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The DVD Dossier is the free newsletter published weekly by DVD Direct 4 Less.
This is the archived issue for April 3, 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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April 3, 2005
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One of our favorite movies of last year is out this week: "Sideways."
It's a poignant and funny comedy about a modern day odd couple on a road trip through central California in search of wine, women and themselves. Their trip veers dizzily into a wry exploration of love, friendship, loneliness, midlife crises and the merits of Pinot vs. Cabernet.
It's the most critically acclaimed comedy of last year, appearing on over 300 "top ten" lists.
Nominated for five Academy Awards®, it brought home the prize for Best Adapted Screenplay. In addition, "Sideways" received seven Golden Globe® nominations, winning Best Picture - Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay. The film has four standout performances from Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh and Virginia Masden.
The DVD release features commentary by Giamatti and Haden Church, eight deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette and the original theatrical trailer. Curiously absent is commentary from writer/director Aexander Payne, which makes us think a Special Edition of some kind might be planned for late this year or early next.
"Sideways" is available in both widescreen and full screen versions. But fair warning: choosing the full screen version would be like, well, drinking Merlot.
Also making its way to DVD this week is the Jennifer Garner action hero vehicle and box office bomb, "Elektra."
This movie is also available in widescreen and full screen, but we don't really care which one you choose; we think you should pass on this martial arts fantasy flick entirely, as it's just a second rate spin-off of "Daredevil."
Far more interesting (but also a bit of a muddle) is "I Am David," about a 12 year old boy who escapes from a Bulgarian concentration camp and begins a spiritual journey of discovery.
Based on Anne Holm's novel "North to Freedom," the film is sugary sweet and overly sentimental, but makes for fine family viewing. "I Am David" stars Jim Caviezel, Joan Plowright and young Ben Tipper as David.
"Steal," starring Stephen Dorff and Natasha Henstridge, is what you get when you combine your standard paint-by-numbers heist picture with extreme sports. Dorff is a charismatic thief who uses high octane stunts to escape capture; Henstridge is the detective who is after him.
And "Silverado," from director Lawrence Kasdan, is back this week in a 2-Disc Superbit Gift Set, which includes a 20-page scrapbook and a deck of playing cards. The hip 1985 western stars Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner and John Cleese.
Roy Orbison is also back, this time singing his hits with a full orchestra in a 1972 concert being released as "Roy Orbison: Live in Australia."
The original "Amityville Horror" returns in a new boxed set collection, just as the remake of the 1973 horror flick about a creepy Long Island home is about to hit the big screen. (In fact, a ticket to the new film is included in the set.)
The 4-Disc "Amityville Horror Collection" includes "The Amityville Horror," "Amityville II: The Possession," "Amityville 3-D" and a bonus disc, "Amityville Confidential," which explores the true story behind the Amityville series.
"The Corporation" is a documentary about the growing prominence of large global businesses and the way that their decisions are impacting the world. Clear, lucid, darkly comic, highly entertaining and highly recommended.
"With or Without You" is being promoted as "a sexy, hysterical story of friendship, love and life-altering experiences... in the tradition of romantic comedies with African-American casts like "Deliver Us From Eva" and "The Best Man." We haven't seen it yet, but movies that have to be described as "hysterical" in the press release generally aren't.
Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni star in James L. Brooks' ambitious comedy "Spanglish." The film has its heart in the right place, but - at more than two hours - desperately needs to be trimmed down and focused.
"Dirty War" is a recently aired HBO/BBC film about a "dirty bomb" attack in central London.
Also from TV this week comes the Fourth Season of "The West Wing," which is available by itself or in a megapack with all four seasons of the show.
The Second Season of "The Greatest American Hero" arrives on DVD this Tuesday, as does the Fourth Season of "Queer as Folk" and the Second Season of "Def Poetry."
Behind the scenes this past week, Netflix, the online DVD rental pioneer, announced that they now have over 3 million subscribers and are well on their way to hitting 4 million by year's end.
And Blockbuster settled the false advertising claims lodged against the firm in 47 states (an action is still pending in New Jersey). This is regarding their "no late fees" ad campaign for their bricks and mortar stores (not their online operation).
The states charged that the ads misrepresented Blockbuster's policy and made customers think they could keep the movies as long as they liked without a penalty. In fact, they were charged the purchase price of the movie if a customer kept it beyond the grace period. If they returned it, they were issued a refund, but Blockbuster charged a $1.25 (or more) "restocking" fee.
The $630,000 settlement will go to refund fees to customers who misunderstood the policy and Blockbuster has said that they will now more clearly represent the offer in future advertising and in-store signs.
Also this week, after dropping its bid for rival Hollywood Entertainment, Blockbuster announced that they were laying off 20% of their workforce at their corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Up to 300 employees will be affected and the job eliminations will offset 70 million dollars allocated to Blockbuster's online DVD rental efforts.
And that's all we have for you this week; we'll be back next Sunday with more DVD news and reviews. See you then!
Cheers,
DVD Direct 4 Less
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| This Week's New DVD Releases - Street Date: April 5, 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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"The Cosby Show," TV's top-rated program throughout much of the 80's, finally comes to DVD on August 2nd.
"The Cosby Show" dominated Thursday evenings from 1984 to 1992 and is one of the biggest and longest running hits in American television history.
The Emmy® Award-winning series was the #1 new show in its very first season and ranked as the #1 network program for five consecutive years, pulling in the highest household season rating of any program in more than 30 years.
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Coming on the scene at a time when few quality sitcoms were being broadcast, "The Cosby Show" single-handedly revived not only the format, but the NBC television network.
Modeled in large part on Cosby's own life, the show revolved around the day-to-day situations faced by Cliff (Bill Cosby) and Claire Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad) and their five children. The Huxtables, an upper-middle-class family, were unlike any other African-American family previously seen on TV.
