Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 6th, 2006
Synopsis
Tómas Lemarquis plays Nói, a 17-year-old living in a tiny, frigid, massively isolated town in Iceland. He is brilliant, but refuses to be so, and many people in the town think he isn’t all there. He sleeps through school (when he bothers to show up), deals with his useless alcoholic father, and dreams of being somewhere else. When he meets a young woman who turns out to be a kindred spirit, his desire to escape is further enflamed. The odds, however, are stacked against him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 5th, 2006
It is exceedingly strange to me that in this unprecedented age of media availability, movies on demand and theaters in our very own homes, more and more men have not seen those movies that were a staple of manhood for so many years. Movies like Bullitt, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and even The Godfather are less and less familiar to male audiences than ever. There is a reason that these films were so popular amongst men. They are movies about tough guys who weren't afraid to rearrange some fac...s to get the job done. Heavy drinking and hard living men. With more and more of these films being released in Special Edition DVD packages, this is a prime time to see these films, and reacquaint yourself with your male heritage. For the women that may be reading this, I'll just tell you now, you might as well stop reading. This is not a film for you.
The Dirty Dozen is a film filled with true tough guys. Lee Marvin. Telly Savalas. Jim Brown... Charles Bronson, for goodness sake! The biggest tough guys in the movies these days are Vin Diesel, Bruce Willis and The Rock. Willis is cut from the old mold, but he is truly the last of his breed. Somewhere along the way, Hollywood turned its back on the man's man. I feel that the male population in this country is the worse for it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 4th, 2006
Synopsis
Everything I know about Jim Brickman could fit into a couple hundred word review about a concert performance he put on at the Walt Disney World resort. But upon further review, Brickman has been reaching out to the older generation for a few years now, producing collaborations and appearing at high profile events to bring recognition to his work.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 4th, 2006
Before it became a somewhat famous regional barbecue house (I kid, I kid!) red, hot and blue was another name for the Red Hot Organization, a group designed to help fight the AIDS epidemic. Back in the early and mid '90s kids, AIDS was raging on through the land, and Ronald Reagan did nothing to stop it. In fact, he was injecting homosexuals with AIDS while delivering crack into the ghetto.
Liberal accusations aside, this republican does acknowledge that AIDS is a terrible disease and we have lost a lot of people (talented or otherwise) to it, and the efforts made by various communities have been admirable. The Red Hot Organization was another in a group of musicians and artists that wanted to do something about research and awareness. The unique slant on their entertainment message was to have various artists of the time cover some old Cole Porter songs (Porter was a well-known homosexual composer whose life Kevin Kline depicted in the film De-Lovely). Not that unique you say? Well, the artists also did some videos directed by some famous (or at least recognizable) directing names, which is where we come in. The videos (and a remastered CD of the songs from the "Red Hot + Blue" album) have been released for everyone to relive again.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 4th, 2006
A long time ago, Sony owned the MGM video library (before Fox picked it up for impending HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Wars) and re-released some films as Special Editions, and combined others as part of convenient two-packs. This is an example of the latter, perhaps as some sort of romantic two-pack that's easy on the wallet but heavy on the heart.
At First Sight is directed by Irwin Winkler (Night and the City) and tells the tale of Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer, Real Genius) who has been blind all of his life. He is able to get an operation that would restore his eyesight, and at the urging of his girlfriend Amy (Mira Sirvino, The Final Cut), has the operation, before finding out that it's not permanent, so he tries to live his life however he can before he loses his vision.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 4th, 2006
Synopsis
Henry Fonda plays Colin Spence, a diffident, self-effacing Canadian (but of course!) corporal in the British infantry based in Tunisia. Led by the crusty but supremely competent Sergeant Kelly (Irish of course), Spence’s squad is sent out on a recon mission that goes badly awry, and the men are forced to engage in a terrible trek across the burning desert. Spence is forced to assume a leadership role, and along the way has flashbacks to his relationship with Maureen O’Hara, and how his unwil...ingness to take a risk or fight might have wrecked his chances with her.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 4th, 2006
In Wayne Kramer's latest film, Paul Walker stars as Joey Gazelle, a man who seems to be a part of the mob and has a ten year old son named Nick. The film then zooms back to 18 hrs earlier where Joey and his Perello boys are ambushed and are nearly killed. Turns out these men who they just killed are big time cops. Joey is told to get rid of the murder weapons, which seems to be his main goal in this mob group. Instead, as we soon learn, Joey never does this instead he hides the weapons. Unfortunately for Joey, Nick a...d his friend Oleg see Joey put away one of the guns and, well, all hell breaks loose after this as Oleg steals the gun and uses it to shoot his abusive stepfather. Apparently. Oleg's stepfather was connected to the Russian mob. Convenient no?
Joey and his wife seem to be in a love-hate relationship where his wife seems to hate what he does for a living. All Joey wants to do is simply provide for his family which Director Wayne Kramer (The Cooler) shows us with a sly direction. Kramer presents Joey as a family type of man who, possibly, had a rough beginning to his life and only wants to provide the best he can for his son and wife. Joey must go on a non-stop chase searching for this gun otherwise Joey can kiss his life good bye as he so often tells us.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 2nd, 2006
Synopsis
Emmanuel Xuereb plays Gabe, a man whose dying wife has left him for his best friend. (The psychiatric term for this situation is “bummer.”) His mourning takes the form of attempting to seduce women he doesn’t know, and he beings a relationship with Irene (Charis Michelsen), married but bored with her unimaginative husband. Irene is initially thrown when it turns out that Gabe is breaking into the homes where their encounters occur, but soon she is a willing participant in this game.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on June 2nd, 2006
HBO Home Video will release the Complete Sixth Season of OZ on September 5th. This 3-disc set will inclued all 8 season three episodes presented in 1.33:1 Fullscreen along with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Extras will include three episode specific audio commentaries (with series creator Tom Fontana and members of the cast), original cast audition tapes, 30-minutes of deleted scenes and an extended cut of the series finale: Exeunt Omnes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 1st, 2006
Follow Doogal and friends as they try to save their lush green world from the clutches of the evil jack-in-the-box Zeebad (Jon Stewart) in this CGI family film that completely misses the mark. Though G-Rated - and obviously of inferior intellect - the film tries to be witty and smart with a ton of stale pop culture references its target audience will not come close to grasping. Sure, the adults will get them, but once they do, the question becomes, what do we do with them? Another "Can't Touch This" MC Hammer referen...e? "Wax-on, wax-off" - Karate Kid anyone? "My name is Neo" - did we need another reference to a trilogy where only one of the films was even remotely worth watching? This tripe is the kind of family fare that makes adults cringe in their boots at the thought of having to sit even 77 torturous minutes with these bloated celebrities trying to be funny under the guise of silly looking animals that aren't even that cute.
If I had to find a strong point, I would say Judi Dench's narration is about all the film has going for it. Back to the bad - Kevin Smith's moose character hardly says anything throughout the course of the film, but he does offer up the number of expected fart jokes with his overenthusiastic gastro-intestinal behavior. While Doogal, the long-haired puppy dog intent on saving his master Florence (Kylie Monogue) from the ice block prison created by Zeebad, is a cute little creation, the child star providing his vocals completely ruins any endearing qualities by the mere movement of his lips. This film is truly abysmal. I can't imagine anyone liking it for two reasons: 1) It tries to outsmart its target audience. 2) It does so by antiquated pop culture references, which will completely turn off the only demographic it has left to please. Avoid at all costs.
