MCN DVD Reviews: December 23, 2008

The Wrap Up ...

The Duchess

	..The MCN Reviews Vault
	..The MCN Critics Roundup

-- Gary Dretzka

Mamma Mia! The Movie
Two Disc Special Edition

	..MCN Review
	..The MCN Reviews Vault
	..The MCN Critics Roundup

It's almost impossible to resist the impeccably crafted hits of ABBA, the Swedish pop group that remains as popular today as it was when it disbanded in 1983. Just as the BeeGees had conquered the charts with their irresistibly catchy lyrics and precisely blended vocals, ABBA found a ready audience in the same resurgent late-'70s disco scene immortalized in Saturday Night Fever and Boogie Nights. It helped mightily that the group's elaborately produced songs were recorded in English, as well as Swedish. The only real differences between the theatrical and film versions of Mamma Mia - in which a soon-to-be-married girl concocts a scheme to discover which of her mom's old boyfriends is her father - is the superstar cast and real island setting. Skopelos and Skiathos share the turquoise waters and azure skies common to most of the Greek isles, but their lush forests make them stand out from better known destinations. The Blu-ray edition of Mamma Mia! neatly captures the contrasts between the deep-blue backgrounds and the whitewashed walls of the homes carved into the islands' rocky cliffs. Instead of the largely anonymous on-stage cast, the adaptation boasts Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Julia Walters. If the scenery is immeasurably more appealing, though, requiring certain male stars to sing almost sinks the whole ship. Seyfried, as the bride-to-be, has a terrific voice, and Streep and Baranski mostly hold their own. Listening to Pierce Brosnan sing amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, and Firth and Skarsgard aren't much better. This extravagant conceit on the part of director Phyllida Lloyd comes off less as an amusing stunt, than an ill-conceived blunder. To their credit, however, none of the A-listers have ever pretended they could match the original cast. The bonus features include a sing-along track, deleted musical number, director's commentary and, with Blu-ray, interactive distractions and connectivity with the Internet. -- Gary Dretzka

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Judging only by the critics' almost unanimous disdain for the third installment in Universal's The Mummy franchise, I might have been better served by avoiding Tomb of the Dragon Emperor altogether. That I enjoyed the China-set action-adventure as much as I did suggests I'm either a philistine or a fool to trust the geniuses at Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes. While I may not have been overwhelmed by the story or special effects, I did find Dragon Emperor to be far more substantial than other summer tent-pole pictures, especially Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Here, the O'Connell family is enlisted in a campaign to prevent the re-animated Terracotta Army of the first Qin Dynasty from reaching Shangri La, where Emperor Han (Jet Li) could plot world domination and eternal life. As this all unfolds in the wake of World War II, one wonders where Chairman Mao was hiding. In addition to the clay soldiers, whose bodies explode into clouds of dust when struck by swords and bullets, director Rob Cohen has introduced shape-shifting demons, rocs, dragons and friendly yeti. Will Brendan Fraser's posse manage to thwart Han before he reaches Shangri La? I wouldn't bet against it. Adding to the fun here are Maria Bello (replacing Rachel Weisz,) the gorgeous Michelle Yeoh, Russell Wong, Liam Cunningham and John Hannah. The CGI work is excellent, and the visual references to the Terracotta Army, Great Wall and Shangri La respect tradition and legend. Cohen's ability to shoot Dragon Emperor on location, throughout China, also is crucial to any enjoyment of the film. The extras include several making-of features and deleted scenes, while the Blu-ray edition adds an in-movie trivia game, explorations of all three Mummy films, scenes shot from different perspectives and BD Live accessibility. -- Gary Dretzka

