The Wrap Up ...
Masai: The Rain Warriors	One touchstone of contemporary conservative ideology is accepting as fact Hollywood’s willingness to turn its collective back on family audiences. Apart from churning out such blockbusters as Shrek the Third, Ratatouille and Surf’s Up, some continue to argue that filmmakers have little interest in movies that appeal in equal measure to parents, tots, tweens, teens and young adults. If true, this would be one helluva business strategy. Fact is, though, there’s no shortage of wonderful family pictures in the marketplace. Harder to find are parents willing to broaden their own horizons. Could March of the Penguins have prospered in its native French narration? Did mainstream demand allow Microcosmos and Winged Migration -- or any film that passed muster in such censorial states as China and Iran -- to escape the art-house ghetto and flourish at the multiplex? When it comes to movies, conservatism and good, old-fashioned xenophobia are common bedfellows. If given a chance, anyone who grew up watching Disney’s True-Life Adventures would find much to enjoy in such remarkable imports as The Story of the Weeping Camel, Cave of the Yellow Dog, Himalaya, The Saltmen of Tibet, The Cup, Travelers & Magicians and Pascal Plisson’s riveting coming-of-age docudrama, Masai: The Rain Warriors. In it, a band of young and inexperienced Masai males are ordered by tribal elders to track down and kill a lion of near-mythic powers. Their village is in the grip of a crippling drought, which the elders believe will end after the untested warriors return with the murderous beast’s mane. Their unseen prey leads them across the parched grasslands of the Rift Valley, in Kenya's African Highlands, as well as the backyards of rival tribesmen. In addition to being a great and timeless adventure, the mission demands of the boys that they bond as friends, comrades in arms and future leaders. The camera captures panoramas and terrain that are nothing short of spectacular -- even on the small screen -- an attribute The Rain Warriors shares with many other digital-age docs and docudramas. Watch enough of them and you’ll begin to wonder if the tribes and customs represented in these films could possibly exist in the same century and on the same planet as the rest of us.  -- Gary Dretzka
The Bridge	Watch Eric Steel’s heartbreaking documentary, The Bridge, and you’ll never again be able to look at San Francisco’s trademark structure through the eyes of a mere tourist. Depending on who’s doing the watching, the majestic Golden Gate Bridge can represent everything from a beacon of hope for the future to an irresistible magnet for lost souls seeking a means to an end. Others, of course, prefer to forgo the poetics and consider the span’s utility as a means of conveyance -- however splendid architecturally -- from one sliver of California to another. The producers of the The Bridge were drawn to the Golden Gate by a haunting desire to understand what it is about Golden Gate that makes it the preferred instrument for suicide for hundreds of people each year, and, incidentally, why no one has bothered to allot money to keep them from doing so. To this end, Steel not only interviews family members, doctors and friends of known victims -- and one survivor -- but his team of long-distance videographers also managed to identify pedestrians contemplating suicide and capture their leaps into the void. It’s amazing stuff. One thing made abundantly clear is that the bridge itself, along with those who originally designed it, are pretty much blameless for its macabre appeal. No signs indicate the best places to contemplate the void, nor do strategically placed transmitters beam subliminal messages to would-be jumpers from San Quentin to the Silicon Valley. Sure, the toll would be lower if nets were draped across the length of the bridge, or rails were raised a few feet higher than they now are. We learn, however, that many of those willing to kill themselves in such a public way probably could not have been otherwise dissuaded from committing suicide somewhere else, and in messier ways. Certainly, these sorts of decisions aren‘t made impulsively. As depressing as it is, The Bridge is one documentary you won’t soon forget -- Gary Dretzka
