CRUNCHONTHIS.COM

New on DVD

Drag Me to Hell
Rated PG-13 for sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Writer/director Sam Raimi (Spiderman/Evil Dead) brings us this tale about a young girl so desperate to become an assistant manager at her bank that she turns down an old woman who requests some more time to pay back her loan.  The woman does not take the act kindly and puts a curse on the young girl essentially unleashing a demon on her to haunt her and eventually drag her to hell.  It might sound horrifying, and the trailer doesn’t look good at all, but the movie itself is actually both scary and funny at the same time, filled with many over-the-top gory set pieces, terrific acting, and a really great script from Raimi.  And while it sounds like a hard R pic, it’s actually just an edgy PG-13 that most audiences with a twisted sense of humor will get a lot of enjoyment from.  B+

Cheri
Rated R for some sexual content and brief drug use
Available on DVD
Michelle Pfeiffer stars in this tale of an older courtesan that spends years with a young man, teaching him the ways of love, only to lose him when his mother arranges an unwanted marriage for him.  I’m not sure what director Stephen Frears (The Queen) and writer Christopher Hampton (Atonement) were thinking with this one.  The film is beautifully shot, and the acting is good enough, but the subject matter is just plain drull.  Period dramas can be wonderful, for example Hampton’s Atonement was an amazing motion picture, but this is the kind of subject matter that kills the genre.  I’m sure the book is lovely and poignant and the thought of an aging courtesan and the boy who can’t get over her is sad, but if there are only a handful of people willing to shell out the bucks to watch it, then Hollywood declares “period dramas are dead” and in reality it’s just another case of no one wants to see a boring stuffy movie.  I hope Frears and Hampton got it out of their systems and are ready to tackle movies people are willing to pay for again.  C-

Top Chef: New York (Season 5)
Unrated
Available on DVD
There is a huge advantage of watching a reality cooking show on DVD instead of on TV: you get to skip those annoying suspenseful commercial breaks.  Bravo’s hit show makes its DVD debut this week and even though I still can’t cook worth a crock pot, I still love watching all the delicious food being prepared by these intense and nervous wrecks on screen.  The biggest highlight was watching the group prepare Thanksgiving for the Foo Fighters where the winners got the best seats in the house to the concert that night.  Unfortunately the losers had to clean up after the winners.  How cruel.  While it still doesn’t stack up to my favorite cooking reality show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, it still provides for quite a lot of kitchen fun.  B

New on DVD

The Proposal
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, nudity, and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds costar in this smash hit rom com about an overpowering Canadian boss (Bullock) that forces her assistant (Reynolds) to marry her in order for her to be able to stay in America.  To prove to immigration that the relationship is one based on love and not citizenship, she must travel with him to Alaska to spend a weekend with his family.  While extremely contrived, the movie does provide some good laughs and occasional decent chemistry between the two leads.  There’s not much authenticity to be found as much of the film is extremely over the top, but the characters are likable enough that most of the time you don’t care.  Still, it’s not the kind of romantic comedy I prefer and while I think that Reynolds is one of the most talented actors working today, I also think that the Bullock is so over utilized in this genre that it hurts.  As for the extras, I’m thankful they chose the ending they did and not the dreadful alternate ending on the special features.  C+

Adoration
Rated R for language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
A high school student creates a story of his dead parents, linking them to a terrorist plot that they had nothing to do with, just to see what fellow student reactions would be.  This complex and twisted tale by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) shows a mix of Muslim and Christian cultures in a very different and original way.  By becoming lost around the story, I found myself becoming attached to the boy, his French teacher, and his uncle which brought the film together in a very special way for me.  While I didn’t really care much for the multimedia dynamic Egoyan tries to introduce here, I found the main narrative very moving.  A-

