"Ray"

DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review

By Christopher Smith

In “Ray,” the rich, satisfying biography of Ray Charles, which is just out on Blu-ray disc, audiences will be reminded again why Jamie Foxx won the Academy Award for Best Actor as the legendary musician.

As Charles, who died in June at age 73, Foxx transforms himself with a performance that's as startling as it is authentic. It’s beyond imitation. He's so convincing in the role, he makes you believe you’re watching Charles play himself, an uncanny feat of showmanship that's a joy to behold.

As directed by Taylor Hackford from a script he co-wrote with James L. White, the movie’s focus is sweeping. It follows Charles’ bleak childhood in the ‘30s, his rise to fame in the ‘50s and ‘60s, how he first pushed the nation’s buttons by blending gospel music with the sexual rhythms of R&B.

It examines how he was banned from the state of Georgia because he took a stand against segregation, how Mary Ann Fisher (Aunjanue Ellis) and Margie Hendricks (Regina King) became his combative, long-term lovers, and how his shifting tastes in music suited the wandering, hungry aesthetic of a true artist.

The movie follows most biopics in that it’s a bit too packaged for its own good, condensing its subject’s unmanageable life into a manageable whole. Still, if it occasionally feels too neat, such in how it suggests that several of Charles’ most popular songs sprung spontaneously from his arguments with various girlfriends, it never masks the fact that Charles could be a difficult man with flaws as great as his talent.

There’s a fair amount of risk in that, particularly when you’re dealing with an icon as beloved as Ray Charles. Hackford and White know this, but they nevertheless resist hagiography and do the right thing, arguing that had you known Charles intimately, you likely would have had more respect for his body of work than for the man himself.

As excellent as the supporting cast is, what’s essential to the movie’s success is Foxx. The reason he’s so good in “Ray” goes beyond his formidable gifts as an actor. What makes him perfect for the role is how he relates so completely with Charles.

Like the musician, Foxx was raised by a strong Christian woman, he learned to play the piano as a child, and in his youth, he left his small, rural southern town for the bright lights of a big city, where he hoped to start a music career. Those similarities help him build a framework for a performance that’s full-bodied and complex.

Physically, he also nails Charles, from his appearance to his rocking swing at the piano to his defiant, shuffling gate.

In lesser hands, this could have been disastrous—a pantomime of horrors that was all wrong. But Foxx is willing to take risks that transcend the screen, allowing him to present a gifted artist haunted by his share of demons--the childhood death of his brother, which he believes he could have prevented; the loss of his eyesight at age 7; his 20-year addiction to heroin; and his years of philandering, which strained his relationship with wife, Della Bea (Kerry Washington), while producing more children with other women than this film has time to explore.

In the end, what Jamie Foxx has become is the actor his contemporary, Cuba Gooding Jr., has failed to become—polished, intelligent and reliable.  His performance in “Ray” is still something to get excited about.  It is, in fact, what acting is about.

Grade: A

"Ray"

DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review

By Christopher Smith

In “Ray,” the rich, satisfying biography of Ray Charles, which is just out on Blu-ray disc, audiences will be reminded again why Jamie Foxx won the Academy Award for Best Actor as the legendary musician.

As Charles, who died in June at age 73, Foxx transforms himself with a performance that's as startling as it is authentic. It’s beyond imitation. He's so convincing in the role, he makes you believe you’re watching Charles play himself, an uncanny feat of showmanship that's a joy to behold.

As directed by Taylor Hackford from a script he co-wrote with James L. White, the movie’s focus is sweeping. It follows Charles’ bleak childhood in the ‘30s, his rise to fame in the ‘50s and ‘60s, how he first pushed the nation’s buttons by blending gospel music with the sexual rhythms of R&B.

It examines how he was banned from the state of Georgia because he took a stand against segregation, how Mary Ann Fisher (Aunjanue Ellis) and Margie Hendricks (Regina King) became his combative, long-term lovers, and how his shifting tastes in music suited the wandering, hungry aesthetic of a true artist.

The movie follows most biopics in that it’s a bit too packaged for its own good, condensing its subject’s unmanageable life into a manageable whole. Still, if it occasionally feels too neat, such in how it suggests that several of Charles’ most popular songs sprung spontaneously from his arguments with various girlfriends, it never masks the fact that Charles could be a difficult man with flaws as great as his talent.

There’s a fair amount of risk in that, particularly when you’re dealing with an icon as beloved as Ray Charles. Hackford and White know this, but they nevertheless resist hagiography and do the right thing, arguing that had you known Charles intimately, you likely would have had more respect for his body of work than for the man himself.

As excellent as the supporting cast is, what’s essential to the movie’s success is Foxx. The reason he’s so good in “Ray” goes beyond his formidable gifts as an actor. What makes him perfect for the role is how he relates so completely with Charles.

Like the musician, Foxx was raised by a strong Christian woman, he learned to play the piano as a child, and in his youth, he left his small, rural southern town for the bright lights of a big city, where he hoped to start a music career. Those similarities help him build a framework for a performance that’s full-bodied and complex.

Physically, he also nails Charles, from his appearance to his rocking swing at the piano to his defiant, shuffling gate.

In lesser hands, this could have been disastrous—a pantomime of horrors that was all wrong. But Foxx is willing to take risks that transcend the screen, allowing him to present a gifted artist haunted by his share of demons--the childhood death of his brother, which he believes he could have prevented; the loss of his eyesight at age 7; his 20-year addiction to heroin; and his years of philandering, which strained his relationship with wife, Della Bea (Kerry Washington), while producing more children with other women than this film has time to explore.

In the end, what Jamie Foxx has become is the actor his contemporary, Cuba Gooding Jr., has failed to become—polished, intelligent and reliable.  His performance in “Ray” is still something to get excited about.  It is, in fact, what acting is about.

Grade: A

"The Wiz"

Blu-Ray, DVD Movie Review

Directed by Sidney Lumet, Written by Joel Schumacher, Rated PG, 134-minutes.

By our guest blogger, Matthew Schimkowitz

A reimagining of "The Wizard of Oz" isn't necessarily the worst idea ever, especially with Motown's legendary songwriter Quincy Jones providing the music. Motown even hired veteran director Sidney Lumet to helm the picture, so with this wealth of talent on display, what went wrong with "The Wiz," which now is available on Blu-ray disc?

"The Wiz" overloads the screen with almost everything. It's inconsistent production values and, more surprisingly, inconsistent soundtrack, leaves the film stranded with no ruby slippers.

The film sets "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" in late-'70s Harlem. Diana Ross takes over the roll as Dorothy, a young girl who's never left her neighborhood until a blizzard sends her to Oz. There, she meets a brainless Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), a heartless Tin-Man (Nipsey Russell) and a cowardly lion (Ted Ross). The team then searches out the Wizard of Oz (Richard Pryor), who can solve their problems and send Dorothy home.

Motown's impressive cast does their job with enough soul to keep things entertaining. Ross' lip quivering apprehension and Jackson's madcap, unstable Scarecrow joyfully dance down the yellow brick road to the delight of audiences. These two, along with the rest of the cast, exaggerate their parts to the fullest--and it’s well appreciated.

The world around them is the problem. Lumet spreads his budget two thin--he ignores the small things audiences take for granted. Actors frequently move out of sync with the poorly edited soundtrack, leaving their mouths moving on a silent screen. The world of Oz is simultaneously gloriously rich and undeniably cheap, sometimes in the same scene, making many of the enormous sets laughable and the make-up design horrifying.

Lumet overextends the dance numbers, as well, and since they don’t move the characters forward, it slows the film down tremendously. The film cries for an antagonist, but because we’ve spent so much time dancing around villainous garbage cans, Lumet only dedicates one scene to the Wicked Witch of the West, Evillene (Mabel King).

This wouldn't be such a problem if the songs were good, but Jones' soundtrack is some of the worst material of his career. The songs are too long, too generic, too similar to be of any value.

"The Wiz" is a bloated and missed opportunity. Its star-studded cast sidesteps the mistakes of their director and songwriter to no avail. They remain trapped in a disappointing new world that remains one of Motown's few blunders.

Grade: C-

"The Wiz"

Blu-Ray, DVD Movie Review

Directed by Sidney Lumet, Written by Joel Schumacher, Rated PG, 134-minutes.

By our guest blogger, Matthew Schimkowitz

A reimagining of "The Wizard of Oz" isn't necessarily the worst idea ever, especially with Motown's legendary songwriter Quincy Jones providing the music. Motown even hired veteran director Sidney Lumet to helm the picture, so with this wealth of talent on display, what went wrong with "The Wiz," which now is available on Blu-ray disc?

"The Wiz" overloads the screen with almost everything. It's inconsistent production values and, more surprisingly, inconsistent soundtrack, leaves the film stranded with no ruby slippers.

The film sets "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" in late-'70s Harlem. Diana Ross takes over the roll as Dorothy, a young girl who's never left her neighborhood until a blizzard sends her to Oz. There, she meets a brainless Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), a heartless Tin-Man (Nipsey Russell) and a cowardly lion (Ted Ross). The team then searches out the Wizard of Oz (Richard Pryor), who can solve their problems and send Dorothy home.

Motown's impressive cast does their job with enough soul to keep things entertaining. Ross' lip quivering apprehension and Jackson's madcap, unstable Scarecrow joyfully dance down the yellow brick road to the delight of audiences. These two, along with the rest of the cast, exaggerate their parts to the fullest--and it’s well appreciated.

The world around them is the problem. Lumet spreads his budget two thin--he ignores the small things audiences take for granted. Actors frequently move out of sync with the poorly edited soundtrack, leaving their mouths moving on a silent screen. The world of Oz is simultaneously gloriously rich and undeniably cheap, sometimes in the same scene, making many of the enormous sets laughable and the make-up design horrifying.

Lumet overextends the dance numbers, as well, and since they don’t move the characters forward, it slows the film down tremendously. The film cries for an antagonist, but because we’ve spent so much time dancing around villainous garbage cans, Lumet only dedicates one scene to the Wicked Witch of the West, Evillene (Mabel King).

This wouldn't be such a problem if the songs were good, but Jones' soundtrack is some of the worst material of his career. The songs are too long, too generic, too similar to be of any value.

"The Wiz" is a bloated and missed opportunity. Its star-studded cast sidesteps the mistakes of their director and songwriter to no avail. They remain trapped in a disappointing new world that remains one of Motown's few blunders.

Grade: C-

Movie Review

“Nine”

Directed by Rob Marshall, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, 112 minutes, rated PG-13.

By Christopher Smith

The new Rob Marshall movie is as much a curiosity as it is a disaster.

