Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, July 25th:
For pure escapist entertainment, try “21” about a brilliant MIT senior (Jim Sturgess) who’s recruited by a manipulative math teacher (Kevin Spacey) and sexy classmate (Kate Bosworth) to join a top-secret, high-stakes gambling team that ‘counts cards’ and spends weekends making millions in Las Vegas.
If you’re into the music of the Rolling Stones, Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light” chronicles their 2006 Manhattan concert with more than 20 numbers, dominated by brash Mick Jagger; humor is injected through vintage clips and archival interview footage. And the screen version of the satirical,off-Broadway play “Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding” marches down the aisle with Adrian Grenier, Mila Kunis and Joey McIntyre.
Think of “Never Back Down” as “Teen Fight Club,” as Iowan Sean Faris stuggles to prove his courage at a new Florida high school where a local bully (Cam Gigandet) goads him into an X-treme form of hand-to-hand combat called “mixed martial arts.”
“Doomsday” is yet another gore-filled, post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy. This time, a virulent pandemic called the Reaper, which once threatened to annihilate the human race, is back; a Scottish scientist (Malcolm McDowell) has found a cure but he’s not in a mood to share.
The French film “Heartbeat Detector” is intellectually provocative as Mathieu Amalric serves the psychiatrist for the faltering executives of a German petrochemical company, discovering that sometimes big business comes with a Nazi past.
PICK OF THE WEEK: A droll take on cross-cultural miscommunication, Eran Kolirin’s “The Band’s Visit” is a fresh, funny Israeli export. Dressed in crisp, powder-blue uniforms and observing full protocol, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra is headed for a gig at the Arab Cultural Center when they get lost after landing in Tel Aviv. Inevitably, there’s confusion, chaos and compassion – on both sides.