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12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/6DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine'Turned TV 'Inside Out'DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out'Ok, the holidays are approaching. So we've got repackaged holiday TV classics slapped together so they canbe restocked in the big box stores. We've got complete sets of "classic" (or just popular or just cult-y enough) TVshows in cheaper than ever sets. We've got some hit films. We'e got pirates fighting over treasure in "BlackSails" and thank God we have Criterion and their Eclipse label to uncover some treasures from the cinematicpast. Arghhhh!THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE ($39.98 DVD; Entertainment One)BEST OF ENEMIES ($29.98 BluRay; Magnolia)BLACK SAILS SEASON TWO ($59.99 BluRay; Anchor Bay)BETTER CALL SAUL SEASON ONE ($65.99 BluRay; Sony)Great television has been produced since they started broadcasting in the 1940s. (The Nazis delayed thespread of TV, actually, or it would have been dominant even sooner.) The decline of TV began at just about thesame time.Sometimes, strangely, both happen at the same moment. Certainly The Great American DreamMachine was a landmark work, the smart person's Laugh-In. It didn't just satirize politics and offer up sketches ala Saturday Night Live. It didn't just give everyone from Chevy Chase to Andy Rooney a national platform. It alsoincluded Elaine Stritch singing Sondheim, a terminally ill person discussing the freedom of knowing their life isending, savvy satire of pop culture and a hundred other odd bits and pieces. This set includes compilations of itsgreatest hits plus some complete episodes. (Presumably, rights issues kept them from including every singleepisode of its brief run. Segments popped up in the movie The Groove Tube and of course the talent involved(also including Albert Brooks among others) spread far and wide. Not a time capsule but funny still and a vibrantreminder of long TV has been genuinely provocative in every sense.The very entertaining documentary Best Of Enemies captures both a peak and a nadir for TV. ABC was so lowdown in the ratings they decided that their coverage of political conventions of 1968 would include a series ofdebates between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal. The two men were polar opposites in almost every way,but what they had in common were wicked and nimble minds and a gift for intellectual debate. Looking back,their debates seem almost surreally intelligent fare -- if only TV could reach these heights again. On the otherhand, they were clearly a precursor to personality TV where the people sniping at each other became moreinteresting and important than the issues. This film shows substantial portions of the debates, offerscommentary from Dick Cavett and many others and shows the long-term effects it had on the two men. Oneimmediately wishes this set included the complete debates of course, but I suppose that's what YouTube is for.As for TV dramas, they really only came into their heyday in the 1970s with Upstairs, Downstairs and Hill StreetBlues soon after it ended. (Anthology shows had great works but ongoing dramas proved far more difficult tocraft than sitcoms.) Now we're enjoying such a glut of good shows it's likely you haven't watched The Americansand Rectify and (fill in your own favorite current show). Certainly Black Sails has a few strikes against it. Thisperiod pirate drama is on Starz, which hasn't launched a big hit since Spartacus. And it's from producer MichaelBay. With his name attached, I like many others expected schlock. But after a slow start, season one got better.Then season two deepened its cast and storyline considerably, with enough backstabbing and conspiracies to
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/6put Game Of Thrones to shame. Plus, it broke ground with gay and lesbian characters in a far bolder way thanSpartacus and -- frankly -- almost any other show I can name. Not via explicitness, but in letting us identify witha character and then reveal to us this person is gay. It's not a twist a la a soap but a genuine revelation thatmakes the show and the character a lot more interesting for taking such a bold approach they clearly intendedfrom the start. (At least, thinking back, that's how it seems.) Season Three begins in January if they can keepgetting better, Black Sails will demand attention.Black Sails probably began with little to no expectations from audiences. Better Call Saul on the other handbegan with the highest expectations. Strike that -- it began with a cynical, jaundiced, "why are you creating aspin-off of the brilliant Breaking Bad and why is it centered around Saul? I didn't even want to watch it. But thereviews and the ratings and continued reports that it was somehow good and finding its own quirky rhythm andbecoming its own admirable show that stood not in the shadow of one of the best shows of all time but easilyone of the best spin-offs in history. Season two is coming so even if you wanted to think you could avoid addingthis to your list of "shows to watch," you can't.INSIDE OUT ($39.99 BluRay combo; Disney)TOY STORY THAT TIME FORGOT ($14.99 BluRay combo; Disney)ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS CLASSICS GIFT SET ($29.93 BluRay; Classic Media)I'm one of the four people who wasn't completely besotted by Inside Out. What's wrong with me? I don't know; Ithink I have a small pebble where my heart