Misguided editing on 'Roger Rabbit' preserved

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

In "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," Bob Hoskins plays Eddie Valiant, a seedy gumshoe who helps the animated rabbit clear his name in a murder he didn't commit. Gannett News Service

Getting the squeaky-clean treatment were the hilarious bit where 'toon star Baby Herman gooses sexy Jessica under her skirt, and a scene in which a crash sends Jessica catapulting out of the car, skirt flying over her head.

Alas, the original scenes have not been restored to the new Vista Series edition (Touchstone Home Entertainment) of the live-action animated comedy noir, and new ones have been created to tidy up Jessica's overexposure even more.

That's about the only complaint that can be made about this two-DVD set, containing Robert Zemeckis' ingenious adaptation of the novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" which sends seedy gumshoe Eddie Valiant, played by Bob Hoskins, into the Toontown ghetto. Eddie's there to get the goods on Roger's allegedly philandering wife, the sexiest cartoon since Betty Boop. Eddie ends up working to help Roger clear his name in a murder the Rabbit didn't commit.

In these days of digital everything, it's easy to assume the movie's animation breakthroughs were accomplished in a computer. But, as Zemeckis and the animators explain in an insightful commentary, everything here was hand-drawn — save the live actors, of course.

The film gets two transfers — a full-screen on Disc 1, for kiddies, I guess, and a gorgeous wide-screen anamorphic on Disc 2, which also gets a 5.1 Surround remix. Extras are copious, the best being the three Roger shorts that were appended to Disney features after the film's original release in 1989.

Indulge a guilty pleasure

The bad movie/guilty pleasure of 2002 was "Femme Fatale" (Warner Home Video). After one of director Brian De Palma's trademark erotic set-piece preludes — a lesbian strip-show diamond heist set in a gilded bathroom at a Cannes Film Festival premiere — this movie just gets sillier and sillier. Star Rebecca Romijn-Stamos probably didn't even understand the plot, and co-star Antonio Banderas does his best to ignore it. Four featurettes are included.

Analysis of the upcoming "Irreversible," as gruesomely and psychologically violent a film as has ever screened in art theaters, will undoubtedly evoke Sam Peckinpah's 1971 shocker "Straw Dogs," released in a new Criterion Collection edition. With milquetoast Dustin Hoffman going medieval on the thugs who have terrorized and raped his wife, the film has undeniable visceral impact.

In the Criterion style, it is discussed and defended in the supplements, which include a commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince, the documentary "Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron" and a half-hour "On Location" profile of a way-young Hoffman.

Fascination with forensics

This week's TV collections: The six-DVD "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (Paramount Home Video) contains all 26 episodes, including the pilot of the breakout show that spawned a spinoff, numerous ripoffs and a new fascination with forensics. "Futurama Vol. 1" (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) offers three discs of episodes from the first half-season of Matt Groening's post-"Simpsons" series.

Recent theatrical releases: The holiday hit "Maid in Manhattan" (Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment) is a passable "Pretty Woman"/"Cinderella" variation in which hotel maid Jennifer Lopez, masquerading as a socialite, dusts off the heart of Ralph Fiennes.

Also hitting shelves are the thriller "Ghost Ship" (Warner), in full screen and wide screen; "Jackass: The Movie: Special Collector's Edition" (Paramount), for collectors of garbage; and "Friday After Next" (New Line Home Entertainment), the third installment in the gleefully tasteless 'hood-comedy series starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps.

From the vaults: The fine 1940 historical drama "The Howards of Virginia" (Columbia TriStar) takes a fictional look at the events leading to the American Revolution.

Francois Truffaut's loving 1973 tribute to movie-making, "Day for Night" (Warner), includes four new documentaries and a choice between the dubbed version shown in America and a subtitled French print. Claude Lelouch's sentimental but endearing and enduring 1966 "A Man and a Woman" (Warner), gives you two new docs and a choice between the dubbed version and subtitles.

"Akira Kurosawa's Dreams" (Warner) is a sumptuous omnibus of eight short films from the late Japanese master's nocturnal narratives.