Max’s Best Blu-ray and DVD Picks – October 2012

Hi, I’m Max. best friend of Walt Oleksy (waltmax@comcast.net), and I review new DVD and Blu-ray releases each month. We don’t care for most of the new stuff out of Hollywood. We’ve seen more than enough thrillers, car chases, men and women in their birthday suits, and comedies the critics say are “hilarious” but which just aren’t funny unless you’re two years old (I’m nine and my master admits to being “over thirty-nine.” We don’t watch anything with vampires in it, except the original “Dracula.” We like movies that tell a good story and maybe we learn something from it. We figure you can read about the new so-called blockbuster films everywhere else, so we look for flicks that are worth seeing but get little publicity and are not seen in most mall theaters.

BONES TO PICK

Here is the promotion 20^th Century Fox is giving in big, bold letters for THE WATCH, one of it’s new movies, a supposed comedy about an alien invasion: “RUDER, CRUDER & LEWDER.”  Swell, just what we need.  The DVD and Blu-ray includes “almost one hour of raunchy, unrated footage.”  My master and I are definitely staying away from this one. 

Watching RANDOM HARVEST (1942) this morning on Turner Classic Movies makes me realize the great love story could not be filmed today because there are no Ronald Colman’s or Greer Garson.  And no James Hilton’s writing novels like it.
 
Everyone’s so busy these days, I keep my recommendations brief.  Here goes for what I think you’ll like on DVD this month.

Best Picks of the Month

DOWNTON ABBEY SEASONS 1 & 2

If you’re like my master and I, among the millions of fans of this outstanding British television Masterpiece Theatre award-winning series, you can hardly wait to see Season 3, to be seen on PBS Television in December (we hope) and coming out early next year on DVD and Blu-ray.  A great way to prepare for that event is to see this new boxed set of the first two seasons, available from PBS Distribution. The two seasons run a total of 912 minutes, on six discs for the DVD set and five discs for the Blu-ray. If you haven’t seen either season, you’re in for a real treat. The series is a kind of “Upstairs, Downstairs” about a British upper-class family and their domestics in a manor house just before and during World War I.  A wonderful ensemble cast includes Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Brendan Coyle, Jim Carter,  and some surprise guest stars.  The cast is perfect and the sets, costumes, cars, etc. are as well. I won’t tell the plot so as not to spoil the experience for you.  This is my best pick of the year. See it for the first time and love it.  See it again and love it again.

Also Recommended

MY UNCLE SILAS

Albert Finney stars as the lovable head of a very odd British family in this Masterpiece Theatre filming of the stories by H.E. Bates that were previously seen as “The Darling Buds of May.” Set in rural England during the Edwardian period, it’s a heartwarming comedy that has lots of laughs and engaging stories.  The 4 DVD boxed set of the complete series is from BFS Entertainment and I think you’ll enjoy your time with Uncle Silas and his family and friends.

THE ROYAL BODYGUARD

Sir David Jason stars as a British army veteran who has the job of parking lot attendant at Buckingham Palace.  He saves the queen’s life and is promoted to head of royal security.  Of course he bungles that in this popular British television series now on two DVDs from BFS Entertainment.  Take a look because it’s fun.

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’

A jolly good World War 2 comedy-drama with air raids, gangsters, bombs, and big bands. Robson Green plays a draft dodger and Jerome Flynn a former RAF pilot, finding themselves in a band, with Green on drums and Flynn on saxophone. They get into adventures including espionage as they play their parts in the war effort. On two DVDs from BFS Entertainment.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Both series one and two of the British television series about crime going through the British criminal system. Stars Matthew Macfadyen, Ben Whishaw, and Peter Postlewait get involved in murder in what the London Daily Mail calls “Brilliant and riveting, tense and disturbing.” The 4-DVD boxed set from BFS Entertainment.

SUDDENLY

Frank Sinatra followed FROM HERE TO ETERNITY for which he won a best supporting actor Oscar with this 1954 crime thriller that was rated almost four stars. He plays a gangster who takes a family hostage in their home overlooking a train station in Suddenly, a town in California, where a train is to arrive carrying the President of the United States. A local sheriff (Sterling Hayden) tries to stop him from harming the chief exeutive.  The film has been sharply restored in high definition, on Blu-ray and DVD in a special two-disc combo pack, a real treat from Film Chest which is doing a sterling job of bringing back some excellent films in restored picture and sound.

CAGNEY AND LACEY: The Complete TV Series

Ladies always got their men if they were criminals in this 30^th aniversary celebration of the groundbreaking hit television series that ran for seven seasons (1981-1988). Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless play New York City female detectives using their smarts to break barriers in the male-dominated television detective genre.  The cases they took on tackled some very controversial women’s issues including workplace ethics and politics, sexual harrassment, domestic violence, abortion, illegal immigration.  The London Telegra[h said, “One of the very few popular shows on television ever to show real women living real lives and coping with real problems.” All 119 episodes of the Emmy award winning series are on 32 discs plus the made-for-tv feature film starring Loretta Switt as Cagney and Daly as Lacey from which the series was spun off.  The special boxed collectors’ set also has 29 hours of special features and a 12-hour audio book about the series. Restored to high definition on DVD from Visual Entertainment, another company preserving the best to see again.

ANOTHER LIFE

A scandalous affair leads to a sensational trial in Edwardian England, based on a real-life murder trial.  Shortly before World War I, Natasha Little accepts a marriage proposal fro Nick Moran, who is demanding, and she prefers another young man.

Moran won’t give her up, so she kills him. Both Little and her gentleman friend are… but I won’t spoil the ending for you.

The DVD is from BFS Entertainment.

