New on DVD: ‘Beastly,’ ‘Sucker Punch,’ and More

Posted on June 27, 2011 at 8:00 am

Beastly This modern-day version of Beauty and the Beast is surprisingly appealing. In an era of bullies and mean girls, “Gossip Girls” and “Pretty Little Liars,” it’s nice to have such a tenderhearted fairy tale.

Sucker Punch Girls in thigh-hi stockings and tiny spangled miniskirts take on steam-powered corpses, WWI bi-planes, samurai robots, and an angry dragon, along with a series of odiously predatory men in the latest film from Zack Snyder. His versions of “300? and “Watchmen” overwhelmed the storylines with striking, provocative visuals. Here, he solves that problem by pretty much not having any storyline at all. He literally and metaphorically cuts to the chase. It’s not so much punch, a bit more sucker.

Season of the Witch. This is sword-and-sorcery film named after a Donovan song that features a joke swiped from “Jaws” — a priest looks balefully up at a looming demon and actually says, “We’re going to need more holy water.” It is a hopeless mish-mash that feels like they were making it up as they went along. It’s also dull.

The Eagle The classic book for kid by Rosemary Sutcliff is an epic story, lavishly filmed, but empty at the core. Without a reason to care about the quest, it does not matter how skillfully the battle scenes are filmed.

Unknown There are some good chases through Berlin and even twistier plot developments even if the end is kind of silly in this story of a man on the way to an academic conference who wakes up after an accident with amnesia and finds that someone else has taken over his life. Worth seeing for one scene between veterans Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella.

Barney’s Version Paul Giamatti makes us understand and even forgive a man who leaves his own wedding reception (second marriage) to run after a woman he has just met (Rosamund Pike), who will be the great love of his life. Based on the last novel by the great Canadian author Mordecai Richler, this is a sprawling, episodic story of a man who is not always likable but the performances by Giamatti, Pike, and Dustin Hoffman has his policeman father over the decades are magnificent.

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The Eagle

Posted on February 10, 2011 at 6:13 pm

“The Eagle” is an epic story, lavishly filmed, but empty at the core. Without a reason to care about the quest, it does not matter how skillfully the battle scenes are filmed.

It is based on The Eagle of the Ninth a classic book for kids by Rosemary Sutcliff, inspired by the real-life mystery of the Lost Legion of the Roman Army, a 5000-man fighting force that disappeared without a trace around 117 A.D. This is the story of Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum), the son of that division’s leader, who goes on a journey to recapture its standard, the golden eagle of the title. Accompanying him is his slave, Esca (Jamie Bell of “Billy Elliot”), loyal to Marcus Aquila for saving his life, but with divided allegiance because he is a Briton who despises the Romans. When they cross Hadrian’s Wall into Briton territory to retrieve the golden eagle, which side will Esca be on?

Director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”) lets his enthusiasm for the material show. The settings and the design details show meticulous care and the combat scenes are dynamic and sometimes powerful. The evolving respect and friendship between the two men does not translate well from the page to the screen and the pacing is episodic where it should be epic. While it may be a worn-out cliche to have people in ancient times speaking in modern but formal English with British accents, it is a convention that communicates very effectively on screen. Macdonald’s decision to have the Romans speaking American-style English (even the British Jamie Bell) and have the Britons speak historically inaccurate and for most people indecipherable Gaelic, gives it a sloppy, Cliff’s notes flavor. This is underscored further by Tatum’s very contemporary look and build and the attire of the Britons — covered with clay and wearing a sort of animal skin jegging.

The biggest problem is that we just do not care whether they retrieve the eagle because they never make a compelling case that it stands for honor, either relative or absolute. It is the symbol of a failed invasion that does not represent valor or integrity. The film cannot free itself from the modern sensibility of its makers and its audience and therefore cannot demonize the Britons or otherwise justify the Roman attempt to capture and enslave them. The film tries to portray the warriors as heroes next to the politicians who stay at home fighting with words instead of swords. But it just comes across as another pointless road trip bromance. (more…)