Max's Best DVD Picks

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"My Big Fat Greek Wedding"

This romantic movie full of laughs is like “Marty” with moussaka. Nia Vardalas who both wrote the film and stars in it gives movies a freshness it hasn’t had in years. She plays a not-so-pretty Greek woman in Chicago whose family fears no one will ever want to marry her because she’s thirty. When she and a handsome teacher fall in love with each other and want to marry, her humongous extended Greek family goes ballistic because the prospective bridegroom isn’t Greek. He’s wonderfully played low-key by that master of the acting style, John Corbett, who was one of the best things about the excellent television series “Northern Exposure.” There also are some wonderful supporting performances by Michael
Constantine and Lainie Kazan in a perfectly-cast movie.

Max’s rating: two paws up, lots of tail wags, and happy “Woo woo woos!”

ALSO SHOWING
"Tommy"
The Who’s rock opera (I’m a dog that hates rock but loves opera) scored a solid hit in 1975 and is back again digitally remastered by Columbia Tri-Star in regular DVD and its sensationally sharp Superbit format. Roger Daltry, Ann-Margret, and Oliver Reed star, with then-up-and-comer Jack Nicholson in a minor role, taking us on a dark and wild musical ride following a murder in the family that leaves the boy witness deaf, dumb, and blind. Not fun material, but definitely opera material, wouldn’t you say? Lots of people liked it, even the conservative Wall Street Journal which called it “Spectacular.”

Max’s rating: Okay, some howls, covering my ears.

"Auto Focus"
Pretty boy Greg Kinnear, who sometimes acts as good as he looks, does both playing the late television actor Bob Crane (“Hogan’s Heroes”) who died mysteriously after leading a pretty wild personal life even by Hollywood standards. It’s adult fare and may offend some, but it’s an interesting look into the darker side of celebrity which, of course, we always suspected there was. From Columbia Tri-Star.

Max’s rating: some wide-eyed “Woo woo woos!”

On DVD from Hollywood's Classics Vault

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"The Awful Truth"

Irene Dunne, the only actress who ever got star billing over Cary Grant, outshines even the old smoothie with the dimpled chin as they team up for laughs in this evergreen comedy that won the 1937 Best Director award for Leo McCarey. It’s one of the best “screwball comedies” involving a couple facing divorce who fight over custody of their dog. It’s great to see and hear it so digitally sharp from Columbia Tri-Star, remastered in high definition.

Max’s rating: the highest and several happy howls.

"Once Upon a Time” and “The Howards of Virginia"
Cary Grant stars in two more remastered oldies restored on DVD
this month. In “Once Upon a Time” (1944) he plays a hard-hearted showman down on his luck who sees gold in, of all things, a boy’s dancing caterpillar. Okay, so the plot is hard to swallow, but if you just sit back and give it a chance, it turns out to be a sweet, funny little film. In “The Howards of Virginia” (1940) Cary plays a land surveyor caught up in the Revolutionary War as he and wife, played by Martha Scott, start to raise a family in the backwoods. Not many movies have been made about that war, and although this one moves rather slowly, it’s pretty good. Both from Columbia Tri-Star.

Max’s rating: each gets two paws up.

Classic Romance Movies

Something new is out in bringing back some favorite older movies on DVD in a series of three movies on a disc from American home Treasures, a division of BFS Entertainment. Leading off the three films on this disc is “Love Affair” (1939) with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer playing the star-crossed lovers who met on an ocean liner (yes, it was remade as “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr). I even like the original better.
The disc also contains “Made for Each Other” (1939) with the luminous Carole Lombard and James Stewart as a struggling young married couple and baby makes three during the Great Depression.
Rounding out the trio of good oldies is “The Last Time I Saw Paris” (1954), based on a short story by my favorite author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Beautiful young Elizabeth Taylor stars with Van Johnson as a head-over-heels-in-love couple who might have been happier together if they’d never married (sorry if this offends anyone, but it’s probably what Scott and Zelda should have done).

Other DVDs with three movies on one disc in this series are:
Legendary Pirate Movies (“Captain Kidd,” “Long John Silver’s Return to Treasure Island,” and “The Son of Monte Cristo”); Classic World War II Movies (“Aerial Gunner,” “They Raid By Night,” and “The Steel Claw”); and Gripping War Escape Movies (“Escape from Sobibor,” “Pacific Inferno,” and “Samar.”)

Foreign Goodies

The Brits offer some excellent films this month, some of them popular TV series put on DVD.

