MCN DVD Reviews: October 20, 2008

*The Wrap Up ...*

The Visitor	At the beginning of this small gem of a movie, a recently widowed college professor, Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins), travels to his native New York City to attend a conference and clear his head. Upon his arrival, he's surprised to find a pair of illegal immigrants living in his vacant apartment. The young, Syrian musician, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), and his Senegalese girlfriend, Zainab (Danai Gurira), are apologetic, afraid and desperate to put a roof over their heads. Vale isn't pleased by the situation, but he can't bring himself to throw them out into the New York night. Typically, the professor slowly comes to enjoy the company of the couple -- especially Tarek, who gives him rudimentary lessons in drumming - and he invites them to stay for a while. One day, after an improvisational performance in the park, Tarek and Vale rush to the subway, where the musician is grabbed by police on the lookout for possible terrorists. He's taken to a jail full of immigrants who fit the same description and is told that he either will be deported to Syria or sent to Guantanamo Bay, although the process could take months. Instead of returning to the university, Vale decides this would be an excellent time to take some time off and focus on something other than his unhappiness. Vale is encouraged by an overwhelmed immigration attorney not to give up hope because a procedural error may have caused him to ignore previous deportation orders. When Tarek's mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), also in America illegally, arrives in New York from Detroit, Vale commits himself to helping her re-connect with her son. Reluctantly, she accepts Vale's invitation to use Tarek's room as her own. From there … well, no sense spoiling a good ending. Writer-director Thomas McCarthy's story is told patiently told and capably avoids the usual melodramatic clichés associated with David-vs.-Goliath encounters with American bureaucracy and xenophobia. Even better is the performance turned in by Jenkins, a veteran character actor whose face will be instantly familiar to viewers, even if they can't remember in which shows (Six Feet Under) and movies (Flirting With Disaster, North Country) they saw him. It's almost impossible for a retirement-age gentleman to look anything but ridiculous while playing drums with musicians a third his age in a park, but Jenkins makes us believe such a thing was possible. He makes us understand Vale's sadness as a widow and as a teacher who's lost the will to encourage students to think. Jenkins also demands that we join him on the emotional roller-coaster that carries him from hope to despair at blinding speeds. Let's hope The Visitor isn't too small - or too good -- to be appreciated by academy voters. I doubt Jenkins' performance will be matched by whatever A-listers get the best pre-fabricated buzz between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's that good. -- Gary Dretzka

Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	While undeniably entertaining, the latest addition to the Spielberg/Lucas canon too often feels as it were constructed from old, used parts and ideas lifted from an album of the filmmakers' greatest hits. This impression was mostly substantiated by Steve and George themselves in the Crystal Skull DVD's uncharacteristically revealing making-of featurette. In it, the two most powerful men in Hollywood describe how the absence of a creative consensus, tinkering with scripts, a surplus of ego-tripping and waxed nostalgia, and obeisance to the box-office gods all contributed to the long delay in production and the final product. Mercifully, the boys resisted the temptation to turn the fourth Indiana Jones installment into a $200-million remake of Captain Video, Master of the Stratosphere, with Shia LeBeouf playing the juvenile-delinquent son of Gloria Pall's Moon Girl. As it is, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull borrowed far too many cheesy science-fiction conceits to meet my comfort level, at least. Nevertheless, tri-quel was far from being the worst roller-coaster of the summer. If Harrison Ford looked remarkably spree for a 66-year-old geezer, David Koepp's screenplay didn't require him to break a sweat. The re-casting of Karen Allen was a terrific idea, if only because every guy over 50 still has a crush on her. The memory tripping didn't stop there, however. LaBeouf might have ridden his motorcycle directly from the set of American Graffiti: The Next Generation, while Cate Blanchett's Cold War femme fatale, Dr. Irina Spalko, was channeling Natasha Fatale from Rocky and His Friends. The blast from the past that truly separated older fans of Indiana Jones from those new to the franchise was the cynical referencing of the almond-headed aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. You'd expect to see this sort of thing on Lost, but not in such a prestige project. (Then, too, the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bears an annoying resemblance to the tomb in National Treasure: Book of Secrets.) The special-effects-driven destruction of the temple was just plain showing off on the part of the techies at ILM. I doubt very many other viewers will have their enjoyment diminished by the inadvertent candidness of Lucas and Spielberg in the featurette. Like any amusement-park attraction worth waiting in line to enjoy, the Crystal Skull ride is great fun while it lasts, but fades from memory pretty quickly. The home-video editions look great, of course, and, for now, offer a decent array of extras. In the making-of featurette, we also learn that Lucas - who's long been a proponent of digital cinema and 3D -- gave in to Spielberg's desire to shoot Crystal Skull on film. It explains why Crystal Skull doesn't look remarkably different on Blu-ray than it does on standard DVD. Only the scenes heavy on CGI effects - more than either filmmaker had planned, apparently - are fully realized in the hi-def edition. -- Gary Dretzka

Incredible Hulk Pirates 2: Stagnetti's Revenge	Is it sacrilegious to admit that my favorite iteration of The Incredible Hulk legend is still the TV series, which starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno? That's because it left almost as much to the imagination as the original comic-book, and the texture of the green superhero's flesh didn't look nearly as phony as it does in the very expensive big-screen adaptations. The limitations of old-school makeup effects also served to make Ferrigno a reasonably human-scale character. While Edward Norton's Dr. David Banner is a compellingly tragic figure, his Hulk (and Eric Bana's) exist as creatures too hopped up on digital steroids to be worthy of much compassion. Like Crystal Skull, however, Louis Leterrier's Incredible Hulk works extremely well as eye candy, but carry all the nutritional value of a Snickers bar. Blu-ray owners will benefit more from the extensive use of digital effects, which offer greater depth of field and pop to the action sequences. The BD version contains all of the bonus features edition - including an interesting alternative ending and deleted scenes - available on the three-disc special DVD, as well as interactive material that can be accessed from the from the disc or via the Internet, at the BD-Live Center. For those so inclined, The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Fifth Season also is newly available from Universal. As wildly ambitious in its way as Crystal Skull and Incredible Hulk are in their's, Pirates II: Stagnetti's Way has already broken through to the top spot on the adult- DVD charts. It is the much-hyped sequel to Digital Playground's 2005 XXX epic, Pirates, which introduced hi-def cinematography to the world of porn, sometimes, as was the case with body fluids, with alarmingly vivid results. At a time when quick-and-dirty gonzo titles were being churned out like so many cheese curds in Wisconsin, Pirates (along with John Stagliano's classy fetish fest, Fashionistas) would re-introduce the concept of story-telling to an industry that hadn't evolved an iota in more than a decade. Written and directed by Joone, the Pirates of the Caribbean spoof could boast of having greater production values - an original score, dozens of special-effects sequences, an all-star cast - than most mainstream indies and straight-to-video movies. The sex scenes were (and remain) decidedly hard-core, but they emerged organically from the story and the women didn't take any crap from the male buccaneers. Stagnetti's Revenge offers more of the same swashbuckling action and figurative swordplay, 600 special- effects shots and an all-star lineup that includes Jesse Jane, Shay Jordan, Katsuni, Stoya, Gabriella Fox, Bella Donna, Jenna Haze, Shyla Stylez, Brianna Love, Shawna Lenee and rising megastar Sasha Grey. (Evan Stone, Tommy Gunn, and Stephen St. Croix are the resident stud-muffins.) The four-disc Collector's Set contains both hi-def and standard versions of the movie, as well as discs dedicated to making-of material and extended sex scenes, deleted scenes, bloopers and interviews -- Gary Dretzka

