Hachi: A Dog's Tale (Hachiko: A Dog's Story) (2009)

Hachi: A Dog's Tale depicts a wonderful and true story about one man's best friend, Hachiko. A statue of Hachiko still stands in Tokyo, Japan, to honor the loyalty this dog showed his master every day for nearly 10 years (until his passing in 1935). As a Richard Gere venue, the movie feels a bit like Shall We Dance? meets Marley and Me but, if anything, it remains understated on the maudlin side of the equation (which is good) even though I felt it was a weaker story for that virtue. Any dog or animal lover should appreciate this movie in spades as it delves into the hearts of those who watch it. Enjoy! 4.5 stars.

The Wedding Date (2005)

Determined to attend her ditzy stepsister's wedding in England on the arm of a beau to show up her ex-boyfriend, Debra Messing hires Dermot Mulroney, a hunky male escort, at the eleventh hour for $6,000 from her retirement fund. Whether they're awkwardly seeking common ground or pretending to be in love, Messing and Mulroney have a nice chemistry together. Amy Adams is the self-absorbed airhead who's set to wed a mook who is even more oblivious of others' emotions (which helps during an altar-cation when his best man counsels, "Now is not the time to figure things out"). So the groom is the last to learn of a premarital secret that's been chewing through the bride's family for years. We catch glimpses of the relationship shared by Debra's and Amy's characters since they were little girls (until sundered by dueling boyfriends) and Dermot's self-confidence serves him well in shuttle diplomacy of sorts. (Debra says he's a therapist she met at a Knicks game but his real career skills are not that different.) The numerous deleted scenes were right to be excised, except the last one, which I found moving. The movie has a few mildly interesting character roles (including Holland Taylor as Debra's mother and Sarah Parish as the bawdy Brit girl who steals all her scenes). The movie is cleaner than it could have been but wears its tawdriness proudly; I won't go into details (nor does the parental warning that says "iffy for age 15+") but suffice it to say the cast includes strippers. Tellingly, the movie's best and most representative lines are "The best sex is make-up sex" and "I'd rather fight with you than have sex with anyone else." (How's that for romantic?) As a result, the movie's many positives are so tilted by unnecessary sexual negatives that I regrettably can't give it 4 stars, only 3.5 stars.

Enigma: Remember the Future (2001)

Enigma: Remember the Future is an impressive Eurofusion music/video collection. It presents 11 music videos from Michael and Sandra Cretu's four albums that are probing and avant-garde yet spiritual and calming. It's visual and verbal poetry so it's meant to suggest concepts that are new and not always comfortable or agreeable -- but how else do you grow (unless you know everything already)? I suggest (as does the disc) that you turn off the lights, take a deep breath, and relax while listening to this music and watching these videos. The first track, Sadeness Part 1, begins with a composer who sets the stage by dreaming, ethereal Gregorian chants in authentic liturgical Latin, the ruins of a church, a monk figure who explores a portal (into hell from the iconography), and a woman who questions in French (the Marquis de) Sade's motives, arguing he is evil not divine. The other tracks are Mea Culpa, Principles of Lust, Rivers of Belief, Return to Innocence, Eyes of Truth, Carly's Song, Behind the Invisible, TNT for the Brain, Gravity of Love, and Push the Limits. Don't rest your eyes for a second or you'll miss the intellectual, sensual, and spiritual eye candy that contrasts and mixes light and shadow, air and water, society and individuality. There is no nudity but this is intelligent music and imagery for the adult intellect not kids so let's not even go there. Some might equate certain scenes with soft-core porn but Enigma is intellectual and stylized so I wouldn't say it is sexual only sensual or suggestive. You will find Koyaanisqatsi-like images you are not likely to forget, such as (for me) the aquatic humans, and will probably agree the multiple gold- and platinum-album-winning group's musical syncretism is complex and awesome. You've heard their stuff in La Femme Nikita, Single White Female, Gomorra, and the Matrix. So catch this album! I acquired it through a competing service since it has not been stocked here recently. (See my Bl0ckbuster and Notflix lists for what the competing service has and doesn't have.) 4 stars.

VeggieTales: Dave and the Giant Pickle (2004)

VeggieTales: Dave and the Giant Pickle is just endlessly entertaining (esp. for a kids' cartoon with a Bible-based message on self-esteem). We open with Larry the Cucumber pretending to be his own brand of dork/rogue avenger, Larry-Boy (with "powerful suction-cup action ears!"). His antics are a mild stitch in the side esp. whenever his "ears" malfunction -- but I digress.) Turns out he's a bit sad about being himself so he wants to be a much-beloved hero. The message of the Bible story (David and Goliath), with the original songs that follow, is geared toward children and says "Even a little person can do great things (when God wants him to and he believes)." The story of David the shepherd boy and how he faces Goliath (who is here unfortunately a ponderous, ugly, giant pickle) is roundly entertaining. The songs are very good too. If you want VeggieTales to grow on you, this title will definitely do the trick. 4.5 stars.

