To introduce their new series premiering on USA channel, Universal has released the first season of Kojak on DVD. This set includes all 22 episodes of the show where Telly Savalas (who won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his performance) plays Lieutenant Theo Kojak, a tough homicide detective who likes his lollipops. Despite being created in the 70's this series holds up quite well and will be a sure hit with NYPD Blue fans.

America’s Next Top Model (5 out of 5 stars)
Paramount/ March 29, 2005

While the title of America’s Next Top Model may be a little misleading since the winners seem to disappear into thin air, the show itself is a highly addictive guilty pleasure to watch.
The first season introduced the concept of the reality show, which is to find a supermodel that will rise to the ranks of host and creator Tyra Banks. To do this, 10 girls were put through a series of tests including a freezing rooftop swimsuit shoot, posing with snakes, runway training and a nude jewellery shoot. Each week, a contestant was eliminated whittling the group down to two for the season finale.
We won’t ruin it for those who haven’t seen it yet, but we can say that the winner went on to do pretty much nothing, with the exception of The Surreal Life, a reality show for C-list celebrities.
America’s Next Top Model: Cycle One is a real treat for reality show fans, with the perfect amount of cattiness, emotion and back-stabbing. Part of this is thanks to Elyse, a contestant who has no qualms about going into their little secret camera room and spouting off about all of her roommates, using some very colourful language indeed.
This DVD set is a great way to watch the show, and we got so addicted we watched all nine episodes in a day and a half. We haven’t seen any of the subsequent seasons so we’re not sure if the charm of this show lingered but we sure are looking forward to them landing on DVD!

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (5 out of 5 stars)
Image Entertainment/ March 29, 2005

If the thought of Shakespeare makes you cringe, don’t let that keep you away from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the film based on Tom Stoppard’s hilarious and original play. Stoppard also co-wrote Shakespeare in Love and everyone seemed to love that one. While R and G are Dead isn’t as mainstream and lovey-dovey as Shakespeare in Love, it’s certainly a lot funnier.
The premise is based on the two side characters in Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are brought into the play to keep an eye on Hamlet and report back his behaviour to the queen. That is their only function in Shakespeare’s work and they get killed off soon after. This version shows the play from their point of view and plays on the fact that they are inconsequential and for most of the movie we’re not even sure which one is which, since frankly, that’s unimportant. They have no idea who they are or what they’re doing, just that they have been “sent for.”
As they try to figure it out, the fun occurs. Richard Dreyfuss gives a great performance as the Player King and Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are perfect as the confused R and G. The movie is a little slow to begin, but don’t let that deter you. Some people have complained that they found it boring, but if you really pay attention and listen to the dialogue, you’ll find yourselves supremely entertained.
This new two-disc set features the movie with your choice of audio options (including DTS) on the first disc and a second disc of special features including interviews and a still gallery. Get thee to a DVD store and pick this classic up!

Probably one of the worst movies ever made, National Lampoons Gold Diggers is a big fat waste of time. For those who are simply looking forward to watching hottie Nikki Ziering walk around topless, even you will be disappointed. She is in a total of about six minutes of the movie (but most of the extras, go figure).
When the back cover of the movie can only pull quotes that its lowbrow, tasteless and offensive, it’s not a very good sign. Stupid criminals Calvin Menhoffer (Will Friedle) and Leonard Smallwood (Chris Owen) get arrested for trying to mug some old ladies who end up kicking their butts. Turns out the two old birds are trying to get to their inheritance, being kept from them by a mean, crazy uncle. They decide to marry the young men who mugged them, insure them, then kill them. The two criminals think they’ve landed a pair of rich old mamas who will croak soon so they marry them for their money. What a laugh riot. The stupidity never ends with lame sexual jokes and attempts at offensive humour (it’s a bad sign when they don’t even succeed at being offensive). The DVD is full of extras that will probably appeal to some pre-pubescent lads like Unrated bloopers, Nikki Ziering bloopers, Deleted scenes, Alternate beginning and endings, Nikki Ziering's Gold-Digging tips for men and women, Lenny & Cal's Gold-Digging tips and Nikki Ziering: Backstage at the Gold Diggers photo shoot (oh, goody). We had to sit through it to review it, and we don't wish that pain on any of you.

Warner has released a gathering of classic comedies this month, including this brilliant screwball comedy: Bringing Up Baby in a Two-Disc Special Edition. Katherine Hepburn plays a New England heiress who crosses paths with a straight-laced paleontologist (Cary Grant). The digital transfer is wonderful and the movie is hilarious and full of great moments like Grant in a negligee. Other movie given the Warner treatment include The Philadelphia Story, Dinner at Eight, and The Band Wagon, a spectacular musical with Fred Astaire.

