From the shelves to your hearts- DVD releases for January 6th

Posted by Donnie in Movies.

What new release goodness do we have in store this week?

Pineapple Express- Dale (Seth Rogen) and Saul (James Franco) co-star as stoners on the run from drug kingpin Ted (Gary Cole) after witnessing a murder. I assumed this would be just another stoner comedy ala Half-Baked or Friday but it is so much more…OK, not really that much more but there is a story and endgame and it’s not just all about the pot. It’s also about Dale’s love for his girlfriend (he’s 25 and she’s in high school) and the bond between a man and his dealer. Quite possibly the funniest thing in this movie is the fight seen between Dale, his dealer, Saul and Saul’s dealer, Red (Danny McBride). It probably runs about 15 minutes and I swear to you they use everything including the kitchen sink. Also, did you know that Rosie Perez was still alive? It’s true! And she appears in this movie as a crooked cop. I think that may be enough to entice anybody doubting how great this movie is. It’s Rosie!!!! THE funniest movie of 2008.

Righteous Kill- Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro star as veteren NYPD detectives on the hunt for a serial killer. This marks the third time these two legends of the cinema have co-starred together but the first where they share an extended amount of screen time. I don’t know if I can take DeNiro seriously after those damn Ben Stiller movies and Pacino’s decade of overacting.

Bangkok Dangerous- Nicholas Cage destroys yet another movie by starring as an assassin in this remake of the 1999 Thai action thriller. Although in the original, Cage’s character is deaf and mute, audiences cannot be denied his onscreen words of wisdom so his girlfriend is now deaf and mute instead. I never saw this, mainly because it disappeared from theaters pretty quickly. But can I still rightfully assume this is gonna be bad considering his track record the past few years? Is that fair? Yeah, I think so too.

Babylon A.D.- Vin Diesel stars in this sci-fi epic about a mercenary hired to bring a woman from Russia to NYC. Frenchman Mathieu Kassovitz co-wrote and directed this based on the novel Babylon Babies and developed it for five years before getting financing. The most memorable thing about the film is the drama surrounding its making: basically, there was a big falling out between Kassovitz and the studio who financed it, and after constant meddling and cuts made without his approval, his disowned the picture completeleu. This is a shame because I’ve become a fan of his work after seeing Crimson Rivers (starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel in 2000), but since then his last two films have been Gothika (ugh!) and this. He really needs to take a break from Hollywood and go back to France, make a string of great movies and come back with some stroke.

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