Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Blu-ray 3D
When the Blu-ray and DVD editions of “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” were rushed into video release last September, sans bonus features and 3D, Paramount assured fans that both soon would be added to the package. Some Internet wags expressed concern that this was a typical bait-and-switch swindle, targeted at less savvy consumers and “firsties.” Maybe, but, this kind of release pattern is nothing new, really. It was fairly prevalent in the early days of VHS and DVD, even when the release windows were closer to a year, than today’s two or three months. “Director’s Cut” and gold/silver/platinum” editions took even longer to appear. Today, Disney’s the only company that seems committed to that sort of platform-release schedule. Seemingly, everyone else plays it by ear. In the case of blockbuster titles, anyway, consumers really should do their homework in advance of street date. The distributors of “Transformers” made no attempt to hide the lack of bonus material. Indeed, they probably were doing fans a favor by not throwing a crappy making-of featurette or warmed-over EPK (electronic press kit) into the mix. Those who waited an additional four months for the complete “T: DOTM3D” package should be feeling pretty good about themselves right now.

Fortunately for everyone concerned, the previous DVD and Blu-ray editions of “T:DOTM” didn’t require much tinkering in the visual and audio departments. Like them, the 3D version is as close to state-of-the-art as buffs could have anticipated. There’s no need to rehash my opinions of Michael Bay’s sci-fi extravaganza, except to say that the basic narrative still is no match for the fireworks that dominate the second half. That’s what made the 3D edition worth waiting for, at least for the few fortunate souls who own one a set capable of showing it. Moreover, the third disc is comprised of four hours’ worth of special features in hi-def. They include the five-part “Above and Beyond: Exploring ‘Dark of the Moon’”;  “Uncharted Territory: NASA’s Future Then and Now”; “Deconstructing Chicago: Multi-Angle Sequences,” from pre-visualizations to visual effects, with optional commentary; “The Art of Cybertron,” with still galleries depicting all manner of Autobots,  Decepticons, Environments, Weapons and Gear, and Ships; “The ‘Dark of the Moon’ Archive,” which includes a brief conversation between Bay and James Cameron on the value of 3D; “The Matrix of Marketing,” about the extensive campaign to attract customers to megaplexes around the world; and 2D, Blu-ray and UV copies. Was it worth the delay? I think so. – Gary Dretzka

Thunder Soul
Timed to arrive at the start of Black History Month, “Thunder Soul” is a movie that could have been released at Halloween and still be one of the most inspirational films of this or any year. It also is as hip as any documentary since “The Buena Vista Social Club” and “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” which it resembles. If ever a case were to be made for the importance of musical education in our public schools, it can be found in Mark Landsman’s film recounting the recent reunion of graduates of Houston’s Kashmere High School. It was in the early 1970s that Conrad “Prof” Johnson, a respected jazz musician, took the reins of the music department and transformed a typical high school ensemble into something very special. He accomplished this by convincing the students that they could make music on a par with the professional soul, R&B and funk bands of the time. And, they did it in a style that was organic to the African-American student body and neighborhoods surrounding the school. It was no easy trick persuading kids they could make music comparable to Sly Stone and James Brown’s units, but that’s exactly what Johnson did. They would go on to win every show-band contest in which they competed and be invited to tour Europe and Japan.

Thirty-five years later, with Johnson on his death bed, dozens of his former students gathered to perform the songs they learned as teenagers. Some of them hadn’t picked up an instrument since they graduated from Kashmere, let alone performed the coordinated movements that became a trademark of the band. (Imagine watching a marching band or drum line from an all-black college, limited to strutting their stuff on a stage.) The respect and love shown to Johnson here –in words, music and hugs — could coax tears from a rock. The DVD, narrated by Jamie Foxx, adds commentary, more music and excerpts from a documentary made on the band in 1975. – Gary Dretzka

The Big Year
Not having read the book upon which “The Big Year” is based, I have no way of knowing how well director David Frankel and writer Howard Franklin succeeded in capturing its flavor. If I were to guess, I would think that journalist Mark Obmascik’s work of non-fiction skewed strictly to adults who might not think the non-lethal pursuit of birds – if only for a split-second sighting – is the most ridiculous thing they’ve ever heard. It’s the kind of activity people do when they’ve outgrown other hobbies, but still feel young enough to go to extreme lengths for a cheap thrill. Done right, birding combines ecological voyeurism, adventure tourism and fresh air.  One needn’t learn Latin to participate, but a conversance with binominal nomenclature is essential. Neither will fashionable outdoors attire won’t impress anyone waiting for the appearance of a rara avis in a marsh, meadow or swamp. And, it is a dead certainty that your kids will dismiss your obsession as being a nerdy waste of time. That much, at least, “The Big Year” gets right. By attempting to appeal to a broader audience – it’s rated PG — than the one attracted to the book, however, Frankel was required to put too much weight on the trademark personalities, physical humor and sentimentality of the principle actors: Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black. In fact, their characters might not have been sufficiently peculiar to pass for actual birders, who are nothing if not eccentric. Certainly, their estimable presence wasn’t enough to attract more than a relative handful of ticket-buyers to a movie about birds and the humans who pursue them.

