DVDs and Blu-ray for April 23 - Montreal Gazette

The Impossible

?Rating: 4 stars out of five

A story so incredible it could only be true, this film based on the real-time experiences of Maria Belon during the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami pulls you in from the first scene and never lets you go. Part of the suspense is that we know the wave will hit. But in true disaster movie style, we get to know our central characters before terror strikes. Thanks to JA Bayona's sharp direction and star Naomi Watts' riveting mix of survival imperative and compassionate humanity, we're right there in the moment, when the only thing of real value is the one you love, another human life. And yet, when so many lives have been forever altered and scarred, where does one begin to address the trauma? Bayona lets us feel the weight of the burden by simply showing the chaos. In these moments where the suffering seems so overwhelming one can fall into ambivalence, the camera always finds the right focus and reaffirms a little bit of human magic. A stellar and moving piece of cinema that tells a monolithic story in singular detail, The Impossible proves you can still make a disaster movie that doesn't feel plastic. Katherine Monk

Ship of Fools / Lilith (Blu-ray)

Rating: 4 stars / 4 stars

Here's a nice double feature of mid-1960s Hollywood star vehicles. First up is Ship of Fools, a Stanley Kramer pic that's overlong at 150 minutes but fascinating both for the story, adapted by Abby Mann from the bestselling novel by Katherine Anne Porter, and the who's-who of an international cast: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, Oskar Werner, Jos? Ferrer, Lee Marvin, George Segal, even an icon of flamenco, Jos? Greco. The friendships, rivalries and love affairs of passengers and crew - and, indeed, the fate of the world, in microcosm - play out on a transatlantic German liner headed back to newly Nazi Germany in 1933. Next up we have Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg in Lilith, a brooding, moving drama on mental illness. Beatty, in his mid-20s and his fourth feature, plays an occupational therapist at an upscale mental institution and Seberg, her blond hair grown long again after her boyish debut with the French New Wave, is his beguiling (and schizophrenic) patient; Peter Fonda co-stars. Both films are in finely grained black-and-white and are squeezed onto a single Blu-ray disc by U.S. distributor Mill Creek Entertainment. No extras on either, but there are optional subtitles. Jeff Heinrich

Bakumatsu taiy?-den

Rating: 4 stars?

Japanese critics have long adored this 1957 film, a madcap comedy by director Y?z? Kawashima. But on this side of the world it never really got a chance. The title is unwieldy, which doesn't help, and it's no more manageable in English. Here's how it translates: A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era, or alternately, The Sun Legend in the Last Days of the Shogunate; I've also seen it translated as The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era. Quite a mouthful, no? Well, don't judge a movie by its title; this one's a delight. It's set in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo in 1862, in a brothel, where the whole of society - prostitutes, businessmen, samurai and the like - cross paths, cross swords, and slapstick their way to countless laughs. The movie actually begins in contemporary 1950s Japan, in the same location, and by going back in time reminds the Japanese just how far (or not) they've come. You'll need an all-region player to see this edition of the film distributed by Britain's Eureka! Masters of Cinema; the Blu-ray (also available as a DVD) is region-coded for Europe. There are optional English subtitles, but no extras; there is, however, a nice, 36-page illustrated booklet. JH

Spies of Warsaw

Rating: 3 stars

It's a wonder that Alan Furst's spy novels have taken so long to be dramatized on the screen; set in Europe in the 1930s and '40s, all 12 have a wonderful cinematic quality. The Spies of Warsaw is one of the American writer's newer books, from 2008, and now it's been adapted (without the 'The') into a two-part BBC mini-series. David Tennant, the wiry Scottish actor best known as TV's Doctor Who, plays Jean-Fran?ois Mercier, an aristocratic French army officer in Warsaw in the pre-war years of 1937 and 1938 who uncovers a buildup for invasion by the Germans. The alluring Janet Montgomery plays his main squeeze, a League of Nations lawyer. Fans of the book will be disappointed how so much is telescoped here to make a fast-paced TV movie; a lot of the subtle tension is lost, and, as a Frenchman, Tennant defies credulity. So does Rad Kaim (Eastern Promises), a Pole who plays the pockmarked Gestapo interrogator who tracks Mercier down; he speaks German with a Slavic accent and sounds French when he speaks English. There are English subtitles, but the sole extra on the Blu-ray (also available on DVD), is a 10-minute interview with Tennant intercut with clips from the movie. (Warning to buyers: There was a big problem with the sound on the retail Blu-ray I screened; it was echoey and swung constantly between channels. Wait for a second pressing.) JH

