New DVDs: 'Kaboul Kitchen,' 'Powers,' 'The Comeback,' more
You see them in just about every movie about war zones: The local watering hole for expats staffed by folks who speak just about every language under the sun.
You see them in just about every movie about war zones: The local watering hole for expats staffed by folks who speak just about every language under the sun.
They're dark, dank, ill-lit joints where unkempt, sweaty reporters mingle with chain-smoking local hustlers, thieves, and killers, and the assorted international spy.
Ever wondered who runs these places? I mean, who would want to start a business like that?
Meet Jacky, the hero of the remarkable French sitcom Kaboul Kitchen. The Canal+ show, which is about to go into its second season in France, has been made available for the first time for American audiences by the nonprofit TV channel and DVD distributor MHz Networks.
Based on the real-life story of a Radio France Internationale reporter who ran an eatery in Kabul, the show stars Gilbert Melki (Le Deuxième Souffle) as a greedy French expat who discovers that offering the assembled hordes of Westerners in Afghanistan with good cuisine - and one of the city's only working swimming pools - is pretty much a license to print money.
Set at the height of the war in 2005, the story gets going when Jacky's estranged daughter, Sophie (Stéphanie Pasterkamp) - whom he hasn't seen in two decades - shows up at his doorstep.
Jacky, whose various adventures involve shadowy crooks and spies alike, is deeply disappointed by Sophie. It seems she's a do-gooder intent on using his money and connections to do humanitarian work. (www.mhznetworks.org; $39.95; not rated.)
Other titles of note
Strike Back: The Complete Third Season. Originally adapted from the work of novelist and former Special Air Service (SAS) soldier Chris Ryan, Cinemax's kinetic, high-impact sexy actioner stars Philip Winchester and Sullivan Stapleton as a pair of special-ops soldiers working for the supersecret intelligence agency Section 20. They're sent around the world to battle terrorists and other assorted ne'er-do-wells. Catch up on the series fast: The fourth and final season premieres Friday. (http://store.hbo.com; $29.98 DVD; $39.98 Blu-ray; not rated.)
The Comeback: Limited Series. Cocreated by Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) and Friends alum Lisa Kudrow, HBO's satirical show-within-a-show sitcom from 2005 starred Kudrow as a former sitcom star staging a comeback whose comeback was filed as a reality show called The Comeback. It lasted 13 episodes.
Nine years later, a second season of eight episodes premiered, in which Kudrow's character finally landed a new sitcom. Due Tuesday, this set contains all 21 episodes. There's word a third season is in the works. (http://store.hbo.com; $19.98; not rated.)
Powers - Season 1. Set in the Sony part of the Marvel Comics superhero universe, this procedural stars Sharlto Copley as a one-time superpowered superhero who joins a special superhero unit of the LAPD when he loses his powers. The series follows his unit as they try to keep order in a world filled with superpower-wielding do-gooders and evildoers. (https://sonypicturesstore.com; $35.99 DVD; $45.99 Blu-ray; not rated.)
The Color Out of Space. While the tales of American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft continue to inspire short films, there haven't been too many successful features since Stuart Gordon's work in the 1980s and 1990s. This is a happy exception. (www.brinkvision.com; $29.95 Blu-ray; not rated.)
Child 44. Tom Hardy, Fares Fares, and Gary Oldman star in this hair-raising adaptation of Tom Rob Smith's novel about a child-killer in Stalinist Russia. (www.lionsgateshop.com; $19.98 DVD; $24.99 Blu-ray; rated R.)