The Couch Potato Report - April 20th, 2006
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on ten releases that have been released over the past few weeks while I was on vacation.
Twenty-one days have passed since we got together on The Couch.
In that time there have been approximately 260 new DVD releases and re-releases.
Now, even if I had been here, I wouldn’t have been able to cover them all.
But there are ten that I feel I should mention, albeit in an abbreviated form, either because I liked them, because I feel you should stay away from them, or just because if I don’t tell you about them, you might now know they are available.
So let me get right to the first two releases that I want to cover: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA - THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
There has been a lot of hype surrounding these two films so I will spare you a recap of their plots.
Each movie was a box office sensation for it’s own reason, I only wish there was something sensational about them so I could highly recommend them to you.
Both movies have a lot to offer, and I do mildly recommend both of them as I think they are worth seeing, but both NARNIA and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN are ultimately not as good as they should and could have been.
Luckily, neither NARNIA nor BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN are bad. Bad films aren’t worth your time.
They are worth seeing, FUN WITH DICK AND JANE is not. That is because FUN WITH DICK AND JANE is a bad movie.
Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni star as a married couple that turns to crime to pay the bills.
Usually a Jim Carrey film is good for a laugh or two, FUN WITH DICK AND JANE is not.
The original 1977 version of FUN WITH DICK AND JANE was funny, interesting and entertaining, this new version is not.
FUN WITH DICK AND JANE is not funny, not interesting, not entertaining, and not worth your time.
Unless you have lots of time to kill. Then maybe it is worth your time.
However, if you have lots of time to kill, please allow me to suggest fun time killers like 80s TV shows MAGNUM PI, KNIGHT RIDER and THE A-TEAM!
The fourth season of all of these films are each now available in 3-disc box sets.
And with the KNIGHT RIDER set, it all comes to an end, as this is the FOURTH AND FINAL SEASON Box set.
But KNIGHT RIDER, and MAGNUM PI, and THE A-TEAM can live forever in your DVD library, if you want them to.
And if you have have lots of time to kill.
Yes, those 80s TV shows will live as long as you want them to.
CAROLE LOMBARD, MAE WEST and MARLENE DIETRICH will live forever, whether you or I have even seen all of their films. They are legends, and legends never die.
And now several of each of those legends’ films are available in new multiple disc sets as a part of THE GLAMOUR COLLECTION.
Carole Lombard’s box contains her films HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE, LOVE BEFORE BREAKFAST, MAN OF THE WORLD, THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS, TRUE CONFESSION and WE’RE NOT DRESSING.
In the Marlene Dietrich set you get MOROCCO, BLONDE VENUS, THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN, FLAME OF NEW ORLEANS and GOLDEN EARRINGS.
Last, but not least, the Mae West package features GO WEST YOUNG MAN, GOIN’ TO TOWN, I’M NO ANGEL, MY LITTLE CHICKADEE and NIGHT AFTER NIGHT.
The CAROLE LOMBARD, MAE WEST and MARLENE DIETRICH sets THE GLAMOUR COLLECTION all come highly recommended, and if you have never seen any of these stars' films, these inexpensive sets are a great place to start.
The final title I want to tell you about this week is the 2-disc Director's Cut edition of the Academy Award winning film CRASH.
Back in February CRASH won the Oscar for BEST PICTURE over BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN at the Academy Awards.
A few moments ago, I said that I wished that there was something sensational about BROKEBACK so I could highly recommend it to you.
That said, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN should have won Best Picture over CRASH. I enjoyed CRASH more, but BROKEBACK will be the film that we will still talk about years from now.
That said, let me put the future on hold and talk more about CRASH right now.
The DIRECTOR’S CUT EDITION of CRASH features four additional minutes of footage and it extends several scenes.
The extra minutes don’t change the fact that CRASH is a superb film. The kind of film that you will discuss and think about from the minute it ends.
It just makes it different. Not better, not worse, just different.
That DIRECTOR’S CUT EDITION of CRASH is now available at a store near you, and so are THE GLAMOUR COLLECTION featuring CAROLE LOMBARD, MAE WEST and MARLENE DIETRICH; SEASON FOUR OF MAGNUM PI, KNIGHT RIDER and THE A-TEAM; FUN WITH DICK AND JANE - a movie that is no fun; THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA - THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
And that is the last three weeks...recapped!
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
Woody Allen’s MATCH POINT will have you thinking neither about Woody Allen or Tennis.
18 FINGERS OF DEATH is a “sockumentary" of the world of martial arts films and it will take you on the lowest possible journey of the making of these films.
DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE is an actual documentary on the effect of fishing the Nile perch in Tanzania's Lake Victoria. The predatory fish, which has wiped out the native species, is sold in European supermarkets, while starving Tanzanian families have to make do with the leftovers.
Oscar winner Charlize Theron stars in the box office failure AEON FLUX, but the film is actually pretty good.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - SEASON 2.0 gives us the first ten episodes of Season 2 of the best science fiction show that is currently on television.
