Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2007
To watch a good movie you must have the right equipment. A nice sound processor connected to kicking speakers are an absolute must. Add a 200 Watt 17 inch powered sub and you've increased the experience ten fold. Wrap it all up with a sweet DLP HD monitor and you now have everything you need - except of course a good movie. Trust The Man is everything but. All you need here is a good supply of insulin and an IV drip to keep you from lapsing into a sugar coma. I'm not talking peanut butter cup melts in your mouth sweet. I'm talking pure concentrated syrup makes you want to hurl sweet.
"A Fart is just as good as a burp". This is the kind of wit and wisdom you can expect from Trust The Man. The film didn't do very well in its very short theatrical run, and I expect it to fail just as miserably on DVD. The film is an obvious Woody Allen ripoff. The entire concept is the uneven relationship between two related couples and their various romantic problems. The problem is the film never goes anywhere. All we really know is that Rebecca (Moore) is a washed up actress who apparently doesn't find her husband Tom (Duchovny) exciting any longer. Tom is basically looking for action and talks way too much about his bodily functions. As a long time X-Files fan I love Duchovny, but this is pitiful stuff. To further complicate this drivel, we find that Rebecca's brother Tobey (Crudup) is having commitment troubles with his 7 year girlfriend Elaine (Gyllenhaal) That's all, folks. We suffer through endless moments of pure dialogue that never goes anywhere. The ending is the most contrived nonsense I've seen in some time. Basically this movie goes nowhere, and very slowly. Like a nagging toothache, this film is quite painful. Fortunately, relief won't require a visit to your dentist. My discomfort faded wonderfully with the end credits.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 8th, 2007
Synopsis
This documentary follows six seasons of the Roosevelt Roughriders girls’ basketball team. Initially, the focus was going to be the work of their unorthodox coach, economics teacher Bill Resler. What he did is interesting in and of itself, turning the team into a real force to be reckoned with. But then into this middle-class, largely white setting comes Darnellia Russell, inner city girl with inner city problems, and colossal talent. The film follows her integration into the team, and when p...egnancy forces her to leave the team for a season, the story becomes her legal battle against the basketball association to be allowed to rejoin. There may be a few too many subjects here for any of them to be fully dealt with, but the result is undeniably compelling viewing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 6th, 2007
The lines between news and entertainment, documentary and fiction continue to fade every day. It's a dangerous trend, as people have begun to believe the fiction, and ignore the facts. This film seems to make that line disappear altogether. The movie is based on a bestselling book of the same name, written by Eric Schlosser. The book is a fascinating investigation of the fast food and meat packing industries in the United States that has really shed some light on this often-overlooked dark secret of the dining indust...y.
While the book was a fantastic expose of the problems that exist, the movie is something else entirely. When I heard they were making a fiction film about a non-fiction book, I wondered how they were going to do it. Turns out, the writers have constructed a thinly-veiled interpretation of the author's own book research. Greg Kinnear leads an all-star cast (including Wilmer Valderrama, Luis Guzman, Bruce Willis, Patricia Arquette and others), playing an executive from a fast food chain who is sent to investigate the company's chief meat supplier and find out how feces has gotten into the meat. Meanwhile, we also get to see the story of a group of migrant workers as they work in the plant (Babel style).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 5th, 2007
Synopsis
All That Could Have Been (Nine Inch Nails’ first concert dvd) when released in 2002 was recognized by many to be the ultimate concert dvd. Released in separate dts and dolby digital versions; it had an amazing sound and look. The only knock against the disc was the fact that it took two dvds to show a two hour show. Technology has improved. Cue to 2007, Nine Inch Nails fresh off their tour to promote With Teeth decides to release Beside You in Time (Halo 22). This new co...cert dvd features 24 songs in brilliant dts and dolby digital 5.1 and extras galore. All in one disc; is this the best NIN dvd ever or a compression nightmare?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2007
On its surface, Coastlines is a modestly produced film that was written and directed by Victor Nunez (Ulee's Gold), telling the story about a guy who was just released from prison for dealing drugs, but bites the prison bullet for the favor of a friend. He comes out and is looking for the financial windfall promised him, but also tries to get back in touch with his roots. On a deeper level, Coastlines, well, doesn't go that much deeper I guess.
The ex-con in question is Sonny (Timothy Olyphant, Deadwood), who quickly reunites with the criminal element of his past in Eddie and Fred Vance (played by Josh Lucas, Hulk, and William Forsythe, The Rock, respectively), who also give him the opportunity to get back into business for himself. He finds a bit of a conflict in this, because he is close friends with Dave (Josh Brolin, Into the Blue), who happens to be a Sheriff in town. Sonny also has feelings for Dave's wife Ann (Sarah Wynter, Species II).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2007
If you want another reason to hate George Lucas, it's that James Bond film producer Albert Broccoli decided to fast track the production of Moonraker ahead of For Your Eyes Only to capitalize on the proverbial Star Wars effect that was occurring through box offices worldwide. However in this one, written by Christopher Wood, who wrote the epic film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and directed by Lewis Gilbert (who had just done The Spy Who Loved Me), Roger Moore rides a shuttle into space and takes the dynamic of the film with it.
