America Betrayed - Buy from Amazon
A documentary about the Hurricane Katrina disaster and how it wasn't a "natural disaster" but due to massive, massive and I mean massive corruption, it was a manmade disaster.

Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, the filmmakers (including writer / director / producers Leslie Cardé) makes the case that the Army Corp of Engineers, among other groups, were responsible for creating projects like that Mr. Go (Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal) that were not necessary, poorly designed, poorly constructed, and created the problem by allowing Hurricane Katrina direct access to the heart of New Orleans. We hear from engineers, from politicians, from whistleblowers, from experts, from investigative reporters, and more about how the problem developed, and why the problems persist to this day. And this is not an isolated incident; for instance, the levees were supposed to be built up after Hurricane Betsy, which hit New Orleans in 1965. They were never fully completed before Hurricane Katrina. And these issues exist throughout the nation. An exceedingly effective documentary and worth seeing by more people. It ends with many, many people giving their idea on how to prevent this from happening again. First thing I would do... Publicly financed elections. The need for hundreds of millions of dollars every two years for elections is a recipe for corruption.

Extras on the DVD include a 9-minute interview with writer / director / producer Leslie Cardé where she gives answers to the questions she was asked during Q&A sessions that accompanied its film festival run / limited release. There are also seven-and-a-half minutes of interviews that were not featured in the movie along with bios and resources for additional research.

America Betrayed is a movie that slipped below most people's radar screens, and that's a shame. The DVD is worth checking out, and even with extras that are light, it is worth buying over just renting.

Arctic Tale - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon
The Blu-ray arrived just a little too late to review for last week, but it will be a short review this week.

First, the quality of the movie, which is mixed. On the one hand, the film does have some great shoots and looks amazing (for the most part, but more on that later). Following the polar bears, the walruses, and other animals is both beautiful and engaging. On the down side, there's the narration. Like I said before, I don't blame Queen Latifah, because she does a solid job with the material, but the material seems to be aimed at kids. They could have stripped the narration, added some background music, and the movie would have been better. Perhaps it wouldn't have entertained kids as much, but I would have liked it better.

As for the technical presentation... It's shovelware. This version of Arctic Tale is identical to the HD DVD that was originally released. Additionally, because the film was not entirely shot on High Definition, some of the scenes are quite weak in High Definition. Finally, with a price tag at $22, it is too costly for shovelware. Rent it now, but wait until the price comes down before picking it up.

Hawaii Five-O - Season 6 - Buy from Amazon
As promised last week, and despite receiving more than a dozen DVDs this week, here's the review for season six of Hawaii Five-O.

First an important note... That theme song has got to be one of the greatest theme songs in TV history. Just the first few notes of that song and I am in the mood to watch this show. Season six is the halfway point for the series, at least the end of season six is, and there's not a lot of change at this point. (There's only one cast change during the season, for instance.) There are a lot of solid episodes, including the season premiere, Hookman, where a killer is enacting revenge against the cops he holds responsible for his injuries. One Big Happy Family has a family of... hicks, for lack of a better word, who travel to Hawaii to continue their cross-country murder spree. The Flip Side is Death explores McGarrett's military past when a military drill leaves a bank vulnerable to a hit. In The Banzai Pipeline a crooked land developer has to take care of government official who he was bribing, but someone was there. But while the hit man thinks he's a witness, in reality, he stole the dead man's wallet. Nightmare in Blue has McGarrett and company on the trail of a serial rapist / murder, but when one of the victims survives, her husband doesn't want her to help the cops, because the perpetrator was a cop. There are some misses, like Tricks are Not Treats, which is about a pimp war. However, two or three misses out of 24 episodes is still a great track record.

As far as extras goes, many of the episodes have promos, which are of historical value, but I'm glad they are no longer in vogue (too many spoilers). There are also subtitles and proper chapter placement, but no play-all buttons.

Hawaii Five-O - Season 6 is a rather bare bones presentation of an excellent TV series. There are far more episodes that I would rate as nine out of ten than ones I would rate six out of ten or lower. I would like some more substantive extras, but it is still worth picking up.

