DVD Spin Doctor

Top DVDs: 'Die Hard' fire-sale registers No. 1

An old franchise learns new tricks in "Live Free or Die Hard," which cruised to victory for Fox Home Entertainment over the Thanksgiving holiday week.

Bruce Willis faces down computer terrorists -- with the help of that Mac slacker guy -- in the fourth installment of the 20-year-old Die Hard franchise. It took first place in sales and rentals for the week ended Nov. 25.

New Line's "Hairspray" did the Madison into third place in sales and second in rentals. Last week's ruler, Universal's "Shrek the Third," bogged down to second in sales and third in rentals.

Disney's "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" rode the stirrings of Christmas cheer into No. 5 in sales.

Sales (week ending Nov. 25)
1. Live Free or Die Hard
2. Shrek the Third
3. Hairspray
4. Ratatouille
5. Santa Clause 3

Rentals (week ending Nov. 25)
1. Live Free or Die Hard
2. Hairspray
3. Shrek the Third
4. Ocean's Thirteen
5. Rescue Dawn

New DVDs: 'Mr. Bean,' Kurosawa, 'Waitress'

Pick of the week: Waitress
Dog of the week: I Know Who Killed Me

Not a lot of product this week as we see the DVD blizzard of '07 subside. Some interesting titles are popping up for the first quarter -- stay tuned for a report.

Call me weird, but I liked the underdog comedy release "Mr. Bean's Holiday." ("Mr. Hulot's Holiday" bores the hell out of me, go figure.) The Bean story has heart, lots of laughs and serves up one of the best restaurant gross-out scenes on film. (You know what they say about the first man to eat an oyster?)

Bean wins a freebie vacation, deplanes in Paris and makes his way to Cannes, on the Riviera. Along the way he teams up with a cool kid and a sweet French actress. The bad guy, a hack film director played by a crazed Willem Defoe, meets his match at the film festival as Bean (Rowan Atkinson) proves an unlikely auteur. Not much in the way of extras on this Universal DVD, probably for the best. Hey, we all have our guilty pleasures.

The Criterion Collection makes it two sweet weeks in a row with the release of "Drunken Angel," Akira Kurosawa's first film with Toshiro Mifune.

The 1948 movie, about a doctor and a gangster, is more of a historical marker than a classic, but it's fascinating to see the roots of such an epic collaboration. Extras include another episode of the Toho series "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create" and a piece on Kurosawa vs. the occupation's censors. Kurosawa expert Donald Richie does the commentary.

Circling the DVD blog's players are Sony's anime adventure "Paprika" and Fox's indie dramadie "Waitress." (Readers of this blog probably know the backstory on Adrienne Shelly's movie about pie baking. If you don't, see the movie before learning about that talented writer-director-actress.)

New and notable:
Drunken Angel (The Criterion Collection)
First Snow (Sony)
Futurama: Bender's Big Score (Fox)
Happy Days: The Third Season (Paramount)
Hot Rod (Paramount, also HD DVD)
I Know Who Killed Me (Sony, also Blu-ray)
Laverne & Shirley: The Third Season (Paramount)
Mr. Bean's Holiday (Universal, also HD DVD)
Mork & Mindy: The Third Season (Paramount)
The Namesake (Fox)
Paprika (Sony, also BR)
Peter Pan in Return to Never Land (Disney)
Spice World (Sony)
Vitus (Sony)
Waitress (Fox)

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

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' on DVD: a preview

The TV producer Norman Felton tells how he once encountered a woman in swinging '60s London who demanded to know why all leading men in Hollywood had to be handsome, muscular and all-American. He didn't know.

Soon after, when Felton put together the TV spy show "The Man From U.N.C.L.E," he decided to discard that template. He cast a British actor, David McCallum, in the role of a Russian. The star, Robert Vaughn, had the looks but not the bulk of a typical leading man.

"They were both slim, not ballsy men," Felton recalls today. And, "They were younger than most of the heroes than you saw in the western shows."

NBC saw the pilot and wanted to get rid of McCallum. It wasn't because he was "Russian." It was because he had long hair.

The kids understood. Vaughn and McCallum were treated like rock stars as they flacked the hip new show. The cops once closed off Time Square so McCallum could escape a Beatlemania-like mob of female admirers. "U.N.C.L.E" soon became a smash hit.

