Prizzi's Honor (DVD)

Prizzi's Honor (1985) starring Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston. Directed by John Huston. Dim-bulb Mafia hit man Charley Partanna (Nicholson) falls for sultry freelance assassin Irene Walker (Turner) at a wedding. But the Don's daughter, Maerose Prizzi (Anjelica Huston) still carries a torch for Charley, and she won't let him go easily -- especially after Charley finds out that Irene pulled a scam on a Prizzi casino in Vegas. The plot gets awfully tangled, but it's delicious to watch. Huston won a Supporting Actress Oscar for her sly performance as a Mafia daughter. The subtitles are excellent. Grade: B+

Prisoner of Paradise (DVD)

Prisoner of Paradise (2002), documentary directed by Malcolm Clarke and Stuart Sender. This movie tells the tragic story of Kurt Gerron, a popular and successful actor and director in 1930s Berlin. Gerron, a Jew, saw his career destroyed by Hitler's rise to power, and was later forced to write and direct a Nazi propaganda film about a concentration camp in which he was a prisoner. This story of one soul caught up in the Holocaust serves as an illustration of the entire massive horror that was visited on Europe's Jews by the Nazis. The captions are good. Grade: A-

Countdown to Zero (DVD)

Countdown to Zero (2009) directed by Lucy Walker. This documentary explores in a scary way the issue of nuclear proliferation. If you're looking for a film to cheer you up, don't look at this one. Over and over, it emphasizes that the probability of a nuclear accident -- or a terrorist attack -- is greater than zero, and thus eventually inevitable. The movie makes a strong case for nuclear disarmament, but I wasn't convinced that disarmament is really possible. It's a story that has been told before, but this film condenses and refines the message so that you can't ignore it. With closed-captions for the hearing-impaired. Grade: A

The Karate Kid (DVD)

The Karate Kid (2010) starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan. Young Dre (Smith) moves to China with his mother and soon falls prey to a pack of larger, older Chinese bullies -- who know kung fu. The maintenance man (Chan) in his building saves him from one attack, then agrees to teach him kung fu. This remake of the 1984 movie is somewhat freshened up by new locale, necessity for hero to learn to deal with language and cultural barriers. Although this film effectively duplicates the major plot points of the earlier movie, it may be pleasing to younger viewers who haven't seen the first film. The subtitles are very good, but the songs aren't captioned. Grade: B+

The Day of the Jackal (DVD)

The Day of the Jackal (1973) starring Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale. In 1962, an organization known as the O.A.S. -- infuriated at French President Charles de Gaulle's decision to give Algeria its independence -- plots to assassinate him. When their early efforts fail, their leaders decide that an outsider, known only as the Jackal (Fox) must be hired to do the job. The movie tells two parallel stories -- the efforts of the Jackal to bring his plot to fruition, even though his cover has been blown; and the efforts of French Police Commissioner Claude Lebel (Lonsdale) to stop him before he can kill de Gaulle. The result is an exciting movie, full of suspense right up to the end. Based on the thriller by Frederick Forsyth. The subtitles are quite good. Grade: A

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (DVD)

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) starring Robert Stephens, Colin Blakeley, Genevieve Page. Directed by Billy Wilder. Sherlock Holmes (Stephens) shoots cocaine when he becomes bored between cases, and is very tight-lipped about his relationships with women. Women, he says, are "wholly unreliable, and not to be trusted." But that doesn't stop him from taking the case of a Madame Valladon (Page), from Belgium. She shows up at his door one night, and claims to have forgotten who she is and how she got there. Holmes and Watson (Blakeley) end up traveling with her to Scotland to try to solve the mystery of her identity and her missing husband. The mystery ends up involving Holmes' brother Mycroft, the Loch Ness Monster, and German spies. It all adds up to a mildly diverting entertainment. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

The Prisoner of Zenda (DVD)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) starring Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., C. Aubrey Smith, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, David Niven. Colman, as a central European prince and his English cousin, plays a dual role. The prince, due to be crowned king, drinks some drugged wine and is unable to attend the ceremonies. His English cousin, a dead ringer for him, fills in. Problems arise when the English cousin falls in love with the princess Flavia (Carroll), who is destined to marry the leader of the country -- be it King Rudolph (Colman) or his evil half-brother Michael (Massey). The real King Rudolph is the prisoner of Zenda -- he's abducted and imprisoned at a hunting lodge called Zenda by the villainous Rupert of Hentzau (Fairbanks). His rescue is the action set-piece that forms the climax of the film. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

Get Him to the Greek (DVD)

