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vidlib@videolibrarian.com
 Updated August 31, 2010 |
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Look Around You: Season One  BBC, 71 min., not rated, DVD: $24.98 
Debuting in 2002, this British cult comedy series offers a demented parody of 1970s educational programming, packed with misinformation (“Germs originated in Germany and then spread around the world”), nonsense facts (“The biggest number that you can think of is 45,000,000, though scientists believe there may yet be bigger numbers”), absurd experiments (find out why a ghost can’t whistle), and meaningless quizzes, all presented with the deadpan approach of dated science documentaries shown in school. The result is like seeing the “University of the Air” curriculum as taught by Monty Python, with graphics, music, scratchy 16mm film clips, and an unflappable voice of authority (Nigel Lambert) that are all dead-on. Compiling all eight segments (roughly 10 minutes each) from the first season, DVD extras include a bonus advanced “Calcium” module,” a pop-up video, play-at-home quiz pages, and audio commentary on each episode by creators Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, who are joined by tag-team guest commentators including Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. Recommended, especially for fans of absurdist British humor. (S. Axmaker)
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Heroes: Season 4  Universal, 812 min., not rated, DVD: 5 discs, $59.8, Blu-ray: 4 discs, $79.98 
This superhero adventure hit came to an abrupt end after its 2009–10 fourth and final season, which brought in a dark carnival and a vengeful ringmaster named Samuel (Robert Knepper), who recruited and collected super-powered folks for his own ends. Various other narrative threads—the invulnerable Claire (Hayden Panettiere) goes to college (where she finds a girlfriend), space-time manipulator Hiro (Masi Oka) tries to fix past mistakes (at a detriment to his own health), and villainous Sylar (Zachary Quinto) takes on a whole new identity with the help of mental surgery—offer up a bunch of twists without adhering to any cohesive plot. All in all, Heroes: Season 4 is a serviceable conclusion to a cult show that failed to find stories as interesting as its core concepts and visual style, but fans will want to follow the journey to its end, even if that finale is a “to be continued” cliffhanger. Creator Tim Kring (in a bonus introduction) promises that the effort will continue in some form, perhaps through the comic books and graphic novels that inspired the show in the first place. Compiling all 18 episodes, Blu-ray/DVD extras include episode cast and crew commentaries, interviews, deleted scenes, and a “Genetics of a Scene” collection of behind-the-scenes featurettes on key scenes. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a picture-in-picture “Behind the Big Top Tour” mode. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)
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The Only Son / There Was a Father: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu  Criterion, 2 discs, 170 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $39.95 
The great auteur Yasujiro Ozu is often described as the most “Japanese” of Japanese directors due to his restrained style, quietly contemplative tone, and focus on conservative ideals and mores. This double-disc set brings together Ozu’s first sound feature, The Only Son (1936), and There Was a Father (1942), one of his undisputed masterpieces. Both are dramas about duty and sacrifice—stories of widowed parents and only children—but with distinctively different contexts. The Only Son is a mother-son tale set during pre-WWII economic hard times, when the only shame greater than professional failure was falling short of parental expectations. There Was a Father, made when Japan entered World War II, is a father-son story in which the notion of individual happiness is subjugated to a larger duty to country. Presented with graceful formality and a bittersweet inevitability, these films exploring the collision of traditional culture and modernity are important works of Japanese cinema, offering distinctive portraits of 20th-century life. DVD extras include new video interviews with film historians David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, and Tadao Sato, along with booklets featuring essays. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)
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Sesame Street: 20 Years …and Still Counting Lionsgate, 48 min., not rated, DVD: $14.98 
