New on DVD
Friday the 13th: Killer Cut
Rated R for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, nudity, language, and drug material
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
What they are calling a reinventing of the Friday the 13th franchise is merely just a slicker Michael Bay version of the violent film series from the 80s and 90s. In this new edition, a group of teenagers is staying at a cabin across the water from Camp Crystal Lake when goalie-masked baddie Jason Voorhees shows up, knocking them off one by one. I knew that this wasn’t going to be a brilliant film by any means, but I did expect more. Michael Bay’s reimagining of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was at least a little more inventive than the original, although a little too gruesome for my taste. This new Jason flick, however, is still just the same old silly formula with beautiful naked college students getting mutilated by a supernatural madman in laughable ways. D+
Home
Unrated and appropriate for all ages
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This French import has turned out to be a huge hit in Europe, although with very little fanfare it will have a tougher time finding a US audience. Home is a two-hour documentary with aerial footage from 54 countries showing how all of the problems of our planet are interlinked. The dialogue, narrated by Glenn Close, might be a little too preachy for some, but overall a convincing argument is made that the abundance our planet has to offer is running out. With its beautiful and surreal photography, it plays like a cross between Planet Earth and An Inconvenient Truth, putting its audience in both a state of awe and utter discomfort. Noticeably missing are any special features showing how the film was made. With images this breathtaking, I figured that the filmmakers would have been proud enough of their work to show it off in a behind-the-scenes setting. A-
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: 45th Anniversary Special Edition
Rated PG for thematic elements, some violent content, sexual humor, and mild language
Available on blu-ray
Stanley Kubrick’s classic cold war comedy starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott gets the blu-ray brush up in this loaded special edition. Strangelove was responsible for so many of the world’s thoughts on the cold war that even though most of the film is entirely fictional, they are widely considered to be fact. The film has an advanced picture-in-picture and pop-up trivia track that gives these facts of the cold war and dispels many of the misconceptions that this brilliant film created. The track does block much of the screen though, so if you haven’t seen the movie before, or at least haven’t seen it in a while, I highly recommend that you watch it without first. The disc is also loaded with a ton of special featurettes and even an interview with Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. I think it’s safe to say that this is the most powerful and influential comedies in the history of Hollywood. A+