Now, those fans are aging baby boomers with wallets full of credit cards, which will come in handy as "U.N.C.L.E." makes its highly anticipated debut on DVD. The Time Life set goes for $250, sold exclusively on the Time Life website and via direct-response television commercials.*. In return, you get 41 DVDs packaged in a format similar to the award-winning "Get Smart" collection from Time Life. The series comes packaged in a silver "attache case" that holds every original, unedited episode from all four seasons of the series. That's 105 shows.

The shipping date for "The Man From U.N.C.L.E. -- The Complete Collection" now appears to be Monday, a week's delay, so there are a few days left to ensure you're first on the block. The operatives at Time Life leaked a preview disc to DVD Spin Doctor, however, and here's what we found hidden inside:

The two sample episodes looked and sounded fine, especially considering they came from 40 years ago. Wear was present but quite tolerable.

The black-and-white comedy episode "The Never-Never Affair" guest-stars Barbara Feldon as an U.N.C.L.E. go-fer looking for fun and adventure. Cesar Romero plays a visiting French (huh?) evil-doer from THRUSH. Vaughn sends wannabe Feldon on a bogus mission that turns real as she bumbles about Manhattan. The action includes a Hitchcockian shootout in a movie theater. Feldon was so good they built a similar role for her as Agent 99 on "Get Smart!"

The color pilot, "The Vulcan Affair," is a more traditional spy adventure that kicks off with a cool and tense armed invasion of U.N.C.L.E. headquarters. You know, the place hidden beneath Del Floria's Tailor Shop. The intro identifies the show as "Solo." (The pilot project also went by the name "Mr. Solo.") "Vulcan" isn't as clever or fun as "Never-Never" but it benefits from some 007-like tuxedo action.

Executive producer Felton explains in the DVD bonus featurette "The Cloak & Swagger Affair" that the Napoleon Solo name (of Vaughn's character) came from James Bond creator Ian Fleming, an early collaborator. The novelist failed to mention that he'd liked the name so much he'd used it for a bad guy in "Goldfinger," due shortly in theaters. And so we have "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," a title born with a TBA acronym.

Fleming came up with a few key concepts but mostly liked to chat about his own adventures. He cheerfully sold Felton his interest in the show to for a pound.

The Q&A extra "Double Agents" brings Vaughn and McCallum together for what's billed as their first joint interview in decades. The men apparently were cordial co-workers during the show but became close friends after its run.

The interview isn't deep (EPK-style graphics provide the questions) but it's interesting to see the old agents interact. They both agree the show was a "wonderful" experience. Vaughn calls it "the best four years of my life."

McCallum has this to say about the unusually good writing: "When I think of television back in the days of 'U.N.C.L.E.' it was a total high-high respect for the written word and the script. ... There was always a family kind of feeling between the writers and the actors. The scripts were written wonderfully and we stuck to them."

Vaughn says, "The first year of shows were better. They were adventure and romance with a little bit of humor. And that's where the show unfortunately didn't stay. And that why the show went off the air -- because it became a farce." Fortunately, Time Life also plans an 11-DVD release of season 1.

I'm not making a recommendation based on a sampler, but from what I've seen this looks like a first-class revival. See you at the tailor shop.

* There's a coupon code for free shipping on the box set: TLUNCLE.

Top DVDs: 'Shrek' crowned No. 1 seller

DreamWorks' "Shrek the Third" was DVD the first in both sales and rentals for the week ending Nov. 18. The fractured fairytale also commanded No. 1 position in HD DVD sales.

Disney's cuisine caper "Ratatouille" stayed hot, landing in the second spot in sales. Ocean's 13 made off with No. 3 in sales and No. 2 in rentals.

Sales (week ending Nov. 18)
1. Shrek the Third
2. Ratatouille
3. Ocean's Thirteen
4. Spider-Man 3
5. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

Rentals (week ending Nov. 18)
1. Shrek the Third
2. Ocean's Thirteen
3. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
4. Spider-Man 3
5. Ratatouille

New DVDs: Hitchcock, 'Star Trek' in HD DVD

Pick of the week: The Lady Vanishes
Dog of the week: Hudson Hawk

Criterion's rerelease of the 1938 Hitchcock classic "The Lady Vanishes" tops the highbrow bill this week, while
Paramount's populist touchstone "Star Trek" arrives on HD DVD, beaming down its complete first TV season.

