WRECKED (Blu-Ray and DVD)

The scene is, Adrian Brody storming into his agent's office...

ADRIAN: "Goddammit Max, look at this crap! Ryan Reynolds! Ryan Reynolds gets a wide distribution on a theatrically released one-man movie. Fucking Van Wilder captivates audiences trapped in goddamn box, and here I am with an Oscar, apparently only good for propping up my coffee table, because it SURE ISN'T GETTING ME A FREAKING ONE-MAN SHOW!"

MAX: "Calm down, buddy, no prob, no prob. I gotta script right here for you that'll make Mr. Ex-Johansson wanna cry hisself to sleep over not getting."

ADRIAN: "And that's another thing, has Hayley Atwell left any messages yet?"

Sadly, the 2011 IFC film "Wrecked" with Mr. Brody only played theatrically at the Abu Dhabi film festival, where I'm sure his mother told him how good he was in it. 

Look, all kidding aside, "Wrecked" is largely a one-man show that never goes where you almost have to assume it's going and in retrospect, is a better film for it. Brody plays an unnamed man who awakens in the middle of a forest, trapped in a wrecked car, lodged firmly in the passenger seat. In the car are two other men, both dead, several bags of money, and a loaded gun. Brody can't remember a thing about who he is, how he got there, and worst of all, his leg is broken. After all the obligatory calling for help, crying piteously, and hallucinatory "I'm saved!" sequences, Brody makes his way out of the car only to realize he has no idea which way to go, he doesn't have food or water, there are dangerous wild animals roaming about, and to top it off, he keeps hallucinating this woman who alternately wants to help or torment him. Brody delivers an excellent performance, as per usual, but I found myself losing interest, although only because it seemed like a sure thing (and a ho-hum sure thing at that) that it was some sort of dream or limbo or something. All I can say is, keep watching, because the filmmakers manage to wiggle their way back to a more-or-less plausible ending. Brody doesn't get the teeny-boppers in seats, but "Wrecked" to me was as at least as entertaining a watch as "Buried" was. Don't tell Ryan.

--CLICK HERE TO BUY Wrecked

NO ORDINARY FAMILY (DVD)...Guest Review by LEON

After all the hard work that Michael Chiklis did as scary cop Vic Mackey on ‘The Shield’ in order to erase the memory of him as ‘The Commish’, it was kinda sad to see him go back to another role playing the overweight, middle-aged, soft father….even if he was more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Considering that he was one of the only two good things about the Fantastic Four movies, it’s easy to see the thinking behind casting him as the patriarch of another family who gain fantastic superpowers after their plane crashes in the Amazon. Jim Powell got super-strength; his wife Stephanie (Julie Benz): super-speed; daughter Daphne (Kay Panabaker): mindreading; and son J.J. (Jimmy Bennett) became a mathematical genius. In a best case scenario ‘No Ordinary Family’ had the potential to be a TV version of ‘The Incredibles' - it even had Jim fighting crime in secret with a black sidekick (Romany Malco). Unfortunately, it was developed in part by some pretty big hacks in the entertainment industry, producer and writers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim,  aka the men responsible for the 'Green Lantern' movie. Need I say more? Despite commercials that made it look like a show for the ABC Family Channel, it had impressive special effects, and a really bright spot in actress Autumn Reeser as lab assistant/Stephanie’s sidekick, Katie- a WAY too pretty, hardcore geek girl who managed to be totally convincing. The pilot episode showed lots of promise. But once it got going it quickly devolved into a “villain of the week” show, with lots of refried family hijinks, mundane ways to use their powers and an uncompelling conspiracy. Late in the season they woefully miscast Lucy Lawless as the master villainess, Mrs. X, as a desperate attempt to pull in ratings from former Xena geeks. Too little, too late as the show suffered a mercy killing in ABC’s great culling of their underperforming shows of 2010.

--CLICK HERE TO BUY No Ordinary Family: The Complete First Season