Though "The Hour" (BBC) opens in the anonymous offices and hushed (or more accurately somnambulistic) TV newsrooms of the BBC of 1956, the cool swing of the soundtrack suggests something more along the lines of a spy show. It turns out the "The Hour," a new BBC miniseries, is both, an odd but intriguing hybrid of journalism drama and Cold War conspiracy thriller.

See an MSN exclusive behind-the-scenes clip from the DVD and Blu-ray release below

 

Writer/creator Abi Morgan almost sabotages the show in the first episode, making our maverick newshound hero Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw) a wild card who loudly criticizes the anemic BBC style, insults his bosses and generally makes himself such a nuisance that you wonder why no one has fired him. It's only the loyalty of his best friend Bel (Romola Garai), newly promoted to produce a fresh, adventurous TV news hour, that lands him a position where he can put his ideas of confronting and engaging the news into practice. The handsome, somewhat arrogant and only modestly talented newsreader (Dominic West) fills out the team. Hired purely out of nepotism, he gets inspired by the exciting work on the show and by the charms of Bel, while Freddie learns the not-so-fine art of working with people rather than simply berating them. Meanwhile, there is a murder mystery, a government cover-up of an international conspiracy and a mole at BBC News.

 

 

"Carlos" (Criterion), Olivier Assayass' epic account of the life and myth of real-life terrorist Carlos the Jackal, is a mesmerizing portrait of committed activist who transforms himself into a media-hungry rock star of an international terrorist.

 

Édgar Ramírez plays Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, aka Carlos the Jackal (a name he appropriates after the Fredrick Forsythe nove), as a bundle of contradictions, a self-professed revolutionary out to destroy the capitalist system and champion the oppressed, and a man whose love of luxury grows in direct relation to his notoriety, from fine clothes and liquor to gifting himself with a Mercedes for his 30th birthday. He imagines himself Che Guevara, a charismatic and revered leader spouting off revolutionary philosophy and giving orders that are obeyed without question by his own followers, but to him it's all about the cult of personality and feeding his ego. By the end, it's hard to tell if he's at all committed to his or merely to himself, the outlaw superstar.

 

Olivier Assayass packs the film with incident and energy, trailing after his globe-hopping journey all over Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East and watching the characters to blow through his story, and directs with a pace that suggests the runaway drive of the numerous missions yet pauses for us to get to know, if only briefly, all these characters and places. He takes the camera to the streets with handheld flexibility reigned in by stylistic discipline. It’s not about mock-documentary realism and exaggerated wobble but getting in, getting out, getting the shot with an immediacy that his jumped-up editing drives to a run. And yet it never feels rushed, even when missions spiral out of control. At almost six hours over three parts I was still ready for more, even as the once-sleek figure of outlaw style succumbs to gluttony and self-indulgence, physically and emotionally.

 

 

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (Paramount), Michael Bay's third rock 'em sock 'em giant robot spectacular, was shot and designed for 3D, a format that forced the director to slow his chaotic editing down and create a coherent action canvas. While the DVD and Blu-ray are standard format, they too benefit from the restraint: you can actually see the transformations unfold and the action play out. It's just the story that makes no sense.

 

What passes for a screenplay involves the discovery of Sentinel Prime, the former leader of the Autobots, on the dark side of the moon, and the Decipticon plot to enslave humanity to rebuild their homeworld. At least, that's the part that doesn't concern once and future hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) trying to land a job. Seriously, the kid who save saved the world -- twice -- and essentially signed the greatest living weapons in the universe to an exclusive partnership with the American military can't land a job, merely a supremely hot and utterly vacant new model girlfriend (Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in her acting debut, though there's less action than posing and walking around seductively in runway fashions and underwear) and an absurdly luxurious Washington D.C. loft. What, no one in the Defense Department will give the guy a letter of recommendation?

 

Anyway, after an ingenious hook of an opening scene, Bay and screenwriter Ehren Kruger pile on caricatures (John Turturro as the obsessive Agent Simmons, John Malkovich as eccentric software genius Bruce Brazos) and comedy scenes (special credit to Alan Tudyk, who vamps tired bits with madcap commitment and wild intensity) until Sentinel Prime is revived with the voice of Leonard Nimoy (complete with gratuitous "Star Trek" gag) and the evil Decipticon scheme is revealed. Then the film revs up for an hour of non-stop combat. Because when you get down to it, this is a movie about giant alien robots who go to war in Chicago and destroy half the city along the way. Who needs a story?

