TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

DVD Releases

ADVERTISEMENT

By The Tampa Tribune | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 21, 2008

AMERICAN GANGSTER

Denzel Washington plays real-life drug lord Frank Lucas — who built a criminal empire by flooding 1970s New York with heroin — as a cool customer with a loyal extended family. Russell Crowe is the scrupulously honest cop with the messed-up home life who is determined to bring him to justice. The charismatic actors don't share the screen until the end, but the wait is more entertaining than watching an entire movie about a debate team.

R; 157 minutes

MICHAEL CLAYTON

This drama about a corporate lawyer (George Clooney) enduring a crisis of conscience picked up seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay as well as nods for Clooney and supporting actors Tom Wilkinson (as Clooney's melting-down mentor) and Tilda Swinton (the villainess). In his directorial debut, "Bourne" series scribe Tony Gilroy keeps the tension high without sacrificing the complexity of the situation.

R; 119 minutes

RENDITION

Not even the well-publicized off-screen "relationship" between stars Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal could save this topical drama from the lukewarm returns that plagued anything Iraq-related at the box office. Witherspoon is the wife of an Egyptian-American man who fails to return home from a business trip; among those helping or hindering her search are Gyllenhaal's CIA analyst and political types Alan Arkin and Meryl Streep.

R; 120 minutes

IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH

In the other well-intentioned but not very popular Iraq-themed drama with a high-profile cast, Tommy Lee Jones is an ex-military cop investigating the disappearance of his soldier son, recently returned from a tour of duty. Lending a hand is a tough lady cop (Charlize Theron, in de-glammed mode). Paul Haggis directs with somewhat less hysterical obviousness than he brought to the Oscar-winning "Crash."

R; 121 minutes

LUST, CAUTION

On the heels of "Brokeback Mountain," Ang Lee once again courts controversy in conservative sectors with movie sex — even though this time the lovers are a man (Tony Leung) and a woman (Tang Wei). He's a 1940s Chinese official in cahoots with the occupying Japanese, she's the resistance fighter trying to seduce her way to inside information. And you see a lot of them over the course of two-and-a-half hours.

NC-17; 157 minutes

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING

Somewhere between Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen is the work of Noah Baumbach ("The Squid and the Whale"), a mix of brainy dialogue and deeply uncomfortable emotional trauma. Nicole Kidman is the title character, a nasty, selfish, destructive writer doing her worst to sabotage the nuptials of her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Baumbach's real-life wife) to Jack Black, while also inflicting serious damage on her own teenage son (Zane Pais).

R; 92 minutes

Synopses by Amanda Henry; ratings from The Associated Press

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT