New Releases | Tom Russo
An entertaining blend of war and wit
Watching "The Hunting Party" (2007), writer-director Richard Shepard's expansion on a 2000 Esquire article about gonzo journalists in Bosnia, you'll likely feel the way you used to watching a heavy episode of "M*A*S*H": You'll recoil at the war-zone horrors, but smile despite yourself at all the unapologetic comic relief. For brazen TV war correspondent Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) and cameraman buddy Duck (Terrence Howard), Bosnia represented the high point of their careers - until the ethnic-cleansing nightmare struck too close, leading Simon to an on-air meltdown. Five years after the region's ostensible return to normalcy, Duck heads back for a work reunion, only to be drawn into Simon's redemptive scheme to track down, interview, and - what the heck - capture the country's most notorious war criminal. There's entertaining chemistry between Gere, delivering a bookend to his other recent desperate-storyteller turn in "The Hoax," and Howard, lending cool dimension to yet another conventional role.
Extras: Shepard ("The Matador") has a fair amount to say in his commentary about retracing the journey that writer Scott Anderson and friends took for the Esquire piece, noting the occasional screen touch based on his own experience. (If anything, the film, which was shot in Croatia, could use more of these; when Shepard says of one group of extras, "You just couldn't find faces like this in, you know, Vancouver," you'll wonder why he didn't linger on them longer.) The full article text is included as an onscreen read; and in a half-hour featurette, Shepard, Anderson, and fellow journalist John Falk amiably share beers and conversation. (Sorry, "Perfect Storm" readers, coconspirator Sebastian Junger is MIA.) (
"THIS SPORTING LIFE" (1963)
Richard Harris gives a bruising breakthrough performance in director Lindsay Anderson's portrait of a miner-turned-rugby pro and his aching inability to fully articulate his feelings for frosty, life-damaged widow Rachel Roberts. Harris's Frank Machin is a sort of Stanley Kowalski with moral fiber, a physical force who ultimately (or penultimately, anyway) ends up howling, disconsolate, over love he can't have. And yet, despite such stark drama - Harris earned an Oscar nomination - the film is just as effective as a deceptively simple exercise in social realism, not so far removed from the documentaries that led Anderson to feature work.
Extras: Scripted commentary by Anderson authority Paul Ryan is greatly livened by intercut anecdotes from David Storey, writer of both the film's source novel and script, and an artist-footballer hyphenate in his own right. Beyond this, it's Anderson's show. A 2004 BBC biographical sketch packs quite a bit into half an hour, even quoting the late director's diaries on his self-tormenting romantic love for Harris, who was straight, and speculating how the movie was affected. An hourlong autobiographical film gives a sense of the caustic wit Anderson's actors all talk about, at one point even showing him directing his cleaning lady's idle singing. And Anderson's documentary "Wakefield Express" is included, featuring the town later used in "Sporting Life." ("Express" is also available in Facets' recent, worthwhile "Free Cinema" set.) (Criterion, $39.95)
"TORCHWOOD": THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (2007)
We're still bummed that Christopher Eccleston's manic-intense revival of Brit-geek icon Doctor Who ended prematurely when the character was recast - excuse us, regenerated - after just one season. But the spinoff series "Torchwood" (get the anagram?) comes close to recapturing that vibe with its darkish tales of a hipster paranormal investigation squad. Think "Men in Black" brought down to earth - in Wales naturally. The show is part of a slew of BBC product arriving on disc this month, including the latest adaptation of Jane Austen's "Persuasion"; a new season of "24" clone "MI-5"; another round of Ian "Deadwood" McShane's throwback "Lovejoy"; and (via HBO) "Extras: The Complete Series."
Extras: Extensive production featurettes and commentaries; deleted scenes and outtakes. (BBC Video, $79.98)
Music DVD | Steve Morse
Dion collection has plenty of high notes
The statistics for Celine Dion's recently completed five-year run in Las Vegas are off the charts. She played nearly 700 shows in a specially built, 4,100-seat theater at Caesars Palace, attended by almost 3 million people. But what stands out in the double-disc "Live in Las Vegas - A New Day" is how much we learn about Dion the person, not just Dion the entertainer.
The first DVD includes the show, which is 93 minutes long and, despite Dion's spectacular vocal performance, isn't even the highlight. I caught the show in person and the filmed version doesn't do it justice. There are too many quick-cut edits and not enough attention to the scope of the enormous 120-foot-wide stage (40 feet wider than Radio City Music Hall's), which features up to 50 dancers and a $10 million LED screen upon which everything from clouds and lightning to street scenes in Times Square and Europe are flashed. And that's not to mention the 93-foot-high ceiling filled with aerialists, in a concept borrowed from Cirque du Soleil.
No, what lingers most is the additional three documentaries, one on the first disc, two on the second. The longest is the 120-minute "All Access" that takes us backstage throughout the show (with Dion rushing to a room for multiple costume changes and having spontaneous fun with the dancers in the hallways). She is down-to-earth throughout. We also get interviews with key production people, plus the aerialists and some dancers who are soaking their feet in buckets of ice. (The raked stage has a 5 percent incline so there are a lot of injuries when dancers land their jumps.)
