Recent DVD Releases

Click on the title for the original theatrical review.

State of Play

Jason Bateman steals the movie in a few short scenes as the man with the connections. No small feat with Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, and Robin Wright in the cast. The film does a pretty good job of condensing the 6 hour BBC miniseries, and even manages a tacked on, incredulous twist at the end. But I did like the closing credits, showing how a newspaper is made (with CCR’s “Long as I Can See the Light” playing). It’s the filmmakers admitting their film is nearly out-of-date. B

Duplicity

A big disappointment coming from Tony Gilroy’s whose last film Michael Clayton is the best lawyer movie of the decade. As Lawyer said, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts have fantastic chemistry and the film is well written and directed. The entire cast is interesting, right down to the extras. But the leads are basically opportunistic thieves, and without anyone with a soul or heart, it leaves the audience at arm’s length. B

Adventureland
Speaking of soul and heart, this one has it in spades. I can’t do any better than Priest did in his great review. My favorite scenes included the 4th of July scene (with the Crowded House song) and the last one. While Jesse Eisenberg has been good in his past films (most notably Roger Dodger), I never really liked him until this one. And unlike many young actresses (Megan Fox, anyone?), Kristen Stewart apparently has quite a huge acting talent and will be with us for a long while. B+

Watchmen

Amazing (!) visuals and exciting action scenes mostly make up for the flat dramatic scenes (that get exponentially worse as the movie progresses). Somewhere on Mars I lost interest in the film, probably when it shifted focus from Rorschach to Dr. Manhattan. I liked all of the Nite Owl 2 scenes as well. It could play better on a repeat viewing, which is totally deserved, if only for the prison sequence. B


X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The motorcycle action scene is pretty great, as is Hugh Jackman who sells the role of half man – half beast well. The opening scenes showing brothers (Jackman and Liev Schreiber) fighting all the wars from The Civil War through Vietnam are clichéd but well done. The brothers go on to join a team of mutant mercenaries (led by the predictably malevolent Danny Huston) and after they disband, they start getting killed off one by one. The morality is murky at best, and all the twists and turns will leave you wondering if fooling the audience is all modern Hollywood can do. Is it too much to ask for memorable dialogue, character development, coherence, and honesty? C+