Tomorrow’s Major New Home Entertainment Releases
If you just cannot wait until tomorrow to find out about the big new releases on video and DVD, here’s a preview!
Gosford Park- When I saw this film, with my friend Margaret, we decided it was “quaint.” I stand by that word now. Robert Altman’s deliciously entertaining “we-don’t-care-whodunit” is so good, it proves he will never win anything but an honorary Oscar. If Altman couldn’t snag a statue with this sexy, funny, Anglophilic romp (and against less than formidable competition), then what could he win with? It improves vastly with repeated viewing, so don’t bother renting it. For all the humor, it’s the emotional wallop in the final scene between Helen Mirren and the legendary Eileen Atkins that sticks with you. Secret weapon: Kelly MacDonald in the central role of the maid, holding her own with Maggie Smith and the rest of the superlative cast. In my opinion it’s not a classic, but many of you won’t share my opinion. Like I said, it’s “quaint.”
A Beautiful Mind- Boooooooring! For all the cavils people might have about this as a movie or as history, one thing is clear: Russell Crowe’s withdrawn and interior performance is intelligently done, but its not brilliant. Crowe, suggests flashes of wit, anger, fear and self-knowing mockery all through his eyes, but the movie suffers from the fact that he is no longer an actor, but a larger than life star. Crowe is also let down at the very end by poor aging makeup and a Nobel acceptance speech that is far more maudlin than John Nash would have ever countenanced. But then there is Jennifer Connelly. She looks so exquisite and deserves the Oscar she won. The movie is good, but it’s not great.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Complete Second Season- Does Fox do the best jobs of repackaging TV shows because it’s smart or does it look smart because it has the best shows to repackage? It follows “The X-Files” and “The Simpsons” – which set the standard for TV shows on DVD – with the second season of “Buffy.” For two years, beginning with these shows, there was simply no better series on television. Buffy’s passionate romance with Angel came to the fore, Willow fell for a werewolf, Xander and Cordelia turned from bickering as enemies to bickering as a couple and Spike (the marvelous James Marsters) came to town. Future generations will curse us for not showering “Buffy” with the Emmys it deserved as surely as Angel was cursed for discovering true happiness with his mortal honey.
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