"Doctor in the House" (VCI), starring Dirk Bogarde as a serious young medical student in the company of a few not-so-serious fellows, became the biggest British hit of 1954, thanks to a mix of collegiate humor, romantic antics and the then-fresh setting of med students in a teaching hospital. Bogarde solidified his matinee idol status as the intent and naïve Simon Sparrow, a studious young man nervous in the ways of romance and reluctantly pulled into the shenanigans of his buddies and roommates: Grimsdyke (Kenneth More), a professional student who fails his exams to keep his inheritance flowing; Benskin (Donald Sinden), chasing nurses instead of his studies; and rugby-mad Taffy (Donald Huston).

 

It's breezy, lightweight fun, filled with comic episodes of flustered students fumbling through their first patient examinations and keeping up with the hospital's leading surgeon, Dr. Lancelot Spratt (James Robertson Justice), more familiarly known as Sir Lancelot. He's a terror on the rounds, intimidating students with his bellowing manner, and their secret protector behind closed doors as the human among the bureaucratic fossils of the teaching hospital. Muriel Pavlow co-stars as a nurse secretly dating Simon behind the wall of regulations, George Coulouris is a career patient who manages to be the guinea pig for each and every aspiring doctor, British comedy veterans Joan Sims and Joan Hickson have small roles and Shirley Eaton (who became legendary as the Bond girl killed by gold paint in "Goldfinger") has a small but memorable role as a landlady's flirtatious daughter looking to land young Simon as a prospective husband.

 

The film was so successful that it spawned six sequels and a long-running TV series and has been constantly available in Great Britain on TV and video. VCI releases all six features on DVD for the time in the U.S. (at least officially). Bogarde stars in three of them: "Doctor At Sea" (1995), where the young doc signs on to a cruise and flirts with Brigitte Bardot (in her English language debut); "Doctor At Large" (1957), with Bogarde's Simon as a full-fledged doctor and Pavlow and Sinden reprising their roles from the first film; and "Doctor in Distress" (1963), Bogarde's last turn as Dr. Sparrow. Michael Craig takes the lead as Dr. Richard Hare in "Doctor in Love" (1960), with Leslie Philips as his medical partner Dr. Tony Burke (it's Burke and Hare, get it?), and Phillips takes over as the nurse-chasing Dr. Gaston Grimsdyke in "Doctor in Clover" (aka "Carnaby, M.D.) (1966) and back again as Burke in "Doctor in Trouble" (1970). Cast members came and went and came back again, often as new characters, through the run of the series, which slid into silly sex comedy as it marched through the sixties. James Robertson Justice, however, is a constant throughout as Sir Lancelot and Ralph Thomas remained aboard as director to the finish.

 

The releases are part of VCI's arrangement with Britain's ITV to release films from the Rank Organization and they arrive with photo galleries on each disc and commentary on five of the seven films. Muriel Pavlow and Donald Sinden talk over "Doctor in the House" and "Doctor at Large" and Leslie Philips is on board for "Doctor in Love" (with Liz Fraser), "Doctor in Clover" (with Shirley Anne Field) and "Doctor in Trouble" (going solo). Unfortunately, most of the films are released in non-anamorphic widescreen presentations, which means the image loses clarity when zoomed in to fit widescreen sets. The exceptions are the anamorphic "Doctor at Sea" and the original "Doctor in the House," shot in the old squarish Academy ratio before widescreen became the norm.

 

"Secret Diary Of A Call Girl: The Final Season" (Paramount) brings the Showtime original series starring Billie Piper as a high-priced London escort and secret author to an end with just as much sexy nothingness and weightless satire that defined the rest of the series' run. Videodrone closes the book on the show here.

"Hey Arnold! Season One" (Shout! Factory) offers gentle stories of life in the inner city Brooklyn neighborhood and colorful apartment house where Arnold, a fairly well-adjusted kid with goofy kid with a head shaped like a football, lives with the grandparents and goofs around with his best friend Gerald and pigtailed schoolmate Helga. The four-disc set features the first 20 episodes of the hit Nickelodeon animated series. No supplements.

 

"M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series" (Shout! Factory) features all 65 episodes of the eighties-era animated series about a secret society of crime-fighters with high-tech toys. 12 discs in two standard cases with hinged trays in a box set. Features two retrospective featurettes. You can also get "M.A.S.K.: Volume One" separately as a two-disc set with the first 11 episodes of the show.

