A crackling fireplace right on your television may be the best way to ring in the holidays. (iStockphoto.com)

by Glenn McDonald

Hotly anticipated by fans of the burgeoning fireplace genre, Living Fireplace: Volume 2 has finally been released to home video this week on both DVD and Blu-ray. Superior to the original in every way, this stunning sequel in an unqualified cinematic triumph -- and nothing short of an epochal event in the world of fake fireplace videos.

The film begins -- languidly, serenely -- with an extreme close-up of a popping and crackling fire. Almost Lynchian in its dreamlike ambiance, the scene slowly unfolds. Blue flames lick the underside of the foreground birch log. Smoke swirls in soft focus at the edges of the flue. It's a devastating mise en scene, evoking the aching nostalgia of hearth and home, but with malevolent, stygian menace.

The plot thickens, after the jump.

Continue reading "'Living Fireplace: Volume 2': An Epochal Event, Just In Time For The Holidays" >

A giant set of DVDs take you back to the World Series, the way people saw it at the time. (A&E Home Video)

by Linda Holmes

The same sense of perspective that can give a historical account depth and context can sometimes deprive it of honesty. Example #1: Bill Buckner.

Anyone making a documentary today about the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox would, very likely, place great emphasis on the Game 6 moment when the ball went through the legs of first-baseman Bill Buckner, which allowed the winning run to score, sending the series to a seventh game, which the Mets won, denying the Red Sox the title that they had previously been within one out -- one strike -- of taking. (This would, of course, have been both a blessing and a -- sorry -- curse, because as Boston fans would learn in 2004, it's fun to win, but it means you have to stop complaining and remove your hands from your garments, which is an adjustment if you have them perforated for easier rending.)

But Buckner's not guilty; not really, and a smashing new DVD set provides killer evidence.

A feast for your baseball-loving soul, after the jump.

Continue reading "A Mammoth DVD Set Brings You Decades Of Baseball, Minus The Distortion" >

On Halloween, do let this happen to you.. (iStockphoto.com)

by Glenn McDonald

As the recent box office phenomenon Paranormal Activity ably demonstrates, great horror movies can be made very cheaply. And yet, if you just pay attention to the theatrically released U.S. movies that rotate onto home video, you might get the impression that only a handful of decent horror DVDs come out in any given year.

Well, there's a reason for that. For the most part, these days, the best horror on DVD can be found in reissues, compilations, independent movies and foreign films.

Now, I watch a lot of horror films. Sometimes I tell myself this pastime springs from intellectual curiosity regarding the sublimation of cultural anxieties, etc. etc. But actually, I think I just like scary movies.

So in anticipation of Halloween movie parties, here's a rundown of some of the best off-the-beaten-rental-shelf horror I've come across this year on DVD.

TV Compilations

The Twilight Zone pretty much perfected the most reliable TV horror template: anthology shows featuring self-contained stories by various writers and directors. But late-night TV viewers of a certain generation will also remember Tales from the Darkside, the George Romero-produced anthology show which ran in syndication from 1983-1988. The second season of Darkside is now on DVD, and while individual episodes vary in quality, Darkside overall maintains a nice balance of inventive ideas and black comedy. This is a good DVD set to keep by the TV -- pop in an episode or two before you go to sleep, and enjoy your subsequent dreams.

More TV, plus reissues, director compilations, foreign films, and how to freak yourself right out, after the jump.

Continue reading "Spend This Halloween Hiding Under The Bed: A DVD Guide To Scaring Yourself" >

Judy Garland looks extra-spiffy in the restored The Wizard Of Oz, which has been released in a new box set with some extra add-ons. (MGM Studios/Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

by Linda Holmes

One important thing to understand about the fancy new box set of The Wizard Of Oz celebrating its 70th anniversary is not a new restoration of the film. The big restoration came in 2005 for the "Collector's Edition" -- this is the "Ultimate Collector's Edition," and it's the first release of the film on Blu-ray, which is how I saw it.

What makes The Wizard Of Oz such an interesting candidate for a loving and meticulous restoration -- especially on Blu-ray -- is that the more closely you look at the film, the less realistic it appears, and the more the matte paintings look like matte paintings, and the more conspicuous it becomes that the entire thing is shot inside on soundstages, and not in fields or forests or on the Kansas prairie.

When you look at a modern film that benefits from high-definition, like, say, The Dark Knight, the high quality feeds the vivid realism. But with Oz, those same things feed the vivid unrealism -- rather than intensifying the film as a true-to-life, you-are-there, through-the-screen immersion, it works as an ever more beautifully produced storybook.

What's included and whether it's worth it, after the jump ...

Continue reading "The Luscious New 'Wizard Of Oz' Box: Come For The Watch, Stay For The Movie" >

Marvel is the golden egg, and Disney is the cake company, and if you keep reading, it will all make sense, really. (Marvel Comics, iStockphoto.com)

By Glen Weldon

On Monday, the news came down. The analyses began. Jokes were joked. Freakouts were well and truly freaked.

