Home movies
Posted: August 7, 2009 at 3:57 a.m.
LITTLE ROCK — Recent DVD releases:
Delgo (PG, 94 minutes) This computer-animated feature has the dubious honor of having the worst wide release opening ever. When it showed up in theaters in December, it earned a pitiful $511,920 on 2,160 screens. Critics hated it too. But for those with open minds, here it is on DVD - the story of an ill-advised friendship between a rebellious boy (voice of Freddie Prinze Jr.) and a spunky princess (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Bonus features include behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes.
Grade: 72
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (R, 95 minutes) Based on Michael Chabon's debut novel, this well meaning, attentive but not quite successful film follows recent college graduate and mobster's son Art Bechstein (Jon Foster), Cleveland Arning (Peter Sarsgaard), a lowly street thug with delusions of grandeur, and troubled Jane Bellweather (Sienna Miller) who manages to bring them together, then tear them apart. Available on DVD and Bluray.
Grade: 80
Obsessed (PG-13, 108 minutes) A girl-fight movie that takes too long to get scrappy, Obsessed concerns successful financial adviser Derek Charles (Idris Elba), who has a perfect life with wife Sharon (Beyonce Knowles). Then tempting office temp Lisa (Ali Larter) sets her sights on him, which does not suit Sharon. DVD and Blu-ray bonus material includes three behind-the-scenes featurettes (including one of the film's climactic fight sequence between Knowles and Larter). The Bluray version, which is BD-Live enabled, includes a downloadable digital copy.
Grade: 82
Race to Witch Mountain (PG, 98 minutes) A pedal-to-the-metal road race adventure in which tough-guy cabdriver (Dwayne Johnson, appealing as always) figures out that the kids in the back seat (Anna Sophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig) who want to go deep into the Nevada desert aren't your average teenagers. They're not sullen, they have supernatural powers, and they want to save the earth from some really, really bad guys. DVD and Blu-ray features include deleted scenes, with commentary by director Andy Fickman and bloopers.
Grade: 86
The Soloist (PG-13, 112 minutes) Inspiring, relevant and real, the story of Nathaniel Ayers - a schizophrenic but wildly talented Juilliard-trained cellist living on the streets of downtown Los Angeles - captivated Los Angeles Times readers in 2005. Thefact that columnist Steve Lopez befriended and wrote movingly about him added to the unexpected humanity of the tale. The Soloist, which stars Jamie Foxx as Ayers and Robert Downey Jr. as Lopez, takes all those innately engaging details and turns them into what is essentially a made for-Lifetime movie populated by Oscar winners and nominees.
Grade: 78
The Tigger Movie (G, 77 minutes) The 10th anniversary release of this animated Disney classic, set in the Hundred Acre Woods, features Tigger, Roo, Rabbit, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Christopher Robin in a musical tale of friendship and adventure. The DVD includes two new-to-DVD Tigger episodes from the TV series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Grade: 90
The Unwinking Gaze (not rated, 70 minutes) A complex and revealing documentary, filmed by Joshua Dugdale over three years, that chronicles the epic struggle by the XIV Dalai Lama to free the people of Tibet from Chinese control.
Grade: 87
Wolfhound, or Volkodav Iz Roda Serykh Psov (R, 136 minutes) This moody Russian epic, set in some vaguely Dark Ages period, tells a savage tale of the last member of a slaughtered tribe who, although enslaved and left for dead, is destined to become the world's most feared warrior. It doesn't have the stunning computer-generated effects of a Western film, but it boasts some pretty amazing monsters. In Russian with English subtitles.
Grade: 82
MovieStyle, Pages 35 on 08/07/2009
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