More Articles By Gary Frisch

• Sports Night
  SHOUT! FACTORY Street: Sept. 30 Prebook: now > TV wunderkind Aaron Sorkin’s first series finally knocks it out of the park on DVD. Before The West Wing and Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin cut his TV teeth with Sports Night. Despite winning Emmys and introducing audiences to Sorkin’s rapid-fire dialog, the sitcom, set in an ESPN-type sports network, was canceled after... More
  
• Young@Heart
  FOX Street: Sept. 16 Prebook: now > Inspiring and entertaining take on pop music with an octogenarian slant. This charmer busted out of the film-festival circuit and found moderate arthouse success, most likely because it’s the kind of movie one can recommend without reservation. The documentary follows a Massachusetts-based senior citizens chorus—the average age of the members ... More
  
• Nim’s Island
  FOX Street: Aug. 5 Prebook: now > Abigail Breslin scores again in this charming adventure for the whole family. The concept of a scientist dad raising his young daughter on an uncharted island strains credibility, but when you get past that, Nim’s Island is all about a girl gaining self-sufficiency and letting her imagination run wild—which is not the worst thing to show kids th... More
  
• John Adams
  HBO/WARNER Street: June 10 Prebook: now > HBO’s alliance with Tom Hanks yields another historically-themed winner. The HBO series John Adams, co-executive-produced by Tom Hanks (who also produced HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon and Band of Brothers), is very much the work of author David McCullough, hewing closely to the highlights of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book. More
  
• Dirty Harry Special Edition
  WARNER Street: June 3 Prebook: now > Harry has never looked better, and the extras will make your day. The iconic “Are you feeling lucky, punk?” scene appears no less than five times in the collective supplements on this two-disc reissue of Dirty Harry. That’s appropriate, because, as film historian Richard Schickel notes in his commentary, every actor who aspires to be a ... More
  
• Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
  FOX Street: March 4 Prebook: now > Enjoyable, family-friendly fare was overlooked at box office. Although it was critically drubbed upon its theatrical release in the fall, this visual spectacle has more than a toy shelf’s worth of charm. The cast, led by Dustin Hoffman as the 243-year-old title character, seems to be having fun with the whimsical material, and that’s a credit t... More
  
• When Harry Met Sally… Collector’s Edition
  MGM/FOX Street: Jan. 15 Prebook: now > The beloved romantic comedy returns with a bundle of new extras. This new edition of the popular romantic comedy arrives two years shy of the film’s 20th anniversary, but, hey, who needs an excuse to re-release one of a library’s prized jewels, especially when loaded up with new extras? Director Rob Reiner and screenwriter Nora Ephron are a... More
  
• In the Heat of the Night
  MGM/FOX Street: Jan. 15 Prebook: Dec. 19 > A welcome reissue of the 1968 Oscar winner. It has been 40 years since Sidney Poitier bellowed, “They call me Mr. Tibbs!” and MGM marks the occasion with this new special edition of the 1968 Best Picture Oscar winner. Groundbreaking for its time, the movie still relays a period of history in stark detail, as black police officer Virgil ... More
  
• Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition
  PARAMOUNT Street: Oct. 30 Prebook: now > An impressive and comprehensive Twin Peaks box that contains everything except the cherry pie. This box set is the first DVD incarnation of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks to offer the series’ two-hour pilot along with the rest of the episodes from seasons one and two. More
  
• Jericho: The First Season
  PARAMOUNT Street: Oct. 2 Prebook: now > Cult following helped Jericho live another day on TV and could make this a popular DVD set. This series about a small Kansas town struggling to survive following a nuclear attack against the U.S. faced its own struggle to survive, plagued by mediocre ratings, but it built a cult following. More
  
• Flashdance: Special Collector’s Edition
  PARAMOUNT Street: Sept. 18 Prebook: now > The ’80s pop culture classic reissue is abetted with a hit-filled music CD. The only prior DVD release of Adrian Lyne’s 1983 Flashdance was a bare-bones version back in 2002, so this iconic film was due for a makeover. The disc is well-loaded with extras. More
  
