Wall-E
(Three-Disc Special Edition) (Disney/2008/98 mins./3 discs/G)




One of the best films of the year is the unlikely love story between two robots. Wall-E, a machine assigned to clean up the disastrous environmental mess created by man on earth, develops some strangely human traits over the 700 years he spends packing trash in solitude (aside from the companionship of his pet cockroach). When the world's remaining humans, stowed away on a planet-sized ship outside the earth's atmosphere, dispatch a sleek robotic probe named EVE to search for life forms, Wall-E becomes touchingly smitten. The first 25 minutes of the film are stunning: with nary a single word spoken, director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) paints a vision of earth, decimated by waste and pollution, unable to sustain life, that is positively staggering. And the love story at the heart of the film will bring a lump to even the driest throat.

Extras Two Pixar shorts: Presto, which played before Wall-E in theatres, and the all-new Burn-E, about a repair robot from the Wall-E universe set upon by numerous mishaps. Also: feature commentary by director Stanton, comprehensive featurettes on the film's all-important sound design, visual design, score and animation, an excellent 90-minute feature documentary on the Pixar Story, deleted scenes and much more.

The Boys in the Band
(Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment /1970/118 mins./Unrated)



With buzz building around Sean Penn's performance as Harvey Milk - the openly gay San Francisco public supervisor who made history by being the first openly gay man elected to public office - the time is right for this early '70s time capsule about gay life in America. Based on Matt Crowley's New York stage hit, The Boys in the Band is an early portrait of modern gay life and was, not surprisingly, a lightning rod for both controversy and celebration. At the tail end of the 1960s, nine friends get together for a birthday party and spend the evening, and the entire course of the film, discussing the trials and tribulations of being gay. Like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, another play with a similar backdrop, the mood slowly evolves from playful to vindictive as confessions are revealed, illusions are shattered and each character is forced to examine who they truly are. It's heavy stuff, but funny as well, and never short of moving.

Extras An incisive three-part documentary examines how director William Friedkin transformed the play into a film and Crowley's insistence (rightly, as it turns out) that the stage cast be used in the film. Also, interviews with Friedkin, Crowley and two of the cast's three surviving members. The fact that just three of the film's nine actors are still alive speaks volumes about a challenge to the gay community the characters in this film could never have imagined.

Kung Fu Panda - Two-Pack
(Dreamworks/2008/112 mins./2 discs/PG)



An elegantly drawn animated adventure, Kung Fu Panda follows the story of Po (Jack Black), a portly panda bear who works in his family's noodle shop and dreams of becoming a martial arts warrior. But Po gets more than he bargained for when he's chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy and finds himself battling alongside his kung fu idols to save the Valley of Peace from a villainous snow leopard (voiced by Deadwood's Ian McShane). Black is ideally cast as the fuzzy hero, managing a nice balance of slacker irreverence and heartfelt idealism. Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan and Dustin Hoffman round out the cast of a winning, action-packed tale about following your dreams.

Extras The most enticing extra is the new 25-minute short Secrets of the Furious Five, which features backstories of its kung fu heroes. Also included: interviews with the cast discussing their characters, featurettes on animation, sound design and noodle-making. Most worthy, though, is a short PSA for Conservation International's help Save Wild Pandas Campaign, featuring Jack Black and encouraging viewers to help conserve the pandas' wild habitat.

Tropic Thunder
(Dreamworks/2008/106 mins./R)



Ben Stiller directed, co-wrote and stars in this biting Hollywood satire about a washed-up action star who gets in over the head while making a Vietnam war movie in the actual jungles of Vietnam. The rest of the cast of the film-within-the-film includes Robert Downey Jr. as a method actor who alters his skin colour to play a black man on screen, a gross-out comedy star (Jack Black) dealing with addiction problems and a rapper, and real-life black man (Brandon T. Jackson) making his acting debut. Add to the mix Steve Coogan as the film's flailing director and an unrecognizable Tom Cruise as a repulsive studio head and you have one heavy-hitting ensemble comedy that doubles as a pretty solid action movie.

Extras Star commentary includes Stiller, Black and Downey Jr. (in character, as befits his role in the film), a series of behind-the-scenes featurettes, a 30-minute making-of parody entitled Rain of Madness, deleted and extended scenes, an alternate ending and Cruise's make-up tests.

Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Third Season
(Remastered) (Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment /1968/1320 mins./7 discs/Unrated)

While for some, remastering the visual effects of the original Star Trek series is akin to putting a fresh coat of paint on the Mona Lisa, there's no denying the added appeal of the new remastered third season. Producer Gene Roddenberry had to fight to keep Trek on the air for its third and final season and, working with limited budgets, the show often resorted to re-using stock shots of ships and space. This set, bumped up to HD, makes for a huge improvement on many of the effect shots: the Enterprise looks far more realistic, some matte painting backdrops have been replaced, even the actors themselves look crisper and more life-like. Season three may have been the weakest of the series, but there are many strong episodes here, including the now-classic Spock's Brain.

Extras The original Star Trek pilot with an introduction by Gene Roddenberry, a tribute to associate producer Robert Justman and a featurette with loads of priceless behind-the-scenes footage of rehearsals, joking on-set and make-up tests. Extras that were included in the previous Season 3 release include interviews with the cast and behind-the-scenes featurettes.