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To celebrate fourth, old ones are available separately. Take note of music documentary
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, May 11, 2008
Tuesday is one of those days where multiple forces are converging on DVD shelves. There will be tons of attempts to get you to go DVD for Father's Day gifts, it's around the 10th anniversary of the passing of Frank Sinatra, and you may want to refresh your memory of a movie character named Jones.
Dealing with the last thing first: With the fourth Indiana Jones movie due in theaters soon, Paramount Home Entertainment is reissuing the first three movies on DVD.
The good news here for casual fans is that the movies — Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — will be sold individually ($27-30 apiece) as well as in a three-movie ''adventure collection'' ($59.98). A DVD release of the films five years ago required you to buy a box with all three — even if you didn't want, say, Temple of Doom.
But that earlier box (which can still be found, at a lower price than the new box) included a fourth disc of extras not contained in the new set. Instead, each movie now has its own, new extras — although there is informational overlap between the old and new extras.
Of special note for the music lovers is All You Need Is Love (MVD Visual, 17 episodes, five discs, $99.95), an epic documentary history of popular music that first aired on TV in 1976 and has not been seen since 1981; this is its first release on video.
From filmmaker Tony Palmer, the program covers jazz, country, swing, Broadway musicals, vaudeville, and aside from the first episode, an introduction to the series, rock 'n' roll doesn't take center stage until the 13th episode.
The show pops with original and archival interviews — from Eubie Blake to Mick Jagger and beyond — and discussions of music, race and gender, interspersed with great performance clips and anecdotal gems.
I can easily see why it's taken some time to get this to DVD; the music rights must have been a bear and the DVD booklet notes ''every effort has been made to trace the numerous copyright holders and we apologize in advance for any unintentional failure on our part.'' While sampling the show, I thought I caught one music substitution, but Palmer said through a publicist that this is the show as it originally aired.
Some other new packages are being targeted to the action-loving dad in your house. Among them: Die Hard: Ultimate Collection (Fox, $69.98), with the four movies to date, each in its previously released two-disc special edition, and Marvel Heroes Collection! (Fox, $69.98). That includes seven movies (the three X-Men films so far, two Fantastic Four movies, Daredevil and Elektra), a disc with four animated Fantastic Four episodes and — for people who have all that — a flipbook and a CD-ROM digital comic book of Silver Surfer. But it's a very mixed lot in terms of the movies' quality.
There are also quite a few westerns being offered. Of particular note is The Big Trail: Fox Grandeur Special Edition ($19.98), the 1930 epic starring a very young John Wayne. The set is special because it includes the original widescreen version of The Big Trail, made using an experimental process called Grandeur. (A standard-frame version is also in the set.) The extra-wide screen is taken full advantage of, with landscapes and extras filling the frame. You'll want to stop and marvel just at the look, especially after years of seeing computer-generated images. The DVD also includes some fine extras about the making of the film and its restoration.
As I mentioned, the 10th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's death is coming up, and one way it is being marked is the release of Sinatra (Warner, two discs, $19.98), the 1992 miniseries starring Philip Casnoff as Frank Sinatra. (Look as well for a then-little-known Gina Gershon and Marcia Gay Harden, as Sinatra's first wife, Nancy, and as Ava Gardner respectively.)
With Frank's daughter Tina as an executive producer, you might expect the film to be a whitewash. But it's fairly clear-eyed — and Casnoff is not afraid to seem unlikable — while covering Sinatra's life from youth to 1974.
Still talking TV, if you've been disappointed by this season of American Idol, the folks behind the show hope you will feel nostalgic enough to pick up American Idol: Season 6 Finale Performance Show — The Top 2 (Koch, two discs, $19.99). It includes the final performance competition between winner Jordin Sparks and runner-up Blake Lewis, as well as a brief piece from the results show where Sparks is declared the winner. A second disc has profiles of Sparks and Lewis, a piece on how to audition for the show and bloopers — but everything on the two discs could have easily fit on one.
Thinking once again of dads, you might want to consider Two and a Half Men: The Complete Third Season (Warner, 24 episodes, four discs, $44.98), which finds the CBS comedy rolling along quite merrily. My favorite from the season: The one where Charlie dates the mother of Alan's ex-girlfriend, who has moved in with Alan's ex-wife, who begins dating the ex-girlfriend's father. And that's just one telecast.
The only extra, though, is a blooper reel.
It's a mad, mad week on DVD (see the accompanying list of new releases) but let me squeeze in a few more titles. Those of you interested in HBO's John Adams may also be intrigued by The Adams Chronicles (Acorn Media, 13 episodes, $59.99), an acclaimed look at several generations of the Adams clan; it originally aired on PBS in 1976. The cast is good, the tone quite elevated. But time has not been kind to the look — which is rather low-budget, and the video shows some decline in its color quality.
Given the high level of testosterone in this column, I should also mention Mad Money (Anchor Bay, $29.97), a caper movie starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes. It's remarkable if only because it's such a throwback; this movie could easily have been made 20 or 30 years ago and run on a double bill with the original Fun With Dick and Jane, 9 to 5 or How to Beat the High Cost of Living. That's not really a compliment, either. DVD extras include commentary by director Callie Khouri and a making-of segment.
Finally, there's Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season (Universal, 20 episodes, seven episodes, $69.98). I was looking forward to this season: The first episode, hosted by Steve Martin, has one of my all-time favorite bits — but it hasn't aged well. And the number of drug jokes is historically amusing but retroactively sad.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in a blog at http://www.ohio.com. You can find more columns, questions and answers at http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/heldenfels.
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