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We’re here to keep you informed on hot choices for renting or buying new DVD releases. Released this week: Failure to Launch, Imagine Me & You, Madea’s Family Reunion, Cache (Hidden), Annapolis, Untraviolet (Unrated, Extended Cut),  Ren & Stimpy ‘Adult Party Cartoon, Beavis & Butt-head (Volume 2), Broken Saints, Strangers With Candy (Complete Series), Blue Collar Comedy Tour-One For The Road and, finally, Yellowbeard.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Failure to Launch – Failure to Launch is yet another regurgitated romantic comedy where people are put together and kept apart through elaborate and contrived circumstances that could only happen in a film.  You’ve seen (and if you are like me hated) this exact film many times before. Get the rest of Alan’s opinion on Failure to Launch.

Imagine Me & You – Imagine Me & You is a hopeless romantic comedy about love at first sight between two women.  The problem?  One is getting married to her fiancé at that very moment.  Not a great film and it certainly has more than a few rough edges yet the performances and charm of the picture make it worth checking out; though despite my puntiffic title the movie itself is rather tame given the subject matter.  Piper Perabo, Lena Headey, Matthew Goode, and Anthony Head star. Get the rest of Alan’s opinion on Imagine Me & You.

Madea’s Family Reunion – Director Tyler Perry, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, gives us another gun-totting grandma moment. Not quite as humorous as his plays and his latest piece, but does have a few moments. Here it is with 2 relationship troubled nieces and an unruly wild and uncontrollable foster teen living under the same roof, what is Madea to do? A mix of humor and serious situations, just like life.

Annapolis – How tough can it be to go through Naval basic training? Pretty damn tough if you ask Jake (James Franco), the lead in Annapolis, he gets dealt a tough hand cause he’s just that good and he’s from the wrong side of the tracks. Ssshhhhh, don’t tell, but it’s actually a boxing film, I think. Cole (Tyrese Gibson) plays the training officer that does everything in his power to make Jake quit, cause he sees a little of himself in Jake and thinks he can do better. The two box it out in the ring during the annual boxing competition.

Special Edition or Series Release:

Ultraviolet (Unrated, Extended Cut) – Why? I’m not sure why they created an extended cut, of a film that didn’t deserve the original cut. I must admit it was better than Aeon Flux and it had an interesting idea with the whole vampire hemophagia thing. Ultraviolet is protecting a 9-year-old boy who could be a threat to humans, but finds out to be the cure to their own disease. There is some pretty awesome affects and butt kicking action if you’re looking for a brainless bullet and beat’em up flick. Don’t get too excited the extended edition is a whole extra 7 minutes.

Animation: Better Late Than Never:

Ren & Stimpy ‘Adult Party Cartoon – Here is a collection, “The Lost Episodes” of Ren & Stimpy, but really, they are just the newest of a failed attempt to make us laugh. There isn’t anything like the old Ren & Stimpy, nothing compares, no matter how hard big time execs try to make up for canning the brilliant creative team that created this crazy duo.

Beavis & Butt-head – The Mike Judge Collection, Vol .2 (Released ???) – “40 cartoons hand-picked by Mike Judge”, what makes him an expert? What is this, wrong week? Beavis and Butt-head, Ren and Stimpy Adult Party, Yellowbeard, Strangers with Candy and Ultraviolet a special edition? It’s Bevis & Butt-head folks, what else is there to say, either you like them or you don’t. Then again, how could you pass on owning a DVD with titles such as, “Premature Evacuation”, “TP” and “Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest”. Fire! Fire!

Broken Saints – Company Line from their site: Broken Saints is a 24-chapter serial graphic novel that was launched on January 17 2001, new installments were posted every few weeks. Games, art, story and hidden secrets, the whole thing was online. Storyteller Brook Burgess worked with Ian Kirby and Andrew West to prove that something really outstanding, compelling and cool could be found online and that was their story of 4 warriors and there challenge against the Darkness through love, loss and sacrifice. Here is a concept from finish to not quite end, almost completely independent coming to you first ever on DVD. The creators will and have followed through with story, animated series, live-action television, graphic novel (print), interactive entertainment and toys/collectibles. Visit a Broken Saints for details.

TV:

Strangers with Candy – The Complete Series – Jerri Blank, a 46 year old “boozer, user and loser” tries to go back to school and be cool. There is everything wrong with this series, it’s just that damn funny. Jerri learned nothing from her past years as an addict, tramp, alcoholic and all around no common sense gal; to top it off, she tries to return to high school and fit in with a crowd more than a third of her age. Really, you can’t help, but laugh your butt off with this collection and all it’s very wrong lessons in life. There are deleted scenes on this collection, joy for us!

