The week’s DVDs begin on second base:
DVDs for July 16 by Boo Allen
This week, we begin on second base:
42 (***)
In this inspirational bio-pic written and directed by Brian Helgeland, relative newcomer Chadwick Boseman stars as Jackie Robinson, the first Africa-American to break the invisible color line and play major league baseball in the modern era. Harrison Ford plays Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodger general manager who promoted Robinson to the big leagues in 1947 but warned him against reacting to the obvious racial abuse he would endure, which he did. Helgeland covers much of Robinson’s challenge, providing a portrait of Robinson’s life off the field as well as on. Robinson wore number 42, subsequently retired by Major League Baseball in his honor.
Rated PG-13, 128 minutes. The DVD, in all formats, includes the nine minute featurette “Stepping Into History,” ten minutes on “Full Contact Baseball,” and nine minutes discussing “The Legacy of Number 42.”
Letters From Jackie—The Private Thoughts of Jackie Robinson
Major League Baseball produced this paean to Jackie Robinson, taking excerpts from some of his letters to such people as Martin Luther King, Jr., President Eisenhower, and others. Sitting for interviews about Robinson are his daughter, Sharon Robinson, historian Joe Dorinson, and various former ball players.
Not rated, 45 minutes. Also available in various downloads and formats.
Death by China (***)
This provocative documentary offers only a single viewpoint, but it is one aimed to touch the nerves of thoughtful Americans regardless of political stripe. Director Peter Navarro asserts that this country is slowly being ruined, taken over, squeezed to death (take your pick) by China. Martin Sheen narrates, examining many of China’s current harmful practices. Navarro interviews variously agreeing economists and academics and includes charts, bars, and graphs along with sprightly animation to deliver a message that comes across as more cautionary than apocalyptic. One interviewee complains about trying but failing to find a microwave oven not made in China. Good luck in finding one.
Not rated, 78 minutes. The DVD contains commentary, a short film, and several related featurettes.
Winter Meeting (**), Front Page Woman (***)
Warner Archive releases two unrated, manufactured-on-demand Bette Davis films that showcase the magnetic star at different stages of her long career. The lesser Winter Meeting (1948, 96 minutes) suffers from a hackneyed story made worse by clumsy direction. Davis plays Susan Grieve, a renowned poet who begins a reluctant love affair with a returning military hero, Slick Novak. He is played by James, later known as Jim, Davis, whose lasting fame came years later as Jock Ewing, the first Ewing family patriarch on TV’s Dallas. Mr. Davis’ stiff presence and monotone delivery clash with Bette Davis’ fiery persona. She eats him alive, making impossible to believe that her intellectual poet would be won over by him. Plus, rookie director Bretaigne Windust (really) choreographs his actors through variously embarrassing and unbelievable situations filled with an abundance of trite dialogue. Still, watching the great Davis is always a treat. Twenty-six year-old Bette Davis unleashes her energy in Front Page Woman (1936, 83 minutes), one of the fast paced newspaper comedy-dramas so popular around this time (see: The Front Page, and the ultra sublime His Girl Friday). She plays Ellen Garfield, a New York reporter who wants to be taken seriously despite being, gasp, a woman. She makes a deal with her boyfriend Curt Devlin (George Brent) that she will quit the newspaper racket and marry him if she doesn’t trump him in a murder case. What results is prolific director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) steering the two through a series of ingenious plot twists before solving the crime.
Would You Rather (*)
Not much here to recommend in this worthless torture porn. An eccentric rich man (Jeffrey Combs) entices eight strangers to his creepy mansion by telling them they will compete for a grand prize that will solve all their problems. Once there, it turns into an elimination snuff game based around the children’s game “Would you rather.” But the twist comes in the options: would you rather stab the person sitting next to you or whip him? And so on, with each exercise escalating in graphic gruesomeness and stupidity.
Not rated, 93 minutes.
And for kids this week:
Tom and Jerry: No Mice Allowed!
Try as he might, that darn cat never catches the sneaky mouse in any of these 30 cartoons, on two discs, that feature some of the best known shorts from the famously feuding team: 24 Karat Kat, Timid Tabby, Smitten Kitten, Power Tom, The Bodyguard and more.
Not rated, 229 minutes.
Barney: Imagine with Barney, Angelina Ballerina: Mousical Medleys
Barney returns on four episodes to encourage children to use their imaginations. A game and two music videos are included. Angelina and friends Gracie and Viki vie for the spotlight in five episodes along with a memory game and a music video.
Barney: not rated, 76 minutes. Angelina: not rated, 62 minutes.
And finally, from our week’s TV arrivals:
The Smurfs: Smurfs to the Rescue!
The mischievous little blue demons return in these six cartoons featuring the handiwork of Papa, Jokey, Handy, Clumsy, Dreamy, Brainy, Vanity, Lazy, Smurfette and other members of their gang. They visit outer space, face down a volcano, and, most importantly, escape from a side-show.
Not rated, 110 minutes.
Hell on Wheels—second season
These x episodes, on three discs, of this breakout series from cable channel AMC still deliver plenty of action in this post Civil War saga’s sophomore season. By now, Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) has left his job with the railroad and has joined a gang and begun robbing trains, but only to save enough money to join the group’s ex-Confederate friends in Mexico. When he is captured, Mr. Durant (Colm Meaney) springs Bonhannon to return to railroad work for him as he continues to drive his train tracks west. Weekly murders and betrayals play out with great flair.
Not rated, 413 minutes. The set includes a ten part, 21 minute “making of” featurette, and brief segments on the end of season one, on season two’s cast, and five minutes on set with Mount.
George Lopez—the third season
George Lopez stars as the head of the Lopez family of Los Angeles in this situation-comedy based on his clan’s dynamic adventures. In the season’s 28 episodes, on three discs, George continues to work as a supervisor at an airplane parts factory, and his wife Angie (Constance Marie) struggles to take care of their son Max (Luis Armand Garcia) and teenage daughter Carmen (Masiela Lusha). But the biggest surprise comes from George’s mother Benny (Belita Moreno), who starts dating a man her son finds inappropriate. Of course, other domestic problems play out, including the need for a family member to have a kidney transplant, and one offspring failing in school. The season sees several guest stars, including Sandra Bullock.
Not rated, 598 minutes.
Femmes Fatales—second season
This lurid series from Cinemax returns with 12 sex-filled episodes on two discs and a third disc with bonus materials. The series revolves around Tanit Phoenix playing hostess Lilith, who delivers supposedly insightful comments. Every episode connects to a seasonal story and contains a series of beautiful females who commit the same crimes and misdemeanors usually reserved for men. The season’s guest stars include Vivica Fox, Jeff Fahey, Casper Van Dien, Eric Roberts, Nikki Griffin, Chris Mulkey, and others.
Rated TV-MA, 392 minutes. The set offers commentary on every episode, along with a red carpet premier, a Comic-Con panel, deleted scenes and more than half a dozen “making of” featurettes.
Also on DVD: Erased, Wild Bill, Wild Deep.