Traitor

Don Cheadle delivers another terrific performance in Traitor, as a former U.S. Special Operations officer and explosives expert, who, by all appearances, has left the reservation and joined a terrorist cell. Like Darwyn Al-Sayeed in Showtime's superb mini-series, Sleeper Cell, Cheadle's Samir Horn, has gone so far under cover that he's forced to perform acts that would seem ethically untenable for a jackal. It's because his fellow cellmates are planning ever-more-murderous deeds, however, that Samir is required by his handlers to maintain the ruse. Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) and co-written by actor Steve Martin, Traitor keeps viewers guessing throughout most of its 110 minutes. It helps that the terrorists aren't portrayed as mindless thugs and one or two federal agents, at least, haven't sold their soul to Dick Cheney and the Patriot Act. The film further benefits from being shot on location, in France, England, Morocco, Toronto and Chicago, all key points along the trail to potential disaster. Guy Pearce plays the counter-terrorism agent who has been following Samir's tracks from a prison break in Yemen, through Europe and on to the U.S. and Canada, but isn't in on his true role. The bonus package adds commentary by Nachmanoff and Cheadle; featurettes on the special effects and stunts; and a piece on international espionage. -- Gary Dretzka

The Women

Everything that's wrong with The Women can be gleaned from listening to writer-director Diane English reflect on her decisions in the bonus reels. Not only does the creator of Murphy Brown willingly admit to diluting the source material - stripping the cattiness and replacing it with a bunch of Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves mumbo-jumbo - but she does so in between clips from both adaptations of Clare Boothe Luce's play. Witnessing Norma Shear, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine tear into each other, under the direction of George Cukor, alongside such equivalent stars as Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing and Jada Pinkett Smith, suggests English didn't trust the ability of today's women to differentiate between bitchiness and satire, wit and melodrama. When faced with such problems as infidelity, career implosion, household anarchy and reckless gossip, English's women react as if there was a flat tire on their SUV and it would take AAA more than five minutes to respond. The centerpiece tragedy only gets deliciously nasty when friends of Mary (Ryan) track down the sexy, dark-skinned sales girl (Mendes) who seduced her worthless husband, as if the cad was powerless against her gold-digging charms and upper-crusty women don't set the same traps. Crystal's motivations may seem dishonorable, but her cards have been laid on the table for everyone to see. When Mary runs out of tears and decides to listen to someone other than her dimwitted friends - in this case, yoga instructors, her similarly mistreated mother and a precocious daughter - their advice is somewhat less than revelatory: breathe deeply, stop whining and wear sexy black dresses whenever possible. The transformation from dust bunny to domestic courtesan is as embarrassing to watch as it is impossible to believe her husband is worth the effort. (A dungaree-clad Meg Ryan is infinitely hotter than most of the nation's stripper workforce.) After watching all 114 minutes of The Women - as well as the DVD extras - the only question that leapt to mind was, what could Cukor have done with such a cast? -- Gary Dretzka

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
The Nutty Professor

Most young readers' first introduction to such concepts as faith, tolerance and equality came not from Sunday-school teachers, but in the whimsical art and poetry of Dr. Seuss. Published in 1954, as tens of thousands of baby boomers were entering kindergarten, Horton Hears a Who! imagined an endangered civilization of microscopic Whos living on a speck of dust. Horton is an elephant whose extraordinary sense of hearing allows him to communicate with people he can't see and empathize with their plight. Not all the residents of the Jungle of Nool are so tolerant. A dyspeptic kangaroo rails against Horton, who has been entrusted with teaching kids about life in the jungle. The fuddy-duddy marsupial, who pouch-schools her child, demands of her neighbors that they ignore the plight of anything they can't see or hear, and mistrust anyone spouting such subversive bromides as, ''A person's a person, no matter how small.'' Recent live-action adaptations of Seuss classics have taken critical drubbings, primarily because their producers didn't trust audiences to embrace fantasies perfectly scaled to match the attention span of a small child. They confused Seuss with Raold Dahl, whose books -- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among them - were written for children with greater reading skills and more evolved imaginations. Between the makeup effects and CGI, the characters were left little room to breathe. Blue Sky Studios' mandate here was to create characters who were credibly Seussian in look and gesture, while also accommodating a screenplay several times longer than the book, itself. Radio veteran Charles Osgood's narration derives right from the story, while everything else either was newly imagined or cobbled from other Seuss material. Among the voice actors are Jim Carrey, as Horton; Steve Carell, as the Mayor of Whoville; a youthful-sounding Carol Burnett, as the intolerant Kangaroo; and, in various other roles, Seth Rogen, Isla Fisher, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Jaime Pressly and Jonah Hill. The Blu-ray edition looks spectacular, emphasizing the same attention to minute detail as Blue Sky and Fox Animation's Ice Age flicks. The extras include various making-of featurettes, character studies, a new Ice Age short and preview of Ice Age 3, an interactive game, picture-in-picture follow-along and a separate digital disc for portable media players.

