DVDs include Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds Concert

“HANNAH MONTANA AND MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT - THE 3-D MOVIE”

Blu-ray widescreen, enhanced widescreen and full-screen, 2008, G

Best extra: The standard-def "The Ultimate Personal Tour," behind-the-scenes with Miley and the Jonas Brothers

BEFORE YOU TEAR into the Blu-ray or two-disc DVD of the blockbuster "Best of Both Worlds Concert," remember, the IMAX 3-D experience can’t be replicated at home, unless, of course, you push your nose up against the TV and don’t blink.

Still, if you have a huge flat-screen HDTV, some popcorn and an evening to dance and scream, this concert’s the ticket.

Although the extras aren’t blockbuster, Miley’s tour of backstage will thrill tweens and teens – in part because it includes the Jonas Brothers and, in part, because it connects the dots when it comes to Miley’s performance.

There are also a couple additional songs, one from the Jonas Brothers, one from Miley, an option to watch the songs individually and, thanks to Disney and its musicals, the opportunity to sing along with the movie. There’s also additional songs not seen in theaters.

The second DVD disc contains the 3-D version of the movie, which can be viewed with four pair of 3-D glasses included with the set. The Blu-ray features the 2-D and 3-D on the same disc.

Get ready for scads of floating shapes, exploding pyrotechnics on the stage and a teen performer who doesn’t need to be in 3-D to pop off the screen.

The Blu-ray disc    features a powerful Dolby TrueHD soundtrack far surpassing the DVD, immersing you completely into the concert hall experience. -  Toni Guagenti

 

“STREET KINGS”

 Blu-ray and enhanced widescreen, 2008, R for strong violence and pervasive language

 Best extra: The exclusive Blu-ray picture-in-picture commentary with more than 30 video clips, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew and sprinkled with pop-up trivia facts.

  HOW COULD THIS movie be bad with this kind of street cred: directed by the guy who wrote “Training Day” (David Ayer), written by the guy who penned “L.A. Confidential” (James Ellroy), co-starring Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker?  What could possibly go wrong?

Well, start with co-star Keanu Reeves and add a convoluted take on a clichéd theme … yeah, yeah, we get it already.

Reeves plays a drunk cop, Todd Ludlow, who’s not above killing (instead of arresting) a bad guy, or planting evidence to take down a low-life. Other than that, though, he’s a decent enough dude.

But then he finds out his old partner is snitching on him, the partner ends up dead (he didn’t do it), and Ludlow is suddenly in a whirlwind of trouble – and corruption – which is all the fault of his dirty boss, Captain Jack Wander (Whitaker).

Whitaker is great, the action is good, but you’ve seen this movie before, only much, much better versions.

The Blu-ray or DVD is another story.

Among the jam-packed extras, you get a commentary with Ayer, 15 deleted scenes (almost 12 minutes worth), a real-life, 17-minute tour of South Central L.A.’s mean streets and a pile of short (three minutes or less) pieces on everything from actors’ training to special effects.

The Blu-ray imagery is gorgeous, with deep blacks and vivid color, holding up especially well during the L.A. night sequences. It even includes a digital copy for your portable player. Still it’s only worth a rental. Not a penny more. — Kyle Tucker

   

“DEXTER: THE SECOND SEASON”

 

Enhanced widescreen, 2007, not rated, contains scenes of violence and gore, language, sexual and adult situations.

  Best extra: Two second season episodes of Showtime series “Brotherhood.”

  EVEN SERIAL KILLERS have their problems – and viewers can find out all about them in the four-disc, 12 episode set from Showtime.

Dexter, in an Emmy-nominated performance by Michael C. Hall, is a forensics expert specializing in blood spatter for the Miami Dade police during the day, a serial killer by night. Raised by a police officer who recognizes the traumatized child’s tendencies, Dexter learns he must only kill bad people and only if he can prove they are killers. Disguised as a “normal” human being, here’s a character who stands in Batman’s shadow. But this darker knight is more vulnerable, the kind of killer you might not mind living next door.

When a pair of scuba diving tourists uncover Dexter’s underwater burial ground, our “hero” scrambles to keep his secret identity and mission intact. He must also hustle to keep his relationship with girlfriend Rita due to unfortunate consequences leaking out of Season One. “Dexter” is as much a psychological thriller as mystery and everyone, including cast members Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, Lauren Velez, David Zayas, C.S. Lee, James Remar, Keith Carradine and Jaime Murray – gets their moment.

