Not surprisingly, Toy Story 3 ruled the box office during its opening weekend last week. Topping out at just over $110 million, the movie delivered the studio’s highest-grossing launch yet, supplanting the $70.5 million bow of 2004’s The Incredibles. It continued its commercial dominance this weekend, however, dropping an elbow-smash on Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups, which pulled in just under $41 million in its opening weekend. Toy Story 3‘s $59 million weekend haul easily surpassed that total, bringing its two-week Stateside gross to just under $227
million. Sandler and friends managed to best the week’s other big new studio bow, however — Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz‘s Knight and Day, which grossed $20.4 million over the weekend to bring its five-day premiere total to $27.7 million, according to studio estimates.
Rounding out the top 10 were the rebooted The Karate Kid, which fell off over 45 percent for the second straight week, pulling in $15.5 million, for a $135.7 million total; the rebooted The A-Team, with $6.2 million, for a cumulative $63 million haul; Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off Get Him to the Greek, with $3.1 million, for a $54.6 million total; Shrek Forever After, with $3.1 million, for a $230 million cumulative gross; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, with $2.8 million, for a $86.2 million total; Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl’s Killers, with $1.9 million, for a $43.9 million total; and Jonah Hex, which dropped 70 percent in its sophomore frame, pulling in $1.6 million, for a $9.1 million Stateside total.
Notable in limited release, Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass averaged just over $7,800 on five screens, while Restrepo averaged just under $17,800 on a pair of screens, and Oliver Stone’s South of the Border grossed $21,545 on a single screen.
A competent, character-driven remake of George Romero‘s original 1973 film of the same name, recently released on Blu-ray by Blue Underground, with an evocative cover, The Crazies is a fairly slickly made mid-level thriller of tickled paranoia, the type of movie one could see lots of Tea Partiers rabidly embracing, as a prophetic vision of the coming governmental jackboot pressed against the neck of average, honorable, small town gun-toting citizens.
When a string of quasi-catatonic rages and other violence rocks a small Midwestern town, the sheriff of Ogden Nash, David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant), finds himself waging an uphill battle to convince the mayor and other powers-that-be that a mysterious toxin has accidentally infected the town’s water supply, and is to blame. Black helicopters (well, vans and other ground vehicles, really) soon arrive, and the secretive government round-up begins. Separated from his pregnant wife Judy (Radha Mitchell), Dutton breaks free from containment, reunites with his deputy, Russell Crank (Joe Anderson, quite good), and then sets out with Judy and teenager Becca (Danielle Panabaker), trying to jointly work their way past checkpoints and dangerous, marauding, infected loonies, out of town.
Rather admirably rooted in the interplay of its principal players, The Crazies is basically an intimately conceived and almost claustrophobic tale with a few big altercations and effects sequences thrown in to goose up the production value and thrill quotient. Some of these work, in a very gut-level kind of way, while others — like a screwy car wash scene — are less successfully conceived, and even more problematically executed. With almost any reflection, some of the movie’s basic plot points don’t really hold up. First, there’s the revelation that an airplane went down in a nearby lake, but only one person apparently noticed/heard it. Then there’s the more basic strategic command decision of an anonymous army swarming into a town, with all forms of outside communication rendered useless; if eradicating an entire town was always part of the possible agenda, why go in “soft” at all, with soldiers who are willfully misinformed about the threat? In regards to the outside threat — and even the potency of the viral communicability, which is never really fully explained — the filmmakers seem to want to leave a lot up to the imagination of viewers, but after a while some of these narrative hiccups and gaps start to come across as lazy.
What makes The Crazies mostly work, however, is its casting; all the main actors emotionally invest in the material, and Anderson in particular gets an interesting arc, moving from sympathetic to antagonistic and back again. This isn’t reinventing the wheel, and the dialogue in particular could use a little extra pop, but The Crazies is aided by the fact that its aims are fairly modest, and director Breck Eisner — Sahara helmer, and son of Disney honcho Michael — for the most part has a smart sense of pacing and involving visual style.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case in turn stored in a cardboard slipcover, The Crazies comes to DVD presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen, with an English language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, and optional Spanish and English SDH subtitles, which each offer up a few flubs. Its slate of bonus material is most impressive, though, kick-started by a superb audio commentary track from Eisner. In it, he talks about Olyphant getting an enthusiastic pitch for working with him from Steve Zahn (with whom the filmmaker had worked before) on the set of A Perfect Getaway. Eisner also chats about location shooting in both Iowa and Georgia, and some of the challenges, specifically, that a large controlled burn (see picture above) presented. Naturally, there is some spoiler talk, too, so don’t listen to this chat unless/until you’ve already seen the feature first.