 

 

New Releases:

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (Paramount), Michael Bay's third rock 'em sock 'em giant robot spectacular, was shot and designed for 3D, which forced the director to slow his chaotic editing down and create a coherent action canvas. While the DVD and Blu-ray are standard format, they too benefit from the restraint: you can actually see the transformations unfold and the action play out. It's just the story that makes no sense. But then again, it's a movie about giant alien robots who go to war in the city of Chicago and destroy half the city along the way, so who needs a story? Note that this is a Friday, September 30 release and features no supplements. Expect a special edition and a Blu-ray 3D version by the holidays. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Carlos" (Criterion), Olivier Assayass' epic account of the life and myth of real-life terrorist Carlos the Jackal, is a mesmerizing portrait of committed activist who transforms himself into a media-hungry rock star of an international terrorist. It is packed with incident and detail and moves at a remarkable for its entire five-and-a-half-plus​ hour running time. Videodrone's review is here.

Also new this week: the thriller "The Ledge" (IFC) with Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson, the Hong Kong gangster flick "The Stool Pigeon" (Well Go USA) with Nicholas Tse and "Viva Riva!" (Music Box), an award-winning, adrenaline-charged African crime thriller set in Kinsasha, Congo, among a generous collection of foreign language films this week.

 

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

 

TV on DVD:

"The Hour" (BBC), a BBC mini-series set in the fifties, is an odd but intriguing hybrid of journalism drama and Cold War conspiracy thriller, all set in the crucible of a fresh, adventurous TV news hour that pushes against the suffocating government restrictions on reporting. Though the soap opera diversions tend to distract, it builds to a dynamic climax that creates high tension out of low-key defiance. Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai and Dominic West star. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Queer as Folk (Original U.K. Series): The Complete Collection" (Acorn) presents the entire run of the groundbreaking British series created by Russell T. Davies. Set in the gay culture of Manchester, it also launched the careers of Aidan Gillen ("Game of Thrones") and Charlie Hunnam ("Sons of Anarchy"). Of course, being British, "Complete" means that it's a mere six episodes.

"How to Make It in America: The Complete First Season" (HBO) is the half-hour HBO comic-drama and "Call Me Fitz: The Complete First Season" (eOne) is a black comedy starring Jason Priestly, originally made for Canadian cable.

 

Plus the continuing shows keep rolling out. On the comedy side, we have "How I Met Your Mother: The Complete Season Six" (Fox), "The Middle: The Complete Second Season" (Warner) and HBO's "Hung: The Complete Second Season" (HBO), while on the drama side the entire "CSI" franchise rolls out: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – The Eleventh Season" (Paramount), which is final season for Laurence Fishburne, "CSI: Miami – The Ninth Season" (Paramount) and "CSI: New York - The Seventh Season" (Paramount).

 

Flip through the TV on DVD Channel Guide here

Cool, Classic and Cult:

"Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938" (Image) is the kind of labor of love that makes my job so much fun. This collection of features, shorts, documentaries, newsreels, travelogues and fragments from the silent and early sound era is more about preservation and education than simple entertainment, but it is entertaining as well as revealing. It's a record of the American West as it was transforming from frontier to modern world, as viewed through fictional representations and documentary recordings. The richness of offerings and the span of formats presents a visual record that makes the case for film preservation better than any lecture. All this and Clara Bow, flirting her way through the Yukon.

 

"The Phantom Carriage" (Criterion) is considered one of the masterpieces of the early twenties and the greatest film of Sweden's silent era, and for good reason. It's a gorgeous film with understated performances, haunting imagery and a human drama as compelling as any modern masterpiece. Criterion presents its long-awaited home video debut in a superb edition on DVD and Blu-ray.

 

"To Be Twenty" (RaroVideo) is a sexploitation youth drama rarity from gangster movie specialist Fernando di Leo and "The Cloud-Capped Star" (Facets) is Indian film master Ritwik Ghatak's 1960 family melodrama set in Calcutta.

 

Also new: "Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore" (Image) from fellow cult horror director Frank Henenlotter and "Ma & Pa Kettle Complete Comedy Collection" (Universal).

All of the Cool, Classic and Cult here

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

"Ben-Hur: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition" (Warner) is the latest Oscar-winning epic to the Blu-ray treatment in a newly-remastered HD edition. Yes, it is a big, lumbering epic that can barely support its own weight, but then it has the square shoulder of the even squarer Charlton Heston to hold it up, and the new edition features a new documentary on Heston as well as documentaries on the film and a DVD edition of the original silent version of the film from 1925. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Footloose" (Paramount) gets its HD debut as the remake is set to hit theaters and Videodrone has an exclusive clip. Kino continues rolling out Keaton on Blu-ray with "Buster Keaton: Go West / Battling Butler" (Kino), reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

Guillermo Del Toro reworks his American film debut with "Mimic: The Director's Cut" (Lionsgate) and "The Blood Trilogy" (Image) features the Blu-ray debut of three grindhouse gore classics from Herschel Gordon Lewis.

