Werner Herzog comes to Texas in the week’s top DVD:
DVDs for April 10 by Boo Allen
This week, we begin in Conroe, Texas:
Into the Abyss (***1/2)
Master filmmaker Werner Herzog again displays his unequaled knack for
finding an obscure topic and then turning it into a compelling
documentary. Here, he travels to Texas to examine a 2000 multiple
murder. Of the two convicted killers, one, Michael Perry, landed on
death row, and the other, Jason Burkett, received a 40 year sentence.
Both freely talk to Herzog and recount the grisly crime. In only days
before his execution, Perry seems oblivious, a little delusional, and
even somewhat cheerful. During his time in prison, Burkett has
married a jail-house pen pal, also interviewed. In addition, Herzog
talks to current and past prison chaplains, including Fred Allen, who
quit and gave up his pension because the job became too stressful.
Herzog has squeezed out a compelling drama from an almost forgotten
tragedy.
Rated PG-13, 107 minutes.
The Iron Lady (**1/2)
In nabbing her Best Actress Oscar, Meryl Streep plays
the senior Margaret Thatcher. Almost unrecognizable due to Mark
Coulier and J. Roy Helland’s Oscar-winning make-up creations, Streep
conveys the unstable mental state of the elderly Thatcher. Director
Phyllida Lloyd, from Abi Morgan’s script, then replays the high and
low points of Thatcher’s professional and private life, with
Alexandra Roach playing the young Margaret. The often awkward movie
jumps back and forth in time, but with little defined viewpoint. This
lack of focus makes it hard to pin the movie down as a bio-pic,
satire, or just an excuse for Streep to look and sound uncannily like
Thatcher. Always excellent Jim Broadbent plays husband Denis
Thatcher.
Rated PG-13, 105 minutes. The DVD, available in all
formats and various combo packs, offers a nine minute “making of”
featurette, along with brief segments on Denis Thatcher, re-creating
the young Margaret Thatcher, the costume designs, and “A Battle in
the House of Commons.”
A Conversation Piece (***)
Revered Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti directed this
intimate 1974 character study about a retired American professor
(Burt Lancaster) living in Rome who unintentionally finds himself
caught in an evolving crisis facing a high strung Marchesa (Silvana
Mangano) and her family. They virtually force the professor into
renting them his spare apartment, which rests directly over his.
After initial protests, he is drawn into their on-going problems.
Eventually, he realizes how they have enriched his life, despite the
constant chaos. The film mixes Visconti’s rare use of humor with an
often wistful, elegiac mood.
Not rated, 121 minutes. The DVD also includes a 10
interview with film scholar Alessandro Bencivenni.
The Yellow Sea (***1/2)
Fox continues their releases of overlooked films in their on-going World
Cinema series. This South Korean action-thriller goes to the isolated
area known as Joseonjok, a lawless territory bordered by Russia,
North Korea and China. There, an indebted taxi-driver is forced into
traveling secretly to Seoul, South Korea to murder a man. If he
doesn’t, his mother and son will be killed. The man turns out to be
unexpectedly resourceful, which ends in his being chased by two
different mobs as well as the police. To further complicate, he looks
for his wife, who has gone missing. Directors Hong-Jin
Na and Jeongwoo Ha throw consistent twists in while filling
their work with unfettered mayhem.
Rated R, 136 minutes. The movie is available in all formats.
Goodnight for Justice: The Measure of a Man (**1/2)
Luke Perry reprises his role as frontier circuit judge John Goodnight in
this western from the Hallmark Movie Channel (about the only place
regularly turning out decent westerns). Goodnight travels to a small
town where he meets an old flame (Stefanie von Pfetten) whose son
(Cameron Bright) has fallen in with a local gang of outlaws. The boy
is captured during a bank robbery, and Goodnight convinces the boy,
through several ordeals, to do the right thing and help find the
gang.
Not rated, 87 minutes. The DVD includes four cast interviews of about 28
minutes total.
The Hidden (**1/2)
Until having to deliver the goods in the form of low-rate monsters, a
director billed as “M.R.” conjures up some decent atmospherics in
this horror entry. M.R. uses the Gothic setting of a beautiful old
Maine monastery for the story of a man (Sean Clement) who inherits
the place from a mother who once performed experimental surgery
there. She worked on curing addictions, only to have the addictions
take human form—hence the cheesy monsters and the absurdity of the
plot. But before the ghouls take over, a group of handsome young
people, in good horror tradition, enter the asylum/monastery only to
become lost in its underground labyrinth. Surprise: not everyone gets
out alive.
Not rated, 81 minutes.
And,finally, from this week’s TV releases:
Dark Shadows: The Greatest
Episodes Collection—Fan Favorites, The Greatest Episodes
Collection—The Best of Barnabus
As the new Dark Shadows theatrical film starring Johnny Depp nears release, the original
series, which ran from 1966 to 1971, returns not only in these two
collections, but also in a complete set filled with 1,225 episodes on
131 discs. But those not making a $600 commitment might enjoy these
two abridged offerings of nine episodes chosen as fan favorites and
nine episodes featuring pivotal character Barnabus Collins. Neither
collection is rated, and both run about 200 minutes.
One Tree Hill—Ninth and final season
This reliable series finally draws to a close, tying up
its story lines and moving on in its final thirteen episodes on three
discs. Brooke (Sophia Bush) and Julian (Austin Nichols ) now turn to
parenting twin boys. Clay (Robert Buckley) and Quinn (Shantel Van
Santen) still have a bumpy relationship, as do Nathan (James
Lafferty) and Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz).
Not rated. 555 minutes. The set also includes
commentary, a gag reel, unaired scenes, and five separate
featurettes, with segments on the stories, the music, the series’
devoted fans, and more.
Also on DVD: Charlotte Rampling: The Look, The Darkest Hour, Littlerock.