Capsule reviews of movies new to DVD/videos released Tuesday (subject to change by studios):
FOCUS FEATURE
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Capturing the demented genius of Douglas Adams’ sci-fi humor novel on the big screen is, as my colleague Robert K. Elder aptly put it, “like training wild schnauzers in petticoats to water ski.” But director Garth Jennings lives up to the spirit of things with a movie that is (thankfully) short on CGI and gleefully chocka-block with freaks from Jim Henson’s workshop — and winning performances from Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel and Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the swaggering, smirking President of the Galaxy. Being a newbie to the cerebral cyberspace that is “Hitchhiker’s,” I thought I’d be intimidated; Adams, who passed away in 2001, built a cult of followers rabid as Trekkies and sharp as Monty Python fans. But it’s the wacky humor here that ultimately makes this film endearing and inviting: Hearing the silly end-of-the-world song “So Long & Thanks For All the Fish” performed by all the world’s dolphins was one of my DVD highlights of 2005. Other special features include a handful of deleted scenes, a pair of “fake” deleted scenes (indeed worth a laugh), a sing-along version of “Fish” and a making-of featurette that truly seems to reflect how much fun this film was to make. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. (PG) — Louis R. Carlozo
DVD rating (star)(star)(star)
Tribune movie reviewer Robert K. Elder’s rating for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “: (star)(star)(star)
ALSO OUT
Ben-Hur (1959) (star)(star)(star)(star)
In the time of Christ, two old friends fall out. Charlton Heston is the Jew, Ben-Hur; Stephen Boyd is his Roman ex-buddy Messala. Their chariot race is one of the screen’s great action sequences. Based on Lew Wallace’s 19th Century “Tale of the Christ” and the 1926 silent epic, MGM’s most lavish epic of the 1920s (on which director William Wyler was a young assistant), this multiple 1959 Oscar-winner (best picture, actor and director, plus eight others) was an anti-DeMille biblical epic: honestly spectacular, sophisticated rather than garish, intelligent as much as glamorous. (G) — Michael Wilmington
Added features: Four-disc set has more than 10 hours of bonus material, including: commentary by Heston and film historian T. Gene Hatcher; the original 1925 silent version; 1994 and new documentaries on the film; screen tests; vintage newsreels.
Chicago (star)(star)(star)
Based on the 1942 movie “Roxie Hart” — and the 1975 Broadway show by director-choreographer-co-writer Bob Fosse and “Cabaret” partners John Kander and Fred Ebb–this is a cynical Cinderella musical about corrupt people with big appetites in Prohibition-era Chicago, with Renee Zellweger as killer-cherub Roxie, who tries to parlay tabloid notoriety as a murderess into a show-biz career, Catherine Zeta-Jones as fellow killer Velma and Richard Gere as their silky, amoral mouthpiece, Billy Flynn. They may not be great musical performers, but this is great musical material. The original choreography has been refashioned by director Rob Marshall, but Fosse is present in spirit in the hip-grinding dances. It’s a shame he isn’t around as director too. (PG-13) — M.W.
Added features: Three-disc set includes these new features: 16-track soundtrack; extended musical performances; song rehearsals; Chita Rivera’s encore; “Stage To Screen: The History of Chicago”; “Intimate Look at Rob Marshall”; featurettes on production designer John Myre and costume designer Colleen Atwood; VH-1 “Behind The Movie” feature.
Fever Pitch (star)(star)(star)
With a romantic and comic touch not often applied to romantic comedy — go figure — and a fan’s exuberance for America’s pastime, Peter and Bobby Farrelly have got themselves a natural and heartfelt screen romance, in which a rabid Boston fan (Jimmy Fallon) must find a balance between the love of his life (Drew Barrymore) and the love of his life (the Red Sox). (PG-13) — Allison Benedikt
Added features: Commentary by the Farrellys; 13 deleted scenes with optional commentary by the Farrellys; gag reel; “Love Triangle” and “Break the Curse” Internet featurettes; Fox Movie Channel’s Making a Scene: “Fever Pitch”
Palindromes (star)(star)1/2
This bizarre, provocative and almost deliberately off-putting new dark comedy from Todd Solondz (“Welcome to the Dollhouse,” “Happiness”) is about a young girl’s coming of age, abortion and domestic terrorism with eight people (including Jennifer Jason Leigh) sharing the leading role of runaway Aviva. Extremely bleak satire; Ellen Barkin is scathing as Aviva’s mom. (No MPAA rating) — M.W.
