  Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger in the true-life boxing drama Cinderella Man.
|
If a lost film's fate depended entirely on its presentation on DVD, Cinderella Man would triumph.
With the DVD hitting the streets tomorrow (in separate full and widescreen editions), this is exactly how it should be done. The gorgeous widescreen transfer is excellent, and the bonus materials are outstanding.
There are three separate commentaries, one each by director Ron Howard and screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and Cliff Hollingsworth, all revealing unique perspectives.
Among the extras, there are the usual making-of docs, and a collection of deleted scenes, including 21 minutes worth with Howard's insight on editing. The filmmakers then go further, with intimate portraits of real boxing legend James Braddock. We even get to see Crowe greet Braddock's surviving son and a gaggle of descendants on set in Toronto.
Two boxing segments -- one with Norman Mailer helping the filmmakers analyze the real footage of the Braddock-Baer fight, the other with trainer Angelo Dundee -- are real treats, although each could have been longer.
The strength of the DVD is that the background materials illuminate the story in the film. It is not just hype.
COMIC BOOK BANALITY: It tells you all you need to know that the best thing on the Fantastic 4 DVD is a brief glimpse of Marvel Comics' next instalment of the X-Men series, this time with Wolverine assuming a leadership role. Otherwise, when the DVD hits the streets tomorrow in separate full and widescreen editions, it's all nonsense about the disappointing Fantastic 4. While the movie was not awful -- I liked fiery Chris Evans and lumbering Michael Chiklis -- it wasn't great, either. Neither is the DVD, despite a lot of self-congratulatory extras.
NEVERENDING STORY: Another piece in the Star Wars puzzle is in place. The widescreen DVD of Star Wars: Clone Wars: Volume Two is out tomorrow. This is the second season of the animated series that filled in story gaps between George Lucas' live action films, Episode II and III. Lots of Anakin and Obi-wan, lots of General Grievous (including the scene that gives him his hacking cough), lots of action. A featurette explains how it fits in with Lucas' vision.
AUSTIN POWERS' GRANDDADDY: If you really want to see how Mike Myers came up with his clever spoof of 007 and other sexy superspies, check out the delicious comedy in the DVD box set, The Original Swinger Agent: Matt Helm Lounge. The two-disc, widescreen-only offering has crooner Dean Martin starring in four Matt Helm spy vehicles starting with The Silencers in 1966 and continuing with Murderers' Row, The Ambushers and The Wrecking Crew. The flicks are silly, fun, full of ribald bedroom antics. While the pace is slower, that was the style of the time. Critically, the jokes still work. The DVD set, out tomorrow, has no extras.
CARTOONING: In the kids' cartoon show Pet Alien, a human boy named Tommy has five outer space monsters as friends. Chaos ensues. Their latest fullscreen DVD, Lighter Side Of Doom, is out tomorrow with four episodes revolving around possible calamity. The show has a nasty, insulting edge, which I like. But it really is for kids only -- and only if their parents are not hung up on Disneyesque images.
NOT SO SUPER DOOPER: Broken Lizard's Super Troopers -- highway traffic cops as blacktop idiots -- has a cachet as absurdist youth humour. So does the comedy troupe's Club Dread, a campy takeoff on horror.
But it is no surprise that Broken Lizard's Puddle Cruiser, their 1996 debut effort, didn't generate the same buzz. It is bland, even boring in comparison.
Led by actor-writer-producer-editor-director Jay Chandrasekhar (who directed The Dukes Of Hazzard flick this summer), Broken Lizard was still working out the kinks. So a good line of dialogue, or a clever pratfall, is followed by long passages of mediocrity or energy gaps.
For the curious, the widescreen DVD is out tomorrow with a group commentary. The best thing is a 17-minute doc, Rodeo Clowns, in which we see Broken Lizard on the road trying to sell their movies directly to cynical college kids. It is show-and-tell with desperation -- and it is fascinating.
