Demko's DVD shelf: TV's smartest show out this week

AMC is going to be airing the entire first season of "Mad Men" back-to-back-to .. well you get the idea on July 26 to prepare for the very welcome start of season two July 27 (wow .. new TV in the summer that doesn't involve someone doing a face-plant into a giant rubber ball!)

If you can't wait that long, and I certainly can't, you can pick up the seriously great first season now on DVD, making it easily my pick of the week.

The two things that set "Mad Men" apart from anything else on TV now are the writing and the simply first-rate acting. Creator Matthew Weiner and his writers don't just embrace the world it's set in, the "golden age" of Madison Avenue advertising in the early '60s, they revel in it. The term political correctness wouldn't be invented for another 30 years or so, so "Mad Men" gleefully dives into all the -isms you can think of and soaks them all in a vat of gin.

And the actors, from Emmy winner Don Draper (ad executive Jon Hamm) on down, just embrace the spirit of the era. The ladies of "Mad Men," especially Elisabeth Moss and January Jones, often outshine the hard-charging dudes around them. I can't recommend this one highly enough, just in case you couldn't tell! There are, however, a few other picks out there this week too, one I've seen and two I will very soon ...

City of Men
This one is not so much a sequel to "City of God" (often listed as my favorite movie of all time, if I'm forced to choose), but more as a follow-up to the great Brazilian "City of Men" TV series.

That series has been out on DVD for a while now, and is very well worth a rental. The movie that's out this week, produced but not directed by "City of God" helmer Fernando Meirelles, focuses on two friends growing in the rather rough world of Rio de Janeiro. With their eighteenth birthdays fast approaching, Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) sets out to find the father he never met while Acerola (Douglas Silva) struggles to raise his own son.

I haven't seen this one yet, but the series that preceded it is just epicly good television, so the movie's coming this weekend from the Netflix.

Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns
The rather prolific Tyler Perry was clearly coasting a bit with this one, but it still has its charms, mostly due to the always-welcome Angela Bassett. Here she plays a single mom suffering through really tough times in Chicago when she's called to Georgia for the funeral of the father she never met. At that point it turns into mostly a showcase for two of Perry's favorite stage performers, David and Tamela Mann, and - of course - Bassett finds love in the arms of former Laker Rick Fox (this is a Tyler Perry movie, after all, so I'm really not giving too much away here!) And, be warned, Madea does indeed turn up at the end of this one.

My Blueberry Nights
For his journey to America, Chinese director Wong Kar Wai - who has created some lushly beautiful movies in his homeland - surrounds himself with plenty of beautiful people.

Norah Jones, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Jude Law and even Cat Power (Chan Marshall) are along for the ride in this American road flick that (as far as I can tell) is all about love. The reviews I saw for this were mixed at best, but I've loved the few Wong flicks I've managed to see thus far, so this one's definitely on my rental list too.

And that's it for today. If you happen to go see "Hancock," please let me know what you thought. I'm gonna see it tomorrow morning, but my hopes aren't terribly high. Peace out.

Why does Tyler Perry fear the critics - or does he?

Actually, that question is a more than a little unfair, 'cause it's surely more accurate that Tyler Perry simply doesn't need film critics, but, given his increasingly positive reviews, it still does make me wonder.

After all, what happened the last time critics sounded off on one of his films? Here's what Jeanette Catsoulis, a very talented freelance (as far as I know) writer, had to say in the New York Times about his last flick, "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?":

Earlier this year, in “Daddy’s Little Girls,” Mr. Perry abandoned the comic device of Madea to pursue a more serious dramatic structure. This trajectory continues in “Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?,” a buppie ensemble piece featuring Mr. Perry at his most restrained and mainstream- accessible.

Gone, along with Madea’s unfettered id, are the thundering gospel ballads and revivalist atmosphere. In their place is a beautifully shot (by Toyomichi Kurita), fluid drama filled with compassionately written characters. Though still a stranger to subtlety, Mr. Perry has learned to balance the obviousness of his setups with characters whose interactions feel genuine.

Now, I understand that Tyler Perry's films were once foreign fare to much of the world (read that as white folks, if you have to), stocked as they were (and to a lesser degree, still are) with a lot of church and even more drama, and coming out of the stage plays he developed for the "chitlin circuit." But, as Ms. Catsoulis correctly states, he did make a shift toward the mainstream with "Daddy's Little Girls," starring the great Idris Elba. To me, however, his films ever since "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" have dealt with universal issues so should have more of a universal appeal.

But, getting back to the bigger question, why does Tyler Perry refuse to screen his films, such as today's "Meet the Browns," in advance for critics? I got to talking about this with co-worker Phillip Ramati (because, as I often do to people walking by my cubicle, I accosted him with the question), and he made an interesting comparison.

In watching Perry's movies thus far, I've more than once compared him as an auteur to Woody Allen. Now, before anyone assail me as a fool, I'm not saying that Tyler Perry is as good a filmmaker as Woody Allen once was (and still can be, note "Match Point"), just that they have equal skills in setting a strong sense of place (Perry in Atlanta and Allen wherever he decides to lay down his hat nowadays), and also both write very talky movies that at their best make me laugh and smile a lot.

But, as Mr. Ramati pointed out, they're also similar in that they each can be called a "brand," with Perry's certainly being a lot more popular nowadays than Allen's. With each auteur, there's a built-in fan base who already know (or at least think they do) what they're getting, hence they have little or no need for film critics (though Allen does still screen his movies in advance, even though it now does him no good at all in terms of distribution.)

And, if I can digress a bit, there's a bit of news today about Allen's latest which, thankfully, marks a return to New York. Henry Cavill, who is apparently a star of "The Tudors," which I've never yet seen, has joined Evan Rachel Wood and Larry David (huzzah!) in the as-yet-untitled romantic comedy. In only a slight twist, David will be the dirty old man this time, being romantically entangled with young Ms. Wood, and Allen will play a small part in the movie himself. Seeing these two fairly old dudes riffing off each other should just be a blast, if anyone gets to see it.

But back to the movie du jour. What will you get if you take a chance this Easter weekend and go see "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns"? Well, first of all, you'll get Angela Bassett in the lead role, which I've never once found to be anything but a good thing. You should also get a lot of humor from Perry stage veterans David and Tamela Mann, who you can see in the trailer below.

The plot, with Bassett's single mother of two returning to Georgia for the funeral of the father she never knew, is more than a little bit familiar - being at least the second black family reunion movie already this year - but that and the return of Madea are enough to have me hooked.

If you've never seen a Tyler Perry movie, this would certainly seem to be the perfect time, and if you turn out to hate it, please remember that I'm only the messenger. Have a great weekend all, whether you go to the movies or not. Peace out.