Veterans Day Movie Reviews

Clifford is an invaluable friend who's excited to share his thoughts on friendship and helpfulness in this 90-minute compilation of Clifford Saves the Day and Clifford's Fluffiest Friend Cleo. Cleo learns some important lessons about friendship from her good friend Clifford in "Cleo's Fair Share," "Fluffed Up Cleo," "Two's Company," and "Friends Morning, Noon, and Night." Clifford proves an asset to the entire island of Birdwell in "Stormy Weather" and "Islander of the Year," and his help at the circus earns him a coveted place in the grand finale in "Circus Stars." In "Clifford on Parade," Clifford helps Emily Elizabeth and Charley discover how working together can solve a problem while strengthening their friendship. Special DVD features include "Clifford's Big Ideas," "The Clifford Dance," and "Real Life Doggy Friends." "Big Ideas" presents three short animated segments emphasizing the themes of helping others, respect, and sharing. On the DVD each animated segment is followed by on-screen, textual parenting tips that expand upon the themes presented and offer ideas for further discussion as well as suggestions of activities to reinforce those themes. "The Clifford Dance" is a very brief PBS promotional spot, and "Real Life Doggy Friends" features brief, real-life footage of kids talking about their own dogs. Learn about sharing, helping, and friendship with Clifford--everyone's favorite big red dog. (Ages 3 to 7) --Tami Horiuchi

Worth the price of purchase alone is this volume's bonus episode, "Too Many Christmas Trees," which one Avengers-appreciation Web site ranks as the best Emma Peel episode of all time. This "fascinating exercise" (to quote one devilish character) concerns a psychic experiment that gives John Steed deadly nightmares that are coming true. Among the many highlights is the girl of our dreams, Mrs. Peel, helping Steed open his Christmas cards ("Who is Boofums?"). Listen for the in-joke reference to Rigg's predecessor, Honor Blackman, who left the series to star in Goldfinger. Regarding the card from Mrs. Gale, Blackman's character, Steed ponders, "What can she be doing in Fort Knox?" And the sight of Mrs. Peel costumed as Oliver Twist may also cause some sleepless nights!

This volume also contains "The Man-Eater of Surrey Green," a bit of straight-faced silliness about, yes, a man-eating plant from outer space. More down-to-earth is "Two's a Crowd," in which "king of the spies" Colonel Pesev (pronounced "Zev") comes to town. Patrick Macnee does extra duty as Steed and his double, a fashion model ("wearing slacks built for action") named Webster, who is recruited by the Russians to infiltrate a vital meeting of the defense chiefs. Will the unwitting Mrs. Peel be able to tell the difference between the two? In "Dial a Deadly Number," six "dynamic, indispensable" company chairmen have suddenly keeled over. Who ya gonna call? Steed and Mrs. Peel, who make a connection between the untimely deaths, a "bleeper" (pager) pocket pen, and Fitch, a sinister "backroom boy" and mechanical genius. The umbrella-toting Steed actually fires a gun in this episode. The most taut suspense is reserved for the scene in which Steed engages in a duel of palates at a wine tasting. To paraphrase one character, do not deprive yourself of this DVD's company. --Donald Liebenson

Chicken runs, rounds of Russian roulette, and teetering on ledges are for "thrill-starved teenagers," observes gentleman spy John Steed (Patrick Macnee), and not for distinguished soldiers with chests full of battle honors. So why is a corps of army elite acting "like irresponsible beatniks"? Steed and Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) meet "The Danger Makers" in a thrilling episode from the fourth season of The Avengers, directed by A Fish Called Wanda's Charles Crichton. Hold your breath during Mrs. Peel's harrowing initiation into the organization that Steed refers to as "Death Wish, Incorporated," and cock an eyebrow at Steed's provocative suggestion that Mrs. Peel impress the ringleader, a phrenologist, by showing him her "bumps" (Macnee's double take at his own innuendo is priceless). This DVD also includes the episode "A Touch of Brimstone," in which Steed and Emma are put up for membership in the Hellfire Club, whose practical jokes mask a plot to stage "a coup so outrageous the whole country will be up in arms." One Avengers-appreciation Web site ranks this among the top 10 of the Emma Peel era. Reason enough: the too-hot-for-American-television "Night of All Sins" sequence, during which Mrs. Peel reigns as Queen of Sin. Monty Python fans: that's Carol Cleveland as the insatiable Sara. In "What the Butler Saw," someone is leaking defense secrets to "the other side." While gentleman spy Steed goes undercover as a butler to locate the culprit, Mrs. Peel launches "Operation Fascination" to attract the attention of the womanizing prime suspect, Captain Miles. About to meet him for drinks, she is memorably advised by Steed, "Don't do anything I would do." Two notable bits: for security purposes, three defense officials zip themselves up in a ridiculous giant plastic body bag that anticipates Get Smart's Cone of Silence; and Mrs. Peel flees from a pursuer through a succession of doors used to train butlers, a scene echoed in Sam Raimi's Crimewave. --Jenny Brown

Philip Levene wrote the first episode on this DVD, "The See-Through Man," in which a discredited inventor (the delightful Roy Kinnear) sells his formula for invisibility and John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Mrs Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) believe enemy agents may be using it. Not one of the pantheon episodes, "The See-Through Man" is still quite enjoyable, particularly in its tag scene, which finds our hero and heroine pushing Steed's old Rolls after it fails to start. "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" is a Brian Clemens story in which Steed and Mrs. Peel find carrier pigeons equipped with tiny cameras used to photograph top-secret missile bases. The photography theme extends to some comic moments in which Steed and Mrs. Peel both do a little posing for a fashion cameraman, but there is also some fun with a parrot named Captain Crusoe, who at one point requests political asylum. Also on this DVD is "The Winged Avenger," a truly crafty piece of work by writer Richard Harris, with good tongue-in-cheek references to the influence of comic-book culture on 1960s television. A number of ruthless men are being ripped apart and killed by an unknown assailant, the only clue being that their murders seem to have been predicted in recent comic strips featuring a Batman-like superhero named the Winged Avenger. The zippy climax finds Mrs. Peel and a killer each wearing magnetic boots that allow them to fight on a ceiling. --Tom Keogh

A black writer (Harold Perrineau, the poet in the spinning wheelchair in the HBO series Oz) is asked by his white girlfriend to give a speech about race at the racially mixed high school where she teaches. In preparation, he talks to a black friend but does the majority of the brainstorming for the speech with a white friend. Meanwhile, two black women talk sexual politics in a café, a white cabby asks out a black woman, the racist white principal confronts the white teacher about her black students, and the white friend goes to his corporate job where the topic of affirmative action comes up. In this play on film, everybody seems to be talking about race. Specifically, they're all talking about black-white issues, only giving lip service to other groups such as Asians, Latinos, gays, and women. Set in a city as ethnically diverse as New York, the limited scope of the script is disappointing. Many of the arguments have been done to death in previous films (who's allowed to use the term "nigger"?), and the movie tries so hard to be even-handed that it just becomes boring, particularly because it only wants to raise the issues and "start a dialogue." The thing that's good about it is the fact that, as a collection of race arguments of the '80s and '90s, A Day in Black and White will work best 20 years from now as a museum piece or a document for academic study. --Andy Spletzer