Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 2nd, 2005
Man on Fire is a stylish thriller with excellent performances at the heart. Denzel Washington plays Creasey, an ex CIA/assassin who is too tired of the killing. Now out of the game, Creasey sticks to drinking in Mexico City. Enter Rayburn, an old buddy (played by the wonderful Christopher Walken). He has a potential job for the down and out Creasey. A string of abductions and kidnappings in the city (Mexico City is the real life kidnap capital of the world) forces a young industrialist (Marc Anthony)and h...s wife (Radha Mitchell)to hire Creasy as a bodyguard for their 10 year old daughter Pita (played by Dakota Fanning). Well...let's just say...the bodyguarding doesn't go too well. And Creasey needs to find Pita before it's too late.
Man on Fire is directed by Tony Scott. Scott is a stylist, and the movie definitely has stylistic excess. But this is the man who invented stylistic excess with Top Gun. But Scott is more successful when he has great actors to inhabit his stylish canvas, True Romance and Crimson Tide are great examples. Scott has become more "modern" with his use of jump cuts and freaky camera angles. It's a dizzying experience, but thankfully this over the top effort is fleshed out by the excellent performances of Denzel and Dakota Fanning (she will be a star one day). The movie is way too long (2 and a half hours for a genre thriller??). But the peformances and the script (by Mystic River's Brian Helgeland) hold Scott's over direction in check.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 2nd, 2005
Synopsis
Steve McQueen is Doc McCoy, master thief. Having just been denied parole, he asks wife Ali McGraw to make a bargain with political fixer Ben Johnson to get him out. This she does, but what McQueen doesn’t realize is that the deal not only involved McQueen’s participation in a bank job, but also McGraw sleeping with Johnson. In short order, the robbery goes wrong, and husband and wife are on the run.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 1st, 2005
Season Eight of MASH was most notable as the year one of the most beloved characters left the series. Radar, that down-home country boy, was perhaps the most reality based character in the run of the series. I’ve spoken to many G.I.’s who have informed me that the company clerk really runs any Army outfit. Radar had an element of innocence and sincerity that was skillfully portrayed by Gary Burghoff. Burghoff was the only cast member from the original film to reprise his role for the series. Year Eight would feature the first of a few appearances by Alan Alda’s real life father and 1950’s film star Robert Alda.
As miraculous as an 8 year run might be for any sitcom, MASH still had 3 additional seasons to go before leaving while still artistically on the ball. MASH set the stage for multiple cast changes long before Dick Wolf would claim the practice as his own invention with Law and Order. By the time the series ended, only three actors from that first episode remained: Alan Alda, Jamie Farr, and Loretta Switt. (While the character of Father Mulcahy appeared in the pilot, a different actor portrayed him.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 31st, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 31st, 2005
We now have the full I, Robot experience with this new “All Access Collector’s Edition”. We have more a lot more supplements but, unfortunately, the movie is not improved. It’s still a fun couple of hours though. I, Robot follows the story of Will Smith (and his character name, if that matters, is Detective Spooner) as he tries to solve the murder of a robotics scientist (James Cromwell). Smith must overcome his prejudice against robots, as he tries to solve the case.
There are a lot of “c...ol” scenes, and I really enjoyed the universe created by Alex Proyas. One of Proyas’ previous films, Dark City, is a startling work of imagination. The special effects are very modern, but the story is as creaky as an old rocking chair. We’ve seen all this before: the chases, the one note characterizations, the one-liners, the Will Smith-ism. This is ain’t Bad Boys. The movie is caught between an intelligent futuristic tale and a Will Smith vehicle. The two cancel each other out. What’s left is a watered down film that’s only “suggested” by Isaac Asimov’s original work. Fans didn’t seem to mind though. The excellent box office summer receipts proved that Will Smith is still a force to be reckoned with. I enjoyed I, Robot, but I took it for what it was…and not as it should be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 28th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Irritable, repressed Sylvia Stickles (Tracy Ullman) is conked on the head, and the concussiontransforms her into a sexual dynamo, one of the followers of sexual healer and prophet Ray-Ray(Johnny Knoxville). The streets of Baltimore are the battleground of a culture war between theanti-sex Neuters, led by Sylvia’s mother-in-law Big Ethel, and the forces of the polymorphouslyperverse. The result is a little bit like a George Romero zombie movie, where getting headingthe bonked transf...rms you back and forth between human and zombie. Here, the Neuters are thezombies.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 25th, 2005
East Meets West
I don’t know a great deal about Korean cinema, but I imagine that H must have been a milestone in the Korean film industry – a distinctly Korean interpretation of a Western tradition. H is a dark psychological murder mystery, thriller, and suspense film, best compared to The Silence of the Lambs, or Kiss the Girls - not what one expects from the other side of the Pacific. There’s no martial arts to be found, and no running through trees, and pseudo-mystical mum...o-jumbo is just as Western as Se7en. Never once does a sword fight break out, and no wise, old monastic sages are ever consulted.