should be. Plus, I wasn't crazy about the animation style used in ourheroine's brain and found two of the four emotions poorly defined (I like Mindy Kaling a lot but the script simplydid not deliver Disgust in any way shape or form. Valley Girl, yes; Disgust, no. But don't get me wrong -- it'samusing and has some lovely moments and is 99% more imaginative and interesting than most other animatedmovies not made by Pixar. It is unquestionably a commercial and artistic triumph for that company, their first realsuch two-fisted critical and commercial hit original since Up in 2009.Of course their standard bearer is Toy Story, which capped a trilogy brilliantly in 2010. I'm worried by Pixarannouncing they would make Toy Story 4. But I have faith they wouldn't proceed unless they were reallyconfident of having a killer idea. After all, they've delivered two charming TV specials wholly worthy of the ToyStory name. Toy Story Of Terror! from 2013 was pitch perfect for Halloween and Toy Story That Time Forgot(while a notch lesser in quality) from last year is pegged to the post-Christmas lull. While this release is paddedwith extras, it's really just a 22 minute TV special so keep that in mind when purchasing. Some day soon, ofcourse, we'll have all four films, these two specials and maybe the Buzz Lightyear stuff all in one package, sodon't complain if you buy each one individually! And for the love of God, Pixar, if Toy Story 4 (due out in 2018)isn't up to snuff, tear it up and start over or ditch it! Don't spoil the crowning achievement of your company. I canhandle Cars 3 (barely) but not a weak Toy Story.Surely the crowning achievement of stop-motion kings Rankin-Bass is Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. No,wait, actually it's Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, an origin story to rival the Christopher Reeve Superman. Tobe fair, my answer changes from week to week. Luckily you don't have to choose, because this inexpensive setincludes those two stone cold classics, plus the lesser animated Frosty The Snowman and a clutch of other, farlesser holiday themed specials. The first two are the ones you'll watch again and again every single year. Whywait for the TV networks or cable channels to show them? Heck, why wait for the holidays?EIGHT MEN OUT ($29.95 BluRay; Olive)ECLIPSE: JULIEN DUVIVIER IN THE 1930S ($59.95 DVD; Criterion's Eclipse)Baseball season is over. But cheating in sports is a perennial topic (just check out the online gambling sites orRussia's indifference to being caught cheating on a grand scale). Best of all, great drama is timeless. JohnSayles has produced a remarkable body of work, but the convergence of America's pastime, class warfare and
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/6honor makes this almost irresistible when naming his best film. Thanks to a sterling cast, Eight Men Out remainsjust as clear-eyed and riveting as ever.Even casual movie fans have probably seen some films by John Sayles. But it takes Criterion to stump theexperts. Their Eclipse label is a source of little known gems and the careful presentation of films that mightotherwise never be saved. Case in point: director Julien Duvivier. He helmed the classic Pepe Le Moko, one ofthe all-time greats that rivals Casablanca in terms of romantic and exotic atmosphere, not to mention a heart-tugging ending. As much as I love that film, I've never really explored the work of its director. Now I've got fourkey works from this French master to dive into. All four star the marvelous actor David Baur, making this also aboxed set celebration of that actor. David Golder is Duvivier's first sound film and it's based on the early best-seller by Irene Nemirovsky, now famed for Suite Francaise. Poil De Carotte is a family charmer about a little boytrying to gain the attention of his distracted father. As a mystery buff, I'm utterly intrigued by La Tete D'unHomme, Duvivier's take on Inspector Maigret, the famed creation of Georges Simenon. Finally, his smash hit UnCarnet de Bal shows an older woman paying a visit to the suitors of her youth. Criterion was at pains when itlaunched Eclipse years ago to make clear this label wouldn't be able to afford loads of extras or meticulousremastering of films. Nonetheless, they always take care to find good quality prints (as is clear here) and themovies they present are such unexpected finds that I almost look forward more to the latest release from Eclipsethan I do from Criterion.BATMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON ($39.98 DVD; Warner Home Video)MANIMAL: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($26.99 DVD; Shout! Factory)AUTOMAN: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($26.99 DVD; Shout! Factory)Not every TV show that gets revived because it's good. Sometimes it's sheer nostalgia or a perverse desire towatch again a show you enjoyed during your youth but know -- absolutely know -- that even then a small part ofyour brain was thinking, "this is pretty dumb." Certainly no one hates the campy TV show Batman more thanfans of the Dark Knight. It turned the crime fighter into a joke for years and years. But it also has a loopy charmthat is undeniable, from the Pop Art approach to fights (POW! BAM! BOP!) to Adam West's idiosyncratic deliveryto the behind-the-scenes-fact that Robin The Boy Wonder was sleeping with seemingly every female co-starthat came along. It's terrible, it's wonderful and it was a huge huge hit that ran twice a week until the entirecountry rose