James Bond Blu-ray Collection Six-Pack Casino Royale: 40th Anniversary Edition The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Series Get Smart: The Complete Series Gift Set	If James Bond were a real, flesh-and-blood spy, there's no doubt he would have cautioned John Major against joining President Bush's folly in Iraq, and he now would be feverishly at work, sabotaging the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. Would that it were so. As it is, however, we must content ourselves with the past deeds of 007. Few movie franchises have benefitted as much from the continuing cavalcade of video formats. Timed to coincide with the theatrical release of Quantum of Solace next month, Sony is re-releasing Casino Royale in a two-disc Collector's Edition, with several hours of Blu-ray exclusives - including picture-in-picture commentary and a BD Live game -- while MGM/Fox has dusted off the classics, Dr. No, Die Another Day, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia with Love and Thunderball.They're being sent out individually on Blu-ray, as well as in three- and six-packs. Not surprisingly, they look and sound great in hi-def. Serious collectors already will be familiar with most of the special features, so some caution is warranted. Any resemblance between Daniel Craig's interpretation of James Bond in Casino Royale, and that of David Niven's in the 1967 original version, was purely a coincidence. In the beyond-zany spoof, Bond was called out of retirement to smash SMERSH, after an assassin killed M (John Huston, who also directed a segment). To throw off anyone also trying to eradicate 007, a slew of agents were assigned the Bond alias, even those who were clearly inept (Woody Allen), ravishingly beautiful (Ursula Andress, Daliah Lavi, Joanna Pettet) and roguishly undisciplined (Peter Sellers). Five directors were employed at various times, along with three screenwriters and an impressive list of un-credited contributors (Allen, Sellers, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, Billy Wilder). Joining in the fun were such marquee talents as Orson Welles, Peter O'Toole, William Holden, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Orson Welles, Deborah Kerr, Charles Boyer, George Raft and Jaqueline Bisset (as Miss Goodthighs), and Burt Bacharach contributed, "The Look of Love." With all of this talent, Casino Royale should have been a can't-miss proposition. Instead, it was as top-heavy as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but as light on its feet as Dumbo ... the elephant, not the movie. Still, as guilty pleasures go, it's not bad. And, speaking of the Cold War, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and I Spy were as much a pop-cultural touchstone of the period as backyard bomb shelters and aluminum Christmas trees. One was played for laughs, while the other was played as straight as any Bond movie, except Casino Royale. Now, just in time for Christmas spying season, both of the classic series have been compiled in their entirety. U.N.C.L.E. arrives in its own aluminum attaché case..-- Gary Dretzka

Mongol The Rise of Genghis Khan	Veteran Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov's depiction of the unique set of circumstances that produced one of history's most feared and successful warlords, Genghis Khan, is a sensational adventure, as well as a highly compelling history lesson. Mongul was shot in Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia, sometimes in regions so remote and unpopulated that roads had to be built to reach the locations. Instead of relying on CGI techniques to artificially multiply the armies of the competing forces, Bodrov was required to gather thousands of competent horsemen and train them to be actors first and soldiers second. The man we know today as Genghis Khan was born to be a leader of his tribe, but, after the murder of his father, was expelled from his tented community and required to survive on his own in the brutal Mongolian steppes. As he grew into manhood, Temudjin (as he was known then) would befriend future allies and encounter new enemies. He also was able to rescue his child bride from captivity, educate his own son and protect the families of his ever-expanding army. Admirers of such epic tales as Braveheart and Gladiator will relish the attention to detail in the expertly staged battles, wardrobes and awe-inspiring landscapes. And, yes, there's more than enough blood and gore to satisfy the cravings of action fans. As the title indicates, there's more to the legend of Genghis Khan than could fit in a two-hour movie. The Rise of Genghis Khan is the first in a planned trilogy. I, for one, can't wait for the next installment. -- Gary Dretzka

The Happening	Haven't the residents of Pennsylvania suffered enough at the hands of M. Night Shyamalan? Apparently, not. The Happening concocts a deadly epidemic, during which a mass human die-off occurs without warning along the Eastern Seaboard. Many of the victims are committing ritual suicide, while others simply veg out. In any case, Lots of people die. As luck would have it, a Philadelphia high-school science teacher (Mark Wahlberg), his unhappy wife (Zooey Deschanel) and the young daughter of a close friend (John Leguizamo) are among the last to succumb to the breeze-borne colorless, odorless killer. After terrorists and nuclear plants are ruled out as culprits, it appears as if residents of Philadelphia and New York are suffering from an ailment similar to the one decimating the world's bee population. Here, though, a plant-produced neurotoxin is being carried on the wind, much in the same way as pollen granules are delivered to the noses of hay-fever sufferers. Because The Happening unfolds over the course of a mere 24 hours, audiences are spared the agony of watching scientists in lab coats desperately searching for clues to the epidemic. Neither has Shyamalan required of his characters that they stampede in panic toward the exits of the city. It's almost as if everyone has studied a Civil Defense handbook and is following the guidelines to the letter. This might not be a likely scenario, but it is a welcome change from the usual mayhem that ensues when mass extinction looms on the horizon in a movie. With few exceptions, critics lambasted The Happening … unfairly, I think. It's far from being a great movie, but it's well made and works fine as cautionary tale. Somewhere along the line Shyamalan's abundant ego - and hubris - made him an easy target for cheap-shot artists, and the writer-director-producer gave them plenty of ammunition with Lady in the Water and The Village. The film's R-rating was earned by several gory representations of instant death, including one staged inside a lion habitat at the Philadelphia Zoo. Fans of gratuitous blood-letting won't want to miss it on Blu-ray. The extras package offers a great deal of making-of material, deleted scenes, commentary and gushing by Shyamalan over how much more extreme the suicides might have been, if he had his way about it. -- Gary Dretzka



