Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 20th, 2006
Synopsis
Set in an imaginary European country on the verge of war, in a vague time period that is approximately Edwardian, this is the story of Sophie, a young girl who encounters Howl, the handsome wizard who lives in a gigantic, clattering contraption of a mobile castle. The interest Howl has in Sophie arouses the angry jealousy of the Witch of the Waste (voiced by Lauren Bacall in the English dub), who curses Sophie with instant old age. Sophie, no longer recognized by Howl, takes up residence in ...is castle and sets about transforming all within, perhaps ultimately freeing Howl of his own curse.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2006
The genre of Thrillers and Suspense are usually categorized by types of films that the viewer watches and then wonders what they just watched. Films like Memento and The Machinist are prime examples of this. Both films, after many viewings, are excellent films solely because they require that the viewer think of each scene with careful scrutiny making note of each and everything on the screen. Both films end with the type of ending that doesn’t necessarily satisfy on the first viewing, but ultimately sa...isfies after many viewings. Add the film Stay to this list of films.
Henry Lethem (Ryan Gosling) is an art student at a university who plays to kill himself in three days, that is unless his psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) can figure him out to stop his plan. Foster soon learns that Lethem is starting to hear voices, voices that are telling him to do things. But the enjoyment for Foster doesn’t end here as Lethem starts experiencing horrifying visions of pain. Lethem seems to be able to see the future at least as he knows everything that is going to occur a bit before it does. When Foster asks if they’ll meet again when Lethem informs him that he’ll kill himself, he declares “Yeah, there’s still three more days’. While the concept of seeing into the future before your ‘death’ is nothing new, I always find it to be interesting how every movie plays this angle out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2006
Synopsis
Sometimes Disney will release a film that provides feelings of nostalgia to a lot of people. And other times they release shows onto DVD that make me realize just how old I am. When Disney’s Goof Troop was released onto DVD, my wife said the most horrible thing I’ve heard her say so far: “I used to watch that show growing up.” Keeping in mind that Goof Troop aired from 1992-1993, that statement probably says more about her than it does me, it still didn’t make me feel good. For God’s...sake, I was of drinking age when this aired!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2006
Synopsis
The world greatest rock band’s story about the rise to power, born from Satan, and ready to rock the world, may not be as accurate as one would perceive. As Jack Black and Kyle Gass (Jables and KG to those in the know), Tenacious D received a small run of episodes during the HBO series Mr. Show in 1999 that resulted in good word of mouth for the pair. It was only until last year, when the long-awaited first album finally dropped, that the world discovered just how good they were. And the alb...m is a very good indoctrination for new fans, and for longtime fans of the D, some of what they had seen was presented on the album in a surprising, but pleasant arrangement, featuring guest appearances by the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and produced by The Dust Brothers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 17th, 2006
Anthology films are a good training ground for young filmmakers to flex their muscles and really get creative. However, with Eros, the three filmmakers have already been around the block a time or two, and on the surface, that could be considered a good thing. But when you consider what Michaelangelo Antonioni, Steven Soderbergh, and Kar-Wai Wong, are already capable of, these shorts seem a bit of a letdown. The best segment is Soderbergh’s “Equilibrium,” with its symbolic stylistic effects and wry sense of hu...or. It was the only one of these vignettes, which seemed neither cliché (“The Hand” – Kar-Wai) nor pointless (“The Dangerous Thread of Things” – Antonioni). In “Equilibrium,” Robert Downey Jr. plays a man caught up in an ambiguous dream world, who explains his situation to an eccentric psychiatrist (Alan Arkin). Arkin’s psychiatrist is a capable man, but he often uses his patients’ discussion time to do other less constructive things (i.e. stare out the window with binoculars, fly paper airplanes to the street below, etc.). The whole time, he is equally capable of dispensing advice and helping his patients get to the root of their issues. There are three color schemes in this segment (black-and-white; all blue, natural), all of which add artistic flare by making each portion a genre in and of itself. And in the blue portion (Downey’s recurring dream), the camera bobs slowly from side to side, giving an off-equilibrium effect, which is contrasted in the other two portions.
In “The Hand,” Kar-Wai proves himself a quality director, while the story of fading love and devotion rekindled for one final farewell lacks the intrigue of similar – and better executed – works. However, the performances by the two lead stars are solid. Unfortunately, even that perk is missing from the uninspired Antonioni contribution. “The Dangerous Thread of Things,” meanders about with all the importance of a porno (but without the excessive sex and nudity those, who might find such fare entertaining, are interested in seeing). It’s not a flattering introduction to the works of the great Italian director. As for storytelling, I’m not sure he even attempted to dabble in it here. Stick with Blow-Up, if you want a primer on Antonioni.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2006
Biographies are nothing brand new. Hollywood has been making these types of films for quite sometime. Some of the more famous biographies are about people like George S. Patton and political leader Ghandi. Most recently, audiences were invited into the world of Truman Capote. The two aforementioned biographies tended to cast actors that seemed not to necessarily play the person, but more so become the character almost channeling him. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, like George C. Scott and Ben Kingsley, channels Capote in a...rare and artful manner.
