The Italian Job: Movie, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Review (2003)

Mini Coopers--and maximum action

Directed by F. Gary Gray, written by Donna Powers and Wayne Powers, 110 minutes, rated PG-13.

(Originally published 2003)

In "The Italian Job," a smart, blistering remake of Peter Collinson's 1969 film of the same name, Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Edward Norton star in a film whose $35 million gold heist isn’t just the prize but the problem.

At least for the characters.

The film, which director F. Gary Gray based on a screenplay by Donna Powers and Wayne Powers, lacks the original’s inspired casting (Noel Coward and Benny Hill as thieves), but it offers greatly improved stuntwork and gives a fun update to the three Mini Coopers so crucial to the plot and action.

Energetic and lean, beautifully shot and well-acted, Gray’s film is a caper whose hip style is generated almost entirely from within. That infectious style is given a lift from the looseness of its cast, which helps to create a breezy, ultra-cool mood that never feels manufactured, unlike in this year's other caper, the mildly disappointing "Confidence."

Befitting the title, the film opens in Venice with a daring heist that leads to a wild boat chase through the city's clogged canals. It's a rousing opening, one that seamlessly introduces all the major players and their individual strengths amid the action.

There's Charlie (Wahlberg), the architect behind the heists; John (Donald Sutherland), the veteran safe-cracker; Steve (Norton), whose personal connections prove vital; and Handsome Rob (Jason Statham), who knows how to handle women as well as he knows how to handle the wheel of a car or a boat.

Also on board are Lyle (Seth Green), a computer geek who claims he’s the mastermind behind Napster, and Left Ear (Mos Def), whose partial deafness proves he knows a few things about blowing things up.

Together, they’re a formidable team. But when one member of the group gets greedy and turns on the others, brazenly stealing the $35 million in gold they hauled out of Venice and leaving one man dead, the remaining members strengthen their bond and set out to destroy the dirty thief and vindicate their friend’s death.

They do so by enlisting the help of Stella (Theron), a gifted safe-cracker who has personal reasons for seeing this vendetta through: the man who was murdered was her father.

Bolstered by a brisk pace and its solid performances--Theron finally realizes her potential here, but then so does the Mini Cooper, which sees its star shine brighter--“The Italian Job” proves that for a heist movie to get the job done right, audiences will forgive minor lapses in logic in favor of style, chemistry and inventive action. F. Gary Gray comes through with just that--and then he surpasses expectations by coming through with more.

Grade: B+

Atonement: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

"Atonement" DVD, HD DVD

Joe Wright's “Atonement” has everything you could wish for in a period drama--beautiful cinematography, set design and costumes; exotic locales; and a story designed to rip out your heart and crush it when a rushed, heated romance between two young lovers is poisoned by the lies and deceit of another.

Keira Knightley is Cecilia Tallis, a privileged, brittle beauty who isn't especially likable, which is a problem since the movie eventually asks us to feel something profound for her. Looking bored and bothered in 1935 England, Cecilia has issues with Robbie (James McAvoy), who was put through Cambridge with Tallis money and who now is treated as something of a third-wheel member of the family.

The youngest member of the household is spooky Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a wide-eyed lass with a mean mouth and a tight-fisted gate who fancies herself as something of a writer.

She favors fiction, which is key, and she also has a crush on Robbie, which is critical to why she does all that she does in a key plot element not to be revealed here.

"Atonement" isn't a boring movie--there's lots of lovely furniture to look at here, nevermind the appealing vision of its romantic leads--but it isn't a very gripping movie, either, because Cecilia and Robbie aren't allowed to create a fierce, believable bond onscreen before they're torn apart.

The trouble with the film is that you're always aware that you're watching a movie. There's no sinking into "Atonement," no losing yourself to it, no moment when the screen fades away and the story and the characters come to the fore to overcome you.

This is a film you watch from the sidelines, thinking how pretty Knightley looks in this gown, that bathing suit, and how the lighting in a key scene in which Cecilia and Robbie have sex against a wall of books is more interesting than the scene itself.

