New Releases | Tom Russo
Ambitious 'Compass' brings fantasy battles to bear
You'd think that after "Harry Potter," "The Lord of the Rings," and "Narnia," audiences wouldn't be rough-and-ready for more hiking labyrinthine fantasy landscapes. Still, "The Golden Compass" (2007) manages to put that to the test. Adapted from "His Dark Materials," a series of novels by British author Philip Pullman, the film is set on a magical alternate Earth, where a spunky preadolescent heroine named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) quests to rescue kidnapped playmates. The oppressive Magisterium and smooth-talking operative Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) stand in her way, but Lyra's got friends like, oh, a warrior polar bear (Ian McKellen provides the voice) to help. So far, so familiar. But where the movie gets ambitious, and occasionally confusing, is in the theological themes that writer-director Chris Weitz ("About a Boy") carries over from Pullman's book. (Some readers complain that Weitz doesn't carry over enough.) In Lyra's world, a person's soul takes physical form as a "daemon," a tagalong animal companion. The Magisterium, wielding influence analogous to the Catholic Church, has hard-line plans for daemons, and even harsher views on "the Dust," a more ambiguously defined manifestation of spirituality. Kids will dig the battlin' bears; parents will be intrigued by the screwy self-flagellation at work when Kidman gives her daemon a vicious smack, then a hug.
Extras: The filmmakers openly discuss the project's pre-production struggles, including Weitz's temporary departure as director. But the featurettes aren't touching protests by evangelical groups, or a box-office showing that casts serious doubt on sequels. (New Line, $34.99; single-disc version, $28.98; available April 29)
"THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP" (2007)
Alex Etel ("Millions") is a Scottish boy who sorely misses his sailor dad during the dark days of World War II, but who finds a happy distraction when a strange egg he takes home from the local loch hatches out an unlikely new friend ("Crusoe" here, rather than Nessie). Director Jay Russell ("Tuck Everlasting") fills out the story with some "Free Willy" kiddie suspense and able supporting turns from Emily Watson as the dutiful mum and Ben Chaplin as a kindly handyman. Etel in particular is thoroughly likable. But you just might fast-forward through embarrassing viewer-cueing scenes with contemporary tourists listening to the tale, dazzled. Your kids might be dazzled for real by the effects from Peter Jackson's creature animators, which are pretty nifty.
Extras: Production, effects, and mythology featurettes. (
"BEN 10: RACE AGAINST TIME" (2007)
Call it an oxymoron, but Cartoon Network goes live-action by spinning off its breakout series about an alien-channeling kid into a short feature. The appeal of the show lies in the way it mashes up American superhero 'toons with Pokemon's complex simplicity, as Ben Tennyson morphs into a menagerie of different creatures. The movie goes for Power Rangers in some of its action bits, which could make all but the littlest family members groan. Still, the acting is a notch above standard tween fare, with Lee Majors playing Ben's crusty grandpa, and "Daily Show" alum Beth Littleford and Don McManus getting some laughs as inexplicably new agey parents.
Extras: Is that? Yep. It's director Alex "Bill & Ted" Winter being interviewed by his young leads. (Warner, $14.97; available now)
"MY BOY JACK" (2007)
Here's an option for those curious to catch Hogwart's own Daniel Radcliffe in extracurricular mode: his portrayal of Rudyard Kipling's son, John, as a young man desperate to serve in World War I, and to prove his worth independent of his famous father (David Haig, deliberately full of bluster). Be prepared for battlefield intensity, profanity, and the spectacle of Harry Potter smoking - as well as sporting a bad mustache, which the other characters remark on, smartly.
Extras: Interviews with Radcliffe, Haig, and castmate Kim Cattrall, likewise branching out as "Rud's" wife. (BBC Video, $19.98; available April 22)
Comedy DVD | Wesley Morris
A light look at a likable lonely guy
In the TV show "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Jeff Garlin doesn't really register. That's understandable, since it's Larry David's show. But "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" is about James, played by Garlin. A lonely Chicago actor, James is something of a sad case. He's 39 and shares an apartment with his mother. In the first 10 minutes of the film, his apparently platonic girlfriend dumps him, his mother insults him, and he complains about his latest gig, hosting a cruel "Punk'd"-style show. Some nights he drops by a convenience store for a snack, which he eats perched on the hood of his car. His favorite film is "Marty," that downer with Ernest Borgnine as a grown man whose roommate is his mother. It's unclear whether James has modeled his life on the movie, but it's clear no casting agent in town thinks he's right for a planned remake.
Garlin lays on the pitiful details fast and thick. But they're not heavy. The movie is remarkably light. James may not like his life, but mercifully he doesn't hate himself. And there's always a woman interested - two, actually. One is a dark 'n' bouncy weirdo, who, as you'd expect, is played by Sarah Silverman. The other is her opposite number, a blond, rambling schoolteacher played by Bonnie Hunt. They're both characteristically funny: Hunt is mock-serious but womanly; Silverman is adolescent and possibly evil.