Extras are disappointing, offering only text biographies and a photo gallery of the cast. No featurettes. You can watch two episodes of “Brotherhood” and are advised that if we purchase another Showtime series on DVD, we can see “Dexter’s” third season opener. We are guided to online sites for special features – which would have been great in the DVD set. C’mon, Showtime! “Dexter: Season 3” premiers Sept. 28 on Showtime.  — Kay Reynolds

 

“MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY”

Enhanced wide screen, 2008, PG-13 for partial nudity and innuendo

Best extra: A making-of documentary, comprised of interviews with most of the stars, director, producers and other principal collaborators, is mostly entertaining.

 

FRANCES MCDORMAND, who plays a down-on-her-luck British nanny who accidentally ends up taking charge of a promiscuous, childlike (but adult) American actress (Amy Adams), describes this clichéd, cutsey bit of treacle as a kind of “Lucy and Edith” (sic) episode – a “female buddy movie.”

Based on a 1930s novel and set during the 24 hours in London before World War II began, this predictable period farce has some cute moments, thanks to its able cast. McDormand calls Miss Pettigrew a cross between “Mary Poppins” and “My Fair Lady.” She’s full of practical advice, manages to fix everything, and also gets a fashion makeover, taking her all the way from drab to chic.

The two-sided disc also includes some deleted scenes and another short documentary. In an informative commentary, the director says he wanted the frivolous people depicted in the film to seem as though they were “dancing on the Titanic, not knowing the iceberg was coming.” Save yourselves. — Peggy Earle

 

“THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES”

Blu-ray widescreen, 2008, R for violent and disturbing content, language and brief drug use

Best extra: “Flashback: Behind “The Life Before Her Eyes” is an hour-long look at the making of the film.

 

UMA THURMAN AND Evan Rachel Wood play the same woman in “The Life Before Her Eyes,” an “emotional thriller,” according to director Vadim Perelman, about the aftershocks of a school shooting that can still be felt twenty years later.

Considering how sensitive and knowing the film is about women, it’s shocking that Perelman (“House of Sand and Fog”) was accused of sexually assaulting two women during a drunken bar brawl while shooting of the film in Connecticut (since he was a first time offender, he escaped with a fine and 100 hours of community service).

“The Life Before Her Eyes” arrives on Blu-ray with an exceptional hi-def transfer that showcases the film’s beautiful cinematography that utilizes a blue pool and an assortment of colorful flowers as visual themes.  The lossless audio track is also excellent and does a fine job separating all of the film’s subtle sound effects as well as the explosive gunfire during the school shooting

Extras are strong for this release.  Aside from the hour long documentary, which traces the novel’s journey to the screen, the search for the actors, and the film’s production, there is an audio commentary by Perelman and production designer Maia Javan, a shorter featurette about survivors of near death experiences, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and more.

Highly recommended. — Josh Boone

 

“PRISON BREAK: SEASON THREE”

Blu-ray and enhanced widescreen, 2007-08, unrated

Best extra: A 20-minute hi-def featurette with interviews from most of the new cast members, including Danay Garcia (Sofia), who's originally from Cuba, and Robert Wisdom (Lechero), who considered his role similar to Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

 

“PRISON BREAK: SEASON ONE” was one those unbelievable TV experiences – especially if you grabbed the Blu-ray version with its spectacular imagery. It even rivaled “Lost: Season One,” considered the finest piece of television, with character development, cinematic wonder and plot twists.

Preparing for “Season Three,” I breezed through “Season Two” on DVD where I watched brothers Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) and the rest of the Fox River escapees scatter across the U.S. in hope of unearthing $5 million from a site in Utah. Meanwhile, the brothers desperately try to overthrow the ominous government conspiracy, The Company, which originally sent Lincoln to death row for murder.

FBI Special Agent Alexander Mahone (William Fichtner) joins the relentless hunt, crisscrossing the country in nearly every episode with lighting speed. There’s no rest for this FBI superman.

There’s plenty of carnage. Half of the original eight are killed by The Company or Mohone, who is also on the payroll.

“Season Three” on Blu-ray is an obvious upgrade in picture and sound quality over the 22 “Season Two” episodes, which are only available on DVD. The Fox production abandons the Chicago area to take-up residence in Dallas, the back lot for the hellish Panamanian Sona prison.

