Best DVD Bet: I Am Legend

What would you do if you were the last person in NYC? Well, Will Smith decides he gonna fight vampires. I mean if that’s what floats your boat…

I Am Legend (Warner Bros, $28.98)
At this point, it’s clear that Will Smith could headline a movie about a guy reading the Sunday New York Times in his living room and it would make over $100 million at the box office. Still, the ridiculously high grosses of the Fresh Prince’s latest blockbuster I Am Legend (over $500 million worldwide) prove that audiences still prefer Action Will to Romantic Comedy Will or Dramatic Will. It took a mega-star of Smith’s caliber to jumpstart the troubled project, which had been trapped in development hell for well over a decade. Everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Tom Cruise were considered for the lead role of Robert Neville, the lone survivor of a deadly virus, which killed off most of the population and transformed the rest into blood-sucking monsters. The original story, which sci-fi novelist Richard Matheson penned in 1954, took place in sprawling L.A., but Smith and director Francis Lawrence chose to move the action to Manhattan. That proved to be the smartest decision they could have made, because the real star of I Am Legend is the crumbling city that used to be the center of the world. From a Times Square overrun by tall grass and predatory animals to a South Street Seaport that exists in the shadow of a destroyed Brooklyn Bridge, the film’s depiction of a post-apocalyptic New York feels breathtakingly real. It’s a shame an equal amount of time and effort wasn’t put into the script, which starts out strong, but grows progressively sillier as the movie goes along. The design of the CGI vamps is also too slapdash; at least the effects appear more finished on the DVD than they did in theaters—the F/X folks must have done some tweaking to the film before it was transferred to disc. Looking to earn even more dough off their money-maker, Warner’s is putting out three versions of the I Am Legend DVD, a single-disc edition, a two-disc special edition and a Blu-Ray edition that has two bonus featurettes not included on either of the other releases. Extras are light on the non-Blu Ray releases anyway; the single-disc edition offers four animated comics—all of which are decidedly not for kids—that were released on the film’s website prior to its release and several additional features that can only be accessed on a PC with a DVD-Rom drive. (Which means Mac users like myself are SOL.) The two-disc version meanwhile offers a digital copy of the movie that you can save on your desktop as well as alternate cut that’s pretty much the exact same movie that was released in theaters, save for a strikingly different ending. That version of the ending found its way onto YouTube a few weeks ago, but was taken down after the studio complained. Some websites still have it if you go looking though, not that we would encourage you to that or anything…

Battlestar Galactica: Season Three (Universal, $59.98)
The third year of Battlestar Galactica proved to be a controversial one for the show’s small, but loyal fanbase. Everyone more or less agrees that the season began and ended with some of the best episodes in the show’s history. It’s the middle chunk that folks are divided about. Certainly, the second half of the season was hurt by some truly subpar episodes. Even I, a staunch BSG defender, have a hard time finding anything good to say about installments like “The Woman King” and “Dirty Hands.” I also think the producers shot themselves in the foot by being so coy about the fate of Starbuck. After supposedly killing her off with four episodes left in the season, they gave a series of interviews where they more or less confirmed that she’d be coming back, robbing her demise of any real emotional impact. But the show found its footing again in the two-part finale, which revealed the identities of four new Cylon agents and suggested that Earth may be closer than the fleet thinks. This fan-friendly box set comes packed to the gills with extra features; each episode contains a commentary track from showrunner Ron Moore, as well as a slew of deleted scenes. There’s also an extended cut of one of the season’s best episodes and numerous video blogs from exec producer David Eick that feature candid cast and crew interviews. Having seen the season premiere, I can say that Galactica’s fourth year is going to be mind-blowingly good and if we had to go through some of season three’s valleys to get there, so be it.