Their everyday adventures centered around Sondra (Sabrina LeBeauf), their eldest daughter, Theo (Malcolm Jamal-Warner), their underachiever son, Denise (Lisa Bonet), their eccentric daughter, and the two younger siblings, Vanessa (Tempestt Bledsoe) and Ruby (Keisha Knight Pulliam).
No details have been provided for the special features on Season One of "The Cosby Show," but Bill Cosby himself will be intimately involved and has already provided input to Carsey-Werner, the independent production studio that had its first big hit with "Cosby."
Carsey-Werner has licensed the show to Ventura Entertainment, which will distribute all eight seasons of "Cosby" under their own in-house UrbanWorks label.
You can preorder the First Season of "The Cosby Show" now and save 30%.
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| Season Four, Yada Yada Yada |
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The Fourth Season of "Seinfeld" arrives on DVD May 17th.
Relive your favorite moments with Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine), Michael Richards (Kramer) and Jason Alexander (George) in this new 4-Disc set featuring all 24 episodes from the season considered by most to be the "breakthrough" season for "Seinfeld."
It's easy to see why, with classic episodes "The Contest," "The Bubble Boy" and "The Junior Mint" all seen for the first time in Season Four.
This is the year that "Seinfeld" leapt from cult favorite to ratings sensation and officially became "a show about nothing."
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This boxed set also includes 13 hours of exclusive special features from the creative talents behind the show and all episodes - not seen in their entirety since their original broadcast run - have been remastered in high definition for the best possible picture and sound quality.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Preorder "Seinfeld: Season Four" now and save 35%.
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Kevin Bacon stars in "The Woodsman," a disturbing and thought-provoking drama he produced with his wife, Kyra Sedgwick. The film arrives on DVD next week, April 12th.
After twelve years in prison, Walter (Bacon), a convicted pedophile, moves into a small apartment across the street from an elementary school, gets a job at a lumberyard and pretty much keeps to himself.
He finds unexpected solace from Vicki (Sedgwick), a tough-talking woman who promises not to judge him for his history. But Walter has difficulty escaping his past.
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Shunned by his sister and living in fear of being discovered at work, Walter struggles with re-entry into society while grappling with his reawakened demons.
The subject matter makes "The Woodsman" hard to watch, but Bacon delivers a remarkably courageous and nuanced performance that demands to be seen.
Preorder "The Woodsman" now and save 30%.
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"Meet the Fockers," the sequel to the 2000 comedy hit "Meet the Parents," reunites Robert De Niro as ex-CIA operative Jack Byrnes; Ben Stiller as his future son-in-law, male nurse Greg Focker; Blythe Danner as Jack’s wife; and Teri Polo as Greg’s fiancée.
This time they are joined by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand as Greg’s eccentric and overbearing parents, Bernie and Roz Focker.
"Meet the Fockers" is modestly amusing, but frankly, it was all much better and funnier the first time around. Streisand and Hoffman, however, steal the show and their antics alone make this one well worth buying or renting.
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The DVD (available in both widescreen and full screen versions) will come packed with bonus extras including eighty-five (85!) bloopers and deleted scenes and a new extended edition of the film featuring over 15 minutes not shown in theaters.
"Fockers," the highest-grossing live-action comedy of all time, makes its DVD debut April 19th.
Pre-order "Meet the Fockers" now and save 35%. |
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Bill Murray leads an all-star cast in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," coming to DVD on May 10th.
Directed by Wes Anderson, this quirky comedy features Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and Michael Gambon.
Internationally famed oceanographer Steve Zissou (Murray) and his crew of misfits set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive (possibly nonexistent) Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou’s partner (Seymour Cassel) during the documentary filming of their last adventure.
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They are joined on their voyage by a young airline copilot (Wilson) who may or may not be Zissou’s long lost illegitimate son, a journalist (Blanchett) assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and Zissou’s estranged wife and co-producer (Huston).
Zissou faces complications trying to keep his expedition going, including lack of funding, a kidnapping, a burial at sea, an attack by a band of Filipino pirates and mutiny from his own motley crew, "Team Zissou."
"The Life Aquatic" is an uneven film, slow and rather ragged around the edges.
About halfway through, the meandering nature of the narrative along with the persistent guitar playing of a crew member (Seu Jorge, who sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese) will either charm you endlessly or annoy the crap out of you.
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Yes, it's that kind of film.
But Bill Murray is perfect as the self-absorbed Jacques Cousteau clone, right down to his red wool cap. Subtle and synthetic, his minimalist performance is one of the few things keeping this bizarre film afloat.
"The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" will be available on DVD in two editions. A Single Disc Edition features deleted scenes with director commentary, interviews with cast and crew, behind-the-scenes footage and the original theatrical trailer.
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© Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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A special 2-Disc Criterion Collection Special Edition gives you all that plus a bonus disc of extra features including video journals from the set, an Albert Maysles documentary on the making of the film, more musical performances from Seu Jorge, and additional interviews.
Pre-order "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" today and save 30%. |
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| Preview of Next Week's Releases - Street Date: April 12th 2005 |
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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.
We send this newsletter only to those who request it. Each newsletter we send directly to you includes an "unsubscribe" link. (This is an online archived issue of The DVD Dossier which does not contain that link.)
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Academy Award(s)® and Oscar(s)® are the registered service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe(s)® is the registered service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Seinfeld ©1992, 1993 Castle Rock Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. ©2005 Layout and Design Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.
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Savings percentages quoted apply to preorder purchases from amazon.com and were in effect at the time of publication; preorder savings may vary at other online merchants.
No DVDs were harmed in the making of this newsletter.
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