MCN DVD Reviews: July 22 2008

*The Wrap Up ...*

Penelope	Equal parts Ugly Duckling fable and Fractured Fairy Tale, Penelope is the mostly delightful story of an heiress, who, because of a family curse, was born with a pig's snout instead of a regulation human nose. Christina Ricci's been down this road before (Pumpkin), and was producer Reese Witherspoon's first choice for the role. After 25 years of virtual house arrest, Penelope hopes to break the spell by finding one who will love her faithfully. Even with the amount of money at stake, suitors are frightened off by her deformity, which hardly reaches Elephant Man proportions. Among the men who aren't freaked out by her appearance is a handsome grifter (James McAvoy) who's being paid by tabloid reporter (Peter Dinklage) to get a picture of her. Deflated by that revelation, Penelope dons a face-covering scarf, and escapes her mansion prison for a tour of the outside world. Troubles ensue, but none so insurmountable that fairy-tale conventions can't save the day. Even if freshman director Mark Palansky's romantic comedy didn't find much love among jaded critics, there's no reason tweener audiences shouldn't give the DVD a try. Ricci's performance reminded me of Anne Hathaway in the similarly underappreciated Ella Enchanted, although that 2004 fantasy was the better fantasy. Tween-age girls probably are the natural audience for both pictures. . -- Gary Dretzka

Trafic: Criterion Collection	Franco-phobia among American moviegoers was far less pronounced in the '50s and '60s, when Jacques Tati's comic everyman, Mr. Hulot, became an international sensation. Today's audiences might find as much of Mr. Bean, Columbo and Roberto Benigni in Hulot as mid-century viewers saw Mr. McGoo, Chaplain's Little Tramp, Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr., Inspector Clouseau and any number of Ernie Kovac and Jackie Gleason's inventions. Tati used Hulot to comment on the absurdities of modernity and consumerism in post-World War II France. His standard uniform was comprised of a tan raincoat, tired brown hat, high-water pants, a pipe and umbrella. In Traffic, Hulot is responsible for delivering a camper tricked out with all manner of gadgets to an auto show in Amsterdam. Considering how modern SUVs are designed with all the comforts of home, Traffic holds up better than most movies from 1971. This was the last entry in Tati's Mr. Hulot series, and one of the best. The double-disc Criterion Collection edition has been restored in a hi-def digital transfer and adds such features as the biodoc, In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot; an interview with the cast from the French television program, Le journal de cinema; a new essay by critic Jonathan Romney; and The Comedy of Jacques Tati, from a 1973 television program. Watch it with whole family. -- Gary Dretzka

Shutter: Unrated Insanitarium	I'm not sure if Hollywood has run out of ideas to borrow from Japanese masters of suspense and horror, but it's interesting that Shutter was based on a 2004 genre flick from Thailand. Movies from Southeast Asia often involve ghosts in the lives of ordinary folks. Americans are partial to zombies, but director Mayasuki Ochiai's adaptation sticks pretty close to the original. The primary difference is in the setting. Instead of Bangkok, Tokyo is the destination for a pair of American newlyweds mixing business with pleasure. From their camera emerge images of ghosts, whose persistent presence can only be explained by experts in spirit photography. Fans of the genre might want to check out Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom's original version, also available on DVD. It stands up much better under scrutiny. As usual, the producers were counting on the appeal of hot, young TV stars - here, Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor, John Hensley and Adrienne Pickering - to cover up the holes in the adaptation. Remember what the Eagles said about Hotel California, "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." That pretty much sums up the straight-to-DVD Insanitarium, in which a character played by Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) commits himself to a a mental hospital so he can rescue his sister. The wonderful Peter Stormare is the staff doctor who uses patients as guinea pigs. His victims may check in to the facility as troubled souls, but they're cursed to live inside it as cannibals (a.k.a., living zombies). Geeks and fanboys will be thrilled to learn that Olivia Munn - the sneaky-sexy host of G4's Attack of the Show - is one of the unnaturally young and attractive stars. -- Gary Dretzka

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation	Brazil hasn't always been known primarily as the home of a popular waxing technique, single-named athletes and the upcoming Olympic sport, train-surfing. In the late '60s and early '70s, spectacular soccer and political repression were foremost in most people's minds. Director Cao Hamburger and writer Claudio Galperin's film is set in 1970, a year in which Pele led the home team to the World Cup and the military junta began a violent crackdown on dissidents. As the World Cup approaches, Daniel and Miriam Stern sense trouble brewing, and they decide to split for a vacation in an unknown destination. They hurriedly drop off 10-year-old Mauro at the front door of his elderly grandfather, who, as it so happened, had just suffered a heart attack and died. Stranded, Mauro found refuge in the next-door apartment belonging to a devout Jew who had been friends with the grandfather. Mauro makes friends quickly in the working-class neighborhood, and, through his eyes, we watch the World Cup and increasing repression play out. Meanwhile, the plight of the absent parents is another constant, if quiet thread in the story. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is as entertaining as it is poignant. Mercifully, the South American juntas are a thing of the past, but the ghosts of the disappeared should never be forgotten or ignored. -- Gary Dretzka

