VIDEO RELEASES 7/28/09

[Dennis Willis]

The fast and the furious! The entire Galactica! Miss March and Dragonball! This week, there is something for the 13-year old boy in all of us.

DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION (2009)
Justin Chatwin, Joon Park, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, James Marsters, Yun-Fat Chow, Randall Duk Kim, Ernie Hudson
SCR: Ben Ramsey / DIR: James Wong
PG / 1:29 / BOX: $9,011,420
www.dragonballthemovie.com
This flick was not previewed for critics. I am not, nor have I ever been, a fan of the Dragonball marketing phenomenon. You’re on your own, kids. But for the sake of conversation, this is the $45 million feature version of a 90’s cartoon and product line directed by the man who helmed the first Final Destination flick. And thank goodness for the worldwide box office because while this movie was DOA in the USA, the global box office is closer to $55 million. It’s still not enough to convince anyone to pursue Dragonball II, but it’s not a financial embarrassment. A creative embarrassment? Someone will have to let me know. (20th Century Fox)

FAST AND FURIOUS (2009)
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Ortiz
SCR: Chris Morgan / DIR: Justin Lin
PG-13 / 1:39 / BOX: $155,064,265
www.fastandfuriousmovie.net
The gang from the original Fast and the Furious (Diesel, Walker, Rodriguez and Brewster) reunites for this third sequel. This was a given following Diesel's popular cameo at the end of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. But no sooner does the gang get back together, one of them gets killed off, making this a “revenge flick” as opposed to a “guilty pleasure racing flick.” Actually, there isn’t as much racing as you’d think. But a note to the producers: we can tell the difference between real cars and computer generated cars. The lure of seeing the four stars reunited proved huge; this installment was the biggest hit in the series, by far. But what’s up with the stupid, truncated title? At this rate, the next one will probably be called Fast/Furious. (Universal)

MISS MARCH (2009)
Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger
SCR/DIR: Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger
R / 1:30 / RELEASE: 3/13/09 / BOX: $4,543,320
www.foxsearchlight.com/missmarch
A young man wakes up from a coma only to realize his virginal girlfriend is now in Playboy. Little more than a straightforward road trip flick with psycho girlfriends, obligatory Hugh Hefner cameo and (sometimes explosive) bodily functions, March is notable for being an R-rated movie about a Playmate whom we never see naked. But 12-year-old boys will still find uncountable F-bombs and a rapper named Horsedick for schoolyard quotables. Cregger and Moore co-wrote, co-directed, co-starred, and do have a nice chemistry. But one can only imagine their creative brainstorming sessions. “Dog pee! Dude, that’s funny!” (Fox Searchlight)

Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5
Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series
Dollhouse: Season One
Green Lantern: First Flight
Spectacular Spider-Man: The Complete First Season
Torchwood: Children of the Earth