Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts carry "Larry Crowne" (Universal), a romantic comedy of downsizing, second chances and making friends at community college. Videodrone's review is here. Speaking of second chances, "Beginners" (Universal) stars Ewan McGregor as an artist challenged to open up his life after his father (Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet at age 75. Videodrone's review is here.

"Bellflower" (Oscilloscope) is a scruffy American indie about cars, friendship, the disappointment of romance and building the perfect car-mounted flame thrower for the apocalypse, and an impressive showcase debut for writer-director-edit​or-actor Evan Glodell, who reportedly made the film for under $15,000. "Like "Fight Club," "Bellflower" is about the unspoken challenge facing American young men trying to make it into manhood -- who do you have to explain to you how to be a man when your only models are the dads in the bad marriages who don't stay and the actors in the bad movies that don't stop?" writes MSN film critic James Rocchi. "It's warm and beautiful and terrible and scary, full of heart and blood and truly unique." The Blu-ray+DVD combo pack includes featurettes, interviews and outtakes.

"The Tree" (Zeitgeist), directed by Julie Bertuccelli, was the closing night film at Cannes 2010. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as French widow in Australia whose youngest daughter thinks her dead father is speaking to her through the fig tree in their yard. "Despite the potential for some supernatural grandiosity, the tone here remains understated and quiet, and Gainsbourg's performance feels lived-in, and deep, and right," writes Philadelphia Inquirer critic Steven Rea. The DVD includes the featurette "In the Shadow of The Tree" and nine deleted scenes, plus an insert with a director interview.

"Griff the Invisible" (Vivendi), from Australia, stars Ryan Kwanten (of "True Blood") as a sad sack by day turned self-made superhero at night. "There have been so many movies about aspiring superheroes in recent years, they practically constitute their own genre," writes New York Daily News film critic Elizabeth Weitzman. "Though hardly ground-breaking, this whimsical Australian entry is just endearing enough to stand out from the pack." On DVD and Blu-ray, with commentary, making-of featurettes and deleted scenes among the supplements. James Rocchi interviews Ryan Kwanten for The Hitlist here.

"Main Street" (Magnolia) stars Colin Firth, Ellen Burstyn, Patricia Clarkson, Amber Tamblyn and Orlando Bloom, who were surely tempted to this ensemble piece for the chance to be in the final screenplay by Horton Foote. "Main Street shoots for a sprawling, John Saylesian portrait of a community, but beyond just being dramatically inert — you can only pick out the climax after the fact — its characters also seems curiously disconnected from each other and from the physical location in which they’re supposed to live," complains Movieline film critic Alison Willmore. The DVD and Blu-ray include a featurette and deleted scenes.

From China comes a remake of "What Women Want" (China Lion) starring Andy Lau and Gong Li in roles created by Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. "Andy Lau and Gong Li are appealing leads, but this Chinese-language carbon copy doesn't find a distinctive voice," writes Los Angeles Times film critic Mark Olsen. Also from China is the historical war epic "The Warring States" (China Lion), a South Korean co-production set in the early Chinese empire. Both in Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles.

 

Jonathon Nossiter directs Charlotte Rampling, Bill Pullman, Irene Jacob and Fisher Stevens in "Rio Sex Comedy" (FilmBuff), which (as you might guess from the title) is a romantic comedy set in the sexually charged atmosphere of Rio de Janeiro.

 

True Stories:

On the non-fiction front is "The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls" (Disinformation), about the New Zealand lesbian twin sister yodeling comedy duo. Village Voice film critic Melissa Anderson writes that "the beloved Kiwi duo, who frequently perform as a rotating cast of corny alter egos, can charm even the crankiest viewers, thanks to their soaring, clarion harmonies and cuddly-butch personas." The DVD includes a featurette and bonus interviews and deleted scenes.

Also this week is "The Wavy Gravy Movie: Saint Misbehaving" (Docurama), a portraits of the counterculture clown and activist who made his fame performing at Woodstock and touring with the Grateful Dead. Features almost an hour of deleted scenes. "Superheroes" (Docurama) looks at the self-styled citizen superheroes who patrol city streets today in homemade costumes and "When Strangers Click: Five Stories From The Internet" (Disinformation) profiles stories of couples who met through online dating.

