Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. August 31 2010
Harry BrownDirected by Daniel Barber
Average customer review:
With its themes of rampant urban decay and crime, mistreatment of the elderly, and vigilantism, Harry Brown will inevitably be compared to earlier movies from Death Wish to Gran Torino. The comparisons are apt, but with the able assistance of Michael Caine in the title role, director Daniel Barber and screenwriter Gary Young's tale stands on its own, grimly but compellingly. Caine's Harry Brown, a retiree and former marine, lives alone in a flat in a decrepit London council estate, spending his time visiting his comatose wife in the hospital, playing chess at the local pub with his only friend (David Bradley), and gazing out at the quotidian violence and drug dealing carried out with virtual impunity by the insolent young thugs and lowlifes on the estate grounds. It's a lonely existence that only gets sadder when his wife dies and his pal is murdered; and when the police inform him that nailing those responsible will be next to impossible, Harry turns dirty. His first killing is in self-defense, but once he gets hold of a gun (obtained from a dealer-junkie in a nightmarishly vivid scene), it is on, as our "vigilante pensioner" takes no prisoners in his pursuit of street justice. The cops, who are mostly depicted as clueless and thoroughly inept, assume the local gangs are responsible; only Detective Inspector Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer), about the only one with a brain and a heart, suspects Harry, and she plays an important role as the film careens towards its operatically brutal climax. The scenes of violence are intense but very well staged, and the film's overall look and downbeat color palette effectively convey the sense of squalid hopelessness permeating this stratum of British existence. Harry Brown isn't a lot of fun, but it will stick with you.
Marmaduke
Directed by Tom Dey
Average customer review:
Marmaduke is a lighthearted comedy based on the comic strip by Brad Anderson. When Phil gets a job with an organic pet food company in California, he moves his family, including his huge Great Dane Marmaduke and Balinese cat Carlos, from their home in Kansas in order to pursue his new job opportunity, but he's so wrapped up in his new job that he doesn't really take time to listen to his wife and kids and consider their needs. Marmaduke knows exactly what's going on, but he can't get Phil to listen, and besides, he's got his own problems trying to fit in at the local dog park. Phil and Marmaduke each struggle to impress their peers and reinvent themselves in the image of what they think others want them to be, but they only wind up hurting themselves and their family. Marmaduke is full of classic, if overused comic moments--the oversized dog passing gas while lying on Phil and Debbie's bed, Marmaduke and his dog friends trashing the house at an out-of-control dog party, and a crazy dog-surfing scene--but the gags manage to not completely overwhelm the plot, as happened in Furry Vengeance, and the film leaves viewers with an important message about the value of family, being true to oneself, and taking time to really listen to those you love. Marmaduke could almost be classified as Marley and Me light: it combines silly gags with a serious message like Marley and Me, but it lacks a high level of emotional investment. Voice talent includes Owen Wilson, George Lopez, Fergie, Emma Stone, and Kiefer Sutherland. Marmaduke isn't a great film, but the kids will be entertained by it and most adults will find it palatable enough. (Rated PG for some rude humor and language, but appropriate for most ages 7 and older.)
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? (Widescreen Edition)
Directed by Tyler Perry
Average customer review:
Part Couples Retreat and part Douglas Sirk on steroids, Tyler Perry's sequel to his 2007 ensemble drama from the play of the same name reunites the four dysfunctional couples from the original film and runs each relationship (and the audience) again through the wringer. If you missed the first trip, don't sweat it. Perry writes in broad strokes, rendering each character readily definable (prideful husband, harpy wife, etc). The Bahamas is an exotic upgrade from Colorado, but the couples arrive for their annual retreat with even more baggage. Relationship guru Patricia (Janet Jackson) is unable to save her own marriage to Gavin (Malik Yoba). Terry (Perry) suspects his attorney wife Diane (Sharon Leal) is cheating on him, while Angela (Tasha Smith) is convinced her husband Marcus (Michael Jai White), now a successful sports talk show host, is cheating on her. Sheila (Jill Scott) is now married to former sheriff Troy (Lamman Rucker), who cannot find a job. Further drama arrives in the form of Sheila's abusive ex-husband Mike (Richard T. Jones), who claims his time-share privileges. The film is graced by the all-too-brief appearances of Louis Gossett Jr. and Cicely Tyson as an elderly married pair who provide the couples with a reality check. Even by Perry standards, the film's last half hour is one jaw-dropping confrontation/revelation after another on its way to the requisite uplifting conclusion. Some may miss Madea, but Angela's Katrina-esque rants fill the void. Using Gavin's 80/20 theory of marriage introduced in the first film, Too gives his fans even more than 80 percent of what they want in a Tyler Perry film.
