Slim pickings this week on the DVD shelves, as January usually is a DVD as well as a theatrical dumping ground. Our advice is to look to the older stuff, as Criterion is releasing “El Norte,” the tale of two Guatemalan peasant children who run away to Los Angeles which was the first independent film to be nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. For those less-demanding viewers looking for something older, “Ghost” has been re-released in a two-disc Collector’s Edition so you can trick yourself into thinking the sadly ill Patrick Swayze has any sort of cinematic legacy.
2008 wasn’t a great year for musicals, but at least DVD gives you a chance to revisit one of the odder ones in “Repo! The Genetic Opera”. From the director of “Saw II-IV” and based on an Off-Broadway play, it’s a hugely ridiculous, embarrassing endeavor for all involved. But where are you going to see Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Bill Mosely, Paris Hilton, Orge from Skinny Puppy, Anthony Stewart Head and Sarah Brightman sing together? Other releases include generic hits (“Max Payne”) and flops (“The Express,” “Igor”). Gil Kenan’s underloved “City of Ember” drew strong critical notice and might be worth a look, while the usually-reliable William H. Macy has a straight-to-DVD movie out called “The Deal” with Meg Ryan, which is certainly suspect, but Macy’s usually worth a look. Straight-to-video fans will be in sequel heaven as well, as Tuesday brings the release of new installments of the franchises “Poison Ivy,” “Center Stage,” “Boogeyman” and “Vacancy.”
If you’re looking for a smaller affair, the documentary “Frontrunners” takes a comedic look at a high school presidential election at Stuyvesant High, while “Elsa and Fred” is an Argentinian romance between two elderly loners. Meanwhile, Johnathan Rhys-Meyers and Chow Yun-Fat star in Roger Spottisswoode’s historical epic “The Children Of Huang Shi,” a quiet prestige pic that had a quiet release last year.
For Blu-Ray fans, mainstreamers can enjoy “13 Going On 30”, “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan” and “Hustle And Flow,” with decade-old comedy classic “Election” hits the format, as does the electrifying Brazilian action picture “Elite Squad” and the Christian Bale litmus test “The Machinist.” But if you’re looking to spend some extra change, Blu-Ray import “The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner” is the best bet, a chilly classic recently given a new shelf life by, of all people, Rod Blagojevich.