THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN (2008). This C.S. Lewis adaptation is darker than 2005’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which seems to be the path taken by many second installments in film franchises (The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Back to the Future Part II, The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation). In this one, the Pevensie kids – Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) – return to the magical land of Narnia, only to find a gloomy environment in which humans have taken over and all mystical creatures are hiding in the forests. Eventually, the woodland inhabitants, the Pevensie siblings and the dashing Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) band together to restore Narnia to its previous glory. A couple of familiar faces return, yet it’s cast newcomer Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) who walks away with this film; he’s excellent as Trumpkin, a surly dwarf who aids the cause. As for the kids, this is clearly a case where girls rule while boys drool. Susan cuts a fierce figure as a warrior queen, while Lucy is allowed to establish the strongest bonds with the Narnians. On the other hand, Edmund is given too little to do, while Peter is only slightly less generic than fellow pretty-boy Caspian – whenever Peter and Caspian bicker, it’s like watching the leaders of two feuding boy bands get in each other’s faces. But overall, this improves on the original; even the visual effects, shaky in the first film, are far more smoothly executed here.
Extras in the three-disc DVD include audio commentary by director Andrew Adamson and cast members; deleted scenes; featurettes on the set design and location shooting; and a piece on Dinklage and his character.
Movie: ***
Extras: **1/2
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008). Given the fact that Christopher Nolan’s 2005 Batman Begins ranks as one of the best superhero flicks ever made, then where does that put this sequel that manages to be even more phenomenal than its predecessor? Certainly, it places it somewhere at the head of the class, and there’s a nice symmetry to its release date: After all, it was 30 years ago that the Christopher Reeve version of Superman – still the greatest of all comic book adaptations – was released, and now we have its equal on the other side of the aisle, a superhero saga that’s as dark and deep as its forefather was cheery and colorful. In fact, this might be the first superhero movie that exudes a palpable sense of dread and menace that tugs at our nerves in a way that both disturbs and delights us. Even in superior entertainment like Spider-Man and Iron Man, there’s a feeling that it’s all make-believe, but The Dark Knight offers no such safety net – it wears its danger on its sleeve. In this outing, Batman (Christian Bale) has done a fine job of tightening the reins around the mob bosses who have long controlled Gotham City, and he’s soon aided in his efforts by idealistic district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). But their combined attempts to corral the city’s crooks are hampered by the presence of a murderous psychopath known as The Joker (Heath Ledger). Eckhart stands out in what proves to be the picture’s most fully realized characterization, though we all know who’s the MVP of this particular show: The late Ledger is simply mesmerizing as this whirling dervish of cackling, lip-smacking, cheek-sucking sin.
Extras in the two-disc special edition include six scenes presented in their original IMAX framing; a piece on Hans Zimmer’s excellent music score; a look at the design of the Bat-suit and the Bat-pod; and a poster gallery.
Movie: ****
Extras: **1/2
MAMMA MIA! (2008). Meryl Streep fans and ABBA fans can at least count on those two components firing on all cylinders in this adaptation of the Broadway smash; everyone else, though, may be forced to rummage through the debris that constitutes the rest of the picture to find anything worth salvaging. Streep is aptly cast as Donna, a former singer raising her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) at her hotel on a Greek island. Sophie’s about to marry hunky Sky (dull Dominic Cooper), but first she’s determined to learn the identity of her father. The candidates are suave Sam (Pierce Brosnan), uptight Harry (Colin Firth) and rascally Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), and as long as the actors essaying the roles stick to walking and talking, they’re fun to watch. But whenever one of them is called upon to sing, be prepared to duck and cover as their aural ineptitude bombards our eardrums (Brosnan especially looks physically pained choking out the lyrics, as if he’s being subjected to a prostate exam just outside of the camera’s eye). There’s no reason this couldn’t contain all the effulgence and expertise of other musical adaptations like Hairspray and Chicago, but stage director Phyllida Lloyd appears to be so blissfully ignorant of the dynamics of moviemaking that, aside from the songs themselves, there’s little joy to be found in the musical numbers. The clumsy camerawork, editing and staging all diminish rather than enhance the perceived showstoppers, and the choreography ranks among the most dreadful I’ve ever witnessed in a big-budget musical. All of this adds up to produce the biggest cinematic disappointment of 2008.
Extras in the two-disc special edition include audio commentary by Lloyd; a 24-minute making-of piece; eight minutes of deleted scenes; a deleted musical number (“The Name of the Game”); a breakdown of the filming of the musical number “Lay All Your Love On Me”; the music video for “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”; and a short piece on the Greek location shooting. The movie can also be played in the “sing-along” mode, with on-screen lyrics for all 22 musical numbers.
