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The top 10 DVDs of Summer 2006


As hot as the summer may have been temperature-wise, it was just as hot a time for DVD releases. With so many titles from which to choose, ranging from blockbusters to overlooked movies to seasonal TV series packages, the summertime blues could easily be ignored. If the monsoon season manages to drive you into the house for a while, or if you just need something to chill with during the fall, I have just the list for you. Maybe you already went shopping for clothes, textbooks and cell phones, but in case you find yourself scoping out the DVD aisles of your favorite store, here's some recommendations I like to refer as the ten best DVD releases of the summer of 2006.



10. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

If you would vote for Pedro, it's likely then you'd award this DVD a higher slot on this list. Though the hype for this movie itself is about as exhausting as the bonus material crammed onto this belated collector's edition, given the obligatory lame subtitle "Like, the Best Special Edition Ever!" (probably rejected for the "Valley Girl" DVD), a repeated viewing of "Napoleon Dynamite" makes a case for its stature as a cult classic along the lines of such ueber-quirky flicks as "Repo Man" or "Office Space." Aside from the incessantly quotable dialogue ("I caught you a delicious bass"), Jon Heder is a deadpan delight as the titular nerd with the eccentric family. It's too bad the movie still plays out like a lackadaisical, MTV-friendly cross between "Rushmore" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse," as disappointing as it is quotable. The package is a keeper, though, retaining the previous DVD's meat and potatoes (the director/producer/star commentary, deleted scenes, student film) and adding some bread and desserts (bonus cast commentary, additional outtakes, documentaries, audition tapes, promos, etc.). You might want to keep this DVD next to your "numchucks."



9. V FOR VENDETTA

An ambitious move on the part of director James McTeigue and producers Andy & Larry Wachowski, this adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's graphic novels soldiered on without Moore's consent. You can't really blame Moore for doing so, for as sharp as the criticisms to the current political climate may seem, "V for Vendetta" is not even as "uncompromising" as last year's breathless "Sin City." That doesn't stop the movie from coming off like a bomb factory in flames, especially when considering how gutless much of this summer's releases were. Set in an Orwellian future where America has lost its national hierarchy due to civil war, the London of 2020 is much more organized via the stranglehold of fascist super dictator Sutler (John Hurt, this time he's Big Brother). Enter V (Hugo Weaving from the Wachowski's Matrix franchise), a fabulously vengeful freedom fighter in a Guy Hawkes mask who celebrates November 5 by blowing up the Old Bailey in plain sight of TV network lackey Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman). As V tries to persuade the timid Evey to come join his cause of defending liberty through mass revolt, Evey will undergo her own personal transformation into rebel, albeit one that doesn't involve a lot of bullet-time stunt work (it was getting dated anyway). Weaving makes the potentially fatal move from acting behind Ray-Bans to acting behind Halloween masks, but his V is a stellar theatrical anti-hero. Portman is just as successful in giving Evey a convincing character arc. Special thanks must go out to the production designer, Owen Patterson, for making V's underground quarters its own character, a spellbinding hall of forbidden art and artifacts. The movie is available on DVD in a standard single-disc version or a slightly larger package which contains a few featurettes, the best of them focusing on the set design and the history of 17th century revolutionary Guy Hawkes.



8. THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR.: THE COMPLETE SERIES

Jon Heder may be funny, but only time will tell if he manages to reach the same level of B-list godliness as Bruce Campbell, the man with the golden chin. Following his role in the immortal "Army of Darkness," the third of Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" films, Campbell was picked to star in a new Fox series as Brisco County Jr., a Harvard-educated bounty hunter hired to take down the same gang of outlaws that murdered his father (R. Lee Ermey), a legendary lawman. With sidekicks such as rival/partner Lord Bowler (Julius Carry III), dance hall siren Dixie Cousins (Kelly Rutherford) and Comet the Wonder Horse, Brisco's adventures involve all-female frontier towns, rival bounty hunters (look out for pop singer Sheena Easton) and a supernatural orb coveted by Brisco's arch nemesis, the icy John Bly (Billy Drago). Even as the series blended Western, serials and science fiction elements to often outlandish extremes, Campbell's wry delivery, unforced charm and knack for physical comedy kept a-rollin' throughout this series' 27-episode run. Having aired on Fridays alongside the runaway hit "The X-Files," the network forgot all about "Brisco County," a fate that should be avoided now that the complete series is available on DVD. Extras include a retrospective documentary featuring cast and crew members, audio commentary on the pilot episode, a video catalog highlighting the many Back to the Future-style allusions, and Bruce doing a reading from his own autobiography, "If Chins Could Kill." Hail to the king!



