ROTTEN TOMATOES: RT on DVD: The Golden Compass, 27 Dresses, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

RT on DVD: The Golden Compass, 27 Dresses, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Also new: How She Move and Diamond Dogs featuring Dolph Lundgren!

by Jen Yamato | April 28, 2008

If you, like many others, opted out of The Golden Compass while it was in theaters, never fear; your chance to watch it at home has arrived. Then again, instead of picking up that or the underwhelming wedding rom-com 27 Dresses, you could go for the wondrous, Oscar-nominated Diving Bell and the Butterfly. More new releases inside.

The Golden Compass

Tomatometer: 41%

Set in a fantastical alterna-universe with talking bears and animal BFFs, The Golden Compass seemed so promising in its epic story of a young girl battling a sinister organization. And though it's fun to label New Line's costly adaptation of Philip Pullman's series a major disappointment, it nearly doubled its $180 million budget in foreign sales -- yet, who knows if any sequels will be made? Now's your chance to catch the Brit fantasy adventure on DVD.

Bonus Features:

Go for the two-disc edition for writer/director Chris Weitz's commentary track (is the Magesterium a stand-in for the Catholic Church?) and a whopping eleven featurettes.

27 Dresses

Tomatometer: 40%

"Always a bridesmaid, never a bride." Whose bright idea was it to turn every single woman's most hated saying into a romantic comedy? James Marsden -- who almost never gets the girl -- is a reporter who wants to write about the world's busiest matron of honor (Katherine Heigl). Heigl, whose career lows include starring opposite Gerard Depardieu in My Father, the Hero and appearing in the lowest-grossing movie in recent memory (Zzyxx Road, which earned $30 at the box office. Yes, $30.) should have been able to turn her Knocked Up and Grey's Anatomy successes into something more.

Bonus Features:

Four featurettes and deleted scenes come with the release.

Fun fact: 27 Dresses features tons of actually great songs from the likes of Justice, Regina Spektor, Feist, Bloc Party, and Amy Winehouse.

Not so fun fact: None of the above appear on the soundtrack, which is all instrumental.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Tomatometer: 94%

Now here's a must-see film. Katherine Heigl thinks being single is tough? Try being totally paralyzed, save for one eyeball, and blinking out your memoirs. Such is the real-life story of magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, whose autobiography became the basis of artist Julian Schnabel's incredibly haunting film of the same name.

Bonus Features:

An otherwise standard behind-the-scenes video is especially fascinating with Diving Bell, thanks to the inventive ways Schnabel chose to film from Bauby's first-person perspective (for example, watching doctors sew Bauby's eyelid shut -- from the inside!). If you're one to appreciate imaginative filmmaking and cinematography, the bonus menu should be fairly fascinating.

How She Move

Tomatometer: 68%

Unlike teen dancing flicks Step Up and You Got Served (and more like the excellent Stomp the Yard), this urban tale blends eye-popping choreography with some semblance of plot. Set in Toronto's gritty immigrant ghetto (Who knew Canada had ghettos -- or street dancing!) How She Move centers on a female step dancer (the ripped, American newbie Rutina Wesley) who joins a crew to pay for college.

Bonus Features:

Character and rehearsal featurettes are the most spectacular offerings on this release. What, no dance-along tutorial? Put in High School Musical 2 instead.

Diamond Dogs

Tomatometer: N/A

Oh, Dolph Lundgren; what hath time wrought? The heir-apparent to the Steven Seagal-Chuck Norris subgenre of low-budget cheesy action is back again with another direct-to-video film -- which we wouldn't normally cover here, but Lundgren is the man: a 6'5" blonde Swedish blackbelt with a master's degree in chemical engineering who chose a life of cheapo chopsocky stardom making flicks with titles like Hidden Agenda, Direct Action, and now, Diamond Dogs.

Bonus Features:

You can watch a making-of featurette (hey, it's more than last week's One Missed Call offered), but let's get back to Lundgren. Diamond Dogs, besides sharing its name with David Bowie's 1974 glam concept album, is Lundgren's 18th straight direct-to-DVD movie. He hasn't been in a theatrical release since 1996's Silent Trigger. We may never see him on the big screen again.

