‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ arrives in video stores
Magic spread across the land this week as the highly anticipated “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (Warner; $24.99, tape; $26.99, DVD) arrived in stores. Packed with colorful escapades, sprinkled with dark moments and touched by uplifting emotions, the $126 million production is the hit adaptation of the first installment in British author J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular book series about an 11-year-old wizard (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Magic. Fans of the novels should be delighted by the home-viewing versions, which include colorful creatures (such as a giant three-headed dog), impressive visuals (particularly the striking Quidditch match, which is played on flying broomsticks and resembles soccer) and incredible sets.
What may catch viewers by surprise, however, is the timeliness of the picture’s messages.
Director Chris Columbus (“Home Alone”) never allows the visuals to overwhelm the heart of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” In these very uncertain times, the PG-rated film tells youngsters that bravery is required to survive in a dangerous world and fighting for truth, justice and friendship truly makes life worth living.
Those who purchase the DVD version of “Harry Potter” (available in both wide-screen and full-frame) will have many extra features to enjoy.
Those include: new scenes completed specifically for home-release version; a lesson in Quidditch; an interactive tour that allows fans to experience Hogwarts as a first year student; and an interview with Columbus and producer David Heyman discussing the next film in the series, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” which will arrive in theaters for Thanksgiving.
A vibrant ‘Velvet’
We quickly go from the light side with “Harry Potter” to the dark side with David Lynch’s mesmerizing “Blue Velvet” (MGM; $24.99, DVD only), which will arrive in stores on June 4.
The “Special Edition” version of “Blue Velvet” features a new digital anamorphic wide-screen image personally supervised by Lynch. The DVD also includes: Dolby Digital 5.1 sound; a featurette with deleted scenes (provocatively titled “Are You a Pervert?”), a making-of documentary (“Mysteries of Love”), a photo gallery and a booklet.
Like Lynch’s most recent film, the mesmerizing “Mulholland Drive” (Universal; $99.99, tape; $32.99, DVD), “Blue Velvet” contains strong adult material, frighteningly offbeat characters and a hypnotic artistic approach. You may not like “Blue Velvet,” but you’ll never forget it.
In the R-rated film, Kyle MacLachlan (who strongly resembles Lynch) plays a suburban man (living in a quaint all-American town named Lumberton) who’s swept into a dark underworld once he becomes involved with a mysterious nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) trapped in a living hell by a drug-addicted hood (Dennis Hopper).
The brilliantly rendered “Blue Velvet” hints at the decay that lies just below the surface of seemingly ordinary places.
It’s a startling film from Lynch, a filmmaker who steadfastly avoids discussing his work, leaving his fans to their own interpretations of his images, sounds and ideas.
A VHS version of “Blue Velvet” ($14.99) will also be available but without the wide-screen image and extras.
40 episodes out of the ‘Shadows’
A classic gothic soap opera makes a big splash on “Dark Shadows DVD Boxed Set” (MPI; $59.99, DVD only; (800) 777-2223; www.mpihomevideo.com). The lavish four-disc set, released earlier this week, features 40 episodes of the series (beginning with the first appearance of vampire Barnabas Collins) and runs 16 hours.
Created by Dan Curtis, the supernatural series completed 1,225 episodes before ending its network run on ABC (1966-71). Like “Star Trek,” “Dark Shadows” then transformed into a cult phenomenon, spawning annual conventions (which continue today), inspiring two big-screen adaptations (1970’s “House of Dark Shadows” and 1971’s “Night of Dark Shadows”) and generating a 1991 prime-time series (with Ben Cross as Barnabas Collins).
Currently, there are tentative plans to turn “Dark Shadows” into a Broadway musical, and this boxed set marks the first time a soap opera has been released on DVD.
The original TV series enjoyed huge popularity in 1967 when Curtis hired Shakespearean actor Jonathan Frid to play Collins, an angst-ridden 175-year-old vampire. The tortured character’s quest for redemption touched the hearts of many of the women loyal to “Dark Shadows.”
How popular was Frid? The network received 4,000 letters a week for the actor, and the avid fans who followed him at talk shows and personal appearances were nicknamed The 3F Society (meaning the Fanatic Followers of Frid).
‘Kurosawa’ in depth
With the recently released “Kurosawa” (Wellspring; $34.99, DVD only), writer/director Adam Low provides an insightful documentary on the late, great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who died in 1998.
Quite wisely, Low liberally sprinkles the work with beautifully mastered clips from films such as “Rashomon,” “The Seven Samurai,” “Throne of Blood,” “Yojimbo,” “Red Beard” and “Ran.” As presented here, Kurosawa, whose strong visual style influenced filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, was a man obsessed by his work, something continually touched upon by family members, as well as performers and technicians who worked with him over the years.
Narrated by Sam Shepard, “Kurosawa” also contains comments from American actors such as James Coburn and Clint Eastwood, and the DVD contains 90 minutes of bonus interview footage.
Coming Soon!
The following titles either have been or soon will be released to video stores. (If your local tape outlet doesn’t stock them, tapes can be mail ordered by calling (800) 523-0823 or DVDs by calling (800) 624-3078, unless otherwise noted.)
– “The Mothman Prophecies” (Columbia TriStar; $99.99, tape; $27.99, DVD; June 4) with Richard Gere (“Unfaithful”) and Laura Linney (“You Can Count on Me”) in a horror thriller about a supernatural being that can predict impending calamities.
– “L.I.E.” (New Yorker; $69.99, tape; $29.99, DVD; June 4) with Brian Cox (“Rushmore”) in the controversial NC-17 film about a sexual predator who seduces teen-age boys.
– “Traffic” (Criterion Collection; $39.99, DVD only; now available) with Michael Douglas (“Don’t Say a Word”) and Catherine Zeta-Jones (“The Mask of Zorro”) in Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s melodrama about drug trafficking. This special double-disc set will contain extras such as deleted scenes, an editing demonstration and outtakes.
– “The Legend of 1900” (Image; $24.99, DVD only; June 4) with Tim Roth (“Pulp Fiction”) and Clarence Williams III (“The General’s Daughter”) in Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore’s fable about a young musician who was raised on an ocean liner and lives his dream of having a piano duel with the great Jelly Roll Morton.
– “Firestarter 2: Rekindled” (USA; $99.99, tape; $19.99, DVD; now available) with Marguerite Moreau (“Queen of the Damned”) and Dennis Hopper (“Blue Velvet”) in a sequel to the thriller, based on a novel by Stephen King, about a young woman with deadly powers that resulted from a secret government drug experiment.
– Two British titles – “The Young Ones” and “Summer Holiday” (Anchor Bay; $19.99 each, DVD only; now available) – in “The Cliff Richard Collection” featuring the popular English pop musician who has sold more than 250 million records globally and enjoyed 118 hit singles.
A third title, “Wonderful Life,” with Richard will be available only as part of a special three-disc DVD boxed set ($39.99) that will also contain “The Young Ones” and “Summer Holiday” and be limited to 5,000 copies.