“Body of Lies” DVD, Blu-ray: A misfire, but not an embarrassment. It features solid performances from a committed cast, a timely story that plunges into the murk of the Middle East, and a director who seriously wants to understand and capture all of the nuances, complexities, double-crosses and dangers our war against terror has ignited overseas. The trouble with the movie isn’t just that we’re still too close to our involvement in the Middle East to see it clearly, but that the movie itself fails to make us believe that it sees it clearly. The film tries to view the Middle East from so many angles, it lacks the critical clarity of vision necessary to carry itself and audiences through to the end. Also working against it is its budget, which is so large, director Ridley Scott and screenwriter William Monahan had to balance any insights they might have gleaned from David Ignatius’ book, on which the film is based, with the cheaper underpinnings of entertainment. Problem is, the two don’t mix because Scott and Monahan don’t want a mere entertainment. More than anything, they want something that’s profound, which would have been nice if the crowd-pleasing elements hadn’t undermined so much of it. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and Mark Strong. Rated R. Grade: C
“Changeling” DVD, Blu-ray: Galvanizes Eastwood’s presence as one of today’s best working directors. Set in a masterfully re-created 1920s Los Angeles, “Changeling” is the story of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a single mother whose 9-year-old son, Walter (Gattlin Griffith), suddenly goes missing. Five grueling months pass before the corrupt Los Angeles Police Department, desperate for good press, produces a child that Christine claims isn’t hers. And yet the L.A.P.D. makes the decision to ignore that claim. What’s going on here? To say the least, it’s complicated, but when Christine tries to find out by questioning the police with the help of a powerful Presbyterian minister named Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), she quickly is gathered up and sent to an asylum. And then the horror really begins with the introduction of one Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner, excellent), a serial killer linked to the deaths of 20 children. What springs from this is a beautifully measured movie armed with the undercurrent of a thriller whose nuanced performances help to tell it well. Jolie is especially good. She commands our attention, earns it, and for her trouble, also has won a deserved Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Rated R. Grade: A-
“The Rock Action Three Pack: Doom, The Rundown, The Scorpion King” Blu-ray: Three films, all new to Blu-ray, all featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. First up is “Doom,” which is trash sci-fi, sure, but it does achieve a lean, focused center and a final act that’s admirable in the tension it creates. Here, the Rock is Sarge (of course, he is), a tattooed beast leading an elite core of Marines on a rescue mission to Mars, where a mysterious 24th human chromosome is wreaking havoc on what’s left of the planet’s residents. With the film’s genesis steeped in computer code – the movie is based on the popular video game – “Doom” predictably lacks soul, but it does generate the appealing, sketchy rhythms of a B-movie. In “The Rundown,” The Rock surpasses pretty much everyone’s expectations in an action film that features him as a retrieval expert working a job in the Amazon. Christopher Walken and Sean William Scott co-star in a movie that’s fast and reasonably fun. Finally, when it comes to “The Scorpion King,” what saves it from being just another souped-up movie driven by special effects is that it knows what it is – an overblown blockbuster starring The Rock as a barely clad superhero seeking peace in the Middle East. Billed as a prequel to “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns,” the film actually is closer in spirit to “Conan the Barbarian”: It stars a well-fed jock, gives him a sword, shoehorns him into a loin cloth, and then follows his battle headlong into evil. The movie is junk food, for sure, but it isn’t all salt and grease. The film is surprisingly fun – a big-budget action-adventure cartoon that’s smart enough to wink at itself while also raising an eyebrow at audiences. Grade B.
“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” DVD, Blu-ray: Every bit as raunchy as its title promises, and while the movie isn’t a complete bust – it’s sometimes just as funny as you hope – it eventually becomes so garbled by a forced, lovey-dovey subplot, its go-for-broke edge is zapped and you want to gag on the sugary sap that hits near the end. Kevin Smith directs Seth Rogen as Zack and Elizabeth Banks as Miri, two lifelong best friends who happen to live with each other but who have fallen on such hard times, they can’t pay their bills. What’s this sexless Pittsburgh duo to do? Since getting another job apparently is out of the question – as is the idea of applying for local assistance – they decide to make a porno that will star a handful of friends and strangers as well as themselves. As Zack and Miri see it, making the film could lead to quick, easy money, which is just what they need since their electricity has been shut off, along with their heat and water. Unfortunately, the complication to this is so telegraphed, only the numbest boob in the room won’t see it coming: What’s to become of these longtime friends if they do have sex, even if it is onscreen with a crowd of people watching? Will emotions get in the way? Will hearts soar? Or when they come away from the confusion of that scene, will they be angry, wounded and bruised? If it’s the latter, at least Zack and Miri have a colorful vocabulary to fall back on to describe their feelings. Screenwriter Smith goes out of his way to lace his movie with such a string of expletives, you sit there thinking, “Well, this is informative.” While there’s no doubt that achieving those lows can be funny, there’s also no question that the effect eventually becomes muddied when Smith forces upon us a lame romantic subplot. Here’s the truth Smith must face – he might have been doing all of this before Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up”), who now is the reigning king of endearing raunch, but he’s not as good as Apatow at bridging the gap between the gross-out and the human. Smith actually is rather clumsy at it. His characters are more believable and likable being bottom-feeding caricatures than they are in being three-dimensional people in search of love. Rated R. Grade: C+
WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, DVD giveaways and archive of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at christopher@weekin
rewind.com.