That said, however, “The Big Year” does seem to be a better fit for the small screen, especially in Blu-ray, which enhances the splendid locations in which the movie was shot. The producers spared little expense in replicating the geographical demands of birding, by transporting cast and crew throughout much of western Canada, the American Southwest, Southeast and Northeast. The scenery is often spectacular and not much diminished by the necessity of having the birders slog through rain and snow. If the gags fall flat, there’s usually something neat in the background on which to focus. Wilson, Martin and Black’s characters are modeled after actual birders, who participated in Big Year competitions in the late-1990s. They had 365 days to record sighting of different birds, from the mundane to the nearly extinct, based on tips from local birders. The aftermaths of huge meteorological events are especially conducive because strong winds bring birds from their natural habitats to places they’re rarely seen. It requires the most obsessive of birders to become avid viewers of the Weather Channel and be able to pick up and go at a moment’s notice. Not being able to book flights two weeks in advance also can be expensive. The movie’s trio of competitive birders is willing and able to do just that, but it takes a melodramatic toll on their families and viewers, alike. Adding a bit of flash to the proceedings are Brian Dennehy, Dianne Wiest, Anjelica Huston, Rosamund Pike, Kevin Pollack, Joel McHale, JoBeth Williams, Steven Weber, Rashida Jones, Jim Parsons, Tim Blake Nelson and the narration of John Cleese. Because of all the travel required, the making-of featurette is one of the more interesting I’ve seen lately. Simply getting the personnel to the Yukon was an operation worthy of some kind of award. Oh, yeah, the birds are pretty cool, too. – Gary Dretzka

The Double: Blu-ray
In “The Double,” first-time director Michael Brandt has constructed a Cold War thriller for post-Cold War audiences. In an interview included in the bonus package, Brandt – also writer of “2 Fast 2 Furious” and the remake of “3:10 to Yuma” – describes it as a “genre picture,” in that viewers shouldn’t expect historical precision and artistic conceits. Indeed, the less viewers are required to sweat the details in “The Double,” the more likely they will be able to enjoy it simply as an entertainment. And, I think, he’s right. It also takes a lot of weight off the shoulders of Richard Gere, who often is expected to be the same matinee idol who swept Deborah Winger off her feet in “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Instead, he plays a retired CIA operative, who specialized in eliminating the deadliest KGB agents. If the character demonstrated an uncanny ability to find and kill them in the field, it was because he had previously worked for the Soviets as a trainer. Here, he’s been asked to coordinate the search for the assassin who took out a U.S. senator for blocking deals lucrative to Kremlin interests. The killing bears the earmarks of a KGB agent, Cassius, who Gere’s Paul Shepherdson supposedly had killed a dozen years earlier. How could this be?

Shepherdson has been asked by the director (Martin Sheen) to collaborate with a junior agent (Topher Grace), who revers him but may be too young to understand what they’re up against. The stylized killings, which quickly begin to add up, are traced to a group of Russian agents who slipped across the Mexican border undetected, possibly with the help of Border Patrol agents told to look the other way. The search for Cassius leads not only to them, but also to all sorts of other bad guys living in the U.S. illegally. As confusing as things get, Brandt is able to deflect the viewer’s attention from the real threat to American security and stage chases through warehouses and through the streets of Washington (Detroit) that are fun to watch. The bonus package includes commentary with Brandt and writer-producer Derek Haas, who have plenty to say about the difficulties in getting “The Double” made, and set interviews with Gere, Grace, Stephen Moyer, Brandt and Haas. – Gary Dretzka

In Time: Blu-ray
I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to find Philip K. Dick’s name listed among those credited for the screenplay to “In Time.” Instead, the sci-fi thriller was written and directed by Andrew Niccol, who’s already given us such speculative fictions as “Gattaca,” “The Truman Show” and “S1m0ne.” The gimmick in his latest picture is straight out of the Dick playbook, though, without being a rip-off or direct homage. In it, the population of parts of the United States has outstripped the country’s ability to provide for the welfare of all citizens. Instead of imposing such draconian population-control regulations as one child per family – as is done in China – a system has been instituted giving everyone an opportunity to live until they’re 25. After that, they must earn the right to accumulate more time on the planet. As a side benefit to contributing to the nation’s economy, by piling up time, physical aging also has been eliminated. Anyone with enough credits to live to 80 will look exactly as they did at 25. Not a bad deal, if you’re rich or crooked. Everyone else lives in constant fear that they’ll lose their job or inflation will diminish the value of their work. They get a free year’s indulgence implanted on a clock implanted in their arms, but time flies and nothing’s free. To purchase a cup of coffee or ride a bus, one is required the arm in a scanner, which deducts the cost in minutes. Time can be added to one’s life in the same way. Once the timer hits zero, the person collapses and dies.

Justin Timberlake’s Will Salas struggles to make do at a minimum-wage job, which he hates but can’t quit. To keep his mother alive, Will is required to purchase more time or barter for it. Before he can do so, however, she dies. Determined to make someone pay for what he determines is a corrupt system — weighted against the poor and middle class — Will begins an investigation that takes him from the lowest rungs of society to the highest. It helps that he’s made a friend out of a suicidal visitor from another “time zone,” who bestows 100 years of time on him. On the downside, Will becomes the target of “time police,” led by Cillian Murphy, who have reasons of their own for controlling such trades. It isn’t long before he runs into a pretty and truly young woman (Amanda Seyfried), whose overprotective 80-year-old father (Vincent Kartheiser, looking 25) controls millions of hours of time and doesn’t want to share it with poor people. Together, Will and the blond spend the second half of the movie evading time cops and thugs hired by her father to maintain the status quo. This may make “In Time” sound ridiculously confusing, but it isn’t. Action fans will be satisfied with the many car chases, most of which seem to take place in Los Angeles’ concrete river beds, and noisy shootouts. The conceit also allowed for Niccol to cast hottie Olivia Wilde as Will’s mother, even though they look as if they could be siblings. (Being PG-13, any suggestions of incest are purely in the dirty little minds of viewers.) The bonus package adds a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted and alternative scenes, and access to “In Time: The Game” app. – Gary Dretzka

Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection: Blu-ray
RaroVideo has re-released into Blu-ray its quartet of wildly plotted crime thrillers – after 40 years, some viewers might find them darkly comic, as well – by the influential Italian director Fernando Di Leo. The titles include “Caliber 9” (1972), “The Italian Connection” (1972), “The Boss” (1973) and “Rulers of the City” (1976), all of which, we’re told, influenced the movies of Quentin Tarantino and John Woo. Even if the shootouts look as if they were staged by people who never fired a gun or saw film of people being shot, they are too entertaining to hate. Moreover, the actors hired by Di Leo to play gangsters look as if they’ve been recruited from a prison in New Jersey, not through Central Casting. The hi-def transfers were struck from the original 35mm negatives and re-mastered in collaboration with the Venice Film Festival. The boxed set adds a booklet of essays. – Gary Dretzka

Texas Killing Fields: Blu-ray
Movies about serial killers are a dime a dozen these days. To stand out, a really good crime thriller has to have something going for it besides an insane killer and grotesque murders. Even with Michael Mann’s name on the list of credits, as producer, daughter Ami Canaan Mann’s “Texas Killing Fields” failed to inspire any more than an extremely limited release. Set largely at night in the swamps and marshes of eastern Texas (Louisiana), the movie oozes atmosphere and is populated with very good actors: Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sheryl Lee, Annabelle Gish and Jessica Chastain. It was inspired by actual events and looks as if it might have been set in a town where serial killers can escape justice by feeding the bodies and evidence to alligators. Worthington plays a cop with local ties, whose partner is a transplanted New York City police detective. Outsider Brian Heigh (Morgan) becomes obsessed with solving the crimes, even though it’s out of their jurisdiction and he’s been warned that nothing good can come looking too deep into the “killing fields.” Sure enough, the deeper Heigh sticks his nose into the affairs of the locals, the more his life is threatened by rednecks who don’t care what he does for a living. Chastain plays a hard-nose cop from a neighboring town and Lee plays the junkie mom of a sweet and highly independent teenager (Moretz), who always looks as if she’s being dangled as bait for the killer. That’s enough baggage for a TV mini-series, let alone a 105-minute thriller by a second-time director and freshman writer (Don Ferrarone). The Blu-ray comes with commentary by Mann and Ferrarone. – Gary Dretzka

Dead Hooker in a Trunk
Spider Hole
If the masters of exploitation cinema have taught us anything, it’s that a great title will trump negative reviews every time. Likewise, a great tabloid headline (“Headless Body in Topless Bar,” “Ford to City: Drop Dead”) will attract otherwise intelligent readers to a crappy newspaper. “Dead Hooker in a Trunk” is the title of a do-it-yourself horror flick by Jen and Sylvia Soska, who not only co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred, but also are credited as co-producers, set decorators and assistants to the editor and cinematographer. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made PB&J sandwiches for the cast and crew, as well. Unlike the great headlines and titles that point to lousy stories and movies, however, “Dead Hooker in a Trunk” is both a madly inventive parody of slasher flicks and a deliciously dark comedy. If it doesn’t quite reach the bar set by their cinematic hero, Richard Rodriguez, it isn’t for lack of passion and chutzpah. That it hasn’t been seen outside a couple of genre festivals qualifies as a sin.

The plot is simplicity itself. While on a mission to score drugs, three Vancouver riot-grrrls – Junkie, Geek, Badass – discover the body of a blond woman decomposing in the truck of their black Camaro. Having no idea as to how the corpse got there or if they had anything to do with her death, the teenagers enlist the help of a bible-banging relative, Goody Two Shoes, to dispose of it. If only clearing a guilty conscience were that simple. The girls barely can get out of their own ways as they’re confronted by a variety of cops, deviants and lunatics, at least one of whom wields a chainsaw. They’re also stalked by the likely killer of “Hooker,” an evil dude simply referred to as Cowboy Pimp. In the great Grindhouse tradition, too much ain’t enough for the Soskas, who immersed themselves in the books of Stephen King while other girls their age were obsessed with Judy Blume. The blood and gore in “Dead Hooker in a Trunk” may be excessive, but it’s generated with surgical skill and twisted humor. Their debt to Rodriguez is addressed in the casting of Carlos “El Mariachi” Gallardo in the role of God. It’s that kind of movie. The bonus making-of featurette is as free of form as the movie itself and worth a visit.

Until the capture of Saddam Hussein by American troops, I wasn’t aware of the term, “spider hole,” which apparently is military parlance for a hidey-hole used to conceal a single person. In the movie, “Spiderhole,” it refers more to the fact that a group of London squatters has taken up residence inside a boarded-up apartment building that also is home to a few harmless spiders and a sadist in surgeon’s garb. By extending the metaphor, one could argue that the killer lures his prey into his web and devours the trapped victims. Here, the web is the building and the cost-conscious art students are dinner. After a night in their new home, the students awaken to find the doors and windows locked and impenetrable. It’s clear that someone has it out for the squatter, but the fiend is in no hurry to reveal himself. Instead, he toys with the victims before killing them. I doubt that fans of torture porn will find anything revelatory or particularly frightening in “Spiderhole.” The blood is mostly shed off-screen. Even so, it isn’t the worst idea for a slasher film I’ve seen. – Gary Dretzka

