I sampled a slice of Icelandic survival horror recently, in the form of Harpoon: Whale Watching Massacre. I wish I had remained on land.

The tale of a pleasure cruise gone deadly wrong, Harpoon unfolds on the cold waters off Iceland’s coast, as a boatload of international tourists set off on a (three-hour?) whale-watching expedition. When a freak accident leaves their captain mortally wounded, folks become stranded, and the ocean’s loveliness suddenly turns ominous. Help seemingly arrives in the form of a mysterious, bearded whaler (horror veteran Gunnar Hansen) who offers to take them back to shore, but instead leaves them on a decaying barge. At first the strandees believe they’re alone, until they discover that the barge is already occupied by a psychopathic family who likes to hunt humans. Bummer, dude!

Award-winning novelist (and occasional Bjork collaborator)
Sjon Sigurdsson penned the movie, and tries to sprinkle in some cultural differences amidst all the corpses-to-be, to differentiate between characters and give them something tangible to “overcome.” Unfortunately, director Julius Kemp doesn’t have the chops to deliver on this approach, and instead, after a first half that lags badly, gives in to stupid special effects (an animatronic killer whale pops up) and poorly staged gore.

Housed in a regular case, Harpoon comes to Blu-ray presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, in a transfer that looks more than a bit underlit. An interview with Hansen complements a fairly run-of-the-mill making-of featurette, laden with behind-the-scenes footage and more interaction with cast and crew. The creative name makes Harpoon seem like it might be a wild romp that puts an electric spin on American horror conventions. It most certainly does not. Nonetheless, to purchase the Blu-ray via Amazon, click here. D+ (Movie) C+ (Disc)

Before he was a jet-setting filmmaker and in-demand commercial director with his own inimitably florid style, Australian-born Baz Luhrmann was just another precocious, headstrong art school punk, with dreams of making the leap from aspirant cinematic craftsman to actual filmmaker. He did that with the wild, colorful Strictly Ballroom, his 1992 directorial debut. Inspired
in part by Luhrmann’s own childhood experiences with ballroom dance
classes and his mother’s career as a dance instructor, the movie
itself was based on a 20-minute 1986 stageplay that Luhrmann co-wrote
while in drama school, and its poster tagline (“A life lived in fear is a life half
lived…”) might as well serve as an unofficial motto for the rest of Luhrmann’s professional career.

A hyper-stylized and wildly offbeat comedy about a male dancer, Scott (Paul Mercurio), who bursts free from the restraints of convention and exuberantly charts his own destiny, Strictly Ballroom is a movie bristling with verve and youthful energy, and it clearly serves as a narrative marker for Luhrmann’s own outsized artistic ambitions. Just before he’s scheduled to compete in the big Pan-Pacific ballroom
championships, Scott — who refuses to follow the accepted rules of ballroom dancing, and creates his
own style of choreography, which infuriates the ballroom dancing
establishment — loses his longtime partner Liz (Gia Carides), who leaves him for another dancer. Undeterred, Scott takes up a new partner, Fran (Tara Morice), a beginner who initially seems without promise. After a rocky start, however, things come together for the odd couple, paving the way for a finale at once unlikely and heartwarmingly familiar and reassuring.

Even before it was released theatrically in 1992, the film quickly emerged as an unusual hybrid — an unabashed crowd-pleaser that also racked up praise and awards from critics. After garnering the Cannes Film Festival’s Prix de Jeunesse (“Award of the Youth”) in 1992, it was snapped up for Stateside distribution by Miramax’s Harvey and Bob Weinstein. A rapturous embrace at the Toronto Film Festival later that fall, followed by a cool dozen Australian Film Academy awards, paved the way for an early 1993 Stateside release, where Miramax smartly played up the movie’s dizzying pace, arresting style and beautiful choreography, selling it as an exotic (but English language!) bauble.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case in turn stored in a cardboard slipcover, the new DVD special edition of Strictly Ballroom comes to retailers presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, enhanced for 16×9 televisions, which preserves the aspect ratio of its theatrical presentation. A solid Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track complements the superb video transfer, and optional French and Spanish subtitles are also included, along with a nice new menu screen. All of the special features from the movie’s original DVD release are imported here, including an audio commentary track with Luhrmann, production designer Catherine Martin and choreographer-actor John O’Connell, as well as a two-minute deleted scene in which Scott rebuffs a late attempt to replace Fran with Liz. A 3-D gallery with a robust slate of images from the movie and its pre-production is also included, and an amusing sort of time-capsule featurette, “Samba to Slow Fox,” that includes period piece interview footage with real dancers and special competition material.

