Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2007
Although I was never really motivated to check this movie out on my own, I had just recently heard of it and thought it could be fun. It doesn’t have any A list stars in it, but rather has a nice collection of well enough known actors and actresses including Zooey Deschanel, Michael Rappaport, Aaron Stanford, and Paul Schneider. Already I’ve heard this film to be a cross between Bottle Rocket and Fargo, well I don’t know if those statements have any warrant, I can only hope they do and Live Free or Die turns out to be a hit. Writers Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin did some writing on Seinfeld so I can only hope a bit of that can rub off on this one.
Simply put John “Rugged†Rudgate (Aaron Stanford, The Hills Have Eyes) is a wankster, a small time crook who has aspirations of being a gangster. He spends most of his day selling speakers on the street that is until his old buddy Jeff Lagrand (Paul Schneider, The Family Stone) comes back to town. Jeff and his sister Cheryl (Zooey Deschanel, Elf) have inherited a storage facility from their deceased father, but John sees this as an opportunity for criminal endeavors. But close on his tail is the emotionally unstable cop Putney (Michael Rappaport, The War at Home), who is very determined to bring John down.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2007
With a cast that includes several well known actors, I couldn't believe that I hadn't heard of this movie prior to reviewing it. This really didn't worry me however, because in the past I’ve always enjoyed low budget Indy films. So how does Played stack up?
Played dissects the lives of players in the London underground ring of crime, from the hustlers to the crooked cops. After an elaborate heist goes all wrong small time thief Ray Burns takes the fall and is sentenced to eight years in prison. He keeps his mouth shut and does his time with only one thing on his mind, revenge. As he hits the streets he finds out that the scam goes above and beyond what he expected and the true players become revealed. At certain points it seems like everyone is playing everyone and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2007
Some of you may know John Grisham as a politician or an attorney but that’s not very likely. Like me you probably know him as an author of some of the best legal/crime fiction novels. His works have made their way to the big screen several times including; The Firm, Runaway Jury, A Time To Kill, The Client, and of course The Rainmaker. Although it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen any of the aforementioned films I do remember them all being rather good, I just hope The Rainmaker can live up to what I remember.
Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon, The Bourne Identity) has recently graduated from the University of Memphis Law School, but can’t nail a well paying job. Eventually he resorts to something that goes against his principles and becomes an associate to J. Lyman “Bruiser†Stone (Mickey Rourke, Sin City), a cutthroat and successful ambulance chaser. On the brink of bankruptcy things aren’t looking very promising for Rudy, especially once his employer’s office is raided by the FBI. Nonetheless Rudy decides to stay on a case he had just accepted and enlists the help of associate Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito, Twins). Although Deck has failed his bar exam multiple times he has experience working with insurance companies and excels at information gathering.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 24th, 2007
The latest in Lionsgate's line of movies about nice black people (see Daddy's Little Girls and Akeelah and the Bee), Pride presents a well-tread story with a few tweaks.
Its formula is the sports team underdog winning against all odds. The sport is swimming, which I don't think we've seen much of in the past. All of the usual players are here, though: the frustrated coach inspired to lead, the unlikely athletes who are too poor and too black to succeed, the rival team too rich and too white to be beaten, the crusty old guy who helps out and the token love interest for our protagonist coach.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 23rd, 2007
I did a couple of high school musicals growing up. South Pacific and Oklahoma. South Pacific I remembered much more fondly as sometimes I wanted to wash that man right outta my hair. Wait...umm...*taps fingers* *pause*. Oh, right, musicals. High School Musical was a low-budget Disney tv movie that would end up becoming one of Disney's best successes in recent memory. It was only natural that due to its musical nature and teen fanbase that it would expand into a national tour that would encompass 51 dates over 6 months. The DVD is kinda cool in the sense that the show they used is footage from the December 18th performance in Houston, Tx at the Toyota Center since I happen to live in the Metro area. For those living here, it's easy to tell that it is the Toyota Center from it's sky boxes (and also the fact they mention it about half a dozen times). No I did not go. Let's just make that perfectly clear. I think I had to wash my hair that night. *more taping*
I could sit here and pan the dvd for being hokey and being nauseating. However, in all reality; it's not that bad if you go in expecting something that will appeal only to it's fan base. I mean if I am a fan of High School Musical, this concert dvd is going to be great; first of all I get a whole 57 minutes of material. All the familiar songs are here from the movie and wait, 57 minutes? The shows usually ran 2 1/2 hours. Sure there is an intermission or two and you have to count the opening act, but the edits are obvious and it feels like a best of. High School Musical can not do a best of until they get at least two cds worth of material. Like Hilary Duff or Brittany Spears. The good thing about the concert is that they do have most of the original cast minus Zac Efron who went to go work on Hairspray (he liked standing in the shadows of a very big and scary John Travolta). It just feels like they rushed the dvd a bit in the editing process so that they could sell a few hundred thousand copies to the fanbase and say cha-ching.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 21st, 2007
Synopsis
Honestly, the only thing that I remembered from watching For Your Eyes Only was that Sheena Easton sang the title song (qualifying her as probably the most attractive Scotsperson out there) and that there was a sprawling chase scene involving Roger Moore on skis that was cool. But that’s it. And now that I’m wrapping up this long winding once over for all the James Bond Ultimate Edition DVDs and I get a chance to see everything again, it turns out that this film is a pretty good one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 20th, 2007
Jim Carrey is an animal control officer whose wife (Virginia Madsen) gives him an odd crime novel for his birthday. The book is narrated by a police detective who becomes violently obsessed with the recurrence of the number 23 in all aspects of life. The book has plenty of strange similarities with Carrey's life, and he becomes consumed with finding the author and knowing what it's all about, not to mention descending into the 23 obsession himself.As with so many Joel Schumacher films, there is less here than meets the eye. The film is pretty, slick, and superficially interesting, but ultimately rather empty. The whole 23 thing has been kicking around in popular culture for a while, and there is something neat that could be done with it, but most of the notions of mystery or conspiracy evaporate as the film reaches its climax, and everything disintegrates into a muddle of endless expository voice-over and platitudinous moralizing. The unrated version of the film runs three minutes longer than the theatrical version (also present).
