From acclaimed filmmakers Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, the powerful and inspiring epic drama “Cloud Atlas” explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future.

 

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Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future.

 

Watch this exclusive clip as Tom Hanks and Lana Wachowskis discuss Hanks' multi-dimensional character in "Cloud Atlas" and enter to win the Blu-ray combo pack!

 

 

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Entries are accepted until Friday, May 17. Good luck, MSN Movies fans!

 

Howard Hawks made his sound film debut with "The Dawn Patrol" (Warner Archive), a World War I aerial warfare theater drama of American pilots facing daily slaughter against the better-equipped German fighters. Richard Barthelmess is the squadron leader and ace pilot who berates their commander (Neil Hamilton) over the grueling mission schedule and devastating fatalities, then finds himself making the same demands when he's promoted to command and taking the daily orders from HQ. War is hell indeed and it gets chewed over in a lot of dialogue scenes that that hit the point a little too square on the head, especially as Hamilton barks his objections to HQ over the phone. Which isn't that unusual for early sound movies.

 

What's more interesting is the watching Hawks develop the culture of what would become his signature world of professionals facing death on a daily basis. In the air, these young men have become battle-hardened killers. On the ground, they are raucous, hard drinking, scrappy. When only half the squadron returns from a mission, they don't mourn. They sing. "A toast to the men who have died before us and a toast to the next man to die." In fact, in the vernacular, they don't die. They have "gone west."

 

While some of the ground drama has the stiffness of early sound movies, Hawks creates energy within the frame and even manages to track some of the characters with small but effective movement (no small feat when the camera is locked in a giant soundproof box). But his aerial footage is amazing, equal to the big-budget spectacle of the Oscar-winning "Wings" or Howard Hughes' "Hell's Angels," with thrilling shots in the air, amazing crash footage, and superb miniatures for the bombing runs. And Hawks reminds us that war is brutal. When German ace flyer Von Richter (the film's fictional stand-in for Von Richtoffen, the Red Baron, branded with a skull and crossbones on his plane) taunts the Americans by dropping to boots of a pilot shot down over enemy lines, Barthelmess and his best pal, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., declare a two-man war on the enemy field.

 

Because nothing proves yourself in Hawks' world than teaming up for a suicide mission.

 

"This Land Is Mine" (Warner Archive) - Made in 1943, Jean Renoir's second American film directly takes on the Nazi occupation of his native France with a drama set in an unnamed backlot European country town designed as an almost idealized old world version of a Paris village. He's working again with Dudley Nichols, who had written for Ford and Hawks and wrote Renoir's first American film, "Swamp Water," and he has a superb cast toplined by Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, and George Sanders. Laughton is a timid schoolteacher, a coward and a mother's boy who is considered a joke by his students (it's both humiliating and heartbreaking when he collapses into terrified sobs in a bomb shelter), who finds himself in the unexpected position of becoming a symbol of resistance, if he can only summon the courage. It's really quite beautiful, and Renoir and Laughton give the scenes in the classroom an offhanded humor that becomes bittersweet by the end.

 

"The Model and the Marriage Broker" (20th Century Fox Cinema Archives) is as light as the title would suggest, but George Cukor fills the 1951 romantic comedy with personality and warmth. Jeanne Crain is the model of the title, a beauty involved with a married man, and Thelma Ritter is the matchmaker who can’t help but take her on as a personal project and try and fix her up with a nice young doctor (Scott Brady). It's minor Cukor next to his great movies -- "The Philadelphia Story," "Gaslight," "Holiday," "What Price Hollywood?" and many others – but the director has a deft way with such conventional material and has fun with his oddball group of lonely hearts paired up by Ritter.

 

More directors, more debuts:

"The Rising of the Moon" (Warner Archive) – Irish-American director John Ford adored and even idealized Ireland and he returned to the land of "The Quiet Man" for this trilogy of lighthearted short stories. Tyrone Power introduces the film but the stars are the players of Dublin's Abbey Theatre Company.

