This week we begin in South Texas: Texas Killing Fields (***) Rated R, 105 minutes. Available Tuesday on DVD. Texas Killing Fields." width="268" altsrc="/s/dws/img/drc/01-12/0129artsdvdkillingla.jpg" alt="Anchor Bay Films" src="/s/dws/img/drc/01-12/0129artsdvdkillingsm.jpg" onclick="clickedImg(this);"> Anchor Bay Films Jessica Chastain stars as a detective hunting a serial killer in the Texas City marshlands in the intense Texas Killing Fields. View larger More photos Photo store
This dark, authentic drama shows how catching murderers is probably much nastier than the way it is usually portrayed on television. Don Ferrarone wrote the script, allegedly based on true events, and Ami Canaan Mann directs. But the gritty work sometimes seems to have pieces missing, as it takes place in and around Texas City, a place so forlorn, as one character puts it, "even God don't come here." Its deserted, swampy marshland serves as a perfect place to dump dead bodies. So, when several girls go missing, and later when the bodies of several begin popping up in the fields, detectives Mike Souder (Sam Worthington) and Brian Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and later a third, Pam Stall (Jessica Chastain), follow obscure leads that send them through the area's hellish slums to confront the scary natives. They dodge bullets while enduring several car chases through the area's alleyways and junkyards.
The main purpose of nabbing the killer, or killers, remains clear, but everything else remains murky, so that the pursuits often become jumbled.
In the end, not everything ties neatly up, as even a major subplot is left hanging. But, overall, Texas Killing Fields deftly mixes nasty characters, moody atmospherics and a trio of high-energy detectives.
The DVD, available in all formats, offers commentary from director Mann and writer Ferrarone.
*
The Double (**1/2) This over-plotted espionage drama is filled with so many twists, by the end it becomes borderline comical. Richard Gere stars as Paul Shepherdson, a retired CIA agent who is beckoned to return to work by his old boss Tom (Martin Sheen). Young FBI agent Ben Geary (Topher Grace), needs Sheperdson's expertise finding Cassius, a Russian double agent long thought dead. When a U.S. senator is murdered, it seems Cassius has returned, and old and young operatives must pool their knowledge.
Director and co-writer Michael Brandt keeps the action frantic, keeping viewers in the dark until the end. Stana Katic, of TV's Castle , receives prominent billing but only appears briefly.
Rated PG-13, 98 minutes.
*
Chalet Girl (**1/2) This innocuous comedy is better than it should be, primarily because of the charms of Felicity Jones, who plays Kim, a one-time champion skateboarder who eventually loses her nerve after an accident. Now, she flips burgers in London and helps support her single father. She fortuitously lands a part-time job as a "chalet girl" at a posh private home in the Austrian Alps. Doing mostly domestic chores, Kim makes friends, albeit reluctantly, and gradually transfers her dormant skills into learning snowboarding so well she competes for a large award, giving the film its sports-cliche finale. Of course, in the interim, she becomes better acquainted to the point of romance with the son (Ed Westwick) of the well-heeled chalet owners (odd couple Bill Nighy and Brooke Shields).
Not rated, 97 minutes.
The well-stuffed DVD includes a nine-minute "behind the scenes" featurette, nine viral videos, 13 YouTube videos and 10 cast and crew interviews.
*
Thunder Soul (***) Jamie Foxx helped produce and bring to fruition this engaging documentary about Conrad "Prof" Johnson, a beloved, legendary high school band leader. He was credited with transforming a mediocre jazz band into a well-known funk group. But he also helped shape the destiny and character of many of those he mentored.
Rated PG, 88 minutes.
The DVD also offers commentary with director Mark Landsman and editor Claire Didier; 14 minutes of previously unseen footage from The Prof and the Band, a 1974 documentary on Johnson.
*
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles This shaggy-dog documentary, which keeps promising to be more than it is, focuses mainly on Justin Duerr, a not particularly likable man who becomes obsessed with the not-so-mysterious Toynbee tiles. In the 1980s, the tiles began appearing in Duerr's native Philadelphia. Then they gradually popped up across the country and even in some South American locales. They were tiles embedded in city streets with a cryptic message, with no clue as to who left them. Duerr and a small group of friends embark on a quest to uncover the mystery.
Not rated, 87 minutes.
The DVD includes commentary from director Jon Foy, 26 minutes of additional footage, three deleted scenes and more.
*
The Comic Strip Presents: The Complete Collection Our week's top TV series to DVD is an odd offering of comedy, not nearly as well known here as in England. The Comic Strip featured a regularly changing lineup of sketch comedy, compared, obviously, to Saturday Night Live .
First appearing in the 1980s, the series gave jump-starts to the careers of Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Kathy Burke, Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and many others.
Comic Strip alums, like SNL alums, eventually created and appeared in several movies, with the foundations for those films seen in some of the sketches that appear in these nine discs holding 39 episodes ranging from 1982 to 2000.
The collection also holds the featurette "The Comic Strip: A Retrospective," and both parts one and two of First Laugh on Four, as well as The Comic Strip, a short film from Julien Temple.
Not rated, around 1,600 minutes.
*
Also available Tuesday on DVD: Drive, The Thing (2011), In Time, Transformers: Dark of the Moon
DR. BOO ALLEN is an award-winning film critic for the Denton Record-Chronicle.
