Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. January 4 2011
Dinner for SchmucksDirected by Jay Roach
Average customer review:
Steve Carell, whose gift for playing dumb yet remaining sympathetic is unparalleled, and the astoundingly likable Paul Rudd make an excellent comedy team in Dinner for Schmucks. Tim (Rudd, I Love You, Man) gets invited to take part in a game his boss plays every year: each of his executives has to bring a perfect idiot to dinner; the biggest loser wins an award and the executive who brought him gets a promotion. Tim's girlfriend thinks the idea is appalling, and Tim reluctantly agrees--until he literally runs into Barry (Carell), an obtuse IRS agent who makes dioramas with stuffed dead mice. Barry is so perfect for the game that Tim can't resist inviting him to dinner--but by inviting Barry into his life, Tim loses control of everything he wants as Barry's bumbling attempts to help go hopelessly awry. Dinner for Schmucks has its share of broad slapstick, but what may surprise some viewers is the mix of verbal wit and elegant visual jokes (some of Barry's dioramas are both funny and truly beautiful). The movie's farcical formula is familiar and threadbare, but Rudd and Carell give it genuine heart as well as humor and the supporting performances from Jemaine Clement (Eagle vs. Shark), Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), and Kristin Schaal (Flight of the Conchords) are all deliriously funny. A loose but honorable remake of the French comedy The Dinner Game.
Machete
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis
Average customer review:
As a tribute to both the hyperbolic excesses of 1970s drive-in cinema and the fearsome screen persona of veteran character actor Danny Trejo, producer-writer-codirector Robert Rodriguez's Machete is, in grindhouse parlance, one mean mother. A full-length version of Rodriguez's faux "Mexsploitation" trailer in Grindhouse, Machete sketches, in the boldest strokes possible, the adventures of its titular hero (Trejo), a former federal agent turned day laborer after losing his wife and child to a katana-wielding drug lord (Steven Seagal, of all people). Recruited by shady businessman Jeff Fahey (Lost) to assassinate a rabble-rousing senator (Robert De Niro) with a particular hate vibe for immigrants, Machete soon finds himself the target of government agents, border vigilantes (led by Don Johnson!), and about half the state of Texas. Unfortunately, none seem to realize the film's central thesis: Machete's business is killing, and business is booming.
Viewers expecting subtlety or even story coherence in Machete should probably check out another movie; the script by Rodriguez and cousin Alvaro leaves no genre cliché or absurd scenario untouched, resulting in less of a plot than a collection of over-the-top set pieces, dialogue, and casting stunts (Johnson, Lindsay Lohan as Fahey's libertine daughter, and Rodriguez regulars Cheech Marin, Daryl Sabara, Tom Savini, Michael Parks, and an uncredited Rose McGowan). Most of the cast seems in on the joke, most notably a gleefully over-the-top De Niro and Michelle Rodriguez as a taco truck operator/revolutionary leader who borrows her look from the infamous Thriller: A Cruel Picture (Jessica Alba is also on board as a sympathetic fed who becomes Machete's love interest). Though it's occasionally overlong and unnecessarily convoluted, the film's value rests on how well it allows star Danny Trejo to exude his steely, implacable Danny Trejo-ness; on those merits alone, Machete is a blockbuster.
Catfish
Directed by Ariel Schulman Henry Joost
Average customer review:
The slipperiness of truth and lies on the Internet gets played out in unexpected ways in the documentary Catfish. When Nev Schulman receives a painting based on a photograph of his from an 8-year-old girl named Abby in Michigan, he doesn't realize this is going to lead to a long-distance romance with Abby's older sister Megan… and that this romance, conducted over the phone and the Internet, will lead to something far more troubling. It would be unfair to reveal more details of Catfish, as the process of discovery is one of its pleasures--but even if you do know the sequence of events, the movie's ultimate reward is not the revelation of secrets but the surprising and very human interactions of the movie's last third. While there is a thriller aspect to the movie--and the suspense at points is indeed nail biting--the revelation isn't the bang that Hollywood movies lead you to expect. Instead, Catfish turns sad, unsettling, and sure to inspire arguments about motivations and human nature.
Case 39
From Paramount
Average customer review:
A top-notch cast led by Renée Zellweger meets Hollywood's newest member of the Evil Little Girl army in the long-gestating supernatural thriller Case 39. Zellweger is a concerned social worker who takes in young Jodelle Ferland (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) after she is nearly roasted alive by her foster family. She soon discovers that the girl possesses a wide array of unpleasant abilities, from the prerequisite foul mouth and bad attitude to devastating powers of suggestion, which bring untimely ends to most of the cast. Director Christian Alvart (Pandorum), working once again with his talented Antibodies cinematographer Hagen Bogdanski, delivers a suitably creepy-looking film but can do nothing with Ray Wright's inert, derivative script (Wright also penned the equally DOA remakes of Pulse, 2006, and The Crazies, 2010). What's left is a smattering of shocks and straight-faced turns by such capable vets as Zellweger, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper, Cynthia Stevenson, and Callum Rennie. Horror fans will find more compelling kiddie chills in The Omen, The Exorcist, or even 2009's Orphan.
