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 Robin Williams rides with top down in the DVD of RV. |
RV, a comedy driven by Robin Williams, was a guilty pleasure in theatres. It looked silly -- heck, it is silly -- but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
Now, as of this week, RV is out on DVD. It re-establishes itself as a harmless, family-friendly romp about a clan of upscale urban snobs. Thanks to a hidden crisis, they are forced to go down-home on a recreational vehicle vacation. Turns out the experience does them a lot of good.
The made-in-B.C. movie works because, in addition to the expected goofy scenes and slapstick comedy and a geyser blast of RV sewage sludge, it boasts a big heart.
So it is breezy entertainment perched on layers of emotional depth. The characters are well drawn and well acted by a cast led by a manic Williams and an underrated Jeff Daniels.
The fully loaded DVD, available in separate full or widescreen editions, shows how the movie developed into something worth seeing at the hands of director Barry Sonnefeld. In addition to Sonnefeld's wonky commentary, with occasional use of a football telecast-style telestrator, don't miss the gag reel with Williams' sock monster routines.
Other highlights range from the hilariously hideous, full-song, headphone singing sessions to a featurette on Sonnefeld called The Kosher Cowboy. Sonnefeld is one of Hollywood's true eccentrics and this 10-minute doc deconstructs his lunacy with refreshing candor.
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COMIC CHAOS: Safe Men, John Hamburg's comic crime caper from 1998, disappeared quickly in its theatrical run. But it was revived this week in a DVD debut, in a widescreen-only Collector's Edition.
The cast alone is worth the price of a rental. Sam Rockwell, Steve Zahn, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Pais, Michael Lerner, Peter Dinklage, Christina Kirk, Harvey Fierstein and future Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti are in the ensemble. Rockwell, Ruffalo and, of course, Giamatti all went on to achieve higher levels of proficiency in quality films, so it is interesting to watch them in an earlier throw-away flick.
In Safe Men, Rockwell and Zahn are entertainers mistaken for safe crackers and forced to carry out robberies by an insane Jewish gangster preparing for his son's bar mitzvah. You quickly see how bizarro this movie is. The beginning is wobbly and the ending lame but there are delicious moments in between, not least Rockwell's romancing of Kirk.
The DVD features deleted scenes, Hamburg's roughhewn short, Tick, and a commentary combining the director with Rockwell and Zahn.
MOVIES WITHOUT BORDERS: One of Canada's least-known, true-life heroes is Dr. Lucille Teasdale of Montreal. Teamed with Italian Piero Corti, the selfless Teasdale spent her life -- and gave up her life -- administering to the poor, the war-ravaged and the AIDS-infected residents of rural northern Uganda.
The Canadian-made film, Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story, tells her saga as a melodrama. The widescreen-only DVD was released recently with strong bonus materials devoted to raising funds for the hospital Corti founded.
Despite fine performances from leads Marina Orsini and Massimo Ghini as Teasdale and Corti, journeyman director George Mihalka's movie verges on the overly sentimental, especially with the overwrought music score.
But the DVD retrieves the saga by pairing the feature with an earlier documentary, In Search Of Lucille Teasdale, by Helene Klodawasky. Together, the two films are a powerful testimony to the inspirational notion that individuals can make a profound difference in this crazy world.