Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" and Liam Neeson's "Taken 2" -- two films that take audiences for overseas jaunts, but for very different reasons -- both land on DVD and Blu-ray today (Jan. 15). They top this week's listing of notable new home-video offerings:
To Rome With Love
2 stars, out of 5
(R; 2012)
Woody Allen follows up his Oscar-winning "Midnight in Paris" with a harder-to-embrace travelogue, this time taking audiences to Rome. It's made up of four comedic vignettes, ranging from farcical to absurdist, that are at-times amusing and well meaning but ultimately hollow and only occasionally satisfying. In fact, the whole thing feels like a mashup of half-developed story scraps that one can only suspect were culled from the notebook Allen keeps on his nightstand. It boasts an easy, breezy tone, and it's nice to see Allen cast himself once more in a major role in one of his movies, the first time he's done so since 2006's "Scoop." (Also starring: Roberto Begnini, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page and Penelope Cruz.) But lacking any sort of real thematic unity to explain the movie's reason for being, the four stories never coalesce into anything memorable, much less meaningful.
Lagniappe: Read a full "To Rome With Love" review here. Watch the "To Rome With Love" trailer here.
Bonus features: Featurette. Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes.
Taken 2
1 star, out of 5
(PG-13; 2012)
In this sequel to the 2008 surprise action hit, Liam Neeson once more stars as a man with "a particular set of skills," and once more he is forced to defend his family against nasty foreigners with ill intentions. This time, he and his wife - visiting Istanbul -- are snatched by the family of a man he killed in the first movie, who are out for a measure of revenge against Neeson's retired CIA agent. Naturally, it's up to him to make sure all the necessary butt-kickings are delivered. If it sounds familiar, that's because it is, as director Olivier Megaton apparently couldn't be bothered to introduce anything truly original to the formula. And although everything moves along nicely enough - wrapping up in just an hour and a half - it's a textbook example of unsatisfying and lazy filmmaking stuff, the kind of slapdash cash grab that you'll forget about before the drive home is over - or, if you're lucky, before you leave the parking lot.
Lagniappe: Read a "Taken 2" review here. Watch the "Taken 2" trailer here.
Bonus features: Alternate ending, featurette. Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes.
OTHER RELEASES
Star ratings are taken from staff and wire reviews that appeared in The Times-Picayune, and are on a five-star scale. They do not apply to bonus DVD content. (BR = Blu-ray). For full reviews of rated movies, see The Times-Picayune's A-to-Z movie review archive.
NEW IN STORES TODAY (Jan. 15)
- Allegiance
- The Amazing World of Gumball: The Mystery
- Anthony Jeselnik: Caligula
- Battle for Brooklyn
- Being Human: Season 4
- Bill Moyers: Becoming American
- Branded
- The Criterion Collection: The Man Who Knew Too Much [BR]
- The Criterion Collection: The Tin Drum [BR]
- Detropia (2 stars, out of 5)
- Farewell, My Queen (4 stars, out of 5)
- Joan Rivers: Don't Start With Me
- Life's Too Short: Season 1
- Littlest Pet Shop: Little Pets, Big Adventure
- The Notebook Ultimate Collector's Gift Set
- The Other Dream Team
- Perry Mason: Season 8, Vol. 2
- The Possession (2 stars, out of 5)
- Stone Soup and Other Stories from the Asian Tradition
- Stories About African American Heritage Featuring 'March On!'
- The Story of Math Collection
- Undercover Bridesmaid
- Wake in Fright [BR]
- Won't Back Down (2 stars, out of 5)
Source: http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2013/01/to_rome_with_love_and_taken_2.html
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