DVD Corner

Each week, BDN film critic Christopher Smith contributes reviews to DVD Corner.

“Bolero” Pure summer camp. One of the worst movies of its kind, but in the best sense, particularly if you have a mind for this sort of thing. Released in 1984 and now available on DVD, this howler is softcore porn with 28-year-old Bo Derek as a high-school graduate traveling through Morocco and Spain on a quest to lose her virginity under swank conditions. It’s the 1920s, everybody’s happy, so her character, Ayre MacGillivery, at least has the times on her side. First, she tries to bed a sheik, which-how to put this delicately-falls flat. Then she goes for broke with a robust bullfighter named Angel, who smolders in bed before getting gored in the one place Ayre has the most interest. With husband John Derek directing, Bo is a bit old for the part, but the way she enunciates her lines suggests that Ayre might have been held back in school several years, so it works. The acting and the dialogue are atrocious. The sex was graphic for the times-it caused a sensation-but now it’s just body parts and oil, nothing an R rating couldn’t handle. The movie is recommended (and graded) only for those who enjoy the occasional cinematic train wreck. All others should stay away. Grade: B.

“XXX: State of the Union” A parody of the action-espionage genre filled with impossible stunts and an air of absurdity. If done well, there’s fun to be had in that. As such, there’s fun to be had here. Audiences learn early that the original XXX, Xander Cage (Vin Diesel), has bit the big one in Bora Bora. What did him in? Maybe one too many XXX tattoos. Regardless, we now have a new XXX in Ice Cube’s Darius Stone, who plays the part as if the weight of the world rests on his face. You can’t blame him. According to Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), the National Security agent who recruits Stone to save the president of the United States (Peter Strauss) from certain death by his evil secretary of defense, Gen. Octavius Deckert (Willem Dafoe), this new XXX must be more dangerous than the last XXX. They’ve found that person in Stone, an imprisoned Navy SEAL who enjoys his own hip-hop soundtrack whenever he’s onscreen and who holds the record for the highest dive in SEAL history-250 feet. Impressive? Absolutely. But then everything about Stone is impressive. With panache, he breaks out of prison and into his brave new world of fists, chop shops and guns. With bravado, he goes after Deckert, hijacking tanks, driving cars at 220 mph, and chasing speeding trains without breaking a sweat. During the course of the film, he even gets his former girlfriend, Lola (Nona Gaye), to put the bling back into his bang. She does so, too, in spite of the fact that Lola looks two implants away from being a man. This is pure video game moviemaking. Once you’re in it, it’s fun. The moment you leave it, it evaporates. Grade: B

“Upside of Anger” Joan Allen on a bender. Here, as Terry Wolfmeyer, she plays a disillusioned, middle-aged woman slapped with the unexpected ugliness of having to face herself when her husband dumps her for that old clich?, his younger secretary. Consumed by betrayal, abandonment, bewilderment and rage, Terry goes straight for those other clich?s-sarcasm, bitterness and the bottle. The film is a tour-de-force for Allen, whose cutting, sometimes cruelly funny performance lifts an otherwise rote story out of the ordinary. For Terry’s rage, director Mike Binder offers up several sacrificial lambs, beginning with her daughters (Alicia Witt, Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Evan Rachel Wood) and extending to her neighbor Denny (Kevin Costner), a once-great baseball star who could match Terry drink for drink. Dysfunction is a bull that runs rampant through the movie, which gives it energy. The film is riddled with neuroses-it’s a tragedy, a comedy, a drama, and in one hilarious scene, the most spectacular of horror shows. And yet the movie, in spite of its soapy underpinnings and a disappointing final twist, doesn’t implode. You’re never bored watching it, which is a testament to the cast, to the sharp dialogue and to Binder himself, who turns up as a sleazy radio show producer who beds one of Terry’s far younger daughters-and nearly steals the show. Grade: B+

Other reviews

“KING’S RANSOM”: Anthony Anderson stars in this comedy as a divorcing tycoon who fears being taken to the cleaners by his estranged wife (Kellita Smith). To retain his wealth, he stages his own abduction … only to find others have reasons for wanting him kidnapped for real. Jay Mohr, Nicole Ari Parker, Regina Hall, Loretta Devine and Donald Faison also are in the large ensemble cast. ?? (PG-13: AS, P, V)

“REMINGTON STEELE: SEASON ONE”: The makers of the James Bond movies got the idea of casting Pierce Brosnan from his work in this sophisticated NBC light-mystery series of the 1980s. He plays a con man who makes himself the personification of Steele, a fictional private detective created by investigator Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) as a “front” when no one wants to hire a female sleuth. Henry Mancini composed the theme music. ??? (Not rated: AS, V)

“THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON”: DVD releases of one of television’s most classic sitcoms resume. Moore continues as Mary Richards, an associate TV-news producer … and the relative calm in the storm of colorful characters including news director Lou Grant and anchorman Ted Baxter (Edward Asner, Ted Knight). Valerie Harper, Gavin MacLeod and Cloris Leachman also star.. (Not rated: AS)