The most attractive bonus feature, though, is the addition of a new, 23-minute featurette built around recent interviews with Luhrmann and the film’s creative team, which charts the project’s inception, from its stageplay roots and the fitful securing of financing to its eventual whirlwind international reception. Luhrmann speaks, with great passion and clarity, about his view of the material’s connection to Joseph Campbell’s universal mythology, and Martin (Luhrmann’s offscreen partner as well) has some cherished anecdotal memories of the sort which only flow from the foolhardy effort of youth. Huzzah to this beautiful reflection. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B+ (Movie) A- (Disc)

Atypical genre plotting and some absolutely delicious twists feed British kidnapping thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed, the solid and engaging feature directorial debut of J Blakeson. Plenty of movies have covered this narrative terrain before, but few in recent memory with as streamlined a sense of tension-soaked purpose.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a tightly drawn “three-hander,” with a deceptively simple plot. Planning to make a mint on a ransom-and-exchange scheme, ex-con kidnappers Vic (Eddie Marsan) and Danny (Martin Compston) snatch Alice (Gemma Arterton), a young woman estranged from her wealthy businessman father. Despite having set up a secluded safe house and seemingly left nothing to chance, Vic and Danny — the latter the younger and more nervous of the two, the former powered by a snarling, steely conviction — soon find their plans upended. Though scared witless, Alice isn’t about to let her captors just use her as capital, but neither is the film merely some prodding feminist revenge tract.

From the outset, it’s clear that Blakeson’s film won’t kowtow to genre convention. The movie opens with an intriguing, dialogue-free, five-minute prep sequence in which Danny and Vic methodically set up shop — buying a drill, a mattress and other supplies; lining the inside of a windowless van with plastic; assembling a bed for the mattress; and stapling foam insulation and plywood board to the walls and windows of the bedroom that will serve as Alice’s quarters of confinement. When the actual kidnapping takes place, it’s similarly presented in dispassionate, matter-of-fact fashion, despite Alice’s kicks and screams. In fact, it’s 10 minutes into the film before either party utters a line, really.

Interestingly and admirably, Blakeson isn’t concerned with or particularly invested in repeatedly using Alice’s vulnerability to wring tension and unease from his audience. Yet neither does he shy away from it, as when a hooded Alice is stripped, given new clothes and handcuffed in spread-eagle fashion; Arterton arches her back in wild anxiety, which is a visceral and realistic depiction of primitive fear. Once some measure of chatting and an explication of the chain of events yet to unfold begins, though, the movie really hits its stride, fed in large part by the differences in age and gender, and the underlying but ever-shifting power dynamics therein. Without giving away the movie’s twists, it suffices to say that — both before the ransom money arrives, and after — Blakeson does a fantastic job of screwing with both his audience’s expectations and senses of identification, though always in ways rooted in character, and never in a manner that feels tawdry or false.

