Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 5th, 2006
16 Blocks is what separates petty criminal Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) and broken down cop Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) from exposing several corrupt NYPD detectives. Jack Moseley an aging alcoholic NYPD detective is faced with a crucial decision whether or not he will sell out his long time friends/colleagues or trust a criminal he had just met. The movie takes us through the crowded streets and narrow ally ways of New York City as they scramble to understand themselves and each other. We come to learn of their se...arate and equally interesting pasts, and even plans for the future.
16 Blocks is more than your standard action movie, it is nicely balanced with acting and a constantly advancing story line. We feel claustrophobic as they run down the streets of New York with little time to make it to the courthouse, and the suspense is constantly escalating. We come to care for the characters, and what is going to happen to them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
With impressive urban dramas under his belt, John Singleton sets out to create another classic. Boyz n The Hood is always associated with this genre, in terms of quality it remains a classic drama. Four Brothers doesn’t attempt a serious get out of the hood type movie, but rather an action film with serious themes and tones. Well that’s not to say that there isn’t a laugh or two in here, because there sure is.
It’s a cold November night in Detroit; Evelyn Mercer enters a convenience store to ...ail an underage thief out of trouble. We learn that she is a compassionate elderly lady that sees the best in everyone. As she proceeds to pick out a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner two masked men enter the store, demanding money and making threats. They shoot and kill the cashier proceeding to the back of the store where they hear Evelyn rustling around. Without hesitation they take her life and flee from the store into the snowy night.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
12 Monkeys tells the story of a man named James Cole (16 Blocks Bruce Willis) who is sent back in time from the year 2035 to the year 1996 in hopes of saving the human race from a deadly virus which has forced mankind into total seclusion from the above world. Down below the ground, they live in communities hoping one day to come out and start a new world. Once he arrives, Cole encounters a patient named Jeffrey Goines (Troy’s Brad Pitt) and a psychiatrist named Kathryn Railly (We Were Soldier... Madeleine Stowe). Cole soon learns, after a few conversations with Jeffrey, that he may hold the whole key to solving this virus. As the film progresses, what we and Cole learn is that the scientists who simply sent Cole back to obtain a sample of this virus for further study, may have had more sinister motives at hand.
The film is directed by Terry Gilliam, a man who certainly has quite the fan base not because his films gross a lot of money, but rather because his films require the mind to think about what they’ve just seen on the screen. Having only seen this film once before this viewing, my love for the film was brought back quickly. Even though I’ve only seen a handful of his films, I’ve always loved how Gilliam is able to sway away from the main plot to introduce side plots in a manner that is always keeping the viewer in loop with what the main purpose of the film at hand. His films are so creative, insane (in a good sense), fun, and simply a mind trip to watch (especially his recently released on HD DVD Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). He creates these characters that are so unique and interesting that one can help getting sucked into the story at hand.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
Stanley Kubrick’s ultra famous epic Spartacus tells of the story of a man named Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) who decided to defy and lead an uprising against the Roman empire. Spartacus, naturally a slave, is beaten in early scenes for biting a guard’s leg after falling down. He is sentenced to death for this. Before his death, a man named Batiatus decided to train Spartacus as a fighting gladiator. As many now know, gladiators were trained for two reasons, the first being to fight to the death, and the second as ... sense of amusement for the upper classes. After Spartacus witnesses one of his friends die, he decides to unite all the slaves in the hopes of rebelling against the Roman Empire. As Spartacus and his men gain more notice, more slaves from around the country join him and his men for the fight against the Empire. As this happens, Spartacus, unexpectedly, falls in love with a girl named Varinia who is a slave girl.
Spartacus has numerous positives and few negatives. First up, the acting is top notch. Kirk Douglas is fabulous as the slave man rallying up men across the country for one goal. He delivers speeches with such ferociousness and intensity that, sometimes, I could have seen myself wanting to join the rebellion. Speaking of rebellion, this is one of the most important aspects of the film. The idea of rebellion, especially in the Roman times, most certainly ended in death for a majority of those who decided to rebel against their rulers. One can easily see how excellent of an actor Kirk Douglas was (we see this in the actor his son Michael Douglas has become). He has a sense of power and intelligence in every one of his scenes easily stealing the show. The supporting actors, particularly Laurence Olivier’s performance as Marcus Licinius Crassus is just as good. Olivier, probably famous for his various retellings of Shakespearean stories, is simply magnificent here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
With all that’s been going on with Tom Cruise as of late, I found myself doubting the integrity of this picture. I was fearful that the happenings of Cruise’s personal life would somehow bring down this movie; the previous two films did set the bar pretty high. So how did the third installment add up, did it fall short of expectations, or did it deliver beyond what I expected?
MI:III doesn’t hesitate a minute to bring us suspense, the picture begins with Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) having Et...an Hunt and a woman (whom appears to mean a lot to him) captive. He means business; she is going to die unless Ethan can come up with something called the rabbit’s foot. The scene closes, and we roll back to the previous week when nothing is amiss.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2006
Whichever generation you’re from I think we can all remember watching this movie as a child. I have great memories of this film, and when watching the newly released Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I found myself comparing it to these memories. Finally I’ve gotten the chance to sit down and watch it again for the first time in years, and on HD DVD what a treat, so how does it hold up after all these years?
