Reviews of Quantum of Solace, Bolt and Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Quantum of Solace
MGM
$29.99
2-Disc Edition: $34.98
Blu-ray: $39.99
Plot: Bond, James Bond (Daniel Craig) pursues a top-secret organization from the the opera houses of Europe to the deserts of Latin America on a revenge mission to find the person that killed the love of his life, Vesper Lynd.
Opinion: There’s one sequence in the latest Bond adventure that ranks amongst the very best moments in the franchise’s four-decade history, a high-tech stakeout at an Austrian opera house. The reason this sequence clicks is that it’s really the only part of the movie where director Marc Forster is able to successfully integrate his own style and interests with the rigid James Bond formula. Best known for small-scale dramas like Finding Neverland and Monster’s Ball, Forster has never made an action movie before and it shows in Quantum’s near-incomprehensible chase sequences, gun battles and fistfights. One of the great joys of Casino Royale was the way director Martin Campbell and his crew designed each of the film’s big set-pieces with an eye towards practical stunts that required a bare minimum of CGI-assists. I don’t doubt that Forster tried his best to master the language of action filmmaking, but he’s been thrown headfirst into a franchise that demands a skill set he just doesn’t possess yet. Forster’s talents lie in an entirely different arena and it’s worth noting that, dramatically, Quantum of Solace is quite good. The director is genuinely interested in Bond as an individual and he gives Craig the opportunity to play a range of emotions his predecessors could only dream about. Ultimately, all of Quantum’s strengths and weaknesses stem from a common source-Forster wanted to make one movie, while the producers wanted another movie that was different…but not too different from every other Bond adventure.
Bonus Features: After the excellent 3-disc Casino Royale DVD, to say nothing of the extras-laden box sets that MGM put out a few years back, this two-disc special edition isn’t so…well, special. The first disc only offers a music video and two teasers, while Disc 2 contains a half-hour making of documentary and then five shorter featurettes that recycle a lot of the same material seen in the main doc. The only other significant extra is a collection of short “crew profiles” that were released on the web during the film’s production. Here’s hoping there’s a special “special edition” coming down the pike before the next Bond flick hits screens.
Verdict: Rent It
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Bolt
Disney
$29.99
2-Disc Edition: $32.99
Blu-ray: $39.99
Plot: In this animated spin on The Truman Show, a dog named Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) is unwittingly made the star of an ongoing TV-series where he saves his human master (Miley Cyrus) week in and week out with the aid of his extraordinary powers. But when he escapes the set and finds himself in the real world, he discovers that he’s not the wonder dog he believed himself to be.
Opinion: Hollywood satires are always a dicey proposition and the idea of making one for a family audience seems like a pointless endeavor at best. Face it, is the average kid really going to get—or care about—jokes about overprotective agents, obnoxious studio execs and spoiled movie stars? The folks behind Bolt don’t seem to think so as they’ve stacked this animated feature with tons of industry gags, most of which are sure to sail right over kids’ heads. Worse still, most of these jokes aren’t really all that funny anyway, which means parents won’t be laughing either. The non-Hollywood portions are equally banal, featuring the usual mixture of slapstick-infused chase sequences and clumsy moralizing featuring none of the wit and sophistication on display in superior films like Finding Nemo, Wall-E and the upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens. In Hollywood parlance, Bolt is The Player meets The Incredible Journey and yes, that’s just as unpleasant a combination as it sounds.
Bonus Features: The usual smorgasbord of kid-friendly extra goodies, including a new animated short, a Miley Cyrus music video and deleted scenes. Older viewers might be interested in the behind-the-mic documentaries, but otherwise this DVD plays best for the under-10 set.
Verdict: Skip It
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Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Paramount
$39.98
Plot: Andy Richter plays…Andy Richter, an aspiring writer whose only escape from his mind-numbing day job is his overactive imagination.
Opinion: One of the many offbeat comedies that the Fox Network let whither and die (that list also includes Wonderfalls, Greg the Bunny and The Tick) before it could find a devoted audience, Andy Richter Controls the Universe still holds up pretty well seven years after it went off the air. It helps that, for the most part, the show’s writers avoided topical, pop-culture humor, instead going for a zany mix of wild fantasy sequences and funny-five-minutes-after-you-think-about-them one-liners (a routine later perfected on the late, great Arrested Development). The show’s closest relative is probably NBC’s Scrubs, which was similarly in danger of early cancellation, but stuck around for eight more seasons. While it’s possible, that Andy Richter would have worn out its welcome the same way Scrubs has, it’s still a shame that the series was tossed off the airwaves when it was still in its comic prime.
Bonus Features: Richter and the show’s co-creator contribute a pair of funny and insightful commentary tracks that make you wish they chatted over every episode. Also included are two retrospective documentaries featuring new cast and crew interviews.
Verdict: Buy It
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Also on DVD
Instead of Bolt, I’d like to recommend that parents immediately run out and purchase Lilo & Stitch: 2-Disc Big Wave Edition (Disney, $29.99) for their kids. This 2002 cartoon remains one of modern Disney’s very best cartoons, a wildly funny and surprisingly emotional tale of a little girl and her blue alien buddy with destructive tendencies. This new edition includes tons of new extras and interactive games. Another excellent animated DVD release—though decidedly not kid-friendly—is The Venture Bros., Season 3 (Cartoon Network, $29.98), which presents the junior year of the beloved Adult Swim series.
To ramp up viewer interest in Fast & Furious, the fourth entry in The Fast and the Furious franchise, Universal is releasing new two-disc editions of the first three pictures The Fast and the Furious Trilogy (Universal, $19.98 each, Blu-ray Box Set: $99.98) which include some new featurettes and BD-Live capabilities in addition to previously-available extras. Also making its debut in Blu-ray is the James Bond oddity Never Say Never Again (MGM, $34.99), Sean Connery’s last outing as 007 made in 1983 when the actor was 53 years old. Not considered part of the official Bond canon, the movie is a remake of the 1965 film Thunderball, which was Connery’s third outing as the super-spy. Elsewhere, Paramount continues their Centennial Collection line of DVDs with two more from-the-vault classics, Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (Paramount, $24.99) and The Odd Couple (Paramount, $24.99), one of the most influential comedies ever made. (Don’t believe me? Just watch an episode of Friends.) Finally, Fox releases a special edition of the 1953 Biblical epic The Robe (20th Century Fox, $19.98), which starred Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature and is famous for its lavish production design as well as being an epic bore.
