Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 13th, 2009
An insubordinate officer (Bo Svenson), an African-American who Has Been Pushed Too Far (Fred Williamson), a thief, a gambler, and a coward are among the prisoners loaded up onto an Allied convoy in 1944. When the trucks come under attack from the Germans, the prisoners escape, and decide to make their way to Switzerland. But their journey is a complicated one, with another firefight around every corner, culminating in a particularly violent case of mistaken identity, which results in their volunteering to tackle a suicidal train-jacking.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 13th, 2009
Unable to face life as a lawyer, having been pushed into law school by his father (Tom Hanks), Troy Gable (Colin Hanks, looking uncannily like his father) aspires to become a writer. In order to put food on the table, he becomes the road manager for Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a former big-name mentalist who now works half-empty theatres in towns Troy didn't even know existed. By turns charming and tyrannical, Buck keeps hoping for the big comeback and return to his Tonight Show glory days, and drags Troy along for a bumpy ride down the back roads of show business.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 13th, 2009
This is the story of two Vikings who are mistakingly left behind in Newfoundland in the year 1007. As these two find ways to survive, they encounter Irish monks and Aboriginal people, and these same encounters ultimately lead to rifts in their bond with each other. The beautiful landscapes become a backdrop for a sometimes violent look at the people who discovered North America centuries before Columbus or any other discoverer. Oh, and we also get bad translations of Old Norse, a lot of metal music and a scene of actual defecation.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 13th, 2009
An American Affair is set in the early 1960’s. The John F. Kennedy administration is at the height of its popularity and yet there is still quite a bit of controversy swirling after the Cuban missile crisis. Adam Stafford (Cameron Bright) is a thirteen year old enduring the awkward years of his life when he catches a glimpse of his neighbor across the street. His neighbor is Catherine Caswell (Gretchen Mol) and she eventually hires Adam as her landscaper. Despite the enormous age-gap between Catherine and Adam, a friendship emerges. As the film continues, Caswell’s complicated history begins to return and the two of them become involved in the growing speculation about the JFK administration.
The film manages to deliver some emotion throughout. In a shocking display, Gretchen Mol’s performance is very strong. The vulnerability of her character is portrayed quite well and viewers can understand her. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Cameron Bright. His role is the most crucial in the film and in a most disappointing way becomes the least powerful. Most of his major scenes are forgettable and his performance is flat. The other characters throughout the film do not overly impress. However, everyone plays their character well enough to get by.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 12th, 2009
“At the end of the Ice Age the machine came. It came from outside. It came from space. It came with one purpose, to change man into mutant.”
Mutant Chronicles was based on an old style role playing game. This was the kind where someone actually had to get out some paper and keep track of the game. Real old school. So now the property has been turned basically into a video game. Yeah, I know this is a movie review, but I just spend about an hour and a half feeling like I just watched somebody else play a video game, and not a very good one at that. From the extras it’s apparent this is one of those flipping off the establishment films. I’m sure everybody involved got a ton of laughs about the absurdity and total lack of commerciality. They spend a lot of time patting themselves on the back, bragging about how they showed Hollywood, boy. That’s all well and good, but did anyone think about us poor saps who weren’t in on the joke, but had to watch the film anyway?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 12th, 2009
Nature’s Grave looks like it could have been a made for television movie for The Animal Planet or one of those learning channels. If they were ever thinking of branching out a bit into the nature gone mad type of show, wait a minute. They already have. This one attempts to be a thriller/horror film but doesn’t ever come close to either definition. The wild animals never amount to anything more than an attacking bird or a dead manatee. I’m not sure what a fan of this movie was looking for when he or she came here, but I suspect whatever it was, it was very hard not to be disappointed.
Peter (Caviezel) and Carla (Karvan) are married couple who get on each other’s nerves most of the time. Peter imagines that a long weekend of camping might be just the ticket to get their relationship back on solid footing. He buys about 10 grand of equipment, which only gets his unhappy wife even more angry at him. They pile into the car and head for a remote stretch of beach. In the middle of the night they have trouble finding the place, and if that shouldn’t have been enough to get them to a comfy hotel at least for the night, the sudden attacks by nature should have done the trick. The animal mishaps escalate, and before long they couple aren’t worried so much about their marriage surviving. They have to try and survive with their lives intact.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 7th, 2009
This film is rooted in the activism of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. Within the film are the stories of several Philadelphia residents, told in sporadic vignettes that are loosely tied together by a mysterious flier that is being handed out in the neighbourhood. While some characters cross into other's stories they mainly stay separated until the very final scene which reveals that the flier was out promote a rally on behalf of the aforementioned Campaign.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2009
“Now this might be the room of any small boy, but it happens to belong to a boy named Christopher Robin, and like most small boys, Christopher Robin had toy animals to play with. And together they had many remarkable adventures in an enchanted place called The Hundred Acre Wood. But out of all of his animal friends, Christopher Robin’s very best friend was a bear called Winnie The Pooh.”
“Oh Bother”A.A. Milne was quite an eclectic writer. He wrote murder mysteries that even appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From that fertile mind would also come a place known as the Hundred Acre Wood. In that select place some of literature’s finest characters had the greatest adventures any boy could imagine. And adventures are certainly no fun on your own. Young Christopher Robin was joined by Piglet, Tigger, Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore, and, of course, Winnie-The-Pooh. Who didn’t fall in love with that silly old bear… Winnie-The-Pooh. OK, so maybe Dahmer or Bundy might have been exceptions. Still, anyone growing up in the last 30-40 years who isn’t a psychopath has had a love affair with Winnie-The-Pooh, all stuffed with fluff.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 6th, 2009
The story originally seems to set itself up to be that of redemption for a young man who is fresh out of jail. While this story is around, there seems to be parallel stories that arise as subplot but soon race alongside the original tale like proverbial track horses (and horses also just so happen to be the nexus for said plots). Just as one seems to buck into the lead, another comes along to grab the focus.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 5th, 2009
This American Life, broadcast on the Showtime network, is a half-hour show based on, or more accurately, spun off from, the award-winning Chicago Public Radio show of the same name. Each episode is loosely based on a theme, which is then explored through stories about real people. The content and style varies from week to week, with stories ranging from light-hearted to incredibly sad.
The television version, like the radio series, is hosted by Ira Glass, who Time magazine named the “Best Radio Host in America” in 2001. Not having been exposed to Glass or the show before, I was quickly won over by his intelligence, wit, and a kind of nerdy charm. He generally opens each show with a brief introduction of that week’s theme and tells the viewers a little bit about the stories that are coming up. After that he falls into the background, sometimes narrating and occasionally interviewing subjects from off-camera.
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