Couch Potato is brought to you today by the letters DVD and the colour blue. I love the Muppets, I really do. Unfortunately there are more than a few (of the non-animated variety) in our potato sack today. This week sees a disappointing selection of DVDs hit stores nationwide, and with Christmas around the corner you really would expect to see better. There’s a Ben Stiller starring sequel, a fable about a camp Austrian fashion-guru, a high-def re-release of an epic gangster flick and a whole raft of new TV series from Britain and the US.
First up is Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, or just Night at the Museum 2 if that’s a bit long winded for you. This sequel to the 2006 adventure comedy Night at the Museum sees Ben Stiller reprise his role as security guard Larry Daley. Two years later Daley is now a successful entrepreneur, having made his money from inventions based on his encounters in the American Museum of Natural History, such as a glow-in-the-dark flashlight and an unloseable keyring. He finds out that the AMNH is being renovated and that a number of exhibits are being moved to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Cue new hysterics in a new setting. The sequel adds some new cast members to the already impressive line-up which featured Robin Williams, Hark Azaria and Owen Wilson. Amy Adams is one of the new additions, playing Amelia Earhart and Larry’s prospective love interest. Both Adams and Azaria are good in their respective roles, but sadly the rest of the movie is lacking and missing the originality that made the first one amusing. There is no real polt to speak, but rather a patchwork of CGI action sequences strung together by messy dialogue. In an interesting note (at least to me) the Smithsonian had never allowed a movie to film inside, until this one, and perhaps it would be wise to allow no more. Kids though are sure to find this mildly entertaining. The movie is out on DVD and as part of a double disc set including the original.
Second movie this week is Brüno, Sasha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to his smash-hit 2006 mockumentary comedy film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. This time the action centres on the titular Brüno, a flamboyant gay Austrian fashion journalist. The movie is the third to be based on characters from Da Ali G Show, following Ali G Indahouse and Borat. When Brüno is fired from TV reporting, after disrupting a Milan Fashion week catwalk, his lover Diesel leaves him for another man. Accompanied by his assistant’s assistant Lutz, he travels to the United States to become “the biggest Austrian superstar since Hitler”. Yes you read that right Hitler, suffice to say jokes like that abound in this movie. The main aim here seems not to be entertainment of the audience but rather to offend as many people, religions or beliefs as possible. That’s not to say that the movie hasn’t got funny moments though, because it does. They are however too badly placed amongst all the dick jokes and homophobia to make a lasting impression. Baron Cohen seems to be having a ball here, and Gustaf Hammarsten, as Lutz, is a real scene stealer. It’s worth giving the movie a look to see if it’s your cup of tea, but I will not be buying it any time soon. Brüno is out on DVD and Bluray.
Third up is a high-definition re-release of Michael Mann’s extraordinarily powerful 1995 crime drama, Heat. The film follows a gang of armed thieves targeting major banks, vaults, and armoured cars. These thieves are led by career criminal Neal MacAuley. When one of their operations goes bad, LAPD homicide detective Vince Hanna is brought in to catch them. Of course the “bad-guys” aren’t going down without a fight. Robert De Niro plays McCauley, while Al Pacino is on hand as Hanna. The movie was the first film to ever feature both screen icons on the same screen, the pair having appeared separately in The Godfather Part II. Much was made of this prior to the movies release and it really is something to see the two of them face-off at the heat of their powers. De Niro and Pacino own the screen, but Val Kilmer is also a powerful presence as Chris Shiherlis, one of the criminals. The dialogue and Mann’s sure direction are key to making this movie the modern classic that it is. The table exchange between MacAuley and Hanna is cinema at it’s finest, with the eloquence of the language just exploding from the screen. You owe it to yourself to have this in your collection, and you owe it to yourself even more to have it in the highest quality available. Heat is available on Blu-Ray from today.
Russell Howard is one of the funniest guys on BBCs answer to The Panel, Mock the Week. Dingledodies is his second live DVD after 2007s Adventures and follows his ultra-successive live show of the same name. The stand-up sold over 100,000 tickets in the UK, including three sell-out shows in London’s Hammersmith Apollo, on this tour this year and last. That would seem to indicate that this is a performance well worth seeing. It’d certainly make a good Christmas present for anyone who enjoys a good laugh. Dingledodies is available on DVD only.
TV this week sees the release of the fifth season of an RTÉ Two Tuesday night favourite, the second DVD release of comedy material deemed unsuitable for BBC Two, and the second season of a Doctor Who spin-off aimed at children.
Desperate Housewives - Season 5 sees us return to Wisteria Lane once again. The action takes place 5 years after the events of season 4, and revolves around Edie Britt’s new husband, Dave Williams, who is hell bent on revenge on someone on Wisteria Lane. The fifth season won’t pick up any new fans, but old fans should definitely pick this up as the mystery is a doozy.
Mock the Week - Too Hot for TV 2 is the second DVD of excerpts, outtakes, etc. of the Dara O’Briain hosted BBC comedy panel show, that were deemed unsuitable for TV. This DVD contains three episodes from the series archives including “the legendary Rude Lube Show” and more than 40 mins of unseen material. A must have for fans.
The Sarah Jane Adventures - Season 2 is a spin-off of the long-running BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who and focuses on the adventures of investigative journalist and former companion of The Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith. This season has six episodes, including Doctor Who enemies the Sontaran.
Agree with your review of Night at the Museum 2, the Amelia Earhart character was very good, most interesting part of the film, the rest of the actors seemed to be less utilized than in the first film,
the other new characters did nothing for me.
Didn’t bother with the first Night At The Museum so won’t be checking the sequel out anytime soon. I thought Borat had its moments, but i think Baron Cohen is seriously running out of steam with this effort - and there’s a lot in there that would put me off. Heat is a modern classic of course, so i imagine the Blu-Ray version will look fantastic on a whopping great plasma screen!
I think I might get Russell Howard’s DVD. I love him on Mock The Week and don’t know much else from him. Could be interesting.
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