Next up is an 11-minute making-of featurette built largely around Eisner, in which he talks about screenwriter Scott Kosar’s first draft focusing much more on the military response within the movie. A 10-minute look at the “politicized horror” of Romero features a couple talking-head web writers, and there’s a visual effects featurette to boot. Two episodes of the short motion comic are included, as well as a featurette which spotlights the contributions of make-up mastermind Rob Hall. There are also a clutch of Easter eggs, accessed with the left
toggle button on the first menu screen of supplemental material, which
showcase the choreographing of several action sequences with stunt folks
standing in for the actors. Three theatrical trailers and 10 TV spots round things out, along with storyboards and a behind-the-scenes photo gallery. Only a bit more by way of chats with the actors could elevate this 90-minute-plus collection of bonus material. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) A- (Disc)
As the American economy has cratered, and helped create one of the most imposing and hostile job environments on record for emerging college graduates and young people in general, there have been all sorts of money management titles pop up on video, designed to give the under-40 set and other Millennials more information about how to navigate the choppy investment waters of a refashioned financial market. Emotionally of a piece with these titles is the PBS/NOVA production Mind Over Money — an entertaining and penetrating exploration of why mainstream economists failed to predict the crash of 2008, why we so often personally make irrational financial decisions, and what one can do to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes others make.
Narrated by Lance Lewman, Mind Over Money reveals how our emotions interfere with decision-making, and explores controversial new arguments about the world of finance. Before the current crash, most Wall Street analysts believed that markets are, to bottom-line it, “efficient” — that investors are reasonable and always operate in their own economic self-interest. Most of the time, these assumptions of classical economics work well enough. But in extreme situations, people panic and conventional theories collapse. In the face of the recent crash, can a new science that aims to incorporate human psychology into finance — behavioral economics — serve as a more accurate predictor of financial markets?
Mind Over Money chronicles some of this new field’s most compelling experiments, assaying the brains and bodies of Wall Street traders as they buy and sell stocks. One particularly ingenious experiment reveals how an excessive number of spending choices can overwhelm a consumer’s ability to make rational decisions. Through these entertaining real-life experiments, this title demonstrates how mood, decision-making and economic activity are all tightly and irrevocably interwoven.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Mind Over Money comes to DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen, with an English language stereo track that more than adequately handles the title’s straightforward aural demands. There are unfortunately no supplemental features… nor a lottery ticket. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or simply click here. If Amazon is totally your thing, meanwhile, click here. B (Movie) D (Disc)
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Restrepo is a slice of gritty pie — an experiential, you-are-there travelogue of war reportage from veteran conflict photographer Tim Hetherington and author-journalist Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) that chronicles a year-plus of fighting in Afghanistan’s deadly Korengal Valley. While not without some undeniable anecdotal punching power, the film nonetheless seems like a bit of a relic since it unfolds in a relative vacuum, willfully ignorant or silent on any of the factors influencing some of the events we see on the ground.
Unfolding from June 2007 through July 2008, in a remote valley in the eastern part of Afghanistan, where at one point 70 percent of all the ordinance being used in the war in was being dropped, Restrepo (pronounced ress-TREP-o) offers up a look at the soldiers of Second Platoon, Battle Company, as they engage in wrestling matches, weekly “shuras,” or meetings with locals, and, most notably, the building and stubborn maintenance of a same-named, remote forward operating post, tabbed for a fallen medic comrade. This footage — presented somewhat chronologically, but not exactingly so, and never with date stamps — is intercut with separate, closely shot, individual interview reminiscences.
On both a technical level — the captured footage of the nearly daily firefights pops with a jumbled, chaotic authenticity that would make even Paul Greengrass jealous — and a base emotional level, the movie connects. Owing to both its terrain and conditions on the ground, the Korengal Valley seems a pretty hellish place, fairly immune to even the most meager material comforts (hot meals, iPods, slightly comfortable beds) that are part of modern-day warfare, and Restrepo communicates this.
