We're roaring toward the end of the year, and although there have been a few strong award contenders, most of the movies have been pretty weak, and this week's selection is no exception. Leading the pack, we have The Rock's latest outing, Doom, based on a video game. Arguably even worse is Marc Forster's Stay, though it's a close call. North Country will no doubt please a bunch of critics, but it's the worst case of message-mongering I've seen in some time. Most people seem down on Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies, but I liked its frankness and the way its mystery unfolded. Undoubtedly the week's best film, however, is Noah Baumbach's deeply felt The Squid and the Whale.I also added a review of a small-budget film shot in San Francisco, the excellent Quality of Life, which is playing only in San Francisco at the moment, but will be opening wider. Don't miss it. Finally, I caught up with Serenity, which I missed because of haphazard press screening schedules.
As for new DVDs, I'm in love with the new Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection. I also checked out more Batman DVDs, Batman Returns and Batman Forever. Herbie Fully Loaded is a lot more fun than people give it credit for, and I even watched it a second time. The new House of Wax remake didn't, however, warrant a second viewing, and Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home: Bob Dylan isn't quite all it's cracked up to be. But Abbas Kiarostami's little-seen ABC Africa debuts on a suberb new DVD from New Yorker. Finally, High Tension, The Interpreter, Kicking and Screaming and Kingdom of Heaven all recently made their DVD debuts.
| :: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 10/21/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
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