Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Fri., Sept. 17th:
Wildly over-hyped “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” with Jake Gyllenhaal is a big-budget, effects-laden video game-turned-action adventure with a minimal, if mystical storyline and a multitude of swirling sandstorms and frantic, senseless chase sequences.
Queen Latifah’s talents are wasted in “Just Wright,” a bland Cinderella-story, set against a professional sports backdrop, in which she plays a hard-working physical therapist and die-hard basketball fan who falls for an NBA All-Star (rap star Common).
“Princess Ka’iulani” is an intriguing, if stilted tale about how the Hawaiian Islands lost their independence yet retained voting rights under American constitutional rule. In the context of today’s world, its message resonates for the 360 million indigenous people around the world who are struggling for dignity, self-determination and cultural survival.
Werner Herzog and David Lynch collaborate with “My Son, My Son, What Have You Done,” a psychological thriller about a young stage actor who’s obsessed with a Greek tragedy he’s rehearsing, starring Michael Shannon, Chloe Sevigny and Willem Dafoe.
Humor abounds in “Bill Maher…But I’m Not Wrong” – nominated for two Emmy Awards – features Maher’s typically fearless observations on a wide range of social and political issues including whether the “Great Recession” is really over, the fake patriotism of the right wing, what goes on in the mind of a terrorist, etc.
You can see Basil Rathbone’s classic characterization of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brilliant sleuth in the 1943 “Sherlock Holmes Double Feature,” encompassing “Sherlock Holmes in Washington” and “Sherlock Holmes Faces Death.”
For preschoolers, there’s “Barney: A-Counting We Will Go” about recognizing numbers, packaged with a 64-page coloring and activity book. There’s a newly remastered deluxe edition of “He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown.” And in “Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale,” the world’s most iconic doll advocates believing in yourself.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Amanda Seyfried, Gael Garcia Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave star in “Letters to Juliet,” an irresistibly enchanting story with two captivating romances and oodles of picturesque Northern Italian scenery. The DVD and Blu-rays include deleted and extended scenes, audio commentary and several featurettes about Verona.