Shooter	In light of the abuses of power acknowledged this week by the CIA, it’s no longer necessary to suspend disbelief to accept what happens if such paranoid-thrillers as Antoine Fuqua’s Shooter. Mark Wahlberg plays a former Marine gunnery sergeant and scout sniper, Bob Lee Swagger, who unwisely agrees to accept one last job for a government he has good reason to distrust. Naturally, it’s a set-up. Against his better judgment, Swagger believes a shadowy CIA type (Danny Glover) when he’s asked to advise the Secret Service on ways to protect the President and a foreign religious leader from assassination. In reality, of course, he’s been recruited as the fall guy for a more devious conspiracy. After Swagger narrowly avoids being killed by a strategically placed security guard, Shooter plays out as a hybrid of Rambo, The Parallax View and one of Michael Moore’s worst political nightmares. Although the story is burdened by a tad too much left-wing political paranoia, Fuqua balances the polemics with state-of-the-art pyrotechnics, stealth ambushes and exploding heads. In Wahlberg’s capable hands, Swagger is a thinking-man’s assassin, at once Zen-like and cold-blooded. His performance is supported by a diverse mix of vaguely familiar faces (Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Rhona Mitra, Elias Koteas, Rade Serbedzija, Levon Helm) and a couple of well known Hollywood veterans (Glover, Ned Beatty). The DVD extras add deleted scenes and making-of material -- Gary Dretzka
Miss Potter	In the weeks leading up to the limited release on December 31 of Miss Potter, Weinstein Company minions were kept busy generating buzz for perennial Globe- and Oscar-nominee Renee Zellweger. Despite the awards campaign and magazine covers, Miss Potter got lost in the year-end shuffle and tanked in wide release. Zellweger’s portrayal of the beloved author of children‘s books earned a Globe nod, but in the overly broad Musical and Comedy category. The biopic was neither a musical nor a comedy, but HFPA members have adopted the native Texan and almost always find an excuse to nominate her for something. Not that Zellweger isn’t enjoyable to watch in Chris Noonan’s quirky portrait of Beatrix Potter … she is. So, too, were Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson in key supporting roles. The odds were stacked against commercial success, however, as American audiences no longer seem willing to expend two hours of their precious time waiting for artists and writers to realize their dreams (or die trying, as was the case with Vincent Van Gogh,). After the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Potter was able to escape the firm grasp of her status-conscious parents who expected their daughter to marry upward and sublimate urges to write and paint. Success allowed her to delay marriage and sidestep the demands of Victorian society. Her Prince Charming arrived in the person of aspiring publisher Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor), who would turn Peter Rabbit into a best-seller and become the love of her early life. Nothing happens in a hurry in Miss Potter, including the evolution of their ill-fated romance and her retreat to country life. Marc Forster’s very similar Finding Neverland had a decent run at the box-office, thanks primarily to a remarkable performance by Johnny Depp. It also benefited from the mysteries that still surround James Barrie’s life and legacy. The DVD version of Miss Potter will appeal to literary-minded adults who grew up on Potter’s work and might enjoy learning how it evolved. Most kids, however, won’t get past the first five minutes. The DVD also is available as a companion to the illustrated hard-cover book, Beatrix Potter: A Journal, which describes the author’s childhood and the critters that inspired her. -- Gary Dretzka
Little Dieter Needs To Fly	Few filmmakers have a better eye for recognizing compelling stories and fascinating people than Werner Herzog. Sometimes, even, the highly ambitious director will deem them to be of such extraordinary interest that he’ll mine the same material for both a documentary and feature film. Such is the case with the soon-to-be-released Rescue Dawn, an adaptation of Little Dieter Needs to Fly. In the 1997 doc, Herzog introduced viewers to Dieter Dengler, a Navy airman shot down and captured in Laos during the early stages of the Vietnam War. Incredibly, the German-born Dengler fell in love with flying as a wee lad, while witnessing allied bombers attempt to obliterate his hometown in the Black Forest. As soon as he turned 18, Dengler made his way to the United States, where he attended college and joined the Navy to become a fighter pilot. After being captured and passed around by various guerrilla groups, he was taken to a jungle outpost with other POWs, most in worse shape than he was. Fearing the worst, he hatched an escape plan that turned out not to be entirely successful. Only he and fellow POW Duane Martin avoided being killed. Their journey through the wilds of Laos is just as harrowing as their treatment at the hands of the guerrillas, only, this time, the enemy takes the form of a predatory bear, monsoon rains, leeches, unexpected waterfalls and machete-wielding villagers. Herzog’s interviews with Dengler, who died in 2001, were conducted in his Marin County mountain-top home, Germany, Laos, Thailand and an airplane graveyard somewhere in the American desert. His insight into the twin ordeals of growing up in post-war Germany and facing death again in the jungles of Southeast Asia is remarkable, and no screenwriter could improve on his personal recollections of the journey back to the safety. In Rescue Dawn, Christian Bale plays Dengler and Steve Zahn portrays Martin. It will be interesting to see if their re-enactments can do justice to -- let alone, improve upon -- Dengler’s storytelling skills and Herzog’s reflective narrative. In a post-script, Herzog captured the Navy’s final salute to the former POW, which came in the form of a full-military funeral and flyover by a squad of F-14s -- Gary Dretzka
