Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 7th, 2007
For the longest time I avoided Field of Dreams. This is simply because I�ve never really liked Kevin Costner as an actor, and mainly because I figured a film about baseball starring him would be boring. Boy was I wrong on this one. Sure Field of Dreams isn�t the best film ever made, but damn if it�s not a film that one can�t help but enjoy slowly falling for the story, characters and surroundings.
Ray Kinsella (Costner) is a simple man who has a lovely wife named Annie (Amy Madigan). Ray decides to move to Iowa soon buying a farm.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 5th, 2007
Pierce Brosnan as a hit man, something were all used to with the James Bond franchise, but this time he�s not killing for the good guys. Instead he is a freelance assassin traveling the globe killing whoever he�s told and for good money too. But comparing Pierce�s role in this film to James Bond isn�t exactly fair, although the characters share some similarities; you really have to watch this one to appreciate the uniqueness of the character.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2007
Let�s face it people. Martin Scorsese, for most part, is a god amongst filmmakers. The man can�t do anything wrong in the filmmaking. Film after film he continues to amaze me with his sheer ability to tell a story bundled together with fantastic acting. Even though many don�t name Casino as one of his best works (rightfully so), the film is still excellent as it shows the gritty 1980s Las Vegas mob world.
One cursory glance at the plot of Casino would make the smallest Scorsese fan think that the film should be called Goodfellas 2.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2006
Based on a true story, Jet Li�s Fearless takes place just after the turn of the 20th century. Huo�s father is challenged and beaten by the leader of the Zhao Clan leading to sheer embarrassment for everyone involved. Soon Huo Yuanija, his son, suffers a similar fate. Only Huo swears to never let a beating like this occur again. Huo wants nothing more in the world than for his father to teach him the way of the wushu, which is the way of fighting. The problem is that Huo doesn�t tend to put his heart in the right places. He hates studying his medicine and doing his calligraphy leaving his mother to tell him that wushu is not all about winning, but rather about patience and self-discipline.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2006
Truth be told, when I first heard of the idea of a new Mummy film, I became excited. The first two in the series were surely not examples of Oscar material, but were damn entertaining films. Then news slipped out that the next film would be based on WWE Superstar The Rock�s character The Scorpion King, which seemed like an odd idea on paper. Was The Scorpion King that much of an awesome character that he needed his own film? Well, success continues as The Scorpion King isn�t excellent film making, but sure is pretty entertaining.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 27th, 2006
Synopsis
I must be crazy, but I kinda liked Hulk! Although, this is coming from the kid who faithfully watched the old CBS show and loved every damn minute of it. When Universal decided they were going to make a big-screen adaptation, with a computer created green machine, so be it. I fell for the trailers, and everything else. So when it came out to theaters, it seemed like the consensus result was: �Blah!� in large part to said CG leading man/monster. But at the end of the day, it doesn�t seem like he takes up much of the movie, and the action scenes aren�t hurt by his presence, some of them look very good.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 22nd, 2006
Everyone in the world knows about the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. With films hitting the big screen in 2006, I guess the studios thought time enough had gone by to start making movies on the tragedy. World Trade Center is based on the attacks on the World Trade Center, as obvious by its name, but makes mention of the other attacks of the day. I can�t comment on the realism of the movie pertaining to the individuals depicted in the film (John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno) but they were involved with the production of the film, and since film is based on their accounts of the day I could imagine it�s very realistic. There are a few factual inaccuracies regarding some of the events of the day, but nothing major.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 20th, 2006
Director Ron Howard is quite the puzzling man. He surely knows how to direct a fine film like A Beautiful Mind or even The Da Vinci Code, but still knows how to give us that random piece of crap. When word came that Howard was going to adapt Dr. Seuss� timeless classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, I immediately questioned why? After all wasn�t the TNT special that airs oh 40-50 times a year good enough? I guess not for Hollywood as the 2000 remake made some serious bank with Jim Carrey portraying the lead character. The only unfortunate part here is that the film is absolutely horrendous.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 16th, 2006
Synopsis
Not to fawn too heavily on one side in the next-generation format wars, but how cool is HD-DVD? Well, if for nothing else, the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 players from Toshiba are all region-free. And while Warner Brothers has been slipping over themselves and teasing American consumers with a release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, British customers have gotten full penetration, and can pick up the fourth Potter film now. So I went onto Amazon UK and picked up my own copy, and I�m going to presume that the disc will be the same when it comes out here, whenever that will be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 15th, 2006
Michael Mann, for myself, has always been an entertaining director. His commercial successes like Last of the Mohicans, Heat and Collateral are some of my favorite guilty-pleasure films that I can always enjoy. When Mann decided to make a feature film on the classic TV series Miami Vice, I immediately piqued interest in the film. I figured with Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx acting and Michael Mann directing that Miami Vice would be a home run. In the end, Vice is more of a double that has a few faults which keep it from hitting a home run.