Blindness
(Echo Bridge/Miramax)
Jose Saramago's
metaphorical novel became a sadly literal 2008 disaster drama by
over-his-head writer Don McKeller and director Fernando Meirelles:
Saramago's poetically imaginative writing is wrongheadedly
visualized, reminding one that certain books—like this one—are
unfilmable. An international cast (Julianne Moore, Danny Glover, Mark
Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Gael Garcia Bernel) is wasted, although Cesar
Charlone's washed-out photography is transferred faithfully to
Blu-ray. Extras include a 55-minute documentary, A Vision of
Blindness; The Seeing Eye featurette; and deleted scenes.
Harry Potter
Wizard's Collection
(Warners)
In this huge boxed set
encompassing all eight Harry Potter films on Blu-ray and DVD
(along with the last two on 3-D), the numerous bonus features and
collectibles are the raison d'etre for any fan with enough
disposable income (moms and dads, Christmas is coming!). In addition
to concept art prints, fabric Hogwarts map, poster and hard-cover
catalog, there are several extra discs that include pretty much
everything you'd want to know—and then some—about the creation of
the most financially successful franchise in movie history, starting
with a full-length documentary featuring Daniel Radcliffe and Emma
Watson, When Harry Left Hogwarts.
(Anchor Bay)
This uneven, fitfully
amusing comedy—which finds juvenile humor in a valedictorian and
class stoner getting their whole school high—has appearances by
Adrien Brody, Michael Chiklis and Yeardley Smith that don't amount
too much. In desperation, director John Stalberg Jr. and his two (!!)
co-writers show us nude females showering in the locker room and an
Asian student losing the spelling bee because she smoked pot and
giggled her way through her answer, just two examples of their crude
sense of humor. The movie looks good on Blu-ray; extras are
Stalberg's commentary and deleted scenes.
(Warners)
In this suds-fest about a
returning soldier from Iraq who tracks down the lovely woman whose
picture belonged o a dead comrade, Zac Efron makes little emotional
headway in the lead, always pretty-looking but distant. On the other
hand, the young widow of his dreams is played with bona fide star
quality by Taylor Schilling, who was mere eye candy in Atlas
Shrugged, with the invaluable Blythe Danner on hand as her
mother. Too bad Efron leaves a black hole where the romance should
be. The movie has a fine hi-def transfer; extras include featurettes
and interviews.
(IFC)
Mary Harron's adaptation
of Rachel Klein's novel set in a girls' boarding school where a
newcomer may be a life-sucking vampire is a gorgeous-looking but
risible scarefest that tries to both rip-off and rebuke Twilight,
in the end not being much of anything. The lush visuals and
perfect-looking actresses can't mask the scarcity of drama, tension
or—most damagingly—eroticism in what should have been an
entertainingly sexy flick. The Blu-ray transfer is excellent; extras
include featurette and video diaries.
(Kino Lorber)
Chilean director Pablo
Larrain's trilogy about his country's Pinochet dictatorship began
with Tony Manero and ended with No: in between is this
intense exploration of a faceless bureaucrat before, during and after
the Sept. 11, 1973 military coup. In the lead, Alfredo Castro looks
uncannily like a zombified John Cazale as an autopsy note-taker whose
infatuation with a young dancing girl leads him into previously
unknown alleys, all the while dutifully doing his job, like sitting
in on murdered President Allende's autopsy. Larrain goes from being
too obscure to too obvious, but he dramatizes the grimness of Chile
during that time with unerring accuracy. The hi-def image is
immaculate.
(Criterion)
The Who's iconic 1973
rock opera—better than Pete Townshend's first, Tommy—became
an intriguing if flawed 1979 film by Franc Roddam, with Phil Daniels
as Jimmy, a disaffected teenager drifting through life. There's a
terrific early 60s atmosphere, and the acting is quite
superb—including an indelible cameo by Sting as the hated Ace
Face—but the songs aren't fully integrated into the story, with the
film's last section looking like music videos for songs like “5:15”
and “Love Reign O'er Me” spliced together. The Blu-ray images, of
course, are splendid; extras include commentary by Roddam and
cinematographer Brian Tufano, interviews and segments of vintage TV
programs.
