This awful franchise only gets worse as it goes along, as The Final Chapter and A New Beginning are some of the worst slasher films ever made. Thankfully, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is halfway decent, as far as Jason movies go. These movies return to DVD on June 16, 2009.

Read my full movie reviews here:

• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
• Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
• Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

For a list of bonus features for each movie, continue on…

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

• Commentary by director Joe Zito, screenwriter Barney Cohen and editor Joel Goodman
• Fan commentary by Adam Green and Joe Lynch
• Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part IV
• Slashed Scenes
• Jason’s Unlucky Day: 25 Years After Friday the 13th The Final Chapter
  
• The Lost Ending
• The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part I
• Jimmy’s Dead Dance Moves

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning

• Commentary by director/co-screenwriter Danny Steinmann and cast members
• Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part V
• The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part II
• New Beginnings: The Making of Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

• Commentary by director Tom McLoughlin and cast members
• Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part VI
• The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part III
• Jason Lives: The Making of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
• Meeting Mr. Voorhees
• Slashed Scenes

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a very good movie, but the more I think about it, the more overrated I realize it is. While the concept is ingenious and the performances excellent, the movie lacks real conflict and just sort of plods along without tremendous drama or humor. Written by Eric Roth, who wrote Munich and, more importantly, the very similiar Forrest Gump, the movie just pales in comparison. In other words, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button doesn’t live up to its full potential.

Still, the movie is certainly worth seeing, and The Criterion Collection DVD that I’m reviewing today has some of the best features I’ve seen in quite a while. Benjamin Button is one of those rare movies that is both a dramatic Oscar contender – films not known for dazzling bonus features – and a big budget picture requiring a fair amount of special effects and technical care. It also has a 15-year history of pre-production and idea generation.

While the back of the box will promote a variety of featurettes (unfortunately organized into a clutter of text that makes them hard to read), there are really only a couple true features, most notably a three-hour featurette that explores the film’s history, conception, pre-production, production and post-production phases. This featurette, which includes interviews with the cast, crew and director and offers some amazing detail, is one of the best behind-the-scenes documentaries I’ve seen since the second Pirates of the Caribbean DVD. The feature tackles everything, from the complications that the film had getting made to the technical requirements of aging the title character.

I did have to laugh about one thing, though. In a segment about the audio work, the guy responsible discusses how David Fincher didn’t like the voice of the young Daisy (Elle Fanning) so he decided to have Cate Blanchett dub the voice. The audio head didn’t think it would work, but “amazingly, it did.” Except that it didn’t; Blanchett’s dubbing of a little girl was one of the most jarring and painful parts of the film.

Other bonus features include an audio commentary by David Fincher and a stills gallery, which always begs the question, does anyone look at stills galleries on DVD sets?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a worthy movie to see and if you’re interested in how movies are really made, the Criterion Collection DVD is worth owning.

Learn more about the movie or read my full Curious Case of Benjamin Button movie review.

Back in 2006, the movie starred Robert Downey, Jr., who was still was looking for his comeback role, and Shia LaBeouf, whose biggest film to date was a role in Bobby. Channing Tatum was a force to be reckoned with, but the only place you would have seen him was a dance movie called Step Up. Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Disturbia and Eagle Eye later, however, and you suddenly have two A-list actors who have strung together a series of massive hits. Tatum still hasn’t broken out, but most people know who he is.

In other words, given the quality of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, this movie may actually have received some promotional backing had it been released more recently. It’s amazing what a few years make.

The movie is a flashback/flashforward story of three friends who grew up in a tough neighborhood in Queens. All troublemakers as teenagers, they diverged at adulthood – one was able to escape the neighborhood, while the others fell victim to it. Chazz Palminteri, Dianne Wiest and Rosario Dawson also star.

You can read my original A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints movie review here (in which I say, it “offer[s] some fine performances from some up-and-coming stars”).

This Tuesday, February 3, 2009, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is re-released in an all-new Limited Edition DVD set. By set, I mean one disc, but it sounds better that way. Usually I criticize studios for re-releasing films for the umpteenth time just to make a buck, but given the suddenly changed star power of many of its stars, it makes sense to try to get this picture in front of a larger audience – after all, most people haven’t heard of this film, let alone seen it.

The Limited Edition includes these bonus features:

• Commentary with director Dito Montiel and editor Jake Pushinsky
• The Making-Of Documentary
  The making-of featurette primarily revolves around writer/director Dito Montiel (who is played by LaBeouf and Downey, Jr.) and how he came to make this movie. It also involves several interviews with the casting director, and their determination to cast on acting ability rather than star power. There are some interesting moments, and the featurette feels authentic (not promotional), but there’s nothing spellbinding her. The featurette just moves along without providing us an “a-ha” moment or even any stimulating interviews.
• Alternate Endings and Openings
  There are about ten alternate endings and openings provided here, all of them of considerable quality. This is an impressive collection.
• Deleted Scenes
  There are also several very good deleted scenes; I haven’t seen this many well-done deleted scenes packaged together in a long time. They were apparently cut for pacing and storytelling reasons, and not due to lack of quality.
• Rooftop Scene
  Dito Montiel directs and acts in this alternate scene with actress Helen Dallas; it’s a riveting little piece of stagework, and well worth watching.
• Full Monty Interview
  Well worth your time. Just kidding. 30 seconds with an old guy. Stimulating.
• Young Laurie Audition played by Diana Carcamo
  A pretty good screen test further exemplifies the raw talent that can be found in this film.
• Trailers and Previews

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is a pretty good movie with intense performances and a worthwhile, gritty story. Certainly recommended.