The turkey? I'm split between "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" and "Hudson Hawk." Simmons is a good guy, dunno about Bruce Willis, so let's roast "Hawk."

Action fans can give thanks for the high-octane films "Rescue Dawn" and "Live Free or Die Hard." Great double feature for the mofos in the house.

In rock, let's mash up "The Song Remains the Same" from Led Zeppelin. On the flip side, the nicest kids in town bring us "Hairspray," with John Travolta in serious drag.

New and notable:
Angel-A (Sony)
Beat the Drum (Genius Products)
CSI: The Seventh Season (Paramount)
Ghosts of Cite Soleil (ThinkFilm)
Hairspray (New Line)
Hearts of Darkness: A Fillmaker's Apocalypse (Paramount)
Hudson Hawk (Sony)
The Lady Vanishes (The Criterion Collection)
Sawdust & Tinsel (The Criterion Collection)
Live Free or Die Hard (Fox)
Love, American Style (Paramount)
Mission: Impossible: Third Season (Paramount)
Rescue Dawn (MGM)
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (Disney)
The Song Remains the Same (Warner)
Star Trek: The Original Series HD DVD (Paramount)
Titanic (Paramount)
The Universe (A&E)
The Wild Wild West: Third Season (Paramount)

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

Scorsese tracks Lewton, 'Man in the Shadows'

These days, Martin Scorsese seems almost as valuable as a fan of films as he is as a director of films. Scorsese never tires of hailing the great filmmakers who've gone before him. A while back, for example, he revisited the great directors of his family homeland in "My Voyage to Italy."

The DVDs of "The Departed" included a tribute to Scorsese's gangster pic roots. He just penned the booklet notes for the Beatles' "Help!" The man just loves film.

The director's latest docu tribute is "Martin Scorsese Presents Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows." The "Raging Bull" director produced and narrates this look at Lewton, the great B-movie producer of the 1940s best known for "Cat People." No Scorsese fan could miss Lewton's influence on the famous modern director.

Warner Home Video is updating its outstanding "The Val Lewton Horror Collection" with a new Lewton box set that's identical except for inclusion of Scorsese's docu. (Amazon's price on the new set is a bit cheaper.)

Lewton admirers who own the previous (terrific) box set should buy "Man in the Shadows" separately. Or record TCM's broadcast of the docu Jan. 14, the day before it's released on DVD.

The docu premiered at the AFI film festival last week and was reviewed by the Hollywood Reporter, which found: "The film argues, with psychoanalytic fervor, that the dark, haunted spirit of most of the Lewton films grew out of the producer's own melancholy temperament. In this sense he was more the auteur of these films than their credited writers or directors." On the down side, "The weakness of the film is its overly verbose narration, which is read by Scorsese himself."

The "Lewton Collection," regardless of which version you buy, contains nine B-movie wonders he produced for RKO in the 1940s. Lewton's best-known works -- the stylish and sexy "Cat People" and the voodoo excursion "I Walked With a Zombie" -- staked out the psychological horror genre. Both were done with director Jacques Tourneur, who gave Lewton's works a sophisticated noirish look. The men "were like Lennon and McCartney," horror director Guillermo del Toro says in the extras.

This DVD set, which includes a trio of Boris Karloff thrillers, has the same titles as Image's 1995 laserdisc box. All but two of the films have commentaries by Lewton enthusiasts, which are uniformly good. The carried-over docu, "Shadows in the Dark," tracks the producer from his youth in Russia to his stint with David O. Selznick to his successful run at RKO. Del Toro, George A. Romero and Neil Gaiman are among the horror elite who pay tribute to Lewton.

RKO stole Lewton from Selznick, hungry for monster movies that could duplicate Universal's success. But, film historian Steve Haberman says, Lewton "was thinking about what in reality frightens people: the dark, the unknown, madness, death."

"Cat People" (1942) startled audiences with its brazen marriage of sex and suspense. "Twilight Zone" director John Landis says he's still amazed at "how sexually sophisticated it is." "Cat People" tells of a dark-haired beauty whose belief in "mad legends" makes her refuse to sleep with her new husband, fearing she will morph into a predator cat. Marketed as "stark shockery and killing chillery," the film gave Lewton a hit the first time out.

