ON DVD: In The Ring With Tyson

Reviews of Tyson, The Last House on the Left and Surveillance

Tyson

Blu-ray: $40

Plot: James Toback’s one-sided profile of former champ Mike Tyson.

Opinion: Most retired athletes write memoirs about their years in the spotlight; Mike Tyson tells the story of his rise and fall in a 90-minute monologue.  The tale he spins involves a juvenile delinquent who grows up to become the heavyweight champion of the world, but always remained a scared little boy inside.  Compelling stuff, but director James Toback errs by not talking to anyone who might challenge Tyson’s version of events, particularly his 1992 rape conviction, which is glossed over here.  While it’s understandable that the controversial boxer would want to set the record straight, this one-sided account does his legacy little favor.

Bonus Features: The always chatty Toback yaks it up on a commentary track that accompanies the film and generates a steady stream of chatter in a 16-minute documentary that follows him on a series of interviews and press appearances hyping the movie the day of its L.A. premiere.  There’s also an additional Q&A with the director and an excerpt from the TV-series The Big Picture Show featuring yet another interview with Toback.  In fact, the director is so omnipresent on the extras, maybe the DVD should have been titled Toback rather than Tyson.

Verdict: Rent It

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The Last House on the Left

Blu-ray: $40

Plot: Four psychotic fugitives kidnap, rape and leave a teenage girl for deal and then accidentally spend the night at the home of their victim’s parents.

Opinion: Wes Craven’s 1972 shocker The Last House on the Left launched his directorial career and helped create the modern-day slasher film but, truth be told, the film isn’t exactly an unassailable classic.  Produced for next to no money with a cast of inexperienced actors, the original Last House more often resembles low-budget ’70s porn.  So if nothing else, the recent remake (which was produced by Craven and directed by Dennis Iliadis) at least looks like a real movie with real actors.  Actually, as updates of old horror movies go, the new Last House is mostly solid.  Iliadis makes efficient, effective use of his special-effects budget; I particularly enjoyed the old “exploding the bad guy’s head in the microwave” routine he employs at the end of the flick.  Funnily enough though, while the remake is more technically sophisticated, the original film is darker and more disturbing, with a nihilistic ending that most studio-backed films wouldn’t attempt these days.

Bonus Features: A few inconsequential deleted scenes and a largely uninformative featurette.

Verdict: Rent It

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Surveillance

Blu-ray: $35

Plot: Two FBI agents (Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond) pull up at a small-town police station to investigate a crime…and that’s when things start getting weird.

Opinion: It took 15 years for Jennifer Lynch (daughter of David “Twin Peaks” Lynch) to make another movie after the debacle that was her feature debut, Boxing Helena.  As it turns out, Surveillance is worth the wait.  While not on the level of her father’s best work, this is an involving oddball thriller with a plot twist that, while pretty blatant, is executed well.  Lynch also deserves credit for successfully casting against type; I never would have guessed that French Stewart of all people could play a morally twisted cop, but Surveillance proves he’s capable of pulling it off.  That’s good news—after all, the poor guy can’t be expected to live on Third Rock From the Sun residuals forever.

Bonus Features: A commentary track from the very outspoken Lynch; deleted scenes (including a significantly different alternate ending); and a making-of featurette.

Verdict: Rent It

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Also on DVD:

If you’re a fan of old-school monster movies, Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection (Sony, $25) is a must-own.  The three-disc set includes H-Man, Battle in Outer Space and, best of all, Mothra.   Another year, another Simpsons box-set.  The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season (Fox, $50) packages the 2000-2001 season of TV’s longest-running primetime cartoon along with deleted scenes, audio commentary with cast and crew members and original sketches.  Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton delivers yet another tour de force performance in the indie drama Julia (Magnolia, $27), about an alcoholic who gets caught up in a kidnapping scheme.  Finally, Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s Academy Award-nominated doc The Garden (Oscilloscope, $30), chronicles a Los Angeles community garden operated by Mexican immigrants, who grew fresh produce to feed their families.  After more than a decade working the land, the farmers were threatened with eviction when a backroom deal in the city government turned the rights for the land back to the original owner, who promptly declared he wanted the garden gone.  Instead of backing down though, the community took the fight directly to City Hall and managed to win several key battles in seemingly unwinnable war.  There are a number of fascinating issues to explore in this tale, including race, class, urban planning and government corruption.  At a slender 80 minutes though, Kennedy’s film only skims the surface, declining to pursue several fascinating story threads that would have yielded a richer documentary.  Fortunately, this DVD comes with a new featurette that offers extended scenes and interviews that may fill in some of the blanks.