DVD Corner

“The Dick Cavett Show – Comic Legends”: From the Shout! Factory, a terrific collection, with Dick Cavett interviewing a who’s who of popular throwbacks – Lucille Ball, Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Truman Capote, a host of others. The interviews can be heated one moment, funny the next; the key is Cavett’s calculating mind, with Cavett’s delivery reminding you of Bob Newhart. The Capote interview alone doesn’t so much reveal much about the writer as it does about Groucho Marx, who bullies the camera for screen time, thus almost robbing Capote, of all people, of his own time on camera. Their barbed exchanges toward the end are priceless. The show is television at its best, with Cavett coolly and methodically getting to the heart of each personality. He’s more than willing to shut up and listen, a trait nearly lost today. He’s also happy to let his guests be themselves. Since many were his friends, what the interviews reveal are flashes of the real person beneath the celebrity. It’s those moments that are invaluable. Grade: A

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”: The first film in the series to mark a turning point in terms of quality of direction and storytelling. The movie is little more than a bridge, connecting the three previous Potters to the final installments yet to come, with the core of the movie steeped in the Twiwizard Tournament, in which Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) mysteriously finds himself competing. Hardcore fans of the series might be left wanting. Elements of the movie can be harrowing, but there’s no denying that too much of “Goblet” is just filler stringing us along to the all-important ending. There, Harry faces in person the man responsible for murdering his parents and who has long been determined to kill him – the vicious Voldemort, who is played by an unrecognizable Ralph Fiennes with the sort of sauce and vigor that almost makes you forget that this overly long, episodic movie has been the weakest of the series. Rated PG-13. Grade: B-

“Howl’s Moving Castle”: If it weren’t for the stellar, 2005 appearance of “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” Hayao Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” would be your winner for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Picture. The movie is a richly conceived, vivid fantasy pic, and while the more structured, crowdpleasing “Gromit” will take the award, it’s the risk-taking “Castle” that’s fueled by the more daring, complex imagination. Describing the plot is pointless; on paper, it wouldn’t make sense. Still, if you give yourself over to “Castle” as Miyazaki hopes you will, it can be an indescribably moving experience. Rated PG-13. Grade: A-

“Jarhead”: Takes us back to a past that feels oddly like the present. There’s good reason for that. In the film, we’re in the Middle East, Bush is in office, and we’re fighting a war that few seem to understand. The difference? The Bush in question is the senior Bush, Saddam Hussein is in power and the war being fought is the Gulf War. Jake Gyllenhaal is Swofford, who is recruited by Sykes (Jamie Foxx) to become a sniper along with Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), his sketchy partner with the unfavorable past, and a group of other men. With no action to be had on the ground in Saudi Arabia, the men find themselves fighting the war unraveling in their heads. The Gulf War was fought mostly by air and these men are on foot. It’s the mounting frustration that comes with the dawning realization that their time in the desert may have been for nothing that gives “Jarhead” its greatest, ugliest complexity in ways that won’t be revealed here. Rated R. Grade: B

“Prime”: Features neither the prime of Meryl Streep nor the prime of Uma Thurman. So, in spite of its eye-catching title, which promises plenty, audiences should forget about seeing either actress achieve the prime of, say, a certain Miss Jean Brodie. Streep’s Lisa Metzger is a Jewish therapist saddled with a motherlode of problems thanks to her professional relationship with Rafi (Thurman), a troubled, 37-year-old divorcee whose life lifts when she meets David (Bryan Greenburg), a 23-year-old artist. Soon, Lisa realizes that the man so busy satisfying Rafi emotionally and sexually is her own son, a twist freely revealed in the film’s advertising campaign. Writer-director Ben Younger channels elements of Norman Jewison’s “Moonstruck” and the mid-to-late career of Woody Allen. This is a fine movie, but it’s also a young man’s movie, with confidence occasionally giving itself over to self-indulgence and weaknesses revealing themselves in the increasingly forced situations. Rated PG-13. Grade: B-

“Walk the Line”: Johnny Cash, building his ring of fire. Director James Mangold takes us from Cash’s difficult childhood in Arkansas to his rise to fame, his struggle with drug addiction, his marital problems with first wife, Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), the great love he felt for June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), and the moment in which the grayness of an otherwise self-destructive life lifted during his knockout, 1968 show at Folsom State Prison. As with so many biopics focused on musicians, Mangold’s movie is essentially a film about overcoming addiction in order to further one’s path to legend. That familiarity might have sunk it had Mangold not had the strength of subtlety and especially the terrific performances from his cast, who transcend formula by allowing audiences to fully invest themselves in what matters – the budding, turbulent relationship between Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June. Giving their best performances to date, Phoenix and Witherspoon each do their own singing here while possessing the sort of chemistry that sets the movie ablaze. As such, each rightfully was nominated for an Academy Award. Rated PG-13. Grade: A-