Embedded with the soldiers for the whole year, Hetherington and Junger, operating their own cameras but staying out of the frames, do a good job in capturing the pervasive sense of low-lying dread and anxiety that swirls around the regular grunts on the ground in war. But they seem allergic to any broader contextual framing or analysis. As such, it’s almost as if Restrepo dates from the days of the Korean War or the early Vietnam era, before the idea of any sort of messiness seeped into the manner in which war was packaged and sold to the American public back at home.
The most heartrending stuff — one soldier talking about avoiding mentioning any of the specifics of his deployment in conversations home, and having to swallow hard and put on a shine when wishing his mother a happy birthday just days after losing a buddy; another smiling in clinched psychological disengagement while talking about taking sleeping pills to combat post-traumatic stress reactions and nightmares — comes from the first-person testimonials that are intertwined with all the captured day-to-day footage. The sad and bitter truth, though, is that those passages would retain their impact even without anything else being used to frame them. Restrepo represents, in its hands-on construction, an extraordinary feat. The actual finished product, however, doesn’t attempt to give any value to the actions of the men on screen, and as such it robs them of their courage, in a way. (National Geographic Entertainment/Outpost Films, unrated, 93 minutes)
If you’ve ever watched a service animal in amazement from afar, and wondered more about their training, Through a Dog’s Eyes might be a nice watch for you. A heartwarming look into the special bond between people and dogs, this short-form documentary tracks a series of dogs from their initial training through to their work with the disabled people they help every day.
Narrated by Neil Patrick Harris, Through a Dog’s Eyes centers around Jennifer Arnold, founder of Canine Assistants, one of the
country’s leading service dog organizations. Her unique teaching methods
combine the latest canine research with an unwavering kindness and
respect for dogs. Writer Don Campbell and director Peter Schnall have a knack for what makes this story interesting, blending a more removed, just-the-facts explication of Arnold’s work with more overt emotional-appeal snapshots of just how greatly the lives of service dog recipients are changed. The end result provides new insights into one of life’s most curious relationships: the
powerful human/canine bond. Even cat lovers can appreciate this hour-long title.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Through a Dog’s Eyes comes to DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen, with an English language stereo audio track. Supplemental extras consist of a series of step-by-step training pointers from Arnold. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or simply click here. Or if Amazon is totally your thing, click here. B (Movie) C- (Disc)
Slapdash filmmaking and a thick, indolent haze of self-satisfaction most characterize Grown Ups, Adam Sandler’s new ensemble laffer, which rounds up a bunch of old costars and offscreen pals and serves as an informal reunion of Saturday Night Live alumni. A few fitful flashes of interpersonal ribbing interrupt what is otherwise a wan, meandering tale, which warms over hackneyed bromides about familial engagement and ladles those over thinly sketched characters and stock banter galore. Predictably, the actors just each yawningly trade on their own well-worn personas. It’s air-quote comedy, with all the make-a-buck calculation of a rock ‘n’ roll reunion tour. For the full review, from Screen International, click here. (Sony, PG-13, 102 minutes)
From the “WTF” files comes word that the inaugural Astana International Action Film Festival, taking place June 27 through July 1 in Astana City, Kazakhstan (yes, that Kazakhstan), will feature a slate of more than 20 action films from a variety of countries. OK, right. So far, so good. Organized by director/producer Timur Bekmambetov, the festival’s stated aim is to bring together the Asian and Western film markets, by “showcasing a unique lineup of full-length action films along with a diverse forum of feature discussions from Academy Award-nominated producers, as well as a broad range of international filmmakers.”
So, gala premieres are set to include The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, District 9, The Last Airbender and Inhale, among other movies, and featured guests will include Harvey Weinstein, Mike Tyson, Lawrence
Bender, Sharlto Copley and Swedish multi-hyphenate Dolph Lundgren. And the official screening program will include the extended cuts of both Grindhouse flicks, Planet Terror and Death Proof, plus Lundgren’s Command Performance and the new The Karate Kid, along with… the forthcoming animated flick Despicable Me and Lucy Walker’s excellent nuclear non-proliferation documentary Countdown to Zero? Am I missing something here, or have the parameters of “action” been grossly elasticized? Is Bekmambetov promising model hookers for all the guests, or are the giftbags really that nice? For a full festival schedule, click here.
