How to Spend $20
By Les Winan
May 31, 2005
Taking a look ahead at the week's DVD releases is always dicey for your wallet. Nearly every week, there's a disc that would fit nicely into any size collection. When it comes time to decide what to buy, there are really two determining factors: how much you love the content and the quality of the extra features on the disc. The massive unreleased studio (film and television) back-catalogue means that every week there's likely something for you.
For workplace chemists everywhere: Moonlighting: Seasons One and Two (6-DVD Set) (1985)
While the long-lasting legacy of Moonlighting may be the inevitable warning that if two characters on television show who have strong chemistry and a love/hate relationship that provides the catalyst for much of the plot and storylines of the series get together, the show runs the risk of having the ‘Moonlighting problem’. The ‘Moonlighting problem’ refers to the sapping of all spark and quality from the show when the two aforementioned characters get together. It’s a bit like the whole jump the shark theory, just not with such a memorable name and not having, you know, jumped the shark as a theory the way jump the shark did.
Moonlighting was a show about a private investigator (Bruce Willis) who asked a model (Cybill Shepard, before her Kathleen Turner-like decline) to join his firm after they solved a case together. Starting from that believable premise (it was the '80s), the show became, in the words of one of the included featurettes, a ‘phenomenon’. Given that I was about eight when the show debuted and I remember the press about it, I suppose that’s actually true. What’s particularly intriguing about Moonlighting to me is the way it made an absolute star out of Bruce Willis and now, even 20 years later he looks about the same while Cybill Shepard looks consistently more frightening as the years have worn her down. It’s almost like she and Kathleen Turner (who was hot before the decline that lead to her playing a man in drag on Friends) signed the same 1984-era deal with the devil.
Included on this six disc set are a number of featurettes on the beginnings of the show and the aforementioned ‘phenomenon’ it became; deleted scenes; a gag reel; and audio commentaries on select episodes with creator Glenn Gordon Caron, Shepherd and Willis. It’s a nice set that will satisfy fans of the show that have been waiting since the ‘phenomenon’ started to have their own digital copies of the first two seasons.
For the last time it was normal for Lindsay Lohan to weigh 90 pounds: The Parent Trap (Special Edition) (1999)
My understanding of the weight loss spree Lindsay Lohan is currently on is that, in preparation for the release of The Parent Trap: Special Edition, she saw footage of her 11-year-old self and decided that 90 pounds was her ideal weight. I can only imagine that for anyone watching this version of The Parent Trap with the knowledge of Lohan’s future we now have, a considerable amount of the charm would disappear. It’s a bit like watching the original Bad News Bears knowing that Tatum O’Neal would end up a drugged out loon with no career. Adds an interesting subtext.
In any case, the first phase of Lohan’s career began with this re-make of the classic Disney original (which had starred Hayley Mills). The film, as with the original, is about twins who meet for the first time at summer camp, having each lived with one parent growing up and not knowing about the other. They switch places and try to get their parents back together. To Lohan’s 11-year-old credit, telling the difference between the two twins apparently meant her performing one role with an English accent and the other without.
What’s most disappointing about this release is the extra features. Not that there aren’t enough, but rather that there’s no Lohan on the commentary track. Included on the audio commentary are director and screenwriter Nancy Meyers and producer and screenwriter Charles Shyer. It’s a shame that they don’t have Lohan involved, just to hear her reaction upon seeing herself on film at age 11. ‘Oh my god! I was so skinny!’ Add to that the inevitable sound of her purging after the first act and it would have been a classic commentary. Consider the deep, scratchy voice she has and the rate her looks are going down the tubes, and it’s safe to say that she’s on the road to being the Kathleen Turner of the new millennium. Other included features are a deleted scene and several featurettes.
For making every man want a Mustang: Bullitt (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1968)
Steve McQueen was a movie star. He was a tough guy, an action star and an actor. Most importantly, when he did headline making things, he did them without freaking everybody out. Bullitt, McQueen’s signature film, doesn’t have a particularly innovative story (a cop must protect a witness to a Mob trial, someone tries to kill said witness, cop races time to find the attempted murderer), but it’s a legendary film all the same. Credit the intensity of McQueen, the gritty production, the Mustang, and the fantastic car chase for making the movie what it is. McQueen died of cancer in 1980, but watching him now, it’s interesting to think what his career might have been if he were still working now at age 75. Finally receiving the DVD package it deserves, Bullitt includes an audio commentary with director Peter Yates; 2 new feature-length documentaries: a featurette from 1968 and other assorted minor features.
For understanding a legend: East of Eden (Special Edition) (1955); Rebel Without a Cause (Special Edition) (1955)
There is no real modern allegory to the life of James Dean that doesn’t involve rock stars. No actor in the last 50 years has risen so fast (only three starring roles), died so young, and maintained (if not increased) his popularity as the years pass. With the release last year of Giant, his final role, on DVD, the release of East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause literally completes the James Dean film collection (unless you really want uncredited extra roles in four other films).
While Giant was his final film, it was Rebel Without a Cause that made him a true star. Starring as the new guy in town, Dean’s Jim Stark makes friends and enemies and revels in 1950s small town tough guy things like chicken races in cars and assorted trouble making. Also starring Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Dennis Hopper and Jim ‘Thurston Howell III’ Backus, Rebel Without a Cause is a film about violence and alienation among youth and created a character archetype that is still used in television and movies today. East of Eden, adapted from the classic John Steinbeck novel, was directed by Elia Kazan and featured Dean as a man searching for his mother, competing for the love of his father and trying to find his place in the world.
Both films boast impressive amounts of extra features and are the collective DVD Picks of the Week. East of Eden features the remastered film and an audio commentary with film historian Richard Schickel; a 50th Anniversary documentary; a vintage documentary; additional scenes; screen wardrobe, costume and production design tests; and footage from the original 1955 premiere. Rebel Without a Cause features include an audio commentary with the author of The Making of Rebel Without a Cause Douglas Rathgeb; a 50th Anniversary; a vintage documentary; additional scenes; Dean's Famous Drive Safely Commercial TV Spot and two other original 1955 television segments; and screen and wardrobe tests.
May 31, 2005
Another Lonely Hitman (1995)
Battlefield Baseball (2003)
Bedtime for Bonzo (1951)
Boogeyman (2005)
Bullitt (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1968)
Chronicle of the Raven (2004)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
The County General (2005)
Dad (1989)
Dead Easy (2004)
Devour (2005)
Diamond Head (1962)
The Dukes of Hazzard: The Complete Third Season (4-DVD Set) (1980)
East of Eden (Special Edition) (1955)
Fascination (2004)
The Four Seasons (1981)
The Front Page (1974)
The Getaway (Deluxe Edition) (1972)
Harper Valley P.T.A. (1978)
House Calls (1978)
I'll Bury You Tomorrow (2002)
Jules and Jim (Criterion Edition) (1962)
London Voodoo (2004)
Make Your Own Damn Movie! (5-DVD Set) (2005)
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
Moonlighting: Seasons One and Two (6-DVD Set) (1985)
My Brilliant Career (1979)
Never So Few (1959)
Over the Top (1986)
The Parent Trap (Special Edition) (1999)
The Pentagon Wars (1998)
Rebel Without a Cause (Special Edition) (1955)
Saints and Soldiers (2004)
Snow Walker (2003)
St. Ives (1976)
Submerged (2005)
Swimming Upstream (2003)
Tying the Knot (2004)
Viva Knievel (1977)
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