DVD Recent Picks
September 2010
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Misfits. Series one [videorecording] / created by Howard Overman.
"Life as a superhero can be tough, but when you've also got a curfew, it's even tougher. Kelly, Nathan, Curtis, Alisha and Simon are five unruly teenagers forced to do community service as payback for their crimes. When a freak electrical storm hits their town, they have no idea it turned them all into superheroes, each gaining a power they didn't choose or want, which reveals each of their deepest, darkest insecurities. Kelly gains the ability to hear people's thoughts; Simon finds he can make himself invisible; Curtis can suddenly turn back time and anyone who touches Alisha finds themselves falling in lust with her. Only Nathan seems to have been left out, much to his annoyance. While the reluctant superheroes just want to finish their community service and get through the challenges of everyday teenage life - relationships, friendships, parents and sex - fate has another task in store for them. They were not the only ones affected by the storm but they are the only ones who can save their town from the evil that has descended upon it."(Library Catalogue)
Date night
"Tina Fey and Steve Carell are two of the most charming performers in entertainment today. Their goofy attractiveness makes them a perfect couple in Date Night: an unremarkable husband and wife from New Jersey, they get mistaken for crooks in Manhattan, sending them on a wild night replete with snooty wait staff, crooked cops, glitter-specked strippers, a shirtless superspy (Mark Wahlberg, as buff as ever), and a preposterous car chase. The movie makes no effort to be remotely plausible and the last third really goes off the rails, and it would probably be better served by less familiar faces in minor roles (bit parts are played by Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Common, James Franco, Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, and Ray Liotta). It's disappointing that the dialogue doesn't crackle the way it does on 30 Rock or The Office. But Fey and Carell carry the movie along through sheer nerdy pluck. Rarely does a couple in a movie seem genuinely devoted to each other, not out of wild passion, but for all the things that a real marriage is built on: patience, shared humor, a willingness to deal with day-to-day annoyances, and simple affection. Fey and Carell seem like a couple you'd actually enjoy going out to dinner with. In today's world, that's more romantic than sunsets and bouquets of roses." (Amazon.com)
The office [US]. Season four, part two.
"Is a season of The Office with less episodes still a great season? That seems to be the debate among the Emmy-winning sitcom's faithful audience in regard to season four, which like every program in 2007 and 2008 suffered due to the Writers Guild strike. But even a truncated season can't dispel the fact that The Office remains one of television's funniest and most consistently inventive programs. If a theme can be grafted upon season four, it's Things Fall Apart: former temp Ryan (writer-producer B.J. Novak) is promoted to executive position and then squanders that power, while Dwight (series MPV Rainn Wilson) attempts to recover from his breakup with Angela (Angela Kinsey) and her apparent relationship with the hapless Andy (Ed Helms). Elsewhere, HR's Toby (writer-director Paul Lieberstein) finally flees Dunder Mifflin for that long-threatened vacation to Costa Rica (and is replaced by Oscar nominee Amy Ryan), and Stanley (Leslie David Baker) reaches his own breaking point in "Did I Stutter?" The center of office entropy is, of course, boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who is knocked off his pedestal throughout the season; his sweetly naïve television spot is disparaged in "Local Ad," he's passed over for the executive outing in "Survivor Man," and in the season's highlights, he is forced to twice endure humiliation at the hands of his own girlfriend Jan (Melora Hardin), first in the heartbreaking "Deposition," and then immediately after in the Emmy-nominated "Dinner Party," which puts their disintegrating relationship in sharp focus. Even office lovebirds Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) experience some rocky moments as Jim anguishes over the right time to propose to her. But don't let that laundry list of disasters fool you into thinking that season four is a downer; if anything, many of the episodes are among the funniest the show has produced to date." (Amazon.com)
Valentine's Day
"For those in love with love--and even for those who think they're jaded and over it--Valentine's Day and its superb cast are the uplifting elixir that's called for. Much as Robert Altman does in his best films, Marshall follows intertwining and intersecting couples around Los Angeles as they hook up, break up, and act up as Valentine's Day--with all its intense expectations--looms. Bradley Cooper plays one half of a couple struggling to get back on track. Julia Roberts plays an army officer en route from Iraq (!) to visit a lover halfway around the world. Jennifer Garner is appealing as the girlfriend of a cad (Patrick Dempsey), who managed to overlook telling her he was married. Standouts include the always-charming Anne Hathaway, whose character supplements her income with a freelance gig that, shall we say, involves using multiple accents over the phone--much to the consternation of her beau, played by Topher Grace. Shirley MacLaine and Hector Elizondo play a long-married couple whose strong marriage may be rocked by an old and very inconvenient truth. And young stars Emma Roberts, Taylor Lautner, and Taylor Swift sparkle enough to draw in younger viewers. And if love doesn't always go as planned for these couples (and singles), it's Marshall's deftness as a director that keeps the scenes moving along crisply to the next lovers, or victims. Marshall seems to be aiming to achieve for Valentine's Day what Richard Curtis did for Christmas in Love Actually--and if he falls a little short, it's not due to any lack of star power or onscreen dazzle." (Amazon.com)