 

The BBC's classic "Who" releases continue apace with two more stories. Tom Baker is The Doctor in "Doctor Who: The Sun Makers" (BBC), story no. 95 in the show's chronology, and Sylvester McCoy is The Doctor in "Doctor Who: Paradise Towers" (BBC), story no. 149 from 1987. Both discs feature commentary, retrospective featurettes and other goodies. The BBC knows how serve fans of the Whoniverse.

 

"Webster: Season Three" (Shout! Factory) offers 29 more episodes (on four discs) from the sitcom starring Emmanuel Lewis as the adorable orphan adopted by Susan Clark and Alex Karras.

 

For more TV on DVD, see the weekly DVD listings in MSN.

 

You could describe "Paul" (Universal), a road movie "E.T." comedy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as sci-fi geeks who pick up an extraterrestrial hitchhiker, as "Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind." MSN has an exclusive extended scene video clip along with a DVD and Blu-ray review here.

 

Continuing on the alien theme is "Mars Need Moms" (Disney), an animated comedy about maternally-challenge​d Martians looking for a little human nannying, from producer Robert Zemeckis, who has been banking on motion-capture technology for the future of animation. Not much success this time around. This colorful adventure of a boy (voiced by Seth Green) who gets whooshed off to the Red Planet and sent on a whiplash adventure to save his mom (Joan Cusack), was a failure both commercially (at $150 million, it was a very expensive flop for Disney) and critically. ""Mars Needs Moms" never manages to cohere," complains MSN film critic Glenn Kenny. "As it piles outlandish weirdness upon outlandish weirdness, culminating, sort of, in something of an interspecies romance for Gribble, it just becomes more and more of a grating chore to sit through. Even though it's barely 90 minutes long."

The film arrives on home video in multiple incarnations. The single-disc DVD features a kid-friendly featurette with Seth Green and quick Martian language tutorial. The two-disc Blu-ray adds an extended version of the opening sequence, seven deleted scenes and the "Life on Mars" viewing mode with commentary by director Simon Wells and actors Seth Green and Dan Fogler and picture-in-picture footage of the raw motion capture footage. The Blu-ray 3D edition is a four-disc set with both 3D and 2D versions on Blu-ray, a DVD version and a digital copy, plus a deleted 3D scene that runs about 30 seconds. You need a 3D enabled TV and Blu-ray player to watch the 3D version.

 

David Gordon Green, the director of "Pineapple Express," takes the stoner comedy to the dark ages with "Your Highness" (Universal), starring Danny McBride as black-sheep prince who tags along with his more traditionally dashing and courageous brother (James Franco) and a sexy female warrior (Natalie Portman) on a quest to save a princess. "It's a bit of a letdown that "Your Highness" is not, as it happens, all that consistently funny in practice," admits MSN film critic Glenn Kenny. "McBride rolling his eyes and dropping F-bombs and acting hideously cavalier toward his character's "squire" wears thin pretty quick, and the humor only really revs up when it skirts the boundaries of actual decency…" Zooey Deschanel and Justin Theroux co-star.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray editions feature and unrated edition of the film (about three minutes longer) in addition to the theatrical version. Director David Gordon Green, co-writer/star Danny McBride and stars James Franco and Justin Theroux reunite for a commentary track and video introduction, and there are alternate and deleted scenes, a gag reel and the featurette "Damn You Gods: The Making of Your Highness." The Blu-ray edition also includes more deleted and extended scenes (including a "Line-O-Rama" montage of improvised lines) and a bonus digital copy.

 

""Jumping the Broom" (Sony) is a perfectly acceptable rom-com with a few nice performances," affirms MSN film critic James Rocchi. The film, about the clashing personalities when the families of the wealthy bride (Paula Patton) and the middle-class groom (Laz Alonso) meet for the first time, "follows fairly predictable lines: There will be public revelations of private melodramas, and the question of if the wedding should even happen, but Salim Akil's direction keeps things moving briskly, and the film's discussion of the African-American community not as a single unit but, rather, as divided by class is a refreshing change." Angela Basset, Loretta Devine, Meagan Good, Gary Dourdan and Julie Bowen co-star. Available on DVD and Blu-ray, with commentary by director Salim Akil and stars Paula Patton and Laz Alonso and two featurettes.

