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Upon her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, Dolly Parton announced her intention to record a rock album. “If I’m gonna be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I’m gonna have to earn it,” she said at the time.

Parton has spent the last year making good on that promise by enlisting some of the biggest names in music to join her in recording a mix of rock ‘n’ roll originals and covers. The end result, aptly titled Rockstar, will arrive on November 17th via her own Butterfly Records in conjunction with Big Machine Label Group.

When Dolly calls, everyone answer. Just look at the massive 30-song tracklist for Rockstar: there’s literally a Beatles reunion! Steve Perry sings a Journey song! Lizzo plays jazz flute on “Stairway to Heaven”!

Among the notable covers, Sting accompanies Parton on The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,...

DVD Playhouse—September 2011

By Allen Gardner

In A Better World (Sony) Winner of last year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar, this Danish export looks at two fractured families and the effect that the adult world dysfunction has on their two sons, who form an immediate and potentially deadly bond. Director Susanne Bier delivers another powerful work that maintains its drive during the films’ first 2/3, then falters somewhat during the last act. Still, well-worth seeing, and beautifully made. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Deleted scenes; Commentary by Bier and editor Pernille Bech Christensen; Interview with Bier. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

X-men First Class (20th Century Fox) “Origins” film set in the early 1960s, traces the beginnings of Magento and Professor X (played ably here by Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy), and how the once-close friends and colleagues became bitter enemies. First half is slam-bang entertainment at its stylish best,...

/Film reader Christopher M sent over some new photos from the Paris set of Inglourious Basterds. Above is director Quentin Tarantino talking to one of the cast members. Below is German singer/actress Jana Pallaske and Daniel Brühl, who plays Frederick Zoller. And further below are photos of faux movie posters and billboard advertisements for actress Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger).

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For the supporting cast of his upcoming film, Inglorious Bastards Quentin Tarantino has chosen some familiar faces. Many of the actors from his last films, Deathproof and Kill Bill, will return to work with him on the movie. Tarantino's extended brood of actors is starting to seem like a family affair. The Playlist reports that filming of the movie has begun in Germany. A few previously unreported actors will join the likes of Eli Roth (Grindhouse) in Tarantino's first epic War film. Julie Dreyfus (Kill Bill: Vol 1) will play a Frenchwoman who conspires with the Bastards. Omar Doom (Deathproof) will play one of the Bastards. It is rumored that Michael Bacall (Deathproof, Manic) will also play a Bastard, but his role is not yet confirmed. Christian Berkel, August Diehl and Jana Pallaske are the international actors involved in the film. Although the faces of the actors rounding out the cast...

Where's Vin Diesel when you need him?

In "Extreme Ops", a pair of snowboarders who have teamed up with a downhill gold medalist to shoot a commercial in the Austrian Alps find themselves having to outmaneuver nasty terrorists in addition to the obligatory avalanche.

It's the kind of stuff that could use a larger-than-life lead, but, given the budget constraints of this German-British co-production, big-ticket talent has had to take a back seat to cost-effective backdrops.

They're in vivid, wind-swept supply here and, in the capable hands of former cinematographer Christian Duguay (the Emmy-nominated director of "Joan of Arc"), the able international cast looks convincingly frostbitten.

But because of a cumbersome script that takes forever to click into gear, too much of the picture ends up getting left out in the cold.

The result, which wasn't screened in advance for critics to file opening-day reviews, won't be drawing a large Thanksgiving weekend crowd, but neither is it a turkey, despite all the extra stuffing.

Determined to please an important Japanese client, a smarmy ad executive (England's Rupert Graves with a very convincing American accent) and a British commercial director (Rufus Sewell) overcome their concept vs. cost differences and agree to make a high-stakes commercial for a new digital video camera involving three expert skiers and a fast-moving avalanche.

With a pair of gonzo snowboarders (Jana Pallaske and Joe Absolom) and a comely gold medalist (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) in tow, the production sets up camp in an unfinished resort perched on a 12,000-foot mountaintop straddling the border of the former Yugoslavia.

It just so happens that a highly dangerous Serbian war criminal (Klaus Lowitsch) has been taking refuge in the very same spot after having faked his death in a plane crash, and when the crew's cameraman (Devon Sawa) inadvertently shoots footage of the bad guy, all hell breaks loose.

Unfortunately, the script, credited to first-time screenwriter Michael Zaidan, requires the game cast to trudge through an awful lot of exposition before getting to the heart-pounding bits; by the time those more involving action sequences finally arrive, the effectively chilled viewer is too "XXX"hausted to muster up much enthusiasm.

