Video Views & News: New Releases and Fur Pieces

So, after a week spent half-way across the U.S., yesterday I strolled back into the flight deck of the Film.com stratospheric flying platform anchored above Seattle. And what to my wandering eyes should appear but Laremy, who said, with that snarky curl of the lip he gets when annoyed, "There's a bazillion DVDs on your desk." You see, I'd asked Laremy to handle things at my bridge station while I was away, and apparently the summertime slow-down began its gradual autumnal speed-up in the interim.

There wasn't quite a bazillion. More of a metric oh-hell-yeah. At least enough to send out to the Film.com writers who depend on the DVDs to review for you. In return they get their movie-lovin' fixes and the remuneration that lets them chip in to the pot during the Film.com DVD staff poker games. (No one has a better poker face than Dawn, but I've lost more money to Cargill, despite the Tom-Cruise-crazy smile he flashes when he draws a sure hand. He's a Texan, which he says makes him favorable to the gods of Texas Hold 'Em.)

Where was I over the past week? In Arkansas, driving through the Ozarks. In the words of Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles, what was a dazzling urbanite like me doing there? A family reunion of sorts. Yes, I hail from the land of Billy Bob Thornton. Went to high school with Elizabeth Gracen (just before the whole Clinton and Highlander: The Raven thing) and Natalie Canerday (who should've aimed for a career in comic rather than dramatic roles. She could wipe the stage with Larry the Cable Guy, and frankly, I wish someone would). According to my wife, I have no trace of the local accent except after one too many Manhattans. But after one of these infrequent return trips to the old woo-pig-soo, I do feel the urge to hug Amy Adams in Junebug, and for the next week I'm likely to use the phrase "fur piece" not as an item of posh apparel, but as a unit of distance.

Now that I've dispersed the newly arrived DVDs to the staff, I recommend you stay tuned here to Film.com for their forthcoming thoughts on such recent releases as Guy Maddin's deeply strange Brand Upon the Brain! (now available from Criterion), Baby Mama, Cool Hand Luke: Deluxe Edition, The Forbidden Kingdom, the new Blu-ray editions of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour, the David Fincher/Spike Jonze-produced oddity The Fall, a cool collection of new-wave Spanish horror, the Criterion Max Ophuls set (including The Earrings of Madame De...), Monster Camp, Heroes: Season 2, Torchwood: Season 2, Pushing Daisies: Season 1, and -- boy howdy! -- so much more.

The day after I returned westward ("...swimming pools, movie stars..."), my next-door neighbor Ian mentioned during the usual across-the-fence shoptalk that his two kids are really loving Disney's The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Beginning, the new straight-to-DVD prequel to the animated big-screen hit from some years back. Jodi Benson returns to give voice to the underwater heroine, accompanied again by Samuel E. Wright as his pal Sebastian the Crab. The time is long before Ariel met Prince Eric and discovered Jimmy Choo footwear. Her father, grieving over the loss of his beloved wife, has banned music from his undersea kingdom, and it's up to Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder -- plus her six amusing sisters, the deliciously wicked villain Marina Del Rey, and some suitably thrilling adventures -- to bring the music back again. (It's a good bet that they do, if the presence of all-new songs is any indication.) The DVD features deleted scenes, a segment on "mermaid choreography" (step-toe-three-four is difficult with a tail), and a backstage look at the Broadway musical version of the original.

In fact, this past week saw more new DVDs than a coon dog has reasons to chew its nethers. An easy passel of 'em includes these ever-lovin' titles:

Anytown, USA

The Art of Travel

Before I Forget

The Big Bang Theory

Boomerang, Elia Kazan's 1947 neo-realist gripper starring Dana Andrews as a D.A. who wonders if "vigilante justice" might be a contradiction in terms, at least when it comes to a suspect (Arthur Kennedy) accused of gunning down a priest in a Connecticut town.

The Case of the Grinning Cat

Eli Stone

Fist of Legend

Honey West -- The complete TV series from 1965-66, starring Anne Francis as a slinky, glamorous female private eye -- something new to television at the time.

How to Rob a Bank

Married Life

Moontide (1942)

Outsourced -- A formulaic but affectionate and sincere and exotic charmer that didn't get the theatrical run it deserved because the director and producer stuck to their guns and said no to Miramax's piratical distribution terms. So it's a true indie, yes, and we're all for the fight-the-power raised fist, but that means Outsourced has existed as a way-under-the-radar festival favorite rather than as a profit-making week or two at your local Regal. I gave it a favorable review last year, and shared a good meal with the director and others to discuss their experiences that inspired the film. Go looking for this one now that it's finally easy to catch on DVD.

The Promotion

Remembrance of Things to Come

Reprise

The Sensation of Sight

Then She Found Me -- My long-time crush on Helen Hunt compels me to give this one a call-out. She both directs and stars in this light romantic comedy-drama, which also features Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, and (this is not a typo) novelist Salman Rushdie as a gynecologist. Back in April, Margy Rocklin in the New York Times interviewed Hunt about the experience and her travails in getting it made.

Time After Time -- One of my favorite science fiction adventure-romance-thriller time-travel movies gets a long-overdue reissue.

War Requiem

Keep coming back for more on the watching-movies-on-your-couch front here at Film.com. We've got your video needs covered, even after we travel a fur piece away from you.

Now, where's the nearest Waffle House?

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