 

Plus:

"Sleep Furiously" (Microcinema), a contemplative drama set in a small farming community in Wales; "The Littlest Angel" (Anchor Bay), a new animated version of the bestselling kids book; The horror film "The Open Door" (Phase 4) and the western "The Righteous and the Wicked" (Lionsgate).

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 15

 

"Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1" (Warner) promises "50 of the greatest shorts the studio has ever made" and I while I may quibble over specific choices, I can't fault the overall curation of the collection, which leans toward the diversity of artists, characters and styles through the golden age of the Warner animation unit.

 

Disc One features the best of the defining characters: Bug Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, plus Sylvester and Tweety, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe le Pew and Speedy Gonzales. Among the 25 cartoons collected here are Chuck Jones' two brilliant opera spoofs "Rabbit of Seville" and "What's Opera, Doc," Daffy in "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" and "Robin Hood Daffy," the Oscar-winning "Tweetie Pie" (the debut of Tweety Bird), two definitive Road Runner classics and one of the greatest cartoons every made: "Duck Amuck," where Daffy goes to war against a prankster animator.

 

Disc Two is a treasure trove of the studio's greatest one-shots and minor creations. Along with such one-offs as "One Froggy Evening" (the wordless masterpiece with the all-singing, all dancing frog) "The Three Little Bops" (a jazzbo rendition of The Three Little Pigs with Stan Freberg doing voice duty) and "The Dover Boys at Pimento University" (Chuck Jones' wonderfully surreal parody of 19th century dime novels with Tom, Dick and Larry and not-so-helpless damsel Dora) are the complete golden age appearance of Marvin the Martian (five cartoons, including "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century"), the Tasmanian Devil (five cartoons), Witch Hazel (four), kitten-loving canine Marc Antony (three) and Ralph Richards, the boy daydreamer whose flights of fantasy take him through the most delightful of boy's own adventures (two cartoons, both directed by Chuck Jones).

There's commentary on more than half of the cartoons plus bonus featurettes on various characters, creators and individual cartoons on each disc, while Disc Three is all supplements, anchored by the documentaries "Chuck Amuck: The Movie" and "Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens, a Life in Animation" and the interview featurette "Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood." It also features nine Chuck Jones rarities (including six made for various branches of the U.S. Government) and animated shorts with the classic Warner characters made since 1980. The entire set is collected in a sturdy booklet with notes and art. A deluxe edition comes in a hefty box  that only adds a couple of extras: a framed litho cel with a certificate of authenticity, souvenir tin sign magnet and a Bugs Bunny shot glass. You decide if that's worth an extra $20 to you.  

 

In its own way a true service to the animation collector, but it's also a frustration to those very collectors who have so meticulously picked up every Looney Tunes collection. With the exception of the bonus shorts on disc three, every classic cartoon has already been released on DVD in various collections and this isn't going to take the place of any existing DVD set. But it sure is a beauty of a set.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 15

 

"Being Human: The Complete First Season (U.S.)" (eOne) is the American incarnation of the original British series about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who become roommates in a Boston house.

 

Yeah, I know it sounds like the set-up for a joke, but it's really another entry in horror TV in the post-"Buffy" era, and it's one of the better ones. The original British series started strong, telling the story of "monsters" trying to live human lives while resisting the pull of their new supernatural instincts and communities. Which, of course, is complicated when you sprout fangs at the promise of fresh blood, turn into a hairy, feral killer at the full moon or have a tendency to unleash an earthquake in the home whenever your emotions get out control. That's exactly when you can use a little help from your friends.

 

I liked the first season of the original British series but thought it lost its way in the second season. The debut season of the American series, which at 13 episodes is almost as long as the first two British seasons combined, turns out to be a sturdier construct than the original.

 

It's remarkably faithful to the storylines of the original while adding new threads of its own and it makes good use of the extended season to slow down the pace and explore their journeys and their struggles. Sam Witwer has that bad-boy edge and malevolent smile thing down as Aidan the reformed (but still tempted) vampire, Meaghan Rath is as cute as her excitable British counterpart as the ghost Sally, and I really like Sam Huntington as the nerdy sad-sack werewolf Josh, who has an even greater conflict than his British counterpart when he gets a human pregnant. That's gonna be a difficult during the full moon.

