Pound Of Flesh (2010/Odyssey Blu-ray)/Rio Sex
Comedy (2010/Film Buff/MPI DVD)/30
Minutes Or Less (2011/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/C+/B- Sound: B-/C+/B- Extras: C+/C/C Films: C+/C+/C
This
latest group of comedies dealing with some serious subjects all miss the mark,
but make for noteworthy viewing.
Tamar
Simon Hoffs’ Pound Of Flesh (2010)
has Malcolm McDowell as a very popular professor at a college with more gals
than guys and though he is married and loves his wife, is involved in “helping”
them in what turns out to be a scandalous way to get scholarships. That is a secret until a strange murder takes
place and then things become more and more interesting. The cast is good and the makers have picked
some very attractive women to fill the roles, but the film fall short when all
is said and done, feeling like a lesser take on Pretty Maidens All In A Row (reviewed elsewhere on this site) but
has enough interesting moments for those interested. Needless to say the Penn State
scandal will make this an odd one to watch, though this has no under-aged
persons being used. Extras include an
on-camera McDowell interview, Making Of
featurette, Trailers and interesting Outtakes, some of which should have stayed
in the film.
Jonathan
Nossiter’s Rio Sex Comedy (2010) has
Charlotte Rampling as a plastic surgeon helping women out, hailing from Britain in Rio
de Janeiro. Of
course, she is good, as is Bill Pullman as a U.S. Ambassador who runs away from
his job in dangerous slums, Fisher Stevens as an opportunist all around and
Irene Jacob as an anthropologist it a film that has its moments, but is more
all over the place than a narrative film should be and despite the great
scenery, I never found very funny. Yes,
it can be amusing, but it is too lite for its own good and if it thinks taking
the Woody Allen route was a good idea, that was a bad idea as only Allen can be
Allen. For the very curious only, Bonus
Scenes are the only extra.
Finally
we have Ruben Fleischer’s 30 Minutes Or
Less (2011), his follow-up film to the amusing Zombieland, but this time very, very loosely based on a sad, ugly
incident where a man delivering pizza was kidnapped and had a bomb locked onto
him if he did not rob a bank. This is a
comedy with Jesse Eisenberg playing the man, but this goes for high concept,
gross, crude comedy early on to the point of overkill and that dooms what could
have been an interesting dark comedy if the makers had the guts to go
dark. Instead, this starts that silly,
gets sillier and never recovers, thinking going overboard id the only way to
go. Disappointing, it is a
leave-your-brain-at-the-door piece at best, but could have been better,
especially since co-stars Danny McBride, Aziz Andari, Nick Swardson, Michael
Pena and Fred Ward give it all they got.
Too bad there was not more character development. Extras include Blu-ray exclusive
Picture-In-Picture Video Commentary by Eisenberg, McBride, Andari, Swardson and
Fleischer, The Perfect Crime featurette and BD Live interactive functions, plus
Outtakes, Blowing Up with the cast
& crew and Deleted Scenes.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Flesh and 1080p 2.55 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Minutes are about the same, looking
good, but not great as stylizing holds back otherwise good shoots and
interesting locations, so these artistic choices do not pan out. The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 digital
High Definition image transfer on Rio is softer as expected, yet it is often the most
naturalistic of the three not ruining its location work. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes
on Flesh and Minutes are dialogue-based and more towards the front speakers than
I would have liked, but are consistent.
The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Rio is also dialogue-based
and more towards the front speakers than I would have liked, but weaker still.
Needless
to say they are all curios for their intended audience, so we’ll see what
people have to say about them over the next few months as people catch up with
them.
- Nicholas Sheffo