The original Bridget Jones’s Diary was a sweet and hilarious romantic-comedy that had everyone rolling in the aisles and garnered Renee Zellweger an Oscar nomination (for a comedic role, almost unheard of!) Piggy-backing on that success, there is now a sequel, one that lacks any of the intelligence and wit of the original and instead turns into a predictable mess.
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason picks up almost immediately after the first, with Bridget having snagged the sexy Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and the shagging having begun. She is now blissfully in the throes of a passionate relationship and everything is going swimmingly until she decides that her doesn’t treat her well and isn’t serious about her based on the fact that he was embarrassed by her rude comments at his work function (God forbid!) and that he wouldn’t discuss marriage a month into the relationship (egads!). She gets a job as co-host with her evil ex-boyfriend Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) on a witty travel show. They end up going to Thailand and the producers try to create a love triangle. Firth and Grant are great in their roles but don’t have a lot they can really do with the material they are given.
The movie ends up in Thailand and becomes Brokedown Palace as Bridget gets caught with drugs and ends up in prison. Here the offensive and stupid jokes begin as she gives her cellmates her bra and tries to teach them the proper words to “Like a Virgin.”
While Bridget was sweet and loveable in the first movie, here she stumbles around into one embarrassing situation after another and seems to make an ass of herself (and not in a cute way) everywhere she turns. She becomes annoying and too neurotic and while you know how the movie is going to end from the beginning, you’re still surprised that the man she chooses would actually still want her.
The DVD is put together well with plenty of extras including an Alternate Beginning, Deleted Scenes, a Who’s Your Man Quiz, comic look inside “The Big Fight”, as well as some interviews. It’s worth a rental if you’re a Bridget Jones fan, but probably only to reaffirm your love for the first movie.

Unless you have a big huge crush on Jude Law, Alfie will probably put you to sleep. The previews and marketing for Alfie would have you think this a rollicking good comedy with a little bit of introspective drama thrown in. What a bunch of hooey. Alfie is one big melodramatic snooze-fest.
Taking on a role Michael Caine apparently did a lot better (we haven’t seen the original) Jude Law stumbles through and talks to the audience as Alfie, a shallow womanizer who begins to realize just what kind of person he is.
The movie goes through about six months of Alfie’s life and he goes through a number of women. The single mother he always relied on for booty calls dumps him. When he decides to try having a girlfriend he chooses a crazy girl Nikki (Sienna Miller, who ended up breaking up Law’s marriage in real life) and ends up having to dump her. He then falls for an older woman (Susan Sarandon) who turns out to be the female version of himself.
The end of the movie is supposed to be where Alfie realizes his ways and decides to make a change. But it doesn’t gel for several reasons. First, this should have happened a lot earlier when he had a cancer scare and vowed to do so in the first place. Second, he seems to realize it at a couple of other places in the film, and does nothing about it making it seem like too little, too late. And last, it just doesn’t seem sincere or even logical. The ending is wimpy and leaves the viewer thinking, “That’s it?”
Ultimately, Alfie is annoying as a character and doesn’t gain the affection of the audience he is speaking directly to.
The DVD is incredibly crammed with special features like Commentary, The World of Alfie, The Women of Alfie, Dance Footage, Let the Music In, Deleted Scenes, Trailer, Script Gallery, Production Gallery, Storyboard Gallery and Dolby Digital sound.

To prepare us all for the eagerly anticipated (?) sequel, Warner has released Miss Congenialty: Deluxe Edition. This surprisingly amusing movie now comes packed with extras including commentary, making-of featurette, additional scenes and a Beauty Pageant quiz. It also includes a sneak-peek at Miss Congenialty 2: Armed and Fabulous, which worries us as we don't think it can measure up to the original. Sandra Bullock's charm saved it from being a disaster but can she do it again? I guess we'll find out on March 24.