Never Forever	Vera Farmiga, the protagonist of Never Forever, is among a handful of modern leading ladies whose acting style can be summed up in two words, fearless and ferocious. The 34-year-old Ukrainian-American actress has toiled in the vineyards of the indie-film and TV business for about 10 years, now. With her terrific portrayal of Matt Damon's psychiatrist girlfriend, in The Departed, Farmiga now has all the work she can handle. In Never Forever, she plays the exceedingly prim wife of a successful Korean-American lawyer from a prominent family with strong religious beliefs. Sarah and David's attempts at starting a family have been failures, leading her shame-filled husband to attempt suicide. In a remarkable twist of fate, the wife notices dead-ringer for her husband working as a delivery man for the dry cleaner she uses. After much agonizing, she decides to sacrifice her modesty and principles for a strictly-business sex-for-pay relationship with this undocumented worker. At first, she's able to maintain her emotion-free attachment to the man, not even caring to learn his name. Even though she remains in love with her husband, she grows sexually attached to Jihah. It's an old story, but retold with an actor whose ferocity and passion makes it feel new, again. Very few American actresses would even consider playing Sarah, let alone so totally immerse themselves in the character. -- Gary Dretzka

Beau Brummell: This Charming Man Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain Best of Manswers: The Season One Top 25 Manswers Reno 911: The Complete Fifth Season	Although, I've been aware of a character in English history named Beau Brummell, I had no knowledge of why he was significant or if he was a real or fictional person. There also was a very good '60s rock group named the Beau Brummels, whose "Laugh Laugh" remains quite listenable, and a popular mystery series, but, beyond that, he was just another British ponce. In fact, as This Charming Man explains, he was a rather important gent in Regency England, beyond any influence on male fashion. James Purefoy is quite good as the sharp and witty adviser to the party-loving Prince Regent (Hugh Bonneville) and close friend of poet and party animal, Lord Byron (Matthew Rhys). The presentation was informed by Ian Kelly's biography. The DVD adds the essay, Brummell in Pop Culture. If one could chose between Huell Howser and British comedian Robbie Coltrane (Cracker, Ocean's Twelve, Harry Potter) to lead a tour of, well, anywhere, hands-down it be would Coltrane, if only because he wouldn't be so gosh, golly, gee-whiz about everything. In Incredible Britain, Coltrane took viewers on a tour of the country via off-the-beaten-path B-roads (the equivalent of our blue highways). His outsized personality perfectly complements the eccentricities of the people he meets and their traditions. It's lots of fun, and, even if they couldn't afford a classic Jaguar roadster, might inspire viewers to take similar excursions of their own. The set includes a biography of Coltrane and an annotated map. The Spike channel reality show, Manswers, is a video version of the kinds of advice columns that appear in Playboy, Esquire, GQ and various lad magazines. Hot women provide answers to questions young men would be too embarrassed to ask their dad, priest or teacher, but might put to an older sibling, frat brother or stripper. More titillating than anything else, the show also occasionally manages to answer one or two relevant queries per session. Reno 911 is one of my favorite TV shows. Irreverent and downright goofy, this spoof of Cops and CSI has remarkably entered its sixth season, with the first five now available on DVD. Not being a product of HBO or Showtime, the Comedy Central show is occasionally required to bleep language and pixilate nudity, so an uncensored package is quite welcome. -- Gary Dretzka



Superhero Movie The best that can be said of movies that parody movies that already are parodies of themselves is that they keep lots of C- and D-list actors off of the unemployment rolls. It would be sad to learn that 82-year-old Leslie Nielsen needed to appear in turkeys like Superhero Movies to keep from starving, but what other excuse could there be? His presence alone legitimizes these endeavors, and, as long as he's willing to phone in his performances, the studios will continue to churn them out. Here, writer-director Craig Mazin found inspiration in the disproportionate number of comic-book heroes plying their trade in Hollywood, today, with Spider-Man inspiring most of the gags. Given only that much information, it's easy to predict 90 percent of the jokes even before the opened credits have unspooled. That said, Superhero is far from the worst movie parody I've endured over the last few months. Fans of the genre will want to check it out, but everyone else can safely pass it by. The bonus features aren't all that terrific, either. -- Gary Dretzka