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As the story goes, Ray Harryhausen was inspired to explore the possibilities of stop-motion animation after seeing "King Kong" with his best friend. That said friend was Ray Bradbury makes the story irresistible. That Harryhausen went on to apprentice under Willis O'Brien, the very man who sculpted and animated the king of the jungle and the first great artist of stop-motion magic, makes it legend.

 

Across the web, tributes and remembrances have been legion, and no surprise. Harryhausen’s creations dazzled so many future film critics and historians in their formative years and turned many a movie-hungry child into a genre hound. He wasn't a film director, not in the conventional sense, but he was undeniably the auteur of his films since "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," when he turned producer and started developing his own productions around the glorious creations he crafted to life in the adventures.

 

 

Just a few months ago, I had the pleasure of revisiting some of Harryhausen's greatest moments for an article. And once again, just as when I was a kid, I was transported when his creatures came alive on the screen. I was never "fooled" into thinking his Cyclops or prehistoric dinosaur or dueling skeletons were real in any way. His movie magic wasn't great because it was realistic. It was great because it was beautiful, alive, and filled with character and personality. He filled his films with wonder.

 

Ray Harryhausen died last week at the age of 92. He had essentially retired from filmmaking after "Clash of the Titans" (the 1981 version, not the terrible CGI remake) but he spent his final decades seeing a new generation discover his films on video and DVD. He put out books, talked about his work disc releases, and appeared at festivals and conventions, where he was unfailingly generous with his time when talking to fans, old and new. I was one of the older ones, but more moving than getting a few minutes of his time was watching him encourage a young fan, a kid around 10 or 12, to follow his muse and create.

 

More from Don Kaye at Parallel Universe and William Goss at The Hitlist.

 

Here are my ten picks for celebrating the legacy the ray Harryhausen, one of the great dreamers of the movies. Most of these, by the way, are only available on disc, so please, give a little love to your friendly neighborhood video store.

 

1 – "Mighty Joe Young" (1949, DVD, Warner) – Fifteen years after "King Kong," Willis O’Brien won finally won his much deserved Oscar for creating yet another ape, this one the humongous playmate of Terry Moore. Joe is a marvelous creation and the climax, where he risks his own safety to rescue children trapped in an orphanage fire is as touching as it is thrilling. Harryhausen, an ambitious young animator who had worked on George Pal Puppetoons and military shorts, worked with his hero for the first and only time and pays tribute to O'Brien on the DVD commentary track.  

 

2 - "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953, DVD, Warner) - One of the essentials of the giant monster on the rampage of the nuclear 1950s, this isn’t an atomic mutation but a slumbering prehistoric giant (a Rhedosauras, to be specific) awakened from its icy suspended animation by nuclear tests. The first creature feature work by legendary stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen is a dinosaur spectacle dropped in the urban jungle and it highlights this clunky but endearing piece of B-movie pulp “inspired” by Ray Bradbury’s short story "The Foghorn." Harryhausen give this rampaging beast just a touch of melancholy: a lost creature just looking for home.

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New Releases:

"Jack Reacher" (Paramount), based on the ninth novel in Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series, brings the action hero to the screen with Tom Cruise in the lead. Fans were resistant – Cruise is not exactly the strapping six-foot-two-inch figure described by Child in the books – but Child gave his approval, director / screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie wrote a sharp adaptation, and Tom Cruise is an actor who commits completely to his films. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

"Safe Haven" (Fox), this season's Nicholas Sparks adaptation, pairs up Julianne Hough as a mysterious beauty with a dangerous past and Josh Duhamel as a ruggedly handsome widower. MSN has a giveaway for Mother's Day; details on the contest and the prize package here. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

 

"Mama" (Universal) is "a good old-fashioned horror story" starring Jessica Chastain. Guillermo Del Toro, who knows a thing or two about eerie horror with human dimensions, produces. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

 

"Upstream Color" (New Video, Blu-ray+DVD Combo and On Demand), the latest headtrip from filmmaker Shane Carruth, hits disc while still fascinating audiences in theaters. "Starlet" (Music Box, Blu-ray and DVD) is an indie character drama from Sean Baker. "The Rabbi's Cat" (GKids, Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack) is an animated feature from France and "Citizen Hearst" (HBO, DVD) is a documentary on William Randolph Hearst that received a limited theatrical release.