Get Him to the Greek (2010) starring Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Elisabeth Moss, Rose Byrne, Colm Meaney, Sean Combs. Hill plays a young record company lackey named Aaron Green who gets the assignment of shepherding drug-addled rock star Aldous Snow (Brand) from London to New York to Los Angeles in 72 hours for a comeback concert. Snow proves, naturally, hard to herd. Meanwhile, Green's wife (Moss), a medical student, decides that she and Green must move to Seattle. When he resists, she says that they should "take some time." This movie has one major weakness for me -- Jonah Hill in the lead role has approximately zero charisma. On the other hand, Brand -- who was so good in "Forgetting Sarah Marshal" -- has a lot of funny lines. Although Brand looks a bit the worse for wear, he holds up his end of the movie quite well. I felt of two minds about this film -- there are some very funny bits, but also some parts that I found too raunchy or distasteful. So a mixed review from me. To the DVD's everlasting credit, all of the loopy, funny songs are captioned. Grade: B

The Girl Who Played with Fire (DVD)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) starring Noomi Rapace, Micheal Nyqvist. Part Two of Stieg Larsson's trilogy starring the girl with the dragon tattoo, Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), comes to the screen. Salander is suspected of murder when her fingerprints are found on a gun used to kill two writers. She goes into hiding, while journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) works to prove her innocence. It's a tangled plot, with many characters playing different parts. In particular, we find out who Salander's father is, and her brother -- neither one a savory character. The final half hour is truly thrilling. The story doesn't end here, of course; there's still one more movie to go -- "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" should come out next year. In Swedish, with English subtitles. Grade: A-

Splice (DVD)

Splice (2009) starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac. A pair of "brilliant" scientists, Clive and Elsa (Brody and Polley), succeed in creating a human-animal hybrid (Chaneac) by gene splicing. It's name is Dren (nerd spelled backward). This movie is kind of a cross of "Frankenstein" and "The Fly." You just know that the scientists are going to regret making this creature; the only suspense is in finding out what sort of danger it will pose. Soon we learn that Elsa had madness in her family, and it becomes a question of who poses the greater threat to whom -- Dren to Elsa, or Elsa to Dren? The script is weak and the acting is not much better, although Chaneac must be given credit for being a credible "monster." The subtitles are pretty good. Grade: C-

Kisses (DVD)

Kisses (2008) starring Shane Curry, Kelly O'Neill. A young Irish boy and girl flee their dysfunctional homes in the slums and go wandering in Dublin. What starts out as a lark turns increasingly dark as the hour grows late. The subtitles on this low-budget film are the strangest I've ever seen. For some reason, the filmmakers have decided to economize on subtitles. About half of the spoken dialogue is captioned; the rest is not. The result is a frustrating viewing experience in which one feels tantalizing close to being able to follow the movie, only to have it repeatedly slip away. Grade: C

Leaves of Grass (DVD)

Leaves of Grass (2010) starring Edward Norton, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Keri Russell, Melanie Lynskey, Maggie Siff, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, Josh Pais. Philosophy professor Bill (Norton) hears that his twin, pot-growing brother Brady (also played by Norton) has been murdered. This is soon revealed to be a cruel ploy by Brady to get Bill to come home to Oklahoma and bail him out of trouble. Bill hates every moment in Oklahoma -- until he smokes some of Brady's weed and meets Janet (Russell). From there, things get incredibly complicated. For a comedy, this film features a lot of (movie) violence. Still, except for one atonal performance by an actor, it's great fun to watch. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: B+

Prisoner of the Mountains (DVD)

Prisoner of the Mountains (1996) starring a cast of foreigners whose names you would not recognize. Two Russian soldiers of contrasting temperaments are captured by Chechen rebels, who hold them as hostages. A village elder hopes to exchange the hostages for his son, who is being held prisoner in the town by the Russians. In war, however, plans often go awry. This is a slow-paced, moderately interesting movie in which most of the action is confined to the last 30 minutes of the film. I felt something was lost in translation. In Russian, with English subtitles. Grade: C+

Solitary Man (DVD)

Solitary Man (2009) starring Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg. Douglas stars as Ben Kalmen, a failed car dealership owner who is emerging from trouble with the law and trying to put together another dealership. He's also an inveterate womanizer, who is not above sleeping with his girlfriend's (Parker) daughter (Poots). Kalmen's poor choices continue to get him deeper and deeper in trouble, and it gives Douglas a chance to show off his acting chops. DeVito co-stars as a genuinely decent man, which is certainly a change for him. The ending of the movie is kind of a cop-out, but it's interesting watching it get there. Good subtitles. Grade: B