DVD Spin Doctor

'Shrek 3' DVD on menu for Thanksgiving

The not-so-jolly green giant makes his return to home video Nov. 13, DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Home Entertainment confirmed today.

"Shrek the Third" stomps in for the holidays on HD DVD and DVD. (This brings no joy to the Blu-ray kingdom; Paramount, as you recall, dropped Blu-ray.)

The HD DVD comes with Dolby Digital Plus Audio. The standard def discs come in widescreen (enhanced for 16x9) and in full screen (for those who must). Audio is your basic Dolby Digital 5.1.

DreamWords' video unit always treated "Shrek" like royalty. The first "Shrek" DVD was a state of the art at the time, bursting with exclusive content such as a terrific made-for-DVD musical number.

For the third DVD we have "the Donkey Dance" with comic step-by-step instructions; "Shrek's Guide to Parenthood"; "Big Green Goofs"; and Shrek and Donkey's "How to Be Green" environmental tips.

HD DVD-only interactives include "The Animators’ Corner" (storyboards); "Lost Scenes"; "The World of Shrek" guide to characters and the actors who voice them; "My Menus"; the pop-up "Shrek’s Trivia Track; and "Donkey’s Digital Coloring Book," which lets kids digitally paint scenes.

Reviews were respectful but mixed for this "Shrek" outing. But hey, who cares once the turkey's down to bones and the movie begins ...

Continuing the good olde time theme, MGM announced today The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Edition. The Rob Reiner comedy classic comes with "The Official Princess Bride DVD Game," which looks like a graphic novel; and a trio of new featurettes -- "Princess Bride: The Untold Tales," "The Art of Fencing" and "Fairytales and Folklore."

Another fun activity: figure out how many "Princess" DVD editions this makes. Versions for girls ("Buttercup") and boys ("Pirate") came out just last year, so this one looks like a ride-along for "Shrek 3."

The smart, fun and rousing live-action tale stars Robin Wright Penn, Cary Elwes, Andre the Giant and Billy Crystal. I'd watch it over "Shrek 3" every time. Is there a "Geezer" edition yet?

Top DVD photo finish: 'Marshall,' 'Death Proof'

The feel bad/feel good football drama "We Are Marshall" thundered onto the DVD charts, with the Warner Home Video title ranked No. 1 in both sales and rentals.

Close behind it was Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" (pictured), which burned rubber into the No. 2 sales spot for the week ending Sept. 23. The expanded version of the car-crash chick flick -- from Genius Products/Weinsein Co. -- settled for fourth place in rentals.

Third in sales was Fox's "Family Guy, Vol. 5," which unspools a half season of the potty-mouthed animation series' latest adventures. WHV's straight-to-vide "Superman: Doomsday" counted down to No. 4 while Universal Studios' homegrown "Barbie as the Island Princess" surfaced in fifth.

In rentals, it was "Marshall," Lionsgate's "The Condemned," Paramount's "Blades of Glory," "Death Proof" and Universal's "Georgia Rule."

Thomas K. Arnold has the story over on The Reporter's site.

New DVDs: 'Knocked Up' is a keeper

Pick of the week: Knocked Up
Dog of the week: Dog the Bounty Hunter: The Arrest

In "Knocked Up," Judd Apatow deftly married the stoned-lovable-loser movie to old-school romantic comedy. Moviegoers fell hard for the year's best date movie. Reviews were great; word of mouth sold a GDP-sized fortune in tickets for Universal Pictures.

The Seth Rogen-Katherine Heigl comedy should register as one of the year's biggest home videos. Apatow's sassy script and the rapid-fire obscure pop-culture references make repeat viewings mandatory.

Then there's the star-making performance of "Grey's Anatomy" actress Heigl, an utter delight. (What if Bacall and Hepburn got to swear up a storm?)

A lot of couples will enjoy hitting pause for some back-and-forth over the sexual politics and moral pop quizzes at the heart of the film.

The HD DVDlooks like a studio film done right; images are crisp and clear. The audio stays mostly front and center, good for the many choice songs on the soundtrack.

Also: Stoned lovable losers should check out the U.K. sick flick "Broken," well acted and made for nothing; Lamberto Bava's fun "Demons"; and William Friedkin's horror comeback "Bug."

