THE BUCKET LIST (2007). If Morgan Freeman and Judi Dench ever made a film together, would the world simply explode? After all, Freeman always plays the smartest character in his movies and Dench always plays the wisest character in her pictures, so wouldn’t this fall under some sort of “irresistible force meets immovable object” scenario? At any rate, it’s an idea more worthy of discussion than any of the pseudo-weighty nonsense on view in The Bucket List, an interminable film about terminal patients who learn important life lessons before, yes, kicking the bucket. Freeman plays Carter Chambers, an auto mechanic with an IQ equal to that of Stephen Hawking. Dying of cancer, he shares a hospital room with the filthy rich Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson), who’s beginning to realize that money can buy everything except an extended lease on life. With each man facing less than a year to live, they both elect to go out in a blaze (or at least daze) of glory, by dutifully performing tasks on their self-penned “bucket list” of activities they’ve always wanted to do. The list includes such items as “go skydiving” and “laugh until I cry”; unfortunately, “entertain audiences who rent this slop” is nowhere to be found. A lazy and condescending package from top to bottom (with uninspired efforts put forth by Nicholson, Freeman, director Rob Reiner and especially scripter Justin Zackham), The Bucket List isn’t nearly as torturous as the similar, “laughing in the face of death” Patch Adams; then again, neither is a broken back.
DVD extras include a short piece in which Zackham discusses his script and the music video for John Mayer’s “Say.”
Movie: *1/2
Extras: *
FOOL’S GOLD (2008). Lord, what fools these Hollywood mortals be! Here they further denigrate the standing of the romantic comedy by presenting this waterlogged flick about bickering ex-spouses on the prowl for sunken treasure off the Florida Keys. In a reunion that no one was exactly clamoring for, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson play Finn and Tess; he’s an irresponsible beach bum who’s skilled at running up debts, while she’s a levelheaded lass who’s forced to take a job on the yacht of millionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland). Despite finalizing their divorce mere hours earlier, Finn talks Tess into joining him once again on his never-ending quest for 18th century Spanish booty; they persuade Honeycutt to finance their endeavor, but they’re working against the clock since murderous rapper-turned-mobster Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) also has designs on the riches. Eye candy abounds in Fool’s Gold: Many women will enjoy the sight of McConaughey taking off his shirt at regular intervals, some men will gaze at the bronzed Hudson sporting teeny bikinis, and ocean lovers (that would include me) can ignore the lame plot at the forefront in favor of concentrating on the shimmering beauty of the water (a modest distraction also found in After the Sunset and Into the Blue). But the direction (by Hitch‘s Andy Tennant) is uninspired, the script is bubble-headed, and the bland leads continue to disprove the notion that some measure of movie-star charisma is required to make it as a romantic draw. Old pro Sutherland provides some lift, but the real spark comes from Alexis Dziena as Honeycutt’s trust-fund daughter; she takes the tired character of the young ditz and miraculously makes her funny.
DVD extras include a short piece on the two stars’ working relationship and a gag reel.
Movie: *1/2
Extras: *1/2
HOLOCAUST (1978). The miniseries took off in the second half of the 1970s, and the format yielded an embarrassment of riches: Roots, Rich Man, Poor Man and its same-year sequel, Washington: Behind Closed Doors, etc. Among the cream of the crop – and finally available on DVD (which is more than can be said for Rich Man or Washington) – is Holocaust, the hotly debated drama that emerged as an international success. Running 7-1/2 hours, this excellent program centers on the Weiss clan, a Jewish family whose members struggle to survive the atrocities of the Second World War. Dr. Josef Weiss (Fritz Weaver) and his wife Berta (Rosemary Harris) think only of their children – sensitive artist Karl (James Woods), scrappy fighter Rudi (Joseph Bottoms) and spirited teenager Anna (Blanche Baker) – but cannot protect them from the brutal Nazi regime; meanwhile, an ambitious German lawyer named Erik Dorf (Michael Moriarty) manages to work his way up through the ranks of the Third Reich. As Karl’s devoted German wife, up-and-coming Meryl Streep immediately commanded attention by appearing in this and The Deer Hunter in the same calendar year. This earned eight Emmy Awards, including Best Limited Series and Best Actor and Actress statues for Moriarty and Streep.
There are no extras on the DVD.