up and said, "Enough!" After three seasons, the TV show that launched a million lunch-boxes washistory but would haunt comic books for years. They could handle being seen as a threat to the nation. Theycould deal with the suggestion that Batman's ward was more than just a sidekick. But being the butt of jokes?Being laughed at? That hurt. Happily, now that the character has been completely rehabilitated, we can diveback into the show itself and shake our heads at its loopy nature.But no such pop cultural context can explain away Manimal or Automan. They are quite simply dumb television,awful shows memorable for goofy concepts that were played straight. Manimal has an undeniably appealingname. It's catchy, right? Automan has what I always took to be some weird gay subtext in the banter of itscharacters. (But that's just me.) Nonetheless, no matter how you slice it they are pretty awful TV created at that1970s, early 1980s nadir when major networks had dominated the world and pretty much given up on anypretense of quality. Still, some men and women watched these shows (and bought the inevitable lunch box) andwithstood the mockery of their friends when dressing up as Manimal for Halloween or asking if anyone saw lastnight's episode. And these collections are for them. Enjoy! But please don't ask me to watch more than the pilot.TRAINWRECK ($34.98 BluRay combo; Universal)TERMINATOR GENESYS ($39.99 BluRay combo; Paramount)MR HOLMES ($24.99 BluRay combo; Paramount)It's the year of the Schumer, of course. Amy Schumer is on top of the world, with stand-up specials at the Apollo(directed by Chris Rock!) and her sketch show hotter than ever and winning Emmys, a book deal and even a
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&4/6feature film she wrote and starred in. Judd Apatow directed but he's smart enough to know he was the lucky onehere. I remain mystified why Bill Hader keeps getting big roles; I find him without interest. And Trainwreck is nogreat shakes as such. I hope she's smart enough to avoid a Melissa McCarthy focus on just playing femaleversions of the male slob. But it sure is fun to see her becoming the Queen Of All Media. Maybe a radio show isnext?As for Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's entered "whatever" territory with franchises like Terminator. They've got anew one out? Whatever? At best, some fans thought this wasn't so bad. It's sort of the same expectationspeople are bringing to Creed, the latest iteration of the Rocky franchise. On the plus side, expectations are low.On the minus side, expectations are low for a reason. I can't argue about how this does or doesn't fit into theTerminator storylines as set by the original and its many variations. If you want to make sense of it, you'reputting too much thought into it. Put your mind on cruise control and maybe you can squeeze out a few "thatwas cool" moments. But they haven't made a good one since T2 and nothing here changes that.One should have high expectations for actor Ian McKellen and director Bill Condon. However, I was not a fan ofMitch Cullin's novel, which depicts the great detective Sherlock Holmes in his dotage. Nonetheless, this is apoor film and easily the weakest of Condon's career to date. It is badly shot, looking little better than a subparTV movie. And while the novel might have been given a more subtle spin, instead its blunt nature remains intact.Laura Linney (also a marvelous actress) is given a caricature of a mother to play, tiresomely stupid for Holmesto disdain and pass on that disdain to the young boy who looks up to him. A few brief moments betweenMcKellen and that child (played ably by Milo Parker) have charm. But it barely feels like this Holmes has any butthe vaguest connection to the actual creation of Arthur Conan Doyle. And on its own, the tale has almost nomystery and even less interest. McKellen can't be uninteresting, but he can't elevate an unremarkable storyeither.FOYLE'S WAR: THE COMPLETE SAGA ($199.99 DVD; Acorn)THAT 70S SHOW: COMPLETE SERIES ($149.98 BluRay; Mill Creek)STAR TREK: THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL SERIES ($79.99 DVD; Paramount)THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW COMPLETE REMASTERED SERIES ($199.98 DVD; Image)I wish every single TV show ever made would get a complete boxed set. I also wish they were all compact,inexpensive and up to the highest quality standards. Inevitably, there are compromises along the way -- someshows that should be available aren't, others that are available don't always hold up and on and on. But thankgod we've got complete sets to argue about. Thirty years ago, getting a complete collection of an entire TVseries that actually ran for more than ten episodes was virtually impossible. So I'm delighted that Foyle's War isout in a new, compact set collecting the entire run of this series. Now in retrospect, I can see it started out at apeak, and then slowly but inexorably declined. That doesn't detract from the accomplishment of Michael Kitchenas the tight-lipped but marvelously expressive and eagle-eyed Foyle. Forced to keep doing police work on thehome front during World War II, Foyle pulls together a casual team just as devoted to good fighting crime asthey are to him. Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) is his very capable driver, Paul Milner is the intriguingly stoic Milnerand Julian Ovenden is his impossibly handsome son. Each episode illuminated some aspect of the home frontduring war: the black market for food, the fascists who sympathized with the Nazis, anti-Semitism, prejudiceagainst Yankee soldiers and so on. For two or three years, it was the best show on TV. The quality dipped andby the end was almost distressingly low. (Sam was stuck in the same role by the end as she was at thebeginning. Milner disappeared. The son went away.) Oh well. Rather than worrying about what might havebeen, it's still a show with a great deal to savor.That '70s Show was never a sitcom to savor. It had a broad appeal and ran for years and years. But like WKRPIn Cincinnati and other lesser but popular sitcoms, it was blessed with a terrific cast. It's all-star casting, fromDebra Jo Rupp and Kirkwood Smith as the parents to Mila Kunis, Wilmer Valderrama, Danny Masterson and of