New and notable:
As You Like It (HBO Video)
Babel Special Collector's Edition (Paramount)
Broken (Dimension Extreme)
Bug (Lionsgate)
Cracker: A New Terror (Acorn Media)
Demons 1 & 2 (Anchor Bay Entertainment)
Elvira's Movie Macabre (Shout! Factory)
Evening (Universal)
Frostbitten (Genius Products)
Home Run Derby, Vol. 3 (MGM)
The King of Queens 9 (Sony)
Knocked Up (Universal)
Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection (Warner)
My Name Is Earl 2 (Fox)
Next (Paramount)
Roger Corman Collection: The Intruder, Eat My Dust (Buena Vista)
Tekkonkinkreet (Sony)
The TV Set (Fox)
Twisted Terror Collection (Warner)

Complete list of today's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org

Study: High-def TV owners clueless

Here's a real brain scrambler: Most owners of high-definition TV sets really aren't all that interested in upgrading to HD DVD or Blu-ray. The decade-old DVD format works just fine for them.

The NPD Group, which crunches numbers on just about every product on the planet, polled 5,500 owners of HDTVs. (Most higher-priced TVs come HD-ready these days.) Half of the TV owners (52%) were aware of high-definition players and content, but only 11% intended to buy an HD player in the next six months.

Get this: 73% of HDTV owners said they didn't see the need to replace their standard-definition players. Other HDTV owners were waiting for player prices to fall. (To what, $99? Check out this Toshiba).

HD DVD had more brand recognition, despite the mighty ad campaigns conducted for Blu-ray. About 29% of the consumers had some knowledge of HD DVD; only 20% were up on Blu-ray. (The self-descriptive HD DVD name probably gave an assist to that format.)

Early adopters don't seem to be championing the formats -- only 1 in 5 consumers reported hearing about HD players from friends and family. One reason could be the serial problems with players that wouldn't load some high-profile titles. (The fix usually comes in the form of downloaded "firmware updates" from manufacturers, a pain on most machines.)

Then there's the relative shortage of HD movies and TV shows.

"We're seeing some frustration ... among people who've made the plunge, because they currently cannot get enough content to meet their needs," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick. "These early adopters aren't choosing to evangelize high-definition players to others, in large part because they are unhappy with the available selection."

Player owners told pollsters they'd like to buy nearly two-thirds (63%) of upcoming new releases in high definition -- and only 37% in the existing standard DVD format.

Read the NPD summary of the report.

For the record, I have been happy with my Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player.

Halloween DVDs Part III: The final chapter

This has to be the most horrifying season ever for Halloween titles. Can't think of any other "holiday" that inspires such a deluge of targeted product. Classic horror doesn't get all that much attention during the year, so at least we're guaranteed good ghoulish stuff in September and October.

This DVD blog is blowing out the candles on the pumpkin after this roundup. Final words of advice: Don't go in the basement, never go back into the house for the damn cat, take a knife while camping and always remember: the bad guy is never, ever, truly dead. So don't be putting funny hats on him.

(Update: Check out the "7 Days of Halloween" series, with the witching season's best releases.)

Frostbitten is the first serious vampire movie to come out of Sweden. A festival favorite. The new girl in town takes up with a goth who gets weirdly friendly. "Under the cover of darkness, an entire month of wintry night sky, the hunt for blood and flesh begins." Directed by Anders Banke, (Genius, Sept. 25, $20)

Twisted Terror Collection binds together six horror films including three from three famed directors. This appears to be the start of a Warner Home Video "Twisted Terror" line. Remember the hoot of a remake of "The Hand" from Oliver Stone? Well, it's back from the grave (get a grip). Also, John Carpenter's TV movie "Someone's Watching Me" with Lauren Hutton; Wes Craven's "Deadly Friend" in which a teen nerd does the brain surgery. Also, "From Beyond the Grave," "Eyes of a Stranger" and Dr. Giggles. (Sept. 25, $50)

Hallowed Ground brings us another couple of hours with scream queen Jaimie Alexander (pictured), who was really good in Warner's made-for-DVD creep-out "Rest Stop." The plot sounds a lot like the bad-movie classic "The Devil's Rain": In 1896, a preacher crucifies a bunch of sinners. A century later, our heroine finds her purpose in life is to help resurrect the old do-gooder. (Genius, Oct. 9)

Murder Party sounds pretty sick. A gang of crazed edgy artists decides to murder a party-goer at midnight, in the name of performance art. Then someone breaks out a vial of truth serum as a party favor. Commence body count. Won an award at Slamdance and played SXSW. bloody-disgusting.com dug it. (Magnolia, Oct. 16)

Also, "Plasterhead" (Arts Alliance), "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" (Fox), "Tobe Hooper's The Damned Thing" (Anchor Bay), "Buried Alive" (Weinstein/Genius), and the scariest of all, "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" (S'More).

Check out the posts Halloween DVDs I and Halloween DVDs 2 for more horror movies.