You Don't Mess With the Zohan: Unrated The concept behind Adam Sandler's latest ridiculously over-the-top comedy - an Israeli commando fulfills his dream of becoming a New York hairstylist - would sound even wackier if it weren't for the fact that the lead character was based on a real Israeli soldier who operates a salon in San Diego. Beyond that, any resemblance between Zohan Dvir and Nezi Arbib likely was purely accidental … unless, of course, commandoes are taught how to catch flying objects with their butt cheeks and have studied martial arts under the tutelage of Jackie Chan. Otherwise, You Don't Mess With the Zohan plays like any other standard-issue Sandler project that starts fresh and promising, but eventually collapses into a gooey blob of childish slapstick, scatological humor and cheap sentimentality. If some of the gags actually are quite funny, it would be difficult for anyone over 25 not to be overwhelmed - or bored senseless -- by the non-stop assault of sophomoric material. Apparently, Sandler and co-writer Robert Smigel were ready to roll on Zohan in 2001, but the film was put in mothballs after 9/11. Even seven years later, the broad comedic portrayal of a cabal of transplanted Palestinian terrorists - led by John Turturro and Rob Schneider (apparently, no Arab actors were available) - makes for uneasy laughter. (And, yes, I know that no Palestinians were involved in 9/11. We're led to believe these guys are the real deal, however.) The beautiful Emmanuelle Chriqui, a Quebecois of Moroccan ancestry, plays the Palestinian beautician who takes a chance on Zohan, thereby raising the hope for peace among rival factions. It's a nice sentiment, but it will take more than a new coiffure to cure 60 years worth of bad-hair days for Israelis and Palestinians. Sandler fans will enjoy the 15 featurettes, deleted scenes and commentary. The Blu-ray version adds Translating the Zohan: Graphics-in-Picture Track. Not having seen the theatrical version, I couldn't distinguish the rated from the un-rated material, although it probably involves Zohan's willingness to provide happy endings to customers old enough to be his bubbe. -- Gary Dretzka
Stuck If newspapers and magazine ever disappear from the face of the Earth, shows like Law & Order and CSI will be in serious trouble. Stuart Gordon's tasty little thriller, Stuck, was inspired by an event that sickened a nation of people who not only dine on freakish news, but also thought they'd couldn't be shocked. They were mistaken. In 2001, a Fort Worth woman struck a homeless man, who subsequently became lodged in her car's windshield. Instead of heading directly for a hospital or waiting for police, the seriously drunk and stoned woman drove home, parked the car in her garage and went straight to her bedroom to get laid. She was convicted of murder and tampering with evidence, and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Before the release of Stuck, the case already had inspired an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order, as well as hours of outraged commentary on talk radio. As is the norm with real-life stories involving unattractive people and grotesque situations, an actor (Mena Suvari) who looked nothing like the driver was cast in the lead role, and Rhode Island (via New Brunswick) stood in for Texas. Horror-meister Gordon and screenwriter John Strysik knew that little good would come from simply replicating the crime, trial and punishment in sordid detail. Instead, they wanted to paint a portrait of an average human being so blind to reality that she could have sex, sleep and go to work, knowing that her victim (Stephen Rea) was writhing in pain in her garage. Moreover, they dared to imagine what was happening in the garage while the heartless nurse's aide was ignoring the homeless man's plight. Audiences will squirm as they watch the driver go about her normal duties, and wonder how the same situation might have played out if they or a loved one was behind the wheel that night. There, but for the grace of God … etc, etc. The DVD and Blu-ray package adds a good deal of background information to the usual array of commentary and making-of material. -- Gary Dretzka

The Rape of Europa Toots Monster Camp Spirit of the Marathon Headlines were made recently when cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder paid $135 million for Gustav Klimt's famously gold-flecked portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a prominent socialite in fin-de-siècle Vienna. As stunning as that figure was, however, it was eclipsed by the amazing story of how one of the world's most famous paintings found its way to New York's Neue Gallery, after being confiscated by the Nazis and put on display at the Austrian Gallery, in whose possession it remained for the next 60 years. The Austrian government was holding on to its belief that the painting's owner had willed it to the pro-Nazi puppet regime before fleeing to Switzerland. For it to return the painting voluntarily, Austrian officials would have to admit they were in possession of property they knew had been pillaged. The only recourse left for the only living direct heir -- a niece living in Los Angeles - was to engage in exhaustive research, fragile legal proceedings and a showdown with the Austrian government. The Rape of Europa describes this battle and others related to the systematic theft of art and other cultural icons by Adolf Hitler, himself a failed artist, and his cronies. The documentary, based on Lynn Nicholas' best-selling book, reveals a parallel war waged by Nazi elite against the people of France, Poland, the Soviet Union and France, and the campaign to rid them of their collective cultural memory. The filmmakers relied on much first-hand testimony as to the extent of the looting, the methodology used to transfer and store the art and other plundered property, and Hitler's own plans for its display. Learning that several other important paintings may now be hanging in the homes of former Nazis or post-war looters only makes Rape of Europa that much more fascinating. For more than 30 years, Bernard "Toots" Shor literally was the straw that stirred the drinks in the Big Apple. In a city famous for its watering holes and restaurants, Toots Shor's was one of the primary places for grown-up celebrities and newsmakers to see and be seen. His clientele includes famous athletes, such iconic entertainers as Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason, musicians, journalists and alcoholics from all economic strata. His granddaughter, documentarian Kristi Jacobson, paints a lovely portrait of a larger-than-life personality, his landmark business and an era when talent counted more than one's ability to attract paparazzi. Among those sharing their memories are by Pete Hamill, Frank Gifford, Mike Wallace, Walter Cronkite, Gay Talese and LeRoy Neiman. Cullen Hoback's cringe-inducing documentary, Monster Camp, has nothing to do with hobbyists and movie buffs so obsessed with the horror genre that they gather each summer to re-create scenes from their favorite movies. Instead, it describes a bizarre activity known as LARPing - live-action role playing - during which otherwise normal human beings act out the storylines of such fantasy-based video games as World of Warcraft. To this end, LARP fanatics combine the social interaction of Renaissance Faire weekends with the intricate gamesmanship of Dungeons & Dragons (the rulebook is 200 pages long). Hoback took his cameras to the Pacific Northwest to document the obsessive behavior of the nerds and dweebs of all persuasions who belong to NERO Seattle, one of 60 LARPing franchises in North America. They wear outrageous costumes, observe strict moral codes and gaming guidelines, and collect points in mock battles and assaults. Whoever coined the phrase, "Get a life," might very well have been referring to LARPers. The good news is that the players appear to be relatively harmless, except to each other. The bad comes in the form of slacker behavior so extreme that organizers can barely get campers to function outside their costumes. Anyone who enjoyed King of Kong and American Movie likely will experience the same voyeuristic tingle from Monster Camp. There's something very special about those athletes who make the marathon their discipline of choice. Forty years ago, before jogging became an American pastime, the 26.2-mile race was a lonely pursuit. Today, the start of most big-city marathons more closely resembles the contents of a can of sardines than an elite corps of runners embarking on a great journey. Spirit of the Marathon puts a tight focus on small, if diverse group of competitors in the Chicago Marathon as they prepared for the race. As we learn, marathons aren't just about putting one foot in front of the other for 26 miles, anymore. Among the other documentaries that have landed on my desk: You certainly don't need to be a fan to enjoy, New York Yankees: Essential Games of Yankee Stadium, one of several film tributes to the newly shuttered ball yard; The Mindscape of Alan Moore profiles the eccentric author of such comics and graphic novels as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell; The Last Days of Left Eye traces the late rapper's journey from TLC to her final search for serenity and purpose in Honduras; and Lagerfeld Confidential, which profiles the fashion designer for the House of Chanel, who apparently was born with sunglasses attached to his ears. -- Gary Dretzka