(Lionsgate)
Boaz Yakim, who began
with Fresh, a fresh slice of New York street life, in 1994,
has been reduced to making this stale New York-set action flick:at
least his stylish touches show the grit, not glamor, of the city in
this convoluted tale of a scared teen and the tough MMA fighter
(Jason Statham) who helps her against gangsters. It's done well, if
not especially compellingly; the hi-def image complements the film's
gritty look. Extras comprise a Yakim commentary and a trio of
featurettes.
Changing the Game
The Newest Pledge
(Lionsgate)
The streets of
Philadelphia never seemed as dull as in Changing the Game, an
amateurish crime drama where the performers reads their lines as if
from cue cards. Not even the violence of this subculture is shown
believably—instead, we're treated to an “upbeat” prayer finale
that falls flat. The Newest Pledge, about a baby “adopted”
by a college frat house, is a one-joke movie without any jokes. Jason
Mewes flounders badly, which shows he needs Kevin Smith to be
effectively funny.
9/11
(Smithsonian)
It's been 11 years since
that fateful day, and once again, new DVD releases remind us of that
fact. 9/11 brings together two programs that premiered during
the 10th anniversary remembrances: The Day That Changed
the World, a straightforward recounting of what happened and how
our leaders handled it; and Stories in Fragments, an emotional
showing of how found memorabilia explains victims' lives. Jennifer
Gargano's 8:46 is a well-meaning but crude melodrama drama
that chronicles victims and their families' personal stories;
writer-director Gargano's heart is in the right place, even if the
movie is a manipulative tear-jerker.
(IFC)
An obnoxious Spanish
woman gets her comeuppance when friends of a man she showed her
family's Buenos Aires apartment to decide to torture and murder in
front of her—or do they? Typical “suspend your disbelief”
stuff, Penumbra is distinguished by directors Adrian and
Ramiro Garcia Bogliano's stylish visuals and persuasive actress
Christina Brondo in the lead role. The final twist is pretty banal,
but what leads up to it is highly watchable: if you like thrillers
more than usually cerebral, watch it.
(Icarus Films)
Director Patricio Guzman
has chronicled his beloved Chile for decades, i.e., his brilliant
documentary The Battle for Chile. His new film examines
Dictator Pinochet's extradition for war crimes and how his arrest and
trial dredged up horrific memories for relatives of those
“disappeared” and tortured, which comes to a head in testimony
which Guzman provides in brief, intense interviews with survivors.
Guzman is painstakingly not partisan: he allows people to speak for
themselves, like shameful Pinochet defenses by Margaret Thatcher and
ordinary people who still refuse to believe what what such thugs did
to a sovereign nation.
(PBS)
PBS's impressive American
Experience series covers
the political careers of eleven 20th century presidents
from Theodore Roosevelt to Bill Clinton in this set's 17 discs,
comprising 38 hours of programs, the first originally airing in 1994
and the most recent in 2008). If straightforward, not too scholarly
overviews of the eras of TR, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy,
LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton—only
Eisenhower is mysteriously left out from the elected presidents—are
what you're looking for, then The Presidents will fill the
bill.
Fifty Shades of
Grey: The Classical Album
(EMI Classics)
This compilation of songs
that inspired E.L. James to write her best-selling erotic trilogy
that's taken the publishing world by storm is as trite as I assume
the novels must be (haven't—won't—read them). It's Classical 101,
with nothing taxing or out of left field: Bach, Chopin, Debussy,
Rachmaninoff, Verdi, Faure, Vaughan Williams, one-hit wonders
Delibes, Villa-Lobos and Pachelbel. The decent selection is
predictable: since the novels are about a woman's hidden desires, how
about more adventurously programmed music?
No comments:
Post a Comment