Read the full, unedited version of the review here.

Rated R. Grade: C+

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Bee Movie: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

"Bee Movie" DVD, HD DVD

The work of drones.

Jerry Seinfeld's pet project is so polished, its edges have been rubbed smooth. Set in New Hive City, the movie follows Barry B. Benson (voice of Seinfeld), a bee fresh out of college who is inspired to get humans out of the honey business, and allow some down time for the over-worked bumbles.

Helping him in that task is Vanessa (Renee Zellweger), a florist with boyfriend troubles who agrees to help Barry in his quest to sue the human race for enslavement and thievery.

Eventually, they wind up in court and it’s here, in the film’s second half, that it finally leaps to life. This is due in great part to the human race's hefty lawyer Layton T. Montgomery (John Goodman, excellent), who is given to marvelous bouts of histrionics, and also to the fallout that springs from the trial, which is dire. After all, what is the world to do if Barry actually wins his case? Has anyone considered the ramifications? Bees already are in dangerously short supply. If they stop pollinating flowers and plants, wouldn’t a worldwide collapse ensue?

That’s a serious subject to explore, but in a cartoon that would rather squeeze the life out of every bee pun it can get its hands on, the big monster in this movie isn't the human race, but those humans who failed to make a compelling film in the first place.

Rated PG. Grade: C

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Into the Wild: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

“Into the Wild” DVD, HD DVD

But at what cost?

From Sean Penn, who wrote and directed the movie from Jon Krakauer's bestselling nonfiction book, “Wild” is a first-rate account of a story that, depending on your perspective, did or didn't end so well for Christopher Johnson McCandless (a terrific Emile Hirsch).

Some will recall that McCandless was the young man from a wealthy Virginia family who in 1990 chose not enter Harvard Law School or the workforce upon graduating from Emory University. Instead, he gave away his life savings to charity, set fire to the rest of his cash and his personal identification, and disappeared without a word into a more challenging world--the wild.

Penn's film follows McCandless' two-year journey into himself via the outside world, which was driven by the need to escape his controlling, bickering parents (Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt) even though in doing so, it also meant leaving behind his beloved younger sister, Carine (Jenna Malone).

It's she who narrates the story, filling in key background information about her brother while Penn weaves back and forward through time in an effort to understand why McCandless did what he did.

What makes the movie so emotionally rich are the people McCandless meets along the way, all of whom offer kindness, insight, clarity, debate.

The acting is strong and memorable, with Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart and especially the Academy Award-nominated Hal Holbrook shaking the movie alive with its mournful undercurrent.

Rated R. Grade: A

Read the unedited review here.

Beowulf: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

"Beowulf" DVD, HD DVD

Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf" has a great ending--powerful, fiery and exciting. It’s a nice feat of showmanship, the best part of the film.

You should know this because what comes before it, with few exceptions, can be long and tedious.

Set in Denmark and based on the 6th century Anglo-Saxon poem, the movie updates it all for the present with hot bods, nudity and sex--just what we need.

It follows the great warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone) as he accepts the challenge of a king (Anthony Hopkins) to kill the giant Grendel (Crispin Glover), who is busy wreaking havoc upon the king’s land.

It’s a situation that escalates into Beowulf also battling Grendel’s slinky minx of a mother (Angelina Jolie, of course) and finally their offspring, who has the ability to morph into a fire-breathing dragon.

Along the way, Beowulf drinks his share of mead, becomes king, garners the love of a queen (Robin Wright Penn), enjoys a lover on the side, grows a conscience and keeps his rock-solid abs throughout.

So, at the very least, plenty of the film’s target audience of young males will want to be him, but here’s the thing: The film follows Zemeckis’ 2004 movie, "The Polar Express," in that it uses performance-capture technology to turn its large cast of human actors into something that wavers between human and humanoid.

What we have here is a movie that renders beautiful interiors and landscapes but which fails to faithfully capture the human form. The characters’ eyes, for instance, are unnervingly without soul. As such, there are problems with the technology that make for a distracting experience, one the movie struggles to overcome--but doesn't.

Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

Read the unedited review here.

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American Gangster: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

"American Gangster" DVD, HD DVD

Ridley Scott's "American Gangster" stars Denzel Washington as real-life crime boss Frank Lucas, who from 1968 to 1975 built a drug empire in Harlem that rivaled anything built by his competition--the Mafia, with whom he eventually got into bed, and Harlem rival Nicky Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr.), with whom you could say he had something of a falling out.

And why not? At the height of his career as a drug-running, church-going, life-snuffing, family-loving thug, Lucas was worth in the neighborhood of $150 million, so you can imagine the complications this created for him in his own neighborhood, particularly since Lucas controlled a market others wanted to corner.

As with so many American movies focused on an individual who realizes the American dream, illegally or otherwise, "American Gangster" follows suit with a parallel story of those determined to bring that person down for achieving it.

In this case, it wasn't just Barnes who wanted Lucas gone. More significantly, it was Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the New Jersey narcotics cop who wanted to undo a man actively undoing his own people.

Working against Roberts were his colleagues across the driver, dirty NYPD cops profiting on the sly from the illegal drug activity. Chief among them is Det. Trupo (an excellent Josh Brolin), who would be cheated out of one glam lifestyle if Roberts succeeded in his mission.

The movie runs nearly three hours (and it sometimes feels it), and its ambitions ultimately prove too much for it. The screen burns with talent here, but many of the supporting performances are so underwritten, they make only fleeting impressions.

The exception is Ruby Dee as Lucas' mother, who shares a scene with Washington that's so good and so memorable, it won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Rated R. Grade: B

Read the full, unedited review here.

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In the Valley of Elah: DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Review (2008)

"In the Valley of Elah" DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray

Tommy Lee Jones is Hank Deerfield, a Vietnam veteran and former military police officer who wakes one morning to learn that his son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) has returned home from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Normally, this would be cause for celebration. Instead, it's cause for alarm when Hank learns that the military believes Mike has gone AWOL.

Launching into action, Hank packs his bags, says goodbye to his wife (Susan Sarandon) and leaves their Tennessee home for New Mexico, where Mike is stationed.

It’s there that he begins the disturbing next stage of his life, which wends around the sort of dark corners no parent wants to travel.

Director Paul Haggis ("Crash") builds a compelling mystery around a character-driven film laced with anti-war undertones. Charlize Theron is solid as the police detective who comes to help Hank, as is Jason Patric as a military detective who resents her because he's trying to contain a possible scandal.

While the movie's considerable running time is against it, stick with it--its in its layers that it comes alive, revealing character and clues with passing asides.

Key to its success is that the film ties its emotions to the gradually crumbling rock that is Tommy Lee Jones' face. That's a shrewd move, particularly since in that face are eyes that come to project so much--sorrow, grief, rage, despair--amid a stoic mug that was trained long ago to reveal nothing, and so it doesn't.

At least for awhile.

Rated R. Grade: B+

Read the full, unedited review here.

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Michael Clayton: DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Review (2008)

"Michael Clayton" DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray

Though its title hardly screams "cerebral thriller," here's the thing--since not much about this tightly wound thriller plays by the rules, why should the title follow suit?

In an Academy Award-nominated performance is George Clooney as Michael Clayton, a corporate lawyer and "fixer" for a New York law firm who is charged to deal with the firm's chief litigator, a manic depressive named Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), when the man goes off his meds and loses it.

The reason? Edens has learned via a private memorandum that U/North, the company he's protecting from a $3 billion class action lawsuit, knowingly distributed a product that has killed hundreds. By defending them, Edens essentially is throwing dirt on the graves of all those who died.

Now, Clayton finds himself taking on U/North's formidable attorney Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), who has plenty to lose herself should that memorandum go public.

Her character is one of the movie's harshest, most pointed jabs at corporate America--as cool as she can be, the woman is a fraud.

