The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Buy from Amazon
This film opened in limited release in early November, which screams Oscar Bait. However, its reviews did not match expectations and were not at the level one associates with the major players during Awards Season. In fact, they were not at the level one normally associates with films that thrive in limited release. That said, it opened very well and it held on during its second weekend of releases, but as soon as it tried to expand wide, it collapsed. Was this inevitable, or was this film overlooked?

It's a bit of both.

The film is set in Germany during World War II and focuses on the family of a kommandant in the German military, who has just received a promotion to take over a "work camp." In the book it is called "Out With", at least that's how Bruno, his 8-year old son, pronounces it. I don't recall it being named in the movie. We spend nearly all of our time with Bruno, his youngest son, but we also see how all four members of the family cope with their situation. The father relies on his sense of duty to get by, the mother slowly loses her faith in what is being done, while the daughter moves in the other direction and becomes dedicated to the Hilter Youth. Meanwhile, after some exploring, Bruno finds the farm, as he refers to it, and meets a boy wearing striped pajamas, who is named Shmuel. They strike up a friendship as any two boys would, not grasping what is happening around them. The movie is as much about the family as it is about the two boys' friendship (it isn't until the 30-minute mark that we first meet Shmuel) and both halves are compelling.

The film earned reviews that were good, but not great. Many critics complained that the film was not very subtle, but it was not a very subtle time in history and within that context, the filmmakers did a wonderful job. The acting was strong, and perhaps the ending wasn't surprising, but it was effective. (I think it was meant to be a twist, but most watching will see it coming a mile away.) It is an important movie to watch, and it is worth watching. That said, the subject matter alone meant it was never going to be a big mainstream success. Films about the Holocaust rarely are, but a film about the Holocaust that is accessible to kids is very important and this one should have performed better.

Extras on the DVD are on par with most limited releases and include an audio commentary track with the writer / director Mark Herman and the author John Boyne. There are five deleted scenes, also with optional audio commentary, which run just over 6 minutes. Finally, there's a 20-minute making-of featurette.

I think it is safe to call this film busted Oscar bait. Given its release date, the subject matter, and more, it is safe to say the film was made to take advantage of Awards Season as part of its marketing. That didn't work out as planned, but the film did do better than most limited releases do, and it could do even better on the home market. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is not a movie made for mass appeal, but the DVD is worth checking out, and with its complement of extras, it is worth picking up over just renting.

Happy-Go-Lucky - Buy from Amazon
Mike Leigh wrote and directed this film starring Sally Hawkins, who plays Poppy, a woman in desperate need of some Despondex. (Warning: Some NSFW language on that site.)

This movie is almost an anthology, as it deals with several, mostly unconnected threads in Poppy's life. Early in the movie, her bike is stolen, so she has to get driving lessons from Scott, who is a rather nasty man she enjoys needling. One of her elementary school students is acting up in class, and she tries to figure out why. Her sister is pregnant and living in the suburbs and wants to visit her with her other sister. And finally she's decided to take flamenco lessons from a fiery Spanish teacher. ... It's not much of a plot, really. The enjoyment comes watching Poppy interact with those around here. Be warned, she is incredibly chipper and how you react to the overly cheerful can affect your opinion of the movie.

Personally, I liked it. And I am not a fan of overly happy people in real-life. For instance, after watching the clip for Despondex, my first reaction wasn't to laugh, but lament that it wasn't real. Sally Hawkins is very impressive in a role that could have been reduced to an annoying caricature very easily. She earned her Golden Globe win and quite frankly, the movie as a whole deserved to be a bigger player during awards season.

Extras on the DVD include an audio commentary with Mike Leigh, who has a strange way of speaking during the track. "Who is the young woman and what's she all about?" "Where is she going?" "Who is she and how is she?" "What's she like?" At that point I'm thinking, why is he asking me all of these questions? Does he think this is the first time I've seen the movie? Is there going to be a quiz at the end? ... It is still worth listening to, dead spots and all; it's just a little strange. The next extra is a featurette called Behind the Wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky, which runs just four-and-a-half minutes and deals with the central personality clash between Poppy and Scott. (As much as poppy needs Despondex, Scott needs to cut back on the caffeine.) Finally, there's a meatier 27-minute featurette called Happy-in-Character that is mostly talking heads discussing the movie interspersed with clips from the movie.