Enchanted (Disney, $29.99)
Amy Adams won well-deserved praise for her thoroughly charming performance as a real-life Disney princess in this cute, if slight romantic comedy. On the day of her wedding to Prince Edward, heir to the throne of Andalasia, wide-eyed innocent Giselle is tricked by her betrothed’s evil stepmother and exiled to New York City, where she meets divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his adorable daughter Morgan. The story is boilerplate rom-com stuff, but what makes Enchanted so…well, enchanting is the way it gently spoofs classic Disney cartoons. Highlights include the “Happy Working Song” sequence, where Giselle enlists the help of rats, pigeons and cockroaches to clean up Robert’s apartment and any scene where James Marsden pops up as the delightfully daft Prince Edward. Director Kevin Lima has said that he filled the movie with all sorts of Disney in-jokes, so it’s a surprise that the DVD doesn’t include a featurette highlighting these gags for those of us who don’t know every Mouse House cartoon by heart. That would have been more interesting than the seven deleted scenes and boring blooper reel the studio did put on the disc. At least they remembered to include behind-the-scenes looks at the movie’s three big musical numbers; it’s particularly cool to see how the production took over Central Park to stage “That’s How You Know,” a showstopping song-and-dance sequence with a tune that’s guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days after you see the movie.

After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For (Lionsgate, $159.84)
Thanks to the Saw and Hostel movies, Lionsgate has become the go-to place for extreme horror movies. Using the proceeds generated by its star franchises, the studio recently partnered with After Dark Films to launch the mini-film festival After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For. As the name suggests, this program consists of eight low-budget horror flicks featuring B-list stars like Frank Whaley, Traci Lords and Michael Madsen. After turning up in theaters late last year, 2007’s Horrorfest finalists are now arriving on DVD and you can purchase them separately for $20 a pop or in one box set for $160. Titles include Mulberry Street, an I Am Legend-esque tale of a virus that transforms the residents of the famed Lower East Side boulevard into mindless killing machines; Lake Dread, about three sisters who travel back to the deceased grandfather’s country cabin and encounter a family of deadly rednecks; and Borderland, in which three college kids decide to spend the night before graduation in a small Mexican town and wind up being targeted by a vicious blood cult. I’d also recommend The Deaths of Ian Stone, a neat British flick about a guy who literally seems to have nine lives and Tooth & Nail, another post-apocalyptic tale. Extras vary by disc; some of the movies come with commentary tracks and featurettes, while others only include webisodes from a tie-in reality show conteset, in which a group of goth chicks compete for the all-important title of Miss Horrorfest.

Also on DVD
Curious about how accurate I Am Legend’s depiction of a depopulated New York is? Check out the History Channel documentary Life After People (A&E Home Video, $24.95), which scored record ratings for the network when it premiered last December. Using computer graphics and interviews with various scientists, the filmmakers certainly convinced me that a humanity-free Earth is not a place I’d want to be. The end of the world is also the subject of Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly’s sophomore effort, Southland Tales (MGM, $24.96), which, depending on who you listen to, is either the worst film ever made or a misunderstood classic. Check out the DVD and decide for yourself. The bizarre cast alone—The Rock, Sarah Michelle Geller and Seann William Scott????—makes it worth checking out. Extras include an animated short and a featurette about the making of the movie. You can tell baseball season is finally upon because MGM has issued special editions of three hardball classics, starting with the Lou Gehrig biopic Pride of the Yankees (MGM, $14.98), which starred Gary Cooper as the legendary ballplayer. A less uplifting bit of baseball history is at the center of John Sayles’ acclaimed 1988 drama Eight Men Out (MGM, $14.98), which looks back at the infamous Black Sox scandal that captured the headlines in 1919. My personal favorite of the three is Bull Durham (MGM, $14.98), Ron Shelton’s hilarious minor-league comedy that features career-best work from Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. Each disc comes suited up with various extras, including commentary tracks and documentaries. Finally, Woody Allen completists will probably want to track down the 1969 movie version of the writer/director’s mid-’60s stage farce Don’t Drink the Water (Lionsgate, $19.98), which stars Jackie Gleason, Estelle Parsons and Joan Delaney. Fun trivia fact: years later, Allen would remake the film as a made-for-TV movie and cast himself in the Gleason role opposite Michael J. Fox and Mayim “Blossom” Bialik. That version is also available on DVD for $10 on Amazon.