Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, July 18th:
Giving a gender tweak to “Beauty and the Beast,” “Penelope” is a contemporary fable about a princess (Christina Ricci) cursed with a pig snout and how she defies her overly protective parents and is befriended by a bike courier (Reese Witherspoon); eventually, the ugly duckling fantasy morphs into a satiric take on celebrity culture. The arduous, dumbed-down “College Road Trip” finds a small-town Illinois police chief (Martin Lawrence) trying – in vain – to control the life of his beloved 17 year-old daughter (Disney channel star Raven-Symone) who outwits him at every turn. And if you’re tempted to “Meet Bill,” don’t. Starring Aaron Eckhart (“The Dark Knight”) and Jessica Alba, it’s a labored screwball comedy about privileged people yearning for fulfillment. On the other hand, if you liked “The Ring” and “The Grudge,” there’s “Shutter,” an English-language horror movie by Japanese director Masayuki Ochiai; this time the creepy device is a photograph, lots of photographs, revealing a mysterious woman. In the tradition of Michael Apted’s “Up” series, “21 Up South Africa,” where a group of children, first filmed in 1991 at the age of seven, are now 21. Rich and poor, black and white and “mixed-race,” they offer unique insights into the social and political upheavals that occurred after apartheid ceased. Created by Connecticut dancer/mom Liz Milwe and director Michel Negroponte, “Hip Hop for Kids: School House Hop” introduces a fun way to get in shape – with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instruction, featuring high-energy Hip Hop master Roger G. PICK OF THE WEEK: “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” is a droll, coming-of-age story set in Brazil in the turbulent year of 1970. That’s when a soccer-obsessed 12 year-old boy is hastily dropped off at his elderly grandfather’s apartment in Sao Paulo. But the old man has died and the ethnically mixed neighbors take care of him.