As Clayton comes to see through her (Swinton is so good in this movie, she also is up for an Academy Award), the film begins its slow burn, with all of its fractured elements falling into place and Clooney delivering a performance that demands what only a few in the industry can deliver--a critical, grounded turn that allows the film to savor its well-earned commercial overtones.

Rated R. Grade: A-

Read the full, unedited review here.

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No Reservations: DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Review (2008)

"No Reservations" DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray

Based on the 2001 German film "Mostly Martha," this remake is a tragedy, a romantic comedy and a drama, with its charismatic cast navigating the manufactured highs and lows with enough skill to deepen what otherwise might have been a slight movie sorely lacking in depth.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is Kate, a gourmet chef at a top New York restaurant who loses her sister to an accident and assumes the responsibility of raising her niece, Zoe (Abigail Breslin). The transition proves more difficult than Kate imagined.

Zoe wants nothing to do with her aunt, and Kate, by extension, doesn’t know what to do herself. She seeks the help of her psychiatrist (an excellent Bob Balaban), but still the situation stretches her to her limit, so much so that Kate’s boss, Paula (Patricia Clarkson), insists that Kate take time off from work to get her life back in order — and, most importantly, to grieve.

Meanwhile, here comes Nick (Aaron Eckhart), the affable sous-chef with a five o’clock shadow that’s so formidable, it could be used as a zester. In Kate’s absence, he’s hired to run the kitchen. And when Kate catches wind of that, let’s just say the movie whips its whites into one heady froth.

While there is little logic and no surprises in "No Reservations" — the movie can be a heartbreaker, though one that doesn’t leave a dry cliche in the room — films such as this can manage to get by on subtlety, feeling and charm so long as they have the right cast to see them through. "Mostly Martha" had that. This movie does, too.

Rated PG-13. Grade: B-

Read the full review here.

Balls of Fury: DVD, HD DVD Review (2007)

“Balls of Fury” DVD, HD DVD

Curiously, this isn’t a sex comedy.

Instead, it’s a movie about underground table tennis tournaments, which apparently are revered in the Asian community (somebody might want to clue them in on this), who take to the sport in ways that often are deadly for the participant--and, in this case, deadly dull for the audience.

This fractured, mostly unfunny movie fails to meet even the lowest expectations. Dan Fogler is Randy Daytona, a hirsute, plus-sized rocker whose claim to fame is that he has the ability to turn ping-pong balls into balls of fury at the tennis table.

After falling off the circuit years ago when he was defeated at the Seoul Olympics by a mincing German, he now is ushered back into the fold by FBI agent Rodriguez (George Lopez), who needs Daytona to get back into form so they can defeat the evil Feng (Christopher Walken).

Echoes of "Karate Kid" ensue, with Daytona being guided by the blind ping-pong master, Wong (James Hong), as well as by Maggie (Maggie Q), a beautiful woman who initially loathes him until, bizarrely, she suddenly decides to love him.

It's just one false move in a movie filled with them, though Walker, it must be said, does look funny in his blowout wig and his kitschy kimonos.

Rated PG-13. Grade: D+

Read the full review here.

Stardust: DVD Review, HD DVD Review (2007)

“Stardust” DVD, HD DVD

Features as many subplots as there are stars in the sky.

Beyond the extra padding, the good news is that much of the movie is inspired fun. Ian McKellen narrates a movie that stars Charlie Cox as Tristan, a young man who lives within the enclosed hamlet of Wall, where he fancies an unpleasant young woman named Victoria (Sienna Miller), who suggests that if he wants her hand in marriage, he’ll bring her a star they watch fall just outside Wall’s walls.

It’s a dangerous task--outside is a world fraught with dark magic--but Tristan agrees and soon, he’s off to find his star, which turns out to be the lovely Yvaine (Claire Danes), with whom he embarks on a string of romantic adventures.

While none of this is as memorable or as good as "The Princess Bride," which remains a hallmark of the genre, "Stardust" has a strong enough cast to cast you above its unnecessary complications.