RKO ordered Lewton to use prefab titles, including the goofy "I Walked With a Zombie" (1943). Like "Cat People," "Zombie" made good use of RKO sets left over from the Orson Welles era, showcasing them in silky black and white. Borrowing from "Jane Eyre" and "Rebecca," Lewton and Tourneur delivered another 70-minute marvel, about a nurse who comes to the Caribbean to care for a woman who appears possessed by voodoo priests. Fast-talking British commentators Kim Newman and Steve Jones are spot on ("The dominant element of this film is Venetian blinds," one observes, deadpan).

Other gems include "The Seventh Victim" (directed by Mark Robson), "The Leopard Man" (Tourneur) and the night-and-fog Karloff starrer "The Body Snatcher" (Robert Wise).

All of these films show their age. They're damaged in varying degrees. Just like the lost souls in Lewton's pictures.

Preorder the new Val Lewton Collection.

Top DVDs: Disney's 'Ratatouille' hot

Disney's "Ratatouille" was top chef in its first week on the DVD charts. The animated hit about a Parisian rodent and his pet cook took first place in DVD and Blu-ray sales.

Universal's Adam Sandler-Kevin James comedy "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" was the significant other for the week ended Nov. 11, taking No. 2 in sales and No. 1 in rentals. Sony's "Spider-Man 3" hung around to grab third place in sales and second in rentals.

Sales (week ending Nov. 11)
1. Ratatouille
2. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
3. Spider-Man 3
4. Transformers
5. Deck the Halls

Rentals (week ending Nov. 11)
1. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
2. Spider-Man 3
3. Ratatouille
4. Deck the Halls
5. Transformers

New DVDs: 'Shrek' and 'Close Encounters'

Pick of the week: Close Encounters
Dog of the week: Cougar Club

"Shrek the Third" the DVD plays a lot like the hit animated film series -- lots of familiar elements with a few new moves to keep things interesting. Why drain the bog when it's already good and fragrant?

We get the blooper reel (CG animation gone wild), some more story pitch sessions (zzz), the "Tech of Shrek" and a handful of games for the young fans. Click on the Shrek ears and you get a reprise of Donkey's bare-hoofin' musical numbers from the past two DVDs.

The best extra for big kids is the making-of featurette, which checks in with returning vocal stars Michael Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas. The short gives equal time to newcomers Justin Timberlake, Eric Idle and the sassy ladies of "Saturday Night Live." Mixed in with the obligatory praise-a-thon is some interesting footage of these pros at work.

The DVD's audio and visuals are first rate, what you'd expect from this big-bucks project. The 5.1 audio fills the room, but there's not much going on directionally in the rear speaker kingdom. The pop songs sound great, particularly when the 5.1 throws down the funk on Sly's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)."

The big releases this week include ""Close Encounters of the Third Kind"" on Blu-ray (review to come), Criterion's sprawling "Berlin Alexanderplatz" and Warner's revival of "That's Entertainment."

Don't overlook "Midnight Movies," one of the lower-profile releases of the week. The docu explores the theatrical phenomenon that started with "El Topo" and slithered on with "Pink Flamingos," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Eraser Head." The directors all roll out to thank the exhibition geniuses who kept the stoners off the streets and in the theaters. If any of these films bring back some fond hazy memories, be sure to stay up late for this DVD.

New and notable:
Amazing Grace (Fox)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (The Criterion Collection)
Blame It On Fidel (Koch Lorber Films)
Bloodhounds of Broadway (Fox)
The Girl Next Door (Fox)
With A Song In My Heart (Fox)
Christmas Time in South Park (Paramount)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Sony)
Golden Boy (Sony)
It's a Wonderful Life (Paramount)
La Vie En Rose (Warner)
Masters of Horror: Dream Cruise (Anchor Bay)
Melrose Place: The Third Season (Paramount)
Midnight Movies (Starz)
Ocean's Thirteen (Warner)
Perry Mason: Season 2, Volume 2 (Paramount)
The Princess Bride (MGM)
Shrek the Third (Universal)
That's Entertainment: The Complete Collection (Warner)
This Is England (Genius Products)
3000 Miles (Revolver Entertainment)
Welcome to the Jungle (Dimension Extreme)

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

'Get Smart,' Muppets top TV on DVD awards

Time Life's box set of the complete "Get Smart" was a shoe-in for the top honor at Home Media magazine's TV on DVD Awards. Also repping the good old days were The Muppets, which wrapped up three awards.