Jerry Lewis lent his name, voice and resemblance to the new, direct-to-DVD adaptation of his Nutty Professor, but it is Nickelodeon's Drake Bell who carries most of the load in the CG animated feature. His is the voice that informs Harold, the dangerously smart grandson of chemistry professor Julius Kelp, who formulated a potion capable of transforming a nerd into a playboy. Decades later, Harold finds the hidden recipe and, well, history repeats itself. -- Gary Dretzka

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Two-Disc Special Edition
The X-Files: Fight the Future
The X Files: I Want to Believe

I haven't seen Scott's Derrickson's remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and I don't think I will … in a theater, anyway. The reviews, which have ranged from horrified to tepid, seem to agree only on Keanu Reeves' ability to portray the alien equivalent of a blank slate. Today's audiences have difficulty maintaining interest in anything that doesn't go boom or requires reading more than two subtitled conversations, so I understand why the new version enjoyed a big opening. Pound for pound, though, I would think the original TDTESS packed a greater wallop to McCarthy-era viewers. In a curious way, it remains a great entertainment. Watching it in this pristine volume, I was most struck by Fox's ability to slide the cautionary tale past the censors in the Hays Office. Even cloaked in the guise of a genre flick, the anti-war message is unmistakable, and, in 1951, being anti-war was tantamount to being a commie. (Why, then, would the saucer land in Washington, and not Moscow or Beijing?) Robert Wise's movie also had the temerity to ask why entire planetary systems could co-exist, while most nations on Earth couldn't even be bothered to listen to a real-life spaceman (Michael Rennie) in their midst. A half-century later, the saucer-shaped spacecraft still looks plausible as a means of conveyance, and Rennie's Klaatu remains credibly Christ-like, arriving, as he does, as a Carpenter. Today, the impenetrable robot, Gort, remains more of a pop-cultural icon than a menace to our armed forces. The scene in which Klaatu/Carpenter is shown around Washington by little Bobby Benson (Billy Gray, of Father Knows Best) continues to impress. Apparently, the remake upgrades the weaponry and adds several other flashy new bells and whistles. It also modifies Klaatu's message to appeal to the green-is-good crowd, as if a nuclear holocaust were no longer an option. In addition to the inevitable extended preview of the remake, the bonus package adds an interesting look back at the film's creation and its cold-war context; an explainer on UFO-mania; a reading of Henry Bates' short story, Farewell to the Master; and pieces on Bernard Herrman score and the eerie theremins.

Not being a charter member of The X-Files cult, it's only taken me 10 years and a third screening to get a handle on Fight the Future, the first stand-alone sequel to the deservedly celebrated television series. In that sci-fi thriller, agents Mulder and Scully literally went to the ends of the planet -- and quite a distance below its surface -- to learn why a federal building in Texas was bombed; how a cornfield was able to thrive in the middle of a desert; who absconded with the bodies of several long-buried extraterrestrials, discovered in a pit outside a dusty Texas suburb; where an alien expeditionary force could hide its giant spacecraft, without it being seen by spy satellites; and when exactly will their supervisors take their work seriously. Fight the Future was made to provide closure for fans still clinging to the belief that the truth is out there somewhere. The second stand-alone, I Want to Believe, relies less on the sci-fi mumbo-jumbo and more on the sort of horror and PG-13 gore that also characterized the long-running series. Here, Mulder and Scully have been recruited by their former bosses at the FBI to find a female agent who's gone missing somewhere in the frozen north. To this end, a disgraced pedophile priest (Billy Connolly) with amazing psychic powers also has been made available to them. At first, M&S are as dismissive of his ability to find missing people and as they are disgusted by thought of working with such a pervert. As the case proceeds, however, the priest's visions do prove to be valuable. Although series creator Chris Carter and screenwriter Frank Spotnitz liberally spiced the story with references to the series and in-jokes only diehards might appreciate, only the most basic awareness of the X Files bible is necessary to enjoy I Want to Believe. The authentic wintery settings add teeth-rattling chills to a story that already is reasonably haunting. Blu-ray versions of both movies are available in a single package or separately. The generous bonus package will be of special interest to longtime fans whose thirst for trivia, commentary and mythology is insatiable. The follow-along features are easy to locate and fun to use. The dark and moody tone established by cinematographer Bill Roe also holds up well in Blu-ray. -- Gary Dretzka