Victim to his own double-cross, Mahone is thrown into Sona with the racist “T-Bag” (Robert Knepper) and ex-prison guard Brad Bellick (Wade Williams). Michael Scofield is also dumped into Sona by The Company, to free the mysterious James Whistler (Chris Vance). Michael has seven days or his girlfriend Sarah (Sarah Wayne Callies) and nephew L.J. (Marshall Allman) will be killed by operative Susan B. Anthony (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe). Don’t be surprised by the resurrection of one key character this upcoming season. There’s a plot twist coming that should give fans hope.

Originally, the 13th episode was intended as a mid-season cliffhanger with Scofield and Whistler on the run, but the writers strike left “Prison Break” and other Hollywood series and films in a holding pattern.

The disc includes another featurette, highlighting interviews from the original cast including Purcell, who comments on the international success of the series. More than 135 million Chinese download the show weekly. “I couldn’t be more humble,” says Purcell, shocked by the fan base. 

The four-disc set includes standard-def behind-scenes clips from all 13 episodes and interviews from the different directors.  — Bill Kelley III

 

 “NIXON: ELECTION YEAR EDITION”

 Blu-ray widescreen, 1995, R for language

Best extra: A new hi-def documentary, “Beyond Nixon,” directed by Oliver Stone’s son Sean, features interviews with John Dean, Gore Vidal, and others who knew the President.

 

STONE’S POWERFUL AND surprisingly sympathetic biopic of President Richard Nixon, starring Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen (in Oscar nominated roles), arrives on Blu-ray this week with an impeccable transfer and a lossless audio track that allows John Williams’s Academy Award nominated score (his third for Stone after “Born on the Fourth of July” and “JFK”) to really shine.

The 213-minute Extended Director’s Cut, which fits snugly on one 50 Gigabits Blu-ray disc, is accompanied by two audio commentaries with Stone, which have been carried over from previous releases.  Why these two tracks, which have quite a bit of dead air in them (you try talking for 3 and ½ hours), weren’t combined into one has never made much sense.  The first focuses on the film’s production (to save money, Stone used the White House set from the Michael Douglas film “The American President) while the second focuses on the film’s historical accuracy (Stone haters who cry foul can feel free to pick up the published screenplay, which is annotated with footnotes, documentation, a comprehensive bibliography and the transcripts of nearly all of Nixon’s Watergate tapes).

The rest of the bonus features can be found on the second disc.  Sean Stone’s new doc, a vintage Charlie Rose show interview with Stone, an hour of deleted material (much integrated back into the extended cut) with commentary by Stone and the original theatrical trailer are also included.

This is one of the best releases of the year.  — Josh Boone

 

“PERFECT STORM”

Blu-ray widescreen, 2000, PG-13 for language and scenes of peril

Best extra: A commentary with author Sebastian Junger

 

“THE HARBOR WAS going crazy. The waves were 30 feet tall,” says the author, who lived in the fishing village of Gloucester, Mass., when the storm hit. He spent months interviewing survivors, friends and family members to tell the story of the most dangerous job in the world. “I treated it as a detective story.”

In the fall of 1991, the unthinkable happened.

Three giant storm systems mushroomed into “The Perfect Storm,” taking fishing boat Andrea Gail on a terrifying ride into “the middle of the monster.” Director Wolfgang Petersen (“Das Boot” and “In the Line of Fire”) used the latest computer special effects for the late ‘90s to re-create the enormous seas that Capt. Billy Tyne (George Clooney) and his crew must fight to stay alive.

The Blu-ray disc still suffers from a soft hi-def picture, which also plagued the HD DVD version from a couple years ago. On the audio front, the disc features the Dolby TrueHD track to insure the most powerful soundtrack.

The disc includes three standard-def documentaries, with interviews from longtime Gloucester fishermen and composer James Horner. Two more commentaries, from the director and special effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier, are featured.

Additional highlights included conceptual art gallery, storyboards and photo gallery. — Bill Kelley III

 

“HOUSE, M.D.: SEASON FOUR”

Enhanced widescreen, 2007-08, not rated

Best Extra: "New Beginnings" documentary

 

THE FOURTH SEASON of "House" crossed a procedural show with a reality show as Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), whose team of researchers left at the end of the third season, is forced to hire new assistants.

Never one to do things simply, House decides to "hire" all 30 candidates and fire those, a la "Survivor," who don't cut it from week to week.