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&5/6course Ashton Kutcher. Best of all the marvelous chemistry between Laura Prepon and Topher Grace makesthe show an actual pleasure at times. It's dumb, it has a loud laugh track, like many lesser sitcoms it repeatsitself in uninteresting ways. (Great sitcoms repeat themselves in interesting ways, usually.) But with this cast,almost any random episode can pass by painlessly. I'm still waiting for Topher Grace to fulfill the promise hedisplayed here and in a string of early film roles. He could be the Jack Lemmon of our time, an actor who canmove effortlessly between comedy and drama with aplomb. Anyone with an eye for talent could spot thatstarting right here. It's out now on BluRay, with the original broadcast length episodes and virtually all the musiccues used at the time.Star Trek is slightly more problematic. Casual fans won't know or care but I'm not sure Star Trek HAS casualfans. To be clear: this is a compact, inexpensive boxed set of the original three seasons of Star Trek that havelaunched a thousand cartoons, books, movies, TV shows, fan fiction and for all I know puppet shows as well.This isn't the original, original show. It's the most recently remastered editions created with new special effectsmodestly sprucing up the original. In general, I'm opposed to such fiddling, even if the creative people whocreated it are involved. At best, if you want to spend money on new effects, at least make both versionsavailable together so people are denied the chance to see the show it was first seen. And classic works don'tage because the special effects become dated. The original 1933 King Kong is far superior to anything thatcame later, no matter how "improved" the effects may be. So all you get here are the revamped versions. Butthe heart of the show remains and it is awfully inexpensive.No one should have any complaints to make about The Dick Van Dyke Show. If anything, this classic sitcomneeds to be rediscovered as the ground-breaking work it remains and this is the set to do it with. They've gotextras. They've got the original broadcast length episodes remastered to look better than ever. That's saying theleast: this may be DVD, but it still certainly looks better than what people were watching when it first debuted.And the combination of sketch show writer Rob Petrie's home and work life (and how they both bled into eachother, informed each other, harmed each other and of course influenced each other) is a trick most shows nevereven attempt. Usually, it's too hard and inevitably one aspect proves much more compelling than the other.They focus entirely on work or entirely on home and the other half of someone's life becomes utterlyunimportant. Not here. It doesn't matter where the episode takes you. Is it focused on little Richie telling fibs orusing a bad word? Is it focused on Rob working late to try and come up with a new sketch? Is it focused on hiswife Laura's natural curiosity over a package that arrives for Rob or waking up after a creepy nightmare? Is it theworkers growing dissatisfied with the respect and pay they get for toiling away for the egotistical Alan Brady? Itsimply doesn't matter. On most other sitcoms, even good ones, when an episode focuses on a secondarycharacter or an unexpected corner of the sitcom's world, your heart sinks. Uh-oh, this won't be a good one youthink. (Just remember any episode of Family Ties that wasn't centered solely on Alex P. Keaton.) But The DickVan Dyke Show was so well written, so well-cast, so damn good that it didn't matter. You like 30 Rock? Youneed to watch The Dick Van Dyke Show. It's on any reasonable list of the greatest sitcoms of all time.NOTE: Prices and format are strictly based on what is made available to me for review. If they give me a DVD,that's the format and list price I include. Needless to say, every title here is often available in multiple discformats not to mention on demand and via streaming so the list price included is virtually never what you'll payand the format is always just one of many ways for seeing the work reviewed.Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder of BookFilter, a book lover's best friend. Looking for the nextgreat book to read? Head to BookFilter! Need a smart and easy gift? Head to BookFilter! Wondering what newtitles just hit the store in your favorite categories, like cookbooks and mystery and more? Head to BookFilter! It'sa website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensiveinfo on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every stepof the way. It's like a fall book preview or holiday gift guide -- but every week in every category. He's also thecohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/6DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine'Turned TV 'Inside Out'DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out'Ok, the holidays are approaching. So we've got repackaged holiday TV classics slapped together so they canbe restocked in the big box stores. We've got complete sets of "classic" (or just popular or just cult-y enough) TVshows in cheaper than ever sets. We've got some hit films. We'e got pirates fighting over treasure in "BlackSails" and thank God we have Criterion and their Eclipse label to uncover some treasures from the cinematicpast. Arghhhh!THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE ($39.98 DVD; Entertainment One)BEST OF ENEMIES ($29.98 BluRay; Magnolia)BLACK SAILS SEASON TWO ($59.99 BluRay; Anchor Bay)BETTER CALL SAUL SEASON ONE ($65.99 BluRay; Sony)Great television has been produced since they started broadcasting in the 1940s. (The Nazis delayed thespread of TV, actually, or it would have been dominant even sooner.) The decline of TV began at just about thesame time.Sometimes, strangely, both happen at the same moment. Certainly The Great American DreamMachine was a landmark work, the smart person's Laugh-In. It didn't just satirize politics and offer up sketches ala Saturday Night Live. It didn't just give everyone from Chevy Chase to Andy Rooney a national platform. It alsoincluded Elaine Stritch singing Sondheim, a terminally ill person discussing the freedom of knowing their life isending, savvy satire of pop culture and a hundred other odd bits and pieces. This set includes compilations of itsgreatest hits plus some complete episodes. (Presumably, rights issues kept them from including every singleepisode of its brief run. Segments popped up in the movie The Groove Tube and of course the talent involved(also including Albert Brooks among others) spread far and wide. Not a time capsule but funny still and a vibrantreminder of long TV has been genuinely provocative in every sense.The very entertaining documentary Best Of Enemies captures both a peak and a nadir for TV. ABC was so lowdown in the ratings they decided that their coverage of political conventions of 1968 would include a series ofdebates between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal. The two men were polar opposites in almost every way,but what they had in common were wicked and nimble minds and a gift for intellectual debate. Looking back,their debates seem almost surreally intelligent fare -- if only TV could reach these heights again. On the otherhand, they were clearly a precursor to personality TV where the people sniping at each other became moreinteresting and important than the issues. This film shows substantial portions of the debates, offerscommentary from Dick Cavett and many others and shows the long-term effects it had on the two men. Oneimmediately wishes this set included the complete debates of course, but I suppose that's what YouTube is for.As for TV dramas, they really only came into their heyday in the 1970s with Upstairs, Downstairs and Hill StreetBlues soon after it ended. (Anthology shows had great works but ongoing dramas proved far more difficult tocraft than sitcoms.) Now we're enjoying such a glut of good shows it's likely you haven't watched The Americansand Rectify and (fill in your own favorite current show). Certainly Black Sails has a few strikes against it. Thisperiod pirate drama is on Starz, which hasn't launched a big hit since Spartacus. And it's from producer MichaelBay. With his name attached, I like many others expected schlock. But after a slow start, season one got better.Then season two deepened its cast and storyline considerably, with enough backstabbing and conspiracies to
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/6put Game Of Thrones to shame. Plus, it broke ground with gay and lesbian characters in a far bolder way thanSpartacus and -- frankly -- almost any other show I can name. Not via explicitness, but in letting us identify witha character and then reveal to us this person is gay. It's not a twist a la a soap but a genuine revelation thatmakes the show and the character a lot more interesting for taking such a bold approach they clearly intendedfrom the start. (At least, thinking back, that's how it seems.) Season Three begins in January if they can keepgetting better, Black Sails will demand attention.Black Sails probably began with little to no expectations from audiences. Better Call Saul on the other handbegan with the highest expectations. Strike that -- it began with a cynical, jaundiced, "why are you creating aspin-off of the brilliant Breaking Bad and why is it centered around Saul? I didn't even want to watch it. But thereviews and the ratings and continued reports that it was somehow good and finding its own quirky rhythm andbecoming its own admirable show that stood not in the shadow of one of the best shows of all time but easilyone of the best spin-offs in history. Season two is coming so even if you wanted to think you could avoid addingthis to your list of "shows to watch," you can't.INSIDE OUT ($39.99 BluRay combo; Disney)TOY STORY THAT TIME FORGOT ($14.99 BluRay combo; Disney)ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS CLASSICS GIFT SET ($29.93 BluRay; Classic Media)I'm one of the four people who wasn't completely besotted by Inside Out. What's wrong with me? I don't know; Ithink I have a small pebble where my heart should be. Plus, I wasn't crazy about the animation style used in ourheroine's brain and found two of the four emotions poorly defined (I like