 

Rainn Wilson is a depressed loser who turns himself into a costumed nutcase to take his rage out on the perpetrators of misdemeanors in  "Super" (MPI), a grimy superhero satire from writer/director James Gunn. "Let us simply state for the record that as unclean and irrelevant as "Super" is -- any person who is not an idiot can understand that comic books present a number of faulty ethical and moral premises that don't work in the real world and does not need a lengthy, badly shot film ineffectually jabbing at that concept -- it must be said that Page is a diabolical wonder in it, depraved and deprived and unhinged in her eagerness to work with The Crimson Bolt," charges MSN film critic James Rocchi. That would be Ellen Page, who co-stars along with Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon and Nathon Fillon. Features commentary by James Gunn and Rainn Wilson, two featurettes and a deleted scene.

And the rest:

 

"Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam" (Kino) is a documentary on the Muslim punk rock movement in America, inspired by the same book that was the basis for the fiction feature "The Taqwacores."

Harvey Keitel is "The Last Godfather" (Lionsgate) in this Korean comedy of an Italian-American Mafia Don who appoints his adopted son (Hyung-rae Shim) as the next head of the family. Steve Austin and Michael Jai White star in the direct-to-DVD action thriller "Tactical Force" (Vivendi). "American Bully" (Green Apple) is another take on high school violence, co-starring John Savage and Natasha Henstridge. From Romania comes "Elevator" (Vanguard) a two-person, one-set drama about two teenagers who get stuck in the disabled cargo elevator of an abandoned building.

 

For more on DVD this week, visit weekly DVD listings in MSN.

 

"Secret Diary Of A Call Girl: The Final Season" (Paramount) brings the Showtime original series starring Billie Piper as a high-priced London escort and secret author to an end after four sexy but not particularly engaging seasons. It's ostensibly based on a memoir by a genuine professional escort, sort of a "Happy Hooker" for the 21st century, which series creative producer Lucy Prebble whips into a frothy comic distraction with a lot of sex, plenty of lingerie, a little flesh and a few minor complications that pass for drama.

 

The fourth and final season tries to bring in somewhat more substantial twists when Piper's mentor and veteran escort manager (Cherie Lunghi) is arrested and put on trial and Piper (reluctantly) takes charge of the business and Lunghi's daughter, who has no idea what mother dear does for a living. Meanwhile she tries to balance work (which she loves) and romance (with a civilian who is not so crazy about her work), with the usual disasters. You know, like continuing to sleep with eccentric and complicated clients whose issues bleed across the professional line, when they're not played for easy laughs.

 

The series finale tries to wring a tragedy out of her story that doesn't ring true, but then that's consistent with a show that plays prostitution for fantasy and comedy. Otherwise it ends with just as much sexy nothingness and weightless satire that defined the rest of the series' run.

 

Eight episodes on a single disc and no supplements to speak of, not even a series retrospective. Which is probably in the show's best interests; why remind everyone how little actually happened through the course of four seasons?

 

New Releases:

 

You could describe "Paul" (Universal), a road movie "E.T." comedy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as sci-fi geeks who pick up an extraterrestrial hitchhiker, as "Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind." MSN has an exclusive extended scene video clip along with a DVD and Blu-ray review here.

Continuing on the alien theme is "Mars Need Moms" (Disney), an animated comedy about maternally-challenge​d Martians looking for a little human nannying, from producer Robert Zemeckis and his motion-capture approach to animation. "Your Highness" (Universal) takes the stoner comedy to the dark ages of knights and quests and Danny McBride as black-sheep prince with more arrogance than aptitude. Both were critic and commercial flops.

 

MSN critic James Rocchi is more upbeat about "Jumping the Broom" (Sony), "a perfectly acceptable rom-com with a few nice performances" starring Angela Basset, Paula Patton, Laz Alonso and Loretta Devine, and far less sanguine about "Super" (MPI), a grimy superhero satire with Rainn Wilson as a costumed nutcase.

 

On the indie front is "Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam" (Kino), a documentary on the Muslim punk rock movement in America.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

 

TV on DVD:

 

"Secret Diary Of A Call Girl: The Final Season" (Paramount) brings the Showtime original series starring Billie Piper as a high-priced London escort and secret author to an end with just as much sexy nothingness and weightless satire that defined the rest of the series' run. Videodrone closes the book on the show here.

