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Column
'Little Children,' 'Night at the Museum,' Etc. on DVD
by Scott Holleran
April 27, 2007
Burbank, California—Recent movies new to DVD cover a wide range of tastes, from the uncomfortable adult drama Little Children, with Kate Winslet's strong turn as a disowned suburban wife and mother getting it on with an emasculated Patrick Wilson to the silly but relatively harmless family fare Night at the Museum.
Freedom Writers, with three separate features, four deleted scenes and commentary on the DVD, is entertaining in spite of a formulaic approach. Lead actress Hilary Swank carries the picture—with help from Patrick Dempsey and Imelda Staunton—as a teacher who tries to educate a class of hooligans to think for themselves. The Queen is a welcome indulgence, adding a behind-the-scenes bit, commentary by writer Peter Morgan, director Stephen Frears, historians and monarchy experts. It's an engrossing, well-made movie. Deja Vu, an implausible but decent thriller, nets mostly action scene breakdowns in its DVD extras.
Little Children is a plain disc-only deal, and the movie is biting but contrived. It's not too laden with those annoying Crash character intersections, and it offers humor as contrast to a super-serious subject. The cast, including Jackie Earle Haley as an ex-convict pedophile, is amazing and this viewer found it more thoughtful than co-writer and director Todd Field's In the Bedroom. Night at the Museum gets two-disc treatment (single disc also available), loaded with six features, deleted and extended scenes (with optional commentary), bloopers, storyboard comparison, a game, two separate commentaries and three extras from cable channel promotions. It comes in a 3D slipcover.
Book Notes
For another seven dollars (at least on Amazon) parents might want to add the children's book The Night at the Museum, a colorful, whimsical short story by Milan Trenc which preceded—and is better than—the Fox movie. It's a short, lively tale about a night guard at the natural history museum and it is more childlike than the picture. The movie's parental fans might enjoy reading it to the kids.
DVD Notes
Other new DVDs include the second seasons of ABC's hugely popular mid-Seventies primetime schedule—Happy Days starring Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham when the show was still focused on him and his pals Potsie and Ralph with Fonzie (Henry Winkler) and family in supporting roles and its spin-offs Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy, which launched Robin Williams' career. Each is packaged in four-disc plastic boxes without hard copy with episode briefs inside, concealed by the discs. No extras.
On the other hand, The Odd Couple, includes introductions by Garry Marshall, commentary, promotional spots, a gag reel and Jack Klugman (he played messy Oscar Madison opposite Tony Randall's neat freak Felix Unger) features—including his 1971 Emmy Award win—and more on five discs. The series, based on Neil Simon's stage comedy and the movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, also ran on ABC.
Other new TV releases include a trio of CBS first season sitcoms: the volatile divorced mom comedy, One Day at a Time, a Norman Lear situation comedy which holds up despite the histrionics, Maude, which sadly does not (Bea Arthur's mugging as Archie Bunker's liberal cousin-in-law does not age well) and the vapid WKRP in Cincinnati, which gained fame as a vehicle for shapely platinum blonde Loni Anderson as Jennifer the receptionist.
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RELATED ARTICLES
• Review - The Queen
• Review - Deja Vu
• Review - Night at the Museum
RELATED LINKS
• DVD: Night at the Musem
• DVD: The Queen
• DVD: Deja Vu
• DVD: Little Children
• DVD: Freedom Writers
• DVD: Happy Days - Season 1, Season 2
• DVD: Laverne and Shirley - Season 1, Season 2
• DVD: Mork and Mindy - Season 1, Season 2
• DVD: The Odd Couple - Season 1
• DVD: One Day at a Time - Season 1
• DVD: Maude - Season 1
• DVD: WKRP in Cincinnati - Season 1
• Book: The Night at the Museum
• Scott Holleran Column Index |
