Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008 - (Page 16)

REVIEWS www.homemediamagazine.com 2007-2008 U.S. THEATRICAL RELEASE “sexy and smart…[with] a first-rate cast and nail-onthe-head dialogue” –The New York Times Starring (The Lives of Others The Good Shepherd,) Martina Gedeck Robert Seeliger (Fay Grim, Paradise Falls) In the tradition of Little Children and American Beauty Beautiful and assured, Miriam enjoys a seemingly perfect existence. But when her 15year-old son invites his girlfriend to spend the holidays, Miriam grows jealous of the girl’s brazen sensuality and begins an affair with volatile consequences. KLF-DV-3165 • UPC: 7-41952-31659-6 • ISBN: 1-4172-0181-9 • SRP: $29.98 Running Time: 97 minutes • Genre: Suspense/Thriller • German with English subtitles Dolby Digital • Aspect Ratio: 16x9/1.78:1 • Production Year: 2006 I WIENERS Prebook 5/8; Street 6/10 Sony Pictures, Comedy, $24.94 DVD, ‘R’ for crude and sexual humor, nudity and language. Stars Kenan Thompson, Zachary Levi, Fran Kranz, Darrell Hammond. NATIONAL MARKETING AND PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN • Advertising with Film Comment, DVD Talk, German World and more • Extensive internet and editorial outreach WINNER TAORMINA FILM FESTIVAL Best Film, Best Actor WINNER TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL Best Screenplay, Best Actor here has never before been a film about three guys traveling the highways, byways and dusty back roads of this land in a wiener-mobile — a van outfitted with a giant replica of a hot dog mounted on top in order to provide free samples to legions of needy Americans. The new comedy Wieners uses this vehicle as the foundation of its plot and turns up the narrative heat by making the van a personally customized affair for driver Wyatt (Thompson), who has failed the entrance exam for a program that trains drivers to operate the official vans used to promote Oscar Mayer. Wyatt’s solution to making his frankfurter dreams come true coincides with one of his best friends, Joel (Kranz), hitting rock bottom after being dumped by his girlfriend on T national television and humiliated by the show’s host, Dr. Dwayne (Hammond), a pop psychologist clearly modeled after Dr. Phil. Levi rounds out the crew as another childhood best friend, desperate to pull Joel out of his funk but dubious of Wyatt’s notion that a trip in a wiener-van and getting revenge on the smarmy talk show host will be a sure-fire depression buster. The appealing, gifted leads all bring solid fanbases to the project, and they are ably supported with cameos from Jenny McCarthy, Kyle Gass and Andy Milonakis, who all turn in brief but precious-enough performances that are almost enough to base a viewing recommendation on. Road trip films have been wildly appealing ever since the classic It Happened One Night, and while, unlike this film, the travelers did not encounter evil vegan hippies or phallic-minded cowboys, the idea is the same. You meet strange people on the road, and sometimes very funny things happen. – David Greenberg I GAMERS “brilliantly conceived… illuminated by Abdelli's edgy, agonized performance” –Variety Street 5/6 Monterey, Comedy, $24.95 DVD, NR. Stars John Heard, Beverly D’Angelo, William Katt, Kelly LeBrock. DIRECTED BY CANNES FILM FESTIVAL WINNER (Un Certain Regard Award) Nouri Bouzid STARRING TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL WINNER (Best Actor) W Lotfi Abdelli Twenty-five-year-old Bahta (Lotfi Abdelli) has no job, no degree and no prospects. His one passion is breakdancing, but even that outlet is regularly repressed by the police. After attracting the attention of a group of fundamentalists, Bahta is recruited into the violent and dangerous world of terrorism. KLF-DV-3156 • UPC: 7-41952-31569-8 • ISBN: 1-4172-0172-X • SRP: $26.98 • Running Time: 115 minutes Genre: Foreign/Drama • Arabic with English subtitles • Dolby Digital • 16x9/1.78:1 • Production Year: 2006 DVD EXTRAS: An Introduction with Peter Scarlet of the Tribeca Film Festival Interview with director Nouri Bouzid at the Taormina Film Festival NATIONAL MARKETING & PUBLICITY including advertising with Film Comment, DVD Talk and outreach to independent and Arab film outlets Pre-Book date: 5/13/08 • Street Date: 6/10/08 Watch CLIPS at WWW.KOCHCLIPS.COM • For more information WWW.KOCHB2B.COM ith the insightful documentary Darkon having explored the personal and hobby lives of live-action role-players, these past couple of years are proving an embarrassment of film riches for a community whose strange members and obsessive dedication have too long been ignored for their comic and dramatic potential. Now we have the “unrated, uncensored, unapologetic” version of the independently produced mockumentary Gamers. This new edition adds some fluff and fat in extras and longer scenes, but even more laughs. It should be the version of choice for RPG fanboys as well as the general public. Audiences will see more of the tale of four players of Demons, Nymphs and Dragons (shortened to DND, get it?) who have played their pen-and-pencil tabletop role-playing game for at least 52 hours a week for 23 years (that’s 74,565 hours). These “four horsemen” (plus the hapless and annoying Reese, who plays the fifth wheel in their party) can pass a group of farmers who have been stalled on their way to the new record by a machinery accident. This cut of the film loses some of the urgency of that record by slowing things down for lengthier comic scenes, but will garner more laughs in the process. My wife, who knows nothing of role-playing games, laughed out loud several times, even as she was puzzled by some of the in-jokes. Two new commentaries are off-thecuff and cute: one with writer-director Christopher Folino, a producer, the narrator and three cast members; the other with an executive producer and cast members. There are short post-production cast interviews that include some blooper footage that was some of the funniest on the disc. Where’s the blooper reel? To come in the third edition? The deleted scenes were super short and, as with most, were clearly smart cuts to speed up the pace of the film. – Brendan Howard 16 Home Media Magazine May 4–10, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.kochclips.com http://www.kochb2b.com

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Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008

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