Promised Land

Rating:??2.5 stars

Given the high-profile politics of natural gas extraction and "fracking," not to mention the charisma of stars Matt Damon, Frances McDormand and John Krasinski, Promised Land was met with a lot of anticipation last fall. Yet, this script based on the story by David Eggers and penned by Damon and Krasinski, and brought to the big screen via Gus Van Sant, fails to exploit the resources it claims. The central problem is shifting empathy. We're never given enough real information to figure out who the hero is, and by the time we put it together, the movie has twisted itself into a narrative pretzel to make all the pieces fit into a highly predictable, formulaic place. You can feel the good intentions gurgling beneath the surface. Promised Land feels incredibly preachy. KM

Jurassic Park 3D

Rating: 4 stars

Once upon a time, Steven Spielberg made movies that were undeniable popcorn fun. Scary enough to keep you on the edge of your seat, and fantastic enough to transport the viewer to another, childlike universe, Spielberg's cinematic talents all came together in the first Jurassic Park and now, you can relive the magic at home on this new combo pack containing the new, 3D version that was a year in the making. Opting for a more subtle brand of stereoscopic viewing, technicians don't make things "pop out" as much as they add depth and texture. It's a nice, clean update that takes nothing away from the original, and reminds the masses that once upon a time, Spielberg did what he was good at - not what he believed would cement his star on the walk of fame. KM

A Royal Affair

Rating: 4 stars

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," quotes citizen-physician Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) in the opening act of A Royal Affair, essentially foreshadowing the next 90 minutes of screen time in this Oscar-nominated foreign film from director Nikolaj Arcel. Set on the eve of the French Revolution, when all of Europe was about to explode and kindle a bonfire of social change, we enter a highly Shakespearean plot centred on a nutty king Christian (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard) and his pretty young English wife (Alicia Vikander). Hoping a common sense doctor can make the king pliable in the hands of the right people, Struensee essentially usurps the throne and implements sweeping reforms regarding everything from serfdom to censorship. This Danish spring doesn't last long, however, as the Church and conservative bodies preferred the old, unjust ways. A bodice-ripping piece of historical cinema that plays to grown-up sensibilities, A Royal Affair is a timely and altogether enlightening look at relatively recent history. KM

Gangster Squad

Rating: 2 stars

Just about everything is wrong with this movie, with one notable exception: Ryan Gosling. Proving he can keep a hulking tanker afloat with his own compartment-based buoyancy, Gosling brings life to this vulgar, violent and poorly directed mess of a movie through the character of Sgt. Jerry Wooters - an L.A. detective who decided to turn his back on the internal corruption in the department in order to stay alive. However, when a hard-nosed colleague (John Brolin) goes after mob boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), Wooters decides to put it all on the line to back him up. A sloppy attempt at film noir that had to be recut after the shootings in Aurora, Colo., Gangster Squad will no doubt stand as an example of how and where Hollywood lost its way in a bid to wow the masses. Emma Stone also stars as the hooker with a heart of gold. KM

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

Rating: 3 stars

Werner Herzog teams up with Russian director Dmitry Vasyukov for a year-long look at the people of the Taiga - where life around the polar circle seems pretty bleak, but actually packs endless joy and reward for those who call it home. Another notch in Herzog's non-fiction belt, this co-directed ode to a simpler, if not kinder or gentler, life wears the viewer down to a primal state, where watching a man make his own pair of skis with an axe is better than a James Bond car chase. KM

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/DVDs+April/8278896/story.html

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