Mindy Kaling a lot but the script simplydid not deliver Disgust in any way shape or form. Valley Girl, yes; Disgust, no. But don't get me wrong -- it'samusing and has some lovely moments and is 99% more imaginative and interesting than most other animatedmovies not made by Pixar. It is unquestionably a commercial and artistic triumph for that company, their first realsuch two-fisted critical and commercial hit original since Up in 2009.Of course their standard bearer is Toy Story, which capped a trilogy brilliantly in 2010. I'm worried by Pixarannouncing they would make Toy Story 4. But I have faith they wouldn't proceed unless they were reallyconfident of having a killer idea. After all, they've delivered two charming TV specials wholly worthy of the ToyStory name. Toy Story Of Terror! from 2013 was pitch perfect for Halloween and Toy Story That Time Forgot(while a notch lesser in quality) from last year is pegged to the post-Christmas lull. While this release is paddedwith extras, it's really just a 22 minute TV special so keep that in mind when purchasing. Some day soon, ofcourse, we'll have all four films, these two specials and maybe the Buzz Lightyear stuff all in one package, sodon't complain if you buy each one individually! And for the love of God, Pixar, if Toy Story 4 (due out in 2018)isn't up to snuff, tear it up and start over or ditch it! Don't spoil the crowning achievement of your company. I canhandle Cars 3 (barely) but not a weak Toy Story.Surely the crowning achievement of stop-motion kings Rankin-Bass is Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. No,wait, actually it's Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, an origin story to rival the Christopher Reeve Superman. Tobe fair, my answer changes from week to week. Luckily you don't have to choose, because this inexpensive setincludes those two stone cold classics, plus the lesser animated Frosty The Snowman and a clutch of other, farlesser holiday themed specials. The first two are the ones you'll watch again and again every single year. Whywait for the TV networks or cable channels to show them? Heck, why wait for the holidays?EIGHT MEN OUT ($29.95 BluRay; Olive)ECLIPSE: JULIEN DUVIVIER IN THE 1930S ($59.95 DVD; Criterion's Eclipse)Baseball season is over. But cheating in sports is a perennial topic (just check out the online gambling sites orRussia's indifference to being caught cheating on a grand scale). Best of all, great drama is timeless. JohnSayles has produced a remarkable body of work, but the convergence of America's pastime, class warfare and
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/6honor makes this almost irresistible when naming his best film. Thanks to a sterling cast, Eight Men Out remainsjust as clear-eyed and riveting as ever.Even casual movie fans have probably seen some films by John Sayles. But it takes Criterion to stump theexperts. Their Eclipse label is a source of little known gems and the careful presentation of films that mightotherwise never be saved. Case in point: director Julien Duvivier. He helmed the classic Pepe Le Moko, one ofthe all-time greats that rivals Casablanca in terms of romantic and exotic atmosphere, not to mention a heart-tugging ending. As much as I love that film, I've never really explored the work of its director. Now I've got fourkey works from this French master to dive into. All four star the marvelous actor David Baur, making this also aboxed set celebration of that actor. David Golder is Duvivier's first sound film and it's based on the early best-seller by Irene Nemirovsky, now famed for Suite Francaise. Poil De Carotte is a family charmer about a little boytrying to gain the attention of his distracted father. As a mystery buff, I'm utterly intrigued by La Tete D'unHomme, Duvivier's take on Inspector Maigret, the famed creation of Georges Simenon. Finally, his smash hit UnCarnet de Bal shows an older woman paying a visit to the suitors of her youth. Criterion was at pains when itlaunched Eclipse years ago to make clear this label wouldn't be able to afford loads of extras or meticulousremastering of films. Nonetheless, they always take care to find good quality prints (as is clear here) and themovies they present are such unexpected finds that I almost look forward more to the latest release from Eclipsethan I do from Criterion.BATMAN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON ($39.98 DVD; Warner Home Video)MANIMAL: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($26.99 DVD; Shout! Factory)AUTOMAN: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($26.99 DVD; Shout! Factory)Not every TV show that gets revived because it's good. Sometimes it's sheer nostalgia or a perverse desire towatch again a show you enjoyed during your youth but know -- absolutely know -- that even then a small part ofyour brain was thinking, "this is pretty dumb." Certainly no one hates the campy TV show Batman more thanfans of the Dark Knight. It turned the crime fighter into a joke for years and years. But it also has a loopy charmthat is undeniable, from the Pop Art approach to fights (POW! BAM! BOP!) to Adam West's idiosyncratic deliveryto the behind-the-scenes-fact that Robin The Boy Wonder was sleeping with seemingly every female co-starthat came along. It's terrible, it's wonderful and it was a huge huge hit that ran twice a week until the entirecountry rose up and said, "Enough!" After three seasons, the TV show that launched a million lunch-boxes washistory but would haunt comic books for