Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2008 - (Page 20)

Out of the old Spanish West comes the defender of the common people, the masked hero of the oppressed, Zorro! REVIEWS I SOUTHLAND TALES Street 3/18 Sony Pictures, Thriller, B.O. $0.3 million, $24.96 DVD, ‘R’ for language, violence, sexual material and some drug content. Stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake. www.homemediamagazine.com W Relive the classic tales of our fabled foe of the Dons with these three classic movie serials from the Golden Age of Cinema. Enjoy each exciting chapter while watching Zorro Rides Again, Zorro’s Fighting Legion and Zorro’s Black Whip! In addition, you can enjoy the exploits of Zorro in a feature length film. riter-director Richard Kelly — who with 2001’s Donnie Darko bestowed upon our generation a daring, nostalgic mindbender that spoke volumes to children of the 1980s — returns with Southland Tales. Gone are the sentimentalism and awe that could only have come from a first-time filmmaker. In their place are bombast and incoherence. Despite its numerous shortcomings, Southland Tales still manages to be riveting. If this sounds contradictory, it’s only fitting for the work of a writer-director who delights in messing with our heads. In an alternate United States, an amnesic actionmovie star (Johnson) winds up in the bed of a porn star (Gellar) looking to make the jump to TV pundit, while twin brothers (both played by Scott) are held captive by neo-Marxists who emerge in Southern California after a nuclear blast in Texas brings on a police state. There’s more than enough plot turns, but basically the fate of the universe is at stake. The film should include one of those warnings you see before getting on a rollercoaster — you may become nauseated by all the film’s careening twists. For those with strong stomachs, the elements of Southland Tales are fascinating in their own right. At times the film parodies cable news and the Internet’s effect on our perception. Some stories are told through televisions and surveillance tape. When the film is told in straight narrative form, characters’ intentions are often so obscured behind bizarre dialogue and actions, we don’t necessarily know what’s going on. The effect is, strangely, similar to what it’s like when you’re on the computer while watching TV and chatting on the phone. In this sense, Kelly has succeeded in parodying the world we live in now by forecasting where we’re headed in the short term. Even when Kelly’s plot flies off the handle — and I’m sorry, what was he thinking with the casting? — the alternate dimension of Southland Tales is all too familiar. And frightening. – Billy Gil I EAST L.A. MARINE: THE UNTOLD TRUE STORY OF GUY GABALDON Prebook 3/4; Street 4/8 Arts Alliance America, Documentary, $19.95 DVD, NR. Narrated by Freddie Prinze Jr. M Call: (866) 410-9000 any have heard of the 1960 war drama Hell to Eternity, starring 6-foot-tall Jeffrey Hunter as World War II hero Guy Gabaldon. Not so many may know the reallife Gabaldon was a 5-foot-4-inch Hispanic Marine from East Los Angeles. East L.A. Marine hopes to change that. The documentary pieces together Gabaldon’s life through interviews with the man himself, two of his sons, friends, fellow Marines and military historians as well as excerpts from his appearance on “This Is Your Life,” photos and war footage. Gabaldon grew up in Boyle Heights, Calif., and had a reputation as a tough, outspoken kid. He spent much of his childhood with his Japanese neighbors, picking up the language and culture. When his friends were hauled off to Japanese internment camps, he was left devastated and soon after joined the Marines. In 1944, when he was 18, he was stationed in Saipan. Not one to listen to his superiors, he went off on his own and convinced hundreds of Japanese soldiers to surrender, often single-handedly. His knowledge of the language and culture allowed him to capture about 2,000 soldiers and civilians. That this meant the prisoners lived and were not casualties of war was a feat for which Gabaldon was very proud. Yet Gabaldon was bypassed for the Congressional Medal of Honor and also for a promotion. Some say Gabaldon didn’t get proper recognition because he was Hispanic; others say because he didn’t always follow the rules. East L.A. Marine hopes to bring attention to Gabaldon’s heroic acts to posthumously honor him with the Medal of Honor. Some of the footage is old, shaky and unclear, but it puts the film in context and gives viewers a fuller sense of Gabaldon. Seeing some of the more-graphic war footage alongside the pictures and clips of the short, soft-spoken Gabaldon left me even more amazed at the man’s accomplishments. – Angelique Flores 20 Home Media Magazine March 2–8, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2008

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