Series: ****
Extras: *
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (2008). An often interesting blend of fact, rumor and outright fabrication, The Other Boleyn Girl feels like an Oscar-bait title that somehow got its DNA mixed up with a daytime soap opera. Based on Philippa Gregory’s controversial novel, this tracks the political intrigue and bedroom shenanigans which sprang from the attempts of the Boleyn family to get in the good graces of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana). Prodded on by the most venal member of the clan, the scheming Duke of Norfolk (The Reaping‘s David Morrissey, as uninteresting as always), the quivering Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) agrees to offer his strong-willed daughter Anne (Natalie Portman) to the king as replacement for his majesty’s current wife Catherine (Ana Torent), who has been unable to produce a male heir. But after Anne quickly falls out of Henry’s favor, the men serve up Anne’s demure sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson) instead; a torrid love affair takes place, but when that begins to cool thanks to Henry’s growing disinterest, Anne is brought back onto the scene. If Charles Laughton (winning an Oscar for 1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII) was the chunkiest Henry VIII ever put on film, then Bana might be the hunkiest, but it’s hardly a desirable trade-off, given the actor’s drowsy performance. His female co-stars fare better, though it’s hard to accept the physically dissimilar Portman and Johansson as flesh-and-blood siblings; in fact, the whole project frequently feels like little more than celebrities playing dress-up, despite the efforts of scripter Peter Morgan (The Queen) to streamline so much contradictory material.
DVD extras include audio commentary by director Justin Chadwick, 20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, a featurette on bringing the novel to the screen, and biographies of the principal characters.
Movie: **1/2
Extras: ***
TENEBRE (1982) / PHENOMENA (1985). Even folks who don’t generally like movies that can broadly be categorized as “gore” or “slasher” flicks can get a kick out of the works of Dario Argento, the Italian filmmaker whose oeuvre has inspired countless budding filmmakers and thrilled audiences held captive by his mastery behind the lens. Two of his most celebrated achievements have recently been re-released on DVD, available individually or as part of a box set that also includes three lesser known titles: 1993’s Trauma, 2004’s The Card Player and 2005’s Do You Like Hitchcock?
Originally playing stateside in an edited version titled Unsane, Argento’s Tenebre was released two years after Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill and two years before De Palma’s Body Double, making one suspect these filmmakers were busy borrowing from each other’s works with frequent regularity. Like De Palma, Argento employs the camera as a prowling, restless voyeur, and that tendency is at its most pronounced in this thriller about an American novelist (Anthony Franciosa) who, while on a promotional tour in Rome, learns that his latest book is serving as a guide for a serial killer who seems to be moving in the same circles. Also like De Palma, Argento not only has an eye for beautiful women (and a habit of keeping one alive to serve as, at best, the heroine and, at worst, a witness to the mayhem) but further delights in tripping up audiences with startling plot twists.
In between her film debut in 1984’s Once Upon a Time in America and her breakthrough role in 1986’s Labyrinth, 14-year-old Jennifer Connelly toplined Argento’s Phenomena, an absolutely loopy yarn in which a lonely American girl at a Swiss boarding school is revealed to possess a strange hold over all insects. Can she use her powers to catch the serial killer who’s been bloodily offing the school’s nubile young girls? Formerly making the rounds under the moniker Creepers (and usually in an edited version), this engaging oddity – Argento’s favorite of all his own films – also finds room for a heroic, razor-wielding chimpanzee, a deformed kid who bears an eerie resemblance to Chucky, and veteran actor Donald Pleasance as a kindly entomologist prone to making grandiloquent declarations about bugs.
DVD extras on Tenebre include audio commentary by Argento, music composer Claudio Simonetti and journalist Loris Curei, a 17-minute retrospective piece, and a look at creating the movie’s sound effects. Extras on Phenomena include audio commentary by Argento, Simonetti, Curei and make-up effects artist Sergio Stivaletti, a 17-minute retrospective piece, and two music videos.
Both Films: ***
Extras: ***
THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940). For my money, Technicolor splendor doesn’t get any better than what’s on display in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, but, yes, there’s a reason the full British title of this classic tale is The Thief of Bagdad: An Arabian Fantasy In Technicolor. Producer Alexander Korda, no stranger to opulent epics and period yarns, offered eye-filling escapism to wartime audiences with this dazzling display of technical wizardry, a color-drenched spectacle that owed its ideas to The Arabian Nights. Modern audiences only familiar with the tales through Disney’s Aladdin will recognize some of the elements on view here, as plucky thief Abu (played by 16-year-old star Sabu) must help Prince Ahmad (John Justin) defeat the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt) in order to be reunited with the princess (June Duprez) who captured his heart. The young – and young at heart – will find delight with the picture’s endless succession of wondrous creations, including a giant spider, a deadly six-armed seductress, a flying carpet, and, of course, a boisterous genie (delightful Rex Ingram). This earned three Academy Awards, for Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction, and Best Special Effects; Miklos Rozsa also earned a nomination for Best Original Score.
Extras in Criterion’s two-disc DVD edition include audio commentary by Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola (not too shabby a pair, eh?), a separate commentary by film historian Bruce Eder, a half-hour documentary in which three FX wizards – the legendary Ray Harryhausen, six-time Oscar winner Dennis Muren (Jurassic Park) and visual effects supervisor Craig Barron (X-Men) – discuss the film’s technical achievements, 1940’s The Lion Has Wings, a British WWII propaganda film produced by Korda, and a 1976 radio interview in which Rozsa talks about his score for the film.
Movie: ***1/2
Extras: ***1/2
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2008.