 

SyFy originals are a spotty lot, I confess, but this one doesn't shy away from the more feral qualities of the original -- it's not just about bloodlust and temptation, it's about giving in and dealing with remorse and guilt, the human part of the monster mash -- and it offers up characters that we can invest ourselves in. But I wonder if Boston is starting to get a complex, since the show is actually shot in Montreal. With "Leverage" doubling Portland, Oregon, for Boston, you figure someone in the state has got be thinking of extending those film subsidies.

 

13 episodes on four discs in a three-panel digipak, with two discs stacked in each tray, plus supplements: the featurettes "The Making of Being Human" and "What Would You Choose?," bonus interviews with stars Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath and Sam Huntington, and footage from their appearance at Comic Con. The second season begins on SyFy in January.

Here's a clip from the first episode.

 

"Beginners" (Universal) stars Ewan McGregor as an artist challenged to open up his life after his newly widowed 75-year-old father (Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet at age 75 and embraces the identity he had hidden all his life. Loving himself and living out his true nature allows the father, who spent his life guarding himself physically and emotionally, to open up to his son in ways he had shrouded in the past, as memories attest: Dad is absent from his past but for the back of a head always leaving with a perfunctory show of guarded affection.

 

Mills, inspired by his own experience with his father, gives the film a celebratory passion in the quiet closeness of father and son and the playful first-person storytelling, where gentle eccentricities and anxious memories and fears of commitment and loss swirl together. Mélanie Laurent co-stars as the woman who challenges McGregor to follow his father's lead and follow his heart. Plummer's performance is superb and already Hollywood is talking Oscar.

 

"There's no resisting Plummer as a sweet septuagenarian who revels through his few out-and-proud years, then soldiers through terminal lung cancer," concurs MSN film critic Kat Murphy, but she's less sold on the rest of the film than I am. "Folks will either embrace the "real"... or recoil from the reek of indie twee. Though drawn from the director's life-altering personal experiences, this amiable dramedy seems oddly lightweight and remote."

 

On DVD and Blu-ray with commentary by writer/director Mike Mills, the featurette "A Short Film About Making Beginners" and a promo. The Blu-ray also features the usual interactive BD-Live functions. Also available on Digital Download and On-Demand.

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 15

 

Never heard of "Neverwhere," the 1996 urban fantasy mini-series that Neil Gaiman (fresh from his groundbreaking comic book series "Sandman") created for the BBC? That's perhaps all too familiar here in the states, where the unconventional show never received any real exposure. In fact, the novel (which he wrote simultaneously with the script) is more well known than this series.

 

"Neverwhere: 15th Anniversary Edition" (BBC), developed by Gaiman with actor/comedian Lenny Henry and scripted by Gaiman, should help bring a little attention to the first screen project by the author of "American Gods" and "Coraline" and the screenwriter of "MirrorMask" and "Beowulf."

 

Like the original "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," is was shot on video on a limited budget and shown in six 30-minute episodes, not the usual format for adventure fantasy. Then again this story, about a hapless, happily oblivious young guy (Gary Bakewell) whose normal life is all but erased when he becomes inadvertently involved with a power struggle in the magical world of London Below, is not your usual screen fantasy.

 

See an exclusive clip from with Neil Gaiman and his collaborators below

 

Given the limitations of budget and video technology in 1996, it is still quite an engaging series. Think a flamboyant mix of "Doctor Who" imagery with a medieval sensibility, classical chivalry and modern urban fantasy, all with a dark edge and a comic bounce. Paterson Joseph really capture the spirit of the project as our sly guide Marquis de Carabas, a mercenary but principled cross between a supernatural spy and "Alice In Wonderland"’s White Rabbit.

 

The new single-disc edition remasters the series and features a new introduction and commentary by Gaiman, co-creator Lenny Henry and producer Clive Brill, plus an interview with and select commentary by Gaiman from the 2003 DVD release.

 

Neil Gaiman talks about the production compromises in making the film on videotape and a sitcom budget, with co-writer Lenny Henry and producer Clive Brill in this exclusive clip from the introduction to the DVD.

