“Hatfields &McCoys”
This first scripted series from the History Channel has picked up 16 Emmy nominations, including nods for stars Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton and Mare Winningham.
Costner plays Anse, patriarch of the Hatfields, who is better known as Devil. Hatfield and Randall McCoy, played by Bill Paxton, lived only a few miles from each other on either side of the Kentucky-West Virginia border. They served together during the Civil War and that’s where the first seeds of the long-running feud were sewn.
Although they don’t have a lot of scenes together, some of the best moments are when Costner and Paxton share the screen. The two veteran actors show a deep understanding of their roles as men who both hate and admire each other.
The DVD includes the original version before it was cut for television.
Grade: B+
“ATM”
This film shows that there are scarier things than a low bank balance.
In what is essentially a four-person play, three young executives — played by Alice Eve, Josh Peck and Brian Geraghty — find themselves trapped at an isolated ATM on a sub-zero night. They can’t leave because there’s an ominous figure lurking outside the door.
Director David Brooks does his best to build and sustain the terror but the chills fade near the halfway point. He does get a lot of mileage out of Peck’s character, who is so obnoxious that you wish the other two would toss him out into the cold.
The film is saved in the end by a clever bit of writing by Chris Sparling that offers a couple of interesting twists on the story.
Grade: C
Also new
“Marilyn in Manhattan”: Documentary about Marilyn Monroe’s secret move to New York.
“Total Recall: Mind-Bending Edition”: Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a man who faces an identity crisis.
Rick Bentley, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)
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