New in Home Entertainment – August 13, 2013

New in Home Entertainment

Emperor
Rated PG-13 for violent content, brief strong language and smoking (historical)
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
During the U.S. occupation of Japan directly after their surrender during WWII, a young general (Matthew Fox) is assigned by General MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) to investigate war crimes and the possible involvement of the Japanese Emperor in the decision to attack Pearl Harbor.  The project feels like they really thought this was going to be a great, awards-worthy motion picture, but unfortunately everything plays flat and frankly a little boring.  Maybe they all lost their passion once they got on set or possibly in the editing room, or maybe they were just trying to be too cautiously sensitive with the material, but as a whole, the movie doesn’t really work all too well.  C+

To the Wonder
Rated R for some sexuality/nudity
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life was one of my favorite films in recent memory, so I was excited to see how he would follow it up with his latest project about love and loss that takes place in my home state of Oklahoma.  In the picture, Ben Affleck falls for and brings back to Oklahoma a young European girl, played by Olga Kurylenko, but upon her exit he falls for a girl from town played by Rachel McAdams.  All the while a priest struggling with his faith, played by Javier Bardem, tries to help his community.  Unfortunately, Malick’s writing and directing style just doesn’t work well with this kind of movie.  For much of the film you get the sense that the characters only communicate through telepathy.  What should have been a beautiful and artistic film turns into an annoying and aggravating experience with lovely scenery.  Normally I would advise that this is a film for fans of the director only, but in this case I would advise against it since it could taint your image of him.  C

Girls: The Complete Second Season
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This anti-Sex and the City from HBO continues in its second season as the four entitled and annoying young girls from New York flounder around trying to find themselves.  While I really can’t stand the characters, I also can’t take my eyes off them.  Their escapades and adventures are more entertaining than anything you might find on Duck Dynasty and the show will, probably for the first time, make you wish they’d put some clothes on.  And yet I can’t seem to stop watching.  Watching Girls is like sticking to a bad habit that you just put up with even though you could easily stop it at any time.  B