Top DVDs: 'Grey's Anatomy' makes cut

It's the start of a new TV season. Let us now return to the glory days of last season.

For the second week, a TV collection tops DVD sales. Last week it was Universal's "The Office"; now we have "Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Third Season," from Disney.

Paramount's slippery "Blades of Glory" remained in the silver position in sales, while "The Office" took the bronze.

In rentals, it was "Blades," chick flick "Georgia Rule" (Universal) and the sad-sack comedy "Delta Farce" (Lionsgate).

"Grey's" Katherine Heigl, pictured, repped the show at Sunday's Emmys, winning best supporting actress in a drama series. Both "Grey's" and "Office" were up for best series based on the work in these DVD releases, but they ended the night stamped "Honored to be nominated."

Before last week, a TV-on-DVD title hadn't topped the charts in almost a year.

Thomas K. Arnold has the story over on The Reporter's site.

New DVDs: Expanded 'Death Proof,' 'Troy'

Pick of the week: Saturday Night Fever
Dog of the week: We Are Marshall

A lot of action out there this week. My DVD players are spinning Quentin Tarantino's racy "Death Proof: Extended and Unrated," the well-heeled "Troy: Director's Cut" and the deliciously gory history lesson "The Washingtonians."

A trio of terrific high-profile movies from a few decades back also make comebacks: "Saturday Night Fever," "Wall Street" and "Deliverance." All three get first-class studio treatments and "Deliverance" comes in HD DVD and Blu-ray.

In TV-on-DVD, my highly rated shows of the week are "Brothers and Sisters" and "Family Guy, Vol. 5."

New and notable:
Alexander: Revisited: The Final Cut (Warner)
Beyond the Gates (Fox)
Blade: House of Chthon (New Line)
BloodRayne 2: Deliverance (Vivendi Visual
The Boss of It All (Genius Products)
Brothers and Sisters: Season 1 (Buena Vista)
Cinema 16: European Short Films (Cinema 16)
Commando Director's Cut (Fox)
Crazylove (MTI Home Video)
Cruising (Warner)
Death Proof: Unrated and Extended (Weinstein Co./Genius Products)
Deliverance: 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Warner)
Dragon Heat (Dragon Dynasty)
Family Guy, Vol. 5 (Fox)
Flashdance Special Collector's Edition (Paramount)
Masters of Horror: Brad Anderson's "Sounds Like" and Peter Medak's "The Washingtonians" (Starz Home Entertainment)
The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story (MVD Visual)
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (The Criterion Collection)
The Roger Corman Collection (MGM)
Saturday Night Fever Special Collector's Edition (Paramount)
The Threepenny Opera (Criterion)
Troy Director's Cut (Warner)
Two Weeks (MGM)
The Up Series Box Set (First Run Features)
Upright Citizens Brigade (Paramount)
The Valet (La Doublure) (Sony)
Wall Street 20th Anniversary Edition (Fox)
Zoo (ThinkFilm)

Complete list of today's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org

DVD review: 'WR: Mysteries of the Organism'

One of the stranger DVDs to pass this way recently is "WR: Mysteries of the Organism."

The 1971 film, by Eastern European filmmaker Dusan Makavejev, was banned for 16 years in the director's homeland, the former Yugoslavia, due to its herky-jerky mix of sex, politics and comedy. The DVD comes via the Criterion Collection, which released it in a single-disc edition a few months back.

"WR" starts off as a documentary about Austrian-American psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich ("WR"), creator of the "orgone accumulator" -- a sweat-box-like contraption said to harness sexual life energy for the benefits of patients, who sat inside. The feds shut down the ailing Reich's operation, banned his books and eventually jailed him, in an act his wife called "judicial murder." Reich devotees find orgasms a good way to get the energy flowing, so we see practitioners pleasing themselves into a good froth. The docu plays it pretty straight; the content is plenty weird enough.

From there, the movie moves to Yugoslavia, for a slapstick fiction about a beautiful young Marxist who talks a lot about sex and Soviet bloc politics while her hot naked roommate gets busy with a series of lovers. The women's adventures are mixed in with footage from the 1946 drama "Pitsi," about Stalin.

Meanwhile in Manhattan, a member of the Fugs runs around with a toy automatic weapon, shaking up the suits and amusing the cops (imagine). In a porn magazine office, a female plaster-caster makes a permanent record of a subject's cock in a long take that Makavejev found so good it was "uneditable."

The extras feature a couple of interviews with Makavejev, who does a pretty good job of explaining the film and its contexts in that rocky era. One funny clip shows the BBC's attempts to clean up the quite-explicit film for broadcast. The commentary is read aloud from a 1999 book on the film.