VeggieTales Classics: Josh and the Big Wall! (1997)

I agree with the other reviewers who say Josh and the Big Wall is one of their favorite VeggieTales titles. It's become one of mine. It has a solid story (Joshua and Jericho), entertaining exposition (French peas cast aspersions and slushies from the wall onto the Israelites), funny one-liners ("sounds sticky"), "in" jokes (no hands), and the gentle morphing of a biblical battle into something any tyke can grasp yet not be traumatized over. VeggieTales are great fun for the kiddos but those a bit older -- or much older -- tend to enjoy them for the universal appeal. The usual Silly Songs with Larry interlude presents a wacky fun song about a cebu (though the subtitles show the accent without the u) that I dare your kids to watch only once and never sing it endlessly afterwards. (I rented this disc from a competing service since it has not been available here for a number of years but after I received it and watched it and went to rate it, I found this service has recently put it on instant watch. Oh well, the disc has a few extra features that the streaming version lacks.) Some may think this disc preachy but come on, it is a Bible story and a pretty mild retelling at that. Sunday school kindergarten-age kids and below will eat this up. Enjoy! 4 stars.

Anjelah Johnson: That's How We Do It (2009)

Anjelah Johnson is a whip-thin and whip-smart Mexican/Native American woman with a black first name and a white last name -- so it should come as no surprise that she is stone-cold down-wit-dat when it comes to the cultures and idioms of blacks, whites, and latinos (plus Vietnamese nail salon girls). Her bead on accents and mannerisms is right on target! Her timing and stage presence is flawless -- and her humor is clean! Not one swear word and she is f-u-n-n-y! She talks about everything from boys checking out girls at the club to the prayer-group leader whose prayers are actually veiled gossip. Besides this, she hails from Oakland (where she was a cheerleader for the Raiders) so her street patter backs up her street cred as a tough cookie. (After riffing for a while on "That's how we do it" in Oakland, she was starting to get nervous laughter from the audience until she deadpanned, "No, I would never stab another woman. Again.") It may just be her schtick but this gal looks like she means business -- and then she bats her eyes. I had a great time discovering the comic queen that is Anjelah. Don't miss her -- or the hip-hop stage number at the end of this, her first show and DVD -- recorded live in Houston (where the weather is not just hot, it's "inappropriate")! 4.5 stars.

The Wind in the Willows (1983)

This dated stopmotion production of The Wind in the Willows is a treasure for its pastoral simplicity. Here is the English countryside before the automobile carved up the woods and farmland. Indeed, it's Tolkienian in flavor esp. for its love of the land. Our story opens (slowly) as Mole is spring cleaning in his house at Mole End (or more like "puttering") before he sets aside his chores to go for a saunter and enjoy the day. (Mole almost never goes out so this is an adventure for him.) He runs across Rat in his river home, who invites him to go on a leisurely boating trip with a relaxing picnic. (Mole is really getting adventurous now.) Next they decide to visit Toad in his elegant manse Toad Hall. Toad, who is loony for frivolous modern amenities, takes them along on his latest craze, a ride in an elegant horse-drawn carriage. He goes off the deep end though after he sees a "horseless carriage" careening down the country road. (He goes so crazy-cuckoo over cars that he sounds and acts pretty much like Pee Wee Hermann.) Worse yet, he's a wild one behind the wheel and quite destructive. His friends hold an Edwardian intervention but later Toad faces charges in court. So the story starts very slowly but builds up steam. The funniest bits are Toad's wackiness and Badger's stolidness, while the puffery of the British court is an outright hoot. Children 5 and under may not like the scary woods scenes esp. the weasels, who act like riff-raff, pick pockets, and cudgel one character from behind. A character calls another an "@ss" one time but with polish like an Englishman. There is a lot of "Oh, do go on, dear fellow" in the dialog but for a historically nostalgic and rewarding story of good old pre-WWI England, I hope every family may come to appreciate this production as much as I do. 4 stars.

