Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2008
In The Mist, Frank Darabont returns to familiar territory, directing another movie based on a short story by Stephen King. Darabont struck gold in 1994 with The Shawshank Redemption and then came close to, but did not equal, that magic with 1999's The Green Mile.
Is the third time a charm for Darabont working with King material? The answer is a resounding "yes".
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 28th, 2008
Tyler Perry burst on the scene in 2005 with Diary of a Mad Black Woman. It was one of the worst reviewed movies of the year, but when it raked in over $50 million dollars at the box office, Tyler Perry silenced critics and became a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood.
Before his movie-making career, Perry was already a huge success in the African-American community, having written several Christian and family oriented plays upon which many of his movies are based.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 27th, 2008
It has always been odd to me that for as popular as Bollywood films are in India, they really haven't made much of an impact here in the States. Films from other countries find their place here, but Indian works are pretty widely overlooked here. Maybe it has to do with the wide cultural differences. Maybe it is because so many Bollywood films rely heavily on the traditions of the American musical. Whatever the reason, no Indian films have really caught on here, and the same can be said of the beautiful and talented Indian actors and actresses.
The Namesake is a film that may finally have opened this part of the world up to Americans. Ironically, it has been done through the salesmanship of Kumar Patel himself, Kal Penn. Previews sold this film as a Kal Penn vehicle, wherein he confronted his painfully uncool parents and learned that they might not be so uncool after all. I was shocked when I discovered that this is not at all what the film is about.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 27th, 2008
From the Oscar ceremony, the only thing to speak of when it came to the quaint Irish charmer Once is that the girl was going to speak after the song "Falling Slowly" won the award for Best Original Song, and she was cut off, but she got a chance to thank everyone after the commercial, so points for trivia in case you stuck in there for that long (I know I didn't). For those who hadn't seen the film before that, they were certainly missing a slightly profound and moving experience.
Written and directed by John Carney, the film's lead characters are simply named "Guy" and "Girl". The guy is played by Glen Hansard, who is better known to some as singer for the Irish rock bank The Frames, and he and Carney were once bandmates in the early '90s. He's playing guitar on a street, making some additional money, when he runs into a woman who is curious by his playing. The woman, or "Girl" if you will, is played by Marketa Irglova, who wants to see him get what he wants, which is specifically a record deal in London. The guy takes her home to meet his Dad, who runs a vacuum cleaner repair shop, and she takes him home, to meet her mother and child. Her husband split awhile back. But the film is I think less about the relationship (although one could make the case of really really wanting to see one) and more about their creative similarities. She plays piano, and the two hit it off together creatively, and perform a song together that the guy had written early in the film. That creative synergy, and the feelings they share for it, speaks volumes for the rest of the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 27th, 2008
Imagine my surprise when I found out that the show Wildfire, aired exclusively on the ABC Family network on Monday nights, is coming up on its fourth season. So it makes me wonder, since ABC Family is a little long on episodes, if a show airs on a network that people barely watch (aside from the occasional Gilmore Girls repeat), does the show really exist?
Wildfire is not, as I first thought, a reality show surrounding professional wrestler Tommy Rich, nor is it a dramatic show about fighting brush blazes in California or Montana. It is the name of a racehorse. The horse finds a kindred spirit in Kris (Genevieve Cortese, Kids in America), who is on a work release program and is given parole to work at Raintree Ranch, owned by Jean Ritter (Nana Visitor, Star Trek Deep Space Nine). Jean's son Matt (Micah Alberti, American Pie Presents Band Camp) is becoming an accomplished trainer, perhaps better than the farm's head trainer Pablo (Greg Serano, In the Valley of Elah), but despite his feelings for Kris, he's become the trainer for a horse owned by Danielle Davis (Nicole Tubiola, Imaginary Heroes), in a family that Jean seems to run into conflicts with. The patriarch Ken (James Read, Legally Blonde) has tactics that seem a little bit seedy, and his son Junior (Ryan Sypek) wants to break free from his hold.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 27th, 2008
The Nines truly is a film that defies description, albeit in not an entirely new and convincing manner. For instance, I could tell you that I just got done eating a chicken sandwich after consuming several mojitos and a beer, and at least with that statement, you could tell what it is that I’ve done, you know? But to be fair, The Nines decides to take on some daring filmmaking and storytelling, and does it in a way that you can’t help but want to watch it again, even a little.
