This Week's DVD Releases

Y'know, I skipped writing this post last week. So sue me. I thought last week's DVD releases didn't have much to offer, plus the weather was lovely. And now this week's releases have even less to offer, and the weather is that much better. Sounds like a conspiracy! Regardless, if you do wish to spend time indoors this weekend, here are the latest DVD offerings, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Let's tackle last week's DVDs first: As previously mentioned, Shout! Factory released the first two films in their Roger Corman series,  Rock 'N' Roll High School and Suburbia. Meanwhile, the major studios released Tooth Fairy, Nine, and Leap Year, only one of which I have seen, and all of which you can skip. Okay, I didn't see Coppola's Tetro either, but that's because I hate Vincent Gallo. The reviews were good enough. On to a film I did see: Tokyo Sonata, which is the delicate tale of a Japanese family coming apart at the seams as their secrets come to light. I didn't buy everything in the story (the wife/mother's subplot ends up way out there), but it is a charming little story.

There's some deluxe reissues of Dr. Zhivago and Dirty Dancing, and a reissue of the under-seen Matinee. The BBC version of Hamlet is out, and you can't go wrong with some fine British actors putting on a fine British play for fine British television. Ladies and gentlemen, Patrick Stewart!

On the documentary tip, you've actually got lots of options: Never Sleep Again examines the legacy of the Nightmare on Elm Street series; Art & Copy examines the legacy of iconic advertising; and MINE examines the legacy of Katrina, though the prism of abandoned pets. Meanwhile, if you're thinking of evil, forget about Freddy Kruger, and check out Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story. Atwater served as a consultant to Ronald Reagan, is responsible for the Willie Horton ads during George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign, and mentored Karl Rove. Are you scared yet?

That takes care of this week, and like I said, there's slim pickins for new DVD releases this week. There's Legion, in which Paul Bettany is a really buff angel, and Daybreakers, in which Ethan Hawke is a weaselly-looking vampire? Or Edge of Darkness, a revenge drama starring Mel Gibson as Mel Gibson? These are not options of films to rent, these are the methods of torture for the next edition of Saw.

Slightly better choices include North Face, the based-on-a-true story about friends attempting to climb The Eiger; The Day I Became a Woman, about what it means to be female in Iran; Malice in Wonderland, a modern, drug-filled retelling of the Lewis Carroll drug-filled story, and One Deadly Summer, a French psychological drama from 1983 finally get its release on DVD.

And then there was Daria. But I'll leave it to Jen at Scarecrow to explain why you should be excited for the MTV series on DVD.