Do you like your movies mindless and entertaining? Well, What the Bleep Do We Know? is not a film for those who want to sit back and turn their mind off. What the Bleep, as it is more affectionately known, is a hybrid documentary where there are the standard talking head interviews interspersed with a "story" about a person experiencing much of what the interviewees are talking about.
It is a metaphysical trip into the world of quantum mechanics, the brain, religion, philosophy and truth, and how everything ties together. The directors, William Arntz, Betty Chasse, and Mark Vincente, along with writers Arntz, Chasse, and Matthew Hoffman, wanted to combine these elements with visual effect and music to create a sort of head-trip into the a world of self-discovery and truth.
It works to a certain degree. The most annoying element of What the Bleep is the complete lack of identification for the fourteen people interviewed. While it is clear that they are highly educated people who can speak eloquently and rationally convey their point, it is only after the end credits begin rolling that it is clear that most of them are professors who teach physics (with an emphasis on quantum mechanics), neurologists/anesthesiologists/physicians, and a couple mystics. Marlee Matlin plays Amanda, the person who is discovering the truths that these scholars are speaking about. As they talk about various heavy topics, Amanda goes on a journey or spiritual awakening, looking at the world from a new perspective and ultimately gleaning some deeper understanding of herself.
While some of the visual effects are pretty cool, many, especially the melding of animation and live action come off as cheesy. Amanda looks on as little glob-like personifications of emotions dance around her. Nobody else but her can see them. The more interesting things by far are what these scholars are saying. They begin by asking people to look at their perceptions of reality. In the time of Columbus, everybody believed that the earth was flat. Now it's obvious that this is not the case. But this was a basic assumption that everybody got wrong. What about things taken for granted today? Is there something so fundamental that people take its truth for granted that one day science will disprove? How do people know?
Arntz, Chasse, and Vincente essentially want people to ask questions about what they believe in order to gain a better understanding of themselves and the world around them. What exactly is reality? Everything the brain processes is a series of signals. So when it "thinks" about memories and the same signals resurface, does this make the memory "real?" There is a lot of information given in What the Bleep, and the filmmakers do not slow down in order for people to catch up. The first half, about quantum physics and the brain is easy to understand. When the various scholars begin tackling more abstract issues and touching upon religion, and ultimately the role each person plays in shaping his/her destiny, it begins to sound a little too New Age-y for its own good. However, the fact that it forces the viewer to pay attention and think about what is being said is a good and unusual thing.

Anyone who remembers playing with She-Ra and Jem, reading The Baby-Sitter’s Club and watching Beverly Hills 90210, will remember Sweet Valley High. It’s hard not get nostalgic about the books that we cherished and eagerly anticipated. If you were under 16, you were supposed to read Sweet Valley Twins, but we all tried to graduate to the High as fast as possible as it was much juicier.
Watching the Sweet Valley High: Season One DVD collection, it’s extremely hard to believe we did once find this juicy. Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are the beautiful identical twins who have incredibly different personalities. Jessica is the trouble-maker and Elizabeth is the goody-two-shoes. They always get into switcharoo messes which get solved by the end of the episode, and Elizabeth always forgives her sister, which can get really annoying.
The show is shot in a funny, soft-screen sort of way and it does seem incredibly cheesy at times (check out the synchronized, 90’s dancing in the very first episode) but for those who were fans of the book will still love reliving their youth. The series featured all ofour favourite characters including Elizabeth’s dull boyfriend Todd, geeky Winston, rich Lila and snooty Bruce.
The DVD doesn’t have any extra features, but the episodes alone will be enough to satisfy Sweet Valley fans.

Just how many young boys can name Lynda Carter as one of their first celebrity crushes? We'd bet millions. And now they can all relive their pubescent dreams with Wonder Woman: The Complete Second Season on DVD. This season, the show flew into modern day 1977. This four-disc set has all 21 episodes and a feature-film length season premiere. Special Features are minimal, only one documentary. But we know those aren't what you'd buy this set for anyway, wink, wink...

Felicity: Senior Year Collection (4 out of 5 stars)
Buena Vista/ March 8, 2005

Die-hard fans of Felicity were heart-broken when the show ended after only four years. The final season is now available on DVD and those viewers who tuned out after Felicity cut her hair in the second season can now catch up on how the show ended.
It ended strangely. Not to give anything away about the last episode, the last few episodes offer alternate endings through, get this, time travel. The reason was that the network originally only ordered half a season then changed the mind, forcing the writers to scramble around and create more episodes without getting too complicated since there wouldn’t be a next season to fix things.
In this last season the gang is a little more serious, and everyone is realizing that it’s do or die. In their senior year, real life is creeping up and Felicity still hasn’t resolved the whole Ben or Noel question, sigh. A great performance in this season is the late John Ritter playing Ben’s alcoholic father, with a bittersweet tenderness that is hard not to get sappy over. The extras are excellent and include audio commentaries, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the last episode, "The Lost Elena Scenes" - This Exclusive, Never-Before-Seen Footage provides the long-awaited answer to Felicity fans' Biggest Question!, "Fade Out" - Behind-the-scenes Reflections with Keri Russell and the show's creators, and Creating Characters - Q&A with J.J. Abrams, Keri Russell, Matt Reeves & Jennifer Garner.
Felicity was a well-filmed, emotional show that, while having some very funny moments, was generally melancholy. Everyone talked very softly and had deep thoughts. Still, there was something about the characters you could relate to, and Felicity remains one of the best dramatic series produced in a long time.

