It’s a sad but seemingly inexorable truth that the nature of the 24-hour cable news network allows for political backbiting to overwhelm almost any reasonable discussion of the most gripping problems facing our nation, but the arguably positive flip-side is that when true disaster strikes, the news media is in a uniquely advantageous position — quite unlike any other time in human history — to broadcast from strife-stricken zones in real-time, in a manner that can crucially impact initial response.

Such was certainly the case with the heartrending images that followed in the wake of the massive earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12 of this year, leveling Port-au-Prince and crippling that poor nation’s infrastructure. Running an hour long, the PBS Frontline title The Quake, written and produced by Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith, takes cameras directly into the midst of this devastation, but also goes even further beyond the stories covered in the news over the first weeks and months, revealing faults in the Haitian government and world organizations that simply were not prepared to face such a disaster.

Bearing witness to the disaster and ill-coordinated relief efforts in one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, The Quake focuses on those responsible for handling the catastrophe, including the Haitian state and the United Nations, which were crippled by the magnitude of the disaster and struggled to craft an effective national response. Drawing on exclusive interviews with relief workers and politicians, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Rene Preval, the president of Haiti, The Quake makes a shaming case that portions of the disaster were unavoidable, but that the world can also do better.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, The Quake comes to DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen, with an English language stereo track. Its static menu screen proffers chapter stops, but unfortunately no other supplemental material. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or simply click here; if Amazon’s your thing, meanwhile, click here. B- (Movie) D- (Disc)

Written and directed with a lyrical, unfussy directness by Stephane Gauger, Owl and the Sparrow tells the simple story of a young, runaway orphan whose resolute, openhearted nature helps forge a bond between two adults she drafts into her life as a sort of replacement
family.

For plucky 10-year-old Thuy (Pham Thi Han), life in her small Vietnamese village is mostly confined to working in the bamboo factory of her cantankerous uncle Minh (Hau Nguyen). All of that changes when she packs her bags, smashes her piggy bank and runs away to the bustling metropolis of downtown Saigon. There, Thuy comes to grips with the challenges of daily survival, getting by initially by selling roses on the street. Striking up individual conversations with beautiful flight attendant Lan (Cat Ly) and gentle, lonely animal keeper Hai (Le The Lu), who tends to elephants at the local zoo, Thuy also finds the sort of adult role models for whom she has been yearning. In the hustle and bustle of the big city, these three individuals are all seeking some measure of greater human connection. But in order to avoid getting sent back to her strict uncle, Thuy will need all of her cleverness and determination.

Owl and the Sparrow is a simply told film, without a lot of bells,
whistles, or narrative head feints and gamesmanship. It’s without guile,
really, and sometimes that’s really charming. The Vietnamese-American Gauger, born in Saigon to an American civilian contractor and his Vietnamese wife, seems to have a unique insight into the delicate nature and frailties of fractured adolescence, the success of which can be measured by his movie’s robust reception in various festival arenas, including Los Angeles, where it picked up an audience award last year. The film wouldn’t succeed to half the degree it does, however, with a lesser actress than young newcomer Pham Thi Han, who projects a captivating innocence. Composer Peter Nguyen’s musical contributions are gorgeous and evocative as well — further evidence of Gauger’s skill at plucking heartstrings without tipping over into maudlin cliché.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, The Owl and the Sparrow comes to DVD presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Vietnamese language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, and optional subtitles in English and Spanish. Its chief supplemental features consist of a feature-length audio commentary track with director Gauger and a seven-minute behind-the-scenes featurette which includes brief interview snippets with cast and crew, as well as some audition tape footage. There are also two deleted scenes, a self-scrolling two-minute collection of production still photographs, cast and crew pictures, and the movie’s trailer. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) B- (Disc)

What’s the most important lesson of Thirst, a stranded-in-the-desert ensemble flick starring Lacey Chabert, among others? Make sure you’re with at least one busty chick, since her breast implants, in a real pinch, may eventually allow you to give yourself a saline drip that will mitigate hallucinatory dehydration.

Somewhat unironically dubbed “Open Water in the desert” by Horrorsquad.com’s Peter Hall on its cover box, Thirst centers on vacationing med student Noelle (Chabert) and her husband Bryan (Tygh Runyan), who accompany another
couple, photographer Tyson (Brandon Quinn) and his new model-girlfriend Atheria (Mercedes McNab), on a day trip into the hot, desolate California desert for what they think will be a nice, uncomplicated photo shoot. Whoops. When Tyson accidentally puts their car into a ravine, the group is left stranded, and ill prepared to easily extricate themselves from the situation.

Following the car crash, Atheria is concussed and bleeding internally, which soon leads to some gnarly shenanigans with a screwdriver, in an effort to release pent-up pressure and swelling in her brain. The chief problem, though, is of course the group’s dwindling supply of water. With no shelter, no food and no cell phone reception, they make a directional miscalculation, and suffer its consequences. Lost and increasingly hopeless, one by one the group begins to fall victim to the relentless elements, unable to stave off the effects of dehydration with rattlesnake blood or their own urine. (Yeah, seriously.)

