Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2006
2005 was definitely a big year for Tim Burton. He had the mega successful Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and ended the year with this film, Corpse Bride. Neither Charlie or Corpse deserved to be placed on the top of Burton’s best work list, but both are filled with typical Burton qualities from his funny jokes to interesting visuals.
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is similar to The Nightmare Before Christmas via Burton’s usual trademarks. Corpse Bride features...Burton’s land of the dead from his very funny Beetle Juice, the dark tone of the film from Sleepy Hollow and the usual score by Danny Elfman. Oh and one more usual Burton quality. Johnny Deep adds in his voice portraying Victor.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2006
Al Pacino is one of those actors who always seems to find himself in those type of roles that bring out the absolute best in him. In his last four films (Insomina, People I Know, Angels in America, and The Merchant of Venice) Pacino has brought the needed tension and power to his performances. Add 2005’s Two For The Money to that ever-growing list of excellent performances.
Pacino plays Walter who runs a sports betting hotline. Matthew McConaughey plays Brandon, the Vega... oddsmakers Walter brings to New York. Walter befriends Brandon and makes him a star by showing him how to act with an unleveled amount of confidence and exuberance. Rene Russo plays Toni, Walter’s wife.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2006
Synopsis
Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz are sisters. Collette is the older, sensible one, who has made a career as a lawyer. Diaz is the hard-drinking, terminally selfish party girl. After a series of disasters, which culminate in Diaz sleeping with Collette’s beau, the sisters have a seemingly irreversible falling out. Collette’s life is in ruins, but the pieces are gradually picked up by a co-worker who has loved for from afar for years. Diaz, meanwhile, discovers that she has a grandmother she nev...r knew about (Shirley MacLaine), and heads off to the Florida retirement community. She starts off as a sponge, but gradually begins to mature as a human being.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2006
Disney continues to pull its disappearing acts on DVD with their limited time offers, this time using the new Toy Story 2 2-disc release as the proverbial carrot in front of the mule. While such marketing tactics may be a little annoying to those of us that don’t like to be told when we can or can’t see a movie, there should be no greater incentive to pick this up if you haven’t yet claimed a copy of the film. Toy Story 2 cemented Pixar’s name in quality animation and continued to prove the little studi... that could, could continue to knock one after the other out of the park.
In this outing, Woody’s the one in trouble. A yard-sale robbery has placed him in the hands of the villainous Al from Al’s Toy Barn. Al (voiced by Seinfeld’s Wayne Knight) needs Woody to complete his Woody’s Round-Up collection, and now that he has him, he plans on selling the entire display to a Japanese toy museum. That’s when all the lovable toys from Andy’s toy box come together for one of the greatest rescue missions in Disney animation history. Highlighted by moments of spot-on satire, kid-friendly humor, heart-felt poignancy (as in the teary-eyed memories of Jessie, the Yodeling Cowgirl), and an unforgettable airport finale (with its own share of twists, turns, and thrills), Toy Story 2 equals its predecessor and takes Pixar to the next level of superior entertainment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 17th, 2006
The Gospel is the first mainstream film to come out in quite sometime that deals with the role of the African-American church. Reading the title of the film, one must think The Gospel is an overly heavy religious filled film right? Well, I am very happy to say that the film is not particularly a religious film, but what a film that has the type of characters that can make a viewer become a believer. Not necessarily the type of believer of the church, but the type of believer in the music that is sung in...The Gospel. The film deals with the economic and social function of the whole church mainly how the church operates as a stabilizing force, a stage for random personalities, an area for various power battles and a business that must find a way to make a profit otherwise it will find itself going out of business.
The films features such well-known singers as Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond, Martha Munizzi and ‘American Idol’ finalist Tamyra Gray. Even though the film does have a plot, the film never spends too long on one area only to return to the musical performances, which is where the film become so enjoyable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 17th, 2006
Jodie Foster stars in this film as a propulsion engineer named Kyle Pratt who decides to take her six year old daughter Julia on a transatlantic flight aboard a brand new jumbo jet (which she helped design). Aboard the plane, her daughter goes missing. Naturally she has no clue what is going on as the captain (Sean Bean), nor the sky marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) are of any assistance. Foster calmly looks around the plane for her daughter wondering what has happened to her. We learn more and more facts about the daughte... as the movie progresses, some of which will definitely surprise you. That is what makes this film so overly effective. How it takes a fairly common plot but adds more flare and spark to the plot by having certain areas jump out at us.
