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Atonement

Starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightly, and Saoirse Ronan
Directed by Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice)
Rated R for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality
Appropriate for ages 17+
Available March 18, 2008 on DVD and HD-DVD

This World War 2 romance was the most Oscarly of the selections nominated this year, but maybe that was a strike against it.  At least it very deservingly won the Golden Globe.  The tragic story of two lovers that were torn apart by a lie told by a confused girl followed by the grown girl trying to atone for what she did is beautifully portrayed here by a visionary director and flawless acting from it’s cast.  I’ve seen the film five times now and still cry every time.  The special features include some unnecessary deleted scenes and a terrific doc showing how the film came to be.  What is most fascinating is how the evacuation to Dunkerque was assembled into a five-minute-long continuous shot with over a thousand extras  perfectly choreographed.  It’s one of the most tremendous scenes to ever be put on film.  Although HD-DVD is going away, there is an HD-DVD version that is well worth the investment.

I Am Legend

Starring Will Smith
Directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine)
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
Appropriate for ages 13+
Available March 18, 2008 on DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray Disc

If you recall from my first review, I was a little disappointed with this new Will Smith film.  I thought that the movie was overall effectively frightening, but had a bummer ending that made the audience depressed.  Apparently the producers agreed, and so they gave us the Alternate Theatrical Version with a brand new ending.  Remember that scene on the trailer that I was complaining about being absent in the theater?  You know – the one where the infected are breathing down Smith’s neck?  Good news – it’s in the new version and the ending is a vast improvement over the original.  And if you have an extra day with nothing to do – this disc comes loaded with hours of extras.  The best are the animated comics and a special doc discussing the science behind the movie, where real CDC officials discuss the history of pandemics and why we are overdue for one.  This is a great disc, and an example for all others to follow. 

Enchanted

Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Susan Sarandon
Directed by Kevin Lima (Tarzan)
Rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo
Appropriate for all ages
Available March 18, 2008 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc

On the day a beautiful young cartoon character named Giselle (Adams) is about to marry the handsome Prince Edward (Marsden), his evil mother (Sarandon) banishes her to real-world Manhattan where she is left to fend for herself until her prince comes to rescue her.  Luckily, she finds a nice man (Dempsey) who is willing to put out a helping hand to the poor, crazy, whacked-out, yet wonderful New York newcomer.  The premise is nothing short of brilliant, although the ending seems like the ideas ran dry on the best way to close the show.  Also, it’s great to have Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz doing a movie musical again.  The music here pulled in an unbelievable three Oscar noms.  The disc contains tons of extras including a great making-of doc.  You’ll be able to keep your kids and Disney fans busy for hours with the Blu-ray only feature of The D Files.  Here you can watch the movie with an ongoing trivia game and Disney vignettes placed throughout.

No Country For Old Men

Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Rated R for strong graphic violence and some language
Blu-ray and standard DVD available on March 11, 2008

When No Country won the Oscar for best picture, a lot of folks, including me, were forced to do a lot of head scratching.  But upon much reflection, I have started to see what is so amazing about this film.  My biggest problem with it was what they did with the hero.  Of course I thought the hero was Brolin’s character.  If you watch the film from the point of view that Jones’s sheriff is the hero, Bardem is the villain, and Brolin is just caught in the middle, the film takes on a new dimension.  It is a deeply complex story with interesting characters and thought-provoking dialogue.  The DVD contains a nice documentary on the making of the film and working with the Coens, but like all of the other Coen Brothers films, there is no commentary from them describing their strange, quirky process. 

Into the Wild

Starring Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, and Vince Vaughn
Directed by Sean Penn
Rated R for language and some nudity
Available March 4, 2008 on Standard DVD and HD-DVD

Based on the real life and death of Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild follows a young man that leaves behind the comforts of home and travels around the country on foot in the search to find true happiness and satisfaction.  When he ends up stranded in an abandoned bus in Alaska, he faces the most difficult of challenges: staying alive.  For some strange reason, this film found itself missing from Beaumont theaters this last fall, in spite of achieving some relatively decent box office numbers (22 million), so hopefully it will find a good audience on DVD.  Sean Penn and crew put a lot of love into this mesmerizing story and the performances by Hirsch, Holbrook, and others are very strong.  In theaters the film seemed a little long (148 minutes), but on the small screen it feels just right.  I wish there was a commentary or two, but all we get on the two-disc set are the film and a couple of production documentaries. 

American Gangster

Starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe
Directed by Ridley Scott (Gladiator)
Rated R for violence, pervasive drug content and language, nudity and sexuality
Appropriate for ages 17+
Release Date: February 19, 2008 on DVD and HD-DVD

I firmly believe that had this great American crime drama been released in theaters in December, we would have seen this film nominated for tons of Oscars this year.  Just because the buzz burned out too early, though, don’t skip this powerful drama based on the true story of Frank Lucas, the infamous gangster that was responsible for destroying Harlem with his steady supply of pure heroine.   Imagine  Scarface meets The French Connection and you have American Gangster, a nail-biting thriller that belongs more in the 70’s than in today.  The DVD contains an Unrated Extended Cut while the HD-DVD version contains both the original in HD and the new cut on the flip-side in standard format.  The alternate beginning is a little over-hyped due to the fact that they just moved the post-credits sequence to the front, and the deleted scenes aren’t all that memorable, but there is a very informative commentary by director Ridley Scott and writer Steven Zaillian. 

Darkon

Unrated but contains strong language
Directed by Luke Meyer
Release Date: February 26, 2008

This winner of the 2006 Audience Favorite Documentary at Austin’s South by Southwest Film Festival follows the lives of a strange group of folks that like to take their role-playing to an extreme.  Every weekend this group of wannabe warrior poets set out to conquer and destroy their enemies in a live-action dungeons and dragons-ish universe.  At first the pic is just funny and peculiar, but rapidly turns into an immensely interesting and entertaining adventure reminiscent of this year’s King of Kong.  So, in honor of this year’s South by Southwest Festival, which is about to start up (www.sxsw.com), I’d like to highly recommend this terrific little doc.