Call it Deliverance meets Texas Chain Saw Massacre by way of Straw Dogs. Really that’s the best way I can describe this incredibly derivative film starring Gary Oldman. It’s Summer in 1978 and two couples are making their way to an isolated vacation house in the woods. The house is the ancestral home for Paul. The four are traveling from England to Spain where Paul impresses the locals with his ability to speak Spanish. More importantly it’s his ability to understand the language as they were insulting the group intending for them to be oblivious to the slights.
Tang Wei plays a student who is a member of a radical theatre troupe during the Sino-Japanese War. She and her cohorts determine to assassinate a prominent collaborator (Tony Leung). In order to get create the opportunity for the killing, our heroine must infiltrate Leung’s household. She is on the threshold of becoming his mistress when he leaves Hong Kong for Shanghai. Three years later, now backed by the Resistance, she makes a new attempt. But she hasn’t counted on the entanglements of passion in the affair she has embarked on.
ABC has made a killing from the bored housewife situation. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that films would attempt to put those kinds of situations into their plots. The film is billed as an erotic thriller; however it’s really two separate films. The first half works the erotic side of things. There’s plenty of nudity and sexual situations, starting with three chicks all over each other for a photo shoot. Here we meet Claire Dennison (Ford). She’s a successful businesswoman, perhaps selling porn to the Japanese.
There was first the cloned sheep, Dolly. Now today, cloning is actually very popular in science. Just do a simple Google search and you’ll find many articles on cloning that are occurring or have occurred. Heck, there was even an active website at one time about gene banking a pet. How far is science willing to go? The cloning of humans is not so far out of reach but most likely will not happen in my lifetime. When it does, you can bet that government will try and step in and stop it.
Do you enjoy a little Beethoven with your ultraviolence? Stanley Kubrick’s controversial A Clockwork Orange has arrived on Blu-ray Hi-Def (as the TV adds now like to call our BD format). Often imitated, sometimes misunderstood, A Clockwork Orange is a classic no matter your opinion of the film. Personally, this isn’t my favorite Kubrick film (that would have to be 2001), but it’s essential viewing nevertheless. Whether you choose to view it on this Blu-ray might be another story….
I think that by revisiting Unbreakable, and looking at it outside of M. Night Shyamalan’s other films like The Sixth Sense and Signs, there’s actually a pretty good movie going on there. I mean, a movie that grossed $95 million domestically can’t be considered a failure, right? It did, however, do amazing overall numbers, the international totals brought the film up to a near $250 million gross. However, I guess when you put them up against Signs ($227 million domestic, $408 million worldwide) and The Sixth Sense ($293 million domestic, $672 million worldwide), maybe it can be considered disappointing, but the film itself is pretty good.
It was back in 1999 when I first saw Run Lola Run. I remember exactly where I rented it, what city I was in and who I watched it with. I read about the film online and when the opportunity came about to rent it, I jumped at the chance. One of my main reasons for wanting to rent it was because my companion was in fact German and from Germany and I knew she would enjoy watching a movie in her native language. Little did I know before watching Lola, it would become one of my all time favorite movies.
Still grieving over their father’s death, two sisters – the outgoing Dagmar (Stefania D’Amario) and the neurotic, antisocial Ursula (Barbara Magnolfi) – check into an out-of-season hotel. They are almost immediately immersed in a tangled web of relationships and betrayals involving the hotel manager, his estranged wife, a lounge singer and a drug-addicted patron. At the same time, a series of gruesome sex slayings gets underway.
Chucky returns with bride Tiffany and androgynous child Glen/Glenda in a modern sendup of old Hollywood. A little bit of gore, some John Waters, and a healthy dose of Jennifer Tilly keep this film fresh and original despite its obvious 80s slasher gimmick origins. Universal has put together an excellent package for this HD DVD release that should please Chucky fans young and old. HD DVD dead? Oh well….worth a pickup at your nearest firesale.
“The Invasion” is a remake of the classic “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. This time around, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig are the heroes that uncover the diabolical truth behind a secret plot to take over the world. This is a film that has been re-made several times before, in various forms. Each time, the film is turned into a heavy-handed metaphor for the current political climate. That is most certainly the case this time around as well, as the oblivious citizens are expected to accept everything their leaders tell them, no matter how implausible that information might be. I’ll spare you the pop politics, but the parallels between the Bush administration and the story are rampant.
Guy Pierce fascinates me. He first broke on the scene in a big way in LA Confidential, which just happens to be one of my favorite films. Instead of taking the path of his co-star Russell Crow and chasing the big Hollywood dollar, however, Pierce chose to explore smaller, more interesting fringe films. Sometimes, this decision pays off for him, as was the case in the amazing Memento, or the recent The Proposition. Other times, however, the gamble falls flat, as was the case with The Hard Word. Pierce is consistently excellent, but the films he picks are hit and miss. That’s the problem with interesting projects, they either turn into surprise hits, or predictable failures. So the big question is, is First Snow a hit or a miss?
Just another working day in Los Angeles. Lexi (Mary McCormack) heads off for the commute, while hubby Brad (Rory Cochrane) stays home. His morning ablutions are interrupted by the news that a series of dirty bombs have just gone off in the city. Stymied in his attempts to reach his wife, Brad retreats home, where he acts on the instructions to seal up the house, as the bombs have released a deadly toxin. When Lexi does return, Brad cannot let her in, as she is contaminated. How’s that for a strain on a relationship?
Early on, it’s easy to tell that Mr. Brooks doesn’t take itself seriously.
At least I hope it didn’t.
