DVD Releases
Big movies coming to the small screen
By Marni Weisz
APRIL 7
DOUBT
Stars: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Director: John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano)
Story: Its four Oscar nominations (Streep, Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis) reveal much of what you need to know about this weighty drama. Director Shanley wrote the script based on his own play about something that may or may not have happened between a priest (Hoffman) and a young boy, and the nun (Streep) who is determined to take charge of the situation.
DVD Extras: “From Stage to Screen,” “Scoring Doubt,” “The Sisters of Charity”
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX
Voices: Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver
Directors: Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen
Story: An uncharacteristically brave mouse named Despereaux breaks protocol in his kingdom to (egads!) befriend a human, Princess Pea.
DVD Extras: “Top Ten Uses for Oversized Ears,” “Interactive Map of the Kingdom of Dor,” “Build-a-Boldo Game”
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly
Director: Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose)
Story: Earth is in trouble and the alien Klaatu (Reeves) and his robot pal Gort are dispatched to save her. Whether we humans will survive Klaatu’s efforts is up in the air, and it’s up to one woman (Connelly) to make our case.
DVD Extras: a two-disc set comes with the original 1951 version of the film; a three-disc set also has deleted scenes, commentary, still galleries
YES MAN
Stars: Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel
Director: Peyton Reed (The Break-Up)
Story: Carl (Carrey) is depressed. Has been since his one true love dumped him. He’s also super-negative. So he attends a meeting of the motivational group Say Yes! and agrees to respond in the affirmative to every question and proposition that arises for a full year. Surprising and embarassing predicaments, including a love interest in the form of Deschanel, ensue.
BEDTIME STORIES
Stars: Adam Sandler, Courteney Cox
Director: Adam Shankman (Hairspray)
Story: Sandler plays a hotel handyman who’s left in charge of his niece and nephew while their mother (Cox) is out of town. He entertains them by telling wild bedtime stories, which, despite their strangeness, begin to come true.
APRIL 14
THE SPIRIT
Stars: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Frank Miller (Sin City)
Story: Like the colour black? Like the colour red? Then you’ll find something to enjoy in this superduperstylized adaptation of Will Eisner’s comic book about a murdered cop (Macht) who rises from the dead to fight crime in desolate Central City.
Mickey Rourke in The Wreslter
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THE WRESTLER
Stars: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei
Director: Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain)
Story:
In the comeback of the year, Rourke plays Randy the Ram, a deeply
damaged pro wrestler who’s attempting to reconcile with his estranged
daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and woo a kindly stripper (Tomei), while
working on a comeback of his own.
THE READER
Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes
Director: Stephen Daldry (The Hours)
Story:
When 30-something Hanna (Winslet) seduces 15-year-old Michael (David
Kross) it seems that may be the worst thing she’s ever done. Nope.
Eight years later Michael, now a law student, is observing the trial of
a group of Nazi concentration camp guards, and look who’s among them!
Fiennes plays the older Michael, still trying to figure out his
relationship with Hanna decades later.
DVD Extras: commentary, featurettes on makeup, music and design
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APRIL 21
FROST/NIXON
Stars: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen
Director: Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind)
Story: Lightweight journalist David Frost (Sheen) takes on media-savvy former U.S. President Richard Nixon in a series of in-depth interviews just three years after Tricky Dick was turfed from office. Will the affable TV personality with a reputation for puff pieces be able to get under Nixon’s sweaty brow?
APRIL 28
JCVD
Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, François Damiens
Director: Mabrouk El Mechri (Virgil)
Story: Terms like metadrama and self-reflexivity are usually reserved for university English classes and the films of Charlie Kaufman. Not so much the films of the Muscles from Brussels, also known as Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yet here we are, grappling with this well-received comedy in which Van Damme plays himself as a washed-up action star with tax and custody problems (his daughter’s embarrassed to be his flesh and blood). And then he’s framed for a bank robbery, and has to use all of his showbiz skills to get out of the jam.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, bloopers