MCN DVD Reviews: January 28 2009

The Wrap Up ...

RocknRolla

	..The MCN Reviews Vault
	..The MCN Critics Roundup

If all one knows of Guy Ritchie is that he once was married to Madonna, agreed to direct her in the ill-fated Swept Away and has often been mentioned in the same breath as Quentin Tarantino, RocknRolla probably would be the wrong place to make his acquaintance. Without experiencing his breakthrough hit, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, at least, it's likely that most of the swindles, conspiracies, double-crosses and heavily accented dialogue would be lost in the break-neck narrative. Typically, British gangsters tend to dress as if they're on their way to church and cheer for their favorite soccer team from the luxury boxes. They're tough bastards, though. Tom Wilkinson play Lenny Cole, a slick London mob boss who's agreed to grease the wheels for a group of Russian mobsters planning to pull a major property swindle. After learning of their scheme, a group of freelancers disrupt the proceeding by stealing the payoff and a painting the Russkie boss considers to be lucky. The canvas, which I can't remember seeing head-on, winds up in the hands of Cole's drug-addicted, hip-hopping stepson, who hates the man. Meanwhile, sexy Thandie Newton plays a femme fatale accountant who's also playing both sides against the middle. (Inexplicably, Jeremy Piven appears as a music executive, but remains more of a curiosity than anything else.) Although the story could hardly be more difficult to follow, the action comes fast and furious. And, of course, it's always fun to listen to the Brit slang favored by movie mobsters. RocknRolla is intended to be followed by a pair of other thrillers based on the same characters.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

People love to read all sorts of things - some valid, others not even close -- into Woody Allen's movies. Mostly, they involve the filmmaker's personal life and psychoanalytical takes on casting decisions. All's fair in love and gossip, I suppose. Aside from Allen's seeming fixation on Scarlett Johansson, however, his recent European-set movies seem as traditional and classically constructed as one could expect in the mid-2000s. It's almost as if the locations themselves somehow freed Allen from having to simultaneously defend and pull down the pants of Manhattan's most educated and privileged citizens. Unlike Scoop, Match Point and Cassandra's Dream, which were set in and around London, Vicky Cristina Barcelona could double as promotion for tourism in Spain's splendid Barcelona and Aviedo. It could just as well have been set in Italy, Greece or Argentina, places to which American students gravitate when seeking inspiration for a master's dissertation and/or a steamy interlude with a swarthy native, before accepting the status quo as a life style. Here, the Americans are represented by flighty blond Cristina (Johansson) and uptight brunette (Rebecca Hall). The object of their desire is the ruggedly handsome artist/stud, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), whose tempestuous divorce from to the combative Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) remains the subject of much chatter among Barcelona's glitterati. Allen blends these disparate elements in surprising ways, ultimately creating a spicy paella of love, desire and doubt. Like most of Allen's films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is informed by intelligent dialogue, splendid architecture and smart people making stupid choices. It isn't until the fiery Maria Elena arrives on the scene to reclaim her property - including Juan Antonio - that all of the combustible elements reach the proper emotional temperature and ignite. The flames of passion extend the story beyond its familiar rom-com roots into something more profound. Anyone looking for bonus material will be disappointed, because there isn't any.

Mary Poppins: 45th Anniversary Special Edition
The Secret of the Magic Gourd

Can it be 45 years since the release of Mary Poppins, one of the brightest jewels in the Disney crown? Apparently, so. Less surprising is the mere five-year space between special anniversary editions. Let's hope it doesn't take the studio another half-decade to release a Blu-ray edition of what essentially is same product. If Disney does wait until the 50th anniversary for the hi-def version, though, it will come loaded with interactive and other Internet-ready features. These components are what will sell Blu-ray titles and drive ancillary revenues, so getting it right the first time benefits everyone. Bonus features new to the two-disc package include Mary Poppins: From Page to Stage, a Step in Time, from the Broadway musical; a downloadable MP3 and Bob Crowley's Design Gallery.