Happy-Go-Lucky earned unbelievably strong reviews, but it never became a major player at the box office or during Awards Season. This is a shame, but it should find an audience on the home market, and the DVD is worth picking up over just renting.

Pinocchio - 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
One of Disney's earliest feature-length animated films, and still considered one of their best.

The film tells the story of a marionette created by a woodcarver named Geppetto, who wishes upon a star for Pinocchio to be a real boy. One visit by the Blue Fairy later, and his wish had come true, mostly. While Pinocchio is given life, he will have to prove himself worthy to become a real boy. He will have to show his is brave, truthful, and unselfish, and he will have to listen to his conscience. But he doesn't have a conscience, so Jiminy Cricket is given that task. The road ahead will not be easy for Pinocchio, and he will have to deal with villains like Honest John & Gideon, Stromboli, and The Coachman along the way.

As I mentioned above, this is widely considered among Disney's best films; in fact, many consider it the best Disney film of all time. (Personally, Dumbo is my personal favorite among the early works.) But Pinocchio is amazing. It mixes humor andadventure nearly perfectly, it has Oscar winning music, while the technical quality of the animation is still impressive nearly 70 years after it was made. If it is not in your movie collection at home, it should be. In fact, even if you already own it, you should upgrade to this new addition.

The only real question is which format to go with?

I only have the Blu-ray, but I can point out the features that are exclusive to the format. Extras include an audio commentary track with Leonard Maltin, Eric Goldberg, and J.B.Kaufman and the three of them fill the track with plenty of information. . (On a side note, Leonard Maltin is synonymous with Disney and having him on the DVD means you will learn something new, practically regardless of your level of Disney knowledge. He is to Disney what Bey Logan is to Dragon Dynasty.) You can listen to the audio commentary, or watch it as picture-in-picture with Cine-Explore. I love Cine-Explore and there are plenty of storyboards, behind-the-scenes images, and video clips to go along with the audio commentary track. You can also watch the movie with Disney View, which is for people with widescreen TVs. Because this movie was made in the days before widescreen, there are black bars on the side of the movie if you are watching in on the widescreen TV (and I assume most are). By selecting this, you can watch the movie with artwork by Toby Bluth, which fits in with the design of the film. Next up is Music & More, which includes a music video for "When You Wish Upon a Star" by Meaghan Jette Martin (who?) as well as five songs you can watch with or without lyrics on the screen. Games & Activities has a pop-up trivia track, and a trivia game. The Blu-ray is also BD-Live enabled, with the usual set of Disney extras (chat, mail, challenge, and rewards).

The rest of the extras are on disc 2 starting with Games & Activities. Here we have Pinocchio's Puzzles, which has several jigsaw puzzles and when you complete each one, you are rewarded with a short clip from the movie. Pleasure Island Carnival Games has four mini-games, mostly testing your timing. Better than most DVD games. Backstage Disney starts with an hour-long making-of featurette called No Strings Attached. There are three deleted scenes that run over ten minutes, including introductions. The Sweatbox looks at the how Walt Dinsey used to check on the progress of the film by viewing the storyboard reels, which was revolutionary at the time. There are also a 10-minute featurette on the Live Action Reference Film and how they were made and used. There is an audio recording of a deleted song, "Honest John". There is an 11-minute featurette on toys starting with wooden toys to the cutting edge today. Finally, there are several trailers, as well as plenty of images.

The Blu-ray also comes with a bare bones DVD, which is useful if you only have one Blu-ray player and your kids have a TV of their own. Or you have a TV in your mini-van, for instance.

As for the DVD, I don't have it to compare directly, but it appears the Blu-ray exclusives include the Cine-Explore and the BD-Live extras. Additionally, the Blu-ray looks fantastic, and it is worth paying the extra 44%.

Pinocchio is an absolute classic of the art-form, and both the DVD and the Blu-ray are worth picking up. In fact, the Blu-ray is a contender for DVD Pick of the Week.

Primal Fear - Hard Evidence Edition - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Primal Fear was released in theaters in 1996 and came out on DVD just over two years later. In 1998, DVDs were still in their infancy and there were no extras. Now more than 10 years later it is making its debut on Blu-ray and a Special Edition DVD. But is it worth the upgrade?

