New on DVD

:

TV

'Eastbound & Down'/HBO
Danny McBride is a former Major League pitcher Kenny Powers, a washed-up superstar who bought into the hype and is now despised by those who are, simply put, sick of his crap. Blissfully free of self-awareness, Powers doesn't let the crash and burn of his career put a dent in his raging ego. "That is why I am better than everyone else in the world," is his mantra, even as he moves into his brother's middle-class home and takes a job as a junior high school gym teacher in his hometown, not the best career choice for an arrogant jerk with anger-management issues. Created for HBO by McBride with Ben Best and Jody Hill, and co-produced by Will Ferrell (who co-stars in two episodes) and Adam McKay (who also directs a couple of episodes), this is a cable series created with the same collaborative spirit and improvisational approach as Will Ferrell's movies, and it's funnier and sharper than Ferrell's last couple of pictures. The limited series numbers only six half-hour episodes, but they make for a pretty tight story that even allows Powers to grow up a little. But not much.

Given the show's pedigree, it's a given that the deleted scenes and outtakes collected for the two-disc set are worth the time. The extended "Stevie's Dark Secret," which apparently was too much even for HBO, is so perverse that it's given its own supplement. Also features commentary on multiple episodes with the writers, directors and members of the cast, and the complete version of the Kenny Powers promotional video and the Schaeffer Motors commercials seen in the series.
©Shout! Factory
Parker Lewis Can’t Lose: The Complete First Season
Parker Lewis (Corin Nemec) is the coolest kid in high school, running scams and schemes in the hallways while the principal (Melanie Chartoff) spends her days looking for any evidence to shut him down and kick him out. Nemec is a lot of fun to hang with, and his loyalty to his best friends (rock 'n' roll dreamer Billy Jayne and freshman toady Troy W. Slaten) only makes him more likable in this zippy '90s sitcom. TV's answer to Ferris Bueller debuted the same year as the actual "Ferris Bueller" spin-off, which was soon cancelled, while Parker Lewis charmed his way through three seasons. Twenty-six episodes on four discs in a box set of two thinpak cases, plus commentary on seven episodes (most with creators and a couple with the stars) and a retrospective featurette with the cast and creators.
©HBO
Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season
If Season 4 of HBO's lively insider Hollywood comedy-drama was all about putting the career on the line to make a dream project, the fifth season surveys the change of fortune of rising star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) when the dream project tanks and his offers dry up. The tensions even pull apart his personal and professional relationship with his best friend and manager, Eric (Kevin Connolly). The show continues to entertain with its insider vibe and its sharp observations of social politics in the Hollywood subculture of stars and their possessions, and of course with Jeremy Piven's endlessly entertaining agent Ari Gold. Twelve episodes on three discs in a fold-out digipak, with commentary on three episodes (by creator Doug Ellin and the cast) and an interview featurette.
©Lionsgate
Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season 2
Billie Piper returns for another season as TV's favorite working girl: Belle, a high-class London escort who loves her work. It's ostensibly based on a memoir by a genuine professional escort, sort of a "Happy Hooker" for the 21st century, a colorful distraction with a lot of sex, plenty of lingerie, a little flesh and a few minor complications that pass for drama. This season it includes a new love interest (Callum Blue) that she initially mistakes for a client (now there's a heckuva first date) and a potential apprentice (Ashley Madekwe) who has no idea what she's getting into. Eight frothy half-hour episodes on two discs, plus a Billie Piper interview and bonus webisodes.
©Passport
The Ultimate Frank Sinatra Collection
This 10-disc set includes a bunch of pallid documentaries and two Sinatra feature films -- "The Man With the Golden Arm" and "Suddenly" -- but it's the four discs of Frank Sinatra TV variety shows and TV specials that makes this set so special. The kinescope recordings from live TV broadcasts look blurry and have poor fidelity, but the 12 hourlong shows in the set include the first public appearance of Elvis Presley after completing his National Service duty in German (he swaps signature songs with Sinatra in a classic duet), as well as appearances by Lena Horne, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Jack Benny, and a condensed live TV performance of the show "Anything Goes" with Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr.

Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a DVD columnist for MSN Entertainment, and a contributing writer to GreenCine.com, Turner Classic Movies Online, Parallax View and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications. You can find links to all of this and more on his shamelessly self-promoting blog

advertisement
Featured Articles
Sci-Fi On the Cheap
Great science fiction movies that didn't cost $150 million to make
Loud and Proud
Why women (secretly) love action movies
Movie Violations
Buzzing cells, crackling wrappers and big hats! Are you an annoying theatergoer?
So You Wanna Be A Vampire?
Two recent (and very different) DVD vamp releases may help you decide if bloodsucking is the life for you
Start Your Engines
With 'Fast & Furious' roaring through theaters, we look at the greatest car movies
Rotten Real Estate
With the housing market in grave shape, here are some cinematic haunted houses you could probably get dirt cheap