Home Media Magazine - March 30 - April 5, 2008 - (Page 20)

REVIEWS THE TOP 5 I BASEBALL MOVIES Edited by John Latchem The advent of spring means the return of America’s original pastime, the grandest game of all — baseball. So there’s no better time to reflect on the game’s contribution to America’s cinematic history and check out some of these classics on DVD. – John Latchem 1. I BULL DURHAM (Fox/MGM) 1988. This tale of the minor leagues plays at a major league level, with a great script and solid performances. I WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY Street 4/8 Sony Pictures, Comedy, B.O. $18.3 million, $28.95 single DVD, $29.96 two-DVD set, $43.95 Blu-ray, $24.94 UMD, Available in ‘R’ and unrated versions. Stars John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, Chris Parnell, Kristen Wiig. 2. I MAJOR LEAGUE (Paramount) 1989. Formulaic yet funny, quotable and eminently watchable movie about the perennial underdog Cleveland Indians. 3. I THE NATURAL (Sony Pictures) 1984. The story of Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) has so permeated the culture the film is practically baseball lore unto itself. F 4. I A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (Sony) 1992. This look at women’s baseball in the 1940s is anchored by a great performance from Tom Hanks. 5. I 61* (HBO Video) 2001. Former Yankee Billy Crystal presents this tribute to Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and their pursuit of the home run record in 1961. rom one perspective, it’s a pitch-perfect satire of conventions found in the recent slate of musician biopics; on the whole, Walk Hard is an uneven comedy that undercuts its zaniness with a surprising emotional weight near the end. Typical of films associated with Judd Apatow such as Anchorman and Talladega Nights, Walk Hard exists in that same freeform world of comedy excesses, populating its wacky diogesis with characters unlike any other in the canon of film. Even if all the jokes don’t stick, the filmmakers still earn points just for maintaining the zany atmosphere of the bizarre world they created. This mood extends to the DVD features as well, especially “The Last Word With John Hodgman,” a Comedy Central promo special hosted by the hilariously understated Hodgman of “The Daily Show,” featuring mock interviews of all the characters. If it seems the characters in these types of movies are just making up the dialogue off the top of their heads, well, they are. The producers admit to it in another featurette. Seems it’s easier than actually writing the scene, but that’s part of what makes these movies so different. The DVD is a complete package. The two-disc set includes both the theatrical version and, if you do some searching, an unrated version that is a half-hour longer, billed as “American Cox: The Unbearably Long, Self-Indulgent Director’s Cut.” A slew of featurettes detail the making of the movie, including one devoted to the search for the perfect performer for the film’s most gratuitous yet anatomically correct scene. The best asset of Walk Hard is its soundtrack, comprised of catchy and kitschy parodies of a variety of song styles, from the ubiquitous title tune to the sublime “Let’s Duet,” a threeminute double entendre. Performances of most of the songs in the film, and a few that aren’t, are included in an index on the second disc. Walk Hard is as much a parody of the style and music of the eras it covers. Dewey Cox (Reilly) seems to be an amalgam of different musicians from the last half of the 20th century, yet he also coexists among those he is designed to spoof. In comedy terms, this may be the filmmaker’s way of trying to have their cake and eat it too. – John Latchem BLU-RAY SPOTLIGHT I INDEPENDENCE DAY Fox, Sci-Fi, $39.98 Blu-ray, ‘PG-13’ for sci-fi destruction and violence. Stars Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox. HDTV: Philips 1080p 47-inch Player: PlayStation 3 I ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS Street 4/1 Fox, Family, B.O. $215.3 million, $29.98 DVD, $39.98 Blu-ray, ‘PG’ for some mild rude humor. Stars Jason Lee, David Cross, Jane Lynch, Cameron Richardson. Voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney. I’ve had my doubts that older movies would look and sound as spectacular as new releases on Blu-ray Disc, but Independence Day is about as close to seeing it in a theater in 1996 as it gets. The sound is particularly striking, especially when the alien ship looms over the moon as it heads to Earth. My whole living room shook. I’m also beginning to appreciate the elegance of Blu-ray Disc menus, which make old DVD menus look clunky. I once thought extras such as the keyword search were superfluous. But after trying it out, I think the feature might turn out to be a standard. I can imagine trying to find a particular scene and using the keyword search rather than scrolling through the scenes as on DVDs. The commentaries are standard, though more interesting than most. Producer Dean Devlin is particularly entertaining. A pop-up trivia feature repeats some information from the commentary, but does include a few new tidbits. The disc also includes a trivia game played while watching the movie. Again, I thought at first this was a silly idea, but after trying it, I found it fun. You click on various items in the movie to gain points. The only drawback is you know all the answers after playing it a couple times. I would imagine in the future the Internet would let you refresh the game with new trivia. – Stephanie Prange A lvin and the Chipmunks is a pop-culture phenom with surprising staying power. From the group’s creation in 1958 by musician Ross Bagdasarian Sr. and the millions of albums sold to its two TV cartoon stints and, now, this live-action/CGI hybrid flick, the high-pitched rodent trio has had a career any entertainer would covet. Among non-nostaligics, this latest foray means little other than the death of any indie cred stars Jason Lee (as David Seville) and David Cross (as an unscrupulous record exec) may have once had. But for fans and parents, this harmless kid flick that updates the chipmunk mythol- ogy will likely find a place on their family’s DVD shelf. While the extras are slim, parents will likely enjoy them more than the film itself. Ross Bagdasarian Jr., the protector of his father’s legacy and producer of this film, offers an interesting history of his father, the characters and their career in the “Chip-Chip-Hooray” featurette. Another featurette, “Hitting the Harmony,” shows the recording process. Musical director Ali Dee and producer/vocalist Alana Da Fonseca are disturbingly rah-rah about the hip-hop-infused songs on the soundtrack, but the insight into how the vocals are accomplished does show the ingenuity, hard work and talent required. Imagine singing half-speed, over-enunciating every vowel and consonant, and only breathing about half as much as you need to; then, imagine a vocalist performing Mariah Carey-like vocal acrobatics in this same manner. It’s a shame with such a legacy that more ephemera couldn’t have been collected, like cartoons from the 1960s and 1980s TV shows, or galleries of unforgettable album covers like Chipmunk Punk and the many licensed products from the past 50 years. Give nostalgia hounds some goods, and maybe some adults without kids would pick up the disc, too. Still, sales ought to be strong despite the fairly mediocre reviews and weak extras. If kids want it, parents will buy it. – Laura Tiffany 20 Home Media Magazine March 30–April 5, 2008

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Home Media Magazine - March 30 - April 5, 2008

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