DVD Movie Madness

By: Kevin Filipski

Monday May 09, 2005

In case you might have missed some recent DVD releases, or looking for ones to avoid, Filipski rounds up some of the good, the bad, and the ugly for your digital desires.
P.S. (CTHV) - This dopey drama directed by Dylan Kidd - who evidently wanted to prove he could make the antithesis of the acerbic Roger Dodger - has a risible story of a mature woman taken aback when a young man appears in her life as a dead ringer for her great love 20 years ago. If not for Linney's great restraint in playing this confused, even desperate woman, P.S. would probably be unwatchably silly.

But Linney is perfect: she does more with a single gesture, raised eyebrow or pursed lips than most actresses with their entire equipment. The much-ballyhooed sex scene between Linney and Topher Grace is an acting tutorial: Linney's character, craving intimacy, approaches Grace in the bluntest way possible. Her minute facial expressions as she waits for him to undress and find a condom are priceless. She should have won every award for that single scene: alas, she wasn't even nominated.

When Will I Be Loved (MGM) - That James Toback has made movies for 30 years is a tribute to his skills as a conman, not as writer-director. When Will I Be Loved is another maddeningly self-indulgent, inanely-directed,-written and -acted mess. Admittedly, he tackles themes that no other American filmmakers do - racism and female sexuality among them - but since he has nothing interesting to say on anything, watching Toback's movies is the cinematic equivalent of a fatal car accident on the highway: you slow down to see the mayhem.

Poor Neve Campbell, so good in Altman's The Company, has been conned into a ridiculous role as a Manhattan sexual predator; she probably can't wait for the "Party of Five" reunion. MGM's DVD includes deleted scenes and Toback self-congratulatory audio commentary.

The Village (Buena Vista) - M. Night Shamalayan's 15 minutes have run out. The Sixth Sense at least had a twist to boondoggle audiences, but since then, Unbreakable, Signs and now The Village have been released to ever-diminishing returns. The Village is his weakest "Twilight Zone" variation yet: two stultifying hours of a village clan dreading the "monsters" in the woods. When we discover Shamalayan's "mcguffin," it's so transparently lame it wasn't worth the elaborate set-up.

As always, top-flight actors go along with M's shenanigans, and it's beautifully shot. But, by now, who really cares? Buena Vista's DVD includes several bonuses in an attempt to give The Village more heft than it deserves.

Alien vs. Predator (Fox) - I admit I'm an Alien fan (Alien 3 was the best of the series), but I never "got" Predator: they always seemed like hairy, unscary giants. So I went into A vs. P hoping that my favorite aliens would do their thing. Of course, it's mind-bogglingly stupid, but with skillful effects, design and stunts; the cast has little to do but run, scream and be killed. This unnecessary showdown may kill off both franchises, but Fox does provide an assortment of fascinating bonuses including a reworked version of the film, unfortunately scarcely better than the released one.

First Daughter (Fox) - In the battle of forgettable "president's daughter" flicks, Mandy Moore's Chasing Liberty got a proper release, while Katie Holmes' First Daughter was unceremoniously dumped into theaters. Too bad, because Katie Holmes has never been more adorable onscreen. Of course, if you don't care about Katie (!!), Michael Keaton as the president and Margaret Colin as the First Lady make an amusing power couple. Either way, it's a safe, inoffensive romantic comedy.

Extras are minimal - Katie's commentary with her costars is nothing much - although there's a touching tribute to composer Michael Kamen, who died before writing the movie's score.

Friday Night Lights (Universal) - A best-selling account of the cult-like aura surrounding high school football in this country, Friday Night Lights has been turned into a hard-hitting movie aiming for documentary-style realism. Indeed, there's no plot or lead characters per se, as director Peter Berg jumps around among the players and students, the coaches and teachers, friends and fans. It's all expertly-done - the editing especially giving an indication of the visceral power of the gridiron - but the problem is, because of that distancing effect, we really don't care what happens to whom.

Of the interesting extras on Universal's DVD, by far the most attention-grabbing is a look at the real players and coaches who inspired the book and movie.

Cellular (New Line) - A clever conceit doesn't mean that a thriller will actually be thrilling, and that's the case with Cellular. When Kim Basinger is kidnapped, she randomly calls a cell phone, and the college kid who answers has to overcome many (mostly unbelievable) obstacles to help her. Tidily directed, with good, tongue-in-cheek acting by William Macy as an ordinary detective, Cellular wears out its welcome after 30 minutes, limping along for the last hour.

New Line's DVD includes a documentary about the real-life case that inspired the movie.

