Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 28th, 2007
The only thing I knew about Extras as of a couple of weeks ago was that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant were behind the show, the follow-up to their cult hit The Office, which has been adapted into a Steve Carell vehicle to showcase his talent. Seeing very little on The Office and not being familiar with Gervais' work, I downloaded the first episode of the second season of Extras from iTunes (Season Two recently resumed airing on HBO), and I found it one of the funnier things I've seen in recent memory, and not just because it didn't cost me anything.
Gervais plays Andy, a background artist who has appeared in numerous films through the years, and with the company of his friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen, Ugly Betty) and his truly unprofessional agent (played by Merchant), who seems to always stay out of touch with Andy and gives his roles to other people.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2007
The Rock � sorry, Dwayne Johnson � sure has come a long way from his melodramatic days as a WWE superstar. His first major film role, as the Scorpion King in 2001�s The Mummy Returns was more about his physical presence than any acting ability. Two years later, he proved he could handle action comedy with The Rundown. Now, with Gridiron Giants, Johnson has added the drama notch to his genre belt.
The film, based on a true story and following a 1993 TV documentary of the same name, tells...the story of a group of juvenile criminals who learn how to turn their lives around through participation in a football team, coached by their detention center supervisor (Johnson).
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on January 24th, 2007
This CNET article wishfully prophecies that HD-DVD will surrender mid-year. This prognosis is based on the the fact that there's a 5:1 ratio of Blu-Ray to HD-DVD players in households - driven mainly by the PS3. Of course, the verdict is still out on whether the PS3 will ever get traction in the marketplace, so take that with a grain of salt.
Personally, I'm going to skip the next-gen physical media ratrace entirely and skip right to HD downloads via A...ple TV 2.0 or some homebrew setup.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 23rd, 2007
Wow. It�s already been over a year since hearing the endless �I can�t quit you� pander that many labeled Brokeback Mountain with. Sitting down to see this one for the 3rd time, I feared that the initial power the film had over me would be diminished. Such isn�t the case here as Brokeback Mountain is still the same excellent film it was over a year ago.
Brokeback Mountain tells the story of star-crossed lovers Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Kake Gyllenhaal). Both are young men, not even twenty, working in the year of 1963. They meet and fall in love on a sheep-herding job in Signal, Wyoming. The film chronicles the next 20 years of their lives from Ennis marrying Alma Beers (Michelle Williams) to Jack marrying Laureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway). The 20 years that the film takes place over show Ennis and Jack trying to lead a normal life without seeing each other, but shortly before realizing that they both have a deep connection to one another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 23rd, 2007
It�s hard to believe, but after six years and three movies, this fourth film proves the Scary Movie franchise is still good for a cheap laugh.
For those of you that have lived under a rock and aren�t familiar with the Scary Movie series, I will enlighten you. Some of the horror movies coming out these days are just begging to be parodied, and the comic brains of the Wayans brothers did so in 2000 with first instalment simply titled Scary Movie. This movie poked fun of then-recent movie... like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream, and as the movies went on they continued to make jokes of both new and old horrors alike. Scary Movie 4 doesn�t seem to add anything new to the mix in comparison to the previous three titles, but that�s just part of its charm � senseless humour poking fun at other movies. Finally, I must add that apart from re-rolling previous characters, none of the Wayans brothers had anything to do with the screenplay for Scary Movie 4, which ultimately left me unsure going into this movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 21st, 2007
For all the talk about a film being "just as relevant now as when it was released", Oh! What a Lovely War seems to fit that bill more than a lot of movies I've seen recently. From a screenplay by Len Deighton and directed by a first-time director (but longtime actor) in Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park), the film may be a daunting endeavor for some to see, probably because it's a film that's two and a half hours long and contains a lot of songs.
It also contains a lot of dialogue, and both the songs and dialogue were from the period. The world leaders that are involved during this time of crisis include President Poincaire (Ian Holm, Lord of the Rings), Count Leopold von Berchtold (Sir John Gielgud, Arthur), Emperor Franz Josef (Jack Hawkins, Bridge on the River Kwai), to name a few.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 21st, 2007
Back in late 2006 there was a minor to-do about a film depicting the last days of Jesus, except that Jesus was played by a black man. Written and directed by Jean-Claude La Marre, Color of the Cross tries to do what it can to tell the tale of this black Jesus, or be-jeezus if you will.
The film, like others covering the last two days of his life, follows Jesus as he performs the Last Supper, gets betrayed by Judas and the other stuff. While in town, many Jews are trying to celebrate Passover without being abused or persecuted by the Romans, so they celebrate in secret. In the meantime, what happens during a lot of other character thoughts is that they wonder about this so-called prophet, and because he's black AND jewish, whether that should diminish the message that he is trying to convey.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2007
Con movies are nothing new to Hollywood. Each has that character who thinks they�re on top of the world behind this bullet proof armor only to eventually realize that they�ve either been played or been watched the entire time. I suppose what makes con films work on the level they do is that these characters (admit it!) are all committing acts we�d love to even THINK about committing. The only problem is that we�re not even that badass of a person to even attempt it. Having never seen this film, I figured I�d get a fairly entertaining film with decent acting and an interesting enough plot. Boy was I mistaken about this one. Oscar awarded 1973 film The Sting has easily become my favorite con film.
Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) is a small-time con man from Joliet, Illinois. Hooker and his buddies Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) and Joe Erie (Jack Kehoe) steal $11K from a victim without the victim ever knowing. After this huge success, Luther tells Johnny that he wants to retire from this gig of crime so he can move to Kansas City, Missouri. He tells Hooker to seek out his old friend named Henry Gondroff.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 19th, 2007
The only thing I really knew about The Librarian was that Noah Wyle, previously known for his work in ER was playing in some goofy looking film, and the making of this film was getting in the way of whatever theatrical film I was watching from August-October. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was more than just a goofy little film, that it was the second in a presumed series, and hey, it's not all that much about a library at all!
Written by Marco Schnabel in his initial outing and directed by Number One himself, Jonathan Frakes, Wyle plays Flynn Carsen, an adventurous academic with 22 Ph. D's who works in a library that's maintained by Judson (Bob Newhart, Elf) and the accountant Charlene (Jane Curtin, Saturday Night Live). He goes to Africa to search for the secrets behind King Solomon, and encounters a myriad of intrigue that few are familiar with.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 19th, 2007
Back in 1979 (that's a whole generation ago, kids!) Matt Dillon was appearing in films that would make the average reader of Tiger Beat swoon. He was in plenty of material like Little Darlings, Rumble Fish and The Outsiders that didn't help that idea too much in the eyes of his female fans (of which there are scores). But since the early '80s, he's gone through a bit of a rediscovery, and in the film Factotum, based on the works of author Charles Bukowski, he may have hit his best stride to date.
In the film, Dillon plays Henry, a guy who takes many jobs and loses all of them rather quickly, but still finds enough time to drink while providing dramatic voiceover on his life as an aspiring writer he's always wanted to be. The stories he periodically sends to publishers to read without success is part of his life too. He meets Jan (Lili Taylor, Say Anything) who helps him in a time where he's lonely, but he leaves her and finds another woman in Laura (Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny). In Laura he thinks he's found love, but as it turns out, Laura is one of several barflys that a wealthy Frenchman houses and beds with great frequency. Of note, one of the women is played by Adrienne Shelly (Sleep With Me) in her last film role before her murder in late 2006. Anyway, side notes aside, Henry and Laura eventually split up, and in a stroke of luck, he manages to bump into Jan again, who helps to get him on his feet.
![Scary Movie 4 [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/scary-movie-4-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![The Sting [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-sting-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
