Home Media Magazine - March 16-22, 2009 - (Page 10) REVIEWS Street 3/24 sexual content. Edited by John Latchem www.homemediamagazine.com revenge for the death of his lost love. The single-disc DVD includes just the music video for the movie’s horrible theme song, “Another Way to Die,” by Jack White and Alicia Keys, while the two-disc and Blu-ray versions add behind-the-scenes material culled almost entirely from video blogs already available at the movie’s Web site. That makes this possibly the laziest special edition I’ve ever seen. What’s missing? The disc could have used an in-depth examination about connecting the plot points of this movie to the last one, probably a short feaurette about the significance of the title (which comes from a Bond short story by Bond creator Ian Fleming), and of course commentary and deleted scenes. As an archive of the Quantum of Solace Web site, however, it gets the job done, and as a chronicle of the production, the featurettes are effective. Repurposing the ready-made content is a smart move for now, but it probably means a true deluxe edition will see the light of day just before the debut of the inevitable next movie. Quantum of Solace is a portrait of a franchise at the crossroads. Will it continue down this road of manufacturing “Bourne” style techno-thrillers, or will the producers re-inject some of the fun of the earlier movies? All I know for certain is that James Bond will return. And so will his fans. – John Latchem I QUANTUM OF SOLACE Fox/MGM, Action, B.O. $168.4 million, $29.98 DVD, $34.98 two-DVD set, $39.99 Blu-ray, ‘PG-13’ for intense sequences of violence and action, and some Stars Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright. T he 22nd James Bond movie is not the worst in the series, but it may be the most underwhelming. Quantum of Solace is a technically proficient thriller that covers all the bases fans have come to expect from a Bond film, but in many respects it feels as if it’s just going through the motions. The story is really just a continuation of the excellent Casino Royale, and as a piece of the bigger puzzle it holds up better, with Bond (Daniel Craig) investigating the shadowy organization that drove the events of the first film, while at the same time seeking a measure of I MOSCOW CHILL Street 3/24 MTI, Thriller, $24.95 DVD, ‘R’ for language, some violence and brief nudity. Stars Norman Reedus, Slava Schoot, Konstantin Yushkevich, Xusha Buravsky. ollowing the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ruse of egalitarian communism has given way to unbridled greed and corruption within the former Soviet states for control of oil, natural gas, military and financial and commercial concerns. Enter American computer hacker Ray Perso (Norman Reedus), who despises sleazy trans-nationals, global terrorists and banks. In short, he’s a wannabe Robin Hood who believes that anybody who is part of the conspiracy to destroy the individual should be “blown open and cold-busted.” This apparently includes New York F ATMs Perso hacks into, turning them into cash-spewing spigots for the masses. While in prison for said crimes, Perso is sprung by clichéd Russian mobsters (complete with freeflowing vodka and cigarettes) and put on an American military transport to Moscow. Their boss is an imprisoned business tycoon (Vladimir Kuleshov) who wants $40 million he claims was stolen from him. Perso naively agrees to help redirect the funds electronically from Swiss accounts, believing the tycoon (who also happens to know his deceased mother) was a victim of the “system.” The mob, specifically quirky henchmen Vasya (Konstantin Yushkevich) and Dolphin (Slava Schoot), however, has separate plans, which include violence, murder and liberal doses of black humor. An engaging soundtrack of techno, hip-hop and rock backs this 2007 effort from first-time American writerdirector Chris Solimine that offers a raw glimpse into contemporary Russia (and prisons) not often seen in movies. The DVD’s bonus material includes a bio on Reedus, who was once a motorcycle mechanic in Los Angeles and Prada model. Oddly, select scenes in the film for extended periods are in Russian with no English subtitles. The movie contains Spanish subtitles and could have used English captioning as well. – Erik Gruenwedel I WITCH HUNT Prebook 3/17; Street 4/14 Your Half Media, Documentary, $24.98 DVD, NR. Narrated by Sean Penn. W itch Hunt, about five parents charged and convicted of child molestation, only to be cleared years later, has the power to infuriate in its (admittedly one-sided) display of gross abuse of power on the part of prosecutors in these cases. The film portrays local authorities in Bakersfield, Calif., in the 1980s as hell-bent on conviction by any means necessary. The lengths they went to get these convictions are awful — children were basically coached into testifying against local parents, including their own. Years later many of the children, now grown, recanted their confessions. Interviews with the grown children and tape of their alleged confessions drive the point home. Witch Hunt successfully links real people to names you read about in stories. It’s easy to be somewhat dispassionate, even hateful toward people who have been convicted of crimes, wrongfully or not; it’s a lot harder to do so when you’ve heard and seen the stories from their eyes. Narrated and produced by Sean Penn, Witch Hunt could have gone a bit further in exploring the aftermath of the acquittals — one boy still claims his father molested him, for example — but as is, Witch Hunt is highly effective at forcing its viewers to face how scary, shocking and wrong our justice system can sometimes be. – Billy Gil I COLUMBUS DAY Street 3/24 Lightning, Thriller, $26.97 DVD, ‘R‘ for some violence and language. Stars Val Kilmer, Marg Helgenberger, Wilmer Valderrama, Bobb’e J. Thompson. he film concept of in medias res, to start the movie in the middle of the action, is often employed by filmmakers to thrust the audience into the story through the curiosity of unanswered questions. Such a format is often paired with a flashback structure that tricks the audience into staying interested by trying to sort out the different storylines in their heads. The risk comes in raising too many questions that it becomes impossible to answer them all, or to effectively pay off the intrigue of the setup. Columbus Day falls into this trap. It begins with John Cologne (Val Kilmer) on the run after stealing a small briefcase. He makes T his way to Los Angeles’ Echo Park and calls an associate, who sits in his apartment handcuffed to a section of metal fence. But what’s in the case, why did John steal it, and how did his friend get into this predicament? Writer-director Charles Burmeister throws out pieces of the puzzle while alternating between John’s memories of a heist gone wrong and his encounter in the park with a curious boy (Bobb’e J. Thompson of Role Models). Elements of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are fairly obvious. Burmeister doesn’t exactly answer every question he poses, perhaps not feeling the need to. Instead he focuses on humanizing John by exploring his attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter (Ashley Johnson). The mesh between intrigue and emotion isn’t always clean, but the performances are effective enough to engage viewers, especially those who already consider themselves fans of certain actors in the cast. – John Latchem 10 Home Media Magazine March 16–22, 2009 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
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