July 2007
  by Max (with Walt Oleksy)
   view previous issues here  

Hi. I'm Max, a Lab-shepherd.
I've been around the block more than a few times and seen lots of movies with my master.

Welcome to my new and different web site recommending movies on that fantastic format, DVD.
It's different because I only review movies of quality, not the "dogs."

I drink out of a water dish, but too many movies today are like drinking out of the toilet. Or they walk you down some dark alley among the trash cans with a serial killer who is supposed to be the hero.

I prefer strolling the sidewalk with a responsible, mature master.
Not always just on the sunny side, but never in the gutter.
My rating system is one paw up for very good movies and two paws up for really good movies.
I don't recommend movies that rate less than two paws up.
If a movie is really terrific, I give it two paws up, a tail wag, and my highest praise: "Woo woo woo!"

Okay, I'm not going to chew on this bone any longer.
What's new on DVD this month that's worth renting or buying?

                           email Max




Picks of the Month

 

 


Click on small photos for larger views

THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES

Hooray! You probably haven’t read it anywhere else, but I’ve learned that the wonderful, amazing YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICALS which aired on television starting in 1992 is finally released on DVD. All 44 uncut one-hour episodes from three television seasons are on 22 DVDs. They follow the adventures of Indy from boyhood and young manhood as he travels the world becoming engaged in some of the most important events of the 1900s and meeting the famous of those times. George Lucas spent a million dollars or more on each episode to re-create the period and events ranging from World War I Europe to the origins of jazz in America. Along the way, Indy meets Teddy Roosevelt, Albert Schweitzer, Mata Hari, Louis Armstrong, Sigmund Freud, and countless others. The series was filmed on location in England, Russia, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Africa, Greece, Egypt, Austria and other countries besides the United States. Handsome Sean Patrick Flanery is full of energy and charisma playing Indy as a teenager and college boy, while Lukas Haas is charming playing him as a boy. Guest stars include Margaret Tyzak, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Elizabeth Hurley, Anne Heche, and many others. This is not only great entertainment for all ages, it is a wonderful opportunity for parents and teachers to expose preteens and teenagers to a very painless general education. They can bring the dog, too. I haven’t been able to find out what company has released the series.To find out where to buy the DVDs and get the best price, do a Web search for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Some online outlets sell 40 episodes on 11 DVDs, while others sell 44 episodes on 22 DVDs.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and lots of tail wags.

 

 

 

 

FOYLE’S WAR SET 4

Lucky us. Four more intriguing feature-length entries in the fourth set of the hit Brit series that combines mystery with World War II intrigue in a small coastal village. Michael Kitchen continues his suave sleuthing of homegrown violence and war profiteering. Guest stars include Michael Jayston, Roy Marsden, and Kenneth Colley. Stories explore wartime gambling, bootlegging, women in the workforce, and experiments in biological warfare. Fresh from its showing on PBS television last month, the boxed set of 4 DVDs is from Acorn Media. We hope this series has no end, like in the bottom of a box of beef treats.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and some happy “Woo woo’s!”


 

 


Also recommended this month:


HILARY AND JACKIE

It isn’t brand-new, but I just got around to seeing this 1999 biopic and highly recommend it. It’s the supposedly true story of the lives of the late great British classical cellist Jacqueline du Pre and her older sister who was an accomplished flautist. Based upon A Genius in the Family, a book written by Hilary and the girls’ brother, it tells the powerful and haunting story of sisterly love and devotion carried perhaps to the extreme, and of the inner demons that plagued a young musical giant. Jackie, who married pianist-conductor Daniel Barenboim (lately of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) died of multiple sclerosis at the age of 42. Emily Watson is sensational as Jackie and in an equally brilliant although lower-key performance, Rachel Griffiths is Hilary. Treat yourself to this powerful movie about complex relationships and whether it is easier (or harder) to be a genius or like the rest of us. Deftly directed by Anand Tucker from a terrific screenplay by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. A movie worth howling about, from October Films.