EXTREME OPS

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures, MDP Worldwide and Diamant Cohen Prods. present an Apollomedia/Extreme Prods. production in association with the Carousel Picture Co.

Credits:

Director: Christian Duguay

Screenwriter: Michael Zaidan

Story: Timothy Scott Bogart, Mark Mullin

Producers: Moshe Diamant, Mark Mullin

Executive producers: Romain Schroeder, Rudy Cohen, Mark Damon, David Saunders

Director of photography: Hannes Hubach

Production designer: Philip Harrison

Editors: Clive Barrett, Sylvain Lebel

Costume designer: Maria Schicker

Music: Normand Corbeil, Stanislas Syrewicz

Cast:

Will: Devon Sawa

Chloe: Bridgette Wilson-Sampras

Jeffrey: Rupert Graves

Ian: Rufus Sewell

Mark: Heino Ferch

Silo: Joe Absolom

Kittie: Jana Pallaske

Yana: Liliana Komorowska

Pavle: Klaus Lowitsch

Running time -- 93 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

SCHEHERAZADE

Five people on a yacht in the waters off Zurich drink, smoke and make merry until disturbing, mood-shifting secrets are revealed in this intriguing Swiss production, the second feature by director Riccardo Signorell ("Eden"). Not a moment too long at 81 minutes and coming to an abrupt but satisfying end, "Scheherazade" centers on a successful businessman and his relationships with an artistic-minded son and beautiful teenage daughter (Zoe Mikulecszy), whose birthday is ostensibly the occasion for the gathering.

Arriving to help celebrate and talk to the rich man about succeeding him as head of the firm is a slick executive and his London gallery-owning girlfriend (Antonia Beamish).

It's the latter who won't look the other way, like the others are expected to do, when it's revealed that the birthday girl has an incestuous relationship with the father. The son, who has known about it for some time, is clearly on the verge of a breakdown over the actions and attitudes of the unapologetic parent.

The sun goes down, and the close quarters force matters to a sad, unexpected conclusion. The three men are played by Siegried Terpoorteh, Philipp Stengele and Jurgen Brugger. Cinematographer Felix von Muralt and Signorell find ways to keep the talky picture interesting visually, while the performances are uniformly believable.

ENGEL & JOE

A competition entry from Germany inspired by an article in Stern by Kai Hermann ("Christiane F"), director Vanessa Jopp's second film after "Forget America" is a frenetic journey into the lives of street kids, who hang out most of the time in front of a cathedral in Cologne. Joe (Jana Pallaske) is a fairly grounded teen who runs away from home with her dog and takes up with Engel (Robert Stadlober), a punk with a romantic streak.

After experiencing the highs and lows of life on the streets for a while, including the accidental death of a drug addict, Joe's getting pregnant causes them to think seriously about the future. With overt biblical references, the story has them planning to someday escape the city for the mountains with their baby, Moses.

But Engel's unfitness for work and penchant for hard drugs almost drive Joe into the safe haven of another, more sensible young man.

Pallaske and Stadlober deliver intense performances, but Jopp's direction is mostly over-the-top in trying to capture the volcanic emotional state of the characters.

Seemingly every exchange of dialogue has 100 cuts, and the hand-held camerawork flings the viewer around as much as a movie can, but it makes for an experience to which filmgoers older than the characters might it find hard to relate.

LEO AND CLAIRE

German director Joseph Vilsmaier ("Brother of Sleep", "Marlene") weighs in with this competition entry based on a true story about a married, well-known Jewish businessman in Nuremberg who has a fling -- but not a serious affair -- with a pretty young photographer who is not a Jew.

During the mid-1930s, this becomes a recipe for calamity as the jealous, prejudiced neighbors never forget what they think they've witnessed in the courtyard of apartments where the lead resides. Vilsmaier is the credited cinematographer and co-wrote with Klaus Richter the well-crafted screenplay based on a book by Christiane Kohl.

Played by Michael Degen, Leo is married to Claire (Suzanne von Borsody), while the sexy ingenue is Irene (Franziska Petri).

Nicely paced, lushly produced and climaxing with the horrible 1941 sham trial that accuses Leo and Irene of criminal wrongdoing, Vilsmaier's film is not very shocking given the many previous features and documentaries about the era. But it still has an emotional punch that will leave few viewers unmoved.

David Hunter...