What starts off as an intriguing look into a seemingly normal man’s life and his addiction to killing people, Mr. Brooks quickly spirals down the drain into a movie that tries to do too much and ends up doing too little.
Ever find yourself shuffling around your local video store, eyes glazed over at all of typical genre fare studios churn out year after year, longing for something different? You could head over to the independent/festival section for relief, but it might mean straying farther from your usual tastes than you’d like. Enter The Brave One, an intelligent thriller that takes the usual revenge tale and rearranges its DNA. It offers the unusual perspective of director Neil Jordan (The Good Thief) and Jodie Foster’s finest performance since The Silence of the Lambs.
I remember when Ocean’s Eleven was first announced, and how disappointed I was. Steven Soderbergh was already well-respected by critics and serious film buffs due to his films Sex, Lies & Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich and Traffic. He was the last person in Hollywood that needed to sell out to the masses by directing a re-make packed with eye candy. Not only that, but he chose to re-make a fantastic film that starred the Rat Pack. Essentially, Soderbergh decided to go to Vegas and relieve himself on the legacy of Frank Sinatra in the name of the almighty dollar.
Director David Cronenberg’s masterpiece, A History of Violence catapulted him to the upper-echelon of today’s directors. Until AHOV, he’d previously worked on offbeat films that got mixed reviews, like Crash (1996), eXistenZ, and Spider, with the occasional brush with “commercial” films like The Fly.
Shattered, whose original (and more original) title was Butterfly on a Wheel, presents us with the household of Gerard Butler and Maria Bello. Life seems idyllic. They have a nice house, a lovely little girl, and the money is flooding in as Butler rises in his career (though his tactics don’t always seem entirely fair). Into their lives erupts Pierce Brosnan, who kidnaps their daughter, then forces the couple to perform one strange act after another, each event destroying their lives further.
I don’t particularly care how many times filmmakers recycle old tales, so long as they produce enjoyable films. The Invasion revisits sci-fi scribe Jack Finney’s “The Body Snatchers” for the fourth time on film, following in the steps of the original 1956 film and the ’78 and ’93 remakes. Dave Kajganich wrote the screenplay, and Oliver Hirschbiegel (The Downfall) directed. Then Warner hired the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix) to rewrite some scenes and inject more action into the film, and James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) to direct the re-shoots.
So is The Invasion a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, or just the right creative balance to bring Finney’s classic horror tale to life in the new millennium?
Arthur Kennedy and wife Teresa Wright are an older childless couple who discover a young man (Tom Happer) living in the crawlspace of their basement. Though they are initially alarmed, he seems harmless, and they take him under their wing. What seems to be a nice, if bizarre, solution for everyone becomes tense when Happer, tormented by locals, shows a potential for great violence.
In the late 1960’s Northern California was being terrorized by the actions of a serial killer. This murderer was not content with his brutal slayings, but taunted the communities with cryptic letters and ciphers. He demanded these codes be published and promised more horrifying violence if his wishes were not carried out. Serial killers were actually quite common during those years. 1968-1980 produced more confirmed serial killers than any other time in our nation’s history. Of course, most of them get caught. What makes the story of The Zodiac killer a far more interesting case is that he was never caught.
When warner Brothers decided to start their Raw Feed line of direct-to-DVD horror films, Daniel Myrick was brought in to Produce. The choice of Myrick was a no-brainer, as he (along with his partner Eduardo Sanchez), was the creative force behind the “Blair Witch” phenomenon. While the team Directed the first film, they served as Producers on the second. Admittedly, “Blair Witch 2″ was not as well received as its predecessor, but it was exactly the type of film that would be successful as a direct-to-DVD release.
Myrick Produced the first two Raw Feed releases (”Rest Stop” and “Sublime”, which both received high marks on this web site), and he has moved back into the directing chair with the third film in the series, “Believers”. Truth be told, this is really Myrick’s traditional Directorial debut, as the faux documentary style of “Blair Witch” was not a typical feature. I had high expectations for this film, but unfortunately, it looks like Myrick is better wearing the hat of a Producer than that of a Director.
How about a new review this morning? C’mon, it’ll be fun. I brought doughnuts and a crappy movie.. OK, OK I ate the doughnuts, but at least you didn’t have to sit through Stir of Echoes 2: The Homecoming. Rob Lowe stars in this “thriller” and, like his predecessor Kevin Bacon (from the first film if you didn’t catch that), he too can see dead people. At this point I’m wondering if they’re isn’t anyone who can’t see dead people anymore. Seriously, if you work in Hollywood and haven’t seen any dead people in one of your films, call your agent because apparently this bandwagon is still being pulled by that long dead horse. Anyway, this time around instead of a guy losing his mind digging up his yard and basement to solve a plaguing mystery, Lowe is a soldier who comes home (it’s in the title, get it), drinks alot of orange juice, listens to rap music, and drives to a dumpster. Interested???
Every two years, the Wo Shing Society, an ancient Triad, elects its chairman. The two candidates this year are Lok, an amiable, level-headed, managerial type, and Big D, a flashy hothead cut from the same cloth as Tybalt. Big D throws bribes and around in an effort to win, but to no avail. Refusing to accept defeat, he resorts to violence, threatening to tear the Society apart. The question is whether Lok is made of the necessary stuff to make good his victory.
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The Backwoods 
Lust, Caution 
The 6th Day (Blu-ray) ![The 6th Day [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-6th-day-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![A Clockwork Orange [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/a-clockwork-orange-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Unbreakable [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/unbreakable-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Run Lola Run (Blu-ray) ![Run Lola Run [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/run-lola-run-blu-ray-large.jpg)
The Sister of Ursula 
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