Presumably, it’s about Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis, wasted), a smoky wreck and famous Italian director not unlike Federico Fellini who, in 1960s Rome, is about to follow two recent flops with his new movie, the aggressively titled, “Italia.”

Trouble is, much like Marcello Mastroioanni’s character in Fellini’s “8 1/2,” which inspired “Nine,” Guido is crippled by the prospect of failing. Without a script or, for that matter, an idea for a story, he has no clue what “Italia” even looks like.

The same can be said for Marshall (“Chicago”) about “Nine.” Watching his film unfold in its belches of choppy extravagance, you can’t help wondering if the director himself had a clue about how to approach this former Broadway musical and turn it into a movie.

An odd kind of symmetry is at work here. Both Guido and Marshall once knew critical success, and now each is trying to top those successes while overcoming a recent failure (for Marshall, “Memoirs of a Geisha”). The irony? Since this is Marshall’s second flop in a row, he essentially has matched Guido flop for flop.

Going into the movie, it’s difficult not to be excited to see it, particularly if you saw the terrific (and misleading) trailer, if you are a fan of Marshall’s “Chicago,” and also is you’re charged by the award-winning cast.

Joining Day-Lewis are Judi Dench, who adds pluck as Guido’s disenfranchised costume designer; Nicole Kidman as a pretty icicle with coiffed hair and parted lips who plays a popular actress we never come to know; Penelope Cruz as Guido’s saucy mistress who somehow finds a personality within the thin material; Kate Hudson as a reporter eager to know more about Guido’s new film--and how fashion plays a role in it; and then there’s the biggest waste of talent of all, Sophia Loren, who is Guido’s mother and apparently only here to stretch out her arms.

There are others, specifically Marion Cotillard as Guido’s wife, Louisa. She once was a leading actress in Guido’s films, but she hasn’t worked since marrying him, and she’s well aware of how often he has deceived her with his many affairs. You feel for her, which is a good thing because she’s the only character in this movie who elicits an emotional connection. Finally, there’s pop star Fergie, who looks like a bloated cherub with a frizzy fright wig on her head--and who delivers the best musical performance in her slutty rendition of “Be Italian.”

Each actor is offered the opportunity to sing and dance in separate stage productions that take place in the cobwebs of Guido’s mind, but good luck finding a cohesive storyline attached to them. Instead of informing the movie with some semblance of a plot, most of the performances feel stapled to this musical because, well, it’s being billed as a musical. Some of the productions are fun to watch (Cruz, Dench, Hudson), but these show-stoppers nevertheless are lazily filmed and they don’t move the story forward as they did in Marshall’s “Chicago.” They’re just here--the cinematic equivalent of roosters flapping their clipped wings and crowing at center stage.

Such is the movie. Poor Guido. Poor Marshall. Poor audiences, who likely were eager to see this movie (given the hype, who wasn’t?), but who likely will leave it knowing they deserved better.

Grade: D

View the trailer for "Nine" below. If only it truly had the energy showcased here. Thoughts?

Movie Review

“Nine”

Directed by Rob Marshall, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, 112 minutes, rated PG-13.

By Christopher Smith

The new Rob Marshall movie is as much a curiosity as it is a disaster.

Presumably, it’s about Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis, wasted), a smoky wreck and famous Italian director not unlike Federico Fellini who, in 1960s Rome, is about to follow two recent flops with his new movie, the aggressively titled, “Italia.”

Trouble is, much like Marcello Mastroioanni’s character in Fellini’s “8 1/2,” which inspired “Nine,” Guido is crippled by the prospect of failing. Without a script or, for that matter, an idea for a story, he has no clue what “Italia” even looks like.

The same can be said for Marshall (“Chicago”) about “Nine.” Watching his film unfold in its belches of choppy extravagance, you can’t help wondering if the director himself had a clue about how to approach this former Broadway musical and turn it into a movie.

An odd kind of symmetry is at work here. Both Guido and Marshall once knew critical success, and now each is trying to top those successes while overcoming a recent failure (for Marshall, “Memoirs of a Geisha”). The irony? Since this is Marshall’s second flop in a row, he essentially has matched Guido flop for flop.

Going into the movie, it’s difficult not to be excited to see it, particularly if you saw the terrific (and misleading) trailer, if you are a fan of Marshall’s “Chicago,” and also is you’re charged by the award-winning cast.

Joining Day-Lewis are Judi Dench, who adds pluck as Guido’s disenfranchised costume designer; Nicole Kidman as a pretty icicle with coiffed hair and parted lips who plays a popular actress we never come to know; Penelope Cruz as Guido’s saucy mistress who somehow finds a personality within the thin material; Kate Hudson as a reporter eager to know more about Guido’s new film--and how fashion plays a role in it; and then there’s the biggest waste of talent of all, Sophia Loren, who is Guido’s mother and apparently only here to stretch out her arms.

There are others, specifically Marion Cotillard as Guido’s wife, Louisa. She once was a leading actress in Guido’s films, but she hasn’t worked since marrying him, and she’s well aware of how often he has deceived her with his many affairs. You feel for her, which is a good thing because she’s the only character in this movie who elicits an emotional connection. Finally, there’s pop star Fergie, who looks like a bloated cherub with a frizzy fright wig on her head--and who delivers the best musical performance in her slutty rendition of “Be Italian.”

Each actor is offered the opportunity to sing and dance in separate stage productions that take place in the cobwebs of Guido’s mind, but good luck finding a cohesive storyline attached to them. Instead of informing the movie with some semblance of a plot, most of the performances feel stapled to this musical because, well, it’s being billed as a musical. Some of the productions are fun to watch (Cruz, Dench, Hudson), but these show-stoppers nevertheless are lazily filmed and they don’t move the story forward as they did in Marshall’s “Chicago.” They’re just here--the cinematic equivalent of roosters flapping their clipped wings and crowing at center stage.

Such is the movie. Poor Guido. Poor Marshall. Poor audiences, who likely were eager to see this movie (given the hype, who wasn’t?), but who likely will leave it knowing they deserved better.

Grade: D

View the trailer for "Nine" below. If only it truly had the energy showcased here. Thoughts?

By our guest blogger, Britt Sondreal

“Nine” is one of this season’s most anticipated holiday movie releases, a big-screen adaptation of the Tony award-winning 1982 musical by the same name. A semi-biographical dip into Fellini’s life, the musical and movie focus on the midlife crisis of one Guido Contini, a famous Italian film director with a penchant for beautiful women and extravagant living who finds himself creatively bankrupt. The movie is directed by Rob Marshall, the force behind 2002’s musical smash, “Chicago.”

Released on Dec. 15, 2009, the "Nine" soundtrack has, like the movie, a lot of the same ingredients as “Chicago”--big-name stars not necessarily known for their musical chops delivering terrific vocal performances. Here, we find a host of Hollywood’s finest, including Daniel Day Lewis, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz, Dame Judy Dench and Sophia Lauren, all belting it out with, for the most part, successful dialect and accent work to boot. The only members of the cast with prior musical prowess are Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard (who won an Oscar for her turn as Edith Piaf in “La Vie En Rose”) and rock star Fergie.  Everyone here showcases genuine vocal strength and agility (listen to Cruz’s seductive gymnastics on “Call From the Vatican” or Cotillard’s angry desperation in the slinky cabaret-act “Take It All”).

Despite the wow factor in the casting and the extravagant production promised in the movie's trailer (see below), the soundtrack falls short of what it could be and ultimately fails to deliver substantial power. Where the “Chicago” album sets fire to your pulse, “Nine” is politely risque and leaves behind the potential for edgier interpretation and creative risk.

And so, the soundtrack is a mix.  It offers solid, well-produced music that features the sort of safe orchestration that will please most musical theater fans, but this listener heard a lost opportunity to give the material new life for an audience of the digital age. The salsa rhythm-driven Hudson solo “Cinema Italiano,” for instance, is a prime example--one could easily imagine a heavy beat with ambient reverb vocal effects, thus allowing the piece to live up to its frenetic music video-inspired visuals. Even in its “Ron Fair Remix” version, which appears at the end of the album, the additional beat that's dropped in is the only real difference here--and it's a disappointingly bland one. With the wide array of sonic tools at their disposal and no live-performance production constraints, it’s a shame that this soundtrack decided to play it safe.

View the movie trailer for "Nine" below. Thoughts?

By our guest blogger, Britt Sondreal

“Nine” is one of this season’s most anticipated holiday movie releases, a big-screen adaptation of the Tony award-winning 1982 musical by the same name. A semi-biographical dip into Fellini’s life, the musical and movie focus on the midlife crisis of one Guido Contini, a famous Italian film director with a penchant for beautiful women and extravagant living who finds himself creatively bankrupt. The movie is directed by Rob Marshall, the force behind 2002’s musical smash, “Chicago.”

Released on Dec. 15, 2009, the "Nine" soundtrack has, like the movie, a lot of the same ingredients as “Chicago”--big-name stars not necessarily known for their musical chops delivering terrific vocal performances. Here, we find a host of Hollywood’s finest, including Daniel Day Lewis, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz, Dame Judy Dench and Sophia Lauren, all belting it out with, for the most part, successful dialect and accent work to boot. The only members of the cast with prior musical prowess are Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard (who won an Oscar for her turn as Edith Piaf in “La Vie En Rose”) and rock star Fergie.  Everyone here showcases genuine vocal strength and agility (listen to Cruz’s seductive gymnastics on “Call From the Vatican” or Cotillard’s angry desperation in the slinky cabaret-act “Take It All”).

Despite the wow factor in the casting and the extravagant production promised in the movie's trailer (see below), the soundtrack falls short of what it could be and ultimately fails to deliver substantial power. Where the “Chicago” album sets fire to your pulse, “Nine” is politely risque and leaves behind the potential for edgier interpretation and creative risk.

And so, the soundtrack is a mix.  It offers solid, well-produced music that features the sort of safe orchestration that will please most musical theater fans, but this listener heard a lost opportunity to give the material new life for an audience of the digital age. The salsa rhythm-driven Hudson solo “Cinema Italiano,” for instance, is a prime example--one could easily imagine a heavy beat with ambient reverb vocal effects, thus allowing the piece to live up to its frenetic music video-inspired visuals. Even in its “Ron Fair Remix” version, which appears at the end of the album, the additional beat that's dropped in is the only real difference here--and it's a disappointingly bland one. With the wide array of sonic tools at their disposal and no live-performance production constraints, it’s a shame that this soundtrack decided to play it safe.

View the movie trailer for "Nine" below. Thoughts?

The set is loaded with extras, including a 32-page book, a music video, deleted scenes and the film’s complete soundtrack on CD, but all pale in comparison to the film itself.

You could spend all week eating bacon at a pig farm and still find more ham in this irrepressible, unstoppable kaleidoscope of karaoke camp gone berserk.

