'Passengers' lands on DVD
Here are some of the latest movies to land on DVD, led by a fantasy-thriller that should have received theatrical play.
"Passengers" (Sony/Blu-ray, 2008, PG-13, $39.95). This showcase for Anne Hathaway is yet another inexplicable example of what major studios send straight to video. It's a flawed melodrama/fantasy, but it's certainly better than a lot of recent films that have managed to find their way to theaters. (Such as Hathaway's own "Bride Wars.") Go figure.
Hathaway plays a young, perhaps overeducated therapist who is assigned to begin sessions with a group of traumatized airline-crash survivors. The plot unravels in fits and starts and doesn't seem sure of what it wants to be — is it about a patient's sudden extra-sensory abilities, is it a conspiracy thriller about an airline covering up the real reasons for the crash, is it a romance as Hathaway's character crosses ethical lines?
Despite these teases and some lapses in logic, however, the film is satisfying most of the way, even if you figure out the big "reveal" as the film morphs into a feature-length "Twilight Zone" episode.
The performances are exceptional, especially Hathaway in a role that requires her to carry the picture, but also Patrick Wilson, Andre Braugher, David Morse, Clea DuVall and especially Dianne Wiest.
Still, why was this any less worthy of theatrical distribution than, say, the two Sandra Bullock "Twilight Zone"-style thrillers, "Premonition" and "The Lake House"?
Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurettes, trailers
"The Grudge 3" (Sony, 2009; R for violence, language; $24.96). More ghostly goings-on in the Chicago home introduced in the second of the American "Grudge" films, this time with a young Japanese woman traveling to the United States to do in the evil spirit once and for all (or until the next sequel). Actually the series seemed worn out by the second picture, and this one isn't much better.
Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, featurettes
"Just Another Love Story" (Koch Lorber, 2007, $26.98). This Danish yarn is an odd combination of a lurid self-described "film noir" thriller and "While You Were Sleeping" … without the laughs.
A woman is seriously injured in a car accident and a family man at the scene is later mistaken for her lover. He goes along with the ruse, falls for the woman — and when she awakens with diminished vision and partial amnesia, he leaves his own family and moves in with her! But eventually her criminal past catches up with them.
The directing style is self-consciously artsy, and there's a lot of gratuitous nudity.
Extras: widescreen, in Danish with English subtitles
E-MAIL: hicks@desnews.com
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