Friday, January 23, 2009

This Week in DVD

Max Payne: Not a biopic of the former WCW wrestler, but an action flick based on a video game. Yes, I would have rather seen the biopic! Handy quick guide to knowing your Mark Wahlberg movies: If he has a colorful supporting role and is directed by Martin Scorcese, it's a great one. If he's starring in the movie, safer to just avoid it.

My Three Sons Season 1 Volume 2: You know the drill by now, right? Split seasons, overpriced sets, replaced underscore. I've watched some season 6 episodes lately, and this show is way more entertaining than I remember. It's a shame that Paramount is screwing with this show so much it likely won't make it to season 6 in a decent form, if at all.

Magnificent Obsession (Criterion Collection): I confess that the films of Douglas Sirk comprise one of the many glaring holes in my movie-watching resume. I kind of liked that one with Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid, though.

Spain...On the Road Again: TV chef Mario Batali finds time to eat, cook, and sample the local sights in between hitting on travel companion Gwyneth Paltrow. For reasons I can't divulge, this show makes me break into a cold sweat. Why do I even mention it at all, then? I'm hoping this is part of the long healing process.

Rockford Files Season 6: Nice to see a quality show nearing completion.

Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger: Rock's recent HBO standup special shows that, much like fellow legendary comedian Ralph Malph, he's still got it!

MGM When the Lion Roars: Epic documentary of the legendary studio. There had better be a lot of Wally Beery in it. Now available on DVD, which comes in handy for me since I was a dope and didn't record it off TCM for later viewing.

The Express: This underseen football picture about the first African-American Heisman Trophy winner is on my must-rent list. When this was opening in theaters, one ad started with a voice-over: "The first African-American..." and then something happened to cut it off. So my wife and I amused ourselves with the notion that this movie purported to be about "The first African-American."

3 comments:

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

MGM: When the Lion Roars has an interesting bit where Beery's co-star Jackie Cooper talks about working with him and how Cooper always had to tell inquiring minds how great a guy Wally was in real life. The facts of the matter is that Beery was a real !@#$%head...but Cooper never mentioned it to those people, not wishing to shatter any illusions.

Rick Brooks said...

Thanks for the info, Ivan. I'm surprised that, to my knowledge, there isn't a thorough Beery biography around. The guy was in a ton of movies, there are tons of wild stories about him--you'd think at least someone at McFarland Press could have taken a stab at it by now.

Marie said...

Beery was also allegedly a murderer. There is a story that states Beery and several other drunken thugs beat actor Ted Healy to death. Supposedly the studio hustled Beery out of the country until things calmed down. And Beery was indeed in Ireland for several months after Healy's death.

It is surprising no biographer has taken him on.