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 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
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 4th, 2005
Synopsis
Wesley Snipes (Major League) and straight to video really provide for several comedic moments. I don’t really know that much about Snipes, aside from some anonymous reports about just how nice he was on the set of the third Blade movie, along with the “cataract problem” he has. Nevertheless, his role in this film of the strong, silent type who is some Army special forces member provides him the chance to say a small amount of dialogue for what is presumably a lot of cash.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
According to some reports, Fred Durst almost directed this thing, and if I ever wind up supporting anything Fred Durst does, I’ll kill myself. Having said that, Lords of Dogtown is a fond look back at the California skateboarding explosion in the late ‘70s. Since, like everything else, timing is everything, this film was largely neglected in a lot of circles, because it came out shortly after the outstanding documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, which was written and directed by Stacy Peral...a, who was one of the members of the legendary Zephyr skating team. Peralta is one of the writers of Lords of Dogtown, which is a more dramatic look at the characters of the era.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 18th, 2005
Synopsis
Operation Market Garden is the most famous Allied defeat in the Second World War. An audacious plan scuppered by bad luck and worse decisions, it is recounted in this visually spectacular film. The goal is to seize a group of bridges across Holland, culminating in the brdge at Arnhem. Everything imaginable goes wrong. Richard Attenborough’s film stars just about every big name actor under the sun, and his re-enactment has so many extras and so much hardware that one feels he could have convi...cingly remounted the entire operation. The stellar cast isn’t required to do very much other than be manly, but the battle staging is undeniably spectacular.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005
Synopsis
And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) was Monty Python’s first theatrical release, and consists of remounted, often more elaborately staged versions of many of their most beloved TV skits. You want your Dead Parrot, it’s here. So is the Lumberjack Song, How Not to Be Seen, and so on. As a one-stop intro to Python, it’s hard to beat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2005
The Mask of Zorro was the Pirates of the Caribbean of its day. A classic swashbuckling story packed with action and romance, yet still presented in a family-friendly style that hearkened back to the days of the old Saturday afternoon matinée. Indiana Jones was conceived in this style, as was Disney's National Treasure, in a way. There is a ton of room in the marketplace for PG and PG-13 rated films like this, as it provides something that the whole family can not only attend at the theater, but t...uly enjoy. I wish Hollywood made more films like this. Now, I certainly have a soft spot for the standard hard R flicks, but who doesn't love a good classic (mostly) wholesome adventure tale?
In addition to being the highlight of Antonio Banderas' questionable career, this film brought the movie-going world a wonderful gift in the package of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Michael Douglas will eternally be grateful for this inspired casting choice, as she became an instant superstar after her scene-stealing performances in this film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 24th, 2005
I was dreading watching this DVD. Hmmm...indy film, Sundance film, a woman "coming out" to her family film. This had all the hallmarks of arty and annoying. Thankfully, Saving Face is not like that at all. Michelle Krusiac plays "Wil", a surgeon, who falls hard for Vivian (Lynn Chen), a ballet dancer. Complications arise because Vivian is the daughter of Wil's boss. Yes, there are some screwball comedy elements. But it's all tastefully done. Joan Chen (what has she done since Twin Peaks) does a n...ce turn as Ma.
Alice Wu writes and directs the film. She shows a steady hand in both areas. The movie verges over into "feel good" territory, but this seems to be on par for the genre. Saving Face has a certain charm, and garners strong performances from the lead actors. Well done
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 21st, 2005
When comic book movies started becoming popular in the 90's with Batman, The Punisher, Dick Tracy and the like, directors weren't really sure how to handle the subject. The most popular methods involved making the film look like a comic, to help to tie the narratives together. Unfortunately, audiences soon discovered that the result of this mash-up of styles was a heavy-handed, overblown color explosion that just looked hokey (Batman Forever, anyone?) Finally, in recent years, it has been ...iscovered that the best way to tell these stories is to make them look just like normal films. If you focus on the story first and foremost, and real emotions, the supernatural aspects will be readily accepted by the viewer. As a result, audiences have now been treated to such fine films as Spiderman, Hellboy and X-Men.
Now that movies based on old TV shows have come into popularity, it seems this is a lesson that has to be learned all over again. The Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch and The Dukes of Hazard have all been miserable failures, with the first Charlie's Angels being the only possible exception to this trend. All of these films tried way too hard to cram in all of the elements from the original TV show, instead of focusing on creating an excellent story first and foremost. Sure, it is pop candy to hear that clever narrator trick in Dukes, or the "fade to commercial" music cue in Angels, but the cleverness easily wears off over two hours, and in the end, it is a strong story that matters the most to the film.
