| April "Classics" DVD Roundup |
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| Written by Kevin Filipski | |
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Page 2 of 4  Cheers -- Season 9 (Paramount)Cheers hit many milestones in its ninth season (1990-91), including ascending to the top spot in the Nielsen ratings, winning another Best Comedy Series Emmy, and celebrating its 200th episode. For those of us who enjoyed the show more when Diane and Sam were constantly bickering, Shelley Long did return for a cameo in that special 200th episode. Still, the ninth season’s scene-stealer was Bebe Neuwirth in the role of the dark-humored Lilith, as her justly deserved second Emmy for Supporting Actress demonstrated. Also to be enjoyed is the excellent comic timing of Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, and Woody Harrelson.  Death of a Cyclist (Criterion)Corruption among the upper class, whose members so often feel that they are above the law, has been a favorite movie theme from the beginning. Juan Antonio Bardem’s 1955 melodrama takes on a philandering couple whose guilt grows after the death of the hit-and-run victim they left on the side of the road. Even if Bardem’s attack on the hypocrisies of Franco’s Spain now seems less than riveting, there’s something undeniably fascinating about Death of a Cyclist, especially its precise black and white imagery and the highly charged performances of Juan Fernandez Soler and María José de Castro. EXTRAS: Documentary about Bardem’s career.  Eight Men Out (MGM)John Sayles’ 1988 account of the Black Sox scandal of 1919, when Shoeless Joe Jackson and his teammates conspired to throw the World Series, displays many of this eminent independent director’s qualities in abundance: a manifest intelligence, a good grasp of the wider implications of historical material, and his straightforward helming of a large ensemble cast. With period trappings in place, Sayles concentrates on the subtleties of the scandal, working well with actors D.B. Sweeney (Shoeless Joe), John Cusack, Charlie Sheen and Michael Lerner. EXTRAS: Sayles commentary; retrospective featurettes and interviews.  Fine Dead Girls (First Run)This strangely compelling 2002 drama from Croatian director Dalibor Matanic finds the ethnic strife and hatred of “foreigners” that characterized the Balkan War echoed in a Zagreb apartment complex, where several characters interact. The plot’s catalyst is the arrival of a lesbian couple who are reviled from the start, with initial mocking by their neighbors growing ominously until it turns to physical violence in a scene of undisguised nastiness. Without resorting to cheap shocks, Matanic shows how such brutality can rear its ugly head logically and unnervingly.
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Fiorile (Koch Lorber)