New DVDs: 'CSI: Miami -- Sixth Season,' 'Boys in the Band,' more

ShareThis

"CSI: MIAMI -- THE SIXTH SEASON." (2007-2008. NOT RATED. PARAMOUNT. $79.99. SIX DISCS.)What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. Look what happened to "CSI," the crime-scene-investigation series set there that premiered on CBS in 2000. Within two seasons, super-mogul producer Jerry Bruckheimer turned it into one of the highest-rated shows, with William Petersen starring as the head of a team of forensic scientists and cops using modern technology to track killers. So Anthony E. Zuiker's brainchild was spun off into "CSI: Miami" in 2002. Same concept: A forensic team led by posturing Horatio Caine (David Caruso), who speeds around Dade County in a Hummer, tracks evildoers. But this time the aerial photography features pastel views of Florida. This set includes 21 episodes on six discs depicting the always-evolving crime-solving techniques of Caine and his colleagues. Personal plot twists include the kidnapping of Calleigh (Emily Procter), Caine's encounters with a troubled woman who bore him a son he has just learned about and a season finale in which Caine's trademark sunglasses fall on an airfield runway after he is brought down by a sniper. Will he live to buy a new pair? Bonuses include four featurettes and audio commentaries for two episodes.-- John Stanley"SHAUN THE SHEEP: OFF THE BAA!" (2008. NOT RATED. LIONSGATE & HIT ENTERTAINMENT. $14.98.)Fans of Aardman Animations will relish this collection of adventures featuring the resourceful, soccer-loving Shaun the Sheep, a character spun off from a 1995 short starring Aardman's inimitable Wallace and Gromit. English animator and multiple-Oscar-winner Nick Park is the brains behind Wallace and Gromit, and he is credited as Shaun's creator. The eight seven-minute episodes on this disc were made in the W&G style of stop-motion clay animation, but without dialogue. Shaun is the feisty leader of a flock of sheep that includes Shirley (four times the size of a normal sheep), little Timmy and Timmy's mom, who wears curlers. Also on hand are the myopic, dimwitted Farmer, Bitzer the music-loving dog and three Naughty Pigs. The slapsticky plots run along these lines: Some newly hatched chicks mistake Shaun for their mother; Timmy loses his teddy bear and Shaun has to retrieve it; the sheep find a cabbage and use it as a soccer ball, but the greedy pigs try to eat it. All the episodes are loaded with visual jokes that hark back to silent comedy, but there are some topical references as well. One of my favorite bits is a snippet that's a sheepish parody of "Riverdance." The main extra on the disc is a meet-the-characters featurette.-- Walter Addiego"THE BOYS IN THE BAND." (1970. RATED R. PARAMOUNT. $26.98.)This film, directed by William Friedkin and based on Mart Crowley's breakthrough play, is often dismissed (sometimes by people who haven't seen it) as sappy and dated. But on second look, it's one of the important films of the 1970s. It's the story of eight gay men (and one possibly gay, possibly straight man) who come together for a friend's birthday party and end up having a pretty miserable night, with lots of lashing out and lots of self-loathing. Some will accept and others will reject the film's portrayal of the gay experience at this time. But don't get bogged down in that issue. Think instead of what the movie is implicitly saying: that self-realization is tied to societal acceptance, that it's too much to expect someone to think well of himself, even within a close peer group, if everything in the outside culture is telling him that he's garbage. Thus, the need for the gay-rights movement, in its infancy as this film was going before the cameras in late 1969. The ensemble -- transferred from the Broadway production -- is uniformly excellent, most notably Leonard Frey as Harold and Kenneth Nelson as Michael. A sad side note is that five of the actors died of AIDS, either in the late '80s or early '90s. The special features include a documentary that places the film in historical perspective.-- Mick LaSalle(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)