Release Dates Dec 02 2008 @ 09:41 pm
DVD Releases for December 2nd, 2008
Srdan Golubovic's "The Trap."
I’m still recuperating from my marathon Thanksgiving driving session: 40 hours on the road, 2 children in the backseat (who would scream in tandem; we used Europe’s “The Final Countdown” to drown them out), 2 flat tires, and 2 different rental cars. Helpful tip? Don’t rent from Budget unless you like your complimentary “24 Hour Roadside Assistance” to be outsourced to a third party that funnels its calls through an Indian call center. Second helpful tip? Ignore directions to the nearest Budget location given to you by passing Good Samaritans – more than likely, you’ll find yourself at a Hertz instead.
All that to say…. the post is a bit late. But TA-DA! Here it is for your reading enjoyment.
The Trap
What? How the heck is this my number 1 pick of the week? A valid question, sir, a valid question. I’m a big fan of Film Movement, and this is their latest release. I’m just going to copy their synopsis, since it sounds fantastic: “A modern film noir reflecting the true face of Serbian ’society in transition,’ It’s a story that could happen to you. An ordinary man is forced to choose between life and death of his own child. THE TRAP is a film about post-Milosevic’s Serbia, in which there is no more war, only a moral and existential desert. This is Serbia in transition, in which human life is worth little, and normal life remains almost unreachable.”
Recommended if that sounds as fascinating to you as it does to me.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – 
I’m a little skeptical of Luke’s star rating there (4.5? Really?), but interested all the same. I have fond memories of reading the Narnia books while growing up, and even if The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe left me a bit cold inside, it was still an acceptable adaptation of a beloved work. At least it wasn’t butchered like Eragorn and The Seeker were. This one promises to amp up the bloodshed (how far can you go before you cross the line into PG-13 territory? Quite far, apparently), and while that isn’t necessarily faithful to the source material, the fantasy geek within me is all for it.
Recommended if the wisecracking beavers from the first film didn’t piss you off too much.
| Purchase The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on Blu-ray
Wanted – 
This film has become something of an inside joke between Luke and I. We bring it up constantly around one another, usually using it as a barometer for the other’s poor taste. We saw it in the theater together, and while I enjoyed it for the giddy thrill ride that it was, Luke sniggered and eye-rolled his way through the entire film. I liked it – a good bit (although felt it had a serious identity crisis) – and Luke hated it. With a passion. So who are you more like? Luke or myself? Feel free to answer cryptically in the comments section.
Recommended if you liked Face-Off, Live Free or Die Hard, or Nightwatch.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe – 
I was a wide-eyed X-Files fan throughout its first 3 seasons or so. I must have been 14 (15?) and was just beginning to enter the age where my parents would let me make my own movie and television decisions. The X-Files was a little dark, but not too dark, and so I gobbled it up with all the ferocity my developing geeky mind could muster. How many great episodes are there in those first few seasons? Too many to count. Sadly, that ceased to be the case somewhere around the 5th or 6th season (perhaps it was earlier – it’s too painful to recall), and so my enthusiasm for this film is at zilch on the gotta-see-it-o-meter.
Recommended if you want to believe that Chris Carter can redeem himself for the massacre he perpetuated on his own show.
| Purchase X-Files: I Want to Believe on Blu-ray
Step Brothers – 
Images of Will Ferrell’s scrotum still haunt my dreams. Oh, wait, you’ve been dying to see Will Ferrell’s scrotum ever since his underrated turn as Cubby the funeral director in 2000’s Drowing Mona? Then this film, my friend, is for you. In spades. And sacks. Yuk yuk yuk yuk.
Recommended if angry man-children with sewer mouths and strong compulsions to open the “barn doors” are totally your bag, baby.
| Purchase Step Brothers on Blu-ray
The Bin of SHAME
on Dec 02 2008 @ 11:56 pm 1. joel said …
The problem with Wanted wasn’t just that it threw away all the good stuff from the source material and just kept the most meatheaded elements, it was that left with nothing but bulletporn it still couldn’t find anything to say. Red state jackass action crossed with pretentious blue state cynicism.
Evan, I have to go with Luke on this one.