Wimbledon (Universal) - Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany are not my idea of a big-screen couple; intelligent actors, they have no sexual chemistry, making them rank amateurs off the court of this harmless romantic comedy set in the world of tennis. Director Richard Loncraine tried his damnedest to make the actual matches look realistic, which is more than he does for the love story, which fizzles out. DVD bonuses include the usual "making-of" showing how the non-playing actors were whipped into sporting shape.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Paramount) - If Oscars were awarded for movies that avoid characterization, humor and drama and instead looked terrific, Sky Captain would still come up empty. This dull gloss on 1930s action serials stars two often-robotic actors (Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow) overwhelmed by a multitude of special effects from first frame to last. Angelina Jolie injects some life into the proceedings whenever she's onscreen, but she's also defeated by material that favors the purely visual over people. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but Sky Captain's visuals are so contrived that they never break that sense of disbelief. Paramount's DVD is loaded with extras about the effects, natch.

De-Lovely (MGM) -Kevin Kline works hard and efficiently as Cole Porter, while Ashley Judd is more than adequate as his harried but loving wife Linda. If neither performer is transcendent, that's director Irwin Winkler's fault. Although Winkler obviously loves Porter's music, he's too pedestrian a filmmaker to pull off the Fellini- and Fosse-inspired structure, as Porter watches his life unfold onstage as he sits in the wings. Winkler's other "innovation," having contemporary singers like Elvis Costello, Alanis Morrissette, Robbie Williams and Sheryl Crow sing various Porter tunes in big production numbers, also falls flat.

MGM's DVD has nearly an hour's worth of behind-the-scenes interviews, along with 15 minutes' worth of deleted scenes. De-Lovely, although plodding and inelegant (the opposite of Porter's songs), at least doesn't shy away from the man's many warts.

I Heart Huckabees (Fox) - David O. Russell is a taste I've never acquired; I disliked Flirting with Disaster and Spanking the Monkey, but did find Three Kings an intriguingly adult exploration of war, with comedy and drama adroitly mixed. But now, with I Heart Huckabees, I must say that Russell has truly underreached himself.

Existential comedies about the sorry state of today's world sound good in theory - and make critics' hearts a-flutter - but absurdism wore out its welcome decades ago, and only viewers who never saw Un Chien Andalou or any other Luis Bunuel features would find originality and humor in this tired, pointless, entirely crazy pastiche.

I must single out Mark Wahlberg for his sympathetic performance; the rest of the cast falls into Russell's trap. Fox has released two DVD versions - the first a single-disc with two commentaries (director, and director with cast); the second contains voluminous featurettes, but apparently doesn't include a straitjacket.

Bright Young Things (New Line) - Unfortunately, Stephen Fry's adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies" isn't as first-class as it aspires; this satirical glimpse at the decadent 1930s in England has the ingredients for nasty, sordid fun, but debut writer/director Fry simply scratches the surface of these fractured people, helped by a fine cast, with the best portrayals from Emily Mortimer, Jim Broadbent and Dan Aykroyd.

Still, this era's glossy "look" is strongly evoked, and it is an attempt to make an adult comedy in this age of infantile humor. New Line's DVD includes Fry's audio commentary, making-of featurettes and a glimpse at Fry on- and off-set.

She Hate Me (CTHV) - Can Spike Lee go any lower? She Hate Me is an utter fiasco, two hours and 20 minutes of attempted farce continually falling with thuds. It's surely audacious, taking on the intermingled politics of sex, race, business and politics. But Lee's story of how a black executive falls to the bottom then rises again thanks to his ready sperm - which he parlays into a lucrative business impregnating baby-hungry lesbians! - is so scattershot that he misfires badly at whatever obvious targets he lines up.

Most Spike Lee movies suffer from lack of discipline, but She Hate Me carries that to a ridiculous extreme. I dare you not to drop your jaw in amazement at the foolishness of entire sequences: most spectacularly a subplot with John Turturro as a "Godfather"-loving Mafioso and Monica Bellucci as his lesbian daughter. The fact that Lee is very passionate about this (he even manages to drag in both Enron and Nixon into this mess) makes it no less preposterous.

Sony's DVD contains seven deleted scenes, a puff-piece featurette, and Lee's own earnest, mostly humorless commentary.

Exorcist: the Beginning (WHV) - Renny Harlin's dismemberment of The Exorcist franchise is notable for its dullness: it's not mind-numbingly awful, but it's so boring and by-the-numbers that you wonder why Warners passed on Paul Schrader's version and hired Harlin to reshoot!

Showing how Father Merrin (Max von Sydow in the original classic) battled Satan for the first time in the African desert would make a compelling thriller as long as Harlin didn't direct it...the sole arresting moment in the entire movie is the final shot, and as Harlin says in his straightforward audio commentary, that was faked in the studio. (Note: Schrader's version gets a belated unveiling in Brussels in March...maybe we can finally compare his vision to Harlin's lack of one.)