If The Secret of the Magic Gourd doesn't ring any bells for consumers of Disney products, it's because the inspirational fable was made in conjunction with Centro Digital Pictures, in Hong Kong, for distribution primarily in mainland China. Based on a popular children's story by Tianyi Zhang, the film describes how an animated vegetable helps a boy appreciate the magical powers contained within him. Corbin Bleu, of High School Musical, has been recruited to add his English voice to the mix. The bonus features add making-of material, games and Chinese and Mandarin tracks.

Sony's sequel to its reasonably successful animated-animal adventure, Open Season, is a straight-to-DVD concoction (in-the-U.S., anyway) that retains the voicing talents of Jane Krakowski and Cody Cameron. Here, the animals of the forest come to the aid of Mr. Weenie (Cameron), who's been kidnapped by a militia of pampered pets in cahoots with his previous owners. Meanwhile, Giselle (Krakowski) has seen her plans to marry Elliot (Joel McHale) put on the back burner.

Pride and Glory

If I had a dollar for the number of times I've seen kilted members of the NYPD Emerald Society Pipes and Drums lead a funeral procession in a movie, I could probably afford to move to Ireland and take bagpipe lessons. These inexorably slow and exceedingly noisy marches to grave sites have become the go-to cliché for filmmakers in need of a shorthand device to convey the police force's Irish tradition, esprit de corps, courage under fire and working-class solidarity. Rarely are we shown the faces of African-American cops, who, given the choice, might prefer that they be marched to their eternal reward by a brass band imported from New Orleans. In the all-too-familiar Pride and Glory, the pipe-and-drummers and honor guard arrive on cue after four of the NYPD's finest are gunned down in a drug bust. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the killings were a bloody byproduct of a scheme engineered by renegade cops, several of whom belong to the same Irish family. The extended Tierney clan includes detectives played by Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Colin Farrell and Noah Emmerich, all of whom have different tolerances for corruption and brutality. If the ominous nature of day-to-day police work in the city's most-dangerous precincts is captured dead-on by director Gavin O'Connor, the screenplay he authored with Joe Carnahan is larded with sentimental contrivances and the usual excuses for misbehavior. While the thug life is represented by actors one or two steps removed from the street, the cops' excuses for their excesses boil down to low pay and lack of respect … even though, last time I looked, drug dealers don't enjoy the same medical benefits, generous pensions, paid vacations and sick leave awarded public servants. Pushers haven't been treated with respect - however misplaced - since Miami Vice and Scarface. Fans of Farrell and Norton will find more to like in Pride and Glory than other viewers, but no one will come away from the movie without feeling soiled in one way or another. A bonus featurette, in which real cops teach the actors how to yell really loud at perps, while also calling them all sorts of unprintable names, actually is pretty entertaining. So, too, are the interviews with the first-time actors, some who had been on the receiving end of a cop's hostility in real life.

Max Payne: Special Edition

Unlike, say, the movies in the Lara Croft series, it's difficult for me to imagine anyone who isn't already a fan of the Max Payne video-game franchise to comprehend what exactly is happening in Max Payne, the movie. It isn't enough to know that Payne is a cop falsely implicated in the murder of his partner, or that the same performance-enhancing drug that his wife was investigating before her untimely death has been linked to paramilitary types and party people bearing winged tattoos. Newcomers also are required to make sense of the beautiful-but-deadly Russian babes and giant blackbirds, which serve to turn the third-person-shooter video game into a freakozoid noir bloodbath. Mark Wahlberg plays Payne as a hardened NYPD detective tortured by circumstances beyond his control and burdened by the memory of being 10 minutes late to his wife's execution. Beyond that, I was left clueless by Max Payne. I'm told that fans of the video game felt cheated by the scarcity of wall-to-wall action, bullet-time effects and other over-the-top violence. Indeed, the demands of the ratings boards compelled director John Moore to cut back on the ultra-violence for the sake of a PG-13, only to restore them completely for the unrated version. Other extras include commentary, a making-of featurette, a backgrounder in graphic-novel form, D-Box and a digital copy.