House of the Sleeping Beauties - Buy from Amazon
A German film based on the novella by Nobel Prize winning author Yasunari Kawabata. The film opened to very poor reviews and went no where at the box office. Is this an undiscovered gem, or was this destined to happen?

At the beginning of the movie we meet Edmond, a man whose wife and daughter were killed in a car accident, although he suspects it was no accident but suicide. They had gotten into a big fight and there was talk of divorce, and to Edmond, that guilt makes his loneliness worse. His friend, Kogi, suggests he visit a "Maison" where he can sleep next to beautiful women, for "meditative" purposes, as Kogi puts it. At first he is drawn to the mystery of these sleeping women, but then he breaks the rules and does more than just sleep next to them. His curiosity also is peaked when he sees what could be a dead body being removed from the back.

I'm giving this film far too much credit by describing the plot. Most of the film is one monologue after another. Sometimes spoken by one of characters on screen, sometimes delivered through narration. These monologues are mostly delivered by Edmond, who talks about general topics, like getting older and loneliness, as well as specific incidents in his life. None of it is particularly interesting. I don't know what tone the filmmakers were going for, perhaps art house eroticism. But what they achieved was simply dull.

There are no real extras on the DVD, just some text-based bios, images gallery, etc. Not only that, but the film is in non-anamorphic widescreen. With the popularity of widescreen TVs, that's unacceptable.

I don't know what the target audience for House of the Sleeping Beauties is, and I don't want to know. I do know it is a very small target audience, and more 99% of the people reading this, the DVD is safely skippable.

A Jihad for Love - Buy from Amazon
A documentary about homosexuality and Islam. It's a niche market of a niche market, which partially explains why it struggled at the box office. Is it destined to remain in this small target audience, or would a wider audience be well served by giving this movie a chance?

There are many different styles of documentaries, including at one extreme Michael Moore's films where the filmmaker is the star of the movie. This film is at the opposite end of the spectrum, and the filmmakers are not even heard. The film is instead a collection of shots of various gays and lesbians living in the Muslim world. We see those living in oppressive regimes, those who are living as refugees in Paris, and other places. The stories are heartbreaking at times, as well as heart-warming. But for as many stories as it presents, the film is not as in-depth as I would like. I would have liked some more background information to go with the personal stories. That said, the film is still effective, and worth checking out.

Extras consist of seven additional clips starting with Parvez Uncut, a two-and-a-half minute talk by the filmmaker about the movie. Muslim Talk Radio is a 3-minute appearance of the filmmaker on talk radio. Traveling "Love Jihadis" runs two minutes and looks at the film's run in theaters. More of Mushin is a five-minute featurette on Mushin, and how Parvez convinced him to be in the movie. Tahir's Pakistan is a 4-minute interview with a social worker from Pakistan. Trans in Turkey is another 4-minute deleted scene about being transgender in Turkey, which is one of the more secular nations in the Middle East. Finally there's An American Muslim, a 3-minute interview of an American Gay activist. Overall there is a strong selection of extras and it adds significant value to the DVD.

A Jihad for Love is a documentary about homosexuality and Islam, but the DVD is worth checking out even if you don't belong to either group. I would have liked a little more background information, as well as some more extras (audio commentary) but this is still a solid rental / leaning toward a purchase.

For instance, early in the season in the episode Encore, they have to convince a mobster (played by William Shatner) that it's 1937, so he will re-enact a crime and lead them to where he originally disposed of a body of a rival crime boss. That's my favorite episode of the season, but there are some other strong ones, like Underwater, which involves stolen diamonds, and Bride, which is a little more difficult to explain. (There's a mail-order bride, a fake death, and smuggling syndicate cash.) That said, there are more misses than in years past. In fact, about a third of the episodes are only average, or worse, while only a handful are top-notch. That said, for fans of the show, almost all of the episodes are worth checking out, and there are still enough hits with replay value on this season.

On the other hand, extras on the 6-disc set are non-existent, but there are play all buttons, subtitles, and proper chapter placements. The proper chapter placements are key, as the opening credits use footage from that week's episode, meaning there are spoilers. I can't imagine why they would do that.

Mission: Impossible - Season Six is not as strong as past seasons, but if you have been collecting the show thus far, buying this 6-disc set it worth it.