Related Items

Movie:	Diamond Dogs
	How She Move
	27 Dresses
	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Celeb:	Rutina Wesley
	Philip Pullman
	Chris Weitz
	James Marsden
	Mathieu Amalric
	Julian Schnabel
	Katherine Heigl
	Dolph Lundgren

(1-20 of 22 posts) | Reply

spitting into the wind writes:
on Apr 28 2008 05:14 PM

I shed a tear for the career of Dolph Lundgren. The man who brought us the indominatable Ivan Drago.
Oh wait I'm sure he is a millionaire many times over with his straight-to-dvd collection of z-movies. He doesn't need my sympathy.
And for that matter, Rocky kicked his ***!!!!!!
SUCK ON THAT LUNDGREN!!!!!!!!! THATS WHAT U GET FOR KILLING A MANS BFF!!!!

(Reply to this)

jokerboy1991 writes:
on Apr 28 2008 05:18 PM

Not much this week, Ill definateky rent The Diving Bell- I havent seen it yet. I always thought the Golden Compass was underated, I thought it was pretty good. I cant wait til next week when IM NOT THERE comes out.

(Reply to this)

kooks25 writes:
on Apr 28 2008 06:35 PM

not renting at all this week...

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man in the water writes:
on Apr 28 2008 06:45 PM

I LOVE 27 Dresses, it was very charming, yes a chick-flick, but I found it to be suprisingly hilarious. So I will get that, not sure when tho. Liked Diving Bell very much, Julian Schnabel should have won Directing Oscar. And I'll check out The Golden Compass when it comes to On-Demand.

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Bruce Campbell writes:
on Apr 28 2008 07:10 PM

Dolph Lundgren kicks ***.

(Reply to this)

ThunderMammoth writes:
on Apr 28 2008 08:29 PM

Was there a more boring film than The Golden Compass last year? I'm yawning just thinking about it. I mean, it was okay... but it sure wasn't no "How She Move."

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Bloody Mathias writes:
on Apr 28 2008 09:23 PM

Speaking from Toronto's Jane and Finch ghetto, i find RT's ignorant comments offensive and hilarious. Now if you'll excuse me, i think i'll rent 27 Dresses and try not get the mugging i deserve.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Apr 29 2008 07:30 AM

just to re-ignite the controversy and vent a little more;

Golden Compass won the Oscar for 'Best Visual Effects' over Transformers.

..obviously because making a talking f#cking BEAR is something we haven't seen before. Lions, yes. Trees, yes. Cars, yes. Cats, yes. Horses, yes.

But WHOOF#CKINGHOO, we now have a talking bear. THAT deserves an oscar over PIONEERING new visual techniques to create the 'transformer' effect.

F#CKING travesty...

there. I feel better.

(Reply to this)

JojoTR writes:
on Apr 29 2008 08:28 AM

I was reading imdb and they state Zzyxx Road only made $20 box office because $10 was refunded to someone who worked on the movie.

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unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Apr 29 2008 09:34 AM

I thought Dresses was kinda charming and enjoyable(B), Compass was alright(B-) it had some flaws but was still interesting. And I have to rent Diving, I was pi ssed that it didn't come to theaters where I live.

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reddevil5202 writes:
on Apr 29 2008 10:16 AM

DVD releases this week were incredibly dull...and if you have any kind of remote disdane for chick flicks, avoid 27 Dresses if at ALL possible, I myself was forced into watching it not just once, but twice. As for Golden Compass, it has potential, but only if connected to whatever sequel will inevitably be released. It was wayyyy too Narnia-esque though. As for Dolph? If you saw his last straight-to-DVD release, "The Missionary", then you'll know to avoid Diamond Dog :-) I give him props though, he does his own thing, and he seems to enjoy it. I'm so mad I didn't get a chance to see Diving Bell while I had the DVD in my hand...that seems to be the only one really worth watching this time around.

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tomwaitsjr writes:
on Apr 29 2008 11:17 AM

Talking Bears? NO WAY!

I've seen Dancing Bears, but now, talking? What next? POKER PLAYING BEARS?