The movie features a cast happily mainlining the more popular offerings in ABBA’s songbook.

And what a songbook. Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, “Mamma Mia!” stars Meryl Streep as Donna, a former hippie who now toils in the hotel trade on a beautiful Greek island, where her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is about to have one big, fat Greek wedding when she marries the love of her life, Sky (Dominic Cooper).

Since Sophie never has met her father but wants more than anything to have him walk her down the aisle, she does a little snooping in her mother’s heated diary and finds the three men who could be that man. They are Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth), all of whom don’t know what Sophie is up to, and neither does Donna, whose face falls the moment she’s faced with her past--and all it could mean to her present.

Getting her through it are her two best girlfriends, Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), each of whom once accompanied Tanya in being Donna’s backup singer in Donna & the Dynamos.

The rest of the plot is a whirlwind--too much to explore here, but all of which uses ABBA’s songs to tell its story. While it’s true that the film’s chronology never adds up, it’s best not to question it or the other moments of failed logic. This is a messy, shoot-for-the-moon-or-bust movie, with everyone so determined to deliver a good time, they go to great, successful lengths to do just that.


Rated PG-13. Grade: B+


View the trailer for "Mamma Mia!" here: 

The set is loaded with extras, including a 32-page book, a music video, deleted scenes and the film’s complete soundtrack on CD, but all pale in comparison to the film itself.

You could spend all week eating bacon at a pig farm and still find more ham in this irrepressible, unstoppable kaleidoscope of karaoke camp gone berserk.

The movie features a cast happily mainlining the more popular offerings in ABBA’s songbook.

And what a songbook. Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, “Mamma Mia!” stars Meryl Streep as Donna, a former hippie who now toils in the hotel trade on a beautiful Greek island, where her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is about to have one big, fat Greek wedding when she marries the love of her life, Sky (Dominic Cooper).

Since Sophie never has met her father but wants more than anything to have him walk her down the aisle, she does a little snooping in her mother’s heated diary and finds the three men who could be that man. They are Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth), all of whom don’t know what Sophie is up to, and neither does Donna, whose face falls the moment she’s faced with her past--and all it could mean to her present.

Getting her through it are her two best girlfriends, Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), each of whom once accompanied Tanya in being Donna’s backup singer in Donna & the Dynamos.

The rest of the plot is a whirlwind--too much to explore here, but all of which uses ABBA’s songs to tell its story. While it’s true that the film’s chronology never adds up, it’s best not to question it or the other moments of failed logic. This is a messy, shoot-for-the-moon-or-bust movie, with everyone so determined to deliver a good time, they go to great, successful lengths to do just that.


Rated PG-13. Grade: B+


View the trailer for "Mamma Mia!" here: 

The new Darnell Martin movie, “Cadillac Records,” is like any hot mess--sometimes, it’s a lot of fun to have around, other times, you wish you could take it down a notch or, in lieu of that, just step away from it altogether. Far away from it. As in the next state away from it.

Thing is, the music makes that difficult to do.

From the director’s own script, the film is a mash-up of the good, the great, and the risible. Its strength rests in the staging of the musical performances, which are as good as you could hope. Unfortunately, nothing in the otherwise sloppy, over-heated storyline measures up to them, which is a shame given the source material--the rise of Chess Records during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) began that company, which was responsible for finding such R&B powerhouses as Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Little Walter (Columbus Short) and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles), every one of whom eventually landed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Chess’ catch was this: If you did well with him, he’d promise to give you the keys to a new Cadillac. And he delivered on those shiny promises, too, particularly every time one of his artists had a hit, which was often.

The question the movie doesn’t fully answer is critical to why it’s ultimately a disappointment. Who was Chess? What’s Martin’s angle on him? Was the man generous with his artists, or did he cheat them out of a fair share of what they were earning for him? Martin suggests the latter, but his movie, which is no “Dreamgirls,” is so conflicted about how it views Chess, the edges are fuzzy and, as such, his character doesn't come into focus.

Neither does anyone else here. This is a movie of sketches, with people passing by the screen and leaving only a traces of their stories behind. We get a whiff of who Muddy Waters was, but only just. There's a side story involving Berry that could have been promising, but Martin drops it. As for Knowles, her performance as James offers the most lasting impression. She produced the film, and what she created for herself is a role that allowed for one motherlode of drama. Watching her, you’d think she was Effie White--and coming off Jennifer Hudson’s Academy Award-winning performance in that role, don’t think for a minute that was a coincidence on Knowles’ part.

With her hair a towering hive of bleached-blonde audacity, Knowles sweeps into rooms with hips that could crush mountains and a mouth that could set fire to a red light district. She overdoses on drugs and collapses on carpets. She hits the booze hard, fuels her diva tantrums with bile and fury, and yet when she sings, you forgive her for everything. She’s that good at the mike, powerfully drawing you into a film whose story isn’t as compelling or as convincing.

Grade: C

View the trailer here:

The new Darnell Martin movie, “Cadillac Records,” is like any hot mess--sometimes, it’s a lot of fun to have around, other times, you wish you could take it down a notch or, in lieu of that, just step away from it altogether. Far away from it. As in the next state away from it.

Thing is, the music makes that difficult to do.

From the director’s own script, the film is a mash-up of the good, the great, and the risible. Its strength rests in the staging of the musical performances, which are as good as you could hope. Unfortunately, nothing in the otherwise sloppy, over-heated storyline measures up to them, which is a shame given the source material--the rise of Chess Records during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) began that company, which was responsible for finding such R&B powerhouses as Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Little Walter (Columbus Short) and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles), every one of whom eventually landed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Chess’ catch was this: If you did well with him, he’d promise to give you the keys to a new Cadillac. And he delivered on those shiny promises, too, particularly every time one of his artists had a hit, which was often.

The question the movie doesn’t fully answer is critical to why it’s ultimately a disappointment. Who was Chess? What’s Martin’s angle on him? Was the man generous with his artists, or did he cheat them out of a fair share of what they were earning for him? Martin suggests the latter, but his movie, which is no “Dreamgirls,” is so conflicted about how it views Chess, the edges are fuzzy and, as such, his character doesn't come into focus.

Neither does anyone else here. This is a movie of sketches, with people passing by the screen and leaving only a traces of their stories behind. We get a whiff of who Muddy Waters was, but only just. There's a side story involving Berry that could have been promising, but Martin drops it. As for Knowles, her performance as James offers the most lasting impression. She produced the film, and what she created for herself is a role that allowed for one motherlode of drama. Watching her, you’d think she was Effie White--and coming off Jennifer Hudson’s Academy Award-winning performance in that role, don’t think for a minute that was a coincidence on Knowles’ part.

With her hair a towering hive of bleached-blonde audacity, Knowles sweeps into rooms with hips that could crush mountains and a mouth that could set fire to a red light district. She overdoses on drugs and collapses on carpets. She hits the booze hard, fuels her diva tantrums with bile and fury, and yet when she sings, you forgive her for everything. She’s that good at the mike, powerfully drawing you into a film whose story isn’t as compelling or as convincing.

Grade: C

View the trailer here:

“High School Musical 3: Senior Year” and “High School Musical: Remix” DVD, Blu-ray
Milking the franchise--and with success. In “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the gang is back (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale among them), they’re teeming with energy, and the song-and-dance numbers (on a basketball court?) are enough to send any fan of the series into a tween tizzy, which is the point. Reality, on the other hand, isn’t. Given that this is their senior year, college is on the cusp for many, which leaves the franchise in a kind of flux as it steamrolls toward the already announced fourth film in the franchise. DVD and Blu-ray extras include an extended version of the movie, cast goodbyes and deleted scenes and bloopers. As for “Remix” edition, it’s essentially the original movie with 34 minutes of new bonus materials, such as the featurette “Bringing It All Together: The Making of High School Musical,” the cast teaching the choreography for “Get’cha Head in the Game,” and several music videos, including “I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You,” “We're All In This Together” and “Breaking Free Remix,” which is what some parents might want to do when this disc is played and replayed for the umpteenth time. Grades: “High School Musical 3”--B+; “Remix”--C+

“How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” DVD
A misfire based on Toby Young’s scathing 2001 book about his ruinous career at Vanity Fair magazine, which in this movie is called “Sharps.” That angle, of course, recalls last year’s “The Devil Wears Prada,” which successfully used Meryl Streep to take on Vogue and Anna Wintour. But here, even though the normally caustic Simon Pegg portrays Toby as Sidney, a British tabloid writer who comes to the States believing he’s going to write biting copy for Sharps, Pegg is lost amid a stale run of dim slapstick humor. Jeff Bridges sports a silver blowout to become a version of Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, but he isn’t thoroughly skewered--or very interesting. As Toby’s fellow writer-cum-love interest, Kirsten Dunst is a wet rag of no value--you want to scrub the screen with her and start anew. And as the young starlet Sydney wants to get into bed, Megan Fox is shallow to the point of being hollow. The only bright spot is Gillian Anderson as a celebrity publicist out to ruthlessly protect her clients. She gives the movie such menace and energy, you sit there wishing they’d focused more on her. Rated R. Grade: C-

"Capote/In Cold Blood" Blu-ray
Truman Capote--a hive of contradictions and complications. Before booze got the best of him, he was a gifted, weird little genius, complex beyond reason, smart enough to use his quirks to his benefit, and then careless and human enough to fall prey to them all. Both sides are examined in Bennett Miller's smashing film, "Capote," in which Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Academy Award for his mesmerizing portrayal. This is the film's first appearance on Blu-ray disc, and it looks and sounds just as good as you'd hope. The master stroke of this special two-pack is that it also includes a high-def rendering of the 1967 original film, "In Cold Blood," which was based on Capote's book. Each is tough to shake. In "Capote," Miller weaves through the debris of what Capote wrought when inspiration struck thanks to a New York Times article he read about a clutch of murdered Clutters in the Kansas hamlet of Holcomb. It was 1959, the deaths were brutal, the details intriguing. Fresh from the success of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and looking for a new triumph in a new work, Capote found both in this felled Midwestern family, whose heads were blown off in cold blood by Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Richard Hickock (Mark Pellegrino). With the financial blessing of his New Yorker editor William Shawn (Bob Balaban), Capote decided to leave New York City and his lover, Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood), to get the story with the help of his childhood friend, Harper Lee (Catherine Keener). It would take him almost six years to do so. What the movie nails is the savagery of an artist such as Capote; Miller understands that writing sometimes isn't the white-gloved profession some perceive it to be. The reason his movie is so good, is that he sees that writing can be just as cutthroat as committing murder. There's passion involved in each, and where's there's passion, there can be blood. As for "In Cold Blood," the focus is on Perry (Robert Blake) and Hickock (Scott Wilson), and the troubling investigation into their crimes. Blake, in particular, is superb--you won't soon forget him. It's a magnificent set, one of the best yet in the Blu-ray format. Rated R. Grade: A

