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New releases An urban legend comes to kill
The Ring has its problems but fulfills its mission to scare.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 6, 2003
The Ring (R)
[Photo: DreamWorks]
Naomi Watts, as investigative reporter Rachel Keller, dares to watch a deadly videotape in
The Ring.
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Despite notable gaps in logic, director Gore Verbinski's remake of a popular 1998 Japanese movie makes for a creepy exercise in horror. Call it Information Age paranoia, if you will: Evil emanates from a videotape that causes viewers to die. Don't press play.
Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive) is Rachel Keller, the newspaper reporter on the case, and the single mom places herself, her young son (David Dorfman) and her ex-boyfriend (Martin Henderson) in grave danger by exposing all three to the tape.
It's the stuff of urban legend, according to an exchange at the beginning of The Ring: "Have you heard about this tape that kills you when you watch it?" one teenage girl asks her friend. "When it's over, the phone rings and someone says, 'You will die in seven days.' "
Verbinski (The Mexican), abetted by Bojan Bazelli's cinematography of the Pacific Northwest, effectively ratchets up the tension as time runs out on Rachel and her significant others. Fans of this movie might want to check out its inspiration, director Hideo Nakata's Ringu, which also is being released this week on home video.
Rent it if you enjoy: Fear Dot Com, supernatural thrillers.
DVD extras: Don't Watch This, a making-of-the-movie featurette.
Half Past Dead (R)
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Steven Seagal and rapper Ja Rule team up in Half Past Dead.
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"Half past dumb is more like it," we noted when this limp action movie was released in November. And the noisy, bloody, overextended debut feature from television director and actor Don Michael Paul hasn't improved with age.
Steven Seagal, the film's co-producer, sleepwalks through his role as an FBI agent, Sascha, willing to go to great lengths to avenge the death of his wife. In an effort to bring down a crime lord, he takes bullets and, while still undercover, allows himself to be incarcerated in Alcatraz, reopened after four decades.
Sascha and criminal pal Nick (rapper Ja Rule) team to wipe out a group of mercenary commandos led by Morris Chestnut and Nia Peeples. A man facing execution (Bruce Weitz), a Supreme Court justice (Linda Thorson), and a loose-cannon convict (rapper Kurupt) also figure into the action. Did we mention the extensive gunfire, hand-to-hand combat and fiery explosions?
Rent it if you enjoy: Seagal-style action (i.e., numbingly dumb), prison movies.
DVD extras: Paul's commentary, a Cinemax special.
The Weight of Water (R)
Murder, incest, stormy weather and melodrama sparked by sexual jealousy are on the menu for this psychodrama from Kathryn Bigelow (K19: The Widowmaker, Strange Days). It's a less than successful feat of imagination, as two tales are told simultaneously, somewhat in the manner of Possession and The French Lieutenant's Woman.
The present-day characters, aboard a boat on the coast of New Hampshire, include a photographer (Catherine McCormack) looking to investigate the site of unsolved gruesome murders that took place in 1873, her Pulitzer Prize-winning poet husband (Sean Penn), his brother (Josh Lucas of Sweet Home Alabama) and the brother's flirtatious, uninhibited girlfriend (Elizabeth Hurley).
The contemporary scenes are alternated with passages from the 19th century, centered on characters played by Sarah Polley, the late Katrin Cartlidge and Vinessa Shaw. Despite a good cast, scenic settings and the inspiration of a sensational real-life crime, Bigelow's film goes under.
Rent it if you enjoy: Murder mysteries, of the contemporary and period varieties.
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (G)
The Old Testament tale of a reluctant prophet, his sojourn in the belly of a whale and his eventful mission to preach truth to the evil-doing folks of Ninevah is given a comical song-and-dance treatment. Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber aren't nearly as funny as they've been in the past, and the digital animation isn't quite Pixar quality. But younger viewers are sure to find it pretty entertaining.
Rent it if you enjoy: The VeggieTales series, kid-oriented entertainment inspired by the Bible.
DVD extras: Three commentaries, behind-the-scenes features, a trio of music videos, the script, six DVD-ROM games and loads of additional bonuses.
DVD CLASSICS
Anybody, uh, curious about the fuss over I Am Curious (Yellow) may be underwhelmed by the experience of watching the Swedish film, which sparked a notorious obscenity case upon its release in 1967. The gratuitous nudity and sexual suggestiveness, fairly tame by today's standards, must have been the highlights of this downbeat, pseudo-arty story of a young woman on the road to sexual, social or political fulfillment. Or something like that.
At this point, the controversy is far more interesting than the movie, and a new Criterion Collection two-DVD box, including sister film I Am Curious (Blue), uses essays, interviews, documents and other extras to examine the court battle and its impact on censorship.
Also notable are the special-edition DVD releases of Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay!, Eric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach and late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy, released in 1994 -- Blue (Juliette Binoche), White (Julie Delpy) and Red (Irene Jacob).
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