7. INSIDE MAN

On the DVD bonus feature in which director Spike Lee and actor Denzel Washington celebrate through conversation their fourth movie together with "Inside Man," Denzel lays it down flat: "We're getting old, Spike." Aren't we all? Still, the chemistry between this particular tag team hasn't let us down this time. After criminal mastermind Dalton Russell (Clive Owen, also acting behind a mask but with a much more unnerving voice than Mr. Weaving) holds up a bank and takes hostages, Russell matches wits with strung-out detective Keith Frazier, who attempts to ensure the survival of the many innocents who wear the same costumes as their captors. The fine supporting cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Plummer and Jodie Foster as a power player for the elite forced into this situation to protect someone's dirty little secret. Given his recent inconsistency as a screenwriter (Bamboozled, She Hate Me), Lee delivers a tense little popcorn flick with a little bit of everything for everyone: superb performances, stylish camera tricks, gritty cinematography (thanks to Matthew Libatique), social commentary, some ice-breaking comedy, the inevitable nods to Sidney Lumet, and a clever mind-melt of a twist ending. The deleted scenes, a Spike Lee commentary track and a short, if satisfying making-of feature make this the perfect remedy for a dog-day afternoon.



6. TRANSAMERICA

Felicity Huffman's movie credits were, for some time, nowhere near the caliber of her acclaimed TV performances on both Sports Night and Desperate Housewives. In 2004 alone, she was saddled with supporting roles in both the forgettable "Raising Helen" and the even worse "Christmas with the Kranks." Luck may have had something to do with Flicka not onlyproving her talent as a screen performer in first-time filmmaker Duncan Tucker's "Transamerica," but also getting Oscar recognition. Huffman is a revelation as Stanley "Bree" Osborne, a lonesome, conservative transsexual from L.A. who takes a trip to New York upon the surprising news that she is the father of a 17-year-old prostitute named Toby (affectingly played by Kevin Zegers). Bree pays Toby's $1.00 bail whilst disguising herself as a missionary, purchasing a station wagon so that the two can take a trip back to California. They stop off in such places as Georgia and Phoenix, the latter where Stanley's denial-ridden parents (Burt Young, Fionnula Flanagan) reside. Although similar in premise (if not quality) to Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers, Tucker wrings as much humor as pathos from the many scenarios, never drawing too much attention to gender politics and focusing mainly on the road ahead. The acting is uniformly superb and realized, with Huffman's soulful lead a refreshing antithesis to the other recent attempts by glamorous actors (Nicole Kidman in "The Hours", Charlize Theron in "North Country") to gain prosthetic-based credibility. It would be easy criticism to say Huffman loses herself in the role, when in actuality you just find yourself lost within Bree. The DVD is quite winsome once you get past the silly holographic slipcase: Tucker's audio commentary is consistently anecdotal and informative, Huffman's eloquent insights enliven a modest interview segment and the blooper reel allows co-star Graham Greene to get the last laugh.



