Tuesday, November 29, 2011

‘One Day,’ ‘30 Minutes or Less,’ ‘Seven Days in Utopia’

There’s a wide mix of films and TV shows being released on DVD this week.
• “One Day,” Grade A-minus: Screenwriter David Nicholls has adapted his novel about Dexter (Jim Sturgess) and Emma (Anne Hathaway), a pair of college students who spend graduation night together. That sets the mile marker for them as we peek in on their lives on that same day over the next 20 years. As with real life, the day can be monumental or it can be uneventful.
It’s been a long time since a movie has celebrated the joy of love and ached with its pain as brilliantly as “One Day.” Director Lone Scherfig has woven tiny threads of life into a story that’s as funny as it is heartbreaking.
Big or small, Scherfig holds our attention through beautiful camera work and standout performances in these life snapshots.
• “30 Minutes or Less,” Grade C-plus: A pizza delivery guy ends up with a bomb strapped to his chest and an order to rob a bank. The fast-paced buddy comedy works best when it focuses on the central players. Sadly, that focus gets shattered by the latest version of feces in a punch bowl.
The name pretty much sums it up. There’s about “30 Minutes or Less” of comedy in this film.
• “Snowmen,” Grade C-minus: Playing the cancer card — especially with children — is risky because there’s an automatic sympathy that kicks in, which means the story has to be strong enough to warrant the emotional investment. The “Snowmen” script by director/writer Robert Kirbyson doesn’t have such power.
The film banks on the kind of emotional cues that make Hallmark and Lifetime movies so popular: hope, determination, spunk, regrets and acceptance.
• “Seven Days In Utopia,” Grade B-minus: Based on David L. Cook’s novel, “Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia,” the movie follows Luke Chisholm (Lucas Black) as he finally reaches the goal his father has pushed him to obtain: a chance to play professional golf. His debut is a disaster, so he escapes from the spotlight in the sleepy town of Utopia. The film also stars Robert Duvall.
Despite its flaws, “Seven Days in Utopia’ has a good heart. It’s not a hole-in-one, but it certainly plays up to par with similar movies such as “Facing the Giants.”
Also on DVD this week
“Smallville: The Complete Tenth Season”: The final season of the super TV series.
“Hot in Cleveland: Season Two”: Includes 22 episodes of the cable comedy.
“Our Idiot Brother”: Paul Rudd plays a sibling who disrupts the lives of his three sisters.
“Tucker & Dale vs. Evil”: A relaxing weekend goes bad because of misunderstandings.
“30 Rock: Season 5”: Tina Feycq stars.
“The Girls Next Door: The Complete Series”: Includes all of the episodes of the E! Playboy series.
“Dinosaur Train: T-Rex Tales”: Features nine fun and educational journeys.
“Another Earth”: Two people start a relationship on the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth.
“Mission: Impossible — The ‘88 TV Season”: Peter Graves reprises his role of Jim Phelps.
“NFL: Green Bay Packers The Road to XLV”: A look at the team’s championship drive.
“The Wave”: An instructor’s efforts to explain totalitarianism goes wrong.
“Vampires”: A mocumentary about a Belgian clan of vampires.
“Kidnapped”: Masked men take a family hostage.
“The Future”: A couple’s lives are changed by a stray cat.
“It’s Always Christmas With You”: New holiday offering from The Wiggles.
“5 Days of War”: Film based on true events of a journalist, his cameraman and a local woman caught behind enemy lines during the war between Russia and the Georgian Republic.
“Look: Season 1”: Cable series told through security camera footage.

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