Black Snake Moan That Tender Touch Just the Two of Us The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai	Too polished to be camp, and, yet, far too lurid for polite company, Black Snake Moan is trashy enough to rank among the guiltiest pleasures of the still-young century. Even today, Craig Brewer's follow-up to Hustle & Flow would make a wonderful drive-in triple-feature with Thunder Road and Boxcar Bertha. Being 2007, however, drive-ins are an endangered species and purveyors of trash are relegated to the art-house circuit, where John Waters’ flicks inevitably are found. (Unless, like the new Hairspray, they’re sanitized for public consumption.) It explains why Black Snake Moan was pitched first to the Tarantino-worshipping fan-boys at Austin’s Butt-Numb-A-Thon, and, soon thereafter, to the same crowd that fell in love with hip-hop pimping at Sundance. The success of Hustle & Flow (an Oscar for best song!) made Black Snake Moan one of the most highly anticipated titles at this year’s Sundance festival, where the buzz on it was deafening. Ultimately, though, it opened to widely divergent critical opinion and lackluster word-of-mouth. It seemed as if no one, including the filmmaker, had a handle on where Black Snake Moan was taking them, and what it wanted to be when it got there … pulp fiction, cautionary tale or morality play. What was known, based simply on hype and poster art, was that one particularly slutty flower of Southern womanhood would find herself chained to a radiator in the home of a bearded Mandingo-looking gentleman … that, and Justin Timberlake was in there somewhere. Christina Ricci’s Rae is exactly the kind of person who, in less-PC times, defined the terms nymphomaniac and white trash. In a role he might have been born to perform, Samuel L. Jackson portrays a world-weary blues musician and vegetable grower who’s been betrayed by both his brother and wife. One morning, Lazarus finds Rae lying in the middle of country road, where she’s been dumped by a friend of her soldier boyfriend (Timberlake). Rae is prone to seizures, during which she’s been known to crave sex without regard to a man’s temperament, ethnic background or odor. Lazarus believes she’s been possessed by the devil, and chains her to the radiator until he can find a cure for her self-destructive behavior. It’s at this point that Black Snake Moan finds its religion and opens several different paths to redemption. Ricci was the perfect choice to play the debauched nymphet, as was Jackson, who can do foul-mouthed and nasty as well any actor alive. Backed by members of the late R.L. Burnside’s band, he also is a heck of a bluesman. So, what to make of Black Snake Moan? It’s a movie that probably doesn’t stay raunchy long enough to suit the drive-in and midnight-movie crowd, and is far too exploitative in its first half to keep indie-lovers interested. Anyone who was wildly appreciative  of H&F will want to take a look, if only to keep track of Brewer’s work. I’m guessing that a second, unrated director’s-cut edition -- with bonus features and deleted scenes -- will emerge some time before the holidays. Fans of authentic Grade A period sexploitation flicks need look no further than That Tender Touch and Just the Two of Us, from Wolfe’s Vintage Collection. Like most true genre classics, these cheapo studies of lipstick-lesbianism in 1969 and 1975 can be interpreted either as cautionary tales or soft-core porn. Either way, together, they represent about three hours of mindlessly goofy fun, whether one is straight or gay. In Just the Two of Us, a pair of lonely housewives find solace in each other’s arms -- among other places --while their hubbies are away, doing some top-secret work for the government. They also find themselves tempted by women in a groovy sex club and a couple of guys whose favorite philosopher almost certainly is Hugh Hefner. In That Tender Touch, the arrival of an old female flame threatens the marriage of a pixie-ish suburbanite still wrestling with her inner desires. Years before, their guest served both as lover and mentor to the younger woman, who left home when things got too hot and heavy. Turns out, though, this particular SoCal neighborhood is overflowing with libertines, several of whom try to ease the visitor’s pain of being rejected. The