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 15

 

"Larry Crowne" (Universal), directed and co-written by and starring Tom Hanks, just wants to be liked. Hanks plays a department store salesman who gets downsized in the economic climate and enrolls in community college to get a degree and a new start and he's as sweet and unassuming and genuine a fellow as you'll see in a film this year. Of course he's just the guy to pull his speech teacher (Julia Roberts) out of the funk of career burnout and a miserable marriage (Bryan Cranston, a procrastinating writer who spends his days searching vintage porn).

 

Hanks wants to tap into the zeitgeist of the era -- Larry is just another hard working citizen upended in the culture of economic instability and career turmoil -- but the script (co-written with Nia Vardalos, who has a way of softening any material to inoffensive mush) lacks any sense of gravity. Hanks has too much moxie to let little things like unemployment and an underwater mortgage get him down and good old Larry lets go of everything with so little anxiety that it's like he was never invested in the first place.

 

What the film has going for it mostly is the company. Larry is so unthreatening that the cutest girl in school (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) makes him her new BFF, much to the frustration of her would-be boyfriend (Wilmer Valderrama), and he ends up charming the entire motor-scooter club. That's right, it's community college and these guys buzz around on buzzing little scooters. That's how this film rolls.

 

"The script is often treacle and silly, and it's filled with little bits and conceits that are neither well-justified nor satisfactorily followed up, but it is kind of an exemplary structure," defends MSN film critic Glenn Kenny, who was more charmed than I was by the not-to-be-dismissed auras of Hanks and Roberts. "The picture appears to be very generous in doling out to its characters ample and ostensibly entertaining bits to execute. And since said characters' parts are being filled with really lively and appealing and sometimes unexpected performers (it's rather delightful to see Julia Roberts bantering with Pam Grier, still beauteous and formidable, playing an academic colleague), the bits really are entertaining."

Add to that George Takei having a ball as an economics professor with a flair for theatrics and Holmes Osborne as the glad-handing college dean, and you've got a pretty likable group of folks to spend time with. (There's also Cedric  the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson, but he's just doing Cedric shtick and she's simply not given much of anything to do). The problem is, it doesn't feel like a movie as much as highlights from a season of TV: "Community" as a gentle, heartwarming tale of a man rediscovering his potential. It's only Hanks and company that make it work as well as it does.

 

On DVD and Blu-ray, with a featurette, deleted scenes a "Fun on the Set" montage of behind-the-scene footage. And yeah, I have no doubt that this was a fun set to be on.

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 15

 

Here's what happening on home video this week.

New Releases:

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts carry "Larry Crowne" (Universal), a romantic comedy of downsizing, second chances and making friends at community college. It has all the grit of double mocha but then it's not really about economic anxiety. Hanks has too much moxie to let little things like unemployment and an underwater mortgage get him down. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Speaking of second chances, "Beginners" (Universal) stars Ewan McGregor as an artist challenged to open up his life after his father (Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet at age 75 and engages fully for the first time in his life. Plummer's performance is superb and already Hollywood is talking Oscar. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"The Tree" (Zeitgeist), directed by Julie Bertuccelli, was the closing night film at Cannes 2010. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as French widow in Australia whose youngest daughter thinks her dead father is speaking to her through the fig tree in their yard.

 

"Bellflower" (Oscilloscope) is a scruffy American indie about cars, friendship, romance and building the perfect flame thrower. "Griff the Invisible" (Vivendi) , from Australia, stars Ryan Kwanten (of "True Blood") as a sad sack by day turned self-made superhero at night.

 

"Main Street" (Magnolia) stars Colin Firth, Ellen Burstyn, Patricia Clarkson, Amber Tamblyn and Orlando Bloom in the final screenplay by Horton Foote and Jonathon Nossiter directs Charlotte Rampling, Bill Pullman, Irene Jacob and Fisher Stevens in "Rio Sex Comedy" (FilmBuff). From China comes a remake of "What Women Want" (China Lion) starring Andy Lau and Gong Li in roles created by Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.

 

On the non-fiction front is "The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls" (Disinformation), about the New Zealand lesbian twin sister music-and-comedy duo, and portraits of the counterculture clown "The Wavy Gravy Movie: Saint Misbehaving" (Docurama) and the real life citizen "Superheroes" (Docurama) patrolling city streets today.