Blue Collar Comedy Tour – One for the Road– With each previous comedy tour, Blue Collar progressively got worse. The first one was a riot, the second was a tickle and this one blows. One for the Road, more like a case of Wild Turkey, so you can pretend to laugh. Of course, yes, there are a few moments that you can giggle at, but for the most part, there isn’t enough to add up to anything substantial. How many times can you hear the same “red neck” joke told over and over again, in different forms?

Finally:

Yellowbeard Yes, they have finally done it, Yellowbeard, freaking awesome. What the hell took them so long, a laugh out loud riot from 1983, with a mix of adventure, pirates, silly humor, Cheech and Chong, add a dash of Mel Brooks (no he didn’t create it, but just add the dash) and certainly a bit of Monty Python; you can’t help, but laugh. It’s completely silly and nonsensical. You would never believe that the director has done Charmed and Lois & Clark since his early 80’s glory days.

We’re here to keep you informed on hot choices for renting or buying new DVD releases. Released this week: Syriana, Eight Below, Night Watch, The Hills Have Eyes, Charlie Chan Collection Volume 1, The Omen 2-Disc Collector’s Edition, Justice League Season Two, Superman The Animated Serious Volume Three, Lois & Clark The New Adventures of Superman Third Season, News Radion Fourth Season and The King of Queens The Fifth Season.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Syriana – Syriana, while not based on any specific events, gives a chillingly accurate portrait of the many pressures brought to bear on the Middle East oil concerns.  Multiple storylines (each intrinsically tied together) converge to show how poverty, politics, reform, and economic opportunity work against each other, creating unintended consequences for all.  People who don’t follow politics might get lost among the multiple storylines, but in reality each scene impacts every other, even if it’s not readily apparent.  Top notch performances from all the leads, with particular notice going to the excellent Jeffery Wright, as a lawyer who slowly gives in to corruption. Check out a more detailed version of Aaron’s review or Alan’s.

Eight Below – Have a box of tissue ready for this one, it’s a tear jerker. You will cry in happiness and sorrow as these 8 dogs make it on their own for over 6 months during storm season in Antarctic. Everybody will want to go out and buy a Husky after watching Eight Below. Based on true events of sleigh dogs and their frontier explorers, this film is great for the family. Hey the actors are good too, especially that American Pie guy, Jason Biggs; ya, I didn’t know he was in it either. Get a detailed review from Alan.

Night Watch – Russia’s, Nochnoy Dozor (Night Watch), is a monster/gore-fest that looks like it was loosely based on a darker (very dark and very German, with out a sexy hero or heroine) version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Moscow is split up between good and evil, day and night, supernatural humans with a truce with the evil/vampire versions roaming the night and the good in the day. The vampires are forced to stay within their realm by a “Night Watch” who controls their temperaments through light forces.

The Hills Have Eyes – Close to Wes Craven’s version from 1977, an A-typical American family find themselves broke down out in the middle of nowhere and being chased by crazy ass psychos who like to torture and murder innocents just for kicks. This group of freaks stayed around for the government nuclear testing during the 50’s and certainly messed with their physical and mental being. Some of the families fight back and escape, very similar to a Chainsaw Massacre feel. I have to wonder, with films like The Hills Have Eyes and Silent Hill exactly why Rob Zombie had such a hard time getting anybody to produce House of a 1,000 Corpses.

Special Edition or Series Release:

The Omen (2-Disc Collector’s Edition) – Next to the original Exorcist, The Omen is a close second to leaving you with that odd uneasy feeling of something evil lurking beneath our souls. Now, we get even more of being scared of possessed children (most are already) in this 2 disc special edition of The Omen.

Animation:

Justice League – Season Two (DC Comics Classic Collection) – Here is a 4-disc, 26 episode animated collection that includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern and The Flash, all using there super powers to fight evil and save the world and beyond.

Superman – The Animated Series, Volume Three (DC Comics Classic Collection) – A 2-disc, 18 episode Superman animated adventure. Aliens come to town to destroy the world and Superman is no match for Darkseid. The evil warlord takes control of Superman and makes him take over the planet to help Darkseid to rule the world; no worries, everything works itself out in the end.

