Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 23rd, 2007
By the time of the fifth James Bond film, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli decided to shake things up a bit creatively. Star Sean Connery was probably getting a little antsy inhabiting the suits and drinking the martinis and feared getting pigeonholed (sorry Sean) and announced he was stepping away from the role. However, he still had one more in him, and with You Only Live Twice there was a definite change in style. It may have been based on Ian Fleming's novel, but it was adapted for the screen by Roald Dahl, of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame. Lewis Gilbert began the first of his three Bond adventures as director of the Bond films, and in a surprise, Freddie Young took the cinematographer reins, quite a change of pace for the collaborator of such David Lean classics as Lawrence of Arabia.
Moreover, I think You Only Live Twice is probably one o the first Bond films I can recall seeing, growing up back in the day. It's probably because the pre-opening sequence where the spacewalking astronaut gets swallowed by the satellite always stuck with me, who knew? However, the bigger surprise should probably be that there was a pretty good story along with that stunt. In this installment of the film (out of order from the original intent of the producers, who wanted to shoot On Her Majesty's Secret Service), James goes to Japan to continue to thwart the attempts of SPECTRE and Blofeld (Donald Pleasance, Halloween). And because James is in Japan and is as obvious as any tall Englishman can be in Japan, there are some subtle things to make him blend more with the people and the culture.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 22nd, 2007
The Last King of Scotland generated quite a bit of buzz at this year�s Oscars, most notably the performance by Forest Whitaker. Based upon the book of the same name, which was in turn based upon the Ugandan dictator between 1970 and 1979; Idi Amin. Although the movie involves a completely fictional protagonist it apparently shadows the life of Idi Amin quite well, which offers a nice mix of fiction and reality.
Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) recently graduated from medical school and decides to lead his expertise to a small countryside hospital in Uganda. Just upon arriving, a new dictator has stepped into office by force, Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) who is greatly admired by the people. One day while in the area, Amin is involved in a small car accident and Garrigan begins treating him. A nearby cow injured from the accident is suffering and his noises begin distracting Garrigan who very boldly grabs Amin�s pistol and kills the cow. Amin appears to be offended, but when he hears that Garrigan is from Scotland, a country he respects and Amin begins to admire Garrigan. Initially Amin seems like a great guy out to improve his country; Garrigan even becomes his personal physician and his most trusted advisor. But as the story proceeds we learn more and more of Amin�s corruption and brutal ways, causing alarm for even the always-loyal Garrigan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 22nd, 2007
Zac is the fourth of five sons in a Montreal family, growing up in the 60s and 70s. He’s sensitive, and rather more in touch with his feminine qualities than his father (very macho, though a huge fan of Patsy Cline) would like. The film then tracks Zac’s struggle to accept the direction his sexuality takes, to accept himself, and to once again find his father’s acceptance.
Lord knows that rock music is more than the soundtrack of our teenage years; it’s the narration. And so it is here for Zac, with the Rolling Stones (“Sympathy for the Devil”), David Bowie (“Space Oddity”) and Pink Floyd (“Shine On You Crazy Diamond”) taking pride of place, setting up a dialogue with Zac’s father’s own life soundtrack (Patsy Cline and Charles Aznavour). By turns moving and funny, but always ringing true, this is a quietly remarkable film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 21st, 2007
Eragon is based upon the best selling book, which was written by then nineteen-year-old Christopher Paolini. This film was met with much hype, but initially to me seemed to be another generic Lord of the Rings type rip-off, with the addition of a dragon. Not usually my type of movie, but The Lord of the Rings trilogy did more that just amaze me maybe Eragon has a trick or two up its sleeve.
Right from the beginning Eragon starts off shaky, a storyline that seems too have been done a hundred times before; a mesh of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Eragon is a seventeen-year-old farm boy living in the village of Carvahall in the fictional world of Alagaesia. One night, while out hunting, he stumbles upon a dragon�s egg. At first unsure of what�s really going on, Eragon becomes enlightened that he is the chosen one to save his kingdom. It turns out that before the dark ages of Alagaesia�s dark ruler the land was ruled by Dragon Riders, who are just as they�re called, people who ride dragons. The evil king Galbatroix (John Malkovich) sends his evil minion and sorcerer Durza (Robert Carlyle) to kill Eragon and his dragon as they pose a threat to his dark rule of the kingdom. While trying to unite with the remaining rebels, Eragon is trained by Brom (Jeremy Irons) in the arts of magic, combat, and dragon riding.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 20th, 2007
Ben Affleck is a good actor. So why does he make so many bad choices? I can understand how mistakes like Pearl Harbor could happen on the front end, but how do you explain the fact that he did wonderful work in Hollywoodland and he shows up in a low-budget film like this one all in the same year? He was wonderful in Good Will Hunting and ate up every scene he was in in Boiler Room. Then he did Gigli. This guy is all over the place.
