Bait 3D
(Anchor Bay)
When you’re making a shark attack
movie, you need a hook (or two) to distinguish yours from the countless other Jaws rip-offs. Voila—this 3D shocker
pits a group of clueless people stuck in a flooded store at the mercy of a
shark that’s taken over local waters. Despite a few oddly enjoyable meals that
the 3D effects present with a certain cleverness, the movie remains a dull, unfortunate
example of “concept” beating a sense of decent filmmaking. The Blu-ray imagery
maximizes the 3D effects.
(Cohen Media Group)
When Audrey Tautou is onscreen,
the camera loves her—even in this terminally cutesy romance in which she plays a
dour office exec whose loving husband was killed in an accident, and after a
few years of mourning she falls for an ordinary minion at her firm. Tautou does
what she can, but the movie continually pulls her toward frolicsome Amelie territory, except it feels
arbitrary. The hi-def image is excellent; extras include a Tautou interview and
making-of featurette.
(Fox)
The directing Duplass brothers
comically implode with a heavy-handed black comedy about competitive brothers
who nearly ruin their marriages and own relationship over a serious “game”
they’ve been playing for years. Even though it clocks in at a mere 78 minutes,
this mystifying in-joke drags badly, and the brothers are played with little chemistry by Steve Zissis and Mark Kelly. Now
that it’s out of their system, maybe the brothers can make something more
interesting like Cyrus and Jeff Who Live at Home. The Blu-ray looks
fine; extras include featurettes.
(Kino Lorber)
Co-writer/director Malgoska
Szumowska’s study of two prostitutes’ lifestyles affecting the middle-aged,
middle-class journalist profiling them sacrifices insight for provocation. If
you want to see men treating women badly—urinating on one, jamming a wine
bottle up the other’s orifice—then this is for you: but little transcends
exploitation. The acting, of course, is excellent; Joanna Kulig and Anais
Demoustier are persuasive call girls, and Juliette Binoche brings her customary
sensitivity and intelligence to the journalist. But despite much nudity, Elles is figuratively covered up. The
hi-def transfer is good.
Freddie Mercury—The Great
Pretender
(Eagle Vision)
Rhy Thomas has impressively cobbled
together a look at Queen’s flamboyant frontman, including rare interview
footage of Mercury. Although the singer is his usual ebullient self, an introspective
side is also seen, which—along with comments by Queen members Brian May and
Roger Taylor, Mercury’s lover Jim Hutton and others—makes this an emotional
journey for Queen fans. Footage of his abortive ‘80s solo projects, including
his Barcelona collaboration with
soprano Montserrat Caballe (also seen in interviews), doesn’t rehabilitate that
aspect of his career, but it’s good of Thomas to show the opposite of the gazillion-selling
Queen empire. The Blu-ray image is first-rate, despite vintage footage. Extras
include a Mercury interview, Caballe interview and Barcelona making-of.
(Kino Lorber)
The title says it all: director
Corrina Belz was granted studio access by German artist Gerhard Richter—who was
77 in 2009—to watch him create large canvases for an exhibit. The paintings,
which begin as a riot of color, are pared down to become Richter’s familiar
abstract images. This important glimpse of an artist at work also shows him as an
engaging if occasionally distant presence: when Belz gets him to discuss his
life briefly humanize a man most see in the abstract. On Blu-ray, the colors of
Richter’s paintings pop off the screen amazingly; extras are a Richter
interview and views of his exhibitions.
Lisa and the Devil/House of
Exorcism
(Kino/Redemption)
Italian director Mario Bava was
at the top of his game in the early 70s: although 1970’s Hatchet was in many ways conventional, there were still shocks
aplenty; but nothing could prepare fans for Lisa,
a diabolically surreal scare fest with a cast comprising Elke Sommer, Telly
Savalas and Alida Valli. Lisa was so bizarre
that it was reshot (with Robert Alda as a priest) and recut into Exorcism, less satisfying but deeply
disturbing in its own right. The films retain their graininess on Blu-ray; all
three features have commentaries and there’s a Bava interview on the Lisa/House disc.
(CBS/Fox)
The reboot of one of the most
popular TV series of the ‘70s enters its second season with an attractive cast,
even more attractive locales but less than attractive storylines. The 23
episodes contain enough action thrills for unfinicky fans, but there’s a spark
missing among the cast that was never an issue during the Jack Lord-James MacArthur
days. The Blu-ray image is superb; extras include deleted scenes, featurettes,
audio commentaries, the ever-present gag reel and a crossover NCIS: Los Angeles episode.
