Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Rental Queue Alert: Australia, Ashes of Time, Wonder Woman

Calling out sick never quite works for me...confessions of a blogaholic, I guess. Here are today's new DVDs. (Links go to Netflix for your ease of queue'ing)

The Must See
Ashes of Time Redux I once tried to watch a copy of Ashes of Time before the "reworking" and the image quality was so bad that I gave up after five minutes. Who wants a Wong Kar Wai movie with its visuals compromised? Nobody who knows how ravishing his imagery is, that's who. I'm thrilled to have a real go at this swordsmen drama starring the unbeatable Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and his two greatest screen lovers: Happy Together's Leslie Cheung and In the Mood for Love's Maggie Cheung. Plus there's Tony's frequent co-star and offscreen wife Carina Lau, Jacky Cheung and the legendary Brigitte Lin (The Bride With White Hair). Yes please sextupled.

Your Other Options
I've Loved You So Long Kristin Scott-Thomas slow burns through this French drama like a woman possessed by intractable personal demons. Some people think she should've been in the Oscar lineup. My interview with this great British actress is here.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua Remember when Dalmations were all the rage and everybody had to have one and true animal lovers were a little concerned that people weren't getting pets for the right reasons. That's what's going on with chihuahuas now, right?

Lake City Sissy Spacek and Troy Garity (Soldier's Girl) star in this indie drama as an estranged mother and son. If the script is as good as these two actors it might be a gem.

Australia Baz Luhrmann's messy '30s outback epic might be both diminished and reenergized on DVD. On the downside, the huge vistas will be smaller and that great cattle drive sequence, the obvious highlight, will be less of a stunner. On the other hand, DVD viewing tends to break up movies and Australia might feel less like a misfire and more like a generously overstuffed adventure serial once you're able watch it in pieces. Baz's wife Catherine Martin fetishizes Nicole Kidman with costumes and Baz fetishizes Hugh Jackman with the camera. Mucho eye candy [full review]


Wonder Woman If you're a fan of the Amazon princess you'll want to savor this new animated feature since you know that that live action film is never going to happen, right? You've accepted that, haven't you? DC does not have a clear vision for their movie franchises. Remember how long it took them to get Superman flying again? Wonder Woman is basically DC's kryptonite. She's always popping up and the very thought of her defeats them. We'll be lucky if a live action Wonder Woman gets made in our lifetime. Or maybe we'll be luckier if it doesn't since her transfer would be tremendously difficult to pull off. She'd need a strong screenplay and directorial vision, not a corporate board, guiding her to the screen.
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14 comments:

Michael B. said...

Australia looks amazing on Blu Ray.

Its one of those Blu Ray movies (Like Wall E, There Will Be Blood, Pirates) that look great on your TV.

Y Kant Goran Rite said...

I just caught 'Loved You Long Time' a couple days ago. Scott-Thomas was hypnotic and certainly better than Streep, Jolie and Winslet. But is it just me or did that film's final 5 minutes make sure that it made even less sense in retrospect?

Fox said...

Ashes of Time is so damn lovely. I don't think I even understood everything that was happening... but I still adored it.

J.D. said...

Seeing Ashes of Time Redux in theatres in November was one of the greatest cinematic highlights of my entire life. It was my first WKW on the big screen, and it's arguably his most gorgeous film at that?! I pretty much orgasmed. And then some.

rosengje said...

I got to see Ashes of Time Redux at Cannes with Wong Kar Wai in the audience. It was a few months after I had seen In the Mood for Love, which is now one of my favorite movies, for the first time and I almost died of cinematic bliss.

Anonymous said...

Australia looked great on DVD, but I can't wait to see what it looks like on Blu-ray

Anonymous said...

The cast of Ashes of Time is to die for.

I loved Leslie Cheung's performance in Farewell My Concubine, but since he was dubbed in it, this should be consider his best performance.

Awww, Brigitte Lin is such a goddess.

Anonymous said...

Kristin Scott Thomas is amazing in I've Loved you so long. I can't believe they didn't nominate her. Easily the best female performance of the year.

Anonymous said...

kind of off topic but who would you cast as Wonder Woman?

Glenn said...

"I just caught 'Loved You Long Time' a couple days ago. "

Teehee.

I really wanted to see Australia a second time in cinemas (it's still showing here, but will be gone soon). Alas, I'll just have to wait. I actually think the length will be MORE of an issue on DVD as I tend to get fidgety at home.

Roberta Lipp said...

We'll be lucky if a live action Wonder Woman gets made in our lifetime. Or maybe we'll be luckier if it doesn't since her transfer would be tremendously difficult to pull off. She'd need a strong screenplay and directorial vision, not a corporate board, guiding her to the screen.

Oh, Joss.

::wipes a tear::

John T said...

Yeah, count me both amongst those who thought Scott Thomas should have been gaining her second Oscar nomination this year for I've Loved You and amongst those absolutely ecstatic (thrilled, overjoyed, etc.) that you will be interviewing her on Thursday. I have eternal love for the three main actors in The English Patient, so I'm SOOOOO excited to see what she says about the film.

Anonymous said...

I picked up my copy of Australia on midnight on Monday. :)

Anonymous said...

Could Anne Hathaway be the perfect Wonder Woman? Better get her at her peak, folks.