'Bee Movie' is amusing diversion
|
 | |
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
An interesting slice of life and the return of a television superstar are in this week's DVD column.
The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun
This Danish documentary tells less than what I would liked to have learned about an eccentric Dane and his wish to turn a castle into a monastery, but the film is still interesting viewing.
Filmmaker Pernille Rose Gr nkj r followed around Mr. Vig, a man in his eighties, for five years, recording his efforts to establish a Russian Orthodox monastery in the small castle he owned.
Although we learn much about Vig, he is still quite a puzzle. Although he looks frail, he seems to take pleasure in physical labor. He has an obsession with noses, has never been in love, and can recount there has only been one person he has truly admired his father.
He doesn't seem very religious at this point in his life, but clearly the study of religion has been important to him and he has decided that if he could establish a monastery at his run-down estate he will have created a lasting monument to himself.
The Moscow patriarchate agrees to send Sister Amvrosija to evaluate the castle and to work out the details with Vig. A positive but no-nonsense woman, she and Vig almost instantly begin clashing.
One realizes that when confronted with the possibility of seeing his dreams realized, Vig begins having cold feet. The Russian nun will have none of that and pushes forward to put an agreement in place and to repair the castle.
I really would have wanted to know more about Vig how he obtained the castle, what was his profession, how did he support himself at the time of the filming but we aren't given that information. It would have made the story much richer.
Even with these flaws, the film is well worth watching for folks who want to see a very unusual story.
For more information,
visit www.themonastery
movie.com.
Bee Movie: A Very Jerry 2-Disc Edition
Entertainment writers have been spewing stories about the "Seinfeld" curse now for several years, and the box office success of Jerry Seinfeld's follow-up vehicle, "Bee Movie," certainly showed he was under the same dark cloud as some of his co-stars.
The film will be out on DVD shortly and if you're a fan of the film, the two-disc edition will give you all the "Bee" stuff you could possibly want.
The film is about Barry Benson, a bee who is challenging the status quo of the hive. While other bees know what they want to do, Barry doesn't and this eventually leads him to a friendship with a human (played by Renee Zellweger). This friendship and the realization humans exploit bees for honey leads to a class action suit against the human race brought on behalf of bees.
I have to admit that in an animated kids' movie I never thought the concept of a lawsuit for exploitation would be a plot point, but then there's a lot in this film that is more for adults than for children.
I took my nephew Douglas to the film when it was in theaters and although he liked it, he didn't laugh once. I did laugh several times, but we had far different reactions to "The Simpsons Movie" a stream of belly laughs.
Seinfeld co-wrote the film and stars as Barry. I think it's fascinating to see him develop a property that is as about as far away from his hit television series as he could get.
I liked the film. It's pleasant and despite the class action lawsuit and genocide sub-plots, it's generally enjoyable. I just didn't find it as funny as many other recent animated offerings.
The extras in this two-disc set reveal a little of how the film was made. Seinfeld did not want to leave his New York City home so Dreamworks set up an office with a two-way television/computer system so Seinfeld could meet and collaborate with the production crew on the west coast.
There is one obnoxious featurette that is merely a commercial for HP computers, which were used in the making of the film.
The extras also have two deleted scenes and five alternative endings. It's interesting to see that Seinfeld and his directors were obviously unsure on how to end the picture and kept re-working the scene.
If you liked the movie or are a Seinfeld fan, this two-disc set is a honey. I'm very sorry, but I resisted the bee puns until the very end.
|
|
