Brad Pitt helps a hapless gym trainer in 'Burn After Reading," a 2008 offering by Etan and Joel Coen that's newly available for home viewing.
“BURN AFTER READING” DVD, Blu-ray: From the Coen brothers, a movie that isn’t what it should have been, but almost what it could have been — a consistently funny farce about dumb people creating a crippling run of chaos between the CIA and a gym called Hardbodies. There are some big, hammy laughs here — and a major twist that, for an instant, catapults the movie into the loopy stratosphere it strives to achieve throughout. But too often the movie is off-balance — it seems strained and self-aware in ways that previous Coen films haven’t. There is a disconnect between the actors, the directors and the script that proves, at the very least, just how difficult it is to pull off a successful screwball farce, even when you’re armed with an A-list cast assembled by the same team that developed such dark, modern-day comedy classics as “Fargo,” “The Ladykillers,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “The Big Lebowski” (to name a few). Of course, the Coens also wrote and directed “The Hudsucker Proxy,” so they aren’t immune to the occasional misfire. Indeed, in spite of its gifted cast — John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand — no one is going to confuse “Burn After Reading” as anything other than a mildly above-average comedy from two brothers who usually come through with a lot more done a lot better. Rated R. Grade: B-
“DEATH RACE” DVD, Blu-ray: Stars three-time Academy Award-nominated actress Joan Allen as the evil prison warden Hennessey, whose name evokes the hip-hop community’s alcoholic beverage of choice for good reason. After seeing this beauty, which is laced with an aggressive hip-hop soundtrack, you might need a shot of Hennessy yourself just to settle your nerves. Inspired by 1975’s “Death Race 2000,” this version is set in the year 2012, and it opens with a rush of familiar ugliness. The economy is in the can, what’s left of our culture isn’t far behind, and people increasingly are being laid off, including Jensen Ames (Jason Statham), who for reasons that won’t be revealed here is sent to the pokey, where trouble brews in the form of Warden Hennessey, who suggests that Ames, a former race car driver, consider taking part in the prison’s Internet-broadcast car racing game, Death Race. Her offer comes down to this: If Ames participates by posing as some dude named Frankenstein, who was driven out of commission during the last race, he will earn his freedom should he win this race. Seeing no way out, Ames agrees. Among those helping him are curvaceous Case (Natalie Martinez) and Ames’ crew chief, Coach (Ian McShane), who could be a free man if he didn’t suffer from a disorder that prevents him from leaving prison. It turns out that is the biggest laugh in a movie that otherwise is strictly middle-of-the-road, grindhouse prison porn. Rated R. Grade: C
“THE HOUSE BUNNY” DVD, Blu-ray: Anna Faris is Shelley Darlingson, a blond bombshell with perky pipes, a pep in her step and an abundance of hopes and dreams pinned to her chest. Since, like, forever, Shelley has longed to be a Playboy centerfold, and why not? Somebody has to have those dreams. Trouble is, somebody also has to lose them, and that would be Shelley. At the ripe old age of 27, she’s no longer considered desirable for Playboy magazine or, for that matter, the Playboy Mansion. As such, she’s booted from Hef’s shack and becomes a bum Bunny. Things look up when she finds her way to Zeta Alpha Zeta, a sorority that might as well be considered the isle of misfit sorority girls (Emma Stone, Rumer Willis, Kat Dennings, Katharine McPhee, Kiely Williams, Dana Goodman and Kimberly Makkouk), each of whom Shelley makes it her business to whip into shape while she herself matures in the process. Obviously, all of this is modeled after “Legally Blonde,” “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Clueless,” and while “The House Bunny” is nearly undone by a run of cliches and too many stale jokes, there’s no denying that it’s lifted by the formidable powers of Faris, who is impossible not to like, who has beautiful comic timing and who deserves a better movie than this. Rated PG-13. Grade: C+
“OLD SCHOOL” Blu-ray: “Old School” is, in fact, old hat, the sort of film that’s never as nostalgic as its title suggests — unless, of course, the nostalgia we’re talking about hearkens back to the days of the troglodytes. Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell are a group of thirty-something men trying to recapture their prime by starting the sort of fraternity that stages K-Y Jelly wrestling matches between 80-year-old men and young, nubile coeds. Castration is a theme that runs throughout the movie, particularly since all of these men are feeling neutered in their relationships. It’s the hard living they feel they must do to overcome their irrational fears about spending the rest of their lives with one woman that allegedly gives “Old School” its frat-boy kick. The trouble is, the movie is a dim bulb with no energy to light it. It’s lazy and colorless, with no clue that the best comedies rely on timing, attention to character and wit. Rated R. Grade: D-
WeekinRewind.comis the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, DVD giveaways and movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.
