Monogram Cowboys return in this week’s DVDs:
DVDs for Jan. 24 by Boo Allen
This week we begin in the old west:
Monogram Cowboy Collection: Volume Two
Fort Osage, Wagons West, Canyon
Raiders, The Gunman, Stage to Blue River, Night Raiders, Montana
Incident, Wyoming Roundup.
On Demand Warner Archive returns with their second batch of these
entertaining cowboy movies from long defunct Monogram Pictures. Rod
Cameron, in two, and Whip Wilson, in six, star in this batch of eight
films on three discs. They again show the care taken by Monogram with
their westerns, as these are no-nonsense sagas, with engaging,
tightly-constructed plots filled with surprising twists, along with
the requisite colorful outlaws. Six foot four Canadian Rod Cameron,
born Nathan Roderick Cox, one of Monogram’s most popular cowpokes,
receives star treatment in the first two, both in color, Osage
and Wagons (both around 70 minutes). Cameron
plays a wagon-master in both, an obviously prestigious position in
settling the frontier. The burly, stolid Whip Wilson,
born Roland Charles Meyers, represented the iconic cowboy: he wore a
white hat and rode a white horse (but he should have re-considered
his form-fitting cowboys shirts). In his six films in the collection
(all slightly less than an hour running time), he rides into town to
right wrongs, acquits himself in bar-room brawls, and usually finds a
way to nab a bad guy with his whip. Familiar character actors pop up
throughout the collection, such as Lyle Talbot, Iron Eyes Cody, and
bandleader-turned-stuttering cowboy Fuzzy Knight. All eight films
were made in the early 1950s, and none are rated.
Real Steel (***)
In this entertaining, high-tech, science fiction
thriller, based partly on a Richard Matheson story, Hugh Jackman
stars as Charlie Kenton, a one-time boxer now reduced to
robot-fighting. He travels the circuits with his various boxes of
reconstructed junk piles, letting his mechanical wards face off and
be pummeled by other robots. Out of nowhere, his eleven year-old son
Max (Dakota Goyo), whom he only vaguely knows, becomes his
responsibility for the summer. One night while ferreting through a
junk pile, Max finds the discarded robot Atom and reconstitutes him
on his own. From there, the movie turns into a sports-cliche movie,
with robots taking the place of professional fighters. The
“Transformer”-like special effects deliver a succession of
engaging battles, with Atom becoming a steel Seabiscuit—deemed too
small but overcoming great odds to persevere. Director Shawn Levy,
usually known for his comedies, delivers an action-filled
entertainment.
Rated PG-13, 127 minutes. The Blu-ray disc, available
digitally and on demand, includes bloopers, a 14 minute featurette on
the Charlie Kent character, six minutes with expert boxing adviser
Sugar Ray Leonard, eighteen minutes of deleted and extended scenes, a
14 minute “making of” featurette, six minutes on the effects
behind making the robots, and more.
Belle de Jour (***1/2)
The Criterion Collection premieres on Blu-ray the 1967
biting satirical classic from director Luis Bunuel. Young and
ravishing Catherine Deneuve plays Severine, a bored Parisian
housewife who takes a part time job in a brothel. There, during the
day, she becomes Belle. Frigid at home, she opens up once she plies
her trade. But at home, she consistently denies her husband Pierre
(Jean Sorel), driving him into a frenzied state. Bunuel deliciously
attacks class structures and moral hypocrisy
Not rated, 100 minutes. The high definition, digitally
restored disc includes commentary from film scholar Michael Wood, the
18 minute “making of” featurette “Obscure Source of Desire,”
a ten minute interview with screenwriter and frequent Bunuel
collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere, a seven minute clip from the
French TV program “Cinema,” featuring a discussion with Carriere
and Deneuve, and a 30 page booklet on the film.
Dead Poets Society (***1/2)
In the Blu-ray debut of this revered 1989 drama, Robin
Williams plays the teacher we all wish we had had in school. He
plays high-spirited John Keating, who brings a new approach to
learning to upscale Welton Academy. But not everyone accepts
Keating’s novel new methods. His students include such future stars
as Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, and Robert Sean Leonard. Director Peter
Weir nabbed an Oscar nomination and Tom Schulman won for Best
Original Screenplay.
Rated PG, 129 minutes. The new Blu-ray includes
commentary with Weir and cinematographer John Seale, the 27 minute
featurette “Dead Poets; A Look Back,” featuring extended
interviews with Weir, Hawke, Leonard, and other cast and crew, as
well as David Lynch. In the 15 minute “Cinematography Master
Class,” John Seale talks of his craft. Sound engineer Alan Spiel
discusses his approach to his work in “Raw Takes: Master of Sound”
Hell and Back Again (***)
Documentary film-maker Danfung Dennis delivers a
frightening film, one that is uncomfortable yet familiar.He breaks
her narrative into two equally harrowing parts, both focusing on a
soldier stationed in Afghanistan. Dennis then follows him back to
his U.S. home. The first part shows the constant danger he faced
while in combat in Afghanistan. One sequence has him and the
filmmaker caught in gunfire. The second half focuses on the soldier
once home. His volatile and erratic behavior become almost
understandable after seeing what he has endured as a soldier.