"The Maigret Collection"
The incomparable Michael Gambon plays Chief Inspector Maigret of the Paris police in 12 one-hour episodes on this four-disc set based on the mystery novels of Georges Simenon. In his sleuthing, Maigret concerns himself more with “why” than “who dunnit, and you won’t see much blood or hear screeching tires or dodge from pyrotechnics. The stories are frightfully good, you know; eh what, old chap? Michael Gambon as Maigret is an inspired piece of casting... He brings Simenon’s hero to life with intelligence and charm,” said the London Star. “Simenon is an all-round master craftsman -- ironic, disciplined, highly intelligent -- His themes are timeless... contemporary,” said the New York Times. No argument from me. From Lance Entertainment, Granada Media, and Wellspring.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and my London Fog collar too, if I had one.

"The Onedin Line"
No, it isn’t the story of a distance runner’s starting line, but the award-winning BBC Television saga of a do-or-die Brit who is bent on starting a shipping line. Starting in the 1860s, he rides the waves in a stormy sea of naval commerce to become a wealthy ship owner and founder of The Onedin Line. Drama and tall ships abound in this popular BBC period drama on four DVDs in a two-package set from BFS Video. In this exciting and engrossing series, it’s evident the British still rule the seas.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and a tail wag for a climb-aboard.

"Pictures"
British moviemaking in the silent film era of the Roaring 20s. Sound like a good premise for a movie? You bet. Peter McEnery (not seen often enough) stars in this 1981 Masterpiece Theater drama as a screenwriter inspired by a starstruck, lovestruck waitress in the studio cafeteria to write a script that will make her dreams of stardom come true. Wendy Morgan, who was excellent in the great Masterpiece Theater series “The Jewel in the Crown,” plays the waitress. From Carlton and BFS Video.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and pass me the popcorn.

"Girls on Top"
The popular Brit TV comedy series returns on DVD starring Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, creators and stars of the hilarious “Absolutely Fabulous” series. They team up with Tracy and Ruby Wax as flatmates who find trouble and laughs everywhere. For me, it was the most fun seeing that great Brit comedienne Joan Greenwood again; she of the husky voice who made ‘em laugh in the aisles watching “Tom Jones,” an Oscar-winning four-star comedy hit in 1963. In this TV series she plays the girls’ landlady. The series is on two sets of two DVDs each, totaling 13 episodes.
From BFS Video.

Max’s rating: Two paws up.

For Puppies and Children

"Stuart Little 2"
Not as cute as the original, it is still better than most current children’s movies because its story is basically sweet and gentle, not full of noise and distracting action. In this sequel, the hero mouse helps a lady bird in distress.

Max’s rating: Some tail wags.

"The Daydreamer"
Hans Christian Anderson daydreams his way to adventure through his most famous fairytales in this live-action and puppet musical feature shown on television in 1966. Kids who haven’t been misled by the Harry Potter hogwash will enjoy these short tellings of “The Little Mermaid,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “Thumbelina.” The voices are those of Boris Karloff, Ray Bolger, Tallulah Bankhead, Burl Ives, and others. From Anchor Bay.

Max’s rating: Lots of tail wags.

"The Wacky World of Mother Goose"
Mother Goose meets Jack & Jill, Little Miss Muffet, Humpty Dumpty, some cows jumping over the Moon, and other fairytale favorites in this DVD presentation of the 1966 animated television program by Rankin and Bass, creators of the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” television special. The hugely talented Margaret Rutherford (pun intended) provides Ma Goose’s voice. From Anchor Bay.

Max’s rating: two paws up and lots of “woo woo woo’s!

"Treasure Planet" and "The Lion King" Read-Alongs
These are two especially good additions to Disney Records' Read-Along DVDs. Kids can read along with the movie story of each feature film as it is narrated in words and pictures, see music videos of the movies, learn new vocabulary words, sing along with favorite songs from the films, and play a game using their DVD remote control.
They're a good combination of fun and learning, in five languages.

Hollywood always has been short on good story ideas, so it has recycled plots. Many silent films were later remade as talkies and often were better than the originals. Many early talkies also have been remade successfully. But the trend in recent years of remaking great movies most often fails dismally. A current example is the new version of “The Four Feathers,” which was made three times in the silent era. The 1939 black and white talkie version is one of the best adventure movies ever made. Maybe new dogs will like the new version, but for us old dogs who have seen the original, it is far superior to this remake even though that has color, widescreen, and stereophonic sound. Part of the problem with the new version is the story has been drastically changed to add an unnecessary and distracting lead character while relegating a central character in the 1939 version (a retired general magnificently played by Sir C. Aubrey Smith) to a minor role.
The other thing is, it’s hard for a film to succeed when two of its three stars are so inadequate and woefully miscast as Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson, both of whom act like they’re in a 21st century vacuum. Only Wes Bentley is convincing as a soldier of the Crown in the Sudan in 1898. As Ledger and Hudson play it, the movie should have been called “The Dour Feathers” since it is little more than “Pearl Harbor” in the sand.

		March 2003

	by Max (with Walt Oleksy)