5. KISS KISS BANG BANG

The two most overlooked movies of 2005 in my opinion just happened to be the directorial debuts of both Joss Whedon ("Serenity") and Shane Black. In the 20 years since Black wrote the script for Lethal Weapon, the buddy cop sub genre of action films had worn itself out on bland imitations of the Mel Gibson/Danny Glover classic. Black rectifies this by not just resuscitating cop movies, but by also instilling a noir-like cool burning with volatile life. Robert Downey Jr. plays Harry Lockhart, a petty thief who finds himself in Hollywood after he eludes from the police in a warehouse rented out for cop movie auditions. Trouble comes in twos when Harry runs into high school flame and aspiring actress Harmony Faith (Michelle Monaghan) around the same time he and his acting coach, a wicked-smooth private detective nicknamed Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), retrieve a dead body that may or may not be Harmony's runaway kid sister. From here on out, it's a roller coaster ride of sex, violence, severed fingers, in-jokes, and snappy pulp dialogue. Black cynically deconstructs many action and gumshoe movie cliches even as he submits to a few, but he manages to entertain on all accounts. Downey makes for a fascinatingly wiry protagonist, Kilmer oozes wit out of a potentially stereotypical role and Monaghan's standout performance as the sad luck dame could convince you that even she stole "MI: III" from Tom Cruise. Extras include a giddy gag reel as well as audio commentary by Black, Downey and the appealingly droll Kilmer, who makes a running joke and potential contest out of how many names he can drop in 102 minutes. Don't let "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" be the one that got away.



4. DEADWOOD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

HBO has given birth to the likes of "The Sopranos," "Sex & the City" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," a triumvirate of popular, long-running shows that have found their own respective cults. As for me, I have come to appreciate "Deadwood" as the cable network's true giant. Season two opens with a brutal fight between saloon-owning Svengali Al Swearengen (the immortal Ian McShane as the man whom kidney stones couldn't take down) and conflicted sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) that almost reaches a head until a carriage full of new arrivals, including Bullock's son, appear in the soon-to-be-lawful South Dakota mining town of the title. At which point, Swearengen spares Bullock's life and gives them a greeting they'll never forget: "Welcome to f***in' Deadwood! Can be combative!" Not many shows are this expertly nuanced in dark comedy, intense dramatic narrative and historically-accurate representation. Season two fails to live down the show's reputation for its gymnastically vulgar vernacular and pseudo-Shakespearean speech flow, but it also continues to give light to what I shamelessly consider the best ensemble cast on TV today, also including Molly Parker, Powers Boothe, Paula Malcolmson, Brad Dourif, Garret Dillahunt, W. Earl Brown, and Robin Weigert as the drunk-as-ever Calamity Jane. It's hard not to feel upset that the third and final season has wrapped up, with the series soon to be concluded by a couple of feature-length episodes. Regardless, every season of "Deadwood" is worth preservation, and the boxed set for this second season provides a bevy of excellent extras that include numerous informative making-of features and nine audio commentary tracks that feature creator David Milch and many of the main actors, including the self-deprecating tag team of McShane and Olyphant.



3. PLATOON

Whenever a studio releases the same movie on DVD for a second time, it is referred to as a double-dip, as evidenced by my 10th choice movie on the list, Napoleon Dynamite. Oliver Stone's breakthrough movie, 1986's Best Picture Oscar-winner "Platoon," has been accompanied by three different DVD versions since 1997, all of which married the same bonus features from the original laserdisc release. MGM's new two-disc special edition of "Platoon" officially makes this a quadruple-dip, which just sounds wrong. However, this new version is perhaps the best way for the current generation to revisit Stone's best, most straightforward movie and perhaps the most truthful and potent Vietnam War film ever released. Charlie Sheen stars as a son of wealth who skips college and becomes an infantryman in South Vietnam, where his soul is fought over by a pair of dueling commanders, the ruthless Sgt. Barnes and the benign Sgt. Elias (Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe, both in Oscar-nominated roles still compelling to this day). Stone defies both his sense of stylistic overkill and the need to make any bold political statement, opting for a grunt's eye realism that leaves even the most passive viewer feeling as if he's in a jungle of his own, scratching at the ant bites on his neck. Forest Whitaker, John C. McGinley, Kevin Dillon and Johnny Depp all make memorable early appearances in this flick. Aside from the audio commentaries by Stone and technical advisor Dale Dye (who also worked on "Saving Private Ryan") held over from the previous packages, this new version provides more historical background to the moments in which the film is based upon (where Stone himself served as an actual soldier) and also shows the reactions of many veterans following a private screening of the movie. The best extra remains the "Tour of the Inferno" documentary, in which Sheen, Dafoe, McGinley and Depp vividly recall the movie's rigorous two weeks of training in which they were molded into grunts through starvation and insomnia.



