DVD Releases

Iron Man. The movie shocked audiences by raking in $100 million in its opening weekend and lots of critical praise. This, a movie about a guy who dresses up in a metal suit and goes around blowing things up. Who would have thought?

The huge box office winner is coming to DVD this Tuesday, September 30, 2008, and Marvel and Paramount managed to forward me an early copy of the two-disc special edition. The DVD is a great addition to anyone’s collection, though I doubt this review is going to have any bearing on your decision one way or another. You either liked the movie or you didn’t, though I haven’t met a person who wasn’t blown away by the flick.

As far as special features go, there is a good deal of deleted scenes, some of which are halfway decent. I suspect that a couple of them were removed to keep a PG-13 rating, as one makes a rather direct allusion to a three-way, and eventually a four-way. Others add unnecessary exposition and explanation to the story; you can see where they fit in, but were most likely removed for pacing reasons. Nevertheless, they make for good deleted scenes.

Moving onto the second disc, we are greeted with a series of seven featurettes that look at various stages of the production, from location shooting to suit design to special effects. Some of the best behind-the-scenes featurettes come from the biggest of films, and this single feature runs for a good hour and a half. The featurette is pretty insightful and not promotional in the least, meaning you get a lot of sincerity from Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., the stuntmen and everyone else involved.

Other special features include a deeper look at the visual effects, a screen test with Robert Downey Jr., a featurette called The Actor’s Process that I was too lazy to watch (actually, after watching most of the special features I got so eager to watch the movie that I returned to the first disc to fire it up… though I then got interrupted by the Presidential debates for a couple of hours) and your typical stills gallery, previews, et cetera. Why do they even bother including stills galleries on DVDs? Does anyone actually look at them? Ooh, cool! I can look at non-moving images of a movie I just watched. This is most awesomest.

The DVD is pretty good, though I’d expect there to be an even bigger version to be on the horizon. Regardless, Iron Man itself is well worth the $20 to add this to your collection. You can read my full Iron Man movie review here.

A movie that sort of flew under the radar earlier this year, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a romantic comedy that proved that it was a lot more than a fluff-and-kiss romantic comedy. In reality, it’s in the same vein as Knocked Up, as it’s a romantic comedy for guys – there’s swearing, boobs, crazy sex and lots of awkward situations, including a break up scene with full frontal male nudity. Of course, none of this is surprising since it’s just one of many successful Judd Apatow-produced comedies.

To be straight, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the funniest movie of 2008 to date, thanks to its crafty writing and likable characters. Thankfully, the movie comes to DVD on September 30, 2008, and Universal was kind enough to send me an advanced copy of the 3-Disc Unrated Collector’s Edition. Here are the bonus features:

• Two versions of the movie. Guess. Guess, dammit! OK, fine, you’re going to feel stupid. The two versions are… the normal, R-rated version and – yes, you didn’t guess it – the unrated version. The unrated version has a few additional or extended scenes, but it doesn’t really matter – the movie is just as funny the first time I saw it.
• Deleted/Extended scenes. In addition to those seen in the unrated version, several other funny scenes are available for viewing. To the pleasure of all male audience members (well, the straight ones), the DVD includes a fair amount of additional sex scenes, several of which are pretty funny. There’s also an alternative get-back-together-with-Sarah scene that is notably different in one piercing way. Ha ha, I crack myself up. Don’t get it? Nevermind.
• Auditions. Some entertaining moments of the cast preparing for their roles. The DVD gives extra focus to Russell Brand, who plays the British sex addict rock star boyfriend. Interestingly enough, the character was originally written as a cocky yuppy writer, but Brand’s audition impressed the casting crew so much that the character was rewritten for him. Brand is certainly a funny guy; his “U Show” that is included on the DVD is also quite funny in a limited way.
• Crime Scene. See some alternate NBC television shows that Sarah Marshall will be starring in over the coming months. Some, if not all, are absolutely ridiculous.
• Drunk-o-Rama, Sex-o-rama, Line-o-rama. These little featurettes take the best moments and establishes montages of related material.
• Video Diaries. I watched these, but don’t remember much.
• Gag reel, cast and crew commentary and a few other special features.
• Oh, and the third disc is devoted to a digital copy that you can copy to your iPod. In the day of environmentalism, it’s sad that studios are starting to do this.

