Typically, this column focuses on movies and music new on DVD at retail outlets and online. Increasingly though, producers of all sorts of intellectual property are turning to digital discs to broaden their commercial reach. Some even do it to please their fans. (What a novel idea!)
Over the last 25 years, music videos evolved from mere promotional tools into an art form worthy of serious criticism and study. Hollywood studios now scour MTV for talent as often as they do the film schools at UCLA, USC and NYU. Writers, though, have tended to rely on the printed word and public radio to sell product.
Last year, Michael Connelly provided fans of his Harry Bosch novels with an album of music favored by the hard-boiled homicide detective—West Coast jazz, heavy on the Art Pepper—to listen to while reading Lost Light. With last week's publication of The Narrows, the former LA Times' reporter has found an inventive way to combine words and images in support of a certain best-seller, with the companion DVD, Blue Neon Night.
Directed by fellow author and filmmaker Terrill Lee Lankford (Earthquake Weather), Blue Neon Night transports readers to Connelly's crime scenes, as well as the various haunts of his finely drawn characters. Elevating the DVD above most other literary tours of the city of tarnished angels, though, are evocative readings of excerpts from the author's 14 books by CSI star William S. Petersen, who, incidentally, would make a credible Bosch in any film adaptation. Not surprisingly, viewers of this limited-edition disc—free with a book purchase at Barnes & Noble and Borders stores —will learn as much about Connelly as they do about Bosch.
In The Narrows, the newly retired LAPD detective divides his time between LA and Las Vegas, where his poker-pro ex-wife has taken up residency with the daughter Bosch didn't know he had until the end of Lost Light. Also making a reappearance are former FBI agent Terry McCaleb and a notorious serial killer dubbed "the Poet." In addition to LA and Vegas, Connelly follows Bosch to Catalina Island, the brothels of Pahrump, and the dry seabed beyond the Zzyzx Road off-ramp on I-15—the perfect location for summer fun.
As if the movie isn't cartoonish enough
Despite lukewarm reviews, Van Helsing opened to decent box-office numbers over the weekend. In an effort to keep momentum going, Universal Home Video has just released what amounts to an instant prequel, Van Helsing: The London Assignment, featuring the fearless vampire hunter and the demonic Mr. Hyde. Like the movie, Hugh Jackman brings Van Helsing to life in the animated feature. In addition to the original story, the DVD offers interviews and other behind-the-scenes material. Monster purists, however, probably will want to stick with Universal's newly released Legacy Collection.
All in the family
Once relegated to the fringes of the home-entertainment industry, the TV-to-DVD business last year surpassed $1 billion in annual sales. The business is divided roughly in half. On one side are collections of classic and cult programs in or out of syndication; the other is dominated by still-thriving shows.
This month's highlights include first-season compilations of two very different family series: The Waltons and The Jetsons. Set in rural Virginia during the Great Depression, the former celebrates the grit and resiliency of the tightly knit Walton clan dealing with poverty and the usual turmoil associated with growing up and getting old. The latter imagines a future not unlike the one described by Walt Disney in his original Tomorrowland, though beyond that, the animated series resembled nearly every other TV sitcom.
First aired in the early '70s as America was in the throes of a divisive cultural revolution, The Waltons was wholesome without ever being square, and the storytelling was consistently strong. The Jetsons envisioned a benevolent, nuclear-powered future, in which white-bread American values rule the known universe and anything is possible.
Speaking of families, The Osbournes 2 1/2 updates the antics of England's gift to the American drug-rehab business: Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne.
Taming the West one set at a time
The western drama Gunsmoke, a TV staple for a record 20 years, occasionally returned to prime-time after 1975 in the form of original movies. Though they still starred James Arness as Matt Dillon, one of the most memorable characters in television history, they couldn't stand up against the original series. Still, it's always great to see the 6-foot-7 marshal in action, especially opposite Miss Kitty. Among the titles in the Gunsmoke Movie Collection are Return to Dodge, The Last Apache and To the Last Man. Inexplicably, two of the movies are rated R for violence. Huh?