The actors are, in fact, having such a grand time of it here, you might find yourself enjoying the movie more for the energy they bring to their performances than for all the machinations that hurl them together. Features amusing co-starring turns by Peter O’Toole (overcome by the wardrobe department), Michelle Pfeiffer as a witch, and Robert De Niro as a cross-dressing pirate.

Rated PG-13. Grade: B

Read the full review here.

Atonement: Movie Review (2007)

Cold touch

Directed by Joe Wright, written by Christopher Hampton, 122 minutes, rated R.

The new Joe Wright movie, "Atonement," has everything you could wish for in a period drama — beautiful cinematography, set design and costumes; exotic locales; and a story designed to rip out your heart and crush it when a rushed, heated romance between two young lovers is poisoned by the lies and deceit of another.

The trouble with the film, which Christopher Hampton based on Ian McEwan’s celebrated 2001 novel, is that you’re always aware that you’re watching a movie. There’s no sinking into "Atonement," no losing yourself to it, no moment when the screen fades away and the story and the characters come to the fore to overcome you. That’s a disappointment because the film’s engrossing sourcebook suggests that the movie also could have been as engrossing.

The film stars Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis, a privileged, brittle beauty who isn’t especially likable, which is a problem since the movie eventually asks us to feel something profound for her. Looking bored and bothered in 1935 England, Cecilia has issues with Robbie (James McAvoy), the handsome son of one of the Tallis’ longtime housekeepers (Brenda Blethyn, excellent). Robbie was put through Cambridge with Tallis money and now he is treated as something of a third-wheel member of the family.

The youngest member of the household is spooky Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a wide-eyed lass with a clipped blonde bob, a mean mouth and a tight-fisted gate who fancies herself as something of a writer.

She favors fiction, which is key, and she also has a crush on Robbie, which is critical to why she does all that she does when Robbie gives her a letter to deliver to Cecilia. Inside that envelope isn’t the love letter Robbie meant to send, but a graphic description of what Robbie would like to do to Cecilia’s genitalia. He wrote it in jest, but there it is in the envelope, which is delivered just as a series of events unspool that lead to Robbie’s arrest and a stint in the big house.

Five years later, when he’s released from prison after agreeing to serve in the war, the movie becomes about his quest to reconnect with Cecilia while Briony, now a nurse played by Romola Garai, has grown up and developed a conscience. With war’s devastation surrounding her and humbling her, she decides to atone for her sins, though in ways best left for the viewer. A final appearance by Vanessa Redgrave as the present-day Briony gives the movie a feeling it otherwise lacks.

"Atonement" isn’t a boring movie — there’s lots of lovely furniture to look at here, nevermind the appealing vision of its romantic leads — but it isn’t a very gripping movie, either, because Cecilia and Robbie aren’t allowed to create a fierce, believable bond onscreen. This is a film you watch from the sidelines, thinking how pretty Knightley looks in this gown, that bathing suit, and how the lighting in a key scene in which Cecilia and Robbie have sex against a wall of books is more interesting than the scene itself.

In the end, the film is an exercise in style over substance, even though it tries like mad to convince you that it has plenty of the latter. It doesn’t. This movie’s heart wants to beat, but the script fails to give it the hammering pulse it desires and deserves.

Grade: C+

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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy HD DVD Review (2007)

"Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: HD DVD"

Local television news anchors and their newscasts are easy targets to skewer, so here, in the new HD DVD version of the popular Will Ferrell comedy, broad skewering ensues.

The film is 91 minutes of tongue-in-cheek hair pulling, which is especially cheeky since the group getting its hair pulled would rather not have theirs touched, thank you very much.

Set in the early 1970s, Ferrell is Ron Burgundy, the enormously popular, hirsute television anchor for San Diego's Channel 4, who loves his scotch and his lady friends almost as much as he loves being No. 1 in the ratings.

Sure Burgundy is an idiot, but people like his macho bluster and they especially like the way he ends each newscast: "Stay classy, San Diego."

But when station manager Ed Harken (Fred Willard) hires reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) to add diversity to the newsroom, chauvinist Ron is forced to admit he might have met his match in a woman.

