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DVD reviews - Feed
Find the latest news stories from Toronto Star on the topic DVD reviews. |
 DVD Reviews: RED, Nowhere Boy, Enter the Void
RED, Nowhere Boy and Enter the Void are out on DVD Tuesday.
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 DVD Reviews: Paranormal Activity 2
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 DVD Review: Conviction
Conviction, Never Let Me Go and Let Me In.
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 DVD Reviews: Get Low
Movies
Due Date
(Warner Bros.)
  (out of 4)
An uptight man trying to cross the U.S. on a deadline forced by the impending birth of a child is forced to share the journey with an annoying eccentric. Hilarity ensues.
It's the stuff of nearly every road movie, as Due Date director Todd Phillips well knows -- he made Road Trip and The Hangover. He didn't make Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Rain Man, but he's seen them, as have we all.
The only real variable is the hilarity part, which doesn't always ensue as planned. How do you make formula funny? Therein lies Phillips's hard labour with Due Date, which has the added cramp of Zach Galifianakis in his too-familiar role of annoying eccentric.
But Galifianakis is just one part of this surprisingly road-worthy comedy. Phillips has Robert Downey Jr. for the uptight dad-to-be, and there's a certain brilliance to this, given Downey's riotous lifestyle in years gone by. He's such a fine actor, he's able to deliver the line, "I've never done drugs in my life," with a completely straight face.
Watching Downey's vein-popping discomfiture in the company of Galifianakis is the best and possibly only reason for seeing the film.
Oh, there's also a masturbating dog. 'Nuff said about that, but it's the film's biggest laugh.
It all works better than could be expected, given that any movie with Galifianakis playing a weirdo should be titled Past Due Date.
Extras include (Blu-ray only) deleted scenes and an action mashup.
Peter Howell
Get Low
(Columbia/TriStar)
(out of 4)
Get Low is a film of topsy-turvy logic and mysterious intentions. Both are provided by Tennessee hermit Felix Bush, who looks like a ZZ Top refugee and who is played with splendid restraint by Robert Duvall.
It's the Dirty Thirties, and Felix is fixing to die. He's been holed up in his woodland retreat for some 40 years, harbouring secrets and avoiding contact with anybody or anything other than his faithful mule. He's ready to embrace the world again, but only to bid it adieu.
He seems barely faded -- nothing a bath and haircut wouldn't fix -- and he wants to put the "fun" into funeral by having a living wake, in which everybody for miles around will come to tell stories about him.
The idea is music to the ears of cash-strapped funeral director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) who sees no harm in satisfying the whims of a nutter, especially a rich one. Frank's assistant Buddy (Lucas Black) has a few moral qualms, which he's prepared to damp down because he has a wife and young baby to feed.
There's just one little catch, and isn't there always? Felix is feared in several counties for things that happened decades ago, which are hinted at in an opening scene of a burning house and a fleeing man.
A local widow (Sissy Spacek) and a faraway preacher (Bill Cobbs) both share a history with Felix, and they're significantly not eager to join the throngs of yarn spinners.
First-time feature director Aaron Schneider, an Oscar winner for his earlier short Two Soldiers, comes to filmmaking by way of cinematography, and his attention to detail is impressively evident.
Get Low summons the eye to inspect every nook of this small town, and also its gnarly inhabitants, while the ear perks to the authentic bluegrass on the soundtrack (Alison Krauss delivers a credits corker, "Lay My Burden Down").
We might wish for more of a story. But watching Duvall settle into a role that interests him is always a treat.
Extras include a commentary by Duvall, Spacek, Schneider and producer Dean Zanuck, plus a cast and crew Q&A and making-of featurettes.
P.H.
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 DVD Reviews: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Hereafter
This week's reviews: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Hereafter and Unstoppable.
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 DVD Reviews: Takers and Buried
Buried and Takers are out on video this week.
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 DVD reviews: Dinner for Schmucks
In adapting Francis Veber's 1998 French farce Le d
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 DVD Reviews: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
No sophomore slump for Ben Affleck.
In this belated sequel to the epochal 1980s drama, greed is no longer good -- and it's not much fun, either.
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 Triple feature for movie fans
Three sure-fire gifts that will be welcomed by anyone on your list who appreciates culture.
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 DVD Reviews: The A-Team
Movies
Cyrus
(Fox Searchlight)
(out of four)
The most sincere moment in any movie you are likely to see this year comes in the twitch of an angry neck vein.
It's the involuntary reaction of John C. Reilly's put-upon character John, as he suddenly realizes diplomacy is getting him nowhere. His massive mitts are near the neck of his tormenter Cyrus (Jonah Hill), the 21-year-old son of John's new girlfriend Molly (Marisa Tomei).
