Fall DVD Review Round-Up

Are you back in school but dying to escape from homework and mean teachers? Would you like to forget about that new hot babe or guy in class who is after the one you love? It's time for a DVD watchin' sleepover again! We've got comedy, action flicks, classic sci fi and a touching movie that is a 9/11 tribute. Talk about variety! Do you wanna rent or buy? Check it out....

From 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Phat Girlz

That full-figured feisty gal Jazmin (Mo'Nique) is a sassy fashion designer for plus-sized gals but she can't get the department store chain where she works to take a look at her designs. She also can't get a man. When she wins a radio contest trip to Palm Springs, Jazmin and her best friend Stacey, also largely bodacious, and skinny workout queen cousin Mia hit the desert oasis for fun and hot guy action. Jazmin and Stacey meet some fellows who appreciate their ample curves and may just lead them into a whole new life.

Video: This film is digital. This makes for crisp interiors and kind of grainy, muddy soft focus exteriors. So it might not be the DVD transfer problem we have but the actual way the original film was shot. The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image is okay for a comedy but could be better.

Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix is great for hip hop club tunes but you can't hear some of the dialogue in the same noisy club scenes. Okay but again, not on super pro level.

Special Features: You can watch this film in two versions; the theatrical and the extended. I watched the extended version and I enjoyed every scene. I'm sure there are plenty that could have been omitted and probably were left out of the theatrical version.

Audio Commentary by writer/director Likké is a lot about what she meant to do with the themes of the film. Okay but kinda preachy. Outtakes and Deleted scenes are all watchable, some funny but you can see why they didn't need to be in the movie. The Phattest Guy: Tribute to Producer Bobby Newmyer is nice tribute to the filmmaker who died this last year. He was evidently an inspiration to everyone on set. A nice send off for anyone.

You get The Reel Deal: The Making of Phat Girlz, a short, press kit style piece with cast and crew interviews and it's okay but nothing new. We have more backstage antics in Super Size Dreams: Director Likke's video Diary. That one is fun. The Blooper Reel is also really funny.

Overall: This film didn't do too well in theaters but I found it to be a winner. It addresses the issues of plus-sized prejudice by the fashion world; how many overweight girls have to cope with horrible self-esteem issues and shows us that Mo'Nique can really act! She's amazing in some devastating, non-comic scenes that cut to the core. This is a fun urban comedy but the undertones are serious. You certainly don't have to be African-American to enjoy this film. It would be a great rental for a sleepover.. you'll laugh... you'll cry.

X-Men: The Last Stand

The X-Men gather for their final battle. There is a "cure", a serum that can make the superguys "normal" but do they want to take it? Everyone has to take sides and it's peaceful Xavier versus his old nemesis Magneto at the head of two X-Men armies. This film adds Angel, Beast, Juggernaut and Colossus to the mix and has hot Wolverine finally admitting and going for his feelings for a reincarnated Jean Grey who, in this film, has turned into the evil Phoenix.

Video: I got a screener version of the widescreen DVD. You can get a standard edition or a collector's edition DVD with a 100 page book. We're reviewing the standard. There are cool animated menus that let you pick which "team" you want to be on. This screener had okay color but is kind of pixilated. I think the street versions are better.

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and DTS 6.1 ES. The 5.1 track has great surround sounds but choose the DTS track for this big action movie. All the action and soundtrack can come through all your speakers and it's awesome. Great sound effects, dialogue is clear, music is great etc.

Special Features: Not too many. You get two audio commentaries; Director Brett Ratner and writers Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg. Basically, these are just guys sitting around watchin' a movie. You don't get much inside info on these. The second track is with the producers and they just go with how a scene got shot. Neither track is stellar.

Deleted Scenes and 3 Alternate Endings: Almost ten minutes of extended and alternate takes of scenes you can watch with or without Ratner, Penn and Kinberg commenting. A little more action in longer fight scenes mostly. The alternate endings are interesting. Parts of them were in the final cut of the movie but one is a sequel set-up. Fun to watch.

Overall: High-energy, entertaining popcorn movie with some intimate scenes to give it a heart. These personal scenes might have been better directed by Bryan Singer (original X and X2 director) but, overall, you'll enjoy all of the film's bombastic action with a little hot tension between Wolverine and Jean and short but touching exchanges between Iceman and his "my touch-is-death" girlfriend Rogue. Definitely worth a rent at least.

From Universal Studios Home Entertainment

This Island Earth

Hey, there is nothing like a classic for your sleepover fun. This Island Earth is one of the better 1950's sci fi films. It was the first big space epic in color. A hunky scientist is chosen to work on a top secret science project at a remote lab after he successfully assembles a complex, alien-looking device he gets parts for in the mail! At the lab, he wants to hook up again with a hot fellow scientist girlfriend from his past but no time. The duo discovers the true alien nature of their benefactors and ends up on a flight to a distant world which is at war. Will they survive and prevent an alien invasion of Earth?

