Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006
I will be honest and inform you that I have yet to like a video game based film since 1995’s Mortal Kombat. It seems that no matter how closely they try to follow the story based on the game, the director always fails. One of the more famous director’s in the video-game to movie based series is director Uwe Boll, who has brought us The House of the Dead and the recent Bloodrayne, These movies, as the popular consensus agrees, were extremely awful. They lacked anything redeeming, despite the orig...nal source material being pretty good. When I heard of a film being made on the game series Doom, I began to worry as I figured it would follow the typical trend of terrible video-game based movies. Can Doom reverse the horrible trend of terrible video-game based movies? Read on to find out
Doom begins with a fly in shot over the red planet Mars. We move in more and see the Olduvai Research Station, which is a remote scientific facility on Mars. And that is the last scene we see of the planet Mars. For a movie based on a game that takes place on the red planet Mars, we never fully see the planet except for the opening scene. Maybe this is me wanting what I saw in the game series. But every film director has to take a few creative liberties right? Well, I am very disappointed to report to that director Andrzej Bartkowiak and Universal seem to have taken a few too many creative liberties when making this film as the film is nothing like the game at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006
Synopsis
Disney has released a DVD that appears to be part of a compilation, and provided some karaoke subtitles and marketing it as a sing-along entitled “You Can Fly”. With animated (but dated) introductions by Disney characters, the songs featured are from such films as Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and Dumbo.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 1st, 2006
The opening titles of this film are a bit misleading. The font is a colorful, comical display played against animation more suitable for the opening of a Pink Panther film. Instead of a comedy, we are presented with a film likely to appeal to a very limited audience. To the film’s credit, it doesn’t abandon the themes and style it intends to portray in an effort to gain more mass appeal.
Antonio is a young man living in Mexico. His dreams are filled with playing music. Like most young ambitious music...ans he longs for the “big time”. When his mother dies, Antonio travels to America where his uncle has painted a picture of a golden field of dreams which turn out to be a rundown taco stand. We’re not really told if the move to America was under legal circumstances or not. Still, Antonio uses every spare moment to capture his musical career. The chance comes in a Latino band competition. The prize is $10,000 and a chance to perform with a big “mystery musician”. Suddenly we have a film with an abundance of clichés. Throw into the mix a mistaken romantic triangle and the stage is complete. It’s no real surprise how any of this turns out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006
If you aren’t familiar with what Roll Bounce is, you will be pleasantly surprised by some of the tricks this small coming-of-age film pulls out of its hat. I expected horrendous acting, a poorly written script, and a story that cared more about racially motivated laughs than honesty. What I got was just the opposite. First of all, the film’s success begins and ends with a top-drawer screenplay that perfectly captures teen angst as well as the fears and traumas of growing up. Not something one would expect abou... a young boy and his wisecracking friends, who seem to care about nothing more than boogie-oogie-oogie’n down at their local roller rink. Admittedly, the device of roller-skating does get a bit silly, but the interpersonal relationships draw the material away from farce.
Other strong points are the performances of virtually everyone with a speaking role – also not expected for a film whose two major stars are Bow-Wow and Nick Cannon. The relationship of Xavier (Bow-Wow) and his father (Chi McBride) skyrocket every other aspect of this feature, turning Roll Bounce into a much better effort than anyone could have ever expected. And the laughs – while not taking center stage – are certainly present, thanks in large part to the interplay among Xavier and his friends and the scene-stealing performances of Mike Epps and Charlie Murphy as the smart-mouthed garbage men. Last but not least, the story more often than not takes the road less traveled, and that keeps everything fresh and interesting. While competition films simply cannot end in a non-cliché method, this one avoids predictability up to the conclusion.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006
Synopsis
I never thought that a 90 minute documentary surrounding one joke could be so entertaining. And for all the praise that critics have heaped onto The Aristocrats, I was curious to see what the hype was. The film’s creators, comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) spend the time interviewing many different comedians, and all of them share their thoughts about the joke. But it does a little more than that. Along with various versions of the joke, there is a deconstruction...of it from a realist’s point of view, but it takes on a deeper meaning. The joke perhaps is a larger metaphor for those who decide to go into comedy, giving them an idea of just how difficult it can be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 31st, 2006
Synopsis
Sarah Miles is the spoiled young daughter of Leo McKern. In the troubled Ireland of 1916, she falls in love with, and marries, middle-aged schoolteacher Robert Mitchum. Their marriage hits troubled waters when she begins a passionate affair with a young English officer, which is a politically delicate move, to say the least.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2006
American Women is a difficult film to write about because it evokes such little passion from its viewer. By no standards is it a good film, but pinpointing its frailties becomes quite the daunting task. Set in a small Irish village, the story centers on a group of sexist men, who want to import girls from America because the ones accessible to them do not meet up to the appropriate standards. The plot is farfetched, even as goofball comedies go, and none of the male characters are likeable. Also, with so many ...torylines going at once, the scope of American Women wanders aimlessly, like a small child with ADD roaming about the countryside.
It’s the worst kind of comedy – the kind that, while well-made, never manages a single chuckle from its viewers, and presents us with a cast of characters that have no arc. When the happy endings do come, they do not feel deserved, and the concept of everyone falling in love at once feels too forced, like the filmmakers are trying to resolve as much as possible at one time with no eye for plot or character development. It does not even succeed at being bad, and thus becomes the cinematic equivalent to the buzzing fly that won’t go away, despite its short running time. Though not an incompetent travesty of filmmaking and acting, I can’t help but feel American Women would have been more entertaining if it were.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 29th, 2006
It's great to see Scorsese return to his love and respect of music in documentary form. Of course, the first time he did a music documentary, the result was what many consider to be the best musical performance film of all time; The Last Waltz. He has always paid special attention to rock and roll music in his films, from using Cream in a gangster film (Goodfellas) to The Moody Blues in a film about old Las Vegas (Casino). Music has played an interesting and important role in all of Scorsese's fi...ms, no matter the theme.
No Direction Home is more than just a documentary about Bob Dylan. It approaches The Beatles Anthology in both its superior style and its importance as a historical record. This is not just a film about a rock musician, this is a film about the consummate rock musician. Uncle Bob is an entire generation all wrapped up into one man. In the Southern part of the United States, the importance of getting the stories of the eldest generation onto tape is often discussed, as so much of their lives are still passed down today through the oral tradition. This 2-disc documentary is a very similar idea, as so much of it is made up of Dylan discussing his childhood, his early days in music and on into his career. The result is a record of a life that is both important and utterly captivating.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2006
Synopsis
At West Valley High (how generic a name is that?), homecoming week is marked by a special challenge: can you perform ten outrageous dirty deeds in twelve hours. The record is eight. Zach (Milo Ventimiglia) has no interest in any of the school traditions, but when the younger brother of the girl he is sweet on volunteers to take the challenge, Zach steps in to save the boy from certain doom and do the deeds himself, in the process taking down the king of the jocks a few notches.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2006
Synopsis
Based on the novel by Helen Cross, and adapted for the screen and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, My Summer of Love is an interesting story about two girls in Ireland (or England) who find friendship in each other’s company among a sea of desolation.