Ladder 49 (3 out of 5 stars)
Touchstone/ March 8, 2005

It had a lost of promise and build up, and while the special effects are mesmerizing and the story is sweet, Ladder 49 somehow fails to complete capture its audience.
Given the heroism of the firefighters in New York after the World Trade Centre attacks, it was inevitable that a film espousing the heroism of firefighters would arrive on screens. So along comes Ladder 49, a sappy story about the lives of firefighters on and off duty, and does not do justice to their real life counterparts. Ladder 49 is not a bad film per se, but tries so hard to be a good one that it is emotionally manipulative, and worse, seems to exploit the memory of deceased firefighters in order to sell more tickets. The film unfolds as a series of flashbacks in the life of 10-year veteran Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix). Morrison was in a burning building, and after helping a man escape, became trapped in the debris. As he lies there, his life unfolds before his eyes, and the other firefighters, especially Mike Kennedy (John Travolta) race to figure out a way to rescue him.
Rookie mistakes, weddings, kids, and co-worker deaths flash across the screen quickly, each segment calculated to evoke tears of sadness or joy. Morrison and his girlfriend and later wife Linda (Jacinda Barrett) seem to look exactly the same as they did when they first met. Although they look cute together, neither Russell nor Colick give a good sense on why they like each other.
Worse is the portrayal of Morrison. Ladder 49 spends a decent amount of time on his rookie years, where he is unsure of himself and still learning the ropes. As time moves forward, Russell spends less time on the job and more time with Linda. So by the time the flashbacks catch up to the present, nobody watching feels that Morrison improved in his role as a firefighter. The only way people know is because Kennedy says so. If the Morrisons and Kennedy are rough character sketches, the rest of the firemen are just background filler. There is an older guy, a skinny guy, a big white guy, and a big black guy. Later, a smallish Hispanic guy enters the picture. Okay, it's not as simple as that, but it is hard to mourn for the dead when one has little clue of who that person even is, as is the case with the first person to die.
The episodic nature of Ladder 49 ruins any sense of continuity. One of the tensions in the Morrison marriage is the constant threat of death for Jack. This should be a big issue, and instead, gets the mini-treatment before the story moves on to something else.
Extras include enhanced home theatre mix, Real Life Heroes: Real Stories from Real Firefighters, Deleted Scenes, Making of Ladder 49, music video and audio commentary.

Voted the number one best sports film by ESPN's expert panel (take that, Friday Night Lights) Hoosiers arrives this week on a 2-disc Collector's Edition set. The story of a high school basketball team's long-shot attempt to win State, this movie was nominated for two Oscars (including Best Supporting Actor for Dennis Hopper) and is beloved by many. This new set is packed with special features and has a new High Definition transfer and 5.1 Surround Sound.

I don’t care what new horror films and dramas they have released in the last 60 years, the saddest scene in film history is still when Bambi’s mother gets shot. Now you can enjoy it over and over with the new Bambi: 2-Disc Special Edition DVD from Disney.
The adorable deer and his adorable pals look great thanks to a complete new digital restoration. Disney boasts that over 110,000 frames were touched up by hand, a feat that took over 9,600 hours of work. The soundtrack was also restored and the DVD features 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theatre Mix.
Bambi is a total classic, and hasn’t lost any of its appeal with age. Poor orphaned Bambi needs to find a new family, and does with playful Thumper, super-sweet skunk named Flower and his smarty-pants Friend Owl.
As typical for these fabulous new Disney Special Editions, it is packed to the gills with special features. This new set includes The Making of "Bambi", Restoring Bambi - A look at the groundbreaking All-New Digital Restoration of Bambi for this Special Edition, Disney Time Capsule: 1942 The Year of Bambi, The Art of "Bambi", "Tricks of the Trade" excerpt, Inside Walt's Story Meetings - Based on actual story meeting notes from Walt and his creative team, The Old Mill animated short, Forest Adventure Game - All-New Game, Virtual Forest, DisneyPedia: Bambi's Forest Friends, Disney Storytime: Thumper Goes Exploring, What's Your Season Personality Profile Game, and two deleted scenes.
As sad as the mother being shot is, the rest of Bambi, in a short but long-enough 69 minutes is sweet, funny and completely engrossing. It’s called a classic for a reason and this is one that should live in your DVD collection.