You can read my full Kite Runner movie review here.

That being said, The Kite Runner isn’t that bad. It might even be worth watching, but I wouldn’t expect an amazing film by any means. The DVD offers these bonus features:

• Commentary by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, no!!!), Khaled Hosseini and David Benioff (wouldn’t it have been cooler to have the two young boys provide commentary?)
• “Words from The Kite Runner” – I don’t know what this is, but I don’t really care
• Images from The Kite Runner – Seriously? How can companies still market image galleries as real bonus features? Why would you even want to look at an image gallery when you can just watch the movie?
• Theatrical trailer

Again, The Kite Runner is probably worth seeing, but I get annoyed at the praise this film undeservedly receives.

I have to admit that I sort of liked the original Lake Placid, starring Bill Pullman. It was cheesy and not the least bit realistic, but it was a funny little horror movie with a big crocodile. That doesn’t mean I wanted to see a sequel. This movie, starring John Schneider (”Smallville”) and several unrecognizable actors, is once again set at Lake Placid, making you wonder why anyone would go near the water ever again. Two groups find themselves stranded in the wilderness with a giant crocodile (or several giant crocodiles?), one a sheriff, his hot deputy and a few other pieces of fodder, the other the sheriff’s son, his love interest and some more pieces of fodder. As they get picked off one by one by the cheesy-looking monster, one questions whether the budget of the film was a million… pesos.

Lake Placid 2 is entertaining enough, I’ll admit, but has absolutely nothing worthwhile about it. The crocodiles were made on the cheap, and the special effects department clearly had very little to work with. The crocs are about as scary as a little girl in her church outfit, and regardless of the special effects, director David Flores does so little to make his movie exciting, it’s pretty pathetic. With exception to the cliche underwater sequence that every monster movie must have, the audience, and the characters, see and hear the crocodiles coming from a mile away, which removes any tension the film might have been able to muster. The creators of the movie clearly have never seen a crocodile in real life; otherwise, they could have made something a little better than this piece of crap.

The only highlights of Lake Placid 2 are a few shots of nude women, some ridiculously cheesy-looking blood and… well, that’s about it. At least my mother, who loves bad monster movies, will be happy to receive a new DVD for her collection.

Recommended DVD Releases

The Game Plan (2007)

The Rock stars in Walt Disney’s The Game Plan, a family film about a pro quarterback who, while on the run for the championship game (not called the Superbowl here) discovers that he has an eight-year old daughter named Peyton and has to quickly become a father… and learn ballet. The movie is entertaining enough for what it is, and as far as Disney family films go, it’s pretty decent. Kids should find it pretty funny and parents will find it amusing. The movie is rated PG, but I didn’t notice much offensive stuff in the film whatsoever – even the facts about how The Rock ended up with a daughter he didn’t know about is covered, so all you Christian conservatives can breathe easily.

DVD features include bloopers, deleted scenes, a Sportscenter interview with The Rock on how he learned to play quarterback, a behind-the-scenes featurette and some makeover-madness set-top activity that I didn’t watch. The DVD also includes a fictitious Sportscenter biography of The Rock’s character, hosted by Stuart Scott.

The Game Plan movie details | The Game Plan movie review

The Hunting Party (2007)

A politically charged movie that isn’t quite a real thriller or a comedy but a unique blend of the two genres, The Hunting Party stars Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg as three reporters who go searching for a notorious war criminal. The movie is pretty entertaining, though it never reaches its full potential. Recommended for people who like something slightly off the beaten track, even though the film is pretty mainstream in many ways.

The Hunting Party is rated R; it has some violence, a fair amount of language, a little bit of sexual material and some brief moments of nudity.

The DVD includes a feature commentary, deleted scenes, interviews with the real group of journalists who inspired the movie, a making-of featurette and the original Esquire article, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation”.

The Hunting Party movie details | The Hunting Party movie review

Not Recommended DVD Releases

Saw IV (2007)

The fourth film in the Saw franchise, Saw IV is the worst as the bunch. Starring a bunch of actors we don’t care about who play characters we care about even less, the movie is just a jumbled mess and offers little in the way of clear narrative. It is clear the writers have run out of ideas and are now simply adding confusing and unnecessary layers to the stories that have already been done. I’ve never liked the Saw movies, but even fans of the franchise have to admit that Saw 4 falls short in many ways.

Saw IV is rated R, of course, for the usual: torture and gore.

For those of you who do brave the movie, the DVD includes: director’s commentary, producers’ commentary, a video diary, a music video, a deleted scene and a couple featurettes that look at the traps and props of Saw IV.

Saw IV movie details | Saw IV movie review

Sydney White (2007)

Amanda Bynes stars in this college-oriented version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, about a tomboy but pretty freshman who, after being kicked out of the top sorority for not being polished enough, teams up with a frat full of dorks to take the sorority queen down via student body elections. The movie really has nothing to do with Snow White and is about as dull and unoriginal as they come; Bynes doesn’t do many good movies, but this is one of her not-so-good ones.

Sydney White is rated PG-13; it has some minor language, teen drinking and partying and a little bit of sexual humor, but compared to most PG-13 movies it is pretty mild. I would give it an NC-17 for stupidity, though.

DVD special features include deleted scenes, a gag reel and a few other uninteresting features.

Sydney White movie details | Sydney White movie review