American East

It should go without saying that far too many peace-loving Muslims and Sikhs have been tarred with the same brush used to vilify the perpetrators of 9/11, the repressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan and various Iraqi boogiemen. Meanwhile, the bad guys who do dwell among us are buried so deep, it isn't likely they'd blow their cover to lead a protest march. What's a flag-waving bigot to do? American East imagines a scenario in which only a small handful of people are willing to parse the differences between them. Like Crash, Hesham Issawi's American East weaves several distinct stories into a narrative that comes together as an integrated whole at the climax of the movie. It also describes how the proliferation of miscommunication, racism and intolerance, in the wake of 9/11, threatened to poison our democracy. The primary characters are connected by various amounts of time spent in a SoCal café that caters primarily to the Muslim community. The only person who is made to feel unwelcome - and, then, by a single disgruntled slacker -- is a Jewish businessman (Tony Shalhoub) hoping to form a partnership with the Egyptian-born owner. Among the other characters are an actor with a growing distaste for of playing terrorists; a federal agent, learning that stereotypes doth not a terrorist make; Jewish investors who see a Palestinian behind every Arab-American business owner; the café owner's daughters, one of whom is sentenced to marry an older man not of her choosing, and the other a pot-smoking hedonist; the owner's son, who prefers Christmas to Ramadan; a customer who takes it personally when his order is screwed up; and various other boyfriends and girlfriends threatened by old-world customs. As the story reaches a fever pitch, it becomes clear that some of the characters will survive while others will fall victim to one or more of the screenwriter's clichés. That said, American East is interesting more for its willingness to say something different about immigrant life in the U.S. and focusing on a community too often ignored in the media. The comically optimistic ending almost negates the good things that occur throughout the movie, but the filmmakers and actors deserve credit for working so hard on a movie that, from Day One probably didn't stand a chance of being distributed. American East deserves more exposure … if only as a conversation-starter at schools and community groups.

City of Ember

Kids will have a far easier time making sense of City of Ember than their parents, if only because they'll be too distracted by the whimsical set and silly characters to waste time finding holes in the script. Ember is a nearly 200-year-old underground city, built to protect residents from an unidentified calamity that's poisoned the world above their heads. Under the benignly neglectful rule of Mayor Cole (Bill Murray), the city's infrastructure has been allowed to grind nearly to a halt, threatening the air, water and electrical supply. It takes a pair of adventurous youngsters (Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway) to decipher the myriad clues left behind by the Builders, who envisioned a day when the surface would once again be safe. Finding the doors that lead to the path to the outside world is a task onto itself, however. Jeanne Duprau's book was adapted by screenwriter Caroline Thompson - a favorite of Tim Burton - and directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House). In their misplaced respect for the self-serving Mayor Cole, the citizens of Ember could easily be related to residents of Oz' Emerald City. The kids, of course, know better. Also notable among the many cast members are Tim Robbins, Mary Kay Place, Mackenzie Crook, Toby Jones and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

The Express

Another sad story of an athlete who died young, The Express also describes a period in collegiate sports history before the color barrier was completely erased and awards were bestowed primarily on the most valuable white players. The great Syracuse running back Ernie Davis endured many of the same conditions that prevented extraordinary African-American players from joining teams in the Deep South. His courage and tenacity resulted in his being named the first black Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 draft pick. Sadly, his accomplishments didn't preclude him from suffering such indignities as being asked to leave a post-Cotton Bowl banquet because the venue didn't serve blacks. (Contrary to what's shown in The Express, university officials demanded Davis' white teammates not boycott the dinner.) Davis (played by Rob Brown) would die of leukemia in 1963, before he was able to play in the NFL. That fact, alone, might have kept filmmakers from telling his story before or soon after the similarly heart-breaking Brian's Song was made into a made-for-TV in 1971 (and remade in 2001). The Express also focuses on Davis' sometimes tentative relationship with his head coach, Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid).

