Knight at HOME at the Movies
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To HELL with the Holidays!
Now you know anyone with a title page trimmed in red and green to celebrate Christmas doesn't really mean that. But
there is that little tiny voice (and it ain't Tiny Tim's) piping up, "I'm getting diabetes already from all this movie sugar!
Give me something SOUR...but funny." As the anonymous porn star said to Jeff Stryker before takin' it up the wazoo,
"You got it" and here it is:
Now you know anyone with a title page trimmed in red and green to celebrate Christmas doesn't really mean that. But
there is that little tiny voice (and it ain't Tiny Tim's) piping up, "I'm getting diabetes already from all this movie sugar!
Give me something SOUR...but funny." As the anonymous porn star said to Jeff Stryker before takin' it up the wazoo,
"You got it" and here it is:
Just in time for awards season, 20th Century Fox is releasing the year’s indie
comedy hit, Little Miss Sunshine on DVD – though it’s in a pretty much bare
bones addition. But who cares when the movie’s as laugh out loud funny as this
one? The story is that of an EXTREMELY dysfunctional family (including a suicidal
gay brother-in-law played to a prissy “T” by Steve Carell) haphazardly making their
way to one of those insidious beauty queen pageants so that little Olive can
compete. Olive is far from the typical Jon Benet Ramsay type contestant nor is her
family anything close to normal.
This wacked out road picture is full of far fetched but audience pleasing moments
(like the family being forced to run after their VW bus because that’s the only way to
get it running). The zippy score and blazing bright photography help the picture as
do excellent performances by all in the cast with Abigail Breslin as Olive the optimist,
Greg Kinnear as the control freak father and Alan Arkin as the hippie grandfather
taking highest honors. The disc includes the usual director commentaries, both full
and widescreen editions of the film and four alternate endings. The one in which the
family makes off with the pageant trophy is hilarious.
Fox is also giving us The Devil Wears Prada as the perfect stocking stuffer for
that special camp queen in your life. Don’t even bother reading the rest of this
highest endorsement. Just go get a copy right now.
Okay, got it? Watched it? Swooned over the clothes? The deluxe settings? Stanley
Tucci’s AMAZING wardrobe (I want it shipped to me right now!)? Read my original
review? Okay – now you can pass go:
This juicy, sedate fashion world version of Mommie Dearest gives us Meryl Streep as
the Joan Crawford like, monstrous fashion editor Miranda Priestly and Anne
Hathaway as her naïve but smart cookie nemesis, the Christina Crawford like
Andrea. The disc offers four nice behind the scenes featurettes (including one on
the costume designer Patricia Field who needs to be given the Oscar already) as well
as a healthy batch of deleted scenes.
From the looks of it, several of these were in earlier cuts of the film and a few
should have been kept in. One that was probably tough to toss is a scene set at the
formal party in which Andrea saves Miranda from a messy situation involving her
drunken husband. We actually see Miranda mouth the words “thank you” to Andy
for helping her out. In retrospect, this might have tipped audiences off earlier in the
picture to the character’s inner vulnerability so I see why it was finally dropped.
Emily Blunt, who plays Assistant #2 also has some terrifically funny bits in the
deleted scenes. There’s also a gag reel and commentary tracks from director David
Frankel, producer Wendy Finerman and Patricia Field.
Finally a very guarded – emphasis on “very” – recommendation for Bad Santa.
This nasty Billy Bob Thornton comedy in which he plays a drunken, foul mouthed
department store Santa who robs the places (along with his little dwarf friend) is for
those who REALLY hate Christmas. This director’s cut adds more profanity and
grossness but not much more laughs. BUT – and it’s a big one – this is truly the
anti-Christmas movie for all you Big Time Scrooge’s out there – and you know who
you are. Bad Santa the Director’s Cut (from Dimension) is the “I told you Christmas
sucks” movie you begged Santa for all those years and he finally delivered. This
edition includes behind the scenes shenanigans, deleted scenes and outtakes.
Merry fucking Christmas.
comedy hit, Little Miss Sunshine on DVD – though it’s in a pretty much bare
bones addition. But who cares when the movie’s as laugh out loud funny as this
one? The story is that of an EXTREMELY dysfunctional family (including a suicidal
gay brother-in-law played to a prissy “T” by Steve Carell) haphazardly making their
way to one of those insidious beauty queen pageants so that little Olive can
compete. Olive is far from the typical Jon Benet Ramsay type contestant nor is her
family anything close to normal.
This wacked out road picture is full of far fetched but audience pleasing moments
(like the family being forced to run after their VW bus because that’s the only way to
get it running). The zippy score and blazing bright photography help the picture as
do excellent performances by all in the cast with Abigail Breslin as Olive the optimist,
Greg Kinnear as the control freak father and Alan Arkin as the hippie grandfather
taking highest honors. The disc includes the usual director commentaries, both full
and widescreen editions of the film and four alternate endings. The one in which the
family makes off with the pageant trophy is hilarious.
Fox is also giving us The Devil Wears Prada as the perfect stocking stuffer for
that special camp queen in your life. Don’t even bother reading the rest of this
highest endorsement. Just go get a copy right now.
Okay, got it? Watched it? Swooned over the clothes? The deluxe settings? Stanley
Tucci’s AMAZING wardrobe (I want it shipped to me right now!)? Read my original
review? Okay – now you can pass go:
This juicy, sedate fashion world version of Mommie Dearest gives us Meryl Streep as
the Joan Crawford like, monstrous fashion editor Miranda Priestly and Anne
Hathaway as her naïve but smart cookie nemesis, the Christina Crawford like
Andrea. The disc offers four nice behind the scenes featurettes (including one on
the costume designer Patricia Field who needs to be given the Oscar already) as well
as a healthy batch of deleted scenes.
From the looks of it, several of these were in earlier cuts of the film and a few
should have been kept in. One that was probably tough to toss is a scene set at the
formal party in which Andrea saves Miranda from a messy situation involving her
drunken husband. We actually see Miranda mouth the words “thank you” to Andy
for helping her out. In retrospect, this might have tipped audiences off earlier in the
picture to the character’s inner vulnerability so I see why it was finally dropped.
Emily Blunt, who plays Assistant #2 also has some terrifically funny bits in the
deleted scenes. There’s also a gag reel and commentary tracks from director David
Frankel, producer Wendy Finerman and Patricia Field.
Finally a very guarded – emphasis on “very” – recommendation for Bad Santa.
This nasty Billy Bob Thornton comedy in which he plays a drunken, foul mouthed
department store Santa who robs the places (along with his little dwarf friend) is for
those who REALLY hate Christmas. This director’s cut adds more profanity and
grossness but not much more laughs. BUT – and it’s a big one – this is truly the
anti-Christmas movie for all you Big Time Scrooge’s out there – and you know who
you are. Bad Santa the Director’s Cut (from Dimension) is the “I told you Christmas
sucks” movie you begged Santa for all those years and he finally delivered. This
edition includes behind the scenes shenanigans, deleted scenes and outtakes.
Merry fucking Christmas.
