DVD releases for the week of Sept. 13, 2006:
BEAVIS & BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA - If the hearing the letters "D-V-D" brings out a coarse chuckle from you, buy this one. Mike Judge's immortal teenage dirt bags search for their stolen TV and end up caught in a web of international intrigue. It's sort of like an episode of "24," only without the ticking timer and with more references to "cavity searches." If the world has changed in the years since they went off the air, it's good to know that Beavis & Butt-Head likely haven't. Their adolescent minds are still obsessed with scoring, cheap innuendos and poop. And Judge has fun expanding the show's format to feature length, providing us with riotous cameos from Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Robert Stack, and David Letterman. Paramount have re-released this in a new, special edition that contains commentary by Judge and animation director Yvette Kaplan and a 21-minute documentary about the movie and some random B&B paraphernalia which features Jennifer Tilly and Snoop Dogg. Given Fox's sacking of Judge's newest movie, "Idiocracy," watching B&B do their thing again might come off deeper and harder than an actual cavity search.
BOTTOMS UP - A direct-to-video romantic comedy with Paris Hilton and Jason Mewes as, respectively, a socialite and a...bartender? What the hell?! Mewes isn't in full on "Jay" mode, which kind of defeats the purpose of having him try to get it on with Paris. That would've been a lot more worthy of my attention, and I can just imagine it now: "Jay and Silent Bob Do Paris." Even Beavis & Butt-Head would want to steal that movie.
GREY'S ANATOMY: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON - Shonda Rimes' runaway hit series on ABC has exhaustedly been compared to both the compelling "ER" and the giddy "Scrubs." It only seems so on the surface, as the content of the actual program is nowhere near the same league as either of those other shows set in hospitals in terms of comic or dramatic pedigree. Still, it's the top-notch cast, kicking soundtrack and addictive story arcs that manages to elevate "Grey's" second season to more impressive heights than that other popular two-word ABC show which will go unmentioned. Of course, the main plot involves the romantic triangle between intern Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and his ex- wife Addison (Kate Walsh), the newest arrival to the staff of Seattle Grace. There's also pregnancy drama involving Sandra Oh's Cristina Yang and Isiah Washington's Preston Burke, a life-on-the-line situation that hits close to the bone for Katherine Heigl's Izzie Stevens and constant curiosity about the personal life of T.R. Knight's George O'Malley. Despite the "Uncut" tag, only four of the 27 episodes contain additional material as opposed to the broadcast versions. There's more deleted scenes spread over the six discs in this package, as well as some featurettes on Chandra Wilson, who plays Miranda Bailey, the special effects and the sets. Cheers to Dempsey for the good work following his 1980s heyday, although I hope his clout as well as that of Kevin Dillon ("Entourage") causes someone to release their 1985 movie "Heaven Help Us" on DVD.
LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN - Quentin Tarantino has moved away from "Pulp Fiction," but Hollywood, apparently, has not. How else do you end up with this DVD from first-time screenwriter Jason Smilovic (previously a writer for the "Out of Sight" TV-spin-off "Karen Sisco") and "Wicker Park" director Paul McGuignan, who half-asses his way through the QT template the way his last movie did with Hitchcock's? Josh Hartnett is a schlub named Slevin who is confused with his in-debt best friend by someone known only as "The Boss," played by Bruce Springst...er, I mean, Morgan Freeman. Freeman's mobster offers Slevin a way out given that he execute the son of a rival criminal known as "The Rabbi," played by Ben Kingsley, to whom Slevin also mistakenly owes money to. Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu and Stanley Tucci all get thrown in the mix as well. The only time "Lucky Number Slevin" had me on edge was when Oscar-winners Freeman and Kingsley had their Pacino vs. De Niro-style confrontation. The rest of the movie plays in the most smarmy, manipulative manner outside of any recent M. Night Shyamalan fisting. Simply put, it's too square to be hip. Aside from the usual EPK short and small batch of cut footage, there's a pair of audio commentary tracks including Scottish filmmaker McGuignan and Smilovic, the latter of whom shares his track with both Hartnett and Liu, whose valiant but incoherent attempts to enliven the endeavor with good-natured humor comes off like a shot in the dark.