only surviving prints of these films were headed for the dustbin before someone saw their potential camp value to fans of The L Word. Movie buffs and cultists sometimes are forced to wait years for specimens as wigged out and campy as The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai, a film that could have been scripted by the guys who come up with the slogans on T-shirts worn by Japanese teens. While the sci-fi comedy/thriller/porno defies easy translation, it’s impossible to resist sorting through the clues, anyway. I can’t do better than the description on the DVD: A lusty home tutor takes a non-fatal bullet to the head, transforming her into an unlikely genius who climaxes to the collected works of Noam Chomsky. Entrusted with the perfect replica of George Bush’s naughty trigger finger, Sachiko deftly dodges North Korean spies in hot pursuit of the sole fingerprint capable of unleashing a devastating nuclear apocalypse across the world. With the future of mankind in her horny hands, can the lusty genius save us all? The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (a.k.a., Horny Home Tutor: Teacher's Love Juice) is representative of a sub-genre of Japanese movies, known as pink films. Around since the ’60s, they combine soft-core sex with morsels from several other genres, exploiting them in ways that would American film students thrown out of school. Nonetheless, I dug it -- Gary Dretzka
Bridge to Terabithia	Until only very recently, the existence of Katherine Paterson's Newbery Medal-winning novel, Bridge to Terabithia, was unknown to me. Thus, any wave of anticipatory enthusiasm for the February release of  the Walden/Disney adaptation passed me by unnoticed. I wasn’t alone, however. Editors assigned reviews of Gabor Csupo’s altogether captivating dramatic fantasy to second- and third-string critics, and, even if the writers recognized its many attributes, their opinions were relegated to nether regions of the newspaper‘s feature section.  Even so, Bridge to Terabithia managed to do quite well at the box-office, and it ought to do even better in DVD. Despite preview trailers that suggested the adaptation would be heavy on CGI gimmickry, its literary approach to the material was downright analog. In it, fifth-graders Jesse and Leslie represent a matching pair of square pegs in a school where bullies control access to the lavatories and terrorize anyone with a creative streak. Because Jesse’s family has to struggle to make ends meet, he sometimes is ridiculed for wearing his sisters’ hand-me-downs. Leslie’s parents are writers who somehow have managed to live most of their lives without benefit of a television set. These misfits become fast friends, whose combined imagination is fertile enough to transform trauma into a kingdom populated by a fantastic array of heroic and villainous creatures. Access to the Terabithian realm requires only they swing across a deep backyard ravine on a rope and open their imaginations to what presents itself. Indeed, it is the well-worn rope that not only separates reality and fantasy, but God and his creations. The CGI inventions, which aren’t dissimilar to those in Pan’s Labyrinth, make their presence known in the film’s second half. By shooting in New Zealand, and employing Peter Jackson’s digital demons for special effects, the producers were able to create an expensive-looking document on the cheap. Need I mention that Bridge to Tarabithia can be enjoyed equally by children and adults? There are a few extras here, but later DVD incarnations will add more … as is Disney’s wont. All of the actors turn in excellent performances, but it’s Zooey Deschanel’s very appealing singing teacher -- and, yes, her students willingly participate -- who nearly steals the show with her quirky charms and amazing eyes -- Gary Dretzka
Grbavica Close to Home The Law and the Fist Late Ozu: Eclipse Series 3: Criterion Collection Raining Stones In the 140 years that separated the end of the Civil War and the events of 9/11, Americans were spared most of the horrors of life during wartime. Future wars would fought on foreign soil, and, apart from newsreel footage from Nazi concentration camps, the most grisly images were filtered by the government and media. In some unfortunate nations, atrocities aren’t so quickly forgotten nor the enemy so easily forgiven. Some of the longest memories on Earth belong to people who live in the Balkan states, where grudges linger for centuries. Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic named Grbavica after a neighborhood in Sarajevo that suffered greatly during that break-away country’s civil war in the ’90s. Several years after the last weapons were fired in anger there, the widowed mother at the center of Grbavica is forced to come to grips with a decision made on one of the worst days of her life. She also must reveal secrets to a daughter whose normal growing pains have been exacerbated by poverty and the near certainty of a bleak future in a nation divided by religion, politics and United Nations peacekeepers. While audiences outside Bosnia will be able to relate to the tension that pits daughter against mother, they will find it difficult to comprehend the strength required of women who must pay the toll for atrocities committed by fathers, husbands, sons and former neighbors.     In Israel, women conscripted at 18 often are assigned to patrol city streets, stopping Palestinian workers to check their identities and discourage suicide bombers. The girls we meet in Vidi Bilu and Dalia Hager‘s Close to Home view their duties very differently, at least in the film’s first half. One of them sees the necessity in such searches and toes the military line, however Prussian and unpleasant, while the other is rebellious and something of a slacker. While mostly mundane and tiresome, their chores require them to challenge adult males who already are chafing under the yoke of what they perceive to be an occupation army. For Israelis, of course, the possibility of dying in suicide bombing is very real and difficult to prevent. Just as the teenagers, Smadar and Mirit, are forced to adjust to taking orders from humorless military lifers, they also struggle to narrow the gap between each other. Not surprisingly, the soldiers eventually form strong bonds and share traits teenagers everywhere will recognize. A near tragedy brings them even closer. Most interesting here is the setting itself: Jerusalem. Shot using hand-held cameras, the story unfolds with urgency and a potential for disaster that is palpable. The rarely seen 1964 Polish drama, The Law and the Fist, marked the first collaboration between directors Jerzy Hoffmann and Edward Skorziewski. Set in the aftermath of World War II, The Law and the Fist describes how short-lived dreams of prosperity and peace can be. Here, home-grown profiteers attempt to extract what little money they can from a group of families that takes over land vacated by Germans. One man gathers the courage to confront their new enemies, who most residents assume represent the government. The much-celebrated Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu is known outside his homeland primarily for the universally praised Tokyo Story. Criterion Collection’s Late Ozu introduces restored versions of five films that followed in that 1953 classic’s huge wake. They are, Early Spring, Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Late Autumn and The End of Summer. Each is a study of life in post-war Japan, a period of rapid economic expansion and social upheaval. Ozu also puts traditional family relationships, generational shifts and the institution of marriage under the microscope. Criterion’s Eclipse Series has been created to showcase less-seen works by important filmmakers, including Ozu, Ingmar Bergman and Louis Malle, with Samuel Fuller and Raymond Bernard soon to follow. By sacrificing the vast menu of extras usually associated with Critierion releases, the sets are quite affordable ($69.95). Ken Loach is in familiar territory in Raining Stones, a working-class drama that turns on one father’s desire to provide his daughter with a brand-new dress for her First Communion. Manchester is experiencing a plague of joblessness among able-bodied men, so the dad’s ability to raise money for such a luxury is thwarted at every turn. At first, his efforts border on the comical. Soon, however, devotion to family and tradition put him in the grasp of loan sharks. The characters in Loach’s films are so expertly drawn, it’s easy to find parallels in everyday life and empathize with them. Who hasn’t wanted to indulge the expensive tastes of a loved one, whether it be for a prom dress or baseball mitt? In a nice departure from the current popular notion that all priests are either sexual predators out of touch with reality,  the parish priest here is both honorable and humane. Another plus is Loach’s ability to tie all the disparate dilemmas, threats and promises together in a very neat bow, yet keep viewers guessing until the film’s closing shot. -- Gary Dretzka