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 20th, 2007
While expecting her husband home from a business trip, Sandra Bullock receives word that he has died. But the next morning, when she wakes up, he is still alive, and hasn't even left yet on the trip. Next morning, he's dead again, and it's the day of the funeral. Understandably, our poor heroine is a might discombobluated as she deals with having become unmoored in time, struggling to save her sanity, her husband, and her marriage.This film was thoroughly trashed at the time of its theatrical release, and there are, it must be said, plenty of things wrong with it. Some temporal elements are inconsistent as the days move around (why, for instance, does Bullock's older daughter not show, on the day the news of the husband's death is received, the facial injuries that she received a few days prior?), the pace flags after a fairly taut first half-hour, a theme of incarceration mysteriously disappears, and the explanation for why this is all happening is weak, not to mention that the purpose for it all is rather pointless. So yeah, all of that is wrong. As a supernatural thriller, the film doesn't work. But as an old fashioned weepy melodrama, it has a certain daffy power. Bullock gets to chew up the scenery in some wonderfully OTT moments of Grand Guignol soap opera. The film also stays true to the weepie form with its heroic/tragic conclusion. As a piece of whacked entertainment, engaging in no small part because of all the things it does wrong, but also because it takes itself so seriously and plays the emotional heartstings for all they're worth, this isn't on part with such classic weepies as Now, Voyager, Stella Dallas or Mildred Pierce, but it could hold its head up alongside the likes of The Other Side of Midnight.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 17th, 2007
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. I wouldn't have minded waiting longer. The concept isn’t even an original one at all. Sin City and the more recent 300 both utilized a graphic novel style. In those films there was a balance between the style and being careful to allow for a cinematic experience as well. Both of those films carried it off perfectly. Not so with Renaissance. There were no compromises made to make the film work as a film.
The story is also quite convoluted. This was a mistake, particularly when the images themselves would be such a distraction. The tale actually feels like a science fictional James Bond. That idea is further enhanced by casting the voice of Daniel Craig in the lead. The character of Karas even looks, likely intentionally, like an early Sean Connery. It seems that a kidnapped geneticist holds the key to immortality. Officer Karas becomes obsessed with finding her with little apparent support from his superiors. In the end he must make a rather difficult moral decision. Throughout the film we are treated to bizarre characters that often have little to do with the plot. Again, it’s style supplanting substance. Too much “see what we can do” with very little good ever getting done. I will admit that some of the locations are drawn brilliantly and often work better than the live action later animated work.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 17th, 2007
Mars has always held a certain fascination with us mostly earthbound humans. What child has never looked to the heavens at night, mind filled with more questions than they could ever hope to find answers for? If you are one of these star crossed dreamers, Roving Mars be a thrilling journey indeed. I’m sorry to say that I missed the Roving Mars IMAX experience. I’m sure it was available at one of the several IMAX facilities here in Tampa. Life, as usual, is often too busy to get to everything I want to see. As I wat...hed this DVD I found myself wishing I’d taken the time to see it at our local domed IMAX at MOSI.
We begin our exploration in a familiar enough place, here on Earth. The environs, however, are not so commonplace. The people and the facilities at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab have a decidedly science fiction appearance to them. Here in clean rooms gather scientists in garb intended to keep them from contaminating the delicate equipment that is assembled here. Here over 4,000 people dream, design, and assemble. The result is a culmination of decades of technological work and over a millennium of imagination. We are treated to an intimate look behind the scenes as these incredible rovers are created. Interviews with crucial team members give us the failures as well as the success stories. Through trial and error every minute facet of this machine had to be built, tested, and more often than not, redesigned. Then the cycle begins anew. The time spent here might test our patience a tad. Still, it is important to understand the rover itself before we can appreciate the mission that we’re waiting to witness.
