The Tattoed GIRL arrives on DVD this week:

DVDs for March 20 by Boo Allen

This week we greet the arrival of several of last year’s favorites:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (****)

Only a master film-maker like David Fincher could justify remaking a good
film only two years after its arrival. But he did, and he did it
well, resulting in five Oscar nominations and a glossy, slick
production that actually improves on the 2009 Swedish version.
Fincher follows Steve Zaillian’s screenplay based on Stieg Larsson’s
internationally popular novel about the fully drawn, dynamic
character Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). The anti-social, sullen,
tattooed young lady becomes involved, through her computer expertise,
in an on-going murder/kidnap/blackmail intrigue. She reluctantly
teams with temporarily disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist (Daniel
Craig) in a prolonged search that takes them around Sweden for a
rotating series of deadly encounters.

Rated R, 160 minutes. The DVD comes in all formats and in various combo
packs. The many supplements include commentaries, featurettes on
casting Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist, and villain Martin
Vanger. Plus, segments on: filming in Sweden, post-production, the
excellent main titles, and more.

Carnage (***1/2)

Although Roman Polanski directed this tart confection with a sure hand,
Yasmina Resa’s sharp-tongued play is the star here: a Manhattan
couple (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) visits the home of the
parents (Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly) of a boy whom their son
injured in a schoolyard fight. This meeting results in a slow moving
confrontation that gradually gains steam, ending in a wild, Virginia
Wolf-inspired
showdown among the foursome. The dialogue grows nastier, and wittier,
as pretenses of civility disappear. The excellent cast delivers the
biting script with gusto, making for edgy entertainment.

Rated R, 79 minutes. The DVD includes an 11 minute
“making of” featurette, 38 minutes of a filmed on-stage interview
with John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz, and a brief peak at the
night on the red carpet.

Disney’s The Muppets (***)

In The Muppets, everything old is new again. Or, at least that is the unashamed approach taken
by this first feature film in twelve years from this once formidable
franchise. TheMuppets and its makers let us know from the start that they are out to win over a new
generation, a group so far deprived of The Muppets’ entertaining diversions. Time will tell whether the plea succeeds, but the impressive start revives many of Jim Henson’s original creations
(Kermit, Miss Piggy, Animal, Fozzie, et al.) and gives them
supporting help in the form of a bizarrely wide range of
personalities ranging from Disney ‘tween favorite Selena Gomez and
young star Rico Rodriguez, to Mickey Rooney, for the dozen or so
audience members who remember Andy Hardy, to man-like creatures like
James Carville. Jason Segal and Amy Adams play second bananas to the Muppet characters as
Gary and Mary, a couple who decide to celebrate their tenth
anniversary together by traveling to Los Angeles with Gary’s brother
Walter, who looks suspiciously like a Muppet. In L.A., they find the once glorious Muppet studio
shabby and rundown and about to be sold to the appropriately named
evil oil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who plans to drill for
oil on the site. But the Muppets can still save their old haunt if
they raise $10 million. This device sets up the Muppet Road Trip,
gathering the familiar names back to L.A. where they rehearse for
their upcoming telethon, an enterprise of great pith and moment.
anyone?anyone?. Along the way, they kidnap Jack Black to host.

All of the sequences line up to provide the always-stellar Muppet voice cast to belt out a series of joyous new
songs. Even Chris Cooper lights up the screen with his
out-of-character funky hip-hop delivery. The dialogue from Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segal’s script often remarks
upon the lost Muppet generation, making transparent the appeal for
young converts. And director James Bobin compounds the irony with a
meta-approach that often has characters remarking on the movie
itself. None of which suggests that the movie does not take itself
seriously, because it indeed has a mission to please young audiences,
and, for the most part, it succeeds.
Rated PG, 103 minutes. The DVD, in all formats and
various combo packs, offers commentary, nine minutes of bloopers, a
16 minute “making of” featurette, brief screen tests, and much
more.

