ScreenIt? The Weekly DVD Lesser Knowns – 5/13/09

This is becoming increasingly semi-weekly, but that seems to be about the rate at which enough interesting stuff comes through. Have a look at some of the recent options no one else is likely to be telling you about.

As always, the first image links to the title’s Netflix page. The second image, if there is one, will take you to the Amazon page. The title blurb is provided by Netflix.

The Red Green Story: We’re All In This Together

The wonderfully wacky Red Green Show has long been a favorite of mine, and this is a great chat with the cast looking back at inconceivably long-running show.

This behind-the-scenes special features cast members musing over public television’s beloved “The Red Green Show,” the wacky sketch series revolving around the wit and wisdom of Canadian outdoorsman, handyman and populist philosopher Red Green (Steve Smith). Backstage anecdotes, rare outtakes and cast commentary shed light on the smart writing and spot-on acting that helped make this unlikely show such a long-running success.

Kingdom: Series 2

Here’s an odd look at lawyering from a perspective only British television, and Stephen Fry, could put together.

Kindhearted lawyer Peter Kingdom (Stephen Fry) and his colleague, Lyle (Karl Davies), continue to take on unusual personal-injury cases — including a brotherly battle over a burger van and an unsightly situation involving a nudist colony — in this quirky British series. When Peter isn’t helping eccentric locals find justice, he’s attempting to sort out the truth about his missing brother, Simon (Dominic Mafham).

Lying

When Megan (Chloe Sevigny) invites Grace (Jena Malone), Hella (Halley Wegryn Gross) and Linda (Maya Goldsmith) to her country house, the weekend doesn’t turn out to be as relaxing as expected when it gradually becomes clear that Megan is a pathological liar in this indie drama. Though she claims her parents died in a car accident and she inherited the house, the others discover inconsistencies in her story. Leelee Sobieski co-stars.

French & Saunders: Live

Wildly popular British comedy team Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders bring their award-winning brand of quirky humor to the stage in London’s West End, delighting a capacity crowd at the historic Shaftesbury Theatre. Combining razor-sharp improvisational wit with fearless, sketch-style spoofs of popular U.K. television shows such as “Casualty” and “Big Brother,” the pair proves once again that innovative satire is alive and well.

The Private Life of Don Juan

In his last performance, Douglas Fairbanks stars as an aging Don Juan who fakes his death to escape his own legend. Unfortunately, the mature lothario discovers that without fame, he has lost his famous powers of seduction. Now, he must beg his long-suffering wife, Dolores, to take him back. Director Alexander Korda punctures the Don Juan myth, focusing on his later years, when nobody believes he was once the celebrated lover.

The King and Four Queens

When con man Dan Kehoe (Clark Gable) ends up in a nearly deserted town, he tries to woo and convince four women — Birdie (Barbara Nichols), Oralie (Sara Shane), Sabina (Eleanor Parker) and Ruby (Jean Willes) — that he has a right to a share in the proceeds of a recent robbery pulled off by their husbands. But Ma McDade (Jo Van Fleet), the gunslinging family matriarch, is wise to him game. Raoul Walsh directs this funny Western romance.

Loose at the Zoo

This trio of episodes from the Smithsonian Channel celebrates the marvelous animals at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., including a foray into the adorable world of a young sloth bear and other newborn critters in “Baby New at the Zoo.” Three tiger cubs tumble and swim in “Tiger Tales,” and a frisky family of endangered monkeys steals the show with their madcap antics in “Loose at the Zoo: Golden Lion Tamarins.”

Crusoe

As with our last installment, we’ve got the release of a television show that was gone before you knew it was on. Interesting.

After he’s shipwrecked, Robinson Crusoe (Philip Winchester) and his companion Friday face the adventures and challenges of life on a deserted island in this action-packed television series based on Daniel Defoe’s classic novel. Flashbacks explore Crusoe’s life before the wreck, including his relationships with his widowed father (Sean Bean) and family friend Jeremiah Blackthorn (Sam Neill), who serves as a business mentor to Crusoe.

The Last Templar

Mira Sorvino has an Oscar. That’s all I’m saying.

Four men costumed as 12th-century knights storm a New York museum on horseback and steal an ancient decoding device from an exhibit of Vatican artifacts. But archaeologist Tess Chaykin (Mira Sorvino) discovers that the incident is part of a much larger riddle. Teaming up with FBI agent Sean Daley (Scott Foley), Tess travels to three continents in search of the truth. Victor Garber and Omar Sharif co-star in this epic adventure.

The Old Curiosity Shop

A nicely put together working of my favorite Dickens story.

Young Nell Trent (Sophie Vavasseur) and Grandfather (Derek Jacobi), who owns “The Old Curiosity Shop,” have no choice but to go on the run when ruthless loan shark Daniel Quilp (Toby Jones) takes everything from Grandfather and plans to put him in a mental institution. Bryan Dick, Christopher Ettridge and Geoff Breton co-star in this grand BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic. Kevin Connor directs.

Incendiary

Director Sharon Maguire’s powerful drama stars Michelle Williams as an adulterous young housewife struggling to come to terms with the deaths of her husband and infant son after they’re killed in a terrorist bombing at a London soccer game. Crippled by grief, the widow seeks comfort through affairs with two men (Ewan McGregor and Matthew Macfadyen), inadvertently putting herself in the midst of a dangerous love triangle.