The wave of fright flicks from the east isn’t limited to
movies from Korea
and Japan. Thailand
is getting serious about its scares as well, as evidenced by films like Shutter and Dorm. Most recent on this list is The Victim, a movie inspired by actual criminal events, with many
of the scenes recreated in the film based on real crimes and shot on the actual
locations in Thailand.

The film’s story centers on Ting (Pitchanart Sakakorn), an
aspiring actress who dreams of becoming famous. One day the police ask her to
help solve a murder case by portraying a victim in the reenactment of the
crime. Ting relishes the opportunity, and is quickly asked to recreate fatal
experiences of other victims. Now a local celebrity, Ting is soon invited to
reenact a very high-profile murder case; the victim is a former Miss Thailand
and the murder especially gruesome and peculiar. However, this reenactment is
not like the others, as Ting, to her horror, genuinely feels the terrible pain
and suffering that the murdered beauty queen endured. Frantically searching for
answers, Ting fears she herself is in danger of becoming the next victim.

Directed by Monthon Arayangkoon, The Victim plays with certain tropes of twisted reality programming
in a manner not entirely unlike the recent Captivity. The acting is somewhat
uneven and there are certainly some issues with pacing, but the film does exude
a menace, and is well photographed and pieced together. Housed in a regular
Amray case in turn stored in a cardboard slipcover, Tartan’s DVD release of the
movie comes with a small collection of TV spots and a special making-of
featurette, as well as the original theatrical trailer. Presented in anamorphic
widescreen, it comes with solid DTS 5.1 and Dolby digital 5.1 audio tracks in
Thai, and the requisite English and Spanish subtitles. To purchase the movie via Amazon, click here.
C+ (Movie) B+ (Disc)

Back in the 1980s, American Greetings charmed consumers
everywhere with its Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake lines. Only slightly less
known was its Holly Hobbie line. The sweet and sparkling girl with the “twinkle
in her eye” gets her own showcase here on a new direct-to-DVD title, however, showing pre-teen girls that
good friends can be found in the most surprising places.

A 44-minute special DVD, Holly
Hobbie: Best Friends Forever is the latest title in an altogether charming little
series (other titles include Surprise
Party, Christmas Wishes and Secret Adventures) starring a new Holly
— with an updated, modern day spirit to go alongside her familiar and timeless
charm. Brought to life in richly back-grounded and colorful style by acclaimed
animators from Nickelodeon, and directed by Mario Piluso and Monte Young, Holly
is voiced by “tween” star Alyson Stoner (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody),
and features a theme song from Grammy-winning singer LeAnn Rimes.

The thinly sketched story centers on 10-year-old Holly and
her friends — Amy and Carrie, members of the Hey Girls Club — as they
experience a few milestones of joy and trepidation. Everyone in their idyllic
hometown of Clover is at first afraid of the person known as the “town witch,”
Annabelle (voiced by Happy Days’ Marion
Ross), until Holly finally faces her fears and takes the time to discover that
the witch is actually a wonderful old lady (and an old friend of her
great-grandmother) who’s actually just in need of some help.

Today’s Holly, the original’s great-granddaughter, is
perfectly poised to befriend a whole new generation of girls. In a sign of the
times, she wears boots and a funky signature cap complete with a touch of
gingham — a nod to the iconic bonnet worn by the classic character. The updated
Holly feels a deep sense of connection to her great-grandmother, and mirrors
her winning personality, creativity and warmth. As such, the character and this
title can be enjoyed by multiple generations together. And hey, between the
shenanigans of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, we’re more in need of positive
young female role models than ever.

