Movies: DVD Reviews

It's got a backbeat you can't lose, with extras

'Backbeat' -- Special Edition
(Universal, $19.98)
(movie)
(DVD format and extras)

Iain Softley's 1994 film "Backbeat" captures The Beatles on the cusp of worldwide fame, five leather-clad lads playing primitive rock 'n' roll in the notorious Reeperbahn district of Hamburg, Germany, fending off drunken sailors, playing backup for overweight strippers and popping "prellies" (amphetamines) to get through the night.

"Backbeat" focuses on Stu Sutcliffe, the James Dean-like "fifth Beatle" who died of a brain hemorrhage just as the group was on the cusp of worldwide fame. Sutcliffe brought to the group no musical acumen, but he did have smoldering good looks, which caught the eye of young photographer Astrid Kirchherr, whose stark photos were the first ever taken of the group. The two fell in love, and Sutcliffe left the band to remain in Hamburg and pursue his true talent, painting.

"Backbeat" kicks in when it focuses on its back story -- the evolution of The Beatles. Ian Hart eerily evokes the spirit of the young John Lennon, a volatile mix of vulnerability, anger and adolescent swagger. Chris O'Neil nails George Harrison's dry humor and youthful naiveté, but Gary Bakewell's Machiavellian McCartney cannot have pleased Sir Paul. As in real life, taciturn drummer Pete Best (Scot Williams) gets shortest shrift of all, with sparse screen time and minimal dialogue ("Doesn't say much, does he?" asks a deadpan George.) Stephen Dorff's performance as Sutcliffe is the movie's weakest link, hobbling the story's momentum; we never sense what made Sutcliffe so alluring.

The producers couldn't get rights to any Lennon-McCartney songs, so "Backbeat" relies on early rock standards The Beatles used to hone their stage act, a refreshing angle. Bonus material includes cast audition footage, interviews and a documentary. "Backbeat" captures the world's most famous rock band, hermetically sealed in time before fame, five ordinary kids with extraordinary appetites, forever young and hungry.
-- Steve Uhler

'Lewis Black: Black on Broadway'
(Warner Home Video, $19.97)
(standup special)
(DVD format and extras)

For those who know Lewis Black only from the "Back in Black" segments on "The Daily Show" (let's be frank: they're better than the celebrity interviews, but weaker than the news segments that top the show), the DVD of his most recent HBO special, "Black on Broadway," refreshingly spotlights a comedian most aren't familiar with at the top of his game.

Unlike most HBO comedy specials, which now tend to focus on up-and-comers you've barely heard of or established comics (Chris Rock, George Carlin), this one allows a level of exposure to the comedian most aren't used to. It's a 60-minute dose of Black's caustic, frayed-edges rant-from-the-Bronx musings on everything from politics to cold weather.

Black's material is far from original: He does a segment on flying coach, for cryin' out loud, but as on "The Daily Show," it's the way he says it that makes his material work. His sputtering, screaming, profanity-laden torrents of outrage sell the jokes handily. On a New York stage wearing a black leather jacket, Black seems perfectly at ease in that persona, despite the obvious steady thinking behind them. When Black settles on a topic as juicy as homeland security -- "Why did they stop lying?" he asks, befuddled as to why the Bush administration didn't continue on the path of claiming weapons of mass destruction exist in Iraq -- he sounds like a lone voice of sanity in an absurd world.

Now about those DVD extras ... there are none. Like too many other home video offerings from HBO, there's not a single thing on the disc besides the feature act itself: For the price of the disc, you could subscribe to HBO for two months, watch Lewis Black's performance and catch "The Sopranos," too, while you're there.
-- Omar L Gallaga

'M' -- Special Edition
(Criterion, $39.95)
(movie)
(DVD format and extras)

This is the second Criterion release of Fritz Lang's influential 1931 thriller, a canonical title in world cinema begging the bulked-up treatment of this two-disc special edition. "M," which stands for murderer (mörder in the film's German), is the untouchable, make-'em-sweat model of the movie thriller (show, don't tell, slowly).

Seen here in the longest available version -- 110 minutes -- Lang's first talkie after the classic silents "Dr. Mabuse" and "Metropolis" whittles melodramatic efficacy to its cinematic essence. Lang combines gliding camera work with expressionistic shadow play to insidiously telegraph the film's undertow of terror.

Peter Lorre, film's great simpering rodent, plays a child killer in Berlin. His cue is a whistled rendition of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from "Peer Gynt," a harbinger of doom whose chilling economy has become a movie touchstone. As justice closes in on him, Lorre's sicko grazes a heart-tearing empathy in spite of his off-screen deeds.

The DVD set is a collector's Eden. The digital transfer glistens and extras include William Friedkin's "A Conversation with Fritz Lang," an intriguing 13-minute tribute/remake of "M" by Claude Chabrol, interviews, audio commentary, writings by Lang and more.
-- Chris Garcia