Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. August 10 2010
Date Night
Directed by Shawn Levy
Average customer review:
Tina Fey and Steve Carell are two of the most charming performers in entertainment today. Their goofy attractiveness makes them a perfect couple in Date Night: an unremarkable husband and wife from New Jersey, they get mistaken for crooks in Manhattan, sending them on a wild night replete with snooty wait staff, crooked cops, glitter-specked strippers, a shirtless superspy (Mark Wahlberg, as buff as ever), and a preposterous car chase. The movie makes no effort to be remotely plausible and the last third really goes off the rails, and it would probably be better served by less familiar faces in minor roles (bit parts are played by Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Common, James Franco, Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, and Ray Liotta). It's disappointing that the dialogue doesn't crackle the way it does on 30 Rock or The Office. But Fey and Carell carry the movie along through sheer nerdy pluck. Rarely does a couple in a movie seem genuinely devoted to each other, not out of wild passion, but for all the things that a real marriage is built on: patience, shared humor, a willingness to deal with day-to-day annoyances, and simple affection. Fey and Carell seem like a couple you'd actually enjoy going out to dinner with. In today's world, that's more romantic than sunsets and bouquets of roses.
Death at a Funeral
Directed by Neil LaBute
Average customer review:
Less than three years after the 2007 Brit-com Death at a Funeral hit theaters, this remake offered a nearly scene-for-scene variation on the original. Once again a family has gathered for the dignified memorial service for a patriarch: older son (Chris Rock) has prepared a eulogy; younger son (Martin Lawrence) has flown in on his celebrity as a bestselling author; favorite niece (Zoe Saldana) has brought her fiancé (James Marsden, flipping out), unaware that he has accidentally ingested a hallucinogen manufactured by her pharmaceutically minded brother (Columbus Short, from Cadillac Records). You know, the usual fare for a funeral. The wild card is a stranger (Peter Dinklage, the only member of the cast to repeat his role from the 2007 film) who has something urgent to impart to the two sons. There's nothing terribly elevated about the slapstick, and one particular scatological sequence tests the boundaries of the bearable (30 Rock's Tracy Morgan, in his usual unbounded form, takes the brunt of this scene). The unexpected director is Neil LaBute, who shows off his sense of comic timing and keeps the whole apparatus moving along briskly. In addition to the relatively subdued lead turns by Rock and Lawrence, the big cast includes Danny Glover, Regina Hall, Luke Wilson, and Loretta Devine. It is almost irrelevant to debate whether this version improves or deflates the original; both hit their marks, deliver the broad yuks, and leave behind a mostly mechanical feel. But the job is accomplished--now rest in peace.
The Joneses
Directed by Derrick Borte
Average customer review:
Built around a brilliant idea, Derrick Borte's debut plays like The Truman Show in reverse. Whereas Jim Carrey's Truman had no idea his life provided fodder for a TV show, the upper-crust enclave that welcomes the Joneses has no idea they're a marketing unit in disguise. One day, Steve (David Duchovny, more Californication than The X-Files) and Kate (Demi Moore, whose businesslike demeanor serves the premise well) arrive with teenagers Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth) and a moving van full of luxury goods. Attractive and charismatic, they inspire everyone they meet to purchase the same sportswear, golf clubs, and gourmet foods (Lauren Hutton plays their supervisor). They make the biggest impression on Larry (Gary Cole) and Summer (Glenne Headly), whose marriage has hit a rough patch. Steve advises his new golf partner to buy his wife expensive presents. Larry takes his advice--and then some--in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses, who find it difficult to maintain the Stepford-like façade when Jenn gets involved with a married man and Steve falls for his make-believe wife. Until that point, the cast sells the concept with conviction, but then the story heads off in two directions at once. Duchovny and Moore lack the heat to bring the romance to a full boil, while the neighbors aren't sufficiently developed for their fate to have the intended impact. If it ends with more of a fizzle than a bang, The Joneses still posits a scenario that feels frightfully plausible.
Letters to God
From Possibility Pictures
Average customer review:
A boozing postal worker finds his life turned upside down by a boy struggling with cancer. Young Tyler Doherty (Tanner Maguire) faces his cancer with a strong spirit and good humor, and maintains his faith by writing letters to God--letters that the neighborhood's new mailman, Brady McDaniels (Jeffrey Johnson), doesn't know how to handle. Gradually, McDaniels finds himself drawn into the Doherty family's life… and drawn to Tyler's lonely mother, Maddy (Robyn Lively). Letters to God is earnest and family friendly, with moments of slapstick humor to leaven Tyler's troubled circumstances. Any viewer's response to Letters to God will depend on his or her faith; devout Christians will find it a sincere and uplifting testament to God's love, while non-Christians will find it saccharine and heavy-handed. But it's certainly a polished production, with professional cinematography, a cleanly written (if a bit obvious) script, and solid performances from the attractive cast.
Under the Mountain
Directed by Jonathan King
Teenage twins Rachel and Theo travel to Auckland to stay with relatives following the sudden death of their mother. Where there was once a psychic bond between them, now there is a rift as Theo, particularly, refuses to confront his grief. Rachel reaches out to him, but is rebuffed. Staying with their Aunt Kay and Uncle Cliff on Lake Pupuke, the twins are fascinated by the volcanic lake and the smell that seems to come from the creepy old Wilberforce house around the shore. They visit Mt. Eden, where Theo sees Mr. Jones, a strange old man from whose hands fire seems to glow. When it seems the twins are being watched – and that the Wilberforces can smell them – Theo resolves to investigate the Wilberforce house. Inside, he and Rachel find what can only be an alien environment. They overhear Mr. Wilberforce talking about something stirring beneath the ground. He says he will kill the twins if they find “the fire-raiser.” Rachel is alarmed and reaches out to Theo but, terrified of getting close to anyone since his mother’s death, he pushes her away and sets out alone to find the fire-raiser – the man he saw on the mountaintop.
Max Headroom: The Complete Series (Lenticular Cover)
From Shout! Factory
Average customer review:
Television networks battle one another in an unrelenting ratings war. Whoever controls the airwaves controls the dystopic world in which they broadcast. So when Network 23s star reporter, Edison Carter, uncovers a deadly secret that could shake up the dominion the station has over its viewers, the only option is to eliminate Carter before he can make his story public. After his “accident,” his mind is uploaded to create the world’s first self-aware, computer-generated TV host: Max Headroom! But will Max bow to his creators? Or will he be the key to his human alter ago bringing down a network superpower?
Able to boast his own international talk show, music videos, countless endorsements and merchandising, the puckish Max Headroom became more than just a character on television. He was a decade-defining icon, never better represented than in this sardonically witty, adventurous look at society and the place of media within it. Now all 14 uncut episodes — starring Matt Frewer (Watchmen), Amanda Pays (The Flash), Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) and Morgan Sheppard (Star Trek) — are finally available together in one long-awaited DVD collection!
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