Housed in a regular Amray case in turn stored in a sturdy
cardboard slipcover, Holly Hobbie is
presented in 1.33:1 full-screen. The DVD includes a selection of all-new bonus
features, including kid-friendly, jump-straight-to sing-alongs to two tunes from
the movie, including LeAnn Rimes’ performance of “Twinkle in Her Eye.” There’s
also a pop quiz game and a Holly Hobbie dress-up interactive game, too. To purchase the title via Amazon, meanwhile, click here.
B (Movie) B- (Disc)

Written and directed by Raquel Cepeda, Bling: A Planet Rock is the perfect example of a movie that’s
pulled along by the weight and importance of its subject matter, versus its
subjects. A documentary examination of the high cost of the conflict diamond
industry on war-torn Sierra Leone, the movie is essentially a travelogue in
which a few hip-hop heavy hitters (including Paul Wall, Raekwon and Tego
Calderón) travel to the West African country, in July of 2006, to come face to
face with the true cost of their “bling.”

A brief prologue uses interview snippets with other rap
superstars to set the scene. Says Kanye West: “It’s in us to want to shine,
from the time of kings and queens to show off our jewelry and gold. We’ve had,
for years, chains around our necks, but this time we’ve got diamonds in them.”
From there, it’s off to Sierra Leone,
where the group meets victims of the “blood diamond” industry, including
miners, amputees and former child soldiers. They’re accompanied by Ishmael
Beah, a former child soldier himself turned best-selling author (A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier),
and it’s his eloquence that stands in stark contrast to the inarticulateness of
Wall and the other subjects here. His tale of miming Naughty By Nature’s “OPP”
and LL Cool J’s “I Need Love,” in an effort to convince an armed militia of the
improbable truth — that as kids he and his friends were merely hip-hop fans
traveling from one village to another, performing, rather than rebel spies — is
both riveting and sad.

Cepeda’s film does a pretty decent job of illustrating how “bling”
is so deeply entwined with urban culture, and the roster of interviews — which
includes chats with the aforementioned West, Big Daddy Kane, Jadakiss and Juelz
Santana — is impressive. The bulk of the movie, however, unfolds in situ against a backdrop of some
graphically intercut footage of Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war (including
a head on a spike and a young boy getting his legs ripped apart and broken), a
battle that saw more than one million people killed, displaced, raped and
maimed. The gravity of this terrible human toll is undeniable, and several
native African rappers make a compelling case for how their aping of Western
culture has had a negative effect on their country. These segments — at Koidu
Holdings, for instance, the country’s only industrial diamond mine — are
fascinating.

Still, Bling
suffers from something largely beyond its control — namely, the fact that its
subjects, even when confronted with this harsh peek behind the diamond trade’s
curtain, don’t necessarily have insightful qualities of immediate self-reflection and
verbalization about how this information impacts their worldview. There are a lot of repetitive mutterings and “ya knows?” (And don’t get me
started on Texas-bred Paul Wall, whose steady stream of hickish inanities
boggles the mind.) Big points are doled out for intention and effort, and Bling highlights an important issue. A
bit more academic dissection and less celebrity wheel-spinning would have made
this title even better, however.

Housed in a regular Amray case in turn stored in a sleek,
attractive, black slipcase, Bling is
presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with solid Dolby digital 2.0 stereo and
Dolby digital 5.0 surround sound audio tracks. To purchase the title via Amazon, click here.
C+ (Movie) B- (Disc)

Small screen family dramas are usually programs of smaller
margins and return, pitched toward captive, boomer-plus audiences who don’t
much escape the confines of their couches for entertainment options. As such,
they can be (and typically are) constructed around one or two marginal stars or
recycled veterans; it’s a game of just a little ventured, something gained. Brothers & Sisters, however, has a
cast that makes you sit up and take notice, something confirmed by the recent Emmy victory
of two-time Oscar winner Sally Field (Best Actress for 1979’s Norman Rae and 1984’s Places in the Heart), something
obviously surprising and warmly received, no matter how censored her acceptance
speech was.

Alias’ Rifkin does a turn as Nora’s
brother Saul, second in command of the Walker
family business, while erstwhile West
Winger and Democratic National Convention enthusiast Lowe plays Kitty’s
boyfriend, Senator Robert McAllister.

