Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. July 13 2010
The Bounty Hunter
Directed by Andy Tennant
Average customer review:
In the bouncy romantic comedy The Bounty Hunter, Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler aim to be a contemporary Nick and Nora for an audience that's never even heard of The Thin Man. Ex-cop-turned-bounty hunter Milo Boyd (Butler, 300) is ecstatic when he gets his new assignment: his ex-wife, reporter Nicole Hurley (Aniston), has skipped bail to pursue a breaking story. Naturally, when he catches her, he also gets caught up in the mystery--though the mystery is really just an excuse for quirky comic bickering between the estranged lovebirds. Refreshingly, the script has the kind of off-beat rhythms and flavors of comedy-action flicks like Midnight Run, Out of Sight, and Something Wild, and the supporting cast (featuring Christine Baranski, Mamma Mia!; Peter Greene, Pulp Fiction; Jeff Garlin, Curb Your Enthusiasm; Siobhan Fallon, Saturday Night Live; Cathy Moriarty, Raging Bull; and beloved character actress Carol Kane) is a colorful collection of great faces and pungent personalities. It's unfortunate that the leads are a tad bland; Aniston and Butler aren't bad, but they don't have the snap, crackle, and pop that the movie craves. Nonetheless, The Bounty Hunter rises above the average Hollywood rom-com.
Chloe
Directed by Atom Egoyan
Average customer review:
In the erotic thriller Chloe, Dr. Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore, A Single Man) suspects that her husband David (Liam Neeson, Taken) is cheating on her. So she hires an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia!) to offer herself to him, to see how he responds--but Catherine has a surprising response to what unfolds, and Chloe becomes drawn deeply into the doctor's life. Chloe is an atypical "Hollywood" film from Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), as it features big stars, a script Egoyan didn't write himself (it's by Erin Cressida Wilson, the screenwriter of Secretary), an editing rhythm notably less idiosyncratic than Egoyan films of old, and an ending that feels forced and unsatisfying. But Chloe explores classic Egoyan obsessions: voyeurism, jealousy, and betrayal. As the movie unfolds, the performances are full of rich details, capturing jagged emotional edges that make the somewhat-implausible plot compelling. Chloe doesn't have the uncanny psychological acuity of Egoyan's best films, but anyone who's enjoyed this unique director's earlier work will find much to enjoy.
Don't You Forget About Me
Directed by Matt Austin
Average customer review:
How did John Hughes capture the growing pains of adolescence so perfectly? Why do his films resonate with those that grew up with them, and those that have just discovered them? Why did he leave? Armed with those and many other questions, a documentary was put into production. It wasn't long before interviews with Hughes alumni and those influenced by Hughes transpired, shedding light on Hughes and his work. However, after 2 years of compiling hundreds of interviews there was still a very important one missing: John Hughes. DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME cuts insightful and entertaining interviews with the honest, humorous, and tension filled road trip the neophyte filmmakers make to Chicago hoping to secure an interview with the reclusive director and closure for themselves. Interviews with Kevin Smith, Mia Sara, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy and more!
Our Family Wedding
From 20th Century Fox
Average customer review:
Can love really conquer all--including the biggest alpha dads in the universe? That's what the adorable young couple in Our Family Wedding gets to find out. The couple, played winningly by Lance Gross (Marcus) and America Ferrera (Lucia), are so deeply in love that they never realized the possible backlash of their respective dads, Brad (the always-compelling Forrest Whitaker) and Miguel (standup comic Carlos Mencia). While similar, earlier films like Guess Who's Coming Together played off black and white racial prejudices, Our Family Wedding tackles black and Latino prejudices, which make up the bulk of the plot and the dialogue (the film also takes on class differences; the African-American family is quite wealthy, while the Hispanic one is working class). Our Family Wedding is crisply directed by Rick Famuyiwa, at a mere 90 minutes, and he manages to pack a lot of Dad vs. Dad antagonism into the festivities, leavening the arch with some decent belly laughs (goats and Viagra definitely don't mix). "They'll love you," says the smitten Marcus, "because I love you." But if it were that easy, there wouldn't be a movie, would there? Our Family Wedding brings in elements of Father of the Bride, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Meet the Parents--even Grand Canyon--to explore the tensions of blending families that don't necessarily want to be blended. The terrific cast, which also includes the gracious Regina King and Diana-Maria Riva, brings deft delivery and big hearts to this interracial love story.
Greenberg
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Average customer review:
Greenberg aims to recapture the raw flavor and psychological acuity of 1970s character portraits like Five Easy Pieces--but the character in question is completely of the moment. Neurotic and anxious Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) comes to L.A. to stay in his brother's house, where he reconnects with old bandmates and falls, with painful awkwardness, into a relationship with his brother's personal assistant, Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig, sweetheart of the "mumblecore" movement). But this movie is not about plot--it's about human frailty and finding a moral or spiritual significance in caring for a dog or driving someone on an errand. Stiller sheds his usual bag of twitchy tricks and conveys the brittle spirit of a man defeated by his own intelligence. Gerwig has an odd, hapless charm; she makes aimlessness appealing. As a romance, the movie falters--while it's obvious why Roger would be attracted to Florence's youth and vulnerability, it's less clear why Florence wouldn't be repelled by Roger's sometimes-cruel instability. But writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) has gotten even better at capturing the history of two people with brief, incisive strokes; Roger's prickly history with his friends becomes vividly clear in a few conversations. As a core sampling of the contemporary psyche, Greenberg is rewarding. Also featuring excellent performances by Jennifer Jason Leigh (eXistenZ) and Rhys Ifans
The Greatest
Directed by Shana Feste
Average customer review:
Writer-director Shana Feste took Sundance by storm with her directorial debut, The Greatest, which was nominated straight out of the gate for a Grand Jury Prize. And no wonder. The Greatest is a heartfelt drama about the most real human emotions--love, grief, and hope--and its cast brings so much heart and depth to the story that it immediately becomes relatable. The star power is considerable, especially for a first-time writer-director. While Susan Sarandon gives her usual professional, layered performance, it's really Pierce Brosnan as her husband who is the true revelation here; this may be the best dramatic performance of Brosnan's career. Sarandon and Brosnan play a happily married couple (Grace and Allen) whose lives are shattered when their beloved teenage son, Bennett (Aaron Johnson), is suddenly killed in a car accident. As the stricken parents try to grasp the tragedy, they meet the young teenager, Rose (Carey Mulligan), who is carrying Bennett's baby. As the three strangers--who share something so deep and powerful it crosses all barriers--slowly get to know each other, the new relationships, suspicions, and new kinds of grief threaten to take them all down. And yet, the message throughout The Greatest is of hope and how life does--must--continue after tragedy. Mulligan is a nuanced and delicate actress and plays the not-quite-trustworthy Rose like a second skin--or maybe a rose thorn that rubs away at Allen and Grace's marriage. "It's not just all about you and your grief, Grace," Allen says as Grace escalates her dislike of the new stranger in their midst. The Greatest contains strands of previous excellent films like In the Valley of Elah, Rambling Rose, and even American Beauty, and fans of genuine drama and fine acting will not want to miss it.
8: The Mormon Proposition
Directed by Reed Cowan
Average customer review:
A searing indictment of the Mormon Church's historic involvement in the promotion and passage of California s Proposition 8, and the Mormon religion s secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights.
Narrated by Dustin Lance Black, Academy Award® winning screenwriter of MILK.
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