As for the X-files movie, I just watched it and let me warn everyone now: Don’t bother. Awful.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 7:31 am 2. Phil said …
I saw The Trap at the 2007 London Film Festival, but it never did get a proper release here. It’s an excellent film; a gripping, superbly acted thriller with some great twists and characters who have real emotional depth. Highly recommended.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 7:45 am 3. Evan Derrick said …
Joel, read my piece on Wanted – I think you’ll see we agree more than we disagree.
And Phil, thanks for the recommendation on The Trap. I hadn’t heard much about it, but when I read the synopsis I was intrigued. Your 2 cents just adds to that.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 9:20 am 4. Andrew Wyatt said …
I saw The Trap at the St. Louis IFF a couple of weeks ago and I was somewhat underwhelmed. It’s not a bad film by any means: a sharp, New European take on the old Devil’s Deal scenario, and Glogovac’s lead performance in particular is tortured and highly watchable. But the film never really explores anything beyond surface details, which are engaging but not enough to hold the film up as anything but a mildly engaging genre exercise. I’ve seen a few reviews call it “Hitchcockian,” but that does a disservice to Hitch’s thematic depth. It’s a nice Balkan thriller, nothing more.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 9:25 am 5. Andrew Wyatt said …
Incidentally, in lieu of “The Trap” I would more readily recommend the other two Balkan films I saw at the Fest, Srdjan Vuletic’s “It’s Hard to Be Nice” and Sergej Stanojkovski’s “Kontakt”, both of which are black dramatic comedies rich in humane subtleties. I hope they find their way to DVD soon so that they gain a wider audience.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 10:08 am 6. joel said …
I took your one positive comment at face value there, Evan. I admit the movie had a highly polished sheen to it and like say, Commando, one could throw one’s brain out the door and probably enjoy the veneer of cheesy action that Wanted is selling, but it’s not much of a movie.
I’ll be curious to see how they spin a sequel out of it though. Or a prequel? Whatever.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 11:22 am 7. Evan Derrick said …
Andrew, The Trap isn’t exactly getting a lot of attention, and it’s only because of the diligence of Film Movement that it’s being released at all. Those other Balkan films you mention sound fascinating, but my guess is they’ll be a long time coming to these shores, if at all.
And Joel, my guess is it would be a sequel. Prequels are usually reserved for franchises that blew their wads a long time ago (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, now Saw, etc. etc.). And really, they can spin it however they want, since the material is so flimsy to begin with.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 11:37 am 8. Andrew Wyatt said …
Evan:
I’ll certainly say this for the “The Trap”: It’s better than any of the other new releases this week by a damn sight. And Balkan films in general need attention. So I’ll second the recommendation.
That said, this week I’ll be plunking down my money for either “Casablanca” or “The Shawshank Redemption” on Blu-ray.
I’m thoroughly disappointed with “Wanted,” especially since I enjoyed “Nightwatch” and “Daywatch” way more than I should have.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 1:15 pm 9. Evan Derrick said …
Andrew, would you call The Trap noirish, like FM’s synopsis describes it? That word alone, I think, got me intrigued, although marketing descriptions are notoriously untrustworthy.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 1:52 pm 10. Andrew Wyatt said …
Evan:
I can see some noir elements in “The Trap.” It certainly plays like a coal-black crime drama, complete with plenty of Serbian gangster heavies and a cool blond beauty. The protagonist, Mladen, is a bit too naive and spiritually uncluttered to fit the mold of a true noir protagonist. In the end, he’s just a working stiff trying to do right by his son. The film attempts to focus on Mladen’s inner torment (though it doesn’t entirely succeed), rather than on the twists and turns of a plot, so in that respect it’s very noir-ish. I mentioned Hitchcock, so I should note that the film’s high concept most resembles “Strangers on a Train”: Mladen is in an emotional and economic vice, and an opportunistic stranger approaches him with a proposal for a “perfect crime”. If that concept is enough to set the hook, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy it.
on Dec 03 2008 @ 4:07 pm 11. Luke Harrington said …
Joel, I really like your take on Wanted. Very nicely said.
I have to confess that my rating for Prince Caspian might have been a bit inflated, due to the fact that I saw it at a midnight showing surrounded by the hardcore. Still, it was a good film — I saw it a second time, and it held up almost as well. There are those who think it’s not as good as the first film, but in a sense that was inevitable since the second book was a much weaker offering from Lewis. Really, it’s a better adaptation of less worthy source material.