Read my full Forgetting Sarah Marshall movie review, or… enter to win a copy of the Forgetting Sarah Marshall DVD.

Holy crap. This just in from a legitimate source: The Godfather 4 is coming to theaters sometime in 2010. Word has it that Francis Ford Coppola has already penned the script, and the movie is currently in the pre-production phase. It is rumored that Al Pacino will return, though the film will focus heavily on a new character played by Nicolas Cage, who as we all know is related in some way or form, by blood or otherwise, to the famed director. This is amazing news.

However, that news is not real. What is real, however, is that a new DVD set was released today called The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration, which includes the three films remastered and with all-new special effects a la the Star Wars re-releases (it’s pretty crazy seeing Marlon Brando in The Godfather Part III, let me tell you). The collection contains five massive discs of goodness. You can probably guess what the first three discs are used for – the last two are saved for special features, and there are a lot of them.

One of the things I find frustrating by being a movie reviewer, other than constantly receiving free DVDs and invitations to LA press screenings, is that in these renewed box sets that exist solely to make the studio just a little more money by duping die hard fans into buying the latest and greatest version when the DVD they bought five years ago is just as good, the new features and old features are rarely separated. So when I actually take the time to review bonus features – which is not that often because I think most bonus features are a waste of time – I have no clue whether these features have been available for years unless I manage to find the info on Amazon.com or something like that… but the extra ten keystrokes is just more effort than I’m willing to spend.

Thankfully, with The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration, disc four includes special features previously available, whereas disc five is exclusively designed for new bonus featuers. In other words, for review purposes, I skipped disc four and went straight to disc five.

I didn’t make it very far, though. I was building a dresser while watching, and I tried watching the deleted scenes, of which there are many (they are broken out by the chronology of the characters, not the movies). Unfortunately, there’s no “Play All” feature that I could find, and thus it wasn’t worth my time clicking on each thumbnail to watch a deleted scene. So… I moved on to the behind-the-scenes videos, and started watching one of them. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was good. Real good. The video features interviews with practically everyone involved in the movie, and goes into thorough detail about the challenges of making the film – primarily, the fact that Coppola and Pacino were always two seconds away from getting fired. The video is extremely detailed and interesting, and one of the best I’ve seen.

There were many other special features, but that’s as far as I got. Why? Because after watching 45 minutes of behind-the-scenes action, I couldn’t resist but put in the first movie. Having never seen it before, I thought now was as good of time as any. OK, I’ve actually seen The Godfather at least ten times (is that all?), but these movies – yes, even the third one – are so incredible it’s hard to believe they were made so long ago. Absolutely stunning.

The Godfather trilogy consists of three of the best movies ever made. This new DVD set includes a ton of new features that are, I hate to say it, worth owning if you really like your Italian gangsters.

I just finished watching Child’s Play, as the new Chucky’s 20th Birthday Edition arrives on DVD September 9th. While the franchise has digressed into more humorous, satirical stories over the years, it’s amazing to see just how creepy and gritty the original was.

As everyone knows by now, Child’s Play is about a serial killer who, on his dying breath, transfers his soul into the body of a cheerful doll. The doll soon ends up in the hands of young Andy (Alex Vincent), and not soon after the murders begin. At first, Andy is blamed and taken into custody, but it soon becomes evident that Chucky – not Andy – is indeed a live and willing to kill. As his mother (Catherine Hicks) and an investigating detective (Chris Sarandon) frantically try to track him down, Chucky goes after Andy, his last hope at humanity.

So often, these horror movies fail to stand up to the test of time, but there’s something about the 1980′s that brought out the best in the genre. So many good franchises were launched in the decade, and while the sequels have perhaps made them rather routine, it’s always fun and rather surprising to look back at the originals. Child’s Play, about a killer doll, is a movie that should have never worked from the outset. The flick should have been cheesy and tacky, and given that it’s 20 years old, the visual effects should have been ridiculously bad. Instead, Child’s Play is an authentically creepy and violent film that takes itself seriously and pulls it off.