If EVER there was a reason to allow dog-baiting and large scale hunting of Bears, this is it.

What if they use foul language?

(Reply to this)

Jen Yamato writes:
on Apr 29 2008 11:22 AM

I'm kind of perversely interested in watching Diamond Dogs and/or any of Dolph's direct to video flicks from the past decade. There must be some reason he chose this career path, no?

(Reply to this)

Circe Prankster writes:
on Apr 29 2008 01:14 PM

In reply to this comment (#1709844)
Reddevil, I have disdain for people who can't spell the word "disdain." Sorry, just being obnoxious and pedantic, can't help myself, it's my nature.

I think it's interesting that you feel Golden Compass was Narnia-esque, since philosophically those two films are absolutely antithetical. One points out the dangers of religious corruption and the other celebrates the Biblical Jesus story. I suppose you're referring to the visual style or fantasy aspects of the story.

I enjoyed the Golden Compass film, but then again, I really liked the books and I already agree with its message. I did not see the Narnia movie because a) I am opposed to organized religion and did not want to financially support it, and b) I read the book and thought it was extremely boring, simplistic, and preachy. The Narnia movie was very successful, though, so I can only assume that the film improved upon the book, made the story richer and the characters less flat. I think this may be a case where the Narnia movie was better than the book, and the Golden Compass book was better than the movie.

Read all Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials books, if you like fantasy with a political theme. They really are good novels, even if you're not totally on board with the challenge to religious authority that they present.

(Reply to this)

reddevil5202 writes:
on Apr 29 2008 03:00 PM

In reply to this comment (#1710201)
My apologies for causing you disdain for mispelling disdain, and thank you for correcting it. As for my comment on calling Golden Compass Narnia-esque, it's precisely for that reason. They both may deal with religion in opposing ways, but they do both deal with religion. Primarily though, I really also think they're similar in displaying the relationship between humans and nature as well. I really want to read the books, so thank you for the recommendation.

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Bane Of Anubis writes:
on Apr 29 2008 03:35 PM

In reply to this comment (#1710201)
Not sure if pedantic's the way to go, but I digress. I'm an athiest who prefers the Narnia series to Pullman's books. Sure, they're both allegories, but I preferred Lewis' writing to Pullman's. While they both have original ideas (for their respective times), I think Narnia is preachier on a more subtle scale.

Sure, they both preach to their choirs, but I felt I could read Narnia without being annoyed, whereas if I were of a religious slant, I'd have quickly become tired of Pullman's overt distaste. No point in writing a book in which you're trying to make a point if it's that cavalier about discarding the opposition.

Narnia is also better written. The Golden Compass starts off abruptly, but is fairly enjoyable after that; however, Pullman's subsequent books digress into railing and dogma too frequently. Narnia has some similar chaos to it, but it's more restrained.

Unless you're an athiest, agnostic, or someone of religious persuasion who can read past the invectives, I'd suggest looking elsewhere for reading material than Pullman's books.

(Reply to this)

Trufire writes:
on Apr 29 2008 03:38 PM

I was suprised to hear that while The Golden Compass did pretty much fail in the domestic box office, that it doubled the budget in foreign sales. How often does that happen with a non foreign film? I too thought that it was a bit underrated but could see where the critics were coming from. My defense for it is that because of the story being in 3 parts, character development should take the course of all of them. I don't see any sequels or follow up to this movie however because of how the movie ended, how it would move into the second book, the much more dark and sinster tone the last two books have, and the collapse of New Line.

(Reply to this)

FcukBsuh writes:
on Apr 30 2008 11:28 AM

Diving Bell is just a fantastic film...Fantastic

Golden Compass was sooo disappointing...Not rental worthy.

27 dresses was actually not bad, one of those worthwhile rental movies, for sure.

(Reply to this)

tomwaitsjr writes:
on Apr 30 2008 01:11 PM

Golden Compass was pretty bad. Not much on plot. Kind of meandered all over the place. The main "battle" sequence was well done, however. The CGI was great, especially that evil monkey "demon" of Kidman's.

(Reply to this)