And don't forget Videodrone's B-sides wrap-up of direct-to-disc and made-for-cable films.

 

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

 

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

  

TV on Disc:

"Fringe: The Complete Fifth and Final Season" (Warner) brings closure to the brainy weird science fiction show of parallel universes and dimension-hopping villains with a final chapter set twenty years in the future. It's not the show's best season but it is a memorable wrap to an ambitious show that filled the gap left by "The X-Files" with stories built around trippy concepts. 13 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD. Also arriving is the box set "Fringe: The Complete Series" (Warner, Blu-ray and DVD). Videodrone's review is here.

 

"30 Rock: Season 7 – The Final Season" (Universal), meanwhile, brings happy endings to Tina Fey's madcap sitcom of life in the halls of network television and insane TV stars. 13 episodes, DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

"Steel Magnolias" (Sony) is the updated TV movie remake of the hit stage play with Queen Latifah, who co-produced the film for Lifetime. "Liberace: The Ultimate Entertainer" (Timeless) is a two-disc set of TV appearances featuring the flamboyant pianist and celebrity entertainer. Both DVD.

 

Plus: "K9: The Complete Series" (Shout Factory, DVD), the 2009 "Doctor Who" spin-off for the kid set, and the end of the run for two more TV shows: the contemporary medical drama "Private Practice: The Complete Sixth and Final Season" (ABC, DVD) and the classic western "Have Gun-Will Travel: The Final Season" with Richard Boone (Paramount, DVD).

 

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

  

Cool and Classic:

"Band of Outsiders" (Criterion) is one of Jean-Luc Godard’s most cinematically playful films, an anti-"Jules And Jim" love triangle crime caper with Anna Karina (Godard's muse of the early sixties) as the innocent sucked into the schemes of best friends Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey. Criterion released it on DVD a decade ago but remasters it from a new 2010 high-definition restoration for its Blu-ray debut. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"The Great Escape" (Fox), the prison escape classic starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Charles Bronson and directed by John Sturges (of "The Magnificent Seven" fame), debuts on Blu-ray for the film's 50th anniversary.

 

"Superman: Unbound" (Warner) is the latest DC Universe Animated Original Movie, this one based on the graphic novel "Superman: Brainiac." Blu-ray and DVD, with lots of supplements.

 

Marlon Brando made his screen debut in "The Men" (Olive) and the superstars of old Hollywood come out in "The Enforcer" (Olive), the 1950 crime thriller with Humphrey Bogart, and "Cloak and Dagger" (Olive), a World War II conspiracy thriller with Gary Cooper. All on Blu-ray and DVD.

 

"Shanghai Noon / Shanghai Knights" (Touchstone) presents the respective Blu-ray debuts of both Jackie Chan / Owen Wilson old west action comedies in a double feature. And arriving on Blu-ray from Fox is "The Verdict" (Fox) with Paul Newman in one of his great performances, "Brubaker" (Fox) with Robert Redford, and "Viva Zapata" (Fox) with Marlon Brando (the latter previously available exclusively in a box set).

Plus Videodrone's B-sides wrap-up of direct-to-disc and made-for-cable films.

 

All of the Cool and Classic here

  

New on Netflix Instant:

"The Cabin in the Woods" (2011) is the wily, witty, very entertaining love letter to horror movie fandom from director Drew Goddard and co-writer / producer Joss Whedon.

 

"John Dies at the End" (2012), from cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, sends two college dropouts (Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes) on a drug-induced journey into another dimension where an invasion of Earth may be underway.

 

Netflix recently got a lot of hate press when some 1800 titles expired last week. But don't panic, there's a big batch of new titles filling in the back catalog, from classics like "The Three Musketeers" (1975) and "Pulp Fiction" (1994) to hits like "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001) and "Dirty Dancing" (1987) to films waiting to be rediscovered like "Big Night" (1996) with Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub, "Murder by Decree" (1979) with Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes, and "The Man in the Moon" (1991) and the film debut of Reese Witherspoon.

