The extreme unpleasantness in The Devil's Rejects (Lion's Gate), Rob Zombie's superior follow-up to his House Of 1000 Corpses, probably kept it from getting the critical praise it deserved, but major cult status awaits, and the new two-disc DVD is ready for it. Two commentary tracks, deleted scenes, bloopers, commercials, and home movies litter the first disc, but the real treat is the second disc's 30 Days In Hell, an obsessive 144-minute documentary that offers a candid, detailed clinic on the filmmaking process that puts the usual making-of featurettes to shame…
Not everybody appreciated Johnny Depp's fey take on Willy Wonka in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Warner Bros.), Tim Burton's adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's classic, but it fit Burton's overall conception of Wonka as a guy who's apparently spent the last 20 years eating chocolate, with diminishing joy. Bonus points are due to Burton for capturing Dahl's themes—the precariousness of want, the necessary disposal of "bad nuts"—without trying to shoehorn in his own, as he usually does…
A career's worth of stand-up, voice parts in animated films, sketch-comedy routines, and second-banana roles have showcased John Leguizamo as a daring and versatile actor, but he rarely gets to show off his depth the way he does in the Ecuadorian feature Cronicas (Palm), which lets him slide effortlessly into a dramatic leading-man role as a spotlight-hungry tabloid reporter on the trail of a serial killer. The film itself isn't as effortless. Juggling a standard crime procedural with weightier themes about journalistic ethics and personal responsibility, it gets a bit muddled in spite of an excellent cast and riveting tension…
A direct influence on Paul Schrader's Light Sleeper and American Gigolo, 1959's Pickpocket (Criterion) ranks as one of Robert Bresson's most accessible masterpieces, a haunting, spare character study whose ending derives much of its surprising power from the rigorous, unemotional minimalism of everything that precedes it. Criterion's typically features-packed DVD includes a video introduction from Schrader and the 2003 documentary The Models Of Pickpocket, which catches up with the film's actors, or "models," as Bresson coldly referred to them…
Tex Avery is considered the wild man of the Warner Brothers animation department, but the essential Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Three (Warner Brothers) makes a strong case that Bob Clampett deserved the title just as much. One of the set's countless wonders is hearing a jaded, misanthropic crank like John Kricfalusi regard Clampett's cartoons on multiple audio commentaries with unabashed, almost child-like awe and reverence. Kricfalusi lovingly quotes another director's assessment of Clampett's personality as that of a "barely controlled hysteric," which in Kricfalusi's world is high praise indeed…
Before there was Grizzly Man, there was Project Grizzly (Ventura), Peter Lynch's documentary about a "close-quarter bear researcher" and his bear-researching suit of armor. It isn't a profound mediation on man and nature, like Herzog's film. But then again, no one gets eaten, so it's okay to laugh.