American Violet
Rated PG-13 for thematic material, violence, drug references and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Set a few years ago in Melody, TX, American Violet follows the true-life events of a town shaken up by a District Attorney that attempted to keep the black citizens down by raiding their projects and making them plead guilty to felony charges to get out of prison.  This would help the DA get more federal dollars for drug prosecutions as well as keep the black people in the town from voting him out of office since much of the community would be felons, even if they were innocent.  With a stellar cast including Charles Dutton, Alfre Woodard, Will Patton, Tim Blake Nelson, and Nicole Beharie, the acting is top notch for an indie.  More importantly though is that the movie is a shock to the system and shows how ugly America can be and how much it still needs to be fixed.  B+

The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Edition
Rated G
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
It’s hard to believe it’s been 70 years.  OK.  I know I can’t say that since I’m only half that age, but looking at this newly remastered edition, it really is hard to believe that the film looks so fresh.  Maybe it’s because the movie is one of the most cherished of all time, so the print has been babied, but this new edition, even more so than the last edition released, looks and sounds exquisite.  The new set includes several new features, among them a new sing-along track, new documentaries, and if you get the Blu-ray box set, you’ll get more extras than any movie I’ve ever seen before.  A+

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Rated R for pervasive vulgar language and crude sexual humor and for some violent images
Available on Blu-ray
Making its Blu-ray debut is the Oscar-nominated South Park musical that proved to the world that animated films weren’t just for kids anymore.  When Cartman, Stan, Kenny and Kyle are caught going to see the latest Terrence and Phillip movie, their parents launch a war against Canada in order to prevent that kind of smut from hitting America.  While crude and vulgar, the movie is also a brilliant political and social satire and contains some darn good tunes as well.  To help us better remember the impact of the movie, as well as hear lots of cynical diatribe, there is a brand new commentary by filmmakers Trey Parker and Matt Stone.  A

New on DVD

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Rated G
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
In spite of being a huge Disney fanatic, I’ve never been that much of a fan of Snow White as a movie.  That being said, I’ll freely admit that I do understand that it is arguably the most important animated film ever made.  When Walt Disney suggested the idea of a feature-length animated film in the 1930s, the idea was unheard of.  After all, why would anyone want to watch a cartoon that is more than 5 minutes long?  The movie was supposed to be a disaster, and had it been anything less than it was, who knows if we would have had the rich tradition of animated films since.  One of the special features on the disks even suggests that The Wizard of Oz was only greenlit after Snow White’s success, and without the success of this particular fantasy, we might have never have seen the likes like Dorothy or Luke Skywalker grace the screen.  I’d say that makes a movie important.  The film itself has numerous special features, but my favorite is an interactive tour through Hyperion Studios, the studio that housed the early Disney artists.  A+



The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
Unrated
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Filmmaker Ken Burns brings us his next masterpiece with this look at our national parks in this twelve hour documentary that was almost a decade in the making.  Exploring the history of natural treasures and the reasons why some of our great leaders tried to protect them, Burns uses archival footage in combination with stunning cinematography from the majority of our national parks, to augment the masterful storytelling that we have come to expect from him.  While Burns has impressed us in the past with his documentaries on Jazz, Baseball, and WWII, I can’t help but feel that this is his both his best looking and most compelling story yet. A


Man vs. Food
Unrated
Available on DVD
Three of the things I love most in life are entertainment, food and travel, so there’s no surprise that I’m hooked on the Travel Channel’s hit show Man vs. Food which follows Adam Richman as he travels around America discovering its greatest pig-out spots.  In every city he visits, he also takes one of its famous food challenges, from eleven pound pizzas in Atlanta, to tackling eight plates of breakfast tacos in Austin, to wolfing down the world’s hottest curry in New York City.  The show is very addictive and the only thing the DVD lacks is a trip to H-Town.  The nerve!  A-

Assassination of a High School President
Rated R for sexual content, some nudity, language, and drug and alcohol use – all involving teens
Available on DVD
When a budding high school journalist is tricked into committing a character assassination piece against the reigning student body president, he tries desperately to both get his mistakes corrected and blow the whistle on the real guilty party.  Distracting him along the way is the president’s ex, played by Mischa Barton, who he unexpectedly becomes romantically entangled with.  The pic makes for a decent enough high school drama/mystery, but fails to reach any real significance with its complicated plot.  Also, the addition of Bruce Willis as the principle whose biggest concern is to get kids to stop chewing gum in school was funny at first, but got a little silly after a while.  That being said, the film is very convincing at portraying rich white kids as vindictive little monsters and some of the worst villains you could possibly go up against.  C+


IMAX: Dinosaurs Alive!
Unrated
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Dinosaurs Alive! takes a look at many of the different dinos from millions of years past, how we found out about them, and what their particular skills and traits were.  On a big IMAX screen, with 3D glasses, this film is truly impressive and really does come alive.  Unfortunately, on a anything smaller, and in 2D, the results are less than impressive.  The science is very basic and overly dramatic, and the film, at less than an hour, is not exactly compelling.  The documentary on how the film was made is actually a nice special feature worth checking out though.  C

New on DVD

Away We Go
Rated R for language and some sexual content
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Sam Mendes (American Beauty) directs John Krasinski (The Office) and Maya Rudolph (SNL) in this little indie about an expecting couple that travels around North America looking for a place that they can finally consider a true home for themselves and their new baby.  The pic feels more like a thought-provoking buddy road trip movie than a romantic comedy, although there are enough laughs to keep the film well in the comedy genre.  But I think it’s the tears that folks will remember the most and the performances by the leads here are truly touching.  There are also a bevy of interesting characters to keep your attention throughout, with great cameos by a host of terrific actors like Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.  Check out the extra on how the cast and crew went out of their way to keep the film’s carbon footprint to a bare minimum.   A-

Management
Rated R for language
Available on DVD
If you are like me and you were hoping that Jennifer Anniston’s latest theatrical release Love Happens would have been a romantic comedy instead of whatever that was, check out this very low budget pic starring Anniston and Steve Zahn.  Anniston is a bored salesperson staying in a cheap motel in the middle of nowhere and Zahn is the son of the owners of said establishment.  When his cute but kind of creepy moves prove effective, a very different kind of relationship is forged and what we get is one of the better rom coms of the last few years.  Don’t let the art house label scare you off.  If this would have been released in theaters by Paramount it would have made a killing.  I just hope it gets a better second life on DVD.  A-

The Girlfriend Experience
Rated R for sexual content and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Between big box-office releases, director Steven Soderbergh (The Informant!) likes to push out an occasional very low budget indie.  The Girlfriend Experience tells the story of a high-end prostitute (played by adult film star Sasha Grey) as she attempts to live a half-way normal life, including her committed relationship with her personal trainer boyfriend.  Granted, too much time is spent exploring her boyfriend’s career and not the subject at hand, but still, the film is a fascinating and fresh look at the world’s oldest profession and the most surprising thing is that the movie isn’t at all about sex. B

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Rated R
Available on Blu-ray
This obscure little film, which just so happened to be named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 20 Scariest Movies of All Time, is making its much anticipated blu-ray debut.  Loosely based on the real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, the story follows Henry, living in Chicago with his sociopathic friend Otis and Otis’s sister Becky.  As he and Otis travel around committing acts of random murder, Henry becomes romantically involved with Becky, putting a strain on his relationship with Otis.  The movie is definitely sick and twisted.  I wouldn’t call it scary, but I would use the word disturbing.  Even more disturbing is the documentary on the real life Henry Lee Lucas who committed many of his murders in the state of Texas.  I’m actually very thankful they didn’t make the film completely accurate after watching that doc.  I’m even more thankful Lucas is not around to see it.  B

The Universe Seasons 1-3
Unrated
Available on Blu-ray
The complete History Channel series The Universe is available in this 10 blu-ray set filled with pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about the universe we live in.  While the production isn’t quite up to Cosmos standards, and the animation is a little bit and miss, the content is very interesting and the examples made, while sometimes a little cheesy, are usually entertaining.  Sometimes there is a feeling that there’s not quite enough to fill each hour-long episode and that they are stretching a bit, but it seems that that is the route many of the science programs are going nowadays.  Still, if your goal is to learn about everything outside of the Planet Earth, this set will fully educate you.  B-

