The DVD Filter

City of God on DVD

By Logan Hill
Published May 21, 2005

A scene from City of God.

(Photo: Buena Vista Home Entertainment)

City of God
Fernando Meirelles’s outrageous epic about stylish gangsters in the troubled slums of Rio was “undeniably powerful but also rather numbing,” wrote New York’s Peter Rainer. This set packs in News From a Personal War, a gritty documentary about life in the impoverished favelas that somewhat grounds the film’s embrace of gangster gun-blazing. R; $29.99.

Mystic River
Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon star in Clint Eastwood’s powerful Oscar winner. R; $27.95.

The Leopard
This lush Criterion edition of Luchino Visconti’s 1963 period-piece epic, starring Burt Lancaster as a stiff-backed survivor of Italy’s fading aristocracy, includes restorations of both the Italian version that won the Palme d’Or and the English-language film released in the United States. NR; $49.95.

The Dame Edna Experience
The first season of the lilac-haired lady’s 1987 televised shenanigans—including guest spots by soul mates Zsa Zsa Gabor and Joan Rivers. NR; $34.98.

Along Came Polly
As Ben Stiller duds go, this monotonous comedy (co-starring Jennifer Aniston) wasn’t quite as awful as Duplex—but not quite as amusing as Mystery Men, either. PG-13; $19.95.

SCTV Network/90, Volume 1

(Photo: Shout! Factory)

OUR PICK
Fans can reopen the old SNL-versus-SCTV debate with SorCTV Netwk/90, Volume 1, which collects nine 90-minute special episodes starring the Second City troupe. Obviously, some bits have become dated—but often to comic effect (see: a disco-dancing John Candy’s “spray-on socks”). Born-funny Eugene Levy (whose face is often its own punch line) is as hysterical as ever, but Catherine O’Hara may be the most surprisingly hilarious: as a quiz kid who keeps buzzing in too early, a drunken, feuding spouse, or the scandal-plagued Hollywood star Lola Heatherton. Her commentary is also the best: She breaks the nostalgic vibe of the documentary “SCTV Remembers” by complaining that she and fellow castmate Andrea Martin (a.k.a. Edith Prickley) were cut out of writer’s credits—and subsequent paychecks—because they were the show’s only two women. Five discs; NR; $89.98. Extras : the 1999 “SCTV Reunion” and the new documentaries “Origins of SCTV,” “SCTV Remembers,” “The Craft of SCTV,” and “Remembering John.”