Cyrus has mommy issues. He still lives at home -- dad is long gone -- and he's not happy about another man entering Molly's life. He understands that he's difficult to get close to ("I get overly excited sometimes") but he can't help himself.
Neither can John, who also operates on self-destructive instincts. He recognizes a lot of Cyrus in himself.
This latest minimalist study in maximum emotions comes from talented brothers Mark and Jay Duplass. It finds truth in those moments between spoken words, when the flick of an eyelid, the pulse of a vein or the purse of the lips betray things that might otherwise not be stated.
This could be a horror or suspense movie, and in some ways it is -- the soundtrack often takes on the rapid-pulse aspects of a thriller. Cyrus obviously has emotional and possibly mental issues, but they're not clearly defined. There's no telling what he's prepared to do to keep mommy to himself.
No necks were harmed in the making of Cyrus, but many tired relationship clich
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 Howell DVD reviews: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Grown Ups
Peter Howell reviews DVDs of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Grown Ups, both out Tuesday.
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 Salem: Larry Sanders DVD set includes the best of comedy's best
Innovation and influence mark new Larry Sanders DVD collection.
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 DVD Reviews: Toy Story 3 and Ladies & Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones
Movie critic Peter Howell reviews new DVD releases of Toy Story 3 and Ladies & Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones.
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 DVD Review: Knight and Day
Movies
Knight and Day
(20th Century Fox)
(out of 4)
Cameron Diaz's reunion with her Vanilla Sky co-star Tom Cruise is supposedly a comedy, and Diaz tries to be funny. But serious cookie Cruise acts as if he's in another chapter of his Mission: Impossible franchise.
Funny doesn't come naturally to him; he always gives the creepy feeling of forced hilarity. Even in jest, Cruise can't stand to lose control.
There is also romance in Knight and Day -- and Diaz is up for it -- but Cruise still looks as if he's taken charisma lessons from Al Gore. Diaz is just a gal who wants to have fun; Cruise wants us to know he worked really, really hard and he has no time for foolishness.
Then there is the title, which makes absolutely no sense apart from nodding to the 1980s action movies and TV series that the film takes its cues from.
At least we can all agree that Knight and Day is an action movie, and does it ever move. Every possible conveyance short of a rickshaw are used by the hotly pursued Roy and June, beginning with an aircraft that uses a cornfield as a landing strip.
We quickly suss that Roy is some kind of tightly wound spy and June is an auto mechanic with high mileage and requiring high maintenance. Director James Mangold (Walk the Line) and rookie screenwriter Patrick O'Neill take such a casual approach to plot, they might as well have just filmed Cruise and Diaz jumping on a trampoline for two hours.
Frantic episodes keep the eye moving and the brain in neutral. Magic bullets whiz pass our non-cooing couple and take out the marauders who keep popping up at every turn.
The body count is appallingly high, even by spy movie standards, and it's all the more disturbing after we learn that Cruise is a government spook who has "gone rogue" (he swears he was set up) and that the people he's killing are mostly his fellow Americans. He's chased by his former G-Men conferes, led by an officious Peter Sarsgaard and a furious Viola Davis.
Diaz never really gets a chance to display her ample comedy smarts, apart from a scene where she's administered a truth serum (one of many times she's drugged in the film) and gives up more truth than anyone expected.
I'm reminded, not in a good way, of Cruise's performance in the prologue to Austin Powers: Goldmember, in which he actually put his stiffness to good use by pretending to be Austin Powers. He was almost funny, especially since he was paired with Gwyneth Paltrow, another person for whom mirth does not come running.
Knight and Day tries to stretch the same over-the-top idea to feature length, and that really is an impossible mission.
Extras include an extended cut of the film, viral videos and a music video of Cruise messing with the Black Eyed Peas.
Peter Howell
Waking Sleeping Beauty
(Buena Vista/Disney)
(out of 4)
It's a saga fit for a Walt Disney movie classic. A happy little enclave is reduced by dark forces to a shadow of itself, almost to the point of disappearing altogether.
The enclave in question, as seen in this absorbing documentary celebration-cum-expos
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 DVD Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Movies
Exit Through the Gift Shop
(Mongrel Media)
(out of 4)
Is the British street artist-turned-filmaker Banksy having us all on? No one is completely sure watching his directing debut.
With a sly title referring to the capitalizing of culture -- and hinting at deception -- the film purports to be a documentary in much the same way that the mock rockers of Spinal Tap aspire to be a real rock band. The commitment is all in the eye, and credulity, of the beholder.
