DVDs include 'The Office: Season Four' , 'Eli Stone'

“MARRIED LIFE”

Blu-ray and enhanced widescreen, 2007, PG-13 for some thematic elements and a scene of sexuality

Best extra:  Writer/director Ira Sachs offers an enthusiastic commentary jam-packed with references to other films and directors who have inspired his work.

 

PIERCE BROSNAN, Chris Cooper, Rachel McAdams, and Patricia Clarkson star in this 1950s drama about an unhappy marriage that breeds murderous thoughts. Based on John Bingham’s novel, the age-old story is bolstered by its excellent cast.

“Married Life” comes to Blu-ray with an absolutely beautiful transfer showcasing Peter Deming’s (David Lynch’s go-to director of photography) luminous cinematography. The lossless audio track is as clean. Dickon Hinchliffe’s period-inspired score (his first for a studio release) should net him a lot more work.

Extras are light but insightful. Aside from the commentary, there are three alternate endings with Sachs who debates the differences between the endings and how test screenings helped him choose the right one. 

— Josh Boone

 

“THE OFFICE: SEASON FOUR”

Enhanced widescreen, 2008, not rated

Best extra: Deleted scenes from the best episodes

 

THE GANG AT Dunder Mifflin will say adios to summer vacation when the new season of "The Office" premieres Sept. 25 on NBC. Get caught up on Michael's (Steve Carell) bad management style, the conference calls and office romances with "The Office: Season Four." The four-disc set includes episode commentaries, a transcript for the "Dinner Party" episode and more. The lengthy deleted scenes segment offers more of the season's best episodes, including the confrontation between Michael and Stanley (Leslie David Baker). There's more than 20 minutes of hilarious blooper reels.

 “The Office Convention: Writer's Block” finds the writers in a monotone focus group setting to field questions from viewers. It's a bit long, so you may zone out – much like you would in a drawn out meeting at your office. Perhaps that’s the point.

The special features end with the Summer Vacation Promo. Looks like Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) are still together, and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) is still vying to be Michael's flunky. You know how offices go: some things never change.

 

— DeAnne M. Bradley

 

“THEN SHE FOUND ME”

 Blu-ray and enhanced widescreen, 2007, R for language and some sexual content

Best extra:  In her audio commentary, writer/director/actor Helen Hunt admits to listening to commentaries on some of her favorite DVDs in preparation for directing her first film.

 

HUNT LEAVES HER vanity at the door and lets herself look depressed and worn as a 40-year-old teacher who’s just lost her immature husband (Matthew Broderick) and her hopes for having a child. She receives another blow when her adoptive mother passes away. Her birth mother, an explosive talk show host (Bette Midler) shakes her life up just when she needs it. Brit actor Colin Firth co-stars as Hunt’s potential love interest.

The Blu-ray transfer is just okay, with a rather soft image and bland colors. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is strong, especially considering the dialogue-driven nature of the film.

Hunt’s commentary is first-rate. She explains at length the decisions she made and all she absorbed while watching other directors work over the years, gaining particular insight from James L. Brooks, who directed her in her Academy Award winning performance in “As Good As It Gets.” There are also a handful of short interviews with the cast.

 

— Josh Boone

 

“ELI STONE: SEASON 1”

Enhanced widescreen, 2007-08, not rated

Best extra: “Turning a Prophet: The Creation of ‘Eli Stone,’” which features interviews with the cast and executive producers.

 

I ADMIT I WAS skeptical when ABC’s “Eli Stone” debuted last season. With all its dance numbers and fantasy sequences, it seemed a little over the top. But I got hooked on the characters and fresh take on the stale legal drama formula. Eli Stone (played by Brit Jonny Lee Miller) is a lawyer for a heartless firm when he starts getting visions – many of which involve George Michael – that might be the result of a brain aneurysm. Or they might be messages from God, directing him to take certain cases and do some good in the world.

The four-disc set includes 13 episodes plus the usual deleted scenes and bloopers. There’s also commentary by the co-creators, director and some of the writers and actors with the extended pilot and the last episode. The commentaries give an interesting look behind what went into making the show. “Turning a Prophet” talks about how the show came about and, through various interviews, it’s obvious how well the cast gets along. They also talk about faith – a central idea to the show – and what it means in “Eli Stone.”

There are also featurettes about George Michael’s role in the show, the special effects that go into creating the fantastical visions Eli has, and a tour of the law firm set by actress Natasha Henstridge.

All in all, the extras are average, but the show is an enjoyable mix of comedy and drama. You just gotta have faith.