"I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" has the same conditional deals ("if you do x, then I'll do y") and loosely drawn sensibility as "Curb Your Enthusiasm." It all feels somehow mundane and surreal, such as when James runs into an old schoolmate who asks him to put on the pirate costume he's been wearing as advertisement for a hot dog joint so the schoolmate can run off to an audition.
If the comedy on "Curb" is situational, springing from Larry's antagonistic sense of propriety, the comedy in Garlin's movie blooms from real, less-abrasive emotions. James's sidekick, Luca (David Pasquesi), has a practical, calm nature that makes him the anti-Larry. They seem like actual friends.
Garlin's movie is beautiful in its own way.
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Foreign DVD | Wesley Morris
Seeking fairness in a 'zone of injustice'
Abderrahmane Sissako's mighty courtroom experiment "Bamako" takes place in a multifamily courtyard in Bamako, Mali. A breeze gently covers onlookers with insects and dust. And during the proceedings villagers are likely to be seen going about their daily business peeling potatoes or transporting the children here and there. But the truth is far harder to handle in this damning and sparely made film.
Court is in session for the trial of the century - OK, the mock trial of the century. African society is taking the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the planet's other financial institutions to task for a kind of crime against humanity: loan repayment. How, the Africans argue, can these countries expect to prosper when so much of their budgets are being spent to climb out of the red?
Populations grow poorer, mortality rates balloon, and the political strife begets refugees and leads to diasporas. Sissako, who grew up in Mali, has said in interviews that he sees "Africa as a zone of injustice."
"Bamako" is a post-Colonial cry of the soul, one that this court is supposed to address. The last few shots in "Bamako" are punches to the gut. This moral strike against the global empire is well and good, but ultimately it's life itself on trial here, and, despite the verdict, it has to go on.
Extras: Interviews with director Sissako, actor Danny Glover; comments from economists, scholars, and activists; optional English subtitles. (New Yorker Video, 29.95)
MORE FAMILY VIEWING
"MOONDANCE ALEXANDER" (2007)
The '80s rock on, gently, as Don Johnson and soap-stud-turned-filmmaker Michael Damian team up for the story of a young misfit (Kay Panabaker, "Nancy Drew") who finds herself via a runaway pony. With skating star Sasha Cohen.
Extras: Cast interviews. (Fox, $26.98; April 29)
"ACE OF HEARTS" (2008)
Good cop Dean Cain and his daughter set out to clear the name of his wrongly accused partner, a German shepherd named Ace. Happily, it has more in common with "Run, Joe, Run" (remember that one, parents?) than "K-9." (Fox, $26.98; May 6)
"SHARKWATER" (2007)
After "Grizzly Man" and Steve Irwin's tragedy, we're slightly leery of screen personalities getting overly comfortable with wildlife. But there's something novel about biologist-filmmaker Rob Stewart's look at sharks as prey rather than predators, one of a slew of nature-minded releases timed to coincide with Earth Day. ("Meerkat Manor:" Season Two, anyone?)
Extras: Featurette; "Shark Defense" naval training film. (Warner, $19.98)
REISSUES
"WEE WILLIE WINKIE" (1937)
Shirley Temple works her cuteness in Kipling's colonial India for director John Ford, a long way from Duke and Henry Fonda territory. Also packaged in an "America's Sweetheart" collection with "Stowaway" and "Young People."
Extras: Color-tinted version of "Willie." (Fox, $14.98; collection, $29.98; April 22)
"INDIANA JONES: THE ADVENTURE COLLECTION" (1981-89)
No, this isn't perfect family fare - you've obviously got to get past the Nazi face melting, not to mention your understandable cynicism at seeing George Lucas cash in with yet more video repackaging. Still, if you want your teens to understand why they should care about "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," here's a handy opportunity to make your case. (It's also the first time the movies are being made available separately on disc.)
Extras: New featurette material, plus recycled gems from 2003's "Indy" release, including that famed Tom Selleck screen test. (Paramount, $49.99; individual titles, $26.99; May 13)
TELEVISION
"THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: HERE COME THE 123s" (2008)
TMBG's DVD/CD combo is a collection of edu-tunes even more ridiculously catchy than their earlier "Here Come the ABCs." The animated visuals only enhance the experience, as felt puppets rub velvety elbows with photo-collage caricatures and 'toons from the "Let's All Go the Lobby" school of kitsch. (Disney, $18.98)
"CALL OF THE WILD" (2000)
Jack London's masterpiece gets respectful, breathtakingly scenic series treatment from "White Fang" screenwriter David Fallon. (Allumination Filmworks, April 22)
Capsules are written by Tom Russo and titles are available now unless otherwise specified.