The movie centers on a young boy named Charlie Bucket, living with his mother and bedridden...grandparents. Charlie like any child loves chocolate, so when it’s announced that the famous Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) is allowing five children to spend an entire day in his factory, he wants to win more than anyone else. There are five golden tickets placed randomly inside Wonka candy bars, they could be in any candy shop, in any town, anywhere in the world. As the days go on we find that an overweight chocolate obsessed boy in Germany named Augustus Gloop has found the first ticket. The second by a nagging spoiled brat in England named Veruca Salt. The third an overachieving competitive girl from The United States named Violet Beauregarde. The fourth is a lazy television obsessed boy named Mike Teavee, also from The United States. All hope is lost for Charlie when it is announced that the fifth ticket has been found… but that wouldn’t make for much of a movie, would it?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2006
We’ve all been at that age where we begin to challenge the thought of how just one man could travel around the world in one night. This inevitable dilemma has been showcased nearly every year in a motion picture, so how does The Polar Express stack up against them?
Based on the 1985 short story written by Chris Van Allsburg, Robert Zemekis and Tom Hanks set out to make a memorable Christmas classic. Besides producing, Hanks voiced a numerous amount of the characters encountered throughout the film. Th... movie begins on Christmas Eve as the main character, referred to as “Hero Boy” is lying in his bed hoping to hear the sounds of Santa’s sleigh. Like every child at that age, doubt about the reality of Santa begins to set in. Soon falling asleep appearing to have lost hope, our hero boy is awoken to the sounds of and old time steam train. Upon investigation The Conductor (Hanks) reveals that the train is bound for the North Pole. Hesitant at first “Hero Boy” hops aboard and soon meets several other children, all hopeful of meeting Santa Clause himself. We find out that each of the children has been given a golden ticket by the Conductor with two letters punched into them. At this point we do not know the importance of these tickets, only that they are important.
Posted in: 2.35:1 Widescreen, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 (French), HD-DVD, Suspense / Thriller, Universal by Archive Authors on October 25th, 2006
Synopsis
(What can I say, I’m a lazy bastard, so I’ve liberally borrowed from my earlier review of this disc, which can also be found on the site, save for the audio and video information.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 25th, 2006
Steven Soderbergh’s film Out of Sight tells the story of a man named Jack Foley (E.R.’s George Clooney) and his ability to rob banks. As the film opens up, we see Jack as he cunningly convinces the bank clerk that his partner is speaking to the bank manager and will blow off his head if Jack gives the word. Turns out that this is the exact opposite and Jack almost gets away had his car not flooded. As Jack is doing his time in jail, we immediately learn that he is going to escape soon, actually that nig...t. The escape goes off cleanly until Jack and his driver named Buddy Bragg (Mission Impossible’s Ving Rhames) nab a federal marshal named Karen Sisco (The Cell’s Jennifer Lopez), putting her and Jack in the trunk of her car together. It’s here that Jack and Karen, while talking, become attracted to each other.
As a federal marshal and law officer, Karen is obviously suppose to arrest Jack. But this can’t happen yet otherwise the film would only be 20 minutes long. Here is where Soderbergh succeeds at a high level. He gives us a lot of flashbacks, one in particular to Jack’s days in prison. Jack meets a man named Glenn, who seems to be a kind of odd character who doesn’t necessarily seem to full in the upper portion of his head. We also meet a group of three men named Snoopy Miller, the violent part of the group, Kenneth, his partner and White Boy Rob, his big, bulky bodyguard who constantly stands up for Snoopy. While all this is occurring inside the prison, Soderbergh switches back and forth between the ongoing ‘relationship’ between Karen and Jack.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 24th, 2006
When the idea came to remake Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, many wondered why would this need to be done? What in the world could be accomplished that Willy hadn’t previously done? Naturally that never stops Hollywood from making a film now does it? Thankfully, Warner Brothers decided to hire a feasible director in the visionary Tim Burton to helm this remake. Having made such previous visual masterpieces including The Nightmare Before Christmas, audiences knew they were in for quite the ...reat when the film would come out. However, when the film came out, I kept on hearing that the film was very odd and almost too scary. Johnny Deep’s portrayal of Wonka was odd and confusing to audience. Still, this didn’t stop the film from making some extreme bank at the box office. Having never seen the film, I figured I’d give it a shot on the newly released HD-DVD version.
While the original Wonka focused on a more cheerful story, this version tells of a story 15 years before where Wonka, one day, simply closed his factory, laying off all of his employees in the process. One of the employees happened to be Grandpa Joe (David Kelly), grandpa to Charlie (Freddie Highmore). Grandpa revives old memories and let’s us know that Wonka was a delightful man who simply loved his business and all his workers provided everything he could for them. Charlie asks his grandpa how could chocolate still be being made if all the workers went home? That is one of the mysteries of the factory, a place Grandpa Joe wishes he could see one more time. Well, as many of you know, this is the part of the film where Wonka’s Oompa-Loompa’s go out into the night posting signs about a contest Wonka is holding. He has placed five golden tickets inside five of his chocolate bars. The five lucky souls he can obtain these tickets will win a tour of the factory lead by Wonka himself with one of the five winning a special prize. As we all know, Charlie does obtain the last ticket, but not without some suspense (particularly the candy bar sequence his parents get him for his birthday).
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