Blu-ray Review: State of Play
"[I like holding the audience just at that point] where confusion and intrigue… coexist"– director Kevin Macdonald, from the commentary
State of Play is the new release from Universal by the director of The Last King of Scotland and the writer of Lions for Lambs. The movie dances just a little too close to the abovementioned line and made barely a ripple when it was released in theaters in April ($35 million domestically) but it is a worthy effort with an A-list cast that is a must-see for political junkies.
Blu-ray Review: Duplicity
Tony Gilroy the screenwriter defeats Tony Gilroy the director in this new release from the writer/director of Michael Clayton. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen (Children of Men) star as former government agents who get involved with industrial espionage and each other while they try to con dueling titans of industry played by Paul Giamatti (Sideways, American Splendor) and Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins, The Full Monty).
DVD Review: Alien Trespass
Well, you can't go home again. Director R.W. Goodwin (The X-Files, appropriately) and a partner were sitting around waxing nostalgic one day many years ago about the great cheesy sci-fi/horror flicks of their youth, and decided to make a new picture in their mold showing what made the originals so great. Note: a new picture, not a modern one. The point was not to comment on the tropes of the era from a 21st century perspective, but to recreate them. Unfortunately they forgot that A) what was exciting to a ten-year-old in the age of Sputnik might not resonate with modern audiences viewing them without a lens of nostalgia, and B) it takes exceptional craft to make a movie about bad movies without making one yourself.
Blu-ray Review: Morning Light
Morning Light is a documentary about a team of young sailors competing in the 2007 Transpacific Yacht Race wherein dozens of boats arranged in divisions according to size compete to see who can make the crossing from Los Angeles to Hawaii fastest. This is a haul of over 2200 miles in a straight line, which course, we are told, cannot even be taken because of a permanent high pressure region in the middle of the Pacific that would bring boats dependent entirely on the wind to a halt. Even in customized ultra-light sailing ships with expert crews, a winning time is usually around ten days. And if somebody gets hurt or sick, or a sail or winch tears or breaks, you better have the equipment and know-how to take care of it yourself, literally a thousand miles from anywhere.
Blu-Ray Review: Race to Witch Mountain
Dwayne Johnson (Doom, The Rundown) stars in Race to Witch Mountain, a "re-imagining" of 1975's Escape to Witch Mountain, Disney's first adaptation of the 1968 novel by Alexander Key, who made a career out of paranormal YA stories a generation before it was hip. Although details of characterization and plot may change with each transition, some points are invariant throughout, most notably alliteratively-named siblings with psychic powers, at least one reliable adult to help the twins against a much better connected heavy who represents the dark side of humanity, and of course the eponymous mountain itself.
DVD Review: The Color of Magic
The Color of Magic is an adaptation of the first two books of author Terry Pratchett's (Good Omens, with Neil Gaiman) enormously popular Discworld series. Launched in 1983 with The Colour of Magic, the series is light comic fantasy where everything from over-familiar fantasy conventions to modern day political events to the grim specter of Death Itself are sent up using droll wordplay and Pratchett's trademark dry wit. Every release has been an immediate hit with readers, and now with 36 volumes (and counting) the books comprise one of the most popular fantasy series of all time.