Spread
From Anchor Bay/Starz
Average customer review:
Director David Mackenzie trades the Scottish Highlands for the Hollywood Hills in this darkly comic fable about a male hustler. While Julia Roberts famously portrayed a hooker with a heart of gold, Nikki (producer Ashton Kutcher) suffers from Tin Man Syndrome: he doesn't seem to have a heart at all. As he boasts in his opening narration, "I don't wanna be arrogant here, but I'm an incredibly attractive man." (He has a point, but those suspenders have gotta go.) With his finances in disarray, he sets his sights on Samantha (Anne Heche), a high-powered attorney with an amazing abode overlooking Los Angeles. For such a sophisticated woman, she's surprisingly quick to fall for his patter. Aside from attending to her physical needs, Nikki cooks, runs errands, and makes himself so indispensable he gains the use of her Amex and Mercedes. Then he meets the more age-appropriate Heather (Margarita Levieva), who doesn't find his talk quite so cute, but she gets him in a way Sam doesn't because she's a player, too. Through Heather, Nikki finds his heart, but a real relationship proves far more challenging than a fake one. If the characters in Mackenzie's first American feature, much like the gang on TV's Gossip Girl, are too vain to inspire much sympathy, they're still fun to watch. Kutcher's ladies' man may not be as iconic as the studs in Midnight Cowboy and American Gigolo, but then Mackenzie (Young Adam, Mister Foe) isn't going for tears or fears, but rather for escapism with a sexy, slightly cynical edge.
9TH COMPANY (original and English language)
Directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk
Average customer review:
Based on real-life events, 9th COMPANY recounts a year in the shared lives of a group of young soldiers drafted to serve in Afghanistan during the final year of the Soviet conflict. It is a poignant story of the unit s dedication to each other during their valiant defense of Height 3234...a futile battle that ravaged their forgotten company, who fought on, unaware that the war had ended.
Reminiscent of Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and The Big Red One, 9th COMPANY is credited as being the first real post-Soviet era war film.
The highest grossing film in Russia in 2005 at $27 million, 9th COMPANY also won a NIKA Award for Best Film and marks the feature directorial debut of Fyodor Bondarchuk, son of renowned director Sergei Bondarchuk War and Peace, 1968.
The Evil Dead
Directed by Sam Raimi
Average customer review:
In the fall of 1979, Sam Raimi and his merry band headed into the woods of rural Tennessee to make a movie. They emerged with a roller coaster of a film packed with shocks, gore, and wild humor, a film that remains a benchmark for the genre. Ash (cult favorite Bruce Campbell) and four friends arrive at a backwoods cabin for a vacation, where they find a tape recorder containing incantations from an ancient book of the dead. When they play the tape, evil forces are unleashed, and one by one the friends are possessed. Wouldn't you know it, the only way to kill a "deadite" is by total bodily dismemberment, and soon the blood starts to fly. Raimi injects tremendous energy into this simple plot, using the claustrophobic set, disorienting camera angles, and even the graininess of the film stock itself to create an atmosphere of dread, punctuated by a relentless series of jump-out-of-your-seat shocks. The Evil Dead lacks the more highly developed sense of the absurd that distinguish later entries in the series--Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness--but it is still much more than a gore movie. It marks the appearance of one of the most original and visually exciting directors of his generation, and it stands as a monument to the triumph of imagination over budget.
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