It's worth repeating: the hardest part of being a movie star is picking the right projects. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you can't pick good scripts, you'll soon find your celebrity status has been squandered. Case in point: Hilary Swank. Swank is a two-time Oscar winner, so no one can doubt her abilities in the right role. But finding the right role - or just finding a role that isn't dramatically wrong - is tough for her. Swank and the people around her clearly have terrible taste in movies.
She broke through with her remarkable performance in 1999's Boys Don't Cry. Unfortunately, Swank followed that golden opportunity with the stiff costume clunker The Affair Of The Necklace, box office flop The Gift, soggy well-intentioned drama Red Dust and the ludicrous sci-fi flick The Core. Yes, she did some good work in Insomnia and HBO's Iron Jawed Angels, but one could be forgiven for thinking that Oscar had been a mistake.
But then Swank did it again with her stunning work in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. Then she really did it again by following up that vindication of her talent with three more dreadful films: would-be noir The Black Dahlia, the earnest Freedom Writers and now this week's DVD release, the horror thriller flop The Reaping ($28.98; Warner Bros.). Quick, somebody save this talented actress from her own worst instincts.
The anti-Swank may by Topher Grace, an actor who savvily turned his modest TV hit That 70s Show - whose Season Seven ($49.98; Fox) is just out - into a platform to launch his movie career with well-chosen turns in films like Traffic, P.S., Spider-Man 3, and In Good Company. Now he's considered an actor just one big hit away from taking over the mantle of Tom Hanks or Jack Lemmon.
Also out this week is Planet Terror ($29.95; Dimension), Robert Rodriguez's half of the Grindhouse B movie double feature. This two DVD set with loads of extras does not contain the original theatrical cut, just the longer version released overseas. It joins Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof ($29.95; Dimension), which came out a few weeks ago, and really the whole experience of these movies has been a disappointing mess.
The original theatrical release showed both films with fake trailers for other B flicks thrown in and was a glorious goof. Most critics - like me - thought Rodriguez did best with Planet Terror, though Tarantino gave an awesome car chase and great freeze frame ending to the experience. Unfortunately, the three plus hour double feature flopped. Overseas, both movies were released individually in longer versions with a number of critics believing Tarantino redeemed himself and improved his movie mightily. Rodriguez's fun, on the other hand, was reduced by making Terror stretch out.
Personally, my first instinct after seeing both of them was that they would have been even more fun if they were shorter, not longer. I challenge both directors to cut their movies to 65 minutes, creating a real grindhouse experience.
But worst of all is the DVD release. Instead of beginning with a lavish boxed set that contained both versions of the movies - their original US release and the longer overseas version - with loads of extras, they're being sold separately with only the longer version available. I'm sure some day we'll get the original movie experience that most critics championed and hardcore fans loved. But there's no excuse in the DVD age for not including both versions of each movie. That's just lazy indifference to the fans. But don't let that keep you away from checking them out: both flicks are fun, just not as satisfying on DVD as they should be.
Other releases: Richard Gere uses his shaggy, slightly disreputable charm to good effect in the con man drama The Hoax ($29.99; Miramax); aliens use Earth as a giant boxing ring in the noisy, silly Transformers Special Edition ($36.99; DreamWorks); Angelina Jolie regains her acting mojo in the quiet, nicely observed hostage drama A Mighty Heart ($29.99; Paramount); the contemplative gem Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left For The East: Director's Edition ($29.95; Milestone), another release that should offer both the extended version and the theatrical version but doesn't; Night of Lust ($19.95; Independent International), a naughty French skin flick from the early 60s notable now mostly for jazz legend Chet Baker's score; Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's finale to his gently romantic, gently funny "Loser" trilogy, Lights in the Dusk ($27.99; Strand); Girl 27 ($19.98; Westlake), a so-so documentary about an explosive Hollywood scandal involving rape from MGM's golden days; closeted Hollywood legend Raymond Burr followed Perry Mason with Ironside Season 2 ($49.98; Shout), the wheelchair bound seeker of justice whose show was filled with guest stars like Bill Bixby, Ed Asner and Anne Baxter; The Invisible ($29.99; Hollywood) goes nowhere with its story of a dead teen's ghost haunting the people he left behind, but star Justin Chatwin has enough charisma to show he deserves better; Ramones: It's Alive 1974-1996 ($19.98; Rhino), a two disc set lovingly compiled by Rhino contains seemingly every concert clip they could get their hands on from this legendary band's raucous career; and Show Business: The Road To Broadway ($28.95; Liberation), a good documentary capturing the bumpy journey of four musicals to the Tonys: Wicked, Taboo, Caroline or Change and Avenue Q.
So tell me, is Hilary Swank squandering her Oscar glory? Will Topher Grace become the next Tom Hanks? And did you see the Grindhouse movies in the theater, will you check them out on DVD or do you just not care about zombies and hour-long car chases?