DVD Release List – 9/08/09

By Noel Murray | September 8, 2009 | 12:00pm

Aux Features DVD

The latest Neveldine/Taylor project may have disappointed, but fans of the unapologetically trashy filmmakers’ frenetic style, over-the-top characters and sick jokes will be able to get it in its purest form this week with the DVD and BD release of Crank 2: High Voltage. And that’s just one of the highlights of a crowded release week. People who'd like to frantically catch up with last year’s TV shows before the new year starts can pick up the first seasons of Parks And Recreation and Fringe, both of which started shaky and then got good. (And by the way I’ve seen the first episode of Fringe’s second season and it’s good too.) Criterion has a strong slate this week, with the 10-hour Japanese epic The Human Condition, the 1941 British historical drama That Hamilton Woman, and David Mamet’s underseen masterpiece Homicide. (Review of the latter coming tomorrow.) Beyond Criterion, Vivendi has Carlos Reygadas’ acclaimed art film Silent Light, while Sony’s increasingly odd “Martini Movies” series has a number of ‘60s and ‘70s rarities, including Jacques Demy’s lone American film Model Shop. (Review of that coming soon.) Finally, you know it’s fall when the home video companies start packaging and re-packaging every Halloween-appropriate movie in their catalog. Universal is digging deep for their “Horror Classic Movie Archive” (featuring the likes of Captive Wild Women and Man Made Monster), while Lionsgate brings back the Rankin-Bass animated oddity Mad Monster Party?, a botched attempt to do for ghosts and goblins what the company had done for Santa Claus. Misfit toys indeed.