DVD DOMAIN
REIGN OF FIRE Eschewing the gee-whiz approach of
Dragonslayer and forsaking the downright
silliness of Dragonheart, this may well be the
most grim dragon movie ever made -- and it's all the
more effective for the filmmakers' decision to play it
straight. As a rush of pure excitement on the gritty
side, this futuristic yarn about an earth overtaken by
fire-breathing beasts delivers the goods, and it's
buoyed by arguably the best dragons ever created for
the screen. DVD extras include two
behind-the-scenes featurettes and the theatrical trailer.
Also
New:BAD COMPANY The sort of inane drivel
that has long given "buddy action-comedies" a bad
name, this one elected to team Anthony "Give me my
damn paycheck already" Hopkins and Chris "I'll be a
movie star any year now!" Rock in a distressingly
formulaic romp that played like a discarded Rush
Hour 3 script. 1/2
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST In an
attempt to open up Oscar Wilde's immortal play about
mistaken identity, writer-director Oliver Parker has
made a needlessly fussy adaptation that's
nevertheless blessed with fine performances (Colin
Firth, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench) and Wilde's own
way with words. 1/2
SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON The
cuteness quotient is remarkably low in this engaging if
not particularly distinguished tale about a magnificent
stallion that befriends a Lakota lad in the days of the
Old West. Major debit: the song score by Bryan
Adams. 1/2
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8 MILE At first glance, 8 Mile would appear to be Eminem's Purple Rain, a blatant attempt by a music star to broaden his fan base by appearing before the moviegoing multitudes in a ragtag effort consisting of sizzling concert scenes surrounded by tepid melodrama. Yet it's soon clear that this is actually going to be a bonafide motion picture and not just a soundtrack album with cinematic trimmings. Not that this movie, knowingly directed by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), doesn't have some connection to Purple Rain. Indeed, it harkens back to several films from the late 70s/early 80s (Saturday Night Fever, Fame, Flashdance) that had replaced the traditional glitz of the musical fantasy world with the grit of the real world, a place where creative expression wasn't a luxury but rather a survival instinct, a possible escape from the lower rungs of a manmade hell. Here, the desolate locale is the Detroit of 1995, wherein a young man beaten down by life uses rap as a way to express himself. 8 Mile has its share of potholes along the way, but overall it's a sturdy drama, and it conclusively demonstrates that, for one movie at least, its magnetic star can go the distance.
FEMME FATALE Director Brian De Palma has spent most of his career courting controversy, so why expect different results from his latest release? Already running the gamut of critical opinion since its opening (from an F by Entertainment Weekly to four stars from Roger Ebert), this over-the-top thriller features both the best and worst of De Palma. A convoluted, twisty yarn about a shapely thief (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, channeling Sharon Stone) who double-crosses her criminal cohorts, assumes a new identity and makes a patsy out of a tabloid photographer (Antonio Banderas), Femme Fatale includes some terrific set pieces that remind me why I revere his style so much -- yet ultimately becomes burdened with several embarrassingly self-conscious sequences that make me wince at how he's frittered away much of his latter-day career. Woe to the audience member who approaches this with a straight face -- the writer-director is clearly in a playful mood here (love that blood-stained shirt, "seven years later") -- but even accepting this in the right frame of mind can only provide it with so much leniency. 1/2
I SPY This tepid studio product is supposedly based on the same-named 60s TV show starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, but its relationship to that series is so tenuous, they could easily have called this thing Petticoat Junction or My Mother the Car and gotten away with it. Owen Wilson, charming when the role is just right (rare, indeed), is warmly relaxed as a second-tier secret agent, while Eddie Murphy, in his patented motor-mouth mode, darts all over the screen as his civilian partner, a boxing champ whose ego is larger than Brazil and Argentina combined. This sort of "buddy comedy" is long passe, so the real surprise is that Murphy and Wilson actually make a pretty good team, each actor playing off the other's strengths. But the project surrounding them is distressingly rote, a true snoozer that finds the pair trying to stop the usual Eurobaddie (Malcolm McDowell) from selling a stolen government aircraft to the highest international bidder. The plane, incidentally, is invisible, though viewers hoping for a Wonder Woman cameo will be sorely disappointed.
THE RING An American remake of a 1998 Japanese smash that spawned a pair of sequels, a TV series and a cult following, The Ring centers around the existence of a videocassette that causes death to anyone who dares watch it. So what exactly is on this terrible tape? Outtakes from The Anna Nicole Show? Footage of the Liza Minnelli-David Gest wedding? The torturous Vanilla Ice bomb Cool As Ice? Actually, none of the above; instead, it turns out to be a series of grainy, bizarre images that would be right at home in a music video by, say, Nine Inch Nails or Metallica. In his short movie career, director Gore Verbinski has certainly been someone to watch, having helmed Mouse Hunt and The Mexican. Yet the quirky light touch that served him well on those projects has hampered him here: For a movie built around a piece of film containing unsettling images, The Ring is itself a rather tame undertaking, never building the finger-curling sense of dread that's demanded by the material. At the same time, Verbinski clearly takes the genre seriously, and he scored a casting coup by landing Naomi Watts (as the reporter on the case) in her first appearance since her amazing breakthrough performance in last year's Mulholland Drive. 1/2
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