• Disturbia
  DREAMWORKS/PARAMOUNT Street: Aug. 7 Prebook: now > Voyeurism, danger and hot young star Shia LaBeouf make this a surefire bet. Disturbia pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window—with a bit of John Hughes romantic comedy thrown in—with its tale of a teen (Shia LaBeouf) under house arrest who thinks he spots a murder going down in the house next door. More
  
• The Crow: Stairway to Heaven—The Complete Series
  ARTS ALLIANCE AMERICA Street: July 24 Prebook: Now > A worthwhile re-imagining of the popular character originated on screen by the late Brandon Lee. “What you’re watching is our re-interpretation of Eric Draven,” says Stairway to Heaven’s creator and executive producer Bryce Zabel, as he unapologetically addresses the reincarnation of the character so vividly brough... More
  
• Flags of Our Fathers: 2-Disc Special Edition
  DREAMWORKS/PARAMOUNT Street: May 22 Prebook: now > New attractively packaged set will make consumers forget about the hasty prior release. Clint Eastwood’s film—a sturdy examination of the raising of the U.S. flag following the World War II battle on the island of Iwo Jima and how the famous photo of the event impacted American flag-raisers—is an outstanding look at a defi... More
  
• An Officer and a Gentleman Special Collector's Edition
  PARAMOUNT Street: May 1, Prebook: now > The classic '80s romance gets an extras-laden DVD makeover. This touchstone of '80s romantic cinema arrives in a special edition package that far exceeds its 2000 DVD release. Of the new material, the 30-minute retrospective "An Officer and a Gentleman: 25 Years Later" reveals that the Sgt. More
  
• Freedom Writers
  PARAMOUNT Street: April 17, Prebook: now > Latest urban classroom tale doesn't quite make the grade. Add Freedom Writers to the ever-growing sub-genre of underachieving inner-city high schoolers inspired by a tenacious teacher. Here, it's Hilary Swank who shows up for her first day wearing a string of pearls and uses such cinematic literary classics as Boyz n the Hood to get her students to... More
  
• Charlotte's Web
  PARAMOUNT Street: April 3, Prebook: Now > An all-star voice cast and a fine pedigree will lure kids into this aggressively marketed Web. This big-screen adaptation of E.B. White's beloved 1952 children's book scores with a talented voice and human cast, which includes Julia Roberts ("Charlotte") and Dakota Fanning ("Fern"); effects that seamlessly blend computerized animatronics and real-li... More
  
• Ghost Special Edition
  PARAMOUNT Street: March 13, Prebook: Now > Great looking cast and unabashed sentimentalism make this a deserving classic. This supernatural love story, which introduced a generation to the mournful ballad "Unchained Melody" and the joys of lovemaking by pottery wheel, offers a terrific comedic turn by Whoopi Goldberg and the easy-on-the-eyes combination of Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore as l... More
  
• World Trade Center: Two-Disc Commemorative Edition
  Paramount, color, 129 min. plus supplements, Dolby Digital 5.1, anamorphic widescreen, Street: Dec. 12, $39.99; First Run: W, Aug. 2006, $70 mil.; Also on HD DVD and Blu-ray ($39.99 each) with the same extras The massive reconstruction of Ground Zero for Oliver Stone's tribute to the heroes of 9/11 comprises one of the more fascinating DVD extras we've seen in awhile. More
  
• Eight Below
  Buena Vista, color, 120 min. plus supplements, Dolby Digital 5.1, anamorphic widescreen, Street: June 20, $29.99; First Run: W, Feb. 2006, $81.5 mil. Director Frank Marshall is all over this DVD like snow in Antarctica. He appears in the too-short featurette "Running With the Dogs: The Making of Eight Below" as well as two feature-length audio tracks. More