Written and co-directed by former Mormon missionary Reed Cowan, and narrated by Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, 8: The Mormon Proposition exposes the breadth and depth of the Mormon Church’s involvement in the promotion and passage of California’s ballot measure overturning gay marriage, and the religion’s ongoing campaign against gay rights. It pulls back the curtain on the Mormon Church’s shadowy activism, from a dry run ballot initiative in Hawaii to secret audio from a one-hour directive from church elders, and stories of bishops actually going to parishioners’ homes with tithing records in hand, goading them into donations.
While it definitely espouses a specific political viewpoint, the film packs an emotional punch because it angles for a base-level inclusivity homosexuals are denied, giving ample time to Mormon activists (if not official church spokespeople, who decline to participate). As it progresses, the movie becomes a bit less focused, taking aim at Mormon hypocrisy more broadly, and the emotional damage done by electroshock homosexual conversion therapy and other religious hectoring — terribly sad and moving material, but a bit digressively interwoven. Its powerful correlative lesson, though? That social media and citizen journalism will play an increasingly important role in outing big-money political players, be they churches, corporations or individuals, who would like to silently put their stamp on laws and policy from the capitalistic safety of the shadows. (Red Flag, R, 78 minutes)
It’s a sad but seemingly inexorable truth that the nature of the 24-hour cable news network allows for political backbiting to overwhelm almost any reasonable discussion of the most gripping problems facing our nation, but the arguably positive flip-side is that when true disaster strikes, the news media is in a uniquely advantageous position — quite unlike any other time in human history — to broadcast from strife-stricken zones in real-time, in a manner that can crucially impact initial response.
Such was certainly the case with the heartrending images that followed in the wake of the massive earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12 of this year, leveling Port-au-Prince and crippling that poor nation’s infrastructure. Running an hour long, the PBS Frontline title The Quake, written and produced by Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith, takes cameras directly into the midst of this devastation, but also goes even further beyond the stories covered in the news over the first weeks and months, revealing faults in the Haitian government and world organizations that simply were not prepared to face such a disaster.
Bearing witness to the disaster and ill-coordinated relief efforts in one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, The Quake focuses on those responsible for handling the catastrophe, including the Haitian state and the United Nations, which were crippled by the magnitude of the disaster and struggled to craft an effective national response. Drawing on exclusive interviews with relief workers and politicians, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Rene Preval, the president of Haiti, The Quake makes a shaming case that portions of the disaster were unavoidable, but that the world can also do better.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, The Quake comes to DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen, with an English language stereo track. Its static menu screen proffers chapter stops, but unfortunately no other supplemental material. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or simply click here; if Amazon’s your thing, meanwhile, click here. B- (Movie) D- (Disc)
Written and directed with a lyrical, unfussy directness by Stephane Gauger, Owl and the Sparrow tells the simple story of a young, runaway orphan whose resolute, openhearted nature helps forge a bond between two adults she drafts into her life as a sort of replacement
family.
For plucky 10-year-old Thuy (Pham Thi Han), life in her small Vietnamese village is mostly confined to working in the bamboo factory of her cantankerous uncle Minh (Hau Nguyen). All of that changes when she packs her bags, smashes her piggy bank and runs away to the bustling metropolis of downtown Saigon. There, Thuy comes to grips with the challenges of daily survival, getting by initially by selling roses on the street. Striking up individual conversations with beautiful flight attendant Lan (Cat Ly) and gentle, lonely animal keeper Hai (Le The Lu), who tends to elephants at the local zoo, Thuy also finds the sort of adult role models for whom she has been yearning. In the hustle and bustle of the big city, these three individuals are all seeking some measure of greater human connection. But in order to avoid getting sent back to her strict uncle, Thuy will need all of her cleverness and determination.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, The Owl and the Sparrow comes to DVD presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Vietnamese language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, and optional subtitles in English and Spanish. Its chief supplemental features consist of a feature-length audio commentary track with director Gauger and a seven-minute behind-the-scenes featurette which includes brief interview snippets with cast and crew, as well as some audition tape footage. There are also two deleted scenes, a self-scrolling two-minute collection of production still photographs, cast and crew pictures, and the movie’s trailer. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) B- (Disc)
Reframing the hero’s journey around the story of an ambitious villain whose quest for notoriety stems from maternal approval he never received as a child, the 3-D animated film Despicable Me, with a lead vocal performance by Steve Carell, delivers a steady stream of colorful, unfussy engagement. An imaginative visual design, compelling characterizations and witty interplay between the two elevate a tale whose component parts are otherwise quite familiar. While Toy Story 3 will continue to exert a strong pull on family audiences throughout the summer, there should be plenty of room in the marketplace for this potential franchise-in-waiting, which opens Stateside July 9. For the full review, from Screen International, click here. (Universal, PG, 95 minutes)
Tough news on a personal level for Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, whose oldest daughter, Kathlyn, is said to be going ahead with plans for gender reassignment surgery now that she/he-to-be is 18 years of age. I’m told this was behind Bening’s late cancellation of her attendance of the Los Angeles Film Festival‘s premiere presentation of The Kids Are All Right, much more so than any Lakers-related mayhem.