 

"Hey Arnold! Season One" (Shout! Factory) features the first 20 episodes of the hit Nickelodeon animated series about a goofy kid with a head shaped like a football. "M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series" (Shout! Factory) features all 65 episodes of the eighties-era animated series about a secret society of crime-fighters with high-tech toys.

 

Cool, Classic and Cult:

 

"The Fox And The Hound / The Fox And The Hound 2 - 2-Movie Collection" (Disney) bundles up remastered versions of the 1981 animated features and 2006 direct-to-DVD sequel for a new remastered DVD edition and a Blu-ray debut, both packed with extras.

 

Dirk Bogarde solidified his status as a British matinee idol as the romantic lead of the hit 1954 comedy "Doctor in the House" (VCI), which makes its official American DVD debut along with six of the sequels of the long-running film series. Bogarde stars in three of them—"Doctor At Sea" (VCI), "Doctor At Large" (VCI) and "Doctor in Distress" (VCI)—as well as the 1955 thriller "Simba" (aka "Mark of Mau Mau") (VCI), also making its DVD debut. Videodrone surveys the entire series here.

"Wide Open" (Impulse) is a cult artifact of what you might call Swedish sin-ema, notable largely for the presence of cult actress Christina Lindberg in a minor role. "Clash" (Indomina) is a martial movie from the South Korean action movie industry.

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

 

"The Battle Of Algiers" (Criterion) is Gillo Pontecorvo's controversial drama of Algeria's struggle for independence from France, a mix of documentary and drama directed with a newsreel immediacy and a documentary seriousness. The Blu-ray debut is a lavish two-disc edition filled with supplements and a thick booklet.

 

And for a jolt of nostalgia, go back to high school with "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (Universal) and "Dazed and Confused" (Universal).

 

The complete calendar of releases this week is after the jump:

 

 

Slacker road movie meets extraterrestrial escape odyssey in "Paul" (Universal), a "Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind" from the writer/star of "Shaun of the Dead" and the director of "Superbad." All of which builds expectations for a more, let's say, dynamic film than what emerged. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the buddy team that powers "Shaun" and "Hot Fuzz," are sci-fi geeks on an RV tour of American UFO sites who end up driving an escaped little green man on the run from the government. Seth Rogen voices the CG character, giving him an easy-going quality of a stoner buddy with as much pop-culture savvy and even more common sense than his human counterparts. Not just wise, but wise-*ss, yet always in a manner that lets us know he really likes hanging out with people.

 

See an MSN exclusive nine-minute scene from the film below the jump

 

Watching it on DVD creates a different atmosphere of expectations than a big screen viewing. It got tepid reviews in the theaters ("something about "Paul" feels underbaked," complains MSN film critic James Rocchi) and, yes, it never reaches the levels the comic creativity and clever pop-culture skewering of Frost's "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" or the jagged character dynamics and chaotic honesty of Mottola's "Superbad." The sci-fi/Spielberg movie references get too nerdy for even me sometimes, though I confess that I love the bluegrass band in doing the cantina song from the "Star Wars" in a country roadhouse. And, of course, Jason Bateman kills as a federal agent who doesn't take sh*t from anyone.

But while Mottola never gets the road movie comedy out of low gear, he also creates an easy camaraderie between the trio and, when Kristin Wiig joins them (as a Bible belt true believer who gets a jolt of scientific reason and makes up for lost time with an over-eager potty mouth) the quartet. Rogen's brand of comedy can get annoying but Paul is easily his most likable character and this group is good company for home viewing. Like Paul, I like hanging with these guys too.

 

 

Here's what's new on DVD and Blu-ray this week as featured on Videodrone

Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs for August 2

 

New Releases:

"Rio" – Birds of a Feather

"Stake Land" – Welcome to the Vampire Apocalypse

The New Release Rack: "Soul Surfer," "The Music Never Stopped" and "Outside the Law"

 

TV on DVD:

"Zen" - Rufus Sewell solves crimes in Rome

Tara Unbound in The Final Season of "United States of Tara"

TV on DVD Channel Guide: "Eastbound & Down" Again, plus the end of "Everwood" and a new "Jesse Stone" movie

 

The Cool and the Collectible:

"Sands of the Kalahari" – Stranded in the Desert

"MST3K Vs. Gamera," Melissa Leo goes "Streetwalkin'" and more

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

King "Conan"

