New on DVD - 10/21/08

FTFR DVD Pick of the Week

If nothing else, Flight of the Red Balloon is an exquisitely crafted, beautifully modulated film, featuring some heartbreakingly gorgeous cinematography by Pin Bing Lee. It's a slow burner, and definitely not for all tastes and sensibilities, but I found it intoxicating from beginning to end. It is a charming, achingly beautiful ode to childhood, channeling the pure-hearted essence of Lamorisse's immortal masterwork, and ranks right up there among 2008's finest films.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (***)

It does rectify one of Iron Man's weak points, in that the climactic final battle between Hulk and Abomination is every bit the titanic smackdown that the final battle of Iron Man wasn't. The rest of the film doesn't have the same zing as Iron Man though, it doesn't have that same freshness brought to it by Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau's nimble direction. If it had, it may have surpassed it. It is a more serious film, free of the breezy, lighthearted atmosphere of Iron Man, but it is also more action-centric, focusing on the conflicted nature of Banner and the demon inside he wants so desperately to excise. Although, in his quest for killer action sequences, Leterrier lets some of the finer points get lost in the carnage.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
I actually thought that the final battle was weaker than the film that came before it. They never even bothered to give a reason for Abomination's rampage at the end of the film.
9:28 AM
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