What’s the most important lesson of Thirst, a stranded-in-the-desert ensemble flick starring Lacey Chabert, among others? Make sure you’re with at least one busty chick, since her breast implants, in a real pinch, may eventually allow you to give yourself a saline drip that will mitigate hallucinatory dehydration.
Somewhat unironically dubbed “Open Water in the desert” by Horrorsquad.com’s Peter Hall on its cover box, Thirst centers on vacationing med student Noelle (Chabert) and her husband Bryan (Tygh Runyan), who accompany another
couple, photographer Tyson (Brandon Quinn) and his new model-girlfriend Atheria (Mercedes McNab), on a day trip into the hot, desolate California desert for what they think will be a nice, uncomplicated photo shoot. Whoops. When Tyson accidentally puts their car into a ravine, the group is left stranded, and ill prepared to easily extricate themselves from the situation.
Following the car crash, Atheria is concussed and bleeding internally, which soon leads to some gnarly shenanigans with a screwdriver, in an effort to release pent-up pressure and swelling in her brain. The chief problem, though, is of course the group’s dwindling supply of water. With no shelter, no food and no cell phone reception, they make a directional miscalculation, and suffer its consequences. Lost and increasingly hopeless, one by one the group begins to fall victim to the relentless elements, unable to stave off the effects of dehydration with rattlesnake blood or their own urine. (Yeah, seriously.)
Thirst doesn’t reinvent the wheel, certainly, but neither does it terribly embarrass itself. The basic plot machinations are all more or less expected, but director Jeffery Scott Lando redeems himself a bit with a few long-form scenes which invest heartily in Bryan and Noelle’s relationship, and make this genre entry more female-friendly than a lot of other films of its ilk. The script, too, doesn’t put its foot down too heavily on the intra-group bickering; there’s recrimination, but it’s fairly well modulated. That said, the folks here do seem to compound their situation by continuing to make terrible decisions, like traveling during the day and resting during the cool of the evening, hypothesizing that it’s “not safe to travel in the dark.” It’s thinking like that which makes it hard for one to root for you, kids.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Thirst comes to DVD divided into a dozen chapters, presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, with English language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo audio tracks. The picture transfer is mostly solid, and free from edge enhancement or any artifacting; colors seem inconsistent, however. (This may be reflective of creative choices; it’s not entirely clear.) There are also optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles, but there are unfortunately no other supplemental extras, save a preview trailer for the movie and a quartet of other First Look titles, including the iguana-riffic Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Given that Chabert also pulled a producer credit on the film, it’s a bit curious she didn’t submit to/push for at the very least some EPK-style on-set interview chats. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C+ (Movie) D+ (Disc)
Someone had the bright idea to basically make a Jason Bourne movie with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. And when I say bright idea, I of course mean terrible idea. It’s not entirely Austin’s fault, per se. He’s taking a check, and trying to branch out a bit from the comfort zone of his more natural skill sets (i.e., cracking heads). But this desultory, slapdash, poorly directed straight-to-video flick about an amnesiac, double-crossed killing machine takes ideas and scenes we’ve seen dozens of times before, and then executes them lazily and poorly.