"The Passion of the Christ" Blu-ray
From director Mel Gibson, a disturbing, unrelenting bloodbath that, for those who somehow don't know about the movie, follows the last 12 hours of Christ's life. Now on Blu-ray, the film is a deeply personal experience, with its success or its failure coming down to one's religious beliefs. There are those who will be appalled by the film, some who will feel vindicated by it, others who will feel both. It's such a divining rod, few will see it the same way. What's true is this: Screenwriters Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald based their story on the biblical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which were written decades after Christ's Crucifixion and thus for centuries have been open to interpretation. Those familiar with the New Testament will find little insight here, with one crucial exception: Gibson's intensely graphic interpretation of the violence Christ endured at the hands of the Romans by way of the Sanhedrin Jews. Fueled by the director's Roman Catholic faith, the movie must be viewed solely as Gibson's interpretation of that violence, which was mentioned only fleetingly in the Gospels, but which, in Gibson's hands, takes up the bulk of his 130-minute film. Told in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles, the film begins with the capture of Christ (Jim Caviezel) at the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is betrayed by Judas (Luca Lionello), tried by the Jewish high priest Caiaphas (Mattia Sbragia) and then sent to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate (Hristo Shopov), who tries yet fails to save Christ from the Crucifixion that becomes the core of the movie. With searing detail, Gibson shows us all of it--every bloody step, every brutal whip and lashing by the Romans, the breaking of bones as nails pierce flesh, the screams of a man hung to die on a cross. As such, his movie--and remember, this is a movie, with all that implies--is among the most intensely violent films Hollywood has ever made. How this works cinematically is just as powerful as you expect--how could it not be given the subject and the sheer amount of bloodshed involved? This isn't a perfect movie and it's not entirely historically accurate, but that's not unusual. It is, in fact, in keeping with other biblical interpretations, from "King of Kings" to "The Greatest Story Ever Told" to "Demetrius and the Gladiator" to its sequel, "The Robe.” Technically, the performances are excellent, particularly Caviezel as Christ and Maia Morgenstern as Mary, who are the only characters allowed to share a bond onscreen. Otherwise, Gibson's heavy-handed approach is more interested in Christ's torture, his dying and his death. Rated R. Grade: B+

“High School Musical 3: Senior Year” and “High School Musical: Remix” DVD, Blu-ray
Milking the franchise--and with success. In “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the gang is back (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale among them), they’re teeming with energy, and the song-and-dance numbers (on a basketball court?) are enough to send any fan of the series into a tween tizzy, which is the point. Reality, on the other hand, isn’t. Given that this is their senior year, college is on the cusp for many, which leaves the franchise in a kind of flux as it steamrolls toward the already announced fourth film in the franchise. DVD and Blu-ray extras include an extended version of the movie, cast goodbyes and deleted scenes and bloopers. As for “Remix” edition, it’s essentially the original movie with 34 minutes of new bonus materials, such as the featurette “Bringing It All Together: The Making of High School Musical,” the cast teaching the choreography for “Get’cha Head in the Game,” and several music videos, including “I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You,” “We're All In This Together” and “Breaking Free Remix,” which is what some parents might want to do when this disc is played and replayed for the umpteenth time. Grades: “High School Musical 3”--B+; “Remix”--C+

“How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” DVD
A misfire based on Toby Young’s scathing 2001 book about his ruinous career at Vanity Fair magazine, which in this movie is called “Sharps.” That angle, of course, recalls last year’s “The Devil Wears Prada,” which successfully used Meryl Streep to take on Vogue and Anna Wintour. But here, even though the normally caustic Simon Pegg portrays Toby as Sidney, a British tabloid writer who comes to the States believing he’s going to write biting copy for Sharps, Pegg is lost amid a stale run of dim slapstick humor. Jeff Bridges sports a silver blowout to become a version of Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, but he isn’t thoroughly skewered--or very interesting. As Toby’s fellow writer-cum-love interest, Kirsten Dunst is a wet rag of no value--you want to scrub the screen with her and start anew. And as the young starlet Sydney wants to get into bed, Megan Fox is shallow to the point of being hollow. The only bright spot is Gillian Anderson as a celebrity publicist out to ruthlessly protect her clients. She gives the movie such menace and energy, you sit there wishing they’d focused more on her. Rated R. Grade: C-

"Capote/In Cold Blood" Blu-ray
Truman Capote--a hive of contradictions and complications. Before booze got the best of him, he was a gifted, weird little genius, complex beyond reason, smart enough to use his quirks to his benefit, and then careless and human enough to fall prey to them all. Both sides are examined in Bennett Miller's smashing film, "Capote," in which Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Academy Award for his mesmerizing portrayal. This is the film's first appearance on Blu-ray disc, and it looks and sounds just as good as you'd hope. The master stroke of this special two-pack is that it also includes a high-def rendering of the 1967 original film, "In Cold Blood," which was based on Capote's book. Each is tough to shake. In "Capote," Miller weaves through the debris of what Capote wrought when inspiration struck thanks to a New York Times article he read about a clutch of murdered Clutters in the Kansas hamlet of Holcomb. It was 1959, the deaths were brutal, the details intriguing. Fresh from the success of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and looking for a new triumph in a new work, Capote found both in this felled Midwestern family, whose heads were blown off in cold blood by Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Richard Hickock (Mark Pellegrino). With the financial blessing of his New Yorker editor William Shawn (Bob Balaban), Capote decided to leave New York City and his lover, Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood), to get the story with the help of his childhood friend, Harper Lee (Catherine Keener). It would take him almost six years to do so. What the movie nails is the savagery of an artist such as Capote; Miller understands that writing sometimes isn't the white-gloved profession some perceive it to be. The reason his movie is so good, is that he sees that writing can be just as cutthroat as committing murder. There's passion involved in each, and where's there's passion, there can be blood. As for "In Cold Blood," the focus is on Perry (Robert Blake) and Hickock (Scott Wilson), and the troubling investigation into their crimes. Blake, in particular, is superb--you won't soon forget him. It's a magnificent set, one of the best yet in the Blu-ray format. Rated R. Grade: A

"The Passion of the Christ" Blu-ray
From director Mel Gibson, a disturbing, unrelenting bloodbath that, for those who somehow don't know about the movie, follows the last 12 hours of Christ's life. Now on Blu-ray, the film is a deeply personal experience, with its success or its failure coming down to one's religious beliefs. There are those who will be appalled by the film, some who will feel vindicated by it, others who will feel both. It's such a divining rod, few will see it the same way. What's true is this: Screenwriters Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald based their story on the biblical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which were written decades after Christ's Crucifixion and thus for centuries have been open to interpretation. Those familiar with the New Testament will find little insight here, with one crucial exception: Gibson's intensely graphic interpretation of the violence Christ endured at the hands of the Romans by way of the Sanhedrin Jews. Fueled by the director's Roman Catholic faith, the movie must be viewed solely as Gibson's interpretation of that violence, which was mentioned only fleetingly in the Gospels, but which, in Gibson's hands, takes up the bulk of his 130-minute film. Told in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles, the film begins with the capture of Christ (Jim Caviezel) at the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is betrayed by Judas (Luca Lionello), tried by the Jewish high priest Caiaphas (Mattia Sbragia) and then sent to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate (Hristo Shopov), who tries yet fails to save Christ from the Crucifixion that becomes the core of the movie. With searing detail, Gibson shows us all of it--every bloody step, every brutal whip and lashing by the Romans, the breaking of bones as nails pierce flesh, the screams of a man hung to die on a cross. As such, his movie--and remember, this is a movie, with all that implies--is among the most intensely violent films Hollywood has ever made. How this works cinematically is just as powerful as you expect--how could it not be given the subject and the sheer amount of bloodshed involved? This isn't a perfect movie and it's not entirely historically accurate, but that's not unusual. It is, in fact, in keeping with other biblical interpretations, from "King of Kings" to "The Greatest Story Ever Told" to "Demetrius and the Gladiator" to its sequel, "The Robe.” Technically, the performances are excellent, particularly Caviezel as Christ and Maia Morgenstern as Mary, who are the only characters allowed to share a bond onscreen. Otherwise, Gibson's heavy-handed approach is more interested in Christ's torture, his dying and his death. Rated R. Grade: B+

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, written by Catherine Johnson, 108 minutes, rated PG-13.

You could spend all week eating bacon at a pig farm and still find more ham in Phyllida Lloyd's musical “Mamma Mia!,” an irrepressible, unstoppable kaleidoscope of karaoke camp gone berserk that features a cast happily mainlining the more popular offerings in ABBA’s songbook.

And what a songbook.

Back in the 70s, when those ultra-glam Swedes first hit the scene in their silver lame pantsuits, glossy lips, camel toes and mod hair, they delivered such a fresh, catchy brand of pop music, it combusted into one of the great guilty pleasures of our time.

I don’t know what they were smoking back then--or what bootleg bottle of absinthe they got hold of--but whatever it was, it made for songs that are so unshakable, they’d chase you down the street if they could. Actually, they can. The energy behind them is enough to solve our current energy crisis--let ABBA power your home--and much like the movie itself, the lyrics driving them are so bad, they’re good.

Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, “Mamma Mia!” stars Meryl Streep as Donna, a former hippie who now toils in the hotel trade on a beautiful Greek island, where her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is about to have one big, fat Greek wedding when she marries the love of her life, Sky (Dominic Cooper).

Since Sophie never has met her father but wants more than anything to have him walk her down the aisle, she does a little snooping in her mother’s diary and finds within its heated pages three men who could be that man. They are Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth), all of whom Sophie sends an invitation to the wedding, and all of whom arrive prepared to play catch-up with Donna. The problem is that these men don’t know what Sophie is up to, and neither does Donna, whose face falls the moment she’s faced with her past--and all it could mean to her present.

Getting her through it are her two best girlfriends. There’s Tanya (Christine Baranski), who favors Botox, frequent divorces and boy toys; and Rosie (Julie Walters), a fiery cougar dynamo who once accompanied Tanya in being Donna’s backup singer in Donna & the Dynamos.

The rest of the plot is a whirlwind--too much to explore here, but all of which uses ABBA’s songs to tell its story. While it’s true that the film’s chronology never adds up, it’s best not to question it or the other moments of failed logic. This is a messy, shoot-for-the-moon-or-bust movie, with everyone so determined to deliver a good time, they go to great lengths to do just that.

You’ve never seen such commitment, which is a good reason for the exclamation point at the end of the film’s title. It didn’t happen there by accident.

