Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
On the Bad News Bears DVD, cowriter Glenn Ficarra says, "I think the way you remake a classic is not to change it too much." Apparently, director Richard Linklater agreed, as the 2005 movie is a near scene-for-scene remake of the 1976 version, and not for the better. But it does serve a purpose—to let the audience appreciate just how great the original is.
Video: 5
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
When a movie is rated PG for "quirky situations," that alone should build curiosity. Throw in another perfect team-up between director Tim Burton, star Johnny Depp, and composer Danny Elfman, plus story by Roald Dahl, and you've got a visual and musical delight for young and old.
Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore, who starred in Finding Neverland with Depp) has lived in the shadow of the Wonka Chocolate Factory all of his short life, yearning to see inside. Willy Wonka's desire to find an heir to his empire causes him to hide golden tickets in five Wonka bars, which are sent around the world. The children who discover the tickets will be admitted entry into the factory, along with one guardian. Charlie, the fittingly pale, poor, and very kind British lad that he is, finds the last golden ticket. Along with his grandfather and the other winners, Charlie goes on a wondrous tour of the chocolate factory up the hill, learning about its secrets, including the Oompa-Loompas, the miniature muscles behind the factory.
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 2
Naturalist Timothy Treadwell wanted to become one with nature, and, in a way, he did. Having lived amongst dangerous grizzly bears over 13 summers in Alaska, he—along with his girlfriend—was eventually mauled and eaten by one of them.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
Upon hitting play on the Midnight Cowboy Collector's Edition DVD, the first thing you'll notice is that this movie, which famously became the only X-rated Best Picture Oscar winner, has now been rated R. But time has done nothing to fade how interesting and powerful it is.
Video: 5
Audio: 4
Extras: 5
Leaving my first theatrical viewing of MirrorMask, I was reminded of the dream sequence in the middle of Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, where Salvador Dali was given carte blanche to design a surrealist dream. It's a great sequence. Sixty years later, a top-notch visual artist and an accomplished storyteller had the limitless potential of computer-generated imagery at their disposal. It's as if Dali had been given today's technology, but, instead of melting clocks and big crutch-like sticks, there's Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman's lexicon of sphinxes, monkey-birds, and fish.