August 7, 2009


RINGO


'Obsessed' DVD should remain shelved
By -- Sun Media


All that's missing is the pot of boiling bunnies. Obsessed is Fatal Attraction for the new millennium.

Obsessed, which debuted on DVD and Blu-ray this week, stars Beyonce Knowles and Idris Elba as an idealized married couple in Los Angeles. The equivalent of Glenn Close's psycho role is willowy blond Ali Larter, a delusional stalker-lover who arrives as a temp secretary. The deadly game is on.

Obsessed is not a great movie but director Steve Shill does hold your rapt attention. It is fascinating to see Knowles bust loose in her first non-musical dramatic role. She is an angry, empowered femme who could be fatal. While the template remains the same, the gender politics are different from Fatal Attraction. The undercurrent of race culture intrigues, too.

Both the widescreen-only DVD and Blu-ray share the same making-of extras, except that the Blu-ray houses a digital copy for PC or Mac systems. There is nothing startling in the extras -- no debate about the cautionary nature of the tale -- but the material is thorough. That includes a breakdown of the vicious catfight between Knowles and Larter, which also involved stuntpeople.

THE SOLOIST

Englishman Joe Wright's The Soloist is a compelling Los Angeles story about two outsiders in their own country. It is the true saga of an unlikely friendship between Steve Lopez, an L.A. Times columnist, and Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless schizophrenic with a sublime gift for playing classical music.

The movie is unnecessarily sentimental and disjointed. Yet it boasts two great performances from Robert Downey Jr. as Lopez and Jamie Foxx as Ayers. And the final act is haunting and apparently truthful.

The widescreen-only DVD and Blu-ray, new this week, both reinforce the veracity of the story, partly because real Skid Row denizens are on screen. Plus we meet both Lopez and Ayers, along with the actors who play them.

Other bonus materials, including Wright's commentary, delve into the real-life specifics with zeal. For all involved, The Soloist was meant as a clarion call for people to pay attention to the homeless crisis in America -- and everywhere else. This movie has a social conscience.

DELGO

In what must be a first, Marc Adler, Jason Maurer and Warren Grubb made the animated feature Delgo in Atlanta, Ga. -- not exactly the hub of American animation. They unleashed their imaginations and conjured something spectacular and beautiful. It is a morality fairytale of two fantastical civilizations pushed to the brink of war despite needing each other to survive.

Unfortunately, especially with the cuts the co-directors made to wrestle the film down to 89 minutes, the storytelling is jumpy and awkward. The widescreen-only DVD, new this week, is loaded with eager-to-please extras, including a commentary and deleted scenes that were needed in the film. Please don't miss Adler and Grubb's delicious short, Chroma Chameleon.

The Tigger Movie

The House of Mouse obviously knows animation and how to get it right. Disney got it wonderfully right with The Tigger Movie, a spinoff from A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh as a Tigger-centric story about friendship. It is back on DVD this week with a widescreen-only, two-disc 10th Anniversary Edition. As Tigger says, "There's nothing better than the best." I recommend this DVD. The movie looks great and it has generous extras, including two episodes of the old Pooh show, plus a digital copy for PC and Mac.

NEW THIS WEEK: Race to Witch Mountain - Delgo - The Soloist - Obsessed - The Tigger Movie: 10th Anniversary Edition - Icons of Screwball Comedy n Gomorrah - Fragments n Bad Habits.

NEW NEXT WEEK: The Class - I Love You, Man.

COMING SOON: Tyson (Aug. 18) - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition (Oct. 6).


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