Given the quiet, steely verve of its set-up, it’s somewhat to be expected that the film’s energy eventually starts to flag a bit. And it would have been interesting — once the film opens up a bit from its quite theatrical staging, and gets to stretch its legs some in its final act — for an outside character or two to force the hand of those grappling for control. But the performances here are gripping, and The Disappearance of Alice Creed‘s commitment to character-driven minimalism makes it a standout genre entry, and well worth adding to one’s Netflix queue.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case in turn stored in a cardboard slipcover, The Disappearance of Alice Creed comes to DVD presented 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen, which preserves the aspect ratio of its original theatrical presentation. Optional Spanish and English SDH subtitles complement its Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track. In his engaging feature-length audio commentary track, Blakeson talks both about wanting to get into the psychology and intimacy of kidnapping (in which the criminal aggressor plays an unusual care-giving role), as well as his desire to have the audience spin forward in their own minds stories regarding the characters. He also notes the difficulty of shooting the movie’s first nude scene, which was of course the first day of production (a safe word was established for Arterton). Finally, Blakeson gives ample credit to the rest of his creative team, including his production designer Ricky Eyres, who added false doors and archways to the interior set to break up the dead space.

Other bonus features consist of five-and-a-half minutes of storyboard material, two deleted/extended scenes with optional audio commentary from Blakeson, and four-and-a-half minutes’ worth of outtakes, which feature some romantic awkwardness, a gun repeatedly failing to fire and, yes, Arterton breaking it down at one point, dance-club style. Only some interviews or other contributions from the actors would have further bumped up this solid little no-wild-frills package. To purchase the movie’s DVD via Amazon, click here. B+ (Movie) B (Disc)

Brian Wilson has always been a figure of much scrutiny and curiosity — one of the first big rock or pop stars to shun the promotional spotlight. While the Beach Boys were for much of their career regarded as little more than a silly surf-pop hit factory, Wilson’s stature has only grown with time, as his creative and sensitive compositions have inspired and taken hold of a new generation of musicians. That fact gets studied and celebrated in the fascinating new musical documentary Brian Wilson: Songwriter 1962-1969.

Running over three hours, this superlative title assays the vast amount of material Wilson wrote for and recorded with the Beach Boys during their 1960s heyday, digging into the craftsmanship of the music itself but also smartly framing the material as it relates to the familial group’s career arc and Wilson’s own delicate psyche. All sorts of talking head experts weigh in, but the major difference maker is access to those who matter and are in the know — a group that includes fellow Beach Boys Bruce Johnston and David Marks, former manager and promoter Fred Vail, biographers Peter Ames Carlin and Domenic Priore, and many other family friends.

Snippets of rare and classic recordings stud this release, along with lots of other obscure footage and solid archive interviews, making this the rare biographically-inflected title that doesn’t feature much direct cooperation or reflection from its subject and yet nonetheless feels comprehensive. By far the most interesting portion of the title focuses on the recording and 1966 release of the groundbreaking Pet Sounds, which was a notable departure from what the Beach Boys had recorded up until then. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows” (which never really stabilizes on a particular key) are illuminated in interesting fashion, and Johnston and others talk about how “Sloop John B,” a leftover from the previous year’s Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) sessions, fits into the album. The latter also talks about Capitol Records’ relative disdain for the album at the time — evident in their indifferent promotion, and quickie release of a greatest hits package — and how the release of “Caroline, No” as a single was “a shot across the bow,” in his opinion.

Spread across two discs and housed in a nice, quasi-hard-shell case with plastic snap-in trays, Brian Wilson: Songwriter 1962-1969 comes to DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby digital 2.0 stereo track. Supplemental bonus features include contributor biographies, a small clutch of extended interview clips, and a mini-featurette in which Johnston recalls John Lennon and Paul McCartney getting an early preview listen to Pet Sounds. To purchase the DVD, click here; or, if Amazon is totally and irretrievably your thing, click here. A- (Movie) B- (Disc)

Another slick, engaging title in the solid Rare and Unseen series, this briskly paced hour-long doc looks at the iconic British musician, actor, producer and voracious reader of going on five decades now, David Bowie. Most famous for his ostentatious, androgynous “Ziggy Stardust” alter-ego during the glam-rock era of the early 1970s, Bowie has continually reinvented his music and personal image, and is regarded as an influential innovator in both rock music and the intersection of a peddled, constructed public persona.