Richard Gere stars as Martin Vail, a high power defense attorney who, while watching the news, sees a case of a brutal killing of a Archbishop, allegedly by an 19-year old alter boy, Aaron Stampler. Aaron says he is innocent and Martin believes him, but has trouble creating a case for his defense. That is until... okay, I can't talk about this, without spoiling the ending.

I'm of two minds with regard to this film. On the one hand, this is a wonderfully acted movie with a huge number of big name stars, or in many cases, actors who would become big name stars. Edward Norton's performance alone makes the movie worth checking out. On the other hand, there are a couple of plot holes in the movie. For instance, when Aaron Stampler was arrested, they found the Archbishop's ring on him. That would be enough to establish motive (failed robbery) which kills the setup to the final showdown in court. Also, multiple personalities as portrayed in the movie just doesn't exist. They do talk about this in one of the featurettes. Overall the film earned reviews that are 71% positive, and I agree with that assessment. It is worth watching, and the ending gives it some replay value, as you can go back and watch it again with the new understanding, but it is not among the great films of the genre.

Extras on the DVD are rather limited for a special edition and include an audio commentary track and three featurettes. The audio commentary track features five people, but even so there are a number of pauses and dead spots, especially early on the track. The first featurette is called Primal Fear: The Final Verdict and it is an 18-minute making-of featurette. Star Witness is an 18-minute featurette on the amazing cast. Finally, there's Psychology of Guilt, which runs over 13 minutes and talks about the realities of pleading not guilty due to mental disease or defect. That's not a lot of extras for a Special Edition.

As for the Blu-ray, I don't know what the extras are like, it hasn't arrived yet. I will update this review when it does.

If you own Primal Fear on DVD already, I'm not sure the Hard Evidence Edition is worth the double-dip on DVD. On the other hand, the Blu-ray only costs $20, which is a good price for a catalog title, and even if there are no additional extras, I can recommend that.

South Park - Season Twelve - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
First a quick note, I don't have the Blu-ray screener yet, but I hope it arrives this week, and when it does I will update this review.

Season 12 starts with Tonsil Troubles which is one of three episodes that have been released on DVD already. This really hurts the value of this 3-disc set. There are still plenty of strong episodes making their debut on DVD this week, including Major Boobage, which is an homage to Heavy Metal and a satire on the Drug War, with a bit of The Diary of Anne Frank thrown in. Over Logging is about what would happen if the Internet dries up, which apparently would be a lot like The Grapes of Wrath. Breast Cancer Show Ever has Cartman pissing off Wendy so much that she challenges him to a fight, and he's desperate to get out of it. Pandemic - Parts 1 & 2 talks about the epidemic of Peruvian pan flute bands... Huh? While the second part deals with an epidemic of giant guinea pigs, which makes more sense than Peruvian pan flute bands. (On a side note, this two-parter has some really funny moments, but also gets repetitive, and as far as batting average goes, I'm counting it as one hit, not two.) In About Last Night..., we learn the truth behind Obama and McCain's run for president, and it's all a plot to... nope, that's too big of a spoiler. The season ends with The Ungroundable, where Butters wants to become vampire so he can't get grounded anymore. Including two of the three double-dips that I enjoyed, just over half of the episodes have some replay value, which is not a bad hit ratio, but lower that the earlier seasons.

Extras on the three-disc set include mini-commentaries on all 14 episodes with Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Also, each disc has a making-of section and for the first disc it's for Major Boobage. Here we see several of the scenes done in various stages of production (storyboard, wireframe, rough animation, and final animation). Disc two talks about the making of Super Fun Time, one of the double-dip episodes, but arguably the best of the three. This runs an hour and 20 minutes, making it the longest of all of the extras. In fact, I think it's longer than all of the mini-commentaries combined. On the final disc, It's "About Last Night..." that gets the making-of treatment, but we only see the final night before the final show was made.

I want to talk about something the two guys talk about in one of the audio commentary tracks. Actually, it's a message directly to Matt Stone and Trey Parker... The average South Park episode for the past few years has been worse than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. FYI.

There are no subtitles on this 3-disc set, but there are play-all buttons and proper chapter placement.