The news: Disney acquired Marvel Comics for $4 billion. ("Acquired," which makes it sound like Marvel's a tube of Pink Glitter lip gloss that somehow ended up in Disney's purse as it sauntered out of Hot Topic. "How'd THAT get there?")

If you need a taste of what folks in the comics industry are saying about it, you can't beat The Beat,
or Journalista! The transcript of the Disney/Marvel call to investors is worth checking out, if only to remind yourself that there are people in the world who actually say things like "vertical integration," "the wheelhouse of this distribution channel" and who - willfully! repeatedly! - use "impact" as a verb.

Meanwhile, over at the Comichron, as their name suggests, they're taking the long historical view.

Conventional wisdom soon congealed along these lines: Good for Disney, because Marvel's stable of heroes can help them reach boys age 8-18, a demographic that has thus far proven stoically resistant to the charms of Hannah Montana and High School Musical -- with, um, some exceptions (Hi, Jason! Stay fabulous, kiddo!). Good for Marvel, because Disney's got more distribution channels in their wheelhouse (sigh) than Cruella's got Dalmatian handmuffs.

After the jump: It's not about the comics. And yes, the Tastykake Analogy.

Continue reading "Why Disney's Delicious Snack Cakes Don't Threaten Marvel's Golden Eggs" >

The cast of Thirtysomething dropped by Talk Of The Nation today -- but does the show hold up on video? (ABC)

by Linda Holmes

When it comes to the influential TV work of Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, I was more a My So-Called Life person than a Thirtysomething person.

(Note: Yes. They never used a capital letter. The credits say thirtysomething. That is a typeface choice. I don't refer to Lost as LOST just because that's the way they write it in the logo. Please don't e-mail me.)

But while I didn't watch the show much at the time, I was surprised to see how well it holds up as I looked at the new DVD set of the complete first season that's coming out today. (Note that the cast came to Talk Of The Nation today to discuss the show.)

Strollers and singles and ties, oh my, after the jump...

Continue reading "'Thirtysomething' On DVD: The Gold-Medal Winner At The Introspection Olympics" >

by Glenn McDonald

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Agatha Christie is the best-selling book author of all time, with approximately four billion works sold worldwide. Only Shakespeare and the Bible get better distribution. The Bard, of course, pretty much sells himself. As for the Bible -- well, that author has some rather unfair competitive advantages.

Christie wrote short stories, plays and romances for more than 50 years, but is best known for her series of mysteries featuring detectives Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple is a personal favorite of mine, an elderly spinster and amateur detective who lives in the English village of St. Mary Mead. A devotee of gardening and knitting, Miss Marple possesses a keen mind and a preternatural insight into the darker side of human nature. St. Mary Mead has an alarming homicide rate, relative to its demographics, and Miss Marple is forever solving murder cases that leave the local police baffled.

Miss Marple stories have a reputation, richly deserved, for being delightfully addictive. I once spent a summer with my aunt in Florida, convalescing from a traumatic college break-up, and read nothing but Agatha Christie for three months. Good medicine, by the way. Hard to wallow in self-pity when the Vicar just got stabbed in the tea parlor.

Anyhoo, all of this is by way of introduction to a marvelous new DVD set out this week from A&E Home Entertainment: Agatha Christie: Poirot and Marple. This 17-disc, $135 box set collects more than 35 hours total of various British TV productions featuring the two detectives, with David Suchet and Joan Hickson starring in their signature roles.

How many murders, the prospect of an Agatha Christie video game, and why this is a particularly welcome break from crime procedurals, after the jump...

Continue reading "'Agatha Christie: Poirot And Marple' On DVD: 'CSI' The Old-Fashioned Way" >

Coraline: In the new DVD release, 3D technology works right at home. LAIKA Inc./Focus Features

 

by Glenn McDonald

New to DVD this week in a unique 2-disc, 3D package, Coraline is an old-school stop-motion animated feature from director Henry Selick and writer Neil Gaiman. It also marks a historical first in the retail market, so far as I know: Guaranteed nightmares in a shrink-wrapped DVD case for $19.99.

Well, at least that was my experience. I'll be frank: This movie freaked me directly out. Coraline is as close to a dreamlike experience as you can get, with animation, music and story all moving to strange subconscious rhythms. It doesn't feel like a kids' movie -- it feels like a fairy tale. Not the sanitized modern fairy tales, mind you -- the older original tales, where ghosts steal your breath and witches eat children.

The DVD, the 3D, and whether this fairy tale is suitable for kids, after the jump...

Continue reading "'Coraline' On DVD: Sophisticated, Arty And Seriously Creepy" >

The State: Even if you think you don't know these guys, you know these guys.

 

by Linda Holmes

The State, the MTV sketch-comedy show that ran from December 1993 to July 1995, became a bit of a legend for not being available on DVD. There were rumors, and then nothing happened, and there were theories about what the holdup was, and then there were times when it appeared that nobody knew what the holdup was, including the people involved.

Well. At last, The State has made it to DVD in a full-series set released today. And it was worth the wait.

The aging of MTV, after the jump...

Continue reading "'The State': MTV Sketch Comedy Ages Surprisingly Gracefully" >

My Dinner With Andre: Are you finding it a little loud at the multiplex? A good conversation might be just the thing. Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

 

by Glenn McDonald

If the world were at all fair, or even moderately discerning, Michael Bay would not be a movie director at all. Instead, he would be where he belongs, as technical supervisor of an industrial demolitions crew, blowing stuff up for a living. As is stands, however, Mike is still making "movies" such as the new Transformers sequel, which if I have my notes right, is actually titled Transformers: Assaulting Your Senses for 147 Minutes.

Summer action blockbusters, with their aggressive FX and frantic editing, are migraines waiting to happen. If you're looking to go the other way for an evening, may I suggest the new Criterion edition of My Dinner with Andre, director Louis Malle's 1981 indie triumph. Here's a movie that more or less does the impossible: It consists entirely of two friends having a quiet conversation over dinner, and it's riveting.

What the new release can give you, and what's been in the movie all along, after the jump...

Continue reading "'My Dinner with Andre': The Antidote to Summer Movie Overdose" >

Confessions Of A Shopaholic: What Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) does doesn't really make any sense, but she looks like a million bucks doing it. Touchstone Pictures

 

by Linda Holmes

It's Tuesday, and that makes it New On DVD Day, and the most interesting thing I've caught this week is Confessions Of A Shopaholic, which I completely ignored in theaters but is out today on DVD and Blu-ray.

Based on Sophie Kinsella's very successful series of books, Shopaholic stars Isla Fisher (she's the one who looks like Amy Adams, but isn't Amy Adams) as Rebecca Bloomwood, indebted spendthrift and all-around flibbertygibbet.

Because it's the sort of movie it is, she stumbles into a job, she stumbles upon a guy played by the very pretty Hugh Dancy, and then there is a lot of preposterous nonsense, and then there is kissing, The End. (Sorry. Spoiler? I think not.)

The only surprise is that, especially with the benefit of HDTV, it's a very pretty movie. As a story, it's a wreck, but visually, it's gorgeous. The frothy costumes were done by Patricia Field (of Sex And The City fame), and the entire film is full of bright colors and neat, geometric patterns, to the point where even a bunch of sweaters folded on a table become a still-life.

It's disconcerting to find the storytelling atrocious but the look impeccable. I can't possibly recommend the movie, because it's too ridiculous, but I'll give them this: it's stunning. And if you spend most of your time perusing the extras where the aesthetics are examined in great detail, you may well forget the story. Which would be just as well.

Also new this week:

• Waltz With Bashir, the Israeli documentary that most of NPR's critics included among their favorite films of 2008;

• Inkheart, starring Brendan Fraser and Paul Bettany, which Bob Mondello found "frenetically uninvolving";

• Pink Panther 2, which sports a truly impressive -- or, "impressive" -- 13% score at Rotten Tomatoes.

Lost: What it's worth to you in Blu-ray depends on how much you're all about looks. Buena Vista Home Entertainment

 

by Linda Holmes

The minute you acquire a Blu-ray player, the jokes begin: "It's a good thing I can watch Dude, Where's My Car? on Blu-ray! How else would I appreciate the glorious visuals?" "How will I ever appreciate the cinematography of Miss Congeniality 2: Armed And Fabulous while I can only see it in standard definition?"

Not everything benefits from being seen in beautiful HD, but if there's one TV show that really is different with a high-quality picture, it's probably Lost.

What the Blu-ray release has to offer, including saving your place, after the jump...

Continue reading "'Lost' Fans Rejoice: It's The Smoke Monster In Glorious Hi-Def" >

Defiance: It's just one example of a movie that's richer when accompanied by a documentary you can also find on DVD. Paramount Vantage

 

by Glenn McDonald

Difficult as it is to admit, I've long passed through the demographic windows of MTV, VH1, or even Comedy Central. I'm an old man now, and as such, I probably spend more time watching the History Channel than anything else.

I'm a sucker for this kind of pop scholarship. Many are the midnight hours I've whiled away, learning about the Hoover Dam, or Jack the Ripper, or ancient Cairo, or what have you.

Recently, the History Channel has been getting into an interesting sideline gig -- reissuing shows on home video to coincide with related big-ticket DVD releases. So, for instance, the same week the teenage vampire soap opera Twilight came to DVD, The History Channel put out the documentary Vampire Secrets, chronicling vampire lore throughout various eras and cultures. I got a lot more out of the documentary than I did the movie. Then again, I'm not a 17-year-old goth girl. (Except in chat rooms and certain specialty nightclubs.)

This week marked the debuts of two DVDs that make for a powerful one-two punch: the Daniel Craig film Defiance along with the History Channel's documentary about the remarkable story that inspired the film.

The lowdown on adding a little documentary seasoning to your movie viewing, after the jump...

Continue reading "Double Features: Get Some History With Your Pop Culture" >