Up
Disney
$30
2-Disc: $40
4-Disc Combo Pack: $46
Plot: An elderly widower unexpectedly embarks on the adventure of a lifetime when he straps helium balloons to the roof of his house and flies off into the wild blue yonder.
Opinion: Up isn’t just a good movie-it’s a glorious movie, certainly the best to come along so far this year and one of Pixar’s greatest achievements to date. In a beautiful and brilliantly executed 15-minute prologue, co-directors Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (who also wrote the screenplay) guide us through the nearly 80-year adventure Carl experienced before he embarked on his current aerial escapade, including the death of the love of his life. If Up sound almost unbearably sad-particularly for an animated feature-that’s because, at times, it is. But it’s a good kind of sad, a sadness that feels honest and true instead of forced on the audience by plot machinations. It’s also balanced by scenes of hysterical comedy and eye-popping action, including a climactic chase set atop…no wait, I’ve said too much already. Carl may not be looking for an adventure, but adventure finds him in a big way and forces him to move forward instead of standing still. And that’s why Up is such a marvel. Only Pixar could take a simple adventure story and turn it into a profound statement about life’s infinite possibilities.
Bonus Features: Docter discusses the process of making the film on an entertaining and informative commentary track and additional featurettes take viewers behind-the-scenes at Pixar. Naturally, there are also lots of kid-oriented extras, including a new animated short featuring one of the movie’s best supporting characters and interactive games.
Verdict: Buy It
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Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut
Warner Bros.
$44
Blu-ray: $60
Plot: When a retired superhero is killed, his former colleagues investigate his death and wind up stumbling upon an apocalyptic plot that may have been hatched by one of their own.
Opinion: Like every other fanboy who discovered Alan Moore’s groundbreaking graphic novel Watchmen as a teenager, I anticipated and dreaded the arrival of Zack Snyder’s film version. On the one hand, it’s hard not to geek out at the promise of seeing the comic’s beautifully drawn panels recreated so meticulously on the big screen. At the same time though, I had enormous reservations about Snyder, whose previous film-the slow-mo-a-go-go adaptation of Frank Miller’s ultraviolent 300-was a triumph of style over substance. I’m sorry to say that my fears were justified. On a purely technical level, Watchmen is undeniably impressive. The special effects are largely seamless, the production design is obsessively detailed and the characters all look like they’ve stepped right off the page onto the screen. But as an adaptation-as well as a movie in its own right-it’s a profound disappointment. The problem is that the filmmakers have tried to include too much of the book onscreen. While it would have been hard to lose certain fan-favorite moments and subplots, a trimmer running time would have forced Snyder to really focus the film’s narrative, as well as find a way to make its themes relevant to modern audiences. As it is, it’s difficult to tell what Watchmen is about…and this is coming from someone that has read the book multiple times.
Bonus Features: The third-and supposedly the last-version of Watchmen to be released on DVD this year, the most notable addition here is a 210-minute cut of the film that incorporates a half-hour’s worth of animated material originally released as a separate short. Otherwise, the bulk of the extras appeared on previous editions, but it is nice to have them all collected in one place.
Verdict: Personally I say Skip It, but who am I kidding? If you’re a fan of the comic, you’re obviously going to Buy It or at least Rent It.
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I Love You, Beth Cooper
Fox
$28
Blu-ray: $40
Plot: A high-school outcast improbably ends up riding shotgun alongside his dream girl over the course of one long day and night.
Opinion: I wasn’t expecting much when I randomly picked up ex-Simpsons writer Larry Doyle’s debut novel I Love You, Beth Cooper a few years back. Within the first few pages though, I was laughing hysterically at Doyle’s hilarious prose, which deftly balanced broad comedy with painfully true descriptions of the draconian social caste system that is high school. It made perfect sense to bring Doyle’s book to the big screen-unfortunately the humor and emotion got completely lost in translation. It’s hard to blame the young cast, who show up ready to have some fun; Heroes knockout Hayden Panettiere is a natural choice for the role of the hottest girl in school (expect her legion of male admirers to pick up the film on DVD for her split-second topless scene) and Paul Rust, making his leading man debut, is genuinely nerdy instead of “movie star” nerdy. From the opening scenes though, the movie’s pace and timing are noticeably off; scenes that played like gangbusters on the page are awkward and improbable on screen. Instead of picking up I Love You, Beth Cooper on DVD, head to your local library and check out Doyle’s book for free. It’s cheaper and funnier than sitting through the movie version.
Bonus Features: Deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, a featurette about the book and a making-of documentary produced for the Fox Movie Channel.
Verdict: Skip It
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Also on DVD
Has it really been two decades since John Cusack stood outside Ione Skye’s bedroom window blasting “In Your Eyes” from his boombox? Apparently it has. Say Anything: 20th Anniversary Edition (Fox, $15) hits shelves today with a new commentary from the movie’s stars and writer/director Cameron Crowe, a batch of deleted and alternate scenes and a vintage late-’80s featurette. The entertaining History Channel series Expedition: Africa (History Channel, $35) finds a group of modern-day explorers re-tracing Stanley and Livingstone’s famous trek across the African continent. Along the way, they encounter many of the same problems their predecessors did over a century ago…and a few modern-world concerns besides.
