So you think you saw everything when you saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Disney) in the theaters, huh? Well, were you aware that the DVD features a “blooper scooper”? Looks like somebody needs to add an item to the shopping list…
Australia (Fox) slipped in and out of theaters about as quietly as a big-budget catastrophe possibly could. And that’s the curious thing about the movie: It’s directed by Baz Luhrmann, the mad, kinetic stylist behind the gloriously vulgar pop mash-ups Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet, yet it wasn’t sufficiently nutty enough to make an impact one way or the other. In too many ways, the film suffers from being just another bloated war epic…
In I’ve Loved You So Long (Sony), Kristin Scott Thomas plays a woman who gets out of prison after a 15-year sentence and moves in with the family of her estranged sister until she gets back on her feet. (Given her record and her lack of work experience, that’s unlikely to happen soon.) What did she do that was so horrible? The film asks for an abundance of patience on that reveal. And why did she do it? The film asks for even more patience on that one. For those who don’t mind the wait, Scott Thomas’ performance brings home the full force of her decisions… eventually…
Wong Kar-Wai’s beautiful/confounding 1994 kung-fu epic Ashes Of Time only got a little more comprehensible when he re-released it last year as Ashes Of Time Redux (Sony). It’s still stunningly lyrical and difficult to follow. Best advice: Take some time to familiarize with yourself with the plot and characters beforehand—most Asian viewers know at least some of the source material going in—and soak in the imagery and emotions…
Gimmicky big-name casting choices are an ongoing trend in low-budget films looking for a toehold in the highly independent market, but even by those standards, Lake City (Universal) takes the cake. For starters, there’s former fashion model Rebecca Romijn as a small-town Southern cop, and jam-band icon Dave Matthews as a brutal drug dealer. Only Sissy Spacek provides much ballast as a melancholy mother awaiting the arrival of her screwed-up son (Troy Garity), but she isn’t enough to rescue the film from IndieLand.