Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 13th, 2007
Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a TV news reporter at Eye Witness Channel 7 in New York who fails to get a job as an anchorman and, after a series of other bad luck incidents, complains to God that He is treating him unfairly and is doing a poor job as supreme deity. God (Morgan Freeman) contacts Bruce and offers him the chance of a lifetime. He offers to give Bruce all the powers he has. Bruce quickly abuses his new powers for personal gain (new car, pleasing his girlfriend), only to be reminded that he also has to take...care of other people's problems. Meanwhile, Bruce endangers his relationship with his girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston) through his self-centered behavior. In the end, Bruce realizes that God’s powers are meant for only one being, that being is of course God.
When Bruce Almighty works, it works in the highest gear. The film is funny completely enjoyable. As Bruce continues to receive the worst in life, we can’t help but think of a time in our life. After all, haven’t we all had that series of bad moments were you thought, regardless of religious inklings that something or someone was working against you? Bruce fights and fights to understand this and seemingly can’t believe that God is actually answering his complaints. Simply imagine what would happen if the Almighty endowed us with his power?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 12th, 2007
Fletcher Reed (Jim Carrey) is your typical lawyer in that he’s successful and seemingly loves his job. He openly lies each and every day to the judge just so his client can win the case. In fact Fletcher has gotten so accustom to lying so much that he doesn’t even realize that his son Max (Justin Reed) has pretty much became aware that his father is a liar (he means to say lawyer). When Fletcher doesn’t show up to Max’s birthday, Max wishes that for 24 hours his father couldn’t tell a lie. Enter the real humorous and...sometimes touching portion of the film as Fletcher slowly realizes that his son is trying to teach him something about his life.
The biggest positive about a film like Liar Liar is that the film has so many numerous sequences where the viewer can’t help but laugh or at least crack a smile. From the ‘scratched my car’ joke to the ‘do you know why I pulled you over’ joke, the laughs are consistent. But the most important thing here is that the laughs are actually funny and not gross out. Liar Liar represents a time when Hollywood brought out films that contained genuine humor that might occur in real-life instead of completely disgusting humor that you don’t laugh at, but rather humor that you cringe at.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 10th, 2007
Freedom Writers is based upon The Freedom Writers Diary; a book written by teacher Erin Gruwell and her students. I’ll admit that initially I was quite mixed about what to expect from this film; on one hand I just didn’t want to sit through another one of these To Sir with Love, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds type movies, but on the other hand I hoped it would be different and live up to some of the rave reviews I have read. Well, let’s find out.
Instead of giving a lengthy sy...opsis I will spell this one out simply. Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank) is white teacher who is new to a predominantly black high school. The kids are your typical Long Beach gang bangers and she goes to great lengths for them to see their potential. From taking on a second job for money to spend on the class too distancing her relationship with her husband Scott (Patrick Dempsey), Gruwell will stop at nothing to overcome the doubting student and fellow staff who believe she is just overly optimistic, guess how this one is going to end folks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 10th, 2007
Posted in Disc Reviews by Joshua Noyes
Smokey, aka Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), is the prospective father-in-law of unwilling bride Carrie (Sally Field). The Bandit (Burt Reynolds), a maverick racecar driver, makes an 80,000-dollar bet that he can transport a shipment of Coors beer from Texarkana, TX, to Atlanta within 28 hours. It's important to note that in 1977, it was illegal to sell the Coors brand east of the Mississippi River without a permit; if we don't note that, then the plot won't make sense at times.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 2nd, 2007
I must really love this job. That's the only explanation as to why I keep reviewing for this site. Then I get across my desk a copy of Dante's Cove - The Complete Second Season. (I guessed I missed the first one). On the cover they show three quite buff men (in the background two women, hey that's Tracy Scoggins), all with pants being a little too low. Uh-oh. *flips to the back*; oh geez is that two men kissing, *sigh*, it is. From the here! network for openly gays and lesbians comes the guilty pleasure show; Dante's Cove, a soap opera that let's just say really pushes the envelope. The backdrop or the events to season one are as follows.
One hundred and sixty years ago, Ambrosius Vallin (played by William Gregory Lee) had been imprisioned by Grace Neville (played by Tracy Scoggins) after she found him fraternizing with a man (they were engaged to be married). Okay, they were doing it doggy style. (if I have to live with the image, so do you). So Grace gave Ambrosius advanced age and threw him in the basement. He is returned to his former self by a kiss from Kevin (played by Gregory Michael). Naturally Ambrosius becomes obsessed with Kevin who is really in love with Toby (played by Charlie David). By the way, Ambrosius and Grace use the powers of a mystical religion called "Tresum". However in order to satsify this religion and keep their youth they have to fufill certain rites and passages. It's a blend of fantasy, soap opera, and really really open gay people in a beautiful island setting (second season was shot in Hawaii).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 1st, 2007
The Butcher Boy, originally released in 1997 and based upon the 1992 book of the same name, has found its way to DVD. The film has been the recipient of numerous awards, with critics hailing it as a dark comedy unlike any other. To be completely honest, I had never heard of this picture before today, but I’ve always enjoyed these little Great Britain pictures, so here’s hoping it’s as good as some say.
Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens, Breakfast on Pluto) appears to be your typical schoolboy, spend...ng his days hanging out with his best lad, Joe. Until he gets home, at least, where things are rather atypical; his father is an abusive alcoholic and his mother is a self-loathing, suicidal woman. Amidst the dysfunction, Francie seems for the large part to be unaware of all the problems surrounding him and continues his days as if nothing fazed him. Things are put in perspective one day when the mother of a boy he bullied, Mrs. Nugent, verbally attacks his mother and calls his whole family a bunch of pigs. Shortly after this comment, Francie walks in on his mother attempting suicide, and he promises he will never let her die. This is where his obsession with the Nugents begins, already blaming them for his problems. Finally fed up with his father’s actions, Francie runs away and spends some time in Dublin where he becomes quite streetwise and spends most of his time thieving. Upon his return to his home there is a funeral presiding, and he soon finds out his mother has taken her own life. This fuels more hatred for the Nugents and things really start getting out of control; Francis becomes hallucinogenic and borderline psychotic.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 31st, 2007
Synopsis
I’m one of the few who hasn’t experienced the magic of Robert Cormier’s novel “The Chocolate War”, and I was surprised to hear that it was the most banned book for a time (and still might be). When the film came out, not only did I not hear about it, but in 1988 I was in the middle of high school, and I (along with many other people) sure as hell could have used this film back then, not to say that all the John Hughes films weren’t a welcome breath of air into my life.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2007
Every so often a film comes along and completely takes me by surprise. I had heard good things about Lost in Translation before viewing the title a few weeks ago. Critics hailed this as Bill Murray’s comeback as he played a genuine man who simply didn’t know what to do in life anymore. While critics may have been overly generous to the film (not quite four stars), I will admit that I didn’t expect anything at all from this one. In the end, I came away shocked and completely absorbed by the material in front of...me.
The basic premise of Lost in Translation runs along the story of Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) meeting while visiting Tokyo for completely opposite reasons. Bob is shooting a new whiskey commercial, while Charlotte is playing tag along with her photographic husband (Giovanni Ribisi). The two soon develop a friendship that finds the two putting themselves in situations very foreign to each other (meeting citizens, laughing about events that might seem odd). This leads the two to ultimately discover that the definition of life is never set in stone, as it can change at the oddest moment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 25th, 2007
Portions of this review have been "borrowed" from Brendan Surpless' recent review of the HD-DVD version of the disc, which can also be found on the site.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 23rd, 2007
Thieves Like Us was never one of Robert Altman’s better known films. It did rather poorly at the box office in 1974, and I suspect it will fare little better on DVD. Certainly there is a bit more interest in Altman’s films with his recent passing, but Thieves Like Us is not a great representation of his work. It is a wonderful period piece, but there isn’t anything worthwhile happening inside that marvelously created world. Altman admits there were extreme cuts, over 45 minutes, made to the film. Perhaps that foota...e might have made a huge difference. An extended cut might have been the better way to go here. I suspect with Altman’s death, no one wanted to be the one to change any of his films right now.
The film is based on the Edward Anderson novel of the same title. The book had been filmed with superior results in the 1940’s as They Live By Night. Altman’s film more closely follows the book, and this could be its undoing. There is a reason why even the greatest written works are modified somewhat for the screen. This almost exact telling ends up being quite the bore. It just seems to go nowhere, and very slowly at that. The story follows three bank robbers who manage to escape prison only to return to their criminal ways. Most of the film centers on Bowie (Carradine), one of the robbers who falls in love with Keechie (Duvall). The other two are in and out of the story sparingly. The film is often compared with Bonnie and Clyde, but I don’t see it. First off, Bowie is never joined by Keechie on his criminal adventures. The most significant similarity is the brutality with which Bowie is gunned down in the film’s climax. Unfortunately Altman has developed superb characters and excellent actors to portray them, but he never ends up doing anything with them. Altman addresses the pacing and lack of action in his audio commentary, but he never tells us why. He only mentions at least 50 times that you couldn’t make a film with this pacing today. I think he’d have been better off not to have made one even 30 years ago. His reasoning is audiences today have less patience. That may be true, but the film didn’t exactly set any records even in 1974.
![Bruce Almighty [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/bruce-almighty-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Liar Liar [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/liar-liar-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Freedom Writers [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/freedom-writers-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Smokey and the Bandit [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/smokey-and-the-bandit-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Lost in Translation [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/lost-in-translation-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
