X-Men Origins and more

DVDs for Sept. 6 by Boo Allen

This week, we begin in 1944:

X-Men: First Class (***1/2)  (Available Friday, Sept. 9)

In what could be the best film of the X-Men franchise, James McAvoy, as
Charles Xavier, and Michael Fassbender, as Erik Lensherr, and later
Professor X, bring new life with an origins story directed by Matthew
Vaughn (Kick-Ass). As young men, Charles and Erik work
as a team to fight evil former Nazi Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon).
First Class begins in a 1944 concentration camp where
Erik first discovers his powers. Then, the complementary story of
other mutants coming to terms with their abilities continues up to
the Cuban Missile Crisis, which they of course avert in a powerful
battle sequence. Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), Frost (January Jones),
Angel (Zoe Kravitz) and others make their first appearances. Vaughn
maintains an excellent pace, keeping the action flowing with
spectacular special effects and several battle sequences.

Rated PG-13, 135 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray and in various combo
packs, is filled with more than two hours of extras, including ten
Marvel digital comics, an interactive mutant database, an eight part
behind-the-scenes featurette, extended and deleted scenes, the
composer’s isolated score, and more.
If . . . . (****)

Lindsay Anderson directed this brilliantly prescient and provocative 1968
film about the cruel and sadistic ways of an English boys’ school.
Appearing shortly before the Paris May Day riots and the Democratic
Convention that summer, and years before the Columbine High School
tragedy, If . . . ., now arriving on a Criterion
Collection Blu-ray, follows  several boys during their term at
school. Anderson, working from David Sherwin’s script, progresses
through the term rather than building a narrative, giving his film
several haunting, surreal touches. Malcolm McDowell gained fame as
Mick, the trouble-making underclassman who constantly defies
authority up to the violent and controversial ending.

Not rated, 112 minutes. The DVD includes commentary from McDowell and
historian David Robinson, a 15 minute interview with actor Graham
Crowden, Anderson’s 22 minute Oscar-winning short Thursday’s
Children,
and a 2003, 42 minute, group interview with several of
those involved in the film: cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek,
McDowell, Sherwin, and assistant to the director, and great future
director, Stephen Frears. Plus, a 34 page booklet with articles on
the film.

Baseball’s Greatest Games
1991 World Series Game 7 (176 minutes), 1986 World
Series Game 6 (210 minutes), 2004 ALCS Game 4 (242 minutes).
Major League Baseball Productions has teamed with A+E
Networks to release ten of the most celebrated single baseball games
ever. This week, three appear. The single discs holds virtually the
entire games, all contests well known to baseball fans that can be
identified with single name references: 1991: Jack Morris, 1986: Bill
Buckner, 2004: David Ortiz. None are rated.

The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D (****)
Disney reprises producer and writer Tim Burton’s magical
1993 classic in 3-D and with a variety of new options. This new
version accentuates director Henry Selick’s stunning use of stop
motion animation and three-dimensional sets along with his
spectacular special effects. In the film, Jack Skellington (voice of
Danny Elfman,) travels from Halloween Town into Christmas Town, where
he somehow becomes involved in a plot to kidnap Santa. Immense fun
and gloriously visual.

Rated PG, 76 minutes. As noted, the DVD comes in every
new option available, so check labels for the many supplements, old
and new, including: commentary with Burton, Elfman and Selick, a new
introduction by Burton, several short films, a “making of”
featurette, a Haunted Mansion tour, deleted scenes,
storyboard-to-film comparison, and much more.

Clash of Empires (**1/2)

History takes a beating in this saga set in 120 A.D.
Merong (Stephen Hughes) takes Roman prince Hadrian (Gavin Stenhouse)
through Asia to marry a Chinese princess (Jing Lusi). Unfortunately,
she is kidnapped, setting off, well, a clash of empires. Adequately
staged battle scenes amid erratic special effects. University of
Dallas history professor Dr. Frank Swietek reports that the actual
Hadrian ended up building statues and monuments throughout the Roman
Empire to his assumed boy-friend and lover Antonous.

