June 6, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 33
DVD releases
(continued from page 29) Home Video) chronicles the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack that leaves most of the world completely incapacitated. After the initial invasion, survivors band together to fight back. Outside Boston, history professor Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) helps lead a small army named Second Massachusetts in the battle of their lives to preserve their families and what remains of humanity. Joining Wyle are Moon Bloodgood as Dr. Anne Glass, a pediatrician who has become the survivors’ primary physician, Will Patton as Colonel Weaver, the gruff and emotionally scarred commander of Second Massachusetts, and Drew Roy as Tom’s oldest son, who is just about to turn 18. “Falling Skies” basic cable’s Number One new series of 2011. The DVD and Blu-ray sets include a sneak peek at Season Two, commentary, and a featurette. “Private Romeo” (Wolfe Video), based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” is a modern tale about eight cadets who are left unsupervised at an isolated military high school when the adult faculty leave on an unspecified exercise. The cadets are instructed to carry on with their studies. As the class studying “Romeo and Juliet” becomes engrossed in the romantic love story, the two classmates reading the leads aloud (Seth Numrich and Matt Doyle) begin to live the roles of star-crossed lovers. Writer-director Alan Brown uses a scaled-down version
of the play’s conflicts and embellishes the romantic content with modern touches like YouTube and indie rock tunes. “The Collapsed” (Anchor Bay) is an apocalyptic thriller about one family’s battle to stay alive on a trek through a landscape of barbarism and cannibalism. In the wake of an unspecified catastrophy, the Weaver family -- father Scott (John Fantasia), young adult son Aaron (Steve Vieira), mother Emily (Lise Moule), and teenage daughter Rebecca (Anna Ross) -- desperately tries to survive. Fleeing the city, the family hopes to find sanctuary in a rural hometown from their past, Dover’s Bend. With the constant threat of violent death forcing them to stay as far from other people as possible, they take to the forest. They soon discover that the danger posed by other survivors may be the least of their worries. Someone -- or something -- has followed them into the wilderness. “Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Eighth Season” (HBO Home Entertainment) finds Larry David traveling to New York City, where he confronts, among others, new girlfriends, the Girl Scouts, politicians, and Michael J. Fox. David’s humor often makes people wince and then laugh hysterically. The show blurs the line between reality and fiction, and the scripts consist only of scene outlines, giving the show a fresh and spontaneous narrative and improvisational quality. Jeff Garlin plays Larry’s friend and manager, but it’s Susie Essman as Jeff’s wife who steals every scene she’s in with her hilarious, X-rated tirades against Larry or anyone else who crosses her. Available on Blu-ray and DVD, the set offers bonus features including a roundtable discussion with David and cast.