Tuesday Releases: Coriolanus & Man On A Ledge

May 29, 2012 / Leave a Comment

MAY 29TH, 2012

Some solid releases this week, with Coriolanus and We Need To Talk About Kevin getting their own DVD releases, two films which were highly considered for Academy Award nominations this past year. Also, some big name titles like Man On A Ledge and Gone, as well as the lesser known but somewhat acclaimed Goon, starring Seann William Scott and Jay Baruchel.

Coriolanus is a modern spin on a Shakespearean tragedy, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes and co-starring Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, and the uber talented Jessica Chastain. Holding a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, I have high hopes for this action film.

Tilda Swinton was highly acclaimed for her role in We Need To Talk About Kevin, to which she was almost nominated for an Academy Award (and was nominated at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA for her performance). This dark thriller about a boy who commits murders and the strained relationship between he and his mother is based on the 2003 novel by Lionel Shiver.

As much as I enjoy Amanda Seyfried, her starring role in the film, Gone, which is released this week, does not save the film from being somewhat unbearable. Revolving around Seyfried’s character, a young woman who was abducted but escapes, is convinced that her abductor has returned and taken her sister this time. With the police unwilling to help and her previous stint in a mental institution, the world seems against her and what ensues is a chase where the director is more worried about where she’ll find her next getaway vehicle than the believability of the plot.

Man On A Ledge is almost just as absurd, but with a much bigger ensemble cast, including action man Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, and Ed Harris, as the villain. Reminiscent of Tower Heist, Worthington’s character sets out to steal a diamond from Harris’ character. Wrongfully imprisoned for allegedly stealing the diamond, Worthington stands on a ledge to distract the world while brother Jamie Bell and his girlfriend infiltrate Harris’ vault to prove Worthington was wrongfully imprisoned. The plot attempts to twist your expectations, but to a fault, making every character out to be the bad guy and the pay off is not worth it.

With USA’s Royal Pains and HBO’s True Blood seasons hitting DVD, this rounds out to a pretty successful week in releases.

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