Movie: **
Extras: ***1/2
STEP BROTHERS (2008). The battle for the title of Hollywood’s Ultimate Man-Child found Will Ferrell finally overtaking Adam Sandler this past summer. While Sandler played an actual adult (well, sort of) in You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (now on DVD), Ferrell again adopted an infantile pose, this time in the service of Step Brothers. The law of diminishing returns – to say nothing of Step Brothers‘ cringe-inducing trailer – suggested that this should have represented the nadir of Ferrell’s efforts, but the truth is that he’s done worse: This is rescued from the bottom of the barrel by several choice quips as well as a surprising sweetness at the center of its storyline involving family dysfunction. Ferrell and Talladega Nights partner John C. Reilly star as Brennan and Dale, two 40-ish men still living at home with their single parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins, respectively). When said parents decide to marry each other, the two “kids” are forced to not only live under the same roof but also share a bedroom. Initially combative, they become best friends after they’re united by their mutual hatred of Brennan’s smug, perfectionist brother Derek (Adam Scott). As usual, Ferrell doesn’t know where to draw the line when it comes to childish antics on screen. But the theme of how parents and children will often fail each other carries some startling resonance (thanks largely to Steenburgen’s delicate performance), and every time we write off the dialogue as just a string of schoolyard taunts, along comes an unexpected zinger. Step Brothers is clearly a step up from recent Ferrell offerings like Semi-Pro and Blades of Glory, but please, guys, it’s time to grow up and give this formula a rest.
DVD extras include audio commentary by Ferrell, Reilly, director Adam McKay and basketball star Baron Davis; a 22-minute making-of feature; five deleted scenes; and the “Boats ‘N Hoes” music video.
Movie: **
Extras: **1/2
WANTED (2008). Action films are by definition loud and chaotic, but here’s one so hyperactive, it makes titles like Live Free or Die Hard and The Bourne Ultimatum seem as staid as Atonement by comparison. Based on the graphic novel series, Wanted initially feels like an unofficial remake of Fight Club, as cubicle nobody Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy, speaking of Atonement) narrates how he’s been beaten down by his mundane, miserable existence (cheating girlfriend, obnoxious boss, dead-end job). Into his life walks not Tyler Durden but Fox (Angelina Jolie), a tattooed beauty who insists that he’s been targeted for elimination by the same man (Thomas Kretschmann) who recently killed his father. Fox soon introduces Wesley to The Fraternity, a clandestine outfit made up entirely of assassins and led by the cordial Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Shucking aside any moral qualms rather quickly, Wesley joins the group, in the process learning that he possesses untapped skills that make him a natural for this line of work. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov, best known for the visually striking yet dramatically inert Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch) and its sequels, has crafted a slam-bang feature that revels in its own ridiculousness: To criticize the movie’s outlandish situations would be to miss the whole point of Bekmambetiv’s exercise in excess. Still, the script’s twists and turns aren’t nearly as clever as writers Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan pretend (the secret involving Wesley’s dad is pretty transparent), and after a while, the movie’s gleeful approach to nihilism proves wearying.
Extras in the two-disc special edition include one extended scene; a piece on the cast and characters; featurettes on the stuntwork and visual effects; and a music video.
Movie: **1/2
Extras: **
WHITE DOG (1982). Political correctness has rarely seemed as misguided as when it ran headfirst into this drama by maverick writer-director Samuel Fuller. Loosely working from a story by Romain Gary, Fuller and co-scripter Curtis Hanson (who would later win an Oscar for bringing L.A. Confidential to the screen) crafted a social polemic in which a young actress named Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) decides to keep the German shepherd she accidentally struck with her car. Soon, however, Julie comes to the chilling realization that her new companion has been trained to attack and kill black people; although an animal trainer (Burl Ives) insists that the dog is a lost cause, a fellow trainer, the black Keys (Paul Winfield), makes it his mission to reprogram the canine. After protests from the NAACP, Paramount Pictures shelved White Dog, never giving it a theatrical release (it briefly aired on HBO, which is where I first caught it back in the day). But clearly, this isn’t a racist movie; it’s a movie about racism, and how it can bubble up from the most unlikely sources. The performances from the bit players are amateurish, as is some of the dialogue, but Fuller has nevertheless managed to make a fascinating yarn that actually has something to say about the state of the nation.
DVD extras include interviews with Hanson, producer Jon Davison and Fuller’s widow, Christa Lang-Fuller; an on-screen print interview (with photos) with the film’s animal trainer, Karl Lewis Miller; and a photo gallery. The set also includes a booklet containing two excellent essays – one by New York Press film reviewer Armond White, the country’s preeminent African-American movie critic, and the other by Village Voice critic J. Hoberman, who placed White Dog in the number one slot on his list of the 10 best films of 1991 (when the film resurfaced as part of a Film Forum tribute to Fuller).
Movie: ***
Extras: **1/2
This article appears in Dec 9-16, 2008.