There's also the 53-minute "The Secrets," a look at the assembling of the project, starting with auditioning 1,000 dancers in Belgium. Topping it off is the 41-minute "Tribute to the Fans," on which cameras follow a couple dozen fans from all over the world - China, Mexico, Tahiti, and Japan, for starters - as they display Dion memorabilia in their homes before journeying to see the show and meet her backstage (one woman has already seen it 81 times!). They are wowed when she appears just before showtime, but quickly put at ease by her warm, generous manner as she asks about their lives and deflects questions about her own. She even cries at some of their revelations. If only more superstars were this human. (
TV DVD | Mark Feeney
Jeff Corwin's highly bearable lightness
Local boy makes good - not to mention zoological. Jeff Corwin, the Emmy-winning "Animal Planet" host, grew up in Norwell, has degrees from Bridgewater State and UMass-Amherst, and lives in Marshfield.
Local boy also makes good TV, as demonstrated by "The Jeff Corwin Experience - Season One." Anyone who doubts nature television has come a long way from Marlin Perkins and "Wild Kingdom" has never seen Corwin's series. A buff goofster whose bloodstream would seem to be carbonated with caffeine, Corwin (above) on camera is Mark Wahlberg channeling Jim Carrey. Yes, he wrestles a 7-foot caiman and lets a tarantula tiptoe over his palm. But he also makes otter noises - who knew otters made noises? - and does a truly inspired bit in which he plays an animal-loving Sao Paolo office worker who daydreams of being, yes, Jeff Corwin. The man is a set of extra features unto himself - which may explain, if not justify, this three-disc set's lack of same.
Non-animal lovers can focus on Corwin as world traveler. Locations for season one include Thailand, the Galapagos, Madagascar, Alaska, and Borneo.
Corwin manages a nice, if highly kinetic, balance between the comic and the didactic. His mugging for the camera is fun, but what stays with the viewer is his seemingly boundless passion for his subject. It's one thing to pick up a Gila monster. It's quite another to do it eagerly. That's Corwin, and his eagerness is contagious. Encountering an anaconda, he exhorts himself, "Forget the chatter, and let's capture the snake!" (Genius Entertainment, $24.95)
ALSO THIS WEEK
"THE GAME PLAN" (2007)
The Rock is game, all right, playing a pro football quarterback who suddenly finds himself in charge of an 8-year-old daughter he didn't know he had. Routine but pleasant family fare, with built-in "oh, look" appeal thanks to the movie's glossy Boston setting.
Extras: Bloopers and deleted scenes; behind-the-scenes segments. (
"ADRIFT IN MANHATTAN" (2007)
Victor Rasuk ("Raising Victor Vargas") is a painfully shy camera enthusiast who trains his lens on Heather Graham, an optometrist nursing private hurt, in director Alfredo de Villa's thoughtful drama of intersecting urban crises. (Universal, $24.98)
"SEX AND BREAKFAST" (2007)
A couple with sexual-fulfillment issues (Macaulay Culkin and Alexis Dziena) and another who are just plain bored (Eliza Dushku and Kuno Becker) head to a therapist who steers them all toward the boudoir together. Far more straightforwardly restrained (and talky) than the titillating title and theme would suggest. (First Look Pictures, $26.98)
"CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO" (2007)
Director Matt Ogens's documentary follows four Hollywood wannabes who dress up as comic book characters and pose for photos along the Walk of Fame. Superman and Batman (as the doc simply refers to these Christopher Reeve and George Clooney look-alikes) have diverting personal stories, and Wonder Woman seems like she just might get somewhere, but the film under-editorializes its inherent irony of humble playing iconic.
Extras: Commentary by Superman; festival circuit footage; deleted scenes. (Arts Alliance America, $19.98)
REISSUES
"JOHN FRANKENHEIMER COLLECTION" (2008)
The late director's essential "The Manchurian Candidate" and late-career highlight "Ronin" anchor a set that also includes the courtroom drama "The Young Savages" and the World War II adventure "The Train," both with Burt Lancaster.
Extras: Commentary by Frankenheimer on all but "Savages." (MGM, $39.98)
FOREIGN
"MOLIÈRE" (2007)
Romain Duris (above) and director Laurent Tirard try to fill out the 17th-century French playwright's sketchy biography with romantic misadventure in the vein of "Shakespeare in Love," with mixed results.
Extras: Director commentary; production featurette. (
"THE KINGDOM": SERIES TWO (1997)
Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier and friends are back making the rounds of the same bizarre hospital Americanized by Stephen King a couple of years back.
Extras: Production documentary; selected audio commentary. (Koch Lorber, $29.98)
TELEVISION
"BANACEK": THE SECOND SEASON (1973-74)
George Peppard is back living the Beacon Hill good life as insurance investigator Thomas Banacek in this eight-episode set.
Extras: Pilot episode. (Arts Alliance America, $29.95)
Capsules are written by Globe correspondent Tom Russo and titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified.
