American P.I. The cast of Blue, White and Perfect includes a young George Reeves. The set arrives with several informative featurettes and comparisons from the restoration process. -- Gary Dretzka
Funny Money The well-animated opening credits to Funny Money suggest a caper film on the order of a '60s or '70s Pink Panther installment. The names of the actors -- Chevy Chase, Penelope Ann Miller, Armand Assante and Robert Loggia, among them -- are familiar, as well. Who knows, it might even be funny. Adapted from Ray Cooney's hit London play, Chase plays an accountant for a company that manufactures wax fruit. On his way home on the subway, he mistakes a mobster's briefcase for his own. One contains a huge bundle of money, while the other a tuna sandwich and faux banana. From the point at which Henry Perkins discovers he's in possession of a misplaced treasure, Funny Money evolves into one long farce, complete with slamming doors, annoying doorbells, relatives who can't keep a secret, close shaves with police and hoodlums, mistaken identities and spit takes. Although Leslie Greif may never be mistaken with Blake Edwards, Funny Money does hone to master's playbook. Moreover, the actors have no trouble keeping up with the pace needed to propel such an improbable set of circumstances. Fans of very broad farce -- especially of the theatrical variety -- will find something to like here. A featurette explains how the Hoboken-set picture came to be made in Romania, Costa Rica and New York. -- Gary Dretzka
Paper Dolls I'm not sure if Paris Is Burning (1990) was the first documentary to treat the transvestite community with something other than shock and dismay, but its success gave a green light to dozens of filmmakers who've found increasingly diverse ways to address the subject. Tomer Heymann's alternately enlightening and heart-breaking, Paper Dolls, tells the story of group of transvestites who emigrated from the Philippines to take care of elderly Jews in Tel Aviv. On their day off, they performed a karaoke drag act as the Paper Dolls. At first they were welcomed to Israel, as replacements for the tens of thousands of Palestinian workers being punished for the continuing Intifada. As performers, the Paper Dolls are no great shakes. As care givers, however, they're wonderfully supportive and truly concerned about their patients, most of whom couldn't care less about where they're from and what kind of underwear they prefer. Like immigrant workers everywhere, the Paper Dolls are paid to do the jobs no one else will do … at the going rate, at least. Besides substandard wages, they're rewarded by the public with suspicion, prejudice and threats of being deported when their patient dies or the work permit they paid for is found to be hinky. Unlike most other documentarians, Heymann empathized with his subjects to the point where he agreed to be made up as a woman and help them find gigs on a local TV program. Beyond all the footage shot while the Dolls were at work or performing, the camera also captures the fear of terrorism that pervades the community and is manifested as prejudice against imported labor. No matter how one feels about women who feel trapped in a man's bodies, it's difficult not to come away from the film with respect and sympathy for these Dolls. - Gary Dretzka
La Belle Captive Muriel American audiences have demonstrated little patience with movies that openly flaunt their intellectualism. It explains why so few French movies have made a dent in American box-office tallies. One of the reasons Francois Truffaut, for example, was able to enjoy crossover success in the U.S. was because his work -- and that of others prominent in the New Wave -- was so heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, Nicolas Ray and Howard Hawks. Occasionally, too, there will arrive an offbeat hybrid on the order of Amelie or Diva. Alain Robbe-Grillet's sexy thriller, La Belle Captive, will remind adventurous viewers here more of Diva, in that it builds a kidnapping mystery around the surrealistic imagery of Magritte. It also might remind them of Eyes Wide Shut and The Hunger. The plot is almost as elusive as the paintings on display in the film's dream sequences, but it involves discovering the whereabouts of a woman who disappears on the eve of her wedding, only to turn up at a nightclub, where she dances with a handsome courier. Hours later, the man finds her bound body sprawled on a lonely rural road. He seeks medical help at a majestic villa, where a group of caped pervs are gathered some kind of a bizarre sexual ritual. The next morning, he awakens to find an empty, a deserted mansion and a wound on his neck. The courier's subsequent search leads him into even more bizarre territory. Fans of Diva and David Lynch, no doubt, would a get a bigger kick out of Le Belle Captive than anyone else. Muriel, or the Time of Return was directed by Alain Resnais, for whom Robbe-Grillet wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay to Last Year at Marienbad. Released in 1963, it stars Delphine Seyrig as a widowed antique dealer, Helene, with a bad gambling habit and a son who returned from the war in Algeria with twisted memories of a tortured young woman. When an old lover arrives for a visit, with his attractive niece, Helene and her son are forced to relive events that remain unresolved, even after a quarter-century of war, peace, marriages and the mundane chores of everyday life. The scholarly discussion that's included in the bonus features is essential for viewers new to Resnais' work. - Gary Dretzka