Chalet Girl
This unassuming teen rom-com not only doesn’t break any new ground, but the formula already was old when Sally Field, Annette Funicello and Haley Mills were planning their sweet-16 parties. That it keeps popping up decades later only attests to the fact that tweens and teens still dream of beating the odds by impressing a prince, heir or rock star, and changing his mind about marrying the bitchy rich girl his parents have picked out for him. (The same scenario works for boys, but not nearly so often.) In “Chalet Girl,” a 19-year-old “tomboy” from a working-class background lands a job cooking for a family of wealthy skiers in their posh Austrian chalet. That Felicity Jones’ Kim isn’t a gold-digger — unlike her similarly employed friend (Tamin Egerton) — is evidenced by the fact that she’s something of a klutz and a pipsqueak, at least compared to the leggy bombshells who also frequent the chalet. Instead, she bumps into a European ski bum on the slopes and he convinces her that she’s a natural snowboarder. After all, how much more difficult could skiing be for an accomplished skateboarder, as is Kim? An Xtreme snowboard competition is scheduled for later in the season and the prize money could help her dad save his London greasy spoon. Within weeks, Kim has developed the skills necessary to compete at the highest level in her demanding new sport and on the most challenging slope. In the meantime, the heir to the family’s fortune (Ed Westwick, of “Gossip Girl”) has taken a shine to her naiveté and sense of humor, which are in direct contrast to the stick-up-her-butt attitude of his girlfriend (Sophia Bush) and mom (Brooke Shields). “Chalet Girl” rarely, if ever deviates from the well-trod path to a “Cinderella” ending. For girls entering their teens, though, the story won’t feel overly familiar. The crisp mountain air keeps the story from going stale and the actors seem to be enjoying the break from soundstages and smog. I suspect that Jones has more in common with the target audience for “Chalet Girl” than the vast majority of ingénues cast in movies solely for their blond hair and appearance in Victoria’s Secret ads. – Gary Dretzka

Bollywood Beats
It would be interesting to see how some of the top Bollywood dancers would fare in competition on “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With the Stars.” The moves they display in Indian musicals and videos are fascinating to watch, even without subtitles to explain the lyrics and plot twists. The central character in Mehul Shah’s “Bollywood Beats” is a dance-obsessed teenager caught in the classic struggle between an immigrant son or daughter’s desire to follow their dreams in the New World and their parents’ more pragmatic strategy for success. St. Louis native Sachin Bhatt stars as Raj, a born-to-dance young man whose Indian parents have patiently waited for their son to make good, but now want him to get serious about himself by entering the family business. Raj bargains with his parents to get another six-month grace period, before agreeing to take the job. Although clearly talented, his fusion of hip-hop and Bollywood dance styles has yet to impress casting directors looking for dancers with more marketable skills. He decides to open a school, where amateurs can learn Bollywood steps and lose some weight at the same time. Just when things begin to come together at the school, the students begin experiencing a litany of soap-opera problems at home. They include hypocritical husbands, lack of self-respect, hide-bound traditions and fathers who think all male dancers are gay and, therefore, an insult to them. Before long, though, the students coalesce into an ensemble anxious to impress a panel of Indian judges. A bit more drama ensues, but that can’t be predicted or ruin the predestined ending. The fun comes in watching the dancers grow as individuals and perform as a unit. Fans of the network dance shows are the logical target for “Bollywood Beats.” – Gary Dretzka

Janie Jones
The Other F Word
Last Fast Ride: The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess
What’s the greater disconnect, watching 68-year-old multimillionaire Mick Jagger prancing around a giant stage demanding satisfaction or watching a documentary about punk-rock stars attempting to avoid the mistakes made by their parents, while raising their own children?

Both images are pretty hair-raising, I suppose. “Janie Jones” and “The Other F Word” have a lot in common in the area of child-rearing and musicians’ accepting the realities of age. In the former, a temperamental singer-songwriter freaks out when he’s introduced to the 13-year-old daughter he never knew he had, by a groupie he can’t remember meeting, let alone having unprotected sex. It’s popular male nightmare, especially in the worlds of music and professional sports. Here, the mother of the girl, Janie (Elisabeth Shue and Abigail Breslin, respectively), insists that she couldn’t wait any longer, because she’s strung out, requires lengthy detox and has nowhere else to turn. Even though, the mother isn’t demanding any money from singer Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola), he chooses not to believe her. While performing on stage, however, she takes a powder, leaving Janie to her own devices. After the police pick up the girl for vagrancy – and being in a free-fire zone for pimps looking for fresh talent – Ethan reluctantly allows Janie to hop on the bus, heading for the next gig. It doesn’t take long before the singer’s drinking problem blossoms into a full-blown crisis and his band decides not to stick around for the explosion. The rest of “Janie Jones” chronicles how Ethan and Janie’s passion for music – she’s a natural singer-songwriter — ultimately creates a bridge between them. Writer-director David M. Rosenthal (“Falling Up”) has avoided most of the traps inherent in these scenarios, thanks to an unsentimental portrayal of a father and daughter at loose ends and in desperate need of a helping hand. Breslin and Nivola are terrific and Shue is extremely convincing as a junky who missed too many exit signs on the road to rock-’n’-roll hell. Peter Stormare also is good as the band’s seen-it-all manager. Nivola and Breslin sing original music by Gemma Hayes and Eef Barzelay.

The title, “The Other F Word,” refers both to fatherhood and the barrage of F-bombs lobbed during the course of the average punk-rock concert. Among the many ironic twists informing Andrea Blaugrund Nevins’ frequently heart-warming documentary is watching the musicians attempt to balance their anarchic stage personae with the realities of 21^st Century parenting. It would have been all too easy for a filmmaker to locate the kids of musicians and ask them what it was like to be raised by rock stars – men and women, both – in a society obsessed with celebrity, wealth and pop culture. For every Jakob Dylan, Miley Cyrus, Stella McCartney and Sean Lennon, there probably are an equal number of train-wreck childhoods. Going blind into “F Word,” I wondered if Nevins anticipated finding a mix of success stories and disasters; tattooed toddlers in leather jackets; musicians too stoned or drunk to remember to pick up the kids at school; and retired-groupie moms in fishnets and industrial-strength mascara. Instead, the parents we meet here lead relatively normal lives with their seemingly normal children, who are encouraged to do their homework and play nice with the other kids at school. The common problems faced by those interviewed in “F Word” is the same one that’s haunted musicians, actors and athletes for more than 100 years. How much damage is done to kids, adults and marriages if a parent is required to spend months at a time on the road, performing and promoting projects? Would even greater problems arise if the parent stayed at home, vegged out and rested on his royalties? Can children be traumatized by a parent’s hairstyle, body ink or attire? Among the musicians interviewed are Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Rise Against the Machine’s Tim McIlrath and Pennywise’s Jim Lindberg, whose band’s anthem is “Fuck Authority.”