Told through missing archive interviews and rare and unseen footage, this insightful DVD is a worthy addition to any hardcore Bowie fan’s home video collection. Bowie’s skill as a multi-instrumentalist — in addition to singing vocals he plays electric, acoustic and twelve-string guitar, plus keyboards, alto, tenor, piano, harmonica, xylophone, tambourine, drums and many other instruments — shines through, and the timeless quality of his music is strikingly highlighted. Listening to bits of or ruminating on any of his numerous top 10 hits, including everything from “China Girl,” “Modern Love” and “Starman” to “Space Oddity,” “Under Pressure” and “Let’s Dance,” one is repeatedly struck by the freshness of their composition and arrangement.

Items genuinely unseen and never previously released on DVD stud this somewhat haphazardly pieced together title, including presumed lost but now restored TV interviews with Russell Harty in which Bowie speaks candidly about his drug use and the haze of his famously creative Berlin days. There is also rehearsal and backstage footage, some press conference material and a couple yawning Bowie impersonations by Stevie Riks. In aggregate, it’s a bit like opening an old box of stashed away high school and college mementos (“Why exactly did I keep this?” you wonder, before a splinter of recognition answers your puzzlement), but David Bowie: Rare and Unseen is undeniably a treat for fans of the chameleonic, one-of-a-kind performer.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, David Bowie: Rare and Unseen comes to DVD on a region-free disc, presented in 16×9 widescreen, with an English language Dolby digital 2.0 stereo audio track. There are no supplemental bonus materials of which to speak. To purchase the DVD, click here. B- (Movie) C- (Disc)

Had he ever lived to see fame and fortune through his art — let alone the iconic embrace of his works via college room dorm walls across the United States — Vincent Van Gogh would almost certainly shake his head in disbelief. His was a hard life, full of turbulence and disappointment. The warmth of embrace — either critically or commercially — would likely be discombobulating to him. All of which makes Van Gogh: Brush with Genius, a short-form documentary originally created for exhibition in IMAX theaters, an even more telling glimpse into his life and work.

Though it runs only a relatively scant 40 minutes,  Van Gogh: Brush with Genius delivers a superlative, condensed
biography of the famed artist, providing viewers with a dazzling, visually sumptuous tour of his works, while also retracing his life through his letters and other writings, and showcasing some of the wondrous locations that inspired him. Given its IMAX roots, of course, there’s plenty of edu-tainment pop and a touch of gloss (I’m sure this played in heavy rotation for visiting school audiences), but the slurry beauty of Van Gogh’s feverish brushstrokes are highlighted in engaging fashion too. This is a short-form title that strikes the right balance between glorification and explication of its subject.

Housed in a regular Blu-ray case, Van Gogh: Brush with Genius comes to Blu-ray presented in 1080p high definition, in a beautiful 1.78:1 widescreen transfer, with DTS-HD master audio 5.1 tracks in English, French, Spanish and Japanese. The review copy with which I was serviced came, amusingly enough, with a miniature foam severed ear, but thankfully that’s not the only supplemental feature; a brief slide show and a HD-shot making-of documentary, running just under 20 minutes, are also included here, making for a total package that feels robust, but is still condensed. To purchase the Blu-ray via Amazon, click here. B+ (Movie) B- (Disc)

I don’t yet need Peggy Cappy‘s Easy Yoga for Arthritis, thankfully, but one day I might, so I granted a perfunctory spin to her fifth sell-through yoga DVD special, and came away fairly impressed.

It’s said that one in three adults suffer from arthritis, so this sort of title would seem to service an important niche. (Of course, if I were being a smart-ass, I’d question whether elderly, chronic arthritis sufferers could figure out how to get their DVD player to work let alone master yoga poses, but I’m trying to cut back on my unleavened snarkiness so I’ll let that point lie.) A 30-year veteran and advocate of yoga, Cappy demonstrates movements to use at home to help strengthen muscles and increase mobility for people who are challenged by either arthritis, joint injuries or the general stiffness that comes with aging. This new special is divided into seven easy-to-use segments. The first section highlights gentle warm-up exercises to loosen the shoulders, neck, back, legs and feet, while a secondary segment spotlights separate warm-ups for the hands, wrists and arms. Standing poses, seated poses and reclining poses are then covered, followed by bits on deep relaxation techniques and meditation.

