Going in, I really had no interest in Shall We Dance? When I was told I would be reviewing this, I knew right away that I would not like the movie. So, when I sat down this evening and watched the film, I actually did give it a chance and I am glad actually I did. I came out pleasantly surprised.
You may not be surprised to hear that this little seen pseudo-fantasy film by virtually unknown writer/director Joshua Michael Stern took 2 years to reach DVD, big deal, right, for a film no one’s heard of. On the other hand, it is quite surprising that this films stars Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Nolte, Brittany Murphy, William Hurt, Jessica Lange, and Alan Cumming, and those aren’t bit cameos either, that’s the actual cast of the film. How this film came together with that cast is a mystery to me and automatically raises a red flag that this is a film some of the cast wish never-was. But in the end, I found Neverwas to be a nice little film that could be worth you time.
A couple of years ago, I was out a trip to New Jersey on business with my boss. When we got there, he wasn’t feeling well, so I had him sit down while I went to the clinic down the hall to see if some medical attention could be given to him. As I turned the corner with an attendant, that’s when I saw him hit the floor. After a few moments of stabilization he was taken to the hospital, where it was determined that he had a stroke. A co-worker and I stayed with him for the duration of the next couple of days until his family could get there, and over that time, he suffered several smaller strokes in the process. One minute he could talk rather lucidly, and like flipping a switch his facial muscles would sag and be nonresponsive. Once his family came, we managed to get the chance to come home, and he spent several more days in the hospital, remarkably without any repercussions from this incident, and came back to work, where we still talk (I’ve moved to another company) and share the occasional gallow humor about what happened.
Let’s say we take one of the greatest (if not the greatest) female novelists of all time, and reduce her life into a romantic fluff piece aimed squarely at fans of modern chick-lit? We’d get something close to Becoming Jane. That may be a bit harsh for this light-hearted tale of a young Jane Austin. I wasn’t completely underwhelmed by the film, more like just *whelmed*. Fortunately, this Blu-ray Disc is a nice surprise otherwise with superior video transfer and a nice audio track to boot. So, all is not lost, you husbands of women who force such films upon you.
So what did we all learn with the Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest opus, an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel No Country For Old Men? Well, suffice to say, along with the creative resurgence of the brothers, we get a film that’s part modern-day Western, part action, part comedy and even perhaps part-horror, but in the adoration and adulation, to want to pin the film down as something is to forget that above all else, the film is a tale about changing times, told by someone who’s seen better days and is nostalgic for them. It’s that story that seems to be ignored to a certain degree by people, which oddly enough is ironic considering the title of the film.
Dorky romantic comedies have been around forever. Usually there is nothing I can’t stand more than some movie telling me how people fall in love when it never happens like that. Like a street walker falling in love with a rich guy or the nerd getting the cheerleader or a dozen people having sex with some girl named Jenna. (well maybe on the last one) Love is mystical and special but it rarely has any set pattern that makes sense. So what would happen when I watched a dorky little New Zealand romantic comedy that featured two people in animal costumes? Hopefully not the norm.
I have to say, in spite of having no knowledge on this films plot I have wanted to see it ever since it was released, mainly because it was filmed in my home town. Coming from a city in the middle of the prairies in Canada, this is about as close to Hollywood as we get. But other than hoping to recognize a few buildings I anticipate this film based on the praises I have heard for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels. Regardless, I look forward to being able to view this flick, how are the results?
In the advertisements we are promised a thrilling heist film. I’m happy to report that those promises were quite wrong. The heist is pretty lame and never keeps up with the many superior attempts. Honestly, we’ve had too many of these multiple twist heist films, culminating in the Ocean franchise which went two films too long. Instead, what we get here is something far better. The Lookout is a compelling character study brought off entirely by a sweet performance by the lead. Who would have believed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the dweeb kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun, had pretty nice acting chops?
Style over substance. Why is it so rare that we find quality in both at the same time? I suppose I might be showing my own age here, but Renaissance is an extremely hard film to watch. The high keyed image offers no middle tones at all. The result is a stark black and white that offers a strain on my eyes. I understand the idea was to recreate the experience of reading a graphic novel (that’s comic book to my generation). Still, I wasn’t reading a comic, was I? It took the French film crew 7 years to create this film.
As you might imagine, I am often asked for my opinion on the films I see. Inevitably I’m called upon to compare the film with some other work, which is at best quite unfair and at worst simply impossible to do. But I’ve gotten good at the game. So let us play it now. We’ll call Neverwas One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest meets Alice In Wonderland. Unfair, some might say, for they are actually the very same story. When you look at it carefully enough, they really are, although important differences do exist. My point i…
Peter O’Toole plays Maurice, an actor now reduced largely to playing corpses (or near corpses) and watching his days fade away in the company of his similarly elderly friends. Enter Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), the grand-niece of one of those cronies. Maurice is taken with her, and the story then takes a decidedly Pygmalion-esque turn as sullen young woman and ageing Lothario learn from each other.
And then there’s the question of sexuality, which divides audiences and critics (though…
The Queen is all about Helen Mirren’s performance. All of the buzz I heard leading up to the Oscars was about Mirren’s remarkable turn as the queen bee herself, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, and rightfully so.
