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Based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s wildly popular memoir, the film rendition has the tough task of taking a largely philosophical and observational tome and transforming it into drama. At one point the Liz character asks another character why he only talks in bumper stickers and the same can be said about the film. The story never delves too deep into what makes its characters tick. So what does this film have to offer then? It’s part wish fulfillment and part pop philosophy pick-me-up and part gorgeous travelogue.

Liz Gilbert is played by movie star Julia Roberts. Some might find the episode regarding her buying big jeans a cruel joke when the rail skinny Roberts tries to squeeze into a size 0. But I digress. Gilbert has been married to Stephen (Billy Crudup, ALMOST FAMOUS) for seven years, but hasn’t found wedded bliss. She decides she’s had enough and files for divorce, but Stephen won’t let her go easily. She meets a young actor named David Piccolo (James Franco, MILK) and falls into his arms like a cartoon character jumping off a high dive into a paper cup. But she’s still not satisfied. She wants to make a bold change and take a year off, living in Italy then India and finally returning to Bali where the medicine man Ketut (Hadi Subiyanto) told her she would have a short marriage and a long one, but didn’t know at the time which one she was in.
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It has been reported that Ursula K. LeGuin granted Studio Ghibli the rights to her EARTHSEA series largely based on her love for Hayao Miyzaki’s work. When Miyazaki was not available to direct the film, the studio hired his son Goro instead. Hayao publicly said his son was not ready to write and direct his first feature film. They should have listened to the master.

The land of Earthsea is out of balance. Dragons have been spotted over the sea. The King walks to his study and is stabbed by a young man who turns out to be his son Prince Arren (Matt Levin, BLADES OF GLORY). Arren flees and winds up in the desert where he meets the Archmage Sparrowhawk (Timothy Dalton, HOT FUZZ), who takes the young man under this wing. When they arrive at the city of Hortown, Arren has a run in with slaver traders led by Hare (Cheech Marin, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN), who try to enslave the scared young woman Therru (Blaire Restaneo), who is the ward of Sparrowhawk’s old friend Tenar (Mariska Hargitay, TV’s LAW & ORDER: SVU), a former witch. Sparrowhawk soon learns that the evil wizard Cob (Willem Dafoe, ANTI-CHRIST) is behind the turmoil in Earthsea. The male wizard who looks like Cher needs Arren to obtain immortality.
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The first VACATION film was a comedy with a satirical purpose. The sequel had only one purpose – being a sequel. In a perfect sort of way, the film represents everything cliché about bad follow-ups. The ante is upped, while the general premise is slavishly copied. Original actors didn’t return and needed to be replaced with lesser versions. The actors that remain start chewing the scenery to make the tired material seem funny.

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase, FLETCH) puts his family on a FAMILY FEUD-rip-off called “Pig in a Poke” and wins a trip to Europe. Clark is again eager as ever to have the best family vacation ever. His wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo, HAIR) supports him the best she can, encouraging the kids to embrace their father’s enthusiasm. Their daughter Audrey (Dana Hill, SHOOT THE MOON) doesn’t want to go because she can’t imagine leaving her boyfriend. Their son Rusty (Jason Lively, NIGHT OF THE CREEPS) is a more willing traveler, eager to meet the loose European women. The all-expense paid trip turns out not to include good hotels or swanky transportation.
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One of the great docs of all time comes to Blu-ray

Another busy week for Blu-ray this week. Criterion has Terry Zwigoff’s docs. Great library titles come to Blu-ray for the first time. A duo of 2010 releases makes the Buzzed About list.
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This documentary tells the story of the Apollo missions from the mouths of the men who went to the moon. But what makes the film special is that it doesn’t chronicle every detail of every mission, but instead talks with the astronauts about what it felt like to go to the moon. This intimacy is often moving, as well as thought provoking.

Director David Sington blends the missions together starting with the selection of the men moving to the preparation for the launch. We find out from the men what riding a rocket is like. We learn the awe-inspiring experience of making it into space, seeing the Earth shrink behind them and the moon grow in front of them. We feel the rush of a successful landings and the anxiousness that one feels about the return home. On Apollo 11, President Nixon pre-recorded a message in case the moon lander wouldn’t take off, stranding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren on the surface of the moon. There was pressure in being an astronaut before launch, but that status as a hero never left any of them for the rest of their lives. Armstrong declined to participate in the documentary, having always been uneasy with his historical status.
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What if you paid the best lawyers to write your will and let say you gave your estate to a charity to help needy students. Then after your death the trustees of your will decide to give the money to your sworn enemies so they can fund some reality show on the rich and famous throwing parties. But be assured its all to make more money for your estate and some students might watch the show. That’s about what happened to Dr. Albert C. Barnes – only he had $30 billion worth of artwork that the rich wanted.