The Tracey Fragments Adapting stream-of-consciousness writing for the screen is a task that borders on the needlessly difficult. Considering that the vast majority of all moviegoers would prefer to have their eyes poked out by turkey vultures than buy a ticket for anything experimental, it's a wonder anyone even tries. The Tracey Fragments is veteran Canadian director Bruce McDonald's impassioned attempt to do justice to Maureen Medved's impressionistic study of teen angst. Ellen Page (Juno, Hard Candy) paints yet another remarkable portrait of a teenager who carries the weight of the world on her shoulders as she runs the gauntlet of insults delivered by classmates and deals with parents unfit to raise puppies, let alone children. To demonstrate Tracey's chaotic state of mind, McDonald employs multiple video windows -- in an array of shapes and sizes - and determinately non-liner time sequences. Here's our introduction to the protagonist, "My name is Tracey Berkowitz … 15 …just a normal girl who hates herself." Much is made of Tracey's flat-chestedness, but it seems more of a problem for her classmates and the hipster heartthrob, Billy Zero, who's just another cool-looking predator. Tracey's other big concern involves finding her 7-year-old brother, Sonny, who disappeared after she hypnotized him into thinking he was a dog. (A dinner-table scene, in which the kid answers his parents' questions with barks, is hilarious.) The Tracey Fragments is a difficult movie to watch, let alone understand, even at a mere 77 minutes. But, adventurous viewers will be rewarded for their patience. Tracey's quest is propelled, as well, by Broken Social Scene's dynamic, Velvet Underground-inspired soundtrack. -- Gary Dretzka

Flakes If it weren't for the occasional f-bomb, Flakes might fit neatly into the same general category as High School Musical, Camp Rock and the million of inspirational let's-do-a-musical stories inspired by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. I simply can't imagine what else to make of this slight romantic comedy about dueling breakfast bars. Yup, you read that right: cafes that offer customers as wide a choice of cereals as Ben & Jerry and Baskin-Robbins have flavors. Set and filmed in New Orleans, Flakes could changed its title and envisioned a David vs. Goliath contest between coffee shops, book stores or used-car dealerships, but writers Chris Poche and Karey Kirkpatrick must have woken up in a strange city one day, jonesing for some Sugar Smacks or Count Chocula. Aaron Stanford plays Neal, a prickly musician with a severe case of writer's block (rocker's block?), managing a funky cereal bar owned by an eccentric collector of classic brands (Christopher Lloyd, of course). His kooky girlfriend, Miss Pussy Katz, is played by the similarly kooky Zooey Deschanel, who, when she becomes frustrated with Neal's unwillingness to exercise his musical muscle, takes a job at the new, Starbucks-like cereal bar across the street. Tempers flare, and cooler heads don't prevail until Cupid gets tired off their squabbling and launches a pre-emptive arrow at their hearts. Naturally, local homeless people and other neighborhood eccentrics are enlisted by both storekeepers to further their causes. Tough to imagine anyone of voting age finding much to cheer for in Flakes - Stanford's character is especially unlikeable - but older teens might enjoy it. -- Gary Dretzka

Chop Shop The setting for this excellent urban drama, New York's Willets Point, is so far off the beaten path, it might as well be in Sao Paulo, Tijuana or Manila, which it more closely resembles. Equals parts scrap yard, flea market and slum, the Iron Triangle is the daytime home to a tightly knit community of mechanics, sanders, buffers, spray painters, welders, dent removers and hucksters of all ages and cultural backgrounds. At night, illuminated by the lights of Shea Stadium, next-door, the automotive beehive empties and Willets Point becomes a haven for grifters, thieves and sexual predators. When 12-year-old Alejandro isn't steering customers into the garage belonging to his benefactor, he's hustling everything from fenders and tires, to bootleg DVDs and boxes of M&Ms. His dream is to buy a canteen wagon, from which he'll sell food to blue-collar diners with his 16-year-old sister. His urgency grows after witnessing Isamar climbing out of the cab of a semi, whose driver she's just satisfied sexually. Besides City of God, Chop Shop is favorably reminiscent of work by Italy's post-war neo-realists. The credit belongs to the splendid acting of Alejandro Polanco and Isamar Gonzales, who were recruited from the New York school system by co-writer-director Ramin Bahrani. Chop Shop isn't to be missed by any indie-film enthusiast. It's that good. -- Gary Dretzka