In this Bond film, Moore's 4th and the franchise's 11th, James tries to find out who is terrorizing the planet using a soon to be astronaut vehicle called the space shuttle and a space station to do it. So James gets a chance to test out the means of NASA, but not before going through the spacious locales of Rio de Janiero and France, eluding the harm and capture of Jaws (Richard Kiel, Billy Madison), who reprised his role from The Spy Who Loved Me due to popular demand. The villain in this film is Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale, Munich), who may be soft-spoken, but his plans to mass murder the population are far from rational.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2007
Poor Roger Moore. He does get a bit of a bum rap when it comes to James Bond movies, but I think that in terms of the character, he actually fits the jacket, Walther PPK and shaken martinis fairly well, but the problem for his work was that it faced a lot of new technology, and thus was subjected to a lot of ridicule as a result. New things like walking in space and the computer revolution were given a tongue in cheek look, and in between this and the visual effects simply not catching up to the imaginations, then sure, some of the films look and feel a bit silly.
Take the case of A View to a Kill. The film was Moore's seventh (and last) as Bond, and he already had one foot out the door when he made Octopussy. But in this one, Moore may have stuck around a little too long. By my math, he was approaching 60 at the time the film was released to theaters, and seeing him with a Bond girl like Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts, Sheena) really wasn't all that believable anymore. The story itself surrounded a microchip that was purchased by a fanatic named Max Zorin (Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter), who apparently was genetically enhanced somehow or was a descendant of a elite German during World War II.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 2nd, 2007
As a relatively topical fan of the James Bond franchise (though not so topical that I'd buy all of the films on DVD), I had a cursory knowledge of the actors who played Bond and the times that they had been cast. Little did I know however that by the time Roger Moore had signed onto the role in Live and Let Die that this was the third attempt to bring him aboard, and that maybe producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli were hoping that the third attempt brought the proverbial charm. Moore had been approached for the role as early as the Dr. No days, but was in the midst of doing The Saint television show, and Connery was chosen. Connery left and the opportunity came to Moore again, however he was not available and George Lazenby came on to do On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He left, Connery did one more and then finally, Moore was available to take the reigns.
And he came aboard to a Bond film that is probably his best and one of the best Bond films in the franchise. In Live and Let Die, James has to go to America (and subsequently, the Caribbean) to research the deaths of several British agents. He goes into Harlem to try and find out the whereabouts and criminal motivations of a mysterious boss named Mr. Big, and eventually makes his way to a fictional island called San Monique, where a United Nations delegate named Kananga (Yaphet Kotto, Homicide: Life on the Street) is waiting for his arrival, and using the results from a tarot card reader named Solitaire (a very young Jane Seymour, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), he plans for the demise of Bond.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 2nd, 2007
I don't mean for this to be a joke, but when Paul Mooney recently said that he was glad that Hispanics got their (and I'm paraphrasing here) "African-American wake up call" in the midst of the illegal immigration debate of 2006, the problem wasn't whether or not the Hispanics were being treated fairly or not. The problem was that this discussion has been going on in some manner or fashion for almost four decades now without a large-scale epiphany that required action. However back in 1968, there was some action (which led to the coordinated efforts of students to walk out of their classes in Los Angeles High schools as a protest of the conditions there), and Walkout helps to tell the tale.
In this film that was directed by Edward James Olmos (Miami Vice) and produced by Moctesuma Esparza (who was one of the organizers of the protest), the film details the activities of Paula Crisostomo (Alexa Vega, Spy Kids) who is a pretty good achiever in school who hangs out with friends like Bobby (Efren Ramirez, Napoleon Dynamite). She has an influential teacher in Sal Castro (Michael Pena, World Trade Center) who helps inspire her to take action. When latino kids are punished for speaking Spanish in class, they are disciplined for it and the manner it's done is offensive. When latino kids are forbidden to use bathrooms during lunch because the inside of school is locked, they're forced to urinate outside in the courtyard. And even as she sees these things, she's dissuaded by her father Panfilo (Yancey Arias, Live Free or Die Hard). However in an era where Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King are touchstones for action, Paula thinks the same thing should be done, lawfully, to protest the conditions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2007
A small town is being terrorized by a gang of thugs who use extortion and violence to buy up all the businesses. The only person who tries to stand up to the gang is the sheriff, but then he meets a violent end. His son (Kevin Sorbo), who, one gathers from vague references, has military training, shucks his apathy, dons his father’s badge, and sets out to clean up the town.
The cover art is hilariously misleading, in that it shows what appears to be Sorbo leading his posse for the titular payback. But those folks behind him are actually the villains. Whatever. At any rate, this follow-up to the remake starring The Rock is mildly entertaining, but no more. Sorbo has little of Dwayne Johnson’s screen presence or sense of humour, and the storyline is utterly by-the-numbers. So routine is it, that the lack of action set-pieces really makes itself felt. On the upside, AJ Buckley is so completely unpleasant as the primary villain that he kicks the film to a semblance of life.