With the help of his bumbling news team--closeted gay sportscaster Champ Kind (David Koechner), dim-witted weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), and investigative reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd)--he decides to fight back.

The result is a movie that hits on many unwanted industry truths, and which becomes enjoyably unhinged in the process.

Rated PG-13. Grade: B+

Mr. Bean's Holiday HD DVD, DVD Review (2007)

"Mr. Bean's Holiday: DVD, HD DVD"

For those who appreciate the power of Bean in brevity, this "Bean" leads to too much bad gas.

Once again, Rowan Atkinson assumes the role of Bean, who this time out is caught in an ongoing series of foibles that spring from his winning a video camera and a trip to Cannes, France.

Naturally, it's all a set-up for disaster, with the clueless Bean bumbling out of England as he travels via train to his foreign destination.

Along the way, he manages to separate a young boy (Max Baldry) from his father, with Emma de Caunes and Willem Dafoe joining in the forced tomfoolery.

The ending is the best, most ingenious part of the show, though it comes too late to save it. As appealing as Atkinson is as Bean, he always has been best served in small doses.

The movie is a banal riff on 1953's "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday."

Rated G. Grade: C-

For a full review, click here.

Shrek the Third: DVD, HD DVD Review (2007)

"Shrek the Third: DVD, HD DVD"

Features impressive animation and a few bright spots of humor, but mostly, "Shrek the Third" is dull, unimaginative moviemaking served cold to the masses.

After the death of King Harold (John Cleese), it's revealed to Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and Shrek (Mike Myers) that Shrek is next in line to the throne.

It's a job Shrek doesn't want--he is an ogre, after all--and so off he goes with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas, a highlight) to find the next in line to the throne, Prince Artie (Justin Timberlake), and also to take his mind off the fact that Fiona is pregnant.

For a villain, the film offers up the weakest imaginable--Prince Charming (Rupert Everett)--whose shaggy blond blowout is the most threatening thing in the movie. It's he who wants to be the king of Far Far Away, and he's enlisted a formidable posse to help him to that end. Trouble is, by the film's midpoint, few will care.

Filled with the easiest sort of laughs--fart and poop jokes--"Shrek the Third" is so disappointingly base, it underscores just how far we've come since Disney’s groundbreaking “Toy Story” hit theaters in 1995.

In this movie, the focus is on creating believable expressions and hair that moves, not laughs that sustain and suspense that builds.

Rated PG. Grade: C

Read the full review here.

Pride & Prejudice: HD DVD Review (2007)

"Pride & Prejudice: DVD, HD DVD"

This lush costume dramedy based on Jane Austen's book can be wicked and wickedly funny, particularly given its flighty performance by the marvelous Brenda Blethyn as Mrs. Bennet and the ferocious appearance by Dame Judi Dench as Lady Catherine de Bourg.

Keira Knightly offers an Elizabeth who is pretty, which rails against form, but audiences should know that her beauty doesn't tip the balance.

She remains unable to restrain herself from saying exactly what's on her mind, which creates some wonderful tension as her budding, tug-of-war relationship builds with Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen).

Director Joe Wright gets it right in that he also focuses on the periphery, where the three other Bennet sisters are brooding for a mate; Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) is a shy as ever around poor Jane (Rosamund Pike); and the bond shared by Elizabeth and her father, Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland), remains magical regardless of the transition between mediums.

As for the ending, well, let's hope you're wearing a summer wardrobe when you see it, because the last scene is undeniably, uncontainably hot.

Rated PG. Grade: A

Read the full review here.

Stanley Kubrick Warner Home Video Directors Series: DVD Review (2007)

“Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series”

One of the year’s better new releases is “Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series,” a swell collection that includes some of Kubrick’s most influential movies.

Included are newly remastered versions of 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1971’s “A Clockwork Orange,” 1980’s “The Shining,” 1987’s “Full Metal Jacket” and Kubrick's last film before his death, 1999’s “Eyes Wide Shut.”

