Cleaner (Sony) A gala at TIFF last year — yes, even a Renny Harlin movie can be one — this thriller may be purely perfunctory but at least no one seems to have gone into the project expecting it to be anything otherwise. In fact, the old pros onscreen are so laid-back, the movie has a loose, appealing charm despite the many instances of idiocy in Matthew Aldrich’s screenplay, memorably lambasted by an IMDb poster as “the Denise Richards of film scripts.” Samuel L. Jackson plays a crime-scene clean-up specialist who’s duped into covering up a murder. In his umpteenth role as a morally flexible cop, Ed Harris stars as his pal from their not-so-happy days together on the force. The direction by Harlin (who will be henceforth known in all internet posts as “the Uwe Boll of the ’90s”) is uncharacteristically subdued, lending the whole endeavour the air of some long-forgotten episode of Columbo. EXTRAS: commentary by Harlin, deleted scenes.
Flash Point (Alliance) The latest vehicle for Donnie Yen, Hong Kong’s reigning action star, gets kitted out for a domestic special edition. Connoisseurs of onscreen beatdowns will be sure to skip the strictly lame-ass dramatic scenes and Yen’s beefcake preening and go straight to the superb fight scenes. Relatively novel to the genre is the pronounced influence of mixed martial arts, resulting in one of the most bruising and over-adrenalized mano-a-mano finales in the annals of HK cinema. EXTRAS: commentary by critic Bey Logan, making-of docs, interviews, deleted scenes, featurettes on mixed martial arts, more.
Also out this week
Rambo (Maple) Repugnant for its racism, homophobia and bloodlust, sure, but worth watching just to see Sylvester Stallone’s hair style in the last shot. Who could’ve known that John Rambo would be so metro once he had access to decent hair product again? EXTRAS: commentary by Stallone, featurettes, deleted scenes.
The Walker (THINKFilm) One of several TIFF 07 titles to debut on disc this week — Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream also shows up stateside — this Paul Schrader movie stars Woody Harrelson as a gay Washington socialite who’s a favourite companion of powerful wives until he’s mixed up in a murder. It’s supposed to be kinda like American Gigolo except without all the Armani suits. EXTRAS: commentary by Schrader, featurette.
All Hat (Alliance) Canadian director Leonard Farlinger’s adaptation of Brad Smith’s modern cowboy tale ambles into video stores after getting little love from critics. EXTRAS: deleted scenes, interviews.
Grace Is Gone (Alliance) John Cusack plays the widower of an Iraq war casualty in this Sundance flick, which failed to get a theatrical release in Canada. EXTRAS: interviews, featurettes.
Out June 3
Semi-Pro, Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, The Eye and the video debut of The Onion Movie — the fake trailer for Steven Seagal in Cock Puncher is already legendary.