Written by John August, who had been notorious for penning such films like both Charlie’s Angels films and several Tim Burton outings, August directed it in his initial effort. The film is actually three parts, all slightly tied into one another, though in no linear fashion to speak of, and the main cast inhabits roles in all three parts. Part one finds Gary (Ryan Reynolds, Smokin’ Aces), a successful television actor, engaged in a drug-soaked frenzy that leads him to crash his car and go under house arrest; Margaret (Melissa McCarthy, Gilmore Girls) is his handler designed to keep him on the straight and narrow during this time. Gary finds Sarah (Hope Davis, About Schmidt), a neighbor next door as his connection to the outside world in more ways than he can anticipate. In part two, Reynolds is Gavin, an aspiring television show creator, Davis plays Susan, a network television producer, and McCarthy plays herself as the focus of the show. And in part three, Reynolds is Gabriel, a video game producer, McCarthy plays his wife Mary, while Elle Fanning (Déjà vu) plays their daughter. What, no Davis? That’s what you think! She plays Sierra, a woman who helps Gabriel try to find help for his family on a deserted mountain road.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 24th, 2008
A decade or so ago, Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca came to a theatre near you. It received a fair amount of critical acclaim, including a few award nods for production design and music, but wasn’t much of a commercial success. Beats me why not, because the film is right up there with the best in the science fiction genre, at least in my book.
Now on a Special Edition DVD from Sony Pictures, Gattaca has another shot at the mass popularity it deserves. But does the special disc treatment add anything to improve its chances?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2008
It seems like foodies are everywhere these days. Maybe Emeril is to blame, maybe it's Paula Dean, maybe it's the Food Network as a whole.I have even been sucked in my Anthony Bourdain myself (whose show is ironically also named No Reservations). Wherever there is a trend, there is guaranteed to be a romantic comedy to follow. Enter Aaron Eckhart and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Eckhart has been doing some fantastic work lately, from his work in Thank You for Smoking to lesser known films such as Conversations With Other Women, he is quickly becoming one of the best actors on the scene today.
I have no problems with romantic comedies whatsoever. The problem is that the vast majority of them are just the same film over and over again. A girl who is a cute mess is pursued by a surprisingly understanding man who loves her just the way she is, and the whole thing is wrapped up with some dialog that thinks it is much more clever than it actually is. In this case, the girl is a chef, and the man is her new sous chef. Sure, the not-so-clever is here just as you would expect, but in this film, the serious dialog is no good either. The film is filled with poor imitations of life in a kitchen, not to mention some amazingly bad acting. It is obvious that everybody here phoned it in, which leads me to ask the question of why anybody signed on to do this film at all. In doing some background research, I discovered that Catherine Zeta-Jones worked for exactly one day as a waitress in preparation for her role... as a chef. Believe me, it shows, in the way that an actor who spent one day playing guitar would be completely unconvincing as a musician.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 18th, 2008
Two couples, each with their own intimacy issues, set out to spice up their love life by attending a sex therapy seminar. After navigating through their problems for about forty minutes, they each settle on group sex to solve their problems, because that's always the best solution to everything, right?
The first couple is James and Heather (Culkin and Alexis Dziena). James is madly in love with Heather, but she can't have an orgasm when they have sex. That, my friend, is a problem. The second couple is Ellis and Renee (Kuno Becker and Dushku), who seek thrills to liven up their bored sex life. That, is a problem too... but not as bad as the first.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 17th, 2008
“Greed is Good.”
No other cinematic phrase described the 1980’s better. And no other movie captures the financial corruption of the 80’s better than Oliver Stone’s Wall Street.
![No Reservations (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/no-reservations-combo-hd-dvd-and-s-large.jpg)
