Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - (Page 20) REVIEWS I SANTA AND PETE Prebook 10/17; Street 11/25 Vanguard, Family, $19.95 DVD, NR. Stars James Earl Jones, Hume Cronyn, Flex Alexander, Tempestt Bledsoe, Erica Gimpel. Edited by John Latchem www.homemediamagazine.com I ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS Street 10/21 Genius, Romance, $14.95 DVD, NR. Stars Gail O’Grady, Greg Germann, Jimmy ‘Jax’ Pinchak. antaand Pete is a fanciful and charming Christmasstory about the evolution of Santa Claus and his mysterious helper, Pete. Jones plays a grandfather whose grandson comes to visit at the holidays. As the old man and the young boy finish decorating the tree, the boy discovers the last two ornaments, one of Santa Claus and the other of a Moor that Jones identifies as Pete. When the boy asks who Pete was, Jones launches into a story that spans generations and continents. Cronyn plays Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children. He wanders the Old World each year, keeping his Book of Life, but always returning to his beloved Holland every Christmas. One year he is detained in Spain and accused of being a spy. But a sympathetic cook helps him escape, and together the pair sails to the New World. As they meet new people and have adventures, little pieces of the Santa mythology are explained; his red coat, his reindeer, his hat, his propensity for coming down chimneys. Santa and Pete is a period piece with a contemporary flair. Alexander, especially, brings a modern sensibility to the proceedings as Pete. Cronyn is delightfully crinkly as the magical Saint Nicholas, and Jones is like a soft, cozy blanket as the grandfather who loves to tell this story. Not just a holiday story about families at Christmas, Santa and Pete is a holiday story actually about the holiday and is a lovely little family film that will delight children and satisfy parents. – Anne Sherber S I I THE INCREDIBLE HULK Street 10/21 Universal, Action, B.O. $134.5 million, $29.98 DVD, $34.98 two-DVD set, $39.98 Blu-ray, ‘PG-13’ for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images and brief suggestive content. Stars Edward Norton, Tim Roth, Liv Tyler, William Hurt. T his new interpretation of the Hulk from director Louis Leterrier plays like a sequel to a film that was never actually made. It follows Ang Lee’s 2003 version, picking up the Army’s chase for Bruce Banner in South America, his location at the end of Lee’s film. The connections pretty much end there, and Leterrier’s version steers clear of the earlier story. Edward Norton takes over for Eric Bana, among other cast changes, in this reboot that opens with flashbacks to Banner’s experiments that exposed him to gamma radiation and transformed him into the Hulk. It’s as if these flashbacks were plucked from a conventional origin story many fans wished was made in 2003, rather than Lee’s existential examination of the darker undercurrents of the human soul. The nature of the gamma experiments has changed as well. In Lee’s version, the gamma radiation activates latent genes injected into Banner as a child by his father. The updated version involves an Army experiment to create super soldiers, which ties into the larger Marvel Comics mythology and fits in with a crossover storyline begun in Iron Man. The Incredible Hulk is certainly a more enjoyable experience than the 2003 film, settling in as a decent action thriller. Norton is an upgrade from Bana in the title role, while the rest of the cast change is a wash. The movie also benefits from the inclusion of a real villain, the Abomination, who is essentially just an evil version of the Hulk. The DVD presentation offers the standard fare, with most of the behind-the-scenes featurettes focusing on the visual effects of creating the Hulk and filming key action sequences. Curiously, the film’s deleted scenes are spread across the two discs, rather than being batched together. Included is an alternate opening that without the proper context doesn’t make much sense. This sequence is discussed briefly in a runof-the-mill commentary with Leterrier and Tim Roth, who plays the Abomination. – John Latchem f you drew a line between Sleepless in Seattle and A Christmas Carol, you might find All I Want for Christmas at the halfway mark. A toy company sponsors a holiday contest and invites children to share the one thing that they most want for Christmas. After reviewing video after video of children asking for everything under the sun, they settle on one boy who only wants one thing: a husband for his widowed mom. His mom, it turns out, is the lovely but lonely Sarah (O’Grady) who, between her job running a soup kitchen and raising her son, has very little time for herself. At first, she is reluctant to participate in what she understands is just a publicity stunt. But when the owner of the building in which the soup kitchen is housed decides to sell the place, she sees an opportunity. She will agree to be the toy company’s spectacle du jour, if they will donate the money needed to buy the building. There is some predictability in the plotting, however, All I Want for Christmas is agreeable holiday fare. A talented and appealing cast of mainly television actors, led by O’Grady and Germann, bring a freshness and spark to what might have been an unsurprising television movie. Germann, especially, does a good job of finding the humor and humanity in what could have become a clichéd, mustache-twirling Scrooge. Although it breaks no new ground, All I Want for Christmas is a pleasantly satisfying family holiday film that certainly belongs in this year’s holiday film rotation. – Anne Sherber I PINGU’S SOUTH POLE ADVENTURES Prebook 10/15; Street 11/11 Lionsgate, Animated, $14.98 DVD, NR. P 20 ingu is a cute, quirky penguin designed for those with a short attention span. Swiss animator Otmar Gutman created about 104 five-minute Pingu shorts, starting back in 1986. This DVD release includes eight of those adventures, in which the cuddly, often clumsy little guy tries to fly, plays tag, gets a paper route, goes ice fishing, loses his sister, and even makes friends with the Abominable Snowman. Most of those experiences include Pingu’s mom and dad, his sister Pinga, and a slew of other colorful characters from the Antarctic. Fans of the 2006 big-screen film Happy Feet might enjoy picking up a few more penguin adventures. However, this release is a far cry from that animation. Instead the old-school claymation style is more reminiscent of Gumby or “Davey and Goliath.” Unlike all three of those older titles, though, these animated adventures get by on their antics — there is absolutely no dialogue. All of the characters speak in “Penguinese,” which is more like honking. However, Pingu’s actions speak louder (sometimes a lot louder) than words, which should make him a perfect target for smaller children — specifically of the preschool age range. Keeping with the short theme, there are a few kid-friendly features on this release, including a character gallery featuring “Pingu’s Family Album,” as well as the interactive “Snowball Roll and Bowl Game.” – Rachel Cericola Home Media Magazine October 12–18, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 Contents News TV DVD Cine Mercado Reviews Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 (Page Cover1) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 (Page Cover2) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 (Page 1) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 (Page 2) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Contents (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Contents (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Contents (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - News (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - News (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - News (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - News (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Reviews (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Reviews (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Reviews (Page 22) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Reviews (Page 23) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 24) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 25) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 26) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 27) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 28) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover3) Home Media Magazine - October 12-18, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover4)
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