The week’s DVDs begin with Dean and Jerry:
DVDs for Dec. 2 by Boo Allen
This week, we begin with a team:
The Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Collection—volume one: My Friend Irma, My Friend Irma Goes West, That’s My Boy, Sailor Beware, Jumping Jacks, The Stooge, Scared Stiff, The Caddy.
On demand Warner Archive offers two separate collections featuring the films of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, all from the decade or so they worked at Paramount Pictures. Volume two will be reviewed in future weeks. The eight films, on four discs, in this much requested first collection of one of entertainment’s most successful teams were made from 1949 to 1953. Most repeat the recognizable but then popular formula of Martin singing a few songs and winning the girl, while Lewis commits some sort of mayhem. Not every one is a great movie, but almost all offer passable entertainment, with some of Lewis’ manic schtick qualifying as inspired comedy. They debuted in My Friend Irma (1949, 103 minutes) as two lunch-counter juice-vendors playing second bananas to ditzy blonde Irma (Marie Wilson) and her shyster boyfriend Al (John Lund). Al recruits Steve (Martin) to sing while Seymour (Lewis) tags along. The team stole the movie from their co-stars, prompting a bigger role and first billing in the sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (1950, 91 minutes). There, Steve looks about to break into the big time with an appearance scheduled for Las Vegas. The road trip offers a chance for more of the same Martin crooning and Lewis hi-jinks. The ridiculous That’s My Boy (1951, 104 minutes) sees the duo as high school students (really) who become roommates in college when Lewis’ rich alum father (Eddie Mayehoff) bribes the football coach, as well as Martin, an outstanding player (who knew?). Martin sings away, while Lewis falls in love with Ruth Hussey, who has eyes for Dino. The boys enlist in the Navy in Sailor Beware (1951, 103 minutes). They go through training in San Diego before heading in a submarine to Hawaii and more trouble. Look for 21 year-old James Dean in an unbilled, non-speaking role as a boxing second. Director Norman Taurog made the first of his collaborations with the team in Jumping Jacks (1952, 95 minutes). Martin plays an Army soldier who cons civilian Lewis into joining him putting on a touring show. Eventually, the two find themselves training for and then becoming paratroopers. Also included: The Stooge (1951, 100 minutes), Scared Stiff (1952, 107 minutes), The Caddy (1953, 95 minutes).
The Hundred Foot Journey (***)
An Indian family loses their Bombay restaurant and leaves India in search of a better place to open another. The close-knit group finds an ideal spot for their next venture in the small French village St. Antonin. The only drawback comes from across the street with the gourmet restaurant owned by a smarmy, territorial French snob, Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). The food-comedy follows a predictable path for clash cultures as the family patriarch (Om Puri) breaks local customs yet succeeds in gaining community acceptance much to Madame Mallory’s annoyance. Things change when Madame Mallory hires Hassan (Manish Dayal), the Indian son who has become a gourmet chef. And of course during this light-hearted clash, Hassan falls in love with Mallory’s sou-chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon). Steven Knight supplied the screenplay from Richard Morais’ book. Director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) has a knack for making such formulaic stories likable and entertaining.
Rated PG, 122 minutes.
Extras: four individual featurettes, including a 12 minute interview piece with the film’s producers Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey–who also sits for a four minute segment. Plus: the 16 minute “The Recipe, The Ingredients, The Journey” will make you even hungrier, as will the five minute recipe featurette “Coconut Chicken.”
Pay 2 Play: Democracy’s High Stakes (***)
Documentary director John Ennis takes a look at how our political system works. And the results can be depressing. The not-so-obvious conclusion is that money buys influence. To flesh out his thesis, he interviews a wide range: Noam Chomsky, Marianne Williamson, Van Jones, Thom Hartmann, Jack Abramoff, Lawrence Lessig, Robert Reich, and others.
Not rated, 88 minutes.
Extras: five related featurettes totaling around 16 minutes.
Legends of the Knight (***)
This documentary centers on the story, the legend, and the enduring obsession with Batman. Brett Culp goes to conventions, talks to various fans, and generally investigates the phenomenon. He even discovers some people for whom Batman has served inspirational purposes.
Not rated, 76 minutes.
Extras: 14 minutes of deleted scenes, and a featurette on the film’s charity screenings.
And, finally, our week’s Top-TV-Series-To-DVD:
Justified—season five
This popular F/X series, originally based on an Elmore Leonard story, heads towards its final season in 2015 remaining one of the rare shows that has stayed fresh, funny and creative. Each season brings a new, coupled with the old, challenge for U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), based in his native Eastern Kentucky. In this penultimate season’s 13 episodes, on three discs, Raylan faces a new challenge from the Crowe family, headed by the transplanted Floridian Darryl Crowe (Michael Rapaport). The Crowes attempt to break into the drug business run by the Crowders, specifically Boyd (Walton Goggins). During the season, the drugs bring the families into conflict with a Mexican cartel, Raylan enjoys a brief fling with a social worker (Amy Smart), and Ava (Joelle Carter) learns to survive in prison. All five seasons have been leading up to Raylan’s showdown next season with the Crowders.
Not rated, 607 minutes.
Extras: commentaries on two episodes, deleted scenes on various individual episodes, and eight separate featurettes, including a 22 minute “making of season five” featurette, a 22 minute featurette on “Writer’s Diary: A Week of Starvation,” and nine minutes on a tour of the prison set. Cinematographer Francis Kinney explains how he achieves the series’ special look in the seven minute featurette “Getting the Shot.” In the 36 minute “The Coolest Guy in the Room,” cast members read from Elmore Leonard’s work and reminisce about the author. Plus: the four minute “King Lear,” along with three minute featurettes on “The Onion Eulogizes Elmore Leonard,” “Raylan Givens: Two Roads Diverge,” and “The Wall of Death: Season Five Body Count.”
Also on DVD: The Congress, The Dark Place, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Kite, Speak No Evil, To Kill a Man.