Week of 25 May 2009
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines *** (Blu-ray; Stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristianna Loken, David Andrews, Mark Famiglietti, Brian Sites, Alana Curry, Earl Boen, Moira Harris; £19.99; UK cert 12) He said that he'd be back, and he is. But with a new director and a fresh (and rather hot) TX-model terminator to tackle in his bid to keep future saviour John Connor alive. It's 10 years on from the events of T2, and we find Connor (Stahl) living on the streets. His mother, Sarah, is long since dead (or not, if you were one of the few who watched The Sarah Connor Chrionicles on TV). And once again young John is being hunted by Terminators from the future. This time his enemy is female (Loken - a terminatrix?) and even more powerful than her predecessors. However, the resistance sends another T-101 (Schwarzenegger) back from the future to once again ask Connor to "come with me if you want to live". To complicate matters, he also has to save Connor's future wife (Danes). This is probably the least-favoured film in the Terminator canon (although early word on Salvation ain't good) but T3 is not as bad as many fans claim it is. There are plenty of nice touches - Arnie getting his clothes from a male stripper this time, the usual gag with the videogameheads, many nods to T2 - and the chase scene with the crane is one of the best stunts put on film in a long, long time. Definitely worth another look. Extras: TerminatorVision, a picture-in-picture feature in which behind-the-scenes stuff pops up during the film; two audio commentaries – one with director Jonathan Mostow by himself, and one with Mostow plus actors Schwarzenegger, Stahl, Danes and Loken; a making-of featurette; storyboard-to-scene comparisons; Dressed To Kill, a featurette about the costumes; Toys in Action, a featurette about the action figures based on the characters from the film; a gag reel; a deleted scene; a look at the making of the T3 videogame; and a couple of trailers. — Stuart O'Connor
Sky Kids **½ (Stars Jesse James, Reiley McClendon, Stephen Baldwin, Tom Sizemore, Dallan Gettling, Jennifer Slimko; £15.99; UK cert 12) When the cocky new kid in town Kyle (McClendon) saves classmate Jason (James) from the school bully, the two become instant friends. Meanwhile, Jason’s Uncle Ed (Gettling) maintains a local aircraft hangar and when the two boys start hanging out there, it’s only a matter of time before they get carried away – literally. Released as The Flyboys in the US – which actually makes a whole lot more sense since there are numerous references to the two young scamps as ‘the flyboys’ – this is a half-decent kids adventure flick. Aside from being entirely unbelievable (the boys fly and land a plane and are then befriended by a warm-hearted mafia boss), it rattles along at a fair old lick and at times has some genuinely funny dialogue. The performances are generally fine though judging by his attitude, half the time McClendon seems to be playing someone twice his age. Most of the characters are two-dimensional at best and it’s largely predictable, but the film’s decent production values means it’s watchable enough without ever doing anything remotely new. No extras — Justin Bateman
Reggie Perrin: Series 1 **½ (Stars Martin Clunes, Fay Ripley, Neil Stuke, Lucy Liemann, Geoffrey Whitehead, Wendy Craig; £19.99; UK cert 15) Despite coming from the collective pens of original Perrin creator David Nobbs and Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye, this remake of the 70s classic fails to hit the surrealist highs of its predecessor. Clunes is more than adept at portraying Perrin, a man driven to the brink of a mid-life crisis by the mundanity of his existence, but lacks the manic tendencies of Leonard Rossiter, and too often the show feels like a dramatised version of Grumpy Old Men rather than an insight into the escalating insanity of an "everyday man". The superb Lucy Liemann, object of Perrin’s office fantasies, tops an illustrious supporting cast – it’s just a shame the limited budget gave them little scope to shine. Extras: Reggie Perrin Rises Again, Studio Tour, Outtakes, Audience Warm Up, Audio Commentaries. — Miriam Brent