LAST WILL

A young woman (Tatum O’Neal) thinks she has it all.  She just married the man of her dreams (Tom Berenger) who is both handsome and wealthy.  But then she learns his brothers are slum landlords who resist his efforts to help tenants. Frank changes his will and makes his wife his sole heir and is then murdered. She becomes the prime suspect, but is determined to clear herself and learn who the real killer is. It’s a taut, well-made new film also starring James Brolin and Peter Coyote, on DVD from Green Apple Entertainment. You remember Tatum O’Neal, daughter of Ryan O’Neal, who won a best supporting actress Oscar as the little girl with him in “Paper Moon.”  She’s become a fine adult actress.  

THE FOUR MINUTE MILE

British athlete Roger Bannister made sports history by being the first to run the mile in a little less than four minutes in on May 6, 1954. The event took place during a meet between British AAA and Oxford University at Oxford that was watched by about 3,000 spectators.  Bannister became a leading neurologist and was knighted as Sir before retiring in 1993. The film re-creates the sporting milestone, with Richard Huw as Bannister, and Adrian Dunbar and Michael York as the coach.  Especially exciting for runners and joggers.  The 3-hour film is on two DVDs from BFS Entertainment.

TWO 1970S CRIME HEISTS

Robert Conrad stars in LIVE A LITTLE, STEAL A LOT and SUDDEN DEATH with sidekick Don Stroud.  The first movie was based on the true story of the 1964 theft of the J.P. Morgan jewel collection from New York’s American Museum of Natural History, and the second has them investigating a murder in the Philippines.  It’s fun go see how detectives worked in 1970s films.  On DVD from Inception Media Group.

BACK FROM HELL

Some doors shouldn’t be opened. Six friends learn this when they escape the busy city and rent a manor house in the country where strange things begin to happen.  Fans of paranormal mysteries might like this one. On DVD from Inception Media Group.

DOCUMENTRIES/SPECIALS

BROADWAY: The American Musical

The uniquely American art form is celebrated in this special on Blu-ray for the first time. Seen on PBS television, the six-part series tells two stories: the100-year history of musical theater and the story of its relationship to 20^th century American life. Hostess of the series is none other than Broadway and Hollywood favorite Julie Andrews and interviews with many of the great Broadway stars, writers, composers including Mel Brooks, Carol Channing, Joel Grey, Harvey Fierstein, Chiata Rivera and excerpts from many of the great shows from “Show Boat,” “Oklahoma” and West Side Sory” to “Hair,” Mame,” “Hello Dolly” to “Wicked.” The three disc set on both Blu-ray and still available on DVD is from PBS Distdribution.

ORANGUTAN DIARIES

I love these tree climbers so it was fun to watch this film about orangutans being treated at a rainforest hospital deep in the jungles of Borneo.  A team of veterinarians and caregivers have rescued and are nursing 600 of the jungle’s most vulnerable animals back to health. Some were trapped in jungle fires, others stolen from the wild and sold as pets, then mistreated. The 2 DVD set runs 250 minutes, from PBS Distribution.

FRONTLINE: ALASKA GOLD

In Bristol Bay, Alaska, where wild sockeye salmon sports fishing

Is a industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, geologists have discovered one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits valued at half a trillion dollars. Foreign mining companies want the copper and gold, but will they get it, at the expense of the salmon industry?  The Frontline documentary tells the story, on DVD from PBS Distribution.

FROM DUST TO DREAMS:

Opening Night at the Smith Center for Performing Arts

Neil Patrick Harris hosts this very entertaining evening in Las Vegas with Joshua Bell, Jennifer Hudson, Willie Nelson, John Fogerty, Martina McBride, Mavis Staples and other stars of music, television, and movies. The 2-hour DVD is from PBS Entertainment. 

TENNIS and GOLF: THE INNER GAME

Author Tim Gallwey tells about the two arenas of engagement in both sports, the outer and the inner. The outer game is how you perform it, while the inner game battles obstacles that include self-doubt, fear, and lapses in focus. “It is impossible to achive mastery or satisfaction in any endeavor without first developing some degree of mastery of the relatively neglected skills of the inner game,” says Gallway in these two hour-long DVDs of special interest to tennis and golf lovers. From PBS Distribution.

BORN FIGHTING

I learned a lot from this documentary, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. It’s a story that covers 2,000 years of history of the Scots and Irish fighting for their independence from Great Britain and then bringing their values to America. As seen on the Smithsonian Channel, the 92 minute DVD is from BFS Entertainment.

SPEND WELL, LIVE RICH WITH MICHELLE SINGLETARY

The nationally syndicated Washington Post financial writer offers advice on how to gain control of your financial life. A lot of it comes from her money-wise grandmother, Big Mama.  Check this one out for some good financial help.  On DVD from PSS Distribution.

OLMSTED AND AMERICA’S URBAN PARKS

A terrific documentary about the visionary urban planner and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, narrated by Kevin Kline.  Olmsted designed New York City’s wonderful Central Park

More than 150 years ago and it remains a haven of tranquility for millions. On DVD from PBS Distribution.

FOR KIDS AND PUPPIES

DR. SEUSS’ THE LORAX

A 12-year- old boy who lives in a walled city where everything is artificial hopes to win the heart of his dream girl.  When she says she wants to see a real tree, he asks the help of an old hermit who leads him to the Lorax, a grumpy but loveable creature that fights to protect the environment of his world. The animated adventure is fun for kids but also carries strong messages as an allegory about greed and environment misuse. Voices are provided by Zac Efron, Danny De Vito, Betty White and others.  Shown in 3-D and at I-Max theaters. Rated PG for brief mild language. On DVD and Blu-ray from Universal.