THE OFFICE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON - This Emmy-winning second run of the Greg Daniels-produced spin-off of Ricky Gervais' Britcom is absolutely hilarious. And it makes a great paperweight, too. I consider Steve Carell the funniest man alive, and here's 22 half-hour bits of evidence. As the constantly oblivious, insecure and embarrassing Michael Scott, the chairman of the Scranton branch of stationary suppliers Dunder-Mifflin, the star of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" delivers the kind of left-field belly laughs that threaten to steal the thunder away from his co-workers. For instance, consider the opening episode, "The Dundies," where Michael emcees his own award show by doing outrageous karaoke versions of both "O.P.P." and "Mambo #5." Credit the series' writers for giving him worthy foils, including Rainn Wilson as brown-nosing dullard Dwight and the irresistible team of John Krasinski & Jenna Fischer as salesman Jim and secretary/bride-to-be Pam. The troubled romance between Jim and Pam lends moments of tenderness and charm that rival one of NBC's more famous ensemble sitcoms from yesteryear. Extra features include commentaries with the cast and crew, deleted scenes from all of the episodes, a Michael Scott-directed mockumentary, and an interview with Steve Carell conducted by Steve Carell. It's so good, I just want to preserve its preciousness by covering the package with post-its.
R.E.M.: WHEN THE LIGHT IS MINE - A DVD companion piece to the recent CD compilation "And I Feel Fine," which spanned the Athens, GA band's critically-revered indie rock years from 1982-1987 on the I.R.S. label. The opening video for "Wolves, Lower" (off of the "Chronic Town" EP) is the type of standard lip-synch clip the band would tend to ignore up until their 1991 vanguard vid, "Losing My Religion." A lot of the music videos from this era tend to be free-form visual montages, from the black-and-white imagery of "Pretty Persuasion" to the steel factory grinding of "Finest Worksong." "Can't Get There From Here" is the most playful and corny of the videos featured, "Fall on Me" is the most literate (it transcribes the lyrics as the song plays) and "The One I Love" the most familiar to anyone who ever watched classic MTV or VH1. Bonus materials include band interviews and performance clips culled from UK programs such as "The Tube" and "The Old Grey Whistle Test."
STAR WARS TRILOGY - In the debate over the original three "Star Wars" movies vs. the recent "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, one thing is certain: Peter Jackson flogs his ponies with more respect than poor old George Lucas does. If you, like me, at least have some fraction of respect for the triptych of "Star Wars" (1977), "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983), you are going to want to forget entirely about the recent release of these films as stand-alone packages. The hook is that aside from the enhanced special editions already featured in the last two boxed sets (which retain their audio commentary tracks), you get the unaltered, original theatrical versions without the added scenes, improved special effects and superimposed Hayden Christensen images. The widescreen images for those classic editions have not been anamorphically enhanced, which is a technical no-no that borders on the cynical side. If you want further bells and whistles, you're going to have to either shill for or hold onto the original trilogy package from 2004 that contains the "Empire of Dreams" bonus disc. With the rumor that Lucas is assembling ANOTHER expensive set in time for the original movie's thirtieth anniversary, expect the Force to become even more forced than it ever was before.
THE WILD - This Disney-produced, computer-animated adventure of recent has been exhaustedly compared to "Finding Nemo" and "Madagascar." Only this time, though, the comparison is as apt as you can get, unless you bring up the words "rips" and "off." Kiefer Sutherland is the voice of Samson, a lion who loses his post-cub son after he is towed away by a truck in a green box heading straight to Africa. Cue the insufferable sidekicks, squirrel Benny (Jim Belushi), giraffe Bridget (Janeane Garofalo) and koala bear Nigel (Eddie Izzard). Despite the vocal presence of Sutherland, even the man many parents know as Jack Bauer is absolutely wasted playing a lion, which should've brought out the best in him. Out of the whole C-list supporting cast, only English comic and self-described "executive transvestite" Izzard makes any impression that can even remotely be considered wild. Those who will shamelessly saddle their kids with this derivative mess based on the Disney logo are better off just exposing their children to a repeat viewing of "Finding Nemo," "The Lion King" or "Bambi." Besides, they'll never understand the novelty of William Shatner's Kahn impersonation until they get older, anyway. Extras include five deleted scenes, a brief Izzard-related puff piece and a music video for Everlife's excruciatingly bland version of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Real Wild Child," a song truly born to be wild.
Additional titles:
DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON
GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS
THE GREAT NEW WONDERFUL
LAS VEGAS: SEASON FOUR, UNCUT AND UNCENSORED
MOONLIGHTING: SEASON FOUR
SMALLVILLE: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: SEASON FOUR, VOLUME ONE
TAPS: 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
John Bishop is an undergraduate studying media analysis and criticism. He can be reached at: john.l.bishop@asu.edu.
