Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2007
This was my first ever exposure to Grey’s Anatomy. Certainly I’ve followed the buzz the show has generated with its multiple awards and the feuding between two of the show’s actors. My first impression was not altogether a very good one. You see, season three begins with the aftermath of an obviously big ending from the previous year. From what I can gather, a character died and it left a void for a couple of the characters. I immediately began to feel like an outsider, a feeling I wasn’t very comfortable with. Fortunately, before I could give up feeling frustrated and hounded by an impending review deadline, something quite remarkable happened. Simply stated, I didn’t stop watching. In that moment of hesitation, I began to catch a glimpse of what everybody’s been going on about. The acting is surprisingly rock solid and not at all the flirty surface performances I had expected. So, for a short time, I was able to put aside my outsider feelings and begin to appreciate what I was watching. Before too long I was beginning to recognize the strong production values and clever writing which have been responsible for all that buzz I was hearing. While I avoided the needle scenes like the plague that spread through the hospital’s opening episodes, there is still a lot of high resolution f/x when it comes to wounds and surgery bits. This is by far the most realistic look I’ve seen in any medical show so far. The offbeat banter of the interns works well to offset the rather dramatic storylines hidden beneath this somewhat light series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 6th, 2007
Planning a high-profile charity football game that they must nonetheless be sure of winning, the powers that be of Yale attempt to invite the University of Texas, but instead accidentally invite Texas State University, a small college whose town population is a mere 700. Newly arrived coach Jack Haley and his formidable wife Patsy Kelly face the challenge of somehow whipping the football team into something that won’t be utterly destroyed on the day of the big game. The key to possible victory is bumpkin-but-natural-prodigy Stuart Erwin, but he’s a package deal, and comes along with little sister Judy Garland, here making her debut.
In some respects, the film is most interesting in retrospect, featuring as it does future Tin Man Haley in a film with the soon-to-be Dorothy. Also of note is Betty Grable as one of the students assisting Haley and Kelly. This was also a very early release by the newly formed 20th Century Fox studios. All of that history aside, this is still a perfectly pleasant musical, completely enthusiastic in its good cheer. There’s nothing earth-shattering about the comedy or the songs, but they make the 93 minutes pass by most pleasantly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 6th, 2007
I like Paul Walker; I tend to enjoy his movies. However my experience with Paul Walker starts with JoyRide and ends with Running Scared. (we'll ignore the Fast and the Furious) So I was kinda excited at the chance to review Bobby Z, a straight to video release that also starred the clever Laurence Fishburne. Two fun actors in what looked like to be a fun action movie. The basic premise was that Tim Kearney (Paul Walker's character) is plucked from a prison by Tad Gruzsa (Laurence Fishburne's character) and his assistant because he looks exactly like the infamous Bobby Z, a drug runner who is supposedly dead. So, Kearney takes on the persona of Bobby Z and is used in a trade for a federal agent that was captured. Of course the deal goes horribly wrong and Kearney finds himself in the Mexican desert. Here he has to stay in the Bobby Z persona as he finds out that Bobby Z had a kid among many other plot points. This drives forward to a conclusion with some predictable twists where Kearney does everything he can to stay alive.
The movie runs ninety four minutes , for the first 40-50 minutes of the movie I was really enjoying myself. The plot started off so strong and the actors (particularly Walker & Fishburne) showed off their wares. The action was intense but not overdone. Then something happened in the last half of the movie. It became dull and incredibly clichéd. Every single cliché about either an action movie or a drama that used the idea of somebody impersonating somebody else is used. It's borderline scary how much just seems borrowed. Tough hard-nose prison guy suddenly develops heart of gold; check. The character he's impersonating has a kid; check. There is a girl who is still in love with the original character but remarks how much he's changed; check. I would go on; but in the event you can't guess the ending I'll stop there. There is even a scene near the end that borrows from Bugs Bunny shorts (think duck season, wabbit season). Not to mention the ending seems a little too cookie cutter and proceeds to just say okay everybody lives happily ever after; the end. When given the situation in a more realistic setting there would be some serious questions to be answered here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 6th, 2007
Do you as the viewer ever watch that movie that you feel due to overwhelming popular opinion you should like? Unfortunately, I run into this all too often. Most of the time I'm able to push that aside, and give an honest review. Sometimes it is harder. Private Fears in Public Places directed by Alain Resnais is one of those movies. Set in Paris (with language to match); this puts six lonely characters in search of love during the harsh winter season. However, what they find isn't what they were searching for. Naturally these characters' stories intertwine and we get a whole lot of snow effects which encapsulate the end of each scene (and each part of this review).
