Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 7th, 2005
Synopsis
Three of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fantastic tales were made into an opera by Jacques Offenbach, and that opera was in turn transformed into this 1951 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Robert Rounseville takes the lead as a fictional version of Hoffmann himself. While pining after a ballerina, whose love is being stolen from him by an evil aristocrat, he spins three tales of unrequited and doomed love, where in he falls in love first with an automaton, then a soul-stealing (literally) c...urtesan, and then with a consumptive singer. Light as the music often is, and explosively colourful as the fantastic sets are, there is still a lot of darkness in the film, as befits the subject matter (the automaton story, for instance, is based on “The Sandman,” possibly Hoffmann’s creepiest tale). An entirely sung film won’t find favour with every audience, but this is a very effective transposition to cinema (it isn’t stagy at all), and is a visually unique work of art.
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 Archive Authors on December 7th, 2005
Written by Clayton Self
Legends of the Fall is one of those movies that sets its own standards for greatness and actually achieves them. That is very rare in cinema. Legends has a great Director, Edward Zwick, who brought the recent hit The Last Samurai. The performances are amazing, and the cinematography superb. This is a movie that has aged very well since its release in December of 1994. So, here we are eleven years later, with a movie that still captures the heart.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 7th, 2005
Written by Clayton Self
Batman Begins is a brand new and WAY cooler take on the Dark Knight franchise than anything we’ve seen before. Most importantly, this is NOT a prequel to any of the previous four Batman films. This is a fresh start for the franchise, and it gets done the way it should have been done in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, Burton made two very dark and original films, but let’s face it; Batman Returns sent children bawling out of the theatre, and left parents with a sour taste in their mouth. That mo...ie is the reason Batman Forever and Batman & Robin were so, how do I say this without being mean? Campy. Tragically campy. Needless to say, those films drove the nail through the coffin for that particular story line. But thanks to Christopher Nolan (Memento/Insomnia) we have a new Batman film that puts the dark knight on the silver screen in a very dominating way.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Titus De Voogdt, Delfine Bafort, and Johan Heldenbergh head a mostly forgettable cast, which tends to fall so far into the background, you'll often forget more than just three actors are in Steve + Sky... and for what it's worth, I believe this stems more from the supporting cast's lack of charisma than it does from any real star power the three headliners bring to the table. The film is more of an inciting situation which throws Steve and Sky together, followed by randomly pointless character bits, which stil... could have worked had either star been in the least bit interesting. De Voogdt does the best he can with the main role, but unfortunately, his Steve acts with little-to-no rhyme or reason, and ends up condemning the film's status as a mindless romp through the lives of two deadbeat characters.
I don't have to like characters to enjoy a film, but I must feel drawn in to their plight, if for nothing more than to see them get their just desserts. With Steve + Sky, the film plods along in an effort to achieve "character piece" status, but all that's really accomplished is they simply "do stuff" for an overly long 100 minutes, when writer-director Felix Van Groeningen finally -- and mercifully -- calls an end to the proceedings. At the end of this ride, I honestly wondered what point the film had just made that hadn't already been made far better by many a crappy film. Hopefully, Van Groeningen's next effort will focus more on storytelling aspects in addition to his characters, and less on the aimless A.D.D. brain droppings that too often pass for good cinema, both here and abroad.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Synopsis
Robert Redford narrates, but his on-screen avatar is Craig Sheffer. He and Brad Pitt are the sons of Presbyterian minister Tom Skerritt. The sons react to their stern father’s teachings in different ways. Sheffer is the good boy who becomes the scholar, while Pitt is the hell-raising journalist with the bad gambling debts. But both brothers do inherit their father’s love of fly fishing, and that is the act that bonds the three men together.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Synopsis
This series has a clever conceit, being a sequel to the 1953 version of H.G. Wells’ novel. In the present, a terrorist group breaks into the base where the Martian corpses and war machines are being held. Turns out the Martians aren’t dead after all, and they revive to re-embark on their quest to conquer the Earth. In a budget-conscious move, part of this plan of attack consists in possessing the minds of humans, thus hugely diminishing the effects budget. So new viewers shouldn’t expect any...hing like the recent theatrical film, or even too much like the 1953 film, either. There is plenty of action, and a number of other clever ideas in the episodes (stars of the original film showing up, plays on the Orson Welles radio program), but plenty of limitations, too.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
While VeggieTales: Lord of the Beans is not my thing, I can certainly see how it would connect with very small children. Parents may also throw Phil Vischer and company some appreciation for the positive messages his bunch tries to present in each VeggieTales special, but something about Vischer and crew's latest doesn't feel right. For one, it's a parody -- and a rather faithful one -- to LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring. While it's fine to parody, I think VeggieTales misses the point with their chosen subject matter. True, Lord of the Rings is a very popular series, but to think the age group this is aimed at is familiar enough with the material to appreciate the parallels is ridiculous.
I'm not saying kids in general are unfamiliar with LOTR, or that they haven't seen it. I'm saying pre-schoolers, who will certainly get the most out of Lord of the Beans are most likely clueless to the material from which this special strives to mine most of its humor. You could say the creators made it a parody for the adults' sake -- and I will admit that was probably most of their intention. But again, Lord of the Beans fails because the humor never rises above a three-year old's mentality. And let's face it, at that age, all you'll probably find funny about VeggieTales is the first appearance of a talking cucumber melon with large eyes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Missouri Breaks starring Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson is an overlooked, under-appreciated western, which succeeds where most films fail -- as first a character study, and last an action piece. Set in Montana, Missouri Breaks tells the story of a fun-loving outlaw (Nicholson) and his comrades (including a much younger Randy Quaid and good old Harry Dean Stanton), who set out on a crime spree as a means of payback against an evil land baron responsible for the death of one of their friends.
eadly revenge is not their first intention, but the stakes are raised when the land baron hires "regulator" Lee Clayton (another reveling work in villainy by Marlon Brando) to teach the boys a lesson. Though Brando does have a tendency to steal every scene he's in, I found it a huge joy watching Nicholson remind me he is capable of more than just O.C.D. eccentricity. His role in the film fits with the snugness and perfection of a glove, to the point that I wish his resume included more westerns than it does.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Happy Endings is one of those films that makes you rethink being a DVD reviewer. I sat through this excursion into pretentious observations about the way the world is, and the way "average people" are, and thought, "Yeah, sure, this is a slice-of-life. I bet." Oh, I don't mean to say the characters' lives are way too screwed up to be believable. Lord knows, under every ordinary average guy... or gal... there lurks a whole slew of skeletons banging their bony fists against the inside of the closet door. But the extent to which these screwed-up folks bang into one another like aimless bumper cars at a county fair makes one say, "Enough already."
Lisa Kudrow heads a weak cast, despite name recognition and the merits I'm sure each of the performers possess. With other capable stars such as Laura Dern, Maggie Gyllenhall, Tom Arnold, and Jason Ritter attached, one would think acting is the least of the film's worries. The problem with that? Everyone gets so caught up in the hipness of it all they come across with obnoxious self-indulgence smeared over their faces like the feces permanently plastered to the walls of my old college dorm's public restroom. And it's as if writer-director Don Roos wants to remove it from that wall, but he feels too intimidated to cross the ex-Phoebe Buffay and Mr. Roseanne Barr.
