It must be documentary season, because this the last few weeks have seen a nearly unprecedented amount of documentaries released on DVD and Blu-ray. First up is the terrific Woody Allen documentary called, fittingly, Woody Allen: A Documentary. This terrific program details Allen’s history, films, and career in detailed fashion, and a large art of the narrative is made up of interviews with famous actors who have worked with Allen. A few of the famous faces you’ll see pop up include DIane Keaton, Chris Rock, Martin Scorsese, Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz, John Cusack, Larry David, and many others. So that alone makes the film worth watching, because you get to hear from so many actors you love.
Now, I’m not a huge Woody Allen fan overall, but this film will certainly give you an appreciation for the longevity of his career. And, best of all, even if you’re not a Woody Allen fan, the film is well made enough to be interesting no matter how interested you are in the subject matter to begin with.
Extra features include:
- 12 Questions With Woody Allen
- Deleted Scenes and Interviews
- Interview with the Director
Meanwhile, Elevate is basically Hoop Dreams, just filmed in Africa. It follows four youths who compete for a basketball scholarship that will end with one of them coming over to the United States and going to college on a basketball scholarship. It’s an interesting enough film, and the drastic change of setting do set it apart from Hoop Dreams, but there’s still a bit of a feeling of “I’ve seen this before.” Still, this is one of those sports documentaries that isn’t really about sports, and it should appeal to a broad spectrum of film viewers.
The only extra is the theatrical trailer.
Next up, PBS has no less than NINE new documentaries out. America in Primetime is easily my favorite of them all, giving us a brilliant four hour look into the history of primetime television. Over 150 well-known TV stars have contributed to interviews for this documentary, way too many for me to name here. Here are a few of the most memorable, though: Norman Lear, Shonda Rhimes, Mike Judge, Bryan Cranston, Alec Baldwin, Eva Longoria, Judd Apatow, and many others. If you’re a TV junkie like myself, this awesome program will thrill you, and you’ll wish there was more of it. Plus, on Blu-ray it looks and sounds fantastic.
Extra features include:
- Additional excerpts from 20 interviews
Following that are two nature documentaries: The Animal House (on Blu-ray and DVD) and Deadliest Volcanoes. The Animal House focuses on animals who build habitats and animals who don’t, and investigate why some animals are such good builders of these homes. It’s not the most compelling subject matter in the world, but what PBS does really well are these short documentaries. At only 60 minutes, it’s interesting enough to be worth watching without having time to get dull. On Blu-ray, it looks amazing, with brilliant colors and crystal clear imagery. Deadliest Volcanoes, meanwhile, is exactly what it sounds like, and I loved it. I’ve always been fascinated by Volcanoes, and this program gives us some amazing footage of volcanoes while also filling us in on the science of them and what makes them so powerful and devastating.
Science takes the forefront for the next two doc: Finding Life Beyond Earth and Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century. Digital Media seems the most immediate, as it focuses on digital media and how it’s shaping our children’s educations. It’s interesting enough stuff, but you get the sense that three years down the line it will be obsolete and dated, just like much technology is. Digital Media includes additional interviews as an extra feature. Finding Life Beyond Earth is also fairly immediate, but less so, as it isn’t quite so based on current technology. It does use technology and animation, though, to imagine worlds beyond our own to spectacular effect. It’s all housed in between scientific interviews, so the thrust of the two-hour program is really on what life might be like and how we might find it out there in the cosmos. It’s pretty good stuff, especially for space junkies.
Finally, four history-based documentaries round out PBS’s offerings: Underground Railroad: The William Still Story, A Perfect Terrorist, Bombing Hitler’s Dams, and 3-D Spies of WWII. Underground Railroad is a typical history doc, focusing on the man who was a key architect of the famous underground railroad of the Civil War. It’s neither great nor bad; it’s simply a solid documentary about an important time in our nation’s history. Meanwhile, A Perfect Terrorist is a Frontline special that focuses on David Headley, who went from from heroin dealer and U.S. government informant to plotter of the deadly 2008 attack on Mumbai that killed several people. This is definitely an interesting special, but those of you burned out on war and terrorism might find it a bit much.
Bombing Hitler’s Dams and 3D Spies of WWII are two World War II documentaries, obviously. Bombing Hitler’s Dams is part historical doc, part Mythbusters. In 1943 a squadron of Lancaster bombers staged one of the most audacious raids in history–destroying two gigantic dams in Germany’s industrial heartland and cutting the water supply to arms factories–with a revolutionary bouncing bomb. In this Nova special, a team of scientists and engineers attempt to recreate that incredible feat. Do they succeed? Well, I’m not telling, but the show is quite interesting. 3D Spies of WWII focuses on actual 3-D photographs taken during WWII by specially converted spy planes that were essential in crippling many of Germany’s rocket and munitions programs. The special recreates the 3-D photos in simulated 3-D, and looks at the brave men who ran these missions. It’s very interesting stuff.
The History Channel tackles similar material with World War II in 3D. This one doesn’t focus so much on those secret missions, but it does take 3-D photographs and even a 3-D movie shot by the Nazis in 1943 and represents them here. The kicker is that this is a 3-D Blu-ray, so you actually get to see the images in 3-D, which is pretty impressive. Some of the pictures’ quality is better than others, but A&E has done a nice job with the 3-D here. The imagery isn’t as deep as something like the new Transformers film in 3-D, but it’s certainly a different experience than watching CGI simulated 3-D on a flat screen.
History Channel as two more releases this month: Frozen World: The Story of the Ice Age, and Ancient Aliens: Season Three. Frozen World is a collection of documentaries about the Ice Age on Earth, and it includes four programs: Clash of the Cavemen, Volcanic Winter, Journey to 10,000 BC, and Mega Freeze. The four shows do a good job of presenting different approaches to the subject and repeating very little. We learn about cavemen, the Ice age itself, a catastrophic event 12,000 years ago, and the possibility of another ice age. It’s not just four shows telling us the same stuff in different ways.
Meanwhile, Ancient Aliens is really interesting, as I’ve been fascinated by UFO’s, aliens, and unsolved mysteries of that variety since I was a kid. This DVD release collects the third season of an in-depth look at the phenomenon of Ancient Astronauts. If you’re not familiar with that term, it’s a theory first posited in a book in the 1970s called Chariots of the Gods that theorizes that aliens visited earth in the distant past, building the pyramids and creating the Nazca lines, and things like that. This show explores everything surrounding the possibility of aliens visiting earth in the past, and while some of it comes off as the theories of crazy people, most of it is approached from an academic point of view. With the cooperation of the book’s Author, Erik Von Daniken, the show treats the subject matter quite respectfully, and is consequently very interesting
Finally, we have four new installments in the Rough Cut: Woodworking with Tommy Mac series: Turned Floor Lamp, Standing Mirror, Drop Leaf Table, and Veneered Coffee Table. These last discs are pretty simple to discuss in review terms. If you are a semi-competent carpenter, the affable and capable Tommy MacDonald can help you become a much better carpenter. What I like about these DVDs is that they aren’t just general carpentry programs. Each disc is designed to help you build a very specific project. They don’t have a lot of repeat viewability, as they’re not entertainment, but if you want to build, say, a Veneered Coffee Table, Tommy Mac will help you do it. Each DVD also comes with physical plans for the project, so you get all the tools you need to build your project. Except for, you know, actual tools.
There are no extra features except for the printed plans, but what would you want? A Commentary track? Deleted scenes?
