USCCB - (Film & Broadcasting) - DVD/VIDEO REVIEWS week of January 11, 2010

DVD/VIDEO REVIEWS week of January 11, 2010

This week's DVD and Blu-ray releases

The following are capsule reviews of new and recent DVD and Blu-ray releases from the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Theatrical movies have a USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification and Motion Picture Association of America rating. These classifications refer only to the theatrical version of the films below, and do not take into account the discs' extra content.

Benny & Joon

Offbeat love story with a mentally ill, homebound young woman (Mary Stuart Masterson) falling for a would-be mime (Johnny Depp) who encourages her independence despite the objections of her fiercely overprotective brother (Aidan Quinn). While director Jeremiah Chechik clearly romanticizes the two social outcasts, the movie's charm lies in its intermingling of sweet pathos, whimsical humor and strong sense of family and caring. An implied sexual encounter and an instance of rough language. Spanish language and titles options. A-III --adults. (PG) (MGM Home Entertainment)
1993

Beyond the Sea

Entertaining -- if dramatically uneven -- biopic about Bobby Darin (Kevin Spacey, who also directed) which traces the singer's life from sickly child in the Bronx, where his bout with rheumatic fever had doctors predicting he wouldn't make it to his 15th birthday, through his early rise to fame, marriage to actress Sandra Dee, and triumphs in nightclubs, film and recording. He did all this while racing the clock with a bad heart, a condition that would fell him at the young age of 36, and coping with a devastating revelation about his parentage. Spacey's singing of the Darin hits is phenomenally good, and even if he looks a mite mature for the role, he pulls it off. Though the flashback framing device is initially awkward, once the story gets going the film is absorbing with several touching scenes. Some rough and profane language and one nonexplicit sexual encounter. Spanish titles option. A-III --adults. (PG-13) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) 2004

Fame

Ensemble drama with music follows a class of gifted students (most prominently Kay Panabaker, Asher Book, Naturi Naughton and Collins Pennie) and their dedicated teachers (among them Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton and Bebe Neuwirth) through four years at a New York City high school for the performing arts. Director Kevin Tancharoen's remake of Alan Parker's 1980 celebration of creative exuberance jettisons most of the original's objectionable elements but, some enjoyable musical numbers aside, the results are mostly tepid. A scene involving suicide, a sexual situation, underage drinking, at least one use of profanity, and a half-dozen crude and a few crass terms. he A-III --adults. (PG) (MGM Home Entertainment; also available on Blu-ray) 2009

Great Expectations

In this reworked and updated version of the Charles Dickens classic, a poor Florida youth (Ethan Hawke) is given the chance to make good in the New York art world thanks to an anonymous patron (Robert De Niro), but his expectations center on winning the love of the cruel girl (Gwyneth Paltrow) he has idealized from his youth. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, the movie keeps the core of Dickens’ story while making considerable changes in adapting it to a contemporary American setting but the coming-of-age tale that results is dramatically uneven and the characters uncompelling. Stylized violence, sexual situations, brief nudity, occasional profanity and some rough language. Spanish titles option. A-III --adults. (R) (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) 1998

Honeymoon in Vegas

Hours before the wedding, the prospective groom (Nicolas Cage) squares his losses in a Vegas card game by loaning his fiancee (Sarah Jessica Parker) for a platonic weekend with a wealthy, older man (James Caan) who really wants to marry her himself. Writer-director Andrew Bergman's slight comedy uses a convention of international Elvis impersonators as a diverting gimmick but the story sometimes lags behind the laughs. An unmarried sexual relationship, flash of nudity and an instance of rough language. Spanish titles option. A-III --adults. (PG-13) (MGM Home Entertainment) 1992

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

A terrific performance by Joan Plowright is reason enough to catch this low-key British charmer about an elderly matron who moves into a shabbily genteel London hotel, and just when she's abandoned by her uncaring daughter and grandson and appears to be facing a dead-end existence, she is befriended by a handsome young writer (Rupert Friend) whom she passes off as her grandson to the inquisitive residents. For this bittersweet film, director Dan Ireland has assembled a top cast of British pros to play the hotel's loners (Anna Massey, Robert Lang, Marcia Warren, Georgina Hale and Millicent Martin) and, though improbable, the story imparts a worthy message about aging and human connection. Mild profanity and innuendo, brief instances of crude language, a brief sexual encounter with no nudity, premarital sex. A-III --adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. (Terra Entertainment) 2005

Post Grad

After failing to secure her dream job, a recent college graduate (Alexis Bledel) is forced to return home to her eccentric parents (Jane Lynch and Michael Keaton) and feisty grandmother (Carol Burnett) whose antics distract her from her employment search and from her efforts to choose between her longtime boyfriend (Zach Gilford) and a Brazilian-born ladies' man (Rodrigo Santoro). A talented cast is becalmed, in veteran animation director Vicky Jenson's live-action debut, by a listless script which, though it boosts family solidarity, also features a passionate encounter between characters who have barely met and repeatedly refers to the importance of condom use. Brief nongraphic, nonmarital sexual activity, occasional sexual references, a half-dozen uses of profanity, at least one use of the F-word, and some crude and crass language. Spanish language and titles options. A-III --adults. (PG-13) (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; also available on Blu-ray)(2009

Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself

A selfish club singer (Taraji P. Henson) learns the redemptive power of unselfish love when she finds herself caring for her dead sister's three children (Hope Olaide Wilson, Kwesi Boakye and Frederick Siglar). Writer-director Tyler Perry's adaptation of his own stage drama is a hard-driving, if entirely predictable, morality play with music in which his trademark comic character, "Madea" Simmons, has only a brief supporting role. Implied adultery, a brief scene of sexual menace, a fleeting glimpse of a male backside and a bit of crass language. Spanish language and titles options. A-II -- adults and adolescents. (PG-13) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment; also available on Blu-ray) 2009

These movies have been evaluated for artistic merit and moral suitability by the media reviewing division of Catholic News Service. The reviews include the CNS rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

A-I -- general patronage;
A-II -- adults and adolescents;
A-III -- adults;
L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
O -- morally offensive.

Note: Some movies previously were designated A-IV. Older films with this classification should be regarded as classified L.