DVD Corner

“American Gangster” DVD, HD DVD – Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” stars Denzel Washington as real-life crime boss Frank Lucas, who from 1968 to 1975 built a drug empire in Harlem that rivaled anything built by his competition – the Mafia, with whom he eventually got into bed, and Harlem rival Nicky Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr.), with whom you could say he had something of a falling out. And why not? At the height of his career as a drug-running, churchgoing, life-snuffing, family-loving thug, Lucas was worth in the neighborhood of $150 million, so you can imagine the complications this created for him in his own neighborhood, particularly since Lucas controlled a market others wanted to corner. As with so many American movies focused on an individual who realizes the American dream, illegally or otherwise, “American Gangster” follows suit with a parallel story of those determined to bring that person down for achieving it. In this case, it wasn’t just Barnes who wanted Lucas gone. More significantly, it was Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the New Jersey narcotics cop who wanted to undo a man actively undoing his own people. Working against Roberts were his own colleagues across the river, dirty NYPD cops profiting on the sly from the illegal drug activity. Chief among them is Detective Trupo (an excellent Josh Brolin), who would be cheated out of one glam lifestyle if Roberts succeeded in his mission. The movie runs nearly three hours (and it sometimes feels it), and its ambitions ultimately prove too much for it. The screen burns with talent here, but many of the supporting performances are so underwritten, they make only fleeting impressions. The exception is Ruby Dee as Lucas’ mother, who shares a scene with Washington that’s so good and so memorable, it won her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. Rated R. Grade: B

“In the Valley of Elah” DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray: Tommy Lee Jones is Hank Deerfield, a Vietnam veteran and former military police officer who wakes one morning to learn that his son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) has returned home from a tour of duty in Iraq. Normally, this would be cause for celebration. Instead, it’s cause for alarm when Hank learns that the military believes Mike has gone AWOL. Launching into action, Hank packs his bags, says goodbye to his wife (Susan Sarandon) and leaves their Tennessee home for New Mexico, where Mike is stationed. It’s there that he begins the disturbing next stage of his life, which wends around the sort of dark corners no parent wants to travel. Director Paul Haggis builds a compelling mystery around a character-driven film laced with anti-war undertones. Charlize Theron is solid as the police detective who comes to help Hank, as is Jason Patric as a military detective who resents her because he’s trying to contain a possible scandal. While the movie’s considerable running time is against it, stick with it – it’s in its layers that it comes alive, revealing character and clues with passing asides. Key to its success is that the film ties its emotions to the gradually crumbling rock that is Tommy Lee Jones’ face. That’s a shrewd move, particularly since in that face are eyes that come to project so much – sorrow, grief, rage, despair – amid a stoic mug that was trained long ago to reveal nothing, and so it doesn’t. At least for awhile. Rated R. Grade: B+

“Lust, Caution”: Set in Japanese-occupied China, Ang Lee’s beautifully shot noir stars Tang Wei as Wong Chia Chi, who mixes into a group of young Chinese radicals who want to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), a vicious Japanese sympathizer actively torturing his own people. Because of her beauty, Chia Chi is chosen to seduce Yee with the sort of trap that’s responsible for the movie’s NC-17 rating. As for Chia Chi, she’s startled to discover that she rather likes Yee’s romantic kinks almost as much as she hates the man himself. What’s it all mean? Get ready – the graphic sex is a metaphor meant to literally evoke war’s bondage and the freedom that can come when one releases oneself from their own repression. Sound pretentious? It is, but Lee nevertheless stands tall as the most insatiable person in the room. He wants to know what happens when caution meets lust while a murder plot simmers on the back burner. If you also want to know, rent the movie, but also know this – the pace can be excruciatingly slow, which is a mark against a film that might have been a vexing romp had, say, 45 minutes been cut from its 2 1/2-hour running time. Rated NC-17. Grade: C

“Michael Clayton” DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray: Though its title hardly screams “cerebral thriller,” here’s the thing – since not much about this tightly wound thriller plays by the rules, why should the title follow suit? In an Academy Award-nominated performance is George Clooney as Michael Clayton, a corporate lawyer and “fixer” for a New York law firm who is charged to deal with the firm’s chief litigator, a manic depressive named Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), when the man goes off his meds and loses it. The reason? Edens has learned by way of a private memorandum that U/North, the company he’s protecting from a $3 billion class action lawsuit, knowingly distributed a product that has killed hundreds. By defending them, Edens essentially is throwing dirt on the graves of all those who died. Now, Clayton finds himself taking on U/North’s formidable attorney Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), who has plenty to lose herself should that memorandum go public. Her character is one of the movie’s harshest, most pointed jabs at corporate America – as cool as she can be, the woman is a fraud. As Clayton comes to see through her (Swinton is so good in this movie, she also is up for an Academy Award), the film begins its slow burn, with all of its fractured elements falling into place and Clooney delivering a performance that demands what only a few in the industry can deliver – a critical, grounded turn that allows the film to savor its well-earned commercial overtones. Rated R. Grade: A-

“Rendition”: Based on its cast alone, you’d swear Gavin Hood’s thriller would be involving, but since he doesn’t use Meryl Streep, Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard to full effect, it only occasionally is. Hood’s heart is in the script, which uses a gimmick that toys with the plot’s structure in ways that tamper with time. In the movie, Witherspoon’s Isabella becomes terrified when her husband, Anwar (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-born engineer, goes missing. When she tries to learn what we know up front – at Dulles International Airport, Anwar is singled out as the chief suspect in a North African bombing and stolen away to be grilled and tortured – the movie begins its long string of complexities, with an evil Streep and others tying enough knots to make for one bumpy, heavy-handed ride. This is a movie that wants to see so many sides of a complex situation-specifically, the state of the world after the Sept. 11 attacks- that it becomes a prism, though one in which light and color aren’t sufficiently intricate or, for that matter, accurately muted. Rated R. Grade: C+

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 also be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.