DVDs in Brief

By AV Club Staff  |  May 16, 2007 | 6:46pm
Aux Features DVD

Darren Aronofsky's ambitious New Age science-fiction triptych The Fountain (Warner) was one of last year's more undeserved flops; in large part, it bombed because of the abject mockery of critics who couldn't abide the writer-director's quasi-mystical, over-earnest, hyper-nerdy exploration of the consequences of human arrogance, from the days of the Conquistadors to the far-flung future. The Fountain closely resembles one of those brainy, abstract short stories that show up in the better science-fiction anthologies, and it's the kind of genre that cinema rarely attempts—at least not with a visual imagination that finds analogues between metastasizing brain tumors, tree roots, exploding stars, and a map of historical Spain. The Fountain is goofy, but it isn't underthought…

Guillermo del Toro's gorgeous fantasy Pan's Labyrinth (New Line) looks a little cramped on the small screen; its Oscar-winning cinematography, art direction, and makeup demand a more expansive canvas. But at least now people who didn't make it out to their arthouse theater—or don't have one in town—will have a crack at deciphering its rich fairy-tale allegory about good vs. evil in 1944 fascist Spain…

Stomp The Yard (Sony), on the other hand, should have no problem making the transition to the small screen. It already plays like a TV movie of the week, thanks to a cluttered collection of clichéd film routines: snobs-vs.-slobs campus action, fish-out-of-water drama, and a redemption-through-art arc. Here, the art is dance that blends urban krump contests and African-American fraternity step-shows, but that's the only touch that feels remotely creative…

David Von Ancken's neo-Western Seraphim Falls (Sony) descends to sub-Peckinpah navel-gazing in its final half-hour, but until then, it has a crispness and economy that few genre films can claim these days. The film starts with a nearly dialogue-free 20-minute chase through a snowy forest, as bullet-riddled Pierce Brosnan tries to attend to his wounds, get something to eat, and cover up his tracks to prevent Liam Neeson and a posse of sharpshooters from overtaking him. From there, Neeson tracks Brosnan from bitterly cold mountains to a blistering hot desert, stopping along the way at a series of familiar Old West locales: a lonely old cabin, a caravan of religious pilgrims, an outlaw-infested canyon, and so on.

 
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