Battle Royale: The Complete Collection

This notorious 2000 Japanese film finally makes its U.S.
debut on DVD, Blu-ray and download. Partially banned in Japan on
release, and condemned everywhere, it tells the story of a future
society in which adults take action against rebellious youth and
enact the Battle Royale law: every year a randomly selected ninth
grade class is taken to a remote deserted island. There, everyone is
given a weapon and sent out onto the island to kill one another over
three days. Only the last one standing can then leave the island.
Every escape has been blocked, as they wear irremovable metal
necklaces. The film presages the upcoming The Hunger Games.
The four disc collection holds the unrated director’s cut (122
minutes), the theatrical version (113 minutes), and the 2003 sequel
Battle Royale II: Requiem (133 minutes), which
resembles the original but with more blood, gore, and terrorist plot
lines. An extra bonus disc offers over three hours of extras, with
interviews, “making of” featurettes and much more.

The  Last Temptation of Christ–Bluray (****)

The Criterion Collection gives an over-due Blu-ray release to Martin
Scorsese’s 1988 compelling film based on Nikos Kazantzakis’
controversial novel, with screenplay from Paul Schrader and Jay
Cocks, that re-imagines the life of Christ (Willem Dafoe).
Complemented by the fine supporting work of Barbara Hershey, Harvey
Keitel, and even David Bowie. This re-mastered new edition richly
conveys the perfect composition and evocative lighting of Michael
Ballhaus’ photography.

Rated R, 163 minutes. The DVD includes director-approved additions such as
commentary from Scorsese, Dafoe, Cocks and Schrader, on-set location
footage shot by Scorsese, an interview with composer Peter Gabriel,
and an accompanying pamphlet with the essay “Passion Project” by
critic and historian David Ehrenstein, and more.

Blessed Events (**1/2), Dangerous (***1/2) ), Thirteen
Women (***1/2)

This week, On Demand Warner Archives releases, among many, a trio of
vastly different titles from the studio’s golden age of the early
1930s. Now mostly forgotten, once popular Lee Tracy starred in the
pre-Code Blessed Events (1932, 80 minutes) as a fast
talking newspaper columnist who offends everyone before he finally
goes too far. Bette Davis calls down thunderbolts from the skies in
Dangerous (1935, 79 minutes), winning the second of
consecutive Best Actress Oscars. She plays a once-famous stage
actress fallen on hard times. A prosperous yet engaged architect
(Franchot Tone) rescues her as they inevitably fall in love. But her
old demons return as she harbors a secret that threatens her
rejuvenated career as well as their future together. The soapy
melodrama rises due to Davis’ impressive range. In the beguilingly
hypnotic Thirteen Women (1932, 60 minutes), another
brazen drama that would not been possible under the future Code,
Myrna Loy plays Ursula, a strange outcast bent on revenge for an
affront dating back to her school days when she was called “a half
caste, half Japanese, half Hindu, or something.” She charms a fake
swami into sending pending death notices to her former classmates,
the Mean Girls, and then watches as they each meet gruesome fates.
Only the strong-willed Laura (Irene Dunn), with the help of a Los
Angeles detective Clive (Ricardo Cortez), withstands the mysterious
spell. Moody, strange film.
Finally, the week’s TV arrivals:

Scarecrow and Mrs. King—third season

The 22 episodes of this popular series which ran from 1983 to 1987 arrive on
five discs. The seeming odd coupling of housewife Amanda King (Kate
Jackson) with spy Lee “Scarecrow” Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner)
featured weekly terrorist plots, uncovering moles, espionage
intrigues and various other adventures. Meanwhile, they coyly fought
against their mutual attraction. With Beverly Garland, Mel Stewart,
Martha Smith, Paul Stout, and Greg Morton.

Not rated, 1038 minutes.
Jane—volume one

In the ten episodes on two discs of this ABC Family sit-com, Erica Dasher
plays 16 year-old Jane, who somehow finds herself working for a big
shot executive (Andie McDowell). But Jane always finds time to juggle
her job, her friends, her parents and various school activities.

Rated TV-14 DLSV, 435 minutes.

Also on DVD: Gainsbourg, The Sitter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.