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The best of the new DVDs
Noteworthy DVDs released 10/28/08
PICK OF THE WEEK: Austin-related films are creeping into the digital realm by hook or by crook lately. David Modigliani’s doc “Crawford” has recently been the most popular feature at video website Hulu.com, and can now be ordered on disc from crawfordmovie.com; Ellen Spiro’s “Body of War” (Docurama) arrives in stores this week; and Jeff Nichols’s “Shotgun Stories” has been out for a while now. “The Unforeseen” (New Yorker) came out after an attention-getting if short theatrical run, and “Hell on Wheels” (IndiePix) carried the tough-girl roller-derby scene out to the rest of the country.Meanwhile, SXSW-veteran documentarians David Redmon & Ashley Sabin aren’t only releasing their own work (like the affecting “Kamp Katrina,” and “Mardi Gras: Made in China”) via carnivalesquefilms.com; this week they’re branching out with Sam Douglas and Paul Lovelace’s music doc “The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose.”
OTHER TOP PICKS:
“Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection”: (Universal): It’s a suitcase full of fat man/skinny man hijinks. Need we say more?
“Baraka” (MPI): The ultra-high-def Blu-ray remaster of this 65mm travelogue has had ultra-picky videophiles raving, with this Roger Ebert quote the most ecstatic: “The restored 2008 Blu-Ray DVD is the finest video disc I have ever viewed or ever imagined.”
“Elf” (New Line): The Will Ferrell charmer is has joined “A Christmas Story” as a modern holiday ritual, and a new Blu-ray version just makes an eighth viewing that much more appealing.
Kirk Douglas x2: Two oddities from the star’s late career emerge, as the internationally-cast “Rain of Fire” (Lions Gate) plays with nuclear disaster and a visit from the Antichrist while the enjoyable time-travel adventure “The Final Countdown” (Blue Underground) comes to Blu-ray.
High-def 3-D: Two titles this week — “Polar Express” (Warner Bros.) and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (New Line) — promise to bring the theatrical 3-D revival into living rooms, funny glasses and all. Regular 2-D versions are included, for the headache-prone.
DOCUMENTARIES: “Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens” (Warner Bros.), “Billy the Kid” (2007) (Zeitgeist), “Inside Bob Dylan’s Jesus Years: Busy Being Born…Again!” (MVD), Collector’s Editions of “Paradise Lost” & “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” (Docurama)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX: “Death Defying Acts” (Weinstein Co.), “Hell Ride” (Dimension), “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” (New Line)
BEST OF TV: Complete-series collections of “The Flintstones” (Warner Bros.), “The Little Rascals” (Genius), “NewsRadio” & “Sanford and Son” (Sony), and “War and Remembrance” (MPI); also, the scandalous “Fanny Hill” from Acorn.
CULT CORNER: Fans of the fringe have their plates full this week, with a slew of titles from genre leader Synapse including “Patrick” and “Strange Behavior”; a new edition of “The Beyond” (Grindhouse); recent productions “Hank and Mike” (Magnolia) and “Red” (2008) (Magnolia); and the Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin “Slogan” (Cult Epics). Heck, Sony’s “Zombie Strippers” is even arriving on Blu-ray.
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