 

Browse more Instant offerings here

  

New On Demand:

"Jack Reacher," with Tom Cruise as Lee Child's tough-guy drifter hero, toplines the On Demand offerings this week. Also arriving same day as disc is the Nicholas Sparks romantic drama "Safe Haven" with Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, the horror film "Mama" with Jessica Chastain, the headtrip indie drama "Upstream Color" from Shane Carruth, and the suburban satire "The Oranges."

 

Available before disc release is the mob comedy "Stand Up Guys" with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin, and the documentary "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey," the portrait of a Journey cover band.

 

Arriving Friday, May 10, same day as its theatrical debut, is the horror film "Aftershock" with Eli Roth and Selena Gomez. And available before it hits theaters is the action film "Vehicle 19" with Paul Walker.

 

Available from Redbox this week:

"Jack Reacher" (Paramount) arrives same day as disc and digital on both Blu-ray and DVD. Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: "Hyde Park on Hudson" (Universal) starring Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt, "John Dies at the End" (Magnolia) from cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, and the spoof "A Haunted House" (Universal).

 

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

 

There's more knowing horror comedy and meta-horror commentary than actual tension and thrills in "The Cabin in the Woods" (2011), the self-aware, awfully clever love letter to the horror movie fandom from director Drew Goddard and co-writer / producer Joss Whedon.

 

They let their monster mash impulses go wild, riffing on every "kids in the woods tormented by supernatural killers" film ever made (with special affection for the "Evil Dead" films) before launching into a pulp rumination on our need for scary stories as a kind of ritual. Which is not to say it's pretentious or, you know, particularly intellectual. It's just clever, a fun riff on the clichés, conventions, and expectations of American horror movies. That it tries to make sense of all the bad decisions and unbelievable coincidences that drive the stories, and mostly succeeds, is just part of the fun. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"John Dies at the End" (2012), from cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, sends two college dropouts on a drug-induced journey into another dimension where an invasion on Earth may be underway. It’s hard to tell when you're under the influence of the designer drug known as Soy Sauce. Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti co-star. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

Last week, there was much railing against Netflix as some 1800 movies and TV shows expired from the service. That's a lot of titles, but it’s simply part of the rotation of contracts: older titles leave and new titles are added all the time. Here are just a few of the new catalog titles -- classics, cult films, favorites, and hits from the past couple of decades -- that have been added since "The Great Netflix Purge."

 

"Pulp Fiction" (1994), Quentin Tarantino’s sophomore feature, solidified his reputation as a cinematic mixologist of genre stories with a playful quartet of overlapping stories mixing American film noir, the French New Wave, and a post-modern sensibility to create a movie-movie for the 90s. It revived John Travolta's career and earned Tarantino an Oscar for Best Screenplay (shared with former video store buddy Roger Avery).

 

Richard Lester's rollicking "The Three Musketeers" (1975) strikes the right balance between slapstick and swordplay, with Michael York as young D’Artagnan, all innocence and naïve chivalry as he crosses swords with the worldly rascals known as the Three Musketeers and then becomes one of them, stealing hearts and stealing food with equal aplomb as they save the Queen from a plot hatched by the scheming Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) and the cold Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway).

 

"Big Night" (1996), starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as Italian brothers struggling to make a go of their failing restaurant in New York, is a delightful character showpiece from actors-turned-direct​ors Tucci and Campbell Scott and featuring friends and colleagues Ian Holm, Isabella Rossellini, Minnie Driver, and Scott himself in a tiny role as a Cadillac salesman he spins into a tour-de-force performance built on suggestion, gesture and body language. This movie is marvelous company.

 

"Murder by Decree" (1979), one of the best Sherlock Holmes films ever, offers a warm, good- humored Holmes in Christopher Plummer, ably abetted by James Mason as his loyal Watson, drafted by a citizen’s committee to stop Jack the Ripper. It's intelligently written, modestly directed by Bob Clark, and crisply performed by a marvelous cast that includes an intense, tortured turn by Donald Sutherland as a psychic and Genevieve Bujold as a hysterical inmate driven mad in an asylum.

