Tuesday, May 13, 2008

New on DVD: The Great Debaters and Youth Without Youth

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Reaching store shelves today are DVD versions of two films reviewed during their original theatrical release right here on these virtual pages.

Denzel Washington shines

Starting with the cream of the crop, The Great Debaters finds Denzel Washington teaching his students how to employ words as weapons in the fight for racial equality. The strong characterizations and demonstrated storytelling prowess go a long way towards making the case that Denzel can be as good a director as he is an actor. You'll find yourself cheering (at least internally) for the Wiley College kids as they go up against the seasoned semi-pros of the Harvard debate team.

Next up is the ambitious Francis Ford Coppola indie pic, Youth Without Youth, which Alex considered to be (at the time of his screening) an "impenetrable film." Probably not in reference to its bullet-proof characteristics, though feel free to judge for yourself.

For nostalgia freaks (and '50's fans):

The Warner Home Video set called Frank Sinatra: The Golden Years contains five Sinatra films from the '50's and '60's: The Man with the Golden Arm (for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor), The Tender Trap, Some Came Running, Marriage On The Rocks and the WWII drama None But The Brave.

Synchronistically, HBO is releasing a collector's edition of their 1998 R-rated drama, The Rat Pack, featuring Ray Liotta, Joe Mantegna, Don Cheadle, Angus Macfadyan and Bobby Slayton playing the titular crew of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, respectively. With William Petersen essaying John F. Kennedy and the exotic Deborah Kara Unger as Ava Gardner, I'm almost motivated to take a gander at this one.

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