The Magick Lantern Cycle: Kenneth Anger ** (Blu-ray; Stars Kenneth Anger; £24.99; UK Cert: 18) This collection, courtesy of the BFI collects 10 of Kenneth Anger's experimental short films. Kenneth Anger, notorious underground avant-garde film-maker, self-styled magician and author is reknowned for his controversial book Hollywood Babylon, as well as his involvement with the occultist Aleister Crowley. This 2-disc blu-ray set features his works Fireworks, Puce Moment, Rabbit's Moon, Eaux d'artifice, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, Scorpio Rising, Kustom Kar Kommandos, Invocation of My Demon Brother and Lucifer Rising, the majortiy of which have been meticulously restored and reconstructed to there original version by UCLA. Anger's films have been said to be an influence on directors as diverse as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and RW Fassbinder and watching this blu-ray it's especially interesting to see the what many would regard as Lynch-ian visuals in Anger's work, obviously Kenneth Anger was a great influence on Lynch. Kenneth Anger is a unique entity in film history, his films are strange, eclectic, thought-provoking, and mostly indescriable. If you have any interest in film history, or are looking for something outside the norm then I recommend you track down this blu-ray set. Extras: Commentaries; Features: The Man We Want to Hang, and Anger Me; Illustrated booklet. — Phil Wheat
________________________________________________________________________
Week of 18 May 2009
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie ** (Stars the voices of Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki, Cam Clarke; £5.99; U) A cucumber, a grape and gourd are lost at sea. No, it’s not the set-up for a joke, but the basic premise for a film about a bunch of vegetables with no arms who offer up Christian morality lessons, with a smattering of half-decent songs glued together with grinding puns and a who-cares storyline. Sound good? No? Then this DVD is not the thing for you. But it’s obviously the thing for someone – it turns out there’s a whole super-franchise based around these animated perishables, including a US TV series and 2006 feature Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. In this movie-length instalment, the three leads are Elliott, Sedgwick and George, backstage crew at a pirate-themed theatre restaurant, who get teleported back to the 17th century and find themselves caught up in a real pirate adventure. There’s enough plot here to keep preschoolers entertained, while the passable animation and a few not-terrible songs means younger school-age audiences should find it slightly more appetising than their five-a-day. Parents might also appreciate the uplifting themes of self-confidence and friendship. Everyone else, even the most ardent CGI fans, should avoid. Pixar can rest easy. No extras — Steven Kiernan
Shameless: Series 6 *** (Michael Legge, Nick Nevern, Joanna Higson, Jake Canuso, Sean Gilder, Tina Malone, Annabelle Apsion, David Threlfall; £34.99; UK cert 18) Among long-term watchers of Channel 4's acclaimed comedy drama, opinion on this latest series is largely split between those who think it's a strong return to form after a spell in the doldrums, and those who regard it as merely the latest instalment in the programme's terminal slide into embarrassing, unfunny irrelevance, tarnishing the memory of its reveered early series by making it increasingly resemble a council estate-themed Hollyoaks spin-off. Series 6 of Shameless makes few concessions to newcomers; if you've never watched the show, the first few episodes of this release are likely to leave you unimpressed. There's scant explanation of the relationships between the many characters, and with no prior Shameless-knowledge you're likely to be left with the impression that it's some kind of half-baked parody of a soap opera in which everyone's an unattractive, sex-mad petty criminal, and storylines only come in two flavours; overwrought tragedy or clumsy farce. Give it time though and its charms begin to become apparent: the characters' flaws make them vastly more interesting than your standard soap opera types, the daft storylines soon give way to more substantial fare, and while the comic elements can feel forced and extraneous, when they work they really do work. Not the best TV series you'll ever own, but those who think Shameless no longer has anything to offer are wrong. No extras — Adam Boult
________________________________________________________________________
Week of 11 May 2009