Produced by Ken Olin (the thirtysomething actor turned TV multi-hyphenate), Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Dawson’s Creek) and Jon Robin Baitz (a writer on The West Wing and Alias), the show’s strength lies in its blend of business, personal
and political intrigue, and well-crafted interplay. While the characters
themselves are not necessarily strikingly original, all of the members of the
stellar cast breathe fresh life into their subjects, and Brothers & Sisters’ mealtime scenes are a delight — albeit
sometimes a wince-inducing one, full as they are of shrewd detail. There’s also
a lot of room for both growth and conflict, as evidenced by shifting alliances
and leaked secrets, big and small. The show’s smart direction, meanwhile, is
evident in the manner in which previous crutches of some of the featured actors
— Getty’s squinty posing, say, or Flockhart’s wide-eyed, parakeet mania — are
either tamped down or used for effect, commented upon by their screen siblings.

Spread out over six discs and housed in a sturdy cardboard
slipcase, Brothers & Sisters is
presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio
track. Alongside all the outstanding episodes from the show’s first season is a
special, bonus un-aired episode, intended to be the first full-fledged episode
after the pilot. Other revealing supplemental features include a half-hour, general
making-of featurette which leaves no Walker
family stone unturned and a special, six-minute behind-the-scenes segment on
the cast members comprising first half of the series’ title, tagging along with
Getty, Annable and Rhys. A brief segment entitled “Family Business,” meanwhile,
introduces fans to Olin’s family, the real family story behind the show’s
success. Rounding things out are two-and-a-half-minute blooper reel, a small
clutch of deleted scenes and audio commentaries on four episodes from the
aforementioned producers and other behind-the-scenes creative folks, making for
a superlative package. B+ (Series) A- (Disc)

Originally broadcast in 1980 as a two-part television movie, this gripping recreation of the horrible tragedy of the Jonestown mass suicide in November 1978 connects largely owing to the mesmeric, Emmy-winning lead performance of Powers Boothe.

Directed by William Graham, Guyana Tragedy: The Jim Jones Story features a cast stuffed with heavyweight names and familiar faces — James Earl Jones, Ned Beatty, Brad Dourif, Diane Ladd, Meg Foster, Randy Quaid, Levar Burton, Colleen Dewhurst, Rosalind Cash, Veronica Cartwright and Irene Cara are among the supporting players with roles large and small — but it’s undisputably Boothe who anchors the tale of San Francisco preacher Jones, who relocated his followers to a religious colony carved from scratch into a remote South American jungle. Tracing Jones’ early social activist period to his rise as an ego-driven, modern day messiah, Guyana Tragedy wrings a lot of production value from its relatively low budget. And the climactic suicide sequence is convincingly recreated in quasi-documentary style, a credit to Graham. But the movie’s script — and in particular the dialogue — never gives the broader elements of the story (the social turmoil of the time, particularly among working-class-poor African-Americans) a full, insightful reckoning, so we’re left at a loss for the ingredients that informed a lot of Jones’ disciples, and made the Kool Aid-laced suicide of 913 individuals, including many women and children, possible. Boothe makes up for a lot of that with his eyes — he’s an ace at conveying compassion and dead-pool menace within the span of a single conversation — but the 189-minute running time requires a bit more, truth be told.

Housed on a region-free disc in a regular Amaray case, Guyana Tragedy: The Jim Jones Story comes presented in its original 1.33:1 full screen aspect ratio, with a billed Dolby digital soundtrack that suffers from a few pops and some seeming warping or range compression. Trailers for other VCI Entertainment releases are included, along with brief cast biographies. Yes, this is unfortunately a case of one of those releases — like in the early days of DVD — that bills “scene selection” as a supplemental extra, which is really a shame. Boothe won a flipping Emmy for this, and Robert Rodriguez has gone on record as saying that was one of the reasons he cast him in Sin City, so why weren’t Boothe’s representatives on the ball on this one? Even if they had to give up some time gratis, surely the profile bump of an honestly reflective DVD release would have earned the actor a bump in profile, and possibly some new industry fans. Alas, the lack of bonus features is Guyana Tragedy‘s real tragedy. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C (Movie) D- (Disc)