Take, for instance, Brosnan. Like a doomed canary, he couldn’t sing his way out of a toxic coal mine, but you have to give it to him for going for it and for bravely blasting his share of bad gas. Streep, however, is just as good as you expect--like everyone else here, she’s loose and game, throwing down the hits in ways that are either fiercely entertaining (stay to the very end to find out just how entertaining) or, in one nicely staged scene she shares opposite Sam along a rocky precipice, surprisingly moving when she launches into “The Winner Takes it All.”

“Mamma Mia!” isn’t for everyone, but what movie is? Fans of the film’s cast, ABBA’s transporting music and those eager to give themselves over to the ripe presentation of the material likely won’t be disappointed.

Grade: B+

DVD Features:

Sing-Along! on-screen lyrics for 22 musical numbers!; Deleted musical number: "The Name of the Game"; Feature commentary with director Phyllida Lloyd; The making of Mamma Mia! The Movie; Anatomy of a Musical Number: "Lay All Your Love on Me"; Becoming a Singer; Behind the Scenes with Amanda; On Location in Greece; A Look Inside Mamma Mia! The Movie; "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" music video; Björn Ulvaeus cameo; Deleted scenes and outtakes.

Digital copy

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Mamma Mia - The Movie

1. "I Have a Dream" [:37]
2. "Honey, Honey" [:53]
3. "Money, Money, Money" [3:00]
4. "Mamma Mia" [:04]
5. "Chiquitita" [3:50]
6. "Dancing Queen" [6:22]
7. "Our Last Summer" [2:12]
8. "Lay All Your Love on Me" [3:00]
9. "Super Trouper" [5:40]
10. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" [:11]
11. "Voulez-Vous" [2:44]
12. "SOS" [1:58]
13. "Does Your Mother Know" [:32]
14. "Slipping Through the Years" [2:43]
15. "The Winner Takes It All" [1:31]
16. "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" [1:01]
17. "When All Is Said and Done" [3:49]
18. "Take a Chance on Me" [:07]
19. "Dancing Queen Reprise/Waterloo Encore (Credits)" [1:07]
20. End Titles [3:03]

Disc #2 -- Mamma Mia - The Movie: Bonus Features

Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
The Making of Mamma Mia!
Play All
Birthing Mamma Mia!
The Filmmaking
The Cast
Anatomy of a Musical Number: "Lay All Your Love on Me"
Becoming a Singer
Behind the Scenes With Amanda
On Location in Greece
A Look Inside Mamma Mia!
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Music Video
Björn Ulvaeus Cameo
Subtitles
English SDH
Español
Français
Off

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, written by Catherine Johnson, 108 minutes, rated PG-13.

You could spend all week eating bacon at a pig farm and still find more ham in Phyllida Lloyd's musical “Mamma Mia!,” an irrepressible, unstoppable kaleidoscope of karaoke camp gone berserk that features a cast happily mainlining the more popular offerings in ABBA’s songbook.

And what a songbook.

Back in the 70s, when those ultra-glam Swedes first hit the scene in their silver lame pantsuits, glossy lips, camel toes and mod hair, they delivered such a fresh, catchy brand of pop music, it combusted into one of the great guilty pleasures of our time.

I don’t know what they were smoking back then--or what bootleg bottle of absinthe they got hold of--but whatever it was, it made for songs that are so unshakable, they’d chase you down the street if they could. Actually, they can. The energy behind them is enough to solve our current energy crisis--let ABBA power your home--and much like the movie itself, the lyrics driving them are so bad, they’re good.

Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, “Mamma Mia!” stars Meryl Streep as Donna, a former hippie who now toils in the hotel trade on a beautiful Greek island, where her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is about to have one big, fat Greek wedding when she marries the love of her life, Sky (Dominic Cooper).

Since Sophie never has met her father but wants more than anything to have him walk her down the aisle, she does a little snooping in her mother’s diary and finds within its heated pages three men who could be that man. They are Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth), all of whom Sophie sends an invitation to the wedding, and all of whom arrive prepared to play catch-up with Donna. The problem is that these men don’t know what Sophie is up to, and neither does Donna, whose face falls the moment she’s faced with her past--and all it could mean to her present.

Getting her through it are her two best girlfriends. There’s Tanya (Christine Baranski), who favors Botox, frequent divorces and boy toys; and Rosie (Julie Walters), a fiery cougar dynamo who once accompanied Tanya in being Donna’s backup singer in Donna & the Dynamos.

The rest of the plot is a whirlwind--too much to explore here, but all of which uses ABBA’s songs to tell its story. While it’s true that the film’s chronology never adds up, it’s best not to question it or the other moments of failed logic. This is a messy, shoot-for-the-moon-or-bust movie, with everyone so determined to deliver a good time, they go to great lengths to do just that.

You’ve never seen such commitment, which is a good reason for the exclamation point at the end of the film’s title. It didn’t happen there by accident.

Take, for instance, Brosnan. Like a doomed canary, he couldn’t sing his way out of a toxic coal mine, but you have to give it to him for going for it and for bravely blasting his share of bad gas. Streep, however, is just as good as you expect--like everyone else here, she’s loose and game, throwing down the hits in ways that are either fiercely entertaining (stay to the very end to find out just how entertaining) or, in one nicely staged scene she shares opposite Sam along a rocky precipice, surprisingly moving when she launches into “The Winner Takes it All.”

“Mamma Mia!” isn’t for everyone, but what movie is? Fans of the film’s cast, ABBA’s transporting music and those eager to give themselves over to the ripe presentation of the material likely won’t be disappointed.

Grade: B+

DVD Features:

Sing-Along! on-screen lyrics for 22 musical numbers!; Deleted musical number: "The Name of the Game"; Feature commentary with director Phyllida Lloyd; The making of Mamma Mia! The Movie; Anatomy of a Musical Number: "Lay All Your Love on Me"; Becoming a Singer; Behind the Scenes with Amanda; On Location in Greece; A Look Inside Mamma Mia! The Movie; "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" music video; Björn Ulvaeus cameo; Deleted scenes and outtakes.

Digital copy

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Mamma Mia - The Movie

1. "I Have a Dream" [:37]
2. "Honey, Honey" [:53]
3. "Money, Money, Money" [3:00]
4. "Mamma Mia" [:04]
5. "Chiquitita" [3:50]
6. "Dancing Queen" [6:22]
7. "Our Last Summer" [2:12]
8. "Lay All Your Love on Me" [3:00]
9. "Super Trouper" [5:40]
10. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" [:11]
11. "Voulez-Vous" [2:44]
12. "SOS" [1:58]
13. "Does Your Mother Know" [:32]
14. "Slipping Through the Years" [2:43]
15. "The Winner Takes It All" [1:31]
16. "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" [1:01]
17. "When All Is Said and Done" [3:49]
18. "Take a Chance on Me" [:07]
19. "Dancing Queen Reprise/Waterloo Encore (Credits)" [1:07]
20. End Titles [3:03]

Disc #2 -- Mamma Mia - The Movie: Bonus Features

Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
The Making of Mamma Mia!
Play All
Birthing Mamma Mia!
The Filmmaking
The Cast
Anatomy of a Musical Number: "Lay All Your Love on Me"
Becoming a Singer
Behind the Scenes With Amanda
On Location in Greece
A Look Inside Mamma Mia!
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Music Video
Björn Ulvaeus Cameo
Subtitles
English SDH
Español
Français
Off

Cooler weather = filling the Netflix queue. Or, short of that, at least considering what's worth renting at the local DVD store.

Here are three of our favorite box sets to consider as you begin to consider shorter days and longer evenings.

"Bogie and Bacall: The Signature Collection"
The legendary chemistry between Bogart and Bacall showcased in four movies--"To Have and to Have Not," "Dark Passage," "Key Largo" and "The Big Sleep," the latter of which is one of the finest examples of the noir genre. Saturated with shadows, style and cigarette smoke, the movie follows Bogart's Philip Marlowe, a private dick trying to get to the bottom of a blackmail case involving socialite Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers). Since Carmen is a conniving kitten, all isn't what it seems with her. Neither is it with Carmen's equally mysterious sister, Vivian Rutledge (Bacall), a gorgeous femme fatale who deepens the dysfunction by adding her own bad habits to the mix, which Marlowe inevitably finds himself fixing. With the exception of the World War II drama “To Have and to Have Not,” the cheap sort of slum hustling that goes on in these movies either would bring down a red light district or brighten it, depending on how you view the world. Nobody talks as they do in noir, which is a great deal of the fun. And nobody--nobody--spoke it with such a heated undercurrent of lust as Bogart and Bacall in their prime. Grade: A

"Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory"
Five films, all digitally remastered, all marking their debut on DVD. Included in this boxed set from Warner are 1955's "It's Always Fair Weather" with Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse proving the weather is anything but fair; 1946's "Till the Clouds Roll By," with Robert Walker selling it (not always successfully) as famed composer Jerome Kern; and 1950's "Three Little Words" with three big actors folded into the mix--Fred Astair, Red Skelton, Debbie Reynolds. Gene Kelly and Judy Garland appear in her last MGM musical, 1950's "Summer Stock," which would prove instrumental to her later concert career--it's the movie that put her in a fedora and black tights while she sang the iconic "Get Happy." Finally, there's the showstopping revue to end all revues, 1944's "Ziegfeld Follies," with director Vincente Minnelli whipping the proceedings into a Technicolor froth, Esther Williams swimming, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Fanny Brice singing, and more than two dozen others nixing any trace of a plot just to put on a monstrous show--one determined to divert audiences from the war. The featurette "Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches" is a highlight, as is a revealing outtake with Garland singing "D'Ya Love Me?" Judy, of course we did. Now if only you had believed it and loved yourself. Grade: A

“The Tennessee Williams Film Collection”
The boxed set to beat this year. Five films, some among our best, inspired by the great playwright, Tennessee Williams. Included are 1951’s “A Street Car Named Desire,” with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh; 1958’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” with Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives (“The mendacity!”); 1964’s “The Night of the Iguana” with Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr; Elia Kazan’s 1956 film, “Baby Doll,” with Karl Malden; 1961’s “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” smoldering with Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty; and 1962’s “Sweet Bird of Youth,” with Paul Newman, Geraldine Page and Rip Torn. Includes a bonus DVD, “Tennessee Williams South,” which cuts to the heart of the complicated, fascinating Williams. An excellent set. Grade: A

Cooler weather = filling the Netflix queue. Or, short of that, at least considering what's worth renting at the local DVD store.

Here are three of our favorite box sets to consider as you begin to consider shorter days and longer evenings.