The film version of Capote tells the story of Truman Capote who on November 15th, 1959, noticed a news item about four members of a Kansas family who had been shot-gunned to death. Capote telephoned William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker, wondering if Shawn would be interested in an article about the murders. It was later said, by Capote, that this was a big mistake of his as this sole event resulted in the occurrence of a lot of bad events for one Capote.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 16th, 2006
Synopsis
This is a portrait of the rookie year of Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball superstar who is imported to play for the Houston Rockets. He arrives not just with the expectations associated with being a first-draft pick, but also with the hopes of (we are told) one billion countrymen on his shoulders. His debut is a disaster, but he soon establishes himself as a force to be reckoned with, as well as charming American fans with his self-effacing personality and humour.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2006
Director Pete Red Sky conducts a small, but capable cast in the psychodrama The White Horse Is Dead. Some bits of dialogue hit sour notes, but the cast, which consists of Resmine Atis, Andrew Welsh, and Irina Stemer, hold their own through the rough parts and truly elevate this flawed rendering of an otherwise intriguing – and sordid – tale. Atis plays Naya, daughter to Giselle (a domineering and beautiful hypochondriac), and at the film’s opening, we see she’s the kind of girl, who would do most anything to p...ease her mother. Inheritors of a rather large estate left to them following Naya’s father’s suicide, Giselle and Naya get along in quiet seclusion, so long as Naya does everything her mother says. Stemer injects a realistic sinister quality into the role of Giselle, but just how sinister she is, we never imagine until the film’s conclusion – a conclusion helped along by the arrival of sympathetic ex-con Vincent (Welsh), whom Giselle hires to upkeep the estate grounds. He does a lot more than that, striking up a relationship with Naya, and causing her to question everything about her past, which has been largely influenced by Giselle’s version of things. As Naya becomes more aware of her mother’s flaws, she starts to rebel and brings out the worst in Mommy Dearest. Atis is a revelation in the role of Naya, and it would be hard for me to imagine this young lady not having a long, fruitful career. Welsh shows some incredible range as well, and Stemer is a formidable antagonist for these two young lovers. As previously stated, there are some pieces of amateurish dialogue here and there, but even that is hard to detect under the guidance of these stars. And Red Sky’s direction rises above that of a typical first-time director. Out of the ordinary and sometimes over-the-top, indie fans will love what he’s done with his debut.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2006
Take every Catholic movie cliché you can find, wrap them up in a weak and predictable murder-mystery, throw in Christian Slater and Stephen Rea as they struggle for some semblance of the glory their careers once held, release direct-to-DVD, and you have The Confessor. Slater plays a priest struggling with his own faith, to the point he hasn’t prayed in years. His primary purpose to the Catholic Church is as a fundraiser for whatever causes they deem necessary to support. Of course, all of his higher-ups are st...dgy old men more grounded in public relations than decent living, and he grows more at odds with them as he delves deeper into the death of a disgraced (but, of course, innocent) priest, who is accused of a murder he didn’t commit, which leads to his mysterious death while awaiting trial. When Slater takes over the priest’s parish, he comes to terms with his own human frailties and finds out all his suspicions about the dead predecessor’s innocence are true – but if he didn’t do it, who did? That’s an answer you shouldn’t have any difficulty figuring out.
While the film lacks entertainment value, it is a useful training ground for Molly Parker, the lead actress (or “actor in a female role” for you strict readers). As the love interest of Slater, she commands attention, more so than any of the rest of this washed-up cast. And as for the rest of the cast, it isn’t that their performances are awful – they are simply too bored with the script to inject any passion into it. Everyone but Parker is doing no more than collecting a paycheck, and I certainly can’t blame them, because the script – with its amateurish expository dialogue containing lines that reiterate exactly what you’re seeing through the characters’ actions – is too poor to secure a green-light for production, much less the attached talent’s hard work and ingenuity. Now grant it, with horror stories about Hollywood ruining good scripts being a dime a dozen, it may not have been the writer’s fault – but the fact remains, the script is the film’s greatest drawback.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2006
In the first few years of the nineties, hip-hop singer/movie actress Queen Latifah headlined her own comedy show called Living Single. The show went on to last for five seasons. Although it never won much acclaim or any big awards, the show still had viewers. The basic premise for the show saw the day to day life of four twenty-something year old girlfriends and their two male neighbors.
In each episode, the cast sorted out its various issues with life. They also found time to find problems with eve...ything and also found time to overreact in nearly every situation. The show was might to show how normal people deal with everyday life. While I didn’t find the show to be constant laughter, I did find myself enjoying the show for what it was worth.
