NewDVDs OF NOTE TOP
What Washington is watching
5 “Iron Man 2” 1
(with Robert Downey Jr., above)
“Marmaduke”
“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”
2 3
“Date Night” “Killers”
4 5
SOURCE: Redbox, for the week ended Oct. 3.
(Richard Jenkins). Except that he may or may not be her father. At times, Abby treats the man more like a servant. And he oblig- es, making midnight runs to the conven- ience store parking for blood, drained from a high-school jocks. Owen, meanwhile, has been getting picked on. Abby, who has by now befriended Owen, doesn’t like this. (R, 115 minutes) Contains strong gore and vio- lence, obscenity, brief sensuality and a flash of nudity. Area theaters.
B1 ⁄2 LOTTERY TICKET
A long Fourth of July weekend is all that stands between recent high school grad- uate Kevin (played by rapper Bow Wow) and a $370 million dollar jackpot. Owner of the winning ticket, Kevin can claim his prize once the next workday begins, but until then he has to contend with the oth- er inhabitants of his housing project, in- cluding a gold digger, a muscley ex-con and a wealth of questionably intentioned friends. Most people in such a quandary would, perhaps, hide in a closet at a friend’s house. But co-writers Erik White (who also directs) and Abdul Williams have the young man make decisions far beyond the potential for suspended dis- belief. Disclosing his new wealth to the whole neighborhood? Check. Taking money from a loan shark with a brigade of Bentleys in a dark warehouse? Check. Getting busy with an unabashed gold digger who wants to be his “baby mama”? Yes, check. (PG-13, 95 minutes) Contains sexual content, language including a drug reference, violence and brief underage drinking. At AMC Magic Johnson.
BB1 ⁄2 MACHETE DUE TUESDAY
A delightful How to Train Your Dragon but an uninspired Jonah Hex.
As capital-m Machete, Danny Trejo makes a ferocious first impression as a Mexican cop. In the film’s opening min- utes, he and his small-m friend are shown severing the heads of three drug-cartel goons with a single sweeping stroke. The event sets the tone for the rest of the movie, whose violence is so absurdly over the top as to be comical. The movie, co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and his longtime editor, Ethan Maniquis, is one big, fat comic book. It’s better all around if you can laugh at it, assuming you’re able to see humor in such sequences as the one in which Machete disembowels a man and uses his intestines to rappel down a building. Other bits that get a gig- gle are the casting of action-icon Steven Seagal as a Mexican drug lord and Robert De Niro as a xenophobic U.S. senator whose assassination Machete is framed for, setting the bloody, ridiculous plot in motion. (R, 104 minutes) In English and some Spanish with subtitles. Contains lavish vio- lence, obscenity, nudity, sensuality and drug content. At Regal Ballston Common.
BBBMAO’S LAST DANCER — M.O.
About 30 minutes into this film, an older teacher, suspected of anti-Communist sym- pathies, slips his student a wooden box and instructs him to conceal it. It’s a videocas- sette, and once the contraband film plays, the students are awed by a black-and-white clip of Mikhail Baryshnikov. An unusual hy- brid, the film is part ballerina chick-flick and part post-Communist drama. It’s also a true story. In the early 1980s, a landmark cul- tural exchange allowed Chinese dancer Li Cunxin to spend a year at the Houston Bal- let. He fell in love with an 18-year-old stu- dent and secretly married her two nights before his scheduled departure. Many films have portrayed the rigors of ballet training, but none will make viewers wince quite like “Mao’s Last Dancer” as they witness Li’s history as flashbacks. (PG, 117 minutes) Con- tains nothing objectionable. Area theaters. — Rebecca J. Ritzel
BB1 ⁄2 NEVER LET ME GO — S.M.
Director Mark Romanek’s film epitomizes the kind of somber, aesthetically refined and morally engaged film that commands deep respect without inspiring much affec- tion. Adapted from the highly regarded nov- el by Kazuo Ishiguro, this ambitiously re- strained film will most likely please fans of the book’s dire speculative vision. The mov- ie offers filmgoers a haunting reminder of life’s most enduring questions but only af- ter putting them through an imaginative journey that borders on the cruel. The story is narrated by Kathy (Carey Mulligan), who, as the movie opens, explains that she start- ed her young life in the 1970s, at a well- tended British boarding school called Hail- sham. There, she befriended Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield), who along with Kathy live in a world that, while in many ways sequestered and pam- pered, has a castoff quality to it. (R, 103 min- utes) Contains sexuality and nudity. Area theaters.
