Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, April 17:
Derived from Will Eisner’s seminal 1940’s graphic series, set in fictional Central City, “The Spirit: My City Screams” revolves around a crusading murdered cop (Gabriel Macht) who mysteriously returns from the dead, dressed in a suit, red tie and dark fedora. His nemesis is a crazed criminal, the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), aided by Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson), Plaster of Paris (Paz Vega) and assorted henchmen.
In Chen Shi-Zheng’s “Dark Matter,” when an elite academic patron (Meryl Streep) welcomes a brilliant Chinese mathematics prodigy (Beijing star Ye Liu) to Valley State University, they share his dreams of a Nobel Prize – but cultural differences and school politics threaten his ambition, resulting in unimaginable violence. This melodrama, which was based on a true incident that occurred in 1991, premiered at Sundance ’07 but its release was supposedly delayed because of the subsequent Virginia Tech shootings.
“Fight Night” is an action thriller revolving around a con-man (Michael Dubin) working the underground boxing circuit who comes up with a scam featuring a female fighter (Katherine Parker) with the skills to take down a man twice her size.
Made long before Barack Obama became president, the documentary “I.O.U.S.A” tackles our soaring national debt and its likely consequences for present and future Americans. Filled with disturbing facts about inflation, trade deficits and Wall Street, it astutely forecast our current financial meltdown. And HBO’s four-part mini-series, “House of Saddam,” delves into the character of Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein.
For film buffs: “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon: Complete Season” stars Richard “Dick” Simmons as the brave Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman who – along with his sled dog Yukon King and trusted horse Rex – tracked down rogues and scoundrels who mercilessly preyed upon peace-loving settlers and gold miners in the frozen wilderness.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Kate Winslet won this year’s Best Actress Oscar for playing Hanna Schmitz, a Nazi war criminal, in Stephen Daldry’s screen adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s acclaimed novel. The story opens in post-WWII Germany, where an impressionable teenager becomes involved with a mysterious ‘older woman’ who profoundly affects his life.