DVD Tuesday: The Libertine & The Matador! - Xoanon @ 10:05 PST
The Libertine: "You will not like me," promises the powdered and wigged Earl of Rochester (Johnny Depp) with a decadent aristocratic sneer and a rascal's dare in the film's opening scene. He's right. More than just a real-life high society bad boy, the darkly seductive and aggressively debauched poet and court wit is a hedonist and a misanthrope who thrives on stirring up controversy. He's a favorite of Charles II (John Malkovich) for the very same traits that finally makes him a liability to the crown. And he is largely without any redeeming qualities, even when he takes on a raw young actress (Samantha Morton) as his protégé. This being Johnny Depp, he defiantly resists all impulses to make him the least bit likable, which makes the film something of an ordeal as we watch him drive himself into an early grave. Stephen Jeffreys adapts his own play and Laurence Dunmore directs. Details: Color, The Weinstein Company/Genius, Widescreen anamorphic, 2.35:1. Supplements: Commentary by director Laurence Dunmore; "Capturing the Libertine" making-of featurette; 10 deleted scenes; Trailer. Audio: English (Dolby Digital 5.1). Optional Spanish and English subtitles. [Order]


The Matador: Pierce Brosnan, dressing down with a gray-salted brush-cut, a perpetually scruffy shave and a crude mode expression, is a seedy assassin (or "facilitator of fatalities," as he likes to say) who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a meek American businessman (Greg Kinnear) in a Mexican bar after his latest job. Six months later, the assassin shows up at Kinnear's middle class home, shares his life story with Kinnear's fascinated wife (Hope Davis), and asks for help on one last job… Richard Shepard's oddball crime thriller has a jagged, dark humor that Brosnan plays perfectly and a moral ambiguity that never quite tips in one direction or another. You might say it's a buddy film with a body count and a flexible code of ethics. Philip Baker Hall co-stars. Available in separate widescreen and fullscreen editions. Details: Color, 97 mins, Weinstein Company/Genius, Widescreen anamorphic, 2.35:1. Supplements: Commentary by director/writer Richard Shepard; Commentary by Richard Shepard with actors Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear; 11 deleted and extended scenes with optional commentary by Richard Shepard; "Making The Matador" featurette; Audio-only "The Business and the Treatment" radio program discussing The Matador; TV spot; Trailer. Audio: English (Dolby Digital 5.1). Optional Spanish and English subtitles. [Order]