Right Cinema

The DVDs releasing this week include “Vantage Point”, “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns”, and “Drillbit Taylor”. It looks like a little bit of action, a little bit of love, and a little bit of laughs.

“Vantage Point” Releases on DVD July 1

Vantage Point

When the President of the United States is shot while giving a speech at an international location, it’s up to the people in the crowd and a couple secret service agents to put the pieces together and figure out what exactly went wrong. The movie stars Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, and Sigourney Weaver, but even with a strong cast like that, the critics say they can’t carry a weak script. Even the good reviews have comments like, “To fall for Vantage Point you have to throw away any connection to reality” and “watchably silly”.

Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns

When Angela Bassett’s character loses her job in inner city Chicago, she’s almost at wit’s end with how to make ends meet. But then she receives word that a father she has never met has passed away, and the single mother of three decides to take her kids to Georgia for the funeral and see what kind of help she can find. In the process of getting her feet back on the ground, she finds friends, family and even love. Critics give this one a C.

Drillbit Taylor

Another film in a long line of Judd Apatow scripts, “Drillbit Taylor” stars Owen Wilson as a pre-teen bodyguard. When three boys start high school as freshman, they’re small size makes them perfect targets for the school bullies. So they take matters into their own hands and hire a bodyguard, who teaches them how to stick up for themselves. But again the movie is not all it’s cracked up to be. Wilson is said to be phoning it in this time around and the bullies are just a little too dark for how lighthearted the film is supposed to be.

See the trailers for the movies below.

Videos

Just when you thought Tuesday was the worst day of the week, think again. It’s new DVD day, and you can’t go wrong there. So set your Netflix queue because we’ve got a few new DVDs releasing this week.

P.S. I Love You

P.S. I Love You

In one of the funniest and saddest romantic comedies in a long time, Hilary Swank stars in this movie about a woman who loses the love of her life, and gets his help from the great beyond to move on. Husband Jerry had time to prepare for his death, so he also prepared for his wife’s life after his death. He sends occasional packages with various tasks to Swank’s character in the hopes that she finds that she is strong enough to live life without him. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll miss your man immensely as soon as the movie is over. And then you’ll want the soundtrack. So grab your pint of Ben & Jerry’s and snuggle up.

I’m Not There

In this creative portrait of Bob Dylan, tons of actors star as the brilliant musician that embodied the spirit of the sixties. The movie selects six different stages of Dylan’s life, and portrays the artist in very distinct ways. Each of the stages has a different name (like Jude or John, for example), and follows Dylan on his path to becoming the legend he is today. An interesting bit of the movie: not once is Bob Dylan’s name mentioned. And it sounds like it’s worth seeing the movie for Cate Blanchett’s performance alone. Rolling Stone writes,

She burns through Haynes’ head-trip odyssey like an illuminating torch. Blanchett’s soon-to-be-legendary performance is not a stunt, it’s some kind of miracle. Playing the skinny, androgynous Dylan in his electric years — when his hair stood on end to match his fried nerves — Blanchett extends the possibilities of acting. You won’t see a better example of interpretive art this year by man or woman.

First Sunday

I have to admit, I have a very strong bias against Ice Cube, at least as an actor - if someone made a list of actors that will ruin a movie just by being cast in it, he’d be on it. Lucky for this movie Tracy Morgan and Katt Williams are here to save it. After Ice Cube’s ex tells him she’s moving his son to Atlanta because she can’t afford the rent at her beauty shop, he and Morgan come up with a not-so-brilliant yet comical plan … to rob a church. Unfortunately for these new criminals, someone beat them to the punch. To figure out where in the world the money is, the bumbling duo is forced to spend the night in the church. I’m not sold, but I’m willing to bet I’d laugh at least twice.

Over Her Dead Body

Wow, this movie went to DVD quickly! It appears Eva Longoria can’t carry the big screen crowds the way she does with “Desperate Housewives”. Quick synopsis: Eva Longoria dies on the day she’s supposed to marry Paul Rudd. The spirit talker falls for Rudd and tries to help him get over the loss, but Longoria’s ghost is there to haunt her every step of the way. There’s a reason I haven’t seen this movie yet - it was almost universally panned by critics. One reviewer so bluntly puts it,

Over Her Dead Body will find its best audience on airplane flights, where viewers will be unable to get up and leave without parachutes.

Ouch.

See the trailers for the movies below.

Videos

Just two movies coming out this weekend, but they’re both getting a lot of airtime as far as previews go. If you didn’t know that “Iron Man” and “Made of Honor” were the movies releasing tomorrow, I’m not sure what you were doing for the past few weeks. It’s like no matter where I look, there’s Robert Downey, Jr. and Patrick Dempsey, shilling their films.

“Iron Man” Releases Tomorrow

Iron Man

The latest in comic-book movies finds Robert Downey, Jr. creating a one-man army whose uniform gets better and better as the film goes on. By the third or fourth version he’s flying through the sky. The suit begins as a way to escape captivity, but evolves into a crime-fighting machine.

In “Iron Man”, Downey plays businessman Tony Stark who makes his money selling ideas to the military industry. Of creating the character, Stan Lee said, “I’m gonna make him the kind of guy that normally young people hate.” The comic book was set in the 1963, when America was at war with Vietnam and Communism, and Stark was the proud capitalist businessman who moonlighted as Iron Man. For a great political commentary of the whole idea of capitalist as hero, check out this Slate article. I never read the comic books, so it makes me want to see how bad Tony Stark really is.

Made of Honor

Romantic comedies follow one of three plotlines: (1) crazy love triangle, (2) boy and girl fall madly in love, but must be separated for one reason or another before finding each other again, and (3) friends become lovers. Typically, in the third variety, one friend realizes he loves the other just one minute too late, and the other friend has already moved on, giving up on her life-long dreams of romance with the first friend in the minute just before. And that’s what we seem to have here with “Made of Honor”. While I like the cast (Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan), the plot seems like a poor twist on the old friends become lovers story. And the critics agree. With a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems that movie was almost universally panned. But I’m sure Dempsey still makes for good eye candy for an hour and a half.

See the trailers for “Iron Man” and “Made of Honor” below.

Videos