Sesame Street, the acclaimed and beloved educational series built around “the most famous street in America, maybe even the world” (in the words of educator and entertainer Bill Cosby), celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1989 with this TV special originally broadcast on network TV. Introduced by Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog and hosted by Cosby, this lively tribute interweaves interviews (the cast talk about their characters in a roundtable discussion), songs, new skits, and classic clips (including the one addressing the death of Mr. Hooper). Also featured are return visits from grown kids who had roles in early segments, as well as appearances by Placido Domingo (in a duet with his Muppet alter-ego Placido Flamingo) and Ray Charles (performing “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” the show’s signature tune telling kids that it’s OK to be different). While many viewers will enjoy this nostalgic trip down memory lane with the Muppets—including Big Bird, Grover, Bert and Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch—there’s significant overlap here with the better and more comprehensive two-disc compilation released last year, Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days (VL Online-12/09). Optional. (S. Axmaker)
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White Collar: The Complete First Season Fox, 617 min., not rated, DVD: 4 discs, $59.98, Blu-ray: 3 discs, $69.99 
The USA cable network follows its successful formula of personable stars, likable characters, and witty byplay in White Collar, which partners an FBI unit (specializing in fraud, art theft, and high-stakes robbery) with a professional thief who uses confidence games and elaborate heists to help stop crime. Matt Bomer stars as Neal Caffrey, a charming master crook who specializes in black market art objects and historical treasures, with Tim DeKay costarring as FBI agent Peter Burke, the only man to ever catch the slippery con artist (twice) and now his boss. While hardly must-see-TV, the mostly light and breezy White Collar is a sleek-looking series with a dark conspiracy running under the surface (a story arc that connects the otherwise standalone chapters). Former bad boy Caffrey discovers that it’s fun to use his criminal expertise to aid the good guys, and the oil-and-water partnership coupled with a colorful cast of supporting characters—including Tiffani Thiessen, James Rebhorn, Diahann Carroll, and particularly Willie Garson as Caffrey’s old accomplice in crime and now reluctant partner in lawfulness—forms the main attraction. Compiling all 14 episodes from the 2009–10 first season, bonus features include episode commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)
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The 14 Amazons Funimation, 117 min., in Mandarin w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $19.99 
One of the more bizarre wuxia epics brought forth by the Shaw Brothers funhouse was this long-unavailable 1972 production, in which the eponymous heroines are led by the revenge-seeking widow of a Chinese general who was killed along with his seven sons during a war of attrition with neighboring Mongols. The women prove to be the equals of their invading foes; in fact, The 14 Amazons is packed with an extraordinary level of male-versus-female combat involving swords, spears, and martial arts. The crowning sequence—surely the subject of endless rewinds and repeated viewing for the unbelieving—involves the titular avengers literally creating a human bridge to span a chasm. The combination of Lisa Lu’s aggressive charisma playing the fighting force’s leader, the luxurious production design and elaborate costumes, and the exhilarating fight choreography—with director Kang Cheng and co-director Shao-yung Tung delivering a mix of grand battles and intensive one-on-one duels—make this one of the most invigorating and imaginative works in the genre from the ‘70s. The subtitled version here is preferable to the also included English dub, which only adds unintentional humor to the proceedings. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)
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Brewster McCloud Warner, 101 min., not rated, DVD: $24.95 (avail. from www.warnerarchive.com) 
Robert Altman’s follow-up to M*A*S*H is a carnivalesque comedy starring Bud Cort as a modern-day Icarus, a young man obsessed with flight who is constructing a set of wings in his secret basement hideaway in the catacombs of the Houston Astrodome. Sally Kellerman costars as Louise, his fallen angel of a mentor who watches over the boyish innocent with fatal ferocity. In fact, anyone who threatens Brewster winds up dead (and covered in bird droppings), which brings in Michael Murphy as Detective Lt. Frank Shaft, a hipster of a San Francisco super-cop investigating the rash of killings. Long on gallows whimsy and cartoonish figures, but short on narrative coherence and character development, Brewster McCloud is not one of Altman’s best films, but even minor Altman is filled with delights, from eccentric performances and offbeat details to inventive editing and intercutting. The fine ensemble cast also includes William Windom, Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz, which Altman references with a pair of ruby slippers), Stacy Keach, and future Altman regulars Rene Auberjonois (who transforms into a bird over the course of the film), John Schuck, and Shelley Duvall. Brewster McCloud debuts on the Warner Archive line of manufactured-on-demand DVD-R releases, mastered from what appears to be an archival print with minor wear. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)
