MCN DVD Reviews: July 14, 2009

The Wrap Up ...

For All Mankind: Criterion Collection

Let’s see if the media expend a tenth as much time and energy covering the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing as they did obsessing over the death of Michael Jackson, who did some moon-walking of his own. Although such missions soon were taken for granted by a fickle citizenry, Apollo 11 dominated the headlines and newscasts in America and around the world for weeks. And, why not?

Not only was the lunar landing a crowning technological achievement, but it realized prophesies made by such visionaries as John F. Kennedy, Jules Verne and H.G. Welles. First given a tentative release in 1989, For All Mankind was culled from 80 hours of interviews and six million feet of largely unseen archival film. In addition to the first moon landing, Al Reinert’s documentary chronicles the program, from Apollo 7 to Apollo 17.

Naturally, though, most of the attention is paid to Apollo 11, seemingly without leaving a stone unturned. Anyone who thinks he’s seen it all before should know that the newly restored, high-definition digital transfer – combined with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack – makes the moon mission look as if it happened yesterday. The Criterion Collection edition adds commentary by Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to set foot on the moon; interviews with 15 of the Apollo astronauts; a fascinating making-of featurette; a gallery of art created by Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean; on-screen identification of astronauts and mission-control specialists; and a booklet featuring essays by film critic Terrence Rafferty and Reinert. Considering the general lack of attention paid to non-catastrophic Space Shuttle flights – and congressionally enforced belt-tightening at NASA -- it might have been worthwhile for the producers to include a featurette on the palpable benefits of the early missions, including digital photography. - Gary Dretzka

Van Wilder: Freshman Year: Unrated

The third entry in Paramount’s Van Wilder franchise is so derivative of Animal House that ROTC cadets still consider it their duty to defend the honor of Coolidge College – and its female students -- from incoming slackers and stoners. Freshman Year is a prequel to the original, which, at least, benefitted from the presence of Ryan Reynolds and Kal Penn, and “The Rise of Taj,” whose only reason for existing was the extension of Penn’s character. Minus those two actors, whose stars continue to rise in less embarrassing projects, we’re left with a Van Wilder that could only exist in straight-to-video form.

Besides the ROTC bullies, the incoming freshmen must discover ways to circumvent the kill-joy dean. a campus-wide ban on parties and vows of chastity made by the school’s cutest coeds. As portrayed by Jonathan Bennett, the freshman Van is every bit as cocky and determined as Reynold’s Van, but without any of his raw charisma and genetically enhanced charm. Needless to say, Van decides to test the conviction of the women of Coolidge, by making a move on the most virtuous of cheerleaders. You can guess the rest. To its credit, the DVD does offer a generous helping of bonus features, including commentary, six comedic featurettes and bloopers.- Gary Dretzka

Edge of Love

Although far from unwatchable, this critically dismissed study of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, his free-spirited wife, Caitlin, and a pair of relative innocents caught in their orbit, suffers the fate of too many biopics of talented alcoholics. Once the creativity and clever banter wane, the only thing left for viewers is the sorrow and pity that comes with wasted genius. Set in World War II Britain, Edge of Love chronicles the love triangle, plus one, that developed between Dylan and Caitlin Thomas, the poet’s former girlfriend, Vera Phillips, and William Killick, the soldier who adored her.

Before going to war, Killick took the flirty behavior of the trio in stride, confident it wouldn’t lead to something more sinister. After he returned from combat, however, the traumatized war hero imagined the worst of his wife and the paternity of their child. It leads to an explosive confrontation that nearly seals his doom.

Matthew Rhys (Brothers and Sisters) and Sienna Miller are fine as the combustible couple. Keira Knightley seems a tad petite to play a woman who could match the Thomases drink for drink and handle both of their advances, but otherwise, she does a nice job. It’s Cillian Murphy, though, who wins our sympathy and pity, even without the help of his intensely blue eyes. Edge of Love capably re-creates the look and feel of London, during the blitz, and its bohemian pub scene. It also captures the isolation and parochialism of a small Welsh town whose elderly citizens could do little more than wait for the lists of war dead to be posted. - Gary Dretzka

In his re-interpretation of the American courtroom drama 12 Angry Men, the much-honored Russian filmmaker and actor Nikita Mikhalkov demonstrated just how universal the experience of judging an accused man’s fate can be. 12 also argued that the right to a jury trial is a privilege not to be taken lightly, especially in a country whose recent history is rife with miscarriages of justice. The set-up to both films is essentially the same: 12 jurors are locked in a room – this one far less claustrophobic than the chambers of the original – deliberating the guilt or innocence of a Chechen youth on trial for the murder of his Russian stepfather.

