Rolling Stones concert hits small screen
Selected home-video releases:
Shine a Light
It sounds like a match made in rock 'n' roll heaven: The Rolling Stones and Martin Scorsese, who blazed trails when he loaded his early film "Mean Streets" with a hip rock soundtrack and made the great rock documentary "The Last Waltz".
Yet Scorsese's rock documentary on the Stones seems 20 years too late, catching Mick Jagger energetically but predictably going through the motions in concert alongside Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts. The DVD and Blu-ray disc come with four extra performances, among them "Paint It Black," plus a behind-the-scenes segment.
Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
John Cho and Kal Penn return for another road-trip adventure in this follow-up to their cult comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle". The sequel picks up moments where the first flick left off, with the bright, resourceful pot-smoking duo having satisfied their munchies and preparing for a trip to Amsterdam. Mistakenly branded as terrorists en route, they end up on the run from Guantanamo, encountering Southern inbreeders, George W. Bush and, once again, Neil Patrick Harris as a partying sex-fiend version of himself. The movie comes in a bare-bones single-disc DVD or Blu-ray and two-disc DVD releases with an unrated version, deleted scenes, commentary and a digital copy of the movie for computers and portable players.
Never Back Down
It's the old story: Teen moves to a new school, meets a babe, gets beaten silly by her boyfriend then learns mixed martial arts to avoid another thrashing. Sean Faris stars as the new kid, who finds a mentor in a martial-arts trainer (Djimon Hounsou), his lessons preparing him for a rematch and inevitably imparting wisdom on when to refrain from fighting. The movie arrives in an unrated extended cut in the Blu-ray release and two-disc DVD set, both containing deleted scenes, commentary with the cast and director Jeff Wadlow, plus a couple of featurettes. The theatrical version is available on a single-disc DVD, with commentary and deleted footage.
The Band's Visit
Adult band geeks from Egypt show up in dorky uniforms in a sleepy Israeli town. So begins this little marvel, featured at this year's Bermuda International Film Festival, from writer-director Eran Kolirin, who spins a quiet charmer about cultural chasms narrowed through the power of music. The simple story follows the misadventures of a police band with a stoic yet supremely compassionate leader (Sasson Gabai), the group traveling far off course for their performance at an Arab Cultural Center in Israel, where they get stranded in the wrong town among curious locals — including a vivacious diner owner (Ronit Elkabetz).
TV on DVD
"Stargate: Continuum" — History is rewritten in this second straight-to-DVD follow-up of the sci-fi show "Stargate SG-1," reuniting cast members Richard Dean Anderson, Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Claudia Black and Michael Shanks. The movie-length adventure pits the gang against old enemy Ba'al, who goes back in time to prevent humanity from using its ancient Stargate so he can lord it over Earth. The DVD and Blu-ray disc have filmmaker commentary and three featurettes.
"Witchblade: The Complete Series" — This comic-book adaptation stars Yancy Butler as a New York cop who gets an assist from a mystical ancient weapon she uses to battle greater evil while fighting crime on the streets. The seven-disc set has all 23 episodes from the series that aired in 2001-2002, plus the movie-length pilot and a handful of featurettes.
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — Year Seven" — Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni return in the "Law & Order" spinoff that centers on sex-based crimes. All 22 episodes from the seventh season come in a five-disc package.
"Beverly Hills 90210: The Fifth Season" — Jason Priestley, Luke Perry, Tori Spelling and company are back for more sex and intrigue on the nighttime soap. The 31 episodes from year five are packed in an eight-disc set.