Last year, I was a judge for this competition, which was fun to do but incredibly hard on the eyes. Classic shows won the majority of awards this time, perhaps because consumers voted on many of the winners.

Best in show winner "Get Smart: the Complete Series" was co-produced by Time Life and HBO Video. The judges liked the phone-booth packaging and the ambitious extras. (Time Life's next project -- "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." -- looks to be of similar quality -- and of similar high price at $249.)

"It’s good to see the care and consideration that fans should expect put into this DVD set," Home Media chief Thomas K. Arnold said. "So many catalog TV DVDs are just thrown out there with little added value beyond the episodes themselves." Amen.

Here's a complete list of winners, as posted on homemediamagazine.com:

Best of Show: Get Smart: The Complete Series, Time Life/HBO Video
Best 2000s Series: Heroes: Season 1, Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Best 1990s Series: Seinfeld: Season 8, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Best 1980s Series: Fraggle Rock: Season 3, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment/HIT Entertainment
Best 1970s Series: The Muppet Show: Season 2, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Best 1960s Series: Get Smart: The Complete Series, Time Life/HBO Video
Best 1950s Series: Adventures of Superman: Seasons 5 & 6, Warner Home Video
Best Animated Series: The Simpsons: Season 10, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Best Children's Series: The Muppet Show: Season 2, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Best Reality Series: Survivor: Vanuatu, CBS DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment
Best Variety Series: The Best of Chappelle’s Show, Paramount Home Entertainment/Comedy Central
Best One-Season Wonder: The Dresden Files, Lionsgate
Best Miniseries or Made-for-TV Movie: Roots: 30th Anniversary Edition, Warner Home Video
Best Foreign TV Series: Doctor Who: Series 2, BBC Video
Best TV Documentary: Planet Earth, BBC Video
Best Bonus Materials: Lost: Season 2, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Best Complete-Series Set: M*A*S*H: The Martinis & Medicine Collection, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; Get Smart: The Complete Series
Judges' Special Citation for Best Packaging: The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series, Starz Home Entertainment/Anchor Bay

Ford's 'The Iron Horse' rides again

In 1924, William Fox presented "The Iron Horse," a fast-moving western adventure about the building of the transcontinental railroad. Last night, Fox Home Entertainment presented the newly restored film at the William Fox Theater.

"The Iron Horse" is one of the tentpole DVDs in the upcoming "Ford At Fox" box set, which includes 24 of his movies and a new documentary about the director. Most of these Ford titles are new to DVD. "The Iron Horse" has been out before, but not in this sparkling condition.

The movie tells of a father and son who try to find a shortcut through the Rockies for the east-west railroad. The father is killed by Cheyenne warriors led by a two-fingered white man gone native. The boy escapes to become our hero (George O'Brien), a man of the west. His childhood sweatheart (Madge Bellamy) arrives with her father, the railroad owner. Also with her, unfortunately, is her fiance, an engineer so weaselly that even Abraham Lincoln didn't like him.

The engineer falls in with the two-fingered traitor, now a scheming businessman trying to steer the railroad toward his lands -- and away from the much-needed route through the mountains. All Davy needs to do is locate the pass, expose the villains, fight off their Indian allies, get the girl and drive in that golden stake at Promotory Point.

Enhancing the action is a new score by Christopher Caliendo. The prolific composer lists Henry Mancini and Frank Zappa among his teachers; you can hear their influences throughout "The Iron Horse." The score feels mostly traditional, alt classical perhaps, with some engrossing detours into traditional (roots) music and the Varese-Zappa abstract. The DVD has a featurette about the music. (Caliendo worked on the revival of "Major Dundee" a few years back).

There are, of course, persistent blemishes on the 83-year-old "Iron Horse" visuals -- flashing, vertical scratches and the like -- but they're only occasionally distracting, as in one of the Indian attacks. Long passages go by without signs of wear or age. The overall impression is of silvery, richly detailed images.

Experiencing this Ford western classic in a theater was a rare treat. Based on the audience's reactions, the film retains much of its power in the new century. This DVD should not be missed.

"Ford At Fox" comes out Dec. 4, priced at $300 (before discounts). Three smaller collections go for $50. Among them is "John Ford's Silent Epics," with "The Iron Horse." The title also will be available as a $20 single DVD.

Read a short review of the "Ford at Fox" set.