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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, January 25, 2008

'The Game Plan' has arrived

By Bruce Dancis
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Madison Pettis play father and daughter in the comedy "The Game Plan."

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What's new on DVD:

  • "The Game Plan"

    Walt Disney Home Entertainment, rated PG.

    The domestication of The Rock continues — via Disney, no less — as Dwayne Johnson plays a comic leading man in this family film. He stars as an NFL quarterback with an active social life who gets a surprise when a 7-year-old girl (Madison Pettis) shows up at his home and tells him that she's his daughter from a short-lived early marriage. High jinks ensue as the tough bachelor has to deal with ballet classes and schoolwork.

    Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes documentary, an ESPN interview with The Rock about how he learned to play quarterback for the movie (he had been a defensive lineman in college), bloopers, deleted scenes, a commentary with The Rock and director Andy Fickman, and more.

  • "The Hunting Party"

    Genius Products/The Weinstein Co., rated R.

    Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg star as a discredited reporter, a cameraman and a young journalist, respectively, on the trail of a big story about a missing war criminal in Bosnia. The film, directed by Richard Shepard ("The Matador"), is based on a true story published in Esquire magazine.

    The DVD includes a commentary by Shepard, six deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes documentary, the original Esquire article and a feature in which Shepard interviews the Esquire writers.

  • "Saw IV"

    Lionsgate, R-rated and unrated versions.

    The diabolical plans of Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) are revealed in this fourth installment of the gorefest, directed (as were the second and third installments) by Darren Lynn Bousman. It's all about a SWAT commander (Lyriq Bent) being abducted and having 90 minutes to escape all the deadly traps that have been set for him.

    Two audio commentaries (one with Bousman and Bent, the other with the movie's producers) accompany the DVD, along with "Darren's Video Diary," two short features on the movie's traps and props, a deleted scene and a music video by X Japan.

  • "Moliere"

    Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, rated PG-13.

    French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Moliere, is renowned as one of history's great comic satirists, but there's a gap in what is generally known about him — a 13-year period in the 1640s and 1650s before he became famous when he disappeared from view after a stretch in debtors prison. Laurence Tirard's historical drama, starring Romain Duris as Moliere, fills in the gaps.

    Bonus features include a commentary by director Tirard and a making-of documentary.

  • "This Sporting Life"

    Two discs, Criterion Collection, not rated.

    Considered one of the great films of 1960s British realism, Lindsay Anderson's directorial debut in 1963 stars Richard Harris in an Oscar-nominated performance as a North England miner who becomes a professional rugby player. Rachel Roberts, also an Oscar nominee, plays his landlady.

    An excellent assortment of bonus features includes an audio commentary by the movie's screenwriter David Storey and film historian Paul Ryan, several early film shorts by Anderson and documentaries on the filmmaker, a booklet featuring essays on the film and more.

  • "The John Frankenheimer Collection"

    Four discs, MGM Home Entertainment,various ratings.

    The late film director John Frankenheimer never received an Oscar nomination but left behind a substantial body of exciting and socially charged movies. This collection includes four of his best films: "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), one of the best political thrillers ever made in this country, starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey; "The Young Savages" (1961), a crime-and-punishment drama, starring Burt Lancaster; "The Train" (1964), a World War II thriller set in occupied France, also with Lancaster; and "Ronin" (1998), an exhilarating post-Cold War drama starring Robert De Niro.