In a month packed with family visits, excessive gift wrapping, and a glut of holiday blockbusters and Oscar contenders clogging up the theaters, it can be easy to lose track of what films are coming out on shiny discs for home consumption. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the five finest DVD/Blu-ray releases to slip onto shelves in December. Whether you’re looking for a summer blockbuster, a slice of Woody Allen whimsy, a 1930s Hitchcock thriller, or a comedy about grave robbers, this list has you covered. Consider your next weekend of cinematic vegetation planned. 1) The Lady Vanishes (Criterion) Released in 1938, The Lady Vanishes is (along with The 39 Steps) the peak of Alfred Hitchcock’s achievements as a filmmaker in England before he made the move to Hollywood. It’s a fast paced, witty, and suspenseful (obviously) thriller set on a train where a pretty young lady wakes up in her cabin to find her friend has disappeared into thin air. As it’s one of the director’s early efforts, the scale is smaller than Hitchcock’s Hollywood work and more dialogue driven. Fortunately, it’s also one of Hitch’s funniest films, packed with delightfully eccentric characters and a handful of the director’s patented visual set pieces. Even by Hitchcock standards, this is a breezy and insubstantial romp, but one so well written and executed that it continues to entertain over 70 years later. The Lady Vanishes comes to Blu-ray courtesy of the indispensable folks at the Criterion and as a result boats a revelatory visual presentation that should be impossible for a film of its age. Special features include audio excerpts from Francois Truffaut’s famous interview with Hitchcock, an audio commentary from film historian Bruce Eder, and a second film that reunites two side characters from The Lady Vanishes. The package is fantastic and the film itself is a must watch for film fans, if only as proof that movies from the 30’s can be just as entertaining and amusing as anything released today. Available for $41.24 on Amazon. 2) Midnight In Paris (Sony) The Woody Allen filmmaking world tour continues with Midnight In Paris, a whimsical comedy/fantasy starring Owen Wilson as a surprisingly strong Allen substitute (his stoner/surfer stammering matches up perfectly with the rhythms of Allen’s patented neurotic stammering). Wilson plays a successful screenwriter turned struggling novelist vacationing in Paris who tries to escape his fiance’s pretentious pseudo-intellectual friend (hysterically played by Michael Sheen) with nighttime strolls in Paris, only to find himself inexplicably transported back to the 1920s. There he hobnobs with the likes of the Fitzgeralds, Ernest Hemingway, and Salvador Dali and has to decide between living in the past or embracing the present. Much like he did with Whatever Works, Allen is deliberately trying to recreate some back catalogue magic, this time reviving the magic realism he employed in films like The Purple Rose Of Cairo. The film is a slight n’ fluffy fantasy, a clever little comedy filled with wonderfully eccentric performances. It’s probably the most purely enjoyable film that Woody has made in years, unsurprisingly becoming his biggest box office hit, raking in $140 million in world wide box office receipts (and counting). Though never destined to topple the likes of Annie Hall or Manhattan as his finest achievement as a filmmaker, Midnight In Paris should be seen and appreciated by all Woody Allen fans. It’s remarkable that almost 50 films into his directorial career, the guy can still make something this sweet and satisfying. Available for $24.99 on Amazon. 3) Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (Fox) Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes boasts an appropriate title given that the movie resurrects a popular franchise that seemed dead after Tim Burton’s sad and unfortunate reboot back in 2001. The film was a pleasant late summer blockbuster surprise that returned the franchise to its allegorical science fiction roots. A PETA-approved screenplay rewrites the origin of Earth’s ape uprising to be the result of irresponsible scientific animal testing and cruel treatment centers. James Franco stars as a scientist whose raises a super-smart primate at home only to have it taken away and put into an abusive “sanctuary” where the little guy leads a monkey uprising. It’s a clever premise that works surprisingly well with director Rupert Wyatt nimbly balancing action and allegory with a bare minimum of blockbuster cheese. Fox’s stacked Blu-ray boasts a strong transfer and a handful of special features focused on the monkey motion capture technology that allowed British actor Andy Serkis (aka Gollum from Lord Of The Rings) to provide personality to the CGI primate leader Caeser. It’s an intriguing technological achievement, but there’s no denying that the cartoony monkeys in this film aren’t quite as believable as the groundbreaking make-up effects from the 1968 original. With some hacky writing and the occasional lackluster special effect, Rise will never be considered the masterpiece of the series, but it at least builds a solid foundation for a new round of Planet Of The Apes movies, crowbaring a little intelligence back into summer action flicks. Available for $29.99 on Amazon. 4) Burke & Hare (IFC) After a decade of working in television and documentaries, the director of Animal House, Blues Brothers, Three Amigos, and An American Werewolf In London has returned. It’s been tough going in Hollywood for John Landis since the 90s, so he turned to the British film industry for his latest feature. Burke & Hare is a gentle comedy about two real life murderers and grave robbers who made their living selling fresh corpses to medical schools in 19th century Edinburgh. Sure, the subject matter doesn’t scream comedy, but in Landis’s hands it’s a sweet tale of lovable friends struggling to get by, who also happen to be murderers. The director’s name may not launch projects in America these days, but in Britain it landed him an all-star cast including the likes of Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, and Christopher Lee. Tonally, Landis is going for an homage to old Ealing comedies, the famous British studio that cranked out jovial, cleverly written, and brilliantly acted films about psychotic murderers in the 50s and 60s (like Kind Hearts And Coronets and The Ladykillers). This influence is both the film’s major strength and weakness. It’s a delightful thowback movie, but also quite old fashioned, relying on verbal sparring and slapstick that feels like it’s from another era. Landis and the cast create some wonderfully perverse comedic moments that will please knowing cinephiles, but may confuse other viewers as to why they should care about this pair of murderers no matter how charming and befuddled they might be. Burke & Hare isn’t for everybody, but for fans of Landis this is dark comedy bliss. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take him another ten years to get his next film off of the ground. Available for $23.49 on Amazon. 5) Cowboys & Aliens (Universal) Universal’s sci-fi/western mash-up seemed primed to be one of the biggest summer blockbusters of 2011, yet failed, even while attempting to bring together Indiana Jones and James Bond. Jon Favreau’s film may not have fully delivered on the promising premise, but it’s by no means a disaster. In fact, the revival Western opening act is quite enjoyable with Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Sam Rockwell clearly relishing the opportunity to take on Western archetypes. The scale also allows Favreau to indulge in more than a few John Ford landscape shots. Admittedly, the “aliens” half of the equation disappoints with uninspired creature designs and stale action theatrics, but the movie is never boring. With the hype long over, it’s worth giving Cowboys & Aliens a second chance with appropriately lowered expectations. As a B-movie, it’s a perfectly serviceable Sunday afternoon distraction and Universal’s extras packed Blu-ray (including some great interviews conducted by Jon Favreau harkening back to his Dinner For Five days) was clearly put together before the box office failure, offering everything you probably never wanted to know about the unfairly mangled blockbuster. Available for $19.99 on Amazon.