The film presents an intimate perspective on the royal family during the week of Diana’s death. Despite her majesty’s very public persona, she is actually a very private person, bound to tradition. She’s at odds with new prime minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, Blood Diamond), who…
This documentary follows six seasons of the Roosevelt Roughriders girls’ basketball team. Initially, the focus was going to be the work of their unorthodox coach, economics teacher Bill Resler. What he did is interesting in and of itself, turning the team into a real force to be reckoned with. But then into this middle-class, largely white setting comes Darnellia Russell, inner city girl with inner city problems, and colossal talent. The film follows her integration into the team, and when p…
Chicago is an adaptation of the musical Chicago, which debuted in 1975, and has since become an iconic Broadway show. In addition to its success on the stage Chicago is an acclaimed film, which took away six Academy Awards at the 2002 showing, including Best Picture. I’ll admit I’m not one for musicals so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to watching this movie for the first time, but I went in with an unbiased mind and hoped for the best.
The Great Raid tells the story of one of the most triumphant rescue missions in U.S. military history. The mission at hand involves the necessary rescue of about 500 P.O.W.’s held at Canatuan. The U.S. is obviously worried about this group of P.O.W.’s since a previous 150 P.O.W.’s had been burned alive. Enter the talented, highly untrained and untested 6th Ranger Battalion, chosen to lead this mission. As they travel 30 miles behind enemy lines in hopes of saving these soldiers, the story of these men, and the…
What is it about a comedic film about death set in the English countryside that people have to equate it to Waking Ned Devine? Now granted, that film was a crowd pleaser and is a pleasure to watch, but let’s not stigmatize the films that have been released after it. Consider the case of Undertaking Betty, a film about a funeral director named (really) Boris Plots (Alfred Molina, Spider Man 2) who has known Betty (Brenda Blethyn, Beyond the Sea) for quite some time, but h…
Well with this particular incarnation of reality shows, beautiful people show us common folk how tough it is to look pretty. The wonders of being paid thousands of dollars to get up and dress in clothes that you won’t wear because they’re either ugly or too expensive. People like Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks trying to illustrate that fashion and glamour is tough, demanding work is simply silly. Now bear in mind, this point of view is from a bitter, bald and dumpy looking guy whose idea of fashion is m…
I love it when a DVD as advertised as a “hit series” on the back of the box, yet I have never even heard of it. Granted, I am not this product’s target market, but you would still think that I would have at least come across the title of this show somewhere. I am familiar with all of the products advertised on this disc, so I know I am not completely out of the loop.
This show tells the adventures of Lopaka, a boy who has made friends with a dolphin with the original (?) name of “Flipper”. It seems that Flipp…
This “best of” collection includes eight episodes from the only season produced of this incredibly strange program. The animation style is strictly classic wide-eyed Japanimation, but the poorly dubbed audio is as American as it gets. This is the most schizophrenic show I have ever seen. If you remember the “Matthew’s Best Hit TV” segment from Lost in Translation, then you have some idea of what I am talking about.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that this series is produced by Bob and Harvey Weins…
I’m still trying to figure out why no one wanted anything to do with this project. Among some of the names I read that were attached to this in some fashion or another were Sean Penn, Mike Myers, Johnny Depp and Nicole Kidman. After what seemed like an eternity, George Clooney (Ocean’s Eleven) decided to tackle the film as a first time director. The project seemed to roll from there, casting Sam Rockwell (Heist) as the lead, along with marquee names Drew Barrymore (Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle…
By David Annandale on October-4-2004 in
Disc Reviews
Synopsis
Michael Sheen plays Colin, a very ineffectual but well-meaning sort, who is obsessed bydarts and has a bored wife. When she takes off with the captain of Colin’s dart team, Colindecides to travel to Blackpool (“the Las Vegas of the North”) to win her back. He mounts hisscooter and heads off on a picaresque adventure, and each encounter he has along the way hasa transformative effect.
I confess, I had my reservations. The first act is set in what is rapidly becoming …
An orphan who learned to survive in the cauldron of the war-torn Balkans, Modesty Blaise(Alexandra Staden) now runs a casino in Tangiers for kingping Mr. Louche. But her boss iskilled, and armed men invade the casino, taking Modesty and fellow employees hostage.Modesty plays for time by engaging the leader of the gang (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in endlessrounds of roulette, with the prizes being the liberation of hostages versus the truth of herbackground.
Here are three cartoons that Paul McCartney backed and scored. They are all lovinglycrafted, even if they don’t always work at the narrative level. “Tropic Island Hum” and “Rupertand the Frog Song” are the weakest (though again, they look stunning). They are little more thanvisually lush excuses to set up underwhelming musical numbers (which tend to reinforce theimpression that McCarney is a creatively spent force in this department). The former apes thelook of classic musical shor…
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Shall We Dance (Blu-ray) ![Shall We Dance? [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/shall-we-dance-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Neverwas 
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly 
![Becoming Jane [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/becoming-jane-blu-ray-large.jpg)
No Country For Old Men 
![The Lookout [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-lookout-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Renaissance 
![Chicago [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/chicago-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Great Raid (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](http://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-great-raid-directors-cut-bl-large.jpg)
Best of Tokyo Pig, The 
