It’s a hot early summer, so let’s
start off with the lighter fare among this month’s DVD releases. Vintage
cartoon fans will be delighted by Warner’s two-disc set Tom & Jerry:
Deluxe Anniversary Collection, featuring seven Oscar winners among 30
shorts culled from decades of their antics, plus two sequences from live-action
movies in which they appeared with the stars. Their undersea adventure with a
dreaming Esther Williams in 1953\'s Dangerous When Wet was quite
remarkable for its time. But Jerry’s 1945 song & dance fantasy number with
Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh belongs on anyone’s idea of a Hollywood
Highlight Reel. The set opens with a warning that several racial images and
characterizations must be considered in their historical context. Beyond that,
this set is a pure treat for all ages.
Another nostalgia trip can be found
in the sitcom Family Matters: The First Complete Season, which aired
throughout most of the 1990s. This likable Black middle-class family would have
been easy to overlook had it not been for their children’s pesky friend Steve
Urkel (Jaleel White), whose earnest, clueless, yearnings for popularity
embodied all definitions for nerd, twerp, geek so completely that it will
endure beyond all else. The Urkel character must not have been an integral part
of the show’s original plans, since he didn’t even appear in the early
episodes, and isn’t featured until the 12th of that season’s 22 programs. From
then on, it was all gold - especially the inner Urkel compared to the
endearingly annoying package he inhabited. In summary, Urkel was to Family
Matters as Fonzie was to Happy Days. Both were hilarious to a
generation of fans...and beyond
Among current fare, Youth in
Revolt features Michael Cera in yet another of his shy, amiably awkward
characters that worked so well as secondary or co-staring roles in Arrested
Development, Juno and Superbad. But as the narrator and star
of his own teen romantic misadventures, the load is too heavy for his one-note
persona. He falls for an adventurous lass while on vacation, and is amazed that
she actually likes him, too. That leads to his devising a series of escalating
disasters to prolong their time together over obstacles from geography to a
much cooler rival; her oppressively religious parents, and his own
dysfunctional family. All his machinations are enabled by a sophisticated,
vaguely French alter-ego he imagines would better fit the aspirations of his
Maiden Fair. Some of the proceedings are funny - mostly sticking with lowbrow
humor. The DVD extras include some deleted and alternate scenes that are worth
a look, too.
Those who have watched all the High
School Musical films and extensions, but still crave a new fix, will be
variably satisfied with Starstruck: Extended Edition. A wholesomely hot
young rock star (Sterling Knight, an apparent clone from the DNA of Zac Efron,
Justin Bieber and one or more Jonas brothers by Disney’s Imagineers) meets a
smart, attractive girl from Michigan who could hardly find his fame and glamor
less interesting, even though her sister is the obsessed president of the guy’s
local fan club. The rest of what happens is pure formula, though handled
reasonably well by an engaging cast, and a script that does what it can with
such a familiar premise. The target audience will enjoy the performance
sequences, as well as the bonus music videos and the CD soundtrack that comes
with the DVD.
Turning to the steamy and sordid
side of romance, Wild Things: Foursome extends that film franchise with
a new cast of hunks and babes in another complicated crime plot, filled with
twists and double-crosses. The formula still works well enough for
direct-to-DVD, with the Unrated Blu-ray version providing extra value in
appreciating the eye-candy factor - especially a certain soft-core scene,
reminiscent of the smoldering moment three-way in the 1998 original that fueled
its successors. Be sure to keep watching through the credits for additional
scenes of interest, albeit less prurient.
Jackie Chan, nearing the age when
his body will no longer sustain his energetic mixes of martial arts and comedy,
tries to prove he has enough underlying acting skills for the next phase of his
career. His role model for that maturation arc is stuntman, turned action hero,
turned director, Clint Eastwood. In Shin-Juku Incident, Jackie plays a
poor Chinese guy who sneaks into Japan with a batch of illegal immigrants to
find his missing sister. He winds up in the middle of raging gang wars. That
premise has served him before. But this time he tries to overcome without the
fighting skills of his usual characters. The script gives Chan the chance to
show broader and deeper emotions without the heroics. The idea might have
worked better as a stepping stone if the story and action weren’t so chaotic.
The structure and pace are suitable within Hong Kong cinema traditions, but not
coherent enough for the Western audiences he hopes to convince. As our
political rhetoric over immigration policies runs amok, the analogy to this
story probably adds another marketing hurdle for the film’s appeal. Unfortunate
timing for such a brilliant, charismatic performer.
Small Island is a BBC teleplay that aired here on PBS. Set before and
during WW II, it follows a few Jamaicans and Brits in their journeys through
cultures that clash more than expected within an empire that was then ruled by
one king, heightened by the hardships of war. Some bright, ambitious Jamaicans
yearn to find better lives through education and broader opportunities in the
Mother Land they learn about in elementary school. Those who get there find a
reality that’s much worse. Meanwhile, a British woman with romantic and social
aspirations beyond the reach her lowly birth established tries to make the best
of a loveless marriage to a devoted dullard. When war breaks out, all those
lives intertwine in a script that almost sneaks up on the viewer with its
emotional power and sociological import. Aired as a two-part, three-hour
program, a little patience with prolonged intros and backstories yields rich
dividends in the unfolding of the subplots, and the reminder of how vastly
attitudes about minorities and women have changed within the life span of our
current seniors. Fine acting from an ensemble cast is another asset of this
excellent production.