Thirst doesn’t reinvent the wheel, certainly, but neither does it terribly embarrass itself. The basic plot machinations are all more or less expected, but director Jeffery Scott Lando redeems himself a bit with a few long-form scenes which invest heartily in Bryan and Noelle’s relationship, and make this genre entry more female-friendly than a lot of other films of its ilk. The script, too, doesn’t put its foot down too heavily on the intra-group bickering; there’s recrimination, but it’s fairly well modulated. That said, the folks here do seem to compound their situation by continuing to make terrible decisions, like traveling during the day and resting during the cool of the evening, hypothesizing that it’s “not safe to travel in the dark.” It’s thinking like that which makes it hard for one to root for you, kids.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Thirst comes to DVD divided into a dozen chapters, presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, with English language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo audio tracks. The picture transfer is mostly solid, and free from edge enhancement or any artifacting; colors seem inconsistent, however. (This may be reflective of creative choices; it’s not entirely clear.) There are also optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles, but there are unfortunately no other supplemental extras, save a preview trailer for the movie and a quartet of other First Look titles, including the iguana-riffic Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Given that Chabert also pulled a producer credit on the film, it’s a bit curious she didn’t submit to/push for at the very least some EPK-style on-set interview chats. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C+ (Movie) D+ (Disc)

Someone had the bright idea to basically make a Jason Bourne movie with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. And when I say bright idea, I of course mean terrible idea. It’s not entirely Austin’s fault, per se. He’s taking a check, and trying to branch out a bit from the comfort zone of his more natural skill sets (i.e., cracking heads). But this desultory, slapdash, poorly directed straight-to-video flick about an amnesiac, double-crossed killing machine takes ideas and scenes we’ve seen dozens of times before, and then executes them lazily and poorly.

Austin (above) plays a hulking guy with no name and no memory (and thus nothing left to
lose, Bob Dylan might opine). When he finds himself being hunted by the Russian mob, however, this amnesiac decides to fight back. Working with FBI agent Mason Reese (Adam Beach), Dr. Grace Bishop (Erica Cerra) is also trying to track down Austin’s character; she’s treated him, and is convinced his faulty sense of self-identity, in which he randomly “reboots” every couple weeks or months, can be cured. Enduring beatings, bullets and betrayal, Austin’s stranger slowly starts to remember bits and pieces of
the horror that took away his career, his family and his life. Naturally, more fisticuffs ensue, against a backdrop of governmental let-down and duplicity.

Working from a script by Quinn Scott, director Robert Lieberman delivers messy, uninvolving action, indiscriminately mixing slow-motion and regular-speed mayhem, and cross-cutting in a manner that mars whatever intent stunt coordinator Lauro Chartrand might have had. Austin, meanwhile, is required to do stupid things (like show up at Dr. Bishop’s hotel room… after she drops off her business card at a bar he frequents?), and do some ruminative emoting, which doesn’t come all that naturally to him. If there’s at all a silver lining to this yawning mess, it’s that The Stranger is at least rated R, so it doesn’t pull punches on its bloody beat-downs. Even hardcore action fans will be hard-pressed to care about this Stranger‘s identity, however.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case stored in turn in a cardboard slipcover with lenticular imaging (that’s fancy talk for 3-D, folks), The Stranger comes to DVD presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track and optional Spanish and English SDH subtitles. Apart from a trailer, its only supplemental feature is a six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, in which Austin talks about the time constraints of the production and also (pretty intelligently, actually) about the difference in fighting for camera versus fighting in the ring, and how the former is “less of a dance.” To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. D (Movie) C- (Disc)

Excepting its slightly freaky cover art, The Human Spark, hosted by Alan Alda, proves a warm and engaging scientific exploration for the layperson — an inquisitive nonfiction title that takes viewers on a spectacular and
sometimes personal journey.

Actor, author and science enthusiast Alda explores our uniquely human brains in this three-part PBS series, which delves into a wealth of a scientific
disciplines — including archaeology, primatology, neuroscience,
behavioral psychology and even philosophy. After billions of years of life’s evolution on this planet, and long after
recognizable humans first walked its surface, a new human species burst upon the
scene, apparently unannounced. It was us. Until then our ancestors had
shared the planet with other humanoids. Soon, however, there was only us,
with unprecedented power and dominion over all other animals and our
environment. That mysterious something was and is the “human spark” at
the center of this title.

Visiting with dozens of scientists all over the world and participating directly in many of their experiments (including a comprehensive examination of his own brain to see where
his “most human” abilities reside), Alda serves as a genial stand-in guide for viewers. By studying the fossilized bones and tools of our ancestors and
examining our nearest living relatives, Alda helps viewers understand
what we have in common with and what sets us apart from our ancestors. Aspirant scientists and armchair anthropologists alike will spark to this title, with its smart mix of breadth and depth, of both the cerebral and social.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, The Human Spark comes to DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen, with an English language stereo audio track. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or simply click here. Or if Amazon is totally your thing, click here, then. B+ (Movie) C- (Disc)