The Boat Is Full (Das Boot ist Voll) (1981)

Based on a true story and historical records of Jews who attempted to flee the Holocaust into neutral Switzerland, The Boat Is Full (Das Boot Ist Voll) has nothing to do with boats or those in boats choosing who will survive and who will be left behind. Here the boat is metaphorical. The Boat Is Full does, however, have everything to do with the many reasons and rationalizations whereby human beings of every stripe choose to either help others or toss them off as human detritus (and convince themselves and others that it's the only sensible thing to do). This movie is less about the action of escape than about the mental and verbal gymnastics required to rationalize inaction on behalf of one's fellow beings, esp. those who are persecuted by a neighboring totalitarian state that extends an enmeshed complicity into even a neutral government. (The boundaries of one's own security are murky when you sit next to a bully who may unilaterally turn almost any action or inaction into a provocation.) During all that happens to our "family" of refugees, we see the character of those around them and hear their words. (Are Jews equal to or "less than" us? Do we feed and talk with them or grouse about them in and out of their presence? Do we comply with authorities even when the situation is insidious? Do we allow for a change of heart?) This is not a plodding movie but it has a methodical pace. It paints a picture of society halfway between a mob lynch scene (as when Jesus meets Pilate in The Passion of the Christ) and a courtroom scene (as in Twelve Angry Men) -- and that, to me, is the epitome of drama and suspense. This movie has been digitally restored and was released internationally in 1981. I obtained it from a competing service since it has not been in stock here for quite some time. 4 stars.

Starz Studios: A Nightmare on Elm Street / Furry Vengeance / Please Give (2010)

This 12-minute Starz featurette breezes through puff promotions of the following movies (in this order): Furry Vengeance, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Please Give, Avatar on Blu-ray, Harry Brown, Behind the Burly Q, The Good Heart, and Robin Hood. In the middle of these movie segments is an obtuse if brief video essay about brain freeze. This featurette didn't add to my knowledge of or motivation to see any of these movies but the overviews of Furry Vengeance, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Robin Hood were the most detailed. Watch all 12 minutes while you're munching down a bagel or a bowl of cereal. 3 stars.

Starz Studios: The Back-Up Plan / Oceans / The Losers (2010)

This 12-minute Starz featurette devotes a satisfying several minutes each to promoting Jennifer Lopez in The Back-up Plan and DisneyNature's Oceans, sufficient that I grew more confirmed in my plans to see both movies. It also commits a minute or so each to promoting Gravity (a TV series), Death at a Funeral, Kenny Chesney's Summer in 3D, and The Losers -- not enough information (or the right kind) to persuade me to catch these movies as they premiere but likely later I will. I've seen more offensive trailers for Death at a Funeral but this treatment was pretty funny. The Chesney vignette was fairly vanilla. 3 stars.

Starz Studios: The Perfect Game / Death at a Funeral / The Secret In Their Eyes (2010)

This 12-minute Starz featurette breezes through Date Night and Kick-Ass with more-than-a-trailer treatments, including a not-that-funny mutual interview between Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. Next, we spin past a spate of emerging products at ShoWest in L.A., with quickie promo spiels for an immersive sound system, theater trash cans, shrinkwrapped pickles, and so on. (Yawn.) Finally, we get 15- to 30-second drive-bys for Party Down (a TV series), DisneyNature's Oceans, The Perfect Game, Who Do You Love, No One Knows About Persian Cats, and The Secret in Their Eyes. Now ideally, I think a Starz featurette should either expand on the trailer of a major movie or enticingly portray the essence of an independent or foreign film. In this case, however, none of the material in this featurette gave me any useful or appealing information about the movies mentioned. As a result, I remained clueless or unconvinced about seeing any movie about which I had not already heard or made up my mind. In other words, I have previously decided to see Date Night, Kick-Ass, and Oceans and this featurette gave me nothing that was tantalizing and even left a few bubbles of sour taste in my mouth. Note: This featurette does not include Death at a Funeral as the title indicates; that preview appears in the Starz featurette titled with The Back-up Plan. 2 stars.

Starz Studios: Date Night / After.Life / Letters to God (2010)

This 12-minute Starz featurette promotes the latest and greatest hit movies seen at L.A.'s Show West, with 15-30 seconds each on The Karate Kid, Letters to Juliet, Sex and the City 2, Due Date, Beastly, Killers, The Clash of the Titans, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time followed by 30-100 seconds each on Why Did I Get Married Too?, Letters to God, Date Night, The Good The Bad The Weird, After.Life, The Greatest, and Salt. As usual, it's a blend of movie trailer snippets and movie stars or directors talking about their show, and at a total run time of 12 minutes 20 seconds, it's no skin off anyone's nose to catch it end to end. After seeing it, I am interested in seeing Beastly and The Good The Bad The Weird, which I had not yet heard of, and I am more interested than ever in seeing Letters to God, After.Life, and Salt. 3.5 stars.

