Year:  1946
Genre:  Classic, Christmas, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Blu Ray 
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
Director:  Frank Capra
Run time:  130 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     A year or two ago, I reviewed a two-disc special edition of the classic It’s a Wonderful Life.  It came in a box with a little bell, and had some great special features like a making-of documentary hosted by Tom Bosley, and a tribute to Frank Capra narrated by Frank Capra Jr.

     On November 1^st, Paramount Home Entertainment releases a new two-disc special edition box set of the classic It’s A Wonderful Life.  This one comes with a little bell and some great special features like a making-of documentary hosted by Tom Bosley, and a tribute to Frank Capra narrated by Frank Capra Jr. 

     So, what’s the difference?  Well, this one is a Blu-Ray.  And I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking…a classic black-and-white movie on Blu-Ray?  What’s the point?  Does black and white look any better in super high definition?  Well, the answer is no. 

     The reason, I think, for the Blu-ray treatment here is the second disc, which features the colorized version of the movie.  That process in the old days of film where they ADDED colour to black and white movies so modern low brow movie watchers (like my sister) would find them more palatable.

     I am not one of those movie watchers.  I find colorizing a classic like It’s A Wonderful Life to be akin to blasphemy, and I won’t be watching it.  And so for me, there is absolutely no difference between the NEW It’s a Wonderful Life box set with a bell and the older one with a bell.  Except that the blu-ray is the only box set on the shelves right now.  And you NEED It’s A Wonderful Life in your collection.

Year:  1954
Genre:  Musical, comedy, Christmas, classic
Country:  United States
Language:  English 
Starring:  Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, Dean Jagger
Director:  Michael Curtiz
Run time:  120 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

                At Christmas time, you get two things in the DVD world.  You get box sets with seemingly unrelated movies thrown together, that old people who don’t get it might purchase for young people who don’t care.  Also, you get re-releases of classic Christmas movies in fancy box sets.                One of those rereleases this year is the White Christmas  set, out November 2nd from Paramount Home Entertainment.  A classic movie that I’m sure we’ve all seen, and of course if you haven’t you should.  And the Anniversary edition comes with some pretty cool things, like a series of postcards which I think are pretty cool for fans.  The second disc is crammed with great special features like the ones on Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Danny Kaye.  There’s also a feature-length commentary on the movie by Rosemary Clooney herself, an added bonus that really works.

                That being said, don’t be fooled by the packaging.  It looks like an impressive box, with snow and glitter and so forth.  But once you open it, you’ll throw away the box because there’s nothing to it.  It’s just a package of fake snow and an awkward plastic box.  But keep the film - it’s certainly one worth having, for the special features alone. 

     A quick word on the film itself while I’m at it – White Christmas is, most assuredly, over rated.  The cast is magnificent, many of the songs are terrific (including, of course, the title track), and some of the set pieces are fantastic as well.  With all that going for it, this should be much, much better than it actually is.  The biggest problem is the screenplay, which is just awful and makes the 2-hour run time feel interminable.  White Christmas is certainly a classic, but only because the bar for Christmas movies has been set pretty low over the years.

     I guess the idea here is that both Elf and Semi-Pro star Will Ferrell.  So it makes a little tiny bit of sense to package them together.  And Elf is Christmassy, so that works…and may as well throw in one more movie as a way to repackage Elf in time for Christmas!  Fortunately, both these movies are worth watching, so they are worth picking up when they come out as a double feature from Alliance Films November 10th. 

Elf (******6/10)

“You smell like beef and cheese, you don’t smell like Santa”

Year:  2003
Genre:  Comedy, Christmas
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Will Ferrell, James Caan, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen, Bob Newhart, Peter Dinklage, Amy Sedaris, Jon Favreau, Andy Richter, Daniel Tay, Faizon Love, Kyle Gass
Eye candy:  Zooey Deschanel
Director:  Jon Favreau
Run time:  97 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     There is something indubitably charming about Elf, which is about the most mainstream movie Jon Favreau ever made.  And I’m including Iron Man on that list.  Will Ferrell is not the main reason for the charm, but he certainly doesn’t ruin the film with overacting and…being Will Ferrell.  He’s alright.  But Zooey Deschanel, James Caan and a solid supporting cast do a great job of reacting TO Ferrell (an overgrown man-child elf who has gone from Santa’s workshop to the real world).  At it’s best, Elf is as hilarious as anything Ferrell has ever done.  At worst, it’s the Christmas version of Beverly Hills Ninja.  Remember that one?  I hope not…thankfully, Elf is more often good than awful. 

Semi-Pro (******6/10)

“Everybody panic!”

Year:  2008
Genre:  Comedy
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, Andrew Daly, Will Arnett, Andy Richter, Rob Corddry, Patti LaBelle, Tim Meadows, Ed Helms
Eye candy:  Maura Tierney, Kristen Wiig
Director:  Kent Alterman
Run time:  91 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     Just putting Will Ferrell in a comedy means a few things.  First, it will do decent bank at the box-office at worst, and massive bank at best.  Secondly, even if it sucks, it will feature a few great laughs somewhere in the film.  And Semi-Pro has both.  A decent bank at the box office for a crappy comedy, and some seriously great laughs in an otherwise crappy comedy.  Will Ferrell is Jackie Moon, a one-hit-wonder singer with a song called “Love Me Sexy”, which is kind of funny, but not as funny as it should be.  He made enough money with that song that he is able to buy a team in the fledgling American Basketball Association, the Flint Tropics.  The team is playing in a tiny market, to few fans, and Ferrell is constantly dreaming up bizarre promotions to get more fans out to the games.  Since this is a second-rate basketball league, he is also able to play on the team.  As the owner of the team, he can decide this for himself, and he does. 

     The rest of the team doesn’t seem to resent this, however, because they really don’t care about their careers or the game.  They just want to be minor-level local celebrities, which gets them the occasional free beer and every now and then gets them laid.  Which, for them, is good enough.  They do have a substantial talent on the team, however, in Clarence “Downtown” Withers, a Dr. J type player who changes his name before just about every game.  And when it is announced that the ABA is going to be merging with the NBA, and that the top four teams in the league will get to join while the others will fold, the Tropics all of a sudden have something to play for.  Inclusion in the NBA, which is everyone’s dream.  So Ferrell hires a loose-cannon ex-NBA player (Woody Harrelson) to help get the team over the hump. 

     In the meantime, he keeps devising these crazy promotional schemes to draw people to the arena to watch the games.  These schemes provide the bulk of the laughs in the film, especially the scene where Ferrell wrestles the bear.  This scene (to start out, anyway) is remarkably underplayed by Ferrell, and really works.  So do a few others, but overall the movie doesn’t.  It doesn’t work because it doesn’t do anything.  It doesn’t go anywhere, it just muddles it’s way through a story we’ve all seen a thousand times – an underdog misfit team decides to play well, and fights their way to glory…with hilarious results.  And in doing so, they throw in a bunch of used-up sports movie cliches from Slapshot, Major League, Bull Durham, and a host of other sports comedies that are much better than this one. 

     In the end, I would actually recommend this movie, because the few laughs that are in there are very good, and because Ferrell, Harrellson and Andre Benjamin (who plays Clarence Withers) all do extremely well with the thin comedy they are handed.  And also because, on some level, this movie is interesting, historically.  Semi-Pro actually seems to feel some empathy and some reverence for the ABA, which merged with the NBA in 1976 and saw the Spurs, the Nuggets, the Pacers and the Nets join the big league.  And although Semi-Pro seems to think that just having an afro in the 70s is funny, it still manages to find some kind of a heart under the poorly executed comedy.  Not a great movie, but not Ferrell’s worst by a long shot.