Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - (Page 16) REVIEWS I AN AMERICAN CAROL Street 12/30 Vivendi, Comedy, B.O. $7 million, $26.99 DVD, ‘PG13’ for rude and irreverent content, and for language and brief drug material. Stars Kevin Farley, Kelsey Grammer, Trace Adkins, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Robert Davi, Jon Voight. Edited by John Latchem primarily through military intervention. In a play on A Christmas Carol, Malone is visited by several ghosts who seek to show him the error of his ways. They include John F. Kennedy (Chriss Anglin), Gen. George Patton (Kelsey Grammer) and George Washington (Jon Voight). The film is very funny at times, with much of the humor stemming from tried-and-true slapstick. The satirical elements, like a string of political cartoons come to life, take jabs at what could be referred to as a stereotypical liberal viewpoint. In doing this, the script oversimplifies a number of issues. For example, the War on Terror is discussed in general without dovetailing into the subtleties of the debate over Iraq. Ultimately, the film becomes at its heart a valentine to American troops. Some of the more partisan gags were left on the cutting room floor. The most prominent, included as a deleted scene on the DVD, involves the ghost of JFK greeting Ted Kennedy in a parody of the “Fredo, you broke my heart” scene from The www.homemediamagazine.com Godfather Part II. Given Ted’s current battle with brain cancer, it’s probably best this scene was left out of the movie. The disc also includes an amusing commentary in which Zucker, Farley and screenwriter Lewis Friedman joke about test audiences and the fact that no one saw the movie in theaters. While An American Carol was not a box office hit, it’s more likely to find its audience on DVD, much like a previous Zucker film, BASEketball. – John Latchem D S irector David Zucker, who helped popularize the spoof movie with Airplane! and The Naked Gun, takes aim at boisterous political correctness with a film that offers some historical perspective while presenting broad satire along the lines of “South Park” or Team America. Kevin Farley (Chris’ younger brother) does a good job playing Michael Malone, a liberal documentary filmmaker styled after Michael Moore. Malone is following a documentary love-letter to Cuba with a campaign to ban the Fourth of July on the basis that he feels America should not be celebrating its decadence after causing so much injustice in the world, I RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION Sony Pictures, Horror, $27.96 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, $24.94 UMD, ‘R’ for bloody violence. o many things that worked in the original Resident Evil film trilogy are missing from Degeneration, the new feature-length CG-animated installment in the zombie franchise. A creepy Raccoon City? Long gone. The evil, global Umbrella Corporation? Bankrupt. Milla Jovovich? Yeah, keep dreaming. The T-Virus and swarms of gnarly zombies? They’re still here. In spades. Degeneration’s story bears little resemblance to the film trilogy, more closely sticking to the characters and plot lines of the video games. A man infected with the zombie virus turns before the plane he’s on lands. Meanwhile, at the airport below, a terrorist has infected a few people with the virus and has set them loose in the terminal. We all know it only takes a few zombies to get things started, and when the now-zombie-laden plane crashes into the terminal, all hell breaks loose. Degeneration turns into a lengthy and confusing game of political intrigue, and people who’ve never played the video games will be scratching their heads. Zombie movies work when there’s more style than substance, and Degeneration’s writers seem to have lost sight of that. The final half hour of the movie makes up for the drag with a very large, very bloody battle with one super-sized monster, and the wrap-up sets the scene for the video game Resident Evil 5. Blu-ray Disc is the way to go with this one. The picture is pristine, if a tad dark, and the 5.1 audio is nice and loud. The Blu-ray exclusive bonuses — a pop-up trivia track and Sony’s first three-way picture-in-picture — are both fun. The PIP option allows for storyboards, animatics or motion capture, and makes Degeneration worth another viewing. – Chris Tribbey I ENTRY LEVEL Street 1/6 PorchLight, Comedy, $24.98 DVD, NR. Stars D.B. Sweeney, Missi Pyle, Steve Ryan, Taylor Negron, Cedric Yarbrough, Kurtwood Smith. I THE ALPHABET KILLER Street 1/6 Anchor Bay, Thriller, B.O. $0.03 million, $26.97 DVD, ‘R’ for language and some violence. Stars Eliza Dushku, Cary Elwes, Timothy Hutton, Michael Ironside, Tom Malloy. lthough it isn’t on par with The Silence of the Lambs (seriously, what is?), The Alphabet Killer is a solid film reminiscent of that style of psychological thriller with good writing and sound performances from a first-rate cast. The film is loosely based on the true story of a 1970s serial killer in Rochester, N.Y., who raped and killed victims with doubleinitial names and then dumped their bodies in towns beginning with the same letter. You need only to peek at my byline to see why this film was particularly disturbing to me. My name has presented a few challenges in life, but mispronunciations pale in comparison to being the marked target of a mad man (yikes). The focus of the story is a female detective (Dushku) who becomes increasingly obsessed with solving the case and has a psychotic break, resulting in a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Fans of Dushku will be delighted to see her in a more mature role, as she excellently portrays a woman battling inner turmoil. There are certainly parallels (and jokes) to be found between this and her previous roles (she is essentially battling evil, and she thinks the dead girls are calling to her for help), but it doesn’t detract from the quality of her performance or interfere with the overall enjoyment of the film. The casting is a special treat for those viewers who like to solve the who-done-it before the onscreen detectives can. The sheer number of actors cast who have previously played villains makes guessing the outcome a fun challenge. The DVD extras are pretty basic with two audio commentaries, a rather lame making-of montage and an alternate scene. The commentary with writer/producer/actor Tom Malloy ends up being more entertaining than that of producer Isen Robbins and director Rob Schmidt, who are more analytical than anecdotal. – Kyra Kudick veryone has to start somewhere. Clay Maguire (Sweeney) is starting at the bottom of the corporate world — about 15 years too late. At least that’s his plan. Pushing 40, the failed restaurateur wants to take a stab at a new profession, despite his lack of experience and spelling capabilities. Entry Level is a cute little comedy that will seem very familiar to anyone who’s ever had a job interview. We’ve all dealt with the boring questions, blank stares and broken record of “we’ll keep your resumé on file.” The film sometimes takes familiar situations to funny extremes, including an HR manager (Negron) who only hires candidates he hates because he considers working for his employer to be “punishment.” On the rest of his journey, Clay faces foreclosure and befriends a not-so-merry band of other job seekers. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he supplies his competition with a daily dose of gourmet sandwiches. Clay’s cooking skills are a running theme throughout the film, which leads to the inevitable ending. Still, the film is funny and entertaining. It’s basically Office Space without the office. The film didn’t see a wide release but managed to snag top writing and film awards at VisionFest 2007. Don’t expect to see any behind-the-scenes extras, but the DVD release will include another festival fave, Full Disclosure, the short film starring Judy Greer (27 Dresses) and Brent Sexton (HBO’s “Deadwood”). – Rachel Cericola Home Media Magazine December 28, 2008–January 4, 2009 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
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