on DVD
New Releases
Go home with Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter or The Simpsons
By Marni Weisz
SPOTLIGHT
SUPERBAD
December 4 ($45/2-disc set)
Alternately adorable and incredibly annoying, high school friends Evan (Michael Cera), Seth (Jonah Hill) and Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) have one goal — arrive at the year-end party with the booze. The problem is they’re all underage, so they have to come up with a scheme.
While Fogell’s ridiculously bogus fake ID seems to actually work at the liquor store, he witnesses a robbery there and ends up spending most of the night partying with the two cops (the film’s writer Seth Rogen and Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader) who answered the call.
Meanwhile, best friends Evan and Seth find themselves trying to steal the booze from another, less hospitable, party, all the while testing their friendship in ways they’d never imagined. All in all a crude, scatological comedy that also has a hefty amount of heart thanks to its three misfit leading men.
A two-disc, unrated, extended edition DVD continues the vulgarity with additional footage too raunchy for theatres, “Line-o-rama,” which is a running list of obscenities, “Everyone Hates Michael Cera,” a faux featurette in which everyone pounces on the terminally likeable Canadian actor, audition tapes, a gag reel and commentary tracks.
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December 4
THE NANNY DIARIES
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney
Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini (American Splendor)
Story: Why would a sensitive and intelligent nanny (Johansson) keep a job where she’s abused, belittled and ignored by her employers (Linney, Paul Giamatti)? Because she’s grown to love the little tyke (Nicholas Art) in her charge and fears for his emotional health should she leave.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, gag reel, “Confessions from the Original Nannies: The Authors of the Bestselling Book”
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END
Stars: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom
Director: Gore Verbinski (The Ring)
Story: The trilogy concludes with the long and complicated rescue of Captain Jack (Depp) from Davy Jones’ Locker, a pirate summit at Shipwreck City and an ultimate showdown with the power-hungry
Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), who aims to bring the pirating way of life to an end forever.
DVD Extras: 2-disc set includes bloopers, behind-the-scenes documentary, “Anatomy of a Scene: The Maelstrom,” “The Tale of Multiple Jacks”
December 11
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Imelda Staunton
Director: David Yates (The Tichborne Claimant)
Story: Why oh why won’t anyone believe Harry when he warns that Voldemort has returned? Could it be because the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge (Staunton) — the one who should be teaching the kids how to protect themselves — is really working for the dark side?
DVD Extras: 2-disc set includes 17 minutes of additional footage, an A&E documentary, “Harry Potter: The Magic of Editing”
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
Stars: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles
Director: Paul Greengrass (United 93)
Story: The third Bourne movie picks up where the second left off, in Moscow, just after Jason Bourne (Damon) has told a Russian girl he killed her parents. Ouch. From there it’s a breakneck chase through a whack of European capitals as the CIA tries to catch the rogue agent before his memory returns.
December 18
HALLOWEEN
Stars: Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell
Director: Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects)
Story: In this remake of the seminal 1978 horror, wee Michael Myers once again tires of being bullied by his no-good mom and her awful boyfriend, so he snaps, killing everyone in sight except for his baby sister, Laurie. After 15 years in an institution, Myers (Mane) escapes and heads for home.
ONCE
Stars: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová
Director: John Carney (Zonad)
Story: This modern take on the musical (cut down on the corny; make breaking into song more realistic) follows an Irish street musician (Hansard) and the girl (Irglová) who convinces him to take his tunes into the recording studio.
DVD Extras: director and actor commentaries, “Making a Modern Day Musical,” webisodes
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THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
Voices: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner
Director: David Silverman (Monsters, Inc.)
Story:
Despite being ordered not to throw any more garbage into grotesquely
polluted Lake Springfield, Homer dumps his pet pig’s poop in the bog,
setting off an environmental disaster that forces the government to
cover all of Springfield with a plastic dome.
DVD Extras: “Springfield News,” “Sausage Truck,” “Emperor Moe,” alternate ending
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STARDUST
Stars: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox
Director: Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake)
Story: Love-struck Tristan (Cox) tries to win his beloved’s heart by travelling to the forbidden land of Stormhold to retrieve a fallen star for her. But when he gets to the crater, instead of a meteorite he finds that it was a beautiful girl named Yvaine (Danes) whom he saw streaking across the sky.
December 26
RUSH HOUR 3
Stars: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker
Director: Brett Ratner (Red Dragon)
Story: Chief Inspector Lee (Chan) is working security detail for his old friend Ambassador Han when someone tries to kill the latter. So Lee partners with his detective buddy James Carter (Tucker) to track down the would-be assassin, an investigation that takes them all the way to Paris to battle the notorious Triads.