Riding the skirt-tails of 'Mad Black Woman'
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
The movie business may have been taken by surprise when the film version of Tyler Perry's play "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (Lions Gate) opened to big box-office earlier this year. Black Americans packed movie theaters the way they had been packing theaters for Tyler's plays for the past few years.
The success of "Diary," which stars Kimberly Elise as Helen, the wife of a successful lawyer (Steve Harris of "The Practice") who goes to live with her straight-talking, gun-toting grandmother Madea (Perry in padded drag) has prompted Lions Gate to release four previous plays by Tyler on DVD.
But take note: "Madea's Class Reunion," "Madea's Family Reunion," "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" and "Meet The Browns" are not movie adaptations. They are filmed plays, with "Reunion" taped at Detroit's Fox Theatre in 2003.
All but "Meet the Browns" focus on Madea and her extended family and friends, and, like "Diary," mix antic comedy, melodrama and a spiritual message. There's no subtlety or sophistication in what Perry does, which apparently suits his millions of fans just fine; more movie adaptations are said to be on the way.
Jon Stewart replay
If you're a regular visitor to the best political satire show on TV, your first reaction to the three-disc set "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart — Indecision 2004" (Paramount), might be been-there-laughed-at-that. Not only will you have seen most of the 10 episodes collected on the first two DVDs, you know how this farce ends.
Yet revisiting the episodes collected here — all eight shows beamed live from the Democratic and Republican conventions, the one that immediately followed the first presidential debate and the hourlong election-night special "Prelude to a Recount" — leaves us impressed anew at how sharp Stewart, his intrepid correspondents and his writing staff are.
The bonus disc collects a lot of the funniest stuff broadcast during the campaign.
If you don't usually turn to "The Daily Show" for your TV news, be warned: This could convert you.
The Haunting
For more than a year now, video distributor Tartan has been releasing many of the best films from Japan and South Korea, lumped under the imprecise heading "J-horror" on DVD, and it's past time to acknowledge the effort.
"Acacia," from South Korea's Ki-hyung Park, is a fine example of how limiting the J-horror tag can be, telling a Bergmanesque story of a loving but long-childless couple who adopt a quiet and artistic young boy who becomes infatuated with the withering acacia tree in the backyard.
With his arrival, the tree begins to thrive, and the supposedly barren missus becomes pregnant. Then things take an even more mysterious turn, and "Acacia" turns into one of those films that haunts as opposed to thrills.
Peter Fonda on wheels
Pioneering DVD distributor Anchor Bay lost its way when key executive Jay Douglas left to run Blue Underground. But it bounces back with 1974's "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry — Supercharger Edition" and 1975's "Race With The Devil," two drive-in hits starring Peter Fonda.
"Dirty Mary" has thieving, would-be NASCAR racer Fonda and groupie Susan George on the run in a tricked-out 1969 Dodge from hell-bent sheriff-turned-vigilante Vic Morrow; "Race" takes off as a horror film, with RV vacationers Fonda and Warren Oates and their wives witnessing some nastiness by Satan worshippers, and then too becomes a chase flick, but one of high B-movie standards.
TV's 'Homicide' season
The week in DVD TV is headed by "Homicide: Life on the Street — The Complete Season Seven" (A&E), which sounds especially impressive until you remember that the first two "seasons" were greatly abbreviated.
This was the first time out without the great Andre Braugher, and the slack was effectively picked up by Giancarlo Esposito as the estranged son of the station house chief played by Yaphet Kotto, and distractingly beautiful new hire Michael Michelle.