Missing: Criterion Collection Nearly 10 years after the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, committed suicide, rather than be deposed and captured by leaders of a right-wing military coup, Costra-Gavras dared asked questions of the American government left unanswered by the news media. Although the coup was choreographed to look as if it were the inevitable reaction of Chileans opposed to Allende's inability to govern, the truth was quite a bit more complicated. In fact, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger not only gave coup leader Gen. Augusto Pinochet their tacit support, but American economic interests also worked behind the scenes to ensure the Chilean middle-class would rally behind the uprising. The Pentagon almost certainly backed the country's army with weaponry, air cover and tactical support. Then, after the shooting stopped, our government turned a blind eye to the kidnapping, torture and murders of any Chilean who chose to sleep on the left side of their beds. This included Americans drawn to Chile after Allende's election. The Greek-born filmmaker Costa-Gavras had plowed similar territory in Z and State of Siege, but few Americans then believed their government was capable of such bad behavior. In anticipation of this specific concern, the filmmaker and producers enlisted Jack Lemmon, one of the most beloved of all Hollywood actors, to play the father of an American who traveled to Chile and disappeared after the coup. Not getting the answers he needed from State Department officials, he traveled to Chile to find his son … living or dead. To this end, he received no real help from the American embassy, and what he discovered on his own would terrify anyone with a heart and conscience. As evidenced by the lead-up to the war in Iraq, Americans still would prefer to accept the falsehoods of their .leaders than admit they were capable of being duped. The Criterion Collection edition of Missing was restored in a high-definition digital transfer and includes video interviews with Costa-Gavras, Joyce Horman (wife of Charles Horman, whose son was killed in Chile) and Thomas Hauser, author of the book from which it was adapted. There are several other interviews, a video essay by the author of The Pinochet File, a booklet featuring a new essay by critic Michael Wood, another interview with Costa-Gavras and the U.S. State Department's official response to Missing. -- Gary Dretzka

Taxi to the Dark Side Standard Operating Procedure Slacker Uprising Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush Election Day/Innocent Until Proven Guilty Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone a/k/a Tommy Chong Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation Glenn Beck Unelectable The F Word Next month's presidential election may be the most crucial such exercise in democracy since the Great Depression. None of these documentaries are likely to appeal to voters whose opinions have been shaped by those talk-show hosts who brand anyone left of Adolph Hitler as a liberal. Even so, the films present evidence of malfeasance on the part of American leaders of all political stripes. The Peabody and Academy Award-winning Taxi to the Dark Side describes how an innocent Iraqi taxi driver was arrested, tortured and killed while in American custody in 2002. The only crime for which the poor sap could have been guilty was picking up a fare that might, might have had ties to Al Qaeda. Otherwise, he was just another Afghani citizen who hoped to make a living doing something besides growing opium poppies. Just as at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, the interrogations of Afghani prisoners were handled by soldiers ill-equipped for the task. And, yes, they were just following orders. All of the key elements of the story are fully documented and acknowledged as fact by American authorities. Naturally, the buck didn't stop on the desks of anyone working at the Pentagon or White House. It was passed to those same soldiers who weren't trained to ask questions of prisoners, let alone torture them. It's a true horror story. In Standard Operating Procedure, director Erroll Morris and writer Philip Gourevitch document the evils perpetrated in the name Uncle Sam and Iraqi freedom at Abu Ghraib prison. Morris' full-face interview style was subverted by lack of access to the prison and key players in Washington. Enough of the actual perpetrators made themselves available, however, to form a consensus that everyone was following a set of orders that were never really handed down, and no one who didn't get them was to blame. Morris was fascinated by the photos taken as souvenirs by the soldiers at Abu Ghraib, and wondered how these non-exceptional Americans came to be in such a fix. That not everyone agrees on what actually happened at the prison only deepens the overriding mystery. More than anything else, though, the preponderance of evidence here and in Taxi points less to malice or sadism, than to a lack of preparation on the part of the administration as to what should happen when the U.S. won the war. If the troops had waited a few more days to capture Baghdad, maybe someone in Washington could have envisioned a strategy to keep Iraqis cheering in the streets, instead of being rounded up, imprisoned in Saddam Hussein's torture chamber and treated like animals … guilty or otherwise. In the last presidential campaign, the mere presence of documentarian Michael Moore on college campuses - on behalf of his Slacker Uprising, get-out-the-vote initiative - sparked more debate among conservatives than the war in Iraq, health care, tax reform and the energy crisis. His crime: he made a movie raising more questions about 9/11 and the war in Iraq than they, or their representatives, were willing to answer. Through his films, Moore had emerged as an irritant to the right and left's own blowhard. By anyone's standards, Moore can be a pompous ass, but no more so than any number of high-decibel talk-show hosts and political operatives. Slacker Uprising spends far too much time focusing on the 2004 race and the polarizing effect of Moore's exercising of his rights and those of campus governments. Unfortunately, the same issues he addressed four years ago remain unresolved today. Joining Moore on stage were members of REM, Viggo Mortensen, Gloria Steinem, Steve Earle and Joan Baez. Fans of Oliver Stone's W might enjoy following up the experience by checking out Comedy Central's Salute to George Bush, which treats the so-called most powerful man in the world with irreverence, bordering on disdain. As the sun dawns on an administration that's set new standards for ineptitude, the only thing left for decent people to do is laugh. This DVD is a compilation of Bush-whacking episodes from South Park, Lil' Bush, That's My Bush, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil and stand-up performances. Arts Engine/Big Mouth Film is a company that provides one-stop shopping for organizations and activists that have information to share, but are short on the wherewithal to produce polished documentaries themselves. It also sponsors film festivals for shorts made by documentarians around the world. Election Day is a film that focuses on the electoral process from the point of view of a dozen Americans who went to the polls four years ago. Not all of them found it easy to exercise their right to vote. Fraud, nitpicking and incompetence all conspired to reduce the odds of their votes being counted. Unlike other recent studies of the same election, Election Day goes beyond the abuses committed in Ohio and Florida, by putting a personal touch on the experience. Another new release is Innocent Until Proven Guilty, a film that describes the struggles of students at Maya Angelou Public Charter School, in the nation's capital. Co-founded by James Forman Jr., the school caters to kids who have had brushes with the law and want to escape the treadmill of crime. It's easy to despise Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. The pictorials in Hustler are to the photo spreads in Playboy what top sirloin is to chopped liver, and the cartoons, by most standards, are vile. He ridiculed mainstream values and attracted the kind of media heat usually reserved for Nazis living in Argentina and disgraced clergy. More than anything else, however, Flynt had the audacity to believe that First Amendment protections applied as much to his publications as they did to Newsweek, Soldier of Fortune, the National Review and Hugh Hefner, for that matter. Instead of taking his medicine and crawling under the covers, the unrepentant publisher found ever more controversial material to put in his magazine … like nude pictures of Jackie O, for example. It mattered not that no one forced his enemies - from prosecutor-turned-swindler Charles Keating, to radical feminists - to buy Hustler, read the articles or drool at the pictures of naked women. Nor, did Flynt force the models to pose or hand out free copies of the magazine outside the local junior high school. The sexual revolution was in its second decade and the labia-fearing minority was getting ready to return fire. There was no higher a profile than Flynt's, for headline-seeking politicians or crazed gunmen. (He was left paralyzed after being shot by a white supremacist, who was outraged by an interracial pictorial.) The persuasive Larry Flynt: the Right to Be Left Alone covers much of the same ground as Milos Foreman's The People vs. Larry Flynt, but the emphasis here is on Flynt's legal battles and refusal to bend over for censors. For his genuine concern over the erosion of basic rights, he's been honored by civil libertarians at such lofty venues as Harvard Law School. In the eyes of Washington lawmakers, though, his greatest crime might have been offering a reward for information about congressman who voted to impeach Bill Clinton, while participating in the same sexual activities with someone other than their wife. Imagine the outcry if Michael Jordan had been prosecuted and jailed for endorsing Nike, a company that profited from the labor of Asian children and other barely paid workers. Couldn't happen? Well, that's pretty much what happened to comedian Tommy Chong after he agreed to promote a line of boutique bongs for a company owned by his son. The same administration that couldn't find Obama Bin Laden at a church social reportedly spent $12 million to put the aging entertainer behind bars, while completely ignoring the culpability of anyone else in the business. A.k.a., Tommy Chong is equal parts profile, testimonial and indictment of out-of-control Justice Department drones. Inexplicably, 10,000 DVD copies of this documentary were seized in a raid, authorized by renegade U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, even though Chong had no financial interest in the film. Again, your tax dollars made such an outrage possible. The Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation tells the incredible and barely known story of Robert King Wilkerson, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, who have been forced to live in solitary confinement for more than 30 years. Their crime didn't involve shanking a guard or fellow prisoner, though. In an effort to improve conditions for inmates at the Louisiana prison reputed to be the worst in the country, they organized a chapter of the Black Panther Party. In other words, they've been living apart from the prison population decades longer than the Black Panthers mattered to anyone but historians. Glenn Beck is a popular, occasionally controversial TV and radio talker - and someone once shackled by addictions to booze and dope -- who regularly takes his themed shows on the road to preach the truth to listeners and other true believers. Not nearly as strident and dim-witted as most of his right-wing peers, Beck has profited from his attacks on political correctness (an easy target, if there ever was one), immigration (ditto) and anti-war activists (double ditto). Also unlike other talk-show demagogues, he occasionally admits pushing the rhetorical envelope and being conflicted about right-wing dogma in which he has a personal stake. Apparently, this is what makes him Unelectable. On the other side of the radio fence is Joe Pace, a fictional New York deejay whose use of profanity set some kind of record for FCC fines. In the faux-doc, The F-Word, Pace spends time wandering around the 2004 Republican Convention interviewing protestors about national security and free speech. The disconnect here comes in the mix of real actors and real protestors, like Medium Cool but not as good. -- Gary Dretzka