The routine Cappy presents is appropriate for people of all ages and abilities, allowing three modifications for each pose: standing, seated or using a chair for support. It’s also nice that the viewer can basically pick and choose which exercises work best for them, depending on their own personal areas of physical trouble. Finally, the inclusion of meditation techniques, which are medically proven to increase one’s ability to deal with stress, is also quite nice.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Easy Yoga for Arthritis comes to DVD presented in 1.33:1 full screen. Somewhat surprisingly for a title like this, a clutch of bonus footage is also included, in the form of a featurette that runs about 40 minutes in all, and follows Cappy as she travels to back to her hometown of Peterborough, New Hampshire, to meet folks whose lives have been improved by her
classes. While it sometimes plays a bit like an extended infomercial add-on, this is a well-intentioned supplemental feature that connects solidly enough with its demographic. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or click here; if Amazon is your thing, meanwhile, click here. B- (Movie) B- (Disc)

It seems silly now, but for generations of sports fans either scattered to distant time zones or locked into commitments that ran counter to the schedules of their favorite teams — in particular college basketball’s March Madness, and conference tournaments — listening to games on the sly, on a Walkman, became a special sort of clandestine art. Wires were run up shirtsleeves, innocuous languid poses perfected — it was its own sort of game, defying authority to indulge in the exploits of your favorite athletic heroes. Or maybe someone had a portable TV, in which case said item was shielded by a fortress of books, or tucked into a locker, or corner workspace.

The advent of TiVo and other digital recorders forever changed the landscape of sports viewing in America, and would seemingly provide a death blow to the sort of specialized DVD release that Los Angeles Lakers: 2010 NBA Finals Series Collector’s Edition represents. But if Americans love their sports, they also love reliving the contact highs of athletic events, and so gussied-up commercial releases of Super Bowls, Final Fours and the like continue to do well (provided the winners aren’t regional weaklings or complete one-off underdogs), even as the traditional DVD market recedes.

An eight-disc DVD set celebrating the Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA championship run earlier this summer, this definitive box set features all seven games of the 2010 NBA Finals series in their entirety, chronicling an epic rivalry renewed, and a hotly anticipated rematch two years in the making. The 2010 Finals series actually exceeded the considerable hype, as the Lakers and Boston Celtics — the two most successful hoops franchises in NBA history, accounting for a combined 33 of the sports’ 64 championships — picked up where they left off in 2008 when the Celtics defeated the Lakers to earn a first title for stars Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. After splitting the first four games, the Lakers put themselves in a double-elimination-game hole before smoking the Celtics 89-67 in Game Six, led by Finals MVP Kobe Bryant. Taking the series to a Game Seven at home, Los Angeles found themselves down by 13 points in the third quarter, only to claw their way back and eventually prevail 83-79, repeating as champions in what would be the most watched NBA game in over a decade.

Housed in eight slimline cases in turn stored in an attractive cardboard slipcover, Los Angeles Lakers: 2010 NBA Finals Series Collector’s Edition comes presented on DVD in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, enhanced for 16×9 televisions, with a Dolby digital 2.0 surround sound audio track. As anyone who is familiar with the high-definition presentation of sports telecasts knows, the image tends to be fairly crisp, while there is a slight bit of fuzziness to some of the graphics packages. Regardless, the sound is crisp, and certainly an upgrade over almost any homemade digital transfer to disc. In addition to reliving all the dramatic in-game action of this epic
series, this collection comes with a separate bonus DVD that includes
postgame press conferences, and celebratory mini-movies partially
comprised of locker room footage.

The only thing that would have given this set more value-added punch — something beyond a wallow in purple-and-gold glory for diehard Lakers fans — is more “color packages” (interviews with fans at the arenas) and some postmortem interviews from any of the vast array of ex-hoopster talking heads that populate ESPN and sports talk radio during the month-long NBA playoff season. Sell more aggressively the league’s history, NBA, and then even when your dynastic franchises stumble, you’ll be able to move units of that Oklahoma City Thunder Collector’s Edition. To purchase the DVD set via Amazon, click here. Or to purchase the DVD set via Half, click here. B+ (Collection) B (Disc)

Cat lovers turn away — this isn’t the documentary for you. Dan Child’s fawning, hour-long Dogs Decoded examines the unique relationship we have with “man’s best friend,” and how hundreds of years of domestication have made dogs nearly human.