BB1 ⁄2 NORA’S WILL — M.O.
It isn’t a spoiler to say that the title charac- ter of the film spends the bulk of the movie on the floor of her bedroom, under a pile of dry ice. Yes, she’s dead. The Spanish title of the Mexican dramatic comedy — a sweet if slow-moving meditation on love beyond the grave — translates literally as “Five Days Without Nora.” Though the movie doesn’t revolve around a legal document, it is all about what that someone — in this case, a 63-year-old Jewish woman — wants. That’s made clear by the methodical way in which Nora has laid out her affairs before taking her own life. It’s just before Passover, and she has left a refrigerator full of prepared food. Apparently, she wants her survivors — ex-husband José (Fernando Luján); son Rubén (Ari Brickman) and cousin Leah (Ve- rónica Langer) — to carry on the tradition of a nice family seder. But José, an atheist,
“POWERFUL.COMPELLING. A REVOLUTION.”
Amanda Ripley
isn’t having it. (NR, 92 minutes) In Spanish with English subtitles. Contains brief sensual- ity. At the Avalon.
BB1 ⁄2 THE OTHER GUYS
Steve Coogan brings a squirrelly charm to the role of David Ershon, a Bernie Madoff- style bad guy whose financial chicanery is the focus of the investigation in this com- edy about a pair of wildly mismatched cops, played by Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. As Allen Gamble, an embarrassingly nebbishy police accountant, Ferrell is the geeky yin to Wahlberg’s hyper-macho yang, represented by Terry Hoitz, a disgraced for-
— M.O.
mer hot shot who has been exiled to desk duty after an accidental shooting. Gamble is Hoitz’s punishment. And we’re the ones who reap the rewards. The title itself pre- sents Gamble and Hoitz as alternatives to even bigger jerks, played by Dwayne John- son and Samuel L. Jackson. As supercops Danson and Highsmith, they’re what Gam- ble and Hoitz aspire to become, even after the film dispenses with the flashy, high- wire duo in a gloriously ignominious — and hilarious — end. (PG-13, 107 minutes) Con- tains pervasive crude language, sexual hu-
continued on next page “AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH” From the Director of
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: DIAMOND EDITION G, Blu-ray/DVD combo, $39.99
The basics: The 1991 fairy tale that definitively re- established Disney animation as a pop-cultural force and became the first animated film in history to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Pic- ture makes its debut in the high-definition format. The lowdown: The tale may be as old as time, but the images pop anew on Blu-ray. Kids weaned on Pixar’s CGI magic may even be more inclined to embrace this vibrant, remastered version. The extras: The documentary “Beyond Beauty: The Untold Stories” and the never-seen alternate opening, which the studio rejected before asking the animation team to literally go back to the draw- ing board, will be of most interest. The other extras are superfluous or appeared on the 2002 DVD. Bottom line: The three-disc combo pack is worth buying if you have Blu-ray; otherwise, wait until a less expensive, two-disc version is released in No- vember.
THE KARATE KID PG, DVD $28.96, Blu-ray, $34.95, DVD/Blu-ray combo, $38.96
JASIN BOLAND
Jackie Chan plays a maintenance man and kung fu expert who helps young Dre (Jaden Smith) deal with bullies in “The Karate Kid.”
6
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM/DVDS More DVD reviews and information.
The basics: Jaden Smith (son of Will) and Jackie Chan star in this remake of the 1984 classic. Dre Parker (Smith) moves with his mother (Taraji P. Henson) to China from Detroit and struggles to fit in. After bullying by classmates skilled in kung fu, his building’s maintenance man, Mr. Han (Chan), teaches him the fighting art. The lowdown: Although the original film didn’t need a remake, this new edition brings a classic back to a generation that may have missed it. The extras: Behind-the-scenes footage and a Jus- tin Bieber-Jaden Smith music video. An alternative ending and more substantial features are reserved for those willing to splurge on the Blu-ray or combo pack.
— Kristen Boghosian and Jen Chaney
35
— A.H.
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THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
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