DVD Releases
Laugh after watching - maybe
Maybe it's that Washington has no trouble seeming ridiculous without the Coen brothers' help, thanks very much. Maybe it's that watching Brad Pitt and George Clooney play self-oblivious doofuses feels an awful lot like watching movie stars first and foremost, and doofuses a distant second. Whatever the reason, the Coens's latest, "Burn After Reading" (2008), elicits a fair number of smirks without ever really catching fire. Riffing very loosely on the spy-thriller theme, the film casts Pitt and Frances McDormand as dim-bulb fitness club staffers who stumble onto a CD containing the memoirs of perpetually infuriated CIA vet John Malkovich. It seems that McDormand's liposuction-financing prayers have been answered. But how to make Malkovich pay up? His frosty wife, Tilda Swinton, asks the same question as she schemes to leave him for Clooney's schmoozy philanderer. For all of the freewheeling wackiness on display - Pitt makes more animated use of his earbuds than an iPod silhouette - you might just get more out of precision touches like the mock espionage score and its pounding kettle drums.
Extras: The scant 20 minutes of featurettes do manage to show that the "No Country for Old Men" spotlight hasn't made the Coens any less awkward (but wry, always wry) in front of interview cameras. (Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)
COMEDY
HAMLET 2 (2008)
Even haters have to credit this shaggy, coolly received farce with having a sense of seasonal timeliness on DVD. High school drama teacher and loser-at-life Steve Coogan ("Tropic Thunder") isn't putting on a nativity pageant, but his kitchen-sink Bard sequel does make room for a Sexy Jesus musical number. Pathetic yet pretentious, Coogan darkly curses the cat for eyeballing him while he sits at his computer with playwright's block, and it's hilarious. But inevitably, the inconsistent comedy nosedives when Coogan's gang actually puts on the show.
Extras: Follow the bouncing Jesus with the disc's singalong function. (Universal, $29.98)
ACTION
DEATH RACE (2008)
It's hardly a mystery why director Paul W.S. Anderson isn't on the A list with movies like "Resident Evil" and "Alien vs. Predator." What's funny, though, is how much stylishness Anderson brings to his work, taking what sounds like the most ill-conceived schlock and infusing it with touches of legitimacy. Here, Jason Statham is a pro driver framed for murder and dumped into a high-concept slammer where the inmates do the 'Road Warror' bit as a pay-per-view event. Anderson revs up the action, while Joan Allen does the same for the background drama as the icy warden.
Extras: Unrated footage; commentary by Anderson. (Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)
FOREIGN
SANGRE DE MI SANGRE (2008)
This Spanish-language honoree at the Sundance Film Festival, by rookie filmmaker Christopher Zalla, follows a Mexican youth (Jorge Adrian Espindola) who makes his way up to Brooklyn to find his father (Jesus Ochoa), but who goes through an ordeal arguably even tougher than that of being an illegal: identity theft. The film's suspense ultimately proves more effective than its human drama, as Zalla skillfully intercuts Espindola's wandering with the predatory path of his money-hunting double (Armando Hernandez).
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ALSO THIS WEEK
SAVAGE GRACE (2008)
Julianne Moore spirals into depravity as socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland, characterized in a notorious nonfiction source tome as a woman of clawing ambitions whose incestuous relationship with her son (Stephen Dillane) led to her murder.
Extras: Production featurette; backstory. (
THE WOMEN (2008)
An unfocused update of George Cukor's Broadway adaptation, looking at friendships and rivalries stirring a marriage on the rocks. Meg Ryan gets the Norma Shearer role, Annette Bening is Rosalind Russell; Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Bette Midler, and Eva Mendes round out the circle. (New Line, $28.98; Blu-ray, $35.99)
FLY ME TO THE MOON (2008)
Animated houseflies hitch a ride aboard Apollo 11 in this 3-D 'toon, notable for its technical polish.
Extras: 2-D version; interactive game. (Summit Entertainment, $25.99)
TELEVISION
LOST: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON (2008)
Here's your further chance to ponder how today's island full of survivors got whittled down to tomorrow's Oceanic Six - before the imminent final season fills in all the missing pieces.
Extras: "Underground documentary" on that lucky half dozen; commentaries; production featurettes. (Disney, $59.99; Blu-ray, $96.99)
FROST/NIXON: THE ORIGINAL WATERGATE INTERVIEWS (1977)
The meat of the disgraced president's landmark sitdowns is condensed into a 90-minute, keep-it-real primer for Ron Howard's dramatization.
Extras: New reflections from Sir David Frost. (Liberation Entertainment, $24.95)
Titles available now unless otherwise specified. 