Austin (above) plays a hulking guy with no name and no memory (and thus nothing left to
lose, Bob Dylan might opine). When he finds himself being hunted by the Russian mob, however, this amnesiac decides to fight back. Working with FBI agent Mason Reese (Adam Beach), Dr. Grace Bishop (Erica Cerra) is also trying to track down Austin’s character; she’s treated him, and is convinced his faulty sense of self-identity, in which he randomly “reboots” every couple weeks or months, can be cured. Enduring beatings, bullets and betrayal, Austin’s stranger slowly starts to remember bits and pieces of
the horror that took away his career, his family and his life. Naturally, more fisticuffs ensue, against a backdrop of governmental let-down and duplicity.
Working from a script by Quinn Scott, director Robert Lieberman delivers messy, uninvolving action, indiscriminately mixing slow-motion and regular-speed mayhem, and cross-cutting in a manner that mars whatever intent stunt coordinator Lauro Chartrand might have had. Austin, meanwhile, is required to do stupid things (like show up at Dr. Bishop’s hotel room… after she drops off her business card at a bar he frequents?), and do some ruminative emoting, which doesn’t come all that naturally to him. If there’s at all a silver lining to this yawning mess, it’s that The Stranger is at least rated R, so it doesn’t pull punches on its bloody beat-downs. Even hardcore action fans will be hard-pressed to care about this Stranger‘s identity, however.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case stored in turn in a cardboard slipcover with lenticular imaging (that’s fancy talk for 3-D, folks), The Stranger comes to DVD presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track and optional Spanish and English SDH subtitles. Apart from a trailer, its only supplemental feature is a six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, in which Austin talks about the time constraints of the production and also (pretty intelligently, actually) about the difference in fighting for camera versus fighting in the ring, and how the former is “less of a dance.” To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. D (Movie) C- (Disc)
Excepting its slightly freaky cover art, The Human Spark, hosted by Alan Alda, proves a warm and engaging scientific exploration for the layperson — an inquisitive nonfiction title that takes viewers on a spectacular and
sometimes personal journey.
Actor, author and science enthusiast Alda explores our uniquely human brains in this three-part PBS series, which delves into a wealth of a scientific
disciplines — including archaeology, primatology, neuroscience,
behavioral psychology and even philosophy. After billions of years of life’s evolution on this planet, and long after
recognizable humans first walked its surface, a new human species burst upon the
scene, apparently unannounced. It was us. Until then our ancestors had
shared the planet with other humanoids. Soon, however, there was only us,
with unprecedented power and dominion over all other animals and our
environment. That mysterious something was and is the “human spark” at
the center of this title.
Visiting with dozens of scientists all over the world and participating directly in many of their experiments (including a comprehensive examination of his own brain to see where
his “most human” abilities reside), Alda serves as a genial stand-in guide for viewers. By studying the fossilized bones and tools of our ancestors and
examining our nearest living relatives, Alda helps viewers understand
what we have in common with and what sets us apart from our ancestors. Aspirant scientists and armchair anthropologists alike will spark to this title, with its smart mix of breadth and depth, of both the cerebral and social.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, The Human Spark comes to DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen, with an English language stereo audio track. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or simply click here. Or if Amazon is totally your thing, click here, then. B+ (Movie) C- (Disc)
The potentially interesting mixture of several different genres gets wasted in the dreadful, bafflingly thin, supernaturally-inflected Western actioner Jonah Hex, about a vengeful Civil War-era bounty hunter whose brush with death leaves him with the ability to communicate with the dead. Distinct from its various failings, this DC comic book adaptation, starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich, is most notable for how skimpy and curiously under-sketched it feels given its passel of familiar faces. For the full review, from Screen International, click here. (Warner Bros., PG-13, 81 minutes)
Yes, Jonah Hex is that short, actually. It’s 81 minutes and change, and if you throw out eight minutes for the end credits and almost six minutes of opening credit noodling, in which a live action sequence is intercut with some stylish animation, that’s around 67 minutes of actual narrative in which crucial character backstory, motivation and basic plot questions still aren’t answered.
I have a thing against movies whose posters feature characters nibbling their fingers, which immediately and unfortunately puts Kristen Bell‘s When in Rome in my crosshairs. It’s not empty, irrational hatred, however. A small stable of recognizable faces in supporting roles cannot save this utterly vapid romantic comedy fable pitched at some fantasy demographic of young professional women who value love seemingly only as a commodity, another box to check off on a very long and modern to-do list. That the film’s plot is malarkey through and through is perhaps expected, but that it is delivered in such thunderously obvious strokes pushes it from merely bad to nearly intolerable in certain stretches.
