Back to the Future Trilogy

Hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since crazy Doc Brown and Marty McFly (Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox) first turned on the flux capacitor in their supped-up Delorian and traveled through time, and while some of the moments in the films haven’t stood the test of time (the old age makeup in BTTF 2 is almost laughable) there are plenty of extras crammed into this package to remind you (or perhaps bully you into believing) how timeless this trilogy really is. As for the movies, it’s pretty much how you remember it: The first one is good, the second one is pretty bad and the third one is a mess.

Shonen Knife: The Ultimate Live DVD

Shonen Knife has been touring the world playing their unique version of pop/punk songs for more than 25 years. This lively DVD of their show at Mohawk Place in Buffalo, New York shows why they are still going strong. Combining Ramones-style riffs with some of the silliest, catchiest lyrics you’ve ever heard (try listening to Banana Chips and not getting the chorus stuck in your head), this powerful trio keeps the energy level cranked up to 11: Just try not to dance along with them.

You Don’t Know Jack

For years, Al Pacino has been coasting through his career playing roles that do little more than remind us how great an actor he was way back when he was young and hungry. This excellent HBO movie proves that it was the material, and not the man, that got lazy. Under the excellent direction of Barry Levinson, Pacino dives into playing the part of Dr. Jack Kevorkian so completely that you almost forget who you are watching. The emotional intensity of the story and the debate over the right to live or die you will have with people after watching it, pale in comparison to the sheer joy of watching Pacino give such a fine performance.

Japan’s Longest Day

Ask almost anyone how the Second World War ended in the Pacific and they will sum it up along the lines of something like America dropped the bomb and Japan surrendered. Kinhachi Okamoto’s excellent film from 1967 shows that the actual events surrounding the signing of the treaty to end the war were much more complicated; in fact, the world is lucky the war ended the way it did. There were plenty of factions in Japan who wanted it to go on until the last man, woman and child gave their life for their country.

Dirty Pair

While they prefer to be called The Lovely Angels, there’s something about Kei and Yuri – it may be their attitude, it may be their outfits or it may be the way they seem to leave a trail of total destruction in their wake wherever they go – that makes the world know them as The Dirty Pair. Set in the years 2138-43, the sci-fi action in the 13-episodes in this box set is entertaining and the 80s-style anime artwork is a delight, but it is the snappy banter between the two lead characters – not to mention their girl power attitude -- that really gives The Dirty Pair its spark.

The Pacific

In 2001, Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks joined forces with HBO and created one of the greatest television events of all time, the epic World War II series Band of Brothers which followed a group of American soldiers as they lived the events that lead up to the D Day invasion. Almost a decade later, they have regrouped to look at a different group of men fighting a very different kind of war in The Pacific. While there may be a similar stylistic feel to the two pieces, the stories told in The Pacific are totally different, and in a way far more intense, because of the completely different style of war fought by the Japanese. The battle of Guadalcanal in the series opener is a perfect example, particularly the firefight where the Marines go up against wave upon wave of Japanese soldiers to the point where they can’t see the enemy because the dead are piled too high. The battle scenes are, of course, epic throughout the series, but it’s the way each episode shows you how war impacts the individual soldiers that makes The Pacific so absolutely haunting.

Skeletons

This could be one of the strangest –and best -- films you see all year. Simon and Bennett (Will Adamsdale and Andrew Buckley) play a pair of mysterious strangers who you can hire to dive into your subconscious and discover whatever secrets you have hidden as a way of cleaning your personal slate to get a fresh start. Their skills get put to the test when a woman hires them to find her husband and Simeon and Bennett are forced to take their job a little too personally. The acting is top notch and the story filled with enough twists to make a slinky jealous.