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 1st, 2006
Synopsis
Having zipped through The Emperor’s New Groove awhile back (yes, I have Disney DVDs), I was somewhat familiar with the story and the cast behind it. I was aware that the original film enjoyed some theatrical success, but I didn’t understand why the film necessitated a sequel. But here I am, trying to wrap my head around the logic for this sequel.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 27th, 2005
Synopsis
This is a short (69 minutes), quite elliptical film that traces the arc of a relationship between a young man (Kieran O’Brien) and woman (the pseudonymous Margo Stilley). We see individual moments, usually framed around episodes of lovemaking, and in between we see our couple at rock concerts (and so we get, in their entirety, performances by the likes of Primal Scream, Super Furry Animals and Franz Ferdinand). The whole story is a flashback, with O’Brien in the present, post-relationship, r...flecting on it while he does research in Antarctica.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 18th, 2005
Synopsis
After years of answering questions running along the lines of "When are you guys going to make a movie?" X-Files creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson decided, in lieu of taking the time off between TV seasons 4 and 5, to go ahead and start production on a feature-length movie and a place in the summer blockbuster arena.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 8th, 2005
Sometime during the 1990’s, big-budget blockbusters stopped getting by on special effects alone. Even though Independence Day, Godzilla, and Armageddon showed us that ground-breaking special effects don’t translate into quality films, Hollywood kept making them -- and people kept spending their hard-earned money to see them.
Stealth is the newest movie in that mold. Heavy on great visuals and special effects, it fails to deliver any character development, emotion or common sense, result...ng in a lop-sided film. Had Stealth been released 10 years ago, it may have been considered ground-breaking and its shortcomings may have been overlooked. Today it feels old, even though most of the visual technology used in the movie is new, which may explain why it was considered a massive flop in theaters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 7th, 2005
Scientist Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) wants to study the effects of cosmic rays, but he needs a lot of money to do. After searching for the money practically everywhere, he turns to his old college rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon). Naturally we need to have some type of love triangle going on. Enter Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) and the equation is complete.
Victor needs to make money off of this because he doesn’t seem to have enough despite being a billionaire. He agrees to finance the project only if ...ue goes along with the team. Another part is that Sue’s brother Johnny (Chris Evans) must command the shuttle. The original pilot Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) is very annoyed by this. The mission hits a side-note when a blast of cosmic ray hits the shuttle affecting our heroes. Reed can stretch his body to the extreme, Johnny can ignite himself, Sue can make herself invisible and Ben develops super-human rock type strength. Victor, especially with a name like Von Doom, develops some type of metallic power and becomes our main villain. The film attempts to deal with the changes our heroes go through and their attempts to stop Doom.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 5th, 2005
Greg Marcks directorial debut 11:14 is a tricky little puzzle of a film. Amazingly enough, the pieces do all fit together, despite Marcks' (who also wrote the screenplay) bewildering youth. What significance (if any) 11:14 has over other times on the clock, I don't know. In fact, why the five stories play out as they do, I wasn't sure until the final segment, which neatly ties all parts together. While it may not be the type of film that's as much fun to watch the second time around, you'll have a ball the first.
Of course, as Rachel Leigh Cook's wannabe love slave (sorry wife), I have to say the last segment is my favorite. In addition to this portion's role as crazy glue for the rest of the film, we get to see Ms. Cook's Cheri at her devilish best, and it's superb at just how naughty she can be. The joyride segment is also a winner, thanks in part to the three hot-rodders' just comeuppance, even though I did get a kick out of their antics. They're definitely the types of kids you'd wish a deadly one-car accident on during a traffic-laden Saturday night, but in the confines of this film, these characters are much more amusing than any real-life counterpart could ever be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 4th, 2005
Synopsis
I haven’t seen The Hours. And I haven’t seen Chicago. And while all the Oscar talk seemed to revolve around either Kidman or Zellweger, after seeing Far From Heaven, I’ve gotta think that the wrong woman got the brass ring. Or gold little guy, whatever. Julianne Moore (who was also nominated in The Hours) does an outstanding job in this movie, set in 1957 Hartford. Moore plays Kathy Whitaker, the wife of a man (Dennis Quaid, Innerspace) who she surprises at work w...th dinner one night. The tables are turned when she discovers him in the arms (and mouth) of another man. What sets this movie apart from other films which are set in the 50’s or 60’s is the amazing grasp that writer-director Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine) has on the times in terms of his story. The word "homosexuality" isn’t uttered for some time after Kathy walks in on Frank. Frank (Quaid) seeks therapy after consulting his wife, and he talks of his "problem" as if he were talking about alcoholism. Moore’s friend Eleanor (Patricia Clarkson, The Green Mile) talks about another person being "light in the loafers." Eventually, Moore finds comfort when interacting with her gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert, 24), who is widowed, with a daughter. The looks and reactions she receives from the townspeople when it comes to her talking with, even touching Raymond, are astonishing, almost ridiculous. Frank even voices his displeasure at this in a jaw-dropping scene. All the while, Kathy tries to maintain the good appearance of her household, holding a dinner party for guests, keeping Frank’s behavior a secret to the public, and later, almost accepts Frank’s homosexuality in order not to disrupt the life she’s become accustomed to. After the dinner party, Frank hits Kathy, and Eleanor comes over the next day, to find the bruise on Kathy, and Kathy’s reticence in not admitting the fact that Frank hit her, disappoints Eleanor, and to a lesser extent, Kathy. There is a scene where Kathy and Frank are in Miami, and we see Kathy at the swimming pool, wearing rose colored sunglasses. Those sunglasses sum up Kathy’s existence, doing what she can to keep up her good community standing, despite robbing herself of the pleasing times she has with Raymond.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 4th, 2005
Synopsis
Anchor Bay, holding all (or most) of the keys in George Romero’s zombie film trilogy, released a four disc Ultimate Edition to capitalize on the theatrical release of the remake, done in grainy, handheld, 28 Days Later style by director Zack Snyder. There isn’t too much here plotwise that you need to be aware of. 4 people decide to seek shelter at an abandoned mall, a continuation of Romero’s first film Night of the Living Dead. I don’t really know of an underlying moral tale in this...film, aside from trying to make a life for yourself again, it really is about trying to get past the zombies and find some sort of freedom, wherever that may be. Special effects whiz Tom Savini gets to show off more of his work here, though not as much as in Day, as he spends some time in front of the camera as the leader of a biker gang.
