If Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe got together to do their own version of The Matrix, it would look a lot like Richard Kelly’s The Box. The Donnie Darko director returns with a morality tale that twists and turns around a complex story like barbed wire around a rose. No matter what notion you have of the film going in, you’ll have a drastically different one coming out; that I can guarantee you.
Last year’s critical darlings continue their march to DVD and Blu-ray with Frost/Nixon leading the April 21 slate of releases. Ron Howard directed this excellent adaptation of Peter Morgan’s Tony award-winning play recounting the historic television interviews of disgraced former president Richard Nixon by British TV gadfly David Frost. Though Howard does his usual, slick job with the film, it’s the acting that’s the ultimate draw. Frank Langella dominates the film, big and grand as Nixon but still granting the ex-prez a touching humanity he is often denied. (For example: Dan Hedaya’s hilarious but lightweight caricature in Dick.) Michael Sheen plays Frost as an Austin Powers-lite figure that grows into an able foil for Langella’s outsized Nixon, and supporting turns by Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell are uniformly excellent. The only real weakness to Frost/Nixon is that it plays a little fast and loose with the history, but hey, this is Hollywood after all.
Geeks unite!There’s a new X-Men box set! More after the break …
The Academy Awards may have come and gone, but this year’s nominees for Best Picture are just now making their way to your home theater. Milk led the pack with a March 10 release date, followed by Oscar winner Slumdog Millionare, which hit DVD and Blu-Ray on March 31. April sees Amy Adams and Meryl Streep do battle with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt (out today); Kate Winslet get swept up in Holocaust romance in The Reader (April 14); and the brilliant Frank Langella resurrects Tricky Dick in Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon (April 21). Sorry, Brad Pitt fans, you have to wait until next month to own The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which hits stores May 5.
But enough about these damn movies already! Frankly, after all the pre-Oscar hype, I’m sick of hearing about them. Instead, let’s talk about last year’s Best Picture winner: No Country For Old Men. The Coen Brothers’ dark, new-fangled Western starring Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem’s haircut finally gets the deluxe treatment today with a three-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray package.
Originally released last year lacking suitable extras, No Country is done up right this time, with about five hours of bonus material. In addition to the standard “making of” documentary and interviews, the set also boasts cast-and-crew holding forth on what it’s like to work with the revered Coens. One high-tech addition is the inclusion of a downloadable copy of the film for use on your iPod or Windows devices. It’s a cool feature, even though No Country’s bright desert photography needs to be experienced on a screen larger than a deck of cards to be appreciated.
ODDS & ENDS
A few more titles out today that are worth mentioning: Keanu Reeves’ remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still didn’t exactly tank at the box office, but it was no home run either. Skip it and check out the new Blu-Ray of 2010: The Year We Make Contact, director Peter Hyams’ better-than-expected 1984 sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. If neither of those floats your boat, grab Jim Carrey in Yes Man or an animated rat in The Tale of Despereaux, both out today.
Frost/Nixon: With timing that could either be viewed as fortuitous or unfortunate, Tampa gets to see Frost/Nixon the play just a few days before we see whether Frost/Nixon the movie (based on the play) wins any Oscars. How will the Richard Nixon of Best Actor nominee Frank Langella compare with that of Stacy Keach, who’s playing Nixon in the national tour? One reviewer said that Langella’s Nixon is more reptilian, Keach’s more gutter. Both actors have a powerful stage presence — it might be a draw. Peter Morgan’s script looks at how British TV interviewer David Frost extracted an implied admission of guilt from the former president for his role in the Watergate scandal. Feb. 17-22. 7:30 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; 2 & 8 p.m. Sat.; 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sun. Carol Morsani Hall, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa, $35.50-$57.50, 813-229-7827, tbpac.org.
Also on Tuesday:
John Davidson. Wow. John Davidson. My mother used to have a crush on John Davidson. She’s very old. I guess John Davidson must be, too, but he still looks kind of cute in a silver-fox kind of way. If you’re the kind of person who likes dimply crooners, or your mother is, this is the concert for you. (And it’s in the afternoon, so she won’t have to stay up too late.) Feb. 17, 1 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall, $16-$20, rutheckerdhall.com. Pre-show lunch with John Davidson at 11 a.m., call 727-791-7400 for tickets.
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