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The DVD Dossier is the free newsletter published weekly by DVD Direct 4 Less.
This is the archived issue for March 6, 2005.
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Published weekly by DVD Direct 4 Less, the online source for DVD Discounts & Deals
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In This Issue
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March 6, 2005
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We think the hottest title this week will be the new release of Season Nine of "Friends," the NBC "Must See TV" hit that left the airwaves last year. Complete seasons of "Friends" consistently rank among the top selling DVD boxed sets, year after year.
Season Nine should be no exception.
The Ninth Season of Friends is available this week all by itself (4-Discs, 23 episodes, 620 minutes) and in a 36-Disc megapack that includes the complete first nine seasons.
There's also an interesting art house flick coming your way on DVD this week.
It's "Stage Beauty," an odd little movie starring Billy Crudup and Claire Danes. The time is 17th-century London and Crudup plays an actor named Ned who has found great fame portraying female characters, as women were not allowed on stage at the time.
Lusted after by women and men alike, he commands all the perks of a star; at the same time, he is a dedicated actor who runs lines with his stage dresser Maria (Claire Danes), who quietly adores him. When King Charles II (Rupert Everett) lifts the ban on women appearing in the theatre, Maria takes to the stage, which complicates her relationship with Ned.
This is a period costume drama that desperately wants to be "Shakespeare in Love," but lacks much of the romance and humor of its more popular predecessor. And this is rather surprising, as the film comes with a promising theatrical pedigree.
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from his own stage play and directed by Richard Eyre (an award-winning director in London's West End, best known in film circles for directing "Iris"), the uneven "Stage Beauty" should be much better than it actually is.
Even so, the acting is quite good, with a bravura performance by Crudup, and the film is enjoyable on its most basic level simply as a bold and passionate love letter to the theatre.
"Christmas with the Kranks," on the other hand, is no love letter and is in fact a horrible and mean spirited film based on John Grisham’s novel "Skipping Christmas."
We don't fault stars Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis or Dan Aykroyd, but we would like a word or two with the normally reliable director, Joe Roth. Avoid this one at all costs.
Far better is "Ladder 49," about a Baltimore firefighter who grows from inexperienced rookie to seasoned veteran. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta.
Also out this week is "Woman Thou Art Loosed," a film adaptation of the bestselling inspirational novel of the same name by Bishop T.D. Jakes, chronicling a woman's struggle to come to terms with her legacy of abuse, addiction and poverty.
"Woman Thou Art Loosed" is the story of Michelle Jordan (Kimberly Elise), a young woman raised in an environment of abuse and molestation at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend Reggie (Clifton Powell); which her mother Cassie (Loretta Devine) unwittingly condones.
While incarcerated, Michelle sends Bishop Jakes (played by the Bishop himself) a letter requesting a visit. Jakes agrees to meet Michelle and soon uncovers the painful history that led to her personal demise.
Also hitting store shelves on Tuesday is a 2-Disc Collector's Edition of "The Ring" and "Lightning in a Bottle," a musical celebration of the blues featuring B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Solomon Burke, Keb' Mo', Macy Gray, the Neville Brothers, Robert Cray and John Fogerty.
"Fear X" stars John Turturro as a security guard in the Wisconsin mall where his pregnant wife (Deborah Kara Unger) was recently shot to death in an apparently unmotivated crime. By night he meticulously culls hours of the mall's surveillance video in hopes of finding a clue to the mystery of her death; his clue, however, comes in the form of a dream.
He follows it as far as Montana, where he stumbles upon an unsuspected conspiracy and the slowly emerging realization that there was much in Kate's life of which he was unaware.
"Fear X" is an austere psychological thriller best suited for those who won't mind if a few mysteries remain unsolved.
Barbie is back this week in her first-ever Fairytopia movie, while Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends commemorate their 60th Anniversary with "Thomas' Sodor Celebration."
Ride the rails to exciting adventures in this all-new collection of stories from the #1 engine's hit show on PBS Kids... hop on board as Thomas learns to navigate a difficult bend on his new route - in spite of a runaway train... watch as Thomas and Percy work hard to achieve their goal of being the cleanest engines, while learning never to give up... and Thomas finds that sharing the load makes things easier (whether moving a circus or delivering chickens).
Also from TV this week comes Season One of "Kojak," Season Two of "Columbo," "21 Jump Street" and "Green Acres" (available separately) and Volume Two of "The Best of Mister Ed."
That's it for this week... join us next week for more DVD news and reviews (and a few rants and raves, too).
Regards,
DVD Direct 4 Less
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| This Week's New DVD Releases - Street Date: March 8, 2005 |
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Visit us online to see a comprehensive list of new DVD releases for the next six weeks.
Links above are for Region 1 (USA) Editions. Availability and release dates elsewhere may vary.
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An all-star cast - George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia Roberts, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle and Andy Garcia - headline "Ocean's Twelve," the rollicking sequel to the remake of "Ocean's Eleven" (which featured much of the same cast).
Director Steven Soderbergh has managed to capture the fun and freewheeling energy of the original 1960 heist flick - which starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and Angie Dickinson - and has reinvented it for today's audiences with a modern day Rat Pack of big beautiful box office stars.
