Susan Granger’s video/dvd update for week of Friday, May 23rd:
James Garner returns to the role that made him famous in “The New Maverick, joining Jack Kelly from the original TV series to reprise brothers Bret and Bart Maverick. Together, they teach their British cousin Beau’s college-dropout son Ben (Charles Frank) the tricks of the trade with one last heist to capture train robbers and collect a big reward.
Continuing the genre, just in time for Father’s Day, “The Tom Selleck Western Collection” includes “Crossfire Trail,” “Last Stand at Saber River” and “Monte Walsh.”
A muddled mess, “Youth Without Youth” is Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in 10 years. Set in Romania, it’s era-spanning parable about language, love and reincarnation. And George Romero is back with “Diary of the Dead” as his “Living Dead” rise again in a documentary made by college students driving a beat-up Winnebago past all those zombie corpses.
Part morality tale, part sex romp, “Forgiving the Franklins” is an outrageously kinky, irreverent, thought-provoking comedy that was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, focusing on an ultra-conservative Christian family whose Original Sin is removed.
“Our House” is an uplifting, enlightening documentary that explores what it’s like to grow up with gay or lesbian parents, and the documentary “Autism: The Musical” is a moving testament to love and hope in the face of a diagnosis that seems to be reaching epidemic proportions.
For kids, “ZakLand: The Shiny Surprise” introduces a live action/animated world filled with music and imagination, hosted by Grammy-nominated Zak Morgan.
PICK OF THE WEEK: In “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” Nicolas Cage embarks on another archeological quest; this time to find a missing page from John Wilkes Booth’s diary which implicates Ben Gates’ great-great grandfather in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. It’s chock-full of historical trivia.