Legally Blondes * (Stars Camilla Rosso, Rebecca Rosso, Chloe Bridges, Chad Broskey, Bobby Campo, Tanya Chisholm, Brittany Curran, Trevor Duke, Caroline Fogarty; £15.99; PG) Awful, formulaic, contrived and unfunny straight-to-DVD sequel to the Reese Withspoon comedies. Izzy and Annie Woods – they're blonde, twins and British cousins of Elle – move to LA with their dad. They set up home in her Hollywood mansion (it's utterly vile, with pink decor and even a pink roof) and have scholaships to a posh private school. They fall out, as you do, with the cool crowd (because they're middle-class, not rich and elite) and end up hanging out with the freaks and geeks (who aren't all that feakish and geekish at all, just not as rich as the rest of the stuck-up posh kids). Izzy and Annie are a pair of Paris Hilton clones, complete with vacuous expressions and requisite chiuhahas in their handbags. The film is like a role-reversal version of Wild Child – there's even a clothes shopping montage and a school"trial" at the end. At first I thought the two leads were a little too tanned and perky to be British. Surprisingly, they are – but they now live in LA, which explains a lot. Elle herself, Ms Witherspoon, is even on board – but only behind the camera this time, as one of the 12 producers. Yes, that's right – it tok a dozen people to produce this tripe. Extras: Four featurettes – a making-of called Thinking Pink; Double Trouble, about how hard the twins are to tell apart; Fashion Frenzy, which is all about the costumes in the film; and Pacific Preparatory Yearbook, which is character profiles and behind-the-scenes clips. — Stuart O'Connor
________________________________________________________________________
Week of 4 May 2009
The Da Vinci Code: Extended Cut *** (Blu-ray; Stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jurgen Prochnow, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Etienne Chicot, Marie-Francoise Audollent; £19.99; UK cert 15) The Ron Howard thriller based on the Dan Brown best-seller makes its way onto Blu-ray with an extra 28 minutes of footage. When American symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) is summoned to the Louvre by by Captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), he soon discovers that he is the prime suspect for the murder of a historian Langdon had been scheduled to meet with. Assisted by French cryptographer Sophie Neveu (Tautou), Langdon is challenged to decipher a chain of cryptic codes and puzzles, all the while trying to stay ahead of Fache's lawmen in a chase through Paris and across the channel to England. It's a pretty faithful adaptation of Brown's hugely popular tome, with solid performances from Hanks and Tatou and plenty of twists and turns along the way to the revelation that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had a family. Extras: Five minutes of footage, introduced by Howard, from Angels & Demons - which was written before The Da Vinci Code, but has been filmed as a sequel; B-D LIve features; an interactive picture-in-picture feature called Unlocking The Code, which gives you acces to behind-the-scenes footage; commentary from Howard on selected scenes. — Stuart O'Connor
The World Unseen * (Stars Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth, Parvin Dabas, Nandana Sen, David Dennis, Grethe Fox & Colin Moss; UK cert 15) Adapted by director Shamim Sarif from her own novel, The World Unseen is slow-burning melodrama depicting a fledgling love affair between two Indian women in 1950s South Africa. Unconventional, free-spirited young cafe owner Amina agrees to carry out some gardening work for a local family, and before long she's exchanging smouldering looks and overwrought conversations about poetry with Miriam, the traditional, buttoned-up matriarch. Meanwhile, Miriam's husband seethes in the background and embarks on an affair with the town bike, and the local police rampage about the place in cartoonish fashion, utterly failing to convey the horror and brutality of the early days of apartheid. It's clear from the off that this is a film about issues; sexuality, immigration, apartheid, police brutality, domestic violence, racism, sexism and feminism all get a look in. However, despite this groaning smörgåsbord of emotive topics, this is a dull, dull film in which very little happens very slowly. Amid Miriam and her husband's ceaseless rows about the correct way for an Indian wife to behave, it's hard not to hope those cartoonish police will turn up again and beat everyone up, just to liven things up a little. No extras — Adam Boult
Grow Your Own Drugs ** (Stars James Wong; £15.99; UK cert E) James Wong, scientist and gardener, presents this BBC series about to how grow and transform everyday plants into simple natural remedies for common minor ailments. Covering such subjects as sleeplesness, acne, cold sores, eczema, and even beauty treatments like face washes and shampoos, Grow Your Own Drugs walks you through the basics of creating your own salves, syrups and creams.Obviously excited by ethnobotany, James Wong's enjoyment of his subject matter is infectious and it comes across clearly on screen. Mixing both the science and cooking genres, what really suprises you about this show is how easy it is to produce remedies that would cost you a small fortune at your local pharmacist. So as well as making use of our natural resources, Grow Your Own Drugs can also save you money. No extras — Phil Wheat