Our Picks Reviews - Page 36

New to DVD, this clever, popular and award-winning sitcom snapshot of the ’80s starred comedian Bob Newhart as a Vermont innkeeper dealing with a host of quirky characters, including a lunkheaded handyman (Tom Poston) and the oddball sibling trio of Larry, Darryl and Darryl. In addition to all 22 episodes from the debut 1982 season, there’s also three featurettes, one in which actor William Sanderson (“Larry”) aptly describes the mild-mannered Newhart’s acting technique as an “island of normalcy” in “a sea of eccentrics.”
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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Turn down the lights, microwave some popcorn, drop these discs into the DVD player and you’re ready for your own back-to-back film festival with four blockbusters that have each been bestowed an Academy Award for Best Picture. Rocky and Silence of the Lambs are bare-bones and movie-only, but the insightful commentary tracks on Platoon (by director Oliver Stone) and Dances With Wolves (with actor-director Kevin Kostner) are goldmines of juicy inside info on the making of two modern masterpieces. (Rated PG/PG-13/R)
—Neil Pond, American Profilie

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Are you a “Passionate Maverick”? An “Invincible Optimist?” Perhaps you’re a “Rebellious Lover,” “Loyal Warrior,” “Determined Survivor” or another one of the 16 personality categories Cinescopes determines by dissecting your choice in movies. Combining psychology, cinema theory, astrology and mythology, it’s a fun way to find out if you’re more Ferris Bueller, Princess Leia, Rambo or Scarlett O’Hara.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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A cocky young hotshot “street drummer” from New York learns about respect, teamwork, commitment and the rat-a-tat-tat rhythms of life in the finely tuned, fiercely competitive percussion department of a Southern college’s marching band. This 2002 cult hit gets a new shine on DVD with several special features, including director’s commentary and a featurette about some of the amazing, real-life collegiate drumlines on which the movie was based.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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The winner of five Academy Awards in 1960 and hailed by the Library of Congress as an American classic, this scathing comedy starring Jack Lemon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray continues to hold up a satirical mirror on capitalism, philandering businessmen and the craziness of the corporate ladder. DVD features include a making-of documentary, commentary from a film historian and a look at the career of the late Lemmon, whose masterful, magic touch in front of the camera made him the go-to guy in six other movies for Apartment director Billy Wilder. —Neil Pond, American Profile

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Fans of ’70s pop will enjoy this hour-long documentary, originally filmed for theatrical release, recapping a massive 1979 New York concert by soft-rock maestros America, at the time making a crucial musical transition from chart-topping trio to soldiering-on duo. The enthusiastic, mixed-bag crowd of Big Apple thousands doesn’t seem to mind the downsize in the least as they lap up the breezy hits, which include “Horse With No Name,” “I Need You,” “Ventura Highway” and “Sister Golden Hair.”
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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Baby boomers who grew up watching TV cartoons a couple of generations before cable television will rejoice that this lovably wacky 1967 series finally has made it to DVD, intact with all 17 original episodes and the never-aired pilot. Each week featured a trio of escapades by George, a goofball Tarzan clone; cool-cat racecar driver Tom Slick; and Super Chicken, a crime-fighting fowl. And let’s not forget one of the coolest theme songs ever, a bouncy, tympani-thumping tune that warned our vine-swinging do-gooder—who never seemed to listen—to “Watch out for that . . . tree!” /
Neil Pond, American Profile

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Charlton Heston portrays Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the real-life hero-warrior of Spain’s Middle Ages, and Italian screen siren Sophia Loren is the exotic royal beauty who holds his heart in this sweeping 1961 epic, available for the first time on DVD. As befits the spectacular “Super-Technirama Technicolor” production, this deluxe box set celebrates the movie’s big-screen lushness with a lavish load of bonus materials, including commentary, recordings of original promotional interviews by Heston and Loren, a 1961 El Cid comic book and numerous featurettes.
Neil Pond, American Profile

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Singer-songwriter Vera had only one significant hit single, but it was a doozy: “At This Moment,” a heart-wrenching pop masterpiece, became a massive crossover smash in 1986 after it was used on the television series Family Ties. Relive the “Moment” and discover the many other charms of Vera and his crack band, which wowed sellout crowds in Los Angeles for years before “At This Moment” found its moment in the sun, on this 14-song collection culled from a juke-joint-jumpin’ live 1981 nightclub appearance and studio sessions that followed.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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“Bad boys, bad boys—whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” The gritty, intoxicatingly voyeuristic FOX-TV series that has asked that musical question every night for two decades—becoming in the process the longest-running reality show in TV history—celebrates the milestone with this collection of rough-and-tumble, you-can’t-outrun-the-law highlights, commentary tracks and special features that include its 1989 pilot, a never-aired episode, a documentary exploring the show’s impact on popular culture and a rundown of “Toughest Takedowns.”
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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