Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 9th, 2010
A man dies during what appears to be a botched robbery, and his heart winds up in the needful chest of Josh Lucas, single father to a young daughter with a rare bone disorder. This is obviously a man with more than his share of troubles, but things appear to be turning around. He has a new heart, and his daughter's beautiful doctor (Lena Headey) really likes him. But then, when he crosses the path of a certain paramedic, his heart begins to beat furiously, deafening him. Before long, Lucas realizes that his donor was murdered, and the vengeful heart is leading him to the killers.
Produced by the Scott brothers, Ridley and Tony, this is, as one would expect, a handsome-looking piece, but has none of the editing frenzy that characterizes Tony's work, and for that matter is more of a moody tone poem than is typical of the work of either brother. So director Micheal Cuesta is forging his own identity here, and is aided by genuinely moving performances, especially from Lucas, an actor who seems to be able to move effortlessly between hero and villain roles. Also on hand is Brian Cox, as the detective who realizes what is going on, and for reasons of his own encourages the heart's vendetta. He's always fun to watch, though his hard-boiled character here isn't much of a stretch.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 30th, 2010
Tenure revolves around Charlie Thurber (Luke Wilson) an insecure college professor who is up for a tenure position in his English department. Charlie has an ongoing problem getting his work published and to add a further complication, the university decides to hire another applicant, Elaine Grasso (Gretchen Mol) for the position. Through the competing for the job, Charlie begins to have feelings for Elaine. As their relationship emerges, Charlie needs to make a decision about what his passions are.
The film blends comedy and drama fairly efficiently. The comedy is hammered home with Charlie’s friend Jay (David Koechner). Whether its herbal enhancements or a fruitless pursuit of Bigfoot, no comedic stone is left unturned. The drama is left for the dark and charming Charlie Thurber. Luke Wilson’s performance is bland. He doesn’t showcase much of a range. Even after his deciding moment in the film, audiences are left feeling shortchanged. However, his comedic moments in the film are timed well and his chemistry with Koechner is undeniable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 24th, 2010
Nestled nicely between the appearance of two blockbuster, live-action films, Iron Man was been made into another half-hour animated show. In the past we have seen the origin and tales of the Stan Lee created Tony Stark and his amazing technology be altered in a 90s cartoon show, the Jon Favreau film(s), and a recent animated film, but the developers of these latest “adventures” take the furthest and riskiest leap from the original source material by making Stark a teenager, along with most all of his friends, and some enemies as best friends Rhodey, Pepper and arch enemy the Mandarin (!!!) are converted to high school chums.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2009
Eight-year-old Buddy (T. J. Lowther) likes living in the Alabama countryside with cousing Sook (Julie Harris in a tiny role), but circumstances dictate that he go to New Orleans for Christmas, there to stay with the father he has never seen (Henry Winkler). Old dad is, it turns out, a con artist with an inflated sense of self-importance, currently wooing Swoozie Kurtz, whose mother (Katharine Hepburn) recognizes Winkler for what he is. This being a Christmas movie, hard lessons and redemption will be called for.
At this festive season of the year, studios rummage through their vaults for those films that no one would want to watch at any other time of the year, but will happily do so when even the merest hint of sentiment and the word “Christmas” will apparently be enough to fill us with the warm glow of nostalgia and good cheer. In the movie's defense, it has a more interesting base than most such bargain releases – a Truman Capote story – but it is still a blandly executed made-for-TV pic with some good-looking production and costume design. Lowther, meanwhile, is simply too cold a fish to warm up to as Buddy, and Winkler's performance is both mannered and flat. You're going to have to be pretty undemanding to make it through this one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2009
Kate Frazier (Kelly Macdonald) has fled her abusive husband and begun a new, solitary life for herself in Chicago, where she fends off the romantic interest of a number of men, and the curiosity of a great many people who all want to know how she received her black eye. One night, leaving the office, she sees a man about to jump from a building roof, and her scream startles him, breaking his suicidal trance. The man is Frank Logan (Michael Keaton), a contract killer. No longer interested in killing himself, he tracks down Kate, initially intending to kill her, since (though she doesn't realize this), she saw him moments after a hit. He collapses with pneumonia before he can carry out his plan, and she helps him to the hospital, whereupon a most unlikely relationship begins to bloom between two wounded people.
