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Boxed Set DVDs

Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Three

Sales Rank:689
List Price: $64.98
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MPAA Rating: Unrated

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Animated
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Closed-captioned
Color
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Subtitled
NTSC

Director(s):

Arthur Davis
Ben Hardaway
Cal Dalton
Carl H. Lindahl
Chuck Jones

Actor(s):

Mel Blanc
Arthur Q. Bryan
Jack Benny
Joe Dougherty
Stan Freberg

Like the previous entries in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series, volume 3 confirms how brilliant the Warner Bros. artists were and how durable their creations have proven. The set includes classics that every cartoon buff will recognize: "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!," "Robin Hood Daffy," "Birds Anonymous." Other selections are less familiar but significant in the development of the studio: "Sinkin' in the Bathtub," the first Looney Tune; "I Haven't Got a Hat," the earliest Warners cartoon viewers can watch for fun, rather than as an historic curiosity; "Porky's Romance," in which director Frank Tashlin introduced rapid cutting to cartoons. Some of the caricature films have aged less gracefully. Younger audiences will recognize the drawn versions of W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Katharine Hepburn, and Charlie Chaplin. But will anyone under the age of 60 remember Edna Mae Oliver, George Arliss, or Ned Sparks?

The producers have once again loaded the discs with supplemental material, including "Point Food Rationing," a unseen short explaining wartime ration books; a BBC documentary on Chuck Jones; and interstitial animated sequences for The Bugs Bunny Show. "Philbert" ranks as the oddest of the extras: an unsold (and leaden) pilot from 1963, featuring live actors and an animated title character. Whoopi Goldberg introduces the set, explaining that some of the ethnic gags would no longer be considered appropriate. But she correctly adds that to remove them would falsify both the history of animation and American popular culture. It all adds up to a set every cartoon fan will want. (Unrated, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon

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The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

Sales Rank:684
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

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In the trinity of modern horror films, there's the father (Michael Myers of Halloween), the son (Jason of Friday the 13th fame, a knockoff), and the unholy spirit, Freddy Krueger of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. The spectral man who haunted the nightmares of unsuspecting teenagers with deadly consequences, Freddy (as played by Robert Englund) was a truly frightening bogeyman and icon for the '80s. Unlike the hockey-masked Jason, who dispatched horny teenagers with mechanical and monotonous ease (he never talked, never took off his mask), Freddy was a truly creative and diabolical villain, with a sadistic and blackly funny personality. The hallmarks of the Nightmare on Elm Street series were imaginatively gruesome suspense pieces, set in the overactive imaginations of the teen victims. The first film of the series, Wes Craven's truly intelligent and scary film, was so hugely successful it begat not one, not two, but six more sequels, each pretty much diluting the originality and horror of its predecesor. (Horror fans will fondly remember Drew Barrymore's assertion in Scream that the first Nightmare film was great but all the rest sucked.) Still, there's fun to be had in the remaining films in the series, seeing as a number of aspiring filmmakers cut their teeth on the continuing saga of Freddy. Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) and Chuck Russell (The Mask) worked on the third installment, Dream Warriors (starring a young Patricia Arquette), and Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) came to prominence with the ingeniously macabre fourth film, The Dream Master, coscripted by Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential). Craven and original star Heather Langenkamp did return for the last film, New Nightmare, which presaged the tongue-in-cheek postmodernism of the Scream films and resharpened Freddy's ability to scare. --Mark Englehart

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Boondocks: Complete Second Season

Sales Rank:712
List Price: $49.95
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Fans of Aaron MacGruder's The Boondocks (based on his popular daily comic strip) should take note that all 15 episodes of the fearless animated series are included on this second-season boxed set. While complete seasons should be a given for the DVD presentation of most television series, most programs didn't undergo the same level of scrutiny and negative press as The Boondocks, which saw two of its second season episodes pulled from its network run over allegedly offensive statements about the cable channel BET and its senior executives (including filmmaker Reginald Hudlin, who is also credited as executive producer on The Boondocks). Both episodes--"The Hunger Strike" (which sees Boondocks hero Huey Freeman protest BET's negative programming) and "The Uncle Ruckus Show" (BET airs a reality series built around the self-loathing title character) – are presented here in their entirety, and include fairly straightforward commentary by MacGruder and producers Rodney Barnes and Carl Jones which, while never going so far as to point fingers at individuals who may have caused the episodes to be banned, does provide a succinct history of the troubles they incurred for the show. It should also be noted that while both episodes are solid and ruthless pieces of satire, they're not the high points of the season--episodes that strike a stronger balance between humor and social commentary include "… Or Die Trying" (Granddad, Huey, Riley and Jazmine sneak into a screening of Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking! and wrangle with Uncle Ruckus), "Invasion of the Katrinians" (Granddad learns to regret taking in his displaced New Orleans relative Jericho, voiced by Cedric the Entertainer), and "The Story of Catcher Freeman" (a Rashomon-like take on the history of the Freeman's saintly ancestor). These and others come closest to achieving the level of quality of "The Return of the King," the best episode of The Boondocks' first year, and do much to suggest that the show will continue to hit high-water marks in subsequent seasons.