An Unreasonable Man Nixon: A Presidency Revealed Most of the liberals who blame Ralph Nader for the ascendancy of George W. Bush to the presidency, and despise him for not dropping out of the last two campaigns, conveniently have forgotten how H. Ross Perot helped assure Bill Clinton’s victory over W’s father. What went around, came around. No matter, Nader remains one of the most fascinating and controversial public figures of the 20th Century. An Unreasonable Man traces Nader’s career as a consumer advocate from the 1950s -- a time when anyone who questioned corporate integrity was considered to be a communist -- through his time in the celebrity spotlight (he hosted Saturday Night Live, in 1977) and on to his ill-fated and overly quixotic presidential candidacies (maybe, he should have set his sights a bit lower). Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan's documentary also provides testimony from prominent social and political commentators from across the political spectrum. The DVD adds several new scenes and featurettes. Considering just how far to the right the Republican Party has drifted in the last 10 years -- and how socially conservative the Democrates have become -- Richard Nixon and Ralph Nader could run on the same ticket and be disparaged as liberals. Imagine: Nixon opened the doors to then-Red China, while no major presidential candidate today is willing even to argue the efficacy of dropping sanctions against Cuba. George Bush has willingly sold our nation’s soul to Wall Street power brokers and war mongers, while Nixon paid lip service, at least, to Ike’s warnings of a military-industrial complex. Even Watergate pales by comparison to the deceit required to sell the war in Iraq to Congress and Tony Blair. Knowing that Nixon probably took his deepest and darkest secrets to the grave is something that continues to vex historians and sell newspapers. The History Channel’s A Presidency Revealed offers yet another look at a politician many of us feel as if we know like a brother. Fact is, even in death, Nixon continues to surprise us and the Watergate scandal, especially, remains fascinating in the scope of both its arrogance and banality. Also included in the DVD package is the 2000 film, Inside the Presidency: Eisenhower vs. Nixon, which describes the tension that existed between the two men during their administration. -- Gary Dretzka
Big Easy to Big Empty: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans One sure way a journalist knows when he’s onto something big is being arrested during the course of his investigation. Such was the fate of reporter Greg Palast and producer Matt Pascarella, who were researching allegations of FEMA malfeasance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina for Big Easy to Big Empty. They were arrested by the Department of Homeland Security for violating anti-terror laws while filming evacuees living behind barbed-wire barriers near a Exxon refinery. Their assignment had nothing to do with the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, but any light shown on the plight of evacuees might have reflected on the government‘s willingness to kiss corporate ass. Once news of the arrests hit the Internet, Exxon convinced the feds that pressing charges might draw more attention to the region and its problems than was warranted by simple trespass. Big Easy to Big Empty presents a damning indictment of the continuing tragedy that is New Orleans. It makes its case effectively with new evidence, observations and data. Whether anyone outside of Louisiana is listening, anymore, remains open to question. -- Gary Dretzka
Escape To Canada The Tournament Cannes: All Access/Film School/The Spaghetti West The Underwater World of Trout Albert Nerenberg, a humorist and documentarian, makes the case in Escape to Canada that the Great White North has become the country our founding fathers intended the United States to be. It is a nation in which civil liberties are considered to be something more than obstacles to personal wealth and windfall profit. Apparently, Nerenberg was inspired to pay homage to Canada in 2003, after Ontario legislators lifted prohibitions against same-sex marriage and smoking pot. Throw in Canada’s progressive health-care system and humane treatment of war resisters, and the threat of frostbite looks very manageable. In Washington, it’s impossible to find anyone who wants to debate the legalization of marijuana for cancer victims, let alone same-sex marriages. What’s in it for them? Nerenberg scores many hits, but can’t explain why all the great comedians of Canada end up living in L.A. Maybe, it does have something to do with the weather, after all. Canada , of course, has also exported some fine mockumentaries. The Tournament examines the country’s obsession with youth hockey, and how parents, coaches and sponsors often play their games more aggressively than the kids. The series, which resembles The Office on ice, was shown here on the nearly invisible Outdoor Life Network. In Cannes: All Access, critic Richard Schickel takes movie lovers on a insider’s tour of the film festival that, for 60 years, has provided a two-week vacation for international filmmakers, producers, actors, critics, busty starlettes, rich Eurotrash and paparazzi. It’s the place to be seen, and see movies. Schickel’s access to A-list celebrities makes this otherwise slight effort enjoyable. Everyone seen in the IFC original series, Film School, either wants to be have their film shown at Cannes, or already has enjoyed the pleasure. Nanette Burstein’s show