DVD Releases: ‘2012,’ ‘Gentlemen Broncos,’ ‘Ponyo,’ ‘Where the Wild Things Are’
Staff , The State Journal-Register
Capsule reviews of DVDs scheduled for release next week, including “2010,” “Gentlemen Broncost,” “Ponyo,” “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” and “Where the Wild Things Are.”
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/sites/sj-r/images/favicon.png
State Journal-Register
DVDs scheduled for release Tuesday (release dates subject to change). All reviews by Cineman Syndicate.

2012

Master of Disaster Roland Emmerich lives down to his reputation with what amounts to the biggest snuff film of all time.

During an end-of-days cataclysm allegedly anticipated by the Mayans, billions of people bite the dust so that computer effects wizards can cruelly test the limits of what’s plausible and palatable. As Earth’s crust breaks apart, quakes and tsunamis dismantle civilization and rearrange the continents.

But take heart. Doomsday brings out the best in a White House geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a divorced science-fiction writer (John Cusack). The script’s cornball cliches spark more laughter than the intended jokes, which constitute gallows humor of the grandest, most tasteless kind.

Rated PG-13. One star.

GENTLEMEN BRONCOS

The folks behind “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre” thrust a home-schooled Utah teen (Michael Angarano) who writes fantasy novellas into a coming-of-age scenario that also parodies cheesy sci-fi material of a certain vintage. Kitschy and crude wackiness ensues.

Whether you believe husband-and-wife Jared and Jerusha Hess are mocking or championing these misfits will determine your level of enjoyment. Jemaine Clement tickles as a pompous scribe and Sam Rockwell gamely portrays the hero in two of the three movies within the movie.

Though juvenile — think gonads in a jar and Albino python diarrhea — there’s enough well-designed schlock to amuse and enough genuine sentiment to smooth over the rougher edges.

Rated PG-13. Two stars.

PONYO

Credit Disney for taking a risk and releasing an English-language version of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s animated tale. They hired prominent voices and mounted a decent marketing campaign.

Alas, the cartoon is a tad too bizarre for American sensibilities, not least because it comes close to sexualizing five-year-old children and, at minimum, burdens them with too much adult responsibility.

A narcoleptic fish with magical powers befriends a little boy and decides to become human, going so far as to inundate the lad’s seaside town to help make it happen. The spawn of a nautical wizard and a goddess, Ponyo is a fish-out-of-water in more ways than one.

Rated G. One star.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Rebecca Miller films her novel about a middle-aged woman (Robin Wright Penn) experiencing an emotional breakdown.

Blake Lively of “Gossip Girl” ably portrays Ms. Lee as a young free spirit traipsing through bohemian Manhattan and Mario Bello plays her pill-popping, verbally abusive mother.

Back in the present, Pippa is married to a much-older publisher (Alan Arkin) and is struggling to keep her balance at the Connecticut retirement community where they reside. If not for the hunk next door (Keanu Reeves) she wouldn’t stand a chance.

The actors all have their moments, but nothing makes this predictably fragmented movie whole for the viewer.

Rated R. Two stars.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Spike Jonze’s rendering of Maurice Sendak’s ten-sentence classic is profoundly evocative of childhood angst, formally brilliant, and — here’s the rub — unlikely to beguile moviegoers expecting carefree entertainment.

There’s no coddling going on in this immersive live-action film, which, like a dream, is both eerily matter-of-fact and fantastical.

The script is spare and inscrutable, while the performance of young Max Records and the vocal work of James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose and Catherine O’Hara as three of the creatures he encounters on an island in the far reaches of his imagination are excellent.

Forgoing elaborate effects underscores the fact that the wildest things dwell in our minds.

Rated PG. Three stars.

Other releases

• “The Beaches of Agnes”

• “Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story”

• “Castle in the Sky”

• “Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey”

• “Elvis”

• “For the Love of Grace”

• “Jillian Michaels: Yoga Meltdown”

• “My Neighbor Totoro”

• “This Emotional Life”

• “We Live in Public”

TV on DVD

• “Alice” (2009 miniseries)

• “Designing Women,” season three

• “Doctor Who — Dalek War: ‘Frontier in Space’ & ‘Planet of the Daleks’ ”

• “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan,” season four, volume one

• “Have Gun Will Travel,” season four, volume one