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Guilty Pleasure – How to Beat the High Cost of Living

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  • Title: How to Beat the High Cost of Living
  • IMDb: link

how-to-beat-the-high-cost-of-living-blu-rayReleased in 1980, How to Beat the High Cost of Living starred Susan Saint James, Jane Curtin, and Jessica Lange as an unlikely trio of friends who turn to crime to pay for the high cost of inflation slowly strangling each of their lives when Jane’s (Curtin) husband drains their bank account to run off with his secretary, Louise (Lange) is being sued by her husband (Richard Benjamin) fighting off an IRS audit, and the divorced Jane (Saint James) with a homeless father (Eddie Albert) and three kids is struggling to make ends meet with another baby on the way.

The goofy screenplay by Robert Kaufman involving the three women working to rob a giant glass ball full of money in the local mall during its anniversary sale isn’t exactly high concept, but the three leads, and a supporting cast that includes Benjamin, Albert, Dabney Coleman, and Fred Willard, somehow makes (most of) it work as a guilty pleasure heist flick most memorable for Jane Curtain’s striptease during the middle of the mall robbery.

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The Majestic

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  • Title: The Majestic
  • IMDb: link

The MajesticI’ve always had a soft spot for director Frank Darabont and screenwriter Michael Sloane‘s sentimental (many would argue overly sentimental) 2001 movie The Majestic. Jim Carrey stars as screenwriter Peter Appleton who while fleeing an appearance in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the height of the Red Scare has a car accident and finds himself stumbling into a sleepy small town without his memory and a striking resemblance to one of the town’s missing sons.

Derided by many critics and a commercial failure, the film is a throwback to Frank Capra playing on broad themes of patriotism, small town values, and a duty to stand up for what’s right even in the face of overwhelming odds. Is it schmaltzy and emotionally manipulative? Sure, but (despite its length) it’s also entertaining making great use of its star and supporting cast. The film hangs on Carrey as a man who looses his memory but finds his soul while helping a struggling time rediscover its heart as well.

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Blade Triple Feature

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  • Title: Blade, Blade II, Blade: Trinity
  • wiki: link

Blade Triple FeatureRe-released in a new three-pack Triple Feature Blu-ray Wesley Snipes‘ Blade trilogy is far from the best comic book movies have to offer. Collecting Blade, Blade II, and Blade: Trinity, the set has one good movie, one mediocre flick, and one so awful it might as well be an Underworld movie. Each comes with its original special features including commentaries for each film and assorted featurettes and trailers.

Snipes is fine as a human/vampire half-breed based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The first film, other than introducing the world and its core characters, is largely forgettable. Blade II, involving the hero teaming with a group of vampires (most notably Leonor Varela and Ron Perlman) to take on a new deadly version of vampires known as reapers, is the only one that holds up to multiple viewings. As for the horrifically bad third film, introducing Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel as vampire hunters and Dominic Purcell as the most ridiculous version of Dracula ever, the less said the better.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Retreat!

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  • Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Retreat!
  • wiki: link

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Retreat!Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Retreat! collects the first seven episodes of the show’s Third Season which is most, but not quite all, of Leonardo (Seth Green), Raphael (Sean Astin), Michelangelo (Greg Cipes), and Donatello‘s (Rob Paulsen) time in the country licking their wounds following the Kraang mutation of New York City.

Seth Green takes over the voice of the injured Leonardo with “Into the Woods” whose rehabilitation is one of the major storylines of the set. The Turtles also meet Bigfoot, deal with leftover Kraang tech which takes the appearance of April‘s (Mae Whitman) mother, fight to survive their dreams, and deal with new mutants including mutant frogs, Casey’s car, and the bizarre Chimera. The episodes aren’t without charm (such as the introduction of Crognard the Barbarian) but they’re among the weakest of the series lacking any of the trademark villains. I also find it quite odd that “Vision Quest” (the last episode of the arc) isn’t part of this collection. The single-disc DVD does include short featurettes for each of the episodes included.

[Nickelodeon, $14.98]

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2005 – The Upside of Anger

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  • Title: The Upside of Anger
  • IMDb: link

The Upside of AngerReleased ten years ago, writer/director Mike Binder‘s The Upside of Anger is an underrated film built around a terrific performance by Joan Allen as the pissed-off matriarch of a family struggling to keep it together after her husband has disappeared (presumably to live with his secretary in Sweden). The woman’s life is further complicated by varying states of disrepair of her relationships with her three daughters (Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, and Evan Rachel Wood) and a burgeoning romantic relationship to a former Major League pitcher turned radio host (Kevin Costner) who, despite the woman’s rough edges, quickly falls for Terry and her family.

Along with Allen’s performance (arguably the best of her career as the unlikable but somehow still lovable Terry) the film gives each of the daughters strong roles dealing in their own ways with their mother’s constantly boiling disposition. Russell, Christensen, and Witt each bring something different to their roles as Evan Rachel Wood shines as the youngest sibling who is forced to grow up too quickly due to her father’s abscence and mother’s consequent behavior.

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