Disc of the Week (7/12/11)

I’m going to preface this week’s post by saying that from this point on I will only be writing a Disc of the Week post if a movie is being released that I think is genuinely worthwhile. That has not been the case the last two weeks, so I ended up writing this sarcastic post just to kill some space. Then last week, I just decided not to write one at all. This will be a feature for genuine recommendations rather than weekly DVD/Blu-ray updates, so that’s what to expect from now on. I will likely write one more often than not, but if one never posts it’s because I didn’t care for any of that week’s releases. Or I'm lazy.

Luckily, this week has two new releases that are worth checking out. Neither is a masterpiece, but as rentals they are close to sure things. In the arena of animated films, there is Gore Verbinski’s unconventional Rango. As a visual showcase, it is a triumph. As a piece of storytelling, it is less successful. Make no mistake: this is not your usual animated film. The language is saltier, and the general tone may be too eccentric for some. In fact, there’s a sense that the film wasn’t meant to be a story so much as it was meant to be an experiment in style. It should be commended because it does things with the animated format that few-to-no other movies have attempted. If it it doesn't do everything right, so be it.

Of this week’s releases, the legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer is the most likely to please. On its face, it may seem like little more than a television pilot, but rare is the film like this that tells its story so well. Protagonist Mick Haller is exactly the type of character Matthew McConaughey should be playing; smart and charming rather than dumb and handsome. Pair his impressive performance with a killer supporting cast—consisting of Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy and Bryan Cranston—and you’ve taken a potentially bland film and turned it into a twisty, compelling thriller. It may sputter a bit in the final 20 minutes, but the rest of the film is much more fun than you might expect. It won’t be haunting your dreams a few months down the line, but it seems destined to find a home in Netflix queues around the world.