Paranoid Park Boy A XXY The Edge of Heaven Ludwig There's a very good reason why crimes committed by children are judged differently than those committed by adults, and Paranoid Park and Boy A offer ample testimony to the wisdom behind such deference. Without lecturing their audiences or stacking the decks in favor of a particular point of view, Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park and John Crowley's Boy A describe how the effects of one thoughtless act by an adolescent can reverberate well beyond the confines of a courtroom or a prison, and return years later like a rubber ball tethered to a paddle. In Paranoid Park, Van Sant focuses his attention on a group of Portland teens, ranging from homeless skateboarders to horny cheerleaders, who are alienated to the point of stagnation. Stuck in the middle is Alex, a likeable kid whose parents' impending divorce prompts him to seek refuge among the similarly lost souls who skate and hang out in Paranoid Park. One night, Alex joins a pal in an adventure that requires them to hop moving freight cars. When a stick-wielding security guard catches up to them, Alex impulsively and quite by accident knocks him into the path of a locomotive, severing him neatly in half. The guard's death appears to be far more pre-meditated or capricious than it actually was, leaving the already disaffected youth empty, confused and in desperate need of a .life buoy. Paranoid Park can be seen as a companion to Van Sant's Columbine-inspired Elephant, in that these very recognizable kids are as likely to behave like harmless knuckleheads as villainous adults. The narrative is driven by the words Alex stores a journal, because no one else has the time to listen. The atmospheric cinematography and imaginative editing choices, as well as a highly compelling soundtrack, make Paranoid Park a work of immense force. Set in working-class Manchester, England, Boy A tells the story of 24-year-old Jack (Andrew Garfield), who's just been released from jail after serving time for a heinous crime he committed as a boy. State-raised, Jack needs a great deal of help adjusting to life in a very different Britain than the one he left as a youth. Among other things, the awkward and shy young man has yet to experience a sexual relationship with a woman, attend a rave, ingest ecstasy or work alongside men his age who don't pose a threat to his well-being. He experiences all of these things, by choice or chance, within days of leaving prison. In Britain, it's almost impossible to escape the reach of the tabloid press and people with long memories of vicious murders. His alias is blown after he becomes a public hero for saving the life of a child in an automobile accident. Overnight, he becomes Frankenstein's monster. Garfield's performance has already been rewarded with a BAFTA award, and I can't imagine seeing a better one this year. Boy A and Paranoid Park are movies that leave scars, even as they enrich those who care about the future of our children. A double-winner at Cannes, the Argentine drama XXY tackles one of the most difficult issues any teenager could face. Alex (Ines Efron) was born with male and female sex organs, and, at 15, has come to a point in life when feelings of love and sex demand immediate attention. Typically, parents of intersex children make the decision early on as to whether they'll raise their offspring as girl or a boy, and surgery makes it official. Why make life any more difficult for the child than it already promises to be? In XXY, Alex's parents have postponed making that decision, choosing hormonal treatments that will allow her to buy more time living as a girl. Alex's father is a marine biologist, who's witnessed many examples of fish that can shift between sexes, so the thought of raising a hermaphrodite was less daunting for the parents. To make things even easier for their child, they've chosen to live on a sparsely populated island off Uruguay. Alex's mannerisms reveal some sort of secret, though, and the local boys make her life miserable. Things get even more complicated when Alex goes off her meds and the male side of her nature is attracted to the 16-year-old son of family friends. Freshman director Lucia Puenzo tells Alex's delicate story in a non-exploitative and non-judgmental fashion. Another Cannes winner, The Edge of Heaven, describes how the lives of six seemingly disparate characters intersect, even as they travel between Germany and Turkey and connections are missed along the way. It begins when an older gentleman invites a beleaguered prostitute to live in his home. When death and prison intercede, the story shifts to their children, who have very different loves and agendas. Writer-director Fatih Akin was introduced to American arthouse audiences through the dark drama, Head-On, which also commented on the difficulty of straddling two distinctly different cultures. In 1973, director Luchino Visconti (The Leopard, Death in Venice) delivered this exhaustive biography of the 19th Century mad king of Bavaria, Ludwig II. It starred Helmut Berger, as the tormented monarch; Romy Schneider, as his cousin and the object of his romantic obsession; Trevor Howard, as the composer Richard Wagner; and Silvana Mangano as Cosima Von Bulow, without whom there would be no Claus Von Bulow. Ludwig is full of fairytale castles and wonderful costumes. At its original four-hour length, though, the biopic will seem like an eternity to most American audiences, even those who've enjoyed the director's previous work. -- Gary Dretzka

