DVDS OUT TUESDAY
New films
Gnomeo & Juliet $29.99/ Blu-ray $39.99
I Am Number Four $29.99/ Blu-ray $39.99
The Big Bang $26.97/ Blu-ray $34.98
Burning Palms $27.97/ Blu-ray $29.97
Anton Chekhov's The Duel $29.95/ Blu-ray $38.94
A Small Act $29.95
Television
Lemonade Mouth $26.99
The Unknown War: WWII and the Epic Battles of the Russian Front $39.97
Public Speaking $19.98
Childrens Hospital: The Complete First and Second Seasons $29.98
Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads, Season 1 $24.95
The Kids in the Hall: The Complete Series $99.95
The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town $24.95
Nova: Japan's Killer Quake $24.99
Brad Meltzer's Decoded: Season 1 $29.95
Reagan $19.95
The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show one disc $12.95/ two discs $22.95
Melissa & Joey: Season One, Part One $29.97
60 Minutes - Killing Bin Laden: The President's Story $17.95
Capadocia: Season 1 $19.98
Older films
Platoon Blu-ray $29.99
Gettysburg: Director's Cut Blu-ray $34.99
Gods and Generals: Extended Director's Cut $29.95/ Blu-ray $34.99
The Great Dictator: The Criterion Collection $29.95/ Blu-ray $39.95
Solaris: The Criterion Collection Blu-ray $39.95
Grand Prix Blu-ray $19.98
Le Mans $14.99/ Blu-ray $24.99
Papillon Blu-ray $34.99
Fighting Mad / Moving Violation $19.93
The Ron Howard Action Pack (Eat My Dust! / Grand Theft Auto) $19.93
Tigerland Blu-ray $29.99
For kids
Caillou's Summer Vacation $12.99
Transformers: The Complete Series $99.99
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Great Outdoors $19.99
Of special interest
The Royal Wedding: William & Catherine $9.98
William & Kate: Planning a Royal Wedding $12.99
Phish: Live in Utica 2010 $34.99
Ken Burns says he was inspired to do his landmark documentary "The Civil War" by Michael Shaara's 1974 historical novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, "The Killer Angels." After Shaara died in 1988, his son, Jeff, wrote a prequel - "Gods and Generals," about the first two years of the bloody conflict.
Both were made into films by director Ron Maxwell, and now Warner Home Video is releasing extended Blu-ray versions of them with a multitude of extras.
"Gettysburg" (1993) was shot on some actual locations at the Pennsylvania battlefield, which is now a national park. Thousands of Civil War buffs re-enacted the fight, in which some 43,000 soldiers were killed out of the 158,000 that went into battle.
One of the key stories told in "Gettysburg" is that of Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels). On the second day of the three-day fight, his Union troops from Maine not only held the heights at Little Round Top, preventing the Southern forces from outflanking the Northern army, but with little ammunition they counterattacked and drove the Southern rebels off the hill. For his valor, Lawrence was awarded the Medal of Honor and in all likelihood saved the Union.
The loss that day spurred Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to try the ultimately flawed and fatal decision of sending troops across an open field toward superior Union forces fortified with cannon. Pickett's Charge, as it became known, sounded the death knell for the South.
These
pivotal moments in our nation's history are told in a clear and straightforward manner, bringing history to life without sacrificing accuracy.Maxwell's "Gods and Generals" (2003) isn't as successful, as it doesn't focus on one battle and, for the most part, uncomfortably skirts the main issue of the war, slavery. Dealing with that stain on this country was not Michael Shaara's or the director's aim. It seems they wanted to offer an impartial look at history, but it's difficult to see a slave be told by his owner, Confederate Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), that the South will free him and not think: hypocrite.
The new editions of the films offer extras including commentary and documentaries about the battles and figures. Neither of the movies is great in a cinematic sense, but they relate history in a fairly clear and straightforward way.
What we take from the stories of the Civil War is something else. Both films are relatively sanitized with PG-13 ratings, dramatizing what we know was a brutal and terrible conflict.
Shakespearean gnomes
I remember a lot of people dying in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," which is why turning it into an animated kids comedy based on a pun and populated by ceramic garden ornaments seemed like a weird idea.
After seeing "Gnomeo and Juliet," something still seems off.
The feuding sides in this case are the gnomes on the neighboring lawns of Miss Montague (Julie Walters), which are blue, and Mr. Capulet (Richard Wilson), which are red. The roundish sweethearts are Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt), who see that love is better than fighting.
The nine scriptwriters do acknowledge the source material with a scene involving a statue of Shakespeare (Patrick Stewart), who is dubious about giving a tragedy a happy ending.
Elton John is the executive producer, which allows tunes like "Bennie and the Jets," "Crocodile Rock" and "Your Song" to help pass the time for adults in the audience.
There are a few laughs. Somewhere in "Gnomeo and Juliet" the Bard's "story of more woe" still abides, though the upshot seems to be that it isn't anything a little glue can't fix.
"I Am Number Four" is about alien teens hiding out on Earth from bad aliens. So we have some pretty actors playing teens - Alex Pettyfer and "Glee's" Dianna Argon.
The presence of "Justified's" Timothy Olyphant as a mentor for Pettyfer's character helps a bit to enliven this terribly derivative story, but director D.J. Caruso mostly relies on explosions to move things along - probably in an effort to keep audiences awake.
After spending about a week in theaters recently, "The Big Bang" - a neo-noir tale - is already on disc. The film, starring Antonio Banderas as a Los Angeles detective, is a passable mystery, if you don't think too much about it.
Keep in mind
It seems like every week Criterion releases remastered editions of great movies. I have received calls on where to find these titles. The best place for anything that isn't on the shelves of your local Target or Walmart is the Internet. Start with Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.
This week Criterion has Charlie Chaplin's 1940 classic "The Great Dictator," and Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris" (1972), based on Polish writer Stanislaw Lem's novel.
"The Great Dictator" - a skewering of Hitler and his Germany - was the comic master's first talking picture. "Solaris," though sci-fi, is more of a psychological drama about a crew on a space station studying alien life.
The Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall had a certain late-night cult status in America, but deserved more. (Their 1996 film "Brain Candy" - a parody of our pharmaceutical addiction - was both funny and right on target.) The boys have gotten together again for "The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town," a eight-episode satire that takes place in a town called Shuckton, where the mayor has been murdered.
Also available is the complete set of the Kids' five-season series.
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Source: http://www.dailynews.com/lifestyle/ci_18111365?source=rss
Amanda Swisten Ashley Olsen Brody Dalle Carol Grow Missi Pyle
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