Notable New Releases
THE SOPRANOS: THE COMPLETE SERIES (HBO/Warner) At one point during his lively conversations with cast members and collaborators over two dinners filmed for this massive boxed set, Sopranos don David Chase shares his favourite story about reactions to the show’s controversial finale. A friend of Chase’s was watching it at the apartment of his elderly grandparents — when the screen famously went black, his grandmother mistook it for a TV malfunction and helplessly cried, “I didn’t do anything!”
Buyers of this collection (which boasts a suggested retail price of $399) will, we hope, be able to experience The Sopranos without any fear of interruption. Packaged in a black box that could case the handgun of your choice, the set includes all 86 episodes on 28 discs, plus three audio CDs of music from the show (my all-time favourite pick: Them’s “Mystic Eyes” in Episode 7) and two discs of new bonus material. The dinner conversations are great even if we don’t get to see Edie Falco scarf down a plate of cannelloni. In another featurette, actors whose characters got whacked discuss their untimely demises.
Chase is also frank and forthcoming during a two-part interview conducted by Alec Baldwin. In another memorable exchange, he says that he and the writers would joke that the show had two alternate titles: Poor You, a phrase oft-uttered by Olivia Soprano, and No Good Deeds Go Unpunished, a maxim whose truth would be proven over and over by the characters on screen. Those people are missed — though The Sopranos ushered in a new golden age for American TV, it seems unlikely that the medium will yield a serialized narrative that is so richly textured or so eager to defy its viewers’ expectations.
Also out this week
Roman Holiday, Sunset Boulevard + Sabrina: Centennial Collection (Paramount) The actual centenary of Hollywood’s oldest studio still in operation is four years away but it would be churlish to complain now that Paramount is finally doing decked-out, double-disc editions of its finest titles. Most welcome of the first batch is Billy Wilder’s original version of Sabrina, which boasts a satirical edge missing from the 1995 remake. EXTRAS: multiple featurettes for each.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Universal) Production-design overkill hampered geek hero Guillermo Del Toro’s second outing with the big red dude but it’s still superior blockbuster fare. EXTRAS: set visits, Del Toro commentary, troll market tour, animated comic.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Warner) Having already scraped the bottom of the barrel, Lucasfilm turns over the barrel, scrapes off some crud and shapes it into the Star Wars franchise’s first official animated feature. EXTRAS: featurettes, galleries, deleted scenes.
Out Nov 18
Wall-E, the Criterion edition of Bottle Rocket, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson and Tropic Thunder — still your only opportunity to see Tom Cruise dance to Flo Rida’s “Low” while wearing a fat suit.