preceded Fox’s largely unwatched On the Set, where the participants appear to have been recruited from Central Casting. The IFC documentary The Spaghetti West takes us back to the ’60s, when many of the best Westerns were being churned out by Italian directors working in Spain with American character actors in lead roles. Those who are still around reminisce about the their experiences and how the films turned the genre on its head. (Surviving the Rush is a super-low-budget indie comedy that isn’t all that funny, but will appeal to anyone who’s ever worked in movie theater. It takes place at a small one-screen venue that unexpectedly finds itself hosting the year‘s most anticipated movie, and is ill-prepared to handle the crowds.) One of the blurbs on the cover of The Underwater World of Trout declares the DVD to be the most important trout video to date, while another trumpets, It is nothing short of amazing. I’ll take their word for it. Not being of the fly-tying persuasion, I found the first two volumes in Wendell Ozzie Ozefovich’s documentary series -- Discovery and Feeding Lies -- to be irresistible, if only for revealing aspects of the trout’s habitat previously unseen by anglers. -- Gary Dretzka
Longford Porterhouse Blue Blue Murder: Set 1 Lovejoy: The Complete Season 1 Chancer: Series 1 They say there’s no fool like an old fool, and Britain has enough old fools to fill the House of Lords. HBO’s wonderfully acted Longford tells the true story of Frank Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and his ill-considered friendship with a jailed child murderer, Myra Hindley. A devout Catholic, Longford believed criminals could be rehabilitated in prison, and, thus, were deserving of forgiveness. His principles were tested mightily by Hindley, a young woman serving a life sentence for murders ostensibly committed by her lover, Ian Brady. When word of his efforts to free Hindley made the British tabloid press, he was held up to public ridicule and much of his previous good work was denigrated. Once again, Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton demonstrate what it means for an actor to be playing at the top of one’s game. The popular 1987 British export, Porterhouse Blue, lampoons the archaic traditions and social pretension of British academia, as represented by Porterhouse College (a fictional part of Cambridge University). A progressive alumnus, played by Ian Richardson, is recruited to replace an old-school educator who may have imbibed himself into an early grave (an unusual, but not uncommon form of accidental death at Porthouse). Change may not go down easily with staff, servants and some students, but the friction sparks several hilarious scandals. Veteran TV comedian Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly) takes a more serious turn in the Manchester-set police-procedural, Blue Murder. In addition to working on some extremely brutal and ugly cases, Quentin’s DCI Janine Lewis (Quentin) must oversee the care and feeding of four children from a failed marriage. Lewis is no super cop. She does the scud work necessary to clear murders and sex crimes, then goes home. Ian McShane is the best excuse to revisit Lovejoy, but, as he proved in Deadwood, that’s reason enough. A world-class womanizer, Lovejoy is an antiques dealer who moonlights as a private detective. Likewise, the opportunity to watch Clive Owen (Croupier) perform at such an early stage in his career is enough to recommend the Brit series. Chancer. In it, he plays a suave conman named Stephen Crane. - Gary Dretzka
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List: The Complete First Season Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete First Season Psych: The Complete First Season The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries: Season Two Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.: Second Season Mail Call: S.N.A.F.U. Slings & Arrows: Season 3 Reno 911!: The Complete Fourth Season (Uncensored) In many ways, Kathy Griffin is what Joan Rivers might have become if her career had begun in the ’90s, instead of the early ’60s. It’s possible that one or two things remain too sacred for the younger redhead to trash, but it would take a while to find one. Andrew Dice Clay became rich performing the same sort of act, and, while huge at the box-office, was reviled by nearly half of his potential audience. Being a woman and admitted fag hag, Griffin gets something of a pass from the media and critics. Her reality series My Life on the D-List, now in its second season, can be extremely funny, and her self-deprecating approach to fame and celebrity often is quite appealing. Like most ego trips, however, it wears thin after a while. The set also contains material from the second season and her stand-up special, Kathy Griffin Is … Not Nicole Kidman. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home represents something of a pop-cultural oddity. It is a cartoon series, from Hanna-Barbara, that attempted to capture the same cross-cultural audience as All in the Family, both on CBS. The Boyles were conceived as the average 1970's American family, with a conservative dad, open-minded mom and children who run the gamut of trendy political thought in that turbulent period. It looks prehistoric today, but some anthropologists consider it to be a missing link between The Flintstones and The Simpsons. In the USA Network series, Psych, Shawn Spencer (James Roday) uses his intelligence and the skills taught to him by his strict father (Corbin Bernsen) to lead police to clues overlooked in their investigations of crimes. Naturally, the police begin to believe that Shawn knows too many details to be anything but a criminal. To avoid arrest, he convinces them he is a psychic and is asked to help out on tough cases. Along with his friend, Gus (Dulé Hill, of The West Wing), they regularly test the patience and skepticism of the resident chief of police. As venerable a character as is Nancy Drew, her familiarity with readers and TV audiences did almost nothing to boost box-office sales for the most recent film incarnation, which stars ingénue Emma Roberts. Now available in DVD is the second season of The Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Mysteries, circa 1977, which starred Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin. With such guest stars as Casey Kasem, Rick Springfield, Melanie Griffith and Valerie Bertinelli -- as well as songs by tween-heartthrob, Cassidy -- the  22-episode compilation is like a time capsule from a time almost no one wants to re-visit.  The second-season of Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. is now available in a multi-disc set. The highlights include visits from a runaway Opie, Cousin Goober, pre-MASH Jamie Farr and William Christopher, and a trip to Las Vegas. In Full Metal Jacket, a gunnery sergeant played by real life Marine R. Lee Ermey tormented a misfit recruit he dubbed Private Pyle. By coincidence, if not ironically, Ermey hosts the History Channel series, Mail Call, a version of which also arrived on DVD this week. This one, Mail Call: S.N.A.F.U., is a collection of bloopers, outtakes and mistakes that didn’t make the cut. Will wonders never cease? Another good reason to subscribe to premium cable is the availability of the kind of literate comedy series -- here, Slings & Arrows: Season 3 -- that wouldn’t last 10 minutes on the broadcast networks. (Smart people aren’t allowed to participate in Nielsen surveys.) The Sundance Channel sitcom involves a group of actors in the fictional town of New Burbage, where the occasion of an annual theater festival creates opportunities for laughs and tears. Many of Canada’s most popular actors -- including such familiar exports as Sarah Polley and Rachel McAdams -- participate in story arcs. Fans of that hilarious Comedy Channel series, Reno 911, will be happy to learn of the nearly simultaneous release on DVD of Season 4: Uncensored and the un-rated, feature-length Reno 911!: Miami. The series hasn’t lost a stroke in the five seasons it’s been on cable, and the film is funny and fresh enough not to disappoint anyone but newcomers who aren’t in on the conceit. While at a police convention in Florida, a terrorist threat prompts the quarantine of every cop in town, except those from Reno. Fortunate, too, because they’ve all been trained to deal with such contingencies, after a fashion. Special appearances by some Reno regulars add to the fun. The TV-to-DVD parade continues apace with new collections, Diagnosis Murder: The Second Season, Perry Mason: Season 2, Vol. 1, Walker, Texas Ranger: The Complete Third Season and Monk: Season Five. Anyone who hasn’t yet gotten on the Monk bandwagon is missing a terrific series. . - Gary Dretzka
Driving Lessons Fans of Calendar Girls, Saving Grace, Enchanted April and such March-to-December relationship films as Harold & Maude will have a good time with Driving Lessons, as should the most dedicated adult followers of the Harry Potter saga. Rupert Grint, who plays Harry’s sidekick, Ron Weasely, here is assigned the task of being the 17-year-old sidekick of an over-the-hill actress who can’t let go of the past … or, what she remembers of it, anyway. Julie Walters’ eccentric portrayal of Evie Walton was informed by writer/director Jeremy Brock’s memories of working as Dame Peggy Ashcroft’s assistant while a teenager. If anywhere near accurate, everything that followed must have been a piece of cake. Still, Ben prefers finds doing chores for Evie preferable to helping out his pious mom (Laura Linney, in a bizarre turn) and dad at the local vicarage. The film’s highlight moments come during a road trip to Edinburgh, during which both Evie and Ben find much common ground. - Gary Dretzka