Beth (Bell, above) is an ambitious, cautious-in-love junior curator at the Guggenheim Museum. On a trip to Rome for her impulsive younger sister’s wedding, she meets best man Nick (Josh Duhamel). The two share a dance and a spark, but Beth gets it in her head that he has a girlfriend. Consoling herself with a bottle of champagne, she fitfully grabs a handful of coins from a local fountain, magically igniting the passion of those who threw them in. Pursued back to New York by a widowed sausage magnate (Danny DeVito), a street magician (Jon Heder), a would-be painter (Will Arnett) and a self-admiring model (Dax Shepard), Beth must sort out whether Nick’s continued advances are real, or part of the same band of zany suitors.
Falling in love abroad seem to be particularly en vogue, if a recent spate of Hollywood romantic comedies are to be believed (see My Life in Ruins and Leap Year). Saddled with clunky expository dialogue and baffling character motivations, however, When in Romehas only two settings: broad, and broader. The film’s one potentially amusing bit — in which Nick takes Beth to a pitch-black restaurant, in which the lack of sight is supposed to be part of the dining experience, heightening other senses — is botched and rushed. Even within the movie’s wearying fantastical conceit there is no interior logic. Lazily and inexplicably, when it comes time for Beth to dismiss the suitors, they magically show up as a group at her apartment — apparently knowing of one another, and having little or no competitive impulse.
Easy-on-the-eyes leads Bell and Duhamel mostly escape judgment on the strength of their smiles. Through sheer force of will several bit players, most notably Shepard, breathe life into their scenes of assertive come-on. A litany of strange cameos, along with a fervently pitched dance-along by the entire cast over the end credits, all seems desperately designed to create the impression that someone is having fun. It’s certainly not the audience, however.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, When in Rome comes to DVD on a dual-layer disc in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, with an English language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track. Optional Spanish and French tracks are included, as well as subtitles in all three languages. The disc’s bonus features consist of a pair of music videos — “Starstrukk,” from 3OH!3, featuring Katy Perry, and “Stupid Love Letter,” from Friday Night Boys — as well as three minutes of bloopers which should serve as a professional suicide reel for the movie’s propmasters. Three-plus minutes of deleted scenes round things out. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. D (Movie) C- (Disc)
A couple days old, but over at The Wrap, Steve Pond has a nice piece about the special challenges in trying to mount a film festival in the city of Los Angeles, where every day is its own competition for eyeballs. Thursday night’s downtown opening night of the festival, opposite the Lakers’ Game Seven NBA championship efforts, is especially illustrative of this.
You hear a lot of rap stars talk about their musical aspirations, particularly as slotted in competition against other artists, as being part of “the game.” (Hell, one rapper even named himself after it.) Director Gabriel Noble’s festival-minted documentary P-Star Rising illuminates that concept — of music as less specifically and solely the outlet for artistic expression, and more an occupational lifeline that happens to take place in a cutthroat, often manifestly unfair environment.
Spanning four years, the movie examines the intriguing and unusual tale of single dad Jesse Diaz and his nine-year-old girl, Priscilla, an aspirant rapper. She’s not some out-of-left-field prodigy, however; in the early 1980s, Diaz was a rising hip-hop star, and so he’s impressed upon his daughter a participatory love for the musical genre. Noble’s film follows this father-daughter duo through various ups and downs both in the music industry and out — late nights in the studio, performances around the world, music label
negotiations, home schooling, and financial shakiness — as Priscilla attempts to land a record deal and become a superstar.
P-Star Rising is engaging in large part because of the gulf in self-awareness between its adult and adolescent characters (Priscilla talks with disarming, what-are-you-gonna-do? frankness about her absentee crackhead mother), and how those eventually cross, or meet up. Diaz is one those curly-haired guys who wear lots of sports hats and jerseys, and ridiculous jewelry on thick gold chains (Jeffrey Wells might call him a Hispanic party elephant), and he doesn’t really seem to have an appreciable grasp on the damage it can do to a kid to try to make them your primary breadwinner (see: Lindsay Lohan). Five years older than Priscilla, daughter Solsky is an intermediate voice of reason and support.