The movie starts out with Thierry (played by André Dussollier), a realtor who is showing Nicole (played by Laura Morante) various flats in attempting to find one that will suit her and her fiancée. Her fiancée; Dan (played by Lambert Wilson) drinks his life away at a local hotel bar since he is between jobs. He is served by Lionel (played by Pierre Arditi), a bartender who must consistently get new caretakers to care for his elderly father. Thierry's assistant is Charlotte (played by Sabine Azéma) who also doubles as the nighttime caretaker to Lionel's father. Her story is entertaining as being a devout Christian but with a secret side. Finally, Thierry's sister; Gaëlle (played by Isabelle Carré) spends her nights searching for love by going out on blind dates. (*snow effect*).
The acting is pretty decent throughout the movie especially in nod to the two male lead characters: Dussollier and Wilson. There is no weak areas I can really find but the movie is just several shades of depressing. Sure there is some excitement and things do look up at certain events through the movie but by the end it comes to a crashing halt and you wonder what's the point. They do everything short of having the entire crew getting run over by a bus to give us any hope at this thing we call love. I'm a very strong believer in true love and watching this turned me momentarily into something less than that. I watch movies to escape not to re-live every failed courtship or bad relationship I've ever had. (*snow effect*).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
I’ve said in the past and still believe that Josh Hutcherson will be a pretty good adult actor if he chooses to go down that path. I liked his work in Little Manhattan and recently finished watching him in Bridge to Terabithia, but then he comes back and makes films like Firehouse Dog, which seem to flush away a lot of that goodwill in my opinion. He doesn’t try at all and becomes the typical sweet kid, rather than the intellectual who acts larger than his shoes.
Written by Mike Werb (Curious George) and Claire-Dee Lim and directed by Todd Holland (whose main director claims were directing fair shares of episodes for the shows Malcolm in the Middle and The Larry Sanders Show), the film centers around Rexxx, with three x’s, who is apparently a 21st century version of Benji, Old Yeller, or any other movie dog you’d like to slot in. During a stunt for his latest film, Rexxx accidentally falls from an airplane and lands in a truck full of tomatoes, so he doesn’t die of course. The movie would have to be called something other than Firehouse Dog if that were the case. But he does manage to get to New York, where Shane (Hutcherson) finds him and wants initially to get rid of him, before he finds out what the dog can do, despite the objections of his father (Bruce Greenwood, The Sweet Hereafter). But he grows to become part of the family more and more.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
(Supplemental material portions of this review are culled from Gino Sassani's review of said film in the Blu-ray format, so enjoy or read elsewhere.)
I've always enjoyed Hitchcock's Rear Window, and I've gotta say I was more than a little disgusted when I saw that it was going to be remade and modernized, with no less than Shia fricken' LaBeouf in the main role. Oddly enough, LaBeouf carries the role pretty well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 5th, 2007
In hellish vision of a near future (?) LA, Marty Malt (Judd Nelson) is an incompetent garbage man who moonlights as an even worse comedian (his jokes aren’t funny, and he is half-crippled by stage fright). His only friend is the manipulative Gus (Bill Paxton). When Marty starts to grow a third arm out of his back, he loses his girlfriend (Lara Flynn Boyle) but attracts the attention of sleazy showbiz types Wayne Newton and Rob Lowe.
The film’s influences are pretty apparent. Imagine the love child of Repo Man and How to Get Ahead in Advertising, as midwifed by early John Waters and David Lynch. Heck, the bar where Marty performs, along with its patrons, seem to have been imported from Café Flesh. Such a mixture could well spell cult movie, and something of the kind seems to have happened with The Dark Backward, but the mixture is a little too forced for my liking, and the performances are all pitched at one note (Paxton’s note being almost off the scale). Interestingly bizarre and gross, but somehow too familiar despite its wild stabs at freakish originality.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 4th, 2007
Sometimes when you sit down to review a dvd, you are treated to a fantasy. However, sometimes that fantasy isn't all it seems and leaves you with a blank expression and curious feelings of being unfulfilled (kinda like that marriage I had). Anyhow, I took the dubious task of reviewing Lesbian Sex & Sexuality, a television show that is on the here! network who also bring you such fine shows such as Dante's Cove. (okay; so I gave Season 2 a 2 out of 5, who's counting?) The show is very simple and has a very provocative premise. That premise is to take a mostly uncensored (I'll explain later) look at the secret and rarely explained world of lesbian sex. All kinds of subjects would be explored from fantasies to erotic dancers to the ever popular porn films. No stone and no position would be left untouched. No girl either. Men, well...anyhow the show is broken down into six half-hour episodes across two discs.