Dr. Barnes’ first accomplishment was to discover a cure for VDs. He took his fortune and bought art, amassing a collection of more than 9,000 pieces, which includes 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, 16 Modiglianis and seven van Goghs. Some of the paintings are so unique that putting a price tag on them is impossible. But at the time he bought his collection, the Philadelphia Museum of Art believed his selections to be trash. Now any museum in the world would die to have a few of the paintings in the Barnes Foundation collection.
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I have mixed feelings about this buddy cop comedy. I went in hoping for a satire of outlandish cop flicks. For the most part that’s what I got. Then the film hints at something more, dealing with desk cops doing “boring” police work to catch the biggest thieves like Bernie Madoff. I really wish this area had been developed deeper instead of focusing on unconnected and very broad character moments. Then again some of those moments are really funny. But then again some of them aren’t.

P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION) and Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson, GET SMART) are NYC’s celebrity cops. They engage in all sorts of reckless chases and stunts, destroying more than they save and yet they are still touted as heroes. Detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell, ANCHORMAN) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg, THE DEPARTED are the other guys. Gamble gleefully does the paperwork for cocky Highsmith and Danson. Hoitz is riding a desk not because he wants to, but because of an accidental shooting, which has made him the pariah of the city. Hoitz taunts Gamble into taking more dangerous cases, but Gamble is more interested in a scaffolding violation involving businessman David Ershon (Steve Coogan, TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY).
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Atom Egoyan has made a career out telling tales with strange sexual undercurrents. This story deals with how sex changes in relationships as those in the relationship change. Unspoken issues develop calluses, but become sensitive to touch. The resulting pain makes one act in uncharacteristic ways.

Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT) is a successful gynecologist who is married to the busy professor David (Liam Neeson, KINSEY). She has planned a big surprise party for his birthday, but he doesn’t show up after he misses his plan back from a speaking engagement. When he sees a picture message from one of the students, she is convinced that he had an affair. Catherine finds the call girl Chloe (Amanda Seyfried, TV’s BIG LOVE) and makes plans for her to secretly seduce her husband in order to catch him in an affair. This action will reveal things about their relationship that Catherine never expected. Moreover, she never expected what it reveals about herself.
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Based on the Roald Dahl’s book, director Henry Selick made this project his follow-up to the successful NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Bookended by a live-action opening and closing, this stop-motion feature is generally an episodic adventure following a classic tale of a young boy dreaming beyond his circumstances.

After the death of his parents, James Trotter (Paul Terry) becomes a virtual slave to his ghoulish aunts Spiker (Joanna Lumley, TV’s ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS) and Sponge (Miriam Margolyes, BABE). One day he meets a wandering old man (Pete Postlewaite, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER), who gives him magic worms that he claims will help him attain his dream of getting from England to New York City. Spilling the worms on the ground, James sets off a series of events that grows a giant peach on a barren tree where human-sized bugs come to live.
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Buy It Now!

Read my review of JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH

Henry Selick’s children’s film is dark in both its tone and look. That is translated over into the new 1080p release from Disney. The color palette is muted, so one doesn’t get the pop that animation often brings to Blu-ray. The images don’t have the same depth as other animated films on Blu-ray do as well. I believe this is certainly more to do with the source than the transfer. Just looking at the standard definition trailer you can see a huge improvement. The picture is much clearer than the murky DVD transfer. There is noise throughout, especially in the live-action sequences, but no artifacting or banding. I’m not convinced this is the best the film could look, but it’s the best available for home viewing to date by far.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 provides for a nice immersive experience. The scene where the peach rolls away stood out for me. The LFE channel boomed as the giant fruit broke free and started to move. As James and the bugs are flung around inside the peach, the audio gave a good sense of forward movement as objects crash in the foreground and roll toward the back speakers. The dialogue is clear and balanced well with the Randy Newman score.

The special features, however, are no improvement over the DVD. The DVD making of doc really puts the promotional in promotional featurette. It only provides basic information about the production. Very weak sauce… and it’s too short too. Additionally from the DVD is the awful looking “Good News” music video and a standard-def trailer. The only new feature to the Blu-ray is a “Spike the Aunts” Interactive Game. It’s entertaining for about one play at best and the design looks slapped together.