2. DAVE CHAPPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY

It's a shame about Dave, and I'm not just talking about his show being gone. At the peak of his success, comic Dave Chappelle threw an old-fashioned free concert in Bed-Stuy featuring a slew of talented R&B and hip-hop artists (Kanye West, Common, The Roots, Blackstar, Dead Prez, Jill Scott, even a reunited Fugees). Handing out his own golden tickets on the streets of his Ohio hometown, Dave invited not just strangers and friends from his stomping grounds, but also filmmaker Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"). With its invigorating live performances and the Chappelle's good-natured charm, this block should have been hot. It's more than likely that people who saw this in theatres were expecting more of the sketch comic version of Dave than the humbled emcee (I recall a couple of younger, whiter boys bowing out in the middle of it). That's unfortunate, because "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" is a movie of real tolerance for not just honest, passionate, urban music, eschewing the materialism and egomania of most of the popular music, but also the community and the average, often eccentric citizens who comprise it. It was one of the most involving concert films since the Talking Heads stopped making sense in 1984. The "unrated" version simply extends some of the musical performances, but they are so momentous that they manage to upstage even Chappelle, who comes off here just as funny and human as he did on the best episodes of Chappelle's Show. So come on, enjoy yourself...it's a celebration!



1. DAZED AND CONFUSED (CRITERION)

Thanks to the good people at Criterion for giving Richard Linklater's modern-day variant on the "American Graffiti" template the lavish DVD treatment Universal stubbornly denied it. Lee High's future class of '77 is preparing for seniority in many ways, mainly by hazing incoming freshmen with custom-made paddles and a truckload of groceries. Cruising around for good times and better buzzes are a handful of recognizable archetypes: the shy high school newcomers (Wiley Wiggins, Christine Hinojosa); the dilemma-facing star quarterback (Jason London); the newspaper club intellectuals (Anthony Rapp, Marissa Ribisi); and the overzealous freshman abusers (Ben Affleck, Parker Posey). And who could forget Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey), the townie hoping to get some wango tango from underage girls? If the copious DVD extras make one thing clear, it's that Universal couldn't decide whether to market this as a simple teen comedy (albeit one rated R) or a mere cult film for stoners, which seemed to be the chosen pitch. Like George Lucas did with his younger days in the 1960s, the Austin-born Linklater incorporates so much mid-70s recollections that the fear of the movie buckling under the weight of nostalgia is put to rest by a well-written and performed portrait of youth that transcends the era of Foghat and tight jeans. Linklater makes his case not just with a priceless commentary track, but also in a stellar made-for-cable retrospective that also gets to the nitty gritty in terms of the conflicts between Linklater and the producers (a young Affleck was in the middle of one of them). Throw in audition tapes, hours of on-set footage, twice as many deleted scenes as there were on the disposable "Flashback Edition," and the coolest booklet ever created for any DVD release, and the result is enough to make you want to shout, "Now THAT'S what I'm talking about." Now if only Criterion could get the rights to The Breakfast Club...



Writer's note: This list was written in early August in order to secure this article's release before the beginning of the fall semester at ASU. Keeping that in mind, here's a list of bonus recommendations, including some further titles worth seeking out that were released in the lattery part of August 2006:



"Akeelah and the Bee"

"Arrested Development: The Complete Third Season"

"Brick"

"Entourage: The Complete Second Season"

"Munich"

"Neil Young: Heart of Gold"

"Scrubs: The Complete Third Season"

"The Simpsons: The Complete Eighth Season"

"Some Kind of Wonderful (Special Collector's Edition)"

"Syriana"

"Veronica Mars: The Complete Second Season"

John Bishop is an undergraduate studying media analysis and criticism. He can be reached at: john.l.bishop@asu.edu.


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