Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, July 3rd:
“Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience” is a peppy performance from their 2008 arena spectaculars, supplemented with behind-the-scenes glimpses of the brothers romping and riding Segways. Deeply religious, they warble about teenage angst, emphasizing chase love and heartbreak and touching on the temptations of sex and drugs.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix propel “Two Lovers,” an adult drama about the nature of love and recognizing that, perhaps, following a fantasy is not the best path to happiness. Set in insular, working-class Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, with a bi-polar hero, it’s ultimately touching despite its bleak tone and self-indulgence.
Comedienne Isla Fisher plays a ditsy, bumbling Manhattan journalist battling her free-spending habits in “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” learning life-lessons about thrift and frivolity as she scores a rich guy (Hugh Dancy); the packaging is appealing but the “Sex and the City”/”Devil Wears Prada”-like concept is not only badly timed but also inept.
Wrestling star John Cena is the dead weight that drags down Renny Harlin’s “12 Rounds” in which a New Orleans cop (Cena) arrests an Irish arms dealer (Aiden Gillen) wanted by the FBI. A year later, the clever culprit breaks out of jail and wreaks revenge. Heavy on stunts but light on humor or plausibility, it’s quite wretched.
With “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,” another video game crashes and burns when translated to film, as Kristin Kreuk plays the titular heroine with martial arts skills. And the horror thriller “Razortooth” finds something alive deep in the Florida Everglades that should have died a long time ago, something that’s feeding when it should be full.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Richard Hankin’s powerful documentary “Home Front” explores what happens when those tens of thousands of American troops who have been severely wounded in Iraq come home. Focusing on the patriotic Feldbusch family of western Pennsylvania and their 23 year-old son, Jeremy, it offers intimate insight into coping with events that forever change one’s life. And a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each Blu-ray disc will be donated to programs benefiting wounded veterans.