For me, a good week to save some money--there's nothing new on DVD I have to own.
Oh, there's some decent stuff, but most of it has the whiff of leftovers. For instance, there's Season Three of Batman Beyond and Season Two of Justice League Unlimited, two animated series produced by the estimable Bruce Timm. They're good, but not a patch on Timm's original Batman:The Animated Series, still the gold standard in TV animation.
And there's John Carpenter's contribution to the second season of the Showtime series Masters Of Horror, Pro-Life. Despite a clever premise (a father is determined to get his daughter out of an abortion clinic by any means necessary), it devolves into yet another variation on Rio Bravo, and though Carpenter is no stranger to low budgets and rushed shooting schedules, this looks and feels cheap. Somebody give this guy a big budget and a good script. Please.
Jules Dassin's Naked City gets the deluxe treatment from the good folks at Criterion, and while the film is undeniably of great historical significance, as entertainment it's really nothing special. On the other hand, if you're looking for glorious views of NYC in the forties, this is one of the best movies ever made, and James Sanders, author of the essential book Celluloid Skyline, provides a guided tour on the disc's best feature.
The first season of Maude, probably the best of Norman Lear's "relevant" seventies sitcoms, is out today (Bill Macy fans, rejoice!) and the third and fourth seasons of Miami Vice (not too exciting for anyone), plus the umpteenth reissue of Re-Animator and, inexplicably, the lame British horror spoof What a Carve-Up! I've stumbled across that title for years in film reference guides, and I've never had any desire to see the damned thing.
Finally, a confession: Though he's revered by people I highly admire, I've never cared much for W.C. Fields. Despite this, I note there's a new Fields box set out today, but again, it's mostly not prime stuff--Poppy, The Man On The Flying Trapeze and the like. The Bank Dick and It's A Gift were part of a previous set. Like I said, this week is all about leftovers.