Touch of Evil: 50th Anniversary Edition Psycho/Rear Window/Vertigo: Universal Legacy Series Le Doulos/ Le Deuxième Soufflé: Criterion Collection No amount of criticism or scholarly discourse can fully prepare newcomers for the roller-coaster ride that is Orson Welles' highly entertaining noir, Touch of Evil. Famous primarily for its astonishing opening shot - an uninterrupted three-minute survey of a seedy border town - is one of those classic movies that continue to reveal secrets, even after repeated viewings. Universal's new 50th Anniversary Edition DVD includes all three versions of the film: the preview version, the heavily edited 1958 theatrical version and the 1998 restoration, meticulously edited to the specifications of a memo Welles' wrote after seeing what the studio had done to his film. All three have their rewards, but the restored edition clearly is the most fun. In addition to writing and directing Touch of Evil, Welles also delivered an unforgettable portrayal of the corrupt police chief at loggerheads with a straight-arrow Mexican narcotics officer played by Charlton Heston. Things really start going sideways for the narc after his wife (Janet Leigh) is abducted by thugs and taken to a hideout deep in the desert. As the local madam, Marlene Dietrich also makes a memorable appearance. Not surprisingly, the story behind the production, as recounted by Heston, Leigh and restoration producer Rick Schmidlin, is almost as fascinating as the movie itself. Also included is a copy of Welles' 58-page memo to Universal's head of production Edward Muhl. Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho have been released in so many different video iterations, it's become almost impossible to tell which of the collector's editions is the latest and best. Ostensibly, the Universal Legacy Series versions trump the titles in the Collector's Edition, Masterpiece Collection, Hollywood Legends Collection and The Alfred Hitchcock Collection, all of which promised improvements to the initial DVD release. These double-disc editions have been digitally re-mastered and given supplementary material that corresponds to the TCM presentations. As a writer and director of movies about crime and criminals, Jean-Pierre Melville had few equals. The only reason his name isn't as well known here as, say, Hitchcock, is because Americans are so predisposed to be wary of movies with subtitles. The French are far more agreeable when it comes sampling movies not in the native language, and Melville was a great admirer of Howard Hawks, John Ford and John Huston. Le Doulos and Le Deuxième Soufflé were gangster thrillers that starred hard-guy actors Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura, respectively. Their characters were informed by the existentialist protagonists of American film noir, but very much looked like crooks, not matinee idols. Criterion Collection has done a sterling job upgrading the look of the films and providing background material on the filmmaker. Director Bertrand Tavernier offers his recollections of Melville, as do critics and scholars. There also are vintage TV interviews with Ventura and Melville. One of the finest examples of modern American noir, Body Heat, has arrived on Blu-ray, proving that heat and humidity translate as well to hi-def as they did in the steamy original. -- Gary Dretzka

Nash Bridges: The First Season Life with Derek Mobile The Note The Minotaur's Island Witness to the Mob The Memory Keeper's Daughter Mister Roberts Nash Bridges proved that there, indeed, was life for Don Johnson on TV after Miami Vice. It also raised the acting profile of Cheech Marin, who played the partner of the wisecracking San Francisco supercop, Johnson wasn't required to stretch himself very far for inspiration as to how to play Nash, a cop cut from the same cloth as Sonny Crockett. It was San Francisco, itself, that separated the two very likable characters. The Disney Channel has become a reliable developer of stars of the future and series that hit their demographic with more accuracy and frequency than most other networks. In Life With Derek, an attractive pair of teenagers suddenly become step-siblings. It isn't a new concept, exactly, but kids never seem to tire of it. Mobile joins Acorn's growing lineup of intriguing mini-series from England, involving dastardly international conspiracies and brilliant police work. In this four-episode thriller, someone is blowing up transmission towers and murdering cell-phone users. The mystery behind the attacks unfolds slowly and in unexpected ways, although it's entirely possible that the killer is motivated by merger of communications companies. Typically, the acting and production values are excellent. The Note debuted on the Hallmark Channel last year. It stars soap-opera princess Genie Francis as a reporter who discovers a farewell note in the wreckage of a plane crash and assigns herself the duty of delivering it to the intended recipient. First, however, she has to determine which of the passengers wrote it. There have been few American plays as popular as Mister. Roberts, a comedy set aboard a US cargo ship, working in the Pacific during World War II. Not only did it win several Tony Awards, but it also was made into a hit film, starring Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Betsy Palmer and Jack Lemmon (winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). This adaptation was performed live for NBC, in 1984, when the networks still did things had respect for themselves and their audiences. Robert Hays played Lt. Doug Roberts, while Charles Durning was his nemesis Capt. Morton. Kevin Bacon portrayed Ensign Pulver. The set includes a background essay, 'Mister Roberts' on Stage and Screen. The British television documentary, The Minotaur's Island, goes beyond the myth of the half-man, half-bull imprisoned in Daedalus's labyrinth to describe how the island of Crete became home to one of the world's first great civilizations. The examination of Minoan culture is narrated by historian Bettany Hughes. The Lifetime presentation, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, stars Dermot Mulroney as doctor who conspires with a nurse to keep critical information from his wife, who had just delivered twins. The daughter was born with Down's syndrome, a fact he doesn't want to disclose to his wife (Gretchen Mol) after she awakens from a coma. Instead of delivering the infant to a mental institution as instructed - this was 1964 - the nurse (Emily Watson) decides to raise the girl as her own. Skip ahead 25 years, and the wife has still not been told she has a daughter. That will soon change, however. Weighing in at 240 minutes, the 1998 NBC mini-series Witness to the Mob regurgitated almost everything we already knew about the saga of mobsters John Gotti and Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, The best thing about the mini-series, apart from a very decent portrayal of Gravano by Nicholas Turturro, was the casting of a dozen actors who'd played gangsters in The Godfather, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and the yet-to-be-produced Sopranos. What the mini-series lacked in originality, though, it more than made up for in Abe Vigoda sightings. With most of the returning shows having already launched their new seasons, the selection of TV-to-DVD packages has slowed to a trickle. Instead, we're gearing up for the holidays with all-inclusive collections and specialty products: This week's batch includes: LA Ink: Season 1, Volume 2, The Universe: The Complete Season Two, Brotherhood: The Complete Second Season, The Beverly Hillbillies: The Official Second Season, Lil' Bush: Resident of United States: Season Two, The Sarah Silverman Program: Season Two, Vol. One (why not full season?), Mission Impossible: The Fifth TV Season, Martin: The Complete Fifth Season, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: The Eighth Season, Midsomer Murders: Set 11, The Munsters: The Complete Series, Liberty's Kids: Complete Series and South Park: The Cult of Cartman: Revelations. -- Gary Dretzka

