The Brothers Bloom [Blu-ray] | ![The Brothers Bloom [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-KENWR27L._SL500_.jpg) | Director: Rian Johnson
Actors: Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $34.99
Buy Used: $13.68
as of 3/12/2010 00:43 EST details
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Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 6990
Format: NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 113 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: SUMBR66111120
UPC: 025192038402
EAN: 0025192038402
ASIN: B002J1RZH4
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: January 12, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (summit) Release Date: 09/29/2009 Rating: Pg13
Amazon.com
Writer-director Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom has a lot going for it, like an excellent cast doing good work, fabulous locations, a sumptuous look, and some interesting ideas in a genre that’s rife with possibilities. Somehow, though, the film is a whole that’s less than the sum of its parts. We meet siblings Stephen and Bloom, the products of numerous foster homes, at ages 13 and 10, respectively, as they’re starting to develop the skills and savvy that will help them become the full-blown scam-meisters they are when we meet up with them in their thirties (with Mark Ruffalo taking over as Stephen and Adrien Brody as Bloom). It seems Bloom wants to pack it in and live "an unwritten life" free of his brother’s elaborate schemes. But Stephen, who is now accompanied by a sidekick named Bang Bang (Babel’s Rinko Kikuchi, in an amusing, mostly silent performance as what Stephen refers to as "our fifth Beatle"), convinces his younger brother to take part in one last swindle, this one targeting the filthy rich Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz), who lives alone in what’s described as the biggest house on the eastern seaboard. Penelope’s an oddball, to say the least, having overcome a sickly childhood and become a master hobbyist whose skills rage from origami and playing six or eight instruments to riding a unicycle while balancing two chainsaws. Posing as antiquities dealers, the brothers pull her into a scheme that takes the trio all over the world (Greece, Prague, Montenegro, St. Petersburg, Mexico). Needless to say, complications ensue. Penelope turns out to be pretty good at the con game herself; what’s more, we know from the moment Stephen warns Bloom not to fall in love with her that he’ll quickly do exactly that. For sure, The Brothers Bloom has its high points, with surreal touches and amusing moments that help counterbalance its fairly arch overall tone. But in the end, it feels as if Johnson is trying too hard, sacrificing character for cleverness, and it’s the audience--even those who enjoy and are adept at sorting through the various clues and red herrings to figure out what’s supposedly really happening--that feels conned, or at least finds it difficult to care. --Sam Graham
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
 awesome February 24, 2010
A. R. (seattle, wa)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
this movie was surprisingly wonderful. I knew it would at the very least be enjoyable thanks to adrien brody and rachel weiss, but i didn't know it would be this good. humor, romance, hijinks...its all there with a great script and beautifully thoughtful costuming. This movie brings back the joy of watching stories on film.
"Can I get a 'wow'?" Wow! February 13, 2010
Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I see from Box Office Mojo that this wonderful creation from the mind of writer/director Rian Johnson made a disappointing $3.5m in (US) domestic business. That's a shame - this is a really enjoyable, smart, stylish movie that is a wicked blend of drama and comedy. It blows me away that this most inventive of films sprung from one man's fertile mind. My plan is to go back and rent Johnson's debut film, Brick, a favorite of many a movie-watcher.
Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz are three actors to whom I give the benefit of the doubt: I'll watch a movie they are in simply because they'd had the judgment to be in it. Mark Ruffalo, for example, isn't going to up suddenly and get in a film that has him clambering onto a hurtling asteroid to save the planet Earth. He's in quality projects. And Rachel Weisz is like Tina Fey: a sex symbol for those whose lips don't move when they read. She's never been more adorable than she is here - most notably in a hilarious sequence in which she displays to Brody all the things she's learned while holed up in her mansion over the years: languages; ping-pong; classical piano; rap (over-the-top goofy); break-dancing; karate; juggling (on stilts with chainsaws no less)...you name it. As Brody's character warns his scheming older brother (Ruffalo) a couple of times: "She knows _lots_ of things." Brody's character is meant to find Weisz's Penelope irresistible. And, she is. In spades.
How smart is Johnson's script? Smart enough where he could conjure up and act on this thought: "Gee, I'd really like to get Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) into my movie even though she speaks not a word of English." Thus, he writes the character of 'Bang-Bang.' I guarantee you he wrote that part thinking "I'm putting Rinko Kikuchi in my movie," not "Hmmm...who's going to play 'Bang-Bang'?". Her almost-wordless appearance - save a couple of epigrams and one karaoke routine - is a shtick that never gets old.
The deleted scenes on the DVD are well-worth watching with Johnson's commentary turned-on. It makes you more fully appreciate just how much thought he put into this under-appreciated gem.
 Stylish But Self-Absorbed February 10, 2010
Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"The Brothers Bloom" starts with a prologue about a pair of orphans Stephen and Bloom, and their first attempt to swindle money ($ 30) from the rich kids in the neighborhood. Stephen says, without irony perhaps, "The perfect con is one where everyone involved gets just the thing they wanted." The long introductory part, narrated by Ricky Jay, sets the tone of "The Brothers loom" directed by Rian Johnson, which some describe as "post-modern caper film."
25 years later, we meet the grown-up "brothers" again, now pro con artists. But Bloom (Adrian Brody) quits, saying he is tired of his con business, only to join the team again for the last time. Stephen (Mark Ruffalo), Bloom, and a Japanese explosive expert "Bang Bang" (Rinko Kikuchi) plan to pull a con on a mega-billionaire Penelope (Rachel Weisz), who seems very weary of her boring life. This time, however, one thing is different. Bloom falls in love with her for real. .
"The Brothers Bloom" is not about elaborate con tricks pulled by the brothers. It is about the characters and the interactions between them, especially about Bloom, Stephen and Penelope. However, the film, which looks as self-absorbed as its characters themselves, goes on forever. The film is not without whimsical charms, but despite the best efforts from Adrian Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi and Rachel Weisz (she is just brilliant here), I find it very hard to connect to any of the characters on the screen.
With silly costumes and too many twists, "The Brothers Bloom" tries to be so quirky when it doesn't need to. It has a style that tries too hard to impress. Beautifully shot and well-acted, "The Brothers Bloom" is about characters and events stylishly described, characters and events we don't care much.
 Movie was just hard to watch January 4, 2010
El Jimmy (Miami, Florida)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
Rented this movie, thankfully I rented it! I'm wondering why its coming out on Bluray way after the regular dvd format. Anyway, the movie tries way too hard to be smart, and some of it was creative, but it just lacked that one important thing that keeps the audience interested: Entertainment! Its a shame, I all three actors, but just the way the movie did not flow right, trying to be funny in places when it was not, it was just downright boring. I'll be honest, I thought it was so bad I didn't finish it.
It did however remind me of an older movie about two con artists, which was funny and entertaining, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine. I do not recommend the Brothers Bloom movie.
 Depressingly forgettable December 31, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Bottom Line:
I love movies about con men and I loved Brick (director Johnson's first film) but I have to report that The Brothers Bloom (which I actually saw in theaters no less) is a bland, boring film enlivened only by Rinko Kikuchi's performance as Bang Bang; though the film is by no means terrible, it has so little to recommend it that I would easily rather watch an amusingly bad movie (like anything with Dolph Lundgren in it) than suffer through The Brothers Bloom again.
2/4
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
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