
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Over the course of eight seasons, comic visionary David has turned Curb into a minor miracle of television. The show's writers and producers are all Seinfeld veterans, and the show employs a unique production system. Scenarios are loosely scripted, and scenes shot verite-style as the ace ensemble actors improvise around the story beats.
The result is a show blends the cross-pollenating storylines of Seinfeld with the nervy spontaneity of long-form improv. Season Eight finds Larry living the single life after his divorce and traveling to New York City. It's almost impossible for a show to be this funny, for this long.
Formats: Machine Gun Preacher: DVD, Blu-ray and various digital platforms; Curb Your Enthusiasm: DVD and digital.
Extras: Machine Gun Preacher: theatrical trailer and short doc on the musical score; Curb Your Enthusiasm: an interesting roundtable discussion with David and the cast, and the goofy short Leon's Guide to NYC.
Also New This Week:
Disney's box-office calamity JOHN CARTER (DVD/Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D/digital) based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs' story and directed by Pixar's Andrew Stanton, gets the Big Event Movie multi-disc combo pack release.
Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds headline the spy thriller SAFE HOUSE (DVD/Blu-ray/digital).
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson cashes another family movie paycheck with the kids' adventure sequelJOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (DVD/Blu-ray/digital). Of local interest, the film was shot in Wilmington, N.C.
The indie doc HOW TO LIVE FOREVER examines aging and longevity with case studies like Phyllis Diller, the late Jake LaLanne, and a 101-year-old chain-smoking marathon runner.
New season collections from the British TV series DOC MARTIN and NEW TRICKS (DVD) also hit shelves this week. Be careful with this BBC stuff, it's easy to get hooked.
Plus: Blu-ray reissues of THE STING and THE COLOR OF MONEY, and TV-on-DVD season collections from BREAKING BAD, FALLING SKIES, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, BURN NOTICE AND WHITE COLLAR