Brady Bunch Season One (4 out of 5 stars)
Paramount/ March 1, 2005

Have you ever seen the very first episode of The Brady Bunch? We hadn’t, and when this little gem of a box set arrived at our offices we got pretty excited to see how the Brady crew actually did become a bunch. It’s actually a very funny episode.
The Brady Bunch premiered in 1969 and became one of the most popular and well-loved series on television ever. Everyone knows the theme song. It all started when Mike Brady, a widower and an architect with three sons, Greg, Peter and Bobby, meets Carol Ann Tyler Martin, also a single parent with three daughters, Marcia, Jan and Cindy. They fall in love and get married in a lovely backyard wedding (very retro) and since someone invited the pets, a dog named Tiger and a cat named Fluffy, incredible chaos ensues.
That is the first episode, and it’s also where we first meet all the kids and see how they feel about their parents’ marriage. They don’t seem all that fazed by it.
Featuring all 25 episodes of the first season with Dolby Digital sound and a full screen format, this is a great box set for fans of the show. They cheaped out a little on the extras, the only ones being audio commentaries and one featurette “The Brady Bunch—Coming Together Under One Roof.”
Still, you can catch some great episodes like Mike’s Horror-Scope, where Carol takes the boys on a fishing trip, Vote for Brady, where Marcia and Greg go head to head in a school election, and our fave, Brace Yourself, where Marcia gets new braces and is convinced she’s ugly, then her boyfriend breaks an upcoming date, sending her into a complete panic.
While it’s not cutting-edge or wickedly clever humour, The Brady Bunch does make you chuckle gently, like you do when you’re reading The Family Circus. It’s worth a peek.

Spongebob Squarepants Movie (4 out of 5 stars)
Paramount/ March 1, 2005

One of the sillier cartoons to emerge recently is Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants, who lives in a pineapple under the sea. This is the type of cartoon with enough wit to attract both children and adults, along the lines of both Looney Toons and The Animaniacs. Spongebob Squarepants claims to be the most watched cartoon in history, and while this may be debatable it is by no means an unreasonable claim. And with a dearth of new episodes, Spongebob fans are in dire need of something to sate their appetites. The Spongebob Squarepants Movie is just as silly as one would expect, and it suffers from the same thing that most cartoon movie adaptations suffer from: it is too long. Most cartoons take up half an hour on television. Take away commercials, and they are closer to twenty minutes. That's twenty minutes of random silliness, just enough to keep one occupied. Feature length requires a larger investment into a plot, something that is much more difficult.
The Spongebob Squarepants Movie succeeds by broadening its loony sensibility, bringing in some guest stars and even incorporating some live action pirates and a surreal interlude with David Hasselhoff. Spongebob is hoping to get the manager's position at the new location of Krusty Krab's, right next to the original. He doesn't, because Mr. Krabs believes he is too young. After all, Spongebob and his best friend Patrick love to blow bubbles and eat at Goofy Goober's, the ultimate ice cream parlour. Spongebob is dejected, and goes on a bender at Goober's, but discovers that he can redeem himself by finding King Neptune's crown. Plankton has stolen the crown and blamed Krabs. Neptune will blast Krab's unless Spongebob and Gary return with the crown. This means traveling to the dangerous Shell City.
At the core of this film is what it means to be a kid. Spongebob is one, but wants to be an adult. This means giving up a lot of fun in order to take on responsibility. Yes, there's a moral embedded in the story, and it meshes very well with all the goings on. Many of the regular series writers contributed to the film version, giving a sense of continuity and 'honour' to the characters. The world of Spongebob is weird, and rather than try to explain everything, all the writers jump headfirst into the weirdness and go for broke. That's why there are fires underwater and a piece of plankton can marry a robot.
Encompassing it all is an overwhelming sense of fun. Although there are serious moments, the main goal of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie is to entertain. Spongebob is on a serious quest, but that doesn't stop him from having a good time. While Spongebob wants to have more responsibility, he still wants to be a kid, and the screenwriters give him a child-like ability to see good in everything. The script does not condescend to children, and even throws in many slight references that will keep adults happy. The film drags at times, but is bright, colourful, and weird enough to watch all the way through.

We love classic Doris Day movies and when this one arrived at our doorstep we actually squealed since we had never even heard of it. It Happened to Jane has Day as Jane Osgood, a fiesty widow with two kids who manages her own lobster business. When the railroad trashes a shipment, she gets her lawyer (Jack Lemmon) to take them and their evil owner (Ernie Kovacs) on. A wonderful comedy-drama for any Day or Lemmon (who used to be so dreamy) fan.