"Spy Kids" – You Only Live Thrice

Blu-ray Round-up: "The Name of the Rose," and "Better Off Dead" and Ferris Bueller turns 25

 

Coming up next week:

"Paul" (Universal)

"Your Highness" (Universal)

"Mars Need Moms" (Disney)

"Jumping the Broom" (Sony)

"Super" (MPI)

"The Fox And The Hound / The Fox And The Hound 2 - 2-Movie Collection" (Disney)

"Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff" (Strand)

"The Battle Of Algiers" (Blu-ray) (Criterion)

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (Blu-ray) (Universal)

"Dazed and Confused" (Blu-ray) (Universal)

 

For more upcoming releases, click here

 

With a new incarnation of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero arriving in theaters this summer, the original "Conan the Barbarian" (Universal) and the lesser sequel "Conan the Destroyer" (Universal), the films that turned Arnold Schwarzenegger into an action hero, debut on Blu-ray. Videodrone's review is here. And just as timely is the Blu-ray debut of Robert Rodriguez's whimsical junior secret agent trilogy "Spy Kids" (Lionsgate), "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams" (Lionsgate) and "Spy Kids 3: Game Over" (Lionsgate) in advance of the fourth "Spy Kids" chapter. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Sean Connery is the Sherlock Holmes of the 14th century in "The Name of the Rose" (Warner), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s canny adaptation of Umberto Eco's best-selling novel that mixes history, murder mystery conventions and Eco's lessons in semiotics. Connery plays William of Baskerville, an enlightened Franciscan monk who turns detective to solve the a murder in an Italian monastery and Christian Slater is his young novice, an adolescent Dr. Watson on his journey of sexual and intellectual discovery. The Holmes connections are obvious enough without the film constantly reminding us but otherwise it's quite engaging, a film that reminds us that religious terrorism is not a Muslim invention and that the era was called "the dark ages" for a reason. F. Murray Abraham plays an arrogant Inquisitor, a man who needs no facts to pass judgment on the wicked and Michael Lonsdale, Ron Perlman, Valentina Vargas and William Hickey co-star. Features commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud (with both English and French language tracks, the latter with optional subtitles), the vintage production documentary "The Abbey Of Crime: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose" and a "Photo Video Journal" with commentary by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

 

"Better Off Dead" (Paramount) is a comedy in search of a cult following. John Cusack is your typical obsessive adolescent dealing with rejection: he can’t decide whether to fight the jerk who stole his girl or simply end it all. Luckily he’s got a support group in his jello-snorting best friend (Curtis Armstrong) and the cute French exchange student next door (Diane Franklin). Savage Steve Holland’s crazy debut comedy is less John Hughes than Looney Tunes, stuffed with enough oddball characters (a Japanese car nut who learned to speak English by listening to Howard Cosell, a little brother who builds laser guns and space shuttles out of household appliances), animated interludes (a dancing cheeseburger) and botched suicide attempts too absurd to take seriously (he has a gift for making the worst  of a bad situation), yet there's a sweetness and amiability behind the nuttiness. Cusack sparks to Holland’s surreal sense of humor and they reunited for "One Crazy Summer." David Ogden Stiers and Kim Darby co-star as his befuddled parents. No supplements, though, which is a shame.

 

The fun-loving high school jokester beloved by all (except high school principal Jeffrey Jones) is back in "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Bueller... Bueller... Edition" (Paramount). Matthew Broderick plays the truant hero determined for one last day of playing hooky, much to the delight of the entire population of Chicago, and he takes his reluctant best friend (Alan Ruck) and adoring girlfriend (Mia Sara) along with him. Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen co-star and Ben Stein made his way into the pop culture consciousness as the droning economics teacher desperate for any class participation (“Anyone? Anyone?”). It's been available before on both DVD and Blu-ray but it's getting a re-release this week on honor of the film's 25th Anniversary. Danka Schein one more time with Ferris.

 

And the rest:

 

Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver team up to find a serial killer in "Copycat" (Warner). Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Bruno Kirby, Jason Patric and Brad Pitt head the revenge drama "Sleepers" (Warner) from Barry Levinson. And "Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season" (HBO) presents the beginning of Kenny Powers on Blu-ray (Season Two, also arriving this week, is reviewed here).