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  • Joey’s DVD Picks of the Week (1/15/2013)

    Documentaries by and large beat out narrative features in the column this week...

    January 15, 2013

    other_dream_team_ver2This week, we have a fair number of titles hitting Blu-Ray and DVD, but not a whole lot of quality features. In fact, things are pretty mediocre, and it’s the first release slate in a while where I can say that it’s mostly about the documentaries coming out today. A bunch of the other flicks out were actually really disappointing, which isn’t unusual to see in general, but is here just in terms of them all coming out at the same time. My top pick this week quickly came down to a choice between docs, and ironically none of them are among my favorites of the year either. I eventually decided, and my PICK OF THE WEEK is going to be a movie that I never spoke about during 2012. It’s still a very entertaining film and one I thought might have been an awards dark horse if things had broken a little bit differently for it. The documentary I speak of? It’s:

    The Other Dream Team

    This is the rare documentary that manages to be by and large an uplifting experience. That’s not something to take lightly, as we only get a few of those in any given year. I didn’t fall in love with this sports doc, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. It tells the story of the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic Basketball team and certainly manages to inspire its audience. I’m sure Disney will eventually come calling to do a narrative remake, but until that day arrives this is a very solid pick for something light to watch. I have no trouble recommending it!

    -Coming in second place today is the documentary Detropia. This is a eulogy of sorts to Detroit, and while it’s strangely beautiful and very timely, it’s certainly a bit of a downer. It came very close to scoring an Oscar nomination, and now you can see why. I was favorable to it earlier in the year, and I expect that those who pick it up will wind up agreeing with me…

    -Also out this week is a whole host of disappointments. We have the lesser Woody Allen comedy To Rome With Love, the misfire action sequel Taken 2, the mediocre horror flick The Possession, along with the bland coming of age tale About Cherry, and the terrible drama Won’t Back Down. There’s also the sci-fi flick Branded, the drama Farewell My Queen, and the documentaries Battle for Brooklyn and An Inconsistent Truth. I haven’t seen any of those latter films, but the former ones I have and they didn’t do a while lot for me. If you’re interested in them, give a look and see if you disagree, but aside from the light charms of Woody’s outing, my thumb is solidly down everywhere.

    city-hall-4-My Vintage pick, in honor of this week’s release of Broken City, is another crime movie involving a mayor. It’s City Hall, an underrated thriller that features John Cusack as a crusading Deputy Mayor and Al Pacino as the one in charge. It’s not amazing stuff, but it’s definitely better than the wrap it seems to have gotten stuck with over the years. Now’s really a perfect time to look back on it and see if you’re partial to it at all. I know I am, and I plan to, if Sundance doesn’t kill me first…

    -What will you be watching on Blu-Ray/DVD this week? Discuss in the comments!

    About Joey Magidson


    When he’s not obsessing over new Oscar predictions on a weekly basis, Joey is seeing between 200 and 300 movies a year. He views the best in order to properly analyze the awards race/season each year, but he also watches the worst for reasons he mostly sums up as "so you all don't have to". In his spare time, you can usually find him complaining about the Jets or the Mets. Still, he lives and dies by film. Joey's a voting member of the Internet Film Critics Association as well. Today the IFCA, tomorrow the world!

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    7 Comments

    1. It’s a pretty solid week if you’re a documentary buff…

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    2. I really liked The Other Dream Team!

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    3. I’m Lithuanian, and so glad to find Your DVD recommendation of “The Other Dream Team”. This documentary was No.1 for several weeks in Lithuanian cinemas.

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