Diaz and his daughters go through a lot, from living in a shelter to getting their own little place and grappling with the difficulty of paying bills. While she has some talent, it’s interesting to see how Priscilla negotiates the mountain pass between wanting to both please and help provide for her father and, eventually, figure out (at least a little bit) if this is something in which she’s sincerely interested in of her own accord. Whatever one makes of her dreams, and whether or not air quotes should be applied there, young Priscilla, who has found a home on PBS’ The Electric Company while she continues working her music career, at least engagingly makes the point that it’s neither all nature or all nurture when it comes to charting one’s future.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, P-Star Rising comes to DVD presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, with an English language stereo audio track. Bonus features consist of a music video (titled “Daddy’s Lil’ Girl,” don’tcha know), in addition to another 15 minutes of excised scenes, comprised almost wholly of early studio footage of young Priscilla. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS, or click here; if Amazon is totally and irretrievably your thing, meanwhile, click here. C+ (Movie) B- (Disc)
The genetic mysteries of weight gain get put under the microscope in this hour-long PBS documentary from director Richard Rifkind, which tracks a trio of PhD students as they attempt to decipher the elusive protein that controls human appetite.
Smart, focused and affecting, Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist works so well because it tells a vivid, suspenseful story in the most elemental terms. Centered around three biology graduate students working under Columbia University Medical Center’s Dr. Lawrence Shapiro, the movie charts their parallel quest for scientific success and stardom in addition to academic achievement. Competing in a worldwide race to be the first to publish their findings, the students are out to discover the molecular switch that controls appetite in the human body. Their road to success combines years of trial and error with unflinching dedication, rock-climbing, rumors of pickle juice and, yes, even the music of the Flaming Lips.
Scientist-turned-filmmaker Rifkind does a couple smart things with his movie, tapping into the rich thrill of discovery that drives scientific inquiry, and making it seem cool and palpable in a way that a lot of science-related films (and science teachers, sadly) simply do not. He also gives viewers a sense of investment and rooting interest in the students’ quest, attaching it to a broader social relevance. You might not totally want to go back to high school and pay more attention in biology class, but you’ll certainly have a deeper appreciation of those that did.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Naturally Obsessed comes to DVD presented in widescreen, with an English language stereo audio track. Unlike a lot of educationally inflected NOVA and PBS titles, this disc has a small clutch of nice supplemental features, throwing a spotlight on basic research and drug design and the educational pipeline that will provide our future generations of scientists. There’s also a discussion guide PDF for teachers, with advice on how to get their own students involved in research activities. To purchase the DVD, phone (800) PLAY-PBS or simply click here; or, if Amazon is totally your thing, click here. B+ (Movie) B (Disc)
Those who pooh-poohed Tom Cruise’s cameo in Tropic Thunder are proven wrong, with today‘s announcement that the character is getting his own spin-off movie, his “life rights” having been secured by Red Hour Films’ Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld, who will co-produce. This is a win for Cruise — something that reinvents him and keeps him “hip,” or at least tangibly connected to a younger generation — but also something of a departure for a guy who, in his career, has frequently made Delorme cartographers look like radical, free-wheeling anarchists. I don’t yet know of Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but screenwriter Michael Bacall had better figure out a way to make Grossman a bit less voluble, to temper his excesses. He’s more naturally a supporting character, in other words. Ninety-plus minutes with someone this “on” can be debilitating.
Locating a winsome blend of peppy ensemble adventure and nostalgic reflection, Toy Story 3 is the type of film adults might goad their just-as-eager children into seeing again. Coming 15 years since the first film revolutionized animated storytelling, and over a decade since the last installment, this chapter again imaginatively details some cooperative toy questing, while also movingly assaying change, and what it means for the fundamental nature of a relationship to be irrevocably altered. For the full review, from Screen International, click here. (Disney/Pixar, G, 102 minutes)
It’s been a long time delayed since its first announcement in 2008, but Universal has moved the boulder of another Jason Bourne flick further up the hill, signing screenwriter Tony Gilroy to pen a treatment and bible for the proposed fourth film, The Bourne Legacy. Gilroy, of course, had at least a hand in writing all of the first three Bourne flicks, before jumping behind the camera and directing his own scripts for Michael Clayton and Duplicity. Universal wants to stay in business with Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, but they won’t yet commit, so different options are on the table. Regardless of what Greengrass ultimately decides (and after three films together, there has to be some fatigue), it’s hard to see Damon walking away from a franchise like this, especially with Gilroy on board.