By season 12, South Park is clearly off its peak, and there are fewer classic episodes. The hit to miss ratio is still good, and with better extras than in many seasons past, the DVD is worth picking up. The Blu-ray costs 50% more, so unless it has some Blu-ray exclusives that take advantage of the format, I can't see it being the better deal. But I will come up with a more detailed review when the screener arrives.

Witch Mountain Double-Shot - Buy from Amazon: Escape to Witch Mountain and Return from Witch Mountain
With the remake / re-envisioning / re-adaptation, Race to Witch Mountain, opening this Friday, there's no better time to re-release the first two movies on DVD. But have the years been kind to these movies? After all, it has been more than 30 years since they were originally made.

Escape to Witch Mountain - Buy from Amazon
Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann star as Tia and Tony Malone, two orphans who have a mysterious past, and equally mysterious powers. After saving a man, Lucas Deranian, with her ability to predict the future, Lucas brings the kids to the attention of his powerful boss, Aristotle Bolt who want to use their abilities to make money and so forges the documents making Lucas their uncle. However, while at first they love living in the palatial mansion, soon they escape and are drawn to Witch Mountain, but they don't know why.

By this time Disney's animation department was in a bit of a slump and only released four feature-length movies all decade (one of those was merely four episodes of their TV series cut together and turned into a theatrical release). Conversely, Disney was releasing several live-action comedies every year; however, most of these are all but forgotten today. Escape to Witch Mountain is one of the exceptions, and for good reason. It's a rousing film that balances the adventure in a way that is entertaining to parents, but not too scary for kids. A lot of the film does seem dated, especially the special effects, but that's forgivable given the age of the movie. It's a lot more realistic than most Disney films from the era, and that helps its longevity.

Extras on the DVD start with an audio commentary track with the two stars, Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, as well as the director, John Hough. The first two spend a lot of the time reminiscing and are more active in the chat, while the latter man gives more technical details. There is also a pop-up trivia track as well. Featurettes include Making the "Escape", a 27-minute long making-of featurette that combines talking heads, clips from the movie, and even archival footage. Conversation with John Hough is a seven minute interview with the director. Disney Sci-Fi is a 3-minute montage of clips from various Disney Sci-fi films set to techno music. Not much replay value here. Disney Effects Something Special in an eleven-minute featurette on the special effects in Disney movies throughout the history of the studio. 1975 Disney Studio Album is a three-and-a-half minute montage of what the studio was up to in 1975. Finally, there is the short film, Pluto's Dream House.

Return from Witch Mountain - Buy from Amazon
Return from Witch Mountain has Tia and Tony returning for a few days for a vacation, but the fun is cut short when Tony saves the life of Sickle, a henchman of Victor and nephew to Letha, Victor's financier. At the time they meet Tony, Victor is working on a device used to control human beings; however, after observing Tony, he decides instead to kidnap him and use his powers to take over a nuclear power plant. It is up to Tia to rescue him, with the help of a gang of kids, who are about as menacing as a road-show tour of Little Orphan Annie. "We're the Earthquake gang." "Does that scare you?" No. Not in the slightest.

It is surprising that this sequel seems to miss out on a lot of what made the original fun, because it is made by a lot of the same filmmakers. While the subject matter was fantastical, it was treated in a serious manner. Here, the action chases tend toward the slapstick more than the more threatening nature of the first movie. Also, for most of the movie Tia and Tony are separated, so we don't have their good chemistry as a selling point in the movie. There are still some entertaining aspects of the movie, but too often it seems to devolve into camp and has not aged well.

Extras are also a lot lighter than on the original with just an audio commentary track with the same three participants, a 23-minute long making-of featurette, and a lost interview with Christopher Lee. Interestingly, early in the making-of one of the participants says that they took the "mystery" of the first movie and replaced it with a "buffoon character, or several of them" and also "lighten it up." This is exactly what's wrong with the movie. Adventure and mystery are replaced with campy humor.

Combined, Escape to Witch Mountain and Return from Witch Mountain are entertaining enough to be worth checking out, but I would recommend buying the first film while merely renting the second. It might be worth waiting until this year's Race to Witch Mountain hits the home market, as there might be a better deal available then.