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"35 Films 35 Years" ($180) is the sort of mammoth, gorgeously reverent box set that typically arrives during the holidays. Instead all 18 DVDs -- compiled in a thick, bound book with Clint Eastwood's autograph scrawled across the front -- showed up Tuesday, smack in the middle of Academy Awards season.
That timing didn't synch up quite as well as Warner Bros. may have hoped. Mr. Eastwood's most recent film, the South Africa spirit-lifter "Invictus," was overlooked this year in both the best picture and director categories, although it did earn nods for stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Still, that recognition may provide all the motivation some fans need to revisit the work of this iconic American actor and producer/director/composer.
As its title suggests, this collection pulls together nearly all of the movies Eastwood has made and/or starred in during his four-decade relationship with Warner Bros. We get Dirty Harry Clint (all five of the Smith & Wesson-wielding cop dramas), Western Clint ("The Outlaw Josey Wales," "Unforgiven"), War Movie Clint ("Kelly's Heroes," "Letters From Iwo Jima"), Grumpy Old Man Clint ("Million Dollar Baby," "Gran Torino") and even, um, Orangutan-Friendly Clint ("Every Which Way But Loose," "Any Which Way You Can"). The set omits the three Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns that kick-started Mr. Eastwood's film career, his directorial debut ("Play Misty for Me") and "In the Line of Fire," one of his biggest box office successes, because none was distributed by Warner Bros.
Still, for lifelong students of the Hollywood veteran's work, "35 Films 35 Years" is a relatively affordable way to beef up the DVD library. The cost works out to about $10 per disc, a bargain for those who care solely about being able to watch these films again and again.
However, for those who already own many of these films, or are in search of fresh, top-quality extras, this collection falls short. Nearly all of these movies are reissues or stripped-down versions of previously released discs, allowing Warner Bros. to pack a pair of movies onto mostly double-sided DVDs. Consequently, older films come with primitive-looking menus, often scant extras and, in cases such as 1977's "The Gauntlet," picture quality that leans toward the grainy.
The one new extra in this mix is "The Eastwood Factor," a 22-minute excerpt from an upcoming documentary by film critic and longtime Eastwood friend Richard Schickel that follows him around the Warner Bros. lot as he looks at costumes from his old films, fingers the keys on a piano in the recording studio that bears his name and reminisces about his partnership with the studio. It's an adequate featurette, but one that reveals nothing insightful or eye-opening.
From a collection that comes in such pretty packaging and honors such a venerable contributor to American cinema history, I expected a little more.
-- Jen Chaney, The Washington Post
In a year with documentaries about atrocities in the dolphin trade or eye-opening revelations about the food industry, a picture about "Good Hair" was bound to be left out of the Oscar race. And it was.
But Chris Rock's movie about African-American women (and a few men) and what they'll do for their hair is good-humored in every sense of that phrase.
They will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for weaves and subject themselves to hair-straightening chemicals that could burn through aluminum cans, just so they can have "good hair." You know, like those long, straight locks Beyonce was swinging around during the Grammys.
Mr. Rock, here a writer and executive producer alongside first-time director Jeff Stilson, gets well-known Americans such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, Ice-T, Maya Angelou, Nia Long and Raven Symone to open up about their hair secrets and philosophies.
He doesn't stop there, traveling to India where women sacrifice their hair for gods' blessings -- only to have it end up in pricey American salons.
The filmmakers devote too much time to an Atlanta hairstyling competition where outrageous stunts are the order of the day, and the DVD has audio commentary by Mr. Rock and executive producer Nelson George but no extras.
Since Mr. Rock's documentary was inspired by a question from one of his daughters -- "How come I don't have good hair?" -- it would seem natural to include his wife's opinion about "creamy crack" relaxers and pricey weaves, but she's noticeably absent.
Still, you'll never look at women on the red carpet, in fashion magazines or on stage or screen in quite the same way after watching "Good Hair." And it might even make what you pay for cut and color seem downright reasonable by comparison.
-- Barbara Vancheri, PG movie editor
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