The week’s DVDs begin with Abe:
DVDs for March 26 by Boo Allen
This week we begin with Abe:
Lincoln (****)
Steven Spielberg’s latest masterpiece examins a crucial period near the end of Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency, when he fought behind-the-scenes for a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. Political maneuverings have never been more dramatic. Daniel Day-Lewis brings gravitas to his Oscar winning performance as the 16th president, and Sally Field plays his confidant, the feisty Mrs. Lincoln. The 12-time Oscar nominated film authentically re-creates the era’s milieu, all gorgeously rendered by Oscar nominee Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography.
Rated PG-13, 150 minutes. The DVD comes in various combo packs and all formats. Supplements vary but include six separate, comprehensive “making of” featurettes totaling more than an hour.
Terminator Anthology (****)
Warner Home Video has assembled the four R-rated Terminator films into one convenient, fully-filled five Blu-ray disc package, with new and previous supplements totaling more than 15 hours. The Terminator (1984) starred future governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton and was directed by James Cameron. The action-filled original set the ball rolling for this successful franchise. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), again directed by Cameron, followed, with Linda Hamilton again joining Arnold. Edward Furlong debuted as young John Connor. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) had Nick Stahl as John Connor as well as Claire Danes along with Schwarzenegger and was directed by Jonathan Mostow. Christian Bale starred in Terminator: Salvation (2009), directed by McG. The set contains more than 15 hours of supplements, including commentaries, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, full length “making of” segments, interviews, quizzes, games, and various interactive features.
Parental Guidance (**1/2)
Better Midler and Billy Crystal ham it up like the two hams they are in this broad, very broad, comedy directed by Andy Fickman and written by Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse. Midler and Crystal play Diane and Artie Decker, parents of Alice Simmons (Marisa Tomei), married to Phil Simmons (Tom Everett Scott). Alice and Phil are the parents of three unruly children, a trio left with their grandparents when mom and dad leave town. Old school meets the new ways in the comedic clash of cultures and generations.
Rated PG-13, 105 minutes. The DVD, in all formats and platforms, offers commentary by Fickman and Crystal, 13 minutes of deleted scenes, a 13 minute gag reel, and a five minute “In character” segment with Midler, Crystal and Tomei.
Les Miserables (***)
In this musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel, Hugh Jackman, sings his own songs and takes the lead role as persecuted Jean Valjean. A singing Russell Crowe plays the obsessed Javert who relentlessly tracks down Valjean. The technical achievements elevate the production, such as Eve Stewart’s production designs, Anna Lynch-Robinson’s set decorations, Richard Bain’s special effects, and Danny Cohen’s photography. Anne Hathaway won a Supporting Actress Oscar as Fantine, the street-wise mother who loses her child. Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) ably directs, following a script from several writers.
Not rated, 158 minutes. The DVD, in all formats, includes commentary and a four part, 64 minute featurette on the casting, singing, building of the impressive barricade set, and filming on location. Plus: an eleven minute featurette on re-creating Paris, and more.
A Royal Affair (****)
In this fact-based Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film, Mads Mikkelsen plays Johann Struensee, the Svengali-like court physician who influences and virtually controls the weak willed King Christian VII (Mikkel Folsgaard) of Denmark around 1760. The enchanted king then ignores his queen Caroline (Alicia Vikander) having an affair with the good doctor. The engrossing story, beautifully executed, unfolds as a clash of old vs. young and light vs. darkness, as the king ineptly battles his rigid court counselors who resist Enlightenment.
Not rated, 132 minutes. The DVD contains a 33 minute interview with Mikkelsen, Vikander and director Nikolaj Arcel at the Berlin Film Festival. Plus: “Portraits and Biographies” of the three main characters, and a “Royal Family Tree.”
Easy Money (***)
In this frantic Euro-thriller, a young Swedish man, J.W. (Joel Kinnaman), struggles to juggle his life as a student while driving a taxi. He falls for a beautiful rich woman about the same time he finds himself in the middle of feuding mobsters. On one side, a Serbian outfit smuggles drugs into the country, while a Middle-Eastern gang tries to break up its rival organization. Violence ensues. The action moves fast, shifting among several sub-plots centered on the perpetually stunned J.W.
Rated R, 125 minutes.
Two early releases starring Daniel Day Lewis: Daniel Day-Lewis Triple Feature: How Many Hills to Babylon, The Insurance Man, Dangerous Corner.
And My Brother Jonathan.
Years before he cornered the market on Best Actor Oscars, Daniel Day-Lewis refined, sharpened, and then perfected his considerable skills in several British productions. BBC Home Entertainment has assembled two excellent offerings, each starring the young and impressive DDL. In the five part, on two discs, Jonathan, he plays the lead character, the lesser favored of a pair of siblings, with brother Harold (Benedict Taylor), in England’s West Midlands before and after World War I. The self-sacrificing Jonathan becomes an aspiring surgeon, but because of family financial difficulties ends up a general practitioner in a small dreary mining town where he becomes embroiled in local rivalries. In the three features assembled on two discs, Babylon sees two Irish lads, one seemingly weak and upper class (Day-Lewis), and a working class boy (Christopher Fairbank), grow up as friends and then join the army together during World War I. Only then do their differences surface. Alan Bennett wrote the strange Insurance Man, with Day-Lewis playing Franz Kafka as a bureaucrat in a seemingly Kafkaesque setting. In Dangerous Corner, DDL plays a publisher who sets off an incendiary weekend among friends in this drama based on a work by J.B. Priestly.
Daniel Day-Lewis Triple Feature:
How Many Hills to Babylon, The Insurance Man, Dangerous Corner—none rated, 276 minutes.
My Brother Jonathan: not rated, 247 minutes. The disc contains the 29 minute featurette “Day Out,” filmed near the production site.
And for kids this week:
Zambezia (***)
This computer generated animated film stars Kai (voice of Jeremy Suarez), a young falcon who travels to the legendary bird city Zambezia. But he must return home when he learns his father (Samuel L. Jackson) is in danger. Abigail Breslin, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy also provide voices.
Rated G, 102 minutes. The DVD, in all formats, includes a music video and four separate featurettes: “Birds of a Feather,” “The Tree City,” “An African Story,” and “Technical Challenges.”
And, from this week’s TV offerings:
T he Carol Burnett Show—This Time Together
This generous package includes 17 episodes, on six discs, featuring the escapades of regulars Carol, Tim, Harvey and Vicki, with such classic sketches as “The Ham Actor,” “The Charwoman,” “Mrs. Wiggins,” and more. The set holds more than two hours of supplements, including Burnett, Conway, and Lawrence interviews.
Not rated, 1113 minutes.
The Borgias—season two
The recent election of a new pope provides reason enough to revisit perhaps the most notorious pope of all, one so corrupt and controversial he spawned two separate cable series five hundred years later, with this Showtime offering created by Neil Jordan the better of the pair. Silver-throated Jeremy Irons plays Rodrigo Borgia, known better as Alexander VI. When not fathering children from his mistress, he finds time to indulge in on-going intrigues, many involving his battling sons, Cesare (Francois Arnaud) and Juan (David Oakes), or his free-willed daughter Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger). This season sees more conflict with arch enemy Della Rovere (Colm Feore) plotting against the family.
Not rated, 680 minutes. The three discs of 10 episodes also include five brief “making of” featurettes and the first two episodes of the TV series Californication.
Also on DVD: Killing Then Softly, Parental Guidance.