New DVDs: ‘Death Proof,’ ‘The Condemned’

REVIEWS

By David Germain

updated 2:52 p.m. ET Sept. 17, 2007

“Death Proof”
Quentin Tarantino’s part of “Grindhouse,” the double-feature he made with Robert Rodriguez, comes to DVD in a two-disc set, featuring an extended and unrated version of the film that runs about 30 minutes longer than the theatrical release. Kurt Russell stars as a wacko who uses his souped-up and “death-proofed” car to kill women, only to meet his match when he takes on a carload of babes that includes Rosario Dawson and stuntwoman Zoe Bell, Uma Thurman’s stunt double for Tarantino’s “Kill Bill.” The DVD set includes segments on Russell and Bell, Tarantino’s editor Sally Menke, and featurettes on casting the women and on the movie’s male characters. Rodriguez’s “Grindhouse” flick, “Planet Terror,” follows on DVD in October. DVD, $29.95. (Genius) Read the review

“We Are Marshall”

Warner Bros.

With football season comes the release of last year’s gridiron tale of tragedy turned to resilience as a college sports town rebounds from unthinkable adversity. Based on the true story that took place at West Virginia’s Marshall University in the 1970s, the film stars Matthew McConaughey as a coach who takes over the college’s football program after a plane crash kills most of the team and coaching staff, quickly rebuilding the squad with inexperienced players and putting the school back into competition. Matthew Fox, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie and David Strathairn co-star. The movie is accompanied by a segment with real coaches discussing how their teams overcame adversity. Along with the standard DVD release, the movie comes in high-definition formats as a Blu-ray disc or a combination disc with the HD DVD and standard DVD versions. DVD, $28.98; Blu-ray, $34.99; HD DVD combo, $39.99. (Warner Bros.) Read the review

“The Condemned”

Lionsgate

Pro wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin stars in this big, dumb bruiser of an action flick, which takes the idea of reality game shows to sick heights. Austin stars as a death-row inmate dispatched to a remote island, where he is hurled into a fight to the death with nine other condemned murderers in a contest for the amusement of viewers watching over the Internet. The DVD and Blu-ray releases come with a five-part making-of featurette, while Austin delivers commentary with director Scott Wiper, who also provides a separate solo commentary track. DVD, $28.98; Blu-ray, $39.98. (Lionsgate) Read the review

“Troy: Director’s Cut”

Warner Bros.

The heroes of the Trojan war return in Wolfgang Petersen’s extended version of his 2004 epic, which features half an hour of new footage and pushes the movie above the three-hour mark. Brad Pitt stars as brooding Greek hero Achilles, with Eric Bana as his Trojan counterpart Hector, Orlando Bloom as the Trojan prince whose abduction of Greek beauty Helen (Diane Kruger) precipitates the war and Peter O’Toole as Trojan King Priam. The two-disc set has an introduction by Petersen and a nice range of documentary segments on such topics as visual effects, battle sequences and the ruins of ancient Troy. DVD set, $20.97; HD DVD and Blu-ray, $34.99 each. (Warner Bros.)

“Deliverance”
Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds return as one of Hollywood’s most memorable tales of weekend warriors in peril gets a makeover in a new DVD version for its 35th anniversary. The adaptation of James Dickey’s novel features Voight, Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox as buddies whose canoe trip along a Deep South river puts them in a deadly duel with vengeful locals. The movie is accompanied by a comprehensive making-of segment examining how the story evolved from book to screen, including the development of the film’s musical centerpiece, the “Dueling Banjos” sequence. Director John Boorman provides commentary. DVD, $19.97; HD DVD and Blu-ray, $28.99. (Warner Bros.)

“The Roger Corman Collection”
The master of the B-movie gets boxed-set treatment with this four-disc collection packing eight of his films from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. The titles are “Gas-s-s-s!,” in which killer vapors wipe out everyone older than 25; “The Trip,” an LSD tale with Peter Fonda and written by Jack Nicholson; the auto-racing showdown “The Young Racers”; the motorcycle saga “The Wild Angels,” with Fonda and Nancy Sinatra; “Bloody Mama,” a Depression-era crime adventure with Robert De Niro and Shelley Winters; “A Bucket of Blood,” the story of an artist who “sculpts” real people into acclaimed works; “The Premature Burial,” the tale of a medical student trying to cheat death; and “X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes,” with Ray Milland as a scientist who develops super vision. DVD set, $39.98. (MGM)

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