Volcanoes of the Deep Sea: IMAX (2003)

To anticipate what Volcanoes is like, take every colorful, frothy undersea documentary (like Coral Reef Adventure, Oceans, and Under the Sea) -- and turn them goth! Volcanoes focuses on deep-sea volcanic vents and the life forms that live under the most severe conditions on the planet. The film's scientists take a venerable deep-sea submersible called Alvin into the inkiest ocean depths at 12,000 feet to see and sample all they can. Accompanying them, you'll see dozens of extruded lava chimneys that are actively churning out poisonous black fumes while covered with thousands of tube worms, shrimp, or crabs (not to mention the billions of thermophilic bacteria they thrive on). These creatures live in pitch-black, icy waters on the surface of searing lava shells where it is 32 degrees outside and 750 degrees inside -- to say nothing of the intense water pressure! Alvin's strobes illuminate a world that is stranger than many a nightmare though it is eerily beautiful. These scientists' never-before-seen proof that life can truly live anywhere is just the most obvious part of the mystery though. Since these life forms share helical DNA and iron-based hemoglobin with humans, it seems fairly surmisable that life did begin in these ocean vents some 5 billion years ago. (For this reason, the movie did not receive wide U.S. distribution out of concern for a creationist backlash.) Volcanoes is an excellent IMAX film if you are interested in geology, paleontology, or marine biology. 5 stars.

Journey Into Amazing Caves: IMAX (2001)

I saw Amazing Caves in an IMAX theater and also caught it on my laptop screen over breakfast. It is an excellent IMAX film filled with cliffhanging, rappeling, and underwater diving through exquisite panoramas, aerial vistas, cavernous cathedrals, and subterranean rivers. Nancy Holler Aulenbach from Georgia and Hazel Barton from England are lifelong "cavers" or cave explorers (sometimes with their husbands or local experts) who explore caves in extreme environments. They are dedicated to discovering new bacterial life forms that may in time promise medical benefits, so they're like botanists who catalog the flora in rainforests but they're biologists who catalog the microfauna in caves. We trek them through an Arizona canyon, kayaking down a river (to the Moody Blues' tune Ride My Seesaw) and rappeling their way to caves with exquisitely baroque interior architecture. We go with them to explore ice canyons and caves in Greenland and freshwater cenotes in Yucatan, eventually swimming seaward to the blurry boundary where freshwater and saltwater meet. We see the single-celled organisms they discover through a microscope after each expedition and some of their narrative comes from the Web site where Nancy, a schoolteacher, extemporizes about her discoveries to her student audience. This athletic and scientific duo has discovered 10 branches of bacterial life that were previously unknown in addition to a new treatment for leukemia. Amazing Caves is a fascinating and inspiring story of scientific exploration -- the logistics, adventure, and camaraderie -- and you can't beat Liam Neeson as narrator and Moody Blues for the soundtrack. 5 stars.

Mystery of the Nile: IMAX (2005)

The Mystery of the Nile is an exciting IMAX movie similar to several other exploration titles that involve aerial surveys and canyon river whitewater rafting (for example, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, Grand Canyon: Hidden Secrets, and Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West). The Nile is the world's longest river and perhaps the most dangerous; no one in 4,000 years of history had previously navigated the Nile from its source (Lake Tana) to the sea (Mediterranean) until this IMAX expedition accomplished the feat. (Frankly, it seems odd to me that a self-described crew of two experts and several novices accomplished the feat at which military teams and boatloads of "experts" had failed in prior decades -- but then this is a documentary of that fact.) The story of the Nile is well told (though with a broad brush, as in most IMAX movies) with an emphasis on breathtaking vistas and spectacular scenery. The underlying message is how a team of disparate individuals pulled together to accomplish such a demanding feat and promote environmental conservation while respecting each others' differences and contributions. (One team member, a Muslim, seemed esp. significant for the connections he made with elders throughout the Muslim lands of the Nile.) This is a superb story I doubt you will want to pause before it ends. Since it is an IMAX film, try to watch it on a screen large and close enough to afford at least a 60-degree viewing angle (that is, the center third of your full range for peripheral vision). And look out for the crocodiles! 5 stars.