years. They could handle being seen as a threat to the nation. Theycould deal with the suggestion that Batman's ward was more than just a sidekick. But being the butt of jokes?Being laughed at? That hurt. Happily, now that the character has been completely rehabilitated, we can diveback into the show itself and shake our heads at its loopy nature.But no such pop cultural context can explain away Manimal or Automan. They are quite simply dumb television,awful shows memorable for goofy concepts that were played straight. Manimal has an undeniably appealingname. It's catchy, right? Automan has what I always took to be some weird gay subtext in the banter of itscharacters. (But that's just me.) Nonetheless, no matter how you slice it they are pretty awful TV created at that1970s, early 1980s nadir when major networks had dominated the world and pretty much given up on anypretense of quality. Still, some men and women watched these shows (and bought the inevitable lunch box) andwithstood the mockery of their friends when dressing up as Manimal for Halloween or asking if anyone saw lastnight's episode. And these collections are for them. Enjoy! But please don't ask me to watch more than the pilot.TRAINWRECK ($34.98 BluRay combo; Universal)TERMINATOR GENESYS ($39.99 BluRay combo; Paramount)MR HOLMES ($24.99 BluRay combo; Paramount)It's the year of the Schumer, of course. Amy Schumer is on top of the world, with stand-up specials at the Apollo(directed by Chris Rock!) and her sketch show hotter than ever and winning Emmys, a book deal and even a
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&4/6feature film she wrote and starred in. Judd Apatow directed but he's smart enough to know he was the lucky onehere. I remain mystified why Bill Hader keeps getting big roles; I find him without interest. And Trainwreck is nogreat shakes as such. I hope she's smart enough to avoid a Melissa McCarthy focus on just playing femaleversions of the male slob. But it sure is fun to see her becoming the Queen Of All Media. Maybe a radio show isnext?As for Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's entered "whatever" territory with franchises like Terminator. They've got anew one out? Whatever? At best, some fans thought this wasn't so bad. It's sort of the same expectationspeople are bringing to Creed, the latest iteration of the Rocky franchise. On the plus side, expectations are low.On the minus side, expectations are low for a reason. I can't argue about how this does or doesn't fit into theTerminator storylines as set by the original and its many variations. If you want to make sense of it, you'reputting too much thought into it. Put your mind on cruise control and maybe you can squeeze out a few "thatwas cool" moments. But they haven't made a good one since T2 and nothing here changes that.One should have high expectations for actor Ian McKellen and director Bill Condon. However, I was not a fan ofMitch Cullin's novel, which depicts the great detective Sherlock Holmes in his dotage. Nonetheless, this is apoor film and easily the weakest of Condon's career to date. It is badly shot, looking little better than a subparTV movie. And while the novel might have been given a more subtle spin, instead its blunt nature remains intact.Laura Linney (also a marvelous actress) is given a caricature of a mother to play, tiresomely stupid for Holmesto disdain and pass on that disdain to the young boy who looks up to him. A few brief moments betweenMcKellen and that child (played ably by Milo Parker) have charm. But it barely feels like this Holmes has any butthe vaguest connection to the actual creation of Arthur Conan Doyle. And on its own, the tale has almost nomystery and even less interest. McKellen can't be uninteresting, but he can't elevate an unremarkable storyeither.FOYLE'S WAR: THE COMPLETE SAGA ($199.99 DVD; Acorn)THAT 70S SHOW: COMPLETE SERIES ($149.98 BluRay; Mill Creek)STAR TREK: THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL SERIES ($79.99 DVD; Paramount)THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW COMPLETE REMASTERED SERIES ($199.98 DVD; Image)I wish every single TV show ever made would get a complete boxed set. I also wish they were all compact,inexpensive and up to the highest quality standards. Inevitably, there are compromises along the way -- someshows that should be available aren't, others that are available don't always hold up and on and on. But thankgod we've got complete sets to argue about. Thirty years ago, getting a complete collection of an entire TVseries that actually ran for more than ten episodes was virtually impossible. So I'm delighted that Foyle's War isout in a new, compact set collecting the entire run of this series. Now in retrospect, I can see it started out at apeak, and then slowly but inexorably declined. That doesn't detract from the accomplishment of Michael Kitchenas the tight-lipped but marvelously expressive and eagle-eyed Foyle. Forced to keep doing police work on thehome front during World War II, Foyle pulls together a casual team just as devoted to good fighting crime asthey are to him. Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) is his very capable driver, Paul Milner is the intriguingly stoic Milnerand Julian Ovenden is his impossibly handsome son. Each episode illuminated some aspect of the home frontduring war: the black market for food, the fascists who sympathized with the Nazis, anti-Semitism, prejudiceagainst Yankee soldiers and so on. For two or three years, it was the best show on TV. The quality dipped andby the end was almost distressingly low. (Sam was stuck in the same role by the end as she was at thebeginning. Milner disappeared. The son went away.) Oh well. Rather than worrying about what might havebeen, it's still a show with a great deal to savor.That '70s Show was never a sitcom to savor. It had a broad appeal and ran for years and years. But like WKRPIn Cincinnati and other lesser but popular sitcoms, it was blessed with a terrific cast. It's all-star casting, fromDebra Jo Rupp and Kirkwood Smith as the parents to Mila Kunis, Wilmer Valderrama, Danny Masterson and of
