Universal

By Natasha Samreny

Scent of a Woman is a rich example of classic storytelling maintaining its power through the years. In this American remake of an Italian tale, Al Pacino, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Chris O’Donnell continue to captivate. If you love the film already and want to make it part of your collection, consider its HD-DVD or Blu-ray versions, released later. It seems neither color nor sound were improved for this film until then. To fans’ dismay, Universal has yet to update any discs with special features beyond the outdated text-centered cast/crew list and bios.
Read More

It’s always a danger when you have the same person do too many roles in a film. There have been notable exceptions, but the rule proves true enough to be considered an axiom. In this case we have the duet of Hunter Hill and Perry Moore co-directing and co-writing the script. The problem is that neither of them had done either of those things before. Their inexperience takes its toll on a film that had a lot of potential. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a project is to let it go. Unfortunately these two couldn’t give up even a little of that control. In the end you have a movie with a very powerful cast that can’t seem to salvage anything given them by Hill and Moore.
Read More

When the Learners are driving home from their son Josh’s recital, they stop off at a gas station where he is struck and killed by Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) who is heading home from a Boston Red Sox game with his son Lucas. Dwight flees the scene while Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix) and Grace (Jennifer Connelly) mourn the death of their son. In the following weeks, Ethan becomes obsessed with finding the hit and run driver while Dwight deals with his guilt and tries to bond with his son against the backdrop of the 2004 Boston Red Sox historic World Series run.
Read More