Gigante (2009)

Gigante is a sedately paced, affectionately spun, and understatedly humorous boy-meets-girl story that had foreign-film aficionados at Houston's sixth Latin Wave festival frequently laughing out loud. Jara (with the heart of a boy in the body of a bear) struggles to stay awake through his graveyard-shift job monitoring the security cameras in a Wal-Mart- or Exito-like megastore in Montevideo, Uruguay. Julia (fresh from the country and pretty if plain) is a slightly klutzy night janitor that first provokes his laughter then his empathy. In fact, Jara's sympathies lead him to track her through the cameras at work and then, after work, through the streets to her home -- but he is no more a stalker than Charlie Brown if he showed more curiosity or initiative towards the "red-haired girl." (OK, Jara exercises his weekend-job skills as a bouncer occasionally but that's it.) Jara is simply too shy to speak to Julia so he hopes to learn enough to determine whether she would return his interest. In time, circumstances force (or invite) him to decide whether to act -- but the film leaves us without knowing how their first meeting turns out. Gigante is an understated feel-good film with an economy of dialog: If a scene can be conveyed with a blank look, a grimace, a shrug, a throat clearing, and a look away then that's how this film will present it. The director stated in absentia that Horacio Camandule (Jara) is actually a well-known comic so this role is a real departure for him but I think the audience found him wildly (in the mildest sense) successful. Gigante is an endearing slice-of-life foreign film that follows two interesting characters through their daily routines. It's less antic but funnier than L'Auberge Espagnole and I sincerely hope to see it again. 4 stars.

Alamar (To the Sea) (2009)

Alamar (for Spanish a la mar, "to the sea") ferries us with three male characters (child Natan, father Jorge, grandfather Nestor) to an isolated fishing village (basically, a few huts on stilts) off coastal Yucatan, Mexico. Natan is the offspring of a four-year relationship between his Italian mother and his Mayan-descent father. He is to live for several months with his father and grandfather to experience their lives as fishermen before he leaves to stay with his mother. Every one of these three characters is a humble powerhouse in their role -- probably because they were being themselves and these selves are as big as life. (I saw Alamar at Houston's sixth New Wave Latin American film festival and after the showing, the director spoke at length and answered questions about the film. The father, mother, and son are a family in real life and the grandfather really lives the marine life we see in the film. Because of location's isolation, spartan quarters, and length of filming on location, the director's crew consisted of himself behind the camera and a good friend he trained to record sound. He said his basic method of direction was to tell the characters what they would be doing in a scene -- painting a wall, cleaning the day's catch of fish -- then step back and let them be themselves.) The sound track is resonant and the scenery is authentic. The isolation and the immediacy of the interaction between the three generations of males is poignant and powerful though always unassumingly so. Another character that brought frequent chuckles from the foreign-film-loving audience was a white egret that the boy named Blanquita. (The director said the bird just showed up during filming, looking for cockroaches to eat, so he incorporated it into the film. Asked about the bird's fate, he assured the audience that no egrets were harmed in the making of the film -- though the same could certainly not be said for fish and lobsters -- since once she ate all the bugs, the egret just flew away.) I won't forget Alamar for its stark simplicity and candor, and I sincerely hope to see it again. 4.5 stars.

Crab Trap (El Vuelco del Cangrejo) (2009)

Crab Trap opens very simply with a shot of a jungle path before a hiker shambles out of the green and onto the trail. Where he has come from and where is is going (or whether he ever gets there) we never learn, though we witness a few clues. His entire goal is to reach the coastal town, find a boat, and leave (for anywhere). His only option, he is told once he arrives, are the fishermen, who will be away for 2-3 more weeks. So he is trapped indefinitely in the poverty-laden coastal Colombian village that has for generations been settled by blacks (exemplified by their unorthodox but resourceful ad hoc leader, Cerebro) but is poised to come under siege by whites (exemplified by Paisa, who hopes to build up tourist trade with a ramshackle beachfront "hotel" and begins insinuating pimp-like tentacles of manipulation into the village and esp. Cerebro's niece). The traveler, Daniel, remains guarded while probing every possible way to locate a boat but warms up to a precocious young village girl, Lucia, who has taken an immediate liking to him. (Every day she asks, "Are you going to buy lunch from my mother?" She is a natural talent and several great scenes involve a day the two spend together.) In the end, the movie is about entering and passing through the unknown: Are we all just ships passing in the night? How do we make the most of the journey (since it is all we have if and until we reach the destination)? Lucia's words explain the title: "When you flip a crab over on its back, it can't escape." I saw this film at Houston's sixth Latin Wave film festival, after which the director spoke at length and answered questions. Crab Trap was filmed in the isolated coastal village of La Barra and the native characters are inhabitants of that village. The director developed a relationship with the village members and made the film over five years. Crab Trap is a hauntingly plaintive movie that I won't soon forget and I'd sincerely like to see it again. 4.5 stars.