Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
Stanley Kubrick’s ultra famous epic Spartacus tells of the story of a man named Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) who decided to defy and lead an uprising against the Roman empire. Spartacus, naturally a slave, is beaten in early scenes for biting a guard’s leg after falling down. He is sentenced to death for this. Before his death, a man named Batiatus decided to train Spartacus as a fighting gladiator. As many now know, gladiators were trained for two reasons, the first being to fight to the death, and the second as ... sense of amusement for the upper classes. After Spartacus witnesses one of his friends die, he decides to unite all the slaves in the hopes of rebelling against the Roman Empire. As Spartacus and his men gain more notice, more slaves from around the country join him and his men for the fight against the Empire. As this happens, Spartacus, unexpectedly, falls in love with a girl named Varinia who is a slave girl.
Spartacus has numerous positives and few negatives. First up, the acting is top notch. Kirk Douglas is fabulous as the slave man rallying up men across the country for one goal. He delivers speeches with such ferociousness and intensity that, sometimes, I could have seen myself wanting to join the rebellion. Speaking of rebellion, this is one of the most important aspects of the film. The idea of rebellion, especially in the Roman times, most certainly ended in death for a majority of those who decided to rebel against their rulers. One can easily see how excellent of an actor Kirk Douglas was (we see this in the actor his son Michael Douglas has become). He has a sense of power and intelligence in every one of his scenes easily stealing the show. The supporting actors, particularly Laurence Olivier’s performance as Marcus Licinius Crassus is just as good. Olivier, probably famous for his various retellings of Shakespearean stories, is simply magnificent here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
With impressive urban dramas under his belt, John Singleton sets out to create another classic. Boyz n The Hood is always associated with this genre, in terms of quality it remains a classic drama. Four Brothers doesn’t attempt a serious get out of the hood type movie, but rather an action film with serious themes and tones. Well that’s not to say that there isn’t a laugh or two in here, because there sure is.
It’s a cold November night in Detroit; Evelyn Mercer enters a convenience store to ...ail an underage thief out of trouble. We learn that she is a compassionate elderly lady that sees the best in everyone. As she proceeds to pick out a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner two masked men enter the store, demanding money and making threats. They shoot and kill the cashier proceeding to the back of the store where they hear Evelyn rustling around. Without hesitation they take her life and flee from the store into the snowy night.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
I have to be honest. An HBO series about a fake reality series starring Lisa Kudrow hot-off-the-heels of Friends did not appeal to me as a worthy expenditure of time. And it does take a bit for the show to get started. However, as with other HBO comedies that deal in quirkiness and irritability (see Curb Your Enthusiasm), The Comeback – The Complete Only Season manages to press just the right amount of buttons to keep you watching. Now on DVD, and featuring all thirteen episodes, this show’s ...umor succeeds in its ability to create mock reality, which plays scarily like the real thing.
The strength of the show is on its realization that the best thing it has going for it is the negative relationship fun-loving Valerie (Kudrow) has with a hideous slug writer, who routinely goes out of his way to humiliate her. The dislike shown for Valerie fuels the show, and Kudrow’s ability to play off each new sign of disrespect with smiling cheer accentuates every positive this on-screen dynamic has to offer. It’s where the show truly creates its magic moments. Everything else comes off as filler for the main event.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
Synopsis
Bill Paxton is a polygamist. He and his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin) and their children live in three adjoined houses, and must constantly be careful not to let the secret of their lifestyle be revealed. That might be stress enough, but Paxton is having trouble keeping up on the sexual front, there is tension and competition between the wives (Tripplehorn is the alpha, Sevigny is manipulative and a shopaholic, Goodwin is insecure), and one of his fathe...s-in-law, the inimitable Harry Dean Stanton, is creating business hell for him as he opens up another hardware store.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
Synopsis
Michael Douglas is a familiar figures: The Hard-Bitten Cop Who Plays By His Own Rules. He is currently under investigation by Internal Affairs. When he and partner Andy Garcia witness a Yakuza killing and nab the killer, they are tasked with escorting him back to Japan. They have barely landed when they lose him, and are pared up with straight-arrow Osaka cop Ken Takakura in the search to track the villain down again. Douglas and Takakura, as expected, engage in considerable culture clashing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2006
Phat Girlz is one rotten piece of crap. I hate to say it that way, but some movies don’t deserve the flowery lambasting some more deserving bad films get from their critics. They should simply be called what they are. That’s why I equate this film with the “c” word. Mo’Nique stars as a plus-sized hypocrite, who seems to have the same prejudgments about “skinny bitches” as they seem to have about her – in the confines of the film, that is. Overweight people are given a saintly presence, while most everyone...– male or female – capable of squeezing into one airplane seat is portrayed with utter contempt.