TV:

Lois & Clark – The New Adventures of Superman – The Complete Third Season – It’s looks like Superman week this week with DVD releases. Lois & Clark is a TV version with a younger Man of Steel and a much younger and more beautiful Lois; saving the world one super power moment at a time and falling in love.

News Radio – The Complete Fourth Season – The 4th season of the politically incorrect sitcom full of humor, office politics, a loony boss and a bit of romance. What boast a wonderful comedian like Phil Hartman can’t be all that bad! Dave Foley, Stephen Root, Andy Dick, Jon Lovitz plus many more made up the cast of News Radio, all set on one stage and very funny.

The King of Queens – The Complete Fifth Season

We’re here to keep you informed on hot choices for renting or buying new DVD releases. Released this week: Date Movie (Unrated Edition), Freedomland, Platoon – 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Two-Disc Special Edition), Alf: Season Three, Numb3rs – The Complete First Season, Queer as Folk – The Final (Fifth) Season, and The Dukes of Hazzard – The Complete Sixth Season.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Date Movie (Unrated Edition) – Just like the Scary Movie films before it, a spoof of romantic comedies full of satire and gross out humor.

Freedomland – Here is what our very own Alan Rapp had to say about Freedomland. “Sometimes a movie is so awful you need a shower to get clean.  Freedomland is just such a movie.  One of the worst films of 2006 and the most vile and disheartening films I’ve seen in quite some time.  I still can’t believe I saw what I saw or that parents with small children allowed them to view this violent, distasteful, and heartless film.  Whatever you do this weekend keep you and yours out of Freedomland.”  Read the full diagnosis.

Special Editions:

Platoon – 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition – It’s like the best gift ever, it’s Platoon, undoubtedly the best war film ever made and it’s got all kind of extras like a documentary and newly added commentary with Oliver Stone and Captain Daly Dye Military Supervisor. Plus there is the Original Theatrical Trailer and a gallery.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Two-Disc Special Edition) -Sweet, finally they have released one of the most creepiest and scariest movies of all time. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford play sisters, one was famous in her youth, but looses it in her older age. She is forced to take care of her crippled sister and starts to completely loose her mind. She leaves her helpless sister upstairs without food or water for days at a time, while she dresses up in little girl outfits and tries to be the star again. Yes, it’s a creepy one for sure, but a classic.

Family/Animated:

Alf: Season Three – The “Alien Life Form” better known as ALF started corrupting our TV screens in 1986, a ugly warted creature who spends most of the show mouthing off and chasing after the family cat. Funny at times, for the 80’s that is, but only holds little to no humor today.

TV:

Numb3rs – The Complete First Season – A mixture of popular crime dramas found on TV today, Numb3rs uses mathematical equations to solve crime. Starring Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure) and David Krumholz (10 Things I Hate About You).

The Dukes of Hazzard – The Complete Sixth Season – It’s the good ole’ boys, hell yes. Nothing better than the General Lee and some good-looking country boys running from the law. For the boys, let us not forget about those Daisy Dukes. Season six still has Bo and Luke and not those nasty little replacements, the cousins.

Queer as Folk – The Final (Fifth) Season

Winter Passing is quite similar to most indie films; it takes a tragic moment or section of a life and sticks that moment under a magnifying glass. Here is a very somber film with a slight silver lining at the end. Well drawn out characters with the two leads, Don Holdin (Ed Harris) the dad and Reese Holdin (Zooey Deschanel) the daughter, allowing very little attachment or love and the window dressing characters, ex-Christian rocker Corbit (Will Ferrell) and ex-infatuated student Shelly (Amelia Warner), alluring more to the audience. The premise of cold harsh reality and one big pity party for a woman who lives in New York trying to make it as an actress, but has a more literary poetic heart. She is confused and unsure of herself and disappointed in what she leads as an existence that should be a life and blames her self-indulgent parents. Throughout she slams her hand in drawers to feel real pain and yells silently poor poor pitiful me as she snorts coke, sleeps with any semi-warm body and drones along a cold and wintry existence.

Towards the end the audience is expected to feel as if winter has passed, but the only warmth we are provided with is the sun shining on her father’s face and her commitment to a relationship and her own piece of art, life. No security blanket or true sense of warmth is provided and, even though, we know there is a happy ending we’re not sure if all ties have been mended, but that maybe the point we are suppose to get from it. The point that life is still tragic at moments and there is no mending true tragedy that has loomed for so long in your own mind, but you can find little spots of warmth and bask there for a while.

