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Reviews of Seven Pounds, Slumdog Millionaire and After Dark Horrorfest

Seven Pounds
Sony
$28.96
Blu-ray: $39.95

Plot: After a horrific accident, a mysterious man (Will Smith) embarks on an elaborate plan to help improve the lives of seven strangers.

Opinion: To say that Seven Pounds is an odd film is an understatement—it’s often downright bizarre.  What’s even crazier is that the damned thing kinda sorta works, at least on an emotional level if not an intellectual one.  Credit for this has to go Smith and Dawson, who wholeheartedly commit to this material and give audiences a central relationship to hang onto even as the story twists and turns on itself.  Seven Pounds was directed by Gabriele Muccino, who previously guided his star to an Oscar nomination for 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness.  As in that film, he knows how to goad Smith into letting go of some of his typical Big Willie tics and embody a character entirely unlike his offscreen persona.  Ben Thomas may just be the most unlikable person the actor has ever been asked to play and Smith rises to the occasion.  As the film continues and Smith’s motivations snap into focus though, his nuanced performance becomes easier to appreciate.  While I can’t defend some of Seven Pound’s excesses (such as the scene that reveals Smith’s self-imposed fate), the movie is far from the disaster some critics made it out to be.

Bonus Features: The single-disc release comes with numerous featurettes, including the interesting half-hour doc Seven Views on Seven Pounds—which examines seven different aspects of the film’s production—as well as four-minutes worth of deleted scenes and an audio commentary with Muccino.

Verdict: Rent It

——————————————————————————Slumdog Millionaire
Fox Searchlight
$29.98
Blu-ray: $39.99

Plot: An orphan from the slums of Mumbai, India is on the verge of winning a big payday on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire…provided he can get the last question right.

Opinion: In a year dominated by Batman and Benjamin Button, who would have guessed that an Indian “slumdog” would end up taking home Oscar gold?  That’s exactly what happened at this year’s Academy Awards, where Slumdog Millionaire scored eight statues, including Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.  An undeniable crowd pleaser, director Danny Boyle’s hyperkinetic rags-to-riches story still suffers from uneven performances, an absurd storyline and an awkward attempt to mix fantastical Bollywood conventions with gritty realism.  For a richer, more complex look at life in modern India, check out Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding.

Bonus Features: A pair of commentary tracks—one with Boyle and star Dev Patel and the other with additional crew-members—both of which were recorded before the movie’s Oscar triumph.  There’s also a making-of featurette and 12 deleted scenes.

Verdict: Rent It

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After Dark Horrorfest
Lionsgate
$19.98 Each
Box-set: $159.98

Plot: Take your pick—some of these horror films involve time travel, others involve evil doppelgangers and still others involve serial killers.  But all of them feature lots and lots of blood.

Opinion: Every year, the good folks at Lionsgate track down eight unreleased horror films from around the world and bring them together under the banner 8 Films To Die For.  The third edition of this direct-to-DVD scary movie festival includes The Broken, a not-so-great English flick that stars Lena Heady (best known stateside for playing the title role in Fox’s Sarah Connor Chronicles series) as a radiologist whose family is stalked and killed by ghostly creatures because they broke a mirror.  Or something like that.  The U.S. entry The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations is slightly better, but not by much.  Chris Carmack takes over a franchise once occupied by Ashton Kutcher, as a time-traveling police psychic whose attempts to change his own past end up creating a dangerous serial killer.  The rest of the set features Voices from South Korea, Dying Breed from Australia and Slaughter, Perkins’ 14, From Within and Autopsy, all from America.  It goes without saying that the squeamish should steer clear, but if you’re a fan of the genre, it’s always interesting to see what’s going on in the independent and foreign horror scenes.  Obviously you’ll get a few duds, but you might also discover a director, actor or F/X artist you’ll want to keep following.

Bonus Features: Each disc comes with an hour’s worth of webisodes from the annual Miss Horrorfest competition.  Select titles also come with featurettes, deleted scenes and commentary tracks.

Verdict: Buy It (Horror Fans Only)

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Also on DVD

Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson may have been the name-above-the-title stars of Marley & Me (Fox, $29.98), but the real reason the movie became a surprise box-office smash was the titular mutt, Marley.  Never underestimate the buying power of dog lovers!  While it didn’t make Marley money, the French thriller Tell No One (Music Box Films, $27.98) did quite well for itself during its theatrical run last summer.  And why not?  Unlike a lot of Hollywood thrillers, this one actually delivers some great thrills, although it loses steam in the final half-hour when the characters stand around explaining the twisty plot to each other.  If you’re in the mood for some romance, the comedy The Other End of the Line (MGM, $27.98) finds a Bay Area-based exec falling for the lovely voice from a customer service center in India.  Following a successful Broadway revival, the movie version of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific is released in an extras-laden Blu-ray enchanced 50th Anniversary Edition (Fox, $34.98).  A less auspicious classic is also making its way to disc this week.  The Real Ghostbusters: Volume 1 (Time Life Entertainment, $39.98) collects the first season of the long-running Saturday morning cartoon series based on the 1984 live-action comedy.  If you grew up in the ’80s, then you remember this show.  Finally, a moment of silence for Kelly Ripa’s short-lived acting career, as Hope & Faith: Season One (Lionsgate, $29.98) arrives on DVD.  Not long after becoming Regis Philbin’s latest sidekick, the ex-soap actress tried to parlay her newfound fame into sitcom stardom via this ABC series also starring Faith Ford.  Three years later, the show was gone and she’s been Regis’ whipping gal ever since.  Ah well, at least her time in the spotlight lasted longer than hubby Mark Consuelos.