Home Media Magazine - September 30 - October 6, 2007 - (Page 22)

REVIEWS I THE WENDELL BAKER STORY Prebook 10/4; Street 10/30 www.homemediamagazine.com Academy Award Nominee OMAR SHARIF Leads a Stellar Cast that includes: Max von Thun (March of Millions) ® ThinkFilm, Comedy, B.O. $0.1 million, $27.98 DVD, ‘PG-13’ for some crude and sexual humor and language. Stars Luke Wilson, Eddie Griffin, Eva Mendes, Owen Wilson. A Klaus Maria Brandauer (Out of Africa) Vittoria Puccini (Nero, Paz!) DIRECTED BY EMMY® AWARD NOMINEE Robert Dornhelm (War and Peace) After entering into an unhappy marriage of convenience, Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, begins a fateful affair with Baroness Mary Vetsera that ends in tragedy. Item#: KOC-DV-6477 • UPC: 7-41952-64779-9 • ISBN: 1-4172-3001-0 SRP: $29.98 • 181 minutes • 2 DVD Set • English Language • Drama • Dolby Digital • 16x9 Wilson family wonderland, The Wendell Baker Story stars Luke and Owen Wilson, was codirected Luke and Andrew Wilson, and was written by Luke. The film is clearly a labor of love and possibly an attempt to show that Luke, like older brother Owen (co-writer of modern classics The Royal Tennenbaums, Rushmore and Bottle Rocket), can not only write but direct a film. Luke, whose undeniable talent, charm and presence is versatile enough to allow him a greater range of roles than Owen, is something of a modern-day Jimmy Stewart, an actor who can be effective both in goofy roles in films like Blades of Glory and straight parts like the thriller Vacancy. His Wendell Baker character is a smooth, sleazy con-man who ultimately discovers his heart of gold, and doesn’t try to sell it. When Baker’s fake-ID business is busted, he is sent to jail and begins to see life in a new light. As a condition of his probation, he is sent to work at a retirement community/nursing home where evil nurse Neil King (Owen) is running a scam that cheats patients out of their prescriptions so that he can sell them on the black market. Resolving the situation is Baker’s shot at redemption and the crux of the film’s moral center. With Mendes as Baker’s long-suffering girlfriend and Griffin as King’s co-conspirator, plus an extended cameo from Will Ferrell, the cast is about as solid as a movie can have. However, the real joy of this production comes from supporting actors in even smaller roles. Wilson has cast veteran character actors Harry Dean Stanton, Seymour Cassell and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson as residents of the home, and the three of them have never been better. — David Greenberg I DEAD LETTER OFFICE Street 10/9 “Deception, jealousy and murder [it] has all the ingredients” -Evening Standard BFS, Drama, $24.98 DVD, NR. Stars Miranda Otto, George DelHoyo, Nicholas Bell, Syd Brisbane. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 12 year-old King Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York has been the cause of speculation and fascination for over five centuries. In 1491, eight years after the Princes in the Tower were presumed murdered, a young man told an astonished world that he was Richard, back to claim the throne of England. A DIRECTED BY Justin Hardy (A Feast at Midnight, A Harlot’s Progress) Item#: KOC-DV-6468 • UPC: 7-41952-64689-1 ISBN: 1-4172-2992-6 • SRP $24.98 Running Time: 120 minutes • Historical Drama Dolby Digital • 16x9 lthough the cover art for Dead Letter Office suggests a suspense-filled thriller, the film is actually a sad, funny and quirky little drama from Australia. Alice’s father deserted his young family when she was just a girl. In the intervening years, Alice continued to write letters to her missing dad, always signing them, “Your Bundle of Joy.” Fast forward to twentysomething Alice, who is aimless and depressed, engaging in meaningless affairs and still obsessed with finding her father. She takes a job at the postal service’s dead letter office in order to track him down. What she finds there is a haven for misfits, refugees and eccentrics. Dead Letter Office is a quietly affecting film that gently probes the ways in which the walking wounded negotiate the world and try to heal their damaged lives. The smolderingly sexy DelHoyo, as Alice’s tall, dark and mysterious boss, manages to project a terrible sadness that cuts through his chilly efficiency. Otto is also very good as the naïve Alice, who wants so badly to repair all of the sadness around her. Although the plot, on paper, resembles Gary Marshall’s 1996 comedy Dear God, Dead Letter Office is much more raw and edgy. Swirling around the postal workers every day are the epistolary pleas of faceless correspondents who ask for God’s help or wish for their relatives now long gone. Those attracted to small hybrid dramas will be very interested in Dead Letter Office. — Anne Sherber Academy Award® is the registered trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. PRE-BOOK DATE: 10/9/07 • STREET DATE: 11/6/07 Watch THE CROWN PRINCE CLIPS & PRINCES IN THE TOWER CLIPS at www.kochclips.com FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.KOCHB2B.COM 22 Home Media Magazine September 30–October 6, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.kochclips.com http://WWW.KOCHB2B.COM

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Home Media Magazine - September 30 - October 6, 2007

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