A DVD can be a double-edged sword, and trust me, you’re not the only ones with some not-so-choice choices collecting mildew in your closets. But we offer help by way of an answer to the decade-old conundrum, “How many times are you really gonna watch that?”
This week’s releases
The Longest Yard
A shtick-y remake of the 1974 football dramedy, which finds Adam Sandler stepping in for Burt Reynolds‘ quarterback to lead his fellow misfit-inmates against a team comprised of the prison’s sadistic guards.
Total box office: $157.8 million
Extras! A few interesting featurettes but over all, not all that spectacular. This could mean a spruced-up, pricier edition might come out, targeted for when sales start to decline. There is the music video for “Errtime,” a song by one of the film’s stars, hip-hopper Nelly. But there isn’t a tactful way to follow that up, so we’ll leave it be.
When it was relevant: Sandler wasn’t a tough sell as an athlete–apparently, he’s not a tough sell for any role. The $157 million it mustered up is about what we’ve come to expect from Sandler these days, which would help explain studios’ willingness to fork over the more than $20 million-per-movie he now commands. I mean, this guy could talk gibberish in his movies, and they’d still shoot straight to the top. Oh, yeah, he already does that–and they do.
Worthy DVD purchase? Kinda a tough call. The film is mindless fun, something you keep on in the background while you’re doing something else, much the same way you could keep an actual sporting event on in the background. But it doesn’t have very interesting extras and, quite frankly, it’s Sandler. His movies will chop your IQ right in half, with no remorse.
All things considered: C+
Mindhunters
Not unlike a kind of Survivor for FBI wannabes, a team of profilers are taken to a deserted island, specially designed to hone their skills and make them the best that they can be. At least they think the island is deserted [insert mock-sinister laugh here].
Total box office: $4.4 million
Extras! There’s an fascinating bit on the stunt work, which is noteworthy because the stuntmen-women–are of much greater value to Mindhunters than the actors are. There’s also a featurette on the “deserted island” in the film, which is cool since the island seemed quite vast and elaborate to create. But there’s one major problem here–you have to have enough interest in Mindhunters to reap the extras’ benefits.
When it was relevant: This movie is still yet to find its importance. It wasn’t relevant enough to be released in 2004, when it was completed, and it sure wasn’t relevant upon its release from studio prison earlier this year. The whole film was cloaked in ambiguity, and what was supposed to be Christian Slater‘s comeback parade turned out to be nothing more than a cameo–which, based on his brief performance, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Mindhunters looked like a B-movie aiming for a better grade.
Worthy DVD purchase? Mindhunters is so bad its almost watchable–like a train wreck. Maybe if you’ve already swallowed the bottle of sleeping pills and you’re merely waiting for the end to come, you’d might want to own this movie and play it. Other than that, give it a BIG miss.
All things considered: D-
Inside Deep Throat
More graphic than a documentary would be on the man who recently came out of the Watergate closet, yet less explicit than the original Deep Throat, this documentary goes behind the story of the most famous porn flick of all time.
Total box office: $653,621
Extras! A pornucopia (oh come on, to good to pass up) of extras from which to choose, and many of them have titles as provocative as the topic itself. So we’ll just stick to the descriptions here: [bleep]; and then there’s [bleep]; don’t forget [bleep]. Ah, at last, one we can mention–a remembrance of Linda Lovelace, the beleaguered star of the seminal (no pun intended) porn. You get the point. Nothing you’ll see on Nickelodeon, that’s for sure–not even Nick at Nite.
When it was relevant: Inside Deep Throat gained momentum after its buzz at Sundance. But there still wasn’t all that much interest in the documentary–at least not from those who were actually old enough to legally get into the theater. Nowadays, though, the sex scenes included in the docu provide no shock value, and the expose just isn’t that interesting.
Worthy DVD purchase? In all seriousness, it’s difficult to say. There are some interesting and genuinely sad themes in this documentary that make it pertinent. But in the end, it’s more of a rental than anything else. After all, there isn’t much replay value with most documentaries, let alone one that’s half-doc, half-porn clips. On second thought, it may provide replay value to some for that reason.
All things considered: C+
TV on DVD
Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season
Extras!: Enough goodies to make a gal’s heart flutter. With everything from commentary from the show’s five Housewives and its creator to the Oprah Winfrey special that previously aired on her show, any girl will light up as if she were opening a gift bag from some prestigious awards show. Plus there’s bloopers and a behind-the-scenes peek at the costume design for the show, too.
Comments: Housewives, despair no longer. Your eponymous TV show’s is available on DVD today, just days before its second season premieres. This doesn’t give you much time to rehash, but we have faith in your Desperate Housewives ingenuity. It’s one of the biggest TV show in the world, and if you happen to consider yourself one of its legions of fans, it’s impossible to go wrong here. It makes a great gift and perhaps a mother-daughter bonding device.
All things considered For those who watch the show: A+. For males: F.
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home
Extras!: In addition to several rare live performances that won’t be seen on the TV broadcast of No Direction Home–including “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Like a Rolling Stone”–there are features such as Dylan working in his hotel room to hammer out a song. It would have been enough to have rare early footage of Bobby D’s early concerts, but there are a few other features. More is always better.
Comments: With the release of No Direction Home on DVD, you have the chance to own a copy about a week before it airs on PBS (Sept. 26-27), with a few of the aforementioned DVD-exclusive extras. But whichever your preferred format, make sure to watch it. It’s a must-see. Footage and interviews of Bob Dylan are like uncovering a much-sought-after artifact. The Martin Scorsese-directed documentary takes us back to before Dylan was a demigod–when he was Robert Zimmerman, merely a disillusioned Minnesotan. But, of course, he was never merely anything, as we’ve come to understand, and Scorsese covers his first six years as a musician. Dylan has reinvented himself and music so many times, and as explored in No Direction Home, it’s a revelation.
All things considered: A
Re-releases
Mallrats (10th Anniversary Extended Edition)
Extras!: After flopping with Jersey Girl as well as publicly fawning all over Ben Affleck, director Kevin Smith has, for the time being, been relegated to re-releasing his early films as “special” or “anniversary” DVDs in order to put food on the table. Take Mallrats, for example. With its 10th-anniversary DVD special, there are naturally a lot of extras. One to note is the cast reunion Q&A segment and the feature commentary, in which the “Jay” of Jay and Silent Bob, Jason Mewes, takes time out to reminisce on the days he was a cult icon. Aside from that, the extras are surprisingly run-of-the-mill for the grand “anniversary” edition. Still, it’s fascinating to look back on that film with its stars and writer-director to see just how far they are from one another and how far they’ve come–at least most of them.
Comments: As Smith‘s sophomoric follow-up to the hugely successful Clerks, the 1995 Mallrats bombed at the box office. But it proved to have a cult following, allowing Smith to write and direct his hit Chasing Amy two years later–as the proverbial “last chance”–on a fraction of his Mallrats budget. Aside from Mewes, Mallrats also starred Smith favorites Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams, all of whom went on to star, to rave reviews, in Chasing Amy–and got careers because of it.
All things considered: A-
