FEBRUARY 2, 2014 SUNDAY TELEGRAM N15
DVD Releases
ALSOTHISWEEK $22.98; Bluray, $29.99) love the same woman, Catherine. How could BAGGAGE CLAIM FREE BIRDS Owen Wil they not, since she’s Spurred on by a mon son and Woody Harrel played by Jeanne strous mother who son provide the voices of Moreau in what may be wants to see her eldest cartoon turkeys who go her most vibrant perfor daughter married, flight timetraveling back to mance. Extras: audio in attendant Paula Patton the first Thanksgiving to terview and French tele has 30 days before her get their species off the vision interviews with younger sister’s wedding menu. Sounds fun, Truffaut; 1985 docu MURRAY CLOSE/UNIVERSAL PICTURES to recheck old exes in right? Of course, if the mentary about Henri DRAMA various cities to see if movie could have given Pierre Roché, author of ABOUT TIME (2013) she overlooked Mr. us a little story develop the novel the film’s Director Richard Curtis (“Love Ac Right. Will she land on ment beyond just the based on. (Criterion tually”) spins the tale of a frequently time or stay stuck in a premise, that would Collection DVD/Bluray, tonguetied everyguy (Domhnall holding pattern? Extras: have been nice, too. $39.95) Gleeson) whose ability to revisit mo cast interview, director’s With Amy Poehler. ments in his own life is about getting commentary. (20th Extras: trailer, behind CUTIE AND THE BOXER things right, not throwing things off, Century Fox, $29.98; thescenes animation A marriage between two especially with his charming new Bluray, $39.99) featurettes. (20th Centu artists doesn’t always crush (Rachel McAdams). Oh, the pos ry Fox, $29.98; Bluray, lead to domestic tran sibilities the story imagines — and oh, ROMEO & JULIET Appar $39.99) quility, as Zachary Hein the heartache that inevitably arises ently aimed at a youth zerling’s impressionistic ANNE MARIE FOX/FOCUS FEATURES VIA AP just the same. Gleeson (2012’s “Anna audience weaned on DEATH WISH: 40TH documentary about Karenina”) is consistently appealing as “Gossip Girl,” this ver ANNIVERSARY EDITION Ushio and Noriko Shino TOP PICKS Curtis’s new, de facto Hugh Grant sion cuts most of Shake This disquietingly influ hara demonstrates. The standin (the same halting likability, speare’s speeches, in ential vigilante thriller Japaneseborn couple with a dash of Ron Weasley thrown vents new dialogue, and made its lead, Charles have stayed together for in). Bill Nighy is all looselimbed affa features young actors Bronson, a major inter 40 years, still pursuing bility as Gleeson’s dad, who’s also tem who are clueless (Doug national star. It also ur their art and squabbling McConaughey porally gifted. Extras: Featurette on las Booth and Hailee banized and updated in their garretlike Curtis’s romance oeuvre. (Universal, Steinfeld play the star the classic vengeance Brooklyn, N.Y., loft. This $29.98; Bluray, $34.98) crossed lovers) and old narrative of the western. portrait of the artists, at his best pros who overact. It’s a Extras: trailer. (Warner, Oscar nominated for ACTION movie that only a 13 Bluray, $19.98) best feature documenta ESCAPE PLAN yearold girl with an ry, is all the more inspir By Tom Russo (2013) English paper due could JULES AND JIM In Fran ing because of its harsh GLOBECORRESPONDENT In a new love. Extras: makingof, cois Truffaut’s third fea honesty. (Starz/Anchor n “Dallas Buyers Club” (2013), Matthew McConaughey transforms teamup from set design, and hair and ture, from 1962, it’s the Bay, $24.98; Bluray, from a hardpartying, homophobic roughneck into an AIDS patient “Expendables” makeup featurettes. years before World War $29.99) shrewdly finding ways to beat the FDA and smuggle unapproved medi compadres Syl (20th Century Fox, I and the title characters GLOBE STAFF cations for himself and others. McConaughey and a crossdressing Jared vester Stallone and Arnold Schwarze Leto rightly received Oscar nods for the film, based on the reallife expe negger, Sly plays