Man on Wire

One thing destroyed along with the Twin Towers on 9/11 was the palpable feeling of joy and wonder that derived from looking up at the tippy-tops of the World Trade Center and recalling when a young French acrobat defied death by walking from one to the other on a taut cable. For many New Yorkers, I imagine, this was a rite of passage handed down from parent to child on their first joint ascension from the subway platform below the WTC. Absent the quarter-mile-high pinnacles themselves, Man on Wire can stand as an emotionally charged reminder both of Philippe Petit's awe-inspiring feat, executed on August 7, 1974, and the doomed towers. James Marsh's documentary already has made the short list of candidates for Oscar consideration. So compelling is this recollection of the skill, stealth and science that went into the preparation for the event - not to mention, the high-wire act itself - it's a wonder no producer has attempted a theatrical film on the same subject. Man on Wire is every bit that compelling. And, while Marsh also documents previous assaults on Notre Dame Cathedral and Sydney's Harbour Bridge, his film wouldn't be nearly so powerful if Petit's signal achievement had occurred anywhere else on Earth. Indeed, the popularity of Petit's memoirs, published in 2002, must be credited partially to nostalgia for the better time WTC represented. Walk on Wire, while not a typical family film, is founded on a story that would enchant anyone old enough to dream. The bonus features add a charming animated depiction of the same event, an interview with Petit and some making-of material. -- Gary Dretzka

The Duchess

Of Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire, French diplomat Louis Dutens, observed, "When she appears, every eye was turned towards her. When absent, she was the subject of universal conversation."

The line is repeated - by way of introduction, before a gathering of peers - in Paul Dibb's lavish biopic of the bright young woman indentured by her mother to bear sons for the second most powerful man in 18th Century England. Ralph Fiennes plays the emotionally frozen Duke, whose stately mansion became the gilded cage for Keira Knightley's beautiful bird. They lived in a world in which blue-blooded women knew their responsibilities were limited to delivering heirs, providing arm candy and looking the other way when their men schtupped the servants, or anyone else they chose. Otherwise, they were free to gossip, concoct ever-more-outlandish gowns and hairpieces, play games of chance and take their purebred dogs on walks around the exquisitely manicured estates. Unable to fulfill her primary function, Georgiana was forced to suffer such indignities as raising her husband's bastard daughter as her own, accept that he was faithless and bear the brunt of his futility. And, yet, she never looked less than mahvelous. The parallels to the future Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales - herself, a direct descendent of Georgiana Spencer -- are inescapable, right down to the sexual dalliances of both spouses. To his great credit, Dibbs avoids banging his audience over the head with the coincidences in the women's lives.

In Knightley's hands, Georgiana is an amiable 17-year-old beauty, perfectly willing to perform her child-bearing duty in exchange for the trappings of near royalty. As the Duke grows more distant and lascivious, the Duchess finds ways to keep herself from shriveling into a prune. These include inviting her best friend and subsequent bedroom rival, Bess Foster (Hayley Atwell), to move into the mansion, and embarking on a not-so-secret affair with the cutesy-pie populist, Lord Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper, familiar from Mamma Mia!). While Fiennes is extremely convincing as a world-class prick, Dibbs puts too much pressure on the design team to make Georgiana a multi-dimensional character. To that end, however, his intentions were fully realized. The costumes and hair designs are deserving of an Oscar nomination, at least. Even better, the production was given access to several of the same historic mansions originally populated by people portrayed in the movie. The making-of featurettes, included in the DVD package, expand on period history and attention to detail, and are well worth checking out. -- Gary Dretzka

