DVD in store 5/24/2006

New In stores:

Harlan County USA: Criterion Collection (PG) Celebrated 1976 documentary about the coal miners’ strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Ky. in June 1973. Eastover’s refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by providing background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. New, restored high-definition digital transfer. 103 minutes. DVD INFO: Includes audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker; “The Making of Harlan County, USA,” a new documentary featuring interviews with Kopple, crew members and strike participants featured in the film; new video interview with legendary bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens; never-before-seen outtakes; new video interview with director John Sayles; a panel discussion from 2005 Sundance featuring Kopple and Roger Ebert; plus a booklet with new essays by film scholar Paul Arthur and music journalist Jon Weisberger.

Little Britain: The Complete Second Series (NR) Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Tom Baker. Think of the sillier, more grotesque moments of Monty Python and you’ll have an idea of what to expect from this outrageous British sketch comedy series, which announces itself as an exploration of the British Isles and its curious inhabitants. Narrator Tom Baker provides imposing nonsense narration (example: “Britain, Britain, Britain, land of technological achievement. We’ve had running water for over 10 years, an underground tunnel that links us to Peru, and we invented the cat.”) as we visit handicap-faking freeloaders, extraordinarily overweight naked dueling divas, passive-aggressive (emphasis on the latter) clerks and civil servants and the two most masculine — and utterly clueless — transvestites in the world. The jokes are simple and oft repeated, but most of them remain funny nonetheless. Winner of three BAFTAs (U.K. equivalent to Emmys) and double gold at the Rose d’Or of Lucerne (Europe’s highest comedy award). Approximately 180 minutes. DVD INFO: Includes audio commentary on all six episodes by Walliams, Lucas and producer Geoff Posner; 2005 Comic Relief sketches featuring Elton John, George Michael, Robbie Williams and Simon Callow; “Little Documentary” featurette; plus interviews with Lucas and Walliams on popular U.K. chat shows. —EJO

Paul Morrissey Box Set (NR) Joe Dallesandro, Patti D’Arbanville, Holly Woodlawn, Sylvia Miles. The main attraction of this box set containing the three most celebrated films — Flesh, Trash and Heat — from Paul Morrissey is Joe Dallesandro, the icon from the Andy Warhol Factory, the “Little Joe” Lou Reed sang about in “Walk On the Wild Side,” and the sexiest man of the ’60s counterculture (his torso is the cover image of the first album by The Smiths and the zipper on award-winning cover of The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers is affixed to his crotch). Of sure, the gritty, meandering films have a weird appeal, but without the beautiful, inarticulate Little Joe wandering around wearing little or nothing, they would have blended in with everybody else’s other gritty, meandering underground films. 298 minutes. DVD INFO: Includes the feature-length documentary “Factory Days: Paul Morrissey Remembers the Sixties,” plus a six-page insert with film notes.

Transamerica (R) Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Elizabeth Pena, Graham Greene, Burt Young, Carrie Preston. Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives shines as a preoperative transsexual forced to take a cross-country road trip with a sullen 17-year-old (Zegers) who has no idea that the woman behind the steering wheel is his father. First-time feature writer-director Duncan Tucker lays it on a bit thick (Note to the filmmaker: Too many quirky characters in one place can wear out the viewer) and he stretches credulity awfully thin, even by road movie standards (wait until you see how long it takes Toby to figure out who Bree really is), but his missteps are easy to forgive. Transamerica is a sweet, tender and funny look at two people trying to find out where they fit in the scheme of things. 103 minutes. DVD INFO: Two separately packaged DVDs are available: One preserves the film in the anamorphic widescreen format, while the other hacks off nearly a third of the picture for the fullscreen (aka pan & scan) version. Shop carefully. Both versions include audio commentary by director Duncan Tucker; a conversation with Tucker and Felicity Huffman; a conversation with Tucker and Kevin Zegers; the Dolly Parton music video “Travelin’ Thru”; plus a “Travelin’ Thru: Behind the Scenes” featurette. —EJO

ALSO ON DVD

Christian Slater in HOLLOW MAN 2, because the first one apparently just wasn’t enough.

ON HD-DVD

BLAZING SADDLES, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, THE FUGITIVE, U-571, UNFORGIVEN and VAN HELSING

TV on DVD

THE 4400: SEASON 2, BOSTON LEGAL: SEASON 1, BRILLIANT BUT CANCELLED: CRIME DRAMAS, BRILLIANT BUT CANCELLED: EZ STREETS, THE CLOSER: SEASON 1, DEADWOOD: SEASON 2, DOG WHISPERER WITH CESAR MILLAN: SEASON 1, M*A*S*H: SEASON 10, SAMURAI JACK: SEASON 3, SNL: BEST OF SHERI OTERI, SNL: BEST OF COMMERCIAL PARODIES, WINGS: SEASONS 1 AND 2, THE BUGALOOS: COMPLETE SERIES and X-MEN EVOLUTION: SEASON 3. NOTE: Some studios have the nerve to market box sets of TV series containing episodes that were trimmed down by several minutes each for airing in syndication. Before laying down your money, make sure the box set includes the words “original and uncut.”