October DVD New Releases Quick Picks
Poltergeist: Special Edition: Now here’s a special edition that isn’t, and a lack of extras that it is much harder to excuse. Without question one of the finest American horror films ever made, the Tobe Hooper-directed, Spielberg-penned and produced yarn about a typical suburban family terrorized by unruly spirits who abduct their daughter deserves better – a commentary with stars Craig T. Nelson and Jo Beth Williams, maybe, one or two of the production featurettes that ARE out there (you can check YouTube!)? Hell, I’d even excuse a feature on the much-ballyhooed “Poltergeist Curse” surrounding all the actors who subsequently died. All we get on this purported special edition is a mini-doc on poltergeist phenomenon that has nothing to do with the film. Abysmal… still, it’s my second favorite movie of all time, so I can’t not recommend it. At least there’s a restored anamorphic transfer.
Twilight Zone: The Movie: Is it any wonder that once Twilight Zone: The Movie makes it to DVD, there’s nary a bonus feature in sight? In light of the controversy and ensuing legal wrangling surrounding the on-set death of actor Vic Morrow and two children in John Landis’s segment of the anthology update, it’s something that it’s arrived at all. Still, though it may be vanilla it’s an overlooked 80’s title that deserves a second look; the updates of classic Zone episodes are better than you remember, especially George Miller’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” in which twitchy John Lithgow ably steps into William Shatner’s shoes for a good old in-flight scarefest. And though the makeup looks a little dodgy now, the shock twist in Landis’s opening monologue – starring the otherwise hilarious Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks – was the stuff of nightmares to us kids in 1983.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 40th Anniversary: Well to do couple Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn’s liberal outlook is put to the test when their daughter brings home her fiancé – he’s handsome, educated, erudite, well-mannered… and being played by Sidney Poitier, he’s black. Though some of the dialogue and characterizations in Stanley Kramer’s topical 1968 melodrama have dated, the issues of acceptance and tolerance from both sides of the racial divide are still quite relevant, and the performances are sublime – particularly the legendary Hepburn and, in what would be his final performance, Tracy; the actor’s impeccably delivered monologue near the end is tremendously touching and a fine swan song indeed. Includes featurettes and an introduction from Kramer’s widow, Karen.
Also recommended this week: 28 Weeks Later; Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season 3; Creature Comforts: Season 1; Elvis Blue Suede Collection; Family Ties: Season 2; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Michael Palin: Pole To Pole; Splatter Beach; The Stanley Kramer Collection.