On the other hand, not all punk rockers grow old gracefully or can escape the stereotypes of the genre. “Last Fast Ride: The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess” chronicles the troubled personal life and chaotic career of Marion Anderson. Abused as a child by her father, Anderson attempted to escape her pain through drugs, street life and outrageous behavior. After a stint in juvenile detention, she committed herself to a type of music that was as angry and unforgiving as she was. And, for a while, Anderson was able to hold off the demons of bi-polarity. As lead singer of the Bay Area punk group the Insaints, she developed a reputation for acting out her hostility and sexual proclivities on stage. Law-enforcement agencies attempted to shut down her act, of course, but the ACLU took her side in the argument over the limits of artistic expression and won. After moving to Los Angeles, the very pretty Anderson began to moonlight as a fetish model and dominatrix, somewhere along the way acquiring a taste for heroin. Her death didn’t prompt the same media coverage as that of other doomed pop stars, so Lilly Scourtis’ “Last Fast Ride” provides a proper eulogy. Narrated by Henry Rollins, the movie is loaded with interviews, concert footage and the recollections of her family and girlfriend. It’s an interesting portrayal, but one that fits a pattern familiar to other pop idols. – Gary Dretzka

Manhattan/Annie Hall: Blu-ray
Woody Allen: A Documentary
Among the many things for which Woody Allen is widely known is his reluctance to add bonus material and commentaries to his movies as they’re released in video, DVD and Blu-ray. A few years ago, he told a reporter for Total Film, “I’m really not interested. I want my films to speak for themselves. And hopefully they do.” He’s granted many such interviews over the course of his long career, but not the kind of frame-by-frame analysis collectors of laserdiscs, DVDs and Blu-rays relish. The Blu-ray release of “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall” – arguably, his two most popular and enduring titles – once again raises the question as to how Allen managed to resist the temptation to flog his projects. It seems like such fun, after all. Certainly, enough already has been revealed about these two movies, so that commentaries might only serve as the icing on the cake or cherry on the sundae. In a very real sense, “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall” do speak for themselves. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” they’re not. The only real question to be answered, then, is how well the hi-def presentation compares to the theatrical and DVD experience. Very well, thank you. Cinematographer Gordon Willis’ magnificent black-and-white work in “Manhattan” remains transcendent and the studio has decided not to mess arbitrarily with the original audio presentations. That’s enough to recommend them.

Patient admirers of Allen’s films need only wait another two weeks for Robert Weide’s “Woody Allen: A Documentary,” a 191-minute exploration of the artist, his work and influences. Allen is interviewed at length, as are such actors as Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Penelope Cruz, John Cusack, Larry David, Mariel Hemingway, Scarlett Johansson, Julie Kavner, Diane Keaton, Martin Landau, Louise Lasser, Sean Penn, Tony Roberts, Chris Rock, Mira Sorvino, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest and Owen Wilson; collaborators Marshall Brickman, Mickey Rose and Doug McGrath; cinematographers Gordon Willis and Vilmos Zsigmond; Allen’s sister and aide, Letty Aronson; longtime manager Jack Rollins; casting director Juliet Taylor; and friends Dick Cavett and Martin Scorsese. Not all of what’s said about Allen is particularly new or revelatory, but all of the pieces add up to a recognizable whole. Allen also opens up a little on his personal life and the controversies that continue to dog him. The documentary takes viewers from Allen’s earliest writing jobs and Marxian comedies, through the highs and lows of his movie career, and to the surprising success of “Midnight in Paris.” It’s a fascinating portrait and not a minute too long. The bonus material on the DVD includes “12 Questions With Woody Allen,” deleted scenes and interview material, and an interview with Weide. – Gary Dretzka

Notorious/Spellbound/Rebecca: Blu-ray
The Apartment: Blu-ray
In the world of Blu-ray, some weeks are better than others. Sure, hardly a week goes by without the release of one or two current hits, sure to top the list of best-selling and best-renting titles. What makes buffs stand up and applaud, though, is the concurrent release of important catalogue classics, which took their own sweet time to arrive, but are in as good a shape as the latest technology allows. This is one of those weeks. It’s pretty tough to beat the near simultaneous releases of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” “Spellbound” and “Notorious”; Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment”; and Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall.” The movies speak for themselves as necessary additions to anyone’s library. If not, the duly noted Academy Award nominations and Oscars make the case even clearer. Besides being examples of Hitchcock working at full speed, the movies are populated with such immortal acting talents as Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains, Leo G. Carroll and Rhonda Fleming (in her second credited role), as well as the writing of Robert Sherwood and Ben Hecht.