 

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

 

TV on DVD:

"Being Human: The Complete First Season (U.S.)" (eOne) is the American incarnation of the original British series about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who become roommates and try to live like regular folk. Which, of course, is complicated when you sprout fangs at the promise of fresh blood or turn into a hairy, feral killer at the full moon.  Videodrone's review is here.

 

"It Takes a Thief: The Complete Series" (eOne) features the entire three-season run of the sixties international espionage series starring Robert Wagner as a career criminal turned playboy agent: 66 episodes on 18 discs, plus bonus interviews and a set of coasters. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Neverwhere: 15th Anniversary Edition" (BBC) remasters the 1996 British mini-series adapted by Neil Gaiman from his own novel (reviewed here, with an exclusive clip), and "Crime Story: The Complete Series" (Image) collects the two seasons of Michael Mann’s sixties-era gangster series in bargain-priced edition (reviewed here).

 

Flip through the TV on DVD Channel Guide here

Cool, Classic and Cult:

Criterion has a reputation for presenting the greatest film of world cinema in superb editions, but with week they top even their own high standards. "Three Colors: Blue White Red" (Criterion) offers newly remastered editions of the Krzysztof Kieslowski films, a sublime trilogy given a magnificent treatment. And Jean Renoir's "The Rules Of The Game" (Criterion) is rereleased in a new, improved high-definition master with additional supplements. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Alex Cox went south of the border to make "Highway Patrolman" (Microcinema) in 1992 and came up with a superb low-budget crime thriller of morality and corruption. And "Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis" (Kino) is the 1984 reconstruction of Fritz Lang's silent classic with newly-discovered footage, lavish tints and a rock soundtrack, all but displaced by recent restorations but influential in its day.

 

All of the Cool, Classic and Cult here

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

A pair of classic, Oscar-winning musicals go Blu this week: "West Side Story: 50th Anniversary Edition" (Fox) is released in two editions, including a deluxe four-disc set filled with supplements and featuring a bonus tribute CD and a booklet (reviewed here, with an exclusive clip), and "My Fair Lady" (Paramount) features the wealth of extras originally presented on the DVD special edition.

 

"Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1" (Warner) presents the HD debut of 50 of the greatest Looney Tunes cartoons in a three-disc set with commentaries, featurettes and hours of bonus documentaries. Videodrone's review is here.

"Farscape: The Complete Series" (A&E) features all four seasons of the wild made-for-cable science fiction series (but not the mini-series finale) along with all the commentary tracks, featurettes and other supplements from the DVD incarnations.

 

"Evil Dead II: 25th Anniversary Edition" (Lionsgate) is simply the latest excuse to rerelease this cult classic, while "Mysterious Island" (Twilight Time) is the debut Blu-ray release from the boutique label Twilight Time. Plus there's "Infernal Affairs" (Lionsgate), the film that inspired Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," and "Despair" (Olive), Rainer Werner Fassbinder's English language debut.

 

Peruse all the new Blu-rays here

 

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

 

It's a self-sacrifice recall!

 

The DVD release of "Atlas Shrugged Part One" describes the film as such: "Ayn Rand's timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice comes to life for a new millennium." That's right, "courage and self-sacrifice." Which, as anyone familiar with the objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand knows, is the complete opposite of everything she stands for. Self-sacrifice? Are you kidding? Or could this be a kinder, gentler Ayn Rand?

 

Naaah, it's just another misstep in the film's awkward stumble to insignificance and anonymity. In fact, it's supposed to read "Ayn Rand's timeless novel of rational self-interest," because as we all know, nothing is more courageous or rational than self-interest. Copies of the DVD and Blu-ray sold through the film official website have the correct text but retail editions are all about the self-sacrifice.

 

So copies of DVDs and Blu-rays on the shelves are being recalled and corrected, and a website has been set up for anyone who already purchased a copy. Because surely SOMEONE bought a copy of the DVD, right?

My question: why would you want to replace it? Not because Harmon Kaslow, CEO of Atlas Productions and producer of the film, thinks that "You’ve inadvertently got yourself a real collector’s item there." I just think that if you're going to leave the "comes to life" part on the case, then why quibble about the rest of inaccuracies?

 

Thanks to The Slog for the tip.

 

Here's the complete press release (from the Atlas Shrugged Movie website), after the jump.