DVD Picks & Pans: Summer Smorgasbord, Treats R Us

Military.com - Tom Miller

Jul 29, 2008

With July fading faster than a tropical sunset, we serve up another round of summer-viewing treats recently released on DVD. There's a tangy rock 'n roll dish with no expiration date, a Vegas-themed soufflé, a delicious crime caper, and a seventh helping of one of television's best crime dramas.

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Shine a Light
DVD-2008 ($34.99, Paramount Home Entertainment) Also available in Blu-ray.

Mick Jagger might be retirement age—he turned sixty-five this year—but he's hardly the retiring type.  Don't believe it? Just take a look at director Martin Scorsese's masterful documentary based on a 2006 Rolling Stones' concert in New York City.

Strutting their stuff with ageless abandon, these superannuated rock icons—Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood and drummer Charlie Watts—render a high-octane performance that will leave viewers breathless.

Think about it: the Stones began their remarkable run in 1962. That's 36 years ago—or 252 in rock & roll years. (It's not exactly a dog's life, but neither is it known for longevity.)

The Stones' only serious rival for the title of Band of the (20th) Century—the Beatles—lasted a mere decade. Many others either burned out or imploded in less. Little seems to have changed with the Stones—except in their close-ups. Look up craggy in the dictionary and you'll find Richards' face.

The concert play list is eclectic—featuring hits like "Satisfaction," "Brown Sugar," and "Start Me Up" and lesser known material like "She Was Hot," "Faraway Eyes," and "All Down the Line." There also are memorable collaborations with Jack White ("Loving Cup"), Christina Aguilera ("Live with Me"), and Buddy Guy ("Champagne and Reefer").

While the concert is the main event, Scorsese punctuates the entertainment with flashbacks to the Stones' earlier days. In these segments, the director usually goes for the ironic: Richards telling an interviewer in the 1960's that the group might last another couple of years. When asked if he can imagine still performing with the same abandon at age sixty, Jagger, however, responds with an immediate, and enthusiastic, yes.

We should all be so prescient—and lucky.

Military.com Rating: *** ½

(DVD extras include four bonus performances and a behind-the-scenes featurette.)

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21 (Single-Disc Edition)
DVD-2008 ($28.96, Sony) Also available in Two-Disc Special Edition and Blu-ray.

Director Robert Luketic's adaptation of Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House—a true-story about a group of MIT students who won millions in Las Vegas in the 1990's—is instructive, visually-appealing, and entertaining. It's also implausible, melodramatic, and predictable and seriously under-utilizes the ever-sexy Kate Bosworth.

Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a math genius and hopeless nerd. Just the kind of student snarky professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) is looking for. Besides his day job, Rosa is the ring leader of a gang of student card counters. When asked to join, wholesome Ben at first demurs.

Then, faced with the daunting prospect of coming up with $300,000 for Harvard Medical School (his life-long dream), Ben reluctantly agrees. It's not just the tuition money though. He also wants to get close to team member and MIT "It" girl—hot rocket scientist Jill Taylor (Bosworth).

Ben quickly proves to be a natural, and the team's weekend jaunts to Vegas are extremely lucrative. Meanwhile Ben metamorphoses from nerd to hip and even bags Jill.

There's trouble on the horizon though. Although Rosa keeps insisting that what they're doing isn't illegal, the casinos aren't in business to lose money and they ban card counters when they can identify them. It's just our anti-heroes' luck that they're being watched by an old-school security enforcer, Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), who also happens to harbor an ancient grudge against Rosa. Old-school in this context means, among other things, back rooms and brass knuckles.

Most of the drama in "21" is generated by the cat-and-mouse game between Williams and Rosa's band of students. The action at the blackjack tables is as indifferent as Ben's romance with Jill is predictable. What is surprising is how little heat the romance generates. Come on. This is Kate Bosworth.

Military.com Rating: ** ½

(DVD extras director commentary; cast commentary on blackjack and card counting; "Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal," a making-of featurette; and "Money Plays: A Tour of the Good Life," a featurette on the clothes, luxuries, and locations seen in the film.)

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The Bank Job
DVD-2008 ($29.95, Lionsgate) Also available in 2-Disc Special Edition and Blu-ray.

If you're looking for a cool heist caper set in swinging 1971 London, look no further than director Roger Donaldson's complex fictionalization of the real-life "walkie-talkie bank job."

In the historical heist, a group of burglars tunneled under Lloyd's Bank in London and escaped with the equivalent of $5 million. Although a Ham radio operator overheard (and recorded) walkie-talkie transmissions between the burglars and a lookout, the case was never solved. Within days of the heist, the government issued a gag order, and the story disappeared from the media.  The investigation remains a secret to this day.

The filmmakers speculate that the bank job originated not with the burglars themselves but with MI5, the British Security Service, which was looking to recover compromising photos of a member of the royal family believed to be kept in a safe deposit box at the bank.

In this scenario, the heist is set in motion when a fashion model, Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), who grew up in a rough East End neighborhood is caught smuggling drugs into Britain. An MI5 agent (Richard Lintern) who knows her background offers her a way out. All she has to do is recruit some of her old homies to recover the photos. They get to keep whatever else they steal.

Martine, the local girl made good, easily convinces a trio of old friends and petty crooks led by Terry Leather (Jason Statham) to pull the heist. As it turns out, the bank's safe deposit boxes hide lots of other secrets, and the owners of those secrets want them back. It makes for a complicated chase that includes spies, a porn entrepreneur, corrupt cops, and black radicals.

Despite the complex story, fast pace, and plot twists, Donaldson ties it all together in a satisfying climax. The acting is solid all around, and Ms. Burrows is a particular treat.

Military.com Rating: ***

(The Widescreen edition reviewed is bare bones and includes only the theatrical trailer.)

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Law and Order: Special Victims Unit - The Seventh Year
DVD-2008 ($59.98, Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

The highest rated—and some would argue best—of the three series that make up NBC's "Law and Order" franchise, SVU focuses on sex crimes and crimes involving the very young and very old. Like its "Law and Order" siblings, SVU's storylines mimic high-profile real-life cases.

The show is aided by several strong characters including Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Margitay), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), and Detective Odafin Tutuola (Ice T). They work in a fictional version of the NYPD's 16th Precinct's Special Victims Unit.

SVU's success depends as much on character development as solving crimes—especially so in Season Seven when Detectives Benson and Stabler struggle with their partnership.

Seventh season guest stars include Dean Cain, Marcia Gay Harden, Brittany Snow and Mark McGrath. The set includes all 22 Season Seven episodes on five discs.

Nominated for 15 Emmy Awards, SVU has won three including Hargitay as Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Hargitay also has won a Golden Globe for her role.

Military.com Rating: ***

(Bare bones DVD)

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Military.com DVD Picks & Pans Smorgasbord Ratings Guide
* Have the Rolaids handy
** Two words: fast food
*** Tasty
**** Succulent

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Copyright 2008 by Tom Miller