And LAW & ORDER - TRIAL BY JURY - THE COMPLETE SERIES is a three-disc set that contains all 13 original episodes of the one LAW & ORDER series that failed.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch!
Neil Young the latest to join war protest
NEW YORK (AP) - If the snippets Neil Young is posting on his website are any indication, his upcoming album, Living With War, will be a serious musical broadside against the Bush administration and the Iraq war.
Young isn't alone in his feelings of discontent. Pink, known more for her slams against bubble-headed pop stars than political figures, assails President George W. Bush in the searing attack Dear Mr. President on her album I'm Not Dead Yet, released this month. And the new single from Pearl Jam - always politically minded - is titled World Wide Suicide, about a soldier's death.
All represent a steady, if not increasing antiwar sentiment since the war began in 2003. Whereas even superstar acts like the Dixie Chicks and Madonna faced backlash when they uttered opposition to the war in comments or song, more mainstream acts are more comfortable these days expressing critical thoughts.
"People were, certainly in the first couple of months, very cautious, and they are less so now," said Sean Ross at Edison Media Research, which conducts research for radio stations and others. "So it took people time to get past whether they were willing to say things."
After the 9-11 attacks, Young released the song Let's Roll, about the passengers who helped prevent United flight 93 from reaching its target that day. It was embraced as a patriotic message during a time of crisis.
The few songs that did touch the topic at that time were also patriotic - Toby Keith's Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American) and Paul McCartney's Freedom.
But Young was also an early opponent of the war. And on Living in War, the Toronto-born rock legend expresses his frustration in blunt songs such as Let's Impeach the President.
Justin Sane from the rock group Anti-Flag, which has been active in its opposition to the war and President Bush, said artists have always been at the forefront of social change, and expressing political views in song is a way to bring attention to issues being overlooked in the mainstream media.
"It's left to artists to make the statements that should be getting put into the public discourse that are not," he said.
If there's a growing number of artists expressing their opinions about the war, Sane said, it's because "people who may have ignored it before can no longer ignore it, and artists who ignored it before can no longer ignore it. ... It just becomes something that is this white elephant in the country and I don't think artists can ignore it any longer."
Still, songs with a political context remain in the minority, and there hasn't been an overwhelming indictment of the war or Bush in a multitude of songs.
"The acid test will be when there is some antiwar commentary on country radio," he said. "That hasn't happened yet."
"Lost" Star Finds New Show
And another one bites the dust?
Try as the Lost writers might to keep a lid on series-shifting spoilers, when one of its stars is tapped to join another TV show, it would seem that that person's fate on the island is pretty much sealed.
(SPOILER ALERT: If you aren't interested in hearing about a possible death on Lost, read no further. And avoid the Internet for the next four weeks.)
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cynthia Watros, who plays Hurley's love interest, Libby, has been cast in a CBS comedy pilot, calling into severe question her chances of making it out of Lost's second season alive.
Watros has signed on to star opposite Love Monkey's Tom Cavanagh in the sitcom My Ex-Life, centering on a divorced couple turned best buds who are sharing custody of their children. The show is aiming for a slot on CBS' fall schedule, which will be announced next month.
In what appears to be attempt to minimize revealing Lost plot points, the Reporter notes that Watros has committed to be a guest star and not a regular on the show. However, with her character being one of the two divorced parents in My Ex-Life, it seems that the guest star line is just a smoke screen.
Per usual, Lost producers aren't talking. They've already killed one regular this season--Shannon ( Maggie Grace) was mistakenly gunned down by Ana-Lucia ( Michelle Rodriguez)--but with tension mounting between the so-called Lostaways and the Others, it would be surprising if there wasn't at least one more grave to be dug on the island.
Watros is one of three full-time cast members to have joined Lost this season, along with Rodriguez and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko). The three were among the "Tailies," those who were in the rear of the plane and survived on the other side of the island.
Fans, for one, have long been speculating on who would be the next Tailie to go, with early rumor-mongering centering on Rodriguez as the marked woman. Rodriguez and Watros were both arrested on DUI charges last year. Watros copped a plea and lost her license, but Rodriguez, who faces potentially more serious legal trouble because she's on probation in another case, decided to fight the rap and is set to go to trial next week. Tabloid reports have suggested that Rodriguez is a disruptive force on the set, and her character has never endeared herself to Lost's die-hard fans after killing Shannon.
But producers sought to quell predictions of Ana-Lucia's demise--or at least create a misdirection--saying that her personal life would not affect her tenure on the show.
Further suggesting that Watros may be, well, lost forever, is the industry precedent of offing stars who land pilot gigs on other networks.
The most notable would be Drea de Matteo, who, despite proclamations to the contrary, met her demise on The Sopranos shortly after signing on to Joey. More recently, 24's Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer) announced last year he had joined the CBS drama The Unit. By the end of this season's first episode, President Palmer was dead.
Lost ends its second season with a special two-hour finale May 24. In the meantime, pray for Libby.