What's frustrating is that he's pretty good...even here, in a film that is overwhelmingly bland. Our man plays a talent agent who is having a crisis of personality. He has lost his confidence, his marriage is falling apart, and there's some unfortunate business with a personal journal. In fact, it's the journal that is the crux of the film. Journal, journal, journal. Practically the entire film is told in voice over. The only thing that I can imagine that is more bland than reading the journal of a no-talent Hollywood agent is hearing the guy read it to you himself.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 19th, 2007
Cupt Epics here presents five films identified as "underground" (a fluid term at the best of times). Certainly, they are all deliberately transgressive, though not all are equally successful. Two are by Nico B. - the perviously released "Pig" and "Hollywood Babylon." The former has been reviewed here before, but briefly, its catalogue of murder and S&M horrors, working out a killer's fantasies, is rather too self-conscious about its own transgression. The latter is a 4-minute tribute to Kenneth Anger, taking in exhibits at the Museum of Death. It's not a bad little piece, but it is interesting to note that its existence confirms once and for all that now even the underground film community has an established history to look back on. "Dislandia" is a half-hour, plotless portrayal of a little girl (whose face is covered in a mask) doing odd things and moving through a gritty, disconnected landscape. Interesting visually, the film is sufficiently obscure in its goals that one's mind does begin to wander. "Adoration," on the other hand, is gruelling, brutal, intelligent and effective. Based on an actual case, we see a young man invite a woman to his apartment, record her reading poetry, then kill and eat her. All of this is seen through the eyes of a camera he has place on a wall. The unblinking gaze is explicitly equated with the audience's own, and many uneasy questions about art and voyeurism are thus raised. Finally, "Le poéme" is the one that most viewers will find hardest to deal with: we watch an actual autopsy while listening to the poem "Le bateau ivre" by Arthur Rimbaud. Difficult though the film is, it is also, like "Adoration," quite beautiful.Audio
The sound is 2.0, and the actual sound quality depends primarily on the source material. In fact, "Adoration" is largely silent. But at any rate, the overall audio quality is perfectly satisfactory. There isn't too much by way of surround, and what emerges from the rear speakers isn't always perfectly placed, but the job is generally quite effectively done.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 18th, 2007
The Pursuit of Happyness is inspired by the true story of Chris Gardner, who wrote a biography of the same name, from which the movie is based. Will Smith plays Gardner who is a salesman of medical equipment, who actually only manages to sell the odd unit. Because of his poor sales, his family is struggling making it from bill to bill, until finally his wife becomes so fed up she packs up and leaves for New York. Gardner is now left by his request, with his five-year-old son Christopher. With the untimely loss...of their apartment, Chris has to make a hard decision; pursue the career path of a stock broker which requires six months training with no pay and no employment guarantee, or continue the life as a salesman in hope of earning enough to put food on the table. After a short time of deliberation Chris chooses to go after the internship, but endures some real hardships along the way including going hungry and homelessness.
This film is really inspirational, it proves that no matter where you’re from and no matter the circumstances that you face if you want something you can have it. The acting was impressive by Will Smith, but I was more impressed with the ability of young Jaden Smith who will obliviously be following in his father’s footsteps. Aside from the great cast and intense realism of the life on the streets this movie provides a good plot, and sends out a good message. This movie ultimately has a positive vibe to it and it beings such a touching story I have a hard time saying this, but it wasn’t awfully engaging. I felt for the characters, but the story dragged on a bit and didn’t always keep me interested, it’s the sort of movie that is going to be hit and miss. Some people will love it and call it inspirational, will others will simply shrug and say it was like any other underdog movie. For me personally I thought it was better than I anticipated, but wasn’t a perfect movie, but definitely worth checking out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 17th, 2007
James Caan is a sailor whose stopover in Seattle becomes much longer than he expects, as first he has to wait for new orders when a medical exam forces him to miss shipping out with his crewmates, and then his records disappear. During this time, he meets Marsha Mason, a prostitute with an 11-year-old son. Caan falls for both of them, and a finely developed sense of responsibility sees him moving heaven and earth to make life good for all three. His task won’t be an easy one.
On the one hand, the film has the quality common in films of this era (it’s from 1973) to take its time and soak the audience in a convincingly quirky ambiance. Screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan (adapting his own novel) and director Mark Rydell have fun bouncing the various characters off each other, and we have fun as they do so. But the further into the film we go, the more predictable everything becomes, until there is a generalized collapse into hackneyed melodrama. Ponicsan also wrote the book that The Last Detail was based on, and here, as there, he seems incapable of conceiving of female characters who are not prostitutes (that is, when they are not needy, self-absorbed, neurotic, self-destructive prostitutes). The film has fine performances, is crafted well, but is also badly flawed at its core.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2007
I can't say I'm too familiar with The Last Unicorn, I mean overall, animated children's films were in the midst of a decline in the '80s. However my wife was more than familiar with it and enjoyed it a lot growing up. And Lion's Gate has presumably cleaned up the film and thrown some extras on it just in time for the film's 25th anniversary.
Based on a novel by Peter Beagle and directed by the animation team of Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin (who helped produced such shows as the stop motion of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and The Hobbit animated version back in the '60s and '70s), the unicorn in question is named, well, Unicorn (voiced by Mia Farrow, The Omen), who walks around rather peacefully in the countryside. She is captured by a witch and is released by her assistant named Schmendrick (Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine). So when Schmendrick and Unicorn are threatened by an ominous red bull, he turns her into a mortal named Amalthea, who finds love by Prince Lir (Jeff Bridges, Tron) and finds out why she was the last unicorn from King Haggard (Christopher Lee, The Lord of the Rings).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 15th, 2007
No matter where you grew up or what books you�ve read, you have undoubtedly come across the workings of William Shakespeare, and especially his Romeo and Juliet. This film takes the dialogue from the original play pretty much word for word but depicts it in a more modern time, with, of course, then-teen heart throbs Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as our star-crossed lovers.
Instead of swords and castles, there are guns and skyscrapers. The famous opening argument with Benvolio, Tybalt and Mercuteo is a public firefight that kicks off the film. For the few of you who are unfamiliar with Romeo and Juliet, it�s a love story about two young people who are forbidden to love each other because of their families. For as long as anyone can remember, the Capulets and Montagues have shared a mutual hatred for one another. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, meet and share a passionate love for one another but are forever bound to secrecy as no one in either family could accept this love connection � the hate runs too deep. The story deals with the tribulations of love in the midst of hate, and the couple�s eventual decline.
