Susan Granger’s DVD/Video Update for week of Friday, Oct. 2:
Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody are “The Bloom Brothers,” the best con men in the world, swindling millionaires with complex scenarios and intrigue; their final job involves pursuing priceless artifacts with a lonely, eccentric heiress (Rachel Weitz).
Between mega-hits like “Erin Brockovich” and “Ocean’s Eleven,” Steven Soderberg occasionally does a tiresome low-budget indie like “The Girlfriend Experience,” casting a real porn star (Sasha Grey) as Chelsea, a Manhattan call girl whose sexual expertise is preceded by conversation and concluded by cuddling; hence, the title.
Kevin Spacey stars in “Shrink” as a bleary-eyed, dope-smoking L.A. psychologist who is so depressed that it takes a village of patients (Saffron Burrows, Dallas Roberts, Keke Parker and uncredited Robin Williams) to halt his downward spiral into a pity party. And in “Management,’ Jennifer Aniston plays an uptight traveling saleswoman who checks into the seedy roadside motel in Kingman, Arizona, and dazzles the owners’ emotionally immature son (Steve Zahn) who proceeds to stalk her with the best of intentions. Flimsy and incoherent, this trivial pursuit heaps contrivance upon contrivance, never achieving a shred of believability.
Gary Hustwit’s sleek documentary “Objectified” is about industrial design and our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them, covering the creativity behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. On a lighter note, “Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie” follows two men’s determined search for America’s most elusive and enduring phenomena – Bigfoot.
PICKS OF THE WEEK: For kids, “Monsters vs. Aliens” in which the wedding of Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) and Derek (voiced by Paul Rudd) is interrupted by the crash of a stray meteorite. As a result of irradiation, Susan grows and grows and grows to just one inch short of the amazing 50-foot woman. Joining other MonSquad outcasts, she’s determined to defeat the galactic invaders. For adults, “Away We Go” is a sweet, satirical, if uneven dramedy about an affectionate, unmarried, thirty-something couple (Maya Rudolph, John Kraskinski) on a road trip, searching for the best place to settle down and raise their baby.