While feline companionship is lauded in some segments of popular culture, we mostly tend to regard cats with bemusement, and a cool detachment. Humans have undeniably developed a unique relationship with their other furry friends, meanwhile, owing largely to the fact that dogs have been domesticated for longer than any other animal on the
planet. When people talk about feeling that their pet can understand them in a way that other animals can’t, they’re almost always talking about their dog. Now, new research is revealing what dog lovers have suspected all along: many mutts have an uncanny ability to read and respond to human emotions.

Though thin and suffering a bit from preaching-to-the-choir syndrome, Dogs Decoded digs into this incredible relationship between humans and dogs, and why, even though they are so closely related to wolves, canines by and large behave differently. In engaging fashion, Child delves into new discoveries in genetics that are helping to illuminate the
origin of dogs. (He’s less convincing with research that humans, in turn, respond to dogs with a release of oxytocin, the same hormone responsible for
bonding mothers to their babies.) For enthusiastic dog lovers, this is a slice of manna you can watch with your pet. Others may engage it with a bit less native interest.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Dogs Decoded comes to DVD presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, with an English language stereo audio track. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental bonus features. To order a copy of the DVD, call (800) PLAY-PBS or click here. To purchase DVDs with public
performance rights, meanwhile, click here. Or, if Amazon and only Amazon is totally your thing, click here. C+ (Movie) C- (Disc)

As a country, Cuba has been alternately vilified and ostracized by the United States for the past five-plus decades, even long after its important role-player status at the center of Cold War politics has expired. The result is a Caribbean island with tremendous natural beauty that remains an enigma to almost every American who isn’t of Cuban or Latin-American descent, despite the fact that the tiny country is only 90 miles off the coast of Florida. As the possibility of the U.S. lifting its trade embargo looms, the first entry in the 29th season of PBS’ amazing Nature series examines one of the richest and most unusual natural environments of the hemisphere.

Written and directed by Doug Shultz, Cuba: The Accidental Eden is jointly a beautiful travelogue, nature film and glancing snapshot of the business of science in a more regimented society. Decades of relative isolation have allowed Cuba’s diverse landscapes and intriguing indigenous creatures to flourish, the island nation’s miles of untouched tropical forests, intact wetlands and unspoiled coastlines serving as an ideal incubator for a wide variety of unique lifeforms. As the largest of the Caribbean islands, Cuba boasts an extensive collection of the smallest animals of their kind — including the world’s smallest bat, smallest owl, and the tiny bee hummingbird, the smallest bird known to humankind. It’s also home to one of the most extensive coral reefs in the Western Hemisphere.

Along with just documenting the country’s rich natural beauty, though, Cuba: The Accidental Eden explores the critical conservation work of dedicated Cuban scientists, some of whom make less than $30 a month. Among the passionate conservationists is biologist Emma Palacios Lemagne, who’s researching how polymita, Cuba’s beautiful painted snails, evolve. Herpetologist Roberto Ramos, meanwhile, has the dangerous duty of tracking the rarest of crocs, the “jumping” Cuban crocodile. Another specialist, Leonardo Valido, monitors nesting sea turtles whose hatchlings’ chances of survival are one in a thousand. All of these biologists, and many more, are fantastic ambassadors for their country. If and when the travel embargo on Cuba is lifted, they stand to reap some of the benefits of a wildly increased eco-tourism sector.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Cuba: The Accidental Eden comes to DVD presented in 16×9 widescreen, with an English language 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound audio package that more than adequately handles the relatively straightforward aural demands of this hour-long title. Optional English SDH subtitles are also included. A few downloadable screensavers or some extended interview clips would have been nice but, alas, are not included here. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or merely click here. Or if Amazon and only Amazon is absolutely your thing, click here. Also, it’s worth noting that the title is available on Blu-ray too, in a stunning 1080i high definition transfer that only enhances the rich, colorful biodiversity on display. To purchase the Blu-ray, click here. A- (Movie) C+ (Disc)