While it’s curious that Warner decided to go with “Eyes” rather than with “Dr. Strangelove” or “Lolita,” what comes through is nevertheless important--the collection underscores just how alike Kubrick's movies are in spite of appearing so vastly different on the surface.

Viewing the films again reveals what you remember--a sick sort of edge that's at once fascinating and jarring. Kubrick favored uneasy themes of isolation, estrangement, madness and dehumanization--love isn't just to be denied in his world, it's to be crushed.

He intellectualized his films to the point that they took on an abstract chill that bullied pop culture while also, reluctantly, embracing its underpinnings.

As such, his movies increasingly come off as a sneer, with the director's own internal estrangement stripping his later movies of the dark humor he favored early on.

Beyond the films, the collection's best selling point is Jan Harlan's documentary "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures," which is rife with insight.

Those seeking "Odyssey," "Orange," "The Shining," "Jacket" and "Eyes" on high definition should know that they are just out separately on HD DVD and Blu-ray, with "2001" and "Jacket" easily proving the standouts.

Grade: A-

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry: Movie Review, DVD Review, HD DVD Review (2007)

"I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry"

So, here’s the joke.

Two firemen--Chuck (Adam Sandler) and Larry (Kevin James)--decide to get married when Larry, a widower, learns that his children won't be covered by his life insurance policy should he die on the job.

Apparently, the only way to right that wrong is to get married, with the film hooking its comedic bandwagon onto one wobbly caboose.

Since Larry loves his dead wife too much to consider marriage to another woman, he decides to go for playboy Chuck, a loudmouth creep who reluctantly agrees to become Larry's domestic partner so they can trick the system.

What will they serve at their wedding? How about a big slice of homophobia?

Beyond the fact that the movie has critical issues with stereotypes--the Asian community, for instance, also should be thrilled by this mess--the real sin here is that the film isn't funny, it's stuck in a time warp, and its forced ending of tolerance and acceptance is so disingenuous, it's enough to make you want to bend over, pick up the soap the movie drops and hurl it at all involved.

Rated PG-13. Grade: D

License to Wed: DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review (2007)

“License to Wed”

License revoked.

This junk romantic comedy has such disdain for its audience, it’s impossible to let it pass without taking it to task.

Mandy Moore and John Krasinski are Sadie and Ben, two grinning lovebirds who meet at Starbucks, fall for each other over the coffee beans, and then agree to marry when Ben pops the question.

Enter the Rev. Frank (Robin Williams), a creep of the first order who agrees to officiate their marriage, though not without a hitch. First, they must take Rev. Frank's pre-marriage counseling course, which is meant to mirror the presumed hell that is married life.

Frank’s thinking is this: If Ben and Sadie can survive his bizarre boot camp, they should be able to survive marriage. As such, he immediately puts the kibosh on sex, going so far as to bug their apartment to make certain there is no canoodling. Later, he saddles them with fake infants who cry so incessantly, they alone could put Angelina Jolie off children forever.

The film’s cynicism isn’t just an irritant, it’s the monster in the room. Presumably, Frank’s meddling is meant to make Ben and Sadie a stronger couple, but really, it’s only there to tear them apart so the film can enjoying its cloying reconciliation.

Rated PG-13. Grade: BOMB

Inside Man: Movie Review, DVD Review, HD DVD Review (2007)

"Inside Man: HD DVD"

An enjoyably convoluted heist movie from Spike Lee that's underscored with deliberate racial tension.

The director's mind, steeped in post-9/11 New York City, wraps around a handful of characters who never quite are who they appear to be.

For that matter, you sometimes have no idea who they are at all. For instance, to discover exactly what it is that Jodie Foster's chilly Madeline White does would indeed take somebody from the inside (her role is never fully explained), but my, how she bristles with evil.

Denzel Washington and Clive Owen co-star, with “Inside Man” glossing over its plot holes with wit and charisma.

Rated R. Grade: B+

Disc Features:
• Audio Commentary with Director Spike Lee
• Featurettes: "The Making of 'Inside Man,'" "Number 4"
• Deleted Scenes

HD Exclusive Content:
None