Ghost Town

The critics were kind to David Koepp's supernatural rom-com, Ghost Town, primarily because Ricky Gervais is wonderfully dyspeptic as a dentist who's allowed to remain among mortals, even after dying momentarily on an operating table. The other reason, I suspect, is that the adult characters aren't portrayed as slackers, ditzy blonds or sex addicts. They wear regular clothes, don't use profanities in conversation and can go days without hitting a bong. In his short time on the other side, the dentist is given the dubious gift of being able to interact with ghosts of the dearly departed. After learning of the dentist's return to New York, the restless spirits descend on him like a pack of wolves, begging him to grant a final wish or prevent a disaster from happening in the absence. Although the dentist would prefer to be left alone, the ghost of a tuxedo-clad cad (Greg Kinnear) convinces him to intercide in his archeologist wife's (Téa Leoni) post-mortem romance. Employing information gleaned from the ghost, the dentist is able to ingratiate himself into her life. This, of course, goes against some paranormal code of ethics, but his pursuit of Leoni (a neighbor, conveniently) is justifiable because, well, she's Téa Leoni. The making-of extras explain how the objects-through-bodies trick is done, as well as other things about the production. -- Gary Dretzka

Savage Grace

In this truly nasty piece of reality-based work, the always-game Julianne Moore plays Barbara Daly, the beautiful, if unbalanced wife of the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane) is as unpleasant a character as one is likely to encounter in the movies … even by the standards of upper-class pervs in indie pix. Together, they make George and Martha, the combatants of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, look like the Huxtables. Naturally, their male spawn inherited the worst tendencies of his parents, and an already weird situation grows even more twisted. Later, mom and dad will insert themselves into the sex lives of Junior and his friends. The same people who enjoyed such psycho-sexual dramas as White Mischief are the intended audience for Tom Kalin's Savage Grace. You know who you are. -- Gary Dretzka

The Third Man: Criterion Collection: Blu-ray
Chungking Express: Criterion Collection: Blu-ray

The first wave of Blu-ray titles from Criterion Collection has arrived - a bit later than expected -- and the news for buffs and collectors is all good. Besides Carol Reed's brilliant postwar mystery, The Third Man, and Wong Kar-wai's wonderfully hyperactive, Chungking Express, the new editions are Wes Anderson's offbeat freshman effort, Bottle Rocket and Nicolas Roeg's bizarro, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Reed's tale of murder, deception and intrigue amid the ruins of postwar Vienna is memorable for several excellent reasons: Robert Krasker's sparkling black-and-white cinematography and amazing deployment of light and shadows; Anton Karas' delightful zither score; Orson Welles' portrayal of the enigmatic Henry Lime; the Ferris-wheel exchange between Lime and pulp-writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton); and spy-master Graham Greene's intricately plotted screenplay. The Blu-ray special edition includes a restored high-definition digital transfer; uncompressed mono soundtrack; an introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich; commentaries by director Steven Soderbergh; screenwriter Tony Gilroy and historian Dana Polan; a 90-minute making-of documentary; an abridged recording of Greene s treatment, read by Richard Clarke; an hour-long profile of Greene; the Austrian doc, Who Was the Third Man?; the 1951 A Ticket to Tangiers episode of The Lives of Harry Lime series, written and performed by Welles; the 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the screenplay; archival footage of postwar Vienna; and an essay by Luc Sante.

By comparison, Chungking Express might have been produced on the same planet from which David Bowie hailed in The Man Who Came to Earth. Bright, hyperkinetic and overflowing with eccentric pop references, Wong's exciting essay on missed signals and unrequited love was set in the labyrinth of food stalls, electronics shops, sleazeball bars and hostels, and cramped alleyways of one of Hong Kong's teeming marketplaces (reminiscent of the futuristic Los Angeles depicted in Blade Runner). Moreover, he populated the film with the same sort of quirky characters one might have expected to find in a Godard film from the '60s. Since he was working with permits, Wong also filled the background with actual shoppers, purveyors of yummy street food, drug mules, tourists, cops and conmen. The key players careen through the city-within-a-city like so many silver orbs in a pinball machine. The hand-held camera work and guerrilla approach to the material would greatly influence Quentin Tarantino, and, by extension, hundreds of imitators and acolytes. Wong also would go on to make such remarkable films as In the Mood for Love, 2046 and Happy Together. The new hi-def edition adds commentary by Asian critic Tony Rayns, an upgraded English subtitle translation, a new essay by critic Amy Taubin and excerpts from Rayns' 1996 Sight and Sound interview with Wong.