The life and wondrous work of Stephen Sondheim, one of Broadway’s greatest legends, gets its due in this stirring concert celebration of the master composer and lyricist’s 80th birthday, a gathering which brings together some of the musical theater’s brightest stars to perform more than two dozen sensational numbers from Sondheim’s unsurpassed songbook.

David Hyde Pierce hosts this one-of-a-kind event — many of these enduring songs are rarely heard, and several are performed
by the original Broadway cast members — with Sondheim’s longtime collaborator Paul Gemignani conducting the New York Philharmonic in accompaniment. Directed for the stage and television by Lonny Price and filmed live over two evenings in March at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert is a real treat, regardless of one’s level of familiarity with the material. The cast, with a treasury of Tony Awards among them, delight in performing classic as well as less often heard gems from Sondheim’s many Broadway shows. Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien reunite from Into the Woods, Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin perform chilling pieces from Sunday in the Park with George and Patti Lupone, George Hearn and Michael Cerveris team together for a special take on their Sweeney Todd showstoppers, among many others. Patinkin’s hearty renderings, two West Side Story tunes, and the “Beautiful Girls” sextet of performances alone are reason enough to give this superb offering a spin.

The full track listing is as follows: “America” and “Something’s Coming” (West Side Story), “We’re Gonna Be Alright” (Do I Hear a Waltz?), “Don’t Laugh” (Hot Spot), “Johanna” (Sweeney Todd), “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow,” “Love Will See Us Through,” “Too Many Mornings” and “The Road You Didn’t Take” (Follies), “It Takes Two” (Into the Woods), “Growing Up” (Merrily We Roll Along), “Finishing the Hat” and “Move On” (Sunday in the Park with George), “Pretty Women” and “A Little Priest” (Sweeney Todd), “Theme from Reds,” with Pas De Deux, “So Many People” (Saturday Night), “Ladies Who Lunch” (Company), “Losing My Mind” (Follies), “The Glamorous Life” (A Little Night Music), “Could I Leave You” (Follies), “Not a Day Goes By” (Merrily We Roll Along) “I’m Still Here” (Follies), “Sunday” (Sunday in the Park with George) and an all-cast sing-along of “Happy Birthday.”

Housed in a regular Blu-ray snap-shut case, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert is presented
here in 1.78:1 widescreen in stunning 1080p HD resolution, with two audio options — English DTS-HD master audio 5.1, and uncompressed PCM stereo. There aren’t any additional bonus features, but Sondheim! The Birthday Concert will be available on DVD and Blu-ray — as well as digital download, for those interested — before its national television premiere on
PBS’ Great Performances series on November 24. Special liner notes by director Price also accompany the physical release. To purchase the Blu-ray via Amazon, click here. B (Concert) C+ (Disc)

The Daily Show‘s Jason Jones and Samantha Bee costar in this low-budget comedy, which filters the unique torture of holiday familial bickering through the rubric of a Blair Witch-style collection of captured footage.

Set on Christmas Day in 1985, the movie centers around a dysfunctional suburban clan, the Cooper family, headed up by Gordon (Jones) and Nancy (Bee, Jones’ real-life wife). After accepting a secondhand VHS camcorder from a perverted neighbor (NewsRadio‘s Dave Foley, who bares a lot for the film) in order to settle an outstanding debt, Gordon cedes control of the (then-newfangled) device to his youngest son Teddy (Dylan Everett), who in good kind proceeds to torture his curiously stunted 17-year-old brother, Marcus (Nick McKinlay).