In addition to the previously mentioned commentaries, MacGruder, Barnes and Jones are heard on two other episodes ("Stinkmeaner Strikes Back" and "The Story of Gangstalicious, Part 2"), and MacGruder is seen in video introductions for the banned episodes, as well as a making-of featurette which profiles the behind-the-scenes elements of the show in detail. "Trouble in Woodcrest" is a light-hearted look at a supposed feud between voice talent Cedric Yarbrough and Gary Anthony Williams, while "What N****s?" pokes fun at criticism of the show's use of the epithet by compiling footage of the voice-over artists repeating it in recording sessions. Five-minute interviews with the main cast and minisodes of "Spider-Man" and "Married… With Children" bring the extras to a close. -- Paul Gaita

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Seinfeld - Season 9

Sales Rank:333
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Seinfeld's final season seems to take its cue from a little piece of "showmanship" advice that Jerry offers to the hapless George (Jason Alexander) in the episode "The Burning": "When you hit that high note, say goodnight and walk off." In television, as in comedy, timing is everything, and that's what Seinfeld, No. 1 in the ratings, did. The show that TV Guide would later rank the greatest of all time, left the stage, perhaps not at the top of its game, but at least on its own terms. To the end, Jerry, George, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) remain true to the show's misanthropic muse. In the episode "The Merv Griffin Show," Jerry induces sleep in his new girlfriend so he can have his way with her retro toy collection. In "The Apology," George relentlessly badgers an old acquaintance (James Spader) now in AA, for a Step Nine apology over a long-ago insult. At one point, Elaine resumes her on again-off again relationship with Puddy (Patrick Warburton) because she needs a bureau moved. In the end, it all comes crumbling down for the so-called "New York Four" when they are put on trial in a Massachusetts courtroom for violating a Good Samaritan Law after not coming to the aid of an obese carjack victim. A parade of lack-of-character witnesses spanning the series' near-decade-long run, from Mabel Choate, the Marble Rye Lady, to Babu and the Soup Nazi testify how they were "abused, wronged, deceived, and betrayed" by Jerry and company. Anyone expecting Seinfeld or Larry David to apologize for this bitter, and not at all sweet, finale, can just stuff those sorrys in a sack, mister. In "The Last Lap," a bonus featurette about Seinfeld's decision to end the series despite unprecedented offers from NBC brass to continue, they acknowledge the episode's "mixed reaction," but remain defiant. As Alexander notes, nothing could have lived up to the massive hype the episode received.

Seinfeld's ninth does not quite leave audiences wanting more. While there are several great episodes, including "The Butter Shave," "The Betrayal," "The Cartoon," and "The Maid," the season is loaded with what George might call "gaffes," including a series nadir, "Puerto Rican Day," which in these PC times, drew enough protest to hinder its rebroadcast. The writing this season is more outrageous (see "The Merv Griffin Show," in which Kramer salvages a discarded talk-show set and installs it in his apartment), but there are enough inspired bits of silliness (fleeting season-opening mustaches in "The Butter Shave," a live-action re-creation of the classic arcade game in "The Frogger," and Jerry's silly voice in "The Voice") to keep Seinfeld's legacy intact. As an added bit of showmanship, this set contains bountiful extras, perhaps the most interesting being a chronological re-edit of the backwards episode, "The Betrayal." Season 9 may not win Seinfeld any new fans, but this DVD set is a Festivus for the rest of us. --Donald Liebenson

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South Park: The Complete Eleventh Season

Sales Rank:699
List Price: $49.99
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Animated
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Director(s):

Actor(s):

Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Isaac Hayes
Adrien Beard
Paula Holmberg