Flightplan is being compared to Foster 2002 film Panic Room due to the similar concepts (Woman and a daughter are in peril). However, the problem Foster faces in Flightplan is far more inquisitive and far more interesting. Did her daughter suddenly disappear or was she kidnapping? How could all of this occur on a airplane with tons of passengers? Foster is a usual form in this film. She comes off a resourceful and extremely brave woman. As the plot progresses forward, Foster’s response continues to change as do her overall tactics. She tends to scream out, as would any of us in a similar situation. The director, who I will get to later, seems to know how an audience’s mind work as he constantly has Foster’s character think ahead of what she will do, almost anticipating the next development of the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 14th, 2006
Synopsis
I was amazed that a film starring three Academy Award winners (Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), Kathy Bates (Misery), F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) would be so ignored and passed over by the movie going public. Based on a novel by Thornton Wilder and adapted for the screen and directed by relative unknown Mary McGuckian, the film recounts a tragic incident where several people fell to their death from a bridge collapse. A monk by the name of Brother Juniper (Gabriel Byrne, The Us...al Suspects) tries to piece together the lives of the people involved in the accident, to determine if it was a larger act of divine intervention.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 14th, 2006
Synopsis
The unfortunate part for me is that movies like this, and before that, Sling Blade, were only in arthouse theaters that are in downtown Washington, DC, and I really have a problem with driving 25-30 miles to pay $10 for 2 hours of joy, and possibly that same amount of time spent in traffic trying to get in and out of DC. If you want to call it laziness, I'll admit to that also, but I think my first excuse holds a lot more weight. It's gotten better lately, but there's still some work to be d...ne. Several years ago, there was a muted, but powerful push for a G-Rated film directed by David Lynch (yes, of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks fame) to receive Oscar nominations, and the film defined the "has universal critical support but no one saw it" catchphrase. When this was available to rent, I did so, and found myself feeling good and happy, something a David Lynch film isn't supposed to do I thought. David Lynch films make you say, "What the hell did I just see?"
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 11th, 2006
Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) is not your standard activist. She won’t be satisfied by simply standing on protest lines – she must be where the action is, and for her it’s in disease infested Kenya. When a pharmaceutical company sets up shop there to distribute a prototypical drug to the people, Tessa becomes involved in a conspiracy that will eventually costs her her life.
After Tessa turns up dead – and this is no spoiler – her death is featured in the opening scenes of the film, husband Justin (Ralph Fien...es) delves into her world – a world he has learned to accept as a diplomat – to find the reason behind her death. Upon his discovery he learns that his wife was an entirely different woman than the one he knew, a woman who regularly hid things from him. But why did she keep secrets? Was she having an affair? Was she protecting Justin from a life she knew he would not sympathize with as a government worker?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 8th, 2006
It seems that every action movie that is being released out of Hollywood nowadays always has to feature out of this world stunts that no real human could ever do. Now this is not necessarily bad if the action is done in correspondence to the film in a skillful manner. When the original Transporter was released onto DVD, it quickly gained a reputation through many action fans that caused the film’s sales to skyrocket. The sales skyrocketed so high that Twentieth Century Fox quickly greenlit the sequel to a film...they had no interest in making a sequel to after the rather poor theatrical performance.
Quickly recapping the first film for those of you have not seen it. The Transporter starred actor Jason Statham (Cellular) as Frank Martin a.k.a The Transporter, a man who would transport anything at a price. He had three rules if you wanted to hire him. 1. Never change the deal. 2. No Names. 3. Never look in the package. Martin is hired to deliver a large duffel bag. The bag tends to complain and squirm. The bag contains a Chinese woman named Lai. Martin cuts a hole in the tape over her mouth, thus violating his third rule of never looking in the bag. What occurs next is a movie that tends to have too much action at some point that it brings the film to a near dead standstill.