The mysterious, hoodie-wearing Banksy has parlayed his nocturnal spraying and stencilling into a lucrative career, and Exit was supposed to be all about him. But it focuses more on telling the dubious story of Thierry Guetta, a portly French clothier turned street artist who lives in Los Angeles.
Why? Because "he was a lot more interesting than I am," Banksy tells us in straight-to-the-camera testimonials that resemble FBI witness-protection statements.
Guetta, whose artistic ambitions are as big as his handlebar moustache, morphs into a character called Mr. Brainwash. The latter, unburdened by conscience, gleefully rips off every idea he encounters, including Andy Warhol's famous tomato soup can.
But Is Guetta a colossal construct by Banksy, a post-modern put-on to mock public gullibility? After all, there are plenty of clues that Guetta is more actor than artist.
Should we believe Banksy, a man who won't look us in the eye? Certainly not, but credibility isn't essential to the success of the film.
Extras include deleted scenes, a sticker sets and postcard, a Mr. Brainwash doc and a Banksy short.
Peter Howell
Eat Pray Love
(Sony Pictures)
(out of 4)
It's munch, babble, yawn as TV director Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Glee), combines his mastery of the superficial and a vapid best-seller for a big-screen non-event.
Based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling empowerment memoir of a year post-divorce, the film stars Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, Billy Crudup, James Franco and Richard Jenkins.
With a Hollywood cast like this, you could be forgiven for imagining a stellar film could be wrought from the source material. Sadly, Murphy manages to do what Hollywood does best -- reducing Gilbert's slim story of a year spent eating in Rome, praying in an Indian ashram and loving in Bali -- to something as frothy and shallow as the foam on a caffe macchiato.
Roberts, 42, retains her magnetic smile and supernatural attraction to the camera, but it strains credulity that she could chow down in Rome on everything that doesn't move without serious poundage gain.
In the Indian segment, Jenkins does fine work as the scruffy, bespectacled Texan Richard, who in a better movie could have been an interesting romantic focus.
Bardem, on the other hand, is the love interest in Bali, but viewers hoping for sizzling sex are advised to bank down their enthusiasm -- Bardem doesn't show up until 103 minutes into the 2 hour, 20-minute film. By then, we might not care.
Extras are featurettes, most of them on the Blu-ray.
P.H.
The Expendables
(Maple Pictures)
(out of 4)
In his latest cinematic eruption called actor/director Sylvester Stallone rounds up his entire Facebook posse to crack jokes and help him reload as he initiates violent regime change against a South American dictator.
Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews and even Arnold Schwarzenegger show up for the gangs-all-here action picture. (Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal begged off from this testerone-fuelled tempest.)
Balancing the machismo is the Latin hottie Giselle Itie as the beautiful, politically complicated Sandra. Sly is prepared to get himself and his mates blowed up real good for her spurious love. But at 27, she undoubtedly thinks the 64-year-old Sly's too old for her. Not that this makes much difference, for The Expendables acts as if Father Time was whacked sometime in the 1980s, when most of this muscle-bound crew were in their heyday.
The Expendables might have been a movie about old warriors not going gently into that good night, something along the comic lines of Space Cowboys. Instead, it yawningly snaps into place as yet another series of explosions dressed up with no place to blow.
Extras include a commentary by Stallone, a deleted scene, a making-of featurette and a gag reel.
P.H.
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Old Blue Eyes in vivid musical form in old TV specials
Televised legacy is, happily, mainly about the music.
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 DVD reviews: Christmas Carol, Kids are All Right
Star movie critic Peter Howell reviews DVDs of The Kids are All Right and A Christmas Carol, available Nov. 16.
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 Scott Pilgrim vs. the disappointing box office
Director Edgar Wright expects Toronto-made film to do well on DVD and Blu-ray.
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 DVD Review: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Even after several viewings -- one just won't do -- Inception remains the year's brainiest thriller, if only for that maddening ending. Does the spinning top stop, or not?
Twilight is still at the kissing stage, and a bad case of "bite-us interruptus" is starting to take hold.
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 Gift Guide: DVD suggestions for movie fans
Peter Howell's DVD suggestions for every movie fan on your list.
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 A Prophet will make you a believerNew star Tahar Rahim coaxes empathy from viewers about what he must do to thrive behind bars.
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 Ghost Writer: Polanski finding his form
Filmmaker's take on bestselling book reminds us of his gifts.
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 Kick-Ass hails and knocks the vigilante
A bloody fantasy about our perilous and fretful times.
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 Cav/Pag: solid thrust in modern eraTwo short operas packaged (as usual) with satisfying results.
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 Eugene OneginThe most startling thing about this production of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's famous opera is the way Russian superstar conductor Valery Gergiev makes the orchestral score skip, dance and sing.
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