After 10 seasons of sick, wrong, brilliant, subversive, and groundbreaking humor, South Park just keeps getting a little more sick, a little more wrong, and a lot more funny. What could possibly be left for the boys from the small, redneck mountain town of South Park, Colorado to accomplish? Plenty, as it turns out. Cartman, for example, fights a midget in the season opener, pulls a practical joke that gets poor Butters sent to a special camp for gay children, sets a new town record for the most number of homeless people jumped over on his skateboard, and fakes having Tourette's syndrome in order to get away with saying whatever he wants at school. Stan gets pulled into a bizarre and hilarious conspiracy surrounding Easter in a plot that parallels The Da Vinci Code, and Kyle becomes a Guitar Hero, only to lose his best friend to the glittering lights of rock stardom. Clearly the brightest star in this season, though, is the two-part episode Imaginationland, where the boys have the entire contents of the world's imaginations, religions, and superstitions, laid before them for better, and for worse. It's a brilliant episode that encapsulates everything that continues to make South Park so strong: imaginative story lines; sharp animation; indelible characters thrust into ridiculous situations; and all of it tied together with a strong ekimthread of subversive humor. It's a formula that results in the sort of TV that just won't be seen elsewhere, and considering that one whole story line revolves around a plot where Randy Marsh (Kyle's Dad) tries to outdo Bono (lead singer of U2) for the record of World's Largest... umm, Stool, well, maybe that's a good thing. But for fans of the show who can't get enough of goin' down to South Park to see some friends of theirs, season 11 will continue to give plenty of reasons for making the trip. --Daniel Vancini

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The West Wing - The Complete Second Season

Sales Rank:654
List Price: $59.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

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Director(s):

Thomas Schlamme
Chris Misiano

Actor(s):

Martin Sheen
Bradley Whitford

The second season of The West Wing takes up literally where the first season left off and, after a few moments of patriotic sentimentalism, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. The two-part opener covers the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on President Bartlet (Martin Sheen), switching between the anxious wait on the injured and flashbacks to Bartlet's campaign for the Presidency. Other peaks in a series exceedingly short on lows include "Noel," the episode in which Alan Arkin's psychiatrist forces Josh Lynam to confront his post-traumatic stress disorder and the episodes in which President Bartlet, following a tragic car accident, rails angrily against God in Latin.

Other new aspects include the introduction of Ainsley Hayes, a young Republican counsel hired after she beats communications deputy Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) in a TV debate ("Sam's getting his ass kicked by a girl!" crow his colleagues), as well as the revelation that the President has been suffering from multiple sclerosis. Tensions grow between him and the First Lady (Stockard Channing) as she realizes, in the episode "Third State of the Union," that he intends to run for a second term in office. It becomes clear to Bartlet that he must go public with his MS, and his staff is forced to come to terms with this, as well as deal with the usual plethora of domestic and international incidents, which apparently preclude any of them from having any sort of private lives. These include crises in Haiti and Columbia, an obstinate filibuster, and a Surgeon General's excessively frank remarks about the drug situation. Thankfully, the splendid Lord John Marbury (Roger Rees) is on hand to make chief of staff Leo McGarry's life more of a misery in "The Drop-In."

These episodes, though occasionally marred by a sentimental soundtrack and an earnest and wishfully high regard for the Presidential office, are master classes in drama and dialogue, ranging from the wittily staccato to the magnificently grave, capturing authentically the hectic pace of political intrigue and the often vain efforts of decent, brilliant people to do the right thing. The West Wing is one of the all-time great TV dramas. --David Stubbs

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Damages: The Complete First Season

Sales Rank:61
List Price: $49.95
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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AC-3
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Director(s):

Allen Coulter
Daniel Attias
Edward Bianchi
Greg Yaitanes
Guy Ferland

Actor(s):

Glenn Close
Rose Byrne
Zeljko Ivanek
Tate Donovan
Ted Danson

Smart, sleek, and more than a little wicked, the Golden Globe-winning series Damages proves that legal programs don't have to follow a well-worn formula in order to prove completely addictive. In fact, the show (from Todd and Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, whose credits include The Sopranos) steers clear from nearly all courtroom drama clichés over the course of its 13 episodes, and hews closer to classic film noir with the slowly-spun web of deceit that is woven around fresh-scrubbed lawyer Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne). After joining the legal firm headed by uber-powerful litigator Patty Hewes (Glenn Close, who won a Golden Globe for her performance), Parsons lands a career-making case--a class-action lawsuit against millionaire Arthur Frobisher (Golden Globe nominee Ted Danson)--but discovers that digging deeply into the case not only reveals layers of corruption, cover-up, and potential scandal, but places her own life in jeopardy as well. Smart, mature writing and note-perfect performances, most notably by Danson as the perverse and complex Frobisher, but also by Tate Donovan, Zeliko Ivanek, Peter Facinelli, Philip Bosco and Peter Reigert, make Damages a genuine pleasure for law and mystery show fans, but also those craving a challenging series that delivers water cooler chat material in every episode. The three-disc set includes all 13 episodes as well as deleted scenes; among the featured extras are two choice commentaries, one with Close, the Kesslers and Zelman, and the other with Ivanek and the creators, both of which are chock-full of production and technical insights. A 30-minute making-of featurette, discussions about the characters by the creators, and a guide to class-action lawsuits rounds out the fine supplemental features. --Paul Gaita

