Holiday DVD Review Round-Up Part 1

It's that time again...the relatives will be visiting and you might want to escape Aunt Maude's "Oh my, how you've grown" comments by hiding in your room with pals and some cool DVDs. Or, you might wanna make that Holiday gift list and need some ideas. TeenHollywood to the rescue with the info on some great home entertainment possibilities...

From 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Family Guy Volume 4

Synopsis: The Griffin Family is back with more raunchy adventures, referencing the best obscure movies and television shows of the '80s. Volume 4 is actually the show's fifth season (the first volume had two seasons on one DVD set). This takes the DVD collection up to the finale from May 06, which was the rebroadcast of the "Stewie Griffin Untold Story" DVD movie.

Extras: A collection of deleted scenes is like a whole episode made up only of references. Going more than 15 minutes, these gags are every bit as funny as the ones that make it into broadcast. There are more bits from classic supporting characters like Greased Up Deaf Guy, more Quagmire sex talk, action violence, a recurring Gary Coleman appearance. Their inappropriate Schindler's List joke is bold, and it gets as obscure as the 1980 cast of "Saturday Night Live".

In another extra, you can follow Peter Shin as he teaches you how to draw Stewie. Of course, this still requires that you have enough artistic talent to make basic shapes like circles and ovals, which this reviewer cannot. So it won't suddenly make you an artist, but it could be fun to try.

The rest of the extras are standard behind the scenes documentaries. If you think life in the "Family Guy" offices is exciting, these may bring you back down to earth. Episode commentaries may have a few specific tidbits on the making of an episode, but it's mostly the cast and crew riffing with each other.

Ice Age The Meltdown

Synopsis: As the Ice Age is coming to an end, Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) seek colder ground, while Scrat continues to fight for his acorn. Along the way, the trio come across a female mammoth, Ellie (Queen Latifah) who believes she's a possum. She and Manny must learn to get along as they may be the last mammoths alive.

Extras: The producers of the Ice Age films give us a whole new Scrat adventure called "No Time for Nuts." Scrat finds a time machine in one of the ice caves and accidentally zaps his acorn into the future. So he follows it and gets into comic adventures in medieval times, gladiator times, Titanic era and more. Culminating in a fast paced romp through history, this could be the best Scrat adventure yet.

"Crash and Eddie Stunts" seem to be deleted scenes, three gags with Ellie's possum brothers. They work as sort of silent movie featurettes.

"Lost Historical Student Films" are pseudo-documentaries on the animals represented in the film. Artificially converted to black and white and scratched up, film clips illustrate the narrators' points as we gain actual knowledge about animals like mammoths, sloths and even scrats.

"Scrat's Piranha Smackdown Sound Lab" offers viewers five different choices for alternate audio tracks in the scene where Scrat fights the piranhas for his acorn. Try human noises for burps and farts. The musical instrument sounds actually work for the scene.

"Animation Director's Chair" gives you six scenes you can watch in various stages of completion. If you want to see how the film goes from storyboard to rough animation to final polish, you can see all three screens in one or use the angle feature to circulate between them.

There are two featurettes on the characters of Ice Age: The Meltdown and an additional outtake prank from Crash and Eddie. Silly Sid and John Leguizamo teaches you how to draw Sid by hand, and Leguizamo himself teaches you how to do the lispy voice.

There are four set top games you can play as well.

James Bond Collection volumes 1 and 2

Synopsis: In conjunction with the new James Bond movie Casino Royale, Fox Home Video has released some of the older 007 movies with new collections of extras. They only sent one movie from each collection to review, so I got Thunderball and The Living Daylights. Thunderball has Sean Connery going underwater to stop a villain from detonating a bomb. Daylights has Timothy Dalton protecting a cellist assassin he was sent to kill, but uncovering a bigger plot along the way.

Extras: These DVDs include all the extra features from the original MGM studio releases, and there's no topping those. The behind-the-scenes documentaries give you such a complete perspective of each film's place in the Bond tradition and any interesting things that went into its making, that the new stuff doesn't even compare. Check out Daylights for a 007 screen test by Jurassic Park hero Sam Neill.

The new extras are mostly found footage. In the case of Daylights, these are interviews with Dalton and other cast members at the time of the film's release in 1987. They're pretty dry and boring. Dalton is very actor-y with his shop talk about the process, and Bond Girl Miriam D'Abo is all fluff. It's nice to see how excited they were. Dalton got kind of a bum deal with only two films.

The found footage on Thunderball is a bit more intriguing because it comes from the '60s when they sold movies in a completely different way. There's one documentary about a crew member taking his son to visit the set, and though it is silly, it definitely takes you back to a different time. Another NBC production shows the fan phenomenon of James Bond memorabilia and lines at the movie theater. This was before the age of eBay and online ticket sales.

Daylights has some deleted scenes, including the "magic carpet ride" from the original DVD. With the director's explanation, it's clear that the stunt was executed too slowly to fit in with the fast paced chase scene. Another clip in Q's laboratory shows one new gadget that didn't make the final cut. They also found some raw footage of the ice chase scene, so you can see all the elements that came together to make one of the best car chases in 007 history.

The big thing with these releases is the remastered films, so people with hi-tech TVs should do a comparison. Certainly the older movies could do with a clean-up polish, but even the first DVD release of Dr. No looked pretty fantastic for a 40-year-old movie.

From Universal Studios Home Entertainment

King Kong Extended Edition

Synposis: For those of you who thought three hours of "Kong" was too short, here's more. Peter Jackson added 13 minutes more to his epic remake. It's mostly action, and I could watch "Kong" monsters all day. If you've blocked off three hours to watch King Kong already, you might as well make it 3:15 and watch even more. [Editor's note: It's not just the cool effects but, once he appears, the amazing and sad character of Kong that hooks you in and keeps you watching].

Extras: In addition to the extra scenes added into the movie, there are even more deleted scenes. In his introduction, Jackson explains why he cut the scenes and addresses the storytelling process that they affect. With their incomplete effects, you get to see what it actually looks like when the actors play against a green screen.

There are a lot more scenes on the boat with the crew. This was the most difficult stretch of the movie, so thank Pete he didn't put them back in. But if there was a crew member you just adored, maybe Jamie Bell, then there's a good chance there will be at least one extra scene with him. Some of the same things happen in different contexts, and there's some cool additional action with the natives on the boat. More unfinished scenes in the New York portion of the movie have Adrien Brody face off against Kong, and a really cool army pursuit shown mostly in rough animation. This would have been awesome if completed for the extended cut.

"The Eighth Blunder of the World" is the gag reel which is full of funny Jack Black improv. He breaks into his more traditional Blackisms once he blows a take, or when he's just goofing off behind the scenes. All the actors have their share of line flubs, stumbles and naughty language. They even put some Jedi special effects in one of the scenes and Bryan Singer comes by for a prank.

There are even more additional Peter Jackson production diaries, because there were some effects he didn't want to give away in the two disc set that was released concurrent with the theatrical release. Now that everyone's seen the film, Jackson shares his remaining secrets on this DVD.

Keep visiting TeenHollywood for more Holiday DVD reviews for your gift-giving and visiting relative-escaping pleasure!

***