 

Peruse all the new Blu-rays here

 

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

 

"Captain America: The First Avenger" (Paramount) has been announced for release next month. On October 25, the World War II superhero film will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD and a Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, in editions packed with featurettes and other supplements.

The next month, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" (Warner) brings to an end the epic journey of "the boy who lived" with the final installment on home video.

Friday, November 11, you'll be able to complete that match set on both Blu-ray and DVD, plus it will be available via Digital Download and OnDemand for those who aren't set on owning the set. 

And in December the Wolf Pack is back for "The Hangover Part II" (Warner), arriving on December 6 on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Download and OnDemand.

Also recently announced:

"Horrible Bosses" (Warner), arriving October 11 on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, Digital Download and OnDemand

"Crazy, Stupid, Love." (Warner), coming November 1 on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, Digital Download and OnDemand

"Super 8" (Paramount), set for November 22 on Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and single-disc DVD

For calendar of upcoming releases, click here

 

 

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

 

Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for September 20

 

New Releases:

"Bridesmaids" Gone Wild

Foreign Affairs: Catherine Deneuve in 'I Want to See' and Semih Kaplanoğlu's "Yusuf Trilogy, plus 'Nostalgia For the Light' and horror films from hither and yon

The New Release Rack: 'Bride Flight' to New Zealand and 'Set Up' Straight to DVD, plus an Aussie musical, a Mexican circus documentary and more

 

TV on DVD:

Emmy Winners: "Modern Family," "Mike & Molly" and "The Kennedys"

'Hawaii Five-0: The First Season' – The Next Generation

'Body of Proof: The Complete First Season'

TV's first "Mike Hammer" and the best of "Dick Van Dyke"

TV on DVD Channel Guide: Emmy winners, new shows, old shows, continuing shows and more

 

The Cool and the Collectible:

Classics: 'Le Beau Serge' and 'Les Cousins'

'Landmarks of Early Soviet Film,' 'Visions of Eight,' 'The Inspector General' and more

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

'Star Wars: The Complete Saga' - Version 3.0

Wes Craven's original 'Last House On The Left' and 'The Hills Have Eyes'

Blu-ray Round-up: 'Dumbo,' ,'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' 'The Others' and more

 

Interviews:

Watching with Kristin Wiig: Talking movies and DVDs with the star and co-writer of "Bridesmaids"

Coming up next week:

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (Paramount) (Friday, September 30)

"Carlos" (Criterion)
"Good Neighbors" (Magnolia)

"Viva Riva!" (Music Box)

"The Stool Pigeon" (Well Go USA)

"Angel of Evil" (Fox)

"Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938" (Image)

"The Phantom Carriage" (Criterion)
"The Hour" (BBC)
"How to Make It in America: The Complete First Season" (HBO)

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – The Eleventh Season" (Paramount)

"CSI: Miami – The Ninth Season" (Paramount)

"CSI: New York - The Seventh Season" (Paramount)

"How I Met Your Mother: The Complete Season Six" (Fox)

"The Middle: The Complete Second Season" (Warner)

"Hung: The Complete Second Season" (HBO)

"The Cleveland Show: The Complete Season Two" (Fox)

"Army Wives: The Complete Fifth Season" (Disney)

"Ben-Hur 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition" (Blu-ray) (Warner)

"Mimic: The Director's Cut" (Blu-ray) (Lionsgate)

"The Blood Trilogy" (Blu-ray) (Image)

"Basket Case" (Blu-ray) (Image)

 

For calendar of upcoming releases, click here

 

Variety reported today that "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" sold more than a million units worldwide, breaking records to become the best selling Blu-ray release of all time.

 

And it's not even Christmas.

 

The set was released on Monday, September 12 in Britain, Australia and Sweden and Friday, September 19 in the U.S. and elsewhere. Which means that, for the most part, it took merely a week to shoot to the top, though in the current culture of Internet sales and deep-discount pre-orders, those numbers were building for months before it was even released.

 

Variety reports that sales for the nine-disc set broke 1 million units, a first for Blu-ray, with 515,000 sold in the U.S. alone.

Variety reports that sales for the nine-disc set broke 1 million units, a first for Blu-ray, with 515,000 sold in the U.S. alone. That translates to about $84 million worldwide, according to a press release from Fox, which was quick to spread the news.

This is not necessarily a surprise but it is good news for the high definition format. Blu-ray sales are growing while DVD sales drop, but the increase is not enough to make up the difference in the home video market. It is, however, a boost for Blu-ray, a format that gets more popular with improvements in home theater technology.

 

George Lucas angered many die-hard fans by releasing only his revised versions of the original trilogy ("Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi"), which include added special effects and new and/or altered scenes (the notorious "Greedo shoots first" in "Star Wars" and, new to this edition, Vader's "Nooooooo!" at the climax of "Jedi," among the most egregious to the faithful), but such revisionism didn't appear to deter sales.

