The week’s DVDs begin in East Texas:
DVDs for Oct.7 By Boo Allen
This week, we begin in East Texas:
Cold in July (***1/2)
In this gritty white trash noir set in a small East Texas town in 1989, Michael C. Hall (Dexter) plays Richard Dane, owner of a struggling frame shop, father to a small boy, and husband to Ann (Vinessa Shaw). Immediately after Richard shoots and kills a home intruder, the dead man’s father, recent ex-convict Ben (Sam Shepherd), begins stalking and intimidating Richard’s family. But through circumstances, Richard learns the intruder was not Ben’s son. Richard wants to know whom he shot, Ben wants to know where his son is, and they both want to know why the police are covering up the mistaken identity. Ben and Richard then team up with Houston private investigator Jim Bob Luke, as flamboyant as his name is goofy and played to perfection by a relatively reserved Don Johnson. Director Jim Mickle works from Joe Landsdale’s novel to create a moody nugget filled with atmospherics, sporadic violence, and colorful yet flawed characters.
Rated R, 110 minutes.
Extras: commentaries, 16 minutes of deleted scenes, a 42 minute Question and Answer segment with three novelists, including Joe Lansdale and George R. R. Martin, and an early pre-visualization test.
White Trash Noir
White Trash noir
white-trash-noir ?????????
Million Dollar Arm (***)
This feel-good true story stars Jon Hamm as sports agent J.B. Bernstein. When first seen, he and his business partner (Aasif Mandvi) have hit bottom. Bernstein comes up with the idea of traveling to India and finding cricket players who might become major league baseball pitchers. Bernstein travels to India before being joined by veteran baseball scout Ray Poitevint (Alan Arkin). They travel the country, putting on a circus-like try-out camp, discovering two potential players before bringing them back to the U.S. Bernstein lines up training for the two fish-out-of-water young men. Pitching expert, and former Texas Rangers pitching coach, Tom House (Bill Paxton) tries to train the pair. Meanwhile, Bernstein battles to pay his bills but has time to develop a romance with his pool-house tenant (Lake Bell). It all ends predictably well but not before an entertaining, feel-good clash of cultures.
Rated PG, 124 minutes.
Extras: a six minute “making of” featurette and briefer featurettes on the film’s music and on the actual people portrayed. Plus: an alternate ending, three deleted scenes, two minutes of outtakes, and more.
Edge of Tomorrow (***)
Tom Cruise stars in this loopy science-fiction thriller with a Groundhog Day hook. He plays William Cage, a cowardly Major in a future army battling an alien invasion. An officious General (Brendan Gleeson) takes the Major away from his public relations duties and sends him into the front lines as a private. Cage dies in his first combat experience but immediately comes back to life at the start of his ordeal. He repeatedly enters combat, dies, and then tries again, advancing a little further each time. At some point, he meets super-soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who teaches him the needed skills to advance far enough to vanquish the aliens. Doug Liman directed from a screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth from Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel. Liman develops a short-hand to reduce the dying-repetition, thereby creating an entertaining thriller complemented by first-rate special effects and copious computer-generated imaging.
Rated PG-13, 113 minutes.
Extras: eight minutes of deleted scenes, a 43 minute “making of” featurette, and four other featurettes running nine minutes or less: “Operation Downfall,” “Storming the Beach,” “Weapons of the Future,” “Creatures Not of this World.”
Obvious Child (**1/2)
Donna (Jenny Slate) works in a Brooklyn bookstore and performs stand-up in her spare time. In one day, she loses her job and her boyfriend breaks up with her. That night, she has a one-night stand that ends in pregnancy. But, as opposed to the way this dilemma usually works out in movies, she opts for an abortion with personal understanding and little regret. The twist, of sorts, comes when the one-night stand turns out to be a decent guy. Fairly routine girl-loses-boy story gains extra notice because of the abortion subject matter. For her part, Slate turns in a spirited performance.
Rated R, 83 minutes.
Extras: commentary, a 25 minute “making of” featurette, 24 minutes of deleted scenes, and the original 21 minute short film of Obvious Child.
Sleeping Beauty—Diamond Edition
Disney has re-polished and remastered their 1959 animated treasure based loosely on Charles Perrault’s 17th century fairy tale. This new digital copy, with restored picture and sound, features the story of Sleeping Beauty (voice of Mary Costa), cursed and put under a spell by an evil witch, Maleficent (Eleanor Audley), and can only revive with the kiss of Prince Charming. The film features a Tchaikovsky-heavy, Oscar nominated score.
Rated G, 75 minutes.
Extras: the supplements vary according to either DVD or Blu-ray, so check labels. Included are new featurettes on: Disney villains, the Disney animators, a singalong, parades at the Magic Kingdom, and more. Previous featurettes include two “making of” segments and one on artist Eyvind Earle. Plus: commentary, deleted scenes.
And, finally, from this week’s TV arrivals:
Houdini (***)
The History Channel landed Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody (The Pianist) to star in this entertaining bio-pic of one of the country’s greatest showmen. Born Eric Weiss in Budapest, he became enamored of magic at an early age before growing up to become Houdini, the celebrated Escape Artist. Director Uli Edel chronicles Houdini through his early days as a vagabond performer, his romance and marriage with Bess (Kristen Connolly), and his slow ascent to international celebrity that gave him audiences with European royalty, along with a side trip that allowed him to indulge in espionage before World War I.
The two disc set holds both the televised version (150 minutes) and the extended version (174 minutes)
Extras: four “making of” featurettes running around four minutes each.
From Dusk to Dawn—season one
Director Robert Rodriguez based this horror series, now seen on El Rey network, on his 1996 movie hit of the same name starring George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Quentin Tarantino. The ten episodes loosely follows a similar plot, that of a group of bank robbers, including the two Gecko brothers (D. J. Cotrona, Zane Holtz), fleeing the police. They cross the Mexican border before stopping off at a strip joint that turns out to be populated with vampires and other creatures of the night. A Texas Ranger (Jesse Garcia) tracks them down and an innocent family becomes embroiled in the escape. With Eliza Gonzalez, Don Johnson, and Robert Patrick.
Rated TV-14, 450 minutes.
Extras: commentary, two “behind-the-scenes” featurettes, a “making of” featurette, character biography featurettes, several satirical commercials, a Q&A with Robert Rodriguez filmed at the Austin Alamo Drafthouse, a SXSW featurette, and more.
Also on DVD: Advanced Style, Creeping Crawling, Four Minute Mile, The List, Money For Nothing, Tasting Menu, Violette.