More recommendations below.

 

"Band of Outsiders" (Criterion) is one of Jean-Luc Godard’s most cinematically playful films, an anti-"Jules And Jim" love triangle crime caper. Criterion released it on DVD a decade ago but remasters it from a new 2010 high-definition restoration for its Blu-ray debut. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"The Great Escape" (Fox) reunited Steve McQueen with director John Sturges, who helped make him a star with "The Magnificent Seven." This time he leads the cast as the maverick American “The Cooler King,” first seen bouncing a ball off his cell wall after yet another escape attempt. The setting is Stalag Luft III, Germany’s maximum security POW camp designed to hold the most escape-happy prisoners. McQueen’s restless fellow prisoners include James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, David McCallum, and Gordon Jackson, who put their heads together to break out of the unbreakable prison.

 

It debuts on Blu-ray for the film's 50th anniversary (and the 70th anniversary of the real-life escape that inspired the film) and includes the supplements of the earlier DVD special edition: a commentary track edited together from archival interviews with director John Sturges, actors James Garner, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and others; the hour long documentary "The Great Escape: The Untold Story" (on real life WWII escapes and the experience of escapees); the half hour documentary "The Real Virgil Hilts: A Man Called Jones" (featuring an interview with the real life General who inspired the Steve McQueen character); the half hour behind-the-scenes "Return to The Great Escape," and four featurettes on the film hosted by Burt Reynolds and originally produced for The History Channel.

 

"Superman: Unbound" (Warner) is the latest DC Universe Animated Original Movie, this one based on the graphic novel "Superman: Brainiac." Don Kaye reviews the film at Parallel Universe, where he also posts an exclusive clip: "this version might be the best Superman adventure yet filmed for the animated DC catalog. The villain is truly threatening (rare for many of the Man of Steel's enemies), the story is well-told and satisfying, and there are emotional and character arcs that have real weight for our heroes." Blu-ray and DVD, with featurettes, bonus cartoons, and other supplements. The Blu-ray also includes commentary, an additional featurette, and a bonus DVD and UltraViolet digital copy for download and instant streaming.

 

"Shanghai Noon / Shanghai Knights" (Touchstone) presents the respective Blu-ray debuts of both old west action comedies with Jackie Chan as a royal agent from China's Forbidden City and a sardonic, garrulous Owen Wilson as an cowboy outlaw (surely one of the most unusual buddy teams in action comedy history) in a double feature. The first East-meets-old-West action comedy is hardly original but the unlikely team clicks. Jackie, well over 40, plays the gung-ho rookie with a coy grin, a flying kick, and a spirited, goofy charm, while sardonic, low key Wilson balances Jackie’s clownish mugging with deadpan wit and a self-effacing patter. The sequel brings the Far East and the old West to 19th century London for a high spirited but dumbed-down follow-up, filled with a barrage of pop-culture references, partially saved by Jackie’s gymnastic action chops and Donnie Yen as his opponent. Both films feature commentary and multiple featurettes.

 

"The Men" (Olive) is the screen debut of Marlon Brando, who plays a paraplegic American war vet struggling with recovery. The 1950 post-war drama is directed by Fred Zinneman (who won Oscars for "From Here to Eternity" and "A Man For All Seasons") from an Oscar-nominated script by Carl Foreman, and Teresa Wright, Everett Sloane, and Jack Webb co-star. Blu-ray and DVD.

 

The very next year, Brando rose to stardom in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and followed up with "Viva Zapata" (Fox), directed by Elia Kazan and written by John Steinbeck. Previously available exclusively in a box set from FoxConnect, it's now available individually on Blu-ray.

 

The superstars of old Hollywood come out in "The Enforcer" (Olive), a 1950 crime thriller with Humphrey Bogart as a crusading district attorney taking on the mob (directed by Bretaigne Windust, co-starring Zero Mostel and Everett Sloan), and "Cloak and Dagger" (Olive), a World War II conspiracy thriller with Gary Cooper (directed by Fritz Lang, co-starring Robert Alda and Lilli Palmer). A less stellar cast (Brian Donlevy, Claire Trevor, Forrest Tucker) does the gangster movie duties on "Hoodlum Empire" (Olive), directed by Republic stalwart Joseph Kane. All on Blu-ray and DVD.

