DVD: Gwynnie, Kate and Dolph?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 10:41AM 
Today's DVD releases cover a lot of ground. But let's start with the most amusing. Two collections arrive today. One, Tracy & Hepburn the Definitive Collection, collects every film that co-starred Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn, one of moviedom's most legendary couples both onscreen and off. The other is Dolph Lundgren Triple Threat. Hee. Because my movie-addled brain is always mushing things together I couldn't help but imagine a Lundgren/Hepburn series for a split second. What kind of movie could they possibly have made together?
The Lundgren triple doesn't even include any movie you've heard of. It's mostly post 90s stuff. Unfortunately none of the films are musicals despite the title of "triple threat" . When you hear triple threat you automatically think of a actor/singer/dancer, right? Make your next straight-to-DVD action pic a musical, Dolph.
The best of the new releases is Claire Denis's typically hypnotic and disturbing White Material, which I wrote briefly about in January and the worst is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 which I'm off-trend about it because it got wildly thumbs up reviews but I think it's easily the worst Potter feature (give or take the Chamber of Snoozing) and aside from that admittedly stellar animated sequence, it was the most cynical (and successful) cash grab of 2010. The debuts I haven't seen: the Gilles Marchand thriller Black Heaven starring Grégoire LePrince-Rinquet (Love Songs) and the acclaimed documentary Marwencol, about a brain damaged man recreating a World War II era town to 1/6th scale.
Finally, Country Strong also debuts on DVD today. But since we've heard Gwyneth's lovely voice crooning the tracks, is there any reason left to see the movie? Have any of you?
I feel a poll coming on...
Reader Comments (17)
I love your Kate and Dolph pic...I want to see that movie.
And I wish Gwyneth would suck it up and do The Danish Girl.
I did see Country Strong...and Tim McGraw's sexy beard was the best thing about it!
Strange to think that it took Glee to remind me of just how good Gwenyth really is.
Have you heard of the Chloe Sevigny parodies? They should totally make one for Gwyneth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoVbnv01Qek
These days the only Gwynnie I like is the Glee guest star
Country Strong tried to be too many things. On one hand you've got Gwenyth's story and on the other the two young lovers. It didn't mix well. Like The Blind Side it plays as a Lifetime movie with a really really big budget. And then there's the conflict between the song "Country Song" which was the single on country radio and what happens with Paltrow's character. It did not line up but it made me understand why Paltrow took the role despite the poor script. Basically some good tunes are what kept me watching.
Have to add, there was a piece online covering the film as part of the PR before its release and the director was thinking about Nicole Kidman for Gwyneth's role. Was never going to happen Ms Feste!
Oh and Tim McGraw needs another role worthy of his ability like in Friday Night Lights.
Nicole is married to a country singer and lives in the country. He's taken away most of her good taste today. Those making The Danish Girl should go ahead an cast a non-ingenue for the supportive wife role -- I vote for Kathy Bates.
I love Gwyneth with her head in a box.
Ky -- that's so wrong.
/3rtfull -- maybe they were a hot couple -- the real life people i mean and they need to cast young(ish) and hot?
Paolo --yeah, i've mentioned the Chloe thing before. he's really funny. he hosted one of those black swan parties i wrote up last week.
Rami -- me, too. Unfortunately the fire in a lot of actresses goes out once they win an Oscar. they don't try as hard. this is one of the problems with awarding people the oscar when they are so young. what are they to do from there?
3rtfu11 couldn't disagree with you more. I'm a fan of both Urban and Kidman, and think they've been great influences on each other. That being said the script was not going to grab Kidman (which was the reason for my comment about Feste) and I doubt that her being a new Nashville resident (Keith has been there for 20 years) she's going to play a country singer because that's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario for her. I've heard the reason that Kidman is so interested in doing the Dusty biopic is that it will focus on her later life and the internal struggles she had regarding her sexuality, not so much her rise to fame when she was young. The focus won't be so much on the music and I'm guessing the Chenoweth Dusty project would be more on the career because Chenoweth is a singer.
Rachel Wiesz has been cast as Kidman's co-star. Shooting is supposed to happen this summer in Germany.
City of Lights -- Kidman is a romantic. She loves the Southern accent and the simple life of not being in a major city. Her fashion during Tom and after Tom was top notch -- not anymore. She seems to careless and less about playing the industry's game and seems openly willing to give all that up for her young family and husband.
N.R. -- I'm sure they were an attractive young couple -- I just throw Kathy's name around in hopes someone will write or cast her in something that''ll earn her a 2nd Oscar. I was half serious and half being funny.
I don't know if I have a favourite Gwyneth at all. I'm sure someone has made some form of this analogy before but since she's clearly the vanilla on the actress ice cream flavour chart, why have plain ol' vanilla when there's rocky road, strawberry and rainbow sherbet available? And not even the awesome kind of rich, delicious vanilla; the generic store brand that goes for cheap.
LOL I sound like I hate her but I have liked her in the past, notably Sylvia and The Royal Tenenbaums.
A Lundgren/Hepburn movie would obviously be about the hardships of tall and athletic people with strong facial features. Look at those cheekbones!
BTW My favourite quip about the splitting of the final Potter films came from Ellen Fox on Current TV, which went something like this: "Congrats to Warner Bros for pulling off the greatest trick of the year, making a magical 900 million dollars appear out of thin air!"
Nathaniel, I agree on the young winners not trying as hard, I worry about Natalie Portman's future film output.
I had to endure the horrible Country Strong just for Garrett Hedlund. I was swooning over him in this movie and his deep throaty voice. I've made a mixtape with his songs in the movie and every time I listen to it it's sexy time.
I am a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow.
I think I liked Gwyneth in Seven best...
I LOVED HP7... it's so not the worst...the worst is Deathly Hallows. And Harry and Hermione danced in this!!!