DVD Corner

“Beowulf” DVD, HD DVD: Robert Zemeckis’ “Beowulf” has a great ending – powerful, fiery and exciting. It’s a nice feat of showmanship, the best part of the film. What comes before it, with few exceptions, can be long and tedious. Set in Denmark and based on the Anglo-Saxon poem, the movie updates it all for the present with hot bods, nudity and sex. It follows the great warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone) as he accepts the challenge of a king (Anthony Hopkins) to kill the giant Grendel (Crispin Glover), who is wreaking havoc upon the king’s land. The situation escalates into Beowulf battling Grendel’s slinky mother (Angelina Jolie, of course) and finally their offspring, who has the ability to morph into a fire-breathing dragon. Along the way, Beowulf drinks his share of mead, becomes king, garners the love of a queen (Robin Wright Penn), enjoys a lover on the side, grows a conscience and keeps his rock-solid abs throughout. At the very least, plenty of the film’s target audience of young males will want to be him, but here’s the thing: Like Zemeckis’ 2004 movie, “The Polar Express,” the film uses performance-capture technology to turn its large cast of human actors into something that wavers between human and humanoid. What we have is a movie that renders beautiful interiors and landscapes but fails to faithfully capture the human form. The characters’ eyes are unnervingly without soul. Problems with the technology make for a distracting experience, one the movie struggles to overcome – but doesn’t. Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

“Justice League: The New Frontier” DVD, Blu-ray: Quite a league. Based on Darwyn Cooke’s award-winning graphic novel, this two-disc, direct-to-DVD set from Warner features Superman paired with Wonder Woman, The Flash, Batman, Green Lantern, Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz and a host of others, all of whom join forces to fight assorted creeps threatening to bring down the world. Fans get their money’s worth with Neil Patrick Harris, Jeremy Sisto, Miguel Ferrer and Lucy Lawless among those doing the fine voice work. More importantly, the animation intentionally captures the look and feel of a comic book, and it succeeds, seamlessly evoking the printed page. Grade: B+

“Margot at the Wedding” DVD: The driving force behind Noah Baumbach’s “Margot at the Wedding” is that Margot, played by Nicole Kidman, has come to the wedding of her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to cause trouble. Margot is one sly little sledgehammer of devastation, swinging that hammer as far and as wide as her mood swings will carry it. In movies, of course, the trouble with trouble is that you can only take it so far before it starts to cause thematic trouble onscreen, particularly if nothing else in the movie – a character you come to care about, a storyline you follow with interest – is there to balance the bad feelings. “Margot at the Wedding” feasts on bad feelings, revels in them, rolls in them, splashes in them until the screen becomes so thick with the murk of ill will, you’re exhausted by it or bored by it midway through. Sound like fun? When Baumbach goes for dark humor, it can be, but since he often doesn’t, it isn’t. “Margot” doesn’t offer a single character whom it’s easy to champion. They’re all unhappy types erupting along the sidelines, either caught in melodramas of their own making, or victims of those melodramas. Margot’s son, Claude (Zane Pais), might have been somebody you could have rooted for if the story had cared about him, which it doesn’t, and if he wasn’t presented as such a weird little misanthrope, which he is. Like all of the characters in this movie, he’s just another enigma here to be looked at, not explored. Rated PG-13. Grade: C

“Notting Hill/Erin Brockovich” DVD: A double feature from Universal with Julia Roberts as its hook. In “Notting Hill,” Roberts is Anna Scott, an unhappy, unloved, long-suffering movie star who itches to get away from the media and find happiness with a regular guy. Hugh Grant is that regular guy, a dapper bookstore owner named William who unwittingly falls for Anna when she happens into his store. As Anna and William grapple with the hurdle of Anna’s celebrity, the script gives each surprising depth, with Roberts and Grant enjoying jolts of chemistry that lift the production. Heavier fair awaits Roberts in “Erin Brockovich.” Based on a true story, the movie is about one woman’s crusade to find herself and her place in this world while fighting a $28 billion conglomerate knowingly dumping deadly carcinogens into the groundwater of Hinkley, Calif. Roberts is Brockovich, an uneducated but smart, tough woman who takes on corporate America in a padded bra and stiletto heels. Perfect casting? You bet. To director Steven Soderbergh’s credit, his film only treats Erin as the world treats beautiful women – as sex objects whose respect must be earned. For her trouble, Roberts earned a $20 million paycheck and an Academy Award. Grades: “Notting Hill” B+; “Erin Brockovich” B+

“Run Lola Run” Blu-ray: From Tom Tykwer, a smashing, kinetic rush of style that uses a nonstop techno soundtrack and periods of animation to help propel it into the stratosphere. When Lola (Franka Potente) receives a frantic telephone call from her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), her life changes and changes and changes in surprising ways. Manni’s problem? It seems that while leaving the subway, he left behind a bag filled with 100,000 deutsche marks, which a delighted homeless man came upon – and quickly ran off with. The money didn’t belong to Manni, but to a vicious drug dealer who will kill Manni if Manni doesn’t come up with the stolen loot in 20 minutes. Manni’s solution? Rob a grocery store. Lola’s solution? Demand that Manni wait where he is while she runs across the busy streets of Berlin to her father, a banker, for help. At only 81 minutes, “Run Lola Run” is a lean action film that’s tweaked so tightly – and feels so urgent – the pace never lags. Rated R. Grade: A

“30 Days of Night” DVD, Blu-ray: David Slade’s feverish horror movie is built on stock elements, but it’s still fun and the premise behind it is ingenious. In Barrow, Alaska, during a period when the sun doesn’t shine for one month, vampires descend to wreak havoc. Who needs caskets when the pitch dark is pervasive? Josh Hartnett is Barrow’s sheriff, Eben, who must deal with these icy visitors while the deadly circumstances allow him to warm up to his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George). What ensues is a B-movie peppered with plot holes aplenty, but also sufficient suspense and action. For those coming to the movie only for that, it’s unlikely that they’ll be disappointed. Rated R. Grade: B-