Ultimate Guide to New Comedy Releases July-September 2009

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July 28

Bart Got a Room ANCHOR BAY/STARZ prebook 6-25; DVD $29.97 Comedy: A nerdy teenager gets everything ready for prom, but he doesn’t have a date.

Becoming Charley Chase VCI prebook 7-7; DVD $39.99 Comedy: A collection of more than 40 shorts and lost works featuring the noted silent film star.

Doc Martin, Series 2 ACORN prebook 6-30; DVD $49.99 Comedy drama: An arrogant London surgeon relocates to the sleepy seaside village of his youth.

Miss March FOX prebook 7-1; DVD $27.98, BD $39.99 Comedy: After four years in a coma, a man is going to reunite with his high school sweetheart, who has since become a Playboy centerfold.

Aug. 4

Carpool Guy GAIAM prebook 6-22; DVD $14.98 Comedy: An executive hires a homeless man to sit in his car so that he can drive in the carpool lane to work.

Flight of the Conchords: The Complete Second Season HBO/WARNER prebook 6-30; DVD $29.98 Comedy: The second season of the HBO series about two New Zealand musicians living in New York.

Labor Pains FIRST LOOK prebook 6-30; DVD $28.98, BD $29.98 Comedy: Lindsay Lohan stars in this DVD premiere about a woman who pretends to be pregnant to keep her job.

My Cousin Vinny MGM/FOX prebook 7-8; BD $34.99 Comedy: Two teenagers are mistaken for murderers and turn to an inexperienced lawyer for help.

Aug. 11

I Love You, Man PARAMOUNT prebook 6-30; DVD $29.99, BD $39.99 Comedy: An engaged man (Paul Rudd) with no male friends must find a best man for his wedding in this $71 million-grossing film.

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle BBC/WARNER prebook 7-7; DVD $24.98 Comedy: Jennifer Saunders stars as a talk show host who chews up her guests and spits them out in this British series.

Aug. 18

The Golden Boys LIONSGATE prebook 7-22; DVD $27.98 Comedy: David Carradine, Rip Torn and Bruce Dern star in this film about three retired sailors who look for a first mate to care for them.

Sex Pot ASYLUM prebook 8-4; DVD $24.95 Comedy: Two losers discover weed with aphrodisiac powers.

Aug. 25

Adventureland MIRAMAX/DISNEY prebook 6-30; DVD $29.99, two-DVD $39.99, two-BD $44.99 Comedy drama: Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star in this $16 million-grossing film about a recent college graduate who is forced to take a summer job at a local, ramshackle amusement park.

The Last Days of Disco CRITERION/IMAGE prebook 7-28; DVD $39.95 Comedy: Young revelers make the party scene in ’80s Manhattan.

Martin Lawrence Presents First Amendment Stand-Up: Season 3 ANCHOR BAY/STARZ prebook 7-23; DVD $19.97 Comedy: This two-DVD set contains 10 episodes featuring some of today’s best comics.

Wedding Bros. SCREEN MEDIA/UNIVERSAL prebook 7-28; DVD $24.98 Comedy: Two brothers join the zany world of wedding videography.

Sept. 1

Two and a Half Men: The Complete Sixth Season WARNER prebook 7-28; DVD $44.98 Comedy: In this season, Charlie’s new girlfriend might turn him from a party boy into a man.

Sept. 8

The Office: Season Five UNIVERSAL prebook 7-21; DVD $59.98, BD $69.98 Comedy: Steve Carell stars as the clueless boss of a paper company in this NBC series.

The Office: Seasons 1-5 Collection UNIVERSAL prebook 7-21; DVD $199.98 Comedy: All five seasons of the NBC series about a dysfunctional office. —Compiled by Cheryl Cheng

Image lines up the laughs

Known for being front and center in stand-up comedy, Image Entertainment has three DVDs of stand-up comics coming to stores in September. Terry Fator: Live From Las Vegas features the comedian who won America’s Got Talent performing with his puppets in the style of singers Louis Armstrong, Roy Orbison, Etta James and others. Family Hour features performances suitable for family viewing by such comics as “The Queen of Christian Clean” Small Frie, Chris Spencer (The Jamie Foxx Show) and AJ Jamal (Def Comedy Jam). Michael Loftus: You’ve Changed offers a humorous take on marriage, including Loftus’ “State of the Relationship” address. —Cindy Spielvogel

Sept. 1

Family Hour IMAGE prebook 8-4; DVD $14.98 Comedy: Host Tommy Davidson and other stand-up comics tell jokes about family life.

Terry Fator: Live From Vegas IMAGE prebook 8-4; DVD $14.98, BD $19.98 Comedy: Stand-up comic Terry Fator performs in Las Vegas.

Sept. 8

Michael Loftus: You’ve Changed IMAGE prebook 8-11; DVD $14.98 Comedy: The stand-up comic looks at modern-day marriage.

Classics from the Columbia vault

This summer, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is bringing out the work of some classic actors in comedic roles. The company has gone into the Columbia Studios vault to release a collection of classic comedies from the ’30s and ’40s on DVD for the first time. The remastered movies and shorts are “screwball” comedies, a style that became popular at Columbia during the height of the Depression. The films followed the success of the studio’s Oscar-winning romantic comedy It Happened One Night from Frank Capra, in which an heiress flees her father’s control to be with the man she was forbidden to marry. The films gave audiences an opportunity to laugh at the wealthy. Physical comedy and marital mix-ups were part of the formula as well, and the films featured women emerging in modern roles, played by such actresses as Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur and Irene Dunne. The first volume of Icons of Screwball Comedy contains the films If You Could Only Cook, Too Many Husbands, My Sister Eileen and She Wouldn’t Say Yes plus the short Ain’t Love Cuckoo?. The second volume has Theodora Goes Wild, Together Again, A Night to Remember and The Doctor Takes a Wife, with the short Mad Hatter. Also coming from Sony is the 1971 comedy Husbands starring Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk and John Cassavetes as three married men who escape their lives to go to London. It will be joined by These Old Broads, a 2001 TV film starring Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds, Joan Collins and Elizabeth Taylor. —C.S.

Aug. 4

Icons of Screwball Comedy Vols. 1 & 2 SONY prebook 7-2; DVD $24.96 each Comedy: A collection of remastered films from the ’30s and ’40s.

Aug. 18

Husbands SONY prebook 7-16; DVD $19.94 Comedy: The 1971 film about three middle-aged friends who go on a wild spree after a close friend dies.

These Old Broads SONY prebook 7-16; DVD $14.94 Comedy: Three great stars from Hollywood’s golden age become hot again when one of their films becomes a cult hit in re-release.

Ultimate Guide to New Comedy Releases July-September 2009

Image lines up the laughs

Classics from the Columbia vault

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