New this week on DVD, I take a look at Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, Angelina Jolie stars in Clint Eastwood's Changeling, the story of a mother in 1920s Los Angeles whose son goes missing. Also out this week, Bill Maher's documentary, Religulous and Dead Like Me, the movie.
Body of Lies
Director Ridley Scott retreads some familiar territory with his most recent film, Body of Lies, a violent, action drama in the tradition of Black Hawk Down.
Russell Crowe stars as CIA boss and chief American stratagem Ed Hoffman. Marking the fourth production where Crowe and Scott have worked together, Body of Lies is not their best work to date, but it is an intriguing sampling of war-meets-espionage.
With Leonardo DiCaprio playing Roger Ferris, a CIA operative working to uncover a terrorist leader, the story crosses the Middle East as Ferris attempts to get support from Hoffman, and work with numerous foreign contacts. At the same time, Ferris will have to decide how much he can trust Hoffman as events go sour in Jordan.
While I enjoyed DiCaprio, who coasts a bit but performs well as the primary focus of the story, Body of Lies is a jumble of conflict and events that hardly seems to pay off in the end. Crowe is also beyond useless in his role, bringing very little to this small part, which should have left a bigger impact in the story.
Scott's only great choice in Body of Lies seems to be actor Mark Strong, who plays Hani, Jordan's head of intelligence. He plays the local counterpart to Crowe's Hoffman, but he does such a good job, it's difficult to compare the two actors.
Changeling
Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood is well-known for his provocative dramas, but in Changeling, he takes what I can only call an unbelievable true story, and tries to make it real.
Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a distraught mother who loses her son, only to have him returned to her months later by the Los Angeles police. But Christine believes that the boy is not actually her son, even though he says he is, and looks like him.
Begging the police to continue looking for her real son, the authorities try to convince the public that Christine is delusional, but with the help of a preacher, played by John Malkovich, she tries to convince those who will listen that the police are trying to ignore her pleas and sweep her story under the rug.
Set in 1920s Los Angeles, Changeling is loosely based on real events surrounding a series of kidnappings and murders. Clocking in at nearly two-and-a-half hours, the film is a test of patience, especially once it blows past the first logical ending.
Changeling is also surprisingly formulaic, with far too many predictable moments.
What finally made me dislike Changling the most though was Jolie's over-the-top performance as this grieving mother. She brings real weight to the role, where other actresses might have come across as merely ridiculous, but for me at least, the passion of her performance bleeds through into the realm of caricature.
Religulous
In this tough, and sometimes amusing documentary, Bill Maher travels to some of the most religious areas of the world and explores what spirituality means to those cultures. For the most part, Maher explores some of the more ludicrous, and fundamentalist beliefs, talking to everyone from priests and rabbis, to scientists, and politicians.
My biggest problem with the film is that Maher isn't interested in talking to level-headed people unless they support his Apatheistic (atheism, essentially) view, which makes Religulous just another opportunity to watch Maher stand up at his pulpit and preach about the ways that religion is causing strife, instead of examining the issue thoughtfully.
Still, Maher presents an interesting view of religion; it's just not as funny, or insightful, as you might hope.
Dead Like Me
Airing for just two seasons, Dead Like Me was a phenomenal dramedy about a group of modern day grim reapers, and their trials and tribulations as they deal with both life and death. After Showtime axed the series, it took a few years, but a movie was finally put together and picks up shortly after the end of the show.
While not everyone is back for the film, Dead Like Me: Life After Death stars most of the show's regulars, including Ellen Muth, Britt McKillip, Callum Blue, and Jasmine Guy, with Lost's Henry Ian Cusick taking on the part of the new boss, Cameron Kane.
In the film, the Der Waffle Haus is gone, Rube is missing, and Kane has stepped in to replace Post-It notes with mobile phones. Pulled into the shadow of Kane's luxurious lifestyle, the group find themselves living life without any rules, as George is drawn into her sister's life when a reap does not go as planned.
Life After Death starts out a little awkwardly, but director Stephen Herek does an admirable job of bringing this movie to life, without sacrificing any of the show's original charm.
