New on DVD: ‘Zodiac,’ ‘The Number 23’

REVIEWS

By David Germain

updated 4:13 p.m. ET July 23, 2007

“Zodiac”
David Fincher’s dramatization of an infamous unsolved serial murder case certainly doesn’t drag on as long as the investigation itself, but the overlong movie sometimes feels like it. The thriller based on the Zodiac killer, whose slayings terrorized Californians in the 1970s and obsessed professional and amateur sleuths for decades, stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo as three men pulled into the case. With the movie clocking in at nearly two hours and 40 minutes, the filmmakers apparently decided that was enough for home-video viewers, as the DVD contains no extras. The movie is available in widescreen or full-screen versions. DVD, $29.99. (Paramount) Read the review

“The Number 23”

New Line Cinema

Jim Carrey obsesses on a numeral in this dark thriller directed by Joel Schumacher. Carrey plays family guy Walter, whose tranquil life comes unhinged after his wife (Virginia Madsen) buys him a copy of a self-published novel whose main character fixates on the number 23 and lives a life that strangely parallels Walter’s. The plot twists are fairly predictable, but the movie’s a chance for Carrey to stretch beyond broad comedy and go for some chills. The DVD has the R-rated theatrical cut and an unrated version, with Schumacher providing commentary for the full film and deleted scenes that include an alternate ending. DVD, $28.98. (New Line) Read the review

“Ivan’s Childhood,” “Les Enfants Terribles”
Two foreign-language classics come to DVD in stellar editions. Russian filmmaker Andre Tarkovsky’s 1962 debut film, “Ivan’s Childhood,” tells the harrowing story of a boy who becomes a spy against the Nazis after his parents are killed during World War II. The DVD features interviews with Tarkovsky experts and collaborators along with essays about his work. Novelist Jean Cocteau worked with director Jean-Pierre Melville for the 1950 adaptation of his book “Les Enfants Terribles,” which centers on the unhealthily close and cloistered relationship between a sister and brother. The DVD has interviews with some of the actors, essays and commentary by film critics and a documentary segment on Cocteau and Melville. “Ivan’s Childhood” DVD, $29.95; “Les Enfants Terribles” DVD, $39.95. (Criterion)

“Classic Musicals From the Dream Factory: Volume 2”

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Seven musicals from the MGM vaults arrive in a seven-disc set and in a series of single-DVD and two-disc releases, led by the 1948 swashbuckler “The Pirate,” starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly and directed by Garland’s husband at the time, Vincente Minnelli. Garland also stars with Mickey Rooney in 1948’s “Words and Music,” a tale about songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, while Kelly is host of the 1985 retrospective “That’s Dancing!” Available in the boxed set or as two-disc releases are “That Midnight Kiss” and “The Toast of New Orleans,” both featuring Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza; and “Royal Wedding” and “The Belle of New York,” which star Fred Astaire. DVD boxed set, $59.92; two-disc sets, $24.98; single DVDs, $19.97. (Warner Bros.)

“Elvis: MGM Movie Legends Collection,” “Frank Sinatra: MGM Movie Legends Collection”
Two of Hollywood’s greatest crossover artists get boxed-set treatment. A four-disc set has four of Elvis Presley’s 1960s music romps: the boxing tale “Kid Galahad,” the prince-and-the-pauper story “Clambake,” the Florida comedy “Follow That Dream” and the riverboat romance “Frankie and Johnny.” Five of Sinatra’s films are gathered from the 1950s and ’60s, anchored by John Frankenheimer’s disturbing assassination thriller “The Manchurian Candidate.” Also in the set: “Guys and Dolls,” the musical pairing Sinatra and Marlon Brando as fast-living gamblers; “A Hole in the Head,” with Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson in a family comedy directed by Frank Capra; “Kings Go Forth,” starring Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood in a World War II love-triangle drama; and “The Pride and the Passion,” teaming Cary Grant and Sophia Loren with Sinatra in a Napoleonic-era epic. DVD sets, $39.98 each. (MGM)

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