Unlike later iterations of the franchise, Child’s Play isn’t funny and never intends to be. The movie is dark and twisted, and would still give even the wisest of children nightmares. Twenty years later, the flick still works surprisingly well.

The DVD includes a variety of special features, including two audio commentaries – one with the cast and another with the crew. More interesting is the inclusion of several screen-specific Chucky commentaries, voiced by the doll himself. Additionally, there are several featurettes that examine the makings of the film, from the animatronics to casting and so on and so forth. These featurettes are quite good, as they aren’t promotional at all and really dive into the production of the films. All in all, it’s a pretty good DVD, though if you already own the film, it’s probably not worth purchasing this newer version.

Heroes: Season Three is almost here, which means Season Two is coming to DVD. The four-disc set contains the shortened, 11-episode season, complete with time traveling, viruses, wedding massacres and more. It’s no question that most Heroes fans will scoop this DVD set up despite what my Bible-like words say below, but what about those on the cusp? What about those poor, pathetic people who haven’t completely embraced the world of Heroes? What about starving African children?

Let’s all face it: Heroes: Season Two wasn’t as good as series one. Writer’s strike aside, it was still a tad rushed, a little weak in the writing department at times, and so on and so forth. Some characters were taken down some strange paths (Mohinder), and others were introduced that just weren’t very interesting (like the New Orleans girl who can learn anything). The writer’s strike made the last several episodes even more accelerated than the earlier ones, leading to rough transitions, undeveloped stories and a resolution to the season-wide story arc that should have come 13 episodes later. All that being said, Heroes is still one of the best shows on television.

But that’s not what I’m here to review. There are plenty of websites devoted to just how good (or bad) Heroes is, so I’m focusing the rest of this review on the bonus features. As is typical with TV releases these days, the bonus features are annoyingly spread across multiple discs, which is probably fine for most – except for when you’re trying to review the bonus features and have to swap the disc out every fifteen minutes, damn it.

Anyway, the highlight of the box set is the deleted scenes, of which there are plenty. Practically every episode has a couple of deleted scenes, some of which are quite revealing. As always, you won’t miss too much if you never see these, but as far as deleted scenes go, they’re pretty good. The highlight… of the highlights… is an alternate ending, which truly is an alternate ending. SPOILER ALERT. Whereas in the actual final episode of the season, Peter, Nathan and Hiro stop the virus from being unleashed – only to have Nathan get shot while attempting to announce that he has special powers. In the alternate ending, the writers take the darker approach by letting the virus get released, causing Odessa, Texas to go into quarantine. Ultimately, the actual ending is tighter and more effective, but it would have been pretty cool had Peter not caught the vial at the end of Season Two.

Beyond the alternate ending and deleted scenes, Heroes: Season Two comes with some pretty good “Genetics of a Scene” clips, which are pretty entertaining and slightly insightful. I’d recommend these. There are also some NBC featurettes, which I didn’t watch, and a series of “Untold Episodes,” which are pretty good. There are also audio commentaries for the episodes.

Unfortunately, the rest of the bonus features aren’t all that good. There’s a ridiculously cheesy “documentary” about Takezo Kensei, which is so bad I could only watch a minute of it. I mean, it’s about as bad as faux documentaries can get. A “news reel” about Richard Drucker is also quite terrible, and rather pointless unless I completely missed something. The “Season 2: A New Beginning” featurette is just a promotional, “you’re going to see things you’ve never seen before” kind of featurette, and the Season 3 preview is, as expected, nothing special.

Heroes: Season Two is worth the purchase because, yes, it contains all of the episodes from season 2. The deleted scenes, alternate endings and “Genetics of a Scene” bonus features are well worth it; at the same time, NBC would have done well to save themselves some money and not include their “original” bonus features, as they are downright terrible and just a waste of money. Still, recommended for the overall value of the show.

With great reluctance, I offered to review The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. A direct-to-DVD release, the action-thriller had very little going for it, but considering the fact that it’s “from the producers of The Mummy” and stars UFC champion Randy Couture, it had to be great, right? Wrong.

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior is your pretty typical direct-to-DVD movie, which means it’s pretty damn bad. While the production values are decent enough for a film like this, you can tell from minute one that this movie was made simply to coincide with the theatrical release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, though why it isn’t being released until August 19th is beyond me. Cash was in the mind of Universal Studios – not quality – and it shows throughout the film.