“Rebecca” may be the most significant in that it represents Hitch’s first American-made feature, under notorious meddler/genius David O. Selznick, and the only one of his titles to win the Best Picture Oscar. Adapted from a novel by Daphne Du Maurier, “Rebecca” tells the story of a pretty, if oddly unfashionable young woman (Fontaine) who falls quickly and deeply in love with a filthy-rich older man (Olivier). Their days at the Manderley mansion would become increasingly dark as the clouds of controversy, conspiracy and fear continue to roll in and the specter of the owner’s recently dead wife haunts the narrative throughout.  It’s one of the rare movies in which the suspense continues to build, even as final credits are about to roll. The Blu-ray bonus package adds commentary by Richard Schickel; isolated music and effects tracks; the featurettes, “The Making of ‘Rebecca’” and “The Gothic World of Daphne DuMaurier”; screen tests, including those of Margaret Sullavan and Vivien Leigh; and radio plays; audio interviews with Hitchcock.

“Spellbound” is famous largely for the inclusion of a trippy dream sequence conceived by Salvador Dali. Otherwise, according to Hitchcock, the film is “just another manhunt wrapped up in pseudo-psychoanalysis,” albeit a very enjoyable one. Bergman plays a dedicated psychiatrist, who falls in love with a doctor (Peck) whose true identity is masked by amnesia and abnormal behavior. The police believe him to be a murderer, but the psychiatrist isn’t convinced. “Calling Dr. Freud …” Here, the extras include commentary with film historians Thomas Schatz and Charles Ramirez Berg; the excellent featurettes, “Running With Scissors: Hitchcock, Surrealism and Salvador Dali,” “Guilt By Association: Psychoanalyzing ‘Spellbound,’” and “A Cinderella Story: Rhonda Fleming”; a 1948 radio play, directed by Hitchcock; and interviews conducted by Peter Bogdanovich.

The spy thriller “Notorious” is many people’s favorite Hitchcock movie, if only because of the steamy post-war romance between an American intelligence officer and the playgirl daughter of a Nazi spy that he recruits to infiltrate a nest of Nazi spies in Brazil. Despite the fact that her father was convicted in court and elected to commit suicide instead of serving time, Alicia Huberman professes a love for America and accepts the challenge. She even agrees to marry a former friend (Rains) of her father and member of a gang of unrepentant Nazis. One of Hitchcock’s tricks here is to give us more information about Alicia than what’s available to her control agent, Devlin (Grant) – who still considers her to be a loose cannon — setting up the possibility of a Shakespearean tragedy. The romantic scenes pushed the borders of the Hollywood Production Code, as did the ambiguity surrounding Alicia’s sexual past. The closer Alicia gets to exposing her true colors to her husband and his fascist mother, the hotter the romance grows between her and Devlin. The broken-bottle scene in the wine cellar is a classic example of how Hitchcock builds tension, without resorting to thriller conventions or superfluous dialogue. The Blu-ray adds commentaries by film professors Rick Jewell and Drew Casper; isolated movie and effects tracks; making-of featurettes, including one on the development of the love scenes; a 1948 radio play with Bergman and Joseph Cotton; a short piece of an AFI honored bestowed on Hitch; and his discussions with Bogdanovich and Francois Truffaut. It amazing that some of the most romantic moments in cinema history have been orchestrated by someone who doesn’t look as if he could get laid in a whorehouse. Discussions about Hitchcock’s often testy relationship with Selznick also are fascinating.

The numbing sameness of factory work has been dramatized in movies for almost as long as there have been movies, with Charles Chaplin’s 1936 “Modern Times” scoring a direct hit on the dehumanizing effects of assembly lines, automation and unsafe conditions in the workplace. In Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment,” employees of the giant Consolidated Life Insurance Company aren’t much happier than Chaplin’s hapless nut-tightener. The only thing missing in Wilder’s depiction of Consolidated’s vast un-partitioned workspace is an open window, from which the miserable clerks and bean-counters could commit suicide. It’s a miracle that any single drone could be singled out for special duty by the office managers, but C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) benefits from his willingness to allow married senior executives to use his nearby apartment for their trysts with young female employees. To a man, the executives are first-rate cads and exploiters of women who believe their lies about divorcing their wives. Baxter is led to believe that his cooperation could enhance his chance for promotion and, indeed, it does. Even when his bosses begin to abuse the privilege, Baxter literally allows himself to be left out in the cold Manhattan winter, catching a world-beater cold. Shirley MacLaine is wonderful as Fran, the elevator operator who breaks Baxter’s heart when the big boss leaves her at the apartment, despondent and betrayed. He helps her survivea suicide attempt, but is dismayed when Fran leaves herself open to more heartache. C.C. and Fran may be perfectly suited to each other, but it takes more courage than they’re usually able to muster to declare their independence in this often very dark comedy.

Wilder won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (co-written with longtime collaborator I.A.L. Diamond). Lemmon and MacLaine were nominated in the Best Actors categories. The Blu-ray package includes the informative commentary of film historian Bruce Block; the featurettes, “Inside ‘The Apartment’” and” Magic Time: The Art of Jack Lemmon,” in which Chris Lemmon discusses the life and career of his father. – Gary Dretzka

Shakespeare in Love: Blu-ray
Radio Inside
Vice Squad
Getting It Right
Up the Creek
Monsigner
With the nomination process behind us for another year, there’s no better time to recall the great upsets in Oscar history. I’m not sure anything would qualify as an upset this time around, although “The Artist” is the current favorite. One of the biggest surprises was the awarding of the Best Picture trophy to “Shakespeare in Love,” and victories for Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, writers Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, composer Stephen Warbeck, costume designer Sandy Powell and art directors Martin Childs and Jill Quertier. Director John Madden lost out to Steven Spielberg, whose “Saving Private Ryan” was considered to be the prohibitive favorite for more than six months. Most, if not all of the credit for the upset was given to Harvey Weinstein, whose lobbying efforts forever changed the way Oscar campaigns would be organized. It certainly has impacted on the release patterns, which practically ensure that potential Best Picture candidates no longer will open before Thanksgiving. Even if the debate continues, there’s no questioning that “Shakespeare in Love” is a wonderful entertainment. The Blu-ray bonus package includes commentary with Madden alone; a separate track with the commentary of cast and crew members; the post-Oscar featurette, “‘Shakespeare in Love’ and on Film”; deleted scenes; a profile of costume designer Powell; and marketing material.

