It’s been a busy couple of weeks on the DVD front and thanks to some cross-country vacationing it’s catch-up time. This week’s highlight is the bearded wonder of Daniel Day-Lewis as “Lincoln” but there’s a lot of other Oscar bait in the mix, along with a couple of lousy comedies. Let’s do this thing!
“Lincoln”
Come for the beard, stay for the history. Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg team up to deliver a glossy, wonky civics lesson on the passage of the 13th Amendment. Non-history-nerds may find the movie a little too talky and kind of slow, but even those people will stay entertained by playing “Hey, it’s that guy!” as this movie features every single living character actor.
“Parental Guidance”
Billy Crystal gets hit in the crotch. That’s really all you need to know about this movie.
“Les Miserables”
This is the movie that pretty much validates the existence of 15-year-old show choir girls everywhere. Based on the beloved musical based on the beloved novel, “Les Miz” features an incredible cast, a sweeping scope, and Anne Hathaway earning the holy hell out of that Oscar. If that doesn’t do it for you, you’ll always have your “Russell Crowe isn’t as terrible a singer as I had feared” realization to keep and treasure for always
“This is 40”
Dear Judd Apatow: Please feel free to produce as many movies as you want but maybe you should stop directing until you find an editor mean enough to cut your films by about an hour. Also, maybe you should stop putting your wife and kids in everything. I put my wife and kids in all my home movies and nobody wants to see them either. Thanks again for “Anchorman.” Sincerely, Mat DeKinder.
“The Hobbit”
When this movie came out in theaters everyone got so bent out of shape about the increased frame rate that it overshadowed the fact that this is a very worthy precursor to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Seeing it at home removes the frame-rate issues and leaves you with an exciting little movie. And don’t worry; you can get upset about advancing technology all over again when the sequel comes out this Christmas.
“Zero Dark Thirty”
This movie probably should have fared better at the Oscars as it got a bad rap for “condoning” torture; which is like saying “King Kong” condones giant-ape trafficking. It is a powerful movie that gives us a warts-and-all look at the hunt for Osama bin Laden and proves that Jessica Chastain is a force to be reckoned with. Check your politics at the door and you’ll see why this movie was a serious Best Picture contender.