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But that's pretty much all you get here... don't expect to make much sense of the plot. Still, the in-jokes and the glamour and charm of New Hollywood are more than enough to keep this featherweight confection aloft as a star showcase. At least for two hours or so.
"Ocean's Twelve" will arrive April 12th all by itself in a widescreen edition or in a 2-Pack, together with the 2001 version of "Ocean's Eleven."
Preorder "Ocean's Twelve" now and save 30%. |
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| Batman in Black and White |
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Coming to Gotham City next week - March 15th - is "Batman and Robin: The Complete Movie Serial Collection." This is a collection of fifteen installments of the Caped Crusader's classic cliffhanging serial, as shown in theatres in 1949, and presented in glorious black and white.
Starring Robert Lowery, Johnny Duncan, Jane Adams and Lyle Talbot, this is a 2-disc set with over four hours of entertainment containing the following episodes: "Batman Takes Over," "Tunnels of Terror," "Robin's Wild Ride," "Robin Rescues Batman," "Target-Robin," "The Fatal Blast," "Robin Meets the Wizard," "The Wizard Strikes Back," "Batman's Last Chance," "Robin's Ruse," "Robin Rides the Wind," "The Wizard's Challenge," "Batman Vs. Wizard," and "Batman Victorious."
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| Preorder "Batman and Robin: The Complete Movie Serial Collection" and save 30%. |
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| All Singing! All Dancing! All on DVD! |
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Warner Home Video's "Broadway to Hollywood - Classic Musicals Collection" will also be out be out next week - March 15th - and will mark the DVD debut of "Easter Parade" and "The Band Wagon."
"Easter Parade," one of the cheeriest musicals ever made, stars Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Ann Miller and Peter Lawford and features 17 Irving Berlin tunes and an Academy Award®-winning score.
"The Band Wagon" stars Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan under the direction of Vincente Minelli. This backstage musical introduced the hallmark song, "That's Entertainment!"
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Both titles will be released in 2-Disc Special Editions and have been restored using Warner's proprietary "Ultra Resolution" process, which delivers a fully remastered picture from newly restored film elements.
In addition, "The Band Wagon" will feature a soundtrack remastered in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and original mono.
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As for bonus extras... "Easter Parade" will contain the DVD premiere of the critically acclaimed, Emmy® Award winning PBS American Masters documentary, "Judy Garland: By Myself," and commentary by Astaire's daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie.
"The Band Wagon" has commentaries by Liza Minnelli and Michael Feinstein, "making-of" documentaries and musical outtakes.
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Also new to DVD in the "Classic Musicals Collection" are "Bells Are Ringing" and "Finian's Rainbow," along with a newly remastered version of "Brigadoon." All three feature remastered soundtracks, trailers and new featurettes and/or outtakes.
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Judy Holiday stars in "Bells Are Ringing," reprising her Broadway role as a switchboard operator at an answering service (in an era when voice mail was just a gleam in your grandpappy's eye.)
The movie costars Dean Martin and the Jule Styne/Betty Comden/Adloph Green score includes "The Party's Over" and "Just in Time."
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Fred Astaire's last musical lead was in "Finian's Rainbow," director Francis Ford Coppola's movie of the 1947 Broadway hit. The film costars Petula Clark, Keenan Wynn and Tommy Steele as a lovestruck leprechaun.
The Burton Lane/E.Y. ("Yip") Harburg score introduced "How are Things in Glocca Morra?," "If This Isn't Love" and "Old Devil Moon," among other popular tunes.
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Gene Kelly starred in and choreographed "Brigadoon," the lyrical film adaptation of the offbeat 1947 Broadway musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.
Vincente Minnelli directed this magical tale of vacationing New Yorkers (Kelly and Van Johnson) who discover a Scottish village that comes to life every 100 years for one day only. Cyd Charisse is the town lass who falls in love with Kelly.
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All five movies will be available separately, although you can save a bundle when you buy the complete "Classic Musicals Collection" Gift Set, which is priced so low, it's almost like getting three films for free.
And you can even save 30% by preordering now.
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| Preview of Next Week's Releases - Street Date: March 15, 2005 |
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Up next week is the highly anticipated DVD debut of "The Incredibles," the Disney/Pixar megahit featuring the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Vowell, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn and Holly Hunter. It's a 2-Disc Collector's Edition available in both widescreen and full screen versions.
Also coming to DVD: Sean Penn's favorite actor, Jude Law, in "Alfie," a new Deluxe Edition of "Miss Congeniality," a Collector's Edition of "Star Trek - First Contact" and a completely ordinary edition of "What the Bleep Do We Know?," a sleeper hit and a rather extraordinary film.
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Amazon l Barnes & Noble l DVD Empire l  DVDPlanet l ebay  l Half.com l Target l Wal-Mart
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The DVD Dossier is a free weekly newsletter that contains objective information about new DVD releases that has been researched and written by the editors at DVD Direct 4 Less, as well as advertisements and promotional information provided by movie studios.
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No DVDs were harmed in the making of this newsletter.
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