In the "New Beginnings" feature, viewers learn that the writers' strike shortened the season by eight episodes and Fox execs didn't want "House" to finish the fourth season. But the creators had some story lines that HAD to be closed out, so they fought for four episodes to bring closure to the season. Hence, the two-part finale "House's Head" and "Wilson's Heart." Those two episodes, where the friendship between House and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) is tested, lay the groundwork for part of what the next season, which kicks off in September, will explore,

The feature also talks about why such a dramatic change was undertaken. The primary reason was that they thought that the interaction between House and his original team of characters played by Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer had become predictable and limiting.

Don't waste your time with "House's Soap: Prescription Passion."

Other extras include a session with the writers, a look at the visual effects, an anatomy of a scene (this explores the bus crash), and a commentary on "House's Head." In the commentary, creator/executive producer David Shore and executive producer Katie Jacobs do a decent job of dissecting the episode of what's going on in House's mind and how re-creating the bus crash comes together in what ends up being part one of the season finale. Warning: If you haven't seen the episode, the commentary has spoilers.

Viewers will also learn that "House's Head" was originally planned to be the episode that aired after the Super Bowl. But the writer's strike interfered with that idea. It reflects well on the writers and creators that they could alter the original plan and turn the episode into the first part of a season-ender.

 

“THE SMALL BACK ROOM”

Full-screen, 1949, unrated

Best extra: The commentary by film scholar Charles Barr is informative and interesting.

 

THIS STUDY OF a troubled amputee/alcoholic scientist/bomb disposal expert and the woman who loves him, is another in the usually wonderful collaborations between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (“Red Shoes”; “I Know Where I’m Going”; “Black Narcissus”). While this film drags at times, it has its Powell/Pressburger moments, such as the surreal treatment of the protagonist’s seeming endless wait for his lover as he is taunted by the whiskey bottle he’s trying to resist, and the suspenseful scene in which he has to defuse a bomb that is stuck in a beach composed of constantly shifting pebbles.

Look for lots of fine special features on this Criterion disc, including a recent nostalgic interview with cinematographer Chris Challis and excerpts from an audio version of Powell’s autobiography. But it takes Barr’s commentary to tie everything together, as in his assessment of the film as a mix of “realism and expressionism; documentary and film noir.”

 

— Peggy Earle

 

 “MARCO FERRERI COLLECTION”

Enhanced widescreen, various years (1960-1988), various ratings (mostly R or X, however)

Best extra: The only extra is a wonderful, feature-length documentary, “Marco Ferreri: The Director Who Came From the Future.”

 

IT’S SAFE TO SAY that the eight films directed by an Italian most Americans never heard of are probably unlike anything they’re ever seen before. From his most famous – “La Grande Bouffe,” in which a few friends spend a weekend carrying out a suicide pact by which they eat themselves to death -- to his most outrageous – “Bye Bye Monkey,” the story of two men finding the corpse of King Kong and adopting his infant (monkey) son, Ferreri never stops surprising and shocking his audiences. At the Cannes Film Festival, according to the documentary, Ingrid Bergman was one of the judges. After seeing “La Grande Bouffe,” she threw up. Ferreri is described as anarchic, clairvoyant, provocative, extreme, by many of the actors he directed  (including Marcello Mastroianni, Gerard Depardieu, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi, Roberto Benigni), critics and colleagues. Mostly, he comes off as someone who never compromised his vision during the course of his career – not to critics, not to his audience. — Peggy Earle

 

"PERRY MASON: SEASON 3 – VOLUME 1"

Full-screen, 1959-60, not rated

Best Extra: None

 

AT ONE POINT in the first half of the third season of "Perry Mason," District Attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman) says something to the effect of the fact that the state is more interested in getting to the truth than winning cases. Well, considering that he was up against Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), it was certainly almost always a given that the state would lose its case anyway.

The 12 episodes offer no particularly outstanding one, though in an unusual one Paul Drake (William Hopper) finds himself charged with murder when he's accused of killing a philanderer who tried to cover up a hit-and-run accident. The man had hired Drake, Mason's primary investigator, to pay off the spouse of the other person involved in the accident. When Drake learns he was being duped about the payoff, he goes back to find out what really happened only to get in a fight and wake up next to a dead body.

Another episode with some twists involves a card game gone bad. A player's death is faked so a blackmailing scheme can be set up against another gambler. Of course, that's a prescription for disaster when the man behind the plot turns up to be murdered after all. That leaves the blackmail victim as the scapegoat. But Mason smells a rat.

As usual for the episodic murder mystery of the day, Mason usually gets the real killer to confess in court as the way to clear his client.