Youth in revolt
"Michael Cera adds to his collection of quick-witted young men with his portrayal of 16-year-old Nick Twisp. Born on the trashy side of the Oakland tracks, Nick hates his name almost as much as his life. Everyone he knows, including his divorced parents (Jean Smart and Steve Buscemi), gets more action than he does, but his luck changes when he meets junior femme fatale Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) during a trailer-park vacation. She may have overprotective parents (Mary Kay Place and M. Emmet Walsh) and a boyfriend back at school, but she also likes Jean-Paul Belmondo movies, Serge Gainsbourg records--and Nick. There's just one hitch--she prefers bad boys, so Nick creates cynical, cigarette-smoking alter ego François Dillinger to win her heart (just as musician Gainsbourg created devilish doppelgänger Gainsbarre). Little does Nick know he's playing with fire--literally--since François gives him license to set his pent-up inhibitions free: he sneaks into Sheeni's private-school dorm, blows up his mother's boyfriend's car (Zach Galifianakis as the boyfriend), and trips on magic mushrooms with Sheeni's burnout brother and a radical family friend (Justin Long and Fred Willard, both hilarious). As with Chuck and Buck and The Good Girl, Miguel Arteta's adaptation of C.D. Payne's young adult series offers equal parts sorrow and humor." (Amazon.com)
The boys are back
"Inspired by a true story, The Boys Are Back is a deeply moving, wryly confessional tale of fatherhood. It follows a witty, wise cracking, action orientated sports writer (Clive Owen) who, in the wake of his wife's tragic death, finds himself in a sudden, stultifying state of single parenthood. With turbulent emotions swirling just below the surface, Joe Warr throws himself into the only child rearing philosophy he thinks has a shot at bringing joy back into their lives: 'Just say yes.' Raising two boys – a curious six year old (Nicholas Mcanulty) and a rebel teen (George Mackay) from a previous marriage – in a house devoid of feminine influence, and with an unabashed lack of rules, life becomes exuberant, instinctual, reckless… and on the constant verge of disaster. United by unspoken love, conflicted by fierce feelings and in search of a road forward, the three multi generational boys of the Warr household, father and sons alike, much each find their own way, however tenuous, to grow up." (Real Groovy)
Crazy heart
"In a career filled with unforced, naturalistic performances, Jeff Bridges gives one of his finest in Crazy Heart. His oft-married, booze-soaked troubadour Bad Blake has just rolled into Santa Fe when he meets Maggie Gyllenhaal's journalist Jean. "Where do all the songs come from?" she asks during their initial encounter. "Life, unfortunately," he sighs. Against Jean's better judgment, her fling with Blake blooms into a full-fledged relationship. Between gigs, Blake hangs out with the divorcée and her 4-year-old son, with whom he establishes an instant rapport, possibly because the musician is just an overgrown kid himself (and also because he hasn't seen his own boy in years). While Blake plays juke joints, his protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell, cast against type to fine effect), plays stadiums, but just when director Scott Cooper's debut seems to be going down the same path as A Star Is Born, Sweet offers his mentor an opportunity that could revive his reputation--at the expense of his still-healthy ego. Between Jean and Tommy, things start looking up for Blake until a critical error puts his stab at redemption in jeopardy. Once Robert Duvall enters the scene as Blake's favorite bartender, it's clear that Cooper has Tender Mercies in his sights, but Crazy Heart, which features music by T-Bone Burnett and rough-hewn singing by its Golden Globe-winning star, plays more like a sincere cover version than a strikingly original composition. Still, like Duvall's in Tender Mercies, Bridges's performance is Oscar-worthy." (Amazon.com)
The wolfman
"Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolf Man brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Oscar winner Benicio del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother... and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he elft the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancee, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate. As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself... one he never imagined existed." (Amazon.co.uk)
Misfits. Series one
"MISFITS is comedy-drama drama which introduces a band of superheroes for the i-pod generation... superheroes with ankle tags and ASBOs. When five teenagers dropouts get caught in a flash storm whilst doing community service, they discover the freak weather has left them with strange powers. Shy loner Simon (Iwan Rheon) can make himself invisible, tough girl Kelly (Lauren Socha) can hear other people's thoughts, sporty Curtis (Nathan Stewart Jarrett) can turn back time, whilst beautiful Alisha (Antonia Thomas) can send people into a sexual frenzy with just one touch. The only 'misfit' to remain unaffected is cocky Nathan (Robert Sheehan), but his background appears intriguing enough. Now the gang find themselves in the position to carry out some real community service, but are they ready for the challenge?" (Amazon.co.uk)
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