The Lazurus Project I-See-You.com The Neighbor Among the many reasons a thriller designed for theatrical release will go straight to video, instead, is that it's only thrilling in fits and starts. The Lazurus Project is just such a movie. Paul Walker plays Ben, an ex-con who's nearing the end of his parole period. He's made the most of his second lease on life, but circumstances beyond his control put his life in freefall. After losing his job, he fears that he won't be able to provide for his family. Knowing better, Ben nonetheless agrees to help his hoodlum brother on a heist that goes bad. Sooner than you can say, Ted Bundy, Ben's being strapped to a crucifix-shaped table, so he can be injected with a lethal dose of a chemical cocktail. Instead of going straight to an identifiable heaven, hell or purgatory, Alex awakens to a far different reality, and it looks very much like Oregon. It's here that the real guessing game begins, both for Alex and the audience. Where the heck is he? How long will he be there? Where will he go when he leaves … Oregon? A clue lies in the title, of course, but Ben isn't privy to that information. Not a bad foundation for a brain-twister, really. The problem is that the road from Death Row to the place where all the answers to these questions reside isn't nearly as serpentine as it ought to be. For nearly 60 minutes, almost nothing of real interest happens. Neither does a palpable aura of paranoia and dread rise to the surface. Then, just as unexpectedly, The Lazurus Project manages to resurrect itself, producing an ending that's at once interesting and diabolical. If you have the patience, and are a fan of the handsome leading man, Walker, there are rewards to be found at the end. Is there a more likable actor in Hollywood than Beau Bridges, or a more agreeably prolific actor than Rosanna Arquette? While both have made a name for themselves in high-profile projects on TV and in the movies, they've also lend their names and talent to dozens of indie productions that didn't have a ghost of a chance of seeing wide distribution, let alone profits. If anyone deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFI, they do. Instead, the honor now is bestowed on artists, who, while deserving, can produce ratings for CBS. It's been 10 years since anyone has been so honored who didn't have at least 20 years of great work left in them, or would practically donate their services so an aspiring filmmaker could get his/her picture made. But, I digress. Made in 2006, a half-dozen years after the hidden web-cam and day-trading craze were at their peak, I See You.com is a farcical comedy that would have been a pipedream, if Arquette and Bridges weren't involved. As it is, the film got some exposure at the HBO Comedy Festival, but, otherwise, was a DVD-original waiting to happen. Arquette and Bridges play the parents of a spoiled pair of step-siblings who once enjoyed a sexual relationship but now are feuding. When a financial crisis hits the family, the son and his girlfriend plant cameras around the house and sent out the embarrassing images via the Internet. An instant media sensation, it isn't long before the rest of the family discovers their inadvertent stardom. Once the boy explains financial windfall, though, the family begins to play along, to disastrous results. The movie might have found some traction if it had been released in 2000, and offered enough nudity to stir the loins of teenage boys. By 2006, it was hopelessly date. Even so, the lead actors refused to phone in their performances - as might have other prominent names - and the result is a marginally diverting entertainment. Likewise, Matthew Modine has bounced between high- and low-profile projects, on the big and small screens. In the romantic comedy The Neighbor, he's required to carry most of the load as a divorced dad feuding cute with his pretty new landlord and downstairs neighbor (blond Frenchie, Michele Laroque). As anyone old enough to remember Love, American Style could guess, the arguments and misunderstandings serve merely as warm-ups for the inevitable happy ending. The Neighbor was pleasant enough to watch, and the pairing of such unprepossessing middle-age stars was a welcome surprise. The story, though, carried all the weight of a movie made for the Lifetime network.-- Gary Dretzka

Four Minutes Shelter Me Itty Bitty Titty Committee Saturn in Opposition Among the many bromides one memorizes after learning how to walk, talk and use the potty is the one that cautions against judging a book by its cover. The same applies, even more so, for the cover art on DVDs. The photograph on the cover of the intense German women-in-prison drama, Four Minutes, is of a woman in a sexy cocktail dress, standing alongside a piano, with her hands handcuffed behind her back. There are bars on the window from which light is pouring into the darkened room, but the building could just as easily be in a seedy neighborhood. If one were to guess as to the nature of the movie contained within - as did I - it would be logical to suspect Four Minutes was soft porn for eggheads. Instead, the pianist is re-creating a scene from the movie, during which an angry, possibly sociopathic feral cat of a prisoner demonstrates her uncanny ability to perform serious music while shackled. The cocktail dress worn by the model is very much like the one worn by Jenny (Hannah Herzprung) at a recital very late in the film. It explains the confusion one feels after watching a half-hour of Four Minutes and not seeing anything close to a romantic interlude, especially one the includes bondage. Instead, we're thrown face first into a maelstrom of rage, self-loathing, bitterness and often discordant music. Jenny has been offered hope for redemption by a seemingly humorless piano teacher (Monica Bleibtrau), who, in addition to being a stern taskmaster and classical purist, won't tolerate the playing of negro music in her presence. Eventually, they forge an uneasy bond between them, but any notion of a peaceful accord between is short-lived as the student can't avoid violent outbursts that cause her to lose privileges. Jenny reminds the teacher of her first true love, a woman, and a romance that ended very badly. It's why she persists in the face of almost insurmountable odds to bring out her student's gift. Four Minutes captured several impressive awards in Europe, and it's easy to see why. Shelter Me describes what happens to the relationship of a lesbian couple - an employee in a women's shoe factory and her boss - after a Moroccan teenager becomes a stowaway in their over-packed station wagon on their return to Italy from northern Africa. Almost inexplicably, the boy is taken in by the wealthy factory owner, causing a temporary rift between the star-crossed lovers. He, too, finds work in the factory, but worlds collide after layoffs are announced. All of the primary actors - Maria de Medeiros, Antonia Liskova, Mounir Quadi - turn in superb performances for writer-director Marco Puccioni, who keeps a tight rein on the class-conscious drama as it steams along toward several possible unhappy endings. Jamie Babbit's offbeat political comedy, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, resembles nothing so much as most people's least-favorite John Water's film Cecil B. DeMented and the 1971 Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey satire, Women in Revolt. This is shorthand for loud, half-baked, unruly and at least two decades out of date. The director of the highly uneven 1999 camp-fest, But I'm a Cheerleader, and dozens of very good TV shows, follows a young lesbian who falls in with group of radical feminists - grrrls of the Guerrilla, Suicide and Riot persuasion -- who specialize in vandalism and other anti-social behavior. Like feminists of the '60s, the target of their rage is what they consider to be the degradation of women in the media, whatever that means in 2008. The best reason for renting this movie is to watch such familiar faces as Melonie Diaz, Nicole Vicius, Melanie Mayron, Carly Pope, Daniela Sea, Guinevere Turner, Deak Eugenikos, Jenny Shimizu and Lauren Mollica doing a little slumming. Other films of interest primarily to the Sapphic niche are Wolfe's Finn's Girl, about a doctor struggling to raise the 11-year-old daughter of her recently deceased partner while also dealing with death threats from anti-abortion zealots; the coming-of-age romance, Love My Life, was adapted from a Japanese manga. Turkish writer-director Ferzan Ozpetek's ensemble drama, Saturn in Opposition, also introduces us to someone forced to take on the added responsibility of parenthood after a partner dies unexpectedly. Meanwhile, the relationships of their closest friends - gay and straight - face emotional challenges of their own. Ozpetek, best known here for Steam: The Turkish Bath, makes full use of his adopted home town, Rome. -- Gary Dretzka