The movie features a young Mathayus (Michael Copon), the character who will grow up to be the Scorpion King as portrayed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King. Long after his father is murdered by a ruthless king (Couture) who has magical powers, Mathayus grows up to be a great warrior and vows vengeance – though killing the king is going to be harder than first thought.

The acting is the first thing that clues you into the fact that you’re watching a cheap production. Copon is pretty bad, and Couture is especially painful to watch. Combined with the clunky screenplay, the actors are barely able to pull off a line without sounding like they’re reading from a teleprompter. Worse still is that the characters – especially Layla, played by the beautiful Karen David – spit out lines that sound like they were written for an MTV reality show; rather modern-sounding jokes and interchange really kill the mood, if there ever was one to begin with.

The action isn’t anything to scream about, and that’s assuming you have the patience to make it to the action. At an hour and 49 minutes, The Scorpion King 2 feels overly long, and while there are plenty of action sequences, they are all relatively small and unimpressive. I could only watch 20 minutes at a time before turning it off to shift my attention to something much more interesting, like preliminary trials in the Olympics.

Basically, there’s no love to be had for The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. Despite the fact that it’s directed by the guy who did Highlander, the movie lacks action, excitement and, more importantly, quality.

It’s been a long, long, long, long time since I saw the original Lost Boys, the Kiefer Sutherland/Corey Haim/Corey Feldman-starring vampire cult classic. I recall enjoying it and that it took place in Santa Clara, but considering that I was five when it was originally released, I never quite got on the Lost Boys bandwagon, or the “two Coreys” bandwagon for that matter. Nevertheless, Lost Boys: The Tribe arrived in stores last week with much more excitement than the typical direct-to-DVD release.

Lost Boys: The Tribe was speculated to mark the reunion of the two Coreys, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, but due to scheduling restrictions/green card problems/falsified egos, Corey Haim never quite made it to set. Instead, we get a vampire sequel not distracted by two actors whose careers ended years ago, and for a direct-to-DVD release, it isn’t bad at all. In fact, with some improved special effects and a few tweaks here and there, the movie could have worked at the theatrical level.

Lost Boys: The Tribe is about two newcomers to south California, Chris and Nicole (Tad Hilgenbrink and Autumn Reeser), who have moved in with their aunt. Quickly lured in by the excitement of the area, Nicole finds herself seduced by a local surfer named Shane (Kiefer’s younger brother, Angus Sutherland) and Chris by a sexy vixen (Moneca Delain). Little do they know – at first – that both are vampires, and Shane the head vampire. With Nicole under his spell – but not completely cursed to a vampiric life until she kills her first victim – Chris finds it up to him and his newfound friend, Edgar the Vampire Hunter (Corey Feldman), to take down Shane and his band of goons. But to do so, he’ll have to risk his own humanity to get close enough.

The movie is littered with the little things that make up a direct-to-DVD release, including TV actors, washed up child stars, poor computer graphics and gimmicks like the casting of younger brothers of well-known actors whose careers were made in the original. That being said, all of those problems are rather minor. The stars of the movie are pretty good; nothing fabulous but much better than those found in typical releases such as this. While the computer effects are pretty weak, they only show up in a few places – and for the most part director P.J. Pesce relies on good old fashioned blood and guts, of which there is plenty. Where the film lacks in visuals, it makes up for in gore – a scene where a vampire’s entrails spill out onto a pool deck comes to mind.

Overall, Lost Boys: The Tribe is pretty entertaining, with some good action and hot women. Reeser looks great, and there is also a decent amount of nudity and sex. Hilgenbrink holds his own and makes a pretty good lead. As far as direct-to-DVD releases go, this is the cream of the crop.

The one problem I had with the movie? Corey Feldman. If there was anyone more out of place in a movie, it is Corey Feldman in Lost Boys: The Tribe. His acting is terrible here, as he attempts to play a withered old vampire slayer will still possessing the face of a 10-year old – and a froggy, gutteral voice. His performance just doesn’t fit with the rest of the movie.