 

— Brian Cleveland

 

 “LIFE: SEASON ONE”

Enhanced widescreen, 2008, not rated

Best extra: “Life Begins” is a featurette that tastefully and succinctly sets up the premise of the show, which features the saga of LAPD Detective Charlie Crews, a police officer who has returned to the force after a 12-year prison stint for a murder he didn’t commit. He comes back with a $50 million settlement and an offbeat approach to solving crime.

 

“LIFE WAS HIS SENTENCE, and life was what he got back,” says one of the characters in NBC’s “Life” about Detective Charlie Crews, played by Damian Lewis.

Watching this show might put you to mind of “House,” the quirky doctor on the Fox network, as Crews takes a different approach to solving crime. And he loves fruit.

The show is gritty and deals with issues unlike any other crime show, with each of its main characters being flawed. (Crews’ new partner, Dani Reese, played by Sarah Shahi, has had some substance abuse problems in her past that she is coming back from.)

The coolest concept of this show is the several themes that are explored: the philosophy of Zen, which Crews picked up in the joint; imprisonment; and the conspiracy wall, which Crews constructs in order to help him try and solve the crime for which he had been imprisoned. And just about EVERYBODY is on the wall.

This show is deep. And it doesn’t follow the conventional formula of a cop show, either. The commentary, of which there is plenty, gets into this concept along with the struggles of the production team to get this across.

The series also stars Adam Arkin as Ted Earley, whom Crews has working as his financial advisor. They met when they were locked up. Brooke Langton is Constance Griffiths, Crews’ attorney. She’s hot. They’re hot. Get the picture? Brent Sexton is Bobby Starks, Crews’ old partner from back in the day. Starks didn’t back Crews up when it counted, so now their relationship is tenuous.

This three-disc DVD set is packed full of extras: deleted scenes, commentary, bloopers, “Fruits of Life,” “Still Life,” “Life’s Questions Answered.”

The show had been interrupted by the writers strike, but now that all that is over, it seems to be back on track.

“Life” is a winner, a gritty police drama that has a twist.

 

— Cliff Redding

 

“TRANSFORMERS”

Blu-ray widescreen, 2007, PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language

Best extra: A pop-up trivia track, with plenty of informative factoids, sprinkled with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, including comments from executive producer Steven Spielberg.

 

DIRECTOR MICHAEL BAY was levied last fall when DreamWorks/Paramount decided it would only release his latest action thriller on the now obsolete HD DVD format. The director, who got his start in commercials, threatened to pull the plug on the upcoming “Transformers” sequel. Bay protested that Blu-ray had the upper hand over HD DVD with a larger storage capacity and more versatility to insure the best picture, sound and extras.

  “As a director, my critical eye is that Blu-ray is where my money is,” Bay told one national newspaper.

  Earlier this year, the hi-def format war collapsed. Hollywood studios dropped support for HD DVD, leaving Blu-ray as the heir apparent to DVDs, which account for over 50 percent of the studios’ annual revenue.

  How does Blu-ray compare to Paramount’s number-one selling HD DVD disc? First off, if you have the latest and hottest sound system with HDMI inputs and processing of the HD audio tracks, Blu-ray literally blows the previous disc out of the water. Blu-ray includes Dolby’s superior lossless TrueHD track, matching the original recordings, to produce a more aggressive soundstage. During the Decepticons’ attack on a U.S. base in the Middle East, the massive blasts are reference quality. Nothing compares, except maybe Universal’s new “U-571” Blu-ray disc that features a DTS HD track.

  On the imagery front, it’s flawless. Bay’s trademark contrast levels only heighten pristine detail with deep black levels and oversaturated colors. It pops off the screen, including my 104-inch super widescreen theater.

  The first disc includes an informative commentary with Bay, who recalls the phone call from Spielberg, asking if he would direct the adaptation of the Transformers franchise. Surprisingly, he told Spielberg, “I’ll think about it.” Bay was sent to Hasbro headquarters to study the complete Transformers lore, where dozens of executives tried to convince Bay to take the job. “I wanted to make it real, make it cool,” he says.

  Bay continues, telling us how he recruited the military and, with what he calls his personal hotline to the Pentagon, where he got the green light. The big brass guaranteed use of the newest and hottest hardware, including the V-22 Osprey with its tilt rotor for vertical/short takeoffs featured in the opening sequence.

  The second disc duplicates extras found on the HD DVD disc, including more than 90-minutes of hi-def interviews with military consultants, Spielberg, Bay and FX designers, making-of highlights, storyboards and concept art.

“Transformers” is bound to be your hi-def showoff disc for family and friends.