Eleven of the 12 are convinced the defendant is guilty as charged and they are in a hurry to close the book on the case. One man is skeptical of the prosecution’s presentation and forces further argument among the jurors, who, one by one, begin to question their own beliefs. 12 is different in that ethnic politics and the realities of war are as much a consideration of the jurors as their own personal backgrounds. An hour longer than 12 Angry Men, 12 gave Mikhalkov the room he needed to expand on the various Russian archetypes. It’s a rewarding experience. Those unfamiliar with Mikhalkov’s other work are advised to check out the Stalin-era period drama, Burnt by the Sun, winner of the 1994 Academy Award for the Best Foreign Film. - Gary Dretzka

Ménage

Bye-Bye Monkey

Don’t Touch the White Woman

If it weren’t for the widespread acceptance of DVD as an entertainment medium, how would we discover the many wonderful foreign-language movies that have gone undistributed in the U.S., or only played an arthouse in New York or Los Angeles? No better example could be found than these obscure titles from Koch Lorber Films, directed by Bertrand Blier and Marco Ferreri, and starring such international stars as Gerard Depardieu, Michel Blanc, Miou-Miou, Catherine Denueve, Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli and Ugo Tognazzi. They’re all interesting, but probably require a taste for French cinematic eccentricities to fully appreciate.

Made in 1986, Menage stars Depardieu as a slick bi-sexual thief, who enlists an argumentative middle-class couple (Miou-Miou, Blanc), in his work as a robber of wealthy homes. The excitement and risk turn the couple on in ways their liaisons couldn’t, and, soon, a curious love triangle develops. Blier’s take on women has frequently drawn fire and Menage provides no departure from controversy. As a sexual farce, I found it to be quite entertaining. I also was captivated by Miou-Miou, who’s never l ooked more captivating.

Ferreri’s Bye-Bye Monkey and Don’t Touch the White Woman could hardly be more unusual. In the former, Depardieu plays a lighting designer at a feminist theater in lower Manhattan. Being 1978, the women were still debating such questions as, “Can a woman rape a man?,” and, if so, is it OK to fall in love with the victim after becoming pregnant. Being handy, the lighting designer is recruited – via a bottle bashed on his head – to be the guinea pig.

For his part, Depardieu adopts the orphaned infant son of King Kong, whose body has washed up on a nearby beach. And, that’s only in the first 15 minutes. It gets crazier from there. Ferreri’s making all sorts of statements here about the decay of western civilization, some way too obvious to be cogent. Depardieu’s lots of fun to watch, however, and the feminist actors are tres sexy. Mastroianni plays a charming old Italian whose oddball personality fits right in with the other nutty characters.

If anything, Ferreri’s audacious Don’t Touch the White Woman, is even less easy to summarize than Bye-Bye Monkey. This time, Mastroianni has been enlisted to play George Armstrong Custer, as the general might have acted and looked just prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The conceit demands that the Custer’s last stand not take place in Montana, but in a gigantic pit in the center of Paris, where, in 1974, the Les Halles shopping and transit complex was being built.

The cavalry has been called in to rid the neighboring tenements of squatters and other undesirable elements, represented by the Indians, so that the project can expand. I suspect that the analogy was difficult to miss in France, placed in that context and set in a city still reeling from the near-revolution of 1968. The battle staged by Ferreri is reasonably accurate, even if the American soldiers and the key Indian characters are wildly exaggerated. An interview with the director is included in the DVD packages. - Gary Dretzka

Karl Rove, I Love You

The title of this curious pretend documentary – not to be confused with a mockumentary – says it all. Karl Rove, I Love You is one actor’s attempt to educate his liberal, predominantly gay friends on the evils of GOP strategist Karl Rove. These are educated, politically aware people, but somehow they’re ignorant of the influence Rove had on President George W. Bush. Dan Butler, who played “Bulldog" on Frasier, is among the liberals.

Prompted by a persistent fan with a digital movie camera, Butler embarks on a mission to create a one-man play based on the writing and rants of Rove, with whom he bears a resemblance. As we eavesdrop on the production’s progress, it’s easy to see how deeply into character Butler is going. After actually meeting with Rove at a political fund-raiser, Butler comes away from their brief conversation shaken and determined to soften some of the edges of the script.