Pleasure Factory Help Me Eros Younger American audiences have embraced the uniquely stylized horror- and suspense-thrillers exported during the last 10 years, or so, from Pacific Rim countries. It may take a while for the same viewers to embrace the arty soft-core stories that combine elements of J-pop with the kind of eroticism inspired more by Emmanuelle than In the Realm of the Senses. The stories that inform Strand's Pleasure Factory and Help Me Eros defy explanation. Pleasure Factory is set in Singapore's little-publicized red-light district, Geyland. The stories behind the sex workers and their customers meet are equal parts compelling and outrageous. You haven't lived until you've watched Taiwan's kooky F4 Girls - a cross between the Spice Girls and an American boy band -- slide down stripper poles in a street-side booth to entice passers-by to buy their betel nuts. (Check the Internet sites devoted to the sexy betel-nut runners. It's a hoot.) Then, too, there's the chubby suicide-hotline operator, Chyi, who is married to a gay chef and shares a bathtub with live eels and snakes (a.k.a., tomorrow's dinner). Chyi's alluring phone voice enchants a failed stock-market investor, who, when she turns down his advances, becomes her stalker. To compensate, he finds companionship with one of the pole-peddlers. The sexual couplings are beyond bizarre. -- Gary Dretzka

Impact Point Once every few years, someone attempts to find something interesting in beach volleyball beyond the bikinis and buff bodies. For pure camp value, alone, it would be difficult to top Side Out, which starred C. Thomas Howell, Peter Horton, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Kathy Ireland and Harley Jane Kozack, who now writes mystery novels. Impact Point is no threat to that fine film's legacy, but it does showcase the requisite number of hard bodies and sand bunnies. Oh, yeah, there's also a mystery stalker. -- Gary Dretzka

Cannon: Season One/Jake and the Fatman: Season One, Vol. 1 Army Wives: The Complete First Season Till Death Do Us Part Anglo Saxon Attitudes As strange as it might seem in 2008, there was a time when a fat old white man could solve crimes on TV and carve a niche for himself atop the Nielsen ratings. Standing 5-foot-7, William Conrad was sufficiently rotund to play the reclusive New York P.I., Nero Wolfe, and never be confused with co-star Joe Penny in Jake and the Fat Man. Conrad already was a familiar face, voice and physique in movies and television, when, in 1971, he accepted the role of overweight Los Angeles P.I., Frank Cannon. His bulk often worked against him in chases and fights, but television convention demanded that he win out at the end. Today, he probably would be arrested and sent to a fat farm. In1987, Conrad played Los Angeles D.A., J.L. McCabe. Both series were popular with viewers and remain a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, Paramount/CBS Video has only seen fit to release a half-season's worth of episodes at a time. Similarly short-changed are fans of The Streets of San Francisco: The Second Season, Vol. 1. Incidentally, Conrad provided the voice of Matt Dillon, in the radio version of Gunsmoke, and also narrated The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Lifetime's Army Wives, one of the surprise hits of 2007, has returned for a second stanza. The first-season package will get new fans up to date on the compelling relationships and storylines that transcended the usual prime-time soap-opera conventions. The strong-willed wives are played by Catherine Bell, Kim Delaney, Wendy Davis and Sally Pressman, while Sterling K. Brown is the token male whose wife is off fighting in Iraq. The series' writers don't avoid politics, but the best stories focus on the strain on relationships caused by endless tours of duty in the Middle East. Like Alfred Hitchcock before him, John Waters made a perfect choice to serve as narrator for a series of stories of about murder most foul. In the case of Till Death Do Us Part, the episodes focused on actual cases in which marriages ended in death, not divorce. Waters' Groom Reaper often seemed gleeful as he presented the 13 dramatized episodes. Although the production values weren't anything special, the final twists make the stories worth watching. In 1992, Thames Television adapted Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, Angus Wilson's darkly comic social satire. British TV mainstay Richard Johnson played Gerald Middleton, a distinguished historian involved in an elaborate hoax involving a pagan fertility idol and a 7th Century bishop. He's also having an affair with the fiancée (lovely Tara Fitzgerald) of his best friend and colleague. When it comes to scandals, American academics simply aren't in the same league with their British counterparts. Among the other new TV-to-DVD arrivals are 30 Days: The Complete Second Season, The Vice: The Complete Second Season, American Gangster - The Complete Second Season, Rebus: Set 3, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: The Fourth Season and Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Complete Animated Series, Walker, Texas Ranger: The Complete Fifth Season, Wire in the Blood: The Complete Fifth Season and Soul Food: The Final Season. -- Gary Dretzka