Aside from a few flaws typical of a direct-to-DVD sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe is a lot of fun. Recommended to those who want a different kind of vampire movie – or to relive The Lost Boys.

My roommate and I were there on opening night to watch Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay in theaters. The movie, packed full of racist jokes and pokes at stereotypes (primarily against Indians/Arabs/Asians, with a few black jokes sprinkled in as well), was pretty funny, especially since the theater was 75% Indians and Asians, or at least Indian-Americans and Asian-Americans. It wasn’t as good as the original, but, then again, how it could it be? (read my full Harold and Kumar 2 movie review)

I received a box full of the unrated DVDs yesterday (well, I had to drive out to a very inconvenient FedEx location to get them, as FedEx hasn’t figured out that some of us work during the day, aren’t at home to sign for our packages, and don’t like to put their pickup locations in places where people actually live), and so my roommate and I just had to pop in the movie for a second round.

It was still pretty funny, though not as funny as watching with a bunch of people who found it especially funny considering that they had heard variants of the jokes directed at them in real life. Harold and Kumar 2 doesn’t have the repeat value of White Castle, but that’s OK. It’s still pretty entertaining. The cyclops scene is still pretty classic.

Unfortunately, the Unrated Edition DVD is a scam. Granted, it includes the theatrical version as well, but what the hell is the difference? There are six minutes of added footage, but nothing remarkably different. There’s a below-the-waist shot that my roommate claims wasn’t in the theatrical version, but I’m not so sure. Either way, there is nothing particularly “unrated” about it.

What’s worse? There are no special features. I mean none. Other than a few movie previews, there are no bloopers, deleted scenes and so on and so forth. Clearly, New Line (Warner Brothers) is setting up for a two-disc special edition, but come on. What a waste of a DVD.

No, I’m not talking about overall numbers. However, I was saddened to see that three of the five top-selling DVDs this past week are downright not-so-good. With exception to National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, which is no Oscar-winner in its own right, the top four selling DVDs of last week were:

1. Semi-Pro
   An insanely awful and boring Will Ferrell movie. And that’s coming from someone who generally likes Will Ferrell movies.
2. National Treasure 2
   A surprisingly entertaining movie, though maybe that’s because I went in with such low expectations.
3. Number 3? I don’t know… The original article doesn’t say. (
   
4. The Eye
   I can understand why this one is selling well. It stars Jessica Alba and looks sort of freaky. But it’s the same old Asian remake trash.
5. Meet the Spartans
   How do people still pay money to see these films? After Date Movie and Epic Movie, you would think even the dumbest of audiences would have caught on that these films just… aren’t… funny.

With not a lot of movies out in theaters right now (there are some good ones, but with only one to two big release coming out a weekend, it’s pretty easy to keep on top of the films), it’s a good time to get caught up on some recently released DVDs. But what to see? Here are some suggestions, based on DVD releases since the beginning of May:

1. I’m Not There
   Cate Blanchett should have earned an Oscar for her performance in this absolutely strange but brilliantly conceived drama about Bob Dylan.
2. Rambo
   My roommate doesn’t think so, but the new Rambo movie kicks ass. Gritty, bloody and thankfully not very cheesy, this is a must-see for action fans.
3. Funny Games
   I haven’t seen this one, and I can imagine that the 1998 original (a foreign film, French, I think) is better, but this one just looks f**ked up. The movie stars Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as parents who find themselves victims to a pair of crazed psychopaths. No, it’s not a horror movie.
4. The Red Violin
   This movie was originally released in 1999, but Lionsgate just released a new version of the DVD. There’s nothing special about that, but if you haven’t seen this film, it is one of the better movies of the last decade. It’s about the life a violin over the course of several centuries.
5. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
   I wasn’t expecting much from this sequel, but if you go in with an open mind, you’ll find a pretty entertaining and exciting adventure story. Nicolas Cage goes searching for the Lost City of Gold to prove his ancestor’s innocence in the President Lincoln assassination, and ends up kidnapping the President in the process. No one said the plot made much sense.
6. Teeth
   This movie is about a girl who realizes that her vagina has teeth that bite of men’s junk when she gets angry. No joke. The concept alone makes this one worth seeing, but it’s actually a pretty well conceived picture.
7. The Great Debaters
   Denzel Washington’s follow-up directorial piece is a surprisingly good and uplifting film about the first black debate team to take on a white team in the 1930′s. The movie covers racism and a range of other topics.
8. The Bucket List
   This comedy, which stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, may not win any awards, but the pairing of the two is brilliant. The movie, about two dying old men who decide to do everything they ever wanted to do before they die, is funny and entertaining.
9. Youth Without Youth
   This one isn’t for everyone, but it is the first movie by Francis Ford Coppola (director of The Godfather trilogy) in a long time. The movie is philosophical and Kafka-esque, as it’s about an old man, who, after being struck by lightning, becomes much younger.
10. Be Kind Rewind
    This picture received mixed reviews, but still looked pretty good. The movie stars Jack Black as a video store guy who accidentally erases all of his store’s tapes, forcing him and his colleague to make their own versions of popular movies.
11. Jumper
    This Hayden Christensen sci-fi action film isn’t particularly great, but if you want mindless action and cool special effects, Jumper has more than enough to keep you satisfied. If only the film had a smarter plot, it really could have been something.
12. Control
    This black-and-white film examines the rise and fall of the lead singer of the 1970′s band Joy Division in a very non biopic kind of way, which is rather refreshing considering all of these biographies about musicians tend to end up looking about the same.