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Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill Acorn, 2 discs, 361 min., not rated, DVD: $49.99 
When this Thames Television seven-part miniseries was first broadcast on PBS in 1975, it garnered extravagant praise, especially for Lee Remick’s commanding turn as Jennie Jerome, the American-born mother of Winston Churchill (played as an adult by Warren Clarke), but also for its literate script and solid production values (with location filming at Blenheim Palace and other family homes). Today, Jennie seems stage-bound—the performances have the feel of actors playing to the second balcony—while the dialogue (particularly on political matters) sometimes sounds stilted. These caveats apply to some extent to Remick and Clarke (although one has to appreciate the latter’s gift for mimicry), but especially to Ronald Pickup, who plays Winston’s father, Lord Randolph, during the first four episodes (Pickup is so over the top that the character sometimes appears to be positively unbalanced). But there’s still much to enjoy in this upper-class soap opera about the flamboyant woman who was instrumental in building the foundation of what her son later termed the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States. The strong supporting cast includes Jeremy Brett as Count Kinsky, Jennie’s great love. DVD extras include text bios, filmographies, and historical notes. Despite the dated technical quality, this engaging artifact of a simpler era in television history is recommended, overall. (F. Swietek)
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Survivors: Complete Seasons One and Two BBC, 5 discs, 733 min., not rated, DVD: $59.98 
A contemporary remake inspired by the identically-titled mid-1970s BBC cult show that imagined the survivors of a worldwide lethal virus pandemic trying to rebuild a society out of the ruins, this series focuses less on the reconstruction and more on the dangers of the lawless frontier, where the remaining population divides into functional tribes. British TV stars Julie Graham, Max Beesley, Paterson Joseph, and Zoe Tapper are among the central handful of strangers who can’t quite trust each other but band together to overcome a variety of threats, including feral gangs that prey on the weak, and ruthless proto-societies that enslave outsiders. Amid this nightmarish culture of power struggles and roving predators, Survivors adds an additional element: a conspiracy involving an underground shadow government, in which political and corporate interests combine to search for a vaccine, sacrificing anyone and everyone for the cause. An apocalyptic action soap opera with a volatile group of characters (Beesley plays a convicted killer whose loyalties are always in question), this short-lived series (2008-2010) is not terribly deep, but it’s reasonably addictive, and it uses the best special effect of all to set the atmosphere: urban locations that are eerily bereft of human activity during the bright light of day. Compiling all 12 episodes, DVD extras include a “making-of” featurette, a look at the special effects, and character profiles. A strong optional purchase. [Note: Survivors: The Complete Original Series is also available for $79.98.] (S. Axmaker)
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The Virginian: The Complete First Season Timeless, 10 discs, 2,370 min., not rated, DVD: $79.98 
Loosely based on Owen Wister’s oft-filmed 1902 novel (the 1929 movie helped launch Gary Cooper’s career), this anthology-style series set in the Wyoming Territory of the 1890s was TV’s first 90-minute western. The lengthy episodes gave writers the opportunity to craft ambitious dramas, and the show ran for nine successful seasons between 1962-1971. James Drury plays the eponymous unnamed Virginian—the very capable foreman of the Shiloh Ranch—a man with a vague past but also an unflinching loyalty to his friends. Doug McClure costars as Trampas, an impulsive, fun-loving younger cowpoke who looks up to his boss. Hollywood veteran Lee J. Cobb gets top billing as Shiloh’s owner Henry Garth, who is also a local judge determined to see civilization come to the frontier, while Gary Clarke plays ranch hand Steve Hill and Pippa Scott fills a recurring role as Molly Wood, editor and publisher of the local paper. Hugh O’Brian (famous as TV’s Wyatt Earp) delivers a dazzling guest performance in the pilot as a charming drifter with a sinister undercurrent, while Sam Fuller writes and directs the stand-out episode “It Tolls for Thee,” with Lee Marvin as a ruthless gang leader. One of the better westerns of its day, The Virginian delivers solid stories and features excellent guest stars, with first season familiars including George C. Scott, Bette Davis, Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert, and Ida Lupino. Compiling all 30 episodes from the 1962–63 first season, DVD extras include nearly two hours of video interviews with cast members. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
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