New on DVD: Mar. 2 (2004/03/03)- Tickets to Movies in Theaters, Broadway Shows, London Theatre & More

New DVD’s This Week: March 2

Dewey Finn (Jack Black) is a hell-raising guitarist with delusions of grandeur. Kicked out of his band and desperate for work, Dewey impersonates a substitute teacher and turns a class of fifth grade high-achievers into high-voltage rock and rollers. The private school’s uptight and skeptical head, Principal Mullins (Joan Cusack), watches on as the new sub preps the kids for Battle of the Bands.

What’s
Cool:

Commentary by director Richard Linklater and star Jack Black and the School of Rock kids
Featurettes: “Lessons Learned in School of Rock,” “Jack Black’s Pitch to Led Zeppelin,” “Dewey Finn’s History of Rock”
Music Video: School of Rock
Kids’ Video Diary: Toronto Film Festival

	From Our Review:
	School of Rock is rated PG-13 for rude humor and drug references, but both are rather mild and inoffensive. Director Richard Linklater delivers a family film that is hilarious, honest and inherently good-natured that will appeal to moviegoers of all ages. More. . .

Good Boy!

Owen Baker is the neighborhood dog-walker waiting to get a dog of his own. His hard work pays off when he adopts a scruffy mutt, Hubble. Both boy and dog get more than they bargained for when Owen wakes up one morning to discover he can understand every word Hubble says and learns that dogs came to Earth thousands of years ago from the Dog Star Sirius to colonize and dominate the planet but eventually became pets instead. Now the Greater Dane is coming to see the domination herself and if she’s displeased, she will send all the dogs back to Sirius. The fate of Earth dogs hangs in the balance, and it’s up to Owen, Hubble, and their canine companions to save man’s best friend.

What’s Cool:

”Canine-tary” by director John Hoffman and cast members
“Crafty Canines” featurette
“Dog Walking Duty” interactive map
“The Dog Pound”: deleted and alternate scenes
Good Boy! scrapbook
“A Dog-umentary: The Making of Good Boy!”
Pooch Profiles
Q&A with Hubble

	From Our Review:
	Perhaps Good Boy! is not meant to be analyzed, but a film targeted at children should at least have some insight into the spirit of human nature or some sort of lesson. Instead, it’s just a silly little dog tale. More. . .

Cold Creek Manor

Gothamites Cooper Tilson (Dennis Quaid) and his wife, Leah (Sharon Stone), pack up their kids and all their possessions, and move into a recently repossessed mansion in the New York State back woods. Once a grand and elegant manor, the house at Cold Creek is now in shambles, but Cooper and Leah have unlimited time to show the house the tender loving care that it desperately needs. All’s well until Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff), the mansion’s former owner, gets out of prison, looking to reclaim his home by any means necessary.

What’s
Cool:

Commentary by director Mike Figgis
Featurettes: “Cooper’s Documentary” and “Rules of the Genre”
Bonus alternate ending
Deleted scenes

	From Our Review:
	Cold Creek Manor is one of those cases of the trailer making it look a whole lot scarier than it actually is. More…

Looney Tunes: Back in Action

After being released from his contract, Daffy Duck is escorted off the Warner Bros. studio lot by security guard/aspiring stuntman DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser)–but Bugs knows the Warner Brothers are nothing without his famed sidekick and convinces studio exec Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman) to get him hired back. Soon, all four find themselves on an adventure to retrieve the mysterious and powerful Blue Monkey Diamond before the nefarious Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin) of the equally nefarious Acme Corporation can use it to destroy the world.

What’s Cool:

“Bang Crash Boom” and “Behind The Tunes” documentaries
“Whizzard of Ow” short
Alternate endings

	From Our Review:
	It’s James Bond! It’s Indiana Jones! It’s Ocean’s Eleven! It’s too much. Looney Tunes: Back in Action misses out on a brilliant opportunity to tell a simple story about a rabbit vs. a duck. More…

Duplex

In terms of living the American Dream, Alex (Ben Stiller) and Nancy (Drew Barrymore) are a young, vibrant couple in New York City with bright futures ahead of them and the desire for one thing: a home of their own. When they find one, it comes with one feature they didn’t expect–an upstairs tenant, Mrs. Connelly (Eileen Essell), who can’t be kicked out of her rent-controlled apartment, and who isn’t quite as easygoing or frail as Alex and Nancy assume. As their blissful life begins to unravel and their dream home rapidly turns into a nightmare, they decide that they must get Mrs. Connelly out of their lives.

What’s Cool:

Behind-the-scenes featurette
Deleted scenes

	From Our Review:
	With the triple threat of Stiller, Barrymore and director Danny DeVito, along with a great turn by Essell as the evil elderly woman, the generally hilarious, definitely disreputable Duplex should make its mark as one of the better blacker comedies out there More…

Still Hot

The Missing

Set in 1886 New Mexico, Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett) is a young woman who is raising her two daughters in an isolated and lawless wilderness. When her oldest daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a brutal cult of desperados, Maggie is forced to reunite with her long-estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones) to rescue her. They find themselves in a race against time to catch up with the ruthless renegades before they cross the Mexican border and disappear forever.

What’s Cool:

Commentary by director Ron Howard
11 behind-the-scenes featurettes
3 short films by Ron Howard
3 alternate endings
11 deleted scenes

	From Our Review:
	Ron Howard’s The Missing is an intense and character-driven Western that evenly blends mystery, action, suspense and the supernatural to buck the clichés normally associated with that genre. More. . .

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

Underage agents Juni (Daryl Sabara) and Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) are at it again in this third Spy Kids installment. In their most mind-blowing mission yet, they have to journey inside the 3-D world of a video game designed to outsmart them in order to save the world from a power-hungry villain (Sylvester Stallone). A brave Juni and Carmen rely on their family, their cool gadgets, their lightning-quick reflexes and, of course, a fair amount of humor to battle through tougher and tougher levels of the game.

What’s Cool:

Commentary by director/writer Robert Rodriguez
Featurettes: “A Behind-the-Scenes Vignette”; “The Making of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over”; “Robert Rodriguez’s Film School”; “Spy Kids 3-D From Concept To Screen”
Alexa Vega in concert; making “Traks” with Alexa Vega
Mega Race Set-Top Game (3-D And 2-D Versions)
DVD collector’s set includes the 3-D glasses

	From Our Review:
	Although the Spy Kids franchise may be getting a little old, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over is definitely an improvement from Spy Kids 2 and should thrill audiences–just as long as their 3-D glasses work properly. More…

Compiled by Anne Reiman

- Advertisement -