a security consultant Iriences of ’80s accidental activist Ron Woodroof. Just as striking, though, is the who infiltrates prisons, and Ahnold is career metamorphosis McConaughey himself caps off in playing Woodroof. the fast friend he makes after being Some will recall the actor’s run as Vanity Fair “It” Guy in the mid’90s, when he left to rot in a secret superpenitentia supplied movies like John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill” with no end of hunky gloss. ry. For the first halfhour, you start to But over time, the whole mantanned stud persona seemed to elicit fewer hub think maybe it’s possible to recapture bahubbas and more ughs, with McConaughey churning out tepid work like the those ’80s popcornmovie thrills. CUTIE AND THE BOXER romcoms “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and “Fool’s Gold.” (Indeed.) He’s climbed Trouble is, it’s all Stallone’s show — out of that rut in the last few years with a string of projects and character roles Schwarzenegger hasn’t even come into which, combined with “Buyers Club,” can make for some interesting power view the picture yet. The moment he does, ing. (Consider it a DIY bonus to make up for the disc’s dearth of supplements.) some of the air goes out of the room, There’s his grungy, offthegrid fugitive in last year’s Southernfried drama and we’re squarely in indulgence terri “Mud.” There’s his turn as a stylistically square DA prosecuting unlikely murder tory. Extras: Semiaptly titled “Clash of ermortician Jack Black in “Bernie.” And there’s his sendup of his himbo image the Titans” featurette. (Lionsgate, as the welloiled strip club owner in “Magic Mike.” No word as yet on a release $29.95; Bluray, $39.99) date for McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s intriguing HBO crime drama “True Detective,” which wraps its season in March. (Universal, $29.98; Bluray, Tom Russo can be reached at $34.98) [email protected]. RADIUSTWC
LIVE ACTION ANIMATED Out of the Blue The Fonz and the 1979 Love, Mork & Mindy Happy Days Gang American Style 1978-1982 1980-1981 1969–1974 he dreamy gaze of a competitors’.In addition to the highly young Scott Baio could rated “Rhoda” (1974–1978), there was melt the sturdiest of “Phyllis” (1975–1977), and the drama Trapper Keepers in the “Lou Grant” (1977–1982). The trun early 1980s. Mean cated run of “Phyllis” was likely a re while, America had sult of the reallife deaths of several ac watched Erin Moran bloom from Ron tors on the show. T Happy Days: Howard’s little television sister on The formula ebbed, but refused to “Happy Days” into a woman who A New Musical retreat. The 1980s brought “The Facts could fill out a sweater like a young 2007-2010 of Life,” which bested its originator, Annette Funicello. “Diff’rent Strokes.” “Empty Nest” Therefore, a “Happy Days” spinoff branched off from “The Golden Girls” highlighting the passionate, yet which then became “The Golden Pal chaste, desires between Chachi Arcola ace,” and “A Different World” found (Baio) and Joanie Cunningham (Mo Blansky's Cosby kid Lisa Bonet at college, albeit ran) was as inevitable as Fonzie telling Beauties briefly. Those shows are just the skin of Potsie to sit on it. In March 1982, 1977 Mork & Mindy/ the pudding. Chachi sat at a piano, serenaded Laverne & Shirley/ The 1990s were no less prolific for Joanie with a syrupy pop ballad, and Happy Days Fonz Hour spinoffs, but thankfully the tendrils of “Joanie Loves Chachi” made its debut. “Beverly Hills, 90210” (which begat 1974–1984 The complete series is released Tues 1982–1983 “Melrose Place” and “Models Inc.”) day on DVD. never stretched as far as those of “All in But there was little love for “Joanie the Family.” Loves Chachi.” Viewers tuned in for Laverne & With the benefit of time, the failed those first few episodes, then quickly Shirley spinoffs can be as entertaining as the jumped ship during the second season. 