More cult and classic arrivals on Blu-ray and DVD below

 

"Fringe: The Complete Fifth and Final Season" (Warner) brings closure to the brainy weird science fiction show of parallel universes and dimension-hopping villains with a final chapter set twenty years in the future. Also arriving is "Fringe: The Complete Series" (Warner). Videodrone's review is here.

 

"30 Rock: Season 7 – The Final Season" (Universal), meanwhile, brings happy endings to Tina Fey's madcap sitcom of life in the halls of network television, which isn't easy with this collection of neurotic TV stars and scheming executives. Even Fey's Liz Lemon can't sabotage this stab at a fulfilling life after 40 with a handsome (if dim) younger man (James Marsden) who adores her, and Alec Baldwin (arguably the funniest man on TV during the run of the show) takes Jack Donaghy to new heights of corporate manipulation.

 

There's a lot crammed into the final 13 episodes of the show (yes, it's another short finale season), which is busy with rapid-dire visual gags and non-sequitors under normal circumstances, and they manage to bring almost every significant recurring character back for a final bow. Which they take to Jenna Maroney's (Jane Krakowski) distinctive take on the theme song to "Rural Juror," a surreal piece of lyrical creation that sends off the show with the same anything goes spirit that defined the series at its best.

 

13 episodes on DVD, with commentary on select episodes, a series retrospective hosted by Tin Fey, deleted scenes, and "The Donaghy Files" animated webisode.

 

"Steel Magnolias" (Sony) is the updated TV movie remake of the hit stage play with Queen Latifah, who co-produced the film for Lifetime, Phylicia Rashad, Adepero Oduye, Condola Rashad, Jill Scott, and Alfre Woodard in the lead roles. It "may not be a great work of art, but it sure is a great vehicle for the right women," writes USA Today TV critic Robert Bianco, and this production "provides six showy, entertaining roles for those women, even if you don't always believe everything going on in the show." DVD, with an UltraViolet digital copy for download and instant streaming.

 

"K-9: The Complete Series" (Shout Factory), the 2009 "Doctor Who" spin-off, brings British TV's favorite robot dog to late 21st century London for his own kid friendly adventures. He's protecting Earth with the help of a trio of teens (Philippa Coulthard, Daniel Webber, and Keegan Joyce) and a rogue scientist (Robert Moloney). There's no actual cross-over with the current "Doctor Who" and in fact this show isn't even from the BBC, but is an Australian production. 26 half-hour episodes on four discs on DVD, plus featurettes.

 

"Liberace: The Ultimate Entertainer" (Timeless), a collection sixties TV shows and TV appearances featuring the flamboyant pianist and celebrity entertainer, is timed to arrive before the upcoming HBO original film starring Michael Douglas as Liberace. This two-disc set, authorized by the Liberace Foundation, also includes home movies and featurettes. DVD.

 

This is the end:

"Private Practice: The Complete Sixth and Final Season" (ABC), Shondra Rhimes' more grown-up and intimate spin-off of "Grey's Anatomy," kicked off with Kate Walsh's Dr. Addison Montgomery leaving Seattle Grace for Santa Monica's Oceanside Wellness Center and a whole new ensemble. The show bids farewell to the fellowship (original partners Taye Diggs, Amy Brenneman, Paul Adelstein, KaDee Strickland, joined by Benjamin Bratt, Brian Benben, and Caterina Scorsone by season six) in a short season of 13 episodes on DVD, plus deleted scenes and bloopers.

 

"Have Gun-Will Travel: The Final Season" (Paramount) brings the terrific western series to a close in its sixth season. Richard Boone is Paladin, the classically educated gunfighter who lives in a San Francisco hotel, reads newspapers voraciously, quotes poetry and references Greek philosophers, and hires out his gun… but only in a just cause. He's a different kind of western hero: enigmatic, honorable, suave yet rugged, charming and chivalrous, and utterly loyal to his clients, whether they’ve hired him or he’s simply appointed himself to the case. And his distinctive character made this one of the best TV westerns of all time. 32 episodes on four discs across two volumes on DVD.