Rated R, 105 minutes.
Hanna (***)

In the first few minutes of Hanna, a father sneaks up on his
young daughter and throws her to the ground. But then she jumps up
and starts pounding him senseless. After that, things really start to
get weird. These opening minutes of the new thriller from director
Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) may sound
extreme, and they are, but they also fail to capture the overall
strangeness of this fourth film from a director who seems to enjoy
changing course, both in his career and in this movie. Hanna
constantly teeters on the absurd, ending up being perilously
close to a 1970s nonsense thriller like, for example, Winter
Kills. Within the story of C.I.A. agents tracking each other
across the globe, and with an adolescent trained- killer at the
center, Hanna looks like a Fellini-directed Jason
Bourne flick. Seth Lockhead and David Farr’s imaginative script keeps
the scenes lean and poised for action, never boxing director Wright
into slowing down much or mandating breaks for lengthy narrative
explanations. Instead, the near farcical premise allows for the
introduction of two, and then three, main characters before releasing
them in different directions for competing, action-oriented plot
lines. Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) lives in a remote frozen wilderness of
Finland with her father (Eric Bana). There, he teaches her survival
lessons of every sort but also instructs her on what she needs to
know and how she should behave if and when she ever returns to
civilization. Why they reside in such isolation remains vague until
the day U.S. Government agents take Hanna away.  Once nabbed, Hanna
escapes but with C.I.A. operative Marissa (Cate Blanchett) tracking
her. Hanna lands with a traveling British family in Morocco before
hopping back to Europe with them. During Hanna’s eventful odyssey,
dad and Marissa battle each other, enough so that the vaguely defined
story gradually comes into focus. But the attention rests not on the
flimsy story but on the constant gunfights, assassinations, chases
and brawls. Through it all, Wright develops other-worldly
atmospherics so that everything seems fantastical, even when the
blood flows. Wright has progressed enough as a director to inject
minor but noticeable flourishes, such as odd faces, clipped
dialogues, colorful characterizations, and detailed insertions of
animate or inanimate objects that are hard to overlook. In such roles
as these, actors seem interchangeable, but in what is surely her
oddest role since playing Bob Dylan, a perfectly entertaining Cate
Blanchett looks like Rosa Klebb but sounds like Blanche DuBois.

Rated PG-13, 111 minutes.

Castle Farm—volume one, Happy Valley—volume one

These two series of children’s animated stories, mainly
from England, are aimed at preschoolers and are geared for
entertainment and enlarging the imagination.

Neither are rated and both run around an hour.

Disney Prom
Aimee Teegarden, Thomas McDonell, Danielle Campbell, Yin
Chang, Nicholas Braun and others star in this coming-of-age feature
film based on the end-of-school ritual which always promises romance,
fun times, and new loves and relationships, along with the burden of
unfilled destinies.

Rated PG, 104 minutes. The DVD is available in every
option, with most versions holding bloopers, and a “making of”
featurette. Also included are seven music videos, three music video
downloads, additional deleted scenes, and an exclusive short segment.

And more TV series arrive this week in anticipation of the Fall Season:

Desperate Housewives—seventh season
The naughty ladies of Wisteria Lane plug along in this
venerable drama-comedy, with a season filled with even more romance,
potential romance, secret affairs, and new rivalries. Teri Hatcher,
Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, Brenda Strong, James
Denton and others re-appear for melodrama tempered with laughs. The
series’ 23 episodes arrive on five discs.

Not rated, 989 minutes. The set also includes 12 deleted
scenes, bloopers and outtakes, a “behind-the-scenes” featurette,
and a segment with the cast trying to answer trivia questions about
the series.

Cougar Town—second season

Courteney Cox returns for her sophomore season as
recently divorced Jules Cobb, the predatory mom in her raucous
Florida neighborhood. In this season’s 22 episodes on three discs,
Travis (Dan Byrd) heads to college, Grayson (Josh Hopkins) and Jules
intensify their relationship, and Bobby (Brian Van Holt) goes solo.
With an excellent cast, including Christa Miller, Busy Philipps, Ian
Gomez, Carolyn Hennesy.

Rated PG-DLV, 467 minutes. The set also offers outtakes
and deleted scenes, six webisodes of “Andy’s Dreams,” and an
extended featurette with the cast and crew reflecting on the series
so far.

Also this week: Everything Must Go, Last Night.