1976–1983 successes — with the exception of “The Eventually Moran and Baio’s charac Ropers.” “The Brady Bunch Variety ters returned to “Happy Days” and Hour,” a horrifying, sequinencrusted married in the show’s finale. resuscitation of “The Brady Bunch,” This was the perilous fate of televi made a minor dent in pop culture. Joanie Loves Chachi Laverne & Shirley sion characters in the golden age of Laverne & Shirley When Eve Plumb opted out of the spinoffs. Counting a live musical and 1982–1983 With Special Guest Star campy 1977 show (a very smart deci several animated series, “Happy Days” the Fonz in the Army sion), the role of Jan Brady was filled — itself a spinoff from “Love, Ameri 1982–1983 1981–1982 by Geri Reischl, creating the “Fake can Style” — produced more than 10 SOURCES: IMDB.com, archives, file photos CHRISTOPHER MUTHER, PATRICK GARVIN/GLOBE STAFF Jan” phenomenon. different shows. Some were huge hits “The Simpsons” (a spinoff of “The (“Laverne & Shirley,” “Mork & Mindy”) Tracey Ullman Show”) parodied the and others are now answers to obscure genre so smartly that it should have trivia questions. Anyone remember served as a warning to the hazards of “Blansky’s Beauties”? “Out of the the genre. In the episode “The Simp Blue”? Recalling the spinoff’s golden age son SpinOff Showcase,” Troy McClure It’s easy to look back and chortle at (“You may know me from such these desperate attempts to stretch a spinoffs as ‘Son of Sanford and Son’) successful series into a TV franchise. ‘Joanie Loves Chachi’ gets a second chance on DVD introduces pilots for “Chief Wiggum, But with the forthcoming “Breaking P.I.,” “The Lovematic Grampa,” and Bad” spinoff, “Better Call Saul,” the BY CHRISTOPHER MUTHER | GLOBE STAFF “The Simpson Family SmileTime Vari “How I Met Your Mother” spinoff, ety Hour.” It’s “The Variety Hour” that “How I Met Your Dad,”plus the contin takes direct aim at the Brady Bunch, ued success of any show that starts down to the fake Lisa. with “NCIS” (spun off from “JAG”), our “Checking In” (“The Jeffersons”). “All For every successful spinoff (“Frasi In the episode, McClure, voiced by appetite remains ravenous. in the Family” then morphed into “Ar For every er”), there’s a clunker (“The Tortellis”). the late Phil Hartman, cheekily asks, The spinoff universe of the 1970s chie Bunker’s Place,”then “Gloria,” and Despite the risks, the results can be de “Spinoff. Is there any word more thrill and ’80s is a fascinating study in what ultimately “704 Hauser.” successful spinoff liciously enticing. Viewers are already ing to the human soul?” It’s a rhetori happens when TV executives spot a Sometimes these sitcom family (‘Frasier’), there’s connected with the characters and cu cal jab, but in those rare cases where winning formula, and then wring it trees turned into confusing shrubs rious to see their fate. The nation ea our favorite characters find a satisfying until it’s dry as a molted snakeskin. that needed a good pruning. To this a clunker (‘The gerly tuned in to watch its beloved new life in a successful spinoff, it can “All in the Family,” characters Maude day, questions remain about how Rhoda Morgenstern get married on be a thrill. At worst, we get the nostal Findlay (Bea Arthur) and George Jef Maude’s housekeeper in Tuckahoe, Tortellis’). Despite “Rhoda.” Until her divorce two seasons gic camp of “Joanie Loves Chachi.” ferson (Sherman Hemsley) were N.Y., ended up living in a lowincome the risks, the later. plucked from the show and awarded housing project in Chicago. And why “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”may Christopher Muther can be reached their own series: “Maude” and “The was she married to Gordy, the weath results can be not have been the most prolific show at [email protected]. Jeffersons.” Those shows produced the erman from “The Mary Tyler Moore enticing. in the 1970s spinoffathon, but its Follow him on Twitter @Chris_ spinoffs “Good Times” (“Maude”) and Show”? track record was more solid than its Muther.