The 300 Spartans Geez, a $70-million weekend haul for 300? Oliver Stone must be wondering what he did wrong with Alexander, in which the Greeks actually kicked Persian butt. Those who may enjoy a more old-fashioned Hollywood take on Hellenic history could do a lot worse than renting The 300 Spartans. Made in 1961, when sword-and-sandal epics were a Hollywood staple, the use of special visual effects was reserved for cheeseball sci-fi and horror flicks. The veteran director and cinematographer Rudolph Mate could no more have envisioned a re-creation of the Battle of Thermopylae on the scale of Zack Snyder's CGI-enhanced 300, than Orville and Wilbur Wright could predict how their invention would empower men to one day walk on the Moon. The combat scenes in The 300 Spartans will seem almost laughably primitive to anyone born after George Lucas reinvented the Hollywood wheel, with Star Wars. But, then, 300 someday will feel out-fashioned to viewers accustomed to 3-D spears being hurled into the audience, and acoustic effects that replicate the sound of arrows zipping past their ears. Here, the gallant King Leonidas of Sparta is played by the then-popular leading man, Richard Egan (Victor Mature must not have been available). It is his duty to lead 300 free Spartan soldiers, and 700 Greek volunteers, against the vast horde of slave-warriors led by Persia's King Xerxes. (Made at the height of the Cold War, any comparisons between the Persians and the Red Army were encouraged.) The expository scenes, in which Greek politicians quibble over the minutiae of war preparations, are as half-baked as one would expect from films of the period. The battlefield action remains quite good, however. Fans of 300, who still haven't gotten their fill of Spartan lore, will also enjoy such PBS documentaries as Empires: The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization and The Spartans.- Gary Dretzka
Fires on the Plain: Criterion Collection Burmese Harp: Criterion Collection Following hot on the heels of Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima duet, and the DVD release of the Japanese documentary The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Facets Video), come Criterion Collection kindred editions of Kon Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain and Burmese Harp. Both describe the conditions faced by Japanese soldiers at the very end of World War II, with defeat inevitable but surrender impossible. It would be a mistake to say that these post-war films make Letters From Iwo Jima -- or Saving Private Ryan, for that matter -- look like a cakewalk. They do, however, document the unbelievably grim final days of the war in the Pacific Theater in a way, historian Donald Ritchie argues, would be unthinkable in the west, or, today, even in Japan. Adapted from well-known anti-war novel, Fires on the Plain took audiences along on a soldier's personal death march in the Philippines. The soldier, who had tuberculosis, was released from a hospital to re-join his platoon, but, devoid of food and water, the squad's leader demanded he either return to the hospital or commit suicide. The actors took their jobs seriously enough to go without food for weeks during production, and it showed. When confronted with incidents of cannibalism, the characters look perfectly capable of gnawing human flesh. That was the deep, dark secret being explored by a rabid anti-war activist in The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On. Here, it almost seems a logical alternative to starvation. In Burmese Harp, a lute-playing soldier fails in his attempt to get a company of Japanese soldiers to surrender, even though the war is near completion. He gets caught up in the subsequent assault by British troops, and is assumed to have been killed, as well. Instead, he assumes the guise of a Buddhist monk. The experience of walking through the blood-soaked and body-littered jungle, however, forces him to reassess his very being. The starkness of the imagery, and simplicity of the anti-war message, combine to make both films profoundly moving experiences. The featurettes that accompany the films describe how amazing it was that these decidedly non-rhetorical and non-patriotic films managed to be made in 1959 and 1967, and the impact they had on a world about to witness yet another violent debacle in Southeast Asia. - Gary Dretzka
The Holiday Only in a Hollywood movie would a guy cheat so clumsily on girlfriends as seemingly perfect as those played by Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz in The Holiday. They have their quirks, all right, but nothing you couldn't ignore after a cocktail or two. Yet, these things happen. As the writer and/or director of such high-budget romantic comedies as Something's Gotta Give, What Women Want, Father of the Bride and Baby Boom, Nancy Meyers repeatedly has demonstrated an ability to take mawkish concepts and elevate them to entertainment suitable for Saturday-night dates, at least. This is no small accomplishment, considering how many movies starring Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Dermot Mulroney, Renee Zwellweger and Jennifer Lopez (etc., etc., etc.) fail even as chick flicks. That said, however, The Holiday -- in which a pair of unlucky-in-love professional women trade houses over Christmas break -- is slight even by the standards usually associated with such fantasies. What saves it are enthusiastic performances by Diaz, Winslet, Jack Black, Jude Law and Eli Wallach, as the Hollywood Brahmin who opens his heart to Winslet's English rose (while Diaz' movie-trailer editor is house-sitting her Surrey cottage). Otherwise, it pretty much served its purpose as a Christmas valentine. The DVD extras are limited to commentary and a making-of featurette. - Gary Dretzka
Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow If all one knew about Hubert Selby Jr. (a.k.a., Cubby) was what could be gleaned from his novels, short stories and adaptations of The Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, there would be no way to recognize the man profiled in It/ll Be Better Tomorrow. You would have imagined him to be a freewheeling Beat angel, like Dean Moriarty in On the Road, or such literary brawlers as Charles Bukowski or Nelson Algren. Instead, Selby was a gentle, frail-looking man, whose battles with drugs, booze and TB left him bent but not beaten. In Michael Dean's heartfelt documentary, the writer's legacyis honored such artists as Lou Reed, Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Darren Aronofsky, Uli Edel, Henry Rollins, Jerry Stahl, Richard Price and Nick Tosches. They recall him as a largely unsung giant of 20th Century letters, an inspirational teacher, close friend and exceedingly unique character. It also describes just how difficult it was, at times to be Hubert Selby Jr., given the legal attacks on his work, squandering of money to feed his habits and famously precarious health. Even knowing that Selby died during the production of It/ll Be Better Tomorrow, the warmth and gratitude exuded in the interviews keeps the film upbeat from start to finish. The extras come in the form of more extensive taped interviews with the writer. - Gary Dretzka