Courtroom drama

DVDs for July 12 by Boo Allen

This week, we begin in the courtroom:

The Lincoln Lawyer (***1/2)
Matthew McConaughey heads an overall excellent cast in this gripping crime drama. He plays Mick Haller, an unscrupulous Los Angeles criminal attorney who scurries around town in the back seat on his chauffeured vintage Lincoln. When hired to defend a rich young man (Ryan Philippe) accused of murder but claiming innocence, it looks like a typical case. But before long, the plot threads from Michael Connelly’s novel reveal an intricate drama that brings in one of Haller’s former clients (Michael Pena), Haller’s prosecutor ex-wife (Marisa Tomei), and his lead investigator (William H. Macy). Well-crafted, intelligently rendered.
Rated R, 119 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray, offers four deleted scenes, a 19 minute “making of” featurette, a ten minute segment on novelist Michael Connelly, and five minutes with the author and McConaughey talking about their creation.

MGM Limited Edition Collection continues their on-demand releasing of titles from their library. This week, several high profile, unrated, dramas arrive: The Killer is Loose (***), The Boss (**1/2), Not as a Stranger (**1/2)
Taking time off from his Randolph Scott westerns, Budd Boetticher directed Killer/Loose (73 minutes), a taut, lean crime drama photographed by renowned Lucien Ballard (The Wild Bunch). A detective (Joseph Cotton) accidentally shoots the wife of a bank robber (Wendell Corey). Once imprisoned, the convict breaks out, seeking revenge by attempting to kill the detective’s wife (Rhonda Fleming). Underrated John Payne plays the titular Boss (89 minutes), a World War One veteran who returns home and begins advancing upwards by force and graft. The totally unrepentant character never shows remorse as he humiliates his wife, manipulates his friends, and does whatever it takes to stay on top. In the decidedly odd “Not/Stranger, Robert Mitchum plays a medical school student along with Frank Sinatra and Lee Marvin (a little old for students, aren’t we fellows?). Broderick Crawford is their persecuted Jewish-German professor. Mitchum marries Olivia de Havilland, a Swedish nurse (seriously). They go to work in a small town clinic headed by Charles Bickford. In between, many recognizable, but often unnameable, character actors appear: Whit Bissell, Jerry Mathers (Beaver Cleaver), Myron McCormick, King Donovan, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Nancy Kulp (from “The Beverly Hillbillies”), Mae grapefruit-in-the-face Clarke, Gloria Grahame, Jesse White, (the Maytag repair man), and Lon Chaney Jr. (the original Wolfman) plays Mitchum’s alcoholic father. Every scene has some notable face in it. Director Stanley Kramer’s first effort.

Waking Madison (**1/2)
Writer-director Katherine Brooks explores the cinematically popular topic of split personalities (The Three Faces of Eve, Sybil). But she presents the story of her main character, Madison (Sarah Roemer), mostly through the consequences of her meetings with a psychologist (Elizabeth Shue). Brooks cleverly disguises her intentions, and Madison’s acute malady.
Rated R, 89 minutes. The DVD includes commentary, four deleted scenes, and six separate interviews.

Miral (**1/2)
In this drama from director, and acclaimed artist, Julian Schnabel, Miral (Freida Pinto) grows up in and around East Jerusalem during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her mother dies, she enters an orphanage, and, later, she unsnarls herself in the on-going war affecting everyone around her. Despite the compelling topic, the narrative never gains momentum or achieves urgency.
Rated PG-13, 106 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray, includes commentary, three deleted scenes, a 14 minute “making of” featurette, a tour of Schnabel’s personal studio, and a 32 minute filmmaker Q&A.

Breaking Point (***)
Between 1944 and 1958, Ernest Hemingway’s short story was filmed three times, resulting in Bogart’s To Have and Have Not (1944), and the Audie Murphy vehicle, recently reviewed here, The Gun Runners (1958). In 1950, Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) directed Breaking Point, now available on demand from Warner Archives. The film has solid John Garfield playing Harry Morgan, a beleaguered charter boat owner in California (as opposed to Florida). The desperate family man initially finds himself in a human trafficking operation which ends fatally. Then, Morgan provides an escape for a gang involved in an ill-conceived attempt to rob a race track. Gripping entertainment. With Patricia Neal and Phyllis Thaxter.
Not rated, 97 minutes.

Maneater (**)
Writer-director Michael Emanuel delivers decent horror frights by mixing shape-shifting monsters with Indian folklore. Dean Cain plays a sheriff who must investigate destroyed bodies that some insist are the work of grizzly bears, while others claim supernatural forces. Eventually, the lawman discovers the problem could be closer to home. Decent ratcheting of tension but mostly with some standard horror tropes.
Not rated, 91 minutes.

Dinocroc vs. Supergator (**1/2)
In this Syfy channel guilty pleasure horror film, “presented” by Roger Corman, nature again runs wild as the two title monsters escape their lairs only to face off against each other in a deadly showdown. But wait, a beautiful Fish and Game official (Amy Rasmus) can stop the madness.
Not rated, 87 minutes. The DVD also comes on Blu-ray.

And, for kids this week:

Barney: 1-2-3 Learn, and Thomas and Friends: Thomas in Charge
The purple dinosaur returns with his friends to learn to count and use the alphabet. And Thomas returns with four new adventures.
Barney: Not rated, 44 minutes. Includes a “Count with Barney” featurette.
Thomas: Not rated, 48 minutes. Includes a “Thomas’ Track Trivia” game.

And, from this week’s TV offerings:

America: The Story of Us—Rebels, Westward, Civil War, Rise of a Superpower, Boom, Millennium.
This highly popular series from TV channel History tells the story of America, breaking down its story into six parts, available individually. Each episode includes dramatic reenactments, CGI special effects, and interviews with various experts, such as Colin Powell, Buzz Aldrin, David Petraeus, Donald Trump and many others. None are rated and all run 92 minutes.

Also on DVD: Arthur, Entourage—season seven, Insidious, Miranda, My Dog Tulip, Rango.