"Bogie and Bacall: The Signature Collection"
The legendary chemistry between Bogart and Bacall showcased in four movies--"To Have and to Have Not," "Dark Passage," "Key Largo" and "The Big Sleep," the latter of which is one of the finest examples of the noir genre. Saturated with shadows, style and cigarette smoke, the movie follows Bogart's Philip Marlowe, a private dick trying to get to the bottom of a blackmail case involving socialite Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers). Since Carmen is a conniving kitten, all isn't what it seems with her. Neither is it with Carmen's equally mysterious sister, Vivian Rutledge (Bacall), a gorgeous femme fatale who deepens the dysfunction by adding her own bad habits to the mix, which Marlowe inevitably finds himself fixing. With the exception of the World War II drama “To Have and to Have Not,” the cheap sort of slum hustling that goes on in these movies either would bring down a red light district or brighten it, depending on how you view the world. Nobody talks as they do in noir, which is a great deal of the fun. And nobody--nobody--spoke it with such a heated undercurrent of lust as Bogart and Bacall in their prime. Grade: A

"Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory"
Five films, all digitally remastered, all marking their debut on DVD. Included in this boxed set from Warner are 1955's "It's Always Fair Weather" with Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse proving the weather is anything but fair; 1946's "Till the Clouds Roll By," with Robert Walker selling it (not always successfully) as famed composer Jerome Kern; and 1950's "Three Little Words" with three big actors folded into the mix--Fred Astair, Red Skelton, Debbie Reynolds. Gene Kelly and Judy Garland appear in her last MGM musical, 1950's "Summer Stock," which would prove instrumental to her later concert career--it's the movie that put her in a fedora and black tights while she sang the iconic "Get Happy." Finally, there's the showstopping revue to end all revues, 1944's "Ziegfeld Follies," with director Vincente Minnelli whipping the proceedings into a Technicolor froth, Esther Williams swimming, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Fanny Brice singing, and more than two dozen others nixing any trace of a plot just to put on a monstrous show--one determined to divert audiences from the war. The featurette "Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches" is a highlight, as is a revealing outtake with Garland singing "D'Ya Love Me?" Judy, of course we did. Now if only you had believed it and loved yourself. Grade: A

“The Tennessee Williams Film Collection”
The boxed set to beat this year. Five films, some among our best, inspired by the great playwright, Tennessee Williams. Included are 1951’s “A Street Car Named Desire,” with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh; 1958’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” with Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives (“The mendacity!”); 1964’s “The Night of the Iguana” with Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr; Elia Kazan’s 1956 film, “Baby Doll,” with Karl Malden; 1961’s “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” smoldering with Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty; and 1962’s “Sweet Bird of Youth,” with Paul Newman, Geraldine Page and Rip Torn. Includes a bonus DVD, “Tennessee Williams South,” which cuts to the heart of the complicated, fascinating Williams. An excellent set. Grade: A

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, written by Catherine Johnson, 108 minutes, rated PG-13.

You could spend all week eating bacon at a pig farm and still find more ham in the new Phyllida Lloyd musical, “Mamma Mia!,” an irrepressible, unstoppable kaleidoscope of karaoke camp gone berserk that features a cast happily mainlining the more popular offerings in ABBA’s songbook.

And what a songbook.

Back in the 70s, when those ultra-glam Swedes first hit the scene in their silver lame pantsuits, glossy lips, camel toes and mod hair, they delivered such a fresh, catchy brand of pop music, it combusted into one of the great guilty pleasures of our time.

I don’t know what they were smoking back then--or what bootleg bottle of absinthe they got hold of--but whatever it was, it made for songs that are so unshakable, they’d chase you down the street if they could. Actually, they can. The energy behind them is enough to solve our current energy crisis--let ABBA power your home--and much like the movie itself, the lyrics driving them are so bad, they’re good.

Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, “Mamma Mia!” stars Meryl Streep as Donna, a former hippie who now toils in the hotel trade on a beautiful Greek island, where her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is about to have one big, fat Greek wedding when she marries the love of her life, Sky (Dominic Cooper).

Since Sophie never has met her father but wants more than anything to have him walk her down the aisle, she does a little snooping in her mother’s diary and finds within its heated pages three men who could be that man. They are Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth), all of whom Sophie sends an invitation to the wedding, and all of whom arrive prepared to play catch-up with Donna. The problem is that these men don’t know what Sophie is up to, and neither does Donna, whose face falls the moment she’s faced with her past--and all it could mean to her present.

Getting her through it are her two best girlfriends. There’s Tanya (Christine Baranski), who favors Botox, frequent divorces and boy toys; and Rosie (Julie Walters), a fiery cougar dynamo who once accompanied Tanya in being Donna’s backup singer in Donna & the Dynamos.

The rest of the plot is a whirlwind--too much to explore here, but all of which uses ABBA’s songs to tell its story. While it’s true that the film’s chronology never adds up, it’s best not to question it or the other moments of failed logic. This is a messy, shoot-for-the-moon-or-bust movie, with everyone so determined to deliver a good time, they go to great lengths to do just that.

You’ve never seen such commitment, which is a good reason for the exclamation point at the end of the film’s title. It didn’t happen there by accident.

Take, for instance, Brosnan. Like a doomed canary, he couldn’t sing his way out of a toxic coal mine, but you have to give it to him for going for it and for bravely blasting his share of bad gas. Streep, however, is just as good as you expect--like everyone else here, she’s loose and game, throwing down the hits in ways that are either fiercely entertaining (stay to the very end to find out just how entertaining) or, in one nicely staged scene she shares opposite Sam along a rocky precipice, surprisingly moving when she launches into “The Winner Takes it All.”

“Mamma Mia!” isn’t for everyone, but what movie is? Fans of the film’s cast, ABBA’s transporting music and those eager to give themselves over to the ripe presentation of the material likely won’t be disappointed.

Grade: B+

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, written by Catherine Johnson, 108 minutes, rated PG-13.

You could spend all week eating bacon at a pig farm and still find more ham in the new Phyllida Lloyd musical, “Mamma Mia!,” an irrepressible, unstoppable kaleidoscope of karaoke camp gone berserk that features a cast happily mainlining the more popular offerings in ABBA’s songbook.

And what a songbook.

Back in the 70s, when those ultra-glam Swedes first hit the scene in their silver lame pantsuits, glossy lips, camel toes and mod hair, they delivered such a fresh, catchy brand of pop music, it combusted into one of the great guilty pleasures of our time.

I don’t know what they were smoking back then--or what bootleg bottle of absinthe they got hold of--but whatever it was, it made for songs that are so unshakable, they’d chase you down the street if they could. Actually, they can. The energy behind them is enough to solve our current energy crisis--let ABBA power your home--and much like the movie itself, the lyrics driving them are so bad, they’re good.

Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, “Mamma Mia!” stars Meryl Streep as Donna, a former hippie who now toils in the hotel trade on a beautiful Greek island, where her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is about to have one big, fat Greek wedding when she marries the love of her life, Sky (Dominic Cooper).

Since Sophie never has met her father but wants more than anything to have him walk her down the aisle, she does a little snooping in her mother’s diary and finds within its heated pages three men who could be that man. They are Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth), all of whom Sophie sends an invitation to the wedding, and all of whom arrive prepared to play catch-up with Donna. The problem is that these men don’t know what Sophie is up to, and neither does Donna, whose face falls the moment she’s faced with her past--and all it could mean to her present.

Getting her through it are her two best girlfriends. There’s Tanya (Christine Baranski), who favors Botox, frequent divorces and boy toys; and Rosie (Julie Walters), a fiery cougar dynamo who once accompanied Tanya in being Donna’s backup singer in Donna & the Dynamos.

The rest of the plot is a whirlwind--too much to explore here, but all of which uses ABBA’s songs to tell its story. While it’s true that the film’s chronology never adds up, it’s best not to question it or the other moments of failed logic. This is a messy, shoot-for-the-moon-or-bust movie, with everyone so determined to deliver a good time, they go to great lengths to do just that.

You’ve never seen such commitment, which is a good reason for the exclamation point at the end of the film’s title. It didn’t happen there by accident.

Take, for instance, Brosnan. Like a doomed canary, he couldn’t sing his way out of a toxic coal mine, but you have to give it to him for going for it and for bravely blasting his share of bad gas. Streep, however, is just as good as you expect--like everyone else here, she’s loose and game, throwing down the hits in ways that are either fiercely entertaining (stay to the very end to find out just how entertaining) or, in one nicely staged scene she shares opposite Sam along a rocky precipice, surprisingly moving when she launches into “The Winner Takes it All.”

“Mamma Mia!” isn’t for everyone, but what movie is? Fans of the film’s cast, ABBA’s transporting music and those eager to give themselves over to the ripe presentation of the material likely won’t be disappointed.

Grade: B+

Sinking ship.

The set includes three films--the 1936 musical “Stowaway,” in which Temple’s “Ching-Ching” leaves Shanghai to work her magic in keeping Robert Young and Alice Faye together; John Ford’s 1937 movie “Wee Willie Winkie,” a so-so retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s story that finds Temple’s Priscilla Williams fighting the good fight in Colonial India; and 1940’s “Young People,” which was Temple’s final film with Fox.

After making dozens of films with Temple, the studio decided that at the tender age of 12, she was too long in the tooth to play the roles that had made her a star.

And so, for viewers armed with this knowledge, it’s now something of a curiosity to watch Temple launch into the title song’s telling lyrics: “We’re not little babies anymore! We don’t play with dollies on the floor! We know how to act our age! We have passed the infant stage! That’s why we are in a rage! We think children are a bore!”

Poor Shirley. The suits at Fox knew they were finished with her long before they hung her out to dry with this movie and that song.

Grade: C

Sinking ship.

The set includes three films--the 1936 musical “Stowaway,” in which Temple’s “Ching-Ching” leaves Shanghai to work her magic in keeping Robert Young and Alice Faye together; John Ford’s 1937 movie “Wee Willie Winkie,” a so-so retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s story that finds Temple’s Priscilla Williams fighting the good fight in Colonial India; and 1940’s “Young People,” which was Temple’s final film with Fox.

After making dozens of films with Temple, the studio decided that at the tender age of 12, she was too long in the tooth to play the roles that had made her a star.

And so, for viewers armed with this knowledge, it’s now something of a curiosity to watch Temple launch into the title song’s telling lyrics: “We’re not little babies anymore! We don’t play with dollies on the floor! We know how to act our age! We have passed the infant stage! That’s why we are in a rage! We think children are a bore!”

Poor Shirley. The suits at Fox knew they were finished with her long before they hung her out to dry with this movie and that song.

Grade: C

A peppy yet uneven collection of nine films, some digitally remastered, all making their debut on DVD.