12/1/2015DVDs: 'The Great American Dream Machine' Turned TV 'Inside Out' | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f93f53f6-7380-4f13-9588-303bf77ecb9f&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&5/6course Ashton Kutcher. Best of all the marvelous chemistry between Laura Prepon and Topher Grace makesthe show an actual pleasure at times. It's dumb, it has a loud laugh track, like many lesser sitcoms it repeatsitself in uninteresting ways. (Great sitcoms repeat themselves in interesting ways, usually.) But with this cast,almost any random episode can pass by painlessly. I'm still waiting for Topher Grace to fulfill the promise hedisplayed here and in a string of early film roles. He could be the Jack Lemmon of our time, an actor who canmove effortlessly between comedy and drama with aplomb. Anyone with an eye for talent could spot thatstarting right here. It's out now on BluRay, with the original broadcast length episodes and virtually all the musiccues used at the time.Star Trek is slightly more problematic. Casual fans won't know or care but I'm not sure Star Trek HAS casualfans. To be clear: this is a compact, inexpensive boxed set of the original three seasons of Star Trek that havelaunched a thousand cartoons, books, movies, TV shows, fan fiction and for all I know puppet shows as well.This isn't the original, original show. It's the most recently remastered editions created with new special effectsmodestly sprucing up the original. In general, I'm opposed to such fiddling, even if the creative people whocreated it are involved. At best, if you want to spend money on new effects, at least make both versionsavailable together so people are denied the chance to see the show it was first seen. And classic works don'tage because the special effects become dated. The original 1933 King Kong is far superior to anything thatcame later, no matter how "improved" the effects may be. So all you get here are the revamped versions. Butthe heart of the show remains and it is awfully inexpensive.No one should have any complaints to make about The Dick Van Dyke Show. If anything, this classic sitcomneeds to be rediscovered as the ground-breaking work it remains and this is the set to do it with. They've gotextras. They've got the original broadcast length episodes remastered to look better than ever. That's saying theleast: this may be DVD, but it still certainly looks better than what people were watching when it first debuted.And the combination of sketch show writer Rob Petrie's home and work life (and how they both bled into eachother, informed each other, harmed each other and of course influenced each other) is a trick most shows nevereven attempt. Usually, it's too hard and inevitably one aspect proves much more compelling than the other.They focus entirely on work or entirely on home and the other half of someone's life becomes utterlyunimportant. Not here. It doesn't matter where the episode takes you. Is it focused on little Richie telling fibs orusing a bad word? Is it focused on Rob working late to try and come up with a new sketch? Is it focused on hiswife Laura's natural curiosity over a package that arrives for Rob or waking up after a creepy nightmare? Is it theworkers growing dissatisfied with the respect and pay they get for toiling away for the egotistical Alan Brady? Itsimply doesn't matter. On most other sitcoms, even good ones, when an episode focuses on a secondarycharacter or an unexpected corner of the sitcom's world, your heart sinks. Uh-oh, this won't be a good one youthink. (Just remember any episode of Family Ties that wasn't centered solely on Alex P. Keaton.) But The DickVan Dyke Show was so well written, so well-cast, so damn good that it didn't matter. You like 30 Rock? Youneed to watch The Dick Van Dyke Show. It's on any reasonable list of the greatest sitcoms of all time.NOTE: Prices and format are strictly based on what is made available to me for review. If they give me a DVD,that's the format and list price I include. Needless to say, every title here is often available in multiple discformats not to mention on demand and via streaming so the list price included is virtually never what you'll payand the format is always just one of many ways for seeing the work reviewed.Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder of BookFilter, a book lover's best friend. Looking for the nextgreat book to read? Head to BookFilter! Need a smart and easy gift? Head to BookFilter! Wondering what newtitles just hit the store in your favorite categories, like cookbooks and mystery and more? Head to BookFilter! It'sa website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensiveinfo on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every stepof the way. It's like a fall book preview or holiday gift guide -- but every week in every category. He's also thecohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news