“Radio Inside” is a curious romantic drama from 1994. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t accorded a theatrical release, debuting on VHS four years later. Considering that William McNamara, Elisabeth Shue and Dylan Walsh had yet to emerge as stars, and the subject matter was pretty dark, the studio must have decided not to throw good money after bad. Fact is, it’s pretty good. McNamara plays Matthew, a Midwestern youth who moves to Miami to live with his older brother, Michael (Walsh), after the accidental death of their father. Michael is a genuinely nice guy and devoted brother, whose relationship with his girlfriend, Natalie (Shue), suffers an inability to push himself away from his desk. Matthew’s arrival is convenient in that he and Natalie can keep each other company, while Michael is working overtime or generally running late. Naturally, something happens that brings Matthew and Natalie together in a way that feeds on both of their insecurities. What isn’t predictable, however, is Matthew’s fantastical relationship with Jesus Christ – who is available by phone — and withdrawal into memories of the time he spent with his father in the North Woods. It takes a while to understand the young man’s fear of and fixation with water, but it finally makes sense in a strange sort of way. What truly distinguishes “Radio Inside” from the thousands of other offbeat indies made in the last 20 years is the cinematography of Brian Capener, which shows Miami in a more flattering and meteorologically dramatic light than any other movie I’ve seen. The shots of storm clouds and sunsets, alone, are worth the cost of a rental. The MGM title is available on a manufactured-on-demand basis through Internet retailers. There are no extras.

Other new MOD titles include “Vice Squad,” a 1953 procedural in which Edward G. Robinson plays an LAPD captain “during the course of an ordinary day,” if you consider two police shootings, a bank heist and personal visits from a friendly madam normal. Shot largely on location, the inaccurately titled “Vice Squad” is fun to watch for its nostalgia value, if nothing else.

Released in 1989, “Getting It Right” reminds me of a British version of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” In the place of wild and wacky Steve Carell is Jesse Birdsall, a subdued London hairdresser whose sexual awakening is sparked by eccentrics played by Lynn Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter and Jane Horroks. John Gielgud and Peter Cook also have memorable turns in this very British comedy.

“Up the Creek” is a wildly uneven comedy from the Golden Age of gross-out and slob movies. Six years after “Animal House,” Tim Matheson and Stephen Furst are still in no hurry to graduate college, if only because they’re having too much fun and don’t feel any obligation to study. The dean (John Hillerman) is so anxious to see them leave that he offers them the degree of their choice if they win an annual collegiate white-water rafting competition against teams of stereotypical jocks, ROTC geeks, fraternity thugs, sorority sluts and other undergraduate misfits from other schools. If “Up the Creek” isn’t nearly as funny as “Animal House,” it’s because the writers don’t appear to have had any association with the National Lampoon. “Porky’s” regular Dan Monahan also is part of the home team.

Christopher Reeve took on “Monsignor” in the hiatus between the second and third installments of “Superman.” Its status as one of Hollywood’s great turkeys – on a dollar-for-dollar, frame-by-frame basis, anyway – isn’t mentioned in the notes on the DVD cover, but its notoriety is the only possible reason the rascals at Shout! Factory would release it some 30 years later. Reeve is an American priest and war hero, whose rise in the Catholic Church is greased by his dealings with the Mafia and other shady businessmen. The most notorious moments occur when he breaks his vow of celibacy with a nun played by Geneviève Bujold, and who could blame him? There no bonus features. – Gary Dretzka

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
The Toynbee Tiles are the stuff that urban myths are made of … or would be if they weren’t so prevalent and well recorded by cultists and pop-culture historians. For the uninitiated, the tiles have been found embedded in roadways across much of the United States and several South American capitals. Each placard carries the words, “TOYNBEE IDEA/IN Kubrick’s 2001/RESURRECT DEAD/ON PLANET JUPITER,” or some variation of them. What they mean precisely can’t be known for sure because the perpetrator of the phenomenon has yet to be identified with any certainty, although the producers of “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles” have found a couple of likely candidates. The most common theory holds that the messages refer to theories by historian Arnold Toynbee about death and resurrection and their relation to the “Space Baby” sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The mystery has attracted the kind of attention usually reserved for crop circles, the JFK assassination, Trilateral Commission and Elvis Sightings. Jon Foy’s documentary addresses the history of the tiles and the many theories surrounding them. There’s a photo gallery of the tiles, which are all slightly different, as well as other bonus material. – Gary Dretzka

Electric Daisy Carnival Experience
Imagine coming home from work one day and seeing a Big Top on one end of your street, one sidewalk filled with midway attractions and the other lined with food trucks. In between them, several thousand people are wandering around waiting for the circus to begin. That’s kind of how I felt while watching “Electric Daisy Carnival Experience,” a DVD chronicling an annual two-day dance-music party held at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 2010. Here were tens of thousands of young men and women, seemingly from around the world, gyrating to the pulsating sounds of house, dance and electronic music, delivered by the some of the genre’s most popular deejays. There was a Ferris wheel on one end of the field and a giant stage dominated by a single “spinner,” his mix kit and a bunch of sexy clowns on the other. How come I wasn’t invited? Probably because I would have passed out and died after the first six hours of jumping up and down while wearing some insane costume and candy-chain bracelets. These sorts of parties have been going on for years in Europe, where a large part of the underground economy is fueled by Ecstasy sales. Here, the parties have been smaller, more impromptu affairs. Apparently, though, the sheer magnitude of the 2010 “EDCE” surprised even seasoned deejays and promoters. A veritable horde of peaceful young freaks filled the football field and much of the grandstands; dozens of clowns and acrobats performed; and a couple dozens of deejays entertained the throng estimated at 100,000. Among those represented in the DVD are Steve Aoki, Moby, will.i.am, Laidback Luke, MSTRKRFT, Skrillex, Travis Barker vs A-Trak and a bunch of acts my kids would recognize, but I don’t. The “EDCE” film is a first-class, no-expenses-spared effort. It looks great on 2D, too. – Gary Dretzka