Audio and Video: Until Star Wars, this movie and Forbidden Planet were the only real sci fi adventures worth watching. Great effects for the time, etc. The Audio is quite good with the weird flying saucer death ray noises coming through loud and clear as well as most dialogue. The picture, originally shot in bright, color-saturated Technicolor, is much brighter and cleaner here than I've seen it before.

Special Features: The only extra is the funny trailer for the movie. Back in those days, an announcer shouted things at you like "2 ½ years in the making!". Hilarious to watch. Too bad Universal didn't include some stills from the film since there were a lot of cool full color ones of costumes, funny mutants etc.

Overall: This is a fun movie! The flying saucer and the alien planet Metaluna are cool and the special effects are still fun today. The "monster" is a riot and the acting is melodramatic but this makes for a popcorn-chomping delight. Well worth a rent for a retro-blast to the outer-space past!

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

You know the drill; fast guys, fast cars. This time in Tokyo with an American street racer pitted against the fast driving Japanese underworld. It's "drifting" action.. sliding into turns sideways with Lucas Black and Bow Wow.

Video: The 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks very good and sharp and even the night scenes with their neon colors come through very well. Skin tones are good and race cars glisten.

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track sounds really good. There are interesting channel separations to your different speakers especially in the race scenes. No hiss on the clear dialogue. All the ambient race noise puts you on the scene. Excellent.

Special Features: Menus are animated and you get a commentary track with director Justin Lin who talks about his cast choices and lots of details on the stunt driving and location shoots and coordinating the stunts. Interesting. There are Deleted Scenes which are, for a change, mostly character development and are great to watch because they were sacrificed for more race action and they are nice.

A series of Featurettes start with Drifting School showing main cast members trying to figure out how to actually "drift".. a move using the car's hand brake to slide into a turn. It's fun to watch these attempts. Cast Cam is just a behind-the-scenes feature shot by various cast and crew. It's kind of a hodge-podge but fun.

The next featurette is The Big Breakdown: Han's Last Ride. This breaks down the big chase through downtown Tokyo and shows how they used CGI combined with real stunts. Fun to watch if you like seeing how stunts came together or like race action. Tricked Out To Drift is all about the cool new cars used in the film and how each car kind of matches the character who drives it; like Bow Wow's car is The Hulk, all noise and bluster and Han (the villain's) car is sleek and gets the job done without a lot of flash. Interesting.

The next featurette, The Real Drift King, is a look at the realife king of the Tokyo drifters. We see footage of him in action and get a hint of how the whole street race movement has been touched and changed by his particular style. Nice to see how the racing in the film connects to real life.

Finally there is The Japanese Way, featurette that shows how an American crew had to adapt to shoot in Japan and the weird customs and changes made. Again, interesting. You also get a music video by Don Omar with the song "Conteo". Not bad.

Overall: Nothing deep here but a stylish, race-driven film with some cool guys in it. The race scenes are awesome fun and the DVD looks and sounds great. Go buy it if you were really into the first two films and want a complete collection or rent and invite your guy pals over.

United 93

You know the sad and heroic story: The crew and passengers of United Flight 93 fought to gain control of their aircraft and ended up seeing that the 9/11 hijackers on their plane didn't reach their Washington goal. All 40 passengers and crew gave their lives when they crashed into a Pennsylvania field. This is a true story and the drama is all very real. There are two DVD packages; one with two discs and one single widescreen version. We got the single version.

Video: Enhanced for widescreen, United 93 looks great and natural, like you are on the plane. Good transfer.

Audio: The 5.1 Dolby Surround mix gives you the important clear dialogue and impressive sound effects and also makes the film disturbingly real. You aren't worried on a movie like this about huge music sequences.

Special Features: Nothing flashy but very useful. The Audio Commentary with director Paul Greengrass has him talking about how hard it was to present the true picture without exploiting the dangerous moments, etc. He tells us that some actors played themselves. He talks about the overall feeling he wanted etc. Informative but far from fun..maybe as it should be.

United 93: The Families and the Film is a nice documentary showing actors meeting the real-life families of the passengers and crew they are playing. It's sad but tastefully done and worth watching. There are Memorial Pages with 40 written biographies about each victim written by friends and family members. Very nice tribute and good to know who these people were. We could have been any of them.

Overall: This film is a must for everyone. Yes, it's hard to watch but, in a bizarre way, it is very exciting and it is a wonderful tribute to what probably really happened. The film's story is pieced together from real phone calls, audio on the ground, interviews, family memories and flight recorder facts so it's as close as we are going to get to the truth. This isn't a documentary. It is a dramatized version but the movie isn't a big name actor, Hollywood attempt to glamorize what happened or preach flag waving. It's the right way to remember these ordinary people who became heroes. The DVD itself is very good quality and the extras tell us more about the people involved. Buy it. Watch it and keep it.

***

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.