DVD corner

“Eastern Promises” DVD, HD DVD: From David Cronenberg, a movie arranged to engage, shake and provoke. The film explores the Russian mafia’s stronghold over London, with Viggo Mortensen outstanding as Nikolai, a driver of few words (“I drive car”) whose employer is a powerful, corrupt family led by the coolly evil Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Typical of a mob story, Semyon is a hive of complexities (more Brando, less Gandolfini), perhaps more proud of his borscht than he is of his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), a screw-up of the first order whom Semyon is working to contain. But when a nurse named Anna (Naomi Watts) comes into their lives with the diary of a dead Russian girl whose life ended while giving birth, Semyon’s focus wavers. Now he must not only keep his unstable son in line, but also Anna, who has no idea that the contents of that diary, written in Russian, can implicate Semyon and his family, and bring them down – which he won’t allow. What unfolds is a fresh blast of toxic air that lingers. This is a movie about good and evil first, violence second, and while it might seem while watching it that I have that backward, it isn’t the slitting of throats you consider after walking away from this movie, but those who choose a life of violence, those who choose to resist it, and the vague reasons for their choices. Rated R. Grade: A-

“The Heartbreak Kid” DVD, HD DVD: From the Farrelly brothers comes this bland remake of Elaine May’s 1972 comedy of the same name, which did just fine, thank you very much, without ever going for the all-out gross-outs the Farrellys court (its only offense was Jeannie Berlin’s enthusiastic abuse of egg salad). Ben Stiller is Eddie, a single San Francisco businessman who, at 40, is feeling pressure from his father (Jerry Stiller) and best friend (Rob Corddry) to tie the knot. When he meets the lovely Lila (Malin Akerman, channeling Cameron Diaz), marriage ensues. Perhaps too quickly. On their honeymoon in Mexico, Lila begins to irritate Eddie in ways that make him question his decision to marry her, so much so that when he meets Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), with whom he has a natural rapport, he decides she is the real woman of his dreams after only two days in her presence. And so begins a series of manufactured misunderstandings, with Eddie deceiving Lila, Miranda and Miranda’s family so he can spend more time with Miranda. Nice guy? Not on your life, and while the movie initially tries to fool you into thinking otherwise, its last scene tells a different tale. Unlike, say, Judd Apatow’s crudely funny romantic comedy “Knocked Up,” “The Heartbreak Kid” doesn’t press the limits in ways that make you connect with the characters. That’s its failing. As base as “Knocked Up” was, it never forgot its characters, the necessity for them to be sympathetic and real, the idea that the laughs would come harder the more that audiences connected to those making them laugh. “The Heartbreak Kid” misses that critical point and, as such, it also misses its shot to stand alongside the year’s better comedies. Rated R. Grade: C+

“The Kingdom” DVD, HD DVD: After American oil workers and their families are slaughtered by terrorists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) goes against the government’s wishes and leads three colleagues – Jennifer Garner as a forensics specialist, Chris Cooper as a bomb expert, Jason Bateman as an intelligence guru – in a covert trip overseas to find out what happened. There, they are met with opposition, which they eventually work around thanks to the Saudi colonel (Ashraf Barhom) assigned to protect them. Initially, he does so with gruff assertiveness. But then, as he comes to question his country because, you know, these Americans have gleaned in 48 hours the sort of critical insights he himself hasn’t been able to do in a lifetime, he starts to listen to them and help. If that carries with it a whiff of condescension, “The Kingdom” is filled with it. It also is filled with its share of impressive action sequences, which are the film’s best selling points. But as the movie reveals itself to be increasingly, disappointingly manipulative and obvious, you see it for what it is – purely opportunistic, trading off our war in the Middle East and the fears surrounding it while offering audiences a pro and con look at the Arab community that grates with its black-and-white simplicity. There is no shading here, no gray tones, just a movie designed by those and for those who get their information from headlines and sound bites. If this film underscores anything, it’s just how deeply it misunderstands the Middle East, missing complexities it can’t even begin to understand. Rated R. Grade: D+

“Pan’s Labyrinth” HD DVD, Blu-ray: A violent, enthralling children’s movie made for adults. On one level, Guillermo del Toro’s excellent film is about the wonders of childhood, but on a deeper, more profound level, it’s about the risks inherent in childhood, which can be dire, particularly where fantasy is involved. The marvelous Ivana Baquero is 10-year-old Ofelia, who in 1944 Spain finds herself fatherless in the wake of that country’s civil war and now on a journey to northern Spain with her pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil). Carmen is the recent wife of fascist leader Capt. Vidal (Sergi Lopez), a vicious man who instills in Ofelia such fear, she retreats into what at first appears to be the comparative safety of a fairy-tale world. But when it becomes clear to her that her mother is so ill, she might not live through the pregnancy, and that Vidal is murdering those rising up against him, her fairy-tale world takes a turn into darkness, with a mysterious faun (Doug Jones) repeatedly offering her choices that threaten her life. A fabulous movie. Rated R. Grade: A

“Rush Hour 3” DVD, Blu-ray: A lazy pileup of stale ideas and so-so stuntwork that fails to recharge the franchise. This cloying, fractured slop of uninspired swill swam among summer’s worst. Returning for a paycheck after six years apart are Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, who reprise their roles as Inspector Lee and LAPD Detective James Carter, a mismatched couple of cops who find themselves trying to track down those responsible for attempting to assassinate the Chinese ambassador Han (Tzi Ma). When they promise the ambassador’s daughter (Zhang Jingchu) that they will track down Han’s would-be killers, it’s a situation that pulls Lee and Carter out of Los Angeles and into Paris, where the movie finds unconvincing ways to launch into a diatribe against the war in Iraq. Shoehorned into the script is a testy French cabdriver (Yvan Attal) whose hatred of Americans is just one of the film’s many clich?s. Initially, the cabbie is here only to bash, and while his rant against the war does have its merits, in this film, it presses against the comedic edges in ways that rub them raw. Is anyone really going to “Rush Hour 3” for social commentary? Isn’t that sort of like going to “Porky’s Revenge” expecting Merchant Ivory? Still, the movie pushes onward, laying waste with a mess of lame jokes as the duo take on Lee’s evil brother (Hiroyuki Sanada) and an evildoer played by a slumming Max von Sydow. Rush it to the bargain bin. Rated PG-13. Grade: D

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.