'Counterfeiters' a genuinely tough drama
"The Counterfeiters" - Winner of this year's Best Foreign Film Oscar, "The Counterfeiters" tells the fascinating (and true) story of a group of Jews that ran the biggest counterfeiting operation in history from inside a Nazi concentration camp. In doing so, the prisoners managed to sabotage the Nazi war effort and save their own lives.
Salomon Sorowitsch is a master artist who uses his talents to forge documents in wartime Germany. It catches up to him when he's arrested and interned in a concentration camp. His skill as an artist gets him transferred to another camp, where he is ordered to lead a group of prisoners in a counterfeiting operation. The Nazis want to disrupt the British economy by flooding it with fake pound notes. In exchange for their work, the prisoners are given extraordinary privileges, including regular showers and beds with sheets on them. Outside their special quarters, though, come the sounds of the violence, torture and death happening elsewhere in the camp.
At the center of "The Counterfeiters" is a moral question: How much should one cooperate with the enemy to survive? The more Salomon obeys the Nazis, the more he's taunted by fellow inmate Burger, who believes the prisoners should deliberately sabotage the Nazis' efforts by botching the counterfeit bills. Salomon wrestles with this dilemma as the Nazis grow impatient and the threat of death creeps closer.
Though it fizzles a bit at the end, I really liked "The Counterfeiters." It's a tough, absorbing drama paced like a thriller. The DVD comes packed with bonus materials, including a commentary from Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky, deleted scenes and a fantastic interview with the real Adolph Burger, upon whose memoir the film is based. (R; Sony, $28.96)
"Tiny Toon Adventures: Season 1, Vol. 1" and "Freakazoid: The Complete First Season" - Steven Spielberg became an unlikely hero to animation fans in the 1990s when he produced a series of high-quality shows for Warner Bros. that helped pull television animation out of its 1980s rut. The first was "Tiny Toon Adventures," which premiered in 1990 and starred updated versions of Warner icons like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. The show stood out because of its high production values, which included lush animation and musical scores performed by a full orchestra. It also boasted smart and funny writing. The show remains a worthy update of the earlier Looney Tunes shorts, even if it lacks their satirical edge.
Spielberg produced other shows after "Tiny Toons," the funniest and weirdest of which was "Freakazoid," about a teenage computer geek who becomes a superhero. Premiering in 1995, the show didn't find an audience during its initial run, but it has developed into a cult favorite since. The humor is frenetic, surreal and loaded with pop-culture satire; jokes fly by at an attention-deficit pace, and most hit the mark.
The four-disc "Tiny Toons" set includes 35 episodes from the first season, along with a brief making-of featurette. The two-disc "Freakazoid" set includes all 14 first-season episodes, commentaries on select episodes and two featurettes. After years of clunky, corny, badly drawn cartoons that advertised toys ("He-Man," "Transformers"), Spielberg's foray into animation was a welcome change, and it's nice to have these two shows on DVD. My only gripe is with the surprisingly meager bonus features, none of which include Spielberg. (Warner Home Video, $44.98 and $26.99)
"I Love the 80s" - Totally!!! In conjunction with VH1, Paramount releases today 40 movies from the 1980s with special "I Love the '80s" packaging and a bonus CD containing songs from Echo & the Bunnymen, Erasure and other popular bands of the era. The titles include dramas ("Reds," "Witness"), comedies ("Airplane," "Big Top Pee Wee") and classic slices of '80s cheese ("Top Gun," "Pretty in Pink"). Many of the titles include special features like commentaries or deleted scenes; others are pretty bare-bones. But for just $14.99 a pop, these are a bargain no matter what.