Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 20th, 2005
The Matrix (1999) was a landmark film in the Sci-Fi genre. While it’s box office intake was dwarfed by Episode 1, it was The Matrix that had people talking. Andy and Larry Wachowski’s story of a post-apocalyptic world where humans serve as biological generators of energy for the machines that rule the planet, challenged people’s perceptions of what reality was.
In addition to the well crafted story, The Matrix was well known for the creation of one of the most copied special eff...cts shots currently in movie production, “bullet time” blew audiences away. The normally wooden acting of Keanu Reaves seemed to fit Neo’s transformation well and the performances by the supporting cast (Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Ann Moss) were visceral in their appeal. The Matrix was a box office success – the production budget was $63 million and the domestic gross was $171 million.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2005
In the world of television spinoffs it is rare that the newer material will live up to that which spawned it. All In The Family holds the record for number of spinoffs and coincidentally produced the most memorable. Frasier was an instant hit after Cheers. But how many of you remember After-MASH or Beverly Hills Buntz?
Angel, to anyone living under a rock, dates back to the pilot episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I recently took another look at that maiden appearance. Who says vampires don’t age? This i... going to be heresy for some of you, but Angel is a far superior show. The darker tones and the good sense to stay away from the Scooby Doo Club antics made it a show to be taken more seriously. That was until Season 5.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 19th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 17th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 16th, 2005
The barometer for those interested in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts is usually whether or not they liked Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. Hell, it’s the question I posed to my fiancée when we were trying to figure out what to watch over the Thanksgiving holiday. The comparisons are pretty conventional; both are large ensemble films with intertwined plotlines set in California, both have a 3 hour runtime. Both even have Julianne Moore in predominant roles.
Based on short stories by Raymond Carver...and written by Altman, many of the characters in Short Cuts are reprehensible turds, let’s face it. You’ve got the policeman/husband and father of three Gene (Tim Robbins, The Player), who frequently cheats on his wife Sherri (Madeline Stowe, Stakeout), and even drops off the family dog hundreds of miles from home because he barks too much at Gene. Gene pulls over women at traffic stops to get phone numbers, one of whom may have been Betty (Frances MacDormand, Fargo), who is separated from her pilot husband Stormy (Peter Gallagher, The OC). Jazz singer Tess (Annie Ross, Pump Up the Volume) frequently drinks and never provides any encouraging words to her daughter Zoe (Lori Singer, Footloose). Limo driver Earl (Tom Waits) is a drinker who frequently berates his wife Doreen (Lily Tomlin, Nashville).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2005
Many seem to rule surfing out of hand as some sort of pastime for burnouts, potheads, or life’s free spirits. But Bruce Brown helped shine a light onto the sport with his release of 1966’s The Endless Summer, a landmark release that still is highly revered by people to this day for the revolutionary photography and its ability to capture the awesome feats of nature. And where some studios put out near-annual sequels, Brown waited 28 years to get his done, appropriately titled The Endless Summer II, repr...sing many more of the stunning visuals and amazing camera shots from the first. Bruce’s son Dana picks up from that film, and produces another film similar in style and substance to the first, although with a more hippie-ish title in Step Into Liquid.
The movie is about, well, surfing. There’s not too much more than that. Both in the Endless Summer II and Step Into Liquid films, Bruce and Dana combine the trademark Brown visuals with the usual “betcha didn’t know they surfed here” locations ranging from Galveston, Texas to Vietnam, shooting holes of truth through Robert Duvall’s immortal quote in Apocalypse Now, that Charlie does surf after all. The movie also shows you some of the current names of surfing, from ex-Baywatch actor (and multiple World surfing champ) Kelly Slater, to longtime big wave seeker Laird Hamilton. And the other main parts of substance have to do with the simple passion that some surfers have (like Dale Webster, who have caught waves once a day for over 10,000 days) or the joy that new people have when introduced to surfing for the first time (such as a group of Catholic and Protestant children who were united for a lesson). The movie culminates with a desire to catch waves in the Pacific, some of them reaching over 60 feet in height. At the end of the day though, the movie is about surfing, plain and simple, and the fascinating pictures nature can give us.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 15th, 2005
Kwai Chang Caine is back for another season of mayhem and mistaken-accusations on the second season of Kung Fu. How is it that trouble never ceases to track this guy down? It seems that every episode begins with Caine walking along, minding his own business, and the next thing you know, he is accused of murder. It would be ridiculous, if it wasn’t so fun to watch!
The themes of these episodes have evolved from the basics covered in season one. In the first season, racism was a dominant theme of the s...ow. In season two, religion seems to have taken the top spot, as we get to see the Shaolin Priest spend time interacting with various other religions. These themes add a new philosophical depth to the show not previously encountered. In addition to the expansion of the mental boundaries, the physical realm becomes more active as well, as Cane seems to be less reluctant to hold back the power of his physical skills from well-deserving foes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 15th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 13th, 2005
I may have been late to the rapidly growing bandwagon of admirers of the TV comedy Arrested Development, though it was kinda cool to see David Cross (Mr. Show) get onto a network show that would have appeared to been lucky to stay around for a whole season, in a sitcom where the main character was played by Jason Bateman. I mean, Jason Bateman! A guy who was known as Justine’s brother who bounced around from sitcom to sitcom and was virtually off the radar, playing bit parts in other harmless comedies. ...nd as it turns out, the product of a great ensemble cast, including Jeffrey Tambor (The Larry Sanders Show) and a very underrated Will Arnett, Arrested Development has grown into appointment television.
Bateman plays Michael Bluth, son of George (Tambor), the head of a company thrown in jail for stealing money from the company he started, and maybe committing some “light treason.” Michael is the responsible one, who works to try and get his father out of jail, for his mother (Walter) to produce some of the secrets of the company, for his older brother George Oscar Bluth (or GOB for short) to regain good standing in a magician’s alliance he founded, and for his twin sister Lindsay (Portia De Rossi, Ally McBeal) to stop spending so much money, and be a wife to her husband Tobias (Cross) and her daughter Maeby. What makes things ironic is that for all of Michael’s positioning on making himself the rock of the family while George is in prison, he also screws up pretty significantly from time to time when running the business, and he looks to his jailed dad for help.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 8th, 2005
Admittedly when I first saw The Fifth Element, I wasn't too impressed by it, though Chris Tucker (Friday) did provide some good comedic moments, and it was nice to see Ian Holm (Lord of the Rings) return to major films also. I mainly thought that Bruce Willis had gone a bit silly with this one with dyed blonde head hair, in yet another action movie.
Upon further inspection however, the movie contains a lot of the breathtaking action that has made Frenchman Luc Besson's films (Leon>) as unique as they are. Written by Besson, the movie focuses on the title character (object?), when connected with the other elements (fire, water, earth and air), will prevent ultimate evil from ruling Earth. And when evil rules earth, light becomes dark, life becomes death, you get the idea. Every so often evil tries to come and destroy earth, and the elements must unite together to stop it. Willis is Korben Dallas, a former elite government soldier who became a taxi driver, has a modest apartment with a cat (his wife left with his lawyer, leaving him with nothing). His mission? Well, let's be frank, it's to save the world. The Fifth Element, a.k.a. Leeloo, played by Milla Jovovich (The Messenger) is played with equal parts comedy and action, combined with a brief (and somewhat unnecessary) glimpse at the end of her emotions, when she views a montage of war footage. The elements are represented as stones in the movie, and the “art dealer” Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman, Sid and Nancy) attempts to do what he can to obtain the stones. He works for a buyer who sounds a lot like Bob Guccione or Barry White, but maybe is symbolized as Evil itself?
