DD’s DVDs – Week of April 15, 2008
Written by Dave Dykema | | news@toledofreepress.comThe final Best Picture nominee comes out this week. Here’s what’s new in stores Tuesday, April 15, otherwise known as “Tax Day.”
Aliens vs. Predator — Requiem
Alien: Darn good.
Aliens: Great.
Alien3: Depressing and unnecessary.
Alien Resurrection: Silly and unnecessary.
AVP — Alien vs. Predator: Okay, but unnecessary.
That’s a lot of unnecessaries. The question becomes: if we’ve already reached the unnecessary stage with the first movie (AVP), what adjectives will be left by the time we hit Alien3 vs. Predator? And will there be an Alien Resurrection vs. Predator? The Predator series is certainly riding Alien’s coattails.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (Collector’s Edition)
Everyone whistle along with me: “Comet, it makes your mouth turn green/Comet, it tastes like Listerine/Comet, it makes you vomit/So get some Comet, and vomit, today.” That’s how I grew up knowing the popular theme to this movie. The music to the little ditty is “The Colonel Bogey March.”
Alec Guinness (Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi) stars as the commander of British troops taken prisoner by the Japanese in WWII. In a POW camp, they are forced to build a bridge for their enemy. At first defiant, Guinness eventually decides to build a better bridge than the one designed, to show off British superiority.
A great classic, and my dad’s favorite film.
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds
This little concert flick surprised the heck out of everyone when it was released. Originally supposed to be a limited one-week run, its $31 million opening weekend at the box office ensured a different fate, otherwise known as “a blockbuster.” It’s now the highest grossing concert film of all time. Is there anything those Disney kids can’t turn to gold?
Juno
This is the final film of 2007 nominated for a Best Picture Oscar to come out on DVD.
Juno is a young girl who gets pregnant. Sad to say, a common story in Lake Erie West. Originally vying for abortion, she decides to have the child a give it up for adoption. The search for suitable parents consumes her, and provides the grist for hilarity. Bittersweet hilarity—the kind that gets Oscar nominations.
A funny thing happens when you start to do a DVD column: people send you actual physical discs through the mail to watch! Although this came out a couple weeks ago, I felt obliged to give it a look-see…
Tripping the Rift: The Movie
Readers familiar with Sci-Fi Channel’s Tripping the Rift will recognize how voice actor Stephen Root (Office Space) describes the premise of the animated show: “Star Wars meets the porn industry.” Now comes a new movie to the round shiny disc medium for consumption at home, otherwise known as “direct-to-video.”
The cover promises plenty of “sex, violence and &^%!#* too extreme for broadcast TV!” I think the creators are trying too hard. There’s nothing really very vulgar in this except for the language. The f-word gets thrown in every few minutes to prove that “Hey, we can’t show this on TV!” Otherwise, there’s not much nudity or violence. And let’s be real, these are CGI animated characters that have weird faces and body parts. I’m not sure I’d want to see them naked anyway.
Parodies abound. Targets are: The Terminator, Psycho, Young Frankenstein, and Desperate Housewives. Some payoff better than others. I smirked quite a few times early on, but grew tired of the scatological humor as it went along. I think I expected Unrated smut at its smuttiest and was disappointed at the juvenile hi-jinks.
Bottom line: if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll probably enjoy this movie. The first two TV season sets are out on DVD already, and you might want to pick those up too. For the rest of us, maybe a rental if you like whacked out animation (that is pretty good) and fart jokes.