View more recent DVD releases.

The new Rambo movie pretty much kicks ass. Released in early 2008, the movie will certainly be the goriest movie of the year, as Sylvestor Stallone, in an unlikely comeback, has directed the film that averages over two deaths a minute. Beyond the quantity of deaths, the quality is amazing – people are torn apart by rail guns, decapitated by sniper rifles and gutted by handmade knives. This movie is every man’s dreams and a cumulation of over a decade of desire for action movies of old.

You can read my full Rambo movie review here.

Rambo was released on DVD last week in a 2-disc special edition, which Lionsgate was so kind to send to me. The DVD includes an audio commentary with Stallone, a few deleted scenes as well as six featurettes that take a look at various aspects of the picture. Though not a massive quantity of bonus features, the featurettes provide some great and honest insight into the picture. Stallone is pretty straightforward and actually quite talkative about the making of the film, and throws in some good jokes aimed at other people on the crew.

The featurettes include:

• Legacy of Despair: The Struggles in Burma
• It’s a Long Road: Resurrection of an Icon
• A Score to Settle: The Music of Rambo
• The Art of War: Completing Rambo
• The Weaponry of Rambo
• A Hero’s Welcome: Release and Reaction

In addition, Rambo‘s second disc provides a digital copy of the movie to be used on your iPod or other portable device. All in all, the DVD package is surprisingly good; while nothing amazing, it’s a lot better than I expected to be. At the very least, it made me want to watch the film again.

Nicolas Cage and Diane Kruger return to the adventure franchise National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, a ludicrous, over-the-top but overall rather entertaining action-comedy. As people know, I feel the franchise – I call it a franchise because there is no denying that a third one will find its way to theaters at some point – is way overrated. The first movie, while not terrible, wasn’t nearly as exciting or smart as people think it is. I went into Book of Secrets with really low expectations and was, thankfully, pleasantly surprised, but I’m not kidding myself that it’s some glorious piece of work. You can read my full National Treasure 2 movie review here.

This blog post is about the 2-Disc Collector’s Edition version of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, which arrives in stores on May 20th, conveniently right before the new Indiana Jones movie arrives in theaters.

The DVD contains a fair amount of interesting and honest special features:

• Audio commentary with Jon Turteltaub and Jon Voight. I didn’t listen to this – honestly, who has time to re-watch movies with the audio commentaries? I sure as hell don’t.
• Deleted scenes with introductions by Jon Turteltaub. The first bit of bonus material I went for was the deleted scenes, and there are some pretty good ones here. More interesting than the scenes themselves are Turteltaub, who delivers an introduction for each one. Turteltaub seems like a genuinely funny guy, and his discussions of the film seem honest and heartfelt.
• Bloopers and outtakes. Your typical blooper reel; there’s some funny stuff here, though nothing amazing.
• Secrets of a Sequel. One of the weaker featurettes on the DVD, this one talks about the challenges of making a sequel. Once again, things are pretty honest as they discuss that everyone assumes a sequel is easy work, but there’s still a lot of work and effort to deliver something unique. Still, it contains a fair amount of, “National Treasure 2 is going to be bigger and better,” kind of statements.
• On Location. This featurette looks at some of the sets around the country and world. Pretty interesting at times.
• Street Stunts: Creating the London Chase. This one is pretty entertaining. While the scene in the movie might be a little out of place (would Ed Harris and his crew really destroy a neighborhood in London so boldly?), it’s always fun to see a bus plow through parked cars and crowded street during a car chase. Seeing it from off camera is just as entertaining.
• Inside the Library of Congress. I don’t remember this featurette, so either I accidentally skipped over it or it instilled no lasting memory.
• Underground Action. This is a pretty interesting featurette that looks at the action that takes place in Mt. Rushmore, specifically the balancing stone tab that the characters find themselves on. There’s some insightful filmmaking stuff here.
• Cover Story: Crafting the President’s Book. This one takes a look at getting the conspiracies into a book, and includes some of the actors providing their viewpoint on whether such a book really exists. This one is pretty pointless, but oh well.
• Evolution of a Golden City. One of the better featurettes in the set, this one looks at the creation and planning that went into the underground city. Once again, the featurette doesn’t come off as promotional.
• Knights of the Golden Circle. Huh, don’t remember this one either. What the heck. I know I watched this one, but have no clue what it’s about…

The National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (wow, that’s a mouthful) is a pretty good disc with some nice bonus features. Turteltaub really makes the featurettes worth it, as he seems to be having fun with both the production and talking to the camera. None of the featurettes seem too promotional and as such provide some great insight into the creation of the film.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull arrives in theaters on May 22nd, and shockingly, Paramount is releasing a new DVD set of the original Indiana Jones trilogy this Tuesday, May 13th. I mean, I am flabbergasted that Paramount would release a new DVD set so close to the release of their new Indiana Jones movie; it’s as if they want to milk some extra cash out of one of their most prized franchises. I just didn’t see it coming.

A few years ago, I picked up The Adventures of Indiana Jones: The Complete DVD Movie Collection, which came with the three movies digitally remastered as well as a bonus disc (that I’ve never watched) that is, according to the box, “the ultimate anthology of Indiana Jones special features to accompany this classic DVD collection.” That’s interesting that that set was the “complete” and “ultimate” collection, when now we have Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection DVD set…

Anyway, this new Adventure Collection offers only three disc and doesn’t make any bold statements about being “the biggest and baddest,” but presumably that’s being put off until all four Indiana Jones movies are released in a single DVD set in the fall. Maybe then Steven Spielberg and George Lucas will actually provide commentary for the films.

Yes, this new DVD set still doesn’t offer director’s commentary for the films, which is a bit surprising. It does, however, have introductions by Spielberg and Lucas before each film, which, I guess, is meant to make up for the lack of six hours of commentary.

While the bonus disc from the previous edition is missing, there are bonus features offered on each movie disc. The features includes interviews with the Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Allison Doody), Spielberg, Lucas, Ford and the screenwriters; an examination of the famous “melting face scene” from Raiders of the Lost Ark; a featurette on the locations; and another featurette that covers the bugs, insects and other creatures found in the movies. The teaser trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie also plays at the beginning of each disc, cementing the fact that this box set is specifically intended to drive ticket sales.

Basically, the bonus features are pretty standard fare.

There are some interesting moments, but for those of you who already own the Indiana Jones movies, it doesn’t make sense to purchase this new set. The bonus features are not amazing, and unless you are so die-hard that you have to have every piece of material ever made on the subject, they aren’t worth shelling out an additional $35.

At the same time, the movies themselves have never looked better. I haven’t watched Temple of Doom yet, but Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade both look amazing. The picture is crystal clear and looks as brand new as movies filmed 20 years can look.

If you don’t have the movies and don’t care about bonus features, this new Indiana Jones box set offers the three movies in their finest form. However, if you don’t think that Paramount doesn’t have a box set due to be released in the fall with all four movies and a slew of special features, however, you’re kidding yourself.

Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters arrives on DVD on May 13th in a two-disc collector’s edition, which, coincidentally enough, recently arrived in my mailbox. I’m pretty sure Bob and Harvey Weinstein personally wanted me to review this DVD.

The movie itself was pretty good, despite looking like a dozen other inspirational teacher stories. With good acting from the young cast, as well as Denzel and Forest Whitaker (how often do you get to see those two together?), The Great Debaters entertains and educates simultaneously. While you can tell plenty of elements are dramatized for the sake of storytelling, Denzel does a good job of diving into the era and setting, depicting racism, relationships and family in a very authentic way. The Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture was a bit overkill, but The Great Debaters was one of the better movies of 2007. You can read my full Great Debaters movie review here.

Thankfully, The Weinstein Co. has given The Great Debaters pretty good DVD treatment. There are enough special features that some are actually included on the first disc; usually, bonus features are relegated solely to the second. Anyway, the DVD offers a wide array of featurettes that examine various aspects of the production, from the historical relevance to the score, costume design, production design and more. All of the featurettes are interesting in their own right, and thankfully are just the right length; they aren’t promotional and they aren’t ridiculously long, either. Several feature interviews with living people who are portrayed in the film.

The best of the featurettes is a behind-the-scenes look at debate camp. Apparently, Denzel wanted his actors to be authentic in the art of debate, so he stuck them all into a real debate class. The featurette is fun because you get to see the actors out of their element, getting critiqued and so on and so forth.

Other special features include an examination of Forest Whitaker (which contains a lot of, “Oh, Forest is so great!” remarks), some deleted scenes and a couple of music videos.

If you like behind-the-scenes videos, The Great Debaters provides some pretty good insight into the production of the film. It doesn’t given you director’s commentary, strangely enough, but if you want to get the low down on the film without spending several hours of your time, this one is definitely a worthy purchase.

I’m Not There, the acclaimed drama that stars Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin all as Bob Dylan, arrives on DVD this Tuesday. Considering that Franklin is a young black kid, Gere plays a version of Billy the Kid and Blanchett is female, one can only imagine that the movie is not exactly a literal biopic, and in fact is one of the most unique and complicated movies I’ve ever seen.

Director Todd Haynes, amazingly, was not nominated for an Oscar for his masterful work here, and, almost equally shocking was the fact that Cate Blanchett, who turns in the best performance of her career, didn’t win for Best Supporting Actress.

You can read my full I’m Not There movie review here.

Regardless, for all of you who didn’t see I’m Not There in theaters, the Bob Dylan movie is now available on DVD. Here is my I’m Not There DVD review:

The DVD review is for the two-disc collector’s edition, a surprisingly weighty release for a movie such as this. The environmental side of me questions why this release is on two discs other than to market it as such; there are tons of special features, but quantity over quality is the name of the game.

The first disc contains I’m Not There along with a director’s commentary from Todd Haynes, along with some on-screen tie-ins to the songs.

The second disc is where the meat is, and contains such features as:

• Deleted scenes
• Alternate/extended scenes
• Outtakes
• Auditions
• A Conversation with Todd Haynes
• Making the Soundtrack
• The Red Carpet Premiere

The deleted scenes are what you’d expect, nothing too substantial or memorable. With this type of film, where the story is essentially organized chaos, it’s hard to watch a single scene and appreciate it on its own. The outtakes are humorous but nothing spectacular. The auditions are interesting; it’s always nice to see actors in raw format and how they went about landing the part. “A Conversation with Todd Haynes” is pretty good, and basically is about the co-writer/director talking about how the movie formed in his mind – and how he made sense of it all. At times, it sounds like he didn’t even know what he was doing. The “Making the Soundtrack” featurette is also pretty interesting and offers up some good Dylan songs for a second listening.

Included on the second disc is also a “Tribute to Heath Ledger,” though it looks like it was put together at the last minute.

Ultimately, the I’m Not There Two-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD has some decent features, though of the ones they list on the back of the box, only a couple are really noteworthy. Still, this is the kind of the movie that, due to its complexity, requires some further explanation, and there is just enough here to satisfy that requirement.

The DVD set is good, but not great. However, the movie itself makes up for any deficiencies on the DVD.