The movie isn't for most people, obviously, but those in tune with Lennon and Marx (John and Groucho) should call "WR" for a good time.

Makavejev's sex-drenched Sweet Movie also is available from Criterion.

Visit my hand-picked titles at this DVD blog's Criterion Store.

Early review: 'Imagination' a visual feast

The film "Imagination" lives up to its title. Here is a work that doesn't have a lot of respect for boundaries. Eclectic doesn't quite cover it. The movie is a visual riot, utilizing animation, live-action, stop-motion, claymation, puppetry, herky-jerky moving sketches, time-lapse photography ... all linked by a strange but fairly cohesive narrative.

"Imagination" came to me as an early early preview DVD courtesy of the filmmakers, the Leiser brothers. Eric did the crazy-quilt animation and direction; Jeffrey created the score. Talented guys. They made the movie for
about $110,000. Expect the DVD in the spring.

The story concerns identical twin sisters of about 12 (Jessi and Nikki Haddad), whose lives are in a punishing downward spiral. One has a degenerative eye disease; the other is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a highly functioning type of autism that afflicts high IQ kids. Their father has left the family and their caring mom dies in a massive L.A. quake. The twins' psychiatrist (Ed K. Gildersleeve) races to learn the secrets of the otherworldly visions the girls share.

Jeffrey Leiser's music is strong and good but fairly conventional (I kept thinking some early Pink Floyd would have been right at home with all this visual psychedelia). The Haddad sisters were suitably mysterious. The adult acting wasn't all that convincing at times.

In spirit, "Imagination" seems to come from the same planet as Neil Gaiman's "MirrorMask" and "What the Bleep!? Down the Rabbit Hole." I'm not sure of the target audience. Open-minded tweens and younger teens should enjoy the many playful moments, although the overall tone remains quite dark. The "Donnie Darko" crowd could be coerced. Animation buffs will be dazzled.

Holiday DVDs: Make a list, check it twice

What's that swoooosh I hear? The sound of 2 million air conditioners trying to beat that 105-degree heat wave in L.A.? Nope, it's jolly old Saint Nick's sleigh, out making some early holiday DVD deliveries.

In the alternative Video World, Halloween comes about Labor Day, and the end-of-year holidays are in full swing come Halloween. Your friendly DVD blog will be tracking all the cool Christmas DVD titles. It's kind of chilly sitting here under the A/C vent so let's get started. Ho.

Dennis the Menace Christmas comes from the new straight-to-video production unit Warner Premiere. This time out, Robert Wagner does the scowling as Mr. Wilson. Louise Fletcher adds some class as Mrs. Wilson. Maxwell Perry Cotton is the "newly defined Menace" while funnyman Godfrey limns Bob the Christmas Angel. Dennis is on a quest to be gifted with the Raleigh Mite-Y-Max bike. Yikes! He'll throw his leg out. Retail $20.

The Pink Panther: A Pink Christmas debuts on DVD via MGM (Fox). Fritz Freleng and John W. Dunn wrote the teleplay for this 30-minute TV toon from 1978. The Panther must scheme his way into a holiday dinner in cold old Manhattan. Filling out the disc are Freleng's "Pink Panther: The Olym-pinks" (1980, 30 mins.) and "Pink at First Sight" (1981, 30 mins.). Retail $15, out Nov. 6.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is based on the children’s book by Susan Wojciechowski. Nothing says holiday cheer quite like an appearance by Tom Berenger, who plays Toomey, a cranky wood carver with a "mysterious secret past." A boy (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) and his widowed mother (Joely Richardson) move to town. The long-term forecast is for warm and fuzzy. From Genius Products, out Oct. 23 at $15.

The Year Without a Santa Claus (deluxe) -- a remastered version of the stop-motion animation special first beheld in 1974. Santa decides to slack off and skip a year. A child shall lead him out of the gloom. Extras include a docu on the legacy of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, purveyors of fine seasonal TV specials. From Warner Home Video, out Oct. 2 at $20. (Pictured above)

Christmas Television Favorites from Warner. Presented in "unique, eye-catching, collectible packaging reminiscent of a classic book with foil accents," the four-disc, eight-title set goes for $40. The TV specials are "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" "Horton Hears a Who!" "The Year Without a Santa Claus (see above)," "Rudolph’s Shiny New Year," "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, " "Frosty’s Winter Wonderland," "‘Twas the Night Before Christmas" and "Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July." "Grinch" is the terrific 50th anniversary remastered edition from last year. Two discs appear to be previously released two-fers from a ways back.

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