• “Battle of the Sexes”: The film manages to fall short by both trying too hard and not hard enough.
The production from directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris that looks at the 1973 exhibition tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs gets distracted by the massive political and social implications of the exhibition, focusing too much time and energy on King’s sexual awakening. At the same time, it brushes over the story of Riggs who was far more than just a tennis court jester and deserved more attention in this tale.
It’s the failing of the script by Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”) that creates the major flaws. More attention should have been placed on what this match meant other than a big payday for the ABC Network that televised the event live from the Astrodome in Houston.
A more global approach to the potential consequences would have given the film far more political weight. Without it, the movie ends up lobbing in its points rather than driving them home.
• “Ten Days in the Valley — Season 1”: The ABC series starring Kyra Sedgwick is a serialized tale surrounding a kidnapping where clues and bits of the mystery were scattered through the 10 episodes of the short season. That became hard to do as the show was pulled off the air and then dumped on Saturday nights to burn off the last episodes.
Now that it is on DVD, there’s no need to wait to find the clues.
Sedgwick plays Jane Sadler, a single mother dealing with overwhelming demands of being a television producer on a popular police TV series. She’s called late one night to do a rewrite. Certain her young daughter (Abigail Pniowsky) is sound asleep and safe in their home, Sadler slips away to the small guest house where she writes.
Sadler returns to the main house to find her daughter is gone. She’s thrown from fictionalizing crime stories to facing what it really means to be in the middle of a police investigation.
The show has some good moments but is generally a rather average mystery.
Also on DVD
• “Lucky”: Harry Dean Stanton stars in this tale of the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his desert town.
• “American Made”: A pilot (Tom Cruise) is recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. History.
• “Brad’s Status”: Middle-aged father (Ben Stiller) goes on a journey of self-discovery.
• “Hell Night”: Fraternity and sorority pledges spend a deadly night in a creepy mansion. Linda Blair stars.
• “The Adventurers”: Charismatic thief is pursued by a determined French police officer (Jean Reno).
• “Shock Wave”: Bomb disposal expert must stop a terrorist who has taken over the Cross Harbor Tunnel.
• “Shadowman”: Story of Richard Hambleton who in the 1980s helped spark the street art movement.
• “Love Beats Rhymes”: Rapper signs up for poetry lessons in an effort to rekindle her creative energy.
• “A Question of Faith”: The faith of a group of strangers is tested. Richard T. Jones stars.
• “Rebel in the Rye”: J.D. Salinger’s life proves as interesting as some of the characters he created.
• “Slumber”: Demon tortures people while they sleep.
• “Breathe”: Andrew Garfield stars in this story of the power of love.
• “The King’s Choice”: Norway’s King Haakon VII faces a monumental decision when the Nazis invade his country.