Included are 1955’s “Hit the Deck,” with Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Ann Miller hitting the high notes; 1954’s “Deep in My Heart,” with Gene Kelly and his brother Fred in their only screen appearance together; and 1954’s “Kismet,” in which Vincente Minnelli attempted to capture on film the 1953 Broadway musical version of Edward Knoblock’s play.

His movie is so overheated, it nearly combusts, with Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Vic Damone and Dolores Gray giving it their all and testing our endurance in the process.

Two additional Jane Powell movies are found in 1950’s “Nancy Goes to Rio” and “Two Weeks in Love,” with Busby Berkeley staging the latter.

Rounding out the set are four Eleanor Powell films--“Broadway Melody of 1936,” in which 15-year-old Judy Garland sings “Dear Mr. Gable,” and “Broadway Melody of 1938,” with Powell as a shoe-snapping horse trainer.

Powell also stars in 1936’s “Born to Dance,” which is a fitting since she taps herself into a frenzy, and 1941’s “Lady Be Good,” in which Powell is paired opposite Robert Young and Ann Sothern--and nearly steals the show.

Grade: B+

A peppy yet uneven collection of nine films, some digitally remastered, all making their debut on DVD.

Included are 1955’s “Hit the Deck,” with Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Ann Miller hitting the high notes; 1954’s “Deep in My Heart,” with Gene Kelly and his brother Fred in their only screen appearance together; and 1954’s “Kismet,” in which Vincente Minnelli attempted to capture on film the 1953 Broadway musical version of Edward Knoblock’s play.

His movie is so overheated, it nearly combusts, with Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Vic Damone and Dolores Gray giving it their all and testing our endurance in the process.

Two additional Jane Powell movies are found in 1950’s “Nancy Goes to Rio” and “Two Weeks in Love,” with Busby Berkeley staging the latter.

Rounding out the set are four Eleanor Powell films--“Broadway Melody of 1936,” in which 15-year-old Judy Garland sings “Dear Mr. Gable,” and “Broadway Melody of 1938,” with Powell as a shoe-snapping horse trainer.

Powell also stars in 1936’s “Born to Dance,” which is a fitting since she taps herself into a frenzy, and 1941’s “Lady Be Good,” in which Powell is paired opposite Robert Young and Ann Sothern--and nearly steals the show.

Grade: B+

This extended cut of James Mangold’s Academy Award-winning film offers viewers 17 additional minutes of footage.

Good luck finding them.

Still, considering the wealth of bonus features and commentaries this new edition offers, it’s highly recommended for those who still haven’t seen the film.

The movie follows the defining years of Johnny Cash's life, with Mangold taking us from Cash's difficult childhood in Arkansas to his rise to fame, his struggle with drug addiction, his marriages to first wife, Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), and great love June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), and his knockout, 1968 show at Folsom State Prison.

As with so many biopics focused on musicians, Mangold's movie is essentially a film about overcoming addiction in order to further one's path to legend.

That familiarity would have done the movie no favors had Mangold not had the strength of subtlety, which shows throughout, and especially the performances from his cast, who transcend formula by allowing audiences to fully invest themselves in what matters--the budding, turbulent relationship between Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June.

Read the full, unedited review here.

Rated PG-13. Grade: A-

This extended cut of James Mangold’s Academy Award-winning film offers viewers 17 additional minutes of footage.

Good luck finding them.

Still, considering the wealth of bonus features and commentaries this new edition offers, it’s highly recommended for those who still haven’t seen the film.

The movie follows the defining years of Johnny Cash's life, with Mangold taking us from Cash's difficult childhood in Arkansas to his rise to fame, his struggle with drug addiction, his marriages to first wife, Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), and great love June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), and his knockout, 1968 show at Folsom State Prison.

As with so many biopics focused on musicians, Mangold's movie is essentially a film about overcoming addiction in order to further one's path to legend.

That familiarity would have done the movie no favors had Mangold not had the strength of subtlety, which shows throughout, and especially the performances from his cast, who transcend formula by allowing audiences to fully invest themselves in what matters--the budding, turbulent relationship between Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June.

Read the full, unedited review here.

Rated PG-13. Grade: A-

Watching Julie Taymor’s rock opera is such a trip, it’s surprising Sony didn’t include a bong as part of the packaging.

Visually, the film is a psychedelic triumph, the best part of the show, with Taymor weaving her unwieldy story around three friends (Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson) who come together in Greenwich Village during the 1960s, just as everything is about to go to hell.

Helping them through all of it is the soundtrack, which includes more than 30 Beatles songs, a good deal of which are murdered by new arrangements that are less successful than one might have hoped.

Still, you have to hand it to Taymor for carrying off her experiment with chutzpah, even if she doesn’t —much like Todd Haynes in "I’m Not There"—succeed in the end.

Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

Watch the trailer below:

Watching Julie Taymor’s rock opera is such a trip, it’s surprising Sony didn’t include a bong as part of the packaging.

Visually, the film is a psychedelic triumph, the best part of the show, with Taymor weaving her unwieldy story around three friends (Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson) who come together in Greenwich Village during the 1960s, just as everything is about to go to hell.

Helping them through all of it is the soundtrack, which includes more than 30 Beatles songs, a good deal of which are murdered by new arrangements that are less successful than one might have hoped.

Still, you have to hand it to Taymor for carrying off her experiment with chutzpah, even if she doesn’t —much like Todd Haynes in "I’m Not There"—succeed in the end.

Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

Watch the trailer below:

Directed by Olivier Dahan, written by Dahan and Isabelle Sobelman, 140 minutes, rated PG-13. In French with English subtitles.

Marion Cotillard, the French actress who portrays Edith Piaf in Olivier Dahan's "La Vie En Rose," takes a flawed movie and turns it into something memorable and haunting.

Dahan co-wrote the screenplay with Isabelle Sobelman, and what they have created is a testament to a few things--first, the power of Cotillard's fierce performance, which is nominated this month for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and second to Piaf herself, the hard-luck singer who survived her bum early years as a child in Paris to literally become Paris' favored child.

For those who know and admire the mix of strength, frailty, pluck and heart that rings through Piaf's voice--her "Milord," "Hymne a L'amour," "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" and the song that inspires the title of this film are classics--this movie based on her life wastes no time in underscoring the reasons behind the complex wealth of emotions that collide when Piaf sings.

In this way, "La Vie En Rose" can't help but court the trappings of melodrama, which sometimes works for it and against it. Furthermore, while it isn't always successful in tying up its loose ends--several subplots are oddly dropped, most curiously a critical one involving Gerard Depardieu as the nightclub owner who discovered Piaf--there is an admirable rawness to the production and to Cotillard's performance that gets to the core of a woman who existed on the fringe.

Since much of Piaf's early life is speculation, the movie explores the myth pop culture created for her. We see Edith as a child, when she was prodded by her abusive father to sing on the streets for money. Reluctantly, she did so, singing "La Marseilles" until people cheered. Later, when her father abandoned her, she was shuttled to her grandmother's brothel, where she received love and an enlightening education from a family of whores who came to adore her, most notably a prostitute named Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner) who treated Edith as her own daughter.

As good as these scenes are, it's in the film's exploration of Piaf's rise from sketchy cabaret singer to polished, superstar performer that the movie is at its best and most seductive. It was, after all, during this time in which Piaf fell in love with the boxer Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins), who looked like a movie star and loved her like no other. Later, in the wake of a devastating event that won't be revealed here, Piaf's decline into drug and alcohol abuse staked claim to her ruin.

Whether because of her addictions or in spite of them, there always was the sense in that tremulous pull of Piaf's voice that she was letting you into rooms that otherwise, in less giving hands, would have remained closed. To hear her voice wasn't just to hear a woman struggling with the highs and lows of life (she died at 47), but also to hear Paris itself.

In her voice was sorrow, life, defeat and humor, but mostly, like the city that came to embrace her as its own, a sense of absolute acceptance for those who came to it. It's this gift that Piaf possessed that the movie and Cotillard get exactly right, which turns out to be more important than the structural mistakes Dahan makes along the way.

Much like her American contemporaries Judy Garland, who also died at 47, and Billie Holiday, who died at 44, Piaf had that ability to draw everything out of you with a mere song. Her voice could do you in, lay you flat. In that way, there's a certain risk in listening to her, but that risk, in the end, is what made her so great.

Grade: B+

Directed by Olivier Dahan, written by Dahan and Isabelle Sobelman, 140 minutes, rated PG-13. In French with English subtitles.

Marion Cotillard, the French actress who portrays Edith Piaf in Olivier Dahan's "La Vie En Rose," takes a flawed movie and turns it into something memorable and haunting.

Dahan co-wrote the screenplay with Isabelle Sobelman, and what they have created is a testament to a few things--first, the power of Cotillard's fierce performance, which is nominated this month for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and second to Piaf herself, the hard-luck singer who survived her bum early years as a child in Paris to literally become Paris' favored child.

For those who know and admire the mix of strength, frailty, pluck and heart that rings through Piaf's voice--her "Milord," "Hymne a L'amour," "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" and the song that inspires the title of this film are classics--this movie based on her life wastes no time in underscoring the reasons behind the complex wealth of emotions that collide when Piaf sings.

In this way, "La Vie En Rose" can't help but court the trappings of melodrama, which sometimes works for it and against it. Furthermore, while it isn't always successful in tying up its loose ends--several subplots are oddly dropped, most curiously a critical one involving Gerard Depardieu as the nightclub owner who discovered Piaf--there is an admirable rawness to the production and to Cotillard's performance that gets to the core of a woman who existed on the fringe.

Since much of Piaf's early life is speculation, the movie explores the myth pop culture created for her. We see Edith as a child, when she was prodded by her abusive father to sing on the streets for money. Reluctantly, she did so, singing "La Marseilles" until people cheered. Later, when her father abandoned her, she was shuttled to her grandmother's brothel, where she received love and an enlightening education from a family of whores who came to adore her, most notably a prostitute named Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner) who treated Edith as her own daughter.

As good as these scenes are, it's in the film's exploration of Piaf's rise from sketchy cabaret singer to polished, superstar performer that the movie is at its best and most seductive. It was, after all, during this time in which Piaf fell in love with the boxer Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins), who looked like a movie star and loved her like no other. Later, in the wake of a devastating event that won't be revealed here, Piaf's decline into drug and alcohol abuse staked claim to her ruin.

Whether because of her addictions or in spite of them, there always was the sense in that tremulous pull of Piaf's voice that she was letting you into rooms that otherwise, in less giving hands, would have remained closed. To hear her voice wasn't just to hear a woman struggling with the highs and lows of life (she died at 47), but also to hear Paris itself.

In her voice was sorrow, life, defeat and humor, but mostly, like the city that came to embrace her as its own, a sense of absolute acceptance for those who came to it. It's this gift that Piaf possessed that the movie and Cotillard get exactly right, which turns out to be more important than the structural mistakes Dahan makes along the way.

