DVD Corner

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

“The Amityville Horror”: Ironically, not even flies are attracted to it. This new version of the Amityville tale is exactly what you expect from a modern-day horror film – an assorted bag of assembled cliches, this one with bits of “The Shining,” “In Cold Blood,” “The Exorcist,” “Misery,” and any number of those “Ring” movies tossed in for box office curb appeal. Too bad about the weeds. As George Lutz, Ryan Reynolds looks good behind the ax as he is possessed by the house and turns on his family. Still, he’s no Jack Nicholson or, for that matter, James Brolin of the original. As Kathy Lutz, Melissa George shrieks on cue, but in her, you never sense outright terror, which is what the film needs. As for the demonic flies that made such a chilly addition to the original film, here they make a brief, thrill-ride appearance and then they are gone – not unlike this movie was just weeks after its theatrical release. This sexier, slighter version of the famed story is a relic in new clothing. It’s curious. When the first “Amityville Horror” appeared in 1979, possession was still a pop-culture darling – you could announce at a cocktail party that you were the anti-Christ and people would consume you in earnest banter. Now, after years of retreads and clones, the whole subject could lull you to sleep. Rated R. Grade: C-

“House of D”: Another house, another horror – this one a sugar shack of sweet intentions that should have been condemned. From first-time writer-director David Duchovny, “House of D” is a coming-of-age story that plunges into a sea of sentiment and meets its share of sharks – audiences and critics chief among them – all of whom likely hoped for a shade better than this from the otherwise talented Duchovny. Told in a string of loopy flashbacks, the film follows the life of Tom Warshaw (Duchovny), an American artist who moved to Paris to escape a childhood filled with pain and tragedy. Now, as his son nears his 13th birthday, Tom is reminded of his own years during that period, which unfortunately involve Robin Williams in one of those roles that tend to be played by Robin Williams. Here, he’s Pappass, a mentally challenged janitor whose one aim is to go for your heart and then to break it. He tries like hell, but he doesn’t succeed. With Duchovny’s wife, Tea Leoni, in a co-starring role as Tom’s chain-smoking mother, “The House of D” exists on the surface with some of the scenes so heavy and fraught with meaning, they create ruts. Rated PG-13. Grade: D

“The Interpreter”: Tense and satisfying, with Nicole Kidman as Silvia Broome, an interpreter for the United Nations who overhears an alleged plot to kill Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron), president of Matobo, the African nation in which Broome was born. Since Matobo doesn’t exist in real life – and since the movie was directed by Sydney Pollack, whose films sometimes have a political bent that echo real life – you naturally look around to see what might have influenced it. You don’t have to look far. Pollack makes it clear that Matobo is meant to be Zimbabwe and that Zuwanie is modeled after that country’s president, Robert Mugabe, who fought to win independence from Britain in 1980 and thus became, to many Africans, a great liberator. Twenty-five years later, Mugabe has become a tyrant, rigging polls, starving his people and using coercion to retain his grip on power. His methods have worked. In spite of ruining his country’s economy, he won this year a controversial landslide bid for re-election. In a way, Mugabe’s story is the backbone for “The Interpreter,” which uses similar events and characters to build its own story with flashes of Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” helping to round out the corners. This is the first film ever to be shot inside the U.N. It follows Kidman’s Silvia in the difficult days that follow her hearing about the alleged assassination, which is set to take place at the U.N. when Zuwanie arrives later that week to deliver a speech to the General Assembly. Though she tells the authorities the day after she hears, nobody believes her, particularly Sean Penn’s Tobin Keller, a Secret Service agent who recently lost his wife and whose gut says that Silvia is lying. Along with his partner, Woods (Catherine Keener), Keller starts to investigate Silvia, which allows Pollack his second nod to Hitchcock in scenes that recall “Rear Window” – Keller and company take up shop in the building across from Silvia. There, through large windows, they watch her every move with binoculars. Without giving too much away, what Keller learns from his investigation is that Silvia has a secret past and ties to Matobo that go deeper than she let on. Only occasionally does the script let the film down, particularly at the end, which is so forced and awkward, it’s a donkey stuck at the end of a cart. Still, that’s a quibble. “The Interpreter” wedges itself into a turbulent corner of the world and finds there a story worth telling. Rated PG-13. Grade: B+