New on DVD

Observe and Report
Rated R for pervasive language, graphic nudity, drug use, sexual content and violence
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Seth Rogen is the anti-Paul Blart in this dark comedy about a drug using, power abusing mall cop that has two goals: 1) catch and kill the flasher that exposed himself to his dream girl and 2) join the police force.  This is a sick and twisted tale that is probably just what you would expect from writer/director Jody Hill, the creator of the HBO show Eastbound and Down.  Seth is convincing as the psycho wannabe cop, although Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, as well as the rest of the cast serve as caricatures more than believable human beings.  Still, if you are in the right mood, I think you will find this to be an enjoyable film with some very big laughs.  B

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 4
Not rated but contains adult content
Available on DVD
I’ll admit that I’ve let this little FX sitcom about the worst-run bar in Philadelphia escape me now for four years.  I thought I would watch a couple of episodes for review here just to see what it was about, and now I can’t believe I’ve let this one get away for so long.  This is one incredibly funny show.  Always Sunny follows Danny DeVito and a group of four twenty-somethings as they badly run a bar in Philly.  But in all of the episodes, each incredibly flawed character tries to scheme and plot against one another until the laughs build to a huge crescendo.  This is not nice-guy comedy, but the really good ones rarely are.  To see for yourself, check out one of the few episodes available on hulu.com and then you might be like me – completely hooked.  I devoured the show on this three DVD set, and then set my DVR for Season 5.  A

O’Horten
Rated PG-13 for brief nudity
Available on DVD
Norwegian with English subtitles
This Norwegian import follows the strange life of retired train engineer Odd Horten (appropriately named, even if it is in Norwegian) as he tries to figure out what to do in his post-retirement life.  Maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind while watching this movie, but it just never sank in for me.  Its humor is very subtle and while it is a comedy of sorts, the comedy is so deadpan and absurdist that while it occasionally brought a smile to my face, I never did find it to be terribly funny.  I did, however, find it interesting if that is any concession.  His little adventures are far from boring and I kept asking myself what I would do if put in similar circumstances.  B-

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Rated PG-13 for sexual content throughout, some language and a drug reference
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner star in this not very romantic romantic comedy about a womanizing photographer who goes through the Dickens ghosts with girlfriends past, present, and future in order to show him how horrible his life truly is.  From start to finish this is just nothing but a bad film.  Badly acted, poorly directed, and lazily written, Ghosts is one of those films that has a decent premise, but terrible execution.  This is really surprising too since the writers of this trash also turned in a little hit called The Hangover and the director has done some decent work himself including the hit Mean Girls.  Of course it doesn’t help when your two leads lack any sort of chemistry and the judge of romance is that the hero suddenly doesn’t want to sleep with the other brides maids any longer.  Give me a break.  This is not a romantic comedy, but rather an unfunny sex comedy that tries to convince women desperate for the latest rom com to bite like a worm on a hook.  I say don’t bite.  While they’ll eventually throw you back, why spend all that wasted time in the boat?  F

The Hannibal Lecter Collection
Featuring the films Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal
Rated R for strong gruesome violence, some nudity, and language
Available on Blu-ray
If you are ready for a night or weekend of cannibalistic terror, this 3 Blu-ray set includes all three of the major Lecter stories in stunning hi def.  While I did like Red Dragon better than Manhunter (they were both based on the same book) Manhunter was the film that started it all and deserves to be included in the same set.  While Anthony Hopkins didn’t show up till Lambs, Brian Cox makes for a very good Hannibal and CSI’s William Petersen under Michael Mann’s direction creates one of the 80’s greatest police thrillers.  Once Hopkins came on board though, Silence of the Lambs turned in an exceptional Oscar run and brought the Thomas Harris series to the forefront.  The brutally violent Hannibal furthered Lecter’s killing spree as he escapes from prison and goes after a new set of victims.  All in all, this is a great collection of stomach-turning films that any horror film or cop thriller buff will want to add to their collection.  Manhunter B+  The Silence of the Lambs A  Hannibal B