Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 9/30

By Kevin Polowy (Subscribe to Kevin Polowy's posts)

Posted Sep 30th 2008 3:32PM

Filed under: DVD Reviews, New on DVD, Home Entertainment, Features, DVDs, Cinematical

Iron Man
At the risk of drawing the ire of Batfans everywhere, I'll just come out and say it: Iron Man is ~~the best~~ my favorite superhero movie of the year. (Dear Comic-Con: Please don't revoke my press pass.) Dark Knight is indeed brilliant, and brilliantly dark, but Iron Man is just so much more ... fun (AND it has social messages!). Poor Jeff Bridges may not hold a candle to the late Heath Ledger in the villain department, but Iron Man wins out elsewhere. Its characters are colorful and layered, its action is supremely stylish and never overbearing (unlike Transformers, even in its hot metal-on-metal action) and thanks to sensibilities of Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau, it's flat-out funny. Man-crush alert: Downey Jr. is fast on his way to becoming an acting icon, right up there with Al Pacino and Jared from Subway. Buy it!!!
(Available in both single disc and two-disc special edition)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
The latest from Camp Apatow stars a far-too-naked Jason Segel, an almost unrecognizably sexy Mila Kunis 2.0, a scene-stealing Russell Brand, and Kristen Bell. The film definitely has its moments, but I'm just not sold on Segel as a leading man, who seems to equate "comedic skill" with "revealing your junk." And as much as we enjoy rooting for a lovable loser, at some point in the movie it helps if he stops moaning, crying and being generally so extremely pathetic. After Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder and The Happening, Sarah Marshall will have to settle for being the fourth funniest movie so far this year. Rent it, or buy it in the discount bin (Available in both single disc and two-disc collector's edition)

Taxi to the Dark Side
Alex Gibney's damning doc on U.S. torture practices in the Middle East has gotten more ink for the filmmaker's recent legal battle with distributor ThinkFilm than it did for winning the Oscar for Best Documentary. But hey, there's no such thing as bad press, right? But the sad fact remains: most Americans would rather watch fake people being play-tortured in "porn" like Saw and Hostel than hear about real people being tortured in real life. Like most Iraq docs before it, Dark Side is an illuminating and infuriating film that won't be seen by anyone not already infuriated in the first place. Rent it (you're not going to need to watch more than once)

Bigger, Faster, Stronger
Chris Bell is the unlikeliest of filmmakers: A self-professed meathead from Poughkeepsie who sets out to examine the muscle-bound, steroid culture of America. The result is like watching an ESPN weightlifting event with disturbing insight and more Hulk Hogan. It's easy to feel both sorry for and extremely intimidated by its subjects: You want to hug them and tell them it'll all be OK, but know doing such will likely cause severe head injury. Rent it

Other Releases
Jellyfish
CSNY: Deja Vu
OSS 117
Chapter 27