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From the Earth to the Moon - The Signature Edition

Sales Rank:1112
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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AC-3
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DVD-Video
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Director(s):

David Carson
David Frankel
Frank Marshall
Gary Fleder
Graham Yost

Actor(s):

Tom Hanks
Krista Adair
Mason Adams
Tom Amandes
Brandon Ambrose

Originally broadcast in April and May of 1998, the epic miniseries From the Earth to the Moon was HBO's most expensive production to date, with a budget of $68 million. Hosted by executive producer Tom Hanks, the miniseries tackles the daunting challenge of chronicling the entire history of NASA's Apollo space program from 1961 to 1972. For the most part, it's a rousing success. Some passages are flatly chronological, awkwardly wedging an abundance of factual detail into a routine dramatic structure. But each episode is devoted to a crucial aspect of the Apollo program. The cumulative effect is a deep and thorough appreciation of NASA's monumental achievement. With the help of a superlative cast, consistent writing, and a stable of talented directors, Hanks has shared his infectious enthusiasm for space exploration and the inspiring power of conquering the final frontier.

NASA's complete participation in the production lends to its total authenticity, right down to the use of NASA equipment, launch locations, and even spacecraft. The re-creation of the lunar landscape is almost as impressive as the real thing and is further enhanced by the use of helium balloons to lighten the actors playing moon-walking astronauts. (These and other backstage details are revealed in the "making of" featurette, along with a wealth of supplemental materials, on a bonus disc in the miniseries' DVD package.) With a fictional, Walter Cronkite-like TV reporter (Lane Smith) serving as the dramatic link for all 12 episodes, this ambitious production may not be a great work of art. But as a generous and definitive example of nonfiction drama, it's full of the same kind of awe, inspiration, and humanity that led to "one giant leap" in the all-too-short history of 20th-century space exploration. --Jeff Shannon

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The Office - The Complete Collection BBC Edition (First And Second Series Plus Special)

Sales Rank:995
List Price: $59.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Director(s):

Ricky Gervais
Stephen Merchant

Actor(s):

Ricky Gervais
Martin Freeman
Mackenzie Crook
Lucy Davis (II)

It feels both inaccurate and inadequate to describe The Office as a comedy. On a superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks, and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional British paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television show. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful, and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth (Mackenzie Crook); the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch (Ralph Ineson); and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim (Martin Freeman), whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of ! the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by codirector-cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character. Fawlty is an exaggeration of reality, and therefore a safely comic figure. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller

The second series exceeded even the sky-high standards of the first. Indeed, it ventured beyond caricature and satire, touching on the very edge of darkness. Ricky Gervais is once again excruciatingly superb as David Brent, but in this series, Brent's to-the-camera assertions concerning his management qualities and executive capabilities are seriously challenged when the Slough and Swindon branches are merged and his former Swindon equivalent Neil (Patrick Baladi) takes over as area manager. To compensate, Brent cultivates his pathologically mistaken image of himself as an entertainer-motivator-comedian whose stage happens to be the workplace. Meanwhile, Tim, who can only maintain his sanity by teasing the priggish Gareth, continues to wrestle with his yearning for receptionist Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), a sympathetic character persisting in a relationship with a man about whom she still maintains unspoken reservations. As ever, it's the awkward, reality TV-style pauses and silences, the furtive, meaningful and unmet glances across the emotional gulf of the open-plan office, that say it all here. As for Brent, his own breakdown is prefaced by a moment of hideous hilarity--an impromptu office dance, a mixture of "Flashdance and MC Hammer" as Brent describes it, but in reality bad beyond description. Then, when his fate is sealed, he at last reveals himself in a memorable finale to perhaps the greatest British sitcom, besides Fawlty Towers, ever made. --David Stubbs

The brilliant and devastating comedy of The Office is brought to a satisfying conclusion in The Office Special, originally a two-part Christmas special on the BBC, set three years after the end of the faux-documentary's second season. The former office manager David (Ricky Gervais) now ekes out a desperate existence as an oblivious quasi-celebrity, making awkward, humiliating visits back to the office staff he still believes loves him. Gawky Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) has risen to manager and become a petty tyrant, while the sweet but snide Tim (Martin Freeman) continues to pine for former receptionist Dawn (Lucy Davis), who fled to Florida with her fiance. When the documentary crew pays for Dawn to return for the holiday party, an unpredictable reunion looms ahead. The Office fuses scathing humor and genuine empathy, turning excruciating social discomfort into inspired satire. Fans will find this special rewarding in all respects. --Bret Fetzer

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Family Guy, Vol. 5 (Season 5 Part 1)

Sales Rank:803
List Price: $39.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Actor(s):

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 08/05/2008 Run time: 379 minutes Rating: Nr

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