DVD Pick of the week: Piranha (shout! Factory)
The fish are biting in Joe Dante’s award-winning 1978 solo directorial debut, the best of the Jaws rip-offs, available on special-edition DVD ($19.93 retail) and Blu-ray ($26.97 retail) — timed perfectly to coincide with the release of the 3-D remake.
A covert military experiment has yielded a strain of highly advanced, highly lethal piranha that are soon loosed upon an unsuspecting world when they are accidentally released from captivity. screenwriter John sayles works a sly sense of satire into the proceedings, captured well by Dante’s fast-paced direction.
A solid, stalwart cast includes Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies (as hero and heroine, respectively), kevin McCarthy, keenan Wynn, Barbara steele, Bruce Gordon, Barry Brown (in his final screen role), Paul Bartel, Belinda Balaski, Richard Deacon and the always-welcome Dick Miller, as the manager of a waterthemed amusement park directly in the piranhas’ path.
A veritable fish-fry of special features includes an audio commentary with Dante and producer Jon Davison, a retrospective documentary, trailers and other goodies. Rated R.
ALSo oN DVD
CARTOON NETWORK HALL OF FAME: “COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG”: SEASON ONE (Warner Home Video): A two-DVD boxed set ($24.98 retail) consisting of all 13 episodes from the 1999-2000 season of the award-winning, animated Cartoon Network series focusing on the misadventures of the title character (voiced by Marty Grabstein), a timid canine who is constantly — and reluctantly — called upon to be a hero.
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS 2010 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS (NHl/Warner Home Video): The title tells all in this sports documentary that chronicles the Chicago Blackhawks winning their first stanley Cup since 1961. Unfortunately, they did it against the Philadelphia Flyers, who haven’t won one since 1975… and don’t I know it. The DVD retails for $24.98, the Blu-ray for $34.99.
CLASH OF THE TITANS (Warner Home Video): The saga of the warrior Perseus (sam Worthington is re-told in this silly extravagant ornate remake of the 1981 fantasy, with liam Neeson (as Zeus) and Ralph Fiennes (as Hades) lending amusingly hammy support. Amidst the spectacle and monsters you’ll also find Gemma Arterton, Pete Postlethwaite, elizabeth McGovern, liam Cunningham, Jason Flemyng, Alexa Davalos and Izabello Miko. Not surprisingly, the spectacle and monsters tend to dominate. Rated PG-13.
DEATHSPORT/BATTLE TRUCK DOUBLE FEATURE (shout! Factory): A DVD twin-bill ($19.93 retail) of two Roger Corman B-movie classics: David Carradine, Claudia Jennings and Richard lynch headline the low-budget, R-rated 1978 sci-fi action thriller Deathsport (**); Michael Beck, Annie Mcenroe and James Wainwright star in the PG-rated 1982 futuristic thriller Battle Truck (**), filmed in New Zealand and released by Corman stateside as Warlords of the 21st Century. Both films include audio commentaries and other extras.
“THE GAME”: THE THIRD SEASON (CBs DVD/Paramount Home entertainment): Brittany Daniel, Tia Mowry Hardrict and Wendy Raquel Robinson star in this spin-off of “Girlfriends,” portraying three friends dealing with the rigors of relationships with professional athletes, in all 21 episodes from the 2008-’09 season of the award-winning CW comedy series, which has since made the jump to BeT next season. This three-DVD boxed set retails for $36.98.
“HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL”: THE FOURTH SEASON, VOLUME TWO (CBs DVD/Paramount Home entertainment): The inimitable Richard Boone reprises his signature role as Paladin, the erudite gun-for-hire, in the remaining 19 episodes from the 1960-’61 season of the popular, prime-time CBs-TV Western series. This three-DVD boxed set retails for $39.98.
THE HOTTEST STATE (THINkFilm): ethan Hawke goes the auteur route as screenwriter and director of this adaptation of his novel, depicting the relationship between an up-and-coming young actor (Mark Webber) and a young singer (Maria Catalina Moreno). The cast also includes Hawke and laura linney as Webber’s parents, Michelle Williams, sonia Braga and Frank Whaley. sometimes insightful, sometimes entertaining, and sometimes pretentious. Rated R.
“THE LUCY SHOW”: THE OFFICIAL SECOND SEASON (CBs DVD/Paramount Home entertainment): lucille Ball made a triumphant return to television with her second hit series, this time playing a single mother who (naturally) always seems to get into more trouble than her teenaged kids. Ball earned an emmy nomination for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a series (lead). This four-DVD boxed, which contains all 28 color episodes from the 1963-’64 season (plus bonus features), retails for $39.98.
“MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000”: VOLUME XVII (shout! Factory): The latest four- DVD boxed set ($59.97 retail) from the longrunning (11 years), award-winning cable-TV favorite sees the satellite of love crew delivering inimitable commentaries on such bad-movie favorites, relatively speaking, as Lost Continent (1951), Crash of the Moons (1954), Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) and Jack Frost (1964).
THE OUTSIDE (Monarch Home Video): There’s too much soap opera and not enough surfing in this mawkish melodrama starring Michael Graziadei as a young surfer seduced by the wave of fame. some real-life surfers (including Taj Burrow, Taylor knox, Holly Beck and sam George) turn up briefly, but this is a wash-out. Rated R.
“SMALL WONDER”: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON (shout! Factory): Tiffany Brissette returns as VICI, a state-of-the-art robot who becomes part of an all-American suburban family, in all 24 episodes from the 1986-’87 of the award-winning(!), syndicated sitcom. This boxed set retails for $29.95.
SOUTHERN GOTHIC (IFC Films/MPI Media Group): Writer/editor/director Mark Young’s lowbudget shocker sees vampires on the loose at a strip club in a sleepy southern town. Filmed in and around Charlotte, this never quite finds its stride, but plays it more straight — and gets better — in the second half. William Forsythe chews the scenery (no pun intended) as a fire-and-brimstone preacher who takes to vampirism quite readily. effective cinematography by Gregg easterbrook.
“THE SUPER HERO SQUAD SHOW: QUEST FOR THE INFINITY SWORD”: VOLUME 1 (Marvel entertainment/shout! Factory): A collection of seven episodes ($14.93 retail) from the 2009-’10 season of the semi-satirical Cartoon Network animated series depicting the adventures of such popular Marvel Comics characters as the Hulk, Iron Man, silver surfer, Wolverine (from X-Men) and others as they try to prevent the diabolical Doctor Doom from procuring the title object, lest he rule the universe.
SUTURES (MTI Home Video): All-too-typical schlock horror about a group of young vacationers running afoul of an illegal organ-transplant ring. Top-billed Andrew Prine plays the mad doctor in charge. late-inning plot twists don’t help. Rated R.
“SWAMP THING: THE SERIES”: VOLUME THREE (shout! Factory): Dick Durock reprises his big-screen role as the title character in the final 24 episodes from the 1992-’93 season of the UsA Network fantasy series based on the popular DC Comics character. Other series regulars include Carrell Myers, scott Garrison, kevin Quigley and Mark lindsay Chapman as swamp Thing’s nemesis, the nasty Dr Arcane. This four-DVD boxed set retails for $34.95.
THE WHITE RIBBON (sony Pictures Home entertainment): Michael Haneke’s atmospheric, award-winning psychological thriller is set in a seemingly peaceful German village on the eve of World War I, as a series of strange occurrences seem to indicate the collective guilt (or responsibility) of the village’s children. Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign-language Film and for Christian Berger’s stunning blackand- white cinematography. A bit overlong but genuinely unsettling. In German with english subtitles. Rated R.