Yellow Handkerchief
Directed by Udayan Prasad
Average customer review:
A love story at its core, THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF is about three strangers of two generations who embark on a road trip through post-Katrina Louisiana. Along the way, relationships forge and change in a myriad of ways, leading to the possibility of second chances at life and love. The film is loosely based on a short story by renowned writer Pete Hamill. Brett Hanson (William Hurt) is an ex-convict, just released from prison after serving six years for manslaughter and now adrift in a world of new freedoms and responsibilities. Finding initial difficulties in reconciling himself to a troubled past, Brett crosses paths with lonely and troubled teenager Martine (Kristen Stewart) and her new 'ride' Gordy (Eddie Redmayne). The trio head out in the same car and direction Martine to cut loose and get away from her family, Gordy to get closer to Martine, and Brett, who must decide whether he wants to return to his troubled past and an uncertainty with May (Maria Bello), the woman he left behind.
Visa Dream
Directed by Jorge Meraz
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"Visa Dream" is a documentary of a couple from Southern Mexico who apply for a U.S. Visa in order to visit their children whom they have not seen in 16 years. It is an expensive and time consuming gamble and this documentary shows the drama along the way. Learn more about this divided family situation as well as the challenges that face about 6 million applicants each year trying to get a USA tourist visa. Lots of extra features including extended interviews and director/producer commentary. Produced by Centurion5 Ad Agency Director - Jorge Meraz Producer - Steven Javitz
Backdraft (Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]
Directed by Ron Howard
Average customer review:
A somewhat contrived screenplay doesn't stop this thriller from serving up some of the most spectacular fire sequences ever committed to film. Like any Ron Howard production Backdraft is impressively slick and boasts a stellar cast, including Kurt Russell and William Baldwin. The actors play sibling rivals who have been at odds since the death of their firefighter father years earlier. Robert De Niro is the veteran fire inspector who is tracking a series of mysterious and deadly arsons, and Donald Sutherland is effectively creepy as the former arsonist who understands the criminal psychology of pyromaniacs. Rebecca De Mornay, Scott Glenn, and Jennifer Jason Leigh are featured in supporting roles. Backdraft is a triumph of stunt work and flaming special effects.
The Last Exorcism
Directed by Daniel Stamm
Average customer review:
Just when you thought it was safe to see another shaky, handheld, faux-documentary horror movie… along comes The Last Exorcism to raise the creep factor. Supposedly we are watching a documentary crew tagging along after one Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a hell-raising preacher who sidelines in exorcisms. He's got a leather-bound volume full of dire drawings and incantations, and he knows the rubes just eat this kind of stuff up. Now Cotton has vowed to expose his own gimmicks for the camera, so he journeys to backwoods Louisiana to answer the call to save a putatively possessed girl--the better to debunk his own methods, once and for all, and get out of the exorcism business. Sounds like nothing could possibly go wrong. Then we meet the Sweetzer family: bible-thumping papa (Louis Herthum), not-quite-right son Caleb (eerie Caleb Jones), and possessed daughter Nell (Ashley Bell). Someone's been mutilating the farm's livestock, and dear little Nell has the vacant stare and sweet smile of a demon child. Director Daniel Stamm wisely allows the buildup to go on and on in non-hyped fashion, letting the sense of reality increase with each scene--the better to unleash the mayhem in the second half of the movie. It all goes over the top, and obviously the "found footage" gimmick has long since become a cliché that you either go along with or reject. But the climax is enough to warm the heart of any self-respecting fan of devil movies, and The Last Exorcism is distinguished by some very good performances, especially TV veteran Patrick Fabian, who creates a deft, funny, full-blooded character.
Ever After: A Cinderella Story [Blu-ray]
From Fox
Average customer review:
Take away the Fairy Godmother, and what have you got left from the Cinderella fable? The story of a girl for whom a bad stroke of luck is no match for her internal strength and purity of heart. Drew Barrymore plays Cinderella's alleged inspiration, Danielle, in this romantic drama that purports to tell the "facts" behind the Grimm brothers' story. One of three daughters of a man (Jeroen Krabbé) who dies and leaves her fate in the hands of a conniving stepmother (Anjelica Huston), Danielle is cast into the lowly role of a servant. Meanwhile, her sisters are evaluated as possible mates for a French prince (Dougray Scott), but he's far more intrigued with Danielle's intelligence and beauty--not to mention her way with a sword and fist. Directed by Andy Tennant (who directed Barrymore in TV's The Amy Fisher Story), Ever After has that rare ability to win the heart and mind of a viewer simply by being committed to its own innocence, particularly where Barrymore's luminous performance is concerned. A contemporary take on an old, virtually forgotten Hollywood convention--the costume adventure with middling artistic ambition but real audience appeal--Ever After is a surprisingly delightful film.
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