More chaos ensues, naturally. When the kids’ gregarious uncle Nick (Mike Beaver) shows up at their door, normalcy becomes lunacy, and the rest of the family — including Nancy’s sisters Bev (Jennifer Baxter) and Joanie (Jenny Parsons), Joanie’s new African boyfriend Okeke (Onyekachi Ejim), and disgruntled parents (Jayne Eastwood and Jock McLeod) — is hardly any more sane. The most disruptive influence, though, is Gordon’s estranged brother Tim (Peter Keleghan), who used to date Nancy in high school, and hasn’t seen his brother in, oh, 17 years or so. As they say, some memories should never be recorded.

The script for Coopers’ Christmas is co-written by Jones and Beaver, which gives the project a certain streamlined efficiency. In addition to plenty of comedy of the sort one might expect from a period piece (Star Wars and Facts of Life references, say, along with terrible sweaters), there’s no small amount of amusement in the dialogue (Marcus’ sourly notes that the gift from his grandmother is addressed to “older boy”). The ceiling for this type of tossed-off entertainment may be fairly low, but all the participants here are game and on the same page regarding the type of movie they’re making, and director Warren Sonoda and his behind-the-camera collaborators actually come up with inventive staging tricks to keep the gimmickry of the conceit from getting stale. Coopers’ Christmas doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but neither does it aim to; instead, it just delivers a fairly solid supply of laughs… who knows, perhaps even enough to make you think your own family is completely sane.

Housed in a regular, white, plastic Amaray case, Coopers’ Christmas comes to DVD presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, and optional English SDH subtitles. A feature-length audio commentary track with director Sonoda and producer Sean Buckley gives plenty of amusing and interesting insight into the film’s brisk, 11-day shoot, with anecdotes about Jones raiding the deep storage of his nearby parents’ garage to help complement the movie’s domestic clutter, and co-editor Aden Bahadori working just offscreen during filming. There is also a 17-and-a-half-minute making-of featurette, full of cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) B- (Disc)

The sheer size of the United States — with all its geographical subcultures — and the attendant variety of American life helps create and sustain a rich and vibrant culture of music that encompasses many different genres, each of which in its own way seems wholly and inimitably American. One seeking proof need look no further than America’s Music Legacy, a series produced and recorded by 20th Century Home Entertainment from 1983 to 1985, and only now seeing a proper DVD release.

Each of the quartet of titles first seeing release runs two hours, and is comprised of color
and black-and-white archive footage, along with interwoven stills, in
montage format. While other sub-genres will get a date in the public arena later this year, the initial batch of releases spotlights gospel, country and western, rhythm and blues and, of course, rock ‘n’ roll. The rock DVD — with cuts from Fabian (who hosts the proceedings), the Coasters, Chubby Checker, Lou Christy and more — is the most surface-level engaging, probably because it presents a history with which almost every American after and inclusive of the boomer generation is familiar. It’s interesting, though, to see different versions of the same song (most notably “Johnny B. Goode,” which finds Bo Diddley laying down filthy licks later in the program), and chart rock’s headstrong course from “primitive” fad to mainstream bottled teenage rebellion.

The rhythm and blues entry shows how the narrative form and rich tradition of jazz, ragtime and old spiritual standards commingled to winning effect, also laying the groundwork for much of today’s hip-hop. And the gospel DVD in particular — hosted by Levar Burton, and including cuts from Andrae Crouch, Marion Williams, Mel Carter and the Walter Hawkins Family — is an eye-opener. For those who have the pleasure of living in or having visited Los Angeles and checked out the House of Blues gospel breakfast, the “good news” uplift of this title, at once Christian-specific and also somewhat secular, will have you hungering for a toe-tapping return. It’s revivalism through communal sharing and witnessing — no tent necessary.

Housed in regular plastic Amaray cases, each America’s Music Legacy title comes to DVD on a region-free disc, presented in Dolby 2.0 stereo. There are no additional “talking head” bonus interviews or anything, which would have been nice inclusions, but given the enormous wealth of material that’s only a small ding in the collectibility of these titles. To purchase the discs, either individually or collectively, click on any of the links above, or visit your online retailer of choice. B (Movies) C+ (Discs)