This shift confuses and antagonizes Butler’s collaborators, who can’t understand what’s happening. In fact, Butler has fallen into a familiar trap. He has become his character and, in doing so, has found him not guilty of the charges with which he had been indicted … if only theatrically. This not only happens with actors, of course. It also occurs when journalists meet face-to-face with people they expect to hate and but find to be quite amiable. In the end, Karl Rove inadvertently teaches us more about the limits of our own assumptions and beliefs, than about any of the subject’s misdeeds or “love” for Rove. I might be reading too much into Butler’s entertaining concoction, but what else about Rove is worth the effort of pursuing intellectually? - Gary Dretzka

El Camino

There’s nothing quite like a road trip, when comes to unlocking that vault that contains the hopes, dreams and fears of the American psyche. Turn off the car radio and the secrets of a lifetime are revealed. Or, so it goes in the movies. In the very decent, low-budget indie, El Camino, three friends of a recently deceased cancer victim meet at his funeral, steal the urn in which his ashes are contained and dedicate the next few weeks of their lives to depositing them in the waters off the west coast of Mexico.

Elliot is a young man, who, like the deceased, grew up in “the system,” but wasn’t fortunate enough to be adopted by a good family. Lily is a pretty young woman, disowned by her family for dropping out of college and stripping to make money. Gray is pissed off about practically everything, especially his inability to cope with his girlfriend’s pregnancy. Along the way, they encounter the usual assortment of lost and found souls who populate the America between the coasts. There s nothing particularly new in El Camino, but the acting is uniformly excellent and the story doesn’t rely on buddy-film clichés to make its points. (OK, it did borrow a few tricks from Sex, Lies and Videotape and Y Tu Mama Tambien.) The music is good and the American landscape glistens with possibility. – Gary Dretzka

Beach Kings

I don’t know who woke up one morning and decided that beach volleyball was an athletic activity worthy of inclusion in the Olympics. To me, it was less a sport than an opportunity to market beer, sunglasses and sun screen. Perhaps, Olympics officials got together, smoked a joint and watched the first epic beach-volleyball movie, Side Out, with C. Thomas Howell, Peter Horton, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Harley Jane Kozak. Their research also included watching ESPN coverage of matches between hot Brazilian babes in barely there bikinis and the Malibu all-stars. Then, don’t forget, there were the studly guys with shark’s teeth necklaces and barbed-wire tattoos.

The straight-to-video Beach Kings (a.k.a., Green Flash) joins Side Out and Impact Point in the cranny reserved for beach-volleyball titles in the local video store. It stars David Charvet as a former college basketball star hoping to make it on the professional beach-volleyball tour. The mandatory beach bunny is played by Torrey DeVitto, from One Tree Hill. It is what it is, but not much more. (The best volleyball movie remains The Iron Ladies, about a Thai men’s team, comprised mostly of gays, transvestites and transsexuals. which competed in the 1996 national championships.) - Gary Dretzka

Levarage: Season 1

The State: The Complete Series

Shark Week: The Great Bites Collection

TNT’s ensemble crime series, Leverage, begins its second season in a few days and late-comers might want to acquaint themselves with the show’s set-up and characters via this DVD set. Basically, it takes the old Mission: Impossible recipe and mixes into it a healthy dollop of Robin Hood. Here, the gang is comprised of thieves, computer hackers, conmen, martial artists, acrobats and safe crackers. It’s been organized by a former insurance investigator, played nicely by Timothy Hutton. Besides helping strangers and friends out of financial problems, the gang exposes corrupt businesses and crooks in three-piece suits. If they profit from their scams, as well, all the better. It’s an entertaining series enhanced by clever schemes and witty dialogue. Gina Bellman, familiar from her days as the sex-crazed Jane in Coupling, plays the beautiful bait in many of the scams.

MTV’s sketch-comedy series The State once carried the subtitle, Full Frontal Comedy. It was comprised of 10 gifted improv veterans and one woman, Kerri Kenney. The ensemble catered to the Gen X audience drawn to MTV, just as it was beginning to move from music videos to original programming. Its stars would go on to appear in such projects as Reno 911!, Stella, Kim Possible, Viva Variety and Wet Hot American Summer.

Discovery Channel struck pay dirt when it created an annual event, “Shark Week." Even if Universal’s “Jaws” franchise was collapsing when “Shark Week” began its two-decade-long run in 1987, viewers couldn’t get enough of the real-life stories of the oceanic predators and the crazy people who attempt to swim alongside them. This greatest-hits collection, which looks great in Blu-ray, adds the bonus features: “Shark Attack Files," “Jobs That Bite” and “Jobs That Bite Harder.”

Also arriving is “ER: The Complete 11th Season,” which began with Abby becoming a doctor and ended with Carter joining the rest of the members of the original cast in places not called Chicago. – Gary Dretzka