Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 21st, 2006
Hustle & Flow works because of one reason and one reason only. That reason is Terrence Howard.
Howard injects himself into the role of DJay, a Memphis pimp who stumbles across a church choir and then strives to put his daily experiences into rap music, hoping to break out of the lifestyle he has grown to hate.
If you couldn’t tell by now, supporting actor turned leading man Howard has been a very busy man in 2005, appearing in half a dozen films – and Hustle & Flow will most likely...
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2006
Synopsis
One of the memorable events of history that has gone unnoticed was the 1893 World’s Fair, held in Chicago. It was an elaborate event that transformed Chicago into several different metropolises (or is it metropoli?) like Venice, for instance. The result was a lavish, expensive journey that inspired many, among them, architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
In EXPO: Magic of the White City, Mark Bussler and Brian Connolly help to illustrate how much effort was needed to get the Fair off withou...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2006
Synopsis
At first glance, the Australian produced film Ferngully appears to be a film that helps to educate and moderately punish the crazy white man for all of the harm and damage that he’s done to Mother Earth, never mind all of the data that seems to refute the selfish thought that our generation would be ultimately responsible for harming the land.
Based on the stories of Diana Young, the animated film follows Krysta (Samantha Mathis, The Thing Called Love) and her friend Pips (< ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2006
Synopsis
The setting is an exclusive boys’ private school in New England, 1959. Welton Academy is deeply hidebound and conservative, and into this environment comes one of its graduates, Robin Williams, to teach English literature, and along the way encourage his students to make of their lives what they want, now what is expected of them. This approach clashes with the establishment’s ideas of how things should be done, and raises the ire of one parent in particular, whose son takes too much interes...
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...
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2006
After the MTV show Jackass closed production, MTV scrambled to try to find a show that would secure the ratings that Jackass had been doing for so many years. What resulted from that scrambling? The moderately entertaining Viva La Bam which features a majority of the Jackass outcasts and ‘losers’. Since this is the review for the fourth and fifth seasons, one can imagine that Viva La Bam did succeed in finding that audience that would make MTV more money.
While the show original...
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2006
After the MTV show Jackass closed production, MTV scrambled to try to find a show that would secure the ratings that Jackass had been doing for so many years. What resulted from that scrambling? The moderately entertaining Viva La Bam which features a majority of the Jackass outcasts and ‘losers’. Since this is the review for the fourth and fifth seasons, one can imagine that Viva La Bam did succeed in finding that audience that would make MTV more money.
While the show original...