Hunted by Night
Potnah
Unless one is a bow-hunter, the thrills in “Hunted by Night” are pretty much limited to watching Cuban-American heartthrob and People magazine coverboy Jencarlos Canela almost single-handedly wipe out a small army of cocaine traffickers and their stooges. The action begins in the Florida Everglades, where three friends are spending a few days hunting deer with high-tech bows and arrows. When one of the men spies a low-flying plane dropping bales of blow on what appears to be a designated pickup spot, we almost are able to see dollar signs emerging from a cartoon balloon over his head. He manages to convince one of his buddies to go along with his plan to rip-off the cartel, but is less successful with the hunter played by Canela, who senses a disaster waiting to happen. Within hours, a posse of heavily armed Hispanics shows up in their swamp buggies and Escalades, anxious to pick up the packages and ruin the lives of school children and fashion models across the U.S. of A. Instead of cocaine, they find a misplaced arrow, which, of course, leads them to the hunters. The remaining 90 minutes of the movie are taken over by chases, ambushes, shootouts, martial-arts action and well-placed arrows with razor-sharp broadheads. Did I mention that the extremely buff Canela also is a world-class kick-boxer? Anyway, that kind of wraps up what happens in “Hunted by Night.” The action is very good, but I would have expected veteran stuntman and freshman director Juan C. Bofill to up the ante by adding some alligators, man-eating pythons and cougars to the cast.

When was the last time you saw a movie about illegal cigarette trafficking in the ’hood? Yeah, me neither. If the idea sounds appealing, check out “Podnah,” a do-it-yourself crime story directed by Darrell Smith and written by Kyron Hodges, a self-admitted graduate of the New York State Correctional Facility and budding multimedia magnate. “Podnah” appears to have been drawn from Hodges’ personal experiences in the cigarette trade, at least until, “the feds got jealous.” Hodges also stars in the micro-budget indie, which offers a thug’s-eye view of the life in the criminal underworld. It isn’t pretty, but “Podnah” does deliver some cheap thrills. – Gary Dretzka

Tabitha’s Salon Takeover: Complete Season 2
The Rachel Zoe Project: eason 4
The Real Housewives of Orange County: Season 5
Ancient Aliens: Season Three
For most of its first 20 years of existence, the Bravo network was known as a repository for shows highlighting the performing arts, drama, British television serials and independent film. For the past 10, it’s been a testing ground for reality-based shows no sane person could have imagined in the early days of cable television. The changeover began in 2003, with the unlikely success of the fashion-makeover series, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” It would spawn such kindred shows as “Project Runway” and “Real Housewives.” For those too poor (or snooty) to afford a cable subscription, Bravo Media makes available full-season collections of all of its original programming. Generally speaking, these compilations pop up a week or two before the launch of a show’s new season, adding the reunion specials, confrontations between the shows’ stars and added footage.

In the case of “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover,” there’s been a bit of a lag between the newly begun Season 4 and release of the Season 2 collection. Aussie salon owner and former “Shear Genius” contestant Tabatha Coffey has been assigned the task of rescuing businesses that are on the brink of disaster and consoling employees at loose ends. In Season 2, the blond-tressed, black-clad fashion dominatrix visited 10 salons in Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. In doing so, she takes over control of the facility and makes all the difficult decisions. If only she could do the same thing with Congress.

Also available in an exclusive deal with Target are “Real Housewives of Orange County: Season 6” and “The Rachel Zoe Project: Season 4.” When, in 2006, the SoCal housewives found a ready audience for their bad behavior and pathetic addiction to consumerism, it was inevitable that groups of similarly spoiled MILFs would be found in other major American cities, including New York, Washington, Beverly Hills, New Jersey, Miami and Atlanta. (There also are spinoffs in Athens, Israel, Brazil and Vancouver.) In Season 5 Alexis Bellino replaces original housewife Jeana Keough. Tamra and Simon are feuding and Lynne and her family facing eviction. The widow Gretchen has begun dating Slade, the slimeball once engaged to Jo De La Rosa.

Rachel Zoe began her television life as a much-in-demand stylist to the stars. What, you think celebrities could dress and accessorize that hideously on their own? The series now is more about the otherwise talentless Zoe, her staff, family and ancillary businesses than her celebrity clients. In the fourth stanza, Zoe and Roger appear to have settled their differences and she’s six months pregnant. If a baby can’t slow Zoe down, as her husband has requested, what hope is there for her wannabes? Former aide Brad Goreski now has a series of his own, “It’s a Brad, Brad World,” which, of course, is on Bravo.

Meanwhile, over on the History Channel, Season 3 opened with a nod to the newly released sci-fi Western, “Cowboys & Aliens,” in that the show explores Native American myths and visits a cemetery, where, in 1897, an “ancient astronaut” is rumored to have been buried. It also examines how genetics, religions, cults and our Founding Fathers might have been influenced by alien contacts. It’s worth mentioning, here, that shipwreck finders recently found what they believe to be one or two UFO’s 300 feet below the surface of the Baltic Sea. With news like that, “Ancient Aliens” could run forever. – Gary Dretzka

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