It is amazing what a fellow can do with a little less Madonna in his life.
Guy Ritchie is reborn as a filmmaker.
I do not mean to belittle his personal life.
No divorce involving children is an excuse to smirk. But, in terms of his professional life, Ritchie became a sham during his marriage to the Material Girl.
Among other travesties, he conjured the remake of Swept Away. Ritchie had the same Madonna malaise Sean Penn suffered. During his marriage to Madonna, they made Shanghai Surprise.
But RocknRolla, which exploded onto DVD this week, is just bloody brilliant, a return to the old form Ritchie demonstrated in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.
It has the flash and kinetic energy of those earlier cult pictures. Plus, with personal pain and an obvious maturity, Ritchie ups the ante. RocknRolla is a minor masterpiece of gonzo filmmaking.
It is subtitled A Story of Sex, Thugs and Rock 'n' Roll and stars Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton, Mark Strong and the fabulous Tom Wilkinson, who belongs among this year's Oscar nominees, although this genre rarely gets its due.
Set in contemporary London before the current economic meltdown, RocknRolla chronicles how old-school British gangsters, new-age Russian mobsters, corrupt politicians, junkie musicians and other shady types exploit the building boom in one of the world's most expensive cities.
There are echoes of The Godfather trilogy, yet RocknRolla is still fresh, funny and full of surprises.
The DVD is a two-disc Special Edition. But that second disc is the digital copy. That means all extras are on Disc One and I would have enjoyed more than one deleted scene (an amusing take on Butler, a treadmill and a cigarette) and one featurette (Ritchie smartly re-introduces us to modern London).
That makes the commentary he shares with Mark Strong (who is Al Pacino to Wilkinson's Marlon Brando, if you are still thinking Godfather) even more crucial as insight.
So Ritchie is back. It will be fascinating to see what he does next with his Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and Jude Law as Watson.
Lakeview Terrace
With director Neil LaBute's name on a marquee, you know you will be cringing and compelled to watch. LaBute, the most unconventional Mormon in the movie business, likes to take the obvious, twist it and plunge into the darkest depths. Consider his 1997 debut, In the Company of Men, and scan his career through to Lakeview Terrace. Be very, very afraid. But you cannot look away.
Lakeview Terrace takes American racism and demonstrates how, paradoxically, it is colour-blind. In this case, the bigot is a black Los Angeles police office played brilliantly by Samuel L. Jackson as an avenging angel. He expresses his smouldering rage when a mixed-race couple -- Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington -- move in next door. What follows is harrowing and fascinating, although the climax gets too pulpy for my taste.
The DVD arrived this week in a strong, widescreen-only edition with the full participation of cast and crew. LaBute leads the group commentary and everyone delves into the delicate race subject in the making-of doc.
Mary Poppins
Like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mary Poppins (1964) earned 13 Oscar nominations, one behind the record shared by All About Eve and Titanic. It won five, including best actress for then fresh-faced actress-singer Julie Andrews, now a legend.
Her supercalifragilistic nanny musical returns, in a gorgeous, remastered, widescreen-only transfer that reminds us how skilled director Robert Stevenson and his crew were integrating live action and animated animals in the pre-digital age. The new two-disc 45th Anniversary Edition, like most of these Disney oldies, is packed with good stuff for the fans, including a reunion of Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and composer Richard Sherman.