AGATHA CHRISTIE’S POIROT

The Classic Collection 2 is a boxed set of nine full-length movies from the popular British television Mystery series. David Suchet doesn’t play the funny-mustached Belgian sleuth, he is the eccentric gumshoe with spats. A bonus hour-long documentary reveals real-life mysteries of the author’s closely-guarded private life. The set is a follow-up to the first Classic Collection, a 12-DVD boxed set which contains all 36 one-hour episodes from the television series. Wonderful mysteries by a grand mistress of the genre, the DVDs from Acorn Media.




 

PREMONITION

Sandra Bullock plays an average housewife with a loving husband and two adorable daughters who learns that her husband was killed in a motor accident. Then how come she sees him alive and well the next day? Did she dream the bad news? No, she realizes it was a premonition that leads her to discover that her perfect life may not have been all that it appeared. It’s a good suspenseful story but has some violent content, disturbing images, and some bad language. From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.


 

CHANCER and CROUPIER

Clive Owen, one of the Brits top leading young men, plays a con artist and swindler in CHANCER who may or may not be going straight in taking a job to save a struggling sports car company. Series One of the hit television series from the early 1900s has plenty of romantic and other shenanigans to keep Owen’s talents busy in a performance that made him a star. From Acorn Media. Also, be sure to see Owen in a newer movie on DVD, CROUPIER, in which he plays a casino dealer enmeshed in crooked high chips goings-on, also from Acorn Media.

 

 

 

DRIVING LESSONS

Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, stars in this coming-of-age drama as a 17-year-old resisting the very conservative and overbearing upbringing of his mother and minister father. Laura Linney plays the mother. His world is turned upside down when he goes to work for an eccentric retired actress played by Julie Walters in an Auntie Mame role. We wait to see whether her influence helps him to break out and live his life as his own man. From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

 

 

 

FATHER BROWN

Always watchable Kenneth More reprises his role as G.K. Chesterton’s beloved priest-detective in set 2 of the critically acclaimed PBS Television Mystery! series. In the six concluding episodes of the series, the kindly minister sleuth with a sly sense of humor low-keys his way to solving baffling mysteries while he appears to be a bit dotty. From Acorn Media.

 

 

 

 

PORTERHOUSE BLUE

Stage and screen legend Ian Richardson stars as the new and new-thinking headmaster of stuffy, conservative Porterhouse College in this hilarious satire of British academia from the comic novel by Tom Sharpe. David Jason almost steals the show from the great Richardson as the “head Porter” who resists any change from the school’s 500 years of tradition. Take a vacation from murder and mayhem in the movies and on television and enroll in Porterhouse for some genuine laughs. From Acorn Media.

 

 

SUSPENSE

Remember “Tales well-calculated to keep you in… ?” The popular radio and then television series featuring Boris Karloff and many Hollywood guest stars in half-hour mysteries is now digitally restored in a boxed set of four DVDs. Thirty half-hour episodes of the popular television mystery series from the early 1950s were written by some of the top names in the business. Guest stars, some of them getting a start before achieving movie fame, include Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, Rod Steiger, Eva Gabor, Jack Palance, Lee Marvin, as well as already-established Peter Lorre, George Reeves, and others. The tales include several that were believed to have been lost but which were recently uncovered. From Infinity Entertainment and Falcon Picture Group.

 

 

RISING DAMP

To quote a traditional Irish song, “The humor is on us now,” in series 4 of the big hit British sitcom, comic Leonard Rossiter stars in an All in the Family-type satire of bigotry. He plays the miserly, mean-spirited landlord of a run-down boarding house, reminiscent of Fawlty Towers. The 1970s television series was voted one of Britain’s all-time favorite sitcoms in a 2004 poll, even ranking ahead of Coupling and As Time Goes By. From Acorn Media.

