New on DVD: Jan. 27

New DVD’s This Week: Jan. 27

From a first-time director and two teenage actresses comes a raw and revealing insight into urban adolescence in 2003, a provocative portrait of what teens today are thinking, doing, feeling and going through. Winner of the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival, Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen is a unique project co-written with then-13-year-old Nikki Reed who lived many of the events seen on screen. Together, they forged a fast and furious, unblinking picture of the cliques and clashes, hidden dangers and secret rituals, dashed hopes and unrelenting dreams of two American girls looking to make their way in a new world for which few maps exist.

What’s
Cool:

Full-length audio commentary by Catherine Hardwicke, Nikki Reed, Evan Rachel Wood and Brady Corbet
10 deleted scenes with optional commentary
Making-of featurette
Theatrical trailer

	From Our Review:
	A fast-paced film about a 13-year-old girl gone wild, Thirteen packs a walloping punch with Oscar-caliber performances. More. . .

Radio

For anyone who ever had a dream and everyone with the courage to stand up for what they believe, comes the real life story of Robert “Radio” Kennedy. Experience Radio’s journey from a man no one understands to the coach no one could live without. Together with head coach Harold Jones, the mentally challenged Radio inspired a high school football team to become champions and a town to open their hearts. Heroic performances from Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and Academy Award nominee Ed Harris will have you laughing, crying and cheering for the man who proved the world’s greatest victories happen in real life.

What’s
Cool:

Director’s commentary
Six deleted scenes
Making-of featurettes
DVD ROM: Sports Illustrated article
Bonus Trailers
Widescreen Presentation
Audio: English 5.1, French 5.1
Subtitles: English, French

	From Our Review:
	Feel-good themes and fine performances from Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Ed Harris make Radio a great pre-holiday film. More…

Capturing the Friedmans

The Friedmans seem at first to be a typical family. Arnold Friedman is an award-winning schoolteacher, his wife Elaine, a homemaker. Together, they raise their three boys in the affluent Long Island town of Great Neck. One Thanksgiving, the family is gathered at home preparing for a quiet holiday dinner. In an instant, a police battering ram splinters the front door and officers rush into the house searching every corner, seizing boxes of the family’s possessions. Arnold and his 18-year old son Jesse are both arrested, and subsequently indicted for hundreds of shocking crimes. The film follows their story – from the public’s perspective and, most remarkably, through unique footage of the family in crisis, shot contemporaneously by family members inside the Friedman house.

What’s Cool:

Filmmaker audio commentary
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles (English, French, Spanish)
Unseen home movies from inside the Friedman house
New witnesses & evidence
An altercation at the film’s New York premiere

House of the Dead

In House of the Dead, a chilling film from director Uwe Boll, a band of ill-fated college coeds visit the mysterious Isla del Muerte that centuries before had been home to a priest banished from Spain for creating a death-cheating serum. To their horror, the students discover the priest is still alive and using the living to harvest body parts to sustain himself. Now trapped on the island taken over by blood-feasting zombies, the students seek refuge in a mysterious, ancient house and must use every weapon at their disposal to survive the night.

What’s Cool:

Deleted scenes
Making-of featurette
Audio commentary
Trailer gallery

Compiled by Anne Reiman

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