Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
College student mistaken for deer, shot to death
NFL star Chris Spielman's wife loses cancer battle
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
For your Saturday entertainment …
Akron Zips:
Hitchens leads Zips in second-half comeback
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Holmgren expresses interest in Browns position
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
Headed For Disaster
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Colloquium at University of Akron
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Skip the dull parts and you can enjoy 'Burn,' 'Hamlet 2' and chilling 'Savage Grace'
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Dec 21, 2008
When three new DVD releases landed on my desk recently, I thought at first they were early Christmas presents — all movies that I was eager to see.
Then I saw them.
Top of the pile was Burn After Reading (Universal, $29.98 in standard DVD, $39.98 in high-definition Blu-ray). The writer-director team of Ethan and Joel Coen made this the follow-up to the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, moving from the bleakness of that piece to a comedy more in keeping with Hudsucker Proxy, O Brother Where Are Thou? and The Big Lebowski.
It's a screwy little movie about love, ambition, spies and an information-laden computer disk, with a cast including George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich.
I'm a sucker for the Coens' comedy and for about half this movie was enjoying its characters and their increasingly bizarre situations. But it takes a violent turn late in the piece and never really recovers from it — becoming ever more absurd, and using a series of dialogues between two supporting characters to tie things up.
In other words, it's minor Coen, although the DVD allows you to skip the dull parts to watch only your favorite scenes (such as just about every moment with Pitt or McDormand).
DVD extras include a making-of piece.
Another movie that benefits from DVD skipping is Hamlet 2 (Universal, $29.98). There are three things worth seeing: the musical number Rock Me Sexy Jesus, another segment set to a choral version of Someone Saved My Life Tonight and the scenes involving Elisabeth Shue (as herself).
Written by TV comedy veterans Andrew Fleming (who also directed) and Pam Brady, Hamlet 2 stars Steve Coogan as a failed actor turned failed high school drama teacher. Trying to save his job, he mounts a production of an original piece, Hamlet 2. It has not only Shakespeare's Hamlet but a time machine and, of course, Jesus. The climax of the movie is a performance of the show, and it is oddly endearing.
But you're on a rough road up to that point. Coogan is a likable and often funny actor (24 Hour Party People, TV's various Alan Partridge comedies, the movie director in Tropic Thunder). But the movie is erratic, uncertain at times what to focus on among the many characters and plot threads.
The DVD also includes a making-of piece, deleted scenes and a sing-along element for two of the songs.
By the way, because of Christmas being in the middle of the week, some DVD distributors are breaking their new-releases-on-Tuesday pattern. Both Burn After Reading and Hamlet 2 will be in stores today.
Still arriving on Tuesday is Savage Grace (Genius, $24.95), a very disturbing movie based on the awful true story of Barbara Baekeland (Julianne Moore), her husband Brooks (Stephen Dillane) and their son Tony (Eddie Redmayne). It's a story of misguided love, decadent sex, twisted minds and eventually violence.
Moore is the centerpiece of the film and she's quite good. As has been evident in movies like Boogie Nights and The End of the Affair, she knows how to carefully calibrate where a character is along a line from vivacity to despair to madness, and she moves compellingly along that line in this movie. But there's something lacking in Savage Grace, a distance from the characters, a certain coolness about their pain. Even the ending has a chill.
DVD extras include a making-of segment.
While each of the movies above proved to be less than I had hoped, each also had things to recommend it. Can't say the same for The Women (Warner, $28.98 on a single two-sided disc with both full-frame widescreen versions, $35.99 on Blu-ray, now in stores). Adapted from the play by Clare Booth Luce and an earlier film version, The Women involves a group of acquaintances dealing with the news that the husband of one is having an affair.
The cast includes Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith and Eva Mendes. Diane English, creator of Murphy Brown, wrote the new adaptation and directed. It's a tepid exercise, blending in bits of the old versions with uninspired new material, and largely wasting the cast.
The DVD adds scenes and a piece tracing the history of The Women from its stage roots to the new film.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://heldenfels.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
When three new DVD releases landed on my desk recently, I thought at first they were early Christmas presents — all movies that I was eager to see.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