Added features: Theatrical trailer.
CRITIC’S PICKS
CLAUDE CHABROL COLLECTION (Kino)
Of all the major French “New Wave” directors of the ’60s — including Truffaut the entertainer, and Godard the radical — it was Claude Chabrol who carved out the most comfortable niche: as the sardonic French master of the bourgeois crime-mystery-suspense movie. Five prime examples have recently been released by Kino Video as “The Claude Chabrol Collection.” The masterpiece is his 1994 “L’Enfer” ((star)(star)(star)(star)), a spine-chilling study of marital jealousy and madness from a posthumous screenplay be fellow movie suspense giant Henri-Georges Clouzot (“Diabolique”), starring Emmanuelle Beart and Francois Cluzet.
The most entertaining are the two dry-as-champagne murder mysteries with Jean Poiret as the tart, unflappable detective Inspector Lavardin: 1984’s “Cop Au Vin” (“Poulet Au Vinaigre”) ((star)(star)(star)(star)) and 1986’s “Inspector Lavardin” ((star)(star)(star)1/2). 1993’s “Betty” ((star)(star)(star)1/2), a ruthlessly honest study of alcoholism, conveys the acid touch of original novelist Georges Simenon and 1998’s “The Color of Lies” ((star)(star)(star)(star)) is a brilliant psychological drama of infidelity and murder among artists and intellectuals, starring Sandrine Bonnaire and Jacques Gamblin. (All in French, with English subtitles.)
Added features: “Making of” documentaries, critical presentations by Joel Magny, trailers.
BELA LUGOSI COLLECTION (star)(star)(star) (Universal)
Bela Lugosi, with his thick Hungarian accent, batlike features and piercing eyes, became an imperishable icon of movie horror after his 1931 appearance in “Dracula”–and that stature survived even his late-career plunge into Ed Wood Jr.’s hilariously awful movies–and sadly, in at least two or three of the movies in this entertaining Universal five-film box. The quintet includes three alleged adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, none of which pays much attention to their sources, and four co-starring ventures with fellow movie monster Boris Karloff, who’s always billed first.
The low end of the Lugosi horror box includes Louis Friedlander’s 1935 “The Raven,” ((star)(star)1/2), in which Lugosi is a mad scientist-torture fetishist and Karloff (the good guy here) is an escaped murderer; Lambert Hillyer’s 1936 “The Invisible Ray” ((star)(star)) in which Doctor Lugosi’s friend Karloff suffers from a disease that kills on contact and Arthur (“Francis the Talking Mule”) Lubin’s 1940 “Black Friday” in which Doctor Karloff transplants Lugosi’s brain.
The good shockers, which elevate the whole set, are Z-movie king Edgar Ulmer’s enjoyably mad 1934 “The Black Cat” ((star)(star)(star)), scripted by cult hard-boiled novelist Peter Ruric, in which Lugosi and Karloff duel in a mansion built over a graveyard–and Robert Florey’s delightfully stylish “Murders in the Rue Morgue” ((star)(star)(star)), with dialogue by John Huston and Lugosi as the evil ape-master Dr. Mirakle.
Added features: Trailers.
— Michael Wilmington
FAST-FORWARD
A peek at future DVD/video releases (dates subject to change by studios):
Sept. 20:
“The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D,” “Carlito’s Way,” “Don’t Be a Menace,” “Inside Deep Throat,” “It’s All Gone Pete Tong,” “The Longest Yard” (2005), “Mallrats,” “Mindhunters,” “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan,” “Scary Movie 3”
Compiled by Louis R. Carlozo.
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Got a DVD question or quandary? Write to Louis R. Carlozo at lcarlozo@tribune.com. Include your name and hometown and your question could wind up in a future On the Small Screen column.