Since a bit chunk of this film takes place around Christmas, why don't we count it among the Christmas films I'm reviewing just now (the other two being A Christmas Proposal and One Christmas, since nothing says Christmas quite like a suicidal hit man. The thing is, this is far and away the best of the three movies in question. Keaton is compelling as a man who finds great difficulty in expressing emotions, and yet the strength of the those emotions are visible in every movement of his eyes, every micro-tremor of his face. In shaping the performance, he is enormously helped by the director, who is none other than Keaton himself, making his directorial debut. He and DP Chris Seager have crafted a film that is strikingly beautiful without being showy, understated yet very powerful. Here's hoping Keaton does more work behind the camera very soon.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 30th, 2009
It’s really hard to explain but I feel like I have shared a small lifetime with a director named Bradford May. At first, it was a couple of Darkman sequels that were simply good doses of cult sequel fare. I didn’t expect much and I received back exactly that, so I was satisfied. But then as I continued to review more and more movies, as his films started to pop up in my queue. First there was Ring of Death & then Mask of the Ninja. Both could be described as typical action beat-em up movies. Then Bradford decided to take on direction for The Storm, a mini-series that was shown on NBC and somehow it ended up in my review pile. I’m starting to think that this is no mere coincidence anymore.
Dr. Jonathon Kirk (played by James Van Der Beek) is a renowned scientist working at the Atmospheric Research Institute. He is aided by his fellow scientist, Dr. Jack Hoffman (played by Rich Sommer) and newcomer Carly Meyers (played by Erin Chambers). They are being funded by the U.S. government to manipulate technology that will allow them to control the weather.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 20th, 2009
Here is a rather strange fish. Imagine a series of very economical Blair Witch-style mockumentaries, featuring a different creature each week (giant lizards, giant snakes, werewolves, you name it). The “found footage” is interrupted every few minutes by actual footage of real animals related to the supposed monster while factoids parade on the screen. Most peculiar. Individual episodes have a certain ripe-cheese entertainment value, but you'll want to watch them in widely separated screenings, as the mockumentary approach feels repetitious and tiresome quite quickly. Viewers expecting to get their monster fix in will also likely be disappointed by the brief and unconvincing FX.
Hard to give a rating on this, since the footage is supposed to look raw (this is supposedly taped by the unfortunates who conveniently leave the camera running even as they are about to be swallowed up by the fearsome whatsit). The simulation is fairly effective, with all sorts of convincing grain and camera shake. The less frantic scenes are prone to a certain degree of aliasing, though that too is hard to blame on the transfer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 1st, 2009
Google this title now while you can, before Robert Rodriguez completes his Predator sequel "Predators" forever consuming your search results.
This DVD is a mashing of three different Animal Planet programs, After the Attack, Up Close, and Dangerous and Wild Discovery, together to make a compilation that is dedicated to the world's most dangerous animals (perhaps in an attempt to steal some of Shark Weeks thunder).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 21st, 2009
“In 1975 The Rockefeller Commission was appointed to investigate covert mind-control programs conducted by the CIA in the 1950’s and 60’s. These programs were known as Project MK-ULTRA. By the time of the investigation, documents relating to MK-ULTRA programs were destroyed. With out these documents, it was impossible to verify whether the MK-ULTRA program had in fact been discontinued.”
You can guess how the film intends to answer that question, can’t you?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2009
Written by Adrienne Ambush
Anyone who has tuned into MTV or VH1 in the last 10 years has probably seen at least one music video that is featured in this collection of videos by Brett Ratner, but they probably couldn't place a name or face to the man that is behind the camera--that is, until now.
