Tuesday, February 5, 2008
New on DVD: Across the Universe, The Brave One and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
An magical musical journey through '60s counterculture, a vigilante of the female persuasion and Brad Pitt playing an egocentric outlaw comprise the core of this week's feature releases for the home video buff.
Releasing on DVD this week is the Beatles-centric "muse-ical" pop history piece Across the Universe, which - when he viewed it on the big screen - Todd proclaimed "flawed but extraordinarily enjoyable." Kind of like ice cream that melts too fast, maybe.
Also making it to the small screen is Jodie Foster doing her best Charles Bronson in the Neil Jordan vigilante flick, The Brave One. I found it to be "a thoughtful vengeance tale" featuring ever-so-stylish camera-tilting and a nicely nuanced performance by Ms. Foster.
Saving the best for last, here's your chance to latch onto the mostly-overlooked (at the box office, anyway) tres elegante western masterpiece with the ridiculously long title, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. If the Academy hadn't nominated Casey Affleck for his portrayal of the infamous backshooter in this movie, I'd have been forced to load up with live ammo and head on out to the west coast to talk some sense into that pack of polecats. Oh, and the cinematography - overseen by Coen Brothers regular Roger Deakins - is spectacularly beautiful. (Deakins received an Oscar nom this year for both this movie and No Country for Old Men, whose photography he also helmed.)
