JOE leads off the week’s DVDs:
DVDs for June 17 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.
Capital (***), Amen (***1/2)
Cohen Film Collection releases to DVD and Blu-ray a pair of controversial titles from renowned director Costa-Gavras, both bristling with his rapidly paced stories. The topical Capital (rated R, 2012, 114 minutes) examines a power struggle during the recent financial crisis. Sour-faced Gad Elmaleh plays Marc, a CEO at a major French financial firm. With ruthlessness, and a slice of black humor, he fends off an American takeover bid, engineered by equally stern hedge fund manager Dittmar (Gabriel Byrne). Amen (not rated, 2002, 132 minutes) takes place mostly in the Vatican during World War II. German SS officer Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur) learns about the Nazis’ on-going extermination campaign. He tries to inform Pope Pius XII but is met with resistance and denial. Actor-director Mathieu Kassovitz plays Riccardo Fontana, a young Jesuit priest disillusioned by the actions of his church when he futilely tries to intervene.
Capital: Extras: cast and crew interviews and a 19 minute “behind-the-scenes” featurette with Gad Elmaleh.
Amen: Extras: commentary, and an excellent, hour long 1996 BBC documentary on Pope Pius XII.
No Clue (**)
Amy Smart stars as Kyra in this broad comedy about mistaken identity. She hires Leo (script writer Brent Butt) thinking he is a detective. She wants him to find her brother, so Leo teams up with buddy Ernie (David Koechner). Director Carl Bessai uses his willing cast to deliver some unsubtle laughs.
Not rated, 96 minutes.
Extras: commentary and a 12 minute “behind-the-scenes_ featurette.
Jump Into Hell (**), Violent Road (**1/2)
Warner Archives releases a pair of 1950’s films, notable for different reasons. In 1955, Warners’ Jump Into Hell might simply have looked like a quickly made, low-budget war movie with a C-list cast. Seen today as still one of the few films to deal with its subject, it comes across as a more apparent anti-Communist screed slanted to give the best, if false, interpretation to one of the most pivotal battles of the 20th century. Sixty years ago this spring, Vietnamese forces surrounded the French army at Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam. France’s eventual surrender ended their involvement in Vietnam but opened the door to America’s further entanglement. The film follows four men who bravely, or foolishly, volunteer to go to an already imperiled Dien Bien Phu. Director David Butler, from a script by future best-selling novelist Irving Wallace, fleshes out the quartet’s unexceptional personal stories with flashbacks. Butler also clumsily integrates war footage, which may or may not be from Dien Bien Phu. Probably not. The American actors speak in embarrassing French accents, and every French act is painted as noble. The architect behind Vietnam’s victory, master strategist General Vo Nguyen Giap (who died in October at 102), only receives lip service.
The plot of Violent Road (not rated, 1958, 86 minutes) loosely resembles that of the taut classic Wages of Fear (1953) and its American re-make Sorcerer (1977). A group of misfits volunteers to drive three trucks through rough California mountain terrain while carrying a combustible load. Brian Keith plays Mitch, the rough, tough lead driver who assembles the crew. Howard Koch, better known as a producer (The Manchurian Candidate, The Odd Couple), directs, squeezing as much tension as possible as the men face various obstacles. Not surprisingly, not everyone makes it out in one piece.
Wheels on the Bus: A Day at the Farm
The three episodes of this animated treat for kids star mischievous monkey Papaya and his friend Mango the toucan. Kids learn about healthy living and farm animals. Roger Daltry voices Argon the Dragon.
Not rated, 36 minutes.
And, finally, from our TV arrivals:
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
Carl Sagan’s original series receives an update, of sorts, with this recent, widely-watched program. Taking Sagan’s original “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” for inspiration, directors Brannon Braga, Bill Pope, and Ann Druyan have fashioned a more modern series aimed at contemporary audiences. That means the infectiously exuberant astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson serves as host and narrator, voicing scripts explaining the universe’s origins, its intricate workings and how discoveries over the years have aided our knowledge. He also covers the scientists along the way who helped our understanding, along with a personal tribute to Sagan. Using impressive special effects and more animated figures than droning experts, the series covers the field’s major events and its distinguished figures: Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley, Alhazen, Robert Hooke, William Herschel and many others. Tyson keeps it light yet interesting, making each of the 13 episodes, on four discs, enjoyable.
Rated TV-PG, 662 minutes.
Extras: commentary on episode one; “The Cosmic Calendar”– an interactive look at the history of the universe; the 42 minute featurette “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey—the Voyage Continues”; a featurette showing Carl Sagan at the Library of Congress Dedication, and more.
Major Crimes—second season
The 19 episodes, on four discs, of the sophomore season of this popular TNT Network police procedural rolls along, having not fallen off since it spun-off from The Closer when Kyra Sedgwick departed. Now, Mary McDonnell has settled in smoothly as Captain Sharon Raydor, the head of Los Angeles Police Department’s Major Crimes Division. Most of the former crew still hangs around throwing barbs at each other: Lieutenants Provenza (G.W. Bailey), Andy Flynn (Tony Deison), Mike Tao (Michael Paul Chan), Julio Sanchez (Raymond Cruz). The series has benefited from female additions: Kearran Giovanni as detective Amy Sykes and Nadine Velazquez as Deputy District Attorney Emma Rios. Graham Patrick Martin returns as teenager Rusty Beck, an eye-witness to a murder and kept under personal protection with Raydor. In addition, the season sees its share of mysterious murders and shady characters.
Not rated, 800 minutes.
Extras: 11 minutes of deleted scenes, and two featurettes: “Personal Conviction” (24 minutes) and a look at the arriving season three “Behind-the-scenes: A Look Forward” (five minutes).
Also on DVD: The Attorney, Ernest and Celestine, The Final Member, The Lego Movie, The Machine.