This week we begin in rural Texas:
DVDs for June 10 by Boo Allen
This week, we begin in rural Texas:
Joe (***)
In this compelling drama from director David Gordon Green, from Larry Brown’s source novel and a screenplay by Gary Hawkins, Nicolas Cage plays the volcanic yet authentic Joe. Green also uses several non-professional actors in telling the story of Joe and his crew. They work illegally for him, poisoning trees in order to clear a forest. Tye Sheridan plays teen-aged Gary, who asks Joe to hire him and his shiftless father. Later, Joe sees the father abuse Gary. But Joe remains silent until further violence stirs him into the action that propels the latter parts of the violent film. Green craftily pulls his viewers into this dangerous vortex, but Joe is a story of revenge, and in this environment, everyone always has a grudge against someone.
Rated R, 117 minutes
Extras: commentary, an 11 minute “making of” featurette, a 16 minute featurette on the film’s source novel, and two deleted scenes.
Robocop (**1/2)
Director Jose Padilha remakes the 1987 film with Joel Kinnaman playing Detroit detective Alex Murphy, who finds, after experiencing a car bomb, only parts of himself surviving. He wakes encased in a suit of black armor, controlled only with his brain. He leaps into action against corporate honcho and cartoonish bad guy Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton). Padilha humanizes Murphy, accentuating the pain suffered by him as well as his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish). But Robocop rests mainly on its loud action sequences, as the new Murphy fights advanced mechanized machines and Detroit’s street criminals. In this, the director succeeds in delivering what audiences will most likely expect.
Rated PG-13, 118 minutes
Extras: five deleted scenes, a brief OminiCorp product announcement, and a 29 minute, three part “making of” featurette.
Blood Ties (**1/2)
In this action-drama, based on a French novel and its subsequent film, director Guillaume Canet works through every cliché in the genre, turning the crime-thriller/family- drama into too familiar territory. Billy Crudup and Clive Owens play Frank and Chris, formulaic good and bad brothers. Chris leaves jail and takes temporary shelter with Brooklyn police detective Frank. Chris fights to remain straight. Frank helps him, while struggling to stay honest. Of course they both have women trouble, Frank with an ex-girlfriend (Zoe Saldana), whose husband Frank put in jail. Chris battles with his drug addicted, prostitute ex-wife (curiously miscast Marion Cotillard). Unfortunately, the drama never ratchets up any tension or gives us anyone to care about.
Rated R, 128 minutes.
Extras: a 26 minute “behind-the-scenes” featurette.
Devil’s Knot (**1/2)
The true story of the West Memphis Three has already been the subject of a lengthy documentary (West of Memphis) as well as a series of HBO documentaries. And director Monte Hellman has another related feature film in the works this year. But here, Atom Egoyan examines the murders of three adolescent boys in 1993 Arkansas which led to the trials and convictions of three teen-aged boys. The trio were tried, convicted, and sent to prison. But over the years, their innocence became apparent, leading to their release in 2011. In this methodical re-telling of the murders and trials, Colin Firth plays Ron Lax, an investigator who uncovers exculpatory evidence, and Reese Witherspoon is Pam Hobbs, the mother of one of the victims. Despite the all-around good cast, the film never rises above the level of too-familiar police procedural.
Not rated, 114 minutes.
Extras: a seven minute “making of” featurette, an eight minute segment on “Getting into Character,” and six minutes of deleted scenes.
Unacceptable Levels (***)
Ed Brown directed this thoughtful documentary which examines the constant and often unknown influx of chemicals into our bodies. An impressive roster of interviewees sits for Brown, discussing the science and the data behind how various foods and other products work their way into our systems. The experts may not be familiar names (except Ralph Nader), but they head some of the country’s foremost groups and agencies.
Not rated, 76 minutes.
We Always Lie to Strangers (**1/2)
Perhaps not so revealing as it hints, this entertaining documentary from director A . J. Schnack and David Wilson pulls the covers back, a little, from the real story of Branson, Missouri. The duo examines a select group of the performers who have turned this Ozark mountain town into a sensational live music mecca. The portrait may at times be harsh but the ride is overall positive and engaging.
Not rated, 109 minutes.
And, finally, from this week’s TV arrivals:
Ray Donovan—first season
For cable channel Showtime, series creator Ann Biderman followed up her gritty cop drama Southland with this gritty family drama with an emphasis on one man. Liev Schreiber stars as the title character, a Boston native, complete with accent, transplanted to Los Angeles where he works as an all-around “fixer.” When needed, he and his crew (Steven Bauer, Katherine Moennig) tend to a roster of movie stars, celebrities and high powered figures who have somehow run aground with various peccadillos, sexual, financial, and otherwise. But from the first episode, Ray’s world stands imperiled by the unwanted and unexpected arrival of his mob boss father, Mickey (Golden Globe winning Jon Voight), who has just left jail after 20 years. Much of the season revolves around Mickey forcing his way into the family. But around this father and son dynamic, various forces play out to make these twelve episodes, on four discs, constantly gripping entertainment. In an excellent supporting cast filled with noted flavorful actors, Eddie Marsan and Dash Mihok play Ray’s dysfunctional brothers, Paula Malcolmson is his volcanic wife, and Elliott Gould appears as a senior confidant.
Not rated, 632 minutes.
Deltora Quest—the complete series
This complete Japanese anime series arrives on eight discs, featuring the colorful action that originates with Emily Rodda’s children’s books of the same name. Magical worlds, fanciful characters, and an on-going mystery complement the action in the land of Deltora. It suffers under the harsh hand of the evil Shadow Lord, and it’s up to the main character, Lief, to find seven magical diamonds and free his friends.
Not rated, 19 hours and 25 minutes.
Extras: character sketches.
Rizzoli and Isles—season four
TV’s most popular buddy team returns in this season of sixteen episodes that sees Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) experience personal trouble as well as professional challenges. The drug division has a new boss (Amaury Nolasco), someone with whom Jane has a history. Maura’s long separated parents cause her trouble–mother (Jacqueline Bissett) and former mob boss father (John Doman). But it’s grisly murders, complex mysteries, and, particularly, the quick-witted exchanges between Jane and Maura that provide weekly entertainment.
Not rated, 673 minutes.
Extras: two “making of” featurettes, “When Truth Meets Fiction” and “Building Boston.”
Also on DVD: Ernest and Celestine, The Missing Picture, Non-Stop, Visitors.