 

BritTV:

"Doc Martin: Special Collection" (Acorn) offers the complete run of the British comic drama starring Martin Clunes as a surly, insufferable London surgeon who reluctantly relocates to a sleepy seaside village when he develops a crippling fear of blood. It collects all five series of the show (38 episodes) plus the two original telefilms that launched the series. 13 discs in six cases in a box set, DVD.

 

"A Fine Romance: Complete Collection" (Acorn) combines all three series and 26 episodes of the Britcom starring Judi Dench and Michael Williams (her real life husband) middle-aged misfits who move in together and bumble along the rocky road to romance in a compact four-disc set. DVD.

 

Another season:

- "Flashpoint: The Fifth Season" (Paramount), the Canadian answer to "S.W.A.T.," offers 11 more episodes on DVD;

- "Rookie Blue: The Complete Third Season" (eOne), another Canadian cop show, this one about the new kids on patrol, presents 13 episodes and almost as many supplements on DVD;

- "Gunsmoke: The Eighth Season" (Paramount) collects 38 classic episodes of the iconic western series from the 1962-1963 season on ten discs across two volumes on DVD;

- "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Second Season" (RLJ) comes to Blu-ray as a stand-alone season, with 33 episodes and plenty of supplements

- "Felicity: Season Three" (Lionsgate) and "Felicity: Season Four" (Lionsgate) are re-releases of shows originally on disc a decade ago. DVD.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for week of May 7

 

"Band of Outsiders" (Criterion) is one of Godard’s most cinematically playful films, an anti-"Jules and Jim" crime caper, yet more in tune with Truffaut’s sense of cinematic humor than Godard’s later politically bent works. It could be Godard's answer to "Shoot the Piano Player," with his own distinctive take on the doom of French youth playing out B-movie crime fantasies.

 

The 1964 B&W film stars Anna Karina (Godard's muse of the early sixties) as Odile, a veritable innocent sucked into the schemes of two best friends, the confident lothario Claude Brasseur and the shy, subservient pretty boy Sami Frey. They bounce back and forth in her affections until they begin to terrify her, yet she's too smitten to give them up. They are excitement and attention and fun for the restless Odile, a movie adventure come to life (complete with a dance number!). They, however, act more interested in each other than in the girl, who is little more than a good time and the key to an impulsive, ill-conceived crime. The chaos of the climax has a fun sense of narrative messiness that Godard never tries to clean up. He merely revels in the complications and leaves them hanging, for they matter not to our live-for-the-moment heroes.

 

And for those who never caught it before, this is the film that inspired the name of Quentin Tarantino's production company. The original French title of the film is "Bande a part."

 

Criterion released it on DVD a decade ago but remasters it from a new 2010 high-definition restoration by Gaumont Studio in France for its Blu-ray debut. It's cleaner and shows more detail than the 2003 DVD (which looked quite fine in its own right).

 

The supplements are carried over from the earlier DVD: video interviews with star Anna Karina (18 minutes) and cinematographer Raoul Coutard (11 minutes), excerpts from the 1964 TV documentary "Cinéma de Notre Temps: La Nouvelle Vague par elle-même" (with interviews with Jean-Luc Godard and the only known behind-the-scenes footage of Godard directing "Band of Outsiders"), Agnes Varda’s lark of a silent comedy short "Les Fiances du Pont MacDonald" (featured in her film "Cleo From 5 to 7") starring Godard and members of the cast of "Band of Outsiders," a visual glossary of references and wordplay found in the film, two trailers (including Godard’s original release trailer), and a booklet with an essay by Joshua Clover, excerpts from a 1964 Godard interview, and Godard’s own descriptions of the three main characters (originally written for the film’s pressbook).

See a clip from the Anna Karina interview after the jump. Click on "More" below

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for week of May 7