Susan’s DVD Update for week of Friday, June 11th:
John Travolta riffs his own bang-bang Quentin Tarantino days as a free-wheeling, trigger-happy former mercenary in the muddled, disjointed, bullet-riddled buddy/action-adventure “From Paris With Love,” teaming up with a low-level, multi-lingual CIA operative played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.
Timed to coincide with the real-life excitement of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, “Horses: The Story of Equus” is a fascinating tribute to these domesticated animals. Narrated by Gabriel Byrne, it traces the lives of three horses, born on the same night: one becomes a racehorse; the second is trained as an equestrian or show horse; the third escapes and joins the feral herds in the wild.
In “Phyllis and Harold,” video artist Cindy Kleine (who is married to Andre Gregory of “My Dinner With Andre”) delves into her quarrelsome parents’ disastrous 59 year-old marriage, drawing on a lifetime of her family’s Long Island home movies and interviews.
Starring Sharon Gless, “Hannah Free” is a sudsy tear-jerker about longtime lesbian lovers left languishing in a Michigan nursing home in the 1990s.
“American Pickers: The Complete Season One” follows highly skilled antique dealers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fitz as they hunt down historical and pop culture treasures, giving a glimpse at a little-known side of the collectible business. And “Nip/Tuck: The Sixth and Final Season” concludes the critically acclaimed series; bonuses include an intriguing featurette, “Tell Me What You Don’t Like About Yourself – The Psychology,” examining new trends in plastic surgery and exploring why people become addictive.
For kids, there’s “Shaun The Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind,” following the barnyard buddies as they make madcap mischief with the Naughty Pigs next door.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Set in the anxious Cold War era of 1954, Martin Scorsese’ “Shutter Island’ is a dark, intense, psychological thriller, based on Dennis Lehane’s mind-bending mystery. In this weird, enigmatic story, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, as federal marshals, are investigating the disappearance of a murderess inmate from fortress-like Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, located on a remote and barren island across Boston Harbor.