 

— Bill Kelley III

   

“SON OF RAMBOW”

Enhanced widescreen, 2008, PG-13 for some violence and reckless behavior

Best extra:  According to the loose group commentary on the “Son of Rambow” DVD, Sylvester Stallone was shown the film and loved it.

 

British director Garth Jennings, who previously brought “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” to the big screen in 2005, returns with a much smaller film about a young boy living under the rule of oppressive religious parents who joins up with a juvenile delinquent to make their own movie about their hero, John Rambo. Set in the ’80s in a small English village, the film recalls “Napoleon Dynamite” and Tom Sawyer’s adventures with Huck Finn. Although uneven tonally and not entirely successful, “Son of Rambow” still gets enough right to recommend a rental.

Extras include the before-mentioned commentary, a half-hour making of featurette, and “Aron,” the short film Jennings made when he was a kid that ultimately inspired the movie. There’s also an amateur short film that won an online contest related to the film.

— Josh Boone

 

 

“PALE RIDER”

Blu-ray widescreen, 1985, R for violence and language

Best extra: None

 

FOR NEARLY a decade between the mid-1970s and ‘80s, Hollywood abandoned the cinematic western. OK, there were a few sprinkled in the early ‘80s, with Walter Hill’s “The Long Riders” (1980) starring the Carradine brothers (David, Keith and Robert) and the Quaid brothers (Dennis and Randy) as outlaw kin. A few years later, Canadian director Phillip Borsos filmed the wonderful “The Grey Fox” (1982), starring legendary character actor Richard Farnsworth, who tries to rob a train at the turn of the century.  

In 1985, two American directors decided to bring back the American genre. Lawrence Kasdan filmed his sprawling western “Silverado” in the Rockies of New Mexico with Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover and Jeff Goldblum. That same summer, the tall and squinting actor/director Clint Eastwood presented “Pale Rider,” his clone of the classic “Shane.” Eastwood plays the nameless good hearted stranger, called “Preacher,” who comes to the aid of struggling gold miners. He urges the miners to defend their camp against the big evil company – which leads to a bloody shootout between Eastwood and the hired gunmen.

His first western since “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976), Eastwood sets up camp in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California. Glorious vistas are still breathtaking, especially on the Blu-ray disc. But the interiors are a different story. Eastwood used minimal lighting, forcing the director of photography to push the color film process, producing golf ball-sized grain. It’s a slight distraction, but overall this release is a major upgrade over the old and murky DVD.

The disc includes a Dolby TrueHD track which presents the best possible sound for that distinctive score and those blazing guns.

 

— Bill Kelley III 

 

 

“GHOST WHISPERER: SEASON 3”

Enhanced widescreen, 2006-2007, not rated; contains frightening images

Best extra: “The Other Side II” web series shows viewers what it’s like to see the world through the eyes of a ghost.

 

 “GHOST WHISPERER” IS STILL ENTERTAINING – and still spooky after three seasons. A lot of the appeal has to do with the charm of its ongoing cast featuring Jennifer Love Hewitt, David Conrad, Camryn Manheim and Jay Mohr. Manheim and Mohr are still working hard to take the place of First Season star, Aisha Taylor. They’re either getting better, or we’re getting used to them and the new plot lines. Taylor’s was a hard act to follow.

In this three-disc, 18 episode set, Hewitt’s ghost friendly Melinda Gordon learns more about her gifts and the history of her town. It’s nice to see Melinda interacting more with her husband, Jim (Conrad). They have great chemistry and make a fine team. Manheim’s Delia Banks pushes her disbelief hard, a characteristic that’s equally hard to buy into when the character’s interacting with the talented Melinda.

The set is packed with entertaining and informative extras, including “Welcome to the Underworld,” where viewers can explore secrets buried under Melinda’s hometown. Special effects reveal what it takes to create an angry spirit. An interview with Jay Mohr, “Payne’s World,” explores the character and Mohr’s personal experiences with ghosts. Creator John Gray, cinematographer James Chressanthis and writer P.K. Simonds offer commentary on various episodes. Those who love spooky stories and likable characters won’t be disappointed.

 

– Kay Reynolds

 

 

 

“FOX FILM NOIR: ROAD HOUSE, MOONTIDE, BOOMERANG”

Full-screen, 1942, 1947, 1948, not rated; contains violence and adult themes. Purchase individually: not a set.

Best extra:  Kim Morgan and Eddie Muller's commentary track on "Roadhouse," where a discussion of movie villains turns to Morgan's admission of a "deeply disturbing" crush on the woman-slapping Dan Duryea. Their commentary is chatty, informed, off center, and hugely entertaining to any old movie buff.