Groundhog Day: Blu-ray

With February 2 just around the corner, it's worth noting that Sony is re-releasing the wonderful Harold Ramis/Bill Murray déjà-vu-all-over-again comedy, Groundhog Day, in Blu-ray. Among the extras are commentary by and an interview with Ramis, deleted scenes, mini-docs on groundhogs and time, a picture-in-picture track and BD Live access.

Other recent Blu-ray upgrades: Zodiac, Underworld & Underworld: Evolution and Stargate: The Ark of Truth.

Between the Cup and the Lip

Although there's no denying the romantic appeal of Zbigniew Kuzminski's Between the Cup and the Lip (1987), at its core is a practical lesson in patriotism. Set in Berlin, during the late 1800s, the story focuses on a debonair German playboy, Count Wentzel Croy-Dulmen. If Wentzel has an Achilles heel, it is his refusal to acknowledge his Polish heritage. The neighboring states were rivals in most things, and he was raised to despise all things Polish, including the country's considerable cultural contributions. Wentzel's really important to the count and his Germanic cronies, though, is partying hardy and being seen at all the right events. While at the opera, a popular hunting ground for female prey, the wealthy lay-abouts spot a beautiful young woman in the company of a much older gentleman. They bet amongst themselves as to which one of them will claim the stranger's hand, but it's the count's good luck that places him in a position to rescue her from untoward advances of a caddish acquaintance. The belligerent jerk teases the count about his well-hidden Polish ancestry, a slight so hurtful it prompts the first of two duels in the movie. Worse, though, not only is the damsel in distress of Polish extraction herself, but she also is well aware of her rescuer's background. Armed with this knowledge, she's able to toy with Wentzel's affections and keep him at arm's length, something her German counterparts - single and married - were unable to do. Once her secrets are revealed, the count opens his mind to the possibility that being Polish isn't such a bad thing, after all. It may not be much of a hook upon which to hang a movie, but Kuzminski's interpretation of Marii Rodziewiczowny's novel leaves lots of room for old-fashioned courtship, playful carousing and offbeat sexual dalliances. The sets are beautifully rendered, as are the costumes, and the acting is excellent. Anyone who enjoys period melodramas from Britain and France ought to take a chance on Between the Cup and the Lips.

Also from Poland, via Facets Video, is Demons of War, an action picture set among the peacekeeping and mercenary forces in Bosnia, near the end of that war. It boasts several of Poland's most popular male stars, including Boguslaw Linda, who's considered to be the country's answer to Bruce Willis.

Among other new Facets titles: Erendira Ikikunari, which tells the story of an Indian woman who took up arms against the Spanish conquistadors during their 16th century invasion of Latin America. (In the Purepecha dialect); the PBS documentary series, The New Americans; the dark French comedy, Workers for the Good Lord; the Iranian comedy, Tambourine; Notorious Nobodies, eight stories about immigration set on the same day; and Johan Van Der Keuken: The Complete Collection, Vol. 5; the third edition of Great African Movies (Daratt, The Desert Ark); A Perfect Day, a story of post-war Beirut; and the nostalgic, rarely seen All My Good Countrymen, a product of the Czech New Wave.

The Beiderbecke Affair
Red, White and Brown
Dead of Night

When wood-shop instructor Trevor Chaplin opens the door to a beautiful blond messenger, he hopes she's delivering the Bix Beiderbecke albums he'd been awaiting. Instead, a mistakenly delivered package leads him and fellow amateur sleuth, English teacher Jill Swinburne, into an extensive criminal conspiracy. Their search for the albums leads to black-market goods stashed in a church basement, corrupt city officials and mysterious strangers. The teachers are joined by several colorful townsfolk and a dog.