(Animeigo)
The six films that make up the Lone Wolf and Cub series (made between
1972 and 1974) are by and large enjoyable action flicks, with four of the films
directed by Kenji Misumi—including the terrific, and by far the best, original—who
contributed most greatly to their visual pyrotechnics and narrative control.
Although it’s great that all six features are finally available on Blu-ray, the
hi-def transfers are not up to par, with too much digital noise reduction disappointing
fans.
(Sony)
Although the live-action Resident Evil movies were fatally
antiseptic, this CG fest will either draw you in or annoy you (as it did me).
Although it’s not as outright ugly as Robert Zemeckis’s performance-capture flicks
(Polar Express, Beowulf), the facial and movement “fakery” is a deal-breaker: just
as Pixar’s cartoons do little for me, so do CG films, technically accomplished as
they are. If it’s in your wheelhouse, however, go for it. The Blu-ray image is
good; extras include making-of featurettes and a gag reel.
The Carol Burnett Show—Carol’s
Favorites
(Time Life)
The Carol Burnett Show (1967-78) was one of the funniest and most
unconventional of all TV variety programs, due to Carol’s staggering comedic
talent, invaluable generosity and costars (Lyle Waggoner, Vicki Lawrence, Tim
Conway and Harvey Korman) as prodigiously talented as she. This five-disc set
collects several of the star’s favorite episodes, which include guest stars Steve
Martin, Joan Rivers, Betty White and Maggie Smith, for starters. The episodes
are complemented by choice extras, like a reunion of Lyle, Vicki, Tim and Carol
(Harvey, unfortunately, died in 2008).
(CBS/Fox)
One of TV’s most successful
franchises comprises shows that don’t mechanically exploit the glitz of their
locales—the 8th season of CSI: New York, the 10th season of CSI: Miami,
and the 12th season of the original CSI, set in Las
Vegas—and are not compromised by cast changes or dramatic formulas. New York’s season opener about the 10th
anniversary of Sept. 11 has powerful writing and acting. Extras on all three
sets include deleted scenes and featurettes; Miami and CSI include
commentaries; Miami and New York include gag reels.
(Lionsgate)
Although this coming-of-age, single
mother/lonely daughter movie is seriously flawed—suffering from a short, sitcom-ish
attention span and featuring “characters” instead of characters—two actresses make
it watchable. Eva Mendes, who plays Mom with a single-minded intensity laced
with humor, gives her best movie performance. And young Cierra Ramirez, as the daughter
who’s 15 going on 30, is a real find: so natural and unaffected, she’s definitely
someone to watch. The lone extra is a making-of featurette.
(PBS)
Over a period of five years, Jonathan
Demme profiled Carolyn Parker—resident of New Orleans’ lower ninth ward, the
most criminally neglected spot in the city’s post-Katrina revitalization—and
the result is this vital portrait that puts a human face on the devastation.
Parker herself is always engaging, even when enraged, and Demme presents her story
with the sympathetic eye marking his best work like Melvin and Howard and Married
to the Mob. Extras include a Demme interview and commentary.
(Zeitgeist)
Gianni Di Gregorio’s follow-up to
his acclaimed Mid-August Lunch is more
of the same, which is definitely not a bad thing: another low-key comic
exploration of a middle-aged man’s difficulties with several generations of the
opposite sex is also a wonderful travelogue through the streets, homes and food
of Rome, the world’s largest village. The literal title, Gianni and His Women, was changed to become more universal,
although the original title works better as ironic commentary. Extras include a
Di Gregorio interview and on-set footage.
Jon Lord—Concerto for Group and
Orchestra
(Eagle)
Deep Purple’s keyboardist (who
died earlier this year) composed this sprawling composition in 1969, its
premiere led by the great composer/conductor Malcolm Arnold. This recording—by
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Paul Mann’s baton—is an
all-star affair, with Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson on vocals, all-star session
man Guy Pratt on bass, guitar parts played by Darin Vasilev, Jon Bonnamassa and
Steve Morse, and Lord himself as organist. The 45-minute wayward work goes on too
long but remains a listenable mash-up of rock and orchestral music.
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