The Perfect Host

After more than a decade of playing the nebbish snob Dr. Niles Crane on the hit series, Frasier, David Hyde Pierce needed the kind of movie role that would make everybody forget he was Fraser Crane’s younger brother. This is that role. In the movie, Pierce plays Warwick Wilson, a man whose plans to host a dinner party get sidetracked when a wanted bank robber (Clayne Crawford) shows up on his doorstep looking for shelter from the cops. The fact that Warwick’s dinner guests are all in the host’s imagination is the least of the bank robber’s problems as he becomes Warwick’s prisoner. The film falls apart a bit at the end, but it’s still a thrilling ride, thank to Pierce’s pitch perfect performance.

The Complete Jean Vigo

Before his untimely death at age 29 from tuberculosis, director Jean Vigo was being heralded as one of the shining lights of French cinema. Unlike his contemporaries (like Jean Cocteau and Luis Buneul), his potential was never full realized, although the four movies in this set give you a pretty good idea of how talented he could be. Of the four, the short silent from 1930, A Propos de Nice, is probably the most enjoyable indication of Vigo’s slightly surreal style. Taris, his 10-minute film with French swimmer Jean Taris, has some visual inventive flair, but not much else. His story of school boy revolution, Zero De Conduite, is amusing, but feels incomplete (it runs just 44 minutes). The feature length film , L’Atalante, the story of a couple honeymooning on a barge going through the canals of France, is, according to the DVD notes “one of cinema’s finest achievements.” It’s a bold statement that the actual film just doesn’t back up.

Vera

A lot of good actresses can play tough or bitchy, but few have the talent — or the nerve — to play just plain unlikable. So hats off to whoever decided to hire Brenda Blethyn to play DCI Vera Stanhope in this excellent series. Stanhope is the kind of a TV cop who sacrifices everything — and then some — to solve the crimes she gets assigned. Like a lot of good cop shows, Vera gives us a lot of interesting insights along the way into just why Stanhope makes the sacrifices she does. But there’s a catch: We don’t want to really know that much about her because we never want Stanhope to lose that nasty edge that drives her (and the series). It’s OK to love the actress, because Blethyn is breathtaking in the show. And it’s just as valid to dislike the lady she plays.

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost

If you aren’t already familiar with the Eden of the East anime series, then do yourself a favor and watch the original episodes as well as the first movie before you settle in for the conclusion of Paradise Lost. It may seem like a major investment of time, but since Eden of the East is one of the best anime stories of the past few decades, it’s well worth it. And doing the work ahead of time will make this final 90 minutes of the story all that sweeter. Paradise Lost starts where the last movie ended, with Saki and Akira on a flight back to Japan when Akira wakes up from a nightmare that his Selecao cell phone is attacking him. It’s a nightmare that spurs the young man on to uncover the remaining mysteries in the deadly game he’s been playing, as well as to put an end to the game once and for all. Although its sad to think the series is over, it’s one of the most satisfying story endings you will ever watch.

Alfred Hitchcock Legacy of Suspense

Rather than call it a Legacy of Suspense, this excellent box set of Hitchcock’s early films could be titled Film School in a Box. Covering the years 1926 through 1939 (with two shows from the popular Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series (1955-1962) throw in for good measure), the  set is filled with the movies Hitchcock made before he became the ‘Hitchcock” of The Birds and Psycho. Not all of them work as well as others, and its hard to sit through some of the silent movies in the set, but even the average films share a bit of the magic the master would bring to his later films. And the best of the set — The Lady Vanishes, The Thirty-Nine Steps, Sabotage — can stand alongside the best he ever made. The bonus documentary is good, and the trailers of the films not in the box are a hoot.

Robert Plant’s Blue Note

We all know he was the lead singer for one of the most popular and influential rock bands of all time, but as this fascinating documentary proves, there’s more to Robert Plant than his past with Led Zeppelin. A lot more. The movie spends a surprisingly small amount of time, in fact, covering Plant’s Zeppelin career, instead concentrating on the music he made before he met Jimmy Page, and the sounds he searched for once Zeppelin ceased to be. It’s a fantastic journey, even when it stumbles along through Plant’s misplaced musical experimentation with his solo career in the 1980s, because Plant’s pursuit for the music that feeds his soul is pure. His determination — and talent — to share it with others is just as impressive.

Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension

The story of two incredibly intelligent sibling nerds looking for a fun way to spend their summer vacation while their pet platypus Perry battles crime as a secret agent, Phineas and Ferb has been a hit on the Disney Channel since 2007. The animation is sleek and stylish, the scripts are smart and funny, and each half hour episode usually has an original song that’s both silly and singable. In their direct to DVD feature length debut, the creative talent behind the show, from the voice talent to the animators, pull out all the stops to make something special for the fans. Those who aren’t fans (yet) may not get the joke at the ends when Phineas and Ferb use creatures and creations from past shows to beat the bad guy, but so what? The movie is still a lot of fun if you’ve never seen an episode before