Other Blu-ray titles on tap for Criterion include, The Last Emperor; El Norte; The 400 Blows; Gimme Shelter; The Complete Monterey Pop; Contempt; Walkabout; For All Mankind; and The Wages of Fear.

Meanwhile, the rain of new Blu-ray releases continues unabated, with, among other titles, the beautifully photographed Into the Wild; the 2007 version of The Heartbreak Kid (sadly, the 1972 original has been taken out of circulation); the goofy Andy Samberg vehicle, Hot Rod; the inspirational sports drama, Coach Carter; the martial-arts thriller, Jet Li's Fearless; and the outrageous, men-will-be-boys comedies, Old School and Tommy Boy. -- Gary Dretzka

Hank and Mike

In any movie about adults whose job it is to wear ridiculous costumes for long periods of time, there's a moment when viewers must accept that the outfit has become a second skin to the human being wearing it and, thereafter, that costume will function as the film's protagonist. If one doesn't buy into that conceit, which almost never can be sustained for more than a half-hour, there's a fair chance the movie will be enjoyed. If not, there's no sense watching another minute of it. Such creepy comedies as Shakes the Clown and Death to Smoochy were train wrecks compared to Bad Santa, which only reinforced most parents' fears about putting their child on the knee of a complete stranger. I also suppose that Killer Klowns From Outer Space served the same purpose for clown-phobic grown-ups. The recent Canadian import, Hank and Mike, imagines a scenario in which a pair of professional Easter mascots is laid off by a conglomerate that profits greatly from the holiday, whose rights it now owns. Instead of packing up their thread-bare bunny costumes and seeking employment in less seasonally dependent work, the odd-couple housemates never take off the pink suits and floppy ears, whether they're watching TV, getting blitzed in a local strip joint or having sex. In the wake of another profitable Easter, only an intervention by the conglomerate's figurehead owner (Joe Mantegna) can save the board of directors from further commercializing the holiday. Even so, Hank and Mike are fired. Will they be missed? Stay tuned. Paolo Mancini and Thomas Michael wrote and starred in Hank and Mike, as well as the hilarious 15-minute short that inspired it. At first glance, the picture of the sad-sack characters on the cover of the DVD suggested something resembling Greg the Bunny Meets Bad Santa. Instead, Hank and Mike can stand on its own both as a legitimate slacker comedy and cranky commentary on corporate greed (Chris Klein plays a heartless yuppie). The short is included in the DVD package

Although there's usually something desperately wrong with any movie goes straight to DVD or cable, even though its cast includes several marketable stars. In the offbeat Brit rom-com, Mr. Foe, Jamie Bell plays a young man whose voyeuristic obsession allows him to find love in all the wrong places; Shane West and Eric Balfour play a pair of hooligans who insinuate themselves into the lives of an émigré Russian musician (Rade Serbedzija) and his red-hot daughter (Leelee Sobieski), in The Elder Son; in his final film, Blue Blood, Roy Scheider played a wily Long Island police detective, working the suspicious murder of a maid who made the mistake of opening the front door to the pistol-toting mistress of the owner; among the voices heard in the Jim Henson Company's G-rated Unstable Fables: The Goldilocks & 3 Bears Show are those of Brooke Shields, Jamie Lynn Sigler and Tom Arnold.

In 1971, when Apprentice was made, Susan Sarandon was an actor known primarily for her willingness to share the allure her spectacular bosom with viewers of movies about hippies. The mostly French-language film concerns a handsome mod cad, who, when he wasn't learning how to rob banks, specialized in bedding extremely thin and sexy revolutionaries and supermodels. Sarandon's star-quality is very much in evidence, even if the story is hopelessly outdated. As it is, Apprentice will only appeal to Sarandon completists and those folks who also remember her from the hard-hats-vs.-the hippies epic, Joe. -- Gary Dretzka

Generation Kill
The Wire: The Complete Series
Deadwood: The Complete Series
Petticoat Junction: The Official First Season
Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story
Mr. Bean: The Ultimate Collection
Will Shakespeare

