Reviews: DVD

The Amityville Horror

Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder

Eddie Murphy once did a routine about how white folk react to hints that their house is haunted. He said that a WASP couple would look at black goo rising in their toilet and say "that's peculiar".

Re-watching this ghoulish drama supposedly based on a true story I couldn't help but think of Murphy's observations. Even when a friend of the terrorised family becomes possessed and says in a demonic voice that their house is the path to hell, they still stay there.

In a sense, their stupidity is beneficial for viewers. If they had fled too early we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the scene-chewing antics of Rod Steiger, who plays a tortured priest.

As George Lutz, James Brolin skips between two expressions: sullen and crazed.

You can actually chart the development of the plot by the red rings around Brolin's eyes. Oh, and we can't forget his hair that starts out looking like a Neil Diamond album cover only to descend into a death metal mop. Overwrought to zany extremes, if these events actually took place, this dramatized version does the victims little justice.

Ben Davey

The Island

Directed by Michael Bay, starring Ewan McGregor (pictured right), Scarlett Johansson

Shouldn't be too difficult for a band of military elite-turned-mercenaries to capture two escaped clones, should it? Especially given that the clones have a 15-year-old's education? But considering The Island comes from the producer/director team behind Armageddon and Bad Boys, the hardened bounty hunters will no doubt end up proving no match for the dim fugitives.

And it would have been naive to expect Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay to approach the science fiction genre with any degree of subtlety. Their story of genetics gone wrong soon collapses into a flaccid chase film.

We can only hope that Scarlett Johansson's toe-dip into the pool of dumb explosion movies was more experiment than statement of intention.

This tale of human cloning, featuring more slow motion shots than an R&B clip, is indeed a frightening vision of the future.

BD

East of Eden

Directed by Elia Kazan, starring James Dean (pictured top right), Raymond Massey

One of three films that created the cult of James Dean, here the star plays Cal Trask, the less favored son of pastoralist father Adam (Raymond Massey). When Adam loses most of his money in a failed scheme, Cal tries to trump his brother, Aron (Richard Davalos), by earning his father's losses back.

To do so he'll need the financial help of his mother (Jo Van Fleet) who abandoned him to run a nearby booze den. Throw in a competition for the affections of Aron's girlfriend (Julie Harris) and a knot tightens in the family ties. A condensed adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, this is notable as Dean's major debut but his Brando-esque performance allows little breathing space for any other cast member.

Director Elia Kazan must have been enamored with the young actor to grant him this kind of leeway. But Dean's overacting simplifies the complexity of Steinbeck's book.

BD

(China Daily 03/13/2007 page19)