DVD Round-Up: January 13, 2009

This week, British television comes of age with Skins and The Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Dane Cook makes his third bid for movie stardom in My Best Friend’s Girl.

Skins: Volume 1
BBC
$39.98

The Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season One
Lionsgate
$29.98

Plot: Skins chronicles the exploits of a group of ordinary British teenagers, while Diary follows the sexploits of a high-priced call girl (Billie Piper) in London.

Opinion: Once upon a time, British television was largely dismissed as a home for cheeky sitcoms, bad soap operas and costume dramas based on 19th century English novels.  And while those programs still exist, the Brits are becoming more and more daring in their TV tastes.  Take these two series, which premiered on British TV before moving across the pond to BBC America and Showtime respectively.  Interestingly, both shows have obvious American counterparts—with its sudsy storylines about the under-18 set, Skins can be compared to Gossip Girl or the new 90210, while Diary’s voice-over narration and frank commentary about sex owes a clear debt to Sex and the City.  Of the two, Skins is by far the more consistently entertaining show and actually surpasses the much buzzed-about Gossip Girl as addictive, must-see viewing.  It’s not just the rampant nudity and swearing that makes Skins a blast to watch, it’s also the fantastic young ensemble cast, most of whom are the same ages as the characters they play.  (Unlike most U.S. based teen soaps, where twenty and thirty-somethings are asked to play-act like they’re in high school.)  Skins also deserves credit for tackling weighty issues—including anorexia, parental neglect and sex—in distinctly non-After School Special ways.  All in all, Skins is the best teen soap I’ve seen since The O.C.’s stellar freshman season.  Secret Diary, on the other hand, is more of a mixed bag.  On the one hand, you’ve got Piper doing strong work in a tricky lead role and some pretty funny encounters of the sexual kind.  At the same time, there’s a bland ongoing storyline involving Piper’s complicated friendship with an ex-boyfriend and the comedy is sometimes too cutesy for its own good.

Bonus Features: Skins contains behind-the-scenes video diaries and ancillary storylines not seen in the episodes, while Diary only offers a six-minute Q&A with Piper.

Verdict: Buy It (Skins)/Rent It (Diary)

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My Best Friend’s Girl
Lionsgate
$29.95
Blu-ray: $39.99

Plot: Wanna convince your ex-girlfriend she’s got to give you another chance?  Hire Tank (Dane Cook), who, for a nominal fee, will give your gal the worst date of her life and send her screaming back into your arms.  But Tank’s latest assignment goes haywire when he falls in love with his target (Kate Hudson), who happens to be his best buddy’s (Jason Biggs) ex.

Opinion: Ever since Hollywood improbably decided that Dane Cook was a movie star instead of a not-very-funny comedian who supplemented his stand-up career with bit parts in crap like Torque and Waiting, they’ve plugged the guy into a series of relentlessly dumb comedies like Employee of the Month, Good Luck Chuck and now My Best Friend’s Girl.  In each entry in this unofficial trilogy, Cook plays an unapologetic ladies’ man who is able to bed any female…except for the one he truly wuvs.  Question for all the women who might be reading this: do you actually find Dane Cook attractive?  And if so, why?  I ask because, based on his performances in these three movies, I can’t understand how he would be able get a date with Jessica Tandy, let alone Jessica Alba or Jessica Simpson.  With his pumped-up arms and product-filled hair, Cook resembles a frat guy who forgot he graduated from college twenty years ago.  Like his previous star vehicles, My Best Friend’s Girl unsuccessfully tries to balance raunchy comedy with a mile-wide sentimental streak.  It would take a comic far more versatile than Cook to smooth out the movie’s schizoid tone and he’s not helped by Hudson or Biggs, who are clearly disinterested in the material they’re asked to perform.  The only person to score any laughs at all is Alec Baldwin, making a glorified cameo as Tank’s womanizing father.  But even Baldwin is forced to atone for his wicked ways in the end, draining any fun out of a movie that wasn’t all that enjoyable to begin with.

Bonus Features: Two commentary tracks, one with director Howard Deutch and the second with Biggs and the film’s producers; a surprisingly big batch of deleted scenes; four featurettes, including “The Cast’s Guide to Dating” in which the actors offer relationship tips.  Unfortunately, Hudson doesn’t offer any tales about her time with the Butterscotch Stallion, Owen Wilson.

Verdict: Skip It

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Brick Lane
Sony Pictures Classics
$28.96

Plot: A Bangladeshi immigrant struggles to adjust to life in London while dreaming of her childhood home.

Opinion: It will be interesting to see whether the success of Slumdog Millionaire trickles down to other films about India and the Indian diaspora.  The new drama Brick Lane, for example, examines the Indian immigrant community in England, a subject that’s also been covered in movies like My Son the Fanatic and Bend It Like Beckham.  Adapted from a novel by Monica Ali, the film is beautifully shot and contains some strong performances, but it’s also a curiously remote viewing experience.  Somehow all the passion that is running underneath the main character’s shelterd life never manifests itself in compelling drama.  Still, there are moments here that effectively capture the difficulty of being a stranger in a strange land.

Bonus Features: Deleted scenes, a commentary track from the director and star as well as additional interviews with the supporting cast.

Verdict: Rent It

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Also on DVD

Anyone remember that Without a Paddle, that 2004 Matthew Lillard/Seth Green comedy about three idiots lost in the wild, Deliverance style?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Well, if you do, you’ll be happy to hear that the franchise continues with the direct-to-DVD sequel Without a Paddle: Nature’s Calling (Paramount, $12.98), which stars none of the original cast, but the box does claim that its “wilder, hotter and nuttier” than the first movie, so there you go.  If you’re looking for something considerably highbrow, check out the latest adaptation of the English lit classic Brideshead Revisited (Miramax, $29.99), which features an A-list cast of great British actors like Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon and Matthew Goode, soon to be seen in Watchmen as Ozymandias.  Kevin Costner attempted another comeback last year with the election-themed comedy Swing Vote (Disney, $29.99), but the film failed to find much of an audience—maybe because they were all glued to the TV watching the real election unfold.  Humboldt County (Magnolia, $26.98) was the indie version of all the pot comedies that passed through theaters in 2008, personally it didn’t give much of a buzz.  Just in time for the 3-D remake, the original version of the Valentine’s Day-themed slasher flick My Bloody Valentine (Lionsgate, $19.98) arrives on disc with added gore and two retrospective featurettes.  The Films of Michael Powell (Sony, $24.96) offers two rarely-screened films from the master British director, including 1969’s Age of Consent, which features a stunning 23-year-old Helen Mirren in her first major movie role.  In other classic film news, Paramount dusts off two Audrey Hepburn classics in sparkling new editions, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Funny Face (Paramount, $24.99 each).  The documentary American Teen (Parmount, $29.99) attempts to show us what high-school is really like, but ends up looking more like an episode of The Hills instead.  Finally, if you’re in the mood for more British TV-on-DVD after Skins and The Secret Diary of a Call Girl, check out Saxondale (BBC, $39.98), which stars comedian Steve Coogan (seen stateside in 2008 releases like Hamlet 2 and Tropic Thunder) as an exterminator with a wacky personal life.