And the jokes are the epitome of weak. One embarrassing moment in the film comes when Mo’Nique has one of the lamest word battles ever heard with a fry cook. The jokes written for her hapless adversary were in circulation around the first Thanksgiving, and I’m sure made it over on the Mayflower. Mo’Nique’s comebacks are designed to be uproariously better, a technique which might have worked were it not for the head-scratching lack of sense made on execution. We’re left to think, “Was that supposed to be funny?” Topping off this exercise in ridicule – as in ridiculous – is a story that sends eyeballs rolling immediately into their sockets. Mo’Nique and her shy plus-sized friend win a trip to a Caribbean resort, where they JUST SO HAPPEN to meet two buff Nigerian men, who JUST SO HAPPEN to like large women, and JUST SO HAPPEN to be successful doctors in their native land. The film’s efforts at fairy tale unwind quickly to the realms of absurdity, and never recover.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2006
Synopsis
Of all the Bond films and the various images and gadgets that have come from it through 20 films, the one that probably crystallized most of these images is Goldfinger. You have the awesome Aston Martin car with the ejector seat, machine guns, and the like. You had the female who could kick ass and had a really cool name in Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman, Bridget Jones’s Diary). And you had Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton, Ten Little Indians) experiencing the most creative death to...that point.
Posted in: 1.78:1 Widescreen, Box Set, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DVD, Paramount, Television by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
”My name is Melinda Gordon. I just got married, just moved to a small town, just opened up an antique shop. I might be just like you…except from the time that I was a little girl I knew that I could talk to the dead. ‘Earthbound spirits’, my Grandmother called them. The ones who’ve not crossed over because they have unfinished business with the living, and they come to me for help. To tell you my story, I have to tell you theirs.”
So goes the opening for each episode of this first season of Ghost Whisperer, a series that blends drama, horror and comedy to carry its audience to an emotional place. I can imagine a lot of viewers crying at some point or another during almost every episode, which is a credit to the show’s makers, but they’re aided by the fact that their show deals so much with death, life, love and grief.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
With all that’s been going on with Tom Cruise as of late, I found myself doubting the integrity of this picture. I was fearful that the happenings of Cruise’s personal life would somehow bring down this movie; the previous two films did set the bar pretty high. So how did the third installment add up, did it fall short of expectations, or did it deliver beyond what I expected?
MI:III doesn’t hesitate a minute to bring us suspense, the picture begins with Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) having Et...an Hunt and a woman (whom appears to mean a lot to him) captive. He means business; she is going to die unless Ethan can come up with something called the rabbit’s foot. The scene closes, and we roll back to the previous week when nothing is amiss.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
OK, let's just get this out of the way at the start. Hellbent is a film from a cable network called Here!, which is America's foremost gay and lesbian television network. Consequently, this made-for-TV film is based solely around homosexual couples, as is all of the programming on the network. They make all manner of programming, including feature films, that deal primarily with homosexuality.
Now, here is my complaint. If you want to make programming that has homosexuals in it, I'm fine with that. But when the main focus of your programming business is promoting a certain belief or lifestyle, the stories will inevitably suffer. Every part of the film should serve the story. For those who think I am homophobic, I would say the same thing about movies that are made primarily to promote religion, victims rights, heterosexuality or any other number of beliefs. It has nothing to do with the beliefs or lifestyles themselves, it is the fact that promoting an outside belief moves the film from “interesting story” to “propaganda film”.
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