Recently released on Blu-ray and DVD: Laconic and sullen as Clint Eastwood, writer-director Takeshi Kitano plays the star cop in his award-winning 1997 crime drama Hana-bi, also known as Fireworks. With The Treasure, Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu fashioned a droll comedy on the human condition. The main selling point for Churchill is the performance by Brian Cox in the title role. The slow-going melodrama dramatizes Churchill’s bouts of depression as well as his anxiety over the impending D-Day invasion. Johnny Carson set the template for late night television to come, as seen in episode after episode of this 28-hour, 10-DVD collection, “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Johnny and Friends, The Complete Collection.”
Hana-bi (Fireworks)
Laconic and sullen as Clint Eastwood, writer-director Takeshi Kitano plays the star cop in his 1997 film Hana-bi. Actually, he’s an ex-cop for most of the award-winning crime drama, which jumps through time with a gymnast’s prowess. Although inspired in part by Hollywood predecessors, Hana-bi moves at its own rhythm with silence and stasis broken by deadly outbursts. Kitano plays his part as a study in implacable cool.
The Treasure
The worldwide financial meltdown of 2008 reached even into Romania, where two neighbors embark on a seemingly quixotic treasure hunt guided by a family legend of buried gold from before the Communists seized the country. With The Treasure, director Corneliu Porumboiu fashioned a droll comedy on the human condition. Greed is less a motivator for the kvetching neighbors than necessity—and maybe even breaking the tedium of an everyday life spent in front of screens.
Churchill
The main selling point for Churchill is the performance by Brian Cox in the title role. He’s down with the scowl, the growling bulldog voice and the combative yet erudite manner of a warrior wordsmith. The slow-going melodrama dramatizes Churchill’s bouts of depression as well as his anxiety over the impending D-Day invasion and his guilt over sending men to die. John Slattery is terrible as Eisenhower, playing him like a CEO from “Mad Men.”
“The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Johnny and Friends, The Complete Collection”
Johnny Carson set the template for late-night television to come, as seen in episode after episode of this 28-hour, 10-DVD collection. After warming up the crowd with topical humor about Watergate, the energy crisis and other headlines, his “friends” took their seats on the sofa. This collection features guest comedians including old-timers Don Rickles and Rodney Dangerfield and rising stars Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld and his late-night successors, Jay Leno and David Letterman.