Not only is HBO a damn good network, but it also has a website that capably serves as a registry for holiday gift-giving, especially for those friends and relatives too cheap or frugal to subscribe to a premium-cable service. Based on a best-selling book by reporter Evan Wright, Generation Kill provided a grunt-level view of the latest invasion of Iraq, a war fought by American and British volunteers who carried weapons and wore body armor right out of a Terminator movie. Wright was embedded among the marines of the First Recon Battalion, a group of men - mostly - with an almost rabid desire to engage the enemy in mortal combat. The seven-part mini-series validates the gung-ho attitude of those marines, while also depicting the chasm between them and the clueless lifers and politicians who called the shots. Without employing a sledgehammer to drive home any point of view on the legitimacy of the war, the producers clearly want us to believe that something patently insane was happening in the first 40 days of the invasion, even before IEDs and internecine fighting blurred the glow of victory. The largely anonymous cast of young actors and former soldiers does an incredible job in conveying the anxieties, anger, confusion and bravery of the marines whose job it was simply to kill or be killed in the name of gutless Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Halliburton and other American conglomerates. The series was written and co-produced by David Simon (The Wire), and also co-produced by George Faber (Elizabeth I).

I suspect there will be a second season, at least, of Generation Kill, if only because there's so much else to say about the never-ending war. HBO has also sent out complete-series boxes for its much-acclaimed The Wire and David Milch's wonderfully profane anti-Western, Deadwood. Both series demonstrated how good television could be when great writers and performers were given the space, money and support necessary to work at the top of their games.

While campuses were being torn apart by dissent and the Vietnam War raged, CBS' hayseed sitcom Petticoat Junction competed for the same huge audience attracted to kindred series, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry R.F.D. and Hee-Haw. Set in the rural railroad hub, Hooterville, Petticoat Junction was billed as wholesome family programming, even if much of the humor was generated by sexual innuendo and the prominent hooters of Jeannine Riley, Gunilla Hutton, Meredith MacRae, Pat Woodell and Lori Saunders. Fans of the show have cautioned that CBS/Paramount frequently edits original episodes; changes previously licensed music and adds unnecessary logos.

Ever since she made a splash as the blond, crime-fighting bimbo in Charlie's Angels, Farrah Fawcett has been required to validate her acting chops with every new production in which she appears. It's been a constant challenge for the woman whose poster once graced the bedroom walls of every horny teenager on the planet, including Dirk Diggler. In fact, when given the opportunity, she's done some extremely good work. Her portrayal of Woolworth heir Barbara Hutton -- the original million-dollar baby - in Poor Little Rich Girl was just such a show. Hutton enjoyed great luxuries, but was burdened by poor choices, including those that resulted in seven failed marriages. The mini-series won three Emmy Awards.

In Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson played the kind of hapless soul who, while attempting to cook a delicious holiday meal, would end up wearing the turkey as a helmet. He seemed to me to be a cross between Inspector Clousseau, Pee-wee Herman and any one of a dozen oddball Monty Python characters. Mr. Bean didn't suit everyone's tastes, especially those Americans who still associate nerdy behavior with mental retardation. His cult following, though, represented broad and enthusiastic support from international audiences. The Ultimate Collection is the size of a doorstop, and, as such, a godsend gift for any fan. It includes all 14 episodes of the original series, as well as the feature films Mr. Bean: The Movie and Mr. Bean s Holiday and Mr. Bean: The Animated Series.

The fascinating six-part mini-series Will Shakespeare forged a complete portrait of the Bard, while also providing viewers with a detailed look at the customs, sights and sounds of Elizabethan England. It starred Tim Curry and Ian McShane, and was written by John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey).

Also new to the TV-to-DVD shelves are, Mister Peepers: Season 2, a wonderfully nostalgic 1950s sitcom, starring Wally Cox, himself something of a Mr. Bean; the improbable hit reality show, Ice Road Truckers: The Complete Season Two; the frightening Gangland: Complete Season Two, in which gang-bangers discuss their roles in America's most savage social clubs; and, what week wouldn't be complete without yet another Transformers set, this one, Energon Ultimate Collection. -- Gary Dretzka