Writer-director Scott Frank successfully merges poignant drama with gritty heist machinations in his moody thriller The Lookout ($29.99), new this week from Miramax Home Entertainment. It’s our …
DVD pick of the week
Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a sensitive performance as Chris Pratt, a once-promising student short-circuited by a head injury sustained in a prom-night car crash that claimed the lives of two friends.
Four years later, Chris struggles with a faulty short-term memory, even consulting notes (a la Guy Pearce in Christopher Nolan’s somewhat similarly themed “Memento”) to accomplish the most minor tasks, while working as a night janitor at a Kansas City bank and alternately bonding and bickering with his blind middle-aged roommate Lewis (Jeff Daniels).
When local lowlife Gary (Matthew Goode) recruits Chris to play a key part in a planned robbery, our fragile protagonist views the move as a major step toward regaining his lost independence, a belief reinforced by the film’s ironic tag line: “Whoever Has the Money Has the Power.”
With its sharp script, textured characters brought to life by an expert cast, and bleak, wintry, “Fargo”-like setting (with Winnipeg substituting for Kansas City), “The Lookout” achieves a singular identity that sets it apart from standard caper films. Extras include filmmakers’ commentary and two featurettes.
Collectors’ corner
In vintage news, Warner Home Video pays homage to the enduring eponymous playwright in its five-disc Shakespeare Collection ($59.92). The set assembles a quartet of cinematic adaptations: 1935’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with James Cagney; 1936’s Romeo and Juliet, pairing Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard; 1965’s Othello, showcasing Laurence Olivier; and, in a double-disc edition, Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 Hamlet. Extras include audio commentaries, vintage featurettes and archival footage.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment salutes a famous celluloid shamus in its Charlie Chan Volume 3 (four-disc, $49.98), featuring Warner Oland in The Black Camel, Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo, Charlie Chan on Broadway and Charlie Chan’s Secret. Among the extras are the bonus 1929 film Behind That Curtain, Charlie Chan featurettes and more.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment polishes a pair of 1980s Jim Henson fantasies in new double-disc editions: the animated The Dark Crystal and David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth ($24.96 each). New and vintage documentaries, deleted scenes and other extras add to the fun.
The same label honors a grittier 1970s classic, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, in an excellent two-disc set augmented by two audio commentaries, documentaries, reminiscences and more.
From the Far East, Dragon Dynasty reissues two John Woo faves — the adrenalizing action great Hard-Boiled (two-disc, $24.95) and the period piece Last Hurrah for Chivalry ($19.95) — in new bonus-packed editions.
Tele-video
Paramount Home Entertainment delves deep into the cathode past to retrieve a pair of popular series. Accused killer David Janssen goes on the lam in the long-running The Fugitive: Season One Volume One (four-disc), containing the first 15 episodes, while John Forsythe, Joan Collins and colleagues scheme in the six-disc, 22-episode Dynasty: The Second Season ($42.99 each).
The same label concentrates on contemporary stand-up comics with The Amazing Johnathan: Wrong on Every Level and Brian Regan: Standing Up ($19.99 each), while Media Link unearths The Kids in the Hall: The Pilot Episode ($19.98), with Kids’ commentary and more.
In the animated arena, Walt Disney Home Entertainment welcomes wacky superheroes Darkwing Duck Volume 2 (three-disc, $34.99) and The Tick vs. Season Two (two-disc, $34.99), while Warner contributes Baby Looney Tunes Volume 4 ($14.97) and Loonatics Unleashed: The Complete Second Season ($19.98).
From across the pond, Acorn Media unlocks the gala 34-episode, 12-disc The House of Elliott ($119.99), accompanied by an interview with star Louise Lombard and other extras, and Kenneth More as G.K. Chesterton’s ever-inquisitive Father Brown Set 2 (two-disc, $39.99).
BCI issues the live-action Saturday morning adventure series The Secrets of Isis (three-disc, $39.98).
The ’A’ list
Two recent high-profile theatrical releases debut this week, Anthony Hopkins in the suspenseful courtroom thriller Fracture (New Line Home Entertainment, $28.98) and Tim Allen and John Travolta in the comedy hit Wild Hogs (Touchstone Home Entertainment, $29.99), the latter backed by a wealth of extras.
Also in are the animated TV adaptation Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Fox, $29.98), the documentary God Grew Tired of Us (Sony Pictures, $24.96), Laura Dern and Jeremy Irons in David Lynch’s long-awaited celluloid puzzle Inland Empire (Rhino Video, two-disc, $29.95) and the motel-set shocker Vacancy (Sony Pictures, $28.95).
Phan mail
Dear Phantom: When can we expect the third installment of the Yoji Yamada samurai trilogy? Thanks for tipping everybody off to those. They’re wonderful.
— Mary McLaughlin, Arlington
Director Yomada’s 2006 “Love and Honor,” a follow-up to his “The Twilight Samurai” and “Hidden Blade,” will hopefully be announced for DVD release soon.
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