 

Videodrone's review of "Star Wars: The Complete Saga is here.

 

The 1941 Disney animated classic about a little circus pachyderm with big ears and the unlikely ability to fly, makes its Blu-ray debut with "Dumbo: 70th Anniversary Edition" (Disney) in newly remastered edition. It was Disney's fourth animated feature and, if slight of story, is as beautiful as any of their classics. The Blu-ray features all of the featurettes and other supplements from previous releases except the commentary by animator and historian John Canemaker on the "60th Anniversary Edition," which it replaces with a new commentary track by Pete Docter, Paula Sigman and Andreas Deja. This comes out in both DVD and Blu-ray editions this week, but exclusive to the Blu-ray is a "Cine-Explore" picture-in-picture mode with commentators plus video clips, vintage interviews, art and other supplementary material, and two bonus animated shorts.

 

DVD Beaver Lensview critic Leonard Norwitz gives it high marks for color, clarity and restoration, though is less impressed with the new dts-HD 7.1 remix (the disc also includes restored stereo), and offers screencap comparison to the previous DVD release. Adam Gregorich at Home Theater Forum has a marvelous feature on the restoration of "Dumbo" and the preservation of the Disney library.

Audrey Hepburn is perfection as carefree and kooky New York party girl Holly Golightly in "Breakfast At Tiffany’s" (Paramount), Blake Edwards’ sparkling adaptation of Truman Capote's bittersweet novella. Holly's not exactly a hooker in this somewhat gentile take, directed by Blake Edwards from George Axelrod's adaptation, but she does live off dates. That gives her at least one thing in common with George Peppard's aspiring novelist Paul Varjak, who gets by as a “kept man” (Patricia Neal does the keeping). Mickey Rooney’s buck-toothed turn as the Japanese landlord is an insulting racial stereotype that only looks worse with age, but the film is otherwise a smoothly handsome and quietly elegant romantic drama with playful touches of humor. Blake Edwards was a real hand at comedy, but this film brought out another side of the director that is often forgotten. It won Oscars for Henry Mancini’s lovely score and the movie’s legendary theme song “Moon River” by Mancini and Johnny Mercer.

 

The Blu-ray features the supplements from the "Centennial Collection" DVD release a couple of years ago, namely commentary by producer Richard Shepherd and a bunch of featurettes. Actors from the party scene have a reunion to discuss the scene and cocktail culture of the era in "A Golightly Gathering," the "yellowface" stereotype is dissected in "Mr. Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective," and "Henry Mancini: More Than Music" profiles the composer, and all of these are presented in HD. The rest of the featurettes (in SD) include the cursory "The Making of a Classic," "It’s So Audrey: A Style Icon," "Behind The Gates: The Tour" and "Brilliance In A Blue Box" (a brief history of the jewelry story Tiffany and Co.). Also includes “Audrey's Letter to Tiffany,” galleries of stills and posters and the original trailer. Archivist Robert Harris gives it his seal of approval here.

 

Nicole Kidman hides with her sunlight-averse kids in a gloomy mansion haunted by something truly frightening in "The Others" (Lionsgate), an inspired spin on Henry James’ "Turn of the Screw" set in an isolated Irish manor house in the closing days of World War II. Directed by Spanish stylist Alejandro Amenabar ("The Sea Inside"), this spooky little gothic ghost story is shrouded in the darkness of a perpetually shadowy house enveloped in a seemingly eternal fog. Kidman’s fragile performance, with her terrified eyes and barely controlled voice catching in her throat, is perfectly modulated. It’s a genuinely shiver inducing ghost story that plays mood over shocks, and one of the most interesting portraits denial and acceptance you’ll find in the movies. Includes four featurettes.

 

The new Blu-ray editions of Wes Craven's "Last House On The Left: Unrated Collector’s Edition" (Fox) and "The Hills Have Eyes" (Image) are reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

Hannibal Lecter made his first screen debut in Michael Mann's "Manhunter" (Fox), starring William Peteren and Joan Allen and featuring Brian Cox as Lecter, but it was Anthony Hopkins who made Lecter a star, in essence, and takes top billing in "Hannibal" (Fox), the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs" with Julianne Moore taking over Jodie Foster's role

And there are more sequels this week: "Robocop 2" (Fox) with Peter Weller and Nancy Allen and Irvin Kershner taking the reigns from Paul Verhoeven, "Poltergeist II" (Fox), with Brian Gibson in the director's seat, and a couple of comedies. "Scary Movie 3: Unrated" (Lionsgate) is my vote for the funniest spoof in the series, thanks to the brilliant decision of inviting "Airplane!" co-director David Zucker to reboot the crude comedy with his brand of humor. And when I say "crude comedy," I'm referring to the likes of "Scary Movie 2" (Lionsgate).

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs for September 20