A primer for next chapter of ‘Kill Bill’
Kill Bill, Vol. I
Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu
Miramax, $30
The first installment in Quentin Tarantino’s gore-fest hits the home entertainment market just one day before the theatrical release of “Kill Bill, Vol. 2.” Tarantino’s tale of revenge is filled with some beautifully executed action sequences -- he pays tribute to Hong Kong martial arts films, spaghetti westerns and even Francois Truffaut’s “The Bride Wore Black” -- but it is gratuitously bloody even by Tarantino’s standards. The director of “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction” hasn’t come up with any new ideas since he burst onto the scene in the early ‘90s. It would be interesting to see if he could make a movie that doesn’t borrow so heavily from other filmmakers.
The DVD edition is skimpy -- there’s a music video and a slick behind-the-scenes featurette.
Casa de los Babys
Daryl Hannah, Mary Steenburgen
MGM, $30
The latest project from the iconoclastic independent filmmaker John Sayles falls into the middle of his canon of films. It’s a fairly inspired drama revolving around a group of American women staying in a hotel in an unnamed South American country (though filmed in Acapulco) while they wait to adopt babies. The better-than-average cast also features Marcia Gay Harden, Maggie Gyllenhall, Lili Taylor and Susan Lynch.
Sayles always gives insightful commentary on the DVDs of his films, and he doesn’t disappoint with his audio track for this one. The disc also features three mini-documentaries on the film’s production.
*
In Living Color: Season One
DVD Collection
Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jim Carrey
Fox, $40
This wildly innovative sketch comedy series took off in the ratings and became a critics’ darling when it premiered in 1990 as a midseason replacement on the fledgling Fox network. Sort of a “Laugh-In” for the ‘90s, “In Living Color” was created by star Keenen Ivory Wayans and was a showcase for a lot of young talent, including Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier, Tommy Davidson, Jennifer Lopez and Wayans’ brothers Damon, Shawn and Marlon and sister Kim, among others. Recurring characters and sketches included Homey the Clown, Fire Marshal Bill, Homeboy Shopping Network and Men on Film.
However, the series’ quality dipped considerably when Keenen Ivory Wayans left the series in 1992 -- he was upset that the network’s overexposure of the series would hurt its syndication potential -- with his siblings soon following his example.
The three-set DVD includes a featurette on the first season of the show -- none of the Wayanses or Carrey are interviewed -- a look back at the Fly Girls dancers and commentary on one of the episodes by Davidson.
*
A Room With a View
Daniel Day-Lewis,
Helena Bonham Carter
BBC Video, $27
This is a lovely two-disc set of the 1986 Merchant Ivory production of E.M. Forster’s acclaimed novel about repression, morals, manners and the class system in British society. Nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, this delightful romantic comedy won three Academy Awards: for art direction, costume design and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s screenplay adaptation.
The film boasts a remarkable cast of then up-and-comers Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julian Sands and Rupert Graves, as well as such veterans as Judi Dench and Oscar-nominees Maggie Smith and Denholm Elliott.
The digital version is taken from a newly restored anamorphic master print, made from the original negative. Among the extras are a photo gallery; entertaining commentary from Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, costar Simon Callow and cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts; TV appearances by Callow and Day-Lewis on a British chat show in 1986; and a BBC report about the film’s success in America.