Winter Passing
3 Stars

Winter Passing is a film that, either, you’ll get it or you won’t (I liked it, but if you want a different perspective check out the original theatrical review here). There is a certain type of relationship or bond that is formed with the characters and a level of acceptance to their lives and how they have chosen to handle what has been handed to them or they have created all of their own accord. Some of the audience may have experienced such things as conflicting true pain to just be reminded what it really feels like or disliking your parents to the point that you never return unless provoked by money and your own curiosity.

Zooey Deschanel does a wonderful job as the unhappy daughter of two authors and Ed Harris pulls out his typical topnotch performance and portrays the drunken self-pitying father/author who notices only himself and his partner’s replacement in Amelia Warner’s character. Amelia’s character was a student of his and found a home and a person or rather persons to look over, clean up after, feed and nurture. Will Ferrell plays an ex-Christian rocker with a huge block of mental simplicity on his shoulders. Will pulled off a hell of a performance that wasn’t his overbearing comedic, but rather a soft and gentle comedic relief in a film that could use a little more Will just to keep the audience from wanting to slit their wrists before it was all over with.

In the beginning there is the cold harsh city, a girl trying to get a gig in a play and a kitten. Reese (Zooey Deschanel) is living a cold and dry existence going from one audition to her job as a bar tender and home to bang her uncaring and cold fling. She has rescued a terminally ill kitten that she later drowns in the East River and only returns home for money. A publisher has offered her a very miniscule fortune for her mother and father’s love letters, so she can publish them. Reese didn’t even return home for her mother’s funeral after she took her own life and has had little to no communication with her father. She lives such a shitty existence and she blames her parents, 2 self-indulging authors who showed very little attention to her and each other through out her childhood. Reese, not able to get past having to self-sooth and comfort as a child, she spends most of the film bitter and angry towards her childhood.

Knocking on her own front door and being confronted with Corbit (Will Ferrell) and his bodyguard like tactics to keep her father, Don (Ed Harris), safe from prying reporters, fans and publishers, Reese is shocked to see that others are living where she had grown up and her father is hiding out in a bottle of whiskey and the garage. It’s the dead cold of winter and everywhere you look it’s cold and dark, such a dreary existence for all. Corbit is a light that Don had found sleeping on his couch one morning and left him there. Corbit spends his time mending things around the house, wearing eyeliner, pretending to rock out and guarding Don.

Reese confronts her father in the diminishing light of the garage, looking at the piles of typed papers laying around and wondering if he is writing cohesive again or just rambling to exhaust his demons. Curious to why her father has taken on a shallow attachment to characters like Corbit and Shelley. Shelley was a student of Don’s; she idealized his writing abilities and showed up one day after another and another, until she became his caregiver and the woman of the house, if you will. She cooks, cleans and takes care of Corbit and Don, but there is always the mystery of whether or not Don and her are lovers in Reese’s mind.

Reese begins to fall down the proverbial rabbit hole, sleeping in her old room, roaming around her childhood home wallpapered in books, climbing the family gallery stairs and encountering weird moments of golf and an outdoor bedroom. She starts to snoop and dig through old boxes and trunks throughout the house and in the garage, looking for the love letters her mother had left behind for her. Finally she asks her dad if her mother had left anything behind that he should pass on, the letters are finally uncovered. Reese hides by a bank and reads through them, loving at first then turning to cold, she sees a glimpse into her mother. Shelley appears to give us a quick over view of how the letters play out, helping to explain a little behind the mom’s suicide.

Don has bouts of screaming fits and disturbing silences at the dinner table, never to speak out of his true feelings until Reese confronts him and even then you never get a true grasp on what really happened here and why, but you do know that he truly loved his wife and she had only truly thought of herself.

Throughout the journey Reese discovers herself with a little help from Corbit and Shelley and decides to burry the love letters in the backyard and turn in her father’s latest novel instead. The ending is supposed to be comforting, but it never truly closes the book on the story. Reese goes back to New York to act in her own play and finally commits to a life and partnership. Her father is seen out walking in the snow with the sun shining on his face and that’s it. Happy ending or not, it’s life.

I would say give Winter Passing a shot. It’s comforting to see that somebody else’s life is fucked up too and others suffer and find some form of appeasement in the end. It’s a keeper for those who relate to the story or the circumstances and a renter to those who have perfect little happy lives. It’s not a popcorn watching feel good film; its life sometimes cold harsh and real and other times comforting with plenty of mashed potatoes.