Halloween: Three-Disc Unrated Collector's Edition Young Frankenstein/ Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Blu-ray R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly Icons of Horror: Hammer Films Mother of Tears In the run-up to Halloween, DVD purveyors are clearing their shelves of anything they think will tingle the spines of audiences young and old, large and small, costumed and naked. To that end, the extremely prolific folks at the Weinstein Company have packaged the Unrated Director's Cut with more extras and supplemental features than most Rob Zombie fans could shake a guitar at … including all manner of making-of material, 17 deleted scenes and a blooper reel, an alternate ending, a mask gallery, casting sessions and much Zombie commentary. His take on the John Carpenter classic added more psychological background to the dossier of Mr. Myers than most horror fans desired, but the movie did OK, anyway. The third disc is comprised of a four-hour-plus documentary, Michael Lives: The Making of 'Halloween'. And, yes, that's five times longer than the original. What Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder did to the Western, they also did to the horror genre with Young Frankenstein. The smart and undeniably uproarious spoof arrived several years before Jason, Mike and Freddy would slash their ways into the hearts of gore aficionados and Alfred Hitchcock was getting ready to call it a day. Young Frankenstein harkened back to a more innocent time, when monsters were monsters and terrified villagers wielded pitchforks in defense of their families. Then, too, almost everyone tall enough to buy a ticket could relate to the gags on one level or another. Although Blu-ray is most often associated with brilliant colors, black-and-white footage also is enhanced by the hi-def format, and Young Frankenstein looks great. The clarity will help kids enjoy Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman's portrayal of Monster and Igor as much as their parents did three decades earlier. The extras are plentiful, adding new making-of featurettes, such as It's Alive!: Creating a Monster Classic and the picture-in-picture backgrounder, Inside the Lab. There are new interviews with Brooks, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman and composer John Morris. A trivia track adds factoids, and there's a separate track for Morris' music. Sweeney Todd, one of last year's most-admired films, is a perfect Halloween movie, overflowing, as it is, with blood, gore and cutlery. Too many horror fanatics were put off by the movie's Broadway pedigree for Tim Burton's adaptation of the musical to become the hit it deserved to be on film. Perhaps, they forgot how well The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Frank Oz's The Little Shop of Horrors turned out. The Blu-ray edition offers a full menu of hi-def features, ranging from making-of docs to A Bloody Business, a look at the special effects used in the film to simulate the slashing of throats. Also newly available is The Rocky Horror Tribute Show, which was filmed at London's Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, where it all began 35 years ago. The 2006 presentation featured such performers as Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Little Nell and Rayner Bourton, all of whom had previously done the Time Warp on stage. Throughout most of the 1950s and '60s, Britain's Hammer Films studio churned out stylized horror flicks at much the same rate as Universal Pictures did a quarter-century earlier. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing portrayed many of the same characters made popular by Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, and they ultimately gained a cult following in America. The matinee fare collected here includes The Gorgon (1964), in which a creature from the pages of Greek mythology turns men into stone; the psycho-thrillers, Scream of Fear (1961) and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960); and Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964), one of four follow-ups to Terence Fisher's Mummy (1959). Family audiences also will enjoy R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly, in which an 11-year-old magician needs supernatural help to woo the most popular girl in school. Fortuitously, the boy shares a house with a pair of ghosts willing to trade favors. It stars Madison Pettis, Ali Lohan, Luke Benward, Noah Cyrus and Sterling Beaumon. Fans of Dario and Asia Argento may want to skip trick-or-treating this year to watch Mother of Tears, the final installment of Dario's Three Mothers trilogy (Suspira, Inferno). The maestro's daughter plays a young American art student, Sarah, who opens an ancient urn and unwittingly convenes a gathering of the world's most powerful witches. Among the many sequels and remakes arriving in time for Halloween are Blu-ray editions of Rest Stop and Rest Stop: Don't Look Back: Uncut, Otis: Uncut, Prom Night: Unrated, Pulse 2, Dead Space: Downfall (a prequel to the video game, actually), the animated Blood +: Volume 3 and Feast II: Sloppy Seconds. Zombies are represented in The Vanguard, while the blood continues to flow in Bryan Loves You (George Wendt, of Cheers), The Devil's Chair (let's drop acid in a lunatic asylum), the antsy Phase IV, Five Across the Eyes (extreme carnage) and the claustrophobic Buried Alive and Breathing Room. -- Gary Dretzka

Kill Switch Cyborg Soldier Seoul Raiders Vice Old action heroes never die; they just go straight to video. Steven Seagal, once an international superstar, has developed a loyal following of fans drawn to the kind of no-frills, low-budget vigilante thrillers that bypass theaters and, in doing so, save a small fortune on marketing costs. In Kill Switch, Seagal plays a big-city homicide detective on the trail of a shrewd serial killer. They finally meet up on the seedy side of Memphis. In Cyber Soldier, former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin escapes the death penalty by allowing himself to be genetically reconstructed as a human weapon. The program isn't kosher, even by the loosey-goosey ethical standards of our military, and his escape from the cyborg program sparks an aggressive manhunt. Tiffani Thiessen plays a cop who finds herself trapped in the middle of the rundown. In this sequel to the Hong Kong action-comedy, Tokyo Raiders, the estimable Tony Leung returns as Lam, a gadget-minded special agent for Japanese National Security. In Seoul Raiders, Leung is teamed with the delightful Qi Shu, who plays a thief. Together, they hope to derail a team of counterfeiters and collect a reward from the U.S. ambassador. First, however, they are forced to take a sidetrip to Korea. Michael Madsen, the king of straight-to-DVD crime flicks, returns again as a cop in Vice. This time around, he's trying to figure out which of his cronies is stealing confiscated heroin and is responsible for a string of murders. Daryl Hannah is along for the ride. -- Gary Dretzka

The Foot Fist Way The Rebel Fist of Legend Blood+: Volume Three WWE: Hell in a Cell A majority of critics listed on the Metacritic.com website say they enjoyed the heck of Foot Fist Way, even though several qualified their opinions by adjusting upward for the indie's miniscule budget. A few compared it to The Office, because they both share a cinema verite look and a protagonist who holds himself in much higher regard than those around him do. The ubiquitous Danny McBride (Pineaple Express, Drillbit Taylor, Tropic Thunder) plays a tae kwon do instructor who treats his students as if they were marine recruits, instead of kids, fatsos and people with personality disorders. Fred Simmons isn't a bad teacher, just unreasonably demanding and disturbingly full of himself. His equilibrium is thrown off after he discovers his wife is bestowing sexual favors upon her boss, whose son is one of his students … or, so he thinks. Instead of going after his wife's lover, Fred beats up the boy in a training exercise. I guess this was supposed to be funny, but I found it disturbing. In fact, writer-director Jody Hill seems to take great pleasure in pitting stronger students against weaker ones. It isn't until Fred gathers up a group of students and takes them to an exhibition by the boorish star of several Hollywood martial-arts movies that Foot Fist Way began to resemble a comedy to me. That's because, when put to the test, the motley crew unexpectedly demonstrates how well they've learned their lessons. Their newfound confidence comes in handy when Fred discovers that the actor also has seduced his wife. The levity doesn't last very long, however. In spite of himself, proves himself to be a pretty good teacher, and someone who can break boards and bricks as well as the next instructor. Foot Fist Way is marketed to appeal to fans of Judd Apatow's revenge-of-the-nerds oeuvre and Napoleon Dynamite. That's sounds about right. The Weinstein Co.'s Dragon Dynasty series adds a pair of period martial-arts titles, The Rebel and Fist of Legend. The former was set in French-occupied Vietnam in the 1920's, while the latter takes place in pre-WWII Shanghai. Johnny Nguyen (The Protector) plays a Vietnamese fighter who works with the French, until helps the beautiful daughter of a rebel leader escape captivity. Dustin Nguyen (21 Jump Street) also stars in the well photographed film. In Fist of Legend, Jet Li plays a martial artist studying in Japan when that country's forces begin a vicious occupation of Shanghai. He returns home after he learns of the death, at the hands of a Japanese master, of his mentor. Inevitably students of the school are forced to confront the forces dominating China. Many of the same folks responsible for The Ghost in the Shell contributed to the Japanese Blood+ series, which has migrated to Adult Swim. The artists combined CGI with hand-drawn animation in the service of a story about shape-shifting vampires and the vigilantes determined to eliminate them. Back home in the U.S.A., gladiators of a less cerebral sort do their fighting in rings, on mats and "cells" … think Thunderdome, only smaller. Among the combatants were Shawn Michaels, Mankind, Undertaker, Triple H and Batista. Also new is WWE: Summerslam 2008, in which many of the same wrestlers, plus Rey Mysterioso exchange fisticuffs. -- Gary Dretzka