This Week in DVD: 3/5/13
This week on home video we check out The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Wreck-It Ralph, The Intouchables, Red Dawn, The Marine 3: Homefront, The Bay, and Girls Against Boys.
film
The Last Exorcism Part II Review
Forget about the movie. This kid sitting on the other side of the table from me is adorable.
Of Two Minds Review
While many documentaries about issues as sensitive as mental illness can be clouded in excessive fact-listing or sentimentality, Douglas Blush and Lisa Klein’s examination of bipolar disorder Of Two Minds deftly avoids the obvious traps, never attempting to rally or manipulate the audience
21 and Over Review
The lazy, lacklustre comedy 21 and Over shows that we haven't come very far at all since the days of Animal House, but it still isn't the worst of its frat boy kind.
Charlie Zone Review
It's not perfect, but the hard nosed Haligonian thriller Charlie Zone is the perfect antidote for anyone who thinks Canadian cinema has grown too soft and safe.
The Bitter Buddha Review
The Bitter Buddha takes a fascinating backstage look at one of the most fascinating, lesser known, and most widely admired comedians working today, Eddie Pepitone.
California Solo Review
Despite a great leading performance from Robert Carlyle, California Solo is vapid to the point of being almost completely uninteresting.
Jack the Giant Slayer Review
There assuredly a fair bit of fun to be had while watching Bryan Singer’s classic-yet-cracked fairytale adaptation Jack the Giant Slayer, but it’s the kind of fun that needs to be had with the brain’s switch firmly placed in the off position.
Stoker Review
If Hitchcock was still alive he very well could have made Stoker, but with corpse reanimation still just a beautiful dream, Chan-wook Park fills the portly silhouette nicely. That’s high praise indeed and thankfully both the man and the film deserve it.
The Gatekeepers Review
Of the seemingly countless documentaries to emerge on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Dror Moreh’s The Gatekeepers instantly emerges as one of the best. It's guaranteed to get everyone on all sides of the debate riled up and that’s as it should be.
Comforting Skin Review
The unsettling, relentlessly bleak, and erotically charged psychological thriller and character study Comforting Skin won't please everybody, but it's a largely intriguing genre exercise from a first time Canadian filmmaker.
Interview: Jonathan Keltz
We talk to 21 and Over's chief villain and resident cheerleader Jonathan Keltz (who is actually really nothing like his on screen counterpart) about playing a broad villain, why his character is secretly kind of a hero, keeping up his energy levels, and what makes this film different from a lot of teen comedies.
Lost Rivers Review
Municipal affairs and ecology junkies should get a massive kick out of the literally underground documentary Lost Rivers, an exploration of the rushing waterways that run beneath the cars and feet on city streets and the sometimes necessary need to let these tributaries breathe.
Interview: Doug Blush
We sit down with documentary filmmaker Doug Blush about his look at people living with bipolar disorder Of Two Minds and how telling personal stories always trumped a cold, clinical approach to a misunderstood mental illness.
Interview: Michael Melski
We talk to Haligonian filmmaker Michael Melski about his gritty new thriller Charlie Zone, depicting the darker side of the city he loves, researching underground fighting circuits, and the visceral reaction some viewers have already had to his film.
