Home Media Magazine - October 21-27, 2007 - (Page 18)

REVIEWS HIGH-DEF SPOTLIGHT I JAILHOUSE ROCK Warner, Musical, $28.99 HD DVD, Blu-ray, NR. Stars Elvis Presley, Dean Jones, Mickey Shaughnessy, Jennifer Holden. HDTV: Panasonic 42-inch Edited by John Latchem www.homemediamagazine.com W ith handlers not mesmerized by his voice and looks, Elvis Presley might have also evolved into a quality actor. Jailhouse Rock — released two years after Rebel Without a Cause catapulted James Dean to cult status — showcases Elvis’ successful portrayal as a directionless young man who learns how to belt out tunes while in jail for manslaughter. The 1957 release includes the songs “Treat Me Nice,” “I Wanna Be Free” and the scene-stealing title tune. Under the high-def microscope of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, Jailhouse Rock underscores Presley’s considerable cinematic presence (those piercing eyes), even in black and white and with a limited script. The bonus material, in standard-definition, includes commentary by Steve Pond, author of Elvis in Hollywood, a theatrical trailer and the featurette “The Scene That Stole Jailhouse Rock.” As Elvis remains largely defined by his music, it is only appropriate that Warner Home Video digitally remastered the soundtrack in Dolby HD. The choreographed “Jailhouse Rock” dance sequence, which Elvis apparently had reservations doing, was so physically demanding it was filmed in installments and spliced together in post-production. In a time before music videos and digital voiceovers, the musical numbers hold their own, thanks to The King. – Erik Gruenwedel I RATATOUILLE Street 11/6 Disney, Animated, B.O. $204.4 million, $29.99 DVD, $34.99 Blu-ray, ‘G.’ Voices of Patton Oswalt, Brad Garrett, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O’Toole. H EDITOR’S PICK Scaring Up Laughs I n general, I despise holiday movies. I simply cannot stomach the sentimentality of holiday fare where angels get their friggin’ wings and mean old misers learn the meaning of Christmas. Whatever. But there is one holiday where the movie choices are excellent: Halloween. Many top horror lists that abound as the holiday approaches are dedicated to the classics. One of my personal favorites doesn’t usually make a list. From Dusk Till Dawn is the 1996 collaboration of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. It begins with the Gecko brothers (Clooney and Tarantino) on the run for robbing a bank. To escape across the Mexican border, the brothers kidnap an ex-minister (Keitel) and his family in their RV, and take refuge in a strip joint in the middle of the desert to await the local crime boss. Just when you think the plot can’t get any crazier, the strippers and patrons of the joint turn into vampires. Yes, vampires. It is hard to say what I love most about the movie, but it is likely the sheer ridiculousness of the story and the brilliance with which it is executed. The film makes an almost seamless transition from action to horror, made even more amazing by the characters mirroring the audience’s incredulity of the situation. You can’t help but cheer the characters as they disbelievingly fight for their lives. For my money From Dusk Till Dawn is a stellar horror flick. It is fast-paced and witty, with a refusal to take itself seriously … and that makes it seriously fun to watch. ere’s an odd choice for a Disney movie. This latest effort from Pixar and director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) tells the story of Remy, a rat with a heightened sense of smell and taste. Tired of eating garbage, Remy becomes obsessed with the art of fine dining and winds up in Paris in a fancy restaurant that has fallen on hard times. In the age of “Hell’s Kitchen,” any movie about rats in a gourmet eatery might be a tough sell, but leave it to a studio built on a mouse to pull it off. Remy is studious enough to know everything about cooking, but his only outlet is the kitchen garbage boy, who becomes a master chef by preparing Remy’s recipes. This plot point is reminiscent of another Disney short involving a rodent, 1953’s Ben and Me, which featured a mouse (not Mickey) guiding Ben Franklin through the founding of the United States. The CG animation is lively and about what one would expect from a Pixar movie. While Ratatouille may not quite be at the level of earlier classics such as Toy Story or Finding Nemo, it still has a leg up over most other animated fare. Three deleted sequences feature an interview with Bird, who discusses some of the difficulties of coming onto the project midway through production. A featurette contrasts the artistic processes of cooking and filmmaking. The DVD also includes a couple of cute Easter eggs and two animated shorts. Your Friend the Rat is a companion piece to the main feature, a stylishly animated tutorial on the history of rats and human mistrust of them. Lifted is a hilarious send-up of alien abduction stories, about a rookie alien who can’t quite figure out how to snatch a man out of his bed. — John Latchem I MARV: THE SOUL OF FIVE STAR BASKETBALL Street 10/23 Victory Multimedia, Sports, $19.99 DVD, NR. Kyra Kudick Associate Editor D I FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 1996, Disney/Dimension, ‘R’ for strong violence and gore, language and nudity. Stars George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Earnest Liu, Michael Parks, Kelly Preston. espite the cerebral activity required to compete on an elevated level, the skills of basketball players are often attributed to size and athletic ability. As much as the latter factors into the equation, anyone involved with the game surely knows better. Basketball mastermind Marv Kessler offers proof in this documentary. Kessler, a legendary New York prep and college coach, has received much applause for his intellectual approach, and his methods have been copied and instituted in high-school and college programs. As founder of Marv Kessler’s All Pro Basketball School, Kessler offers insight to some of the nuances of the game and how to overcome them. Taught with the simplicity of a Dale Carnegie sales course, Kessler shows players how to stay a step ahead of their opponents by stressing the fundamentals. He also knows when to mix in some occasional humor to break up the repetition of his teaching sessions. Like any good sports tale, there also are poignant recollections. Kessler and some of his former players emotionally recall the tragic death of one of their own, former Adelphi University center Marshall Williams, who collapsed and died during a game in 1977. Kessler was the team’s coach at the time. The special features also add value to this DVD. One worthy addition is “Integration,” which is the best of the bonus features even if it is too short. In it, players talk candidly about some of the taboos and controversial topics surrounding race in the 1960s and ’70s and how they overcame these issues. There also are additional interviews featuring more of Kessler’s former players stressing one of the coach’s major themes and the bottom line of the game: teamwork. — Benny Lopez 18 Home Media Magazine October 21–27, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - October 21-27, 2007

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