Much like her American contemporaries Judy Garland, who also died at 47, and Billie Holiday, who died at 44, Piaf had that ability to draw everything out of you with a mere song. Her voice could do you in, lay you flat. In that way, there's a certain risk in listening to her, but that risk, in the end, is what made her so great.

Grade: B+

Directed by Tim Burton, written by John Logan, 117 minutes, rated R.

The new Tim Burton movie, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," is bloody, yes--and it's also bloody excellent.

Screenwriter John Logan based the film on Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's long-running musical, and what he and Burton have created is one of the year's best movies, a dark, violent musical that thrums with menace, mischief and malice.

This highly stylized, great-looking film finds cinematographer Dariusz Volski draining it of so much color, the characters and sets take on the hues of a corpse.

Throughout, the screen almost looks refrigerated--you'd swear that if you touched it, you'd be bitten by cold. Increasingly, things heat up with flashes of red, but that's only when someone's throat is slit and gruesome, gushing ribbons of crimson spray forth to warm up the screen.

Decked out in a blowout fright wig that challenges anything he wore in Burton's "Edward Scissorhands" is Johnny Depp in the title role.

Here, taking another risk in a career built on taking risks, Depp gives a meaty performance (sorry) as Todd, the gifted, 19th-century barber who knows his way around a close shave and who begins the movie armed with revenge.

Early on, we're offered a glimpse into Todd's past, when he was named Benjamin Barker and was a happy family man with a beautiful wife and baby daughter. Each was undone by the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman, wonderful as usual), a greasy snob who wanted Barker's wife for himself and who set about getting her by devising a plan that sent Barker to prison.

Fifteen years later, Barker has escaped, assumed the name Sweeney Todd and is stealing back into London, where he meets the not-so-lovely Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), a glowering frump of a woman famous for making some rather shoddy meat pies. She knows it, too, not that she cares. She also knows who Todd really is, which complicates their relationship nicely as she reintroduces Sweeney to his gleaming set of razor blades, all hidden in his old barber shop above her pie shop, and makes a pact with him that is mutually beneficial.

Mrs. Lovett will keep her mouth shut and allow Todd his revenge on the hateful Turpin (and eventually all of London when his first attempt at killing Turpin goes wrong), so long as he provides her with a steady supply of meat for her increasingly popular pies. Since Todd has gone mad, let the slicing and dicing begin.

Not to mention the singing, which is very good, as is the energy that comes from the film's darkly funny musical numbers. Supporting turns from Timothy Spall as the grotesque Beadle Bamford, Sacha Baron Cohen as the mincing Italian barber Pirelli, and Jayne Wisener as Todd's daughter Johanna, are excellent. Same goes for Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony, the young sailor working to save Johanna from her unfortunate fate with Turpin.

But the movie's real magic is sparked by Depp and Carter, who seem to share the same lost, twisted soul. They are so good together, so bruised, each seamlessly blending into the moldy damp of Burton's old world, that in this movie, they make a compelling argument for ditching the standard holiday fare of fruit cakes in favor of enjoying Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, regardless of all the sins ground within.

Grade: A

View the video review below:

Directed by Tim Burton, written by John Logan, 117 minutes, rated R.

The new Tim Burton movie, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," is bloody, yes--and it's also bloody excellent.

Screenwriter John Logan based the film on Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's long-running musical, and what he and Burton have created is one of the year's best movies, a dark, violent musical that thrums with menace, mischief and malice.

This highly stylized, great-looking film finds cinematographer Dariusz Volski draining it of so much color, the characters and sets take on the hues of a corpse.

Throughout, the screen almost looks refrigerated--you'd swear that if you touched it, you'd be bitten by cold. Increasingly, things heat up with flashes of red, but that's only when someone's throat is slit and gruesome, gushing ribbons of crimson spray forth to warm up the screen.

Decked out in a blowout fright wig that challenges anything he wore in Burton's "Edward Scissorhands" is Johnny Depp in the title role.

Here, taking another risk in a career built on taking risks, Depp gives a meaty performance (sorry) as Todd, the gifted, 19th-century barber who knows his way around a close shave and who begins the movie armed with revenge.

Early on, we're offered a glimpse into Todd's past, when he was named Benjamin Barker and was a happy family man with a beautiful wife and baby daughter. Each was undone by the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman, wonderful as usual), a greasy snob who wanted Barker's wife for himself and who set about getting her by devising a plan that sent Barker to prison.

Fifteen years later, Barker has escaped, assumed the name Sweeney Todd and is stealing back into London, where he meets the not-so-lovely Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), a glowering frump of a woman famous for making some rather shoddy meat pies. She knows it, too, not that she cares. She also knows who Todd really is, which complicates their relationship nicely as she reintroduces Sweeney to his gleaming set of razor blades, all hidden in his old barber shop above her pie shop, and makes a pact with him that is mutually beneficial.

Mrs. Lovett will keep her mouth shut and allow Todd his revenge on the hateful Turpin (and eventually all of London when his first attempt at killing Turpin goes wrong), so long as he provides her with a steady supply of meat for her increasingly popular pies. Since Todd has gone mad, let the slicing and dicing begin.

Not to mention the singing, which is very good, as is the energy that comes from the film's darkly funny musical numbers. Supporting turns from Timothy Spall as the grotesque Beadle Bamford, Sacha Baron Cohen as the mincing Italian barber Pirelli, and Jayne Wisener as Todd's daughter Johanna, are excellent. Same goes for Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony, the young sailor working to save Johanna from her unfortunate fate with Turpin.

But the movie's real magic is sparked by Depp and Carter, who seem to share the same lost, twisted soul. They are so good together, so bruised, each seamlessly blending into the moldy damp of Burton's old world, that in this movie, they make a compelling argument for ditching the standard holiday fare of fruit cakes in favor of enjoying Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, regardless of all the sins ground within.

Grade: A

View the video review below:

Evict them.

Toward the nerve-jangling midpoint, when the story and its Bohemian-wannabe characters have whipped themselves into a froth, there's no question that we're dealing with a film that apparently broke a hip upon its leap from stage to screen.

The movie is a mess, collapsing in ways from which it doesn't recover, though God knows it tries. Homelessness, death, drug addiction, sexuality, HIV and AIDS all are tackled, yet in spite of this, the movie packs the dramatic punch of a feather.

Its problem is that it demands to be taken literally.

In one scene, a character might be having a perfectly engaging conversation about the dangers of shooting up dope or the worry of not being able to pay the rent, and then suddenly be singing his heart out, setting trash cans ablaze and dancing on tables as if that'll keep on the lights.

It doesn't.

Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

Read the full review here.

Evict them.

Toward the nerve-jangling midpoint, when the story and its Bohemian-wannabe characters have whipped themselves into a froth, there's no question that we're dealing with a film that apparently broke a hip upon its leap from stage to screen.

The movie is a mess, collapsing in ways from which it doesn't recover, though God knows it tries. Homelessness, death, drug addiction, sexuality, HIV and AIDS all are tackled, yet in spite of this, the movie packs the dramatic punch of a feather.

Its problem is that it demands to be taken literally.

In one scene, a character might be having a perfectly engaging conversation about the dangers of shooting up dope or the worry of not being able to pay the rent, and then suddenly be singing his heart out, setting trash cans ablaze and dancing on tables as if that'll keep on the lights.

It doesn't.

Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

Read the full review here.

Far from a drag.

Adam Shankman’s "Hairspray" is one of the year’s best comedies, which is a surprise given that Shankman directed "The Pacifier" and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," each of which put a flop in the box office’s flip.

Not so with "Hairspray."

Based on the hit Broadway musical by way of John Water’s 1988 camp classic movie, the film is expertly conceived, fun and infectious.

In the lead is newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, the impossibly perky, plus-sized Baltimore lass whose beaming naivete and kindness are about to be challenged when, in 1962, the country nudges forward with the ramifications of segregation and integration.

Those are serious subjects to explore, so it’s to the movie’s great credit that it manages to make you feel just how serious without ever sacrificing the film’s mischief and fun.

Beyond Blonsky, whose unflagging energy should be canned by Red Bull, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Allison Janney and Taylor Parks are terrific.

As Tracy’s robust mother Edna, John Travolta tucks himself beneath so much foam padding, he could double as a three-piece living room set. Unlike Harvey Fierstein and Divine before him, Travolta’s Edna is sweet, soft-spoken and shy, with the actor playing the part with barely a wink that it’s John Travolta beneath all that makeup.

As such, for purists, this particular man in the fat suit might not suit, but for mainstream audiences, for whom the movie is targeted, Travolta likely will win over plenty. Helping him to that end is Christopher Walken as Edna’s husband, who shares with her a dance and a song that’s one of the film’s highlights.

The song is called "You’re Timeless to Me," which, given the film’s themes of acceptance in a world that continues to resist it, easily could speak for the movie itself.

Rated PG-13. Grade: A-

Read a full review of the movie here.

Far from a drag.

Adam Shankman’s "Hairspray" is one of the year’s best comedies, which is a surprise given that Shankman directed "The Pacifier" and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," each of which put a flop in the box office’s flip.

Not so with "Hairspray."

Based on the hit Broadway musical by way of John Water’s 1988 camp classic movie, the film is expertly conceived, fun and infectious.

In the lead is newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, the impossibly perky, plus-sized Baltimore lass whose beaming naivete and kindness are about to be challenged when, in 1962, the country nudges forward with the ramifications of segregation and integration.

Those are serious subjects to explore, so it’s to the movie’s great credit that it manages to make you feel just how serious without ever sacrificing the film’s mischief and fun.

Beyond Blonsky, whose unflagging energy should be canned by Red Bull, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Allison Janney and Taylor Parks are terrific.

As Tracy’s robust mother Edna, John Travolta tucks himself beneath so much foam padding, he could double as a three-piece living room set. Unlike Harvey Fierstein and Divine before him, Travolta’s Edna is sweet, soft-spoken and shy, with the actor playing the part with barely a wink that it’s John Travolta beneath all that makeup.

As such, for purists, this particular man in the fat suit might not suit, but for mainstream audiences, for whom the movie is targeted, Travolta likely will win over plenty. Helping him to that end is Christopher Walken as Edna’s husband, who shares with her a dance and a song that’s one of the film’s highlights.

The song is called "You’re Timeless to Me," which, given the film’s themes of acceptance in a world that continues to resist it, easily could speak for the movie itself.

Rated PG-13. Grade: A-

Read a full review of the movie here.

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movie reviewsmovie-reviewsmoviesfilmfilm reviewsdvddvd reviewsblu ray reviewsblu-ray reviewsblu rayblu-rayhd-dvd reviewshd dvd reviewshd-dvdhd dvd