 

 

MALPERTUIS

If you’re looking for the strange and off-beat in mystery, this should satisfy you. Orson Welles stars as a dying man whose will leaves his fortune to some distant relatives if they remain within his remote and mysterious estate, Malpertuis, for the rest of their lives. Both the original 119-minute movie and a later shorter version are included.
Strong drama and plenty of mystery from Barrel Entertainment.

 

 

SLINGS AND ARROWS

Season Three of the hit Canadian television comedy series combines hilarious satire with heartfelt human drama as we follow the adventures of a dysfunctional Canadian theatre troupe. Paul Gross, the Mountie of Due South, heads the excellent cast in the third and likely final season of the critically-acclaimed series. It’s very welcome mostly light summer viewing from Acorn Media.

 

 

 

THE REAL McCOYS

One of the funniest and folksiest television comedy series of the 1960s is back again, on DVD. All 39 half-hour episodes have been digitally transferred from original network masters in this Season One collection. The series stars three-time Academy Award-winner Walter Brennan as the head of a hillbilly family with loving support from Richard Crenna, Kathy Nolan, Lydia Reed, and Michael Winkleman. The show paved the way for other rural comedies such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, The Andy Griffith Show, and Petticoat Junction. The DVDs are a special treat for those baby boomers who loved this all-time favorite family program. From Infinity Entertainment and Falcon Picture Group.






Documentaries


 

RACHEL CARSON’S SILENT SPRING
and SOLAR ENERGY: Saved by the Sun

Writer-biologist Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 environmental awareness book, Silent Spring, comes to life again in a DVD documentary.
She courageously attacked the chemical industry, exposing its unregulated use of pesticides and herbicides including DDT. SOLAR ENERGY explores the urgent need to find a solution to the planet’s uncertain energy future. Scientists and business people are interviewed in the efforts to make solar power practical for lighting, heating, and running power plants. Both documentaries are from WGBH Boston Video.

 


FIRST FLOWER

Gardeners will be fascinated by this NOVA special in search of the world’s earliest flower. Even Charles Darwin called the origin of flowers “an abominable mystery.” Nova explores the mysteries surrounding a fossil that bloomed during the dinosaur age which was recently discovered in China’s remote Hengduan Mountains. In the region, dubbed the “Mother of All Gardens,” lie the origins of dozens of plants including the lily, clematis, forsythia, rhododendrons, dogwoods, and primroses. The horticultural detective story is from WGBH Boston Video.

 

 

KUNDALINI YOGA

Macedonian-born Maya Fiennes, sister-in-law of British actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, taps into her spirit and energy to present a “gorgeous program featuring the hottest yoga style and original music” that focuses on fitness to detox and de-stress. She employs meditative techniques, chanting, and simple body movements to release energy and revitalize the mind and body and build resistance to stress and illness.
From Acacia and Acorn Media.





 

For Puppies and Kids

 

 

THE SKATING RINK

I wasn’t born when this high school drama was shown on ABC-Television’s Afterschool Specials in 1975, but my master remembers it as one of his
favorites. Charismatic, handsome Stewart Peterson plays a Wyoming farm boy teenager with an emotional problem that leaves him with a stutter who is trying to fit in at an upscale California high school. How he finds his way makes for a very satisfying movie for teenagers. Peterson, who had earlier starred in Where the Red Fern Grows and a several other good movies, left films after starring in another high school drama, Rivals, in 1981. My master believes he left acting because of parts in trashy films that were offered him. Smart boy. He had too much class for Hollywood. We hope he went on to a more satisfying and rewarding life.



BOZO THE CLOWN

Bozo, perhaps the world’s most famous clown, comes to DVD after 47 years on television, one of the longest-running shows ever. Digitally remastered from Larry Harmon‘s original film masters, 30 live-action, half-hour color episodes, each including a five-minute cartoon, will delight today’s children and those who loved Bozo when they saw him on television in their early years. From Infinity Entertainment and Falcon Picture Group.

See you next month at the same fire hydrant.