The initial problem that most people realize is that this show very much has a documentary premise. Sure there is skin and plenty of it but any male or female who is looking for a good time should probably consult their partner or an escort service (I don't know anything). However, the show succeeds on many levels; the main one being to inform the viewer on all of levels of lesbian sex. An example episode might take you along with Cinnamon, Molasses and Sugar (Tarragon ended up finding a gig in Brookshire) as they take you on a tour of the world of Go-Go Dancing. While another episode might take you behind the scenes of SIR Video (who were initially famous for their Bend Over Boyfriend series of porno films (*drums fingers and sighs*)). There are aspects of lesbian sex that are very different from heterosexual sex or even gay male sex. This series helps to exploit that. Once you get past the first two episodes, the show seems to run out of gas. The rest of the shows are essentially uninteresting and while staying on subject; do little to further entice the viewer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 31st, 2007
I don’t care what anyone thinks, A Night at the Roxbury is awesome. Back when Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan would do the skits on Saturday Night Live I loved it, and when the movie came out I pumped. This was back when I was barley a teenager and for me, this one has still got it. The hard part is explaining why this movie is so funny to me and its cult following. It has no real story, character development, etc. But still it manages to keep me laughing, time and time again. I’ll get more into that later, for those of you who haven’t seen A Night at the Roxbury I’ll play it out for you.
It doesn’t really get much simpler than this; Doug (Chris Kattan, Corky Romano) and Steve (Will Ferrell, Blades of Glory) Butabi (Are they brothers? No…. Yes!) love the nightlife, and aspire to be club owners. The only thing is they can’t ever get into any clubs despite there flashy threads and their dad’s BMW. Until one night a chance accident with Richard Grieco (21 Jump Street) leads them into the doors of the infamous Roxbury. Here they meet the clubs owner Benny Zadir (Chazz Palminteri, Running Scared) and hit it off with him and some club girls. The girls of course think they have money, and spend the night with them at Zadir’s house party. The Butabi’s pitch an idea for a club to Mr.Zadir that he loves, but apparently the next morning his assistant Dooey (Colin Quinn, Saturday Night Live) says that wasn’t the first time he picked up some losers and dumped them the next day. Everything seems to be falling apart for the Butabi brothers, can they get it together? Wow that makes this movie sound a whole lot more dramatic than it is.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 31st, 2007
Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs) is a successful engineer who recently discovers his wife’s infidelity. He becomes aware that she has been sleeping with a police detective, which pushes Ted to the point of shooting his wife. Initially he confesses to the crime, and it looks to be an easy win for rising star district attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling, The Notebook). This is of course until Ted redacts his confession and engages in a battle of wits with Beachum. After enticing the arresting officer and adulterer into attacking him in the courtroom Ted’s case begins to look optimistic. Eventually he is acquitted of his charges and Beachum becomes obsessed with the case knowing that Ted is guilty. He literally puts his career on the line to find out what happened and even tries speaking with Ted’s comatose wife.
Fracture is one of those movies that I really wanted to like, but I couldn’t. The story wasn’t very intriguing and it just seemed to drag on and on with no real closure. As well, for a movie claiming to be suspenseful I can’t even recall one time where I was holding my breath. But despite the film having what I thought was a pretty weak script, the acting all around was quite impressive. In each performance he makes Ryan Gosling gets better and better, I think this Canadian native has quite a bright future ahead. I don’t think I need to mention that Anthony Hopkins played a terrific role as well, and they really paired up nicely. But great acting couldn’t save Fracture which was ultimately to stale. Not to say it was a complete waste of time either, this movie is worth checking out once but I couldn’t recommend it being worth a purchase.
