COUCH THEATER — DVD PREVIEWS
By DNA Smith
It’s a slow week. No major motion pictures are coming out on DVD this week, but there are a few gems to be found, mostly in the form of re-releases of films and TV show boxed sets. Here are my faves:
PICKS OF THE WEEK
“Land of the Lost: Complete Series” (Limited Edition Gift Set) — Released to coincide with Will Farrell’s theatrical remake of the cult ’70s kids show, this DVD package is 32 flavors of cool. Not only do you get the complete series, but it comes packaged in a retro, metal lunchbox like the ones sold back when the show was on TV.
“Falling Down” (Deluxe Edition) — “Falling Down” is an historic film. Not because it’s a cinematic masterpiece (it isn’t), but because it’s the only reasonably good movie director Joel Schumacher ever made. Michael Douglas stars as a bespectacled engineer named Foster who’s lost his job and his mind during a blistering hot day in Los Angeles. Foster goes ballistic, raging against minorities and well, society in general, as he cuts a bloody swath throughout the City of Angels. Robert Duvall plays a cop (who is retiring that day and has issues with his much-younger ex-wife) who tracks Foster down. Not sure what makes this DVD release “Deluxe.” Maybe it’s the commentary tracks featuring Douglas and Schumacher. Still, it’s a pretty good Guilty Pleasure Movie.
“Jeeves and Wooster: The Complete Series” — Before Hugh Laurie became a household name in America with “House,” he was a major television star in the UK with such shows as “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” and “Blackadder.” But Laurie’s best work can be seen here in “Jeeves and Wooster,” the brilliant television adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse’s satirical look at the English upper class during the Jazz Age.
Laurie plays Bertie Wooster, a good-hearted though dim upper-class bachelor whose aunt hires a valet named Jeeves (Stephen Fry) to keep the poor young fool out of trouble — a talent for which Bertie excels. Most of Bertie’s misadventures involve him attempting to help his equally dim friends with their romantic entanglements, which leads to Bertie concocting a harebrained scheme and Jeeves discretely saving Bertie’s bacon when the situations go all higgledy-piggledy.
TV SERIES
“Ice Road Truckers: The Most Dangerous Episodes”
“The Closer” The Complete Seasons 1-4
“Designing Women” The Complete First Season
“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” The Ninth Year
“Gunsmoke” Season 3 Vol. 2
“The Mod Squad” Season 2, Vol. 2
“The Universe” The Complete Season Three
“UFO Hunters” The Complete Season Two
“The Invisibles” Series 1
“Cities of the Underworld” The Complete Season Three
© 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.