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Call it movie math. A film can earn four stars (from me) during its theatrical release but lose a half-star on DVD due to paltry extras.
As has become standard, the Blu-ray version is loaded with features and the regular DVD not so much. It has an audio commentary along with an introduction by directors John Musker and Ron Clements to a handful of deleted scenes. They appear in rough storyboard form with dialogue often recorded by people other than key actors.
The movie, one of 2009's best, is a fairy tale set in 1920s New Orleans and the first featuring an African-American princess. Tiana (voice of Anika Noni Rose) is the daughter of a seamstress mother and blue-collar father who works double shifts to earn enough money to open a restaurant.
She and a visiting prince spend much of the story, which is saturated with adventure, romance and jazz-soaked music, as frogs.
"Princess" marked a return to hand-drawn animation, and it's playful but beautiful in its painterly detail. One caution: It's pretty scary for a G-rated movie, with a character who deals in voodoo dolls and black magic; on the small screen he may not spook children, but he certainly did on the big screen.
-- Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor
Director Pedro Almodovar would have to work hard to make a film I didn't like. Actress Penelope Cruz would have to work even harder. I'm happy to say neither has succeeded, despite the whining in some circles that "Broken Embraces" is a confusing film with an ending too unresolved to be considered satisfying.
If you're a fan of film noir with a dollop of screwball comedy and shifting identities, then "Broken Embraces" won't hold any terror for you, unless English subtitles in a Spanish film is a deal breaker. Luis Homar is Mateo Blanco, a blind screenwriter who used to be a great director until a car accident years earlier robbed him of his sight and took the life of his lover, Lena (Ms. Cruz).
Ernesto (Jose Luis Gomez), a wealthy stockbroker and very jealous older man, didn't approve of Lena's decision to pursue a role in Mateo's film, but the aspiring actress insisted. Years earlier, Ernesto paid the medical bills of Lena's dying father. Consequently she felt an obligation to warm Ernesto's bed, although her heart wasn't in it. To keep an eye on Lena and Mateo, Ernesto becomes the film's producer and orders his creepy son (Ruben Ochandiano) to make an onsite documentary so that he can review their interactions every night. Ernesto also hires a lip reader to interpret what the clandestine lovers are saying.
The film's chronology jumps back and forth between the past when Lena was alive and present where she is a heartbreaking memory for a blind screenwriter, but it is no more confusing than the average Quentin Tarantino film in this regard. We see the bad choices that the principal and supporting characters like Mateo's production assistant, Judit (Blanca Portillo), makes along the way that contribute to the tragedy. All of the characters have secrets that unspool in a satisfying way, providing unlikely connections when you least expect them. While I wasn't crazy about the ending, I understood it. My biggest disappointment was that it dealt too abruptly with a love triangle that cried out for at least one more great and satisfying scene.
The DVD contains deleted scenes, a short film by Mr. Almodovar that explains a minor character and a profile on Ms. Cruz that's worth watching. There's even a New York Film Festival closing-night filler for the fanatical. Stick with the main course. It's lush and filling enough.
-- Tony Norman, Post-Gazette staff writer
As entertainment, "Did You Hear About The Morgans?" is a classic underachiever.
Oh, such potential: two established romantic-comedy leads in Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker; a more-than-competent supporting cast of Sam Elliot, Mary Steenburgen, Wilford Brimley and Elisabeth Moss; and, oh, a 16-foot-tall grizzly bear. Too bad these components weren't enough to make the film little more than a pleasant time waster.
Paul and Meryl Morgan (Mr. Grant and Ms. Parker) play a couple whose careers are more successful than their marriage. When the Morgans witness a murder, they are relocated for their protection to Wyoming, under the care of a sheriff and deputy who are husband and wife (Mr. Elliot and Mrs. Steenburgen)
The Morgans whine about being away from New York and their careers; they miss their computers, their BlackBerries, their personal assistants (Ms. Moss and Jesse Leibman). They even miss the polluted air. However, surprise, surprise, being away from the city and their careers force them to examine their relationship. No surprise, however, is the requisite happy ending.
Where the movie falters is when the focus of the film switches from the romantic comedy to the romantic melodrama of the Morgans' lives. There are some genuinely funny lines, such as Ms. Parker's updated take on Jack Benny's "your money or your life," but there are too few such humorous moments.
As for the extras, there are the usual outtakes and deleted scenes. One extra worth watching, however, was a micro-documentary explaining how the moviemakers filmed the scene in which the grizzly menaces Mr. Grant; the actor openly admits his fear of the bear but wisecracks his way through the various takes. It's too bad the feature presentation didn't have as much humor.
-- Stephen Karlinchak, Post-Gazette staff writer
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