88 minutes, not rated.
50/50 (***)
Nothing is as funny as cancer. Or, at least that’s the premise behind 50/50,
a black-humor infused comedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
This intentionally tactless film skirts, and
occasionally overwhelms, good taste with its surplus of bleak gags
about the plight of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a 27 year-old man
who finds a lump on his spine and then uses the malady as a punch
line, or as a gimmick to meet women. Eventually, in good narrative
form, he uses his condition to confront his mortality and, finally,
to realize what makes life worthwhile.
In between, director Jonathan Levine, from Will Reiser’s script, jokes
about but also examines the more serious side of Adam’s dilemma.
50/50 bravely addresses death, both in the tragic form of losing a life
before its time but also in the form it takes less surprisingly, but
still tragically, on the aged. Which brings us to a spoiler alert: everyone dies (although maybe not in
50/50, where the body count is surprisingly limited). While not everyone in
50/50 accepts this obvious terminal fact, those who do seem to achieve an
equilibrium denied the deniers.
Adam lives with Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard) when
he receives his diagnosis and begins chemotherapy. His loss of energy
and his gradually diminished physical state strain their
relationship. This slack looks to be taken up both by Adam’s hovering
mother (Angelica Huston) and by his raunchy best friend Kyle (Seth
Rogan). When Rogan appears, 50/50 threatens to become just another Judd Apatow-influenced stoner
comedy, with Rogan’s Kyle chasing women and making endless sexual
jokes. When Kyle remains off-screen, Adam thankfully finds time to
confer with inexperienced young counselor Katie (Anna Hendricks). He
also ingests marijuana with two older, fellow patients (Philip Baker
Hall, Matt Frewer). Something as serious as a life-threatening tumor on a young person can never
find total resolution in a two hour narrative. But 50/50
somehow finds the recipe to blend its somber look at death with its
healthy dose of humor.
Rated R, 99 minutes.
The Whistleblower (***)
Victims of war and survivors of war can readily testify to its everlasting
harmful effects. The intense The Whistleblower asks us to imagine how much worse recovery from such horrors might be if those entrusted with helping instead became more dangerous than
the enemy. This dilemma is what faced Kathryn Bokovac (Rachel
Weisz) when she joined a United Nations peacekeeping mission in 1999,
Bosnia. Coming from her job as a Nebraska police officer, she could
not believe that perceived forces for good were running a sex
trafficking ring. This film, based on true events, could easily have been a documentary. But
director Larysa Kondracki, from a script she co-wrote with Eilis
Kirwan, has fashioned it into a chilling political thriller with an
army of good guys, bad guys, and guys you’re not sure of. Kondracki
also beneficially uses recognizable tropes of the genre, such as dark
rooms, chaotic abductions, gruesome beatings, unexpected
double-crosses, car chases, and an over-riding sense of paranoia.
When Bokovac becomes better informed on the
situation, she naturally turns indignant, thinking that everything is
so obvious it will be a simple matter of cleaning it up. And that’s
when she discovers the deep involvement of people from various State
Departments, the U.N., nongovernmental organizations, and a
still-notorious private contractor. Kondracki weaves these elements into a gripping
narrative, albeit by translating some traumatic events into cinematic
shorthand. She crams into a relatively short time frame not only all
the egregious activities but also the clandestine conferences Bokovac
has with her few trusted superiors (Vanessa Redgrave, David
Strathairn).
She looks over her shoulders constantly, losing
faith in those she trusted, just as some of the unfortunate young
women were tricked into the sex trade by people they trusted.
Kondracki may resort to the too-obvious cliches of this shadowy genre
but she successfully conveys the fear. For her part, Rachel Weisz carries the film
admirably, convincingly registering a wide variety of needed
emotions.
Rated R, 112 minutes.
Young ones might find something this week in several new
titles aimed at them:
Angelina Ballerina: Sweet Valentine, Barney: I Love My Friends, Timmy Time:
Timmy Needs a Bath, Thomas and Friends: Curious Cargo.
In the five episodes of Angelina, Angelina and Alice become better friends with Marco while discovering
the identity of Angelina’s secret admirer. Barney
shows how to learn about sharing and even dancing. In the five
episodes from Timmy Time, the newest creation from Aardman Animation, he also learns valuable
lessons but while engaged in chores. In Thomas‘
four episodes, he joins friends Sodor, Belle and Toby to deliver more
Curious Cargo. None of the above are rated and are available on
demand or download.
Angelina: 61 minutes. Includes an additional game and a music video.
Barney:57 minutes. With separate read-a-long and sing-a-long features.
Timmy Time:45 minutes. Contains a music video and a bonus episode.
Thomas: 60 minutes, with a bonus episode.
Also on DVD: Paranormal Activity 3.