Russell Peters is an increasingly popular (here, anyway) Canadian comedian of Anglo-Indian extraction. His standup routines are distinguished by wry observations about life as a brown man in white Canada, as well as the effects of race, class and culture on everyday life and politics. Red, White and Brown was recorded in concert in New York's Madison Square Garden. The DVD also includes material not shown in the Showtime special, his YouTube sketches, commentary and a Support the Troops featurette.

The NBC anthology program, Dead of Night, combined the talents of producer-director Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker) and mystery-horror writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, The Twilight Zone). Among the subjects: a man, who buys a car that takes him back and forth through time; vampires, of course; and a distraught mother, who pays a price for requesting the revival of her drowned son to revived. The extras include deleted footage, an extended opening title; highlights of the musical score; and the 1969 Dead of Night TV pilot.

Also new to the TV-to-DVD shelves: The Love Boat: Season Two: Vol. 1, The Invaders: The Second Season, Meerkat Manor: Season 4 and Cheers: The Final Season.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Abraham Lincoln: His Life & Legacy
2012: Science or Superstition
Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus
Gospel According to Al Green

The 30-year-long saga of Roman Polanski arrest and self-imposed exiles continues to play itself out in the media and law firms from L.A. to Paris. The basic facts of his case are well known and undisputed. The only things left open for debate are the conditions under which Polanski would agree to return the United States and face whatever music there is left to hear. Marina Zenovich's documentary makes a pretty good argument for re-consideration of possible punishments, not only for his engaging in sex with a minor (a.k.a., rape), but also for splitting the scene before he could be sentenced. In addition to revisiting the political and media climate of the time, Wanted and Desired argues that the original trial judge planned to renege on a promise to limit the filmmaker's penance to time served while undergoing observation in a medical facility. Archival footage is interspersed with newly recorded interviews and movie clips to set the context for Polanski's decision. Upon the release of the documentary in theaters and on HBO, a couple of the attorneys tried to edit their suggestions of judicial malfeasance. Recently, the woman who was at the center of the controversy reiterated her willingness to forgive Polanski his sins.

As the nation approaches the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth - and especially considering our new President's homage in inauguration ceremonies - it's the perfect time to dispel the myths and legends that have blurred the truth about him. History Channel examines Lincoln's legacy in a four-disc package broken up into seven separate documentaries: Lincoln, Investigating History: Lincoln: Man or Myth, Man, Moment, Machine: Lincoln and the Flying Spying Machine, Conspiracy?: Lincoln Assassination, High Tech Lincoln, Sherman's March and The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth. This isn't your grade-school teacher's Honest Abe.

On Dec. 21, 2012, the world will end … or, not … it depends on the calendar to which one sets their celestial clock. The Long Count Calendar created for the Mayans of Central America supposedly concludes on that date, indicating that Armageddon or something a bit less calamitous will occur. Among the scientists called upon to debate the significance of the date are Graham Hancock, John Major Jenkins, Daniel Pinchbeck, Alberto Villoldo, Anthony Aveni, Robert Bauval, Jim Marrs, Walter Cruttenden, Lawrence E. Joseph, Douglas Rushkoff, John Anthony West and Benito Vegas Duran. (And, no, I haven't heard of any of them, either.) Considering the lack of turmoil that was expected to coincide with the arrival of the new millennium, I probably won't stop paying bills ahead of that date.

Acorn Media is re-releasing documentary profiles of two of this country's musical gifts to the world. Saxophone Colossus is Robert Mugge's celebration of the life and music of master soloist and improviser Sonny Rollins. Along with interviews, the film features scenes from the Opus 40 Festival (G-Man, Don't Stop the Carnival) and the world premiere of Rollins's Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. First released theatrically in 1984, Mugge's Gospel According to Al Green describes the great R&B and Gospel singer's long journey to stardom and some of the detours he took along the way. Green also discusses the headline-making attack by a spurned lover, who dumped boiling grits on him and then killed herself.