 

THE FOX FILM NOIR SERIES brings out two pretty good melodramas starring Ida Lupino, and an excellent courtroom drama, partly based on fact, with Dana Andrews and some rather famous members of Elia Kazan's repertory company (before they got so famous).

"Roadhouse" (1948), has a sultry Lupino as one point of a triangle with an unbalanced Richard Widmark at one end and straight-arrow Cornel Wilde at the other. Smoky ballads at the piano, (Lupino un-dubbed and ... interesting), a barroom brawl featuring the human equivalent of Sasquatch, an innocent man framed for theft, some gunfire, and the last of the patented Widmark giggling psychos. (He pretty much stopped doing that sort of thing after "Roadhouse.")

"Moontide" (1942), brings us a younger, more waif-like Lupino as a young woman who attempts to drown herself only to be rescued by Jean Gabin (in his first American movie) as a California wharf rat drunk subject to blackouts. One of those drinking sequences is put together by Salvador Dali, no less. Thomas Mitchell and Claude Rains co-star.

"Boomerang" (1947), is based on a case prosecuted by a man who would later become FDR's attorney general. Dana Andrews plays a state's attorney who must put together a case against a transient veteran (Arthur Kennedy) accused of murdering a priest. Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Ed Begley, Sam Levine and Jane Wyatt populate a tale of small-town politics gone bad and an airtight case punctured by a very unlikely person. Cobb, Malden and Kennedy were on Broadway, under Kazan's direction, in Arthur Miller plays.

Extras on "Roadhouse" include the commentary by Muller and Morgan, "Killer Instincts: Richard Widmark and Ida Lupino at Twentieth Century Fox," an interactive pressbook and still photos. Extras on "Moontide" include a commentary track by Foster Hirsch, a featurette, "Turning of the Tide: The Ill-Starred Making of Moontide," and a still photo gallery. "Boomerang" has an extremely detailed, but dry as dust, commentary by Alan Silver and James Ursini; a poster gallery, a unit photography gallery ("Boomerang" was shot almost entirely on location in Stanford, Conn.), and the theatrical trailer.

 

— Mike Reynolds

 

 

“BAIT SHOP”

 Enhanced widescreen, 2008, PG

 Best extra: The making-of featurette, “Opening the Bait Shop,” is an entertaining one that shows star Bill Engvall and other members of the cast talking about the movie and, as an added bonus, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus’ part as a blowhard, egotistical professional bass fisherman.

 

THE OWNER OF A SMALL-TOWN bait shop Bill Dugan (Engvall) is faced with having to make a $15,000 balloon payment to the bank in a week’s time or risk losing his shop. So he decides to enter the annual Bass Tournament, going heads-up against rival bait shop owner Hot Rod Johnson (Cyrus), who is determined to win … no matter what the cost is.

Dugan’s friends give him the confidence to enter the tournament, through comedic turns, and to persevere when things get a bit out of control.

The movie also stars Richard Riehle, Christopher Schmidt, Gus Blackwell, Mary Rachel Dudley and Wilbur Houston.

This DVD is pretty light on extras, and the musical interlude “Another Day in Paradise” is merely a video slideshow that may hook the angler who likes the sight of a sunset on a lake.

“Bait Shop” manages to reel you into the story and tugs at your heart.

 

— Cliff Redding

 

 

“THE UNTOUCHABLES: SEASON 2 – VOLUME 2”

Full-screen, 1961, unrated

Best extra: There's nary a one.

 

BIG AL CAPONE didn't limit his operations to Chicago. Why should Eliot Ness? By the second half of "The Untouchables' " sophomore season, stories were unfolding far away from the Windy City.

Needless to say, nothing is lost in the transition. How could it? 

You still have Robert Stack as Ness. You still have Walter Winchell's narration. You still have Nelson Riddle's theme. (Go on, try getting it out of your head.)

Anyway, with Prohibition on the way out, the mob has shifted its attention to narcotics; Ness has shifted his, too. "Murder Under Glass," one of 16 episodes collected on this four-disc set, takes Ness to New Orleans, where crime boss Emile Bouchard – played with Tennessee Williams flair by Luther Adler – is looking to stiff Capone boss Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon). “Stiff” is the operative word here. It doesn't take long before bodies start piling up – one poor sucker is found literally "sleeping" with the fishes. City of the Big Shoulders or The Big Easy, "The Untouchables" isn't shy about getting gritty.

Broken Record Dept.: The biggest crime here is that Paramount/CBS DVD keeps putting out half a season at a time, thus dipping twice into fans' wallets. C'est la vie. "The Untouchables" is worth it at any price.

 

— Craig Shapiro